Nothing so new in this video, but I think it's interesting to hear from the owners. This one is fed up and talks about what it's been like running a franchise while this controversy has been happening.
Welcome to the first discussion of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. In chapters 1 through 4 we meet Meg, Charles Wallace, other members of the Murry family, a new friend Calvin, and three eccentric old women who take the kids on an adventure to save their father.
Here are some handy links: Marginalia || Schedule
One: Mrs Whatsit
Meg Murry isn't usually afraid of stormy weather, but there's been a lot going on in her life lately to put her on edge. She's been getting bullied at school and her grades have been suffering. She got in a fight when someone called her little brother, Charles Wallace, dumb. Her ten-year-old twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys, would prefer to do the fighting for her.
Meg's father has disappeared and she doesn't know if or when he'll be coming back. She envies the way her mother can ignore the rumor mill and maintain her serenity during this tumultuous time.
Meg has mouse brown hair, braces on her teeth, and wears glasses.
The wind howls while everyone else in the family is asleep. Meg begins to regret choosing the attic for her bedroom. Fortinbras, their big black dog, starts barking and, scared of a potential intruder, Meg starts walking through the house.
She finds Charles Wallace in the kitchen. He's small and blond, wearing footie pajamas and eating bread with jam and milk. Charles Wallace had the uncanny ability to tell what Meg was thinking and he heated up some milk from her knowing she'd be downstairs soon.
Charles Wallace didn't speak until he was four years old and still doesn't speak much in front of strangers. This is why they remark cruelly about how two intelligent parents could produce such a dumb child, which infuriates Meg.
Mr. Murry has always impressed upon Meg that she and her brother were both very smart, regardless of what anyone else said or how they felt, and that they would develop in their own time. He even gave them IQ tests to confirm their intelligence.
When Charles Wallace did eventually begin speaking, it was in complete sentences, better than most five-year-olds.
Their mother appears in the kitchen and assuages Meg's fears. Charles Wallace fixes cocoa and sandwiches while Mrs. Murry inspects the bruise Meg acquired in that fight with the Henderson boy. Meg both admires and resents her beautiful, intelligent mother, and feels plain in comparison. Her mother tells Meg she felt the same at her age and to give herself time to blossom.
Charles Wallace mentions Mrs. Whatsit. He met her and her friends who live in an old, supposedly haunted, house in the woods when he chased after Fortinbras one day.
Mrs. Murry assures Meg this October hurricane can't knock down their house that has been through worse over its 200 years.
Fortinbras growls and Mrs. Murry goes out through the laboratory attached to their house to see what's going on. She returns with Mrs. Whatsit, dressed in eclectic clothes and numerous scarves.
Mrs. Whatsit had lost her way, or gotten blown off course as she puts it, in the storm. They offer her hot chocolate and a sandwich. Somehow she knew they had Russian caviar, but since they're saving it for Mother's birthday, Charles offers her tuna fish instead.
Somehow Charles knows Mrs. Whatsit stole some sheets from Mrs. Buncombe. Mrs. Whatsit isn't bothered by his admonishment, insisting Mrs. Buncombe could spare the sheets, while the Murry family could not.
Meg helps Mrs. Whatsit out of one soggy boot and she goes tumbling backwards onto the floor. Mrs. Murry helps her out of the second boot, revealing mismatched socks.
Now full and warm, Mrs. Whatsit says she must be going and refuses offers to stay the night. "By the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract," she says, and Mrs. Murry goes white. Mrs. Whatsit leaves while Mrs. Murry ponders how she could know about tesseracts.
Two: Mrs Who
Meg wakes hoping last night was all a dream. Her mother says she shouldn't hope that because we don't need to understand things for them to be.
The twins are upset no one woke them for the fun last night. They start sharing their opinions on how their mother is smart, but lacks common sense, how she needs their protection, how Meg is a dope because she daydreams at school, and how Charles Wallace is going to have a rough time at school next year.
Meg is tired and unable to answer the questions in class. The teacher sends her to the principal's office for being rude. He asks about her father and Meg feels he asked to satisfy his own curiosity rather than out of concern for Meg.
He tells her she should face the fact that her father isn't coming home. Meg becomes angry and says she'll face that fact only if her mother says it, because her mother is a scientist and deals primarily in facts.
