htrustmanagment

[abirddogmoment]

wow I'm the luckiest person in the world

[shannendoherty-fans]

The Rolling Stone

AMERICAN IDOL

Nobody Could Break Shannen Doherty, and Everybody Tried

The Beverly Hills, 90210 star was America's favorite Nightmare Girl — hated, feared, idolized. She embraced it all with an ever-present, knowing smirk

BY ROB SHEFFIELD

JULY 14, 2024

MARIO CASILLI/"TV GUIDE"/© AARON SPELLING PRODUCTIONS/EVERETT COLLECTION Rest in peace, Shannen Doherty — the quintessential Hollywood bad girl of the Nineties, the Heather-est of the Heathers. Doherty made her legend on Beverly Hills, 90210, the best TV teen drama ever by a mile, playing teenage chaos agent and drama factory Brenda Walsh. The world is mourning the news of Doherty’s death, at only 53, after an agonizing, nine-year, public battle with cancer. Yet she faced her health struggles with the same fighting spirit she brought to everything she did. Doherty was always defiantly herself, America’s nightmare of a Difficult Girl, which made her the most vilified celebrity of her time. But she wore it proudly. “I have a rep,” she said in 2010. “Did I earn it? Yeah, I did.”

She always had that wonderfully cocky grin, from 90210 to her Let’s Be Clear podcast. It was that grin, more than anything, that made her controversial. It wasn’t her brief marriages or her “difficult” work rep or her tabloid feuds that made her Hollywood’s most hated woman — it was the smile, her cool self-satisfied look of knowing she was the shit. That’s what America could not forgive her for — she loved being Shannen Doherty and refused to apologize for it. Nothing she went through, even in her final years, could break that grin.

She blew up right before the Nineties explosion of feminist pop culture, as the Alanis/Fiona/Courtney/Missy/Liz/Left Eye revolution took off. She was the jagged little pill that America could not swallow, and it got her crucified in public. But it’s why so many of us idolized her.

In Heathers, Winona Ryder’s Veronica Sawyer asks, “Why do you have to be such a mega-bitch?” Doherty, as queen bee Heather Duke replies, “Because I can be.” Only Doherty could give that line such a stiletto twist.

I saw her last year making a rare public appearance at a Nineties pop-culture fan convention in Florida. She had the longest lines at her autograph booth — fans told me they’d camped out for hours before her sessions even started. Everybody knew she was battling cancer, so it was emotional to see the crowd erupt when she came out for a Charmed reunion panel, saying that she was “feeling great,” holding court with that same cocky smile. She also refused to take part in the Beverly Hills, 90210 reunion panel, featuring almost all her castmates, even though she was right there in the building — she scheduled an autograph session while it was happening. What a Brenda Walsh power move.

Even before 90210, Doherty was ferocious. She was just 17 when she became one of the all-time-great movie supervillains in Heathers, as the high-school mean girl Heather Duke. It was supposed to be a star vehicle for Winona and Christian Slater, but Shannen steals it, especially in the funeral scene. She’s dressed to kill, in black gloves and a royal-wedding hat. She kneels by the casket to pray over her dead friend’s body. “I prayed for the death of Heather Chandler many times,” she tells the Lord. “And I felt bad every time I did it, but I kept doing it anyway. Now I know you understood everything. Praise Jesus! Hallelujah!” Her sadistic smirk is still shocking after all these years.

Doherty was a child actress, appearing in Little House on the Prairie when she was 11, alongside frontier patriarch Michael Landon. She credited him for inspiring her combative streak. “He told me, ‘Go with your instinct, and never let anybody walk over you, and always stick up for what you believe in,’” she once said. She stood out in the bizarrely underrated masterpiece Girls Just Want to Have Fun, one of the Eighties’ best teen movies, as Sarah Jessica Parker’s sassy little sister.

But she became a household name with Beverly Hills, 90210. “This receptionist told me, ‘What you have done for brunettes is amazing,’” Doherty told Rolling Stone in a 1992 cover story. “‘It’s always the blondes that get the guy, who have the wonderful life, who are perceived as the most beautiful one. And you have totally turned it around.” Brenda and her twin brother Brandon (Jason Priestley) had just moved to Beverly Hills from Minnesota. The Walshes were an innocent Midwest family dropped into the decadent SoCal fleshpots, where her mom fretted, “You didn’t wear this much makeup in Minnesota.”

The joke was that Shannen didn’t have a drop of Minnesota in her — her family was from Memphis, but she grew up in L.A., with showbiz written all over her face. “I dress more for my figure than Brenda does,” she said to Rolling Stone, explaining why she wore a bodysuit to the interview. “She’d probably put a dress over this bodysuit to hide herself. Brenda’s more apple pie, girl next door, America’s sweetheart.” That wasn’t Doherty’s style. Her glamour was more suited to the L.A. shoulder-pads era — she made a fantastic hair-metal muse in a video for the band Slaughter’s power ballad “Real Love.” Brenda was originally scripted as the nice, wholesome heroine, but Shannen turned it around with her sheer force of personality. Brenda had drama with practically everyone at West Beverly Hills High School, dating the bad boy Dylan. (Luke Perry tragically died of a stroke in 2019, only 52, a year younger than Doherty.) Jennie Garth played her best friend Kelly, yet they famously despised each other; one on-set brawl got so intense that Brian Austin Green had to break it up. (Green and Doherty had a laugh about this last year on her podcast.) The tension blew up with the Brenda/Dylan/Kelly love triangle. Dylan and Kelly try to keep it secret, until the legendary scene when Brenda catches them at a restaurant. Naturally she turns an awkward public encounter into World War 3, snarling, “Kelly, if you’re trying to lose your bimbo image, I honestly don’t think this will help.” If you doubt her greatness as an actor, watch her in this scene: She was a genius at hostile eye contact. Doherty made it a classic TV moment — even though Dylan really did belong with Kelly, sorry.

