Gaslight, Girlboss, Galinda
Maybe the friend we made was the single finger we held along the way
Oh hey there, I’m a day early 😏 I figured it would be nice to get this out the day before Thanksgiving so you could read it if you’re traveling (and if you are traveling, may the odds be ever in your favor). Here’s hoping you have something tasty on the dinner table this week and no one asks when you’re getting married/having children/getting engaged. Every year I have my mom, brother, and his girlfriend come to my apartment so I can cook because I hate eating bad food and sorrynotsorry but my mom is a horrible cook. This year I’m making a Filipino inspired menu of chicken adobo, ginataang kalabasa at sitaw, garlic rice, cornbread bibingka (the recipe from FOB [rip]), and a halo halo sundae for dessert. I absolutely love to see what other folks choose to cook, so please send me your photos or drop your menu in the comments!
Anyways, if you can’t already tell by this issue’s title, yes, I saw Wicked over the weekend. I’m very vocal about the fact that I don’t like musicals (with some minor exceptions), but I do love practical sets and alternative history, so I thought Wicked was something I could get behind (and sure it’s won Tonys and a Grammy or whatever). And since you’re receiving this in your inbox the day before Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to write about the history of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that your mom will no doubt have on the tv in the morning.
Macy’s will host its 98th annual Thanksgiving Day Parade this week, an event that’s been running since 1924. You might think “hey, that math ain’t mathin,” but the parade was suspended from 1942-1944 in order to conserve rubber and helium for use during World War II. But how did we get here? The first parade in 1924 looked very different from the IP-laden spectacle that we watch nowadays but before we even get into that, let’s set the scene.
It’s 1924 and every Thanksgiving kids in NYC and other cities liked to take part in Ragamuffin Day in which they would dress up as homeless people and go door to door begging for candy and generally causing mischief. If this sounds familiar, it’s because this practice was a precursor to trick-or-treating. Oh also, there were Ragamuffin Parades featuring kids dressed up in rags. I swear I didn’t make this up and also it still happens in some cities today (and Bay Ridge for some reason). Anyways, adults hated this and when Macy’s started hosting a wholesome holiday parade instead, they were all too happy to support it and do away with Ragamuffin shenanigans.
So when the first parade rolled around in 1924 they brought their kids to watch a procession of clowns and performers and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo! Elephants, camels, bears, monkeys, tigers, and donkeys all marched from the original parade starting point at 145th St down to Macy’s in Herald Square. This was a cute idea, but it majorly backfired pretty early on. The animals simply did not enjoy marching 6 freakin miles and became unruly near the end. Kids were frightened by the roars of the angry animals and because most of them were in cages, it was hard to see them anyways. Thankfully, the live animals were only around for the first 3 parades. In 1927 folks held large animal paper-maché masks and in 1928 the parade marched ever closer to what we know now as balloons made their first appearance.
Listen, if there’s one thing we love in NYC it’s puppets in parades (see: Halloween Parade). Early on, Macy’s partnered with Tony Sarg to create their holiday window displays. Sarg was a master puppeteer and illustrator who already had an extensive filmography under his belt by the time Macy’s found him performing on the streets of NYC. In 1927, along with the animal paper-maché masks, Sarg debuted V1 of his parade balloons. His first creation was a Felix the Cat balloon, but it wasn’t filled with helium. The balloons wouldn’t take flight until the following year in 1928. Sarg, along with his protégé Bil Baird, would go on to create numerous “upsidedown marionettes” for Macy’s over the years and usher in a tradition that we still follow today.
Here’s another fun practice from the early parades: they used to let the balloons go and give out rewards for anyone who captured and returned them to Macy’s. If you were thinking “wow, what a safe and wholesome activity,” you’d be really fuckin wrong. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this was a bad idea, but it was the Great Depression after all so folks were all too happy to return a deflated balloon in exchange for $100. Thankfully, the practice only lasted a couple years and was discontinued when a pilot nearly crashed after running into a cat balloon. And 50 years later, humans would prove that they had still learned nothing when Cleveland hosted Balloonfest ‘86.
The parade has featured more than a few mishaps over the years, which required the city to enact new safety regulations. If you visit NYC in the week leading up to the parade, you may notice that the lampposts along the parade route look a bit strange. That’s because most of the lamp arms are removed to prevent balloons and string from wrapping around them. Balloons are also limited to a certain size so that they don’t accidentally bump into anything. Since we’re expecting stormy conditions this week, you may also find that the balloons are flying closer to the ground than usual to help keep them under control. One of my favorite mishaps was when Barney got a rip and began to deflate, which apparently necessitated multiple police officers to proceed to stab the shit out of him and children looked on, horrified.
