#YOU WORRY ME

[transhuman-priestess]

I know I’ve posted this song before but it changed my brain chemistry permanently.

It’s one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. It’s a song about love, but it isn’t a love song. A caring song, if you will.

It’s presented as one side of a dialogue between the singer and an unnamed friend, perhaps lover, who apparently has depression. The chorus is not the title, but instead “I’m gonna leave it all out there to dry, I’m gonna leave it all out there”, the singer tries in so many ways to tell the listener that they’re going to make it through their hard times, as in the opening lines, “I’m alright today/you’re gonna find a way to cross and you’re gonna get there.”

As the song goes on the encouragements become more florid, more poetic. The singer urges the listener to open themselves up, “You put walls around your heart to try to lock it in.”

In the bridge the song takes undergoes its largest structural shift, most of the instrumentation drops out, and only the drums and a mournful horn section remain. The last line of the bridge shows the singer trying to reach out, to relate, “everybody wants the same/yeah, everybody wants the same thing” before returning to the chorus, again, “I’m gonna leave it all out there to dry/Im gonna leave it all out there”

But then a new chorus ends the song, repeating five times rather than the usual four, “cause you worry me/you worry me/you worry me/you worry me/you worry me”, the song ends with the last word, very abruptly, as if either the message has finally gotten through, or perhaps was too late.

It’s a masterful use of structure and lyrics to tell a simple, universal story. It’s stuck with me for years now. I can’t shake it. Anyway, if you haven’t, go listen to it.

[moominpopzz]

guess who just drank three cups of coffee???? THIS GUY!!!! (i’m shaking….)

STOP RED… DUDE WHY… PLEASE TELL ME YOU DIDNT DRINK ANYMORE…..

[rosasappho]

^guy who broke his spine and has AMNESIA.

[spoofyleaf]

Man crazy how my iPad is working flawlessly while using clip studio paint

[phoenixdaneko]

I’m (mostly) fine, Walter white helped me

Oh my God rando,,, you alone are gonna give me a heart attack. Fr. At least you know how to perform the heimlich on yourself.

[kenapiece-main]

Can you believe I'm having to make this meme even after successfully finishing up taxes and applying to job

[beaft]

a small child came into the café today and asked to buy a chocolate truffle. he tapped a credit card on the reader and it did not go through, mainly because it was not a credit card but in fact a junior cinema pass. i gently explained he couldn't use that to buy things in shops and he looked so gutted that i was like "...but just this once you can have it for free, don't tell my boss though" he said thank you and walked out with his truffle and as he went i heard him chuckling to himself and saying "yes..... yes!!!!!" like the sickos comic

[diedeilv]

please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, please don’t hate me,

please I beg don’t hate me. I’ll delete all, the blogs everything please don’t be angry at me.

[artkaninchenbau]

A h-heartfelt reunion..?

Bonus

[slushy-sash]

why is bro in port ormos when he works at the akademiya

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Soup solves everything.

[newttxt]

lulaw bodyswap (or, the exquisite humiliation of trafalgar law) for @strawhattery's birthday!

bonus: the original toilet humor gag that ended up on the chopping block

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[rusticfurnace]

GHOSTSOAP // "you sweet fucker" MINICOMIC!!!

[mokeonn]

"But if college was free, then people would abuse that and get useless degrees" hell yeah I would! If I could go to college without debt I would make it my job to get a degree in every little thing that interested me. I'd get a doctorate in film studies. I'd have a bachelor's degree for every science I like. I'd try to learn at least 5 languages with varying results. I would learn something "useful" like coding and then follow it up with a ""useless"" degree like art history. I'd be the world record speed run holder for getting every degree possible.

But I can't afford college without going into massive debt, so instead I spent the last 5 years trying to figure out what I am passionate enough about to consider going into debt over, because unfortunately being passionate about everything is extremely expensive to pursue.

[linipik]

Exercises for all the homies who want to have a long career drawing.

The true problem with being an artist and drawing all day (as I wanted my whole life) is that human backs are not designed to hold that position, so it is very common for artists and designers to have really stiff shoulder blades, creating a chain of muscle strain towards the arm AND the back... and a lot of pain.

These are some physical exercises for artists and honestly anyone who works at a desk.

(all credit to my physiotherapist)