#Another Thought

[stoicmike]

Every thought you can have leads to another thought, and so it goes…like a train that has an infinite number of stations, but no destination... -- Michael Lipsey

[grrl-operator]

Byrne, Glass, Ginsberg on Arthur Russell 'Another Thought' EPK

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Something I've thought a lot about in connection with Louis' promo, and that maybe underlies (consciously or unconsciously) some portion of people's frustration with it is that the story Louis has chosen to tell about himself for a while now has a lot of the elements and flavor of a character arc, essentially. From the high of the band, to the lows of the hiatus and what followed for him personally, to him finding himself and his self-confidence as a solo artist. I don't think there's any problem with telling that story, but the structure of a story like that suggests movement, and suggests an end. He's found his self-confidence as a solo artist, now what's the new thing he's going to do with that self-confidence. Obviously, real people's lives don't work like that, it's not like you just get over your struggles and then it's done and you move on totally, but in the telling of it as a public narrative, I can sympathize a bit with people who feel like we've been at the end of this story for a few years (I think the version of the narrative we're hearing now is more developed for sure, but not at base very different from what it was with Walls). And that makes me curious about why Louis continues to choose to tell the story that way. Is it just that that's how he still sees himself, still at the end phase of that story and not ready to move on to something new? Or, is there some part of it attributable to the pandemic? Like, this was kind of the narrative he wanted for the documentary all along, and in a non-pandemic world it would've come out in late 2020, early 2021 and served as like, a cap to the end of that personal journey so he could move on from it, except then the pandemic happened and now that's been stretched over two more years? I'm clearly just speculating, I don't know the answer, I doubt we can or will ever know the answer, but I do find it interesting to think about.

I think this is incredibly insightful anon - and a really important point.

I agree that Louis has been telling the same arc for a while now and there is something unsatisfying about it as an observer. You describe the arc very accurately - and why it's unsatisfying.

And here's what's particularly interesting to me - it's unsatisfying even though from this distance it's clear that it's reasonably true. Figuring out that he wants to do music and releasing his first singles was a step on the way. Walls was a step on the way. The livestreams were a step on the way. The tour was a step on the way. Faith in the Future was a step on the way. Everytime he's told that story he has been noticeably more confident and more sure of himself as an artist than he was before. But that doesn't make it interesting.

I don't really think this is attributable to the pandemic. If he has really planned a documentary that long, the best time to release it would always have been after touring with or after the album. There would have been one fewer round without the AWFH festival livestream - but the livestream story was much more specific anyway.

I think it's much more about the demands of promo and the difference between people's lives and stories. One of the key aspects of promo is that it requires to present your life in a tidy digestable way - a story that people can understand. A narrative of growth is a great thing to present, and because growth is very slow - it makes sense people tell it for the first time before they're anywhere near done.

Harry and Liam do similar things in their promo - they tell the same story over and over again. (I'm interested in what Niall's doing with this promo round, although I haven't caught up yet). I do think that they do so for slightly different reasons. I think Liam is actually in a loop between different sorts of behaviour - and frames one part of the loop as recovery, but is actually going through a loop over and over again. I don't know about Harry - I find it hard to believe any of it's true and think it's largely what he thinks a rockstar would be doing and feeling (but I've no idea if that's accurate). Where as I think Louis is getting more comfortable with himself. But the reasons that they're all telling this story over and over again is the demands of hte promo cycle.

I think there are two related questions that you've maybe jumped ahead of - the first is does Louis see this as a problem? And also is it a problem? I don't know the answer to either of these. I don't know how it lands outside of a very narrow selection of people who are a bit frustrated (but most understand their frustration through a different lens). A lot of artists aren't very good at telling stories about themselves, certainly not in the rapacious way that the internet demands. Louis may not have many other stories he wants to tell about himself at the moment.

I don't know the answer the two questions that began the previous paragraph - and I am interested in what other people think.

[princeklassen]

Arthur Russell - Another Thought Promo Cassette

[vampire-superstar]

Asmo probably kins the entire Portals Album by Melanie Martinez

You walk by his room and all you hear is muffled

"ʸᵒᵘ ᶜᵃⁿ'ᵗ ᵉᵛᵉⁿ ˢᵖᵉˡˡ ᵇᵘᵗ ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ᵃⁿ ᵉˣᵖᵉʳᵗ ⁱⁿ ⁿʸᵐᵖʰᵒˡᵒᵍʸ

ⁿ ʸ ᵐ ᵖ ʰ ᵒ ˡ ᵒ ᵍ ʸ ᵗʰᵃᵗ'ˢ ⁿʸᵐᵖʰᵒˡᵒᵍʸ"

[catmask]

my mom loves to lie and like she always swears she was NEVER homophobic or anything to me as a child “i even have a gay work friend” but a really funny memory resurfaced recently where i asked if i could use birthday money i had to buy a rainbow flag when i was like ??? 7?? because i LOVED rainbows. and she said no that means something Evil and god will hate you . so what did i do. but ask my grandmom for a rainbow sweater for christmas and proceed to only wear that sweater for three years when it got cold because i didnt like the idea that god hated colors and i wanted to challenge him

[fairydrowning]

– Noor Unnahar, Instagram account "noor_unnahar"

[TEXT ID: / [Lemons] / My father's mother loved lemons. Years after her passing, / we run out of everything, but never / lemons. / Nothing else shelters grief / better than memory. / It's my father way of saying, / even in your absence, you will be / cared by me. / END ID]

[incandescent-mushroom]

House has definitely sent Wilson a dick pic or several but he sends them by email because they are both old men and the titles are things like ‘URGENT: please identify if lung cancer’ or ‘patient biopsy results - respond ASAP’ so that Wilson’s guilt complex makes him feel obligated to open each one just in case someone’s life is actually on the line

[manicrouge]

'I'm too old to do anythin' like that now,' Simon says, shaking his head.

