News About Me

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TL;DR

• Hurricanes suck, help out if you can
• &Juliet is a great musical
• Many podcasts coming this month
• October schedule!
• What I'm reading/watching/playing

Helene's effects will be felt for a long time

The North Carolina and Tennessee mountains are still struggling after the hurricane (I mean the terrible one two weeks ago, not the terrible one about to hit Florida.) Some communities, like my hometown of Banner Elk, "only" lost bridges, roads, power, water, and sewer infrastructure, while several communities (like some in Asheville) simply aren't there anymore. If there's anything you can do to help, here are some good places to start. 

My family and friends are okay, but everyone has trees down, a field on Dad's property has been flooded with mud, and there is water damage to houses.

Culture!

Last Sunday night we say & Juliet, which I had heard was good but I had no idea what it was about apart from "What if Juliet didn't die when she saw Romeo dead?" The framing really made it shine, with William Shakespeare bragging on how awesome and tragic this play is, but his wife Anne says "nope, you've not written a sonnet about me, you portray no happy marriages** and for once I want a female hero with agency. Let me have a crack at this."

Juliet moves to Paris with her nurse, and her two best friends, May and April. May is a trans girl and April is played by Anne. When Shakespeare objects to having a trans girl in the play, Anne says "this from the man who popularized men playing female characters who often disguise themselves as men?"

(Image of the pink and yellow & Juliet logo because I couldn't find any good photos of the current touring cast)

The last thing I'll say about it is that it shocked me for its quality as a jukebox musical. After seeing the terrible Girl From the North Country my husband and I realized most jukebox musicals aren't for us. But the songs chosen for &Juliet fit the scenes effortlessly. It opens with "I Want It That Way" which had William and Anne arguing over the content of the play. May has a heartbreaking moment alone where she sings "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman," and then when Juliet accidentally gets engaged to someone after a few hours together, we get "Oops I did it Again."

Highly recommended.

Digital Goodies

Blatantly stealing this from Cat Rambo, I've made a digital calendar for you with some important days, some silly days, some important I Should Be Writing days and livestreams, and more. October (even though we're a week in) is up now!

Hey, if you think this is fun and want to suggest anything else, (say, wordcount tracker, zoom/meet backgrounds, phone backgrounds featuring the tiny mur art, or just the reminder that you should be writing), let me know in the comments!

(screenshot of october calendar page including Global cat day and National Coming Out day.)

Media and stuff

Things I'm playing: I'm having a lot of fun with the new Stardew Valley content while I wait patiently for October 31 when Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes out!

TV Shows I've been watching, Midnight Mass (Netflix limited horror series about Catholics on an island) and KAOS (Netflix dark comedy about Greek gods in present day - and I just found out they canceled it this week. DAMN YOU NETFLIX.).

Books I'm reading: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, Hampton Heights by Dan Kois.

I've probably said enough. Otherwise i won't have stuff for the next mailing.

Thanks for reading this far. Stay safe, stay kind.

Mur

*The process is: download video, strip audio, edit audio, run it through translation, write show notes, clean up translation, post show notes on my blog, libsyn, Patreon, and Substack, get appropriate art and links, and then schedule. 7 episodes took me 2 days.

** Will's response was: "I'm working on one right now. It's called MACBETH."

***Hey look, a PUN.

****Not sponsored --I really do like them that much.