#spahr just out here

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

The funniest detail in "Resolve" is that Sherman is shown to keep his abacus on a hook by the front door of his apartment. Meaning it's apparently something of a convention in the Highest Light to keep your abacus in roughly the same location as your coat or keys, and that Jonas Spahr, known pretentious asshole, decided on the most EXTRA possible way to do this

[ariadne-mouse]

I feel fandom would get along a lot better if there was mutual understanding that liking a character, agreeing with a character, and thinking the character is well constructed/executed are all separate (if often overlapping) positions, each with their separate tastes and subjectivities. Also: character portrayals are intended to make the audience feel things; this is separate from (if often overlapping with) analyzing/appreciating their actions and role in the story.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

I feel like it says a lot about the relationships between the major institutions of the Trust and the Consectorship's place in it that Spahr's role, the role of any Prime Consector, can be summarized as: show pony, attack dog, scapegoat.

[falloutcoys]

tumblr in Midst would go crazy

5 notes

📻 teletherictrash

wait prime adsecla thatch was only 22? he should have been at Bedrock 😔

876 notes

🌌 glittering-un Follow

why's the tripotentiary kinda...

🌟 micadustandmemories

girl i'm sorry but i will NOT hear this one out

23 notes

🌺 miiica Follow

i think we really need to discuss large valor gap relationships. i'm sorry but there's just an unescapable power dynamic there and no, your relationship is not different or special

📻 teletherictrash

it's actually sooo problematic of you to assume that those with caenum can't fully consent to relationships

🌺 miiica Follow

WHERE did i say that in the post???

📻 teletherictrash

don't act like it wasn't implied

🏳️‍🌈 valorousvic

i don't see what the problem is. if anything, the valorous partner should be worried about being used for their valor.

📻 teletherictrash

at least we can all agree you're an idiot

#valor discourse

22,450 notes

🌟 micadustandmemories

who up having caenumous thoughts?

#and before you even ask yes its about the prime consector #who else would it be about

2 notes

⚪ thearchauditor Follow

just a reminder that anything said here can potentially be audited by our notaries. be careful what you post!

🌺 miiica Follow

K

🌟 micadustandmemories

U

🌌 glittering-un Follow

N

📻 teletherictrash

G

🕳️ foldlvr

P

158,730 notes

🪩 loxleegalabracket

#sorry i know these are everyone's faves! the bracket was randomly generated :( #hate to put two bad bitches against each other #loxlee gala #loxlee gala poll #polls

172 notes

🏳️‍🌈 valorousvic

i could fix her...

17 notes

🕳️ foldlvr

in the vault . straight up "baloncing it". and by "it", haha, well. let's justr say. my canum.

[encyclopediacr]

Last month at the wiki — December 2023

Every month, we highlight significant work done in the previous month by our editing community at Encyclopedia Exandria. As we move into 2024, we take a second-to-last look at 2023—and it's a long one, folks. We'll take a look at 2023 as a whole year on Monday!

As always, to start, here's a selection of ten articles created in December. You can find more of our newest articles at the 50 newest pages report.

Circle of Tide & Bone, circle of Candela Obscura investigators

Potion of climbing, grants a climbing speed

Dancing sword, magical weapon that attacks on its own

The Glorious Ones, adventuring party in Athova-Rae

Calloway hideaway, hideout in Bassuras

Janet Varney, voice actor of Vilya in The Legend of Vox Machina

Ruidium armor, armor enchanced with ruidium

Wild's guide, tobacco-like plant

Scuttling serpentmaw, crab-like aberrations

Gibbering mouther, aberrations formed of the mouths and eyes of victims

December saw a lot of article creation in themed groups! The rival adventuring party in Call of the Netherdeep—Ayo Jabe, Dermot Wurder, Galsariad Ardyth, Irvan Wastewalker, and Maggie Keeneyes—all now have articles. We're also starting some forays into subpages dedicated to stat changes over time. We've been mulling that project over for some time, and with the sunsetting of @critrolestats, we've been thinking about it again. Alongside the new pages for the rivals, we've also got some tier subpages: Ayo's tiers for an example.

