I will end up losing my mind…

Music, tv, theatre, street art, science...

[empessoa]

“Poemas Inconjuntos”,  Alberto Caeiro.

[pedromgabriel]

- The last house in the woods -

Monchique, Algarve, Portugal

by Pedro Gabriel

[invisibleicewands]

“Isn’t that true love?” (2/2)

[maggierogers]

Memory is a strange thing. It doesn’t work like I thought it did. We are so bound by time, by its order.

Arrival (2016) dir. Denis Villeneuve

[gracesthingonearth-blog]

[michaelsheen]

I found a very long interview with Virginia Johnson from 1997, presumably for the upcoming tapes she was planning to do for the Virginia Johnson Masters Learning Center. I think her intelligence and knowledge about sex in terms of culture and society comes across very strongly in this interview. I often wondered what Masters and Johnson would think about the sex climate today with all the hypersexualization and availability and she makes some pretty astute observations that still hold true today. At the start, it’s hard to connect this Virginia Johnson to the one in private who was immensely bitter about Bill and their work. At about the 14 minute mark, while talking about the start of her work with Bill and how they were there at the right time, she pauses/hesitates and then apologizes by saying she got marred down in the question. She then goes on to talk about their work for a few minutes.

Later on (around 43:30), the same thing happens when she’s retelling a story of her two grandmothers and about how one grandmother became angry towards men and sexuality and “let it be known in rather cutting little ways” and that’s when she asks to stop for a moment. When they cut back again, the interviewer asks how a couple can take steps to prevent that and to stay interested, etc. Her answer? VJ: “A couple who wants to continue to be exciting to one another and excited by one another has to allow themselves to be themselves in relation to the time and the place and the circumstance. For instance… [pause, she sighs] I really…I’m so wound up in this stupid stuff that I’m not sure I can continue…” Interview: “Do you want to cut for a few minutes?” VJ: “No, it really won’t help, other than to…[long pause]”

Once they cut back after a short break, it’s here where she talks about things like cheating, true love, couples who live in arrangements, chemistry, etc, and I strongly suspect that on some of the topics she’s speaking from the experience of her and Bill’s marriage (to paraphrase: “if a partner has an interest for somebody outside of the marriage, even if it’s not acted upon, then the relationship will die”)

She’s clearly as educated as any doctor but this independent venture would fail because a lot of her credibility came from Bill (combined with the fact that their practices became obsolete with the invention of pills like Viagra), which is incredibly sad when you think about it. How do people get their doctorates? By writing a dissertation. How do people write their dissertations? By conducting research. Virginia did all that and more but because she didn’t have a formal piece of paper from a university saying she did it, she wasn’t seen as a real doctor. She had no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed of that.

[mycrazylucidity]

Das boot (x).

[filmgifs]

Phantom Thread (2017) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

[jastersmohnson]

Ranking Every Episode of Masters of Sex

With Masters of Sex having been off the air for more than a year, I thought it would be a good time to rank every episode, from Monkey Business to best, which you can view HERE!

I hope you enjoy this ranking.  If you agree, disagree, have any comments or whatever else, please comment/share your thoughts.  Or if you have an enormous amount of time to waste, how would you rank the Masters of Sex episodes?

[michaelsheen]

Oooh, interesting take. I agree about Monkey Business being last and it not even being because of the gorilla material. Even though I put a lot of time into figuring out what the writers were trying to say thematically (particularly in that dinner scene with M&J), it just seemed all over the place and indecisive on what they were going for. It was supposed to be a lighthearted, humorous plot but it ended up not feeling like that at all. They somehow managed to make Alex Borstein be unfunny. 

