#this is one of my first forays into giffing my own art

[deathbycoldopen]

The Archivist

Technically, this is art for my Good Place Au This Page Intentionally Left Blank, but if monster!Jon is your jam then far be it for me to stand in the way.

ID in Alt.

[deedala]

✨WEEKLY TAG WEDNESDAY✨

thanks to @jrooc for the game this week and for tagging me + @creepkinginc @energievie @lingy910y @suzy-queued 💖

Hello beautiful kittens! 🐈‍⬛ Today’s tag game is about our wonderful fandom 😍

How did you get into the fandom? 

after falling deep into the shameless hellspiral i took to tumblr (as is my usual) to find gifs and memes and everything was so good and everyone was so wonderful i couldnt help but wedge my way into the community lmao

How long have you been here?

i started lurking september of 2022 and my first shameless post was in october of 2022 🥰

What’s the first fandom channel you found? (Youtube, Reddit, Tumblr, Insta, Twitter, FB, other?)

yeah tumblr i guess! my first instinct is always to search tumblr tags for a new thing i like 😌

what’s your favourite now? 

tumblr and discord equally, theyre both non-negotiable

Which mutual have you known the longest in the fandom?

@michellemisfit my beloved <3 ran into her in the @shamelesscreatorsnetwork discord (the first discord link i found) and we started talking and never shutted the fuck up ever again even until today lmao 🥰

Which tumblerino’s did you have your first fandom crush(es) on and want to get to know?

okay so since the first thing i seek out on a new interest is GIFS (and also shameless + text posts that shit absolutely sends me), the first people i followed and was so drawn to their immaculate vibes and gorgeous work were @gardenerian @heymacy and @sickness-health-all-that-shit biting you biting you biting you!!! 💖💖💖

First Gallavich fan fic you read (or that blew you away that you remember)

so michelle had me read redheaded step-children and it was so gorgeous and wonderful i was completely knocked on my ass by that one <3

and then i got the itch to read an AU and started with intro to quantum dating by @spoonfulstar and unless you're new here you are surely aware of how much i love that one 😂

First Fan art that blew your mind? 

i feel awful because i really cannot remember (crine) but pretty sure it was probably some gorgeous intricate @steorie painting

Fanfic trope that you were sure wasn’t for you but now you low key (or high key) love?

SPORTS AU - and now ive fully fucking lost my mind (@heymacy @too-schoolforcool know how deep it runs and i cannot even talk about it or i will throw up lmao)

What surprised you most about this fandom?

since my last significant foray into a fandom community was a pretty big fandom, there were looots of people who were just out for fucking blood. this community here on tumblr for shameless is a goddamn pillowfort, the vast majority of people are so sweet and supportive and happy to mind their own business it's such a fuckin breath of fresh air.

Moment in the show (or YT vids if you’re one of those) that you fell in hyperfixation with Gallavich?

i dont know if i can pinpoint just one moment? but probably one of the big moments early on since thats what would have kept me ravenous to keep consuming more lol

Ian or Mickey?

the fuck??? AAAAHHHHHHHHH uuhhhhh uuhmmmm omg. fuck. uh... okay...just... Mickey? no... Ian? uuhhhhmmm what was the question?

Which Gallagher or Milkovich are you? 

im gonna go with Debbie here <3

and now to tag some more folks in (in addition to everyone tagged above!!) if you want to play! if not, consider this me sending you cleansing brainwaves 🧠

@darlingian @heymrspatel @crossmydna @mybrainismelted @mmmichyyy @wehangout @metalheadmickey @gallawitchxx @thepupperino @blue-disco-lights @the-rat-wins @loftec @mickeysgaymom @rereadanon @callivich @lee-ow @palepinkgoat @gallapiech @transmickey @iansw0rld @captainjowl @howlinchickhowl @vintagelacerosette @sam-loves-seb @burninface @spookygingerr @mikhailoisbaby @themarchg1rl @whatwouldmickeydo @sleepyheadgallavich @sleepyfacetoughguy @samantitheos

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

[woozification]

i was tagged by both @jeonwon-wonwoo and @irlvernon, tysm maddie & max!! i was hoping someone would tag me this year, i love looking back on things like this <3

rules: link your favorite and/or most popular post from each month this year (totally fine to skip months) and tag some CCs you love!

JANUARY

most popular: lee jihoon, world's cutest loser (2.2k notes) - i loove compilation sets, and this one was so hilarious and fun to make favorites: bss just do it & woozi's habit - i love the colors of my bss set! & i hadn't done much with fun text before, so i enjoyed picking out the font lol. - as for woozi's thumb-biting habit...once i noticed it, i started looking for it everywhere

FEBRUARY

most popular: mafia mingyu (700 notes) - i giffed so much of its2, and cute mafia loser mingyu was impossible to resist favorites: attacca era & post-show arts and crafts - i had a brief affair with attacca as my favorite era...it is impeccable, after all <3 - i noticed woozi making a little fan in the background of an after-show video and thought it was cute

MARCH

most popular: hao & vernon "get your hand off of me" (800 notes) - these two were just too funny dsjfnlsfhj, i had to immortalize them somehow favorite: dk & woozi at caratland 2023 - sweet sweet boys whom i adore with my whole heart...

APRIL

most popular: woozi for rmtcrw (500 notes) - as the caption says, rmtcrw woozi was an absolute gift favorite: super mv outfit details - my dirty little secret is that i didn't care much for super when it first came out, but watching the mv while making this set made me come around

MAY

most popular: woozi wants to be reincarnated as a cat (2.7k) - we stan one (1) catboy in this house. he's so correct actually. favorites: svt's 8th anniversary & woozi fml video behind - i was camping during the 8th anniversary and i literally drove 40 minutes back to my house to post this set...i couldn't let it go to waste. - behind the scenes woozi is so goofy silly, i love his awkward little hiccuppy laugh

JUNE

most popular: jeonghan "what would you do if i became a cockroach?" (1.2k notes) - classic jeonghan behavior necessitating a set... favorite: an ode album covers - my first foray into anything graphics-adjacent! it came out exactly how i planned, and it's my favorite thing i've created thus far

JULY

most popular: snoozi (5.2k notes) - my most popular set of the year! i love how many people enjoyed the pun, and i looooved compiling all the sleepy woozis favorite: it's definitely snoozi, but honorable mentions include strawboory & svt + tv tropes - strawberry boo was already too cute not to gif, and as soon as i had the pun in mind, nothing could've stopped me from using it - svt + tv tropes was so fun! i actually have a few ideas for a part 2, but not enough for a whole set yet.

AUGUST

most popular: "in the market" song (700 notes) - i was flabbergasted by this, woozi's memory terrifies me. instant gifset. favorite: a rainbow of wz hair colors - i loved coloring this set, for obvious reasons. vibrant gifs my beloved.

SEPTEMBER

most popular: follow tour vcr (500 notes) - the moment i saw this, i loved it. i'm not exactly sure what the plot was, so i had my own interpretation ofc. favorite: svt mvs + pink & blue - i was on a mission for rq&s, but i ended up going a little broader instead. i had fun making the templates!

OCTOBER

most popular: pd woo (700 notes) - it's just a single large gif, but man is it a cute face. the 700 notes are me reblogging it 700 times in another life. favorite: first love & letter album covers - wahhh these were so fun to make! the "love" one is my favorite, they're such good boys honestly.

NOVEMBER

most popular: woozi's birthday (400 notes) - i really enjoyed creating the layout for this and adding all the cute bits and pieces. it's one of my favorites from this year :) favorite: it's definitely the birthday set, but honorable mention for the birthday box photoshoot - pink sweater...

DECEMBER

most popular/favorite: 2024 sg spot (180 notes) - life got difficult in december, so this is my only set. behold!

this was fun! here's to more giffable content in 2024! ^^

a lot of my favs have already been tagged so apologies for any double tags, but (if you're so inclined) i'll tag @jeongtokkie @sevencoloredstar @woozis @goblinvern @wnjunhui @junranghae @dinoboos @junmail @hoshingi and @kiimtaehyung <3

[wishingicouldfly]

Harry Styles is a Mermaid

Disclaimer: I am sure I’m not the first to report and share these links and images. I thought people would find this interesting, so I’m sharing my foray down this rabbit hole. I’d welcome any additional links or thoughts related to Mermaids and the LGBTQ community.

If you know anyone that should be credited for pictures here, let me know. None of them belong to me.

***

In November 2014, Harry Styles had the image of a mermaid tattooed on his left forearm. The bare-chested siren joined multitudes of other nautical themed tattoos that litter his body. 

A few days after the new tat appeared, he responded to a question at a meet and greet. 

“I am a Mermaid,” he said. 

I started the research on this post when I saw the gif with his quote about being a mermaid. Rest below the cut.

Harry Styles’ Mermaid Tattoo — The Real Reason Behind His New Ink – Hollywood Life 

I’m not going to tell you why he said he’s a mermaid. I don’t know what it means to him. I have no idea. Maybe he simply likes mermaids. Maybe he feels like it matches the themes of his and Louis’ other nautical tattoos. I can't pretend to know.

“Mermaid” as a theme, though, has a decades long association with the LGBTQ community. And I think that’s interesting in light of the imagery that Harry himself has shared and seems to connect to.

Like, that time he wore a shirt with a famous line from The Little Mermaid.

Or in 2019, when he dressed as Ariel for a Saturday Night Live photoshoot.

Did Harry Styles REALLY say 'I am a mermaid'? Truth behind viral photo and his Ariel look for 'SNL' | MEAWW 

Or his his whole video for Music for a Sushi Restaurant: 

I’ve seen the Little Mermaid probably dozens of times. My child and I watched it a lot when she was growing up. And while I always knew it was an allegory for being different, I didn’t think about the deeper meaning as it relates to the LGBTQ community until more recently.

According to this article from the Smithsonian, 

The central story of The Little Mermaid is, of course, 16-year-old Ariel’s identity crisis. She feels constrained by her patriarchal mer-society and senses she doesn’t belong. She yearns for another world, apart from her own, where she can be free from the limits of her rigid culture and conservative family. Her body is under the water, but her heart and mind are on land with people. She leads a double life. She is, essentially, “in the closet” (as symbolized by her “cavern”—or closet—of human artifacts, where the character-building song “Part of Your World” takes place).

Source: 'The Little Mermaid' Was Way More Subversive Than You Realized | Arts & Culture| Smithsonian Magazine  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/little-mermaid-was-way-more-subversive-you-realized-180973464/

The Disney version was written by writer-producer-lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken. 

The character of Ursula, though, is the real LGBTQ icon. “Conceived by Ashman, Ursula is based on the famous cross-dressing performer Divine, who was associated with the openly gay filmmaker John Waters. As scholar Laura Sells explained in a 1995 anthology of essays, Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls” song is essentially a drag show instructing the naive mermaid on how to attract Prince Eric (who is conspicuously uninterested in Ariel and most content at sea with his all-male crew and manservant Grimsby). “In Ursula’s drag scene,” Sells wrote, “Ariel learns that gender is performance; Ursula doesn’t simply symbolize woman, she performs woman.” (same source as above).

A gay man in 1980s America, Ashman had personal experience with the culture wars over “family values” and gay rights. The “Reagan Revolution” marked the arrival of the long-brewing marriage of the Republican Party with conservative Christians and included a platform that was unfriendly to gay rights, to say the least. President Reagan ignored the AIDS epidemic that swept the nation (refusing to appropriate any federal funds for research or treatment), and Republicans in general claimed the “gay plague” was God’s punishment for homosexuality. Ashman saw the film as an opportunity to advance a social message through the medium of “family entertainment.” The last thing Americans would expect from Disney was a critique of patriarchy, but sure enough, Ashman’s The Little Mermaid is a gutsy film about gender and identity—a far cry from the staid Disney catalog. (same source).

Anyone who was around in 2015 knows about RBB/SBB. But if you didn’t, the Rainbow Bears (RBB/SBB, largely assumed to be created and curated by Harry and Louis) mentioned Divine on December 1, 2015. Just after they posted about her, Harry tweeted a lyric that alluded to Divine. See below. 

Credit to @SkepticalLarrie

There’s a whole other rabbit hole you can go down about John Waters (openly gay film director) and Divine and Pink Flamingos (Pink Flamingos: A Queer Beginner’s Guide to Family, Style and Not Giving a Sh*t | by Joe Corr | Medium. https://mandysweats.medium.com/pink-flamingos-a-queer-beginners-guide-to-family-style-and-not-giving-a-sh-t-fa9aa3e6c96f

Here’s another article that talks about The Little Mermaid being important to the LGBT community.

How The Little Mermaid Found A Place In The Hearts Of LGBTQ Fans | HuffPost UK Entertainment (huffingtonpost.co.uk) 

There was a lot of speculation about Harry being potentially cast as Prince Eric in a live action version of the Little Mermaid. I’m not sure how serious those rumors were, but I can imagine based on all of this research, that he might have found the Prince wasn’t the character he related to most.

Harry Styles fans upset over 'Little Mermaid' reports | CNN https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/14/entertainment/harry-styles-little-mermaid-trnd/index.html

To go even further down the rabbit hole, go all the way back to the original story. The Hans Christian Anderson version has a tragic ending, that doesn’t end with the mermaid happily ever with the prince. There is some speculation that the story was an allegory for an unrequited love that Anderson had toward a straight acquaintance.

The Little Mermaid Is Really About Unrequited Gay Love | by Tamara Mitrofanova | Lessons from History | Medium 

I also want to point out that Mermaids is a UK based charity organization, that “supports transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children and young people until their 20th birthday, as well as their families and professionals involved in their care.” About Mermaids - Mermaids (mermaidsuk.org.uk) https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/about-us/

All of this could be coincident to the true purpose behind what Harry’s tattoo means to him. We will likely never know its exact meaning to him. 

But as time passes, and we see Harry waving various LGBTQ flags and hinting at being in the community himself, I think it might bear remembering that he said he WAS a mermaid. And I think that’s beautiful, Harry.

[croszukis]

talk hockey to me, tagged by @39oa ty!

1. The thing that got you hooked on hockey

in a really convoluted way that is a story for a different time i started listening to a sort of fandom leaning hockey podcast. i googled jeff skinner's name and went "oh", then saw gifs of burky and my himbo of the moment was selected.

i had to move back home (a place that's as not-hockey market in the us as you can think of..) for family reasons and my younger sister and i were spending a lot of time at home. i basically bullied her into watching nhl weird videos with me on tv and then we started watching games together. we followed the avs for the 19-20 season heavily!

covid season + other reasons made me stop paying attention for a while, but now i'm back. i'm very bad at being loyal (sorry) to any specific team and have my players i collect instead & am currently paying attention to my failsons (pens, habs and sabres)

2. Your first ever fandom friend

i was mostly on twitter for my hockey fandom activities, so shout out to my crop of friends from very far away on my phone from there! but i guess it was my sister, actually~

3. The jersey you would most like to own

a stars blackout jersey (aka the reason my layout is robo at all lol) i saw that hideous neon green and said "that's for me". OH and if i had exorberant amounts of money, a lunar new years speciality jersey. otherwise, i am not a jersey/merch purchaser no.

4. YOUR player (you only get ONE so choose wisely)

at the moment? i'll say johnathan kovacevic lol

otherwise, sidcrosby isn't mine he's OURS

5. A pairing that deserves more fic

hmmm i'm either a rarepair (making these pairs up with one offhand mention and the power of imagination) or a certain powerhouse ship person, but i'll say the sabres and stars deserve more transformative fandom attention!

6. Your favourite on-ice moment

oh gosh i have a really bad memory when it comes to things like this (ask me to recall hockey off ice drama from three years ago tho? i got you) the first thing that came to mind was logan couture's girls just wanna have fun goal song reveal though. i love it.

THEN

link someone else's art/fic/etc that you love & think everyone should check out

oh gosh, there's so many fics i've read again again that i'm sure are fandom favorites that i really admire & i'm just a shy newbie

AND

link something you made & are proud of & want people to see

I have a project in the editing stage I'm hopefully going to share soon which will be my humble foray into the sidgeno fandom, but I like this sid/nick suzuki one shot that started my thinking about them and I'm enjoying writing/figuring out their dynamic more!

[perkynurples]

2020 Creator Wrap: Favourite Works

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works.

This is so fun! Thank you @rinielle for tagging me!

1. A February Face

This fic really marked my renewed passion for writing those in general - I can’t believe I actually started it at the beginning of this year, before the pandemic. 2020 apparently existed before that? Wild. Either way, I’ve had a blast returning to one of my favorite fic universes I’ve ever created, and yes, it still counts as ongoing, even though its progress got interrupted by my foray into a whole another fandom, as evidenced by the rest of this list.

2. Ineffable Quotes #2

Holy shit, apparently 2020 DID exist before the pandemic. Good Omens made me want to start giffing again, and this was the result - I love me some cheesy quotes, and I’m super proud of the coloring on this set!

3. MDZS Fanfic Appreciation #1

Man, I’ve wanted to start this series for ages, and I finally got around to it. I used to do this for the Hobbit fandom, but it didn’t stick back then - the template was too nice not to use again though, and I’ve already amassed quite the list of fics I wanna give the edit treatment.

4. Lovers Left Broken

The beginning of the first lockdown all the way back in early March really aided my meteorite descent into the MDZS fandom, and this was the first result - I fell in love with Xichen’s character so very quickly, and I still think back fondly to being allowed to just sit down and crank out one chapter a day for his character study.

5. Welcome To Gusu

What can I even SAY. Among the list of things I once thought 2020 would bring, writing an AU about xianxia characters at a summer camp was about as likely as a global pandemic throttling the world. I was so adamant it wasn’t going to turn into a longfic, but wading through endless memories of my own time growing up summer after summer proved cathartic not only for me, but for my readers as well - even those who had never been to a summer camp before, which is still fuckin astonishing to me. Here we are, 100k and a belated Slow Burn tag later, after I’d been so adamant this was never going to be a longfic, three chapters from the end, and it’s beautiful.

I tag, if you like: @piyo-13, @sweetlittlevampire, @acute-bird <3

[knoepfchen]

Thank you Alex, my fellow “I have a URL that no longer really fits the fandom I’m in but I’ll be damned if I change it now” TOG AU conspirator, @meet-the-girl-who-can, for tagging me in this!

I enjoy “end-of-year reflection” a lot actually, but I’ve not really gotten round to it much in previous years, and so I’m making the best of my planlessness this year. (Also it’s Theodor Fontane’s birthday tomorrow, and I believe it’s what he would have wanted.)

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works (fics, art, edits, etc.) you’ve created this year and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world in  2020. If you don’t have five published works, that’s fine! Include ideas/drafts/whatever you like that you’ve worked on/thought about, and talk a little about them instead! Remember, this is all about self-love and positive enthusiasm, so fuck the rules if you need to. Have fun, and tag as many fellow creators as you like so they can share the love! <3

The Old Guard found me at a strange little time in my life. I lost my job earlier this year and decided to take it as a clean break, try to go back to university and take it from there. The Old Guard came out the day I got the acceptance letter from my uni, which was great – but also meant I would definitely be starting all over again, and find myself in a long-distance relationship after years of living with my partner. I guess what I’m trying to say is, when I randomly saw the film on Netflix and pressed play, I was in a bit of a mental and emotional limbo from all the uncertainty suddenly going on in my life, and I latched onto the ideas of immortal love and the only true difference we can make is through acts of kindness like a baby koala to its mother. I wrote my first TOG fic a day later, and what a ride it’s been since.

I’ve read fics by and spoken to so many amazing people in the past couple of months, but I think they’ve all already been tagged (because I’ve been reading these posts like the morning paper) and so I will cop out of tagging on this one. (If you haven’t been tagged and want to do this, feel free to use me as your tagger though – I mean it when I say I love reading these posts!)

5 - a slow landslide AND what i wouldn’t gif

I can’t pick between the two so I’m including them both. This is probably surprising to anyone who’s read both because they could not be more different if they tried, but that’s exactly the problem – I like them equally, but for entirely different reasons. (I also wrote them really shortly after one another, and so it’s quite hard to disentangle them in my mind.) But because while I think I personally just want to read the same fic with the same topic from the same authors over and over, the fics I write sure are all over the place in tone, theme, setting and relationship tackled, and nothing has made me happier than seeing people read and enjoy both :) 

4 - i am lost, in the robes of all this light

Writing Andromaquynh fic can be a bit demoralising if you also write Joe and Nicky – and I don’t mean this as a dig at all, it’s just that that part of the fandom is smaller and so there’s less people reading/commenting/leaving kudos – but I really like how soft this one got. My friend somewhat rightfully pointed out to me that it’s basically an atonement fic because I felt guilt for writing an absolute angstfest of a witchhunt retelling beforehand, but if you can’t guilt trip yourself into writing fix-it fics, who can you guilt trip?

