#whos the real g now deb?

[rainbowsag52]

This is the latest from a TON/MEDIUM collab. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽🐽

The thing you both wanted and feared most is now happening in real time. Deer ol deb here has been anything she wants for far too long. She has been a STALKER, a criminal, a COPYCAT who wants to get rid of anyone she stole from because she is such a BIG UGLY COWARD she's SCARED TO DEATH her precious Eddie will be mad at her. But she knows the real deal and still wants to play big because EVERYTHING she ever did is my fault. WE KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU, you PIECE OF SHIT. That's what you are and I will never unsee you for exactly what you are. Yet you still have the fantasy that you and I have a personal debt to settle, thus I ENCOURAGE you to stop by and say it ALL to my face. And if you think you can make me do anything at all, then say it to my face and see what it gets you. I know your type. YOU ARE A MISERABLE DRAIN ON OUR SOCIETY AND YOU ARE A HORRIFIC BURDEN requiring 24/7 monitoring. Why do we say you are controlled? Because people like you cause nothing but misery for those of us who just want to have a good day and your BLIND SELFISHNESS AND LACK OF CONSIDERATION most often cause a major disaster. So, stop complaining because you have no power and you can be REMOVED any time now. ⬛

MY MENOPAUSE BRAIN

Menopause Delivered Me a Surprise

I harnessed my crone status to get through challenges

Debra G. Harman, MEd.

Following

Published in

My Menopause Brain

7 min read

2 days ago

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It’s nearly impossible to talk about menopause without saying something about menstruation, but it’s not polite conversation, is it?So, rather than candid talks about the end of that era — the gold-standard entry into the menopause club — we make jokes about hot flashes.We stay up alone at night with insomnia. And we rage, justifiably so. Because menopause is really fucking hard.Menopause started, for me, with horrific insomnia. It ended much harder — with a diagnosis of uterine cancer.When I was nearing fifty, I started waking up each night at 1:00 in the morning. The alarm was set for 6:00 am, as I taught high school English. I needed sleep, but I didn’t get it. I tried everything, including going to bed earlier. Meditation. Melatonin. Turning off all screens and noise an hour before bedtime. At 1:00 am, my eyes blinked open. Count down from 100, I told myself. You got this.When I got all the way down, I tried again. From 200. Deep, slow breaths. 199…198…The worst thing about being dead-ass tired around a large classroom of sixteen-year-olds is they take full advantage if you’re not…

[improvidence318]

i said screw it so here it is

howdy howdy, this is the anon with the 20’s lingo sheet. i don’t have a tumblr (though i wish i do tbh) and realized that i don’t know how to work shit on tumblr, so i’m just sending in the sheet through a text post. i am highly aware of the amount of power i’m bestowing upon you and honestly couldn’t give a damn

A

ab-so-lute-ly: affirmative all wet: incorrect And how!: I strongly agree! ankle: to walk, i.e.. “Let’s ankle!” apple sauce: flattery, nonsense, i.e.. “Aw, applesauce!” Attaboy!: well done!; also, Attagirl!

B

baby: sweetheart. Also denotes something of high value or respect. baby grand: heavily built man baby vamp: an attractive or popular female, student. balled up: confused, messed up. baloney: Nonsense! Bank’s closed.: no kissing or making out ie. “Sorry, mac, bank’s closed.” bearcat: a hot-blooded or fiery girl beat it: scram, get lost. beat one’s gums: idle chatter bee’s knee’s: terrific; a fad expression. Dozens of “animal anatomy” variations existed: elephant’s eyebrows, gnat’s whistle, eel’s hips, etc. beef: a complaint or to complain. beeswax: business, i.e. “None of your beeswax.” Student. bell bottom: a sailor bent: drunk berries: (1) perfect (2) money big cheese: important person big six: a strong man; from auto advertising, for the new and powerful six cylinder engines. bimbo: a tough guy bird: general term for a man or woman, sometimes meaning “odd,” i.e. “What a funny old bird.” blotto (1930 at the latest): drunk, especially to an extreme bootleg: illeagal liquor breezer (1925): a convertable car bug-eyed Betty (1927): an unattractive girl, student. bull: (1) a policeman or law-enforcement official, including FBI. (2) nonesense (3) to chat idly, to exaggerate bump off: to kill bum’s rush, the: ejection by force from an establishment bunny (1925): a term of endearment applied to the lost, confused, etc. Often coupled with “poor little.” bus: any old or worn out car.

C

cake-eater: a lady’s man caper: a criminal act or robbery. cat’s meow: great, also “cat’s pajamas” and “cat’s whiskers” cash: a kiss Cash or check?: Do we kiss now or later? cast a kitten: to have a fit. Used in both humorous and serious situations. i.e. “Stop tickling me or I’ll cast a kitten!” Also, “have kittens.” cheaters: eye glasses check: Kiss me later. chewing gum: double-speak, or ambiguous talk. choice bit of calico: attractive female, student. chopper: a Thompson Sub-Machine Gun, due to the damage its heavy .45 caliber rounds did to the human body.  chunk of lead: an unnattractive female, student. clam: a dollar coffin varnish: bootleg liquor, often poisonous. copacetic: excellent crasher: a person who attends a party uninvited crush: infatuation cuddler: one who likes to make out

D

daddy: a young woman’s boyfriend or lover, especially if he’s rich. daddy-o: a term of address dame: a female. Did not gain widespread use until the 1930’s. dapper: a Flapper’s dad darb: a great person or thing. “That movie was darb.” dead soldier: an empty beer bottle. deb: a debutant. dewdropper: a young man who sleeps all day and doesn’t have a job. dogs: feet doll: an attractive woman. dolled up: dressed up don’t know from nothing: doesn’t have any information don’t take any wooden nickels: don’t do anything stupid. doublecross: to cheat, stab in the back. dough: money drugstore cowboy: A well-dressed man who loiters in public areas trying to pick up women. dry up: shut up, get lost ducky: very good dumb Dora: an absolute idiot, a dumbbell, especially a woman; flapper.

E

earful: enough egg: a person who lives the big life

F

face stretcher: an old woman trying to look young fella: fellow. As common in its day as “man,” “dude,” or “guy” is today. “That John sure is a swell fella.” fire extinguisher: a chaperone fish: (1) a college freshman (2) a first timer in prison flat tire: a bore flivver: a Model T; after 1928, also could mean any broken down car. floorflusher: an insatiable dancer flour lover: a girl with too much face powder fly boy: a glamorous term for an aviator For crying out loud!: same usage as today four-flusher: a person who feigns wealth while mooching off others.

G

gams (1930): legs gatecrasher: see “crasher” get-up (1930): an outfit. get a wiggle on: get a move on, get going get in a lather: get worked up, angry giggle water: booze gimp: cripple; one who walks with a limp.  Gangster Dion O’Bannion was called Gimpy due to his noticeable limp. gin mill: a seller of hard liquor; a cheap speakeasy glad rags: “going out on the town” clothes go chase yourself: get lost, scram. gold-digger (1925): a woman who pursues men for their money. goods, the: (1) the right material, or a person who has it (2) the facts, the truth, i.e. “Make sure the cops don’t get the goods on you.” goof: (1) a stupid or bumbling person, (2) a boyfriend, flapper. goofy: in love grummy: depressed grungy: envious

H

handcuff: engagement ring hard-boiled: tough, as in, a tough guy, ie: “he sure is hard-boiled!” hayburner: (1) a gas guzzling car (2) a horse one loses money on heavy sugar (1929): a lot of money heebie-jeebies (1926): “the shakes,” named after a hit song. heeler: a poor dancer high hat: a snob. hip to the jive: cool, trendy hit on all sixes: to perform 100 per cent; as “hitting on all six cylinders”; perhaps a more common variation in these days of four cylinder engines was “hit on all fours”.  See “big six”. hood (late 20s): hoodlum hooey:  nonsense. Very popular from 1925 to 1930, used somewhat thereafter. hop: a teen party or dance Hot dawg!: Great!; also: “Hot socks!"  Rarely spelled as shown outside of flapper circles until popularized by 1940s comic strips. hot sketch: a card or cut-up

I

"I have to go see a man about a dog.”: “I’ve got to leave now,” often meaning to go buy whiskey. icy mitt: rejection insured: engaged iron (1925): a motorcycle, among motorcycle enthusiasts iron one’s shoelaces: to go to the restroom ish kabibble (1925): a retort meaning “I should care."  Was the name of a musician in the Kay Kayser Orchestra of the 1930s.

J

jack: money Jake: great, ie. "Everything’s Jake.” Jalopy: a dumpy old car Jane: any female java: coffee jeepers creepers: a term of exclamation jitney: a car employed as a private bus. Fare was usually five-cents; also called a “nickel.” joe: coffee Joe Brooks: a perfectly dressed person; student. john: a toilet joint: establishment juice joint: a speakeasy

K

kale: money keen: appealing killjoy: a solemn person knock up: to make pregnant know one’s onions: to know one’s business or what one is talking about

L

lay off: cut the crap left holding the bag: (1) to be cheated out of one’s fair share (2) to be blamed for something let George do it: a work evading phrase level with me: be honest limey: a British soldier or citizen, from World War I line: a false story, as in “to feed one a line.” live wire: a lively person lollapalooza (1930): a humdinger lollygagger: (1) a young man who enjoys making out (2) an idle person

M

manacle: wedding ring mazuma: money milquetoast (1924): a very timid person; from the comic book character Casper mind your potatoes: mind your own business. mooch: to leave moonshine: homemade whiskey mop: a handkerchief munitions: face powder

N

neck: to kiss passionately necker: a girl who wraps her arms around her boyfriend’s neck. nifty: great, excellent noodle juice: tea Not so good!: I personally disapprove. “Now you’re on the trolley!”: Now you’ve got it, now you’re right.

O

off one’s nuts: crazy Oh yeah!: I doubt it! old boy: a male term of address, used in conversation with other males. Denoted acceptance in a social environment.  Also “old man” “old fruit.” “How’s everything old boy?” Oliver Twist: a skilled dancer on a toot: a drinking binge on the lam: fleeing from police on the level: legitimate, honest on the up and up: on the level orchid: an expensive item ossified: drunk owl: a person who’s out late

P

palooka: (1) a below-average or average boxer (2) a social outsider, from the comic strip character Joe Palooka, who came from humble ethnic roots panic: to produce a big reaction from one’s audience percolate: (1) to boil over (2) As of 1925, to run smoothly; “perk” pet: necking, only more; making out petting pantry: movie theater piffle: baloney piker: (1) a cheapskate (2) a coward pill: (1) a teacher (2) an unlikable person pinch: to arrest. Pinched: to be arrested. pinko: liberal pipe down: stop talking prom-trotter: a student who attends all school social functions pos-i-lute-ly: affirmative, also “pos-i-tive-ly” punch the bag: small talk putting on the ritz: after the Ritz Hotel in Paris (and its namesake Caesar Ritz); doing something in high style. Also “ritzy.”

Q

R

rag-a-muffin: a dirty or disheveled individual rain pitchforks: a downpour razz: to make fun of Real McCoy: a genuine item regular: normal, typical, average; “Regular fella.” Reuben: an unsophisticated country bumpkin. Also “rube” Rhatz!: How disappointing! rub: a student dance party rubes: money or dollars rummy: a drunken bum

S

sap: a fool, an idiot. Very common term in the 20s. says you: a reaction of disbelief scratch: money screaming meemies: the shakes screw: get lost, get out, etc. Occasionally, in pre 1930 talkies (such as The Broadway Melody) screw is used to tell a character to leave. One film features the line “Go on, go on – screw!"  screwy: crazy; "You’re screwy!” sheba: one’s girlfriend sheik: one’s boyfriend simolean: a dollar sinker: a doughnut sitting pretty: in a prime position skirt: an attractive female smarty: a cute flapper smudger: a close dancer sockdollager: an action having a great impact so’s your old man: a reply of irritation speakeasy: a bar selling illeagal liquor spill: to talk spoon: to neck, or at least talk of love static: (1) empty talk (2) conflicting opinion stilts: legs struggle: modern dance stuck on: in love, student. sugar daddy: older boyfriend who showers girlfriend with gifts swanky: (1) good (2) elegant swell: (1) good (2) a high class person

T

take someone for a ride: to take someone to a deserted location and murder them. tasty: appealing teenager: not a common term until 1930; before then, the term was “young adults.” tell it to Sweeney: tell it to someone who’ll believe it. tight: attractive Tin Pan Alley: the music industry in New York, located between 48th and 52nd Streets tomato: a “ripe” female torpedo: a hired thug or hitman

U

unreal: special upchuck: to vomit upstage: snobby

V

vamp: (1) a seducer of men, an aggressive flirt (2) to seduce voot: money

W

water-proof: a face that doesn’t require make-up wet blanket: see Killjoy wife: dorm roomate, student. What’s eating you?: What’s wrong? whoopee: wild fun Woof! Woof!: ridicule

X

Y

You slay me!: That’s funny!

