#lord byron in space if you will

[lucy-moderatz]

[jesuisgourde]

A list of all the books mentioned in Peter Doherty's journals (and in some interviews/lyrics, too)

Because I just made this list in answer to someone's question on a facebook group, I thought I may as well post it here.

-The Picture of Dorian Gray/The Ballad Of Reading Gaol/Salome/The Happy Prince/The Duchess of Padua, all by Oscar Wilde -The Thief's Journal/Our Lady Of The Flowers/Miracle Of The Rose, all by Jean Genet -A Diamond Guitar by Truman Capote -Mixed Essays by Matthew Arnold -Venus In Furs by Leopold Sacher-Masoch -The Ministry Of Fear by Graham Greene -Brighton Rock by Graham Green -A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud -The Street Of Crocodiles (aka Cinnamon Shops) by Bruno Schulz -Opium: The Diary Of His Cure by Jean Cocteau -The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson -Howl by Allen Ginsberg -Women In Love by DH Lawrence -The Tempest by William Shakespeare -Trilby by George du Maurier -The Vision Of Jean Genet by Richard Coe -"Literature And The Crisis" by Isaiah Berlin -Le Cid by Pierre Corneille -The Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon -Junky by William S Burroughs -Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes -Futz by Rochelle Owens -They Shoot Horses Don't They? by Horace McCoy -"An Inquiry On Love" by La revolution surrealiste magazine -Idea by Michael Drayton -"The Nymph's Reply to The Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh -Hamlet by William Shakespeare -The Silver Shilling/The Old Church Bell/The Snail And The Rose Tree all by Hans Christian Andersen -120 Days Of Sodom by Marquis de Sade -Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke -Poetics Of Space by Gaston Bachelard -In Favor Of The Sensitive Man and Other Essays by Anais Nin -La Batarde by Violette LeDuc -Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov -Intimate Journals by Charles Baudelaire -Juno And The Paycock by Sean O'Casey -England Is Mine by Michael Bracewell -"The Prelude" by William Wordsworth -Noise: The Political Economy of Music by Jacques Atalli -"Elm" by Sylvia Plath -"I am pleased with my sight..." by Rumi -She Stoops To Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith -Amphitryon by John Dryden -Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellman -The Song Of The South by James Rennell Rodd -In Her Praise by Robert Graves -"For That He Looked Not Upon Her" by George Gascoigne -"Order And Disorder" by Lucy Hutchinson -Man Crazy by Joyce Carol Oates -A Pictorial History Of Sex In The Movies by Jeremy Pascall and Clyde Jeavons -Anarchy State & Utopia by Robert Nozick -"Limbo" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge -Men In Love: Masculinity and Sexuality in the Eighteenth Century by George Haggerty

[arbitrary line break because tumble hates lists apparently]

-Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky -Innocent When You Dream: the Tom Waits Reader -"Identity Card" by Mahmoud Darwish -Ulysses by James Joyce -The Four Quartets poems by TS Eliot -Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare -A'Rebours/Against The Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans -Prisoner Of Love by Jean Genet -Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell -The Man With The Golden Arm by Nelson Algren -Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates -"Epitaph To A Dog" by Lord Byron -Cocaine Nights by JG Ballard -"Not By Bread Alone" by James Terry White -Anecdotes Of The Late Samuel Johnson by Hester Thrale -"The Owl And The Pussycat" by Edward Lear -"Chevaux de bois" by Paul Verlaine -A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton -Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes -The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri -The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling -The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling -Ask The Dust by John Frante -On The Trans-Siberian Railways by Blaise Cendrars -The 39 Steps by John Buchan -The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol -The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol -The Iliad by Homer -Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad -The Volunteer by Shane O'Doherty -Twenty Love Poems and A Song Of Despair by Pablo Neruda -"May Banners" by Arthur Rimbaud -Literary Outlaw: The life and times of William S Burroughs by Ted Morgan -The Penguin Dorothy Parker -Smoke by William Faulkner -Hero And Leander by Christopher Marlowe -My Lady Nicotine by JM Barrie -All I Ever Wrote by Ronnie Barker -The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys -On Murder Considered As One Of The Fine Arts by Thomas de Quincey -The Void Ratio by Shane Levene and Karolina Urbaniak -The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro -Dead Fingers Talk by William S Burroughs -The England's Dreaming Tapes by Jon Savage -London Underworld by Henry Mayhew

[moontrinemars]

TENTH LORD IN MARS NAKSHATRAS

Thanks for your patience in waiting for the next part of the series - I’m glad you guys are interested. As always, recorded for my own benefit, published for yours. General disclaimer is in my bio. Credit to KRSchannel for inspiring this post.

Find your 10th lord here, and find your 10th lord’s nakshatra here.

The 10th house rules our life’s honor. It represents the services we perform for society as well as the reputation we earn as a result. It is associated with the father and the career because traditionally, this is where both our standing in society and the role we performed in society would come from - inherited through the father’s family line. However, in our contemporary world, this isn’t always the case, which is why it’s important to know the grander themes at play.

The three Mars-ruled nakshatras are Mrigashira, Chitra, and Dhanistha.

Mars is a planetary object that represents motivation, force of will, and personal drive. It is the pursuit of pleasure and the incurring of wrath. While Venus rules earthly and rational matters, such as the aesthetic of beauty and the value of wealth, Mars rules our desires which are primal and sublime. He is impulse, passion, giving us strength and making us vulnerable simultaneously. He is also fear and terror. More than any traditional planet, Mars is tied to the cycle and the transformation of life and death, as the ruler of the 1st and 8th house. His impact is severe, earnest, and compelling, and is escaped by no one.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR 10TH LORD IN A MARS-RULED NAKSHATRA? THAT MEANS YOU…

Mick Jagger, Ryan Reynolds, and Bob Marley all have their tenth lords in Mars ruled nakshatras. Mick's is in Mrigashira, Ryan's is in Chitra, and Marley's is in Dhanistha.

… HAVE A PUBLIC PERSONA MOST SHAPED AND DEFINED BY YOUR IMPULSES, INDIVIDUALITY, AND INDEPENDENCE.

Those born with this placement usually find themselves at odds with the rest of society. Though they don't necessarily fail to fit in with the culture of their time, they tend to let their gut instincts dictate the way they engage with it and this results in distinct and memorable individuals who stand out from the crowd, and cause waves with just their personalities and the effect they have on others. Thus, they may be capable of contributing to massive culture shifts. However, they're also liable to let their impulses lead them to scandal and enmity.

Mars is a chthonic planet, and so it's no surprise we see it ruling the lord of the house of status and legacy in many of the most famous and widely mourned celebrities but that doesn't make this a death sentence for the influential. More than anything, fame in tangent with this placement signifies someone who inspires controversy, not with their choices or behaviors, but in their possessing fame at all. Other people will argue over the legitimacy of whatever talent, beauty, act, or positive attribute to which their fame is attributed. Their fame may be cyclical, as may be the public's support or enmity towards them.

MORE ON THE SPECIFICS OF MRIGASHIRA, CHITRA, AND DHANISTHA BELOW!

IF MRIGASHIRA RULES THE TENTH LORD, YOU…

Bette Davis, Lord Byron, and Milo Ventimiglia all have their tenth lords in Mrigashira. Others with this placement are Louis Lumiere, Prince Philip, Claudia Schiffer, Babe Ruth, Christopher Lee, and George Lucas.

Find yourself constantly searching within your professional and public spaces for something more fulfilling than what you have.

Throw yourself into your work, and are eager to learn whatever you can to develop and improve your craft, or your social standing.

Communicate articulately about responsibilities and projects, as well as political beliefs and social causes that are important to you.

Network and establish your personality easily, as your work and your society inspire you to engage in debate consistently.

Have an eye for major trends and business opportunities, and can capitalize on them just as they take off, leading the charge.

AND YOU MAY FIND…

Pursuit, stalking, or cheating might be a pattern at your workplace.

Quickness is the key trait that defines your reputation: in casting judgement, responding to a crisis, and haste to get desired results.

Your work has you spending time in recreation-friendly spaces: parks, street markets, town squares, playgrounds, your home, etc.

Sensitivity to your surroundings makes you adept at resolving immediate problems involving authorities or a formal setting.

Over-sensitivity, whether to sensory experiences, to tone, or to social graces, can lead to overreactions that confuse people.

MRIGASHIRA is the Searching Star. Industries and career types favored are those involving art, expression, navigation, earth, textiles, animals, trends, sales, advertising, agriculture, telecommunications, occult studies, crafts, research, drama, and travel.

