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BDM's avatar

dying at "Elphaba is Trump"… she's green… he's orange… the pieces were always there

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Chris Jesu Lee's avatar

If she were teal, they truly would've been a pair.

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BDM's avatar

also in woke / not woke musical stuff, it's always funny to me that this part of Hadestown (which I adore) way predates Trump (it's from like 2010) but is impossible to hear as anything other than incredibly ham handed Trump commentary now lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2pxbyf_tgE

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Mo_Diggs's avatar

Dag...maybe I should see it

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Chris Jesu Lee's avatar

Didn’t you voluntarily pay to watch Megalopolis?

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Mahin Hossain's avatar

Did not know that the ABG-cohorts were out hating on Crazy Rich Asians; I lived in Singapore at the time, and it was well-received by my peers

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Chris Jesu Lee's avatar

Regarding ABG-cohorts, I think Asian enclave types overall really liked the movie. I was talking more about the type of Asian Americans that aspire to write for NY Mag.

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Mahin Hossain's avatar

Interesting. I have a sociological query: are these typically 2nd-gen, or 3rd?

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Chris Jesu Lee's avatar

Definitely 2nd gen (most 3rd gen Asian Americans are very young, especially when CRA came out). Maybe some are 1.5 gen, like those who came over during high school.

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Quiara Vasquez's avatar

The existence of a Wicked movie(!) in 2024 is evidence that earnest goober theater kid energy has legs, because back in 2002 it very famously lost the Best Musical Tony to the ironyfest that was Avenue Q, which even its fans (if they still exist) will admit aged like milk.

I'm not like... a huge Wicked fan, but I'm told the new script is finally very good (as opposed to being a kind of dopey receptacle for the songs, which are of course great)! And I think Jon Chu did a really good job directing "In the Heights," so I have faith this'll be good.

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TwentyFiveSporks's avatar

Why's it gotta be split into two part though? 😭

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Nikkitha Bakshani's avatar

This essay is perfectly timed because I got roped into seeing it tonight and was about to cancel when I learned it is 2 hours and 45 minutes!!!! Now I won't.

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Chris Jesu Lee's avatar

Let me know what you think about it afterwards! The time flew by, just like when I recently watched Fanny and Alexander

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Nikkitha Bakshani's avatar

I dug it

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Monia Ali's avatar

It's funny you mention the 1950s vet whose passion would only be discovered after death--that tragically happened in one of my spheres where a guy passed away and his children discovered that he had been supporting multiple Buffy reactors and was super active in those communities. Must be a weird thing to come across, this entire secret life. But that might be more common than we think these days...

I personally love the musical, and I remember when it felt feasible for Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith to actually reprise their roles.

ALSO, I think it's incredibly telling of the general cultural shift that someone who is "anti-woke" feels the same need to project onto media to justify their enjoyment. There isn't a political divide in how relating to content has become this political act and can be used to promote certain points of view.

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Chris Jesu Lee's avatar

That’s kind of heartwarming about the closet Buffy fan.

And yes, woke/anti-woke mindsets are so similar to each other.

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Quiara Vasquez's avatar

You can't just casually mention a closeted octogenarian Buffy fan and not give us all the details!!

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Monia Ali's avatar

I don't know how much there is to say--he was reaching out to new reactors on Youtube and basically "shepherding" them through the series with altered episodes (to cut out/obscure "spoilers" in cast/credits) and would provide them with extras. Three of the people I follow mentioned him, but his style of video edits have been widespread in the reactor subfandom so he definitely was super hands-on.

His son reached out to one of the reactors he'd helped set up years earlier and said it was quite heartwarming to see how much people cared about him, but that they had no idea this was a hobby of his.

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Eric W's avatar

Easy to dismiss class criticism of Crazy Rich Asians and defends its gross materialism when you have the luxury to vacation abroad and have admitted to coming from a well-off family and never experienced being broke and any kind of real deprivation.

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