#It's genuinely a really interesting mode!

[iatrophilosophos]

I have yet to see a "reasonable" comparison, but maybe you've seen something i haven't that draws an actually interesting conclusion and isn't wildly tone-deaf to the realities of people currently living with HIV (which, i assume you are aware but for the general reader, include people literally sitting in prison and having lives permanently destroyed by sex offender registration for consensual & *even predisclosed* sex acts performed under circumstances exceptionally unlikely to risk transmission).

I wrote a different post about this but I think the really interesting conclusions come from contrasts to a wide variety of disease responses, not comparisons. In the US at least, I think it's more powerful to consider how the government response was the best anyone can genuinely consider possible under the functioning constraints of this mode of society: the government a) *did something*, funded research, funded checks, funded vaccines, implemented mandatory protocols, and b) did not use covid as a pretense to gas people with cyklon b (see: typhus). Its *peanuts*, but it's the best we're getting. Something you're also leaving out here, that i understand you were just writing tags and probably know already, is that the US govt response to aids was heavily forced not just by more influential people becoming ill but by intense activist efforts; something that didn't really happen during covid-- a milquetoast response was started and then remediated in a matter of like, weeks.

In early covid, there was a large presence in the discourse of figures previously remarking that the United States is set up in a way to be *exceptionally* vulnerable to a flu-like illness; an actually interesting and meaningful line of critique that's been replaced by really shallow comparisons to the aids epidemic (like you are doing here, frankly, get good.) "Like AIDS" leads to "the government should Do Better", which is literally already has; "this was the grandstanding heroic intervention" leads to greater interrogations of this way of life, of capitalist, industrial, and civil society; and more directly opens the floor to addressing and developing ways of living that stand a chance to prevent and/or survive novel diseases.

One of the underdiscussed tragedies of covid is the fact that a ton of newly disabled people have been shoved into the discursive spotlight as the dominant voice on disability issues to spew frankly rancid takes

Basically everything said i have immense compassion and solidarity and time for coming from struggling individuals but whej spoken as a major discursive line, many of these takes are having pretty disastrous effects on the discourse and efficacy of the socio-medical field of chronic illness management and justice

Long covid is real, and debilitating. It's also novel-- the longest anyone can possibly have had long covid is about 5 years. I don't know that I know any chronically ill person who's condition arose as an adult who've made meaningful progress in managing their illness well in under 5 years; NOR anyone who hasn't made significant progress coping in under 10 years.

Becoming disabled is terrifying and there's a lot of grief and frustration and rage to work through-- and a lot of ableism. Most people who became #disabilityjusticeadvocates after being disabled by long covid have absolutely 0 knowledge of the history or tactics of disabled movements. Frankly offensive and ludicrous comparisons to AIDS, for example, run rampant-- despite the fact this is nothing like AIDS and ppl making these comparisons appear to be only passingly familiar with the AIDS epidemic and wholly unaware of the current abuse and criminalization forced on ppl who are HIV+. We can make critiques of how capitalism and frankly civilized society disables people, specific political critiques of covid even, without rudely and unhelpfully asserting that this is the Worst Thing That's Happened And Nobodys Ever Had It As Bad As You. It is not, and will never be, *literally illegal* to have long covid. Fuck, governments actually DID SOMETHING and responded!! It sucked, because it will always suck, it pushed poor people hardest, and so on, but cmon. You cannot seriously compare problematic but prompt vaccine rollouts and ongoing intense research into management and cures to 20 years of unaddressed death; nor a "resistance" movement that essentially amounts to insults & ineffectual propaganda to one that worked extremely hard at building communal support structures and making legit gains. Yall ain't even pumping infected air into the cdc offices. Smh.

My heart fucking hurts for the huge numbers of ppl who have become disabled without access to support and then asked to become discursive authorities on disability while still trying to figure out what living as a newly disabled person can look like, but I'm also fully pissed at the behavior of some of yall and how bystanders willing platform really ineffectual and frankly ableist shit because of "listening to affected voices".

People ARE making moves-- there are support groups and communities sharing new strategies both from DIY versions of new literature and observations from personal experiments. Nicotine patches are what I'm aware of most recently and i bieve Four Theives published a guide to a drug that *cures* a meaningful, but not fda-requirememt-satisfying # of cases. It is possible to take strides, movement is still possible, it is important to not lose rage or critique! AND everyone is still figuring this thing out (let me reiterate that long covid is getting a comparatively huge amount of research and attention than many other chronic illnesses, like fr) & the least some of yall can fucking do is not drag the entire concept of chronic illness management down in your despair.

