I’m not sure either.

thought dump paradise yeehaw, 34, I’ve been chronically online since 1997

[beautifulbacteria]

I’m going to learn how to do everything

[woolandflax]

But if I am not perfect on my first attempt I will explode

[scenenotsafe]

making my own self big sad because I have a class project which is supposed to be super simple but I am a Certified Dumbass and cannot make anything simple

[pangur-and-grim]

all books should be written by deeply damaged autistic perverts

[ssajin]

@pangur-and-grim ?

[pangur-and-grim]

YOU DON'T NEED TO TAG ME ON THIS, I WROTE THE POST

[thorsbaratitty-blog]

“Just because you are different does not mean that you have to be rejected.” - Eartha Kitt

[gullahch1ld]

Sometimes it is your fault.. Sometimes you don’t listen well enough, you’re selfish, you’re rude and you aren’t always right. Sometimes you fucked it up and tbh that’s okay. It happens, learn from it, apologize and keep it moving. Just because you fucked up doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Don’t dwell on it

[nezu]

german emotions

[scenenotsafe]

feeling aggresiv today

[rabiesofficial]

[depsidase]

[scenenotsafe]

I’m going to hell gay as fuck and with a tummy full of shrimp

[mr-deep-downer]

[sailatina3]

[herecomesthementalmeltdown]

[threeninesfine]

The suburbs dream of violence. Asleep in their drowsy villas, sheltered by benevolent shopping malls, they wait patiently for the nightmares that will wake them into a more passionate world.

—J.G. Ballard, Kingdom Come

[creatingblackcharacters]

"From these made-up horrors, these fictionalized enemies, he had created a villain worthy of the violent bravado that he imagined he would display if confronted by said villain. This web of racist lies was what he needed to make himself seem like a man. He invented a story about bad guys who were out to get him, and he repeated it to himself and others until he believed it. Then he made up another story- of himself as hero, defending himself and his family against this violent threat- and he repeated that one until he believed it too. Brian wrote himself into his own American westen, a world of cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers. And for a man with no job, few friends, and a family that couldn't stand him, pretending to be a main character in violent American mythology was as close to belonging as he was ever going to get."

Mediocre, Ijeoma Oluo

[helpimsotired]

Justin McElroy talking about accessibility in live theatre (June 9, 2019)

[formichi]

[quasi-normalcy]

“Art is happening everywhere all of the time” but an awful lot of it seems to only ever happen in New York and London, doesn’t it?

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

hell I’m someone who’s seen a LOT of theatre shows. we have a local theatre that does performances a few times a year and occasionally I’m able to get tickets when there’s a tour (even the closest location is like at least a two hours drive) and like. even if I’m actually fucking able to go to them the amount of times the Only Space with wheelchair access LITERALLY CAN’T see the fucking stage is wild. the last performance I went to I was seated somewhere where I wasn’t able to see anything except peoples feet unless the performers were on the far left of the stage. i was AT the live art and I wasn’t able to see it bc accessibility at theatres is That Dogshit. like even if somehow the geography and financial issues are somehow fine (they’re not) I think it’s Interesting how James completely ignored the disability part Justin mentioned. “art is happening everywhere” but no one cares to let people like me see it even if we’re fucking there and paid money for it.

[scenenotsafe]

*silent internal scream to prepare myself for the barrage of feelings I have about this very specific thing*

Like Justin McElroy, I do not have a solution. But it’s kind of a turtles-all-the-way-down (or up?) sitch, every aspect of theatre is WILDLY inaccessible

There are a lot of things that could be done differently that people are resistant to change due to “tradition” (which, honestly, FUCK that, tradition is a killer of art at times). There are so many other things that could be changed that can’t or won’t due to financial constraints. There’s so many layers to this hell-onion that surrounds the magic of theatre and it’s so frustrating and so heartbreaking

Also, fuck the monopoly that NYC (and I guess London) has on Broadway. One of the most brilliant musicals I have ever had the pleasure to witness was Hood, a musical written and directed by Dallas locals and performed at the Kalita Humphreys theater in Dallas by local performers. It rivaled the two shows I was able to see on a trip to NYC a few years back. There is GREAT talent EVERYWHERE and Broadway is not big enough to contain all of it!!! AND, Broadway has its moments, but lately I feel it’s oversaturated with celebs, which pushes out other talent (I’m not talking about surprise guest performances, I’m talking about celebs who do entire runs, it just kind of rubs me the wrong way a lot of the time).

