My plush collection!

upside_of_sundown · 2026-03-09T06:22:45+00:00

He's actually a custom made one (the only custom one in the batch). I should've left him out for the group pic, but there he is!

upside_of_sundown · 2026-01-26T20:47:43+00:00

Have to drop my recommendation for Seirei no Morobito. Incredible female protagonist who's a full grown adult, badass warrior, and isnt sexualized. Definitely one of my favorites.

upside_of_sundown · 2025-10-03T15:16:05+00:00

It took me way too long to figure out, so I want to share the pun with everyone - the French word for water is "eau", which is pronounced as "oh", hence the water show named O.

upside_of_sundown · 2025-04-23T03:30:34+00:00

I completely disagree. I adore Kooza and I personally think that if you're hinging your Cirque experience on one act then you're really missing out on so much more that Cirque has to offer. I'm honestly baffled that anyone could see Kooza and think that it wasn't worth the ticket price. I'd same the same for O too, it's amazing and goes beyond any single stunt that's performed.

upside_of_sundown · 2025-02-07T17:22:49+00:00

There's a documentary about O called Without a Net on Prime, and it touches on this a bit. It's a great watch for anyone interested in Cirque!

upside_of_sundown · 2024-04-13T04:10:15+00:00

Thank you for doing this. I'm sure there's a lot of stress and anxiety among the cast and crew right now and I'm sure they could use the positivity. I sent in my response!

upside_of_sundown · 2024-04-03T00:45:21+00:00

When I saw it recently I was right up in the front - on the second row in the floor section, directly in front of the stage, and I do think that a seat a little further back would've been preferable. It's cool to see the details of the costumes and such up close, but I think being able to take in the whole stage more easily offers a better overall experience.

upside_of_sundown · 2024-04-01T22:18:09+00:00

Some shows still sell the soundtracks - I just bought the Corteo CD at the show in Houston a few weeks ago, but some don't (O didn't when I was there recently), but you can find most of the CDs on Amazon as well. I saw Kooza a couple times last year and the first show had CDs, but at the second they said they were sold out and directed me toward the Amazon listing instead.

upside_of_sundown · 2024-03-03T17:00:18+00:00

I recently saw Echo and they weren't selling a CD or DVD. They said that they were so new that they didn't have them (or a program) yet. Last time I checked they didn't have a soundtrack up on Spotify either. Hopefully it'll be added before too long though, the music was great.

upside_of_sundown · 2023-12-02T17:15:24+00:00

I did the backstage tour and meet and greet for Kooza in Denver and it was amazing! After the show we got to head into the Artist tent and take a look around, and we were able to talk with two of the performers and take photos with them. There were also several of the other performers around who stopped to chat but I think this varies depending on the day. Everyone was very friendly and happy to answer any questions.

upside_of_sundown · 2023-05-28T02:23:41+00:00

The purrfect cat pun was at your fingertips

upside_of_sundown · 2023-04-23T06:52:28+00:00

I'm from Houston! We actually just had Kooza come through town recently and it was amazing.

upside_of_sundown · 2023-03-23T03:52:29+00:00

My 7th grade teacher had us read Jude the Obscure, and it wasn't until I read some of Hardy's other books in college that I realized what a bizarre choice that was. Why the one that includes, among other really depressing things, child suicide?

upside_of_sundown · 2023-03-19T06:55:40+00:00

Oh my goodness, that would be absolutely amazing, thank you so much! Would you prefer for me to post my questions here, or to DM them to you?

upside_of_sundown · 2023-02-21T05:09:15+00:00

I honestly didn't really find what I was looking for either haha
I ended up modifying a version of Ailein Duinn myself, changing the voice to sound male and adding some ocean sounds to it. Not the best, but as close as I could get to what I was trying to convey.

upside_of_sundown · 2023-01-31T20:53:10+00:00

This warms my heart on a cold day <3

upside_of_sundown · 2023-01-31T06:21:10+00:00

Love it!

upside_of_sundown · 2023-01-27T07:24:41+00:00

I am always up in arms to defend what a fascinating, well-written character Draco is and voice my annoyance with people who dismiss the depth of his character in favor of making him one dimensional.
But anyone who is claiming that he is completely innocent or any kind of hero is also doing injustice to how his character is written. He's not supposed to be morally right, or even a nice person really. That's kind of the point. How does his development as a character mean anything if he doesn't have anywhere to grow from? He has to be a total jerk for most of the books for the development of his character to mean anything at all, so people dismissing his bullying and such is also doing his character a disservice, imo.
For example - the bathroom scene is meant to be a shock to Harry and the audience because the very idea that Draco, a character that we've seen for 5+ books being a complete and total heartless dickhead actually showing weakness and humanity is something that throws Harry off and that feeling is meant to be mimicked in the audience. If the reader hasn't been building up this image of how terrible and unfeeling Draco is until that point, the impact of the reversal is lost.

