Checking in

Mar. 16th, 2026 10:30 am
ehyde: (Default)
[personal profile] ehyde
Despite an assortment of kids and adults sick with a bad cold, I managed to make four pies for pi day: pumpkin chiffon (this has meringue mixed in with the pumpkin mixture to make it fluffier, it's the only pumpkin pie I ever make), cherry (we had frozen cherry pie filling already, so this one was easy), chocolate (it's just pudding in a graham cracker crust), and for the first time, lemon meringue. The lemon meringue turned out pretty good except that the meringue topping shrank and pulled away from the crust, so it ended up like a fluffy island on a yellow lake. Still tasted good!

We've now watched up to episode 36 of Guardian. The ancient past episodes were very fun! I'm a little worried about watching the final few episodes because I know it's not going to end well. I'm in theory still reading Record of the Missing Sect Master but tbh I'm considering dropping it. It's very slow moving and feels like at least half (this is an exaggeration) the content is other characters reacting to the couple-ness of the main couple, which. I guess is a trope that some people like (a lot of people like, judging by some of the fanfic out there) but it is not my thing at all. Also it's doing this thing where it feels like at this point, both the mains are on the same page re. a lot of the hidden information, but the author's still holding it back from the reader just ...because? I think if you want to a dramatic reveal later on some things need to be a mystery to the characters who care about it, too. Anyway. A lot of the mysteries and secret identities and such, which should be right up my alley, feel more artificial here than they have in other books. So I should probably just drop it and read something I'll enjoy, instead.

I did manage to work on some projects, too! I modeled/printed some attachments to help build a sewing frame, as well as an adjustable hole-punching template! I even worked on some actual books too. And I got my assignment for this year's cnovel bookbinding exchange, which. I am going to have so much fun with this.

Ballet Experience: Swan Lake

Mar. 15th, 2026 08:59 pm
extrapenguin: Northern lights in blue and purple above black horizon. (Default)
[personal profile] extrapenguin
Swan Lake is, after the Nutcracker, perhaps the most basic ballet there is. It's considered the peak of classical ballet (note: in ballet, the romantic era comes before the classic, so that while Tchaikovsky is a romantic composer, he is a composer of classic ballets), but I think the part of the reason for its longevity is that it has multiple ending variants, broadly divided into "villain wins" and "lovers prevail".

Short synopsis:

including the prologue!
[Prologue] Princess Odette gets kidnapped by an evil sorcerer, Rothbart, and cursed to become a swan who can only turn human by night. (He has a collection of women he's done this to.) Her mom turns up and cries so much her tears form the titular Swan Lake. Basically no-one performs this part anymore.

The Curse: a prince must publicly proclaim to love Odette and only Odette; if she is betrayed in love, she and all the other swan maidens are condemned to stay swans forever. Allegedly this will also happen if Rothbart dies before the curse is broken.

[Act 1 Scene 1] The production will probably start here, in a palace courtyard. Lots of partying and jolly dancing. Prince Siegfried gets gifted a crossbow. His mom tells him that tomorrow, at his 18th birthday party, he will have to pick a girl to marry.

[Act 1 Scene 2] Siegfried goes hunting! He sees a beautiful swan, who then turns into a beautiful woman. He is awed and they then fall in love. Corps de ballet is the other swan maidens, with divertissements of the four little swans and three large swans.

[Act 2 Scene 1] The birthday party. Lots of dancing in the form of divertissements. Siegfried turns down all the women his mother has thoughfully assembled, to everyone's shock. But then! The party is gatecrashed by a dude and his swan-y daughter, Odile – the black swan. The dude is none other than Rothbart, and Siegfried enspelled to see Odette when he looks at Odile. (In basically every production over, it's the same ballerina; all that changes is the color of the tutu.) Odette tries to fly in the window but is stopped. Siegfried proclaims his undying love to Odile, at which point Rothbart goes lol and draws back the curtains to reveal Odette behind the window, watching all this. Much drama ensues, Siegfried runs off, his mom faints, etc.

[Act 2 Scene 2] Back at the lake, Siegfried searches out Odette amidst the other swan maidens who have now all been condemned to an eternity as swans due to him. They meet and dance together. Then Rothbart shows up, and this is where things get interesting wrt potential ending variants. In a bunch of them, Rothbart takes Odette and she becomes a swan forever, and Siegfried tragically beseeches the audience etc (unless he's danced by Nureyev, in which case he drowns). In others, Rothbart gets defeated either by Siegfried killing him somehow, or simply by the True Love (TM) being so powerful it outpowers the curse; cue happy ending.


The Paris Ballet Theatre put on the happy ending which I believe is most popular in Russia: Siegfried steals one of Rothbart's wings (he is owl-coded), thus depriving him of his powers and defeating him. As usual, I bought the program, and this time they even had DVDs, so I bought one! Next up, buying an external DVD drive so I can rip it...

Dancing: Their principal danseur is very good at projecting this sort of naïve and innocent vibe, which fits Siegfried well. Their prima ballerina worked great as Odette, though Odile could've had a bit of extra spice. The costuming was amazing, with 109887 sequins on everyone, and I appreciated the slightly softer tutus (vs hardcore platter tutus) of the swans.

Also this is basically the Ballets Russes reborn. They dance Vaganova/Russian style, the dancers got their training in places like Armenia and the Komi Republic (in Russia), were soloists in places like the Bolshoi Theater and the Ural Opera (both in Russia), and the maîtrisse de ballet is Belarusian. Also the live music, The Orchestra of Budapest, is basically an international company formed out of almost exclusively Eastern European musicians, with a Belarusian conductor.

Note to self: rows G-P probably the best for seeing stuff, since it's far enough up that you can see the back of the stage/some of what the corps de ballet is doing formation-wise and aren't upskirting everyone nonstop, but close enough you can see expressions.
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

Monday Music Meme

Mar. 9th, 2026 10:38 pm
extrapenguin: Northern lights in blue and purple above black horizon. (Default)
[personal profile] extrapenguin
Went to the ballet again last weekend; will report on that tomorrow I think. Meanwhile, for the music meme, today's prompt is for an underrated song. This is a somewhat hard choice when working with new songs, as something that is new is discovered or undiscovered; overrated and underrated require a certain maturity. So I chose a song from 2023.

an underrated song
Elysion - Crossing Over



prompts under the cut

a song you discovered this month Lady Gaga - Disease
a song that makes you smile Catalyst Symphony - Eden
a song that makes you cry Stratovarius - Shine in the Dark
a song that you know all the lyrics of Deep Sun - Storyteller
a song that proves that you have good taste Synthwailer - Iron Arch
a song title that is in all lowercase newest release FlowerLeaf - The Wake
a song title that is in all uppercase Illumishade – ELEGY
an underrated song
a song that has three words
a song from your childhood
a song that reminds you of summertime
a song that you feel nostalgic to
the first song that plays on shuffle
a song that someone showed you
a song from a movie soundtrack
a song from a television soundtrack
a song about being 17
a song that reminds you of somebody
a song to drive to
a song with a number in the title
a song that you listen to at 3am in the morning
a song with a long title
a song with a color in the title
a song that gets stuck in your head
a song in a different language
a song that helps you fall asleep at night
a song that describes how you feel right now
a song that you used to hate but love today
a song that you downloaded
a song that you want to share

Profile

chromemuffin: (Default)
chromemuffin

February 2019

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213 141516
17181920212223
2425262728  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Mar. 19th, 2026 03:04 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios