#flashback to when i scoured the internet for this picture

[equallyshaw]

𝖉𝖊𝖏𝖆 𝖛𝖚 - 𝖒𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖜 𝖙𝖐𝖆𝖈𝖍𝖚𝖐.

Inspire by miss o. rodrigos: deja vu.

Warnings: nothing, but let me know!

Word Count: 1.2k+

—

So when you gonna tell her

That we did that, too?

She thinks it's special

But it's all reused

That was our place, I found it first

I made the jokes you tell to her when she's with you

—

God, I remember is so very clearly being it got deleted. Taryn had posted a photo of you and your new girlfriend in Malibu, where we used to spend a good amount of your offseason at. It helped with me being a freelance writer, so following you after college to Calgary was not hard, as well as to wherever your offseason took you. But I remember seeing the place where we got out ice cream, each time. Never straying from tradition. Does she know? Does she know we made out in your convertable near that ice cream shop, that had a beach right underneath? Your sibilings and your parents know, we had brought them there many a times. Then I saw another photo of the coffee shop, we frequented. It was Brady that posted a short video, scanning you guys. She must feel pretty special huh? That you supposedly know where all the 'cool' spots are? Like it wasn't me who didn't scour the internet and talked to some locals about places to visit and try. I was the one matthew, not you. So I hope she isn't fooled.

Then I lurked one day, to her instagram after Taryn posted a photo of your new girlfriend and her. I looked at her most recent of you two in Malibu, and saw the caption that was a direct line from me. Verbatum. You were never good at one liner's, so I hope she doesn't seriously think you are a comedic genius or anything. That would be comical.

—

Do you get déjà vu when she's with you?

—

Do you think about me when you're there with her? Do you get flashbacks of me when you go to the beach? The same coffee shops? Restaurants? That was our home away from home, at one point and I'd be stupid to not believe you don't think about me everytime you go in one of those places. That's exactly what happens to me when I go on with my day. I moved to Malibu when we broke up, because I fell in love with the community. I enjoyed the peace, how people stick to themselves and the beauty of the land. Something we always tried to soak in before venturing up North as the season started. I see you wherever I go, but fortunatly it's getting better and better. I know longer and nervous to go about my day, and have began to forget about those times. Have you? I see you trying to replicate everything we did, I even witnessed it once.

—

Do you call her

Almost say my name?

'Cause let's be honest

We kinda do sound the same

Another writer

I hate to think that I was just your type

—

I saw you two one day before I saw Taryn post anything. You guys were walking into the coffee shop we used to frequent, as I was working on a piece for the L.A Times. I immeditely picked your voice out from the others and my head shot up, as you repeated her name. It sounded almost like mine, and I scoffed. Not only annoyed with your presence, but after a bit of eavesdropping, I found out she was an author. I could taste the vile in my mouth, as tears brimmed my eyes. Did you seriously have a type? Not only our names sound similiar, but we do the exact same thing. I rememeber clearly, not being able to think properly as I stared at my screen. Did you see me? Did you see me as I felt the gears in my head turn? You must of, it was a small place.

Then you two left, and I followed shortly. I could barely breathe as I pictured you two together. Again, scoffing before driving off. It hurt to think that I could simply be discarted and 'replaced' in a matter of months. It was March when we broke up, and I saw you in July after a brutal loss in the playoffs during the Battle of Alberta. I had never wanted Leon Draistl to win so badly, comically.

And I couldn't get over the fact that she was exactly what a hockey player should have at home, bearing your children and running the household. Also, the fact that she was a old family friend made it conveniant for your parents. Cuz, it looked good. It made sense, where you and I did not.

