#THE PORTRAIT’S BEING POSTED ON THURSDAY

[yveni]

AHHHHHHH I LOVE IT I’M GONNA SCREAM

WAAAIT- Phew! Barely made it. Here's my ghostie self for @yveni 's ghost family photo! Barely made the deadline 😅

[sl-walker]

Emergency Commissions

So, I have been unemployed since July and then Thursday night, a buck in rut decided to leap in front of my poor little Cobalt. She absolutely saved my son and I by taking the brunt of the impact, but obviously, she's not going anywhere anytime soon. I might be able to save her and do intend to try -- I've had her for almost ten years and almost 100K miles, and have been utterly faithful in my maintenance; I love this car dearly and she clearly loved us right back the other night by absorbing the impact of a gigantic whitetail -- but that's not going to be something that happens quickly.

In the meantime, I need a car. Despite being unemployed, the scrimping and saving and the help of family has netted me about 3500 I can put towards one. Unfortunately, even beaters these days tend to go for more than that. I have a job prospect I'm waiting to hear back from, but no guarantees.

So, in order to raise funds, I'm offering emergency portrait commissions.

The caveat is that they'll be pencil only, bust only portraits, because those are the ones I can do quickest and easiest. As for price: Pay what you think is fair. It takes me between an hour and two hours, usually, to do a pencil portrait depending on how elaborate you want it. I also typically don't take payment before the work is complete, so you could shaft me pretty severely, but I'd like to believe better of people than that. (I will be pretty hurt if someone sends me $5 or $10 for a portrait that takes me two hours, though, ngl.)

I can draw humans and humanoids, though the more elaborate, the longer it'll probably take. Love doing OCs for people. I'm less sure if I can do animals or furries, but I'd probably be willing to give it a shot if I have good references. Some examples of my pencil stuff:

Anyway, DM me here or find me on D*scord at sl_walker if you're interested! And please do feel free to signal boost.

(ETA: I'll also be posting new nails by my wife soon, too!)

[larkingame]

hello folks! I hope that January has treated you all well and that the beginning of 2024 has been kind to you so far. welcome to the second public update for larkin's monthly development of 2024! 

Personally, January seemed to fly by for me, and while it did provide a lot of time for work, it also posed some challenges and taught me a few things. The first of which, is the fact that the new Larkin is a //big// undertaking, bigger than I think even I realized when I first set out on this journey. While turning Larkin into an RPG, with dice rolls, stat checks and the like is a decision that I'm still very happy with and proud of my progress on--it's going slower than I'd necessarily like. To illustrate this to you, the prologue of Larkin currently sits at about 55k words, while the original twine prologue was at just about 21k words in it's complete scope. The big difference there being, in those original 21k words I managed to get the plot moving and the Preacher and Wyatt on their way to Nevada, but in the time that I've been working on the RPG version of Larkin, I've only just about gotten finished with the first major encounter. It's slow going, and I'm working really hard to ramp up the production speed--adjusting my schedule to wake up at 5:00 am to work for a few hours before work and school, and then coming home and working on larkin until about 1:30 am (as much I hate this fact, I //do// in fact need //some// sleep.) Even with all of my free time dedicated to work on Larkin or catching those few precious hours of sleep, I'm still not entirely happy with the speed at which I'm working on it--and I'm still experimenting to try and figure out what works best that helps me produce quality work with a quick turn-around. 

That being said, one of my new systems I've implemented to try and alleviate my production stress is that I've started dropping two updates to the game every week. The first update comes on Thursdays and is called what I've dubbed a 'Bulk' Update, it essentially builds on the choices/routes that have already been presented to the player, giving you room to explore your environment/develop your character compared to the Sunday 'Streamline' Update, that furthers along the plot of the story. Later tonight I'll be posting an update roadmap for the month of February on Patreon. 

Other brief updates about the progress of the game. For one, I've been working with two artists—one who is producing some art that'll be used as future patreon physical rewards and another who's putting together portraits of all the game's main characters that I am. Sickeningly excited about, considering that this artist is my current favorite working artist of all time. In total there's going to be sixteen character portraits that you'll be able to unlock throughout the course of the game, with slight variations depending on our relationship with that character. Other than that, me and my assistant Phillip are in the process of really trying to build a bigger social media presence for Larkin, so we'll be launching twitter/threads/bluesky/instagram and editing the tiktok pages for Larkin, that I'll drop in a card later tonight as well. I’ve also introduced another patreon tier of $1 for those of you who are wanting more consistent updates on the game development on Patreon!

STATS: 

PROLOGUE WORDCOUNT: 55, 750 words

ROUTE TRACKER: 1.5/11

PROLOGUE WORDCOUNT GOAL: 150k

[mariacallous]

In less than a day, prosecutors, police and the government in Serbia reacted to an AI deepfake video of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic allegedly posted on Facebook.

The rapid reaction contrasted with other cases of deepfake content posted in Telegram groups or broadcast on national TV stations about Serbian citizens and opposition politicians.

The Special Prosecution Office for High Tech Crime told the police to collect all “necessary notifications” on the matter, said a prosecutor’s statement on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the government said a Facebook account named Corvus01 had posted the AI-generated video statement in which the PM talked about “non-existent government projects”.

