An Update and an Unrelated Story

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Hey all, I’m sorry I haven’t been updating and I’m sorry that I haven’t finished watching/reviewing The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo. I’m not going to go into reasons or excuses as to why as they pertain to matters of my personal life and I am not going there on this platform. All I really can say I’m not sure when I will get back to those review posts. Just know that I would like to at some point. For now posts will remain sporadic.

And now an unrelated story.

Helene Segara as Esmeralda Notre Dame de Paris picture image
Helene Segara as Esmeralda Notre Dame de Paris

So I also write Hunchback content on Hubpages. Way back in the before times of 2011 I did a page on Esmeralda’s green costume from Notre Dame de Paris. She wears this costume throughout the first act. You can see that hub here.

On this page I compare the different versions of the costume from production to production. Mostly the costume is fairly consist from cast to cast with minimum differences in the overall design. Basically aside from the Italian version, which deviated in design very early on from the Original French version and the Korean version being darker, the costume has remained mostly unchanged from the original 1998 design.

There some changes though. For instance the costume was getting tighter and shorter especially from 2012 to 2015. Good for sex appeal but not for dancing. In 2021 I decided to update all my hubpages which is still an ongoing thing since many require a lot more work. I should mention that prior to my update of the Esmeralda’s green costume page I hadn’t updated it since 2015, a year before the current World Tour production, can’t really say cast since the cast has changed since 2016.

In the 2015 update of my page, I added an observation which basically said that the costume needed a redesign because the newer iterations lacked movement. And in 2016 they did update the costume along with some others in the musical.

Hiba Tawaji as Esmeralda 2016/2017 Notre Dame de Paris picture image
Hiba Tawaji as Esmeralda

The new version of Esmeralda’s green costume has lots layers of lightweight fabric to show off the performer’s movement.

COINCIDENCE?

Maybe. It is suspect though given the timing. Perhaps my obsessive breakdown of the costume gave the production the idea to do a redesign. Perhaps it was parallel thought. Perhaps my page was one voice amongst many asking for a change. I do not know. More than likely it’s a case of parallel thought and the production and I had the idea independently of each other. The simplest explanations are typically the most likely.

Would I like to think I had something to do with it? Yes I would.

It is nice to see that the costume got more movement since that should add to the overall experience for the audience who is watching the musical live. And I guess I can comment on that further when I see it next month (July 2022) in New York City!

Site Update

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This a small but a very important update regarding  posts moving forward. 

In the past I have tried to separate the word usage of Romani and the Romani characters in Hugo’s novel and various adaptations of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. My thought was that for the collective group of  people I would use “Romani” and when referencing characters like Esmeralda I used the word that  the adaptations and Hugo’s novel often used. 

I no longer feel it is appropriate to use the “G-word” in this or any capacity anymore and I will just not be using that term in any posts moving forward. I will just call any Romani character as such.  (Edit- the words I will use will be either “Travelers” or “Nomads.” )

I was on the fence about using the term  for direct quotes like if I was quoting a lyric like from Hellfire  for example but I think I will censor the word if I’m quoting something.  Which I don’t often do but could come up. 

This also extends to any and all Facebook and Twitter posts I make and Hubpages articles I write on Hunchback. The point of the matter is I will just no longer use that derogatory word again in blogging, a social media capacity or in my daily life. 

I don’t know if  I will edit past posts at this point but I might. The possibility exists. I have been editing my Hubpages articles that are Hunchback in content albeit slowly. 

I’m making this post for transparency. It’s  not for “kudos”or to show that I’m a oh so enlightened white person. It’s a hateful, ignorant word and shouldn’t be used. No one can change how the word was used in past versions or the book but we can move beyond it.

I’m not a filmmaker so I don’ know how future versions will handle using that word but I do hope they air on the understanding side with regards to the Romani.

(Regarding Comments, in the past I have kept them turned off due to mental health issues. I’m allowing them right now on this post for the moment (3 months as I have the setting on right now.) I really don’t think I will get any comments since the blog has been in a state of hiatus since 2019. If you do leave a comment be respectful. I will delete and ban any troll/out-right rude comments.

Next Hunchback Version…. maybe?

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Kenneth Haigh as Frollo 1977 Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Kenneth Haigh as Frollo 1977 Hunchback of Notre Dame

According to this poll 

Next Version for Review?

