CONTORTED PASTA

Well, it was something to see Assassins (surpassing expectations; that's saying something) and then a few days later, news of the latest mass-murder in an American school. Those who know me in person have probably had their ear talked off about how insightful the musical is to the rot in the American dream, and how the phenomenon has shifted from targeting the president to targeting innocents, as the cultural status of the president falls and his security detail rises – but it's a manifestation of the same twist in the national subconscious. Nine years before Columbine, Sondheim nailed it, and anyone questioning where this all comes from need only listen to this show, as it's all laid out quite plainly. (And it's fun.)

( Gun Song )

Then, yesterday morning, was a fascinating programme about human history, the Enlightenment, fascism, and neuroscience – Steven Pinker is the darling of public radio thinkpieces, but here I heard him directly challenged for the first time by someone who knows what he's talking about and thinks Pinker is a Pollyanna. Inevitably, the election of Trump is often the crux of the conversation, but neo-fascist movements in Europe also get a look-in. They then get onto the power of storytelling and the neuroscience of persuasion, and psyched me right up to keep working on my book, as The Power of Story is a lot of what's behind my willingness to pour so much of my life into it. I doubt that a proper retelling of the story will change the world, but if it can change a few people as it has changed me, it will be worth it. No guns required.

BRB gonna start a revolution –


I wonder sometimes why I hang on to all that costume stuff, but then someone says 'I'm doing a Les Mis spoof thing!' and I leap up and say 'I have things for that!!'

You're out of luck for the swingin' 60s, though, so don't ask.

Film Crit Hulk, who brought us such classics as Hero's Journey is Crap and Five Act Structure Is Ace has turned his gamma radiation-enhanced film criticism powers on Les Miserables.

BUT BECAUSE OF THE CINEMATOGRAPHY FLAWS, YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CONNECT TO IT AS WELL AS YOU SHOULD. IT IS CONSTANTLY TRYING TO PUSH YOU AWAY FROM ALL THE THINGS THAT IT DOES WELL.

AND THAT IS TRULY HEARTBREAKING.

BECAUSE EVERYONE DESERVES A GREAT LES MIS.

Couldn't have come close to saying it as well as that, Film Crit Hulk!

You can find the whole long but very interesting article here, complete with all-caps and occasional cursing, but dangit, this is important.

Aside from pointing out specifically where Les Mis went wrong, this article is a really good primer for people who don't know much/anything about cinematography, and why it's so important to a film, why its weakness in this department made Les Mis a weaker film than it should have been by all other counts, and why film people get so huffy about this sort of thing come awards season. Someday I'm going to put together a post with screencaps and drawings that lays out what I thought was wrong with the cinematography, but Film Crit Hulk is vastly more informed on the subject, and this article is definitely prerequisite reading.


Yeah okay I like drawing Tom Hooper.

(A thousand thanks to Stephani for pointing me at this link!)

There was no waiting in the Noodle household: we saw Les Miserables yesterday afternoon.

As usual, my 'review' is going to make it sound like I didn't like it. I actually liked about 90% of it; the problem was that the other 10% made the 90% really hard to watch.

So, for the record, here is a list of things I love about Tom Hooper's Les Mis:

- The new orchestrations – OMG the new orchestrations – I love them and want to re-record the orchestra retroactively on my London Cast album, like, right now.
- Production design in general
- The vast majority of the acting
- The vast majority of the casting
- The location design around the ABC Café
- The lyrics changes and additions (and I don't like change usually, especially in something so close to my heart), especially ones that brought in more historical perspective and/or moments from the book.* The new verse in Gavroche's solo renders my historical costume post more or less irrelevant! Thanks, Gavroche!
- I actually liked the new song, which was a big surprise because I never like the new songs they put in old musicals. I thought it came at a good moment in the story and did a useful job of adding a dimension to Valjean's character arc, giving us a moment to let things gel before diving into a new pool, and wasn't bad musically either.
- The slight modifications to the timeline in the first half of the movie
- Foreshadowing
- Little things subtly but deliberately placed within the frame which reflect or comment upon the scene
*I have not read the book (I know, I know) but I have picked up information from various adaptations and conversation with people who have read it, so I can fake having read it well enough to recognise things from the source material.

With the exception of some of the timeline changes in the latter half of the movie, there was really only one thing I had a problem with. I am aware, though, that it might be something most people won't notice; I'm going to rant about it under a cut so that I don't plant awareness of it in your mind and ruin what might be a perfectly rewarding cinematic experience. So, no spoilers in the traditional sense of the word, but nevertheless, spoilers ahead:

( Sometimes, it's all about the presentation. )

So there you go, internet, you can stop asking me if I've seen Les Mis now. :) It's definitely worth seeing, my own misgivings aside ... but you can probably expect some expansion upon what I've said above in the coming days as I process it and/or find illustrative screencaps.

Red Barn.01 02 by David Melville 2
Love by David Melville 2

We interrupt our regular programming of idealistic men dying needlessly in pursuit of their goals to bring you ... um ... idealistic men dying needlessly in pursuit of their goals in slightly more archaic costumes!

I've been working a lot this week. (A lot.) The coincidence of that with there being a thing on the radio that I quite like, and a number of meetings in which I do mostly listening, means that it spills into my sketchbook somewhat.

I feel a bit like I got a box for my birthday once that was beautiful in itself and filled with lovely and interesting things, the delights of which I have enjoyed thoroughly for many years in many different ways, but only just now I've found a little sub-compartment that I've overlooked and it turns out to be crammed with awesome.

And that awesome is named Combeferre.

( Doodle doodle doodle, and a tomato )

THIS JUST IN: a thoroughly decent clip from Re-Animator: The Musical!

Better than coffee! (If you don't mind starting your day with plagiarism, a nice beheading, and some reagent...)

THANKS octaveleap!

Dreams are not enough to win a war,
Out here they're always keeping score;
Beneath the tan, the battle rages.
Smile a rented smile, fill someone's glass,
Kiss someone's wife, kiss someone's ass,
We do whatever pays the wages.

Sunset Boulevard, headline boulevard,
Getting here is only the beginning –
Sunset Boulevard, jackpot boulevard,
Once you've won, you have to go on winning.


Sunset Boulevard has just run at the regional theatre in my parents' town, which inspired me to dig up the soundtrack again and give it a listen (or three). It's one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's more overlooked musicals, and to be fair it doesn't have the memorable and diverse tunes of his earlier stuff, but it makes exemplary use of leitmotif and my obsession with it a few years ago taught me most of what I know about story construction.

I appreciated it before, but there are some aspects of it that are so much more resonant when you've seen the L.A. entertainment industry from the inside ...

I wonder if I should dig up the storyboard I half-thumbnailed for the last scene between Joe and Betty ... hmm.

Last Friday's Front Row had a segment on a revival of Aspects of Love and one on the photographer for Shackleton's famous and aptly-named Endurance expedition.

I am not ashamed to be a fan of musicals, yea, even of Andrew Lloyd Webber. I've probably memorized every note of Phantom, Joseph, and Jesus Christ Superstar, and learned an awful lot about story structure, character, and the cathartic arc from the years I was obsessed with Sunset Boulevard. ( Aspects of Love, though ... )

Now obviously I am much more into Scott than Shackleton (or, rather, the Terra Nova than the Endurance, as the actual leaders of each expedition are not what hold my interest) ( but ... )

... And to round it all off the final segment is on 'mockbusters,' with emphasis on Megapiranha. Oh, Front Row, you are so well-rounded.

It was a tradition in the household in which I lived during most of my time in Canada that we'd come home from church and put on some loud choral music we could sing along with while we made brunch. Sometimes it was Carmina Burana, sometimes Mozart's Requiem, but during Lent, especially towards Holy Week, more often than not it was Jesus Christ Superstar. I realized last week how much I missed that, so on my way home from church I stopped in the CD store and found a copy – it wasn't the original cast, in fact I couldn't find a mention of the production or cast on it anywhere, but I got it anyway because it was the only complete recording they had, and might as well expand my horizons a little. ( Differences ...  )

Has anyone else noticed that an inordinate number of Webber's musicals are about the ramifications of fame?

Anyway, it's been a long time since I listened to it, and it got me thinking again about how controversial it is in some circles. I'm not surprised, because I know people will get offended at anything, but ... see, my mom spent all of maybe five minutes explaining the premise to me when I was a child, and even though I've never seen a performance and I don't recall ever hearing the whole musical before college, just that explanation had a profound effect on my perception of the Passion. Even now it's still my favourite dramatic interpretation of it, and the focus on the power of the fickle mob probably predisposed me to René Girard's mind-bending theories. I started to write a point-by-point list guessing at what people might find offensive and then explaining why they're full of crap, but it started to get really long so I stopped ... might post it someday if anyone's interested but I don't have the time right now to finish it or to join the conversation it might start. Instead I decided to offend more people by illustrating a mondegreen! ( Left-Handed Blasphemy )