#a west texas childrens story

[moviestvpolls]

[observadamente]

Yelling is extremely destructive to a relationship. You think you're communicating at the time but... the effect is completely the opposite. - Cassie

[titleknown]

So, while I've talked about this in other posts, I figured I may as well compile it in one post with this nifty propaganda poster (more on that later)

Long story short, they're bringing back KOSA/the Kids Online Safety Act in the US Senate, and they're going to mark it up next Thursday as of the time of this post (4/23/2023).

If you don’t know, long story short KOSA is a bill that’s ostensibly one of those “Protect the Children” bills, but what it’s actually going to do is more or less require you to scan your fucking face every time you want to go on a website; or give away similarly privacy-violating information like your drivers’ license or credit card info. 

Either that or force them to censor anything that could even remotely be considered not “kid friendly.” Not to mention fundies are openly saying they’re gonna use this to hurt trans kids. Which is, uh, real fucking bad. 

As per usual, I urge you to contact your congresscritters, and especially those on the Commerce Committee, who'll likely be the ones marking it up.

Those senators are:

Maria Cantwell, Washington, Chair

Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota

Brian Schatz, Hawaii

Ed Markey, Massachusetts

Gary Peters, Michigan

Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin

Tammy Duckworth, Illinois

Jon Tester, Montana

Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona

Jacky Rosen, Nevada

Ben Ray Luján, New Mexico

John Hickenlooper, Colorado

Raphael Warnock, Georgia

Peter Welch, Vermont

Ted Cruz, Texas, Ranking Member

John Thune, South Dakota

Roger Wicker, Mississippi

Deb Fischer, Nebraska

Jerry Moran, Kansas

Dan Sullivan, Alaska

Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee

Todd Young, Indiana

Ted Budd, North Carolina

Eric Schmitt, Missouri

J.D. Vance, Ohio

Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia

Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming

Again, it doesn't work unless you do it en-masse, so make sure to call ASAP and tell them to kill this bill, and if they actually want a bill to allow/get sites to protect kids, the Federal Fair Access To Banking Act would be far better.

Also, this poster is officially, for the sake of spreading it, under a CC0 license. Feel free to spread it, remix it, add links to the bottom, edit it to be about the other bad internet bills they're pushing, use it as a meme format, do what you will but for gods' sake get the word out!

Also, shoutout to @o-hybridity for coming up with the slogan for the poster, couldn't have done it without 'em!

[faggotcitosis]

Hi 👋, My name is Mohammad, and I’m reaching out in a moment of desperate need. I’m a father of three young children living in Gaza, and we are caught in the midst of a catastrophic war. Our home is no longer a safe haven, and the future here seems increasingly uncertain. 💔

I’ve launched a fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $40,000 to relocate my family to a safer place where my children can grow up in peace and have a chance at a brighter future. 🕊️🇵🇸

Unfortunately, my previous fundraising efforts were abruptly halted when my account was terminated without explanation. However, I remain determined to keep fighting for my family’s safety and well-being. 🫶

If you could take a moment to read our story, consider donating, or simply share our campaign with others, it would make an incredible difference. Every act of kindness, no matter how small, brings us one step closer to safety and a new beginning. 🙏

Thank you for your time, compassion, and support. ❤

https://gofund.me/fd1faea2 🔗

Hi Mohammed.

Why did i receive a completely different script from your account early today?

i understand your previous account was terminated while you were waiting for vetting

your GFM has a different story than the one in the ask i received earlier and it's under your name. GFM doesn't work in palestine so it's common for people to use relatives or friends in the west to crowdfund for them. how is it in your name and located in texas when you're currently in gaza?

all google searches regarding your name only come up with the crowdfunds back to mid august - no other information. i am geolocked in latin america though so that impact results. if anyone has any information to add that clarifies the veracity of this, feel free to reblog and add on

i considered replying to this privately but i believe in honesty & accountability and the best way to do that is to post this publicly 👍🏻

[phoenixyfriend]

Suggested Listening - 5/20/24

(Also available on the NYT Website.)

In this episode, three student protestors are interviewed: a half-Palestinian student from Texas who has regularly visited family in the West Bank, a self-described Zionist of orthodox background, and a Jewish pro-Palestine student of Ashkenazi background. I genuinely think this should be required listening for anyone who is trying to figure out how anyone on a given side could think the way they do. The way the episode is structured is very conducive to that, as well; the Zionist student expresses disbelief that any Jewish person could be pro-Palestine without being a 'self-hating Jew,' and the episode segues into the interviewer asking pretty much that exact question to the pro-Palestine Jewish student.

This episode contains rather explicit discussion of the death of children, in both Gaza and the Holocaust.

Source Bias Disclaimer: The New York Times is a left-leaning journal, with a history of bias towards Israel's side of the story. The podcast has proven to fact-check those Israeli biases and has refused to move forward with certain pro-Israel stories due to a lack of proof.

(Also available on the Al Jazeera website.)

This episode reports on the Israelis, Americans, and Israeli-Americans who populate and colonize the West Bank against international law. This is funded by money from, among other places, America itself, as donations to 'The One Israel Fund' are tax-deductible in the US. The settlements and American involvement in the process are rarely covered, and this explores some of the processes that power this process.

Source Bias Disclaimer: Al Jazeera is an independent news organization, but they do receive a lot of their funding from the Qatari government. As such, we can assume that they are to some degree influenced by Qatari interests, which are at best complicated with regards to Hamas and Israel.

[rockislandadultreads]

Read-Alike Friday: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,” roamed – virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.

Covered with Night by Nicole Eustace

The Pulitzer Prize-winning history that transforms a single event in 1722 into an unparalleled portrait of early America.

In the winter of 1722, on the eve of a major conference between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois) and Anglo-American colonists, a pair of colonial fur traders brutally assaulted a Seneca hunter near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, the crime ignited a contest between Native American forms of justice―rooted in community, forgiveness, and reparations―and the colonial ideology of harsh reprisal that called for the accused killers to be executed if found guilty.

In Covered with Night, historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the attack and its aftermath, introducing a group of unforgettable individuals―from the slain man’s resilient widow to an Indigenous diplomat known as “Captain Civility” to the scheming governor of Pennsylvania―as she narrates a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations. Taking its title from a Haudenosaunee metaphor for mourning, Covered with Night ultimately urges us to consider Indigenous approaches to grief and condolence, rupture and repair, as we seek new avenues of justice in our own era.

Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna

A killing. A hidden history. A story that goes to the heart of the nation.

