#watched a New Amsterdam yesterday

[changingplumbob]

So you ever have a scene that you really want to write but simultaneously do not want to write? That was me today. So I spent most of the day avoiding it and didn't do it until about 4pm. What did I do in the interim? Well I decided to move some furniture in my bedroom.

In New Zealand there does seem to be a problem with houses getting leaks or mold. Ours is the second. I'm so grateful we have an affordable place to rent but it does come with a couple of drawbacks. Below the cut you'll see some pictures of a wall that I last cleaned with bleach and water a mere six months ago. That wall is behind my desk and my bed. It had mold despite me running a dehumidifier in my room every second day over winter. So I spent a big chunk of today attempting to clean it again. It's mostly gone but there are some dots of mold that just won't shift, I think they've stained the paint somehow.

TW for mold

Yeah this is why the inclusion of death by mold freaked me out and I'm unlikely to play with it

I repeat, I cleaned down this particular wall six months ago. Sure I could move my heavy furniture out to clean the wall every week but I'm little. I've no idea if any is behind my bookcases because they're too big to move but they are internal walls while that's an external wall so hopefully it's okay.

[negativeyield]

if i die before I bake

Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Swiss (Ghost Sweden Band), Phantom (Ghost Sweden Band), Dewdrop | Sodo, Rain (Ghost Sweden Band), Mountain (Ghost Sweden Band), Cumulus (Ghost Sweden Band), Cirrus (Ghost Sweden Band) Additional Tags: Recreational Drug Use, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, green out, Pack Cuddles, Crack Treated Seriously, well this was meant to be crack but it kind of veered away from that, Guilt, Marijuana, Panic Attacks, Vomiting, Swiss is fucking zooted Summary: Phantom bakes some homemade edibles for Swiss, but messes up a vital measurement.

read on AO3

“Hey Mountain,” Phantom said, appearing at his bedroom door. “You went on that weed run yesterday, right?”

The drummer was lying on his bed, idly scrolling through his phone. He rolled to his side to look at Phantom, nodding his head toward the dresser. “Top drawer. You having a smoke?”

“No, I’m gonna make some brownies,” Phantom grabbed the bag. “I accidentally took the last of Swiss’s edible he got in Amsterdam. Told ‘em I’d go to the dispensary with you... and then forgot... so I'm just gonna make some.”

Mountain chuckled, “Have you ever baked anything in your life?”

“Of course I have.”

Phantom had not. But how hard could it be?

“Okay, well if you want some help, let me know. I'll send you the link to the recipe we usually use.”

“’kay. Thanks Mount,” he said and made his way back to the kitchen.

Phantom had watched Swiss or Mountain make edibles on a few occasions, but he pulled up Mountain's recipe. He quickly realized it was a little more complicated than he thought. There was pre-baking, and making a butter, and making the brownies from scratch? Phantom looked at the box mix he found at the back of the pantry. It would have to do.

Soon, the kitchen was a wreck. Measuring cups and bowls were everywhere as Phantom filled their shared space with aroma of baked cannabis. It brought some of the other ghouls out of their room to investigate his baking endeavor.

“Fucking hell, Phantom, what are you doing in here?” Dew was the first to appear as Phantom took the roasted leaves out of the oven.

“My best,” Phantom wiped away some sweat from his brow, glancing at Dew. “This looks much easier when Swiss does it.”

Dew chuckled, hopping up to sit on the counter and watch.

“That’s because Swiss has seen every episode of Great British Baking Show and thinks that makes him star baker.”

Phantom threw some butter in a saucepan and started to combine the components of the brownie mix.

“I believe it. This shit is harder than I thought.”

Dew chuckled, jumping down from the counter and ruffling Phantom’s hair on his way out the back door. “Just follow the instructions, you’ll be fine.”

Phantom sighed, returning to his project.

Cumulus and Cirrus also came by, taking a few finger fulls of leftover batter after Phantom had his bake in the oven. Mountain came by briefly while he sat in front of the oven watching them rise.

“Looks good, Iron Chef,” he smiled, patting him on the back. “Did you make them with or without walnuts?”

“With.”

“Oh fuck, yeah. Be sure to save me one.”

Phantom smiled, feeling a bit better about his baking skills. When the brownies finally came out, they looked just like the ones the others have made. He cleaned up while they cooled, and delivered a generous piece to Swiss’s room for when he returned. Phantom thought about also enjoying one, but a text from Rain about a quick rehearsal tabled that plan. He cut himself a small sliver just to test out the taste, satisfied with the fudgey texture and gooey taste.

“Something is still missing,” Dew tapped his chin. They had spent the last hour and a half rehearsing some new bits for the rituals and testing out a few riffs. One in particular was giving them some trouble. “Maybe we should get Swiss down here. See if he has an idea or if adding a fourth balances it better.”

Rain put down his bass. “Yeah, I’ll go find him.” He left the practice room and headed toward the living quarters. In the meantime, Dew and Phantom continued to run through the bridge of the song.

Suddenly, rapid, running footsteps echoed up the hall. Both of the ghouls turned to find Rain looking pale and panicked.

“Something's wrong with Swiss,” he said, motioning for them to follow. They put their instruments down and ran to Swiss’s room. Phantom could hear the sound of retching from the hallway, which eerily stopped the moment they got into his room.

They found Swiss slumped beside the toilet, eyes unfocused as he barely registered Rain and Dew dropping to his side.

“Swiss,” Dew cupped his cheeks, trying to get the dazed ghoul to focus on him. “Swiss!” The only sound the ghoul made was some weak whimpering. The most he seemed to move was when he’d start to gag and lurch toward the toilet. Rain sat beside him, rubbing his back and looking at the others with concern.

“What do we do?”

“What is even wrong with him? He's sweating like he's back in the pits, but he doesn't feel feverish,” Dew said, hugging his arms across his body. “Food poisoning?”

“I don’t know, Dew, he’s pretty out of it.”

“Is he on something?”

Rain shrugged, “we just got back right before we started rehearsal. He didn’t have anything when he was with me.”

Suddenly, it dawned on Phantom. He looked back at the place he left Swiss’s brownie.

The plate was empty.

“Shit,” Phantom turned back to the others, suddenly starting to panic. “Shit, I made brownies earlier. Swiss had one.”

Dew’s eyes widened “How big?”

Phantom estimated with his fingers. “Not bigger than what Swiss has given me before.”

“Did he eat more than what you brought him or something?”

Rain stayed with Swiss while Dew and Phantom rushed to the kitchen where Mountain was coincidentally opening the pan of brownies.

“Mountain, wait!” Phantom yelled, startling the drummer into dropping the plastic knife on the ground.

“What?”

“Swiss is sick. Maybe because of the brownies,” Dew explained. Phantom grabbed the pan, sighing in relief to find only the piece he cut for Swiss missing.

“He only had what I gave him.”

“Well what was the dosage?”

“Whatever the instructions said, Dew, I don’t know!”

The room started heating up with Dewdrop as the epicenter. “Phantom, you saw Swiss— this is not the fucking time for I don’t know, I need some fucking number—”

“Guys,” Mountain yelled over them, the bag of weed, that now had a sizable dent in it, in hand. His face was especially serious. “Phantom, where is the extra butter?”

He stared at Mountain blankly. “What do you mean?”

“You followed the recipe I told you? Pre-baked the amount you usually see Swiss and me make, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, then where’s the leftovers? The recipe is for triple the amount of butter you should have used.”

Phantom suddenly felt like he was going to throw up. “I-I didn’t know that.”

