#a whole adult with a blog run since 2002

[tra-archive]

Imagine being a grown ass man comparing feminists who are mean online to alt-righters and fucking pedophiles. You and your shitty website can fuck off and stay out of women’s business.

Also, “sickest fuckers on this site and irredeemable in all contexts?” So not the people who post violent porn in feminist tags, not the MAGA fucks who harass women here on the daily, not the people who post their rape and incest fantasies for all to see, including those of us who are SA victims? Not the racist men who call Black women the N word for speaking up? Not the homophobes who call gay people f*gs? Not the ableists who call ND people r*tards?

All of those people are on tumblr right now doing way worse, and yet your focus is on women who rightfully criticize a sexist system. I hate you people

[adultswim2021]

Welcome to Eltingville: “Bring Me the Head of Boba Fett” | February 26, 2002 - 4:00 AM | Special

Lots of personal baggage to unpack on this one, so please forgive what will surely read as a personal blog post:

Welcome to Eltingville was the first of Adult Swim’s “failed pilots” which aired as a special. It’s failed in the sense that it didn’t get picked up, presumably for being too expensive. It originally aired as a stealth premiere at 4:00AM on Monday night/Tuesday morning, I’m assuming to fulfill a contractual agreement. It had a “for real” advertised premiere on March 3rd, which is what you’ll find cited on various web sources.

It’s time I confess something here: I didn’t like this show the first time around. The early 2000s was a time when “nerd” culture was being clumsily embraced as a novelty. People suddenly started gravitating towards movies and shows about nerds, all usually portrayed in a cutesy and toothless way. Yes, I was too blinded by my own shunning of this trend to realize that this show was the antithesis of that. And yes, I was unfamiliar with the original comics that these were based on, which probably would have blown my mind if I was aware of them in the 90s. Hell, I would have shunned a Dan Pussey cartoon if I weren’t already in love with Dan Clowes comics.

Was it all overblown in my own head? Well, I can only come up with two examples to illustrate my distaste for “nerds stuff”, so yes, it probably was. First, Super Nerds, which was a 2000 pilot staring Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn as two nerds who worked at a comic book store. I was sold on it by a friend as being the best sitcom he’d ever seen in his life. I also loved Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn. But good lord, did I hate that show, a lot. The more mainstream example is the Comedy Central show Beat the Geeks, a trivia game show where normal people compete against experts (or geeks) in certain fields (usually popular culture related). The promos showed the geeks in question strutting around and ironically looking cool and triumphant. These promos were so profoundly unfunny to me that I found it insane and offensive when the whole “geek” angle seemed to hook other members of my family. “there’s this game show where guys have to compete... against GEEKS! haw haw!” I can still hear my dad’s voice echo in my head. I still hate it!

I also didn’t relate to traditionally geeky things, like superhero comics, science fiction/fantasy, etc. I hated all of that stuff, and I still mostly do (did I go through a multiple year phase in my early 30s where I tried to force myself to like super hero comics? Yes! I did! It didn’t particularly take). I am absolutely a comedy nerd, though, which is a much MUCH lonelier pursuit.

Hell, the comedy nerd isn’t even an archetype on TV shows; Freaks and Geeks came fairly close, but those guys also liked sci-fi and role-playing games and stuff. Square Pegs also had a comedy nerd character. There was that episode of Undeclared where Martin Starr is boring the rest of the cast by trying to explain that Freddy Got Fingered was an intelligent anti-comedy (the closest I’ve ever seen myself be portrayed on screen). All of these shows lasted one season, making the comedy nerd character the most potent poison since (NOTE TO SELF: google FAMOUS FICTIONAL POISONS, please pick a cool non-nerdy one [leave note-to-self in write-up if coming up with one is impossible {will come off as intentional meta-humor (everyone will love this)}]).

Welcome to Eltingville is about four friends who have created The Eltingville Comc Book, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club. They’ve presumably been together for a long time when this episode starts, and we see the dynamics of the club right away, the main thing being the constant petty bickering that quickly becomes violent and destructive. They’re all gigantic jerks who presumably only hang with each other because nobody else will. The main conflict of this show has to do with Bill, the Stan of the group, and Josh, the Cartman, who eventually come to blows over a rare Boba Fett doll-- I mean, figure. The first half of the show is a pretty good introduction to the would-be-series, with the guys playing a D&D style role-playing game and then getting into a full-fledged fist-fight over a VHS compilation of nude scenes that turns out to be a recording of the Hair Bear Bunch. The second half is an adaptation of the comic story “Bring Me The Head of Boba Fett”. Had I thought of it I might have read the entire run of Eltingville Club comics before reviewing this. Unfortunately it was a bit of an afterthought so I just read the first two stories, including the Boba Fett one. For the record, I own the Eltingville book, and definitely read and loved the two-issue series that serves as the ending of the Eltingville comics. It’s all those comics in the middle I still need to get to.

The show is very funny and it looks beautiful. According to the few interviews that I’ve found regarding the show (including a page of text found in the Eltingville book, which precedes a section showing off some of the character design sheets), there really wasn’t much reason given for the show not getting picked up. The show definitely looked better than anything else on Adult Swim, so the whole “too expensive” thing seems like as good an assumption as any. Apparently Dorkin spread himself too thin working on this, attempting to design/draw every little thing seen on screen. I actually wondered that while watching the show, because his art style is faithfully preserved here, which is great! The episode ends the same way the comic story does, with Bill & Josh in a trivia-off, competing over the buying rights for a 12 inch Boba Fett action figure at their local comic shop. With every rewatch of this show I confront one basic thing about myself, and it’s how much of the trivia I’ve picked up since the last rewatch. Bill & Josh’s trivia-off is a flurry of questions regarding all kinds of geek garbage, and the few years between viewings of this results in me knowing a few more answers. But, I have the internet, and can usually get hold of a movie or TV show or comic book almost instantly. It’s important to not lose sight that these kids (especially in the comics) are either high-school or college-aged and they learned all of this shit in an era when the internet wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is today. The original comic is set firmly in 1994, and when there’s a dispute over a question Josh runs home to get a large Godzilla reference book to prove that he’s correct. This changed in the pilot to Josh losing on a technicality with a slip-of-the-tongue; attributing a famous catchphrase to a fellow club-member who had adopted it for himself (the comic actually SEEMS to set this up, but doesn’t go in that direction at all, which is weird when you read it AFTER watching this special. I think that means the cartoon improved on that idea).

Wikipedia makes no mention of this stealth broadcast. It would SEEM to make more sense that it aired Monday morning following late night Sunday, but Adult Swim ended at 1AM back in these days, making early Monday morning still technically “out of bounds”. In fact, I very nearly “corrected” the air date to reflect this, but a quick google search for “Welcome to Eltingville” + “4AM” yielded this message board thread where we can see in real time that early Tuesday morning is indeed correct. So, if you’re ever arguing over a 12 inch Boba Fett feel free to uses this trivia in your trivia off.

[redshoesnblueskies]

from my 2020 Faves & Saves update page:  Fanfic culture, AO3 origins going right back to strikethrough, fandom history.....

SO. MANY. LINKS.

so many goodies under the cut!

these are all links to my tumblr - i did not write very many of them, but i know my links will remain the same and not be lost :)

The master post of upholding and celebrating fanfic, by @inkandcayenne :

‘I think fanfiction is literature and literature, for the most part, is fanfiction, and that anyone that dismisses it simply on the grounds that it’s derivative knows fuck-all about literature and needs to get the hell off my lawn.’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/621654927974055936/inkandcayenne-tywinning-asked-you-2012-08-09

.

HISTORY OF FANDOM CULTURE FROM LJ TO AO3

'What you are doing when you say “If you don’t want crit, don’t post your story” is gatekeeping, and in a REALLY harmful way. Without fans creating work (fanfiction or art or meta), there is no fandom. You’re not only saying “you can’t be in fandom if you don’t want to be hurt” you’re actively calling for fandom to be cut down. That’s a bad thing. Fandom needs creator content in order to exist and grow.’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/186058432379/so-if-youve-watched-my-general-meltdown-about

Foz: straight dudes of the world…read fanfic:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230785234/fozmeadows-totallyevillisa

foz: on depression and hurt/comfort

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230730609/on-depression-and-hurtcomfort

fantastic Foz posts from a while ago, addressing the ‘well just censor content and then you’re not godless heathens’ fallacy…

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230530849/fantastic-foz-posts-from-a-while-ago-addressing

Fanfiction & Capitalism, and Why I Think They Are Related [TW for homophobia, mentions of sexual violence, capitalism]

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230748619/fanfiction-capitalism-and-why-i-think-they-are

Fair use is authorized by law

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230721574/fyeahcopyright-heidi8-fair-use-is-wholly

fantastic breakdown of the sociology that led from LJ community culture to tumblr anonymous disconnected culture:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/611096897406615552/kanna-ophelia-taraljc-kanna-ophelia

'The Places Fandom Dwells: A cautionary Tale’ - EXCELLENT, LOTS OF LINKS

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179355549419/the-places-fandom-dwells-a-cautionary-tale

'It just kills me when writers create franchises where like 95% of the speaking roles are male, then get morally offended that all of the popular ships are gay. It’s like, what did they expect?’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/173587593934/bonehandledknife-feynites-theskaldspeaks

.

BIG AO3 POSTS - HISTORY OF FANDOM

great breakdown of stats on how HUGE AO3 actually is…

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230519234/why-are-people-still-up-in-arms-about-ao3-needing

another breakdown of how huge AO3 is & intricate skills required to run it

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179336300829/hey-ao3-can-you-like-give-the-extra-38k-you-made

AO3 is in the top 300 biggest websites in the WORLD/how a huge site like this works

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230400619/hey-ao3-can-you-like-give-the-extra-38k-you-made

origin story of AO3 - very sweet  (10th anniversary of AO3)

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230398054/on-the-ao3-all-these-years-later

this blogger remembers when we didn’t have AO3

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179391607249/this-blog-is-unrepentantly-pro-ao3

adults built fandom - who runs cons? who runs AO3 & the legal team at OTW? codes the servers?

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179430883009/naryaflame-vanimore-askragtatter-rsasai

“AO3 IS OUR SITE.  It is by fans, for fans. Fans do all the coding. All the legal paperwork. All the abuse/tos violation complaints. Fans make all the choices about policies. Fans decide how to run the fundraisers. Fans write the blog posts. All the volunteer staff are fans; all the people who train them are fans. Fans wrangle all the tags.”

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/188239677029/purge-of-2002-of-2012-what-are-those

'Certain people are screaming that AO3 is bad because it’s not a “safe space.” The real problem they have, though, is that AO3 was created to be a safe space - for writers.’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/165199049719/rapacityinblue-kaciart-rocket-sith

.

FANDOM HISTORY & CULTURE

copperbadge - fandom dad explains concrit & why it’s not welcome without specific request

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/186983936704/question-as-an-oldster-and-fandom-lurker-since

fanfic/fanart is a gift - respect it in the way you respect something freely given

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/187512037844/trickztr-friendly-reminder-that-fan-made

'Toxic Fandom: Chen Criticism and Entitlement Go Too Far’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179392060549/toxic-fandom-when-criticism-and-entitlement-go

an explanation of the anti’s as very damaged authoritarianism

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230513414/freedom-of-fanfic-freedom-of-fanfic

why do fangirls always make them gay?

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/162428018414/why-do-fangirls-always-make-them-gay

fandom history through the ages and across continents

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/129594965539/teashoesandhair-ogress-jhameia

one of several versions of a HUGE history post educating people on why we need a non-censored AO3 & why this is vital (and how misinformed many fans are)

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230393414/theothersarshi-redshoesnblueskies

another version: https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/173741270214/grison-in-space-veronica-rich

conversation on AO3 tagging (plus being screwed by censorship

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179391926284/except-that-no-one-uses-tags-like-fetishized

how AO3 is run by volunteer & how to volunteer yourself

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230390519/in-kind

Ao3 fund drive post that goes into why they don’t censor

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230054009/anarfea-anarfea-people-keep-asking-how-can

what 'Archive of Our Own’ refers to

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179136825394/what-archive-of-our-own-refers-to

AO3’s transparent financial reporting & a good rant

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179136341494/ao3-donation-drive

a short explanation of LJ strikethrough

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179124456874/telarna-meeedeee-bomberqueen17-i-just

.

LIGHTER FARE

origin of the ! - the “bang path’ in fandom pairings :D

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/118991314994/hey-whats-up-with-the-in-fandoms-ie-fat

can we PLEASE have an AO3 rating system for books & media?? pleeeeease???  here’s some thoughts on how:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/119377580254/crowd-sourced-content-warnings-at-book-stores

LJ was my initial experience of examining how fic fits into these huge gaps left by conventional writing, media and daily IRL conversation/education - the kind of healing that fic can bring to both individuals and a collective body of both knowledge and healthy questioning of assumptions about sexuality as a whole.  I mean, the kind of absolutely common place knowledge about consent, power dynamics, experimentation to determine what one’s own sexuality looks like, and the the options available is extraordinary.  To have that breadth and depth of knowledge presented in an often beautifully creative format; where you could discuss with the author and other readers anything included in the fic and what it meant to both literature and real life, as well as all things fannish that one’s wild imagination could come up with…. good god what I would have given for that information as a teen.  

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/122835116349/bonehandledknife-redshoesnblueskies

Fandom Is…. (poem)

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/124514359704/fandom-is-focus-fandom-is-obsession-fandom-is

Can fandom bring back the concept of a squick? Pleeeease?

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/126342903959/can-fandom-bring-back-the-concept-of-a-squick

'so don’t pretend it can’t be done, author dudes, because there’s a million fangirls who can write lyric filthy devastating character-revealing plot-advancing poetic tender wall-slamming trope-inverting panting sweaty trope-embracing aching crying sex…..and can do it far far better than you.’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/124171180589/sex-is-hard-to-write-about-because-you-lose-the

'It’s just fanfic…’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/126188502159/its-just-fan-fic

“Ship means something you want to see happen.” Bitch, no it don’t.

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179234734799/pyrebomb-ship-means-something-you-want-to-see

why can you sell fanart, but not fanfic??

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/128782763684/legal-side-of-tumblr-can-you-answer-me-a

humor: different types of fanfic - in graphics:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/129402064267/justanotherfmablog-yougothenigo

THE SUFFERING ARTIST CONCEPT IS BULLSHIT AND SHOULD BE BLOWTORCHED:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/186461152949/zendarkwalkerx-magicianmew-katiecrenshaw

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/166161827744/if-one-more-person-says-what-if-theyd-medicated

.

IF YOU’VE MADE IT THIS FAR, YOU DESERVE STARSHIPS (SCROLL DOWN):

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/138038043884/samati-saathi1013-tygermama-zillah975

[miphastudies]

17 Questions for 17 People

Thanks @its-bianca​ for tagging me in this! Sorry it’s taken so long, we’re in a third lockdown and I’m pretty sure my body thinks that time no longer exists.