When Mark McKenna set out to write a history of the centre of Australia, he had no idea what he would discover. One event in 1934 – the shooting at Uluru of Aboriginal man Yokununna by white policeman Bill McKinnon, and subsequent Commonwealth inquiry – stood out as a mirror of racial politics in the Northern Territory at the time.

But then, through speaking with the families of both killer and victim, McKenna unearthed new evidence that transformed the historical record and the meaning of the event for today. As he explains, ‘Every thread of the story connected to the present in surprising ways.’ In a sequence of powerful revelations, McKenna explores what truth-telling and reconciliation look like in practice.

Return to Uluru brings a cold case to life. It speaks directly to the Black Lives Matter movement, but is completely Australian. Recalling Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man, it is superbly written, moving, and full of astonishing, unexpected twists. Ultimately it is a story of recognition and return, which goes to the very heart of the country. At the centre of it all is Uluru, the sacred site where paths fatefully converged.

Yellow Bird by Sierra Crane Murdoch

When Lissa Yellow Bird was released from prison in 2009, she found her home, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, transformed by the Bakken oil boom. In her absence, the landscape had been altered beyond recognition, her tribal government swayed by corporate interests, and her community burdened by a surge in violence and addiction. Three years later, when Lissa learned that a young white oil worker, Kristopher "KC" Clarke, had disappeared from his reservation worksite, she became particularly concerned. No one knew where Clarke had gone, and few people were actively looking for him.

Yellow Bird traces Lissa's steps as she obsessively hunts for clues to Clarke's disappearance. She navigates two worlds - that of her own tribe, changed by its newfound wealth, and that of the non-Native oilmen, down on their luck, who have come to find work on the heels of the economic recession. Her pursuit of Clarke is also a pursuit of redemption, as Lissa atones for her own crimes and reckons with generations of trauma.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ari Drennen at MMFA:

A New York Times article about the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s 2022 standards of care draws on emails released by a psychologist who has compared homosexuality to pedophilia and reportedly worked on behalf of an extreme anti-LGBTQ group.

The Times piece, which claims that the Biden administration lobbied to remove explicit age limits from the guidelines, does not provide sufficient context on the psychologist's background or his reported work for Alliance Defending Freedom, a Project 2025 partner.

The article also uses outdated data to fearmonger about rising numbers of trans youth and again includes misinformation about transition care from elected officials with no fact-checking.

The Times report quotes email excerpts filed in a legal challenge to Alabama's ban on gender-affirming care from WPATH officials describing their interactions with Sarah Boateng, who then served as chief of staff to Adm. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. Boateng argued at the time that listing specific age guidelines for transition surgeries would fuel more aggressive legislative efforts to ban them. 

The Times states that “the excerpts were filed by James Cantor,” whom the paper describes simply as “a psychologist and longstanding critic of gender treatments for minors.”

Cantor frequently presents himself as an expert on gender-affirming medicine and has reportedly been retained as an expert by the states in favor of West Virginia’s ban on sports participation and restrictions on health care in Texas, Florida, and Alabama.  In the Alabama trial at the center of the Times’ reporting, Cantor also appears to have worked on behalf of Project 2025 partner and extreme anti-LGBTQ organization the Alliance Defending Freedom – a detail excluded from the Times’ report.

[...]

Project 2025 is a comprehensive transition plan for the next GOP presidential administration. Its nearly 900-page policy book labels “the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children” as “pornography” that “should be outlawed” and states that “the people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.” The Alliance Defending Freedom, which also works to curtail access to abortion, is one of over 100 organizations that have endorsed the document, meant to serve as a blueprint for a second Trump administration.

Cantor has a troubling resume outside of his work alongside the Alliance Defending Freedom. He was previously removed from the state of Florida’s roster of “subject matter experts” on transition care after linking homosexuality to pedophilia and stating that sexual attraction to children is “not inherently wrong.” Cantor served as member of the advisory council for Prostagia, which has campaigned against bans on sex dolls resembling children and has hosted support groups for “minor attracted people” open to adults alongside people as young as 13. [...]

The Times also claims that “the numbers for all gender-related medical interventions for adolescents have been steadily rising as more young people seek such care.” But the data used to support this assertion ends in 2021, when many states began restricting or outlawing transition care, meaning those numbers may no longer be “rising.”  The article also includes statements from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott characterizing transition surgeries as “disfiguring” and “genital mutilation,” respectively, with no fact-checking, a repeat of a pattern previously noted by Media Matters and GLAAD. Activists opposing female genital mutilation also say that the harmful practice should not be “hijacked for purposes to target and discriminate against vulnerable youth.” The Times story was updated after publication to remove the detail that Marci Bowers, president of WPATH, is herself a transgender woman. While the current version of the story states that Levine is also a transgender woman, it makes no note of the gender identity of Cantor, DeSantis, or Abbott.

Once again, the New York Times fails to properly note the anti-trans extremism of the subjects being covered on gender-affirming care issues, this time in a story discussing James Cantor in which NYT omitted his ties to anti-LGBTQ+ extremist group Alliance Defending Freedom.

[whitegownsandflowercrowns]

My Faves As Preacher’s Daughter

Family Tree (Intro) - Helaena Targaryen

Jesus can always reject his father/But he cannot escape his mother’s blood/He’ll scream and try to wash it off of his fingers/But he’ll never escape what he’s made up of/The fates already fucked me sideways/Swinging by my neck from the family tree

American Teenager - Luna Lovegood

Grew up under yellow light on the street/Putting too much faith in the make believe/And another high school football team/[…]/And I feel it there/In the middle of the night/When the lights go out/And I’m all alone out here/Say what you want/But say it like you mean it with your fists for once/A long Cold War with your kids at the front/Just give it one more day then you’re done, done/I do what I want/[…]/I’m doing what I want and damn I’m doing it well/For me

A House In Nebraska - Shosanna Dreyfus

You and me against the world/You were my man and I your girl/We had nothing except each other/You were my whole world/[…]/And I still call home/That house in Nebraska/[…]/And you might never come back home/And I might never sleep at night/But God I just hope that you’re out there somewhere/I just pray that you’re all right/And I feel so alone/And I feel so alone out here

Western Nights - Evelyn Evernever

I’d hold the gun/If you asked me to/But if you love me like you say you do/Would you ask me to?/[…]/Trouble’s always gonna find you baby/But so will I/[…]/I’m never gonna leave you baby/Even if you lose what’s left of your mind/Cause you know I’ll be right there beside you/Riding through all these Western nights

