#for patricia h

[sesiondemadrugada]

Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951).

[genevieveetguy]

An Unmarried Woman, Paul Mazursky (1978)

[vidreview]

VIDEO ESSAY ROUNDUP #1

[originally posted october 11th 2023]

so, i watch a lot of video essays.

i started this blog with the intention of reviewing video essays at length, in the hopes of highlighting best & worst practices, discussing the history of the form, and using them as a jumping off point for personal/political introspection. but as time has gone on, i've found myself encountering more and more videos that i didn't have a whole lot to say about, but that felt worthy of a spotlight anyway.

WITH THAT IN MIND, welcome to video essay roundup, an occasional list of stuff i've watched recently that i think is worth your time. enough preamble, let's get started.

"Self-Discovery Stories | Video Essay" by Glouder Glens.

are you watching Sylvia Schweikert? i know you're not because its numbers are disastrously low. her video about it/its pronouns is a genuine work of art, a video essay about the dehumanization of trans people that seamlessly transforms into lesbian werewolf erotica. this newest video is just as beautiful and strange, not least because it's rendered in portrait mode like a tiktok. it's an honest, far-ranging and personal essay whose sub-300 views is genuinely criminal. seriously, seriously, Sylvia's an essayist you NEED to be paying attention to. it's making the kind of stuff that simply does not play well with the youtube algorithm, and that's the stuff that i live for. watch her videos and share them with your friends. give it money on patreon for gods sake! also definitely go watch her short film "Self Centered," it's a haunting and masterful work of art.

"More unremarkable and odd places in Mario 64" by Any Austin.

i stumbled across Any Austin a couple months ago and he's quickly become one of my favorite "it's time to relax" creators. his "unremarkable and odd places" series scratches an itch i never knew i had, as someone who loves exploring the least interesting corners of any digital world i find myself in. his other series involves calculating the unemployment rate of video game locations by talking to every NPC and deducing their employment status. the editing is calm, his tone is measured and matter of fact, and his sense of humor ties it all together. this is the kind of thing that used to be the bread and butter of video teams at outlets like Cracked or Polygon, before they were summarily laid off or pushed out. it's good to see someone else picking up that mantle in a way that seems relatively sustainable and isn't under the umbrella of a layoff-happy corporate enterprise (except for google of course, but we're all in that boat together aren't we?)

does this count as a video essay? i think that's a reasonable question. i'm inclined to say yes, with the understanding that there are many different types and genres of video essay. but that's a conversation for another day.

"On the Ethics of Boinking Animal People" by Patricia Taxxon.

i should do a full vidrev on this one honestly, but i can't do a post like this and not include it. if you play around in any sort of furry-adjacent fetish space, have opinions about the sexual proclivities of furries, or are otherwise prone to pearl-clutching as an outsider, this is an essential watch. Patricia here does a great job drawing attention to how even well-meaning defenders of, say, feral furry porn, often give up unnecessary ground to opponents with fallacious devices like the Harkness test. i've talked to a lot of fellow kinky furries who came out of this essay exalting in the joy that finally, someone said it! many of the arguments made here, especially in underlining that all furry porn is immaterial and imaginary, are thoughts i've had since i first made a furaffinity account in 2007 or 08 (though i swore up and down i wasn't a furry until 2019) but was always too afraid to express.

this is scary, sensitive territory, but that's what makes this such an essential intervention. this is the perspective of an autistic transfem furry who just wants to have an honest conversation without all the moral fearmongering and shortsighted kneejerk cliches that come up when a topic skirts dangerously close to taboos that we just, generally, refuse to talk about like adults. these are conversations that, in my experience, only ever happened among friendgroups with a long-established repartee and understanding of each other's boundaries, if at all. otherwise, even progressive supposedly kink-positive spaces can encourage a sort of cop-brained punitive attitude towards imaginary sex acts that very easily bleeds over into puritanical takes on, say, kink at pride. frankly, i'm sick of the language & rhetoric of Respectability, because saying "no, most of us aren't like the freaks" only ever results in a liberal block decrying the deplorables and subjecting them to further marginalization and abuse. it takes a lot of guts to make a video like this and i'm so, so glad that Patricia Taxxon stuck the landing.

"Who Is Killing Cinema? - A Murder Mystery" by Patrick (H) Willems.

i've already written two separate vidrevs on Willems, but what can i say? this most recent stretch of work focusing on the business and philosophy of cinema in the streaming era is good stuff. nothing in this particular essay is new per se if you've been paying attention to the business of hollywood for the last ten years, but it does a great job assembling the broad strokes of a lot of different-but-common arguments into one far ranging thesis. much like the prior two videos, i think this works as a solid introductory primer to a more materialist understanding of these trends for folks who aren't necessarily familiar with materialist theory. bonus points for wasting no time getting to the point, unlike his otherwise excellent video on the word "content."

alright, i think that'll do it for this video essay roundup! enjoy :)

ROUNDUP #2 ->

[NOTE: as i'm migrating the archive, links between roundups will direct back to cohost. i probably won't get around to changing that until i write a new one.]

