Unpopular opinion: Jason/Kelsi makes no sense. Their first ever interaction is of him stripping her (taking her hat) so she can be more feminine (long hair go swoosh) and then forcing her to shoot the game ball (it’s totally going to get lost. Her first ever gift from a school friend and she has to immediately throw it away).
Ryan/Kelsi on the other hand, makes lots of sense. They’re both in the drama club. They talk each other’s language (“What key?”). They both get exasperated by Sharpay (those exaggerated eyerolls lol). They both still work with Sharpay despite this. They both like hats.
HSM2 screwed it up by pairing Kelsi with Jason damn it. And if they were going to pair Ryan with dancing Martha, then at least give her some actual lines, rather than just stick them together right at the end like that.
Backpack alert! And Jason was actually carrying school books, there's hope for you yet boys
Love Ryan and Kelsi’s little glance at each other after Sharpay huffs off. I imagine they're not best friends yet since it was Ryan who flippantly told Kelsi they'd rearranged her song for the audition, but they bond over Sharpay's antics sometimes and obviously get much closer in the second movie.
What is this cafeteria area, it’s so nice? Mine had a hole in the ceiling that they’d cover up with a sheet of paper on parent’s evenings
“Bob, we need the cheerleaders in the jock group” “But sir, how will we know they’re cheerleaders and not girls from the other factions of the school?” “Make them wear their warmup gear in every single scene of course!”
Zeke decides really quickly after the Troy musical news to spill his secret, have they even spoken to Troy about this yet? Guy must have been waiting for the right moment for ages
Zeke: I bake
Everyone: WHAT?!
This will never not be iconic. Poor Zeke he looks so sad ToT
Martha: Look at me and what do you see? Intelligence beyond compare!
We stan a confident queen <3 Also I love that they chose a plus sized girl for this
Ahhhh the “skaters”……..
A SAWWW?
I’m obsessed with orange shirt guy’s reaction and how he just misses the next dance routine because he’s having a breakdown by the stairs
WHERE DID HE GET THE CELLO FROM??? AND WHY IS IT MAKING ELECTRIC GUITAR SOUNDS!! This isn’t a complaint btw I love this
I like how in the next sequence we can see the groups mixing more as they dance, it basically represents what’s happening in the school as a whole since the audition. Everyone jokes about how they’re singing and dancing about how certain people shouldn’t be singing and dancing, but that’s not actually happening. It’s non-diegetic! An abstraction! A representation of the turning of the social and political landscape!
What I love about this song is you can go through it frame by frame and find fun little details or interactions in the background. Like here, Chad throws his basketball and it's Zeke that catches it (they face off in the background of another shot too). He dribbles it for a bit but loses it at some point in the song and pops out the crème brûlée instead. Love cheerleader girl who’s just trying to read on the side lmao. Or go against the status quo, as the cheerleaders were previously portrayed as shallow and not interested in topics deeper than discussing their nails, but here she is studying during lunch break, no longer caring if that makes her uncool.
Also I love that part of the choreography is literally just,, ruffling Chad's hair. And those girls in the top left swaying a bit? Yeah that's my level of dance skills too
Martha got done dirty, with the others it’s “stick with what you know!” and “keep your voice down low!” but with her it’s “she has gotta go!” LOL no wonder we never see her with the geek squad again
ZEKE DID YOU JUST HAVE THAT CRÈME BRÛLÉE IN YOUR POCKET
I had to copy and paste the spelling for crème brûlée I am nothing if not dedicated
That sudden burst into song after Gabriella and Taylor turn up is iconic
And now cello boy is just miming playing the cello??? WHERE DID THE CELLO GO
Hahaha the way it looks like Gabriella and Taylor are the only ones aware that they're in a musical
I had to comment on this song bit by bit because there’s so much to point out lol, I love Stick to the Status Quo it’s S tier I don’t care. It’s more musical-like than the other songs and it works really well since there are some spoken parts with the confessions. Also it’s just so chaotic, it's impressive what they managed to do with the choreography here and the transitions flow really well. The chorus does sound a little.... quiet? At times though? I think they get better at making the audio sound a bit more natural as the movies go on.