3 - and you smiled, because you knew.

This is the first thing I wrote in this fandom, and it’s a silly idea (five times Joe proposed and one time he didn’t) executed with a degree of serious introspection I’m not sure the trope is made for. Looking back, the narrative voice is off, the tense I used for flashbacks questionable, and the imagery quite literally all over the place, but it also has some of the best lines I’ve ever written and it introduced me to @avaniesque, who has taught me so! much! about history and been a wonderful beta whenever I forayed into historical settings with the guard, so I can and will not complain about it. (She’d tell me to shorten that sentence, too.)

2 - we that are true lovers run into strange capers

Okay so. For my brain, writing this fic was a little like going to my favourite fast food restaurant every day for a month. It was a strangely addictive endeavour, occupying most of my waking thoughts and causing my Spotify Wrapped to look like a fever dream, but it was also the most fun I’ve had writing anything, ever. By all rights, it should have been a hot mess, (I guess it kind of is, but by the time I noticed it seamlessly transitioned from rom-com to corporate heist it was too late) but that’s the way of self-indulgent fic! I still read the comments on this fic when I have a bad day, because everything about it is my happy place.

1 - not sleepy enough to give it up

I was tempted to put this here just because it’s the last thing I’ve written, and the last thing I’ve written is always the momentary best thing I’ve written. But more than that, I think this is the first time I managed to actually write the fic I intended to write; a fic that, reading it, feels exactly the way I imagined it would in my head. I don’t usually reread my own work, but I’ve reread this one a couple of times for non-editing purposes, and I still love it.

[disasterbialert]

Hello! I’m still mostly in the void but I’m briefly popping to talk (gush, I’m totally gonna gush) about my fave shows I discovered/brought me joy in 2020! Lots of folks are doing this and I thought it was a really sweet trend so I thought I’d jump on too!

2020 was a lot (obviously) but it was particularly huge for me for a few reasons. I’m not gonna talk too much bc y’all are here for soft queers not Trauma™️, but basically several things happened at once that led to me being pretty devastated and very lost. Hurt, raw, and frightened, I didn’t think I had anywhere to go or anyone to talk to. And then, boom! Fandom and tumblr and twitter and ao3. And suddenly I found tenderness, learned I was allowed that tenderness and affection, that it was ok to seek it, to want it. It was ok to be gentle, to be soft, to be vulnerable. That others felt this way too. That I was safe. So, thank you, beautiful friends and strangers in this nebulous space. My gratitude is boundless and heartfelt.

Ok hah emotions what? ANYWAY. Without further ado and in no particular order, fave shows Let’s go!

1. The Untamed/陈情令/Chén Qíng Lìng/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/魔道祖师/Mó Dào Zǔ Shī

THIS SHOW. WOW. This show, the novel and every adaptation, and this fandom have been life-changing. In every way. I started watching cql end of may/beginning of june I think? I binged it in about two weeks. Then I re-watched it with my mum as she experienced it for the first time. THEN we both re-watched it. Soulmates. They’re married and they have a son. Disaster bisexual representation. Found families again and again and again. The cast, the music, the costumes, the sets—everything about this show is breathtaking. I am in awe of everything the creators managed to do. What an incredible experience this show was. And I am so grateful to the fandom, from deep-dive metas to fascinating cultural explorations to equal-parts soft, fluffy, spicy, horny, tender, hilarious fics and fan art. That this fandom has also become a space for me to explore my own queerness, my own identity and my sense of personhood, is truly an unexpected and wonderful gift. Seriously. This show and this fandom—what an absolute gift.

2. 2Gether/เพราะเราคู่กัน /Still 2Gether/เพราะเรา(ยัง)คู่กัน

My first foray into Asian dramas/queer dramas and WOW was it a really bloody good one. My eternal gratitude to Chai (@/proyearner) on twitter for one off-hand comment about a Thai drama on YouTube. Cue snowball. The softness? The hilarity? The hurt/comfort? The fake-dating? The subtle sweetness of BrightWin’s acting? The utter chaos of Man and Boss? EarnPear definitely being canon (no i don’t care that it’s not actually IT IS OK). This show and its sequel were a gosh-darn bloody Win for they gays. And also my entry into queer fandom—something I’ve never truly felt or even really been a part of, despite being out and involved in literally studying queer literature and media for many years. So, thank you Thai BL fandom, thank you Sarawatine, thank you Chai.

3. Where Your Eyes Linger/너의 시선이 머무는 곳에 (series AND film)

The Tenderness. Good grief. I waited until every episode was out and then watched them all. Then when the film was out, I re-watched both. I could wax poetic about this show, about the actors, about the characters, about the writing, about the music, about the editing, about the fight choreography holy shit, but honestly? The above gif encapsulates it pretty entirely: the power of gaze and where it lingers.

4. Guardian/镇魂/Zhèn Hún

Oh my whole heart went to this show and this gorgeous ensemble and the music fuck. Zhu Yilong is phenomenal holy shit. And his and Bai Yu’s chemistry is insane. I’m of the firm belief they paved the way for cql in terms of handling censorship bc WOW. This show was censored and yet everything—ten thousand years of Yearning and Devotion, Love and Tenderness—was so fucking palpable. I cared about everyone: every side character in every case, every villain. And the fact that every character in SID was given their own arc and the actors portrayed them so fucking incredibly. I barely breathed through the majority of Chu Shuzhi’s arc because holy shit Jiang Mingyang blew me away. And Gao Yuer as Zhu Hong? Fucking WOW. I went into this series thinking it was just gonna be a nice fantasy/sci-fi bromance with a sad ending I was going to have to put up with and came out the other side yelling about WeiLan being married with a cat son and I regret nothing.

5. Until We Meet Again/ด้ายแดงซีรีส์

This series cracked me wide open. I cried just about in every episode (obviously) but I specifically remember watching the episode where Pharm meets In’s sister/Dean’s grandma and the music soaring (THIS SONG FUCK https://open.spotify.com/track/7c7FfcuwwGmriy72YAQrud?si=q6Sk871BQPKJIYc4xCYHlg) and my whole heart just breaking and my then partner asked me what was wrong and I couldn’t even speak. I was so overwhelmed with feeling. This show broke my heart but then carefully, gently held me, and allowed time to sit with my cathartic grief. Beautiful, powerful, humbling. An extremely banal but nonetheless important for me plus was the fact that I adored each of the ships equally. So often I find I myself loving side ships more than main ships but this show was so outstanding and the actors did such an incredible job that I just loved them all. An absolute gift.

Honourable mentions: My Engineer; Gaya Sa Pelikula; Together With Me; Love By Chance; HIStory3: Trapped; HIStory2: Crossing the Line; TharnType; She-Ra and the Princesses of Power; Legend of Korra; The Dragon Prince; The Good Place; One Day At A Time; Russian Doll; and Glow.

Bless queer fandom! And my eternal gratitude to translators everywhere—y’all are phenomenal and such a gift!! This year I’d love for more GL dramas and more queer ladies/enbies as well! Not that I don’t love my soft boys!! But I’d k-word/d-word for a lesbian warrior drama or a queer ladies time travel/loop drama or queer enbies vibing on adventures! So here’s to you, 2021: may you not be nearly as shitty, and may you instead be filled with more queerness, more love, more happy endings, more tenderness ♥️

[thelittlestfische]

7 Comfort Films

So my phone got rid of my gif keyboard? Why? 

*Anyway*... Tagged by @wardenari. In no particular order I guess.

1. Scott Pilgrim vs The World

It is just such a well done film. I love the character dynamics and the interpretation of one of my favourite graphic novel series. The artistry of the film is just *chef’s kiss*. I go back to this one time and again. 

Also I am Scott in this scene... #garlic bread for lyfe

2. The Wizard of Oz

This is my favourite childhood film - like as a toddler this was my go to for movie time. And the story has followed me throughout growing up too (i.e. my first foray into Acting/musicals, the first professional production I helped with in college, I’ve done analyses on it as a musical and in cinematic development). 

3. Polar Express

Another nostalgic childhood memory - for years my dad would sit us down and read the Polar Express before we would set out cookies and get rushed to bed so Santa could come. So it wasn’t surprising that the I fell in love with the film when it came out. NGL though, the artistry and story line of that film are just phenomenal. I absolutely adore the characters they made, and the way they fleshed out and added to the story. And that Hot Chocolate song is quite catchy haha

4 & 5. I’m running out of films at this point... I’m not much of a movie buff xD There’s no question about the next two though. Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle

I LOVE Miyazaki films. You’ll find a constant thread in me with the media I consume is how much I adore the art style, and with these films that’s a given. I mean honestly... ‘nuff said. Also Spirited Away has a dragon and that makes it an automatic win in my book. 

6. CONTAGION

OMG I’m so serious about this one I can’t. Look, I am a science nerd, and watching people get science wrong is a visceral thing for me. *Winces while remembering screaming at the screen while watching Andromeda Strain* *Winces again while picturing Sigourney Weaver holding a pipette in Avatar*

https://twitter.com/i/status/708310348038807558

This is the most accurate representation of science and CDC functionality and capitalism over safety mentality (and and and) that I’ve ever seen in a film and I love it for that. I also like horror and thriller films so....

(I’ll spare you a gif since it’s a little too topical right now and I’m nice like that)

7. Um...I’m determined to complete this... But I’m having a hard time choosing a last film. I think I have to go Moulin Rouge

A. I love Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec the artist and have always been fascinated in his life. So of course, I was familiar with the titular theatre and thus became interested in the film.

B. I actually devoured the soundtrack before I ever had the opportunity to watch the film and was madly in love with it *Ewan McGregor’s voice :dreamy eyes:* and had come up with my own interpretations of the plot that were...not particularly correct, so actually watching the film was a whole new, delightful experience.

C. It is ArtisticTM (aka I already love it) and the cinematography is just such an ephemeral chaos that I adore

D. Ewan McGregor singing

E. That Roxanne choreography

Tagging @deathvalleyqueen, @cornfedcryptid, @blujayonthewing​, @serial-chillr​ and anyone else that wants to play

(Bonus: Hey look I drew this scene once!)

