Update #24 - April/May 2021 (Patreon)

HELLO!

This update has run so late and so long that I’ve decided it will be the update for both April and May. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and I hope it was worth the wait!

Before I start, thank you to everyone who has continued to support me, and thank you especially to my newest patrons: Loren Patton, Eric, Erin Kowlewski, GarbageSalt, McKenzie Fritz, Max Dunn, Paige Wilson, Greta Robison, Seth Peacock, Bo the Tiger, Estee Chaimson, Nicole Maunsell, and Emily Williams!

Thank you all so much; it really means a lot to me to have your support!

WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO?

You might remember that back in September I found two black swallowtail caterpillars on my parsley plant.

After a couple weeks and lots of parsley, they turned into chrysalises!

Since the weather was already growing cold, I overwintered them in my basement.

A few weeks ago, I brought them back upstairs. I placed the sticks that their chrysalises were attached to beneath an overturned mesh hamper.

After a little bit of time (and several lamentations on my part that they had probably died during the winter), Mayo popped out of his chrysalis!

I soaked a paper towel with a water and honey mixture in case Mayo got hungry while his wings dried overnight.

I decided against releasing him next to my house due to the amount of birds that are usually on my lawn. I was afraid he would be gobbled up as soon as I let him out! So in the morning, Aidan and I went to a nearby cemetery to release him.

Only a day or two later, Kewpie emerged from his chrysalis!

As with Mayo, we released Kewpie in the cemetery.

It was really cool to watch them grow from little caterpillars into butterflies! I’m so happy that I got to see it.

I’ve also been gardening, now that the weather has warmed up!

I got a bunch of seeds and germinated them in torn-apart egg cartons, in a mixture of one part coffee grounds and one part dirt. By far the most successful so far have been my squash seedlings, though both the carrots and the lettuce have survived their plantings, and the tomatoes and the jalapenos are going to go in the ground soon!

My friends have set up a couple of raised garden beds in their yard, and a bunch of us have contributed plants and have been given permission to stop by to check up on the plants whenever we feel like it. It’s become something I really look forward to!

Finally, I bought some shiso seeds by mail order! I adore the taste of shiso, but I haven’t been able to find anywhere that sells it. I’m hoping to successfully grow some of my own!

If you’d like to hear more about my plants, I showed them all off and talked about them at excruciating length in this Instagram video.

WHAT HAVE I BEEN WORKING ON?

For the past couple months, I’ve been experimenting with turning the characters from my diary comics into papercraft puppets and filming them in sync with prerecorded audio. This was very time-consuming at first, but as I’ve started amassing a library of various characters, limbs, props, backgrounds and so forth, they’ve become much easier! 

I’ve continued working on Skatepark Shakespeare, aka Romeo And Juliet But Gay And At The Skatepark. I finished my first pass at the script, printed in out, and made lots of notes while watching several different adaptations for inspiration.

Having run out of room for notes, I’m now typing up the second pass at the script. I’ve added a lot of lines back in that I had originally cut, and am making notable (though not total) progress on deciding what text from the play will be replaced with modern slang.

LET’S TALK ABOUT: MY ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS

A while back, I asked what people would like to see covered in my next update, and the overwhelming majority of the votes were for me to discuss the organizational systems I use.

In an ideal world, I’d consistently use all of these tools, but the reality is that I drop off from using them for days, or even weeks, at a time. Still, when I do use them, they help me out a lot.

1: Wall Calendar

In my monthly update from November 2020, I mentioned using a wall calendar to track the habits I wanted to work on every day. I took this habit system from the book Elastic Habits by Stephen Guise. What this entails hasn’t really changed since my November 2020, so check out that post for more information!

2: Daily Planner

In that same November 2020 post, I discussed how I use my planner. My current planner layout looks a lot like it did then. I’m currently using a Hobonichi Techo Weeks, which I’m quite enjoying.

On the left page, each day still has a color-coded to-do list: pink for time-sensitive tasks such as jobs, events, or appointments; blue for non-habit, non-time-sensitive tasks; and purple for habits. However, I’ve now lumped habits under a single bullet point, which can be checked off when I’ve completed all the squares from that day in my habit tracker.

