A Mill Story

I'll talk more about this on release day, but this is Peirce Mill. (Spelling intentional.) Growing up in this area, I had gone by this structure and wondered what it was. I knew there were mills. After all we've got a road named Viers Mill, there's Kemp Mill, there clearly were mills. There's an old saying that gets attributed to various people that when you are ready to learn, a teacher appears. Because often it's easy to be like sure, something mill road. Or sure, there's a historical sign that there used to be a mill here.

This mill is in Rock Creek Park. It's near a stretch where the water is deeper, and a little more serious seeming than some stretches that seem more suited to dunking your toes in. The National Park Service, along with the Friends of Peirce Mill, have kept the mill alive and in tact. It's set up for students to come visit. 

Why my sudden interest in mills? Well, some folks and I had talked about writing some fairytale retellings and one of them involves a mill. Of course magical creatures can adapt to a mill free life, I'm sure plenty have. But it turned out, we do have a mill here in DC. I didn't have to plant or revive one, it already was. 

In this time when some people think we don't need to keep parks, or historical sites alive, it was a great reminder why these things are useful. Why letting school kids and adults walk through and look at something, and think about the older ways of flour and other milling. 

It can be easy as a modern person to wonder why there are so many fairytales about mills. But of course just about every town would have had one. And pounding wheat into flour. There are mills and bakers because those people did their own kind of magic. Transforming plants into food.

Tara Kennedy

Note: If you are reading this outside of your normal work hours, feel free to hold off response until your work hours.  

~To the world we dream about, and the one we live in now. 

"Hadestown", book and lyrics by Anais Mitchell

Three Interesting Things

1. This piece is fascinating if horrifying on the human testing that led to retinol.

2. When I created a DC based accessories queen for Bored by the Billionaire, I actually didn't have a DC based inspiration for her.  Yes, there are people in DC who make very cool accessories, including shoes and purses.  But this person is aiming to make a little bit of an empire.

3. This post from a few weeks ago asked what are you hopeful for, and I really needed to read it. 

Tara Kennedy

Note: If you are reading this outside of your normal work hours, feel free to hold off response until your work hours.  

~To the world we dream about, and the one we live in now. 

"Hadestown", book and lyrics by Anais Mitchell

The Happily Ever After

You will sometimes hear people say the happily ever after or HEA is all romance really requires, as if that's easy. 

This weekend they had the Oscars, and while I am watching movies less these days I had watched two that were nominated for things ("A Real Pain" and "Wicked") and neither of them has an ending. Okay, that's not entirely fair. They both end. So that is an ending of sorts. "Wicked" ends with a to be continued, which one could argue is an ending. I would argue it is an excuse for not ending. Sure it ends where intermission is in the play, and that is certainly a pause in action. I would argue that intermission is the equivalent of a very long commercial break. So your intention with the audience is to leave them intrigued, but in a way that only has to last a matter of minutes, not months. 

And in the case of "A Real Pain" it is a slice of life style movie. So the movie lasts the length of the journey they go on, and then it ends. That's it. 

And HEA generally, though not always, requires a little more. Yes, your characters should have fallen in love, or very deep like. Yes, they should have faced an obstacle together and overcome it, even if the obstacle was taxes. But also they should have figured something out about each other. They should have figured out not just how to like one another, but how to face the world as a team. 

We're Going to Sing it Again

Quick note, I am going to discuss the end of "Hadestown". If the end of the show (based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth) is a surprise you wish to maintain unspoiled about, click away now. 

Early on in the "Hadestown" run, I saw a prominent person post on social media that they were disappointed with the ending. A number of people replied, uh, but it's based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Now of course not everyone is or even should be conversant with every myth. 

But in the opening song - which admittedly you hear after you have committed to the show - Hermes tells you this is a sad song, a tragedy. So, you are warned. 

Of course the trick of many great stories is to tell you where you are going, and then distract you with the drama, the romance, the adventure, so that you forget what you were warned about. 

Not all retellings need to use the ending from the original tale of course. The joy of retelling or remixing is figuring out what to keep and what to toss. 

And in the final song, Hermes tells us that you have to sing the song as if you don't know how it ends. That you sing it again as if it could turn out differently. 

I love a good happy ending. I really and truly do. But some stories don't have them. And that doesn't make the story wrong, necessarily. Sure some folks seem to think sad endings are harder to do, when often the opposite is true.

But in the case of "Hadestown", the story shows so many things. And yes, I am obsessed with the music. But it's a story about creatives. About people who lose themselves in their work. About people who are tired of struggle. And about people chafing against the deals they made, and folks tugging to take more. About working hard against a huge system to try and make change. And how sometimes the systems win. But you keep hoping, that the next time you sing the song, it turns out differently. Because one day it will.  And that will be a new story. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Sarah Kendzior is so clear eyed about the trouble we are in, and writes searingly about crafting in times of trouble. Content note: references to nooses. 

2. These teens had their play censored, so they wrote a play about censorship, and now that play has won an award. 

3. Do you want a story about a baby seal that was wandering around New Haven?