Mr. Jenkins says Meg needs an attitude adjustment and sends her to study hall.
After school, Charles Wallace insists they go see Mrs. Whatsit. He wants to find out more about tesseracts and he wants to warn Mrs. Whatsit and her friends to be more careful.
Meg starts to feel more calm walking through the woods with Charles Wallace and Fortinbras. He seems to already know she had an awful day at school and that Mr. Jenkins made snide remarks. Meg questions if he's reading her mind. He explains it's more like reading her body language the same way he can sometimes understand the wind talking with the trees. He doesn't bother listening so much to the twins because they don't need him as much as Meg and Mother do.
They run into Calvin, a tall, skinny, redheaded boy a couple of grades above Meg. Charles Wallaces starts questioning him why he's out in the woods. Calvin is surprised to be getting the third degree from someone he was told couldn't talk.
Calvin came out there to escape his very large family and their runny noses. They find they have something in common, both believing they are "sports" in their families, defined as deviating from the norm.
Calvin elaborates that he got a strong feeling or compulsion to come out to the woods today. Charles Wallace invites him over for dinner. He says his mother is not "one of us" and Meg is "not really one thing or the other." Meg doesn't understand what he means by that.
They arrive at the haunted-looking house. Charles Wallace knocks, the door creaks open, birds cry out, and a rat scurries around the corner. Meg's courage to enter the house is bolstered by Calvin and Fortinbras at her side.
Charles starts scolding Mrs. Who for taking Mrs. Buncombe's sheets. She took them in case they need to pretend to be ghosts to scare anyone away.
Mrs. Who speaks in quotations and practically in riddles. She seems to approve of Calvin, and wants to help Mr. Murry, but it's not time yet. She tells Charlsie and Megsie to rest up, feed Calvin, and be ready when the time is ripe before pushing them out the door.
Three: Mrs Which
Calvin and Meg are both glad they met each other. Mrs. Murry is cooking a stew on a bunsen burner in her lab because she couldn't step away from an experiment. Calvin calls his mother to let her know he won't be home for dinner, leaving the message with Hinky. He tells Meg she doesn't know how lucky she is to have a loving family.
They look at a photo of Meg's father and she talks about him happily until Calvin asks where he is. Mrs. Murry interrupts to tell them to do their homework. She encourages Calvin to ask Meg for help with his math. Meg shows Calvin some shortcuts regarding fractions she learned from her dad and he's amazed she's so smart. He was under the impression she was dumb because of how much she gets in trouble at school.
Calvin is thrilled beyond belief that he found the Murrys and now has someone to talk to on his level.
After dinner, Meg talks with her mother. Mrs. Murry misses her husband very much. She thinks "all this" must be about Mr. Murry and that there's an explanation for things even when we don't understand it. They discuss the different essence Charles Wallace has that makes him special. Mrs. Murry considers herself ordinary and not special like Charles Wallace.
Calvin returns from telling Charles Wallace a bedtime story and asks Meg to go for a walk. They talk about Meg's father and the rumor he left his wife for another woman. He was a physicist with multiple PhDs and worked on classified projects for the government. He used to work in New Mexico and then cape Canaveral and the family would move with him wherever his job took him, until the travel was going to become too much, so they moved into their summer house full-time.
Mr. and Mrs. Murry wrote each other letters every day until the letters stopped arriving. Mrs. Murry demanded answers from Washington, but all they tell her is he is on an extended secret mission. Meg is worried even the government doesn't know where her father is.
Calvin tells Meg it's okay to cry. Meg hates herself for being so emotional. She sobs and sobs and worries Calvin hates her, but he is only more enamored by her.
Charles Wallace interrupts them because it's time to go! He thinks they are about to go find their father.
Mrs. Who becomes visible in the moonlight and Mrs. Whatsit scrambles clumsily over the wall. They bicker until Mrs. Which cuts in. With her slow drawn-out speech, she says they have much to do.
Four: The Black Thing
Mrs. Which calls out and suddenly a darkness falls and Meg loses contact with both Calvin and Charles. She can't scream and loses all connection to her body in this strange void.
Slowly her ability to move and feel returns. She thinks she is having a nightmare.
