#short king john supremacy

[wannab-urs]

The Spreadsheet Digest - Vol 12

Hi friends!!

I read a certain dark romance book this week and then also spent some time trying to catch up on all my lovely mutuals' fics (and there were many), so the rec list is only like 9 fics this week. I guess that's still a lot? It's no 27 fics though.

If you tagged me in a fic this week, I'm planning to get to those soon I promise. The actual spreadsheet with all my recs can be found here and the masterlist for my fic recs can be found here.

Anyway recs below the Pedge

Adversity a Frankie/Ezra series by @the-ginger-hedge-witch

This combo... okay I'll just start with how unreasonably HOT this is. Like you got Ezra: protective, talkative, wild, a little feral, definitely likes to use his mouth, lean and impeccably dressed with that dumb little blond patch. Then you have Frankie: Established Canon Pussy Eating King, def talks you through it, broad shoulders and a cute belly, patchy beard you'd just die to have between your legs, broody boy. So obviously, I'm already about to pass out. And then!! Their relationship with each other makes me feel so many things. The way Ez pulls Frankie out of his fucked up head and the way Frankie settles Ezra UGH. And then!!! and then!!!!!!! The way they take care of reader and the way they all love each other and balance each other out!! The hints of the other TF boys in there is v fun also. I know this series is old, but I am dying for it to be added to. Every glimpse into this wonderful lil throuple was wonderful. <3333

i've got headaches and bad luck but they couldn't touch you - a Joel one shot by @tremendum

Brat tamer!Joel is sooooo fucking hot. This is filthy and I love it!

warmth - a Joel one shot by @grippingbeskar

ooooh i love how at first this is just a sweet lil fluffy thing and then you put *you can stop reading here if you aren't a whore. however, i am, so i will continue* LMAO. I'm obviously a whore so I obviously kept reading. This one is for my thigh riding girlies <333

the worthwhile fight - a Marcus P one shot by @swiftispunk

So glad you decided to write some sweet angel baby Marcus P!! And I love the lil twist with reader being the protective one, because.... I actually cannot see Marcus punching anyone. Like I'm sure he would if he had to, but in my head he's such a soft boy I can't. The smut, as usual, was just absolutely immaculate. Looking forward to more marcus from you maybe...???? (please)

Sparks fly - a Joel one shot by @ezrasbirdie

Ok listen... This is the second anal fic I've read in as many weeks that made me have emotions other than filth... How do y'all keep doing this to me. The story is adorable, I love it!! And then they eat each other's asses and it's hot and it's a good time. Honestly I'd still give this a shot if you're not into the idea of eating Joel Miller's ass bc there's a bunch of super cute interactions and some smut before that happens... If you're a freak tho... this is the one

Just a little taste - a Din one shot by @jksprincess10

I fucking love inexperienced!Din and I love when he tastes pussy for the first time and just goes absolutely nuts. This was so hot ugh.

Fire a Din one shot by @jksprincess10

Din Djarin Fluff Supremacy

Hungry Hearts - a Joel series by @atinylittlepain

Young Joel... in booty shorts... playing baseball??? Being a gratuitous flirt and a total asshole in the most frustratingly charming of ways?? Ok and then... he's also a MECHANIC... Slutty Joel is everything. Oh but let's not stop there! We also get girl dad Joel being the most stereotypical softball parent ever. Sarah and Ellie being so very Sarah and Ellie about the whole thing. Also like if you needed more incentive for some reason Joel gets hit in the balls while being a douchebag. I feel like I'm not selling this as well as I should be, but I don't want to give too much away. It's delightful. Read it!!

Peace - a Joel one shot by @swiftispunk

As a former John Green novel SIMP, I love the living eulogy thing. It has a special place in my heart and I refuse to apologize for that. This fic had me tearing up bc like... Joel Miller deserves to hear how good he is and how much he means to people and he doesn't really ever get that in canon. Not really. I am going to have a literal breakdown bye

----------------oldies but goodies----------------

The Appreciation of Fine Liquor - an Ezra one shot by @write-and-buried

poor baby - a Joel series by @walkintotheriveranddisappear

Just a little game - Javi P one shot @walkintotheriveranddisappear

quickie (boyfriend's dad!joel x reader) - a Joel one shot by @joelscruff

𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒆, 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆, 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒆, 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚 - a Dieter one shot by @psychedelic-ink

warm up - a Dieter one shot by @ezrasbirdie

Dieter Bravo x Library AU - a Dieter one shot @fuckyeahdindjarin

Bouquet, Bloom, Blossom - a Dieter series by @mypoisonedvine

----------------------------------------------------

Happy Reading

[focusfixated]

John Lennon & Elton John: Come Out to Play

The story of the whirlwind friendship between two titans of music; John Lennon and Elton John.

The two met in 1973 and quickly become close friends and collaborators, recording together on the single ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ from John’s 1974 album ‘Walls & Bridges,’ and on Elton’s cover of ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.’

At the start of the decade, The Beatles were embroiled in a messy break-up and Elton John was quickly rising to the top of British rock star chart supremacy. Though at different stages of their career, both musicians were at the centre of a musical and cultural phenomenon, while struggling with the pressures of creativity and the scrutiny of fame. For a moment in time, it seems they found comfort in the other’s company, their shared sense of humour and a mutual admiration.

Their friendship led to a performance together at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving evening 1974, which was to be John’s last live concert appearance, his legacy cut short, while Elton would go on to entertain audiences for another five decades.

This story is told in their own words, with a little help from those who knew them – their mutual friend who brought them together, ‘the tastemaker’ Tony King, and John’s son, Sean Ono Lennon.

[vigilantempathy]

Why Crowley can’t go back to Heaven and can’t be restored as an angel…

…using Satan’s soliloquy from Book IV of Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Because I have a deep-below-lower-deep unholy decade-long obsession with Paradise Lost and Good Omens S2 has prompted a re-read.

(Quoted from the UPenn online version, linked below.)

Broad Context: In Paradise Lost, Satan fell because he “trusted to have equaled the most High”—he pushed for equality with God, challenged the idea of Omnipotence, and led war against Heaven trying to prove that God was not supremely powerful and if he and his forces could achieve victory, that they deserved power, too. But they lost, Lucifer fell and became Satan, and everyone who fought with him was cast Down as well. He wasn’t claiming to be above God, but challenging God’s supremacy was an act of hubris. There are TONS of themes, language, and visuals from classical/Hellenic myth and epic poetry and Satan reads largely as the hero of a Greek tragic epic. He follows Aristotle’s Poetics ideas of peripety and discovery: he massively fucks up his own life, leading to his own tragic downfall, and only realizes too late that all his ruinous problems are his own damn fault (pun intended). People have debated since publication the degree to which Milton knowingly or unknowingly had sympathy for the devil (cue Rolling Stones) but tend to agree that Satan isn’t a typical obvious bad guy villain.

Kind of like how Good Omens’ Heaven/Hell dichotomy isn’t really about Good/Evil and its main characters are a demon who is a bit of a nice person and an angel who is enough of a bastard to be worth knowing.

Scene Context: Post-Fall, Satan struggles with the understanding that he fucked up his own life, that he fucked up the lives of everyone loyal to him because they were all punished for that loyalty, that he deeply regrets his choices knowing now how they worked out and wishes he’d never Fallen, but that he can never go back to Heaven or to being “some inferior angel” knowing what he knows now.

SCENE SETTING (Lines 17-31)

And like a devilish engine back recoils

Upon himself; horrour and doubt distract

His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir

The Hell within him; for within him Hell

He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell

One step, no more than from himself, can fly

By change of place: Now conscience wakes despair,

That slumbered; wakes the bitter memory

Of what he was, what is, and what must be

Worse; of worse deeds worse sufferings must ensue.

Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view

Lay pleasant, his grieved look he fixes sad;

Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing sun,

Which now sat high in his meridian tower:

Then, much revolving, thus in sighs began.

SATAN’S SOLILOQUY (Lines 93-113)

“But say I could repent, and could obtain,

By act of grace, my former state; how soon

Would highth recall high thoughts, how soon unsay

What feigned submission swore? Ease would recant

Vows made in pain, as violent and void.

For never can true reconcilement grow,

Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:

Which would but lead me to a worse relapse

And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear

Short intermission bought with double smart.

This knows my Punisher; therefore as far

From granting he, as I from begging, peace;

All hope excluded thus, behold, in stead

Of us out-cast, exil'd, his new delight,

Mankind created, and for him this world.

So farewell, hope; and with hope farewell, fear;

Farewell, remorse! all good to me is lost;

Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least

Divided empire with Heaven's King I hold,

By thee, and more than half perhaps will reign;

As Man ere long, and this new world, shall know.”

Good Omens Read:

For many of the same reasons as Satan in Paradise Lost, Crowley can’t return to Heaven. He can’t trust it anymore. He knows what it did to him and others like him. He can no longer abide the lie that Heaven is the side of the ang— the side of the good guys. Good guys don’t do the things that God and Heaven have done. Heaven and Hell take similar, parallel actions throughout Good Omens but at least Hell doesn’t pretend to be righteous about their destructive, cruel, unjust actions. Hell is awful but at least it knows that. Better the devil you know, if the alternative is the angel who is fundamentally dishonest.

If Crowley returns to Heaven, he’ll saunter back downwards immediately and there will be nothing vague about it the second time. He doesn’t trust it, he can never trust it again, and he has 6000 years of anger towards Heaven for his own Fall, which are 6000 years of viewing Heaven as the enemy, even if only as lipservice to maintain professional courtesy.

But now he’s been cast into a deep personal hell, (“a lower deep;” the internal turmoil that makes a shitty external situation orders of magnitude worse) because now Heaven has taken Aziraphale from Crowley.

And Heaven can hurt him. They’ve tried to destroy Aziraphale before. They tried to destroy Gabriel by destroying everything that made him Gabriel. They’ve been threatening “extreme sanctions” and removal from The Book of Life and Crowley only recently learned that was a real possibility and not a made-up horror story.

Crowley hadn’t trusted Heaven in 6000 years, but Heaven hurting him and Heaven hurting Aziraphale are incomparable metrics to Crowley.

Contrast Crowley’s typically cool responses to being personally threatened with his incinerating rage at anyone threatening Aziraphale.

Crowley responds to threats to his own personal safety and well-being (Hastur, Ligur, and Shax all threaten Crowley himself and Crowley responds with one-liners, sarcasm, cinematic threats that makes a cheap plant mister sound like a ‘44 magnum, and, you know, holy water) without breaking a sweat. But threaten Aziraphale and there isn’t a one-liner to be found. He can’t pretend to be unaffected when Aziraphale is in trouble. He sputters. He trails off. He shouts. He snarls.

Noting also that when Crowley forgets to act cool is a good indicator that something has deeply rattled him. Ex. Soaking wet, ash-streaked, screaming, sobbing, knocked on the ground, grief-wrecked Crowley in the bookshop fire. So when Crowley doesn’t have a quip ready, he’s actually scared. In the moments that matter, Crowley is as cool as crocs with mismatched socks.)

Crowley hasn’t trusted Heaven I’m 6000 years because of what it did to him. He could never have gone back.

But now Heaven has taken Aziraphale and can hurt him. So now Heaven, through the Metatron, offers Crowley the possibility of return.

The Metatron knows as well as Crowley does that Crowley can never go back. The Metatron knows it as well as God knows the same to be true of Satan in Paradise Lost:

“For never can true reconcilement grow,

Where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep:

Which would but lead me to a worse relapse

And heavier fall: (…)

This knows my Punisher; therefore as far

From granting he, as I from begging, peace.”

There was never an honest offer to restore Crowley to Heaven. He could never have trusted Heaven, even if he’d returned, and he’d have Fallen again immediately. That’s why the Metatron offered. Because Aziraphale still wants to trust Heaven and Crowley never can again. Because the Metatron knew Crowley would say no. And the Metatron knew that even if Crowley accepted to stay with Aziraphale or to protect him, Crowley would be cast back Down in short order anyway. (“Does anyone ever ask for death?” The Metatron asks Nina.)

Would Crowley have chosen not to Fall, knowing what he knows now? Probably. But he did. He can’t go back. Neither could Satan.

Satan’s soliloquy after the Fall, or Crowley’s pining melancholy drunk divorce rant after Season 2:

“So farewell, hope… all good to me is lost.”