IF CHITRA RULES THE TENTH LORD, YOU…

Mary Tyler Moore, Kim Kardashian, and Cher all have their tenth lords in Chitra. Others with this placement are Leonard Cohen, Mika, Diego Rivera, Bette Midler, Cesare Borgia, John Mayer, Leonardo Dicaprio, Paul Williams, Emily Dickinson, and Queen Elizabeth I.

Find it easy to engage with coworkers and members of the public as equals, both to yourself and to one another.

Experience the most professional and political epiphanies when everyone else is asleep, especially at three to four in the morning.

Strategize and organize your workspace as well as career and public events with ease and poise, to the satisfaction of all.

Can be stingy and thrifty with professional funding, and turn a critical eye upon those who insist on lax public spending, even if as an individual you practice generosity and charity.

May experience jealousy, or just suspicion, toward coworkers, public figures, or others in your field who remind you of yourself.

AND YOU MAY FIND…

Legacies play a role in the way that your workplace or public persona operates, such as becoming or gaining an apprentice, but you may find it hard to get on with those who inherit your position.

Bright colors, flowers, and natural beauty dominate your place of work, or settings with these attributes empower you publicly.

Others treat you with dignity and respect your aesthetic potential, even following your lead with the way you dress for events.

A quick temper and sensitivity to presentation inspires you to challenge the views or choices of others preemptively.

Intense procrastination hinders you in moments of specific importance.

CHITRA is the Star of Opportunity. Industries and career types favored are those involving aesthetics, communication, specialized expertise, design, dynamics, narrative, creative production, quality inspection, force of personality, precision, and reconstruction.

IF DHANISTHA RULES THE TENTH LORD…

Billie Joe Armstrong, Paris Hilton, and Lauren Bacall all have their tenth lords in Dhanistha. Others with this placement are Carl Sagan, Greta Garbo, Walt Whitman, Antony Armstrong-Jones, King Louis XV, Anna May Wong, Sarah Hyland, Charles Manson, and Liza Goddard.

Are capable of making highly insightful observations about society due to your keen perception and intimate understanding of power.

Had aspirations and politics shaped by a pragmatic altruism from a young age, perhaps in response to a parent or authority figure.

Feel uncomfortable in and experience adversity from business partnerships, and any relationships which are too public-facing.

Attract status and fame, seek positions of dignity, and approach tasks with a sincere desire to produce something of high quality.

Have no qualms about lying to or manipulating others in order to get what you want - and there is a great deal that you want.

AND YOU MAY FIND…

Even accomplishments celebrated in the public sector or by your industry feel hollow to you; the answer may lie in volunteer work.

Gender discrimination affects your workplace, status, or politics.

Popularity among certain demographics and subcultures: namely, the wealthy, the young, the politically liberal, and the creative field.

Any siblings can be of aid to your career and public image, but associating with extended relations may be detrimental to either.

Your experiences with honor or power - that of your own or that of others - affect you on a deep, even spiritual, level.

DHANISTHA is the Star of Symphony. Industries and career types favored are those involving music, timing, rhythm, quality inspection, physical performance, group coordination, property, strategy, math and science, poetry, spirituality, creativity, engineering, and charity.

HOPE THIS WAS HELPFUL. AMOUNT OF REQUESTS MEANS WE’RE GOING OUT OF ORDER, BUT WE WILL ABSOLUTELY RETURN TO THE OTHERS LATER. FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE WITH QUESTIONS, THOUGHTS, OR IDEAS. PART 5 WILL FOCUS ON JUPITER-RULED 10TH LORD NAKSHATRAS NEXT! ♡

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Hollywood is the single best example of mature labor power in America

This afternoon (May 6), I’ll be in Berkeley at the Bay Area Bookfest for a 3:30PM event with Glynn Washington for my book Red Team Blues; tomorrow (May 7), it’s an 11AM event with Wendy Liu for my book Chokepoint Capitalism.

Weds (May 10), I’m in Vancouver for a keynote at the Open Source Summit and a book event at Heritage Hall and Thu (May 11), I’m in Calgary for Wordfest.

The Writers Guild is on strike. Hollywood is closed for business. The union’s bargaining documents reveal a cartel of studios that refused to negotiate on a single position. This could go on for a long-ass time:

https://www.wga.org/uploadedfiles/members/member_info/contract-2023/WGA_proposals.pdf

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/06/people-are-not-disposable/#union-strong

The writers are up for it. A lot of people are saying this is the first writers’ strike since 2007/8, but that’s not quite right. That was the last time the writers went on strike against the studios, but in 2019, the writers struck against their own talent agents — within the space of a week, all 7,000 writers in Hollywood fired their agents. They struck against the agencies for 22 months.

https://deadline.com/2023/04/hollywood-strike-writers-guild-studios-talent-agencies-1235333516/

The agencies had consolidated down to four major firms, two backed by private equity who loaded them up with debt that could only be repaid if the agencies figured out how to vastly increase their profits. They did so, by unilaterally switching the way they did business with their clients. Instead of taking a 10% commission on the creative wages they bargained for, the agencies started to take “packaging fees” from the studios for putting together a writer, director, stars, etc. These fees came out of the same budget that the talent got paid from, so the higher the fee was, the less the talent made. Soon, some showrunners were discovering that they were getting 10% and their agents were getting 90%!

The agencies weren’t done, either: they were building their own studios, and planning to negotiate with themselves on behalf of their clients. The writers said fuck this shit. They issued a code of conduct ordering the agencies to knock all that shit off. The agencies swore they’d never do it. Why should they? Every job these writers had ever done came through an agency, and the agencies were staffed with the toughest, most obnoxious negotiators on the planet.

They were sure the writers would cave. After all, the top tier of writers had been handled with kid gloves by the agencies and not ripped off to the same extent as their jobbing, workaday peers. They’d break solidarity and the union would collapse, right?

Wrong. Twenty-two months later, every one of the agencies caved on every single point. Bam. Union strong.

(Want to learn more? Check out Chokepoint Capitalism, Rebecca Giblin’s and my book about creative labor markets:)

http://chokepointcapitalism.com

Now the writers are back on strike and it’s triggered a predictable torrent of anti-worker nonsense (“striking writers will lead to public indifference to torture!) (no, really) (ugh):

https://www.readtpa.com/p/on-the-tv-writers-strike-dont-fall

One common theme in these bad takes is that writers aren’t real workers, like, you know, coal miners or Starbucks baristas. They’re coddled intellectuals, and haven’t the intelligentsia been indifferent to proletarian struggle since, you know, time immemorial?

This is wrong in every conceivable way. For starters, it’s ahistorical. Lord Byron and innumerable other toffs and poets and such were right there with the Luddites, demanding labor justice during the Industrial Revolution, as Brian Merchant writes in his outstanding, forthcoming history of the Luddites, Blood in the Machine:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/20/love-the-machine/#hate-the-factory

But you don’t have to look back to the stocking frame to find this kind of solidarity. As Hamilton Nolan writes in his newsletter, “Hollywood is the single best example of mature labor power in America”:

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-coral-reef-of-humanity-encircling

The entire Hollywood workforce, from grips to carpenters, costumers to plumbers, teamsters to medics, is unionized. That includes writers and actors (I’m a member of IATSE Local 839, AKA The Animation Guild). I live in Burbank, the entertainment industry’s company town (fun fact! The “Hollywood” studios are largely over the city line, in Burbank). Walk down Burbank Boulevard, Magnolia Boulevard, or any of the other major roads, and you’ll pass many union halls.

Burbank is a prosperous place. That’s thanks, in part, to the studios, whose entertainment products are very profitable. But working in a profitable industry is not, in and of itself, a guarantee that you will get a share of those profits. Some of the most profitable industries in the world — e-commerce, fast food, logistics — have the lowest paid workforces.

Burbank is prosperous because the unions made sure that everyone — the grips, the costumers, the animators, the actors, the writers, the teamsters and the pipefitters — gets a decent wage, decent health care and a decent retirement. My pal the set-dresser who worked crazy hours shlepping furniture around sitcom sets for decades? All that work did bad stuff to his joints, which meant that he needed a hip replacement in his forties — which was 100% covered, including his sick leave while he recovered. He was able to take early retirement in his late fifties, with a solid pension, with his health in excellent shape and many years of happiness with his partner stretching before him.

That’s what unions get you: a good job that might be hard at times, and the costs of your work are borne by the employer who profits from your labor. As Nolan writes, the point of unions is to “make sure that people! Are! Not! Disposable!”