[princess-of-songs]

Happy 8 months of Challengers!!! Justin Kuritzkes interview with Al Horner

Shout out to Al, for asking great

questions!!! I thought this was a great interview.

Some of my favorite highlights from the interview:

AH: There’s a reading of this film and Tashi’s arc in particular that kind of like explores the idea, I suppose that like Tashi’s sense of injustice at what was taken from her as this tennis starlet who very much anticipated living one type of life is that like she has this kind of obsession with tennis and winning. She’s trying to vicariously live through Art, but it’s never going to fully satisfy her. And it leads to this, particular love triangle in which, well, the read online is “Patrick loves Art, Art loves Tashi, but Tashi is kind of incapable of loving either because she just loves winning so much, to the point it’s such a point of obsession.” I don’t know if I quite agree with it because like, I do think there’s genuine love for both parties there. But I’m curious what your take is or how you thought of the character as you approached her on the page.

JK: Yeah, I don’t think anybody is that simple, and I don’t think anybody ever wants one thing. I think it, it would be very tidy and very neat to say this one really wants -“He really wants her. She really wants him. All of that.” That I think is kind of like that’s just not as interesting to me as what I feel like is the truth about them, which is that they all want conflicting things. And you know, I think what’s frustrating for Tashi about these two guys is that in a way, I always thought of her as somebody who’s really hungry to be seen fully and to be understood fully and met as she is. Patrick and Art both see parts of her and are both in love with different parts of her. But neither one is in love with the whole thing. Neither one can accept the whole thing. And she is in love with parts of each of these guys, but can’t love the whole thing because they’re deficient in some way. And in a way that demand makes is her deficiency. You know, that sort of stubbornness is her deficiency, but also how could she demand less? She has too much respect for herself. So I think that then gets reflected in the way they all play tennis. Patrick plays in this very wild, naturally gifted, sort of explosive, athletic way. Art plays in this well mannered, studied by the book, disciplined way. But Tashi before her injury, had both. And that’s how you become a great tennis player. There’s a great essay by David Foster Wallace about Roger Federer. He talks about how there was a moment when tennis moved from being classical music to Metallica and that there was a sort of trend around the time that Federer became ascendant of power baseliners, like Nadal, for the most part, that his game is a lot of just power from the baseline. And of course, Nadal does a lot of other stuff very well, but that’s the predominant mode of his tennis, right? This overpowering of the opponent. It’s a very muscular sort of tennis. And what David Foster Wallace says about Federer is that he somehow managed to play classical music and Metallica at the same time. To watch that is liking meeting God. To watch that in person is like a religious experience. And so that was very much what I was thinking about when I was thinking about just how good Tashi is.

AH: There’s a crucial moment later on in the movie where Tashi secretly meets up with Patrick to ask him throw the upcoming match he has against Art and she’s doing this out of love for Art. She wants to boost his ego and arguably their marriage is on the line. It’s tied up in this game. She and Patrick have this explosive argument that leads to them having sex inside his car. And again, in terms of the ambiguity in this film, purposeful ambiguity, there is some debate as to how much of that was premeditated, how much of it was transactional almost, and I’m curious on how you approached all this on the page. Were you kind of aware or were you letting the characters dictate you on what they were doing or what was your read on the granular details of what everyone is doing in that scene?

JK: Well, I think, again, sometimes people are doing things for more reasons than they know, and sometimes people are not on top of their own motivations. And that’s a very exciting place for a character to be because there’s a tension between what a character is saying and what their body is doing. A character is revealing themselves in ways they’re not intending. And I was just as surprised by all of that as I was writing it, as I think people watching it probably are. That was really at that point in the movie, I was trusting the characters to go where they wanted to go. So, yeah, I think I like that you said that she is doing it some respect out of love for Art. Because I do think there is a real part of Tashi that is genuinely trying to make this marriage work for her. And she knows herself well enough to know that if he gives up right now, if she has to watch him completely give up on his career and on his potential and resign himself to being done before he’s forced to by time for instance, that she will not be able to love him. She won’t be able to be there for that. So there’s that. There’s also the fact that Art is the person through whom Tashi has been playing tennis for 10 years or however long it’s been. And so she knows that the moment that Art’s tennis career is over, that’s the end of her tennis career, and she’s not ready to give that up. So she needs that. And at the same time, she probably really, there’s a part of her that really wants to see Patrick and really wants to get into that car, and she wants to jolt Patrick out of his slump and out of his self pity and out of his bullshit. So I’m not sure she knows at the moment that what she’s really after is what ends up happening at the end of the movie, where everybody’s cards are out on the table and they’re all pushing each other to in some ways be the best selves and in some ways be their most naked selves. I don’t know if she’s got enough of a handle on the situation to have a fully planned to that’s where she’s trying to lead everything. But I think she’s got a lot of different competing stories that she’s telling herself about why she’s in the car.

