If your soul left this earth I would follow and find you

Last night I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole thanks to landing on this performance of Bolero by Hayato Sumino. I then proceeded to stay up way too late mainlining his videos. This included not one, not two, but three different performances of Rhapsody in Blue. In my defense, I love Rhapsody in Blue. In my further defense, Sumino's improvisation is a little different each and every time, and I became addicted to seeing where he was going to take it next. The love and joy he has for that piece when playing makes me vicariously happy.

His performance at Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is my favorite of the three. The surprised titters from the audience when he picks up the melodica and his little smile? Delightful. The interweaving of a cell phone ring into his improv? Brilliant. Ugh, the whole thing is amazing.

(the other two are great as well!)

Other Highlights:

Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor, Op. 11 with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (The fact that my ADHD brain could sit enraptured for 42 minutes is telling.)

Human Universe - one of Sumino's original compositions

Clair de Lune - Unfortunately not a live performance but beautiful all the same

Nocturne I - Pre Rain - another original composition. I love the way he describes it as a gift from the cold sky.

(This post was originally called 3 quick things. And then I started rambling about Dexter, and now I have no idea what the other two quick things were going to be.)

I've been on a Dexter binge. Not the original series (possibly starting that up again soon!) but I watched the first three episodes of Dexter: Resurrection and then found out there was a whole prequel series (Dexter: Original Sin) that I'd missed. I did watch the initial Dexter sequel (New Blood) when it first came out and remembered not being very impressed and kind of dissatisfied so my hopes weren't high for Resurrection, but honestly? I'm here for it. They seem to have gone back to the original formula with giddy fun serial killer vibes and not taking themselves too seriously. YAY. Plus Harrison (Dexter's son) is not just a whiny teenaged brat and is actually interesting. (Please don't screw up his plot, show.) YAY. Also Uma Thurman is in it? Which is an unexpected surprise. And she is as awesome as ever. (And apparently doesn't age like the rest of us mere mortals.) Fingers crossed they keep this going and don't fuck up by the end of the season (which I am sadly used to!).

But as there were only three episodes of that available (I think a new one comes out today?), I flipped over to Original Sin to give that a shot. I, again, wasn't expecting much. Actually, I expected that I'd hate it given that they'd had to cast all new actors to play younger versions of the characters I knew and loved from the OG series, and 9 times out of 10 that never goes well (for me, at least). But omfg, they nailed it, somehow? Young Dexter is AMAZING. Patrick Gibson (the actor playing him) is incredible at capturing Michael C. Hall's physicality, his awkwardness, his weird-ass charm, and I am so impressed. I can't leave out Molly Brown who plays Deb, Dexter's sister--she also does an incredible job in capturing Jennifer Carpenter's mannerisms and speech patterns while making the younger character her own. Also Christian Slater is Dexter's still-alive dad, and while he doesn't echo the ghost of Dexter's father we see in the OG series and beyond like the others, he is excellent at the emo-single-father-trying-to-raise-a-budding-serial-killer-but-full-of-man-pain thing. Bonus Points for seeing Sarah Michelle-Geller on my tv again. ♥

SPOILER FOR THE ENDING OF SEASON 1

ALSO it was super fun watching McDreamy be revealed as the big bad and end up on Dexter's table, ngl.

The show itself also is just very fun and leans into the ridiculousness of the whole concept of a serial killer with a "code" and I love that.

One kinda eye-roll-y caveat:

SPOILERS FOR NEW BLOOD

The whole premise that Dexter's life is flashing before his eyes while he's dying from his gunshot wound at the end of New Blood is okay, I guess. It's a framing that allows Michael C. Hall to narrate the whole thing, which helps it feel like Dexter, but then they proceed with his dad also having flashbacks in the middle of Dexter's flashbacks, and the whole concept breaks. Dad's flashbacks are really interesting and add a whole new layer to Dexter's origin story so I lean on the side of handwaving the "this-doesn't-make-sense" aspect, but IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

Obviously both of these shows deal with a lot of violence (and a lot of gore) and maybe I'm a weirdo for being like "oh yay they've gone back to giddy fun vibes for this!" but iirc, the original show aired kind of right before prestige television became such a big deal, and for New Blood, I felt like the show runners got caught up in trying to make the Dexter franchise more "prestige" and less pulp. But it is pulp. Dexter is the kind of show that has to be able to wink at itself. (See opening credits of the OG show and Original Sin for examples!) And I'm just really happy they've returned to that original vision and hope they stay the course and not try to force Dexter into becoming something it's not.

[h/t to both lee_bella and pauraque for helping me with the spoiler coding for this entry!]

Unrelated Aside: I am slowly working on reorganizing my journal (updating my sticky and profile, reorganizing my tags--which are a mess), and I'm realizing it's going to be a bit of a project! Slow and steady, self, slow and steady.

In case you missed it, there is a poll here on firewhiskeyfic to determine the date of our next event. If you're a regular participant or never participated before but would like to, please go fill it out! (Also there are some silly comment!fics for your enjoyment.)

We also have about 5 days left of accepting prompts over at hp_goldenage for our upcoming Salt & Pepper Fest here. We allow up to 7 prompts per person so come give us all of your ideas!

An update to the spam situation I spoke about in my last post: I have continued to get cryptic messages (with attached porn, naturally) almost daily. I shared a new one with pauraque the other day and they decided to google it and found the random sentence I'd been given was from an older sci-fi novel. I looked up the novel, thought it sounded interesting, and now have it checked out from the library. Are the spam bots winning?

+ Last night my winding street turned into a rushing river. It was a crazy sight and I thanked the universe my house is set up on a hill and we don't have flooding problems because yeesh. But I was reminded of a time in my late teens when I lived in Kansas City, was driving through a storm and ended up in a full-on flood, water up to mid-car doors, like I thought my vehicle was suddenly going to turn into a boat? I managed to get out of there with my car still running in some kind of miracle. What is the saying? Angels protect the young and foolish?

+ I think I've been playing too much World of Warcraft because my dreams are now filled with questing but in real life. I'm not in the game, but I'm running around my actual town and picking up quests from people for things I actually need to do like "Get your car fixed" and "Schedule that doctor's appointment" and "Donate that pile of clothes sitting in the spare room" etc., and so on. Maybe I'd be more motivated to do these things in real life if I got a new mount at the end of the quest chain, lol.

+ I'm having such a hard time writing this month. January I made my habit goal easily, even posted a few small things. I was excited to sit down and write every time I scheduled it. February, I've been dragging my feet, making excuses, giving myself the "I don't wanna" toddler routine when it's time to write. Which sucks because I have actual due dates that are coming up quickly (never mind the one that just passed) and I'm regretting committing to even the smallest drabble. Blegh.

+ Happy Saturday! I want to end on a positive note but... I guess that's all I have right now. It's the weekend, yay? ♥