Light returns and she sees Charles Wallace. Calvin shimmers back into existence. They call for Meg, unable to see her until she violently breaks through what felt like a wall of glass.
They find themselves on a sunlit field surrounded by flowers, under a mountain that reaches into the clouds. Meg feels peace and joy.
Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which appear, giggling at some private joke. Charles is annoyed at them for not giving a warning. Mrs. Who speaks in quotations because she finds it difficult to verbalize her own thoughts. They talk about Meg like she isn't there.
They have tessered or wrinkled onto the planet Uriel. Mrs. Who is the youngest of the three women, by billions of years apparently, and is better at explaining things in words the kids can understand. She explains Meg's father is not here, but he is one of the reasons they are there and Meg will have to learn patience if she wants to save him.
Mrs. Which tells Mrs. Whatsit to "show them." She transforms into a beautiful winged creature almost like a Greek centaur, but nothing like one at the same time.
They climb onto her back and soar smoothly above the otherworldly landscape. Mrs. Whatsit encourages Charles Wallace to try and translate the song of the flowers below them. Though it uses a lot of her energy, she helps him. It is a song of praise to the Lord. The kids felt tremendous joy until Mrs. Whatsit's voice reveals some sadness.
She gives each child a flower and they fly up, up, up the mountain, above the tree line, above the clouds. Meg feels Charles Wallace is becoming less her baby brother and more one with the type of beings that Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which were.
The kids use the flowers to provide them oxygen in the thin atmosphere. They reach the summit and are dazzled by one of Uriel's moons. Sunset falls and Mrs. Whatsit instructs them to look straight ahead. They see a faint shadow in the distance that becomes more pronounced as the sky darkens and the stars come out.
The shadow chills Meg to the bone. It represents something so terrible she can't comprehend it. She starts to pass out before the flower revives her. Calvin asks Mrs. Whatsit to make the Thing go away because it is evil.
They travel back down the mountain, away from the dark power of that Thing. Charles Wallace asks if that's what his father is fighting.
Join us next Monday for a discussion of chapters 5 - 8 with u/tomesandtea.
It sounds like a scam email, but it appears to be legit and the items in the order are things I have purchased at CVS before. The weird thing it is says estimated pickup May 30.
When I log into my account, I only see an order for September 2025, but that was at a different location. I don't ever remember placing an order for pickup at the location in the email.
It's really strange. I don't see any charges on my credit card. It must be some weird glitch. I was wondering if anyone else recieved a strange email like that, or if someone who works at CVS knows if their system is glitching out.
Was this posted here already? I didn't see it but can delete if it's a repeat.
It's an interview with Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada about the filming of the proshot. It's not all about Patrick Page's injury, despite what the title says. I thought it was a great peek at some behind-the-scenes stuff!
I've been wondering how the collaboration went between Rachel Chavkin and Brett Sullivan. Obviously the finished product came out beautifully, but what exactly went into it? Who contributed what?
Certain decisions were made long ago when Chavkin was originally developing the show. I imagine Sullivan wasn't directing the actors on character choices since that was already so solid, but what was he doing? Was his role mostly about choosing the camera angles? He probably deserves more credit than that, I am just having trouble imagining what the collaboration looks like with two directors involved.
Are there any interviews with them discussing this? All I've found is the talkback at Tribeca Film Festival where they mention their inspirations. It just made me even more curious how they went from talking about their vision for the project to enacting those decisions.
I'm reading a book right now that has a subplot that reminds me a lot of another book I read a year or so ago.
I can't remember the book, but I remember there being a side plot with girls in college. One of them steals the identity of her roommate or another student in order to sleep with some guy. She uses the name of the roommate in her interactions with the guy and is sort of living a double life unbeknownst to her friends at college.
Eventually the roommate finds out and is obviously like you're crazy! I don't remember exactly what happens, but I think she is forced to drop out of school. Her excuse was that the roommate had everything and she was just borrowing her identity to get this guy and not hurting anyone. She felt entitled to do it.
This was not the main plot of the story. I feel like it was only a small section. And I'm pretty sure the girl who did it was the main character of the book. It might have been a flashback to her college days.
I believe it took place at an American college and it took place in recent enough times for the characters to have smartphones
It's driving me crazy that I can't remember. I know I've probably gotten some details wrong.
