Chaos Attraction

An American in Paris

2023-02-12, 8:55 p.m.

Didn't sleep too well again last night, shocker (not), but was up at 8 a.m. for my double knitting class. Today she went over the tubular cast on, which was pretty cool, albeit I had to point out that it wasn't mentioned in the handouts, so she said she'd have that added on. She showed how to fix mistakes in double knitting, which I think I've mostly done by myself by now but appreciated that she showed others. At the end of the class I asked if she was going to show the bind-off options and she did do that, and I learned a cool one where the colors alternate and I loved it. I have now finished my sample and it looks adorable.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do the hat pattern she provided--mostly because I looked at the gauge and she said it was 32 stitches to 4 inches with worsted yarn and I was all DA FUCK?! because that's a gauge I can only get well, never...I'll put it this way, I can get 28 stitches with tiny fingering yarn. (Translated for the non-yarnies: I can't get the right size of this hat for fuckall.) I wanted to do it for practice if nothing else, but I'm not sure what to do about it. She said you don't have to, but I wanted the practice, so I dunno?!

In other yarn news, I sewed together the tank top, so that's done. Now to figure out how to add the sleeves somehow. Also updated the craft blog.

I went to go see An American in Paris at Woodland (Amy and Erik from my work--not the Erik I mentioned yesterday, the guy in my office only performs in Woodland) are in it. Castmate Monica was supposed to be in it, but there was an understudy...dunno what happened there.). I didn't expect to like it because it was streaming for a weekend and I tried watching it, got bored, put it on pause, went to bed...never finished. I regret to say it's pretty much that in full too. The show appears to be an excuse for people to do ballet for 2.5 hours in 1940's clothing, which is to say it's about 80% dancing and 20% plot. What little plot there is boils down to "three guys fall in love with the same ballet dancer." There was a guy in the audience near me who said he didn't really know what was going on and I agreed.

Actual plot: Our three amigos are Jerry, an American artist, a big brawny dancing forceful dude; Adam, a Jewish composer with a leg injury--he's snarky and my favorite of the bunch-- and Henri, a rich Frenchman from a prominent family who secretly wants to be a song and dance man, but his parents won't approve.

Everyone seems to think Henri is gay, including his mother, and when he brings up the topic to the guys, they're all "we'd still think the same of you if you're gay" and otherwise look awkward. Other than wanting to be a song and dance man and paying attention to women's shoes, we don't really find out for sure if Henri is gay, but everyone kind of gives him shit for wanting to propose to his girlfriend, and he thinks she "got it" and agreed without him actually proposing, and then the guys are all, "um, are you sure you're actually engaged...?" Henri talks constantly about how much he loves her and everyone is all "you probably mean platonically, right?" We find out that Henri and his parents were in La Resistance and were hiding the girlfriend (who's Jewish) after her parents were taken, so she feels loyal towards them.

Adam is composing for the ballet, which is where he's affected by Lise, Henri's um, girlfriend. Jerry is also WOWZA'd by the girl, only he actually pitches woo to her, quite frequently. He's also kind of annoying and obnoxious about it, including renaming her because he can't seem to say "Lise" and she objects, saying she likes her name, but then she gives in. She seems to want a big hunkahunk of man, which Jerry is and Henri is not. (Henri was played by Coworker Erik.) Jerry is also being wooed by Milo (odd name), a rich lady who's far more interesting and has personality and charm. Lise may be a lovely dancer, but otherwise she's kind of milquetoast and everyone seems to like her because she gives off "rescue me" vibes. So I don't like Jerry or Lise very much beyond the dancing. Adam and Milo deserve better. Well, at least Henri's parents end up accepting his career.

Beyond that, I was all "lovely dancing, needs more plot," and it turns everything it can into a dance montage or dream ballet wherever possible to avoid that dreaded plot and dialogue. Not really a show for me, but it was done well.


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