People say it’s silly that everyone’s so against people having hobbies, but that's taking the message too literally imo. High school cliques are a thing (although maybe more so in the US from what I've heard), and let's be honest a lot of interests or methods of expression are deemed "cringe" today, let alone back then before nerd culture became truly mainstream. Gender is a big divider too - we're still socially conditioned to think STEM and sports are for boys while the arts are for girls, plus things like the misogyny directed towards female gamers. And for the boys, 2006 was a time when the tiniest expression of something deemed "feminine" would result in you being called gay. So yeah, the message is still relevant today but even more so back then.
Plus even outside of such extremes, I feel we do tend to put ourselves in boxes. Just look at how many people believe in that left/right logical/creative brain stuff, people taking the Myers Briggs personality types so seriously, or those teenagers on tiktok trying to decide between aesthetics. Especially at that age, you're very concerned with constructing a consistent image of yourself and might feel nervous trying new things or pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, because "that's not my kind of thing".
Ooo I like Sharpay being manipulative of Darbus, showing her as a good antagonist. Not just in the way she acts towards the protagonists, but how she sweet talks others and shows a completely different persona to get what she wants. Girl can act, I’ll give her that.
Ryan just looking at his food LOL mood
Chad’s smile as he goes “What's up? Oh, let’s see…” while contemplating murder is so funny I love that delivery
Chad: Zeke is baking… Crème Brulee!
As opposed to the other stuff being baked in Albuquerque around this time…...
I love how Troy’s reaction is to immediately show interest and enthusiasm for Zeke’s new hobby! Supportive bro! Shut up Chad, don’t be mean to Zeke >.<
I like the detail that after Chad tells him to shut up, Zeke goes up to the skater guys, who seem to have made up as they’re sitting together and cello kid has his cello out. It shows that despite the most outspoken people like Chad and Sharpay, there’s a shift in the school. Generally I love the school scenes in this movie because there’s always something going on in the background, it feels so lived in and like you're watching a play in person
Yeah Chad’s being a bad friend here obviously, and there's a lot of ways you could read into his reaction. There's the general toxic masculinity, but he also bought into the school hierarchy and enjoyed his position on top with the rest of the jocks. Maybe he just doesn't get it because it's genuinely basketball 24/7 with him and he defines himself by his interests, maybe he just hates change (wait a minute... autistic Chad?), maybe the concept of Troy being less interested in basketball and hanging out with Gabriella makes him feel like his friendship is threatened.
aaaaand maybe deep down he's in denial about his own "unmanly" tendencies and doesn't want to confront that part of himself
But this also shows why Troy is the captain. Chad puts basketball and his own ideas on what's best for everyone above his teammates' feelings, so while he is more dedicated and commands the attention of the team, I feel a captain should be a bit more emotionally intelligent.
She is the best person alive. She single-handedly survived thanos’ snap. She came back in High School Musical the Musical the Series and slayed it. I just love her so much
The big story in the news over the past couple of days is that Florida governor Ron DeSantis chartered two planes to fly about 50 migrants, most of whom were from Venezuela, to Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts.
The story is still developing. Although DeSantis is the governor of Florida, the migrants appear to have come from Texas, and it currently appears that they were lured onto the planes—paid for with taxpayer money—with the false promise of work and housing in New York City or Boston. In addition, there are allegations from a lawyer working with the migrants that officials from the Department of Homeland Security falsified information about the migrants to set them up for automatic deportation. As I write this, it is not clear what their actual status is: have they applied for asylum and been processed, or are they undocumented immigrants?
As Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo says, none of it adds up.
None of it, that is, except the politics. DeSantis apparently dispatched the migrants with a videographer to take images of them arriving, entirely unexpectedly, on the upscale island, presumably in an attempt to present the image that Democratic areas can’t handle immigrants (in fact, more than 12% of the island’s 17,000 full-time residents were born in foreign countries, and 22% of the residents are non-white). But the residents of the island greeted the migrants; found beds, food, and medical care; and worked with authorities to move them back to the mainland where there are support services and housing. In the meantime, there are questions about the legality of DeSantis chartering planes to move migrants from state to state.
