#1916 diary

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna with her friend and fellow Sister of Mercy (nurse) Margarita “Rita” Khitorovo, Evpatoria Crimea 1916

“Monday, 16th May. “…In the afternoon went to Anya’s dacha . Rita was there too. Sat on a marvelous beach near the sea, hunted for seashells. Had tea on her balcony. Returned at 6 o’clock…”

— Diary of Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna

Bonus! Hand tinted version by one of OTMA

[remembertheplunge]

A touch of then

1/16/2002

Went to a salvage shop on L Street today in the old 1895 steam cleaning building. Most of their stuff comes from San Fransisco land fills. Amazing what people trash. 

I rescued 3 daily planner journals.

 A touch of then. 

In one, written in 1916, she writes of going to see Charlie Chaplin movies.

In another, he tells a story about nobody and somebody. 

What will happen to the 2002 journals mom gave us Christmas 2001? Will someone eons hence find them and ponder them?

My favorite, the 1916 diary, contained more detail. It must have been  a precious, important book she carried everywhere. Half the year has been ripped out. It begins June 1. A few other pages were also missing!

The planner journals are special, precious things to me.

Magical passing by old doors and windows in the Steam Cleaning building.

A real soul place.

End of this part of the entry

[dailykafka]

— June 19, 1916 / Franz Kafka diaries

[otmaaromanovas]

Breakfast on the balcony, 1916

From Tatiana's 1916 diary:

'Monday. 13 June... Ate on the balcony. Wonderful weather. In the afternoon [we] lay out in the sun and picked flowers....'

'22 July. Went to Obednya 4 with Mama. Breakfast on the balcony with the same...'

'Sunday, 7 August... Sat with Mama. Had tea with her on the balcony...'

Sources:

Tatiana Romanov, Daughter of the Last Tsar : Diaries and Letters, 1913-1918, Helen Azar and Nicholas B. A. Nicholason - Westholme Publishing, 2015

Anastasia Nikolaevna's 1916-1917 photo album (version two)

[krasivaa]

Alexei's 1916 diary

25 October, 1916. In the morning I went with Papa to see the new recruits of the 4th Infantry regiment. From there I went to the infirmary, where Mama was. Had breakfast with ours. At 2 o’clock in the afternoon we went to Stavka. They played «Naine Jaune» on the train. Zhylik read to me. Went to bed early. 28 October. Got up at 9 o’cl. …. We arrived in Kiev at 10 o’cl….. Grandmama met us. Rode to the St. Sophia Cathedral. After molebna went to the palace. After breakfast I went to the review of the cadets, performed by the officers. Went to visit the sick Aunt Olga at her infirmary. At 6 o’cl…. returned to the train. Mama wrote.

Source: The Romanov Family: Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov Diary (1916). Compiled by Helen Azar.

[aiiaiiiyo]

[falsebooles123]

Finding the First Gay Kiss - Diary of a Big Ole Gay 11.25.22

Hey Whores Realized I haven't given you an update recently. The short answer is I was planning on watching D.W.Griffinth 3 hour Epic Intolenrance tonight so I was putting a kabash on the movie watching. So instead I've been catching up on television because I am too lazy to actually read. Big News I actually really like Cabinet of Curiosities.

(its just a real fun time... Don't Judge Me)

so let me go over some of the stuff I've seen in the meantime.

Judith of Bethulia (1914) dir. D.W. Griffinth

So this movie is not nearly as gay as I was promised. The main reason why this showed up is because there is a nerdist article thats like UwU the Earliest Gayest Movies ever which should actually be congradulated it has some rare pepes on there, (is that problamatic???), however this one is the furthest reach of gay shit ever. Essentially this inclusion in the list is because of a pet theory by Susan Stryker which was included in the documentary Disclosure(2020). I think I have a quote here something.

"There's a claim," Stryker says, "that this is one of the first films that we know of where a [director's] cut in the film is used to advance the story. And there's a kind of, like, trans, or, you know, gender nonbinary character who is kind of circulating around the cut in the narrative. It's almost like the figure of the 'cut trans body,' the eunuch who's been castrated or emasculated, who is a 'cut figure', presides over the invention of the cinematic cut."

and the Eunach in its self is absolutely a queer icon, (in this sense literally iconography, as in a mythic trope), it presents us an intersex body, a masculine form that is asexual, a person that lives in between the hedgemonic binary of masculine and feminenin. The Eunach also has negative connotations as the Nance trope plays into this idea of Sexual Inversion in men being non-sexual and emmasculated. I don't think its wrong for the a eunach to be considered queer at the same time, is the mere presence of a queer coded character necessarily the watershed moment we should pretend it is?

The Nance character presided for decades in vauldville and burlesque circles and it was often not played in a positive light the nance or fairy act in vaudville was a far cry from the gender subversion of Julian Eltinge and other female impersanations of the time, it was in no less words a form of sexual minstraly, presenting the sexual invert as degenerate, unmanly, and frivolous. Tbh Its not necessarily and aspect of representation that I want to respect or cherish.

However at this point I feel that I have got my ego involved and made this representation about my own sexuality and pain. In all seriousness the supposed representation is presented as being trans, non-binary or intersex and while this film did not provide me much queer utility I would be loath to disregard that for somebody somewhere they felt seen by this charater or this aspect of queer lens interpretation. it just wasn't for me.

The ABC of Love (1916) dir. Magnus Stifter

Its Die Asta!

As we have covered on this blog Asta Nielsen was known for her boyish charm and her unflappable stage present. She was also beyond unafraid to go full butch in her work and many of her storys were incredible queer in a lot of her films. Truly a bisexual icon.

(what a fucking BICON)

in this one we see Die Asta in a classic shot of her pressed against a wall of flowers in this case sittig with her lap dog, a boudour doll, and reading a book of romantic fancys. it should also be noted that shes coded as a big younger in the film around her late teens, y'know a young coquete.

so Its not conveyed well but basically shes like

"UwU daddy I want to get railed by a tall dark and handsome foreigner"

"sure doll, let me find some fuck boy who wants to get in that snatch. BRB"

(she specifcally asked for a 'latin lover' which as someone who has fucked several latino men I get it)

But instead of getting a hot latin stud, (which I guess shes european so like she wants to fuck a spanish guy in this context??? not my kink but whatev.

anyway instead of getting a hot latin STUD!!!! she gets like some dweeb???

and like he can't even fuck so she is absolutely pissed because she want to get railed! (yes I am describing this movie accuretly), so she goes on a honeymoon in paris and your probably wondering how she deals with the wet blanket that is her husband. Um the answer is of course Crossdressing!

(I think this is from victor/victoria or something but you get it)

and Die Asta pulls a Danger Girl and serves us a full butch fantasy. She literally wears a whole ass wig and shapewear to serve some masc tuxedo action. and of course as in any of these "role-reversal" comedies she fucking slays. Apparently serving masc means you smoke fatties and fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccccckkkkkkk. this movie involves die asta throwing two DTF women onto her man and saying

"Be a Man, Frank"

Imagine your wife just wanted you to cuck her while she serving butch top energy.

(imagine....)

this movie ends with her father gaslighting her into thinking for limp wrist no bitches husband is cheating on her but actually THE GODDAMN HUSSY is just the porter in full drag. I also love in these stories nobody gets clocked, its always a seemless transformance where everyone absolutely asumes this person is the gender they present as. Honestly kinda nice.

Vingarne (The Wings) (1916) dir. Mauritz Stiller

So this is one of the first adapatations of the 1902 Mikael by Herman Bang. it is also mostly lost with the available version being a fixup version from 1985 which used production stills and intertitles as a way of feeling in the gaps in the story. There is still 20 minutes of this film that are lost forever or at least to the best of our knowledge. A pretty common narrative in early cinema, there are a lot of early cinema works whose tape was not properly archived or literally destroyed for censoreship or just to get the trace amounts of silver nitrate that was imprinted during the film production process.

The movie itself is the story of a gay artist who falls in love with his muse, a grecian youth type. The film falls into this sort of pedarast adjacent storyline, where you have this older sexual experience man and his younger protege/boytoy. Narratively in the story he is also the adopted son of the artist but as I mentioned on DoestheDogDie.com this doesn't necessarily mean that this love story is incestious as Same-Sex Adoption was a thing at the time.

Basically the young muse decides to get some pussy and leaves the poor old artist to die of sadness or some shit.

This movie is kinda hard to follow and you kinda have to ask yourself if you want to add DDLB and fickle Bi's to your pantheon of early queer cinema.

On a side note i am watching Dad Takes A Fishing Trip(2009) by Tim Kinkade which deals a lot with Daddy kinks so I have been kinda exploring a lot of the eroticism around this type of age gap relationship. So there is that.

[llovelymoonn]

marya hornbacher waiting (via @weltenwellen​) \\ mary oliver can you imagine? \\ walter benjamin selected writings, vol i: 1913-1926: “one way street” (tr. edmund jephcott) \\ @chloeinletters​ \\ franz kafka th diaries of franz kafka, 1914-1923: “july 26, 1916″ (via @dailykafka​)

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[antiquatedplumbobs]

Spring 1916

~an excerpt from Elsie Sewell's private diary~

Spring has arrived! The calendar has been saying it had been here for weeks, but today it really and truly made its presence known. The east field is awash with flowers and I simply had to stop and pick a bouquet, they had the sweetest scent and the most delicate yellow petals. Mamma was rather irritated that it made me a bit late coming home, but I can't very much see why. I was back with plenty of time to prepare supper (she had an Aide Society meeting) and the house smelled ever so sweet as I did. No one complained about my victual offerings either.

I am quite pleased to be done with the schoolhouse; sums and grammar were always ever so boring and pointless. It is ever so much better to spend the day with work that actually has to be done, rather than made up to torture us. I enjoy most housework, cooking and sewing in particular, but laundry... There's something about that specific task I have not yet resigned myself too.

I think we all have that particular chore that we dislike more than the others, though none of the adults will admit so to my face. Laundry is a necessary evil though, or we should all go around naked, as Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden, and the climate her could never allow such an indulgence, so laundry we must do. 

It does feel good to be helping around the house more and take some of the burden off Mamma; I can't imagine how she did all this work on her own for years, it's quite a lot between the two of us. Despite my continued propensity to "dawdle" as Mamma puts it, she still sends me on all the errands, I think she likes having the house to herself just as much I like the walk into town. Sometimes Lydia accompanies me if her mother also needs something fetched.

The general store is the best store in town, it's filled floor to ceiling with everything you could ever need. Dottie's always mighty pleased to see us and if she's busy Mr. and Mrs. Greenfield are always so sweet to me. Sometimes Mr. Greenfield slips me penny candy in with my orders with a little wink.

Dottie, Lydia and I don't see each other as much as when we were in school, but now that we're older when we're finished with chores and housework we have so much more freedom to go on walks or sit down by the inlet. The sun hits the old dock down there in the afternoon and it's so pleasant, especially if there's a breeze coming off the water.

We chat about anything and everything; Dottie always has all the news of the town since she talks to just about everyone at the general store. Mamma says it's wrong to gossip, but she always says that after I've given her all the news. Lydia is such a hoot, she has the strongest opinions on everything and everyone. Just the other day she was informing (lecturing one might say) us on the proper etiquette for accepting a proposal; according to Mrs. Parr proper young ladies should never accept their first proposal, they must refuse and wait for the man to ask again, that's how she'll know he's serious and will make a good husband. Apparently she turned Mr. Parr down thrice. Dottie and I both thought that was completely silly. Mamma said yes to her first proposal and she seems quite content with her lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

next / previous / first

[probablyasocialecologist]

In the middle of the Blitz, Orwell wrote in his diary (17 September 1940), complaining of how working-class people who had been bombed out were being treated by the authorities. ‘Everyone I have talked to agrees’, he wrote, that the empty furnished houses in the West End should be used for the homeless; but I suppose the rich swine still have enough pull to prevent this from happening’. The bitterness and resentment that wartime inequalities, together with the treatment of the victims of the bombing, created made him ‘think of St Petersburg in 1916’. The following year, one of the books that Orwell and Tosco Fyvel published in their Searchlight series was Ritchie Calder’s The Lesson of London. He looked at the effective abandonment by the authorities of working-class families who were bombed out during the Blitz, made homeless by ‘the deluge of bombs and the holocaust of fire’. As far as the authorities were concerned these people ‘were just units in arid calculations and even the calculations were outrageously inadequate’. He describes the treatment that many people received reminded him of how people were treated in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, like ‘Dust Bowl refugees’. There were working-class survivors who were just left to sleep rough in Epping Forest. And while the working-class homeless were treated like poor law claimants, as ‘casuals’, middle-class victims were taken by taxi to be put up in hotels before being sent to the country to recover from their ordeal.

John Newsinger, Hope Lies in the Proles: George Orwell and the Left

[oatflatwhite]

“I sought out Charlie and found him asleep in his dug-out. I woke him gently and when he opened his eyes and saw me, such a look of tender love and sympathy came into his face and he drew me into his arms.” (To his girlfriend Evelyn, 26/08/1915) “I’m glad you like Charlie. I thought you would be fascinated by his face. I have watched Charlie’s face intently under all manner of circumstances, but I think I never thought his expression so beautiful as one occasion on the front line when a heavy bombardment was in progress. There he sat on the firing step, while the shells whizzed and banged and crashed all over the place, with his medical case beside him, and his face looked like the face of an angel, serene with a faraway look in his eyes, as though he were sitting in a peaceful garden with beauty all around. I gazed at him and loved him.” (To his parents, 06/01/1916) “As we arrived at the barn-door [Charlie] said, ‘Just a minute, Frank, before we go in I’ve something else to give you – put that light out.’ I put the lamp out and into my pocket, wondering what was coming. Then I felt an arm around my neck, and the dear lad kissed me once – ‘that’s from Evelyn’ he said; then he kissed me again and said, ‘that’s from your Mother’. I returned his tender salute and said, ‘that’s from me’. There we were, two men, like a couple of girls – but then, there was no one about, and the matter was a sacred one between us, and you.” (To Evelyn, 12/01/1916)

— Letters Private Frank Cocker sent home to his family about his friendship with Lance Corporal Charlie Wood, 1915-16

From Sebastian Faulks and Hope Wolf, A Broken World: Letters, Diaries and Memories of the Great War (2014), pp. 75-78.

[foreverinthepagesofhistory]

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna with her crush, Dmitri Shakh-Bagov

“And plus a letter came from Shakh-Bagov—Olga Nikolaevna threw all her things around from delight, and threw a pillow up on a top shelf. She felt feverish and she jumped around: "Can someone have a stroke at 20 years old? I think I am having a stroke!" But Varvara Afanasievna declared: "Young blood is warm; the years pass, and the blood cools off.”

— Valentina Ivanovna Chebaotareva, friend and fellow Sister of Mercy to Grand Duchess Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna, February 1916

[youremyheaven]

The Astrology of Muses: A Vedic Exploration 🎨🖌👫💏

This is going to be a loooong post so hang in there besties<3

Claire Nakti observed that Ketu being the root or tail of the dragon is the source of our creativity. So whatever we channel during the process of art making is reflective of our Ketu, its placement etc. While I agree with this observation, I'd also like to add that Venus is also very important in determining the creativity, creative nature and career of an individual, as well as who or what they seek inspiration from.

Obviously Sun-Moon relationships and other aspects with luminaries can also determine how we connect to and draw inspiration from others.

First of all, let's understand what a muse is.

A muse is defined as a person (often, a woman but not always) who serves as a source of artistic inspiration creativity, and passion for the artist.

In mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized the arts and sciences. 

There is a spiritual reason why women serve as the source of creativity for others. This is because of them being Yin, inwardly expansive and vessels that can be receptive to a variety of influences. Water is the most feminine element and the ability of water to take the shape of whatever's its poured into is very important in this context. Water is life giving but it can also be destructive and turbulent. All of these are very telling about feminine nature.

Anyways, let's look through some artist-muse relationships in history and pop culture.

F Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald

Probably one of the most famous literary romances. Zelda was Scott's lover, wife and muse. They had a very tumultuous marriage; Zelda was diagnosed with schizophrenia and Scott was an alcoholic but they also enjoyed immense popularity and success early on in their marriage and career.

It is now known that Scott plagiarized much of his work from the diaries and letters of his wife, Zelda and was controlling & abusive towards her when she expressed interest in furthering her own literary career.

Both of them had Mars in Mrigashira as their atmakaraka

Scott had Ketu in Ashlesha & his muse, Zelda was Ashlesha Rising (and mercury which was her amatyakaraka)

2. Vita Sackville West and Virginia Woolf

They were both married to different men when they began their affair with each other. They significantly influenced each other's work; Vita wrote Seducers In Ecuador dedicated to Virginia, while Virginia's Orlando was about Vita. The relationship lasted until Virginia's death in 1941.

Vita was Uttara Ashada Rising, whereas Virginia had Venus in Uttara Ashada

Vita had Venus in Aswini and Virginia was Aswini Moon

3. Ingrid Bergman & Roberto Rossellini

They began an affair when she was still married to her husband whilst filming the movie Stromboli. She got pregnant and they later got married.

