#stylistic parody

[cthulu-in-a-ballgown]

My attempt at a stylistic parody of Will Wood lyrics:

My last paradigm blamed and sued for alimony

Now the breakdown of free will’s just a synapse away

Bound to my 5ht receptors in holy matrimony

Don’t divorce me baby, I swear I can’t change!

Lashed to the moon by sixty million miles of DNA

Simply existing was the only decision I ever made

If a butterfly flaps its wings, don’t blame the guns

If I say I’ll quit soon, it’s pelopsia

My action patterns are fixed, can’t be fixed

And giving up lithium’s a small price to pay

Reinforcements keep forcing me to be (f) skinned

An acid test for my self-restraint

(Just a few more trials, it’s scientifically rigorous!)

Lashed to the moon by sixty million miles of DNA

Simply existing was the only decision I ever made

If a butterfly flaps its wings, don’t blame the guns

If I say I’ll quit soon, it’s pelopsia

Hands bloody, hear the thud as the ego fell, run to unmask it

Just to find it’s my dignity

Lab coated id, superego on a slab, waking up screaming 

For propriety

Agonists and antagonists, they’re all the fucking same!

Latin roots don’t lie, they’ll just bring conflict and pain!

Lashed to the moon by sixty million miles of DNA

Simply existing was the only decision I ever made

If a butterfly flaps its wings, don’t blame the guns

If I say I’ll quit soon, it’s pelopsia

It’s pelopsia 

Ah!

Ah!

Ah!

It’s pelopsia!

[rottakone]

Alright so cold take, the Minecraft Movie looks fucking horrendous. It looks like a parody or an advert, not an actual movie people would want to make or watch.

Many others have said the same thing, but why the fuck isn't it an animated movie?? There are so many beautiful fucking art pieces made by fans or just look at the official Minecraft concept art!!

The world of Minecraft is so pretty and you could have so much artistic freedom to make a really fucking cool stylistic animated movie!!

But no.. We get white zionist Steve and in general just an irl cast for some reason, and ugly ass CGI.

Why can't it follow the minimal story Minecraft already has? The main character, whether it be Steve or someone else, wakes up with no explanation as to how they got there, and they juat have to survive. Minecraft has all these mysteries baked into the different worlds and structures, it would be so cool to have the movie explore them in some way!

I'm assuming this movie will just be "Hey, I'm white zionist Steve and I'll help you guys get back to your world" and the main content of the movie is gonna be the group of people experiencing Minecraft things, that we've already seen and know everything about, for the first time.

Idk man. I think people should boycott the movie because of the zionist in the main role and I don't think that'll be too difficult. Thanks if you read the whole thing <3

[thewalkingdilemma]

"Aren't we so funny and original for pointing out our own bad writing (which we're now claiming to be a fully intentional, stylistic choice, I guess) in our finale? Being self-aware means that the thing we're self-aware of is no longer a problem, right? The joke is that our writing isn't stagnant, the characters just don't change."

Did I... understand that right?

Also, if poking fun at the Nandor/Guillermo shippers was the point of the Newhart parody (and kind of half the entire finale?), why were they the only ones given an actual ending? Their ending is also an (intentionally, because they've established that the show's writing is very intellectual) ambiguous (further plot tease?) in both dialogue and narrative.

And as for the rest of the cast, what are we supposed to think of Nadja, Laszlo, and Colin? The plot with the monster and his bride? Nadja Doll? Did Nadja Doll speak at all this season? Not to mention The Guide who for some reason is MAGA? Help? There's no implication of what any of them will do after the finale. Was that the point??

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

Do you think this comic would still be enjoyable for someone with zero knowledge of the original show? I'm sure they would miss some Easter eggs but even still I would hope so just because of how good of a quality the art and writing is as a stand alone story - genuinely asking for a friend

I always struggle to answer this question, because I legitimately don't know. My writing of this comic is heavily dependent on my knowledge of the base story. I reference it as much as I can (stylistically, morally, thematically) quite a bit! It's essentially just a parody, but slightly darker instead of funnier.

That being said, I HAVE actually received word that some people read this story without having watched the original SU and still managed to somewhat enjoy it. There's also this poll I ran once upon a time:

According to this, about 30-35 people are just here....hanging out. Without having once watched SU.

[bunnyinatree]

Ryuk: Hey, where are you going?  Get back here and kill each other! 💀

[Image ID: A three-page comic of Light and L parodying this scene from “The Fry Cook Games” in Spongebob.  On the first page, Light and L are fighting, grabbing onto each other’s shirts and aiming punches/kicks, despite the chain that connects them.  Light is saying, “I don’t like you!”  L is saying, “I don’t like you more!”  Light replies, “I never liked you!”  And L says back, “I a thousand times never liked you!”  Then, there’s a close-up on both of their faces, and Light shouts, “Blue!” while L shouts, “Red!”  The bottom of the page is dedicated to a spiky text bubble that reads “RIIIIP”!  The second page features Light and L staring at one another in shock, against a yellow background with a white lightning bolt through it.  Their shirts have been ripped off completely, and Light, who is stylistically colored all in red, is wearing a blue chest binder, while L, who is stylistically colored in all blue, is wearing a red chest binder.  There is an ellipsis above both of their heads.  On the top of the third and final page are close-ups of Light and L’s faces.  Light looks like the pleading eyes emoji as he says, “...Red?” and L says, “Blue..?”  They are both blushing.  The comic ends with Light and L embracing, still in handcuffs, with the speech bubble, “You DO care!” beneath them.  End image ID.]

Bonus:

[Image ID: A digital drawing with two panels.  The top panel is a thin close-up on L’s face.  His hair is wet with rainwater, and he’s saying, “Forget the Kira investigation.  This is PERSONAL.”  “Personal” is written in all caps and is underlined twice.  The second panel, which takes up the majority of the page, is a redraw of the iconic foot scene from the anime.  Light is sitting on a stairwell, watching L dry off his feet with a towel.  This is also a reference to the “Fry Cook Games” clip linked above.  Unlike the three-page comic above, this drawing is colored more realistically.  Light’s hair is brown, not red; L’s skin isn’t blue-tinted, etc.  End image ID.]

[mysweeetbucky]

Bucky Thunderbolts look

I'm sorry to say this and I'm saying this with a very heavy heart that this look is really horrible like it's really terrible and I hate Marvel so much for ruining a perfectly gorgeous man. TFATWS Look of Bucky was the best, the hottest and absolutely perfect but all other looks before that were gorgeous too especially CATFA and CATWS. The goatee just adds insult to the injury. I'll probably get hate for this but I needed to get this off my chest and before any of you says it's because Seb is ageing, NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT. Seb is ageing like fine wine and is gorgeous in all his recent appearances be it the MET Gala or the SDCC or the award shows. Marvel stylists are just stoned or smth idk Yelena's hairstyle is pretty bad too. One of my friend said all the characters look like parody and I couldn't agree more.

[pinetreegoblin]

I have a silly and indulgent Very Important People fan theory:

Very Important People!Vic Michaelis is extremely insecure and lonely as shown by their dialogue throughout many of the currently released episodes. They seem down on their luck and frustrated by their lot in life especially in their career and their personal connections. They seem like the perfect character to go through a classic “self growth through a journey of meeting crazy characters” plot. 

Each of the characters seem like out of this world caricatures of people they could meet out in the world, and some (like Denzel and Vic’s Grandma), seem like representations of those in her actual life (I also have a fun theory that the dolls were her childhood dolls). Many of the characters themselves point out that Vic seems to be down on their luck and unhappy, and in some way preventing themselves from happiness. Off the top of my head, Vic has referred to their father being murdered, a divorce from their husband, and struggling to get a “real reporting career.” 

If I had to construct a story of how they got to this point I would say the death of their father pushed VIP!Vic into grief induced isolation and loneliness, which inhibited their personal connections as they were stuck in survival mode. The murder of their father inspired them to become a reporter, as an attempt to help other victims of violent crime, but they are struggling to find a foothold. Their unbridled grief and obsession with retribution for their father has put a strain on their marriage and their partner asks for a divorce. Maybe in their exasperation and the chaos of life they are spurred to follow a lead they have no business or jurisdiction to follow and they end up injured. It is in this injury they are experiencing this hallucinogenic state.

The VIP set itself feels very cultivated and its “old-fashioned” eclectic style gives it a vibe of a surreal manufactured reality. Each episode starts with Vic idly messing with some aspect of the set, before realizing the camera is on and putting on the reporter mask. In my memory, none of the people “on set” ever say anything, besides Vic and the interviewee, even when Vic audibly asks them questions. Additionally the cutting off to infomercials gives an uncanny feeling of parody, someone concocting the stereotypical formula of a show. Finally, there are the moments where there is an abrupt cut to a transition card from a more intense scene, almost to redirect the emotional plot. Overall, it has given me a kinda WandaVision vibe of a dreamlike state manufactured in VIP!Vics head in order to address their loneliness and disillusionment with life.

The closing question especially points towards this specific idea of VIP!Vic being stuck in this fugue state looking for answers: “What is the meaning of life?” This is both impactful if we go with the idea she is injured and experiencing this all in an unconscious state (almost "deciding" whether to wake up) as well as just in them searching for the next direction to go in their frozen life. What is the meaning of life amidst grief, loneliness, fear, and unfair circumstances? How can Vic find meaning? In creating this dreamlike fabrication, VIP!Vic is trying to recover and find a version of themselves who can live a more fulfilling life as they let go of the past which has held them back. “Remember to always be yourself, unless you'd rather be somone else” 

TLDR: Vic Michalis is having some sort of surreal, unconscious dream where crazy characters are attempting to help them heal from their father's death, their fucked up social situations, and to find meaning and happiness in their life. Through the interviewees eccentricities they teach Vic their personal meanings of life so Vic can find their own.

(This is all just to be silly, I know a lot of it is just stylistic choices of the show and the nature of the type of show it is, but I just love the show a lot and this little theory came to me)

[surrealisticduvet]

Album Review: Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma (1979)

What is it? 

Infinite Rider… on the Big… Dogma.

What?

With this album, I decided to go with the “write as you re-listen” method of reviewing, since I knew I had so much to say about many of the songs individually. I hope this is as half as enjoyable to read as it was to write. As always, please let me know if you have any comments or dissenting opinions, I would love to hear them!

Without further, or really any, ado, we have “Dance”, a frivolously thrilling and unusual new style from our Michael. I am always a little shocked by its usage here as an opener, so used to it being the outro to Elephant Parts, in which many Infinite Rider songs feature. The instrumentation is rich and complex, in stark contrast to the lyrics –  “All I wanna do is dance and have a good time”. In some ways it leaves you confused as to why this wasn’t a big radio hit - is it the way he sings it, almost ironic in its empty-headedness? Is it just his bad luck? The song is too short to let you ponder for long. 

Next, we have “Magic” – my main gripe with this song, unfortunately not a bug but a feature, is the kitschy way he sings some of the high notes (we know for a fact he can hit them without so much falsetto fanfare) but it does add to the subtle irony of the song. Hidden underneath that facade, buried in the full, sustained notes of the chorus, is his true capacity. This song has a bit of a festive undertone with the bells lightly jingling, adding to the feeling of, genuinely, magic. Once again, this song is expertly produced, musically (aside from the background vocals “do-do-dooing” which I think is sometimes overkill) - there are a lot of layers which prevent it from sounding like a cheap holiday commercial.

