Caffeinate This Historian

I love caffeine and history and chocolate and being backstage in a theatre. I cross stitch and binge watch all kinds of wild things. I just want a blog full of things that make me happy without things that tear others down.

[ancientcharm]

Goodbye Lince! The most famous cat in the excavations, our dean, has left us. As beautiful as the sun, father of many of Pompeii's felines, an indomitable stray, guardian of the brothel, and a global influencer, he leaves his memory in the photos of our visitors. He was cared for until the very end by volunteers from Archeogatti Onlus. Have a good trip, Lince! Cat paradise awaits you.

Pompeii - Parco Archeologico

[coffee-n-converse]

Cat glory and eternal warm sun spots in cat paradise for this glorious gatto ❤️

[coffee-n-converse]

Do I really have my shit together? Or do I just keep everyone at arms length so it doesn’t hurt so bad when they leave?

Well, I cover pain with humor and I’ve been cracking wild jokes all week leading up to my best friend leaving. So I’ll let you take a guess there.

It’s always the one that sneak past your walls that hurt the worst to lose.

[brainstatic]

Psst, hey, Marilyn Monroe’s image as a freewheeling sexpot was a carefully constructed lie. The real Marilyn Monroe was a roiling tragedy and her life was an indictment of our society as a whole. She was orphaned after her mother had a schizophrenic breakdown, bounced around between foster homes where she was sexually abused, and married a 21-year-old at 16 to get out of being sent to an orphanage. Hugh Hefner published nude photos of her without her consent that were taken when she was 23 and desperate. She suffered severe anxiety and depression, which she coped with by drinking and using barbiturates, and was already a full-blown addict when she became famous in the mid-50s. Her career was one of exploitation, condescension and alienation, and she killed herself at 36. That Hugh Hefner, a man who was at best an unpleasant footnote in her life, felt entitled to be buried next to her is one more humiliation in a pop cultural landscape we should all be ashamed of.

[class-struggle-anarchism]

“Please don’t make me a joke… I don’t mind making jokes, but I don’t want to look like one… I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity..”

 - Marilyn Monroe, last taped interview, days before her death

She deserved better than this

[tikkunolamorgtfo]

Can I just also say, in addition to all this, that I’m still pissed off about the fact that Joe DiMaggio swooped in and gave Marilyn a Christian funeral before her Rabbi could return from a trip overseas? ‘Cause that shit is fucked up.

So many men who claimed to be in love with her, and not one could fucking respect her wishes, even in death.

[emily84]

“I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let people fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn’t argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn’t.””  — Marilyn Monroe

Also:

As one of the biggest Ella Fitzgerald fans, she literally helped desegregate her performances. Ella was not allowed to play at Mocambo because of her race.

Ella Fitzgerald: “I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt… she personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.” thisisnotmyfairytaleendingg (Source: dmvnessa)

ALSO:

In August 1956, Monroe began filming The Prince and the Showgirl, with Laurence Olivier staring and directing. The production was complicated by conflicts between him and Monroe. He angered her with the patronizing statement “All you have to do is be sexy” and his attempts to get her to replicate Vivien Leigh’s interpretation. She became pregnant and miscarried during the production, which heavily worsened her depression and increased her drug abuse.

A L S O , I will never forget watching a documentary about her once and, speaking about her marriage with Arthur Miller, the narrator said, verbatim: “America’s Brain had married America’s Body”. Like, literally, because he was a famous writer, he was entitled to personhood; she, being an actress, and a beautiful woman, was reduced to being “a body”. I have never been more enraged with her portrayal in the media. If you want to be dismissive of her,  literally come for you.

[amuseoffyre]

She was also chronically ill her whole life: she suffered from endometriosis with pain so debilitating that a clause was written into her contracts accounting for the days when she would not physically be able to work during her periods.

She was on courses of strong medication, had invasive surgery to try and limit the damage caused, and despite trying for a baby numerous times, suffered many miscarriages because of her condition. The miscarriages especially sent her into deep depression, since she desperately wanted to be a mother.

There is speculation that the condition may have been one of the triggers in her drug dependency as well, because when you have endo, you will take whatever you can to stop. it. hurting.

