i make heirlooms not heirs

[lobstabear]

To my 25 - 35 year olds, you've reached the age where people around you are starting to give up on themselves because they think it's too late. Don't let that energy rub off on you. It's not too late.

[officialbillhader]

[motherblackcap]

[Description: a TikTok video showing someone holding up a Macbook laptop with an incredulous look, with a caption reading "Alan Turing after I bring him to 2026". The person inspects the laptop, and as they do so they say "Oh my god. This is—this is incredible. Like, I just—I can't even comprehend what I'm looking at here. Like, I just never thought that like in a million years society would ever, ever be able to create something like this." They pause and look at the laptop screen, and say "And you said they're both hockey players?" /End description]

[chase-solidago]

i hate that concerns about urban gardening/foraging safety is often met with "What are you, a cop?" scorn. I believe it's a suspicion of anything that hinders the punk/anti-system urgency to jump in immediately and do whatever feels right.

Safety, ethics, and sustainability are all a part of urban gardening and foraging. I'm sorry that means you need to do homework before you can do anything, I know that sounds lame. But life is complicated.

I know anti-intellectualism is viewed as activist these days, but like, surely you don't want to literally eat lead, right?

[chase-solidago]

Let’s check in and see how those rascally solarpunk kids are doing, surely they’ve learned by now that…..

Daily reminder: Leafy greens like kales uptake all those delicious heavy metals in urban soils like lead and cadmium.

Don’t eat sidewalk-crack kale.

Here's some cool references from the EPA on safe urban gardening:

REUSING POTENTIALLY CONTAMINATED LANDSCAPES: Growing Gardens in Urban Soils

Steps to Creating a Community Garden or Expand Urban Agriculture at a Brownfields Site

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[beanarie]

ok this is the best thing i've ever ever ever seen everyone watch immediately

[manapeer]

[thecollectibles]

Art by Leah Gardner

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

The ceaseless work of trying to love others as you wish to be loved, eclipsed only by the work of trying to love yourself as you wish to be loved.

[blignick]

[hedgehog-moss]

mademoiselle hedgehog, what are your thoughts on ambition? it seems like such a harsh cutthroat drive, but at the same time, shouldn't we all have something that pushes us to be our best selves? is it possible to find a soft and gentle ambition within ourselves, like a slowly rising tide?

Thank you for this very interesting ask! I’d never really reflected on this, but my gut feeling is that ambition has done more ill than good in the world. If I were sitting my high school philosophy exam and drew this topic, my opening quote would be Minerva from the opera Daphné "How you torment yourselves, ambitious mortals—desperate and frantic—enemies of leisure, enemies of yourselves." But I like your water imagery—maybe you naturally have tides carrying you towards higher goals while I am stagnant water—the word stagnant comes from stagnum, a pond, I don’t mind it. Maybe some people are seas and enjoy tidal rising while others are ponds and enjoy pondering.

If I had to visualise a soft and gentle ambition I wouldn't picture a slow tide rising towards something greater but rather wavelets, setting small projects for myself that don’t disrupt too much (or for too long) the at-rest state that I am content with. (If I were not content with my at-rest state, then yes, a stronger, 'tidal' ambition would help change this situation, but even then I would tend to perceive this ambition as a necessary evil...) One such project could be learning a new language, which possibly fits your definition of a gentler kind of ambition ‘within ourselves’—but I don't know if I would see this as striving to be my best self. Am I a better version of myself if I spend my free time learning a language rather than doing a stagnant activity that doesn't rise towards a goal (like watching my animals live their lives, which makes me happy)?

If someone has an ambitious goal, say, writing a book, that they feel will bring something of value to themselves and/or the world at large, and the idle activities that take time away from this goal are of comparatively less value to them (or inherently less joyful or healthy—insert critique of smartphones here) then I would say ambition is a positive force that helps them better their life and their self. But I deeply value idleness and fruitless pursuits, I think they often bring us great joy and do no harm, and trying to infuse them with more ambition in the name of self-improvement can ruin them (like trying to master a hobby in order to monetise it).