[racefortheironthrone]

Is the English civil war the first time a significant number of English non nobles both want to end monarchy and are a part of a winning (for a time) coalition? I’m talking about your summary that included info on the agitators. It’s always interested me how, most often because of culture, people could be so forward thinking in what they were rebelling for yet still not conceive or fail to see it wasn’t immoral to end monarchy. I’m trying to wrap my head around when societies in monarchical set ups can organically have enough people believing in democracy of any sort being allowable/not against their cultural beliefs. If the agitators are the first time we see a significant amount of non nobles pushing for real democracy and an end to monarchy, is Protestantism and the religious conflicts part of that shift? Idk if this is something that people can define

Within a specifically English context, yes, it's the first time that a rebellion goes beyond the "evil councilor" mode.

As to what changed the hegemonic ideological power of the monarchy...

Protestantism absolutely played a role, by elevating the Bible and the direct relationship between the individual and God as alternate sources of authority to the king. (There's a reason why the Bauernkrieg happened so soon after Luther kicked off the Reformation.) It also happened to be the case that the civil wars were kicked off by an attempt by Charles I to impose Arminian Anglicanism on Presbyterian Scotland.

But it's not the only factor.

Another major one was the changing ideology around Parliament. Partly due to how the Tudors had used the supremacy of King/Queen-in-Parliament to push through the English Reformation and the "Tudor Revolution in government," the nucleus of the idea that only Parliament could consent to taxation had grown to incorporate a broader notion that Parliament was (at least partially) sovereign.

This isn't to say that the divine right of kings was dead, a lot of absolutist monarchists from Hobbes on down would be advancing that idea for some time, but there was enough of a foundation that John Pym's innovations - the Petition of Right, the Root and Branch Petitions, the Triennial Acts, the Grand Remonstrance, etc. - could win a majority in Parliament.

A related third factor was a kind of English nationalism that took the raw materials of the Magna Carta, the common law, medieval parliamentarianism, the witan and the fyrd in the time of Alfred the Great, etc. and blended them together to invent a romantic history of Anglo-Saxon liberty - often short-handed as the "Norman yoke."

In this imagined history, the natural "rights of freeborn englishmen" had been universally recognized and respected prior to the Norman Conquest, which crucially placed English kings like Charles I (and later George III) in the position of foreign tyrants rather than god-anointed sovereigns.

[inafieldofdaisies]

Far Cry 5 Gift Exchange | Short King: John Seed supremacy | This one is a gift for all of you lovely people out there 🖤 | Event hosted by @detectivelokis | download

My test T-shirt for the John design arrived today and if this wasn't a sign to do a reveal and drop the PDF for the gift exchange, I don't know what is

You can save the image through Google Drive, since I wasn't sure if tumblr would keep the resolution/quality intact.

And after that all you have to do is find a service that offers printing on T-shirts that's convenient for you and get yourself one, my shirt was a literal steal, price-wise 🖤

*Note: the picture of the T-shirt is with a filter (and we have no decent light here today), the colors are as vibrant in person as the original image

[whocookedthelastsupper]

“In the beginning was the Word," declared St. John, "and the Word was God." In fact the word was a lie. In the beginning, God was not. But as history unfolded in different nations and at different times, it became necessary to invent him.

For the assumption of divinity and power from a purely physical base had certain crucial limitations. The human penis, even when inflated to magico-religious status, falls short of godhead. Up to a point, the rising phallocrat had carried all before him. Women's traditional power based on creation and nature had been systematically whittled away. The Sacred King had stolen from the Great Queen her selective technique of man-management on the Kleenex principle of "use and throw away," and applied it wholesale to the female sex. But brute force could only go so far. So long as women still retained their atavistic power of giving new life, they could not be stripped of all association with the divine.

Additionally, with the discovery of agriculture and the consolidation of tribes into townships, human societies became increasingly sophisticated, requiring structures, systems and administration. Once survival was assured, surplus became property, and man awoke to the glory of being lord and master. To secure ownership and protect rights of inheritance in a more complex society called for something subtler than the indiscriminate deployment of man's bluntest instru-ment. And with the increase of organizational structures came greater opportunities for subversion or resistance; every tribe, township, throne room or temple held women of ingenuity and resource eager to demonstrate that, whatever men's claim to power, it would not automatically be accepted. These women could not all be destroyed like Berenice or Boudicca, thrown to the dogs and ravens, or hurried to unmarked graves. Achieving power, man reached out for the secret of control; and as he began to look beyond the end of his penis, he found a stronger lord, a greater master—God.

Male divinity, of course, was nothing new. Isis had her Osiris, and Demeter had been forced to bow to the vengeance of the Lord of the Underworld. Indeed, as phallomania swept the world, male godhead found a new measurement in lost maidenhead; Zeus, king of the immortals, demonstrated his supremacy by the numbers of young women he raped. The new gods of power were equally aggressive and rapacious. The difference was that now each one insisted that he alone was God—he was the One God, the only God, and no one else could play.

For within the short millennium or so that separates the forging of Judaism from the birth of Islam, all the world's major religions made their debut one by one. Immediately each set about the twin tasks of carving out their own community of believers, and annihilating all opposition. Where other male deities were targeted for extinc-tion, what price female divinity? Walking in the garden that had been Eden, Mother Nature met Father God and her doom. In the duel for possession of the soul of humanity she lost her own, as the father god, in Engels's phrase, brought about "the world historic defeat of the female sex."

Not all these new religions were god systems. Judaism offered the paternalistic prototype, once it had succeeded in elevating the petty tribal godlet Yahweh into quite a different order of being after the trauma of the Exile just before 600 B.c. Islam likewise patented the slogan "There is no God but God" following the birth of its prophet Muhammad just before A.D. 600. And straddling the period between the two, lodged at its pivotal midpoint, was the reformed Judaism called Christianity formulated when the old God of the Jews gave birth to a son in whom, as a junior version of himself, he was naturally well pleased.

Equally important, though, to India and China respectively, were Buddhism and Confucianism, both of which arose with the birth of their human founders and spread far and fast from these deceptively. modest origins. Neither Buddha nor Confucius ever claimed to be divine, and their teachings are properly understood as value systems rather than as religions proper. But the foundation of their beliefs was uncompromisingly patriarchal]the founders themselves have been worshiped as gods by their followers throughout history; and the ideologies of both these systems have had a remarkably similar impact on women's lives to that of religions organized around a central con-sept of a Father God. To women, therefore, the effect was broadly the same, however the message of male supremacy came packaged. All these systems—Judaism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam —were presented to them as holy, the result of divine inspiration transmitted from a male power to males empowered for this purpose, thereby enshrining maleness itself as power.

