Bless This Mess: Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)
Like any self-respecting theatre fan, I have a complicated relationship with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Listen, I’m basic, I can enjoy me some Phantom or Cats or Joseph. But my one true ALW-penned love is and probably will always be Jesus Christ Superstar. I think it’s awesome, so much that I wrote a paper on it for a religious studies class I took in my undergrad. It chronicles essentially the last week of Jesus’ life, right up until his death on Good Friday.
And specifically, today, we’re going to dive into the 2000 filmed version of it, because it was the first version I saw when I was about 13 or 14, and therefore it has a special place in my heart. Is it the best version? No. (For my money, see if you can find a bootleg “slime tutorial” of the production that went to Broadway in 2012, it’s the best by a huge margin and I will not be taking feedback). But I do come back to this version again and again, so let’s dive in.
Bless This Mess: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas
Unfortunately, I think these books are getting better. Nobody is more upset about this than I.
If you’ve read my previous blog posts (here and here), you know the drill: Feyre is a human turned into a Faerie. She’s trying to prevent war with the King of Hybern, who’s evil, I think because he’s a faerie supremacist and wants to enslave the humans. We don’t spend a ton of time on this, honestly, so all you need to know is that he’s the bad guy.
I read this book in less than 24 hours. It’s about 700 pages long. Make your own deductions from that.
We start this novel with Feyre back in the Spring Court with her ex-lover Tamlin, and…you know what? Let’s just get into it, because Christ Almighty.
Bless This Mess: The Warriors (1979)
In theory, 1979’s The Warriors has a lot in common with the contemporary-ish Escape From New York (small group against a ton of enemies organized against them), but it’s quite a bit sillier and weirder as an artefact, which to me makes it more interesting.
It’s 1979 in New York City, and all the city’s gangs are headed uptown to a meeting called by Cyrus, head of the biggest crew, the Gramercy Riffs.
See, Cyrus (the one and only) has this plan: he wants to unite the gangs of New York and take over, because together, they outnumber the cops. And, hey, it seems like people are into this idea. Unfortunately, before anything can actually happen, Cyrus is suddenly shot dead.
The person who shot Cyrus goes unseen by almost everyone, except, of course, the audience, and a member of the Warriors, a gang from Coney Island. Naturally, the shooter immediately points the finger at the Warriors, who now have to try to get home, meanwhile every other gang in the city is out to get them for killing their leader.
Cue a mad (and messy) chase through New York City!
Bless This Mess: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Following their victory against evil queen Amarantha, newly-turned-faerie Feyre is getting ready to wed her true love Tamlin.
Or, at least, she would, if she weren’t so gosh-darn depressed.