#dammit-mulder

[raisedbylibrarians]

I love you, too

[erlkonigstochter]

dammit-mulder

  I’m going to be doing a lot of driving with my mom...

Jane eyre is obvs with the hetero romance but it’s mom-palatable and wonderfully snarky and there’s some nice lesbian undertones

Ooh thanks for the suggestion! She really likes period piece movies and stuff so she’d probably like that a lot. And confession, I haven’t read Jane Eyre lol. It just seems like something a literature major should have read by now lol

[genderhexed]

loved y'all's first podcast, thank u for posting!

thank you for consuming!

[peremadeleine]

Thoughts: Hadestown

A friend recommended this to me ages ago because I love The Decemberists' "Hazards of Love," and I finally got around to listening to it...several times now in the past week.

(Note: my thoughts have little to do with the actual composition and more with the lyrics/adaptation/story, etc.)

Wow, what a cool concept! I especially like the (seemingly arbitrary) decision to ground this in American folk tradition,just because it made it all that much more interesting—both musically and in myhead—even if I didn’t always think all of it quite worked together.

Upon further reflection, this was a little likea serious musical version of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”—also a Depression-era retelling of a Greek tale.

I find Anais Mitchell’s voice both annoying and wonderful at the same time, somehow. She made a truly lovely, emotive Eurydice. She’s also an excellent composer. The Hades was also a good choice—though his gravely baritone took some getting used to.

The only one I really didn’t care for was Justin Vernon as Orpheus, maybe because of the weird and vaguely unpleasant dual-voice thing that featured in all his songs.

Songs I really liked:

Wedding Song

Way Down Hadestown

Why We Build the Wall

Flowers (Eurydice’s Song)

Epic, Part II

Doubt Comes In

I Raise My Cup to Him

Songs I didn’t like very much:

Our Lady of the Underground*

How Long?

* My dislike stems mostly from the sort of weird portrayal of Persephone. I just didn’t care for the tone. I loved the music in this song, but tonally, it was just a bit strange. Off somehow. Don’t get me wrong—I support the idea of Persephone embracing her place as Queen of the Underworld and that of her trying to help the souls there in any way she can, but this song just hit a few wrong notes for me.

I think the lyrics were well-written and sometimes lovely or thought-provoking (“the coldest night of the coldest year comes right before the spring”), if a bit too opaque at times. For instance, If you didn’t already know that Hades was the god of wealth as well as of the Underworld, a lot of this would go over your head. It also took me three or four listens to understand that “Hey, Little Songbird” was about Eurydice dying.

At others, the lyrics—or at least their delivery—could even be downright clunky. (“…and his belladonna kiss—beautiful, poisonous…lovely, deadly.”)

I particularly liked the contrasting images of Hades, the god and the place, we get early on:

Everybody dresses in clothes so fine / Everybody hungry, everybody tired Everybody’s pockets are weighted down / Everybody slaves by the sweat of his brow Everybody sipping ambrosia wine / The wage is nothing and the work is hard It’s a gold mine in Hadestown / It’s a graveyard in Hadestown

Mister Hades is a mean old boy/ Mister Hades is a mighty king With silver whistle and a golden scale / Must be making some mighty big deals An eye for an eye and he weighs the cost / Seems like he owns everything A lie for a lie and your soul for sale / Kinda makes you wonder how it feels

Eurydice and Orpheus had no chemistry they never had a duet aside from “Wedding Song,” so while I felt very sorry for both of them, I never felt their love, especially on Eurydice’s end. I guess that was intentional, since she was dead (and not the lover who risked everything for love, like Orpheus), but I think one brief number could have corrected that. The way Anais sang Orpehus’ name was heart-wrenching every time she did so, however.

Orpheus’ descent into the underworld began nicely with “Wait For Me,” which was truly haunting, but was done a bit poorly overall in my opinion—there was no sense of journey for me. He was just…there, rather suddenly.

Again, I’m relatively familiar with the particular myth and the mythological world as a whole, but even I found it rather hard to follow in places.

Persephone’s characterization, which I didn’t care for much anyway, did not seem consistent between songs (and as for “How Long?”—when did Orpheus even sing for her?) And speaking of “How Long?”, her duet with Hades, the strange relationship they shared there was not consistent with the beautiful “Epic, Part II.” Alas. Perhaps that would have been too much to hope for.

To sum up: in my opinion, this would—with a few more songs and a rewrite of some existing songs—make a really great stage show.

It should come with a warning label, though: you will be humming “Way Down Hadestown” forever.

Also: “Suddenly when he saw her there, Persephone in her mother’s garden, sun on her shoulder, wind in her hair…suddenly Hades was only a man with a taste of nectar upon his lips.”  Oof.

[galactic-salad]

dammit-mulder replied to your photoset:The traditional “2014 in Selfies” post!

WOOO BABES

heheh, you know it :P

[fuckitfireeverything]

dammit-mulder replied to your post:screams into the void HAIRCUTS SHOULD BE PRICED BY...

what the fuck

I don't understand the question

[ox-horns]

Ayyyy, I don't know all of them but (numbering off each square left to right): #2 is Kitty Pryde, #3 is America Chavez who is featured heavily in Young Avengers, #4 is Miles Morales (the new Spider-Man), #6 is the mutant Northstar marrying his husband, #8 is Babs' roommate in Batgirl #19, and #21 is from Fantastic Four #6. Also, Young Avengers in general has a lot of variation in the sexuality of its characters if not so much in terms of gender.

thanks so muuuuuuuuuuch!!!

publishin for followers (refers to this)

[sellertape]

dammit-mulder replied to your post “I watched that Sirens episode people are complaining she’s...”

So would you recommend watching it?

It was okay? Like it's not a particularly funny show to me but I only watched one epsiode out of context to see how they handled it, and it was just so nice hearing the word being said on a screen, weirdly. There's some bigotry to start with but at least the main character seems to get over it (after going a little in the wrong direction, some people think)

If you do watch it, tell me what you think!

[episode's here]