So last Sunday, June 8th , I got a cheap ticket to see Hadestown at the Lyric.
Why a cheap ticket? My budget is low, but I also love and try to support arts and theatre. You don’t know where you will be seating with a cheapo, and this time I was in the Dress Circle.
The view was pretty good, despite a few taller people in front of me. You probably want to know about the show itself?
Hadestown is a powerful retelling of Orpheus’ legend, moving it to 1930s New Orleans.
The set, costumes, lightning and effects thrill and awe us.
It’s music is powerful and rich with folk, jazz and blues. However, the best voice of cast is Orpheus – played by Dylan Wood whose male soprano enchants and amazes.
Now am sure you all know the legend, and I most certainly won’t give spoilers on how much is changed. All I will say is get yourself a seat before the train leaves to the other underground.
This sounds silly talking about luxuries that we can’t live without.
Why? I tend to view luxuries as wants not needs but really there are luxuries we need.
Freedom and independence are luxuries. They are not guarantees, but can we live without them? We can mostly.
Clean water is also a luxury though to some people. Now that’s one big thing we actually need.
What else would some call a luxury? Affordable healthcare. Thank God for the National Health Service then here in UK.
But am still not sure what I call a luxury that I can’t actually live without. As someone who can’t reach for normal adult goals so well the luxury I can’t live without is a good sense of self-worth. It doesn’t mean I have it yet but it’s still a luxury that I need.
Full disclosure, the decisions I made and the path I chose were not easy. It felt like the only way forwards though.
So why did I do this? I began gender change because staying male felt like suicide.
I couldn’t find myself, anything I wanted was out of reach and didn’t have friends, job or a partner. There seemed to be nothing going for me and I was staying alive just for other people. If I had found a way to learn to be a man that didn’t involve sport challenges or scientific pursuits, I’d have taken it up.
Previously I had tried Outward Bound when I was 18, and it was Hellish. That is all I can say about it.
I was 25 when I changed gender. My mum knew for quite a while before because I told her everything. Under her advice I told family and friends in a letter, that way they had time to process. And I think one member of my family is still processing now.
My Dad, I told first though. His response was “I thought he just liked playing with dolls” . We then wrote the letters. Because my old name was Lawrence Gareth, the new one was Bethany Lauren to help some of the family get used to it.
This was 2005, and I got my gender recognition certificate by deed poll. Apparently that document is not of much use now. I always looked feminine, so no one saw much difference.
Friends and family were happy to accept me as who I chose to be though. There were complications when it came to arranging surgery.
While the surgeon was happy for me to go ahead with it, there was a serious risk of me dying on the operating table due to having haemolytic anaemia and primary immunodeficiency.
I had already lost enough weight to have the surgery and gone through electrolysis to remove the body hair. I had to make a hard choice and realised I couldn’t risk my life for it.
Would I have found myself better as fully femme? I don’t know, but I am what I am. If you feel stuck in a rut find a way to change it.
As some may know the sequel to Moana was released this weekend.
Is it worth while?
I predict that it could work well, however it has good competition for number one cinema trip with Wicked and Paddington in Peru.
After watching it at my local Curzon today I can tell you that mostly it engages well. I loved that some of the songs were in Polynesian. The storyline was clever with strong elements of mythology. It also has a wise message in it. The art, characters, and general feel were brilliant.
I won’t lie though. Some parts of the film were long winded, and one character’s accent seems to be Australian. (This may not be as big an issue geographically as I felt it was, but it did seem off with the others).
On the Bethometer, this gets an 8 out of 10. It is a worth while see for families.
If I mention Naked Gun or Airplane, your mind might immediately go to Lesley Nielsen, or remembering those iconically funny lines. But I doubt many would know who Jim Abrahams was.
The actors were amazing, but the jokes were all him. “Surely not?” “I’m afraid it’s true Ma’am, and don’t call me Shirley!”
