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chubsonthemoon · 1 year

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Last Binderary book is DONE!!!! This is the incredible Maybe sprout wings, by @moorishflower.

This post is going to be a doozy, so gonna just skip straight to the cut!

INTERIOR

INTRODUCTION

I really wanted to model this bind after my own copy of the Odyssey, (which is all highlighted and bookmarked and annotated to hell from my Great Text courses in undergrad ehe, so this bind was such a fun trip down memory lane!). But beyond just the cover/general aesthetic, I also wanted to give the book a similar feel to these kinds of editions of classics--there's usually an introduction, translation notes, and other supplementary materials, right? Like, a physical manifestation of the work of many, many people, all having conversations with one another across time and space.

So that's what I did! I wrote a short introduction (I will also probably post it to my AO3/my blog as well, in the name of preservation etc. etc.) and began reaching out to folks in the fandom who I knew had created art and meta for the fic. The result? 18k words of analysis, comments, and meta, and nearly twenty pages of art!

And this is what I love most about this bind, I think! This book is the work of several people--truly a collaborative work by the fandom--all of whom I will now be shamelessly calling out below :D

CHAPTER HEADER ART

First and foremost, this book would not be what it is without the gorgeous header art by @fancy-rock-dove! Thank you so much Dove for letting include your work, and for being so supportive and kind these past few weeks about this bind <3 You in particular have contributed so much to this book (which I will be getting more into in the next section ehe), and I'm so psyched I get to hold your art and words, too!

NOTES ON THE TEXT

This section was divided into four parts: Asks and Answers, Meta, Selected Comments, and Chapter Heading Art: Process

For Asks and Answers, I trawled Heather's blog for meta she had written in response to questions and other meta about the fic. Asks came from @fancy-rock-dove, @quillingwords, @kulapti, and myself! (I THINK I got all of them--tumblr's search function is finnicky even on its best days, so so sorry if I missed something T_T) I first got hooked into reading this fic because of one of these asks, so I'm very fond of this section in particular :D

For Meta, I included two wonderful essays written by @pastrypuppy (also known as @kulapti) about Hob as an author figure and the Disrupted Fisher King narrative in MSW. Her analyses were so fascinating and I just had to include them in the book! (And thank you as well for your permission, friend!) (also hello fellow Renegade comrade 🫡)

For Selected Comments, I owe everything to (once again :3) @fancy-rock-dove, whose insights are the epitome of transformative fandom at work. I'd look for their comments after I read every chapter to see what their takes were on this or that element of the story, and every single time I would go "!!!!! I didn't even realize!!!" or "OOOOOOOH I hadn't thought of that!!" It was like being in a lecture hall and always whipping your head around when one of your classmates raised their hand, because you knew they were going to say something fascinating that you hadn't considered before.

Aside from one of my own comments, Dove's comments make up the entirety of this section (for which I owe you my life--your long-form responses to fics are a gift to this world) but GOSH was it also so much fun going through the comments section while typesetting and seeing all the keyboard smashing, yelling, and crying from the other commenters. Communal nature of storytelling and ongoing meaning-making of fanfiction, babey!

And finally for Chapter Heading Art: Process: once again Dove coming in clutch with some wonderful insights into the design of each of the chapter heading art pieces! This kind of stuff is honestly my favorite: meta about art for a fic which is, in turn, a transformation of an existing story (not even to mention that The Sandman is its own kind of fanfiction of existing mythologies and histories)--I just!! Think it's all really, really neat :'D (for more coherent/polished thoughts on this pls see my introduction asjdfkls)

ART

The art gallery!!! A million thanks to @fishfingersandscarves, @honeyseller, @jazzpsych, @doctor-rainbowfoxey, and (HI AGAIN DOVE) @fancy-rock-dove for granting me permission to include all of your beautiful pieces!

As usual for artworks in my binds, I printed each piece out on specialty photo paper to really make the colors pop, then sewed each page separately to the text block! Behold, everyone's beautiful beautiful pieces!

The art gallery also satisfies the certain "oooh shiny" part of my brain that always activates when I see pictures in a book, so am also very fond of this section :3

CONSTRUCTION

And now on to the nitty gritty stuff! I used the German Bradel binding technique again, my second time using it. Even though it's more complicated than the case bind, I really love how it gives you the full board space for the cover designs (~it's free real estate~). Keep it a secret but I kiiiiiiind of made a small goof in the last few steps (I did the turn-ins a step too early and so had to paste an extra sheet of cardstock to secure the spine to the boards, whoopsie), but it's a pretty small difference, aesthetically speaking, so it wasn't the end of the world XD

Edges are once again fake gilded, but this time I tried something new with the colors! I did two layers of acrylic paint--one watered down shade of red for the base, then one metallic gold on top of that. I really like the red/gold effect! I'll have to keep experimenting with this kind of layering:

ALSO. Y'ALL! I think I'm finally getting the hang of endbands!!! Many thanks to the folks at Renegade who hosted all the endband workshops last month--I'm still working through them, but even the few sessions I've seen have been TREMENDOUSLY helpful. I learned that tension is Very Important, as well as thread thickness, so I tried doubling my thread and keeping a Very Close Eye on how I was holding the threads while doing the beads. And behold! I still have a ways to go (and one day I would LOVE to do the fancier designs), but I'm v happy with the progress I've made so far!

And finally the covers!! ARCHIVAL MOD PODGE MY BELOVED. I printed on the same matte presentation paper that I used for the art, then did several coats of archival matte mod podge + a pass of gloss mod podge over the title strip to make it ~shiny~. Then once those had dried and I'd adhered them to the boards, I sprayed two layers of matte clear acrylic sealer (also mod podge!) to finish it off. I had some issues with the paper tearing when I handled it before it was fully dry, but luckily the blemishes were small enough that it was easy to do spot corrections with my black acrylic paint. And now I know to be more patient next time LOL

(some non-photoshoot shots that show the shine a little better!)

FINAL THOUGHTS

I had a lot of thoughts while I was binding this book--about Sandman fandom, about Dreamling fandom, about the Odyssey, about storytelling, about fanbinding, about Binderary, about Renegade, about my friends--but really what came to mind the most was gratitude!

Simply put, I'm so grateful to everyone I've met both in this fandom and throughout the years I've been active online--this is SO fun, y'all. It's so much fun to love stories together--to talk about them, to write them, and of course to bind them! I hope I've adequately conveyed that gratitude.

But of course, this book would not exist without the wonderful words of @moorishflower. Heather, thank you so, SO much for sharing your stories, thoughts, and time with us--it is always a happier, better day when I get an email notif from you and when I see you on my dash. I love your work so much, and I'm so happy I finally get to put it on my shelf! So thank you so much again, for everything <3

and OKAY THAT'S IT FROM ME FOLKS!!!!! Binderary 2023 is officially a wrap! I had SUCH a blast--will probably write up a reflection post on it uhhhh after I take a very long nap ajslkdfjslk _(:3」∠)_

all my love! <3

#the sandman #dreamling #Moorishflower #Maybe sprout wings #binderary2023 #bookbinding #fanbinding #ficbinding #not my fic

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gentlebeardsbarngrill · 2 months

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02/24/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Cast&CrewSightings; Samba BTS; David Jenkins; Rhys Darby; Damien Gerard; Guz Khan!; SaveOFMD Crew Billboard; AdoptOurCrew Saturday Sillies; Making A Difference; Articles; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika;

Been a long Saturday yall. Hope you enjoyed the BTS and general clown/honking going around!

== Cast & Crew Sightings ==

= Samba Schutte Feat. David Jenkins! =

Samba's back with more BTS for us today!

This time the Crew Shoutout is for Chaos Dad himself: David Jenkins! So good to see Chaos dad having such a great time BTS. We love you David!

Videos on Tumblr:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

= Rhys Darby =

Rhys decided to take it up a notch today on his Tiktok/Instagram and tell... someone they've created a monster. Who might that be?

== Damien Gerard ==

Our crew-mate @patchworkpiratebear got a Cameo from our lovely Father-Teach, Damien Gerard! There's a bit of a story behind it, see below! Cameo link

== Guz Khan! ==

Hey! It's been a hot minute since we've seen our friend Guz Khan-- and now he's showed up on a cat! Good to see you sir!

== Save OFMD Crew ==

There have been questions raised about the billboard that the SaveOFMD Crew have been posting teasers for on their socials. The Crew had a meeting today wherein they discussed the concerns of the fandom, and have taken that feedback to heart. They are currently working on a clear information packet regarding the logistics of the current billboard efforts. They have kindly asked for your patience while they finish putting those last touches together!

== @adoptourcrew Saturday Sillies! ==

Our friends over at @adoptourcrew were kind enough to set up a new Saturday Sillies this week! This time they made custom OFMD Wordles! There were WAY too many images to include in the recap, so if you'd like to check them out, please visit the tumblr post below!

Wanna play? You can visit a tumblr post here

== Making a Difference! ==

Thank you to everyone who contributed to, or shared the fundraiser for Trans Pride Brighton! They've finally met their goal and can stay open another year! You made a serious difference in the lives of trans and non-binary folk in that community!

== Articles ==

Deze HBO-serie is gecanceld, maar had een 95% op Rotten Tomatoes

Schwule Romanze zwischen Piratenkapitänen

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies. I hope you had a fun Saturday/Sunday wherever you are. I know some of you are already closing out the weekend. We made it through another day-- and there's all sorts of action going on across all the platforms. I hope you got a chance to have fun, but also to rest. I know you know this, but even though I do too I often forget it. Rest is so very important. It's so easy to burn out, especially when we're constantly exposed to so much online. I think to myself "oh it's fine I'll just get a few more things done" and then it's suddenly 3 hours later and I've had only 4 hrs sleep in the last 30. Please please please give yourself self care today. Go brush your teeth, or take a shower. If you feel like you can do more, brush your hair, or make yourself a nice cup of tea. Do something for you that makes you relax and feel rested. On your last day of the weekend, make sure to take a few moments to yourself and just remember how awesome you are. You may not feel like it sometimes, but I can tell you now you truly are Awe-some. You bring so much life and love to this world and you deserve all beautiful things you want. Anyway, I'm very sleepy and I'm rambling again (what's new). Sleep well and enjoy your day lovelies, see you tomorrow.

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

I'm being lazy tonight again yall. Just two goofy gifs that caught my eye, sorry I am running on fumes. Tomorrow I'll try to find some themed ones for ya <3

Rhys Gif: Courtesy of @fandomsmeantheworldtome

Taika Gif: ohnotheydidnt.livejournal

#daily ofmd recaps #ofmd daily recaps #ofmd daily recap #daily ofmd recap #our flag means death #ofmd #rhys darby #taika waititi #samba schutte #david jenkins #chaos dad #daddy jenkins #guz khan #damien gerard #save ofmd #save our flag means death #adopt our crew #save ofmd crew

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crippleprophet · 8 months

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i want to thank you for your post from a few months ago about abandoning the idea that health is good. it's helped me process and unpack just how much the health framework has damaged me (and everyone; you could get multiple phds exploring how the concept of health categorizes and controls bodies!). and those ideas have extended beyond my personal life to my academic and professional writing and my interactions with loved ones - they've reached and impacted a lot of people.

i was a disabled child in a family of career athletes; the health paradigm was deeply engrained at an early age. now that i'm finally shaking those teachings, i've gotten a lot out of reanalyzing ideas i've always framed through a health lens. if it doesn't matter if i "eat healthily," since that's a meaningless concept, then how and why do i choose what i eat? why do i want to stretch regularly, if not because it's healthy and my doctors said it will improve my disability? how does my relationship with substance use change when health is taken out of the equation?

in these questions, i often find there's deeper and more satisfying reasons for my feelings and actions. this process reminds me of my experience with transness, in a way. reconsidering the concepts and assumptions underpinning a framework, deciding the whole framework is useless to you, and exploring what lies beyond it. thank you for opening such a freeing and fascinating door :-)

oh, woah, this absolutely made me cry, i truly can’t express how meaningful this is for me. (as you might know from following my blog lol) i’m homebound & only see two people in person unless i’m at the doctor, so this feeling of connection to other folks in my community is so deeply valuable, i really can’t thank you enough 💓💓

i definitely relate to the sense of rejecting health leading to a changed perspective on, like, everything in my life + prompting more intentional ways of engaging with my choices, routines, etc. following that theme of community, lineage, & ideas that ripple out, i’d love to take the time to mention just a few of the scholars, ancestors, comrades, & friends who have been life-changing for me in this area!

while there is a lot of transformative & vital work within disability studies, there’s still a lot of structural barriers against sick people’s contributions to formal theory + a lot of direct & indirect reinforcement of health as a good thing in the field. so i’ve found in many cases more resonant work in trans studies, mad studies, & postcolonial studies, by people affirming the pathology of their own identities & positions. just a few favorites of mine from within, across, & outside of these fields, in no particular order:

Sandoval-Sánchez, A. 2005. Politicizing abjection: in the manner of a prologue for the articulation of AIDS Latino queer identities. American Literary History. 17(3), pp.542-549.

Fritsch, K. 2013. On the negative possibility of suffering: Adorno, feminist philosophy, and the transfigured crip to come. Disability Studies Quarterly. 33(4).

Barounis, C. 2013. “Why so serious?” Cripping camp performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies. 7(3), pp.305-320.

Abrams, T. and Adkins, B. 2020. Tragic affirmation: disability beyond optimism and pessimism. Journal of Medical Humanities.

Stryker, S. 1994. My words to Victor Frankenstein above the village of Chamounix: performing transgender rage. GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies. 1(3), pp.237-254.

Sexton, J. 2011. The social life of social death: on Afro-pessimism and black optimism. InTensions Journal. (5).

these were all immensely profound to me, but this last work, following Fanon, was such a complete & total frame shift for me that i feel the need to include some of it here (emphasis added):

This is precisely what Gordon argues is the value and insight of Fanon: he fully accepts the definition of himself as pathological as it is imposed by a world that knows itself through that imposition, rather than remaining in a reactive stance that insists on the (temporal, moral, etc.) heterogeneity between a self and an imago originating in culture. Though it may appear counterintuitive, or rather because it is counterintuitive, this acceptance or affirmation is active; it is a willing or willingness, in other words, to pay whatever social costs accrue to being black, to inhabiting blackness, to living a black social life under the shadow of social death.

This is not an accommodation to the dictates of the antiblack world. The affirmation of blackness, which is to say an affirmation of pathological being, is a refusal to distance oneself from blackness in a valorization of minor differences that bring one closer to health, to life, or to sociality.

[…] In a world structured by the twin axioms of white superiority and black inferiority, of white existence and black nonexistence, a world structured by a negative categorical imperative— “above all, don’t be black” (Gordon 1997: 63)—in this world, the zero degree of transformation is the turn toward blackness, a turn toward the shame, as it were, that “resides in the idea that ‘I am thought of as less than human’” (Nyong’o 2002: 389). In this we might create a transvaluation of pathology itself, something like an embrace of pathology without pathos.

To speak of black social life and black social death, black social life against black social death, black social life as black social death, black social life in black social death—all of this is to find oneself in the midst of an argument that is also a profound agreement, an agreement that takes shape in (between) meconnaissance and (dis)belief. Black optimism is not the negation of the negation that is afro-pessimism, just as black social life does not negate black social death by inhabiting it and vitalizing it. A living death is as much a death as it is a living.

if you want a pdf of any of these & are unable to find one feel free to hmu (although they will likely come with my annotations lol). this was a major topic of my master’s thesis for my disability studies degree (which was actually about disabled trans people, so i love that you connected this process of rejecting normality to transness in your own experience – i relate to that a lot) & i’m also happy to share that research with anyone who’s interested :)

i also have relevant thoughts & reblogs in my “stay sick” tag here (which i’ll add to this post) & my “embracing abjection” tag here + more broadly on my main.

& just a few of the many folks whose work + lives have shaped mine: @kelpforestdwellers @heavyweightheart @librarycards @crutchbutch @gatheringbones

i would also (always) absolutely love to hear more about your thoughts + writing if you would like to share! thank you again for taking the time to share this with me, i appreciate it more than i can say 💓💓

#asks #stay sick #embracing abjection #afropessimism #disability studies #happy tag #ok to reblog <3

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kanskje-kaffe · 2 years

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since you've stepped off the dinluke ride lately i feel like i can say this.

Seeing all the renewed hubbub in the dinluke tag, people mourning what feels like the “death” of the ship has me absolutely rolling my eyes.

Why are people leaving? It’s cause the fic is bad. The fic is bad! The dark!Din, fetishy pablum served up by shyowl et al is unreadable, nevermind the fact that those who write it should own up to the fact that they’re just producing this content for their own and others’ titillation.

But the folks complaining about it the loudest, het up over the fact that their stuff isn’t getting the engagement they want? Their fic is also bad! It’s stilted, out of character, hard to read, unimaginative, and self-important. And, critically, a lot of it still deals in many of the same stereotypes and misrepresentation of queer life as the kinds of stories they're railing against. The problem with the pairing isn't that there are a handful of bad apples. The problem is almost no one is getting it right.

Folks could have just enjoyed themselves with a fun little crack ship while it lasted, written some good stories, and bounced. But the Titanic has sunk, and everyone left is fighting over the same few scraps of flotsam. Get it together.

Hey anon, thank you for messaging me. I’m happy you thought of me and felt able to send me your thoughts, I appreciate it. I agree with a lot of what you’ve said. I recognize your frustration. (Also thank you SO much for introducing 'pablum' into my active vocabulary, what an absolutely perfect word for this situation!!!! omg)

I’ve read very little actual fanfiction for Dinluke. I’m in fandom to make friends, socialise, swap meta and headcanons, talk with other artists and writers about our work. If I want a reading list I can go to the library or check my bookshelf. I’ve prioritized reading the work and the recommendations of my husband and my extremely talented personal friends, and their contributions have all been nothing short of excellent. I’ve never read any of Shyowl’s fanfic; the premises haven't appealed. I do remember that when all the anti-Luke/anti-Armorer stuff was happening during BOBF, Shyowl posted some really good meta takes which I appreciated. My complaints are based on my interpersonal encounters with the fandom at large via Discord, AO3 comments, and Tumblr, almost every day for more than a year.

I think it’s totally appropriate for fiction to be kinky, self-gratifying, unorthodox, countercultural, or even disgusting. It’s appropriate for fiction to explore unsavory ideas in their own right without having to present a conclusive judgement on that exploration. It’s appropriate for fiction to portray the id, not the superego. Authors like Ballard or Palahniuk have written things that made my stomach turn (holy shit, Crash), and they’re no less deserving of being in print for having done that. This goes x10000 for fanfiction which is both written and read for free, with no element of general social elevation being afforded to the author for having done so. Kink is and will always be fringe content. The women who contributed their sexual fantasies to Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden weren’t immoral, wicked people who were admitting to these fantasies in a published work in order to hurt children and cause the downfall of society. Or whatever.

The problem I have with Dinluke is this, as you said:

“a lot of [vanilla fic] still deals in many of the same stereotypes and misrepresentation of queer life as the kinds of stories they're railing against. The problem with the pairing isn't that there are a handful of bad apples.”

Some of the most popular kink fic is openly written in homage to the vanilla fic - not the other way around. When I was in the old Dinluke server, the kink authors and the vanilla authors were all fans of the exact same small handful of popular fics and artists. They shared appreciation of the same tropes, the same dynamics, the same jokes. The fact that some of them were then inspired to write pornography while others were inspired to write romance is not the issue here.

The homophobic stereotypes, the bland recycling of nuclear family dynamics enforced at the expense of both Luke and Din’s religions/philosophies and even their most basic character traits, the endless and harrowing forced feminisation of Luke Skywalker - this all originates with vanilla Dinluke, and remains consistently present in vanilla Dinluke. Luke the preschool teacher. Luke wearing dresses and lingerie. Luke the theater kid. Luke blushing and stuttering. Luke who can’t hold his drink. Luke who delays before going to save a child’s life to borrow tight pants from his sister and put on designer boots so he can seduce the kid’s caretaker. Luke who always bottoms. (I’ve heard that the Korean Dinluke fandom doesn’t have Luke as a Designated Bottom and I hope they’re all having a great day today.) Poor old Din just has to be A Single Dad, or at best a saccharine pre-Raphaelite fantasy knight-king complete with Reddit-grade chivalry (m’Luke), because none of his actual character traits or beliefs match the comphet, anemic-Dante Gabriel Rosetti-flavored model of this pairing that the fandom seems so utterly reluctant to deviate from.

The dynamic between Kay Adams and Michael Corleone in The Godfather series was abusive, disrespectful, and repellent - without being kinky or pornographic in any way. It’s also more or less exactly the standard dynamic between Din and Luke, except that Luke is typically able to do what Kay wanted to and could not: to soften Din with love. I pray it’s clear that this is not the missing piece making Kay and Michael’s relationship toxic.

I’ve been in fandom for a good 20 years at this point. I fully believe that people should write whatever the hell they want to. If they do, they’ll do doubt find other people who enjoy it too, no matter what it is. Yaoi and Shounen-ai tropes - which are essentially the same tropes as in Dinluke - have always been at their most acceptable (which isn't much, but still) as a kinky fantasy, and at their least acceptable as stomachable romance. The fact that yaoi/BL has enjoyed so much popularity over the years shows that there is obviously a huge market for it. It’s not exactly news to me that people want to see homosexual male romance portrayed like this. But other parts of Star Wars fandom have variety; avoiding a trope or a genre doesn't mean avoiding a character or a ship entirely in every part of Star Wars I enjoy except Dinluke, which mostly seems to be a machine for writing The Same Story. The tropes are just as present in vanilla Dinluke as they are in kinky or dark Dinluke, and it’s the tropes, not the pornography, that are demeaning and unwelcoming. As a result, interacting with anyone beyond the minuscule group of friends I’ve managed to curate feels like enduring a kind of social hazing, and therefore, I’m out.

#long post #discourse #anon #anon ask

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mezmer · 4 months

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I take encouragement very well. To the point that I feel it would change my whole life to hear it.

I spent the whole last year telling myself it’s a wrong to seek encouragement from others in my life, and that I should learn to encourage myself, but a year later I’ve only gotten so far and I feel a sadness, a coldness, without somebody asking me, hey did you do your exercises tonight? How has that been going? The scoliosis shit is a war I surrendered to for almost a decade until I was slouched nodding out on fentanyl waiting for death. It was only this year that I got help and started fighting it. When a curve passes 40 decrees, the prognosis for noninvasive intervention is poor. The only good results I’ve seen from severe patients are the ones who fought for it. I’m so inspired by that. I just wish I had a few folks on my team cheering me on, interested in it. First thing in January I’m calling my physical therapist again to charge my insurance for another 20 appointments just to hear her encouragement and interest.

There’s a certain culture or an aura that surrounds scoliosis as a condition and it’s patients that to me is just a weird joke to other people. The reactions I’ve gotten over the years could make a whole post. Really, it’s something people don’t give a shit about. I’ve dealt with it now, but it mystifies me. Why? I don’t know, but I have a feeling this strange rejection contributes to my not having anyone cheering me on.

I hear often that people are so proud of me for kicking opiates. Well, I didn’t try that hard at all. That isn’t a brag, although it’s truly a miracle.. I only have God to thank.. I just walked away and said I’m done. I feel like scoliosis is a way more bloody and intense war. I’ve tried to share this in a way that doesn’t drive anyone away… the words themselves are driven away.