I don’t know! I can keep rambling about this for probably infinity as a broken theatre kid who had to stop because Life Happened and has realized in her adulthood that Life Has Happened Too Much and For Too Long and that I might not ever be able to be a part of theatre again, and I just want everyone to experience the magic of theatre. UGH

[audible-smiles]

My memory of The Birdcage (1996) is always that it's more dated and more difficult to watch than it actually is. You hear "drag-themed comedy from the 90s based on a musical from the 80s based on a play from the 70s" and you brace yourself just a little, right? But the film has a strong gay perspective, so the fruity fag jokes mostly come off as warmly affectionate. There is a surprising amount of poignancy in Robin Williams' portrayal of Armand, grudgingly agreeing to his beloved son's request that he go back into the closet for an evening ("do me a favor and don't talk to me for a while"). The drag club's staff attempting to redecorate the apartment with stuff straight people might like (a taxidermy moose head, an enormous crucifix, and Playboy magazine) is extremely funny. Albert's histrionics are a point of tension because he does often come off as a stereotypically pathetic/comic figure, but towards the end of the movie he makes it very clear that he's aware of how people see him, and asserts that trying to copy a stoic masculinity he doesn't possess for the sake of social approval would be more pathetic. In the 1983 musical adaptation, they give "Albert" (Albin) the only good song in the whole show, "I Am What I Am", which Gloria Gaynor covered to the delight of gays everywhere. Apparently Nathan Lane wasn't (publicly) out yet in 1996, which is amazing because it means that at one point in this movie you're watching a gay man playing a straight man playing a gay man playing a straight man, in a movie about how it's important to be yourself, an absurdity that does seem to encapsulate the state of gay America in the 90s.

[silverhand]

I'm seeing a couple of posts circulating about the gay 90s and this movie. The above is a very good summary, and I think it's worth adding a few other points.

This movie got made because Robin Williams said yes to it (and it's important that Gene Hackman did as well). Williams in the 90s was a mega-star of a type that's not present in the current media environment (maybe Tom Cruise, but I personally think that's echo from his salad days). Even his flops made money on the back end in the video rental market, which also doesn't exist anymore (streaming is different). Hackman was on the other side of his A-list career but still Hollywood nobility if not full royalty.

Playing gay was considered career suicide in the 90s. There had been a number of actors who put lie to that belief stretching back decades, but this was Williams and Hackman (yes, being on screen next to a gay character was enough to get you blacklisted) saying "screw that" and doing it anyway.

Being gay and out was career suicide in the 90s.

Nathan Lane had a really nice gig going for himself. The Lion King put him into the Disney rep company with people like Williams, Bette Midler, and Whoopie Goldberg (check their IMBD list from the 90s--they were making bank at Disney).

Lane didn't come out until several years later (nice summary: https://deadline.com/2024/06/nathan-lane-robin-williams-advice-coming-out-birdcage-1235975010/).

I don't want to imply that this was a Sorkinized moment where everything changed because of one thing, but this was a very important movie that caused real movement in the needle on queer acceptance.

It also proved that there was a market for films with gay characters, which had the knock-on effect of gay filmmakers being able to find distributors of their gay-themed films. Which meant that more people than ever (queer and non-queer) got to see representation on-screen.

[tiktoks-i-enjoyed]

Clip of Lucy Dacus on the Las Culturistas podcast.

[beardedmrbean]

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real: Nature.com

I'm a bit frightened for the time when someone less ethical than the person that did this decides to repeat the experiment but leave out the part where they come in later and announce that it was fake and people wind up diagnosed with the fake condition and all kinds of wacky hi jinks ensues.

[horbse]

H

[auberylis]

O

[horsefigureoftheday]

R

[fabledgalaxies]

S

[the-arcade-doctor]

E

[circus-mcgurkus]

!

[horsefigureoftheday]

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[makesomenoise]

🌈

[scenenotsafe]

If I ever learn how to death metal scream I will be completely insufferable

[scenenotsafe]

The same goes for polyphonic singing, whistle tone, slide guitar,