Fangirl By Night

(Yoinked this from LinkedIn, genuinely interested in seeing how responses align with demographics) (so far it’s those of us over 35 being indignant but I wanna see how those fully plays out) (it’s cultural and technological history/memory, bruh)

i never caught maddie when she was a cover in any of her roles and was delighted to hear i’d have a chance to see her now. she really, really blew me away with some of her acting choices and her vocals are incredible. her eyebrows might as well have been a sixth actor because boy were they working overtime. due to her age and having heard that she’s a very joyous monty, i was worried she might lack the power or authority of other monty’s, but that simply wasn’t the case. the only way i can think to describe how she plays him is incredibly oblivious to just how manipulative he’s being, while also clearly being on the brink of a breakdown as the show goes on. she has the audience absolutely hooked around her finger with every little wink and gesture, while also being very scary in act two during the jean scene and the father scene. the audience was so clearly on edge that not a single person laughed when she made the “father” jokes. she bounces off the rest of the cast extremely well, and her and ahmed really make charles and monty feel like friends and like they’re growing closer throughout the show (until they’re not). she’s very very smiley, but it only serves to make monty more charming and made me believe he truly has no clue that what he’s doing can be downright mean and controlling, it’s just what he’s always done and been expected to do. my god can she dance, and it is glorious. chloe almost broke her after the “what do we have to lose” “the war” part of the pitch, which was brilliant, and chloe DID break her juan during the morgue scene. after juan didn’t get his cake the entire crowd went “awww” which resulted in chloe turning to the audience and mocking the “awww”. maddie proceeded to very clearly giggle to herself so hard that she couldn’t do the juan frown and was instead kinda manically grinning.

some specific acting moments that i jotted down and thought were great:

- maddie!monty doesn’t know his left and rights (turn left at france) he does the L things with his hands before nodding to the left

- her cockney voice is so squeaky that i cried laughing in surprise

- “james james… i think i might be sick”

- she points a LOT, reminds me of alex with ties

- she does a split jump thing in jft

- very trans coded monty right here!! he crosses his hands over his chest a lot, especially post his first failed pitch when he’s talking to charles. maddie!monty might actually be the most trans coded monty i’ve seen live.

- looks jean up and down in the pitch and mouths “wow”

- her acting pre jft is so fucking good

- her scream when spilsbury comes through the blackboard is pure terror

- when maddie!juan has the yellow hat and phone he excitedly compares the two and mouths “amarillo” to himself and it is ADORABLE OH MY GOD

- before calling haselden a genius, monty gives charles a sort of knowing look that solidified for me that maddie!monty is not using genius as a way to manipulate charles. the look she gives him very much reads like “watch what i’m about to say to this dumbass, know you’re different because you are a genius”

- she’s in the air a lot

- she REALLY does not want it to come out that monty is a filmmaker - other monty’s almost seem to be pretending to fight for the files back because they want to show off their brilliance, maddie!monty is terrified of people finding out

like every monty, maddie monty craves the spotlight and the attention, but the way he tries to capture the audience just also feels very much like he's... checking that people are enjoying his jokes? almost approval-seeking... i mean, not at the start of course, at the start he's the epitome of confidence and self-righteousness, but eventually the strain of that constant wide grin starts to show and you start to glimpse the effort he's actually putting in. act as if would usually be the obvious one to talk about here, but just for maddie monty i actually think he's trying the hardest to perform composure and confidence in the pre-JFT scene. it's very different to the surprising amount of vulnerability alex allows monty there, because instead maddie clamours to brush off charlie's worries and keep it light. the mouth full of ice joke comes to mind, which is when i noticed the audience-checking behaviour as something that betrays his hidden lack of confidence. it was like something that earlier seemed to highlight monty's narcissism (i.e. the pleasure he gets in seeing all eyes on him) was now, ironically, exposing the cracks in his self-esteem

Please enjoy this incomprehensibly mechanical photo I took 13 years ago of a 737-400's main gear bay (I stood on the ground up into one of the wheel cutouts to take this, it felt very intimate)

Level 2: Porn with social commentary

Level 3: Porn with troubling philosophical implications

Level 4: Porn with maddening revelations of humanity’s place in the cosmos

Hell, even @ifihadallthewords’ mother doesn’t call me by my real name.

Seriously, people have a very weird idea of what it means to be an adult. I have patients who come to me and tell me they are unhappy with their lives and they don’t understand why, because they have a job, they have a good salary, they can pay their bills, they have a significant other, they’re doing everything right and still they’re unhappy.

And then we start talking and talking and, finally, we reach the real problem: they stopped being themselves.

I have so many patients who stopped doing things they liked - harmless things, fun things - because they felt it was innapropriate for an adult to do them.

Videogames? I’m too old for that.

Comic books? I’m too old for that.

Disney movies? That’s for kids.

Super hero movies/series? I’m an adult, I should act like one.

Going to parks/carnivals? I don’t have kids to do that with.

It’s scary how these people simply gave up on these fun hobbies just because they reached a certain age. And it’s even more scary that they don’t see the problem with this.

Adult life is more than just work, paying bills and marriage. It’s about going out with your friends, it’s about buying silly things that have no purpose but to bring you a little joy, it’s about having fun and living your life to the fullest.

You don’t have to be a boring fuck to be an “acceptable adult”. Fuck society and fuck whoever says you can’t like something because you’re “too old”.

You’re never too old to do the things you like, play the games you want to play and watch the movies/series you want to watch.

Dress up and go to Comic Con. Go to the midnight premiere of your favorite super hero movie. Read the “silly teen books” you want to read. Play that “childish” game you’ve been wanting to play.

Being an adult doesn’t mean you need to forget who you are. Being older doesn’t mean you need to let go of the things you love and enjoy.

Quarantine Man

The Taiwan CDC with a Disinfectant Gun

Hepatitis but a Boy Band

Syphilis with Gender (女) and other Bio Information

Varicella (chicken pox) and Herpes Zoster (shingles) as Children

The Plague, but Hot Lady (also with bio information)

Fuckboy Influenza

Measles, but Hot Guy

Lyme Disease with a Mech????

And, of course, COVID-19 in all their gender neutral glory.

There’s more but I hit the image limit. I’ve got a couple articles about them, too:

Tsutsumagushi Disease

Chikungunya Fever!

MERS

Pertussis (whooping cough) with a horrifying (almost body horror) headpiece and flute

Dengue Fever, the image of which literally made me stop breathing for a moment when I first saw it

Japanese Encephalitis (as... idols, maybe?)

And Zika Virus (so pretty! and for what???)

And some higher res images of the ones from the video (Legionnaires’ Disease, Viral Gastroenteritis, and Rubella). Unfortunately, I could not fit Rabies because of the image limit.