I'm going to complain now, but I'm going to try to do it charmingly. Here goes.

( The point of discussion is language-learning. )

I am inventing my own this time, though. It is called the "Figwit Moments" meme, in which we are joyful for little silly things that are peripheral in our day-to-day lives but not to our hearts. (The idea of calling that sort of moment a Figwit Moment isn't mine, unfortunately: it comes from here.)

I am not sure what the rules are, nor how the tagging works. Chances are good this will end up less a meme than, strictly speaking, a linkspam. But I think I can live with that.

( Figwit Moments Meme )


So: Figwit Moments, anybody?

Or, Tyler Durden would so disapprove.

I decided, near the end of last schoolyear, that this would be the year of self-improvement. The governing factors in making the decision weren't all ebullient, but that doesn't exclude ebullience from its execution. And in consequence I have been having myself a ball.

( For it is the Year of Stepping Out of My Comfort Zones. )

But, after all, this is also the year of casting down undue pride. "Self," I said, "you are going to do all the things you always wanted to or thought of doing or even vaguely considered doing, but never had the time for, or the spare dignity." No more of that: I am doling out dignity like a Robin Hood who has just finished holding up the Bank of Me.

( Adventures in Ushering. )

And what with the other varied expeditions I've begun this year, I can best be likened to a highly enthusiastic version of that little girl in the "Rhapsody in Blue" number from "Fantasia 2000."

Well, not quite. I'm a much worse swimmer than she is.

(Alternatively titled: What, she's alive?)

Kean: Hoshigumi 2007
DVD
Stars: Okay, who votes that I just give up on trying to give intelligible star ratings, and instead just utilize some sort of "squee", "hum", and "sigh" response system?

To abbreviate pragmatically, if you knew or cared about this show beforehand, you may want to see it; if you're a Tom or a Hoshigumi fan, you will definitely want to; and if you are a fan of both (or, at best, all three), you, well, you need this.

( In short, 'Kean' is flawed but piquant, Tom is un-Shakespearean but utterly endearing, and Hoshigumi underclassmen –– well, Hoshigumi underclassmen, apparently, just rock. )

----------------------

( Addenda, unrelated to the review or the theatrical value of this production in general: )

I waffled back and forth for a bit as to whether I ought to do this post. The trouble with reflective, subject-specific posts is not only that they are incomprehensible to those not engaged with the subject matter –– and utterly predictable to those who are –– but that they date so quickly.

Still, aside from one early musing on retirements and a half-musing on musumeyaku, I don't think I've ever given proper voice to why Takarazuka is one of my hobbies. This isn't the official statement, mostly because I'm still hammering that answer out myself; but –– if everyone will bear with one last bit of meta for what I promise will be a while –– it's a reflection on how I'd describe my perspective right now.

( A Discussion in Five Parts, Written in English, I Promise. )

I think you see why I quickly realized this doesn't belong in a comment box. ;)

(And I do know it's not Sunday. I just like the icon. :) )

Returning to my native land has heralded many things, among them a floor-to-ceiling fall cleaning that has left my normally very neat room buried under piles and piles of paper. Every item that has ever belonged to me, starting with my first-grade hand-written essays and ending with a pile of still-unread books, is in my room. Most of it is organized; that which is not is on the floor, making the room unnavigable.

It makes nighttimes very exciting: I never know if I am going to make it to my bed intact or not. My sister, who is artistic and has therefore lived in such conditions since the age of ten, has taught me a sort of shuffle-step, to avoid risk of tetanus.

( I Clean, at Length. )

Which, once the elementary-school sweaters, middle-school jeans, and assortment of T-shirts with holes in them had been eliminated, left me with about three items of clothing.

The reason for this is simple: I don't know how to shop. Not for clothes, anyway. I never learned. Shopping was what you did in marathon bouts before summer trips away, a twenty-four-hour do-or-die process in which you bought all your winter coats for the upcoming year on sale, and anything you might possibly need until the next May 25th. As such the process has been invested with an intrinsic stressful horror which has only recently begun to fade.

dragonbeak and I go to the mall, and after frequenting Borders at length, we dubiously begin to explore the less bookish corners of the establishment. We try on bowler hats and fedoras, meditate on the possible uses for the paper fans on sale at the Asian paraphernalia stores, and discuss the relative virtues of Elvis calendars. But let a shirt catch my eye and I back off nervously, trying to avoid flashbacks.

Someday my room will be clean again, and my closet restocked. My life will have one more check-mark on the great to-do list of reestablishing order. Until then, the piles of felt my sister has left in the hall closet are looking increasingly pantlike, and increasingly tempting.

Yes, that's right.

I'm jumping aboard a meme that has been circulating for a while –– based on the premise that zombies make everything better. My favorite application was a parody of William Carlos Williams' "Plums" ("I'm sorry I ate your brains..."), though the more famous version is of course "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."

