Web Crush Wednesdays: Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

web crush wednesdaysThe horror genre is a tricky one. It’s very hard to get the impact you’d like from your audience, or to get people invested enough to see your story through to the end. I’ll admit that I’m personally very picky when it comes to horror stories that I enjoy. Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared was something I never would have considered watching if it didn’t continuously pop up in my related videos on YouTube—it must be interesting since millions of people loved it, right? The video starts out with a bunch of puppets learning to be “creative” and express their emotions, but by the end of the video they’re cutting into a raw meat cake. It wasn’t what I expected, but I loved the video anyway. It wasn’t because of the shock value, or just how outlandish it was; I liked it for the deeper meaning.

The puppets act like they’re hosts of a children’s television show (like Sesame Street), and make fun of the way children are being told exactly how to act and think. It’s the kind of satire that’s not done very often, especially in the horror genre, and I’d love to see more of it! For a while I thought it was meant to be a one shot bit, possibly a student project and nothing more. Luckily the creators produced a second video, and a Kickstarter for more videos of the same nature was funded in 2014. Two more videos have come out within the past year, and they’re still as dedicated, satirical and creepy as their predecessor.

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Theatre Thursdays: King Kong, the Ape’s Alive!

Hi there! PolyglotPisces here, and I’m overjoyed to be writing my very first post for Lady Geek Girl and Friends. I would like to take this time to introduce the theatre-loving world to a spectacle that somehow has evaded my notice until recently, despite opening months ago. And should this article strike your interest, make haste: the show closes in less than two weeks. Drum roll, please.

Ladies and gents, the World’s Eighth Wonder!
Now on stage in the great Down Under!

(See how that rhymed? That was fun.)

King_Kong_(musical)_logoYes, true believers and unbelievers, that’s right: King Kong Live on Stage. I don’t know about you, but I have definitely felt the void in my own life from the lack of gigantic animatronic apes on the musical theatre stage. Luckily, other people out there have felt it too, and they did not stop until they did something about it. The creative forces behind this musical include: music by Marius de Vries, lyrics by Michael Mitnick and Craig Lucas, and book by Craig Lucas, and also some additional music from contemporary musicians. After five years of pre-production work, King Kong opened in the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, Australia on June 15, 2013, with Carla Pavlovic as producer, Daniel Kramer as director and John O’Connell as choreographer.

The show is an adaptation of the 1933 film King Kong, directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose. (Who knew that one of the most iconic films of all time was co-written by a woman? Especially in 1933! #girlpower #readwomen2014.) Continue reading