“Shit,” Mountain cursed as Rain called down the hall for more help. Mountain went running, leaving Phantom feeling numb and a majorly heated Dew.

“I thought you were following the instructions,” Dew said, his eyes starting to flicker red, like embers in a fire trying to kindle.

“I was, but I was looking at the butter recipe Mountain told me to use and also reading the back of the brownie box and— and, I guess… I guess I got confused,” Phantom ran his fingers through his hair, tugging on the roots. Dew huffed, turning to go back to Swiss’s room. When Phantom started to follow, the fire ghoul whirled around, eyes fully glowing now.

“You’ve done enough, Phantom. We’ll take care of him.”

He left Phantom standing awkwardly in the hallway, his guilt feeling like a tight wire wrapped around his neck. He stood there until his anger kicked in. Phantom marched into the kitchen, grabbing the pan of brownies and slamming them into the trash can with such force the metal pan bent at a ninety degree angle.

He was angry at Dew. At the fucking instructions for being confusing. At Mountain for not telling him when he was leaving for the dispensary. Really, he was just furious at himself. How did he possibly think that much weed was supposed to go into one batch of brownies? What kind of idiot didn’t double check the recipe when making an edible?

Phantom banished himself to his room, throwing around a few things before collapsing on his bed in a fit of guilt-soaked tears.

Rain think he preferred it when Swiss was vomiting.

After the last time he hugged the toilet, just as Phantom and Dew went to check the kitchen, Swiss had a moment of improved coherence.

“Rain,” he mustered, spitting into the toilet. It was a relief just to hear him have some sort of orientation to what was happening around him. That relief was quickly thwarted by what followed, “I don’t… feel… good,” he said, his voice slurring and slowing. Rain had to lunge to catch Swiss’s dead weight as he suddenly collapsed.

“Fuck!” he yelled, pressing two fingers to his neck. Ghoul vessels did have heartbeats— usually slower than humans— but present. Even for a ghoul, though, Swiss’s was faint. “Dew! Phantom! I need you!”

To his surprise, Mountain was the first to arrive at his aid, helping Rain pull Swiss out of the bathroom and into the more spacious bedroom.

“He just passed out,” Rain said, obsessively checking the pulse points in Swiss’s neck and wrist.

“He’s greening out bad,” Mountain sighed, looking up at Rain with dismay. “Phantom fucked up the edible ratio. It won’t kill him, but we need to watch him until he comes down.”

Swiss’s eyes finally fluttered open again. Still unfocused, and even more out of it than before. Dew appeared at the door, chest heaving with anger. Phantom was nowhere to be found. Mountain took one look at Dew and shook his head.

“Out.”

That didn’t help Dew’s fury. “Excuse me?”

“You’re hot right now. You know he gets sensitive to emotions when he’s high, and right now the last thing we need is him panicking when he can barely comprehend why he’s panicking. You can come back when you cool off.”

Dew looked like he wanted to bite off Mountain’s head, but he did back out of the room.

“Mounty,” Swiss muttered, briefly focusing on the earth ghoul’s face. His hand limply waved, and Mountain grabbed it from the air and squeezed.

“Hang in there, bud. You’re gonna be okay.”

Swiss felt like he was dying.

Or locked in some shadow dimension. Either was possible.

Maybe this was the purgatory thing he’s heard so much about. A land between heaven and hell. It would explain why he felt like the world was melting between his fingers while also feeling like he was floating. He was burning hot and doused in sweat, but also wanted nothing more than to be wrapped in blankets.

A lot of contradictions. The only thing Swiss was sure about was that his stomach fucking hurt.

His head was in the toilet again. Throat burning. A hand rubbed his back and he tried to focus on that instead of the sour taste in his mouth.

Then darkness.

Maybe he was dying.

Sometimes he’d hear some voices. Muted, warped voices he could hardly identify.

One came through clearly. Swiss couldn’t quite identify what was being said, but he knew it was Mountain.

Mountain sounded upset. Swiss frowned working hard at trying to focus on the slow moving blobs around him so he could find Mountain.

A warm hand took his.

Fingers tinkered with his hair.

Touched his blazing skin.

He hoped he wasn’t sick.

They would also get sick if that was the case.

“You can sleep, Swiss miss.”

“We’ll keep you safe.”

Swiss didn’t want to sleep. He was exhausted to the point he couldn’t move, but sleeping seemed like something he wasn’t supposed to do. Like he’s fully succumb to the darkness.

Like he’d wake up in the pit.

His throat suddenly felt tight. Fingers tingled. He tried to suck in more air, but his lungs were sluggish. Slow as the rest of him. Swiss fought, feeling his body being turned. Being lifted and then put down again—

“I don’t wanna go!” he tried to scream, but only parts of it made it to his mouth.

Pressure on his cheeks. A hand on his chest. Swiss’s vision dotted for a few moments before realizing Rain was nose-to-nose with him, his ocean blue eyes pleading for something Swiss couldn’t hear over the sound of ringing in his ears. He looked at Rain’s lips come together and split in the shape of the word breathe.

I’m trying, he wanted to say, but he had no breath to do it.

Rain pressed on his chest. Tapped a pattern that Swiss took to mean as cues to breathe in and out. He tried— and struggled— to follow them at first, but soon fell into rhythm. He felt his body start to relax. His fingers regained feeling. Swiss felt the air fully inflate his lungs, hold, and exit with a slow whoosh.

Slowly, he faded into sleep.

Swiss woke up feeling like he had been dropped in boiling water. He was drenched, the feeling of his clothes on his skin making him nauseated all over again. Feeling a little more mobile, Swiss grabbed at his shirt, trying to ease it over his head.

“Woah, woah, woah, what’s wrong?” a voice asked. Dew's voice. 

“’m fucking hot,” Swiss said, back, trying and failing to make it over his head. Frustration started making him upset, and he took a break from his shirt and clumsily pulled at the drawstring of his sweatpants instead.

“Okay, let me help you,” Dew whispered, swatting Swiss’s hands away. Swiss stood still as Dew dropped his pants and helped pull his shirt off. The cool air on his burning skin was a relief, but Swiss still didn’t feel comfortable. He grabbed his underwear, but Dew caught his wrist.

“Those too?” he asked hesitantly.

Swiss nodded, trying to jerk out of Dew’s grasp, but being unsuccessful. Dew sighed and released him, and Swiss finally felt at ease.

He stood there until his body temperature felt normal again.

Then he realized he was fucking freezing. He slumped back on the bed, grabbing as many blankets at possible while Dew watched him, dumbfounded.

“Cold now, Swissy?”

“Freezing. Cuddle me, Dew?”

The fire ghoul groaned, and something landed on Swiss’s face.

“Okay, but you have to put your drawers back on.”

That seemed like a fair exchange. Swiss slipped on his underwear and opened his arms for Dew to come warm him up. The fire ghoul dropped into Swiss’s arms, muttering something about how he “better not puke on him”.

Swiss’s throat was dry when he woke up again. HIs room was dim. Less chaotic than before. Swiss tried to roll to his back, but found something blocking him.

Or someone.

“Swiss?” a soft voice asked, moving so he could plop onto his back. It was Mountain staring down at him with concerned hazel eyes.

“I’m falling off the bed,” Swiss muttered, weakly trying to shove at the massive drummer. Mountain’s concern shifted to mild amusement, and he gave Swiss some more space.

“Just making sure you don’t aspirate, Swissy.”

Satanas, his head was pounding. Swiss flopped down on Mountain’s chest, finding some comfort in the feeling of his heartbeat under his cheek.

“Is he awake?” Rain asked, walking in with Dew in tow.

“He is,” Swiss answered. “He is also so fucking thirsty.”

