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ok nana unsubtly kicked me in the ass about this and i realized they were mostly done anyways so here we go! only four months late!

best stylings 2023 - first half

#is there even anyone left who wants to read these lmao. i mean other than nana since she was creeping my 2022 styling posts #kinda miss the pandemic days when we were all stuck on the internet but also no i do not #i'm trimming down on how much i do for these posts also since i dont have time to sift through all my saved links #just know there's a lot of one offs etc that are sitting in a mega playlist on my youtube.#im just focussing on the ones that made the biggest impact with me bc there's just so much its actually kinda crazy #text #kpop styling #what else did i even tag these as i dont even remember its been so long #kpop analysis #end of year posts #best of 2023

Fave moments of 2018

This year has had more ups and downs than most, my mental health has suffered massively as a result and it’s ended with two grandparents in hospital.

But I spent a long time reflecting, for each month I’d written a bubble (throughout the month I added to it) of all the nice things that happened that month. I keep thinking/writing the words - Don’t look back in anger, and thinking of the song by Oasis. So I’m reflecting on my favourite moments of this year.

1.) Seeing Hamilton! Back in March it snowed a lot, 29 years I finally saw snow in London. My husband and I did all the touristy things, but in the snow and finished with us seeing Hamilton!! ^_^

2.) IAMX in London with @cassandrafey, again it was still pretty snowy! Getting to see the band live was incredible and Kat Von D was also there (very problematic, I used to be a massive fan of hers but really not so much now, however she does have a lovely voice and was nice for the brief moment we met her - she said we looked cute)

3.) Paris for my 30th, especially getting to finally visit Versailles, the river boat dinner with champagne where we saw the Eiffel Tower light up, and the uber ride along the Champs-Élysées listening to French Jazz. Other bits of my birthday were equally lovely, on the day itself my husband and I went to the pier and played arcade games, walked along the seafront and went on the ferris wheel. We went to see Christopher Robin and had lunch. After my birthday I went to stay at my dad’s house for two days in the countryside in Dorset, we walked to our face pub the Smugglers Inn for a few drinks and generally had a lovely time. My party was also lovely and I felt so loved!

4.) Back in February, my brother and I went to Bridgend on a Sunday night to see Michael Graves. The gig was fantastic, crowd were great, we all danced and sung along to his songs as well as Misfits songs. We met him afterwards and he was genuinely just so lovely. The thing I loved most of all about this gig was that I’d had a really rough January and start to February, having some drinks with my brother as well as having a good chat about life really helped.

5.) Amsterdam - there were a lot of ups and downs, I was super tired, had panic attacks and generally it was a bit difficult. However, there were some really nice bits, such as the Botanical gardens, the church which was all red due to film on the windows, the canal cruise, a romantic meal, the ice bar, seeing the Night’s Watch by Rembrandt.

6.) Back in January when everything was going to shit, my husband and I took a long walk through Queen Elizabeth Country Park. We got a hot chocolate from the cafe at the bottom and then just disappeared into the woods for a few hours, talking, enjoying the fresh air. Afterwards we went to the Hampshire Hog for lunch and it was lovely.

7.) Holiday in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset back in May. I loved going back to Dartmoor and horse riding, I loved staying at my dad’s and chilling, most of all I loved Tintagel in Cornwall. Getting to visit St Nectan’s Glen, Boscastle and the Witchcraft museum and of course the castle - said to be King Arthur’s Castle. It was magical, inspiring, invigorating.

8.) Visit to Stauton Country Park in mid December - we went with two of our best friends and their daughter. With two grandparents sick and a lot of other emotional stuff happening, this was a perfect day out, feeding animals, enjoying the greenhouse and walled gardens. I am obsessed with walks in winter and December Sun. It felt especially important as my grandpop (who passed away when I was 16) and my granny (who is in hospital) used to take us here a lot.

9.) Meeting up with @the-doctors-psychic-paper in Kingston for lunch, going to The Rose theatre to see a production of Don Carlos with Tom Burke in, then browsing the Christmas markets. It was such a lovely day considering the hangover I had! haha

10.) Seeing Bianca Del Rio live and getting to meet her! (Also learning to laugh at myself and accept insults for the comedy they are, rather than feeling hurt, was a massive step for me.) We also saw Adore Delano in Brighton and, it was such a fun gig! But more than that, we finished work early that day, head to Brighton Pier and went in the arcades, had ice cream, sat in deckchairs.

Originally this was going to be 10 things, but it’s gonna go over..

11.) Back in March, my dad, brother and I went to Brighton to see ‘YES’ on their 50th anniversary tour. Family time for us is so important and lovely!

