art blog(derogatory)
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blake kathryn
Sade Olutola
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
we're not kids anymore.
izzy's playlists!
Janaina Medeiros
DEAR READER
Origami Around
taylor price
tannertan36
Acquired Stardust
Misplaced Lens Cap
AnasAbdin
@theartofmadeline
Stranger Things
Sweet Seals For You, Always
NASA
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Sweden
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
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@troubled-mind
Hi, hello, this is me!
For parallels, track: tm:parallels For all my random stuff: look here.
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✨Shows: MONTHLY | BY SHOW | MDL
🎶Music: PLAYLISTS | MUSIC RAMBLE | ASIAN SONG RECS
🪞Gifs: PARALLELS | ME VS BL | FAV | OTHER
🎉Recap: 2023 | 2024 | 2025
Me as a Tumblr post.
The Rasa Tag Game
Brain child of @siathawisit and started by @maybe-boys-do-love (post). I was tagged by all these wonderful humans @befuddledcinnamonroll (here) @dramalove247 (here) @embersinthefirelight (here) @colourme-feral (here). Thank you all 🫶
Rules: The rasas are South Asian aesthetic categories that remain influential in the regions dramas and art (read more on the wikipedia article here). Literally, it’s the dominant “flavour” of a work or performance. For the game, pick a pair that represents each rasa to you. You can choose whether you want to do CP, pairings or just characters. No need to explain unless you feel like it. Then tag 5 friends to find out their flavours of love.
Well I've been reading about this and it's so interesting and completely new to me. So thank you to @siathawisit and @maybe-boys-do-love for giving me the opportunity to learn something new. After reading a bit about this I decided to go for characters instead of pairs. With one exception. Keeping it to just gifs cause time and brain.
1. Sringara (शृङ्गारः): Romance, Love, Beauty, Eroticism [Peem, Khemjira]
2. Hasya (हास्यं): Laughter, Mirth, Comedy [Aoki, Kieta Hatsukoi]
3. Raudram (रौद्रं): Fury, Anger [Wei Wuxian, The Untamed]
4. Karuṇā (करुणा): Compassion, Mercy, Spiritual Longing, Sorrow [Koichi, Eternal Yesterday]
5. Bībhatsa (बीभत्सं): Disgust, Aversion, Repulsion [Young, Love in the Big City]
6. Bhayanaka (भयानकं): Horror, Terror, Overwhelm [Tae Myungha, Love for Love's Sake]
7. Vīram (वीरं): Heroism, Energy, Adventure [King, Marahuyo Project]
8. Adbhutam (अद्भुतं): Awe, Wonder, Amazement [Kakeru, I Cannot Reach You]
9. Santam (शान्तरस): Peace, Tranquility, Calm [Kasuga & Nomoto, She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat]
Well that's it. This is my interpretation of the theme and the chars. Tagging but as always no pressure @thisonelikesaliens @incandescentflower @mikuni14 @negrowhat @tanrak @abstractelysium @nonglukest @byemambo @bluesandfilms @mewsthumbring @troubled-mind @wanderlust-in-my-soul and if you see this and want to play consider yourself tagged here ➡️@ 💜
List for easy copy-paste under the cut ⤵
Rejected, Chinese style. 😭
happy birthday thank you now, we’re the same age again
Jack o’ Frost (2023) - Episode 5
So I'm sick and couldn't sleep at all last night, so to spare my husband my coughing fits, I made a nest on the couch and curled up to finally finally watch Jack O'Frost.
And oh
Oh my god my heart
I think there's something to be said about watching shows at the right time. Idk there was something very special/magical about it being January and there's snow outside and I was sitting in the dark, sick, bundled up in blankets but my nose and fingers exposed to the cold air, and watching this show in particular.
I don't know how Japan does it but this show is so chilly and so cozy at the same time. It's cold and grey and stark and there's so much awkward silence. The interiors feel old and creaky, yet also lived-in and inviting. I feel like the whole atmosphere beautifully captured the tension of intimacy and distance between the two characters.
I don't love amnesia tropes, I don't love lying/miscommunication tropes, I don't love second chance romance.
But I did really really love this show.
I liked the messy darkness of this show, how every scene is weighed down by all the things they haven't said to each other. Fumiya is always lurking in doorways, in shadow. His inability to communicate makes him almost creepy. His dark clothes almost seem to choke him, like he's being swallowed up by his worst qualities.