At heart I am wary of ambition—of the way it is lauded as 'striving to be your best self' even when it brings us less joy, and is more detrimental to our health and the health of the world than being content with our current self and enjoying pondlike activities—idleness, contemplation, amateur unproductive hobbies. "Doing nothing is here intended as a positive proposal"—I just went in my idleness tag to fish out this Ruth Levitas quote—"Politicians may declare that ‘we need to do more and we need to do it faster’. The opposite is true. We need to do less, and we need to do it more slowly. Doing a lot more nothing, including sleeping, would reduce resource consumption, lower stress levels and enable social relations more conducive to dignity and grace…"

[hedgehog-moss]

That Baricco quote I reblogged yesterday about your life being a plaza rather than a road reminded me of this ask—I remember that when I first posted it, I received another anon who strongly disagreed with the idea that we shouldn't strive to better ourselves, or to be our best self, and associated it with complacency or laziness.

I've been thinking about it (yes, in the years since I got this message) and I think there was just a dissonance in the way we used words maybe, because that second anon equated learning new things with "bettering ourselves" and I don't, not really. What younger-me was trying to articulate in this post was that my unease with the idea of bettering yourself isn't a rejection of growth, just a rejection of a hierarchical view of growth. I was opposing the value system that says your self-worth increases the more you learn, or create, or master, or produce. It creates this kind of implicit ladder people imagine themselves climbing to ascend towards their "best self" and it links selfhood to motion, and entrenches the idea that goodness must be earned by doing. As a naturally idle person I've always resisted this idea.

To me saying that learning new skills =/= bettering yourself is just about unhooking curiosity or passion from self-surpassing. Because the latter notion just makes you an enemy of your present and past self, that you have to outperform, in a way? and this results in viewing idleness and rest and contented self-acceptance with suspicion—as laziness and complacency and lack of admirable striving. I understand that it's also a matter of temperament and not everyone will share my distrust of action as a path to meaning and worth, but as far as I'm concerned—to go back to my clumsy watery metaphor, a pond doesn't get better by getting wider or different, it gets richer by accumulating silt and sediment. Its value comes from what time deposits into it and how this settles within it, not how much it expands or changes. It's about self-enrichment through stillness and receptivity and reflection, not self-improvement via the surmounting of an insufficient present self and striving towards a better self. I think the first framing can give you a more gentle attitude to your present self. Selfhood should be a friendly continuity rather than a stressful contest—your future self isn't a better you, just a more richly-sedimented and calmly-settled you (hopefully).

Anyway, yesterday's quote got me thinking about this again and I agree with my past self (because I've been staying still this whole time clearly!), that ambition is unnecessary and there are beautiful lives to be lived not through motion, ambition and reinvention but through stillness and openness and presence—attuned to the world, curious, quiet, and whole.

[audreynalley]

Quelques exemples d'association de plantes à faire au jardin illustrés pour les Petites leçons de permaculture publié sur @matin_queljournal 🌱🌿 Désormais disponible en librairies !

[jamiebythesea]

Vous pouvez complètement mettre des fleurs de bourrache dans vos salades, c'est comestible, légèrement mucilagineux et le goût est iodé, et c'est aussi un bon accompagnement dans les omelettes, et à mettre dans la soupe !

(En tant qu'apiculteur, si vous êtes en ville, je vous conseille de mettre de la bourrache sur vos balcons, elle attire particulièrement bien les abeilles et les bourdons et on aime les abeilles et les bourdons dans cette maison.)

[azarashinoshippo3]

Summer is just around the corner.

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

After seeing the Howl’s Moving Castle musical I am a changed person and I never want to see fanart of Sophie Hatter as thin and white ever again. 

If you weren’t aware that there was a Howl’s Musical, here ya go. Go throw money at this production company and hope they release an album or a recording because the show was honestly fucking perfect. We were in the front row and all five of us flailed so hard that the cast thanked us specifically “for our enthusiasm and energy” after the show. 

This Sophie, played by Seattle actress Sara Porkalob, is your new god. 

She has micro-expressions down to an absolute art and the best comedic timing I’ve ever personally witnessed. She exists and was the perfect Sophie and now you know. You’re welcome.

Sidenote but the night we saw it Howl was wearing a NEON PINK WIG and SPRAY PAINTED SILVER JEANS for almost the entire show and NO ONE will ever be a better Howl tbh.

And Lettie and Martha were also great! The entire cast was great! Their physicality on stage was unbelievable!! The writing was superb!!! I can never see another musical as long as I live because of how perfect this one was!!!!!

You’re welcome. 

