#melon is mostly water so it’s connected to the water theme

[earthsoulbarbie]

So what do we think the melon motif in Harrow the ninth means

[tedlyanderson]

Annotations for Adventure Time: Beginning of the End issue 3!

Did you enjoy my annotations for issue one and issue two of this miniseries? If so, good news! (If not, shove off!) I have annotations for the third issue, right here waiting for your lovely eyes! Obviously, as with the previous posts, this will have great big massive spoilers for the issue, so take that into consideration. Please enjoy, my pals!

Pages 2&3: Okay, there’s a lot to unpack on these pages, haha. First and foremost is a reference to something other than Adventure Time for once: Jake’s monologue on these pages is a loose reference to one of the very best issues of classic Fantastic Four, number 51, “This Man ... This Monster!” In that issue, among other events, Reed Richards travels through the Negative Zone and muses to himself about the nature of reality:

There are cameos on these pages from a bunch of the “cosmic” things of the AT universe, including the Catalyst Comet, the Lich, a copy of the Enchiridion,  Glob Grob Gob Grod, the Finn Sword, and Prismo (in a rare 3-dimensional appearance). There’s also a herd of Time Lards with clocks on their bellies.

Also in this image, note the most minor and in-jokey reference in this entire series: the satellite on the middle-left with the word “FELIS” on it. In the episode “Fionna and Cake and Fionna,” someone asks Ice King where he gets the ideas for his Fionna and Cake stories, and he replies that they’re “beamed into [his] melon every night.” Later that episode, we see him sleeping as a pink laser zaps into his head, carrying images of Fionna and Cake. I chose to interpret this as a reference to one of my favorite authors, Philip K. Dick, who believed that he was receiving knowledge in the form of an information-rich pink laser beam from a satellite called VALIS. So this satellite, FELIS (get it? like cats?), is the source of the Fionna and Cake stories—in my version of the universe, anyway.

Page 4, panel 4: Chronologius Rex declares that he is the lord of Time, not meatloaf. Meatloaf has been established multiple times as Finn’s favorite food.

Page 5: And here we come to the crux of this issue: Finn’s possible futures. Issue 1 of this series was about Finn’s past, issue 2 was about his present, so naturally issue 3 is all about his futures. Obviously none of these should be taken as “canon;” I just came up with three possible paths Finn might take based on what we’ve seen him do throughout the series. I’ll explain my thinking after the third sequence.

All three of the futures are color-coded—the Candy Knight future is pink, obviously.

Page 6: I love Mari’s designs for Queen Bubblegum—the high ‘80s shoulders are great! My suggestion for Old Peppermint Butler was that he be smoother and shinier, as if he’s a candy that’s been sucked on for too long.

In panel 2, the “Dinner Kingdom” is kind of a half-reference to the Breakfast Kingdom in present Ooo.

And in panel 5, note old Finn’s Jake medallion.

Page 7, panel 4: I am not sorry for the “bunch” of banana soldiers joke.

Page 8, panel 1: Beards are indeed a factor in many of Finn’s futures: pretty much every time we’ve seen an older or artificially-aged Finn, he’s got a beard of some sort. I continue the trend in this issue.

Page 8, panel 5: This is a futuristic version of Founders’ Island, the main human settlement outside of Ooo, fixed up and fully repaired. The implication is that Finn not only returned to the human islands, he also helped fix the place up.

The color scheme for the Teacher Finn future is blue, connecting with the water and sky surrounding them.

Page 9, panel 2: I love Teacher Finn’s design so, so much, you guys. I described him as a lovable old professor, someone with his mother’s compassion and his father’s roguish charm, and Mari knocked it out of the park. Note his Jake hat.

Page 9, panel 3: “Homies help homies: always!” is the Adventure Time philosophy in a nutshell.

Page 9, panel 5: Note that Finn is still using his old, trusty sword Scarlett in this future. She’s even more nicked and battle-scarred, but I’m sure she’s still good in a fight.

Page 10, panel 2: Dodging eggs while fighting was part of Finn’s training from Rattleballs in his eponymous episode.

Page 10, panel 2: When it came to Finn’s human wife, I told Mari to make her look a little bit like a human version of Flame Princess. I figured Finn if has a type, it’s her!