[paradigmparadoxical]

2020 TEAs: For Your Consideration

Because it's the thing, and I'll regret it if I don't.  I regretted it last year when I missed the chance. Really, I just want people to read my fic, and this is as good a way as any of getting it out there.

So.

At this time last year I was a raw tumblr newbie and had a grand total of one rumbelle fic published.  I am so excited to have eligible offerings for you this time around. Everything I've written for OuaT can be found on my Ao3, with the exception of some scattered teasers for Never Let Go, the smutty 100k thing that ate my life.

Best Cover Art

I went on a cover art spree in August.  From that collection, the cover for @kelyon 's fic Golden Cuffs was definitely the most popular, whether for its own merit, or because kelyon is amazing--who knows?  I know the artwork wouldn't be half as good without the invaluable feedback from kelyon and @wayamy .

I'm photosensitive and tend to dim down colors that others may not find as bright as I do. Case in point, @timelordthirteen 's cover for Revenge Radio.  The neon glow was an effect I'd never tried before.  How it looks to other people's eyes? Who knows.

I had a lot of fun with the perspective in @thestraggletag 's cover for her fic Human Nature.  Gold broke my heart and put it back together again.  I want to squish him and hug him.

The cover for @killingkueen 's fic Creature was my first foray into vector art using GIMP.  I'm in love with the elegant simplicity of the medium, and the tiny file size.

All of the covers were a lot of fun to make, and hey... if anyone is in touch with marchionessofblackadder ( @missblackwood-blog ), I'd really love to post their cover for Who Favor Fire to Ao3, but I'm sort of waiting to make sure it's okay first.

None of these pieces contain the pairing itself, which (imho) kind of misses the point.

I'm still getting the hang of the GIF thing.  A lot of my GIFs were too big for tumblr, and don't load correctly.  My favorite of them is Morraine's character study, which isn't rumbelle at all, but she's a cutie and her mother was rad as hell.

Best First Meeting

Belle first meets Rumplestiltskin in the dwarven mines in The Quill.  He's filthy, and halfway mad, and mesmerised by the one person who seems to care for his well-being.  That she also happens to be the first real human contact he's had in months doesn't hurt anything.

The Quill and A Life for a Life are both eligible for Best AU!OUAT.  There's others much better, but they fit, which is supposedly the point of writing the For Your Consideration thing.

A Life for a Life has plenty of hurt/comfort, which puts it under 'comfort' in the fluff category, as well as 'hurts so good' in angst.  Rumple throws the dagger to Belle in that snowy clearing, and later finds himself incapable of both holding it and keeping Baelfire safe.

I wouldn't call it dagger porn, because there is no porn, but there is daggerish-ness.

Spoiler:  Zelena dies.

As intrinsic as Belle is to Rumple's character, Endless Years Between is more of a papa!Rumple and swanfire fic than rumbelle.  Belle doesn't even appear in Cinnabons, because it's an AU of 2x14 that is mostly set in and en route to New York, and she only gets a brief far-in-the-future mention in Reprieve.

Also, I'm using tumblr on mobile, and I've heard the links can be wonky, so I hope this works.

[auteuer-blog]

⌜     demi     male     ,     he/him     |     creep     by     radiohead     ,     bijou     movie     theater     ,     the     pariah     ⌟     ⏤     hey     ,     isn’t     that     FORSYTHE     PENDLETON     JONES     III          ?          the     TWENTY     -     THREE     year     old     NORTH     SIDER     has     lived     in     town     for     their     WHOLE     LIFE     ,     and     has     always     denied     their     resemblance     to     ALEX     FITZALAN     .     they’ve     been     a     photojournalist     &     aspiring     author     for     a     while     now     ,     and     i     guess     it     makes     sense     --- -     they’ve     always     seemed     so     CANNY     &     ASTUTE     ,     though     i     have     heard     that     they     can     be     pretty     TACITURN     &     CAVILLOUS     .     did     you     hear     about     how     they  ��  STOLE     THE     IDEA     FOR     HIS     FIRST     MANUSCRIPT     FROM     AN     ONLINE     POST          ?          i     always     knew     something     was     up     with     them     .

disclaimer  before  i  get  right  into  the  shits:  i’m  going  very  canon  divergent  here .  i  hate  the  way  ras  wrote  jughead ,  and  i’m  going  to  fucking  fix  it .  a  lot  of  my  interpretation  is  going  to  be  based  off  headcanons .  i  just   ...   i  hate  cold  sprouts  and  riverdale’s  pathetic  attempt  at  jughead ,  and  i’m  fixing  that  shit  rn .

anyway   !   my  name’s  van ,  i’m  20 ,  i’m  a  full  slut  for  aesthetics .  i  use  she/they  pns ,  write  out  of  the  hellscape  that  is  aest  and  i’m  a  full - time  student  doing  a  double  degree  in  law  and  liberal  arts ,  majoring  in  criminology  and  minoring  in  polisci .  full  disclosure  abt  the  way  i  write:  i  tend  to  use  heavily  edited  gifs / icons  and  heavily  formatted  text   --- -   if  either  of  those  bother  you ,  please  let  me  know  and  i’ve  got  no  problem  changing  them .  i  use  those  because  they’re  my  personal  preferences ,  but  accessibility  and  ease  always  comes  first .  in  saying  that ,  i’m  done   --- -  so  let’s  crack  on  to  this  little  shit   !

born  on  may  the  fourth  of  1996 ,  jughead  jones  is  the  firstborn  son  of  fp  and  gladys  jones ,  notorious  southside  serpents .  they’re  not  wealthy   --- -   this  is  made  evident  when  jughead  is  born ,  not  in  a  hospital ,  but  in  the  back  of  a  beat - up  car  that  neither  of  his  parents  technically  own .  they  weren’t  planning  on  having  kids ,  but  fate  is  a  funny  motherfucker ,  and  so  it  goes .  fp  claims  naming  rights ,  and  that’s  how  forsythe  pendleton  jones  iii  is  brought  into  the  world ,  kicking  and  screaming  and  making  too  much  of  a  fuss .  some  things  never  change .

he  doesn’t  stay  an  only  child  for  long .  forsythia  parthenia  jones  (  again ,  naming  habits  are  likely  crack - induced  and  entirely  unfortunate  in  nature  )  is  born  in  august  of  2000 .  she’s  got  health  issues  from  the  beginning  but  the  minute  a  near - 5  year  old  jughead  jones  lays  eyes  on  his  younger  sister ,  he’s  besotted .  even  at  such  a  tender  age ,  he  feels  a  genuine  drive  to  protect  the  wailing  little  ball  that’s  pressed  flush  against  mother’s  flesh .

childhood  is  an  interesting  adventure ,  spent  shuttling  between  the  north  side ,  the  south  side ,  hospitals  --- -   rinse ,  repeat .  it’s  a  strange  existence ,  but  he  doesn’t  mind  it .  he  shows  a  proclivity  for  reading  early  on   ;   whether  it’s  nature  or  nurture  is  anyone’s  guess ,  but  sticking  your  nose  in  a  book  is  the  most  convenient  method  of  escapism  one  could  imagine .  he  takes  a  liking  to  truman  capote  after  picking  it  up  during  a  hospital  visit ,  finds  himself  lost  in  the  magic  of  breakfast  at  tiffany’s .  it’s  around  this  time  that  he  starts  wondering  if  he  could  write  books  like  this ,  if  he  could  do  something  to  this  effect .  

he  was  a  socially  awkward  kid  for  the  most  part   --- -   distant ,  not  always  as  present  as  you’d  like ,  perpetual  pre - pubescent  loner  with  a  head  permanently  affixed  in  the  clouds .  doesn’t  help  that  a  generally  scruffy ,  unkempt  appearance  doesn’t  quite  gel  with  the  neurotically  gift - wrapped ,  glossy ,  picture - perfect  image  of  a  classroom  that  was  presented  in  riverdale  primary  school   ;   he  scared  the  other  kids ,  unnerved  them  with  a  quick  mouth  and  a  dreamy  look  in  the  eye  alike .  he  didn’t  mind  not  having  many  friends ,  it  was  just  something  he  got  used  to   --- -   naturally ,  though ,  this  changes  when  archie  andrews  and  betty  cooper  enter  the  picture .  the  world  is  forever  changed   ;   the  world  turned  upside  down .

it’s  a  strange  front  they  present:  perky  girl - next - door  betty  cooper ,  golden  boy  archie  andrews ,  and   --- -   and  what   ?   what  glimmering  adjectives  does  he  preface  himself  with   ?   what  praise  befits  the  ugly  duckling  in  a  trio’s  worth  of  cherubs   ?   he  doesn’t  know ,  therefore  he  doesn’t  bother .  there’s  a  conflict  that  rages ,  a  lack  of  understanding  as  to  where  he  fits  into  the  picture  and  well  into  his  adolescence ,  he  genuinely  believed  that  betty  and  archie  only  entertain  his  presence  as  a  joke ,  something  to  laugh  about  later  on  in  the  piece .  they  reassure  him  it’s  not ,  but  suspicion  lingers  regardless .

that  fateful  fourth  of  july  changes  so  much  for  jughead .  his  plans  for  that  particular  summer  included  movie  marathons  with  jellybean ,  a  few  joints  smoked  in  the  bathroom ,  a  foray  into  writing  his  first  play   --- -   but  in  the  blink  of  an  eye ,  his  childhood  best  friends  are  dragging  him  into  a  murder  investigation  that  makes  his  stomach  turn  and  his  trust  in  a  town  that  once  seemed  so  wholesome  evaporate  almost  overnight .  sixteen  is  too  young  to  feel  the  reverberations  of  such  a  horror ,  and  they  leave  irreparable  scars  on  good  ol’  jug .  little  does  the  poor  shit  know ,  though ,  that  it’s  about  to  get  worse .

hal  cooper ,  disguised  as  ‘  the  black  hood  ’  ,  goes  on  a  killing  spree  and  wipes  out  some  of  riverdale’s  most  beloved .  his  attempt  on  fred  andrews  is  enough  to  make  jughead  want  to  pack  his  bags ,  heft  a  protesting  jb  into  the  back  of  an  ancient  car  he’s  saved  up  for ,  and  run  as  far  as  he  can .  the  events  of  2013  only  further  reiterated  that  jughead  actually  wanted  nothing  to  do  with  any  of  this  bullshit .  when  the  black  hood’s  identity  was  revealed ,  he  cut  off  a  blossoming  relationship  with  betty  right  there  and  then  and  hasn’t  even  DARED  to  entertain  the  idea  of  rekindling  it  since .  

