#mitchell’s arts and crafts

[humanransome-note]

last day of work at michaels

wore a skirt and bodice because it has been hot and my back has been hurting

the new guy (my replacement) saw me walk in wearing a 25yd skirt with tittes actually supported did a double take

this very much has to do with the fact my name is exclusively masc and I haven't worn a skirt since march

he later told me he thought i was exaggerating the heat being a factor in my quitting, he was proven wrong

damn near every customer i rang up during my 4 hour shift said something about the store being too hot

three walked out because it was too uncomfortable to shop

during my 15 I went to the petsmart next door to get an energy drink and some working AC a dude in the parking lot was jamming to Never Gonna Give you Up in a dark blue ford explorer

a coworker fell into the pedro pit on her own time (Narcos and TLoU) and saw my phone lockscreen (a collage of Pedro from the WIRED shoot)

I told her which season of GoT he was in and told her if she does watch it just stop before the fight with the mountain

Also told her about strange way of life, she seemed intrigued

I have before this interaction, said in earshot of this coworker smth along the lines of "I wanna give him head so bad."

so she was already well aware of my opinion of that 48yr man

a customer was looking for ribbon and couldn't find what she was looking for, when I suggested the JoAnn about 20min N she said she was already there

she then asked if H*bby L*bby would have any and i said I don't know, I've never been, and i don't think they'd want me in there anyway my nearby manager (the cool one) snorted

cool manager asked if i knew what I was gonna do, and when I said not rn, and that i may come back she said not to

i then explained my reasoning for leaving the door to this job open and she was like "okay, fair." to give you an idea of what the employees think of the place

I tried telling a different manager that a few customers left because of the heat but she wouldn't listen

had to find cool manager and explain that telling the right person that money is being lost may make shit get fixed faster

cool manager and several coworkers made a card (notably the SM, the one who pulled the last straw, did not sign it)

knee jerk thought was that she wasn't in today, but someone who wasn't in today signed it too so :i

anyway i am now unemployeed im gonna not care for the next 2-3 days before I start looking in serious earnest

[ozarknativethreads]

Stardust

[bloodlikedrops]

Introductions, am I right?

Yes that’s duct tape and yes there’s a reason for it

[humanransome-note]

We’ve got at least four vrs of rockin around the Christmas tree that all play within an hour of each other

Also, has the Christmas music gotten to you yet? Or has the coughing been blocking it out?

had to listen to eight hours of christmas music yesterday while forcing myself to not cough and continuously ruin my throat even more because I had to shout "thank you for your patience" like every thirty minutes BUT i took today off because i felt SO horrible after yesterday

[fandomsandfeminism]

When people look at abstract art and go "uh I could make that"

Fuck, I wish you would!

I wish you would let this inspire you. I wish that seeing a piece of abstract art would move you to self expression.

I wish you would go to the craft store, buy a cheap canvas and some cheap paint and let yourself play with color and form just to see if you can.

I wish that there were more amateur painters, trying their hand at geometric abstraction and color field painting. That would be so fucking cool.

"I could make that" should be a joyous revelation, not a snarky dismissal.

You could make that? Holy shit. please. Please make that.

Jack Bush

Kenneth Noland

Piet Mondrain

Pat Lipsky

Joan Mitchell

Helen Frankenthaler

Kikuo Saito

Marilyn Kirsch

Mark Rothko

Adolph Gottlieb

[betterbooktitles]

When my father could think of nothing to add to a funny or odd moment in a conservation, he’d let out a sarcastic “Nothing but the best.”

When a drunk guy on the street swore at us and made lewd gestures as we walked to get dinner in Cleveland one night, he looked over and said nothing but the best. When I showed him a particularly insane clip from Wondershowzen he liked, nothing but the best.

It was rare, however, that he had nothing to add, argue, or joke about when talking to me.

