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강남 비-사이드 / GANGNAM B-SIDE (2024) dir. Park Noo-ri

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Never getting over the insane length and glory of Li Lun's mane of glory, but also the fact that both Yan An and Neo Hou spent hours before the shirtless scenes shoots buffing up, only for the censors ordering them to cover it all up in the post-productions.

Making a blood oath and eternal promise upon an altar with their mixed blood on it HALF-NAKED, as if they've just got up from a bed or planned to return to it, sure carries all sorts of innuendos and insinuates a relationship of more than mere friendship that even those subpar censors couldn't miss. Plus, they are wearing what's basically couple outfits, with ZYZ wearing red and LL blue in it emphasizing the yin-yang getting together and merging.

A deleted part of the scene showing Li Lun slowly walking to the altar with a vulnerable and wide-eyed expression, slightly out of breath, and cutting the palm of his hand before putting it on the altar next to Zhao Yuanzhou's, their blood mixing and mating together.

The buffing-up was clearly a joint effort.

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rivuletpaper

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hey there! this sounds like a silly question😭, and i’m so sorry if i’m bothering you (feel free to ignore ahdjsgsjdh), but i thought i’d go for it :)

your blog is just giving me a lot of good feelings rn, and i was wondering… if one wanted to live on a farm, temporarily or permanently, could they go about doing so, like would that be possible? it’s always been a kind of dream of mine, but i grew up in the city (with lots of farm holidays), so i’ve always thought of it as out of reach. but tbh, your blog always reminds me of it (in a good way), so i was wondering if anything like that is possible even on a smaller scale or anything. my job after university isn’t going to limit me to any country or place (as long as i have wifi), so i could theoretically go anywhere lol. just… not sure if i can actually make smth like this work if i didn’t grow up doing it, yk?

anyway, also wanted to say that i really love your blog! it’s rlly cool :D

Hello! :) With your farm holidays you are already ahead of where I was—I've always lived in cities as well before moving here, and I didn't know how to grow vegetables or take care of chickens, had never preserved food, was daunted by my chainsaw* and didn't know how to cure firewood, or do pasture maintenance, was freaked out by flying insects and mice... Now I'm on a first-name basis with the dormice that live in my walls (shoutout to Alfred.) I also felt that I was not physically very strong and never thought I'd be able to carry bags of animal feed nearly half my body weight without problem!

* I remember making a post during my first summer here, saying that on second thought using a chainsaw was not that scary because I'm alone in these woods so if I accidentally cut off my own arm no one will see it and make fun of me. Fear of making mistakes and looking stupid is the really scary part of learning to use a chainsaw.

Having a job that allows you to live anywhere is great, it's my situation too and it's one reason why I was able to buy this place; I could pick somewhere to live where property is extremely cheap (in a part of France we eloquently refer to as the Empty Diagonal.) I don't have the ambition to grow enough food to sell it or be self-sufficient so it's just a hobby farm (though having pulled a newborn llama out of its mother gives me a few farm points I think); I don't know if that's comparable to your idea. I do try to gradually increase the size of my vegetable garden, my greenhouse yield, etc, because I like having a pantry full of things I made myself and because it allows me to connect with the local community by trading e.g. the syrup I can make for the kind of pickled vegetables I've not been able to grow. I feel like I started out with modest ambitions and am letting them grow (a little bit) each year as I learn more about what's possible / how to do things.

I'm not sure I have many recommendations to give as everyone's situation is different, but the one piece of advice I would offer is to add things to your life gradually, to let yourself adapt—I got my dog three months after the llamas, then the chickens six months after that, then planned to add the greenhouse + fish another year later... So I had time to learn to deal with the new chores or problems that each new species of animals brought, and make sure I still had enough room in my life for the additional work they represent. My first summer here was very focused on the llamas and donkey (and the fence headache); then I had a whole winter to get to know Pandolf and learn to relate to him; then I got the hens the next spring; then the greenhouse, after two years of gardening had taught me a bit about growing plants. (Cats are the exception, I knew how to relate to cats and acquired cats within 1 week of moving here.)