Brenda became the most hated character on TV. The zine Ben Is Dead did a spinoff called I Hate Brenda, with lines like “Shannen: The Other White Meat” and fantasies about Ted Nugent bow-hunting her. Plus a spinoff album full of bangers like “Brenda Can’t Dance To This” and the sensual slow jam “Horny Brenda.” It came with an “I Hate Brenda” T-shirt riddled with bloody bullet holes. When Doherty hosted Saturday Night Live in 1993, it became a horrifyingly misogynistic get-the-guest episode, sadly typical of that SNL era. In one sketch, Doherty was in the dock at the Salem Bitch Trials, with the whole cast chanting, “Burn the bitch!” (When Luke Perry hosted SNL, one of the first jokes in his monologue was “Be nice or I’ll get Shannen after you.”)

The tabloids were obsessed with her public fights, especially when she battled with Paris Hilton over Rick Salomon, Doherty’s ex from a quickie Vegas marriage. When her name came up on The Simple Life, Hilton just sniffed, “I hate that girl.”

Doherty was the bad conscience of Nineties girlhood, which was why America was so fascinated with the idea of hating her. Like Brenda, she was judged by ridiculously hypocritical double standards, sexualized and then demonized for it. She was about one-sixth as destructive as your average Hollywood male star of the time, yet she was the one constantly on trial for being everybody’s worst-case-scenario of a messy girl in public, prosecuted in her own real-life Salem Bitch Trials. Yet she refused to back down or play nice. This bitch would not burn.The 1992 ABC TV movie Obsessed is largely forgotten now — it’s total trash, but Doherty is brilliant in it. Her character spends the movie stalking her ex, who is (of all people) Seventies character actor William Devane, who was in McCabe & Mrs. Miller before she was born. (When this movie comes out, she’s 21, he’s 63 — exactly three times her age.) Naturally, the movie presents him as an innocent family man seduced and trapped by a stereotypical psycho sexpot, but Shannen’s feral intensity makes it very different — she’s in a totally different movie from anyone else onscreen. It’s full of normal people living their hypocritical lives, all agreeing that she’s the problem. But she doesn’t see it that way and won’t play that role. It’s the Alanis “I’m not quite as well and I thought you should know” brought to life.

Doherty moved on to Charmed, in a threesome of witch sisters with Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs. After three seasons of conflict with Milano, Charmed finally killed off Doherty’s character and replaced her with Rose McGowan. Doherty reprised the role of Brenda in the terrible 2008 Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot, and again in the campy 2019 BH90210 miniseries. She also had a great 2006 reality show on the Oxygen network: Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty. Each week she met with people desperate to escape their dysfunctional relationships, so she stepped in and did the breaking up for them. A perfect use of her skill set: the emotional assassin.

At the Charmed reunion panel last year, she kept snuggling on the couch with fellow bad-girl lifer Rose McGowan, who said her biggest career regret was that she and Shannen didn’t overlap on the show, so they never got to be witch sisters. A fan asked if Rose, Shannen, and Holly-Marie Combs would say the Power of Three ritual together, since they never got the chance on the show. It was indescribably moving to see these three women — all outcasts in Hollywood, all women discarded and demonized in different ways, all counted out and written off — huddle together and chant, “The Power of Three will set us free!”

It was a moment that said so much about her power, and why she will be missed and remembered. But she always lived up to that answer she gave Winona in Heathers. Why did she have to be Shannen Doherty? Because she could be.

[w3ath3r-0f-sw34t3rz]

˗ˏˋ cavetown songs. ´ˎ˗

i just wanna talk about em

this is home 💭 (what do you want from me? this song isn't even real it makes me feel The Most. the first note and i have ascended into the heavens above. there are no words)

just add water 🦕 (makes me feel like i'm underwater)

banana bread 🐝 (underrated. i hope you're alright i didn't wanna wake up last night but i quite liked the dream i had of holding your hand? oh my god it goes so hard)

talk to me ☎️ (the hug that i need)

boys will be bugs 🐛 (gender👍)

sweet tooth 💞 (BANGER this is what alchohol SHOULD taste like FORUUUUMYHONEYYDEWWW)

smoke signals ✨ (underrated AS ALL HELL. so fricken beautiful)

sharpener 🩹 (i have issues)

grocery store 🪫 (SO ME CODED FR)

we're alive 🪦 (theres a fire on my floor telling me to sleep some more. chilling and yet comforting in a way only cavetown can be)

hazel 🌙 (i wake up with this in my head often. there's just something about it)

devil town 👻 (it's devil town)

snake & the prairie dogs 🐍 (AUUGGGHHHHHH DIRTINYOURHEADNYOUDONTKNOWHOWTOGETITOUT vibe tm)

trenchh 🐚 (nobody anywhere has anything on this chorus)

nostalgia in my bedroom 🌸 (such vibe tm)

lavaicerink 🧊 (vibe tm)

sliipping lately 📼 (bop. and vibe tm.)