Historians, both male and female, have not always resisted the temptation to see the rise of monotheism as a plot against women since the aftereffects have been so uniformly disastrous for the female sex. But attractive though the notion of a cosmic conspiracy is to women's learned feelings of weakness and helplessness, it overlooks the fact that many of the elements of these early religions held a strong appeal for both sexes, and often for women in particular. Organized religion may have been a root cause of the historic defeat of womankind —Eve did not fall, she was pushed —but it did not begin with that aim. Seen in the wider context of the struggle of human beings of different races toward a deeper understanding of the meaning of their lives and of their growing spirituality, these five patriarchal systems readily reveal why in the first instance they were so attractive.”

-Rosalind Miles; Who Cooked The Last Supper; The Women’s History of the World

[scotianostra]

On May 29th 1679 Covenanters under Sir Robert Hamilton take Rutherglen before evading government troops.

This was another of those declarations that Covenanters liked to do every now and then, in this one they announced that it was a lawful act to kill King Charles II.

Around seventy to eighty armed and mounted Covenanters rode into Rutherglen and read out a declaration, originally known as the Rutherglen Testimony which condemned the acts which made conventicles and support for the Covenant illegal. It had been planned to affix it to the cross in Glasgow, but the presence of Claverhouse and his soldiers made them change their mind and Rutherglen was chosen instead. The day was supposedly identified as one on which to celebrate the restoration of Charles II, but the Covenanters at Rutherglen extinguished the bonfires which had been lit to mark the event. A copy of the declaration was then affixed to the marked cross and the Covenanters rode off towards the moors for protection.

They were led by Sir Robert Hamilton of Preston, 2nd Baronet, John ‘Burleigh’ Balfour, and James Russell. and local outed minister, Rev John Dickson. Rev Thomas Douglas led the crowd in prayer and Hamilton read out the seven parts of the declaration which denounced episcopacy and the royal supremacy. The King’s statutes, including the Act of Supremacy, was taken from the market cross and burned in a fire lit by the Covenanters. Within a short period of time, the Covenanters were met at Drumclog, by the soldiers under John Graham of Claverhouse.

I will cover the Battle of Drumclog on its anniversary later this week.

Here is an extract from the declaration......

‘As the Lord hath been pleased to keep and preserve his interest in this land, by the testimony of faithful witnesses from the beginning, so some in our days have not been wanting, who, upon great hazards, have added their testimony to the testimony of those who have gone before them, and who have suffered imprisonments, finings, forfeitures, banishment, torture, and death from an evil and perfidious adversary to the church and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the land. Now we being pursued by the same adversary for our lives, while owning the interest of Christ, according to his word, and in the national and solemn league and covenants, judge it our duty (though unworthy, yet hoping we are true members of the church of Scotland) to add our testimony to those of the worthies who have gone before us, in witnessing against all things that have been done publicly in prejudice of his interest, from the beginning of the work of reformation, especially from the year 1648 downward to the year 1660. But more particularly those since, as 1. Against the act recissory, for over turning the whole covenanted reformation. 2. Against the acts for erecting and establishing of abjured prelacy. [66] 3. Against that declaration imposed upon, and subscribed by all persons in public trust, where the covenants are renounced and condemned. 4. Against the act and declaration published at Glasgow, for outing of the faithful ministers who could not comply with prelacy, whereby 300 and upwards of them were illegally ejected. 5. Against that presumptuous act for imposing an holy anniversary day, as they call it, to be kept yearly upon the 29th of May, as a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving for the king’s birth and restoration; whereby the appointers have intruded upon the Lord’s prerogative, and the observers have given glory to the creature that is due to our Lord Redeemer, and rejoiced over the setting up an usurping power to the destroying the interest of Christ in the land. 6. Against the explicatory act, 1669, and sacrilegious supremacy enacted and established thereby. 7. Lastly. Against the acts of council, their warrants and instructions for indulgence, and all other their sinful and unlawful acts, made and executed by them, for promoting their usurped supremacy. And, for confirmation of this our testimony, we do this day, being the 29th of May 1679, publicly at the cross of Rutherglen, most justly burn and above mentioned acts, to evidence our dislike and testimony against the same, as they have unjustly, perfidiously, and presumptuously burned our sacred covenants. And, we hope, none will take exception against our not subscribing this our testimony, being so solemnly published; since we are always ready to do in this as shall be judged necessary, by consent of the rest of our suffering brethren in Scotland.

The pic is of a memorial plaque at Rutherglen Mercat Cross.

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (Year 4, week 5)

6 more by Icelandic Hlynur Pálmason (After ‘Godland’ and ‘Seven Boats’):

🍿 White, white day is about a grieving policeman whose wife died in a car accident. A masterful feat of slow film making, with unusual choices in its subtle direction. The man renovates a house, takes care of his cute granddaughter, and then, (as in 'The Descendants'), he discovers that before she died, his beloved wife had an affair with some guy. A stunning story of grief, resignation and acceptance. 10/10.

🍿 A painter is a 30-minutes unexplained riddle, about a conceptual land artist, harsh and isolated. A slow meditation about art and relationships, told via stark visuals and few words.

🍿  During Corona, Hlynur's 3 kids were building a tree house in Nest. The camera was fixed at one spot (in 99% of the cases) and recorded hundreds of short clips over a full year of changing seasons. It's absolutely the most captivating 22 minutes of film I've seen this week. (Pálmason used the same technique at the beginning of 'White, white day' recording the house over a long period of time). 10/10 (In spite of watching it with Spanish subtitles only).

🍿 A day or two, a painful, lyrical short about a boy who is left alone in a neglected farmhouse. Inexplicably traumatic. 9/10.

🍿 Milk Factory is basically a home movie with the same little cute girl (his daughter from 'Godland' and all the others) running through a modern gallery at the small fishing town of Höfn, where they live.

🍿 Fortunately, I saved his debut feature Winter Brothers to the very end. Had I started with this tedious, incomprehensible artsy piece first, I would never have discover the rest of his fascinating work. The story takes place in a metaphorical underground, a Siberian-type inferno, where chalk-faced miners use pickaxes and shovels to dig for something in darkness and noise. 2/10.

Now that I've seen everything he's done, 3 features and 5 shorts, my top three of his are: 1. A white, white day. 2. Nest. 3. Godland.

🍿  

Like the little heartbroken girl in 'White, white day', mourning the death of her grandmother, (and like the kids in the Danish 'Beautiful Something Left Behind'), Ponette is a 4-year-old girl who must come to terms with her mother's death in a car accident. (Photo Above). This sad and simple story features the most phenomenal performance by a child actress I've ever seen. The grief on her face was absolutely devastating and hard to watch. It's also hard to imagine how the director, Jacques Doillon, managed to coax such genuine emotions during the unbroken, long takes. 9/10.

🍿  

Exterminate All the Brutes, a 4 hour meditation about the roots of colonialism, racism and genocide. My first by Haitian documentarian Raoul Peck. An unflinching examination of the shameful atrocities on which our modern life is established. The many genocides that followed the European conquests of the world. The twin principals on which the Americas were founded; Extermination of all the native nations, and the exploitive slavery of kidnapped Africans. Painful truths.

There were some chapters I did not know: That White supremacy was codified for the first time in 1449 with the help of the pope, the king and the Spanish Inquisition. That the first successful slave revolt against colonialism was the Haitian Revolution of 1791. That the Code-name 'Geronimo' used for the killing of Bin Laden was simply one more time of using Indian names for America's worst enemies, all part of the need to 'Exterminate all the brutes'.

The documentary itself was in parts too fragmentary, used too many symbolic reenactments, and employed too many personal anecdotes, for my taste. Still, it's a must see warning. Trump makes his entry only at the last hour. 7/10.

🍿  

Only my second by independent writer-director John Sayles (after 'Lianna'), the neo-western Lone star. Real stories of the Anglo, Tejano, and Black communities in a small Texas border town. Also a new sheriff who investigates an old skeleton found at a firing range, and discovers old secrets about his dad and his old sweetheart. Unforgivably humane.

🍿  

Gun Crazy, a second-tiered, pulpy Film Noir, a precursor to Bonnie & Clyde and any other 'Outlaw couple on the run' stories. He's obsessed with guns since his childhood. She's high on deadly adventures. After falling in love at a carnival, they embark on a crime spree across America together. In 1950 that mean that the murderous fugitives will die at the end. Strangely, this urban crime caper ends in a dreamy Tarkovski swamp.

🍿  

Another Noir, Elia Kazan's medical thriller Panic in the Streets, taking place on the waterfront, this time in New Orleans. Jack Palance debut performance. I watched it after reading the article The Myth of Panic, which analyses how the 'Elites' uses the fear of 'the crowd' to always control narratives in times of mass disasters, The Spanish influenza, The London Blitz, the Atomic age, AIDS, Corona...

🍿  

Falcon lake is the charged debut feature of Canadian Charlotte Le Bon. It's a lovely coming-of-age story about a 13 year old boy who falls for a 16 year old girl at a lake cottage in Quebec. He's innocent and caring, until he fucks up and becomes a ghost. Accomplished film making with an indecisive finale. 7/10.

*Woman Director

🍿  

"Goddamn-dipshit-Rodriguez-gypsy-dildo-punks. I'll get your ass."

First watch: LA cult movie Repo Man. I guess you had to be there at the time to appreciate its weird punkness. But even though I stuck to the very bitter end, every moment made it worse. Rambling, disjointed, uninteresting. 2/10.

🍿  

Junk mail, a grimy Norwegian Noir about a lowly postman who doesn't give a shit: He throws away the mail he doesn't want to deliver, he's shabby and dirty, he stalks a deaf girl and hides in her apartment. And he always steals bites of food from everywhere. But then he gets involves with some robbers and murderers, and saves the girl from suicide. Oslo looks disgusting here. 3/10.

🍿  

Leonor Will Never Die, my first meta-film from The Philippines. A different standard told in a different film syntax, which unfortunately left me baffled. An elderly lady who used to be a famous scriptwriter in the golden age of Pinoy Cinema of the 1980's, but now lives in the slums and can't pay her bills, is getting hit on the head by a television set that her upstairs neighbor throws out of the window. While in coma, she re-writes and re-lives her unfinished manuscript, a low-low-brow action movie, and even plays the main character in it. Weird to say the list, but with a surprising dance and song routine at the end which was wonderful. 2/10.

*Woman Director

🍿  

2 from screenwriter Etan Cohen, both about dim-witted morons:

🍿 "Whatever you do, keep painting!... "

Another re-watch: Mike Judge's prescient satire Idiocracy, a movie tinged with enough criticism of late-stage capitalism, that Fox C21 decided to abandon, rather than promote it. Featuring real brands like 'Flaturin', 'If you don't smoke Tarrlytons - Fuck you!' 'Crocs, they are so dumb. Could you imagine those ever getting popular?', 'Buttfuckers restaurant'. As well as the actual line 'He's gonna make them grow again'.

Funniest lines from Wikipedia: "Rita, a street prostitute" has been "in a relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson since 2001. They live in the San Fernando Valley with their four children."

🍿 My wife is retarded, a one-note, low-brow, offensive premise played for laughs, and repeated more than a dozen times in the span of 10 minutes. With 'Bill Lumbergh'. 2/10.

🍿  

"Nothing about Barcelona?"...

Another Guilty Pleasure Re-watch: Steven Soderbergh's fast action Haywire. A convoluted spy plot, with a female Jason Bourne assassin, and kick-ass hand-to-hand fight scenes.

🍿  

2 NYC shorts co-directed by Ellie Sachs:

🍿 In Proof of concept an aspiring auteur tries coaxing her dad and Richard Kind, her uncle, into financing her first short film. Cute.

*Woman Director

🍿 My Annie Hall, a wholesome 30-minute remake of 'Annie Hall' starring seniors citizens. The 94-year-old Alvin (and 73-year-old Annie) had all the quirkiness of the originals without the unpleasant personal baggage. 7/10.

*Woman Director

🍿  

And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine is a new documentary about 'The power of the Photograph', produced by Ruben Östlund. It started promisingly with a few minutes of Camera Obscura, and the first ever 1826 photograph by Nicéphore Niépce, but the rest of the time it just jammed hundreds of random clips and images from the internet into fast-moving soup with no depth. 1/10.

🍿  

"There is a grown-up way to eat watermelon!"

Everything Is Terrible, The Movie (2009) was an older but much funnier montage. A cynical compilation of bizarre and obscure clips found in long forgotten VHS tapes, it just fast-edited hundreds of ridiculous tidbits from the 80's and 90's into a dumb and absurd mishmash. Much better!