Z

zozzled: drunk

  have fun.

[venussheglows]

TGWDLM/Black Friday as shit the shreklets have said

Emma: babies don't even pay taxes what's their purpose

Bill: i cried at a chili’s while mr brightside played

Ethan: i didnt know wafflehouses were real until last year

Ted: we're all fat moods rn and I think that's very sexy of us

Wilbur Cross: My jeck my jack my jussy and my jrack

Hidgens: i’m sitting on the counter to commemorate the 1.5 year anniversary of me falling off this very counter while listening to legally blonde and getting too into the bend and snap

Charlotte: i have done a lot of sitting on counters and crying today

Wiggly: YOU HAVE BEEN CONVERTED TO CATHOLICISM. NOW VORE JESUS

Lex: I'm going to drop out of school and become the village disappointment

Emma: i have one foot in wine aunt territory and the other in babey territory

Mr. Davidson: i was going to say something and it has gone out of my head and gone splat against the window of my never ending thoughts

Kris Kringle: welcome to my school, where in English class one half is discussing gender roles and the other is arguing if Scrooge is hotter than the onceler

Gary Goldstein: Perry the Platypus railed me in a walmart ✌️

Alice: my hands are so cold they would be so much warmer if a pretty girl with big hands maybe held them

Linda after Feast Or Famine: chile my hair is wet my forehead is all torn up and there’s mascara where mascara shouldn’t be

Emma: don’t call me a bitch😡 my preferred insults are harlot or whore😎👍

Ethan and Lex: thunk is the noise that it makes when we headbutt each other.  it is hollow

Gary Goldstein: i’m dummy thicc and the clap of my ass cheeks keeps making me forget where i put my glasses

Deb: i don’t want a gf because that means i have to share the large ikea bear plush and i am not ready for that commitment

Becky: I can handle g minor scales. You know what I can't handle? Bitches.

Jingle and Jangle: who wants to eat mozzarella out of an Italian sink with me

Hidgens, letting the gang into his house: lmao y’all are coming over to my loud no electricity house we’re gonna eat canned goods and wear studded collars

Man In A Hurry: I’m kin with george of the jungle

Becky and Tom during Do You Want To Play: Arsenic? We're feeding you something that all pedophilic priests love

Bill: my autobiography will be titled: knees giving out unexpectedly in the kitchen section of ikea

Sherman: beating you over the head with a fifteen chord Oscar Schmidt autoharp (ASMR)

Hidgens: the last time i threw it back was absolutely catastrophic

Hannah: sure you may be “cool” or “successful” but can you eat an entire bag of rainbow goldfish in twenty minutes?

Lex: sometimes i remember im older than billie eilish and i have to take a moment

Hidgens: if i’m ever on broadway i hope i do a show at the lyceum so i can meet the ghost of bob fosse

Bill: tired go sleep night night dream dreams of glitter and dancing

Tom: my body is a prisoner and my brain is also a prisoner and they’ve gotten into a scuffle and are now beating the shit out of each other

Ethan: this time yesterday i was tripping balls

Emma: i have two aesthetics and it’s old timey romanticism vs tokyo drift neon district post apocalyptic vaporwave city

Charlotte: (tearfully) HEWWO???? HEWOOOOO??????? 

Sherman: Nothing compares to taking a shit in a camper while listening to 1812 overture on repeat

Linda: ginger men are disgusting they smell like mustard

Alice: You best bet i was hatching hella eggs in pokemon go

Becky: i am a vegetarian but. i will cook biphobes and feed them to the gators in my backyard

General MacNamara: can’t spell kaleidoscope without kale

Ethan: i’m simultaneously baby and a 73 year old man living in a lighthouse with nothing but his monthly shipments of bourbon and his leather bound journal

Hannah: i pinned my two braids to my head and immediately i feel like a pious unmarried woman of russian nobility

Lex: i have two trucks having sex in one ear and moscow great comet in the other

[askmissthunder]

Why do you think that Red Rabbit’s friends didn’t freak out when they first saw you Miss Thunder?

Miss Thunder: Well...to be honest, they kind of did. Maybe it's better if I tell you the first time Cassie introduced us.

A while ago...

(Cassie walks through doors of Ocean City University's Cafeteria. Her friends in the dance squad, Amanda, Deb, Joanie, Karen, Lailani, Stacey and Tamika, are all sitting at one large circular table.)

Tamika: Hey, there she is!

Amanda: Where y'all been, Cass? It ain't like you to miss so many lunches with us.

Cassie: Sorry, sorry! It's just been... well, I've met someone.

Joanie: Oh ho! What's his name?

Deb: Or her name? Hee hee!

Cassie: No! Not like that! I mean, I've made a new friend. Her name's Penny.

Stacey: And what? She's doesn't want you to eat with us anymore?

Karen: *Gasp!* Is she really an alien and is trying to keep you away from us so she can take you to her home planet? Because if she is, can I go?

Cassie: ......No, Karen.

Lailani: Well? What's the deal then? Whatcha been up to?

Cassie: It's not that I want to keep you girls away, it's just... God, how do I put this? She, um, has a... condition.

Stacey: What do you mean? What kind of condition?

Cassie: It's...pretty unique.

Tamika: What, like she's in a wheelchair or something?

Cassie: ...You can say that.

Joanie: *Snort* Cassie! Come on! What kind of jackasses do you take us for?

Lailani: We'd never make fun of somebody who's disabled! (Points at Deb) This one, however...

Deb: Hey, wait a minute! I know I can be a bitch but I'm not THAT bad! Jesus!

Cassie: It's just that...she's really shy about her condition. She didn't want us to be seen with her. She thought she'd embarrass us be being seen with her.

(The girls give a sad groan)

Amanda: Ohh! Naw naw naw! Bring her on over!

Karen: Yes, we'd love to eat lunch with her!

Cassie: Okay, I'm gonna bring her over but girls, I'm serious! Do NOT say anything bad! I mean it!

Stacey: Cassie! Just go get her, for Pete's sake!

(Cassie gets up from her seat and walks briskly out the doors)

Deb: So...Whattya think she's got? She can't just be in a wheelchair. It's gotta be something crazy.

Stacey: Scoliosis, maybe? I had a great aunt who had it and she needed a wheelchair.

Tamika: What if she's paralyzed from the waist down?

Joanie: Or she lost her legs in an accident?

Lailani: Hmm...those aren't so bad that she wouldn't want to be seen with us though.

Karen: I got it! She's a mermaid! She can't walk on dry land so she needs a wheelchair to get around!

(The girls stare at her)

Amanda: Karen, remember what we talked about: Mermaids ain't real.

Karen: I know what I saw! She was playing a ukulele down at the boardwalk! She had green hair and she smelled like oysters!

(Cassie bursts through the double doors, holding one door open herself while keeping the other pried open with a nearby trash can)

Cassie: All right, Penny! Here they are!

(The girls' jaws drop as they see the biggest, fattest girl they've ever seen in their life roll in on a motorized wheelchair nearly the size of a golf cart towards their table. The sounds of gasps, snickering and outright laughter could be heard from all over the cafeteria.)

Cassie: Penelope Abbot, meet the Sensational Sirens, the best dance squad on the East Coast, if I say so myself!

Stacey: ....

Joanie: ....

Karen: ...Big...

Lailani: ....

Amanda: ....

Deb: .....Holy Fuck.

Tamika: ....Cassie, can I talk to you over here? In private?

Cassie: Sure! Just make yourself comfy, Penny! I'll be right back!

(The two girls walk a short distance away)

Tamika: Cass, you know we go way back right? Like, elementary school?

Cassie: Uh,yeah?

Tamika: So you know I'm being honest with you by asking what the hell's going on here?

Cassie: 'Mika, calm down. It's not that big of a deal.

Tamika: Uhh, have you seen this girl you brought here? She's a pretty big deal!

Cassie: Oh my god, I was afraid you'd all act this way. She's just a girl! I told you she had a condition!

Tamika: When you said a "condition", I thought she had leg braces or something, not that she was the size of a house!

Cassie: Tamika. Stop.

(Tamika sighs and pinches her nose)

Cassie: Look. I wouldn't be hanging out with her if I didn't like her. I promise she's the sweetest girl. She's really nice and funny when you get to know her. Just give her a chance, please? For me?

Tamika: *Sighs* Fine. I trust your opinion, Cass but you gotta prepare us better than that, okay?

(Cassie nods as they share a brief hug before heading back towards the table)

Cassie: All right ladies! As I was saying, this here's Penny and she's from ♪ Manchester, England, Englaaaand! Across the Atlantic Sea! ♪

Penny: *Waves sheepishly* 'Allo. It...it's London, actually.

Cassie: *Winks* Just a little musical reference, Penny!

Stacey: Really? You came all the way from England?

Penny: Mmm-hmm.

Joanie: Wow, that's pretty cool. How is it over there?

Penny: G...good. Rainy. But good. L...lots of museums I like to visit. J...jolly good stuff.

Deb: *Snickers* "Jolly good." Oh, this should be a hoot...

Amanda: *Side-eyeing Deb* A hoot to get to know you, Penny! Shoot, Ah just moved to Ocean City myself not too long ago!

Penny: Really? Where are you from?

Amanda: Why, just the great state of Kentucky, of course! Born and raised!

Lailani: My family's from the Philippines, Penny! We moved to the states when I was a little girl, though.

Penny: Blimey, that's -

Boy's voice: HEY DUMBO! THE CIRCUS IS CALLING!

(A milkshake comes flying through the air and strikes against Penny's shoulder, splattering all over her. Her mouth is open in shock as her eyes start to water. To Penny's surprise, though, all the girls immediately stand from their seats.)

Cassie: HEY! WHO THE FUCK JUST THREW THAT?!

(Two boys make a run for the doors as Amanda, Tamika, and Deb bolt after them)

Deb: GET BACK HERE, DAMMIT!

(As they give chase out the doors, the other girls surround Penny, trying to clean her up)

Lailani: Oh my god, Penny! I'm so sorry that happened!

(Penny can't even speak due to an overflow of emotions)

Stacey: Fucking assholes! I can't believe that!

Penny: ...I...I need to go. I'm sorry. I'm...

Joanie: No no no, you're alright, Penny.

Cassie: Don't apologize. That wasn't your fault some people are jerks.

Penny: No, no. I'm sorry I wasted all of your time. I won't bother you anymo-

Karen: Penny.

(Penny stops and meets her gaze)

Karen: (puts her hands on tops of Penny's giant hands) Take a deep breath with me. Breathe in through your nose.

(After a moment's hesitation, they both inhale)

Karen: Now breathe out through your mouth.

(They exhale slowly and repeat a few more times before Karen puts her hands on Penny's shoulders)

Karen: Penny, I just want you to know that although it doesn't seem like it now but you are appreciated and we're all glad that Cassie has brightened our universe by introducing you to us.

Penny: ...Okay.

Lailani: (Whispering to Stacey) Oh wow, Karen actually used that New Age crap for something good for once.

(The cafeteria doors slam open as Tamika, Amanda and Deb march in, all panting and flustered)

Stacy: You get them?

Tamika: No! Little bastards got away but you saw them! We all saw their faces! I'm gonna tell security about this horseshit! Real fucking mature!

Deb: *Sighs* Sorry, Penny. We would've dragged them all the way back here if we could. Make them apologize to your face.

Amanda: Hmph! That would've been the least of their concerns! Ah would've knocked their dumb asses out right then and there! Where Ah'm from, you don't treat a lady like that! Don't matter what she looks like! Ain't right!

(Cassie looks around and sees that everyone in the cafeteria is looking at them)

Cassie: You know what? Let's blow this pop stand. There's a nice cafe right down the street, Penny. How about you show us all those teas you were telling me about?

(Penny looks around her and sees Cassie and her friends smiling warmly at her)

Penny: ...I'd like that.

Miss Thunder: And that was that.

Red Rabbit: Aww! I forgot how shy you used to be, Penny!

MT: Heh, still am, really. But that was the first time I felt like anyone outside of my family really cared about my well-being since I moved to the States. Especially considering I just met the girls for the first time and they were that concerned for me.

RR: Hey, the Sirens always got your back, Penny. Don't start nothing, won't be nothing!

[huahsu]

YEAR OF THE BUTTERFLY

previous years: A SONG THAT DEGRADES EACH TIME YOU PLAY IT :: 2018 A CHURCH AND JOHN LENNON’S “IMAGINE” :: 2017 SIKH DEVOTIONAL MUSIC :: 2016 SPOOKY BLACK :: 2015 this year: I’ve spent the past few months working on a book that I’ve always wanted to write but never figured I’d make the time for. At a really basic level, it’s about listening to music with friends. A couple weeks ago, I devoted a few days to reading a stack of books and articles about the emotional experience of music. They were written by philosophers, critics, cognitive scientists, historians. I took from them two overarching questions. First, what does it mean to assign a piece of music a feeling, like “happy” or “sad?” Is the song itself “sad,” or does it just model a kind of sadness proximate to how we feel? What elements of a song do this? The fraying of a voice? Minor keys? Tempo? Is it all a trick of memory? None of the answers really satisfied me, since music is such an intimate thing. A song makes us feel a way for reasons that are often either blindingly obvious or remote and mysterious. An expert can tell you that humans are wired to feel joy when a certain configuration of notes are struck in tandem, but maybe it just reminds you of looking at the front door.

The other question was whether music itself facilitates any unique emotional possibilities--a mode of feeling that we can’t get anywhere else. Music doesn’t mimic the real world, it doesn’t make arguments. One writer suggested that the thrill of music was its capacity to remind you, foremost, that music can thrill you. In essence, each time we hear something new and feel something, we are being reminded of all the times we’ve felt this way before. We’re living in the echo of a former enchantment. Maybe you’ll hear it again, process it, assign it a genre or context, and the mystique evaporates. But music is one of those things that doesn’t happen on our time. We don’t stand in front of it and train our gaze on this quadrant or that. We don’t flip back to make sure we didn’t miss something. You can’t slow it down as it is happening, you merely let it happen. 

In the spring, the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan showed “The Moon Represents My Heart,” an exhibition I worked on with MOCA’s curators, Herb and Andrew. The basic idea was to look at all the ways music had enriched immigrant life, from early opera troupes touring America’s Chinatowns to karaoke bars, church choirs, and after-school violin lessons, fifties doo-wop trios to garage punks and self-taught dance music producers. There’s no legible tradition of Chinese American music so we just wanted to present it as a textured and everyday thing--the experience of the fan could be as legitimate as that of a Mando-pop superstar. While working on the show, people would often ask me for a playlist, but I didn’t really have any to share. It wasn’t really about the music itself, which could sound derivative or amateur to some. It was about the fact that they sought to express themselves through music, in contexts that made them outliers and oddballs. I came to love all the music in our show because of that second-hand thrill--that sense that these moments had been deeply meaningful to everyone in the room. 

You can hear it in the voice of Stephen Cheng, who ended up being the show’s most memorable star. He put out a rocksteady gem in the sixties and then spent the next decade in New York trying to get the Dragon Seeds, his Chinese “folk-rock” band, off the ground. Cheng died years ago, but Andrew found his children, who brought some reels of unreleased music to the museum. I remember staring at them, wondering what was on them. It was a kind of anticipation and wonder that I often miss, when the operative feeling I associate with music-listening on the internet is the frenzy of opening and closing windows, clicking links, proving my humanity to a captcha.

Stephen’s singing wasn’t great, but it was perfect. His version of “Yesterday,” all warbly and over-the-top, has now supplanted the original for me. Somehow, we played some of Stephen’s songs on the radio, including one about butterflies and love. Somehow, one of the people listening was a butterfly expert, and he was about to marry another butterfly expert. Who knew such a song was possible, the groom-to-be told me. Stephen was too obscure to be properly forgotten. Or maybe his song was just dormant all these years. It awaited just the right listener, and now, over forty years later, he would get his propers, sandwiched somewhere between the vows and Kool and the Gang, a couple minutes of people scratching their heads, searching for the right smile, saying Can you believe this? to one another.

### TEENAGE DREAM

Warren Defever/His Name is Alive, All the Mirrors in the House

EXCELLENT USE OF “P.S.K.” Kindness feat. Robyn, “Warning” EXCELLENT USE OF A TELEPHONE Mavi, “Guernica” TECHNICALLY 2018, BUT TAIWAN’S ANSWER TO COIL, JOY DIVISION, ETC SEN, “The Cicada” SAME (2018) BUT TAIWANESE DREAMBOAT VIBES Linion, “Can’t Find” ANOTHER, KINDA BILLY BRAGG-Y Wayne’s So Sad, “Wanderer’s Guide to Taipei” SUMMER IN TAIWAN, AND SO I BOUGHT A LOT OF CDs, INCLUDING THE LIMITED EDITION SIGNED 9M88 DEBUT 9m88, “Love Rain” THEY ARE VERY INTO THE “FUTURE SOUL” THING Andrea, “You Better Kiss Me” THIS GUY HAS THE SAME NAME AS MY COUSIN Yo Lee demos LOTS OF BACKPACKS Hsien, Lately AMAZED TO SEE LIM GIONG REISSUES THERE, THIS IS THE DANCE ALBUM HE RECORDED IN 1994 IN THE UK BEFORE BRINGING RAVE CULTURE BACK TO TAIWAN Lim Giong, Entertainment World (IF YOU ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH LIM GIONG, THIS IS THE GREATEST SONG EVER Lim Giong, “A Pure Person) AND HERE’S 9m88 COVERING “PLASTIC LOVE” 9m88, “Plastic Love” AIR SUPPLYERS Oso Leone, Gallery Love Sunset Rollercoaster, Vanilla Villa I ENJOYED THIS WHEN IT CAME OUT BUT HONESTLY FORGOT IT CAME OUT THIS YEAR, OR THAT I ENJOYED, BUT FOR THE LONGEST TIME MY “2019″ EMAIL DRAFT JUST READ “CHIEF KEEF HNIA KAIL MALONE (sic)” Chief Keef and Zaytoven, GloToven

ANOTHER DEVASTATING DUO Pink Siifu and Akai Solo, Black Sand

MYSTIC CHORDS OF MEMORY Kali Malone, The Sacrificial Code Clarice Jensen, Drone Studies I AM A SLOW WALKER, BUT I NEVER WALK BACKWARDS Michael Vincent Waller, Moments ana roxane - ~~~ A THOUSAND POINTS OF LIGHT Caleb Giles, Under the Shade Medhane, Own Pace WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR Angel Bat Dawid, The Oracle Art Ensemble of Chicago, We are on the Edge READ JOSEPH JARMAN Joseph Jarman, Black Case I and II RESPECT YOURSELF Helado Negro, This is How You Smile Deb Never, “Swimming” LET’S DO IT AGAIN Tommy Holohan & Casper Hastings- RVE001 Eris Drew, Raving Disco Breaks LET’S DO IT AGAIN AGAIN, BUT SMEARED Burial, Tunes 2011-2019 OR PERHAPS YOU WERE THERE Callisto, Guidance is Eternal, Part I PERHAPS YOU WERE THERE FOR MICROHOUSE AND PEAK MEGO AND BLOGS Barker, Debiasing AT A WAREHOUSE PARTY, ABLE TO HEAR TOO MANY FLOORS, ROOMS, SOUNDS AT ONCE, IN A GOOD WAY Dies Smely, “Neptune Rises” AT A WAREHOUSE PARTY, BUT THINKING ABOUT PLUNDER, THE TRAIL OF TEARS, THE SANCTITY OF EARTH Kelman Duran, 13 Month A KIND OF BLUE Steve Hiett, Down on the Road by the Beach POSSIBLY MY MOST PLAYED ALBUM, 2019 Galcher Lustwerk, Information R.I.P. PRINCE, FOREVER AND ALWAYS Serpente, Parada Moodymann, Sinner Nelson Bandela, Purprain THE OPPOSITE OF “I AM A GOD” Nelson Bandela - “i'm mortal” YOU GOT ME Shane Eagle feat. Santi and Bas, “Vanya” HARD TO BELIEVE JAZMINE SULLIVAN REMAINS SO OVERLOOKED Kindness feat Jazmine Sullivan, “Hard to Believe” WATCH FOR THE HOOK Quando Rondo, “Gun Powder”

ANTE UP Polo G feat Lil Tjay, “Pop Out” “PANTS GON BE SAGGIN TIL I’M FORTY” Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, “Thuggin”

“WHY THEY LET THE TERMINATOR WIN THE ELECTION?” Sault, “Why Why Why Why Why”

HOLLOW BONES Showbiz and Milano, “Guillotine” LADI LUV, “GOOD TO THE LAST DUB” City Girls, “Act Up” MONEY BOSS PLAYERS Benny the Butcher feat 38 Spesh and Jadakiss, “Sunday School” Roc Marciano, “Richard Gear” WARP 30 (1989-2019) Droop-E, “The Droop-E Way” INTERSTELLAR SPACE, PROBABLY KILLER LIVE Blacks’ Myths, Blacks Myths II ALICE NEVER WENT ANYWHERE Sam Wilkes, “Sivaya” Alice Coltrane, Live at the Berkeley Community Theater 1972 RIYL: LYRICHORD, EFFECTS PEDALS Seungmin Cha, Nuunmuun RIYL: EFFICIENCY, INTERLUDES Solange, “Binz” “WHO HERE IS STILL LISTENING TO JOHNNY MAY CASH’S “DRUGS” IN 2019?” Playboi Carti, “Molly” “MOLLY” CZ Wang and Neo Image, “Just Off Wave”

YOU’VE SUBSCRIBED TO “UK STREETSOUL YOUTUBE PLAYLIST” Apiento feat Harriet Brown, “Down That Road” WHERE WERE U IN 2092? Jai Paul, “He”

LIL B, INNIT Voldy Moyo, Paper World SCREAMADELICA Vampire Weekend, “Harmony Hall” Humeysha, Nusrat on the Beach FOLKTRONICA Aldous Harding, “The Barrel” TOO PURE Springfields, Singles 1986-1991 MY AQUARIUM Rod Modell, Captagon ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE Vagabon, Vagabon 4-TRACK TWEE BEDROOM COVERS OF BLINK-182′S DUDE RANCH Colleen Green, Blink-182′s “Dude Ranch” as Played by Colleen Green

KINDA AS THOUGH A PART OF MY 2016-19 LP PURCHASES FORMED THEIR OWN BANDS Anunaku, Whities 024 75 Dollar Bill, I Was Real Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society, Mandatory Reality

JUST 30 OR SO GECS Cool Fang, Sparring I’M A DEADHEAD BUT FOR STANDING ON THE CORNER SOTC Art Ensemble, SOTC Double Bass Ensemble * Merciful Allah Black Hole Theater * 4/24/19 SOTC Art Ensemble, Variation 9 * Merciful Allah Black Hole Theater * 4/27/19

SONG OF THE SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER, YEAR, STILL UNDEFEATED

[julianairizzz]

#julianablogs

My heart raced as I walked up the stage with my Dad. I can still remember how happy they were, Mom and Dad, Ilexa and Igop too.

April 3 of 2019, it's a Wednesday. It's one of my favorite days this year and I can say that this day is one of the highlights of my 2019.

I can still remember how I walk through the road. A rough road, indeed. I ran, I tripped and still stood up and walked again. I cannot remember how many times I fell down but the only thing I can remember now is I am here because I stood up.

It was a very great run. And now, I just want to... you know indulge if it's real, and it really is real. I am a JHS Completer. Listen and look close enough okay? I AM A JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETER, DUDE.

G, this is all for you. The glory is all yours. I am now here, because of you. Because you believed in me, you made me this strong and brave woman I become. You made me realized that even if you fell down you can still stand up. I love you.

Mom, Dad, Lek, Igop, Lola, I was able to make it here because of you too. I am so grateful and lucky to have you all in my life. I don't know how to thank each and everyone of you. For all the support, love, care and sacrifices. And this one is all for you, for the love of my life. I love you all.

Carissa, Deb, April, Rica, Hiiii. Look at us, wonderfully grown ladies. Even in the darkest days we fought until we see the light. And here we are now, future engineers, doctors and lawyers. One thing I know is, God is guiding us, looking at us and smiling and probably saying, "These girls are my girls and I love them." Thank you for bringing joy and love in my life. I love you all.

To all my teachers, especially Ma'am My, Ma'am Jo and Mamaji, thank you for your patience. I'm quite a pain in the ass, to be specific in Math. But still I thank God for giving you all the patience in the world to teach me everything I needed to know. You're all my second parents who molded me into this kind of person I am. For four years, you became my knight in shining armors, my family. I owe you all a lot, and I love you for that Ma'amsss.