In other theme article creations, our Midst coverage has expanded! Following the three protagonists earlier in the year and Tzila in November, the major secondary characters now have articles: Saskia Del Norma, Jonas Spahr, Sherman Guthrie, and Imelda Goldfinch. There's also a dedicated article to all things geography and cosmology, Midst locations.

There was also a one-shot drive over the channel's winter break to write plot summaries for one-shots that are lacking them. Through this, we've got some new editors contributing plot summaries to "Cinderbrush: A Monsterhearts Story", "Crash Pandas: Too Trashed, Too Curious", and "DOOM Eternal One-Shot". You can check out details about the push at our post here on Tumblr. If you ever want to contribute a plot summary yourself, or any other content updates or edits of any other type, we encourage you! You can do so at any time.

If you've want to know what the Circle of Needle & Thread carries around, we've got updates completing those sections on each character's article. Check out Jean Basar for an example.

In backend stuff, all character articles finally have verified "Appearances and mentions" sections! Well over a year ago, character articles had these sections collated using a script from a list that used to live in the infoboxes and from episode "Featured character" sections. These lists were being slowly checked manually to ensure that they they were properly formatted, organized, and correct. They've finally all been verified!

Whew! A long-winded update, but it is the end of the year after all. Join us on Monday for our final look at 2023 where we look again not just at December but the year as whole.

[essektheylyss]

I love that Imelda Goldfinch went from "mildly unsettling, probably evil but I'm going to hold out judgment before I decide whether she's intentionally malicious or has just bought into the zealotry too hard" to "oh she is EVIL evil, actively, willfully, terrifyingly zealous evil" instantly this season.

It's very fun because it also immediately puts you on the side of both Weepe and Jonas Spahr, both of whom looked very bad at the end of season 1. But I think it's also the first time we get a look into Jonas's head, and find that it is very similar to Phineas's, and that also adds a whole extra layer of "you are also partially a victim here, and you just might actually be on the verge of starting to recognize it." (And honestly, I wonder if Jonas, who does not necessarily feel like he needs to struggle for some kind of external validation, may recognize it faster than Phineas now that he's really seeing the effects up close and personal.)

This show is fascinating for how terrible all of the characters are yet also how simple they make it to identify who is simply terrible and who is terrible because there are only shit choices in the world of Midst.

[queenjulia11]

Re-listened to the whole first season yesterday (because I’m chill and normal about my interests) and wow is Phineas the perfect example of how toxic masculinity completely changes a person.

In his introduction, Phineas does exactly what he needs to in order to get the job done. He doesn’t use excessive force, and is able to solve the problem without anyone getting hurt. In any other world, this would be impressive.

Spahr is proud of him, but reminds him to play it up more for the media. Okay, noted, he’ll do better next time. He did exactly what was asked of him, just not in a manner that makes The Trust sound badass and cool to the kids listening back home.

He doesn’t break even — sucks, but no time to be sad about it! Here’s Backpack with her microphone! Look on the goddamn bright side, Phineas!! He still feels his feelings, but does way more than he should to cover them up around other people.

The gala goes well for him, a much needed confidence boost; he takes pride in not accepting handouts. But he doesn’t just say “no thank you,” like episode 3 Phineas might have, he’s offended that Mr. Loxlee expected he would want his help. That would make him weak. Mr. Loxlee clearly just doesn’t get it. This righteous reaction to turning Mr. Loxlee down says more than I realized at first about The Trust’s propaganda that Phin’s been consuming literally since childhood.

Then Spahr basically tells him to stop having social anxiety. Phineas has been feeling so many emotions, asking himself so many questions, trying to put on the Starship Troopers G.I. Joe face this entire time — looking for the answer. Looking for a guiding light to tell him how to be who he’s been told he’s supposed to be. And what answer does Jonas Spahr give to sweet, mild-mannered Phineas Thatch?

Don’t show weakness.

Or else he’s out. Last warning. Is it really that surprising Phineas lashed out against Sherman the way he did?

Spahr is certainly surprised — woah, this is not what he meant. But regardless of his intentions, this is what he fostered. This ruthlessness. This cruelty. This Adsecla who Phineas never would’ve seen himself as back in episode three. “An impulsive fucking idiot.”

“Phineas sees Jonas Spahr. But Jonas Spahr does not see Phineas.”

In more ways than one.

And after finally doing as he was told (to the best of his understanding), Phineas’ mentor, his hero abandons him. He didn’t want to, he never meant for it to go this far. But Phin doesn’t know that.

And now here he is, chewed up and spat out by the system he was born into. After following all the rules, he has become one of the indebted former trustees he was tasked to hunt, with no hope of ever getting back to where he was — let alone breaking even.

This is what propaganda does. This is what toxic masculinity does. This is what a cult does. And it doesn’t happen in a way you can easily see, it slowly simmers until it boils over into something unrecognizably sharp.

Oh, Phineas. I’m rooting for you, buddy.

[utilitycaster]

Because I still have Midst's most recent episode on the brain, it really is a little frustrating to see how characters like Jonas Spahr are so frequently maligned over a single incident and characters like Liliana Temult are so frequently given infinite excuses. I say a little frustrating because I think by and large the respective fandoms of Midst and CR do find Jonas a flawed but ultimately sympathetic and heroic character, and Liliana a person who perhaps began with good intentions but has been so warped by years in a cult that she is now openly manipulating her daughter, so this is about a relatively small group. But it is very much an extant group.

I think for me the real hangup is that the reason the Jonas Spahr archetype (of which, for those who know CR and not Midst, Fjord is not quite the same but similar enough for this particular example; this post is definitely about him as well) receives criticism for being harsh towards, for lack of a better term, a wetter and sadder cat of a character. And how is that different from Liliana, who is at the very least staging a public shaming of her daughter? For all their methods, and for all their personal history, characters like Fjord and Spahr have never been terribly manipulative towards the sympathetic protagonists, just openly angry. And when they've been angry, it's always come out that they are consciously holding back from what was visited on them.

But Liliana. Liliana isn't trying to shield Imogen. She says she is, but she continues long after it stops working. She won't listen to the daughter she says she's doing this for; she treats a grown woman like the toddler she abandoned. I don't think Liliana means "did she know there were children in this music hall" because she told Imogen that last episode. She invoked that there were children here to try to excuse her own behavior. She knows Imogen knows about that. This is about the assassination attempt. She wants to know if her daughter knew this was coming. And the answer is that Imogen did, and she tried to stop Liliana, and she tried even to advocate for a more measured attempt with a group for which she lacked the built-up good will. Unlike Liliana leaning on her ultimately useless showy warnings and claiming she does this all for a greater good, Imogen didn't try to curry favor with her mother (nor should she have to; Liliana's the one who left). I doubt Liliana would have taken kindly to being captured, but Imogen still tried and didn't try to score points with her mother for it.

The response to Liliana when juxtaposed with the response to Spahr does feel like this trend, again of a small subset of people but certainly a subset often unaware of how to act reasonably online, that craves the most basic subversion and simultaneously fears and hates conviction in those characters who are not part of this childish "what if the BAD GUYS were RIGHT" group. Specifically they hate an individual conviction that allows one to break out of a larger ideology - one that Spahr has and Liliana clearly lacks.