And Patrick is the kind of guy that goes, you do want to fuck me, you’re here because you want to fuck me and you’re so full of shit, you won’t admit it to yourself. And that says everything about why she feels the way she does about Patrick, both good and bad.

Tashi has easily become one of my favorite characters and it’s nice to hear when your interpretations are similar to the writer and actress’s interpretations. It feels like I’m not just spitballing lol.

Justin also talked about how the signal was something that was always there and he was writing towards it. Also shoutout to pega on Ao3, Justin said if Art wasn’t playing tennis, he’d be in medical school. You cooked on that one. He also talked Luca mentioning the corners of the love triangle literally touching and how important it was to include a scene where all 3 of them have a moment of togetherness and it being a major thing that the 3 of them are trying to get that feeling back again.

[nonogram-hell]

so... i'm going to take back what I said about this year's NoTP... I love the upgrade to the Phantom Dungeons so much!! I also feel really silly about complaining about Darkseeds being scarce, since my best guess is that the Dungeons might've been the actual main source for them outside of Trick or Treating. I just forgot that the main attraction of NoTP doesn't actually release until a week into October, usually 😭

Regardless, I very much appreciate Darkseeds being more available! No complaints about that.

The implications of the upgraded Dungeons are also very interesting as well.... gonna put spoilers for it under the cut!

Well! About the final boss....

Damn!! I wonder, has Greely actually been corrupted from being in the Dungeons too long (+ its collapse) or is Dark Greely simply a copy of him, like how players fight dark copies of themselves?

Then again, seeing as how Peck isn't exactly "corrupted", at least in the same manner as the final boss + the corrupted phantoms, perhaps he's still out there... I just hope we get to see Greely (safe!) again soon.

Also, I think it's really funny how the old boss of the caverns is now a mini boss, guess they're just small fry in the grand scheme of things... I do appreciate the nerf (?) to the damage it deals though, supercharge + sneaky leg can't exactly wipe out a full team as easily anymore haha

Oof, I should quit my rambling now, but if anyone has anything else to say about the new Dungeons/NoTP 2024 so far please lmk!! I'd love to talk about it more with other people!

[bluehairperson]

Sometimes I see posts about how "I, Strahd" Tatyana has the personality of a cardboard but I don't think I agree honestly.

We only see her in very few scenes (all from Strahd's POV) and she's always very gentle and soft spoken.

Which makes completely sense since she was a lowborn orphan trying to make a good impression on her future brother in law, who is not only the ruler of the valley but also a feared war criminal. Of course she would try to be as nice as possible in front of him.

I also think that Strahd was extremely genuine in thinking he was in love with Tatyana, it's just that he never really knew her the way Sergei did. He only knew a facet.

[local-redhead-bookworm]

One of the few solid critiques I’ve seen of Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel is that the shows pick and choose which moral failings to depict as bad or as just funny.

Essay-length rant under the cut, also Hellaverse-typical TWs for abuse, SA, and general lack of morals

Disclaimers:

I’m not hating on these shows. I love both of these shows, but I’m an English major so I think it’s important for me to be able to analyze what exactly I think is not working. I’m interested in a discussion, but if all you’re here to do is spew hate with no good-faith criticisms, I will block you.

These shows do not need to teach morals. These pieces of media are both intended for adult audiences, and adults should be able to understand that a depiction does not equal support. My criticism is that this moral inconsistency is sometimes to the overall tone’s detriment.

These two shows are both set in hell. Following the usual rules of hell, you wind up there regardless of what you did, so all sins should be considered equal in that regard. Of course, we as people tend to think of some sins as less forgivable than others—namely abuse, SA, and murder. I’m making broad generalizations here, but please roll with me.

The biggest problem with Hellaverse writing is that the writers aren’t consistent on what is considered morally bad in the show. These shows both center around complex, deeply flawed people, and I find that really enjoyable from a storytelling perspective because I love nuanced, flawed characters.

There are a few notable instances where this moral ambiguity works in the storytelling’s favor. Stella screaming and throwing things at Stolas (Loo Loo Land) is something the audience is primed to see as a joke, but it is used to set up the later reveal that she is in fact highly abusive (The Circus) and attempted to have him killed (Harvest Moon, Western Energy). Stolas being casually condescending to Moxxie and Millie (Loo Loo Land) and his imp servants (Seeing Stars, Full Moon) is not heavily remarked upon, but it is later used to set up his classism being a point of contention between him and Blitzø.

