#patricia nash

[teeneebug]

https://poshmark.com/listing/Patricia-Nash-Italian-Leather-Wristlet-Zipper-Pouch-with-Vintage-Travel-Print-655a85566cb777e1712166e6

[buxombeauty]

I'm Still Learning to Love Myself: Confessions of a Self-Love Advocate

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 KJV Have you ever had to rebuke yourself? Well, I have. As a matter of fact, I did it several times over the past two…

[mattoidmeerkat]

Found Family Thursday Week 1 (1x01 - 1x04)

[Image ID: six found family gifs from the first four episodes of Season 1

GIF 1: In the Pilot, Bobby, Chimney, and Hen are sitting at the dining table at the firehouse. Chimney hands Bobby a bowl. Bobby is looking for a spoon.

GIF 2: In Let Go, Athena and Buck are sitting at the firehouse dining table. Hen and Bobby are sitting down next to them while Chimney is picking up his mug from the kitchen island before joining them.

GIF 3: In Let Go, Abby is dining out with her mother and Carla.

GIF 4: In Next of Kin, Bobby is holding a severely injured Chimney's hand. Chimney give him a thumbs up at which Bobby laughs.

GIF 5: In Next of Kin, Bobby, Hen, and Buck are sitting around Chimney's hospital talking and laughing while the camera pans out.

GIF 6: In Worst Day Ever, a desolate Bobby is sitting on his couch wearing his bathrobe while Hen and Buck sit to either side of him providing comfort.

/end ID]

[theambermycophile]

This is my favorite mushrooming outfit. 🤍 My dad made my morel mushroom stick, and I couldn't love it more! I use it every single hike, and that's a LOT!

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[ellswritings]

Masterlist ;)

*= smut

The Hunger Games

Imagines

Finnick Odair

Wasting All These Tears On You

Peeta Mellark

They Don't Know About Us

Katniss Everdeen

Johanna Mason

Haymitch Abernathy

Cato Hadley

Marvel Sanford

Clove Kent

Coriolanus Snow

Sejanus Plinth

Series

none yet :(

Teen Wolf

Imagines

Scott McCall

Stiles Stilinski

Derek Hale

Jealousy, Jealousy

Peter Hale

Chris Argent

Lydia Martin

Issac Lahey

Allison Argent

Malia Hale/Tate

Liam Dunbar

Kira Yukimara

Series

Lupus Nox- S1 Cast, Prologue, S1 E1, S1 E2, S1 E3, S1 E4, S1 E5, S1 E6, S1 E7, S1 E8,

The Maze Runner

Imagines

Thomas

Newt

Minho

Gally

Aris

Brenda

Sonya

Harriet

Series

none yet :(

Marvel

Imagines

Steve Rogers

Sparks Fly

Tony Stark

Bucky Barnes

Loki Laufeyson

Natasha Romanoff

Clint Barton

Logan Howlett

Peter Quill

Misery Loves Company

Gamora Ben Titan

Peter Parker

Peter Parker (TASM)

Thor Odinson

Michelle Jones-Watson

Wanda Maximoff

Pietro Maximoff

Series

none yet :(

Once Upon A Time

Imagines

Regina Mills

Emma Swan

Killian Jones

David Nolan/Prince Charming

Peter Pan

Rumplestiltskin

Neal Cassidy/Baelfire

Series

none yet :(

Bridgerton

Imagines

Anthony Bridgerton

How To Be A Heartbreaker

Colin Bridgerton

Benedict Bridgerton

King George

Simon Bassett

Eloise Bridgerton

Series

none yet :(

Harry Potter

Imagines

Harry Potter

Ron Weasley

Hermoine Granger

Fred Weasley

George Weasley

Remus Lupin

Sirius Black

James Potter

Draco Malfoy

Lucius Malfoy

Tom Riddle

Luna Lovegood

Bellatrix Lestrange

Series

none yet :(

Glee

Imagines

Finn Hudson

Sam Evans

Jesse St. James

Quinn Fabray

Santana Lopez

Brittany S. Pierce

Rachel Berry

Mercedes Jones

Mike Chang

Noah Puckerman

Series

none yet :(

Criminal Minds

Imagines

Aaron Hotchner

Undercover Heat

Spencer Reid

Derek Morgan

No Place Like Home

Emily Prentiss

Jennifer Jareau

Matthew Simmons

Luke Alves

Kate Callahan

Series

none yet :(

9-1-1

Imagines

Evan 'Buck" Buckley

Eddie Diaz

Bobby Nash

Athena Grant

Howard 'Chimney' Han

Maddie Buckley

Series

none yet :(

Gossip Girl

Imagines

Chuck Bass

Nate Archibald

Dan Humphrey

Serena Van Der Woodsen

Blair Waldorf

Carter Baizen

Series

none yet :(

Pitch Perfect

Imagines

Jesse Swanson

The Flirting Game

Beca Mitchell

Chloe Beale

Bumper Allen

Cynthia Rose

Benji Applebaum

Donald Walsh

Fat Amy/Patricia Hobart

Series

none yet :(

Miscellaneous

Chandler Bing

New Years Eve

[hooked-on-elvis]

Saturday, August 18, 1956: Elvis at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, by photographer Ed Braslaff

The "Rooftop Glamour" photo shoot 🥹

MARTY LACKER "On those first two movies, Elvis stayed at the Hollywood Knickerbocker, on Ivar Avenue. His parents went, too. Elvis rented the whole eleventh floor. He'd sit up there and write his name in lighter fluid on the glass-top coffee table, and then set it on fire, watch it blaze. Girls remember stuff like that. Then, for "Loving You", he moved to the Beverly Wilshire. That was his home in Hollywood until he started renting houses in the sixties." — As told on "Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia" by Alanna Nash

Principal filming on "The Reno Brothers" (original title for "Love Me Tender" movie) began August 22, in Hollywood, and finished up on September 21, 1956. This photo shoot happened on the weekend right before the first week of filming Elvis' first movie could begin. Imagine how he was feeling! Yet, he looked so natural in all pictures. Not a sign on anxiety can be seen through his pictures.

Once the filming of "Love Me Tender" had begun, Reporter Patricia Vernon (from The New York Herald Tribune) was sent to interview Elvis on the set.

Patricia asked Elvis if he thought he was a Sex Symbol to kids, as some psychiatrist said at the time.

Elvis: "Someone should put those psychos on a long couch and tell them a thing or two," he said. "They all think Ah'm a sex maniac. they're just frustrated old types, anyway. Ah'm just natural."

On the interview moment, Patricia shared:

He gave me the heavy-lidded look again. "You don't love me," he said accusingly. I told him I didn't love anyone on such short notice. "Ah bet you'd like me if Ah tried," he said. "Ah'm just teasin' now, but Ah'd be sweet and you'd like me because Ah was sweet, wouldn't you?" (If I was her: 🫠) He was teasing, but underneath I sensed the desire of a small boy seeking approval. Then he went out to meet two young fans who wanted their picture taken with him. He told me to stay where I was, that he'd be right back. "I RAN FOR MY LIFE." Excerpt from the 1956 All Elvis Magazine "HERO or HEEL"

That photo shoot is beyond amazing. Elvis was so natural in front of a camera right from the very start of his career, it's incredible. He totally was born to be an public figure. There's a few more wonderful pictures on this day, but only 30 is allowed here (what a shame). Side note: The last photo is merely for historical purposes. 🫠

[measureformeasure]

@lesbiancassius' (very late) february reads

yes I will do this monthly now.

books (as it turns out, I was busy. one book)

Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad - An actor, Sonia, returns to visit her sister Haneen in Haifa and gets caught up in playing Gertrude in a Hamlet production in the West Bank. Stellar.

short fiction & poetry

Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole, Isabel J. Kim - obsessed with this on title alone. It has such a feel to it in the way it moves that I envy.

Parthenogenesis, Piya Patel - horror that makes me want to peel out of my skin and/or get a hysterectomy.