“Good,” Rain handed him some brightly colored drink. Swiss stared at is suspiciously until he explained. “Electrolytes.”

“Oh. Thought you were trying to poison me,” Swiss muttered, and slowly sipped at the cool beverage.

“That would be Phantom,” Dew muttered, quickly getting an elbow to the ribs from Rain. Swiss looked at them, confused.

“What about Phantom?” His bandmates looked at him and then one another. Swiss couldn’t tell if it was guilt or pity, but he didn’t like it either way. “Whatever it is, fucking tell me.”

“He’s usually pissy when he’s almost down,” Mountain said as though Swiss wasn’t sitting right fucking there.

“Think he’s good enough to tell him?” Rain asked.

“For fuck’s sake,” Swiss pinched the bridge of his nose. Rain placed a hand on his knee.

“Did you eat the brownie Phantom baked for you?”

Swiss slowly dropped his hand, the realization of his pre-nap snack hitting him the moment Rain said it.

“Yeah… it was good, but I’m guessing maybe a little too much?”

Dew scoffed. “At least triple the dose you usually do.”

That certainly explained why he felt like he was on a different plane of existence earlier.

“Damn. Uh, how bad was I?” They looked at each other again. That, and the fact they looked exhausted pretty much answered his question. He also realized Phantom wasn’t among them. “And where’s Phantom?”

Dew pressed his lips together. “I, uh, told him to stay out of the way.”

From the way Mountain and Rain exchanged a glance, Swiss had a feeling it was a little more than that. He sighed, pushing himself up to try and stand, but a rush to his head made him topple right back down.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Dew asked.

“To see Phantom. Make sure he’s not beating himself up over this.”

“You can barely stand still!”

Swiss looked at Dew. “Then go get him!”

Dew looked at Rain, who shook his head. The usually calm water ghoul looked at Dew sternly. “I’m not the one who yelled at him. Go fix it.”

With a groan, Dew departed. Swiss laid back in his bed, focusing on a singular point on the ceiling until the spinning stopped.

“Hey Rain?” he asked after awhile.

“Yeah?”

Swiss ran his hand over his bare chest and thighs. “When did I strip?”

He chuckled. “A few hours ago.”

“Why?”

“Dew said you wanted cuddles.”

Swiss sat with that for a moment before shrugging. “Yeah... that checks out. Can you grab me some clothes, please?”

Phantom wasn’t sure what to do. He snuck down near Swiss’s room a few times to try and gauge what was going on, but couldn’t quite get a complete read. Things seemed to calm down at least. Less sounds of vomiting. Rain, Mountain, and Dew had begun to take shifts of just one or two of them staying with Swiss at a time. Phantom wanted to assume the best, but he still felt his worst.

So he shut himself in his room. Lights off, so his main source of light was the glow of iridescent constellations on his ceiling.

Swiss had helped him put those up. And Phantom had basically poisoned him. What a good packmate he was.

Because he wanted to torture himself, Phantom looked back at the recipe for the butter. Sure enough, it clearly called for almost four times the amount of butter he used— if he had just fucking read it correctly, Swiss wouldn’t be spending the night worrying about choking on his own vomit.

Hot tears ran down Phantom’s face. Though he had formed some great connections with the others, he was still so new. Would they send him away after this? Would any of them trust him again? He ruminated on these increasingly destructive thoughts until there was a soft knock at his door.

“Phantom?” Dew said through the door. “You in there?”

“Yeah,” called, his voice raspy from crying. The door opened slowly, and in came Dew. He was much less angry than usual, but still seemed a little peeved. After taking in the dark room and Phantom curled up on his bed, his face softened.

“Hey…” Dew said, sitting on the edge of Phantom’s bed. To his surprise, the fire ghoul reached out and put a warm hand on Phantom’s calf. “Swiss is okay.”

“He is?”

“A little loopy still and post-high cranky, but yeah. He’s asking for you.”

Phantom bit his lip, curling more into himself. “He’s pissed, isn’t he?”

Dew’s eyebrows furrowed together. “Swiss? At you? Not at all.”

“You are.”

Dew sighed, pressing his fingers together in his lap. “I was. But, I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. I was mad and… and scared. Really scared.” Dew looked at him with with this sad expression. “Sorry for taking it out on you.”

Phantom finally sat up, pulling Dew into a hug before he could protest. The lead guitarist hugged him back, pinching his cheek as they pulled apart. “I hope you know you’re banned from baking, though.”

“Fair enough,” Phantom said, smiling for the first time in hours.

They went to Swiss’s room where Rain and Mountain were perched on his bed with them. When Phantom entered, they grew quiet, and started to move out of the way. Swiss opened up his arms.

“C’mere Phantom,” he said with a grin.

All the stress of the last several hours of soaking in self-doubt and guilt came tumbling down at once. Phantom practically tackled Swiss as he dove into his arms, reveling in the joyful laugh the multi-ghoul let out as he squeezed Phantom tightly.

“I’m so fucking sorry,” Phantom said into Swiss’s shirt.

“Don’t be, Twinkle Toes, that brownie was fucking fire. Perfect ratio of gooey, but not underbaked. And truly flattered you thought I could handle that much THC.”

“It did seem like a lot…”

“I fuckin’ bet,” Swiss chuckled. “It’s okay, though. I’m good. Sometimes I need a green out every so often. Keeps me humble.”

“Also freaks us the hell out,” Rain said. Swiss pressed his lips together, almost like he felt guilty about being basically incapacitated. He reached out toward the others, and Phantom felt the bed dipped as Rain joined the huddle. Mountain and Dew soon followed, encapsulating the two of them in their body heat and weight.

“Thanks for taking care of me, you guys.”

[gremlinshatephilosophers]

I was listening to Hozier and I liked how "Sunlight" and "Wasteland, Baby!" worked together. So I wrote a little story about Dan and Phil and the very slow and deceptively normal end of the world.

Wasteland, Baby (I'm in love with you)

Rating: T • Words: 3,570

I've put the intro below:

The world ends on a Thursday. 

It also ended on Wednesday, and all the Tuesdays and Mondays and Sundays before that. It ends every day, every hour, every minute as time passes and another city drowns or burns without fanfare. Because the end of the world isn’t announced by angels with trumpets, or flesh-rotting zombies. Nor is it prefaced by gunshots and riots, burning cars and signal flares. People still go to work every day, because everything is remarkably normal, aside from the pervasive threat of death. The Earth’s demise is a slow and quiet one, as much as any apocalypse can be.  

The first time the world ended might have been yesterday, or it might have been a hundred years ago, depending on who you ask. Did it begin when Edison and Tesla squabbled over electric currents, a reflection of Prometheus’ sin? Did it begin with Oppenheimer, and Truman, and nuclear warfare which decimated cities with a single word? Perhaps the end of the world started with the invention of the car, or the computer, or of generative artificial intelligence; humans developing unsustainable technologies to propel them to wealth and efficiency at the expense of their children’s future. One might look instead toward corporate greed, at private jets and oil drilling. After all, they knew that there was never enough water to cool the computers, never enough trees to filter out the polluted air. 

Damp toes and ash-filled lungs were fine, most of the time. There had always been rain, and pollution, and natural disasters that menaced far flung corners of the globe for a five minute segment on the nightly news. For those who had the privilege to never question the airplanes above their heads or whether they could drink the water from the tap, the world first ended sometime around ten or twenty years ago. Somehow, the rise of fascism and malicious disinformation hadn’t been the breaking point - what was the truth if not a hollow vessel for one’s own political aims, after all? 