[fractalflare]

90 PATRICIA MARTIN ICONS / LUCKY☆STAR

TOU – Icons are free to use, free to edit, with or without credit, likes and reblogs are encouraged. Please don’t re-upload or claim as your own. Please let me know about any broken links —  DOWNLOAD

[perfettamentechic]

19 novembre … ricordiamo …

19 novembre … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2023: Anna Kanakis, Anna Maria Kanakis, modella e attrice italiana eletta Miss Italia 1977. Prima di passare alla carriera di attrice, svolge per diversi anni l’attività di modella, debuttando nel cinema nel 1980. Nel 2010 fa il suo esordio come scrittrice. Nel 1981 sposa il musicista Claudio Simonetti, da cui divorzia pochi anni dopo. Nel 2004 celebra le seconde nozze con il veneziano Marco…

[lilyofval81]

Family ❤️

[belle-keys]

The Ultimate Dark Academia Book Recommendation Guide Ever

The title of this post is clickbait. I, unfortunately, have not read every book ever. Not all of these books are particularly “dark” either. However, these are my recommendations for your dark academia fix. The quality of each of these books varies. I have limited this list to books that are directly linked to the world of academia and/or which have a vaguely academic setting.

Dark Academia staples:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Dead Poets Society by Nancy H. Kleinbaum

Vita Nostra by Maryna Dyachenko

Dark academia litfic or contemporary:

Bunny by Mona Awad

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

White Ivy by Susie Yang

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates

Attribution by Linda Moore

Dark academia thrillers or horror:

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Dark academia fantasy/sci-fi:

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

Dark academia romance:

Gothikana by RuNyx

Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Dark academia YA or MG:

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Crave by Tracy Wolff

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Dark academia miscellaneous:

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip

[chic-beyond-the-wall-oc-acct]

So, project 2025 has been deleting their PDFs but a few lovely people have posted the list of books they want to ban and other than the fact that the entire list is stupid, here's some that stuck out to me + the reasons listed next to them. Most of the books on the list are lgbtq+ books which one would expect to find there, so I just did ones I didn't expect.

The Holy Bible - Challenged for religious beliefs and graphic content.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin - Sexual violence, political intrigue.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson - Death and religious content.

Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey - Toilet humor and "disobedience."

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak - Critique of the Russian Revolution.

Deadly Deceits by Ralph McGehee - Former CIA agent's critiques of the agency.

Emma by Jane Austen - Complex gender themes, social critique.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Censorship and media manipulation by the government.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling - Accusations of promoting witchcraft.

Howl by Allen Ginsberg - Explicit sexual content, anti-establishment themes

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss - Concerns over violence against parents.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez - Mental health, sexual content.

It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris - Sex education content.

It's So Amazing! by Robie H. Harris - Sex education content.

None Dare Call It Conspiracy by Gary Allen - Discusses alleged hidden global power structure.

None Dare Call It Treason by John A. Stormer - Anti-communist and conspiracy-focused.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Critique of Soviet labor camps.

Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen - Exposes secret U.S. program involving former Nazis.

My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier - Violence, anti-war themes.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt vonnegut- Anti-war themes.

Spycatcher by Peter Wright - Ex-MI5 agent's account of intelligence operations.

The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama - Criticism of religion, perceived political messages.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin - Female independence, sexuality.

The Book of Night Women by Marlon James - Slavery, graphic violence.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede - Magic, feminism.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein - Themes of selfishness, parenting.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - Examines class and caste issues in India.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - Critique of religious extremism and patriarchy.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - Examines police violence and racial injustice

The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins - Depicts oppressive government and rebellion.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - Political subtext, wordplay.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - Critique of colonialism and missionary work.

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene - Critique of religion and political oppression

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle - Religious critique.

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli - Seen as a critique of political ethics.

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare - Often challenged for themes of submission of women in marriage.

Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer - Themes of violence, supernatural elements.

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore - Political rebellion, violence.

War is a Racket by Smedley D. Butler - Critique of war profiteering.

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein - Dark humor, "rebellious" themes.

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak - Themes of rebellion, dark imagery.

Where's Waldo? by Martin Handford - Alleged inappropriate illustrations.

White Noise by Don DeLillo - Critique of consumerism and modern society.

Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes - Feminist themes.

Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss - Seen as political allegory.

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis - Critique of authority and societal norms.