And so, with no further ado, a labor of love, a very late present for the lovely and wonderful just_keep_on:

( The Rose of Versailles. And Zombies. (PG-13 for the Ladies of the Court) )

Elisabeth, Soragumi 1998
DVD
4 stars

( No, the show hasn't changed. But the stars have, and how. )

September Night
VHS
2 stars if you're not an Ichiro fan, 4 if you are.

( That final number. There aren't words for that final number. )

Epiphany, Hoshigumi 1999
TIP disc
3 stars

( I think my English major bias is showing. )

In the Amber-Hued Rain/Cocktail, Hanagumi 2002
VHS
3 stars. Add one if you're a Charlie fan.

( Sequins, bell-bottoms, intoxicated monks ... oh, right, that's the revue. )

Seal of Roses, Tsukigumi 2004.
TIP disc
2 stars. Add one if you like vampire stories; add another if you're a Saeko or Rika fan.

( Ignore the plot. Focus on the costumes. )

Er ... this one is not kind. I should explain that my intellectual assessment of a show does not always align with my ability to enjoy it, at least to some extent, and, er ... don't kill me.

Rose of Versailles, Soragumi 2001
DVD
1 star

( In short, O-Hana weeps before the guillotine, and the rest of it I try to scrub from memory. )

There'll be quite a few of these coming up, so for the non-Takarazuka people (and, come to think of it, the unoffending Zuka people, too, who have flists they don't want cluttered) I pre-empt with a bit of an apology.

"Guys and Dolls": Tsukigumi 2002
DVD
4 stars

( Review here. )

Now, to catch up on everything I missed.

Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. Or rather, I am, but not permanently: only for the upcoming few months. I should be alive and well and back on the internet by the fall.

(People to whom I still owe things, don't worry, I haven't forgotten. I promise I'll finish and deliver everything once I get back.)

In the interim — I hope you all have smashingly wonderful summers, and I promise I shall catch up on absolutely everything –– comments I'll have missed, entries I'll have missed, crazy decisions on the part of Hankyu I'll have missed ––  upon my return, whereupon my life will probably be in more of a semblance of order.

I love you and shall miss you all exceedingly. Please have fun while I'm gone!

That is one exhausted Mistoffelees on the left.

Nevertheless, here he is, presenting the first of the Before-I-Go presents I owe everyone. I confess in the end I had to give up trying to find time to actually edit this thing, and beyond some desperate sanding it remains mostly as it was after the first viewing, Pre ... Stuff. Still, that desperate sanding is my proof that, Internet, you can never say I do not try for you.

"Oklahoma!" Tsukigumi 2006
Sky Stage recording
4 stars

( The Review. )

Yes, everyone, I know, I know, not for another week yet. Not till the 7th (which I know is redundant; of course you’ll all have marked your calendars, hired the babysitter so that you could visit your friends’ house for guacamole and cheering on of your favorite Broadway babies, bribed friends to tape the show and mail the tapes to you since you’re out of town, and so forth).

Still, I’m excited already. It looks to be terrific; I’m positively thrilled.

And yet, as with all Tony awards, there’s also a nagging feeling as they approach. A sort of apprehensive fear. “What if,” your conscience whispers, “what if this is the year? What if somehow Broadway’s glacial death, the one that’s been eating at us for the past two decades and a half, the one that’s slowly toppling this glorious leviathan—what if this is the year it really happens? What if this is the year our hearts must all break?”

Don’t scoff. I am moved to remind you that last year took out “RENT” (and the “Chorus Line” revival. And the “Sunday in the Park with George” revival. And the “Gypsy” revival. And even “Spring Awakening” and “Hairspray”) for no fathomable reason whatsoever unless we consider that Broadway’s is a terminal disease.

So here I am, biting my nails, when all I should be doing is cheering those three little Billy Elliots on, or wondering if maybe I shouldn’t head out to see “Next to Normal,” or wishing “Waiting for Godot” had gotten a handful more nominations.

Only one thing to do, really. Tell those vampires to die! Defy doubts! Reassure yourself that there’s still some lifeblood yet! Spam LJ!

( Here we go, everybody, the spirits of Great New Broadway Musicals of recent years. )

Here are the drabbles I owe everybody so far. I thought that as I'd written them, I shouldn't make the early birds wait. :)
You will notice there are only four, which means there is room for one more.

( Drabbles Here. )

Meme, from the lovely cleo2584.
The first FIVE people to comment in this post get to request a drabble length fic (i.e., about 100 words) of any pairing/character/entertaining prompt of their choosing from me. In return, they have to post this meme in their journal.

Prompt away, everyone! I'm only going to ask that you not request RPF, because I simply don't think I could figure out how to write it. (I also please request nothing from classic literature, for the same reason.)
Anything else is fair game. Do your worst. ;)