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I think the specific style of quipping here is informed more by Joss Whedon than by a "patient zero" in written narration. The line about how this was nowhere in the narrator's top ten ways to wake up particularly reeks of Whedon.
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Jan 25, 2021 18:47
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:You can watch entire Shakespeare performances on YouTube for free you dolt. Except that's not going to the theater, is it? Nobody says "To really, truly experience Shakespeare, you have to watch him on Youtube."
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Jan 25, 2021 19:20
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John Lee posted:Except that's not going to the theater, is it? Nobody says "To really, truly experience Shakespeare, you have to watch him on Youtube." People usually say “see it performed” not “in the theatre, specifically, and gently caress you if you see it anywhere else”.
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Jan 25, 2021 19:22
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Don't most cities have "Shakespeare in the Park" shows that are free and public? We had them all the time in St. Louis before the lockdown.
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Jan 25, 2021 19:27
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Sham bam bamina! posted:When I was a kid, I read my friend's copy of Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, thought it was really cool, then went back and read the first two books, only to find that I had started with the good one. I've been reading through the Nero Wolfe books in order and it took until the fourth to find one I really enjoyed.
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Jan 25, 2021 20:31
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Don't most cities have "Shakespeare in the Park" shows that are free and public? We had them all the time in St. Louis before the lockdown. 'Most cities' This isn't really related to the subject at hand, but an awful lot of people don't live in a city! Like, a quick google search says ~65% live in a CITY city and ~80% live in some kind of urban area, but I'm not in either of those groups, and I have zero way of getting this data but I feel confident that 'most' municipalities do not have publicly performed Shakespeare. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't know, but the closest city is reasonably well populated and doesn't advertise a Shakespeare in the Park event. On the other hand, an area traveling theatre group does advertise a wine tasting with 'Eat, Drink, and Be Hairy,' so maybe my uncouth appearance wouldn't be as unwelcome as I imagine?
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Jan 25, 2021 21:27
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Well, you've already written off paid performances and free videos, so I thought that free performances might be worth bringing up. Wikipedia says that they're all over the country, so I figured there might be such events within a reasonable distance of you. At this point, though, it really feels like you're looking for excuses for the world's most widely performed playwright to be forever out of your reach, locked in an ivory tower that only people with opera glasses can enter, no matter how accessible he actually is.
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Jan 25, 2021 21:58
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John Lee posted:so maybe my uncouth appearance wouldn't be as unwelcome as I imagine? This is the kind of attitude people have when they’re talking themselves out of going to the gym because “oh, I’m so out of shape, everyone will laugh at me”. No, no one is going to give a poo poo unless you’re being actively disruptive. If it’s something where it’s obvious that you’ve never been to a play before, someone might give you recommendations for other stuff to check out too. I don’t know why people love to assume hostility in new environments like that but it’s almost universally wrong. Go to a play! You’ll probably enjoy yourself! Bring friends! That way you have people to talk about what you just saw and can share perspectives on it! (Mandatory coronavirus disclaimer here)
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Jan 25, 2021 22:03
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Yeah, you don't need a tailored suit to see a play. When I was an undergrad, I went to the symphony hall every other weekend or so with my student discount, and I never wore anything fancier than a polo and khakis from Kohl's.
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Jan 25, 2021 22:16
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Definitely go and shout "HE'S BEHIND YOU" at the appopriate times.
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Jan 25, 2021 22:19
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Bear in mind certain language barriers that you may not expect though. A few years ago I went to see Swan Lake as I'd never seen a ballet before, and while I understood some of the jokes being told, (like at one point a jester character gets tired of pirouetting and just lays down for a nap which was pretty funny) when it came to following what was actually happening I just felt lost and frustrated, so at least when seeing a ballet get a program so you can at least know what a scene is trying to convey so that you don't end up feeling lost enough it hurts your enjoyment of the dancing itself.
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Jan 25, 2021 22:46
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Ugly In The Morning posted:This is the kind of attitude people have when they’re talking themselves out of going to the gym because “oh, I’m so out of shape, everyone will laugh at me”. No, no one is going to give a poo poo unless you’re being actively disruptive. If it’s something where it’s obvious that you’ve never been to a play before, someone might give you recommendations for other stuff to check out too. I don’t know why people love to assume hostility in new environments like that but it’s almost universally wrong. Go to a play! You’ll probably enjoy yourself! Bring friends! That way you have people to talk about what you just saw and can share perspectives on it! (Mandatory coronavirus disclaimer here) Sham bam bamina! posted:Yeah, you don't need a tailored suit to see a play. When I was an undergrad, I went to the symphony hall every other weekend or so with my student discount, and I never wore anything fancier than a polo and khakis from Kohl's. I types up a big page-long rant here and then thought better of it. (Then got a paragraph into a SECOND one immediately after that sentence.) Suffice it to say that I've absolutely experienced hostility in new situations, numerous times, including times when people repeatedly insisted I would not, and that while I can't detect any real difference in my style of casual-formal-polo-and-khakis, other people definitely have.