There are two big stories behind DeSantis’s move.
First is that the Republicans are on the ropes over the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision and the capture of the party by its MAGA wing. That slide into radical extremism means the party is contracting, but it is not clear at all that base voters will show up in the midterms without former president Trump on the ballot.
Rallying voters with threats of “aliens” swamping traditional society is a common tactic of right-wing politicians; it was the central argument that brought Hungary’s Viktor Orbán into his current authoritarian position. Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona have been bussing migrants to Washington—about 10,000 of them—saying they would bring the immigrant issue to the doorsteps of Democrats. Now DeSantis is in on the trick.
Immigrants are nothing new to northern cities, of course. The U.S. is in a period of high immigration. Currently, 15% of the inhabitants of Washington, D.C., are foreign born, only slightly less than the 16.8% of the population of Texas that is foreign born. About 29% of the inhabitants of Boston come from outside U.S. borders, as do 36% of the inhabitants of New York City.
In the lead-up to the midterms, Republicans have tried to distract from their unpopular stands on abortion, contraception, marriage equality, and so on, by hammering on the idea that the Democrats have created “open borders”; that criminal immigrants are bringing in huge amounts of drugs, especially fentanyl; and that Biden is secretly flying undocumented immigrants into Republican states in the middle of the night. Beginning in July, they began to insist that the country is being “invaded.”
In fact, the border is not “open.” Fences, surveillance technology, and about 20,000 Border Patrol agents make the border more secure than it has ever been. That means apprehensions of undocumented migrants are up, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recording more than 3 million encounters at the border since January 2021. Those high numbers reflect people stopped from coming in and are artificially inflated because many who are stopped try again. CBP estimates that about 27% of those stopped at the border are repeat apprehensions.
Although much fentanyl is being stopped, some is indeed coming in, but through official ports of entry in large trucks or cars, not on individual migrants, who statistically are far less likely than native-born Americans to commit crimes. And the federal government is not secretly flying anyone anywhere (although, ironically, DeSantis is); U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sometimes moves migrants between detention centers, and CBP transfers unaccompanied children to the Department of Health and Human Services. These flights have been going on for years.
The second story is the history of American immigration, which is far more complicated and interesting than the current news stories suggest.
Mexican immigration is nothing new; our western agribusinesses were built on migrant labor of Mexicans, Japanese, and poor whites, among others, in the late 19th century. From the time the current border was set in 1848 until the 1930s, people moved back and forth across it without restrictions. But in 1965, Congress passed the Hart-Celler Act, putting a cap on Latin American immigration for the first time. The cap was low: just 20,000, although 50,000 workers were coming annually.
After 1965, workers continued to come as they always had, and to be employed, as always. But now their presence was illegal. In 1986, Congress tried to fix the problem by offering amnesty to 2.3 million Mexicans who were living in the U.S. and by cracking down on employers who hired undocumented workers. But rather than ending the problem of undocumented workers, the new law exacerbated it by beginning the process of militarizing the border. Until then, migrants into the United States had been offset by an equal number leaving at the end of the season. Once the border became heavily guarded, Mexican migrants refused to take the chance of leaving.
Then, in the 1990s, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) flooded Mexico with U.S. corn and drove Mexican farmers to find work in the American Southeast. This immigration boom had passed by 2007, when the number of undocumented Mexicans living in the United States began to decline as more Mexicans left the U.S. than came.
In 2013 a large majority of Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, backed a bill to fix the disconnect caused by the 1965 law. In 2013, with a bipartisan vote of 68–32, the Senate passed a bill giving a 13-year pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, who would have to meet security requirements. It required employers to verify that they were hiring legal workers. It created a visa system for unskilled workers, and it got rid of preference for family migration in favor of skill-based migration. And it strengthened border security. It would have passed the House, but House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) refused to bring it up for a vote, aware that the issue of immigration would rally Republican voters.
But most of the immigrants coming over the southern border now are not Mexican migrants.
