Babylon and Company
Hello! It’s been a while since the last issue of Notes came out, but here’s another one after some time. You might have already noticed a new logo and a new background color on the website, tell me what you think about them! :)
In comes Company!
Company is a musical with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd) and book by George Furth. It first premiered in 1970 in the Alvin Theatre, and it was nominated for 14 Tony awards, winning six of them, including Best Musical. Company tells the story of Bobby, interacting with his married friends, who throw a party for his 35th birthday. Since 2021, Antonio Banderas has played Bobby in this adaptation that has toured Málaga, Barcelona, and Madrid. I had the chance to see this play at the begging of this month in Madrid.
The play is great and funny, it has fabulous dance numbers and the music score is, as expected, exceptional, just as the rest of Sondheim’s work. All the songs are translated to Spanish, and it’s a job well done, they do not feel as a cheaper version of the original lyrics; I’m saying this because it’s not that unusual to encounter bad translations of original works nowadays. The play closes the 14th of February, but if there’s a revival soon, I’d recommend going to watch it.
Bigger than life
Babylon is Damien Chazelle’s lastest motion picture. Starring Margot Robbie, Diego Calva and Brad Pitt, the film tells the story of Nelly LeRoy and Manuel Torres as they follow they dream to work in a movie studio. I’ve heard a lot of opinions on this movie, but I have to say I loved it. The film does not feel long by any means, the three hours of footage are completely justified, and even more, there’s not a single boring scene or frame. And the soundtrack is the cherry on top, it was composed by Justin Hurwitz, who also created the music for La La Land.
I went to watch Babylon in the cinema, and the only thing I didn’t like was that I ran out of popcorn before the title screen. Babylon is now available in VOD, but go watch it in a movie theatre if you have the chance.
Things I found on the worldwide web
Maison Hermès
This glorious building designed by Renzo Piano is located in Tokyo, and it is entirely made by glass bricks. It’s very interesting to see how Piano makes such a beautiful work out of this simple brick used in a lot of showers.
Shellmet
Do you like cycling but dislike the design of most helmets? That won’t be a problem any more! Recently, I saw this gorgeous helmet on Twitter inspired by the shape of a shell and made from scallop shells and with recycled plastic.
Instagram Notes
Instagram has recently launched Notes for everyone. It is essentially a text bubble that appears right next to your profile pic in your follower’s or best friend’s direct messages.
Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion, but I like this feature. Instagram has recently been focused too much on videos and driving away from being a social media app. I think it's great that they built a feature to make users interact with each other more. This is the only thing they built for users and not video creators since they copied the Stories.
Music recommendations
2023 is being a great year for music so far. These are my recommendations, please comment with yours too. Rosalía’s LLYLM has been a hit since it came out two weeks ago, and I’ve played in loop ever since. RUSH! is Måneskin’s first album after their victory in the Eurovision Song Contest and I liked a lot. I’m also super excited about this new Miley Cyrus album after listening to Flowers, and can’t wait to have the entire album.
Thank you for reading until the end, you can expect a new issue soon. If you want to receive new posts and support my work, subscribe for free or share this issue:
what a gorgeous helmet
Agreed about Babylon’s length