#East cost artist

[amalashuor]

In the beginning 💢💢 I apologize to all of you for not responding to the messages you sent to check on my family, but my family and I are evacuating from east of Deir al-Balah to the seashore because all places have now become dangerous. Please pray for us. I may never be online again

Dear friends 🤍 Tears of joy mixed with feelings of gratitude to everyone who stood by me, who gave their time and effort in order to reach the campaign’s financial goal of 30k euros, but due to the circumstances that Gaza is going through and the closure of all land crossings, I was not able to achieve the main goal of the campaign, which is to leave Gaza to Safe country Thanks and gratitude are due to: 1. The friends who pinned my story at the top of their page are amazing people.🌺🤍 2. The Ansar, each by name and title, are people of goodness and giving.🌺🤍 3.For those who put forward new ideas, the idea of ​​artistic paintings, marches, and bread sales are the unknown soldiers🌺🤍 4. These amazing activists who share daily updates are like a dynamo who never stops serving those in need.🌺🤍 5. Friends who sent the campaign link to their friends and families outside this application, those who carry humanity in their hearts.🌺🤍 @littlegermanboy @appsa @floofysmallbob @feluka @90-ghost @queerstudiesnatural @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @irhabiya @intersectionalpraxis @obscenity @sayruq @decolonize-solidarity @fancysmudges @heba-20 @jezior0 @commissions4aid-international @vivisection-gf I inform you that thanks to you, I was able to support my family from your donations and campaign revenues. Before we left Rafah, I didn't have enough money to leave Thanks to your donations, I was able to leave Rafah to Khan Yunis. What it cost me is as follows: Transportation: $400/600 Buy a tent for $500/$800 Land rent: $500/600 Building a very modest bathroom costs $200/300 Some incidental expenses are $300/500 Which means that I spent approximately $3,000 of the money of the group whose goal is to get out of Gaza to a safe country on transportation from Rafah to Khan Yunis. Then, on 27may2024 💔, the occupation army threw a bomb near our tent in Khan Yunis, which led to the burning of the tent, the mattress, and everything else. We fled without taking anything with us. I told my friend @littlegermanboy 🤍about this incident and we fled to Deir al-Balah because there was no empty place. We sat in the east of Deir al-Balah.

This escape cost us more than before because of the outrageous prices we are experiencing here. This is just an example to tell you that a liter of diesel costs 100 dollars. Which means that the cost of transportation to Deir al-Balah cost me as follows: 500$ transportation 500/700$ to buy a tent to replace the one that burned in Khanios 200/300$ to buy mattresses, blankets, pillows, and clothes for me and my daughter, Maryam But in Deir al-Balah, we did not rent land. We sat on government land for free 300/200$ to build a bathroom All these expenses detract from the funds of the campaign, whose goal is to escape from Gaza to a safe country Of course, there are basic expenses, which are buying food, drinks, milk, and Cerelac for my daughter Maryam. Certainly, these are from the campaign’s money because we do not have any other income other than this campaign.

Now the Israeli occupation army has told us to leave Deir al-Balah to the west, towards the sea The place I am in now is very dangerous, and if I decide to leave, it will cost me more than before, and this is not satisfactory. I spent the campaign’s money just to escape from one place to another.If the Rafah land crossing returns to work again, this means that the money we have is not enough to exit Gaza. For this reason, we will raise the campaign goal to 50k euros

I ask you, my friends, for increased financial and psychological support, because because of you, I am able to continue despite everything that is happening to me I thank you and everyone who contributed and helped to continue my life. If it were not for you, I would not have been able to save my family from health, psychological and nutritional deterioration. I thank everyone who gave me anything because everything here helps My friends who stood by my side, I shower you with hugs and love you so much.❤️😭 Moving towards the second goal to sustain my life and the life of my little family: 50k euros

These are my friends' articles. I thank you 🤍🤍

[orchres]

Hey friends! Sharing a pretty urgent fundraiser for myself. I have been invited to some really cool residency in Europe and have been raising funds all week to cover the costs of the residency and visa fees. So far I'm up to 178 dollars out of 300 yay! which may seem like nothing but I live in a country in East Africa and at present we are under economic assault in the name of IMF "structural adjustments" and my community has still rallied around me to support. It honestly is so heartwarming 😭💗 Anyway I would love any assistance at all to raise the remaining 122. I need to pay the first deposit on or before September 1st this coming Sunday (and they sent my invitation letter w this info on Monday btw!!) or they'll give away my place so time is not on my side. I have many complaints about this whole state of affairs and all the assumptions made but this is also just the reality of being an artist from the global south lol I'll be mad about it when I know for sure I can attend. Thank you so much!

0/122

[marzipanandminutiae]

"EUROPEANS ATE GROUND-UP EGYPTIAN MUMMIES!!!! ALL THE TIME!!!"

sounds much more dramatic than

"Europeans sometimes consumed ground-up Egyptian mummies, or fluid found inside the chest cavities of mummies, or a type of tree resin that became associated with mummies because it kind of looked like the bitumen used in the embalming process, or the dried and ground flesh of very specific European dead- most likely a bit of all of the above at various times in various places. but it's hard to say what the proportion of each was- and at least one early Middle Eastern physician, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi from modern-day Iran, also advised the use of the Body Cavity Liquid variety hundreds of years before the first documented use of mummy by Europeans. so it was a medicinal thing in the areas from whence the mummies came, too. unsurprising seeing as a lot of cultures- including Europeans -have done Corpse Medicine with their own people for centuries. there was also been pushback against the medicinal use of mummies in Europe since at least the 16th century; it remains unclear how popular the notion was at any given time. so the answer to Is This A Good Symbol For The Effects of European Colonialism In Egypt remains a resounding 'ehhh...?'"

"because the whole idea is, is it not, that Europeans were literally consuming the dead bodies of a non-European people who would have had no reason to sell their dead without a European market. and that's kind of true! there was a market that created a demand! but they were also already putting the bodies to these uses closer to home before Europeans started, because this whole thing began with both Arab and European doctors misinterpreting other Arab doctors who were talking about the medicinal qualities of tree resin. so really it's not as simple a situation as we might like to believe."

"and Mummy Brown paint is like this whole other situation where it was supposed to be made from ground-up mummies but often wasn't because Cost-Cutting, and a lot of artists didn't really like it anyway, and others used it thinking the name only referred to the color, and one time Edward Burne-Jones attempted an Egyptian funeral for a tube of Mummy Brown paint because he was so horrified with the origins, so while that's a more straightforward as an Oh Shit Violent Colonialism situation, people merrily waltzing into shops and buying one tube of Dead Egyptian Person, please, my good man! wasn't quite as widespread as one might now think"

"for me, the more compelling image of Europe Fucking Egypt Over is that of a white archaeologist peering curiously into a pit where Egyptian people are working tirelessly to excavate a tomb, their names to be lost to history in favor of whatever rich white person they toiled for. even that image is not without complicating factors- I, imagining it, am a white woman who cannot ask those Egyptian men what they think and feel about all their role in all this -but to me it seems more reliable than the VERY complex and often misinterpreted history of the mummy trade, even as I understand it after like an hour of research"

"on the OTHER HAND, does it even matter if people in the Middle East were already doing mummy medicine, when Europeans increased demand? does it even matter if Europeans felt bad or at least grossed out about Mummy Brown paint or if it wasn't ~always~ real mummies? maybe it doesn't! maybe my instincts as a history worker to say It's More Complicated are clouding my judgment on the nature of colonialism! or maybe they aren't! or maybe different people will think I'm right or think I'm full of shit and that's just the nature of doing public history on The Tungles!"