  • 1977 (67%, 14 Votes)
  • Dingo version (24%, 5 Votes)
  • Other (Please Says in the Comments) (10%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 21

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the next review will be the 1977 British TV version, unless somehow between now and when I actually sit down and re-watch the movie that poll dramatically changes. Don’t think that will happen since I didn’t promote the poll. I will just say this for now, I’m not looking forward to watching this version, I don’t like it. I more than likely won’t start reviewing till maybe end of September or Early October but you never know maybe could be next week.  I still feel really burnt-out from Once Upon a Time which was suppose to be my break from being burnt-out on Hunchback. It’s kind of funny how the movie series I reviewed seemed to add to my crazy instead of helping.

 

 

Another Ballet Postponement

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I’m writing this at 2am and this very much off the cuff. If you read my twitter, I said I might not have make all any posts this week but I am some what conditioned to get posts out on days when I allocate posts.  I’m not 100% sure that is a good thing and honestly not sure how much I should reveal in a blog post. I will say that I have had a very emotional draining week and it won’t get much better. I will say that it will likely get much worse for me before it gets any better.

In all likelihood I may switch to posting less frequently but trying to up the quality because I have another ideas for posts but since I feel that I have to get a post out I tend to post a video or something which probably isn’t the most interesting thing to find, for either long time visitors or people stumbling across a page. It’s just a hard habit to break.

Minor heads up, I may stop reviewing Once Upon a Time after season 4. I’m just not sure if people are enjoying the posts. If you are enjoying them let me know or if there a specific episode you want me to review in particular Let me know. I haven’t fully decided if I will stop reviewing the episodes yet but I have like half of season 4 written so it seems like if I do stop than that is the logical place.

Sorry if this post is all over the place. Again I’m sorry I’m so behind with the ballet. I feel bad about that.

 

Man Who Laughs; Let’s be Real

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So let’s be really real for a minute. I think It’s pretty damn apparent that I am not digging The Man Who Laughs but it more could be that blogging about X many chapters per week isn’t REALLY working with this book so much as it’s slow paced. Also I have just been getting my ass-kicked in my day-to- day life with personal stuff and other stuff, so reading this book isn’t really high on my list of how I want to use my time and while I don’t get a ton of comments  mostly, I do just get the feeling that no one REALLY cares about these posts.

More or less the reason why I do a few chapters at a time is that I’m a notoriously slow reader so it just made sense to do that way and it gives me content for a few months and content is what blogs need to live. But it’s a double edge sword, it’s giving me content but if it’s boring people then it’s no good to any of us.

I’m just really disappointed because I have wanted to read this book for awhile and I thought it was a good idea but ultimately it’s not working and I’m not really enjoying the book, I sort of enjoyed blogging about the lack of interesting plot but at 37% a little more than four things should have happen and this English Court stuff is dull.

So here are some questions, I’m I wrong and are this post working and enjoyable? Or Should I just read the book and do one post on that and watch the movies/mini-series like I intended? For the record, I have a bad track record of not finishing things so I do want to finish what I have started.

Are the Man who Laugh Post working?

  • Yeah, keep at them (56%, 5 Votes)
  • No, move on (44%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 9

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And then after that, two options, Read The Phantom of the Opera, which I have read before and is more enjoyable and it connects to Hunchback or take a break from books post for awhile and blog about a certain TV show that deals with fairy tales (you can guess it). Or something else, make a suggestion but please be serious about it, I’m not really in the mood for silliness.

After the Man who Laughs posts

  • Phantom of the Opera book (63%, 5 Votes)
  • Tv Show (25%, 2 Votes)
  • Other (leave a comment with suggestion) (13%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 8

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Let me know what you think!

The Man who Laughs; An Interlude

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Taking a break from the Book posts for this week. I had considered on taking the whole week off from posting and I still may but I haven’t totally decided, may just reschedule a few instead, making it simpler on myself.

 

If there are no Posts in the next few days

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I try to get a post out everyday. Many times I schedule post a few days ahead of release however if posts become irregular or stop after Thursday it is because of a huge storm that   is predicted to hit the East Coast of the USA (Frankenstorm). The storm hits sunday but I’ve have post schedule till Thursday.  I’m not sure if the storm will hit or if I will loss power but I thought I would just leave a fair warning in case.