[shakespearesdaughters]

What kind of books by Dark Academia do you suggest to me? At the moment I’m on Tolstoj but I wanna to know much

The Secret History by Donna Tartt anything by Donna Tartt (praying we get another book in the next 5 years)

Maurice by E. M. Forester

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Patrick Melrose series by Edward St Aubyn

Confessions by Kanae Minato

In the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Piranesi and Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Dead Poets Society by N H Kleinbaum

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

An Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

The Idiot by Elif Bautman

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Babel by R F Kuang

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Stoner by John Williams

The Queens Gambit by Walter Tevis

The odyssey by Homer

Carmilla by J Sheridan le Fanu

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges

The October Country by Ray Bradbury

Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Just to name a few!

[unvexes]

taking up the same space —-

[ oculus, sally wen mao / cat nap, malcolm t. liepke / vertigo peaks, dion anja / the pillars of creation / minecraft end poem, julian gough / a memorial to marriage, patricia cronin / the rainbow, d. h. lawrence / cluster KMHK 1231 / pink in the night, mitski ]

[denimbex1986]

We are lucky to be alive in the age of Andrew Scott, an actor of extraordinary breadth, skill and sensitivity, who can terrify as Jim Moriarty in Sherlock, make us fall in love (inappropriately) as the hot priest in Fleabag and cry in All of Us Strangers. He can also astonish, last year playing eight parts in a stage adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. He recently became the first actor to win the UK Critics’ Circle awards for best actor on stage and screen in the same year. And his latest project, Ripley, is a beautiful and chilling adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel The Talented Mr Ripley, with Scott playing the lead, dominating all eight one-hour episodes. It’s been a wild, crowning year for the 47-year-old Irish actor. But in March his mother, Nora, died of a sudden illness; she is who Scott has credited as being his foremost creative inspiration. His grief is fresh and intense and for the first half of the interview it seems to swim just beneath the surface of our conversation.

“We go through so many different types of emotional weather all the time,” he says. “And even on the saddest day of your life you might be hungry or have a laugh. Life just continues.” We are in a meeting room in his management company’s offices, talking about his ability, in his work, to modulate between emotions, to go from happy to sad, confused to scared, all within a matter of seconds. How does he do it? Scott laughs. “I would say that I have quite a scrutable face — is scrutable a word? — which is good or bad depending on what you are trying to achieve. But my job is to be as truthful as possible in the way that we are, and I don’t think that human beings are just one thing at any particular time. It is rare that we have one pure emotion.”

It’s an approach that is particularly appropriate for the playing of Tom Ripley, an acquisitive chameleon who inveigles his way into the lives of others (in this case Johnny Flynn, as the careless and wealthy Dickie Greenleaf, and his on-off girlfriend Marge, played by Dakota Fanning). “Ripley is witty, he is very talented. That’s gripping, to watch talent. I can’t call him evil — it is very easy to call people who do terrible things evil monsters, but they are not monsters, they are humans who do terrible things. Part of what she [Highsmith] is talking about is that if you dismiss a certain faction of society it has repercussions, and Ripley is someone who is completely unseen, he lives literally among the rats, and then there are these people who are gorgeous and not particularly talented and have the world at their feet but are not able to see the beauty that he can see.”

The show was written and directed by Steven Zaillian, the screenwriter of Schindler’s List. It’s set in Sixties New York and Italy, and filmed entirely in black-and-white, its chiaroscuro aesthetic evoking films of the Sixties — particularly those of Federico Fellini — while also offering an alternative to Anthony Minghella’s saturated late-Nineties iteration that starred Matt Damon and Jude Law. This has a darker flavour. “I found it challenging,” Scott says, “in the sense that he’s a solitary figure and ideologically we are very different. So you have to remove your judgment and try to find something that is vulnerable.”

It was a tough shoot, taking a year and filmed during lockdown. Scott was exhausted at the end of it and had intended to take a three-month break, but delays meant that he went straight from Ripley into All of Us Strangers. “Even though I was genuinely exhausted, it was energising because I was back in London, I was getting the Tube to work, there was sunshine,” he says. “I found it incredibly heartful, that film, there were so many different versions of love … I feel that all stories are love stories.”

All of Us Strangers, directed by Andrew Haigh, is about a screenwriter examining memories of his parents who died when he was 12. In it Scott’s character, Adam, returns to his family home, where his parents are still alive and as they were back in the Eighties. Adam is able to walk into the memory and to come out to his parents, finding the words that were unavailable to him as a boy. Some of it was filmed in Haigh’s childhood home, and there was a strong biographical element for him and his lead. Homosexuality was illegal in the Republic of Ireland until 1993, when Scott was 16. He did not come out to his parents until he was in his early twenties. I ask if he was working with his own childhood experiences in the film. “Of course, so in a sense it was painful, to a degree, but it was cathartic because you are doing it with people that you absolutely love and trust. I felt that it was going to be of use to people and I was right, it has been. The reaction to the movie has been genuinely extraordinary — it makes people feel and see things, and that isn’t an easy thing to achieve.”