"anyway I have COVID and should probably go to bed now"

"this article and the Wiki page for Mummia are very well-sourced"

[rey-129-fan]

Well, it's been a while since I've posted any fanfic... Let's change that.

Good news! I'm not dead! My brain did try to get me to do things that could unalive myself for a bit, and then I lost nearly an entire side of my family over the span of 3 years, but I'm still here and still kicking! And I have two new puppies who are adorable and so loving.

Now for this story, this is inspired by a few posts I saw on @theglamorousferal, mostly the one about Amity Parkers going to college in Gotham and buying a hotel (I'm making it a co-op student house, but I've never lived in one, so if something's unacceptably wrong, tell me, if not, artistic license), but also the one where our main Trio buy a building to set up shop there, and wind up adopted my Jason (I swear, I saw that post after I wrote the first chapter, but it just fit so well).

***

Honestly, Amity Park was weird long before the Fentons moved there- the original settlers named the nearby lake Eerie, and it wasn’t after the Great Lake.  It’s just that before the Fentons’ machine punched a hole through reality and created a permanent doorway to the land of spirits and ghosts, the weirdness was not as blatant.

Prior to that, Amity Parkers were some of the few that could move to Gotham without suffering a breakdown that was common for new arrivals.  Now there was a slight dip in newcomers for about a decade or two after the Bat made his debut and then the crazies that followed him, but then Amity Parkers got used to the spirits of the dead wandering around following the aforementioned punching through reality.

All this to say that Gotham Universities were a rather common destination for young Amity Park adults seeking higher education.

Now because of this, there were always apartments advertising themselves for people from the small town.  They, after all, tended to not have a breakdown after their fifth rogue attack and just pack up and leave halfway through their lease.  But it got very annoying having to sift through all the advertisements when looking for a place to stay- something Danny Fenton saw his older sister go through when she got in to Gotham City University.  The boy then shared what he was witnessing with his two best friends- Tucker Foley and Sam Manson.  Tucker offered to help filter out the spam, which Danny’s sister Jazz thanked him for but turned down.  Sam… Sam instead got thinking.

Sam had been to Gotham a few times in her life.  She had an idea of the areas closest to the schools and how much those should cost.  And looking at the letters Jazz was getting, the offers were a little too high for a regular college student to afford.  Sam was also familiar with how many hotels were not being used in Gotham- people building them in hopes tourists would come to stay while visiting the East Coast, tourists that could not be convinced to visit due to the high crime rate and the lack of activities or places of interest in the city itself.

She quickly went to work, looking in to these empty hotels.  She was rather upset by their numbers and put together a spreadsheet of them, with details like number of rooms, any amenities they may have, and nearby landmarks.  She then grabbed her two dorks and marched to Casper High’s Community Outreach director.

Now Sam’s presentation raised a few eyebrows, mostly because it was in a completely different state, but Sam shot back that because of the efforts to incorporate the town’s new ghostly residents and provide them with helpful ways to feed their obsessions- efforts led by the Fenton family- Amity Park had very few homeless, and those that were had a huge community safety net to help them get back on their feet.  Additionally, with how many people moved between the city and the town, helping the city could be argued to also be helping the town.

The Outreach Director just sighed and gave Same the green light to at least draft and send out a proposal to the powers that be in Gotham, saying that there wasn’t much that could be done before they got backing and approval.  Sam thanked them before leaving, Danny and Tucker trailing behind.

She was back the next day with a draft of her proposal and a list of who to send it to.

***

Since returning from the dead in the eyes of the public, Jason Todd was often contacted by groups trying to use the Wayne fortune to fund their own personal projects.  They thought Jason would be the easiest to con- sorry, persuade- since he was a former street kid unlike the rest of his family.  Thus surely he would know just how much this new building with low income housing would help the people of Gotham- it even came with a pool and gym!

Yeah, he did know how much the people of Gotham needed housing, but $2K a month was not affordable when you’re barely making $30K a year!  Oh and the pool and gym were only available for those who could shell out an additional $2K a month.  Jason knows, he read the whole document carefully.

God, sometimes it was hard to tell who was worse, the psychos in Blackgate or real estate investors.  And sadly, he couldn’t just pop a bullet in their heads and be done with it because 1) it would raise too many questions and 2) it would make Bruce get all sad and mopey- again.  Jason just did not have the mental energy to put up with that on top of the rest of his life as a crimelord/vigilante/long-lost adoptive second son of a billionaire.

All this to say, he was not impressed when he first glanced over a proposal to convert the unused hotels around the city into housing units- especially since it was from someone that did not live in Gotham.

Manson?  Wasn’t there a family with that name that would attend some of Brucie’s galas?  Oh yeah, their family made its fortune off patenting the machine that wrapped toothpicks in plastic, as well as a couple others.  And they had a daughter around Repla- Tim’s age.  Hopefully this wasn’t her trying to be a kiss-ass like her parents.

Jason finished reading and sat back.  The proposal wasn’t too bad.  Converting hotels into apartment buildings would be easier than office buildings, and the suggestion to use ex-convicts that wanted to turn over a new leaf as building managers certainly wasn’t the worst.  Also creating a fund for those that couldn’t afford rent, as well as community kitchens and gardens were certain plusses, though would need to have the right people in charge to make sure they actually worked as planned, and to keep the Court of Owls from messing with it.

Overall, it was something Jason would consider, after some research and maybe talking with the rest of the Bats and Birds.  And if this was from the Manson kid, maybe get Dickie or one of the others to talk to her next time there was a gala in town.  Or talk to her himself, if the Pit wasn’t too loud.

…Dick was probably the better option to talk with her if it came down to it.

***

There's the first chapter. I'm going to go write the next one. When I have a good log of them, I'll then go and edit them and put them on AO3.

This has no title yet because I suck at naming. Feel free to comment with suggestions for a name, both for the fic/au and for the eventual hotel/co op. As well as any shinanegans and majors/colleges/universities for our liminal young adults.

Part 1/? Next >

[redgoldsparks]

Full transcript and links below the cut. All @ links in the graphics are for instagram

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ABOUT THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA! 

In the UK, find email templates for contacting Parliament at humantiproject.org

In the US, find email and call templates for contracting Congress at 5calls.org

Americans can also text the White House directly at (302) 404-0880  

DONATE eSIMS

Download an eSIM app, select Middle East as the region, purchase an eSIM but do not activate it. Screenshot the eSIM QR code and email it to gazaesims@gmail.com. If your eSIM isn’t activated after 3 weeks, resend the QR code. Keep re-sending every 3 weeks until it’s activated. Share your referral codes with friends to get discounts. Here are my referral codes: MAIA5367 for $3 off Airalo, MB772 for $3 off Simly, MAIA66GF for $3 off Nomad 

Airalo charges $39 for 3GB, Simly charges $22 for 3GG, Nomad charges $16 for 3GB

Once your eSIM is activated, you can buy top-up packages to make sure the data doesn’t run out. Follow @ connectinghumanity_ for updates, gazaesims.com for more info

Alternatively, donate to Crips for eSIMs for Gaza, run by a group of disabled activists raising money to buy eSIMs: chuffed.org/project/crips-for-esims-for-gaza

If you need more incentive, @cartoonistcoop is offering art rewards for eSIM receipts. Info here: cartoonist.coop/esims4gaza

DONATE TO GOFUNDMES

Find a list of verified fundraisers, FAQs, and volunteer opportunities at linktr.ee/opolivebranch

Follow @ operationolivebranch on instagram for updates. If choosing a single fundraiser off the list is prohibitive, use gazafunds.com, which spotlights one fundraiser at a time. 