it's u 🌌 (my wedding song idc. ifufalldown2far&icantseeuthrutheesmarks&ureyesrcoveredinscars&myheadisfillingw/tardwwellfindanotherwayoutursilhouettedoesntlookquiteright&icanneverfindthetime2burymyhandsinwordsidgrowanewkindofevergreentreejust4u&meon2ndthoughtswilluevenrememberme.)

big bowl in the sky 🪽 (makes me throw myself on my dog and sob every time)

888 📀 (👏trapped👏in👏my👏tiny👏human👏brain👏 IF I MOVE MY HANDS FAST ENOUGH I WONT DIE???!?!??!?!"?!? BRO?!?#??#!?@)

poison ☠️ (i feel like i'm lying in the middle of the road in the rain at dusk and something is coming and i should be afraid yet i know everything is gonna be ok)

pigeon 🩻 (ya novel main character moment)

pyjama pants 💤 (my love language)

empty bed 🧸 (oof. this. this gets to me)

guilty 🦴 (insane bro just so good)

a kind thing to do 🌱 (OH MY GOD??? HUH??!?? the way this fuckin song tickles my soul)

wasabi 🧦 (wow. huh)

i swear to god 🦇 (aughhgh it's sog ood. so sgoodfs. sog)

juno 🐾 (one of my favorite things about cavetown is how many songs he has talking about connections with animals. that is just something so personal to me and this song in particular i just relate to on such a deep level)

juliet 💐 (shit he is so pretty.)

ty for ur time

[scifimagpie]

Writeblr intro

Last Updated: Mar 2024 So, I realised I hadn't actually written one of these, and I had to fix it!

Name: Magpie, or Shelle, or Michelle.

Pronouns: she/her or xe/xer/xis.

Who: both a writer and an editor!

The Writing: I’ve been publishing since 2011, and I have a bunch of free and paid anthologies I’ve organized, but these are my most important/favourite works.

Except for The Meaning Wars series, all of my books are set in Canada!  

The Meaning Wars (complete; And The Stars Will Sing, The Stolen: Two Short Stories, The Meaning Wars, Poe’s Outlaws, A Jade’s Trick, The Meaning Wars Complete Omnibus)

Similar to: Becky Chambers’ A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and Ruthanna Emrys’ A Half-Built Garden

Vibes: Space opera! Found family! Mature (30s) protagonists! Best friends! Sapphic and queer m/f romance elements! Friendly space raptors! Space pirates! A beach episode! Antifascism! Colonization (and inequality issues)! Fighting stuff with democracy and direct action!  

The Underlighters (Book 1 of The Nightmare Cycle; Book 2, Monsters and Fools, is complete and in edits. Book 3, The Foundling City, is a current WIP!)

Similar to: Jean DuPrau’s The City of Ember, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, the Fallout series

Vibes: Coming of age/new adult themes. Spooky monsters. Post-apocalyptic. The importance and warmth of community. Friendship. Struggling with teen problems. Polyamory. Nightmares. Mental health issues. Trauma. Hope. Recycling.

After The Garden (Book 1 of the Memory Bearers Saga; Book 2, Within the Tempest, is also one of my WIPs)

Similar to: Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, The Wachowski sisters’ Sense-8, the Fallout series

Vibes: Found family. Gentle romance. Polyamory (m/f/m). Superpowers without superheroes. Sinister cults and religious extremism. Reincarnation. An alternate future. Adorable giant spiders. Silk-weaving and fiber arts. Post-collapse societal reorganization and politics.

The Loved, The Lost, The Dreaming: A Horror Anthology includes an alternate-ending version of The Underlighters, the novella A Shot of Vodka, and a dozen or so genre-crossing short stories. All of them have spooky elements.

Similar to: Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors, Roald Dahl’s Skin and Other Stories (this is not an endorsement of antisemite Roald Dahl; I am antifascist)

Vibes: Underground living. Spooky dolls. Abandoned houses. Queerness. Sinister fey. Nightmares. Lovecraftian eeriness. Here be monsters.

Bad Things That Happen To Girls (Book 1 of the Memory Bearers Saga; Book 2, Within the Tempest, is also one of my WIPs) Possibly my most underrated work, this New Adultish story is a standalone novella about trauma and what happens when life breaks down.

Similar to: Emily Danforth’sThe Miseducation of Cameron Post and Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness

Vibes: Broken family. Abusive mother. Being queer in a small city. Religious trauma. Forbidden cross-cultural love. Teen heartbreak. Coming-of-age. Sisters.

The Hell series (Unpublished WIPs; Dark as Hell, Uncharted Hell, Hope in Hell)

Similar to: Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, Andrej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series

Vibes: Grumpy/sunshine romance! Mature protagonists! Queer f/m romance! Thriller elements! Immortal pirate! Marxist/anti-billionaire politics—with a billionaire protag! Lovecraftian ocean horror! Historical fantasy elements! Lots and lots of boat stuff!