Rathering than smothering him, Ritsu's layers of clothing seem to have a swaddling effect. He's bundled up in light/warm cozy layers, as impervious to the cold as he is ignorant to the truth and oblivious to the hurt his own carelessness caused.
The headphones/apology scene was sooooooo ahhhhhhh! The lights are on, but Fumiya refuses to step into them. Ritsu is bathed in warmth and completely tuned out of the anguish happening behind him.
Anyway, the visual stoeytelling is just *chef kiss* and i really think this show will be better with each rewatch.
bc i know gmmtv for some years now i do believe time skip opening is red herring BUT it would be so interesting if i was actually wrong ofc i have 'lover of tragedies bias' but i do love happy endings especially in qls just as much if not more it's just catholic school/seminary setting is such a potent idea i like to wonder what if it was handled with enough nuance what if we got Tanrak not only choosing god BUT institution of church as well, the most painful betrayal stemming from his deep fear of ostracisation and trauma so many possibilities especially if we consider the story doesn't end right after time skip scene in church
J-BL + ♨️
Life in Smokey Blue (2026) Ossan's Love Returns (2024) If It's With You (2023) Love is a Poison (2024) Our Dining Table (2023) Love is Better the Second Time Around (2024) Baban Baban Ban Vampire (2025) School Trip: Joined a Group I'm not Close to (2025) Cosmetic Playlover (2024 - 2026)
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH
Marahuyo Project (2024)
Monster (2023)
Not Me (2021)
See Your Love (2024)
The New Employee (2022)
Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)
The Warp Effect (2022)
Like in the Movies (2020)
Plus & Minus (2022)
Gameboys: The Movie (2021)
The Eighth Sense (2023)
Girl Rules (2026)
Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island (2025)
Khemjira (2025)
Light on Me (2021)
Therapy Game (2025)
Kill to Love (2025)
Your Name Engraved Herein (2020)
Kieta Hatsukoi (2021)
Ball Boy Tactics (2025)
Fragrance of the First Flower (2021)
Wandee Goodday (2024)
Cutie Pie (2022)
Happy PRIDE to all my dearest LGBTQIA+ friends. Wishing a joyful Pride Month to everyone, whether you identify somewhere on the sexuality spectrum or prefer not to define your sexuality or gender identity. Happiest Pride to all those who are unable to celebrate openly and safely. You are loved and you are seen. I hope this month will only be filled with joy, happiness, love and celebration. Not just this month but every day to come. I hope we can all wake up to a brighter, more open minded, compassionate and safe future. Happy Pride Month. Love without limits.
These were just some of my memorable moments in queer media 🌈
Bad Prosecutor (2022)
A Fox Under A Pink Moon is exemplary cinema vérité, about an ethnic Afghan teen girl stuck in Iran and trying to figure out how to get out and be an artist. This #documentary is part of this year’s @hotdocs_ . More at @intheseats .
A Fox Under a Pink Moon, through animation and through cellphone footage, tells the story of people trying to find refuge.
Pride Month Tag Game 🏳️🌈
Pick something, whether it's the main colour of a scene or an item in a shot from a ql show or movie that you think of, which corresponds to a colour of the rainbow flag: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
Thank you @colourme-feral @my-rose-tinted-glasses @littleragondin @paulinamakes @mikuni14 for the tag!!! <3
I did this one fast, first thing that comes to mind style. But I still would like to do v2 with the movies! Maybe turn it into a challenge of sorts. We'll see. Anyhow:
RED: I TOLD SUNSET ABOUT YOU ORANGE: MY RIDE YELLOW: JACK O'FROST GREEN: OUR DATING SIM BLUE: BLUEMING VIOLET: SEMANTIC ERROR
No pressure tags: @sewichii, @bluewishdust, @kattahj, @milusia, @mewsthumbring, @embersinthefirelight, @hinmotion (or tag me in your choices if you did that one)
While I have several production-level criticisms of the TTH pilot, I’m genuinely drawn to the story's social context and the emotional arcs of the characters.
First of all, Kongdech's story hits incredibly close to home because I’ve known several people exactly like him: young men from marginalized, rural communities with very narrow horizons.