Eschatology, Eve L. Ewing - poem that was circulating recently and God. Fuck, dude. Yeah. Yeah.

Ouroboros, Megan Xing - The to-do lists in this got me because I was having my little freak out before my show went up where you think you can fix everything with to-do lists. Also heavily feeling replacing ineffective psych meds with yogurt, a pickle, and two advil.

I also read Cancer Buffet by Mary Hannah Terzino and Soft Opening by Elle Nash, but I was tired and don’t remember them.

(some) articles

Who Was Barbie? (A Symposium), n+1 magazine - this cemented to me that I truly, truly do not care about Barbie or the Barbie movie and if I have to hear anything about it ever again I'm smashing a bowl on purpose

A bunch of Hera Lindsay Bird’s advice column, which is delightful.

Let’s talk about Goodreads, Nicole Brinkley. There are many days I am glad I do not want to pursue a career as solely an author of novels. Godspeed to the authors out there you're braver than I will ever be.

Saving a Life, Patricia Lockwood - my god I have got to read a Patricia Lockwood book, and also my god getting grievously ill on vacation is one of my greatest fears so this one made me a little bit crazy.

The Secret Life: On the poet Molly Brodak, Patricia Lockwood - again, my god, I need to read a Patricia Lockwood book.

A Final Checklist Before You Print up Your Play, Rick Roberts - this reminded me so much of Joshua McGuire’s Rules For Writing Libretto, which I think of a lot.

“I think the word is dignity” — Rachel Corrie’s Letters from Gaza — I don’t know what to say. Read these if you can. They’re striking.

The Sexual Status of Aeschylus’ Cassandra, Paula Debnar - I can put an academic paper here you're not the boss of me. why I opened this one I don't remember but I was fervently texting friends in the middle of a certainly unrelated class about it because I've never been normal about Kassandra and Klytemnestra and I'm not going to start now.

tv/movies

Rewatching Severance, slowly.

Rewatching Sort Of, less slowly - this is probably niche to non-Canadian readers but it is a very good show.

Watched The Prince, which was a long time coming, and then wrote a paper about it. Bless.

tbr/nightstand

in the midst of Salvage the Bones, which is of course very good

Helen of Troy: from Homer to Hollywood

I'm gonna be rereading like every play off my Shakespeare class syllabus for the final which I wish I was more excited about

[pad-wubbo]

Because I felt like doing so, I've compiled a full list of character names is French for The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Les Grandes Chroniques de Ace Attorney), which doesn't have an official French translation. Japanese names and Sherlock Holmes character names are unchanged, while most English pun names and faux-Japanese English-pun names are changed.

Here it is:

Ryunosuke Naruhodo (unchanged)

Susato Mikotoba (unchanged)

Kazuma Asogi (unchanged)

Yujin Mikotoba (unchanged)

Seishiro Jigoku (unchanged)

Taketsuchi Auchi (unchanged)

Satoru Hosonaga (unchanged)

John H. Wilson (unchanged, from Arsène Lupin)

Owimasu Nomasu (Iyesa Nosa)

Jinesipa Nomasu (Aido Nosa)

Korekushona Dekyuryosichi (Kyurio Korekuta)

Balta Jezaille (Jezaille Brett)

Herlock Sholmes (unchanged, from Arsène Lupin)

Bov Strogenof (Bif Strogenov)

Grimesby Roylott (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Nikolina Pavlova (unchanged)

Pirozhko (unchanged)

Novara (Darka)

Kurt Maelstrom (Mael Stronghart)

Brock Sephenie (Barok van Zieks)

Magnus O'Dore (Magnus McGilded)

Mason "Tiré-Trois-Fois" ("Thrice-Fired" Mason)

Mason Milverton (unchanged)

Beppo (unchanged)

Bruce Fairplay (unchanged)

Fender Bord (Lay D. Furst)

Iris Wilson (unchanged)

Tobias Gregson (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Soseki Natsume (unchanged)

Wagahai (unchanged)

Vera Jade (Olive Green)

John Garrideb (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Joan Garrideb (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Patricia Batterman (Patricia Beate)

Ruiz Batterman (Roly Beate)

Alain Windibank (Pop Windibank)

Hoff Benedict (Eggert Benedict)

Greece Saunders (Ashley Graydon)

Greece Milverton (Ashley Milverton)

Nash Schroeder (Nash Skulkin)

Ringo Schroeder (Ringo Skulkin)

Myrtle Rhea (Asa Shinn)

Ryutaro Naruhodo (unchanged)

Subi Anutema (Rei Membami)

Sukuriba Akumemo (Raiten Menimemo)

Bill Bardguy (William Shamspeare)

Abel deRhone (Adron B. Metermann)

Brenda Altamont (Quinby Altamont)

Duncan Ross (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Selden (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Nikolai de Beale (Albert Harebrayne)

Testa Blomme (Odie Asman)

Toby (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Mahonia Sire (Esmeralda Tusspells)

John Clay (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Ottermole (unchanged)

Jane the Ripper (unchanged)

Gustav Sephenie (Klint van Zieks)

Sara Valerie (Evie Vigil)

Balthazar Lonzi (Balthazar Lune)

Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond Ormstein (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Enoch Drebber (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Corona Stephens (Courtney Stevens)

Corona Sissel (Courtney Sithe)

Mia Cabre (Maria Gorey)

Genshin Asogi (unchanged)

Quentin Valerie (Daley Vigil)

Hugh Boone (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Barry Hare (Barry Caidin)

Venus (unchanged)

Rags (Gossip)

Sandwich (unchanged)

Fabien de Rousseau (unchanged)

Peppino de Rossi (unchanged)

Paulov Strogenof (Tchikin Strogenov)

Lady Baskerville (unchanged)

Queen Victoria (unchanged)

Tadashi Sodenoshita (unchanged)

Chalan Musgrave (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Polan Musgrave (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

See if you can decipher all the puns in the changed names.

[toughpaperround]

911 Cast Bios

Here's a list of them in one place, in order of appearance in 9-1-1 (fox, later abc). I choose them based on characters I enjoy, or where there are interesting connections / factoids to be found in their bios.

Gavin Stenhouse (The Priest)

Mariette Hartley (Patricia Clark, Abby's mother)

Claudia Christian (LAFD Capt. Maynard)

Debra Christofferson (Sue, Dispatcher)

Grasie Mercedes (Beth, in prenatal yoga class, 1x07)

Rebecca Wisocky (Marjorie, in lift crash, 1x09)

Connor Trinneer (bomb squad, 2x01)

Bryan Safi (Josh Russo, dispatcher)

Romi Dias (Chief Miranda Williams)

Ana Mercedes (Abuela Isabel)

Terri Hoyos (Aunt Pepa)

Christine Estabrook (Gloria, Dispatcher)

Devin Kelley (Shannon Diaz)

Wes Brown (Mounted Police Officer)

Rick Chambers (Dwight, newsreader)

Tara Karsian (Ruth)

Lawrence Pressman and Francis X. McCarthy (Mitchell & Thomas)

Romy Rosemont & Daniel Roebuck (Lola & Norman Peterson)

Brian Thompson (Capt. Gerrard)

Lou Ferrigno Jr (firefighter Tommy)

Brian Hallisay (Doug Kendall)

Julie Oullette (Blair, Elf Helper)

Marsha Warfield (Toni Wilson)

Danny Nucci (LAPD detective)

Sasha Roiz (LAPD Det. Ransone)

Paula Marshall (Helena Diaz)

George DelHoyo (Ramon Diaz)

Pepi Sonuga (Athena Carter, flashback in 3x07)

Nicole Delgado (Maynard, flashback in 3x07)

Eddie McGee (Frank the therapist)

Jack McGee (Red the retired firefighter, 3x16)

Deborah May (Cindy, 3x16)

Rumer Willis (Georgia, train Vic, 3x18)

Brooke Shields (counsellor, 3x18)

Dee Wallace (Mrs Margaret Buckley)

Gregory Harrison (Mr Phillip Buckley)

Colin McCalla (Connor, Buck's friend)

Chelsea Kane (Kameron, Connor's wife)

Aaron Staton (Daniel Buckley)

Laith Wallschleger (133 medic, 6x15)

Mark Lawson (pilot, 7x01)

Kathryn Boswell & Chris Gartin (hot-tub couple, 7x01)

Mercedes Colon (Ship Captain, 7x01-3)

Rick Cosnett (cruise crew, 7x01-3)

Eddie Jemison (cruise ship doc, 7x02-3)

Jesse Palmer & Joey Graziadei (7x04)

Richard Brooks (Chief Simpson, s7)

Exie Booker (Carl, 7x06)

Malcolm-Jamal Warner (Amir, s7)

Veronica Falcón (Cllr Ortiz, s7)

John Brotherton (Tim Nash, 7x08)

Tony Amendola (Herman, 7x08)

Paul Nobrega (Monty the Beekeeper, 8x01)

Hotshots group, s8: Callum Blue (Brad); Justin Taite (#1); Morgan West (director) & 1st AD

Bee-nado airplane gang: Cindy Chavez (Capt Dominguez); Devin McGee (Co-pilot); Bayley Corman (Tia); (Mr & Mrs Grandparent);

Adela Paez (Nurse Camila, 8x03 etc)

In draft ofc. Do check the updated OG post if you're looking at a reblog:

Kelvin Han Yee

Glenn Plummer (Dennis Jenkins, 3x07, s8a)

Main resource is IMDb, with extra material from Wikipedia, podcasts or youtube on occasion. Where I use 911 images they are screengrabs I edited. Other images generally from imdb.

[diceriadelluntore]

Storia Di Musica #275 - AA.VV. - The Indian Runner (O.s.t.), 1991

La colonna sonora di oggi ha una storia davvero particolare. Sean Penn, al suo primo film da regista, ha una folgorazione ascoltando un disco, tanto che decide di scrivere una sceneggiatura basandosi sulla storia raccontata da un brano in particolare: Highway Patrolman di Bruce Springsteen, da quel capolavoro che è Nebraska (1982). Il film, The Indian Runner (1991, in italiano intitolato Lupo Solitario) racconta di Joe e Frank Roberts. Joe è lo sceriffo di una piccola cittadina agricola del Nebraska, Plattsmouth, Frank è un soldato dell'esercito degli Stati Uniti. La vita dei due fratelli separati è scossa dalla morte della madre prima e poi dal suicidio del padre. Frank incontra il fratello dopo essere tornato dalla guerra in Vietnam. È diventato un uomo scontroso e cupo, incapace di starsene fuori dai guai. Joe cerca di ricostruire una vita per lui e per suo fratello, Frank ha una relazione con una ragazza del posto, Dorothy,  con cui avrà un figlio. Quando tutto sembra mettersi per il meglio, Frank dopo un diverbio uccide il gestore del bar della piccola cittadina, Caesar, e scappa, inseguito dal fratello, che combattuto tra il dovere e l’affetto al confine della contea decide... (beh conviene vederlo il film no?). Interpretato tra gli altri da David Morse (Joe Roberts), Viggo Mortensen (Frank Roberts), Valeria Golino (Maria, moglie di Frank), Patricia Arquette (Dorothy, la compagna di Frank), Charles Bronson e Sandy Dennis (i coniugi Roberts) e Dennis Hopper (Caesar, il gestore del bar ucciso da Frank) fu poco distribuito, nonostante sia molto apprezzato dalla critica e abbia una regia particolare, con scelte registiche non canoniche (tra rimandi ai film di John Cassevetes, e scene inusuali cui un parto ripreso quasi in prima persona e scene di nudo maschili). La colonna sonora è divisa in due parti: una su brani classici e l’altra con il contributo di due grandi musicisti, Jack Nitzsche e David Lindley. Nitzsche è stato uno dei grandi produttori, arrangiatori e sessionisti della musica americana: braccio destro di Phil Spector, co autore di numerose hit con Sonny Bono, suonò il piano in alcuni dei più bei dischi dei Rolling Stones (Paint It Black, Let’s Spend The Night Together e le orchestrazioni di You Can’t Always Get What You Want), fido collaboratore di Neil Young, e autore, per limitarci alle colonne sonore, di quelle mitiche di Qualcuno Volò Sul Nido Del Cuculo e de L’Esorcista. David Lindley è un altro pezzo da novanta, definito una volta dalla rivista Acoustic Guitar un maxi-strumentista per la quantità di strumenti che sapeva perfettamente suonare. Produttore di, tra gli altri, Linda Ronstadt, Curtis Mayfield, James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Terry Reid, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Joe Walsh, Leonard Cohen, Ry Cooder, Ben Harper e soprattutto Dolly Parton. Suonò anche con un interessantissimo gruppo sperimentale, i Kaleidoscope, ed è uno dei maggiori collezionisti di strumenti al corda del pianeta. I due scrivono le musiche, per lo più strumentali, che accompagnano le immagini del film, tra meraviglie come Flop House, Brothers, Indian Summer e My Brother Frank che termina con i titoli di coda. La prima parte invece racchiude alcuni gioielli della stagione d’oro del rock, che sebbene non legati filologicamente con il periodo della nostra storia, sono scelte azzeccatissime. Si inizia con Feelin’ Alright, nella versione originale dei Traffic (e portato al successo da Joe Cocker), che sfuma poi nella dolcezza di Comin’ Back To Me dei Jefferson Airplane, da quel manifesto della psichedelia che fu Surrealistic Pillow (1967, che inizia con Marty Balin che canta così “The summer had inhaled and held its breath too long\The winter looked the same, as if it never had gone\And through an open window where no curtain hung\I saw you\I saw you\Comin' back to me). Poi arriva la forza di Fresh Air, dei Quicksilver Messenger Service, altra meraviglia della San Francisco rock, da Just For Love (1970), primo disco con il ritorno in formazione di  Chester William "Chet" Powers Jr., meglio conosciuto con i suoi nomi d’arte di Dino Valenti e Jesse Oris Farrow (il primo usato prima del suo arresto per possesso di droga, il secondo dal 1970 in poi). Arriva poi Green River, grande classico dei Creedence Clearwater Revival, dall’omonimo album del 1969 (anno in cui registrarono tre dischi capolavoro), e ispirato ad un ricordo d’infanzia di John Fogerty (il Green River era anche il gusto di una famosa bevanda zuccherina per adolescenti). Penn chiama due sue amici, Eric e Brett Haller, a suonare una dolce Brothers For Good, e tra l’altro dopo questa esperienza i due non hanno più suonato in maniera ufficiale in nessun disco che io sia capace di rintracciare. Chiudono poi due capolavori: la Summertime di Janis Joplin, dal capolavoro di George Gershwin per l’opera Porgy And Bess del 1935,e qui lacerata dalla voce unica e inimitabile di Joplin, segnando un’epoca; I Shall Be Released è una canzone di Bob Dylan del 1967, ripresa in Music From The Big Pink (1968) dal grandioso gruppo canadese della The Band, con Richard Manuel alla voce solista, e Rick Danko e Levon Helm alle armonie vocali, uno dei primi brani di Dylan profondamente religiosi, giocato sul simbolismo della redenzione mistica con il rilascio di un detenuto. La canzone, che era presenta nei leggendari Basement Tapes, è una delle più utilizzate di sempre come cover, con centinaia di rivisitazioni. E la canzone di Springsteen da cui tutto parte? Non si è mai capito perchè non compaia, tutta via Springsteen è accreditato come co-sceneggiatore originale. La canzone, ridotta all’osso e malinconica come tutto quel leggendario album, sembra un racconto, ed inizia così:

My name is Joe Roberts, I work for the state I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville, barracks number eight I always done an honest job, as honest as I could I got a brother named Franky, and Franky ain't no good.

P.S. La storia anticipa ad oggi perchè domani vi farò vedere dove sono per un lieto evento.