CALL FOR ART

Artists can donate posters or coloring pages to @ flyers_for_falastin to add to an international database of free PDFs for use at protests. Requirements: 

-a clear message supporting Palestine

-PDF or PNG file

-A4 paper size 8.27x11.69 inches or 21x29.7 cm or 2480 x 3508 pixels at 300 DPI

-include your own username and @ flyers_for_falastin

-email art to watermelonrecipes@gmail.com 

You can find poster pickup sites or donate for printing costs at linktr.ee/flyersforfalastin

PALESTINIAN & ISRAELI PEACE ORGANIZATIONS

Standing Together: www.standing-together.org,

Women of the Sun: womensun.org

Women Wage Peace: www.womenwagepeace.org.il/en/

The Parents Circle Families Forum: www.theparentscircle.org/en/homepage-en/ ,

Roots: https://www.friendsofroots.net/

Mesarvot: linktr.ee/Meaarvot

ORGANIZATIONS OFFERING AID: 

Palestinian Red Crescent: www.palestinercs.org/en

Doctors Without Borders: www.doctorswithoutborders.org,

World Central Kitchen: https://wck.org/

UNICEF: unicef.org/emergencies/children-gaza-need-lifesaving-support

UNRWA: www.unrwausa.org

Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund: www.pcrf.net

ANERA: www.anera.org

[zeus-japonicus]

Hello pirate friends! Those of you who know me through Rusty Quill's Trice Forgotten know that I love to write queer and trans Asian pirates destroying colonies with science and also homoerotic swordfighting.

If you like those things in combination with radical, genre-devouring new science-fiction musicals created as a "fuck you" to the white men who've made millions casting East and Southeast Asians as barbarians and lotus flowers, look no further than ASIAN PIRATE MUSICAL!

APM is created by a group of 6 trans/genderqueer/female artists from across diasporas including Malaysia, the Philippines, Jamaica, Japan, Thailand and New Zealand. We love musical theatre, but we want fun, epic adventure stories written by us, about us and casting us. For tone, think the queer humour of Our Flag Meets Death meets the political world-building of The Expanse, with an experimental, orchestral blend of traditional instruments, 21st century Asian pop and indierock.

Here's a bit of a call-to-arms for us as we need some help giving this project its sea-legs.

If you're in London, UK 21-22nd November 2024, we're having a 2-day CONCERT at the Pleasance Theatre. Tickets are £14 and we need to sell out to break even ( ;; yay theatre) Click here to buy tickets.

We want everyone to be able to access this show for free, online. To do that we're recording a studio cast album (think Hadestown's early demo albums, or the EPIC! musical). We've currently got a crowdfunder going, and any donation - however small - is much appreciated. We're at £1,265/£5,000 and that just covers basic costs. Click here to go to the crowdfunder.

If you don't have the ability to financially contribute at this time, we would super appreciate any kind of social media help -> sending people who might be interested our way, reblogs/retweets and shares on Instagram/Tiktok go an incredibly long way in the development of musicals. We're @ AsianPirateMus in most places.

If you want to learn more about Asian Pirate Musical, including more songs and our social media links, please head over to this linktree and follow us where you can!

If you made it this far, thank you! Here's our asian-pop inspired ballad in which we make a historical old man have homoerotic thoughts and feelings for his Emperor.

[copperbadge]

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

Anon linked to a fundraiser for Katy L. Wood, an author and artist with a dayjob in wildland fire dispatch, who needs help funding top surgery; you can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

imsotired is raising funds to cover vet bills after pet insurance for her cat Oliver, who has had to have surgery to remove an intestinal blockage and is having complications following surgery. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

Housing:

E is looking for someone to take over half of a lease of a 2br/1ba apartment on the East Side of Providence, RI; rent is $1100 per bedroom and the apartment is on the third/top floor of the building, with in-unit laundry, a dishwasher, a bike shed, and a back garden; there is also offstreet parking for $50/mo. You can read more, see photos, and get in touch here.

Recurring Needs:

chingaderita's family was recently impacted by a house fire that destroyed their home; their partner has been unable to work and is now ill, and they are dealing with toxic mold in their current living situation. They're raising funds for basic needs such as food and water, as well as medication for their partner and other family members. You can read more, reblog, and support the fundraiser here.

we_are_spc's AC in their house has gone out, and they are trying to stay cool with only one fan; they are unemployed, and the heat is bad for both their asthma and their cats, as well as several musical instruments in the home including indigenous flutes. They now know they need to completely replace the unit and copper lines; you can read more and support the fundraiser here or give via paypal at celticphoenyx@gmail.com, via venmo at rowansong, or via cashApp at rowansong.

onedollopofsourcream is raising funds for food and medication for their family including young children; they need medication that is important for family mental health. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

loversdoom has recently been diagnosed with PCOS and needs help to afford the prescribed birth control pills on top of living expenses; you can read more, reblog, and find giving information here or give via paypal here.

Anon linked to longhorned's fundraiser for Laureae, a small Native farmer who has built up her farm over the last five years and was recently served an eviction notice; she had been promised by the land owner that she would be given a purchase agreement, but the land can now be sold off and both her and her tenants removed. They are now able to secure the farm as long as they can secure $15K in closing costs and cover $3K in the gofundme fees taken out of the total; you can read more and reblog here or support the fundraiser here.

thegeeksqueaks's school district has shorted her on her summer teacher's budget; she can't afford currently to stock her classroom for back-to-school. She's raising funds to get food and hygiene tools for underserved kids as well as various aids for neurodivergent kids. You can read more and reblog here, give via DonorsChoose here or via paypal here, or purchase from an Amazon wishlist here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

[ineffable-opinions]

BL doujin & Men Who Make Some of Them

If BL is stories of androphilic men by androphilic women, then what’s the opposite of that? It would probably be stories of androphilic women by androphilic men.

The latter is what Minamoto Kazuki mainly dabbles in.

Apart from straight & BL manga, he also authored Shoujo Manga Artist Minamoto-San Comes Out. Yeah, that’s the title. It is autobiographical if that wasn’t obvious. Arguably, his most famous manga, at least in BL fandom, is Wall Circle's Doujin Artist Nekoyashiki-Kun's Desire for Recognition Grows which got live-action adaptation: KabeKoji in 2022.

Androphilic male characters who create straight content is not rare in BL. In 2023, from what I can recall, we got two such characters: Sung Woo Jae from Individual Circumstances (2023) and Yoh from Taikan Yoho (2023). Jinta from Cherry Magic (2023) also writes (presumably straight) romance. Even before that, we got an entire BL live-action franchise (starting with The Novelist (2018)).

Doujin production and consumption

Doujinshi (doujin for short) is self-published works. It includes both derivative works (fan works) as well as original works. It is estimated that nearly half of the doujin produced and circulated are BL. These are traditionally sold at conventions like Comiket. These days doujin are sold online, for example through dedicated websites like DL site.

