Yes, I can tell them apart. I think. :: Celebration of Harry Potter :: January 2018
I went to Celebration last year and it was amazing.
It was cancelled this year and I didn’t feel like going to any of the unofficial meet-ups this weekend. As it was, I heard that Universal was being kind of shitty to the cosplayers. Part of JK’s decision to go with Universal over Disney was that she didn’t want characters running around the park. With it being an unsanctioned event - and therefore no warning to tourists - there were lots of people who didn’t know that Mark, the guy who fucking lives as Dumbledore, wasn’t really a Universal employee. His costume is THAT good. He often posts in several groups as Dumbledore and it’s honestly hard to tell the difference between his cosplay and the real thing.
There’s also a guy that cosplays as Jacob, a girl that cosplays as Newt, and another girl that cosplays as Tina. Honestly, If I didn’t know they were cosplayers, I’d assume that they were employees, too. All that to say, I can understand why Universal was pretty strict this year.
Last year, they were strict-ish. There were issues with both Viktor Krum and Mad-Eye Moody’s staffs. Krum’s was allowed in, but Moody’s was not. OMG - the uproar amongst the fans!! Let’s be honest, though, Moody’s staff is an important part of pulling off the look. Krum’s is just a prop. So yeah. Sometimes, the inconsistencies with the TMs is a major pain in the ass, but it wasn’t as bad as it was this year. Again, unsanctioned. Which was part of why I wanted to stay home. Not that my cosplay is anything to write home about, but still.
Instead, I consoled myself by finally going through my photos from last year - all 727. No lie, 700 of them were the Phelps twins.
Yeah, 700.
They were the whole reason I went, but I didn’t realise that I was that obsessed with them…
this fucking anime owns my heart :: seriously, these two :: victuuri
I saw Hamilton earlier this week.
I hadn’t listened to the soundtrack, knew very little about the plot of the musical (other than it was about Hamilton), and thought the rabid Hamilton fans needed to have their heads examined.
Well.
I’m glad I saw it, but I still believe that the rabid fans need to have their heads examined.
I’ve been listening to the soundtrack because people keep telling me I’ll appreciate the musical more if I have a handle on the “dialogue”. It’s damn catchy, that’s for sure, but I felt that way in the theatre, too. The bits King George sings have been earworms since Tuesday night. BUT the dude in Fort Lauderdale was MUCH more amusing than the guy on the OBC recording.
It was a good musical, but I don’t think it met the high expectations I went in with.
But seriously—this song—the last line? BOOM!
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Life begins again on Monday. After two months of adjusting to some major life changes, it feels good to be falling back into normalcy. (Not that I’ve ever been normal, but…)
I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my Ukrainian. I feel like I’m spinning my wheels without having a tutor to guide me, but oddly enough, I’m also making some serious progress. Who knows.
Remember when I named fight one of my three words? If I win part of that fight, we’re going to celebrate by going back to Lviv. This time, I want to really be more than functional when we go.
I’m mixing it up with flashcards, a textbook, and Harry Potter. The various input methods seem to make the material stick better and it’s fun to see the number of words I don’t know get reduced with every new exercise or sentence. (Even if my reading level is below what the ‘experts’ say it needs to be.)
Життя починається знов
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As always, I disappear into the world of fan fiction when I have trouble processing the real world. Those life changes? Yeah. I’ve needed to disappear into a fantasy world and Yuri!!! On Ice fit the bill perfectly.
I love when an OTP is canon and these two… they kill me. They are the definition of beautiful cinnamon rolls too good for this world. There aren’t enough love stories like this in the world and this one is so… yeah.
And the best part is, once you hit the big twist in episode ten, you can go back to the beginning and watch it all over again with a different point of view. Plus, that second watch-through? So much better than if that had been the original plot.
And, and, and…. it’s all fucking canon. The creators said as much.
Watching that stupid anime has been the highlight of the past two months. I’ve watched it several times and it gets better every. single. time.
Their relationship is so beautiful and so well developed. Perfect little scenes like this drive the point home without beating you over the head with it.
And I can’t get enough of it…. even if it means I have to learn fucking RUSSIAN to write in-universe, canon-compliant fiction. Which is something new since I’d rather play on the outskirts of JKR’s sandbox than have to deal with her continuous ret-conning and ridiculous ‘additions’ to canon.
Then again, there’s no messing with perfection, is there?