[joshuadunshua]

Actually what if I made a post that’s just a thread of suggestions for expanding your understanding of feminist theory? Feel free to add!

I’m a scholar, admittedly, so my contributions are all either books or essays, and they range pretty widely in terms of ease-of-reading. I’ll highlight the ones that are less dense and less incredibly academic in language.

Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center — bell hooks (book)

Feminism Is For Everybody — bell hooks (book)

The Will to Change — bell hooks (book)

if you struggle to or just don’t want to read works that use textbook/academic language, I can’t recommend bell hooks enough. Her work is intentionally written for people not already familiar with feminist scholarship, it’s written for the common person not eyeball deep in The Literature™ because you should not have to be in order to learn more about visionary feminism & why it’s important for everyone.

Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism — Becky Thompson (article)

Feminism in ‘Waves’: Useful Metaphor or Not? — Linda Nicholson (article)

Unlearn mainstream feminist history! ^

The Combahee River Collective Statement

The Transfeminist Manifesto & Postscript — Emi Koyama

The Transunitist Manifesto — Luke B.

Required reading imo. ^ none of these are very long!

The rest just come very strongly recommended:

Black Feminist Thought — Patricia Hill Collins (book)

Re-Thinking Intersectionality — Jennifer C. Nash (article)

Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics? — Cathy J. Cohen (article)

Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing — Andrea Smith (article)

The Social Organization of Masculinity — Raewyn Connell (article)

And if I had to pick two things that aren’t available for me to link you to online, it would be:

Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions (2nd ed.) — Lisa Wade & Myra Marx Ferree (textbook)

Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (2nd ed.) — Cynthia Enloe (book)

Technically that first one is an academic book but it is well written and, especially for a textbook on such a complex topic, rather easy to read.

[mattoidmeerkat]

Found Family Thursday Week 2 (1x05 - 1x08)

[Image ID: twelve found family gifs from the first four episodes of Season 1 GIF 1: In Point of Origin, Hen and Athena are drinking in a bar.

GIF 2: In Point of Origin, Buck, Abby, and Carly and making a plan to search for Patricia.

GIF 3: In Point of Origin, Hen, Bobby, and Buck are bending over with laughter while watching a video of a man trapped in a car wash.

GIF 4: In Point of Origin, Abby and Buck are talking to Athena who helped find Patricia.

GIF 5: In Heartbreaker, Carla and Patrica are baking cookies while Abby is doing her nails.

GIF 6: In Heartbreaker, Athena and the 118 celebrate Chimney's return to work with cake.

GIF 7: In Heartbreaker, Athena is plating up a slice of cake while talking to Abby, Buck, and Hen.

GIF 8: In Heartbreaker, Bobby is tying Buck's tie.

GIF 9: In Heartbreaker, Bobby is watching an unconscious Buck lying in a hospital bed Abby is sitting next to Buck.

GIF 10: In Karma's a Bitch, Bobby tells his team that he hates them after they talk him into donating blood. Chimney, Hen, and Buck make fun of him in return.

GIF 11: In Karma's a Bitch, Chimney laughs about the reveal about Bobby's blood. Bobby rolls his eyes at him in annoyance.

GIF 12: In Karma's a Bitch, Bobby and Chimney watch a newborn who just received Bobby's blood through a hospital window. They turn towards each other, and laugh.

/end ID]

[bbygirlky18]

Ships Updated!!!!

Here are the ships for my fanfic Mami's Breakthrough. You'll meet the main character in the ship list so be prepared. I'll use the wrestler's real name. You'll see repeated names so don't get spooked. Let's get into it.

Demi (Rhea) & Gretchen (Eliora)

Stephanie (Stephanie) & Paul (Hunter)

Jonathan (Jimmy) & Trinity ( Naomi)

Fergal (Finn) & Masami (Iyo)

Dominik (Dominik) & Gionna (Liv)

Luis (Damian) & Elizabeth (Beth)

Bianca (Bianca) & Carlisle (Luigi)

Joseph (Erick) & Victoria (Lilou)

Rebecca (Becky) & Ulysses (Ron)

Natalya (Natalya) & Jeremy (Elijah)

Maryse (Maryse) & Richard (Jules/m)

Cheree (Dakota) & James (Jackson)

Theresa (Zoey) & Leon (Brett)

Brianna (Cora) & Dexter (Mustafa)

Logan (Logan) & Donna (Stephanie)

Randall (Randy) & Conner (Brian)

Keith (Keith) & Lucas “Luke” (Mick)

Sydney (Maxxine) & Jessica (Gilda)

Brittany (Britt) & Carmen (Lola)

Milena (Rosa) & Taylor (Lilou)

Ashley (Shotzi) & Gisele (Rhonda)

Allyssa (Kayden) & Spencer (Gabriel)

Aoife (Lyra) & Dominic “Dom” (Roddy)

William (Christian) & Emilio (Kevin)

Trevor (Ricochet) & Rosalie (Anastasia)

Macey (Lacey) & Sebastian (Grayson)

Sarah (Valhalla) & Jasper (Riley/ m)

Elizabeth (Scarlett) & Luke (Vince)

Stephanie (Mia) & Enrique (Dash)

Ron (R-Truth) & Angela (Asahi)

Shayna (Shayna) & Kate (Mia)

Simone (Ava/Ava Raine) & Sammy (Itsuki)

Layla (Layla) & Dion (Gabriel)

Catherine (Cathy) & Titus (Aiden)

Michael (Shawn) & Mick (Nathan)

Kira (Taya) & Suki (Hawk)

Victoria (Raquel) & Velvet (Asahi)

Mark (The Undertaker) & Clarissa (Paige)

Taylor (Jacy) & Theodora (Lilou) 

Windham (Bray) & Austin (Tyler)

Priscilla (Gigi) & Elizabeth (Kanna)

Patricia (Trish) & Eric (Terry)

Eduardo (Eddie) & Renesmée (Riley/ f)

Jeffrey (Jeff) & Edward (Ted)

Kiera (Kiera) & D.J. (Mustafa)

Mercedes (Sasha) & Quil (Jackson)

Steffanie (Tegan) & June (Gayle)

Serena (Serena) & Embry (Luigi)

Ettore (Big E) & Ashley (Emma)

Adam (Edge) & Royal (Roddy)

Amy (Lita) & Charles (Lucas)

Samantha (Samantha) & Becca (Nastya)

Živilė (Aksana) & Jonathan (Logan)

Kristen (Kris) & Gisell (Becky)

Dwayne (The Rock) & Jasmyne (Olivia)

Daria (Sonya) & Lauren (Olga)

Brodie (Luke) & Rob (Rio)

Kevin (Kevin Nash) & Samuel (Wally)

Bryan (Daniel) & Flynn (Mickie)

Catherine (Lana) & Tara (Gilda)

Jake (Jake) & Vixen (Mario)

Amanda (Mandy) & Beth (Christy)

Joseph (Solo) & Eleazar (Chris)

Kenneth (Montez) & Sam (Mantaro)

Celeste (Kaitlyn) & Matthew “Matt) (Jimbo)

Sarona (Tamina) & Luna (Kanna)

JoJo (JoJo) & Arianne (Falcon)

Kacy (Katana) & Paul (Brett)

Nicola (Nikki Cross) & Bronson (Kaito)

Adam (Braun) & Garrett (Gabriel)

Phillip (CM) & Sean (Mickie)

Rena (Sable) & Roman (Grayson)

Anriel (Lash) & Colleen (Dahlia)

Allen (AJ Styles) & Leah (Lilou)

Renee (Renee) & Jason (Ron)

Angela (Zayda) & Tanya (Olivia)

Kia (Kharma) & Lee (Mick)

Kaori (Kairi) & Theo (Brett)

Todd (Ivar) & Riley (Jules/ m)

Danielle (Willow) & Jane (Riley/ f)

Stephen (Sheamus) & Tara (Ember)

Ashley (Dana) & Sue (Emma)

Jazmin (Mercedes) & Bridget (Alexa)