I generally read literary fiction or general fiction. A lot of times there's a female protagonist just going about her life. It definitely didn't come from some crazy thriller and I don't really read romance novels, so it wouldn't be that.
It's possible it came from a short story rather than a novel. It's even possible it was in a movie or a TV show, but I really feel like it was a book.
I was thinking it could be the Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia because that takes place in college, but Google says no. I considered it was some anecdote told in Yellowface because that book deals with some stolen identity stuff, but I don't think it's that.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Please help!
There was a game show that probably only lasted one season that played on a cable channel, possibly MTV or another music channel, that I can't for the life of me find evidence that it existed.
I don't know if there were different rounds with different types of questions. I just know there was at least one type of round where they'd ask a question like name every Tom Petty song, name every album by Radiohead, name every character on Seinfeld, and it would go back and forth between the two contestants until someone couldn't come up with an answer. That person would lose points, or the other person would get the points.
I feel like it had a pop culture theme. I think the host was probably someone recognizable. I can hardly remember anything about the show itself, but I remember the format of those rounds and have never been able to find any game show that used that type of format.
I'm reading a book right now that has a subplot that reminds me a lot of another book I read a year or so ago.
I can't remember the book, but I remember there being a side plot with girls in college. One of them steals the identity of her roommate or another student in order to sleep with some guy. She uses the name of the roommate in her interactions with the guy and is sort of living a double life unbeknownst to her friends at college.
Eventually the roommate finds out and is obviously like you're crazy! I don't remember exactly what happens, but I think she is forced to drop out of school. Her excuse was that the roommate had everything and she was just borrowing her identity to get this guy and not hurting anyway. She felt entitled to do it.
This was not the main plot of the story. I feel like it was only a small section. And I'm pretty sure the girl who did it was the main character of the book. It might have been a flashback to her college days.
It's driving me crazy that I can't remember. I know I've probably gotten some details wrong.
I generally read literary fiction or general fiction. A lot of times there's a female protagonist just going about her life. It definitely didn't come from some crazy thriller and I don't really read romance novels, so it wouldn't be that.
It's possible it came from a short story rather than a novel. It's even possible it was in a movie or a TV show, but I really feel like it was a book.
I was thinking it could be the Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia because that takes place in college, but Google says no. I considered it was some anecdote told in Yellowface because that book deals with some stolen identity stuff, but I don't think it's that.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Please help!
Surely with all the threats of violence Ben was making they would have wanted a restraining order against him. Surely they could document each and every instance of Ben threatening violence and get a restraining order to prevent further threats of violence from dangerous stalker Reckless Ben, right? Riiight??
Bricks and Minifigs EXPLAINED! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zzmM3Bygf_s
Bricks and Minifigs UPDATES! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x5UjT8zKosk
I came across these videos and thought she had some interesting perspectives about the whole situation. There's no new information in these videos and they're a month old already. She has some speculation that the end that doesn't make much sense anymore given all we know now, but I don't recall seeing them posted here though and thought they were worth sharing.
She comes at it from an ex-Mormon perspective and as the mom of a kid who loves Legos.
Some quotes:
* "This is just the Mormon way of doing business. The more churchgoing they are, the bigger the crooks. I stand by that."
* "Our system is so fucking corrupt that it's the YouTubers who are trying to solve cases."
* "One thing Mormons do very effectively — circling their wagons."
* "You see the Mormon cops, here's what they're seeing. Reckless Ben is this shaggy-haired dude from Satan's internet and he has not been baptized." *<- that made me lol.*
* "To everybody else this is insane, but to me this is just normal."
* "When I was a Mormon, we were constantly in lawsuits with people. Once I left the Mormon church at age 44, I haven't been in a lawsuit with anyone ever since."
* "[To Mormons] respectability means far more than actually being a good person on the inside or doing the right thing."
I thought everyone should know.
This was the original link: https://youtu.be/ii5LnyZ0UWE
I was looking at the air quality map on fire.airnow.gov. I noticed all the locations in the US never go above 500, while areas of Canada have readings in the 900s.
900 is unfathomable to me. That number to me conveys the air is not breathable at all. It sounds like a literal hell unfit for human life.
Even 400 seems extremely bad considering the worst I've ever experienced was in the 200s.