at  the  same  time ,  the  serpents  and  ghoulies  are  dragging  his  family  into  a  turf  war  and  honestly ,  he’s  so  sick  of  this  shit .  he  entertained  the  possibility  of  a  serpent  alliance  once ,  flirted  with  the  idea  but  watching  the  war  unravel  has  only  pushed  him  further  away .  he  spends  more  time  on  the  north  side  than  he  does  at  home ,  and  there’s  a  good  reason  for  that .  he  loves  his  family  immensely ,  don’t  get  him  wrong ,  but  their  pseudo - gang  bullshit  just  isn’t  for  him .  subsequently ,  jughead’s  never  had  any  kind  of  serious  involvement  with  the  southside  serpents  besides  familial  ties .  he  wants  nothing  to  do  with  them .

so   --- -   to  summarise  all  that  mess ,  jughead’s  kind  of  realised  that  this  shit  is  FUCKED .  he’s  still  reeling  from  jason  blossom’s  murder ,  still  processing  how  hal  fucking  killed  all  those  people ,  and  he’s  trying  to  sever  himself  from  warring  gangs .  keep  in  mind ,  kid’s  fucking  eighteen  at  this  point .  he’s  a  dumb  bitch ,  let’s  not  make  any  mistake  about  that ,  but  he’s  a  dumb  bitch  who  hasn’t  dealt  with  the  trauma  he  experienced  as  a  teenager .

so  anyways   !!!   let’s  skip  to  present - day  jughead ,  because  this  is  my  favourite  bit .  currently ,  he  works  as  a  freelance  photojournalist  who  writes  on  the  side .  he’s  written  articles  for  nyt  and  a  few  papers  upstate ,  and  they’re  his  crowning  achievements .  he’s  written  a  few  little  novellas  here  and  there  which  are  in  the  editing  stage   --- -   he  doesn’t  think  that  any  of  them  are  that  good ,  and  isn’t  really  counting  on  getting  them  published .  instead ,  he’s  focusing  on  a  novel  right  now  (  and  no ,  he  didn’t  steal  the  idea  from  a  fucking  tumblr  post  so  stop  asking  ) .

he’s  ditched  the  beanie ,  ditched  that  at  about  eighteen  because  he  realised  how  fucking  weird  it  was  (  sans  that  ...  whole  speech  ) .  his  hair  and  scalp  have  breathed  since ,  and  they’re  loving  a  bit  of  oxygen .

he  still  eats  like  a  mf .  bitch  can  cram  so  much  food  in  there .  he  can  eat  even  more  when  he’s  stoned ,  which  is  usually  at  2  am  on  a  saturday  morning .

he’s  got  his  own  little  place  on  the  north  side  now ,  a  little  two - bedroom  apartment  that  he  shares  with  jellybean .  they  don’t  have  much ,  never  really  have  but  they’ve  got  each  other ,  a  selection  of  streaming  services  and  vintage  dvds ,  cheap  liquor  and  all  the  time  in  the  world .  that’s  all  they  need .

anyways  fuck  ras  and  his  edgelord  jughead ,  all  jughead  actually  wants  to  do  is  write  and  hang  out  with  his  sister  and  watch  bad  70s  schlock  horror  thank  u  for  ur  time

[attract-mode-collective]

Scorpion Vs. Elon Musk’s Mom: FIGHT

Yes, that is indeed Elon Musk’s mother up there. And no, I do not have a bigger sized version of the pic. Guess we could always ask captain-price-official if one does exist.

Or perhaps make your own? Here’s Elon’s mum by herself (and in higher res)...

And with that, it’s time to see what else I tweeted during the first half of March! So, sticking with fighting games: which Street Fighter character does lighting better? Ryu, via the animated movie (via settei)...

… Or Bison, via the live action flick (via toghomevideo)...

I absolutely love win quotes from rom hacks (via bison2winquote)...

I have a massive backlog of games, yet Tekken 7 just shot straight to the top of the list, thanks to the knowledge that you can accurately recreate Dynamite Headdy characters (via mysterious0bob)...

This Hatsune Miku X Space Channel 5 figure is v. nice (via nendoroidoftheday)...

A friendly reminder to everyone that A. I'm a massive fan of Seaman & B. my birthday is about a month away (via nutastic)...

This scene at the beach with a Figma of Link, from A Link Between Worlds, feels more like Link's Awakening than anything else (via vyntic)...

Toys and models are no longer just for reenacting memorable in-game moments, they can also reproduce famous IRL events that surrounded the games themselves (via 8bitcentral)...

So what's the going rate for ET for the Atari 2600 that was supposedly dug up in for that so-called documentary, Atari: Game Over? Which I recently re-watched and still can't believe people think is real. At any rate, am assuming the autograph from Howard Scott Warshaw gives it some actual value (via it8bit)...

And what's the going rate for Chinese Famiclone karaoke carts, primarily one with Jackie Chan on the label. Am also wondering if it's cuz his songs are included... you are aware of his successful career in music as well, right? (via ulan-bator)...

Been struggling to come up with a zinger for the past 10 minutes, but ain't nuthin gonna beat "Welcome to the Velvet Room y'all!" (via jatayu)...

To be filed under: it's funny cuz it's true (via doctorbutler)...

So the weather has been awful around these parts, lots of rain & snow, which gets in the way of imagining a giant tetromino in the sky (via uvula.jp)...

When playing Super Mario Galaxy 2, please keep in mind that somewhere out there, despite being out of view, is the ghost of Luigi floating through vast stretches of empty space, with zero destination or purpose (via suppermariobroth)...

Speaking of Luigi, and Supper Mario Broth; they’ve taken the adventures he talks about in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and illustrated them in the form of a comic that closely adheres to the style of the game...

Also a friendly reminder of that rift between Mario & Luigi for a few years (they'd eventually make up & resume doing games together, as everyone knows) after Mario discovered his brother being all friendly with the enemy in Super Mario World (via peazy86)...

Yet another obscure Mario factoid: the move he uses to defeat Bowser in Super Mario 64 originates from an old furikake commercial that predates the game by about a decade (via suppermariobroth)...

Yet another random gif of Mario from the 80s, this one from a video guide from Super Mario Bros; I miss the days in which his look was not yet standardized (via suppermariobroth)...

And here we have a completely unlicensed Dr. Mario, unless Nintendo gave him the OK to brush up on his doctoring skills by assuming an alias at a family clinic in Houston TX (via suppermariobroth)...

It's funny how, when it comes to obscure Mario games, everyone brings up Mario Is Missing or Hotel Mario, but what about Super Mario Bros. & Friends: When I Grow Up? (via kazucrash)...

Mario gets his own breakfast cereal.

Luigi? Booze. (via @carolynmichelle)

A question that I posed on MAR10Day (via retrogamerblog)...

It's not Super Mario Bros, but simply…. Bros (via therubberfruit)...

I've never wanted something "bootleg" to be official as much as as this Dark Souls fan art. And if the actual game somehow looked like this, that would be... gladly welcomed (via gamefreaksnz)

Oh God, Nier is amazing and all, but I would SO be down for a yelling & screaming match with Yoko Taro on this point (via @Avisch_)...

Behold my fave Twitter thread in recent memory: "You see, that was taken from Africa, but it belonged to the Keyblade Masters. Imma take it off your hands for ya."

"Nah, It was taken by British soldiers in Africa but it's actually from Gaia. A sword far heavier than any sword has rights to be, yet a true 1st Class will wield it with ease. Don't trip, I'm gonna take it off your hands for you."

"Nah, It was taken by British soldiers in Africa but it's actually from Hyrule. Originally crafted by the goddess Hylia herself. Only a true hero that is pure of heart and strong of body is capable of wielding the sacred blade. Don't trip, I'm gonna take it off your hands for you."

Naturally the star of Home Alone 1 & Home Alone 2 has both a NES Classic and Famicom Mini, like all Hollywood bigwigs (via @SimonParkin)...

While discussing Ready Player One with a colleague, was reminded of the dude who was so inspired by the book that he turned his apartment into an arcade (and then his fiancé broke up with him; via nydailynews.com)...

Recently there was some kind of event at Sega HQ, I think? Details are basically nonexistent due to the language barrier, but far as I can gather, 16 super fans were invited to come by & party (via @SEGA_OFFICIAL)...

... If you check out #セガ公式アカウントオフ会 you'll see numerous pics from the get-together, though the one thing that stands out is the assortment of Sega hardware (via @KK__Cy)...

... MIA, cuz no variants were on display, is my fave alt ver. of the Mega Drive: the Wondermega. But @yu100s took one of his own… with the ugly ass US Sonic 1 NOT FOR RESALE cart inserted, Jesus fucking Christ...

The Sega logo in katakana looks pretty hawt (via @Exciteless)...

... Yet the Sega logo in Arabic which is official, is even hawter (via boingboing.net)...

Please enjoy your daily recommended dosage of an erotic hospital-management sim (via @topherflorence)...

NCSX makes the fidget spinner comparison, though the fidget cube seems a bit more appropriate; behold the fidget game controller...

Toy Fair recently took place, and naturally I took tons of pictures. You can find all of them on my personal Instagram, though a few are worth re-posting here. Like the latest in NECA's line of classic movie characters, as they appeared in video game adaptations...

Though in the case of their take on the Alien vs. Predator arcade game, they even included Capcom's original characters...

Unpainted, pre-production figures from Reflection's upcoming Ghost 'N Goblins line, sporting the oh-so popular Kenner-eqsue retro look...

Pint-sized arcade cabs, available this fall for $400. They’ll come unassembled, though dead simple to put together; the construction of the assembled mini cab was surprisingly sturdy, plus the screen wasn't bad (contrary to the picture that my iPhone's camera paints). Though the controls were shit; no word on whether the parts can be swapped or not...

Was delighted to not not only see Cuphead merch at Toy Fair, but more than just one instance (though this was the only time I was allowed to take a picture)...

Came across a producer of infant goods that had a selection of Super Mario baby bibs...