Marilyn Monroe was smart and strong as hell in a world that saw her as a sexy doll and nothing more.

[wiciclesatmidnight]

She deserves better

[blamebrampton]

Marilyn was a founding member of the Hollywood branch of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy and had lifelong left-wing political views with a particular emphasis on racial equality. She formed her own independent production company that survived for several years and earned a credit as an executive producer on several films. Additionally, she was not only concerned for workers rights, she acted for them, using her own fame to stop staff being unfairly sacked from several of her films. She was a loyal, kind woman and her early death remains a great tragedy. Worse still, as OP notes, is the co-opting of her image by exactly the sort of people she would have loathed in life.

[perlukafarinn]

Shane does an interview after they're outed where he says, kind of off-handedly, that the one thing that still bothers him about having to keep their relationship secret for so long is that there are no pictures of them together as a couple from those years.

Someone clips it and it goes viral.

Over the next few days, Shane and Ilya's mentions start to get flooded with pictures. Mostly it's screenshots from various games they played against each other, meticulously picked through by dedicated fans to find every moment Shane and Ilya looked at each other on the ice.

Some screenshots get shared by hundreds of different people because they stand out so obviously: Shane and Ilya meeting each other's eyes during a face off; Ilya looking at Shane while his back is turned, naked longing visible on his face; Shane chasing after Ilya with a small but delighted grin.

There are also pictures from press events, award ceremonies, behind the scenes at All Stars. Seemingly any time Shane and Ilya got captured in the same frame gets dug up and shared.

Finally, a couple of weeks later, the director of Shane and Ilya's CCM commercial posts outtakes from their shoot. It's captioned 'Took a bit of digging but I knew I still had these somewhere! I had to make my contribution to the #HollanovArchives even though this must have been a while before they got together. These kids had crazy chemistry, right from the start!'

Shane hasn't responded to the onslaught yet, too overwhelmed by the (slightly terrifying) dedication of their fans as well as the fact that he now has dozens of pictures clearly displaying his and Ilya's love for each other during a time in their lives when it was so desperately hidden.

He does respond now, sharing the director's post with a sincere (and publicist-approved) caption thanking him and the fans.

Ilya also shares the post, tacking on 'yes if a while means a few hours 👅' like he didn't cry when Shane showed him the videos.

[coffee-n-converse]

I desperately need this in either the last book or the show. Or both. Omg how amazing would that be for both of them to see right at the end of the story? Especially Shane, who has been so terrified of how people would react, who received such hate from his team. Just… ugh I want this now. I want people tagging the Metros too with captions like “this was before ANY Cup wins, how could you assholes think he cheated for Rosanov when they clearly were a thing even then and he STILL won the Cup?”

I want Ilya to buy Shane a digital photo frame and upload every single picture people tag them in. I just…. Let them know how much people love them. Let them have pictures from before they were out.

[oopsabird]

sailor moon kitty overseeing the mission control room in houston as we leave orbit to head for the moon??? based.

[crazy-pages]

For those who don't know, the cat's name is Artemis. ❤️

[coffee-n-converse]

I know someone who worked this mission on the NASA side in Florida, and knowing her I’m not e en remotely surprised there was a plushie at Mission Control. I can also guarantee there was at least one on the FL side. I love this so much!

[tanthius]

Wild that the haters think new Star Trek shows are "pushing the gay agenda" more than old shows, because what agenda is that exactly? That gay people exist? Starfleet Academy has 2 same sex couples. More than a lot of shows, sure, but so what? There weren't actually any stories or episodes that focused on queerness. Kyle could've been Kylie and it wouldn't have made any difference in Jay-Den's character arc.

Meanwhlie, TNG and DS9 had multiple episodes focusing on what it means for a character to pursue a romantic relationship that is considered taboo by society at large. TNG had an episode about being forced to adopt a gender identity that you aren't comfortable with to conform to social norms, with an unsubtle reference to gay conversion therapy. And Jadzia Dax was a not-entirely-subtle transgender allegory. But somehow people think that was less woke than modern Trek?

I don't want to put words in someone's mouth but I can't help think the haters aren't actually mad about the shows "pushing an agenda" and just straight up don't want queer people to exist at all.

