The Berry Blog

Somehow, this turned into a mix of Social Justice and random. Sorrynotsorry. 30+ Queer, and angry.

[laina-inverse]

An intro, after all these years?

Yeah, I figured why not.

So, hello, you've found me. Welcome to this blog which was supposed to be personal and kind of turned into a mishmash of political reblogs and informatics with the occasional cute cat picture.

If you want my fandom stuff, look at @fangirlberry

If you are here for writing, wander over to @lainaswriting (I do not post my writing, but you can find writing advice. You want my writing that's over on my Ao3 page. Enjoy fandom chaos)

I no longer post my art on this site (or any site) but I do like to have art tutorials, and I reblog art over at @lainasstockpile

If you have somehow found me for my FFXIV stuff, uh, whoops? I did not mean to comment as this blog, but I suck at blogswap. You want @berryplaysffxiv Be warned, you start me off on a tangent for this game, and you will get chaos. I am Obsessed. X3

[retroject]

I found a lovely snail at work who was dried out so I let him have a shower and he seemed to enjoy it!! 🐌🚿

[scififantasystuff]

[joy-and-whimsy-official]

Joy and whimsy detected! This snower (snail shower) is joyful and whimsical! 🐌🚿

[w0rm-3nthus14st]

@hallowedlivingcoppice

[stargazersasha]

if you are a trans woman you have to sing to yourself. if you voice train that’s fine. if you don’t voice train that’s okay. but you have to sing to yourself

[stargazersasha]

may every trans woman have a safe place to hear herself sing.

[free-and-to-none-accountable]

Hey does anybody have any advice or know any tips? I've always wanted to know how to do something.

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

1. If you can avoid it, never call a business on the first day of the week it's open. Wait until at least 40 minutes after they're open on the second day. This waits out the first wave of frantic callers and gives whoever is on the phone time to grab a coffee and drink enough that they don't feel disturbed in their morning start-up ritual.

You'll spend less time on hold and reach more people with the time and patience to hear you out.

2. Take notes for phone calls. You can literally make a numbered check list of what you definitely want to bring up, and then during the call take down who you spoke to, at what date and what solutions/deadlines were promised.

This keeps you on topic without forgetting your priorities, and also gives you something to refer back to later.

[canadianwheatpirates]

The method of changing your duvet cover by rolling it onto the duvet was a huge help when I had low energy:

[seramarias]

A rice cooker can also cook most frozen vegetables, as long as they're in small pieces, and can reheat precooked meats also in bite-sized bits. You can make a whole meal in around half an hour by dumping 1 cup rice, 2 cups liquid, and 1-2 servings of meat & vegetables in a rice cooker and hitting start. Use a flavored liquid, like broth, or mix in seasonings at the start, and you're good to go. Cubed carrots and sweet potato with canned chickpeas and yellow curry paste, for example. Frozen peas and pearl onions with shredded chicken and chicken broth.

Whatever you like.

[fandomsandfeminism]

This Pride, may you always remember to-

Be who you are

Love who you love

Be weird without fear

Be a freak without danger

Find community without division

Seek the truth with eyes unclouded

[dailycatsblog]

[the-composite-doll]

Wait is that THIS cat?

IT IS

[nickyandmikey]

when two musicians sing into the same microphone and lean in very close to each other… like omg are you guys gonna kiss now to relieve the homoerotic tension?😳

[nickyandmikey]

THIS IS NOT ABOUT ONE DIRECTION I DON’T KNOW WHO THIS “HARRY” PERSON IS GO WATCH BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND CLARENCE CLEMONS KISS ON STAGE RIGHT NOW

[irrelevantlyvalid]

op is the only valid person i’ve ever met. everyone else needs to come to the light

[chokolattejedi]

Okay, but this is really important: Bruce Springsteen occupied this really weird place in music history. His songs were all from this pessimistic, nihilistic view of an America that had let him down:

Just like the anti-Vietnam War protest songs that we associate with the 1960s, or the early nihilism that spawned punk music in the 1970s. But he didn’t *sound* like a punk anarchist; he sounded like a country rock singer. When he released Born in the U.S.A. people completely misinterpreted (or possibly ignored) the lyrics in favor of the tone of the music.

Politicians used his music to promote their ‘Murica Yes! brand, and he had to literally explain that that was not what he was about. He’s over here asking when we’re going to have jobs and heathcare, not stanning the politicians who weren’t helping the people.