On the right page, I still have my mood tracker, which tracks my mood from high to low on a ten-point scale. I've found that being able to see how my mood changes from day-to-day over the course of weeks and months allows me to track my natural fluctuations in energy and pinpoint regular stressors. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this might be the single most important tool out of everything I've talked about here. 

Next, I’ve added a habit tracker. This has proved easier than writing each habit out every day. I have chores (which encompasses ‘house chores’ and ‘room chores’; see below for how those are assigned and managed), budget (I have a second notebook that I track my finances in that I update it every day so that I always have a good idea of how much money is coming in and out; it's a standard date/description/amount/balance table), and my three daily “elastic habits” (which I discussed above): draw, write, and exercise.

Below my habit tracker, I have a box telling me what this week’s task for my Patreon is.

Finally, I have a running list of emails, texts, and calls I owe replies to. This is a very new addition, and I’m still trying to find a good format for it.

I haven’t been able to give myself the “good job!” stickers lately, because I’ve run very low on stickers, and haven't found anywhere convenient to restock. Very unfortunate!

3: Chore Board #1

House chores (chores that affect the common areas of the house) are assigned every week at the end of house dinner. A die roll or rock-paper-scissors is used to decide who goes first. That person chooses a chore card from the deck, then passes the remaining cards to the next person, and so on until all of the chores have been assigned. 

4: Chore Board #2

Room chores (chores that only affect my partner and I, such as cleaning our room or caring for our pets) are tracked on this clipboard. Once a chore has been completed, the binder clip is flipped down to signal that it’s already been done. The binder clip along the bottom tracks the day of the week.

5: Pomodoro Technique

I use the Pomodoro Technique when working at my desk on things such as drawing, writing, or packing orders. I use traditional 25-minute segments, and I generate my list of tasks by referring to my planner (discussed above). I made my reusable list from a piece of stationery that I placed inside a clear plastic sleeve. This way, I can use a dry erase marker for the list and tallies, so I can wipe the list clean when I'm done and rewrite it when I'm ready to begin again.

6: Block Scheduling

I learned about Block Scheduling from this video. If you are interested in learning more about it, I recommend watching, as it can explain far better than I could, but the basic premise is that you divide your day into predetermined blocks of time which each contain predetermined activities, which reduces decision fatigue about what you should be doing at any given moment.

Referencing the master schedule I have hanging next to my bed (see above), I use a piece of scratch paper to write up the day’s blocks, each block’s timeframe, and list each block’s activities (see below). As I move through my day, I cross items off the list.

This tool is the most difficult for me to use consistently, but when I can manage it, it’s incredibly helpful, especially when I have a lot of work to complete during a largely unstructured day. I’m going to need to re-do my master list though, as my schedule has changed significantly.

WHAT HAVE I BEEN CONSUMING?

The Backups: A Summer of Stardom by Alex DiCampi (writer), Lara Kane (artist), Ted Brandt (inks), and Dee Cunniffe (designer?)

The characters are easy to tell apart, and have clearly defined stakes. The character designs were pretty good, and I appreciated that the majority of pages included a background (I find that multi-person graphic novel art teams often leave these out, or use them minimally, which prevents the action from feeling grounded).

Some of the humor already felt painfully out of date (ex: “A+ human, so person, much human”) for being published in 2021. I also couldn’t really buy into the rival band; it really felt like the creators had no idea what the metal and/or punk scenes (which they seem to have conflated) are actually like. (Also, there was a healthy sprinkle of copaganda, which puts me off any piece of media immediately.)

Overall, this graphic novel about backup singers headed out on a pop tour was solidly “Ok, I guess.”

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

This audiobook is VERY long; I’ve been chipping away at it slowly for the past eight months. The first, larger part of the audiobook follows the generally chronological mythology of Springsteen's life up until his second marriage; the second, shorter part jumps around a lot more from anecdote to anecdote.

Since there wasn't a waitlist for this book, I was able to endlessly renew my Libby loan, rather than hurry through it, so I took my time and listened to each of his albums as it surfaced in the narrative. I really enjoyed this approach; it gave me a lot of context for where each album fell in the timeline of his life, and what circumstances or feelings inspired it. I felt it gave me a better view of both the narrative of his life and his music. He also often discussed the production side of things, which were interesting for me to try and listen for, since I don't have much knowledge about that area of music.

I really enjoyed the whole experience. I feel like I now have a much deeper appreciation for Bruce Springsteen both as a musician and a storyteller.

