#Hamilton Thoughts for the Day

Over the summer I became obsessed with Hamilton. As, I'm pretty sure, we all did. Coincidentally, friend Amelia and I first listened to the soundtrack together, during our very long road trip to upstate New York and Toronto. I'd, of course, seen their performances at the Grammys, as well as selections from their White House performance.



That said, however, I saved the performance in its entirety for a sit-down, all-attention time. It was kind of delightful--I remember, very specifically, being startled and thrilled when Hercules Mulligan burst into "Yorktown," and scanning through the liner notes while Amelia did the driving, trying to take in all the voices and all the words.

So, over the following few months, I started sharing my #Hamilton pondering of the day on Facebook and Twitter. Amelia pointed out they should be archived somewhere, so I collected them in a Google doc, and now I'm sharing my collection as today's pseudo-review.

• So I have this ritual when I'm driving back home: for the last hour or so, I put a song on repeat and sing along until I lose my voice. Last night, it was "Yorktown" and, long story short, I'm legit considering printing out this pic and framing it.
  
  
• Today's ‪#‎Hamilton‬ pondering: "Talk less, smile more," becomes way more loaded when considered through a POC lens. Nobody likes us angry. The narrative is ALL about how two POCs try to navigate a system that's constantly punishing them.
  
  Like, this WaPo article on #Hamilton looks at it as a "be yourself, be earnest" message, which...yeah. But also. https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../hamilton-and-the-end.../
  
  
• #‎Hamilton‬ thought for the day, after listening to "Satisfied" twice in a row: Alexander never sacrificed a single thing that he wanted. Like, he wasn't HAPPY about being blackmailed, but he could have, y'know, not kept sleeping with Maria. Meanwhile, the Schuyler sisters are engaged in some sort of self-sacrifice triathlon.
  
  I'm digging how rich the text becomes on repeated listens--the first act is structured like a pretty traditional bildungsroman, so the undercurrent (from Angelica, from Washington, from Burr) critiquing Hamilton's arc feels weirdly subversive to me, somehow.
  
  
• I was going to have a serious ‪#‎Hamilton‬ thought for the day, but I've got stuck on how perfectly written and delivered, "I'm a trust fund baby you can trust me," is.
  
  
• And to quote (my favorite culture critic) Sonia Saraiya, in response to this piece: "what i am trying to say is if donald trump wants the soul of America he is going to have to wrest it from us with a rap battle"
  http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/lin-manuel-miranda-and-the-future-of-originalism/485651/
  
  From the article: “The question is then not whether Hamilton does justice to the past by depicting it accurately but whether Hamilton builds justice in the present by reallocating the ownership of the republic.”
  
  
• All kudos forever to Leslie Odom Jr for throwing himself into "there are so many to deflower" with full abandon. #Hamilton
  
  
• #Hamilton Thought of the Day: Maybe for my CWPA talk on the risks and rewards of invisible administrative work, I will just play "Wait for It" two and a half times.
  
  
• This is about feelings and identity and such, but I really must quote the following:
  
  "If it weren’t enough that Miranda wrote enough rhymes to fill a phone book, he gives each of those men their own styles. Hamilton is the ahead-of-his-time genius who drops couplets and quatrains like Eminem or Rakim. Lafayette is all speed and brio, like Twista or Yelawolf. Laurens is a straight-down-the-middle Ad Rock, nimble and able. And Mulligan is what it’d sound like if Busta Rhymes were possessed by the Big Bad Wolf."
  http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-hamilton-soundtrack-20160612-snap-story.html
  
  
• Today's #Hamilton thought: If a stranger introduced himself to me by way of punching one of my friends in the face, I'd be skeptical, too.
  
  
• #Hamilton thought for the day:
  "Dear Alexander, your punctuation indicates you're in love with me. T/F? Also, I'm living with you this summer!"
  Alexander has his flaws, but if I'd been in his place, I'd have noped the heck out of there, too.
  
  
• #Hamilton thought for the day: It's fitting that Alexander finally taking Burr's advice precipitates Burr's heel turn. And the moment is sort of amazing. (Plus the flourish with the tablecloth, seriously. <3)
  [Editorial note: I had a YouTube link on there of a clip from "Room Where It Happens," but the clip has since disappeared.]
  
  
• Phillipa Soo going hoarse on, "You you you," in "Burn" is every negative emotion I've experienced in 4 years condensed into three syllables.
  "and you are paranoid in every paragraph / how they perceive you / you you YOU"
  
  
• #Hamilton thought for the day: "I'm notcha son" in "Meet Me Inside" is, I think, the essence of Alexander in a nutshell.
  