Anyway, point of it is, I realized finally that encouragement isn’t that much to ask for and I am innocent for seeking it out. Specifically for what I feel so beaten down about. I would love to return the favor and I do try. What hurts more is that the encouragement i dole out to some people is completely trashed. If I heard the words I say to others, i would feel completely magical, enchanted with power.

This goes for more than my back. When anyone says I’m a good mom, the first thing I go and do is pick her up and tickle her and smile. It is so infectious how this positivity hits me. And, you never know who needs to hear it so do not hesitate for a second. I KNOW HOW FRUSTRATING IT IS when you feel like somebody you are trying to help does not care. Some things I heard a decade ago come to me now like the acorn finally opened and a tree grew. They were just lying dormant and every word suddenly rings true. Maybe, if you pass along encouragement, it won’t work right away for some people. For me, it does. When I’m even tasked with something (something POSITIVE and helpful or loving) by another person, I feel compelled to get right to it.

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lone-rhapsodist · 9 months

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Some major updates...

I am going to try to sum up the things that have happened in the past few weeks. I am trying to get back on track and move on and I need to get a few things off my chest before I can do that properly.

This post contains major updates about my Classics project, my Discord server, and a few new and upcoming projects. This is definitely a very long post, so I will put a 'Keep reading' below to make it easier on your dashboard. If you do want to read it, please make sure you have a tea or a coffee on the ready. As always, thank you for your patience and support!

First, the 'no' news. I received no reply from Working Classicists. I know I should insist. I know I should probably send a second email before giving up. But the reality is, no one is interested in my project to create an online community for Classics. Not in the way that I intend it, at least. So, I am quitting. Or to put it more positively, I am shelving this particular project for the time being, if not for good. I know I could try reaching out to Asterion and other organisations, but to be honest, I am not convinced. I am not convinced that anyone is really interested in the idea, or willing to work with me to make it happen, or both. The only person who understood what I was talking about and wanted to support me was that ex lecturer of mine from university. She is the best, bless her. But anyone else, whether academic folks or not, has been largely unresponsive. Christ, even the people I started working on this project with abandoned me just after a few months. I have been working on this on and off for years now. What is the point of keeping on banging my head against this wall? I no longer have the drive to keep going. Therefore, I shall stop.

Second, the 'bad' news. I deleted my Discord server, SymForum. I had been thinking about doing it for a while. I was keeping it as an experimental platform, in the hope that things with other organisations would pick up and I would be able to move on from it soonish. In the meantime, it made sense to keep the server as a testing ground for ideas, to see what worked, what didn't, what to keep and what to throw away. Turns out, what to throw away was the whole thing. Because the server was basically dead. And so there was no point keeping it if it was just going to stay dead. I would like to point out, there is no problem whatsoever with that. If anyone on here was on it and they were just lurking, that is absolutely fine. I am lurker number 1 here. I lurk on Facebook. I lurk on Twitter. I lurk on Reddit. I lurk pretty much anywhere but here, and by most Tumblr users' standards, I reckon my activity on here is pretty much lurking anyway. I lurk on Discord too, especially since I've got nothing to contribute to most conversations. When I have something to say, I'll say it, but that ends up being like one time in a million, and then that one time is fine, but it's one in a million, so, it is what it is. Anyway, as a major lurker myself, am I really going to blame people for lurking on my server? Hell no. But am I going to blame myself for it? Hell yes. Because I'm supposed to run the show here. And I hate doing that. I hate being in charge of things. It's the story of my life, and I just can't do that anymore. So I deleted the server. And in my opinion, good riddance. If it was supposed to be a playground for my project, it showed that people are not interested in bringing in their ideas and asking for advice on how to develop them further nearly as much as I thought they would be, and that's fair enough. But if it was supposed to be a Discord server in the traditional sense, then there's already plenty that fit the bill, and I'm happy to recommend them: Classics Central; Miletos; The Cambridge Latin Discord Server; Tychon's Symposium; and for those of you who like hoarding stuff, the Classicists' PDF Society. There are also several subreddits that are valid, such as r/latin, r/ancientgreek, r/classics. I hope you find these useful.

Now, the 'good' news, at least for me, I guess. While I was damning myself with these questions about how to create an online Classics community in any way, shape, or form, something remarkable happened. A local Classics community popped up on my Facebook feed and I was invited to attend an event. Literally 15 mins away from my house. The timing couldn't have been better. While I was in the depths of my struggle, I had at some point contemplated the idea of moving this project of a Classics community from online to physical. I am not going to give away where I am based, but I live in a pretty big place, and it always struck me as odd that, amongst all these very official Classics academic societies, nothing existed that was more open to the general public. I did look into how I could get something like this started, but options seemed limited to using Facebook and word of mouth, and even then, I wasn't quite sure what the actual thing should look like. Online, I always wanted something like a forum, but in real life, what would it be? A monthly meet up? A book club? No idea. So, when this society came up on Facebook and I went to their first event, I was very impressed. The aim of the society is to promote Classics among everyone, through informal meet ups in which we read something in translation and then have a discussion alongside it. It's very chilled, very simple, and to be honest, very enjoyable. Our first meet ups have been about a few Platonic dialogues, and again, I was so happy with them -- we just sat down with tea and biscuits, took turns reading the dialogue, and from time to time had a pause to discuss what we just read and share our thoughts on it. From conversations I've had with the person who started this, it is clear to me that this is intended for anyone with an interest in Classics, with no need for prior learning, which I really appreciate. So, to me, it seems like a no brainer that I should invest more time into the society, and that I should help them develop further. I am currently applying to become part of their committee, and hopefully I will be able to join them soon. But even if for some reason I was unable to, this is a very valid project, and it makes sense that I should try to contribute to it, since it is very local to where I live, and it's perfectly in line with my job, and indeed, if there is any way in which anything even remotely close to my own original project could ever develop, it is through things like this -- grassroots approaches to Classics communities, similar to Working Classicists, grounded in reality, with real people, through real conversations. That's not to say that what happens online isn't real! But it is something I'm noticing, at least for myself, with all this 'online living' that I do, that because of it, sometimes I tend to lose touch with reality, and in turn, I end up not doing things in the real world that I would like to do, as if doing things online could be a replacement for that. Online can complement reality -- indeed, it is an extension of it. But online is online, and reality is reality. It's not easy to articulate, and I still struggle with the concept myself at times, but I do see a nuance, a difference, a distinction etc. I think that me moving the project from online to physical is a positive thing, and I look forward to exploring it further, and this not just for this particular project, but for other ones too.

Of course, technically speaking, the society does not (yet) fully replace the project, and in that sense, there are still some things which I would like to experiment with online, if at all possible, some more in an active way, some more in a passive one. An example of passive project is what I would like to refer to as 'Classics Helpdesk'. You know what a helpdesk is. It's a form of IT or other support desk that you go to or contact to ask questions about a problem that you need help with. That's what I want to do, but for Classics. Basically, the idea is to create a helpdesk where everyone who has any questions about anything Classics related (a text, a topic, a bit of Latin, university, work, you name it) can ask it, and I will respond, and I will try my best to help them with it, and hopefully it will actually help. It's essentially the idea that was at the heart of the project -- to help others develop their ideas about the ancient world -- but stripped to its core and reduced to something like "I'm a Classics person, ask me anything" as a service for anyone to use. I like it, because it requires no real work -- it will probably be just a pinned post at the top of my main blog, inviting people to send me any asks, even anonymously, or just message me, and I will respond, either publicly if it's an ask, or privately if it's a message. The details can be refined as I go, but basically that's the gist of it. Again, it would be good for me because it would require essentially no work, and I could just sit here and mind my own business, and then, whenever someone sends me a request for help, I can info-dump them with whatever they need, and hopefully make them happy, and definitely also make ME happy in the process, because let's face it, this is as much about making me happy as it is about making you happy -- with making you happy being more important by a pretty good margin, but still, it's a win-win. And don't get me wrong, this is not intended to rival or replace the already great number of brilliant people on here who also offer this kind of service. If anything, I would simply like to join their number in a more official fashion, by putting myself out there through my own helpdesk service, and hope that I can actually be of service to anyone. In the past, I've had a couple of people send me asks with questions about Latin stuff or Greek mythology, and it was so fun to sit down and respond to them, and I hope that I may be able to share again that kind of happiness with others in the future. So yeah. Classics Helpdesk. Please watch this space.

As for the more active side of the project, the one specifically about helping people develop their ideas about the ancient world… I think it's about time I faced the fact that the one person who really needed help developing their ideas… is me. So, one of my personal goals with this thing for the upcoming academic year -- yes, I still measure my year goals using the school calendar… I'm a teacher, don't judge me -- is that I should actually start, well, writing. And not give a fuck about it. Like, what it looks like, whether it's good or bad etc. This is an incredibly painful thing for me, and so far I have found it really hard to make the time to make it happen. But I just can't bear to keep not doing this any longer. So, here we are. The great idea to help me make this easier for myself is to do a bit like I'm doing for my Classics project and try to ground it more into reality. One thing I had considered was starting a podcast, because I noticed that when I talk about my ideas out loud with people in my life it's a lot easier to get the words out and make things make sense. However, lately I have been thinking that something that could work well for me instead is writing dialogues. This is something that goes back a long way for me personally, as dialogues were some of the very first original posts I ever wrote on Tumblr -- not on this blog, but on my old one, and in my native tongue. It was a great way to get thoughts out and do some self-critique without being too harsh or lenient on myself. As an informal way to explore my own ideas about the ancient world, I think it could work very well. Not to mention that dialogues are literally THE form of self- and collective reflection from the ancient world par excellence. So yeah, I cannot think of a better way to do this. I could still try other things. Letters are a possibility. Essays too. But first, I need to regain some confidence in my writing. I hope that this will help.

Lastly, I should perhaps mention that, at some point, you might end up seeing some of my own poetry on this blog too. This is mainly because Poetizer, where I first started posting my poetry, is now turning to a subscription-based model -- those bastards… So now I have to consider moving somewhere else. I always thought I would end up on Tumblr with my poetry too anyway, so I suppose this is just the sign that I need to make the move. I don't know when, I don't know how. I don't know whether to make another blog for it. I guess it would make sense. I already have neon-rhapsodies as an archive for my blogging, plus ideally that is where the dialogues would go as well. However, I do think that the poetry should be separate. I think I'll probably stick with the identity I had crafted for myself on Poetizer, but we'll see. In the meantime, it's exciting to think about all the possibilities that might materialise in the future.

Man, this was a long post. Thanks for sticking along for the ride. I am sorry if you were invested in my Classics project as it originally was, and wanted me to keep going with things as they were. I hope you can see why a change was needed, and that you will be happy to keep following any developments in this sense. I am grateful as ever for all your encouragement and support. Thank you, and take care.

#lone-rhapsodist #tagamemnon #personal #classics #project #discord #server #reddit #community #society #helpdesk #writing #dialogues #poetry #thank you

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captainhowlreportingforduty · 2 years

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Alright folks, I’ve decided to make a summer break challenge wrap up post!

First things first, a big thank you to @usernoneexistent for creating this challenge, your prompts were absolute fun to work with! You gave me motivation to draw, trying things that were a bit out of my normal comfort zone.

I enjoyed seeing all the contributions to this challenge, be it writing, mood boards, drawings or other creative things! I tried to interact with as many of these posts as I could, but it was a busy week for me and I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch up in the next few days. So just know, even if I didn’t comment on your contributions, I enjoyed seeing them so much!

And another big thank you to all of you who liked and complimented my work! It really means the world to me! Again, even if I didn’t get to personally thank you (tumblr won’t let me comment on posts btw) just know that I am incredibly thankful to each one of you!

It’s been an incredible seven days with all of you!

Take care <3

#summer break challenge 2022 #rambles #theny talks nonsense #I swear if i got the dates wrong again #i’ll never trust myself again

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qui-qui-quee · 2 years

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Thoughts Are Fleeting (Post-Duty Stream of Consciousness)

There’s a good reason I’ve barely been writing, barely been journaling lately. Because I’ve seen a consistent pattern of feeling one thing, thinking one thing and then the next day, my outlook changes and the cycle repeats itself.

“You lack conviction” One might say. Maybe it’s true. Maybe it’s not. It really depends on the topic. There are a few things that I remain steadfast in, including my faith in Christ, my love of art (regardless how intense or faint it gets), and whatnot. But meanwhile, I sit here writing all this in my condo unit, trying to mentally assess all the events I went through for the past two months while I was in face-to-face hospital duty.

For those who don’t know (since I rarely post here anyway), I was working in the wards of our teaching hospital as the final hurdle of our medical education. Needless to say, it was the busiest I’d ever been in...well ages. Twelve and 24-hour duties, constant monitoring of patients, participating in surgical operations and bonding or clashing with my groupmates (I didn’t have much of the latter though, thank God), it was a lot to take in and so my thoughts and my feelings were mostly put in the back burner (minus the times I went through emotional breakdowns from exhaustion and stress). As always, I was questioning my choices, doubting myself, you know the usual from your neurodivergent, possibly mentally-ill individual. All the masking, creating social energy just to talk to peers and superiors. all the works.

I’m not even sure what else there is to say as I write all this. My stream of consciousness is once again beginning to wane but perhaps that’s because I choose not to share the deeper thoughts that’s been echoing in my head for...quite some time now, and has probably contributed to my lack of initiative when it comes to human relationships and interactions and social behavior. Anyway I won’t go any further than that, seeing how this is a public space and though I intend to be talking to a void, I know I still have a bit of an audience here.

Anyway.

Medicine is hard guys. And yet it was during this time that I appreciated being and working with people again. You all have no idea how much I missed spending time with folks other than my family members and now that we’re back to online (heck we’re not even doing anything as we speak), I’m feeling some slight pseudo separation anxiety because of how abrupt our clerkship duties ended. I got to know my groupmates more, saw both their flaws and strengths (and they saw mine). It’s just...boy this COVID business has made so many things difficult. I still feel like a fish out of water, a baby giraffe just starting out on its legs. Two months simply isn’t enough and I don’t even know if I’ve completely settled on becoming a doctor past boards.

And what about now? What am I to do now? I have comprehensive exams that everyone else but me is getting anxious about. I’m doing what I can to study but it I’ve learned that there are many things that are simply out of my control and sadly it might be contributing to a sense of learned helplessness I’d developed from the past (yes I think I need a therapist and have yet to find one).

And loss. Loss is something I’m so used to I think I’ve become numb to it. It all started with high school, even middle school when close friends would leave the country, then my entire HS barkada left after graduation leaving me behind, then there’s losing my cousin to some unknown illness, so...it really became easy for me to let go of relationships if it seemed like the other wasn’t meeting me halfway.

Why am I being this honest here? I dunno. Maybe because no one else feels right to talk to and even if I did have a therapist, it feels too formal of a setting. I know God can read exactly what I’m saying. After all, doesn’t He know what I need before I even get to say or figure it out?

Anyway my stream of consciousness is starting to feel forced so I’m gonna end my thoughts here. Keep me in your prayers, folks. Thank you.

#qooky rambles #qooky's med life #DO NOT REBLOG #q life #q text #sorry this is a lot more depressing than my past posts

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always-andromeda · 1 month

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Time for a little talk. Skip if you don’t feel like reading. I just wanted to get some thoughts out because I’ve been seeing a lot of fatphobia pop up on my dashboard and I just got some comments that reminded me of it all.

TW: discussion around fatphobia, mention of EDs (nothing graphic), disgusting comments from a disgusting individual.

So a few months ago I made this silly little post:

Essentially, that day I got a load of OOTD videos from a plus size influencer on my for you page. And I was saddened to open the comments on every single one and see that the top comments were all insulting, unfunny comments about this woman who was simply just. Standing in front of a camera. Striking some poses. Showing off her outfit.

However. The other day, I got some particularly gross comments on that post:

Now let me clarify, I didn’t legitimize their comments with a response. I have since blocked them and I’m keeping their username covered because honestly, it’s just some random bullshit blog that reposts stolen aesthetic images from Pinterest and makes disparaging comments about fat people on tumblr. Their life is grim enough by the looks of things.

And I'm not posting this to say, "Look at the mean comments I got!! Feel bad for me!! 🥺" Because if this was just regular old fatphobia, I would've ignored and blocked this bullshit like I've done in the past. But it's that first comment that made me chuckle. Friends, I present to you the weakest excuse I've heard for being an absolute piece of shit:

They put themselves out there. They deserve the insults. Plain and simple.

For extra context: I've been fat my whole life. And I probably always will be. I've been insulted for it by "friends" and bullies alike. No matter how much I've restricted, worked out, binged, and purged, none of it has ever made me lose weight. If anything, all those actions have done to me is physical damage that I can't undo!

But these people don't care about that. They don't care about listening and extending empathy and learning like a decent human being might. Even if a fat person did try and comply with this person's bullshit logic and go to the gym to "fix" themselves, they'd still get treated like shit for the simple fact that they exist and they have a body and they dare to show it in public. There is no correct or incorrect way to be fat.

A person's body does not hold some inherent moral value. Leaving pathetically vile comments on a random post from a random blog you don't even follow sure does hold a moral value though I think! One that matters just an eeeensy bit more than my fat ass saying in a silly tumblr post: "Hey, it'd be really cool if I could just...exist...without getting stomped into oblivion, thanks!"

If I dared to pretend that comments like these are made with a shred of good faith in them, I would argue that there is no "winning" with people like this. They only care to perpetuate a cycle of self loathing and discouragement specifically designed to keep us in the position of being punching bags. All they care to do is hurt people they don't know because the internet has afforded them a level of removal from the rot within their hearts.

I'm not saying anything groundbreaking, I'm aware. There are plenty of folks who are more articulate than I am who have had these conversations dozens of time over.

But these people feed on our misery. They feed on their ability to kick up a fuss and hurt our feelings with half assed insults. One might argue that I'm kicking up a fuss right now typing up a long ass tumblr post in response to two measly comments. If that's your contribution to this discussion, get absolutely fucked, this post isn't for you. It’s not for the commenter either.

This post is for all of my homies who have become the punching bag, both on and offline. Because it hurts either way. I hear you and I see you, friends. And the second you start to doubt yourself when these beasts rear their ugly heads, please remember that their words have nothing to do with you. They use their words and their energy to deliberately cause harm. And there is something deeply wrong with that. Some wrong thing that you don't possess purely for some physical trait. Never ever forget that distinction.

I love you all. I'm glad we exist. And I hope that we can keep spreading love in whatever ways we can.

#˚ʚ meda rants ɞ˚

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fossadeileonixv · 2 years

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Milan Season Preview 2022-23: The Scudetto Defense Begins

At last, the only season preview that REALLY matters!

Up until this point we have focused on the other top teams, namely the ones who were fighting for a European spot in the table last season. Of those top 7 teams if you exclude Milan (top 8 if you don’t), we heard from a select few passionate fans for all those teams save Fiorentina (sorry Fiorentina fans, we tried). But now it’s time to focus on our beloved Milan – the CURRENT Scudetto Champions!

For this year’s season preview we’re going to do a similar round-table type of discussion, however we have interwoven the questions we asked the fans of the previous teams highlighted AND we have reached out to a select few from Milan Twitter for additional contribution, dialogue, and perspective. Let’s get started!

BIOS: CONTRIBUTORS

Gianfranco is the founder of the original blog of what is now known as the Fossa Dei Leoni XV, which has been known as many other names with the previously most recognizable iteration being the Milan Offside (yes, that one is still out there but it’s the imitation brand American Milan blog…the Toasted Whole-Grain Oats to our Cheerios). While he is a busy man, he has gained a superior knowledge of stalking from fellow FDLXV contributor AviA, so he may not comment much he’s always…around…

Michael Lisi, also affectionally knowns as Nonno, is the main creative force behind the blog today. His sharp wit, vast knowledge, and 100% strong and healthy ticker in the left side of his chest is the…heart…of this place we all love.

TR is one of the OGs here and along with Mike and AviA, have been ample stewards of FDLXV since Gianfranco has focused his efforts on his career and family. TR is known for his hot takes here and does not put up with shenanigans. He also has a lot of man-love for Essien.

AviA is…well, AviA. He has authored many books including the NYT Bestseller: Always viewing inconspicuously, Always: A Stalking Manifesto.

He has also touched Pippo, although whether it was consensual is still being investigated. AviA is also largely responsible for corrupting the Kalinic signing, which was bad, but also for the WAGS posts here, and that’s good (and the main reason he’s still here)! Lastly, he truly, and deeply, loves Pioli and is a proud supporter of #IMIT and #IPIT.

Gillis is still effectively the new guy and is responsible for making the pot of coffee each morning, most of the blog art for all of the posts, and is desperately trying to get Frank on board so HE can be the new guy. He’s always never serious so just ignore him…which you were probably doing anyway.

BIOS: GUESTS

Joseph Baccellieri is an expert in all things Milan, wine, fine dining, and cazz. Joe doesn’t like hyperbole, ignorance, or anything else for that matter that falls under the category of being, cazz. He’s friends with some of the best Calcio folks on Twitter and is on a first name basis with Matteo Bonetti of Paramount+ and Kay Murray of ESPN. In fact, it’s even more than that as they have nicknamed him, “Joe Bach”. Joe Bach can be found on Twitter at @joebaccellieri.

Alessandro Tomori, as he’s known on Twitter, is a true blood Rossoneri. He is always following his team closely and laying down the law when foo’s on Twitter get out of place. Per his bio on Twitter, he is also an Azzurri fan and like me, a proud atheist, leftist, feminist, and antifascist, among others. Alessandro Tomori lives in Florida but he keeps calling me, “mate”, so I’m assuming he’s Australian. Thanks for sharing your takes, Alessandro Tomori! If you’re on Twitter, Alessandro can be found at @nav702.

ROUND-TABLE PREVIEW

How do you like your teams transfer window so far?

GIANFRANCO: I was still in scudetto hangover mode and didn’t even really notice…I kid, but I think center back and winger depth was needed and we maybe could have done a bit better. Remember it’s a World Cup year there will be fatigue from fighting on multiple fronts. I am not a fan of collecting players but there will be need for depth.

LISI: So far so good. pretty much what I expected. we are at the point where one must go for one to come. I still expect Bakayoko and Gabbia to go.

TR: It's okay. King Charles is a very nice pickup and we needed someone of his profile to play behind the strikers. I think Origi will be a decent signing or a flop, no in between. I'm a bit concerned that we haven't adequately replaced our two biggest losses in Romagnoli and Kessie. Also not at all thrilled that right wing appears to be something we are going to once again have to work around. And we didn't as of yet sell Rebic, which I find offensive. Not a bad window, not a real good one, but time will tell.

AviA: Pretty well considering I wasnt really looking for too many changes but the Sanchez fiasco annoyed me as it would have been good to see Milan at least make like there was a 2nd, 3rd option instead of blurting out to the girl in your class how much you really like her just to have her leave you hanging in that power dynamic, why cant we act like the dick who doesnt care whether that you're the hottest girl in class as there are lots of options? Otherwise Origi, CDK & Adli all seem like solid additions!

GILLIS: I’m going to say it’s about 8/10 and it’s not just because of who was brought in but who was let go and not brought back. The youth and promise this team has is unmatched. If Ziyech comes I’m going with a 9.5/10

JOE: As of right now, Milan’s transfer window has been solid. Adli and Origi were known to be coming in, so those two deals were wrapped early. It seems that CDK was the main goal even if the negotiation took longer than expected. Now they have less than 20 days to add a midfielder, defender, and right winger. If those three goals are accomplished by the deadline, then this transfer window is a huge success. Based on recent seasons, continuity is the biggest mark of success. If you can continue to build upon a solid foundation and keep adding pieces, then your transfer windows will continue to thrive.

AT: Out: Kessie Romagnoli

In: CDK Origi

Loans : Adli, Pobega

It's a pretty average window if you look at the players that went out and those who came in. We still haven't found a replacement for Kessie or Romagnoli. So I am unhappy when looking at it that way, however there are a handful of exciting players that have come in, including the loan returnees. And I trust the management and the process, so all in all an average window for me.

Are you happy with “the plan” as put in place with Maldini & Co not just for this season but basically since Elliott’s tenure and beyond? If so, why? If not, who is most responsible for your disappointment?

GIANFRANCO: Not really disappointed because it finally feels like there is a plan, would I like a stronger Italian core to feed the Azzurri, sure, but I also no that is not really an easy thing to execute.

LISI: 100% I love the plan. After years of old guys on 'free' deals that inflated our wage bill we desperately needed this. What makes me doubly happy is I thught THIS was the year we would compete for the scudetto. Here we already got one.

TR: I'm mostly pleased. It is really how we have to conduct business at this juncture and they've built a side worthy of top four competition for the foreseeable future. However, two things that worry me going ahead are obviously the inability to resign key players to the point they walk, and failing to secure targets that you have been working with for months. I don't really point the blame at anyone, but that is something that needs rectification, especially if we are on limited means. You really need to either recoup what you have or profit.

AviA: Overall I have to be happy as it looks like there is a genuine plan now and we can FINALLY move away from "Year Zero" (reaches over and chinks champange flutes with Gianfranco). If you recall I took it bad when Elliott took over as I was kinda paranoid it would end in disaster and never could have imagined the end to last season. The future is bright!

GILLIS: I am so f**king proud of this team and management. I’m on the record plenty of times saying the current European football model of gross mismanagement and tons of red ink won’t last (not exactly bold on my behalf). I think by 2025 a few more leagues will have taken the La Liga route of some kind of salary cap/luxury tax and by 2030 pretty much every league will have something La Liga-esque in place. And there’s no team within the top 5 leagues better positioned than Milan for this. IMIT! IPIT!

JOE: I guess my answer for this question was already answered in the previous question, sooooooo…..YES!!! How can you not be happy with the job Maldini and Company have done? Champions League Football is back, A SCUDETTO, exciting young players instead of re-treads trying to re-capture past glory, not having to sell key players in order to finance transfer windows, etc, etc. It’s quality over quantity at this point…just because Milan isn’t bringing in 10 players during this window does not mean the plan isn’t working. It is actually the contrary because the plan is thriving.

AT: To the most extent, yes I am happy with our approach of not over spending for players, putting in a strict wage cap etc. I am only concerned about retaining our core players. If these guys rise to expectations, we will have to pay them accordingly or they will leave. I can't accept Leao leaving for free, that would be a colossal failure. So imo, in addition to maintaining the current approach, the mgmt also understand the right worthy players and sometimes pay beyond their set limits. This should also apply to incoming transfers, if there are opportunities too good to pass.

What excites you for this season?

GIANFRANCO: Watching and seeing this team continue to grow and mature tactically. Can they win the CL, probably not, but gaining that experience and using the experience form last season will be fun to watch.

LISI: Watching Adli and Origi bed in. Everyone forgot about Adli for 6 months and right now it amazes me how many people talk about the team and don't mention Origi. remember at this time last year folks discounted Giroud and he turned out to be massive.

TR: My sons Rafael Leão, Sandro Tonali, Pierre Kalulu, and the newest addition to my family, CDK.

AviA: Just the idea that the internal rot has been burned out and we are emerging as a more modern team ready to take part in the current footballing world, the idea of a new stadium, as gutted as I would be to lose the San Siro, gives me a semi (am I over sharing here?)

GILLIS: Kalulu, Tonali, and Diaz. All will have major impacts and all are 22 and younger (Diaz might have just turned 23)

JOE: Another season of growth from Tonali, Leão and Tomori. It is amazing to me that these players haven not even hit their ceiling and they played key roles in delivering a scudetto. I am excited to see these players dominate, as well as CDK and Adli contributing on a consistent basis.

AT: CDK, Adli and Leão. I feel that our attack and overall game would be much more fluid than last season. I am excited about watching the above mentioned players, how they improve our qualities in the final third.

Repeating Scudettos is always difficult. Where do you put the odds of Milan repeating as Serie A champions?

GIANFRANCO: Italy is funny that, way, you either repeat for a few years straight or you don’t repeat at all. Inter was close last season, so the competition will be rather fierce but the World Cup year will make it proverbially crap shoot. The real thing to watch out for is progression not regression.

LISI: 40% and slightly higher if inter end up selling off Skriniar.

TR: Not high. I think Inter and Juve have improved enough where pound for pound they may have better squads. We were the best team in Italy last year, but we also benefited from a number of variables that have changed for this season so I think we finish 2nd or 3rd. I feel pretty secure we finish top 3, so anything higher than that I think is extra income. It'll be tight though.

AviA: NOT gonna be easy but if our backline stays uninjured, it will greatly increase our chances, so far im pretty confident as I don’t believe our competition can compete with us in that aspect.

GILLIS: Total homer but I’m going to say 80/20

JOE: PRINT THE SHIRTS!!! BACK to BACK!!! #20 INCOMING!!!

AT: I am going with Milan as the favorites, but only if we avoid injuries to our starters in key positions. The squad is extremely light, unless we add in January or before September.

Milan will be in pot 1 this year for Champions League. What is your prediction for their CL performance this season?

GIANFRANCO: I think this will still be a challenge, the team is young, and it will take time to develop the presence of mind and wherewithal to truly compete in the World’s premier club competitors.

LISI: Round of 16

TR: Knocked out in the round of 16, if we get a decent draw, maybe the quarter-finals, but I just have difficulty visualizing us performing in Europe. The depth isn't there should something go wrong.

AviA: I'll be genuinely happy just to finish 1st or 2nd in the group and at least make the group of 16, after that Im good. I just want to see our guys blood themselves in the CL for a couple of seasons before I raise my expectations from the current squad (crosses fingers for some UK teams to draw Milan).

GILLIS: Quarterfinal Appearance

JOE: Quarterfinal Appearance

AT: Even though we are in pot1, there are a lot of quality opponents in the other pots that we could face in the group stage. My prediction is that this would be another year where we will struggle to get out of the group stages, but if we did, I see us getting at least till the QFs

What is Milan's biggest weakness (position) on the pitch?

GIANFRANCO: Wings are still a weakness and if we continue to deploy them we need to improve.

LISI: Depth along the backline right now. Kjaer is coming off an injury, FBT is unproven and Calabria can have some real clunkers. Starters are great. depth is wonky

TR: Right wing. I just don't rate either of those two worth a lick. In Europe I worry about the right side in general as I think Calabria is only as good as he is in Serie A. I'd then say the midfield. When Bennacer misses two to three months in early 2023 and Krunic is starting in Champions League games... aye, I don't even wanna think about it.

AviA: Wings and no Kessie replacement currently but they feel kinda minor as we look pretty decent across the board in other depts.

GILLIS: With CDK now in and most likely playing RW, I’m going to go with depth being the main issue at a few positions. Hopefully Ziyech comes at the last minute

JOE: Backup LB…they need someone to spell Theo. Honestly though, this team is pretty versatile which was done on purpose. There are several players who can play in different roles which actually is a strength instead of a weakness.

AT: There are two positions which I see as the biggest weaknesses. The pivot, and the central defense. One injury and we are left with players who don't really fit our playing style, and a huge drop in quality.

Aside from the 3 questions above, *what else worries you if anything?

GIANFRANCO: Regression, both team and players. We need to see growth on both fronts, players need to improve on last season and the team will benefit. This goes for Pioli as well, he did well to use his team and put them in positions to win, he needs to continue to do that or the team will regress.

LISI: Honestly nothing. That alone is kinda worrying

TR: Not re-signing key players

AviA: Frank made an excellent point recently about how quickly we might get exposed if things go against us, just an injury or two and we could be back to MehLan (see what I did there?) whereby we could end up totally relaint on guys like Messias, Krunic & Saladmaker rather than having them be bit part players. Please no injuries!!!

GILLIS: Depth, not that Milan is any better or worse than any other Serie A team, but it’s still an issue for some positions nonetheless

JOE: Too many players out for injury at the same time.

AT: I am worried about other teams strengthening. Inter brought n Lukaku, Mkhi, and Aslani, and now it seems like they are not selling Skriniar. That's a very good Mercato for them. Juve, of course is having a good window of their own. Kostic and DePay rumors, these are very good signings. Milan would have to punch above their weight again, if we don't bring in more quality now or in Jan.

Your top 4 predictions for Serie A.

GIANFRANCO: Yikes…Juventus got better, Inter as well, Napoli can play, so add Milan and that’s your top four, if I venture a ranking it would merely be names out of a hat.

LISI: Milan Inter Juve Napoli

TR: Inter Milan Juve Roman club

AviA: Milan, Roma, Merda, Rube?

GILLIS: Milan Inter Juve Lazio

JOE: MILAN, Roma, Inter, Napoli

AT: Milan, Inter, Juve, Roma

Relegation predictions?

GIANFRANCO: My focus is the top of the table…Milan hasn’t been there in a few years let me enjoy my time at the top!

LISI: Lecce Crem Samp

TR: Cremonese, Lecce, Salernitana

AviA: Anyone but Monza!

GILLIS: Cremonese, Lecce, Salernitana

JOE: Cremonese, Lecce, Sampdoria

AT: Cremonese, Lecce, Salernitana

Award Predictions:

Who do you think will be league MVP?

GIANFRANCO: I think Pogba comes back and tears it up this year frankly.

LISI: Leão again

TR: I honestly don't know. That Turkish guy on Inter.

AviA: Leão

GILLIS: Leão

JOE: Leão

AT: Leão

Who do you think will be the team MVP?

GIANFRANCO: Tonali will cement himself as the backbone of this team!

LISI: Leão

TR: Leão

AviA: Tomori

GILLIS: Leão

JOE: Leão

AT: Leão

Most improved?

GIANFRANCO: Diaz has room to grow and I want to see it!

LISI: Kalulu explodes

TR: Pobega

AviA: erm...Baka? No! Just kidding, in fact Baka if you're reading this please GTFO my team!

GILLIS: Brahim Diaz

JOE: Diaz

AT: Messias Jr

Offensive MVP?

GIANFRANCO: Giroud will go on a goal scoring tear this year!

LISI: Leão

TR: Leão

AviA: CDK (he's gonna fuqn wreck it!)

GILLIS: Leão

JOE: Leão

AT: Leão

Defensive MVP?

GIANFRANCO: Theo all day every day…

LISI: Tomori

TR: Mike

AviA: Magic Mike + Tomori

GILLIS: Maignan

JOE: Tomori

AT: Theo

Newcomer of the season?

GIANFRANCO: Will wait to transfer season is over to weigh in here…

LISI: Adli

TR: King Charles

AviA: Adli (please be the new Albertini!)

GILLIS: CDK

JOE: CDK

AT: CDK

Bust of the season?

GIANFRANCO: Ugh, I don’t want to jinx anyone off the rip.

LISI: Messias

TR: Brahim, if that even counts

AviA: Ask me at the end of the season!

GILLIS: Saelemaekers, maybe Adli and not because he’ll be bad but because Brahim improves and takes away a lot more minutes than people are predicting

JOE: Calabria

AT: Saelemaekers

Anything else comes to mind please share it below

GIANFRANCO: I think the team’s pruning of the roster was a good thing but I think depth is an issue, need to really think that through or position young players with opportunities to fill the void.

LISI: This first half of the season will be crazy with CL and all. As long as we don't stumble out of the gate we are gonna be fine. We will come back after the break and not lose another league game.

TR: Nada

AviA: I’m pretty relaxed for this season which is unusual, hope we come out of blocks with a consistent number of wins from the off and then sustain it, this 2nd season will also be a test for Pioli. Yeah, you managed to galvanize the squad, win the scudetto and get the tattoo but can you keep them motivated to do it all again whilst juggling new additions to the squad with one eye also on the CL? A different season with a different set of problems for our coach but hope he's still got that fire! It would be great to see him continue his journey of growth at Milan by having an excellent run in the CL after having climbed the summit of Serie A last season. Can’t wait for this season to get going!

GILLIS: Going to be an interesting close to the mercato and what to make of the WC break. But, BUT! Pioli handled the COVID break as well as anyone, in fact, it’s what more and less kicked off this run. Just can’t wait for the season to start already!

JOE: I am interested in seeing how Pioli navigates the squad while now having a target on their back. It is a different mindset when you are chasing the crown, as opposed to defending. Nevertheless….

FORZA MILAN!!!

AT: Nada

FINAL THOUGHTS

Defending a championship in any sport is always difficult and Milan gets to try their hand at it starting tomorrow. As you can see from the wonderful round-table above, different things concern different people but we are all on the same page when we think about Milan getting that second star before Merda, amiright?!

Thank you to everyone in this post for sharing your thoughts and to everyone that contributed to our Season Preview series. Tomorrow can't come soon enough!

We want to hear what you think! Please share your thoughts below on all of the previews but especially this one! And what the hell, let’s take another look at the Scudetto celebration from last season!

Forza Milan Per Sempre

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miraculousares · 3 years

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Growing up, like most of us, I only saw neurotypical cishet people on TV, most of them white. I rarely saw gay characters who weren't stereotyped side characters used for the "gay best friend" or the "butch lesbian" to poke fun at or the "bisexual who only likes the same sex for attention". I never saw genderqueer people who weren't used for some kind of humor or sad backstory and they were rarely respected when they even existed. Neurodivergent folks were always for humor such as the "ADHD kid bouncing off the walls and OOH SQUIRREL" or for angst such as the "autistic person who exists solely for angst and to be bullied by others." I never got to see someone like me in the media.

And now we're in a point in history where we get to watch this show.

The main character is bisexual, neurodivergent, and afro latina.

The love interest is a lesbian with a rough past and abusive parents.

The best friends are a burnt out gifted kid raised by a single dad and a girl with two dads and self esteem issues. Both of which are people of color.

The love interest has a brother who's dating someone who uses they/them pronouns.

The mother figure is bisexual with a chronic illness.

The mother figure's love interest is a nonbinary performer with stage fright and a person of color.

The mother figure's mom used to be an anti-vaxxer before she learned to understand and respect her daughter and her chronic illness.

The principal has a disability and genuinely cares for his students.

Several of the 'mean' characters have gotten realistic character growth in which they acknowledge that they did wrong, address it, and grow.

Several side characters are seen with same-sex partners, various skin colors, and disabilities.

They/them pronouns are used regularly used both for folks who use them and folks whose pronouns are unknown.

And none of these facts cloud any of the characters or are used for humor or anything like that. In this world, homophobia, racism, transphobia, and ableism flat out don't exist.

I have cried happy tears several times to my mom and my friends about how amazing it is that such an inclusive show exists. Not only is the plot incredible and the animation beautiful but it raises a more inclusive generation.

Young children are turning on Disney Channel and seeing that it's okay and normal to be disabled, neurodivergent, queer, transgender, a person of color, chronically ill, or from a "different" family dynamic. That it's never to late to grow and change as a person.

I would give anything to have had a show like this growing up. To turn on my favorite tv station to see that it was okay to be myself. That there's not just one way to be myself. To be able to see myself in the characters on my screen.

Dana Terrace and the team have made such massive contributions to the history of progress and inclusivity and I cannot express my appreciation enough.

EDIT: 1. True, Boscha has made no changes as of yet, I used that picture because I personally thought that scene seemed to hint that she has the possibility of change and I couldn't find a screencap of Matt that effectively showed his change. 2. True, there is some ableism as far as the magic abilities go (I.E. Eda's curse) but I meant as far as ableism that related to disabilities in reality, sorry for the confusion. 3. Thank you for everyone giving me suggestions and reminders as to things to add! I put what I could remember when I wrote it and didn't expect this post to blow up so much so thank you to everyone giving me suggestions to show how amazing this show is!

Also this show is called The Owl House and you can watch season 1 and the first few episodes of season 2 on Disney+! ♡

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ryehouses · 2 years

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i do want to start with an obligatory "i've read AST all the way through twice and it lives rent free in my head" (as you might be able to tell by my blog title). the character development is SO good and as a person with a touch of religious trauma. well. let's just say that It Hits Home. BUT i'm sending this ask specifically because i'm kinda curious about how you went about doing your tatooine worldbuilding. it feels so nuanced and realistic!

Hello hello!! Thank you so much for stopping by, and for your comments and your lovely question! (I will admit, every time I see you pop up in my notifs I do go "YES!!!! BOBA FETT LIKED MY POST!!!" so. Thank you also for the dopamine.)

I would be more than happy to talk about Tatooine worldbuilding! Also, I am sorry for how long this got, and the few days it took to pull this response together! An answer to your question, which I loved, below:

I started my Tatooine worldbuilding with the Tuskens! Primarily because the culture of Tatooine's slaves (current and former) has been thoroughly explored by some fantastic writers and I didn't want to step on any toes, and also because Boba and Din both had a Tusken connection in canon that I could flesh out. The ahra's culture came later, when I'd nailed down some of the Tusken culture a little more comprehensively. Also, Cobb Vanth would not stay out of my storyboard.

My main goal, when I started storyboarding for ast and realized that the Tuskens were going to play a fairly large role, was to make sure taht ast 'verse's Tusken culture felt just as fleshed-out and fully-realized as ast 'verse's Mandalorian culture. I didn't want to play into either a) portraying the Tuskens as mindless, bloodthirsty subhumans or b) swinging too far the other way and reducing the Tuskens' complexity or agency by portraying them as misunderstood innocents.

So, in that vein, I started with what we knew! I went to that carefully-curated, exhaustively-researched font of Star Wars information, Wookieepedia (I'm being completely serious; the folks who contribute to Wookieepedia are HEROES IN MY EYES). I went through both the "Tusken Raiders" canon and EU/Legends pages, jotting down notes and forming a few lists of questions.

The first list was very simple, and had questions like these:

What do Tuskens eat?

What kind of clothes do they wear?

What tools or weapons do they use?

How do they get around?

How are their tribes structured?

Some of these were easy to answer:

What do Tuskens eat? -> Lots of bantha and other animals they've hunted, including krayt dragons, womp rats, eopies, etc.

What kind of clothes do they wear? -> Sun-protective organic fabrics of some kind, masks, goggles

What tools or weapons do they use? -> Wood and metal gaffi sticks, binocs, cycler rifles, etc

And some of these were harder! To answer some of the questions we didn't have source material (canon or EU) for, or to expand on on an answer, I turned to real-world examples of nomadic cultures. There are nomadic cultures recorded on just about every continent except Antartica; the culture I drew the most inspiration from are the Bedouin, because I felt that the Bedouin's way of life most closely matched what we knew of the Tuskens, but I also looked at a variety of other nomadic groups, most notably the Mongolian nomads. The answers to my questions started to have questions of their own.

What do Tuskens eat? -> Lots of bantha and other animals they've hunted, including krayt dragons, womp rats, eopies, etc -> Do they eat anything other than animal products?

The secondary questions led to more research. Nomadic peoples don't just eat meat; many nomadic cultures don't practice what we think of as traditional agriculture -- farming the same land over and over again -- but that doesn't mean that they don't know how to harvest food. I started looking at recipes and cultural foods, too; at how spices and aromatics are used, at how plants or grains or other forms of protein are used. Bedouins traditionally ate a lot of animal products -- meat and milk, primarily -- but they also made and continue to make great use of dates, figs, olives, anything and everything that grows. So, back to the "what" and "how" questions:

What do Tuskens eat? -> Lots of bantha and other animals they've hunted, including krayt dragons, womp rats, eopies, etc -> Do they eat anything other than animal products? -> Yes, they probably eat whatever they can find or forage in the desert.

I then went down an extensive rabbit hole building a more-or-less functional ecology for Tatooine (my background is in ecology) and merrily started to think about what Tuskens could use. There's no way Tatooine is that barren -- it's too poor to import all of its food, which means that stuff has to grow there. So what would grow there? Probably things that grow in harsh environments everywhere. Trees and grasses and stonefruits. Rice and nuts at higher altitudes.

I went through my "what" and "how" questions that way, and once I had enough meat on those bones, I made another list of "why" questions -- I'd take something that we knew, or something that I had extrapolated from, and tried to frame that information in a cultural context.

Bantha are pretty big and probably need a lot of food and water. Why do Tuskens keep so many of them? -> Because Tuskens rely on banthas for food, transportation, clothing and even navigation.

That went on for quite a while, lmao. I have pages and pages of notes like that. What do Tuskens believe about their environment, and why do they believe that? What kind of tribal structure do they have, and why are they structured that way? Et cetera. et cetera. Y'all know me by now -- I have never been shortwinded.

But once I got to the whys, knitting together everything together on the page was a lot easier.

What do Tuskens eat? -> Easda (poonten porridge) and japoor meal bread. Tamur (dried dates) and bantha yoghurt. Stews and curries with local foraged spices and fresh meat. Fruit and nuts from the highlands, and just about anything that can be dug up or hunted down or plundered from a nest.

And so on and so on. Throw in some American Sign Language -- the storyboarding and research was done prior to the revelation that showrunners developed a Tusken Sign Language -- and some cosmology (also heavily influenced by pre-Islamic, desert-dwelling cultures) and you have the ast 'verse Tuskens!

Honestly, working on the different cultures of Tatooine has been one of my favorite parts of the fic!

This got so long, so, TL;DR -- I started with what we knew of the Tuskens, threw out the parts I didn't like (basically all of AOTC Tusken Culture, Anakin), made a list of "what" and "how" questions, answered them, asked some more "why" questions, answered those too and then hit the ground running!!

This process worked very well for me to help order things in my head, so I applied it to the ahra and to a few of the Mandalorian subgroups as well.

Thank you again for your question, and for letting me ramble enthusastically about Tatooine for so long!

#ast asks #i am so sorry this is so fucking long lmao #i did include a few of my sources but this is not a comprehensive bibliography by any means #standard disclaimer: i am not the author of any of the links above #and i am also not an anthropologist!#i also jumped from question to question in the moment so like. this was not as comprehensive and methodical as it sounds #a meta far far away

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thetirisfaltheatretroupe · 3 years

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And the final curtain falls...

Hey folks! Atos here, giving yall a bit of an update! Okay, a really important one, probably most important I’ve ever given. Summer was a busy time for us, and we performed a lot for the first month and a half or so. Lots of appearances, tons of work put in towards our latter season shows, and a lot of excitement. Then...it just all kind of died, right? Well, here to set the record straight;

Many reasons exist as to why we’ve been inactive and silent lately. Naturally, one of the first things that probably come to mind is the lawsuit with Blizz that rubbed a lot of us the wrong way. While we found it difficult to up and say we were quitting over it as many of us believed there was a chance a new team could redeem the game, it, of course, killed a ton of our enthusiasm and made us cancel our Winter’s Veil in August event (originally in July but we decided to postpone due to not being ready on time). This was just one of the reasons, though. Around the middle to tail end of Summer, we were desperately trying to find new and great talent for the group. Had a few interested folks, not a lot of people returned, though. Recruitment has been difficult, and while I realize we never had the most straightforward recruitment efforts, it has helped us weed out those whose interest in our concept was either self beneficial only or lukewarm at best. But even that wasn’t really what caused our drought of recruitment; there just aren’t a lot of people interested in what we were doing, or already committed to their own guild concepts, which is fine. I hold no ill will against anyone, it was just a bad time for struggling performing guilds, and we’d come off the tail end of an already lengthy hiatus. Some of you may remember me stating that we had planned to do the annual Bash we’ve been known for. I regret to state that, unsurprisingly, we won’t be doing that either. We lack the numbers to maintain such an event, and many of our friends and affiliates have quit the game. And now, I regret to inform, I too will be unsubscribing, and for the foreseeable future, officially halting the Tirisfal Theatre Troupe’s activities. This decision didn’t come lightly. The Tirisfal Theatre Troupe was and is my pride and joy. From the day we did one man shows in Brill, to the curtain calls in the Ruins of Lordaeron, no accomplishment in-game that I have managed has even come close to how much pride I feel for my guild and its members, and all we’ve done over the years. But these days grow bleak for many of us. We see bad things happening within Blizzard, within the community, and we don’t know what landscape we navigate anymore. I won’t speak for my crew, but I will say that many share the sentiments I do that there’s a spark missing from this game now that was once there in abundance. Pride in our community that was accompanied by kindness and welcoming. We put on shows that we wanted to unite people with, filled with humor and fun, easy for RPers and non RPers alike to jump into and enjoy, and maybe reference later. Putting on such shows is difficult now, even with the numbers. There’s not a lot of love left for the game and for each other, I’ve noticed. And I myself have felt that a lot, and I don’t want to feel that way. For many reasons, some personal and some that have been stated by others in better ways than I could manage to explain, I’ve fallen entirely out of love with this game and no longer wish to contribute to it. This time, there is no one to take the mantle of director. And so it is that I cannot leave the guild in capable hands, so this is the final curtain call for the Tirisfal Theatre, at the very least for some time. I will never say forever, because no one knows what the future may hold. But I will say, for awhile, perhaps forever. I want to take this time to thank Wyrmrest Accord for what in a few short weeks would be eight years of being our humble group’s home. We’ve loved being a part of the culture on this server, giving our best foot forward to make you laugh, to engage you, and make you smile. Through the ups and downs, we’ve had endless moments of fun, humor, occasionally stress and nerves that come with the job, but always love. We’ve met so many people, made so many friends, and ourselves been changed by our experiences. I will never say it was a waste of time just because the ending was so bitter in my eyes. I will keep this blog to post memories of our past performances from time to time when the mood suits. Let’s not say goodbye, as I remind that nothing is certain, but rather, we’ll meet again someday. No, no, I can reword that better... Let’s meet again someday. With love and adoration for all who spent these 8 years with us! ~ Lord Atos Sunhart, Founder & GM of the Tirisfal Theatre Troupe

#warcraft roleplay #wyrmrest accord #wyrmrest rp #tirisfaltheatretroupe

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doodledrawsthings · 4 years

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Oh The Humanity! AU Masterpost

Hi! Making a masterpost for this AHiT AU so y’all have one place to just find all the important bits that I and other folks in the fandom have done for this AU! Everything will be under the read more

AU Premise: Snatcher steals a time piece from Hat Kid and Bow Kid to mess with them. He tries to use it during one of the Death Wish fights, but turns out the particular time piece he stole was faulty/ something was up with it/ he broke it in a weird way that really messed it up. Because of this, when he broke the piece, instead of rewinding time back a few minutes, it sent his form back about 300 years, returning him to human form, but with all his present memories. Now, he’s stuck as a human as and has to wait for the Time Traveling Alien Kids to fix the time piece and return him to normal, while also being forced to confront his past.

You can find most of this in the tag #oth!au. I will also be updating this as new stuff gets added or if I find that I’ve missed something. Let me know if there’s something I missed that you’d like me to add, cuz boy howdy i didnt realize how much is stuffed into this AU, and I dont remember what I’ve already said and what I’m saving for future stuff:

Significant Events in the Main Timeline story (these are kind of in order and kind of not. There’s more to be added, just not yet):

this au has a bunch of different endings thanks to the lovely ahit fandom’s contributions.

This all happens sometime after This comic. So, by the time OTH!AU happens, Moon and Snatcher are at least on“awkward acquaintance” terms with eachother and snatcher is trying to be nicer to him. He’s still got his moments of being rude and snappy tho, but thats just because he’s snatcher.

The first actual post i made In regards to this AU+ @positive-polygons comic interpretation of the beginning of the AU. He breaks a weird time piece he stole and he reverse ages back to being alive again. : Link Link1 Link2 Link3

Snatcher asks moonjumper to watch over Subcon while he’s stuck like this Link

Bow takes him to Nyakuza Metro to get new clothes. He trashes the Prince get-up as soon as possible. Link

Arctic Cruise Arc Link1 Link2 Link3 Link4

Some comics, they learn his name is luka at some point

Moonjumper is taking care of Subcon. They do things way differently than snatcher but they’re trying their best.

Cooking Cat comes by to cook and help out. She’s very motherly to everyone. She’s taken Mu on as an apprentice, so she’s usually there with her whenever she drops by.

The birds are wrapping up a collab movie. The main cast are invited to the premier party, as Hat and Bow acted in the film. Snatcher gets to wear a nice suit and he has some interaction with the conductor and grooves. Link Link

at multiple points, MJ checks in with snatcher for status reports on how subcon is doing. This is usually where their bonding moments happen and they become less and less awkward with each interaction.

At some point around mid to late story, they find out that Subcon is starting to freeze over again. Snatcher was the only one who could melt the ice so this now gives them a time limit.

The Mirror incident Link Link second fic by @greentrickster

as snatcher gets along with the kids more, they remake his mailman hat so he can use badges and equip him with his own umbrella. Link Link

at some point snatcher realizes he doesn’t wanna go back to being a ghost.

Main-timeline ending is a Boss battle with Vanessa. Link

General Headcanons:

Almost everything you need to know about moonjumper and the prince and vanessa’s relationship Link

Snatcher and Vanessa have known eachother since they were kids. Their marriage was arranged, but they were good friends

OTH! Snatcher is aroace

about snatcher’s feelings on defeating vanessa (*human!/final boss vanessa ending) Link1 Link2

This fic has a really good interpretation of the horizon that I’ve pretty much adopted, myself. Link

regarding snatcher’s expression of empathy and emotion both as a human and as a ghost Link1

Snatcher gradually takes on a fatherly role towards the girls. He is constantly trying to deny it as he comes to realize it but eventually accepts it.

he’s actually pretty graceful with the umbrella Link Link

Hat kid’s a good leader, but she can often be reckless and stubborn. Significantly more chaotic of the two space gremlins. She’s a lot like snatcher in a lot of ways, and because of that they are constantly butting heads but they get along better as Snatcher both gets used to being human and grows fonder of the two girls. She’s a bit closer to Snatcher, having been the most adamant about being his friend (initially out of spite but yknow) and they have a lot in common.

People frequently mistake snatcher for being Hat Kid and Bow Kid’s visiting father. They usually comment on how much he looks like he could be HK’s biological dad. Both are in denial of this throughout the main timeline of this au. It’s a running gag. Link

snatcher is sometimes completely oblivious when he enters Dad Mode sometimes

Bow, on the other hand is generally a bit more shy and careful than hat kid is. She tends to take the passenger seat, taking on a more supportive role. She’s also way more polite. In this sense, she has more in common with moonjumper, and gets along with them quite well and she frequently goes to visit him the most often, on her own.

Her and snatcher’s relationship kind of parallels snatcher’s relationship with MJ. Snatcher, having once been a big jerk to these kids, is now trying to teach bow to take more of a leading role and be more confident.

as this au takes place not long after the Clearing Incident comic, Snatcher and MJ’s relationship is a bit awkward in the beginning. Over the course of the AU their relationship would build up to be more brotherly.

the subconites like moonjumper but they miss their boss. MJ spoils them tho, which they appreciate and occasionally take advantage of Link Link

moonjumper learns to stand up for himself, snatcher learns to be more vulnerable

moonjumper is the badgeseller. Only hat, bow, and snatcher know this.

snatcher very much enjoys feeling warm, its one of few saving graces he clings too in the stressful early part of the story.

snatcher doesnt like looking at himself in this AU. He’s very self-conscious about his “pathetic human body.” He doesn’t like being pitied and he doesnt like being seen as weak.

snatcher frequently has nightmares about his past.

after recieving the mailman hat, people start refering to him as The Mailman. Link

his voice frequently cracks a lot, especially in the beginning, since he keeps trying to use his Loud Ghost Voice, which can do a number on human vocal chords. Link

the kids bully him constantly Link Link Link

his arc is that he learns that it’s ok to be human and it’s ok to be vulnerable and to open up to people, and he learns to accept his past and who he used to be

the girls accidentally call him dad sometimes, which freaks him out at first, but he gets used to it eventually. Link

he adopts them, for sure, it just happens post- whatever ending.

beard. Link

Spin-off AUs, Alt Endings, and Fanfics, Oh My!:

That ending where habijob kills moonjumper Moonjumper goes to fight Vanessa, alone. In one version they win, and in another, they lose, and snatcher has to return to ghost form to retrieve them from the horizon. by @habijob Link Link Link

From The Horizon fic by @greentrickster Link

@lindendragon‘s hypothetical endings where snatcher is captured by vanessa Link Link

@fedoraspooky‘s spinoff au where the timepiece takes him back even further and turns him into a kid Link Link

@positive-polygons‘s Vanessa Spinoff Link

@doodleimprovement‘s Royal ending Link

@erekiosuncreativeideas‘s fanfic, Being Human, her version of the au’s story in chronological order starting from when he breaks the timepiece Link

@lemonadesoda’s Fanfic series, And I Don’t Think You Hate This As Much As You Wish You Did, fills in and expands upon the ideas in my comics for the AU Link

#a hat in time #ahit #the snatcher #the prince #bow kid #hat kid #moonjumper #ahit headcanons #oth!au #Oh the Humanity Au #oth!au masterpost #good lord i didnt realize how much this au had #but i think this is good for now #i'll add more as i go #i know for sure that theres more fics to add but i'll do that later i just wanna put this out #added some stuff

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‘Gentlemen like you are few...’: A Supercentenary Tribute to Irwin Kostal

1 October 2021 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Irwin Kostal, the musical arranger, orchestrator and conductor whose work helped shape the sound of the post-war American stage and screen musical. In this post we look back at the career of this remarkable 'music man’ with a particular focus on his collaborations with the equally remarkable Julie Andrews -- who, as it happens, shares the same birthday, so this post is doing double birthday honours.

A gentle, unassuming man, Kostal or ‘Irv’ as he was known by associates, was not one for the limelight. It’s possibly why he gravitated to the ‘behind-the-scenes’ art of musical arranging. Unlike composers, performers, or even conductors, arrangers seldom loom large in public perceptions of professional musicianship. They are, for the most part, the ‘invisible artists’ of the music industry: their contributions to the sound and experience of music are immense, but they remain largely ‘uncredited in records, liner notes or books or records’ (Niles 2104, p. 4). That Irwin Kostal would ultimately prove a rare exception to this tradition of thankless anonymity -- becoming sufficiently well-known to have his own name not only included on recordings, but emblazoned on the front cover alongside those of the ‘star’ vocalists with whom he worked -- is a testament to the singularity of his talents.

Born the son of first generation immigrant parents in Chicago in 1911, Kostal claimed he was instantly ‘smitten’ by music when he saw a piano at the age of two-and-a-half, but his family was too poor to afford such luxuries. Moreover, his father -- a hard-drinking Czech with a fiery temper -- was ‘rigidly opposed’ to his interests in music and ‘could see no future in it’ (’Irwin’ 1962, p. 70). So Kostal initially had to content himself with listening and absorbing as much musical knowledge as he could indirectly. When he was eleven, his father finally brought home a broken player piano salvaged from a removals job and it provided the young Kostal with the launch pad he needed.

Kostal devoted himself to his musical education with single-minded zeal. His formal training was intermittent -- enabled by a supportive mother who ‘surreptitiously managed to save money from her weekly allowance for my musical instruction’ (’Irwin’ 1962, p. 70) -- but he was a passionate autodidact who would spend countless hours studying and practising on his own. By age 15, he was already playing professionally with local touring bands, while also offering his own services as a piano teacher with, at one point, more than 40 pupils (ibid.).

When he wasn’t playing, Kostal would be found in the local library poring over musical scores and reading about the greats of the classical canon. He was particularly intrigued by orchestration and the possibilities it offered for varying the sound and feel of music. He recalls how he would take orchestral scores home and study all the parts learning ‘about musical instruments I never knew existed’ (Suskin 2009, p. 56). He progressively worked his way through the music of the masters, going alphabetically:

‘Bach...Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Elgar, Frank, Gounod, on and on through the alphabet...I tried to absorb everything. By the time I came to Ravel, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, I knew quite a lot about music in a jumbled way’ (Suskin 2009, p. 57).

While still in his teens, Kostal started to experiment with arrangements of his own, scoring a high school production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin with multiple variations on the American folk melody ‘Way Down upon the Swanee River’. ‘By taking away the rhythmic aspects and playing it in a minor key,’ he recounts, ‘I found lots of ways to play this song, making it fit the dramatics of the half-hour long story’ (ibid., p. 56). Thus, Irwin Kostal the arranger was born.

Throughout the 1930s and early-40s, Kostal honed his talents in a professional capacity, working with various big bands, before finally landing a job as a resident arranger for an NBC radio affiliate in Chicago. Following the war, Kostal moved to New York where, after a rocky start, he secured regular work as conductor and arranger on a number of long-running radio and TV variety shows including Your Show of Shows (1950-54), Max Liebman Presents (1954-56), and The Garry Moore Show (1959-63). It was demanding, fast-paced work with Kostal having to arrange and orchestrate hundreds of score pages a week, but it consolidated his musical versatility and capacity to work across a wide range of styles and forms (Suskin 2009, pp. 57-60).

Throughout this period, Kostal was also orchestrating for Broadway shows, racking up over 52 credits on theatre productions big and small (Allen 1995, p. 18). Many of these assignments were done in a ‘ghost-writer’ capacity including contributing work to such classic musicals as Wonderful Town (1953), The Pajama Game (1953) and Silk Stockings (1955). A major breakthrough came when Kostal was contracted to work in a credited capacity as co-orchestrator on the original Broadway production of West Side Story (1958) -- collaborating with Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Sid Ramin. It earned him his first Grammy Award and a subsequent invitation to arrange and orchestrate a string of other big Broadway musicals including Fiorello! (1959), Sail Away (1961) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962).

The success of West Side Story also saw Kostal do repeat honours on the film version (1961) which would, in turn, earn him an Academy Award and kickstart a hugely successful Hollywood career. In 1963, Kostal was invited by none other than Walt Disney to take on the major job of arranging the songs for Mary Poppins (1964) which had been written by the in-house Disney composing team of Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. The Sherman Brothers claim to have suggested Kostal because they were fans of his Broadway work and they wanted a bright theatrical sound for the score. However, Walt Disney demurred. He reasoned it was a period film and they needed someone who could write music for any style or era, suggesting they get the musical director from The Garry Moore Show instead. Cue mutual delight when it was discovered they were all referring to the same man, Irwin Kostal (Sherman & Sherman 1998; Suskin 2009, p. 65).

Kostal’s work on Mary Poppins catapulted him to new heights of mainstream success. It not only secured him another Academy Award nomination -- he lost to Andre Previn for his work on My Fair Lady -- but it also brought him a tidy fortune in royalties from the film’s best-selling soundtrack album (’Kostal’s’ $65,000′, 57). His fame -- and fortune -- skyrocketed even further the following year when Kostal was contracted to arrange the score for The Sound of Music (1965). His dazzling efforts on this box-office blockbuster confirmed Kostal’s status as Hollywood’s presiding musical wonder-boy and saw him walk home with his second Oscar. A string of other big screen musicals followed including Half a Sixpence (1967), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971).

Many of these films were repeat collaborations because Kostal favoured working with people he knew and with whom he clicked personally and creatively. He would for example continue as the de facto ‘house’ arranger for Disney well into the 1980s, working on various assignments for the studio including Pete’s Dragon (1978), Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) and the controversial re-recorded 1982 release of Fantasia (1940/1982) (Tietyan 1990). Kostal would also maintain a long association with the Sherman Brothers, acting as musical arranger for all their big screen musicals including the aforementioned Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), as well as Tom Sawyer (1973); Charlotte’s Web (1973); and The Magic of Lassie (1978) (Sherman & Sherman 1998).

The other great collaboration of Kostal’s career was of course with Julie Andrews. Perhaps it was the fact that the pair shared the same birthday but Kostal had an extraordinarily sympathetic relationship with Julie and he would work with her more than any other vocalist. Long before they teamed on Poppins and The Sound of Music, Julie and ‘Irv’ were making musical magic together. Kostal was the arranger and conductor for Julie’s first two solo albums for RCA: The Lass with the Delicate Air (1957) and Julie Andrews Sings (1958) where his sensitive facility with a wide range of musical idioms from English classical to Broadway and Tin Pan Alley came to the fore. Reviewing the first of these albums at the time of its original release, one music critic lauded it as ‘a record to charm every member of the family...[with] a combination of sincerity and simplicity and wholesome sweetness...Thank goodness arranger and conductor Irwin Kostal met the challenge and set the ballads winningly without overpowering Miss Andrews’ light pure tones’ (RRS 1958, p. 5A). In a similar vein, another reviewer praised the second album for ‘its charming unforced version of standards, well known and almost forgotten...Miss Andrews still sings naturally and purely [and] the deft accompaniments played by an orchestra under Irwin Kostal are agreeably restrained’ (Masters 1959, p. 11).

In this early period Kostal also worked with Julie as guest star on several episodes of The Garry Moore Show, where he was resident musical director. In this context, Kostal was pivotal in helping establish the legendary teaming of Julie and Carol Burnett which came out of the Garry Moore appearances. He would go on to act as musical director for their breakout 1962 TV special Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall which would earn Kostal his first Emmy (Taraborelli 1988, pp. 172-79). He would secure his second Emmy a few years later working with Julie again on the 1965 variety special, The Julie Andrews Show (1965) where, among other highlights, Kostal scored a series of stellar song-and-dance medleys for Julie and guest star Gene Kelly. The same year, Kostal teamed up with Julie on yet another recording with the 1965 edition of the annual Firestone Christmas albums.

It was however their combined work on the two big musical mega-hits, Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, that secured the Kostal-Andrews partnership a place in the history books. A cultural phenomenon of the highest order, the soundtrack recordings for these two films remain among the most successful albums of all time. Mary Poppins held the #1 spot on the US national music charts for 14 consecutive weeks in 1964, beating out Elvis Presley and The Beatles (Hollis and Erhbar 2006, pp.72ff). The album for The Sound of Music sold over 9 million copies in its first four years of release alone, remaining in the Billboard Top 100 for an unbelievable five-and-a-half years, and becoming the highest selling LP of all-time in the US up to that date (Murrells, 1978) The Sound of Music continued its record-breaking run abroad, dominating the international charts and holding the #1 spot for 75 weeks in Australia, 73 weeks in Norway and 70 weeks in the UK, becoming in the process the single biggest selling album worldwide of the 1960s (Harker, 1992, pp. 189-91).

Commentators have frequently singled out the combination of Julie Andrews’ soaring vocals and Kostal’s dynamic arrangements as instrumental to the phenomenal success of these two albums. ‘Miss Andrews glows--positively glows--right through the record groove, vinyl disc, amplifiers, speakers, and all other mechanical barriers,’ enthused one contemporary reviewer of the Mary Poppins soundtrack, noting how the ‘songs that Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman have written’ and ‘the handsome arrangements by Irwin Kostal have the perfect balance ‘of lilt and flair to provide Miss Andrews with an effective working basis’ (Wilson 1965, p. 109). Apropos The Sound of Music, another critic pronounced it ‘as good a reproduction of a score as has ever been made’, noting how it ‘presents Julie in a most appealing role and given the splendid musical direction of Irwin Kostal, her talent comes shining through...as a treat beyond measure’ (Moore 1965, p. B6).

In total, Julie Andrews and Irwin Kostal would work together on six recordings, two musical motion pictures, two television specials, and a host of other TV appearances representing some of the very best of Julie’s musical work during her heyday of the 1960s. Considered alongside the wealth of Kostal’s other work across film, stage, television and recording, it’s hard not to concur with Disney’s Nelson Meecham who, on the occasion of Kostal’s passing in 1994, eulogised: ‘He brought the joy of music to more people than it is possible to count’ (Allen, p. 19).

Sources:

Allen, John F 1995. ‘Remembering a Music Man: On the life and work of Irwin Kostal.’ Boxoffice. August: pp. 18-19.

Harker, Dave 1992. ‘Still Crazy After All These Years: What was popular music in the 1960s?” Cultural Revolution? The challenge of the arts in the 1960s. Bart Moore-Gilbert and John Seed, eds. Routledge, London and New York: pp. 186-200.

Hollis, Tim and Erhbar, Greg 2006. Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

‘Irwin Kostal: Music in all its many forms is his life.’ (1962). The Province. 2 June: p. 70.

’Kostal’s’ $65,000 Poppins Score’ 1965. Variety. 10 March: p. 57

Levy, Charles 1964. Mary Poppins: About the stars and photo-story features [Press kit]. Buena Vista Distribution, New York.

Masters, John 1959. ‘Off the Record: Enchanting Music.’ The Age. 7 January: p. 11.

Moore, Robert 1965. ‘Record Turntable: Julie Andrews out in front again in film album of”Sound of Music”.’ The Arizona Daily Star. 7 March: p. B6.

Murrells, Joseph, ed. 1978. Book of Golden Discs: Records that sold a million. Barrie & Jenkins, New York.

Niles, Richard 2014. The Invisible Artist: Arrangers in popular music (1950-2000). BMI, London.

Oliver, Myrna. 1994. ‘Obituaries: Irwin Kostal; Film, TV Orchestrator.’ The Los Angeles Times. 1 December: P. B8.

RRS 1958. ‘On the Record: ‘Lass with the Delicate Air.’ Bristol Herald Courier. 9 February: p. 5A.

Sherman, Robert B & Sherman, Richard M 1998. Walt's Time: From before to beyond. Camphor Tree, Santa Clarita, CA.

Suskin, Steven 2009. The Sound of Broadway Music: A book of orchestrators and orchestrations, Oxford University Press, New York.

Taraborelli, J. Randy 1988. Laughing Till It Hurts: The complete life and career of Carol Burnett. William Morrow & Co, New York.

Tietyan, David 1990. The Musical World of Walt Disney. H. Leonard, Milwaukee, Wis.

Wilson, John S. 1965. ‘The Lighter Side’. High Fidelity Magazine. 15: 4: pp. 107-111.

#julie andrews #irwin kostal #musicals #classic film #the sound of music #mary poppins #Disney #Sherman Brothers

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