Magical World

Cherik through the ages

Fri, 03 May 2013 20:10:12 -0700

theletteraesc:

lilith-the-ancient:

HOW EPIC IS THEIR TRAGICALLY EPIC LOVE, I ASK YOU.

Photo

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:20:19 -0700

black—betty: This picture made me think: Cuba + Erik...

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:19:00 -0700

black—betty:

This picture made me think: Cuba + Erik wins.

This is a colorized photograph of the “Baker” explosion on Bikini Atoll. Glenn Seaborg called this test “the world’s first nuclear disaster.”

Also, apparently Bikini Atoll has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the nuclear testing done there. I applaud the intent, but it’s still somewhat…disturbing.

"The reward for the capture and return of a fugitive member of a black militant group convicted of..."

Thu, 02 May 2013 16:09:23 -0700

“The reward for the capture and return of a fugitive member of a black militant group convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper was doubled to $2 million on Thursday, the 40th anniversary of the bloody gunbattle. The FBI also announced it has made Joanne Chesimard, now living in Cuba as Assata Shakur, the first woman on its list of most wanted terrorists. “She continues to flaunt her freedom in the face of this horrific crime,” State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said at a news conference Thursday. Fuentes called the case “an open wound” for troopers in New Jersey and around the country.”

- Joanne Chesimard, Black Liberation Army Fugitive In Cuba, Added To FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List

1. please notice how this opening paragraph doesn’t even refer to ms. assata shakur as a person—she’s a “fugitive member of a black militant group”

2. notice how they call her by “joanne chesimard” and NOT her REAL name, “assata shakur.”

3. notice how *flaunting her freedom” is positioned as the crime—a liberation centered black woman is “flaunting” her freedom.

4. notice how not one single place in this article does it mention anything at ALL about cointelpro or that white people who made up the weather underground are all free even tho they actually committed terrorists acts that more legally fit the term (ie. bombing buildings with the assumed effect of “terrorizing” people into revolution or complacency)—it makes not a single solitary attempt to contextualize what was going on the 70s or even what the black liberation army was.

oh, but it DOES says she ran to cuba to “espouse her anti-US views”…

(via iinventedeverything)

sister shakur got them SALTY! Not only did she get out of the torture and the kangaroo court they had her in, she’s still easy, breezy, and beautiful in Cuba? SALTY. Cos was this 40 years ago? and they’re double the reward to $2mil? SALTY!

Stay Free, Sister Shakur.

(via crispycheezefriez)

under-the-moonlight-tower: petitedeath: gothiccharmschool: Oka...

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:49:51 -0700

under-the-moonlight-tower:

petitedeath:

gothiccharmschool:

Okay, now I KNOW I’m stressed out (work, being sickly, writing), because seeing nice things from Calming Manatee made me tear up. Thank you, Calming Manatee.

the bottom one is actually really helpful right now. Thank you calming manatee!

Yes, need this. Thank you.

theletteraesc: thesecarryingarms: bellabitchh: Phil, this...

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:36:01 -0700

theletteraesc:

thesecarryingarms:

bellabitchh:

Phil, this wasn’t fucking amateur hour. PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE OF YOUR LACK OF SUPERVISION. THERE WERE RAPTORS ALL UP IN THE KITCHEN PHIL. IN THE GOD DAMN KITCHEN.

YOU HAD ONE JOB PHIL. ONE JOB.

I will never not reblog this.

Special to professorofeljay, fourteenacross, and iteribidem and anyone who’s seen Final Justice.

I just saw this in 3D tonight. Did anyone else forget that Samuel L. Jackson was in this movie?

magic-murder-bag: thegoddamazon: oldmanasante: Aisha Tyler...

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:26:21 -0700

magic-murder-bag:

thegoddamazon:

oldmanasante:

Aisha Tyler just owned all the trolls hating on the fact that she was selected to be a presenter at the Ubisoft E3 press conference. In the form of an open letter. I think I’m more infatuated with this woman than ever before.

====

Dear Gamers

I play.

I’ve played since I was a little kid.

Since I begged my dad to buy me a Nintendo LCD Donkey Kong, Jr.

Since I blew through three weeks’ allowance playing Defender at the laundromat.

Since you were a twinge in the left side of your daddy’s underoos.

I’ve been a gamer since I made friends with a girl in the 5th grade just to get at her Atari.

Since I missed the bus playing Galaga after school.

Since I missed the start of Return of the Jedi playing Tempest in the theater lobby.

You think you know. You don’t know.

I’ve been a gamer since before you could read.

Since I aced midterms after staying up all night playing Evil Tetris.