Doujinshi culture and Comiket especially has been instrumental in the development of BL as a genre. Unfortunately, unlike other BL pioneers such as Mari Mori (her 1961 novel A Lovers' Forest is considered the first BL) and the Year 24 Group, Meikyu doujin circle (Yoshihiro Yonezawa in particular) seldom find mention in history of BL.

BL doujin grew side by side with commercially published works. The original use of the portmanteau yaoi (no peak, no fall, no meaning) was an indication of plot what plot nature of those doujins that subverted the East Asian narrative structure to focuse exclusively on erotic relations. Doujin BL varied widely in themes and approaches, even more than commercial BL as doujin are not created to appeal to the masses, instead cater to super-specific fandoms. Also, it is easier to debut into doujin arena than to commercial BL. However, since these are literally ‘thin books’ in most cases, there is associated limitation. There is cost of printing to be taken into account as well.

As more explicit doujin (yaoi) and less explicit BL (shonen ai, etc.) coevolved in a porous environment, BL transformed into a successful genre in itself with numerous dedicated magazines and multimedia adaptations. Moreover, doujin was good ground for experimentation and yields in that arena made its way into mainstream BL and enriched it.

Commercial BL welcomed many doujinshika into its fold. e.g. Ayano Yamane (author of the Finder series) is associated with a bunch of doujin circles at different points in time: GUN MANIA, Shouhoku Taiiku Yougushitsu and Ouka Seisaku.

BL mangaka continued producing both doujin and commercial BL. e.g. Kizu Natsuki (author of Given) is a prolific doujinshika under the name Gusari in Sashikizu circle.

BL mangaka produced doujin of their own work. e.g. Ichikawa Kei (author of Blue Sky Complex) published erotic extras as doujin.

These days, there is pixiv among others and long serialization possibilities. Authors are less constrained by space – unlike physical publication, web publication is not constrained by real estate (number of pages, chapters, etc.). Thanks to the internet, the distance between doujin and commercial BL have shortened. 

A lot of gei comi (bara) is also self-published.

Doujin BL culture exists everywhere BL is famous with wide variation.

Doujin played an important role in emergence and growth of Korean BL. e.g. Totally Captivated by Yoo Ha Jin had doujin extras.

Chinese doujin culture is slightly different from that in other countries. Note-worthy is the self-publication of danmei (Chinese BL) novels. Three most recent cases against danmei authors [and their accomplices including those who helped the authors print, bind, package and sell those copies] were for self-publication.  

天一(Tian Yi) for her student X teacher SM erotica 攻占 (Seize Control)  - charged for self-publication and violation of law prohibiting publication of obscenity [explicit SM involving a 17-year-old student and his teacher in the novel]

深海先生 (Mr. Deep Sea) for her historical romance 锁帝翎 (aka 笼中帝 ; The Caged Emperor)  - charged for self-publication.

There is a third. But the details are not available in the public domain.

It used to be a common practice for authors to self-publish uncensored versions of their web-published works, sometimes with explicit extras. These were intended for fans who wanted to collect these copies and to express their appreciation to the authors. Both self-publishing and “obscene content” are illegal in China.

Doujin, BL and their creators

Kabe Koji is the journey of a doujinshika, Mamoru Nekoyashiki, who yearns to be recognized as such and also as a beloved. While in high school, he fell in love with his childhood friend Kazama Issei whom he is sure doesn’t like him like that, thanks to rampant compulsory heterosexuality. Being gay was something he felt he had to keep under wraps not only because of fear of rejection but also because of heterosexism. Talented in drawing, he visits Comic King, a popular otaku convention where he discovers a different world – where male androphilia is celebrated in art.

This inspires him to cultivate his talent in drawing and to pursue a career in manga. Since the art he was most drawn in by was ero-manga with macho uke with bitch characteristics, that’s the style he pursues.

When we meet him, this is the subgenre that we see him focusing on. His influences are pretty obvious.

Moreover, the main character (hence the target of affection in his work) looks a bit like his crush. Issei notices this and tries to draw himself like that (with disproportionately thin neck) in little notes and letters to his Mamocchi.

[I honestly think Nakao Masaki was bit of a miscast for this role appearance-wise because in the manga Issei is more on the gacchiri (muscular) side of ikemen. Whoever thought Torii-san’s uke from Fudanshi Bartender no Tashinami (2022) would be right fit for Issei’s character. The actor clearly didn’t disappoint in any other aspect. This is like the case with casting decision in One Room Angel (2023) wherein a manga character with gachimuchi aesthetics was changed into a lean ikemen. An opportunity for a different body-type was wasted. No complains against those actors since they aren’t the ones responsible for casting.] This is an erroneous assessment. Thank you @tompetertrash for correcting me.

Nekoyashiki, while pursuing training and education in manga making, has already established himself as a fairly successful doujinshika known as Honeniku-sensei of Muscle Department Store. He belongs to the Wall Circle.

"Kabe circle" (wall circle) — a slang term for doujin groups or "circles" that are popular enough for their booths to be placed beside the wall of the convention, for ease of line management. (Source: ANN)

He is friends with Yamada, a fujoshi who is his support in creating, defending and selling doujin.

Such friendships are not too rare. For example, friendship between Yoh and Manju in Taikan Yoho (2023). And the IRL friendship between female danmei author Lan Lin and male manhuajia Liang Azha.

Nekoyashiki meets two other characters at Comic King: Framboise and Takkun.

Framboise is the president of a doujin circle called Bearded Beauties. He is very popular. He is not only among the wall circles each time we see him, but also is showered with gifts by his fans. He acknowledges that he has been doujinshika for years. His art resembles him – body-type, facial hair, moe. He keeps inviting Nekoyashiki warmly to a gathering of muscle BL artists despite getting turned down. His interactions with Nekoyashiki are precious.

Takkun is Nekoyashiki’s fan. He is inspired by Nekoyashiki and worked hard to establish himself as a wall circle doujinshika.

His rise from a consumer to producer of doujin and finally a wall circle doujinshika mirror's Nekoyashiki’s journey. Moreover, his rise is contrasted with Nekoyashiki’s fall.

Also, one of two characters on his doujin cover looks a lot like him.

Unlike Framboise and Takkun who draw what they like, Nekoyashiki draws to be recognized.

Nekoyashiki draws a second season to his previous work Please Suck on my Enormous, Manly Tits. Despite Yamada’s best hopes, it is not popular at all and loses Nekoyashiki his position as a wall circle doujinshika. He bids goodbye to Suck My Manly Tits series and to ero-manga sub-genre in general.

In a desperate attempt to climb back into popularity, he tries classic BL pairing. We get to see him reading commercial BL as a part of his research. This is an obvious mistake. Yamada wants to intervene but hesitates and ultimately gives up.

When his next doujin, My Perfect Boss Became My Perfect Spouse, also flops, he loses his resolve to be a mangaka.

Yamada asks Nekoyashiki to be more honest and expressive in his creation.

In the end, Nekoyashiki creates a doujin inspired by his own relationship and aspirations – a work that, Framboise and Yamada notices, is to Nekoyashiki’s satisfaction.   

