movies: the lego movie 2

First there was The Lego Movie... then The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie... and now we have The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.

It's hard to make a sequel live up to the original... it usually falls into a few cliches like characters you really loved from the first movie not getting anywhere near enough screen time (usually because they break up the team in some way to create tension) and the whole thing not feeling quite as fresh or as focused or being able to wow you in the same way.

But if you're lucky they do manage to find that same emotional vein.

That pretty much sums up The Lego Movie 2.

Having seen four of these movies at this point, I know they're going to be as pretty as hell, I know they're going to be dropping pop culture references left, right and centre, I know they're going to make me laugh, and at some point I'm going to look at something in the movie and want it as an actual Lego set.

Possibly because of the reveal that all of this was "happening" in the imagination of The Boy/Finn in "the real world" in the first movie (and I liked that Jadon Sand returned to play the older Finn), you can't do that type of reveal again in the sequel... I mean they did a bit, but it was pretty obvious all the way through what was going on... and this movie's version of "Kraggle" is a little too on the nose.

Doubly so because the end of the first movie sets up that the supposed antagonist of this movie is Finn's sister, or rather her Lego/Duplo creations.

Having said all of that, this movie still got to a place that made me emotional... and I don't even have a sibling. I also appreciated that while it was mostly a "don't try and grow up too quickly" message (which you could say is Lego trying to ensure that they keep their target consumers interested for as long as possible if you wanted to be cynical), it managed to take a swipe at toxic masculinity in a clever and age appropriate way for the movie's intended audience.

I'm a little torn between wishing we had a clearer resolution to the conflict between brother and sister, but I also appreciate that it didn't go the overly earnest and a little too twee on repeat viewings route of the father/son conflict from the first movie.

I did wish that they're included more Benny and Unikitty in this movie though... they're leaning a little too heavily on the Lego Batman crutch right now (unsurprising since he's probably super popular in the target demographic, and he had a whole movie of his own), and while I love the way Will Arnett plays him, I do like Benny and Unikitty a WHOLE lot more. My "want that as a Lego set" was pretty quickly sated by Unikitty's transformation into Ultrakatty (which I already knew was a set to be honest).

Of the additions to this movie, I do like Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (voiced by Tiffany Haddish) the most, especially since she basically turns her parts of the movie into a musical (particularly her first number, "Not Evil"... which may possibly be my theme song from here on out).

Speaking of... I do love this movie's attempt at the amazingness that was "Everything is Awesome"... and within the confines of the movie I did love the appropriately named "Catchy Song" (which should really be subtitled "This Song's Gunna Get Stuck Inside Your Head")... but it doesn't quite measure up.

I will say that the idea that the "forces" in the movie representing Finn's younger sister having a bright poppy song in their arsenal that is equally irritating and earwormy makes perfect sense considering Finn is now 14 or 15 (Sands is currently 15, so it makes sense they're basically the same age). It also explains all the glitter.

Overall I think that while this movie doesn't live up to the original, it is definitely higher on my list than the Batman and Ninjago versions respectively. And it manages to be greater than the sum of it's parts.

yani's rating: 4 dolphin clocks out of 5

photo saturday: rooflines

This week started off with cleaning, lots and lots of cleaning.

As I think I mentioned last week, this week was my rental inspection, so I spent all of Sunday morning getting the kitchen tidy and organising various other things... then Monday was cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming then mopping the floors.

If always takes way, way, way longer than it has any right to. Granted I was occasionally distracted by the movies I had on, and I also had to work up the effort to start mopping... plus while Sunday was super warm, Monday wasn't, so it took much longer for the floors to dry.

And as always, it doesn't matter how much or how little effort I seem to put in to cleaning for the inspection, I always get a check mark in the "good" box rather than the "excellent"... which is fine and I don't really care, but bitch I cleaned for you, how much is it to ask to go up a box?

I also cleared out for the couple of hours scheduled for the inspection and headed over to the library.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the best feeling is coming home after a rental inspection, knowing you have a perfectly clean and tidy house, but don't need to panic about keeping it perfect now that the inspection is over.

I did have an overwhelming desire to start going through things (starting with my books) and getting rid of anything that doesn't, to use the vernacular of the moment, "does not spark joy". We'll see if that happens or not, but I know that there are a whole bunch of books I really don't need anymore.

DnD was back to form this week, with four games.

I almost killed the whole party on Monday though... partly because it's been a while since I ran a Tier 1 game for them, but also because they got through the first combat really quickly and I just wanted to make it a little more challenging for them, but hadn't actually noticed the damage dice for the bad guys in the final combat. Thankfully half of them got sent away by one of the clerics, and so I could just handwave them away... but then one of the Level 1 characters went down while being attacked by an ooze... and took damage... and died.

Honestly I'm really not bothered by it... it was a character he'd thrown together in the 10 minutes before the adventure and he really had no attachment to it. I will get grief for that until the end of time however, which is fine.

Wednesday was back-to-back games again, with one of my Wednesday friends running a game for the first time. She did really well... a few nerves and uncertainty, but that will come with experience behind the screen.

Then Wednesday night was a reduced version of the usual crew... but we had a few nice moments, especially one between me and the "quiet" member of our group. I say quiet, because the rest of us are just loud, and he tends to be one of those people who doesn't say something unless he can make a positive/worthwhile contribution. I have a lot of time for him, and unsurprisingly my character has a lot of time for his. So when she told my halfling that he was "the heart of the group", I got a little choked up both in and out of character.

Now my boy just needs to believe in himself as much as she does and live up to that. Which is fantastic character motivation.

Thursday was something different... and I say that because I played with a table of people I normally don't play with. It was completely because the person DMing for them is someone I consider a fantastic DM, and I was willing to put up with a random group to be on his table. And while they were perhaps a little... "roleplay light", I had a good time.

And that pretty much filled out the week really.

Today was pretty good... not mindblowing perhaps, but good.

We started off with what felt like a ridiculously large shopping trip. I don't think it was as bad as it felt, but when I was cleaning I did realise that I was either running out or had run out of a number of things, so they had to be added to the list.

Then after shopping adventures were over we were headed to the movies but had a couple of hours to kill, so we stopped off at Target for a wander, then headed to the Wallis cinema at Mitcham... not somewhere we've been before, but somewhere we "discovered" the other week when we went looking for the closest Cheap as Chips store to me.

It's definitely one to keep on the back burner for times when we don't want to go further afield.

And the Foodland in the same complex also sells giant bags of popcorn for $4... so score!

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photo saturday: patchwork streets

Quite a lot happened this week. I mean probably not in the grand scheme of things... but it felt like a lot.

There was, however, less DnD than usual this week. Monday was good, some of my regulars aren't around, so I had a few other friends and randoms fill out my table, and it wasn't a bad mix. To some degree that is the problem with only running for predominantly the same group... you don't get to include new players. Of course, on the flip side, that's also WHY I run for mostly the same group.

Wednesday was just a single game during the day... not a bad game either, although not the best module in the world. But we had a good time.

Wednesday night, have I mentioned that sometimes I don't really like my friends that much? Out of 6 people, including the DM, 3 of them pulled out, which technically meant we wouldn't have a "legal" game... we could have got a ringer, but to be honest as much as I would have enjoyed basically roleplaying with the other guy for four hours, I just couldn't see the fucking point. So I pulled the pin.

Then Thursday there weren't any games that looked interesting to me, so I didn't bother.

Kinda disappointing, but it is what it is.

Otherwise, I had Haircut Day on Tuesday. Pretty standard all things considered... and nothing unusual on the hair front... but we have settled on a colour that's a little less purpley and more silver, which is good.

Then Thursday was really the day where everything happened.

I had a guy coming over to test the smoke detectors, the technician from the NBN coming to make sure I could connect to said National Broadband Network. And I was still waiting for the delivery of my new modem. So what felt like a full day of appointments.

The NBN guy showed up at like 8:30 (not bad with a range of 8am to noon), and honestly it was basically a five minute job of plug in piece of hardware, wait 3 minutes til all the required lights went the required colour and that was it.

Of course because I didn't have all of the hardware (plus the message from my ISP saying everything was ready to go) I put everything back the way it was after he left.

The smoke detector guy was likewise in and out in about 5 minutes, although he does make a lot more noise, having to set the smoke alarms off.

Then the delivery guy turned up at about 12:30... so not bad timing-wise.

I did have to go out on an errand that afternoon... which was... let's just call it a waste of everyone's time and leave it at that shall we.

On Friday I finally got the message that my NBN connection was ready... and I will say that the set up process was pretty damn easy. Plug A into the wall, then plug B into A. The only problem is one of placement and logistics... I don't have a phone socket and a power point within easy reach of each other, at least not that I wouldn't have needed to run an extension cord across the floor (hence why I have my modem in the bedroom with a phone cord going around the doorframe)... so in the end I just used the existing cord. The NBN guy said that would okay... or at least not horrifically bad.

Especially as longer cords of the type provided with the NBN box don't actually seem to exist, which is just peachy. Surely I can't be the only person with a similar issue... so why the hell aren't there cords like that on the market?

Anyway.

That was my week. And next week I have a rental inspection, so that's most of my Sunday and Monday gone (and a couple of hours of my Tuesday when I clear out of the house for the inspection). It shouldn't be too traumatic though.

Today wasn't much of anything. The usual supermarket adventures, followed directly by a visit to Haighs, and then a decision to shelf going to the Lego Movie 2 until next week... so instead we decided to head into the city.

I needed to deposit some coins at the bank, I also wanted to trade in a couple of old Playstation games which I've never really played and were just taking up space (I really need to go through the rest of the games to be honest) and just have a look and see if I could spot the kind of "phone" cord I need.

I had the usual issue with the coin machine at the bank... I got all my coins in there and then for seemingly no reason whatsoever it just went "nup" and vomited them all back at me. Rude.

The trade-in went without a hitch, but I couldn't see the cord anywhere (as I said before, I'm betting they don't exist yet... c'mon people, get on that shit).

And that was really about it to be honest.

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post fringe round-up 2019

About a week and a half ago I remember seeing something (probably on Twitter) that said "it's the last week of the Fringe"... and I thought to myself "that can't be right, we're only halfway through, surely.

But no... due to the our reduced program of events (I haven't been to this few shows since 2010) the Fringe was over and done and I still left like I was only halfway.

On the up side, because I had to be very specific about the shows on my list, we didn't see any duds, and most of the shows were excellent (more than half of them got a 5/5).

I also got to invoke Rule 3, which I always enjoy.

I noticed a horrible little development in Gluttony this year... previously Bank SA members can access the Fringe program a day earlier than everyone else... which is fine, stuff isn't going to sell out in one day... but this year they had a program where if you showed your Bank SA card you could jump to the front of the queue.

Excuse me? That is some bullshit. Especially because I'm a Fringe Member... where's my jump to the start of the queue ability. That is completely ridiculous. But then Gluttony has been slowly turning into a copy of the Garden over the last few years instead of the scruffy little weirdo it started out as.

Anyway... enough ranting.

On to ratings.

1. You and I
   "Not since 2015's Bromance have I been this moved by a circus show... in fact, much like that show, I was brought almost to tears on multiple occasions." 5/5
   
   Such a beautiful, beautiful show... and as always with the shows that really speak to me, it was less about the acrobatic tricks (which were impressive) than it was about the story and the characters of the performers. Tell me a good story and I'll love you forever.
   
   
2. Twelfth Night - The HandleBards
   "It's fast, it's dangerous, but it's a hell of a ride." 5/5
   
   Shakespeare at the speed of laughter... The HandleBards are definitely a group that gets added to the "must see again" list.
   
   
3. Macbeth in space! (and two other locations...)
   "And the whole thing was actually funny. I think, beyond the performances, it was tying all of the tropes from the three different scenarios to Macbeth that managed to bring out the humour." 5/5
   
   This was not the least little bit what I assumed it was, but totally exceeded every expectation I had. And it's never bad when a show leaves you wanting to see more.
   
   
4. Railed
   "The boys have put together a hilarious, ridiculous, entertaining and very high energy show that had me hooting, hollering and cheering from beginning to end." 5/5
   
   Head First never disappoints, both with their sexy men and the quality of their shows... they've definitely got another hit on their hands.
   
   
5. Another Night at the Musicals
   "It's camp, it's ridiculous, it's hilarious, it's gorgeous, it's a good old sing along with songs you know. It's always worth the price of admission. Go see them." 5/5
   
   Chocolat and Woo... back again. Really, what's not to love... I'll keep showing up until they run out of musicals to celebrate and mock.
   
   
6. Quest Time!
   "It was an excellent show... it never went completely off the rails (which I tend to prefer in both my DnD and my improv), and I had a lot of laughs." 4/5
   
   I didn't realise that this was going to be one long game of improv DnD for the whole of the Fringe... a friend went to see it a couple of weeks after me and they were playing the same characters. So definitely a show you could have gone to again and again and again.
   
   
7. The Measure of a Man
   "Roach is an engaging performer who seems to effortlessly capture the attention of an audience, even when the themes got a little heavy." 4/5
   
   This definitely made me think... but it was perhaps a story that spoke to me less than some of the others.
   
   
8. Box and Cox - Married and Settled
   "But I have to say, much like the first show, Austin steals every single scene she's in as Bouncer. Up to and including improvising with the crowd before the show officially starts." 3/5
   
   I very much appreciate that they managed to make a play from 1852 feel, if not modern, then at least give it a freshness and a comedic bite. It's just unfortunate that I don't think this one holds up to the original.

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fringe: twelfth night - the handlebards

What a delightful end to our 2019 Fringe adventure.

The Handlebards combine bicycles with Shakespeare, and peddle their way between venues (hopefully they got a plane all the way from England, then peddled once they got here). And they take on Shakespeare like a bike with no brakes going downhill.

It's fast, it's dangerous, but it's a hell of a ride.

In a lot of ways, they reminded me of Sound and Fury... between the quick changes, the crossdressing, the audience interaction, the insanity (plus the Shakespeare)... which is an excellent thing.

Our Bards (based on their socks and braces colours) were Ross Ford (the green bard), Mark Collier (the blue bard), Will Fawcett (the red bard) and Luke Wilson (the purple bard)... and they were amazing.

Twelfth Night isn't the simplest of Shakespeare plays... there's a lot of she's pretending to be a he and he's in love with her but she's in love with him... made even worse when you only have four actors playing all the roles. I say worse... it was manic and I loved it. Especially when there are four actors on stage but a minimum of eight character. And that each of the bards took on at least three characters over the course of the show.

It was also interesting that their characterisations (and costumes) were so good that you always knew exactly who they were, even if that bard had only been on stage seconds before and had rushed off one side and come back the other side.

I will say that Ross as Lady Olivia was my personal favourite, but everyone was fantastic, especially Mark as both Viola and Olivia's maid, plus Luke as Malvolio and Will as the jester.

What I was especially impressed by was that even when they were neck deep in quick changes, swapping characters and running around like maniacs, they still kept their performances going... and making sure you're actually performing, nailing your comedic timing AND getting the Shakespeare right isn't easy.

But they do it exceptionally well.

This was their first time at Fringe, and I hope we'll be seeing them again for years to come.

yani's rating: 5 bells out of 5

movies: captain marvel

Captain Marvel is the best MCU movie to date.

It's smart, it's funny, it has an amazing star, it's deliciously 90's retro, it has the best MCU soundtrack, it has the best message.

And it may actually have a worthwhile villain for once. Or at the very least a villain who represents everything wrong with his culture.

Brie Larson was without doubt the perfect choice for this role... she does badass exceptionally well, she does snark exceptionally well and she commands the cameras attention.

Also, she can stand toe to toe with Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law or Annette Bening and still do all those things.

Co-directors and co-writers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have put together a great story and a great movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect, there are still a couple of things I was slightly confused by (which, I will be honest, make more sense after some internet sleuthing where the history of the blue MacGuffin was all laid out), but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.

I also loved the call backs from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and Stan Lee's final (?) cameo (not to mention the all Stan Lee footage Marvel Studios logo they used at the start of the movie), actually as Stan Lee for once.

As I said at the start of the review, the movie is deliciously 90's retro, with a kick-ass 90's soundtrack where most of the artists are either female or bands with a female singer. And I love the fact they didn't hit you over the head with the decade it was supposed to be set, but casual references to both Blockbuster and Radio Shack (along with a wall full of band posters) were enough to clue you in.

And without giving anything away, the pivotal moment towards the end of the movie reminded me very much of Buffy's speech in the episode Chosen... specifically the line "Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Can stand up, will stand up." It's not perhaps an original thought (hero discovers the power was in them all along), but it is quite beautifully done in this movie.

It was also a nice change of pace that this wasn't an origin story... or at least not in the classic sense... it was more of an origin by way of flashback story... which is unusual, but it suited the story.

Of the very few things in the negative column, the main one was the somewhat crunchy CGI, mostly whenever Goose the cat needed to be not a real cat... but also when Larson had her helmet on, especially at the end, it very clearly became a CGI puppet at that point.

But those are very minor complaints on what was an otherwise excellent movie.

yani's rating: 5 pagers out of 5

photo saturday: birthday week

First things first... I almost went back to used the strikethrough function on my little rant from last week... not that I regret saying any of it, it I did I would have gone back and deleted it... it's more just that having said it calmed me down, as did conversations I had on Monday and Wednesday.

Also, in case you weren't paying attention, this was my birthday week... technically it still is, until tomorrow anyway.

Monday was a mostly regular DnD night... except Monday was also a public holiday, so I was able to go in a little earlier and do some set up for a somewhat complicated adventure. Which went off pretty well I think. It didn't feel as deadly as when I played it originally, but I think that was a combination of me wanting to keep to time, the fact that I had 6 players instead of 4 and some of them were higher level than we were I think.

Anyway, it went well... and I had a chat with one of my friends afterwards, cleared a lot of the crap out of my head, got home at about 3am give or take.

Wednesday was supposed to be a follow up to the previous week's adventure followed by our regular Wednesday night game. Neither of these things happened.

The day game didn't happen on account of no DM... I say it didn't happen... the adventure that was supposed to happen didn't happen... I ended up running instead. And running a module I've never read, played or even seen before. That was a thing that happened. Actually it all went pretty damn well... the end maybe went quite a bit off book, but it was the most complicated part of the module, so I'm not hugely surprised.

And everybody had a good time and nobody died, so that was good.

Our evening DM also flaked on us and also for unspecified reasons (at least unspecified to me), but thankfully the hubby of one of our players offered to run (and we play at their place, so not really a major issue, beyond the fact I wanted to play the regular game). I'm marginally pissed at our regular DM who has been known to complain about people not letting him know they can't make a game until the last minute, while at the same time he's either decided he doesn't want to run at what seems like the last minute (this is actually the first time he just hasn't even been around to be honest, so fuck knows why).

Also one of my Wednesday day friends who I played alongside for a lot of Barovia gave me a present after the game... a pin for both of the characters I ended up playing (first the necromancer, then the paladin after she died... actually two loops of that to be honest, because Barovia) and she said some very sweet things that definitely helped to lift the gloom of last week.

In fact the universe seemed to go out of it's way this week to send me people who were telling me the opposite of the information I got last week... or at the very least to say that while it might be true that I'm A Lot, they're okay with that.

Thank you universe.

Thursday was my actual birthday... the day was kind of nothing really, not the worst thing in the world, but the evening was better, even if dinner ended up being a big fat nothing (my own fault, we should have gone to Burger Theory). And I will also say that while we've mostly done well to avoid annoying people during Fringe shows, we hit the motherload at one of the shows. Not only where they a large group who was overly noisy in the queue, they were also way too talkative during the show, which is my number one pet peeve. Doubly so because the ones sitting next to me had clearly never seen anyone do anything ever, because every single part of every circus trick had them reacting like the performers were diving head first into a bucked of paint thinner and barbed wire.

However the universe also sent the performers from the first show across my path when we were on our way back to the car from the second show so that I could invoke Rule 3 from my list of Fringe guidelines and babble at them briefly about how good the show was.

Friday I found out I have a rental inspection the week after next (which is better than next week like it felt like the last two were), and again it's between 10am and noon, which is better than 10am to 2pm. I knew it was coming, since it's around this time of year, but also some dufus is coming to check the smoke alarms next week. On the same day in fact as I've organised someone to come and hook me up to the NBN... I didn't so much keep putting it off as just not thinking about it, but supposedly I need to do it before they cut off the old services. Hopefully it will be simple enough.

And Friday was also Chiro Day... not really much to report, my back was mostly okay, so no real drama there.

Today Ma was having her hair did in the morning, so I did the shopping thing on my own, and as often seems to be the case, she messaged me to say she was on her way down while I was still in the fruit and veg section, but it never takes me as long to shop on my own, so I was done, back and I think totally unpacked by the time she showed up.

We had our last Fringe show at 5:30, and nothing much else we wanted to do, so instead of just wandering around trying to fill in time, we went down to Marion and went to the movies. Afterwards we picked up something Ma wanted for her house, came back here for a bit and then headed into town.

For the first (and last) time this Fringe, we just made the line happen behind us... instead of waiting for people to take first spot and slotting in behind them. Although I will say that I'm kind of annoyed that there's now a new thing where Bank SA customers can just jump the queue... which is some bullshit, and yet another reason why I should just make a Bank SA account, leave $10 in there year round and use it to get access to Fringe stuff. Because I know they're a Fringe sponsor and everything, but that is some straight up crap. Especially since I paid to be a Fringe member, so what's the point of that (beyond cheaper tickets) if I can't use it to push in line?

Anyway...

After the show we went down Rundle Street to get food... possibly a mistake, or possibly just a mistake to not go around the corner to Burger Theory, just because the street was closed off and they'd put tables out on the road and everywhere was stupidly full. Everything was a bit crowded, noisy and I'll say that we've had better food from the place we ended up, it may have just been because they were serving more people than usual.

So not the most exciting birthday week on record, but people made it clear to me that they care including a number who messaged me on my birthday, so that's the main thing.

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fringe: railed

I've detailed on more than one occasion my love affair with the boys from Head First Acrobats... from 2014 to 2017 to 2018, and this year they're back with a new show and new boys.

Cal Harris and Thomas Gorham have been joined for Railed by Adam O'Connor-McMahon and Harley Timmermans for a cowboy themed show of circus tricks, comedy, a little magic and some buff bodies.

Sadly we didn't get to see Gorham this time as he injured himself earlier in the run, but the adorkable AJ Saltalamacchia is doing an amazing job filling in for him.

Railed is to Westerns what Elixir was to zombie movies, with that Head First twist.

The boys have put together a hilarious, ridiculous, entertaining and very high energy show that had me hooting, hollering and cheering from beginning to end.

O'Connor-McMahon, Timmermans and Saltalamacchia fit perfectly into the Head First style, bringing a whole new set of skills and an equal amount of enthusiasm. Timmermans performs with both the Cyr wheel (still my personal favourite) as well as aerial straps (while wearing a unicorn head of all things), Saltalamacchia naturally fills in for Gorham's clowning and O'Connor-McMahon is a great juggler and magician.

I'd forgotten that Harris showed off whip-cracking skills in 2017, but they've definitely progressed and given the theme of the show, it's even sexier this time around. And what that man can do with a ladder and a set of chairs will make you gasp.

What I love most about Head First is they never take things super seriously, there's always a lightness and fun to everything, even when Harris is in the middle of a complex trick... you get to see "behind the curtain" and I always appreciate that from them.

I will say that they've turned the absurdity in this new show up to about 76... from the western theme to the outfits in the latter part of the show, to... let's just call it "horse costumes". And every moment of it was fantastic.

Cal Harris, Adam O'Connor-McMahon, Harley Timmermans and Thomas Gorham

And if that's not enough of a reason to check them out... I don't know what is.

yani's rating: 5 kerchiefs out of 5

fringe: you and i

Three years ago I saw Jesse Scott and Lachie MacAulay from Casus Circus in Tolu and was incredibly impressed... so when they returned with You & I, a show about "the loving relationship between two circus artists", I knew I had to see it.