Melina (Melina) & Han (Mustafa)

Franklin (Bobby) & Bree (Lola)

Faith (Nikkita) & Archie (Haruto)

Ronda (Ronda) & Makenna (Kanna)

Pamela (Bayley) & Samantha (Emma)

Gail (Gail) & Vyolette (Kanna)

Colby (Seth) & Leann (Donna)

Skye (Skye) & Alice (Katya)

Karen (Wendy) & Mariana (Nastya) 

Steve (‘Stone Cold’ Steve) & David (Alexander)

KiLynn (KiLynn) & Kirk (Logan)

Austin (Xavier) & Elle (Gilda)

Alexis (Alexa) & Jakob (Lucas)

Adrienne (Athena/Ember) & Esme (Riley/ f)

Matthew (Matt Hardy) & Earnest (Mario)

Stephanie (Nikki Bella) & Bella (Anastasia)

Thea (Zelina Vega) & Deckard “Deck” (Terry)

Glenn (Kane) & Priya (Olga)

Mary (Maria) & Mae (Anastasia)

Jillian (Jillian) & Aro (Shane)

Michelle (Michelle) & Nicole (Katya)

Lisa (Victoria) & McKayla (Nia) 

Mickie (Mickie) & Kate (Stephanie)

Lilián (Lilian) & Esmeralda (Candice)

Leva (Leva) & Clara (Itsuki)

Toni (Toni) & Nicholas (Jimbo)

Gary (Angelo) & Murray (Mario)

Shinsuke (Shinsuke) & Jennifer (Olivia)

Saraya (Paige) & Lauren (Ember)

Karlee (Maxine) & Ashely (Jules/ f)

Cody (Cody) & Jacob (Jack)

Shelly (Ariel) & Aaron “Hotch” (Louis)

Tom (Aleister) & Emily (Sasha)

Carla (Roxanne) & Alec (Ron)

April (AJ Lee) & Sam (Roddy)

Victoria (Alicia) & Marissa (Chyna)

Danielle (Summer) & Kendall (Jack)

Matthew (Matt Riddle) & Tarrence (Nathan)

Jessica (Billie) & Whitney (Beth)

Stacy (Stacy) & Allen (Alexander)

Joan (Chyna) & Sasha (Hawk)

Jonathan (Dean) & Ophelia (Amelia)

Natalie (Eva) & Tatum (Reo)

Jade (Jade) & Jennifer “JJ” (Riley/ f)

Joe (Roman) & Marcel (Roddy)

Oscar (Rey) & Xavier (Shane)

Kimberly (Piper) & Annelise (Mia)

Leah (Carmella) & Rebecca (Gilda)

Torrie (Torrie) & Irina (Emma) 

Tenille (Emma) & Noel (Nathan)

Dori (Ruby) & Rachel (Gayle)

Eve (Eve) & Ettore (Logan)

John (John Morrison) & Brian (Riley/ m)

Andrew (Drew) & Mary (Candice)

Rami (Sami) & Edythe (Chyna)

Katarina (Katie) & Lance (Luigi)

Cassie (Peyton) & Vera (Lilou)

Kofi (Kofi) & Vallie (Becky)

Laura (Allie) & Annissa (Sasha)

Chelsea (Chelsea) & Jess (Zoe)

Joshua (Jey) & Elyssa (Ruby)

Raymond (Erik) & Russ (Kid)

Ashley (Charlotte) & Leticia “Letty” (Lilou)

Deonna (Deonna) & Logan (Wally)

Kanako (Asuka) & Vince (Mario)

Barbara (Kelly Kelly) & Julyanna (Rhonda)

Lina (Nia) & Eleanor (Stephanie)

Brianna (Brie) & Jared (Ted)

John (John Cena) & Jack (Haruto)

Mike (The Miz) & Henry (Jackson)

Debrah (Alundra/Madusa) & Douglas (Ron)

Claudio (Cesaro) & Laurent (Vince)

Ariane (Cameron) & Stephen (Tyler)

Brandi (Eden) & Erica (Stacie)

Kevin (Kevin Owens/KO) & Derek (Luigi)

Jessika (Jessika) & Jesse (Logan)

Candice (Candice) & Anne (Olga)

John (Johnny Gargano) & Ben (Jimmy)

Debra (Debra) & Jessamine (Jules/ f)

Seth (Riley/ m) & Tyler (Aiden)

Rowena (Donna) & Victor (Kid)

Tej (Elijah) & Sullivan (Mustafa)

Penelope (Becky) & Emily (Stacie)

Evangeline (Olga) & Beth (Stephanie) 

Carine (Layla) & Emmett (Wayne)

Alex (Emma) & Jedidiah (Shane)

Gina (Anastasia) & Mia (Nastya) 

Presley (Louis) & Edward (Kaito)

Gabriel (Brett) & Cain (Alexa)

Ramsey (Katya) & Katie (Nia)

Rubie (Emma) & Eloise (Katya)

Mike (Louis) & Cherylyn (Becky)

That's the full ship list. Hope you guys enjoy it.

[lit-works]

Spider-Man : A City in Darkness

Finale

I sit there, perched atop a 20-story skyscraper, looking north at the city. No one would know that just a few hours ago this island metropolis was plunged into blackness by some madman, a madman who would likely do it again. A madman with a colossal grudge against me, Spider-Man.

The question is, which madman? I've made more than my fair share of enemies in my career, some of them incredibly powerful. Doc Ock. Hobgoblin. Doomsie, the Frightful Four, Vulture–the list goes on and on, a fact that is not the least bit reassuring. Electro is on the loose as well, but Electro has rarely ever used underlings. He usually teams up with another super-powered felon when he isn't going solo.

Somehow, though, everything ties together; the springing of Electro, the blackout, the electrical equipment theft, the writing in the sky…it all adds up to one thing : someone really doesn't like me.

Well, I can sit on my brains and worry, or I can go out and get to thr bottom of this. I think getting to the bottom of this is the better choice of the teoz but where do I start?

Captain Patricia Amber Nash, commander of the PEGASUS security team assigned to delivering Electro to his parole hearing, sits alone in an office in the justice building. In front of her are reams of paper. She is carefully ignoring the papers and staring at the ceiling, leaning her wooden chair back on its hind legs. She might be deep in thought or just daydreaming.

Hanging upside down, I tap on the window. The sudden noise catches her by surprise, and it is only by grabbing the table that she avoids pitching over onto the floor. As it is, she scattered papers across the office.

Rising from the table, she stomped to the window I was hanging outside of with as much decorum as she could muster. Through the insulated glass she mouthed the words, "what the hell do you want?" She doesn't look pleased.

"Dinner and a movie?" I shout back, loud enough to be heard through the glass. "But I'll settle for some info? How about letting me in before someone sees me out here and calls the cops?"

She looks at me for a long moment, as if weighing the options. Then she unlatches the pane and opens it. "Come in then," she says. "And make it quick. It's getting cold out there."

"Do you know how much paperwork there is for an escaped criminal?" She asks, stopping to pick up the scattered papers.

"No, but if you hum a few bars I'll pick it up." I say.

She shoots me a glare that says, 'dont mess with me; it's been a bad day'.

"What do you want now?" She asks, trying to reorganize the papers and then giving it up as a lost cause.

"How about if I get your runaway electric company back?" I ask.

"Given a choice, id rather take a week off in Jamaica, but it woukd nake things easier," she says, picking up one official-looking form and quoting: 'If said incident involved metahuman individuals, please designate on a separate form the nature, identity, and abilities displayed by said individual(s) and their bearing on the incident.' "can you imagine what it would be like if the Avengers came by to help? At least they have this stuff on reprinted forms." She looks up at me. "Right. Information. What do you want?"

"Well," I say, "the last time we met you were loudly handling the cleanup from that little kidnapping, so we didn't have too much time to chat. And I walked right into the middle of that half-painted picture, so I have no real idea why you were there in thr middle of Manhattan in the first place, unless it's standard procedure to ship dangerous criminals through the heart of the city in the early evening. So, why don't you take it from the top and don't leave out any whys and what-fors."