🍿  

"Don't forget me". Some YouTube essayist's 'Falling down' was propaganda. In spite of not being a fan of such essays, it was an insightful 44 minute analysis. Diving into sociological and historical background trying to prove that DFENS descent into villainy had some very valid reasons. It end with Plato's 'The noble lie'. (Even the YouTube comments were intelligent, for the most part.)

Apparently, there are many similar essays on the same topic!

🍿  

Another unfathomable documentary about the central role the "New Apostolic Reformation" played in instigating the Capitol riot of January 6th. Spiritual Warriors: Decoding Christian Nationalism at the Capitol Riot. Also about C. Peter Wagner, and 'Jericho Marches' and 'Blowing of the Shofars'. Religious fruitcakes are the worst of all nutjob crazies. Mental illness of prophetic levels.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here)

[silvestromedia]

SAINTS OF THE DAY FOR MAY 28

Bl. Thomas Ford, 1582 A.D. Martyr of England. He was born in Devon and educated at Oxford. There he converted and set out for Douai, France. Ordained a priest in 1573, he was sent back to England three years later. Thomas labored in Oxfordshire and Berckshire until his arrest. He was martyred on May 28 at Tyburn by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. He was a companion of St. Edmund Campion, and he died with Blesseds Robert Johnson and John Shert. Thomas was beatified in 1882.

Bl. Robert Johnson, 1582 A.D. English martyr. Born in Shropshire, England, he was a servant before he went to study at Rome and Douai, France, receiving ordination in 1576. Returning to the English mission, he served in the area of London for four years, until his arrest. Robert was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn with Blesseds Thomas Ford and John Short. Robert was beatified in 1886.

Bl. John Shert, 1582 A.D. English martyr. He was born at Shert Hall, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, and educated at Oxford. Converting to the Church, John studied at Douai and Rome. Ordained in 1576, he went to England three years later, working only two years before his arrest. John was martyred at Tyburn with Blessed Thomas Ford and Blessed Robert Johnstone by being hinged, drawn, and quartered. Pope Leo XIII beatified him in 1886.

Bl. Margaret Pole, Martyr of England. She was born Margaret Plantagenet, the niece of Edward IV and Rich-ard III. She married Sir Reginald Pole about 1491 and bore five sons, including Reginald Cardinal Pole. Margaret was widowed, named countess of Salisbury, and appointed governess to Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon, Spain. She opposed Henry’s mar-riage to Anne Boleyn, and the king exiled her from court, although he called her “the holiest woman in England.” When her son, Cardinal Pole, denied Henry’s Act of Supremacy, the king imprisoned Margaret in the Tower of London for two years and then beheaded her on May 28. In 1538, her other two sons were executed. She was never given a legal trial. She was seventy when she was martyred. Margaret was beatified in 1886.

ST. GERMAIN, BISHOP OF PARIS

[cknoir]

Sentinel's 21st Century Media (draft list)

Rules: - 5 pieces of visual media per year. (2000 - present) - Feature films and TV series preferred; try to avoid short films unless I really like them. - Creating gifsets for films within 2-3 years of the present year should be discouraged.

YEAR CANDIDATES

2000

Chicken Run

The Tigger Movie

Billy Elliot

Thirteen Days

-

2001

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Elegy of a Voyage

Pokemon 4Ever

Spirited Away

Band of Brothers

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

2002

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Chicago

Equilibrium

Russian Ark

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

The Bourne Identity

Pokemon Heroes

Lilo and Stitch

Catch Me If You Can

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

2003

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Oldboy

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Secondhand Lions

Finding Nemo

Father and Son

Holes

2004

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie

National Treasure

The Incredibles

Howl's Moving Castle

Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

The Bourne Supremacy

2005

V for Vendetta

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Batman Begins

Sky High

Twitches

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

2006

Night at the Museum

Casino Royale

The Devil Wears Prada

Ultraviolet

Death Note

2007

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Enchanted

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

No Country for Old Men

-

2008

The Dark Knight

Ip Man

Lake Mungo

-

-

2009

Sherlock Holmes

Inglourious Basterds

Star Trek

Coraline

-

2010

Inception

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Toy Story 3

How to Train Your Dragon

Macbeth

2011

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Samsara

The Backwater Gospel*

The Raid

-

2012

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

It's Such a Beautiful Day

Skyfall

Looper

Rise of the Guardians

Moonrise Kingdom

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

2013

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Pacific Rim

The Garden of World

-

-

2014

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Paddington

Over the Garden Wall

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Lego Movie

The Raid 2

Beauty and the Beast

John Wick

2015

Ip Man 3

Kung Fury*

Jupiter Ascending

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Mad Max: Fury Road

-

2016

Moana

The Accountant

The Magnificent Seven

Kubo and the Two Strings

La La Land

Your Name

2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Paddington 2

Blade Runner 2049

The Shape of Water

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

The Lego Batman Movie

A Ghost Story

Call Me By Your Name

Sleep Has Her House

Logan

Baby Driver

2018

The Terror

Spider-Man: In the Spider-Verse

Venom

Overlord

Hereditary

Den of Thieves

Black Panther

2019

Chernobyl

Joker

1917

Midsommar

Good Omens

The Lighthouse

Parasite

2020

Tenet

OPAL*

Hamilton

-

-

-

2021

The Green Knight

-

-

-

-

2022

-

2023

-

2024

Joker: Folie a Deux

-

2025

[pandorem]

I saw one (1) crossover with the two world ending eyeball jo(h)ns being one and the same, with our dear Jarchivist taking the place of John Hunger, and while it definitely bowled me over with Thoughts of themes and sadness and such, the thing that immediately popped into my head was “oh nice, Jon can finally have a friend who’s shorter than him!”

[turnwashingtonsbaddies]

simcoe lowkey spitting some truth here

[booksforthegays]

Do you have any non-YA horror/thriller books (preferably with sapphic or trans poc if possible)

Horror is my favorite genre, so i have a lot of recs for it thanks for the ask! I know a couple with both queer and bipoc rep so I’ll list those first and then separate horror recs after.

