Love, Liberty, And Other Bad Ideas

he/him, mid 20s

[victoriansecret]

I am once again asking for help. For full disclosure, I think this is the third, possibly fourth time I've done this, most recently in January. I am incredibly grateful for the help I've received and it's been a huge boon, and I hoped I wouldn't have to again, but the last few months have been tough. As a background, a few years ago I contracted shingles and then covid back to back which wiped out my body, and I have dealt with some kind of chronic fatigue and possibly long covid since. Ultimately I lost my job from missing too much work, and I have been unable to find a permanent job since. Suffice it to say that the last few months have been one of the worst periods of health I've had since I was working regularly. I've had a series of completely different illnesses, two of them being a result of temp jobs. I even ended up having to go the hospital at one point to get tested for stroke; I was having horrible, frequent migraines and then half my face froze. It turned out to be 'only' Bell's palsy, and the migraines were unrelated; I didn't have any other symptoms so I was fairly sure it wasn't stroke, but needless to say it still freaked me out. That's just kind of how things have been lately. The point of all this being that I've fallen behind on projects to bring in some income, and I'm about two and a half months behind on rent (not to mention other payments).

I currently have exactly 11 cents in my bank account. I do hope to finish up a couple projects soon to bring in some money, but it will only cover a portion of what I owe, and that's without getting into groceries etc. If you're able to help I'd greatly appreciate it, but please take care of yourself first. Or consider helping one of the many other people and causes that need it too. But if you're able to and want to, it would help tremendously. Thank you. Paypal Venmo Ko-fi

[vitariesocks]

just received the best text message I’ve ever had. from my mom

[vitariesocks]

2 pics. no caption

[shaeeldera]

I had to draw this beautiful lady

[partywithponies]

My woke take, as someone who has worked in both a public library and a school library, is that we desperately need both more books that are at a higher reading level but a less mature subject matter, and more books that are at a lower reading level but a more mature subject matter, because 8 year olds who are advanced readers are still 8 year olds and don't want to read about graphic violence and torture, and teens and adults who have learning difficulties or who are just later readers for whatever reason are still teens and adults and don't want to read about Billy the Bunny going to school or whatever the hell.

[partywithponies]

Shoutout to people in the notes also mentioning people learning the language, I should've mentioned that really, given that I've been stuck reading German picture books myself while learning German.

[elphabaoftheopera]

okay tumblr we had a fun time with the polls last week to decide what tumblr's favorite musical was from each decade (out of the ones that got included!!).

Now I present the list of the winners from each decade polls so you may vote for your favorite...of the favorites.

best of luck!

Favorite musical out of tumblr's TOP VOTED musicals from each decade

pre-1950s: The Wizard of Oz (1939)

1950s: The Sound of Music (1959)

1960s: Cabaret (1966)

1970s: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979)

1980s: Les Misérables (1987)

1990s: Rent (1996)

2000s: Wicked (2003)

2010s: Hadestown (2019)

2020s: Six (2021)

Voting ended onAug 10

Vote for your favorite out of the LEAST favorites here.

Links to original polls under the cut!

Polls: pre-1950s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s

[marcusbrutus]

the worst part about ocd and ocd-like tendencies is that you think hyper-analyzing your thoughts and constantly psychoanalyzing yourself will fix you but that's actually part of the disorder. it's the disorder. disordering.

[deermouth]

i really really really really really like hadestown's repeated use of "eurydice was a hungry girl" because at first pass you might think oh, she's scrappy and street smart and her ambition is going to be the foil to orpheus's idealist romanticism. but nope! no she is literally hungry. she is starving. that is her motivator and everybody knows it. she loves, oh she does, but she can't be fucking blamed for fulfilling her physical needs first.

[afriblaq]

Gordon Parks captured the Jim Crow South with a quiet, devastating clarity—using his camera as both witness and weapon. Through intimate portraits and everyday scenes, he exposed the cruelty of segregation not with sensationalism but with humanity, dignity, and truth. Parks showed Black life in the South as it was lived: tender, resilient, disciplined, and determined, even under oppressive laws. His photographs didn’t just document injustice—they challenged America to see what it preferred to ignore.

Photos via: @gordonparksfoundation

[wizardarchetypes]

This month is the one year anniversary of posting my poem “Condolences” to TikTok and Instagram, where it amassed millions of likes and tens of thousands of comments.

Since, people have used the poem for adaptive art pieces, short plays, books, and class work. For your piece of art to be transformed into another…it’s difficult to describe.

After several rejections from poetry publications a decade ago, I decided to post my work online instead. The responses were overwhelming. I realized that an official publication doesn’t make you a poet. Writing poetry does, and bonus points if you manage to resonate with just one other soul who needed to hear what you needed to say.

I was utterly taken aback by the response to this piece. People have asked me many times to explain it, but from the response it was clear that the meaning can be explicated with a little time.

Some people who didn’t understand it until it was explained were angry when it came together. It wasn’t written for them.

I’m only grateful that it reached the people who needed it.

I feel that the imagery is part of the piece, but I know not everyone can or cares to listen to a video. Here is the poem:

———————

They buried a girl in my hometown today.

“A young woman, gone too soon, in the prime of her life,” they all said.

My friends and I all knew her. We grew up together.

We were in all the same classes and hobbies and we made up games together at recess.

But none of us went to her funeral. We weren’t invited, because the people planning it didn’t think we’d understand. They said it wasn’t our loss.