Captain Nash begins to explain. She and her team were to escort Electro from his cell to a specially prepared holding area for his parole hearing tomorrow morning. While in transit, the team was ambushed by four individuals carrying electrical discharge guns. They opened fire as one, overturning the armored car transporting Electro and blowing open the rear doors. They pinned down the PEGASUS troops while two of the team went in and pulled Electro from the wreck. Electro was heavily sedated, additionally restrained with an insulated straightjacket.

Two of the men headed down the alleyway with the bundled Electro while their comrades kept Nash's troops pinned down with their shock-zookas. By the time I arrived on the scene and free their fire, the others had apparently already escaped out the other side of the alley, but not before leaving an explosive package in the sewers, which according to record, public works is citing as the cause of the blackout.

"Anyone see the goons leave with Electro?" I ask.

"We performed a building-to-building search on the side of the alley with the NYPD, but it turned up nothing. They've vanished completely." She replies.

"How about the goons I fought?"

"Resting comfortably," she says, stretching to relieve a neck cramp. "They were checked out for prior arrests, but they're small fry. They've been keeping pretty mum, but what we did get before their lawyers told them to shut up is that Electro was the prize of their operation, not the boss."

I nod and she continues, "The outfits look like those of HYDRA but are only imitation, According to a source at SHIELD. Talking to the people at SHIELD, by the way, was like pulling teeth; they know HYDRA is up to something, but they don't think they're connected to this kidnapping."

"So that leaves us with the question of where they went?"

"Maybe the earth swallowed them?" Says Nash.

I smile beneath my mask. "Maybe it did, at that. I'm going to go check out the crime scene. Maybe I'll find something else. Thanks, and I owe you a dinner and a movie." I head for the window.

As I dive out into the night air, Nash shouts after me, "how about you just bring me back a pizza? JI'll be here all night! And close the window next time, there's a draft!"

Electro!

I swing out into the night.

Electro's the key to the entire operation. Whoever stole the equipment was probably in cahoots with the master of electricity and busted him out only when everything was already in place.

If Electro is working with another super-powered baddie, there may be an Intel leak in the PEGASUS security. That thought may have occurred to Captain Nash already.

I retrace my path to where the Project PEGASUS troopers were blasting it out with Electro's mysterious allies earlier in the evening. The ruined armored car has already been pulled from the street, and traffic is flowing normally (for NY, anyways) past the alleyway.

The alleyway itself is no longer empty as I remembered it. The bureau of public works has set up a generator and equipment to clear away the debris kicked up by the explosion and make repairs. Signs warning : 'Men Working' are at both ends of the alley. I land atop one of the buildings overlooking the alley. The alleyway is singed darkly from the blast, more so toward the end where the PEGASUS troopers were fighting.

What if the purpose of the blast was to wipe out any traces of pursuit…if the men ledt behind were abandoned? Then that explosion might be more than just a poor going-away gift.

I swing down the alleyway itself.

"Hey!" Says one of the workers, looking up. "It's that spider-guy!"

"Spider-Man!" I correct him, spinning through the air and landing in front of the workers–three guys apparently on a coffee and pastry break. The speaker nods, a second workman looks surprised, while the third simply bits into an oozing jelly-filled donut. "How's work going?" I ask.

"Real mess down there," says the first worker, apparently the spokesperson for the group. "Looks like they had enough explosives down there to whole the block to the moon and back!" He chuckles at some private joke.

"Then I need your professional opinion," I say, leaning back against the generator. "If someone was down there a minute or two before the explosion, could that person have survived?"

"Hmmm," the union rep rubbed his jaw. "I dunno, man, it's not likely. He'd have to move very fast or it'd be zoom…bang!"--the spokesman claps his hands together and thrn motions to the heavens. His two fellow workmen grunt in agreement. "The passage is blocked and clogged in both directions, and it's gonna take a while to dig a clear path through."

The sewers are closed off by fallen debris, and anyone down there might have been caught in the blast.

The valuable human labor resource flashes his light around the wreckage left underground by the blast. There is a thick smell of something smoldering, and the workman shouts to be heard over the steady din of water running over shattered concrete.

"The main part of the blast is this way," says the worker, making his point by panning the lught over the mess of obliterated concrete that almost fills the passageway. "The other way"--he flashes the light to the area behind me–"is almost as bad, and it leads to a dead end, according to the city plans."

"Such an option." As I glance forward and back at the equally dismal-looking stretches of alleyway.

"Mind if I lend you a hand?" I ask, reaching toward the debris blocking the sewer.

"Don't mind if you do," says the workman. "I'll hold the light."

The debris is not as tightly packed as I first thought, and I quickly dig my way through to the other side of the rockfall. The ceiling holds, as well, and my companion follows me, flashing the light around as soon as I reach the other side.

The other side of the rockfall looks just like a New York sewer. The slime on the concrete appears to remain undisturbed after at least a few generations, and nothing is out of place.

"Blast," I say, my voice echoing down into the depths of the pipes.

"You were expecting something else maybe?" Asks my new friend.

"Some kind of clue. I had a hunch Electro escapes down here. There's another blocked passage behind us?"

"Yeah, but it leads to a dead end."

The map the workmen have of the sewers shows a dead end on the other side of the passage. Which means that Public Works may just decide to forget about digging it out. A perfect way for someone to cover their tracks.

I start digging through the slime-covered rock filling the passageway. The laborer shine his light as I use my spider-enhanced strength to lift and burrow.

I am about halfway through the second blockage, and feel (relatively) fresh air on my face, when my Spider-Sense gives off a sharp warning buzz. Bits of plaster and stone rain down around me. The passage's ceilings are dangerously unstable, and the whole street is about to drop on our heads!

Thinking quickly, I brace the sagging rock above me with both hands, and call down to the worker who accompanied me.

"Quick," I shout, my voice carrying down the sewers. "Get me something to brace this wall with!"

The light that has been shining on my digging flickers and turns away, and I am left in the darkness for a moment. I hear the drip of fetid water and the shout of the worker to his fellow workmen. My arms are beginning to tire, but if I let go, the entire street could cavr in.

After a short eternity, the light returns, with the workmen behind it. "Here ya go, Spider-buddy." The spokesperson says, placing a large device next to me. "One handy-dandy sewer jack, at your service." He turns a crank at one end of the tool and it expands against the floor and ceiling, taking the weight off of my aching shoulders.

"That was close," I say, and in that same inatant, I notice the workman's light flashing down the passage that has been fully opened by the shift.

"That's funny," he says. "The sewer is supposed to end fifteen feet from here."

Instead, the sewer continues down into the darkness. Along the concrete floor of this unknown sewer, the algae and moss have been pushed aside, leaving a clear path into the depths of the city.

'Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly'. Or is it, 'said the Electro, to the Spider-Man'?

I dig out my spider-beacon from my belt, but the workman who has been helping hands me his flashlight.

"That itty-bitty candle ain't gonna cut it if you're going in that direction," he says. "Take this one. It's halogen beam will illuminate a hundred yards down here. It's also shockproof, so you can beat the crocagators with it."

I take the flashlight, saying "thanks…er…"

"Ed. Name's Ed." Says the worker, giving a toothed grin.

A sewer work named Ed. Only in New York. I tell Ed and his buddies that if they don't hear from me or see.me in two hours, they should go to the police with what they know. With that, I head down the path.

Off to see the wizard. Or the doctor. Or whoever.

I reach a corner that carries me out of sight of the repairmen, so I turn and wave, and am gone.

The path through the slime is uncomfortably smooth, clean, and recent in origin. I've gone about a mile underground before I realized what would cause it to be that way: a ground effects vehicle, or hovercraft, traveling on a cushion of air. That cushion would push up the slime and debris as it passed.

I hear a chittering to my right, and swing my light to reveal a large rat, sitting on a pipe. The rat holds motionless for a moment, then squeals and bounds away.