But it was hard to ignore the heat of the fires, even through rose-colored glasses. In California, there has always been a “fire season.” But for cities like Los Angeles, fire season had become the scorched earth of inferno season - a season which lasted not three, but ten months of the year - and the brushfire dry spells had taken up residence in New York instead. In London summers, the rain had all but dried up, adopting a heavily seasonal pattern that it hadn’t prepared for. There was grumbling about installing air con, but who would trade away warm and sunny days for that endless drizzle again?

Of course, mother nature was not one to forget her karmic tradeoffs - with every California fire came a flood to end it and more. And the floods were not just a balm for the burn, but an overwhelming monsoon season that oversaturated the soil, spilling out for weeks until there were no visible roads within fifty miles of any coastline. 

The coastline had experienced a makeover too; the sea did its fair share and rose to meet those parched cities. Amsterdam and New Orleans were inevitable casualties predicted well before a drop of rain had ever fallen and inspired no international mourning as such. New York, Hong Kong, London - the slick pavement instilled fear there for a moment, until the millions in residence bought taller boots. 

The world was burning, drowning, quaking, starving - but you weren’t. You, who turned on the TV once the power company fixed the wires after another blackout and saw how beautiful Norwegian summers had become. You, who watched the BBC interview a poor woman whose house had washed away in Brighton, reminding her that if she’d simply worked harder when she knew this day was inevitable, she would’ve had the money to move someplace nicer and rebuild her house. You, who laced up your rain boots in the winter and sloshed down to the supermarket for a pallet of plastic water bottles before they ran out. It wasn’t your fault that things flooded and burned for those less fortunate, it wasn’t your fault that thousands died every summer in a heat wave - who could stop the sun itself

The world was ending, and nobody else had tried to stop it before it was too late.

[tulisydan]

Käärijä and Bojan meeting timeline (preparties) part. 3

Anyone still here? We have only started! 

You can find the part 1 here and part 2 here <3

Jatketaan!

April 8th The second day of the Madrid pre-party

Here is Käärijä’s Instagram stories from the morning after, he is very happy and lively (until someone spat on him, don’t do that). I think yesterday went well? 

The Blue(?) carpet

Kiss, Mary, Party: 

This one. I don’t even know which one I’m more embarrassed for. Käärijä is trying sneakily glance at Bojan and when he notices that Joker Out is moving he slowly turns his head to their direction and locks his eyes to Bojan’s. We don’t even have to talk about Bojan’s reaction. (He btw gives a hug to Käärijä’s friend/translator). Why are both of them so extra already, they JUST MET

(Also sidenote, at this point in interviews Käärijä has added a new favorite Eurovision 2023 song to his list and I think you can guess which one right yes yes of course it is Slovenia.)

I don’t know, I’m still not sure if Bojan liked Käärijä that much right after he met him… oh here Bojan doing impression of him the day after he met him. (GO WATCH: Carpe Diem Series / Ch6 – Madrid, it’s so cute)

And finally this picture, I think it was taken very late in the evening because Bojan is drinking. Look at those smiles!!

This is the end of Madrid preparty and part 3. Next one is Amsterdam (and London). 

[artemispt]

I might sound a bit dramatic but I worry about Lando. Yesterday he posted a MGK song about being lonely, depressed, sad etc. I think Martin saw that and suggested to join him in Amsterdam to cheer him up. It reminds me his new song "Carry You" which I think is about Lando. That's thoughtful and Lando deserves to enjoy himself but I fear he might try to forget his sadness with alcohol and maybe drugs...

I don't really think that's the case. Lando already said that he likes listening to sad songs and that doesn't necessary mean that he's really sad. Regarding him partying, it's just a 24 years old having fun. I honestly love watching him with his friends, living his life and having a good time. I don't believe he had the opportunity to do it when he was a teen (with all the work and tension)*, so good for him that he's enjoying himself now.

[uhhhhmanda]

Fireball (my trash project)

@ahedderick and @silvandar I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED!!!! *evil laughter*

Most, but not all, of my in situ photographs.

Since August I have been photographing and mapping the 50ml ("airplane" size) Fireball Whisky bottles I find on my errand runs. It started as a joke and it has become weirdly serious. I suspect I am tracking an alcoholic neighbor. The bottles are found chiefly in Rite Aid parking lots and on the sides of the roads that are the most direct route to our rather out of the way neighborhood. I find them on both sides of the road, so either the subject is throwing them out both windows or is drinking both on the way to and on the way back from wherever they go each day.

I am hoping that as I amass more data I will gain more insights into my subject. It is one person or more? Is it a man or a woman? (The first bottle was found in the ladies room at Haggen.)

Everywhere I go I watch the white line for new bottles and when I spot them I pull over as close as I safely can. I photograph the bottle in situ and then pick it up so that I don't count it twice. (At time of writing I have 61 bottles and yesterday I saw four more I am planning to snatch up today.)

About half my current collection is currently housed in this gallon jar.

So far I have formed one theory, and that is why the Fireball bottles outnumber all other types (Tito's, New Amsterdam, Jack Daniels) that I find 10 to 1: this is the new vanilla. In pioneer times (and probably earlier and later, but the late 1800s and early 1900s, when my area was being settled by whites, is when I have information about this practice) undercover alcoholics drank vanilla extract to get by. I don't know how much alcohol was in vanilla back then but these days a minimum of 35% is required. You got your fix and smelled great, too. Fireball works similarly. It's a low-strength whisky with strong cinnamon flavoring that leaves you smelling like you just snarfed down a box of Hot Tamales and not like you sucked down 3 or 4 tiny bottles of booze on your way home (or to the office).

This is the kind of art I did as a kid, just following a trail of inspiration and free material until it coalesced into something "finished." I am extremely curious to see where this one leads. An awkward confrontation with the litterer? Proper research into the phenomenon? (I have a friend doing grad school for anthropology.) Making a Fireball bottle as big as me in which to store my finds? (I boldly imagine this bottle sitting in the corner of a local gallery with one of those little white cards next to it summarizing my obsession.)

If you want to follow along I have been documenting the process in my Instagram stories! The map is here.

A selection of Instagram stories about the project.

[endlesstwanted]

Kinda Cool

Drabble for @queer-it-up-bingo — Names and @fandombingo, The Little Prince edition — I said nothing. You can read it under the cut and on Ao3 here.

I watched their name revelation binge-watching the series yesterday and it reminded me of my favourite character growing up, Kai from Laura Gallego’s Chronicles of the Tower trilogy, so I HAD to write this!

Fandom: New Amsterdam (TV 2018)

Rating: General Audiences

Pairing: Casey Acosta & Kai Brunstetter

Tags: Missing Scene, Books, Friendship, Canon Trans Character

Summary: How Brunstetter chose his name.

Wordcount: 100

They closed the book, throwing it on top of the pile of fantasy books that two library cards had let Casey and them borrow for a week. “You found something cool?”

Casey had left his last book a while ago. “What about Jordan?”

“Where’s that from?”

“Just came to mind,” he shrugged.

“I’m not gonna name me Jordan,” Brunstetter replied without thinking about it twice.

Rolling his eyes, Casey reached to pick up another book, which he opened and read the first chapter’s title. “Kai … That’s kinda cool.”

Brunstetter’s eyes lit up at the sound. “Hey, I like it!”

