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dalt20 · 2 years ago

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Tooning In 9. Dev Ross part 5 of 7

DL: so we were taking about disney last time right?

DR: I don't remember, I did tell you about my time there yes. Not sure if that was where we ended up.

DL: well, after jungle cubs how did you feel when you left the house of mouse?

DR: Disappointed that things had become so distant there. Lost the old feeling of comraderie. No real personal relationships. No team work, Very cold and corporate. I was very sad and felt I had lost a big part of my something that had once been so special.

DL: I'm sorry to hear that. Oh,so you wrote for Aladdin the series?

DR: A few eps,that is all.

DL: process for that?

DR: Don't remember a thing. I wasn't on it long enough for it to have made memories for me.

DL: so did you watch the film,before writing for the series or the sequel?

DR: Yes.

DL: thoughts on the first film?

DL: yeah he was great! so did you like any other 90s disney films?

DR: No. It was a pretty predictable Disney film. The best part was the Genie. Robin Williams ability to improv made the film. His stuff was fresh and out of the box.

DL: yeah he was great! so did you like any other 90s disney films?

DR: You'd have to be specific. I don't recall which movies came out when. I left Disney because I felt their still had become too predictable. Their use of iconic characters over and over was troubling to me.

DL: I see.

DR: They insisted on using their cast of characters and only finally reached for new characters long after I left. Meanwhile you had Pixar who was wildly creative and out of the box. Pixar wasn't afraid to find new heroes.

DL: well sadly pixar is now stale.

DR: Yep. It happens. Youth are turning to webtoons and 2D limited animations from Japan and Korea. Also the gaming industry has leaped ahead of narrative stories.

DL: well it's called 'anime' but yeah, that's all the rage! you probably grew up on speed racer and kimba.

DR: I know that it is called anime but what it is artistically is limited 2D animation. I did not watch speed racer or kimba.

DL: Gotcha. back to your career, you worked on adventures of the book of virtues for porchlight and PBS.

DR: Yes.

DL: written the episode, patience. can you explain to me the show and the episode.

DR: William Bennet was the driver of that. He was the a secretary of education under Reagan and very conservative. He believed kids weren't being taught morals and virtues enough so brought this series to life. Give me a clue on the patience episode as I don't recall it.

DL: thanks for giving me a history lesson (this is not sarcasm) the annie and ari are trying to teach other kids things but the other kids can’t do it and they become impatient with them. and also hellen keller.

DR: I actually really loved working in this show! I loved taking the lessons from the book and making them relatable to kids. But neither came easy. I did the play in high school and loved being Helen!

DL: That's awesome! Good for you!

DR: The fact that it showed the incredible resilience of these women was wonderful for me. I love telling these kinds of stories.

DL: Wow! So,how did you write the episode but trying not to make them christian? secular, i mean.

DR: I wrote them to be universal. All religions have common values. I'm not into religion at all but I do recognize intrinsic human values of kindness, compassion and patience. We all could use a giant dose of that today.

DL: Agreed.

DR: sends me a smiley face emoji 😀

DL : you wrote that episode with the creators according to IMdb.

DR : Not sure what you mean. I'm credited as writer on it...

DL : it said on the page for the episode you co wrote it with them.

DR : Hmm. I never co-wrote. I have the only credit on it when you view the opening. Maybe they made changes later. I don't know

DL : oh ok, lets talk about the Land Before Time. your golden ticket to fame!

DR: Yes. Loved writing those films. Great team.

DL: the first film, the great valley adventure. process on that?

DR: They had a script they didn't like and asked me to doctor it. I did a major rewrite of it in two weeks and that sealed the deal for more. I was fast and they liked my take on the characters. I used my own kids for inspiration and that worked! My six year old son was Little Foot and my bossy four year old was Cera.

DL: Oh, wow!

DR : I would see the problems they encountered with friends and used them in my stories. My son was getting picked on so I used his struggle to deal with prejudice kids. My kids would always give me ideas. It was so wonderful to turn their experiences into stories.

DL: That's awesome!

DR: It was very rewarding!

DL: so you read the original script, can you tell me what was from the script?

DR: The beginning with them finding the egg but that's pretty much it. I still had to share credit though.

DL: Ah, I see. so The Time of Great Giving, the process of that film and the story?

DR: That was crazy. They wanted me to create a Thanksgiving theme along with a fire safety message!

DL: wait, WHAT!?

DR: Since there weren't exactly turkeys back then or a Thanksgiving holiday, I had to find a story that gave those values. It was a bit nutty!! I wrote the whole script then was asked to go back and put a fire safety message in there! But the value of giving thanks and being grateful, that was easy to do. If you watch it, you'll see the Valley has a big fire and Littlefoot helps veryone escape safely.

DL: well, ( i dont curse that often but) that must be absolute hell to write!

DR: When you write for kids you are used to putting in subliminal and obvious messages. But, yes, that one challenged me! But I've made my career on taking hard topics and making them entertaining. I'm working on a science and medicdd as l show for kids now and some of the medical stuff is downright boring! But! We are putting it all in space and using aliens for the medical scenes which makes it crazy fun. The ep I'm working on now deals with constipation!!! But I'm showing it by Mr heroes getting stuck inside a giant space creature who is constipated!!

DL: is that Weird Detention?

DR: Sorry for my bad typing.

DL: It's OK.

DR: No, this is for Dr. Theory. Weirf Detention address conflict resolution. Weirddetention.com

It addresses the need for better communication via magical realism. Three kids trapped in school detention with no way out.

DL: oh ok, but we're gonna talk about that at the near end. your gonna spoil the the project!

I send her a smiley face emoji 😁

DR: Nah...

DL: that was suppose to be the suprise at the end.

DR: Ok. I ruined my own surprise party!

DL: besides your IMdb credits get shorter when time goes on.

DR: Very true! It's called ageism, Hard to get hired when you get passed forty.

DL: I see.

DR: That's why I do mostly my own productions now.

DL: Oh, OK. Stories of My Childhood, what was that? You wrote the elEnglish dub for a episode.

DR: That was hard! I was hired to take old Russian animation and redo the stories in English. I had to fit English in mouths that were animated for the Russian language. I often had to change the stories as they were very old and not great for American kids. So I was stuck with the animation and had to use it to tell a different story.

DL: did you watch The Snow Queen? old soviet animated film from 1957, that had a all star cast like Art Link-letter. if your old enough to know.

DR: It was not easy. Yes, I think another writer redid that one. Maybe Stephanie Mathison or Sindy McKay. It was fun to be in the editing room on it. Working to adjust the character's mouth movements

DL: Did you watched the first "Art link-letter' dub as a kid?

DR: No.

DL: Of The Snow Queen.

DR: No.

DL: Okay. So but how did you feel about the show using old 50s Russian animation to show to 90s kids?

DR: It was oddly fun to try and make the stories more relevant to our audiences. I loved the challenge but it was tedious!

DL: I can only imagine.

DR: Everything had to fit their visuals and we could only stretch or shorten their mouths so much. Very time consuming. But dubbing is often just doing a translation. I was often rewriting the meaning of the show. That was very difficult.

DL: oh, well how do you feel to be a dub writer?

DR: It was challenging. I wouldn't want to do it a lot!

DL: ok so journey through the mists, process for that film?

DR: That was my need to address xenophobia. Fear of the unknown. People being afraid of others who are different. The story tells that by putting the characters in a strange new place full of new creatures. They need to deal with their fear of others while finding important medicine for Littlefoot's grandfather.

DL: you introduce Chomper the Sharptooth in that right?

DR: No. Chomper is in the first one I was hired to rewrite.

DL: oh ok. how did you came up with him?

DR: I inherited him from the other writers.

DL: Okay.

#animation #animation interview #tooning in.#dev ross #disney afternoon #walt disney animation studios #disney #disney television animation #aladdin #adventures of the book of virtues #90s cartoons #the land before time #don bluth #universal pictures #soyuzmultfilm

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kinetic-elaboration · 2 years ago

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November 26: Some More Writing Thoughts

So I used my huge vacation to write one (1) scene in my Time Loop fic that (appropriately enough) simply will not end and while this is objectively depressing, I do like the scene I wrote and I do feel pleased with myself for having written it, especially since it had been weighing on me for a very long time. So I feel optimistic. There are 9 scenes left in the fic: 4 in this chapter and 5 in the next. The remaining 4 in this chapter… are divided into 4 sections but should flow together pretty well, so I have this wild idea that maybe over the weekend I’ll do a big marathon session and write a lot of that at once.

If not, that’s fine. I’m not saying this to make promises or to put expectations on myself or whatever. I’m releasing myself of all artificial deadlines for this story. It’s the priority fic, I’ll work on it until it’s done, but getting to ‘done’ will take as long as it takes. My hope is to finish by the end of the calendar year—but again, if that doesn’t happen, such is life.

Anyway, the reason that I’m saying all this is that, as a treat, I’m letting myself think about the creative future again. I’m… in that liminal space, Sunday night, about to go back to work, but it’s the weird time of year. Everyone’s on holiday mode, no one really cares, it’s dark all the time, there are a lot of events—and I need to think about stuff like gift shopping and so on, and all I really want is to be cozy. I’m going to try to take this longer-term liminal space to re-settle myself (something I’ve been trying to do for months, sort of all year, sort of longer than a year, but the definition of being a human being is to be always optimistic I suppose) and maybe I’ll get writing done too and maybe before too terribly long I can move on to other projects.

And what will those projects be? I’ve been staring at the WIP List again. This is a habit of mine that is like… very strange, because it’s enjoyable and stressful at once. It always feels like it will be more productive than it is. Mostly it’s just staring at a list I’ve half-memorized and going… yeah, I’d like to work on that? But not now. The stars aren’t aligned. And then saying that over and over until I start to feel dizzy.

I have an old Jonty fic from like 2017 that I want to finish because I like what I have for it but it is just not a complete narrative that I could post as is. And I had an epiphany a while ago as to how to finish it in a fairly simple and clean way and I wrote down some notes. So I feel like… it will not be simple and easy because it has been a long time and it will be intimidating to get back into the story and try to match up the new text with the old. Also the story is peak 2017-me and I just don’t really think or write that way anymore. But I have this idea that it’s like a weekend-project or maybe something I work on intensely but in shorter chunks for a week, where I read over everything I have, think some more on the details of the remaining scenes, and just write them. In other words, it involves some prep work but if I devoted some discrete chunks of time to it, it’s a manageable task.

And the other story on my mind is the Millamy Road Trip I’ve been referencing a lot. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m pretty close to a workable outline for the first chapter, and though I do think it needs a little more work and to marinate, it’s a very promising next project after Time Loop is finally done (which will happen!! It will happen someday, impossible as it seems now!). This is a comparatively newer project to a lot of the other ones on the list… which is to say it is not new, but since I started planning it for serious, it’s grown and developed a lot, and all of that work has been more recent. I feel like that should make it… easier? Or at least a good balance to the Jonty fic, which is definitely from way back in the vault.

I just… hmm, I want to post things. I want to post things and I want those things to be old projects and I have this idea that this will provide me with a sense of accomplishment. It’s not really that simple, but that’s the fantasy of it. I also sometimes like imagining what I will work on farther down the line, a longer to do list, even if I know that planning even two projects ahead of the current one is probably a bad idea.

I need to get back into SGAU—that’s not in the writing stages unfortunately so I should probably bring it back into active rotation as soon as Time Loop is complete. And after Ch1 of the Road Trip AU, maybe one of my horror stories? Maybe a chapter of some other multi-chap idea? I don’t know. I just don’t know.

#the year 2023 #2023: writing thoughts

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talenlee · 2 years ago

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The Man In The Memer

Hmm, is that a Michael Jackson reference too spicy to use. Not sure. Well, I’m sure my better judgment will kick in before I post this. Or maybe it won’t, because what I want to talk to about today is the idea of autoconnoisseurship.

Look you get this or you get me venting anxiety about realising that not only am I not connected to the lives of my students, but that disconnect is going to only ever get wider. My brief window of time of teaching people who share the same brainworms with me is a fleeting memory of the before lockdowns.

What a word. Look at it. It gets all French in the middle there. Double ses and suchlike. I bet if you showed me a noisseur in a D&D rulebook I’d be like oh yeah of course it’s like a lance. It’s a long word, and it’s a long word made up of other words bolted together. It’s such a wonderfully complex word, like other ones I’ve introduced you to. Do you remember autoethnography? What about hyperintertextuality? It’s a word like that, and it’s a word I get from an author called Estelle Barrett, in the book Practice as Research. Great book, love it, reading it over and over again to try and make sure I understand it hasn’t scrampled my prains or anything.

Connoisseurship is the idea of being an expert, competent, critical judge of something, and particularly, in the context of that thing’s subtle distinctions. A connoisseur isn’t a fan; they’re someone who can recognise all the distinct and varied ways in elements within the space of interest are similar and different. The connoisseur appreciates deteails, appreciates nuance. The connoisseur is by practice, an expert, because without expertise, there can be no appreciative comparison. To be a connoisseur is to have context, and appreciate context, and be able to share that context.

