A Hovercraft Full of Eels

Politics, pedantry, and pop culture. Plus other things what trip me trigger.

[elvisomar]

Created by Diane Duane

[andypartridges]

Robyn Hitchcock, mid 80s. Photo by Rosalind Kunath.

[elvisomar]

Robyn Hitchcock | Madonna of the Wasps | Queen Elvis (1989)

[internationalemeteorologie]

Hiroshi Yoshida 

El Capitan (North American series). 1925

[sparklejamesysparkle]

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in costume as Josephine and Daphne in the United Artists/Billy Wilder comedy Some Like It Hot, 1959. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2006, Curtis shared the following recollections about making the movie: EW: You weren’t happy with the dresses they initially gave you. TC: Oh, horrible! They put Debbie Reynolds’ clothes on me from a costume company. Her waist was up around my armpits! And they tried some Loretta Young outfits. But all her clothes wanted to do was spin around. So Billy said let Orry-Kelly make them for you. Boy, did we get excited! We had custom garter belts and brassieres, shoes that fit us properly, and nice cloche hats and those high collars that Olivia de Havilland used to wear in those early movies. Oh, did I love them! EW: You look like Eve Arden. TC: And a little bit of Grace Kelly and my mother. EW: How long did it take for you and Jack to become Josephine and Daphne? TC: About 30 minutes for makeup. Then we’d put on our hair and the costumes. We’d be ready in about an hour and 15 minutes. EW: That’s pretty fast. TC: Yeah, we wanted to get that behind us. Neither Jack nor I liked sitting in a makeup chair too long. So we’d lie back in those chairs and reach across and hold each other’s hand. We’d just hang on to each other.

[elvisomar]

I love this even more when I remember that the children of Christopher Guest and Jamie Lee Curtis get to look at this and say, "Hey, that's my grandpa!"

[thepinkpestilence]

Persepolis (2007) dir. Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, based on Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name.

The success of Persepolis established Satrapi as one of the most widely read Iranian authors in the world, and her role in co-directing the film led to Satrapi becoming the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Satrapi died in Paris on 4 June 2026, aged 56.

[whishaw-deactivated20150905]

[xshiromorix]

Just a reminder:

When Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) was travelling on the road with his cousin, Al-Fadl ibn Abbas, a woman stopped him to ask him a question.  The woman was very beautiful, and Al-Fadl couldn’t help but stare at her.

Seeing this, Prophet Muhammad reached out his hand and turned his cousin’s face away.

He didn’t tell the woman to cover her face.

He didn’t tell her to change her clothing.

He didn’t tell her that her appearance was too tempting or indecent.

He averted his cousin’s impolite stare.

[elvisomar]

Signal boost. Because even the Q'ran seems to understand the real issue, when some American men apparently cannot.

Also, credit where credit is due. This GIF set is a clip from the wonderful animated film version of Persepolis, directed and based on the graphic novel by, Marjane Satrapi, a French/Iranian cartoonist and animator, along with her collaborator Vincent Paronnaud. I recommend the graphic novel to anyone. It’s the second best graphic novel I’ve read (after Maus by Art Spegelman). The film was nominated for an American Academy award for best animated feature, and it is beyond excellent.

It’s rare that any adapted screenplay is written by, adapted by, and then actually directed by the original author. Even rarer that the person in question is a woman. Even rarer that this a woman raised in an Islamic culture.

The graphic novel and film are filled with poignant observations like the one above. It is rare that I have experienced an autobiographical story in any medium with so much honesty, and so much pain. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

[mirrormaelstrom]

[elvisomar]

The brilliant, Iranian-French graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi passed away June 4, 2026. She published a lot of great work, but if you haven't read Persepolis (2000), you need to find it.

According to her family, Satrapi died of a broken heart following the death of her husband, Swedish-French filmmaker Mattias Ripa.

They will be remembered through the Mattias and Marjane Ripa-Satrapi Cinema Foundation which provides financial support for foreign students who intend to study filmmaking in Paris.

[elvisomar]

The Residents | It's a Man's Man's Man's World | single (1984)

[dispelzine]

Walls / Chicago Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

[elvisomar]

Here is that same building today, with the trashy 1970s facade removed. Robert's Shoes sadly closed in late 2014, and the building on the corner was removed following the events in response to the death of George Floyd in 2020. This is just a little ways north of East Lake Street on the west side of Chicago Avenue South.

Link to Google Street View

[deathbyhiccups]

[elvisomar]

[elvisomar]

The fellowship defends against a troll in Balin's Tomb, Moria. Gouache on paper illustration by Cor Blok.

[upstairsdownstairsandinbetween]

Torre Helea, San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, Mexico,

Also called 'Helea', this tower is residential building, 142.5 meters tall and 33 stories high.

The building was designed and built by Bulnes Arquitectos between 2017 and 2024.

[the-big-mood]

human pov following objects 😭

[pmamtraveller]

Feelings about AI generated art by Veronika Kozlova

[thevaultofretroandvintage]