#|Bird Bird: Absentee Edition|

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

“Crowley is Malleus’s long lost father” theory is popping off right now in like every twst social media community so I wanted to know what your thoughts on it were?

I briefly discussed this theory in the final paragraph of this post (although it is full of spoilers, so please be cautious of that). To reiterate (and to add more details), the main pieces of evidence that come up when discussing this idea are:

Malleus’s dad is confirmed missing, but we never saw a body or have confirmation of his death so we can’t 100% trust that.

Crowley’s past and motives remain a total mystery. (The crow mask he wears is also highly suspicious; why does he never remove it? Why does it resemble the masks worn by Briar Country soldiers? Because Malleus would recognize his father? Because Lilia might recognize his old friend?)

The name of Malleus’s dad may be romanized as Levan/Revan (we don’t have an official English localization for book 7 yet, so we don’t know for sure how it would be written). (Edit: EN has confirmed that his name is "Raverne".) The former looks like the word “raven”, just with the vowels swapped around. And you know who else is a black bird?? Diablo, Maleficent’s crow and right-hand man, similar to how Levan/Revan was Mallenoa’s right-hand man. Who else do we know that’s a crow? Crowley.

Levan/Revan is described by Lilia as someone who “always dumped their work onto others/him”, which is something that Crowley also does to his own students.

So I guess the conclusion is that Malleus’s dad went into hiding to protect himself (especially if we assumed that his wife got killed off shortly after his disappearance; his own life may be in danger as well)?

I think the idea is definitely… interesting??? It would also be a big rug pull since players have been joking since day 1 that Crowley gives the vibes of a deadbeat/absentee dad or someone who went off to buy milk and never came back 😂 But in terms of how likely I think it is to become a reality??? I think it’s definitely kind of shaky if we’re going with only what we know right now.

The problem I have with this theory is twofold. Firstly, it’s counting a lot of omission of information as proof rather than details present as proof (which really could be spun any which way you like if you tried hard enough). Secondly, the main thread of logic here is basically the same as “Ace traitor” theory. We’re drawing conclusions from… a name (in Ace’s case, the fact that his surname isn’t “Heart” like the other card soldiers but is “Trappola”), which isn’t a lot of solid evidence in of itself.

I don’t know if I totally buy that Malleus’s dad would go MIA for literally 400ish years either? Like… he was the princess’s confidant, right? So he must have cared for her very much. Why would he up and abandon his wife (rather than coming to her rescue), his friend (Lilia), his country, AND his unborn child who NEEDS his love magic to be hatched? Why wouldn’t he return once the war was over?? Why would he run off to Sage’s Island and become the headmaster there??? If he doesn’t want to be a present father figure, why have a child at all or put himself in a position where he now has to monitor several hundreds of children every year instead of the one child that is actually his? (I know that Lilia started off not wanting kids and then became more open to the idea over time (ie people can change), but I don't think we can conclude the same happened to Crowley given how dismissive he still is in present day and how little we really know about Malleus's dad's true personality.) And surely if Crowley was Malleus’s dad, he’s not so ignorant as to not know Malleus is his son, right…? But then why forget about his existence 90% of the time and forget to invite him when he knows Malleus is on campus and he had not been there for him all his life???? Why actively be such an asshole???

The mask thing on Crowley is suspicious as heck, yes, but I don’t know if Malleus would be able to identify his father on sight since he never saw him or got to know him before hatching. On the flip side, how would Lilia not immediately notice his friend by voice??? Or by the mask if it is, indeed, his friend’s trademark or a custom from Briar Country? Are we arguing “characters made dumb for the sake of plot”? 😭 (Believe it or not, this is actually the most credible piece of evidence to me just because of how often TWST has employed cases of mistaken identity for the sake of convenience; I wouldn’t put it past them.)

Lilia does describe Levan/Revan as someone who dumps work on others, but he says Mallenoa does the same thing. Yet there are other aspects to Mallenoa which we also learn about. Shirking work is not the entire personality of Malleus’s dad and while his overall character may be inclusive of that, there are tons of traits unaccounted for; we barely know the guy. The Crowley = Levan theory feels like taking a conclusion and working backwards/retroactively changing the interpretation of other details to prove the conclusion we began with, instead of taking suspicious details and synthesizing a conclusion from it.

Anyway! You can see that I’m hesitant about this theory. I’d like more concrete details before I get on board with it because there isn't enough to implicate Crowley specifically—but hey, that’s not to say the idea isn’t interesting or funny 🤔 I’d personally love to see Malleus’s reaction to Crowley Darth Vader-ing him, haha 😂

Side note: It’s also sort of funny how people don’t believe Crowley is Malleus’s dad simply because they think Mallenoa is “too good/hot” for a man as bumbling as Crowley www

[selkieioe]

read: playlists are super down below so keep scrolling!!

Our Life: Beginnings & Always.

Hello Hello! Welcome to my first ever post on tumblr that just had to be about my ultimate top tier favorite visual novel of all time..Our Life: Beginnings & Always or OL:BA for short.

This game has such a special place in my heart that im afraid I’ll forever be attached to it because at this point it’s not even a phase anymore lol. I still remember that heated summer day of scrolling down on my steam shop out of boredom and i kept getting recommended OL:BA but back then i really couldn’t care less and would not even spare a glance on it until i got so fed up of it popping up in my recommended for the next few days that i decided to finally check it out.

Reading what it was about made me curious but what really got me downloading it was because of the customization of our character/characters.

And finally into the game i was! I remember when the story started, i was very surprised already by the environment, narrative and world building of the game. It truly felt like i was part of it and i didn’t get bored at all. In fact right from the start i was hooked already!

I loved ALL of the characters that was introduced, i love the fact that it was SO multiple choice that it felt like you were really integrating yourself/oc onto the game and that you’re not just forced to say the same thing as a different choice or feel as though your options are limited. Its definitely a game that you’re supposed to replay over and over because its just that fun!!

And as someone who has never had a great childhood and adolescence, absentee parent, chaotic household, unsupportive friends, want to be understood (you know…this and that) i was so happy that this game was doing that and it genuinely gave me hope to live despite going through the darkest of times in my life :)

This game has changed me into a better person and made me want to be the best version of myself that i want to be in the future! I will infinitely recommend this to anyone who wants to have a feel good game/read (+1 it will make you cry!!)

Anyway enough yapping 💀 Time to get to the point.

Here are some playlists i made dedicated to the lovable characters of OL:BA that i personally listened to during my walkthrough and may relate to their route/lore ;)

read: playlists are super down below so keep scrolling!!

1# COVE HOLDEN

the og love interest!

summer with cove holden.

this playlist is the epitome vibes of the game (growing up with them and having fun, making memories.)

from beginnings to always with cove holden.

spoiler alert!! MARRIAGE DLC WOOOO!! really love this one cuz its all full of cute romance and wedding songs. i also put some songs that i think mc and cove would have when they get kids :3

#2 DEREK SUAREZ

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE!!

DEREK IS JUST SOOOO AAHHHH He’s my ideal man and i KIN him so bad you dont even know!!!

derek suarez crushing on you.

THIS PLAYLIST. IM TELLING YOU. one of the FAVES i made!! the pining, secret crush on mc for a loong time, the angst GOSH. so cute. every song in this plays a part on each moment with him i swear

#3 BAXTER WARD

ANGST MAN.