Unions deliver the American dream. As Pete Seeger sang in “Talking Union Blues”:

Now, if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you You got to build you a union, got to make it strong But if you all stick together, boys, it won’t be long You get shorter hours, better working conditions Vacations with pay. Take your kids to the seashore

http://www.protestsonglyrics.net/Labor_Union_Songs/Talking-Union.phtml

We tend to focus on wages in union discussions, but unions aren’t merely about getting better pay, it’s about making better jobs. When LA teachers went out on strike in 2019, wages weren’t at the top of their list — they bargained for greenspace for every school, replacing rotting portables with permanent buildings, ending ICE entrapment of parents at the school gates, social workers and counselors for schools…and wages.

I really like how Nolan puts this. The way that the studios make money has changed: streaming is clobbering ad-supported TV and movie theater tickets. The studios are adapting. The workers want to adapt, too. The studios would rather “treat[] their work force as a disposable natural resource to be mined, used up, and then abandoned, as business dictates.”

A union gives workers “the same ability to adapt to changing industries that companies already have.” The studios want to leave workers behind. Unions give workers the collective power to say, “No. You’re taking us with you.”

Union workers are wealthier than their non-union counterparts, but that’s not just because of higher wages. As Nolan writes, “Unions make sure that the people get to adapt to changing industries, and not just the investors and the business owners.”

[Union workers] have a far greater ability to build coherent, long-term careers, as opposed to a constant treadmill of unstable short-term gigs. In non-union industries, businesses can just act like ships cutting through a desperate sea of workers, scooping up whoever they want and then tossing them overboard as soon as it’s convenient. In a union industry, though, the companies are forced to deal with the labor force as an equal. The workers have their own damn boat.

Advocates for market capitalism insist that market forces increase prosperity for everyone. They say that, in the end, having corporations serve their shareholders results in corporations serving everyone.

But a comparison of unionized and nonunionized industries reveals the hollowness of that prospect. Hollywood is wildly profitable and it pays every kind of worker well. That’s because workers have solidarity across sectors and trades. Striking writers like jonrog1 are calling on supporters to donate to the Entertainment Community Fund:

https://twitter.com/jonrog1/status/1654168529728307204

The Entertainment Community Fund supports everyone else who is affected by the work-stoppage, all the other creative and craft trades whose work has been halted by the writers’ struggle. If you want to support these workers, make sure you select “Film and TV” from the drop-down menu when you donate (we gave $100):

https://entertainmentcommunity.org/

Because all the workers are in this together. As Adam Conover explains in this amazing CNN clip, David Zazlav, the head of CNN parent-company Warner-Discovery, made a quarter of a billion dollars last year, enough to pay all the demands of all the writers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL-YwKO81go

And Carol Lombardini, spokesvillain for the studio cartel AMPTP, told the press that “”Writers are lucky to have term employment.” As John Rogers says, she “wiped out the doubt of every writer who wasn’t sure this negotiation really IS so important, that it actually IS about turning us into gig workers.”

https://twitter.com/jonrog1/status/1654506611086606336

The stakes in this strike are the same as the stakes in every strike: will workers get a fair share of the value their labor creates, or will that value be piled up in the vaults of $250,000,000/year CEOs? It’s not like the studios especially hate writers — like all corporations, they hate all their workers. The same tactics that they’re using to make it so writers can’t pay the rent today will be turned on every other kind of Hollywood worker tomorrow — and when the writers win this one, they’ll support those workers, too.

There’s a lot of concern about AI displacing creative labor, but the only entity that can take away a writer’s wage is a human being, an executive at a studio. As has been the case since the time of the Luddites, the issue isn’t what the machine does, it’s who it does it for and who it does it to.

After all, as Charlie Stross points out, a corporation is just a “Slow AI,” remorselessly paperclip-maximizing its way through the lives and joy of the flesh-and-blood people who constitute its inconvenient gut-flora:

https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-9270-dude_you_broke_the_future#video&t=3478

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Berkeley, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: Animators walk the picket-line during the Disney Animator's Strike in 1941.]

Image: LA Times https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Screen_Cartoonist%27s_Guild_strike_at_Disney.jpg

CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

[leoofitzz]

I got bored and decided to make an overview of David Bowies' characters, the songs they're in, and fun facts (might update?)

Major Tom

Space Oddity

Ashes to Ashes

Hello Spaceboy

Blackstar

Love you till Tuesday

Described as a junkie and alcoholic, likely based on David himself

Ziggy Stardust

Five Years

Soul Love

Moonage Daydream

Starman

It Ain't Easy

Lady Stardust

Star

Hang On to Yourself

Ziggy Stardust

Suffragette City

Rock 'n' Roll Suicide

Androgynous alien

Aladdin Sane

Watch That Man

Aladdin Sane

Drive-In Saturday

Panic in Detroit

Cracked Actor

Time

The Prettiest Star

Let's Spend The Night Together

The Jean Genie

Lady Grinning Soul

Often mistaken for his predecessor, Ziggy Stardust, based on the idea of Ziggy going to America

Halloween Jack

Future Legend

Diamond Dogs

Sweet Thing

Candidate

Sweet Thing (Reprise)

Rebel Rebel

Rock'n'Roll with me

We are the dead

1985

Big brother

Chant of the ever circling skeletal family

Described as a real cool cat, relatively short-lived as David started transitioning into the soul man in the Diamond Dogs tour

The soul man

[Soul part of Diamond Dogs tour only]

Appeared at the height of Bowies coke intake, a sort of transition into The Thin White Duke

The thin white duke

Station to Station

Golden Years

TVC 15

Stay

Wind is the wind

David at the height of his drug use, controversial period

The DJ

D.J.

DJ could stand for David Jones, Davids given name

Pierrot

Ashes to Ashes

Threepenny Pierrot

On the cover of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), rarely seen character [I love you Pierrot💔]

Screaming Lord Byron (left)

Jazzin' for blue jean (short film)

Blue Jean

Vic (right)

Jazzin' for blue jean (short film)

Vic is a hopeless romantic who was at Screaming Lord Byron's concert with a girl, Screaming Lord Byron ends up leaving the concert with her as they already knew each other from Peru

The blind prophet

Lazarus

Blackstar

Davids last character, likely blind as a symbol of David being blinded by fear of his inevitable death

[tourneys-by-me]

Here is the Bracket!

Match ups were randomized this time so there might be a few coughing babies vs hydrogen bombs, sorry about that

If y’all have propaganda can you please tag it as #propaganda or send it to my inbox so I can see it

(vs template by TotallyNotIncina on DA)

[bracket under the cut]

Round 1 (A)

Sinbad - Magi: the labyrinth of magic vs Weiss Schnee - RWBY

Cure Magical/Riko Izayoi - Precure vs Lafcadio Boone - The Sexy Brutale

Beverly Toegold V - Not Another D&D Podcast vs Carol Malus Dienheim - Symphogear

Lucy Heartfilia - Fairy Tail vs Aaravos - The Dragon Prince

Cure Miracle/Mirai Asahina - Precure vs Traveler - Genshin Impact

God Serena - Fairy Tail vs Joker - Persona

Maruju - TearRing Saga vs Omnath - Magic: the Gathering

Isaac - Golden Sun vs Delsin Rowe - Infamous

Mega Man - Mega Man vs Lord Snicklefritz - Towertale

Kakashi Hatake - Naruto vs Hazel Levesque - Percy Jackson

Mage - Miitopia vs Gill - Street Fighter

Jason Grace - Percy Jackson vs Mario - Super Mario Bros.