It is common for at least some characters by male BL and gei comi mangakas (who have revealed themselves) to look at least a little bit like themselves. To see examples, check out the beginning of Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It where representative art and artists are placed side by side. Some even acknowledge this. e.g. Chinese BL manhuajia Liang Azha once commented on how his shou (uke) tend to look like him as he is today and his gong (seme) resemble his looks from his college days. Moreover, art tend to inspire clothing, haircuts, and other features which in turn inspire art. The influence Tom of Finland had on androphilic men of his days and they on him is discussed in his 2017 biopic. Similarly, mangakas are influenced by their senpais in the field and sometimes it is noticeable in their art too. e.g. Gengoroh Tagame’s historical works looks quite a bit like those of Go Mishima.

Other BL doujinshika in Live-action BL

Yoh from Taikan Yoho (2023) creates his first BL doujin, inspired by his ikemen boyfriend and their relationship, in collaboration with his mangaka friend Manju after his career as commercial mangaka of straight ero-manga takes a nose-dive.

BL Metamorphosis (2022) depicted the process of BL doujin creation in detail as the main character, Sayama Urara, embarks on that journey. Her friends offer her support, especially Ichinoi Yuki who funds the printing and binding. Sayama Urara doesn’t debut as doujinshika as she doesn’t set up her booth at the convention. However, one of the copies lands in the hand of one of her favorite authors Komeda Yu whose commercial BL work Kimi no Koto dake Miteitai was what brought Sayama Urara and Ichinoi Yuki together.

Komeda Yu on the other hand is a doujinshika turned commercial BL mangaka. She visits the convention in hopes of overcoming writer’s block and to rediscover her passion for drawing. She is motivated by the doujin that Sayama Urara created and emerges out of slump to continue with her series. 

Fudanshi Bartender no Tashinami (2022) revolves around Soichiro Hibiki, a fudanshi bartender moonlighting as a BL doujinshika, who draws inspiration from his customers and fellow bar staff to fuel his passion.

Minamoto Kazuki

While narrative drives home the point that the various pieces of art we see are works of respective doujinshika characters through haircuts and body types, the fact remains that most of those are actual doujin by Minamoto Kazuki aka MELU. He belongs to the circle: GOOD BYE LIFE.

In case anyone want to read them, here are the links:

Kumabayashi at Work Has Not Underwear Line

One Million Miles: The Complete Collection

Competition Swimming Brief in Suit Man

A Midsummer Night's Beach Story: SM Assault Works 2

Suck My Manly Tits manga: 俺の雄っぱいがでっかくなっちまうくらいちゅーちゅー吸ってくれ

俺の雄っぱいがでっかくなっちまうくらいちゅーちゅー吸ってくれ2

"Suck My Manly Tits" doujin is in its 3rd season: 俺の雄っぱいがでっかくなっちまうくらいちゅーちゅー吸ってくれ3

Autobiographical pieces that didn't figure prominently:

30年以上マンガをほとんど読んだことなかった彼氏がBL沼にハマった話 (A story about how my boyfriend, who has barely read manga for over 30 years, got addicted to BL swamp.)

J庭でちいさな夢を叶えたゲイカップルの話 : Story of a gay mangaka and his boyfriend who participated in J.GARDEN, and their little dream that came true.

The cover of this doujin got live-action adaptation in one scene that one would miss if not looking closely:

Other interesting works by Minamoto Kazuki

Autobiographical: Shōjo Mangaka no Minamoto-san ga Kaminguauto Shimasu.

2. Those with English translation:

The Midnight Association for The Broken Hearted

The salaryman who has a fetish for suit gets horny.

The Gay Who Turned Kaiju

3. Essay-manga about doujin-making

夜寝てる間にBL原稿のお手伝いをしてくれる妖精さんがいた話

BL同人原稿(アナログ18禁!!)を東京から大阪の印刷所まで届けてくれ���彼氏の話

4. About Kabe Koji (2022) live-action:

自分が原作の実写ドラマの大ファンになってしまったので原作者自らヲタ活をしています。

自分が原作の実写BLドラマをリアタイしたくて大阪へ行ってきました。

___

This is dedicated to @bengiyo and @liyazaki for gifs featuring Framboise. Thank you very much. While I was trying my hand at a review for One Room Angel (2023) and wanted to express my disappointment at the lean ikemen casting for Kouki’s role, I got an opportunity to use those gifs. I really wish someone would create some gifs for SHIMBASHI TUGBOAT content too.

(Especially this scene.)

For someone who is as much a fan of “tribes” as BenZi, I would not mind playing the 9Monster live-action BL bingo version.

[quantumghostart]

introducing Jacqueline Shepard: earthborn, mostly paragon, infiltrator!! at first i picked survivor for her profile but lately i've been thinking that war hero suits her better, so that's still undecided

she's mixed race east asian and grew up in singapore

she's a punk rock romanticist who's in love with the galaxy and all its inhabitants, and resents the fact that her only way to explore it was to join the military :')

she's a cis woman who got top surgery because "the Alliance said it'd cost too much money to cut the tits off all the girl armour, so instead i cut my own tits off so i could wear the boy armour" LOL remember kids: gender is a construct, most of all in space!

she has a split tongue and scars on her earlobe from when she got her gauges closed bc they got in the way of sniping, she misses them tho :'I

her makeup is actually tattoos, at least up until she dies. it's one of the few things miranda got wrong ;P

she gets paragon scars bc i think they're neat, and also bc my shepard would have fun convincing miranda to install RBG lights in them so she can party XD

that being said, shepard is extremely chill about the whole "died and came back to life as mostly cybernetic" thing. she's SO happy to be alive again and is genuinely grateful towards miranda and cerberus for it (but that doesn't stop her from proceeding to absolutely dunk on cerberus immediately afterwards lmfao, being grateful is mutually exclusive)

"canonically" (as in "in the fic i've only written in my head"), she's ace/demiromantic in which she's deeply queerplatonic with garrus and romances thane. but i'm also a nsfw artist/writer so there exists another reality where she pegs them and they take turns eating each other out :D

she LOVES music and singing. she starts a band with the crew called Shepard and the Normies and spends a lot of her time in jail teaching Vega the guitar so they can play duets together

also i named her before i remembered jack exists, but their similarities really work out in the long run for their friendship and i still really like the sound of her name so i never changed it lmao

[umbralsong]

Lady Incognita

Cazador Szarr's "niece" is named Amanita Szarr. You can find her story scattered throughout the palace's attic, dungeon, and the House of Hope. She was a girl who grew up near Anga Vled raised by old servants. At 13, she was brought to visit her uncle in Baldur's Gate...

The day her entire family exposed themselves as vampires.

Alternate Text: An east Asian girl with medium-brown skin and dark brown then red eyes looks away from the viewer. One with brown, facing away. Twice with red and shoddily cut away dark hair, looking away in despair and notably darkened, red, downcast eyes and short hair. Once more with darkened eyes and a cloak and red eyes to match, long dark hair flowing from her hood.

Unfinished, but hey. I want to show fellow artists that things just don't come to you. Sometimes, you have to work the lines and paint until they do. Use Glaze to protect your art from AI scrapers.

The notes you can find in order:

Alturiak 1477 Tarsakh 1477 Mirtul 1477 Kythorn 1477 Flamerule 1477

Please read about issues with Cazador's depiction [here]. Thank them for their kind contribution and show support.

Donate to Gaza here: https://gazafunds.org/ Support good causes with a click here: https://arab.org/ Ceasefire Now: https://ceasefire-now.com/ Donate to the [Sidewalk School] [Pay your rent], settlers. [KOSA Resources]

The city palace, straddling the wall between the Upper and Lower City, was more than creepy, it was somehow chilling.