Yuck. The last thing I want to do is meet up with the everyday run-of-the-mill vermin while I'm hunting down a real rat.

The sewer passage widens and crosses a wider sewer, this one carrying a stream of darker water. The path of the blasted algae disappears at the edge and reappears on the other side, about 20 feet away, and then disappears down the tunnel.

Ceiling's too low to leap. The walls are slicker than Jameson on payday. But I think it's climb or swim. I don't think they have a limo service down here.

The walls are covered with a thick gooey slime, as is the ceiling. As I reach the apex of the vault, I hit a patch of moss that must have been what prinitive man used for Teflon.

Choosing my way carefully, I make my path through the slippery muck to the other side. At that moment, I think I see movement in the water: probably another rat or something. Ahead there is a flash of light other than my own, dimming my flashlight. I check out the light at the end of the tunnel. With my luck, it will be an oncoming train.

The glow intensifies until I'm standing in front of a pair of massive doors illuminated by a single powerful light. The trail through the slime ends here. To the right of the doors is a parked hovercraft with a wide bed, suitable for carrying spools of wire.

No welcome mat, though, and I bet this place isn't listed with Triple A, either, looks like I'll have to break in.

I approach the huge metal doors. Something is rotten in the state of New York. Huge metal doors. Hmm….

I dig out a spare metal cartridge of web-fluid and toss it at the doors. The intensity of the flash upon connection momentarily blinds me.

Makes sense. Electro, electrical supplies, huge conductive metal doors. Put it all together and now it spells T-R-A-P. Now, how to get through it without becoming a bag of spider flavored bacon-bits.

I see the hovercraft and smile beneath my mask.

Using a good deal of my noninsulative webbing, I create a battering ram at the front of the hovercraft parked outside. Another two minutes and ai have hot-wired the vehicle and am backing it away from the entrance.

I back up to where the trail crosses the stream, then throw the hovercraft into high speed. The air whistles past me as the vehicle bears down on the doors.

"Cowabunga!" I shout in a loud surfer accent, jumping off the hovercraft at the last possible moment.

The craft slams into the electrified double doors at full tilt. Sparks dance off the webbing protecting the front of the craft. The door gives way with a bone-shuddering crash, and the way is clear.

Score one for Yankee ingenuity. I walk through the now-open passageway.

My feet pad across the concrete, and I notice the area is lit, though not well lit. A single light every twenty feet shines dimly, giving the impression of a coal mine.

Suddenly, the passageway widens into a larger, dark room. I see nothing and hear only an electronic hum of whirring and clicking, and I am reaching for my spider-beacon when lights come on and I see that I'm surrounded!

The lights come on suddenly, blinding me for an instant before revealing a cavernous chamber with a single entrance at the far side of the room. And before me stand five of my greatest foes!

Electro is there, blocking the far exit. Above him hovers the Vulture, beating his long mechanical wings to stay in place. Sandman, who has the ability to convert his body into sand, is to my right. To my left is Kraven the Hunter, holding a net, and behind the criminal sportsman is Mysterio, master of illusion.

Five of the Sinister Six. "What's up, fellas?" I ask a loud.

The five move toward me without a sound.

"Lemme guess," I jab. "It's International Pick-On Spidey Day. Ya know, when I was trying to figure out who was behind this mess, I never figured it would be a committee of chumps."

My foes are strangely silent as they move in. Best to hit them before they all converge. I can reach any of them. Who should I take down first?

There's no way these five could have gotten back together, even to kill me. That indicates a hoax, and Mysterio is the criminal master of such illusion.

I bound effortlessly over Kraven, and land feet-first on Mysterio's glowing fishbowl helmet. The helmet cracks and shatters under the force of my blow, revealing a maze of wires and circuits beneath. The form of Mysterio crumples to the ground, but not before violently shocking me.

I stand for a moment, looking at the shattered remains of Mysterio as the vicious voltage courses through my body. Robot, and wired to shock on destruction. How many of the others as well?

The others are still moving toward me. Picking myself up, I run to the far exit, where there is a switch and a metal door.

I pull the switch down, and the low-register clicking and buzzing of machinery in the room fades. I look back at my remaining foes, and they are frozen in position.

Dumb robots, I knew the Sinister Six couldn't have staged a reunion bash, even to bash Spidey. These little playthings were obviously guards for the main gates, and the switch allows someone from this end to shut them down so personnel can go in and out. Simple, once you know it. Pull the plug and the toys wind down.

The metal door hums and rises to the ceiling. Five down and it's obvious now who the sixth is.

I pass into the next corridor.

"Ta-Ta, Troopies," I wave back at the inanimate robots. "Time to reveal the puppeteer."

This passage is similar to the last one, dimly lit. At the end I can see through an open door and into a brightly lit room. From my far station, I can see some machinery. The smell of ozone is strong in the air. The walls of this passage are lined with wooden doors, and these are shut and have bars in the windows.

I am halfway down the hallway when a low voice says, "wait!" In a hushed tone. I see a hand wave at me from the bars.

"Doctor Jefferson, I presume?" I say, looking at the psychiatrist captive in the cell. It all fits together now–with five of the Sinister Six being used as lackeys, the sixth must be the head honcho. He must have put another robot in his cell to avoid suspicion.

The bespectacled man nods and puts a finger to his lips. He hands me a note.

The note reads : 'He can hear but cannot see us. He has captured Electro and is using him to power a weapon to destroy you. There is a trap at the end of the corridor. Look up. Don't hurt him.'

I look up and see a ventilator grill above me. I nod to him and, trying to make as little noise as possible, rip his lock out of the door. The complete, I give him an A-OK hand sign.

Trusting that Jefferson is honest and the events aren't monitored, I rip out the grillwork and crawl into the ducts. After about five minutes of crawling I reach another grill. Looking out, I see an incredible sight.

It could best be described as an electrical elephant! It is a huge, almost obscene machine, occupying most of the room. At it's core is Electro, glowing like a supernova star and apparently in pain. At it's crown, riding the elephant, is Doctor Octopus awaiting my appearance at the doorway. The "trunk" of the elephant, the barrel of the weapon, which is probably what did the skywriting is pointed at the doorway.

Definitely the work of a disturbed mind. I look at my foe as I work the grillwork off the vent. At least I'm out of the line of fire.

"Where is he…?" Hisses the Doctor, his mechanical arms adjusting power levels and turning dials on the huge machine. "Why hasn't he appeared?"

"Sorry, Ock!" I shout, leaping from my hiding place. "I had to use the service entrance."

I leapt out onto the machine where the beam could not reach me.

As I land on the machinery, sparks spread out from my fingertips. I feel a tingle akin to my Spider-Sense, but otherwise the massive machine does no damage. Atop it, the madman who has been trying for most of the evening to kill me is watching me, stock still.

Ok, hero, now what? I spy Ock's arms beginning to writhe along the machine toward me. Attack? Talk to him? Free Electro (who really looks like he's suffering)? Sabotage the machinery? He's had me on my heels and on the run all evening, now it's my turn! Think!

First things first. I scrabble across the machine's sides to where Electro is held prisoner. The master of electricity howls soundlessly on the inside of a glass prison. Above me, Octopus is starting to react. I see Doc's metallic arms reach toward me.

The bowl is designed for Electro's powers, not my spider-enhanced abilities. It shatters with a crash and a bolt of lightning erupts from the prison. I am dlung violently backwards and topple off the side of the machine.

"OCTAVIUS!!" Comes an inhuman shout from the sphere. "YOU HAVE USED ME, OCTAVIUS! YOU HAVE HURT ME!! NOW I SHALL HAVE VENGEANCE!! I NEED MY REVENGE!"

Electro emerges from his cage shining like a bright white beacon, throwing everything around me into shadow. Ignoring me completely, Electro moves up the sides of the machine towards Doc Ock.

Ock is read as well, two of his mechanical arms grabbing nets and weapons, while the other pair extend, carrying his body high above his opponent. Electro grasps one metallic arm, and a yellow glow pulsates and courses up the arm to the mad doctor. Octopus howls and stutters in pain.