I'll admit this is really more an observation - I don't have a thesis statement or true conclusion, at least not one I'm going to share widely - but it still sits so strangely that people will hate characters for a single harsh word to their favorite and then try to brush away the decades of harm Liliana has, ultimately, visited on Imogen. Did the word "Run" ever comfort her? It certainly didn't work. Did Liliana ever answer a direct question? At some point, when you're dealing with a fully functioning adult, you can't just say "I'm doing this for you" without their input and be taken seriously and yet Liliana does, repeatedly. At least with Spahr I believed the people who disliked him liked Phineas, but here, I don't think the people defending her care that much for Imogen except as Liliana does - a sweetly misguided morality pet whom they're doing this all for, hush, don't interrupt my noble sacrifice for you with your actual needs and wants. It feels like the campaign-long denial, within some of the fandom, of Imogen's agency, down to how people talk carefully around how the reason Bells Hells wasn't at the assassination is because Imogen chose not to be (and told the others they could not go either, and they respected this). I think we're reaching a point where those who have been so scornful of leadership are fighting against the fact that that is how Imogen is positioned: as leader and as a hero. Ironically, as we've learned from how they treat characters like Spahr, there's nothing they hate more than that.

[squirrels-are-sleeping]

I have some thoughts on things that Phineas could actually stand to learn from Spahr, which he clearly hasn't had the opportunity to do.

(This post is full of spoilers for Midst s3e8, which will all go under the cut.)

One of the foundational assumptions of the cult of Valour is that it's possible to neatly and precisely assign (and subsequently quantify) blame. People who succeed politically in the Trust become exceptionally skilled at shifting blame in such a way that it's assigned to others. This includes casual conversation, where presumably the question of Valour cost is irrelevant; they just. practise. all the time.

Throughout the episode you can watch Costigan deftly wiggle out of the blame field while attempting to move it over to Spahr. She's doing it pretty much continuously, but I want to look at just two of the examples.

The most obvious, spelled out in plain text case is the breaking of the flower pot: she loses her temper, and immediately follows it up with a "look what you made me do" - an explicit, verbal assignment of blame. But here's an interesting thing: Spahr, even at his lowest, even though his gut reaction is to accept the blame and clean up the mess, does not budge, and forces her into a retreat - both in practical terms (she cleans up the mess) and in conversation (she *admits* that she's caused the mess in the first place).

Later, there comes another of her moves: she eagerly agrees with Spahr that Phineas's faults as Adsecla are Spahr's fault; virtually in the same breath she expresses that the failures of her subordinate are also that subordinate's fault. Spahr is responsible for all actions, his own and Phineas's; Costigan is responsible for none.

Here, too, Spahr doesn't stay within the blame field. He doesn't explicitly call her on it, but internally he doesn't submit to her evaluation. Instead he walks out with a new sense of clarity, courtesy entirely of seeing her bullshit for what it is.

Here's my point: Phineas would've 100% got onto his hands and knees and picked up the pieces of that flower pot. And I guess what I ultimately wish for him, is to arrive at the level of recovery where he *does not*.

[centaurianthropology]

Good lord, but Imelda Goldfinch is the worst and scariest villain in 'Midst.' Every line makes me shudder. Her faux-concern and sickly-sweetness all covering a ruthless self-interest makes my skin crawl.

And because they're with her--despite being shit-heels themselves--I find myself genuinely sympathizing with both Spahr and Weepe. They are a team-up I had no idea I wanted until just now. I have no idea what they need to do (go back to Midst?), but they need to get their shit together and do SOMETHING, or they're both completely fucked, because Imelda will burn them both to get where she's going.

Anyway, here we are on the Consector's Flagship, now taken over by a tiny middle-aged Karen in a pink blazer, while Jonas Spahr and Moc Weepe are both on their own magical journeys of having fucked around and now finding out.

[squirrel-stowaway]

holy shit what an episode, I’m 👀👀👀 at so many things here

what’s imelda’s angle? does she genuinely believe this or is she also gaming the system? honestly I am mostly just in terrified awe of how far she’s willing to go and how much she’s willing to gamble on this

spahr not stopping imelda because of what she says it would do to his valor is also so interesting, both in terms of him as a character and also in terms of how the how valor system works

also I’m so interested by what weepe’s condition means wrt what will happen to lark, as well as what the grandmother said about them treating fold stuff and that turning into opalescent white markings afterwards. did they help weepe with this or did he figure this out separately?

