Don’t mind me, I’m just getting emotional about the way trans elder and renn faire musician Alexander James Adams conceptualizes his relationship to his pre-transition self, Heather Alexander:
“Heather was a changeling. In 2006 she was called back to faerieland and Alec, the child in whose place she had originally been left, was released after beating the faerie queen in a fiddling contest. Thus, Alec now carries on Heather’s musical legacy as her appointed heir.”
God…. good for him :’)
This tag is the highest honor I could ever receive.
Also OP congrats on choosing perhaps my FAVORITE picture ever to illustrate this perfect post, but please also look at these
If you look up “trans joy” in the dictionary you get these pictures of Alexander James Adams
(yes, these are the same picture but look again – no they are not! HE HAS AT LEAST TWO DIFFERENT VESTS LIKE THIS, IS THIS NOT THE ICONIC BEHAVIOR OF ALL TIME )
@lavendroused Nah, it’s real sweet to have this post from 2021 suddenly explode to the point where it’s reaching the OG fans. So glad that y'all exist and are thriving and spend your energy loving and supporting this guy <3 Also I had no idea there was a post transition version of the Mushroom Song, so that’s a real treat!
you know the “bunny hands” pose everyone does to indicate t. rex? with the hands folded down, palms facing the chest? yeah. almost no dinosaurs could do that. it would break their wrists. only one unique group evolved to do that, which doesn’t include any of the Jurassic Park dinosaurs. the term for this is “pronation” and actually the vast majority of land vertebrates can’t do it. mammals can. mammals are weird.
not a single dinosaur has claws on their fourth or fifth fingers. not a single one. not even if they’re quadrupedal.
most dinosaurs have very stiff tails and can’t wiggle them around like a lizard tail. the tails were stiff for balance.
the “tongue flick” thing that lizards do is a lizard thing. dinosaurs wouldn’t have done that. they don’t do that today (birds, birds don’t do that)
“nonavian” dinosaurs with feathered wings had them like birds. they covered the hands. and attached to the hands. stop giving Velociraptor hands. it had wings. and very big ones, too, based on Zhenyuanlong.
dinosaurs with scales don’t have lizard scales. lizard scales are a derived trait found only in lizards. they had scutes similar to those of living birds, but much smaller compared to body size, and often in crazy shapes and patterns. dinosaur scales are super weird tbh
sauropods don’t have elephant feet. they handled the problem of size in a much weirder way: instead of spreading out the weight, they turned their feet into columns. like pillars. some of the biggest species didn’t have any fingers, their front limbs just. end. for maximum column support.
dinosaurs were chonky. you could not see the bones like a silhouette under the skin. some might have been skinnier and some of the features of the bones would be somewhat like with skinny bird legs, but most of the time? no. so stop making the holes in their skulls visible on the outside like damn. jurassic park/world is the biggest offender for this one.
the whole unique feature of dinosaurs is having their legs DIRECTLY under their bodies. they do not sprawl. I can’t believe I have to say that, but I do.
hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) front feet were hooves. like, seriously, hooves. not little flippers. not three fingered hands. hooves.
I reserve the right to add more to this post as I think of things.
other people can too, but just research before you do.
So the thing with the dinosaurs having their legs under them? Is a Big Thing taxonomically speaking. I had a whole university module in undergrad and I can’t remember if it was literally the ‘dinosaur pelvis’ module or it just ended up that way, but there was a time in my life where I could look at any diagram of a dinosaur pelvis and Know Things about the dinosaur it came from.
But from that module comes one of my favourite pieces of dinosaur trivia:
There are two major branches of dinosaurs: bird hipped and lizard hipped.
Okokok I didnt mind Spock & Chapel as I felt it was well-written (in conjunction w Spock & T'Pring) for the two of them and simply a stepping stone/arc to his further character development and exemplified his struggle converging his dualistic origins
but
Spock in TOS has an extreme (and to an outsider, illogical) aversion to medicine/medical procedures/medical personnel as evidenced by his deep mistrust of McCoy in TOS. I always postulated this is because he was mistreated or belittled or made to feel “wrong” by Vulcan medical facilities as a child given that he is a biological hybrid.
This “illogical” aversion to medicine is not based on the Scientific Fact that he as a science officer treats as secular gospel – but is instead a result of his injured emotional nature, which felt ostracized and likely put on display as some kind of marvel/freak by the professionals he likely dealt with as a child.
I have a whole other post about Spock & Medicine and how his cantankerous and frequently mocking relationship with McCoy both displays his anger/disgust with the limits of the profession and, eventually, the healing of this wound via his friendship with Dr McCoy.
In TOS Spock dismissively refers to medicine as “potions” which make him feel sick and nauseous - (likely a side effect of his hybrid physiology where no medical traditions from either Vulcan or Terran origin completely mesh with his genetics or organs/hormones). Thus, even when he can get help from a compassionate provider - it likely does not help all the way or is uncomfortable to endure.
Discovery took this one step further and had Spock literally institutionalized because his emotional break following his visions/hallucinations which further highlights an origin for Spock’s mistrust and distaste for medicine. We learn his visions were a result of an explicable cause & that medicine failed Spock yet again.
These experiences can even be applied to TOS and also color his relative annoyance with Nurse Chapel’s one-sided affections.
Spock does not like doctors or nurses.
And he has good reason to fear and mistrust them despite his logical knowledge of their professionalism or expertise. Spock is scared, burned, and embittered by medical efforts and endeavors.
It is the one overt example in TOS where his human emotionality overtakes his logical mien almost effortlessly and with visible sharp resentment towards McCoy in almost every conversation they have.
Strange New Worlds seems to forget this important part of Spock’s character which was evident in TOS (and eventually resolved by his friendship with McCoy), and expanded on in Disco with his institutionalization.
Sadly, his relation to Medicine in Strange New Worlds is a nonissue that pretty much ignores the canon in those two series - whether it is in a scene with Dr M'Benga or Nurse Chapel. It does not seem given the other canon he would ever be as cooperative or receptive to their treatments or suggestions.
However, as Spock is being written in this series to have mental duress over his “opposing” halves as personified by his desperate attempts to make two DOA romances with both T'Pring and Christine work - it seems this would be an important and relevant topic to broach considering Christine is in fact a nurse, and a representation of a system that has so far at this point in his life failed, harmed, and excluded him.
Not only that, but T'Pring is essentially the equivalent of a Vulcan psychiatrist.
It is fascinating that Spock, reviled and mistrusting of both medicine and psychology, sandwiches himself between a nurse and psychiatrist.
Despite his bone-deep betrayal by both of these institutions he finds himself indeed broken by them: beholden and shackled to the need for their love and approval - as deeply unhappy with himself as he is.
Spock, through these two flailing and ill-begotten relationships, continues to subconsciously punish himself for the truth.
That he is neither nor both - and there is no way to define him except by himself alone.
And that is what he fears the most: that he is truly alone in the endless universe.
i know someone who was wrongfully arrested by border security and now fails background checks because of it, so i don't think background checks for everyone are cool at all
I just think most of those outcomes are probably less bad than “serial child molesters continuing to work with children because their employer moved them to a new state”.
i mean that’s gonna depend on relative rates, no?
I think they are likely to be less-bad per incident, and honestly, we can survive a whole lot of “person who is actually fine is nonetheless kept away from kids because of stupid bullshit” without it coming close to the badness of “totally fail to protect a kid from an obvious threat”. The long-term harm from CSA can be pretty fucking devastating. And like, right now, I don’t think that we as a culture are anywhere close to “trying too hard to protect kids”. We do a lot of stupid stuff that doesn’t protect them at all, which we should stop, but “try to verify that you know whether there’s obvious risk factors before putting someone in charge of kids” actually seems like a pretty solid plan.
Yeah, I know it’ll produce bad results. But you know what else produces bad results? Not checking.
Also a lot of jobs aren’t looking for “nothing on here” background checks, they’re looking to see that it matches what you’ve said and that it’s not a dealbreaker offense. So for childcare, things like child abuse or elder abuse would probably be flags that mean you aren’t getting hired, while border security or vandalism or whatever probably don’t matter. Some companies definitely would still not hire you, but i agree that it’s the best option for now.
This is your friendly heads-up that if you want to travel to see the total solar eclipse coming up in the spring, now* is a good time to start making your arrangements!
