gem @paradis-aster - Tumblr Blog

Hello. Hi. I know you want new music.

I want you to know that I am hard at work. There were some restrictions I was under, for a lot longer than it seemed, but they are no longer in the way. I’m sure you can fill in the blanks.

I’m always writing aimlessly and lawlessly as you know. But “album mode” is a whole other arena and the games are just beginning. I am working on some of my favorite stuff I’ve ever conjured. Wild to think that it hasn’t even been 2 years since IICHLIWP! I know it feels like so much longer. It does to me too. But there were 2 years and 7 months between HFK and Manic and honestly I think it was worth it. The time I took. And the growth that got me from that album to the next.

Thank you for having the patience and the faith.

It will pay off in the long run.

This feels like my debut all over again, in some ways.

Your love and support have carried me through a time where I thought maybe I only had a few albums left in me, but I know now that there are so many more than I could have ever dreamed.

Anyways, I love you.

Down the rabbit hole I go 🕳️

See you soon.

tiredandlonelymuse

I am back, hello.

of-foolish-and-wise

fuck it, colorful home libraries

steampunktendencies

The munich’s municipal law library Photographer : @themodernleper Munich’s law library is one of the most gorgeous libraries in Munich. Founded in 1843, in 1906 it moved into the splendid two-story reading hall which was designed by Georg von Hauberrisser and is located in the new town hall at Marienplatz. Most impressive in the 30 foot high hall are the gold plated wrought-iron spiral staircases and balustrades that reflect Munich’s floral art nouveau style.

sergeant-angels-trashcan

things librarians judge you for:

saying the book came to you like that when clearly your dog chewed on it

trying to reshelve books on your own

yelling at us to get our attention

talking on your phone when we’re trying to assist you

yelling at non-management staff for policies they have no power over

asking for more time on the computer when the session has already logged you off, you needed to ask for that time 5 minutes ago

asking us to look something up for you by the call number. the call number tells you where it is. please just give me the title.

getting upset with us for anything COVID related

things librarians do NOT judge you for (unless they’re bad at librarianing):

reading erotica

using the copier incorrectly

not speaking english as a first language

being an adult and not reading grown up books

owing fines

liking romance novels

finding out your child’s card is blocked because they’ve been billed for books they’ve secretly been hiding behind their dresser

having books overdue

you liking graphic novels and comics

your CHILD liking graphic novels and comics. seriously. we just want them to read.

taking books off of a display

asking us to check and make sure we don’t have a book you returned (with COVID and quarantining books, more things are getting missed, so asking a librarian to do a shelf check is okay! but be nice. we are So Tired and Busy. if you say something like “if you’re busy feel free to check when you have time and get back to me” we will love you. we will probably be like “you’ve been nice so i’ll go right now”)

things librarians judge, but don’t judge YOU for:

James Patterson. Look. we all know everyone likes him. That’s great, we love that people read because of him! But we do judge James Patterson as an entity. He’s got so many goddamn books. they take up so much goddamn space. james. jimmy. jimsicle. just. stop putting your name on things, please, we are begging you. liking james patterson is Valid. BEING james patterson is not valid.

hundondestiny

i love libraries but i wish ppl would stop acting like they’re a utopia that exists outside the bounds of oppression except for when it helps tbh.

hundondestiny

i have only ever felt welcome in libraries where the staff looks like me, and that’s including when i WORKED at a library as a student volunteer at age 14/15 when one of my grown as fuck 40+ white colleagues refused to be alone in a room with me because i made her uncomfortable by virtue of being Black :) wouldn’t even sort magazines standing next to me, at that, because i was such a threat to her apparently.

this whole “uwu librarians are just such sweet people! librarians become librarians because they love people! we exist to support the community!” shows me very clearly where people are coming from and it’s not my reality. libraries should be that but don’t pretend those are things that can be assumed lmao.

hundondestiny

it’s like a very specific brand of white women librarians who make these kinds of posts and it aggravates me because they are absolutely the ones who call the cops on people who fall asleep, on the adults with learning disabilities who want to participate in children’s storytime (because so many libraries pretend illiterate adults don’t exist to begin with, or just any adults who would like to be read to???), who make stupid rules about who can use the community meeting spaces and for what even tho ur district tells u it’s supposed to be for anyone fitting x y z standards some Sally or Jane always has “it’s just our preferences here at [branch]!” to say about it, who will tsktsktsk at the white boys who come in clearly high but tell you to “keep an eye on” the group of all brown kids because they look like trouble… who huff and puff and get annoyed when they have to explain something multiple times to a patron with a diff native language than English or taking a few extra steps to serve patrons w disabilities but has nooooo problem excitedly repeating information over and over for the abled english-speaking people, cuz you know, they DESERVE help! they’re not a nuisance!

like fucking… miss me w all this nonsense honestly it’s fucking infuriating the more i think about it. if you pretend we already live in a world where “if only libraries had funding, they’d be havens!” then no one is going to have the motivation or even knowledge to push for that as a reality. and the reality is libraries for many of us are just another site of surveillance and violence by the same group of people in a different outfit.

blue-wisteria-and-freckled-skin

I will never forget the time I had a man cry while I was serving him in the library where I’ll work.