12.) A lovely weekend in London with @cassandrafey, we went to ‘God’s Own Junkyard’, we finally got to go to Jazz After Dark, we met up with friends in Brixton and went shopping in Camden. It was an awesome and very silly fangirl weekend!

13.) Day Trip to London with my husband to meet friends, we took part in a protest which was a counter-protest to the right-wing Free Tommy Robinson protect that was going on. We then head to the Last Tuesday Society to browse the curiosity museum, have cocktails, and then went to the pub!

14.) Thorpe Park with friends and overcoming my fears when it came to riding Stealth!

Here’s some other lovely things that happened - loads of walks along the beach and picnics with friends, two beautiful weddings, The Christmas Dicken’s Festival at the historic dockyard, a day trip to Dorking where we used to live, a dad trip to the owl and raptor centre with my dad, brother, husband and brother’s fiancé, a lot of awesome stand-up comedy gigs. I also completed NaNoWriMo! I got a new job and am much happier and whilst it was difficult, I completed the PTSD Trauma therapy, which was really tough and meant I had some time off work, but you know, I did it and feel better for it.

I actually did a ritual burning of last year’s to-do lists which in a way made me sad (i’m way to sentimental and hoard everything!) But I don’t need those silly lists with everything from - Complete NaNoWriMo, to my failures, to ‘buy a new hoover’ etc. to know how much I have accomplished this year. It felt so cleansing to throw it all away and start again ^_^

Happy New Year to all my followers!

#2018 diary #the best of #personal shite #end of year posts

End of year posts 2017 (3 of 4) - The wonderful understudies of The Play That Goes Wrong

In June 2017 I first saw The Play That Goes Wrong. I had delayed my visit because I wasn’t a massive fan of Mischief Theatre’s other show The Comedy About a Bank Robbery. However, I am glad I did go as they are very different shows and I loved this one.

On my first visit I noticed the guy with the Irish accent and I found out that the actor’s name was Seán Carey. There was just something about him. Hence, only a month later I was back to see him as Trevor - one of the three first cover roles he has. Even though it was my second visit I laughed just as much as the first time. Still, I didn’t see the show again until November but I was lucky to have three consecutive weekends where I caught Seán in one of his second cover roles as well as both of his remaining first cover roles.

Now, Seán was the reason I came back in the first place but I soon discovered just how incredible the entire understudy team is. I have seen all of them at least once and it is always a pleasure. Every new combination of actors brings something new to the show. I am hoping that in 2018 I’ll get to see even more of them. It would take some incredible luck but if Seán could get to go on as Dennis while I’m in London I would cancel any other plans. Even without that miracle I am sure I will enjoy many more visits to The Play That Goes Wrong.

#end of year posts #the play that goes wrong #seán carey #beth lilly #tom babbage #jamie birkett #of course i also quickly found out that seán was friends with killian #there is always some connection to that les mis movie cast isn't there

best choreos of 2023!

not gonna lie, this year was a rough one for choreos. like with the actual music itself, this year was profoundly complacent and very few choreographies were truly inspired and willing to do something original. i was actually afraid for a bit that i was not even gonna be able to fill out a top ten list, much less having any runners' up. so here's a list of runners' up:

new dayz - trendz

spotlight - yunho

wormhole - n.ssign

neverland - nine.i

baggy jeans - nct u

koong - xikers

vuja de - yunho

bouncy - ateez

journey - woodz

and my favourites:

circle - onew

i have a bit of a love hate relationship with the circle choreo bc on one hand i LOVE it, the imagery and idea is beautiful i think it's one of the few choreos this year that actually embodies what the song and the cb were trying to say. but on the other hand, as a contemporary dance enjoyer it is.........let down by the fact that kpop is a predominantly hiphop based genre and the backup dancers are not up to snuff for this type of choreo. kaspar did a pretty good job choreographing it but hiphop and contemp/modern are notoriously hard styles to slide between for dancers, and i really think they should have actually got a modern choreographer and a modern troupe. it would have significantly upped the quality and given the stages that extra gut punch.

grl gvng - xg

honestly you really could sub in any xg choreo from this year here bc they were all stellar, but the commitment of grl gvng clinched it for me. the costuming, the makeup, the style of movement all tell such a clear story that i would have included it on my list regardless of what the album was, but the transition from hesonoo to xgene to grl gvng is fucking UNREAL. it's so refreshing to see a gg actually commit to a concept that isn't pretty bubbly straightness and to not compromise on it regardless of how much people bitch, right down to the choreo. there's something immensely satisfying about seeing a choreo about how these girls are alien cyborgs and have it actually LOOK like they are alien cyborgs, the intentional clunkiness and 'offputting' movements and all. i've been begging for an actual real concept like this for years and finally. finally it has been delivered.