—

I'll bet that she knows Billy Joel

'Cause you played her "Uptown Girl"

You're singing it together

Now I bet you even tell her

How you love her

In between the chorus and the verse

—

We had 'our song' by Billy Joel, is it yours too? I can picture how you two sing it, holding her in your arms. You sing the whole song lowly, in her ears, her blushing cheeks never ceasing. And then I can picture, you whispering I love you during the middle of it. Because I can still hear perfectly in mine. As I fall asleep, I see us in our apartment in Calgary after being trapped during a christmas blizzard. We twirled, dipped and swayed during the early hours of the morning, drunk on champagne and love. It was our first christmas at our shared place, and I can still hear the tone and echo of your voice as we sung the song together. My cheeks never ceased to flush, as we did so. She must think your so cool, with your new music collection that I left because it hurt to much to take. We used to spend hours in downtown calgary paroozing thrift stores and record shops, growing my collection which in turn- is now yours.

I just don't understand how you can go on, doing everything that we used to do. Is it not weird? Do you think I don't know? I have friends in Calgary in too. Who do you think I spent a lot of my time with, when you were away?

—

So when you gonna tell her

That we did that, too?

She thinks it's special

But it's all reused

That was the show we talked about

Played you the song she's singing now when she's with you

—

Does she know? Does she know that she's doing all the things we used to do? I don't blame her, for being oblivious or naive. I blame you, in some sick and twisted way. She must think im a creep or obsessed with you and her. Since, I sometimes view her stories thinking I might get a glimpse of you. No, I just think it's quite weird to be living our life somewhat vicrioulsy through her. Hoping that that could heal your heart or twisted mind? That making similar memories with her, will finally get you to stop thinking about me? Ironically, I laugh at her stories when youre in it. Again, just getting deja vu from the restaurants and coffee shops we visited. I hope she makes you happy, because you once made me happy.

—

Love,

somebody who was too good 4 u.

—

this was BAD, i know. i just wanted to get this out :)

[selfcallednowhere]

SO MUCH NOSTALGIA!!!!!!!!!!!

OMGGGGGGGGG y’all. I am so overcome with warm waves of nostalgia right now.

SO. When I reblogged the four-piece combo pic yesterday, I said that the next pic I have of John wearing spex is from the late ‘90s. So then I started thinking about that picture, and I know I’ve told this story before but I will tell it again cos it was seriously like TOP-TEN MOST EXCITING MOMENTS OF MY ENTIRE LIFE.

So, the day I fell in love with John, I spent like the entire day scouring the internet for information about him, and one of the things I found was this fangirl site on Geocities (not knocking fangirl sites on Geocities! I had some of my own when I was in high school) called Lovers of Linnell. And one of my most vivid memories of that entire day is finding THIS PIC on that site:

And I was just like “!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” cos I had no idea he wore them cos he wasn’t in any of the other pictures I’d seen of him up to that point. And I’ve had this hardcore fetish since I was 13 i.e. for as long as I’ve been feeling any sort of attraction to anyone. So to find out that this guy that I was suddenly madly in love with wears them was basically like CHRISTMAS AND MY BIRTHDAY JOINING FORCES AND COMING FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS EARLY. I was just like “HOT DAMN.” It was A BIG BIG BIG DEAL.

So anyway, Geocities of course does not exist anymore, and I had no idea what the URL of this site that had been so significant to me was. But I thought @statesongs might know it cos I remembered her posting about it before, and she came to Cowtown last night and I asked her AND SHE DID. HERE IT IS.

And god god god seriously THE NOSTALGIAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I look at this site and I am RIGHT back to being 18 years old, in the house where I grew up, being like “I HAVE TO LEARN ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Sadly, I did not get a membership card and neither did @statesongs--both of us emailed about it but got no replies and were VERY UPSET about this.

Also, I forgot all about this part:

John Linnell is now an honoraray LOL member! Recently I had a chance to take place in the Yahoo! chat with the Johns promoting their new mp3 only release, Long Tall Weekend.  I managed to get the following question through the medeator from hell to Linnell: Me:  Linnell, did you know that there is a "Lovers of Linnell" fan club?  How do you feel about that? Linnell:  Where do I sign up? ...and so with pleasure, John Linnell is now our first honorary member.  I'm still waiting on Flans. 

OMG AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING.

Sadly, the pictures are not archived. I know I have them all, I just wanted to see which ones I got here cos of yeh the nostalgia factor. Most of the captions don’t really let me figure it out, other than a couple of the obvious Direct from Brooklyn screencap ones.

Anyway yeh, good times! Thanks for the flashbacks, @statesongs!

[oddchalk]

Do I really need to worry about cultural appropriation?

Social Media has brought me some really great things this year and I credit the devolution of my sense of humour to misspelled memes and terribly edited videos. It’s also been a major platform for people around the globe to discuss very specific issues faced in society. Basically, I’m subtly introducing ‘Social Justice Warriors’; people who deliberate the ramifications of the acts of certain individuals and companies. These vary from feminist issues, ableism, sexuality and gender, and race among others.

The discussion of race has never been a comfortable one for me, as a 22 year old black female living in the UK. As someone who does try to keep up with world news; however, the difference between being Black British and African American seems to be rather extreme. Having visited New York and seeing how Americans interact on the internet; it seems as though race is much more at the forefront of peoples mentalities. Race has become a very topical debate with people pushing the conversation through despite the prickly sensation we all feel; afraid to say the wrong things and quickly labelled with unappealing and ugly terms. However, the debate has become unavoidable and we’re all being asked to cast our opinions on the matter, otherwise we have the lone commenter now speaking out for an entire race. I don’t usually engage in the online foray of opinions; even less when the majority of comments begin with ‘Well, as a black/white/Asian/purple person, I think that…’ However, cultural appropriation has been one that has caught my eye as a problem I had never been as acutely aware of before encountering the wasteland photography of high-waisted jeans, messy buns and Starbucks that Instagram is.

So what is cultural appropriation? Type that into Google and you get: ‘cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture’. This is also followed by a picture of a minstrel show with the use of black face. Automatically, my brain is tuned to ‘bad’. Cultural appropriation is to be avoided at all costs. Yet, the explanation seems harmless enough. I like a thing from another culture, and I want to incorporate it into my life. What’s the harm in sharing? Isn’t that sort of devisive, schismatic attitude to people and culture perpetuating a harmful and ultimately less enjoyable way of life? After several discussions and a lot of research; I’ve figured cultural appropriation isn’t so much sharing a form of culture as much as it is poaching it.

The problem with cultural appropriation isn’t really about whether sharing cultures is good or bad but, in actuality, how heavily you value context. The ornately feathered headdress itself isn’t the problem Native Americans have with its adoption into music festival culture. It’s the fact that many Native Americans believe its history and ideology are inextricably linked to it; where as other cultures may see it only at face value. A pretty headdress that’s different and quirky which you couldn’t really wear to work or school or any other occasion. The problem is that if you know and appreciate the rich heritage of Native Americans, you wouldn’t want to wear them; it’s distasteful.

Most people have now conceded that yes, wearing a Native American headdress for fun is inconsiderate and inappropriate towards Native Americans. However, the context here is much more black and white than others. The most recent hotly debated topic has been ‘boxer braids’ as being an appropriation of African culture. The context associated with the braids isn’t as much historical as it is emotional. Braids themselves have been used by many different cultures and ethnicities. ‘Boxer braids’, however, have become hotly discussed because of their eerily close appearance to the much better established ‘cornrows’ known to the black community.