Ila, Hiii. Bitch, what did uuu do? Look at where you are now. You're a completer now and almost there. You're still kind of you know almost in the middle of your journey because you wanted and wished to be a doctor, it's going to be a long run but it's going to be great. Thank you, for still fighting and looking for the light in midst of darkness. For letting go of the things that doesn't make any importance in your life. For crying through all the breakdowns but still smiling after all of those. Thank you for learning how to fail (sometimes sunod sunod) and still getting back up. I love you for all of that and God loved you through all and for all of that.

I'm loving this journey and living this life with all the love that I got and with all the people who loves me.

[96thdayofrage]

The Supreme Court Is an Antidemocratic Monstrosity. We Should Break Its Power.

Instead of celebrating Stephen Breyer’s retirement, we should be weakening the Supreme Court’s power. Popular majorities should determine the course of our society — not nine unelected lawyers. 

Stop Respecting Traditions

In theory, Joe Biden could appoint more justices and the Senate could confirm them until the Court had a twelve-six or eighteen-six liberal majority. Nowhere does the Constitution require a nine-member court, so that number could be changed by a simple act of Congress. In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt unsuccessfully proposed a bill that would have done exactly that, and, as hard as it is to remember now, numerous progressive commentators touted the idea after Donald Trump changed the balance of the court from five-four to six-three in 2020.

We all know, though, that this won’t happen — and not just because of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Many congressional Democrats would balk at such a dramatic change to an institution that holds a semisacred status in the minds of American liberals. In the past, Democrats have treated even informal traditions surrounding Supreme Court appointments with reverence. When Senate Republicans refused to hold hearings in 2016 for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee to fill Antonin Scalia’s seat, liberals protested that Garland’s spot had been “stolen” by the GOP — never mind that neither the Constitution nor any statute commands the Senate to hold such hearings.

Imagine if Scalia had lived for four more years and Trump was set to appoint Scalia’s successor on the eve of the 2020 election. Imagine too — and I know this is more of a stretch — that Senate Democrats were ready to use every parliamentary trick available to prevent a vote on Trump’s nominee so Biden could appoint the replacement.

Would you be upset that they’d violated the sanctity of the informal tradition by which presidents are allowed up-or-down votes on their nominees? Do you really think that abortion rights, collective bargaining rights, and the rest are less important than the sanctity of the unwritten rule that presidents get a clean vote on their nominees? I know I don’t.

Letting go of the idea that such traditions are sacred would be a baby step in the right direction. Embracing court-packing would be a longer step in that direction. But the real question is why we should accept a status quo where Supreme Court appointments have such overriding political importance in the first place.  

High courts don’t have the power to override the decisions of legislatures in most comparable countries. In some cases, courts don’t play any version of this role — the highest court can only hear appeals on ordinary judicial decisions made by lower courts. In others — including, as Kim Lane Scheppele notes, some of America’s “closest constitutional relatives,” like Canada and the UK — courts exercise an extremely weak form of judicial review, with their purview largely limited to issuing advisory opinions on the constitutionality of laws that can be ignored or overridden by the country’s parliament.

Nor is any such sweeping authority spelled out in the US Constitution. The court just grabbed it in their 1803 ruling Marbury v. Madison. Why should a tiny number of appointed officials, almost all of them graduates of Ivy League universities, be granted these vast powers?

Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs put it well in an iconic 1918 antiwar speech, where he savaged this unelected super-legislature:

Who appoints our federal judges? The people? In all the history of the country, the working class have never named a federal judge. There are 121 of these judges, and every solitary one holds his position, his tenure, through the influence and power of corporate capital. The corporations and trusts dictate their appointment. And when they go to the bench, they go, not to serve the people, but to serve the interests that place them and keep them where they are.

Why, the other day, by a vote of five to four — a kind of craps game — come seven, come ’leven — they declared the child labor law unconstitutional — a law secured after twenty years of education and agitation on the part of all kinds of people. And yet, by a majority of one, the Supreme Court, a body of corporation lawyers, with just one exception, wiped that law from the statute books, and this in our so-called democracy, so that we may continue to grind the flesh and blood and bones of puny little children into profits for the Junkers of Wall Street. And this in a country that boasts of fighting to make the world safe for democracy!

As if to illustrate Debs’s point, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld his conviction after the speech landed him in jail for sedition.

Does the Supreme Court Protect the Rights of Vulnerable Minorities?

Liberals typically react with horror at the idea of taking away the court’s “super-legislature” powers and leaving it as “just” the highest court of appeal (or at most empower it with a much weaker form of judicial review). They see the Supreme Court as a benevolent guardian of unpopular minorities who would otherwise be victims of majority tyranny.

What if homophobic or transphobic majorities, for example, elected socially conservative legislatures that passed antigay or antitrans laws? Wouldn’t we be happy to have the Supreme Court stop those laws from being enacted?

Certainly. But there are at least two problems with this scenario as a general argument for empowering the Supreme Court as a super-legislature.

The first is that things will only work the way that liberals think they will if the majority of justices have socially liberal views. While it’s true the court has the power to overturn laws passed by conservative legislatures that violate the rights of minorities, it’s equally true that it can overturn laws to protect minorities passed by progressive legislatures — as it’s done so many times. Hence, a liberal integrationist court will give you Brown v. Board of Education, but a conservative racist court will give you Dred Scott v. Sandford.

At this point, presidents understand perfectly well what positions their appointees hold on social issues. Liberal presidents appoint justices they know will intervene on behalf of vulnerable minorities in cases involving those issues, and conservative presidents appoint justices they know will rule in the opposite way. The effect isn’t to limit legislation by some principle that’s guaranteed to be socially liberal but simply to inject whatever the social views of previous presidents happen to be on the review of later legislation. 

The rosy liberal view of the Supreme Court’s “normal” function stems from the string of progressive decisions made by the Earl Warren–led Supreme Court in the 1950s and ’60s, which expanded the rights of criminal defendants, ended school prayer, and tried to impose school desegregation on recalcitrant Southern states. But as the legal scholar Samuel Moyn often points out, liberals who think of the Warren Court as the norm and define all the cases before and after where the court acted in the opposite way as aberrations are getting things backward. It was the Warren Court that was the aberration.

This brings us to the second problem with the liberal argument for judicial review: the unpopular minority that the court has most often protected is the wealthy. The case referenced in Debs’s speech wasn’t an anomaly. FDR’s expansion plan — derided even by many liberals as a power-grabbing scheme — was proposed because the Supreme Court kept blocking New Deal reforms. If progressives managed to push Medicare for All through Congress, we can be confident that conservatives on the court (likely joined by some justices appointed by neoliberal Democrats) would come up with a reason to declare it unconstitutional.

As with social issues, the effect of giving the Supreme Court this kind of power is to impose the economic views of previous presidents on the review of future legislation. That means that if a social democratic majority — never mind a socialist one — ever takes over Congress and the presidency, if we play the usual game of waiting for justices to retire or die before appointing replacements and meekly accepting the super-legislature’s most outrageous decisions, we’d have to hold onto power for decades in order to accomplish major reforms. Good luck with that.

Gutting the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is a fundamentally reactive institution that tends to enshrine whatever balance of power is already present in society. To the extent that it doesn’t just preserve the preferences of previous administrations like some awful disease-carrying insect trapped in amber, it’s because court majorities are to some extent influenced by whatever’s going on in society as a whole.

In the twenty-first century, equality wasn’t decreed by the court until popular opinion on gay rights had already changed. It’s no coincidence that the progressive Warren Court coincided with the period when labor union density was at its peak.

At best, if future democratic socialist electoral gains coincide with a resurgence in working-class organization, the Supreme Court might be a minor hindrance to progress. At worst, it will act as it so often has before: as a kind of capitalist guardianship council.

Either way, if we’re serious about enacting pro-worker policies in this country, we need to counter the institution’s power to override the will of popular majorities. And our ultimate goal should be to strip it of that power entirely.

[fairplayforwomen]

  Last week I read a post on MumsNet that is so good it just has to be shared. Lesbian erasure is real. As a lesbian myself, I’ve noticed friends who of course want to be LGBT friendly and show their solidarity by sharing LGBT links. But without knowing it they are sometimes inadvertently sharing and supporting an ideology that is contributing to the erasure of my own lesbian community. This guest post is a must-read for all lesbians and anyone who cares about us. 

Nic Williams.

  Guest post by Iwantmycommunityback

I’ve been thinking a lot over the last few days in particular about transactivism and lesbians and thought I might try to put some of it into writing, partly to try to make sense of it and partly because I still keep seeing people refer to the ‘LGBT’ or ‘LGBTQ’ community and equating transactivism with lesbian and gay rights.

I think the most obvious impact of transactivism is on young lesbians being encouraged to identify as heterosexual transmen and to subject themselves to damaging medical treatment, the effects of which they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives. I think Janice Turner’s article in the Times already covers that issue very well (here).

One of the problems for young lesbians (in addition to the rise in lesbophobia particularly among the young) is that, when they reach out to ‘their’ community, eg join an LGBT group for support, what they get isn’t their community at all but something very hostile.

Gender critical feminists will be familiar with the idea of trans-identified males co-opting women’s identities, women’s rights, women’s spaces etc for their own ends but there are other forms of appropriation going on, particularly in the (former) LGBT ‘community’ (including transsexuals themselves having been co-opted by people who don’t have body dysphoria and who marginalise them as ‘truscum’) . For lesbians, in addition to the appropriation of womanhood, I think the two main additional identity appropriations that cause problems are:

  Transbians

These are heterosexual biological males who identify as women and, therefore, as ‘lesbians’ and have hijacked our community (support groups, social groups, bars, forums, you name it) and believe that lesbians should be open to having sex with someone with a penis if they ‘identify’ as a woman (see ‘the cotton ceiling’). This group has widened further e.g. including ‘transfeminine men’ and men who identify as a woman part-time (so get to walk through life as a heterosexual man but just ‘identify’ as a lesbian for a few hours to access a lesbian group or lesbian club night where they are of course the most oppressed person ever and must be centred at all times).

As well as being included in our groups, they are held up as examples to us. For example for International Women’s Day one group had a talk from an ‘inspirational woman’ who was a biological male, who hadn’t had any surgery, was dressed as a bloke (not that that should make any difference.), had a bit of stubble going on and identified as non-binary (pronouns something like ‘zie’) not as a woman. Like, not only could they not find an actual woman who was inspirational enough to fill that spot, they couldn’t even find a man who was prepared to say they were a woman. Stuff like this is being funded by charity grants intended for women and for lesbian and gay people.

Don’t quite believe it? Here’s just a random selection of biological males who identity as women found on the lesbian section of some well known on-line dating sites…..

‘Queer’ straight trans allies

This is pretty much a consequence of the above. For those who don’t know, queer is now used as an all-encompassing term for anyone who doesn’t identify as a heterosexual “cis” person. However, it is also preferred by certain people over terms like lesbian, gay and bisexual because it does away with what are considered the rigid boundaries of ‘gender’ and sexuality e.g. Homosexual, lesbian and gay meaning being attracted to the same sex, bisexual as being attracted to ‘both’ sexes. This allows people to reject these categories and the idea that there are two sexes.

Take, for example, Lily Madigan who is a biological male who has now come out as a lesbian and is dating a woman. Let’s presume for a moment that this woman (let’s call her Chloe) is a) a biological female b) and a passionate trans uber-ally. Chloe is a bio female who is dating a bio male with a penis who wears a pink hoodie and identifies as a woman. Say, before that, Chloe was dating a bio male with a penis who wears a blue hoodie and is, therefore, a man. Maybe in her next relationship, she will date a bio male with a penis who has purple hair and identifies as ‘genderqueer’. Therefore, Chloe can now say that she dates men, women and genderqueer people, including both cisgender and trans people. Therefore, she is a queer or pansexual woman.

Along with the transbians, these ‘queer’ woman become involved in what was formerly the lesbian and bisexual women’s community. However, these trans uber-allies have a lot of views that are contrary to the interests particularly of lesbians. They believe that lesbians have ‘cis’ privilege and also that lesbians (along with gay men) are the most privileged people in the LGBT community. They believe that lesbians are narrow-minded and transphobic for only wanting to date other biological women and oppress transwomen who can’t break through the ‘cotton ceiling’ of their underwear.

I’m not even sure when this stuff started because, like most of us, due to the blurring of the meaning of words, I just didn’t see it happening. A lot of the main online websites, blogs and forums for lesbians started to change, with different women running them and, over time, a shift in the tone – lots about trans inclusion and more references to being ‘queer’ and open to relationships with anyone, about how some people (the lesbians) had privilege in our community and should prioritise these other people, less representation of butch women (despite the talk of blurring of gender boundaries/genderfluidity) etc.

