#the ultimate theft

[dulafer]

BENCHED

A new one about a troublesome twin brother who ends up with his brother's life. Yes, it's long and detailed with lots of pics.

PDF Link:

Feedback appreciated - the good, the bad and the ugly!

[mangle-my-mind]

Todd Haynes on Jack Fairy

OM: While the story focuses on Brian and Curt, and subsequently Arthur, you chose to start and end the film with Jack Fairy. He's the patron saint of the whole shebang, but he's not a true component of the narrative. How does he function in the movie?

TH: In a strange way, Fairy is meant to be the Little Richard of glam rock. He didn't form himself like the human Xerox machine by frantically calling from everything around him and assembling himself in a self-conscious way. He represents a kind of instinctive need to camp it up, something that came to him as a young child. In the film, this instinct is represented by the enigmatic force of a pin that seems to circulate through British culture generationally. Little Richard, against all the odds of the period he grew up in - the conservatism and segregation around him - erupted spontaneously as a shrill spectacle that you could not ignore. Of course he spun right into the mainstream of society, and forced the mainstream to adapt to his new excesses. Jack Fairy remains the kind of lost originator of the whole glam thing. I think he's there to contrast the consumerist drive to be famous, which often is more effective with the very driven, self-conscious stealer of ideas than it is with the organic originator of the same ideas. He doesn't get the same kind of attention as Brian, but he becomes a source of inspiration. He's the 'real' thing, which, of course, isn't real.

Source - "Superstardust: Talking Glam with Todd Haynes" by Oren Moverman

[lockpickingliar]

BOOM!

Dangan Muse Narration Alignment Chart!!! By yours truly, Kichi!

[codes-and-stuffs]

i fully support demon eloise and her campaign against saint jimmy

[sleepkey]

fucked how financial stability would fix me

[ljandersen]

hey girl 😭,

I just finished reading ur fanfic sideways and i was just wondering when part 5 is coming out, cos that cliffhanger left me ispeechless and i NEED more 😭😭😭💔

I'm so glad you enjoyed Sideways! I wrote it with so much love and emotion. I'm so gratified when readers are moved by it too!

For an update on Sideways Part 5, it's not currently on my front burner. That's not to say I'm no longer writing, and I haven't forgotten about it. In fact, my current project is distantly connected, so Sideways is never far from my mind.

There were many factors that influenced my decision to shift priorities. I spent two years writing Sideways. I spent an additional two years, not writing anything new, simply editing. And I hate editing.

Each part of Sideways has become progressively more labor-intensive. Part 5 will require the most work by far. It requires adjusting storylines, writing new scenes, and rewriting old scenes. I have to type it up from handwritten notebooks.

As the editing has grown more demanding, the fandom has grown more quiet (broadly speaking). It's only natural post-lockdown and MELE hype, but it's discouraging.

I came to the point where I was burned out. Having my work stolen and published on Amazon pushed me past the tipping point. I needed a break.

On the flip side, with the AI revolution, it felt like I needed to follow my dreams. If it's not now, it will literally be never.

Who knows where we'll be in five years or even just one? Will authors be displaced by prompt writers? Instead of devotion to craft and intricate storytelling, someone will push a key and churn out hundreds of novels from an algorithm? Quality is easily overwhelmed by quantity in the marketplace.

I've dreamed of being an author since before I knew how to write my first word. It's upsetting to fail at a dream, but what happens when that dream simply ceases to exist?

For those reasons, I chose to reprioritize my project. While I love Sideways and the readers who support me -- I miss them! -- I knew it was time to shift focus. I need a chance to write something new instead of only editing. Most important of all, the window for my dream is closing and I need to be there for it.

I have my first draft of Part 5 in a safe. It's waiting for me, and I'll be back for it soon. For now, I think about it every day and have every intention of finishing it.

[g4zdtechtv]

FULL EPISODE: Cheat! - A Gaming Poo-Poo Platter

Time for video game rules to get a sock in the jaw before they run outta town!

[toytulini]

everyone gotta be fuckin around tryin to do ai now im so fucking tired. shut up stop it. i wish i was a worm. if microsoft or discord tries to tell me one more fucking thing about ai im going to combust

[lockpickingliar]

Listen man, as much fun as it looks we just really need a break from

OUR TIME LOOPS

But you can TRY to catch us if you want

Neither Heaven nor hell but a secret, third thing.