This evoked a flashback moment from me of being in primary school. The girls from my class would come back from their trips to the tropics with cornrows with beads very similar to my own. We would gently tug on each other’s hair and flick the hanging beads, loving that we had this thing in common. They must look back to those photos and absolutely hate them. Not because the braids were a form of cultural appropriation, but because they looked ridiculous and dated. They were aware that they were wearing a black hairstyle and simply thought it was fun and pretty. That’s okay! That’s not cultural appropriation. In fact, anyone could get that hairstyle; though I wouldn’t say it suits other ethnicities quite as much; if the hairstyle is embraced as being cornrows and a typically black hairstyle, it’s sharing. However, when the name of it is changed and then the style is put out as being trendy and cool, it becomes problematic. The fact is, people object to the hairstyle as being called cornrows, because of the negative connotations that it immediately implies. The hairstyle is often (and wrongly, in my opinion) considered to be quite ugly and most often used by low income families. Ghetto, thuggish and ratchet are some rude epithets that spring to mind. People didn’t want to wear cornrows when they went to work, or embrace the natural styles of black hair.

Well, now cornrows are considered acceptable, under the guise of boxer braids, surely this is a reason to celebrate another hairstyle acceptable for everyone? The unfortunate answer is no. Black people have a long and sad history of being uncredited and a literally stolen culture and peoples. The truth is, black people, in particular African Americans, are no longer going to stand being uncredited and overlooked for fear of the past. Which, in a sense, is fair with all things considered. Again, how you view context will affect your judgement on the situation. Some people may suggest that cornrows are off limits to white people entirely because of their treatment from white people in the past. I personally see this as even more problematic. It is important to share and enjoy the rich and beautiful intricacies in each other’s cultures. I used to wear Henna all the time as a kid; my close friend at the time was Indian and her mother would sometimes stop by the school and do it for any one that wanted it in the class. Reading some of the posts on Tumblr, for instance,  I was grossly appropriating Asian culture. This, I believe, having looked in to the history of henna and mehndi, is simply untrue. Cultural appropriation would involve someone taking the henna and simply calling it ‘100 % natural tattoos ’ as I have seen on a couple of YouTube videos, and not acknowledging the fact that Mehndi is often used in celebrations in India and can be dated back several thousands of years.

In some ways, it’s really easy to introduce other cultures into your life. In my mind, it only really takes acknowledgement and understanding. Anyone with decent common sense should be able to see what is appropriate to incorporate into your own culture and what may be considered offensive. Alternatively, I can see why it could be pretty hard. It’s not possible to scrutinise and scour the internet about everything that you wear, eat, buy and even think. The post I mentioned above continued to say that some people should ‘understand that somethings aren’t meant for everyone’. Whilst I agree; we live in a pretty entitled culture and the idea that somethings are exclusive for some and not for others is abjectly sad but ultimately true. At the same time; we as people should try not to make things that are only for specific people. In the past; things weren’t intentionally made for specific cultures; cultures just weren’t able to interact with each other in the way they are now. People forget how recent globalisation really is, and sometimes it seems difficult to imagine a world which could be so closed off to each other, and we still haven’t even cracked North Korea. So whilst cultural appropriation might seem like a big problem right now; it’s really just working out the kinks of living in a new, open society. But again, that’s context.

[anarchomoop]

So in today’s pointless writing thought exercises: I started scripting in my head and writing dialogue for key storybeats for a Superman reboot while I was at work.  I wound up incorporating a lot of... tumblr-popular Superman meta I guess you could say into the ideas for the overall story.  The story features:

An inversion of the Lex Luthor/Superman dynamic, while it appears that Superman is “gifted,” he actually struggles to live up to his own ideals, in his own words “some days, I look in the mirror and I see superman.  Other days, I look in the mirror and just see me.  On the best days, I see both.”  Likewise, while Lex appears to be a self-made man, he definitely had a lot of invisible advantages over others, and while he rhetorically claims to have gotten where he was from hard work, he actually believes everything he has is a result of being fundamentally better than everyone else.  In his own words (in this reboot, Lex is the head of “Luthorcom” a company that started as a google-like internet based tech firm but expanded further into “horizontal” tech markets to the point where it’s now doing a little bit of everything STEM related, including weapons manufacture) “I kept looking at the world and seeing these basic things, these things where something was missing or could be better and I’d just go and I’d do it.  We had the internet and it was huge, full of information and products and people but with nothing to link them, no way to find them, like a library with n directory.  So I made LuthorLibrarian.com, later Luthorcom.  And it was simple.  Anyone could’ve done it.  And every time I took a step forward that’s what I said to myself.  ‘it was so easy, anyone could have done it.  I’m nothing special.’  Until one day, I looked out the window from the top of Luthorcom tower and I realized.  Nobody else did it.  Not a single person.  What I do, it’s not easy.  It’s not something ‘anyone can do.’  I can do it.  I do it.  Only me.”

The Daily Planet is now “Planet Media,” no longer a newspaper, it’s now a news website with both articles and videos.  Clark and Lois work both as article writers as well as personalities in front of the camera for video reports.  Jimmy takes both photo and video.

Superman’s costume is originally designed by Ma Kent to use to hide his identity and incorporates the red S, blue background, and a mask.  The costume is later redisigned by Jerome Green, an aids-positive black man who was selling knock-off superman goods to help himself and his grandma afford rent in their rapidly gentrifying Metropolis neighborhood, who makes the iconic red and yellow s-shield on a solid blue spandex outfit look. Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane’s role is somewhat reprised as Jimmy (a sophomore at Metropolis U in their photo journalism program and interning at the Planet Media.com as a photographer and sometimes cameraman) trying to impress Lucy Lane (Senior at Met U just about to finish their commercial aviation program to be a pilot) who he met through working with Lois at the Planet  This leads to Jimmy’s older sister Emily (recently finished undergraduate studies in Gotham U’s film studies program, now enrolled in Met U’s graduate program for film to learn how to direct and operate a camera, hoping to direct, write, and film her own micro-budgeted movies) meeting Lucy and sticking up for her younger brother, saying it’s wrong of Lucy to lead him along getting him to buy her things.  Lucy, by way of apology, tries to include Jimmy and Emily in her life, eventually leading to Emily and Lucy dating after Jimmy notices the two’s conspicuous and obvious crushes and pushes them to act on it.  This is... this is like the major B plot of the entire first arc but, like, super-abridged.

One of Lex Luthor’s telecom sats becomes damaged after colliding with some space debris -- an escape pod containing a human-looking girl in her late teens/early 20s (in this, Superman joins the planet after going through a journalism grad school program).  After she quickly develops the same powers Superman displays (she gets them on a faster time-table as a result of absorbing solar rays form space without the interference of earth’s atmosphere), Luthor uses her to his own ends by creating a SuperGirl loyal to Luthorcom.

Lois investigate’s Luthorcom’s weapons dealings, finding evidence that, in order to spur demand for domestic use of the product by police/military, Luthor orchestrated leaks/break-ins to get “criminal elements” access to Luthor weapons tech, creating the appearance of an arms race that the government must turn to Luthor to stop (this is the reason Clark becomes Superman, and part of why Luthor comes to hate him, because Superman is foiling his plans without even knowing it).  She eventually reveals this evidence with the help of staff intern Jimmy Olsen and new reporter Clark Kent, but Luthor manages to avoid implication  This is what puts Lois/Clark/Jimmmy on his radar.

Clark does not actually have access to his escape pod, knowledge about Krypton, Jor-El, or Kryptonite.  This is all discovered by Lex Luthor.  He learns about Krypton from Supergirl’s escape pod, then scours the areas near Metropolis for something similar that might relate to Superman (eventually finding a pod just outside Smallville where the Kents abandoned it).

Clark’s past and Kryptonian name are revealed to him when Lex “unmasks” him as “Kal El of Krypton” in front of a live TV audience that just watched Lex use Kryptonite to beat both Superman and Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), revealing “Kal El’s plot” to make “humanity weak and dependent” by saving them all from their problems instead of letting humanity sort them out themselves, that way a “Kryptonian fleet” can invade earth with no resistance.  Lois, there in attendance, calls bullshit, pointing out that A: if Kryptonians are as powerful as Superman and Supergirl they don’t *need* to weaken humanity and B: Superman wanted people to aspire to be better, that Superman “saw Superman in the people around him more frequently than in himself” and backs it up using a secret recording she took on her smartphone during a “date” with Superman which she was actually using to grill him for info (during the date she hides a tape recorder in her purse, which Superman finds with his X-Ray vision and asks her to take out and turn off, then later after he’s gone she takes out her phone and checks to make sure that the recording she got on it was clear, commenting that Superman was ‘clever, but still a sap’).

During the climax of the arc, Jimmy, Emily and Lucy save Superman by rushing forward to “get a good shot up close,” an excuse for Jimmy to shove his flashbulb right in Lex’s face and take a picture so that Emily and Lucy can get the Kryptonite away from him.  This leads to a fight where Superman is trying to protect Lex from a furious Supergirl and the crowd from both Supergirl (whose opinion of humanity is understandably pretty low at that moment) and Lex’s guards.  During the fight a stray “Krypton-alloy” bullet hits Kara in the shoulder, causing her to lose her powers and start falling from the top of Luthor tower.  She’s saved by Jimmy, who earlier noticed a window-cleaning trolley, so he jumps off the tower to grab her and just barely manages to grasp it and a barely-conscious Kara.  Emily and Lucy work together to pull the two fully to safety, initially alone but eventually with the help of the gathered crowd.  Important notes -- Superman attempts to save her but can’t, as approaching her causes his powers to weaken from the “krypton-alloy”.  This is important to the themes of the first arc, Superman is ultimately not the hero.  Lois, Jimmy and Clark (distinguishing Clark from Superman somewhat is also important -- Clark Kent is the real person, Superman is a mask he wears, and someone Clark aspires to be) are ultimately responsible for bringing down Lexcorp’s criminal activities and Emily, Lucy, and Jimmy wind up saving both Superman and Supergirl from Lex.

Kara and Kal-El are given official US citizenship and paperwork (Clark Kent also has official paperwork, although it is forged by someone Ma Kent knows who didn’t really ask any questions about this miracle baby who needed documents).  Kara’s life winds up being a lot more public than Kal-El’s as a result of her not being raised normally on earth or having any kind of secret identity.  She’s placed under investigation and put on trial, but eventually found not guilty as a result of A: not actually hurting anyone B: her attempts to harm the crowd and her threats against humanity as a whole during the fight with Superman were successfully justified under the “temporary insanity” defense (she was brought to a state of high emotion to the point that she could not be considered fully responsible for her actions, essentially the “yeah, you did kind of break some laws but honestly if I were in your shoes I’dve done the same thing” defense) and C: honestly they are not sure they could do much to prosecute her anyway.  After her trial and while she’s still recovering from her gunshot wound (fast healing is not a Kryptonian power in this canon -- when they get actually hurt they stay hurt for a while) Kara meets with Jimmy and thanks him, commenting that “Kal-El is right, about humanity.  About people like you.”  And then.. leaving it at that because restoration of a similar but different status quo at the end of the arc is important and Jimmy having a crush on a girl who he’s certain is totally out of his league is *very important to the status quo* Yeah, so that’s just... kind of the major story beats?  Most of them?  There’s flashbacks to Clark’s childhood, him realizing he has powers, how the Kents react.  Ma Kent and Pa Kent also act somewhat mysteriously.  Ma comes up with the costume idea for Clark suspiciously quickly and occasionally when trying to explain how or why they did/do something to Clark they just say “it’s what has to be/had to be done.”  This is a set up to a potential later arc involving time travel, the idea that Clark’s parents know he will become Superman before it actually happen is kind of important to the story as I imagine it.  The Kent parents meet Superman, and they realize being Superman is important to their son, and as a result they work to help their son become Superman. Edit: oh, also about the Kents, forgot to add: in this canon they’d be Jewish.  That’s actually kind of very important to some of the theming/parallels that the broader narrative is meant to make.