Liner Notes: October - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus/Hadestown

I'm a big fan of Broadway musicals. I love a production number. I love costumes and fantastic staging. But I'm a terrible theatre fan. I don't keep up on new musicals and plays and could not tell you the names of actors in any show. I haven't watched the Tony Awards since Hamilton won (they know what they did and why I won't be back). I'm an on and off season ticket holder at the National Theatre here in DC, so I do go see shows more frequently now. This is how I came to see one of my new favorite musicals, Hadestown. 

I saw the show a few years back, but all I knew going into it were it was a combination of Greek myths (fantastic) set in a depression-era New Orleans-y location (genius) and the music was inspired by New Orleans jazz and old school American folk music (take all my money). I had never listened to the soundtrack and decided to go into the show completely cold. Best decision I ever made. 

It's such a wonderful show. The music is phenomenal. The set and staging is incredibly inventive and works perfectly with the action of the plot. The costumes are perfection. It was one of my favorite shows that season and has become one of my favorite musicals, and I haven't said a musical was my favorite since RENT opened in the late 1990s. That's saying something. 

Here's the opening song "Road to Hell" to set the stage:

You can listen to the entire original cast recording here. 

Now what does this have to do with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds? Well, when I saw the production all I could think was, "why is the actor playing Hades basically Broadway Nick Cave?" Ever since I saw the production and later saw the film, I keep thinking about how Nick Cave should play Hades. 

The band even has a double album called Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus that features a gospel choir (they sort of remind me of the Fates) and each album has a unique personality. Some of my favorite songs include "Get Ready for Love," "Nature Boy," "There She Goes, My Beautiful World, "Breathless," "Spell," and "O, Children." Here are a few so you get an idea of what I've been listening to this week:

Since I think about Nick Cave playing Hades way more than is probably normal for a person, I decided that while I worked on this week's Liner Notes entries, I'd also cast a version of the musical featuring musicians included in this year's project. I didn't include the casts of either The Velvet Goldmine or Xanadu. If I combined the movie casts, I could cast Hadestown with only them, but that's not the goal today. I'm not going to name every band member who ends up in the chorus or the band, but I will call out a few when it makes sense. 

Here's my Liner Notes version of the cast of Hadestown. Yes, I probably need more hobbies. 

• Orpheus: Alex Chilton (from Big Star)
• Hermes: Lou Reed - David Bowie - Patti Smith (either in rotation throughout the run of the show or even within the action of the show)
• Persephone: Florence Welch
• Eurydice: Mitski
• Hades: Nick Cave
• Fate 1: Stevie Nick
• Fate 2: Dave Grohl
• Fate 3: Tori Amos 
• Understudies
• Hades: Mick Fleetwood (although he doesn't have the vocal range for it)
• Orpheus: Lindsay Buckingham (he'd totally turn around if the gods told him not to)
• Persephone: Tori Amos, Christine McVie
• Eurydice: Stevie Nicks
• The Band: Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, Pat Smear, Lindsay Buckingham, and members of the Velvet Underground (Moe Tucker, Sterling Morrison, John Cale)
• The Chorus: the remaining members of the Foo Fighters, Big Star, and the Machine, Nico (from the Velvet Underground), and the Witch Choir (Florence+the Machine)

Given that this cast features more than five dead people so it will never actually happen, I'd settle for seeing Nick perform as Hades just once. A concert version of the show, maybe he could sing one of the songs during a concert. Give me something, Nick. 

I will not being taking suggestions or critiques of this casting. You are an adult with free will and maybe some free time on your hands, so you can create your own imaginary Hadestown cast. I'd love to know who you'd cast, but you can't use Broadway performers. Maybe do an all Muppet cast or cast the show based solely on voice actors from popular animated series. I don't know your life or your niche interests, but I want you to have fun with this.

So that's what I've been listening to and thinking about while working on this week's Liner Notes entries. I focused on finishing all the roses this week, which works for both Nick Cave and Hadestown. I did a bunch of woven roses and roses made out of bullion knots. I don't use either of these stitches all that often so it was nice to use them this week. The last stage of the piece is to finish the edges of each of the roads and add some additional details to the roses, like more vines/leaves from the black trim. I also have some beads I want to add, but I want to finish the other parts first and then decide if they look good. 

Here's this week's Liner Notes progress: 

October 18

October 19

October 20

October 21

October 22

October 23

October 24

All of the roses - the NC&TBS Liner Notes to date.

Next week: I'm listening to Murder Ballads. Should I add the spider to the piece?

WIPs and Other Small Joys

Despite Bea's best efforts to derail my progress on the Gardens panel, I got a good amount of work done on the Peacock Garden this week. I'm deep cleaning my house today and have a few errands to run, but hope to do some more work on it today. 

October 18

October 19

Bea's campaign to interrupt any embroidery work:

So helpful. Bea did a great job selecting the movies for yesterday's "6 pm double feature picture show." She picked Practical Magic and The Craft.

I went to see my family last weekend and stopped at Savers for the first time. I always hear such great things about this thrift store, and it was a great experience. It's a lot better organized than a lot of other stores. I need to remember to never go on a Saturday; it was very, very crowded. I found a few sweaters and sweater vests for cozy season, but the best items I found were in the book and DVD sections.

Yes, that is a pasta recipe from Liza Minelli. Obviously, I'm going to have to make it. The book also features a salad recipe from Vincent Price and recipes from the main cast of the show "Taxi." It's a great cookbook. Super glad I found it. If you've never seen the movie Penelope, I suggest you find it right now and watch it. It's one of those incredibly underrated movies that is charming and fun. More people should love this movie. 

Off to deep clean my house and go to the post office. Maybe I can get Bea to vacuum today.