So we got together for drinks. We laughed all morning and played card games all day.

At 4 o’clock, we heard the church bells. We saw that long, sad procession of cars stretch like a creek through town, up the cemetery hill.

We heard strange rumors that night, that the casket was empty. That they put it hollow in the ground.

So we went to the plot first thing in the morning. They buried her empty box next to her dad, down the row from an estranged aunt she never really knew all that well.

There wouldn’t be a stone for months, but the little placard had my name on it. But not the one I go by these days.

“How strange,” we all said. “What a waste of good crying.”

All of this mourning for me, and I was down the street the whole time, laughing and drinking.

But some people will never understand. They’d rather plan a funeral than learn a new name.

My friend said she felt sorry for them, in some small way.

What a sad notion—to lose a daughter who never lived—

And a son who never died.

[wizardarchetypes]

Recently I performed at a poetry event and spoke a slightly updated version of this (not many changes) and someone accused me of plagiarizing myself, hahaha! It's not the first time that's happened when I've performed a poem I've posted online, but none have gotten so much attention as this one. Someone made a beautiful zine a few months ago adapting this piece, so it's been on my mind again. Thank you for all of the love.

[jordanbolton]

To the Person Who Asked If I Was OK

Pre-order my new book here

[maelwife]

Maybe one reason time seems to speed up in adult life is because when your full time job leaves you roughly 5 hours of free time a day plus two days off a week your life turns into a sort of monotony that makes the days blend together and creative pursuits move in slow motion as you can only get to them when other your commitments are done.

[maelwife]

When you look back and think damn 2019 wasn’t that long ago where did the time go? Job. Your Job took it.

[dubiousculturalartifact]

The new Odyssey adaptation has inevitably gotten people talking about a Muppet version of it, and they’re frequently suggesting Kermit as Odysseus, Miss Piggy as Penelope.

I’m sorry but that’s thinking way too small, hear me out:

We need to have Miss Piggy as Odysseus, and Kermit as Penelope.

Think about it… who’s the more fickle, prideful, warlike one in that relationship? Who is absolutely ready to go ham, at a moment’s notice?

It ain’t Kermit

[anyroads]

Miss Piggy tied to the mast while Statler and Waldorf heckle her from the sea

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Also this is kinda off topic so I'm making a separate post but I think the focus on "natural talent" also contributes to skilled labor being so undervalued. Like when you are hiring someone to do a job or purchasing a handmade item, you are paying them not just for their time and the materials but also for the years and decades of experience they have, the training and practice and schooling they may have undergone to get to the point of skill where their services are desired by other people.

But when you look at that work and think, "This is made by someone who is naturally gifted at this," you aren't thinking of that experience and work. It makes it easy to see those products or services as a natural talent someone was born with and that they're choosing to share with the world, that it required minimal effort on their part, and so the high prices seem unnecessary instead of a reflection of that person's skill and work.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Like idk, maybe that custom embroidered pet potrait is $100+ because that person has spent the last 15 years perfecting their thread painting technique to create beautiful pieces that actually look like your pet and they want the price to reflect not just the hours they'll spend working on it but also the years they've spent building up their skillset to the point where you want their art as a permanent reminder of your pet.

[caesarsaladinn]

romanticizing your life is such a powerful tool and it’s a shame that it’s mostly used by people on tiktok to justify the purchase of expensive breakfast smoothies when there are few better ways to force oneself through unpleasant shit than imagining a cinematic backstory for your extremely quotidian suffering

[caesarsaladinn]

finding the strength to walk home from the library at 3am in the freezing rain by imagining yourself as a Napoleonic soldier hightailing it from Moscow in 1813

[myfootyrthroat]

It's not a virtue to focus totally on your own peace and disregard problems around you. Ironically, it's also not a virtue to stew in your own anxiety.

[myfootyrthroat]

People online like "I will NOT seek peace while there is suffering around me! I will inflict suffering on myself as long as there is pain in the world!"

Cool, that's useless.

[myfootyrthroat]

It's one thing if you say "As long as there are hungry people in my community, I'll stay engaged with the food bank," (which probably will actually comfort you because you'll be surrounded by people working for a solution!) but for a lot of people it's "As long as there is suffering in the world, I will self-flagellate with sad Instagram reels," and you might as well not.

[kaybebog]

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

hearing anything about the nolan odyssey is so funny. it's like "they cut the extremely important and infamous nobody scene" "the cyclops is a giant puppet that they put in an actual historical cave + gave circe animatronics for her pig transformation instead of cgi" "they dumped plastic skeletons in an environmentally protected location they were not supposed to be in" "they recreated ancient greek instruments in order to have an accurate score" "all of odysseus's agency is basically gone" "anne hathaway actually learned how to weave ancient looms" "the women in this movie are treated like shit" "they actually buried actors alive to get those underworld shots" "did you see what the fuck zendaya was fucking wearing holy shit you can't DO THAT, MA'AM" "what do you mean there was a legitimate epic the musical reference" "NOT A SINGLE FUCKING GREEK WAS CAST IN THIS MOVIE"

like did nolan have two guys standing at his side at all times whispering ideas in his ear and one told the truth and the other told lies and they didnt tell him which was which until they wrapped production cause

[wordfather]

they're a problematic character TO YOU. they're problematic to me as well but I'm being weird and horny about it so it's different