Prairie Weather Trilogy (Unpublished but complete, in submission; Chinook Phase, Tornado Warning, Brushfire)

Similar to: Douglas Couplands’ Jpod,Nick Sagan’s Idlewild trilogy (without the sci fi stuff), Love Actually, Heartstoppers

Vibes: Aggressively Canadian! Found family! Cozy academia! University! Set in the early 2010s! Queer romance! Ensemble cast! Aggressively queer, diverse, and inclusive! Coming-of-Age/New Adult issues! Friendship! Drama! Sex work-positivity!             

The Editing: I've been a professional freelance editor since 2013, with Top-Rated status on Upwork (a freelancing website) and several hundred books under my belt. (I don't know how many things I've worked on at this point. I've lost count!) Primarily into sci fi, fantasy, horror, and literature (and associated subgenres); enthusiastic about #ownvoices and all kinds of diversity/marginalised representation in fiction.

You don’t have to go through Upwork unless you want to; DM me if you’re looking for an editor who’s knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and gentle. I’m also budget-friendly!

Age: in my 30s.

Queer?: yes. Also poly! Happily married to two people; also have a girlfriend. Not looking for more partners.

Disabled?: yes.

Languages: English mostly, but some conversational Spanish (rusty), scraps of French, tiny bits of German and Irish. All my writing is in English, though.

Location: Southern Alberta, Canada. (Texas + Kansas + Colorado = Alberta, more or less.)

Other hobbies: Knitting, making jewelry, playing Dungeons and Dragons (and other tabletop games), singing, reading (obviously), learning stuff; playing cello, clarinet, and violin

Interests: Jewelry, gems, metalworking, fiber arts, queer issues and social justice, environmentalism, drinking quite a lot of tea (usually black; I like an assam, Ceylon, or breakfast blends, though Golden Snail absolutely slaps when I’m in the mood for it, and I love Earl Grey Cream as well)

Other internet profiles: *Website * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * Amazon * Tumblr * Mastodon *Facebook * Medium * Twitter  * OG Blog* Instagram * Paypal.me * Ko-fi

[pookiebearmick]

weekly tag wednesday (on wednesday this time!)

thank you dear @spookygingerr and @mickeym4ndy for tagging me 😍🥺

Name: Deck

Age: 25

Location: I'm out and about 🌈✨

What is your DJ name? God knows lol, I would not be a good DJ

If you were a genre of music, what would it be? I feel like I would be some kind of goofy folksy music? Something with banjo, accordion, oboe, viola - that kind of shit

What would you title your biography? My cousin once said they would name theirs "?" and I think mine might be "!"

What are the first three things you'd do if you were invisible? Like @mickeym4ndy I am SO nosy, I would def be snooping LOL; also might steal some things, groceries are EXPENSIVE

What subject do you wish was taught in every school? I feel like some kind of finance class could be beneficial, but it would have to be a finance class that actually taught the important things? I took a finance class in high school and it was just worksheets of bullshit that didn't help at all in the long run. Teach me how to file my taxes and create effective budgets, please 👏

When was the last time you tried something for the first time and what was it? Omg I had my first fresh peach ever this past weekend and let me tell you, INCREDIBLE

What is the most underrated city you have ever visited? I don't travel often, I'm kind of a home body? But there is a really cute little town up north by my grandparents called Stockholm - it's got little local shops and lots of art studios, even a pie and ice cream shop. It's truly so cute 🥺

What day in your life would you like to relive?

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why? Honestly, it would be so nice to have things cooked for me? I think my diet would be so much better if I didn't have to do the task of making the food. I truly love fruits and veggies, but I don't have much energy when I get home from work so I don't feel like making an elaborate meal, and often times it ends up being something super quick and easy

How long would you last in a zombie apocalypse? I would actually do so terrible in a zombie apocalypse my GOD. I'd probs be gone within the first few hours, def lucky if I lasted a couple of days lol

What would be the most surprising scientific discovery imaginable? I don't know how surprising it would be to me that there's other life in the universe somewhere, but I definitely think it would be cool to discover different species from different planets

If you could have any view out your office window, what would you choose? It would def have to be some kind of garden/greenery for me. Maybe like a micro prairie or a big prairie? Flowers and trees and shrubs and all the green please 💗

if you haven't done it yet and want to, here's your tag @thepupperino @twinklyylights @especially-fuk-u @onthepyre 🥰

[kuwdora]

For the vidding ask meme, 12!

12 Most underrated vid that you wished had gotten more views?

Gonna go with another blast from my past, my 2009 festivid All For Swinging You Around for the Canadian show Little Mosque on the Prairie. A show I was so obsessed with (it's so cute and wholesome and LOVELY). I could not find it online so I ordered the DVDs directly from the CBC shop and ripped them for the vid. (Some of the episodes ripped so poorly, I was not very good with MacHatcha and MacTheRipper back in the day, aspect ratios waaagh). But I really really love this vid. All my love! All my joy! For the community of Mercy!! Click the vid based on my rec and love, but keep watching until you see an imam and an anglican priest jogging and wearing purple pinnies that say "The God Squad." I highly recommend this show for wholesome comedy humor love.

ty!! for the ask! Get to Know the Vidder ask game! Send me an ask!