Family Tree - Peter Gordon

These crosses all over my body/Remind me of who I used to be/Give myself up to him in offering/[…]/I’m just a child but I’m not above violence/My mama raised me better than that/[…]/So take me down to the river/And bathe me clean/[…]/I’ve killed before, and I’ll kill again/Take the noose off, wrap it tight around my hand/[…]/And Christ, forgive these bones I’ve been hiding/Oh, and the bones I’m about to leave

Hard Times - Laura Palmer

Tell me a story about how it ends/Where you’re still the good guy, I’ll make pretend/Cause I hate this story/Where happiness ends and dies with you/I thought good guys get to be happy/I’m not happy/I am poison in the water and unhappy/Little girl who needs her daddy real bad

Thoroughfare - Mantis

I met you there in Texas somewhere on the thoroughfare/On the side of the road in some torn up clothes with a pistol in my pocket/I didn’t trust no one, but you said “baby don’t run, I’ll take you anywhere”/So I hopped right in, outta luck to spend, and at least your truck beats walking/And you said “hey, do you wanna see the west with me?”/[…]/But in these motel rooms I started to see you differently/Cause for the first time since I was a child/I could see a man who wasn’t angry

Gibson Girl - Georgina Sparks

He’s cold blooded so it takes more time to bleed/Obsession with the money, addicted to the drugs/[…]/“Baby if it feels good/Then it can’t be bad”/And if you want it good/Downright iconic

Ptolemaea - Max Mayfield

I followed you in and I was with you there/I invited you in twice, I did/[…]/Suffer does the wolf, crawling to thee/Promising a big fire, any fire/Saying I’m the one, he’s gonna take me/I’m on fire, I’m on fire, I’m on fire/Suffering is nigh, drawing to me/Calling me the one, I’m the white light/Beautiful, finite/Even the iron still fear the rot/Hiding from something I cannot stop/Walking on shadows I can’t lead him back/Buckled on the floor when night comes along/Daddy’s left and Momma won’t come home/You poor thing/Sweet mouring lamb/There’s nothing you can do/It’s already been done/What fear a man like you brings upon a woman like me/Please don’t look at me/[…]/Stop, stop, stop, make it stop/[…]/Blessed be the children/Each and every one come to know their god through some senseless act of violence

August Underground - India Stoker

Televangelism - Beth March

Sun Bleached Flies - Laura Lee

What I wouldn’t give to be in church this Sunday/Listening to the choir so heartfelt all singing/“God loves you, but not enough to save you”/So baby girl good luck taking care of yourself/[…]/And I just prayed/And I keep praying, and praying and praying/If it’s meant to be, then it will be

Strangers - Cassie Ainsworth

Thinking back to what I was always told/“Don’t talk to strangers or you might fall in love”/[…]/I tried to be good/Am I no good? Am I no good? Am I no good?/With my memory restricted to a Polaroid in evidence/I just wanted to be yours/Can I be yours? Can I be yours? Just tell me I’m yours/[…]/Don’t think about it too hard or you’ll never sleep a wink at night again/Don’t worry bout me and these green eyes

[unmellowyellowfellow]

rewrite comparison!

as promised, here is a little comparison between the way I used to tell the story, to how I am switching gears. This is part of the introduction! Chalk Mountain is my baby, and I hope you enjoy! <3

snippet under the cut!

CM: DRAFT 1 -- INTRODUCTION // OLD DOC

    The Stephensville marketplace parking lot held a very odd feeling in the morning. The weeds that grew in the parking lot sway in the hot wind and the Texas sunset rose over the security cameras on the roof, mockingbirds tweeted in the old dead trees that decorated the lot.     Dixie's old charming olive-green car was the only one in the parking lot. Sat in the driver’s seat, she had the A/C on blast, and old George Strait music muffled by the air conditioning. She licked her fingers and flicked through the Atlas. To be honest, she couldn’t read maps worth a damn, but she had gotten this far with only some error, so she figured she must have done something right. Dixie could recall reading about Chalk Mountain around 9 years ago on this day. Someone claimed a meteorite crashed, but a bunch of officials declared it a hoax or something. Her father would mock the man in the papers. “How can’t you tell the difference between a rock and a space meteor!” He would scoff. She shook the memory off her shoulders and dragged her dirty fingernail down Highway 67 until she found Chalk Mountain, circled in red crayon. It didn’t look to be too far from where she was, which was a relief. She wasn’t sure how much longer her car could take the Texas heat. Dixie began the 20-mile drive to her next stop. Although many articles say it’s a ghost town, long abandoned, she’d hoped they were just being dramatic and that she could find a place to live in this old desert town. Even if she was the only one there besides a coyote, she wouldn’t mind that too much at all.

*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+~*+*~+*~+~*~+

CM: NEW DRAFT -- INTRODUCTION // NEW DOC

The red sand of the west Texas desert gets into every nook and cranny of life around these parts. The texture is rough, yet soft; and leaves a stain on your Sunday best that sticks to ya like a honeybee to a marigold. It sneaks underneath your fingernails and hides in the corners, just out of reach. I suppose that may not be a problem for some folks. Some like the orange tint to their white button shirts, or the wind blowing in an excuse to call into work on a Wednesday to go get evening coffee and pie with your aunt down the street, or the way it sounds against the windows may resemble the gentle patter of rain against the sill.  Dixie quite liked the color of the sand, although she called it the red dirt. Her fluffy hair greatly resembled the red dirt below her porch steps that she left her stained boots on when she came home from trekking downtown. She sat down next to her boots and flicked a lighter, watching the flame dance.  She thought of her mother with a furrowed brow and a professional skill to ignore her father when he shouted inside the house about this and that. She missed her brother who ran away from home when they were children, who always had her back when their father would lash out back then. Dixie always wondered, and secretly hoped, that they were out there together somewhere.  Right as Dixie lit up an old roach that she had found in the dirty pockets of her overalls, her lungs burned from the deep inhale as her father came out the door. “Dixie,” “Yes, Walter,” The smoke trailed through her words. “What the hell‘re you doing?” He stepped over to her and looked at the spot next to her on the step. She responded in a single nod and scooted away from him to let him sit. “Drugs,” Dixie offered the cherry towards him and he scoffed. 

[mariacallous]

When Bill Lee donned a cheerleader uniform, fake pearls and a wig as part of high school senior year antics, he probably didn’t think the goofy costume would come back to bite him. But, more than 40 years later, the now governor of Tennessee is at the forefront of efforts to ban the innocent costumes he and his friends once wore, waging a battle that strikes at the heart of our first amendment freedoms.

Since the beginning of this year, at least 32 bills have been filed in Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia targeting drag performances, with more on the way.

Tennessee was the first to pass its bill into law last week, barring “adult cabaret performances” on public property or in places where they might be within view of children. The bill bans, among other things, “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers”. Violators may face misdemeanor or even felony charges.

In Texas, at least four different bills would put venues that host drag performances in the same category as adult movie theaters and strip clubs.

Driving support for these bills is discomfort and distaste for expression that defies conventional gender norms. The growth of library Drag Queen Story Hours – programs that feature drag performers as a way to provide “unabashedly queer role models” for kids – have led some to question whether young children should be exposed to those who defy traditional gender patterns.

Participation in Drag Queen Story Hours is voluntary – libraries decide whether to program these events and families choose whether to attend them – but some critics seem to regard their very existence as deviant or dangerous. This reaction is part of a wider backlash against the increased visibility of transgender and non-binary identities. States and communities have banned books featuring transgender characters and prohibited teaching about transgender identities in school.

Though the history and cultural role of drag goes well beyond current tensions over transgender issues, this form of performance and display has now come into the crosshairs. Drag performances have been targeted with violence and are now the subject of state laws to limit or even outlaw them.

Anti-drag legislation varies from state to state, but tends to share some common provisions. Most bills define a drag performer as someone performing while using dress, makeup and mannerisms associated with a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth. A number of bills include lip-syncing within their definitions and many specify that the person must be performing for an audience.

Some bills would designate any establishment that hosts drag performances as an “adult” or sexually oriented business, often making it illegal for such businesses to be located within a certain distance of schools or residential areas.

While the details of the legislation may change from state to state, most of these bills represent a broad and dangerous chilling of Americans’ right to free speech. The US supreme court has repeatedly found that clothing choices are a constitutionally protected form of expression under the first amendment.

The Tennessee law’s reference to “prurience” – defined as something intended to arouse sexual interest – should limit the sweep of the law so it doesn’t affect things like children’s story hours. But, inevitably, concerns over the intent and enforcement of the law will cast a chill over shows, jokes or comedy bits that might be anywhere close to the line. That chilling is intentional: by targeting drag performances, lawmakers intend to intimidate transgender and non-binary performers and shows into hiding.

The breadth of the bills is staggering, and many would risk chilling expression that goes well beyond the drafters’ purported goals of protecting children or limiting displays that may border on the obscene.

Productions of Shakespeare plays like As You Like It or Twelfth Night – both of which feature cross-dressing characters – could run afoul of some of these bills, as might a singer performing the musical version of Mrs Doubtfire. Sandy Duncan’s performance as Peter Pan would be banned under several of these bills. Movies like White Christmas, Tootsie, Some Like It Hot, Bridge on the River Kwai and South Pacific – all of which feature comic performances by men wearing women’s clothes – could be off-limits for screenings in schools or libraries.

Even Governor Bill Lee’s decades-old dress-up could lead to serious legal repercussions under the law he just signed, if it were to be interpreted and enforced broadly. If students wore similar costumes today on the grounds of a public high school, and then went on to make a sexual joke in front of a small group, their behavior might be criminalized.

The legislation has even broader impacts for transgender people. Under some draft laws a string quartet with a transgender violinist might not be able to perform chamber music. A trans chef talking about their new cookbook could be restricted to venues designated as “adult businesses”.

It’s perfectly fair for parents to want to decide how and when their young children engage with questions of gender identity. But the drive to protect children from witnessing people whose dress defies traditional gender binaries must not become the basis for draconian restrictions impinging upon the free expression rights of children and adults alike.

Whether it’s youthful pranks, beloved plays, historical costumes or adult performances, the ability to dress up and play characters unlike yourself is core to artistic expression. In the name of curbing drag, legislatures across the country are dragging down first amendment freedoms for all.

[mralexanderwillauer]

The American Civil War Represented in the Willauer Family.

It is common to describe the Civil War as brother against brother, however, in the case of the Willauer family this turn-of-phrase was literal. This post is about the children of Samuel Willauer (1799-1870) and Hanna “Grubb” Willauer (1804-1878). Samuel and Hanna had seven children who survived to adulthood. The four involved in this microcosm of the larger national strife were; Mary Willauer (1825-1904) the oldest sibling and the catalyst for the proceeding events, Seneca Willauer (1833-1916), the oldest son and the parent’s appointed leader of the siblings, Jonathan Willauer (1834-1864), and Samuel Willauer Jr. (1842-1862).

This story begins in the summer of 1846, Mary traveled from Pennsylvania to stay with an uncle, who served as a physician at a furnace, in West Point Tennessee. It was here Mary would meet her future husband. In Bruce Shackelford’s book, The Wests of Texas: Cattle Ranching Entrepreneurs, Mary admiringly wrote of him to her parents. Her parents agreed, Washington West (1813-1889) was an excellent choice as a prospective husband. He owned the iron furnace and was established in the community, but they disapproved of him owning slaves. Shackelford’s book describes the Willauers as Mennonites and strongly against the institution of slavery. Never-the-less the two married on October 20th, 1847. Tennessee became Mary’s home.

In 1854, Washington, who was called Wash, sold the iron works to move the family to Texas. Mary’s parents offered to sell them their apple-farm in Pennsylvania. They feared the family relocating into the wild and desired to keep their children and grandchildren close. The Wests refused, instead, they traveled down the Mississippi River to Louisiana, from there they crossed the border into Texas. To ease her parents’ concerns she traveled with her brothers, Seneca, and Jonathan. These pioneers established a homestead in Lavaca County, which they named Sweet Home. After, her brother Seneca returned to Pennsylvania, but Jonathan, taken by the opportunities in Texas, decided to stay. He established his own ranch near the Wests’ estate.

Mary, Wash, and Jonathan maintained connections with relatives back east. In spring of 1861, with the beginning of the Civil War, the border between the Northern and Southern States became impassable, however, the families maintained regular correspondence by sending mail through Mexico. The siblings avoided fighting until 1862, in May of that year Jonathan joined the Confederate forces, as a private in the 21st Texas Cavalry and in August Seneca and Samuel Jr. joined the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry, as a lieutenant and a private.