I completely stand by the belief that “Flying” is an Eagles parody. Listen to this, and then listen to something like “One of These Nights.” I maintain also that this song is at least a parody of something, with lyrics that are deceptively genuine at first before dipping into deep unseriousness, all sung as straight-faced as ever. The middle eight here is again just exquisite. I wish there was an instrumental of this track particularly, although his vocals are so good that I wouldn’t push too hard for it. This song sounds like it ought to be played to a packed arena, something almost on the same level, musically, as “Comfortably Numb.” As the song fades out, you get a bit of a better listen to the drum and rhythm section, which has a unique stylistic blend and flare that, once again, adds depth to what otherwise might be called a boring album. (Misguided Rateyourmusic users have called it his “most accessible” album [read: contemporary, standard-issue, basic! – more on this at the end] but I disagree, at the risk of sounding pretentious… Infinite Rider is a complex and borderline experimental album; it just so happened that he was experimenting with things that happened to be in popular music at the time.)

Much like taking songs from The Prison out of their context as a soundtrack in order to review them musically, it is critical to take “Tonite” out of the context of Elephant Parts, in which it is evergreen in its evocation of the special as a whole – they were literally made for each other. The lyrics are weird, for Michael - on a first listen, you’ll be a little put off by them, until you get to the bridge and chorus, which swings back to the sort of strangeness that you’re used to, and now the old Hollywood oddness from the beginning starts to make a little sense. Three for three, these songs have so much going on musically that you never have a chance to be bored or question his intentions. There’s expert use of a piano/synth solo here which in some ways really dates the album as being from the late 70s/early 80s but that’s what I like so no complaints here. As the song ramps up towards the end (nearly unrecognizable from the moderately paced introductory verse) Michael slips into a rougher tone and drives the whole thing home. Careful listeners will catch the “I’m still inside of a little glass tube - I’m still inside of this room” as it fades out; a tasteful callback to the final scene of Head (1968), or just a bit of before-its-time commentary on the effect of fame on an individual’s psyche? Infinite Rider gives you no time at all to chew and swallow thoughtfully - the next song is already upon us.

“Carioca” is the first and only real reprieve you’ll get on this album, and it is still a wonderful song. Much like “Rio,” this song is inspired by what we can assume to be Michael’s fond memories of seeing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio (1933). His ability to belt out a chorus shines here, supported by pleasant instrumentation. Take a breath while you can, because up next we have…

… “Cruisin’”. If you’ve heard any song from this album already, it’s probably this – and you’ve probably seen a little bit of the music video from Elephant Parts, too. The verses are low-key and casual, and the whole thing reeks of sun-tan oil and hot tarmac. Whether or not you consider this to be Michael’s coming-out party, it’s still a compelling song much in the style of something like the Traveling Wilbury’s “Tweeter and the Monkey Man.” On its own, the song is fairly middle-of-the-road; it’s the music video that really makes it pop, with visual cues lining up perfectly to the song and Michael’s own performance of it (in those sunglasses...) 

From “Cruisin’” we dive straight into “Factions,” perhaps more memorably titled in early versions as “The Daughter of Rock n' Roll.” He didn’t invent anything new with the song, but definitely proved that he could keep up with the times, musically. The things he does with his voice here are almost foreign, a tone and gravel that we’ve never heard from him before. The song itself is good, with clever lyrics and an interesting story, a classic Nesmithian take on the contemporary “rock ‘n’ roll song about rock ‘n’ roll.” It’s not at the top of the album for me, but any song that effectively uses and rhymes the word “Boogie” gets a free pass for me. 

Take another deep breath at the end of this one, because you’re about to experience what is possibly, maybe probably, my favorite song of his ever: “Light.” Immediately, he has dropped the ironic and performative vocal quirks, and is once again singing in his own sweet tenor, with just a few humorous dips to keep you guessing. This song effortlessly blends bleating saxophone solos with laid-back steely drum meanderings, quivering organ overtones, and a sturdy, pulsing bassline. The lyrics are simple, yet powerful – “but the light from the window is the brightest of all” among others. I find it interesting that the song is called not “lights” plural, but “Light,” singular, implying that these eclectic lights are all interconnected, blending together from and into one infinite form. Once you have seen the music video for this, you’ll never listen to the song without its dancer flashing and jumping through your mind, it’s truly mesmerizing and at times otherworldly – again, the visions of the dancer and Michael are melded together by the use of mirrors and cutaways to create a mind bending effect. “Light” clocks in at 3:21 and feels even shorter; it ends almost abruptly, with the sax trailing off. I usually have to listen to it at least a second time to really let it sink in. 

One Tumblr user has in the past posited that we should “kill Horserace and replace it with a second Light” (Surrealisticduvet, 2024), and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. Much like “The Other Room” is on From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing, “Horserace”’s placement here is jarring, uncouth, and downright disrespectful to the rest of the album. Okay – now that I’ve gotten all that out of my system, let me explain why it just doesn’t work for me. While many songs on Infinite Rider have lyrics that are tongue-in-cheek, parodical, and dare I say intentionally silly, “Horserace” feels to me almost sloppy. Many words are rhymed with each other in such a way that it doesn’t feel intentional, meaning that by default it sounds amateurish. Michael here utilizes the same growl that he does on “Factions” and to some extent “Dance,” but it overpowers the track to the point where I had a hard time focusing on the music. (When I managed to, I confirmed to myself that it wasn’t as intricately crafted as any of the first 7 songs, and certainly not the last one we just listened to.) I’ve always said that even Michael’s worst songs are still worth listening to; such is not the case with “Horserace.” Listen to “Light” a second time and then hit that skip button.

“Capsule” is another one of those songs that Michael co-wrote with a few other people, and it is, dare I say, obvious. I like what he was trying to do, and the song sounds interesting, with a cool, jazzy swing. I don’t think it’s among his best work, either vocally or lyrically, and it’s a bit of a disappointing closer to an otherwise fast-paced and densely enjoyable album. 