[mynationalisparked]

*grinding my teeth* no seriously Wind Cave NP is super underrated and I have some beautiful memories there and every once in a while I am overwhelmed by how much I miss the beautiful grassland prairie and the bison and the prairie dogs and the elk and the rolling hills and the way the rain fell over the valley while my friend and I were hiking and how we got completely soaked but it was so beautiful we didn't even care and-

[apirateslifefor--smee]

support women's wrongs: a majke de spell playlist ( @majkemaniiia )

prairie girl by rah rah

i did something bad by taylor swift

bring me to life by evanescence

pierre by ryn weaver

nothing matters by the last dinner party

free by florence and the machine

you know i'm no good by amy winehouse

hounds of love by kate bush

still sane by lorde

run by daughter

prairie girl by rah rah

I am a prairie girl Straight to the bone I'll cut you off on the drive back home I spend my winters alone Yeah there's just no place quite like home

I feel like this song is so underrated lol I used to LOVE it in high school. This song is about being a #tough girl but also maybe you fall in love a little bit but NO YOU DON'T you get the hell out of there before you can get hurt. And it just felt like a good place to start for Magica who is very self-sufficient and independent but I also think somewhere deep down she is kind of lonely... but anyway it's fine she's a prairie girl!!

2. i did something bad by taylor swift

They say I did something bad Then why's it feel so good? They say I did something bad But why's it feel so good? Most fun I ever had And I'd do it over and over and over again if I could It just felt so good, good

Sorry sorry one thing about me is I'll sneak tswizzle onto these playlists. Obviously this song is about a lot of different things and not necessarily about summoning demons but like lowkey it could be. Magica is kind of the weird one in her family for being into shadow magic and I just think she'd be like ok u say i did something bad... but WHY'S IT FEEL SO GOOD!!!!

3. bring me to life by evanescence

Wake me up inside (save me) Call my name and save me from the dark (wake me up) Bid my blood to run (I can't wake up) Before I come undone (save me) Save me from the nothing I've become

Stay with me here lol. This is less about the lyrics and more about the VIBE. Like if there was ever a song to summon demons to it'd be this song. You know what I mean? I really don't think that's what this song is about but I just had to put it here for the vibes.

4. pierre by ryn weaver

And I fell for a vagabond, a month at tops Lied and said his bike was in the motor shop Drove my car once and made the tire pop Still we had some fun, till I came to 'Cause I wouldn't be with you

This song is about hooking up with a bunch of guys who are probably con artists/grifters/liars because you're running from your feelings about someone. And idk if that's true for Magica but I DO think she is like simultaneously really savvy but also drawn to liars at the same time. Maybe because she is a powerful lady and can handle herself so she might as well have a little fun. Also I just think this song is whimsical and witchy idk you get the vibe.

5. nothing matters by the last dinner party

I put my heart inside your palms My home in your arms Now we know nothing matters Nothing matters

I also kind of put this song here more for the vibes than the lyrics because it sounds kind of witchy and whimsical but I also think it goes with the theme of Magica's hot girl energy. She's here to fuck around and get what she wants and as I said she can handle herself etc so if ppl try to use her she will also use them!

6. free by florence and the machine

I'm always running from something I push it back, but it keeps on coming And being clever never got me very far

Once again the theme of running from something! Magica is always on the run but I think she also knows herself really well and knows what she needs to feel #free. Whether that's dancing or magic or something else. Also once again we are here for vibes. Florence is always a witchy vibe.

7. you know i'm no good by amy winehouse

I cheated myself Like I knew I would I told you I was trouble You know that I'm no good

To me this song is about thinking you're the bad guy and then finding out actually the person you're with is also the bad guy and still managed to hurt u even though u thought u were immune to that! And I think it gets at Magica's vulnerability despite this powerful witch exterior she has.

8. hounds of love by kate bush

Among the hounds of love And feel your arms surround me I've always been a coward And never know what's good for me Oh, here I go, don't let me go

I am obsessed with this song lately?? I wanted to give Magica one love song bc I think she should get one <3 This song is about feelings coming for u like a pack of hounds and you're like you know what let's just give into it! And I know this is not Magica's usual vibe but once in a while we see her soft side and I love that <3

9. still sane by lorde

Only bad people live to see Their likeness set in stone What does that make me?

I loveeee this song. It's so creepy and evocative. I think this song could be about the consequences of making yourself very powerful and like dealing with the fallout of that. What happens when Magica faces what she's done?? Will she ever?? Much to consider...

10. run by daughter

I don't know what we're doing I don't know what we've done But the fire is coming So I think we should run

Returning to our run theme! I don't know what the speaker in this song has done to make them have to run, but Magica is always careful not to have anyone look too closely at what's going on with her demon niece! And again I thought this song had a very creepy/witchy vibe so it seemed like a good place to end.

[muldoonlives]

"We all lost our minds, Irwin."

Dale Midkiff is a good actor. To me anyway. He's mainly in television movies so he isn't well known. I've seen some of the "Love" movies because I'm a fan of "Little House On the Prairie", and wanted to see what Michael Landon, Jr. had in store. They were decent but nothing remarkable. "Elvis & Me" was a big deal from what I've read and heard, but I don't care about watching it. The first time I remember seeing Dale was in "Time Trax" which I watched with my father every week. I didn't recognize him when he played Buck in "A Cry For Help", but the scene of him beating and maiming Nancy McKeon was engrained in my brain. Buck was pure feral. After finding it on Youtube as an adult and watching it again, I considered Dale Midkiff as a very underrated actor.