5 years after baxter ward.

one thing i noticed about our life is it lacks certain angst aspects when the baxter dlc didn’t exist YET back then. like i LOVED the fight between mc and cove in mcs room and i wanted it to escalate more ngl just cuz i LIVE for angst! but if you want to get real hurt you should choose baxter. this playlist focuses more on the last step of his dlc and its full of taylor swift songs.

baxter ward.

honestly this playlist is catered more to his vibes, his character (i listen to this playlist and i imagine edits of him lol) but i guess some songs are related to his story/lore? i made this waaay before 5 years after baxter ward and when the baxter dlc didn’t exist yet and we all just knew him to be as the new neighbor in sunset bird but people like it i guess so here it is xD

anyway thats all for OL:BA series! GB Patch is cooking up Our Life Now & Forever and it’s not released yet! just on demo on steam and itch! i already have a playlist for it but so far i have only made Qiu Lin (one of the leads of the game) i also have a privated filo inspired playlist for baxter if you want to listen to it let me know so i can put it up in public!

[hummingbee-o0o]

WIP Wednesday: IwtV edition 2

Apparently, Daniel is something of a vampiric prodigy.

He’s a very efficient and neat killer, sure, but that’s not it. It’s about The Gifts, or whatever. Well, one gift, for now, but Armand is so hopped up on it he’s going full Montessori on Daniel’s ass. He apparently wants to make up for being an absentee maker at the start there, and he’s determined to nurture Daniel’s talents.

It started a couple months ago, when Daniel casually set a shitty book on fire, and even he was surprised at how easily it came to him. Armand then said something weirdly erotic about his blood being inside Daniel, and the whole incident got them both so horny they repeatedly had sex about it for a week.

And now Armand is of the opinion that Daniel should try branching out into other gifts as well.

Except…

You know how some birds of prey will deliver a kill that’s still wriggling to their nest, so the young can learn to deal the killing blow? Yeah, that’s pretty much Armand’s teaching methodology.

Only it’s not about killing, because Daniel, disturbingly, never had problems in that department. No, this is much more complicated, and Daniel is kinda regretting watching that David Attenborough documentary with Armand last night, the one about the European golden eagles lifting entire-ass goats off cliffs, because he’s pretty sure that’s the bit that inspired Armand’s current teaching efforts.

There’s a cop standing in front of them, staring straight ahead with the creepy, vacant stare of an antique doll. They’re in the middle of an abandoned construction site, the kind that really ticks Daniel off, because housing crisis is a real thing, but at least there’s nobody to see them; and if anybody comes along, well, Armand can do what he’s done to the cop.

Which brings Daniel back to his predicament.

“Come on, babe,” he tries. “Can’t we do it some other time? I’ll blow you if we go home right now.”

Armand laughs, beautiful like a goddamn midsummer night.

“That’s a very tempting offer, beloved, but we both know you’ll do that anyway.”

Yeah, he’s got Daniel there.

---

hoping to post soon, maybe even the weekend!

also: it's my fic, so expect Daniel to call Armand 'babe' at least four times.

[coriander-recommends]

Hey guys it's been a while!

Sorry for not posting since, what, November? My life has had a lot of downs since then and I've honestly just been trying to stay afloat. But I'm not here to talk about me!

Today's post is going to be a little different.

Today I want to pay tribute to an author who's works have gotten me through a lot shit the last couple of months. With heavy focus on mental health, trauma recovery, and learning to accept yourself, Goldkirk is one of the best authors on the archive in literal years.  

SHUTTERBUG

Batman - All Media Types

goldkirk

Teen

Word Count: 313648 / 8 works

In-Progress

“or, How Tim Drake Found A Family, Became A Photojournalist, Learned To Love Coffee, and Grew Up, not necessarily in that order.

Tim Drake is thirteen, runs the famous BatWatch blog that has spiraled hilariously out of control, has absentee parents that suit his purposes just fine, is training himself to run the streets at night, and is doing absolutely peachy, thank you.

Alfred and Jason disagree, and get Dick and Bruce involved in figuring out their weird nextdoor neighbor kid’s life. Everything goes uphill from there.” 

~ Latchkey, first work in series

God where do I even begin? This series...means so much to me. Tim Drake’s (and the rest of his family of course!) journey has resonated so deeply with my soul. I’ve laughed, cried, and screamed (seriously? That shit in Black Bird wrecked me) during all three times I’ve read through this wonderful series. This is one of the works that has more than earned its place as one of the greats, and will continue to do so in its latest work Hymn (focused on the newest edition to the family, Damian). Please go give this a read right away!

LEGEND HAS IT

Batman - All Media Types

goldkirk

General

Word Count: 14784

In-Progress

“Tim Drake has a lot of secrets, and his secrets are buried deep--deep enough that even he doesn’t remember them, and hasn’t for years.

But after the worst year of his life--Dead Year; so many people he loves lost, so many changes happening, and so much sadness and grief, even after he got most of his loved ones back--he’s absolutely tantalizing to certain kinds of creatures that haunt the dark. Including one who already hunted for him once before, a long time ago, who will stop at nothing to finish the job this time around.

Good thing Tim has unbelievably stubborn family and friends on his side. He’s going to need all the help he and his newly rediscovered powers can get.”

Okay. GUYS. This is a fusion of Batman and the wonderful and terrifying world of Coraline. It’s very new and still in its starting stages but this is SO. GOOD. This is by far one of the most interesting concepts I’ve seen in YEARS, and I’m already obsessed.

FREAKIN’ ME OUT

Batman - All Media Types

goldkirk

General

Word Count: 19240

In-Progress

“Bruce hadn’t set out to become a doctor.

Bruce hadn’t set out to become much of anything, really, but life didn’t seem to care what Bruce intended. He finished out high school like Alfred wanted, booked a one-way ticket to Thailand, and set off to either find himself or die some way that would make him feel like it was worth the extra years in between.

And then fourteen years later, he found himself working his first day on call as a full-fledged pediatric general surgeon, of all things, at Gotham Children’s.

And Bruce?

He was the best.

Bruce is a doctor, in a world that took a few major left turns. His kids always seem to find him anyway. (one chapter for each child, not in chronological order).”

Bruce as a pediatric surgeon? Wonderful. Bruce being a terrific role model for every single one of his soon-to-be children?? Absolutely perfect. 

[kathrynethegreat]

Dr.Lecter and Leda and the Swan

The below is from an essay by the artist Anne Shingleton discussing Leda and the Swan, her artwork, and why she believes Hannibal Lecter likes it. The essay was originally provided by the now defunct Hannotations from the contributors BloodandIvory and NyxFixx. Minor content edits by me, but you can read the full essay here. You can also learn more about Anne Shingleton and her artwork at her official website.

[Lecter’s] absentee landlord apparently had a fixation on Leda and the Swan, The interspecies coupling was represented in no less than four brozes of varying quality, the best a reproduction by Donetello, and eight pantings. One painting delighted Dr.Lecter, an Anne Shingleton with its genius anatomical articulation and some real heat in the fucking. The others he draped. - Hannibal, Chapter 97, by Thomas Harris

Ever since the misty dawn of Greek mythology, Leda and her doting swan have lived and loved in countless poets' lays and, less ephemerally, in thousands upon thousands of embodiments in paint, line, stone and metal.

