aradia22

I have a date Monday at 9pm. Weird time but I randomly wanted to go to a thing and I didn't want to pay the 2-drink minimum so I bought the tickets and found a date. Hopefully this one works out and I don't get another last minute cancellation. We've barely chatted but hopefully it goes okay. As long as I don't get murdered, I'm good. Lowered expectations. His messages fall into what others here have described as generic fishing but at least his grammar and spelling is good and he doesn't seem completely insane. Not really red flags on his profile but he trends nerdy and there are some comments I'm side-eyeing. But nothing major. Just stuff that someone else might swipe past.

Thought people on here might enjoy the tiny taste of MJ Rodriguez (Blanca) singing Little Shop of Horrors. I'll keep an eye out for any press clips from the production. I saw her live in a show in summer 2016. It was a terrible show about Scrabble and I don't know how far she was into her transition but her voice was a little rough. While I do think they sweeten her vocals for Pose, her voice is definitely much better in these clips than it was in 2016. Natalie Wynn has talked about her discomfort with her voice through her transition. I can't imagine how that would be magnified for someone like MJ who has a musical theater/singing background. It's great to hear her live vocals sounding so strong.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Rupert-Everett-Replaces-Eddie-Izzard-in-WHOS-AFRAID-OF-VIRGINIA-WOOLF-on-Broadway-20190911 My interest has plummeted.

I remember a similar Kim Kardashian lawsuit. I think it was Old Navy. But the real clincher is if they can prove this I have no idea what the legalities are of, for example, selling a knockoff of Beyonce's Hold Up yellow dress and shooting an ad with a barefoot model holding a baseball bat next to a fire hydrant. How much can you claim ownership of images and ideas? But a breakdown of talks is a lot harder to argue around if there's documentation (as there must have been if they were in negotiations).

Timing and physical appearance are so weird in the acting world. Do you have the right look for the movies people want to make and audiences want to see at a particular moment in time determines so much. I think Gruffuld is somewhere in that Hugh Grant/Pierce Brosnan zone. He's not like a Hugh Jackman who was already tall and fit and continued to bulk up for the superhero movies. And people stopped making the kind of mid-tier historical dramas, rom-coms, and slick spy thrillers you'd picture him in. I feel like there is a world where Ioan Gruffudd finds the right part. Like, his version of Sherlock or The Crown or The Bodyguard. There's a lot of luck involved. It's not even necessarily about finding good writing. You can stumble into a Big Bang Theory or Hawaii Five 0 reboot.

I was watching something for It Chapter Two and thought "I didn't know Karl Urban was in this movie." Turns out it's Jay Ryan. What is it with Australia churning out these giants with perfect bone structure? Hugh Jackman. Jai Courtney. The Hemsworths. There's some variety but a lot of these guys are definitely going up for the same roles or they could be each other's body doubles if they were less famous.

New musical alert! No reason to think it'll come in this season but there are empty theaters come spring and quick transfers are not out of the ordinary these days so I'm keeping an eye on this one. https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Breaking-Rob-McClure-To-Lead-The-World-Premiere-Of-MRS-DOUBTFIRE-At-The-5th-Avenue-Theatre-20190905

Having trouble picking a September Amazon First Read... Everything You Are: Plot sounds overly complicated. Pretty cover. I can't tell how they're marketing this. Could be chick lit. Could be highbrow-ish like Meg Wolitzer. It also sounds a little Hallmark/Harlequin but with a fancy cover. The Dressmaker's Gift: I do like seamstresses, clothing designers, etc. as main characters if there's some research there. But I am so tired of WWII and split timeline (past and present) stories. They're terrible trends that need to die, especially when they're both in play. Drowning with Others: Big Little Lies secret mystery thriller vibes. The blurb sounds good but I'm wary of knockoffs. The Vine Witch: I'm leaning towards this one if not Drowning with Others. The description sounds a bit silly but I do like historical fiction with a magical twist. It seems to be hinting at a romance but I can deal with it if that's not the main focus (I like to keep my proper romances separate from the rest of my reading). My hesitation is whether there's just some magic for a bit of color or if it's VERY magic. I'm not into too much fantasy or sci-fi unless I'm specifically looking for something in that genre.

It's difficult to think of a real life equivalent of Tahani because Kamilah makes no sense. She's an art world darling and a pop star and who remembers what else. Like, Madonna if people took her attempts to be deep more seriously. Or Angelina Jolie + Lady Gaga? Anyway, I was thinking of Pippa Middleton as a Tahani analog. I've heard of her but I wouldn't fawn over her. And while I watch fewer British shows now, even when I was watching QI and Buzzcocks and X Factor UK, there were plenty of people from Made in Chelsea and I'm a Celebrity and Big Brother who would be well-known socialites and tabloid fodder in the UK who I'd never heard of. I guess it depends on how much of what we've been shown/told that we can trust. Like, we've seen Michael "torturing" the humans in his fake Good Place, though arguably it's considerably lighter torture than they could expect in the Bad Place. We saw Michael at a desk job before he got promoted to fake architect but he could conceivably have been involved in regular demon torture. I can't recall if we've gotten confirmation of that but if we have, that would suggest he is really a demon. I've expressed that I'm tired of him getting dunked on all the time. Him not being a demon would explain why he's so bad at comebacks or being all that evil with the other demons now that he has nothing to hide. It does not explain why so many people would be lying to cover up that Michael is really an angel (Shawn, Gen, Trevor, Vicky, etc.) since we have plenty of scenes where they wouldn't be lying for the benefit of the humans. So plenty of people seem to think Michael is a demon. With my rudimentary knowledge of Catholicism, aren't demons supposed to be fallen angels? I can see it basically as the show has laid it out. He was always a demon but demons have the potential to change. They aren't all just comically evil like Trevor. And by helping the humans, he can earn angel status. Or get into the Good Place. Whatever. This chance for redemption wasn't a system that was always in place but it will be going forward. We frequent different internet places. I've heard all kinds of synonyms for trash and garbage used to describe people for years.