However, the protagonists often exhibit similar behaviors to the villains and this isn’t treated as morally wrong, or sometimes an incident is treated as minor. This problem is most glaring in cases of sexual harassment or SA. Blitzø’s repeated stalking of Moxxie and Millie, including watching them have sex without their knowledge or consent, is treated as a joke. Moxxie being kissed by the incubi and succubi (Spring Broken) is treated as a joke. Likewise Sir Pentious being dragged into the sex room in Welcome to Heaven is also treated as a joke, in spite of the episode’s b-plot being Angel Dust confronting Valentino, who is primarily shown to be bad through his sexual abuse of Angel Dust. Angel Dust harasses Husk at the bar from episodes 1-4, and while this is connected to Angel’s porn star persona and I do seem to recall it stopping after “Loser, Baby”, it’s still not treated as a problem, just as Angel Dust being Angel Dust. Other incidents of note are the running so-called joke of Loona fat-shaming Moxxie not being a problem, whereas when Mammon fat-shames Fizzarolli it is used to signify Mammon as a bad person.

I would also like to highlight the nature of Blitzø’s and Stolas’ full moon deal. In my opinion it is a running problem of dubious consent and poor kink negotiation. Let’s cover this in chronological order for sake of ease. In The Circus, Stolas starts out describing a sexual fantasy of Blitzø, his former childhood friend and first love, sneaking into his house to “ravish” Stolas. However, when Blitzø reciprocates and feeds into the fantasy, Stolas becomes hesitant. I believe this is intended to read as him being flustered, but he is extremely hesitant until Blitzø bites him. Stolas later forges the Full Moon deal with Blitzø while Blitzø is, to keep things to the point, under duress (Murder Family). Neither of these circumstances show both parties giving full consent. Hence, dub-con. Furthermore, as per The Circus and “we don’t do words, we do sex” (Apology Tour), Stolas and Blitzø have a strong precedent for poorly negotiated BDSM and lack of proper kink safety. However, the show’s inconsistency with how it handles sexual harassment and power imbalances weakens the impact of the Full Moon deal’s transactional nature on the relationship.

I greatly enjoy Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, as I enjoy flawed and complex characters. I do not expect the show to address every issue raised here with the care that should be used in real life, as this is a fictional story set in hell. However, the writers’ inconsistency, particularly when it comes to depicting power imbalances and sexual harassment/SA, leads to a muddled tone which confuses the audience to a point where it is not beneficial to telling the story.

Because I’m a nerd but can’t be bothered to format 100%, here’s my works cited:

Danny Motta. “I Was WRONG About Blitz | Blitz Vs Stolas Debate.” YouTube.

Sarcastic Chorus. “STOLAS DID EVERYTHING WRONG - Stolitz Analysis.” YouTube.

Vivziepop’s Helluva Boss playlist. YouTube.

[sunset-of-the-void]

I think its very neat how emil's "birthday" and zodiac sign fall on the date that he escaped from the asylum. Symbolic of him being reborn i suppose. He is haunted by a past that i infer his body and mind blocked out so he could keep moving forward and was given another chance at living a better life

[statementlou]

Hello, do you think is possible that we will get a FITF live album? Louis and the band sound so good on tour.

they doooo! I love Steve's arrangements and additions to the songs so much! Honestly I have no idea; on the one hand it seems like Louis might be more focused on moving towards new stuff, like we are still in FITF mode but by the time it came out he had had it forever and now he's well into LT3 and probably feeling more excited about those new songs and sounds; on the other hand he is very good at working the industry stuff and all the angles and it's basically free money, right? He has said FITF was a further step towards the sound he wants most rather than the finish line, so it's possible that as happened with Walls as he works more on the new one he is getting less enthused about sharing the old stuff; but I think adding Steve's arrangements and just moving away from some of the songs seems to have lessened that this time around, so maybe that isn't a factor. Here's the thing though: the only way it would happen or make sense I think would be if it was recorded pretty recently, like one of the UK shows; the show was still being tweaked and gelled and cooking until then. But if they wanted to make vinyl (and surely they would? fancy double vinyl of live albums is SUCH a thing), that is very very long process of waiting around these days. First you have to get lacquers made (this is the physical thing that the recording is cut into that all the records are duplicates of- if you want quality it has to be more or less handmade by an artisan) but one of the two places left in the world that made those burnt to the ground in 2020 so there's a super long wait time on that. Then it just has to get made; but there are basically ten large scale factories left (again, in the WORLD) that press records so that also has a very long wait time... so it would take forever and the thing is I think we're getting LT3 in the late fall/ early winter (I bet he's using this month to finish it up so it can begin this lengthy process). So I kind of don't think so, like I guess they could do a CD/ cassette/ digital only in late spring and make so much money, and it would be fun, but who knows. Either way, I just hope Louis has Steve do some production work on LT3, I like his sounds and ideas a lot, and that he keeps him around to do his tours forever!

