#you will get sick

[gniteruirui]

Eating your art :D

Get that out of your mouth!!!

[oldbaton]

Hi Max! Your blog is one of my favorites. I’m curious about your thoughts on You Will Get Sick if you feel like writing them out? I saw it last Saturday and I loved it, but I feel like I’m still wrapping my head around it. Ok, thanks for being so delightful!

oh my god i am SO sorry for missing this thank you

i mean. i love absurdism.

i mean what a way to explore chronic illness. or even in a broader sense the concept of our inevitable decline. (i mean it is called you WILL get sick). it was equal parts funny and i like how it explored the absurdity of these situations. i also like that the illness is never specified. im still trying to make sense of it. i really am. and i dont know if i have. it is one of those things i understood at an instinctual level but don't have the words to explain. but the way it reused dialogue was amazing. it was also a beautiful parody of theatre people. i have had to do the animal exercise before. and when i tell you i was horrible at it. horrible. but i understood linda's character wanting to be dorothy. oh god did i understand that. the concept of wanting to do your youth over because NOW you have a clarity of purpose. because when we are young we lack it. and she has gained that purpose but lacks the youth to explore aspects of it she wishes she could. arrow through my heart. but when she came out as dorothy there was something still so. triumphant about it? but yeah. i have a difficult time putting into words what i think happened on that stage. who knows if i ever will. but whatever it is..... i understood it.

it also helps being a new yorker (as im... assuming you are?). the people you meet. the concept of putting an ad on a pole to get a stranger to tell your social circle youre sick. VERY new york. the concept of being carried away by pigeons? (another thing where i have no clue what that meant but i strangely understood it).

and all the performances are great. but oh my god linda lavin. what a tour de force right? funny and heartbreaking. when she delivered that monologue in class. omg. and all those phone calls were hysterical. and again, ive met this type of person before. and they are SO specific. usually you meet them at a weird theatre mixer that has like 2 young people present and everyone else is 55 and older. or maybe in a lobby of an off broadway show in one of those church basements. it was a fantastic creation.

i really loved it. what an arresting piece of writing.

sorry i didnt answer this earlier.

[mugiwara-lucy]

With Kamala/Walz going up DAILY, I've seen more people talking about voting third party/Jill Stein (EW) and I believe the above screencaps from @three--rings can explain WHY Third Party votes NEVER work NOR is this the election to screw around in.

Everyone....like she says above.....PLEASE LEARN FROM HISTORY!!!

(Because if Trump gets in, he's NEVER LEAVING).

[perrieedwards]

i feel like people are skimming over the uk riots in a way that makes me want to tear my hair out. muslims in the uk are in active danger. immigrants in the uk are in active danger. refugees in the uk are in active danger. people of colour in the uk are in active danger. asian communities in the uk are in active danger. black communities in the uk are in active danger.

there are massive far right riots throughout the country right now and people like fucking elon musk and nigel farage are inciting it and still have a platform to speak. people have used three young girls deaths, people's genuine grief in southport, to try and gain traction for their own racist bullshit and it's working.

a lot of refugee charities have been forced to close leaving many people without support, homes, funding, food, etc. if you aren't able to donate please consider sending a message via the conversation over borders campaign! it will send a hopeful, welcoming letter to a refugee in the uk. there is also a guide to staying safe here.

please do your own research and donate to refugee charities, anti-islamophobia charities, mosques who are trying to rebuild after being destroyed, counter protesters, here are some i've heard positive things about but the list is extensive; southport strong together (support for the southport victims and their families), southport mosque rebuilding, riot repair fund, middlesbrough vulnerable residents, nasir mosque rebuilding, hull help for refugees, bristol welcomes migrants,

[alanaisalive]

Now that Eurovision is over, I want you all, especially the Americans, to take a good hard look at how the voting results turned out when people boycotted the event.

In the UK, the viewing figures were down about 2 million people compared to last year. Up to 2 million people made the conscious decision to not watch and not vote because of Israel's inclusion.

The final results of the public vote, Israel came in first place in the UK and got 12 points. Because the only people watching and voting were people who backed Israel or at least didn’t care one way or another.

This doesn't matter. It's a music contest. The boycott was still the right thing to do because it is just a show at the end of the day, and the viewing figures have more impact than the results.

But it is also a good object lesson to show you what happens if you boycott a vote over something that does matter. Choosing not to vote in, let's say, a presidential election will have similar results.

[yet-another-clown]

[halorvic]

[christadeguchi]

fascinated/horrified by this set of tweets…

[arsenicpanda]

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S (2023)

[chloesimaginationthings]

You think FNAF Pit Bonnie has William’s memories?..

[evilgoodguys]

try to forget.

[hotcinnamonsunset]

🎣lure me in, baby!

[mythicalcoolkid]

You don't wish your disability was worse or more visible, you wish your disability was taken seriously. Please stop confusing the two, I guarantee you would not get the support you need JUST by being more severe or more visible. Please listen to visibly disabled people when we tell you it isn't better on our side

[lotus-pear]

learning to love

[giantkillerjack]

Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".

Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"

And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".

Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.

At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.

So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!

Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!

Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!

Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.

[tedlebred]

this is probably all the tgcf you're ever gonna get out of me