Since I became dorm champ at Leisure Suit Larry.

Since I double-wielded on Time Crisis 3 at Fuddrucker’s.

I was a voice in not one, but two major video game titles.

I hosted the Reach Beta tutorial.

I was a Gears of War superfan panelist at ComicCon.

I hosted the Ubisoft presser at E3 2012.

I didn’t do any of it for the money.

For most I got paid next to nothing, and for some, less than that.

I did it because I love video games.

Because I’ve dreamt since I was a kid of being in one of the games I love.

How many games have you done voices for?

How many cons have you repped at?

Your buddy’s Unreal Tournament garage deathmatch doesn’t count.

I go to E3 each year because I love video games.

Because new titles still get me high.

Because I still love getting swag.

Love wearing my gamer pride on my sleeve.

People ask me what console I play.

Motherfucker, ALL of them.

I get invited to E3 because real gamers know I’m a gamer.

I don’t do it for the money.

I have plenty of money.

I don’t do it for the fame.

Fuck fame.

I do it because I love video games.

I don’t give out my gamertag because I don’t want a mess of noob jackholes lining up

to assassinate me on XBL.

I don’t give a shit what you think about my gamerscore.

I don’t play to prove a point.

I don’t play to be the best.

I play because I love it.

I play.

I’ve been playing my whole life.

I’m not ashamed of it.

I don’t apologize for it.

It’s who I am.

To the core.

I’m a gamer.

So to all the haters out there who claim I don’t play;

To the GAF dicks,

Gamespot trolls,

To every illiterate racist douchebag on Youtube:

Flame away. Go nuts.

Post every jackass comment your heart desires.

I’ll still be playing when your mom’s kicked you out of her basement

and you have to sell your old-ass console

and get a real job.

For now, I say to you respectfully,

and I mean this from the bottom of my heart,

GFYS.

And I just fell in love with Aisha Tyler.

I mean, she’s the voice of my favorite character in Archer so how could I not?

But she’s a gamer and a nerd and she reps it hard. I fucking love her.

If you don’t absolutely love Aisha Tyler, there’s no chance we can truly be friends

criacow: ok while we’re all admiring the new five-dollar SPACE...

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:23:32 -0700

criacow:

ok while we’re all admiring the new five-dollar SPACE DOLLARS bill

can we just also appreciate the new $10 bill which is TRAINS

because YEAH TRAINS

so for those keeping track: $100 - discovery of insulin; $50 - Arctic science research; $20 - the Vimy memorial; $10 - TRAINS; and $5 - SPACE.

this country’s pretty cool yeah }:D

I was just in Canada, this new money is the shit.

pangeasplits: Forever love how Charles is the shortest :’)

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:21:21 -0700

pangeasplits:

Forever love how Charles is the shortest :’)

The effects of unchecked criminalization: Teen charged with felony for science experiment

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:20:59 -0700

The effects of unchecked criminalization: Teen charged with felony for science experiment:

bunniewabbit:

aka14kgold:

onebigpear:

fuckyeahfeminists:

This is what the school-to-prison pipeline looks like. This is how black youth criminalized.

She was doing a science experiment

She’s being charged as an ADULT

She’s being charged with a FELONY

If this all goes the way the prosecution wants, this young woman will be LEGALLY discriminated against for the rest of her life. No voting, housing discrimination, employment discrimination (as if getting a job while black isn’t hard enough), etc. etc.

There is a petition up … spread the word.

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-bartow-police-and-bartow-high-school-drop-charges-against-kiera-wilmot

Hey, remember this from yesterday? Go ahead and hit up the petition.

You guys, go sign this, and reblog. This is some real insanity going on, here.

barricadeponine: you either loved the catcher in the rye with a burning passion and it touched your...

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:17:45 -0700

barricadeponine:

you either loved the catcher in the rye with a burning passion and it touched your soul and holden caulfield was you in high school or you despised that book and threatened to burn it and holden caulfield was a whiny little bitch there’s literally no in between

hellotailor: msdistress: hellotailor: [made rebloggable for...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:59:01 -0700

hellotailor:

msdistress:

hellotailor:

[made rebloggable for derekplaysviola] [I REALLY AM GOING TO BED NOW]

pretty sure this isn’t a “HelloTailor, why WAS the dark knight rises terrible??” question, but rather, “Please explain to me why you think the dark knight rises is terrible.”