Connoisseurship or as the ‘pronounce it aloud’ button on merriam webster asserts, connor sir ship, is therefore the practice of being a conoisseur. It’s about putting in work to understand, catalogue and recognise these nuances and their distinctions. And autoconnoisseurship is about being able to do that in the context of your own work. To look at your own work as if it is worth being catalogued, sorted, scrutinised, recognised and considered.

Barrett, by the way, is building on ideas from Michel Foucault, notorious baldy and prison-mentioner, so this isn’t like weirdo outsider ideas.

This is hard. Connoisseurship means positioning yourself as an expert, and one capable of recognising distinctions between distinct elements. When examining one’s own work, I feel like there’s a natural flexibility. If someone compares one of my games, for example, to another, similar game, I can feel the need, for the sake of conversation, to concur, even if another person bringing up another wildly different comparison might seem equally valid. Setting aside the social grace and the natural imposition of capitalism in here (if I didn’t have to convince people to pay money for my games, would I still feel the need to couch my games in terms of appealing to people?), there’s a question about what I really mean in terms of expertise. What’s nailed down about these things, how much room and flex is there in their discussion?

I am a little sensitive about my OCs and the characters I write in fiction, for example; I can see very clear delineating lines, different kinds of scenes and narratives into which they fit, the assumptions of their world. Rafe and Tideward are both orphaned children of royal parentage with a bad dad and a gift for violence, but one of them can make his problems go away by finding the right wall to burst through and the other sulks a lot. I am thrilled by knowing from my friends that Talen Boy is its own archetype, almost its own gender (indeed, having been told that ‘this girl is a Talen boy’ at least once), but that always comes with the anxiety that I am boring my friends, that I am sharing with them creative stuff that they think could be better, more or original, that this character archetype they’ve seen before is something depriving them of something new.

In the context of connnoisseurship, though, there is an element for the connoisseur that I think this blog has built in me over time; that there is, along with the assumption of expertise, the right to be heard. A connoisseur presents expertise and that expertise is itself worthwhile in its presentation. Being interested in presenting this information is reason enough to present it. By having this expertise, I demand the elevation of the subject in which I am expert.

Which is pretty cool.

That’s not all there is to it, though. There’s a little more, which is an idea from Melissa Febos (Associate Professor at the University of Iowa), of the idea of how this autoconnoisseurship imposes on ourselves a preoccupation with your perceptions of others’ perceptions. Does this read right? Is this joke tasteful? Am I making something that presents an idea I’ve heard because it’s interesting, or am I mining others’ grief for sport? Am I being kickass, or just an ass, or am I showing my ass?

There’s this phrase Febos uses that I think about a lot, which is you have to write for the reader of best faith.

The internet has geared me to be generally confrontational over the past oh god thirty years I’ve been using it. I know I’ve gotten better about that, because in my twenties I was ferocious about looking for fights. But now I think there’s a natural impulse to pre-emptively defend ideas from people who are looking for ways to criticse it. The piss on the poor website effect.

Exile the thoughts of the person who is looking to invalidate the art you are making or it will be a brittle, sad version of what you would have done if you had imagined the loving reader who is grateful and interested in what it is you are actually trying to communicate.

(Paraphrasing Febos).

Oh and part of why I wrote this was to share this idea but also to get used to writing connoisseurship a lot by hand without just googling it and copy-pasting.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Academia

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crochetysquare · 2 years ago

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Jester’s Hat Pattern

I meant to post this on New Year’s Day. Oops. Hello, all 5 followers that aren’t bots! I typed that sentence and realized I haven’t been checking for bots in my sideblog. To be fair, I haven’t been doing a great job of posting to my crochetblr at all since I started it. Let this be the beginning of a year of more-or-less monthly patterns! More updates on the quilt! More one-off posts! This is the year of crochet!

Some of you may have noticed that I changed this blog's title last year. I felt that "NotUrGrannySquares" didn't fit me. I didn't really like it at the beginning, but it's the all I could think of (and it wasn't too creative, since I only spelt it "Ur" because "NotYourGrannySquares" was taken--not to mention, there are plenty of patterns out there with similar names). As I began to collect a few pieces from my mom and grandma for my quilt, I felt more at odds with the blog name: these are my granny's squares! I posted this one a while ago, but the other two from her are waffle stitch samples. One is incomplete, using a merino wool yarn, and the other she fished out of the kitchen when I asked if I could incorporate the wool one into the quilt, and it’s clearly a polyester because it’s slightly melted in the center where it had been holding hot things. I’m obsessed with the texture that’s resulted.

I landed on “crochety” because I’ve described myself as a crotchety old man, the word “crotchety” shares origins with the word “crochet,” and I liked how Dictionary.com defined it.

crotchety adjective 1. given to odd notions, whims, grouchiness, etc.

I am given to odd notions and whims. That’s the whole thesis of my quilt, isn’t it? That’s why I haven’t been posting patterns. When I’m crocheting, I’m crocheting. I can’t stop every row and write down what I did. Worse, I can’t write it down and then rewrite it in a text document. I tried to teach myself coding last year because I was told it’s “just logic,” and being logically minded, I should be good at it. The thing is, it’s also typing, and I fucking hate typing. (You’re looking up at the past 4 paragraphs skeptically. This is different. Just trust me that it’s different. You’ll see what I mean when you look at the pattern and how poorly I’ve cleaned it up because something about typing shit like, “Ch 3, turn, sk 1st st, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next sc, sc 15, ch 2, sc in next sc, sc 15, ch 3, turn, sk 1st ch, sc in sc in sc in sc in sc in next st and to end,” just itches my brain so uncomfortably. Crocheting is so intuitive for me, and translating it from the physical realm to the written kills me. It’s like when I would finish my geometry proof before everyone else, and the teacher would suggest I help the kid next to me, but I couldn’t put it into words. I don’t know, dude, you just put the things where they go. Just put the hook through the correct stitch. Just make it the shape of one third of a jester’s hat. That’s how you make a pattern. Just do the thing that obviously you should do. This is why I like diagram crochet patterns more, which I would like to get into on here in the future. However, this pattern reflects the madness that is my brain trying to type up patterns. When I started this blog, I thought I would do a bunch of patterns like that, maybe with a horror narrative evolving around the monotony and the separation between typography and craft, and then I realized how much tongue in cheek patterning that would require. Hmm. Maybe someday, though.)

So anyway, this is NOT your granny’s pattern because I bet she has better discipline than I do. She would have cleaned this pattern up to the necessary bits. I’m too damn crotchety for that.

All 3 panels will follow this pattern. I used (most of) 3 skeins of Buttercream Luxe Craft 100% Wool yarn. It is yarn weight 5, recommending 6.0mm crochet hooks, and for once I did what I was told.

It appears that Joann has rebranded it to Knit & Crochet, but it also seems I have moved to an area with mediocre Joanns which carry neither. Which is whatever; I have gift cards to better yarn shops.

You can follow the same scheme of adding stitches with different starting row counts. This ended up being a little more than 25 inches in circumference, which made it just a bit too big for me. I rolled up the brim on the underside when I wore it, which worked fine for me and my 21 inch head since it’s a nice thick yarn.

Key I'm using US terms. ch = Chain sc = Single crochet sk = Skip sc2tog = single crochet 2 together That's all you need. It's easy peasy, you got this, gorgeous.

Ch 31. 1. skip 1st ch. sc 30. ch 1, turn. 2-10. sc 30, ch 1, turn. 11. sc 30, ch 2, turn. 12. sk first ch, sc in second from hook. sc across. Ch 2 again! and turn. 13. sk first ch, sc in second, sc 16, ch 2, sc in next stitch and to end. (32 total, 16 on each side. We're gonna stop keeping count, though. I didn't, and it turned out just fine. You'll be fine, as long as all your panels are Shaped.) Ch 2, and turn. 14. Sk first ch, sc in second, sc 17. In 2 ch space {sc, ch 2, sc}. Sc to end. Ch 2, turn. 15-16. You know what you're doing. Sc to that chain space, and sc, ch 2, sc, and keep going. Ch 2, turn. 17. Now it switches up, but not really. Sk first ch, sc in second. Sc to 2ch space {sc, ch 2, sc}, sc to end. NOW. Chain 3. Turn. 18. Sc in second and third ch from hook. sc to chain space {sc, ch 2, sc}, sc to end. Ch. 3. 19. NOW it switches up. Sc in second and third ch, sc across. You hear me? Single crochet across! Skip that chain space entirely this time 'round! 20-22. In 20, you add the ch space in... um. shoot. This is why people keep track of stitches. Add the ch space above where it was in 18. IDK, you got this. ch 3, turn. 23. Hey, just skip that ch space again, okay. Don't argue (you can argue, change the pattern, idgaf). Ch 3, turn. 24. sc in second and third ch from hook, sc 31, ch 2 without skipping, sc 32. Ch 3, turn. 25-27. Same as 20-22. 28. Do that thing where you omit the ch space. Or don't. I'm not your mother. 29-30. Same as 20-22 and 25-27. 31. This is ittttttttt! Single crochet until that 2 chain space where I need you to use that one stitch in the key you forgot about? The sc2tog? Keep sc'ing to the end and fasten the fuck off, you did it.

Now you just have to do that two more times and probably in different colors. Maybe if you're fancy you could do stripes. Row 31 should have 92 stitches, but, like I said in Row 13, as long as it's Shaped, you're honestly good. As longs as the Shapes are Basically The Same, you are grooving.

Sew them up. I slip stitched them together because I'm more comfortable with a hook than a needle (and I think it looks nice). Don’t forget to affix something that jingle jangles. 🃏

#crochet patterns #my patterns #crochet

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ofmermaidstories · 3 years ago

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first person feels like I'm not actually being included. and I read x reader cause the stories supposed to be about me bro. I hope you take this in a funny joking way thank you

I really like how the general consensus is: “first person isn’t about me, and I’m not about that 💅🏽” LMAO. I mean that affectionately!!! It like, makes sense that these are the replies, because we’re all involved in the x Reader niche and we’re coming from that perspective, an inherently self-indulgent one. 2nd Person POV, as we use it here in this corner, is unadulterated with it’s wish-fulfilment so i’m not surprised at these answers tbh.

There was like, idk, a bit of a trend on tiktok—trend is a strong word, it was maybe just something I noticed over the course of a few months on like, booktok i guess, but people would make videos or comments about the character in the book they were reading having like, idk, “red hair and green eyes” for example, and then being like, “no babe, she’s got dark hair and dark eyes like me and is exactly my height and is also me 💅🏽” and I just found that so—fascinating??? LMAO. Because to me, I see 1st Person POV narratives (outside of fic, anyways) as like…. deliberately narrow??? Like yeah, you’re focused on this one person for a reason, they’re telling you a story. I think as a writing tool, it’s a good one to use for like, idk, unreliable narrators, maybe, or even stories where you deliberately want a narrow scope when it comes to the story’s field of vision.

In fic, especially, we always seem to equate 1st Person to like, Original Characters—I’m thinking the classic, My Immortal’s Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Way—but I find that apart of the charm??? Like I said, some of my favourite books are done in 1st Person POV (Flowers in the Attic, which I’ve shilled before, opens with: “It is so appropriate to colour hope yellow, like that sun we seldom saw. And as I begin to copy from the old memorandum journals that I kept for so long, a title comes as if inspired: Open the Window and Stand in the Sunshine. Yet, I hesitate to name our story that. For I think of us more as flowers in the attic. Paper flowers. Born so brightly coloured, and fading duller through all those long, grim, dreary, nightmareish days when we were held prisoners of hope, and kept captives by greed.” and i truly, utterly and deeply believe that 1st Person was the right choice for that story, because then it gave Catherine—our main character—the witnesses to the horror that she and her siblings went through that she absolutely needed.) but writing wise, I’ve only ever used 1st Person for original ideas (romances!! I was a teenager and wrote them in notebooks and then lent said notebooks to my friends. I wrote things like… quiet mousey girls who got picked on by the hot school bully—lmfaoooooo—but then found herself growing closer to his equally hot, gentle best friend. 😌 The school Loud Mouth who gets paired with her Arch Nemesis on a project and they fight the entire time 😌😌 A spin-off with her best friend who’s falling in love with her neighbour—oh my god i gave myself everything I WANTED back then… there was no hiding. The 1st Person POV probably made it worse LMFAO. Everyone in my stories were based off of people I went to school with—my friends, people we hated, the boys we had crushes on. It was a free-for-all and it was so good, so much fun, and I will fight to death for spaces like Wattpad—spaces for kids and any other newcomer, where they can run rampant with their creativity, no matter how unpolished!!! anyways that was a tangent—).