The film is also a tender and erotic love story between Scott’s character and Harry, played by the Irish actor Paul Mescal. The two found a real-life kinship that made them a delight to watch on screen and off it, as a double act on the awards circuit. “I adore Paul, he’s so, so … continues to be …” Scott pauses. “Obviously it’s been a tough time recently and he just continues to be a wonderful friend. It’s everything. The more I work in the industry, I realise, you make some stuff that people love and you make some stuff that people don’t like, and all really that you are left with is the relationships that you make. I love him dearly.”

Scott and Mescal were also both notable on the red carpet for being extraordinarily well dressed. Scott loves fashion and has a big, well-organised wardrobe that he admits is in need of a cull. “I don’t like having too much stuff. I really believe that everything we have is borrowed — our stuff, our houses, we are borrowing it for a time. So I am trying to think of people who are the same size as me so I can give some of it away, and that’s a great thing to be able to do.” One of his favourite labels is Simone Rocha. “I love a bit of Simone Rocha. What a kind, glorious person she is. I just went to her show.” Fashion, he says, is in his DNA. “My mother was an art teacher, she was obsessed with all sorts of design. She loved jewellery and jewellery design. Anything that is visual, tactile, painting, drawing, is a big passion of mine, so I have tremendous respect for the creativity of designers.”

Today Scott is wearing Louis Vuitton trousers and a cropped Prada jacket, dressed up because he is collecting his Critics’ Circle award for best stage actor for Vanya. I ask how it feels to have won the double, a historic achievement. “Ah …” he says, looking at the table, going silent, having just been so voluble. “I’m sorry …” His voice cracks a little. “It’s bittersweet.”

At the ceremony Scott dedicated the award to his mother, saying of her “she was the source of practically every joyful thing in my life”. Is it difficult for him to carry on working in the circumstances, I wonder. “Well, you know, you have to — life goes on, you manage it day by day. It’s very recent, but I certainly can say that so much of it is surprising and unique, and there is so much that I will be able to speak about at some point.”

He is looking forward, he says, once promotion for Ripley is over, to taking some time off, going on holiday, going back to Ireland for a bit. He has homes in London and Dublin. To relax he walks his dog, a Boston terrier, dressed down in jeans and a hoodie “like a 12-year-old, skulking around the city” or goes to art galleries on the South Bank — he was considering a career as an artist until he was 17 and got a part in the Irish film Korea. He goes to the gym every day, “not, you know, to get …” he says, flexing his biceps. “More that it’s good for the head.” He is social, likes friends, likes a party. When I ask if he gave up drinking while doing Vanya, which required him to be on stage, alone, every night for almost two hours, he looks horrified. “Oh God, no! Easy tiger! Jesus … Although I didn’t drink much, I did have to look after myself. But we had a room downstairs in the theatre, a little buzzy bar, because otherwise I wouldn’t see anybody, so I was delighted to have people come down.”

Scott was formerly in a relationship with the screenwriter and playwright Stephen Beresford and is currently single, although this is not the sort of thing he likes to talk about. He is protective of his privacy, not wanting to reveal where he lives in London, or indeed the name of his dog — but he swerves such questions with a gentle good humour.

He is famous on set for being friendly and welcoming, for looking after other people. “The product is very important, but most of my time is spent in the process, so I want that to be as pleasant and kind as possible. I feel like it is possible to do that, that it is an honourable goal.” He is comfortable around people, with an easy charm — no one I have interviewed before has said my name so many times. And although when we talk he sometimes seems reflective or so very sad, there are also moments when he is exuberant, silly, putting on accents. “I feel like, as a person, I am quite near my emotions. I cry easily and I laugh easily, and there is nothing more pleasurable to me than laughing.”

Scott was raised a Catholic and is no longer practising, but says his view about religion is “ever changing — I definitely have a faith in things that cannot be proved”. When he was younger and felt overwhelmed, just before or after an audition, he would go to the Quaker Meeting House in central London and sit in silence, something that made its way into the second series of Fleabag, in which Scott’s priest takes Waller-Bridge’s character to that same meeting house. “It’s just around here,” he says, standing up, looking out of the window at Charing Cross Road. “When Phoebe and I first talked, we met at the Soho Theatre. We talked about love and religion, we walked all around here. And I said, ‘This is a place I go,’ so we called in and there was no one there, so we sat in there and we talked. It was a really magical day.”

Scott says he sees all the different characters that he has played as versions of himself. “It’s like, ‘What would this version of me look like?’ rather than, ‘Oh, I’m going to be somebody else.’ You filter it through you, and you discover more about yourself. I think that is a very lucky thing to be able to do, to find out more about yourself in the short time that we are here.”

[bekolxeram]

7x03 analysis part 2 — Too many Cats

Tommy flew a helicopter into a Category 5 hurricane, at least the show told us so. Is it even possible for an aircraft to fly in those conditions? Today, we are going to figure out just how strong the storm actually is canonically, and how realistic our beloved weewoo show is.

