#albert >_<

[deviika]

—Albert Camus

[paintingispoetry]

Albert Aublet, "Selene", 1880

[christadeguchi]

gritty both capturing the zeitgeist as usual AND educating me on the availability of free flow butter at american cinemas

[metamorphesque]

― Albert Camus, Notebooks: 1935-1951

[zegalba]

Art Nouveau storefront by Albert Pèpe (1906)

[lionofchaeronea]

Falling Stars Observed from the Balloon, illustration by Albert Tissandier for the second edition of James Glaisher's Travels in the Air, 1871

[petaltexturedskies]

Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn't have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn't have to be a walk during which you'll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don't find meaning but "steal" some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn't make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be.

Albert Camus, from Notebooks 1951-1959

[foldingfittedsheets]

When I was with my ex Taylor and living in Arizona we were roommates with two of her friends.The living situation ended up being Wildly Toxic it’s the one where they said we couldn’t use kitchenware when we said we were moving out. We left and cut contact.

But I do have one regret. I had gotten along quite well with the guy in the couple when I first met him. We texted while Taylor and I were still long distance and because I was working at a sex shop he was quite transparent with me about considering a dick piercing. We chatted about aftercare and the saltwater rinses he’d have to do.

One day he sent me a text informing me that he wanted to send me a video but it had his penis in it, and was that okay? I was so curious I immediately said yes.

The video started on a mirror with his waist framed in shot. Lacking his face all I saw was his flaccid penis and a small glass of water. His new piercing gleamed like a single eye at the tip of his cock. He grabbed his limp penis and in a gruff voice demanded, “Talk you son of a bitch!”

He grabbed his floppy freshly pierced dick and dunked it in the salt water while insisting, “We know you know! Spill it!”

He pulled it up and did a gibbering little penis voice, pleading, “Please, I don’t know anything-“

Then he shoved it back into the water, flopping it around as if the water boarded dick was flailing in distress making outrageous “Blub-hrygh-ghlugggh,” sounds.

It was hands down one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I watched it over and over until tears were streaming down my face. When things ended terribly with that couple and we cut contact I deleted the video as it seemed inappropriate to keep now that we weren’t friends.

But I still think about the comedy gold he’d enacted in front of that mirror.

[thoughtkick]

I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things with a heavy heart.

Albert Camus

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Y'know, there's this gripe I've had for years that really frustrates me, and it has to do with Love, Simon and people joking about it and calling it too-pg and designed-for-straight-people and all the like. (A similar thing has happened to Heartstopper, but that's another conversation.)

I saw Love, Simon in theaters when it came out my senior year in high school. I saw it three times, once with my friends/parents on opening night, once with my brother over spring break, and once with my grandparents.

On opening night, the air in the room was electric. It was palpable. Half the heads in there were dyed various colors. Queer kids were holding hands. We were all crying and laughing and cheering as a group. My friends grabbed my hands at the part where Simon was outed and didn't let go until his parents were saying that they accepted him. My friend came out to me as non-binary. Another person in our group admitted that she had feelings for girls. It was incredible. I left shaking. This was the first mainstream queer romance movie that had ever been produced by one of the main five studios, and I know that sounds like another "first queer character from Disney" bit but you have to understand that even in 2018 this was groundbreaking. Getting to have a sweet queer rom-com where the main character was told that he got "to breathe now" after coming out meant so much to me and my friends.

But also, from a designed-for-straight-people POV (which, to be frank, it was written by a bisexual author and directed by a gay man, this was not designed for straight audiences), why is it a bad thing that it appealed to the widest possible audience? That it could make my parents and grandparents see things in a new light? My stepdad wasn't at all interested in rom-coms but he saw it with me because it was something I cared about and he hugged me when we came out of the theater. My very Catholic grandparents watched it with me and though my grandpa said he still didn't quite understand the whole 'gay thing,' all he wanted was for me to be happy and to have a happy ending like Simon did. My Nana actually cried when Simon came out and squeeze my hand when his mother told him he could breathe.

And when Martin blackmailed Simon, my mom, badass ally that she is, literally hissed "Dropkick him. Dropkick him in the balls" leading to multiple queer kids in the audience to laugh or smile. Having my parents there- the only parents, by the way, out of my group of queer and questioning friends- made multiple people realize that supportive adults were out there. That parents like those in Love, Simon do exist in real life.

When people complain about Heartstopper not being realistic or Love, Simon being too cutesy, I remember seeing Love, Simon on opening night. I remember my friend coming out and my stepdad hugging me and my mom defending us through this character. I remember the cheers that went through the audience when Bram and Simon kissed and the chatter in the foyer after the movie was over and the way that this movie made me understand that happy endings do exist.

Queer kids need happy endings. Straight people need entry points to becoming allies. Both of these things can come together in beautiful ways. They can find out about more queer culture later, but for now, let them have this. Let them all have a glimpse at a better, happier world. Let them have queer joy.

[uroko]

Details of the early morning in the volcanic Eifel

[enchantedbook]

'Jeanne d' Arc 'by Albert Lynch, 1903

[academic-vampire]

“I was looked at, but I wasn’t seen.”

-Albert Camus, “The Misunderstanding.”

[notallsandmen]

The only acceptable casting for a remake of “The Birdcage”

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

bad guys with bad intentions

[disease]

"SINÉAD O’CONNOR WITH ANGEL" ALBERT WATSON | NYC, 1992 [archival pigment print | 29 9/10 × 24"]