Throwing down roots in my own time
The one silver lining of the slow-motion apocalypse of the supply chain is that having each given the other IOUs for our respective birthdays, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rushthatspeaks and I were able to exchange birthday presents this evening. I had ordered him a dress of purple dragons from Princess Awesome that arrived three months late thanks in part to a typhoon; he had gotten me Sean Sherman and Beth Dooley's The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen (2017). We read through the latter hungrily. I will need to find a local source of juniper. Then he showed me Patrick McHale's Over the Garden Wall (2014), which I firmly believe should be an October tradition. Within the first few episodes, I was comparing its autumn country to Ray Bradbury and Greer Gilman; by the end of it I would add Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.P. Lovecraft, and Carl Sandburg, but a catalogue of pastiche misses the point that it while it is full of echoes and allusions and hat-tips, it is also very much its own fairy tale and as successful a new one as I have seen in ages. It is funny and eerie and awkward and poignant and intensely liminal. The time-slipped specifically New England flavor was particularly attractive to me. Plus I knew both of the opera singers in the cast, whom I hadn't been expecting at all. I would like to get hold of the soundtrack. The animation would be satisfying just to stare at, but the story seems to have rung hard with me and I am all right with that. In some ways I have had so little of this month.
rushthatspeaks and I were able to exchange birthday presents this evening. I had ordered him a dress of purple dragons from Princess Awesome that arrived three months late thanks in part to a typhoon; he had gotten me Sean Sherman and Beth Dooley's The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen (2017). We read through the latter hungrily. I will need to find a local source of juniper. Then he showed me Patrick McHale's Over the Garden Wall (2014), which I firmly believe should be an October tradition. Within the first few episodes, I was comparing its autumn country to Ray Bradbury and Greer Gilman; by the end of it I would add Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.P. Lovecraft, and Carl Sandburg, but a catalogue of pastiche misses the point that it while it is full of echoes and allusions and hat-tips, it is also very much its own fairy tale and as successful a new one as I have seen in ages. It is funny and eerie and awkward and poignant and intensely liminal. The time-slipped specifically New England flavor was particularly attractive to me. Plus I knew both of the opera singers in the cast, whom I hadn't been expecting at all. I would like to get hold of the soundtrack. The animation would be satisfying just to stare at, but the story seems to have rung hard with me and I am all right with that. In some ways I have had so little of this month.
no subject
The other point of comparison that I draw with it and must badger other people into seeing as well is The Fantasticks. There's a particular sort of Americana vibe to it, as well as the whole seasonal idea, of course. Which was your favorite segment? I love the Pottsfield episode - "You'll join us someday."
no subject
Yes! And I love how if you recognize him, he brings an entire performance history of Mephistopheles and Nick Shadow and the four villains of Les contes d'Hoffmann with him, and if you don't, it's still remarkable voice work. The cast is truly ridiculous. You want Shirley Jones, John Cleese, and Christopher Lloyd in the same project? Ta-da. Have some Tim Curry.
The other point of comparison that I draw with it and must badger other people into seeing as well is The Fantasticks.
I associate The Fantasticks so inevitably with September that an October comparison didn't occur to me, but I appreciate you bringing it up! Very strongly agreed on the Americana. The Carl Sandburg it reminded me of is specifically the Rootabaga Stories.
Which was your favorite segment? I love the Pottsfield episode - "You'll join us someday."
I don't know if I had an individual favorite, but Pottsfield—even more than the pilot—was an amazing calling card for the show. I was fairly blown away by the finale, honestly, in terms of sticking the landing.
no subject
That reprise of the opening number, with the montage, is really lovely. (Which is part of what makes me draw the Fantasticks connection, also! Drawing the curtain over everything as the snow falls.)