[odinsblog]

Facebook ads have a problem. It's called digital redlining.

In 2021, a Facebook user filed a lawsuit because they didn't think they were getting a fair shot at viewing advertisements. Wanting to see ads might seem absurd — if you're anything like me, you want ads off your social media experience at all costs. Still, to a 55-year-old prospective tenant in the Washington, D.C. area, it was about more than a simple publicity blurb on Facebook. It, the plaintiff argued, had grave real-life consequences.

So Neuhtah Opiotennione filed a class-action lawsuit against nine companies that manage various apartment buildings in the D.C. area, alleging that they engaged in "digital housing discrimination" by excluding older people — like her — from viewing advertisements on Facebook. She alleges that because the defendants deliberately excluded people over the age of 50 from viewing their ads — something you could once do on Facebook — she was denied the opportunity to receive certain housing advertisements targeted to younger potential tenants.

"In creating a targeted Facebook advertisement, advertisers can determine who sees their advertisements based on such characteristics as age, gender, location, and preferences," the lawsuit reads. The plaintiff alleged that rental companies used Facebook's targeting function to exclude people like her because of her age, instead directing the ads to younger prospective tenants.

David Brody, counsel and senior fellow for privacy and technology at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which filed a brief in favor of the plaintiff, said in a press release that "Facebook is not giving the user what the user wants – Facebook is giving the user what it thinks a demographic stereotype wants. Redlining is discriminatory and unjust whether it takes place online or offline, and we must not allow corporations to blame technology for harmful decisions made by CEOs."

The case was ultimately dismissed because the judge felt that online targeting of advertisements causes no injury to consumers. However, Ballard Spahr LLP, a law firm that focuses on litigation, securities and regulatory enforcement, business and finance, intellectual property, public finance, and real estate matters, said that the ruling could have a significant impact on how we view discrimination online.

"It seems likely to make it more difficult for private parties to attempt to bring lawsuits related to online ad targeting on social media networks or through methods like paid search," the firm said. "But, secondarily, we wonder whether it will serve as a barrier to regulatory actions as well."

Opiotennione v. Bozzuto Mgmt. is just one of many lawsuits against Facebook alleging discrimination. We already know how nefarious these ads can be, from spying on us to collecting our data and creating a world with further devastating partisan divides. But there's something else harmful going on with ads online, particularly on one of the largest ad platforms ever, Facebook. According to Facebook's parent company, Meta, the platform has a total advertising audience of more than two billion people. Any one of them could be missing out on ads — for housing, credit opportunities, and other important issues that impact the wealth gap — due to digital redlining. Here's why that's important.

Wait, what is digital redlining?

Traditional redlining is when people and companies purposefully withhold loans and other resources from people who live in specific neighborhoods. This tends to land along racial and financial divides, and it works to deepen those divides. It can happen online, too.

Digital redlining refers to any use of technology to perpetuate discrimination. It's how The Greenlining Institute, a California-based organization that works to fix digital redlining, describes the practice of internet companies failing to provide infrastructures for service — such as broadband internet — to lower-income communities, as it's seen as less profitable to do so.

That kind of digital redlining results in lower-income people having to turn to prepaid plans and other more expensive options for internet while also having to deal with slower speeds than those in wealthier — and often whiter — communities, which have a digital infrastructure. The Greenlining Institute isn't the only organization working to fix this kind of digital redlining. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is also forming an agency task force focused on combating digital discrimination and promoting equal broadband access nationwide.

But digital redlining also refers to unfair ad-targeting practices. According to the ACLU, online ad-targeting can replicate existing disparities in society, which can exclude people who belong to historically marginalized groups from opportunities for housing, jobs, and credit. 