Page 11: The third and final possible future is the Space Captain Finn future, which is green-themed for no particular reason. This future is based on the idea that Finn and his Candy Kingdom pals team up with the remaining humans to build a spaceship to take them away from Earth, which is about as likely as anything else in Adventure Time, haha.

Everything in this sequence is of course heavily inspired by Star Trek: the Next Generation, a show that I love and grew up watching. The Minerva A.I. is the ship’s computer, obviously, warning of “excessive sparks detected on bridge.” Jake is Finn’s right-hand-man, just like Riker was to Picard (and Finn even calls him “numero uno,” like Picard’s “number one”). Lady Rainicorn is the equivalent of counselor Troi, Fern is a bit like Data, and Jake’s skateboarding granddaughter Bronwyn is the hotshot kid pilot, like Wesley. Princess Bubblegum is the engineering chief—she always struck me as preferring the role of scientist rather than royalty, frankly—assisted by Frieda and BMO. Flame Princess, upgraded to Plasma Princess, powers the ship as a whole. And Finn himself sports a beard similar to Commander Riker’s—which is appropriate, as a future version of Finn was voiced by Riker’s actor, Jonathan Frakes!

When coming up with these futures, I thought about what the Finn we knew might be most drawn to doing, and boiled it down to three major options: fighting and defending (the Candy Knight future), teaching and training (the Teacher Finn future), or exploring and leading (Space Captain Finn). For what it’s worth, I don’t really have a preference, or any opinions on which future is most likely—one of the strengths of Adventure Time has always been finding ways to surprise its audience with something that makes total sense in retrospect. If Finn does have a “canonical” future, it’s probably something I would never have thought of, but which makes perfect sense.

Page 11, panel 4: Princess Bubblegum yet again mentions “zanoits,” which are maybe some kind of mysterious particle? It’s a funny word and deserves to be used more often.

Page 12, panel 1: I mentioned in my annotations for the previous issue that I felt bad making Susan revert to her simpler speech patterns, since by this point in the series she’s perfectly capable of using big words. I tried to make it up to her by making her the ship’s communications officer, who would use big words all the time.

Additionally, the “Tuffbone sector” is a reference to Meredith Gran’s Adventure Time miniseries, Marceline: Gone Adrift. In that series, Marceline explores space and meets other races, including the Tuffbones, dog-like alien critters.

Page 12, panel 2: Note that Shelby (the worm who lives in Jake’s viola) is wearing a bandolier similar to Worf’s. I was particularly proud of that idea, haha.

Page 12, panel 4: Jake’s exclamation of “Outrageous!” is a reference to another role by his voice actor, John DiMaggio: it’s the catchphrase of Aquaman, from the Batman: the Brave and the Bold series.

Page 16, panel 3: A “dead world” is another bit of unexplored Adventure Time lore: they’re apparently where people go when they die, but they’re not quite the afterlife as we think of it? Or it is, but there’s a lot of them, like at least fifty? Unclear.

Page 16, panel 4: I had to work in the title of the show somehow.

Page 17, panel 3: I wanted to make sure I referenced my favorite song from the show, “Everything Stays” by Rebecca Sugar, and this seemed like the perfect time to bring it up, as Jake discusses the inevitability of change.

Page 17, panel 4: When I described this panel in the script, I specifically mentioned the series Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of the weirder depictions of the end of the world you can find. I love the image of the enormous stone blocks sinking into an endless sea.

Page 18, panel 5: Chronologius’s epithet for Jake, “starchild,” references Jake’s actual origin as a half-alien creature. I checked the dates, and apparently I finished the script for this issue just a couple weeks after the episode “Jake the Starchild” aired, in which Jake’s parentage was fully revealed.

Pages 20-21: Finn’s final “confrontation” with Chronologius might feel a bit underwhelming—essentially, all he does is convince Chronologius to give them an opportunity to escape. There’s no big battle, no war of wits; it’s already been established that Chronologius is basically invulnerable, so it’s not like Finn could beat him in a fight. It’s not terribly exciting, but that’s kind of the point: over the course of this issue, Chronologius becomes more sympathetic to Finn and his plight, particularly after seeing all the good he did (and might have done) in the world. So it’s less about beating up some big bad dude, and more about convincing someone to act like a pal. In a way, Finn beats Chronologius by making him into a friend.