In 1990s Thailand, remote villages, particularly ethnic minority communities near the border regions (which I’m inferring from how far his parents had to travel) faced severe systemic hurdles. These included barriers to obtaining citizenship documents or national ID cards, extreme poverty, and acute geographic isolation from major hubs like Bangkok. Consequently, this resulted in minimal access to formal education, leaving them with virtually no path toward higher learning or professional careers.
So, based on what he tells Tanrak, it sounds like he's describing a community where basic rights and opportunities aren't guaranteed for everyone. A church scholarship wouldn't just mean religious training; it would also provide housing, education, social mobility, and a genuine path out of poverty. His mother's happiness might be less about "my son is going to be a priest" and more about "my son finally has a future."
Then there's the romance plot. If Tanrak chooses love and ends up with Barth, it strongly reminds me of a movie I watched a long time ago. I can't recall the exact line, but it was also a religious romance. The lead character asked something along the lines of, "Aren't you afraid I'll cheat on you? Because choosing you means I'm betraying God. If I'm not afraid of betraying God, why would I be afraid of betraying you?"
However, looking at TTH from a storytelling standpoint, there is an important nuance here: Tanrak’s ties to the church didn't begin as a matter of free, mature spiritual vocation. The pilot suggests that after losing his parents, he clung to the promise that good people go to heaven. Driven by a desire to see them again, he sought refuge, purpose, and hope within the church, making his ultimate ordination less about a pure calling and more about unresolved grief and longing. That's completely different from someone independently discovering a genuine calling to the priesthood after years of self-reflection. His motivation feels less like a true calling and more like a reaction to loss.
So if the story evolves into him realizing, "I do love God, but I never stopped to ask myself what I wanted," that would perfectly align with the reserved, emotionally repressed nature we've seen since his introduction. The central conflict seems less like "God versus love" and more like duty versus self-discovery, childhood promises versus adult choices, and the struggle between living for a memory versus claiming your own life.
Viewed through this lens, the story seems less interested in betrayal and more interested in whether his chosen path was ever truly a choice at all.
Barth, a young gay man whose estrangement from his faith stems from feeling rejected by religion, creates a fascinating contrast with his foil. While one boy believes deeply but has yet to truly know himself, the other possesses a profound self-awareness but struggles to find a place for belief. Their dynamic forces them to constantly challenge each other's underlying assumptions.
The fact that the show kicks off with news coverage of the 2025 marriage equality act before flashing back to 1996 is hardly a neutral choice. It strongly suggests that the writers want viewers to keep broader social change in mind as the story unfolds. It's a powerful way to remind the audience that the closeted, high-stakes world these boys are growing up in back in the nineties is vastly different from the world that exists today.
Whether they end up together or not in the finale, I think the more compelling interpretation of their bond lies not in "choosing sin over God," but in a journey of self-discovery: a person trying to figure out what was genuinely his own choice, and what had already been chosen for him by grief, circumstance, and societal expectations.
SHISON JUN as MIKI and MACHIDA KEITA as GOTO
JOSHI TEKI SEIKATSU (2018) | 1.01
shinee atmos (2026)
i just remembered this British backpacking youtuber wanker who went to chechnya (he straight up said it like "chech-nyar") and he was getting a taxi ride and complimenting the car and saying it meant the guy was rich and this Chechen guy was like "you've come here from England and can pay for taxi rides, you are rich. I'm literally a taxi driver" and the guy got so fucking huffy about it because his whole brand was how low cost tourism he was. really helped cement my dislike for cunts who go to a much poorer country, start acting like they're in and savvy with the locals (while gentrifying their eating spots etc) and getting all white guilty about their position as a tourist with money in a strong currency with strong wages. what a cunt.
or like ppl going to thailand or Vietnam and being like "holy shit can you believe it? if you pay enough you can shoot a cow!" like of fucking course you can. you're the Yankee tourist waving US dollars around for whoever fulfils your stupid requests. no matter how much you want to feel better than rich tourists you're still wealthy compared to the lady giving you a manicure or the guy riding the bike.
really makes you wonder why they're so shocked about sex tourism, like of course you can do depraved shit you're waving money (valuable money too) in front of poor imperialised people. it's almost less empathetic to be shocked by it than to understand why it's such a common thing.
and the attitude that tourists get like "oh everyone's just after my money" and paranoia around getting robbed like of fucking course people want your money you're wearing a luxury watch in front of subsistence fishermen, you're showing off how much money you have even just as a regular citizen of empire to people who'll not only never see a cent of it, but who actively are exploited to make your country rich.
