It has been another busy month, so now I am up to 5,121 e-mails, woo. But hopefully nothing will come up and this will be down to a manageable number soon.
You really can speedrun NGE in the first episode alone!
[Katsuragi appears] Man, adolescence is hard.
[humans launch N2 bombs] truly, humans are the worst monsters
[Shinji and Katsuragi shelter under/behind car] Clearly the best solution is to blend all our consciousnesses and flesh into a giant lake so we never need to defend ourselves again
[Rei appears on stretcher and Shinji steps up] aw, big brother energy
if I am doing something somewhere in the house or yard that is not dog related (these are fake activities) Glimmer will come and try to entice me into a dog related activity to do instead, and if I ignore her, she will begin to do what I have come to think of as Dog Infomercials. she will go get a favorite toy and bring it to me and begin MELODRAMATICALLY playing with it by herself in a really exaggerated way, then she will periodically pause and look at me to see if I have noticed how much FUN she is having with WUBBA™ and how much fun I COULD BE having with WUBBA™ if only I would CALL THIS TOLL FREE NUMBER NOW 👀👀👀👀
here she is doing Dog Infomercial Face after smacking me in the leg with her favorite tuggy ball
Me: Did you know that medieval cathedrals weren’t actually supposed to be dark and rundown places with only stained glass as color? They were bright places full of light… the reason they look like that now is because of the centuries of accumulated grime and dust, here look at this restoration of the Cathedral of Chartres in France:
It’s based on actual paint from the times, and when you think about it, it makes a lot more sense, after all a church is supposed to be a bright place of hope. Yet when we think about the middle ages we think about grimy and dark cathedrals. I wonder how much of our conception of history is shaped by our current visions of historical buildings.
My Goth GF: listen, I don’t think this thing between us is working,
I remember seeing them perform this live on my campus.. My jaw dropped within 10 seconds.
Captions for this video below since they talk really fast and can be hard to understand! I struggled myself a bit, so let me know if I messed up on anything!
A black man and a white woman take the stage together to perform a slam poem.
Both speak together in unison for the first few words, before the black man begins feigning shock, as though he suddenly lost the ability to speak, though he continues mouthing along as she speaks. The poem begins:
“The first day I realized I was black. It was 2000. We had just learned about blacks for the first time in second grade. At recess, all the white kids chased me into the woods, chanting ‘slave.’ My mother said I refused to come out for three hours. She said she thinks I was lost in the trees, but I just needed to be closer to my roots.”
Both begin speaking in unison for a few words again, before this time, the white woman feigns loss of speech, but continues mouthing along just as the black man did before. He continues speaking:
“As a woman, having a boyfriend is a battle. If 70% of us are abused in a lifetime, what is the number of men doing it? The answer is not one man, running faster than light to complete a mission, and that is what leaves me sick.”
Again, the white woman begins speaking as the black man mouths along.
“The second day I realized I was black was in a gas station. I only had twenty five cents, so I searched for what to spend it on. The cashier floated from isle to isle, eyes fixed on my hands.”
The black man begins speaking again, and they continue in unison.
“That was the first time I realized skin color was a crime.”
Now the black man continues speaking as the white woman mouths along with him again.
“My body has become cause to write legislation. Cause for ass smacks in the back of a class. My body has demanded everything except respect. I’ve been asked, ‘what makes you feel unsafe?’ And I struggle not to yell ‘everything!’”
They switch again, so the white woman is now speaking as the black man mouths along.
“The third time I realized I was black was in an all white cafeteria. I gathered my legs under me, made rockets of my feet, and approached a girl. She told me she was not into ‘my type of guy.’ I felt the words shoot daggers into my melanin. I have never wanted to disappear so bad.”
They switch so the black man is speaking and the white woman is mouthing along.
“As a woman, I’ve learned to answer to everything except my name. ‘Little lady’ is not said to mean ‘equal,’ but to make sure I remember my place. I battle between wanting to own my body, and accepting there is a one-in-four chance a man will lay claim to my skin, a plot of land for the taking.”
Now the white woman speaks as the black man mouths along.
“The last day I realized I was black was in an elevator in California. To the white woman that told me she knows what it feels like to be black because she grew up poor:”
They speak now in unison.
“I would tell you to think before you speak.”
The black man begins mouthing along again.
“But your mind has got to be bacteria infected. And any filter through that labyrinth of nothingness might be worse than no thought at all.”
Now he speaks as she mouths.
“There’s a group of women going around the room, sharing their personal definition of feminism. He is the only man in the room, and all of a sudden, the tone switches to destroying the patriarchy by annihilating all men.”
She speaks now as he mouths.
“Do you know what it feels like to be black? To pop lock your way in and out of hugs? It is not a problem you want to sympathize.”
They speak in unison.
“But to tell me that you know my pain is-”
He falls silent again and mouths along as she continues speaking.
“-to stab yourself in the leg because you saw me get shot. We have two different wounds, and looking at yours does nothing to heal mine.”
She now mouths along as he speaks.
“Never will I turn away an ally.”
She speaks.
“But when a man speaks on my behalf, it only proves my point!”
He speaks.
“Movements are driven by passion, not by asserting yourself dominant by a world that already puts you there.”
They speak in unison.
“You speak to know pain that you only fathom because we told you it was there. You know nothing of silence until someone who cannot know your pain tells you how to fix it.”
They continue to speak in unison, but now slowly back away from the microphones with their arms held straight out to their sides, parallel to the ground, to mimic the pose of Jesus on the cross, in order to highlight the next line.
“Every day is a crucification. But there is no regards for lives crossed.”
They now quickly swap places and return to the microphones. This is symbolic of them switching places to speak for themselves and not each other. The white woman begins speaking alone.
“I fight so my voice can be heard. I fight for the voices you silence, all in the name of what is right.”
They speak in unison for a few words before he speaks alone as she mouths along again.
“The problem is, you assume the struggles attached to a social class. I am black, and bold, and beautiful by nature. Ain’t no income that can change that.”
She begins the next sentence alone.
“The problem with speaking up for each other-”
He speaks alone.
“is that everyone is left-”
They speak in unison.
“without a voice.”
This is the end of the poem. The audience cheers as the Button Poetry logo appears on the screen, followed by the logo for the “Association of College Unions International.”
"I was hired by the New Yorker in 2002 to photograph Robin Williams, and after doing my research what stood out most for me was that he was a very physical comedian. I came up with this idea to photograph him swinging from a chandelier in a grand hotel room. Most publicists shoot down these kinds of wild ideas, so I didn’t tell anyone what I was up to, but rigged up a chandelier at the Waldorf Astoria hotel for him to swing from. When Robin got there and saw what was happening, he lifted up his shirt and showed me this enormous scar on his shoulder. He’d just had surgery and couldn’t so much as lift his arm. He was so disappointed! He really felt bad about not being able to do it, because he loved the idea and really wanted to help me accomplish my vision.
Unlike most Hollywood stars, he was unfazed by his success and position. He talked to everyone from stylists to the crew, to the hotel staff. We ended up asking a maid at the hotel to swing from the chandelier instead, and I asked him to just sit there and read a newspaper, which I think in the end was an even funnier, more unexpected picture.
[ID: a photo of Robin Williams sitting in a mostly empty room reading a newspaper. He is perched on a coffee table with his legs crossed, wearing a red jacket and bright blue shoes, and is reading with an amused expression on his face. Behind him, a woman in a beige maid uniform is swinging from a chandelier and smiling. /end ID.]
The ninth doctor was so insane fr he was like I watched my planet get destroyed and I can’t share this trauma with anyone. I will fix this by befriending a human girl and taking her to see her planet get destroyed. This is normal behaviour.
there are very few ancient artifacts that make me more emotional than roman tombstones that thank the reader for stopping by and wish them well. there’s simply something so sweet and gentle to me about imagining a traveler stopping along the road to read someone’s final dedication and being sent away with the blessings of a thankful ghost
marcus caecilius: good luck and good health to you. sleep without a care.