Round 1 (B)

Honey Lemon - Big Hero 6 vs Daylon - Dislyte

Donald Duck - Kingdom Hearts vs Y'shtola Rhul - Final Fantasy

Zoya Nazyalensky - Grishaverse books vs Paula - Earthbound

Alina Starkov - Shadow and Bone vs Domingo - Shining Force

Nami - One Piece vs Alatreon - Monster Hunter

Kevin Kaslana - Honkai Impact 3rd vs Omnimon/Omegamon - Digimon

Erin Ruunaser - Aurora vs Percival King - Epithet Erased

Citan Uzuki - Xenogears vs Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi - Bleach

Wairuha - Bionicle vs Mirabelle Chevalier - In Stars And Time

Mr. 104 (John Dubrovny) - DC Comics vs Tlalocmon - Digimon

X - Mega Man vs Robin - Fire Emblem

Sora - Kingdom Hearts vs Sypha Belnades - Castlevania

Round 1 (C)

Carl, the Invoker - Dota 2 vs Eidolon - Worm (Wildbow's Parahumans)

Vince Reynolds - Super Powereds vs Ark - Terranigma

Camille Severin - Muted vs Skylor Chen - Ninjago

Doctor Coyle - ARMS vs Aang - Avatar: The Last Airbender

Clark Kent/Superman - DC Comics vs Magolor - Kirby

Cetrion - Mortal Kombat vs Siffrin - In Stars and Time

Elemental Hero Neos - Yu-Gi-Oh! vs Greencap - Lone Fungus

Castform - Pokemon vs Trisana Chandler - Emelan

Squall Leonhart - Final Fantasy vs Akamai - Bionicle

Rae Taylor - I'm in Love with the Villainess vs Kirby - Kirby

Korra - Legend of Korra vs Cassian - Villain to Kill

Silvally - Pokemon vs Tiamat - Dungeons and Dragons

Round 1 (D)

The Collector - Aurora vs Twinrova - The Legend of Zelda

MOON - Space Funeral vs The Mage - Magicka

Katarina Claes - My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom vs The Dragonborn - The Elder Scrolls

Chu Wanning - The Husky and His White Cat Shizun vs Zagreus - Hades

Teclis - Warhammer Fantasy vs Qiyana - League of Legends

Sasuke Uchiha - Naruto vs The Defect - Slay the Spire

Blackbeard - One Piece vs Ben Tennyson - Ben 10

Manaria Sousse - I'm in love with the villainess vs Koromaru - Persona

Link (BOTW and TOTK) - The Legend of Zelda vs Callum - The Dragon Prince

Patchouli Knowledge - Touhou vs Soren - Fire Emblem

Spring Man - ARMS vs Shouto Todoroki - My Hero Academia

Capricorn (Tristan and Byron Vera) - Worm (Wildbow's Parahumans) vs Dan Heng - Honkai Star Rail

[probably-enjolras]

parking on my college campus is great because all the cars have something that is just slightly unhinged. here is a list of things i’ve seen YESTERDAY alone:

my own car that has a fall out boy bumper sticker encouraging people to keep honking at me and i’ll ignore them in favor of listening to TTTYG

a car that has the license plate “oh worms”

a regular car with military decoration saying the driver was in the marines and had family in the military and it’s all clean and organized except for a corner that just has an alien smoking a cigarette and saying “existence is pain”

a car with the license plate “mstr yda” (Master Yoda) and definitely lived up to it because instead of those antlers you can put on your car for christmas to be a reindeer, this car had Yoda’s ears on it

a car with a sticker that told people to be nice to them because their tummy was upset (AND i know exactly where this sticker came from bc it’s a local trans owned art business that does mostly DND, queer, and funny/relatable stickers, bookmarks, notebooks etc)

the staff parking has roughly 4x the amount of yellow cars than the student parking, even though it’s only two lanes compared to multiple lots for students

a staff car that was almost certainly an english professor with a sticker that said “let me tell you why i hate lord byron”

no one (including staff) following the rules on which corner to put your parking pass sticker on (guys we get free parking all over campus and they will give you more stickers any time you lose yours just PUT IT IN THE RIGHT PLACE)

a line up of three cars next to each other with one being a truck with an american flag with the blue line for the “blue lives matter” thing (gross), a confederate flag (gross also but we’re in rural virginia so not unusual), and surprisingly no tr*mp stickers but pretty much every republican in the state and local areas, next to a small red buggy that was mostly covered in doctor who, star wars, and marvel stickers and a small pride flag in the window, next to a jeep that had the sticker “silly boys jeeps are for girls” and a license plate that said “chicks rule” (in a way that fit the license plate amount of space)

and, my personal favorite because we have the same schedule and i see him at my local bagel place a lot, a guy with an ATV that has a lot of stickers about all the forests, monuments, and national parks he’s been too, but double the amount of stickers telling everyone that he loves bigfoot, bigfoot is real, bigfoot is his sugar daddy, and a line up of different cryptids in the corner that you’d see those little family stickers that show the mom, dad, kids, and pets as stick figures

i don’t like taking pictures of cars, i feel like it’s quite violating and because i’m at a local college if i took a picture, it wouldn’t be hard to actually doxx these people, so you’ll just have to take my word for it but i don’t think i’m creative enough to actually make this shit up lmao

[mybeingthere]

Fossilized Flower of Florissantia quilchenensis, an Extinct  Member of the Mallow Family, Washington State,  Middle-Eocene Epoch, c. 48,000,000 Years Ago.

“Have you ever plunged into the immensity of space and time by reading the geological treatises of Cuvier? Borne away on the wings of his genius, have you hovered over the illimitable abyss of the past as if a magician’s hand were holding you aloft? As one penetrates from seam to seam, from stratum to stratum and discovers, under the quarries of Montmartre or in the schists of the Urals, those animals whose fossilized remains belong to antediluvian civilizations, the mind is startled to catch a vista of the milliards of years and the millions of peoples which the feeble memory of man and an indestructible divine tradition have forgotten and whose ashes heaped on the surface of our globe, form the two feet of earth which furnish us with bread and flowers. Is not Cuvier the greatest poet of our century? Certainly Lord Byron has expressed in words some aspects of spiritual turmoil; but our immortal natural historian has reconstructed worlds from bleached bones.”

― Honoré de Balzac, “The Wild Ass’s Skin” 1831

Via kvetchlandia

[lieutenantwilliamrusso]

The Ivy Crown II

A/N: Hi!! In honor of Valentine's Day and the SaB season 2 trailer tomorrow (!!!!) here is this!! Side note, the word "darkling" means in the dark and was commonly used during the late 1800s in poetry.

"I had a dream, which was not at all a dream. The bright sun was extinguished and the stars did wander darkling in the eternal space.

-Lord Byron

Darkness

Book II

When you wake, it is to the sun inching across your window pane, prickling at your eyelids in the early morning. You groan, attempting to turn over to block the harsh rays, but your legs get tangled in the sheets and you're forced to lift yourself from slumber. You're back in your room, in the little white house the literature students lived in. You had no memory of arriving there, but you were sure a quick glance at your phone would reveal that your friends had deposited you here.

When you finally scrape yourself up and off your bed, the night begins to return to you in flashes, little pin pricks of memory. You remember your friends' laughter, the shots of kvas and, and...Aleksander. His green sweater, his eyes as he'd laughed at your drunken state.

His...compliment.

And he'd called you something in Old Ravkan. Mil...mil...but it never comes and you're left to ponder the fact that Aleksander Morozova was checking out your chest.

It had to be a fluke. You aren't unattractive, but there's no way Aleksander would seek you out above every other gorgeous, willing woman traveling through the halls of the university. Maybe he'd just been alarmed, he'd never seen you in something so revealing before.

Saints, what a night.

You wash the remnants of your drunken mistakes off in the hot press of the shower water and focus your energy on your reading for Monday.

->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->

Monday comes rapidly and you're suddenly left with the realization that you're going to have to be alone with Aleksander today. He prefers to workshop student essays in private, giving constructive feed back in a safe space. And you're scheduled first, right after class.

You barely look up as you take your seat, pulling out your poetry anthology and setting up to take notes. When you do finally raise your head Aleksander is already watching you, something unreadable in his gaze, something almost dangerous. It alarms you, leaves you feeling the need to gasp, so you look away, pretending to check your notes.

"All right. Let's begin." He commences class, clapping his hands once. "Who wants to tell me what they think the rose represents in Mina Loy's "Sea-Rose?"

This one is easy, so you sit back and let the boy sitting to your left answer. Aleksander smiles and nods at him encouragingly.

"So we've established the rose is a woman. Then what are we to do with that first stanza?"

You raise your hand.

"To me, this is a political poem. The "harsh rose, meager and sparse" takes on societal perception of women. If you're too harsh, too outspoken, you're useless to patriarchal society. I think that's what she's saying here."

Aleksander nods, biting his lip. You watch the movement closely, memorizing the white of his teeth peeking through his plush mouth. Then the moment is over and he's walking back towards the whiteboard.

->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->

Class ends, and you wait in your seat for the other students to file out, mentally trying to prepare to be in close proximity to Aleksander.

"We still on for our meeting? Or are you here to break my heart?" He jokes as he gathers his things, coming to stand in front of your desk.

"We're on, though I'm quite popular today so I don't know for how long." You tease.

"Oh I'm sure you are everyday." He eyes you, eyebrow raised slightly.

You chuckle, moving to stand and follow him to his office.