"In today’s digital world, digital redlining has become the new frontier of discrimination, as social media platforms like Facebook and online advertisers have increasingly used personal data to target ads based on race, gender, and other protected traits," the ACLU said in a press release from January. "This type of online discrimination is harmful and disproportionately impacts people of color, women, and other marginalized groups, yet courts have held that platforms like Facebook and online advertisers can't be held accountable for withholding ads for jobs, housing, and credit from certain users. Despite agreements to make sweeping changes to its ad platform, digital redlining still persists on Facebook."

(continue reading)

[onewomancitadel]

Do you think Cinder has any non violent hobbies? XD

Yes I do and I'm not even sure killing is her true hobby to begin with. I think Tyrian takes 'you've got to love what you do for your job' very seriously but that's not her character. I don't even think her killing of Pyrrha was particularly sadistic; if anything it's her most just kill, other than Ozpin (which was fair and square). I think the more questionable moral acts are the killing of the woman at the bottom of the Vault (she saw Cinder was a monster, so I think there is a 'you see me as a monster, I'll show you a monster' element here) and the big splodey antics on the yellow brick road to Vacuo, though those civilians aren't presumably dead. Anyway: my issue is non-combatants, but otherwise her last cast kill is Vernal. I guess like, if it's not a named character and also not one you happen to care about it doesn't matter, so people only get upset over Pyrrha, and for that matter seem to assign sadism/enjoyment of the kill to it. I think she's very excited about the Fall Maiden power, for what it's worth.

Anyway I do lean pretty hard on the allusions for this type of thing (particularly for constructing my own fic) but given how often her clothes change compared to the rest of the cast, I think she makes her own clothes and probably cares about fashion to some degree. (Thank God. At least ONE of the cast has some sense of sartorial awareness to work with, and with her character I can at least avoid the simpering YA protagonist (often transplanted into fanfic) who hates pretty things but STILL has to have the requisite makeover scene that is obviously necessary because she is UGLY but she doesn't choose it anyway (I think THG is the exception to this) - just leave her ugly! or I don't know, maybe your idea of ugliness is stupid)!

And yes I do like the idea of anything creative associated with her character. I also like that Salem plays in her witch lab making new Grimm and has a fun creative time with things that should not be, because that gives complexity to her as well as themes of creation/destruction, plus Mummy has a new chemistry set and she wants you to show you her new creation. [cue Cinder's fear seeing the Hound] lol

I also think she probably has a lot of skills from working under Madame/learning under Salem and there was probably all sorts of fucked up feelings associated with mending clothes for the sisters and Madame and watching them ruin their nice clothes that SHE could wear. So how she reconciles that could be interesting. In my fic. I can't imagine they'll make a point of this in the show because hobbies are not generally points of specific interest explored like this lol.

I also like the idea she doesn't know she sings but she does (siiiigh yeah I am hopeless. Come on. Show us the poem:

And we said together, there needs to be some pleasure in the world.  And next, poetry is the what is left of life. And we pledged, more singing. And we referenced by saying, In the dark times. Will there also be singing?  Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.

Will There Be Singing, Juliana Spahr)

Right so you can tell that I just go really ham on the duality. That's a repeated theme in the show but Cinder I think is probably the figure most steeped in darkness that could be acute light. (Like, Ruby is obviously chthonic, but her light is much clearer, though I think her Wolfiness will come out in the next few volumes).

Also there is the Cinderella (1950 something film) thing of Cinderella singing. So there’s that.

There is a lot more I could say but this is already enough of a peek into my mind so we'll leave it there. Plus you can see in Skimming Eye I think Jaune and Cinder do insufferably cute things together. I could also see her getting into just like, really weird stuff for short spurts because when she's free she can do whatever she wants. Cue an origami collection. And then Jaune just gets her whatever she wants too.

