If you like following me, want to keep following me, etc, Please read:
After a thorough and much needed cleansing of this blog, I’ve decided to remake entirely, and leave this blog behind as an archive of a past. Too many amazing memories were made here for me to delete - but the truth of the matter is that I don’t feel safe on here anymore, to share freely and be open with you all freely, due to unfortunate circumstances.
So, TL;DR: If you want to keep following me, please send me a message. I will be more than happy to send the new url to those who want it, and will definitely be following some of my favorite blogs from here on the new one. I won’t be posting it for anonymous asks, however - I apologize for that, but I am too determined to keep my new location/blog name as private as possible, for reasons I’d rather not discuss.
Whether you re-follow or not, thank you so much for all this time. This blog was an integral part of my life for a very long time, and the sheer amount of gratitude I have for the people I met here and interacted with will stay with me forever. A special shout out to the canoe - I’ll be making sure the Kum Canoe list stays up in this archive as a small memorial to our beloved boys and the glorious Canoe.
I love you guys. Thanks for reading. <3
Ok I feel compelled now - what's your favorite movie?
I made a post with my list not too long ago, but I can’t find it, so here we are, lol. For the longest time I said Gone with the Wind was my number one favorite, and I still do love it so much. Mostly because of Vivien Leigh if we’re being honest. She’s a goddess. And costumes, and I do love the story. (I realize, ahem, some of this movie is problematic in some areas, but I remember watching this movie when I was 12 for the first time and being swept into another world.)
But honestly, I think my favorite movie is Howl’s Moving Castle, and I was so happy I got to see it in the theatre this past week. There’s something about this movie that makes me feel so homey and happy. Whenever I watch it I feel like I’m in a warm hug, or I’m home after a long journey. And the music is divine. Joe Hisaishi composes music that makes angels cry. If falling in love had a sound, it would be this piece of music.
When I watched this movie for the first time and saw Howl take Sophie on a stroll through the sky, I knew that no matter what happened after, I would always love this movie.I was right. But beyond that, I love Sophie’s journey of self discovery, and I love that Howl and Sophie learn something from each other and are compelled to change. She becomes freer and allows herself to see her inner beauty, while he grows and learns to be more responsible and not run away. And they don’t change for each other purposely, no…they each learn from each other, which is an important distinction.
Just…gah.
Some honorable mentions though are The Mummy (Brendan Fraiser one.) That Hamilton Woman, The Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Wuthering Heights (1939) My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bridesmaids, The Last Unicorn, and Wonder Woman.
Sara Jacobsen, 19, grew up eating family dinners beneath a stunning Native American robe.
Sara Jacobsen, 19, grew up eating family dinners beneath a stunning Native American robe.
Not that she gave it much thought. Until, that is, her senior year of high school, when she saw a picture of a strikingly similar robe in an art history class.
The teacher told the class about how the robe was used in spiritual ceremonies, Sara Jacobsen said. “I started to wonder why we have it in our house when we’re not Native American.”
She said she asked her dad a few questions about this robe. Her dad, Bruce Jacobsen, called that an understatement.
“I felt like I was on the wrong side of a protest rally, with terms like ‘cultural appropriation’ and ‘sacred ceremonial robes’ and ‘completely inappropriate,’ and terms like that,” he said.
“I got defensive at first, of course,” he said. “I was like, ‘C’mon, Sara! This is more of the political stuff you all say these days.’”
But Sara didn’t back down. “I feel like in our country there are so many things that white people have taken that are not theirs, and I didn’t want to continue that pattern in our family,” she said.
The robe had been a centerpiece in the Jacobsen home. Bruce Jacobsen bought it from a gallery in Pioneer Square in 1986, when he first moved to Seattle. He had wanted to find a piece of Native art to express his appreciation of the region.
The Chilkat robe that hung over the Jacobsen dining room table for years. Credit Courtesy of the Jacobsens
“I just thought it was so beautiful, and it was like nothing I had seen before,” Jacobsen said.
The robe was a Chilkat robe, or blanket, as it’s also known. They are woven by the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples of Alaska and British Columbia and are traditionally made from mountain goat wool. The tribal or clan origin of this particular 6-foot-long piece was unclear, but it dated back to around 1900 and was beautifully preserved down to its long fringe.
“It’s a completely symmetric pattern of geometric shapes, and also shapes that come from the culture,” like birds, Jacobsen said. “And then it’s just perfectly made — you can see no seams in it at all.”
Jacobsen hung the robe on his dining room wall.
After more needling from Sara, Jacobsen decided to investigate her claims. He emailed experts at the Burke Museum, which has a huge collection of Native American art and artifacts.
“I got this eloquent email back that said, ‘We’re not gonna tell you what to go do,’ but then they confirmed what Sara said: It was an important ceremonial piece, that it was usually owned by an entire clan, that it would be passed down generation to generation, and that it had a ton of cultural significance to them.“
Jacobsen says he was a bit disappointed to learn that his daughter was right about his beloved Chilkat robe. But he and his wife Gretchen now no longer thought of the robe as theirs. Bruce Jacobsen asked the curators at the Burke Museum for suggestions of institutions that would do the Chilkat robe justice. They told him about the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau.
When Jacobsen emailed, SHI Executive Director Rosita Worl couldn’t believe the offer. “I was stunned. I was shocked. I was in awe. And I was so grateful to the Jacobsen family.”
Worl said the robe has a huge monetary value. But that’s not why it’s precious to local tribes.
“It’s what we call ‘atoow’: a sacred clan object,” she said. “Our beliefs are that it is imbued with the spirit of not only the craft itself, but also of our ancestors. We use [Chilkat robes] in our ceremonies when we are paying respect to our elders. And also it unites us as a people.”
Since the Jacobsens returned the robe to the institute, Worl said, master weavers have been examining it and marveling at the handiwork. Chilkat robes can take a year to make – and hardly anyone still weaves them.
“Our master artist, Delores Churchill, said it was absolutely a spectacular robe. The circles were absolutely perfect. So it does have that importance to us that it could also be used by our younger weavers to study the art form itself.”
Worl said private collectors hardly ever return anything to her organization. The federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act requires museums and other institutions that receive federal funding to repatriate significant cultural relics to Native tribes. But no such law exists for private collectors.
Bruce and Gretchen Jacobsen hold the Chilkat robe they donated to the Sealaska Heritage Institute as Joe Zuboff, Deisheetaan, sings and drums and Brian Katzeek (behind robe) dances during the robe’s homecoming ceremony Saturday, August 26, 2017. Credit NOBU KOCH / SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE
Worl says the institute is lobbying Congress to improve the chances of getting more artifacts repatriated. “We are working on a better tax credit system that would benefit collectors so that they could be compensated,” she said.
Worl hopes stories like this will encourage people to look differently at the Native art and artifacts they possess.
The Sealaska Heritage Institute welcomed home the Chilkat robe in a two-hour ceremony over the weekend. Bruce and Gretchen Jacobsen traveled to Juneau to celebrate the robe’s homecoming.
The year is 2089. The zombie apocalypse has hit and the humans were no match. All of the world’s landmarks have been destroyed and any humans left are in hiding. Despite this, zombie Carol Channing has managed to open her 7th revival of Dolly on Broadway.
ok can we agree that the WORST feeling is when you’re just sitting around consciously procrastinating and you’re just overly aware that each second that passes is more time wasted and you like watch hours pass and you’re STILL procrastinating and you CANT STOP and your panicked brain is trapped inside a body that refuses to be productive and inside you’re screaming but outwardly you’re just eating chips