How do the two scales compare to each other? Does the US cap it at 500 because they don't want to capture readings above that? Is a 1000 reading on a Canadian scale twice as bad as a 500 reading on the US scale? Or is there no tangible difference above a certain level?
How accurate are the readings?
I'd like to understand the scales better and how people are managing in the areas with crazy high readings, like Sault Ste Marie, where I saw the high 900s reading.
This live stream ended a little while ago. She spends time musing about the case and going through all the filings she can find and she discovered something huge she called breaking news. Ben is filing an anti-SLAPP suit!
She says it's a risk because if he loses, he has to pay for BAM's attorney fees, but she thinks he has a strong case. This is what she and other YouTube lawyers have been recommending since the day the TRO happened.
She also talks about the family history of the McNeffs and theorizes that Ammon's father reads these reddit posts and updates his public Facebook pages in response, to try to get ahead of narratives about him.
It's a super long video, but some great info in there.
Editing to add: At 1 hour 57 mins she says "Breaking News. Defendants are going to go for anti-SLAPP."
The document says "Defendants allege violation of Utah's anti-SLAPP statute."
Also, I should have said anti-SLAPP motion instead of suit.
I don't remember where I heard this song, but I googled some of the lyrics as I was hearing them. I didn't get any results doing that. This was several weeks ago and the tab is still open on my phone.
I have no recollection of the genre or who was singing. I would guess it's an indie pop-rock type song.
I feel like it should be enough to find the song, but search engines absolutely suck for song lyrics now.
Here's what I got:
>are we gonna give it a whirl lyrics fantasy sad to see ain't wasting no time deja vu ingrained in my mind me and you now it's act two we react to
I'll break it up so it's not a run-on sentence
>are we gonna give it a whirl
> fantasy
> sad to see
>ain't wasting no time
>deja vu
>ingrained in my mind
>me and you now
>it's act two
>we react to
Welcome to the second discussion of A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennet. It is the second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. We are in Yarrowdale in Great Khanum and there is a mystery to solve!
Find a recap of chapters 14-25 below, as well as some handy links:
Chapter 14
Din waits for the head in the bank box to be tested, unable to question Immunis Ghrelin further without approval. He smokes to calm his nerves.
Malo confirms it is not Sujedo's head in the box. It is the head of an Apoth princeps named Traukta Kaukole, who has been dead two years.
The note in the box translates to "I am the Empire."
Din is suspicious of the whole thing. He heads toward's Ana's place.
Part II: And All The World A Savage Garden
Chapter 15
Ana listens to Din's report. She is especially bothered by the note — really by the audacity of the perpetrator leaving a note. He is far too confident to be a mere thief or a smuggler and carry out this plan in such a dangerous city and leave a politically charged note.
The note references the sixteenth letter from The Letters and Conversations of Ataska Daavir, Fourth and Final Emperor of the Great and Holy Empire of Khanum.
They puzzle over the meaning of marrow in the note and Ana briefly considers the culprit is simply mad.
Ana demands Din get her a Pythian lyre, to distract her from the case. He agrees.
They suspect the culprit must be an Apoth to have the knowledge and abilities they had to pull off this heist. Ana decides they need to check every person who has ever been granted access to that safe.
She also wants to know about every reagent theft in Yarrow the past two years. Din finds these requests easier said than done.
Ana does not believe the box contained healing grafts. She thinks the killer stole something else of greater value.
Din recreates the tapping Immunis Grehlin had done on his belt. She wishes to interrogate Ghrelin personally tomorrow.
Ana believes the killer is not done killing.
Chapter 16
Din and Ana go to the Apoth advanced fermentation works. Din notices there are no engravers there.
Ana partakes in the percolator. She sucks a nozzle dispensing a stimulant in the form of steam. She offers it to Din who isn't used to the effects.
They meet with Grehlin accompanied by some superiors — Commander-Prificto Kulaq Thelenai and Commanders Bijtas, Nepasiti, and Sizeides. Thelenai was lightly stained green as a native Pythian.
They give Ana a list of people who had access to the bank vault before she can even ask for it. She asks for a list of the thefts in area for the past two years. They agree to send her a list and give her permission to interview Ghelin. She's a little disappointed no one put up a fight.