Thanks anon that was fun to think about. Hope you are having a good day so far.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

To expand on a prior post I've made, it is really fun and it makes a lot of sense and it feels ultimately natural that Spahr is here at the end, in this last confrontation with Weepe, because he and Weepe are rivals. They're, almost unexpectedly, foils.

They're arrogant men who allow and enable awful things to happen to others to protect and increase their social standing. They hurt the people they care about most for self-serving reasons—but in the end, only one of them takes responsibility for that. (Trustfall and Ghosts are inverse parallels, and this post discusses a portion that is most relevant here.) Weepe increasingly identifies with the Trust as Spahr is increasingly disillusioned with it, and Weepe rises to power at the same rate that Spahr falls into disgrace. Just as Weepe is convinced that he will always be an awful person and fatalistically believes he cannot ever do better, Spahr has been convinced he has a self-evident righteousness but eventually sees that not only does he not, but he can and must do better.

Beyond that, they're narratively tied together. Weepe is in the Highest Light because Spahr agrees to bring him. Spahr helps Imelda lock Weepe in the Arca, and he does it in part for smug satisfaction because of his personal dislike for Weepe. He wronged Weepe by participating in engineering the circumstances that led to his torture and by failing to intervene against it out of fear for himself, and the fact that he wronged Weepe is something that Spahr is explicitly aware of and is something that weighs heavily on his conscience. It is through the Arca that Spahr traces Weepe's ascension to Tripotentiary as a direct result of his actions; he believes that he failed to stop, or even facilitated, Weepe's rise and everything that results from it.

For much of the narrative, they're racing to the same goal, even sometimes without knowing. Spahr is on Midst specifically to find the Breach centerpoint, and Weepe identifies it as the cabaret and turns it over to the Trust before Spahr has any chance to start looking. Weepe pulls the Fuze-Loxlee investigation out from underneath Spahr when he convinces Sherman to name Fuze's murderer, ultimately succeeding where Spahr fails. He takes the information to the Upper Trust himself after Spahr was removed from the investigation for, simplistically, lack of progress. Sherman chooses to trust Weepe over Spahr, and Weepe wipes his debt before Spahr can.

When Spahr is court-martialed, he is given the opportunity (read: pressured) into donating all Valor accrued during his tenure to his successor — and then that donation apparently goes to Weepe as part of a series of donations to help set him up as Most Valorous. The role of the Prime Consector gets folded under the new position of Tripotentiary, and without a Prime Consector appointed, Weepe is the sole direction that the Company has. Weepe even moves into the residence held by the Prime Consector, as we're often reminded that Spahr lived there before Weepe did. Weepe is Spahr's successor in all but literal title.

Spahr waits until Weepe repeats the order to bring Lark and Phineas to refuse. At the moment where Weepe is at his most elevated and Spahr at his most diminished, when they are such extreme ends in the hierarchy, it is to Weepe that Spahr says, finally, "No."

As Prime Consector, Spahr was ideologically (though not materially) the truest manifestation of Valor. A Consector's job is to hunt, to pursue those who have escaped the Trust and restore them to the Trust. At this point, Weepe is all that is left of the Trust, its only manifestation, and all he does now is hunt Lark and those who aid her, to rebalance and to restore what is felt lost.

As funny as it is that Spahr is here at the end as the only one who isn't a protagonist, it makes so much sense that he is here in the confrontation against Weepe. He has to be. They're foils to one another, one of their many. Their actions have deeply entangled themselves in one another's arc. Over the course of the story, very slowly, there's been a changing of places between Weepe and Spahr.

Of course Spahr is here too. He was a razor's edge from being the one bearing down on that cabin. He was very, terrifyingly close to being on Weepe's side of the door.

[indieephemera]

Flyer for calendar listings at Cambridge, MA rock club T.T. the Bear’s Place, January 1990.

