samcentral

[samcentral]

I haven’t slept in three days.

I’ve been working around the clock to back up over a petabyte of research data and records and articles from the National Library of Medicine before it gets attacked by that elongated dipstick and his gestapo squad. Trying to get copies of every federal research program’s data before it gets destroyed in the crossfire. I hope to God that it won’t, but I have no confidence that it will be safe. Lots of copies keep stuff safe.

[samcentral]

@samreich @dropoutdottv

the problem is, i am actually the type of person who is totally primed to be all about Dropout and their various shows & content. and i always said i WOULD be into it if they actually started featuring trans women outside of One Off Tokenistic Appearances. and then… they just never stopped doing that, all whilst landing more TME queer people in recurring roles, platforming people who are transmisogynists, making transphobic jokes about transfem NPCs in d20 etc.

and so i never got into Dropout! it just really is a shame, considering how much of tabletop rpg culture & history was built off of the backs of trans women’s work. really disappointing for a group of people who keep jerking themselves off about how much they hate terfs, JK Rowling and Harry Potter, and how much they love uplifting marginalised voices, to not actually put any effort into representing some of the most marginalised voices around their table. 🤷‍♀️

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"Bajoran religion is catholicism, Buddhism, and Judaism in a blender" okay but where's the catholicism. If you mean the Kai and the existence of monasteries im chasing you like a rabbit. Catholicism didn't invent the use of clerical hierarchy and monasticism in Christianity (Copts innovated the use of Monasteries in Christianity and likely adopted the idea from Buddhists), much less in religion generally (again, Buddhists had both wayyyy before Christianity existed). The robes the vedeks wear are specifically more like a Buddhist monk's than a Cardinal's. Further the Jewish coding of Bajorans where it exists is mostly political, not religious. Bajoran religion is organized, transmitted, and acted out very differently to Judaism. And there's just as many theological influences from my understanding of Islam (Sisko is a Moses figure, but also his first experience with the Prophets has some similarites to Mohammed’s night journey imo and Kira has a case to be made as an Imam Ali-esque figure). The clearest real world influence on Bajoran religion is Indic religions, and specifically Zoroastrianism is acknowledged by the writers to be a major inspiration- which explains the ways in which Bajoran religion has so many Indic influences while having a few nods to West Asian religion.

[samcentral]

A Crash Course to Kendrick's Super Bowl Performance, from a Black Woman

Note: this does NOT go in depth into all of the song's lyrics. I don't have time to recount two decades of his discography. This is just a summary of the performance itself.

Let's start with the first visual we get:

UNCLE SAM - most notably recognized from WWII American wartime propaganda, Uncle Sam is the personification of American patriotism and freedom. The term "uncle" is also evocative of Uncle Tom from Uncle Tom's Cabin, an abolitionist book that aided in inciting the Civil War. Uncle is also a very common term (both endearment and derogatory) towards Black men (eg. "unc"). Samuel L Jackson was fantastic.

Uncle Sam also resembles a circus ringleader, notable for my next point:

THE GREAT AMERICAN GAME - no, not Super Bowl. The GAG is us the people being pitted against each other: through late-stage capitalism, through the culture war, through class warfare, through being built of the backs of slaves. We are all players in the GAG because none of us on this site were the oligarchs seated at the inauguration.

This is also seen as Kendrick's stage was a Play Station controller. Not only did it remind of circus rings visually, but it was a game battle stage. The Great American Game is a battle royale of the commoners for the amusement of the rich whites.

Remember the foods / Them color was tin and brown / But now they 100 and blue - For this I'll just say, look what the last election said about lowering the price of eggs... and look at the prices now.

The revolution about to be televised / You picked the right time / But the wrong guy - Election 2024 once more.

THE FLAG DANCERS - yes, the dancers formed the US flag... off of the backs of Black people. Not a single white person in sight, and that's true of the cotton pickers in the fields. Plantations are part of how the US came to economic prominence after being a "backwater" colony. Remember tobacco? Cotton? Our bloodlines do.

The red and blue dancers are also notable for representing the Crips and Bloods, two infamous street gangs. The dance in Not Like Us is the Crip Walk. I recommend researching more on your own time about them, but just know they are a large part of the stereotype of Black people being "ghetto."

TOO LOUD, TOO RECKLESS, TOO GHETTO. Do you really know how to play the game? - This is exactly what Black people, especially Black men, get told all the time. It's why we change our names on resumes if they sound "too Black." It's why we codeswitch in non-Black company. This is especially rich considering how non-Black people love our culture and love to make money off of us, as the latter part of the quote points to. And it's even more profound during the Super Bowl-- the NFL is majority Black players.