Aleksander's office is like that of any great academic. That is to say, a mess. Papers are strewn in haphazard piles across his desk and floor, books sit precariously on shelves as if they are only waiting to be told to fall off. Aleksander smiles at you almost sheepishly as you navigate the chaos, stopping to clear off a plush leather chair for you as he goes to take his own behind the sturdy oak desk across from you.

You sit on the chair and take out your paper, knowing Aleksander prefers to edit papers when they're printed. It's cute, the way he struggles with technology, and you almost want to say you forgot to make copies just to see his nose wrinkle at the thought of using your laptop.

"Shall we?" He asks, clasping his hands in front of him.

"Sure." You agree and pass the paper over.

He reads your paper slowly as you sit, his intentional analysis making you squirm. Your writing feels like a part of you, like something intimate that came from a deep spot at your center. Aleskander's eyes are on it now, but you don't mind, not when it's from him.

"Hmm..." He mumbles, fingers dancing across the arm of his chair.

"Good or bad?" You question, unable to keep it in any longer.

"Excellent." He chuckles at your squirming. "Relax, milaya, you've done well. I expected nothing less."

Milaya, that's what he'd called you the other night, you suddenly recall. Your eyes widen but before you can question him he's continuing.

"The way that you bring out the longing in the poem is masterful. You explore Prufrock's voice closely, that's what I was looking for. You do it so well I can only wonder what's got you thinking so much about hidden desire?" His eyes are molten as they meet yours, like chocolate that's melted on your fingers after you've held it too long.

Saints, you want to hold him too long.

You don't know what to say, whether to let the truth fall from your lips or to laugh it off like what happened over the weekend meant nothing. The truth it, the memory comes back to you all the time, unavoidable.

"What does milaya mean?" You ask instead, mind turning over too much to respond to the question.

Aleksander smiles then, full and bright and you can't help but think you've revealed an answer you aren't aware of yet.

"What, didn't pay attention in your Old Ravkan lessons?" He teases.

"Saint, they were three years ago, I'm not sure I can summon much more than a few lines of Oretsev." You admit sheepishly.

"I can't blame you. It never hurts to review, however." Is the only answer you get.

Aleksander lets it drop and continues to mark up your paper, his broad scrawl visible from your vantage point.

When he'd finished with you, you gather your things to leave for the day, but his voice stops you.

"Any plans for this weekend?"

"Nothing quite as interesting as the last." You chuckle softly.

"Did you get home all right?" He asks softly, brows pulled down in concern.

"I always do." You smile, slipping through the door, leaving him.

[misshallery]

a list of literary references in aitsf: nirvana initiative chapter titles

tidied up this ol' twitter thread. basically: every single chapter title in aini is a reference to a work of literature, i figured out most of them. here's an explanation of where they came from and what they mean. let us begin.

edit: some gaps filled in by the discord user aaabatteries! thank you!

"a strange tale"/"dispossessed"/"alone" (chapter 0) reference 'the turn of the screw' by henry james.

the framing device of this novella is a group of friends reading a manuscript written by someone else. ryuki being interrogated by mizuki is something of a framing device for what we perceive as his 'side' of the story, six years ago. this is also a quintessential piece of gothic fiction, which is famously concerned with the subconscious and repression- two themes aitsf is very interested in!

"anyone imagines"/"ought to know" (ryuki chapter 1) reference the bible verse corinthians 8:2

"If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know"

naix is an ideology that has the power of religion over its believers. this quotation reflects that people who don't believe in the ideology who think they understand the nature of the world (and believe it's real) are ignorant to the fact it's a simulation.

"nothing to be done"/"go" (ryuki chapter 2) reference 'waiting for godot' by samuel beckett

"nothing to be done" is something of a reoccurring joke in the play. much time is spent watching characters act aimlessly, accomplish little, and lack purpose. these chapters in the game have a lot to do with ryuki feeling frustrated by tokiko's indecipherable philosophical ramblings.

"farewell"/"joy for anguish"/"smile for tears" (ryuki chapter 3) reference 'farewell' by anne bronte.

"And who can tell but Heaven, at last, May answer all my thousand prayers, And bid the future pay the past With joy for anguish, smiles for tears?"

this poem is about the pain of saying goodbye to a loved one. of course, "saying goodbye" is a classic euphemism for death. these titles likely reference shoma reckoning with komeji's death. the joy/anguish duo are strange parallel chapters where komeji lives or dies.

"well known"/"mind of god" (ryuki c4 r1) reference 'a brief history of time' by stephen hawking

"If we do discover a theory of everything…it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would truly know the mind of God."

these chapters introduce us to tearer as a character, who is, of course, closely linked to naix and their ideology. naix believe they understood the nature of human existence, and accomplished the goal of knowing 'the mind of god'.

"i found me"/"past its ken" (ryuki c4 r2) reference "the masked face" by thomas hardy

"I found me in a great surging space, I" At either end a door" ... "There once complained a goosequill pen To the scribe of the Infinite Of the words it had to write Because they were past its ken."

this poem is about people with a negative outlook who struggle to comprehend that there is more to the world than they know. shoma only believed in shallow simulation theory to justify his depression. "past its ken" means beyond one's established knowledge.

"not all a dream"/"she was the universe" (ryuki chapter 5 r1) reference "darkness" by lord byron

"I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguish'd" ... "Darkness had no need Of aid from them—She was the Universe."

this poem describes an apocalypse that resembles a natural disaster. fitting that this route leads to the explosion ending, involving the collapse of the underground cave. darkness becomes "the universe"- ryuki is traumatised.

"pass mildly away"/"end where i begun" (mizuki c1) reference "a valediction: forbidding mourning" by john donne

"As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go" … "Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun."

this poem is about two lovers parting, but i think the game uses it to reflect platonic relationships. kizuna has lost bibi. bibi lost mizuki. mizuki lost date. family members who love each other deeply have been apart for a long time.

"the expense of spirit"/"hell" (mizuki chapter 3) reference sonnet 129 by william shakespeare.

"The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action..."

this poem theorises that after people satisfy their lust (their desires), they're left with shame. this could be a metaphor for chikara's experiments, but he doesn't seem to feel shame. i think it's about mizuki wanting answers about the institute until she gets them and they're painful.

"all living things"/"of arms and of man" (mizuki chapter 4 m2) references virgil's "the aenid".

"I sing of arms and of the man, fated to be an exile, who long since left the land of Troy and came to Italy to the shores of Lavinium"

i think a parallel is drawn between lien and the protag of the aenid, aeneas. he flees the fall of troy and travels to rome, becoming the original descendant of the ancient romans. lien escapes the 'tragedy' of his life of crime and becomes something of a hero to kizuna.

"who's there"/"bid the soldiers shoot" (mizuki chapter 4 m2/m3) reference the first and final lines of william shakespeare's "hamlet".

the first line is spoken by a guard who hears the ghost of hamlet sr. in this route, jin's corpse is found in the freezer... not quite a ghost. the final line is spoken by fortinbras, an invading prince, upon storming the palace and finding the corpses of the whole cast. he commands the shots to commemorate the deaths of the royalty. lien and kizuna escape among the gunfire of chieda's armed goons... some commemoration.

"all that we are" (mizuki c5 m2) is a buddha quote.

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts. If a man speak or act with an evil thought, suffering follows him as the wheel follows the hoof of the beast that draws the wagon…. If a man speak or act with a good thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.”

this chapter precedes gen and amame's end. gen highlights that he considers amame to be a naturally kind and loving person in a way that others haven't been towards him. this quotation implies that good things follow kind people, which doesn't follow considering the tragic end amame gets here.

"sweet silent thought" (mizuki chapter 5 m3) references shakespeare's sonnet 30

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste

this poem is about regrets. when you think "sweet silent thoughts" (contemplate your life), you feel unhappy and consumed by what-ifs. interesting that this chapter is the direct opposite of the poem- lien and kizuna take their chance and run away together. no regrets!

"births"/"the end of craving" (mizuki c5 m1) is a buddha quote once more.

simply put, to reach the end of craving is to achieve the titular nirvana and a higher state of being.

"braver than all flowers" (epilogue) references "proof of immortality "by william carlos williams

"for there is one thing braver than all flowers; richer than clear gems; wider than the sky"

this is a sort of humorous poem about how the one thing that humans throughout history have in common is ignorance. maybe it's a ref to how the mizukis used their wit and investigation skills to overcome that ignorance and win the day?

"all this happened, more or less" (ryuki diverge) references the opening line of slaughterhouse-five by kurt vonnegut.

this is regarded as a crazy opening line for a crazy novel. it's the literary equivalent of "well, that happened" for better or worse, much like this ending.

the only currently missing reference is 'traveler'/'left behind'.