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisen

The first book of this trilogy throws so much at you in just the first bit of the prologue that I had to listen to the first 20 minutes twice over to absorb everything. The worldbuilding is dense and masterful; every aspect of it has been thought through thoroughly. The narrative, especially in the first book, raises two questions for each one it answers; it feels like the mysteries surrounding the characters and the world get deeper with each revelation.

This trilogy is utterly enthralling; it’s been a while since I’ve been so actively excited to keep picking a book back up. I flew through each book in about a week. It brought me to the brink of tears many times. Besides the fantastic world-building, the characters are rich and nuanced, and you get really invested in what’s going to happen to them.

I’m a huge fan of second person POV, which this book showcases masterfully. I have so much to say about the incredible ways these book utilized point of view in general, but I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone who decides to read it, so suffice it to say that I was thoroughly blown away.

This trilogy has incredible re-read potential; I’ve started right over from the beginning as soon as I finished the last book, and so far, there are tons of little snippets of information and foreshadowing that I didn’t catch on my first go-around.

Lovesickness by Junji Ito

This compilation is incredibly creepy and has gorgeous art, as is to be expected from Junji Ito. There was a good balance of giving enough explanation to be satisfying while leaving enough unexplained to be haunting.

I felt like the second set of stories, about a weird family of orphans, could have been separated or left off from the first set of stories about a town with a tradition of telling fortunes at foggy crossroads, which I enjoyed much more.

And Now I Spill the Family Secrets by Margaret Kimball

Both the subject matter as well as the approach of methodical research, collation of information, and measured speculation reminds me strongly of Fun Home, though the feel and style of the two are very different. 

This book has a style that feels strongly rooted in graphic design; I especially liked the family tree and timeline on the first pages, which I often flipped back to reference.

Private Romeo (2011) dir. Alan Brown

This Romeo and Juliet adaptation takes place on an all-male military high school campus and was conceptualized as commentary on “don’t ask, don’t tell.” I usually have a hard time sitting all the way through movies, but I’ve watched this one five or six times in the past couple months alone.

There’s a certain amount of suspended disbelief that’s necessary to enjoy the movie; for example, the characters speak almost entirely using text from Romeo and Juliet, but they’re also studying the play in their in-universe English class. However, having this extra layer where the characters of the movie are distinct from the characters of the play does also allow for interesting choices such as double-casting Lord Capulet with Mercutio and Lady Capulet with Benvolio, which wouldn’t be possible in most productions. I will also note that some of the characters can be hard to tell apart, which might be confusing enough to be distracting for first-time viewers.

The unique premise of this adaptation also means that some lines take on a different tone than they're usually performed with; even the comedic sections of the play are laced with an undercurrent of tension and unease, and certain lines that play on gender or sexuality take on new meanings.

This is a incredibly interesting and fantastically heartfelt take on Romeo and Juliet. It's one of my favorite movies, and my all-time favorite Romeo and Juliet adaptation.

NEYT’s Romeo and Juliet in COVID Times (2020) dir. Hallie Flower  

I’m a big fan of the New England Youth Theater. I’ve seen their productions of a musical version of As You Like It and Matilda: The Musical. They’re consistently excellent, and always have interesting interpretations of the material.

While NEYT’s productions are usually live shows, Romeo and Juliet in COVID Times was filmed during the summer of 2020 over the course of four days. The crew and actors followed the CDC’s regulations at the time of filming, meaning that for the majority of the scenes, everyone was six feet apart if they had masks on, ten feet or more without. Interior scenes were shot multiple times and then stitched together in editing, so that the actors in the scenes appeared to be on stage at the same time.

While it’s obvious these restrictions caused some difficulties for the actors and crew (for example, there are multiple scenes where it seems there are problems with the actors’ microphone headsets, possibly arising either from the masks or the weather), it also allowed the production to make some incredibly interesting decisions.

The most obvious of these decisions is that the wearing of masks is used to convey the relationships between characters: characters would remain unmasked around those they were friendly toward, putting masks on when about to engage in combat. Additionally, Romeo, Juliet, and the Nurse were all part of the same pod, and the fact that these were the only characters to physically engage with each other, and maskless at that, really underscored the intimacy between them, both in Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, and Juliet and the Nurse’s friendship.