chrome arts - onlyoneof

its not a choreo list by me if there isn't an ooo one, and once again they came right out of the gate at the beginning of the year with something batshit insane. the knee walk move is crazy. i love it 10/10.

killer - key

unlike a lot of the other entries on this list, i don't think killer has as concise of a concept other than "the 80s", but the great thing about it is that you absolutely can successfully pull off a more abstract concept if you do it well. this is such a strong choreo with good images and composition, plus a lot of 80s references in the moves themselves, and sometimes that's all you need if you put the right care into it. this is actually one of the few choreos that i've seen that correctly capture the feel of an mj choreo from the 80s, which seems to be a real challenge for a lot of idols. i will say that i think it would have made more sense to me if this had been a repack to bad love, bc it has the same vein of nostalgia vibes and a very similar feel in the shapes of the choreo, but really they're all part of his retro series so it's not a substantive complaint.

the rizzness - taemin

don't speak to me don't look at me i'm literally never recovering from this in my entire life. i cannot fucking believe he made me say with full conviction that ""the rizzness"" is one of the best taemin bsides but also of fucking course he did. this is black rose but eviler (complimentary). it's so interesting to see how versatile taemin's style is and where his true strengths lie. obviously his title track choreos are perfectly tailored to his body and his abilities and they are all unreal choreos on their own. but there's something about the way that he carries himself when he does more hiphop based choreo that has such a natural power to it. it's so clear that this is the style that he started learning dance in and especially now that he's become much more settled in his body since he got back from the military, it's so obvious how much love he has for this song and this way of movement that i don't think any of his title tracks will stack up in the same to it in my eyes.

don't call me - dkz nine to six

insane. insane insane insane. i love everything about this. it's weird its creative it had very clear imagery that supports the song, it says fuck capitalism, what more could you possibly want. honestly one of the best choreos of the last couple years. i'm also gonna include nod here too bc it was the bside they promoted and it has crazy choreo also, and highly recommend ppl listen to digital love, the other bside. very strong release from dkz this year despite all the shit they went through.

here's hoping 2024 is better!

#kpop dance #end of year posts #best of 2023 #i will be thinking about the baggy jeans dance practice on the stadium stage for the rest of my goddamn LIFE thats a LEGACY!!!#i feel kind of conflicted putting both journey and circle on here bc they are very similar in a lot of ways #i actually think journey is a better choreo in terms of meshing with the dancers strengths #but i admire the ideas of the circle choreo more #text #spoiler alert: 2024 has not been better thus far😔

are you ready? it's time for...

best stylings of 2022, first half!!

this covers my favourite stylings from january 1st to june 30th; which i am bolding and italicizing bc some people got on my ass last year about leaving things out when in fact they just did not read the title! so!! this is only half of the year!!

here's a rundown of the categories i'm using:

best overall - self explanatory: this covers cbs that were holistically well designed across the mv, music show stages, and any other promotional material that was released during the cb period

runners' up - this category is for ones that got it about half right; either they had a really good music video but the stages didn't match up, or they had really good stages but the mv was lacking. i also put mvs here that didn't get any other promotional materials

standout element - this is for one off stages or outfits that stuck out to me as being really excellent, but there wasn't the same consistency across the rest of the cb

ok, make sense? let's go!

#tumblr's 100 link limit really beats my ass doing these posts like fr its SO ANNOYING #i have to edit so much down like my playlist was 300+ videos long....#NO ONE @ ME ABOUT BLOW NOT BEING ON HERE OK!!! THERE'S POST IN MY DRAFTS ABOUT IT ITS GETTING ITS DUE I PROMISE #also i couldnt decide if i wanted to blow or phase me on here since theyre basically the same mv so left both of them off as a compromise #why was this like 10x harder than last year!!!!! there was too much!!!#i normally have a lot more 'standout elements' but the fucking LINK LIMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#kpop styling #best of 2022 #end of year posts #text #Youtube

ok, so here's my miscellaneous music show stages post! idk what to even call it in terms of an 'official' title or whatever, but who cares. a lot of my fave stages already ended up in the fave stylings posts or i've talked about them in some other capacity, so this is just for outliers and ones that have stuck in my mind over the last year!

set design

test me - xdinary heroes, music core 220723 // the concept of the test me cb was an underground battle of the bands type thing, and i loved the set design of this specific stage because it's so subtle and builts directly out of the existing stage intrastructure. also the yellow jumpsuits are cute, so sue me.

invu - taeyeon, inkigayo 220220 // honestly, i'm just obsessed with the choice to use the led floor panels to to simulate a pool, ringed with the surrounding greenery. the rest of the designs is great but lighting effects are always gonna get me

voyager - kihyun, music core 220319 // i LOVE this ship, it's a great way to work the band into the stage with different levels all in association with the theme.