Many people may not know Dale Midkiff by name, but many people have seen "Pet Sematary". I tried to watch it every time it was aired on USA. I read the novel when I was eighteen. Since the film didn't explain much about him, it was pleasing to learn why Louis Creed acted so aloof. Unfortnately, most reviewers hate Dale Midkiff's performance. Some say he ruined an otherwise great film. "He was so wooden and always stared off in to space."

Well, he did tend to stare in to space. Leading men are usually expected to be charismatic. Louis Creed wasn't that type of man. He wasn't an action hero with clever one-liners. He was a dull person. Wooden. The novel explained that Louis was a secretive person prior to burying Church. The best way to be secretive is keeping things to yourself. That includes controlling those facial expressions. Louis also never wanted to acknowledge the supernatural.

An example would be the scene of Louis following Jud to the Micmac burial ground, and he hears the demon making noises in the woods. Louis nonchalantly inquires about the sound instead of looking all around him with fear in his eyes. As the two climb the rocks leading to the burial ground, he becomes irritated with Jud and even snaps at him when they reach the summit because he thinks their hike is ridiculous. Louis refused to see there was something abnormal going on.

After burying Church, Louis's mind was taken over by the demon, The Wendigo, who haunted the woods. King included the evil spirit in a draft script written in 1986. Just like the novel, Jud explained to Louis how The Wendigo was responsible for contaminating the soil of the burial ground, and it played tricks on its victim's mind. The Wendigo even appeared to Louis when he takes Gage's corpse through the woods. Budget constraints cut out the idea of creating the gigantic demon. Although, erasing Jud 's talk of The Wendigo hurt the film. "The ground turned sour." Why though? What's with the hallucinations Rachel and Louis experienced? Why did Jud take Louis to use the burial ground? Why did Louis use it on Rachel after all the carnage? Removing The Wendigo caused the movie to not make sense.

The emotions spilled out as the film reached its conclusion. You can't say Dale Midkiff seemed wooden after he discovers his resurrected son stole his scapel. Louis kept crumbling more and more with each step he took. Dale Midkiff wasn't a terrible actor in "Pet Sematary". He just played a bland character who was only intriguing when he lost his mind at the very end.

[taiyami]

FELLOW BIRDLIKER!! if ur cool with just random misc asks.. do you have any fun birds you really wanna talk about but never get the chance to? ones nobody really asks about? underrated bird spotlight, perhaps? 👀

Of course I'm ALWAYS cool with random misc asks. Always! I love interaction 🫡

Hm ... I've actually been thinking about this ask for a few days (I apologize for being so late to respond, but I wanted to answer it with my full attention!), and there's so many birds I've talked about here. Shoebills, condors, cockatoos, toucans, owls etc. It's hard to pick a bird I like that I haven't talked much about.

I'm sure people have heard about these types of birds before, but several species of Kite (a hawk/raptor type bird) that live in sub desert savanah climates actually have been reported to use fire to hunt. I read a couple of interesting articles about them recently, so they've been on my mind. I luckily got to study kites for a brief time when I was researching in Australia a few years ago (never saw any of them spread a wildfire though. Sad </3)

It's not a common behavior but it's been recorded that several species of raptor will steal fire from a campfire and start prairie/grassland fires to have an abundance of prey. They either pick off the ones trying to flee or they end up just eating the remains of one's that couldn't. It's SO fascinating that they learned how to do that from US!

Several aboriginal communities used to be able to hunt by controlled fires (and in a lot of cases, the landscape has been moulded from and thrives off of controlled burning), but the government in Australia is incredibly neglectful of it due to the extreme misunderstanding of how beneficial fire actually is to landscapes. It's a WHOLE can of worms and its something I'm actually quite passionate about, but i won't write a book on here about it ;;

Edit: had to fix my links </3

Basic "Firehawks" article

Paper on fire ecology / pyrogeography!

[inkedscribbles]

Repotting little bluestem seedlings! Being a part of prairie restoration work feels so hopeful.

Prairies and swamps are direly underrated ecosystems, in terms of biodiversity. The Blackland Prairie is nearly extinct, with less than 0.05% remaining and scattered in pockets. But it's still here, and so are we.

Anyway check out that root system!

[abirddogmoment]

I call this series "beautiful photos I took in direct sunlight and then couldn't edit so I applied a Lightroom preset and called it good enough" because sometimes that's just how she goes

[plutonium-sky]

Hey but what if.... skids but dragons

I drew a surprising amount of doodles for this idea at this point, wow- Anyways! I don't think I posted ANY of this to tumblr, so enjoy my various doods of this idea lol

Everything (including the scarce ideas i already have about this) under cut

I'm gonna start with the list of thoughts that I already have for this whole shenaniganery.

All hatchlings look approximately the same, and the way they look as they grow up depends on where they grow, among other things. Still a rough idea. They looks approximately like the image below.

Of course, parents and whatanot also play a big role, but that's the absolute blank version probably.

