#from their own country of origin

[llamasgotoheaven]

It’s a thoroughly American story told in antique greek set dressing and it’s one of disney’s greatest contributions to humanity ngl

Rewatching Disney’s Hercules and yeah it’s still really good

[a-s-fischer]

So much of the absolute bullshit I see, the wild misconceptions about history and politics, are not accidents or conclusions people came up with themselves. It's recycled Soviet propaganda.

And like, some of this is because of recent Russian disformation campaigns, because why come up with a new disinformation campaign when you can just dig your your grandfather's disinformation campaign out of the attic, but a lot of it is in the air because some of the stuff bit really deeply into Western leftism during the cold war years, back when Western leftist intellectuals who definitely should have known better, took cues from Soviet intellectuals and academics, who, if they wanted their work to get wide dissemination, and also didn't want to end up in a gulag, had to conform to and propagate the party line.

But either way, this stuff is very widespread, and at times insidiously invisible, and I am this close to making a little sticker image that I can put on posts that contain examples of this phenominon.

[youssefguedira]

I wish you would write a fic about irreconcilable artistic differences on a movie set between Joe and Nicky.

not really irreconciliable as in not solvable at all but you know i had fun with this

Joe squeezes his eyes shut, covering his face with both hands, and leans forward. His shoulders tremble uncontrollably. He takes a short, sharp breath, and another, and another, but he can’t quite seem to get enough into his lungs. There’s a lump in his throat and a weight in his stomach. He leans forward with a low, wounded sound and–

“Cut,” Nicky says softly. Then, because it takes Joe a second to hear him: “Joe, stop.”

Slowly, Joe raises his head. Wipes at his eyes and takes a few deep breaths to steady himself. Nicky’s already up, frowning ever so slightly as he looks at the camera. 

“What is it this time?” Joe manages. His voice is hoarse; he has to clear his throat once or twice. Nicky doesn’t look up. The clock on the nightstand reads 01.34, but Nicky’s changed it a few times over the course of the shoot. He has no clue what time it really is, only that it’s dark outside.

It’s just the two of them in the room. Nicky had wanted to keep this one small, just him and Joe and the camera. The apartment they’re in is nice, if a little empty, though Joe supposes that’s the point. They’re in the bedroom, Joe sitting cross-legged on the bed, shirtless, sheets bunched up over his lap, a phone lying on the nightstand behind him. One entire wall of the room is taken up by a floor-to-ceiling window which lets the moonlight in, though there’s a few low lights set up behind Nicky to send bars of silver light across the bed, because the natural light hadn’t quite been strong enough for the effect Nicky wanted. It’s otherworldly; it’s beautiful. 

Nicky still isn’t looking at him, so Joe says again, “What?” It comes out a little harsher than he means it to, but it gets Nicky’s attention.

Nicky runs one hand through his hair. Joe can’t see him well, not with the light behind him and the shadows in the room. “I don’t know,” Nicky says. “It’s missing something.”

Joe has worked with Nicky enough times before. It’s not that he doesn’t like working with him - they’re friends - but he can’t fucking read him, and so after the sixth take of the same scene he can’t help but take it a little personally. 

Joe reaches for the bottle of water hidden just under the bed and takes a long drink, mostly to keep himself from snapping. What time is it? “I can try again, but I can’t do this indefinitely, Nicky.”

“I know, I know,” Nicky says, fidgeting again with the camera, “it’s not you, it’s just–” 

“What else could it be?” Joe interrupts. He’s not stupid. This scene doesn’t work if he can’t get it right, which means the entire film doesn’t work if he can’t get it right. More than anything else, this one depends on him. No music, no camera movement, no dialogue, nothing but him and the camera. And he wants to do it right, he loves this project almost as much as Nicky does, but there’s a hollow feeling in his chest and he’s spent the last however-many-hours having a near-complete breakdown over and over again and it’s still not right. And Joe doesn’t know what it is he’s doing wrong.

“I don’t know,” Nicky says quietly. Now he is looking at Joe, and Joe can’t tell if he’s disappointed, or angry, or – or what. He’s perfectly expressionless, as always. 