styling

feeling - kim wansun, music core 220108 // the only pants to every exist in the history of ever

wooah hip - mamadol, mcountdown 220127 // my villain origin story is that mamadol was a temporary project group. give us kahi back!!!!

chase - minho, mcountdown 221229 // people have slept on minho's solo which i expected, but honestly i really enjoyed it and i like how he very clearly showed that he had clear ideas that he wanted to explore than aligned with his own interests. the styling overall was not particularly notable bc it's a very naturalistic theme, but this patent leather trenchcoat really is something that only minho could pull off

what if love - up10tion, music bank 221014 // what is even happening with these outfits. i'm obsessed with xiao's shirt.

chronograph - victon, inkigayo 220130 // just looking at any pictures of hanse from any two victon eras should be enough to convince you that gender isn't real.

undercover - craxy, music bank 220819 // fun af fake chain props for the choreo, very theatrical!

focus - ha sungwoon, mcountdown 220825 // he only did one stage bc this was right before he enlisted, but did he need to bedazzle his cleavage like that? did you sungwoon??????? also this choreo is so fucking fast like holy shit you really did the damn thing even though you did not need to

me = naneun - just b, show champion 221130 // if anyone wants to fill me on on what fuck bain is wearing i'd gladly take any info. train conductor chic is all i got

dance with god - craxy, mcountdown 220224 // i can guarantee that on any given day those gold fringed pants will pop into my head at any random time

tomboy - wei, show champion 220608 // no comment

boom - minhyuk, mcountdown 220630 // no comment, but louder. again, another cb that almost made my top stylings list, but i can't keep rewarding him like this. any one of these stages gives me brain damage.

louder - tan, inkigayo 220626 // could not tell you what is going on here. a.c.e's stylist seems to be periodically working with tan and so their styling ranges from fine to excellent to batshit insane on any given day and every single louder stage is a hit. honestly all of their cbs almost made my top stylings list just for the sheer insanity of them.

alone - highlight, music core 221112, YOSEOB PUT THOSE AWAY I SWEAR TO FUCKING GODDDDDDDDD. dongwoon don't think i didn't notice you also but we're not gonna talk about it. also yoseob's collar for this stage i'm gonna be sick who allowed them do this.

staging and/or other

this GORGEOUS staging of kim jaehwan's back then, it's one of the few times that i've seen in the round used properly in a kpop context and maybe the only time i've seen it on a music show? also great set design and it looks so good with his pinwheel lightsticks.

tbh i just picked a random ascension stage for this, bc the sheer amount of production value they put into everything they do deserves being viewed even if they didn't make any of my other lists. prop kings, literally.

dkz's mcountdown special stage of lupin, because she's a queen and she deserves the love

plus a couple of not specifically music show performances, but they they are music program performances. mostly this is here for me to pimp kbs listen up bc NOBODY watched it except me and nana and it literally had some of the best stages of the year:

kihyun's solo performance of someone's someone on k-909, bc it's soooooo cute. honestly ppl watch k-909 too they put so much production value into everything

dkz on listen up performing a remake of in the rain, featuring kyoungyoon doing a standing backflip for no reason??

seungsik, subin, and sejun (victon) on listen up having a ball and also flipping a couch over

woohyun on listen up being sluttier than he should be allowed to be

ren on listen up god i miss nu'est so BAD

ghost9 on listen up absolutely WRECKING the hundred millionth kpop song named monster

swan absolutely wrecking on listen up stan purple kiss i stg

that's a wrap on 2022 posts! now i'm gonna get cracking on all my backed up asks 😭

#no guarantees on the speed of anything bc i'm moving at the end of the month but i should be able to get a few done #kpop styling #end of year posts #best of 2022 #text #media recs #seriously ppl watch listen up stages oneus was also there!!#they have a whole dedicated youtube channel so it's all in one place

you know what it's time for? end of year wrap up posts! and the first one up is....

fave choreos!!

#end of year posts #kpop dance #best of 2022 #there are 100+ videos on my choreos playlist i am impressed i made it down to like 25 #tbf a chunk of those are doom du doom stages so i was keeping track of them but STILL #ones that barely missed out were chase (minho) and phantom (wayv) but they were released too late in the year!!#i can only make accomodations for one (1) late entry and that was halazia #please know i do still love them though #text

ok it's a bit overdue but are you ready? it's...

best stylings of 2022, part two!

once again, this covers comebacks that came out from july 1st to dec 31st, if you want to read the part that covers the first half of the year, it's here! there i explain the criteria that i use as well.