“A criminal complaint has been filed against an NN [anonymous] person and work is being done to establish the identity of the person,” the statement said, adding that police had asked Meta company to send them all data on the account and to remove the fake video.

As the video is not publicly available, it was probably removed after the government’s request.

However, BIRN’s Digital Rights Violations Annual Report 2022-2023 noted numerous other cases of AI-generated videos of politicians being published without sanctions.

In August 2023, Zeljko Mitrovic, owner of pro-government TV Pink, published AI-manipulated footage of Marinika Tepic, vice-president of the opposition Freedom and Justice Party, misrepresenting her remarks.

The same month, Mitrovic did the same with Dragan Djilas, president of the Freedom and Justice Party, airing the video on TV Pink as “satire”. Mitrovic posted the deepfake on X and later showed it on TV Pink without the audience being properly informed that it was fabricated.

Mila Tomanovic, a lawyer handling the Djilas case, told BIRN that Djilas sought a temporary measure that would prohibit the broadcast and re-recording of the video but the Higher Court in Belgrade in November 2023 rejected the call. The Court of Appeal then cancelled the decision of the Higher Court, which is currently considering the temporary measure again.

Tomanovic said Mitrovic defended the edited video as artistic expression. “However, the spread of violence, lies, fraud, deception, misuse of other people’s data, provision of false data and fabrication and presenting a person in a false light cannot possibly be art, or of importance to a democratic society,” Tomanovic said.

Other cases in which Serbian institutions didn’t respond concerned tens of thousands of Telegram users in Serbia who were sharing images of women “undressed” by artificial intelligence, as BIRN reported this week.

Ana Toskic Cvetinovic, executive director at Partners for Democratic Change, an NGO from Serbia and a privacy protection expert, told BIRN that the prosecution in the case of the PM likely reacted to a criminal complaint of the unauthorised publication and display of other people’s files, portraits and video.

“In our country, there is no specifically regulated or sanctioned use of artificial intelligence for the generation of audio and video content, so the use of deepfake can be brought under existing criminal offences, such as unauthorised publication,” she said.

She added that what was specific in the latest case was “the speed of reaction of the prosecution, which is mostly absent in other cases”.

“The prosecution and the police generally state that these crimes are difficult to prove, including collecting evidence from companies that manage social networks,” Toskic Cvetinovic noted.

Nina Nicovic, a lawyer, told BIRN that a direct parallel cannot be drawn between the fake recording of PM Vucevic and the deepfake material circulating on social networks and Telegram groups about “ordinary citizens”.

“If something related to the non-existent projects of the government of any country is really published on a video, then every country … has the right to react urgently because it can lead to consequences for the country,” said Nicovic.

However, she added that her impression is that institutions in Serbia only react fast to rights violations in the digital sphere when politicians are involved.

“If they can react so quickly to everything related to the government and politicians, in certain situations such as the Telegram groups they should have reacted just as urgently,” Nicovic said.

She said one big obstacle is that the courts, prosecutor’s offices and the police do not have enough IT experts to help solve these cases.

thinking about @roycohn's post about AI deepfakes and Ted Cruz...

[sincerely-sofie]

It’s Throwback Thursday on a Wednesday! because Sofie is too anxious to wait 12 more hours to post her old art!

I’ve drawn some of the hallucinations that were more like “characters” which I’d experienced consistently throughout the years after being diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia— and while looking back on the portraits I’d made as I sifted through old files, I realized I’ve only hallucinated once, very briefly and lightly, in the last 4+ years. This is a monumental difference from when I first started hallucinating.

For the majority of my teen years, I was hallucinating constantly and severely, and I was— as the youths would say— not having a very fresh and funky time, bro. I've come a long way from being a young girl who could barely leave her bedroom to eat dinner and was hearing voices 24/7 that loved to berate and belittle everything about her. I'm proud of the hard work I've put in over the years to heal, so I figured I'd post these old pieces as a way to commemorate the Herculean efforts that got me where I am today.

... Also, it's a really fun way to see a snapshot of my art journey when looking at them with the oldest on the left and the latest on the right, hehe :>

[trentonsimblr]

Hey friends! Sorry for being MIA. Between a promotion at work and traveling home for a friend's wedding I haven't had time to think about sims/my simblr as much as I would like.

I do have the screenshots for two scenes mostly done (I need to take a few more for one) that will be posted tomorrow and Thursday. My goal this weekend is to get ahead on the screenshots so I can build my draft folder so there won't be a post delay when I'm focusing on life/work things.

Thanks to everyone that voted in the historical story poll! I plan to share the character's story with one or a few portraits of the character and/or important people in their story. This will just make things easier for me. Queen Emelina won the poll. I'm still trying to decide the best course of action for her post since there's a lot of stories that intertwine with her story.

Finally (I think), huge shout again to @ardeney-sims for covering the mini series posts for last week so the story could continue while my brain was focused on work.

P.S. Here's a cute random photo for Aubrey for your troubles

P.P.S. I'm not ignoring all my WB/CB asks and chain asks...I just don't have the brain power to answer them all...I will do my best to tackle some of the older ones soon!