They appear in the arts of Rome and Hellas in a profusion of sizes and materials, from golden bracelet pendants and silver table ornaments to great sculptures cast in bronze and hewn from marble (such as the Great Relief in the British Museum), from delicate drawings on precious ceramics to colourful frescoes on the walls of atria and chambers. But after the decline of Rome they nodded off into the many long centuries of bleak post-Roman Europe, awaking briefly now and then and here there to invigorate some ornamental arts and crafts of the Middle Ages.

(The essay, as well as an image of Anne Shingleton’s version of Leda and the Swan is below the cut. It’s a little bit graphic, so fair warning)

                                             Leda and the Swan by Anne Shingleton

It was the Italian Renaissance with its exuberant rediscovery of classical antiquity & say, from about 1400 or so onward that brought them once again into the limelight of profane (in the sense of non-ecclesiastical) imagery. Nearly all the great Renaissance artists drew, painted or sculpted their Ledas, conspicuous among these being an oil-on-canvas by Leonardo Da Vinci, known only through several copies by his followers, and Michaelangelo’s stunning marble, today in Florence's Bargello. From there they coupled their way through the next five centuries and far beyond Italy's shores and borders, into and out of the Baroque and Rococo, into the nineteenth century to brighten some sclerotic corners of Neo-Classicism, and eventually even into Art Nouveau, there briefly to beguile a languorous Belle Époque. After August 1914 they withered, along with the rest of Europe's humanistic culture. 

Nevertheless, even today, in our own age of mostly meretricious rubbish art mass-produced to con newly-rich illiterates, they glow softly still among the now very distant and still receding constellations of our classical heritage.

Who, then, was Leda, and who the swan?

Antiquity sang several different versions of her tale. Most agree that she was the daughter of Thestius, king of Aetola, and the wife of Tyndraeus, king of Lacedaemon. Somehow she inflamed the passions of Zeus, Some said that he saw her bathing in a sparkling sun-drenched stream, others that Hephaistos had told him about her dissatisfaction with her husband's ways in bed, and others still that he was only out to spite his consort, Hera.

In any event, he was smitten and, having just lately visited Danae as a shower of gold, Europa as a bull, Io as a cloud, Ganymede as an eagle and others still in guises no less inventive, he decided to assume yet another one for his tryst with Leda: he would swoop down majestically on snowy pinions . . . as a swan.

Mythology fails to tell us whether these forms were mere travelling costumes, so to speak, and whether, as we may well suppose, upon arrival at the bedside he reassumed his customary and divine semblance of a robust, virile man in the prime of his maturity. I've heard that a swan's penis - to be precise: a cob's - is exactly like a circumcised human one in miniature, and that this gave rise to the amorous-swan legends . . . but I confess that I've never checked it out with a cygnologist, though I should've done so long ago. Perhaps some thoughtful cygnologist will let me know?

In any event, swan or man, he had his way with her, or she with him, or each with the other. Of it came an egg, or, in other versions, three eggs, and in others still seven, and you mustn't act surprised: when a fertile lady mates with a cob she'll lay eggs - faultless logic, that, and winsome science. 

One tremendous event that soon followed was to become a bedrock and fountainhead of Western culture: for whilst out of two eggs hatched the twins Castor and Polydeuces.

I relinquish the podium to Homer. 

My own versions…. differ a little from the conventional ones. For one thing, neither my painted nor my sculpted Zeus arrives in the form of a swan but rather dressed up as one . . . he's wearing a (rather skimpy) swan costume, under which he is very much the Chief Olympian: strong, handsome, supremely male, his ebullient libido refined by aeons (he being immortal) of experience and divine dedication to his beloved's (not always female) pleasure. 

For another thing, most Leda depictions are intra-coital: it's happening, nobody can figure out just how but they're at it. My painting instead shows them as post-coital.

In the painting, the oil lamp on the rocks just right of the love nest is still burning but night is fleeing, crescent Selene is fading, colours are being reborn everywhere. First light is bathing the two dreamy, sated lovers. Birds chirp in chorus. An exquisite post-orgasmic Leda is savouring the last after-tremors of her lique-factions while scenting the dewy flowering of day. Zeus has retired to the top of the bower, his costume all awry, a smile of surfeit on his lips. Post coitum omne animal triste, said Aristotle: after mating all creatures are sad. I think there is truth in that, but it is more complex, less formulaic. The martyrs enter the arena hand in hand but the lions eat them one by one. Lovers in the act dispense with the meum-teum sense (Robert Graves), but after the shared orgasmic heats, the post-orgasmic chills overtake them one by one, and, slowly, deliciously if all went well, they drift apart, sometimes a little numbed, nearly always bewildered, on separate outbound tides. Even, or perhaps especially, if they're gods. My painted Leda and her god are poised over this hot-cold watershed. Until the next time…

Why does the doctor 'delight' in the Leda story? I don't know. Best ask Tom Harris. But I'll have a guess.

As he does in The Silence of the Lambs, as does so much literature both old and modern, Harris draws unconsciously or knowingly - I don't know which - on the world of myth and fable, that genome of the collective human subconscious. The leitmotif in both Silence and Hannibal, not deafening or intrusive but audible throughout from the dark beyond the firelight, is that of The Beauty and The Beast. Since I'm neither a poet nor a scholar I'll refrain from windy disquisitions, but to me the parallels between that fable and the interbraiding of the lives of Hannibal and Clarice Starling seem clear enough.

Clarice-Leda has taken vestal vows, has dedicated her body and soul to the FBI: not for her the traditional role of wife and woman as prescribed by patriarchal orthodoxy. Like the life of chaste and virginal Beauty, Clarice's life, so far as we've been told, is manless, and hence, conventional wisdom would have it, arid. The fable now demands that she be sexually fulfilled, 'sexually' having here a wide, deep, polyhedral meaning far beyond mere genital tiddlywinks.

Lecter-Swan is a beast, no doubt of that, and no need to dwell on definitions. The fable now demands that she make him human, meaning here humane. 

And behold, in the book, though alas not in the film, both undergo the magical transformation: Beauty turns the Beast humane, the Beast wafts Beauty to, up and over the moany summit where she is, presumably, fulfilled. Both are reborn from scratch - from the egg, so to speak, through each other.

I think that could well be why the doctor delights in the one painting in the room that he leaves uncovered for Clarice to see.

Anne Shingleton

[marisandini-chu-blog]

Disaster Review: Fate the Winx Saga

This is my review on Fate: the winx saga and tell you what a dumpster truck that show is.

I would like to first disclaim that my view on this show was based on the first episode that I watched blindly going in and immediately decided it deserved to be dropped. 

Because by God, it was bad. 

Not the worst thing that ever graced the netflix platform but rebooting the childhood show I loved into a Riverdale-esque teenage fantasy drama show was enough to make me gacked. 

If you like the show, good for you. But don’t expect to change my mind by asking me to give it a second look. Because there are, oh, so many problems just from the first episode that I cannot look past it for another episode. 