I asked the rep if this was their first foray into video games and the answer was "Yes." And when asked who's been mostly buying them, was told "Video game collectors, who don't even have children… it's so bizarre!!!"

Sticking with bibs, here's a set that tied to Dragon Quest (via miki800.com)...

... I asked on Twitter what they said and @alexfkraus was kind enough to provide translations, here and here.

Was so inspired by @MinusWorld listing which characters he'd like to see in the next Super Smash Bros that I decided to cite a few of my own:

- Mona from WarioWare - Nester from Nintendo Power’s Howard & Nester comics - Link from that Japanese A Link To The Past commercial - A deck of Hanafuda cards

... BTW, had no idea Ollie also mentioned a Hanafuda; I only saw his initial four, initially! Anyhow, my second round of choices:

- Ashley from Another Code - The "who are you running from?" guy in the Game Boy Camera - Lucas from The Wizard - The 4WD from Stunt Race FX (since Fighters Megamix with the Daytona USA 2 car clearly ain't ever happening)

I alas forgot to include BoxBoy, much like how I got these Uniqlo shirts when they were on sale last year (via minusworld.co.uk)...

Here we have my fave reaction on Tumblr to the Nintendo Direct with the Smash 5 reveal, if only for the punchline (via mendelpalace)...

And here we have my fave reaction on Twitter (via @redford)...

This one is also great because wrestling (via @SteveYurko)...

Speaking of wrestling, remember that time Tazz, while commentating for Smackdown, was also playing a game of Final Fantasy X-2… or so he thought? (via defjamvendetta)

"hey quick question whoever's developing the wwe games now: what the fuck"

"It helps him eat small fish"

"better question: why isn't this an option in every game ever"

"FAIR POINT" (via snoozlebee)

Whereas most publishers in Japan, during the 80s & 90s, had festivals (or carnivals) centered around shmups, Asmik's was based on women's wrestling (via oldgamemags)...

It's not for a video game, though the illustration is by someone who has been involved in a few; it's by Satoshi Yoshioka, of Snatcher and Policenauts fame (via videogamesdensetsu)...

It's not for a video game that actually exists, but is instead a completely fictional instructional manual, one that makes you wish it was real (via tomeccles)...

Just when you think you've seen every ultra, wacky & obscure video game box art there is to see out there (via @CoolBoxArt)...

I have a serious soft sport for the usage of video game imagery among early 80s musicians (via siryl)...

... What the final product looks like BTW/FYI...

A. so there's a VR version of Fruit Ninja, did not know that, & B. if you like watching people play it (for whatever reason), yet wish you could actually see a person swinging a sword and not just some abstract swiping motions… here ya go (via prostheticknowledge)...

Playing games in VR is so 2017… Handling your collection of games in VR? Now THAT is very 2018 (via mendelpalace)...

Lots of friends are playing the new DBZ fighting game, though I'll give it a shot once it hits the arcades and is also in a cab like this (via @Fotosdecomics)...

I absolutely need to get my hands on this S.H. Figuarts Shinya Arino (via tinycartridge)...

Available right now, some Altered Beast, Bare Knuckles, and Rent-a-Hero resin kits (via miki800.com)...

Cursed? More like blessed amirite (via @Pretzel_Pup)...

I know Yoji Shinkawa is best buds with Hideo Kojima, but would he be open to doing another gig at Konami? Cuz him art directing a reboot of Twin Bee would kinda be the best (via @SESKOU)...

There's money on the table with this Metroid X Pepsi mash-up, am confident of this (via ryangilleece)...

Cuz even someone like Samus Aran needs a good stretch every once in a while (via jon-bliss)...

And this third piece of Metroid fan art in a row is very much related to Metroid 3, aka Super Metroid (even though it technically depicts the ending to Metroid 2; via mmillus)...

Awakening indeed (via brookietf)...

For those who have asked, yes, I have seen the hack that connects the Switch to an itty-bitty black & white TV...

Though I'm only really interested in tiny b&w CRT TVs if I can play Duck Hunt on them (via arcade-crusade)...

I not only dig teeny-tiny displays for light gun games, but also for driving games as well (perhaps some of you might remember the following from this)...

Back to tube displays; seeing Zelda on a CRT also reminded me of how Dark Souls look on a CRT, aka CRT Souls or 480i Souls (which again I'm hoping regular readers of the blog remember, especially since the original post has fallen victim to a Tumblr bug)...

"while playing king's field just now i died in the magic cave of fire and when i warped back there were beautiful graphical glitches everywhere" (via mendelpalace)...

Some landscapes, filled with beauty and mystery and terror, are accidental (see: the graphical glitches from before)… whereas others are completely deliberate, as in the case of Atlantia (via obscurevideogames)...

Once again, I REALLY need to figure out a way to play some PC88 games (via obscurevideogames)...

Here we have a semi-common Space Invaders sighting for the time, in an episode of Battle Fever J, one of the earliest Super Sentai shows (via himitsusentaiblog)...

And here we have a rare Game Gear sighting, in old OVA anime, Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko. Hell, it’s a rare Game Gear in anything sighting; the only other example that comes to mind is Rumble In The Bronx (via @TheOtaking)...

And an equally rare Sonic on the runway sighting (via kotaku.com)...

I normally watch a video in its entirety before making a recommendation. Yet when it came to this overview of Last Bronx's legacy in Japan (and lack thereof in the West), hearing the main theme to Beat Takeshi's Violent Cop near the 3 min mark was all I needed (have since watched the whole thing, and as expected, it's another awesome Kim Justice production)...

And finally, a friend notes: "subzero's right arm is real close to trump's spinal column

just sayin" (via @jbillinson)...

[nyxi-styx]

It’s hard joining a new fandom sometimes

I’m just going to take a minute to vent a little bit of my feelings and I honestly don’t care if anyone reads this.

At 25 years old (24 when I started getting dragged into it all), I thought I was “too old” to be a YouTube fan. It was, after all, rather after my time. Established in 2005, I didn’t really experience anything on YouTube until about 2007-2008. Back then it was meme-y BS like Shoop-da-Whoop, “Shoes”, Charlie the Unicorn, and Potter Puppet Pals. As I grew older, YouTube seemed like something better left to teens. Maybe use it to look up a music video or something instructional and then fall down a Slow-Mo Guys or choreography rabbit hole. Still not a fandom. The closest I came to such was binge-watching Rob Dyke’s WWYPTOTI series and Twisted Tens series.

At Indy PopCon 2016, I was there with friends to see a guest (and caught glimpses of a passing Kevin Smith as I was so that was badass). Two of my friends were already in the YouTube culture world and fans of Markiplier and Dan & Phil. While we were having a snack and playing a card game, they spotted Wade (THE LordMinion777) taking some photos with fans int eh same food court area. I went over and took the photo of them with him, having no idea who this dude was. Less than a month later, (I’d say about 2 weeks) one of those two friends finally introduced me to Markiplier. I don’t remember the reasoning, but she showed me I Am Bread first. It was funny. I liked it. I didn’t think I’d get as into it as she did. However, curiosity had the better of me and I went to my room that night and watched him play ALL of OctoDad: Dadliest Catch. I laughed so hard I cried and that sold it for me. I fell in love. Of course, I had known a little about him due to gratuitous gifs and photos all over this godforsaken hellsite and I always thought he seemed like a nice, genuine person. Overtime, I just kept watching. I got to know about Bob and Wade and Team Edge. I fell in love with Chica. I just really enjoyed myself. Of course, I knew a little bit about JackSepticEye too, but I though being a Markiplier fan was about as deep into YouTube fandom as I was going to get.

About February, I saw a recommended playlist of JSE videos on an unrelated site. At this point, the post with the playlist was about 4 months old. I decided to go ahead and watch it, just to try something new. Naturally, I fell in love. I loved Jack more than I love Mark soon enough, not through any fault of Mark or anything. He’s still a wonderful person. I just loved that Jack was jsut unabashedly, fully, enjoying himself and nerding out and THEN doing the “professional” thing and reviewing the game whereas Mark would try to review while playing and get distracted by his own emotions and reactions. Not that that is a bad thing. That doesn’t mean Jack is better than Mark. I love them both SO much, but I find it easier to connect with Jack that way because that’s how I am too. I think that’s how most of us are. Once again, I thought this was as deep into YouTube fandom as I was going to get. I caught up with most of their videos (both Mark and Jack). The ones that interested me anyway. And then I would go back and forth and catch up on their latest. So, naturally, I got to know Tyler and Ethan too.

Unfortunately- and I feel like dirt admitting this, like I feel so fucking guilty and that’s why I’m venting here- I paid a lot of attention to Tyler and Mark and not a whole lot to Ethan. I didn’t have anything against him at all. He was funny and adorable. I just... *shrug*. But eventually, his self-deprecating jokes about “my channel is dying” started echoing in my head. And I found myself going “Why?” I knew they would tease him about his opening (which I think is a little unfair since it happens to be joked about more than Mark’s or Jack though there’s are targeted too) and that was about it. So, I finally went and I hit that subscribe button and waited until I had a little bit of time to really check out the content.

I finally sat down and opened the Crank Gameplays channel and started saving playlists of content that I found interesting. I don’t remember where exactly I started but I was kind of like “Okay. Cool. Cool. I mean there’s a lot of similarities between YouTube gamers, so how much can you really do?” But then I saw the video of Ethan and his brother singing “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and I was like “Wow! He can sing! He’s got a really nice voice! It’s kind of that rugged jazzy, folks-y type voice. He kinda reminds me of like... Train or Matt Nathanson. Neato.” But then in ‘recommended’ came a video (I assume a clip from a livestream) of Ethan playing ukulele and covering “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. If there’s one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s Elvis songs.

I watched that video and fell. in. LOVE. Instant stan. I don’t know what it was but I just... couldn’t help falling in love. Haha.

Like I do, I instantly tried to find out a lot about him as if to play catch up. I was surprised to find out he’s a bit younger than me. But he’s got the same birthday as my dad (three days before mine and 3 days after my favourite actor) so of course I thought that was pretty freaking cool.

Maybe it’s because I always root for the underdog and the secondary characters... maybe it’s because blue is my favourite colour... maybe it’s because I am a sucker for hazel eyes... maybe it’s because I always fall for the biggest dork... I don’t know. I can’t pinpoint it, but Ethan is so wildly different from Mark and Jack. They’re all super nice, super genuine guys, but something about Ethan tugs at my heartstrings way more.