STREET LIGHT A CAPELLA -- "thug" stereotype dancers to counteract the a capella connotations, with Uncle Sam then saying that Kendrick figured out "bringing other street guys around being a culture cheat code." Yes, this is a direct hit at Drake (listen to "Not Like Us") but also politically. Look up "model minority". Notably I would point to Candace Owens, or the Miami Venezuelan political group that's been in the news recently, especially as this directly led to Kendrick being surrounded by...

DANCERS IN WHITE -- it's white America. That's... that's the allegory.

NOT LIKE US TEASER -- Kendrick says "Not Like Us" is "their favorite song." -> he means white people specifically here. It comes after he's surrounded by all white dancers, the women around him who are his call and response are also in white (my opinion, they represent the industry). He's saying "Not Like Us" is the favorite of yts because it is about BLACK MEN FIGHTING. This again is reflected in the video game stage and ringleader Uncle Sam.

SZA -- instead of giving what they want, we see SZA. She's one of Drake's exes and Kendrick has always supported her.

ALL THE STARS -- This was in the first Black Panther movie, which I recommend you watch. Rest in Power Chadwick. Notably, this movie was incredibly mainstream as a major Marvel movie, and then we have Uncle Sam say...

"THAT'S WHAT AMERICA WANTS: NICE AND CALM. DON'T MESS THIS UP" -- translation: Marvel (the industry, America, etc.) wanted a safe, semi-pop song because white American likes safe pop songs, not Kendrick's usual heavy rap style about his life as a Black man! Don't mess up what you've got going mainstream for having this "Black rap feud" with Drake, who is an R&B model minority to white people because he's safe.

So what does Kendrick say?

IT'S A CULTURAL DIVIDE / IMMA GET IT ON THE FLOOR -- He was warned not to be political or apologetically Black for this Super Bowl performance, but he is using this big stage opportunity to speak out.

40 ACRES AND A MULE / THIS IS BIGGER THAN THE MUSIC -- 40 acres and a mule are what the freed slaves were promised. Instead, this land went to white sharecroppers. Research Jim Crow laws.

THEY TRIED TO RIG THE GAME / BUT YOU CAN'T FAKE INFLUENCE -- rig the election, rig the industry like with model minority Drake, rig the Great American Game with culture war to distract from active class warfare.

NOT LIKE US -- the only thing I'll mention because it made me holler is Serena Williams crip walking on Drake's metaphorical grave. She's another one of his exes.

TURN THE TV OFF -- exactly like he said! The TV is a distraction, the Super Bowl is a distraction, the mainstream news is often a distraction. Turn it off and get with your people!

GAME OVER — could not see this on my stream but at the end of the performance, the lights in the stadium spelled this out. The world is watching, America…

In conclusion, Kendrick Lamar is a visionary and thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[samcentral]

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[samcentral]

New York City ballet production of Midsummer Nights Dream

[samcentral]

GOD PLEEEEEEASE

A fleet of spaceships appeared in Earth's orbit. A message was broadcast:

"Earthlings! Given your development the last few thousand years, you may discover interstellar travel any century now. To slow your advance, we are abducting the most successful millionth of you."

"Yes, measured by wealth."

[samcentral]

I just want to remind you that sometimes your life really doesn't begin until you are 26+... Romanticizing and obsessing over our youth is harmful. Growing up is beautiful. Discovering who you are and how you interact with the world is a gift. Maturing and learning what you truly want out of life and living in that purpose brings fulfillment and peace. Your life is not over in your early 20's because you haven't figured it out yet, it's just beginning.

[samcentral]

I'm constantly impressed at people's ability to stretch anything to fit an acronym, but it's extremely impressive how well that fits.

[samcentral]

"I'm just a girl", "girl math", "girl dinner", "divine feminine energy", "bimbocore", "clean girl", "girl's girl", "girlfriend brain" SHUT UPPP!!! SHUTT THE FUCKKKK UPPPPPP !!!!

[samcentral]

When violent characters are gentle and tender & when gentle characters are violent and unhinged

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[samcentral]

hey sorry it's just that i don't think i'm very good at being a person. thanks for letting me try with you, anyway.

[samcentral]

sherlock holmes deduces you are trans before you've figured it out yourself and refers to you with those pronouns and then when you look confused is like "ah...had you not arrived at that conclusion yet?" and wafts away in his dressing gown to smoke seventeen pipes, leaving you in a gender crisis

[samcentral]

Thinking about Our Man Bashir and how Garak saw being shot as the consummation of his and Bashir's relationship... or whatever Andrew Robinson said.