This one will be visible as at least a partial eclipse to most of North America, with the path of totality cutting a diagonal from Sinaloa, Mexico to Newfoundland, Canada, including 15 US states from Texas to Maine.
Although we just had one a few years ago in 2017, we won’t have another solar eclipse visible in the continental US until 2045–and the path of totality for the 2024 one is within driving distance for a much larger proportion of the US population than either 2017 or 2045. The Northeastern US won’t see another until the 2070’s.
For millions of people, including me, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a total solar eclipse without getting on a plane. Hotels in major cities along the path of totality are already starting to fill up.
Last time, in 2017, I was able to see the partial eclipse from where I live, but it wasn’t feasible to travel to see the totality. I heard from people who did see the totality that it’s really quite something, so I decided back then that I was going to go to this one. (The one in 2079 might be a bit closer to where I currently live, but I’ll be 101 by then, so I figure I’d better not wait.)
Erie, PA is the closest place for me to see it, and I figured I’d camp. I started looking into it last night, and pickings are pretty slim already. I lucked into a camping cottage at a park 20 minutes’ drive outside the path of totality–I think someone must’ve cancelled recently, for me to get it, because out 87 spots, all they had left was 9 tent/trailer sites, and the one cottage.
So anyway, if you want to go, it’s an overnight trip for you, and you don’t want to end up sleeping in your car at a rest area, now’s* the time!
(*Actually several months ago would have been the best time, but the second-best time is now.)
Hey. Hey. Hey.
Buy your solar eclipse glasses and solar lens covers for your camera now.
I saw the 2017 eclipse and it was one of the coolest things I’d ever witnessed.
why did nobody want to adopt Oliver from Oliver and Company… was he supposed to be particularly ugly compared to the rest of his litter? did New Yorkers see his Protagonist Bangs and steer clear? did they see an orange tabby and think, ugh, someone’s probably already buttered this idiot?
Getting friends in to musicals is hard because when they ask what it’s about you have to be like “15 year olds having sex” or “a plant from outer space that takes over the world” or “teenagers killing people for fun” or “Alexander Hamilton”
“7 minorities deal with crushing poverty and the looming specter of death by being a dick to their landlord”
“Sesame Street, but like… for adults”
“This one time in the 1830s a bunch of college students decided to fight the entire French government and…it didn’t go very well.”
“Argentinian gold digger teaches her country the joys of fascism.”
“Disfigured guy in the friendzone thinks his student owes him a relationship for teaching her how to sing.”
“Woman who sucks at being a nun becomes a homewrecker, flees from the Nazis with new family.”
“presidential assassins”
“The ridiculously complicated love lives of anthropomorphic trains.”
The Newsboys’ Strike of 1899.
The secret life of cats
A factory that makes shoes, for drag queens.
A dance audition where whoever has the best childhood trauma story gets a speaking role.
Organ repossession
Jesus’ Crucifixion, set to funky rock
The first two Evil Dead movies condensed into one coherent plot and you’re the one who gets sprayed in blood.
So there are these monks…
So these two guys are writing a musical and get two of their friends to take part in it…
Ok, so like everything above, and a lot of Shakespeare jokes, mashed together.
Hey kids, let’s put on a show in a barn
All the people who have ever tried to kill a President of the United States hanging out together.
Somehow a love triangle is more important than the entire French Revolution.
A hard-boiled crime novelist invents a really incompetent detective and then they yell at each other
Teen girl in the Wild West shoots lots of guns
Class differences in the colonial Caribbean leads to a girl turning into a tree
Jesus and friends set to lighter funky rock
An Aristophanes comedy but with references to the Bush administrations’ lies about the Iraq war
a con man successfully swindles an entire town out of their money for weeks and does not experience a single consequence
Some of my favorites:
Preislamic iraqi prince falls in love with a conman’s daughter because he likes shiny objects, this leads to a major political figure being drowned at a party.
Shakespeare, but with a lot of secret gay pining songs thrown in.
Vanilla kids accidentally crash a BDSM party
The entire works of the Grimm Brothers, happening at the same time.
Lovestruck idiots on a boat
Conman thinks he can scam a librarian. Failing that, he attempts to teach Iowans music.
…and that’s not even getting into the stuff that’s actually for kids, which is even weirder.
the annual spelling be at a local highschool
lions experience a fascist coup
Sensationalist media, but with jazz!