Seneca and Samuel are depicted in St. Clair Mulholland’s book, The Story of the 116th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion. The first battle in which they fought was Fredericksburg. Mulholland describes the assault on the sunken road writing, “Just before moving…Lieutenant Seneca G. Willauer, was badly torn by a shell … He [asked] with placid voice, ‘Colonel, do you think that I should go on with my company?’ No doubt had he been told to go on… he would have done so.” Mulholland also reports on Samuel, who did not survive, “Willauer’s brother died a very heroic death. He was first shot through the hand, then through the body… then both feet were cut off by a shell; he was still living… the stretcher-carriers took him…to the hospital where he died during the night.” Seneca is next mentioned at Bristoe Station where he narrowly avoided capture while riding in the dark, “Captain Willauer…found himself among the Confederate cavalry... He quietly rode among them until…making a break for his own line, succeeded in getting away safely.” Seneca stayed with the 116th until the battle of Gettysburg. After, he was transferred to Washington D.C.

Shackelford describes Jonathan’s service in the Confederate army through his letters to the Wests. Jonathan had wholeheartedly embraced the Southern cause in his letters when he refers to his nephews as “a fine prospect for a crop in Texas [and] a great advantage to the state and the Confederacy.”He spent much of the war in Arkansas, however in 1864 his unit participated in the Red River campaign in Louisiana. He was killed in a skirmish on April 23rd, 1864.  Seneca was mentioned one final time in James Swanson’s book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. Seneca led a cavalry unit in the search for the assassin John Wilkes Booth. He writes, “dispatch from a Captain Willauer… J. Wilkes Booth was seen passing through Great Mills on foot about 9 o’clock this morning… Everything shall be done that can be done to secure him.”

The turn-of-phrase brother against brother has been applied to the Civil War, but for the Willauer brothers it was literal. Jonathan fought for the Confederates while Seneca and Samuel fought for the Union. Though many sources exist of correspondence between family members and the brothers, there is no evidence that they ever wrote to each other or even mentioned each other.  The Civil War was the deadliest war in American history and the experience of the Willauer family serves as a microcosm for this national tragedy.

Bibliography:

Mulholland, St. Clair A. (St. Clair Augustin), and Lawrence Frederick. Kohl. The Story of the 116th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion. New York: Fordham University Press, 1996.

Shackelford, Bruce M. The Wests of Texas : Cattle Ranching Entrepreneurs. Denton: Texas State Historical Association, 2015.

Swanson, James L. Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. 1st ed. New York: William Morrow, 2006.

[reasoningdaily]

White lynch mobs in America murdered at least 4,467 people between 1883 and 1941, hanging, burning, dismembering, garroting and blowtorching their victims.

Their violence was widespread but not indiscriminate: About 3,300 of the lynched were black, according to the most recent count by sociologists Charles Seguin and David Rigby. The remaining dead were white, Mexican, of Mexican descent, Native American, Chinese or Japanese.

Such numbers, based on verifiable newspaper reports, represent a minimum. The full human toll of racial lynching may remain ever beyond reach.

Religion was no barrier for these white murderers, as I’ve discovered in my research on Christianity and lynch mobs in the Reconstruction-era South. White preachers incited racial violence, joined the Ku Klux Klan and lynched black people.

Sometimes, the victim was a pastor.

Buttressing white supremacy

When considering American racial terror, the first question to answer is not how a lynch mob could kill a man of the cloth but why white lynch mobs killed at all.

The typical answer from Southern apologists was that only black men who raped white women were targeted. In this view, lynching was “popular justice” – the response of an aggrieved community to a heinous crime. A white lynch mob in Shelbyville, Tennessee, in 1941. Bettmann via Getty

Journalists like Ida B. Wells and early sociologists like Monroe Work saw through that smokescreen, finding that only about 20% to 25% of lynching victims were alleged rapists. About 3% were women. Some were children.

Black people were lynched for murder or assault, or on suspicion that they committed those crimes. They could also be lynched for looking at a white woman or for bumping the shoulder of a white woman. Some were killed for being near or related to someone accused of the aforementioned offenses.

Identifying the dead is supremely difficult work. As sociologists Amy Kate Bailey and Stewart Tolnay argue persuasively in their 2015 book “Lynched,” very little is known about lynching victims beyond their gender and race.

But by cross-referencing news reports with census data, scholars and civil rights organizations are uncovering more details.

One might expect that mobs seeking to destabilize the black community would focus on the successful and the influential – people like preachers or prominent business owners.

Instead, lynching disproportionately targeted lower-status black people – individuals society would not protect, like the agricultural worker Sam Hose of Georgia and men like Henry Smith, a Texas handyman accused of raping and killing a three-year-old girl. The National Memorial For Peace And Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, commemorates the victims of lynching. Bob Miller/Getty Images

The rope and the pyre snuffed out primarily the socially marginal: the unemployed, the unmarried, the precarious – often not the prominent – who expressed any discontentment with racial caste.

That’s because lynching was a form of social control. By killing workers with few connections who could be economically replaced – and doing so in brutal, public ways that struck terror into black communities – lynching kept white supremacy on track.

Fight from the front lines

So black ministers weren’t often lynching victims, but they could be targeted if they got in the way.

I.T. Burgess, a preacher in Putnam County, Florida, was hanged in 1894 after being accused of planning to instigate a revolt, according to a May 30, 1894, story in the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. Later that year, in December, the Constitution also reported, Lucius Turner, a preacher near West Point, Georgia, was shot by two brothers for apparently writing an insulting note to their sister.

Ida B. Wells wrote in her 1895 editorial “A Red Record” about Reverend King, a minister in Paris, Texas, who was beaten with a Winchester Rifle and placed on a train out of town. His offense, he said, was being the only person in Lamar County to speak against the horrific 1893 lynching of the handyman Henry Smith.

In each of these cases, the victim’s profession was ancillary to their lynching. But preaching was not incidental to black pastors’ resistance to lynching.

My dissertation research shows black pastors across the U.S. spoke out against racial violence during its worst period, despite the clear danger that it put them in. Ida B. Wells, the great documentarian of the lynching era, in 1920. Chicago History Museum/Getty Images

Many, like the Washington, D.C., Presbyterian pastor Francis Grimke, preached to their congregations about racial violence. Grimke argued for comprehensive anti-racist education as a way to undermine the narratives that led to lynching.

Other pastors wrote furiously about anti-black violence.

Charles Price Jones, the founder of the Church of God (Holiness) in Mississippi, for example, wrote poetry affirming the African heritage of black Americans. Sutton Griggs, a black Baptist pastor from Texas, wrote novels that were, in reality, thinly veiled political treatises. Pastors wrote articles against lynching in their own denominational newspapers.

By any means necessary

Some white pastors decried racial terror, too. But others used the pulpit to instigate violence.

On June 21, 1903, the white pastor of Olivet Presbyterian church in Delaware used his religious leadership to incite a lynching.