[batsplat]

love all the archival work! one question, sometimes (indeed most times) when i google certain quotes to find the source article, google cannot find anything. this quote from vale for example:

"In 2014, I and the others were "bombarded" with questions about Marquez. So I understood even more what my opponents must have felt in the past, because a rider never wants to talk about his rivals. It's also true, However, this is how the world of sport goes: people want to hear about the number one. Marquez now has the same media pressure that I had in the past."

the screenshot you provided is very clear and yet i cannot trace the words to anything whatsoever! and unfortunately this has happened enough times that i kind of have to ask… should i use a different search engine? or are there journal archives your frequent? and no hurries whatsoever i know this is a big ask… but i would appreciate any help!

oh this one's quick to answer haha I didn't even need to consult my notes - the article's here! the reason it doesn't come up immediately in search engines is that the original article was in italian, so I just threw the first sentence into google translate and. voila

I try to stick to the habit of providing sources and if I made that ranch post now, I would have properly put a list of sources at the bottom of the post lol. if you can't find a quote through a search engine, it's going to generally be for one of the following reasons:

the quote is from an article in a different language, typically italian or spanish (the german publication speedweek also gets used semi-regularly)

the quote is from a book, which I DO try to be extra diligent in providing a citation for that reason

the quote is from an article that is no longer available on the internet. it might be in my notes because I copied it there and, if I'm smart, I will have made sure I can still access the article using the wayback machine (which is sometimes what I use to find things in the first place). if I'm not smart, then my doc becomes the last reservoir of lost knowledge I suppose

the quote is transcribed from a video/podcast

I should also say that my notes aren't perfect since... well, most of them have existed a lot longer than me starting to blog on tumblr about motogp. there is just stuff I'll quickly pull from my lil mind maps or whatever when I post, which is where the 'being too lazy to give a source' thing sometimes comes in. when it's english language articles I'm not too bothered because I know people can find it pretty quickly with the use of a search engine if they are thus inclined; with the other stuff I'm trying to be more diligent. but yeah, unfortunately for three of those there's no great fix - the language one is the only one I can recommend. which, btw, if you're looking to do your own motogp research, this one is absolutely invaluable. there is a lot of stuff I've only found because I started searching for stuff using italian and spanish keywords. hope that helps!

[scentofpines]

in class today i felt so incredibly out of place again, why does it have to be so hard for me? and, i like this girl, but every single time we have class she mentions her "autism" while happily chatting with 3+ ppl at a time, completely effortless, while im sitting there, staring and trying to focus enough to even understand the conversation bc there is so much noise around me that i feel like i'm about to either explode or shut down completely and i feel like an alien trying my best to somehow socialize and understand what is going on and really to just get through this.

[celestial-moths]

It's driving me crazy because, in my current endeavor to learn musical modulation, I've started my exploration of the Locrian mode and found that, in C Locrian, a Cº chord, specifically second inversion (Cº/G♭; G♭-C♮-E♭) sounded really cool and familiar to me and I realized: It's the main riff to Sex Bob-Omb's Threshold from Scott Pilgrim.

Only thing is, the resolution to that riff must be in C minor because it used a D♮, which isn't in C Locrian, but IS in C minor. Which, I think, means the song is in C Locrian, but modulates to C minor SPECIFICALLY for the cadence. (Unless something else is happening here, which could, of course, be any number of things. I will point out that I have pretty good relative pitch, but not perfect pitch.)

Which, for non-music nerds, translates to "this song fucks in a rare, not-frequently-seen-in-modern-music kind of way."

[bas-rouge]

Pain. Agony

[ninas-gf]

the time in between hyperfixations is so boring…

[orcelito]

i think the fact that persona series & fire emblem series are two of my longest lasting interests that i still actively engage with. says something about me.

[gender-euphowrya]

been playing this free shooter game because i'm still trying to find something to scratch the overwatch itch that isn't overwatch and it's desperately trying to be genshin waifubait but nobody cares

[neverendingford]

.