BIPOC & Queer Rep - - “Southern Reach Trilogy” by Jeff VanderMeer: Follows Area X a strange phenomenon that has taken over a large area of the coast and is being monitored by a clandestine organization. Probably the main one i’d recommend, though the mc (Grace) who is a sapphic woman of color is not introduced till the second book, every main character in this series is a person of color. The first book Annihilation was also made into a movie though i highly prefer the book series.  - “Abbott Series” by Saladin Ahmed: Graphic novel about a reporter in the 1970s is investigating a case of police brutality when she stumbles upon a sinister lovecraftian presence. The main character is black and bisexual.  - “InSEXts” by Marguerite Bennett: In order to get away from her abusive spouse a woman undergoes a terrifying insect-like transformation. Now free she must use her new found powers to protect her lover and their child. The main character is Indian and a sapphic woman.  - “A Lush and Seething Hell” by John Hornor Jacobs: Follows two stories the first follows a woman charged with taking care of her mentors home while he’s away visiting a sinister place from their shared past. The second follows a man listening to ancient audio tapes from another man traveling in the south. The main character of the first is Hispanic and a lesbian. - “Ring Shout” by P. Djèlí Clark: Follows a secret group that has dedicated their life to fighting horrific monsters that feed on white supremacy. One of the main characters is a lesbian and all of the main cast are black. Sapphic or trans rep only -  - “A Human Stain” by Kelly Robson: Short story where a woman is tasked with taking care of a young orphaned boy who resides in an ancient german castle. You can read this one for free on Tor.  - “Our Wives Under the Sea” by Julia Armfield: Very slow burn horror about grief. A woman must cope with the loss of her wife after she returned from a deep sea expedition completely changed. - “Mother of Stone” by John Langan: Short story about a reporter investigating disturbing incidents at a hotel that occurred after a strange statue was dug up on the grounds I know its for sure included in his anthology series The Wide Carnivorous Sky & Other Monstrous Geographies though it is probably available elsewhere. - “The Worm and His Kings” by Hailey Piper: After her girlfriend goes missing a homeless woman must brave the underground tunnel system filled with ancient horrors to search for her. - “Maplecroft” by Cherie Priest: Two sisters residing in a mansion in the 1890s take on a sinister evil that comes from the ocean. - “The Red Tree” by Caitlín R. Kiernan: After separating from her long term girlfriend an author takes up residents in a remote cabin where she becomes obsessed with the strange red tree in its backyard. Don’t judge the cover on this one its very ugly but i promise its good. - “The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion” by Margaret Killjoy: A traveler searching for answers after her best friends suicide stumbles across a town of squatters who have made a pact with an old god. BIPOC Rep only - - “Butcherbird” by Cassie Hart: A woman returns to her childhood home where her family perished in fire to uncover the secrets of what actually happened that night. - “The Hacienda” by Isabel Cañas: After marrying a man whose previous wife died under suspicious circumstances a woman finds that her new home may be hiding a terrifying evil that no one can save her from. - “The Good House” by Tananarive Due: A woman returns to the home where her child committed suicide to take on the old evil that resides there. This one deals greatly with Vodou mythology. - “These Deathless Bones” by Cassandra Khaw: Follows the second wife of a king at odds with her new step son. - “Bloodchild“ by Octavia E. Butler: OEB’s most terrifying book in my opinion. It follows a young boy who has been chosen to carry on the lineage of the alien race that has enslaved his people. - “Beneath the Rising” by Premee Mohamed: Two life-long friends must face a great evil together after one of them unknowingly creates a machine that lets it enter our world. Please check any CWs here if needed. I hope I was able to introduce you to some fun new titles and authors!

[b-plot-butch]

john flanagan really has been saying short king supremacy since 2004 and i live for it

[critterdotcom]

i've been doing a rewatch of bte over the past few weeks and have realized that i have a massive crush on john silver. him and marko are short king supremacy

- jungle boypussy anon

i would let john silver hit repeatedly

[theshedding]

Lil Nas X: Country Music, Christianity & Reclaiming HELL

I don’t typically bother myself to follow what Lil Nas X is doing from day to day, or even month to month but I do know that his “Old Town Road” hit became one of the biggest selling/streamed records in Country Music Business history (by a Black Country & Queer artist). “Black” is key because for 75+ years Country music has unsuspiciously evolved into a solidly White-identified genre (despite mixed and Indian & Black roots). Regrettably, Country music is also widely known for anti-black, misogynoir, reliably homophobic (Trans isn’t really a conversation yet), Christian and Hard Right sentiments on the political spectrum. Some other day I will venture into more; there is a whole analysis dying to be done on this exclusive practice in the music industry with its implications on ‘access’ to equity and opportunity for both Black/POC’s and Whites artists/songwriters alike. More commentary on this rigid homogeneous field is needed and how it prohibits certain talent(s) for the sake of perpetuating homogeneity (e.g. “social determinants” of diversity & viable artistic careers). I’ll refrain from discussing that fully here, though suffice it to say that for those reasons X’s “Old Town Road” was monumental and vindicating. 

As for Lil Nas X, I’m not particularly a big fan of his music; but I see him, what he’s doing, his impact on music + culture and I celebrate him using these moments to affirm his Black, Queer self, and lifting up others. Believe it or not, even in the 2020′s, being “out” in the music business is still a costly choice. As an artist it remains much easier to just “play straight”. And despite appearances, the business (particularly Country) has been dragged kicking and screaming into developing, promoting and advancing openly-affirming LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 artists in the board room or on-stage. Though things are ‘better’ we have not yet arrived at a place of equity or opportunity for queer artists; for the road of music biz history is littered with stunted careers, bodies and limitations on artists who had no option but to follow conventional ways, fail or never be heard of in the first place. With few exceptions, record labels, radio and press/media have successfully used fear, intimidation, innuendo and coercion to dilute, downplay or erase any hint of queer identity from its performers. This was true even for obvious talents like Little Richard.

(Note: I’m particularly speaking of artists in this regard, not so much the hairstylists, make-up artists, PA’s, etc.)

_____

Which is why...in regard to Lil Nas X, whether you like, hate or love his music, the young brother is a trailblazer. His very existence protests (at least) decades of inequity, oppression and erasure. X aptly critiques a Neo-Christian Fascist Heteropatriarchy; not just in American society but throughout the Music Business and with Black people. That is no small deal. His unapologetic outness holds a mirror up to Christianity at-large, as an institution, theology and practice. The problem is they just don’t like what they see in that mirror.