I don’t know if 1st Person would even be a thing you could pull off with a x Reader, just given the nature of x Readers in general…… 🧐 our inner narrative is literally just about ourselves…. like, hmm. 🧐 Maybe you could??? Like, idk about the rest of you, but i don’t walk around thinking “oh my gosh, there i go, all 5’7’’ of me with my wild dark hair and my dark eyes that I blink at people charmingly when I want things” LMAOO. Like, my inner narrative is more about what I’m feeling, what’s making me feel that way, random thoughts like—I’m sitting in my chair right now, writing this, and every time i glance up I keep accidentally making eye contact with my Bakugou nendoriod and it’s a bit weird—idk. Hm. I reckon someone adventurous could pull it off… but you’d have to be prepared to do that and have an audience of like, one LOL because!!! Again, idk about the rest of you, but when I’m going into fanfic to read something I’m hunting for something specific and I am ruthless, because so often as a reader I don’t get the luxury of being that cut-throat with general literature. So I think just by virtue of being able to narrow down your searches that people are going to be more dismissive of fics that don’t have exactly what they want.

oh my God i’ve just convinced myself to write a 1st Person POV fic FUUUUUU—

#ofmermaidstories-asks #once again merms indulges in clown-to-clown tomfoolery #i hate it here #oh my god i hate it here so much why do i do this to myself #surely im not going to—nope #i am i absolutely am i can feel it in my bones #oh my god NO #CLOWN TO FUCKING CLOWN COMMUNICATION IN A MIRROR

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yourtouchismidas · 2 years ago

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16, 39, 86 <3

Also hi! how do you feel now?

hi darlin! i still feel a bit run down but mostly okay, thank you for asking!

16. What’s the worst decision you’ve ever made? What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?

wow this is deep. worst decision i've ever made. hmm. i think breaking up with my ex gf when i did. i think i did the right thing in the end (in that it all seemed to work out for her) but i wish i'd taken more time to think about it and if i had maybe it would've turned out differently.

best decision was going to study creative writing at uni even though it's not an "employable" degree and everyone thought it was silly. best 3 yrs of my life. no regrets.

39. What taboo do you think should be discussed more, if any? Alternatively, do you think a topic that isn’t taboo should be?

i dont know if this counts as a taboo but it bothers me in dating and relationships these days we're kind of supposed to pretend not to care? and like, it's embarrassing to be needy or want something serious or to want to see your partner. it's not embarrassing to care about someone. it doesn't make you weak or silly. it makes the person who doesn't care or pretends not to care, not right for you, and that's okay.

86. What could you talk about for hours?

writing. narrative structure. the way stories can elicit emotions and how they are built to do that.

also, taylor swift.

#billie gets personal

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sometimesrosy · 5 years ago

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What is your take on the grounders? I just have no idea where their story is going since S3 essentially where we saw their politics they haven’t seemed to change or adapt at all. They are always one step away from a mutiny no matter who tries to unite them, its a never ending cycle of temporary unity, infighting, violence and mutiny.

Well, I mean... if the show is about breaking the cycle of violence and abuse and tyranny and putting humanity on a different path to a better world, then it seems to me that the STORY of the grounders is that the society needs to come to an end.

For precisely the reasons you mention.

It’s not the ONLY society that needs to come to an end. So does sky crew. The ark may not have been as violent and barbaric as the grounders, but it was more oppressive and repressive. MW also NEEDED to come to an end. It would have been nice to reintegrate some of those people into a new society but that was impossible because of the society as it was. Sanctum also needs to come to an end. It is fascist and a nightmare. The eligius prisoners are barely a society, they’re more like a bunch of violent criminals dressed sitting on each other’s shoulders and dressed in a trench coat. They nearly devoured themselves with the first freedom they found in Eden. I can’t tell about the COG yet. I don’t know who they are.

I think actually one of the main ideas of this story is revolutionary in nature.

In order to set the world on a better path, to do better, to be better, and allow humanity its redemption, the old world needs to end.

This is revolution.

Our heroes are the rebels. Sometimes they can change things without violence, using reason, community, support, friendship, opportunity, vision, etc. But when faced with violent societies that want to destroy opportunity, hope, opposition and their own people, then the only response is... well... violence.

If their position was that only peace was the answer, then Luna’s society would have survived, instead of being eaten by the original violence. If their position was that ONLY peace was the answer, then Monty would not ALSO have been a killer.

Where is the story of the grounders going? Change or die. That’s where it’s going.

We’ve got characters who supported that change... most notably Lincoln, who shifted the whole story. He died for it, but he didn’t fail. Luna failed because she didn’t support that change, she was an isolationist. She didn’t try to change anything, she just left it behind and ignored it and lived a life pretending it didn’t exist, no matter what happened. MAYA supported that change, and even though she didn’t survive, she succeeded. She wanted to help her people change but they were unable to, and so her people failed to change and died. Monty supported that change, and he SUCCEEDED, he didn’t fail. He may have failed with the earth itself, because the people, wonkru and eligius, were too violent, but he rescued the survivors and set them on a better path... a STEP to authentic transformation. GABRIEL supported that change and did what he could, but it was not enough. Perhaps he was too gentle, refusing to face down his people, who he loved, who were doing wrong.

Oh hey. Diyoza supported that change... but I think she’s more like Clarke and Bellamy, willing to take down the evil in order to save the people. But she failed. And we didn’t see that story, we only saw her after she failed, although we did see her try to set up a better society, which also failed because of the violence of eligius and wonkru. So she failed there too. Kane also supported that change, he failed to do it himself, but influenced others, Bellamy, Octavia, Clarke, Miller, Harper, to do better. Sometimes the successes come in stages, and one generation alone can’t do it.

Huh. It’s interesting that every one of our societies has rebels within it who attempt to change the violence.

THIS is the story of the rebels.

The delinquents and their found family are the REBELS attempting to wrest the violence of their post apocalyptic societies away from the violence and oppression that surrounds them.

Hmm. I have a theory that I’m beginning to wonder about that grounds this science fiction show in history and the politics of the country that are blowing up right now. Ok. so stay with me. It all begins with JR, where he comes from, and what this show all MEANS. (I know everyone hates JR, but this is irrelevant in trying to UNDERSTAND JR, her perspective, and what he’s trying to say with this show.

First. JR is from Detroit. I mean, maybe he’s from white flight detroit or Grosse Point the rich suburb, idk. But where he’s from is a place that has suffered a LOT because of racism and class oppression. I had a slightly older baker friend (white lady) when I lived in Michigan, who told me stories of sitting on her front porch in Detroit, watching tanks drive down her street. And that put me to mind of what we’ve seen in the news lately, of militaristic forces going down civilian streets shooting rubber bullets to get them to go inside.

So I googled to see where JR was from. I didn’t get anything specific about his background, but I did find out that before The 100, he created a pilot called “The Body Politic” that was a drama about about young DC staffers. It was never picked up but was considered “one of the best pilots you’ll never see.” [x] I was not clear on what “the body politic” meant, so I looked it up.

bod·y pol·i·tic/ˈˌbädē ˈpälətik/ noun

the people of a nation, state, or society considered collectively as an organized group of citizens."individual dissent was considered necessary to the health of the body politic"

huh. Body Politic. The head and the heart. And we’ve been talking about the parts of the body the other characters represent.

I think The 100 is The Body Politic turned into a post apocalyptic sf show.

Okay. Back to detroit. I googled civil unrest detroit and found out about the

The 1967 Detroit Riot, also known as the 12th Street Riot, was the bloodiest incident in the "Long, hot summer of 1967". Composed mainly of confrontations between black residents and the Detroit Police Department, it began in the early morning hours of Sunday July 23, 1967, in Detroit, Michigan

I MEAN. Like. HELLO 2020.

And it turns out that JR was born ONE MONTH before the Detroit Riot. Clearly too young to remember it, but also clearly, when looking at his creative projects, it DID influence him.

He was born into a city in revolt. His show tells the story of the heroes of revolt, not the leaders or military (the guards who terrified octavia, bellamy becoming a guard as betrayal,) Also, he’s jewish and a lot of jewish people took part in the civil rights movement, and considering his story, he may have been raised by parents in a community that fought with black people against racism. This is speculation, but you can tell what matters to people by what they write about, and sff has ALWAYS offered a way for people to write about social injustice by taking it out of the context of the real world and putting it into a fantasy setting, thereby allowing people to see the people in the political conflicts without the implicit bias of our societal racism, bigotry, classism, homophobia and other isms.

This analysis should make fans who think JR is going to go the way of D&D feel better. Because D&D NEVER EVER had political motivations to their work. They weren’t trying to make a better world, they were just trying to make money and are in fact on the side of the oppressors, as you can see by how the story ended up when they were in charge of the narrative. Because according to what I’m saying, JR is on the side of the oppressed, and on the side of the revolutionaries who want to end the system that tyrannizes them. So our heroes, the revolutionaries, should be victorious. He’s not going grim dark. He’s going hope in the darkness. It might still be a romantic tragedy, but these revolutionaries are going to win and bring about the rebirth of humanity.

Where was I going with this?

Oh you asked about the grounders and you got a surprise “JR says we’re going to find out what it all means, what does it all mean???” answer.

Because the answers are connected. Where is the society of the grounders going? Where all the oppressive societies are going. Gone.

If they don’t change with the revolution, they’re going to be eradicated. SOME are changing. Niylah, Gaia, Indra.

Our friends are burning down the old world, so that the new world may start again. That’s what wanheda is for. The poison must be cut out. The cancer must be killed. The deadwood must be burned.

Make it go boom.

#the 100 #what is it about?#the jr whisperer #i know y'all hate jr but i think this show is an allegory for contemporary social revolution

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narukoibito · 5 years ago

Text

charity work bonus snippet

@the-hinny-shipper

Oh my gosh I love this. Probably not, but is there like a part 2 or something? I know that's meant to be the end, but I need to know what happens next.

Thank you so much for the kind words to charity work, my Muggle AU where Ginny is a famous football player who helps Harry teepee and egg his ex’s house! ♥️

I am actually working on a part 2. Harry and Ginny of this world just couldn’t stop chattering in my head, and there’s about 2.5k words thus far. I know what’s going to happen - I just need to write, edit, and pull the trigger and post it...

But in the meantime, I am sharing a funny little subplot that I wasn’t sure was ever going to see the light of day. It’s a bit of a prequel that I started but then dropped because it didn’t add much to the story...but today I thought, eh, why not share since we can all use some laughs now more than ever. It’s unbetaed, and I’m still iffy on it, but I hope you this will tide you over until I get part 2 posted.

(Also tagging the lovely @isidar-mithrim and @blattgefluester in case you are interested since you were both so amazingly kind toward charity work!)

Summary: This wasn’t what Seamus had in mind when he suggested Ginny do more charity work.

The Prophet landing on the table with a loud thud.

“What’s this?”

“This, Ginny, is the result of your spectacular interview with Miss Rita Skeeter.”

Ginny lifted her chin, pushing the paper away from her and returning to shoveling her porridge down. “So it’s the usual rubbish.”

Seamus pursed his lips, annoyed that once again she wasn’t taking this seriously. “Rubbish it may be, but rubbish that sells.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “So are you here as my publicist or as a friend?”

“Can’t I be both?” He grinned.

She prodded the offensive article with distaste. “What do they say this time?”

“Well, Miss Skeeter took it upon herself to approach all your exes for an ‘expose.’”

“I like to kick a ball for a living. I don’t understand the obsession with my love life.”

“The all-star player who went pro at your age with your looks?” Seamus winked. Ginny rolled her eyes.

“Don’t let Dean catch you doing that.”

“He knows I’m a hopeless flirt,” he dismissed cheerfully.

She made a strangled, irritated noise.

“Look, it’s not too bad.” He unfurling the paper with a wince. The headliner, Wonder Girl Weasley Not So Wonderful Girlfriend?, paired with an unflattering photo of Ginny shoving a camera away from her face flashed back at her. “She found some, er, old classmates to go on the record.”

Ginny’s expression darkened. “Record about what?”

“You remember when you stopped people from bullying Luna? And Neville? And when Dean and I got together? Well, somehow Skeeter got in touch with Parkinson, Zabini, Smith... Skeeter may or may not insinuate that you’re…aggressive. Have a bit of a temper.”

Ginny grabbed the paper and began reading loudly, “Since the early days of her youth, Ginevra Molly Weasley, better known as Ginny, the Wonder Girl Weasley, has been bewitching men to do her bidding. We here at The Prophet have long extolled the many virtues of Miss Weasley, but I, your fearless investigator of truth, uncovered a disturbing pattern in how Miss Weasley wraps men around her little finger. What others thought was wit and charm, I have uncovered may actually be the result of a threatening temper. I dare to ask, should we be concerned with Miss Weasley’s trail of broken hearts and perhaps other broken body parts?”

He bit his tongue as Ginny read the part where Rita expounded on Ginny’s "commoner” country-side upbringing” surrounded by her “rowdy” brothers as the source of her “violent streak.”