Putting aside the middle-aged fashion they used on supposed teenage girls. The dim lighting from start to finish makes you think the place was ever foggy and drab. The boring-ass setting like a Harry Potter rip-off. The explicit and implicit drug using and sex scenes of supposed minors on screen. The WHITEWASHING!!! 

I can get past most of that (except the last part but that's a social/casting issue rather than writing.) I'm a simple gal, as long as the show hit two points; characters and plot, then I'm happy. 

But they can't even do that. 

Because I'm nice and this is only the first episode, I'll only point out three things that miffed me. Oh, and spoiler alert. 

So ONE. 

THEY DID STELLA DIRTY!!!!

Honestly this one reason is enough to drop the show altogether because they made fashionista, compassionate, talented Stella into a stereotypical RICH BLONDE BITCH!!

There's no problem in reimagining a character, but the least they can do is be creative about it and not be disgustingly out of character. 

It took one scene during the time Stella side-eyed the new girl, Bloom while conversing with Sky. Barely five minutes into the show. I knew from that one scene she was going to be the stuck-up bitch with a secretly heart of gold, who has a tragic background and will spend at least half the season going through redemption and becoming one of Bloom's best friends. 

IT TOOK ONE SCENE FOR ME TO PIN HER! ONE!!!

Do you know how boring of an introduction it has to be when you can spot on guess a character troupe in a glance?  

And God, I hope that I was proven wrong. And I check other reviews to make sure of it. But apparently having a character arc of a decently beautiful, talented blonde girl as a baseline is too much to ask from a cis white male. 

Because what drama can you get if you don't have that one redemption blonde bitch in a group? It's like he doesn't know what teenage girls in a clique are like. Shocker! 

It’s like they’re trying to recreate a RWBY dynamic only Rooster Teeth actually did their job better.  

To make matters worse, they had to throw in a freaking love triangle. As if you can't make anything dark, dramatic, and gritty, than a freaking love triangle in the very first episode. PLUS, they had to use the guy, ex-boyfriend, Sky, to prove Stella wasn't the bitch like the whole episode had portrayed her to be. As if you don't need to put cliche on top of cliche, they just had to do that. 

Then one to number TWO, Bloom's relationship with her parents. 

As background goes with Bloom being a Changeling and her parents not realizing they're not related, I have no problem. 

I do have a problem with the portrayal of their relationship. 

See, at the start they just have a casual video call with them. At a glance there's no problem other than the secret keeping.

Then later on, Bloom tells Aisha she doesn't get along well with her mother. Okay, no big deal. 

Then there's a flashback of a 'teenager' moment of the mother calling her daughter a "weirdo" since she has no friends which sets Bloom off, Bloom slamming the door on her mother, the door gets confiscated, then Bloom sets her parents room on fire by accident with her power. 

Err, okay. So typical communication issues between parent and child. I don't see how the scene can consider them "not get along" because apparently 16 years living with your mother and that one scene was enough to consider them to be in a bad relationship. 

Basically, there's almost no emotional impact in her backstory and generally, I think it's a stupid reason to get so mad that you accidentally burn your mom. Maybe because I'm Asian, but when you slam the door to your mother's face then you don't deserve that door. That's like a slap on the face to your elder and that's a major no-no.

Whatever, back to the story.   

Later, Bloom went back to Earth from the Otherworld and called them while sneaking around their house. Having doubts in learning to be a fairy until she saw her mother's burn on her arm and solidify her resolve to learn to be a fairy. 

I watched that scene and felt… nothing.

The heartfelt scene was directed and written decently enough but still the scene felt hollow to me. Gee, I wonder why? 

Oh, I know. Maybe because around 15 minutes ago, Bloom freaking said WE DON'T GET ALONG!!!

This might be a minor thing but it matters to me because I watched the resolution of the minor conflict of that first episode and the message the dialogues and scene implied is that Bloom feels too guilty to stay. 

I freaking know the scene implied that Bloom loves her parents. I'm freaking saying it wasn't shown that way. Like… how am I supposed to be sympathetic to the main character when her main motivation is guilt instead of love. It would certainly help if during the most honest moment of Bloom; she would say something about loving her mom or her parents, about wanting to protect them from herself, heck or CRY EVEN! 

Instead we have Bloom practicing her fire magic through emotionally fueling herself with the memory of her almost burning her mom. 

Exactly what part of that scene showed she felt remorse or love if she's willing to use the supposed traumatic-memory on the first day of school?!?!

I'm just… urgh. 

Then there's the THIRD problem, it's the most insignificant problem and not about writing but I want to talk about it anyway. The magic. 

Specifically, the absentee of magic. 

So Bloom goes to school in the Otherworld called Alfea. So implying it's a magical place for fairies, right? So you imagine lots of fantastical setting and magic right? 

Yeah, decent amount on the latter but almost non-existent on the former. 

So the characters do magic, that's plainly shown enough through the fairies and the Burn One, which is the big bad monster of the show. But it's a large peeve of mine that Netflix has enough budget to CGI the girls but not the setting. 

Because you know the moment Bloom became the second student sneaking out of the barrier that, you know, must be there for a reason (the security is hopeless there). She looked around the plain forest, looked up and saw a glittering silhouette of a bird or some kind. Smiled as if she's just seen the most amazing thing. Then… nothing. That's it. You get glitter shadow as proof she's in a magical forest and the producer thought they should call it a day. Exactly what's so magical about that? 

Even if there's a more magical aspect in the setting of future episodes. It doesn't make what they did forgivable. First episode is supposed to be a moment where you hook the audience through the characters and setting. 

If you want a great example of a fantastical school setting, look no further; Sky High and Harry Potter did an awesome job! 

Harry Potter can make things magical without much CGI, shown with the disappearing glass, overwhelming letters, pig tails, and Platform nine three-quarters. Most of them mainly used props or just video editing and they look fantastical!

The introduction of the school, Sky High showed what teenagers with superpowers would do. Teasing, wrecking havoc, and generally have fun with their powers like any teenagers would do. In Winx Saga, the magic was introduced through lighting a room, almost choking a guy to death, squashing a forest fire, burning your mom's hand when you get teenage angst. 

The teenagers instead look like having fun when taking selfies or during a party. With almost no magic presence.

Are you even trying to even make a magic school? This is the freaking first episode, its job is to establish a solid setting and background and it did the job poorly. 

Yeah, that's my take on the horrible, horrible decision that is Netflix to use their budget. 

[haruki-ya]

Stick To the Heroics  [ L I S T E N ]

"A smiling...dependable...cool hero. That's what I wanna be!"

Like all things in life, dreams come with sacrifices. There's no time for doubt, no time for hesitation, no time for pain. Not if you want to be number one.

A hero works through it all.

// Hero Worship by The B-52′s // Life Itself by Glass Animals // Move by Saint Motel // Humility by Gorillaz (Ft. George Benson) // At All by Kaytranada // Cycles of Existential Rhyme by Chicano Batman // Turn on Me by The Shins // Vow by SALES // Wide Eyes by Local Natives // Remember My Name by Mitski // Absentee by Jack Campbell // Blisters by STRFKR // Young Pilgrims by The Shins // Don’t Be Scared by Andrew Bird // 

art credit goes to the wonderful: http://charlottevevers.tumblr.com 

edit was done by me !