Maybe that's just because of who I am but every time I added a new element to my life I had a short period of existential doubt when I felt like I was doing everything wrong / had no idea what I was doing / didn't understand what these plants or animal species needed and couldn't adapt to them, but then I eventually did and it got better—but I would have been very overwhelmed if I'd had to learn too many new things at once! I guess this advice doesn't apply if you have a proper farm business in mind and need to implement it more fully from the start. But in my case I'm a big believer in starting small and giving yourself time to learn, wrap your mind around each new thing, adjust your routines, and so on. Also I read up about aquaponics before I got my fish, did chicken research, read books about llamas etc, and I just realistically can't read 40 books at once to prepare for too many new things at the same time. :)

I don't know if I'm answering your question, and I feel like that's very generic advice, but I wish you luck & some great animals and vegetables & a beloved piece of land in your future!

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I had a friend over this week and even though the weather wasn't ideal, we decided we were going to go for a long walk in the surrounding woods with all three llamas. Since Pampelune is the uncontested chief, you just need to halter her and her herd follows wherever she goes. Sometimes we emerged from the woods into a pasture and Pampérigouste started galloping like mad (followed by her daughter & her abandonment issues), but then Pampy would object with some firm hums and the other two returned, chastened.

We'd brought a head of cabbage and we gave her a few leaves every time she successfully used her matriarch authority to re-gather our little group around her, even though she'd do it for free, because it's so nice to be able to go on walks with only one haltered llama and watch the younger ones frolic and explore the world as we go. Pampy seemed happy to walk with us at a steadier pace and to trade freedom for cabbage.

We'd initially planned to stay on my side of the torrent, but after meandering downhill for a long time we unexpectedly found an old bridge I didn't know existed, and it looked very inviting, so we crossed. (Ominous chords.) Then we enthusiastically went up hoping we'd see my house from the opposite hill—and we did, here it is :)

And then we went back into the woods, and got lost. Of course. I really think my friend carries some sort of curse because I don't usually get lost in nature but the last time we went on a great hike we also found ourselves completely disoriented in a featureless snowy plain, trying to glimpse the sun behind clouds and debating whether finding the North would help us in any way.

This time we were quicker to admit we were lost, and I said we could either go uphill, and we'd find the road eventually and the nearest milestone would tell us where we are (or we'd reach a farm on the plateau), or go downhill, and we'd find the stream eventually and cross it and then we'd be in a part of the woods I'd recognise. Probably.

Drawback of going uphill: it's technically the wrong direction, so the way home will be that much longer (and night falls at 5pm)

Drawback of going downhill: we'll have to cross the water at some point. Without a bridge. It would take a miracle to find that bridge again, supposing it was a real bridge and not a fae illusion to lead us astray.

After debating for a bit we decided to go downhill, because we were hopeful that we'd find a shallow spot to cross the stream, and also we feared that at nightfall the llamas might just lie down and decide to spend the night right here, in the woods. It's hard to make a llama get up again once she's decided that enough things happened for today.

The question of whether the llamas would accept to cross a mountain stream with us was left undebated—though we did regret having spent our cabbage too lavishly and too soon.

But we followed a rivulet downhill and Pampe crossed it repeatedly, with merry and graceful mountain goat jumps, which made us feel comforted in our decision.

Then we got to a point where the water became visible, and very noisy, and Pampelune started to feel suspicious. She made worried hums and walked more reluctantly and (having squandered our cabbage) we had to cajole her into compliance.

I love that my friend captured the moment when I crouched down and started straight-up lying to my llama.

Poldine was the last one to realise something was afoot, because she is young and trusting.

Once she did, she also became a bit reluctant (she wanted to go uphill again), and more than once my friend had to open her cloak-like coat in order to look like a bat and persuade Poldine that nothing good was happening in that direction.

We found a spot where the water was pretty shallow and decided to cross. The air temperature was maybe 1°c and the water felt like it was minus twelve so my friend wasn't exactly happy about the series of decisions that had led us to this point. I pointed out that last time in that snowy plain there was this piercing relentless evil wind howling in our ears and making unsettling voice-like sounds when it blew through holes in fences (to help her relativise) and she was like, when did this day go from singing walking songs and watching Pampe gambol in pastures to "at least this time we aren't being driven mad by ghostly wind."

I told her that things that go wrong become the most vivid and fun memories in the long term and we debated this postulate for a bit and I felt like I had successfully distracted her from our plight, until she put her foot in the water and said she wished she were in the metro in Paris right now. In Châtelet even. I said "but in two days you'll be in the Paris metro wishing you were here trying to cross a cold mountain stream with three appalled llamas!" and she said yes. Still, the situation is dire when a Parisian says she would rather be in Châtelet.