Cazador Szarr the Avid rose to power in 1296. She stayed at the estate for at least four months before she was killed. She was turned in Kythorn 1477, 15 years before the start of the story.

'Uncle' Cazador made me a vampire, but I refused to participate in the family rites. He gave me the Hunger but he could not break my will. He had Blovart imprison me in the attic. I weakened. They sent up human blood, and eventually I drank it. For a year, they stopped sending anything. I tore at the walls in frustration. Then they sent up a bound captive.

Cazador's favorite punishments are cruelty, hunger, and isolation.

His staff, "Woe:" The gentle tap-tap-tap of a staff on stone sparked terror for all in Cazador's palace. It signalled an approaching storm, and all they could do was shrink into the background and pray its wrath would not fall on them. His dagger, "Rhapsody:" Cazador's love of poetry arose after he read on the naked stomach of a dead child in his homeland. The child was hung from the lowest branch of a tree. Cazador read the poem, and looked at the child, and he knew that here was the artform for him.

Her coffin is on a wooden table overlooking a window. There are chains by her bed, a candle, and a skull. There are three skeletons in the attic, one headless with a crossbow and garlic cloves in their cage.

I succumbed. I am a vampire, and damned. I curse the name of Szarr and reject it. Now I stay in the attic by choice and write my little histories. I am Lady Incognita. Amanita is no more.

I think the snippets of her story were so impactful because of the complete betrayal. The fact her family were never around. The fact they lied for her entire life. The fact they forced her to transform, which we know from Astarion's partial ceremorphosis dialogue is incredibly painful:

Player: Unlike you to be so unwilling to receive a new power... Astarion: That was before I knew the cost. Before I knew it meant transforming into some grotesque beast. I remember how it hurt when I turned to a vampire. My body writhed and warped while I was utterly helpless, the grip of death owned my heart as it beat its last. I - I don't want to turn into anything else. I can't do that again. I can't watch my body be taken over. Player: You're afraid? Astarion: I'll happily murder my way to whatever powerful artefacts we can make use of. Point at the back and I'll stab. Just don't ask me to sacrifice my body. It hasn't been mine for so long.

We know thematically there is a parallel between vampirism, abuse, and sexuality. Cazador appeared to lose interest in his 'niece' altogether. Nonetheless, he locked her into an eternal childhood under "true vampirism," never to grow to adulthood, and denied her a "typical" life forevermore. There is something particularly grotesque about that.

Astarion: Nearly two hundred years and I never came back. Not since the night I woke up down there. I had to punch a hole in the coffin and claw my way through six feet of dirt. Then when I finally broke the surface, retching up dirt and congealed blood, Cazador was waiting. From that day on I was his. Until today. Player: You were never his. Whatever he had, he took by force. Astarion: Maybe, but he did take it. There's almost nothing left of the person I was. Just a name on a rock. For nearly two centuries, I stalked the streets like a ghost while the person I was lay here, dead and buried. Now I need to figure out who I am. What I want.

We find The Tourmaline Depths in the room beneath Cazador's room. She wrote Diseases of the Blood to tackle vampiric illness. She wrote the names of ruling vampires, their titles, and their successors. She is, what, 28?

I like to think she knew all of Cazador's secrets, from the corpses in the suspended cages to his dungeon. I'm impressed by her mental fortitude in the face of such odds as a child and young woman. I'm impressed she chose to do what she loved, escaped, and became such a relevant figure in the study of vampiric physiology. I wish we knew her better. I wish we had the opportunity to meet her.

She is the historian who sullies his name and documents his endless crimes. She escaped. Cazador underestimated her.

[nitearmorweek]

As everyone gets to work preparing for NiteArmor Week, the mods wanted to encourage people to bring their own lived experiences into their creations. You are welcome to write and draw mandalorians in a way that reflects your own life and culture; Bo-Katan and the Armorer do not have to physically resemble their live action counterparts.

What does this mean? Do you want to share your Mexican heritage and weave it into the story of your NiteArmor fic? Hell yeah! Do you see the Armorer has having dreadlocks? Include them! Do you have an insulin pump and think Bo-Katan has one under her flightsuit too? We want to heart about it!

For those who may need a little help or are looking for new resources, we have gathered a small list of guides. Some of the below sources came from @lavenderursa's collection of inclusive writing tips. The mods recommend reading through the original post they worked hard to put together! The hope of this new post is to build out their post to include a few more elements specific to Star Wars.

Writing Resources Collectives and authors who have published tips and guides on writing stories that center diverse experiences:

Writing With Color

The History of Black Hair [Words to Describe Hair]

A Guide to Natural Black Hair

How To Write About Trans People

A Primer on Writing Trans Characters

The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Transgender Characters

Important Tips on Making/Writing Asian OCs

Dear Non-Asian Writer

How to Avoid Asian Stereotypes, Appropriation, and White Washing

​Tips for Inclusivity with Reader Inserts

A Guide to Writing Disabled Characters

A general cane guide for writers and artists (from a cane user, writer, and artist!)

Creating authentic deaf and hard of hearing characters

Art Tips Helpful information on how to draw different body types, skin tones, and hair:

Basic Skin Tone Coloring [part 2]

Kupa's Guide to Skintones

A Guide to Drawing South Asian Skin Tones [part 2]

Protocols When Drawing Native American Hair

A guide to designing wheelchair using characters! [part 2]

Whitewashing in Art and How Colors Work

​How to Draw Disabled People

Drawing East Asian Faces

Plus Size Body Types

POC Blush tones

Afro, 4C hair

Image References Websites that offer images that can be licensed for use and/or inspiration. The below three are highly recommended resources, but some do have a cost:

createHERstock - Your destination for authentic stock images featuring melanated women

Nappy co - Beautiful photos of Black and Brown people, for free

Eye for Ebony - Beautiful lifestyle stock photos featuring people of color

Affect The Verb - This is a disability-led effort to provide free & inclusive stock images from our own perspective, with photos and illustrations celebrating disabled Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC).

Pixerf - Asia's fastest-growing Asian stock photo market place

Disability: In - Disability Inclusive Stock Photography

Disability is Beautiful - The best free stock images provided by the disability community.

Cosplayers Artists and content creators that have posted amazing Star Wars cosplay! Their hard work and attention to detail in costuming is a wonderful source of inspiration and reference. If you are inspired by any of their photos, please make sure to credit them and send your love. Here are just three examples of cosplayers within the fandom:

Jahara Jayde | twitter | ko-fi

arseniccupcakes | twitter | patreon

cutiepiesensei | twitter | instagram

Further Reading Additional articles, studies, and analyses that discuss racism and ableism within the Star Wars fandom specifically:

Racism In Star Wars: A List of Resources

Star Wars Franchise: Stitch's Media Mix Analyst

Star Wars: A Tale of Racism

Disability In Star Wars

Blind Warriors, Supercrips, and Techno-Marvels: Challenging Depictions of Disability in Star Wars

What's the Problem, Papi?: Internet Daddy-ism and Coddling, Fetishization, and what "Latino-looking" actually means.

Sinophobia in SW Animation

Thank you for making it to the end of this post! Please do not consider this a definitive list or a replacement for anti-racist work in the real world. Keep reading, stay curious, and seek out new perspectives from voices you may not have been listening for.