Preaching to a crowd of 3,000 gathered in downtown Wilmington, Reverend Robert A. Elwood urged the jury in the trial of George White – a black farm laborer accused of raping and killing a 17-year-old white girl, Helen Bishop – to pronounce White guilty speedily.

Otherwise, Elwood continued, according to a June 23, 1903 New York Times article, White should be lynched. He cited the Biblical text 1 Corinthians 5:13, which orders Christians to “expel the wicked person from among you.”

“The responsibility for lynching would be yours for delaying the execution of the law,” Elwood thundered, exhorting the jury.

George White was dragged out of jail the next day, bound and burned alive in front of 2,000 people.

The following Sunday, a black pastor named Montrose W. Thornton discussed the week’s barbarities with his own congregation in Wilmington. He urged self-defense.

“There is but one part left for the persecuted negro when charged with crime and when innocent. Be a law unto yourself,” he told his parishioners. “Die in your tracks, perhaps drinking the blood of your pursuer.”

Newspapers around the country denounced both sermons. An editorial in the Washington Star said both pastors had “contributed to the worst passions of the mob.”

By inciting lynching and advocating for self defense, the editors judged, Elwood and Thornton had “brought the pulpit into disrepute.”

[ryoko-loves-roses]

1. What is you middle name? Rose 2. How old are you? 17 3. When is your birthday? December 7th 4. What is your zodiac sign? Saggitarius 5. What is your favorite color? Any light colors. 6. What’s your lucky number? I would say '4' 7. Do you have any pets? Yes. 2 dogs. 8. Where are you from? Texas. 9. How tall are you? 5'2 10. What shoe size are you? 9 and a half 11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? i have a slipper collection of 10 slippers. 12. What was your last dream about? my current girlfriend. 13. What talents do you have? I can do the cupsong from 'pitch perfect' i guess? i can also kick very high. 14. Are you psychic in any way? No. 15. Favorite song? It varies. 16. Favorite movie? I don't watch movies, only shows. 17. Who would be your ideal partner? I mean... I really want to marry my current girlfriend. 18. Do you want children? Eventually, yes. 19. Do you want a church wedding? Not really. It depends. 20. Are you religious? I mean... I am a christian, but I don't talk about it much. 21. Have you ever been to the hospital? Yes. 22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? No. 23. Have you ever met any celebrities? Yes... I've met the Voice Actor for L Lawliet. 24. Baths or showers? Baths. I'm a baby lol. 25. What color socks are you wearing? Right now? None. I'm like L... barefoot... 26. Have you ever been famous? Yes, actually. 27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? No. 28. What type of music do you like? I like indie pop. 29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? NO. 30. How many pillows do you sleep with? 3. 31. What position do you usually sleep in? I usually sleep on my arms and wake up in pain LMAO. 32. How big is your house? 2 stories. 33. What do you typically have for breakfast? I don't. 34. Have you ever fired a gun? No. 35. Have you ever tried archery? No. 36. Favorite clean word? I don't know. Any of them lol. 37. Favorite swear word? It's a sentence, but "FOR FUCKS SAKE" 38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? 3 days. 39. Do you have any scars? Yes. My arms and legs. 40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? Yes. 41. Are you a good liar? I'd say so. 42. Are you a good judge of character? Now I am. 43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? Yes. the country accent hehehe 44. Do you have a strong accent? No. 45. What is your favorite accent? BRITISH OR AUSTRALIAN!!! 46. What is your personality type? INFJ 47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? uhm... I don't know. 48. Can you curl your tongue? Yes. 49. Are you an innie or an outie? Innie. 50. Left or right handed? Right. 51. Are you scared of spiders? Very. 52. Favorite food? Hot wings! 53. Favorite foreign food? Orange Chicken I guess. 54. Are you a clean or messy person? Very Clean. 55. Most used phrase? "im a lesbian" 56. Most used word? "HELP" (it's what i say in text when something is so damn funny, but i dont want to type out my laughter) 57. How long does it take for you to get ready? if it's an event or something, an hour. 58. Do you have much of an ego? No. 59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? Suck em. 60. Do you talk to yourself? Yes. 61. Do you sing to yourself? Yes. 62. Are you a good singer? I would say so. 63. Biggest Fear? Physically, Bugs. Mentally, Losing everyone again. 64. Are you a gossip? No. 65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? The JDrama for Death Note LMAO. 66. Do you like long or short hair? Long. 67. Can you name all 50 states of America? Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Georgia Florida illinois Idaho. Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming.

68. Favorite school subject? English. 69. Extrovert or Introvert? I would say introvert, but I can be extroverted sometimes. 70. Have you ever been scuba diving? No. 71. What makes you nervous? Confrontation. 72. Are you scared of the dark? No. 73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? No. I'm too scared. 74. Are you ticklish? So ticklish that I can tickle myself sometimes. 75. Have you ever started a rumor? No. 76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? No. 77. Have you ever drank underage? No. 78. Have you ever done drugs? No. 79. Who was your first real crush? My childhood BFF. 80. How many piercings do you have? 2 81. Can you roll your Rs? Nope. 82. How fast can you type? 80 WPM 83. How fast can you run? Not that fast lmao 84. What color is your hair? Originally Brunette but now its slightly blonde. 85. What color is your eyes? Hazel 86. What are you allergic to? Some face cream. 87. Do you keep a journal? No. 88. What do your parents do? My mom is a stay at home mom and my father works for a big technology company. 89. Do you like your age? yes?... 90. What makes you angry? People that hurt my loved ones. 91. Do you like your own name? My deadname? Hell no. My current name now? Yes. 92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? NGL I was thinking about 'Naomi' for some reason. 93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? I really don't care, but I've wanted a son. 94. What are you strengths? I care. Even when someone does me wrong, and when they are a real nuisance, I can't help but care deeply about them. I don't want them hurt. 95. What are your weaknesses? I believe I'm very petty. 96. How did you get your name? My deadname is a biblical name. 97. Were your ancestors royalty? No. 98. Do you have any scars? Already answered this. 99. Color of your bedspread? It has a pattern of blue and green. 100. Color of your room? It's very minimalistic, but the walls are white.

