Have you heard about Hamilton yet? Elizabeth already mentioned it, so let's go on about it even more!

It's kind of ridiculous how obsessed I can get with a few musicals. I was obsessed with Avenue Q when it came out, long before I finally saw it. I was on a Book of Mormon kick for months after I saw it this year and listened to it on repeat obsessively for two months. And then i was all, "I should stop this, seriously, it's been two months" and then like a week or two later, the Hamilton soundtrack came out on NPR and I remembered oh yeah, I've heard about this before and...SHA-BOOM.

What's it about? It's described as "the story of America then, told by America now." I'm gonna describe it as, "the founding of America, as told by a bunch of rappers doing musical theater and it's awesome. Is it that big of a deal? Yes. Here's the soundtrack on YouTube. Here's a character guide. There's annotated lyrics and more explanations and apocrypha and demos and Lin-Manuel Miranda doing his own annotations.

Seriously, I kinda can't think about anything else other than Hamilton, and a lot of other people are having the same problem. I love how like every other week Metafilter is having another Hamilton thread and people can't stop themselves from making jokes at every possible opportunity.

I am now all obsessed with reading biographies of the people in the show.
* Alexander Hamilton.
* Hamilton and Burr. (Interview with the author of this one here.)
* LAFAYETTE!
* Washington.
I'm currently writing a review of the book I read on Jefferson right now, I just got a book on Burr and someone else snagged the John Adams already at the library, darn it! Hell, I even watched 1776. Also, you know your life has gone a little crackpot when you find yourself reading stuff like The Federalist Freestyle and Aaron Burr's Sex Dungeon Tumblr. (Note: Not actually X-rated whatsoever, semi-frequently has actual historical content, a lot about his personal journal about how he'd sleep with prostitutes, make regrettable purchases and be traumatized by a zit and can't stop falling and nearly died of ice cream brain freeze and set himself on fire. Basically he was a human disaster.)

Now, I can't actually see the show. Probably not for YEARS since it would probably cost me two months worth of salary to fly out there, get tickets, and stay somewhere, assuming I could even get tickets and I can't exactly fly out there to do the $10 lottery draw (known as Ham4Ham, where they do memorable pre-shows you can watch online). I am NOT A CITY GIRL by any means, San Francisco frequently gives me the wiggins, and I do not want to go to New York because I figure it's even crazier than San Francisco except the weather's even worse, there's no hippies, and everyone's wearing black. I'm about 95-99% sure I'd hate the place and go curl up in a corner while screaming. However, I'd almost kinda want to go just to see this show. (Annoyingly, the one person I know of rich enough to go--a friend of my mom's--doesn't wanna because there's rap. Ugh.) But...realistically I'll have to wait for four years like I did to see Book of Mormon. Dammit. Oh well.
Though the new headline these days is Now You Won’t Be Able To Get Hamilton Tickets In Chicago Either, so....

And yet, despite most of us not being able to see the show, there’s plenty of fandom going on. Wanna join in if you haven’t already?

Misc. links for you to read:
* Hamilton gift guide.
* It's cool to care, says Alexander Hamilton.
* The John Adams rap cut from the show.
* Hamilton's bling.
* A roundup of links, mostly based on his hotness.
* I want a pattern for this.
* Mark Watches Hamilton.
* The one scene not in the soundtrack.
* TV Tropes.
* Hamilton Hogwarts Sorting.
* The election of 1800 was even wilder than you thought.
* 60 Miinutes on this.
* The women of Hamilton.
* Shaping history.
* The dating profiles of the characters.
* Hamilton’s probable bisexuality with John Laurens.
* Why does everyone hate Aaron Burr?
* Last night's Hamilton Jeopardy questions.

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