"I used to tell students…the difference between poetry and you is you look in the mirror and say, “I am getting old,” but Shakespeare looks in the mirror and says, “Devouring Time, blunt thou thy lion’s paws.”
—Jim Harrison
surely you jest, for my acquaintance has not passed your reckoning. i behold the glass and laugh heartily -- but the elizabethan, nay jacobean, tongue, does not find a home in my mouth.
Does anyone have that once clip of the guy jerking off in public by the water and just as he cums some people show up in the background? I would like to see that again please
““These guys are just weird, that’s what they are. It isn’t much else. Don’t give them the power. Look, are they a threat to democracy? Yes. Are they going to take our rights away? Yes. Are they going to put people’s lives in danger? Yes. Are they going to endanger the planet by not dealing with climate change? Yes. They are going to do all that. But don’t lift these guys up as if they’re some kind of hero. A bully has no self-confidence, a bully has no strength. The fascists depend on fear. The fascists depend on us going back. But we’re not afraid of weird people. We’re a little bit creeped out but we’re not afraid.””
MAGAts are the descendants of the people Ronald Reagan turned out of the state hospitals and mental institutions. He sent them back to their families or out on the street. And they bred like rats and here we are.
@posttexasstressdisorder no. don't demonize people experiencing mental illness who are or were victimized by a ruthless system. magats are deficient in their own well-earned -- and personally chosen -- ways that don't depend on treating persons with mental illness as lesser.
i'll pay your stinking taxes, but i will _not_ pay your admission nor cheer on your hapless millionaires (nor even your struggling thousandaires). i showed you!
“Felon Donald Trump arose glassy-eyed from his crypt of self-pity Friday morning to remind Americans he’s not just the first convicted criminal to run for president – he’s also a rambling, incoherent mess. Speaking of his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cloak a hush-money payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, Trump babbled at reporters who had gathered inside Trump Tower in Manhattan. “Crimes crimes, they’re falsifying business records,” he said, looking exhausted and more half-crazed than usual. “That sounds so bad, to me it sounds very bad. You know it’s only a misdemeanor (FACT CHECK: These were felony counts) but to me it sounds so bad, when they say falsifying business records, that’s a bad thing for me, I’ve never had that before. I’m falsifying … you know what falsifying business records is, in the first degree, they say falsifying business records, sounds so good, right?” The man some actually believe is qualified to be president of the United States also claimed that witnesses in his trial were “literally crucified,” said President Joe Biden wants to “stop you from having cars” and said the judge who will sentence him on July 11 is “really a devil.””
— Trump babbles incoherently about conviction. GOP should be afraid
I know I've been posting more about politics lately, and it's caused me to lose a chunk of followers.
But I'm a queer person with a degree in political science and its an election year. I'm old friends with several of my city council members. I've been to trainings on how to run elections. I spent my college years working for nonprofits (and being the world's worst canvasser). I'm close with more than one person who works for unions, and I have family members who work for government agencies.
I think about politics in a very pragmatic "I know how the sausage is made" kind of way. We're in a vice press, and there's only one way to release the pressure.
The revolution ain't coming. There is no one to save us but us.
So yeah, I'm going to be pissed if your answer is "let them tighten the vice -- there's no way out of the vice, it doesn't matter if they loosen or tighten it."
There's a difference, and anyone telling you otherwise is likely a psyop or someone who fell for a psyop. This literally happened before, and it's happening again.
I have been on a Willy Wonkified journey today and I need y'all to come with me
It started so innocently. Scrolling Google News I come across this article on Ars Technica:
Dull in-person warehouse for kids doesn't live up to technicolor AI-generated promo images.
At first glance I thought what happened was parents saw AI-generated images of an event their kids were at and became concerned, then realized it was fake. The reality? Oh so much better.
On Saturday, event organizers shut down a Glasgow-based "Willy's Chocolate Experience" after customers complained that the unofficial Wonka-inspired event, which took place in a sparsely decorated venue, did not match the lush AI-generated images listed on its official website.... According to Sky News, police were called to the event, and "advice was given."
Thing is, the people who paid to go were obviously not expecting exactly this:
But I can see how they'd be a bit pissed upon arriving to this:
It gets worse.
"Tempest, how could it possibly--"
source of this video that also includes this charming description:
Made up a villain called The Unknown — 'an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls'
There is already a meme.
Oh yes, the Wish.com Oompa Loompa:
Who has already done an interview!
As bad (and hilarious) as this all is, I got curious about the company that put on this event. Did they somehow overreach? Did the actors they hired back out at the last minute? (Or after they saw the script...) Oddly enough, it doesn't seem so!
Given what I found when poking around I'm legit surprised there was an event at all. Cuz this outfit seems to be 100% a scam.
The website for this specific event is here and it has many AI generated images on it, as stated. I don't think anyone who bought tickets looked very closely at these images, otherwise they might have been concerned about how much Catgacating their children would be exposed to.
Yes, Catgacating. You know, CATgacating!
I personally don't think anyone should serve exarserdray flavored lollipops in public spaces given how many people are allergic to it. And the sweet teats might not have been age appropriate.