Get To Know Me Uncomfortably Well

PLEASE DON’T LET THIS FLOP AHHHH

1. What is you middle name? 2. How old are you? 3. When is your birthday? 4. What is your zodiac sign? 5. What is your favorite color? 6. What’s your lucky number? 7. Do you have any pets? 8. Where are you from? 9. How tall are you? 10. What shoe size are you? 11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? 12. What was your last dream about? 13. What talents do you have? 14. Are you psychic in any way? 15. Favorite song? 16. Favorite movie? 17. Who would be your ideal partner? 18. Do you want children? 19. Do you want a church wedding? 20. Are you religious? 21. Have you ever been to the hospital? 22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? 23. Have you ever met any celebrities? 24. Baths or showers? 25. What color socks are you wearing? 26. Have you ever been famous? 27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? 28. What type of music do you like? 29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? 30. How many pillows do you sleep with? 31. What position do you usually sleep in? 32. How big is your house? 33. What do you typically have for breakfast? 34. Have you ever fired a gun? 35. Have you ever tried archery? 36. Favorite clean word? 37. Favorite swear word? 38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? 39. Do you have any scars? 40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? 41. Are you a good liar? 42. Are you a good judge of character? 43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? 44. Do you have a strong accent? 45. What is your favorite accent? 46. What is your personality type? 47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? 48. Can you curl your tongue? 49. Are you an innie or an outie? 50. Left or right handed? 51. Are you scared of spiders? 52. Favorite food? 53. Favorite foreign food? 54. Are you a clean or messy person? 55. Most used phrased? 56. Most used word? 57. How long does it take for you to get ready? 58. Do you have much of an ego? 59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? 60. Do you talk to yourself? 61. Do you sing to yourself? 62. Are you a good singer? 63. Biggest Fear? 64. Are you a gossip? 65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? 66. Do you like long or short hair? 67. Can you name all 50 states of America? 68. Favorite school subject? 69. Extrovert or Introvert? 70. Have you ever been scuba diving? 71. What makes you nervous? 72. Are you scared of the dark? 73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? 74. Are you ticklish? 75. Have you ever started a rumor? 76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? 77. Have you ever drank underage? 78. Have you ever done drugs? 79. Who was your first real crush? 80. How many piercings do you have? 81. Can you roll your Rs?“ 82. How fast can you type? 83. How fast can you run? 84. What color is your hair? 85. What color is your eyes? 86. What are you allergic to? 87. Do you keep a journal? 88. What do your parents do? 89. Do you like your age? 90. What makes you angry? 91. Do you like your own name? 92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? 93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? 94. What are you strengths? 95. What are your weaknesses? 96. How did you get your name? 97. Were your ancestors royalty? 98. Do you have any scars? 99. Color of your bedspread? 100. Color of your room?

[sp-writes]

Brotherhood Oc profile #4

Personal Details:

Name: Samuel Jameson Brantley

Aliases: James,Elder Brantley,Old Side Eyes Brant

Birthdate: 10/24/2224 age 64 (2289)

Birthplace: Tucson, Arizona

Current location: Memphis Ruins,TN

Appearance:

Hair color: Blonde/grey style: long “slicked”

Eyes: Blue

Height: 6’4”

Weight: 230lbs

Ethnicity: 70% Scottish 30% Irish

voice claim: Sam Elliott

(Facial features are also based on Sam Elliott.)

Clothing: Brantley sports a standard BOS officer Uniform with a battle coat similar to Elder Maxson . He has his named labeled alongside the left side of his coat and wears his holotags across his neck. When off-duty he sports a tanned Stetson, wranglers, a blue button down shirt with a necktie and a black sporting vest.

Power Armor: Though he seldom wears it, Brantley has several power armor suits during his days as a knight,paladin, and a sentinel. His current t-60 model similar to Maxson’s sports the colors of a Brotherhood elder. He has his title and last name engraved into the chest plate.

Weapons: Brantley loves his custom made laser rifle and Gatling laser but prefers an old fashioned revolver any day. He wears two pearl gripped 44 magnums in a leather cross drawl belt above his waist. “It reminds me of my old days as a young Knight in the Arizona Desert.”

Relations/Family:

Ex-Fling: Jessica Blair

2240-2242

Ex-Fling: Allie Brandell

Years: 2250-2252

Ex-Wife: Daine Greyson-Brantley

Married: 2250-2257

Late-wife: Kristen Lennon

Married: 2264-now

Current Fling: Deirdre Barkley

Children:

Daughter: Kara-May Brantley

Stepson: Hank Greyson-Brantley

States/Cities he has served in for sake of The Brotherhood:

Years served in Tucson, Arizona: 2224-2257

Transferred for battle against super mutants.

Years served in New Orleans,Louisiana: 2257-2270

Transferred for sexual advances toward the Elder’s daughter. Operating power armor while under the influence and reckless behavior towards his commanding officer.

Years served in San Antonio,Texas: 2270-2275

Transferred for correctional behavior, battle readiness and recon duty.

Years served in Memphis,Tennessee: 2275-now

Transferred for a leadership role.

BOS RANKS:

Squire:

2229-2240

Promotion Age: 5

Knight:

2240-2250

Promotion age: 16

Knight-Sergeant:

2250-2257

Promotion age: 26

Paladin:

2257-2265

Promotion age: 33

Paladin-Commander:

2265-2273

Promotion age: 41

Sentinel:

2273-2280

Promotion age: 49

Mid-West Elder:

2280-now

Promotion age: 56

His story:

Brantley grew up in the hot deserts of Arizona to loving parents, Sergeant Janelle and Paladin Dalton Brantley, on a base outside Tucson,(the Elder at the time was Jeremy Maxson.) Brantley was born into The Brotherhood, learning the ways and values of his brothers and sisters around him. He served in Arizona for many years gaining the high elders respect to marrying the love of his life Scribe Greyson. Until word from the Southeast elder, (Elder Murdoch) needing assistance changed that immediately. Brantley was sent off to fight super mutants, who had taken over the New Orleans ruins, destroying everything in sight.

The Brotherhood wanted to reclaim the city but was short numbered, Brantley was one of the many transferred to Murdoch’s division. It took them several months to clear the location of filth and mutants. Young Brantley was awarded the title of Paladin for his bravery.

Just as things were turning right for the newly titled Paladin. He learned that his wife left him for a Young Knight back in Arizona, taking his stepson with her. Bringing on sorrow and pain, he spent his late nights drinking himself away wallowing in his guilt. He became violent and ugly, always starting a fight with those beneath him in rank and above him. He even went to lengths of drinking while on duty, he was once found by a young scribe, while drinking a bottle of whiskey down inside his power armor.

The Elder shrugged off his behavior for years, claiming he’ll be fine. Until he was caught trying to talk his daughter into having sex with him. Elder Murdoch was furious and made him seek correction in his Texas chapter. He spent the next two years there sobering up and earning his title back. It wasn’t long after that he became a well respected individual again. He was finally transferred one last time out east where he was offered the rank of sentinel.