Would it have been better if the ending was more exciting, action-packed, crazy-style? Maybe! Looking back on it, I feel like I could have given Mari more chances to do cool art stuff—the first half of this issue has some pretty far-out sequences and nifty new things to draw, but the second half is basically three characters talking against a mostly boring background. Thematically I feel like it’s better to have Finn succeed by befriending the villain, rather than just punching his lights out, but it definitely doesn’t have the same visual impact. Overall, I’m still proud of it, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be improved.

That’s it for issue three! Join me next time for—issue four?!? Yes! This three-part miniseries is in fact a four-part miniseries, ending with Finn and Jake’s adventures through time! Look forward to it, my chums!

[harveyrutter-blog]

Contemporary Art and Its Histories - Essay #1

In the first part of this essay, I will be introducing a piece of contemporary artwork, attributing it and discussing the artists’ use of materials and composition.

Au Naturel is a piece of work by the British artist Sarah Lucas, produced in 1994. The piece is 84 x 168 x 145cm in dimensions and made up of a mattress, a water bucket, melons, oranges and a cucumber. This particular piece is part of the Saatchi Collection.

Sarah Lucas graduated from Goldsmith’s College with a degree in Fine Art in 1987. Her work is well known for its visual puns, sexual themes and obvious humour. Lucas is associated with the generation of Young British Artists who came about in the 1990s, known for their use of found materials and shocking imagery which built up an excitement around their work. For example, some of the “leading YBA artists have preserved dead animals (Damien Hirst); crushed found objects with a steamroller (Cornelia Parker); appropriated objects from medical history (Christine Borland); presented her own bed as art (Tracey Emin)”. (Unknown, Tate.org).

The main component of the sculpture is a mattress, which appears to be old due to its stained, beige colour and worn in texture. The mattress is partly folded as it is slumped against the wall, with the other objects upon it. A cucumber and two oranges are arranged to depict male genitalia and the bucket and melons are arranged to depict the opposite, a vagina and two breasts . One of the most striking parts of this piece is the way that the mattress is slumped, propped up against a wall. This almost personifies the sculpture as it reflects the way the human body behaves whilst lounging in bed, making the sculpture come to life. A double mattress is a space used mostly by two people, so the viewer instantly reads in to the two sets of genitalia as two separate characters, further personifying the inanimate objects. As mirrored in a lot of work by the YBA generation, Lucas uses the composition of the piece to tell the story. The ‘female’ side of the work (where the melons and bucket are arranged) is slightly more reclined, with the open bucket pointing towards the viewer, suggesting that the female is ready for sexual activity (Greenough, K. 2012). The cucumber is directly upright, standing strong, suggesting further sexual arousal of the male character. As well as this, the ‘male’ side of the mattress is sat more upright, suggesting he is more awake than the female, which parodies the roles of men and women in sexual intercourse, the bedroom and more widely, popular culture (Greenough, K. 2012).

Lucas’s use of found objects, such as melons and a bucket, reference popular slang terms for female genitals. The artist is using these objects to ask the viewer of their association with them and leading us to question how sexuality is embedded in our language and why we (as humans, as British people, as sexual beings) associate everyday objects with such things (Greenough, K. 2012)  Like in a lot of her work, Lucas exaggerates and plays with the purpose and appearance of genitalia. In Chicken Knickers (1997, colour photograph on paper), the viewer is confronted with an image of the artists’ lower body, wearing white knickers with a chicken attached (Manchester, E. 2000). The chicken’s rear orifice is lined up with the artist’s vulva and therefore replacing it within the image. This connects a female body with meat/poultry and forces the viewer to see the female as a cold, naked, dead animal. Au Naturel, Chicken Knickers and a lot of other work by the other Young British Artists force us to think about taboo topics, therefore creating the shock factor associated with them. The viewer can’t help but be physically repulsed by the thought of sexual activity with a raw chicken, or be confused at how a cucumber would engage with a bucket.  

References Greenough, K. (2012). Project Women Artists. Available: https://keithguvc.wordpress.com/category/sarah-lucas/. Last accessed 15/03/2018. Manchester, E. (2000). Chicken Knickers. Available: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lucas-chicken-knickers-p78210. Last accessed 15/03/2018. Unknown. (Unknown). Young British Artists. Available: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/y/young-british-artists-ybas. Last accessed 15/03/2018.