Joe loves this job. And he wants to get this right. But it doesn’t mean it’s not one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do, and he’s tired.

“I don’t have much more left in me, Nicky,” he says, and this time he does snap. He wipes at his eyes again, can’t look at Nicky. He’s supposed to be making himself vulnerable, above all in this scene, but suddenly he can’t stand the way Nicky’s looking at him. “Pass me my hoodie.”

“Joe–”

“I can’t. I can’t keep doing this.” He kicks the sheets off and gets tangled trying to do it, grabs his hoodie when Nicky offers it, pulls it over his head in one fluid motion and gets out of there as soon as he can. Thankfully, there’s only Andy and Nile in the other room, Andy lying back on the couch with her feet up and Nile perched on the arm of it. They both look up at Joe as he enters, both look like they’re about to ask, and Joe can’t stand it, can’t be in here a second longer, can’t–

“We are done for the day, I think,” Nicky says behind him, startling Joe. He hadn’t realised Nicky was there.

Andy raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t argue. It’s already the second day of trying to shoot this scene: they’re running the risk of falling behind schedule. 

“We’ll find something else to do tomorrow,” Nicky says. “I’ll look over everything tonight. We will try this again on Monday.”

Andy and Nile look at each other. Nile shrugs. 

“Get some rest, Joe,” Nicky says. 

Joe shoves his hands in his pockets and doesn’t say a word.

–--------------------------------

He doesn’t get called in the next day at all, and he doesn’t interrogate it too closely. Takes the day off, pretty much, because they’ve only really got one scene left to film, and there’s not much more he can do for that. Nicky had wanted to leave it to the last, and Joe had agreed, at the time.

At about nine pm, someone knocks on his hotel room door, which is unusual on a day where they don’t have a night shoot to do. When he opens it, Nicky is on the other side. Joe lets him in without a word. 

“I wanted to apologise,” Nicky says, standing in the middle of the room and looking as uncomfortable as Joe’s ever seen him. “For last night. I was pushing you too hard, and I should not have done.”

Joe closes the door behind him. Nicky fidgets with the sleeve of his hoodie. 

“Sit down,” Joe says. 

Nicky does, settling himself on the edge of Joe’s bed, not quite looking him in the eye. Joe joins him, after a moment. 

“At the risk of sounding cliche,” Nicky says, “it’s not you, it’s me.”

Joe laughs, mostly because the phrase sounds so strange coming from Nicky and also because out of everything he’d thought Nicky might say, he hadn’t expected that. 

Nicky smiles slightly, too. Then he gets up and heads for the minibar. “Mind if I have a drink?”

Joe shakes his head. Nicky gets out a little bottle of wine, glances at the label, and takes a swig straight from the bottle without bothering to get a glass. 

“I can’t seem to get it right,” Nicky says. “You know I wrote almost fifteen different versions of that scene?”

The scene in the script itself is barely a page long. “No,” Joe says. 

Nicky nods. Rubs a hand over his face. “I wanted it to feel real. I thought if I could get it right, it would… help, somehow. I don’t know.”

It’s the exact same reason Joe said yes before he even read the script, when the whole thing was just an idea in Nicky’s head, when they were talking about it over drinks at Andy’s and Joe was in love with the idea almost immediately. He knew exactly why Nicky was writing it; he knows, now, exactly why it needs to be right. But at the same time – “I don’t know if that’s possible, Nicky.”

Nicky sighs. “I know.” He crosses back over to sit beside Joe again, takes another drink from the bottle. “But there is something missing, and I cannot seem to find it. And so it does not feel real. And I know this is not easy for you.”

“It’s not,” Joe says plainly. 

“But you know,” Nicky continues, “I could not have trusted anyone with this but you. If you had not said yes, I would not have done this.”

That, Joe didn’t know: he knows he’d been Nicky’s first choice, but he’d assumed that’s because they know each other well enough already. But it makes sense: the reason Nicky wrote the script is the same thing they’d bonded over. 

Even still, it’s a lot. “I don’t know if I can do it the way you want,” Joe says. 

Nicky looks up at him from where he’s been running his fingers over the label on the bottle absentmindedly. “If you want to stop, I can–”

“No,” Joe says quickly. “But I don’t think it’s ever going to be exactly the way you felt.”