[dovebuffy92]

Spoilers Below

INTRODUCTION

In The Staircase Episode Six, “Red in Tooth and Claw,” directed by Leigh Janiak, Michael Peterson (Colin Firth) reckons with the fact that he will spend the rest of his life in prison. At the same time, Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche) investigates the wild theory that an owl killed Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette). “Red in Tooth and Claw” begins in 2017 with Michael preparing to take an Alford Plea with his defense lawyer David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg). Michael officially taking the Alford Plea will mean that he is admitting that the prosecutors have enough evidence to prove to a jury that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of murdering Kathleen while maintaining his innocence. Therefore, he will be a free man. However, the episode ends with Michael unsure if taking the Alford Plea is the right thing to do because he will be admitting some form of guilt over Kathleen’s death.

In 2007, Michael and Sophie wait patiently to hear back about his second appeal. Michael works out, reads books, writes romantic letters to Sophie, and spends time with her during prison visits. Sophie ends her marriage to her absentee husband. She flies back in forth between Paris and Durham. Sophie shares custody of her son with her ex, rents a home in Durham, edits a narrative feature and visits Michael in prison. Michael lashes out at David when his defense lawyer shares that his second appeal failed. The former author becomes a broken-down man when he realizes that he will be spending the rest of his life in prison.

Michael’s former neighbor Larry Pollard (Joel McKinnon Miller), tells Sophie that he thinks an owl killed Kathleen. At first, the French editor thinks that Larry is bonkers, but he convinces her that his theory is credible. Next, they dig into Kathleen’s case files and footage from the docu-series to find proof of the owl’s involvement. Eventually, Sophie and Larry find two feathers to go with the theory that the bird’s talons caused all the injuries on Kathleen’s face. Finally, the editor argues her case in front of the pathologist Dr. Deborah Radisch (Susan Pourfar), who agrees to check her body for signs of an owl attack. First, however, the doctor needs Caitlin Atwater’s (Olivia DeJonge) permission to exhume Kathleen’s body.

During Thanksgiving 2001, Kathleen takes Michael and Caitlin to her sister Candace Hunt Zamperini’s (Rosemarie DeWitt) home for the holidays. Kathleen and Candace fight the entire visit leading to a tense Thanksgiving. Martha Ratliff (Odessa Young) figures out she is queer during her Thanksgiving in San Francisco. Margaret Ratliff (Sophie Turner) spends the holiday in Rhode Island with her biological mother Elizabeth Ratliff’s sister Margaret Blair (Deena Wade), a.k.a. Aunt Blair, and her brother-in-law Steven Blair (James Healy Jr). Margaret calls Martha to tell her some upsetting news that she learned from Aunt Blair, but her younger sister is so joyful over the phone that she can’t break the news.

FAMILY SECRETS

On Thanksgiving 2001, Margaret learns something that destroys the way she sees her family. Margaret and Aunt Blair sit at the dining room table looking over old family photographs while Uncle Steven watches football in the living room. The two women share some smiles while looking at photos of Elizabeth Ratliff and discussing her life. Aunt Blair shows Margaret a picture of her and Martha when they were very little. The sisters were hanging out at the beach with her and Uncle Steven. Aunt Blair tells her the photograph was taken when the sisters spent the whole summer in Rhode Island. Margaret questions why her father (Michael) would send her and Martha to spend three entire months with her aunt. Aunt Blair checks to make sure Uncle Steven is focused on his game, then blows up her niece’s world.

Aunt Blair explains that Michael’s ex-wife Patty Peterson (Trini Alvarado) couldn’t handle raising her sons and the Ratliff sisters. As a result, Patty handed custody of the girls over to her and Uncle Steven. Margaret is shocked since nobody told her anything about living with her aunt. Aunt Blair says that Michael took the girls back because he didn’t like that they were being raised religiously. The eldest Ratliff sister scoffs, resting her head in her hands. Four years later, Michael wanted to return Martha to Aunt Blair because of her behavioral issues. Aunt Blair tells Margaret that he wished to keep custody of her, essentially splitting the two sisters up. However, she refused to only take in Martha. Margaret can’t believe that her father wanted to split the two of them up. Tears well up in her eyes, realizing that Michael’s loving parent routine isn’t real.

Why did Margaret work so hard to help create Michael’s defense when she knows he is a liar? Perhaps the eldest Ratliff still feels loyal to her father because he ended up keeping the sisters together. On the other hand, maybe Margaret supported Michael to keep Martha from knowing the truth. She could also believe that Michael isn’t capable of murder even if he manipulates people.

LAST HOPE

Sophie hangs all her hope of living happily ever after with Michael in Paris onto the Owl Theory. She spends “Red in Tooth and Claw” researching case files and footage to find proof that an owl killed Kathleen. Sophie feels so excited when the pathologist agrees to examine Kathleen’s body for signs of an owl attack but instantly nervous when Dr. Radisch explains that she needs permission to exhume the body. The phone call with Caitlin to gain that permission goes as well as can be expected.

Caitlin is typing away on her laptop in the dark when her cellphone starts to buzz. She answers the flip phone. Sophie asks if it’s Caitlin Atwater, and the younger woman confirms her identity. The French editor introduces herself, then explains she thinks that the defense’s theory about how Kathleen died is incorrect. Sophie sits at her dining room table in Durham. The French editor’s half-put-together puzzle is sprawled on the table in front of her. Caitlin doesn’t understand what Sophie is trying to say. She doesn’t even know that the editor worked on The Staircase.

Sophie asks if they can meet up in person. She can’t get her thoughts out. Maybe she realizes that she shouldn’t be asking Caitlin to exhume her mother’s body. Caitlin asks Sophie to tell her everything over the phone because she is too busy to meet. The French editor explains she has a theory that could answer all the questions about what happened “that night.” Then there is a reenactment of the owl attack on the Peterson’s lawn and Kathleen dying alone on the staircase.

The French editor cries as she tells Caitlin they need to exhume Kathleen’s body to confirm the Owl Theory. Sophie asks for the daughter’s permission to find that evidence. Caitlin yells at Sophie about why she would ask her to dig up her mother’s grave. The editor begs Caitlin for a chance to prove Michael’s innocence. The daughter shouts that she sleeps well at night, knowing that Michael will die in prison. She angrily hangs up the phone. Sophie holds back tears as she hangs up her phone. She destroys the half-put-together puzzle, frustrated that her last hope of being with Michael is gone. Without the body, the pathologist can’t change Kathleen’s cause of the death because she can’t be sure that an owl killed Michael’s late wife. Sophie’s love will be trapped in prison forever.

LAST THOUGHTS

Will Michael officially take the Alford Plea, or will he fight to prove his innocence? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

[stevensarchives-blog]

A Brief History of the Stevens Mascot (or a Tale of Two Ducks)

Atilla the Duck, circa 1970s

The Spring athletic season is upon us and if you’ve ever attended a lacrosse or baseball game here on campus, you may have noticed the curious sight of an oversized duck frantically cheering on the home team from the sidelines. Most students have become familiar with Atilla, as the duck is known, who has been the official mascot of Stevens since 1972. But you may think to yourself; why a duck? Well, according to Atilla’s profile on the Stevens Athletics homepage, the choice of duck was perhaps “inspired by the school’s engineering heritage, as a Duck is equally comfortable on land, in the water or in the air.” Other sources say that one day in 1907, a duck walked onto the sidelines of a football match and after Stevens won the game, students retained the creature as a good luck charm. When it comes to stories like this, facts mingle with fiction and the best-told story oftentimes becomes the official record. So with this in mind, let’s dive into the dim reaches of our institution’s past as we attempt to uncover the origins of this fabled duck. We should note that much of this history was compiled by Stute reporter, Matt Neuteboom, who, along with the help of the Samuel C. Williams Library’s Archives & Special Collections, investigated the matter for his article, “Why the Duck?” published in 2010. So submitted for your approval, here is Matt’s brief history of our plucky mascot.