A comic strip nobody likes, and not even the parts that are actually in the paper, just the meet-cute origin that doesn’t have anything to do with fighting smugglers
Man attacks inanimate objects, hooker cringes with second-hand embarrassment.
The Bible, just the regular Bible like from religion
Man goes to the north pole. Woman finds baby buried in her garden. It is still alive. You realize what a stupid word “movies” is. Emma Goldman stops by. Racist cops destroy private property. No one is surprised. Politicians are useless. Really, no one is surprised. That one line about working in a fireworks factory is super important, actually.
insane how many people just have these incredible artists in their families who get no recognition outside of crocheting circles because this art form is devalued for its association with women
in my country, the word for crocheting, is used metaphorically, to compliment a surgeon’s work.
every AFAB person my mother’s age and older, had practiced this craft at one point on another.
My mom has made literal paintings, that decorate our house for years (I’ll come back with pictures when I visit next) you can only see that they are crocheting when you go very close.
as promised here’s my mom’s crocheting “paintings”
There is another one but it had been stored many years ago, (i remember it from my childhood) and sadly it is probably damaged by mold, it depicted wild horsed running in nature
Remembering the one Hades and Persephone fanfic retelling I read where the author had clearly never eaten a pomegranate in their life and just had the character in the Persephone role take a bite out of the side like an apple
Funny how interesting things happen when you hire artists completely outside of the film industry to design things for your film. You end up with something wildly unique and memorable.
Alien would’ve been a decent sci-fi movie with a generic alien monster and a generic alien ship where they found the eggs.
But instead we got treated to the wildly confusing, oddly sexual, biomechanical ship and creature that STABBED itself into the cinematic world. I still say that hiring the late, great, H.R. Giger held that ENTIRE movie together like glue.
Great direction, great action, great plot, but his weird shit is what really GRABBED people. And if I recall, this is the specific piece that made Ridley Scott want to hire him: Necronom IV
Not just scary and gross and ugly, but upsetting, weird, uncomfortable to look at. So confusingly phallic that men were just as scared by it as women (that, in addition to the fact that it was already established it was born when a weird hand/spider impregnated a man down his throat).
Hollywood STILL has yet to learn that drawing from sources outside their conventional/country/comfort-zone is often THE difference between an ok flick, and something that disturbs the world, and the world gets kinda into it and it gets weird.
this is something that as an artist I’ve been wanting to do pretty much all my life, work on a movie, but not as yet another grunt concept artist following orders from directors and producers with an extremely limited artistic language, instead as a Fine Artist, more “collaborating” and bringing a unique outsider vision and aesthetic into a film project, this is a rare occurrence but we’ve seen it a handful of times in projects like:
1979’s Alien, as mentioned above (H.R.Giger)
Brian Froud on The Dark Crystal (1982)
Moebius on The Abyss (1989)
Alexander Juhasz on The Babadook (2014)
Joseph Avery on Possum (2018)
These are all very different films (aside of being classified as “horror” in some form), but a common theme between all of them is their unique aesthetic identity, brought into the film majorly by outsider artists artists that don’t fit the pathologically standardized mold of Hollywood concept artist work, where artists are rarely treated as, well, artists with a unique vision of their own capable of bringing something fresh and new to a project, and instead are seen as nothing more than grunt physical work to fill in the gaps of visual flair in a movie; instead these films have artists that were approached for their intriguing, evocative and unique ideas and sets of skills, rendering results that easily stand out amongst the crowd, and not just for the superficial appeal of the aesthetics, but often in cases for the way these artists’ work consciously or unconsciously drive the movies’ themes, psychology and symbolism.
This is sadly still a rare occurrence, and I would argue it is even more so nowadays with more and more of the film industry becoming a cold corporate machine where artistry is secondary and maximization of profits is first, but I don’t lose hope, I know there are still film directors out there, both established and up and coming, that prioritize art and understand the value of the collaborative nature of film, and I hope to one day be able to work with one of these filmmakers and bring my art into a new format.
Asexual genderqueer 30something, cat person, bibliophile, sci-fi geek with a fondness for avengers, and various other fandoms.
Alignment: Chaotic Good.
About Messaging: Feel free to message me, but I may not respond immediately.
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