warped

For the uninitiated, “Cabaret” begins with a marionette-like male character named the Emcee, the omnipresent master of ceremonies of an underground Kit Kat Club in 1931 Berlin, smiling into a warped mirror.

Perched atop four active landslides, its pavement warped and cracked by constant land movement, Last Chance Grade is so unstable that it was reduced to one-way traffic for nine years straight, reopening in October 2023.

The songs were still comedic — “Everything I write winds up a little warped,” he says — but were original tunes that were pastiches of, say, Frank Zappa or They Might Be Giants’ style.

He told the court that the boy was significantly autistic and was vulnerable, and said the boy's actions were not preparation for violence, but the "expression of fantasy, a kind of warped self-care".

It was a simple message born out of a desire to shine a light on how metrics for success within the industry can leave actors with a warped sense of their own value.