I have to give a little shout out to the album’s outtakes, which I actually didn’t even know about until very recently. “Rollin’” is a real foot-tapper that takes his old song “Roll With the Flow” and revamps it in late-70’s radio-rock fashion with a “Mama Rocker”-style piano breakdown that sweeps up and down the keys. The whole song is pretty simple, but fun and effective, and I really like it. “Walkin’ in the Sand” is an interesting track, a true outtake in the sense that it breaks free from the one-word-title constraint he set for himself on this album. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard from him, ramping up his affinity for minor-keys to a new level, with a glaring bass riff like something from the Arctic Monkeys (sorry, I can’t think of a more period-appropriate comparison). I’d be curious about what he could do in this style if given a whole album to play with – but if all we ever got was this one song, I’m still thrilled. 

Conclusion:

I think Infinite Rider, despite being perhaps more well-known during its time than his other albums, is largely misunderstood. (To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to enjoy his… oh, god, listen to me.) Some reviews call it his most accessible album, and laud his return into the sphere of pop music. I have a hard time explicitly agreeing with these assertions; I don’t think the album’s true intentions are as wholesome, simplistic, and popularity-seeking as some may claim. Much like The Prison was written as a soundtrack, Infinite Rider was written as a “video album” – to listen to “Magic” or “Cruisin’” on their own, without the music video, is to experience only half of the song. Even tracks which were not released with a visual component, I would argue, must still be considered within this context.

Critics also say that this album was overproduced and that there’s too much going on, instrumentally; this is just a difference of taste – I like an album you can listen to half a dozen times over and still hear something new. One amateur reviewer (my peer, I suppose) said that they appreciated the album since, despite its tongue-twisting title, it was easy to enjoy without having to crawl into Nesmith’s head to “get” it. Well, I guess I can’t argue with that – Infinite Rider’s appeal lies in the fact that to the casual listener, it is a good rock ‘n’ rollin’ time that ends after 38 minutes and 15 seconds; for anyone with enough time on their hands to dig a little deeper, rest assured that Michael will not disappoint.

[ozzgin]

I think you're genuinely a really good writer! Have you ever considered writing a whole book?

That’s very nice of you, anon! I can’t say it hasn’t crossed my mind, but I’m rather doubtful as to whether people would truly enjoy my style of, uh, storytelling.

To give you a little context, I have participated in and won multiple writing competitions, but most of the time it involved analytical and/or scientific essays. I think I have a pretty sterile and sarcastic vocabulary, certainly not the intricate stylistic wording I often see in popular book snippets. It’s a less fancy, less intellectual Infinite Jest kind of approach.

I don’t know, maybe one day I could compile most little stories and doodles in the form of an erotic romance parody, where the protagonist is a bald, blank slate named Self-Insert Jane or something. Some absurd, ridiculous, yet slightly horny adventure to satiate the minds of similarly deranged people.

[vanajinn]

When I was in Copenhagen, I discovered the 'Irma girl,' the mascot for the now no-longer-operational Danish supermarket chain Irma. Her design over the years is very striking and cute, so I thought she had similarities with a certain character...

[ID: Four digital drawings arranged in a square with a blue background. Three of the drawings depict Cirno from Touhou Project in a stylistic parody of the Irma mascot. The mascot is a full-body simplistic depiction of a little girl to the side, wearing a dress blowing to the left and holding a basket in hand, with white oulines. Each of the drawings is rendered more and more minimalist to reflect the changing design evolution of society. end ID]

[shiftingwithmars]

Funny things I’m scripting in my Fame DR

I throw a ring at Chappell Roan while she’s on stage asking her to marry me

I made a joke about a “blonde white girl with enough money to cure cancer” and my friend thought I was talking about the Hawk-Tuah girl when I actually meant Rebekah Mikaelson💀 (There’s so many other examples I could script but I think it’s funny to use the Hawk Tuah girl)

I jokingly made a diss track about Adam Sandler (No one got hurt and bro actually thought it was funny)

I scare Chappell Roan on tour and she fell on stage😭 (didn’t get hurt, just like a little stumble)

FunkyFrogBait makes a funny reference to me in one of their videos (they’re so funny, I love them😭)

I jokingly call Zipper a rat in a TikTok while I’m on tour, to which she responds with “If I’m a rat then you’re a whole ass sewer” (I don’t know if it was a good idea to add Zipper to this dr💀)

Me and my friend do a parody of “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift called “You Don’t Belong With Me”

Me and James Corden go around pranking random celebrities (We show up at Tom Holland’s house and I go “OH MY GOD, IT’S TOM HOLLAND!” Referencing his famous quote about RDJ)

A video of me saying “RDJ’s mustache looks like it’s made out of metal” goes viral😭

I accidentally trip Taylor Swift’s stylist at an event (idk why I chose her😭 I just thought it’d be funny lmao). I also get a picture with Lady Gaga a few minutes after in which she teases me for tripping the stylist

I accidentally get caught on camera calling Letitia Wright hot

A celebrity tries to claim that I stole something from them only for it to be revealed that it’s an item everyone got from a party we went to

More to come with more celebrities (kinda disconnected with most celebrities in this dr since I hate most of them cause a lot of them are just rich assholes)

[artbyblastweave]

do you think any interesting comparison can be made between DC’s Absolute Universe and Marvel’s current iteration of the Ultimate Universe? They feel superficially quite similar, but make very different choices regarding world building and characterizations

At some point there will be, although I haven't comprehensively consumed enough of either yet to do the line-by-line. Conceptually there's a bit too much there-there with Absolute for me to confidently say that they're trying to follow-the-leader on Ultimate, it might just be that both companies converged the idea of a cool shakeup at around the same time.

I will say that Snyder's Absolute Batman has been a really interesting exercise in unapologetically emulating the more gonzo borderline-self-parody stylistic sensibilities of Frank Miller Batman, in a way I think is rarer these days, as much as everyone likes to talk about how Miller's take permeates most modern takes on the character. Much more of a stylistic project than a worldbuilding-focused metatextual project so far, which feels like a big difference from the sensibilities of Hickman and Camp.

[urfavrub1a-2016]

bring back old dance practices

I prefer old dance practices than new ones. I get that the modern ones might look like a MV and it's liek that foir the idols to practice the actual performance, but like i miss the old videos where u can't even see the moves propretly, the camaraman is behind the idols and u could see the ittle heads in the corner of the video, i miss the clothes they wore bc the clothes that use currently and clearly choosen by stylists. i miss all that.

AND, i dont just miss the old dance practices, i miss the whole 1st and 2nd gen. even tho u have to dig really deep to get their content, it feels rewarding when u find it so its actually pleasing. even tho, now they have 20 diff shows, acting, etc.

This is happening to me with Big Bang rn. i started stanning them back in late november and i dont regret it. u dont know how dast it took me to make them my ult group, and that i thought that no one could top with BTS, i was wrong. i just like the way 1st and 2nd gen were actually free to do anything. like i like the 2000s fashioin, the music style, the hairstyles, the quality, the parodys, and all the nostalgia which i wasnt even born during their debut ages.

I hope im not the only one...

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … December 10

1725 – In England, Margaret Clap was indicted for keeping a disorderly house – a molly House – in which she procured and encouraged persons to commit sodomy. Her house in the City of London had long been under surveillance. Her house was one of the most popular molly houses in London, and was probably a private residence rather than a public inn or tavern. Margaret Clap was found guilty and sentenced to stand in the pillory in Smithfield market. She also had to pay a fine of 20 marks and to two years’ imprisonment. During her punishment, she fell off the pillory once and fainted several times. It is not known what became of her if, indeed, she survived prison.

1870 – Pierre Louÿs, French author born (d.1925); a poet and Romantic writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who "expressed pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection."

In 1891, Louÿs helped found a literary review, La Conque, where he proceeded to publish Astarte - an early collection of erotic verse already marked by his distinctive elegance and refinement of style. He followed up in 1894 with another erotic collection in 143 prose poems - Songs of Bilitis (Les Chansons de Bilitis), this time with strong lesbian themes.

What made The Songs sensational is Louÿs' claim that the poems were the work of an ancient Greek courtesan, Blitis, a contemporary of Sappho. Louÿs claimed the modest role of Bilitis' translator. The pretense did not last very long, and "translator" Louÿs was soon unmasked as Bilitis herself. This did little to tarnish The Songs of Bilitis, however, as it was praised as a fount of elegant sensuality and refined style, even more extraordinary for the author's compassionate portrayal of lesbian sexuality.

Some of the poems were tailored as songs for voice and piano, and, in 1897, Louÿs' close friend Claude Debussy composed a musical adaptation. In 1955, one of the first lesbian organizations in America called itself Daughters of Bilitis, and to this day Louÿs' Songs continues to be an important work for lesbians.

He aslo wrote Manuel de civilité pour les petites filles à l'usage des maisons d'éducation - Handbook of behaviour for little girls to be used in educational establishments - (written in 1917, published posthumously and anonymously in 1927), a parody whose obscenity is almost unparalleled even in the long history of French clandestine publishing. By the way of illustration, the "Glossary" which opens the work comprises this warning:

We have considered it useless to explain the words: cunt, slit, fanny, mound, cock, tail, bollock, testicle, cum (verb), cum (noun), erection, masturbate, suck, lick, pump, kiss, fellate, thread, fuck, ass-fuck, ejaculate, dildo, lesbian, pod, sixty-nine, cunnilingus, cute, whore, brothel. These words are familiar to all little girls.

Even while on his deathbed, Pierre Louÿs continued to write delicately obscene verses.

Hermes Pan with Fred Astaire

1909 – Hermes Pan (d.1990) was an American dancer and choreographer, principally remembered as Fred Astaire's choreographic collaborator on the famous 1930s movie musicals starring Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He worked on nearly two dozen films and TV shows with Astaire. He won both an Oscar and an Emmy for his dance direction.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, as Hermes Joseph Panagiotopoulos, the son of a Greek immigrant and a Southern American woman, Pan moved to New York City with his family when he was 14. Hermes was interested in music and dance from an early age. In 1915 "Aunt Betty" Clark, the children's African-American nanny, took Hermes to her neighborhood, a black enclave of Nashville, to introduce him to jazz music and tap dance. He was greatly influenced by this. Hermes befriended Aunt Betty's son, Sam Clark, who also worked for his family. Sam, a talented dancer, taught the boy many of the era's popular dances, and Hermes practiced on his own.

He started dancing in amateur productions and speakeasies. He was first paid to dance at age 19 and worked in several Broadway productions. In 1930 he moved to California, where he met Astaire in 1933 and began working with him; he choreographed 89 films.

Pan met Fred Astaire on the set of Flying Down to Rio (1933), in which he worked as an assistant to dance director Dave Gould. While Astaire was trying to work out a series of steps for "The Carioca", someone told him that Pan had a few ideas, and the dancer was invited over. Pan demonstrated a brief break he had picked up from his street days in New York.

From then on the two began a lifelong professional collaboration and friendship. Pan worked on all the RKO Astaire pictures. He was nominated for Academy Awards for the "Top Hat" and "The Piccolino" numbers from Top Hat (1935) and for the "Bojangles of Harlem" number from Swing Time (1936). In 1937 he received the Academy Award for Best Dance Direction for A Damsel in Distress (1937), in which Joan Fontaine starred with Astaire.