The last time I was able to have a long conversation with my dad, he told me he thought his personal knowledge base had a few spots of depth but that he didn’t know much. It was a rare moment of self-pity, one I felt was unearned since he was a person who knew a lot about everything. I challenged him. I began listing stories he told me about writers, actors, politicians, about history and economics. He knew about petty arguments Joni Mitchel had with her managers in the 60s. He explained the 2008 financial crisis to me in under a minute (likely during one of his furlough days when the government was shut down). He taped avant-garde short films on VHS so we could watch them together on the weekends. That’s how I ended up seeing Maya Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon” before entering high school, let alone a film course. His favorite short was “Down Rusty Down,” an Australian black-and-white comedy from 1997 where humans play various dogs in a neighborhood. We watched it for the first time together but he asked me 50 times over the last few years if I’d ever seen it. I wanted to scream every time that I was there with him for his entire indie cinema phase! Our shared movie viewings started when I was a child when he forced me to watch All That Jazz and Die Hard (inappropriate movies to watch with your kid) and ended around 2001 when we watched Y Tu Mama Tambien (an inappropriate movie to watch with your parent). It made me feel better that he didn’t even remember I was with him on this art house movie rabbit hole because it meant he liked it on his own, whether his kids did or not. He liked paintings, he hated musicals, he liked cooking and got better from my middle school years on. He subscribed to specific guitarists’ Patreon pages during the lockdown and watched his favorite musicians explain how they wrote old songs.

When my grandfather died, my brother told me what he thought makes a great dad. “It’s doing stuff you don’t want to do for your kids.” This was before he had kids of his own. He seems to enjoy attending as many of my nieces’ volleyball games as he can.

What my brother meant was that the sign of a good father was the ability to engage in your kids’ interests rather than strictly engaging in your own. Our dad was not a basketball player, but I have memories of him teaching me in our driveway how to box out. When my brother decided to become a CPA, my dad took accounting classes online so he could understand what my brother was talking about when he visited. He came to every play I was in from the age of 6, including shows I did in college that were, I’m sure, not to his taste. He gave notes on scripts and stories I wrote, he played guitar with me, he helped brainstorm ways to get an agent with me. He would preface each piece of advice with “I don’t really know how any of this works” and then make cogent, informed arguments about what I should do next. He treated every interest his kids and grandkids had like a hobby of his own.

When he was not busy being a dad, cheering in the stands of a football game or clapping in the audience of a play or in the kitchen making dinner for his wife and kids, he was reading, exploring, and finding tolerable classical music to listen to and share with all of us. He didn’t merely love the act of reading, he liked fiction specifically. He liked finding out about the craft of writing. He worked on novels and stories of his own after retirement. He liked comedy. His knowledge of it was specific and enigmatic. After taking a few pictures at the house of my friends and our homecoming dates, he asked where we were taking the girls for dinner. “Buca di Beppo,” I said (because I know how to treat a lady), and my dad said “oh, that’s where Phil Hartman’s wife got drunk for hours before going home and shooting him.” “Thank you, Dad. That’s a great icebreaker.”

When I got into stand-up myself, he pitched me jokes and essay prompts via email, even when he was ill. His last email to me was to let me know he thought a big break was approaching for me and that he and my mom did not sit up at night worrying that I couldn’t make it in comedy. "We have faith in your work and talent.”

One day, inspired by some mystery itch that came from no one in his family, my father started digging a hole in the backyard. He read through a tiny yellow pamphlet on how to build a pond, and with no help (certainly not from his kids, and before the days of YouTube), he made a mosquito-free pond in our yard. He put in fish that survived winters, he put in tadpoles that became frogs and hopped into neighbors’ yards. One morning, he came outside and discovered a giant crane hunting one of his frogs. He’d made an entire ecosystem thanks to one afternoon of reading and following through on a whim.

That’s what I’ll remember about him. Not strictly the things he did his damnedest to enjoy for us, but what he enjoyed.

He was married to my mother for 49 years. He studied city planning and managed to find work in his field. He focused on fighting for affordable housing and revitalizing neighborhoods including Ohio City where we lived for most of my teens. He was a good dad because he engaged in the stuff his kids and wife liked even when he disliked it (that included moving from the city to the suburbs for a time). But he was a great dad and friend because he managed to get me interested in what he liked. He took the time to listen, to watch, to talk. He let me know how much joy he took in his work. He let us know how much he loved being a dad and grandfather.

When I think of what he could have done better, I can’t come up with anything to say. He gave us nothing but his best.

[chillyfeetsteak]

regarding the rally last saturday, here is a write up from The Hollywood Reporter. I've copied the text behind the cut:

As industry workers face layoffs, outsourcing and the specter of artificial intelligence, leaders of the union painted this year's bargaining cycle as a "do or die" moment.

Katie Kilkenny

AUGUST 10, 2024 11:00PM PDT

Animation workers and supporters argued that recent technological and business shifts have left their craft hanging in the balance during a packed union rally in Burbank on Saturday, with one speaker positing that “the American animation industry is at stake.”

The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) organized the event before it heads into bargaining over a new three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers that will tackle hot-button issues like AI and outsourcing. Gathering at the parking lot of IATSE Local 80 in sweltering, mid-80-degree heat, attendees heard from guild leaders, local politicians, rank-and-file workers and a few boldfaced names (director Guillermo del Toro sent a rallying cry, telling the workers to “fight like hell”), who emphasized the urgency and stakes of this year’s talks.

The overall message was summed up by union president Jeanette Moreno King (Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe): “We’re at a crossroads in this industry with uncertainties we haven’t faced before,” she told the audience, adding, “We’re not just defending our jobs, we’re defending the soul of this industry."

Top of mind for both attendees and speakers was the threat of generative AI to animation workers. Addressing the audience, emcee Mike Rianda compared the plot of his 2021 film The Mitchells vs. the Machines to the situation that today’s union members face. “It’s funny that I’m [now] part of a group of actual human underdogs who are fighting a very real threat of robot replacement with AI,” he joked. Legendary character animator James Baxter (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) emphasized in a short speech that art is made by humans. “If someone tells you that AI is just another tool, is just another paintbrush, they are wrong,” he said.

Talks are set to begin at the Sherman Oaks offices of the AMPTP on Monday and last through Friday, which is the final day of the union’s current contract extension.

In an interview at the event with The Hollywood Reporter, negotiating committee member and writer Joey Clift (PAW Patrol, Spirit Rangers) asserted that the union was fighting for the careers of current and future animation workers. “This really, for us, feels like a do-or-die negotiation cycle,” he said.

Dual Writers Guild of America and Animation Guild member Bill Wolkoff (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts), who has been a member of the latter union since 2009, emphasized that he had never seen animation workers so fired up. “This is the most engaged I’ve ever seen TAG members before, and I’m very excited to be out here for that reason and be a part of that,” he said.

The crowd at Saturday’s event was notably larger than the one attending a similar rally organized by the guild two years ago, during its last round of contract negotiations. While attendance numbers were not immediately available, according to negotiating committee member Clift, this year the union had over 2,000 RSVPs as of Friday, which more than doubles the crowd of the 2022 event.

It also had an engaged audience. Rock, Paper, Scissors writer Julia Prescott got a hearty response during a speech stating that if the union doesn’t make major changes to the contract now, it won’t have another chance. “The American animation industry is at stake and the drawing kid from your childhood is not going down without a fight,” she said. Storyboard artists Nora Meek and Charlie Jackson (The Patrick Star Show) also drew attention for their joint address. “What we’re going to win in this contract is more than just slowing down the race to the bottom. We’re going to win our industry back,” said Jackson.

Packing in the f-bombs, Writers Guild of America West board member Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything) drew loud applause during his speech to the group. He advocated for animation workers not to seek out the respect of companies during the negotiations. “You do not need their respect because they will never give it to you,” he said. “Their respect doesn’t matter. What matters is your respect for yourself. And if you respect yourself enough to say, ‘You know what, I will not work for you until I get what I deserve,’ then you will fucking win.”

[caswarrenart]

I know a lot of artists are antsy about art theft right now (myself included, I literally just had a terrible nightmare about fighting the physical manifestation of AI, The Mitchells vs The Machines style…). I can’t claim that any of these things can prevent it. But here’s a few things I’ve found useful:

Opening a free account on Pixsy.com. This website does a decent job at letting me know when my images have been reposted. 99% of the time, the results are just Tumblr-copying zombie websites that just repost everything that is already here. But, it’s sensitive enough that it alerted me when my old college posted my work. They were harmlessly using my stuff as an example of alumni work- but I was glad to be in the know, AND they had mistakenly credited my deadname, so I was able to reach out and correct that. I would have never have seen it otherwise. The website has subscription options, but you can ignore them and still use the monitoring services it provides.

Reverse image searching my most widely shared pieces on haveibeentrained.com. This website checks to see if your work has been fed to AI.

Looking up legal takedown letters and referencing them to draft a generic letter for my own use. This takes a bit of the stress off what is already a stressful and often time-consuming ordeal. Taking time to craft a Very Scary, Legally Threatening, Yet Coldly Professional Memo has been worth it.

Remaining careful about what and how I post online. My living depends on sharing my work, so I have to post it. I’ve learned through trial and error how to post lower resolution images that still look good, but aren’t easily used for anything beyond the intended post, and of course, strategic watermarking. Never, ever post full res, print quality stuff for the general public. Half the time it ends up looking unflattering on social media anyways, cause the files get crunched for being large. I try to downsize my images, while set to bicubic smoothening, to head that off. Look up the optimal image resolutions and proportions for individual sites before posting your web versions. For some work, cropping the piece, or posting chunks of detail shots instead of a full view, is a more protective measure.

Look out for other artists! Reach out when in doubt. Don’t steal from others. Learn the difference between theft, and a study/master copy/fanart/inspiration. Don’t assume that all posted art has the same intended purpose as a “how to” instructional like 5 Minute Crafts. Ask permission. Artists are often helpful and supportive towards people who want to study their work! And, the best tip-offs I’ve received have all been from other people who were watching my back. Thank you to everybody who keeps an eye out for my work, and who have been thoughtful enough to reach out to me when they see theft happening 💖 y’all are the real MVPs. All we have is each other.

[eerna]

i’ve been back on my hadestown bullshit (listening to the album on repeat) and you make such good points about the lyrics being dumbed down and how it does a disservice to the narrative and characters. it’s such an artful, creative show that constantly adapts and changes so why not take some risks with lyrics that may take a few times to sink in? that’s the beauty of listening to it through many times. i catch something new that just punches me in the gut each time (also love your hadestown art it’s so good)

Thank youuu glad you like my stuff :3 Yeah!! I think ultimately it comes down to two things, confidence and Broadway requirements. Anais Mitchell isn't hiding how much she struggled writing the show and balancing between artsy, well crafted, and understandable. She also stated many things have been cut because the show was too long for Broadway and they were required to trim it. To both I say, HUH?? First off, Anais Mitchell honed her craft to perfection. No other musical ever managed to drive me to tears with moodsetting "oohs". She wrote a godly love song that sounds like a godly love song. She deserves all the confidence in the WORLD. But she also never hid that Hadestown is a very personal story influenced by her experience as a free artist, so on the other hand, I totally get that no amount of success can ever truly heal your inner critic, and she will always keep trying to adjust her work. As for the second point, I know at least some of the dumbing down is because the audiences complained. I saw Hadestown live 5 years after seeing a bootleg of it, and in those 5 years they added so many cheap jokes and dishonest tension breaks it is Crazy. But I DID notice in older bootlegs that people laughed at inappropriate times, they seemed like they expected something funny to be happening in every scene because they went to a musical and so picked some really weird spots, which doesn't happen in any of the recordings of the new jokey edition. So in dumbing itself down, the musical mamaged to become more understandable to the audience at large. In fact, even after all the changes, at the theater I overheard people talking in the pause, and they agreed the show is "too confusing" and "they can't tell what exactly is happening and if it is real or not". I can imagine that is a frustrating experience when you paid a good chunk of money to see a show, but also bro, google is Right There. Most people just don't have the will to sit down and listen to a pretty piece of media multiple times to figure it out! And sadly shows can't survive only on those who do! To bring this long ramble to a close, we are right back to art existing under capitalism and how one can't simply make GOOD art, they need to make PROFITABLE art, and that is pretty sucky

[not-quite-normal]

you said you'd keep working on lord and miller films - what's your reason for that if you don't mind me asking? just that everyone seems to be saying that the working conditions were awful

haha no you're right for asking, it's a fair question x) i've always been someone that needs to care about the thing i'm working on, i've tried turning my brain off to work on stuff i don't find interesting and it made me miserable. lord and miller movies are hard but they're the movies i'm most proud to have been a part of (both spiderverses and the mitchells vs the machines). they always strive for something fresh and new for the animated movies that they produce, in both story and visuals, making it a rare challenge as an animator to work on something so complex. this might just be me trying to rationalize it haha but i really do feel like it made me a better animator and stronger communicator after having to deal with so much craziness. i learned a lot about crafting a story from seeing the kinds of changes they made too, which is usually mostly locked by the time shots get to anim lol, but we actually played a larger part in building the story than anim usually does

it's hard to write this without sounding like i'm defending their process, i'm not. it can and should be improved to make it easier on the crew's self esteem and well-being. but i just like working on cool challenging things, and they just keep making cool challenging things that i want to work on

like, at the end of the day, spiderverse is an insanely amazing thing to have been a part of creating. seeing how much it's had an impact on animation history and the art community makes it all worth it. it was an enormous group effort made possible by more than just two people and i love working alongside some of the most talented and hard-working people i've ever met

[kvothes]

poems that make me think of deancas; art that makes me think of angel trueforms

red vitruvian man III, 2014 by william anastasi / sappho trans. anne carson / naked domestic crafts, 1964 by asger jorn / the rip XV by jacob van loon / magdalene: the addict by marie howe / untitled, c. 1967 by joan mitchell / fuji series by gerhard richter

[humanransome-note]

in a little over a week I will no longer be employed and hopefully the tension headache goes away and my hair stops falling out

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

AUDIO STORY

The Emergence of Joni Mitchell

"The Emergence of Joni Mitchell," is a two-hour examination of one of the most heralded songwriters of her time. In this third installment of his series on the seminal work of important figures in popular music, Ingles and his guests explore how Joni Mitchell crafted her artistry and connected with audiences over four decades. Mitchell put the experience of being a woman and being human on artful display through her blatantly honest and confessional lyrics, innovative open guitar tunings and jazz-inflected vocals. The program focuses on Mitchell's key releases to illuminate the musicianship of the woman "Rolling Stone" called "one of rock's most daring and uncompromising innovators."

By mixing Mitchell's music from these pivotal moments with informed commentary from musicians, fans, music critics and archival interviews with Mitchell herself, "The Emergence of Joni Mitchell" articulates what music lovers have found so compelling about this thoughtful and innovative writer and performer. Over 50 Mitchell songs are featured. Special guests include music writers Ann Powers, Anthony DeCurtis, Paul Zollo, Lydia Hutchinson and Holly George-Warren. Also featured are musicians Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplansky and others.

The two hour version is adaptable to a newscast necessary clock.

[popnrockinsorcerer]

Hello and Welcome to my library !

Hihi ! I'm Lyon, and this is my SetoSorcerer themed account! I'm 21 years old and I use He/It pronouns! This account is to get me introduced to actually posting here on tumblr, as well as find more people that are into Team Crafted !

The Current Icon Is Made By - @nomagicartz

This account will be posting about minecraft youtubers from 2013, and so there will be a whole bunch of sorted tags so you can find each youtuber and posts related to them easily!

Of course I do want to state that there WILL be posts about the youtubers themselves but there will also be posts about ocs that I have made that are based on these youtubers! There will be tags that separate the ocs from the actual youtuber, and when i say youtuber I am talking about the personas that the youtubers have made online for their fans to enjoy!

CW : I will be discussing shipping if i do talk with other people, (SetoMU, Skylox, ECT!), and these are the personas, as shipping irl people is....hrgrh... a bit gross

The Tags that will be on this blog are as below, (And this will be updated if I remember)

Personal Tags : #Lyon Talks, #Lyon Art

Reblog Tags : #Queue, #Reblog, #Minecraft, #TeamCrafted

Youtuber Tags : #Youtuber, #Skydoesminecraft, #Deadlox, #MinecraftUniverse, #Ssundee, #HuskyMudkipz, #SetoSorcerer, #BajanCanadian, #JeromeASF

OC Tags : #Cringefest OC, #Sky Oraka, #Tyler Tenebris, #Jason Ulkar, #Ian Dulcis, #Quentin Amanki, #Seto Sokai, #Mitchell Dulcis, #Jerome Rorshark

ONCE AGAIN !! These are personas and ocs I will be posting about! This blog is good fun and shouldn't be taken all that seriously! :]

[pokefancar2525]

Emotional Shopping for Baby Stuff

Shopping Day! Here is a list of items you need for the baby emotionlings: diapers, baby food, milk formula, baby wipes, baby powder, baby shampoo, bubble bath soap, baby clothes, toys, crafts and arts and snacks.

Diaper stuff 🧷: if you run out of diapers, there are either more in the diaper bag or you buy some more at a store. You could get any colors and patterns the kids like; blue and teal for boys and pink and purple for girls and white for both. You should get a few packs of diapers, a couple packs of baby wipes and a couple of baby powders.

Baby food 🥝: Here is an assortment of baby food at the baby stuff aisle. Well, I don't think baby Disgust will agree for mushy peas or broccoli 🥦 because she will spit it out if she eats it, baby Anxiety and baby Envy would smear the puree like finger painting, baby Anger will throw his bowl of puree at you, on the floor and across the room, and even baby Ennui would prefer the prune puree instead of the other kinds.

Baby Formula 🍼: And also you could get some baby formula instead of cow's milk to pour into the bottles and add warm water in them. And please don't leave the bottles out because the formula will go bad and the babies will be sick if they drink the expired formula. Buy some baby bottles and sippy cups, too.

Baby toys 🧸🪀🖍️: baby Ennui loves to play the ones with batteries on them; but if the battery inside of a toy dies out, she'll get fussy and you have to buy those too. Baby Anxiety, baby Joy, and baby Envy loved finger painting and you can get some building blocks, LEGOs, shape blocks, and ABC blocks for the kiddos, including baby Anger who loves to crash and ram into the blocks and play with the LEGOs. Baby Disgust and baby Envy play with the dolls for tea parties, and baby Embarrassment, baby Fear, and baby Sadness love to snuggle with stuffed animals. Baby Anger loves playing with toy cars, toy dinosaurs, and toy planes while baby Embarrassment likes to play with toy trains. You would buy a bouncy ball as well.

Baby bath supplies 🫧🧼: don't forget to buy some more baby shampoo and bubble baths for the little emotionlings to take baths.

[margotfonteyns]

Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-portrait, c. 1896

“When Johnston created the striking self-portrait illustrated here, she was about thirty-two and had been a successful practitioner of her craft for some seven years. A woman of substance, she is surrounded by her collection of art objects and photographs and holds a cigarette in one hand, a beer stein in the other. She sits with one leg crossed jauntily over a knee, calves and petticoats showing; yet her clothing is not provocative, her expression not seductive. Johnston never married; she smoked, drank, and had Bohemian as well as socially prominent friends. The cigarette and beer stein are not arbitrary props but reflect real aspects of her life. Her faint smile and the flaunting manner in which she displays these attributes indicate that she has quite consciously selected aspects of behavior the conservative viewer would deem outrageous in a woman. In control of her image and her pleasures, she defies social conventions yet retains her hearth and other rewards of middle-class life.” -- Dolores Mitchell