[illuminopseudonymous]

Every single Brawl Stars character as songs

So, I was unhappy with my prior posts on this topic, both because of the song choices I made and because I didn't properly credit the musicians behind them. Ergo, I'm going to compile all of the brawlers into a single list below the cut, and then update and reblog this post each time a new brawler is released.

Feedback regarding song choices is encouraged if you think you have a better fit for a character.

8-Bit: "Pac-Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia

Amber: "Burnin' Up" by A Flock of Seagulls

Angelo: "There! Right There!" from Legally Blonde: The Musical (written by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe)

Ash: "Trash Day" by "Weird" Al Yankovic

Barley: "Bottle Action" by Ms. B'Havin

Bea: "Lord of the Hornets" by Robert Calvert

Belle: "Disciple of Lightning" by DJ the S

Berry: "Skipper Dan" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Bibi: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" by Albert von Tilzer and Jack Norworth

Bo: "The Wild West is Where I Want to Be" by Tom Lehrer

Bonnie: "Human Cannonball" by Webb Wilder

Brock: "Rocket Jump Waltz" from Team Fortress 2 (by Valve Studio Orchestra)

Bull: "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen

Buster: "Rock-And-Roll Nerd" by Tim Minchin

Buzz: "Run This Town" by JAY-Z featuring Rhianna and Kanye West

Byron: "A Little Heart-To-Heart" from Team Fortress 2 (by Valve Studio Orchestra)

Carl: "Diggy Diggy Hole" by The Yogscast

Charlie: "Spider-Man (1967) Theme" by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris

Chester: "I Remember Larry" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Chuck: "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach

Clancy: "Crab Rave" by Noisestorm

Colette: "Every Breath You Take" by The Police

Colt: "Shoot to Thrill" by AC/DC

Cordelius: "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane

Crow: "Young Dumb and Ugly" by ""Weird Al" Yankovic

Darryl: "He's a Pirate" from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (Composed by Klaus Badelt)

Doug: "Surf Wax America" by Weezer

Draco: "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce

Dynamike: "T.N.T." by AC/DC

Edgar: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana

El Primo: "Mexican Wrestler" by Jill Sobule

Emz: "Respectless" from Hazbin Hotel (Composed by Sam Haft, Andrew Underberg, Andrew Alderete, Gooseworx, and Parry Gripp)

Eve: "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" from Little Shop of Horrors (Composed by Alan Menken)

Fang: "Kung-Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas

Frank: "Fireflies" by Owl City

Gale: "Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)" by Garth Brooks

Gene: "Arabian Nights" from Aladdin (Performed by Robin Williams)

Gray: "Scheming Weasel" by Kevin MacLeod

Griff: "Big Boss Man" by Jimmy Reed

Grom: "Main Theme" from Bomberman (Composed by Jun Chikuma)

Gus: "Turn the Lights Off" by Tally Hall

Hank: "Send the Marines" by Tom Lehrer

Jacky: "Poundcake" by Van Halen

Janet: "Death from Above" by Turbonegro

Jessie: "More Gun" from Team Fortress 2 (by Valve Studio Orchestra)

Kenji: [upcoming]

Kit: "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!"/ "Nyan Cat Theme" by daniwell featuring Hatsune Miku

Larry & Lawrie: "Back to Back" by Pretty Maids

Leon: "Right Behind You" from Team Fortress 2 (by Valve Studio Orchestra)

Lily: "Return of the Giant Hogweed" by Genesis

Lola: "Big Shot" by Billy Joel

Lou: "Sky-High Sundae" from Mario Kart Tour (composer unknown)

Maisie: "What's Up Danger" from Into the Spider-Verse (by Blackway & Black Caviar)

Mandy: "Cookie Land" from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Composed by Shinobu Tanaka and Kenta Nagata)

Max: "Caffeine" by Psychostick

Meg: "Peach-ball Launches! Robobot Armor" from Kirby: Planet Robobot (Composed by Hirozaku Ando and Jun Ishikawa)

Melodie: "Miku" by Anamanguchi featuring Hatsune Miku

Mico: "Beverly Hills" by Weezer

Moe: "Cripple's Shield Wall" by The Knight in Leslie Fish

Mortis: "Hate the Day" by Behind the Scenes

Mr. P: "Hotel California" by The Eagles

Nani: "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce

Nita: "Wild Child" by The Doors

Otis: "Graffiti Crimes" by Mi-Sex

Pam: "You Will Be Okay" from Helluva Boss (Composed by Sam Haft and Andrew Underburg, performed by Bryce Pinkham)

Pearl: "Pass the Biscuits, Mirandy" by Spike Jones

Penny: "You Are a Pirate" from LazyTown (by Stefan Karl Steffanson and composed by Máni Svavarsson)

Piper: "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins (Composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman)

Poco: "Spooky Scary Skeletons" by Andrew Gold

R-T: "Eye in the Sky" by The Alan Parsons Project

Rico: "Pinball Wizard" by The Who

Rosa: "Garden Song" by David Mallett

Ruffs: "Send the Marines" by Tom Lehrer

Sam: "Super Macho Man" from Punch-Out!! Wii (Composed by Mike Peacock, Darren Radtke, and Chad York)

Sandy: "Enter Sandman" by Metallica

Shelly: "Faster Than a Speeding Bullet" from Team Fortress 2 (By Valve Studio Orchestra)

Spike: "Super Mario Bros. Desert Theme" from Super Mario Maker 2 (Composed by Koji Kondo)

Sprout: "Trees" by Tom Lehrer

Squeak: "Slime Creatures from Outer Space" by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Stu: "Drive Fast (The Stuntman)" by Bruce Springsteen

Surge: "Rules of Nature" from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Composed by Jamie Christopherson)

Tara: "Hot Rails to Hell" by Blue Oyster Cult

Tick: "Drop Da Bomb" by Doctor Steel

Willow: "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fishmen" by H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society

[houppellande]

20th April 2024 To Lord G.G. Byron, who got me through CoviD and through one of the darkest periods of my life. To a complicated, messy and very human man, who taught my younger self to take more risks in relationships and in life's experiences, & who showed me that perfection is overrated. I really owe this guy a part of my personal growth in recent years. With his good (and bad) example, he is proof that humanity, with its thousands of worries and desires, truly trascends time and space. B was in no way a paragon of virtue, he had very dark behaviours and opinions which I can't fully digest (nor do I think I ever will), but he sure did have a nice brain. He poured all his soul in his poems & letters, and he put down on paper some universal truths and feelings that we all feel and know but which we are often not able to express. Some of them are less universal, but still. Thank you B

Happy 200th Deathday! (+1) 🔥🔥🔥​

P.s. I think if he could see the one-note rakish reputation he has nowadays, he'll be equally stoked and angry (depending on the day)

[orangepeelshortbreadcookies]

all i can say (is i was enchanted to meet you)    

Sophie Beckett thought she must have been chosen to be joke of the day by the universe, that she was partnered up with Benedict Bridgerton.

OR

Sophie wants to study. Benedict is not making it easy.

For Benophie Week 2023. Day 1.

Trope: University.

Dialogue: "Are you trying to flirt with me?" / "Yes. Is it working?"

 Sophie Beckett thought she must have been chosen to be joke of the day by the universe, that she was partnered up with Benedict Bridgerton. 

 It was not that the guy was an ass, far from it. He was one of the nicest people one could ever meet, at least from what she had heard (eavesdropped) from people who knew him. Funny. Charming. Handsome as hell. It was not that he was a shirker or stupid. Alright, maybe he was a bit of a shirker, but only in a way that people with massive talent could take the easy route through life. The guy was talented, and he did take his craft seriously when it was demanded of him. His arrogance could cause mild annoyance, but it was in no way a problem.

 So what was the problem?, one might ask. The problem was of course Sophie’s embarrassingly immense crush on the guy. And he seemed to demonstrate that problem right now, by lording his impressive height from the opposite end all over the library table. He was practically lying on top of it. He leaned in so close, she could smell the soap he used, distracting her from making sensible, accurate calculations to her 3D building model. Their model.

 Benedict Bridgerton thanked his lucky stars that he got to work with Sophie Beckett.

 He had noticed her since the Freshman party and fell in love on the spot. They did not share a lot of classes together, unfortunately, with her majoring in Architecture and him being in Visual Arts. He had kept a low profile, however. He needed a perfect approach to get in her good graces. And so during the first two semesters, he had greatly enjoyed the pleasure (torture) of Sophie-watching from two rows behind her, thus gathered much interesting intel: how she had a great feeling of space, how immaculate she was in her calibrations, how she was the smartest in their 3D Reconstruction course. How the sun kissed her shoulder, painting it in golden light from his vantage point. How much she resembled a faerie from a storybook, in both features and stature, with her wild shiny hair and her standing up straight to five-foot-nothing. Then at some point, Weatherby would quietly (and rudely) remind him that he was staring and/or drooling and Benedict would stop his gawking. For about ten point one minutes.

 Academically, Benedict knew he needed Sophie’s help. She had a great mind for structure and numbers while Benedict did not. He hated mathematics as much as he detested Lord Byron. It was why all his building sketches looked like wobbly liquid. More like funhouse reflections of buildings than actual houses. Studying with her had been amazing, while they were exchanging notes on WhatsApp. She offered great insights about skeleton building then took his opinions about colours in stride. Then he read her hour-long rant about Brutalist architecture while grinning like an idiot, after which she joyfully cheered for his spiral into Postmodernism. Subsequently they passionately discussed how stupid the fourth Matrix movie was, and on and on as it dragged on into the wee hours of nights.

 But sitting with Sophie in the library, face to face, was a brand new experience for Benedict, and the new perspective pumped fresh inspiration into his creative thoughts and his daydreams. It was difficult to remain professional when she was only an arm’s reach away from him, as his artist’s brain took in new details about her beauty and his lizard brain… also took in her beauty. How she pursed her lips slightly and her eyes were impossibly huge as she concentrated, how her fingers were dancing elegantly  across the keyboard as she built their 3D model. How her cute little button nose was light pink from sunburn, and how he wanted to kiss it after putting some sunscreen on it.

 The inkling suspicion that she was not at all immune to his advances only fueled Benedict’s hope and imagination. Occasionally, he caught her glancing at him. Every time it happened, Sophie drew her gaze shyly away after being discovered, a red flush coloured her cheeks, and Benedict bit down a smug grin as he tried to focus his eyes on the text in front of him, while his pencil absentmindedly sketched the outline of her face on his notebook.

 ‘Benedict.’ her voice snapped him out of his daydreaming. ‘Did you listen to a word I just said?’

 ‘No.’ He admitted honestly. ‘Come again?’

 Sophie rolled her eyes.

 ‘I need you to revise that column you just drew for me.’ Patiently, she explained it again to him, point by point. She thought to herself that she should have been way more annoyed with him than she was. She just liked the guy too much for her own good. For shame.

 He listened to her this time. Together, they nudged that column to both of their satisfaction. Sophie was pleased. Perhaps they could get some work done today.

 Then she caught him staring at her.

 ‘What are you doing?’ She asked, trying to keep her expression neutral.

 For a second, Benedict considered lying. Giving her some lame excuse and keeping things as they were, this nice camaraderie that they have established. Then he thought what the heck, he was already halfway in love with this girl anyway. It was not like she did not know, with him ogling her so blatantly in the past year. A friendship with her was nice, but in the long run he imagined it would look more like agony for his part. Being an emotionally driven man of action, he would prefer the certainty that she hated him rather than not knowing where they stood. And since she had asked, he might as well give her an honest answer.

 ‘I’m looking at you.’ He answered plainly.

 ‘Why?’

 ‘Because you’re beautiful.’ He said, flashing her his infamous smirk. He had been told it was his best feature. It had gotten him out of trouble more times than he could count.

 She rolled her eyes at him again.

 ‘Could you please stop messing around and focus…’ Then it dawned on her. Sophie’s computer-brain might have short-circuited for a second there. Her mouth dropped open in surprise. Red crept up from her chest to her cheeks. ‘Wait, what?’

 ‘Don’t tell me you never noticed it.’ He looked puzzled at her genuine astonishment. ‘You really didn’t? I thought I was so obvious.’

 ‘I tend to zone everything out when I’m concentrating.’ She admitted, embarrassed.

 ‘I know. It’s one of the things I like about you.’ He chuckled. ‘Was it that bad, though? I have been staring at you the whole goddamn year, Sophie.’

 ‘Are you…’ she gasped, trying to regain her composure. ‘Are you trying to flirt with me?’

 Benedict bore the grin of the cat who ate goddamn the canary. His grey eyes seemed to sparkle in the sunlight and Sophie’s head swam.

 ‘Yes. Is it working?’

 She was dumbfounded for a minute, or perhaps a lifetime, then exclaimed.

 ‘Ugh, you are so annoying!’ In a tiny voice that sounded unconvincing even to her own ears.

 Cheeks blazing, Sophie dug her head back into her laptop, refusing to look back up at him. She knew if she stared into those eyes a moment longer, she would do something silly like counting his eyelashes or kissing that stupid grin off his face. He had her now, she knew this. She would now be aware of his attention to her forever.

     It was working. It was working very well indeed.  

[sophia-sol]

some of my favourite vids

lirazel expressed interest in a rec list of some of my favourite vids and I am very suggestible when it comes to rec lists so here you go! :D Unfortunately a few of the older vids that I remember fondly are no longer available online for me to share with you (the batman vid set to johnny cash's cover of hurt! the highlander vid about methos/lord byron! and more!), but there are still plenty of excellent vids up and about, and new ones worth watching keep being made!

Yes this rec list is 22 vids long, shush, I couldn't cut any of these out. I just got so emotional in the process of making this rec list at how wonderful an artform the fanvid is! It can do so many different things! It can be so powerful in such a brief space of time!

I've ordered the list below alphabetically by fandom. I go through a lot of different fandoms here!

And it was so fun too to work on practicing my skills at describing a vid and explaining what's good about it; I have many years of practice at talking about written narratives, but interpreting and talking about visual media is still a skillset that I'm not instinctively good at and don't have as much experience with. But I think I did pretty good with these vids. I hope you enjoy them!

(put behind a readmore to keep this post from being overwhelmingly long on your dash!)

1. Problem, by talitha78 Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Bucky/Steve Look I may be totally burnt out on the MCU at this point but damn did CA:TWS have some good fanworks. This is a vid that is gleefully and wholeheartedly throwing itself into depicting Bucky through the lens of of this natalia kills song with a straight face. I still sometimes find myself singing "girl is a problem" to myself about things, because of this vid.

2. All In Together, by odessie The Great British Bake-Off, ensemble This vid encapsulates the spirit of the show (…at least, the show when it was a BBC show, before it moved to Channel 4), which is about everybody being weird, dedicated, enthusiastic, imperfect, and all in it together despite it being ostensibly a competition. "Celebrate your oddities, your art, your own insanity." YEAH. It's so cheering!

3. All We Got, by anoel The Great Gatsby, Daisy/Gatsby One of those where I've read the book but not seen the adaptation, but I feel like watching this vid gives me everything I need from seeing an adaptation of the story! Sharply edited use of the beautiful visuals; really creates the necessary feeling of high energy glitz papering over emptiness, which the book honestly doesn't do a good enough job at lol.

4. Show Me Your Teeth, by Dogstar Hieronymous Bosch's artwork, all of Bosch's weird little guys It's strange, a bit surreal, energetic. My immediate reaction when I first saw this vid was "wtf in the best way." I'm so impressed with how the vidder could make such a compelling vid out of static artwork!

5. God's Gonna Cut You Down, by sholio Highlander, Methos & Cassandra & the horsemen There were so many excellent highlander fanvids back in the day but this is one of the ones that has really stuck with me, with its perfect encapsulation of the complexities of the relationships in the "Comes a Horseman" and "Revelations 6:8" pair of episodes, paired with exactly the right song.

6. In Which Sophie Expresses Her Feelings In The Absence Of Weedkiller, by ryfkah Howl's Moving Castle, Howl/Sophie The vidder took on the challenge of using the movie's footage to make a vid about the book's version of the story, and did an incredible job! I adore this vid and how perfectly it captures Sophie and Howl and their relationship.

7. A Tune Like the End of the World, by frith_in_thorns Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, John Childermass Although I haven't seen the tv show, I have read the book it's based on a LOT, so I can more or less figure out which character is who in the visuals from context, lol. I love how good this vid is at getting the atmosphere of the story right; the atmosphere is such an important part of it!

8. Work This Body, by CherryIce Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, ensemble Just really encapsulates the sense of joy and fun that the movie is all about! I don't know what else to say about it, other than that I have rewatched this vid a ridiculous number of times and it keeps being fun. (Unfortunately the streaming version is no longer available, but it's still up for download!)

9. Let's Go (Young Men Dead), by sweetestdrain Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence The vid that got me to finally watch the movie, and discover how the movie, despite the various critiques it's worthwhile to make of it, is a really brilliant work of art. And the vid, too, is a brilliant work of art! SO many feelings. It's got the vibes just right, of this enormous, larger-than-life story and the relentless grinding-down of everyone involved, the inevitable despairing end to everything. The way it uses juxtaposition and empty spaces! I get emotional rewatching the vid even now, 8 years after watching the movie.

10. Parachute, by thingswithwings Leverage, Eliot/Hardison/Parker I may not have ever seen the show but I've read enough fanfic to be fully on board for this ot3, and this vid depicts them in the BEST way, the way they love and trust and like and rely on each other, and the joy they have in each other! And it does a beautiful job of highlighting each of the three sides of the triangle as well as the three of them all together, too.

11. Under Pressure, by violace The Martian, ensemble It's a vid about the way so many people come together to save Mark Watney: working together, hoping together, caring together, celebrating together. Still able to touch my cynical little heart in these days of looking at the world around me in despair. Humans WANT to help each other!

12. Landsailor, by raven multifandom, ensembles The vidder describes this vid as an "ode to infrastructure" and that's like. what it is! It's about people coming together to do the hard work of building something bigger than any one of them, and it's so joyful and inspiring, tbh! I am familiar with very few of the fandoms it includes but you don't need to know them to get the gist, to follow the story being told.

13. Oh No!!! by findmeinthealps Nirvana in Fire, Prince Yu Prince Yu has a very bad time in Nirvana in Fire and I love to see it, beautifully framed from his point of view in this vid. Yes I grinned all the way through it. Sorry Prince Yu!! (not sorry.)

14. At Last, by eruthros Salt Fat Acid Heat, Samin Nosrat/food The canon is a delightful 4-episode cooking show. This vid of it is set to the most schmaltzy of old-school love songs, and it is about how much JOY both good food and good friends bring, featuring many loving shots of food plus Samin Nosrat's expressive face, and I just melt into feelings.

15. Soccer Practice, by bironic Stargate: SGA, John/Ronon A silly, delightful vid about sexual innuendo between two bros. Serious and emotional fanvids are so good but sometimes it's great to just lol.

16. Tik Tok, by MissSheenie Star Trek: TOS, ensemble It's a classic for a reason. How could I not include it? As I recall, even Kesha agrees that this vid understands her song.

17. dirty work, by voordeel-ts Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi This vidder is one of the only ones I've seen who can include pieces of the original audio into a vid in a way that actually works for me, the audio incorporated into the music in rhythm so that it all feels of one piece. Their vids are always fast and stylish, and this one is no exception, as it takes a look at Obi-Wan and his use of violence.

18. Start a War, by ifshehadwings (sophie_448) The Untamed, Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao do a lot of their worst stuff behind the scenes, out of the view of the camera, and this vid does an amazing job of bringing that forward and making it legible, focusing on the horrible things each of them do in the name of fulfilling their goals. This is also an excellent example of a vid that uses a slow song and relatively slow cuts and yet never loses its intensity and forward momentum. Hats off!

19. a love that won't sit still, by Aria The Untamed, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian Just the perfect vid of wangxian from Lan Wangji's perspective? holy shit. What DO you do with a love that won't sit still or do what it's told?! And I love the way it incorporates the pain and difficulties of Wei Wuxian's death and the years without him, leading into that last quieter gentler repeat of the chorus that slowly builds back up again.

20. Lose My Breath, by deirdre_c White Nights, Kolya/Ray Sooooo I've never actually seen White Nights BUT. This vid is such a beautiful encapsulation of a relationship between two men being told through the medium of dance. And the way all the dancing and other physicality in the video is made to feel like it belongs with the vid's song is just so seamless! The way the whole thing just feels so grounded in their bodies and the way that the two of them play off each other! I could watch it forever.

21. Such A Loser, by sandalwoodbox Yuri!!! On Ice, ensemble The show made me care so much about all the skaters, and want all of them to win, which of course is impossible. But this vid uses a joke song from a parody music duo to somehow perfectly encapsulate the way that all the characters' striving is worth celebrating, whether they win or not. Super heartwarming!

22. Never Look Away, by helcinda Yuri on Ice, Viktor/Yuuri Wow, the experience of watching this ship vid is just me making a heart-eyes face at my computer screen the whole time. Highly recommend the experience!

[undying-lilies]

10 Reasons Why You Should Watch Le Corsaire (aka the pirate ballet)

it's a ballet about pirates

the costumes are so prettyyyy

the soundtrack? EPIC. you can definitely tell it's about pirates and I'm kinda obsessed with it

the two main characters are pirate captain Conrad and his fiesty girlfriend Medora, and the dancers playing them ALWAYS do such a good job at pretending to be in love

betrayals! plot twists! a random shipwreck at the end for some reason??

it's got the fairytale trope of a beautiful maiden falling asleep because of a poisoned object. Now you think it'd be Medora, but you're wrong. It's Conrad

there's a mutiny against Conrad because what pirate story is complete without a mutiny

it's based off of a poem, The Corsair, written by this dude named Lord Byron and it was apparently super popular back in the day. Like it sold ten thousand copies on release day. My favorite tidbit about the source material is that instead of being his girlfriend Medora is Conrad's WIFE she also died from grief because she thought he'd died but we're not going to talk about that

you can finally understand the origins of my beloved space pirate OCs (and if you have no idea who they are, feel free to send me an ask I will GLADLY ramble about them)

there's a free recording of it on YouTube :D

[fearsmagazine]

DREAMS OF DRACULA: AN IMMERSIVE VAMPIRE MASQUERADE Debuts This October in New York City

 Prepare to experience the legendary tale of Dracula like never before! This Halloween, Never More Immersive (the innovative theatrical experience production company), Bucket Listers (the popular media experience brand behind the New York Bucket List) and Musica, the largest nightclub in New York City have joined forces to recreate the storied Dracula universe as a brand new vampire theatrical.

Dreams of Dracula: An Immersive Masquerade Experience will feature two floors and six rooms across 25,000 square feet, a choose-your-own adventure journey through history’s most famous vampire. This innovative production of the beloved Bram Stoker classic will begin previews September 22nd and open October 4th in Hell’s Kitchen (Musica NYC: 637 W 50th Street, New York, NY 10019) and play through November 11th.

Guests are invited to step into the dreamtime, the shadow world between sleep, nightmares, and ecstasy. Bear witness to a secret society of the dark arts and explore a world beyond the borders of conscious reality: terror, forbidden desires, and hypnotic dreams await. Expect an evening that not only retells the gothic Dracula story, but encases it amongst the very Dark Romantic literary traditions that inspired Stoker himself. Walk through the darkness and come face to face with the likes of the Brides Of Dracula, or maybe even Mary Shelley and Lord Byron. Or take in the entrancing seductions of Dracula’s ballet as it unfolds around you. 

Dreams of Dracula is a heady mix of immersive theater, dance, and decadent masquerade. With the language and symbols of dreams woven throughout the show, guests might encounter having their own dreams analyzed, lend their hand in co-writing a gothic ghost story, or have a poem composed in tribute to their beauty. Guests 21+ will also be granted access into the Oscar Wilde Salon to imbibe in a variety of decadent themed cocktails where they will be entertained by Oscar and his very wilde friends! A custom Dreams of Dracula app built by Shivoo Studios will allow guests to further interact with their dreams as an augmented reality post experience after the show.

Friday and Saturday nights are Black Tie affairs. For all other performances, basic black will be required for admission. Fabulous gothic or Victorian costumes are also very much encouraged. All guests will be provided with their own mask based on their ticket level. Black masks for GA tickets, gold for VIP, and platinum for very special guests who purchase one of two private boxes available. Private boxes feature a luxurious private room graced with two way mirrors, so our box guests can watch the story unfolding, but remain unseen, in their own private space. The box also features bottle service, a dedicated attendant, and exclusive interactions with the cast. Tickets will be available exclusively through Bucket Listers. Join the waitlist now and be first to receive notification of on sale. Full ticket and show run details available here.

WHAT: Dreams of Dracula: An Immersive Masquerade Experience Written and Directed by Jonathan Albert and Nicole Coady Choreography by Arianne Meneses General Management by Mott/Fischer Productions WHERE: Musica NYC 637 W 50th Street, New York, NY 10019 WHEN: Previews begin: September 22nd Open: October 4th - November 11th DETAILS: Must be 18+ to enter. All sales are final. No refunds or exchanges. Be Warned: Hypnosis, tarot readings, scary tales, darkness, flashing lights, thunder, lightning, and blood will be a part of the experience