  #Hamilton side note: I'm not sure what I find more amusing from the published lyrics, "notcha" or "chicka-pow!"
  
  
• The ‪#‎Hamilton‬ dual-role cast were SO BRILL at shifting voice/register/breath for diff characters. On 1st listen, I only twigged to Diggs. And that, only because of his super-flat "anarchy" in "My Shot."
  
  
• I’m sure ‪#‎Hamilton‬'s battlefield tactics were good ones, but "let's take their cannons" and "don't make noise" don't seem THAT innovative. Or wait, that was before things like ambushes were a thing, right? I think a Mel Gibson movie taught us that.
  
  
• Just when I think I can't love "The Reynolds Pamphlet" more, I find out King George makes an appearance. ‪#‎Hamilton‬
  
  
  
  
  
• #Hamilton Thought of the Day: Can you imagine the sheer exasperation Martha Washington has when talking to George about Alexander?
  
  
• Hey, Alexander #Hamilton, you know what you should avoid when accused of ruining someone's life? Making an ITEMIZED LIST of all your clashes.
  
  
• Another #Hamilton lyric that becomes chilling when viewed through a POC lens: "Fools who run their mouths off wind up dead."
  
  
• This is neat! Aside from the prop change, I wonder what drove the staging changes. Probably an awareness of where the cameras at the Tony's, right? They had to navigate a packed theatre, whereas the version on the left probably didn't. And it looks like have more of the chorus at the Tony's, too. https://youtu.be/Aks0kaC1n6k
• So, unsurprisingly, I'll be talking about ‪#‎Hamilton‬ at my CWPA presentation on invisible administrative work, but now I'm thinking "The Election of 1800" is a way better fit than "Wait for It," though obvs "The Room Where It Happens" is the central point.
  
  
• #Hamilton thought: Why don't we talk more about how attractive Anthony Ramos is? Just LOOK at this kid. Seriously.
  
  
  
  He's like a John Singer Sargent painting, walking around in real life.
  
  
• #Hamilton's letter, translated: "I trust you'll pick up my subtle allusion to great works of literature. Did I mention everybody thinks I'm Macbeth?"
  Meanwhile, Angelica's dropping "Screw your courage to the sticking place" like a BOSS.
  
  
• I mean, yeah, #Hamilton’s green satin broadcoat is ridic, but Jefferson, seriously, you’ve been wearing a purple crushed velvet suit.
  
  
  
  
  
• In brighter news, I'm starting to realize how enormously helpful it is to have #Hamilton as a cultural shorthand.
  "Excuse me, you just cut into the waiting line."
  "Sorry, I was listening to #Hamilton."
  "Oh, gotcha. Yorktown?"
  "Yup."
  
  "Hey, can you check the report for-- are you crying?"
  "Yeah, sorry, #Hamilton."
  "I'll come back later."
  
  "Dude, are you actually going to ask for her number?"
  "I've been listening to a lot of #Hamilton lately."
  "Sweet. Good luck!"
  
  "Did you just set that stack of dissertation drafts on fire?"
  "Yup."
  "That's so #Hamilton! Rock on.”
  
  "You probably shouldn't post that thing about your supervisor on Facebook."
  "It's how I feel!"
  "Stop being such a #Hamilton!"
  
  
• I could do cardio twice-daily for six months and STILL not have the lung capacity Philippa Soo has in "That Would Be Enough." #Hamilton
  
  
• The bass drop on Eliza's "and my heart went boom" is possibly the most adorable bass drop ever. #Hamilton
  
  
• Live every day like you're Hercules Mulligan.
  
  
• #Hamilton nigh-bursts with impassioned characters, but Laurens's "You and I, do or die" remains the most seductive line in the whole play.
  
  
• I dearly wish "Ten One Things" had made the cut. | Cut Songs from #Hamilton https://youtu.be/ScKU4Hd8YJ4
  
  
• #Hamilton thought of the day: How many times d'you think Lin-Manuel Miranda broke in the middle of rehearsals for this bit?
  
  
  
  
  
• "The Constitution's a mess." "So it needs amendments." "It's full of contradictions!" "So is independence." But, uh, seriously, can somebody get on this? http://www.complex.com/life/2016/10/affirmative-right-vote-fair-constitution

And that's six months of Hamilton thoughts! Looking forward to my next six months of obsession.

Fiction I Have Loved #1: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Warning: Many, many GIFs ahoy, because I started looking for just a couple for illustration, and then ended up with fifty open tabs. So, consider yourself lucky I restrained myself with a mere ten (well, eleven), I guess.