The answer is: because it’s totally terrible. TDKR is a trifecta of bad ideas: nonsensical storytelling, pointlessly racist/sexist stubtext, and an apparent lack of respect for the film’s original source material.

out of these three problems, two fall pretty squarely in christopher nolan’s lap. while chris nolan can and does make really good blockbuster thrillers, he’s totally abysmal at writing a) women, and b) really any character who isn’t a tormented white male antihero in his 30s.

comicbook stuff

nolan has a pretty explicit dislike for most of the “comicbook” aspects of batman, which has generally been accepted by audiences because the tone of the Dark Knight trilogy has been so “gritty” (although in fact no more “realistic” than most superhero movies, bar the actual superpowered aspects). the problem is, the plot of TDKR is supported by exactly the kind of nonsensical comicbook concepts that christopher nolan’s batman universe was purposefully designed to reject.

plus, there are irritating details like the fact that he wanted to distance himself from the batman/robin concept (which is why he made Commissioner Gordon’s daughter into a non-character, and gave all the kid-dialogue to Gordon’s son)… but then gave it a condescending nod at the end of TDKR, which i thought came across as bizarre and cheesy — particularly since JGL’s character was kind of a Mary Sue throughout.

what are women? (we just don’t know)

anne hathaway made a good catwoman, but the representation of women in general in TDKR was atrocious — including catwoman’s inexplicable final scene with bruce wayne (WHAT? WHY? HOW?). in the universe of TDKR, women make up maybe 20% of the population, tops. and that’s including extras.

in christopher nolan movies, women are all one-dimensional love-interests or evil sexy vamps. for a guy who’s generally seen as a very “modern” filmmaker, his treatment of women is still solidly in the mid-20th century. ditto his attitude towards race, which is like… consistently bad? like, he whitewashes several main characters in the Batman series (ra’s and talia al ghul; maybe Bane as well), and took a gay latina character from the comics and made her evil before writing her out of the story entirely, and replacing her with a white guy.

but if you’re already rolling your eyes all like, “god, shut up with this SOCIAL JUSTICE TUMBLR BULLSHIT”, i have some bad news for you, because my bleeding heart internet liberalism isn’t the only reason why i didn’t enjoy TDKR. because as a heroic thriller story, it sucks balls.

shitty storytelling

the superhero story formula is not that complicated. guy fights stuff; guy gets knocked down; guy overcomes stuff and punches evil in the head. TDKR follows this basic formula, except with the inexplicable addition of a vast quantity of total bullshit. because… while i do think that most mainstream action/adventure movies require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, TDKR goes way beyond acceptable levels of “wait, that doesn’t make sense”. which is highly frustrating, because christopher nolan made Inception, which is the world’s #1 movie that makes no sense but is still really awesome to watch.

so, ok, there are three particular things that REALLY bug me about the totally nonsensical nature of TDKR. two of them are physical, and the third is more… thematic, i guess.

bruce wayne’s spine. HE HEALS HIS OWN SPINE INJURY THROUGH THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING, and then climbs a cliff and presumably breaks his spine again.

this one is connected to point 1, but HOW DOES HE GET BACK TO GOTHAM?? and how does he get to the prison?? Bane literally takes time out of his schedule to ship bruce wayne to a prison in India?? or “India”, since it’s just like, “nonspecific foreignland”?? but once bruce is there, he escapes, and then the next thing you know, he’s materialised back into Gotham NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE. if they’d just had some kind of connecter scene with bruce chartering a plane to the US or something, i might have bought it. but as is, we have: Bane sending Bruce overseas to a specially kitted-out prison, and then Bruce travelling across the world and then sneaking into the infamously besieged Gotham City. HOW. HOW. WHAT?

allllll the political crap. like, what were they even doing. sometimes it was like the common people were rebelling. sometimes it was like the evil guys were Occupy. either way, nobody could do anything until Bruce Wayne, Monarch of Capitalism showed up and personally saved them from the evils of Terrorism. bruce wayne comes across as an incredibly terrible example of a rich person. there’s probably a lot to discuss about the popularity of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne among the IRL population of normal everyday poor people, but Tony Stark is an example of a cool money fantasy (albeit with its pitfalls), whereas the Bruce Wayne we see in TDKR is, if anything, more obnoxious and damaging than the fake playboy Bruce Wayne of the first two movies.

in TDKR, the entire city of gotham is completely infantilised. no one can do ANYTHING until batman saves them from their terrorist overlords. instead of the situation providing a stepping-stone for bruce wayne’s development as a character, the situation is really obviously written to have no purpose other than to provide bruce wayne with character development opportunities. rather than batman/bruce existing within the gotham universe, the entire gotham universe is a prop for batman’s story. it’s completely masturbatory.

and for a movie that supposedly respects the last cadres of non-crooked cops in Gotham, it sure doesn’t… really… respect them. as in, half of the city’s police force is trapped underground, in uniform, and CANNOT ESCAPE (?????) for six months until Batman comes back, at which point they all get out and are all still wearing their uniforms and look inexplicably clean shaven.