Whatever it is, I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to watch him grow and succeed in the next year. And I’m SO excited to have the chance to meet him at Indy PopCon 2018.

The thing is, though... I feel... like I don’t belong here. In Mark’s fandom, I really am just a number. Nobody notices. Nobody cares. In Jack’s fandom... well, the Overnight Watch was my first foray into community interaction and I was so surprised and overwhelmed by how welcome I was. Like it didn’t matter how long I had been a fan, what mattered was that I was a fan and I was happy to be interacting. And it’s nice to be a part of a fandom in which there’s little to no toxicity and drama and hatred amongst fans. It’s nice to be completely accepted.

In Ethan’s fandom... well, I’ve been here all of about a week... and I feel like I’m trying too hard. Like I shouldn’t be in this community because everyone else has been here longer. Everyone else understands more. Everyone else is better than me. I don’t matter.

This is why it’s nice to have @markidarkimoo as a friend. She stans with me no matter who or what.

The worst of it all in these three fandoms is that I can’t make fanart. I am shit at mood/aesthetic boards. I CAN make video edits, but my current laptop will not support my preferred software and I can’t afford a better laptop for a while. I am shit at photo edits.

I just... I can’t do anything worthwhile. I see all this other amazing work that all of the rest of you put out and I just... feel so insignificant.

Being part of a “big box” fandom like Supernatural or Marvel or Sherlock is easy for me because they’re all fictional characters and people eat up fanfic like they’re starving to death. Doesn’t matter if I can’t fan art. I can contribute to the fandom and show my love by making stories.

YouTube is different. It’s not based on fictional characters (Jack’s Egos and Darkiplier aside), it’s based all on real people. I can’t fanfic that unless it’s reader insert and that’s not something for the creators to see (*if they ever do, please kill me*) and enjoy.

I don’t know... I just feel pretty useless. These fandoms are smaller than the “big box” fandoms so I feel like I have to contribute something in order to properly show my love and appreciation and gratitude. But I can’t. I’m just useless. I’m just a blip.

[mpprblaketoman]

I Have No (P)interest in Creativity

Growing up, I was never really much of a creative type. I was more of the sun in the right-hand corner, square house with two windows and a door kind of guy. The only kind of people I drew were stick figures and, after I accidentally cut my teacher's hand with a pair of safety scissors, I decided to abandon all my creative endeavors and leave art to the real artists.

Of course, I’d make the occasional foray back into the world of creativity. However, I’d quickly be reminded that what I had managed to create could be called a lot of things, but art wasn’t one of them.

I’ve never seen a more perfect representation of my attempt at art!

So, when I first heard about Pinterest in 2016, my response was about as apathetic and disinterested as it possibly could be. When some of my more creative friends recommended it as a source of inspiration, it instantly became the first site on my newly created “Sites to Never Visit” list.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Pinterest is a social media network that was founded all the way back in 2011. From the very beginning, Pinterest was all about creating a unique and highly-tailored catalog of ideas that users could interact with and use to find one another. The focus on building personal relationships between creators was so important to the founders that one of them personally wrote to the first 5,000 users offering his personal phone number and a meeting.

Over time, the site began to undergo a shift from primarily being about social interaction to serving as more of a hub for e-commerce. Photos, GIFs, and short videos were still the main mode of communication between users but certain brands who used the platform made profiles and boards that started to look more like a digital Sears and Roebuck catalog than a set of fun and creative ideas for viewers to use as inspiration for their own projects.

Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s take a step back and talk for a minute about the more than 400 million people who make up Pinterest, of which I am now, unfortunately, one. In terms of demographics, the group of users who call Pinterest home are predominately older women. Recent research done by the Alabama Media Group found that 70 percent of Pinterest’s users were female, and 77 percent were over the age of 30. So, the stereotypes surrounding Pinterest, in this case, have a little bit of truth to them.

What’s even more surprising than the demographics is the nearly singular purpose that all users have in mind when browsing the site. According to research done by Shopify, a mind-boggling 93 percent of users were using Pinterest to plan out future purchases. Understanding this audience, Pinterest unveiled a new feature near the end of 2019 called “The Pinterest Shop” which allows users to shop from small businesses directly on the site. 

A social media company with a heart for people? Maybe I’ll come around to it.

Now you might be saying to yourself, Blake, I get that people might look at Pinterest every once in a while to find something they want to buy, but 93 percent of users, that seems a bit much. Well, when I first read that number, I thought the same exact thing. But when you think about the way people browse on the platform, it makes a lot of sense. Let me explain.

The people on Pinterest use the content on the site primarily as a source of inspiration for something they want to do, like finding a new clothing style or remodeling a kitchen or bathroom. Most of the time, they have no idea what exactly they’re looking for, but if you asked them, they’d tell you that they’d know once they found it. This leads them to browse all kinds of boards, which are collections of items pinned by a particular user or group of users, in search of the spark that sets their creative fires ablaze. When they find something that they like, they’ll often pin it to a board of their own dedicated to that project and continue their search. Eventually, they’ll use that board to choose a design and set about purchasing what they need to make that image in their head a reality.

Brands have, to varying extents, gotten the memo, with quite a few popular home, lifestyle, and cooking brands getting in on the action. However, what differentiates the great brands from the good brands, and the bad brands, is the quality and context of the photos they use in their posts. Take Food Network, which has managed to amass over three million followers and 10 million monthly viewers on the platform. While the recipes they post certainly have the pedigree and taste (I assume) to be noteworthy on their own, it’s the photos of the finished product that set them apart.  

I’m getting hungry just looking at that photo!

The food definitely takes center stage, of course, but there’s also a focus on making sure the background is aesthetically pleasing and matches the theme of the dish. For instance, the background for their photo of a chili recipe contains plaid and a hardwood table, which is eerily reminiscent of the environment which you’d readily associate with the food you’re looking at. It’s like pre-suasion, but with photographs instead of words.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, including my ignorance of the world of Pinterest and, hopefully, this post. Pinterest may have started out as a social media network, but the way its users interact with brands, and one another, have made the platform more of a hub for e-commerce than social interaction. For brands that specialize in food, clothing, interior design, or anything else that has an emphasis on appearance, Pinterest is one of the best places to be, because fortunately, the people that are generally on Pinterest are a lot more creative than me.

[mcmansionhell]

McMansion Hell Does Architectural Theory (Part 4): Empiricism & the Picturesque (Part 1)

Hello Friends! Today we continue our very fun foray into the 18th Century with some dudes who were like what if, like, we don’t have any innate ideas at birth? Dude, what if -- hear me out -- our ideas are but a product of our sensations and our later reflections on said sensations? 

(I promise there won’t be anymore gifs in this article)

These ideas about the philosophy of our minds are the core basis for what was known as empiricism, a philosophy originating with everybody’s favorite life liberty and property (honestly, mostly property) dudebro from Civics class, John Locke.

My mother must be so proud of me for making this. 

Locke’s 1700 essay An Essay Concerning Human Understanding laid out the foundations of his philosophy and set the context for which beauty is understood within said philosophy. 

Locke’s Empiricism

Locke’s ideas were founded on the concept that humans are not born with innate thoughts - that they were in fact a “blank slate�� (tabula rasa) at birth, upon which thoughts become inscribed via a process of sensation: the external information which we receive from our senses - hearing, sight, taste, etc. These sensations are followed by the operations of our minds in reaction to external stimuli including such acts as: “perception, thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing, willing...”  

Of course we don’t go through the world blinded by our senses. Locke finishes his idea with the concept of Reflection, which is exactly what it sounds like - the mind’s reflecting on its own thoughts and experiences. 

Another core idea of Locke’s was the idea of associationism - an observation that thoughts that are not alike at all somehow become inextricably linked in the minds of human beings. When linked, Locke argues, these ideas can seem impossible to separate. 

We’ve all surely experienced such a thing. For example, some of us can’t listen to My Bloody Valentine ever again without thinking about a bad relationship, or eat Papa Johns pizza without thinking about that weird guy in college who framed a picture of Papa John (carved from an old pizza box) in a fit of boozy glee. 

Of course this philosophy has huge implications for aesthetics.

The Picturesque

Until this time, aesthetics (and by corollary architectural theory) was pretty much entirely based on the Platonic idea of innate absolute beauty based on mathematical proportions, with a few notable exceptions (e.g. our friend, Perrault)

However, Locke’s ideas presented a problem to this idea: how can there be an absolute beauty innately known to all if we are born a blank slate without innate thoughts? 

Importantly, Locke’s ideas of sensation and reflection offered an explanation for a phenomenon Platonic aesthetics could not or did not explain satisfactorily: why human beings find untamed nature, which certainly does not follow a rigid proportional framework, so breathtaking and inspiring. 

This idea was first formally explored through the field of landscape architecture, which, even before Locke’s writings, was expressing exasperation with the Platonically inspired, highly manicured gardening style the British had adopted from the French tradition. 

The whole purpose and ideology of these French gardens was to make order out of nature, to tame it and subject it to a mathematical, proportional scrutiny. 

Orangerie at the Palace of Versailles Photo by Urban (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

At the end of the 17th century, several British diplomats and writers visited China, several of whom wrote in depth about the gardening style found there and how shockingly different it was from the traditions back home. 

The most notable of these gardening diaries was “Upon the Gardens of Epicurus; or, of Gardening in the Year 1685″ by William Temple, a diplomat to Charles I and an amateur gardener. In his essay, Temple marveled at Chinese gardens and their use of “contriving figures, where the beauty shall be great, and strike the eye, but without any order or disposition of parts that shall be commonly or easily observed...” 

It was upon these ideas of beauty being “great and strike the eye...without any order” that the English Landscape Garden was born, and through it, gardening became divorced from the rigorous proportional rules of architecture, and could exist instead as an idealized portrait of nature.

Garden at Rousham House (1737) by the great English landscape designer, William Kent. Photo by Grahamec (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

This idealized view, later rooted in the ideas of Locke’s ideas of sensation, was called the picturesque - wherein beauty (at least in nature) is judged by “the picture one sees” and the mental/emotional reaction to it.

Even our staunchly Palladio-obsessed friend, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury, pounced on this ideology. In his famous 1709 dialog “The Moralists”, Shaftesbury waxes poetic about how much better nature is than any dumb ugly people garden: 

“I shall no longer resist the passion growing in me for things of a natural kind, where neither art nor the conceit or caprice of man has spoiled their genuine order by breaking in upon that primitive state. Even the rude rocks, the mossy caverns, the irregular unwrought grottos and broken falls of waters, with all the horrid graces of the wilderness itself, as representing Nature more, will be the more engaging, and appear with a magnificence beyond the formal mockery of princely gardens.”

Shaftesbury, being a notorious tastemaker, set the stage for a discussion amongst writers and artists that would span most of the 18th century.

Philosophical Debates 

While the ideas of sensation and reflection were easy to grasp within a landscape design framework, they proved to be much more slippery from an aesthetic theory standpoint. 

It was the writer (and close acquaintance of Shaftesbury) Joseph Addison who, in a series of essays from a short-lived journal called The Spectator, would link Lockean empiricism to aesthetics. Addison would also go on to write a play, (Cato, a Tragedy) that would p much end up being the literary inspiration for the American Revolution. 

Back to his 1712 essays on art, Addison describes beauty as a sensation: “The very first Discovery of [beauty] strikes the Mind with an inward Joy, and spreads a Chearfulness and Delight through all its Faculties.”

Addison drifts into uncharted territory when he proposes that “There is not perhaps any real Beauty or Deformity more in one Piece of Matter than another”, citing the common phenomenon of hating something and then coming to like it as time goes on. However Addison cannot deny that there are some things “which the Mind, without any previous Consideration, pronounces at first sight Beautiful or Deformed.” 

This is the heart of the philosophical debate behind empiricist aesthetics: if we are not born with innate thoughts, why, then, do so many human beings find beauty in the same things, especially when experiencing these things for the first time? 

It is the answers to this question that we will explore in next Monday’s installment: Empiricism & The Picturesque Part 2. If you like Burke, Hume, and some really dank fights about how our brains work, you’re def in for a treat. 

To keep you occupied until then, be sure to be on the lookout for Thursday’s Maryland McMansion, which is guaranteed to be devastatingly dank. 

Have a great Memorial Day!

If you like this post, and want to see more like it, consider supporting me on Patreon! Not into small donations and sick bonus content? Check out the McMansion Hell Store - 100% goes to charity.

Copyright Disclaimer: All photos without captioned credit are from the Public Domain. Manipulated photos are considered derivative work and are Copyright © 2017 McMansion Hell. Please email kate@mcmansionhell.com before using these images on another site. (am v chill about this)

[nofomoartworld]

Art F City: This Week’s Must-See Art Events:

Michael Williams’ digital paintings open at Gladstone Thursday night.

There’s plenty of good stuff to do this week, starting with a Felix Gonzalez-Torres book launch reception at the Whitney Monday night. Carla Gannis has a book launch of her own Tuesday night at the Pratt library, including augmented-reality elements. The rest of the week is dominated by painting and digital art—exemplified by Michael William’s solo show of digitally-produced paintings at Gladstone and Jason Lahr’s digitally-informed paintings at the Painting Center, both of which open Thursday night. For digital purists, check out Low Res: Spatial Politics in the Cloud at NARS Foundation’s Sunset Park digs Friday night. For painting purists, catch Rebecca Leveille’s brushy portraits at Site:Brooklyn. Fans of both media will be relieved to note they’re but a few subway stops away. End the week with FIN’s ICE PIX album release party on Sunday in Bushwick, which features performances from rising stars such as FlucT and Raul de Nieves. Your Monday hangover will be so worth it.

M

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Mon

Whitney Museum of American Art

99 Gansevort Street New York, NY 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Website

Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Specific Objects Without Specific Form Book Launch

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how prescient FGT’s work feels to our current political discourse. Maybe that’s because it’s always been about change? Curator Elena Filipovic will be discussing her own groundbreaking work on the late artist’s posthumous exhibitions, which each adapted to new contexts and the work of other artists and curators. The book features loads of installation shots, and is likely beautiful.

Tue

Pratt Institute Library |

200 Willoughby Avenue Brooklyn, NY 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Website

Carla Gannis: Selfie Drawings Artist Book Project

Carla Gannis’s new publication represents a year’s worth of digital selfies. Each has been enhanced with an augmented reality experience, so come prepared with Blippar on your phone. Hovering over one or another illustration, the viewer will be treated to a multimedia surprise…my curiosity is piqued.

Swiss Institute

102 Franklin Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Christina Forrer: Grappling Hold

Zurich-born artist Christina Forrer’s politically-charged tapestries are chock full of references to 20th Century European textile art history, and the artists and craftspeople who responded to fascism. The chaotic, sometimes violent, acid-hued works also bring to mind punk illustrations. They’re weird and wonderful.

Wed

International Center for Photography

250 Bowery New York, NY 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Nationalism, Networks, Borders: Refugees in Visual Culture and Social Media

One of the most urgent and timely sections of the ICP’s epic exhibition Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change is The Flood: Refugees and Representation, which looks at how social media and the ease of sharing images affects the global conversation about the European refugee crises. Curator Joanna Lehan will discuss the tricky topic with Carne Ross (founder and executive director of the Independent Diplomat), and featured artist Tomas van Houtryve.

Thu

Gladstone Gallery

515 West 24th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Michael Williams

Michael Williams is one of the few artists who has managed to make digital paintings that one can appreciate like paintings. Somewhat ironically, they feel more like good David Hockney paintings than Hockney’s own forays into digital art. They have a lovely balance of impulsivity and a sense of design—a quality that’s hard to achieve with physical paint, but oddly elusive in digital processes as well. This is William’s first East Coast show with Gladstone, and here the prints will be bigger than ever. I’ve never seen these works in person, so it should be interesting to see how they translate to a larger, physical scale.

The Painting Center

547 West 27th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Jason Lahr: Electric Funeral

Jason Lahr’s technicolor paintings feel a bit like guilty pleasures. That might be because their content is sourced from some of pop culture’s most base vices—video games, action films, and just a bit of the internet’s endless churn of pulp critical theory. His graphic, shaped canvasses are inspired by the intersection of class and toxic masculinity. A timely topic indeed.

New Museum

235 Bowery New York, NY 7:00 p.m. Website

Raymond Pettibon in Conversation with Massimiliano Gioni

Why this is a “Must-See” needs little explanation.

The legend himself, Raymond Pettibon will join Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director of the New Museum, to discuss Pettibon’s epic retrospective “A Pen of All Work.”

The event is $10 for members, or $15 for the general public. I’d highly recommend booking your tickets now!

Fri

EFA Project Space

323 West 39th Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Sick Time, Sleepy Time, Crip Time: Against Capitalism’s Temporal Bullying

“Exhausted” has become on the most common responses to “how are you?”, especially since the election. There’s been a lot (but probably not enough) discussion about the effect of recent stress on productivity and mental health. But beyond the news cycle, that perpetual state of fatigue probably lies in the failures of our societal structures.

Curator Taraneh Fazeli posits that “rest” is an act of resistance to late capitalism. What’s one sick day when you’re sick of it all? The event description claims “we are all united by the fact that we will experience fluctuating states of debility throughout the course of our lives. Furthermore, so many of us are exhausted from living and working in a capitalist system while insufficient infrastructures for care have further deteriorated. ”

The artists here, including AFC fav Sondra Perry, comment on this shortcoming, or propose alternate models for recuperation. These include satellite programs in Texas, where the social net is even more frayed than in neoliberal states. This looks to be one of the week’s most promising shows for discourse-sparking.

Artists: Fia Backström, Jesse Cohen and Carolyn Lazard with Canaries, Danilo Correale, Jen Liu, Zavé Martohardjono, Sondra Perry, Carrie Schneider, Cassie Thornton, and Constantina Zavitsanos

NARS Foundation

201 46th Street Brooklyn, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Low Res: Spatial Politics in the Cloud

Curators Nicole Siegenthaler and Alvaro Luis Lima (winners of the 2016 NARS Emerging Curator Program Open Call) have turned their attention to the spatial politics of the web. Namely, what do artist-made online spaces look like in the age of corporate sanitization and intersectional identity politics?

The show includes work from  Dan Halter, Faith Holland, Devin Kenny, Paula Nacif, Tabita Rezaire and Nicolas Sasson. We’re expecting a little conceptual overlap with our own online exhibition Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies: The Animated GIF as Place. Here, though, Siegenthaler and Lima are focusing on works with a nostalgia for web 2.0 aesthetics.

Site:Brooklyn

165 7th Street Brooklyn, NY 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Website

Rebecca Leveille: Crush

Rebecca Leveille’s handling of paint is gorgeous. In this series, she applies those skills to the topic of a “crush”. According to the show’s description, that can manifest as both attraction and a feeling of being overwhelmed.

Sat

Equity Gallery

245 Broome Street New York, NY 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Website

Artist Workshop: Writing and Editing Artist Statements 101

I write this recommendation in the middle of a day spent scanning untold events listings: every artist (and curator, gallerist, etc…) should attend this writing and editing workshop. Mastering the ability to write about art in a clear and accessible manner is just as important as the ideas themselves. It’s impossible to get people to come to an exhibition without this skill.

The event is free, and led by Shama Rahman, Senior Marketing Coordinator at the Whitney. Professional advice doesn’t get much more “pro” than that.

RSVP: info@nyartistsequity.org

Gitler & _____

3629 Broadway New York, NY 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.Website

Susan Carr: Headspace

Susan Carr’s clunky impasto paintings undeniably charm viewers. They give an impression of speed that’s counterintuitive to their obviously built-up surfaces, and that tension satisfies. Here, it looks like this new body of work incorporates more 3-D sculptural forms inserted in the paint. One gets the impression these should definitely be seen IRL. They’re worth a trip far uptown.

Sun

929 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 8:00 p.m. Website

ICE PIX USA

One of our favorite things about all of our weirdo friends is the breadth of stuff they do. At this event, for example, we’re looking forward to listening to music by visual artists and watching performance art by musicians. We assume there will be more stretching of the disciplines over the evening.

This event is the release party for artist FIN’s new album ICE PIX, and undoubtedly the most fun thing happening Sunday night.

Artists: Diamond Stingily with Adele Thibodeaux, Negashi Armada, Eartheater (Alexandra Drewchin), Sable Elyse Smith, Rebecca Fin Simonetti, FlucT (Monica Mirabile and Sigrid Lauren), HARIBO (Raul de Nieves, Jessie Stead, Nathan Whipple)

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