Hades

“Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.” - The Secret History The name is Chase. I try to keep my blog as clean as possible but sometimes I'll reblog a thing that's questionable. Proceed with caution.

[wifegideonnav]

“bits to use in everyday conversations”

[oliverxmarks]

Experience and giving years to a job doesn’t really mean anything, does it?

I guess you can work for a company for four years and become the interim manager and still be passed over for someone who’s been there only a month.

[oliverxmarks]

Am I making myself upset about something months away? Sure am!

[oliverxmarks]

I fear if I don’t play Deflores in “The Changeling” I’m gonna scream

[oliverxmarks]

Hi I’m in love with Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and I want to direct, costume, light, set design, and act in this show. 

[oliverxmarks]

Oh, Chase, do I have some great news for you…

[oliverxmarks]

Internet friendship is strange. Sometimes you don’t talk to someone since your last interaction on Tumblr a decade ago and you find out they suddenly passed away. And while you didn’t know them quite like everyone else, they were still a person who you have memories of.

It’s a tiny shard of grief that may be blunt in comparison, but it’s still very sad.

I hope their friends and family are alright.

[bob-artist]

Brotherhood of The Orb

[bob-artist]

[oliverxmarks]

American Murder Song definitely redeemed itself with the H. H. Holmes song because I’m sorry but Lizzie was… not great

[asneakyfox]

everyone acting like this is the worst idea tumblr's ever had as though this were not the website that very famously used to let you edit other people's posts

[boltlightning]

hello everyone i've made a document with all my bookbinding equipment and the beginner tutorials to point to in the future. it's painfully detailed to a degree i think is probably not useful but it's here for reference. take a look if you're interested, ttyl

[longhairvixen]

[carlottagiudicellivevo]

re: the idiot of the week

At this point, most of us in the POTO corner of Tumblr have dealt with @/ouat90, a rando who posts mostly AI slop of women being bridal carried by men, targeted harrassment of a community theatre in Brooklyn, NY and his own former high school in the Midwest, and complaining about how he thinks Black women can't play Christine Daaè in Phantom of the Opera (despite the fact that at this point at least six of them have professionally, to say nothing of how they always could and just weren't given the opportunity for way too long).

I've learned, almost by accident, over the last few days that this guy isn't some new rando out of nowhere when it comes to pulling this stuff. He's been a malignant presence in various theatre fan communities for over a decade, pulling mostly the same stuff. This post, and the identifying information therein, contains nothing this guy hasn't put out there himself. My point in sharing this isn't to start a counter-harassment campaign. It's that this guy will not go away but is very easily identifiable when you know what to look for, and I feel that people in the spaces he digs into should be prepared so he can be blocked/kicked out as necessary.

Meet Joey Velazquez. He's an aspiring actor who takes basically anybody getting cast above him extremely personally and makes up inflated claims about his own successes. When called on this, he begins years-long harassment campaigns against anyone who corrected him/denied him/whatever. This is part of where his whole vendetta against Narrows Community Theatre in Brooklyn comes from; he was in a production of It's a Wonderful Life a few years ago, and when the company tried to accommodate his lack of experience without kicking him out of the show, he accused them of discriminating against him for being autistic. It should go without saying that a lot of people who work in theatre are autistic or otherwise neurodivergent and don't have his issues.

In fact, he's just as vicious toward other autistic people. A personal friend of mine who is also on the spectrum shared this account with me:

This was over a decade ago. Joe continued harassing him for over ten years for calling him on an obvious lie. He might still be trying to do so, but my friend blocked him a while ago after one of the emails crossed the spam filter. My friend continues:

Regarding the first marriage in question, my friend mentioned that Joe attempted to force the woman into a "relationship contract" by which he claimed she couldn't leave him, and that he would grow verbally abusive whenever she simply walked into the home she shared with Joe and her ill mother rather than letting Joe carry her over the threshold. While this came up in a phone call, so I don't have screenshots, Joe's own Tumblr features multiple posts where he complains that his "wicked ex-wife" didn't let him carry her. His kink for men carrying women wouldn't have even been mentioned in this post if he didn't leverage it as an excuse to abuse his ex-wife, but here we are.