After the death of Elder Dean Lincoln, some short time after, the Midwest Brotherhood was left without an elder for weeks. Everyone believed Brantley was the perfect replacement and he was sworn in as The Midwest’s High-Elder. Today the Midwest Brotherhood of Steel, is half as large as Maxson’s. With vertibirds,boats, high-grade weapons uniforms,armor and militarized robots, personal t-60 power armor and motorized vehicles. Brantley’s ways and dedication have changed them forever. Since his promotion, he has since remarried to Sentinel Kristen Lennon, and has a daughter named Kara-May, a 26 year old free-spirited, but mature field scribe.

[suburuspangles-blog]

An Introduction to Prophet Royal Robertson

Here is Sufjan speaking a bit about Royal :)

This essay goes along with a group of other essays that discusses my analysis of Sufjan Stevens's "The Age Of Adz". As I write these essays the links to each one will be provided below. Thanks so much for reading my word vomit. <3

The year is 1936 in Louisiana. In a small hospital located in St. Helena Parish, a woman gave birth to a small baby boy named Royal Robertson. He was born on October 21st. Soon after his birth, Robertson relocated to Baldwin, Louisiana. He did not have an extensive knowledge, stopping school just after the eighth grade.

As a teenager, Robertson worked as a sign painter. Coinciding with this were Royal’s presumed visions. His visions were often religious based or otherworldly. He recalled one of these visions being ‘a spaceship with God as the driver.’ His visions would come to inspire his artwork later on in his life.

A little older, he travelled to the West coast and continued his work as a sign painter and field hand. He did this until the 1950s, when he travelled back to Louisiana to care for his mother. He continued to paint signs, finding comfort in the work and eventually making a name for himself in Baldwin. He went on to meet a woman named Adell Brent. In 1955, they got married, and Adell gave birth to eleven children—ten daughters and two sons.  The couple spent 19 years together, when their marriage ended with a divorce. Adell was gone, moving to Texas and taking her children with her. It isn’t particularly known why she divorced him—maybe it was his trauma or a lack of respect, as women tend to receive. In an interview for the documentary "MAKE", (one that Sufjan Stevens made music for), she admits that at the end of their relationship he became more and more unhinged. One thing is for sure, however, and it’s that it had a great impact on Robertson. Suffering with paranoid schizophrenia, his condition only got worse after the divorce. As the impact of her absence began to pour out and eventually spill, he turned cold and hateful to his family. He became a recluse and to anyone. The yard of his small home was full and decorated with hand-painted signs with messages warning “WHORES AND BASTARDS” and other entities to stay away. His hate became more targeted to women, especially his wife. His misogynistic views carried into his work, along with his prophetic visions. He believed himself to be a prophet, with the title “Libra Patriarch Prophet Lord Archbishop Apostle Visionary Mystic Psychic Saint Royal Robertson”. He used supplies that were readily available to him in his art, such as poster board and markers, ink pens, glitter, and enamel paints. Royal drew a plethora of religious, pornographic, and sci-fi inspirations for his art. His pieces varied in subject, with some sporting women (usually in some way sexualized), otherworldly beings, or robots. A lot of Royal’s art was adorned with calendars on their backs, often keeping track of his visions, visits from art friends, his dreams, and etc. 

"Prophet" Royal Robertson, If Computers Fool Ya Baby (Two-Sided Piece, Calendar on Back), ca. 1975, paint and tape on poster board, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Royal Robertson’s art, (which the majority of is lost due to age and a hurricane in 2003), is what inspired Sufjan Stevens to write his album “The Age of Adz”. He uses one of Royal’s early pieces, titled “The Visionary Drawing No. 8” as the album cover for it. 

“Prophet” Royal Robertson, The Visionary Drawing No. 8, ca. 1978, The Line of Best Fit

Inspired both by his own and Royal’s life, Sufjan Stevens tells an enticing story of love, pain, and otherworldly oddities. He and the artists who helped complete the album created an electronically skittish and beautiful cacophony of music to represent the provocative, sometimes intimidating nature of Royals work. I have analyzed every song from this album and will upload the essays sooner or later.

Thank you for reading! All kinds of interactions are welcome. The world is abundant.

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image IDs: Excerpts of text. Image #1: for them. "Brokeback" was constructed on the small but tight idea of a couple of home-grown country kids, opinions and self-knowledge shaped by the world around them, finding themselves in emotional waters of increasing depth. I wanted to develop the story through a kind of literary sostenente.

Image #2: despise. Although they were not really cowboys (the word "cowboy" is often used derisively in the west by those who do ranch work), the urban critics dubbed it a tale of two gay cowboys. No. It is a story of destructive rural homophobia. Although there are many places in Wyoming where gay

Image #3: lonesome they can poke each other." From that perspective Aguirre, the hiring man, would have winked and said nothing, and Ennis' remark to Jack that this was a one-shot deal would have been accurate. The complicating factor was that they both fell into once-in-a-lifetime love. I strove to give Jack and Ennis depth and complexity and to mirror real life by rasping that love against societal norms that both men obeyed, both of them marrying and begetting children, both loving their children, and, in a way, their wives.

Image #4: Seeing the film disturbed me. I felt that, as the ancient Egyptians had removed a corpse's brain through the nostril with a slender hook before mummification, the cast and crew of this film, from the director down, had gotten into my mind and pulled out images. Especially did I fell this about Heath Ledger, who knew better than I how Ennis felt and thought, whose intimate depiction of that achingly needy ranch kid builds with frightening power. It is an eerie sensation to see events you have imagined in the privacy of your mind, and tried hopelessly to transmit to others though little black marks on a page, loom up before you in an overwhelming visual experience. I realized that I, as a writer, was having the rarest film trip: my story was not mangled but enlarged into huge and gripping imagery that rattled minds and squeezed hearts.

Image #5: Aside from the two-face landscape, aside from the virtuoso acting, aside from the stunning and subtle makeup job of aging these two young

Image #6: men twenty years, an accumulation of very small details gives the film authenticity and authority: Ennis' dirty fingernails in a love scene, the old highway signs Entering Wyoming not seen here for decades, the slight paunch Jack develops as he ages, the splotch of nail polish on Lureen's finger in the painful telephone scene, her mother's perfect Texas hair, Ennis and Jack sharing a joint instead of a cigarette in the 1970s, the switched around shirts, the speckled enamel coffeepot, all accumulate and convince us of the truth of the story. People may doubt that young men fell in love up on the snowy heights, but no one disbelieves the speckled coffeepot, and if the coffeepot is true, so is the other.

currently reading 'brokeback mountain: story to screenplay' and annie proulx, i just want to TALK