riversongsandfolktales

[riversongsandfolktales]

gritting my teeth. I do not need to be the person my parents want me to be. I am allowed to be my own person. I am allowed to disappoint them. I am allowed to choose not to follow their advice. the world will not end if my parents disagree with me about what is best for me and my life

[riversongsandfolktales]

[riversongsandfolktales]

It's pitchfork time for the fossil fuel industry. Shareholder economics is killing the entire planet for the wealth of a few.

[riversongsandfolktales]

Helena Janecic – "City Gals" series (2011-2012)

[riversongsandfolktales]

[riversongsandfolktales]

I will be honest guys, the Red portrait of king Charles is gorgeous asdfghjkl

it's a bad portrait. Like. Objectively. It does the opposite of what's intended. It looks like the painter is insulting him. If it was in a contemporary gallery with no context you would see it immediately as the ambivalent criticism of Charles's reign, how he fades into the overwhelming red background as a tiny little figure, small and insignificant, insufficient for the clothes he's wearing. It reminds my of Goya's portraits, how they were so 'realistic' that they ended up making these great figures look pathetic to the viewer. So these are our rulers?

the sheer novelty. the surprise and shock, the kinda cunt it's serving for no reason. I. I love it. It's an incredible portrait by Jonathan Yeo. By the sheer fact that Charles, the man, is impossible to portray as greater than man because he's just such a nothingburger of a dude. So a portrait made to make him look huge and interesting made him be swallowed in red brushstrokes. The butterfly, that reminded me immediately of " we will all laugh at guilded butterflies", draws more attention than him. It looks like an omen. It looks like a warning in all this red. Something is not right here.

This is the best royal portrait ever 10/10

[riversongsandfolktales]

i am about to bestow upon you the secret butter technique. i am sorry, but it is french. i am sorry again, this only works with cow butter. i am certain plant based butters wouldn’t work, and alternative animal butters may or may not work

has this ever been you: you have a nicely steamed vegetable, or maybe you want to make the best butter noodles, but you know that if you put butter on those it’ll just melt and you end with kind of greasy noodles or vegetables? don’t you wish it was instead a luscious buttery glaze?

introducing: beurre monté

you will take a small sauce pan, and begin heating it with 1-2 tablespoons of water (use very little water) and bring it to a hard simmer or boil

turn the heat down slightly, and add Butter. how much? however much you dare. (start with 3-4 tablespoons and go from there)

you are going to either whisk Aggressively or you can pick up the saucepan, still holding it over the heat, and swirl aggressively so the butter is skating around the sides of the pan

done correctly, you will have liquid butter that is still emulsified. you have made Butter Sauce. season it with a little salt, and toss whatever you want in it.

if you’re butter splits, i’m sorry. you didn’t agitate it enough to maintain the emulsion, and now you have melted butter.

you can use this knowledge to make other sauces by swapping out the water for another liquid. white wine becomes beurre blanc. red wine is beurre rogue.

you want to CUM? sweat minced shallot in a tiny bit of butter, add white wine and cook it out until it’s reduced by about half. then whisk butter in hard. a few flecks of minced thyme or fennel frond stirred thru, and you eat that with a nice seared fish? or scallop? or even shrimp? wow. you will Nut

your boxed mac and cheese game can also be elevated by cooking your pasta and making a beurre monté first, tossing your pasta in that and adding the cheese packet. wow. hey; you’ll cum

go forth now with this butter secret

[riversongsandfolktales]

Sometimes you gotta stop worrying about being the smartest and funniest person in the room and just enjoy being in a room with smart and funny people

[riversongsandfolktales]

Dinosaurs

I was in the planetarium watching a show about the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. And as that great ball of fire crashed into the Earth - I heard the little girl next to me start to sniffle. "All the dinosaurs are gone." Before her mother could even reach to hold her- the narrator comforted her as he said, "Even when the future looks its darkest - life finds a way." And the sound of chirping birds began to play.

[riversongsandfolktales]

Losing My Mind in the Planetarium

The universe is so big and we are so small. Isn't that beautiful?

[riversongsandfolktales]

[‘My hair is tangled up

In all the

Flowers

She brings me’]

Credit:

Poem and Picture: me

Flowers: my precious girlfriend 🥹

[riversongsandfolktales]

Her Favorite Things

Her favorite pass time is picking violets to put in my hair. Her favorite food is whatever I put in the pan. Her favorite songs all make her think of me. Her heart beats so softly, so steadily, in my shaky hands. My favorite pass time is calling her pretty to see the smile that appears. My favorite food is whatever makes her stop and sigh at the flavor. My favorite songs all make me think of her. My heart beats so loudly, so anxiously, in her loving hands.

[riversongsandfolktales]

4.27.24

All ability to love, so genuinely, and so openly, has been bullied out of me. But watching you makes my heart beg, to learn how to love like that. Again.

[riversongsandfolktales]

Crossed, Aligned, Collided

Star crossed lovers are doomed. Star aligned lovers have it too easy. We're two stars that have collided and created new galaxies in our carnage. The universe simply can't contain Star collided lovers.

[riversongsandfolktales]

Ghost Strings

An old woman sits on her porch Playing an imaginary banjo Fingers plucking at ghost strings She looks at me And smiles She knows something I don't But perhaps one day - I will

[riversongsandfolktales]

Laundry, Coffee, and Kitchen Floors

My heart yearns for the mundane Laundry dates And glasses full of coffee Not champagne I could spend the rest of my life Sweeping our kitchen floors As you put dishes away Morning kisses are just routine And 'I love you's as common to hear As simple greetings O' my love I can't wait to live in the mundane with you

[riversongsandfolktales]

Fruit

Go ahead and eat the fruit baby. God's not watching, he doesn't care. See how I just took a bite? Here sweetheart - lick the juice from my fingers. Isn't it sweet? Open your mouth - take the fruit from my tongue. Isn't it just divine? Oh love, don't worry about the garden. Just lay down. Take another bite. What's the worst that could happen? We have all night...