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I ended up going to see Hadestown with L while it was touring SF. I heard from her last year that she wanted to see it, so as soon as dates in SF popped up – I apparently get all these live performances ads now on Insta, after getting Ed Gamble tickets – I texted her, and she got two tickets, intending it to be for RH and herself. But I told her that if it did not work out for him to go (because at the time he lived in Napa, and it would’ve been a long drive on a weeknight), I was happy to be her plan B, and that’s what happened. ( The show and the experience, with marked spoilers )

So, I’m glad I ended up going to see it with L. I would not have bestirred myself on my own, but listening to / watching my favorite songs from the show on YouTube, I can tell I got stuff out of the live experience that I would not have gotten otherwise, and also, I’m glad I got to see this particular Hades. And L is the perfect musical theater buddy – she likes discussing stuff and knows more than me, and in this case there was also the shared interest in Greek myth (which is what we had with the Harry Potter play, too). B would’ve absolutely hated every aspect of it, from the crowd to the jazz to the singing, which all three of us agreed on, heh.

Oh, right, and when we came home, since we were talking about how much I like bass voices, I showed L some Tim Foust videos (which aletheiafelinea introduced me to back in the day), like Champagne Taste (On a Beer Budget) and Long Black Train , and the Home Free sea shanties.

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Taskmaster s21e03 – I like Kumail’s shirt, with the white o white design. And Amy’s polka dot pinafore thing is very cute, too. ( Spoilers )

Joanna is the podcast guest, and she talks at the same density and speed as on the show, with Ed just sort of occasionally putting in a sentence or two XD ( Slight spoilers? ) Anyway, that was a ton of fun, and that was one I made a point of watching on YouTube rather than listening to, because I wanted to watch Joanna light up with laughter, and Ed’s expression as she just kept talking over him. What an absolute delight she is XD

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Hugo nominations are out! ( Category by category thoughts )

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And I should take this opportunity to finally write down my Cinder House thoughts. I read it, what, during my trip to Arizona, I think, and that’s been 6 weeks.

4. Freya Marske, Cinder House – I liked it a lot! I was not super swayed when I heard the premise – I have no particular devotion to Cinderella retellings, and ghost stories aren’t really my genre, and I wasn’t sure how this premise would play to what I’ve heretofore seen of Freya’s strengths as a writer in both pro and fanfic, but it’s just a really good book. ( More, with spoilers )

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At some point I should also catch up on another 6 months of Elis & John Radio X shows, and a ~2 months worth of current E&J and adjacent things like How Do You Cope (newly returned) and John making appearances on other podcasts to promote Thirst, but that'll need to wait. (I have preordered a signed copy of Thirst, but how I'm going to get to read it before I see cafemassolit whose house it's being shipped to is still unclear...