Though the Twilight Tunnel looks pretty cool:
I'm not sure that Dim Tight Twdrding is safe. I've also been warned that Vivue Sounds are in that weird frequency range that makes you poop your pants upon hearing them.
Yes, Virginia, these folks used an AI image generator for everything on the website and used Chat GPT for some of the text! From the FAQ:
Q: I cannot go on the available days. Will you have more dates in the future?
A: Should there be capacity when you arrive, then you will be able to enter without any problems. In the event that this is not the case, we may ask you to wait a bit.
Fear not, for this question is asked again a few lines down and the answer makes more sense.
Curious about the events company behind this disaster, I took myself over to the homepage of House of Illuminati and I was not disappointed.
I would 100% trust these people to plan my wedding.
This abomination of a website is a badly edited WordPress blog filled with AI art and just enough blog posts to make the casual viewer think that it's a legit business for about 0.0004 seconds.
Their attention to detail is stunning, from how they left up the default first post every WP blog gets to how they didn't bother changing the name on several images, thus revealing where they came from. Like this one:
With the lovely and compact filename "DALL·E-2024-01-30-09.50.54-Imagine-a-scene-where-fantasy-and-reality-merge-seamlessly.-In-the-foreground-a-grand-interactive-gala-is-taking-place-filled-with-elegant-guests-i.png"
"Concept.png" came from the same AI generator that gets text almost, but not quiiiiiite right:
There are a suspicious number of .webp images in the uploads, which makes me think they either stole them from other sites where AI "art" was uploaded or they didn't want to pay for the hi-res versions of some and just grabbed the preview image.
The real fun came when I noticed this filename: Before-and-After-Eventologists-Transformation-Edgbaston-Cricket-Ground-1024x1024-1.jpg and decided to do a Google image search. Friends, you will be shocked to hear that the image in question, found on this post touting how they can transform a boring warehouse into a fun event space, was stolen from this actual event planner.
Even better, this weirdly grainy image?
From a post that claims to be about the preparations for a "Willy Wonka" experience (we'll get to this in a minute), is not only NOT an actual image of anyone preparing anything for Illuminati's event, it is stolen from a YouTube thumbnail that's been chopped to remove the name of the company that actually made this. Here's the video.
If you actually read the blog posts they're all copypasta or some AI generated crap. To the point where this seems like not a real business at all. There's very specific business information at the bottom, but nothing else seems real.
As I said, I'm kinda surprised they put on an event at all. This has, "And then they ran off with all our money!" written all over it. I'm perplexed.
And also wondering when the copyright lawyers are gonna start calling, because...
This post explicitly says they're putting together a "Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Experience" complete with golden tickets.
Somewhere along the line someone must have wised up, because the actual event was called "Willys Chocolate Experience" (note the lack of apostrophe) and the script they handed to the actors about 10 minutes before they were supposed to "perform" was about a "Willy McDuff" and his chocolate factory.
As I was going through this madness with friends in a chat, one pointed out that it took very little prompting to get the free Chat GPT to spit out an event description and such very similar to all this while avoiding copyrighted phrases. But he couldn't figure out where the McDuff came from since it wasn't the type of thing GPT would usually spit out...
Until he altered the prompt to include it would be happening in Glasgow, Scotland.
You cannot make this stuff up.
But truly, honestly, I do not even understand why they didn't take the money and run. Clearly this was all set up to be a scam. A lazy, AI generated scam.
Everything from the website to the event images to the copy to the "script" to the names of things was either stolen or AI generated (aka stolen). Hell, I'd be looking for some poor Japanese visitor wandering the streets of Glasgow, confused, after being jacked for his mascot costume.
Dear Neil. Sometimes I think about the strength you must have to answer the fans' questions, I know that a lot has to do with marketing, but it must be tedious, and it must demotivate you a little from your work. Not only you but also the actors. Thanks for the patience.
It's really not about marketing. That's why I like Tumblr, I think. It's too small for marketing. It only works if it's for fun.
I will be the last one here when they finally turn off the lights, because Tumblr is *only* fun for me, in no small part because the Industry Machine hasn't polluted Tumblr the way it has all the other social networks.
I think that's because the Venn Diagram of Weird Tumblr and Not Weird Tumblr is a perfect circle we call a hellsite, and the marketing dweebs are so confounded by what we do here, they focus on other, more predictable, social networks.
I've read about the demise of Weird Twitter around 2016 (gasp), how once Twitter stopped being a safe place to be weird, it rapidly became what it is, now. Interesting people tend to be weird. Creative people tend to be weird. We who love those people tend to be weird, and we like to be around people who reflect our vibe back to us. Why would any of us stick around in a Nazi club full of Incels when we can hang out here and remember the first time we saw Goncharov, or how the Feast of Neil Gaiman is celebrated in our homes.
Oh, and fuckin' WONDER WOMAN brings her loving, supportive, I am your mom and I love you unconditionally energy to every single post. She's the only Tumblr I follow with alerts turned on, because I always feel uplifted after I read something from her.
And Tumblr is maybe the only place on the entire Internet where I can be the best Becky I can be.
That doesn't even touch on all the art and fanfic and vintage photos and the endless stream of Debbie Harry that comes across my dash.
If you're part of the reason I am here, part of the reason Tumblr is special, thank you.