With the exception of 23 Skidoo on 17th (!), this was a relatively uneventful month at T.T’s. That it was a January in reliably cold and snowy Boston was certainly a factor. But I also think the club was still mostly booking local acts, the biggest of which listed here would be Treat Her Right, on the 19th. Though it was another local band that originally brought me to T.T. the Bear’s just a couple of months earlier...

I’d been a big fan of The Cavedogs ever since hearing their demo tape on WFNX’s Boston Rocks local music program on Sunday nights. And so I decided to look up each of the band members in the phone book to cold call them, asking if I could interview them for my high school newspaper. I think guitarist Todd Spahr was the first one I reached, and yes, they graciously accepted what much have seemed a pretty weird request. The post-interview pics of the band in the back room at T.T.’s was one of the first posts on this blog.

Having experienced hanging out at this particularly cool rock club, I began following its listings. And of course all the local bands I heard on the radio would play there, plus occasional international artists of note such as Steve Kilbey and Robyn Hitchcock.

And the only reason why I was able to attend those two particular shows is that, one day after school, I marched up to the club box office and asked to speak to the manager. That person turned out to be Bonnie Bouley, the owner of T.T.’s. I’d come prepared with a copy of my high school newspaper and the two zines I’d started writing for, ready to make my case as to why she should allow me, a 16-year-old, into her club.

Bonnie listed to my pitch about being a young music journalist who only wanted to be able to see the bands, not for any very illegal underage drinking. True and true. I would even end up touching alcohol until sometime in my twenties. So maybe she saw how sincere and passionate I was and decided to cut me a break. Maybe she felt just like me when she was in her teens. At any rate, after listening to my spiel, Bonnie simply stated: “All right, I’ll let you in. But you’ll get two black X’es on both hands. And if I ever see you drinking, you’re banned for life.”

I kept my part of the bargain, and she hers. And that was the key that unlocked my access to so many great shows at such an early age.

[datingintampafails]

Chapter 2: Spahr

No asterisk, so that’s right, this dude’s name was LITERALLY Spahr. I should have known immediately just from his name that this was going to be a bad experience. He said it was a nickname he was given when he was a kid and it stuck. Unfortunately, I ignored that sign because TBH his pictures were very attractive. Important to note, that when I swiped right and gave him my number/Snapchat, he had three photos: one photo where he was wearing sunglasses and out fishing; a second photo where he was wearing a military uniform, had blue eyes and short brown hair with a great smile; and a third photo that’s sort of a profile shot, with some stubble and again some piercing blue eyes with a goofy smile. 

So we would be texting and talking and had a tentative date on the weekend depending on something or another that I was doing. In between, we definitely texted a decent amount and he was nice but had a weird sense of humor that teased a lot, but at the same time came off as needy and like trying way too hard. Now the day before our date, he was being pushy and asked for a selfie of myself, as I primarily use Snapchat to send pics of my dog. So I sent him one, and an hour or two later I jokingly gave him a hard time back like, “well where’s my selfie of you?”

Here’s where everything goes sour. I get a Snapchat of a man who isn’t necessarily unattractive, but does NOT look like the man/men(???) in his Bumble photos. The photo I receive is of a man with a slightly receding hairline of dirty blonde hair, heavy stubble, a long face, and blue eyes. In disbelief, I think, “wait did I give my number to the wrong guy on Bumble and was THINKING it was the attractive photos I remember?” So I go back to Spahr’s profile and alas this motherfucker changed his photos! The first photo with the sunglasses still remains, but the other two are nowhere to be seen. Instead, there are some army photos and some other selfies now included on his profile, but those which reflect the photo I received. I called him out on it and said “uh your selfie doesn’t look anything like the photos that were on your profile… and now you’ve changed your pictures.” 

He responded with some super strange ego trip that went along the lines of “those were old pictures so I updated them” and “excuse me for trying to brighten your day with a picture of myself. If you’re disappointed then that’s on you.” He then unmatched me on Bumble. I simply just told him good luck with everything and goodbye. I blocked his number and removed him from Snapchat. #CATFISHED