It was only years later, when someone who knew the women who had been running one of these websites was talking about who they were and who they were in relationships (bio females in relationships with bio males, basically) that the penny finally dropped with me.These were straight women appropriating our identity and lecturing at us and marginalising us in our own community.

This blurring of the language enables them to do it – but even in cases where you can see it for yourself (e.g. if you are looking at what is clearly a straight couple, who you know will be read by everyone they meet as a straight couple, even if the guy is wearing a bit of eyeliner) you couldn’t say anything because now it would be transphobic to say that he wasn’t a woman (or genderqueer or whatever).

      Why aren’t lesbians speaking out more?

It’s no always easy to spot what’s happening

Firstly, I think it takes a while to see what is going on. This for a number of reasons including the deliberate blurring of language, the shutting down of any discussion or even thought on the issue through the repetition of mantras such as transwomen are women and the misrepresentation of this issue in what we consider to be ‘our’ trusted (LGB) news outlets, organisations, websites etc. We also might be relying on our positive experience of and friendships with traditional transsexuals without understanding how much the trans movement has now changed (traditional transsexuals are often demonised in this new world order too and called truscum). There is also the tendency to conflate trans with gay issues when they are not the same at all. From my own experiences of coming out and being oppressed on the basis of being different, I know its so easy to automatically feel solidarity towards and feel angry about any oppressed group, especially if you are being told that other views are ‘anti-LGBT’ and coming from ‘anti-LGBT’ organisations.

  Many lesbians aren’t aware things are different now

Some lesbians aren’t really that involved any more so aren’t aware of what is going on. Many lesbians will have accessed the LGB community, lesbian support groups, lesbian/gay bars when they first came out, when they were looking for a relationship, in times of difficulties etc but are now happily settled in a relationship and don’t feel the need to access those resources. They will still have their lesbian ‘community’ but that will mean texting their friends Sarah & Jo and Claire & Debs and arranging to meet up at their (straight) local pub for the evening. Any involvement with the wider LGBT community will be more minimal like maybe watching the Pride Parade once a year or occasionally reading something on an LGBT website about some awful transphobes who are attacking the LGBT community. They will think back to the transsexual people they knew 10 – 15 years ago who were nice people who just wanted to get on with their lives.

  Young lesbians have no where to go

3) Young lesbians these days are more likely to be identifying as transmen rather than as lesbians.  For the few who do, they lack access to a real lesbian community which could introduce them to an alternative to the current discourse. They have little opportunity to discuss shared issues, learn from others’ experiences and have other lesbian women on their side. Young lesbians who aren’t accepted or feel isolated in their school, family, community etc will seek out an LGBT youth group and this community they reach out to will heavily endorse the transactivist agenda as part and parcel (and absolutely central) to their identity. Where else do they go and how do they know that there is anything else?

  Nobody listens to lesbians anyway!

4) The low status of lesbian women within the LGBT community also stops some speaking out.  I don’t think people outside are really aware of how much misogyny and in particular hatred of lesbians there is from some gay men.

  There’s a big personal cost to speaking up

There are big risks to speaking out for women. These risks are increased if you are a lesbian as it is coming from your ‘own’ community and being a lesbian puts you under suspicion of being trans-exclusionary (ie penis-exclusionary) anyway. If you run a lesbian business or events, you can’t risk being anything other than pro the trans agenda or they will destroy your livelihood. And I’m sure most of us have seen the threats and actual violence meted out to those who dare to disagree. There’s also a fear about just broaching the subject with another actual female lesbian because you don’t know how many of you are onside so it’s a risk. From tentatively raising the issue with a select few, I do know lesbian friends who have got concerns about this but we are very cautious and tentative about saying anything to other women because of the risk. The bigger stories like the closure of MichFest and the men wielding baseball bats to keep the lesbians in check on Women’s Marches and Pride Parades are just symbols of the way we are being policed. This is now what happens to what is left of lesbian events, lesbian-run businesses etc, if we don’t keep in line.

    Our lesbian voice has been diluted from within

Finally, simply, as I’ve explained above, another reason some of ‘us’ don’t oppose or seem to actively support transactivism is that not all of ‘us’ are actually ‘us’. As lesbians step away from the LGBT ‘community’ and more ‘lesbian and queer women’ emerge from the two groups referred to above, an increasing proportion of ‘us’ are actually a subset of heterosexual men and women who loathe lesbians and support the transactivist agenda – but, because of the way language is being twisted, you’d never know that.

    Lesbians are an endangered species. I want my community back! Last week I read a post on MumsNet that is so good it just has to be shared.

[sandpapercastles]

I’ll take a bit of your pie. -Shameless FF Carl/OC

OKAY! So this IS a clippit of my new FF. I am half way done with the first real chapter. (They will be much longer) This one is only about 1,243 words soo. I hope you enjoy! 

Young Lili as May

“We all know the only reason you come with me to work is so you can oggle my co worker.” Fiona called from the other room as she shoved her keys and phone in her bag.

“Yes but,” Carl moved into the room with Fiona and whined for the 100th time about May: “She isn’t your age,she’s my age so it’s okay?” The 22 year old brunette groaned  and smacked his shoulder “Sometimes Carl, I worry about May because of you. How is she supposed to work with you staring at her from across  the diner?” She questioned as she shook her head and slammed the front door. The smirk every knew so well crept upon Carl’s face as he ran out the door to catch up with his sister.

—

May’s face lit up as Fiona and her younger, very, very attractive brother walked into Patsys Pies. “I took table Eight for you already Cause’ they came early so don’t worry ‘bout them” Fiona nodded in response and grabbed the towel from May.

“And what can I get for you today” May made sure she bit her lip at the end her sentence and questioned the wavy locked boy. “Just a coke please” He replied and ran a long fingered hand through his hair. May wanted so badly to reach across the counter and tangle both her hands in his mane, but instead just nodded and filled a glass up to the top with coke. She handed him a straw and went on to serve her other tables. “Hello! Welcome to Patsys Pies my name is May, and i’ll be your server for today. Let’s start with what you would like to…”

Bzzzh Bzh, Carl grabbed his phone out of his back pocket and swiped into the call.

“Gallagher. Come on now, G- dog has a pick up for you” The other line spoke. “Come on you know I don’t do this shit anymore.” Carl replied and looked down to the floor. He wasn’t going to go down this road anymore, he wouldn’t. He  finally got his shit together and went to military school, Told G- dog he was done selling drugs and hadn’t beat anyone up. (Besides for reasons that mattered at least)

He sighed and hung up. “ Carl? What are you doing here?” The Red head stated as she busted through the doors.

“Came to work with Fiona, ordered a-” “MAY!” Debbie screeched and ran to the tanned skin goddess.

“Debbie! Oh gosh what has it been? A day?” May joked as she slid her arm around her. Debbie moved next to her brother at the counter. May exchanged glances with the boy and smiled. “So um May, Can you do me a favor?” May didn’t hesitate to answer with her Obvious of course Debs.

“ So there’s this party I heard some kids talking about, at um Oscars? Didn’t think you would know but you surprise me quite a bit so..” Debbie asked a took a sip of his coke. “Naw, I dunno an Oscar, sorry Deb.” She said and leaned over the tabled to grab the glass from his hand and Refilled his sweet sugary drink. Lastly she smiled and said to Debbie “I’m also good with the tutoring you asked about” And ran to back room looking over her shoulder to smile at them.

“Fuck”

“Sorry dude but you need the help” Debbie said swiping his coke again. He shot his sister  a confused look and furrowed his brow.

“With school, Dumb ass” “It’s summer”

The redhead smiled and laughed as she stood up”Sorry Carl, but just because it’s summer doesn’t mean you get off the hook for being stupid.” That was the last he got as she closed the door of the diner with a clink.

—

“DEBBIE!”

“WHAT” “COME HERE”

Debbie busted through the brunette boys room. She put her hands on her hips and did her What the fuck do you want pose.

Carl jumped of the top of his bunk and pulled on some pants. He sighed before speaking, He didn’t like hanging out with the people from juvie at least not most of them.

“Okay so you know how you and May were talking about that party earlier?” Debbie nodded as she watched he get ready for something.

“I um, actually know a guy who’s going to that party so I can get you in if you want.” He said as he pulled on some shoes and looked up at his older sister.

“Really! Thanks Carl! I’ll call May right now! I gotta get ready!” She screeched and ran through the cluttered and homey house that is the Gallaghers. Carl smirked and looked in the mirror.

“Get ready fuckin’ house party, imma blow your ass.”

Debbie closed the door behind her and called May while she took off her definitely not party shoes. “Yesss”

“Okay so I ran into Carls room, you know the one you said you could tutor an-”

“I know who he i-” May said while smirking and looking around her apartment. She did live in the south side, had most her life. Her apartment was big enough for two. Her older borther and herself. It was pretty open with some

“He said he could take us to that party I was asking about so whatever plans you have tonight cancel it  because I expect you to be over here in 35, BYE!” May smiled as she dropped her phone on the counter and rubbed her eyes.

“Guess i better get ready” She said and laughed to herself as he walked to her closet.

—

May shifted her feet at the front of the house.She knew Debbie well enough to go straight in, but didn’t want to scare anyone.

“Come in!” Yelled a voice that must be Fiona’s. May walked into their cozy house and set down her bag. “You look nice May. What’s the occasion, hot date?” Fiona asked while putting away the dishes. May knew she worked so hard to run this house and smiled before answering

“No, just some lame party your brother said we should go to.” She nodded as May walked away

“I’ll be upstairs with Debbie, Kay Fi?” She said as she walked up the stairs and pulled down her dress.

“Someone cleans up nice.” May turned around to see Carl standing by his shared room. She blushed and looked down at herself  and  replied while walking into his room.  

“So, where did you even here about this party. Well, beside Debs?” May picked up Liam and spun him around before setting him on his hip.

His room was cluttered and cramped.

There were three beds all in the room with draws a desk and shelves. It smelled like boys and she smiled to herself before looking over to him.

“Uh,” The taller boy rubbed his neck before continuing

” When I was in juvie I met some guys and well. Yeah.” She put down Liam and he ran to his bed while May smiled and nodded.

“Hey,” May walked over to Carl and grabbed his hand. She knew that he worked hard to get back to being the good kid inside that he was.

“I know, You’re better now.” May  gave him a sincere look and ruffled his hair. She then left the room leaving the boy in his own thoughts.

—

[theiahuntley-blog]

Elimination

(So, I finally finished typing this up! Featuring @debbieker. I’m finishing Theia’s story this way to have some fun and this is something fun to imagine and write about!:)

(below is Theia’s leaving outfit)

Knock knock.

I pace outside Debbie’s room, biting my lip as I wait.

“Coming!” She cries, I sigh in relieve as she opens the door. “Hi Theia, come in.”

“Hi!” I reply with a nervous smile. “Um… well as you know, I um didn’t make it… and um.” I pause to clear my throat and hold out my hands to reveal a pair of wooden chopsticks with Debbie’s smudged name written on it. “This is for you, a sorta goodbye gift.”

Debbie gasps in surprise. “Wait, I didn’t knew you get eliminated! … I’m always the last to know important stuff. I’m so sorry!” She said with a sad face, before taking the chopsticks while admiring them. “Oh! Thank you! You didn’t have to! You made these?”

“Um not really. I brought a pair of chopsticks along as a gift to someone. I haven’t decided whom at that time. And I’ve forgotten about them. Then while packing up I found them and I instantly thought of you. So I decided to write you name on them.” I pause and swallow nervously. “I know we’re not the best of friends or anything, but you’ve always been nice to me and I was hoping we can continue to be friends after this.”

“Of course! I’m sorry we didn’t get to talk more … I’m always here and there…” She sighs. “I wish we have had more time together. We are like farmers sisters!” Debbie and I both chuckle at this.

“Uhm… are you ok or?” She continued.

“I don’t know, honestly.” I reply truthfully. “I will definitely miss the people here, but I also miss my family…”

Debbie sits down on her bed and taps the spot beside her, silently asking me to sit down. I smile gratefully and sit down beside her.

“But I guess I kinda knew I wouldn’t make it, I’m surprised I even made it this far.” I say with a forced laugh. “I mean, the Prince and I… there’s nothing there. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough… but I don’t know, I feel like if it’s real love… I don’t have to try everything just get him to give me a response.”

That is the truth, I’m not blaming Dom or anything. But love can’t be forced.

Debbie nods. “I totally understand what you are saying, between you and me, sometimes I miss my home too. sorry for the obvious question.” She says with a roll of her eyes, pretending to bang her head. Then she sobers up with a sad face. “And about Dom, I’m so sorry it didn’t work… Hey! Tell me, who will you miss the most ?” She smirks as she asks the last question.

“Um… m- miss the m-most?” I repeat, taken back. “I don’t know… my er maids?”

She laughs. “You are lying!” She points to herself. “Isabella always scolds me for being indiscreet, but I just have to know!

“I have seen you talking with a really cute guard more than once…” She comments in a suggestive tone.

“G-gu-guard? What gua-” I pause before sighing. I guess since I’m leaving there’s not need to hide. “Okay, FINE. I MAY miss him most. And I guess you wanna know everything now, don’t you?”

She agrees so I fill her in with everything about Theo. We go on to talk about something else afterwards as I changed the subject to her and the possibility of Queen Debbie. Debbie tells me she’s not sure if she’s exactly queen material while I disagree, as I do think I can see a queen Debbie. We also talked about Dom and her relationship, and she seems to be really into him. I’m happy for her, Dom and I may not work out but I know he is a good guy and can definitely make a girl happy.

“So, will you visit my farm someday?” Debbie asks.

“Of course! And you must come to mine!” I reply with a smile.  I stand up and hug Debbie. “Speaking of which I must go and start getting ready. We must keep in touch!”

“Sure I will visit you and you have to call me as soon as I get kicked out of here.” She laughs. “Thank you so much for the present!”

“You won’t be.” I giggle, walking to the door. “And no problem. Bye, Debs!”

“See you later, Theia. Good luck!”

I walk back to my room and is surprised to see a guard standing outside my door.

“Officer Hart.” I greet with a hint of a smile.

“My lady.”

“What… what um brings you here?” I ask, nervously tugging my dress.

He clears his throat. “I am here to go over the safety procedures with you, my lady.”

“Oh right, of course.” I answer, before gesturing him into my room. “Come on in.”

“Girls, please go and finish off the adjustments to my dress. I won’t bore you into the details of my safety procedures.” I say to my red-eyed maids. They give me weak smiles and walk away.

“So, officer Hart. What safety procedures?” I continue, wiping nonexistent dust from my dress as I flashback to the times I spent with Theo. After the garden incident, we hadn’t really spent much time together except for when I showed him my story, saying I have to ask for a guard’s advice about something “important”. But we always smiled at each other in the hallways.

“So the story didn’t work?” He says, breaking the silence.

“Nope.” I reply, popping the p. “I guess I’m just not good enough.”

“Theia…”

I wipe a bit of tears away. “Anyways it’s fine… I can’t really be with a guy who doesn’t like Chinese food.” I joke. “And give me the shortest replies ever. I thought eventually I’d get into him… I thought…” I stop and the tears come crashing down.

“Oh Theia…” Theo says quietly, he pulls me to him and lets me cry onto his shoulder. If this was any normal situation I would have frozen but today I just really needed a shoulder to cry on. “You’re not not good enough. You’re just perfect the way you are… I never knew you liked him that much, I’m so sorry.”

“He’s the Prince. Every girl likes him.” I whisper. “But I don’t know, I guess I don’t like him that much but I still liked him. I think… I don’t know…Sometimes he’s really annoying but at the end of the day… I…”

“It’s okay. I understand.” He says into my hair, stroking them gently. “For the record, I love Chinese food. At least I love egg tarts. But that’s kinda the only Chinese food I’ve eaten… Oh and the yellow ones… What are they called again?”

“Siu mai?” I suggest, pulling myself away from him.

“Yes! Siu mai!” He confirms with a happy smile. “Love those.”

“So do I.” I agree with a hint of a smile. “You should’ve told me about your passion for Chinese food. I would’ve made you some and let you try more!”

“You still can…” he says quietly. My breath hitches as I try to understand what he’s implying.

“Theo…”

“Come on Theia, you must’ve known how I felt about you.” He cuts me off.

“I… I guessed.”

“But I don’t know how you feel.”

“It doesn’t matter how I feel. I live in Allens, miles away from here and you’re a guard. This-” I begin, wiping my tears away.

“I’m turning 23 on 14th January. And I live in Carolina.” He cuts me off again.

“What?”

“I’m sorry. Just ignore me. I understand you don’t like me. I shouldn’t have said that. That was stupid. But you have to know I’ve never felt like this for a girl before. I-” he babbles.

“I like you.” I interrupt him, my voice barely a whisper.

“What?”

“I like you. At least I think I do. I mean, I like spending time with you, I like talking to you… I like hearing you say my name, my heart starts beating fast when I see you…” I trail off, not knowing what to say. His eyes light up.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” I laugh. But the laughter dies downs quickly. “So what now?”

“I know it wouldn’t be fair to tell you to wait. You’re a selected, every guy wants you…” he pauses and takes a slow breath as if what he’s going to say is going to hurt him. “I… I’m asking you to at least give me a chance. I’ll come find you after I’ve finished my draft and if you still haven’t find someone else… I’d like to date you.”

I smile slightly as he fidgets with his fingers. “Okay.” He returns the smile and hugs me.

“So you’re five years older, eh? No wonder you give such good advice.” I tease. He rolls his eyes playfully.

“You’ll write me, will you?” I ask quietly.

“I don’t know… I think we’d better keep this until after my draft. I don’t want to be accused of treason or something.” He replies thoughtfully. I sigh but agree. I could wait a few months.

I think.

“I can wait. I don’t mind waiting.” I say, peering up at him underneath my eyelashes. “I mean, I’ve dealt with competing against thirty-four other girls for a guy and I made it to the last fourteen. What’s a few months of waiting?”

“As much as I want to agree, I won’t.” He replies. “I want you to be happy and you shouldn’t let any opportunities go.”

“Oh.” Is all I can say.

“Promise me, you’re not going to turn down guys who may make you happy just for me.”

“I… I promise.”

“Don’t worry.” He whispers. “If we are meant to be, we will be.”

I nod slowly as I feel something wet on my cheeks. He shushes me and wipes my tears away gently. Before I can react he crashes his lips to mine. I melt into kiss but it was a brief one. I groan in annoyance.

“Next time, my lady, next time.” He laughs.

“I never thought my first and only kiss at the palace would be with a guard.” I giggle.

“Really?” He asks, shocked. I nod my head and giggled.

“Here.” He says before thrusting a paper into my hands. “I do have to go over safety procedures with you but we don’t have time so I wrote them down for you.”

I laugh. “Thanks.”

Knock knock.

Theo looks back at the door urgently. “See you in January.” He whispers, clasping my hand tightly.

“See you.” I whisper back, feeling my eyes grow hot. I place a chaste kiss on his cheek before clearing my throat.

“Come in!” I call. My sad maids come back in and Theo dips his head at them.

“Have a safe trip, my lady.” He says politely. He then proceeds to kiss my hand a little too long.

My heart skips a beat and I can’t wait for January to come.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND April 19, 2019  - THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA, BREAKTHROUGH, PENGUINS

Yay! Another week where I haven’t seen any of the new releases! This is what happens when studios offer a single press screening rather than a few options, I guess.

After a rather dismal weekend, this weekend sees the release of a mixed bag of movies that will wrap-up the winter/spring movie season before Avengers: Endgame comes along and just destroys everything else in theaters. This is also Easter weekend and with no schools and many being off work for Good Friday, we’ll see a large bump with most movies being frontloaded for the weekend. (Easter Sunday is usually reserved for family meals, Easter egg hunts, etc, so not as much movie business.)

Beginning on Wednesday, we have two relatively family-friendly films in Fox 2000’s faith-based BREAKTHROUGH  (20thCentury Fox) and DisneyNature’s PENGUINS  (Walt Disney Pictures), again, neither which I’ve seen. The first is a higher-profile faith-based drama that’s being released in perfect timing with Easter, but unlike the movies of PureFlix, I feel that the marketing campaign could bring in a wider audience, especially with popular actors like Chrissy Metz, Topher Grace, Mike Colter and Dennis Haysbert.  Penguinsis another Disney nature doc, this one a cute story about a penguin named Steve, voiced by Ed Helms, and its G-rating will help make it a choice for family with young kids over the holiday weekend.

Then on Friday (or rather, Thursday night) comes the latest horror film from producer James Wan, THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA (New Line/WB), which looks like another solid scare-fest even if the reviews out of SXSW weren’t as strong as the ones for Pet Sematary (which I still haven’t seen!) and Us (which I’ve seen twice). I’m definitely interested in checking it out, especially the work of director Michael Chaves, who has already been attached to direct the next Conjuring movie (although this one is not related).

Opening in 300 theaters Wednesday is the Bollywood release KALANK (FIP), directed by Abhishek Varman, a romantic drama about six characters looking for love in the town of Husnabad, North India.

Also opening fairly wide this weekend is Michael Berry’s adaptation of Riley Thomas’ stage musical Stuck (Eammon Films), starring Giancarlo Esposito, Amy Madigan, Omar Chaparroand Ashanti as four of six New York commuters stuck on a subway car, as they sing their stories to each other. Sounds more fun than what normally happens in New York when the subway car stops between stations.

Apparently, Bleecker Street plans on expanding Max Minghella’s Teen Spirit, starring Elle Fanning, wider, although I don’t have a theater count at this point in time, so I’m not sure if it’s expanding enough to get into the top 10 or how many areas it will be in.

LIMITED RELEASES

My favorite movie of the weekend is Pamela Green’s doc BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ (Zeitgeist), which will open in L.A.  at the Laemmle Monica Film Center then move to NYC on April 26. If you don’t know who Alice Guy-Blaché is then you really need to see this movie, since she was such an important part of cinema history. She was there from the very gestation of cinema in France as the first female director who was making so many inroads into various filmmaking techniques while being mostly ignored by the men in the industry, including those who documented the history of cinema. This is an amazing film to see all of Ms. Guy’s accomplishments, while also being demeaned by a philandering husband who took credit for much of her accomplishments. I was also amazed to learn while watching this film that Fort Lee, New Jersey used to be the hub of cinema in the early 20thCentury before Guy’s husband and others moved to California and set up Hollywood, mainly to get away from paying fees to Tom Edison. This is an amazing doc that I recommend highly if you consider yourself a film buff on any level.

Another great doc opening this week – New York on Weds and in L.A. Friday – is Penny Lane’s new one HAIL SATAN? (Magnolia), which explores the Satanic Temple and its leader Lucien Greaves, who have created a political movement around the ideas that church and state should be kept separate. They do this by raising funds to set-up statues of Baphomet on the same capital grounds where governments have set-up statues of the Ten Commandments. They also do this with a sense of humor that reminds me of The Yes Men, whose own pranks have been documented well in film. Either way, this movie is not what you might think i.e. it’s not a commercial for Satanism as in the type that sacrifices babies. It’s just a group that uses the name of Satan to fight for religious freedom.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays a woman who goes on the run after her superpowers are discovered in Julia Hart’s FAST COLOR (Codeblack Films). This opens in select cities this week, and I’ve reviewed it over at The Beat.

It Follows director David Robert Mitchell’s new noir thriller UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (A24) seems to be getting dumped with a quick release in New York and L.A. on Friday before debuting for streaming on Amazon Monday.  I guess the mixed reviews it got at its premiere at Cannes last year didn’t help matters.  It stars Andrew Garfield as 33-year-old Sam who discovers the mysterious Sarah (Riley Kough) in his apartment swimming pool, but when she vanishes, he goes looking through L.A. to find what happened to her. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but it’s looking unlikely I’ll see it in theaters now.

Dame Judi Dench stars in Trevor Nunn’s RED JOAN (IFC Films), playing Joan Stanley, a widow living in retirement when the British Secret Service arrests her for giving classified information to the Soviets for decades. Based on a true story, it will open at the Landmark 57 and IFC Center in New York as well as other theaters and On Demand.

Tessa Thompson and Lilly James star in Nia DaCosta’s feature film directorial debut LITTLE WOODS (NEON), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, at which DaCosta won the Nora Ephron award. Thompson plays Ollie, a North Dakota woman who was once arrested for smuggling prescription drugs across the border, something she gives up until her pregnant sister Deb (James) shows up needing $3,000 to save their family home. I’m hoping to catch it again sometime this week, since I want to give it another chance.

Currently playing on DirecTV and opening in select theaters and On Demand Friday is Fred Wolf’s DRUNK PARENTS (Vertical Entertainment), starring Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek. Semi-wealthy Frank and Nancy Teagarten are dropping their daughter off at college just before the repo man shows up at their door, so they do some drinking and hold a yard sale as to hide their deteriorating wealth.

Orange is the New Black star Taylor Schilling stars in Laura Steinel’s Family  (The Film Arcade) as career-focused Kate Stone, who is asked by her estranged brother to babysit her ‘tween niece Maddie, as one night turns into a week.

Prolific Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s new movie Grass  (Cinema Guild), will open at the Metrograph in New York. It’s a rather talkie piece that involves a bunch of people talking to each other in a café where a young woman (Kim Min-hee) eavesdrops and adds their characters to her story.  I’m generally mixed on Hong Sang-soo, and this one seems a bit more artsy with less of a narrative, but I assume diehard fans will enjoy it.

Wanuri Kahui’s Kenyan coming-of-age drama Rafiki (Film Movement), the first Kenyan film to show at Cannes, will open at BAM on Friday. It follows the journey of Kena and Ziki, two young woman whose fathers are rival political candidates but who have formed a bond of friendship.

Just in time for 4/20 comes Robert Ryan’s doc Breaking Habits (Good Deed Entertainment) about Christine Meeusen’s decision to leave her cheating husband of 17 years with her three kids, reinventing herself as Sister Kate and setting up a cannabis farming business that would become the Sisters of the Valley medicinal marijuana empire.

Also, a reminder that Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, starring Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce, is supposed to get a limited release this weekend after its Fathom Events “one night only,” although I have no idea of number of theaters or locations or anything.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

As with every weekend, there’s a lot going on, and in New York, up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, they’re kicking off this year’s ART OF THE REAL on Thursday and running through April 28. The Opening Night film is Frank Beauvais’ Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream, compiling the thoughts and revelations of the filmmaker. I haven’t been able to get to any of the press screenings, but it usually has an interesting and diverse line-up which you can read more about at the link.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Fans of Brazilian cinema will want to check out some of the Metrograph’s new series about Brazilian filmmaker Nelson Pereira dos Santos, which runs from Friday through April 28. The movies range from his groundbreaking 1955 doc Rio, 40º to 2011’s The Music According to Tom Jobim with nine films, few of which have received distribution in North America. This week’s Late Nites at Metrographinclude Sion Sono’s Anti-Porno and Bertrando Bonello’s 2011 film L’Appollonide (House of Tolerance), neither which I’ve seen, but the weekend’s  Playtime: Family Matineesis Disney’s The Love Bug, one of my absolute favorite films from childhood.

THE NEW BEVERLY  (L.A.):

Besides showing Henri-Georges Clouzet’s murder-mystery Quai Des Orfevres on Wednesday afternoon, Tarantino’s rep theater is showing double features of Hitchcock’s Family Plot  (1976) and the thriller Black Sunday  (1977) on Weds. and Thurs, the classic Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau The Odd Couple (1968) and Robert Redford/Jane Fonda’s Barefoot in the Park (1967) on Friday, then Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie (1980) and Ice Cube’s Friday (1995) on Saturday. This weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is a surprisingly recent movie in Universal’s Hop – cause it’s Easter weekend, get it? – and the midnight movies are The Hateful Eight on Friday night and the 1981 John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd movie Neighbors on Saturday. Sunday and Monday are double features of Only When I Laugh (1981) and I Oughtta Be in Pictures (1982). Monday afternoon is a screening of Martin Scorsese’s 1999 film Bringing Out the Dead, starring Nicolas Cage and Patricia Arquette.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

One of the repertory series I’m most excited about since first hearing about it is the Film Forum’s latest series “Trilogies,” which this weekend will show all three of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy, and Sergio Leone’s Western trilogy with Clint Eastwood: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1966) and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966). This weekend is also the start of Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition, while Monday is a trilogy of films by Jacques Beckere called his “Paris Youth Trilogy,” including Antoine and Antoinette.  Sadly, they don’t seem to be showing Edgar Wright’s Three Cornetto Trilogy as part of the series. :( This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is the 1985 crime-comedy Clue, based on the board game.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Word came out last week that Netflix is looking to buy the Egyptian, so hope they retain the repertory programming. Thursday is the new restoration of Bjork’s 1990 movie The Juniper Tree, Friday night there is a Brian Yuzna double feature of Society and Bride of Re-Animator, both from 1989 with Yuzna in attendance. Saturday sees a TRIPLE feature of Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness (1992), Waxwork  (1988) and Fulci’s The Beyond (1985), all in 35mm!

AERO  (LA):

The Aero’s “Classic Movie Clowns” series begins Thursday with a Harold Lloyd-Buster Keaton double feature of Safety Last! (1923) and The Navigator (1924), Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) plays on Friday, as well as a series of Silent Comedy Shorts (with live music!) on Saturday, as well as Laurel and Hardy’s Sons of the Desert (1933) along with their shorts Brats and Helpmates. Easter Sunday sees a collection of Bugs Bunny and Friends animated shorts and a double feature of Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001) and Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead  (1981).

IFC CENTER (NYC)

The IFC Center started its spring series last weekend, but I received the info too late to include. This weekend’s Waverly Midnights: ParentalGuidance is Hitchcock’s Psycho, while the Weekend Classics: LoveMom and Dad is Terms of Endearment and Late Night Favorites: Springis David Fincher’s Fight Club.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall this week shows the 1947 film Dark Passage on Weds, Howard Hawk’s To Have and Have Not  (1944) Thurs, and The Big Sleep  (1946) on Friday. Also the What Price Hollywood series continues with Clarence Brown’s 1931 film A Free Soul and Josef von Sternberg’s 1934 film The Scarlet Empress on Weds, the 1939 film Midnight and 1935’s Sylvia Scarlett on Thursday and more. They’re also showing Franco Rosso’s Babylonover the weekend.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

This week’s series is See it Big! Action with screenings of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Seven Samurai, Anne of the Indiesand The Adventures of Robin Hood. On Good Friday, the family program is the animated Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Quad continues its Wild Things: The Ferocious Films of Nelly Kaplan this weekend with Charles and Lucie, Néa, The Pleasure of Love and more.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Thursday ends the The Anarchic Cinema of Věra Chytilováseries of the Czech film star.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This Friday’s midnight offering is Panos Costamos’ too recent to be repertory Mandy, starring Nicolas Cage.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Streaming on Netflix this week is Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s SOMEONE GREAT, starring Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez as an aspiring music journalst trying to get her dream job at a magazine, even though that would mean moving to San Francisco. Her boyfriend of nine years (Lakeith Stanfield) decides to break up so she and her two best friends (DeWanda Wise, Brittany Snow) decide to go out for one last adventure in New York City.

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

Peter usually relates to the people he deals with in his day-to-day life as Peter Parker, or as Spider-Man — it’s usually one or the other. When he’s with Bobbi, she’s someone who has the same kind of lifestyle and interests, but also someone who can relate to both parts of him in a way that others haven’t. He’s had a relationship with the Black Cat, who really just wanted to have a relationship with Spider-Man. He’s also had relationships as Peter where he’s revealed that he is Spider-Man over time, so it’s almost like they have to suddenly accept this other secret half of him. With Bobbi, he’s walking into this relationship where, from the moment they start it, she knows both halves, and she’s coming at it from the superhero side. They know the kind of craziness their lives get into. It’s not something he has to make an excuse for. They’re also people who have fought together side by side. They’ve been teammates and looked out for each other. Their relationship stretches back to the time when they were both on the New Avengers. This is a very different thing than we’ve seen in Spidey’s life before. she is a super scientist, as well. And she, too, has left relationships in her wake moving through the superhero life, just like Pete The way I write Spidey is that he has feet of clay, and he’s going to—like us—find all new ways to screw up. Bobbi has got the secret agent/super hero part together. The way I see Mockingbird and where she is now is, she’s very much about getting that part of the job done, and she does it in a way that Spidey doesn’t. At the same time, there is that trust when an agent has a partner in the field and they’re each watching each others’ backs. That’s the masked parts of their lives. What it’s going to be like when the masks come off… we’ll have to wait and see.

Dan Slott

a) Its different but OOC so it’s bullshit

b) Asshole MARY JANE did that shit too, she just came at it from the civilian (i.e. more important) side of things in experiencing what it’s like to be Peters friend and watching what happened to Gwen

c) Peter and MJ have fought together too. More importantly they’ve gone through emotional and domestic battles together. The stuff that REAL people deal with

d) Who the fuck did Peter date where he revealed his identity to them and then they had to deal with that? Deb Whitman left the same issue he came clean with her and she didn’t even believe him.

e) Peter and MJ’s relationship stretches back to you know...Stan Lee’s run

f) So a retread of why Carlie should be with Peter. Because they are both scientists. And the silent thing he is saying is that MJ was dumb for not being a scientist.

g)  You aren’t supposed to write Spider-Man in such a way that he will inevitably screw up and that is the point you goddam jackass! You are supposed to write him as doing his best to be a good responsible guy and sometimes he screws up but that’s not the goddam point! UGHHHHH!!!!!!

[avenger-nerd-mom]

Alphabet Tag

    Alphabet Tag

Thank you to @myluvislikewow for tagging me.  This one was fun!  The best thing is the reason you tagged me!  I’m gonna post an update about that later!

R U L E S; Copy this post into a new text post, remove my answers and put in yours, and when you are done tag up to 10 people and also tag the person who tagged you… and most importantly, have fun!

a - age: 42

b - biggest fear: house fire and losing 20 years worth of family photo albums

This shelf only holds albums 1997- 2013...

c - current time: 4:34 pm

d - drink you last had: pepsi, styrofoam cup from Casey’s gas station

e - every day starts with: My alarm clock going off and checking messages from Lisa, Kaiti, Devika, Violet and Deb

f - favorite song: If You Leave- OMD- Pretty in Pink Soundtrack

g - ghosts, are they real: I believe

h - hometown: Murfreesboro, TN

i - in love with: My Husband, my kids, CHRIS EVANS

j - jealous of: people with curly hair

k - killed someone:  Not yet, some people are just asking for it.

l - last time you cried:  Happy tears, right now, when Lisa gushed over my manuscript for my original fiction after reading the first eleven chapters on her vacation

m - middle name: Michelle

n - number of siblings: 1

o - one wish: Travel with my girls

p - person you last called/texted: @thewife101cevans JUST got back from vacation and called me from the airport!  Prior to that it was @jrubalcaba about 5 minutes before, text

q - questions you’re always asked:  How tall are you?

r - reasons to smile: Chris Evans’ laughter, kittens, when my students do something funny, seeing my hubs in his silly work clothes

s - song last sang: LOL-  Um, “You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party” Beastie Boys

t - time you woke up: 7:38 am

u - underwear color:  Royal Purple

w - worst habit(s):  too much tumblr time, avoiding housework to write

x - x-rays you’ve had:  spine

y - your favorite food: FRENCH FRIES

z - zodiac sign:  Aries

I would like to tag

@virtualgirlfriendsan @jrubalcaba @peggysrogers @glynnisi @celeb-fess

[jeremystrele]

The Timeless Beachside Home Of A Magazine Industry Legend

The Timeless Beachside Home Of A Magazine Industry Legend

Homes

by Lucy Feagins, Editor

Gorgeous views looking out over Pittwater in Deb Bibby’s warm, welcoming home! The disco ball on the far left creates spinning light around the room at sunset – ‘it makes you want to party, or at least pour a G+T’ says Deb! Sarah Ellison stoneware vase.  Family photos are strewn amongst the bookshelf. Black and white polaroids taken from Deb’s days as editor of Dolly magazine (!) and Follow Me magazine. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A cosy alcove. The long burgundy leather cushion with tabs was made to Deb’s design based on German gym mats by Heatherly Design. Le Klint original wall light from Vampt Vintage Design. Pony Rider cushions. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Deb with her son Jack Murphy and his girlfriend Alli Ficarra. Deb and Alli both wear Lee Mathews (‘We couldn’t help ourselves – although I’m more of a jeans girl, we got dressed up for TDF’.) Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Jean Gillon ‘Sling’ leather and rope sofa, which Deb fell in love with at first sight. St Vinnies lamp. NSW Leather Co grey sheepskin. All of Deb’s most-loved books are in the book shelf, and the trophy sitting on top is in memory of Deb’s brother Adrian. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Looking out to the lush surrounds. Artwork left to right: Pencil sketch by Deb’s friend creative director Carolyn Innis. Mia Oatley print. Jorna Napurrurla Nelson ‘Bush Carrot Dreaming’. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The dining room with a view. Sarah Ellison stoneware vessels. Sarah Ellison Zee leather chairs around the dining table. Original butterfly chair from Angelucci. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The living room. LEILAH coffee table. Sarah Ellison marble top CHUB table. Rock and roll prints on the wall of INXS that Deb had blown up from polaroids of a past life. Painting ‘Tingari’ by Charlie Tjapangati. Terence Conran London sofa. Pony Rider cushions. Atlas leather cushion. Jean Gillion ‘Sling’ rope and leather chair. Mantis wall light from Spence & Lyda used as pendant. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

