Homage to 2024 VMA performance. My piece doubles as my (albeit wishful) interpretation of Lady Macbeth, where instead of properly dying at the end of the play, she ran away to Lotharingia or Neustria to become a knight. Thus, the Scottish flag.
This took a week 😑
I included a bunny for Red Wine Supernova
I had a dream whereit became a trend where people would run the lyrics of Espresso through Google Translate and sing them in a random language. Most of these people had no idea how to pronounce any of the words, so it was pretty funny to non-english speakers to hear people trying to sing in a language they didn't know.
This eventually evolved into a bigger trend where people whose first language was anything other than English hopped on and sang Espresso in their native tongue. It turned from a "Silly ha-ha I can't speak this language" thing into a really heated guessing game where everyone was having super intense arguments in the comments section of all these videos, trying to guess whether or not this person was a native speaker, fluent in this 2nd language, a pretender, et cetera.
It got a bunch of really niche and endangered languages huge public exposure, and inspired many to start learning and saving these endangered languages. Despite the discourse about whether or not this was cultural appropriation, the trend sparked a massive cultural preservation movement. It went so far as to bring 3rd spaces back into business because people wanted to meet new people from different backgrounds.
I myself went quite viral on this trend, singing in the North Saami language, where I got Norwegian allegations (in the dream, calling someone a Norwegian was an insult? I think it was a British thing because they were still mad about Hardrata's invasions in the 11th century. I love Norway, no shade meant to them whatsoever).
I wish this dream was real 😔
When is Florida going to ban that? You know we have to protect the children from entropy!
Some photos I took!!!! God, that was the most entertaining 2½ hours I have ever spent. My autistic self was singing along to everything, especially Amish Paradise.
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Al made direct eye contact with me TWICE (I was on the front row), once during Word Crimes and once during Amish Paradise. EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! I was dancing for the entirety of AP's performance; my favourite song of his.
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Last pic is a jacket I have spent the last 4 months embroidering. As the performers were taking their final bows, the girl on guitar (Does anyone know her name? Saw her on this day in Wichita, Kansas) locked eyes with me and gestured like she was putting on a jacket and gave me a double thumbs up and blew some kisses to ME! AHHH! I am so happy one of them noticed me for more than a couple seconds!
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One note on the a capella bit during Yoda, did I hear a lick from Ride the Cyclone? Namely this bit from Noel's Lament:
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Broken heart, a flask of gin
Tattooed with a safety pin
Teeth all stained with nicotine
Running nylons, shattered dreams
Super crusty, holy terror
Wild eyes and bad mascara
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I am simultaneously surprised and not surprised that he knows of that musical; I just wish he covered Space Age Bachelor Man. It really would fit his vibe.
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Also, during Everything You Know Is Wrong, did Al mention Last Thursdayism? I just made a suggestion on LyricGenius; coincidentally, someone suggested this edit 2 years ago. Look what I know. I guess my years of theological education are paying dividends, lol
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Also Puddles was such a great opener :)
Trousers by me! I know the taper is sharper than usual, but I had limited fabric seeing as it was an oddly shaped scrapped piece of upholstery fabric I got for $4. I drafted my pattern from a pair of pants I already had and made some adjustments based on photos from the 30s. I'm just glad I got all 4 pieces with the weave going in the same direction!
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All the other pieces were just things in my closet. Please ignore the elephant in the room; I don't have any period shoes, seeing as I buy everything second-hand and have comically small feet. Therefore, none of the plausibly historical shoes will fit me, seeing as they are nearly always too big.
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All items in the photo were bought from either the upholstery shop, estate sales, or stolen from my partner, so total cost for this project was about $7.
I'm frankly a little scared to post this.
Before anyone comments on the inaccuracies...
- yes, the fabric's weave is inaccurate. Likely polyester
- I don't have the budget for reproduction shoes
- I did use a machine to sew the majority of this project.
- no, I did not use a commercial pattern. All of the pieces are modified versions of modern patterns. I drafted these from looking at portraits and fashion plates from 1781.
- I have to wear glasses and simply forgot to take them off here.
This isn't a direct reproduction based on one specific portrait, since I only had certain fabrics on hand that would compliment each other nicely. I also took some inspiration from the Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, comte de Provence and later King Louis XVIII of France's portrait.
Total budget was about $50, all pieces except hat, stockings, and shoes are by me.