Original illustration for The Stute, 1935. Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library.

THE STUTE, JULY 20, 2010

“The duck’s origins actually tie in quite heavily with The Stute (the school newspaper). The story begins in 1904, when three members of the junior class of 1905, Alfred H. Potbury, L. Edwin Waldeck, and F. William Hausmann, began to talk about plans of starting a college paper. They had been at Stevens for three years and felt that the Institute would benefit greatly from a college paper. The three approached H. V. R. Scheel with the idea and the first Stute Board was assembled.

The date of first publication was scheduled to be shortly after the opening of school in September 1904. Over the summer of 1904, the four brainstormed ideas for The Stute. Scheel later wrote in the December 18, 1929 issue of The Stute “All of us had ideas – in retrospect thousands in number.” This is where the idea of using posters to chronicle the life history of The Stute was born.

Slowly, the question of how to properly introduce the paper surfaced. One of the editors approached Waldeck, an artist, with the idea of sketching something to place on the bulletin board – something that would grow. However, this request was only met with blanks stares from Waldeck. The editor repeated “Something that will grow, as we expect The Stute to grow – oh, say a duck!” The suggestion stuck, and before long a blue print of an egg was placed on the bulletin board.

As the publication date of the first Stute grew near, more posters were put up. The second was a blue print showing a duckling biting its way through its shell. In the next three weeks, a duck appeared dressed for football, lacrosse, and the mid-winter dance. According to a June 2, 1905 Stute article, he was named “Rodo.” Until The Stute became a weekly paper in 1908, Rodo would appear in every issue, often dressed for events that were occurring that week at the school.

Original illustration for poster advertising the yearly freshman/sophomore rush games, The Stute, 1907. Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library.

Rodo’s popularity grew in the next years. In a 1907 football game between Rutgers in New Brunswick, Rodo made its first appearance as Stevens’ mascot. A senior had purchased a duck costume and, with the help of a junior, carried the bird to the game. According to Jay Korobow in the October 22, 1971 issue of The Stute, “he waddled across the field in what he thought to be halftime only to realize too late that the third quarter had just begun.”

Stevens fans absolutely loved the suit and it was given as a gift to The Stute who displayed it in their offices. A year later the class of 1911 purchased the duck and borrowed the suit for more games (sadly, we were not able to find any documentation of either the suit or Rodo) Writing in a 1908 issue of The Stute, one student stated: “Whether the duck brought luck or not is a question, but it at least made a hit…Why not have a duck every year?”

Original illustration for The Stute, 1907. Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library.

However, as The Stute retired Rodo in 1908 when it became a weekly newspaper, Rodo faded away into obscurity. The tradition of having a duck at Institute sports games failed to remain a tradition. He is later mentioned in the 1929 edition of The Stute revisiting the origins of the paper, but is otherwise mostly forgotten.

Almost 60 more years would pass before someone would seriously take a look into the history of the Stevens mascot. According to Korobow in 1971, an organized attempt to find a school name and mascot was performed by The Stute on November 10, 1967 by then sports columnist Gerry Crispin. Crispin wrote, “A duck has been missing from Stevens premises. As a matter of fact he’s been missing for 60 years.” The 1967 Stute solicited suggestions for a new official nickname. Some of the popular suggestions were the Castlemen, the Rooks, the Turkeys, and the Ream Team. However, nothing ever came from the attempt.

However, the 1971 issue of The Stute once again solicited suggestions for a school nickname. This time, however, the attempt gained momentum. The movement gained popular support when student artist Jim Liberatore published his idea for the duck mascot in the February 18, 1972 edition of The Stute. Liberatore, in a somewhat half-joking, half-serious article, believed that Stevens’s students had a deficiency in human development. This was not helped by the campus, which he said, “exudes coldness and promotes isolation.” Liberatore felt that bringing back the duck would be instrumental in “bringing back an empathetic personality to this campus.”

The Stute stuck with its policy to promote the duck mascot. On March 10, 1972, The Stute urged the Student Council to sponsor a student referendum to indicate support for the duck. The referendum was created, and The Stute continued to drum up support for it with an ad in its March 17, 1972 issue. Finally, on March 24, 1972, the referendum results were announced. The duck passed with an overwhelming majority of 477 in favor of the duck, with 72 opposed, and 4 absentees. As well, 453 stated they wanted to use Liberatore’s duck as the mascot with 79 who did not and 21 absentees. With the referendum passed, the mascot went on to the Student Affairs Committee and eventually to the Board of Trustees in April.

Original concept art for Stevens mascot and illustration for naming contest (top right) by Jim Liberatore, 1972. Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library.

The name of Attila came from a student contest run by the bookstore from April 3-5. Student Keith Biesiada sent in the winning entry. The Stute announced the winning name of Attila the Duck, and Stevens’ mascot became the duck in spring of 1972. The duck later appeared peering out from behind an IBM computer on the May 1, 1972 cover of The Stevens Indicator.”

[lavenderandlaurel]

midweek to do list:

tickets for movie this weekend

order pizza for meeting

update calendar

send email

job application

finish politics of individualism

iavm docs

edit tour script

exhibit records

gmail account

fair use lecture

set up printer

print absentee ballot

print portfolio

identity politics chapters

table of contents/cover

check numbers

wix project plan

write page 2 of seminar paper

meeting 2

birds of prey

[thesuper17]

2018′s most impactful musical moments

-

nobody key change

If Be The Cowboy, Mitski Miyawaki's fifth album, is as interwoven with artifice as she suggested in an interview with Pitchfork shortly before its release, it only makes lead single Nobody a more beguiling accomplishment. A purer expression of longing than the opening line: 'My god I'm so lonely/ so I open the window/ to hear sounds of people', could scarcely by imagined, but evidence of a distance between Nobody's author and its lead character is provided in the song's meticulous craft and execution. That duality, between ostensibly real anguish and sparkling production sheen, is where Nobody lives, a version of the ubiquitous struggle more potent than the reality. Disco keys and syncopated rhythm propel the song forward even while Mitski sings of stagnation and hopelessness, and during the second chorus, she intones loneliness again and again, in rising arpeggios that begin to push into her falsetto range. Just as Mitski's delivery seemingly peaks in intensity, the chord progression beneath her shifts up a semitone, and she redoubles, hitting the same high B which formed the dominant 7 of the C# arpeggio she sang over the previous chord, now a 9 over A minor. The subtlety of the melodic movement Mitski employs over this key change is delivered in stark contrast to its proud and bombastic standard deployment. Nevertheless, the drama of her declaration is heightened a notch further in this instant, and it is her commitment to the technical, rather than the raw expression of emotion, that facilitates this. Perhaps Mitski is weaving a story in Nobody, but it's her mastery as both empath and composer that see it land with such weight. -