[thislizard]

THERE ARE PICTURES

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT ALL OF THIS

I LOVE EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH THIS BEAUTIFUL EVENT

[ink-splotch]

I want this badly

[kuronekonokishidan]

According to the notes some of the songs are on Justin Huertas’ YouTube channel, they’re the one who wrote the musical.

Justin Huertas

Seattle-based actor, musician, playwright, and singer-songwriter. 🎶🎸💚 Writer of musicals LIZARD BOY, WE'VE BATTLED MONSTERS BEFORE, HOWL'S M

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Bless you for checking the notes. Also: there was a second production of this in winter ‘19-‘20 with some minor rewrites (mostly adding a perfect show closing reprise for my third favorite song from the show which is about cake). If Justin gets enough traction on patreon and YouTube there might be an album at some point! (And maybe a third production???!!!?)

Please please please don’t just reblog this post but also go check out the YouTube channel and give the songs some more views. It’s worth it the songs are amazing. And I desperately want more people to watch the current videos so Justin will finally finally release a recording of the best song from the show (it’s the witch’s solo and it’s Amazing).

Also before someone asks my second favorite song is the love theme Sophie sings when howl gifts her the flower shop and it’s fucking beautiful.

okay there’s also the song sung by the cursed dog man hybrid which is actually deeply moving and incredibly beautiful.

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Hey y’all this post is getting notes again so do me a favor and reblog this version instead.

So very sadly, bookit theater, which produced and housed both runs of this musical and had been in Seattle for over 40 years, was not able to survive the pandemic and sell enough tickets to stay open after lockdowns were lifted. They announced they were shutting down this summer. I’m personally pretty bummed about it.

But if you want to support this musical PLEASE check out Justin Huertas’ YouTube channel and patreon. Let him know that his work in creating this musical is appreciated.

I am still holding out hope that he’ll be able to get this show produced again, maybe in a workshop or something.

Also I want to add a story from viewing this show in person.

My friends and I attended both of these productions dressed in the most over the top thematically appropriate outfits we could manage. We were in the front row and it was a small theater and we were Enthusiastic audience members to say the least, cheering, laughing, getting into it. And when the witch of the waste took the stage to deliver her extremely powerful theme song, we lost it. This woman was eating this song, an absolute powerhouse, fucking spectacular performance.

(Justin has still yet to post this song on YouTube…..Where is the witch’s song Justin…..let me hear it again………)

When the cast came out to the lobby after the show we found the witch’s actress to complement her and she recognized us from our very enthusiastic cheering and thanked us for being her coven for the evening, which is a complement I hold dearly.

Anyway, here are some of the fantastic songs from the show I mentioned above, usually featuring at least one cast member from one of the runs:

Early book sophie wishing she was a different person.

Newly cursed Sophie enjoying the start of her adventure and finding freedom in being cursed.

Sophie’s sisters explaining their scheme to switch places. This is a song about cake and it goes Extremely hard. The second run of this show added a reprise of this song at the end. Standing ovation.

Sophie reacting to the field of flowers gifted by Howl (this song made me cry in person). Sung by Sara Porkalob, original Sophie!

And last but not least, a song from the point of view of the cursed dog man mashup that is Extremely beautiful.

[armengoldira]

[anonymoustypewriter]

That's the fucking whoville Christmas band contraption that drove the grinch to madness

[azarashinoshippo3]

Seal Atelier🎨🖍️🦭

[holdoncallfailed]

i think we should be meaner about people who are super reliant on chatgpt or whatever other AI. i think we should call them intellectually weak and emotionally stunted and mindless corporate shills who have no personalities and who are actively diminishing their capacity for human empathy and creative thought. and i think we should point and laugh at them and call them dweebs

[hopepunk-humanity]

[handsofred]

Okay, I was not expecting this at all and I have to admit, I have not listened to any music from Chappell Roan before, my fault and that is going to change...but this is hauntingly beautiful and it's beautiful to see so many people come together to do something for not only themselves, but for this video too.

This needs to be shared everywhere really, it really is beautiful.

[coreomajoris]

I know this song well but hadn't listened to it in a few months, and this version just made me cry and made me think about various queer regrets and frustrations I had during the era I grew up in. It means so much to see people come together to sing this.

[tearlessrain]

sometimes someone will casually mention using chatgpt or some other generative ai thing and I can actually feel the little

above my head

[vladimir-polishko]

[nightunite]

@beloveds-embrace

[beloveds-embrace]

THE GYM SCENE 😭😭