Note: Nothing against the name Jordan! That was actually my second choice when I was looking for my name :D

[jordanandegypt]

Zürich, Switzerland

Tuesday, Sept 10, 2024

Greetings All.  We are in Zurich trying to change our body clocks by 6 hours.  Easier said than done.  We flew yesterday from Detroit to Amsterdam and the idea is to sleep the night away as we transverse the Atlantic - but both Mark and I got maybe 2 - 2.5 hours of sleep during our 7 hour flight.  We left Detroit at 6:30 PM and arrived 7 hours later in Amsterdam at 8:30 AM their time. - but at 1:30 AM our time.  We had a short layover (1 hr and 25 minutes) but in Amsterdam this is JUST enough time to get to your next flight - so we got to the gate and boarded.  The flight from Amsterdam to Zürich is only an hour and while I may have slept on that flight it was not more than 20 minutes.

We got a pretty pricey cab from the airport to our hotel - but we could not face figuring out public transportation as tired as we were.  Sadly - our hotel room was not ready.  We opted for a leisurely lunch in which Mark had cold spicy melon soup and I have garam marsala butter chicken - both delicious - but really all we wanted was a bed to stretch out on.  (Don’t worry I will not tell you everything we eat!!) After lunch we got the news that our room still wasn’t ready and I did something I have NEVER done - feel asleep in a chair in the lobby of the hotel.  But by 3:30 we were in our hotel and we opted for naps - until 5:00.  Hopefully bedtime will come easily...

Enough about us…. Let’s get to our adventure...

The theme for this trip is “OLD STUFF.”  We will start with "real old" and work our way to "OMG WAY WAY OLD."  We, in the US, get so excited when we see a structure from the late 1600s  or early 1700s - but that is a joke in this part of the world - kinda a “baby building.”  

So let’s start with Zürich Switzerland - our current “home."

From what we have seen, Zürich is a beautiful city surrounded by the foothills of the Alps mountains located at the northern end of Lake Zürich and built on Limmat River (pronounced “Limit” that flows from Lake Zürich.  This city has a history going back centuries. 

The town was founded by the Romans a bit over 2,000 years ago. Recent excavations show evidence of settlement even before that -  over 6,400 years ago. 

We explored the old city from about 5:30 to 9:00 - or 17:30 to 21:00 - as any citizen of the world would say - with a a few exceptions - like us.

Surprises:  There are no “walk/don’t walk” signs - pedestrians just have the right of way - PERIOD!

There is graffiti everywhere - I was shocked!

EVERYONE smokes!  Or it seems that way.  DISGUSTING!

I went to buy our 24 hour pass for public transportation and was told to just keep in with us.  If asked we would have to show it - but there is no check in - check out system.  Trust, my friends.

Things we expected:  Public transportation options would be numerous and easy to use and very clean.

People would be helpful and kind

Things would be EXPENSIVE.

We took the tram to old town and at one point saw this:

While we were listening to  this:  

Kind of eye and ear candy.

I think I forgot to say what the Swiss flag looked like - so here you go…

We ate dinner at an outdoor cafe - late - (when in Rome, so they say) and it was outstanding.  Mark had cold roast beef with horseradish sauce and I had “Rösti” with smoked salmon, onions, capers and a dill sauce.  OMG!!!

Rösti is shredded potatoes fried in butter and made into a mound.  You can get lots of different kinds of “Rösti’ and I highly recommend it.  Split with someone  - it is huge.  (It will be breakfast for us tomorrow.)

Tomorrow - we will explore more than the transportation system.  I’m going to bed. It is 22:00 here and I'm hoping to wake up for the first - and maybe only - presidential debate - which would be 3:00 AM here. If I do - I'll watch it live. If I don't - I will be more rested when I watch it later Either way - we are in Zürich rooting for Kamala!!

CIAO!  (Yes - they say that here too)

[missmandragore]

just gave away my last friendship bracelet to a phannie i met on the coach, going back home with so many new ones (and with stickers !!! thanks to @lavender-phannie), i'm just so happy and grateful for the people i've met since yesterday <33 phannies are wonderful !!

(also i convinced an irl friend that has stopped watching them to go to amsterdam with me, just based on the fact that there's a puppet part -she's a fellow puppeteer-, i'm so happy !!! considering getting gold or silver now....)

[rainyfestivalsweets]

9/22/23

I actually made it to 70 min/ 3 miles yesterday.

And here are my meals from yesterday.

BRUNCH: Wrap & soup. Soup is amazing, I am still sick and It is comforting, warm and yummy.

Walked on treadmill after work while finishing Supernatural, which was hard. I get stuck on shows at certain areas and can't move past them. I love this show and I struggled to end it. It felt like I would be ending them, you know.

And I loved the ending. I cried. 😭 so many feels. The ending they deserve, indeed.

After that, fish tacos with mom, watching New Amsterdam.

And Gluccie pudding for dessert. Tried for a rocky road flavor. It was not sweet but that was ok.

A good day. Still a bit sick but I am trying to not let it settle in my lungs.

[mariacallous]

On April 14, Eva Vlaardingerbroek told Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show that the Dutch government was opening “insect factories” to force people to eat bugs as “a compliance test” to see how pliable they’d be to state control. “Our politicians know that when they control the food, they control the people,” she said. Vlaardingerbroek, a 26-year-old political commentator from Amsterdam, was an occasional guest on Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, railing against globalism and “elites” and alleging that European governments are using the threat of climate change (which she calls a “so-called” crisis) to “rule by fear.”

Vlaardingerbroek isn’t anything like a mainstream figure in the Netherlands, but the fictional version of her country she draws is useful for Carlson. Her Netherlands—“the pilot country for an organization like the World Economic Forum” and “the tester kid of the 2030 Agenda”—supports his narrative that a liberal takeover of the US would lead to climate lockdowns and compulsory bug-eating. But by elevating fringe characters and encouraging them to repeat or reference unfounded conspiracy theories, Carlson—who was suddenly dumped by Fox News yesterday—has helped bring often dangerous misinformation into the mainstream around the world.

Tucker Carlson isn’t just an American problem. He’s a dark spot tracking across the global internet. His evening slot was Fox’s most watched show, pulling in 3.5 million viewers a night. But clips of his show posted on social media have had a far greater reach, appearing across antivax groups and globalist conspiracy theory groups like QAnon. He has had a particular hold on international far-right movements, which have latched onto Carlson’s amplification of the white supremacist “great replacement” theory—the idea that white people are being deliberately and systematically replaced by non-white people. The narratives he’s pushed have been picked up and amplified by Russian disinformation campaigns across Europe and the US and used as propaganda tools by authoritarians.

“Fox News launders these extreme ideas and brings them into mainstream discussions,” says Bharath Ganesh, who studies online disinformation and hate speech at the university of Groningen in the Netherlands. Far-right groups talk about the great replacement theory in their own circles, he says. “Then Tucker Carlson picks it up, and then it gets pushed out.”

Carlson’s exit came days after Fox News agreed to pay $787 million to settle a defamation suit by Dominion Voting Machines, a polling technology company. Dominion had accused Fox of spreading the lie that its machines had been used to skew the 2020 presidential election results. It’s unclear whether the two events are linked. But Carlson did repeatedly give a platform to proponents of the “big lie” that the election was stolen from then-incumbent Donald Trump. And in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, in which thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol, Carlson defended the rioters, saying the footage showed “peaceful chaos,” after selectively editing down Capitol surveillance footage provided by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Seven people died as a result of the violence, and nearly 140 police officers were injured.

On his show, which had aired since 2017, Carlson spun a story of a US that is relentlessly under attack from the forces of liberalism and “wokeism,” one where immigration, affirmative action, and attempts to confront the country’s history of slavery are a direct attack on white America. 

In many ways, Carlson treated his program as a “mirror” for far-right communities, says Jared Holt, senior researcher on hate and extremism at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank. Holt believes that Carlson’s team was highly attuned to far-right subcultures online, and that the topics Carlson addressed in his show were heavily informed by them. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen conversations happening among reactionaries on Twitter, or among faceless trolls on 4chan, only to see it pop up on Tucker Carlson’s show a day or two after,” he says. In 2020, one of the writers on Carlson’s show was fired for posting racist, sexist, and homophobic content on the 4chan-like message board AutoAdmit.

The ethno-nationalism of Carlson’s content resonates internationally because the online far-right is global, with communities in Europe, Latin America, and Australia overlapping, sharing spaces and stories. Groups in one country will often cherry-pick news stories in another to reinforce broader points. Overplaying the social impact of the influx of Syrian refugees into Europe in 2016, for example, helped build the case for the great replacement theory and support anti-immigration groups in the US and Australia. Such conspiracies can echo back and forth between countries, gathering momentum as they do so. 

Pushing the idea that London—whose popular, left-wing, Muslim mayor is a target of hate on Fox—is in violent chaos and terminal decline helps demonstrate the supposed dangers of liberal rule. But the lie then enters a feedback loop, with UK far-right groups picking up Fox’s coverage and using it to validate their own prejudices.

“Anywhere you see this international far-right movement, you see what we call appropriation,” says Julian Droogan, associate professor of terrorism studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. This was most evident during the Covid pandemic, when far-right conspiracy theory groups used the real sense of crisis to drive their own narratives. “It became all about white genocide and a plan to kind of install a liberal world government that was going to undermine white people and so on,” Droogan says.

There is still a significant overlap between white supremacist communities and antivax groups online. Fox and Carlson have a prominent place in Covid disinformation circles too. Screenshots of Carlson appear alongside coronavirus misinformation circulated in the Spanish-language Telegram group Verdades Ofenden (Offensive Truths) with more than 15,000 subscribers. Posts from this channel are regularly circulated in other Spanish-language and Latin America-focused disinformation channels, including those run by a network called Médicos por la Verdad (Doctors for the Truth) . The group was removed from Facebook in 2021 for violating the platform’s Covid misinformation policies. But its several Telegram groups have a combined total of around 98,000 members.

Droogan worked on several studies on the online far-right for the Australian government, following a 2019 terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, by a white supremacist who had allegedly been radicalized online. He calls Carlson’s reinforcement of the great replacement theory “the most dangerous of his actions.” That theory has been cited as motivation by several white supremacist terrorists, including the perpetrator of the Christchurch shootings.

There is, Droogan says, an implicit violence in the theory, particularly when it’s filtered through a US perspective. American mainstream media, and Fox in particular, gives platforms to people who use conspiracist terminology—including references to “elites” and “globalists” and nods to the “great reset,” like those made by Vlaardingerbroek—in a way that rarely happens on broadcast television in Europe or Australia.

“Terms like ‘race war,’ concepts like accelerationism—to go out there and create societal crises or to exaggerate them to intensify them to create some kind of culminating, purifying violence against all these threats to white identity—these really come out of the American psyche and popular culture,” Droogan says. 

It’s impossible to draw a direct line between content on Tucker Carlson Tonight and political events inside or outside the US. But his place within the information ecosystem means he’s been, at the very least, a passive participant in some startling coincidences.

In June 2022, Carlson interviewed Jair Bolsonaro, then the right-wing president of Brazil, who spent the months running up to the country’s elections in October trying to sow doubt about the validity of the vote. 

“During the interview, [Carlson] was speaking the same language as the far-right in Brazil,” says Bruna Santos, a researcher and activist with the Coalizão Direitos na Rede in Brazil. Santos says Carlson’s focus on anti-communism, skepticism about the Covid pandemic, and concern around “anti-white racism” resonated deeply with Brazil’s far-right. “The external approval coming from the US,” says Santos, reinforces and validates the views of the far-right in the country.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro’s son, often featured clips from Carlson’s show on his popular YouTube channel, where he has over 1 million subscribers, with translations and subtitles in Portuguese. These clips, as well as others from Carlson’s show, would then circulate amongst the country’s far-right groups, appearing in Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups.

In the lead-up to the Brazilian elections, says Santos, short clips from Carlson’s show were being shared in these groups. “A lot of Carlson’s criticisms of [US President Joe] Biden, or what Biden represents, would be redirected into something that could help Bolsonaro,” says Santos. “And a lot of this comes from YouTube and social media networks, and that’s generally where the conversation starts.”

Then, on January 8, 2023, Bolsonaro supporters tried to storm the presidential palace in Brasilia, after the right-wing populist lost an election runoff to his leftwing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro isn’t the only authoritarian that Carlson has boosted. He’s been a vocal advocate for Viktor Orban, Hungary’s president, who has railed against LGBTQ rights and migration, and who routinely accuses the American financier and bête noire of the far right, George Soros, of interfering in the country’s politics.

“[Carlson] is a celebrated figure in authoritarian countries he championed on his show,” says Matt Gertz, senior researcher at Media Matters for America, a media watchdog group. “He received a glowing reception from Orban, and his Ukraine coverage was touted and promoted by Russian propagandists.”

Carlson has echoed Russian talking points on Ukraine and criticized the US government for supporting the government in Kyiv. Several researchers told WIRED that Fox, and in particular Carlson, have been useful tools for Russia, amplifying narratives about the dangers of liberalism and the impending collapse of Western civilization. When news of his firing broke, Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov offered Carlson a job.

Yesterday, Vlaardingerbroek posted a picture on Twitter of herself with an arm around Carlson. “Tucker is the best of the best in the industry. He tells the truth like no one else does, in a way no one else can. I stand with him 100%,” she wrote, before retweeting the right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich, who claimed that Carlson’s firing meant that “the evil ones will try to win and remove him from history, and commence another Armenian-style genocide against all of us.” 

[darkmaga-returns]

2/20 ASTROLABE LINKS:

Instagram (Wifejak Submission)

(73) Atheen - God Bless America! 🙏❤️🇺🇸 on X: "A brief recap by Coach Mike Sullivan, of yesterday's beautiful #Hockey win by team America over the Governor's Canucks. This is what AI was born to do. And yes, OF COURSE, its parody. Sort of. 😬🤡 https://t.co/jn9mhma8aP" / X

(51) One Bad Dude on X: "This little dudes birthday wish was to have Donald Trump attend his party, so they got a lookalike. This is awesome 😎 https://t.co/CriWYMwVBw" / X

(50) Flappr on X: "A Tradition Unlike Any Other . . . It's Friday! Cloth Off! https://t.co/YY6HdOY4ca" / X

(54) Benny Johnson on X: "🚨HISTORY: Senator Markwayne Mullin SPIKES the Football LIVE on the Stream to celebrate casting the 50th confirmation vote for Kash Patel. We Are BACK Boys! https://t.co/I4xkofBHQV" / X

(76) Dan Scavino on X: "Congratulations to the new Director of the FBI, @Kash_Patel! https://t.co/JsANV0s9cP" / X

(61) Amanda Milius on X: "Mr #kashpatel in his first role, far less important that his new one but check him out in Plot Against the President: https://t.co/qYYOOJilDo https://t.co/pJ1A5Tj8PJ" / X

(60) Amanda Milius on X: "Hi guys. Meet my friend Kash: As Lee Smith said “and there’s… KASH” @LeeSmithDC @Kash_Patel @DonaldJTrumpJr @DevinNunes @Cernovich @JackPosobiec Full movie: https://t.co/p9kM0l30OZ https://t.co/5jJKjBiPIj" / X

(60) Thomas Sowell Quotes on X: "Another preview of Kash Patel's ideas for the government. https://t.co/ZYoVyNuM9A" / X

(52) Thomas Sowell Quotes on X: "Now that Kash Patel has been confirmed as FBI Director, here's a preview on what we should expect to come. https://t.co/j6mYIZ190g" / X

(69) Green Lives Matter on X: "Remember when Peter Strzok deleted all of his X posts just a few days ago? Kash Patel told us that they broke the law when they tried to frame Trump for treason during the Russia Gate hoax. He knows where all the bodies are buried and this petrifies them. Strzok and Lisa Page https://t.co/KZrPIGqMrf" / X

(62) Tom Luongo (Head Sneetch) on X: "This is the preamble to him stepping down for personal reasons before the mid-terms" / X

(73) Rapid Response 47 on X: "MUST WATCH: White House Deputy Chief of Staff @StephenM gives the Fake News a Civics lesson 🔥 https://t.co/NOFHHw12rQ" / X

(79) ☦️ Kingpilled 👑 on X: "One of these days, in the middle of a press conference, our beloved gigajew is gonna spontaneously burst into white-hot flames and begin levitating above the ground as he fires frickin laser beams out of his eyes at all the fleeing wailing journos." / X

(53) Elon Musk on X: "That means they’re eligible for drone strikes" / X

(70) Collin Rugg on X: "JUST IN: The United States is now using MQ-9 Reaper drones to target Mexican drug cartels, according to CNN. By designating the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, the United States could take out the cartels and their drug labs. The drones over Mexico are not https://t.co/YLxYcniWW4" / X

(72) Pat Stedman | Dating & Relationship Coach for Men on X: "It's been a long road boys but we did it. The manosphere is running the United States of America." / X

(59) JD Vance on X: "This is moralistic garbage, which is unfortunately the rhetorical currency of the globalists because they have nothing else to say. For three years, President Trump and I have made two simple arguments: first, the war wouldn't have started if President Trump was in office;" / X

(67) ☦️ Kingpilled 👑 on X: "Tucker’s an assassin with these interview subjects and timing. His most recent is with Bob Amsterdam, a lawyer representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and describing just how tyrannical and corrupt the Ukrainian regime is, all the way up to torturing priests and stealing… https://t.co/CuzSuNAfXk" / X

(67) Vagrant of Rhodes 🗡️🕯️ on X: "Mike Pence is a warmonger, a loser, a schemer, a coward, and a traitor. Hear my words you mewling poltroon. You will never get your bloody war. You will never get to send innocent Americans to die in your manufactured hellhole halfway around the planet ever again. You will never" / X

(81) ☦️ Kingpilled 👑 on X: "Hahahahahaha these absolute buffoons" / X

(61) Rep. Mike Collins on X: "Stacey Abrams tried to steal $2B of our taxpayer dollars. This isn’t mismanagement—it’s fraud, and everyone involved should be put in prison. https://t.co/KzkSNMteD9" / X

(63) Elon Musk on X: "There ARE good people in the government who want to eliminate fraud & waste. Amazingly, Leland was fired by Social Security Administration upper management for helping @DOGE find taxpayer savings. Can you believe that?? Thanks to President Trump, Leland was brought back right" / X

(55) Nick Sortor on X: "🚨 LMAO! Elon Musk just paraded around the stage at CPAC with a chainsaw given to him by Javier Milei 🤣 "THIS IS THE CHAINSAW FOR BUREAUCRACY!" 🔥 https://t.co/NcL2f22xjO" / X

(61) Libs of TikTok on X: "BREAKING: Trump’s top prosecutor Ed Martin launches 'Operation Whirlwind' to investigate Democrats for potentially threatening public officials—including Elon Musk. Sen. Chuck Schumer & Rep. Robert Garcia already received inquiry letters over their remarks. https://t.co/rtEc7PACNp" / X

(93) ☦️ Kingpilled 👑 on X: "RFK is gonna “Arbeit macht frei” the depressed shitlibs and you’re blackpilling?" / X

(65) Shea Levy on X: "Can’t believe this was before the first election https://t.co/d7OrwshW8P" / X

(17) Nick Sortor on X: "🚨 COMMERCE SEC. LUTNICK: "President Trump's goal is to ELIMINATE the Internal Revenue Service and let outsiders pay." LFG! ABOLISH IRS! 🔥 "Imagine a Democrat Senator going against that? What planet are they on?" https://t.co/iLWzPuh0hH" / X

(102) MJTruthUltra on X: "It’s inevitable now… Income Tax is going away! Trumps National Economic Council Director on replacing the income tax with tariff revenue... is that a possibility?" —— Absolutely…. It was his plan all along. Abolishing the federal income tax will save families roughly between… https://t.co/SD1dolI9Tz" / X

(63) Mr Georgy P on X: "@realKingpilled We are absolutely getting a livestream of Fort Knox. 😂" / X

(103) Grok / X (on China’s two-tiered currency system and a hypothetical similar US model, including Sovereign Wealth Fund)

(100) Brock Riddick on X: "Fact https://t.co/abJxIrdbee" / X

(56) Carnivore Aurelius ©🥩 ☀️🦙 on X: "The woman’s body is incredible Breast milk is higher in cortisol in the AM to wake the baby up and higher in melatonin in the PM to put the baby to sleep Formula could never possibly replace this intelligence https://t.co/YE0SA91vvV" / X

[the-eccentric-eclectic]

For the norse pagans out there protesting, ask Loki to watch over you and your comrades. God of outcasts and, to me, social justice movements, he is very happy to keep you and those fighting with you safe.

I asked him yesterday to look over those at a protest I could not attend (police brutality in Amsterdam, waddup) and he was happy to do so.

For the protest I did attend today, there were certainly some scary moments, but I could feel Loki with us, and I did make it home unscathed, also in part to the great organisers who worked hard to keep the protest nonviolent in spite of the best efforts from police (acab, SERIOUSLY fuck the police), I drew this symbol for Loki on my arm. He seemed very happy with it, and on the way home there was a very pretty new moon and some beautiful trees to help me regulate my senses a bit (autism, it's great :)). This turned into a bit of a rant but I hope this helps someone!

Stay safe out there, Ghaza will be free!

[chrisryanspeaks]

