You are alright as you are

Listen, I know what I’m saying

[oldshrewsburyian]

She never looked at anyone, it seemed to me, except with intention and as if she didn't mean to waste the look.

The Go-Between, L.P. Hartley

[harrisonforded]

Colin Firth as Tommy Judd Another Country (1984) | Dir. Marek Kanievska

[mangled-by-disuse]

in happier pride news i actually found this deeply heartwarming

that's solidarity baybeeee

[lgbtlaughs]

Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.

At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.

Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Miners’ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to “encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community […] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.”

[slowlikehoney1996]

If your lover lives in Hong Kong and cannot get to Chicago, it will be necessary for you to go to Hong Kong. Perhaps you will spend your life there, and never see Chicago again. And you will, I assure you, as long as space and time divide you from anyone you love, discover a great deal about shipping routes, airlines, earthquake, famine, disease, and war. And you will always know what time it is in Hong Kong, for you love someone who lives there. And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win.

James Baldwin, Nothing Personal

[littlegirlinvisible]

When I lived in Porpoise Spit, I'd just stay in my room for hours... and listen to ABBA songs. Sometimes I'd stay in there all day. But since I've met you and moved to Sydney... I haven't listened to one ABBA song. It's because now my life's as good as an ABBA song. It's as good as “Dancing Queen.”

Muriel’s Wedding (1994) dir. P.J. Hogan

[ilyasaysitbetter]

Season 1 Episode 2 – Part 1 / Здесь непонятно, где лицо, а где рыло, и непонятно, где пряник, где плеть

Olympics! I hope the athletes, including Ilya and Shane, had fun at the Opening Ceremony. I remember watching it but I don’t remember t.A.T.u performing. I do remember one of the rings not opening – and Russian TV covering it up. And the Choir of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs - the most singing police in the world! - singing Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. Wild times. This would be the Ministry where Grigori Rozanov worked BTW.

Mirroring real life events, Russian hockey team captained by Ilya gets knocked out of the tournament and misses out on medals on home ice.

We see dejected and devastated Ilya interviewed. One of the reporters asks in unaccented Russian:

-28:36: Что Вы чувствуете сейчас, разочарование или просто усталость? Не кажется ли Вам, что это … ? (What are you feeling right now, disappointment or just fatigue? Don’t you think that this ...?)

It is not translated and not subtitled and hard to hear over the “Man in the Crease” hosts going on about the “young phenom” Ilya. The English commentary isn't drowning out Russian voices maliciously – it's just two sports hosts doing their job. But Ilya's actual emotional state gets lost in the noise. Nobody's listening to what he's feeling. That's almost sadder.

I never paid attention until now but the cafe where Shane talks to Scott Hunter and Carter Vaughn is called Cafe and Bakery MYOD – literally – promising fresh baked goods each morning in their logo. Why would they transliterate МЁД (honey)? Many businesses used English in their names for the cool factor but “myod” is just awkward.

This is also where Shane texts Ilya.

But Ilya doesn’t answer. And who would, when they are bombarded with texts from family like:

-26:06 (text from Alexei): Где ты, блядь? Папа так зол на тебя! gde ty, blyat’? PA-pa tak zol na te-BYA! Subtitles: “Where the fuck are you? Dad is so fucking mad at you!”

Alexei doesn’t filter his words or his emotions with Ilya on a good day. And you can practically feel it – their father hovering, all intimidation and national-scale demands. Alexei is caught in the middle. His permanent annoyance with Ilya, plus their father's anger. Great mix.

His punctuation is top notch though.

And no, Ilya doesn’t want to talk to Hollander in person either. There are reasons. Many.

Here's what Sochi actually was in February 2014.

Seven months earlier, Russia passed the gay propaganda law. Vague enough that holding hands in public could qualify. The Sports Minister was direct about it: "An athlete of nontraditional sexual orientation isn't banned from coming to Sochi. But if he goes out into the streets and starts to propagandize, then of course he will be held accountable." You're welcome to exist. Just not visibly.

And the surveillance infrastructure was already in place. The FSB (Federal Security Service – Russia's successor to the KGB) deployed a system called SORM. Keyword filtering on every email, text, and phone call. No warrants. No oversight. The telecoms installing the equipment weren't even told what was being intercepted. Hotel rooms and bathrooms were bugged. A Russian deputy prime minister accidentally confirmed it at a press conference before an aide pulled him away from the microphone. Oops.

So. Ilya is the captain of the Russian national hockey team. Out of medal contention. On home ice. His father works for the Ministry – the one with the choir and the enforcers. There's a government minister meeting him that evening. Pressure. Disappointment. Guilt.

And Shane Hollander is texting him.

On Russian networks.

Lily texting Jane in the US and Canada is one thing – and they still feel they need a cover, a system in place to protect themselves. In Sochi, every message Shane sends lands on a phone the FSB can read. System or not.

Ilya ignoring Shane isn't cold. It's survival.

[popofflupine]

The Charioteer (1953)

Explore a hand-picked collection of Pins about The Charioteer (1953) on Pinterest.

My drawing references for the Charioteer! Clothing, settings, faces, kisses etc.

I meant to post this ages ago! It needs an update and I haven't got citations for everything 😶 but hopefully it'll be useful to someone else!

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

In her final narrative, Mary Renault focused on medieval life in early twelfth-century France. Her central characters were crusaders who set out from Flanders and Toulouse to travel overland and by sea via Constantinople to Jerusalem. The action featured both men and women and concerned “the hospices, the injured and dying men and those who tended them,” allowing the author to examine the codes of courtly love and chivalry as well as religious beliefs. Renault’s story involved the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, an order that included members dedicated to the care of the sick and wounded as well as the fighting knights who participated in the First Crusade. Such a narrative allowed Renault to draw on her knowledge of French, on her geographical and historical understanding of the eastern Mediterranean, and on her own medical experiences. After much deliberation, Julie [Mullard] had destroyed this uncompleted book in March 1985. It seems likely that Mary would have approved. The novel had never reached the stage of the final “fair copy” so important to her, and she was invariably careful about her public persona, the author who addressed her interviewers with precision, craft, and grace, the writer whose pseudonym she chose so strategically from the very beginning.

— Caroline Zilboorg, The Masks of Mary Renault: A Literary Biography (2001)

[eclare1000]

You’re idly watching a sofa-chat light entertainment programme on Greek tv and suddenly a photo montage of Connor Storrie being Connor Storrie pops up.

[marz-rm]

Achilles and Patroclus Posting this while Hudson is in my Milan. This took way too long to draw (especially Connor's hair) but pretty satisfied with how it came out. There's another version on patreon with the bg and wallpapers!

[clonerightsagenda]

When I was at the natural history museum, the fossil section had stickers on the glass to engage children - things like "Flap your arms like a pterodactyl" or "Measure your hand against the mosasaurus." However the first of these I encountered, which I found alarming and threatening without context, was a sticker reading "Struggle like you are stuck in a tar pit"

[clonerightsagenda]

I feel like more bright colors, an exclamation mark, or a more whimsical font choice would've also helped here to indicate that it is a Fun Activity For Children. Instead it felt like getting instructed in my inevitable fate by a road sign

[sunlitroom]

“That would be delightful,' agreed Flora, thinking how nasty and boring it would be.”

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

[awizardcommandingsleep]

Don't forget to vote in Tumblr's own tc poll!

[awizardcommandingsleep]

The Charioteer on Storygraph

[shilyas]

[eclare1000]

One of the things I admire about Connor Storrie’s acting choices is the physical realism he brings to Ilya.

Ilya embodies male beauty and often deploys it intentionally for effect - when he meets Shane, in the gym, at the club, in the Florida bar scene.

But this is also the Ilya that wipes snot off his nose, adjusts himself when Shane wakes him up in bed at the cottage, screws his face up to “fuck San Francisco”, becomes - almost - ugly with confusion and distress at the end of Tumameltdown, and talks with a mouth full of pasta.

[verecunda]

I heard a bird call today, while I was out with the dog, that I’d never heard before - very strange and distinctive. Several hours of listening intently to clips of bird calls on the internet later, and it turns out it was part of the mating display of the northern lapwing, aka the green plover. I have now actually heard the green plover calling in the wild. I have attained peak Sutcliff Protagonist energy. 🙌

[eclare1000]

@healerqueen The moment I turned off Hadrian’s Wall and onto the rough moorland footpath snaking north across the distant hills gave me a thrill for the same reason!

[eclare1000]

Jacob Tierney and Rachel Reid saying they’re both huge Mary Renault fans. I gasped!

Jacob, Charioteer adaptation, when?

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