(Trapped in the Time Loop with You)

[burning-fcols]

✧   「   @the-ultimate-muses   」   ✧  - Continued from ★  

「 ☆ 」 A mess made indeed, milk dripping from dark fur to leave spots upon the ground... A trail that follows Gundham as the ruined bottle is disposed of, remnants being crunched by small yet surprisingly-strong jaws. Sound fills the air as a background melody to the Overlord's mumblings. Complaints fall on deaf ears. Or perhaps merely ones that do not care ( a twitch betraying that they DO work ) , knowing the Caretaker may scold but will not punish for the indiscretion. Buddy has witnessed the largest of the three voice similar feelings to the others, smothering them with affection soon after.

There's nothing to fear from Gundham. He's all chiding and no chancla.

... In terms of taste, the bottle is not the best. Li'l Buddy already silently laments the loss of his drink. A harsh lesson in patience learned. Still, the texture is pleasant. For that, he makes a note to wait until he has FINISHED draining a bottle before eating its crunchy outer shell. Clearly that is the intention of the treat.

Legs dangling as he hangs limply under Gundham's arm, they flop without so much as a shred of struggle as the breeder repositions him. Facing the other with large, unfocused eyes, it's difficult to tell if the strange creature is actually paying attention to Gundham or the words being spoken. Slowly blinking, eyes close in an uncoordinated manner. Mouth slightly agape, soft steady breath can be felt lightly wafting onto the breeder's face... before a tongue swipes out to lick the tip of Gundham's nose. A lingering movement, it drags a sticky trail across with no sense of urgency before retreating back into an open maw. A kiss.

His new Mother doesn't taste as good as milk... but still better than bottle. 「 ☆ 」

[dulafer]

IMPOSTER PRESIDENT

My latest, typically long, detailed takeover tale. Struggling mechanic discovers his successful twin brother, the President of Hyatt Hotel Corporation.

Feedback (errors, corrections, suggestions) really appreciated - dclouser@mac.com

[just7frogsinapeoplesuit]

Pleased to announce that this is also happening on Facebook

[yeslordmyking]

I'm not going to pretend I knew the source of every picture I was inspired by, but scrolling through Pinterest and getting 95% AI art has officially made it feel unethical to have a vision board

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: AOTS! - Borat Premiere Special | 11/3/06

You like, yes?

[opencommunion]

"Like all foreigners, the Jewish settlers sailed first to Alexandria, took a ferry to Jaffa, and were taken ashore by small boats. This mundane arrival at the shore appears in the settlers’ statements as aggressive and alien treatment: ‘Aravim Hetikifu Ottanu’ – ‘the Arabs assaulted us’ – is the phrase used to describe the simple act of Palestinian boys helping settlers to small boats on the way to Jaffa; they shouted because the waves were high and asked for baksheesh [tips] because this was how they managed to live. But in the settlers’ narrative they were assailants. Noise, presumably a normal feature of life in the Jewish townships of Eastern Europe, becomes menacing when produced by Palestinian women wailing in the traditional salute of joy to the sailors returning safely home. For the settlers this was the behaviour of savages, ‘with fiery eyes and a strange garroted language.’ Whether the topic is their language, their dress or their animals, reports back to Europe concerning the Palestinians were all about unpleasantness and weirdness. ... Again and again, Zionist settlers behaved as a people who had been insulted – either objectively in the form of a physical attack, but more often simply by the very presence of Palestinians in Palestine. ... The Zionist settlers instituted retaliation for ‘theft’, which was how they characterised the rural tradition of cultivating state land, a practice that was legal under Ottoman law. Picking fruit from roadside orchards became an act of robbery only after Zionism took over the land. The words shoded (robber) and rozeach (murderer) were flung about with ease when Palestinians involved in such acts were described. After 1948 these terms would be replaced with ‘terrorist’ and ‘saboteur’. ... Cleansing the land of its farmers and tenants was done at first through meeting in the Zionist madafa and then by force of eviction in Mandatory times. The ‘good’ Palestinians were those who came to the madafa and allowed themselves to be evicted. Those who refused were branded robbers and murderers. Even Palestinians with whom the settlers sometimes shared ownership of horses or long hours of guard duty were transformed into villains once they refused eviction. Later on, wherever Israelis would control the lives of Palestinians, such a refusal to collaborate would be the ultimate proof for Palestinian choice of the terrorist option as a way of life. ... Following the 1967 war ... both Israeli academics and Israeli media commonly used the term ‘terrorism’ when referring to any kind of Palestinian political, social and cultural activity. ‘Palestinian terrorism’ was depicted as having been present from the very beginning of the Zionist project in Palestine and still being there when academic research into it began in earnest. This characterisation was so comprehensive and airtight that it assigned almost every chapter in Palestinian history to the domain of ‘terrorism’ and absolved hardly any of the organisations and personalities that made up the Palestinian national movement from the accusation of being terrorists."

Ilan Pappé, The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge (2014)

[angstandhappiness]

INTERESTING

Guillermo out here with the good takes about AI art