And it was so beautiful.

Not since 2015's Bromance have I been this moved by a circus show... in fact, much like that show, I was brought almost to tears on multiple occasions.

Given the description of the show, I assume Scott and MacAulay are in a relationship... and this show is a sweet, simple, funny and moving look into that relationship.

And they're able to draw the audience into their world.

It made me so happy to see a gay relationship presented so matter-of-factually within a circus show, it wasn't subtext, it was just the text of the show.

From the sweet tumbling routine that opens the show to Scott's hula hoop routine, their hilarious attempts at playing dress-ups to two-person chair balancing, culminating in an amazing trapeze routine that drew gasps from the audience, everything about this show serves the narrative of their relationship.

But the part of the show that really struck me was when MacAulay disappears from the stage, leaving Scott alone, and the ways he deals (or doesn't) with the loneliness. It was more than a little heartbreaking even if his solo trapeze work was exceptional, but when MacAulay returns and "heals" Scott made my heart swell.

There are moments when it might feel the tiniest little voyeuristic (the flashlight sequence for example), but just because of how sweet they are together and how much in love they seem to be.

I'm so glad that they let us into their world, and I hope we see more shows like this from them in the years to come.

yani's rating: 5 chairs out of 5

it's my (45th) birthday

You know how they say "age is just a number"... I don't feel 45... of course I have no idea what 45 is supposed to feel like, maybe this is the exact feeling of me being 45.

45 is also a triangular number... and the number you get when you add up the digits between 1 and 9. So you've now (possibly) learned something new today.

Birthday wishes also go out to all the people who happen to share my birthday, including but not limited to... Queer Eye star Antoni Porowski, Johan Paulik, Jamie Bell, Taylor Hanson, Michael Caine, Chris Klein, Albert Einstein, Corey Stoll, Daniel Gillies, Ansel Elgort, Demetrius Joyette and Stephen Curry.

I'm headed out tonight to get some dinner and see back-to-back circus shows, so that will be lovely. And I heard from various people I care about earlier today (in one case so much earlier that it was almost still yesterday), which is also lovely.

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fringe: macbeth in space! (and two other locations...)

As I've said on multiple occasions, Macbeth and I go way back. We have a connection. I can't explain it, not entirely sure I want to.

But it's one of the first shows I look for at the Fringe. And I've seen a variety of versions at this point.

Full text versions, classical productions, modern political retellings, Australian gangsters, World War 2... the works.

What I've never seen is Macbeth played as a comedy. And it absolutely should not work. At all.

But somehow, some way, the Scrambled Prince Theatre Company (a touring youth theatre company based at Eltham High School in Melbourne), managed to do it.

And so we have the very literally titled: Macbeth in space! (and two other locations...).

This is Macbeth as a Star Trek episode, Macbeth as film noir story, Macbeth as a western.

It's also at it's heart an ensemble piece, where different actors play the required characters during the different locations. Space Macbeth is a pompous Zapp Brannigan/Kirk hybrid, Noir Macbeth is a slightly stupid New York mafia boss and Western Macbeth is a very trigger happy black clad bandito.

And this is, somehow strangely, the only interpretation of Macbeth I can really think of where the play is going out of it's way to tell you that Macbeth is a bad guy. I mean I know he does horrible things, but often times there is more than a little part of me what wants him not to fall all the way down the rabbit hole of the latter part of the play, and remain the Macbeth from the first two acts.

But here, he's no hero, not even an anti-hero... in all three parts of this production, he's straight up the villain (and often also a thundering moron) in each setting.

Most of the story gets told across the three segments, although a lot of the details are left by the wayside... which normally I would find problematic, but I didn't mind here since this was more interpretation rather than recitation.

I also think that you can judge a lot about a Macbeth production not just by it's titular lord and lady, but by the interpretation of the witches. And here we get, in order, a hive mind, a trio of beat poets and three poncho wearing singers. With the exception of the hive mind, the same three actors play the witches (technically I guess the same three take part in all the versions, since the hive mind uses the voices of everybody who isn't a main character at that point), and do so very well.

I do need to specifically call out the young woman who played both Space Banquo at the start, as well as the western version of Young Siward (I'm blanking on the character's in-universe name)... she was great as the Kif to Space Macbeth's Brannigan, but she was AH-MAH-ZING as Kid Siward... right from the opening of that section with her tiny cowboy hat, tiny guns and repeated ridiculous expressions she had me in stitches.

In fact the list of people who impressed me or at least made me laugh is fairly extensive. From Space Duncan to Space Lady Macbeth... Noir Gumshoe (again, the character name escapes me) to Noir Fleance to Noir Lady Macbeth... Western Malcolm to Western Lady MacDuff... in fact almost everyone who stepped up into a speaking role did remarkably well.

And the whole thing was actually funny. I think, beyond the performances, it was tying all of the tropes from the three different scenarios to Macbeth that managed to bring out the humour.