[yuuthedestroyer]

Okay but Starfleet Academy is the most "Star Trek" that a Star Trek show has felt since Voyager. I was not prepared to be into it, but it has those Star Trek bits! Starfleet as the ideal (even when it's not, the positive changes that are able to happen!), grappling with big themes, understanding and cooperation solving problems over violence, flawed people fucking up and trying to do better... And so many nods to the old series' without being annoying!

And this time it's in the package of, not a disciplined crew, but a bunch of chucklefuck college kids. It's like DS9 turned up to 11. All the adults are there, but there are also 200 Jakes and Nogs at their worst.

"Oh but Yuu, the dialogue is a bit clunky." It's Star Trek that is part of the fun.

"Oh but Yuu, there is woke." It's Star Trek, yes.

"Oh but Yuu, the characters do dumb/bad/etc shit." Yes. That is the point. It's so they can get better. Be friends anyways. Discuss and learn. Etc. See: Star Trek.

If you fuckers don't get on board with this and it gets cancelled after season 2, I will be so sad.

[thatlittleegyptologist]

"Using an Oxford comma is a sign of AI"

bestie boo, let me fill you in on something: if you're going to take any part of 'good grammar' and randomly assign it to She's A Witch! AI, you might as well give up. It's over. You're cooked. Anyone who has spent the last decade or more learning to type properly, anyone who has spent any time writing articles/papers/essays that require you to use 'good grammar' is going to fall into that 'oh no it might be AI' trap.

Stop hunting like it's 1692. You're not going to find Goody Proctor at the ChatGPT sacrament. What you're going to do is exactly what happened back then: harming people who've done nothing wrong.

[texasteaparty]

Hades Shane and Persephone Ilya

[biologicalstepfather]

If you know who Emmett Till is please reblog.

I’m trying to prove a point to my dad.

[quillquiver]

I’m thinking about tattoos because I am currently sitting for a massive one, and I just… really love the idea of Ilya coming home one night with a small 24 somewhere on his body immediately after they get outed but before they get married. Like, things are shit and they have to finish out the season and it’s stressful. Ilya misses Shane like a fucking phantom limb, and so one afternoon after walking Anya he just—gets in the car. It’s not like he has a fucking game to go, and he’s wanted to have Shane’s number on him for a while anyway. When Shane finds it, mostly healed on the morning before their meeting with Crowell, he is both mortified and absolutely fucking obsessed with it.

This is in contrast to Ilya, who, some indeterminate evening after they’re married and both playing in Ottawa, starts seriously worrying about how weird Shane is acting. It comes to a head when Ilya’s hand brushes his ribs and Shane almost jumps out of his skin. At this point, Shane’s trying to explain while Ilya’s worriedly rucking up his shirt and—freezes, when he sees the second skin over the discreet 81. Ilya doesn’t know what to do with his body. His hands. He thinks his face is probably doing something embarrassing. He must crowd Shane up against the counter because he’s sitting on it now, and Ilya is just. Looking. He can’t stop looking. And he knows they wear rings and have a brand new house and they’re married now, really, truly, but—there is something about his number tattooed on Shane’s body that is. So blisteringly, overwhelmingly hot. Shane doesn’t get tattoos. He doesn’t.

Ilya leans in to press the softest, lightest kiss to the bandage before leaning up and taking Shane’s mouth like a man possessed.

[notahungrywish]

When Yuna has her “no son(in law) of mine will have inferior brand deals and management” takeover shortly after she learns about Shane and Ilya, how long do you think it takes her to figure out his money situation with his family?

I’m imagining her/maybe Shane playfully ribbing him about how he has no real financial manger or decent investments and what do you MEAN you just let a paycheck like that sit in your account while buying luxury cars every five minutes no wonder your net worth is shockingly low for your value, etc etc. and he’s not even offended he’s surprised and pleased that his new family is so invested in him and also enjoys watching where Shane gets some of his crazy. Like Ilya Mommy Issues Rozanov is “yes please ma’am optimize my finances and worry about my wellbeing harder” while he shovels whatever David made for dinner in his mouth.