everyday is an emergency - first half

In many ways Aviary and Have You In My Wilderness, the two most recent albums released by Los Angeles musician Julia Holter, feel more accurately characterised by the other's title. Wilderness saw Holter refine her previously sprawling arrangements and compositions to so many beautiful birds, purposeful in form and deliberately contained in scope. By the close of Aviary's first track, by contrast, the listener is already lost in Holter's wilderness, as vast, uncompromising and beautiful as it has ever been. Nowhere is the wild landscape of Holter's id, actively hostile to those who would try to derive a singular interpretation, more keenly evoked than during the first half of Everyday is an Emergency. Horns, strings and wordless vocals collide, unmoored to rhythm or any consistent harmony, their only direction an agonizingly slow, spiralling descent in pitch. Held notes begin in the upper registers, separated by semitones, and only briefly hinting at chords as if by the random incidence of related pitches occurring at once, before slipping back up against each other in grating disharmony. As other instrumentation joins the procession and the overall pitch finds a resting point, the abrasive cacophony recedes to a near-hypnotic drone. The listener is immersed for over a minute before a complete break, whereupon a melancholy, cycling melody emerges over rich grand piano chords. The second half of the track matches this haunting repeated melody to a recursive lyrical structure, in what is effectively a new song entirely. It's beautiful and, to the extent that Holter ever is, conventional, but it's also an oasis, a brief moment of calm found in the eye of an intense storm. Only after enduring the intense disquiet of the first four minutes are listeners granted entrance to this understated space, but Everyday is an Emergency is not designed to challenge. Holter plainly does not regard the accessibility of her music one way or another, she simply sketches the sprawling geography of her wilderness and leaves the listener to navigate.

-

sobbing and eating eggs again

Nearly every review of A Crow Looked at Me and its 2018 follow up Now Only does Phil Elverum a disservice by likening him to Mark Kozelek. On the surface, it is easy to draw comparisons between the recent work of Sun Kil Moon and Mount Eerie: Benji and A Crow both feature sparse arrangements of acoustic guitar over which frank reflections on life and death seem to spill, without edit or filter. Beyond similarities in form however, the two could not do more to evince opposing characters if it was intentional. Where Kozelek makes it his prerogative to 'find a deeper meaning' in the death of a cousin he says he 'had pretty much forgotten all about', Elverum understands the futility of even keeping Geneviève Castrée, his deceased wife, whole in his memory ('you did most of my remembering for me'). On Now Only's title track , he approaches the question of meaning more directly, of how his wife died 'for no reason' while he could only watch, and notes the absurdity. In this absurdity though, a form of coping, even humour, is found. It is not humour to laugh to, and it's not the homophobic or misogynistic jibes of Kozelek either, rather it’s a reminder that, for those still here, life continues. A near-obsessive thread of record-keeping pervades A Crow, of noting the exact number of days or weeks it has been since Geneviève passed, and the active effort Elverum makes to continue day after day seems no easier to rally a year on. But he does, and the majority of that effort goes into creating some version of normalcy for a daughter who has lost her mother. The absurdity comes to a head on Crow, Pt. 2, in which Elverum describes the shape of their new family life in mundane details, of living, talking about school and making food. Over breakfast, his daughter asks to hear 'momma's record', and as Elverum watches her piece together an understanding of loss from the sound of her mother's voice, he sings: 'I'm sobbing and eating eggs again'. He suggests earlier, on the title track, that the most devastating waves of grief have already begun to subside, and will eventually fade almost entirely, but life won't wait for that. Crow, Pt. 2 is the sound of Elverum experiencing the meantime, knowing eventually the sobbing will go, and the eggs will remain. For now though, he lives with both. -

let that boy come home

Deciding the moral victor of last year's Pusha-T/Drake's beef is a complex task. Pusha's verses incorporated real low-blows, and whether his purist approach to hip-hop helps or hurts the genre is a philosophical question. Luckily, determining the actual victor is incredibly simple. With hindsight, the closing track of Pusha's DAYTONA, Infrared, feels almost like bait. In enticing the world's biggest hip-hop artist to respond directly to him, Pusha ensured the maximum audience would be waiting for his inevitable counter, and he held onto the crucial detail just long enough for that moment to arrive. Throughout his 2018 album, Pusha's incredibly deliberate flow and inimitable swagger, combined with top-shelf beats from Kanye West on rare form, saw lines hit with a blunt force. The weight of his kingpin boasts was held up by the sheer quality and confidence of his delivery, and everyone, inside and out of the hip-hop scene, was in his sights. There's nothing blunt about The Story of Adidon. Pusha's 'surgical summer' begins tracing Drake's family life, with jibes at his absentee father that initially glance off as irrelevant, but details begin to paint a picture, and the smirk on Pusha's face is almost audible as he draws closer to his target's shame. Finally, the instantly iconic: 'You are hiding a child'. Pusha nearly caricatures his own delivery here, drawing out every word of the killing blow just to savour it a little longer, the 6 syllables last an eternity. Hip-hop beefs, and the genre more widely, often exist within a sort of stylized fiction, where actors are hypermasculine, dangerous and uncaring figures. Even though Pusha embodies this archetype completely, The Story of Adidon flips the trope on its head, targeting Drake specifically for his pride and those things 'deeper than rap', even telling him how to put things right. It's almost kind, and it's complete obliteration.    

[njawaidofficial]

Lisa Bonet Says She Was Able To Appreciate Jason Momoa More Because Of Her Absent Father

https://styleveryday.com/2018/03/09/lisa-bonet-says-she-was-able-to-appreciate-jason-momoa-more-because-of-her-absent-father/

Lisa Bonet Says She Was Able To Appreciate Jason Momoa More Because Of Her Absent Father

“In that moment, love came and it came big.”

In a recent interview with Porter Edit, Lisa Bonet explains how she was able to fill the void of having an absentee father with the immense love she’s received from her husband Jason Momoa.

instagram.com

Lisa was born in San Francisco to a school teacher mom and an opera-singing dad. Her parents split shortly after she was born and Lisa hasn’t had much contact with him since.

Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images

“When your primary male figure couldn’t care less to show up, that can become a theme in your life where you’re trying to fill this gap with these different men.”

Instagram: @www.instagram.com/stories/portermagazine/

But that gap quickly came to a close when she met Jason Momoa in 2004 at a Jazz Club. He needed a ride home and the two later bonded over Guinness and grits.

Jason Merritt / Getty Images

“I can’t say it was full-on from the moment we saw each other, but we have been together from the day that we met.”

Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

“In that moment, love came and it came big, and he did not run as I think a lot of men do. He basically picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, caveman style!”

Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

Their love soon blossomed into a family. Lisa and Jason married in October 2017. The beautiful couple share two children together: a 10-year-old daughter named Lola Iolani and a 9-year-old son named Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha.

instagram.com

“It’s fantastic. It’s full-on family love. What’s cool about Jason is that he’s an alpha male who stands for love and family.”

instagram.com

“And to circle back to my own wounds, having an absent father, then to be fully met by a man of that stature, is really incredible.”

instagram.com

“Jason embodies a rare form of masculinity in this day and age – he’s a leader; he’s generous. Just in terms of charisma, physique, the right use of power, responsibility, work ethic, you can go down the line.”

