#somethingaboutsewing

oh hey! yes! la jolla lempicka had different costume and wig designers, and though the set designer was the same, the space was more open, no secondary level, a turn table, the band under the stage with open sections for the md to be seen, and a travel at the front of the stage. here's the original pic:

5. What genre did you read the most of?

Already answered, but to save you looking for it, probably fantasy.

10. What was your favorite new release of the year?

Three people asked me this one, so you're each getting a different answer.

You get Death in the Spires. I read this in less than a day back in April when I should have been revising for an exam. I saw a post on here where someone said it's not often that as a murder mystery progresses you become more glad the victim is dead, but yeah, that's completely true. It's not just a murder mystery, though. KJ Charles said "oh, this one's not a romance" and then proceeded to write one of the more beautiful yearning-filled romances I've read.

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

m, my darling! i very much appreciate this line of inquiry!

the best thing(s) i've -

watched: a. 'barbie' finally broke whatever mental barrier precluded me from watching 'ugly betty' a decade and more ago. i mainlined the shit out of that delight and adored every single second! the ending?!?! i was broken! | b. 'theater camp'! while my once rampant affinity for ben platt has largely evaporated, this movie - and his personage in it - is terrific! was my favorite detail rebecca-diane's side-hustle as a medium? and glenn freaking log-rolling down a hill to reach his destination three seconds faster? OBVIOUSLYYY.

read: alix e. harrow's ' the once and future witches'! truth be told, i finished this at least two months ago. however, i still think of the narrative ridiculously often and love all of the protagonists like family!

2. Did you reread anything? What?

i reread a bunch of books because my brain stopped working around june or so:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (duh) (in prep for The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo)

The Hours by Michael Cunningham (in prep for the concert version of The Hours opera!)

How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Normal People by Sally Rooney (for the fourth time, I think -- it hits every single time)

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor floored me. i think all the time about how quickly and clearly he can establish character and imply routines and relationships the reader hasn't seen. and i love that he was committed to his characters being cold and closed-off and sometimes mean. they felt so real and vivid even if i only spent 30 pages with some of them.

22. What’s the longest book you read?

this is kind of cheating because i read the majority of it in 2021 and only finished it this year, but the longest book i read was Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark, which is 937 pages long. it's a beautiful and exhaustive biography that wasn't afraid to dig into the colder, meaner side of plath, which i loved.

the longest book i read that i started and finished this year was Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, which is 453 pages long.

thanks for asking!!

SUCH GREAT CHOICES MY FRIEND WHO BETA'D ALL THREE.

Woah, you are not playing! Mmmmmay, here we GO.

Top three Christmas songs (a list that would change if you asked me in five minutes, but see me here trying!):

Carly Simon, ‘The Night Before Christmas’

Vienna Teng, ‘The Atheist Christmas Carol’

(totally cheating tie) Emmylou Harris, ‘Light of the Stable’ / Elvis Presley, ‘The Wonderful World of Christmas’

Top three tv episodes (acknowledging that this is actually impossible and again the list would probably change if you asked me in five minutes):

BSG, ‘The Hub’ – I am nothing if not the world’s most hopeless shipper, and this episode was one of the greatest shipping payoffs I’ve ever had the joy of experiencing in my lifetime. The entire sequence where Bill steps out of the raptor to find Laura waiting for him owns a ridiculously large piece of my soul. I waited four seasons for her to be ready to accept his love, and that wait was worth every second to get this scene. Every look, every touch, every tiny little sobbing gasp – I have them all fucking memorized. And only Adama could respond to the love of his life’s very first “I love you” with “About time.” Iconic.

China Beach, ‘Hello Goodbye’ – I wonder if anyone who follows me even has a clue what I’m talking about here, but anyway I was a very weird teenager and this was one of my two favorite shows. I can’t really explain why it’s on my favorite episode list, save that clearly I love pain. By the time I was ¾ of the way through this ep (the first time I watched it), I was using commercial breaks to curl in a ball on the floor of my downstairs bathroom, sobbing so violently that I couldn’t really breathe. So few shows end with what feels like a satisfying emotional payoff for the viewer. This one covered pretty much every last base, and not even in some sappy, cliche, unearned way. Everything wasn’t fine, not by a long shot. But these people who had shared an experience that no one else would ever be able to understand had gotten together to help each other exorcise a few of their demons. And I got to be there for it.

TWD, ‘No Sanctuary’ – My relationship with this show is so complex now, but there will probably never be a more perfect episode starring the love of my fictional life, Carol Peletier. To see this character I’d loved since the second she appeared onscreen pull herself together after the horror of ‘The Grove’ and save the entire goddamn group … I just can’t words. And no matter how I feel about a lot of things, the pure joy on her face when Daryl hugs her at the end is something I will always hold so tightly that nobody could pry it away from me if they tried.

Top three books I’ve read with my kids:

Sam McBratney, Guess How Much I Love You. I don’t know how to tell my kids in words how much I love them, but this book was a good attempt.

J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter series. Yep, I know it’s eight books but I’m a cheating cheater who cheats. My kids aren’t the generation who grew up waiting for the latest HP book, but omg, I’ve been through the entire series with both of them at least twice (and with S three times), and it’s just part of our family culture. 

Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time. Lmao, neither of them love this book as much as I do, but since the book is kind of a statement of how I view the world, it’s something I cherish sharing with them. 

OMG THOSE WERE SO MUCH FUN TO ASNWER. Thank you for the awesome questions!!!

‘seven years to plan a damn party?’ mia laughs bitterly, undoing her hair and holding her small pin in perfect alignment with the right lung of the nearest council member beating a speedy retreat, just for a second. ‘please. they’re seizing the opportunity to - ever-so-politely, of course; never with malicious intent, your highness - hammer home how much i’ve aged. bastards.’

nicholas finds her terrifyingly gorgeous and, as he has at some point during every day of their union, fervently thanks whichever part of the universe helped him see whose side he would always fight on.