At the end of every parade, Santa brings up the rear and officially ushers in the holiday season. Too bad no one told him that most of NYC’s holiday markets are already open this year…
I would like to apologize in advance to any theater kids who will read this: I have never seen Wicked on Broadway and all that I know about this movie I have learned from the memes. The memes led me to believe that Glinda (the Guh is silent, so I’ve learned) and Elphaba were friends, but that is not the movie I watched at all. Anyways, I came for the practical sets and alternative history and I stayed to find out what we’ve all been holding space for this whole time.
I’ve complained at length about the overuse of CGI in movies. When films rely solely on CGI something just feels off; we slip into the uncanny valley. So when I heard that Wicked was primarily using practical sets, I was pretty stoked. Not only was this an homage to the OG Wizard of Oz (whose big technological innovation was just being in color lol) and the Broadway play (which can’t use CGI because IRL), but it was a return to actual smart filmmaking. I’m not saying we shouldn’t use CGI, but there should be a combination of real world stuff with CGI used to enhance, not replace. I feel like this is where we’re going with the whole AI debate at large: sure use ChatGPT to help zhuzh up an email, but don’t solely rely on it to write all of your emails.
And Wicked honestly pulled off the set design so well that at times I thought I was seeing full CGI sets; I couldn’t believe they actually built this shit. But they did (I watched the Arch Digest video). They fully built Shiz University (which is just such a silly name, I’m sorry), the Emerald City, and Munchkinland (including planting 9 million tulips). Creating actual real sets not only looks better onscreen, but it gives the actors something to actually act with. I truly cannot comprehend how all of the Marvel actors have been acting with tennis balls on sticks in green rooms this whole time, it must be so fucking draining. By actually creating the physical world that the characters are inhabiting, it allows for a much more authentic performance.
I was also very intrigued by the fact that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo fucking sang live while acting. If I was the sound/stunt/camera/edit person on this film and they told me they were doing that, I would have lost my mind. This is so difficult for so many reasons, but once again it’s a perfect homage to the theater and these girls are theater nerds to the highest degree. And I think it really paid off in the film! There was obviously some editing in post to make the singing seamless between camera cuts (hats off to the editor, I hope they can rest now) and I’m sure there were some other minor tweaks in post, but you could tell these girls were fucking singing. This BTS of Cynthia Erivo flying and singing honestly just made me want to vomit.
So as far as the technical stuff went, I was pretty impressed. But the story surprised me because it was just straight up Mean Girls for like 2/3 of the movie!
Glinda is a total brat whose only good deeds are performative AF. I think the scene where she did Elphaba’s weird little dance after everyone laughed was supposed to represent a turning point in her character, but it felt so fake! It reminded me of when Cady tried to embarrass Regina by doing the shirt/boob cutouts; Regina was so popular that something like that would never backfire and make people ridicule her. Same with the silly dance - Glinda participating only served to elevate herself because she already had so much clout and now she’s helping out the “weird” kid so she’s practically a philanthropist! She also encouraged Boq to ask out Nessarose which seemed like a nice thing to do, but once again she only did it because she didn’t want to be bothered with Boq. And later she officially changed her name to Glinda to support the animals? Thanks for doing the least.
I was honestly confused right off the bat when the movie opened on Glinda appearing in Munchkinland after the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. She literally lands in her little bubble and starts fucking singing and celebrating. She lights a goddam effigy of the witch on fire. This is not the behavior of someone who was once friends with a person! As I watched the movie I got the feeling that the Glinda/Elphaba relationship might play out like Magneto/Prof X; they’re two people who began on similar paths with similar goals, but eventually diverged as they sought different ways to achieve those goals (there’s also the throughline of being the “outsider” that made me relate Wicked to the X-Men). However, neither Prof X or Magneto would ever celebrate the other dying because they were, at one point, actual friends who had respect for one another. Glinda never fuckin respected Elphaba - she only ever used her to elevate herself.
The story as a whole felt like a great commentary on how easy it is to stand aside and do nothing as rights are stripped away bit by bit by a man who is an egotistical charlatan. Sound familiar? *gestures around America* It’s easy to make excuses and look away when laws don’t directly affect you. Elphaba has always had less rights and opportunities because of how she looks, so when the animals start getting locked up she immediately recognized this slippery slope. But bitch ass Glinda kept deferring to the wizard and Michelle Yeoh right up until the end because she’s never had to fight for anything in her life. This brought me back to the X-Men parallels again because while Prof X and Magneto obviously both want rights for mutants, one is willing to go through traditional governmental channels and the other recognizes the failings of the system and doesn’t believe there’s a way forward there. Honestly to me, everything is either X-Men or Watch men, I don’t make the rules.
