Cathryn

I have occasionally toyed with the idea of writing a parody entitled "Baby Got Book" because, well, I like big books and I cannot lie. Except it's really just the first line that amuses me. Because I've always been the one who reads 900-page books at the dinner table and gets asked if they're for some class--even if they're something ridiculously non-schoolwork-y like Cryptonomicon, because apparently nobody would read a book that long for fun. Riiiight.

Have you ever looked into foreign musicals? The Germans have a bunch of amazingly cracktastic, earworm-filled costume-drama musicals--Elisabeth is the best (and best-known) example, and then there's Tanz der Vampire and Die Drei Musketiere and and Rebecca. And Der Glöckner von Notre-Dame, aka the stage version of Disney's Hunchback that never made it out of Berlin because it had too much character death and other not-kid-friendly stuff from the book.

The recordings are a bitch to find and cost an arm and a leg to import, but LJ has a thriving black market of share/trade communities full of people who like obscure musicals. And I'd be happy to send along mp3s of Elisabeth or Glöckner.