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 5/30/2023

all you can see is my hand over the back of the couch as i give a limp wrist flick of acknowledgement and point you toward the post ↓ 

listening

Smooth Jazz by GUPPY, a selfdescribed comedic punk band that makes secular guitar music with bedroom-pop overtones. said to myself out loud on my walk "this sounds gay" and whaddya know they are.

I’m listening to smooth jazz In the parking lot outside of Joann’s Fabrics & Crafts And I’m feeling like a dumb spazz Because my mind is moving way too fast

i have had this exact experience at multiple joanns. the last bit of the song has been on loop in my head since uhh thursday when i was catching up with my spot/ify weekly recommended list. the tired, slightly ironic last-number-in-the-musical performance is really doing it for me

Jazz, baby! That’s just jazz, baby That’s just jazz That’s just jazz, baby In my brain, baby So give me a lobotomy

-

reading

raymond chandler's the long goodbye.

this book destroyed me. there is some BREATHTAKING racism even for 1953. it's one of the cruelest things ive ever read. it's a sucking chest wound of a book. i'm going to think about it for the rest of my life.

i'm not able to talk about chandler novels objectively.

i am partially grieving the incredibly fucked up shit that happens to marlowe in this book (i have no fucking clue how you even go on after that, but he does) and partially grieving that this is the last full novel and there aren't any more. i know the unfinished poodle springs was finished after chandler's death but! i do not care.

-

watching

One-Eyed Jacks (1961, dir. Brando). widely available for free, pluto had the nicest copy but ads that weren't blockable. this is a film where the production is as much of a story as the actual film.

i don't actually know if i enjoyed this film or had a good time watching it. i don't know that i ever need to see it more than once.

it is artistically distinct, and i genuinely mean that as a compliment. it is a rare western-that-doesn’t-have-to-be-a-western, and such a weird artifact of a particular guy's career in a particular time.

surprisingly, this is a pretty okay western to watch if you happen to be a woman. katy jurado and pina pellicier are acting their GODDAMN hearts out. despite itself, the movie paints a very good portrait of a mother-daughter relationship and some goodass parenting. women make mistakes and don't die about it. nobody gets raped!!! the absolute lowest bar a western can possibly have. as a quick sidebar, it's not that i think movies should never address rape, it's that westerns always address it in a way that makes my stomach turn.

it is a slow-burning revenge that mostly takes place on a beach, but it also takes you in great uneven hurtling lurches toward its finale. it wants to have things to say about lies, revenge, and storytelling but cannot help but give itself a certain kind of ending. it can only push so far. it is fascinatingly earnest, horny, and earnest about being horny.

-

playing

grim fandango remastered (2015, originally 1998) by double fine. the EPIC tale of CRIME and CORRUPTION in the LAND OF THE DEAD!!! critically acclaimed, what we would now call Mexican Gothic i think, but billed itself as a Aztec-inspired noir.

technical details: i am not totally impressed by this remaster bc it still looks pretty fucking janky in parts (things clipping through other things, heavily pixelated stuff despite being on the highest quality settings, etc)

why i bounced off: i did not play video games growing up, and have not played many point-and-click games. despite this i do like walking simulators (the modern successor to point-and-click) and visual novels. i think bc i do not have the point-and-click background and am not playing this through nostalgia-tinted glasses for 1998, four years after i was born, the way the design team of this game expect the general population to solve problems and the way i personally solve problems are severely mismatched. i have spent about ten hours playing this game (in four acts) getting to about halfway through the third act, and i would say about half that time has been looking for/at guides or making up lost progress bc i didn't save. this is a tremendously frustrating way to spend free time.

what i did love: however, it does Look. i ADORE this tile and want it in my home. in a cutscene in this little automat there are not one not two not three but FOUR reflective surfaces. they're not real-time, of course, but i did say "what the FUCK" out loud. it's also hysterically fucking funny! many short sharp barks of laughter! i am greatly amused at how a game about skeletons invented permadeath! both the writing and the voice performances are so fucking top notch. i understand why this is a beloved classic and im glad a remastered edition exists in the world, but i do not anticipate finishing this game bc i don't get a lot of joy out of having to closely follow a guide to progress.

how i found this: it was free on GOG several years ago, i wanted to play something this weekend that was compatible with lying down on the couch and used a maximum of one finger for the controls.

-

making

i cannot show any of the extremely doxxable embroidery samples that will zhuzh up this cardigan for a work event in mid-june, but i can show how i tacked the buttonband down. this is somewhat indifferent stitch spacing but it stays down and is invisible at a distance from the right side, and that's what matters. gotta de-pill this also but that's a bit boring for a tuesdaypost

[raccoonfallsharder]

december aspirations ｡⋆꙳❅⋆✩°｡꙳❆°

wednesday 12/6: ✧･ﾟ:* Window Across the Galaxy, Chapter XXI. ❤︎❤︎

tuesday 12/5: ✩࿐࿔ take what you need. take a fuckin study break. ⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ Winter Across the Galaxy * ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆A Holiday Special ✩

sunday 12/10: ✩࿐࿔ take what you need. drink some goddamn water.

tuesday 12/12: florescence❀, chapter three year two: growth ✩

thursday 12/14: ✧･ﾟ:* Window Across the Galaxy, Chapter XXII. ❤︎❤︎

monday 12/18: ✩࿐࿔ take what you need. stop destroying your frickin' clothes. for nonnie!

tuesday 12/19: ⋆꙳•❅‧ traditions. ‧❅•꙳⋆ [winterfluff oneshot].

thursday 12/21: .｡❅*⋆⍋*∞* ugly sweater. *∞*⍋⋆*❅｡. [winterspice oneshot]. ✩

tuesday 12/26: frostnip. °❆⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ [winterfluff oneshot].

thursday 12/28: ⋆⁺₊❅⋆ [currently untitled] ⋆❅₊⁺⋆ [wintersmut oneshot]. ❤︎ ❤︎

friday 12/29: ✧･ﾟ:* Window Across the Galaxy, Chapter XXIII. ❤︎

sunday 1/1: ✩࿐࿔ take what you need. just buy the damn thing already. for sinikettu on ao3

explicit lines or references ✩ abbreviated explicit sequences ❤︎ detailed/prolonged explicit sequences ❤︎❤︎ smut-free, can usually be read platonically or romantically ✮

other things i'm working on ｡⋆꙳❅⋆✩°｡꙳❆°

florescence❀, chapter four year three: flowering.

✧･ﾟ:* Window Across the Galaxy,, Chapters XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII [END.]

⭑˚.⚘𖡼𖥧𖤣 windfall, part two.

꧁:･☁︎ ⋆. cicatrix ⋆. ☁︎ :･꧂ (wyndham; or, the galactic prometheus expansion)

᠊ᡃ࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊°.⋆｡✶˖ evasive maneuvers (practice expansion)

★♫｡°𝄞☕︎✎▤ other duties as assigned ▤✎☕︎ 𝄞°｡♫★

sunshine ☀︎ ⋆⁺☁︎⋆₊⊹ (sunshine expansion)

i'm really hoping to get out a couple new portraits of your lovely OCs toward the end of the month! ✧･ﾟ:* window will likely be all wrapped up by mid-february (complicated feelings), at which point i'll probably slow down a little and focus on finishing florescence❀, getting the first part of ⭑˚.⚘𖡼𖥧𖤣 windfall out, and getting more of other duties as assigned ▤✎☕︎ 𝄞°｡♫★ drafted.

other duties ✎☕︎ °｡♫★ will be the next longform piece i'll be working on hopefully (with a new oc) and will probably be around twenty chapters, but i don't anticipate beginning posting for a while because i like to have longform fics mostly drafted before i start posting. ꧁:･☁︎ ⋆. cicatrix will be an indeterminate length. i think there’s a lot of story to tell there, and rocket’s being really horny about it, which can get in the way of the plot tbh. i'll likely be working on ᠊ᡃ࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊°.⋆｡✶˖ evasive maneuvers ⌖˖✶｡⋆, and sunshine ☀︎ ⋆⁺☁︎⋆₊⊹ at the the same time and may start posting them before hand, as they'll likely be between 2-6 chapters each.

[thexfridax]

Tell me about it, stud: the rapturous return of the butch lesbian scene

With sold-out club nights from Bristol to Birmingham, a long-marginalised subculture is enjoying a brilliant post-pandemic resurgence

by Ella Braidwood, Wed 8 Mar 2023 10.00 GMT, last modified on Wed 8 Mar 2023 16.44 GMT

I am at a dinner table in south London, in the middle of which sit ceremonially placed items evoking butch culture: a carabiner, a sex harness and an edition of Quim – a lesbian erotic magazine from the late 80s and 90s. It is a Saturday evening in mid-February, and also eating bowls of dal around me are nine regulars from Bristol Butch Bar, set up last spring as a hub for the city’s butch community: among them lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people and non-binary people. I’ve joined them on a “field trip” to the club night Butch, Please! Between us, we have shaved heads, corduroy, jeans, vests, chain necklaces, black trousers, statement shirts and leather.

The butch identity seems to be having a moment. Tonight’s event, as normal, is sold out. “I see about 1,000 people come through a month now – there’s just huge demand for this space,” says Tabs Benjamin, who set up Butch, Please! at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in 2016. Nights are themed, often with a nod to queer history. This evening there’s a handkerchief code: a discreet way of signalling sexual orientation used by gay men in the 70s who would stuff coloured handkerchiefs in their back pockets.

“There is an absolute resurgence in butch identity, in the sense of belonging and in history as well,” says Joelle Taylor, who in 2021 won the TS Eliot Prize for a poetry collection about butch lesbian subculture. “It’s an exciting time for us,” she adds. “We’re starting to write the histories, memoirs, things that we actually remember.” This year, at least three new books explore butch identity: Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H; Mrs S by K Patrick; and My Own Worst Enemy by Lily Lindon.

The Bristol butches have an array of handkerchiefs, so I take a navy blue one to signal whether I’m more of a “top” (giver) or a “bottom” (receiver) during sex, depending on if it’s in my left or right pocket. As a butch lesbian who is also “soft butch”, I’d say qualities of my identity include being playful, sensitive and, well, silly. A good example: in the pub, someone deciphers my handkerchief code, only for me to realise I’ve put it in the wrong pocket.

The butch identity is not mainstream, even within the LGBTQ+ community, but things are happening. In March, the Saturday edition of Butch, Please! was started in addition to the existing Thursday night, both once a month. Bristol Butch Bar now gets about 60 people at its monthly meet-ups, where there is an armwrestling league and crafts. “It started off just people we knew, and then it spread to people they knew,” says co-founder Rosie Poebright. Another London club night, Pillow Kings, was set up last autumn, as was Soft Butch in Bristol, both running sold-out events.

In Birmingham, Wile Out, an LGBTQ+ night for people of colour, is popular among studs – an identity embraced by some masculine Black lesbians – alongside events by Urban Slag, On Your Gaydar and, in London, Lick. “I went out expecting a normal night full of drag queens and cheesy pop music, and then I stumbled into the Village, where Wile Out was at that time, and I loved it,” recalls Shan Haywood, a stud. “It’s just nice to have a community of people like myself. I don’t have to walk into the room and be the only Black person there, which is the case in a lot of gay clubs.” Haywood features in a new exhibition in London this month, We/Us, by the butch photographer Roman Manfredi, showcasing portraits and oral histories of working-class butches and studs.

In 2023, the butch identity means different things to different people. For me, a 29-year-old in London, it is the merging of my sexuality with my female masculinity: a physical reflection of how I feel on the inside – that is, inherently masculine – via men’s clothing, short hair and the way I carry myself. It is not that I want to be a man; I love being a woman. But it took me years to say who I am and to look this way. “Butch women and trans women are arguably the people who challenge gender norms in a way that really, really upsets people,” says Benjamin, 37, a self-described “butch dyke”. When I grew up, in Cumbria, butch lesbians were the ‘worst’ of the lesbians, a word I have found hard enough to say in itself: ugly, disgusting and unlovable. We are, I think, still perceived that way by some today.

For Prinx Silver, a drag king and transmasculine person in his mid-30s, “butch is that queer identity that allowed me to reclaim my masculinity that I thought I wasn’t allowed to have. I see it more as a way of moving through the world, of being perceived, or like a feeling.” Cassie Agbehenu, a soft butch and Bristol Butch Bar regular, similarly describes it as a “reclamation of masculinity … it can be caring and nurturing and joyful and sexy”. Taylor, a butch lesbian, says: “I’m 55, I come from a feminist movement, and my whole life has been dedicated to trying to persuade people I’m a woman, because they don’t want me to be one. So that’s where the fight is for me.”

What is the butch aesthetic? Again, it depends. “Sometimes,” says Silver, “I’m a butch stereotype,” so he’ll wear boots and flannel or checked shirts. Other times, it’s a vest with jeans, or a leather jacket, like the butches of the 70s. Haywood, 26, describes her “stud starter kit” as an oversized T-shirt and a hat, though she also enjoys wearing a suit and tie. “I feel comfortable in men’s clothes, and I may wear my hair in a certain way, or carry myself in a certain way – it’s a masculine energy, essentially,” she adds. While short hair is liberating for some butches, it’s not a requirement.

As far as history goes, the butch identity has its roots in working-class lesbian communities, as far back as 1940s and 50s America, who reclaimed the word from its use as a slur, with some women dressing to safely “pass” as men with their more feminine partner. In Britain, masculine lesbians included the writer Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943). Despite being marginalised, butches have been on the frontline: some say that it was the butch lesbian Stormé DeLarverie who threw the first punch in the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York, kickstarting the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. “We’ve always been here,” as Benjamin says.

By the 80s and 90s, the butch identity had reached its golden era. In the US, the butch lesbian singer kd lang posed for a cover of Vanity Fair with Cindy Crawford; the Calvin Klein model Jenny Shimizu dated Angelina Jolie; and Leslie Feinberg published Stone Butch Blues, named after another subcategory (“stone butch”). In the UK, the underground butch scene was thriving. Taylor describes a “dykedom”: lesbians moving to squat communities in London and other cities, and to the Greenham Common women’s peace camp in Berkshire. The Camden Lesbian Centre and Black Lesbian Group set up in London, as did Gemma, a support group for disabled lesbians, in 1976. “There was a sense that we were all looking out for each other, that we were connected via squats, we were connected by relationships,” says Taylor. This London scene was immortalised by the 2021 film Rebel Dykes, starring Del LaGrace Volcano, whose The Drag King Book documented the 90s drag king scene.

Events, culture and spaces centring the butch identity appear to be having a ripple effect. It was the combination of a group trip to Butch, Please! last February and a screening of Rebel Dykes that helped inspire Bristol Butch Bar. Silver first went to Butch, Please! while still working out his identity, and now performs there. Social media has also created new ways to be together. “The pandemic did have a part to play in those spaces being taken away,” says Benjamin. “A lot of young people in particular were like: ‘Hang on, we need these spaces.’ So it’s created this surge of enthusiasm and support.”

For Poebright, 42, a genderqueer and transmasculine butch, there are also recent, tragic circumstances behind Bristol Butch Bar. Not long after it was set up, a friend in the community died. “The person we lost was a transmasc, non-binary person, and they were in our group when we first set it up,” Poebright says. “There was a bunch of people that met at the funeral, and it turned out we all had a lot in common, including butchness and butch appreciation. So there was a sort of foundation of realising that we can only just barely survive alone, and needing to make spaces to be together in order just to survive the conditions that we’re in.”

These spaces may, to an outsider, just seem like glitter, bondage gear and, in my case, handkerchief mishaps. And, of course, that’s part of it. Drama and infighting are par for the course; bumping into exes in confined spaces is only to be expected. But for lots of people, whose lives have been reduced to nothing more than a joke or a sexual fetish, these club nights are life-changing. As Haywood puts it: “It’s just what everybody wants, really, isn’t it? To have something they identify with when they’re out.”

[encyclopika]

I've been working really hard on all sorts of stuff, and yet somehow it's Thursday and I'm not where I want to be. Please know I am working on:

Seal My Heart with Izupie - our second chapter I'm hoping comes this month. We got a lot done before IzuOcha Week when we (hilariously) thought we would post the whole thing as a oneshot. I know, we're so silly.

Escape Artists - chapter 7 needed a shit ton more editing than I initially realized. The good news is that it's written and I'm making it my first priority.

TheLostDex zine - forgot to mention, but I was accepted as a writer for this zine and I'm so fucking excited to report that I've been assigned 10 fish/marine beta Pokemon to write about in a technical manner (think Animal Crossing Fish Explained, but with Betamon lol). I've been blessed to be working with 10 artists who are great fish people, too. I can't wait to share what we have in store - these artists are incredible.

Swim On Zine - the annual shark zine! I'm going to apply and I'm looking to finally do a portrait of the Salmon shark that has been bouncing around in my head for a few years. This is the perfect outlet.

Downpour - mostly at the thinking stage, but that's actually important, since I decided to cut out a pretty damn large part of it.

Fire and Brimstone - seriously considering running through the rest of it. There are 3 chapters left that encompass the climax of the story, so, I might as well and get it off my plate. But then that means those waiting on Escape Artists and Downpour may wait until Fall before I start working on those again...I really don't know what the right answer is, but something's gotta give.

Podfics - uhhhh, still trucking along. Paradise is so goddamn close to being done I'm....asdfghjkl;ll;fgvhcfdgjaklk

Uh and besides that, I'm working on a papercraft in memorial of my hamsters and wanting, and being unable, to draw more of Krow.

All of that along with holding down a full time job, having a husband and a small zoo and gardening, and, like, having time to fit in a 12 hour coma here and there.

[emilieautumnarchives]

HOT TOPIC & PLAGUE RATS

Posted: December 14, 2006 Archived from The BonnyTymePyrate LiveJournal

Merry Thursday you little Teabiscuits!!

You haven't been missing my daily videos have you? Because you know that I'm making them solely for your amusement, yes? You must stay tuned for the continuing saga of Lord Edgar, Young Edwin, and the rest of the Asylum rats, or absolutely nothing, nothing in this entire world, will make sense.

Advent Calendar

In addition to this, I've found the time to appear on the current Hot Topic compilation CD brought to you by DJ Ferret and Asleep By Dawn mag., and being sold at the glorious front desks of HT's everywhere! This frankly awesome collection of ditties is already selling out, so get your copy before it's too late, and besides, you know very well that you're going there for your hair dye anyway.

And then! Somehow I found myself at the Chateau Marmont last week with unlimited vodka in front of me and a snappy new scarf (stripey) from my pal Keith from Adult Swim around my neck. I gave him two plague rats that night, and a Jesus pencil topper, so I think it was a fair trade.

Then lo and behold! I look before me and what do I spy but this box of AWESOME STRAWS!!! I mean, these fuckers are giant, weighing in at an almost obscene 7.75"!

In the painfully glamorous bathroom of the Chateau, I drunkenly managed to take these stunning portraits…did I mention how much vodka I'd had by this point? To prove it, I don't remember taking these at all…

Love & Bloody Crumpets from the Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, EA

Links: Get the "LIAR/DEAD IS THE NEW ALIVE" EP/T-Shirt Set EA's Official Site EA @ MySpace EA @ VampireFreaks Fan Forum and Home to EA's Journal Entries

PPS!

[artleaguemdcnorth]

DRAWING CLASS - Midterm assignment preparation - 10/19/2023

Asynchronous assignment for Thursday-

Students will work doing research and preliminary drawings in preparation for the Midterm .

Start reviewing the information below on the class blog Today (Thursday) through the weekend. Try to create a few sketches of your idea for your own personal Veritas Still Life.

I will talk more about this on Tuesday.

We are at the Midterm mark so this class will begin preparing to start the Midterm.

Starting today , you will begin  preliminary online research for your midterm.

You will need to do extensive research ahead of time to understand how you will set up this still life.

For this project you will need to create a different kind of Still Life.

Every object you choose needs to have a relevance or meaning to your life.

You should have no less than 8 to 10 objects .

The midterm consists of creating a Vanitas style Self-portrait- inspired-still-life drawing.

During the Baroque period in Art history, Still Life paintings had symbolic meaning. It had a subversive message expressed through the objects being represented.

Hopefully this research will help you understand how choosing specific objects can help you develop a particular message.

Your message is to create a *Contemporary Indirect Self Portrait via a Still life. A real portrait of you will be hidden within the still life.

As you research online, google words like Vanitas, Baroque , Self portrait still life, indirect self portrait still life drawing, and contemporary indirect self portrait.

Take notes regarding information you gather and include them in your sketchbook.

Brainstorm ideas via quick sketches.

If I were to include a papaya fruit for example in my still life , I would be referencing the tropical aspect of the fruit while providing a direction regarding my Caribbean background. So think about aspects of culture, identity in choosing such objects.

Once you have an understanding of the symbolic meaning of objects you can begin to assemble your still life.

Take a few photos of your arrangement, post it on your Tumblr blog.

The online research will help define the assignment for yourself.

Your work needs to have a relevant narrative that expresses an indirect portrait of yourself.

You and your life are at the center of this story.

What objects will you choose ?

How will you arrange them in your story?

Materials needed for midterm :

Bristol Paper 18 x 24  or

Graphite pencil set ( should include following pencils : H, HB, 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B )

Eraser ( kneaded and white erasers )

This assignment will require over 30 - 40 hours of work to develop values and form.

Research aspect of assignment is not included in those hours.

Your midterm requires completing a drawing using graphite pencil where value variances are evident and a direct light source is shown.

It also expresses critical thinking in developing an interesting narrative.

This will be the metric for grading.

You will use both class time and Homework time to complete this assignment.

See below some examples that may address the requirements for this assignment :

Notice in this drawing  the placement of the self portrait at the center via a mirror and the objects that identify the individual as an artist.

Sometimes we do not have to be so direct and can actually hide within the still life as you see in other examples.

Though these are paintings, they still display the elements of an indirect self portrait.

Again another painting with the same theme related to the Baroque period.

List of class assignments for this weekend:

1) Engage in research from the internet and other sources.

2) Once you have researched enough information, you will write a brief paragraph stating your understanding of the assignment noting the source of your research.

3) Students will compile 8 to 10 objects with relative scale and proportion, to create three different still life ideas. 

4) You will take three different photos , re-arranging the still life to get different perspectives and composition. 

5) Once you have taken that photo you will change it using your phone to a black and white photo.

You will then post on your blog the three options for the midterm based on those photos.

Note:

** Relative scale and proportion means that they are not too big, say a guitar sitting next to a tennis ball would not have relative scale or too small. ( ei. marble next to a bottle of wine would not work either.)

4) Take a photo of each assembled set up and post it on your Tumblr , along with the paragraph stating your understanding of the assignment.

Homework:

1) Get all the materials ready to start working next week on Tuesday.

2) Create a value chart in your sketchbook  using the following pencils : graphite set H- HB  - B- 2B- 4B  -6B- 8B or the graphite set you have. (Note the values being used for your situation )

3) Practice working with graphite pencil this tonight and tomorrow.  

   a) Make a still life with three objects and develop value ranges for your still life.

All work to be done in sketchbook.

All materials for the midterm above can be found at the following stores .

Blick’s Art and Supply

Jerry’s Arterama

The Easel in North Miami.

[louisegrommeardn632]

Week One

Brief

WHO: This brief allows us to work in collaboration with other students to create a piece of work that best represents us as individuals. I mostly enjoy portraiture photography, so I am interested in taking portraits of my friends to include in my manipulated image.

WHAT: We will be making a manipulated image composed of three images from the shared image repository. This will require us to use photoshop, which is a software that I am not very confident with. I hope to improve my photoshop skills over this semester, and produce a composite image that I am proud of.

WHY: This assignment will help us to understand the power of image manipulating and post-production in the current contextual landscape. I think learning these skills is essential as we move forward in a digitalised world, and learn to use these resources to our advantage without sacrificing creative integrity.

WHEN: This assignment is due at the beginning of class in Week 6, Thursday the 22nd of August. From weeks 1 to 3, my focus will be on gathering these images and uploading them to the shared repository, as well as researching and generating ideas. My focus will then shift onto using photoshop, experimenting, and figuring out ways to create an effective composite image.

WHERE: Class attendance for this assignment is important, as much of my learning and photo-taking will take place in class. However, I will also take photos and conduct my own research in my own time, and my home and the surrounding streets will be an important shooting location. The manipulation will be done on Adobe Photoshop, both at home and in the computer labs at AUT.

HOW: By attending every class and completing all the SDL tasks, as well as conducting my personal research and finding my own inspiration, I think I will be able to effectively complete this assignment. I think collaborating with my classmates and being open to others' ideas and feedback is essential in completing this.