“I only punched Parkinson once, and that was when she poured punch on Luna!” Ginny scrunched up the newspaper and flung it angrily into the bin. “She goes on about some weird sorcery I have with men.”

“Look, I’ve already called Parvati about getting you on some morning shows, but maybe this time we can agree on some talking points, hmm? And maybe have you do some charity work, show your gentle, caring side. Get some positive press coverage.”

She continued to fume, muttering under her breath, “Skeeter gives witches a bad name.”

“It’ll all pass, Ginny,” Seamus smiled at her sympathetically. “Come back later tonight. Dean’s making roast, and we’ll talk about how to set the narrative straight.”

He sent her on her way, hoping that practice would relieve some of the rage.

Seamus’s head emerged from the oven, his face flushed scarlet. “Ginny, you can’t just go meet random fans and help them commit a crime!”

Even after all these years, she never ceased to amaze them. But this - randomly taking an Instagram follower’s request to egg and teepee a house? This was one of Ginny’s more...creative ideas.

“That’s right,” Dean agreed, taking the roast and plating it. “For all you know he could wank to your posters.”

“Well then you’d know he has good taste,” she said, dripping her finger into the cooling gravy.

“Ginny,” they sighed together in exasperation and pushing her away from the kitchen counter.

“What happened between this morning and now?”

“You’re always saying I should do more charity,” she said pointedly.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” Seamus wagged a finger at her. She folded her arms across her chest, staring them down (which was quite the accomplishment, considering how much taller they were).

“We can’t let you do this.”

“When has anyone ever let me do anything?” Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

Seamus and Dean shared a long look, no doubt both of them remembering that one time she broke into the headmaster’s office to steal back the replica toy sword Ron was stupid enough wear to school as part of his knight costume for Halloween.

“Look,” Dean said carefully, leading her into the dining room as Seamus followed, plates of food laden in his arms. “We know you’re more than capable to taking care of yourself.”

“Damn straight,” she said, but she let him gently nudge her into her seat.

“But as your friends — ”

“One of whom would like to stay gainfully employed,” Seamus cut in, playing the food on the table.

“—and who would absolutely be murdered by your brothers if they ever found out, we want to make sure you’re…thinking straight.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Oh, we know,” Seamus said, deadpan. “But I really don’t need another article supporting this theory that you’re aggressive. If you beat the bloke up and the press catches wind of it…”

“I’m going. I put this idea into his head. And look at him,” she said, holding up a picture of H-P-Lightening, smiling sheepishly into the camera.

They examined the photo skeptically as Ginny tucked into dinner. Maybe while they were distracted, she could nick an extra bit of roast.

“He’s cute,” Seamus pointed out.

Ginny rolled her eyes. “Not the point.”

"Doesn’t hurt,” Dean said.

“He and I share a similar goal: to serve some much-needed justice in the world. And since I can’t go about egging Michael’s house without it ending up on the Sunday papers, I can at least help someone else.”

“His hair is an absolute disaster, but it somehow works on him,” Seamus continued, ignoring her.

“Those green eyes,” Dean said appreciatively.

“Plays football too,” Seamus said, clicking through to some videos. “He’s fit.”

Now they were both giving Ginny a look with entirely new context.

“It’s not like that,” she said breezily.

“Maybe she’s hoping he wanks to her poster,” Seamus snickered, not believing her for a second.

“He could wind up in trouble if he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“And you’re an expert?” Dean asked.

“I’m a Weasley.” She smiled wickedly, and they laughed. “Besides, who am I to ignore a gentleman in distress?”

“Okay, fine, if we can’t stop you —”

She snorted.

“—then we’re coming with you.”

“What?”

“We’ll watch from a safe distance,” Seamus assured her, Dean nodding along. “Just to make sure you don’t end up in the papers.”

“We will help you hide the body,” Dean said.

Ginny looked from one to the other. They were grinning at her, half eager and half earnestly. She didn’t need them to come. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. But, suppose this turned out to be something she wasn’t expecting…

“Fine, but —” she added quickly when they started to wiggle their eyebrows at one another “—the moment, and I mean the very moment I give you the signal, you better make yourself scarce.”

Dean and Seamus beamed across the table. “Whatever you want, luv!”

“You can’t stay if you’re going to be this obvious.” Ginny growled.

“Obvious? We’re perfectly inconspicuous,” Seamus bristled.

“You brought binoculars,” she said dryly, placed her hands on her hips. “And a bat."

“Told you she wouldn’t like that,” Dean said.

“I won’t use the bat. It’s just in case we need to scare him off.”

Ginny and Dean gave him a look.

“What? This person could be tricking us!”

When Ginny’s glare made his back hair stick on end, Seamus relented.

“Fine, we’ll cross the street,” Seamus said, taking Dean by the arm. When they turned around, Ginny was still scowling, whipping out her phone and texting them furiously.

You are going to have to HIDE.

There’s nothing strange about us being here! Seamus typed back.

You’re two random, loitering blokes, ready to stalk or bean someone. If you’re going to stay, you’re going to hide. Ginny over at them critically. Behind those bushes.

“Ugh,” Seamus groaned, crouching down and behind the bushes with his boyfriend dutifully following. He swatted at a twig that was unpleasantly digging into the side of his bum.

Happy? he texted her back.

Delirious. Remember. You both better leave when I give the signal. Or else.

A shudder went down his spine, knowing very well what Ginny was capable of.

“This isn’t what I imagined our cozy Friday evening being.”

“You don’t really mind,” Dean said, smiling knowingly.

Seamus huffed and peered into the binoculars rather than reply. Yes, he was worried about this blowing up in his face (things often did), but he couldn’t deny he was a bit curious. He had never seen Ginny look that way at a photo before.

“You just want a front row seat,” Dean teased.

“Shut — oh, I think that’s him!”

They watched with anticipation as a lanky, bespectacled bloke with tousled black hair ascended the train station steps. He seemed to be deeply brooding as Ginny approached him. Through the binoculars, Seamus watched as this fellow, Harry something-or-other, looked up, eyes wide, and nearly tripped over the last step.

“They seem to be hitting it off,” Dean said as Ginny and Harry laughed before she handed him a hoodie.

They began walking, and Seamus scrambled to follow. “Come on.”

He kept an eye out for anyone else who might be around, but there didn’t seem to be anyone who recognized or followed Ginny.

“I think we can leave the bat.” Dean chuckled, swiping the binoculars for a closer look himself.

They trailed the other couple from across the street, doing the best they could to be inconspicuous. Ginny and this bloke looked good together. He looked oddly charming with his wild hair and glasses, but it was really the way he looked at Ginny at set Seamus at ease. They kept talking, laughing, smiling at one another. Seamus hadn’t seen her laugh so much since…he couldn’t even remember.

Was that — was Ginny Weasley blushing?

After several minutes, Seamus and Dean stopped and looked at each other.

Ginny had completely forgotten about them.

“Do you think if we leave now, we can still catch the last half of the game?”

“Yeah,” Seamus said, taking Dean’s hand as they headed home.

Maybe their Friday evening plans could be salvaged after all.

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cobalt-penguin · 5 years ago

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y’know what i’m still feeling annoyed and petty, plus i’m stuck inside and it’s storming out so why not type out a checklist of what everyone in TOW did to me.

since i am mean and manipulative, petty and pathetic, and so much more? why not bring up some old beef and give ya’ll something to eat.

Gansey: tried repeatedly to instigate drama -- if not actively break up -- my OC ships by encouraging -- through IC shenanigans -- cheating and lying. One of these happened while I was on vacation with my family and i still remember crying about it in a hotel bathroom because i thought one of my few ships in the RP was over and I hadn’t even been asked about it. This also included trying to get his OC Tomas to make IC/OOC (hey you can feign innocence when it’s in that dubiously OOC space, until its receptive in which case you can say it was IC the whole time!) at one of my ship partner’s OCs. Made repeated fat jokes at one of my fat characters (the same one they were clearly trying to get away from their partner...hmm...). Claimed I was always running to vague on my personal. Fair enough, I did, but they did the same thing. In poem form. Never answered my message about leaving the RP group because they felt ‘disrespected” by it. Repeatedly including untagged dubcon/noncon elements on the dashboard and triggering me. Lying to Ivy and me about having a full Overwatch party then trying to say “oh it just emptied you can join now”. hid this “FAR” idea from the rest of the RP community and then played coy when they got found out and asked about it by another anon (not me). Made fun of other RP groups in Tumblr tags then, when I asked them and their friends not to, was told “we’re a step above them.” Saying I was excluding them from things when I asked to play OW with them AND invited them to my horror RP group AND, only months beforehand, were inviting them to my Marvel RP??Trying to emotionally manipulate me through threatening to kill characters they had obviously grown tired of playing (probably because their major connections were to me and not their other friends) -- “haha i’m probably going to kill (my oc) idk but doesn’t that make you upset?? what will (your character) even do??” Engaging in nasty “”IC”” interactions with my character, basically telling me, through them, off, and being supported by the entire community in doing so. All of this really hurt me because I considered Gansey a friend and a major inspiration at one point in my life. Someone I non-jokingly looked up to and trusted. I feel like Gansey left TAR, our first RP group, because of how controlling, self-interested, petty, and mean-spirited the admins there were. That they were limiting other people’s creativity while building up their own narrative -- everyone else just there to be their audience. But you and Roman literally became Usa and Jen. Congrats. You lived long enough to become everything you’d rebelled against. And yes Gansey -- I saw all of your messages to everyone. Emotionally manipulating others -- telling them how terrible you are you don’t deserve their friendship, but would like to -- isn’t an apology. Its a tactic. Do better in the future. And despite me “blocking” you? There were a hundred ways to still reach out to me if that was what you really wanted. But let’s be real. It wasn’t. That was part of your gambit to. Goodbye.

Rosie: asked literally EVERYONE about what had happened with the ““TOW explosion”” except me. never even asked my side of the story. Rosie I don’t even get because the other admins treated her like shit -- making her do all the coding and technical components for the entire RP -- but she was still defending them to the end. Okay. And then to treat Shelly like utter SHIT even though Reyne was running her passive-aggressive mouth off about people who couldn't even defend themselves? Amazing. Yeah, she’s the bully. Your perspective was so twitested by your biases that you were ready to victim blame Shelly just because Reyne had to run at the sight of someone actually throwing their bulltshit back at them.

Reyne: Like Gansey, frequently indulged in cheating/cucking scnearios for fun -- again, including my own characters without asking or telling me. Don’t think Reyne ever apologized for this, IC or OOC. Dropped ships with me repeatedly -- leaving the group even -- without a word. Passive-aggressive to the max. Made a ship with Gansey just to play out her Teen Wolf OTP -- something that will never not be funny to me, when she called Gansey’s “character” Stiles. Smooth.

Frankii: Repeatedly dropped me and my characters from plots. Gave me one of the most hurtful comments of my RP community by essentially being like “maybe if your plots and characters weren’t so confusing than more people would want to RP with you.” Invited to join my horror RP group and never made a character. also told me this after Gansey wrote that enormous callout about me, that Roman piggybacked on while the getting was good: “also I'm not here to advocate on behalf of my friend but I really don't think Gansey was trying to be rude last night, they can come off a certain way when they're stressed.” COOL. The rest of Frankii’s message I really appreciated, at the time, but, surprise surprise, then despite us being “cool” they never spoke to me again.

Laura: I actually really liked Laura tbh but I guess she didn’t feel the same. Some of our interactions back in TAR were actually some of my favorites. I invited her to join my horror RP group and she never made a character. When I asked about this -- and if she needed any help making someone or wanted to leave -- she said she was working on it. Basically stonewalled me over time. Honestly though? Not a lot to say I actually think Laura is a good writer and pretty cool. Its just obvious who her friends were and I, stupidly, thought I was included in that.

Anna: Actually I really liked Anna too tbh but I guess I vastly overestimated our friendship? It happens. Dropped me from one of her plots -- after talking to me about including me in one of hers because she felt “obligated” basically, from being featured in my own -- without mentioning why or talking to me about it. Invited to join new RP -- refused (not mad about this, just making note of it). Refused to follow my new account when I lost my old one because “lol they’re such a furry”.

Roman: lmao where to even start. Roman was condescending and elitist literally from the beginning of TAR. barely acknowledged my existence until he had to.I started a plot with an open invitation to the entire RP group, with a deadline so I could start writing. Roman waits until its over and complains that they were left out. I include him anyway. Roman mocks the fact that I ask to tag or outright remove aphrodisiac dust -- because I don’t like seeing untagged dubcon/noncon on my dashboard, it upsets me a lot -- and then goes on a whole thread about it after I go to bed and can’t even defend myself. Apparently told his friends not to invite me to things because he doesn’t like me??? And then he has the nerve to be like communication is key and you can come talk anytime??? While having me on their public “friends” list with a description about me on his blog??? omfg...I literally can’t. To this day. Actually let this image speak for itself.

Everything Else: The repeated, childish treatment of strippers as immoral (””your character is stripping?? my character is so upset and is going to protect them!!”). The implication that characters who were stripping were also automatically sex workers. The continued references to my character, who owned this establishment, as being sleazy and manipulative. Also, honestly, what was with ya’ll adopting some random teenager into your OW groups? That was weird af. And then bringing some random person into TOW without asking anyone and trying to pull rank like “we’re the admin team and we can do whatever we want”. and shit-talking Meg and me in your “open forum” when all we wanted to do was get on with out lives. Like? Who cares? Ya’ll didn’t want me, at least, there anyway, clearly. You don’t get to exclude me then talk about how disrespectful and “wrong” the way I left was..........

Me: I didn’t do everything perfectly either. I know I could be passive-aggressive. I could be self-interested. I could make bitter comments. I dealt with feeling angry and upset by making memes -- which, I’m gonna be honest, I get why ya’ll were upset but I don’t regret either. I had spent so long in TAR/TOW with nobody interested in my characters and plots -- originally because I didn’t vid and played furries but, later, well.........see above -- that I did focus on my own narrative. I wasn’t invited to plots. I didn’t have sexy vampires and boy band werewolves. I played weird characters that didn’t fit the common niche of the cast of an angst and hookup filled supernatural YA novel. Maybe my plots were confusing but, honestly? It was because they were always going to be in the background. I wasn’t disinterested in anyone’s stories. I had just been left out of them for so long -- having to beg to even be a mention in a single mention -- that I had to make my own. I wasn’t there to just be an audience member to be aghast by Roman’s newest quirky boy or Gansey’s newest possessed twink. I was a writer. A member of the community. And, at the time? I thought a friend. Someone who deserved appreciation and respect.

I know who my true friends are now. We did, ironically, exactly what you did -- we have out own group, our own setting, our own community.

And I still live with the mean and manipulative things YALL said everyday. Even as an adult -- even with everything I’ve accomplished and am so proud of -- I’m still traumatized by being treated so poorly -- for years -- and not even realizing it. Something I’m still working on -- one of the many reasons I still have trust issues to this day. Congrats. That’s your legacy on me. aNYWAY

byeeeeeee

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nothingunrealistic · 5 years ago

Note

2, 5, 22, 27, 30, 34, 36, 41, 45, 48

2. Favorite scene(s)?

hmm this was a surprisingly hard one… the three failed escape attempts of sheila nail isn’t my favorite song (though i do like it!) but i think it does make for the best Scene in the show. also a big fan of the endings of oh well, i was a teenage delinquent, and the finale

5. Favorite orchestration moment(s)?

the two instances during oh well where there’s no singing and we just get “boom, boom-boom, tsh” repeatedly, incredibly loud and powerful (timestamp 1, timestamp 2)

also the end of the first chorus in oh well, where the sparse orchestration that’s been under the whole song so far gives way to the entire band bursting to life (timestamp)

the horns under the first few lines of susannah’s reprise of masochist that then give way to the full band (timestamp)

i could probably double this if i listened to the whole show again. charlie rosen tony award When

22. Headcanon(s) for what happens between Teenage Delinquent and Finale?

dozens upon dozens lmao, so much so that all the lihn fic i’m writing / planning to write focuses entirely on what happens in that timespan. a few:

the girls get split up after the police arrive at nation - dorothy and ya-ya manage to stick together, but everyone else is separated.

susannah moves to new york city as soon as possible, and that’s where she becomes involved both in professional music circles and in civil rights / lgbt rights activism. this is basically canon tbh

given how often we see rat flipping through a magazine or newspaper and listening to the radio, i think it’d be fun for her to ultimately do something in journalism - maybe writing, maybe photography, maybe being a reporter.

either dorothy or ya-ya (or both!) somehow gets work in hollywood - maybe ya-ya achieves her dream of working on special effects for scifi movies, or dorothy uses her vocal chops to become a voice actress.

i like tatiana wechsler’s idea of judith becoming a very chill therapist

kitty moves to san francisco and also becomes involved in lgbt rights activism. though none of the girls know for many years where the others are, once susannah becomes famous enough to be sent fanmail, kitty manages to write to her, and they stay in touch for years.

sheila does successfully get to mexico without tearing francis’s head off, and spends several years living and working in various cities in mexico before moving back to, and around, the western united states. she often attends / supports protests and labor strikes.

francis gets attacked by an ocelot :)

27. Teenage Delinquent or Revolution Song?

teenage delinquent! every line from “and if we meet again, how i hope the world is different then” onwards gives me chills, as does the accompanying staging. i’m always a sucker for sunset / sunrise imagery and big dramatic kisses that actually feel narratively earned

30. Scene(s)/concept(s) you would like expanded upon?

i’ve said this repeatedly but i would really like to see a further exploration of the contrast between dorothy’s commitment to playing the part of the Happy Homemaker / being Properly feminine and nurturing, and her implied tomboyish past and current willingness to get violent

34. A very small detail that you appreciate?

i really like the notebook that susannah carries around that has her logo on it! here are some good pictures that include it

36. Favorite song(s) off the Hits of Nation/character playlists?

i haven’t listened to all these songs / playlists yet, but of the ones i have heard:

jesus was a cross maker - judee sill (i first heard this song via these playlists and listened to it on repeat for DAYS)

be my baby - the ronettes

fast car - tracy chapman

i’m on fire - bruce springsteen

back to black - amy winehouse

rose’s turn from gypsy

41. An anecdote about your experience with LIHN?

thanks to lihn, i have a moment of [!] whenever i unexpectedly hear be my baby anywhere. a couple weeks ago, i heard it playing while i was in the bathroom because my family was watching dirty dancing in the next room; a few days later i heard a salsa cover of it that was partly in spanish and partly in english and that i sadly have not been able to find online.

45. If you could ask a single member of the cast/creative team about one thing, what would it be?

i’d ask joe iconis if sheila’s line about “i like to be with a guy, and then i like to not be with him” is meant to imply that she’s somehow had boyfriends / dated guys despite having been in a juvenile hall since she was nine or if that’s a completely hypothetical statement. or if she’s just flat out lying

48. Favorite time Francis was wrong?

his letter to susannah is just a delightful bevy of Being Wrong. claiming that the crystals sing “will you love me tomorrow”? wrong, as pointed out by susannah. saying that he is “following [his] moonlight” like kerouac? the quote he appears to be referencing is from allen ginsberg (and was also written in the 1980s, but no matter…). saying that by the time susannah gets his letter, it will have been a week since they saw each other? it’s been nine days! wrong again!

(Love in Hate Nation ask list!)

#inbox #cockbiteproductions #love in hate nation

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lbibliophile-mcu · 6 years ago

Text

Honestly, Pepper

Written for the @tonystarkbingo, S4 – Writing format: non-linear.

Relationship: Tony Stark & Pepper Potts, Avengers Team

Tags: Crack, Dialogue-only, Non-linear Narrative, Disaster Domestic Avengers, For Want of a Nail

Words: 963

Summary: Pepper Potts, CEO and sometimes superhero-wrangler, walks out of the elevator onto the Avengers Tower common-floor and stops in shock. How is this even her life? And why is she not surprised?

On AO3 and below the cut.

“Tony! What is this mess? I was only gone for three days.”

“Honestly, Pepper, it’s not my fault. And the first two and a half days were fine.”

“Then what is… how… Why do you have the Iron Man gauntlet?”

“Honestly, Pepper, you can’t expect me to make do with cutlery when I have a better alternative available. Still, I have to admit I never realised just how many sharp objects we had in our kitchen. Clint, on the other hand, apparently knows exactly how many, and decided to give us a demonstration. Turns out his aim is just as good without a bow. The same can’t be said for Steve, however, vibranium definitely holds up to his fighting style better than steel saucepan lids. It’s probably lucky for our kitchen implements that Natasha showed up when she did. Seriously, the Black Widow, in pink pyjamas and fluffy socks, armed with only a teaspoon—I’ve never seen anything more terrifying. I reckon the HYDRA agents must have agreed, because things calmed down pretty quickly after that. They almost offered to tie themselves up.”

“How did HYDRA agents end up in the Tower!?”

“Honestly, Pepper, who could have expected that they’d find a way to climb up 80 floors through the air vents? There’s a reason it’s not included in JARVIS’ security protocols; not even Clint goes more than a few floors down. Of course, they weren’t anticipating just how thoroughly he would defend what territory he has claimed. With a creative mind, apparently there are all sorts of traps you can leave for the unwary, all without significantly disrupting the airflow. They did pretty well at avoiding them—that’s how they got as far as they did—but someone must have lost focus when the bunny exploded and tripped something. I’m not sure who was more startled by the agents suddenly dropping from the ceiling; them or us.”

“Bunny… exploded?”

“Oh, not a real rabbit; the giant stuffed one I got you. Honestly, Pepper, it was the cutest thing—Jarvis took photos for later. Well, Hulk decided that smash wasn’t needed and he wasn’t in the mood for it anyway. So when he saw the bunny over in the corner, he made a b-line and grabbed for it. I’ll admit I was worried for a moment, but he just sat himself down and started hugging the metaphorical stuffing out of it. Seeing the two of them together, Hulk looked so much like a happy, cute, green toddler. Kinda forgot how big he is. Then he started playing and making the rabbit hop around—I wonder where Hulk learned about rabbits jumping? Of course, while the rabbit might be Hulk-sized, the room isn’t. So one time the bunny jumped too high, and hit the ceiling fan; fan 1, bunny 0, and stuffing spread all across the room. On second thoughts, maybe it was Hulk flattening the fan in retaliation that knocked the HYDRA agents loose; everything got a bit chaotic around then.”

“But, why was the Hulk even out?”

“Honestly, Pepper, that’s probably Dummy’s fault, but he was just trying to do his job. I had him out of the lab because I wanted to see how his new wheels handled on carpet. But you know how excited he gets over his fire extinguisher. So when he saw the fire, he might have gotten a tiny bit overenthusiastic trying to put it out. Hence, the foam everywhere. And Brucie-bear might have been sitting a little too close and gotten whacked over the back of the head with the canister. Then turned and gotten a face full of foam. But Hulk realised really quickly that it was just an accident, and Dummy’s only slightly dented, so everyone’s fine.”

“Hmm. And just what was on fire?”

“Don’t look at me like that. Honestly Pepper, it was just Thor trying to make breakfast. Only, you know what he’s like. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone who can mangle scrambled eggs that badly; even I can make a passable omelette! And don't get me started on his battles with the toaster. He tries, but he just gets so frustrated. And when you have a frustrated god of thunder around a bunch of electronics, well… that’s why the kitchen is one of the areas with its own fire suppression system. Except, apparently it didn’t go off this morning. I know I borrowed the sensor element for testing one of my projects last week, but I could have sworn I put it back in. I’ll have to check once we finish clearing the rubble. Otherwise, I suppose it might still be buried down in the workshop…”

“So let me get this straight. Thor set his breakfast on fire. So Dummy tried to put it out, and ended up setting off the Hulk. Who decided to play with my stuffed rabbit and destroyed it with the ceiling fan. Then HYDRA agents fell out of the roof and were fought off with cutlery and Natasha’s glare. Have I missed anything?”

“I don’t think so… wait! You might want to avoid the pantry for the next few hours. We stashed the HYDRA agents there until SHIELD can come pick them up.”

“I’m not even… Fine. So, out of all that, what is this red stain on the carpet? I know it’s not blood… and I hate that my life is such that I can tell that at a glance.”

“Stain? Aw, someone squished my strawberries. I wanted to give you a welcome home present.”

“You got me strawberries? AGAIN?”

“… sorry.”

#i know pepper's bunny was at the malibu house #and probably got blown up #but they retrieved it or got a replacement #the mental image of the hulk with it was too cute to resist #avengers #tony stark #pepper potts #disaster avengers #avengers family #crack #fanfic #tonystarkbingo2019

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autismgavemychildvaccines · 6 years ago

Text

Why I’m Ashamed to Be Christian

So, now that I am literally sick of the Measles nonsense (no, fucking literally, working 12+ hour shifts on an incident management team has got me sick and tired enough to call in tomorrow), I’ve decided to do a non PH rant, though it’ll for sure rear it’s fucking head somewhere in here. Instead, let’s tackle something real fun. Religion! Time to buckle up. In my half fucking awake daze that I was just nudged out of, something really wild hit me. My faith, my belief in a very specific God with a specific book (though I admit that other religions, so long as their origin is not a company or a tool to oppress others on the outset, are valid/likely just as true) makes no God damned sense. (For reference, here I will claim my most closely related sect as my own; American Evangelism [though if one were to ask in person I’d say “non-denominational”, but historically, the two are close] and will be speaking as a part of a community I used to closely belong to but now have drifted away from on some granola-crunching dumbassery that is “I am a church of one” bullshit. I’ve wanted to be other things, but ever since I left the Freemasons, fuck all else has had much appeal.) So, first things first, Garden of Eden, right? Pretty fucking cool place, some might have even called it a perfect garden, a perfect place for humans and God to interact? But here’s my hang up with it. The trees of Life and Knowledge, and the rule that Adam and Eve could eat of any fruit except those grown upon that pair. Why even fucking have them?

