Sorry for the Mess✨

First look: Isa Briones as Eurydice & Jon Jon Briones as Hermes in Hadestown

Photographed by Evan Zimmerman

this is a comment on a hadestown (epic III specifically) animatic i come back to sometimes and every time this comment makes me feel deeply unwell. does this person know the impact they've had on my psyche with this. on my mental health

I really love Hadestown so here's a small fanart

I saw Hadestown recently and... the metanarrative aspects didn't need to go that hard. The entire cyclical structure with the story being acknowledged as an "old tale from way back when" that they tell again and again despite knowing the tragic ending, which is explored as precious proof of the enduring ability to hope? Orpheus and Eurydice falling in love so fast because they feel that they already know each other, they always have, and we know they're right? Hermes fluidly switching between character who emotionally invests in the doomed lovers and omniscient narrator who knows they're doomed, and the revelation in "Road to Hell (Reprise)" that he's genuinely been both from the beginning? The final song, a requiem for the living by the dead, with the cast out of character after the curtain call? When Orpheus toasts to "the world we dream about" but then also "the one we live in now" and everyone on stage looks straight at the audience for a moment of absolutely chilling silence? I was not prepared and I'm not okay.

Something that finally clicked for me when watching Hadestown live,

Hades gives Orpheus the test that he himself goes through every spring.

This really solidified in my brain when I noticed that Hades gets the red flower and is connected more solidly to the other couple. While I always understood they were mirrors, somehow the trial itself and the significance of what Hades is asking Orpheus to do never really hit me until I watched it.

But I realized that what Hades might be thinking here is, well- you may judge me for losing faith in my wife over the long course of our relationship, missing her for months at a time with few others to talk to or support me. Let's see if this romantic, bleeding heart can do that, can feel the absence of his love and his community and still keep trusting her, himself, and the system.

And he can't- one of the major themes of Hadestown is that working together and building community rather than isolating yourself and hoarding wealth is better for the heart, mind, and soul. So taking away the walls and shades and Eurydice who were supporting Orpheus leads to him doubting himself and those people and ultimately looking back.

thinking about “to know how it ends but still begin to sing it again” and “it’s a story about someone who tries” and “we raise our cups to orpheus not because he succeeds but because he tries. we understand implicitly that there’s value in his trying and even in his failure.” and “it’s a sad song but we keep singing even so.” even when you fail there is value in the fact that you tried and that you believed enough in your goal to try despite knowing you might fail. it is worthwhile to try, because you never know. maybe it will turn out this time! perseverance despite the odds is worth celebrating even if it ends in failure. success is not the only thing that matters. and you never know that the ripple effect of your actions might be. orpheus does not recuse eurydice but he succeeds in helping spring to come again and potentially in preventing other people from losing their loved ones as he did, and that is a good outcome. we do not see the effect he had on the other workers in hadestown. yes, orpheus failed, but maybe if they sing it again someone else will succeed. someone has to keep telling the story.

Who are you?

If your not happy single, you won't be happy in a relationship either. Happiness comes from musical soundtracks, not relationships.

Odysseus, while slaughtering the suitors: You must think that I'm crazy, you wanna replace me? Baby, there's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way

orpheus saying "to the world we dream about" and then turning and raising his cup to the audience when he says "and the one we live in now." fourth wall break of all time. reminding the audience that this story isn't just about hadestown, but is also about our world. stepping back into reality, just for a brief moment, to acknowledge both the joy and pain of living in that world. it is so deeply compassionate and real and it breaks my heart every time.

i often think about that split second where orpheus has turned around, the wash of relief, love, joy, love, love, love that he feels when he sees eurydice. there is darkness and doubt all around him, the ache of his feet, the feeling of defeat, and in his desperation borne of love he sees her. and for a split second, love takes over. the last thing eurydice sees is love etched into every corner of her husbands face before she is dragged back into death.

girl dinner

It's an old tale

the 5 love languages: song recommendations, parallel play, talking about The Character, offering to kill each other’s parents, gifting little trinkets

saw a tiktok of a mother taking her very tiny daughter to an art museum and she’s just walking around going “whoooa” “woooaah” to everything but then they got to a marble statue of a nude woman lying on her back and the girl points and goes “mommy🫵” and i just immediately welled up with tears and all the comments are just laughing about it and of course it’s funny but how are you not insanely moved by the way art connects everyone on earth from a centuries-old sculptor to a toddler in 2023

Mother and baby viewing Van Gogh's Madame Roulin and Her Baby at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, US. By the Boston Herald

I’m not sure how to look at art by Lynda Barry