I went to the antiques mall today, and as it'll probably be a while until I get to go again so I figured it was a perfect excuse to take some photos.
I love all of the Black Forest bear carvings. This one's an ashtray and you put matches in the bear's backpack, but you could easily repurpose it for sewing notions or the like. Look at that face, he just wants to guard your stuff!
So I finally got round to seeing Hamilton on Monday. I've listened to the OBC before and never really vibed with it, to be honest hip hop isn't really my thing which probably isn't a surprise to anyone. And so I kind of guessed that the show wouldn't really be my cup of tea either which is why it's taken me until now to get round to it (plus it's one of the most expensive shows on the West End!). But I still wanted to go and actually see it with my own two eyes at some point to give it a fair shot as listening to a cast recording is obviously no where near the same as getting the full context of a show. And yes I know there's the pro-shot on Disney+, but to be honest I don't really like watching recordings of theater. Watching something on that scale through my 15" laptop screen isn't really giving it a fair shot either, especially with my ADHD brain making me want to skip ahead. I need to be a captive audience member. If I can't see something in person, then I'd rather just not bother.
The Victoria Palace Theatre that currently houses Hamilton is right by Wicked, and it felt every shade of wrong having to walk straight past it.
I can't say I had a bad time and it was enjoyable enough, but as I guessed from the beginning it wasn't really my cup of tea and seeing it in action didn't really change that for me. I can appreciate that it's a good musical in that it's well paced, well characterized, it hit every emotional beat that it needed to, had some good melodies, and I personally adored the costumes, I think that was hands down my favorite part and I was marveling at the details every time they changed. I always felt the costumes didn't look particularly impressive in the photographs, but boy was I wrong! So I'm glad I got to see it. It felt weird calling myself a musical theater fan without having this on my seen list, so I’m happy to have crossed it off if nothing else. But it also didn’t change my mind on thinking Lin-Manuel Miranda is over hyped XD
I admit I’m far from the most knowledgeable about US history being European and all, but it has always struck me as a weird story to simplify into a Broadway show. I feel like I want to give it some grace as while I want to rag on the historical accuracy, it also drives me crazy when people do that with Anastasia because it's not supposed to be historically accurate and never once presents itself as that. I also do genuinely hate when people won't let anyone enjoy anything and use it as some kind of superiority complex, like no one is allowed to like flawed things and just accept that absolutely nothing is perfect. And I'm 100% sure I do not have any fresh takes here, but I just had the overall sense when watching it that I'm not sure colorblind casting the Founding Fathers is as woke as it thinks it's being, and it felt weird to me to see African American culture painted over these racist historical figures. I get Miranda wanted to modernize the story and make it relevant for audiences, but implying everyone in the US is an immigrant and shares the same struggle when at the beginning many were colonizers and those who weren't were either forced there through slavery, or Indigenous and being slaughtered, feels insensitive at best. There’s casual mentions here and there of the slavery that was going on behind the scenes, but it just felt a bit tone deaf and uncomfy and I guess I worry about how it's reframing history. Especially to foreign audiences who may not know any better.
I didn't get to do much else in London as I wasn't feeling great (it turned into full blown sinusitis by the next day and I had to get antibiotics, fun) but I did go back to Urban Outfitters for the vintage jacket I'd seen the previous week when I saw Wicked. I think it's a High School cheerleading jacket? It's not anything I have any knowledge of, I'm not even sure why I'm so taken with it, but I'd tried it on before and couldn't get it out of my head and was so happy to see it was still there.
I like that it has the original badges of when Krista competed in 1988 and 1990, plus a picture of I assume Krista herself. I think that's why I'm so charmed by it because this really isn't anything I've ever been drawn to before, but I can really see it has a history and I absolutely love that. I Googled 'Piner' and it appears to be a school in Santa Rosa, California. I bet Krista would find it absolutely wild that her old school jacket ended up in the vintage section of an Urban Outfitters on the opposite side of the globe.
I also ended up getting the blu ray of Elvis which is now the only movie I physically own. I used to have a pretty huge DVD collection, but probably like many gave it up for streaming (and pirating) which feels so much easier. But the past couple of years I've been getting increasingly fed up with just picking everything off of a digital list as nothing is tangible anymore. I started by buying my Switch games as cartridges instead of downloads, the odd physical book, and a couple of months ago I started buying vinyl again. More recently with all of the talk about how some movies and TV shows are being silently removed from streaming platforms like some kind of censorship got me thinking about how I really ought to start collecting my favorite movies too. As I'm starting from scratch I figured I'd go with blu ray this time as the resolution is better and they usually have more special features. Which is honestly another thing I miss from before, when we'd get DVDs with entire extra discs of making of documentaries and behind the scenes.
Since I've been getting into Elvis I've really been itching to go digging through the antiques stores. Unfortunately I live in Europe so there's not much to be found like I'd imagine there is in the US, but it never hurts to look anyway, and really I love any excuse to go antiquing. It's fun to look around and fantasize about what my future forever home might look like.
Bears like this always break my heart a little bit. Someone clearly loved him very fiercely once, and judging from how worn he is probably carried him everywhere for comfort. And now he's locked in a cabinet and will probably never have the chance to be loved like that ever again :(
I love weird oddities. A pig playing a violin, why not.
The one single Elvis thing I found. It's a clock and his legs swing from side to side for the seconds. I did not buy it.
I can never resist a frog.
The things I did buy. The dress is genuine 1950s and was cheap because it has a hole in it, but I think I can fix it up and it'll make a nice summer dress. Also some Donovan and Elvis records, and a tiny little porcelain Alice.
I went to the antiques store yesterday which is one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon. I always like to take photos while I'm there as I go for the curiosity factor rather than to actually buy stuff. I started taking pictures of things I liked after reading this quote by Snufkin from Comet in Moominland which felt revolutionary: "That's how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don't have to carry a suitcase."
I meant to post about this sooner, but I went to the antiques center last week! I last went in December 2019, and I always love taking photos and seeing how much it's changed every time I go. I used to come out of these places with armfuls of things, but I'm definitely more chill nowadays and I just really like looking at quirky old stuff and seeing how things have changed over time (or not!) and thinking about the kinds of people who maybe owned it before. Especially as these places always get me thinking about consumerism and how much old stuff exists and how much new stuff is constantly being made, and how all of these lovely old things often end up in garbage dumps or left to rot in attics and how unsustainable it all is. Which really bums me out so I try to only buy stuff that I want to give a forever home.
I'm really into bears lately, and I love old carved stuff like this that looks handmade.
I've been admiring this painting for years! It used to be at another antiques place locally, now it's moved to here, and I swear I've been looking at it for about 6 years so it always makes me really happy to try and spot where they've hung it up this time.
I love old packaging design, and this iron was tiny. I did think about getting it as it would literally be perfect for travel, but it was super heavy which isn't airline friendly.
I've never seen canisters specifically for different types of sugar before.