Nicknames: Kim, Kimbo, Kimberlim, Kimothy, Kimberley Dibberley (For some reason my family thought that a nickname based off Cat’s other personality from Red Dwarf, Dwayne Dibberley, was funny and it’s stuck with me my whole life), as well as KIIII (shouted by my sister when she was about 2 and couldn’t pronounce my name, my best friend now yells it when she wants my attention) and Kim-Kim by my Dad who refuses to believe I’ve grown up (beats Kimberley Dibberley any day) 

Height: 5'9 - towering over most men is fun, I suggest it to all of you, I’d rather round it up to six foot, but I probs stopped growing at 20.

Hogwarts House: Well I got Gryffindor when I first went on that site, but being my goth self I had to take the test again until I got Slytherin - as far as I remember I had unicorn hair (or horn?) or something of the like in my wand but I’m not gonna fuel JK’s anti-trans pockets by visiting Pottermore ever again. 

Last thing I googled: The soundtrack for Futurama’s Luck of the Fryrish episode, I knew Simple Minds were on it but I could’ve sworn Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty was on it, but apparently not. I spent a good half hour trying to sing it into google with their new song-analysis thing to no avail, so I ended up siphoning through all the songs Lisa Simpson has ever played on her Sax to find out what it was (I should be doing my dissertation proposal but my tutors haven’t got back to me yet so what can ye do).

Song stuck in my head: yknow wha I’m just gonna list the songs that have been stuck in my head so far today because it’s too many to be just one as I keep cycling through them (also gonna link them so you can see how garbo weird my music taste is)

Run - Joji Alive - Pearl Jam Clinging On For Life - The Hoosiers Tension - Avenged Sevenfold  Boots of Spanish Leather - Bob Dylan Nutshell - Alice in Chains Jaded - Aerosmith  The Sea of Tragic Beasts - Fit For an Autopsy 

I’ll add my current favourite at the bottom too for good measure (Honestly I spend way too much time listening to music and I regret nothing)

Number of followers: Currently 85. I’ve got about 2k on my main blog but I’ve not touched that since July 2017.

Amount of sleep: Good lord, so I aim for 8 hours, sometimes I only get 5.5 or something along those lines, other times I depression nap during the day and can’t sleep at all, sometimes (like this morning) I’ll go to get up at a normal person time such as 9am when my body naturally wakes me up, but it’s so dark and gloomy outside and cold in my room that I just stay in bed and end up accidentally falling back asleep. 12pm gang rise up xo 

Lucky number: 7

Dream Job: Hopefully I get somewhat successful in monetising my hobbies, I’m working on it all atm (I don’t know why but I really hate telling people about my plans because I’m deathly afraid they’ll mock me or do whatever they can to ensure it doesn’t happen, I’ve got this list of things I need to do for my own mental health sellotaped to my laptop stand that had things like when to clean the house, do my laundry, shower, exercise etc, and my old flatmate/friend saw it the other week and mocked me, so I haven’t followed it since and need to find some sort of other way of organising my life instead). But yeah, hopefully hobby based, I don’t want to be stuck in an office job all my life, and I want to leave the UK (although I don’t want to leave my family) so hopefully I’ll be successful enough to bring em all with me.

Wearing: Well I was gonna wear jeans and my Unus Annus longsleeve but I decided to go full kitchen witch and wear this black milkmaid looking dress with long sleeves that I’d bought for work when I got my thigh tattoo started (all the old men appreciated the legs but I didn’t make any more tips, oops)

Favourite song: My favourite song of all time would be The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony , the band formed at my college, has great meaning and has resonated with me since I first saw the music video after it was played at my Stepdad’s funeral in 2002. Weirdly enough on my last day of college, right after my last exam, I went to get the bus home - put my Spotify on shuffle (bearing in mind I’ve got 805 songs on this playlist) and this came on straight away. That’s probably not important to most people, but being pagan, I like to think that small things like these are signs from loved ones that have since passed. Not too happy that it’s used as the England Rugby theme because it gives me anxiety every time as though I feel like everyone hearing it doesn’t have the same emotional connection with the song as I do, but idk. I saw Richard Ashcroft live and he played this and I legit bawled my eyes out in public, safe to say I’ll try and hold it in next time. I suggest you all have a listen to the song or even watch the music video for it, it’s the most simple but most meaningful music video to me. 

Favourite Instrument: I’m left handed and I had this Yamaha acoustic guitar that my stepdad gave me - and taught me to play when I was about 5, a few months before he died (it’s still weird to me that I had no idea he had cancer at that point and instead spent his last few months teaching me his favourite hobbies) all he had was right handed guitars, so he taught me to play Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters upside down on this 20 odd year old right handed acoustic. He hadn’t played upside down himself before but did it so I could see what he was doing. I remember sitting in our green living room on the couch with him moving my hands to the right position (I don’t know where my mum was in this scenario, probably in the kitchen). He’d brought this guitar with him the first day I met him, it was probably like 11pm but I was 4 and thought it was 3am or something, but I heard voices coming from the living room and had gone to investigate - there sat my mum and my stepdad having Chinese on the living room floor, laughing together, my stepdad saw me and had brought sweets for me and my brother for when we woke up, but he beckoned me over, gave me a lollipop, stuck a two litre bottle of tizer in front of me and told me to dip the lollipop in the drink and lick it (not a good idea as I would’ve been bouncing off the walls, but I think I must’ve had a sugar crash and fallen asleep). My mum had no idea he was coming as he’d sneakily been texting her, asking what her favourite drink was, her favourite food and flowers etc, after they met in a pub when my mum was at a hostel with my brother after my Dad had taken me. My mum told him that the council had given her a place and he decided to show up and surprise her with all her favourite things and play guitar for her after my brother and I had gone to bed, I don’t remember much time passing before we’d moved into his house (where my mum and her new husband live to this day), but they got married a few months later and I still can’t play that Metallica song (I did try to teach myself more of it though). I also had this black left handed Ibanez prestige that my Dad got me for Christmas about 9 years ago, I could play quite a lot on it but eventually just stopped. Very good at piano though. 

Aesthetic: I’m not sure what this entails but I’m a sucker for neon/RGB/cityscapes and that type of malarkey. Also space. Love da space.  Also whatever Cornwall would be considered as. Cottagecore? I think that’s only an animal crossing related aesthetic but I’m claiming it nonetheless. 

Favourite Author: I’m a big goth so it has to be Stephen King by default. I’ve got copious first editions of his books from the 70′s and 80′s that my Mum bought when she was a teen. At my flat I’ve got Carrie, Christine, Salem’s Lot, Misery and The Shining first editions and the others are in my room at my Mum’s house. I don’t tend to read for joy like I used to, or write for fun either but I’m hoping I do more in 2021. Currently reading The Outsider by King, it sounds eerily familiar to a novel I wrote for coursework in college in 2014 and I’m half pressed to think he’s stole my brain ideas. I’m watching you Stephen. Always watching. Always. 

Favourite animal sounds: I don’t have favourite sounds, but my husky Nanook is my favourite animal because he’s dumb and I love him. Also Kookaburra sounds are terrifying and you all should go listen to what a koala sounds like. When I go to Adelaide (hopefully this year, if not next) I am NOT stepping foot in a nature reserve unless I’ve got an anti-kookaburra noise suit on. They obviously don’t exist so I’m gonna have to make one.

Random: I’m part of a viking reenactment group where they use actual swords and fight each other, and we have to basically sign our lives away when we join, to say that if we die, it’s not the groups fault. I don’t actually do the fighting though, I’m part of the villager group, so I do all the crafting and food making and most of the teaching when we do shows. I’ve not yet been to a show as I’ve had uni to go to, but my parents, sister and brother do - They stayed within Whitby Abbey last year during the Viking festival where everyone did the show and the adults got drunk round campfires in the castle grounds. Zacky Vengeance once complimented my shirt if that’s something. I’m also colourblind, got glared at by Liam Gallagher in the Liverpool Echo Arena parking lot and have too accurate a sense of smell.

Sorry this was so long, obviously I felt like word-dumping and my brain has a lot to say as I find too much meaning in these things.  Thanks again for tagging me! I’ve not got 17 people to tag as I don’t interact with anyone at the moment but I’ll come back to this and add people as the week progresses :) 

[thank-your-lucky-stars]

The Roles of Fandom

Here is a little large guide to some of the roles people play within fandom.

[Note: I actually had the outline of this essay written for about a year, including most of the ‘roles’ listed in this post, but I have only now gotten around to writing this properly!]

I’ve been involved in several different fandoms since I first joined the World Wide Web back in 2002, with my first major fandom coming a few years later. As a result, this post is mainly based on my own experiences within fandom, although over the years I have had numerous conversations with numerous people who share my views about the mentality of fandom and the clear hierarchies, cliques and statuses, which have helped me broaden my mind and open my eyes to the reality of it all. It’s something I have always found fascinating, which is why I often analyse the goings on within fandoms to assess the clear roles most people often fall into.

I also feel I have the ability to see things from many different points of view, as I myself have been in several different roles in different fandoms over the years; I have been the new girl, I have been a popular blog with praise heaped upon me, I have been sucked into an unhealthy group (the Mean Girls - more later), I have entered an already established fandom and managed to climb up the ladder, I have watched a fandom fall apart due to trolls and bullies (which I also happened to be a victim of), and I have also been the lurker - the outsider looking in.  

As a result of this, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the whole concept of fandom - any fandom - is a game. Everyone is playing, it’s just they may not realise it until they....stop playing. Hindsight can really open your eyes to your own behaviour - good or bad - and others’ behaviour too, and it can also teach you a lot about yourself. It has definitely taught me a lot about myself, and in order to write this post, I have had to look back at the certain roles that I myself have played since my first key fandom back in 2006. I have absolutely made mistakes and interacted with the wrong crowds, and there is a lot of stuff in my fandom history that makes me cringe on recollection, but it’s these experiences that have taught me what I know and are part of the reason why I find it all so fascinating; the mentality of it all, and what it can say about you and all of your peers who are generally just trying to bond over this thing you all love.

This post is looking at the specific roles you will find being played in each and every single fandom. It doesn’t matter if it’s a band’s fandom, a TV show, a film, a book - whatever it is, it is my belief that you will find these people (to varying degrees) in every single fandom.

Before I start, I want to clarify a few of things. First, (and I delve into this deeper at the end of the post), I know things aren’t always as black and white or as clear cut as they may appear when I’m talking about certain roles. For the purpose of this post, I’m not really discussing the grey-areas, as that would make this post about a million words longer and it’s long enough already!!

Secondly, there are absolutely “ranks” within each role I mention. There is definitely a scale from about 1-5 in each role, although I generally talk about the most “extreme” cases. 

Finally, I want to clarify what I mean when I talk about “damaging behaviour”, as this will come up several times in this post and I want it to be clear exactly what I’m talking about.

Disrespectful/Inappropriate fandom behaviour:

Stealing content - I have seen this in every fandom, where people will save/repost someone else’s work (gifs mainly, but also scans, edits, art or sometimes even text) without crediting the creator. Usually this can be resolved; newer fandom members might not understand general fandom etiquette and I have personally spoken to people who’ve done this who have been horrified to realise what they have done. Other’s, meanwhile, do not care, and will continue to steal and take credit for other people’s work. This is something that is definitely unacceptable (I have experienced this also!!).

Disrespecting other fandom members - this can come in many different forms.

Debate and having a difference of opinion is fine until Person A runs off and starts writing indirect, catty little posts about everyone who doesn’t share the same views as them, often without having an adult discussion/debate with these people first.

These posts generally only serve to make certain corners of the fandom feel bad or even shamed about feeling how they feel or thinking what they think and it is a form of disrespect that can often get overlooked by a lot of fandom members as the content is not always explicit (ie. they’re not always calling people names, and it’s generally about groups of people instead of just one person, so it doesn’t feel as “personal”). As is often the case with posts like those, it’s not what is actually said but it’s how it is said that can be damaging to fandom morale, and while everyone can snap and write something catty now and then, when it becomes a consistent thing that certain blogs keep doing, regardless of how people react, I know for a fact that this sort of behaviour has made people scared to speak their minds and has even made people leave fandoms all together. Whether the author of these catty indirect posts means to be as damaging as they often are is usually a mystery, depending on what “role” this blog fits into (more later). 

However, this can often escalate into more direct, personal and explicit disrespect which can later evolve into full-on trolling/bullying. For example, in a previous fandom I was involved in, Person A and Person B were having a discussion about a band member’s solo work. When Person B compared this band member’s solo work with some later tunes by the band he was once in, Person A called Person B a “dickhead” and blocked them before proceeding to write nasty bitch posts about how Person B was “fucking stupid” and “dumb” for comparing one piece of music to another.

These are just a few examples, so please bare that in mind or refer back to that when I mention “damaging behaviour*” during this post. 

Now that’s out of the way, let’s start!

The Popular Blogs

This is a pretty clear one, although there are several different kinds of popular blog. Generally, to be popular, these blogs tend to have at least a couple of the following;

They have been around a long time - often longer than most. 

They create a lot of quality content (art, fic, meta, in-depth text posts/analysis about the music/show/characters etc., memes, funny little text posts - you know the drill)

They have “connections” with the thing you love (ie. have met the band members/actors several times, have friends who work for or have connections to the people involved with the thing you love, etc etc.)

They use their voice and aren’t afraid to speak their mind.

The popular blogs tend to have quite big personalities, create content that gets widely spread, and are outspoken about anything and everything related to the thing you all love.

Climbing to the top of the fandom ladder isn’t always easy and can sometimes take a very long time to achieve depending on the size of the fandom. There are several different kinds of popular blogs, although the two most dominant seem to be those that are very approachable and express their views in a reasonable/respectful way, and those that don’t.

Certain blogs who rise through the fandom ranks quite quickly will get carried away with their new-found popularity. With the confidence their status gives them, they can often become a little careless with the way they put themselves across while their ego takes hold of them; confidence can swiftly turn into arrogance and this can sometimes make them an intimidating presence within the fandom and even a little unapproachable, although some fandom members will find this interesting or edgy - it becomes their USP (Unique Selling Point) that can differentiate them from other more down-to-earth popular blogs. You can generally spot these blogs by the way they engage and respond to people, and they often don’t bat an eyelid to praise or compliments. A lot of these people can slip into the “I am Better Than You” category.

For the most part though, popular blogs are generally pretty nice. As well as creating quality content or ticking any of the other boxes in the list above, a lot of popular blogs will be friendly and likeable. People may get intimidated by their status, which can be awkward for a friendly Popular Blog, as more often than not it’s other people that put them on such a high pedestal - even if they’re aware of their rank/popularity themselves.

This moves us onto the next category...

The “I Am Better Than You” Blogs

You know who they are. You may not know you know, but deep down....you know. The reasons people may think they are above you;

They have liked the thing longer than you

They’re already a well established/popular blog, and you may be a newbie

They have seen/met the band loads of times/have more merch than you

They have stalked met the actors/people connected with the show/movie

They create a lot of content which maybe you don’t. Or they believe their content is superior to yours/others.

There are also sub-categories within this as well;

“I am better than you because I have [insert one or more of the reasons above] and I won’t really associate with you because you’re not cool enough.”

“I am better than you because [insert reason] but I’m still a friendly person and I won’t talk down to you even though I am above you in the Fandom Ranks.”

Basically, there are people who sort of put themselves on a pedestal, or are indeed put on a pedestal by other people, but they can still be nice with it. I have personally encountered this many times. There are also those that are sort of unabashed with their “status”, and won’t really hide the fact that they think they’re above you. You can usually tell by seeing who else they interact with (people with equal or higher ranks), or by the way they respond to asks.

A lot of younger or maybe newer people in the fandom can often lavish praise onto these people. And note, not all of these people who feel this way also slip into the Popular Blog category (although a lot of them do) - some of these “I am Better Than You” blogs will actually isolate themselves to a small corner of the fandom in a way that makes them appear untouchable - people will come to them, but they will not go to anyone else. Because, you know, they’re too good for that.

I have also found that with a lot of these people, they will mainly receive anon’s instead of actually having people reveal themselves to them. I have strong reason to believe that many of the “anon” messages these people receive is actually them sending messages to themselves in order to boast about their most recent meeting with band member/actor/whoever, or their most recent purchase of expensive, hard-to-find merch. In one particular case in one fandom, there was a man who created multiple social media accounts to boost his own status/fan-page (which was a page mainly to show off his collection of [insert old 60s band] memorabilia), and I believe that this sort of thing happens to varying degrees across all social media. As this post is mainly focusing on fandom on tumblr, the anon option is definitely a tool a lot of these blogs use to help boost their status, by asking certain questions or heaping praise (or indeed hate, for attention) onto themselves to make them appear more popular than they actually are (if someone is constantly receiving hate and yet refuses to block/turn off anon, that is often a big red light).

Ultimately, there are the people that will never give much back to you even if you try really, really hard and praise them left right and centre, and there are those who will actually engage with you, be perfectly nice to you, and may even be friends with you - even though, ultimately, you know they do rank above you in the Fandom Hierarchy. Depending on how you view things, this can be totally fine. It’s just up the individual if they’re okay and comfortable with this. As I said at the start, Fandom is a game. If you can view it as such, then it can be easier to accept your lower “rank”. You’ve all seen the “I can’t believe [insert blog] follows me!” / “I still can’t believe [insert blog] knows who I am/talks to me!” posts. This speaks volumes and proves that it’s two-way street, and these posts help reinforce the Rank/Status mentality amongst fandom members - even if they don’t realise it. 

The “I’m just here to have a good time” Blogs

These people can often be a blessing. They can even be pretty damn popular, if not the most popular blog in fandom, because they just go about their business, being funny or charming, posting memes, making people smile, regardless of whatever drama or intense discussion is happening within fandom at the time. They’re not as clueless as they may appear; they know what’s what and who’s who, they know who’s trouble and will probably avoid the Mean Girls, but they also Don’t Get Involved™ in any major discussion/debate that is happening. (at least not publicly!)

Then there are those who maybe aren’t aware of the current drama; they’re in their own little bubble just doing their thing, living in ignorant bliss. They can often be the light within the darkness, the sun peaking through the clouds. A blessing!!!

The Fence Sitters

There are several different degrees of Fence Sitter. For the most part, the Fence Sitter is against drama and will not engage in any major debate, even if they have strong opinions on the subject. Some more confident Fence Sitters will sometimes add their two-pennies worth as long as there isn’t a major divide between views, but they generally keep quiet if things get particularly heated.

Many Fence Sitters will also turn a blind eye to damaging behaviour* within fandom and continue to support these blogs - mainly because they have a need to be friends with everyone. Some Fence Sitters might be fully aware that someone is trouble; a Mean Girl, for example, and may even tell people privately they think such-and-such is horrible, but will still heap praise onto them publicly - even if this person has been unpleasant to the Fence Sitter too!

This is a prime example of the game playing that can go on within fandom, and shows just how fake a lot of it can be. For the most part, the Fence Sitters are generally middle-of-the-road blogs who don’t say anything too outrageous themselves, appear to be sweeter-than-sweet and create decent to really good content. They want to rank higher, they’re insecure, they want that praise and validation; not just from the more likeable people within fandom, but from everyone. But being friends with everyone isn’t always possible, and as a result they can often end up finding themselves alienated from both “sides” of the fandom.

A lot of the time though, many of the Fence Sitters are just too nice for their own good - whether calculated or not - and generally have good intentions. Even if they could do with toughening up a little.

This brings me on to the next category:

The “I don’t think this is that deep” Blogs

These are probably in the best position. They don’t read into fandom politics, they ignore the hierarchy, they don’t care about status or who’s right or wrong. They don’t pay attention, because they don’t give a fuck, and god-damn I envy them. They just go about their business, not really interacting with many people, staying in their lane....they just take everything for what it is on the surface and each post as it comes. They don’t keep mental notes of who has said what or who is cool and who isn’t. They just....don’t give a shit. It’s shallow and it’s awesome. They don’t care if Person A has been a bitch (as long as it’s not like....mega bitch...for the most part anyway....) - if this person creates decent content, the “I don’t think this is that deep” blog will reblog it. They probably haven’t even realised Person A was nasty one time, because they Don’t Give a Fuck. It’s all about the content, not the people behind it, and to be fair that can be a pretty good mentality to have as long as you’re not getting in too deep with anyone in the fandom - which these people generally don’t. These people don’t tend to rank very high, but they don’t even know that because, as their title suggests, they really don’t think things are this deep. The don’t see fandom as a game. Or, if they do, it’s just a fun game with no rules and no positions. It’s just all about reblogging groovy gifs or cute pictures. Nothing else matters beneath that, because, well, it’s really not that deep. These people can be annoying but they’re also so, so enviable.

The Reasonable Blogs

These people can be wordy, they like a good discussion/debate, but whatever their view, they are absolutely always reasonable, mature and polite with the way they express themselves. Even when dealing with more difficult fandom members who maybe aren’t being as friendly during the discussion as the Reasonable Blog, Reasonable Blog will still keep a level head, they won’t stoop down to the Troublemaker’s level, and they won’t resort to name calling or cheap tactics in order to get their point across - even if they’re being antagonised/provoked, the Reasonable Blog will rarely snap. They’re not afraid to speak their mind, and they’re generally not afraid to defend their friends, but they always do it with their head held high. They can be a rare breed, but they’re a blessing.

The Troublemakers

You know who they are. The shit stirrers. The ones who say things with a teeny tiny sting to it, voicing their opinion in a way that is provocative and will get people a little fired up. At the end of the day, it’s all about the wording; it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it that’s important. 

The Troublemakers can also be split into two categories; generally, a lot of them just like firey debate about the thing you all love, and sometimes their honesty/brutality can be funny or admirable as it’s not usually about attacking or having a pop at anyone in the actual fandom. But there are also those that do want to antagonise people on a personal level, to varying degrees, and the more extreme of these Troublemakers fit into the next category...

The “Mean Girls”

There are mean guys too obviously, but generally they don’t seem to be as smart, or as bitchy, and they tend to roam alone. The Mean Girls on the other hand are all about their little clique. That’s not to say some of them don’t ride solo, but generally you’ll find a little group with the same kind of vibe, just spewing shit, causing trouble, and generally not being too pleasant.

Of course there are various levels of “bitchery”. Sometimes it can be quite subtle, just the odd catty post now and then that is obviously created to make certain corners of the fandom feel insecure. Sometimes it’s a case of once you see it, it becomes obvious. In other cases, it is extreme, it is blatant, and it is gross. That’s when it develops into something far, far worse....which I will get onto in just a sec.

The Mean Girls, in the more obvious cases, know what they are, and they strive to be it. They don’t give a fuck, and they love it. They know people don’t like them, but they also know a lot of people sort of envy them; being in a clique can be fun, at the end of the day, and usually when people act like they’re super cool, some people will be fooled into thinking that’s what they actually are. 

This leads me onto the...

Queen Bitch™ Role.

In every single fandom I have ever been a part of, going right back to my forum days on the Newsround website from 2002(!!)-2004, there has always, always been a Queen Bitch. I even remember the screen name of the first Queen Bitch I encountered - it was DetroitDiva on the Newsround forums. It’s literally been about 14 years and I still remember her name. 

These people strive to be a bitch. They wear their hideousness like a badge of honour. It becomes their brand. They will mix it up by being nice now and then to certain people, generally people who have bowed down to them first, just to make them seem more human. But by god....they love it. They love being disliked. And they will have their followers who love it too. It can almost be funny, unless you’re one of their victims. DetroitDiva used to attack people for liking the band Busted. I was a massive Busted fan (still am tbh lmao) and it used to hurt me to my very core when she’d go on and on and on about them, talking directly to their fans and mocking us for liking this band. And you know, she was smart with it - this was a kids forum after all, we were all in our early teens, and it was a moderated forum so no offensive language could be used. But it just made her smarter with her dialogue, and that way it hurt more. And god, she fucking loved it.

I still see people like this today. Actual adults. I have seen people like this, to various degrees, in every fandom since. They may not directly come at people (although they’re not afraid to), but they will still make damn sure they’re making someone somewhere feel crap about something or someone they like, or a certain opinion they have.

The Trolls

Ugh. There will always be one or two. On tumblr, people will always get anon hate from time to time. But sometimes, and this doesn’t necessarily happen in every fandom, but it can happen....you get full on, unabashed trolls who don’t hide behind anon, who use their main blogs to terrorise and bully the fandom.

I have only experienced this on an extreme level once, in a previous fandom. I watched a small group of girls who started off as the Mean Girls, led by the Queen Bitch™, escalate into full on trolls. I’m talking about writing call-out posts, calling people really gross names, telling people to block/unfollow certain blogs in the fandom (I was one of the targets) and telling people to steal our work - all because we were a little popular, and all because when they first started showing their damaging behaviour*, we tried to (politely) talk them out of it. 

They used people’s real names, they stalked our blogs for months and months on end, they continuously wrote nasty posts about us for months after we blocked them and stopped interacting with them. 

This is probably kinda rare, but it’s something that can escalate if people don’t react a certain way to certain behaviour. More often than not, trying to reason with these people by politely telling them the way they word things isn’t cool or whatever, isn’t going to help. They don’t care, and they don’t want to listen. Of course, not everyone who puts themselves across in a bad way is a bad person; some people can change, can check themselves, can stop and think “oh shit, I should probably be more careful how I say things”. But unfortunately, in most cases, reasoning doesn’t work.

In that particular case, we tried calling them out. A couple of people tried writing reasonable, rational posts warning others in the fandom about certain blogs and how they had started bullying people. This only spurred the Trolls on even more, they lapped up the attention, and that’s when their behaviour got even more extreme.

If you see a troll in your fandom, or you see negative behaviour which you realise is inappropriate, you are not obliged to confront these people or call them out. More often than not, the very best thing you can do is unfollow and/or block them, and don’t interact with their posts. Maybe warn your mates about them privately, but don’t make a song and dance about it. Let these people become invisible to you. Stop and look at who else might be associating themselves with these people. Protect yourself and other’s as much as you can by not giving these Trolls the validation they crave.

‘The Trolls’ is a rank. It goes Troublemakers > Mean Girls > Queen Bitch > Troll. I have literally watched people climb this ladder (or....slip down it, depending on which way you look at it). It is the perfect example of the negative ranking system within fandom. 

The Peacekeepers

These are the ones that avoid drama, but at the same time they’re not afraid to acknowledge drama without getting directly involved. They will write a separate post telling people to cool it, to love and respect each other, when they see things may be getting a little heated. They just want an easy life and they want everyone to be friends. They generally turn away from the Mean Girls, or the Troublemakers, but at the same time they try to keep an open mind and will interact with those people if the Troublemaker/Mean Girl happens to reach out to them first (the less extreme levels of Mean Girl/Troublemaker, that is). These people tend to be relatively popular as they’re generally pretty nice people, even if they can maybe be a little too sensitive now and then.

The Others

There are more, of course. Not everyone can be fit into a box, or a role, or a rank - although generally most people will have traits from certain categories. This post isn’t about defining every single person that enters fandom, it’s just looking at some of the more prolific and dominating groups you tend to see.

----

After thoughts and some clarification;

A lot of people can fall into multiple categories, or switch from role to role as they establish themselves in the fandom, gain confidence and find their footing. Gaining confidence can be both a good and a bad thing, depending on how you use it. 

I’m generally talking about the most extreme or at least the most common cases in each of these Roles. As I said at the start of this post, there are definitely ranks within each category. 

For example, not everyone in the Mean Girls category is a total bitch. I should know; I was one (a Mean Girl, not a total bitch!). I was in that group once, in a small clique of girls who weren’t overly pleasant. They weren’t technically mean (at least....not to too many people), they just weren’t overly nice. 

As I said at the start of this post, in order to write this in the first place I’ve had to look back and reflect on my own fandom behaviour/experiences, and to prove that I’m not a hypocrite I have written a separate post talking about the roles I myself have played within various fandoms in the past. You can read it here.

So I’m fully aware that things aren’t always as black and white as they may appear on the surface, and they’re not as black and white as I may have made them appear in this post when describing the roles of fandom. I know good people do bad things, say bad things, and get mixed up with bad people. This isn’t actually about shaming anyone or making anyone feel bad.

Ultimately, this post is just an assessment. There are grey areas of absolutely everything. I personally find this stuff fascinating, to take a step back and look at yourself, at your peers, and see if you can figure things out. You’ll be surprised by what you see when you look hard enough.

At the end of the day, you can learn a lot from fandom. It’s actually a fascinating social experiment, putting a bunch of people together from different walks of life, different ages, with one common interest. As I said, it has taught me so much about myself - and trust me, not all of it is good (which again, you can read in my separate post about my own personal experiences).

I have 100% made mistakes in every fandom I have been in, pretty much. I have been too harsh and I have been too nice but ultimately I will always give people three bits of advice when entering a fandom:

Be nice and respectful to others

Trust your instincts

Be honest

I’d also say “look out for your friends”, but I actually think you should look out for yourself first. Fandom can mess with your brain. It can give you a massive sense of validation one minute and make you feel like crap the next. Fandom is a revolving door, and most people are ultimately disposable. This stuff can be easy to forget if you’re having a good time, but when you’ve been around a while and have experienced some of the more unpleasant aspects, those things become frightfully clear. It’s the nature of fandom and it’s important to not take that stuff too personally, even if it can be really hard not to.

This post is actually just a bit of fun, it’s something I have discussed with many long-running members of various fandoms, and I’m certainly not alone in my assessment of fandom politics and hierarchies. At the same time though, people can take this as seriously as they want, and if it can open anyone’s eyes to the fascinating goings on of fandom politics then I hope you find it as interesting as I do!

[mentalhealthandaging]

Understanding the biological, psychological, and social factors of mental health and the Impact of stigma on the well-being of older adults

Stigmatization: The Biopsychosocial Model

I want to start off by introducing the biopsychosocial model of aging and mental health (Segal et al.,2018). The biopsychosocial model proposes that interrelated biological, psychological, and social factors both positively and negatively influence mental health (Segal et al.,2018). Mental disorders can arise or worsen when an individual is impacted by negative biological, psychological, and social factors (Segal et al.,2018).  For example, biological risks such as endocrine and neuroanatomical factors contribute to higher risks of mental disorders such as depression (Fiske, Wetherell, & Gatz, 2009). Furthermore, studies have shown that depression occurs in the context of medical illness meaning that those with a chronic medical illness often experience depression due to a variety of reasons one being due to social isolation  (Fiske, Wetherell, & Gatz, 2009).  Psychological risk factors that contribute to higher risk of mental health issues also include personality, vulnerability, and resiliency (Fiske, Wetherell, & Gatz, 2009). Social risk factors include lack of social support and a person’s environment  (Fiske, Wetherell, & Gatz, 2009). 

You may ask, how are such factors related to or important towards the topic of stigmatization and its negative impact on older adults with normal and abnormal mental health problems?  My answer is the following: The stereotyping of  older adults and stigmatizing of mental health leads to negative biological, psychological and social influences among older adults with normal and abnormal mental health. The stigmatization of mental health and mental disorders in older adults leads to negative psychological influences which include lowered self-esteem, lowered coping strategies, and lowered treatment seeking behaviours (Tzouvara, Papadopoulos, & Randhawa, 2018). Furthermore, the stigmatization of older adults and mental health leads to negative social factors such as discrimination and marginilization. These factors can in turn influence the physical and mental health of older adults. 

Let me provide an example in order for you to better understand how biological, psychological, and social factors work together to influence mental health issues in older adults and how stigmatization plays a role in such action.

 I’d like you to meet Stacy. Stacy was born in 1932 during the midst of the great depression. At 87 years old, she has lived through the second world war and watched the first man to walk on the moon. She has lived through the advancement of many technologies such as TVs, computers, telephones, and much more. Her experiences over the years have made her who she is today. Unfortunately, Stacy has recently lost her husband of 40 years. Her children live far away but try to visit when they can. A recent fall not too long ago caused Stacy to need hip replacement surgery and she has been struggling to walk properly ever since. Due to her husband's passing and her limited mobility Stacy becomes socially isolated and feels persistent sad and anxious. She feels tired all the time and feels worthless, and starts to lose interest in activities she had found pleasurable. She is aware that depression runs in her family but during a get together at her neighbours house, Stacy overhears the neighbours talking about their disinterest in Jeff, who is a 55 year old neighbour battling PTSD and an addiction issue. The neighbours share uneducated and false preconceived notions and stereotypes of Jeff and his mental illness, and mention the reason why Jeff is excluded from get togethers is because of his mental health issues. This experience makes Stacy feel very upset, and although she had been willing to go visit her doctor and inform her doctor about her struggles, after such interaction with her neighbours she decides she will no longer visit her doctor or tell him about her mental and physical issues because she does not want her neighbours to view her and talk about her like they did about Jeff. She also does not want to be excluded from social get togethers, as she feels socially isolated and lonely due to her situation. Unfortunately, a consequence of not seeking out treatment for her physical and mental health issues means that she won’t get the care she needs and her condition will only further deteriorate which may lead to a poorer quality of life and even an earlier mortality rate.  

Stacy’s story above indicates how biological issues (history of depression in her family and her mobility limitations), psychological issues (her grief and struggle with the coping of her husband’s death), and her social environment (losing social interactions due to individuals stereotyping and stigmatization of people with mental health issues) can simultaneously work together to influence Stacy’s health seeking behaviours and mental health issues which in turn impact Stacy’s physical and mental health and well-being. 

Before I end this post, I do want to elaborate more on an aspect that I had mentioned in Stacy’s situation and it is about the ability to stay active and the influence stigmatization of mental health issues has on the activity levels of older adults with or without mental health issues. 

Before I do so I’d like to make a joke since you've probably been doing a lot of reading. Would you like to hear a pizza joke? Never mind, it’s pretty cheesy.Hope that gave a good chuckle, if it didn’t then it’s a good thing I’m doing a Masters of Science in Aging and Health and not a Masters in Comedy. 

Stigmatization: Activity Theory Not Disengagement Theory

I want to emphasize that the stigmatization of mental health and mental disorders in older adults can lead to social isolation due to social exclusion brought upon by prejudices. Those who suffer from mental illnesses withdraw from social interactions due to fear of negative reactions which leads to diminished participation in society.  As the activity theory of aging highlights it is important that older adults stay active as it contributes to better physical, mental, and social well-being. It is important for older adults with abnormal mental health problems in particular to remain active in the community as such actions can help with the mitigation of mental health problems and improves physical, mental, and social functioning and well-being. Social inclusion leads to greater social interactions which improves mental well-being. Several studies have recognized the importance of social supports and networks on the overall well-being of older adults. It is our responsibility as a society to ensure that older adults are not marginalized and are not socially excluded because of the stigmatization of mental health problems and discriminatory factors such as ageism. (Whole Paragraph References from Conner et al., 2010;  Fiske et al. 2019;  Forsma et al., 2013; Homecare Assistance, 2019; Office of the Surgeon General (US), 2001; Segal et al., 2018;  Tzouvara et al., 2018).

Sources

Cavanaugh, J.C. & Blanchard- Fields, F.(2015). Adult Development and Aging (7th Edition).Cengage Learning. Stamford, USA.

Conner, K. O., Copeland, V. C., Grote, N. K., Koeske, G., Rosen, D., Reynolds, C. F., 3rd, & Brown, C. (2010). Mental health treatment seeking among older adults with depression: the impact of stigma and race. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry: official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 18(6), 531–543. doi:10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181cc0366

Fiske, A., Wetherell, J. L., & Gatz, M. (2009). Depression in older adults. Annual review of clinical psychology, 5, 363–389. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.032408.153621

Forsma, A.K. Herberts, C. Nyqvist, F., Wahlbeck, K. & Schierenbecks, I. (2013). Understanding the role of social capital for mental wellbeing among older adults. Aging & Society. 33. 804-825. doi10.1017/So144686X12000256

Homecare Assistance. (2019). Addressing the Stigmas of Ageism and Mental Health.Retrieved from https://homecareassistance.com/blog/addressing-stigmas-ageism-mental-health

Office of the Surgeon General (US); Center for Mental Health Services (US); National Institute of Mental Health (US). Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity: A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2001 Aug. Chapter 2 Culture Counts: The Influence of Culture and Society on Mental Health. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44249/

Segal,D., Qualls, S.H.,& Smyer, M.A. (2018). Aging and Mental Health (3rd Edition). Wiley-Blackwell Publishers: Cambridge, MA.

Tzouvara, V. Papadopoulos, C. & Randhawa, G. (2018) Self-Stigma Experiences Among Older Adults with Mental Health Problems Residing in Long-Term Care Facilities: A Qualitative Study, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 39:5,403-410, DOI: 10.1080/01612840.2017.1383540

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services. (2005). Mentally Healthy Aging: A report on overcoming stigma for older Americans. Recommended Citation: Mentally Healthy Aging: A Report on Overcoming Stigma for Older Americans. DHHS Pub. No. (SMA) 05-3988. Rockville, MD: Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2005

World Health Organization and World Psychiatric Association. (2002). Reducing stigma and discrimination against older people with mental disorders. WHO-WPA. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/499.pdf

[krisrampersad]

Celebrating Jamettry - the Sacred and the Sacrilegious

Jam-ett-ree Vulgar/Slang Trade of a -

Alt Jah-mee-tree – point from which the universe emanates; equity; golden ratio Literarily by Dr Kris

Dear Lizzy,

You coming to meh jamettry party? Consider this your invite eh. I going get a distinction in meh post graduate degree in jamettry: the synergy of ying and yang, unification of the arts and sciences, centrepoint of the golden mean and meanness.

Since plenty people asking about what is jamettry, although I in hibernation trying to finish my Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words like that Professor who turn Madman – you might know him as the Surgeon of Crowthorne, Liz. He give the Oxford Dictionary 10,000 words with definitions and meanings, I writing a definition here so although my friend didn’t reach out to me, the people go know and not keep bothering me with emails and phone calls to do a Literarily by Dr Kris for the word jamettry. This is only one percent of my 100,000 entries into Literarily. I know you have some influence with your pardner, Britannica and have friends at Oxford who make the English Dictionary so help me get it in there nah while I finish these Letters. Ent we is Famalee and good friends too, gyul? Do me a lil favour, nah.

As you know, Liz, I have for long been an avid student, even a proponent of the art and science, of jamettry, so you, Britannica and the OED could say I am an expert in this jamettry art that is as ancient as the oldest profession in the world.

It is not only today I studying jammetry so I am well qualified to add Jamettry to Literarily, my compendium of words and their meanings through classical to now times. Some was published in the Guardian and in Demokrissy and as evidence of that Panama paper trail I sending you some of these Literarily (See image this page). I gone for higher/hire now, so talk to Britannica and the OED for me nah, you could tell them we is good friends. I see they just admit the ‘c’ word Ma say she doh ever want to hear me use so you go and find it in the OED along with c-tish, and c-ed endings. They describe it as vulgar/slang for ‘a woman’s genitals or ‘an unpleasant or stupid person’ so they wouldn’t have any problems adding jamettry - which is also a vulgar slang word associated with a woman’s genitals and its functions.

And while you at it, I have a whole series of ‘C’ monologues (C because Ma say doh use THAT word!) They get banned from the newspapers, because although I didn’t use that word, people say too much jamettry in the the explanations and definitions of social actions that they ’fraid would enlighten the universe about golden ratio and ration, meanness and mean, how to stay in divine balance and not get involved in thiefery and thuggery and corruption and thing and to come out of they ignorance and sycophancy (Sycofancee Entry # 5783 in Literarily). So the C Monologues get ban by the powers that be when somebody call they pardner like how they ban all them books across the world, like the Bible and the Quran, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Alice in Wonderland and Animal Farm - all them nice nice storybooks by Hemmingway and Chaucer and Dr Seuss and like how my books ban in some place that call themselves university.

I make a full list of them banned books I have in meh library, Liz, so you be the judge or take it to the Privy Council and let’s see if that is any reason for anybody to want to raid and censor meh library, meh blog, meh Facebook; to be pawing and poaching through meh Instagram and Twitter; hack meh website; make threatening phone calls, pelt stones, smash meh face, shoot at meh car and house… You be the judge Liz. That is only the list that get banned, eh, I have plenty more books they might as well ban as nobody reading anyway. I sure you have some of them in Buckingham Palace too and check the British Library, I put some there too. You might want to keep them under lock and key before you little Lizzie granddaughter and Master George get their hands on them. They say these books could corrupt the mind of children, just like all this jamettry corrupt the mind of adults and public officials and make we private sector so enterprising. (See definition of Enterprising in Literarily by Dr Kris, entry #547). So I sending you the list banned in different places (see below) and I sending you here the Literarily, on jammetry. Tell Britannica and OED that I already do all the research on cont-texts and everything right here, so they could cite as the source ‘Literarily by Dr Kris’ in Demokrissy.

Jamettry Meanings & Definitions from Literarily by Dr Kris

1. Noun. Vulgar/Slang. Pronunciation Jam-ett-ree. The trade of a jamette. From Jamette: promiscuous (wo)man. - As illustrated in Denise Belfon calypso, Jamette, 2002 (See below).

Origin: Jamettry is as ancient as the oldest profession in the world.

2.Jamettry/Geometry: Pronunciation Jah-mee-tree. Corruption/colloquial pronunciation of geometry: Branch of mathematics. Associated with the way parts of an object fit together involving deduction of properties, measurement, relationships of points, lines, angles, figures. Assessment of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space.

The single point from which all lines, angles, relationships of the universe emanate and can be measured to assess and assert balance, harmony, unity in diversity, divine proportions, golden ratio.

3.Abusive term: Term of verbal violence, usually against women. Judgmental of (wo)man’s character. Implies sexually immoral.

Connotative Cont-ext: Used to assert moral/sexual superiority. To cast aspersion on character. 

(Denotes/suggests) insecurity/inferiority complex, bullying mentality. Attitude towards opposite sex when insecure about sexual or other competencies such as how to run a country or a government or how to respond to media.     

4.In Now Times: Further additional meanings - Related to:

i. Jami-it: To grind on sensually. To wine on suggestively. ‘Jus hold Dem & Wok Dem’!

ii.Jamming The art of mindless disassociation from social reality as in ‘We Jamming Still’;

iii. Hooliganism: See blog, ‘Jus’ Call Me Cooligan’ #Demokrissy.

5.  Additional Applications

a. Loss of objective understanding of unity in diversity; of the way the parts of an object fit together by manipulating properties, measurements, distorting angles, points, lines, accentuating relationships with public figures in exploitative relation to their community/society/country

b. Association of government, business and other sectors to plunder and pilfer resources and properties of any shape, sizes generally utilizing relations to figures in positions of authority in a manner deduced to be corrupt. (As illustrated in David Rudder’s 1988 calypso, Panama, see below)  

c. Illegal activity conducted in full view of the public, fully and publicly sanctioned by the authorities and justifiable in law;

d. May invoke verbal or physical abuse, censorship, raids on offices when exposed, against anyone attempting to investigate, explore or uncover jamettry;

e. To maintain status quo of one percent versus the rest: ie. To keep ‘the remainder’ in state of impoverishment and dependence and dotish defence of indefensible; golden mean vs meanness.

f. Discordance between payments and receipt of goods or income and supply of goods ie distortion of angles, processes, principles of business, manipulation and skewing of divine proportions; rationingof t he golden ratio.

g. A society so engrossed with jamming that it has forgotten how to take stock of itself and demand accountability from those it assigns mandate to serve.

h. Friendly associations between government and business that influence and impact on the nature of business transactions between state agencies and its suppliers.

i. Term used to stimulate jamming – ie mindless forgetfulness so as to deflect from focus on issues of the day as ‘in a pappyshow land where nearly everything is a pappyshow’ (See David Rudder, Panama below)

Jamettry: Attribution: KrisRampersad: LinkedIn/Instagram/Pinterest/YouTube/Demokrissy

So Liz gyul, you see why I too humming, the tune of the day:

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

With Denise Belfon I adding the angles of the kankalang in relation to the music of the spheres that tangential to the raging winds and waves and uproar outdoors, the violence, the disrespect, the slaughter of men, women and children and the rot and chaos all around so you, me, we could sing along:

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

   Jamettry in meh school bag future

To give you some cont-exts, Liz, because I know Britannica and the OED going ask, let me go back to the beginning, Liz, the source and origin.

On the first day of high school, Ma remind me that she put the jamettry in meh school bag.

“Use it well,” she say, putting me in the car with a big sticker that say ‘Licensed for Five Passengers’ though the car cram with ten and might pick up others heading to the Tong.

Ma exudes all the anxiety and expectation on what may lie ahead for my future, as she stands, staring at the smoke trail of the car long after it disappears around the corner and down the hill, trying to find a whiff in the air if here is a dactar or a laayaa in the making. (See definitions in Literarily. Entrees #265 and # 777, respectively).

I will disappoint her, Liz, in that respect because in truth, it was not dactaring or laayaing I would study, as I would focus my time on the study of jammetry. Since there is a lot of jammetry in storybooks, Ma didn’t know that the first thing I plan to do is to join the Princes Town library.

As soon as the school bell ring to say school finish that first day, I walk up the hill, through the shortcut by Knolly’s Recreation Grounds. It name for your Acting Governor, Sir Courtney Knollys, who open a few things including the Knolly’s Tunnel in Tabaquite when the Governor away and leave he to act, so they name these things after him like Hollywood name things after actors. Later they will rename it Yolande Pompey Recreation Ground after some fellah who was the first oxymoron light heavyweight boxer to fight in an international ring. Although he never win a world title, we like to let people here know we have fighters like all yuh, Liz. We is real badjohns and we could knock out all yuh colonial signs with we boxing because if you remember yuh ban we real badjohns, the stickfighters, who could buss plenty heads. So down came the Knolly’s sign and name and up went the oxy-moron light heavyweight into we Sports Hall of Fame! Just so too, we go knock down the Queen Street sign you put up in Port of Spain and put we own Penny who is also a Queen, not just of a Commonwealth, but of a Universe! Take that Liz. Jamettry woking for we!

As soon as the school bell ring, I pelt out, through the short cut and up the hill on meh way to the library, pass the signboard for Knolly’s Rec. Scrawled at the bottom of the sign is a reminder that the grounds governed by the Recreation Grounds and Pastures Act Chapter 41:01, Laws of Trinidad And Tobago, Act 10 of 1909.

I dodge a corkball from the guys playing cricket on one end of the field, keeping meh eye on the football players, too, although I think that law say ‘No person shall play cricket, football, rounders, or other games dangerous to young children, in any recreation ground.’ But who care ’bout laws here, eh – jamettry everywhere! We would have plenty football and cricket match there, and then one day, irregardless (entry #4677 in Literarily) of the law, they will name the pavilion there after a cricketer. Talk ’bout jamettry!

Liz, that make me wonder if there is a law against reading story books as Ma and Pa had ban me from reading storybooks like Enid Blyton with all them drawings and pictures. They say it just fill up meh head with mumbo jumbo airy-fairy nonsense and I should be reading to become a dactar or a laayar. It is okay to read literature books if they on the school book list, and now I had a loophole if I say I borrow it from the library – always a way to beat the system! I learning jamettry well! You would be proud like Ma, Liz.

Shillingford – the district vagrant – is running around the Knolly’s-soon-to-be renamed Yolande Pompey field, as we would see him doing every evening when the schoolbell ring. The field shouldda really be named after Shillingford because he so exemplify all we national ambitions. He was the brightest boy in he years in the same school I just starting and watching him I shouldda see how the future in my schoolbag with the jamettry. Shillingford so bright that we place couldn’t findda place for him so he gone mad, yes, and so he get enterprising begging for a shilling here and a shilling there so he could live as he wish without working in a land flowing with oil and he had plenty time to run round and round the field in celebration of his emancipation and freedom as I too would one day. People say he mad, and a vagrant – just like that Professor and a Madman who help write the OED – he too bright. I find out ’bout him when I was researching the school history for the school magazine, Dedicated to Excellence. I shouldda see the signs Liz, because he was one of the school best example of Excellence, Par Excellence, but I would lorn good, just how I lorn jamettry real good. It in meh future and in meh schoolbag, as the Doc ruling the country say.

Is my first day, so I keep Shillingford in the corner of my eye in case he pounce, as I labor up the hill and onto the Naparima Mayaro Road, towards Princes Town. The library just outside the Town named for you grandfather Liz. The taxi stand inside the Tong, so I tell meh brother with the taxi that I will wait for him when he heading back home at the corner by the library so the police wouldn’t stop him for overloading more than ten in he ‘licenced for five passengers taxi’. Because it only had one or two taxis going into the village he just pick-up everybody he see on the way who need a ride, Liz. The village people didn’t mind, because all ah we is one. We live in unity in diversity in the finest principles of universal harmony that jamettry professes. No meanness. We share everything according to the golden ration in divine proportions. He didn’t finish wok till late so it give me good time to stay in the library until it close.

Liz girl, I start to lorn all about jammetry, from the story books and poetry available. By the time I graduate I could see why Ma and Pa think storybook full of jamettry, oui. Just look at meh list of banned books and you go see how much jamettry in there: Fifty Shades of Jamettry and more: The Scarlett Letter, Fanny Hill, Harry Potter, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Gone With The Wind…

Jamette. Jamettish. Jamettry of Poetry

Liz, I start to read poetry with gusto – the real jamettry poetry, like Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (See Poem below) that I read and I sure you read it too. I real spend time on that, eh, analyzing the ‘stately pleasure domes’ and ‘cavern measureless to man’ and ‘deep romantic chasm’, ‘sinuous rills’ and then climaxing ‘in fast thick pants were breathing/A mighty fountain momently was forced…’ That aint sound like jamettry to you Liz? Coleridge write in Kubla Khan about,

 ‘Woman wailing for her demon lover’.

It sound just like the chorus from that Denise Belfon’s song, Jamette, ent?

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Coleridge in Kubla Khan decree:

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced.

  Denise Belfon sing in Jamette:

I need a man dat hard dat hard/To never treat meh bad real bad

When he go I must feel sad real sad/When he come I must feel glad

In fact Belfon song sound no different from that poem with its ‘stately pleasure domes’ and she too, like the Damsel, wailing:

I need a man who's hype who's hype

to stand up like a pipe a pipe

De banana must be ripe be ripe

I will stop there for now, in case they want to buss meh mouth and censor meh analyses for getting too jamettry, Liz. Inbox eh nah, and I will send you the full comparative analysis of Denise Belfon Jamette and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan.

Jamettry, Jamette, Jam-it and We Jamming Still culture cont-exts

There is a lot of other Jamette music filling the spheres around that time, Sparrow, and Kitchener, and David Rudder and Super Blue, plenty plenty singing all kindda Jamette woman, Bacchanal Woman, Mae Mae, Ethel, Bethel and Skettel…

I lorn well about the Jamette culture that grow out of the barrack yards from which all this comes, how it was frowned on by the snobby nose upper classes as lewd and crude but celebrated in the protest literature of the 1930s. Jamettry was a way to rebel against oppression, exploitation and violence. The proponents of what was being called the Literature of the Yard were the likes of the early nationalists/writers like CLR James, and Alfred Mendes, Albert Gomes and Seepersad Naipaul adding his own two-piece with his Daisy chumkaying through The Gurudeva Tales – you have to read meh book Finding A Place to find out more about that time. Rikki Jai will later tell the story of his Sumintra exhibiting the same kind of jamettry as Belfon and she pardners Destra and Allison, and Draupatie too coaxing Bissessar into she jamettry.

You know, Liz, by the time you had over to we to be freeto practice we jamettry, jamettry was already an important part of the lexicography in the intellectual construction of nationhood. Nation-language defined by Edward Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados) developed in conjunction with jamette folk culture in the barrack yards that came to be celebrated at Carnival time. Liz, you start the barrack yard housing development style so I don’t have to tell you that barrack yard people live close close together folking up the place so of course everybody inside everybody business, and everybody could spot jamettry in everybody else that now inside every housing development scheme you could think of. It make for good bacchanal, Liz, and political fork-tongue speech.

Carnival Jamette bands was jamettry Par Excellance in protest of and in imitation of the massas of the French Creole plantocracy and other classes. I would see for myself, covering J’Ouvert later, the doh-kay-damn attitude and behaviour, pouring onto the Savannah Street and stage.

Now that is freedom! I couldn’t wait to join! My particular favourite is the Dame Lorraines sporting and wiggling gi-normous jamette parts stuffed up butt, hips and breasts – there is hope for me yet Liz. That’s where the likes of Nikki Maharaj Minaj get it from, in case anyone wondering. She music is a prideful product of this jamettry, packaged for exportation.

The unsuspecting celebrants maybe did not know that when they think they laughing at the upper echelons one percent - who put on masked balls wearing costumes like Dame Lorraines, in imitation of their maids - they were really laughing at their massa laughing at themselves eh. Nobody sure who the jokes on who, but everybody laughing and having a goodtime. Pure jamettry. And we jamming still!

I became an aspirant, so by the time Belfon sing that song, me too could chip along in full fervor, now deep into meh education about the art of jamettry:

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Although me aint no feminist, I applaud the Jamettry long-celebrated by feminists too, as an indication of women taking charge of their own destiny, they bodies, their sexuality, the independent spirit and rebellion against oppressive patriarchy with the roots in the complex colonial plantation system with its intertwining of race, class and wealth stratifications: all that really mean mean men who like to abuse and take the golden glow from women and make them blue black with hard slap and blue by calling them jamette and thing….blue in every colour and pigment.

Though most of the intellectualising fall short of telling anybody about the damage that all this causing, making people like sycophants, lapping up and internalising and blindly replicating the massahood culture of dominance, exploitation and oppression so they even calling themselves and everybody else jamette because people tell them they is jamette long time so they say let’s celebrate we jamettry.

I join in too, yes. In the struggle to end violence against women, I talk to and interview plenty women, telling about how they man call them jamette to put them dong, and about verbal and other abuse to degrade them and make them feel small. Plenty women in high and low places tell me how, when men feeling they not as bright as them and cannot respond on equal footing to any argument, they man would call them jamette and other names so they go shut up.

We join-up to get the government to sign the United Nations Convention on the Discrimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and in UNESCO trying to make sure them gender-sensitive things included in other culture conventions too.

In all of this, I didn’t give up meh own jamettry. I coming up to be an expert, for sure.

Monumental Jamettry in heritage 

In London and Paris there was plenty pus-pusuring (Pus-pus refer Literarily entry #893) and whispering in drawing rooms about jamettry. So I gone there to advance meh studies in jamettry and get some hard slap for doing so, too, because they doh want  to lorn bout they own jamettr they think nobody else should – typical jamette-man.  

In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables,

With all that, Paris is a good soul. It accepts everything right royally; it is not too particular about its Venus; its Callipyge is Hottentot; if it but laughs it pardons, ugliness makes it merry….

A Hottentot cannot be changed into a Roman outline

In Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, more whispering:

"Marry that mulatto woman?" George said, pulling up his shirt-collars. "I don't like the colour, sir. Ask the black that sweeps opposite Fleet Market, sir. I'm not going to marry a Hottentot Venus."

I get curious about this Hottentot Venus who sound like she is a jamettry hottie like Belfon Saucy Wow!

shake your body around, like you's a blender

bend down and touch the ground and mek dem holler

for de jammette, de jammette, de jammette

I study she a lil bit, and even follow the trail to the British Museum and the Musee de l’Homme. While I suppose to be studying journalism in Cambridge I take a weekend to study jamettry in London and Paris – and what better place to lorn about jamettry than in Paris eh?

This Venus Hottentot was not no play act. She was real woman. When she was living, she was paraded around London and Paris and people pay to see she or to poke she big behind and other jamette parts. She was dead at age 26 and even when she dead, she parts was put on display in the museum. She was used in studies of the human anatomy to support stereotyping and racial applications of Darwin’s theory of origin of the species and the theory of natural selection.

I join my friends lobbying for the return of her parts for a respectful burial in her homeplace in South Africa which was finally done in 2002, the same year Saucy Wow and all ah we singing,

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out the Jamette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Saucy Wow itself! This Venus Hottentot, aka Sarah Baartman, who endure the epitome of the worst kinds of humiliations to which women have ever been subjected was the image of images of the jamette women that the French planter class women use to dress up like at their masked balls, the same kindda masked balls they had in Port of Spain too – frowning upon jamettry and mocking it so they dress up like that. In turn, to mock the uppity French massas, the maids dress up like their mistress who dress like the jamette they call Hottentot. So the maids thinking they mocking the massas when the massas were mocking the maids – really a whole lot of jamettry all around.

In Trinidad, they call this Hottentot figure Dame Lorraine, the quintessential jamettry character of Traditional Mas in the Trinidad Carnival, and I hoping to be one and wave a jamette flag for me lovely nation.

It is the most succinct example of how we have internalized colonial stereotyping and replicate it without knowledge of implications and meanings and symbolic representations that have resulted in the entrenchment of racism and prejudicial attitudes and behaviour. Pure jamettry!

I guess that’s why reading so painful because the truth not nice an we just want to jump and wine and have a good time everybody say the word, jamettry, and that’s why they threaten to buss yuh head and damage yuh if you read too much because it okay to have no censure for your jamettry, and censor you learning nah. Though all them long list of books that all these governments ban people still reading them, ent?

While you think about that, I getting my Panama Papers ready because like David Rudder I tell Mama I going to Panama, on the trail of the golden ration of Paradise in El Dorado….

Jamettry: Holy Dread! Drinking Honey/Mountain Dew to enter Paradise

Inspired by Kubla Khan, I get a brainwave that I could make good use of me jamettry for distraction from that hard and naked truths so I pull out the jamettry tool box Ma put in meh school bag.

The tin metal box is the same colour like my freshly starched uniform - navy blue skirt and white shirt - Ma iron it good after she sew it on she brand new sleek, sexy looking Singer sewing machine that she save up and buy from she lil market gardening and sewing for people.

It is a second-hand jamettry set but this jamettry really look like it pass through many many hands and might even be as old as the oldest profession in the world - the rubber missing, the wooden tips unsharpened, the nibs rusting, the face scratch-up…

You could still recognize even with the scratches, the words in white against navy blue background, "Oxford Mathematical Instruments complete and accurate Helix”. So now I had the tools to wok hard to find the double helix to unlock the secret of this jamettry DNA.

It make me take meh head outta story book long enough to look at the tools in the box. Inside the scratch-up goldy-silver tin case is a compass with one long leg and one short leg with a screw hole. Next to this had some transparent flat plastic with writings on them. I would learn that I should call the two plastic triangles set squares though I can’t figure out why because they look to all intents and purposes like triangles not squares. But that is scientific logic against creative dreaming, I guess. There is a straight ruler and one that look like a semi-circle with markings on it that I would learn is a protractor, and there is a stencil with the alphabet in capital and common letters.

I look at the set meh new friend Debbie, sitting next to me, have. It brand new, no scratches, and it have a brand new sharpener, eraser, and lead pencils too. I borrow Debbie sharpener to sharpen my long pencil. I break it in two and put the jagged edge part in the compass hole and screw it on. I save the other part with the eraser to come in handy.

Liz, in all the years of friendship although we share plenty things, she never once give me a contract or me she, and we still friends, eh. Debbie - who never let anybody know, except one day we talking and she tell me she related to Sir Solomon Hochoy who you appoint as we last Governor, Liz - had none of the airs of the any of the plantocracy. She is no one percent, she part ah the majority. Is unity in diversity and all ah we living as one.

I attach the pencil on the compass, stick the long point on the page and by rotating the pencil was making a perfect circle. This is quite an accomplishment for me whose every attempt at a straight line always turn into squiggles and curls. I couldn’t even baylay roti round good so it could fit on the chowki and the tawa, much less draw a circle (refer to Literarily entries #7561-5). Most time it come out looking almost like a map of Trinidad - the roti and the circle. Doh laugh nah gyul. The ruler and the stencil would help my cause of writing my name and subject on the covers of my book, too. Jamettry Par Excellence! 

Liz, just as I was getting use to experimenting and using meh jamettry, they stop me in meh track. They tell me that all I would do now is dabble and to really use meh jamettry, I have to take Applied Maths and Applied Physics.

I puzzled. Maybe the math I lorning all this time is not to apply to anything?  Maybe that’s how people who graduate from this place don’t know how about applying maths and using they jamettry to understand the associations and relationships between angles, and sizes and shapes, to structure and form and how one thing could affect other parts of the universe based on the tangential relationships in the divine proportion of the golden ration, as you would know if you use you whole jamettry Liz.

If they know how to use all the parts of the jamettry they would know how to do sums better, as I tell meh pardner the contracter son, who sit next to me the next year, because Debbie place in a next seat. He inherit he father company but he never give me a contract, Liz, and we is still friends.

Since he in the private sector and maybe know how them does deal, I have a mind to ask him about divine proportion and golden ration which as a business man he must know we in the same class together and we could finish that Conversation on the question that nobody ask:

If a Kaiser Ball – that is the head huncho of balls - is one dollar, how much Kaiser Balls you should get if you pay one hundred million dollars, how much tanks that would fill, and how much you would have left to bank in Panama after you get your Panama Papers and buy a DC-9 and build two towers in Canada when you convert that to United States green bucks dollars (see contexts, David Rudder calypso, Panama, below Liz, for easy reference).

And we could even talk about what angle I should take on this thing that puzzling all ah we: If all of we is one famalee and one percent have ninety-nine percent of everything, how much that leave for the other remainder of the ninety-nine percent; and if the one percent pay off the one billion dollar debt of one State Enterprise how much it would leave to free-up all ah we to develop we jamettry since as one famalee all ah we have the same DNA and double Helix jamettry set. All these things puzzling me to ask meh pardner in the public and not so public sectors.

Ah tempted eh, Liz, when they trying to bully me to take this advanced maths and physics where I they say I could really use meh jamettry. They ask me to choose, but TELL me to do Science because I bright, I already gearing up to pursue professional jamettry so I exercise meh democratic rights and choose the Arts so I could continue to read story books and full meh head with mumbo jumbo airy fairy nonsense on the path to my own version of professional jamettry.

All this time I find a loophole in the system. Because jammetry is all about twists and turns and angles and measurements I figure I would try to put me jammetry to use on Kubla Khan for good measure. I would apply maths and physics anyway to meh jamettry poetry.

Jamettry Flowers to Life

Is Jamettry that help me put the missing parts of the world story, together, Liz. From the single point of where the compass sticking on the paper, I make this multi-petalled flowers and then copy them on to cloth to make embroidery and string art.

I later learn that you call it the Flower of Life. That is the same flower Dan Brown write about in the Da Vinci Code, that get people vex and some ah them ban it in some places too.

I already know this flower of life, Liz, not from the Da Vinci Code and western literature and art and architecture and monuments, with the triangle that there was identified as the Masonic symbol. Not from Milton Paradise Lost which I could also compare with Kubla Khan Paradise though one is a big thick book-poem and one is a couple pages.

As I learn to use my compass and the protractor and ruler and the squares that look like triangles from meh jamettry set, not just the Flower of Life taking shape. But triangles and pyramids and pentagons and hexagons, and circles within circles and circles, all emanating from this single static point of my compass.

Jamettry Angles, Tangents, Twists & Turns of Seething Chasms

Liz, like a damsel with a dulcimer, I start to make the music of the sphers, latitude and longitude and everything. I check the angles of the ‘deep romantic chasm which slanted/Down the green, the circumference of domes, towers; the heights of rills and Mount Abora; the breadths of walls. For that I study plenty of your castles, Liz.

I project measurements for the ‘caverns measureless to man,’ ‘five miles’ and the ‘twice five miles’ on the dimensions to stately pleasure-domes’, ‘walls and towers.’

I calculate the movements and pace of the ‘earth fast think pants’, ‘half-intermittedly’, ‘fragments vaulted’, ‘meandering mazy motion’, ‘dancing rocks’...

I estimate the time factors in ‘ceaseless’, ‘forests ancient as the hills, ‘momently,’ ‘half-intermittedly’…

I look at the spatial physical cont-exts in the natural environment and its elements water, air, earth: of the chasm, earth, hill, Mount, dale, grove, moon, sea, ocean, river, garden, cave, mound; and the built environment: fountain, dome, rill, tower, walls…

I circling Kubla Khan domes and gardens, and the one in the UNESCO yard, the patterns in monuments and landmarks which form the building blocks of everything around. It show how well constructed building blend art and nature, how point and angle related to form and structure and create order out of chaos. Jamettry on a solid foundation show how to make proper calculations of how much of what could fit into what and in what proportions. Jamettry aint nothing like corruption, Liz, that’s how, Coleridge and the Masonic Master Milton find they Paradise and Copernicus read the stars, and Da Vinci reconstruct the anatomy of Vesuvius Man and he abstract thing like a Mona Lisa smile in immaterial painting and in material architecture; like I find in Gaudi building he Templo de Sagrada Familia, and the Egyptians building their pyramids of Giza and the Mexicans theirs, and in Belfon and Rudder music. And all this time what I know about Fibonacci and Pythagoras and Phi/Pi and thing, eh? I use meh jamettry to analyze Kubla Khan.

I find the divine proportions and a golden ratio to synergise poetry analysis with Sciences and Arts Liz. Ma, and I hooe you too, proud! Apply geometrical calculations and relationships that show Fibonacci formula and Pythagoras theorum and Phi/Pi and all of them things I know nothing about because Arts is only about dream, nah. In this fragment of a dream, I get a whole new angle on analyzing poetry that I would apply to analyzing plenty monuments and artefacts and lost civilisations too, Liz. A whole new world of jamettry open up, oui!

From the sunless sea and lifeless ocean to Mount Arora I sure we could find the secrets to global warming and climate change too, eh, Liz. You think? This poetry full of imagery of all the heritage of sacred jamettry – ask Tromp - not that Trump, the Donald; Tromp - the one all you beat to take away Manhattan from the Dutch, then called New Amsterdam, and rename it New York! Jamettry rules!

With a lil help of some mountain dew made in the towers of your own sugar factory here, Liz, (For mountain Dew refer to entry #4852 in Literarily) like Coleridge and Kubla Khan, I come up with the formula of divine proportions for rationing honey dew, El Dorado, the Paradise everybody looking for!

Jamettry, the Sacred Geography 

It is then I realise that even before Ma put the jamettry made ‘complete and accurate’ by Helix Oxford Mathematical Instruments in meh school bag, it already in meh DNA. You want to know how?

One day we having puja, I aint start school yet. Ma ask me to help prepare the bedi. She running late for Sona Pundit – the same Pundit who would use this jammetry which somehow connected to astronomy to read meh Patra (but that is a next story for another time, Liz). I start with putting Hibiscus flour – not flower - all round the edge of the bedi, like I see him do once before. I was about to draw one big Aum and leave it there but he stop me.

‘This just like Aum,’ he say. ‘Start here, from this point, in the centre.’

Before even reading meh Patra, Sona Pundit show me my beginning and end too. Guiding my hand Sona Pundit show me how to start from the centre point and move outward. We draw a triangle with this point in the middle, and then start to draw other triangles on both sides and build them up like a pyramid, using the centre point he do one pyramid on his side and I do one on my side and they join. He say one side is the upperworld and the other is the underworld. I could see pentagons and hexagons jumping out at me. We add circles and inside the circles we add semicircles with stately pleasure dome peaks to look like lotus petals – the Flower of Life that my compass would later make.

On the single point at the centre of the bedi sona Pundit put the kalsa with a deeya and light it.

‘Bindu,’ he say. ‘That is the point from which all of the universe emanate. Bindu.’

‘You mean bindi?’ I ask. I small but I already questioning even big people like Sona Pundit. Is the jamette inna meh!

‘Bindu, yeah, like bindi,’ he say, looking at me like if I just discover the New World, Liz!

“Bindi, like Ma wearing?’ Ma come to sit to do puja and had put on she sindoor on the path in she hair and a bindi at the centre of she forehead.

‘Exactly,’ he say. ‘That point is bindu/bindi. The foundation of creation, mother, Ma, from which the whole universe, earth, emanates.’ I have more questions but he start the puja.

He hand Ma some flowers, and begin he long Aum, take out he bell and ring and blow long and hard on he conchshell to signify the puja start. All the questions on my lips gone silent as the sound move from the bedi out and out as far out in the world as anybody could hear.

I start lookin for bindi in everything: the point at which all creation natural and manmade, hold the universe in balance when everything has an equal share in divine proportions, the golden ratio, make for harmony, unity in diversity. Is what you might call the sacred feminine, Liz. Ma gave it a name when she give me the tools in meh school bag. Jamettry.

Liz, I find El Dorado. It really was dong in South.

David Rudder: Panama

Panama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l6s3joSKy0

(Lyrics by David Rudder, 1988)

Ay senor, you see any Trikidadians pass here

You must know them

Big fat men with plenty blue money in they pocket

You no see them senor? No man

Ayee eeeeaye aye

Aye they thief the money

Ayee eeeeaye aye

I find El Dorado

It really was dong in south

But it wasn’t Mexico that them was talking about

Them rich Trinidadians show me this whole El Dorado ting

They here living like lords, but they gone they live there like kings

As they get a lil money in they pocket

They hiding the kakada

And when you miss them scamp and them

They somewhere in Panama

So I I IIIII going to Panama

I got to go to Panama mama

What it is they have over there

Making Trini just gone clear

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some talking bout tens of thousands

I here they mention millions

And so they mention billions

I doh like ole talk so I talking a walk

Look I done buy duty free rum

Pardner, stamp meh passport

Panama here I come

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some talking bout tens of thousands

I here they mention millions

And for they pension millions…

Look, it had a big Chinee gentleman who I doh know he name

They say he was a big businessman and racing was he game

They even call him some kindda ambassador I really doh know

But in this pappyshow land nearly everything is a pappyshow

They say he had a riding pardner they call this pardner the worst

I have to finish the mauvais lang when I reach in the next verse

But meanwhile I I IIIII going to Panama

I got to go to Panama mama

What it is they have over there

Making Trini just gone clear

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some say that is tens of thousands

Them talking bout - millions

I hear they mention - billions

I doh like ole talk ah taking ah walk

Allyuh doh spoil meh fun

Here’s the ticket Panama here I come!

Thousands, thousands, millions, millions…

First of all they used to call him a hero

Now they say he is a son of a gun

They say before they coulda holla Johnny O

How de fellah run

How he life was wide like Moon River

More money than chip chip

But just so the young man make a turnabout and make this Panama trip

How he set up a halfway house in Miami and Canada

He look left and right then left again and then buss it to Panama

So I I IIIIIII going to Panama

I got to go to Panama mama

What it is they have over there

Making Trini just gone clear

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some say that is tens of thousands

Them talking bout - millions

Them talking bout what? - billions

I doh like ole talk you see ole talk jus chip up meh grey hair fine

So Lee Sing and all yuh warm up that DC-9

Warm it up marn warm up the DC-9

That is what I want to fly on

I doh want no L10-11

I want the DC-9

Is we taxpayers money buy that boy, we petro dollars

You hear meh? Warm it up!

This place they call Panama gotta be the hardest hardest

This place they call Panama harder than Trinidad

Them doh wine and march ‘round no Red House

Is molotov gun and thing

And they say the biggest man over dey is the biggest corruption king

And just to prove that Panama could beat we in bacchanal

Jimmy Carter went dey, they watch him in he face

And they take back dey damn Canal

So I I IIIII going to Panama I got to go to Panama mama

What it is they have over there

Making Trini just gone clear

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some say that is tens of thousands

Some talking bout being millions

Ah hear they mention billions

 I want a no smoke seat I doh eat meat

Now warm up the plane breda

On the runway we going by Noreiga

Some say that they gone with thousands

Some say that is tens of thousands

Some say that they mention millions

And they mention what…billions

Thief the money thief the money

Thief the money thief the money thief the money

They gone they gone

Thousands…millions…. 

Jamette https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kXrob3Z6L8

By Denise Belfon

Yes... this is for all the J-A-M-M-E-T-T-E out there, not just woman, man too!

I need a man to come to come

No matter where yuh from yuh from

Could ah be blind or deaf and dumb and dumb

He need plenty not just some

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

I need a man who's hype who's hype

To stand up like a pipe a pipe

De banana must be ripe be ripe

And that's the only time

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna me oh oh oh oh

Make dem whine to the ground and see you later

Twist and turn it around ‘cause we don't cater

Shake your body around, like you's a blender

Bend down and touch the ground and mek dem holler

For de jammette, de jammette, de jammette

sexy jammette, de jammette de jammette

Hotttie jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Saucy jammette, de jammette, de jammette

I need a man in shape in shape

Big and strong just like ah ape ah ape

Who don't stand up deh and gape and gape

Who eh ’fraid to go on tape

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

I need a man dat hard dat hard

To never treat meh bad real bad

When he go I must feel sad real sad

When he come I must feel glad

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

Bring out de jammette inna meh, bring out de jammette inna meh oh oh oh oh

For de jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Sexy jammette, de jammette de jammette

Hottie jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Saucy jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Ha ha ha ha how yuh like dat? I like it too

De kindda man I want is de kindda man to bring out de

De Real me. Yuh get it?

Bring out de jammette inna meh

Bring out de jammette inna meh

Bring out de jammette inna meh

Bring out de jammette inna meh

For de jammette, de jammette, de jammette

Sexy jammette, de jammette de jammette

Hottie jammette, de jammette, de jammette

KrisRampersad:Linkedin/Instagram/Pinterest/Youtube

Kubla Khan

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight ’twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

KrisRampersad:Linkedin/Instagram/Pinterest/Youtube

Yo Ho Ho Piracy and Heritage: https://goo.gl/TvXOHU

Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Arresting the Tears Hayti I’m Sorry https://goo.gl/6sy3y6

Noble Tears of a Nobel Bard https://goo.gl/WXbMpv

Towards State of the Art Museum: https://goo.gl/FfHfJL

Jurisprudence An Ode https://goo.gl/Gmn7l0

Ah Drinking Babash https://goo.gl/GhMncz

The Human face of constitutional reform https://goo.gl/6escjj

Lagahoo-tribute-to-independent-spirits https://goo.gl/P6gP2Q

 Murder and the Museum  http//goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Woman in the mirror https://goo.gl/pvnX9d

Links to Demokrissy blogs

Related Links:

Murder and the Museum http//goo.gl/FHs3Fr

  Celebrating Nationhood But Can new Save the Nation http://ift.tt/2wLgqVm

Death of Knowledge & Social Conscience

Pat-bishops-last-struggle-killings https://goo.gl/tQUySt

Them-red-house-bones

A-tale-of-two-skeletons

Arresting-tears-for-us-and-haytian-globe:

Yo Ho ho and a bottle of rumhttps://goo.gl/TvXOHU

 Demokrissy https://goo.gl/FHs3Fr

Changing the World with Ideas  goo.gl/Pa6jAk

Lagahoo-tribute-to-independent-spirits Nationhood in contestation with globalisation: http://ift.tt/2xPw4Mo    https://goo.gl/KWdUtx

http://ift.tt/2vv44gW

http://ift.tt/1ThyYwQ   https://goo.gl/J1EFn5

my-discoverie-columbus-lost-and-found

http://ift.tt/2udiMa6

http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K /from-beirut-to-port-of-spain-how-west.html

The-price-of-passion-awards-and-rewards

 http://ift.tt/2u5Y4ZX

Exploring a World Through MultiCultural Lenses http://ift.tt/2veR3ei

 Power Failure Media Blackout Brets Muffled Threats and Ransoming Father: https://goo.gl/YjbBgx

Jurisprudence-rip-obituary-walcott.html

my-date-with-narendra-modi-dat-merkel affair

Of-diasporas-migrations-arrivals.

Elixirs-of-entrepreneurship-The Emperor and I 

Ah-drinking-babash-in-this-fo-rum

Nobel-tears-of-and-for-nobel-bard

Things-that-make-me-go-steups-stars http://ift.tt/2haopDO

The Walcott Files LiTTscapes for Littribute to the Antilles  A LiTTribute at UNESCO  Inscription by UNESCO of Poems Small only in Size UNESCO Executive Board told World in a Fishbowl A Musical Heritage walk UNESCO Creative Cities

Breezes-of-tropical-arab-spring

In-war-and-peace-from-hiroshima-to-home.html

A-path-out-of-mayhem-and-murder

Turning-our-dreams-to-shame-rip-asami

Focus-resources on real crime

jus-call-me-cooligan

The world-in-fishbowl

The-other-magnificent-seven

Tribute-to-literary-mentor

The-human-face-of-constitutional-reform

The-ghost-of journalism past

OverCopulation - The Archbishop The Priest The Politician & The Journalist

Ask About LiTTscapes,

Ask about LiTTours and LiTTributes

Diplomats get stimulating LiTTour 

Murder She Wrote: Death Written in Stone in Dana Seetahal Assassination Creating Centres of Peace in Trinidad and Tobago The Price of Independence:#DanaSeetahalAssassination Conceive. Achieve. Believe Demokrissy: Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's ... Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K See Also: Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ... Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Related: Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ... Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an exercise in thoughtful, studied choice. Local government is the foundation for good governance so even if one wants to reform the ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Demokrissy - Blogger Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2....http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K See Also: Demokrissy: Winds of Political Change - Dawn of T&T's Arab Spring Jul 30, 2013 Wherever these breezes have passed, they have left in their wake wide ranging social and political changes: one the one hand toppling long time leaders with rising decibels from previously suppressed peoples demanding a ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Reform, Conform, Perform or None of the Above cross ... Oct 25, 2013 Some 50 percent did not vote. The local government elections results lends further proof of the discussion began in Clash of Political Cultures: Cultural Diversity and Minority Politics in Trinidad and Tobago in Through The ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Sounds of a party - a political party Oct 14, 2013 They are announcing some political meeting or the other; and begging for my vote, and meh road still aint fix though I hear all parts getting box drains and thing, so I vex. So peeps, you know I am a sceptic so help me decide. http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian Jun 15, 2010 T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian · T&T Constitution the culprit | The Trinidad Guardian. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 8:20 AM · Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Related: Demokrissy: To vote, just how we party … Towards culturally ... Apr 30, 2010 'How we vote is not how we party.' At 'all inclusive' fetes and other forums, we nod in inebriated wisdom to calypsonian David Rudder's elucidation of the paradoxical political vs. social realities of Trinidad and Tobago. http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: DEADLOCK: Sign of things to come Oct 29, 2013 An indication that unless we devise innovative ways to address representation of our diversity, we will find ourselves in various forms of deadlock at the polls that throw us into a spiral of political tug of war albeit with not just ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: The human face of constitutional reform Oct 16, 2013 Sheilah was clearly and sharply articulating the deficiencies in governmesaw her: a tinymite elderly woman, gracefully wrinkled, deeply over with concerns about political and institutional stagnation but brimming over with ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Trini politics is d best Oct 21, 2013 Ain't Trini politics d BEST! Nobody fighting because they lose. All parties claiming victory, all voting citizens won! That's what make we Carnival d best street party in the world. Everyone are winners because we all like ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age - Demokrissy Jan 09, 2012 New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. New Media, New Civil Society, and Politics in a New Age | The Communication Initiative Network. Posted by Kris Rampersad ...http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: T&T politics: A new direction? - Caribbean360 Oct 01, 2010 http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Others: Demokrissy: Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 ... Apr 07, 2013 Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. So we've had the rounds of consultations on Constitutional Reform? Are we any wiser? Do we have a sense of direction that will drive ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2 Apr 30, 2013 Valuing Carnival The Emperor's New Tools#2.  http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Wave a flag for a party rag...Choosing the Emperor's New ... Oct 20, 2013 Choosing the Emperor's New Troops. The dilemma of choice. Voting is supposed to be an ... Old Casked Rum: The Emperor's New Tools#1 - Towards Constitutional Reform in T&T. Posted by Kris Rampersad at 10:36 AM ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Carnivalising the Constitution People Power ... Feb 26, 2014 This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Envisioning outside-the-island-box ... - Demokrissy - Blogger Feb 10, 2014 This Demokrissy series, The Emperor's New Tools, continues and builds on the analysis of evolution in our governance, begun in the introduction to my book, Through the Political Glass Ceiling (2010): The Clash of Political ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Futuring the Post-2015 UNESCO Agenda Apr 22, 2014 It is placing increasing pressure for erasure of barriers of geography, age, ethnicity, gender, cultures and other sectoral interests, and in utilising the tools placed at our disposal to access our accumulate knowledge and technologies towards eroding these superficial barriers. In this context, we believe that the work of UNESCO remains significant and relevant and that UNESCO is indeed the institution best positioned to consolidate the ..... The Emperor's New Tools ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K Demokrissy: Cutting edge journalism Jun 15, 2010 The Emperor's New Tools. Loading... AddThis. Bookmark and Share. Loading... Follow by Email. About Me. My Photo · Kris Rampersad. Media, Cultural and Literary Consultant, Facilitator, Educator and Practitioner. View my ... http://ift.tt/1vYaD4K

@krisramp, @KrisRampersadTT, @lolleaves, @sirkenrobinson, @level5leaders, @pankajghemawat @potus @un @unesco @culture @time @life @nytimes @narendramodi #narendramodi @krisrampersad #krisrampersad @theguardian @heritage

 @BJP4India #BJP @Priyankachopra #PriyankaChopra#merkel @EmmanuelMacron #EmmanuelMcrona #JohnTrudeau @travelchannel @usatoday @BBCWorld @BBCWorldHaveYourSay @TEDtalks @TEDNews +britishcouncil@engageats.co.uk @britishmuseum, @britishcouncil, @britishlibrary, @Royal_Gov_UK, @justintrudeau, @helenclarkeUNDP, +Google for Nonprofits  @googleartsandculture, @econculture, @commonculture, @writersdigest, @nytimes, +PBS NewsHour +Breaking News +BBC News +news@news.ideastap.com +info@takingitglobal.org +Open Society Foundations @richardbranson, @billgates, @melaniegates, @gatesfoundation, +G Singh, @clintonfdn, @WJClibrary, @clintonglobal, @librarycongress @google, @googleresearch @yahoo, @yahoonews, @yahoomovies, @ABC, @CNN, @REUTERS, @ABC, +Kamla Persad-Bissessar , +Prakash Ramadhar, +John van Tiggelen, 

@FoxNews, @UKinCaribbean, @WBCaribbean, @TheEconomist, @wef, @economictimes, @business, @businessinsider, @wsjbusiness, @wsj womenshealth, @wsjmag, @people, @fortunemagazine, @ellemagazine, @oprah, @O_magazine,  @OWNTV, @oprahbooklist, @voguemagazine, @twitterwomen, @womenintheworld, @UN_Women, @womenatforbes, @womensmediacentre @womensenews

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2wv470j

[originalmemorieshere]

Oh No, Not Music!

Oh No, Not Music! It may seem as though I haven’t written in days, but I really have. I have written on this blog, deleted it and rewritten it every day. I just haven’t seemed to be able to get my thoughts down the way I want them. Everything has been the way I want it my mind and then when those thoughts get to my fingertips the wrong words drip out and run all over the page.  Music has influenced my life in so many ways. I can remember my older cousins listening to the Beatles and playing the Beatles board game. I was very young, yet I knew and could sing every one of their songs word for word. Another cousin had the song Blue Navy Blue on a 45 record and I would sing along with it, too. Older cousins were a great source of popular songs back in the sixties for me. While we were still in Oklahoma I remember sitting on the white fence around our farmhouse singing Sunshine Lollipops.  I remember my older sister and I standing in front of a mirror and singing songs along with the radio, dancing around. When we first moved to Texas we would sing and dance in our garage, having a great time- music offering a way to spend a Saturday afternoon. When I was in the sixth grade my mom mailed me a transistor radio with an ear plug that I could pull out during recess and listen to KILT610 and hear the top 40 rock songs of 1971. It was the most awesome birthday present because I now had CCR, Three Dog Night, and the Bee Gees in my ear through that little earplug while swinging or walking the track.  That summer I moved to Kansas City  I remember warm summer nights and laying on my brass bed listening to trains down along the river, my bedroom window open, me looking out to the river, down past Metropolitan and Strong Streets. I would have the radio on, listening to KUDL radio every night, loving Carole King, Olivia Newton John, Cher, and so many other singers. I would listen to Casey Kasem do the top 40 count down. I loved soul music, the winding down of Motown, and of course Chicago and Rod Stewart.  Some of my best memories with music come from riding in the car with my daddy. When I was little I would lay up in the back window of the car and I would listen to country music and pretend the singers with their bands were actually in the radio station singing the songs. I loved the way my daddy sang along with the radio and learned to love the country sounds of the fifties, sixties, and seventies from him. He had such a good voice.  We had this one television/stereo console in Houston that had these big speakers with lights in them which lit up to the music. I thought they were so cool. I can still hear all the mid-seventies rock music blaring, see myself dancing in the living room to Santana, Bad Company, or Kiss, and feel the cold blast of the air conditioner in the living room when I think of those speakers. There was an eight track tape deck, a turntable, and an AM/FM stereo inside. I think we had a huge 25" color television.  It was during this time my high school would have what were called sock hops after our football games. As soon as the game was over there would be a dance with local bands comprised from guys from our school as well rock and country music records played. It was so much fun. My friends and I would be doing the bump, dancing around, sweaty, having a great time. Those were such great times.  Fast forward a couple years to when MTV and VH1 came out. I was in heaven. I could watch my favorite singers perform and see some of the famous concerts I had heard about my whole life. In the first few days of MTV I got to see a lot of Rod Stewart videos and I was hooked. It was amazing. Yep, I was a true child of the video age. I was a young adult and I was in love with it. My kids liked watching it, too. We went back and forth between the two channels a lot and they learned to love my music, too. Dancing in the Dark was a favorite video a couple years later as was Ain’t Missing You and The Warrior. It was so cool that Urban Cowboy was out around that same time. Unfortunately, that was the last big push of country music that I liked. I just didn’t like the direction it turned after that. I have to admit that I really haven’t followed country since the mid-eighties at all.  During the time my kids were growing up, some of my fondest memories revolve around us riding in the car going to judo class singing to the radio. We would sing along, having the best time. Both my kids can sing really well and I can still remember the bonding we did on those rides. Music played a big role in making those rides fun. I also got to know their music, too. I loved Boyz II Men, Babyface, Mariah Carey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a lot others. Then karaoke came along. It opened a whole new world of music to me. I sang at a judo function with some friends whom I would have never thought I would ever sing with. Music brings people together. We had a family reunion Memorial Day 2002 and my brothers and I had such a wonderful time singing together. Then I had Cabioke in one of my taxicabs. Yes, you guessed it. There was karaoke in a taxicab. It was so popular that people booked that cab a week or more in advance to make sure they would get to ride in it on party nights or weekends.

[theladyirene]

My Views of Now and Whats Coming.

After reading an argument about what people should do for the next four years, I knew this needed to be said. To all of those who think we should give Trump and Pence (people often forget that Pence even exist in this equation) a chance, I have to point out that Trump’s chance to act like an adult who meets the standards of The President of the United States of America who is supposed to represent the country as a whole was when he was running for office. This is just about the way he presents himself to nation, whether it be through social media or on television. The fact that his staff had to take away his twitter account right before the election says a lot. Or how he mocks and talks shit about anyone who opposes him who end up receiving death threats from his supporters. Or how he is so petty that he must respond to every insult in public space with another insult, usually on twitter. That was only about how he carries himself, let’s talk about his politics. Trump should have been a lawyer. He lies more and denies more than a teenager trying to convince their parents that they’re saint while doing drugs and having sex in the basement. Going to arrest Clinton? Nope. Remember when you said global warming is a Chinese hoax? Nope.

What about Pence? Pence Is openly supports conversion therapy, if you don’t know this a form of therapy to change a person’s sexual orientation through methods based on pseudo-science. These methods include, but are not limited to, electric shock and nausea-inducing drug treatment. What about his views on women? “In 2011, as he prepared to run for governor of Indiana, Pence told MSNBC that "of course" he'd shut the federal government down if congressional Democrats didn't include the defunding of Planned Parenthood in negotiations to approve a spending bill” (CNN,2016). He also stated in 2002 that condoms are too modern. Spoiler alert Pence, if Plan Parenthood is shut down, you attack a resource for people to become informed about sex and the human body as well as a recourse to receive medical exams and care such as breast cancer screenings.

So now they won. After all this you still want people to give them a chance? What about their cabinet appointees?

I’m going to start with education because that is where I will be working in the future if there is one. Betsy DeVos… Oh boy is she a wreck. She has never been to public schools as a student or teacher, has no qualifications relating to education, has never gone through the government loan system, has never had to struggle to gain an education, has never managed a trillion-dollar loan system let alone a billion-dollar loan system. These things are all crucial to running the education department.

Who’s next? Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson. Carson the surgen? So if you lived in the inner city, as a child, you’re qualified to run this department? Hmmm… since I was born in a hospital I can treat patients!

Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, for Sectary of Sate. Yes, let’s put someone in the oil companies pocket in charge of foreign affairs, that can’t end badly. We could either make deals with countries for oil or fight countries for oil, what are we will to sacrifice for oil? Or rather, what is he willing to sacrifice of ours for oil?

Give him a chance? We gave him plenty and that’s how we got here in the first place. If you give him any more chances, you’ll only normalize his behavior let alone lower the standards for the behavior of candidates for president, president- elects, and presidents. Some may say “haters gonna hate” but that is a lack of an argument. If you truly disagree this what I say here, then form a proper argument with sources. While it doesn’t have to be a graduate level paper, it would be nice to see proper discussions. Writing is more powerful than one may realize, how do you think a fake study about how vaccines cause autism got so popular?

(Some)Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/08/politics/mike-pence-women-donald-trump/

https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/blog/8-outrageous-facts-about-mike-pencerecord-reproductive-rights

[adultswim2021]

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law #15: “Blackwatch Plaid” | January 1, 2003 - 12:08 AM | S02E01

Mere minutes into 2003 Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law debuted it’s first episode in a little while: “Blackwatch Plaid”. The new year is traditionally a time when we reflect on our previous year and re-evaluate old habits. At the time of this airing, I was fastidiously recording Adult Swim every week and saving anything new that aired to my own carefully labeled home video archives. Historically I’d been recording to VHS, but I had received a DVD recorder for Christmas and immediately began transferring certain Adult Swim shows from VHS to DVD. The DVD format was still rather young, and the idea of Adult Swim shows actually making it to retail DVD didn’t seem like such a sure thing (even though at this time, two such volumes had been produced; more about those during EPHEMERA WEEK)

This was the tenth episode aired, and 10 episodes was what could fit on a DVD-R recorded in SP mode. So, I completed my first and only custom DVD of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. When faced with the prospect of beginning a second volume of Harvey Birdman on DVD I was at a bit of a crossroads. Keep watching this show I hate in the name of completionism? Or, do what any sane person would do and stop watching? I gave it away a few sentences back, but at the time I picked the later. This was a pretty big deal for me! Sure, I thought less of shows like Brak and Sealab from their strong starts, but I still stuck with them. My rejection of Birdman was a radical act. I was now no longer enjoying Adult Swim as a whole. I was now picking and choosing what I wanted from it.

“Blackwatch Plaid” isn’t so bad, truthfully. It’s a parody of the then-current Homeland Security Terror Alert Level Color Chart, which had debuted earlier in 2002. the eponymous blackwatch plaid is one of the colors on Phil Ken Sebben’s chart, which is created in this episode in response to an imagined office theft. The fact that this imaginary office theft is treated with the same high-level importance as a terrorist attack on our country is the whole joke of the episode. It’s a worthy target for satire, for sure.

Okay, so it’s 2021, and I’m watching these with a more open mind. I can admit the anger I felt at Birdman was “a little much”, this episode is more cohesive than most and the jokes aren’t bad. I didn’t laugh at them then, and I didn’t laugh at them now, so really not much has changed. But I recall one sticking point I had: the live-action montage. There’s multiple bits of live-action in this episode, and they are fun. But jealousy that these guys had a comedy show and I didn’t really worked wonders on me, because I remember really detesting the main montage in the episode. It was as if I thought “how dare you guys have fun, this show sucks.”

In the montage, Sebben presents Birdman with footage from the newly-installed security cameras that proves Birdman doesn’t get much work done in the course of his work day. A now live-action Birdman is seen milling around the office doing nothing much, then suddenly we are treated to a bright and colorful montage of Birdman playing hooky. He’s riding a ferris wheel, getting his nails done, showering at home with Boo Boo who playfully slaps his ass, cavorting around a fountain, popping out of a ball pit, and then running/tip-toeing around a field in different directions, for no reason. It’s wacky. It looks like it was a lot of fun to shoot. And I was pissed.

Okay, I’m primarily using this blog entry to try and get to the bottom of why I hated the montage so much. If a show I loved did something similar, I’d probably applaud it. It’s a fun idea, fairly low-effort (not that doing a live-action shoot doesn’t require real effort, it does!), and it just reads as “comedy is happening” for the entirety of the sequence. From a production stand point there’s little reason to not include a sequence like this.

I feel like this was a form of humor you’d see a lot of amateur comedy makers doing: the bright and cheery montage. It’s ironic, because I’m acting cheesy! I couldn't name names if I tried, but I just had about three or four different amateur sketch group videos pop into my head with the same comedy stylings. I can’t imagine what the point of view is here, or if anyone participating in this particular joke actually thinks they’re being original. At this point I’d say that the number of ironic/spoof montages in this vein outnumber the ones that are actually doing them in earnest. So, the idea can’t be “I’m doing a very original joke here.” The humor in those videos seem to be rooted in the more narcissistic ethos of “this is funny because *I’M* doing it!”

Have you ever seen Stella Shorts? I feel like a lot of aspiring comedy creators saw Stella Shorts and tried to produce similar sketches. That is: hammy, broad, intentionally sorta cheesy but ironic capitol-c comedy. And most of them would fall flat. It’s because the Stella guys were geniuses and the amateur comedians trying to do dime-store imitations of Stella Shorts were mostly not. So, it was the climate that really shaded my disdain for the montage. I wish I had my own TV show, still. I’ve occasionally written comedy pieces with the intent of putting together a low-budget sketch comedy show, and I’m certain that if I were to actually produce said comedy it wouldn’t be so easy, and I’d be very much guilty of putting unoriginal ideas on screen. But, the jealousy remains. So, sorry, Birdman. You’re still forbidden from entering my heart. Fuck you.

MAIL BAG

This is the part of the blog where we all get our eyes ready for some good messages and some good times. Here we go:

Just tried the Popeyes Nuggets, I've enjoy popeyes bone in chicken in the past so I thought I would give their boneless option a shot.

Please stop sending me nugget stuff. This is an anti-corporate, anti-capitalist blog. No one should eat any nugget unless they make it at home themselves. That’s just the facts

I can't believe I felt a little melancholy about the abrupt end of Brak. The first full fledge Adult Swim program to bite the dust. It was mostly terrible and you were better off airing an Aqua Teen episode in it's place but...wow, we'll never have that again. Goodbye Andy! See you in the shitty webtoon.

Andy is in hell now and “that’s gotta suck”. RIP.

Took the kids to Great Falls the other day, last treat before they head off to school and on our way back we stopped at Popeyes. The kids got the nuggets I went with the classic chicken. Cost me about 18 bucks with drinks and all that but it was pretty good chicken. The kids loved the nuggets. My son was like, "it's crunchy". Pretty cool place. Thanks for hipping me and my family to it. If you have any other kid-friendly places let me know because fall soccer season is coming up.

!!! SHUSH! stop that!

You arent gonna write about it since its not an original but Family Guy just left Adult Swim. Why don't you speak your mind about the show in general and what it meant for the programming block. Yeah, that sounds like a good waste of your time.

Little do you realize!

Popeyes chicken

Suck my dick

[redshoesnblueskies]

Fanfic culture, AO3 origins going right back to strikethrough, fandom history.....

SO. MANY. LINKS.

for those who don’t want to click through:

these are all links to my tumblr - i did not write very many of them, but i know my links will remain the same and not be lost :)

The master post of upholding and celebrating fanfic, by @inkandcayenne :

‘I think fanfiction is literature and literature, for the most part, is fanfiction, and that anyone that dismisses it simply on the grounds that it’s derivative knows fuck-all about literature and needs to get the hell off my lawn.’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/621654927974055936/inkandcayenne-tywinning-asked-you-2012-08-09

HISTORY OF FANDOM CULTURE FROM LJ TO AO3

'What you are doing when you say “If you don’t want crit, don’t post your story” is gatekeeping, and in a REALLY harmful way. Without fans creating work (fanfiction or art or meta), there is no fandom. You’re not only saying “you can’t be in fandom if you don’t want to be hurt” you’re actively calling for fandom to be cut down. That’s a bad thing. Fandom needs creator content in order to exist and grow.’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/186058432379/so-if-youve-watched-my-general-meltdown-about

Foz: straight dudes of the world…read fanfic: 

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230785234/fozmeadows-totallyevillisa

foz: on depression and hurt/comfort

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230730609/on-depression-and-hurtcomfort

fantastic Foz posts from a while ago, addressing the ‘well just censor content and then you’re not godless heathens’ fallacy…

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230530849/fantastic-foz-posts-from-a-while-ago-addressing

Fanfiction & Capitalism, and Why I Think They Are Related [TW for homophobia, mentions of sexual violence, capitalism]

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230748619/fanfiction-capitalism-and-why-i-think-they-are

Fair use is authorized by law

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230721574/fyeahcopyright-heidi8-fair-use-is-wholly

fantastic breakdown of the sociology that led from LJ community culture to tumblr anonymous disconnected culture:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/611096897406615552/kanna-ophelia-taraljc-kanna-ophelia

'The Places Fandom Dwells: A cautionary Tale’ - EXCELLENT, LOTS OF LINKS

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179355549419/the-places-fandom-dwells-a-cautionary-tale 

'It just kills me when writers create franchises where like 95% of the speaking roles are male, then get morally offended that all of the popular ships are gay. It’s like, what did they expect?’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/173587593934/bonehandledknife-feynites-theskaldspeaks

BIG AO3 POSTS - HISTORY OF FANDOM

great breakdown of stats on how HUGE AO3 actually is…

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230519234/why-are-people-still-up-in-arms-about-ao3-needing

another breakdown of how huge AO3 is & intricate skills required to run it

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179336300829/hey-ao3-can-you-like-give-the-extra-38k-you-made

AO3 is in the top 300 biggest websites in the WORLD/how a huge site like this works

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230400619/hey-ao3-can-you-like-give-the-extra-38k-you-made

origin story of AO3 - very sweet  (10th anniversary of AO3)

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230398054/on-the-ao3-all-these-years-later

this blogger remembers when we didn’t have AO3

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179391607249/this-blog-is-unrepentantly-pro-ao3

adults built fandom - who runs cons? who runs AO3 & the legal team at OTW? codes the servers?

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179430883009/naryaflame-vanimore-askragtatter-rsasai

“AO3 IS OUR SITE.  It is by fans, for fans. Fans do all the coding. All the legal paperwork. All the abuse/tos violation complaints. Fans make all the choices about policies. Fans decide how to run the fundraisers. Fans write the blog posts. All the volunteer staff are fans; all the people who train them are fans. Fans wrangle all the tags.”

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/188239677029/purge-of-2002-of-2012-what-are-those

'Certain people are screaming that AO3 is bad because it’s not a “safe space.” The real problem they have, though, is that AO3 was created to be a safe space - for writers.’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/165199049719/rapacityinblue-kaciart-rocket-sith

FANDOM HISTORY & CULTURE

copperbadge - fandom dad explains concrit & why it’s not welcome without specific request

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/186983936704/question-as-an-oldster-and-fandom-lurker-since

fanfic/fanart is a gift - respect it in the way you respect something freely given

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/187512037844/trickztr-friendly-reminder-that-fan-made

'Toxic Fandom: Chen Criticism and Entitlement Go Too Far’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179392060549/toxic-fandom-when-criticism-and-entitlement-go

an explanation of the anti’s as very damaged authoritarianism 

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230513414/freedom-of-fanfic-freedom-of-fanfic

why do fangirls always make them gay?

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/162428018414/why-do-fangirls-always-make-them-gay

fandom history through the ages and across continents

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/129594965539/teashoesandhair-ogress-jhameia

one of several versions of a HUGE history post educating people on why we need a non-censored AO3 & why this is vital (and how misinformed many fans are)

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230393414/theothersarshi-redshoesnblueskies

another version:  https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/173741270214/grison-in-space-veronica-rich

conversation on AO3 tagging (plus being screwed by censorship

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179391926284/except-that-no-one-uses-tags-like-fetishized

how AO3 is run by volunteer & how to volunteer yourself

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230390519/in-kind

Ao3 fund drive post that goes into why they don’t censor

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179230054009/anarfea-anarfea-people-keep-asking-how-can

what 'Archive of Our Own’ refers to

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179136825394/what-archive-of-our-own-refers-to

AO3’s transparent financial reporting & a good rant

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179136341494/ao3-donation-drive

a short explanation of LJ strikethrough

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179124456874/telarna-meeedeee-bomberqueen17-i-just

LIGHTER FARE

origin of the ! - the “bang path’ in fandom pairings :D

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/118991314994/hey-whats-up-with-the-in-fandoms-ie-fat

can we PLEASE have an AO3 rating system for books & media?? pleeeeease???  here’s some thoughts on how:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/119377580254/crowd-sourced-content-warnings-at-book-stores

LJ was my initial experience of examining how fic fits into these huge gaps left by conventional writing, media and daily IRL conversation/education - the kind of healing that fic can bring to both individuals and a collective body of both knowledge and healthy questioning of assumptions about sexuality as a whole.  I mean, the kind of absolutely common place knowledge about consent, power dynamics, experimentation to determine what one’s own sexuality looks like, and the the options available is extraordinary.  To have that breadth and depth of knowledge presented in an often beautifully creative format; where you could discuss with the author and other readers anything included in the fic and what it meant to both literature and real life, as well as all things fannish that one’s wild imagination could come up with…. good god what I would have given for that information as a teen.  

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/122835116349/bonehandledknife-redshoesnblueskies

Fandom Is…. (poem)

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/124514359704/fandom-is-focus-fandom-is-obsession-fandom-is

Can fandom bring back the concept of a squick? Pleeeease?

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/126342903959/can-fandom-bring-back-the-concept-of-a-squick

'so don’t pretend it can’t be done, author dudes, because there’s a million fangirls who can write lyric filthy devastating character-revealing plot-advancing poetic tender wall-slamming trope-inverting panting sweaty trope-embracing aching crying sex…..and can do it far far better than you.’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/124171180589/sex-is-hard-to-write-about-because-you-lose-the

'It’s just fanfic…’

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/126188502159/its-just-fan-fic

“Ship means something you want to see happen.” Bitch, no it don’t. 

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/179234734799/pyrebomb-ship-means-something-you-want-to-see

why can you sell fanart, but not fanfic??

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/128782763684/legal-side-of-tumblr-can-you-answer-me-a

humor: different types of fanfic - in graphics:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/129402064267/justanotherfmablog-yougothenigo

THE SUFFERING ARTIST CONCEPT IS BULLSHIT AND SHOULD BE BLOWTORCHED:

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/186461152949/zendarkwalkerx-magicianmew-katiecrenshaw

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/166161827744/if-one-more-person-says-what-if-theyd-medicated

IF YOU’VE MADE IT THIS FAR, YOU DESERVE STARSHIPS (SCROLL DOWN):

https://redshoesnblueskies.tumblr.com/post/138038043884/samati-saathi1013-tygermama-zillah975