actually annoyed by long distance friends again. i want to go for a walk i want to get drinks i want to sit in the grass and write i want to go to the fucking store together
people on here who have been on 10-15+ years like myself...i don't know how they claim that there were never any Black bloggers on here, or that it was always such a white website. trudy gradientlair was on here. thisiswhiteprivilege was on here. there was a feminist citation project sara ahmed was involved in on here. there was someone on here whose username was wretchedoftheearth and that was how i learned who fanon was when i was 12, by googling those words. tumblr was the only place i knew i could go to get accurate & compassionate info about what happened to trayvon martin, when everyone around me irl was rabidly racist. the amount of reportage and scholarship that happened on here before the first big wave of bans was so huge and so much has been lost. where were you when it was happening??? why weren't you paying attention??
Every time people speak about how all the "problematic" people left the site and went to Twitter, I simply presume whoever says it is racist. Everyone who wanted to try to discourage people from returning here when Twitter was overrun, I presume was antiblack. Twitter became unsafe and Black people STILL kept at it, because it was literally still more productive for them to do work there than it was to try doing it here.
There were folks here that I know elsewhere now who literally help save lives in their communities and have online safe spaces in other places that they were able to build and cultivate. Seeing Black people who became huge when they left here will always be my perception of Tumblr. It is a place that Black people started great work and were put out because the work wasn't valued by the white Tumblr population or was straight up sabotaged by them.
I FINALLY got back in touch with Cashawn, who was the first person who got "Black Girls are Magic" poppin. I hadn't been in touch with her for nearly a decade! Because she fucking left here. And there are a few, very few who tap in and see what's up over here every now and then. But a lot of them simply let Tumblr kick rocks and they were correct to do so.
And it was the central place, not just for Trayvon's story, but everyone's. When other sites were not giving information or giving construed information, there were so many boots on the ground activists who used THIS SITE to communicate their situations and tell you what was real. In fact, one of the main points of the purges were getting rid of activists who were using the site to keep others informed.
This WAS the site people came to for things, and then it had to become Twitter and there are still ignoramuses on here who chuckle "Twitter is having old convos from Tumblr lol" Twitter is having PRESENT convos that many of the same people who were having them on Tumblr had to go have them on Twitter instead, because Tumblr became unsafe for the work that they started here. Twitter is STILL having conversations that Black people have had to have in every space we occupy and are often run out of.
But, because Tumblr IS full of white people, their arrogance makes them think they are special and smart and revolutionary. They don't even know how much of the shit they say has been picked from the bones of something that Black people originally grew on Tumblr before they were deactivated or jumped ship.
I bound a little copy of The Witch's Cat by Champagne / @temporalreplicsimile! The story was the perfect opportunity to try my first buttonhole binding and I love the result. It's such a fun structure!
Richie offered a large, sincere smile. 'Thank you, Bill, for those words of support. The word "fuck" was used two hundred and six times in your last book. I counted.'
hiiiiii! zay has his copy now so I can post pics!! :D
I don't normally bind my own work, but after zay did an incredible podfic of one of my jayvik fics, I decided to give a go! (and so I could make him a copy too hehe). this is a bind of the podfic of my little seaside post-canon, when it comes my turn to lose you. gorgeous artwork on the CDs is by @moonartjb and @wr0wn. (full pieces, which have and deserve their own posts, are here and here!)
as always, more crafty chatter under the cut! <3
This was such a fun challenge! I knew going in that I wanted a format that would showcase the podfic in a physical way, but I went back and forth on how best to do that. While I was puzzling out possible dimensions, I came across the digibook and went !!!:
From there, it was just a matter of sizing the textblock and case around the CDs, then making paper pockets for each board to house them. For the textblock, I measured the dimensions of a CD and a standard jewel case as a starting point, then found a size I thought would work best. I printed on my usual short-grain letter paper and trimmed twice--once after sewing the signatures, then again after gluing the spine. The finished size of the book is the same height as a jewel case, and a little shorter length-wise:
(comparison photo with another bound podfic by zay hehe)
For the CD pockets, I used cream printer paper and folded them using this tutorial (...don't ask me how many times I had to refold them to get the dimensions exactly right ajsdlfkjs).
All in all, I'm quite happy with this size! I think it strikes a nice balance between book and CD case, and it feels nice and sturdy in the hand, especially with both CDs in there (Disc 1 is chapters 1-4, and Disc 2 is chapters 5-7!)
Another one of my favorite bits of this bind is the window inset! Original photo is by Daniel Gorostieta, which I edited in Affinity Publisher and printed on Epson photo paper. I then layered a sheet of acetate between the boards to give it that reflective window quality, and also to protect the photo paper, which can be vulnerable to scratching and fading if left exposed.
But by far the COOLEST part of this bind was getting to hand it to zay in person!! I've only ever mailed author copies before, so it was amazing getting to meet up and hand him something we'd both worked on together 🥹
And finally, one last credit--the beautiful metal spiral bookmark (which I just had to include in the pics) was a gift to me, literally forged by dear @zillac. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever received, and I can't believe it's mine!! I will treasure it forever <3
Between the artwork, the podfic, meeting zay, and zil's gift (which arrived around the time I was finishing this bind)--gosh! All my books are a mosaic of people and stories I care about, but this one felt extra special 💌
And that's all for today! Once more for the road: you can listen to zay's podfic on ao3, here <3
'You guys never appreciated true talent, that's all,' Richie said comfortably. As in the old days, you could knock him off-balance, but he was like one of those inflatable Joe Palooka dolls with sand in the base — he floated upright again almost at once. 'That was one of your little contributions to the Losers' Club, wasn't it, Haystack?'
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