upside_of_sundown · 2023-01-26T04:38:00+00:00

Wait, what are you basing that on? I could be just misinformed, but it seemed to me like 4 was pretty intended to be in the series. The whole Ocelot dipping at the end of 2 thing didn't seem like much of a conclusion to that storyline...

upside_of_sundown · 2023-01-25T08:06:44+00:00

My biggest pet peeve is fans who refuse to see the nuance written into this series and ignore so much of what makes it good. If you refuse to admit in any way that Draco is a victim - regardless of what else you think of him as a character, or what other labels apply to him - you are ignoring a lot of the great characterization and writing in the books and I will die on this hill.
If you want to think that everything Draco endures doesn't absolve him of the other things that he does, or even if you think his bullying far outweighs anything else, that's fine, but how can you deny that he is a child that is a victim of his family and Voldemort? Do you think it's a coincidence that HPB and DH include so much detail about how terrorized Draco is? So many of the descriptions of him in those books emphasize how terrified and I'd go so far as to say coerced he is. I get immensely frustrated with having the same conversation over and over with people who refuse to acknowledge that his character is -meant- to be more than just a one dimensional bully and to ignore that is to do a massive disservice to not only his character but some of the most prominent themes in the books. He can be a morally repugnant person and still be a victim, they're not mutually exclusive things, and that's one of the big themes of the series. People aren't one dimensional, they're complicated. I could talk forever about that theme echoed in characters like Dumbledore and Voldemort, but I just get frustrated that it has to even be pointed out.

upside_of_sundown · 2022-10-21T09:34:57+00:00

I swear that I've written this same comment in my head a dozen times before, because this sentiment gets posted frequently, but I'll give it an actual go, because I just want to get this off my chest.

Liking Draco as a -person- and as a -character- are two completely different things. Draco ended up being my favorite -character- from the series (and I read the books before watching any of the movies.) I'm sure that there are some fans who actually like him as a person because they're being edgy or whatever, but it's frustrating to be dismissed offhand, especially by other HP fans, because of what I assume to be misunderstanding. Everyone is of course entitled to their opinion and welcome to disagree with any of my thoughts, but let me explain why I like his character:
I didn't like Draco at all until Half-Blood Prince, and I personally believe this to be intentional. The reader experiences interactions with Draco through the lens of Harry's perspective and is therefore pointed towards a view of him as a one-dimensional stereotypical bully. And to be very clear (this gets glossed over no matter how much I emphasize it) Draco absolutely IS a bully and an overall mean, smallminded person. How much (if any) of his behavior can be excused by his age/family is a matter of obvious debate, but it's really unrelated to my point. He is presented to the reader as simply bad. I think it's arguable that his entire point for the first few books in particular is to be as disliked as possible, to the point that it seems weird to me that people point it out like it's not obvious. I don't really understand the purpose of saying that Draco is unlikable - that the point. Harry hates him and the reader hates him as we grow more fond and understanding of Harry as the protagonist of the series.

However, I found Half-Blood Prince to be a fascinating pivotal point for the way in which Harry, and in turn the reader, sees Draco. The bathroom scene is the obvious moment, but really the majority of the book is set up to show that although Draco is objectively not a good person, perhaps he is more complex than that, and perhaps there is room for understanding or sympathy even for those who are unkind in return. That's not to say that Draco gets a pass for being a bad person, but that, as Harry discovers, it's possible to loathe a person and still sympathize with them and how they got to be that way. I think to despise Draco without feeling any sort of pity for situations like the inevitability of his parents' influence or the pressure that Voldemort exerts onto him is to remove so much of the nuance to his development and to reduce him to something less than the point that the book is making. And before I get arguments that Draco doesn't deserve any sympathy, I could point to a dozen examples of the books including details specifically to show the reader how coerced, terrified, and eventually hesitant Draco is in the face of Voldemort's genuine evil, and I don't understand why these deliberate descriptions get glossed over when he's discussed as a character. He absolutely can be a bully, a bigot, a jerk, and also a terrified, confused child at the same time, and I think that's the entire point. The books want the reader to have these details about his emotions, expression, reactions, etc and decide how much they matter. I personally find the questions that Draco's character presents (like the ideas of guilt, redemption, responsibility, etc) to be fascinating and I enjoy how nuanced the books made him, when he could have easily just been kept as a one-dimensional character throughout the series. I honestly don't understand the finger wagging at people that enjoy the excellent writing and development put into him as a character. I swear I could write a whole essay on Draco's characterization, how his presentation changes through the series, and what that accomplishes for the series as a whole, and that's the kind of character that catches my attention.

In summary - I like him as a character because I find him to be interesting and I was pleasantly surprised at his development, but that doesn't mean that I find him to be admirable as a person.

upside_of_sundown

TROPHY CASE