a life that's so carefree
Nov. 12th, 2012 01:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arishaSo near the end of October I had a pretty awesome fangirl weekend in Tokyo that started with a French performance of Gérard Presgurvic's musical Roméo et Juliette. I kind of suspect that none of you are interested in hearing very much about it, but as someone who has been listening to the soundtrack on a regular basis for nine years now I was pretty stoked, and I am even more stoked to say that it lived up to my impossible expectations. <3 Although omg this production ships Romeo and Juliet WAY WAY WAAAAAAY HARDER than I do. xD Also, one of the strangest moments of my life happened during the encores, where suddenly I found myself standing in a packed theatre on the eleventh floor of a Shibuya department store while the French cast instructed us how to clap along to "Vérone" and the guy who played the prince shouted "Ogenki desu ka???" xD
Also, I was really impressed with how well the friendship between Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio was portrayed - they've obviously been really super close, but even before people start dying you can see them kind of falling apart and it's sad! I also really enjoyed how this musical makes it clear that Verona would be a nightmare to live in ... when it remembers to do so. During "La Haine," there were a bunch of ~tableaux~ of Capulets and Montagues acting really violently towards each other, and even Benvolio was beating people up!! I wish the rest of the musical had followed through on this a bit more, but I guess you can only spend so much time on background characters punching each other before you start to lose your plot. :P
Uhhhh anyway. When I got off the train to go to the musical, Shibuya Station was plastered with posters advertising a museum exhibit of Michael Jackson music video and concert outfits that I have no idea how I didn't hear about before!! It was in (or very close to? I was confused) the Skytree, which took forever to get to but was totally worth it. For whatever reason this was seriously the most mindblowing museum exhibit I've ever been to. Which seems weird to me because I've been to some pretty cool museum exhibits! Earlier this year I went to one that had a bunch of Walt Disney's personal belongings, but even that didn't blow my mind half as much as this one did. I mean, the entire time I was just like
OH MY GOD
IT'S THE PANTS WITH THE BUCKLES ALL DOWN THE LEGS
THEY REALLY DO EXIST
If any of you care, my most favourite corner of the exhibit can be seen at 0:36 in this video. The "Dirty Diana" outfit, the Bad tour shirt and the "Captain EO" shirt all in a row alkdhglskea;ghsldhalekhlqiehglieglscihlsghsld!!!!!!
Seriously a keyboard smash is all I even have to say about that. This was one of the less crowded parts of the exhibit which is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of how it should have been because the things these outfits are from are three of the best things everrrrrrrrrrrrr
Also there were totally people walking around with "Captain EO" pins on their bags and there were totally kids who were all dressed up, it was so awesome. <3 My favourite was the little girl who was wearing an "EO" shirt and an adorable pink fedora, but there was also a boy in full "Thriller" gear who was listening very intently to the audio guide. Oh and by the way I totally went on a Monday morning. PULLING YOUR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL TO ENJOY A MORNING OF RHINESTONES AND SUNGLASSES AND RIDICULOUS BELTS AND DECORATIVE BUCKLES?? Even as a teacher I TOTALLY APPROVE.
Another piece that was going pretty much ignored was a pair of shoes with the bottoms cut in such a way that they could be used for practicing the "Smooth Criminal" lean. I was just like UM HELLO PEOPLE THESE ARE GRAVITY-DEFYING SHOES
STOP LOOKING AT THE SPARKLY GLOVES AND GET OVER HERE
So in conclusion I am seriously glad I happened to be in Tokyo when this exhibit was on and I am even more glad that I saw the poster for it!! Today was its final day; apparently all or most of the pieces are going to be auctioned off, but I do hope they find their way back into museums in the future, and I don't even think I'm being a crazy fangirl when I say that.
In related news, the Kanken was yesterday morning and to celebrate having finished 6kyuu I finally watched the new Bad tour DVD!!! As they admit in the accompanying booklet, the picture quality is pretty much VHS quality, and while I do hope that one day we'll get a higher quality release, the concert itself is of course amazing and I am beyond glad that we now have an official release of a "Dirty Diana" performance. I think my number one favourite part of this concert though is the part near the end where the back-up singers and musicians each get their own moment; starting around 6:21 in this video is seriously way more adorableness than should have been allowed in a concert named Bad. xD Even the guy mysteriously hanging out behind the drummer seems to be having a good time!!!
ABRUPT ENDING TO THIS ENTRY JUST BECAUSE
Edit a day later because I totally forgot about this conversation with one of my ninth graders that came completely out of nowhere:
Student: "Is Paris Hilton Michael Jackson's daughter?"