Neilson Barnard / Getty Images

Honestly, I could listen/read about these two love birds all day long. Remember when Jason admitted to being madly in love with Lisa since he was 8 years old? Too cute.

instagram.com

[caveartfair]

These Photographers Show There’s No One Way to Be a Dad

Photo by Mammamija. Courtesy of Fathers.

American fathers today spend nearly triple the amount of time with their children as fathers did back in 1965. But while parental norms evolve, outdated ideas of fatherhood—from absentee breadwinners or clueless Mr. Moms—continue to prevail across popular culture.

A Poland-based publication, Fathers, is dramatically challenging those stale notions. Founded in 2015 by Wojtek Ponikowski, a publisher and father of two, the magazine is filled with photographs of modern dads that dispel clichés.

Flip open a contemporary men’s magazine and you’ll be confronted by articles promising bigger muscles, smaller guts, greater wealth, and better sex—but rarely a mention of how to be a good father, or connect with one’s children. Meanwhile, in a store’s parenting aisle, says Ponikowski, magazines and books still bear images of mothers alone with their kids.

Photo by Polly Alderton. Courtesy of Fathers.

Yet evidence of small shifts in attitudes is easy enough to find—in public restrooms, for instance, where baby-changing stations are now common in both men’s and women’s rooms. “This is the kind of change that is really happening,” Ponikowski notes—and yet somehow, visual culture hasn’t quite caught up.

Attitudes, though, have changed. Consider their arc across television history, from the absentee father who pays the bills and makes the rules on Leave it to Beaver, to the obsessive single father of Full House, to the 70-year-old dad who comes out as a transgender woman on Transparent. It’s little secret that we’re shaped by these dominant images of culture. But while male archetypes in general have greatly expanded over the years, there’s plenty of room to grow and evolve.

“It’s changing, and we’re happy it’s changing, but there’re still those clichés that are keeping society in these roles,” says Ponikowski.

Photo by Jesse Burke. Courtesy of Fathers.

Fathers, which Ponikowski launched after a decade at the helm of a creative agency, became a platform through which to inspire and empower modern-day dads with a more accurate expression of their day-to-day realities. But “we aren’t pushing anything,” clarifies Ponikowski. “We wanted to show that there isn’t one perfect model of fatherhood; there’s no formula.”

While the magazine takes fathers as its subject, Ponikowski stresses that it’s not anti-mom—it’s intended for everyone. And in fact, he tells me, this multiverse of fatherdom is edited by a woman.

Indeed, Fathers showcases an eclectic variety of dads. They might have 10 kids, or two. Some are parents to toddlers, others to twentysomethings. There are single dads, gay couples, 9-to-5 dealmakers, and tireless creatives.

Photo by Jesse Burke. Courtesy of Fathers.

Photo by Jesse Burke. Courtesy of Fathers.

Pieces in recent issues drive that diversity home. In issue four, there’s a photo essay by Jesse Burke that is the product of five years of roadtrips across the United States with his daughter Clover, captured between the ages of five and nine. Burke, in a recent interview, said that he’d had free reign and full parental responsibility during Clover’s off-weeks from school. Burke seized the opportunity to teach his daughter about the world by introducing her to nature. In the essay, we see Clover standing in expansive wilderness—sometimes in the company of the occasional beached whale or bird carcass. For the young girl, it was an immediate lesson about life, and mortality.

“I want my child to be strong, to be a warrior,” Burke writes in Fathers. “I want her to know that it’s okay to hurt, to cry, and to bleed.”

Photo from the Herbert Collection. Courtesy of Fathers.

Photo of Kari Herbert with her father Sir Wally Herbert from the Herbert Collection. Courtesy of Fathers.

In that same issue of the magazine, the daughter of British polar explorer Sir Wally Herbert shares photographs taken with her father, who’d moved the family to live in a small Eskimo community on an island off northwest Greenland when she was just 10 months old. The images, which picture the daughter, Kari, bundled amongst dogsleds, with a mother and father bedecked in fur pelts, offer a less conventional view of fatherhood. “Yes, my father was a hero,” she says in an accompanying interview, “but more importantly, he was also a very loving dad.”

Further variations on fatherhood abound. We see a young carpenter, Ben McAdam, photographed in and around his Berlin workshop where he’d recently crafted a table and chair for his nearly two-year-old son, Kilian. Or Sven Ehmann, a creative director at German book publisher Gestalten, who is pictured on the streets of Berlin with his children, Lisz and Theo. (As an accompanying interview reveals, he proudly admits to gleaning much of his inspiration from his kids.)

Photo by Bartek Wieczorek. Courtesy of Fathers.

Photo by Lilli Storm. Courtesy of Fathers.

Together, these images are challenging tired constructions of fatherhood (not to mention the archetype of a distant, unloving patriarch). Today’s fathers aren’t just more engaged in the lives of their kids; they’re increasingly diverse in terms of the paths they take to parenting—and that’s a point Fathers lays bare.

A forthcoming issue of the magazine goes even further, and includes a portrait series of Anna, a trans father, among other stories.  

“You’re used to seeing this father who isn’t as involved as the mother,” says Ponikowski. But you’ll change minds, he says, “the more you can change what people see in images.”

—Molly Gottschalk

from Artsy News

[strqmom]

Raven has managed to actually anger Summer. What happened?

Undoubtedly, without question, she did something reckless on a mission and nearly got herself hurt—or much, much worse, she did get hurt. Summer will never let her hear the end of it for endangering herself like that, and Summer will rant and rave and the thing about it all is: she’s not saying anything cruel out of anger, she’s just yelling the nicest things with the angriest voice.

-angry Summer voice- “Don’t you dare put yourself in so much danger, Raven, you’re too important to the team for that! You’re worth more than that, we need your skill in our fights, you can’t get yourself hurt or you won’t be able to help any of us. And what’s worse, we care about you, Raven, we can’t watch you be so reckless like that, what if something happened to you, we’d be distraught, we love you Raven how could you get yourself hurt like this? Here, let me look at it.”

[strqmom]

I get the impression Raven was impulsive in a way. Once she'd decided to do something, it happened immediately and she would not be stopped. It might take time to decide to do it, but by golly once it was decided, ain't no birdbrain gonna stop her.

This is EXACTLY how I feel about her, tbh. It’s why I think that she wasn’t exactly the stick in the mud of the group, or any less likely to get into dumb antics (well, okay, she was less likely than Tai and Qrow, but not by a whole lot). She had impulses, man, and sometimes the impulse is to throw someone out a window, sometimes the impulse is to portal someone onto the top of Ozpin’s tower, sometimes the impulse is something that takes more time to decide on, but, in hindsight was still a little ridiculous.

[strqmom]

I have this hc that Qrow and Raven were actually p involved in the White Fang during the good ol’ days, probably took a lot of missions protecting the WF’s peaceful protests from racists who wanted to start trouble and such. Because the WF didn’t turn violent until five years before current RWBY, according to Blake’s timeline, and as faunus who learned how to protect themselves and others, I bet Raven and Qrow would want to protect other faunus, too.