TW: Hurricane, extreme weather, natural disaster

What is the difference between a tropical storm and a hurricane? What even is a hurricane?

Both tropical storm and hurricane are tropical cyclones, just of different strength. A tropical cyclone is a rotating storm system with a low pressure center. The center, or the eye of the storm, sucks in warm moist air from an oceanic environment and it feeds into the generation of storm clouds that organize themselves into a spiral pattern due to the Earth's rotation, aka Coriolis effect.

A tropical cyclone is classified by its maximum sustained wind.

So if it's below 62 km/h, it's a tropical Depression. if it's between 63-118 km/h, it's a Tropical Storm. A Category 5 hurricane though has a maximum sustained wind speed of over 252 km/h.

A strong enough tropical cyclone is called a hurricane in North America, a typhoon in East Asian, and a cyclone in the Indian Ocean (including Australia).

How strong is the storm in 7x03 actually?

We first see the storm at the end of 7x01, when First Mate Kenneth tells Captain Ochoa there is a strengthening tropical storm in the ship's path. Captain Ochoa decides to reverse course back to LA and instructs Kenneth to alert the Coast Guard, but they get interrupted by the cartel.

Fast forward to 7x02, the next mention of the storm comes from Karen. When Hen is sent home by Chief Simpson, she tries to call Athena, but it goes straight to voicemail. Karen tells her cell service is probably spotty out at sea because of the hurricane, which has just got upgraded.

It's recently upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, as we can see from Karen's tablet.

Then Hen goes to Maddie to ask the Coast Guard to look for Bathena's cruise ship. When Hen shows Maddie the ship tracking app on her phone, the time is 10:28. (I'm guessing PM because it's already dark outside during the Kyle Ortiz call.)

By the time Chief Simpson comes by to reinstate Hen, she's already talking about a Cat 5 hurricane. That can't be more than an hour or two later.

So which one is it? Is it a Cat 2 or a Cat 5? Who should I trust?

Tommy. Whenever he flies, his safety depends on his understanding of the local wind condition and weather. You should listen to him:

So it's a Cat 5, at least by the time the 118 set off on their journey to save Bathena.

Can a tropical storm intensify into a Cat 5 hurricane in hours?

No, not in real life. The record for most rapid intensification of a tropical cyclone is Hurricane Patricia in 2015, but it still took 24 hours. This doesn't mean the storm in 7x03 is completely made up. I believe I might have found the real life inspiration behind it.

Hurricane Otis (2023)

An area of low pressure formed on October 15, 2023 over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. While it was during a significant El Niño period and the ocean temperature was record-breaking-ly high, strong vertical wind shear condition near the storm was predicted to hinder its development. It was originally forecasted to make landfall as a mere tropical storm. People in Acapulco went to bed on October 23 expecting moderate wind and light rainfall, many stopped seeking out updates of the storm.

In the early hours of October 24, meteorologists at the NHC recognized from satellite images that tropical storm Otis was rapidly intensifying into a hurricane. The NHC officially upgraded the storm to a Cat 1 hurricane at 13:00 CDT and sent out a hurricane hunter aircraft to accurately measure the actual wind speed of the cyclone.

Satellite images provide a pretty good model to estimate the strength of a tropical cyclone, but the most reliable way to measure wind speed is still to fly an aircraft into it and physically measure it. When the hurricane hunter managed to fly into the eyewall of Otis, everyone realized they made a huge mistake: Otis had already become a Cat 3 hurricane, and it was expected to strengthen even more. It takes time to process data received from the hurricane hunter, so operationally the NHC still classified Otis as a Cat 1 hurricane until the next advisory was scheduled to come out, which was at 16:00 CDT, but by that time, Otis was already near Cat 4 strength. It was then officially upgraded to a Cat 5 hurricane at 22:00 CDT.

While Otis did take around 24 hours to intensify from a tropical storm to a catastrophic hurricane, if you just look at the NHC advisories, it pretty much jumped from a Cat 1 into a Cat 5 in 9 hours. It caused extensive damage to Acapulco when it made landfall because the city was severely underprepared. I suspect the cruise ship disaster arc was inspired by hurricane Otis because it happened just a month after the writer strike ended. Also, in 7x02 Maddie, a 911 dispatcher, was not aware that the tropical storm had already strengthened into a hurricane, which mirrors the unexpected development of hurricane Otis.

As the storm in universe was going back at sea and not making landfall, the authority was probably in even less of a hurry to find out what the actual strength of the cyclone was. So it could take them even longer to send in weather reconnaissance aircrafts. I can imagine the 911-verse version of the storm jumping from a Cat 2 to a Cat 5 officially in mere hours.

Can a helicopter fly in a Cat 5 hurricane?

Technically yes, but the chopper won't be doing the flying. The aforementioned NOAA Hurricane Hunter is a Lockheed P-3 Orion specifically modified and fortified for weather information collection. If this four-engined workhorse has to fight tooth and nail against crosswind and turbulence in order to fly into the eye of the storm, a small single engine helicopter definitely would not fair any better. It would end up getting tossed around, a particular strong downdraft might slam it into the ocean, or a prolong bout of severe turbulence might rip it apart. Luckily in 7x03, Tommy is not actually flying into a hurricane, he's trailing behind it.

NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion Hurricane Hunter

In a blink-and-you-miss-it exchange between Buck and Tommy, after Tommy says "a Cat 5 hurricane passed through here", Buck asks why he means by "passed through" and what they are flying in at the moment.

"iNTermITteNt sHOweRs"

When looking at the cross section of a tropical cyclone, you can see rows of rainbands around the eyewall, increasing in size the closer it is to the center of the storm. If you have ever experienced a tropical cyclone making landfall, you would know it starts with sporadic bouts of rainfall (aka intermittent showers), which then gradually increase in frequency and severity as the storm approaches. Once you are within 100-200 km of the eye, wind speed would become violent while the rainbands become so wide and close together it basically keeps raining until you are right under the eye.

These are radar images of hurricane Irma (2017) making landfall in Florida. Bands of moderate to heavy rainfall spread across the inner core region of the cyclone, with still pretty consistent light to moderate precipitation between the gaps. But in the area further away from the eye in the southwest and southeast quadrants, you can see more squall line like patterns. Precipitation would abruptly begin and stop as you fly in and out of those outer lumps of clouds.

Wind speed in that area is no where near hurricane level even for a Cat 5 cyclone, it is typically under 100 km/h. That does not mean it is a safe condition to fly in. Because the outer rainbands of a cyclone are less affected by the storm's vortex dynamics, they behave more like regular thunderstorms. As you know, thunderstorms are big no-no's for aviation safety. In fact, the outer rainbands of a typhoon once contributed to a plane crash in Taiwan.

Conclusion

The hurricane in 7x03 is likely based on reality, albeit with a bit of exaggeration and a shortened timeline for dramatic effect. It is possible to fly and control a helicopter in this specific condition, but the danger is still quite high. Flying into a thunderstorm has a whole different set of risks associated with it, which I will tell you all about next time. Yes, part 3 of this series is "how to crash a helicopter with weather", so stay tuned.

[theantonian]

The Antonian Reading List

Mark Antony: A Life by Patricia Southern (Highly recommended!)

Mark Antony: A Biography by Eleanor Goltz Huzar (Highly recommended!)

The Life and Times of Marc Antony by Arthur Weigall (Recommended)

Marc Antony: His Life and Times by Allan Roberts (Recommended)

Marc Antony by Mary Kittredge

Antony & Cleopatra by Patricia Southern

Antony & Cleopatra by Adrian Goldsworthy (By far the most negative book on Antony by a modern historian, the Cleopatra portion is better)

Mark Antony: A Plain Blunt Man by Paolo de Ruggiero (Recommended)

Mark Antony and Popular Culture: Masculinity and the Construction of an Icon by Rachael Kelly

Mark Antony's Heroes: How the Third Gallica Legion Saved an Apostle and Created an Emperor by Stephen Dando-Collins

A Noble Ruin: Mark Antony, Civil War and the Collapse of the Roman Republic by W. Jeffrey Tatum (Highly recommend!)

Mark Antony & Cleopatra: Cleopatra's Proxy War to Conquer Rome & Restore the Empire of the Greeks by Martin Armstrong

Actium and Augustus: The Politics and Emotions of Civil War by Robert Alan Gurval

The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme (Recommended)

Octavian, Antony and Cleopatra by W. W. Tarn

Fulvia: Playing for Power at the End of the Roman Republic by Celia E. Schultz

Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley (Highly Recommended!)

Cleopatra by Michael Grant (Highly Recommanded!)

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff (Highly Recommended!)

Cleopatra - A Biography by D. Roller

Cleopatra and Antony by Diana Preston

Cleopatra by Alberto Angela (Recommended)

Cleopatra by Jacob Abbott

Cleopatra the Great by Joann Fletcher

Cleopatra and Egypt by Sally-Ann Ashton

Cleopatra and Rome by Diana E. E. Kleiner

Cleopatra Her History Her Myth by Francine Prose

Cleopatra Histories, Dreams, and Distortions by Lucy Hughes Hallett (Recommended)

Cleopatra’s Daughter Egyptian Princess by Jane Draycott

The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (Good for beginners)

The Last Assassin: The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar by Peter Stothard