rich cunts i went to school with boasted about having a house in Vanuatu and their mum complained about "how dirty the natives are". actually evil. like knowing how much easier it was for them as rich Australians to buy a house there than the people who literally live there. fucking hell.
people in the comments were mentioning Siargao a lot so i googled it to learn more about the island and the tourism issue there (As one does). and got like five tourism agency "book your dream holiday now" type results before the fucking Wikipedia article even with ad blockers and so on. genuinely fucked. even internet searches are pushing that shit. it's like they're desperate to tear away the fact that it's people's home.
(or more accurately they never saw it as anything other than an opportunity to make money in the first place)
Life in Smokey Blue managed the impossible which is to keep my attention week after week.
It made me enthusiastic(!) to wake up(!!) each Tuesday to the new episode even if it left me feeling a weird mix of nostalgia and longing. I kept sighing no takie życie all day (c'est la vie does not quite cut it, I had to resort to my Slavic sensibilities). You know the urge to wander aimlessly with the hands behind your back reminiscing about life in general? This show gave me that urge.
I want to have this slice of life in my rotation every week for a foreseeable future. I want to grow old with these guys you know.
Anyways, the show ends next week and I am at a loss.
I haven't read the book, but was Kongdech from northeastern Thailand (Isan), especially somewhere around Sakon Nakhon Province or neighboring provinces like Nakhon Phanom?
The line about him saying, "Everyone is Catholic in my community," really stood out to me. That's unusual in Thailand overall, since more than 90% of the country is Buddhist. However, there are a few villages and districts in the northeast where Catholicism became deeply rooted and entire communities are Catholic.
His mother also mentioned that the trip took "eight hours to Bangkok." In the 1990s, an overnight bus ride from rural Isan to Bangkok commonly took around 8–12 hours, depending on the province and road conditions. Catholic missions in northeastern Thailand historically built schools, boarding facilities, and seminaries. For many poor rural families, education through the Church was one of the few paths to social mobility. These communities were also (and often still are) tightly knit and heavily dependent on mutual support networks.
So if I had to place Kong on a map, my ranking would be:
1. Tha Rae (most likely)
2. Another Catholic village in Sakon Nakhon Province
3. A Catholic community in Nakhon Phanom Province near the Laos border
4. Another Isan Catholic settlement connected to French missionary history
Tha Rae, Sakon Nakhon, is especially interesting because it is famous for being the largest Catholic community in Thailand. It was established in the late nineteenth century through the work of French missionaries and Vietnamese Catholic migrants who settled in the area. Even today, it is known for its large Catholic population, historic church, and elaborate Christmas celebrations. In a place like Tha Rae, a boy saying, "Everybody back home is Catholic," would actually sound completely realistic.
The history behind this is fascinating. Catholicism first arrived in Siam during the sixteenth century through Portuguese missionaries who followed early European trade routes into Southeast Asia. Later, French missionaries from the Paris Foreign Missions Society became much more influential. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they established churches, schools, orphanages, clinics, and seminaries across the region.
The northeast became a particularly important center for Catholicism because of its location along the Mekong River and its connections to Laos and Vietnam. Missionaries worked among Lao-speaking communities in Isan and also among Vietnamese Catholics who migrated into the area, especially during periods of persecution and political instability in Vietnam. Over time, some villages converted collectively, and Catholicism became part of local community identity rather than simply an individual religion. That's why many of Thailand's strongest Catholic communities today are found not in Bangkok, but in provinces such as:
Sakon Nakhon
Nakhon Phanom
Mukdahan
parts of Udon Thani
The poverty detail also feels historically accurate. The line about getting an ID card and a place to study is particularly interesting. If the story is set in 1996, that was before much of rural northeastern Thailand experienced the economic improvements of the 2000s. Many Catholic communities near the Laos border were farming villages where families depended on rice cultivation, seasonal labor, and remittances from relatives working elsewhere.
Church scholarships and boarding schools genuinely changed lives because they could provide:
education
housing
meals
religious training
access to official documents and administrative support
and sometimes a pathway toward the priesthood
The idea of a mother proudly sending her son to a seminary because it guaranteed an education, stable living conditions, and future opportunities would have been very believable for that time and place.