Do you have any additional recommendations, sources, or guides to share? Feel free to drop them in the comments of this post ❤️

[pigeon-behavior]

I just want you to know that there is no pigeon breeder, companion or otherwise, that is making a profit off of their birds, other than a few extremely rare exceptions.

There is not much money to be had in the hobby. The grand majority lies in pigeon racing, which while not my favorite thing in the world still isn't as bad or evil as some people make it out to be.

Even the money to be made in racing is usually not enough to turn a profit. A racer who wins one race a year of a couple thousand dollars almost certainly made nothing back doing that. And if they did, it was probably enough for gas money.

Why is this the case, then, in so much of the hobby?

It boils down to one thing: pigeons are expensive.

Buying them, acquiring their food, the necessary supplies, building housing, maintaining housing, medical treatments, treats and supplements, etc.

Cutting corners on these things does no breeder or racer any favors. If you aim to show your birds or to have them perform for sport, and you want them to win, you have to invest in them.

You want your racers in peak condition. You want your show birds looking their absolute best. These things don't happen by accident - you have to make them happen by providing the right things to your birds.

And that is a money black hole. It's gone and it is never coming back.

There are a few scattered places in the world where the prizes for shows or races are astronomically huge, and these are the only people making significant money off of pigeons.

Racers in Belgium, for instance. At the highest tier of racing a pigeon can sell for a million dollars. More.

But you should view that as the same kind of separation between the average middle class citizen and a billionaire oil executive. The number of people who are walking away with that kind of money is astronomically tiny.

Another very wealthy area of the world for pigeons are sections of the Middle East. Essentially if it is a prosperous area, the hobby is prosperous.

Saudi Arabia is known for a growing market of rare morph falconry birds and yes, for pigeon breeding.

My understanding is that they show and sell these birds. They are extremely beautiful animals. And I have seen some truly insane prices.

But they are re-investing their money too. If you look at the lofts of the rich in the Middle East they are. Utterly gorgeous. I'm not sure there is better housing to be found on planet earth.

They are obsessively clean, filled with artistic detail, and extremely spacious. Some of them look as if a little temple has been built for these pigeons. I think one of my friends once told me he had seen stained glass in one.

Companion breeders are not rich. At least none that I know. They will charge you upwards of $100 for a pigeon, and none of that will be a profit for them.

It will offset some of the costs they have invested to keep their pigeons at their best, but not by much.

I know some people have assumed that price tag is greed, in the past, but that's not the case.

It's a deterrent. If you aren't willing to pay the front cost on a bird significantly cheaper than any parrot larger than a budgie, are you going to be willing to pay for vet fees later down the line? To provide the animal with the best care it can get?

It's a test. If you shy away at the last moment to go pick up an instant gratification bird that costs $25 from an unverified source, you failed it. You annoyed that companion breeder, but at the end of the day you proved they didn't want you to have one of their birds anyway.

Don't go into breeding to make money. You will only lose it.

If you like my posts, please consider tipping me on ko-fi!

[artandmayhem]

Many thanks to @redgoldsparks for collecting all of this information!!

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ABOUT THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA!

In the UK, find email templates for contacting Parliament at humantiproject.org

In the US, find email and call templates for contracting Congress at 5calls.org

Americans can also text the White House directly at (302) 404-0880

DONATE eSIMS

Download an eSIM app, select Middle East as the region, purchase an eSIM but do not activate it. Screenshot the eSIM QR code and email it to gazaesims@gmail.com. If your eSIM isn’t activated after 3 weeks, resend the QR code. Keep resending every 3 weeks until it’s activated. Share your referral codes with friends to get discounts.

Airalo charges $39 for 3GB, Simly charges $22 for 3GG, Nomad charges $16 for 3GB

Once your eSIM is activated, you can buy top-up packages to make sure the data doesn’t run out. Follow @connectinghumanity_ for updates

Alternatively, donate to Crips for eSIMs for Gaza, run by a group of disabled activists raising money to buy eSIMs: chuffed.org/project/crips-for-esims-for-gaza

Follow @disability_visibility, @thellpsx, and @pipagaopoetry for updates

If you need more incentive, @cartoonistcoop is offering art rewards for eSIM receipts. Info here: cartoonist.coop/esims4gaza

DONATE TO GOFUNDMES

Find a list of verified fundraisers, FAQs, and volunteer opportunities at linktr.ee/opolivebranch

Follow @operationolivebranch for updates.

If choosing a single fundraiser off the list is prohibitive, use gazafunds.com, which spotlights one fundraiser at a time.

CALL FOR ART

Artists can donate posters or coloring pages to @flyers_for_falastin to add to an international database of free PDFs for use at protests. Requirements:

-a clear message supporting Palestine

-PDF or PNG file

-A4 paper size 8.27x11.69 inches or 21x29.7 cm or 2480 x 3508 pixels at 300 DPI

-include your own username and @flyers_for_falastin

-email art to watermelonrecipes@gmail.com

You can find poster pickup sites or donate for printing costs at linktr.ee/flyersforfalastin

PALESTINIAN & ISRAELI PEACE ORGANIZATIONS

Standing Together: www.standing-together.org, @standing.together.english

Women of the Sun: womensun.org, @women.of.the.sun_

Women Wage Peace: www.womenwagepeace.org.il/en/ , @womenwagepeace

The Parents Circle Families Forum: www.theparentscircle.org/en/homepage-en/ , @theparentscircle

Roots: https://www.friendsofroots.net/ , @roots_israelpalestine

Mesarvot: linktr.ee/Meaarvot, @mesarvot

ORGANIZATIONS OFFERING AID:

Palestinian Red Crescent: www.palestinercs.org/en , @palestineredcrescent

Doctors Without Borders: www.doctorswithoutborders.org, @doctorswithoutborders

World Central Kitchen: https://wck.org/ , @wckitchen

UNICEF: unicef.org/emergencies/children-gaza-need-lifesaving-support

UNRWA: www.unrwausa.org , @unrwausa

Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund: www.pcrf.net , @thepcrf

ANERA: www.anera.org, @aneraorg

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

The West Vs East post is extremely funny cuz Andrew’s ego is so large that he unironically thinks his characters represent the west when he was just a nobody artist at that time, like he could’ve chosen ANY other characters from Western Media (Superheroes, Cartoon characters, Comic Characters) but chose to use his gang of Garfield background characters instead

And I know he did this cuz he wants to beat anime up for costing his “dream” job but c’mon man

Yeah, he may not have gotten quiet the level of backlash if he’d drawn actual famous Western media characters rather than just his OC’s(that he drew ripping off an anime style, ironically enough).

[starseneyes]

New York, New York - A Union Town

This weekend, I went on a whirlwind adventure up to New York from Virginia on Sunday and back down on Monday. Why? I went to walk the picket line with my Union.

Why go through 8 excruciating hours of driving up, one brief night of sleep, 4 hours walking 10 miles, and another 8 painful hours driving back in less than 40 hours? I'm glad you asked.

I joined SAG-AFTRA in 2001. I started acting as a kid, but it was then that I had the opportunity to join, at age 17.

It was just AFTRA back then, which is why I still have never had a SAG card. Maybe after I catch up on my dues, I can solicit one, but I'm two years behind due to Pandemic and *waves hands* all this. Those who read this blog often know life's hit us with problem after problem, but we soldier on.