Bibliography Unknown. (Unknown). Sarah Lucas Exhibited at The Saatchi Gallery. Available: http://www.saatchigallery.com/aipe/sarah_lucas.htm. Last accessed 15/03/2018 Unknown. (2018). Young British Artists. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_British_Artists. Last accessed 15/03/2018. Collings, M. (2002). Sarah Lucas. London: Tate Publishing. p81-84.

[ragwitch]

Birthday Cakes In Bars

Happy birthday to @idontgettechnology !! I hope your day is full of delicious treats and that this is one of them for you. <3s

Pairing: why it's Darcy/Steve shieldshock of course!!

Words: 1647

Rating: M for language and general shenaniganry

Darcy was working her way through the collection of naughty themed alcoholic drinks - she liked the name of Sex with An Alligator, but so far the Leg Spreader was her favorite - while the rest of her party hollered at the man who was rolling his stomach on the stage, slowly stripping out of his construction vest.

Darcy grinned as he revealed a little belly, furry and undefined, lights bouncing off the reflective tape on his orange vest.

Natasha had picked the venue. Called it ‘authentic’ which Darcy had squinted at until they’d pulled up in Pepper’s SI arranged limousine and the awning had declared it ‘Amateur Night.’ And it was kind of the cutest thing she’d ever seen. These guys were so earnest and nervous with the women cheering for them.

And earnest and nervous really did it for Darcy.

The construction worker - she was pretty sure he was an actual city construction worker who she’d passed on 11th in the past week or so - finished up in a pair of clean tighty whiteys, his tool belt, and work boots. Darcy giggled as she watched Maria Hill slip a twenty into the front of his belt as he thrusted and winked at her.

“I have a surprise for you.”

Darcy spun her chair to face Natasha who had slinked backstage a couple acts ago.

“Oh?” Darcy asked, and tried not to wince.

“I can see your eye twitching,” Natasha said. “Come sit at the front, please.”

She wanted to be a good sport about it, she really did. It wasn’t Natasha’s fault she didn’t know that Darcy had a perfectly good view waiting for her back at the Tower.

“I called in a favor,” Natasha said, as she pushed Darcy down into a chair at the very front of the audience.

The lights were dim on the stage as the announcer came over the loudspeaker.

“We have a very special performance tonight ladies and gentleman. A special group of fellas came all the way out to Brooklyn to make a birthday girl’s night just that much better. Daisy Lawerence-” Natasha winked at her with the name change, “-Here are…The Avengers!!”

The audience screamed behind Darcy, who sat stunned in the chair as the lights rose and a line of scantily clad men in chintzy Avengers masks stood on either side of an enormous sparkling birthday cake prop. Darcy blinked at the largest of the group. She knew that twelve pack. She’d seen it more than she really even wanted to, if that was something that could be said about Thor’s physique.

“How many favors did you call in?” Darcy asked as she realized that the men behind the masks were in fact The Avengers. Well, most of them.

And they were all thrusting their pelvises in a somewhat synchronized pattern in her direction. Sam had moves. Clint was hopeless, all flailing. And Bruce was … subdued but in time. Tony was maybe a little over enthusiastic. But Bucky and Thor were doing pretty well and Darcy was outrageously charmed by the winter soldier imitation sleeve covering Bucky’s real prosthetic.

And Natasha had choreographed something to Strange Times by the Black Keys which may not have been the sexiest song, but it was a favorite of hers and a fairly simple beat. Which Tony was adding a lot of flair to. Dear God. Pepper rushed the stage and Tony met her at the edge, squatting obscenely for her to tuck a hundred dollar bill into the waistband of his red and gold boxer briefs.

“Okay, you win,” Jane said across Darcy to Natasha, voice raising to be heard above the din of women behind them.

“Where’s the Captain?” Someone shouted from the back.

Yes, Darcy wondered. Where was Steve? She had a sneaking suspicion.

“Incoming,” Natasha whispered in her ear and then Bucky and Thor were both reaching down into the crowd to lift her up onto the stage.

Darcy tried to bury the cackling laugh as Bucky started grinding against her side and Thor turned his back to her to flex his ass cheeks in her direction. She couldn’t. It was a lost cause and she ended up snorting and hiding her face behind her hands as they traded places with Clint and Bruce. Bruce patted her sympathetically on the arm as Tony and Sam sandwiched her between both of them. Tony was grunting in concentration as he worked out an elaborate routine against her.

“Oh my god,” Darcy said, mostly to herself, trying to see through the stage lights to find Natasha.