Anyway, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my very second fandom, but the first one where I went onto the internet because I desperately wanted to hear what other people thought. (X-Men was my first fandom, but at that point the internet wasn't quite ascendant--I had to download text-file fanfiction via FTP through AOL, if that tells you anything about my creaky age.) I remember seeing commercials for it on The WB, and it was all monster-fighting. I, who have long opposed being terrified, thought it looked either too hokey or too scary, so I didn't watch it. I think I caught a glimpse of the one with the puppet, but honestly, I'm not too sure about the timeline. What hooked me, though, I remain very clear about: I watched the episode "Angel," probably when it was rerun, and discovered the kinda boringly handsome guy was actually a vampire. And that was interesting.



I'll save my chatter about Angel, just in case I end up doing a post about Angel the series, but I will say that the quirky silliness of the main cast won me over pretty quickly. Buffy was struggling to have a regular high school life, even though it was never meant to be. Willow and Xander were adorable and never quite fit in. Giles was bookish and constantly exasperated. And they sort of got thrown together, and then they were family. Then they fit. These were characters that seemed to emerge from pieces of my soul.




The best season, I think, was season three, when we had Faith's arc. Faith, who was nothing like me and exactly like me, because being a teenager is complicated. But she didn't give a damn what anybody else thought of her, except maybe, every once in a while, someone would show a flash of thoughtless (or, incredibly intentional) affection, and then she was theirs, forever. I love Faith.



In the same vein were Cordelia and Anya: blunt, confident, and beautifully enclosed. As I've mentioned before, Joss's brand of feminism has its flaws, but the range and unapologetic importance of the women in this universe is amazing. Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, Faith, Anya, Tara, Dawn. Joyce, Jenny Calendar, Kendra. Harmony, Maggie Walsh, Amy, Kennedy. Drusilla, Darla, Glory.





I love the fluidity of the show, the way it could address everyday horrors realistically, even in dreams and metaphors. "Restless" remains my favorite episode, even though it's different from pretty much every other episode of the show.



I love how it played with history, flipping characters from hero to villain, from sidekick to goddess, from unrepentant sociopath to...more enlightened sociopath?



Okay, possibly "Restless" is tied with "Fool for Love" in my heart. Spike is awful and selfish and sharply poetic (even though his poetry was not). I remember being heavily invested in relationships (ah, ships), but never in an X versus Y situation. They were just fun ways to explore and reveal. (As, hopefully, anybody who has read my fanfiction saw as evident.)



Buffy (and its subsequent sprawl of Angel and the comics) was the first and only time I was really consumed by a single magnificent text. I love quips and banter, and I love sprawling mythology, and I love getting teary when I watch TV because everything has weight, and everything matters. Also, while Joss Whedon has certainly evolved as a storyteller, he's constant in a lot of ways, and I love most of them.





Heh.

Handy GIFs I have bookmarked, at the ready.

ACT LIKE THIS IS COMPLETELY NORMAL. [Jane the Virgin]


CAKE DROP. [New Girl]


My emotions. MY EMOTIONS. [Community]


feeeeeeeels [Spirited Away]


*FLAIL* [The Muppet Show]


COME AT ME BRO


Don't even start with me. [Iron Man 2]


UGH. [The Good Wife]


Cannot. Even. [Guardians of the Galaxy]


Look, you did this to yourself. [Fresh Off the Boat]

What Time Is It?

Adventure Time is a thing that's been lingering at the edge of my pop culture awareness for a long time. Like, I've known it's supposed to be weird and cool, and that some dudes named Finn and Jake are involved. That's about it? And then last August, I went to Gen Con, and my friends Adam and Emily, cosplayers extraordinaire, dressed up as Finn and Fiona. I had no idea who those people were, but Emily and Adam had bunny ears and blue shirts and cardboard swords, so cool. (Emily tried to convince me to dress up as some vampire chick. I declined. More on that later.) And, as we walked around the convention, we watched dozens of tiny children freak the frak out. Like, grabbing onto their parents' hands and screeching like Adam and Emily were One Direction, or whatever the kids are into these days.

Then, for Christmas, my niece gave me Righteous Rules for Being Awesome. I still haven't read it? (Sorry.) But it sits proudly on my office shelf. It wasn't until this past March, however, that I hung out in my living room back in California, turned on Cartoon Network for my niece, and experienced this:


Reader, I fell in love.