'But daddy,' whines the little girl standing in front of him, her small hands tugging at his black t-shirt, 'mummy was telling me all about how you a- and my uncles used to save the world and I wanna learn cause I wanna be just like you!'

He lifts his head, spying you standing in the doorway with a bright grin on your face. 'What you tellin' her that for?'

'Because she wants to know how to beat the boys in the street when they're having water fights,' you say, 'thought your military experience would come in handy.'

'They're always laughin' at me,' she pouts, 'and sayin' I can't fight cause I'm a girl.'

There's a switch that is flipped at her confession and when he looks to her and then raises his head to look at you, you swear you're looking at the Lieutenant instead of your husband.

'Is that so?' he asks, to which your daughter nods her head quickly. He holds his hand out to her and she takes it happily. 'We'll teach them to mess with a Riley, ey sweet pea?'

[eruhamster]

not to be annoying but i do think a lot of people mischaracterize falin. shes got the most drastic canon v fanon thing going on. which i guess makes sense bc 1. we dont see much of her and 2. lot of the fan stuff are anime-onlies that have seen even less

but i think like a good 90% of the time i see falin-centric art or posts im like hrm hrm hrm thats all wrong no nope no-siree

she's just a cool chick that takes life as it comes, doesn't hold grudges even against a mother that apparently was trying to beat the magic outta her, finds her older brother the coolest person in the world, and has autism about observing life (and death, she loves the ghosts she has a connection to) and nature and taking care of things (including taking care of her brother, which is why she's even in the dungeons; she saw her scrawny mess of a brother and decided she had to fix that).

and i think my favorite part that people don't talk about is... she would have done the same for marcille or laios if it were one of them that was eaten. you could see it in her eyes:

it's what shuro misunderstands about her. it's easy to see her feminine, cute, good girl pieces and forget the rest of her. but she loves things to an ends-of-the-earth extent; the kind of caring that makes you a little insane. and that's how I think she and laios end up on the same page with their weirdness. they have different interests, but they are the same level of committed to those interests.

it's easy to love her, because she probably loves you just as much, if not more.

EDIT: for the love of god stop reblogging this only to add some comment or tag or reply saying 'op you forgot [BLATANTLY FANON INTERPRETATION]'. falin as we know her is not a pushover/people pleaser/infantilized, see this version of my post. also stuff like 'female shuro was in love with laios in the genderbent comic' and 'falin was going to marry shuro because she felt bad' are just things you made up in your head

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dog Meshi.

[aboutiroh]

You know what’s astonishing about Katara? She grew up in a world without bending.

It’s not surprising that Sokka calls her bending ‘magic water’ in the first episode. It might as well have been magic to them at that point; they had never seen it in practice until they meet Aang.

So not only did Katara not have any teachers, she didn’t have any kind of guidance, no visual aids, no idea of how bending is supposed to look or work. The first time she ever sees actual waterbending movements is when she steals the waterbending scroll from the pirates. The first time she meets another waterbender is when she reaches the North Pole, where within weeks she outmasters pretty much everyone and goes on to teach the Avatar.

Everything she does is so incredibly impressive, and yet I can’t help but feel the most proud of her when she catches a fish on that little boat.

[egophiliac]

doylist explanation for why Gidel is only in Fellow's non-idle lesson animations: probably something about space constraints and making sure two sprites in one seat aren't covering anyone else when they're not in focus

watsonian explanation for why Gidel is only in Fellow's non-idle lesson animations: he snuck in and is hiding from the teachers, don't give him away 🤫

(I've reached my limit of unsuccessful attempts at pulling them before I need to save keys for Halloween, so I've been living vicariously through youtube videos...but the fact that Gidel just pops up from under the desk to wave his arms around happily is really testing my resolve. D: I'm gonna die when they finally get to do alchemy...)

[raynewolferune]

DC x DP Prompt: Bruce is bad at emoting but at least ghosts are empathic (too bad bat kids are not)

Was reading Twincognito on AO3 when I stumbled across this gem again:

~

" “Danny, Tim. I was just…checking in. Is everything alright?” Curse his inability to make meaningful conversation when it wasn’t a life or death situation.

They glanced at each other and shrugged.

Then Danny hauled himself out of the bed and walked over to Bruce.

Bruce tried not to let too much excitement show on his face. "

~

Now I really want to read a story where Bruce adopts Danny post Meta trafficking and is being his usual emotionally constipated self. His kids keep getting mad at him because he's treating their new meta brother who was trafficked poorly (generally being stilted in conversation with him, walking away hurriedly mid-conversation, avoiding Danny when he's feeling really awkward, etc). They think Bruce is discriminating against Danny for being a civilian, meta, dealer's pick, but really it's just Bruce being horribly socially awkward. Danny knows this because of ghost empathy and find the whole thing hilarious. The whole thing comes to a head with the Bat Kids staging an intervention in the Bat Cave.

[proxycrit]

Linktober day 10: the fire temple

Ghosts cry too, you know.

(The desecration of a loved one vs the undying determination to help preserve the future… a tale as old as time memorial. The sage of fire had sealed himself in his temple, preserving his soul in preparation for the day Rauru’s seals were to break with Mineru’s technology. But the Malice does what it does best— corrupt and twist, until nothing was left except a dying wish.)

Unfortunately, nobody knows ancient Goronese. So that story’s sort of going right over their heads and nailing rauru’s weepy ghost in the skull.

This au is called Familiar Familiar, and is totk without the time travel! I’m basically building my own lore at this point.

Patreon!

[hamoodmood]

In another universe I was happy