The editing tricks used to make a scene appear to be taking place all at once when in reality there had been multiple shots with different actors was cleverly exploited to allow Lord Capulet and Lady Capulet to be double-cast as Lord Montague and Lady Montague. It was done so smoothly, that I didn’t realize until nearly the end that both sets of parents were played by the same two actors! It’s possibly the most brilliant piece of double-casting possible, highlighting the similarities between the two sets of parents and the pointlessness of their feud, but it would have been physically impossible in a traditional production.

A production of Romeo and Juliet lives and dies on whether the titular characters have chemistry together. This Romeo and Juliet really, really do. Both are notably good actors, especially considering that they are youth stage actors that are being filmed in challenging conditions (I recognized them both from previous NEYT productions, where they'd played supporting roles), and their scenes together absolutely sparkle. The very best versions of Romeo and Juliet are the ones that make you forget, even for a moment, that the play is going to end tragically because you’re so swept up by the love and joy that these two characters share, that it seems unthinkable that things won’t work out for them. This is that kind of production.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1996) dir. Baz Luhrmann

I mentioned in January’s update that I had never seen Romeo + Juliet before; obviously, I had to include it on the list of Romeo and Juliet adaptations I was watching for insight on how I should approach my own project. I got the opportunity to watch it during a movie night with a friend, and wow! I really can’t believe it took me this long to see it!

This is a ridiculously gorgeous movie. Gorgeous costume design, gorgeous set design. The aesthetics are just off the charts!! I’ve seen so many of the iconic shots in gif sets over the years, but there were so, so many more that I had no idea about.

This is a great production for Mercutio and Tybalt. They’re both incredible! Mercutio is one of those characters that can be a total show-stopper if done right, and this Mercutio absolutely was. 

I was incredibly impressed by the choices made both with Mercutio’s death scene (especially that Tybalt was still standing there, looking shocked and regretful; it gave a dimension to Tybalt’s character that he doesn’t always get) and with Romeo and Juliet’s death scene (I've never seen a production where Juliet wakes up before Romeo is done dying and has her watch him take his last breaths! It was absolutely brutal.)

I do have to say, I was a little disappointed with how much the Nurse’s role was reduced. She has the potential to be an incredible character, but this version cut her lines down to the bone and made her a weirdly racist latina nanny character. I feel like this choice also took away from Juliet’s character, since there was less of an impact when the Nurse ultimately abandons her, which to me is a key component of the all-consuming desperation that drives Juliet through the final act.

I feel like it’s a widely traded fact that Romeo + Juliet is the most faithful adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, and while I don’t doubt that it’s technically  true, it still very much is abridged, and does switch around a lot of the lines and scenes. Granted, I’m not sure there are any other high-profile productions of Romeo and Juliet that are more faithful. But I still feel the need to point out that the ‘Romeo + Juliet is the most faithful production of Romeo and Juliet’ factoid that’s thrown around is ultimately pretty misleading.

My two questions going into this movie were “Is it better than Romeo and Juliet (1968)?” and “Will I like it more than Private Romeo (2011)?” The answers turned out to be “Absolutely it is,” and “It’s really apples and oranges, but certainly they stand shoulder-to-shoulder on my personal list of all-time favorite Romeo and Juliet adaptations.”

Hamlet (1996) dir. Kenneth Branagh

After watching so many versions of Romeo and Juliet in quick succession, I couldn't help but notice how uncommon it is to see a completely unabridged adaption of a Shakespeare play outside live theater. This production is unabridged, and it’s an absolute joy. However, it is a very long movie! I have never managed to watch it in one sitting; I usually treat it like a mini-series and watch it over the course of several days.

Other than the long run time, I feel like this is the perfect movie for anyone trying to “get into” Shakespeare. The text of the play is easy to understand even without a strong grasp on Shakespearean dialog, and the cast is stocked full of strong performances. It’s also a gorgeous movie, with ornate set design laden with imagery and a strong visual aesthetic. I would really like to do thumbnail studies of this movie someday, as the shots and camera angles were obviously thought out in great detail.

THIS MONTH’S MUSICAL JAMS

I haven’t really been listening to anything in particular! I've just been in one of those moods where nothing sticks, I guess.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!

If you have any questions or stuff you've wanted to talk to me about, do leave a comment below!

Hope you're doing well!

<3,

Dave