So, why the hell waste money going to New York? Well, first of all, I didn't. I told my husband that I felt like I needed to be there during the first day of negotiations. See, yesterday AMPTP finally met with the NegCom to negotiate a new contract.

The old contract is antiquated, leaves us vulnerable to AI, and has made it almost impossible to make a living as an actor in the current landscape. There was a time voice-acting was a third of my income. Those days are long gone.

It's important to have as many people on the line as possible during negotiations to send a clear message—we're here, and we aren't going anywhere until you give us fair contracts.

I originally was going to bum a night in a sleeping bag on a friend's cat-filled house while freezing because they don't believe in turning on the heat at night. I'm allergic to cats. Still, the idea was the only one I had.

Then, a client of mine (I'm a Digital Marketer by trade because writing and acting don't exactly pay the bills) said she wanted to cover my room.

We should note that I know writers don't need actors to write. I meant that they needed actors for the Fall Season, and I was having trouble thinking and typing through my tears. Anyway...

That settled, a Twitter friend I've never met in real life reached out offering gas money. I was so thankful, cried again, then quickly packed on a Saturday night for a Sunday morning departure.

I drove up with one stop to relieve my bladder, grab a kids meal (keeping down costs) and gas up.

I tried to sleep Sunday night, but I'm rubbish at going to bed early. I am good at getting up, early, and was ready for the lines. I put on my WGA East hat a WGA member handed me when I walked the lines back in July. I think they thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion, I was so red.

Instead of politely explaining that I don't temperature regulate and only sweat after I'm already in danger of heat stroke, I said, "Thank you".

I brought it with me this time in case Netflix was a sunny location. Spoiler alert: It wasn't. I didn't need the hat, and I didn't mind one bit.

Also to note: It's not that I was rich in July. No, a dear friend who passed (see blog on Cheryl Anne Marek) gifted us with a little money and said she knew we'd find something good to do with it. We rented a lake house in New Jersey for a vacation with the kids (though I brought my work and worked every day) and I took the train in one day to walk the WGA line.

I lamented that a heat wave shut down the rest of the week's picketing back in July, and always wanted to get back. So, I was ready for walking yesterday!

I was nearly a half hour early, and remarked that my mother's an IATSE 798 Journeyman makeup artist and I'm very used to being there before actors. I received a polite nod and asked if I could help at all. No, they said, they had a system.

So, I took this picture which strangely got the most attention on Twitter. But, it was a call to action—"I'm here and signed in! Where are you?"

"On our way", came the response. And people came. Our initial group of 20 or so became well over a hundred in under an hour. They kept expanding our walk way, and we marched, sang, and chanted along to the beat of our five percussionists. Yes, people with drums. Actors do not hold back when we're asked to go all-out. We go all-out!

Shortly after we got started walking in our tight, little circle, a friend of mine found me. Well, Peter and I have been Zoom and Twitter friends for ages, but we finally met. And when we hugged it was like old friends who hadn't seen one another in a few years. Fairly accurate, really.

We're both Pre-WGA—an often polarizing term that simply means we'd like to be WGA someday and are puttering along with spec scripts and screenwriting competitions until our dreams turn real. Being the realist I am, I know my odds are next to null, but the optimistic corner of my brain says not to surrender hope. So, I don't.

We stepped out of line for a quick photo, then back in to dance, chant, chat, and make noise. And while Picket Lines might look like a lot of fun from the outside, I was in a mad amount of pain.

See, I have a lot going on medically. Chronic pain is an old friend. And smiling through it, second nature.

So, if you saw me singing and swinging my hips, that wasn't just the beat. That was me trying to keep everything from locking up and telling myself I could make it just a little longer without a sip of water. And, yes, they handed us waters. I never say no to a proffered (sealed) bottle of water.

Because Picket Lines aren't just about the dancing, singing, chanting, and chatting. So many people out there are exhausted. But Actors are really good at finding our way through lean times, and Writers are, too, dagnabbit. Several WGA folks were out on the line with us, and they're standing alongside us as we stood alongside them.

Solidarity matters. We stand together, and it's not just Writers and Actors. I've seen IATSE on the lines. I've seen Teamsters on the lines. I've seen vacationers who decided to skip seeing the Empire State Building and come march with us instead. I've met film students (and history students) out on the lines who said they knew this mattered and they had to be a part of it.

I drove 8 hours there. I know people who've driven far more.

We are Actors. Writers. PAs. Teamsters. Makeup Artists. Hair Artists. Grips. Electricians. Craft Services. Camera Operators. Directors of Photography. Costumers. Best Boys. Boom Mic Operators. Editors. And more.

We—not those few billionaire, decision-making CEOs—create the bounty of beautiful films and television shows that illuminate people's lives. We are the dreamers of dreams.

Throughout the walk, I was struck by the care of the Captains. They made sure we knew where to walk and not. They brought out coffee (regular or black), bagels with cream cheese, cold waters, chips (or crisps, if you're across the pond), and more. These folks are volunteers who believe. We are all out there because we know this matters. But the sacrifice they make cannot be under-represented.

I got a new Strike shirt at the line, and decided to wear it on the drive home. It was far less smelly than the one I'd worn all day, and I was going to be trapped in a small tin can with me for hours, after all.

When I stopped at a service station, a random woman pointed at the shirt and told me she liked it. I smiled and thanked her. It always warms my heart when people see our fight and stand with us.

I drove home listening to the Good Omens audiobook (have about 41 minutes left, now) I borrowed via my local library (Please support yours. Libraries are amazing!). I was so bloody tired, but the voices of the actors filled my car and the story kept my mind awake. It's bloody brilliant if you've never read/listened.

It was after 9PM when I pulled up to my house. My three children (ages 9, 9, and 6) were still awake.

6yo: Mama, what did you do?! Me: Walked in circles for three hours. 6yo: Walked in circles?

While the twins have a fairly firm grasp on all this, she's six. I pulled her in my arms and hugged her close as I tried to explain a little better.

Because I believe in what we did. I am no influencer or celebrity. I'm simply a girl who believes in her Union. While I've been a Twitter warrior (one WGA guy I met said, "I think I've seen your tweets!"), I wanted to do more. I have been to a rally in Wilmington. I've walked the lines with WGA. But I wanted to walk the lines with my Union, too. It felt like the right thing to do.

My hips were killing me last night. And I admit I worried about my chronic pilonidal disease flaring up. But, I know what to do after a decade of living with it, and today I'm just fine.

Folks, WGA and SAG-AFTRA have been out here fighting for the rights of workers. We're all workers. That's what we are. Most actors and writers aren't famous or rich. We're simply people working our asses off doing what we love, and hoping to make enough to live. It's as simple as that.

I never wanted fame or fortune, even in my youth! I simply wanted to write and act and earn a living. Doesn't seem so strange, right?

Anyway, please do post your support for SAG-AFTRA, if you feel so inclined. If you can make it to a picket line, good on ya! If you can't, no worries. We all have different parameters to what we can and cannot do. And we're all in this together.

Here's to new contracts, a better future, and worker's rights. Onward.

[determinate-negation]

just thinking about this place again. allegedly where the original new york egg cream was invented, gem spa was in the east village of nyc since the 1920s, or according to some sources even as early world war 1. in the 60s and 70s it was a popular spot for hippies and beatniks, and many famous artists including patti smith and robert mapplethorpe. unfortunately it closed in 2020 because of covid and rising costs