They mutate every time they go to Eden- or whatever is the equivalent of Eden there. Otherwise, it would be extremely painful to be a growing dragon. Very, very, very painful.

List of what realm is populated with what type of dragon the most (read: most, not all)

Isle: Land drakes, tend to be wingless and, if they do have wings, flightless (but not always.) Don't underestimate them, though- they have other means of transport! Whether it be burrowing or very strong jumping and high speeds of running, they can get around even without their wings.

Prairie: Chinese! Long! And Wyrms! Also wingless, but not necessarily flightless! How? I don't know, have fun with that. Although, Prairie has the most diverse amount of dragons.

Forest: Insect dragons! Or at least real fluffy. The rain is cold and the sun barely touches them, they have to keep warm SOMEHOW! (also, insect dragons are underrated. and not everyone realizes that dragons CAN be fluffy.)

Valley: Wyverns! Speedsters, they are. Tend to be on the smaller side, but they're a blast to hang out with.

Wasteland: aquatic! Gills, lots of fins, and in some cases slimy. Just very good at swimming, but some of them Can fly and most of them can come onto the water too!

Vault: Hydra. More brains to accomodate all that knowledge, they don't need the flight that much, with all that technology they are using! But otherwise they are very good climbers and swimmers (I definitely didn't run out of ideas for uniqueish dragons at this point. Help.)

Eden: The beast watches. (Aka idfk. Let's go with worms. Really, really, really absurdly long ones. Perhaps even like ouroboros.)

FIRST OFF FOR IMAGES: Iez and Cackling Cannoneer dragon sketches from like 4 months ago!! Iez is fluffy, and I wanna make her more insectoid later. However I am completely happy with Cannoneer's design.

Second off: me contacting @ejsuperstar and whining at them about dragons, subsequently drawing Dragon, Local Baby, and Injured messenger as dragons!

And a few more doodles of dragon Cannoneer and Iez with the slightest bit of design changes

Anyways, next batch: Me talking at @serene-sky-kid and then drawing THREE versions of dragon Serene

And then, the stuff from today: Me randomly taking my sky lore buddy's oc ( @iamherefortrains ) and dragonifying them. Alongside dragonifying the valley twins

Elders, as a treat, get to continue being HUGE. And! Also! Extra limbs!! The twins have TWO sets of wings!! And they're also still kinda the big shots of the whole place. Elder dragons!

For your information, I have no idea where this is going. Feel free to pitch in with ideas because it's just been brewing in my head with barely anything new. Cheers!

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Broadcasts Vol. 7 1999 Acoustic / Singer-Songwriter / Folk / Country-Folk / Country / Americana

This is one of those compilations that radio stations used to *love* to put out into their local markets. They'd be chock full of live on-air performances that'd been captured from the studios of their very own broadcasts. And oftentimes, the music on them would be acoustic too, riding that wave of soft and heartfelt intimacy that helped to spawn alternative versions of artists' songs aplenty, thanks to the advent of MTV Unplugged and a revivalism of the Bohemian coffeehouse folk vibe that had originally taken root in the 50s and 60s.

So stations would invite acts to come by to usually promote their newest work, and part of that promotion would involve the acts playing a short set of songs live on the air. And what makes this phenomenon especially cool is how both ephemeral and localized it all was. No two live performances can ever be exactly the same, and the CDs and cassettes that these performances would eventually exclusively appear on were only made available within a station's own market. So, these tons of releases could only really be found in the local record shops that were within these stations' respective regions and pretty much nowhere else.

So, all of this is to say, for a weird compilation collector such as myself, this whole era of recorded live acoustic performances from radio stations all across the country really makes for a vital and pretty untapped goldmine of great music.

And there was this radio station in particular, in Austin, Texas, that unfortunately no longer exists called 107.1 KGSR that evidently killed it with their local radio comps. They put out 27 whole volumes of this stuff between 1993 and 2019, and this seventh installment from their Broadcasts series provides for an excellent and mostly acoustic late 90s double-disc blend of a lot of adjacent genres and styles, such as folk, singer-songwriter, country, blues, rock & roll, roots, and the catch-all term that more or less encompasses the confluence of this whole vibe: Americana.

So, on here you'll find national stalwarts, local legends from Austin's very vibrant and insular scene, and impressive flashes in the pan, all performing versions of songs from their catalogues in different manners from how they sounded on their respective studio album recordings; in other words, excellently rare gems.

But here's what sucks about this whole fascinating niche: you can't find most of this stuff on YouTube. Because of how local all of these releases were, the odds that someone would take the time to upload their KGSR CDs to YouTube aren't very high. I mean, not very many people probably bought these CDs in the first place, and most of the people who did buy them have probably lost track of them by now and haven't thought about them in years, especially the older volumes. Had these CDs been made available on a national scale, someone probably would've had them all uploaded already, but all I have for you are literally a few recordings, posted by people who probably got them from a file-sharing client a long time ago, and aren't aware of their actual provenance.

But the few recordings I was able to find on YouTube are quite good anyway. The prolific Iowan, Greg Brown, who first made his name through various appearances on the popular and nationally syndicated Prairie Home Companion radio program, kicks us off with a soft piece of acoustic folk in "China," originally from his 13th studio album, 1996's Further In; then we're treated to a real rarity, as Neil Finn, from both Oceanian acts Split Enz and Crowded House, joins the great Shawn Colvin on her "What I Get Paid For," a song that Finn co-wrote with her, but did not actually appear on the US release of her 1996 album, A Few Small Repairs; and then on the second disc, we get the ever-underrated New England country-folk singer-songwriter Patty Griffin, who delivers an incredible version of "Change," off of her critically acclaimed sophomore album, 1998's Flaming Red, whose biggest commercial achievement was only peaking at #12 on Billboard's US Heatseekers chart, and failing to reach the coveted 200 chart 😔. Thank god someone uploaded this one though, because it just might be my favorite joint across this 39-song pair of discs.

So, this is a really terrific set of beautiful and hard-to-find live radio performances from the studios of the now-defunct Austin, Texas radio station 107.1 KGSR. Wish I could post more links to all of this fantastic and mostly acoustic Americana from the late 90s, but the few goodies that I actually was able to find are really excellent anyway.

Feel free to message me if you're really interested in hearing all of this gold, though!

Highlights:

CD1:

Greg Brown - "China" John Hammond - "Drop Down Mama" Sinéad Lohan - "No Mermaid" Neil Finn & Shawn Colvin - "What I Get Paid For" Ian Moore - "Paris, Texas" Bad Livers - "Honey, I've Found a Brand New Way / It's All the Same to Me" Jimmy LaFave - "Burden to Bear" Joan Baez - "If I Wrote You" Robert Earl Keen - "Feelin' Good Again" Kim Richey - "Can't Lose Them All"

CD2:

Beth Orton - "She Cries Your Name" Patty Griffin - "Change" Corey Harris - "Blues Come to Texas" Terri Hendrix - "Gravity" Ray Wylie Hubbard - "Conversation With the Devil" The Damnations TX - "Unholy Train"

More late 90s acoustic radio comps:

'97 Star Lounge Collection (Star 98.7, Los Angeles) Zone Sessions, Volume 1 (Zone 105, Minneapolis-St. Paul)

[actnatural-ly]

what's an underrated fexi fic you love?

hmmm just based on my bookmarks and looking at comment and kudos counts so there's probably some length/recency bias and missing some for sure but i feel like these need more love:

@hoplismene FKA aestheticophelia has written some really beautiful works, my favorite of which are the A/B/O and Trojan War AUs.

@rockiemountains' Regency AU for A+ pining

this lexi babysitting ashtray AU which has perfect characterization

@changeyourwholepitch's hilarious and sexy fwb story

@iwantthemtostay's short and sweet backstory of how fez got into little house on the prairie

[incorrectrawhidequotes]

Christmas Movie “We’re No Angels” (1955)

Really wanted to make a post about this movie. It’s a family favorite and a really sweet, quirky holiday movie that deserves more recognition. (It even has a few Rawhide connections) 

Set on Christmas Eve in the late 1800s, three convicts, Joseph (Humphrey Bogart) Albert (Aldo Ray) and Jules (Peter Ustinov) are attempting to escape the Devil’s Island prison colony.  They trick their way into the Ducotel general store by saying they’ll fix the leaking roof. While waiting on the roof so they can rob the store after dark, the three observe the Ducotel family, Felix, Amelie and their daughter Isabelle. They’re a close and loving family, but the business is failing as Felix is easily railroaded by pushy customers. Worst of their troubles it the impending arrival of the store’s owner, their cold-hearted, ruthless cousin Andre (Basil Rathbone).

Joseph, Albert and Jules are actually very kind-hearted people and not wanting to see good people suffer, they decide to help the family. From stealing a Christmas tree, helping with tricky customers and even giving a moral boost to love-sick Isabelle, who likens the three convicts to the three angels from her favorite carol. 

Things take an interesting turn though when Andre arrives and the three convicts turned guardian angels (and Albert’s pet snake Adolph) take a more active stance to protect the family. 

“We’re no angles” is an underrated gem. It’s different but sweet, funny and heartfelt and the cast is perfect. If you can find it, it’s definitely worth a watch. 

Couple of Rawhide connections here.

Firstly, Isabelle is played by Gloria Tablott, who guest stared on three episodes of Rawhide. (Incident of the Calico Gun. The Broken Word and The Prairie Elephant) 

Isabelle and the three have the strongest connection in the story as the three become very attached and protective of her as she reminds them of family, youth and love. One of the best moments in the movie is when Isabelle brings out her treasured three angels tree topper.  Isabelle; “Just like in the carol. “Three angels came to earth that night and all around the stars were bright.” Joseph; “Your angels didn’t stand the trip very well. Their wings are are pretty beat up.” Jules; “Their feathers are all gone.” Albert; “And they don’t have halos.” Isabelle; (Looking past the angels to the Three) “They have halos. And their wings are perfect and their feathers are snowy white. And they came down from the stars. Even if it seemed like only the roof.” 

And lastly, this movie is based on the 1953 Broadway play, My Three Angels, which featured Eric Fleming. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-XBRUEHiee/fbclid=IwAR1brI2AuLtqsHdaCEnGy6FNnFEULn0bTV-zDQ96skH2cdg4QDf4q_wAdWc (It’s still an injustice that Eric didn’t get moved up to a staring role. He would have been perfect to play Albert.)