One thing that immediately jumped out at me reading your post is that by throwing in the gossip blogger, Shawn already messed up the experiment. One of the biggest parts of Michael's argument was that the world is too complicated and that a big reason that the original 4 improved once they got to the "Good Place" is that the things that were pushing them to be bad had been removed. If you buy that then putting John with Tahani is bringing in something from earth that negatively impacted his ability to be good. Yes, she's a person but for how he treated her she might as well be an object. If John is a smoker trying to quit, Tahani is a box of cigarettes. Unless there's an Eleanor analog, it feels like the only thing that would motivate the new humans to improve is to learn they're actually in the Bad Place. But as we learned, that corrupts their motivations. Maybe Eleanor can come up with something like... there's a random machine that will play memories from your time on earth or pick a flavor of froyo or assign you the animal you're supposed to bond to, etc. and one or more of the new humans will keep getting bad things until they're forced into a crisis about how they don't belong in the Good Place. Though, again, I think that risks tipping off that it's the Bad Place. This. I love a good romance. This is not a good romance. I wouldn't say the problem is that they were antagonists but that they were clearly friends more than lovers. But everything else about how their relationship has been developed off screen or in flashbacks rings true. It's all artificial, like the writers just expect us to go with it because it's been decreed as canon even though it was developed all wrong and out of order. I could see John not being a join-er like Eleanor initially hated doing things with the group. This version of the Good Place is definitely a suburban ideal... very Stepford with all the community events. Maybe Janet will order all her babies to not be snarky so John is forced to play nice and it starts to make him crazy that no one takes any joy in mocking a Tahani or a Larry Hemsworth. Michael/Janet and Michael/Eleanor are my actual ships. Not romantically. I just think that either of those pairings feel like soul mates who should be together for eternity. Well, they're the ones who think Chidi needs to teach ethics. Technically all they have to do is show the humans improving once they're in a more sterile environment free from the distractions of earth. So yeah, maybe Simone does fine on her with the unintended consequences removed. I felt like Shawn was suspicious when he was saying how lucky they were that she happened to die in time for the experiment. Also, we know quite well that the higher ups haven't been very attentive to the happenings on earth. I wouldn't be surprised if the demons did something shady. As far as I know, they still have their portal. It wouldn't have to be murder. They could have just caused an accident like the ones that befell most of our Brainy Bunch.

This supports my idea that another demon would have done a better job of torturing humans in a complicated simulation. Sure, maybe it would have been hard to sell it as the Good Place but otherwise, someone else definitely could have managed psychological torture better than Michael.

So John is a bad swishy gay stereotype of a gossip blogger. I'm happy Simone is back even if it forks up their plans. I like that actress/character. I feel like this show's ideas about the Good Place and Bad Place can be hit or miss but they're developing something intriguing about the self and identity with the way the Brainy Bunch/Soul Squad have been rebooted (mostly Chidi and Eleanor because the shipping makes them a big focus) and Janet. I don't hate the mind wipe because I still feel like Chidi and Eleanor give off platonic best friend energy. And once again the show is trying to make me board the ship by showing a montage of flashbacks. That's not how it works! I'm excited for season 4. I hope there's less filler this time. It feels like they're in a good place (ha!) to resolve everything if they know what they want to do.

That story about Big Noodle was more like the Jason we first met when he was pretending to be a monk before they made him too stupid to function. Derek has been going through his own resets! Amazing. I still feel like Eleanor and Chidi have more friend energy than romantic chemistry. Whenever the actors have to be romantic and they aren't just kissing they look so distant to me. Like, of course I like Nice Michael. But I've had enough of the other demons dunking on him. Just because he's changing, it doesn't mean that he can never have a comeback and always gets psyched out.

I feel like this is a slightly different argument than the one the show is making at this point. Like the example of roses is more of a problem of privilege and globalization and commercialism and exploitative capitalism. It's not putting in the research to see what dyes were used in manufacturing your clothes or just eating radishes and lentils from your home garden when you know that most food industries are doing terrible things. But what you're describing, which I agree with, would complicate the system in a different way. It's not about the unintended consequences but closer to college admissions. It's saying you can't just look at grades, you have to look at the whole person and their background.

Not saying I agree but I think a big point of visiting the accountants was to learn about the system. Every time a person does a new thing, it gets assigned a point total. That point total is never reevaluated after that time which is why things would weigh relatively differently as the world becomes more complicated. Probably why the accountants were in that old fashioned cubicle-style office working off those old computers. This reminds me of another specific show but I think it happens a lot. Writers see that the audience likes a dumb character or they find the character funny. Character proceeds to devolve until they are too stupid to live or to be understood as anything but a child and it becomes uncomfortable to see them in romantic relationships, etc.