“Up onto the cake, Darce,” Sam said into her ear, lending her a hand as she walked up the layers of the cake - red, white, and blue, with fancy little LED candles that shifted colors.

Sure enough, at the top, Steve’s shield sat, facing up, and wavering slightly with his movements below. She bit her lip as the music kicked up a beat, and the shield tilted up, revealing Steve wincing out of his Captain America cowl, blush spreading out and down his neck.

“You’re supposed to come out,” she said, trying to fight her grin.

He grimaced but started shimmying up out of the interior of the cake. The room exploded beyond them with sound, screams. Dollar bills fluttered through the air to land on the stage, and Clint was quick to crawl around and gather them up.

“Do you want to come in instead?” Steve asked, as his now extremely shiny pectorals peeked up out of the brim of the cake. She couldn’t hear much of the words but she could see them on his lips and the nervous glance he gave the audience.

She held her hand out to him and waggled her eyebrows.

The song was almost over. And the money on the stage was either going to be buying her birthday drinks or - more likely - going to charity.

Steve sighed and rose up, revealing miles of tanned, buffed, oiled skin and the smallest and most patriotic male thong she had ever seen.

“Oh god, yes,” she said, opening her eyes wide and covering her mouth with her hand. Natasha had bedazzled it. She was positive that this was Natasha’s work.

Steve’s hips were swirling, or attempting to, the motions slightly stiff and jerky. Darcy leaned into him, pressing her lips to his ear so he could hear her over the din. “You’re usually a little more into this part.”

Steve leaned back to give her a narrowed eye look before stepping out onto the first cake tier and crowding into her personal space, his thighs bracketing hers on the narrow step. He placed the shield in front of them, boos rising up from the crowd, and proceeded to raise a blush up Darcy’s neck and cheeks for the last few seconds of the song.

“Can I get a Quick Fuck?” Darcy asked, sliding up next to Steve at the bar and pointing up at the billboard above them.

Steve stared at her as the bartender nodded. He’d appeared in the crowd a safe amount of time after his debut on stage and while he was definitely getting attention from almost every woman in the bar in his jeans and stupidly fitted shirt no one seemed to connect him to her cake topper performer.

“It’s a drink,” she said, smiling at him.

He raised one eyebrow. “Natasha thinks you have a crush on me.”

Darcy grinned. “Well, we knew she was observant. That’s why she talked you into doing this?”

Steve turned his smile down to the bar and nodded.

“Well it’s a great gift, thank you,” she said, and she tapped her hip against his where he sat.

“That’s not my gift,” he said, turning on the bar stool and stretching a leg out to the empty seat next to him so she was trapped between him and the bar.

“Oh yeah?” she asked.

He nodded slowly. “My gift was going to be a private strip tease.”

“Well this may have been public but it wasn’t too far off,” she said.

The layered shot slid across the bar to Darcy and Steve signaled for it to go on his tab.

“Oh I wasn’t going to be the one stripping,” he said, his cheeks pinking even as his stare on her face made the room feel about ten degrees hotter than it had a minute ago. “But I promise you would have enjoyed it.”

“Lemme get this straight,” she said, turning and taking a step closer. “I strip. You tease?”

“I’ll do more than tease, Darce,” he said. Then he stole her drink, shooting it back with one quick motion. He set the glass back down on the bar and quirked an eyebrow, “Is that melon?”

“Midori. I’ve been drinking a lot of Leg Spreaders,” she admitted. “Wanted to stick with the flavor.”

He blinked. “Umm…Well, I had an idea but…I mean, should it wait till tomorrow? I don’t want to take advantage.”

She shook her head quickly. “Nope. No. Nope. I drank more water than alcohol and I’ve been looking forward to birthday sex all night. This super hot Captain America impersonator got me all worked up on stage.”

“Can’t have been as good as the real thing,” Steve said, forcing a frown.

“Well no, but I liked his outfit.”

“Right then,” he said, dropping a generous bill on the bar counter and standing, hand pooling heat on her lower her back as he filled up the space around her with the warm coconut smell left on his skin from the oil. “I know where to find a fairly discreet dressing room backstage.”

“Natasha is very observant,” she warned. “We probably won’t be a secret if you give me a birthday fuck in a dressing room.”

Steve shrugged. “But do you wanna?”

Of course she wanted to.