Beginning around 2014, people began to flee “warlike levels of violence” in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, coming to the U.S. for asylum. This is legal, although most come illegally, taking their chances with smugglers who collect fees to protect migrants on the Mexican side of the border and to get them into the U.S.
The Obama administration tried to deter migrants by expanding the detention of families, and it made significant investments in Central America in an attempt to stabilize the region by expanding economic development and promoting security. The Trump administration emphasized deterrence. It cut off support to Central American countries, worked with authoritarians to try to stop regional gangs, drastically limited the number of refugees the U.S. would admit, and—infamously—deliberately separated children from their parents to deter would-be asylum seekers.
The number of migrants to the U.S. dropped throughout Trump’s years in office. The Trump administration gutted immigration staff and facilities and then cut off immigration during the pandemic under Title 42, a public health order.
The Biden administration coincided with the easing of the pandemic and catastrophic storms in Central America, leading migration to jump, but the administration continued to turn migrants back under Title 42 and resumed working with Central American countries to stem the violence that is sparking people to flee. (In nine months, the Trump administration expelled more than 400,000 people under Title 42; in Biden’s first 18 months, his administration expelled 1.7 million people.)
The Biden administration sought to end Title 42 last May, but a lawsuit by Republican states led a federal judge in Louisiana to keep the policy in place. People arriving at the U.S. border have the right to apply for asylum even under Title 42.
There are a lot of moving pieces in the immigration debate: migrants need safety, the U.S. needs workers, our immigrant-processing systems are understaffed, and our laws are outdated. They need real solutions, not political stunts.
A Young Person's Guide to 18th-Century Western Fashion
unabridged version at blogspot
General info
Cox, Abby. "I Wore 18th-Century Clothing *Every Day for 5 YEARS & This Is What I Learned (Corsets Aren't Bad!)." YouTube. May 10, 2020.
Cullen, Oriole. “Eighteenth-Century European Dress.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.
Glasscock, Jessica. "Eighteenth-Century Silhouette and Support." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.
Accessories
Banner, Bernadette. "Women's Pockets Weren't Always a Complete Disgrace | A Brief History: England, 15th c - 21st c." YouTube. April 10, 2021.
Colonial Williamsburg. "#TradesTuesday: Men's Accessories." YouTube. June 13, 2021.
Murden, Sarah. "The Georgian era fashion for straw hats." All Things Georgian. December 6, 2018.
Cosmetics & hygiene
Cox, Abby. "I Followed an 18th-Century Moisturizer & Sunscreen Recipe & it kinda worked??." YouTube. February 21, 2021.
Cox, Abby. "We tried making *5* different 250 year old rouge (blush) recipes || [real] regencycore makeup." YouTube. August 29, 2021.
JYF Museums. "Hygiene in the 18th Century | From the Farm to the Army." YouTube. August 21, 2021.
Décor
Heckscher, Morrison H. “American Rococo.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
Munger, Jeffrey. “French Porcelain in the Eighteenth Century.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
Formal wear
SnappyDragon. "This dressing gown changed fashion forever : the feminist history of going out in loungewear." YouTube. April 15, 2022.
Stowell, Lauren. "The Many Types of 18th Century Gowns." American Duchess. March 15, 2013.
Zebrowska, Karolina. "Cottagecore Style Is Much Older Than You Think." YouTube. June 30, 2021.
Hair care
Cox, Abby. "I made 250-year-old Hair Products Using Original Recipes (and animal fat...)." YouTube. November 7, 2021.
Cox, Abby. "I tried a 300-year-old hair care routine for a year & this is what I learned (it's awesome!)." YouTube. January 23, 2022.
Cox, Abby. "What's the Deal with 18th Century Wigs? (and why Bridgerton really messed this up)." YouTube. June 1, 2023.
Laundry
Cox, Abby. "Making 300 Year Old SLIME for Laundry Day." YouTube. June 15, 2023.
Townsends. "Historical Laundry Part 2: No Washing Machine, No Dryer, Hit It With A Stick?" YouTube. June 3, 2019.
Outer- & working-wear
JYF Museum. "Getting Dressed | Clothing for an 18th Century Middling Woman." YouTube. March 18, 2021.
Major, Joanne. "The practicalities of wearing riding habits, and riding ‘en cavalier’." All Things Georgian. March 12, 2019.
Rudolph, Nicole. "What did Pirates ACTUALLY Wear? Fashion at Sea in the 18th c & Our Flag Means Death Costumes." YouTube. May 8, 2022.
Shoes
Chin, Cynthia E. "Martha Washington's Shoes." George Washington's Mount Vernon. No date.
Murden, Sarah. "18th-century shoes." All Things Georgian. December 15, 2015.
Rudolph, Nicole. "Real 18th century Shoes? Historical Shoemaker Examines an Antique." YouTube. December 13, 2020.
Textiles
Cox, Abby. "18th Century Printed Cotton Do's & Don't's." American Duchess. December 23, 2019.
Stowell, Lauren. "Fabrics for the 18th Century and Beyond." American Duchess. June 14, 2021.
Townsends. "Oil Cloth - Waterproof Coverings for Your Campsite." YouTube. July 30, 2018.
Undergarments
Major, Joanne. "Quilted Petticoats: worn by all women and useful in more ways than one." All Things Georgian. November 20, 2018.
Rudolph, Nicole. "Making 18th century Stays for the Ideal Body Shape : Historical Undergarments." YouTube. August 12, 2023.
SnappyDragon. "RUMP ROAST : Ranking historical fashion's wildest fake butt pads." YouTube. October 27, 2023.
Townsends. "Sewing Histories' Most Popular Garment - The Fabric Of History - Townsends." YouTube. September 3, 2022.
For those Whovians not in the UK but curious as to what's included in The Whoniverse collection on BBC iPlayer, here ya go (typed-up list below read-more divider under image)
Classic Who (1963 - 1996 Series, including the TV Movie)
Modern Who (2005 - present day Series)
Tales of the Tardis (exclusively made for The Whoniverse. Read more here)
Doctor Who Confidential (Behind the scenes for first 6 Modern Who seasons)
K9 & Company (1-episode pilot for a K9 & Sarah Jane spin-off during Classic Who that never led to a full spin-off....for now)
Dreamland (animated episode with 10th Doctor)
The Infinite Quest (animated episode with 10th Doctor and Martha Jones)
The Sarah Jane Adventures (The actual spin-off during RTD's first era)
Torchwood (very adult spin-off with Captain Jack Harkness)
Class (another adult spin-off, based on the Coal Hill School location)
Delia Derbyshire Documentary
The Science of Doctor Who (by Professor Brian Cox)
HERE IS MY HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL X TOKYO GHOUL CROSSOVER IDEA!!
So basically I think it would be more a musical high school AU about a society in which ghouls and humans attend school together. And then Kaneki would OBVIOUSLY be Troy because he's stuck trying to choose between the human/CCG world (theatre) and the ghoul world (basketball). I still think those parts would be included but I think the main focus would still be about choosing between the two worlds. ANYWAYS here's my casting list (it makes sense...to Me). The whole sideplot of Sharpay and Ryan trying to keep the two worlds separate is the CCG so erm 🤓 Only romance that still exists is between Kaneki and Hide, everything is WIPED because the dynamics would be OFF
Troy Bolton - Ken Kaneki
Gabriela Montez - Hide Nagachika
Chad Danforth - Touka Kirishima
Taylor McKessie - Kuki Urie (I know this makes ZERO sense at first but trust that it does to ME)
Sharpay Evans - Akira Mado
Ryan Evans - Amon Koutarou
Kelsi Nielsen - Juuzou Suzuya (except he's less awkward than her)
Zeke Baylor - Tooru Mutsuki and I think he's with the ghouls because he's not trying to hide his 'monstrous' side in this AU
Martha Cox - Ginshi Shirazu simply because I want him to break it down like she does 😭
Ms. Darbus - Kishou Arima (I can't explain...it just makes sense 😭)
250 Hollywood Celebrities Sign Letter Demanding Big Tech Censor Anyone Who Opposes Trans Surgeries On Kids
Here are the names of every celebrity who wants to mutilate children. Remember them & for Gods sake, stop supporting their products, movies, shows etc.