It was also kind of a big deal that he had an integrated band, because even as late as the 1980s music was still kind of segregated and MTV was straight up racist. They refused to play and promote black artists and then claimed that were no black artists in the first place. Michael Jackson’s record company had to threaten a boycott of their white artists to get MTV to play his Thriller video.

Plus, the first black/white interracial kiss on TV was in 1968 (OG Star Trek). Also it took us until the 70s to get sympathetic gay characters on screen, and the 90s to get gay characters to kiss onscreen. And all of those firsts were met with outrage.

So keep that in mind when you see Bruce Springsteen not just playing with an interracial band, but engaging in an interracial, gay kiss on stage repeatedly.

Passages from American Popular Music by Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman

[executeness]

I used to think that Bruce and Clarence kissing onstage was exuberance, showmanship, and telling racist homophobes to fuck off. Like, they picked up a certain kind of audience and went “Racist homophobes? Not in our house!” And started the kissing then but then I actually looked it up and

https://www.gq.com/story/this-fucked-me-up-bruce-springsteen-singing-about-clarence-clemons

It was a story where… we remade the city. We remade the city, shaping it into the kind of place where our friendship and our love for one another wouldn’t have been such an exceptional thing. - Bruce Springsteen

It wasn’t about showmanship or rejecting bigots or anything it was just. Damn right that was one of the loves of his life and damn right he was going to kiss him onstage

It gets me a little that Bruce has had a divorce, that he’s been married twice, but he loved Clarence for the rest of Clarence’s life and will presumably love him the rest of his own

Clemons said in one interview. “Bruce and I looked at each other and didn’t say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other’s lives. He was what I’d been searching for.” In another version of the story, Clemons says “He looked at me, and I looked at him, and we fell in love.”

I’m having some emotions about it!

“He was elemental in my life,“ Springsteen adds, “and losing him was like losing the rain.”

Not just! I love you pure and deep and true but! I am going to love you like that in front of the whole damn world!

We have fewer narratives about taking risks and making statements for platonic love rather than romantic and supposedly it would be easier to downplay this onstage than romance and! They refused! They fucking refused! In front of hundreds of thousands of people, over the course of years! In the spotlight, in word and deed, I love you!

God I’m not okay about it

[ramshacklefey]

Now I’m mad that this is not among any of the things I was ever told about this artist.

[jbbartram-illu]

I knew about this in general (& via all those fabulous photos), but this just adds even more beautiful context <3

[eregyrn-falls]

Just to add to the pile: this was the cover of Springsteen’s break-through album Born to Run, in 1975:

I mean, will you LOOK at this:

This was the pic chosen for the album cover from an extensive photoshoot, too. A few others:

There’s a lot more online if you search. They’re all pretty amazing. But the photographer is right, the one chosen for the album cover just pops.

[yourspecialeyes]

Reddit user has cracked the code on how to read fanfic and study at the same time

(image via twitter)

[televisionenjoyer]

original reddit post

[polyamorousmisanthrope]

[sugarmint-dreams]

morning glory, quick speedpaint using my custom brushes ✦

-

my shop | free mobile wallpaper

[theloverislost]

as we are rapidly approaching pride month, here’s an obligatory reminder!

AROMANTIC PEOPLE

ASEXUAL PEOPLE

AND AROACE PEOPLE

ALL BELONG IN THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY

I WILL REMOVE EVERY BONE IN YOUR BODY IF YOU SAY OTHERWISE

[babushkaat]

[wontonsoupinthemorning-deactiva]

message to all bitches

please survive

[thesituation]

“your rent should be a third of your income” well wouldn’t that be nice. wouldn’t it. lower the rent pussy

[moniquill]

Casual observation from someone old enough to remember: in the year 2000 financial advice was that rent should be no more than 1/4 of your income.

[vergess]

Until the mid 80s, the advice was that if you must rent instead of owning, then that 20% of your monthly income (oh yes, only 20%) should include all your utilities too.

After all, rent costs more than a mortgage, so it should offer more too.

The housing market is a fucking travesty.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Hmm what happened in the mid eighties....

[commodorecliche]

[princesslilymay]

Hagen Renaker - Siamese Cat

[shamebats]

"it's just stress" oh thank god, it's just the silent killer that slowly kills you, perfectly harmless, no need to worry

[princesslilymay]

Hagen Renaker - Siamese Cat

[love-notes-to-survivors]

I promise you haven't fucked up as badly as you think you have.

[crazycatsiren]

A wise mentor once said to me while I was student teaching: "Did you actually fuck it up, or did it just not go how you expected it to go?"

Life changing words.