Uh-oh. The genie is out the bottle. The pair are locked in a deadly embrace. The machinery they are fighting on is breaking, falling apart.

I bound out of the chamber just as the machine starts to smoke and the ceiling caved in. The walls and floors are buckling as I run at top speed out of the complex, only stopping to grab Dr.Jefferson, the imprisoned psychiatrist and bound out. Behind me is the cacophonous roar of explosions.

From the sewer I make my way to the surface. There is one last explosion, this one reaching the surface (an abandoned garbage dump) and spreading light (and garbage) into the sky.

"You think they…" the doctor starts to ask, faltering.

"Survived?" I finish for him. "Don't know. Their kind always has a way of turning up. For now, one more bad guy plan has gone smash, leaving us and the City of New York to pick up the pieces."

The pair of us watch the fire and listen for the approaching sirens as the police come to investigate. I have saved the city, once again.

[justforbooks]

In the summer of 1967, Ronald Blythe cycled from his home in the Suffolk hamlet of Debach to the neighbouring village of Charsfield. There he listened to the voices of blacksmiths, gravediggers, nurses, horsemen and pig farmers. He gave them names from gravestones and placed them in a fictional village. Akenfield, a portrait of a rural life rapidly disappearing from view, was immediately acclaimed as a classic when it was published in 1969.

Never out of print and read and studied around the world, Akenfield made Blythe famous and perhaps overshadowed the many other fruits of his long years of writing – short stories, poems, histories, novels and, in later life, luminous essays and a superb weekly diary that the Church Times published for 25 years until 2017. Blythe, who has died aged 100, is regarded by his peers and many readers as the finest contemporary writer on the English countryside.

The eldest of six children, Blythe was born in Acton, near Lavenham, into a family of farm labourers rooted in rural Suffolk. His surname comes from the Blyth, a small Suffolk river, but his mother and her family were Londoners. His mother, Matilda (nee Elkins), a nurse, passed to him her love of books. Although Blythe left school at 14, by then he had already established a voracious reading habit – “never indoors, where one might be given something to do,” he remembered – which became his education.

His father, Albert, had served in the Suffolk Regiment and fought at Gallipoli and Blythe was conscripted during the second world war. Early on in his training, his superiors decided he was unfit for service – friends said he was incapable of hurting a fly – and he returned to East Anglia to work, quietly, as a reference librarian in Colchester library.

He befriended local writers including the poet James Turner, who helped his passage into a bohemian, creative Suffolk circle that included Sir Cedric Morris, who taught Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling and lived nearby with his partner, Arthur Lett-Haines. Blythe “longed to be a writer”, he said, and he listened and learned – inspired by the example of poet friends including Turner (the unnamed poet in Akenfield) and WR Rodgers of how to live with very little money. “It was a kind of apprenticeship,” he once recalled.

Most importantly, in 1951 he met the artist Christine Kühlenthal, wife of the painter John Nash. Kühlenthal encouraged his writing and championed him: Blythe edited Aldeburgh festival programmes for Benjamin Britten and even ran errands for EM Forster, who took a shine to the shy young man. Blythe helped Forster compile an index for Forster’s 1956 biography of his great-aunt, Marianne Thornton.

Blythe’s first, Forster-inspired novel, A Treasonable Growth, was published in 1960. He followed it in 1963 with The Age of Illusion, a social history of life in England between the wars. He earned money from journalism, being a publishers’ “reader” and editing a series of classics – including one of his heroes, the essayist William Hazlitt – for the Penguin English Library.

After a stint living in Aldeburgh, recalled in an elegiac and characteristically discreet memoir, The Time by the Sea (2013), he moved to a cottage in Debach. In the mid-1960s, he was befriended by the American novelist Patricia Highsmith. “I admired her enormously. She was a very strange, mysterious woman. She was lesbian but at the same time she found men’s bodies beautiful,” he remembered. One evening, after a Paris literary do, they slept together; he told a friend they were both curious “to see how the other half did it”.

Blythe said the idea for Akenfield (he took the name from the old English “acen” for acorn) arrived as he tramped the Suffolk fields pondering the anonymity of most farm labourers’ lives. His friend Richard Mabey remembers it being commissioned by Viking as the lead title for a short-lived series on village life around the world.

Over 1967 and 1968, he listened to the citizens of Charsfield, recreating authentic country voices while somehow adding a poetry of his own. The result was a portrait of the “glory and bitterness” of the countryside: the penury and yet deep pride of the old, near-feudal farming life, and its obliteration in the 60s by a second agricultural revolution alongside the arrival of the car and television.

The village voices were never sentimental about country life, and nor was Blythe: as well as stories of how to make corn dollies, there were quiet revelations of incest, and the district nurse recounted the old days when old people were stuffed into cupboards. Old labourers remembered the “meanness” of farmers who had treated their workers like machines because the big rural families delivered a seemingly endless supply of farm-fodder.

Ecstatic reviews of this “exceptional” and “delectable” book in Britain spread to North America, where Time praised it, John Updike loved it and Paul Newman wanted to film it. But some oral historians were suspicious that Blythe had not recorded his conversations.

Blythe turned down a film offer from the BBC but eventually accepted a pitch from the theatre director Peter Hall, a fellow Suffolk man. Blythe wrote a new synopsis inspired by the unfilmable book, and Hall asked ordinary rural people to improvise scenes with no script. Blythe oversaw every day of filming and played an apt cameo as a vicar. Nearly 15 million people watched Akenfield when it was broadcast on London Weekend Television in early 1975.

Blythe’s next book, The View in Winter (1979), was a prescient examination of old age in a society that did not value it, at a time when more people than ever reached it. The “disaster” suffered by the old, he wrote, is “nobody sees them any more as they see themselves”. Blythe regarded it as his best book. While he was writing it, Kühlenthal died, and Blythe moved into the Nashes’ old farm, Bottengoms, to look after the elderly Nash. When Nash died a year later, he left the house to Blythe. There Blythe lived for the rest of his life, writing beautifully about his home in At the Yeoman’s House (2011).

In later years, Blythe drew praise for his short stories and essays, including a series of meditations on the 19th-century rural poet John Clare. Many writers who were later grouped together as “nature writers” became his friends, including Mabey, Robert Macfarlane and Roger Deakin.

Blythe never married, never lived with anyone, and kept his personal life veiled. Interviewed by the Observer in November 1969, he was judged “intensely private”. He disclosed nothing in his published writing about his love affairs with men, or indeed his one-night stand with Highsmith.

He was almost as reticent about his faith, but his writing was deeply suffused in his Christian beliefs and his knowledge of the scriptures. He was a lay reader – deputising for vicars across several parishes – and became a lay canon of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, but turned down the chance to become a priest.

Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury and an admirer of Blythe’s writing, believed Blythe used the Christian year of festivals as “a steady backdrop” for his writing and thinking, which was liberated by his faith. The writer Ian Collins, a good friend of Blythe in his later years, felt it was Blythe’s lack of formal education or “training” that liberated his original thinking and elegant prose style.

Blythe was politically radical throughout his life, a Labour voter who joined peace vigils outside St-Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Friends were surprised when he accepted a CBE in 2017, around the time he was gently “retired” from public speaking and writing as his short-term memory faded. When he reached 100, he was still well enough to sign 1,500 copies of a new compilation of his best Church Times columns.

The old people who thrived in The View in Winter were those, Blythe concluded, who were able to preserve their “spiritual vitality, a vividness, an imaginative sort of energy”. This credo served him well as he grew older, although he was mistaken in another respect. The old, he wrote, are “cared for, surrounded with kindliness, and people are often interested in what they say; but they are not truly loved and they know it”.

Blythe was much loved in later life. A roster of devoted friends he called his “dear ones” visited him daily, supplied him with hot meals and ensured he could live out his years at Bottengoms.

🔔 Ronald George Blythe, writer, born 6 November 1922; died 14 January 2023

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