Chapter 17
Ghrelin confirms the box contained cures for respiratory diseases. He says he previously worked for the Shroud, which has some top secret protocols. He offers some information about what the Shroud does and reveals that the Shroud is made from a piece of leviathans.
Ana asks for more background. He explains how titan blood can cause strange and awful breeds of flowers to grow.
Grehlin laughs at the notion one of his colleagues could be behind the killings. He says the people of Yarrow used to lose a lot of children in early childhood and women in childbirth. Today the death rate has gone down and quality of life has gone up because of the work of the Shroud.
The group becomes still and silent when Ana asks about the meaning of the note. They deny understanding its meaning.
She mentions a proposal to extract marrow from a leviathan's bones, but they will not comment. They seem scared when Ana taps out that rhythm.
Ana asks for Ghrelin's service record. She also inquires about the lack of engravers. Thelenai explains it is so untested formulas don't get leaked. Thelenai refuses Ana a tour of the building because he cannot be sure what alterations she has had.
Chapter 18
Ana thinks the whole visit was odd and asks Din for the details she missed by being blindfolded. She doesn't believe Ghrelin went from the Shroud to making cures for coughs.
The green tinge on Thelenai comes from a beneficial parasitic algae in this area. Ana wonders why she never bothered to reverse it.
Ana is aware of people who have undergone suffusions that make it physically incapable of giving up certain secrets, but none of the people they spoke to today had that done to them.
Ana tells Din to remember Thelenai, as if it's not already his job to remember everything and everyone.
Chapter 19
Packages wait for Ana at her lodgings. They contain the records she asked for — every shipping manifest with a theft from the last two years, as well as Ghrelin's service record.
Ana tells Din the tapping was language in code developed by monks. She can't crack why Ghrelin or the impostor would utilize this secret code, but she can translate it. The messages were about despair and being doomed to failure. She is most interested in the 'who has done this to me' part.
She theorizes the box contained something about the Shroud or marrow, then they move on to searching the records.
Din is instructed to track down every person and get their whereabouts for the past two to three weeks. He is exhausted just thinking about it.
Ana thinks he needs a new method of emotional management and to rest more instead of having a bunch of one-night stands. Din is embarrassed by the conversation.
Ana knows he's been planning to transfer to the Legion. He explains that solving crimes is not as fulfilling as preventing them. Ana offers to write him a recommendation when the time comes. He can't explain that his father's debts are still holding him back.
Ana prefers to have an investigator who wants to be there, but she predicts Din will want to stay when the time comes because he will eventually see the value in what they do.
A Pythian lyre is delivered. Ana is thrilled and starts to play it. Din asks her what augmentations she has had and she says she'll tell him when he needs to know.
Chapter 20
Din spends four days doing grunt work, tracking down dozens of alibis, wearing holes in his boots in the process. Ana worked day and night on the case in her usual chaotic manner.
Din has another one-night stand against Ana's wishes and begins to think the case will never be closed.
On the fifth day, Din heads west towards the High City of Yarrow to interview Prificto Kardas. He approaches a fort with dozens of pale, emaciated people chained to the floor. He's unable to communicate with them due to a language barrier.
A purple-faced Pithian man questions him. He says the prisoners are fugitives. They are on Yarrow soil and don't need the Empires approval. He refuses to give his name.
Prificto Kardas emerges with an entourage. The purple-faced man is Thale Pavitar, who works for Kardas in a role like a priest. Kardas doesn't have time for the interview now because they're going to the High City.
A green-faced man asks about Din. Kardas introduces him as Satrap Danduo Darhi. He offers Din a silver coin, which means he is oath bound to grant Din a service should he ever ask.
Din heads back towards to Old Town and Malo finds him. Din tells her about the prisoners and she explains they are Naukari, ancestral servants. They are bound to the land.
Malo thinks Pavitar wanted to intimidate Din and Darhi wanted to buy him.
Din thinks Malo might be a Naukari who managed to escape servitude.
Malo says a fisherman witnessed jungle folk on a boat with an unknown treasury man. They begin to plan a raid of a smuggler's camp.
Ana is getting frustrated with the lack of progress. She allows Din to go on the raid and warns him to be very careful.
Chapter 21
Din pets some seakips at the riverfront docks. Malo warns him about how miserable this journey might be. The green-eyed Pithians make fun of Din.
A Kurmini medikker named Tangis joined them, as well as a surprise addition — the girl Din slept with his first night in the city. Malo figured it out instantly. Sabudara was her name.
They make their way down the canals, pulled by seakips, as Malo explains how dangerous smugglers are and shows Din a picture of the guy they're looking for.
They swear buckets, try to repel insects, and eat cold rations in the dark. The group is impressed that Din is so well traveled and has been to Talagray.
Sabudara asks if his emperor is a thousand years old and a god. Din says no, he's not a god, but he is 400 years old, or possibly dead already.
They ask if the original Khanum were real. Din says yes, but they changed themselves to something not human and went extinct, except for the emperor. The augmentations that made them strong and intelligent also made them infertile, so they died out. Sublimes are only a poor imitation of the original Khanum. Din admits he can't biologically have children.
Chapter 22
Din wakes up to some commotion. The group smells a dead body floating towards them. The body was not normal. A tangle of silvery fishbones sprouted from the flesh and the face had been replaced by coiling dark tubers.
They now fear they're heading towards a serious contagion. They start wearing protective face coverings ("helms").
They spot a figure crouching on top of a tree and shoot it with arrows. It turns out not to be a person, but a statue made of vines. Then Din realizes it used to be a person and titan's blood made it into this vine creature.
A warden discovers more plant people in the jungle near where the camp should be, frozen midstride. Din cuts through the thick brush with his sword. What he sees makes him want to scream.
Chapter 23
The camp appeared completely altered, as if everything had transmuted into something else. The wardens freaked out while Din tried to engrave the scene. He thinks their firepit must have been tainted with what caused the transmutations.
They discover a vessel that appears to be from the fermentation works in Yarrowdale. They think the vessel dispersed a fine powder that caused the transmutations.
They see a hole in the growth, as if someone else had been there already. Tangis warns the crosspollinating could begin soon and create contagion.
Din and Malo investigate further anyway. They see symbols written on a piece of hide in the same handwriting as the note in the bank.
"And all the world is a savage garden, mindless and raging."
Din feels threatened and says they should flee and then burn this place.
Chapter 24
They hurry to the boat. Din theorizes that the smugglers knew the killer and that the killer deliberately killed them all at once. The message was not for them. Din thinks Ghrelin and Thelenai lied about what was in the safe.
Din spots broken branches where there shouldn't be and realizes someone might be watching them. Malo doesn't keep cool, she's worried about the boat, and that's when the attackers charge.
Din's muscle memory helps him in the fight. He tries not to kill the attackers because they could be witnesses to the events they're investigating.
The helm is an impediment in the fight, but ultimately they prevail against the attackers. They bring the survivors with them on the boat and leave the dead to the jungle.
Chapter 25
They sail towards the city, expecting to be put in containment when they arrive.
Din wants to question the survivors, but Tangis is still treating them. He gives Din a blotley test to test for contagion. He is clean, as are the others, and they all take off their helms.
Malo explains these people are swamp-dwelling woodfolk even lower than the naukari and harder to understand. The first one is a member of the Kachu clan, a smuggling gang. He didn't witness the murders. He thinks the "pale king" blessed with great foresight committed these murders. They are superstitious, but this person was real.
The king wore a white mask. He first came to them two years ago and paid them to steal a shipment of reagents. They started working together on more thefts.
The king tapped on things, as Din suspected, and would sometimes disappear to a shrine. They decide to head to this shrine in the Midlow, a swampy part of the jungle.
The cavern appeared different from its surroundings, built in a way Din couldn't guess. Inside they find a throne and some evidence he was worshipped as a god.
On the other side of the island, Sabudara found some dead animals and evidence he had been brewing poison. Din digs up a small wooden box containing a Yarrow oathcoin.
Join us next Sunday for a discussion chapters 36-46 with u/jaymae21.
I went in with decently high expectations because of the creative team involved. I'm a fan of Dave Malloy and I've always wanted to see more ballet incorporated into musicals.
I did see the Black Swan movie back when it came out. I remember very little of it, so it has no bearing on my review. I do remember thinking it was a good movie and thought the tense, psychological thrillery vibes could be very cool in the form of a musical.