Pan was also a deeply closeted gay man who had trouble squaring his sexual desires with his Roman Catholic faith and a disapproving mother. He eventually entered into a relationship with dancer Gino Malerba, as revealed in John Franceschina’s biography, Hermes Pan: The Man Who Danced with Fred Astaire. Like many gay men of the era, he seldom appeared in public with male partners, and he never lived with Malerba. However, Pan was a frequent escort of Rita Hayworth.

1920 – Hallam Tennyson (d.2005) was a British writer and radio producer.

He was the son of Sir Charles Tennyson and his wife Lady Ivy (née Pretious), and the great-grandson of the Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson. He was educated at Eton College and Oxford University.

He met Margot Wallach in the autumn of 1945 in Kensington, London: they married in 1946.

He was homosexual, a fact known to his wife at the time they married. He was convinced by a therapist that his homosexuality would be cured if he married a woman. He and his wife Margot nevertheless had satisfactory sexual relations, and they had a son and a daughter.

In 1953, Hallam and Margot moved to Hertfordshire with his friend from Eton days, Peter Benenson (founder of Amnesty International), his wife Margaret, and their children, all sharing a large farmhouse. This now extended family was able to provide practical support during Margot's regular periods of depression and mental illness.

Hallam joined the BBC World Service in 1956, working as a radio producer and becoming assistant head of drama. Throughout his time with the BBC, he adapted many classics; scripted programmes on Verdi, Mozart, Gerard Manley Hopkins and so on; and produced works by Shakespeare, Stoppard, Beckett and Pinter. His own radio play The Spring of the Beast, an account of the friendship between Henry James and author Constance Fenimore Woolson, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as the Monday Play. James is depicted as unable to overcome his inhibitions against loving either a woman or another man.

In 1971, after years of devoted care of Margot, and when his children Ros and Jonny were 21 and 16 respectively, Hallam decided he could no longer deny his homosexuality. He became a champion of gay rights, campaigned on behalf of gays in prison and worked for the Terrence Higgins Trust. In 1984, he wrote his autobiography, The Haunted Mind, an exploration of his complex personality and sexual nature. This caused a considerable stir when serialised in a Sunday paper.

Although no longer living together, Hallam and Margot remained close friends until her death in 1999; he was by her bedside at the end.

The writer and former radio producer spent his 85th birthday dinner glowing with energy, colour and contentment, surrounded by family and friends. Some days later he was brutally murdered. Hallam was found stabbed to death in his bed in 2005. It remains an unsolved crime.

1941 – Tommy Kirk (d.2021) was a former American actor, and later a businessman, best known for his years on The Mickey Mouse Club.

Hired by Walt Disney Productions, he was cast as a clean-cut teenager in The Hardy Boys serial feature which was aired in the Mickey Mouse Club television series in 1956 and 1957. Kirk played Joe Hardy opposite Tim Considine as older brother Frank Hardy in two serials: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure (September 21, 1956 - February 1, 1957), based on the book The Tower Treasure, and the original story The Mystery of Ghost Farm (September 13 - December 20, 1957).

Kirk went on to starring roles in a succession of successful Disney feature films, in both dramatic and comedic settings. He played Travis Coates in Old Yeller (1957), an adventure story about a boy and his heroic dog. He then played a dog himself in The Shaggy Dog (1959), a comedy about a boy inventor, Wilby Daniels, who is repeatedly transformed into an Old English Sheepdog under the influence of a magic ring. He had a more straightforward role as middle son Ernst Robinson in another adventure film, Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Kirk then played the "scrambled egghead" student inventor Merlin Jones in two comedies, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964) and The Monkey's Uncle (1965). Other major Disney roles for Tommy Kirk included that of college student Biff Hawk in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and its sequel, Son of Flubber (1963), and as Grumio in the fairy tale fantasy Babes in Toyland.

Kirk knew his sexuality would create problems with his career as well as his strict Baptist parents. Kirk: "I consider my teenage years as being desperately unhappy. I knew I was gay, but I had no outlet for my feelings. It was very hard to meet people &, at that time, there was no place to go to socialize. It wasn't until the early 1960s that I began to hear of places where gays congregated."

In 1963, Disney chose not to renew Kirk's contract upon discovering Kirk had been having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy he had picked up from a public pool. Walt Disney himself fired Kirk after receiving a complaint from the boy's mother. Yet in a bow to audience wishes, the studio re-hired him for the Merlin Jones sequel, The Monkey's Uncle.

Kirk describes the situation himself: "Even more than MGM, Disney was the most conservative studio in town.... The studio executives were beginning to suspect my homosexuality. Certain people were growing less and less friendly. In 1963, Disney let me go. But Walt asked me to return for the final Merlin Jones movie, 'The Monkey's Uncle,' because the Jones films had been moneymakers for the studio."

Kirk publicly came out as gay in a 1973 interview with Marvin Jones. At the time he was studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, while working as a busboy in a Los Angeles restaurant. He was in "Deadline", a 1973 episode of The Streets of San Francisco (1973) and a feature, the low-budget western My Name Is Legend (1975).

Kirk's acting career tapered off during the 1960s, hampered by the transition to adulthood, drug use, and "personal problems." Eventually he left show business, gave up drugs, and succeeded in starting his own carpet-cleaning business in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. He continued to act occasionally, however, including in the R-rated spoof, Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold. As of 2006, Kirk had more than thirty feature film roles to his credit.Kirk was found dead in his Las Vegas home in September of 2021. No cause of death was released. Former child actor Paul Peterson (The Donna Reed Show) and founder of "A Minor Consideration," an organization that lobbies to provide guidance and support to child actors, said, "Tommy was gay and estranged from what remains of his blood-family. We in A Minor Consideration are Tommy’s family. Without apology."

Roger Brown: portrait by Francois Robert

1941 – Roger Brown (d.1997) was an American artist and painter. Often associated with the Chicago Imagist school, he was internationally known for his distinctive painting style and shrewd social commentaries on politics, religion, and art.