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

Having god awful insomnia lately but it is so fun to see you on my dash at these hours so that's nice, at least. -Rotten Anon

I'm sorry that you're having insomnia :( I have experienced really terrible insomnia before - mainly before I got on the right birth control that helped a lot of my symptoms, so I definitely know how shitty and awful it is

When I was in high school, I used to go for up to four days without sleeping. There was times when I took tests and had them handed back to me graded without remembering that I took the fucking test in the first place

One time I went an entire weekend without sleeping - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and on Sunday, my mom invited me to go antique shopping with her - and I thought that getting out and doing some activity would finally make me exhausted enough to fall asleep. So I went with her and I ended up staring into a random mirror for ten minutes thinking it was a portrait of someone who looked eerily like me (a la the Haunted Mansion - how the deceased bride from years ago has a portrait that looks a lot like the modern wife). Shit was bonkers

Luckily, now, even if I don't always sleep well and sleep is still something I struggle with, my body does get exhausted enough to TKO after like 48 hours. Which I consider lucky after the hell of being awake for like 78 hours and feeling like I can smell colours and not being able to fall asleep no matter what I try

But right now, I am on such a weird sleep schedule. Which does happen to me often. My ideal sleep schedule is going to bed at light 9pm (I am not even kidding) and waking up comfortably at 6am or 7am. I like having some quiet time to myself before everyone else gets up - cause that's usually when I get a lot of writing done. Even if I wake up at like 4am when it's still dark out, I don't mind that, because I can get that peaceful alone time - I know a lot of people prefer to do that at like 1am-3am after everyone else falls asleep, but I don't really like that because I don't like to have my alone time after I have done a full day of activities and I'm already exhausted. At that point I would rather just sleep lmao

But to me, prime time for peaceful alone time is from 3am-8:30am before everyone else gets up and starts their day - I can get breakfast, watch TV, fuck around, and I get a lot of writing done during this time.

But because of my illness, my 'schedule' is not even a schedule. At any given of the month, I could be waking up at 9am or 9pm and going to bed at 5pm or 5am. I literally have no schedule whatsoever (which my online posting reflects lmao)

For the past few days, I have been going to sleep midafternoon - at like 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and waking up at MIDNIGHT. which is my least fucking favourite time to wake up ever. it's too late to eat dinner with my family so I end up eating cereal or something for dinner? and it's waaay to 'early' to call it 'morning' - and I end up being tired for BED by fucking lunch time. ass oclock time to wake up

but I have been taking advantage of it in order to work on a fic lmao. yesterday I wrote 3k on a fic - and if I keep up that pace, then I'll have another finished oneshot in order to be edited and posted later (because editing is the part that takes up the most braincells. I can't do that shit right now)

ANYWAY I HAVE BEEN RAMBLING SO MUCH OMG. I am glad that my presence online is making you smile <333

[enya-writes98]

Hello, rosebuds!!

Welcome to Throwback Thursday!

Some of you may recognize the cat here from knowing me, or my posts in March. This is my first cat, Kitnen.

I had her with me at college as my Emotional Support Animal, and she did her job extremely well for being a grumpy old lady. She charmed everyone on my floor and then some, and her favorite place was my roommate's chair.

This day was Spring Fling for my college. I was helping take pet portraits at our newspaper's table, and I brought her out to see the people and get some pictures. I love this picture of us, and I miss her every day 💜

[theam-cjsw]

The AM: April 29, 2024

A meandering Monday morning, with a throwback to the one-and-only Moondog, a nod to late Quebecois singer-songwriter Jean-Pierre Ferland, and an hour of Cosmic American Music to wrap the show. That plus the usual strains of ambient electronics, meditative jazz, post-rock interludes, and other songs to start your week on solid footing.

Soundcloud and Spotify streams are after the break, along with the full track list. Or you can stream it direct from CJSW, your favourite campus and community station.

Hour One

Bron Ut Små Vågor, Henrik von Euler • Små Vågor 6

Muted - Lehto Remix Tristan De Liège • Refractions (Remixed)

Kind of Light - Khotin Remix Bodywash • Single

Sing Together Salamanda • Single

Fly! Little Black Thing Yu Ching • The Crystal Hum

Nautical Miles Castle If • From the Sea

Mirror Images Bristol Manor • A Distant Urban Forest

Transpubliction My Kill Jack's On • 4 In '84

Night Sculpture Forest Swords • Bolted

Pools Steve Lyman, featuring Ben Lukas Boysen • Spiral

Hour Two:

We’ll live through the long, long days and the longnights (And when our last hour comes we’ll go quietly) Eiko Ishibashi • Drive My Car OST

Portrait of the Artist as a Thursday Charles Spearin • My City Of Starlings

Afternoon Moon Pie Torngat • La Petite Nicole

Apple Tree Hintermass • The Apple Tree

Cuckoo Hill Ellis Island Sound • The Good Seed

What’s the Most Exciting Thing Moondog • Moondog 2

Wine, Women and Song Moondog • Moondog 2

Love is Blue Paul Mauriat • Single

Le chat du café des artistes Jean-Pierre Ferland • Jaune

ESGGallin Samantha Savage Smith • Fake Nice

Disarray Nolan Potter • The Perils of Being Trapped Inside a Head

Pink Lite Ryan Bourne • Plant City

Hour Three:

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back Chet Sounds • Changes Happen To Everyone, Everywhere

All the Time Ghost Woman • Ghost Woman

Little More Time ROY • Spoons for the World

Strange Insistence Gun Outfit • Out of Range

Cowgirl Ora Cogan • Formless

Doggie Paddlin’ Thru the Cosmic Consciousness Psychic Temple • Doggie Paddlin’ Thru the Cosmic Consciousness

The sharp smell of cedar Field Works • Cedars

Worship the Sun (Not the Golden Boy) Fiver • Audible Songs from Rockwood

Sunrise John Hulbert • Opus III

Sunlight, Good Light Clinton St. John • The Minor Arkhana