‘I found this chair at Camden Markets in London – a gorgeous old rocker that I used when my son was a newborn’, Deb shares. Pony Rider cushions. Blanket from the four-year-old real living for Freedom range. Freedom Furniture mug. The best of the best Italian Vogues, Liz Tilberis-edited British Vogues, US Vogues, and all her own of course! ‘All of them are still a source of inspiration when I get tired of scrolling’, Deb says. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Deb’s early morning work spot. ‘I’ll bring the laptop out, coffee in hand, and work here until the sun takes over’. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The kitchen, which is ‘definitely the most popular room in the house’! designed by architect Noek Witzand and built by David Moses. Smeg appliances (stove, integrated dishwasher, kettle, and toaster). Perrin & Rowe taps. Ikea clamp lights. Vintage pendant LED lights. Pearl Lighting & Brassware brass handles. American Oak timber benches. Formply cupboards. Colmar Limestone tiles on walls from Eco Outdoor, that architect Noek cut down to a smaller size. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Perrin & Rowe tapware. Original Gurgle Pot water jug – ‘the most fun you’ll ever have pouring water!’ Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Sarah Ellison vase. Peter Lindbergh book – ‘I sat outside his apartment in Paris waiting for him to come out, I wanted to meet him. I waited all day. Then a few years ago he ‘liked’ a shot I posted of my dad on Instagram by photographer and dear friend Andrew Southam – now that gave me a rush!’ tells Deb! Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Deb’s current mood board. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Lee Mathews silk slip dress. Pony Rider throw. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Pony Rider rug/throw. The painting over the bed was the first piece of art Deb ever bought, purchased in New York, by Jessica Falstein. Raine&Humble Pom-pom cushion. Society of Wanderer denim pillows and floral linen cushion. Ikea wall light. Stools found at Vinnies that Deb painted green. Leather bucket bag from Lee Mathews. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Vanity. Perrin & Rowe tapware. Omvivo Laris basin from Candana. ‘Girl With The Pearl Earring’ print from Deb’s family home. Green MT45 terrazzo from Terrazzo Australian Marble – ‘I would’ve had this terrazzo everywhere except it’s more expensive that marble. I’ve always loved it, a bit annoyed everyone else has fallen in love with it in the design world. I thought it was my little secret!’. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Ottocento from Artedomus – ‘definitely sold my soul to buy this and it was the best investment ever’. Linen shower curtain were discontinued by the original supplier, so Deb found a maker to create them and now she can hardly keep up with the orders – DM Deb on Instagram if you want one! Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

‘There’s nothing quite like sunset over Pittwater – makes my heart skip a beat without fail. Never take that view for granted’. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Deb Bibby first encountered this family home as a neighbour, as she used to live next door! At the time, she explains ‘it was an ugly duckling covered in plastic mock bricks.’

The property was built in 1926 by Sir Arthur Alfred Clements Cocks, and has only have four owners – clearly once people move in, they don’t want to leave. This is certainly true for Deb, who describes ‘we walked in and fell in love. Kaboom!’

While Deb immediately removed those ‘ugly duckling’ bricks to reveal Jarrah boards wrapped around the entire home – further renovations to the house took a little longer. She explains ‘an architect friend told me to live it a year before renovating… we ended up living in it for 20 years before we renovated!’

After well-and-truly getting to know the feel of the home and appreciate its rich history, the house underwent a major overhaul four years ago. Deb explains ‘the house was lifted completely intact (with all of its furniture) 1.2 metres into the air, and we built a bedroom and bathroom underneath!

In addition to this elevating experience, a garage was rebuilt in the original 1926 location, and a studio was designed to match the materials and craftsmanship of the historic home. Deb describes ‘the new studio connects to the house via the deck, which now creates a beautiful courtyard feel.’

Inside, the home has a timeless sensibility, styled with a delightful mish-mash of  eclectic artwork, antiques and classic design pieces, collected over a lifetime. The palette here is muted and primarily neutral, with tiny pops of green, dirty pink and orange adding moments of intrigue to a backdrop of Dulux Natural White. For Deb, favourite pieces include artwork and objects collected on her travels – such as the small green landscape painting by Jessica Falstein above the master bed, which was the first piece of art Deb purchased when visiting New York in her 20s.

This divine family home provides an inspiring and stimulating environment for Deb and her equally creative son, Jack. She enthuses ‘I swear being here makes you creative, I think it’s the light and being up in the trees – nature literally blows into the living room, and the birds are deafening.’

[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: Windy City Pulp Show, King Arthur, Star Wars Target Audience, Model T in Combat

Conventions (DMR Books): The 19th annual Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention took place this past weekend in Lombard, IL. It was a three-day affair, but unfortunately I was only able to attend for part of the day on Saturday. Five hours may seem like a good amount of time, but it wasn’t nearly enough to take in all the event had to offer.

Doug Ellis and Deb Fulton were gracious enough to share some of their table space with me so I could peddle DMR releases.

    Anthologies (Tip the Wink): This nineteen story anthology is edited by one of Baen’s best, Hank Davis. Though the book is pretty new, the stories range from as early as the Thirties all the way to now. So I think it qualifies as a Friday Forgotten Book for it’s contents. For the most part, this is the kind of science fiction I grew up on and still love.

  Fiction (Old Style Tales): Doyle’s final great horror story is truly a worthy swan song – a tale who’s science fiction maintains a level of effective awe in spite of having been categorically disproven by aviators a mere decade after being written. And indeed the tale is science fiction, fitting snuggly on a shelf between the speculative horror of H. G. Wells which preceded it and the cosmic terror of H. P. Lovecraft which succeeded it.e cosmic terror of H. P. Lovecraft which succeeded it.

    Myth (Men of the West): Of all these Latin chroniclers by far the most important was Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, who finished his “History of the Britons” about 1147. Geoffrey, as has been said, is not a real historian, but something much more interesting. He introduced to the world the story of King Arthur, which at once became the source and centre of hundreds of French romances, in verse or prose, and of poetry down to Tennyson and William Morris. To Geoffrey, or to later English chroniclers who had read Geoffrey, Shakespeare owed the stories of his plays, “Cymbeline” and “King Lear”.

  Authors (DMR Books): James Branch Cabell, who was born on April 14, 1879–just over one hundred forty years ago–has slipped into genteel literary obscurity. An author once praised and befriended by the likes of Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis, JBC had his entire fantasy epic, known as “The Biography of the Life of Manuel,” printed in a uniform hardcover eighteen-volume set at the height of his popularity in the 1920s and early ’30s. He was, by far, the preeminent American literary fantasist of that era. And yet, he is barely known outside hardcore literary fantasy circles now.

  Cinema (Rough Edges): I didn’t mean to write about two Raoul Walsh movies in a row, but that’s the way it’s worked out after last week’s post on DESPERATE JOURNEY. COLORADO TERRITORY is a Western remake from 1949 of the Humphrey Bogart classic HIGH SIERRA, also directed by Walsh eight years earlier in 1941. Both are based on the novel HIGH SIERRA by W.R. Burnett. In COLORADO TERRITORY, Joel McCrea plays outlaw Wes McQueen, in prison for robbing banks and trains, who is broken out so he can take part in a payroll heist from a train in Colorado.

  Popular Culture (Jon Mollison): Long time genre fans expect to see the usual Boomer perspectives.  Naturally, his version of the story of science fiction begins and ends with the era of the Boomers. To be fair, he is a film guy making a film about film people, so it’s no surprise that his documentary would ignore the foundational stories of the genre.  It does start with HG Wells, but then skips straight past four decades of science fiction to land on rubber monster B-movies. The usual Big Pub diversity hires get trotted out to offer Narrative Approved talking points about how the genre has matured under the careful guidance of perverts like Arthur C. Clarke without a mention of giants like Howard and Burroughs and Lovecraft and Merritt and the rest of the True Golden Age writers.

  Star Wars (Kairos): Two cultural observations that have repeatedly been made on this blog are that Star Wars has been weaponized against its original fans and that decadent Westerners are perverting normal pious sentiment by investing it in corporate pop culture products. Now a viral video has surfaced that documents the unholy confluence of both phenomena. Watch only if you haven’t eaten recently.

  Cinema (Mystery File): I’ve spoken often and highly of Fredric Brown;s classic mystery novel of strip-clubs and theology, The Screaming Mimi (Dutton, 1949) and recently betook myself to watching both film versions of it, side-by-side and back-to-back, through the miracle of VCRm watching a chunk of one, then the other, than back again…

  Pulps (John C. Wright): So what, exactly, makes the weird tales and fantastic stories of that day and age so “problematic”?

The use of lazy racial stereotypes, did you say? This generation has just as many or worse ones, merely with the polarities reversed. See the last decade of Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who and Marvel comics franchises, for examples.

The portrayal of women as weak damsels in distress? I will happily compare any number of Martian princesses or pirate queens from the pulp era to the teen bimbos routinely chopped up in the torture porn flicks of this generation, and let the matter of malign portrayals of women speak for itself.

  Fiction (Nerds on Earth): Howard Andrew Jones (who we’ve interviewed not once, but twice!) strikes that balance masterfully in For the Killing of Kings, the first book of an expected series. The book drops the reader right at the moment when a scandal in the Allied Realms begins. This controversy involves the legendary weapon of the most famous commander of the vaunted Altenerai Corps, N’lahr. Jones doesn’t even let two pages pass before the reader is invited into the discovery that something is wrong with this magic-infused sword, and it is that problem that carries the book’s action from start to finish.

            History (Black Gate): Enter the Western Frontier Force, a hastily assembled group of men from all parts of the empire that included two of the war’s many innovations. The first was the Light Car Patrol, made up of Model T Fords that had been stripped of all excess weight (even the hood and doors) so they could run over soft sand. Many came equipped with a machine gun. Heavier and slower were the armored cars, built on the large Rolls Royce chassis and sporting a turret and machine gun.

  Westerns (Tainted Archive): Geographically and historically the concept of “The West” is very loosely defined, when associated with the literary and film genre of the western. With the possible exception of the Eastern Seaboard almost every part of the USA had been called “The West” at some stage in the country’s history.

  Authors (John C. Wright): Gene Wolfe passed at his Peoria home from cardiovascular disease on April 14, 2019 at the age of 87.

This man is one of two authors who I was able to read with undiminished pleasure as a child, youth, man and master.

I met him only briefly at science fiction conventions, and was truly impressed by his courtesy and kindness. We shared a love of GK Chesterton. I never told him how I cherished his work, and how important his writings were to me.

  Authors (Rich Horton): Gene Wolfe died yesterday, April 14, 2019 (Palm Sunday!) His loss strikes me hard, as hard as the death last year of Ursula K. Le Guin. Some while I ago I wrote that Gene Wolfe was the best writer the SF field has ever produced. Keeping in mind that comparisons of the very best writers are pointless — each is brilliant in their own way — I’d say that now I’d add Le Guin and John Crowley and make a trinity of great SF writers, but the point stands — Wolfe’s work was tremendous, deep, moving, intellectually and emotionally involving, ambiguous in the best of ways, such that rereading him is ever rewarding, always resolving previous questions while opening up new ones.

Cartoons (Wasteland and Sky): One small loss of the modern age I’ve always been interested in is the death of the Saturday morning cartoon.

For over half a century they have lingered in the memories of just about everyone alive in the western world as part of some long ago age that will never return. But nobody talks about them beyond nostalgic musings. The problem with that is they require a deeper look than that. I don’t think it’s clear exactly why they do not exist anymore, and it is important why they do not.

  Fiction (Tip the Wink): It’s the stories, not the book, that are forgotten here. From the publisher’s website:

“Known best for his work on Popular Publications’ The Spider, pulp scribe Norvell Page proved he was no slouch when it came to penning gangster and G-man epics! This book collects all eleven stories Page wrote for “Ace G-Man Stories” between 1936 and 1939, which are reprinted here for the first time!”

      RPG (Modiphius): Horrors of the Hyborian Age is the definitive guide to the monstrous creatures inhabiting the dark tombs, ruined cities, forgotten grottos, dense jungles, and sinister forests of Conan’s world. This collection of beasts, monsters, undead, weird races, and mutants are ready to pit their savagery against the swords and bravery of the heroes of the Hyborian Age.

Drawn from the pages of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, this roster also includes creatures and alien horrors from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, to which Howard inextricably bound his Hyborian Age. Other entries are original, chosen carefully to reflect the tone and dangers of Conan’s world.

Sensor Sweep: Windy City Pulp Show, King Arthur, Star Wars Target Audience, Model T in Combat published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames