the hanslick girls | The Hanslick Girls

October 29, 2018

Taking It With You: Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery

The first grave visible from the entrance, straight up the main pathway, was an obelisk of at least fifteen feet. Standing atop it, in a patch of sky between two trees, was a statue of a woman with a cross clutched close to the chest.

“Does that say ‘Villains?'” Eleanor asked. She squinted, attempting to read the name at the base.

“It’s ‘Williams,'” Gwen corrected. “You should start wearing your glasses regularly.”

“I know, I know,” Eleanor said. “I just don’t want to keep carrying them around.”

October 22, 2018

Leave It Unsaid: Keri Hulme’s “The Bone People”

“I thought it was sort of hard to follow,” Dania said, sitting down into the couch with her dogeared copy of The Bone People.

“What, because she doesn’t use quotation marks for spoken dialogue?” Eleanor asked.

“Well, that’s part of it, obviously,” Dania said. “But it’s also, like, she changes who’s talking mid-sentence half the time. The book is super atmospheric –– Gwen, I bet you just loved it, right?”

Gwen smiled, shielding her grin with a contemplative hand. “We’ll get to my thoughts.”

October 8, 2018

Across Two Worlds: Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s “Manahatta”

“Well, I don’t know exactly what I expected,” Eleanor began, as they walked out of the Thomas Theatre, and back into the courtyard of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. “I guess I thought it would be preachier.”

“It’s still sorta preachy,” Dania contended. “In that it has a message.”

“If that’s your bar for ‘preachy,'” Gwen replied, with a motion back towards the theater, “then any play with a message could be described that way.”

October 1, 2018

Branching Out: Disney and Jun Falkenstein’s “The Tigger Movie”

“Well, that was sweet,” Dania said, as the initial credits began to appear on screen. “It ended sort of abruptly, but whatever.”

“I forgot how good it was!” Eleanor said. “I mean, I remembered that it was good, but it all comes back now…”

Eleanor curled up in a ball on the couch. Memories of being in elementary school and watching The Tigger Movie returned to her, and she – perhaps unfoundedly, but feelings are feelings – felt safe.

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