And, when C2E2 rolled around, Emily and Adam once again suggested I dress up as Marceline, the Vampire Queen. And I committed. In the past two weeks, I have watched the first season of Adventure Time. I mean, each episode is about twelve minutes long, so two weeks is actually abominably slow, watching-wise. But, I was busy? In any case, Adventure Time is really weird, y'all. I know I am supposed to love it, because this is the kind of thing I love, but it is so weird. I started keeping, I don't know, a logline of my reactions and, obvs, posting them to Facebook. Mostly I wanted to point out how absurd and hilarious I found the show, because how is this a children's show? What is going on? In any case, for your amusement, Patti reacts to the first season of Adventure Time. I guess this could be considered chock-full of SPOILERS, but in the same way that episode descriptions could be considered so. Numbering is based on the order episodes are in Netflix.

• S1E01: "Slumber Party Panic"
  I am watching the first episode of Adventure Time. This show is about zombies!
• S1E02: "Trouble in Lumpy Space"
  Second episode: less face-eating, more confusion
• S1E03: "Prisoners of Love"
  I think this episode is either about marriage or human trafficking.
• S1E04: "Tree Trunks"
  I believe this tiny elephant is going to murder somebody.
• S1E05: "The Enchiridion!"
  SO MUCH MURDER
• S1E06: "The Jiggler"
  Finn and Jake kidnap a baby to make it dance for their amusement, and then it explodes.
• S1E07: "Ricardio the Heart Guy"
  Princess Bubblegum is surrounded by skeeves.
• S1E08: "Business Time"
  Finn and Jake have mixed feelings about a labor-based economy.
• S1E09: "My Two Favorite People"
  I would watch the crap out of a Bubblegum and Rainicorn show.
• S1E10: "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain"
  Everybody talks about poop, and Finn encourages animal abuse.
• S1E11: "Wizard"
  Jake tells us it's okay to judge people based on their level of attractiveness, and we find out the secret behind Hypnotoad's powers.
• S1E12: "Evicted!"
  Marceline, Vampire Queen arrives, and my heart grows three sizes.
• S1E13: "City of Thieves"
  Finn ascribes to Kantian ethics and is kind of annoying about it.
• S1E14: "The Witch's Garden"
  Jake disrespects the yonic and subsequently suffers.
• S1E15: "What Is Life?"
  Worship is a hazardous proposition.
• S1E16: "Ocean of Fear"
  Finn's issues with the womb manifest in entirely unsurprising ways.
• S1E17: "When Wedding Bells Thaw"
  Give a lonely man some power, and he'll use it to force people to hang out with him.
• S1E18: "Freak City"
  "Don't give your sugar to jerks." Trufax.
• S1E19: "Henchman"
  Marceline, Vampire Queen returns, and I am too busy mentally writing fanfiction to maintain my cynical detachment.
• S1E20: "Dungeon"
  I was really, really hoping the dungeon cat would eat Finn's eyeballs. I hate that kid.
• S1E21: "The Duke"
  So...so we've established that Bubblegum is actually a megalomaniacal necromancer, right?
• S1E22: "Donny"
  Finn battles the spirit of inquiry by encouraging douchebaggery.
• S1E23: "Rainy Day Daydream"
  That knifestorm was the prettiest thing this show has ever done.
• S1E24: "What Have You Done?"
  The Candy Kingdom officially approves of torture.
• S1E25: "His Hero"
  Finn tries diplomacy and civic engagement and finds them wanting.
• S1E26: "Gut Grinder"
  There is a lot of racial segregation in this show.

Huh. It turns out I would love this show if there wasn't any Finn in it. Or, I am disturbed that Finn might be taken as some sort of "this is what boys should be like." The rest of it is fun and horrifying, which is much of what I want from entertainment. Plus, there is Marceline, Vampire Queen OF MY HEART.

Sorting the Sorted

Long, long ago, I attempted some Harry Potter meta that was only slightly successful, but what with the movie and all, I did want to reiterate one part of that interpretation in which I feel fairly confident:

• Gryffindor = Immediate
• Slytherin = Deliberate
• Hufflepuff = Practical
• Ravenclaw = Theoretical

Our major players, Gryffindor and Slytherin, are perceived through action and the ways they go about those actions. Our supporting players, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, are assessed according to their function. I don't think any of the four values I've assigned have intrinsic bad/good associations, but I suppose it all depends on your context.

Of Fashion and Fandom

So the other day, as I was taking my pre-dawn walk to work, I pondered my sad lack of a scarf to properly match my Jayne Cobb hat. Then I thought, hey, maybe I could get a Gryffindor scarf, since the colors are relatively compatible. And then I thought how absolutely wrong that would be, because Jayne Cobb might be many things, but he is definitely not Gryffindor. And then I wished the person who made the original Jayne Cobb hat had taken that into consideration, and then I realized I was possibly completely crazy. (Yes, I have a Slytherin scarf.)