History For Music Lovers

So I was looking at my Gmail account -- which I set up early this year but never actually use, at least not yet. And I found a few emails in it, mostly from YouTube comments. One of them was interesting, though. Remember when I wrote about the Bastille Day celebration at Eastern State? If not, refresh your memory. The first video, featuring the Lady Gaga "Bad Romance" parody, is the one that got the comment. It seems that the parody was originally created by an outfit called History for Music Lovers, and they've got a whole slew of these. Here's their full-length version of the "Bad Romance" revamp, "The French Revolution."



Still think this guy's adorable, by the way. Someone hook me up, please?

Bastille Day Festival 2012

Another bunch of pictures for you to peruse. These are from the annual Bastille Day Festival held at Eastern State Penitentiary. For you out-of-towners, it's not actually operating as a prison now. It's a tourist attraction. Al Capone was once locked up there. Every Halloween they operate a popular haunted house-style tour. And every July there's Bastille Day. This was the first time I checked out the festival and it was apparently revised some this year, so I can't compare it to other years, but it's fun. Essentially, it's a show featuring comedy, song and dance performed by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, telling the story of the French Revolution (taking many liberties with said story, naturally).

The star of the show was Edith Piaf (who actually lived in the 20th century; I told you, they took liberties with the story). I got there in time to see a pre-show rehearsal, and I kind of developed a little crush on this guy. It's the weirdest thing. Men in heels usually don't do it for me.

I took lots of pictures, which are located here. I also took some video, which is after the jump...