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Jan 25, 2021 23:14
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Many years ago, I saw Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, and while it was performed in german there was this huge text screen above the stage continously giving translation. Pretty neat.
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Jan 25, 2021 23:19
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I did music for a Shakespeare production of Taming of the Shrew. For one of the pre-opening runs, some high school students were invited in to watch. They were mostly disinterested, but during one back-and-forth between characters, one pulls out a 'yo momma' joke. From the back row this one dude just went "OOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!" and that's how you know the language is getting through to the audience.
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Jan 25, 2021 23:41
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Mr. Sunshine posted:Many years ago, I saw Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, and while it was performed in german there was this huge text screen above the stage continously giving translation. Pretty neat. I saw Handel's Giulio Cesare like this. It was cool! It was my one and only trip to see an opera live and I had a great time.
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Jan 26, 2021 00:08
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John Lee posted:I types up a big page-long rant here and then thought better of it. (Then got a paragraph into a SECOND one immediately after that sentence.) Suffice it to say that I've absolutely experienced hostility in new situations, numerous times, including times when people repeatedly insisted I would not, and that while I can't detect any real difference in my style of casual-formal-polo-and-khakis, other people definitely have. Maybe you are, in fact, the hostile one and people are just reacting naturally to you.
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Jan 26, 2021 00:15
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When I was a kid, I went to an outdoor version of A Midsummer Night's Dream where the Rude Mechanicals entered and exited in an ancient, filthy panel van with tons of graffiti written in the dust. Sadly, the only graffito I remember is "Zeus is my co-pilot." My point here is, Midsummer is a great first live Shakespeare play to try, because it's a goofy nonsense comedy and every live adaptation I've ever seen has taken entertaining liberties with the staging. It is not a popped-monacle kind of show.
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Jan 26, 2021 00:19
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:Maybe you are, in fact, the hostile one and people are just reacting naturally to you. or maybe they’re black and people are garbage?
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Jan 26, 2021 00:41
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A black redneck?
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Jan 26, 2021 00:53
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Sham bam bamina! posted:A black redneck? They exist, but this just seems like a “you meet an rear end in a top hat in the morning, you met an rear end in a top hat;you meet assholes all day, maybe you’re the rear end in a top hat” type thing. Mostly just from the resistance to doing anything even a little challenging and trying to make it everyone else’s problem.
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Jan 26, 2021 01:03
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I've been to a bunch of community theatre productions in towns near military bases and I've never gotten poo poo for it. Also watching stuff in youtube is pretty convenient, you don't even need pants.
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Jan 26, 2021 01:13
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My parents would take me to go see the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival regularly, which is a big production that gets put on at a historic manor house in upstate New York and frequently has actual big name actors you'd recognize (I think I saw Wallace Shawn in one of the comedies, may have been Midsummer Night's Dream) and I, a lovely teen, would go there in cargo shorts and flip flops and a graphic tee shirt that had a sick Celtic knot wolf pattern all over it. Also imo if anyone's getting huffy about the way you look at a play ask them if they came to look at you or to look at the stage
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Jan 26, 2021 01:45
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Djeser posted:My parents would take me to go see the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival regularly, which is a big production that gets put on at a historic manor house in upstate New York and frequently has actual big name actors you'd recognize (I think I saw Wallace Shawn in one of the comedies, may have been Midsummer Night's Dream) and I, a lovely teen, would go there in cargo shorts and flip flops and a graphic tee shirt that had a sick Celtic knot wolf pattern all over it. Hahahaha, jesus we were probably at the same show at some point, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival ruuuules. They did one by the mid hudson bridge a year or two ago that was also awesome.
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Jan 26, 2021 01:48
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I can't speak for theater in America, but as a European who's best friend is a theater director I can safely say that most plays are happy to have an audience at all. If you feel like you don't belong, just remember that your presence is exactly what everyone behind the scenes was dreaming to accomplish: bringing a particular vision of the world to an audience that it cannot reach otherwise. Everyone is welcome from a creator's perspective, and if an audience disagrees they can gently caress right off.
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Jan 26, 2021 04:47
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Also good chance most of the audience are theatre kids and college students, no one gives the slightest poo poo what you're dressed like. It's basically the same as going to the movies except they might even just wave you in if you show up a bit late.
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Jan 26, 2021 05:11
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RoboRodent posted:Does this count: As an aside, OH NO, MY VULVA would be a pretty kickass username.
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Jan 26, 2021 06:16
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John Lee posted:I types up a big page-long rant here and then thought better of it. (Then got a paragraph into a SECOND one immediately after that sentence.) Suffice it to say that I've absolutely experienced hostility in new situations, numerous times, including times when people repeatedly insisted I would not, and that while I can't detect any real difference in my style of casual-formal-polo-and-khakis, other people definitely have. If you live in an area too rural to be able to find a way to make it to a free Shakespeare in the park performance, you live in an area too rural for people to judge you for showing up to a play in business casual clothing.
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Jan 26, 2021 06:27
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Spoiled the stupid meltdown so nobody has to read it if they don't want to, actual half-assed thread content below I dunno, maybe I have resting rear end in a top hat face or something, but I get these reactions, like I said, from people I do not know and have never spoken to, and I'm certainly not being an rear end in a top hat to any kids. That's mostly "Oh?" and "Cool!" type stuff from little girls wanting to tell me they got new socks or whatever. Whether I'm being an rear end in a top hat now is, I suppose, up for debate, but it's not because of 'resistance' to trying challenging things, it's specifcally that people are lovely assholes to you when you do. I tried new things all the time, back in the day, and got shouted down constantly, constantly, for being insultingly lovely at them. It happened at least a dozen times that somebody would beg, repeatedly, over the course of several times, for me to X (usually dance, sing, draw, or, oddly specifically a few times, bake bread), and I would say that I was very bad at X, and they would say that nobody cares if you're bad, and besides, nobody can BE bad at those things because they're all so easy! And then I would fearfully attempt to X, and they'd get pissed and say I was deliberately doing it badly to spite them, and if I actually tried I'd be doing it perfectly, and then I have to listen to smug pricks say, like I've heard a dozen fuckin' times before, that actually nobody cares if you're bad at things, just Do Them, and leave unsaid that you're obviously supposed to actually Do Them Well. I've lost friends because I was so bad at dancing, or rather because I "didn't care enough to actually try," and it's so goddamn tiring to push myself to trust somebody that tenth or eleventh time or whatever, but this new person says they're really for sure not going to be upset if I do it badly, and then guess what, they WOULDN'T have been unhappy but I'm obviously singing poorly on purpose because anybody can do it, it takes no effort at all and if you really cared you'd be good at it, and I cry in bed because I believed another person who lied, again. And then I watch movies where the wise teacher or friendly master or whatever is like "You have a long road to walk, but everybody was a beginner at some point!" and presumably those people must exist in real life, but I've never met them for drat sure. I mean, obviously this is all barely related to going to see a play, because I doubt anybody would tell me I saw the play wrong on purpose, but people might very well tell me I went to see the play dressed wrong, or that I sat in the wrong seats, or something. And even if my clothes are fine, I'd still have to buy a new pair of shoes, and shoes are goddamn expensive and I'd have to save up for a couple months because I have no money and dress shoes also hurt like a motherfucker and I wouldn't be able to hear the fuckin' play anyway because on the few public performances I've been to back in high school, you can't hear a drat thing because it's people on stage standing an entire theater's distance away. Look, I'd like to go see a play hypothetically, but every step involves spending money and having people hate me for it, so I haven't done it. In fact, I actually know two of the theater people who perform in town**, and one's somebody I used to date and the other's a creepo who tried to bang everything he sees and is REALLY unpleasant about it. I didn't even think of that until right now, but I don't want to go see a semi-ex and Weird Todd* perform. *Last I checked, anyway **not his real name And all of this is totally beside the point of the thread, which is lovely books, so here's a lovely book, grabbed right out of the box of books I'm turning in to the used bookstore but can't right now because of COVID:  All the Shannara books. The cover art is honestly the best thing about these, the books themselves are largely bland with very few interesting bits. edit: Autistic, stressed, broke as poo poo, unable to see a doctor (or a therapist could you tell), had a meltdown, leaving it up for the curious (morbidly or otherwise), but spoiler'd it so it doesn't poo poo up the thread quite as much. Sorry if I made anyone unhappy, it's just a thing I'm particularly sensitive about and haven't found a way to deal with it yet. John Lee has a new favorite as of 08:45 on Jan 26, 2021 |
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Jan 26, 2021 08:28
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I can recognize the technical skill in covers like that, but they look so bland and emotionless. I can almost hear the bearded guy mutter, "Is he done painting yet? I've been holding this drat pose for twenty minutes and I have to pee."