I had a blast watching the show. I had no idea what to expect. I was sucked in immediately and mezmerized by the dancing and the interesting ways they used the lighting.
At intermission I was thinking this is the most creative thing I've seen on stage in a while. It blows a lot of current Broadway shows out of the water as far as visual effects and energy.
The second half kind of lost me. Narratively and musically. I've looked at some of the previous posts about the show on this sub and it seems I have the opposite opinion of everyone else, who thought act 1 dragged while act 2 was where it hit its stride. I felt that act 1 was more accessible. The music seemed more mainstream and the story was easy to follow. Act 2 felt like it dragged for me here and there. I didn't know exactly what was going on or what the takeaway was supposed to be. If I remembered the movie better, I probably wouldn't have that problem.
>!I get that as the show goes on, the mental state of the protagonist is deteriorating and this is reflected in the music and the storytelling.!< These are just my feelings I had during the show. I am having a hard time trying to objectively critique this one. I just know I was enthralled and didn't really care about following the story because the atmosphere was so good and the dancing was so engaging.
I cannot state enough how amazing this show is just to see the incredible dancing. I noticed some earlier comments are focusing on the lack of ballet. I went in ready for a ballet-heavy show, and it didn't even cross my mind that there was not a lot of traditional ballet. The dancing is hella impressive. If you're picky about what type of dancing you like to watch, then maybe this would bother you more. There is A LOT of dancing. I felt like I got my money's worth there.
The performances were excellent. I was not familiar with Melanie Moore, but she is out of this world. I don't see how it's humanly possible for her to do what she did eight times a week. I found myself thinking about her understudy, how anyone could possibly be ready to perform that role on a moment's notice if necessary. >! Relevant to the plot lol!!<
Jada Simone Clark was also excellent. She wasn't in it as much as I expected. It felt like Nina was the main character and Lily was secondary.
I am a huge fan of Amber Iman and I loved her in this. I could do with even more of her in this, especially more singing! She always brought a commanding presence to the stage with her.
Thom Sesma was maybe underutilized too. I only say that because I loved him in Dead Outlaw and know he can do more, not because I think the show needs more of his character.
I have no opinion on Amber playing a role that was played by a man in the movie since I don't remember the movie. I thought her character was well written. She is not a villain in this show. I'm not sure there is a villain at all in this show. >!She pushes Nina towards a dark place. She puts a lot of pressure on her, and so does her mom, but neither comes off as an irredeemable villain.!<
>!Speaking of the mom, there is a line that I believe must come directly from the movie. Nina says something like 'if you really had what it took to be a dancer, you would have ripped me out of your body,' meaning you would have had an abortion if you thought you had a real career in front of you. This line was not delivered with the bite it should have been. I think maybe the conflict between the mom and Nina could have been increased somehow to make everything more tense.!<
I really liked everything that was dark and tense and creepy. There was a little in the way of body horror and I could have done with more. The way they did these effects were very cool. All of the special effects were great. Such creativity. Everything they did stylistically served the story well.
One thing I would change is the scene >! that takes place in the hospital room. Visually it feels out of place in the show. I think they could easily change the aesthetics of that scene and it would work better.!<
>!I also think the arc between Nina and Beth could be done more smoothly or clearly. She starts out idolizing Beth, but it's not super clear. Beth warns her they'll chew her up and spit her out too, and when that happens, she goes to Beth for advice, which doesn't really make sense. I think it would make more sense for her to go see Beth because she cares about her well-being or because she's still obsessed with her. Obviously demanding answers from Beth on how to get your job back when you snatched that job out from under Beth a few weeks ago was never going to go well.!<
I have no clue if this show is Broadway bound or not. There's a lot of talent involved, no doubt, but is this what Broadway audiences want to see? Maybe they do! I truly don't know.
The score feels less enjoyable to me than the Great Comet. It's mostly very "Dave Malloy." He has a very identifiable style. Usually it works for me. Sometimes it doesn't. I didn't love all of the music in this, particularly some of the dialogue that was sung through. I think there's a better way to do that. I did like all of the background music and some of the more melodic numbers.
The craftsmanship on this show is incredible. Some things need tightening up, but I really think it's worth seeing if you can manage to see it at ART.
I hope a lot more of you see the show and post reviews. I'm really interested in what everyone else thinks.