He was a regular, but didn’t often do much other than sit around and enjoy being here. One day after coming back after my lunch break, he came to the helpdesk and since my other colleague was busy, I stopped shelving and went to help. I’ll be honest, he has learning difficulties and unfortuantely he isn’t very clear when speaking, but we eventually worked out that he wanted a book (through me guessing and him pointing at multiple people reading). After narrowing down what he wanted to read about, dogs, I stood up to go get some examples before he stopped me to say “I can’t read very well.”

In that instance, I felt so sorry for him. It was clear from his expression that he was ashamed, and I have no doubt half of that shame comes from other people’s usual reactions, but I just nodded, told him to wait there and went to go find some books. Bringing back a handful of different books, from picture books to children’s non-fiction, to dyslexia friendly and giant print books, we had a look through them together while I asked him what books were good and what were bad, so I knew what I was looking for, and it became clear that what he really needed were essentially picture books with at most a sentence per page.

That was simple enough, so I took him to the children’s area and we looked through some books together, ignoring the Karen-mom clearly glaring from the sofa she was sat on. A little later he’d chosen a handful of picture books and was grinning from ear to ear. We went back to the desk and I issued them for him and he was ready to go, before he started crying, explaining he’d never been able to choose his own books before. He learnt pretty soon that I was, unfortunately, the only one of my colleagues who had the patience/human decency to serve him, so he’d usually come at that same time once a week to change his books, always immediately looking for me so I could help him.

This is just one example of one customer dealing with what is practically bullying from adults, who should know better. He just wanted to read and was belittled so much that he was embarrased to say so. Please, please bare in mind that if you serve customers in a shop or library or any customer service role- it shouldn’t even have to be a second thought to just.. not be a dick. This is just one example. but c’mon, please just be decent to other people.

yorksilk

this week in I Am Very Smart: having enough money to go to the opera, museums and concerts correlates with having enough money for food, shelter and basic health needs

cyborgfirelord

They controlled for socioeconomic factors though! The people who conducted this study knew that people with lots of money to attend the opera were also more likely to be able to afford basic necessities, so they controlled for it in their analysis. The fun thing about statistics is that you can control for different confounding factors so you can look at the effects of one independent variable (opera or whatever) on the dependent variable (mortality). Part of being critical of potential biases is actually reading the article and knowing what to look for.

starstuffandalotofcoffee

In addition to that very good point about controlling for socioeconomic factors, the article says a single museum or concert per year makes a difference. Most cities have free community concerts (some even have free opera performances!) and museums that are either free, pay-what-you-want, or at least have specific days/times during which they are free or at a significantly reduced cost. Many libraries (which are free) provide free museum passes to card holders. In fact, the article quotes a museum worker who works at a free art museum in Baltimore.

If you actually read the article you would also read that educators are excited about this study because it provides evidence that the arts should be made more accessible financially - by restoring arts programs in the public schools, for example.

iamhalseymusic

My sweet love.

Lonely are the nights I lay awake in a bed alone whisked away from the love I was suckling from your lips only hours ago.

Whisked so fast from your warm embrace, enveloping my entirety (the same way your hot mouth wraps around my tongue).

What I’d give to have you leaning above me, propped up on your hands with your body stretched across the mattress like a highway overpass.

With your dark eyes glimmering like street lights on wet asphalt, and your hair swinging in your face like telephone wires.

You are an entire city.

The hum of your breath in your chest, like subway trains ripping through the underground. The rumble of your groan echoing from behind your ribs, shaking the grated sidewalks beneath my feet.

Your laughter, electrifying, like digital billboards and neon lights flashing back and forth across the skyline.

Your cry like emergency sirens fleeing through the streets.

And your beautiful mouth hanging open softly, The stark contrast to the sandpaper grin rising from your stubbly chin. Like a flower growing through cracks in the concrete, are your pink mouth and your chipped teeth. (I always loved those flowers the most. Because despite the obstacles, they simply had to grow! They demanded to exist! Like a pure smile on a sad face.)

I want to crawl inside your body and make a home there. Leave my things strewn across the floor, open the windows to let in the breeze, And throw myself down onto the sofa with a content sigh.

I love you tirelessly.