But then at some point while she’s (lovingly) harping on his financial irresponsibility he just kind of quietly mentions that actually so much of his paycheck was going back home to his family when he was younger that he needed to blow shit on cars or whatever pretty quick if he didn’t want it to disappear. And she realizes that yeah he’s a little dummy who spent a concerning amount of money on VIP sections last year and thinks bank account interest is investing but he was also a child supporting his entire family in a foreign country with no one bothering to look out for his best interest or explain planning for a future.

David gets treated to impassioned rants every night about how “David I’m not convinced anyone even read that boy his contract in Russian”.

She starts managing him as well, obviously, and she’s kind of disturbed by how easily he just signs whatever she puts in front of him and doesn’t bother asking questions before agreeing to hand over all his management to her. He just seems thrilled she got him a Lamborghini partnership and an invite to fashion week.

The only time he puts up a fuss is when he realizes she’s not planning to take any significant cut of his money because “you’re family sweetheart” and he looks like he got smacked in the head with a shovel and has to go outside on the porch with Shane for a suspiciously long period of time.

Just to make sure it’s not suspicious that Yuna Hollander is now managing Ilya Rozanov she takes on a few more clients too. And if she specializes in managing rookies with no support network or active language barriers then that’s just a coincidence.

[codenamefinlandia]

I LOVE THIS A NORMAL AMOUNT

[bookwormen]

Nathan Lane, a true king, had this to say about Timothée Chalamet's thoughts on opera and ballet:

"First of all, one should remember people will be going to see Swan Lake and La Traviata long after someone at a dinner party says, ‘Who was Timothée Chalamet?’ It’s the show business circle of life. And the bigger question is: Why was there a town hall meeting with Matthew McConaughey and Timothée Chalamet? I mean, who deemed this meeting of the minds necessary? Why isn’t there a town hall meeting with Democrats discussing how to get this lunatic out of the White House?

Then I realized, ‘Oh, he’s still promoting that movie, that endless ping-pong movie.’ And, you know, I got news for Timmy: If you think nobody cares about opera and ballet, I can’t tell you how much we don’t care about ping-pong...”

[shreekofjoy]

You've been hit by 🔪

You've been struck by🔪

A mad senator! 🔪

[totallyboatless]

I finally figured out how to put words to the detail that makes me deeply obsessed with this exact moment:

(Gif by @hollanderdiaz)

Ilya being a goofball is funny on its own, but it’s the fact that NO ONE is paying attention to him here that elevates it. The kids are already way past him, Shane is watching the kids, literally no one is looking at him. Ilya isn’t performing for anyone here. He came up with a game and is having fun playing it himself, regardless of if he has an audience.

It’s hitting me harder now why Ilya loves being around kids so much. He gets to initiate play with an excuse to use as a shield to his teammates later that it was entirely for the kids and not for him. The kids Ilya plays with have absolutely no idea that they’re seeing a more real version of him than the vast majority of the people in his life.

It’s also why it’s CRUCIAL to have this scene cut together with the All Star game and Ilya playing with Shane on the same team for the first time. It’s the perfect way to communicate to the audience that playing hockey with Shane allows Ilya to find his boyish joy again. Ilya is having the same emotional experience playing hockey with Shane as he is playing shark attack with the kids in the pool.

There’s an interview where Connor says he doesn’t think Ilya really cares about hockey, and this is a demonstration of what I think he means. Shane loves hockey specifically, Yuna loves hockey specifically, Svetlana loves hockey specifically.

Ilya likes competition and play, but he’s only playing hockey because he’s naturally very good at it. Being the best isn’t what keeps him happy—it’s playing with Shane and finding the fun he must have experienced as a child with his mother on the ice before his father turned it into a job.

Anyway this is in my top favorite shots of the entire show for the way it makes me crack up but also feel all that.

[1percentcharge]

momentarily had the thought “shout out to my platonic harem” and then remembered that’s called friends

[coffee-n-converse]

No, this is better. This is SO MUCH BETTER. I’m going to start calling all of my friend groups platonic harems now.

[xeyesofstardust]

Shout out to Seattle Opera for this. I am loving it.

[coffee-n-converse]

No one is as petty as theatre kids. And he should have known that. I am kicking my feet with giddy glee at how happy this makes me 🤣😁