irrational as pi: December 2022

I've been catching up on some musicals recently (some bootlegged, some legitimate highlight clips on Youtube), and it's been really entertaining! This realization had popped up not too long ago when I watched a dance choreography showcase at school hosted by the Theater and Performing Arts department, but once again, I was put in awe at the beauty, coordination, and creativity that the human form can achieve. Some musicals I watched included:

Hadestown (in its entirety, I especially loved Amber Gray and the number "Way Down Hadestown", and bits of her dancing reminded me of the Wednesday Addams dance in the recent Netflix adaptation (though of course, Hadestown came first))
clips from Mamma Mia (before we left for winter break, my normally very quiet apartment-mate was blasting the soundtrack from her room and it was fun to sing it with her)
A Very Potter Musical (*chefs kiss*, I've weirdly listened to entire podcast episodes featuring the StarKid Productions actors without actually watching AVPM, but it was lovely and definitely should replace Cursed Child in canon. Also I never made the connection between Darren Criss -> Glee -> AVPM and it was very enlightening).
"Cell Block Tango" from Chicago (many, many renditions and all are fantastic with their quirks. I especially enjoyed the Miscast Killer Kids 2016 and Broadway Backwards 2015 renditions.)

It was only a few years ago when I learned that Mamma Mia was a jukebox musical, and it got me wondering if someone could write a lofi jukebox musical of Keshi, Joji, khai dreams, etc. But the crisp articulation of musical theater might not blend well with dreamy and half-mumbled bedroom pop? Hm.

~~~~

Below is a "Library Wrapped" of books that I read from the library, and other titles that I borrowed from friends. I might be missing a few titles, but that's alright :)

How Not to Fall in Love (Jacqueline Firkins): enjoyable, light read! I usually will pick up a YA or romance book to ease my brain into reading before trying to parse more dense texts. (This is coded language for: I like reading YA and romance).
Gallant (Victoria Schwab)
The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green): saw this in a bookshop in Vermont, read an essay on Green's experience as a chaplain, and checked out the book later from the library
The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah): read this while camping
A Far Wilder Magic (Allison Saft)
Love in the Big City (Sang Young Park): cigarettes, blueberries, friendship
A Darker Shade of Magic (Victoria Schwab): reread
A Gathering of Shadows (Victoria Schwab): reread
People We Meet on Vacation (Emily Henry)
A Conjuring of Light (Victoria Schwab): reread
Nothing Personal (James Baldwin)
Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
Circe (Madeline Miller)
The Midnight Library (Matt Haig)
The Year of Magical Thinking (Joan Didion)
The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart (Chesil)
Once Upon A Broken Heart (Stephanie Garber)
The Upside of Unrequited (Becky Abertalli)
The Wedding Party (Liu Xinwu)
The Kidney Hypothetical, Or, How to Ruin your Life in Seven Days (Lisa Yee)
All My Rage (Sabaa Tahir): I think I cried, recommend!
Almond (Sohn Won-pyung): reread
The Mirror Visitor Series (Christelle Dabos): my fantastical reread series that has replaced Potter since donating the box set rip
The Ballad of Never After (Stephanie Garber)
Babel - Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (R.F. Kuang): thoroughly enjoyed, has footnotes, maps, academia, and low fantasy
Magpie Murders (Anthony Horowitz)
Faker (Sarah Smith)
Mother-daughter Book Camp (Heather Vogel Frederick): nostalgic reread
How Not to Kill Yourself (Set Styes)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin): game dev + love!!!
Everything I Know About Love (Dolly Alderton)
Faust (Goethe)
God Is Not Great (Christopher Hitchens)
S (J.J. Abrams)
Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
Lost And Found (Orson Scott Card)
Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir): enjoyed!!! robots :D
On The Road (Jack Kerouac)
My Mechanical Romance (Alexene Farol Follmuth): research purposes if I want to write YA romance about a high school robotics team?
How Not to be Afraid of Everything (Jane Wong)
Gender Queer (Maia Kobabe)