Zara Larsson Releases New Album ‘Venus’ + Tour Dates

Today, multiplatinum chart-topping global pop powerhouse Zara Larsson releases her brand-new studio album VENUS. Get the 12-track album HERE via Sommer House/Epic Records. Along with the new album, today Zara Larsson has shared the electric official music video for new single “You Love Who You Love.” The video was notably co-directed by Zara herself alongside Viivi Huska. In the clip, Zara stars as a pawnshop owner where you can trade in your ex’s gold for cash, and lends her support to a friend getting over a breakup. Watch it below: Just yesterday, Zara Larsson gave the US debut TV performance of “You Love Who You Love” on Good Morning America. Watch it HERE. With her elevated sound, eclectic style and unifying vision, Zara Larsson is one of modern pop’s most essential stars. It’s an evolution she takes to the next level on VENUS. It mixes the mythic and the personal in its exploration on modern love, whether with a partner (“You Love Who You Love”), family (“On My Love”), your craft (“End Of Time”) or with yourself (“Can’t Tame Her”). On the title track, she channeling the celestial being itself in an ethereal rush of 80s soundscapes, technicolor pop, and powerhouse vocal runs that capture those first real feelings for someone in universal but affecting detail. It is that dual spirit of strength and vulnerability that Zara Larsson - quite literally - embodies on VENUS, with its striking artwork twisting the Botticelli tradition into a bold new era for the Swedish superstar. VENUS was conceived by Zara Larsson with a diverse, but more focused team of collaborators, which proved essential to the breadth of the record and the goal of representing all sides of herself. The results are pure, unexpected chemistry: the classic-songwriting tradition of Rick Nowels, Violet Skies or Casey Smith paired with the maximalist beats of Danja, or long-time London ally MNEK coupled up with Swedish duo MTHR. With work full of wit, bite and – as on moving closer “The Healing” - a newfound sense of stillness, the project is Zara’s most dynamic, eclectic, and fully-realized work to-date; or in her own words, “it’s a little bit all over the place, but that’s honestly just very me!” VENUS tracklisting: 1. Can’t Tame Her 2. More Than This Was 3. On My Love with David Guetta 4. Ammunition 5. None Of These Guys 6. You Love Who You Love 7. End Of Time 8. Nothing 9. Escape 10. Soundtrack 11. Venus 12. The Healing  The Venus Tour itinerary: 2/16/24 – Manchester, UK - Manchester Academy 2/17/24 – Glasgow, UK - O2 Academy 2/18/24 – Birmingham, UK - O2 Academy 2/21/24 – London, UK - Roundhouse 2/24/24 – Paris, FR - Le Trianon 2/25/24 – Brussels, BE - Ancienne Belgique 2/26/24 – Amsterdam, NL - AFAS Live 2/28/24 – Berlin, DE - Verti Music Hall 3/1/24 – Cologne, DE - Palladium 3/2/24 – Milan, IT - Fabrique 3/4/24 – Zurich, CH - Komplex 457 3/6/24 – Prague, CZ - Forum 3/7/24 – Warsaw, PL - Towar 3/8/24 – Vienna, AT - Gasometer 3/16/24 – Reykjavik, IS – Laugardalshollin 6/21/24 – Dublin, IE - Fairview Park Read the full article

[audiofuzz]

Zara Larsson Releases New Album ‘Venus’ + Tour Dates

Today, multiplatinum chart-topping global pop powerhouse Zara Larsson releases her brand-new studio album VENUS. Get the 12-track album HERE via Sommer House/Epic Records. Along with the new album, today Zara Larsson has shared the electric official music video for new single “You Love Who You Love.” The video was notably co-directed by Zara herself alongside Viivi Huska. In the clip, Zara stars as a pawnshop owner where you can trade in your ex’s gold for cash, and lends her support to a friend getting over a breakup. Watch it below: Just yesterday, Zara Larsson gave the US debut TV performance of “You Love Who You Love” on Good Morning America. Watch it HERE. With her elevated sound, eclectic style and unifying vision, Zara Larsson is one of modern pop’s most essential stars. It’s an evolution she takes to the next level on VENUS. It mixes the mythic and the personal in its exploration on modern love, whether with a partner (“You Love Who You Love”), family (“On My Love”), your craft (“End Of Time”) or with yourself (“Can’t Tame Her”). On the title track, she channeling the celestial being itself in an ethereal rush of 80s soundscapes, technicolor pop, and powerhouse vocal runs that capture those first real feelings for someone in universal but affecting detail. It is that dual spirit of strength and vulnerability that Zara Larsson - quite literally - embodies on VENUS, with its striking artwork twisting the Botticelli tradition into a bold new era for the Swedish superstar. VENUS was conceived by Zara Larsson with a diverse, but more focused team of collaborators, which proved essential to the breadth of the record and the goal of representing all sides of herself. The results are pure, unexpected chemistry: the classic-songwriting tradition of Rick Nowels, Violet Skies or Casey Smith paired with the maximalist beats of Danja, or long-time London ally MNEK coupled up with Swedish duo MTHR. With work full of wit, bite and – as on moving closer “The Healing” - a newfound sense of stillness, the project is Zara’s most dynamic, eclectic, and fully-realized work to-date; or in her own words, “it’s a little bit all over the place, but that’s honestly just very me!” VENUS tracklisting: 1. Can’t Tame Her 2. More Than This Was 3. On My Love with David Guetta 4. Ammunition 5. None Of These Guys 6. You Love Who You Love 7. End Of Time 8. Nothing 9. Escape 10. Soundtrack 11. Venus 12. The Healing  The Venus Tour itinerary: 2/16/24 – Manchester, UK - Manchester Academy 2/17/24 – Glasgow, UK - O2 Academy 2/18/24 – Birmingham, UK - O2 Academy 2/21/24 – London, UK - Roundhouse 2/24/24 – Paris, FR - Le Trianon 2/25/24 – Brussels, BE - Ancienne Belgique 2/26/24 – Amsterdam, NL - AFAS Live 2/28/24 – Berlin, DE - Verti Music Hall 3/1/24 – Cologne, DE - Palladium 3/2/24 – Milan, IT - Fabrique 3/4/24 – Zurich, CH - Komplex 457 3/6/24 – Prague, CZ - Forum 3/7/24 – Warsaw, PL - Towar 3/8/24 – Vienna, AT - Gasometer 3/16/24 – Reykjavik, IS – Laugardalshollin 6/21/24 – Dublin, IE - Fairview Park Read the full article

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

425 of 2023

This one seemed fun since I miss traveling

survey by –rainboweyes–

When you think of this country, what first comes to your mind? Argentina: Muneca Brava XD I liked this TV series as a kid. Brazil: Soap operas. Canada: Maple trees. Denmark: Bornholm. England: Tea. France: Croissants. Germany: Tokio Hotel XD Hungary: Paprika. Ireland: Sheep. Italy: Pizza. Jamaica: Bob Marley. Japan: Anime. Korea: K-pop. Libya: Good food. Morocco: Dubai XD Norway: Black metal. Poland: Bigos :D and pierogi simultaneously. Romania: Sugi pula XD Russia: Vodka. Spain: Serrano ham. Tunisia: Palm trees. Turkey: Soap operas, too. And pretty women. Uganda: Africa. United States of America: Burgers and New York. United Kingdom: The Queen. Australia: Koalas. New Zealand: The end of the world.

List 3 movies you like in each genre. (skipping this, I don't watch movies) Action: Comedy: Drama: Fantasy: Horror: Kids/Animated: Romance: Sci-Fi: Thriller: Western:

Answer just in numbers. Number of brothers you have: 0. Number of sisters you have: 1. Number of the house you live at: 37. Number of close friends you have: 10+. Number of pets you have: 2. Number of times you shower a week: 14. Number of concerts you’ve been to in your life: 3? I don't remember. Number of cars your household has: 1. Number of serious relationships you’ve been in: 2. Number of movies you’ve seen at the cinema this year: 0. Number of people who live in your house: 3. Number of plug sockets in the room you’re in now: 6 or so.

Some more randomer questions.

What food do you have cravings for the most?

I typically don't. Just yesterday I wanted McDonald's.

What TV shows do you hate to miss on TV?

When there's YouTube and Netflix, nothing is truly missing :D

What do you tend to lose the most?

My head lol.

The last time someone shouted at you - why were they shouting?

Because I lost my savings. My husband gave me a bollocking and he was right.

Would you rather have a cactus or a bonsai?

Bonsai. Looks prettier.

What scary story freaks you out the most?

None. I like stories.

Are you better with gadgets or cooking?

Gadgets, but I'm good with both.

How would you rate your own looks? Personality?

Looks 0/10, personality 5/10.

What accent is the most attractive?

West-Flemish, but I'm biased. Also, Amsterdam accent.

Do you get annoyed when people spell your name wrong?

Not anymore, everyone who doesn't speak Dutch spells my name wrong.