culture consumed (April, 2023)

[hermionesviolin]

theatre

• [ASP] Coriolanus (in a New Modern Verse Translation by Sean San José) with Cate and Abby -- the language did feel much more direct and comprehensible (which I was particularly attentive to, because Abby was reading a synopsis beforehand, since she was unfamiliar with the play and often struggles to follow the plot when she doesn't remember the play and it's Shakespearean language out loud), though because it was ASP's usual "small cast number, much double-casting," if you weren't already familiar with the play, it was sometimes difficult to follow who an actor was being in a given moment since they would transition fluidly into the next scene with minimal clothing changes. I'm not sure how much having an all female/non-binary cast mattered?
  
  
• The Ten Slaygues: A Show of Affliction -- a Jewish drag burlesque show about the Ten Plagues -- with Chelsea A., Gianna, and Abby (Chelsea A. messaged our group chat: Described in a group Gianna and I are in as "Jewish drag, burlesque, comedy, singing, and S&M performers who are super talented and will be embodying and enacting the 10 plagues for Passover.").  As with pretty much all burlesque shows, it was a mixed bag (and I did not love that the show actually started 1 hour later than advertised and there wasn't enough seating, some some people had to stand), but some of it was really quite good -- and I wouldn't say that any of it was particularly bad.
  
  [troupe is on IG here -- performer list:

  0.  Jean Sequins as Moses/MC
  1. Blood - The Vampire LeSlut
  2. Frog - Henlo Bullfrog -- "Drag venues report that sightings of Henlo Bullfrog may involve extrapolations on Hebrew conjugation; destructible cityscapes; horrifying angels; and a plague of one single, gigantic kaiju frog." Yes, delightful.
  3. Lice and gnats - Ladyboy George -- they're a fun performer (and complimented my necklace during intermission! they do scale mail)
  4. Flies - Mia Culpa
  5. Pestilence - Ruchami -- pestilence and pain ... BDSM
  6. Boils - Adena Walker -- I think was the one with red balloons on a black outfit?
  7. fire, ice, thunder - Luke Laroe -- this was really fun
  8. Locusts - The Bastard -- Amazon! I loved using Amazon/capitalism as a plague of locusts
  9. Darkness - Lexi Baby
  10. Death of the First Born - Vix

  ]
  
  
• [Central Square] Bedlam's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes; Part 1: Millennium Approaches with Bridget from church (she had an extra ticket, and Abby was gonna be in Arizona, so we didn't have to Sophie's Choice it)
  
  I had never seen Angels in America, so I was a little hesitant to see a Bedlam production as my first experience of it (I loved their Twelfth Night at Central Square some years back [2016], but I feel like I really benefited from a pre-existing familiarity with the play).
  
  D: "tbf, angels in america is frequently in and of itself a fever dream of a play. (it's why it's called a fantasia)"
  
  The production was good (and I didn't have particular difficulty following), but I think I maybe don't like the play that much?
  
  The "From the Artistic Director" in the program says, "Perestroika, part two of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, arguably the messier AND more brilliant of the two, launches us in the fall," which does make me kind of excited to see Part 2 in the fall. (Part 1 ends on kind of a cliffhanger, so I was definitely gonna see Part 2.)
  
  The peril of seeing a play with someone other than my partner is that I wanna talk to her about the play (especially because there are Mormons in it, but not just because of that) but can't 😂 There are some $25 tickets left, so she's maybe going to go to a Wednesday night show this week or next week.
  

tv

• Ted Lasso 3.04-3.06 (we're one episode behind -- just watched "Sunflowers")

books

• read Abby 6 picturebooks
• [MPL queer book club] How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones (memoir) -- April is National Poetry Month, and author is a poet (though this book is in prose)
• The Autism Relationships Handbook -- "The counterpart of the Partner Handbook, this book guides autistic people through how to succeed in relationships." -- this is for people who autism differently than me, and I feel like is a kind of mediocre book overall
  

trailers

• (re)watched the Polite Society trailer (out April 28!) with Abby, who hadn't seen it the first time I had posted it
• [June 2] the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse trailer -- this looks sadder than I expected
• [August, show on Disney+] Ahsoka teaser trailer -- I'm now excited about this show, even though I'm not really a Star War
• [Nov 10] The Marvels (aka, Captain Marvel 2 plus Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan plus Monica Rambeau) teaser trailer

movies

• [fannish movie night] Cocaine Bear (D: "tbh i don't know anything about this movie besides its most basic premise, which is also explained by the title.")
  

fanvids

• I showed Abby skygiants' Clones Wars fanvid to "Velodrome" by Dessa
  

***

Currently reading: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue -- for queer library book club for May, though there's much less queer content than I was expecting (it shows up in secondary characters, rather than our protagonist)

Reading next: After May's queer library book club, I have a whole bunch of book club books for early June:

• [June 4] feminist sff book club: The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
  
• [June 8] queer library book club: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (memoir/graphic novel)
  
• [June 9] work book club: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (which has been on my TBR list for years)