Staging was minimal, confined to a few black stools, but each genre change came with a complete, on-stage costume change for the entire cast (all twenty-something of them)... and often the ensemble actually became the staging.

The other thing that shouldn't have worked was putting music in... but there it was, and work it did. The singer, who also doubles as Noir Lady Macbeth, did a fantastic job both with the singing and the acting... although given the aforementioned laughter at Western Siward, I did feel a little guilty that all my attention was focus over there and not on her beautiful rendition of Desperado.

My hat goes off to every one involved in this production, they did a great job and I had an amazing time.

yani's rating: 5 bouncy chairs out of 5

photo saturday: go fly one

I'm half tempted to file this week under "What the fuck even was this week?" and move on.

I mean, what the fuck even is anything right now... but also this week.

On a mostly unrelated note, my colour printer takes two different kinds of black ink... a big cartridge and a smaller cartridge. And often times I print exclusively in black and white. However, there are certain documents that even when I tell them to print in black and white, use the coloured inks to make black and grey. I mean not exclusively, but what the actual fuck. It makes no goddamn sense.

Also, the cost of printer ink... go fuck yourself printer companies. You suck.

This week's DnD was... atypical to a degree. I didn't run on Monday, one of my regular players took the wheel and gave me a week off. And it was good, don't get me wrong, he's a decent DM... this is only the second break I've taken since about May last year if memory serves. But I'm not completely sure how I feel about it.

Is it at all evident that I might every so slightly be in a mood currently?

Anyway... Wednesday was Double Game Day... although the adventure we played during the day was... it was crap, not going to lie. Good DM, nobody super annoying at the table (well kinda, but not really), but it was one of the new season adventures which are essentially all badly written. Or at least they are narratively unsatisfying from a player perspective. Yeah, sure, go back in time where nothing you do matters and find out some random information, which doesn't really matter, be unable to stop an event because the bad guy is entirely too high a level for the party level so you have to let them go before they wipe everyone. And then return to the present with no clearer idea of what the fuck just happened than you did when you started.

Yeah, fuck Season 8.

Then in the evening game I convinced a beholder to join a circus, told my drow nemesis that I would see her bleeding in the dirt before this was all over, made a little headway in matchmaking between our male elf ranger and the friendly male NPC drow ranger who keeps showing up, and then we got our collective asses handed to us by a legendary fiendish ooze.

Also there was a kitten. An actual kitten, not an in game kitten. And it's a ragdoll cat and it's so soft and cuddly and adorable.

There was no game on Thursday... I mean there were games, but none that I gave a fuck about.

Interestingly (absolutely not the correct word, but let's go with it), I was told by someone I trust on Thursday that Certain People™ may have an issue with the way I play DnD. Not the way I DM it seems, but the way I play. And while I don't know who the Certain People™ are, I can make a fairly educated guess.

And to those people can I say a heartfelt Fuck You™. Firstly, I can, on occasion, be loud. We know this. This also isn't something that is going to change. It hasn't changed in almost 45 years, not gunna change for you Boo-Boo. Secondly, I come to play Dungeons and Dragons. I don't come to fuck around, or to play a character that annoys everyone or does dumb stuff for no reason, or to make the comedy. I come to roleplay and have a good time. Sometimes this means I take charge, especially if other people aren't stepping up. So if my idea of a good time and your idea of a good time don't match up Boo-Boo, don't let the imaginary door hit you in the imaginary ass on the way outta imaginary town.

Also, you don't want to play on the same table as me... excellent, I don't especially want you with 100 miles of me either. But also if that's how you feel don't ever sit your ass down at my table for me to DM for you.

Yes, this is all Way Harsh Tai™, but I don't care. I also know that I'm not telling the entire story and that on occasion I can Be A Lot and/or Take The Fuck Over. This generally happens when other people don't step up. But sometimes it happens depending on the character I'm playing compared to those that other people are playing. And who those people are. And where the game is.

Also also, if you have a problem with me, fucking bring it to me. And don't dance around or pussyfoot... fucking tell me. Either I will tell you to go fuck yourself or we'll work through it. But either way, you'll have a definitive answer from the horse's mouth.

Did I mention... In A Mood™.

Mostly though I just need to spit the dummy here right now so I don't actively spit it at other people later. Or at least I spit less of it later. Possibly spit it in a constructive and productive way. But that does depend entirely on whether the Certain People™ are the ones I think they are.

Speaking of moods.

Remember The Boy. And remember how I said in my end of year round up that The Boy now has A Girl. I technically met A Girl this week. I was 100% not ready for that. And I didn't even speak to her. I just saw her from the other side of a car window, assumed who she was and waved. No introductions happened, it was literally a wave and then nothing. Still wasn't ready.

Basically it boils down to the fact that I'm fine with the fact he has a girlfriend. I'm generally okay with hearing about said girlfriend, up to a point. Seeing that she's an actual human being that exists in the world is kind of where my brain fell down. It shouldn't have. And I shouldn't need a "run up" to actually meet her. She's not Schrödinger's Girlfriend... she exists, whether I pretend she doesn't or not.