Roger Brown was born and raised in Hamilton and Opelika, Alabama. He was described in his formative years as a creative child, an inclination his parents are said to have encouraged. Brown took art classes from second to ninth grade, and won first prize in a statewide poster competition in tenth grade.

After high school Brown left the South. Although he lived much of his adult life elsewhere, he maintained his connection to the region both in his artwork and research, and later with his plan to purchase the "Rock House" in Beulah, Alabama.

While attending the School of the Art Institute Chicago (SAIC) from 1962 to 1970, Brown was introduced to a range of art historical periods and genres, gravitating the tribal art of many cultures. Painter Ray Yoshida and art historian Whitney Halstead, both professors at SAIC, also greatly influenced Brown’s practice. Both included folk, popular, and self-taught art within the scope of their teaching, genres which Brown sustained enthusiastic interest in throughout his life. Other influences stemming from Brown’s SAIC days include the legendary Maxwell Street market, antique and thrift stores, and amusement parks.

Travel was also a source for inspiration and subject matter throughout Brown’s artistic career; experiences throughout the U.S.—where he took frequent road trips—and in Mexico, Europe, Russia, and Africa found expression in both his paintings and in his collections.

Brown became known as an astute and intuitive collector, a practice he began during childhood. His collections inspired much of his work throughout his thirty-odd year career. His Chicago collection is preserved, as he left it, at the Roger Brown Study Collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The RBSC archive contains materials from Brown’s collections from homes in New Buffalo, MI, and La Conchita, CA.

In 1974 Brown purchased a building in Chicago that became his primary home and studio. Roger Brown was a gay man. In 1972 he met architect George Veronda and the two formed a strong artistic and romantic relationship. Veronda, Brown’s companion for 12 years, remodeled the interior to suit the artist’s working, collecting, and living needs. In the late 1970s Veronda designed a second, modernist home in New Buffalo, Michigan, a beach town 70 miles (113 km) from Chicago. Brown divided his time between Chicago and New Buffalo, working and collecting in both places. Once he was living part-time in Michigan, he began to incorporate the natural elements of the dunes, such as in Memory of Sandhill Cranes (1981), a work inspired by crane migration. Veronda was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1983 and died in 1984. After Veronda died in 1984, Brown lived in the New Buffalo house full-time for about two years before returning to Chicago.

Brown frequented venues like The Gold Coast, one of Chicago's first gay leather bars, and included elements of cruising culture in some of his paintings.

Brown became known for paintings with overtly homosexual imagery and content as well as for political paintings aimed at political figures and contemporary society in general and the art world in particular. In the 1992 silk screen Museum of What’s Happening Now, Brown created a Jackson Pollock-style drip painting; the title may poke fun at the museum establishment’s inability to keep up with contemporary art. Brown’s Presidential Portrait (1985) depicted the heads of Ronald and Nancy Reagan floating in a cloudy or polluted sky above a nameless American town. In paintings filled with graphic imagery and biting titles, Brown also addressed the AIDS epidemic and male sexuality.

Brown was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1988 and by 1993 was living with AIDS. Themes related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic appeared in Brown's work in the 1980s and continued throughout the rest of his career.

Roger Brown died on November 22, 1997. Brown was honored posthumously by the Chicago Commission on Human Relations' Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues and was inducted into the LGBT Hall of Fame in 2004.

1962 – Scott A. Capurro, born in San Francisco, is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor. His comedy material is deliberately provocative, referring often to gay life and culture, politics, race and racism, and popular culture.

In 2001, Capurro appeared on Australian show Rove Live and shocked the host, Rove, with an explicit routine. His material was no more bawdy than usual. Rove apologized to the viewers immediately after the performance.

In 2002, he presented a light-hearted documentary on the UK's Channel 4 called The Truth About Gay Animals which examined the subject of homosexuality in animals. Capurro visited various collections of captive animals to observe animals which had been reported to exhibit homosexual behaviour, and interviewed the staff about this. The show also included an interview with anti-gay rights campaigner Baroness Young, where Capurro showed Young a video of a variety of male-male intercourse and female-female mating attempts in various animal species, and then asked her to comment on whether this influenced her views about its "unnaturalness".

From May to June 2008, he acted the role of Sammy in Joe DiPietro's play Fucking Men in London, UK.

1972 – Brian Molko is a British musician and songwriter who is lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Placebo. He is known in particular for his distinctive nasal, high-pitched vocals, feminine appearance, and unique guitar style and tuning.

Molko was born in Brussels, Belgium to an American father of Italian heritage and a British mother of Scottish Catholic descent. Molko's family moved frequently during his childhood; the family lived in Dundee, Liberia, Lebanon and Belgium, where they eventually settled in the village of Longeau near the border with Luxembourg, where Molko attended the American International School of Luxembourg (AISL).

Although Molko was brought up in a strict household that disapproved of artistic expression (his father wanted him to become a banker), he rebelled by assuming an androgynous image, wearing nail polish, lipstick, and eyeliner, and listening to punk music. He initially attended the European School of Luxembourg (ESL), but left due to excessive bullying. He attended the American International School of Luxembourg (AISL) before studying drama at Goldsmiths College in London.

Although Molko and Placebo co-founder Stefan Olsdal had both attended the American International School of Luxembourg (AISL), they had not been friends. When Molko was living in London, he ran into Olsdal at South Kensington tube station and invited him to one of his gigs he played with Steve Hewitt in a group called Ashtray Heart.

Along with Hewitt and Olsdal, Molko had a role in the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine, for which Placebo performed the T. Rex song "20th Century Boy". He played Malcolm, a singer of the fictional glam rock band, "The Flaming Creatures", who resembled the early Alice Cooper band.

During Placebo's live performances Molko has played a number of instruments, including guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, harmonica and saxophone.

Molko is openly bisexual. He has a son, who was born in 2005.