I’m going to be cliche and unoriginal as hell and say the Pilot was the best episode. Like you said, it felt very prestige and the NY locations just added to that. It actually made me wish that they followed through with filming there because it would’ve added a lot. Acting was great, directing was great (although these are both a given because it’s a pilot), and I just really liked the pacing. It was exciting without needing violence or explosions. It made you feel excited along with Masters and Johnson, like you were right there beside them. When Bill’s study got rejected, you got annoyed with him. When Virginia got thrown for a loop by someone’s brusqueness, you’re taken aback too. I have yet to watch another tv show pilot that has made me feel something similar. And then that bombshell there at the end, completely changing the atmosphere. You also get a really strong feel for all the characters; they’re introduced perfectly. There’s not a single thing I’d change about that episode, and I honestly believe that it deserves a high spot in the top 50 television pilots of all time. This is just going off my very first viewing of the pilot too - before I was even a fan of the show, or Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan. I remember thinking at the time “Jesus Christ, what are the rest of the episodes even going to be about?”. So maybe it is unfair to let the Pilot have this spot because it obviously had way more advantages than other episodes, but it still remains a stand-out in my mind. For the rest of my top 10 I’d say: 2. Fight 2x03 (mainly because Bill’s child abuse was one of the most developed storylines throughout the whole show and is one of the few episodes that brings up a discussion that goes beyond the show) 3. Manhigh 1x12 (best MoS season finale, IMO) 4. All Together Now 1x07 (meh @ Ethan but was one of the few instances we got Virginia backstory. Same thing with end of episode - one of the few instances where she’s the one left in the dust by Bill and we see she actually gets a little attached to him, despite what she said earlier in the episode) 5. Blackbird 2x06 (I know Catherine was MoS’s first “dark” episode but this one felt so much bleaker. because everyone seems to be in such a bad place by the end of the episode. Loved the Lillian scenes. First time I actually felt depressed by a MoS episode) 6. Matters of Gravity 3x05 (that speech, that scene with Virginia and her mother where you can almost physically see Virginia get that punch in the gut) 7. Fallout 1x10 (the best Bill and Virginia fight, behind the closet one in Party of Four. This gets the top 10 spot for reasons you’ve mentioned yourself) 8. One for the Money, Two for the Show 2x11 (yes, Mad Men-esque. Maybe why I like it so much) 9. Coats or Keys 4x04 (end credits song was perfect. Actually had me develop a soft spot for Art, despite what he would say about it later on) 10. Brave New World 1x06 (Allison Janney/Margaret Scully…wow. Probably one of the only episodes that got such a high rating from me because of a secondary character. Also probably the time I most enjoyed Austin’s character. Their parking lot scene was also memorable for me) Other than that, I largely agree with your ratings. particularly about the bottom 10 and especially about Party of Four being overrated (it’s rated #6 on IMDB). Judy Greer and Josh Charles did a fantastic job with conveying history without a lot of backstory but that also ended up being a hindrance for me. It’s the penultimate episode, and they’re just now giving more depth to Dan Logan beyond his relationship to Virginia. At that point it was almost like why should I care? Acting was incredible on everyone’s part, but the Libby and Johnny scenes felt more like an interruption more than anything else (compared to Fight where the scenes with the infant was going along with an overall theme). Had the ingredients to be one of the best but you can tell they were trying to make it that way, if that makes sense? I do agree on points you make about Asterion and Three’s a Crowd, but I would probably place them shortly after my top 10.

This was hard! But I tried to do the ratings based on episodes I most enjoyed as a whole, because I could rate episodes by like seven different categories lol.

[fionaapplerocks]

Visit Original Link

Fiona Apple sings “I Know” live at the NPR studio in 2006 {x}

[mashamorevna]

“I’ve just never seen someone look at me with so much disgust.” - Always Shine (2016)

[croissant-au-chocolat]

25th of April, 1974 - Portugal - Photo by Eduardo Gageiro

In PIDE’s headquarters (International and State Defense Police), the portrait of António de Oliveira Salazar, the dictator, is taken down during the Carnation Revolution.

[portuguese-history]

Liberation of political prisioners after the Carnation Revolution.

The first interviewed says he has suffered 6 days of sleep torture - where prisioners were kept sleep deprived in their cells with water dripping - and beatings. The second woman mentions she has been arrested since October 1972 (it’s April 1974) and expresses how unexpected her liberation was. The third man also mentions he suffered several tortures including beatins, showing how physically hurt he is (we can assume he is limping). The fourth man expressed his happiness by stating that, contrary to what has been said over and over, he, and everyone being liberated, is not a lower criminal, but a political prisioner because he has fought for the portuguese people’s freedom and he always will

[memoriasinvisiveis]

Sempre!

It´s been 44 years since the Portuguese Revolution against a long dictatorship.

I owe them my freedom and to be raised in a free country. Thank you.

[fuselii]

“There was real jubilation in the streets the first few weeks. It’s still known as the Revolution of the Carnations, and is famous for its civility. I have a wonderful picture of my son, who was six years old, standing in between two young Portuguese soldiers. They’re holding rifles, each with a carnation in the barrel and they’re smiling. Steve is there holding a sign saying “Viva Portugal”. From the outside [of the country] it appeared different from what we saw inside. I don’t think Washington really recognized what was happening in the beginning.” - Robert S. Pastorino, Commercial Attaché, 1974-77

After almost five decades of dictatorship (1937-1974) the Carnation Revolution ended the Estado Novo regime changing the Portuguese political system from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy. The name "Carnation Revolution" comes from the fact that almost no shots were fired and that when the population took to the streets to celebrate carnations were put into the muzzles of rifles and on the uniforms of the army men. In Portugal, 25 April is a national holiday, known as Freedom Day.

Happy 25th of April everyone!

[mycrazylucidity]

25 April 1974 - Carnation Revolution

[paxmachina]

Unknown - Casablanca, Morocco