Pampe actually followed us quite quickly! I'm pointing this out because I'm always talking about how contrary Pampérigouste is, but she was so great about crossing the stream, even humming to her daughter as if to encourage her. I suppose she was telling Poldine that when they make their final escape and become wild llamas they'll probably have to cross mountain streams now and then.

Poldine panicked a bit once everyone was on the other side of the water except her, and although I'd already wrung out my socks I was psychologically preparing myself to cross the ice-cold water again and go get her—but after walking up and down the other bank desperately looking for an invisible bridge, she resentfully crossed.

Then we went uphill again and eventually found our way to my neighbour's pasture! I immediately recognised the old tree in the middle and I was very happy to see it. My friend was holding Pampy and I had climbed ahead to act as a scout, and I cried out to share my discovery feeling like Vasco de Gama. It was snowing just a tiny bit, and getting darker, and I think everyone (including Pirlouit, languishing alone in his pasture) had started to privately wonder if we were going to spend the night in the woods.

One interesting activity we did when we went home was testing the various objects that live on or near my fireplace to see which ones are heavy and stable enough to hang very wet socks. We tried the wistful wooden shepherd, the porcelain fox, the music box shaped like a pile of books, the vase, and found that the only reliable spots in my living-room to dry your socks are under Sherlock Holmes and under Marie-Antoinette so we agreed on a fair sock-drying rotation. The living-room smelled of wet wool (or wet llama) all evening, but we had a glass of champagne to celebrate the fact that we weren't currently trying to fight hypothermia by curling up between two llamas in some frosty meadow, and we felt pleased with our adventure, all things considered.

We realised a bit late that we had been in such a hurry to go home and warm up we'd neglected to reward our hiking companions, so we very bravely put on new socks and went out in the night to look for the llamas with our phone lights and distribute some muesli. Pirlouit was included in the distribution because he definitely would have crossed the stream with us had he been invited (and told his hay was on the other side.) Also we got a kiss from Poldine so I think she replayed the day's events in her head and came to the conclusion that her mother was, somehow, as always, to blame for all this.

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cats are really useful for when you need a small animal to sit 10-15 feet away from you and stare at you with unceasing neutrality

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that sword sure looks.... sword shaped

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y'all ever reach the end of google

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Top Dozen cdramas - 2024

This can obviously change but nothing truly exciting looks to air for the rest of the year so that's unlikely. My Top Dozen for the year are likely be set in stone.

It's a very idiosyncratic list which has two mini dramas, three moderns (!!! for me that's insane) and a lot of vibes dramas.

12 Hard to Find - all vibes all the times. A tragic romance that feels like a Gothic fairytale, this is what minidramas could be.

11 Love In the Desert - out of all the dramas on this list, this is the one that screams most "a good time." It's a romance and visual feast and webnovel madness and sexy good time and it made me cry.

10 Fortune Writer - a mini that is so smart and meta and fun about narratives and fate and villainy and fighting the story itself. So clever.

9 Derailment - a puzzle and a love story, telling most anything about it would be a spoiler but this story about a rich girl from 2025 who seemingly wakes up in a parallel universe in 2023 in body of a poor doppelganger, and the young man who was in love with the original has everything including addressing what it must feel to people to have a transmigrator possess a loved one.

8 Tender Light - the ending was just - it's the reason it's not n1. But the rest of this drama about an abused wife and an idealistic young man refusing to bow to societal pressure was just exquisite. It addresses morality and loneliness and complicity and sacrifice. Just incredible. Poetry in motion.

7 Will Love In Spring - a modern romance cdrama? In my list? Is the world ending? But seriously, this is such a gorgeous, realistic yet intense exploration of love and loss and trauma. It made me utterly reevaluate Li Xian to boot.

6 Snowfall - this is such a fever dream of a mood piece of a vampire romance, with seriously BDSM and gay vibes, as well as utterly incredible canon age gap ride or die OTP with Ouyang Nana bothering to act for the first time in her life and Vengo Gao embodying a gentleman vampire to perfection. Li Muge remains one of my favorite directors for a reason.

5 Heroes - the story of three very different men all consigned to the dustheap of history by changing times (the best swordsman in the era of guns, a former imperial guard of a regime about to be overthrown, a constable obedient to obsolete code who studied for imperial exams which got abolished) as the Qing dynasty is about to fall, this has fights, humor, three (!) separate love stories, philosophy and utter and complete heartbreak. The performances, the ideas, the filming and the writing all combine to make a bleak masterpiece with a 99% death rate (I am not kidding, only tertiaries make it out.) If I were in charge, it would get all the awards.