The actor delivering the lines we all remember can’t work without the writer coming up with some genius. And that was the screenwriter, Jim Abrahams (who also was often the director or producer)..
This titan of comedy writing died yesterday at 80, having outlived Nielsen.
He also wrote and produced the Hot Shots series.
And that is why I say thanks for all your work Mr Abrahams.
This master of satire not only roasted the diaster flight movies, but was pretty good on the police… And in the 80s there were many cops acting like they did in Police Squad.
If you have seen the musical you probably know a lot of it. However, this is the film and things have changed. In fact, it is only part 1 and is over 2 hours long.
From the opening to close the film is highly engaging, but very long. All performers delivered brilliantly, including the cameos.
I found the plot easier to follow than on stage version. I was also pleased to find Nessa far more independent (which can be hard for a wheelchair bound character, right?)
The costumes stun, music soars and sets sparkle in a film which could grab a few awards next year.
If like me you struggle to not sing along, a little quietly joining in may not be too harmful here and there, just be sure to go quiet when others ask you too.
Wicked part one gets a 9/10 for me, you’ll be Defying Gravity.
On November 15th An Almost Christmas Story landed on D+ in UK.
This is a heart warming, family friendly, engaging, 30 minute animation produced by Alfonso Cuaron and David Lowry, and with script/teleplay by Jack Thorne.
Most days animation is created through CGI and digital artwork. What a nice surpise to find a more artistic, stopmotion, style being used. It made the adventure far more special and engaged my imagination.
It follows the tale of a baby owl, Moon, whose tree ends up in New York for Christmas. She soon meets a little girl, Luna, who has lost her mother near the Rockefeller Skating Rink. Both these figures need to find their way home. As they journey, they are accompanied by funny pigeons and the music of a folk singer voiced by John C. Reilly.
So, for all the feels, and thoughts on Christmas and family, I would say give this film a watch.
The serene and starry sky and the shining sun are peacocks. The calm, azure heavens, bespangled with a thousand stars, a thousand brilliant eyes, and the sun rich with the colours of the rainbow, offer the appearance of a peacock in all the splendour of its eye-besprinkled feathers.
When the sky or the thousand-rayed sun (sahasrânçus) is hidden in the clouds, or veiled by the autumnal waters, it again resembles the peacock, which, in the dark part of the year, like a great number of vividly-coloured birds, sheds its beautiful plumage, and becomes dark and unadorned; the crow which had put the peacock’s feathers on then returns to caw amongst the funereal crows.
In winter the peacock-crow has nothing remaining to it except its disagreeable and shrill cry, not dissimilar to that of the crows. It is commonly said of the peacock that it has an angel’s feathers, a devil’s voice, and a thief’s walk. The crow-peacock is proverbial.
According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India where there is no shadow, the men attain the height of five cubits and two palms, and their life is prolonged to one hundred and thirty years; they die without any symptoms of old age, and just as if they were in the middle period of life. Pergannes calls the Indians, whose age exceeds one hundred years, by the name of Gymnetæ; but not a few authors style them Macrobii.
Ctesias mentions a tribe of them, known by the name of Pandore, whose locality is in the valleys, and who live to their two-hundredth year; their hair is white in youth, and becomes black in old age. On the other hand, there are some people joining up to the country of the Macrobii, who never live beyond their fortieth year, and their females have children once only during their lives.
This circumstance is also mentioned by Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that they live on locusts, and are very swift of foot. Clitarchus and Megasthenes give these people the name of Mandi, and enumerate as many as three hundred villages which belong to them. Their women are capable of bearing children in the seventh year of their age, and become old at forty.
Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprobane (Ceylon) life is prolonged to an extreme length, while at the same time, the body is exempt from weakness. Among the Calingæ, a nation also of India, the women conceive at five years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth year. In other places again, there are men born with long hairy tails, and of remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that have ears so large as to cover the whole body.
Beth writes 