#022: Tybalt Can Get It
Pop culture and home comforts for December
The front door
'Tis the damn season for reflection. But not too much, 'cos we ain't mirrors.
Let’s get into this Cosy Nonsense!
Library
Books
THE LIBRARY IS HERE—Not to be dramatic, but spending time in this room is like visiting a holy shrine. Or a Lady Gaga concert. It's not all finished, but enough for one to sit and stare at a wall of books, imagine the tomes that will one day fill the empty shelves, contemplate the stories that have already been consumed and those that are yet to be, and generally heckin' zen out.
Lounge
Movies
Romeo + Juliet (1996)—Embarrassing confession time! I was deeply into this movie throughout high school and did everything that was possible fandom-wise as a young teen with limited access to the internet in the early 2000s. I smashed the soundtrack. I could recite everyone’s lines. I obsessed over the characters. I made fanart.
Well, I rewatched it the other night and, surprisingly for a 90s movie (although perhaps not for one squarely based on one of the Bard’s plays), it still stands.
Baz Luhrmann's talent and genius is palpable throughout the Red Curtain trilogy, i.e. Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge!. All of these movies are brilliant and will probably feature in The Brew at later dates, but I'm starting with the most tragic.
We all know how R+J goes. Eeeeeeeeveryone who watches a movie titled Romeo and Juliet knows exactly what happens, how it happens, etc. So the creativity is not in the storyline so much as in the execution of it, and I imagine that as a director that presents both a challenge and a magnificent opportunity.
Look, there's a high chance that I'll dedicate a whole newsletter to dissecting this movie because I still have many feelings about it. What I'll say here is that if you haven't seen this version, it's absolutely worth a watch, even if you don't care about reckless teenagers yeeting themselves off this mortal coil. The music, the devastating queerness of Harold Perrineau's Mercutio and John Leguizamo's Tybalt, the costumes, the colours, the use of neon lighting and religious imagery in the set designs… it's a visual and auditory slap in the face tempered evenly with iambic pentameter and 16th century English. What a ride.
The first scene in particular is just *chef’s kiss*, but if you can't be bothered watching the full two and a half minutes, skip to 1:55 to see John Leguizamo's dapper, terrifying, camp portrayal of Tybalt, Prince of Cats. Yowza.
Music
Zen (with K.Flay & grandson) by X Ambassadors—This song was created when Cake’s Short Skirt / Long Jacket swallowed a smart phone whole in 2014 and, after years of contemplating what this meant on a cosmic level, spat out the resulting tune and attributed it to a bunch of musicians whose names are all too ridiculous to actually exist.
Listen for when you need some peace but are very angry about it.
Kitchen & Garden
Plamps
Terrarium—Glob knows I love me a terrarium, particularly the kind that are sealed and continue to live for years in their own quiet little bubble, surviving and thriving with exactly all they need, shut off from the world…
I'm sure there's nothing to read into there.
This beautiful specimen was found at a local Christmas market, and was purchased as much for the majestic jar as for its contents.
And another thing…
Find more of my stuff on my website: Oddfeather Creative
The Brew is created and sent from the lands of the Gunaikurnai people and I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which I live and work, and pay my respects to the Elders, past and present.