4 The Legend of Shen Li - the one truly mainstream idol costume hit on the list. It's an adult, passionate xianxia that reunites Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin as deities and battle powerhouses in a love story that is so full of yearning and passion and intensity I feel like peeking through my fingers. This is everything xianxia romance tries to be and almost never is. This just might be my favorite xianxia of all time, tbh.

3 Eternal Brotherhood - a dark horse whose existence I didn't even know about before it aired. Visually stunning despite its tiny budget, this narrative about three sworn brothers in a kingdom and world in crisis, is pitch perfect in its humor, its intensity, its tragedy and its themes (also THREE!!!! amazing love stories despite not being a romance-centric show.) The battles, the friendships, the traumas, the darkness at the heart of it all!

2 Fangs of Fortune - the sole drama that can rival JoL2 for me (only caveat is it's still airing), this is visually the most jaw dropping drama I've ever seen, but it's also high fantasy the way it should be - making me feel so immersed that stopping feels like coming up from a deep dive or waking up from a hypervivid dream. It has impeccable performances (many from actors who I don't normally even like), and its plot and relationships and themes - fate and sacrifice and choice and found family bonds and trauma and so many other things - make it feel as if it was made just for me.

1 Joy of Life 2 - THE drama of 2024 for me. It's somehow better than the incredible first installment. It's funny, it's heartbreaking, it has insane performances, a narrative that hits all my personally favorite themes (a person trying to remain human in an inhuman world, righteousness not being weak), a large cast of fascinating characters who feel like they live in front of me (there are no throwaway roles in this), my favorite ship of the year (though it's not even a ship-centric show) and above all, Zhang Ruoyun's live wire of a performance as Fan Xian, arguably my favorite cdrama character of all time. It should not work yet it does. Brilliantly.

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OMFG! Has the hell frozen over, or what, because this is an FREAKING MALE-TO-MALE LOVE CONFESSION IN A MAINSTREAM CDRAMA! There is no need to even read between the lines!

ZYZ literally says THEY ARE EACH OTHER'S SOULMATE, I can't! And ZYC doesn't correct him. Plus the shaken look in his eyes, as he realizes ZYC is baring his heart and soul to him.

And then he admits he wishes they could spend an eternity together. He says 'our group', but let's face it, that's just a trick/loophole to get it past the censors. WX is mortal, she would die in a few decades, but ZYC and ZYZ are virtually immortal.

It's a reciprocation in its purest, most visceral form.

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I’m not blind anymore

Wide Awake

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I'm up to the "I dunno maybe children working 13 hour shifts is bad, guys" part of Capital and it feels important to inform people that haven't read it yet that capitalists in the 19th century were not by any means wringing their hands and twirling their mustaches about employing children to squeeze out profits, they were hiring "experts" to write newspaper articles for them, explaining how "well, the socialists have these big demands about an 8-hour work day, and taking Saturdays off, but it's actually just so complicated, it's too complicated for most people to understand, we just NEED to hire children for night shifts because the stamina of their strong, youthful bodies is the only way we can survive as a business! It's science, you see. Economics doesn't work like that, just ask our economics professors at Oxford. You CAN'T turn a profit only working people 8 hours! Trust the experts, they know. It's just so complicated..."

That exact infuriating cadence that you read in New York Times articles, in the Atlantic Monthly, in the WaPo and all the other bourgeois rags where "everything is so complicated, and it's actually a lot more complicated than you think.." that has been around since the beginning. It is nothing new. So the next time you see some op-ed from Matt Yglesias or any of those other guys huffing their own farts about how "complicated" everything is, and how "unrealistic" a 30-hour work week is, remember that Marx was dealing with that exact class of "intellectuals" "explaining" how working 13 hours at age 10 was "vital" to the "moral fibre" of those poor kids.

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me when i first started watching cdramas: woah the sets are so beautiful

me watching cdramas now: hey, i know that street. hey, i know that temple. hey, i know that courtyard. hey, i know that gate. hey, i know that tree

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ੈ♡˳ 'violence is our love language' deadpool and wolverine (2024)

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Me, lightly touching Pandolf with the tip of my shovel: Let's play a game! I'll try to poke you and you'll jump around to avoid it:)

Pandolf, his eyes enormous: