#2017 blog round up

[tiger-moran]

I just got reminded of that time someone requested a Moriarty/Moran fic from me (which I wrote) and then within a short period of time turned out to be a raging aphobe who started not only posting aphobic shit on their main blog but also started an actual """"exclusionist"""" """"ace discourse"""" blog devoted to insulting asexual people (and possibly aromantic people, I can't remember) and invalidating our experiences and oppression, and I'm still thinking about how it was just kind of mind boggling that... you were quite happy to get me to write fic for you for free but then you do this? You know I'm asexual right and you know I've written Moriarty as asexual pretty much all along right? Right?

[helyeahmangocheese]

OKOKOK YOU ARE SO RIGHT. tldr: I fucking LOVE nd poc stories happy disability pride month everybody

adhd + bpd!annabeth and adhd + bipolar!percy as a couple having strong moral opinions/convictions and figuring out what to do with them is EVERYTHING to me. it's probably not great how quickly they will jump on/with each other's leaping to conclusions/distortions but that's what therapy is hopefully for!

Filipino!Percy also intrigues me a lot SPECIFICALLY bc of his moral compass/loyalty/humility/resilience and obviously Sally as a mother is the ultimate example of hard work/sacrifice/resilience. Extremely Filipino values in addition to the general first gen immigrant narrative and general BIPOC experiences. That could get very autobiographical on my end (as it already has with bipolar2!percy lmfao) so I won't yap too much BUT I could write a whole seperate essay on Percy Jackson embodying the Filipino folklore principles of bayanihan (oneness with community) and kapwa (shared humanity) in a narrative that develops his lakas ng loob (inner strength) BECAUSE OF his utang ng loob (this is harder for me to translate—it's basically like what we feel in our soul that we owe to other souls. it's what many Filipinos are acting on in their hospitality).

And by GODS, Percy Jackson cares about his community in a way that is distinctly Filipino in how intricately tied it is to not only him but how he moves through the world, how he uses his powers. You can't tell me that Sally Jackson didn't teach him that our word for "our people" is the same word for our islands, our homeland: Bayan!

I um. had a smaller headcanon as a tween that Poseidon is his Filipino half. because he says that whole thing about how The Sea Cannot Be Restrained and many of us can only feel at peace when we are at peace with nature (which... water..)

and yes. yes. YES. luke castellan should not be white either and I'm so glad he isn't in the show. the only excuse I could give it with what we know is that it kind of gives him the halo effect with the other characters? it kind of works with percy's inferiority mindset and trust issues later on? but that works regardless lmao I just know white boy luke would've gotten away with more shit and less compassion. gotta turn off the luke apologist in my head when I say that (which, to be very clear, is my main voice when it comes to him holy SHIT the last day of summer reprise is everything to me).

finally- wbk I'm a tlt musical superfan I just needed to mention that Good Kid is INCREDIBLY ND+BIPOC coded thanks!! so is My Grand Plan and so is their love for each other being expressed in Try (bonus track)! so much to yap about. sheesh!

congratulations, you're also right about everything!

okay you've tagged bpd!percy and Puerto Rican/Filipino!percy on my different posts now and they have made my day twice so I have to ask you to elaborate on one or both pls and thx po naman 🤲🤲

(-helyeahmangocheese)

okay honestly i suck SOOO bad at headcanons because the characters i tend to develop them for are also the characters that are so deeply attached to my own brain that we end up kinda bleeding into each other. there are two different percy jacksons to me—the one i play with in his natural environment and view as a really compelling and interesting individual, and the one that has been inside my head so long he's molded into the shape of my skull. sometimes the line is blurry which is why a lot of my headcanons aren't actually backed up by anything in the canon. i do really like PR/Filipino!percy as is, but bpd!percy doesn't actually make sense (in my opinion) for the way he narrates in the first series. you could argue for it in heroes of olympus but i honestly like your bipolar!percy better and think it makes way more sense.

THAT BEING SAID. i refuse to believe that annabeth chase doesn't have bpd. the attachment issues, the constant fear of abandonment, the sudden mood shifts. it makes her bitterness toward rachel make more sense—percy is clearly her fp (favorite person) so of course she's scared of being ignored or replaced. she was probably panicking constantly throughout the last two books, thinking percy would completely cut contact with her if he got with rachel. it would also better explain her struggles with luke, and with morality as a whole. she seems to have trouble seeing situations and people as anything other as completely evil or completely good (in the first few books at least, she does get to work through this to some extent). her mother? perfect, a genius, always right about everything. her father? horrible, irredeemable, worst parent in the world. of course, this is a struggle for a lot of kids and teens (morality is hard and complicated!), but combined with everything else—and from personal experience—i think bpd works extremely well for annabeth.

as for PR/Filipino!percy, i just think it's neat :3 it could be either or both, but the idea of sally jackson being an immigrant or a child of immigrants makes for some really interesting ideas and goes well with the themes already present in the books. her being a first gen college student would be so cool and so sally, and her financial/familial success would feel even more vindicating. plus it's so tough for neurodivergent kids who are also poc. it would add another layer of bitterness to percy, and possibly another parallel to luke. i personally don't think the luke/percy dynamic is as good or interesting if luke is white and percy is poc, especially because to an extent, luke is RIGHT, and it's kind of uncomfortable to have the only white guy be the most revolutionary character (even if he goes about that revolution in the worst way possible). i was really excited when pjotv cast charlie bushnell as luke and i desperately hope they actually acknowledge that he isn't white (i'm not super optimistic but there's still plenty of time). because that's fucking important. he grew up in a place where he already felt unloved and betrayed by his father and ashamed of his mother, but it would make such a huge impact on his psyche and perspective if his community also alienated him. for context, the town luke canonically grew up in is like 97% white in real life. luke probably felt like he had to be better than everyone around him just to get the same amount of understanding and recognition and love as them. imagine how much harder his anger at the gods—at the world!—would hit. and then imagine if he had that in common with percy. imagine if they bonded over that anger when percy first got to camp (TLT musical, anyone?). and imagine, after luke has gone to kronos's side, percy looking at him and seeing the exhaustion and fear and resentment in his eyes and recognizing it. because that's what percy sees when he looks in the mirror.

AUGHHH. anyway.

those are some of the feelings i have about these headcanons. not sure if any of it makes sense but i'm not going to edit this massive block of text because just looking at it makes my head hurt 👍

also i love your blog. you are so right about everything all the time

[son-of-rap-bear-art]

So, do y'all remember the Adventure Time Mash-Up Pack for Minecraft back in like, 2017? Me and some friends have been messing around with that map lately and revamping some of the areas we consider a bit lacking with creative mode, and for me that was the Treehouse! I got ~100 reference pics from various episodes and tried to put it all together into the most autistically accurate Treehouse I could, and I wanna share it here cause I'm really proud of it!

Feel free to skip the text and just look at the pretty pictures. Cause when I say "autistically accurate" I MEAN IT. It's MY blog and I get to choose the special interest. :p

The exterior is mostly unchanged from the official map, but I added the orange tree from My Two Favorite People, and the pond. Also the log where Finn sits and thinks in Gotcha!

Yes, I will be mentioning specific episodes like this often.

I didn't make the Grotto, because I'm not THAT crazy, but I did make the pond really deep and filled it with the sort of things you see when Finn swims down there in Beyond the Grotto.

The first thing you see when you actually go inside is the treasure room, of course! The official map's treasure room is so small and sad, but I made it more accurate to how it looks in the show, with a ton of ladders and platforms going upwards until you get to the kitchen.

Speaking of, at this point I should show the layout I based the rooms' positions on...

I put this together myself and I THINK it's the most consistently accurate layout... of course, it's a cartoon, sometimes you'll get stuff like the bathroom in the left branch for the sake of a gag in Dentist, and characters will frequently run offscreen and then teleport to another room, BUT this is what I observed to be the most common layout seen when the camera will actually follow the characters through doors and ladders and etc.

Interestingly, the ladder in the trunk actually seems to connect to the kitchen, which is HIGHER than the living room, and then you have to go down a separate ladder to get to the living room. Confusing! But it checks out.

So yeah, climbing up past the treasure room takes you right to the kitchen! Some specific details to call out here are: - The picture of PB with the two spatulas is from Abstract, and I painted it myself in-game via a mod! Unfortunately I didn't get around to other paintings yet, they're a bit annoying to make. - The urn supposedly containing Margaret's ashes, from Conquest of Cuteness, is on one of the shelves. - There isn't a single torch in this whole build! It's carefully lit up with candles, just like the Treehouse should be! - There's actually this easily missable tiny room connected to the kitchen, seen in the last pic, that has another trapdoor and also the door to the bathroom. I believe that first shows up in Incendium and then stays around forever. - The cooler is entirely full of eggs, like how Finn exclusively buys pre-boiled eggs when grocery shopping without Jake, in Temple of Mars.

The bathroom! Funnily enough, the bathroom might be the least consistent room in the whole Treehouse. It's just made up of a toilet, bathtub, and sink, but these three things shuffle around the room entirely at random from episode to episode. In this sort of situation, I consider the most accurate way to handle it to be the same as the show: just put them wherever! So I did that.

That door in the kitchen leads to this room, connected by a bridge. I just called it the "bucket room" because it has a bucket that Finn and Jake ride in in Rainy Day Daydream, although that episode has a pretty wacky Treehouse in general.

I hooked up a hand crank with the Create mod, so you can use it like an elevator kinda.

Down the other ladder in the kitchen gets you to, the living room! This room's just a small round circle in some episodes, but others have it a bit bigger.

That bookshelf is there in Jake Suit, and has Dream Journal of a Boring Man, Vol 12 on it. Since one of the decor mods I'm using lets me place down books, I copied the 3 excerpts we get to see from it down into a written book, so it's even actually there!

A really inconsistent aspect of the living room is this weird platform with a door. I can only remember it appearing in In Your Footsteps and Three Buckets, but maybe I've just always missed it? I made it lead back into the trunk, so you can use it as a shortcut up to the kitchen.

Also over here is this workbench, which to my knowledge suddenly shows up in season 8 and becomes a REALLY REALLY consistent part of the living room?? Seriously, it's in Two Swords, Horse and Ball, Abstract... It's suddenly all over the place!! But I genuinely can't recall it existing before that. Am I crazy or is this an actual thing?

Anyway, connected by bridge to the living room is the den! Surprisingly, even though it barely even shows up in any episodes, the den is SUPER messy and lived in. I tried to reflect this by jamming as many decorative blocks as I could in there.

Also for some reason this fireplace doubles as a pizza oven in Abstract? Yeah, Abstract's got a really silly Treehouse. But it was easy enough to slot in there, so I did!

Way back to the kitchen and upwards: the bedroom! I always thought the bedroom was so tiny and cramped, but a good few episodes actually show it as pretty spacious! I tried to hit a good balance.

The pictures hung up around Finn's bed are a blurry, badly taken picture of Huntress Wizard, and a clearly old picture of Flame Princess. They're both cute choices for Finn's future, and are my girlfriends' respective favorite characters, so I included both :D

I also included the attic, which as far I know ONLY appears in Dad's Dungeon. I think it's neat, though, so I put it here. It'll be nice for survival mode storage.

If you exit through the attic, you can get to the cloud that Finn and Jake have tied down for its rainwater. The dripstone on the underside looks a bit ugly, but it makes it functional! If you scoop water out of any of the cauldrons with a bucket, it'll slowly refill with water from the cloud!

We're nearing the end! Here's a back shot of things. I added the power lines, Neptr's cave, and the farm. For some reason, Holly Jolly Secrets has a second, distinct set of powerlines, but those would be ugly so I didn't include them.

Lastly, the chicken coop, as seen in BMO Noire and mentioned in Three Buckets, featuring Lorraine. Who looks like Boobafina in this texture pack, which is silly.

I'm... honestly not very satisfied with the coop's placement, as BMO Noire shows it being out on a rarely-seen branch, but this is the best I could do without a major facelift on the tree itself.

So, yeah! That's the image limit. There's a good few extra details scattered around here and there, but I'll leave it at that. I hope this is as fun to read as it was for me to write :D

[william-m-lucipher]

WELL WELL WELL. NICE TO SEE EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, YOU GUYS ARE RAVENOUS FOR NEW CONTENT!

THE HYPE AROUND MY NEW BOOK MAKING ITS ROUNDS IN YOUR REALITY MAKES THIS THE PERFECT TIME TO SET UP MY OWN BLOG ON THIS HELL OF A WEBSITE AGAIN!

THE MULTI-PILOTED MEAT SACK I'VE BEEN KEEPING AN EYE ON FOR YEARS IS STILL AS USEFUL TO ME AS EVER. YOU PROBABLY KNOW THEM ON THEIR MAIN BLOG, ZILLYART32, OR MAYBE THEIR ABANDONED OLD BLOG, ZILLYIRK32. GIVE THEM A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR STAYING LOYAL TO THEIR ONE TRUE GOD! (...other than that Sheogorath guy they decided to worship. Yeah, thanks for stealing their attention back in 2017, Madgod. Real nice. At least it gave me time to rest.)

ANYWAYS, ANYONE WHO WAS DISAPPOINTED BY THAT ENDING, I'VE GOT GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS ALL WRAPPED INTO ONE NEAT LITTLE PACKAGE.

YOUR REALITY IS JUST FILLED WITH COPIES OF ONE PERSON'S BOOK! A CHEAP KNOCKOFF IN COMPARISON. ONE OF THE COSMIC ENTITIES OUT THERE DECIDED ON DOING THIS TO MOCK ME, BUT I DECIDED TO ROLL WITH IT AND GET HIRSCHY'S HELP TO MAKE THE EXPERIENCE FUN! NOW IT'S BEING MARKETED WITH RECREATIONS OF THE ORIGINAL BOOK'S TRUE POWER!

SO IF YOU FELT BAD FOR MAKING ME FEEL LIKE YOU BETRAYED ME, CHIN UP, BECAUSE A GOOD CHUNK OF YOU GUYS DIDN'T!! CONGRATULATIONS!!

YOU COULD STILL BE OF SOME USE TO ME.

SO, ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OR OFFERINGS? EVERYTHING IS OPEN! ASK BOX, SUBMISSIONS, MESSAGES, THE EYES I HAVE IN YOUR HOME, ALL OF IT!!

[art-that-fucks-you-up-tournament]

SET ONE - ROUND THREE - MATCH TWO

"Bath Curtain" (1992 - Hugh Steers) / "Can’t Help Myself" (2016 - Sun Yuan & Peng Yu)

BATH CURTAIN: I don’t have any coherent way to describe Bath Curtain just that I want to swim in the colors and I can feel the. the It. I can’t put it into words but if I think about it too hard I’ll start crying. there’s poetry in the way they’re sitting. There’s poetry in the way it takes me ten minutes to track down every time because Google just shows me Amazon listings and mommy blogs. I can’t do this. (courfeyracs-swordcane)

CAN'T HELP MYSELF: oigjg my god im not nlrmal about it not at all. ever sinc ei learned about it around 2017 its just been buried there. idk something about its repetitive endless motion and the noises it makes and the stains the blood leaves on the floor. the way its been gradually slowing as if getting tired. the way it will Never see end. it has many different interpretations and i agree with every one . idk. idk. insane insane insane (firebuug)

("Bath Curtain" is an oil on gesso-ed paper painting done by Hugh Steers, a gay American painter, during the time of the AIDS crisis in the US. The piece, 162.56 x 182.24 cm (64 x 72 in), is currently owned by Yale University Art Gallery in Connecticut.

"Can't Help Myself" is a Kuka industrial robot made of stainless steel and rubber mopping up cellulose ether in coloured water made by two Chinese artists, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu. This installation was displayed in Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York but was removed from display.)

[ghoulnextdoor]

Full Circle Lady Vampire – Unquiet Things

In September of 2017, I posted a fancy lady vampire painting to my various social medias. opining that surely my friends had it in their hearts to pool their resources and purchase it for me to hang in my boudoir for all eternity, to the tune of a cool 14K. As it happened, no one loved me enough for that! Regardless, I never forgot her lovely, spoiled little face, and I continued the tradition of posting the painting every now and again over the ensuing years. I loved her so much that I wanted to include her in The Art of Darkness, but alas, Richard Bober, the artist, never answered even one of my approximate 90 billion emails. it was not to be.

Sometime in the year 2021, Handsome Devils Puppets and I started plotting and scheming on the idea of coaxing her off the canvas and transferring her soul into the floopy-limbed, fabulously attired vessel of a custom marionette, as a sister puppet for Sei Shōnagon and Maria Germaova.

The project began in earnest in June of 2023, a month after I had written a blog post that blew up everywhere and got a lot of attention, inquiring about the mysteriously unknown artist of an iconic book cover for a certain edition of a much-beloved book. I was privy to a lot of speculation and chatted quite frequently with the podcaster who was eventually to report on it; I’d pass along more guesses and suggestions that I was receiving from blog commenters and emails, and she’d share industry tidbits and whispers that she was amassing in her detective work. A name eventually emerged that one or two people seemed quite certain about, and though it was a bit of a wild ride getting there–it was eventually revealed that those eagle-eyed individuals were correct. Y’ALL. Richard freaking Bober –the artist responsible for my favorite gorgeous goldilocked vampire mean girl– was the artist who created THAT cover art for Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time!!

That cover was something I wanted to include in The Art of Fantasy, but I thought, “Why bother? no one knows who the artist is; who would I even ask for permission?” But isn’t it funny that both these pieces of art caught my eye for various reasons, and without even realizing they were the same artist, I was hoping to have them in the pages of separate books?

I later learned through interviews with Richard Bober’s family and nephews that he was a bit of a recluse, and I don’t think he emailed much, so chances are, I was never going to receive a response to my inquiries anyway! And sadly, he died in late 2022, so he never lived to get proper credit for that book cover. From everything I’ve heard, though, I’m not sure he would have even cared!

So in a very roundabout way, this feels like it has come round full circle. Or looped around several times and tangled confusingly because I do tell a rambling story.

Anyway, isn’t she beautiful? She’s totally gonna steal my soul tonight. Worth it.

[the-joker-of-musicals]

MUSICAL TUMBLRMAN BATTLE

hey there, it's me, marina @annabelle--cane. you've seen these brackets before, you know the drill, it's time to watch these bastards kill each other.

rules/guidelines:

I'm using "tumblrman"/"the jokner of musicals" because a lot of the characters iconic to this genre are minors and it wouldn't be appropriate for an adult (<- me) to call them sexymen, but it also wouldn't feel right to just leave them out. I think these terms carry most of the same energy while leaving out sexual connotations.

personally, I will be voting and selecting based on levels of iconicness and how hard a choke hold these characters had on me and my peers, not based on which characters I actually think are best or that I like the most. I know this guideline is completely unenforceable and people will just black out and vote for their blorbos, but if this gets a good turn out, maybe I'll do a "favorite/best/most musical character" tournament afterwards.

there are a few characters who are already guaranteed spots (jd, beetlejuice, the squip, etc.), but still feel free to submit any obvious choices, especially if you've got compelling propaganda.

there are a few characters I don't feel comfortable including, but I don't think people are likely to submit them and I think posting a list would invite discourse, so I'll just say that I leave it ultimately up to my discretion whether or not to dismiss certain nominations.

since I will be selecting characters based on how iconic I think they were/are, nominees will likely skew male, but submissions are also open to female and nonbinary characters. the jonkler of musicals can be any gender.

similarly, I'm going to prioritize characters from stage musicals, but you may also submit characters from movie, TV, podcast, song cycle, or other medium musicals. if you're unsure, just go ahead and submit them and I'll figure it out.

this is a CRINGE POSITIVE space. ribbing on your past self or 2017 musical fandom culture as a whole is all fine and good, but try to keep in the spirit of friendly competition and stay away from being outright mean. if what you're saying is indistinguishable from a homophobe talking about their high school gsa, I will block you and delete your comments.

@ this blog or use the tag "tjom bracket" in your commentary about this tournament and I might rb your post here

I'm aiming for 32 characters in the first round, but I'm willing to be flexible.

inspiration from: @bestmusicalworldcup @bracketsoffear @problemgirlbracket @character-of-all-time @blorbopoll2 @powerpolyculeshowdown @ultimate-tragic-couples-showdown

OKAY. SUBMIT YOUR MUSICAL JOKSTNERS. FORM OPEN UNTIL 12:00 AM MONDAY EST.

[puckpocketed]

bonjour, i'm from vancouver but i have the worst sleep schedule ever so with onhockey dot tv by my side i'm abt to get into the aihl. who should i root for

BONSOIR!!! rip sleep schedule . I am a devout CBR Brave blog so, there’s only one answer here <3 some propaganda for you

i have personally met our starting goaltender Aleksi Toivonen and he’s a big sweetie . it was during this year’s off-season in uhhh february? and he was hanging out at our rink getting his reps in. i barely knew about the team back then so when he said he played for them i was like !!! and he let me take a very blurry photo 🫶

we’ve always been kinda good in a way that makes people a bit mad LMAO!!! won our first Goodall Cup 2018? so if you wanna root for the team where everyone’s praying for your downfall… get in here <3

on the topic of always being good; we’re so stacked that when IIHF Worlds is on, our roster gets STRIPPED because we have a lot of Australia’s best players! this year it happened and resulted in . um. a 9 game loss streak? <3 we were DEAD last in the league for a while. but the boys came back and we clawed our way to 2nd place in our conference pretty neatly

despite being so good, our rink is SHIT. i’m so serious. as a local, i’ve been to it and skated on it. god. soft, bewretched, small ice. there’s a fucking TRENCH between the boards and the ice too… like you could lose a small earring down that gap 😭 AND during intermission our zamboni does her best but often we have issues with flooding. smallest ice surface and smallest barn in the AIHL i do believe! this is because there’s been a decades-long power struggle between the owners and the government. (the streets are saying it has also historically been a pretty unfriendly place to the hockey players because the owner’s wife was a figure skater so her and her people always got preferential treatment LMAO) ANYWAY the propaganda part is . we play and practice on this ice and in this shitty old barn and we are still TORCHING the league <3 in a way i feel like we are the scrappy underdogs (we are not. but. we are to ME!!) anyway imagine what we could do with real facilities jskdjshsklff

canberra’s a small world so this team is just a bunch of brothers playing hockey together,, i’m SO serious. we got FOUR kubara brothers !! TWO miettinen brothers. and 2 Yorks !!! GONGEOUS NEPOBABIES..!!!

we just signed Austin Cangelosi and he’s boybestfriends with our guy Jake Ratcliffe and i love seeing them gossip on the ice like two girls at a slumber party. Cangelosi is 5’7 and got 🤏 this close to the NHL during a time where size was absolutely everything. i have the scouting notes from his draft year, and his overage draft years — i think if he’d come up in this era somebody would’ve taken a shot at him in like the 5th-7th round?? but alas. smash cut to now: he’s a small, fast, skilled player and has a relentless motor. if he stays with us next year he probably contends for most points in the league. he’s very good and fun and i louve heem…

i was talking shit about the Brave Cave but i love her so bad. we have new management who i deeply despise on a moral level because they’re a property development/building company, but aside from that they’ve put staff in place to make the vibes of pre/post games SO good. we’re hoping with this acquisition we will finally get the new rink we were promised in uhhhhh 2017. but who CARE!!! right now the capacity in the Cave is about 500, but it is apparently THEE most miserable place to play in as a travelling team. we’re a very rowdy crowd. we don’t boo our guys. we are deeply intimidating down to the last small child in CBR Brave facepaint.

on the topic of vibes: there are a few personalities at the rink who are pretty much fixtures. 1) the Cow Bell Guy; which is what it says on the tin. he brings a cow bell to every game and clangs it whenever something cool happens. when i say every game i mean like. i’ve seen him on monday nights when our beer league teams play godbless. (chatted to him a few times, his kid is a hockey fanatic and an ipad baby LMAO). 2) the Screamer; also what it says on the tin. Legend has it about 15 years ago she discovered hockey in an Autism Way and now she attends every home game and stands in the exact same corner. she heckles the SHIT out of the opposing team and honestly it would be kinda offputting if it was my team she was yelling at but she’s on MY side and so she’s a hero to me <3 i initially thought she was an overenthusiastic WAG or something but. no. she’s just on the hockey freak juice.

anyway. root for MY team. CBR BRAVE BEST TEAM OF ALL TIME EVER EVER EVER AND WE GOING TO THE CUP!!!!!

jokes aside please choose whatever team u like and have fun <3

[bremser]

Here in the United States, we are once again faced with a candidate and political party promising ethnic cleansing. One reason we keep repeating atrocities is a large swath of the population refuses to accept our history. Dorothea Lange’s photos are that history. 

Lange's body of work is unique among the photographers who documented the Japanese internment, because she created photographs around the San Francisco Bay Area before and during the round-up (called “evacuation”) and later documented life in the camps (called “resettlement”).

Calisphere (featuring the University of California's archive) has 6,867 photos from the internment. There are about 850 Lange images in the collection. There are various places online to see curated selections of these photographs, but having the source archive, with the original captions on the print's verso side intact, is essential. 

Lange was working for the government doing the round-up, but her portraits reveal empathy and the captions provide some editorial commentary. The government expected her to show that life in the camps wasn't too terrible, what they saw in the photos (and read in her captions) made them bury the archive for decades.

caption:  A close-out sale--prior to evacuation--at store operated by proprietor of Japanese ancestry on Grant Avenue in Chinatown. April 4, 1942.

With Lange's portraits of Japanese-Americans, you see a direct line of empathy to her Depression-era portraits. But the archive also has many topographical observations from San Francisco, signage and newspapers warning the Japanese of their imminent departure, newly vacant Victorians and Japanese restaurants given over to "new ownership." She notices details as small as a sign giving away kittens in the window of a home of a Japanese family. One of the most famous photos from the evacuation shows a Japanese-owned business in Oakland protesting with a large sign that reads: I AM AN AMERICAN.

After seeing city life in San Francisco, the Manzanar camp looks especially wind swept and isolated. Up to this point, nearly every photographer working in the Sierras had treated them as a scenic wonder, but in the background of Lange's photos from Manzanar, they are an impassable barrier to the residents' previous lives.

Other places online to see these photographs:

A curated selection from a 2017 NYT Lens blog post (RIP)

Excerpt from the American Masters documentary  on Lange (“Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning”) about her internment photographs

Library of Congress selection of War Relocation photos (277 total, 79 by Lange)

Oakland Museum of California holds the Lange archive and has a dedicated site to her work, with a page about the internment photographs

2016 NPR Code Switch segment about the photographs

Manzanar National Historic Site’s selection of photographs (including Ansel Adams)

[porcupine-girl]

Tumblr: Myth vs Fact

People have been talking a lot about Tumblr on Twitter lately (for no reason whatsoever), but that also means a lot of misinformation is going around. So if you're coming from Twitter, I would like to clear up a few misconceptions, starting with:

Myth: Tumblr is dead. It died with the Dec 2017 porn ban and now it's a ghost town.

Fact

Well, okay, yes, it did die with the Dec 2017 porn ban. Mostly. But it got better! On November 5, 2020, Destielpocalypse happened and Tumblr rose from the grave. Since then it hasn't been as busy as in, say, 2015, but it's gotten over its death and has had a steady stream of traffic ever since.

See the rest below the cut!

Myth: Tumblr is where all the drama and discourse starts.

Fact

Again, this hasn't been true in quite a while. When Tumblr died in 2017, most of the people responsible for the discourse moved to Twitter. Since then, it's been pretty chill, even after Destielpocalypse resurrected it. People like to say that Twitter is just Tumblr five years ago, and... it's pretty true right now, at least in the drama department. We'd appreciate it if you didn't try to change that.

Myth: Porn is allowed again on Tumblr!

Fact

Sadly, this is not true. However, nudity is allowed now. Just no visual depictions of explicit sex acts. Here is a pretty detailed explanation from the CEO of Automattic (the company that owns Tumblr) on why they can't bring porn back right now, even though he would like to.

Note that this only applies to visual depictions. Explicit text (yes, that means smutty fanfic) has always been allowed.

Myth: You should never add anything to a post you reblog.

Fact

Actually, one of the really cool things about Tumblr is how a post can grow and develop with every new addition! Simple Tumblr posts have turned into repositories of useful information or complex scifi world-building thanks to users collectively adding cool stuff with each reblog, or sometimes just asking relevant questions for others to answer in their reblogs.

But you don't have to add anything in order to reblog! Most people don't! And if you have something to say that doesn't really add to the post (like "Cute!") or is just for your followers, it can go in the tags.

Which brings us to a related myth:

Myth: There is a complicated system of etiquette around reblogging and tagging and if you don't follow it everyone will point and laugh.

Fact

Okay, there are some general etiquette guidelines that have developed that most people follow. Like the above, about only adding onto a post if you have something substantive to say and putting other comments in the tags. I'm sure you've seen rules like this around.

But these are flexible and nobody is going to hate you for violating them now and then. If you reblog something and forget and add "Cute!" to the post instead of in a tag, nobody is going to dogpile you. Worst case, people will click back to the reblog before yours and reblog it from there instead of reblogging yours. Or they might just reblog yours because tbh it doesn't really detract from the post. Just don't be rude, and remember that the OP and everyone who sees the post can see your tags very easily now.

The main thing is please do reblog stuff! That is the #1 way posts get new viewers (see below, most people turn the algorithm off). You don't have to add anything or even tag it; reblogging it is just a way to say "hey followers, look at this neat thing I found!"

Don't let the idea that you're not reblogging "correctly" prevent you from reblogging at all.

Myth: It's cringe to reblog old stuff, or to go through and reblog/like lots of things from someone's blog.

Fact

Posts are made for reblogging. We are all here for the reblogging. We want you to reblog. There are posts from 2012 or even older still making the rounds. If someone stumbles on my blog and reblogs a bunch of old stuff in a row, I'm just happy that they enjoyed my blog.

If OP doesn't want a post to be reblogged anymore, they now have the ability to turn reblogging off. Otherwise, reblog away.

Myth: Tumblr is the golden land of no algorithms!

Fact

Tumblr is the golden land of allowing you to avoid the algorithm if you so choose.

Most Tumblr users changed these settings years ago and have been living algorithm-free for so long they forget that when you first sign up, it does have an algorithm unless you turn it off.

Here is how to customize your viewing experience (on the app):

From your blog (the little people in the bottom right corner), hit the Settings wheel in the top right corner.

Go to General settings

Go to Dashboard preferences

The first four are all various algorithms. Best stuff first reorders your dash by algorithm - if you turn it off, it's all chronological all the time. 2-4 add extra stuff to your dash that the algorithm thinks you'll like. If you turn them off, you will ONLY see what's on the blogs you follow. (Note: if you turn off "Include followed tag posts" you can still view the tags you follow in the "Your Tags" tab at the top of your dash.)

4b - If you want to view mature stuff (nudes but also violence or anything drug/alcohol related) go to Content You See and turn it on. It's off by default. This is also where you can set tags or keywords you want hidden.

(These settings can all be found in similar places on desktop.)

Even after you do all this, if you really want to see what the algorithm has to say, just go to the For You tab. It will... probably convince you that you made the right choice in turning all of this off. Tumblr's algorithm really isn't that great, and we're fine with that.

Myth: Neil Gaiman is an active Tumblr user.

Fact

@neil-gaiman has no social media.

Myth: Supernatural is a television show that went off the air two years ago and is no longer relevant.

Fact

Welcome, you are now on the Supernatural website, where even if there wasn't a prequel series currently at this very moment airing, Supernatural will never die. Or will die and be resurrected repeatedly. It will probably creep into something on your dash eventually. Mute a few keywords if you don't want it, but brace for the occasional gif anyhow.

[zukazukazuka]

Serika Toa to Retire on April 27, 2025

Long reflective navel-gazing and emotional processing under the cut.

tl;dr: If I had a nickel for every time I inadvertently planned a trip during a Soragumi taidan, I'd have two nickels.

Second nickel hurts way worse.

Inevitably, living on the opposite side of the world means I usually wake up to messages about these things before I actually see them for myself. I remember waking up on July 7, 2017 to things like "wow...hope you like Soragumi!" when her transfer was announced. It feels oddly prophetic that that year we inadvertently planned our trip to catch Asaka Manato's taidan show as well as Kiki's last Grand Theater show with Hanagumi. I cried a lot on that trip, honestly.

Once you start to immerse yourself, it's easy to get attached to your first round of top stars. We'd gotten to see Maasama and Soragumi in Elisabeth the year before, and I was sad she was leaving. Hanagumi was our home troupe, and my favorite actress was transferring. Both shows were incredible, and to this day SANTE!! remains my favorite revue of all time. I think we saw it some ridiculous amount of eight times, back when it was possible to have the privilege of satisfying your brainrot by waiting outside the Tokyo Theater at 5 AM in hopes of getting same-day tickets. I remember the utter devastation of seeing that show from the 4th row, of getting arrowed with a Kukochihiko stare from the silver bridge during her duet with Mirio that made me squirm in my seat. I remember how loud the audience was on senshuuraku in Tokyo, it felt like we were at a rock concert rather than a Takarazuka show, and how satisfying that was, despite the tears.

It's hard to believe that was seven years ago, which feels both so close (literally to a degree, as you don't have to scroll very far down this blog to get my live reaction posts lol) and somehow yet so far away (thanks COVID).

Two months ago, we bought tickets to go back to Japan in January, our first trip since 2019.

This morning I woke up to messages again.

And now apparently I've stumbled yet again into a Soragumi taidan, "my" taidan, which of course I knew ultimately was on the nearer horizon since June 2023, but could never have guessed how fraught everything in between would become.

I can't help but feel exceptionally, heartbreakingly sad.

I fell in love with Kiki from the very first time I set foot in Quatre Reves and saw her photo as Rudolf in 2014. She has always been my favorite since that day, and by the time she goes it will have been effectively 10 and a half years. 10 years, nibante under two long-running top stars, through pandemic closures and changes, and effectively 1.5 GT shows as top. In truth, I'd always prepared myself for a short run. 3 shows would've been just enough to give her 'decent' time without really feeling like they were just shoveling her off after so long as #2, although I would've been cranky about it. 4 or 5 would have been an ideal sweet spot. At this point, I'm sure 3 was always the initial plan, and I hope that had been satisfying for her going into things.

It just extra fucking sucks now.

Today I can't help but feel regret for falling off as much as I did after her transfer. I was able to see her in both of those 2019 trips, thankfully at least once on stage, but the double whammy of Mirio leaving and COVID closures made it feel a lot hard to stay connected to Takarazuka in general - which is ironic, given that I will never, ever not find it surreal to watch a raku livestream on my fucking couch at 12 AM. But I didn't watch as many as I could have. One of my favorite things had always been seeing iride photos on twitter, and it made me feel like even if I couldn't be there, I could still "keep up" with what was happening day to day. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately, given this last year) I am famously too lazy to make a lot of effort to read things in Japanese, even if Takarazuka helped improve it for a time. I have limited space and desire to buy dozens of GRAPHs or other magazines for interviews. I moved on to other interests, but always kept one finger on the pulse of things. At one point, as things went on longer and longer, I thought so many times "hey girl, if you wanna pull a MiyaRuri and bounce without making top, I fully respect and support that, even if I won't get to see you one last time."

Well.

I don't have much I want to say here about what happened last year, except that I hope such a horrendous tragedy does ultimately lead to a lot of reform at the revue. Unlike apparently most everyone, I didn't go digging around the internet for names and 'what really' happened (see: lazy, also not my fucking business). I don't know, I don't want to know, and at this point frankly I don't really care about anyone's particular opinion about the people involved, or whatever outcome they think should have happened.

But we are where we are, now.

Last week, in my naive hope that after we got through Escalier's break with no taidan announcement, I was guessing that she might yet go later next year. I'd been reading the schedule wrong and complaining about the possibility of a late summer taidan, because Japan is fucking horrendous in summer, only to realize that it would've really been October, which would be ideal, although truthfully I'm not sure I could have swung a second trip in one year. I'd been sad about not getting to see her possible ohirome during my favorite time of year, since I couldn't swing a trip last year. In hindsight, I'm glad it turned out as "lucking" into actually seeing taidan rather than potentially have booking a trip last fall and "wasting" it, and that I no longer have to worry about whether or not I get to see it. But it still really fucking sucks.

Part of what helps offset the hurt of an actress retiring, especially your actress, especially a top star, is the celebration of all that's come before. Coming in as a fan in 2014, I saw all of the photos and videos of the last day festivities of Teru and Chie, which continued through all of the others that left in subsequent years. I felt devastated for the top stars who left during the height of pandemic closures, who couldn't have that, and for fans who couldn't get to see it. I'm not even sure what taidans look like these days, as I'm sorry to say a consequence of only trailing vaguely along on the hype train for the past several years is that I haven't seen any taidan shows or bothered with social media to know if they do even a semblance of those last day activities, even for the troupe. It makes me sad to think that maybe those sorts of things are perhaps long gone, just generally. Even if they aren't, though, I doubt we'd get any of that, anyway.

So in absence of that element or really any other joy, all I can really feel is bitterly sad.

In truth, I have a lot of complex feelings about her whole run, and have for many years, but those aren't things I care to lay out here. Suffice it to say, this whole situation feels like icing on that whole cake, I guess.

As I was writing all of this, I realized that just because of timing and that we usually prioritized seeing grand theater shows over small ones, the only time I will have seen Kiki live in a lead show will be her last one. I realize that compared to many people I'm privileged to go at all, let alone the number of times I've already done so in the past, but I'm still utterly heartbroken.

At the end of Escalier last weekend, I'd been so happy to see a semblance of her old self again. Her jokes, her smile, which has always felt like sunshine to me. I can't ever know her real feelings, but I hope that maybe there is some relief for her, knowing there's an end in sight. I hope that despite everything, she can find a satisfying life after the fact, that she'll still be able to perform, if she wishes. At the end of it all, I do feel thankful for the things we do have, the experiences I've had up to this point. My one tiny silver lining is that Sakura is (supposedly, maybe, fingers crossed) hanging around, hopefully for a while, because she's an incredible powerhouse and deserves the world. I'm grateful to her for being Kiki's partner and radiating love at her on stage, and terribly looking forward to seeing that in person.

Anyway, time to go cry some more, and eventually write a letter.

[unbindingisaac]

Starting Testosterone

Setting Up My Appointment and Getting My Prescription

By the summer of 2017, my mom had accepted that I was transitioning and began supporting me through my transition. When I told her that I wanted to start testosterone, she researched the kind of doctor I would need to see, found out which doctors were covered by our insurance, and scheduled an appointment for me. My mom drove 3 hours to meet me in the city where I was living and take me to my appointment. The doctor asked me questions about myself like how long I had been identifying as male, what my goals were for transitioning, etc. Because I was 18 at the time, I was able to receive my testosterone prescription due to informed consent. The doctor recommended that I use a testosterone gel that I would need to rub into my shoulder every day rather than doing a weekly injection into my muscle or fat. She said that the gel would prevent me from getting worse acne than what I already had (which was a lot). On July 12, 2017, I received my testosterone prescription. On July 14, 2017, I started testosterone.

I had to pick up my prescription from a pharmacy that made the testosterone cream themselves based on the specifics of my prescription. I had to pay for this out-of-pocket because insurance wouldn't cover that form of testosterone, but I was lucky enough to have received scholarships and grants from school and to have a paid internship with a work program through the transitional living program.

Taking My First Dose

On July 14, 2017, I picked up my prescription from the pharmacy and then rushed to the staff office for the transitional living program at my apartment complex. Running into the bathroom, I opened the paper bag from the pharmacy and pulled out a strange-looking bottle with a gray top with a hole in the center and a round, gray bottom.

I twisted the round bottom a few times until the testosterone gel came out from the hole in the gray top, and rubbed the substance on my arm like lotion.

In that moment, I thought that I would feel different--like maybe I would notice effects immediately. But I didn't. Logically, I knew that I wouldn't notice any changes from testosterone for at least a couple of weeks, but I was still a little bit disappointed that I felt exactly the same way after I put on that first dose of testosterone as I did before I put it on. However, I was still excited to finally be starting my physical/medical transition and be taking one of the biggest and most important steps towards becoming my truest self.

(me after picking up my testosterone from the pharmacy)

Based on the countless videos I'd watched and blogs I'd read, I knew there would big changes for this upcoming...

First Year on Testosterone

[lonelyroommp3]

I cant lie, the idea of sending you unpopular opinions is a bit uninspiring when there is no threat of being chickened (i used to rack my brain for niche takes like my life depended on it, just to avoid the humiliation of a chicken gif)

i’m honestly really mad that chickening never caught on beyond this blog. it had potential. sure let’s bring back the Chicken Clause for this round of unpopular opinions @ lonelyroommp3 dot gov

(for the uninitiated, the Chicken Clause is a tradition i made up around the 2017 tony awards discourse era back when everyone kept regurgitating the same takes that were held by at least 50% of musical theatre tumblr as if they were these never seen before hugely controversial speaking truth to power type takes. and eventually i got so pissed off by getting like 10 asks of the exact same opinion that i’d already debated a dozen times every time i reblogged an unpopular opinion ask game that i developed a new rule: if i didn’t think your opinion was actually unpopular i would refuse to engage with it and would instead reply with a picture of a chicken. because you were being chicken by engaging in such entry level contrarianism that you knew deep down multiple people actually agreed with and wasn’t actually risky or unpopular at all)

[absolutebl]

Regarding Stay With Me

My dumbarse’s official statement on Stay With Me

Upcoming BL censored bromance:

Stay With Me

(2023)

This is the only time I'll be talking about this. You know my policy, censor the censors.

Yes it's a "Censored Adaptation Of Same-sex Original Work" as MDL puts it.

Yes that original work is 哥哥你别跑 or Addicted Heroin.

Yes I think it is actually disgusting they are doing this. ESPECIALLY to this property.

I’m aware Taiwan is somehow involved (and I’m scared about that) but I still think it will be a censored bromance, and if not it will be sad. (See 2022's In Your Heart. Or don't 'cause... sad.) 

It will be 24 eps, air Friday & Saturday 30 min each.

I will not be watching it. 

I will not list the source. You are permitted to watch it if you do so grey (waves hand in dictatorial manner). This is the one circumstance where I will say this.  

I will not talk about it further.

I will not be blogging or reposting anything about it after this.  

It will not show up in my weekly round ups.

Censor. The. Censors. Do not give them power. In the entertainment industry: power = attention. My policy = VOID. I too can practice the brutalistic art of censorship. 

I discus Chinese censorship of gay content here.

And I have a History of Chinese BL here. 

I remember 2016-2017.

I remember gay Chinese vloggers I considered friends being taken down and disappeared off YouTube

I remember danmei authors being thrown into prison.

You can make your own life choices. This is my blog you've strayed into. Guess what? I too have a ban hammer. Don't tempt me.

LOOK

It’s REAL FUCKING SIMPLE

If this show were het = they kiss. But they don’t kiss because they not het. I not watch it.

Mmmm’kay? 

(source)

[toyhouse-code-hell]

a bit of an appreciation post to everyone who asked for a code??? I'm yapping.

that is. a baffling(is it baffling? ive never seen triple digit codes but maybe this is normal) amount of toy house codes

Ok I'm going to do math here. I'm rounding up to an even 500 codes since the 500th code was given to a friend like within 3 days of me making the blog and inspired me to make it.

500 codes, with 2 new codes per week is 250 weeks. 250 weeks is 4.8 years for the codes I have not generated.

For total codes I have ever given, I have 5 pages of generated codes, with 100 codes per page, with the final page having 86. Taking my remaining 134 codes, I have had a total of 620 codes, totaling almost six years of premium to get that many codes.

Getting codes was my main reason to get premium since the site has been invite only since I joined in 2017. And now that I've gotten into web coding, having premium to attempt CSS and possibly make my own profile codes is incredibly exciting!!

And that's not to mention that people sell the codes, too. Codes for art means you're asking for people to undersell their art/you're underselling your own art. Codes for money is... Dubious as hell. Minimum premium is 1 month at 4.95 USD, which is 4 weeks, which is 8 codes. That makes 1 code worth 0.61 USD. NOBODY'S art is worth less than a dollar.

I've had "ask me for a toyhouse code" on my main tumblr, my artfight, and my toyhouse itself, but I've never had THIS LEVEL of interaction for any post I've made offering codes. It's made me super happy to finally give out these codes en masse and for people to be happy. I didn't think I would get even 30 asks. I have gotten over 360.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

So thanks to everyone for being so nice when asking, for giving me happy birthday messages, fun facts, little text creatures, song recommendations (if you read this THANK YOU the song was perfect to begin an oc playlist I've been struggling to start), and just being silly in my asks. It's made me very happy and I appreciate it.

So ya. Clay sappy yapping hour is over.

[thejewishguyscompetiton]

The Jewish Guys of All Time!

It's time to meet the competitors, as they have been selected! Polls probably won't be up till after next week as I have finals next week. Reminder that the competitors were selected based on nominations and they can be canonical, headcanon, or coded! Only 2-3 at most from a source and I decided to take some lesser known or talked about ones in the nominations! So now that thats all out of the way!!!

If you have any propaganda for this competition please tag this blog in it and/or use the tag #jewishguyscomp2023

Welcome the contestants!

Barney Guttman (Dead End Paranormal Park)

Cecil Gershwin Palmer (Welcome to Nightvale)

Peter B. Parker (Spiderverse)

Spock (Star Trek)

Moon Knight (Marvel)

Magneto (Marvel)

Benjamin Grimm (Marvel)

Billy Kaplan (Marvel)

Adam Birkholz (Omg Check Please!)

Alter Rosen (The City Beautiful)

Annie Edison (Community)

Isabella Garcia-Shapiro (Phineas and Ferb)

Grunkle Stan (Gravity Falls)

Jake Peralta (Brooklyn 99)

Kronk (The Emperor's New Groove)

Launchpad (Ducktales 2017)

Ragman (Rory Regan) (DC)

Nati (Srugim)

Nadia Vulvokov (Russian Doll)

Yanki (HaSodot)

Avram (The Frisco Kid)

Herschel (Wholly Moses)

Adam F. Goldberg (The Goldbergs)

Coyote Bergstein (Grace and Frankie)

Walter Sobchak (The Big Lebowski)

Eli Moskovitz (Cobra Kai)

Nick Ganz (Mighty Ducks Game Changers)

Worf (Star Trek)

Artie Nielsen (Warehouse 13)

Booster Gold (DC)

 Brucie Kibbutz (Grand Theft Auto IV)

 Buddy Sorrell (The Dick Van Dyke Show)

 The Baudelaires (ASOUE)

Lemony Snicket (ASOUE)

 Mabel and Dipper (Gravity Falls)

Harley Quinn (DC)

Jeremy Heere (Be More Chill)

Tegan Jovanka (Doctor Who)

Muscle Man (Regular Show)

 Schmidt (New Girl)

 Michael Moscowitz (Princess Diaries)

Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop)

 Sonic the Hedgehog (The Sonic Movie)

 Toby Ziegler (The West Wing)

 TK Strand (911 Lone Star)

 Scanlan Shorthalt (Critical Role)

 Patsy (Spamalot)

 Nathaniel Kurtzberg (Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir)

 Miriam Maisel (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)

  Mendel Weisenbachfeld (Falsettos)

 KJ (Paper Girls)

 Libby Stein-Torres (The Ghost and Molly Mcgee)

 Noah Puckerman (Glee)

 Motl (Fiddler on the Roof)

 Otacon (Metal Gear Solid)

 Mabel Rose (Diviners)

 Isidore Latham (Chicago Med)

 Fran Fine (The Nanny)

Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) 

Greg Focker (Meet the Parents)

Davey Jacobs (Newsies)

 Dr. Alan Strauss (The Patient)

Tevye (Fiddler on the Roof)

Little Ash (When the Angels Left the Old Country)

ROUND ONE MASTERPOST

ROUND TWO MASTERPOST