When I asked that as a kid in a faith based area, they said because it was a test.

Of what?

“Well, of our loyalty to God and our Faith, of course”.

Except again, what the fuck? Like, I get the idea of free-will, in fact I am a huge believer in individual free will (I’ll get to that in a sec), but here’s the stickler here. As any other creative type will tell you, we want our work to take on a life of its own. Like say I wanted to program a remarkably bright AI, and it worked, and all I wanted was for it to recognize me as its creator and to discover and enjoy what home I could make for it. You know what I wouldn’t do? I wouldn’t give an AI, even with some simulated free will, the ability to break certain rules. For example, I wouldn’t allow it unrestricted access to the internet or my personal accounts. I wouldn’t even give it the concept that such things existed, let alone put it right fucking there to be used. That would be a flaw, an imperfection in an otherwise perfect place. And yeah, there’s something to be said for giving free will with not-free consequences, sure. But two things: 1) Don’t be pissed when the thing happens that you allowed to exist in the first place and thus forced it to be a mathematical certainty now that you’re dealing with perhaps the most curious species to ever exist. 2) Don’t go blaming them for a lack of faith. If anything, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, an act that abusers often use to get what they really want and have a thin veneer of an excuse to make happen. Now doesn’t that sound a lot like a good number of the followers of this faith, as opposed to an almighty, omnipotent, powerful being? Hmm, something to consider there, maybe. Speaking of followers, let’s actually also take a look at some of the prophets that we as American Christians often hold so dear. Now me? I’m a Luke guy, I like Luke. Peaceful, loving gospel for the most part, and I dig it. Peace and love, baby, that’s all I want coming from stories regarding a higher power that we had to hang up like a fucking tapestry to make sure we got all that love. But do you know who I fucking hate, and who I blame the most for how the American chruch is? Paul/Saul of Tarsus. Thiiiiiiiiiiis prick. This fucking Deus Vult Vulture. Actually in many ways, he really is the archetype to the Modern Evangelical fucking anything. Actively participated in the harassing, attempted extinguishing and successful terrorizing of a marginalized group. Then after being hit back for it, literally “seeing the light” and trying to be the fucking vanguard of said group only to lead it down a path where he’s suddenly the appointed expert of anything to do with the issue. And while he does this, he helps create the most violent and bigoted thoughts in the whole of the religion, and is praised for his visions as he says they are truly from God, and can thus act oh so righteously. This right here is a fucking problem, y’all. Like, I know the whole forgiveness idea allows for some mental gymnastics on how this could even happen, but even then to make a genocidal ass-face your de-facto leader aside from Christ himself for the next 2000 years is a fucking flip that even at the 1988 Olympics, if Christians were America, Russia would give them a straight 10/10. And yet, for many of us, that’s exactly what we’ve done. Hell, we’ve even fallen into the forced victim narrative of the synopsis of this asshole: “Oh well, you see, I was a heathen and thus I couldn’t help myself, but then like, the God of the people I was killing talked to me and like, now I have to do this (Take on the “burden” of leading the church) as penance for what I couldn’t help myself over.” We’ve fallen for it so much, that it may as well be hard wired into our nervous system to believe anything resembling it, just as we assume if something is flat, green and on a tree, it’s a leaf. Maybe it’s why we as a religion (and let’s face it, other Abrahamic religions as well) are so damn good at beating down the marginalized while screaming that we are the saints, we’re the sacrificiers trying to make things better. Like, let’s have some modern day fun with this bullshit, man; let’s see how we treated and in many places continue to treat women. Of the few churches I have been to, 100% of them had one dual-sided message that made me real fuckin’ uncomfortable, fam: Part 1) That women cannot be trusted onto themselves and thus 2) Men must take control of them and society to not allow for some unspecified “Ridiculous bullshit”. (as a fair heads up; I do fully recognize non-binary, trans individuals, etc, but for the sake of brevity I’ll be mostly referring to M/F in the traditional sort of way, because opening up Christianity’s treatment of anything regarding gender fluidity is a Ph.D. thesis for another day) Now, I don’t know about y’all, but I know damn well that out of all the dudes I know, and all the lasses I know, they’re a pretty mixed fuckin’ bunch. It’s almost like their gender assigned at birth doesn’t really affect how reasonable they could be as people nor how much responsibility they should have. Obviously some cultural practices skew this quite a bit in so far that women are expected to take more responsibility, younger, and for less praise, but if anything that should help destroy, not reinforce that message. And yet, the idea persists so much in Christian circles. And not just by the men themselves, but the women, also. For the longest time of my church going days, the pastor was a woman. She wholly believed it was just and right that her husband be in charge of everything, that women should be loyal to their men in all aspects. Then again, she also (despite recruiting members primarily from college) did not believe in evolution at all, so there’s that in terms of an intellectual hurdle. But regardless, this inherent submissive attitude within the faith (and even the half-hearted and self-congratulatory “Yeah but we REALLY are the ones making the decisions because we can withhold sex if we want” is essentially that too just a smidgen more empowering), when combined with the idea that men should be wholly in-control (which is a breeding ground for toxic masculinity if there ever was) is shameful. It’s what has allowed so much bullshit in the past, including these recent abortion laws. Now, I’m going to cover abortion in another post (I might get to it tomorrow; It’s been on the burner for weeks), but it’s super pertinent here. We, as a religion, have allowed ourselves to tell women (just as we tell/told minorities before) that they cannot be trusted with their own bodies, that they cannot be trusted when they speak, and most certainly cannot be trusted to truly hold dominion over anything. And that has allowed the most insidious, hateful, bigoted, disgusting things to happen in the name of God. A God that while I am writing this post I still believe in, but my doubts about how genuine the message has ever been is hitting home. One whose words about peace have been ignored when they could be interpreted or pointed to to support war, where the rich can profit off the poor, or to support sexism, because we as men historically have wanted to control “everything of ours”, or to take the very free will we claim to hold so dear from those who need the ability to make their own decisions the most. Words that have been used to hold down good people from making lives better. Words that in the hands of those who wanted, could be profaned and desecrated and thus allow for profane and disturbing events, both on the grand stage of the world and behind the closed doors of any house in some small town. Words which are held up with a wink and a nod so that followers feel included when they are scammed by some fucking fried chicken joint who wants to make more money to fight against equality, or to pay for another $9 million jet for some asshole who croons about how the poor should be grateful they do not have the temptations of the rich. To other followers, do you not lament that we are this way? That we have been this way for so long? Because I fucking do. And to those who have been discriminated or marginalized or whatever else against because of your gender or skin colour or situation or victimization or past deeds of any sort; I’m sorry. Genuinely, truly sorry you have suffered as you have. Sorry for what people have done thinking it was somehow morally or spiritually justified, sorry that they thought they were saving you. And I can assure you that I will never try to lead you as those before me have tried to. Though if it’s all the same, I’d like to get to hear you, and walk beside you.

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quilloftheclouds · 6 years ago

Text

11/11/11 (... x7???)

You guys really love this tag game, huh? XD Tagged by @madammuffins, @bigmoodword, @shadeshadow234, @writeouswriter, @bookenders, @kaisha-writes, and @penzag.

Rules: Answer 11 (77 in this case??) questions, tag 11 people, write 11 new questions.

Taggin’ taggin’ @scottishhellhound @i-rove-rock-n-roll @capricious-writes @writerlyclaire @bookenders @kidsarentallwrite @inexorableblob @vieliwrites @abalonetea @runningonrain @candy687

Oof. It’s my own fault for letting these gather dust for so long. QUICKFIRE QUESTION ROUND. (And super duper long post below the cut.)

Okay first up I’m gonna post up my 11 questions for tagged people to complete up here so y’all don’t have to scroll all the way through my nonsense:

1. Put yourself in your wip(s). Are you dead? Why or why not? 2. What is your favourite kind of scene to write? 3. What genre is your favourite to write in? 4. What genre do you want to/wish you could write in? 5. Which of your ocs outfits would you consider wearing yourself? 6. What’s the worst thing you’ve done to your ocs (out of context if spoilers)? 7. What’s the nicest thing you’ve done to your ocs? 8. Does your writing style have any characteristic traits? What are they? 9. What are three things you think you’re good at in writing? (NO SKIPPING OF THIS QUESTION ALLOWED) 10. Do you listen to music/white noise while writing? What kind? 11. Come up with joke titles for your wips. What are they?

And now let’s get started!

Do you title your chapters, why/why not? Do they pertain to what happens in the chapter or are they random? I do! I may actually post them all up at some point, I had a lot of fun coming up with them, and I find them clever? A lot of them are puns, it’s great. All except the first and last chapter are titled with one word, related to the ocean or ships, alluding and symbolizing something that happens in that chapter. I made it a sort of word search, too, since every chapter title appears somewhere important in that chapter! As for why? I think it adds to the reading experience, especially with the way I employ them!

Do your main characters seem to have common traits or characteristics? Uhhhh, uh? Huh. Lemme see. I tried to be pretty creative and use a lot of variance in my characters, but sometimes they just... end up that way, whether I want them to or not. Dione and Phoenix are both tall? Both Phoenix and Colin can be pretty friendly and have the same sort of attitude towards certain things. Other than that, I’m not sure!

Why do you think this is? Honestly, it’s likely more coincidence than anything. Also because Phoenix and Colin both work on a ship’s crew, and they have to work well with other people because of that.

Do you borrow real life people or parts of real life people to insert into your novels? Why/why not? Yes. From me especially. Probably subconsciously from other people. It happens! But also, relatability. Accuracy.

Do you stick to a word count in your novels/chapters? Why? Used to, don’t now. It can really add to the tension if a chapter is very short. It can hold the reader in suspense if it’s very long!

What do you want your book to say to those who read it? What do you think your book says about you? Uh. I mean. I’m a simple writer who just likes sharing my worlds with the world, yunno? Maybe when I get further into writing it, I’ll realize what. (But I hope it shows I’m an interesting person that cares about representation and sharing exciting stories??? Mebe?)

If your WIP gets published and goes far would you sign over your rights for a movie adaptation, even if it means it gets butchered like the Eragon (or similar) series did? Ohhh gosh. Yeah no. I’d wait until I was sure it wouldn’t be. I’m not in this for the money or fame, I’m here for the enjoyment of it and the helping others through sharing stories with people they can relate to. Especially those that don’t have much to relate to already.

What is your favorite kind of character chemistry to write? Sexual tension, anger, resentment, jealousy? What about it do you like so much? I really like softness. Someone trying to cheer someone up, nice caring-ness and encouragement through humour and inside jokes. Gives me warm feelings. Oh. That sounds a lot like Colin.

Which settings are your favorites? Chill cafe, Gorey battle field? Why? I like natureeee. A lot. IRL and in writing. I especially enjoy fascinating, eccentric and magical seeming places even if they’re not magical! Think the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, or the Ice Caves of Baffin Island. That sort of thing.

What element represents your main character and why? HAH SPOILERS. Elements play a major part of OSS, my friend. How about I just put the elements, and you decide who’s who. Earth, Fire, Storm, Forest.

If you could pick an AU for your WIP (alternate universe) for a fan work, what au would you choose and why would you choose it? AKJHKDJSH I’VE ALREADY PLANNED OUT MY OWN AUs, MY FRIEND. My fave at the moment is magical modern spies. Because a lot of my characters are immortal and I love to imagine what they would be like in modern times! ...Oh wait, that’s not what au means. -u-

1. Who was your first OC? Of One Siren’s Soul’s cast, Celestine! Overall, that I can remember... a German scientist/mechanical engineer named Suin Omera. Ah, so many memories. 2. What was the first story you ever wrote? That I can remember... a little short story for school about a girl who lost her dad and discovered he had been secretly living in the arctic for a long time so she goes to try and find him? I don’t remember much about it. ^^’ 3. What book (or other piece of media) has most inspired you? AH. Most??? Literally the unpublished books of my two closest friends. @waterfallwritings, I’m looking at you. >u> 4. How do you fight writer’s block? Badly. 5. What is your favorite genre to write in and why? Fantasy and sci-fi! Or a mix. You can find a more full answer here. 6. How would you describe your writing style? Uhhhh, I have a very action-y writing style? Unless the sort of mood requires, I don’t tend to use a lot of description and I more often focus on action and dialogue and character thoughts/narrative. It’s fitting to what I write, I suppose, because it’s an action packed pirate adventure, with a lot of focus on character. 7. In general, do you think you’d get along with your protagonists? Phoenix and Colin are nice. Dione maybe after a long while, since we both like literature and plants. Celestine... no one ever gets along with Celestine. 8. What do you love most about your WIPs? Oh. I uh. Wow. I only have one right now, but I like characters and their interactions and their thoughts on each other. But mostly I just love how far I’ve come already. That the wip even exists. ^^’ 9. What is your favorite character trope? Ah. Not good with tropes... I reblogged something on this a while ago, but that scene where someone spends forever taking out a comically massive amount of weapons from unexpected places on their person? That’s fun. 10. What is your least favorite character trope? Mmmm hmm. Hm. Mostly ones that discriminate or are based on negative stereotypes. Some of them can be done well, but not... many. 11. What’s an upcoming scene you’re excited to write? Someone’s gettin’ STABBED.

What was your first character like? See in an earlier question ^^^

What’s your most recent character like? Oh, this is neat. Who’s my most recent character? Uhhhh, um. I think it’s actually... I don’t have a name for them yet, but it’s a young siren that appears in book two that helps our main cast on their adventure!

Out of all of your characters, who’s the least human in appearance? Hehe. HEH. Oohhhh, this would definitely be Light. You don’t know who that is yet.

Who’s your worst character, and what would you do upon meeting them? Worst? The Scientist. Punch to the face.

If you could meet any of your characters, who would you choose? Uh. It’d be really cool to meet Forest! You don’t know who that is yet, either. ^^

Two of your characters from different WIPs meet! How do they get along? I don’t currently have another wip, but from my prospective wip at the moment, meeting... Celestine. Surprisingly it wouldn’t be the worst, because both would just start nerding out about each other’s technology.

Which out of your OCs just wants to live life out peacefully? George is so done with this trash.

Which one of your OCs is most definitely not living their life out peacefully? I want to say George again for the jokes, but the worst off at the moment is probably Dione. Sorry, Dione!

Is there any songs that make you think specifically of any of your characters? Ohhhh yeah. I’ll likely be making a full post for that at some point, and that’s also on each characters part of the wip page, but to save time, have this.

Which one of your OCs actually had a pretty good childhood? Dione had a relatively normal childhood, for the pretty-near equivalent of a princess. That is, of course, until she turned 24.

Who would have a fistfight with god out of spite? This actually happens. This ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN MY WIP. It’s Celestine.

1. What’s the weirdest thing you were ever inspired by for one of your WIPs?

Hmmmm, I mean tardigrades are pretty weird, right? Also awesome. They’re one of the most resilient known animals, able to survive both some of the highest AND the lowest temperatures known to have ever been survived by an organism? Awesome.

2. Do any of your OCs have famous face claims? If so, who are they?

Colin’s face claim is Booboo Stewart! He’s pretty famous?

3. What’s your favourite season and why?

Autumn. Pretty colours, perfect temperatures with a small jacket/sweater, and you get to experience the whole range of seasons from early Fall to late!

4. Do you have any superstitions?

Despite being a very logically, scientifically minded person... I am a Maritimer, and superstitions are huge. Never ever say before you go fishing that you’re definitely going to catch something. You’ll be skunked.

5. Rural, suburbs, city, in which do you live and which do you most often write about?

I guess I most write about rural, since... wait, what does the open ocean count as?? Anyways, I live in the suburbs.

6. What’s your favourite book series?

I dunno ‘bout favourites, but I like The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.

7. Is there a book/series that ever left you intensely disappointed? (Or one that left you pleasantly surprised?)

Uh... I mean, The Hunger Games was actually really good, but I was disappointed by the public’s focus on the love triangle?

8. What’s one of the weirdest/funniest out of context lines from your WIPs?

“Don’t tell me the boatswain has got ‘imself into the rum store again.”

9. A movie/show that made you cry? (Unless you’re dead inside)

AHHAH I AM DEAD INSIDE AND TRULY A FICTIONAL SOCIOPATH. But, I think Simon Birch is one I can recall getting misty eyed from.

10. What movies or books or shows do you think are criminally underrated?

Uuhhhhhh Treasure Planet is one? I’m not good at this one. OH. You wanna know some shows I loved way too much from my childhood? Hot Wheels: Battle Force Five, and Storm Hawks. I was a terrible nerd.

11. Which fictional character would you like to steal borrow from any world for a crossover with your own WIP?

Ehheee, honestly, I could work with anything, pretty much. But the magic system colliding with the Avatar from The Last Airbender? Ehehehe, that would be hilarious.

Do you own and fun socks? What are they? My best friend love fun socks, and for my birthday she got me some: I have two pairs, a black pair with colourful gardening tools on them, and one with little labelled garden herbs on them. They’re adorable and I love them. ^u^

How many notebooks do you have? What do they look like? How full are they? HAH. SO MANY. Most are sketchbooks, but out of notebooks, I have... three? One’s for schoolwork, one’s full of old writing, and one is for OSS notes.

Grab the book nearest you. Turn to page 70 (or 16 if it’s a tiny book). What is the 8th line on that page? How do you feel about it? Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson: I haven’t actually had the opportunity to start reading it yet, but here: “She’d never seen him at work, never experienced him as the type of person who could tend to another’s needs.” Considering I have no idea what’s going on... I have no idea?

Have you read any short stories? What’s your favorite? I’m not much of a short story reader, but there was a really cool one from a sci-fi compilation (that I can’t remember the name of). It was about time travelling and how it had already been invented, but because no one could ever go back in time, they could only go forward, no one had realized. It was kind of sad, now that I think of it, since the MCs ended up trying to travel back to their time when warned against it and they end up alone in the far future. Whoops.

Have you ever tried knitting? Do you still knit? What about other crafty things? What do you make? I tried it when I was back at home, but at the moment I don’t have the materials! As for crafts, I’m trying to get into bookbinding, card making... other sort of paper crafts. ^^

Of the books in your living space right now, which has the coolest cover? I’m sad now because I basically have no physical books here... aw. Um, The Cloud Collector’s Handbook by Gavin Pretor-Pinney is really pretty. Pastels and colourful skies and clouds are my favourite~

Do you know any camp songs? What did you used to sing in school, or at recess? Oh stars. I’m a Cub Scout Leader, my friend. OF COURSE I know camp songs. What did I used to sing in school? What’s the one with the “That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh/I like it, uh huh, uh huh” with the special clapping? That one. What’s that?

What’s your favorite fairy tale? How would you twist it? Well technically OSS includes some twists from The Little Mermaid, so does that count?

Are there any cool local events where you live? Ah, well daily we have the highest tides in the world. That’s pretty cool, huh?

What’s your favorite sea creature? Sea snakes. They’re deadly and pretty.

Do you like turtles? Why? Yes! YES! Turtles are adorable. Don’t put your finger near a Snapping Turtle’s mouth though.

1. If you could meet one author for lunch, who would it be?

Ooh, I’m bad about this. Say time travelling is an option: Roald Dahl. That would be amazing.

2. What are your thoughts on visual stories? (apps like Choices: Stories You Play, Episode, etc.)

Ah, I don’t really have much experience with them at all, so I can’t really say anything!

3. What was the first book to make you cry?

Have I ever cried at a book? Uhhhh... I may not have. Whoops.

4. Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

I mean, subconsciously probably? But I don’t typically think about other people when creating characters.

5. Name the worst book you’ve ever read, and tell me why it was bad.

Iiiii did not like Divergent. Sorry, that’s just a personal opinion. I guess it was too... dependent on a system that didn’t really make sense to me? I dunno, mate.

6. Do you have a trademark writing ‘quirk’?

I like short sentences in action-y scenes. Maybe that? I also really like using way too many em dashes and double line breaks to emphasize something.

7. Do you have any (un)helpful pets? (I couldn’t resist asking this one. Also, if the answer is yes, please send me photos.)

I don’t have any pets! I have planties though. Cute lil’ succulents.

8. What advice would you give to a person who is new to writing?

There are going to be times when you’re not happy with your writing! But any writing is helpful, because no matter what you write, you’re improving your skills to be better the next time. Plus, a first draft can be edited later! You can’t edit what’s not there~

9. Tell me your ideal writing environment.

My family partly owns a lake cabin out in the woods which we go to every summer. It’s so peaceful to sit in the hammock chair on the porch and write to the gentle lapping waves on the beach, the birdsong, and the swish of the tree branches around me. On a day with a perfect not-too-hot warm temperature, it’s very nice.

10. Sad endings: realistic, or unnecessary?

It depends how it’s executed! I prefer bittersweet ending to sad ones, since those tend to give me the most effective emotions. Certainly I tend to seek out happier endings instead, though!

11. You’ve decided to write under a pseudonym. What is it?

Ooh. Oohhhh, well. I’m actually thinking of changing my name legally. So that’s a thing. For a pseudonym, I think I would love to go with... hm. Gale Silver. Because I love puns and that hits on two major nature aspects I’m a nerd for.

what’s your favorite movie from your childhood? has this movie had an impact on your writing at all? have any movies had an impact on your writing? Hands down How To Train Your Dragon. I am a nerd who loves dragons and the music and scenery is gorgeous. Also just... so many of its themes snuck into my wip and I didn’t even realize until just recently. Whoops.

do you struggle to write for any ocs? why? are any of your ocs really easy to write for? Io is a little hard for me to write sometimes just because she’s so darn cold. Just. Apathetic towards everything, and super formal, yet at the same time very curt and to the point. I’m used to writing either a “formal” through super flowery language or a “cold” through Celestine’s mean snark, not just... Io.

do you have any big milestones coming up for your wip? (or blog? or work? or whatever?) I’M LESS THAN 2,000 WORDS AWAY FROM 50,000 IN MY FIRST DRAFT. YEAH MATE

what are your favorite writing resources for face claims, picking first names/surnames, etc? (feel free to just pick one resource to share but you’re welcome to share as many as you’d like!) Oh! I’m still pretty new to finding face claims and what not, but naming wise Wikipedia can cover all your bases sometimes. As I’m writing a historical fantasy, to find names that fit the time period, I’ll sometimes use this site.

if your ocs had a name for their group of friends, what would it be? (for example, most of y’all have noticed by now that the friend group for b’tzelem elohim is nicknamed “shalomies”) Okay but I still have such a love for that name. XD I call my group simply The Crew! Since, you know. They’re in a pirate crew by the end of the book. (My creativity knows no bounds.)

on a similar note, would they have a groupchat? (if your world doesn’t have technology, pretend it does!) Modern times, yeah prolly. Dione and Celestine would just have it muted except for emergencies, and Phoenix and Colin would just constantly be sharing memes and terrible puns.

how many languages can you speak, if any? how many can your characters speak, if any? I speak English and (Acadian) French! Trying to learn ASL at the moment. As for my characters? Hoo, boy. Without spoilers, Celestine is multilingual with four languages, Colin is almost trilingual, Dione is trilingual, and Phoenix... I think Phoenix can only speak English. Yeah that may seem like overkill, but in context it makes sense. ^^’

how much time do you spend planning/researching before starting your wip? Fun story about that! For one of my first serious wips, Soul Tied, I first came up with the ideas perhaps... six years ago? And I have yet to write a single thing. ^^’ For OSS, the story took maybe a month to completely plan out and outline, though I still do a lot of research and planning ahead as I write the first draft, too!

do you have a preferred area to write? (ie your bedroom, the coffee shop, the library, your kitchen, etc.) My desk in my bedroom!

what’s your favorite writing snack or drink? Ohh, I don’t eat while I write ‘cause I’m actually incapable of focusing on something while I eat, but I normally really like having apple spice tea or some other kind of herbal tea!

lastly, what should you be doing right now instead of this tag game? (ps: stop procrastinating even though, as i type this, i’m currently procrastinating) HAH. STUDYING FOR MY CHEMISTRY MIDTERM. IT’S FINE. NO.

Well that was long!