Robicon by Tom Holland

Alesia 52 BC: The final struggle for Gaul (Campaign) by Nic Fields

Actium 31 BC: Downfall of Antony and Cleopatra (Campaign) by Si Sheppard

Pharsalus 48 BC: Caesar and Pompey – Clash of the Titans (Campaign) by Si Sheppard

Philippi 42 BC: The death of the Roman Republic (Campaign) by Si Sheppard

Mutina 43 BC: Mark Antony's struggle for survival (Campaign) by Nic Fields

The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium by Barry Strauss

The Battle of Actium 31 BC: War for the World by Lee Fratantuono

Rome and Parthia: Empires at War: Ventidius, Antony and the Second Romano-Parthian War, 40–20 BC by Gareth C Sampson

Rivalling Rome: Parthian Coins and Culture by Vesta Curtis

Classical sources:

Plutarch’s Lives

Cicero: Philippics, Ad Brutum, Ad Familiares

Appian, The Civil Wars

Dio Cassius, The Roman History

Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars

Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War

Livy, The Early History of Rome

Tacitus, Annals and Histories

Friction:

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra by Willian Shakespeare

All For Love or The World Well Lost by John Dryden

The Siren and the Roman – A Tragedy by Lucyl

Caesar and Cleopatra by George Berbard Shaw

Cleopatra (play) by Sardou

Antony by Allan Massie

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

I, Cleopatra by William Bostock

Cleopatra by H. Rider Haggard

Cleopatra by Georg Ebers

Kleopatra (Vol I & II) by Karen Essex

Last Days with Cleopatra by Jack Lindsay

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George

When We Were Gods by Colin Falconer

The Masters of Rome series by Colleen McCullough

Caesar's Soldier: Mark Antony Book I by Alex Gough (Ongoing series)

The Antonius Trilogy by Brook Allen

The Last Pharaoh series by Jay Penner

Throne of Isis by Juith Tarr

Hand of Isis by Jo Graham

Woman of Egypt by Kevin Methews

The Ides of Blood 01-06 (Comics)

Terror - Antonius En Cleopatra (Erotic yet pure love, Dutch comics)

Cleopatra - Geschiedenisstrip (Dutch comics)

Les Grands Personnages de l Histoire en Bandes Dessinees – Marc Antonie (French comics)

Les Grands Personnages de l Histoire en Bandes Dessinees – Cleopatre (French comics)

Les Grands Personnages de l Histoire en Bandes Dessinees – Julius Caesar (French comics)

Cléopâtre (French Manga)

 Ils Ont Fait L'histoire - Cléopâtre (French Graphic Novel)

[kavalyera]

People I want to get to know better !

Thank you so much to @porcelainseashore for tagging me ^ w ^

Last Song: Dilemme by Lous and the Yakuza

Favorite Color: Light pink & baby blue <3

Currently Watching: The Godfather series (I promise I can finish it pls)

Last Movie: Kiki’s Delivery Service !!

Current Obsession: Vampire: the Masquerade, Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista, Little Nightmares,

Relationship Status: single and married to the grind

Last Thing I Googled: “h&m f/w bill skarsgård”

Tagging!!!! no pressure :3

@fea28 @purplelight @styxnbones @worldsgreatestsinner @johnwickb1tsch @seok-jinnies

[huariqueje]

Patricia's Pipers -   William H. Hays.

American, b. 1956 -

Colour linocut reduction on wove paper, 12 x 9 in. 31 x 23.5 cm.  Ed. 100.

[strawberrybobamilk]

SFW Alphabet - Trevor Philips Edition

TWs: Some swearing, brief mentions of violence and drugs

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Trevor isn't the most romantic guy, but similarly to how he acts around Patricia, when he is truly in love with someone he will tend to become a soft sweetheart. Either by holding hands with you, calling you pet names (ex: "cupcake", "sweetcheeks", "gorgeous" etc) and other small gestures, he will always find a way to show his love to you.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

Trevor as a best friend would be that kind of friend that loves to tease you and mess around with you enjoying your annoyed reactions, but still always being there for you, hanging out with you (mostly to get drunk), and killing whoever wrongs you. Trevor would meet you for the first time by seeing you at the Yellow Jack Inn getting harassed by one of that bar's usual old drunk customers, so Trevor beat up his ass and got kicked out for the hundredth time; you got out to thank him and that's how your friendship started.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

He cuddles with you everyday! He loves cuddling with you in bed or on the couch spooning you, playing with your hair and holding you like a big teddy bear until he falls asleep. You're the only one who can calm him like this.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

Michael says that Trevor isn't the marriage guy. In some way you could say that is kinda true, but if Trevor really loves you he'd gladly settle down with you. As for the houseworks, as you can tell by the state of his trailer, he's preeetty bad at that; if you ask him, he'd try to do some cleaning and actually manage to make things worse, so you'll be the one taking care of the cleaning: you'll clean the house and as soon as Trevor arrives he'll undo everything by leaving behind a path of chaos. He'll sometimes try to cook you something, but ends up burning the food, or in the best case scenario, the food isn't reduced to a piece of coal but tastes absolutely vile (but it's the thought that counts).

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Let's be honest, this is Trevor. He would NEVER break up with you.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

As also said in the D part, Trevor would love to get committed with you if he feels like you're the perfect one, same for the marriage part: he'd ask you to marry him kinda quickly, like after some months you've been dating.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

Trevor is anything but gentle. With people in general. But with YOU it's like he's a different person. His usually gruff voice full of insults towards everyone is instead softer and respectful with you, and his hands that are strong enough to break someone's bones in the blink of an eye treat your body as if you were made of crystal.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

He LOVES hugging you and being hugged by you, literally everyday he needs hugs. His hugs aren't only bear hugs, he also likes to catch you by surprise: for example, you are washing the dishes and he surprises you by wrapping his arms around your waist from behind and nuzzling his nose in your neck.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

When you phone him (or he phones you), shortly before ending the call you will always hear him say that. He likes to say it in messages too (typed like "i luv u bb :) ;)"), which always gets a smile out of you. But the moments he says it the most are those moments that could be specified only if this was a NSFW post.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they're jealous?)

You can bet your ass he's jealous, VERY jealous. Anyone who even dares to look in your direction will be in deep shit (and dead if they try hitting on you). You're his and only his goddamnit!

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

His kisses are often sloppy and clumsy but always full of passion, they can range from little pecks to full on devouring your lips. He likes kissing you on your lips, cheeks, forehead, neck, everywhere, and he also likes to get kissed everywhere (he prefers neck kisses though).

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Trevor is surprisingly good with children. Back in his North Yankton days he was basically a second dad to Tracey and Jimmy; when they cried he was even better than Michael and Amanda at cheering them up by playing with them (he would never change their diapers though, in his own words that's a job for Mikey).

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Unless there's still speed in his body, he'll spend the morning sprawled across the bed snoring until 12 AM.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Nights on the couch eating take away from Burger Shot and watching silly action flicks (the only kinds of movies he'd manage to sit through) are the best nights.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Trevor has A LOT of things to say about himself, but it would take a while for him to reveal them all to you. His troubled childhood, his dysfunctional family, his failed career projects, his relationship with Michael and Brad... he will tell you about all these things only if he really trusts you, and even then he doesn't tell you about them right away all at once, not only because they hurt him but also because he doesn't want to scare you. Bit by bit he will tell you, and bit by bit you'll connect the dots and understand him better.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

Easily angered is Trevor's second name.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

Trevor will remember EVERYTHING, everything you say, everything about you, every little detail. For example in a passing conversation you'd briefly mention your favorite food and forget what you just said, but Trevor won't, and from now on will go out of his way to get you your favorite food (leaving you surprised like "how did he know that?!").

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

One night when he was returning to his trailer he saw his mother, mocking and belittling him like always, asking him to get a truckload of Deludamol. He went to do that but when he came back with the truck she was gone; he fell to the floor sobbing uncontrollably and just in that moment you came back as well, and you immediately rushed to comfort him, asking him what's wrong and hugging him. It was a horrible moment for him, but your presence and your attempts to comfort him made him feel a lot better. It's his favorite moment in the relationship because that's when he understood he could always count on you.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Overprotective. Aside from his clinginess and jealousy, he also knows his criminal lifestyle could potentially put you in danger. If he has to go out alone he'd ask Ron and Wade to keep an eye on you; if you two are out together he'd be very careful and always holding your hand, and if someone poses a threat to you, Trevor will soon "take care of them". He'd be okay with leaving Sandy Shores with you if he feels like it has become too unsafe for you to live there. Sometimes you'd worry for him as well, especially when he comes back covered in blood, but he laughs it off saying that it's just a scratch, or that you don't need to worry about him (even though he actually appreciates you being worried about him).

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Trevor remembers anniversaries and loves surprising you with unexpected gifts (usually something crafted by himself). As for dates, he isn't a fancy dates kind of guy (unless you ask him), he prefers fast food or pizzeria dates.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

A lot. Poor hygiene, drugs abuse and smuggling, a tendency to get pissed off very easily and getting coated in blood as consequence...

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

He doesn't give two shits about how he looks. Whatever is in the shop is what he gets.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Absofuckinglutely. Just the thought of losing you by any means would make him break down in tears and despair.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

He likes playing with Impotent Rage action figures with you.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn't like, either in general or in a partner?)

If you are a hipster he probably wouldn't like you. But there are two kinds of people he hates more than hipsters: liars and backstabbers. If you ever betray his trust, he will NEVER forgive you nor forget it (cough cough, Michael, cough..).

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

If you are around, he falls asleep while snuggling you. If he is alone, he will fall asleep on his back, hands on his chest or on the mattress.