While the movies Bergman made with Rossellini were commercial failures, the films have garnered great appreciation and attention for their contribution to Italian Neo-realism.

Bergman was Magha Sun, Venus & Rising, whereas Rossellini was Magha Rising

He had Rahu in Ashlesha and she had Ketu in Ashlesha

4. Lillian Gish & D.W Griffith

Lillian Gish is called "The First Lady of American Cinema"; she was a muse to the first influential filmmaker in Hollywood, D.W. Griffith. She appeared in his ground breaking movies The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919) and Way Down East (1920).

D.W Griffith was Ashlesha Moon with Mars in Vishaka atmakaraka and Ketu in Chitra

Lillian Gish had Chitra Sun, Venus & Saturn (amatyakaraka) in Vishaka and Ketu in Ashlesha

5. Norma Shearer & Irving Thalberg

Norma Shearer would be dubbed the First Lady of MGM for not only being the contracted actress with the most box-office appeal but also the wife of studio head Irving Thalberg.

Thalberg, was a film executive who was called the  “boy wonder of Hollywood” who, as the production manager of MGM, was largely responsible for the studio’s prestigious reputation.

Shearer and Thalberg were married in 1927, after which Shearer had her pick of films, parts, costars, and directors, and she used this advantage to avoid being typecast. Thalberg largely directed her career until his death in 1936.

She played sexually liberated ingenues in the 1920s & 30s and is now considered a feminist icon.

She was Ashlesha Sun (atmakaraka), Venus & Mars in Ardra and Ketu in Rohini

He was Rohini Sun, Mars in Ashlesha (amatyakaraka) and Ketu in Ardra

5. Godard and Anna Karina

Karina served as a cinematic muse to Godard, appearing in eight of his films; during their five-year marriage and after. Karina liked being the muse, stating in 2016: "How could I not be honoured? Maybe it's too much, it sounds so pompous. But of course, I’m always very touched to hear people say that. Because Jean-Luc gave me a gift to play all of those parts. It was like Pygmalion, you know? I was Eliza Doolittle and he was the teacher."

Their contribution to the French New Wave and to cinema in general is widely acknowledged and well-regarded.

Karina was Ashlesha Venus (amatyakaraka), Punarvasu Rising with Ketu in Revati

Godard was Ashlesha Mars (amatyakaraka), Jupiter in Punarvasu (amatyakaraka) with Rahu in Revati

6. Monica Vitti & Michelangelo Antonioni

For 10 years, Monica Vitti was the muse and lover of Michelangelo Antonioni for almost a decade, starring in many of his most famous films, such as L’Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), L’Eclisse (1962) & Red Desert (1964).

Vitti is Swati Sun with Ketu in Hasta

Antonioni has Hasta Sun, Mercury & Ketu along with his Venus in Swati

7. YSL & Paloma Picasso

Yves Saint Laurent had many muses but perhaps his most overlooked muse is Paloma Picasso

Paloma Picasso was the muse, who originally inspired Saint Laurent’s ‘Scandal’ collection of ‘71, and his career-defining turn away from the perfectionism of couture to a different kind of empowerment of something more wild, free and personal. 

YSL was Uttarashada moon (atmakaraka), Paloma had Uttarashada moon & jupiter (conjunct)

8. Hubert de Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn

Givenchy designed the iconic 'little black dress' worn by Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, which cemented the actress as one of the most stylish women of the 20th century.

"His are the only clothes in which I am myself. He is far more than a couturier, he is a creator of personality," said Hepburn. The Breakfast at Tiffany's dress also helped Givenchy gain worldwide recognition, and his intricate, feminine designs became the subject of adoration.

Givenchy is Shatabhisha Sun & Jupiter

Audrey is Shatabhisha Moon

9. Bob Mackie and Cher

Mackie is a costume designer. His work with Cher has a place in fashion history, from the sheer dress she wore to the 1974 Met Gala to the beaded see-through gown she wore to accept her Oscar in 1988 (let alone, designing hundreds of her costumes for The Sonny & Cher Show).

Mackie has Ketu in Bharani and Cher has Mercury in Bharani (amatyakaraka)

10.Jean Paul Gaultier and Madonna

The cone bra—one of Madonna's most famous and recognised stage outfits from her Blonde Ambition tour—was created by Jean Paul Gaultier in 1990. The piece soon launched Gaultier's career, and solidified his relationship with the iconic performer.

Gaultier went on to design stage outfits for many of Madonna's concert tours, and she even made an appearance as a model in his spring summer '95 collection. After almost 30 years of friendship, they attended the 2018 Met Gala together (Madonna wearing one of Gaultier's designs, of course).

Gauthier is Bharani Moon & Madonna is Purva phalguni Moon & Rising

This is an example of Venus attracting & partnering with Venus.

11. Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz

They've done numerous movies together in the last 25 years. They are both Punarvasu Moon

Almodovar is a Purvaphalguni Mercury (amatyakaraka) and Ketu and Penelope is a Bharani Sun, so this is yet another Venusian creative partnership.

When it comes to artist-muse partnerships, sharing Ketu/Venus to Sun/Moon/Rising aspects seems to be very common. Its also common to see artists and their muses share the same luminaries. We are inspired by people who project our qualities in different ways. there is a reason we are drawn to certain people and its always because of how subconsciously they remind us of ourselves.

social muses, trendsetters & it girls

I'm not going to mention Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana because I feel like enough has been said about them.

There are some people who seem to inspire not just one person specifically but the tastes and culture of a whole era. They are tastemakers who set trends and are widely imitated and their influence has far reaching impact. They are "muse" to everybody.

Jackie O

she is one of the most culturally influential people of the 20th century and defined her era (60s America) and is probably an early example of an "influencer", which is to say, people imitated her style, her manners etc

Jackie is Pushya Sun & Mercury, Aswini Moon, Ketu & Rising in Vishaka, Venus in Mrigashira atmakaraka.

2. Grace Kelly aka Princess Grace of Monaco

She is synonymous with elegance, flair and grace to this day and is widely regarded for her artistic success as well as her charitable endeavours. She is one of the most influential women in history.

She has Vishaka Sun (amatyakaraka) & Mars, Purvabhadrapada Moon, Swati Mercury, Ketu and Rising

3. Liz Taylor

Liz Taylor was known for her love of diamonds. She always dressed like a movie star, in very extravagant style with her plunging necklines, fur wraps, feather boas, and eye-catching headpieces. She was very glamorous

She was the first celebrity to have her own fragrance and thirty five years later, her perfume empire remains one of the most successful celebrity fragrance ventures of all time. White Diamonds is one the best selling celebrity fragrances in history. She paved the way for numerous others to follow in her foot steps, although not everyone has had her success.

She is Shatabhisha Sun & Mercury, Vishaka Moon, Jyeshta Rising along with Venus in Revati atmakaraka and Jupiter in Ashlesha amatyakaraka

4. Twiggy

She is the world's first supermodel. She is an important cultural icon and was the face of the Swinging Sixties in her babydoll dresses and mary janes.

She's Pushya Moon & Mars, and Punarvasu Rising

5. Diana Ross

Miss Ross rose to fame as the lead singer of the girl group the Supremes, which became Motown's most successful act in the 1960s, and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. After leaving the group in 1970, she launched a successful solo career, with many huge hits across the next couple of decades. She is known for her extravagant style and is a true 80s diva who blurred the lines between costumes and everyday clothing.

She is UBP Sun, Bharani Moon, Vishaka Rising

Mercury in Revati amatyakaraka and Jupiter in Ashlesha atmakaraka

6. Beyonce

Beyonce is one of the most influential women of the 21st century. Her impact on culture is immense and undeniable.

She is Purvaphalguni Sun, Vishaka Moon (atmakaraka) & Chitra Rising

Bey & Jay have been each other's muses for a good while and have multiple albums inspired by each other. They are pop culture royalty.

Jay is Jyeshta Sun & Mercury (atmakaraka), Hasta Moon, Ketu & Rising in Purvaphalguni

7. Rihanna

RiRi is one of the most iconic women ever.

Her music, looks, products, personality- everything about her is influential af. She's multi talented and has excelled in several fields.

She is a Revati Stellium (moon, venus (amatyakaraka) & rising)

8. Paris Hilton

Probably the OG influencer. Paris defined her era (the 2000s) and has had a lasting impact on pop culture that needs to be studied. She was written out of her family will and built her own empire. She paved the way for all influencers.

Dhanishta Sun & Mercury, Pushya Moon & Jyeshta Rising

9.Kim & Kylie

I don't like them but to say they haven't had an impact on beauty/fashion/pop culture would be lying. I personally see it as a negative impact 😬 but its an impact nonetheless.

They normalized plastic surgery to such an extent that every other girl in the West and almost every famous woman at this point has fillers, botox, BBL or something done. They also paved the way for influencers entering the fashion world.

Kim is Chitra Sun, UBP Moon & Jyeshta Rising with Mercury in Vishaka amatyakaraka and Venus in Purva phalguni atmakaraka

Kylie is Ashlesha Sun, Swati Moon & Purva ashada Rising

She has Venus in Uttaraphalguni atmakaraka & Saturn in Revati amatyakaraka

10. Bella Hadid

cannot talk about it girls and not mention Bella.

she's had such a massive impact on pop culture in the late 2010s & now in the 2020s. she made y2k style as popular as it is today and is probably the only true supermodel of our era.

She's Hasta Sun (amatyakaraka), Purva phalguni Moon & Rising with Ketu in UBP, Mars in Ashlesha atmakaraka

she's inspired practically The Weeknd's entire discography. He has Ketu in Ashlesha

it's interesting to me how all the Hadid siblings have inspired a lot of pop music. (Gigi with Zayn, Anwar with Dua Lipa etc)

11. Selena Gomez

Selena's inspired way too many heartbreak songs to not be on this list.

She's Pushya Sun & Rising with Aswini Moon with Ashlesha Mercury (atmakaraka) & Venus

There has been a lot of Vishaka women and Jupiter natives in general, Pushya ladies, Ketuvian (esp Aswini), Venusian influence and a lot of people with Ashlesha atmakaraka/amatyakaraka. Pisces influence and Jyeshta influence is also seen. Why are these planets/naks/rashis recurring?

Talking about people who have a very wide impact, it makes sense as to why Jupiter natives would be here; its expansiveness reaches everyone. In fact if you look at the era defining cultural figures of any decade, you will see a common Jupiter influence. This is also why Pisces rashi (Pisces is ruled by Jupiter) is so common in the world of art & entertainment.

Venusian placements are what creates trendsetters imo. Its what makes others imitate you and want to be like you.

Ashlesha natives dominate the entertainment sphere because entertainment and all art tbh, is in the simplest terms, manipulating others.

Pushya women inspire others with their feminine charms. Ketu being the root or the tail means that its very easy for others to project on to them. They lack identity on their own; its a very shadowy realm. This is what celebrities are to most people; you don't know them or understand them, which makes it easier to project onto them and love them for that illusion.

Jyeshta represents lack and in the world of influence, more than abundance, its that space of lack that makes it easier for people to add/built on to the persona they see of someone.

I'll make a part 2 sometime but for now this is it. I hope it was insightful.

[dailykafka]

— July 20, 1916 / Franz Kafka diaries

[areyougonnabe]

for the polar history recap posts, i’m dying to know more about lillie…deeply tragic and i’ve also heard something about the nickname ‘ooze’ and i desperately need to know more about that

LILLIE 😭😭😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

denis (also spelled dennis) gascoigne lillie was born in 1884, making him 26 when the terra nova set off for antarctica. he was trained in natural sciences at cambridge (although he didn't do too well on his exams) and was appointed as the ship's biologist—meaning he did not form part of the shore party in the hut in at cape evans, but remained on board the ship during the winter, studying antarctic marine biology including whales, plankton, and deep-sea creatures like sponges (like the one pictured above). his nickname "ooze" comes from his job as biologist—ooze refers to a specific kind of biological marine sediment that got pulled up in seabed dredges which lillie would then examine.

in silas's diary on the voyage south, he describes lillie:

Lilley—"Hercules'" or "Sequins" is rather a dreamer and asserts he can remember his former existences in this world. Much fun can be got from him if handled properly.

lillie was noted by other members of the expedition to be a bit of a crackpot, asserting that he was a persian and a roman in his past lives. and more than that, possibly:

Lillie had decided that he was not the marrying type, claiming that he had evolved beyond it. In later years Scott’s young Norwegian skiing expert Tryggve Gran recounted that as they crossed the Equator on the Terra Nova Lillie had revealed that he was a woman trapped in a man’s body. ‘When I see a naked man I blush,’ he allegedly said as the others sprawled shirtless on the deck in tropical sunshine, ‘I am split and I can’t help it. Luckily I understand myself and have the control to avoid doing anything wrong.’ Gran was a notoriously unreliable source, and it is hard to imagine anyone having the courage to say that under those circumstances; but perhaps Lillie did.

(from sara wheeler's cherry)

usually i would not recommend anyone trust anything that comes out of gran's mouth, but honestly i do buy this, because, well... vibes.

anyway, on the terra nova, lillie was notable for his talent at caricature, and several of his rather hilariously cruel drawings appeared (copied by wilson) in the south polar times, including this one of birdie:

while the shore party was in antarctica, lillie spent two winters in new zealand studying whales, fossils, and anthropology:

Lillie has been fossilizing & is off next month for 5 months whaling with the Norwegians. He is looking very well & very happy and is ‘a dear little chap’ to use Scott’s expression.

—pennell's diary, may 18 1911

after returning to england, taking the long way round on board the terra nova to continue his marine research, lillie took up residence at cambridge again, alongside deb, silas, priestley, and griff, to work up the scientific results from the expedition.

lillie also spent a lot of time with atch and pennell in 1913, frequently accompanying them to dine and see theater in london. he also drew (probably on board the ship) the caricature of them as the "antarctic lovebirds":

during the war, he was a conscientious objector—a "conchie," refusing to go to the front. it was an incredibly difficult position to maintain in the face of widespread societal opposition. he found solace in a continued and deepening relationship with cherry (who was also not at the front, though in his case for health reasons) as sara wheeler describes in her biography of cherry:

Currently working as a bacteriologist for the military, Lillie had been one of the few visitors at Lamer during the bad months in the middle of 1916. They became unusually intimate (‘I should love to see your chubby cheeks again’), and after one weekend Lillie scrawled with typical irreverence in his note of thanks that, ‘It was only my body which left you, for my ultimate Reality still walks behind your Bath chair and meditates about the many paths of your lovely garden. With love.’

and god i just need to copy these entire sections from the wheeler in here because they make me want to sob:

In September 1916 he had been transferred to the pathology lab of a military hospital in Bournemouth, which he loathed (‘no nice cliffs or sea birds, only sand banks and orange peel’), and was appalled to learn the next year that Cherry was poised to become engaged to Christine Davis (‘being unconventional and as near to nature as I can get, it seems all wrong to me that you should have to tie yourself up for the sake of Society’), but he strove, generally, to be optimistic, whereas Cherry was permanently resigned to his destiny. In August 1917 Lillie returned to Lamer for a week. Writing in advance with details of his train to Hatfield, he concluded that, ‘if a motor does not turn up the wings of joy will waft me those four-and-a-half miles bag included. So don’t worry.’ They had a wonderful time together. ‘I do hope,’ Lillie wrote when he was back in horrible Bournemouth, ‘your throat and the rest of you continues to get well and worthy of the sunny spirit which I see under the label ACG.'

though things seemed to be going as well as they could for lillie, shortly before the end of the war in early 1918, he suffered a nervous breakdown and landed in the notorious bethlem mental institution, known as bedlam. he was there for three years, and cherry was barred from visiting him.

he emerged for a short period of time in 1921, seemingly recovered, and took up lecturing in biology again at cambridge, but by the end of that year had relapsed and was institutionalized again.

frank debenham, writing to expedition agent j.j. kinsey in 1927 to solicit funding for SPRI, gave him an update:

Poor old Lillie is in less happy circumstances, the last I heard of him was that he was never likely to get out of Bedlam, a rather ghastly end up for poor old "Ooze's" brilliant promise.

lillie spent the rest of his life in institutions, and lived until the age of 78, dying in 1963. that was four years after the death of his friend cherry—who, despite constant attempts, was never allowed to visit him.

per UK law, lillie's medical records will be sealed until 2063, 100 years after his death, but a post on bethlem's official blog about lillie briefly notes that he was "depressed, delusional and suicidal."

the post also notes, importantly, that his breakdown had nothing whatsoever to do with his antarctic experiences:

The content of his medical notes suggests that the state of mind that brought him to hospital was entirely unrelated to his experiences of 1910-1913. Indeed, they report that “on the whole he felt better during this time”. 

OK, let's end on a nice note. here's a picture of him having a nice time at silas's wedding (i think) with his best friends. RIP lillie, i hope your next life is going well somewhere out there right now 🥲💓

(also another good writeup on lillie with some lovely art can be found on @worstjourney's patreon here!)

[shisasan]

July 14, 1916 The Diaries Of Franz Kafka, 1914-1923

[ID: July 14. A clock strikes gloomily. Listen to it as you enter the house. END ID]