#oof #this is why you shouldn't procrastinate so much Quill #will i ever learn my lesson?#no #it was fun tho #oss #one siren's soul #tag game #writeblr #11 questions #11 questions tag game

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artinterviewmagazine · 6 years ago

Text

Conversation With Taj Bourgeois On Selling Their Paintings Online For A Living

Marius Larsson: So first of all how long have you been selling paintings? About 2 years now? Taj Bourgeois: Yeah I quit my job driving taxi in December so a little over 2 years. I had a week where I made negative $70 and that was that. I had to do something different. ML: What made you think you could make it as an artist, and how did you initially get started? TB: I didn’t think I could make it lol, but also felt like it might be my last chance to give it my all. If I didn’t at least try once in my life I was concerned I’d feel like a hypocrite if I were to tell my daughter to follow her dreams. Pretty much I just posted on Facebook “Would anyone like to commission a painting?”. I got five responses, one of which was for $600. Honestly I don’t know if I would’ve felt the drive to commit if it weren’t for that, but also my strategy was and has been basically to just make paintings everyday, so people would see I was taking it seriously and in turn take me seriously. ML: And had you been painting much prior? TB: I had made like 7 or 8 paintings in the months leading up to it, so people were aware what I was getting into and I guess displaying some level of skill. Prior to that I hadn’t really painted since around the time my daughter was born in 2012. ML: What kinds of things did you start off painting? TB: In 2012 or in the months before doing it full time? ML: Tell me about 2012, why you took a break for 4 years and then what got you back into it in 2016. TB: When I found out I was going to be a father I had been in college for just a couple semesters taking random art classes. I was just there for the school loans... ya know.. didn’t want to get a job. Anyway I was in a painting class, and it was pretty much my first time painting. I watched the Basquiat documentary “The Radiant Child”, and it made me think about painting in a very different way. A few months after my daughter was born and I won a couple awards for paintings I did for the college’s annual art show. Then I enrolled at the Pacific Northwest College of Art for the Fall semester, but by that point I was learning about hundreds of artist’s on my own time, and was becoming inspired to try all kinds of things other than painting. I felt I did so well that semester that I decided college wasn’t going to be a good use of time or money, so I dropped out and just followed my train of thought for the next 4 years which led back to painting. ML: How did it lead back to painting? TB: I had been driving taxi for a year and a half, and during that time I felt more and more disconnected from any of my previous modes of art making. I was pretty much sitting in the cab making memes and digital collages. Toward the end the collages I was doing started to become more refined, and I started thinking about the merits of painting the imagery I was putting together. The first thing I painted after all that time was an image of flaming goose which was a meme that had been going around. I decided to painted it very large. It was just something I thought would help test the waters again, and also something I figured I’d like to have on my wall. Of course painting a giant meme is going to get a good response online, so I did a couple more, and then painted some scenes from photos, and then from my imagination. Tried to paint the collages I had made but didn’t quite feel right to try to change their medium. ML: Ok so you had a few commissions and then what? You’d post your paintings for sale and people just kept buying them? TB: Yeah although the first 6 months were pretty rough. In April I only made $500, so I was cutting it close, but I was still in the mindset that most artists have, which is like their art has some mysterious value to it and should be expensive, but then I realized it would make more sense if I took it more seriously as a job and charge by the hour, so I started painting more small funny stuff. Like for me it made more sense to sell a bunch of little humorous $50 pieces than cross my fingers on a $300 piece cause it would take me the same amount of time to do 6 of the $50 ones. It wasn’t until around 6 months that I made my first piece that multiple people wanted, and so what I did was make it multiple times, and that’s when things started to pick up. ML: And what was that piece? TB: It was spider man on the floor of an art museum looking up at a painting of a goofy fish with a human face, and spider man is saying in a thought bubble “That Painting Looks The Way I Feel!” It was originally from an old comic and spider man had been looking at some kind of parody Picasso portrait, but you know with memes pieces get replaced, and the mood changes. The fish’s face was a better mood than the Picasso probably.

ML: How many paintings had you made by that point? TB: Around 70, but had sold maybe 20 ML: What materials were you using? TB: During the taxi days I was in the store (Fred Meyer) and saw this canvas that house painters just lay on the floor to catch the paint drips, and I was like damn 4x15ft for $13? I should get some in case I feel up to making some big paintings someday, but I have always been such a frugal person that it wasn’t until I saw the apple barrel brand paints that I was like damn ok lemme just buy a couple of every color and see if I’m into this. I also bought a gallon of white house paint to “gesso” the canvas. I still use this method on big pieces, and can always stretch later, but lately have been buying a lot of canvas already prepped and stretched. ML: So do you only sell through Facebook and Instagram? TB: Yes oddly enough that’s like 95% of sales. A few every now and then from irl shows where I live here in Portland (Oregon).

ML: I want to go back to something for a second. You mentioned you started painting in 2012, but then you won a couple awards a few months later. How old were you. How did you excel so quickly considering you said you hadn’t painted prior and what were those painting? TB: I was 24. I think painting is one of those mediums where “ability” is far more subjective than most things. You can view enough of it without trying it yourself to the point that when you do try you’ll already have a grasp of it. I have been interested in painting my whole life, so picking up the brush I already had thousands of hours of experience just thinking about it ya know, so like with that show at the college I knew I wanted to make something big and bold. So I cut myself a 4x7ft canvas and ended up making this multi-colored deer looking straight ahead with sort of hypnotic gaze. That was a people’s choice award, and the other got me a scholarship offer, but for that one I basically had just copied Twombly lol.

ML: How would you describe your style today? TB: Hmm I try not to, cause I try all kinds of stuff. I feel my technical skill level is mediocre but maybe my creative level is high? Different people are going to appreciate different things, and I’ve always been more interested in what the painting depicts over how it’s made. I mean skill aside I think most paintings are pretty umm I want to say “derivative” haha are people still using that word in serious? I’m having fun though, staying curious, and I think that comes across. What’s the point of describing my “style” anyway?

ML: I’m curious about how you view your own work. TB: I view my own work with my own eyes lol. I view my art like a loving father or maybe more like an observer, a bird watcher? No, ok I think I understand this question now. My approach to painting is often like a mix of writing, drawing, and making memes. Often I have the idea and it doesn’t really matter how I get there unless the technique is the content itself as with a lot of abstract art. Like, I will entirely base a painting on a sentence describing the image itself with little concern about how i will make it. Like “a shuriken stuck in the back of a smiling man”, so I’ll paint some sky, a fence, some grass, blue jeans, man has no shirt, shuriken, blood, he’s holding a beer, he’s smiling alright i did it… nice. That’s one way I view my work as a route to an image. I used to do this all the time before painting. I have an art book from 2015 where I used this method a lot like I’d write down ideas, and then go out and make them happen. Some elements of the end result were arbitrary although I always tried to have good composition and quality documentation. I didn’t think of myself as a photographer though I certainly was and was good at that aspect too, but it was more the means to document my performance, sculpture, installation… sentence made real. I also view a good portion of my paintings as elaborate pages ripped from children’s books that don’t exist (yet) and they’re filled with weird cute characters I never really had any intention to keep making in the first place, but I’m still doing it for some reason maybe because I like the idea of an overarching narrative, but mostly I think cause they give me a deep nostalgia for illustrations in picture books I saw as a kid or like panels from graphic novels.

ML: That answer is all over the place! I guess that’s what i get for asking such a broad question, but there’s a lot to work with there. Tell me about being a Father. You said it was kind of the catalyst to start making art. How do you think it’s affected your work? TB: Naturally it changed everything. Before my daughter was born I was just so much more aloof, timid, uncertain about making anything. I’d spend so many days just floating around “hanging out” drinking, smoking etc. Maybe I’d draw a little, write a little, play some music, but always felt like I was just killing time waiting for something to happen, and then it did. Suddenly I felt obligated to be at home most of the time, ya know, like a good dad. Other than that I was still in school making the most of it for the short time being. So for that first year I was either home with her or at school. I was just making stuff every day all the time, and it became an insatiable habit especially once I started sharing it online. Yeah honestly I felt the pressure was on. Like I had waited too long to pursue my passions so I had to make up for lost time. I’ve been addicted to making and sharing things everyday ever since. As for my daughter’s influence, yeah I love watching her grow and the things she makes inspire me as well. I’m a bit of a romantic when it comes to modern art and its mythos. I still vibe off what picasso said about how it took him his whole life to paint like a child, so I feel really grateful to work with her. I have literally thousands of her drawings stacked all over the place. She’ll sit down and do fifty drawings in an hour so I’ve gotten a white board lol. Also like I mentioned before it was kind of insane of me to quit my job to become a painter, like I have a kid, rent, bills, a car, and I’m just going to suddenly start painting happy devils to pay for all that? Well, yeah it felt like my last chance to make my dreams a reality. I just wanted to be able to say I did my best and tried to make it work, for myself, and to be a role model in that sense as well. So far so good.

ML: There seems be a big disparity between artists who make a living off their work and artists who don’t, and what I mean is that when you think of an artist making a living off their work you usually think either they have gallery representation, some kind of branding, or business making the same kinds of things again and again, and yet you seem to have been able to find some middle ground and do all of those things without a business, a degree, or a gallery. What’s it been like overall/how is it going? TB: I still got my foodstamp card haha, but to be honest things are better than ever. I don’t know I just keep at it every day. My belief has been that if I just keep making stuff the right people will notice. I’ve never submitted my work anywhere or asked for opportunities. I let them come to me. I just want to make the art not deal with the other stuff. If a big gallery wants to make money off me they most certainly will but for now I’ve just been doing small independent spaces, and cafe’s which bring in a little extra money but pretty much all my sales are online where I talk to every single person directly. The most surprising thing has been how many people are interested given that I have less than 5,000 followers/friends. To me that’s a pretty good sign that as my reach grows so will opportunities and I’ve been going hard these past two years. I think I’m just going to be making bigger, better things as more people become interested. I don’t know any artists doing it this way or any way really. I’m not sure Portland is the place to make it happen, but god bless the internet! Getting a college degree makes no sense whatsoever except for becoming a teacher, and I think we know how that’s playing out these days, so I’m just grateful to be doing what I’m doing even though teaching would be pretty cool. Technically you don’t need a degree to teach you just need people who want to learn.

ML: One thing that seems to have helped you gain momentum is the price of your pieces. I don’t think I’ve ever followed an artist pricing their work so low that wasn’t just really kitschy stencil art or something. I see some of your pieces for $600 that I’d see in a gallery for $6,000 no doubt, but then I see a great deal of $50 pieces. What made you decide to price your work this way? Has it changed over time? TB: Yeah and it’s always the “artists” that comment on the prices being too low which is ironic cause usually all you ever hear from the average person is mocking how ridiculously high the price of art is generally. Basically I think other artist’s scoff because they’re projecting their insecurity regarding the real value of art, and maybe a little envious they can’t let go of their own pieces as though the abstract painting they made in a few hours should be worth thousands when they could be making a dozen similar pieces in a single day. But um yeah I pretty much think of my stuff as like $30-$50 an hour and really like that’s fucking amazing for a job. Yeah idk I have worked some shitty jobs, and it doesn’t make sense thinking that my work should be above what a person like myself can afford in the first place. When I first started though I still had the mysterious art value notion and was pricing things around $200 that I’d price $70 now, and didn’t sell much at first. It wasn’t until I started doing smaller pieces and gauging my time that I started selling a lot more and trying a lot of different things. It’s not like i’m making art specifically about making money but I can understand why people are so interested in this aspect. I don’t think it’s very common huh. When I first started I tried to justify it as a performance piece called “The Painter” haha. I used to title all sorts of things in my mind as a means to cope with the daunting reality of the situation “Working Construction”, 2014. Even during some of the lowest points I think it helped me maintain the peculiar sense of an artist identity I didn’t want to let go of even if I was letting go of everything else like “Burning All My Journals & Paintings″, 2015

ML: Haha what is that last one about? TB: Around the time I stopped living with my wife and moved into my own place I decided to not bring much along with me. I think the title is self-explanatory. ML: I’m wondering if you could talk about any reoccurring themes or characters in a lot of your paintings like the blob fish or spicy boys. TB: Ya know I think most everything just comes to me on a whim and if it works out or holds my interest I’ll keep playing with it. I guess blob fish and spicy boys are like representative of the comedy/tragedy masks or something. I think I’ve simplified a lot of themes in my paintings just so I can keep the flow going. I’m looking forward to spending more time and space on pieces in the future and elaborate on certain things I’ve wanted to express but didn’t know how to put into words. ML: How so? TB: Well, for example. Sometimes I will paint something I’ve seen in my mind, like, dreamed or hallucinated, but not often because a lot of the time I feel I can’t do it justice even though a lot of my stuff is very much informed by these things that I don’t exactly control. It’s like I take video stills from the internet except they’re from my mind, and the screenshot is something I only had to opportunity to view briefly, but even with a split second hallucination I will think about it for weeks and often will just paint its most basic components. Anyway I’m gearing toward eventually elaborating on the more complex ones because lately I have had some visions that have come to the forefront of my interest. Hopefully will get to them after a few more pet portrait commissions haha. ML: What do you mean by hallucinations? Is your inspiration mainly inspired by dreams or do you mean drugs as well? TB: Most things I just write down as interesting ideas to play with, but I guess I don’t want to get too much into talking about drugs. However there have some recent experiences I’ve had with substances like dmt and the things I saw during that I have been thinking about ever since. So right now I’m just trying to get to the end of commissions and then give my attention to some new projects. Have a show in March. Don’t know what I’ll do for it, but certainly no shortage of ideas.

ML: Where do you see yourself going or where would you like to go, and any other thoughts on painting/selling/art in general? TB: I want to go to the top haha. Well in most ways things are better than ever, and I’m incredibly grateful and I can certainly tolerate having things going at this pace at least another year, but would like to make more serious/invested work that I’m really proud of, get some more money and attention and access to better time/space/materials. At this point though even if I had to get a day job I feel I’m completely committed to doing this work. It’s pretty much how I gauge my self-worth for better or worse. Just hope I can find my groove within the process and better understand myself, inspire others, and I wish I had something more insightful to say, but at the moment I’m a bit preoccupied hustling and just having fun with this upcoming show. Thank yaaaa.

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