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Jan 26, 2021 08:34
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John Lee posted:And then I watch movies where the wise teacher or friendly master or whatever is like "You have a long road to walk, but everybody was a beginner at some point!" and presumably those people must exist in real life, but I've never met them for drat sure. this is incredibly depressing to hear, because i’m the patient tutor-type to my friends, and everyone should have that. i sincerely love teaching people. i’m sorry that happened to you getting back to books, i recently learned of “chrome” by george nader (actor guy), and i’m interested in it as a piece of gay sf history, but i’ve heard it’s pretty dreadful 
nishi koichi has a new favorite as of 08:43 on Jan 26, 2021 |
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Jan 26, 2021 08:39
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The Lone Wanderer of Vault 13 and Johnny Dildohands: A Love Story
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Jan 26, 2021 08:45
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Screaming Idiot posted:I can recognize the technical skill in covers like that, but they look so bland and emotionless. I can almost hear the bearded guy mutter, "Is he done painting yet? I've been holding this drat pose for twenty minutes and I have to pee." I honestly like the composition and the artistic style a decent amount! But the people's faces just look different varieties of uninterested. nishi koichi posted:this is incredibly depressing to hear, because i’m the patient tutor-type to my friends, and everyone should have that. i sincerely love teaching people. i’m sorry that happened to you Thank you, I appreciate that a huge, huge amount, probably like a weird or unsettling amount. I won't say any more because, you know, trying to get the thread back on track from where I threw it, but thanks.
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Jan 26, 2021 08:49
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The Shannara books are more interesting on a reread once you know it’s all a demonic nuclear post-apocalypse and yes those really are robots and supercomputers and military bases
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Jan 26, 2021 09:16
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Sword of Shannara had an interesting twist where the Sword of Truth beat the bad guy because it just made the villain realize the objective truth that, no, he was genuinely dead but the rest of it was super dull
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Jan 26, 2021 09:34
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All I remember from the one Shananarara book I read (Elfstones?) was a half-elf who can use magic stones for great destruction vs demons, but his human side keeps holding him back. And there's a great big important tree. And demons. As youth fiction goes, there was zero rape or other weirdness that stuck with me, so it probably doesn't belong in here. Also, was this thread always in PYF?
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Jan 26, 2021 10:47
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Always has been, egg oval office.
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Jan 26, 2021 10:50
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RoboRodent posted:Does this count: I needed to know the context for this one. Curiosity is a curse. The Perfect Waters: Odessa. Book 1, by LeeSha McCoy posted:Asia's mother went missing eighteen years ago and since then, Asia has feared the one thing she always dreamt of working with. Well, I guess that answers the question 'What if The Shadow over Innsmouth was erotica?'. Of the blurbs for this author's pioneering work on Goodreads, I think this is the most striking: Babies For My Zombie Kings, by LeeSha McCoy posted:
What if 28 Days Later was erotica? I'm not brave enough to look for samples of this one.
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Jan 26, 2021 12:13
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nishi koichi posted:this is incredibly depressing to hear, because i’m the patient tutor-type to my friends, and everyone should have that. i sincerely love teaching people. i’m sorry that happened to you Unfortunately this isn't a unique experience; a lot of children of boomer parents never got taught any skills as adults went smoothly from 'You're too young, you'll just mess it up' to 'You're old enough that you should already know this'. Narcissists especially are indifferent to or threatened by people learning skills and developing, but love, love berating people for failure.
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Jan 26, 2021 12:13
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Arivia posted:The Shannara books are more interesting on a reread once you know it’s all a demonic nuclear post-apocalypse and yes those really are robots and supercomputers and military bases There's a lot of winking at it even in the first book. Aside from being a giant lord of the rings knock off it's all I remember about that book. I think they all but tell you by the second. I only read the first three, but they had yet to do anything cool with it.
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Jan 26, 2021 12:29
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Yeah the 2nd or 3rd book makes it obvious to the reader though the characters never learn the truth. Brooks' Word & Void trilogy is honestly a decent read. Just don't read the set that turns it into a Shannara prequel. Brooks just is an average writer though. Not sure he belongs in this thread.
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Jan 26, 2021 12:51
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