1998 – In South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign, or TAC, is founded by Zackie Achmat for the purpose of getting anti-retroviral access to HIV+ South Africans. Zackie is a South African activist and film director. He is a co-founder the Treatment Action Campaign and known worldwide for his activism on behalf of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa. He currently serves as Board member and Co-director of Ndifuna Ukwazi (Dare to Know), an organization which aims to build and support social justice organizations and leaders, and is the Chairperson of Equal Education.

[theygotlost]

here are the questions *I* would ask Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick if I could. if they've answered any of these already please let me know

what are some of your inspirations, aside from the ones you're obviously parodying like Johnny Quest and GI Joe?

what did your process for creating characters look like? did your character designs go through a lot of revisions or did you usually go with your initial concept?

with a notoriously lean voice cast, how did you determine who should voice which character?

where there any unscripted or improvised moments from a cast member, including yourself, that made it to an episode?

the transition from season 3 to season 4 marks a tonal shift toward more emotional depth, character-driven episodes, and narrative continuity. by your own admission, continuity made writing the show more difficult. what made you decide on this shift?

how often were the two of you in disagreement about each other's writing or what direction the show should take?

the worldbuilding with the Guild of Calamitous Intent, the Council of Thirteen, the OSI, and SPHINX is kind of a tangled mess. did you ever have problems keeping your own lore straight?

at what point in the show's run did you decide on the truth of Hank and Dean's parentage? was that an idea you had for a while, or did you only come up with it while writing the movie?

the exact location of the Venture Compound was kept ambiguous until the movie revealed it was in Colorado for some reason. was it always supposed to be in Colorado? and why? actually that doesnt really matter but i feel like im losing my mind

to what extent did reception from the fanbase influence your writing over the course of the show?

what's your favorite idea or scene that DIDN'T make it into the final cut?

most adult animation is done with puppet rigging to save time and money. aside from the Shallow Gravy special (which you explained you resorted to puppet animation for because you did it all in-house on a short turnaround), The Venture Bros is animated traditionally for the most part. was this a stylistic choice or a logistical one?

like many shows of its type, The Venture Bros has been criticized for content that has "aged poorly", some of which you've tried to correct over the show's run. with your current perspective, what would you go back and do differently from the start? since time machines don't exist, how would you address these criticisms in the future given the opportunity?

what was the most fun part of working on the show for you?

what part of The Venture Bros are you proudest of?

[ghosty-schnibibit]

alright, so, now that i am not an incandescent ball of fury:

i was extremely disappointed with go2 and downright angry about the way it concluded. i've already read some excellent posts by other lovely people that articulate some of my grievances really well (which sadly i can't link here or the site will eat this post entirely) but i want to add my own to the pile. if you enjoyed the season then more power to you, but i very much did not.

after this post i won't be complaining about s2 again or really posting anything about it at all, positive or negative, and will probably just block the tag entirely. like i said in my much shorter vent post last night, i just want to get all of my negativity out in one go and then pretend it doesn't exist. with that out of the way:

the pacing was terrible. the plot went in circles around itself and the mystery was handled so poorly that it somehow managed to be too convoluted and too simple at the same time. we spent five entire episodes wondering what was going on only to have it resolved by an exposition dump of about five minutes. the mini-sodes ground multiple episodes to a halt and squandered the majority of the season's runtime on pointless fanservice that cheapened some of the previous season's most emotional moments, runtime that could have been better spent setting up the gabriel mystery or developing literally any of the new characters introduced. speaking of which,

the new characters were pointless. nina and maggie were given no characterization beyond being pale expies of az and crowley, and the fact that a substantial part of the b-plot revolved around them makes this even more apparent. i do not remember the name of the angel pretending to be a constable and i don't care enough about them to look it up, they had literally no plot significance whatsoever. same goes for the processing demon from the third episode. the flip with jax from being a somewhat neutral character to a big bad in a party city wig felt like a failed attempt to recapture some of what made hastur and ligur work in the previous series.

gabriel and beelzabub. their relationship was unbelievable and clashed so heavily with their previous characterizations. i called it from the first episode and dreaded its conclusion right up to the finale. they feel like an ill-thought parody of ineffable husbands pulled out of an enemies-to-lovers crackfic. every romantic moment in the last episode was insipid and cloying, and them getting a consequence free happy ending retroactively cheapened the stakes of the previous season. it honestly felt like the writers just wanted to mash their dolls together.

aziraphale's character was assassinated and crowley was basically just there to play the hits. both of them were flanderized to the moon and back, but poor aziraphale got the worst of it. all of his character development from the previous season was thrown out the window in order to give us the big angsty conclusion set-up for a third season. they were both utterly flattened and i feel so bad for michael and david, they were clearly doing the best with what they were given but what they were given was just plain bad.

most of the humor and warmth from the book and the previous season were just… gone. no narrator, only one or two comedic asides from the title cards, a total of maybe three minutes of queen music across the whole thing (and most of that a piano cover), and a whole lot of little stylistic touches that went by the wayside and left the world feeling a bit hollow. also the comedy in this season was much more reliant on a "hey, aren't the characters acting so silly right now? aren't they failing at looking/acting normal? isn't that funny?" style of humor than on the wit and subtle satire of the first.

it was nothing but set up for a third season. learning this after finishing the season did not make me feel better about any of it, but it does explain a bit why it felt like all set up and no pay off. i have zero confidence about the ship being righted in a potential s3 that we likely will not see for many years (if at all, i'm already hearing murmurs about the show getting axed).

so that's basically it. i'll reiterate that if you enjoyed this season then i have no beef with you; your opinions are your own and, while i have no desire to have a dialogue about them, i respect them. but the original good omens book was very personally meaningful to me, as was its adaptation in s1, and this poorly thought out continuation has disappointed and saddened me to the point that i feel like i don't want to engage with the fandom in its wake.