In actuality, “Call Me By Your Name”, Lil Nas X’s new video, is a twist on classic mythology and religious memes that are less reprehensible or vulgar than the Biblical narratives most of us grew up on vís-a-vís indoctrinating smiles of Sunday school teachers and family prior to the “age of reason”. Think about the narratives blithely describing Satan’s friendly wager with God regarding Job (42:1-6); the horrific “prophecies” in St. John’s Book of Revelation (i.e. skies will rain fire, angels will spit swords, mankind will be forced to retreat into caves for shelter, and we will be harassed by at least three terrifying dragons and beasts. Angels will sound seven trumpets of warning, and later on, seven plagues will be dumped on the world), or Jesus’s own clarifying words of violent intent in Matthew (re: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” 10:34). Whether literal or metaphor, these age old stories pale in comparison to a three minute allegorical rap video. Conservatives: say what you will, I’m pretty confident X doesn’t take himself as seriously as “The true and living God” from the book of Job.

A little known fact as it is, people have debunked the story and evolution of Satan and already offered compelling research showing [he] is more of a literary device than an actual entity or “spirit” (Spoiler: In the Bible, Satan does not take shape as an actual “bad” person until the New Testament). In fact, modern Christianity’s impression of the “Devil” is shaped by conflating Hellenized mythology with a literary tradition rooted in Dante’s Inferno and accompanying spooks and superstitions going back thousands of years. Whether Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Scientologist, Atheist or Agnostic, we’ve spent a lifetime with these predominant icons and clichés. (Resource: Prof. Bart D. Erhman, “Heaven & Hell”).

So Here’s THE PROBLEM: The current level of fear and outrage is: 

(1) Unjust, imposing and irrational. 

(2) Disproportionate when taken into account a lifetime of harmful Christian propaganda, anti-gay preaching and political advocacy.

(3) Historically inaccurate concerning the existence of “Hell” and who should be scared of going there. 

Think I’m overreacting? 

Examples: 

Institutionalized Homophobia (rhetoric + policy)

Anti-Gay Ministers In Life And Death: Bishop Eddie Long And Rev. Bernice King

Black, gay and Christian, Marylanders struggle with Conflicts

Harlem pastor: 'Obama has released the homo demons on the black man'

Joel Olsteen: Homosexuality is “Not God’s Best”

Bishop Brandon Porter: Gays “Perverted & Lost...The Church of God in Christ Convocation appears like a ‘coming out party’ for members of the gay community.”

Kim Burrell: “That perverted homosexual spirit is a spirit of delusion & confusion and has deceived many men & women, and it has caused a strain on the body of Christ”

Falwell Suggests Gays to Blame for 9-11 Attacks

Pope Francis Blames The Devil For Sexual Abuse By Catholic Church

Pope Francis: Gay People Not Welcome in Clergy

Pope Francis Blames The Devil For Sexual Abuse By Catholic Church

The Pope and Gay People: Nothing’s Changed

The Catholic church silently lobbied against a suicide prevention hotline in the US because it included LGBT resources

Mormon church prohibits Children of LGBT parents to be baptized

Catholic Charity Ends Adoptions Rather Than Place Kid With Same-Sex Couple

I Was a Religious Zealot That Hurt People-Coming Out as Gay: A Former Conversion Therapy Leader Is Apologizing to the LGBTQ Community

The above short list chronicles a consistent, literal, demonization of LGBTQ people, contempt for their gender presentation, objectification of their bodies/sexuality and a coordinated pollution of media and culture over the last 50+ years by clergy since integration and Civil Rights legislation. Basically terrorism. Popes, Bishops, Pastors, Evangelists, Politicians, Television hosts, US Presidents, Camp Leaders, Teachers, Singers & Entertainers, Coaches, Athletes and Christians of all types all around the world have confused and confounded these issues, suppressed dissent, and confidently lied about LGBT people-including fellow Queer Christians with impunity for generations (i.e. “thou shall not bear false witness against they neighbor” Ex. 23:1-3). Christian majority viewpoints about “laws” and “nature” have run the table in discussions about LGBTQ people in society-so much that we collectively must first consider their religious views in all discussions and the specter of Christian approval -at best or Christian condescension -at worst. That is Christian (and straight) privilege. People are tired of this undue deference to religious opinions. 

That is what is so deliciously bothersome about Lil Nas X being loud, proud and “in your face” about his sexuality. If for just a moment, he not only disrupts the American hetero-patriarchy but specifically the Black hetero-patriarchy, the so-called “Black Church Industrial Complex”, Neo-Christian Fascism and a mostly uneducated (and/or miseducated) public concerning Ancient Near East and European history, superstitions-and (by extension) White Supremacy. To round up: people are losing their minds because the victim decided to speak out against his victimizer. 

Additionally, on some level I believe people are mad at him being just twenty years old, out and FREE as a self-assured, affirming & affirmed QUEER Black male entertainer with money and fame in the PRIME of his life. We’ve never, or rarely, seen that before in a Black man in the music business and popular culture. But that’s just too bad for them. With my own eyes I’ve watched straight people, friends, Christians, enjoy their sexuality from their elementary youth to adolescence, up and through college and later marriages, often times independently of their spouses (repeatedly). Meanwhile Queer/Gay/SGL/LGBTQ people are expected to put their lives on hold while the ‘blessed’ straight people run around exploring premarital/post-marital/extra-marital sex, love and affection, unbound & un-convicted by their “sin” or God...only to proudly rebrand themselves later in life as a good, moral “wholesome Christian” via the ‘sacred’ institution of marriage with no questions asked. 

Inequality defined.

For Lil Nas X, everything about the society we've created for him in the last 100+ years (re: links above) has explicitly been designed for his life not to be his own. According to these and other Christians (see above), his identity is essentially supposed to be an endless rat fuck of internal confusion, suicide-ideation, depression, long-suffering, faux masculinity, heterosexism, groveling towards heaven, respectability politics, failed prayer and supplication to a heteronormative earthly and celestial hierarchy unbothered in affording LGBT people like him a healthy, sane human development. It’s almost as if the Conservative establishment (Black included) needs Lil Nas X to be like others before him: “private”, mysteriously single, suicidal, suspiciously straight or worse, dead of HIV/AIDS ...anything but driving down the street enjoying his youth as a Black Queer artist and man. So they mad about that?

Well those days are over.  

-Rogiérs is a writer, international recording artist, performer and indie label manager with 25+ years in the music industry. He also directs Black Nonbelievers of DC, a non-profit org affiliated with the AHA supporting Black skeptics, Atheists, Agnostics & Humanists. He holds a B.A. in Music Business & Mgmt and a M.A. in Global Entertainment & Music Business from Berklee College of Music and Berklee Valencia, Spain. www.FibbyMusic.net Twitter/IG: @Rogiers1