I'm Not Standing Still; I Am Lying In Wait.

[rionaleonhart]

(EDIT: The music linked in this entry has now been taken down, alas. (What am I going to listen to endlessly now???))

My housemates were listening to the Hamilton cast recording recently. I happened to be in the room during a song from the second half, and I was very aware that I probably looked absolutely furious. I was not furious. I was just trying so hard to hold back my tears that I looked really angry.

(I was slightly angry because HOW COULD A SINGLE OUT-OF-CONTEXT SONG FROM A MUSICAL MAKE ME CRY, I DIDN'T KNOW ANY OF THE PLOT SURROUNDING IT, THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.)

I've now actually listened to Hamilton in full, and it's extremely good! Good music, good lyrics, some very striking moments. Early on there's a cute song, and then the song that follows suddenly makes it heartbreaking in retrospect. I was very upset.

It also depicts important historical political discussions as rap battles, which is pretty great.

I can't stop laughing at how EXTREMELY DRAMATIC this musical makes essay-writing, though. To experience for yourself the most dramatic writing has ever been (short of Death Note), listen to 'Non-Stop' for about a minute from the 4.10 mark (the link should take you to the right point).

I'm also going to drop the link to 'Wait For It' here. There are some songs I can't listen to without making dramatic gestures and mouthing along. This is one of them. I'll never be able to listen to it in public.

Alternatively, if you're curious about the song that emotionally wrecked me even though I heard it completely out of context: 'Burn'. (Just listened to it again, and, yes, it still makes me sob.) Spoilers for the musical, although they might be things you know already if you know much about Alexander Hamilton as a historical figure.

(I've just had the terrible revelation that this is not, in fact, the only time an out-of-context song from a musical has made me cry. I cried the first time I heard 'Breaking Free', before I actually watched High School Musical. I'm so unhappy with myself.)


Fanfiction update: the Visitorverse is still going. I stopped posting it here because there was just too much of it, but it's still going. It is 600,000 words long. This ridiculous, incomprehensible, self-indulgent Assassin's Creed AU is longer than The Lord of the Rings. It's longer than War and Peace. There are three of us writing it, admittedly (and one of my co-writers has written more than half of the total (?????????)), but it's still only been in existence for nine months. I'm scared.

Seriously, I don't understand. We've produced hundreds of thousands of words. Half of this thing is just setting up increasingly elaborate excuses to make everyone cuddle. This - this was supposed to be a one-shot.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

I now want to add Non-Stop to my writing music playlist. I have one "Write, dammit!" song (Will You Smile Again) and I want another one.

[rionaleonhart]

Ha, it can certainly serve for that purpose! WRITE EVERY SECOND YOU'RE ALIVE.

[dafna]

I can't stop laughing at how EXTREMELY DRAMATIC this musical makes essay-writing, though.

It's even funnier on stage, because they have servants carrying these huge stacks of papers back and forth, and Hamilton is constantly at his desk waving his pen around.

[rionaleonhart]

It somehow hadn't occurred to me to wonder how they staged the DRAMATIC WRITING bits, but I'm delighted to know this. Thank you!

[silverhare]

Most heartbreaking line of the musical (at least in the first half) is probably, "...To the groom!" and weeping is totally encouraged. <3<3<3

[rionaleonhart]

That song was absolutely unbearable. It's great! But it's also unbearable and I wasn't prepared for it.

[gool_duck]

I'm sure it's legal to listen to Burn without crying, it's just nearly impossible to actually do it.

Have you seen http://genius.com/albums/Lin-manuel-miranda/Hamilton-original-broadway-cast-recording ? There are the lyrics and annotations and people getting excite and links to shiny things!

[rionaleonhart]

I'd like to listen to it repeatedly, because it's such a good song, but it requires so much emotional bracing first!

And thank you for the link! I hadn't seen that; it's great to have the lyrics to hand, and the annotations are really interesting.

[dancesontrains]

Yay Hamlet!

[rionaleonhart]

Hamlet is also great! And, come to think of it, also ends in a tragedy that might have been avoided if one of the characters had been better at making decisions.

[dancesontrains]

Oh, I was making a joke - once a lady shouted "Yay Hamlet" to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the writer of Hamilton, from her car. He responded with "I wish I had written Hamlet!"

[rionaleonhart]

Ha, that's wonderful! I thought you'd just fallen victim to some form of autocorrect, but that story is so much better.

[dancesontrains]

LMM (and the rest of the cast, from what I can tell) are all delightful people.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Crying at "Burn", even out of context, is perfectly reasonable.

Half of this thing is just setting up increasingly elaborate excuses to make everyone cuddle.
One of the best reasons for fanfic.

[rionaleonhart]

Crying at "Burn", even out of context, is perfectly reasonable.

Thank you for the reassurance! I keep being tempted to listen to it and then realising that I'm not emotionally capable of handling that.