Now since Wicked is essentially a prequel, I was obviously watching the whole thing trying to predict how these characters eventually end up in the story that we’re familiar with, The Wizard of Oz. Obviously we know how Glinda and Elphaba end up, but I have some theories as to who everyone else may become (theater nerds, feel free to tell me if I’m way off or if I’m predicting things that everyone who has seen the Broadway show has known for 20 years).
This man had a whole song about not wanting to think too much and he disrespected books by dancing on them. There’s also kind of a love triangle between him, Glinda, and Elphaba, so I feel like at some point Elphaba curses him when he inevitably sides with Glinda and makes him dumb (because he is also privileged and will take the “it’s easier to do nothing” side).
At first I thought this bitch was the scarecrow because he kinda looks like it already. But in one scene he offers Glinda a red handkerchief and mentions that he always has it on him because he cries a lot. The tin man got all rusty because he was crying. I feel like he’ll get cursed by Elphaba as well because of his relationship (or situationship) with her sister. It’s not clear to me at what point Nessarose becomes the Wicked Witch of the East though because she didn’t really get much character development in Part 1.
We do meet a little baby lion briefly, so I’m assuming this is our lion? Unclear why he is cowardly or why he ends up disliking Elphaba when she essentially saved him.
I feel like Michelle Yeoh dies at some point, maybe the wizard uses her as a scapegoat in the end so he can regroup and continue his shenanigans later on. I hope the Mean Girls learn the error of their ways and find kindness.
Anyways, I mostly enjoyed this movie (minus the songs, just not my vibe) and I’m curious what’ll happen in part 2. Will Glinda gain any sort of redeeming qualities that will make me hate her less? Will I ultimately side with Elphaba, just like how I generally believe that Magneto has a point? I feel like the power of the Grimmerie will end up corrupting her, but as of right now I fully ride for Elphaba. Let me know if you saw Wicked (the movie or the play) and what you thought!
If you’re choosing to brave the crowds and see the Macy’s Parade IRL, here’s all the info you need to know at a glance:
The parade runs from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM
The route starts at 77th St and Central Park West and heads down to 34th Street to Macy's Herald Square.
You have to get there early if you want to get a spot on the sidewalk. And there are only a select few areas open to public viewing.
It’s happening rain or shine (and it’s supposed to rain), so if you want to stay home and watch you can tune into NBC or Peacock.
OHNY has a bunch of new programming going on throughout the month of December celebrating the work of lighting designers! Remember when I went to the Nightmare Before Christmas Light Trail and thought it kinda sucked? Lighting done right can be really cool and I love that OHNY has these events.
Sure there’s a lot of official holiday markets happening right now, but there are lots of smaller ones too!
Woodbine in Ridgewood has a market on Dec 1 that’s so big it’ll be at 2 locations: Banatul Folklore & Soccer Club at 1880 Menahan St, as well as at Woodbine itself at 585 Woodward Ave. The venues are around the corner from each other, just a 1-minute walk.
Artshack in Bed-Stuy is having a Night Market on Dec 6-7. I recently got tea there with Emily and can confirm that the ceramics they have available are fucking gorgeous. They’ll have wine and snacks, too!
Clayspace in Greenpoint is also having a ceramic sale the following weekend on Dec 13-15.
My happy place, NYC Drawing Room, has a market the evening of Dec 17
Holiday Nostalgia Rides are back in December at select F and Q stations! These can get pretty crowded, but it’s also super cute to see people riding the subway dressed up all old-timey.
The NYC Parks GreenThumb T-Shirt Design Contest is open thru Jan 19! The theme is Seeds of Resilience and folks can submit a design that can be used on GreenThumb t-shirts, worn by hundreds of gardeners all over the city.
Holiday cards + NYC polaroids are still available through the end of the year to all of my paid subscribers! 💌
1) Choose a photo from an existing adventure, or challenge me to find something new for you! Seriously, pick any location or any landmark and I’ll go there to snap a cool pic for you.
2) Send me your address via this form to receive a fun surprise in your mailbox 📝 📬
Revisiting this after part 2! I was very happy that Fiyero turned out to be a more decent dude than predicted but it made me sadder at what happened to him. I also don’t think he turned particularly dumb so my head canon is that Scarecrow was *acting* dumb to get Dorothy to trust him and secretly help out his lady
I don’t know anything about Wicked Part 2/Act 2 except that’s when my middle school graduation song For Good happens, but I like your predictions! Also, is that why Bay Ridge has a street named Ragamuffin Way? Because people still do that there?