After his marriage ended, Joe had a long-distance relationship with a Norwegian YouTuber named Martine, who ended things after a few months. Joe has since had several Reddit accounts banned for begging others to try to force Martine back to him and to contact her on his behalf (which, to be clear, the Redditors refused to do). Martine is also on the spectrum, and Joe has used that as an excuse for why they "belong together". He's also posted alarming intent to defy a restraining order Martine might have placed against him:

@littleeliza-lotte has also spoken to Joe's former castmates at Narrows Community Theatre, who mentioned that his harassment of Amelie Jacobs began while she was still underage and that he's been banned from the theatre. I have also had to ban him from my bookstore in Brooklyn before I even knew who he was (it was recognizing his photo that tipped me off that it was the same guy as this incident) for following and harassing the staff of a local theatre in the same complex. I ended up having to get him escorted away by complex security, and he might very well be banned from the whole thing.

His tumblr right now as far as I know it is ouat90; he is on Instagram (and presumably Threads?) as joevelazquez2.0, joe.velazquez.7, and biggestpassionsfan. I'm not sure if he has any other accounts, but I've tried to provide a comprehensive breakdown of his behavior so he can be recognized and avoided accordingly.

[carlottagiudicellivevo]

IMPORTANT UPDATE Here are all of his Instagram accounts that we know of (thanks to the person who sent me this list):

Miguellopezfitzgerald Edwardtreason Biggestpassionsfan Christiangraylovesana nicaglenandglendanumber1fan daysofourlivesforlife36 jetlee9687 loveconqueors35 janderson27982 joevelazquez2.0 jasperanderson360 joe.velazquez.7 His YouTube accounts: Blairbart2794 Joevelazquez6242

I'm inserting a read-more at this point because there are discussions of CSAM under the cut.

The "her" in the first sentence is Gypsy Rose Blanchard; he was apparently stalking her/sending letters while she was in prison for killing her abusive mother (thankfully, she was released a few years ago), and after everything else she's been through. The last thing she needs is This Guy writing to her. I knew he was kind of fixated on her; I did not know he had contacted her enough to concern her family. As for the rest of this... good lord.

I am not sharing any of this for the sake of starting drama. This guy is legitimately dangerous and needs to be treated as such.

[carlottagiudicellivevo]

one last round of clarifications from my friend:

He also provided me with a log of Joe's posts on FilmBoard ("same behavior and just as unsettling there"). From another user, here are public records of his letters to Gypsy Rose Blanchard. And to circle back to what brought this goon into our consciousness in the first place, it turns out that while he complains about Black women playing Christine, he has no problem doing the most minstrel show-style blackface I've ever seen irl.

Don't engage with this guy. Block, report, spread the word, do whatever you need to do.

[oliverxmarks]

I’ve interacted with this guy quite a few times over the years and boy howdy he is… well. You can see for yourself. Avoid at all costs.

[oliverxmarks]

7 and 17 for the writing asks!

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

The freedom. I can tell any story I want and the only thing stopping me is my own brain. I can use words to my advantage to fully understand something about myself or something I’ve been through because I’m free to write what I please.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Im going to answer this on a separate post because it requires a lot of space haha

[oliverxmarks]

5, 8, and 10!

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

I don’t think I do, actually? Well, maybe? It’s less of a superstition and more of a habit that I always pull out a notebook and pen even if I’m writing on my laptop, because sometimes something hits that I need to write by hand and if I don’t have that notebook it’s lost forever. Okay so maybe I do lmao.

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

I think I’d choose writing an entire story in action and with no dialogue. One of the aspects of being human is our ability to convey multitudes without saying a single thing - and I love the idea of a silent story. Maybe it’s because one of the characters doesn’t speak or characters are communicating via sign language or other non-verbal methods!

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

There’s something about The Yellow Wallpaper that absolutely haunts me. The Haunting of Hill House also has many moments that stick with me when I’m alone in the dark. As for my own writing… hmm. I have a few moments from plays that play over and over in my head, refusing to let me move onto the next scene.

[chdarling]

Weird Questions for Writers (because writers are weird)

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

9. Do you believe in ghosts? This isn’t about writing I just wanna know

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you've always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

26. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

28. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

37. If you were to be remembered only by the words you’ve put on the page, what would future historians think of you?

38. What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

[depsidase]

[segamascott]