Nicky looks away. “It is a lot to ask,” he says. “I know this.”

Joe doesn’t think; just reaches over and takes Nicky’s hand. “I know,” he says. “Trust me.”

Nicky takes a deep breath. Then he nods. "Okay."

[lightgaswaterelectricityrent]

there's a japanese head spa in okc now. when I was growing up the hottest and only thing to do was buy cupcakes

[uwudonoodle]

If you're sick of the generic Christmas songs you've been forced to listen to while shopping, I made a playlist of some more unique songs.

[strawbebbiesart]

Crochigi (crochet Tigi) 🐅🪴⛵️

[ohello0]

If anybody ever sees me celebrating a white guy im being so deadass punch me in the fucking face

[news4dzhozhar]

I would expect something like this from the US or Germany. Kinda surprised that Canada would pull this. Are people going to start burning old maps, books and almanacs? Israel has already done a great deal to destroy official Palestinian records. This is Canada's complicity in literally erasing an entire land and its people.

[the-physicality]

Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, and Cynthia Cooper discuss the fact that there is no houston team any more

[sergeantpixie]

"all your ribs are still your own" sounds interesting!

Thank you, dear anon!

Titled after Ribs by The Crane Wives, It is deanlena, and it's my little self-indulgent "Save Jessica Moore" fic!

Jess goes to NOLA to visit her cousin who's friends with Elena. She is attacked by a demon there and rescued by Elena. The demon reveals Sam's connection to the incident, and Elena clarifies a few things about the supernatural world. Elena and Dean kind of have a FWB thing going on, since NOLA is monster-central. Jess makes the decision to stay in NOLA and break up with Sam. After Sam's friend dies of demonic possession, he goes back to hunting. 5 years later they all meet again in the NOLA airport.

excerpt:

Elena stares into the skull's hollow eye sockets and Dean realizes uneasily that she is face-to-skull with an exact copy of her own cranium. A chill runs up his spine as he contemplates the horror of this moment. Beneath the skin, bone, and sinew of the beautiful woman in front of him sits the very same skull she holds in her hands. "What are you going to do with her?" he asks. "She could've been me," she answers. "I don't know where to find her family anymore, but I'm her family, too. So, I'll take her home. I'll bury her with my family."

ask me about my WIPs!

@randomestfandoms

[umemiyan]

random thing that came to mind after that last poll: just a reminder that if you get your name legally changed for any reason, make sure you hold on to all of those documents!!!!!!! because if you don't the DMV will absolutely rail your ass over it

[hallasimss]

not something i usually talk about here but i had a little breakthrough in the family genealogy research today and istg i felt something over my shoulder. like an ancestor or something i'm not even kidding

[rainingincale]

.

[thepandalion]

and today in "why is fandom so antisemitic" just blocked two more followers in my sideblog, which makes it about 10 of what would have been almost 35 followers over a couple months. because the "all israelis are evil" bs is really big in mcyt circles.

also haven't watched the new season of hc because I don't want to touch the fandom anymore and enjoying things alone isn't as fun when you know there's a fandom. but also the fandom is full of people that wish I was dead so I dont want to be there either. which means right now the only things in my life are the jewish bloggers I follow (love yall) and doing daily challenges in microsoft solitaire. and university ig but it's the weekend and Im trying not to think about my homework rn

also gave up and made a "btw Im israeli plz stop following me if u want me dead" post on the sideblog. hope it works ig.

[uwudonoodle]

If you're sick of the generic Christmas songs you've been forced to listen to while shopping, I made a playlist of some more unique songs.

[sapphia]

this is such a weird take, framing species-wide extinction and competition between humans and other species as like… a symptom of a specific society and not an issue with growing societies of any type, as they use more and more resources (usually badly) and change the environment to suit their own needs at the expense of other animals, often without even realising it or understanding the negative consequences.

Actually your society is the freaks for shooting everything that moves and burning half your "nature reserves" every year so that upperclass dandies can eat leaded pheasant. North Americans are the well adjusted ones here, your country has become a desolate suburban lawn in island form