Sarah: "Nope, Paris Jackson is. They have the same first name but different last names."
Student: "Phew!! I just heard something about Michael Jackson's daughter Paris on the news and I was like whaaaaaaaat"
hahaha awesome.
Also man I need to get my TV fixed so I can watch the news too. :P
Also, I was really impressed with how well the friendship between Romeo, Benvolio and Mercutio was portrayed - they've obviously been really super close, but even before people start dying you can see them kind of falling apart and it's sad! I also really enjoyed how this musical makes it clear that Verona would be a nightmare to live in ... when it remembers to do so. During "La Haine," there were a bunch of ~tableaux~ of Capulets and Montagues acting really violently towards each other, and even Benvolio was beating people up!! I wish the rest of the musical had followed through on this a bit more, but I guess you can only spend so much time on background characters punching each other before you start to lose your plot. :P
Uhhhh anyway. When I got off the train to go to the musical, Shibuya Station was plastered with posters advertising a museum exhibit of Michael Jackson music video and concert outfits that I have no idea how I didn't hear about before!! It was in (or very close to? I was confused) the Skytree, which took forever to get to but was totally worth it. For whatever reason this was seriously the most mindblowing museum exhibit I've ever been to. Which seems weird to me because I've been to some pretty cool museum exhibits! Earlier this year I went to one that had a bunch of Walt Disney's personal belongings, but even that didn't blow my mind half as much as this one did. I mean, the entire time I was just like
OH MY GOD
IT'S THE PANTS WITH THE BUCKLES ALL DOWN THE LEGS
THEY REALLY DO EXIST
If any of you care, my most favourite corner of the exhibit can be seen at 0:36 in this video. The "Dirty Diana" outfit, the Bad tour shirt and the "Captain EO" shirt all in a row alkdhglskea;ghsldhalekhlqiehglieglscihlsghsld!!!!!!
Seriously a keyboard smash is all I even have to say about that. This was one of the less crowded parts of the exhibit which is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of how it should have been because the things these outfits are from are three of the best things everrrrrrrrrrrrr
Also there were totally people walking around with "Captain EO" pins on their bags and there were totally kids who were all dressed up, it was so awesome. <3 My favourite was the little girl who was wearing an "EO" shirt and an adorable pink fedora, but there was also a boy in full "Thriller" gear who was listening very intently to the audio guide. Oh and by the way I totally went on a Monday morning. PULLING YOUR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL TO ENJOY A MORNING OF RHINESTONES AND SUNGLASSES AND RIDICULOUS BELTS AND DECORATIVE BUCKLES?? Even as a teacher I TOTALLY APPROVE.
Another piece that was going pretty much ignored was a pair of shoes with the bottoms cut in such a way that they could be used for practicing the "Smooth Criminal" lean. I was just like UM HELLO PEOPLE THESE ARE GRAVITY-DEFYING SHOES
STOP LOOKING AT THE SPARKLY GLOVES AND GET OVER HERE
So in conclusion I am seriously glad I happened to be in Tokyo when this exhibit was on and I am even more glad that I saw the poster for it!! Today was its final day; apparently all or most of the pieces are going to be auctioned off, but I do hope they find their way back into museums in the future, and I don't even think I'm being a crazy fangirl when I say that.
In related news, the Kanken was yesterday morning and to celebrate having finished 6kyuu I finally watched the new Bad tour DVD!!! As they admit in the accompanying booklet, the picture quality is pretty much VHS quality, and while I do hope that one day we'll get a higher quality release, the concert itself is of course amazing and I am beyond glad that we now have an official release of a "Dirty Diana" performance. I think my number one favourite part of this concert though is the part near the end where the back-up singers and musicians each get their own moment; starting around 6:21 in this video is seriously way more adorableness than should have been allowed in a concert named Bad. xD Even the guy mysteriously hanging out behind the drummer seems to be having a good time!!!
ABRUPT ENDING TO THIS ENTRY JUST BECAUSE
Edit a day later because I totally forgot about this conversation with one of my ninth graders that came completely out of nowhere:
Student: "Is Paris Hilton Michael Jackson's daughter?"
Sarah: "Nope, Paris Jackson is. They have the same first name but different last names."
Student: "Phew!! I just heard something about Michael Jackson's daughter Paris on the news and I was like whaaaaaaaat"
hahaha awesome.
Also man I need to get my TV fixed so I can watch the news too. :P