Have I mentioned recently that I'm a garbage human?

Moving on... that was the week essentially.

Oh, it was also Shrove Tuesday this week... and I made pancakes... well, crepes... and I am so fucking out of practice. I mean they were edible and decent looking but still... very out of practice.

There wasn't a whole lot to today to be honest.

We did the supermarket thing this morning. And I'm predicting now that by about Tuesday afternoon I will be all out of ideas and items required for actual meals. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

We had a few things we needed to do in town before the Fringe show this afternoon (more on that later), including but not limited to dropping off more books at Oxfam (I sent back the ones I got in the last sale and mostly hated), spending the $10 voucher Typo sent me for my birthday (because I always need more spiral bound notebooks... I mean I totally don't need more... but they keep making new covers and I keep making new DnD characters), picking up the aforementioned printer ink and Ma totally failing to find net curtains that live up to her requirements.

After the show, we came back here, grabbed some lunch at the Village and then I sent Ma off home.

Current Mood:

photo saturday: harbour blues

This week has been the actual, literal definition of a heatwave...

a heatwave is defined as five consecutive days at or above 35 °C (95 °F), or three consecutive days at or over 40 °C (104 °F)

The five day version at least. So that can kiss my ass.

Thankfully I've mostly been able to hide within the airconditioning. Always a bonus.

There were only two DnD games this week... Monday night and Wednesday day. Everyone else from the Wednesday night game wussed out by about Tuesday so that didn't happen. And then everybody I may have given a crap about playing with on Thursday was either not available or getting ready for an event this Saturday, so no dice there either.

But again, hiding here with the aircon, so there was no bad.

Monday's game was the last in that particular sequence, so after a DM interlude from one of my players next week, we're going to be making it up as we go for the rest of the month. I mean I know what I'm running, it's just not part of a series.

Wednesday was the second half of the game I ran last week... I think everyone had fun. I may have been tap dancing without a net a little at the end... no, I definitely was... and they killed the bad guy entirely too quickly (fucking rogues... I mean don't get me wrong, I fucking love rogues... but also fuck rogues and their massive damage output... on an unrelated note, I need to start playing another rogue).

I did have to leave the house on Friday evening though, for a Fringe show... and clearly I didn't think that one through. A Friday night, during whatever the stupid fucking car race is called... yeah, I did like 4 laps of the block before I gave up and paid for parking.

Also thankfully the venue was airconditioned.

But that was essentially my week.

Today was nothing much of anything, because it was a) too fucking hot, b) the stupid car race in the city and c) part of an epidemic of fuck all of interest being on at the movies. But I did discover earlier in the day that my cheap-ass flat-ass canvas shoes were completely falling apart, so we decided on a trip to Target to find new ones. And that included a detour to somewhere we would never normally have gone (as in location, not the store), which also meant we discovered a "closer" (and those are some heavy inverted commas) cinema we didn't realise was there.

I think it may have been the one I was considering when I thought I was going to move out of North Adelaide the first time... so not the worst thing ever.

But, yeah... basically we poked around a couple of places looking at possible cheap furniture options for Ma (which I don't think we'll find, because I think she really wants the same thing I bought four years ago which no longer exists). So that's not at all a hopeless errand.

I did get new shoes though. And I like them better than the old ones, which is always a bonus.

That was really it though... we came back here, hung out in the aircon, then I sent Ma on her way to go see her friend who is visiting from interstate.

Thankfully the weather returns to something approaching normal tomorrow, or at least by early in the week.

Current Mood:

fringe: the measure of a man

The Measure of a Man was not the show I was expecting.

Or not exactly anyway.

I also didn't realise when I picked the show that I'd seen Gavin Roach six years ago in his Confessions of a Grindr Addict show.

Like it's predecessor, Measure feels like an incredibly autobiographical show, but unlike it, there is no line between persona and performer, which makes the whole thing have an extra level to it that is incredibly raw and personal and revealing. Maybe not revealing... maybe exposed is a better word.

Doubly so when Roach spends the majority of the show in nothing but a hat, a denim jacket and a pair of briefs that put his "package" right out on display and at a lot of the audience's eye level.

Roach presents a show that talks about his penis, his relationship to it and sexual dysfunction in a confronting, amusing, frank, unabashed and frankly sad way. And there's an additional layer of confrontation given that he's discussing sexual dysfunction within the gay community, or perhaps just within gay relationships.

As gay men sex is "supposed" to be vital to who we are, how we relate to other men, how other men see us. So to approach the issue of a gay man who isn't the biggest, the thickest, the hardest, the most virile and what that does to him and how he sees the world is an interesting approach to a show. And one that made me more than a little sad and annoyed at the behaviour of the men he was describing.

Roach is an engaging performer who seems to effortlessly capture the attention of an audience, even when the themes got a little heavy.

yani's rating: 4 flops out of 5