ALSO THERE ARE LIKE 10 OTHER REALLY ANNOYING THINGS IN TDKR, but it’s 1.30am and i’ve had an extremely long day. GOODNIGHT.

Yes, all of this.

Nolan’s idea of Occupy is a terrible mess. It’s the anarchists and criminal~~s and communists~~ who are holding the whole city hostage, while the decent people (read: white, middle-class) are hiding in their homes.

Originally I was so excited about the Occupy parallels in TDKR, because the way it was portrayed in the trailers seemed to echo both the French revolution and the Russian revolution. In both revolutions, the masses rose against the ruling class, because 1% of the people were controlling 95 % of the wealth, living in luxury while the 99% were starving, living in poverty.

If the Occupy movement in TDKR would have been a spontaneous, grassroots movement (like it is in the real world), they would have been morally justified in their actions, even if their means were illegal. However, because Bruce Wayne’s fortune is what enables Batman’s vigilanteism, if Batman sided with Occupy to tear down the existing social order and redistribute the wealth to the people, he would have destroyed himself in the process. Batman is the real person while Bruce Wayne is the mask, and if Bruce Wayne is not Batman, what is he?

However, TDKR sidestepped neatly all of this, instead opting for convoluted terrorist plot which didn’t even make sense. Think about it; Why did Miranda and Bane hold Gotham hostage? To show everyone how corrupted Gotham was? It didn’t really work, did it? The regular people were hiding in their homes while the criminals were ruling the streets. Sure, the elite was corrupt, but why punish the 99% by blowing them up? What did Bane and Miranda intend to achieve by all of this? It makes absolutely no sense.

So, flashy writing =/= good writing. Nolan should stay in the realms of fantasy/magic realism (Prestige, Inception), instead of trying to tackle real world problems, because that ends up as a terrible mess.

Also, considering that he’s married to a woman, I find it hard to understand how shallow all his female characters are. All his leading ladies are femme fatales that are mysteries at heart. The only exception to this are Ellie (Insomnia) and Ariadne (Inception), but they have no actual personality at all, and instead are just plot devices meant to enable the main character on his journey.

all the class stuff in TDKR is wayyyyy messed up. to begin with, all batman stories are gonna have some weird class stuff in there, because they rely on the concept that a rich vigilante is the only person capable of protecting the Common People from crime and evil. this usually works out OK in most Batman movies, because the audience doesn’t really have to think about it. bruce’s spoiled rich-kid persona is entertaining, and most of the storylines in previous Batman movies weren’t so explicitly political. but in TDKR, all the class/political stuff is so in-your-face (YET CONFUSING) that once you notice it, you can’t un-see it. what are you trying to say, TDKR???

TDKR reduces most gothamites to the status of helpless peasants, waiting confusedly for Batman to either save them or tell them what to do. it takes the medieval aspects of “the dark knight” to their stupidest possible extreme. and then at the end of the story, Bruce is rewarded with a rich-guy retirement and a hot girlfriend (WTF, catwoman?? what happened to your scorn for the rich and spoiled??) while everyone who lives in gotham… moves back into their cold, rain-damaged, possibly irradiated shithole apartments? and the crime problem really isn’t solved at all? i don’t even knowwwwwww.

and like you said, the allusions to Occupy etc managed to be both nonsensical and offensive. Bane’s revolution definitely comes across as a reference Occupy (either intentionally or unintentionally), but is explicitly portrayed as an evil terrorist organisation. so in general, TDKR does seem like it’s against the idea of the plebs rising up to defend themselves from oppression. but at the same time, “official” authority figures are not remotely portrayed in a positive light, because Gotham’s political/law-enforcement system is infamously corrupt, and the US government abandons Gotham to certain death. so basically, the message is: sit down, shut up, and wait for Batman to save you.

patronsaintofwolves: YASSSSSSS STEPHEN! SLAY THEM!

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:57:32 -0700

patronsaintofwolves:

YASSSSSSS STEPHEN! SLAY THEM!

theblacksophisticate: Janelle Monae photographed by Kwaku...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:44:14 -0700

theblacksophisticate:

Janelle Monae photographed by Kwaku Alston.

craftastrophies: fursasaida: crackerhell: Concept art for...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:34:53 -0700

craftastrophies:

fursasaida:

crackerhell:

Concept art for Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid by Chad Weatherford

um

YES????

I’M GONNA PASS OUT

O_o

thingsfortwwings: [Photo: A latte in a cup; the foam is poured...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:33:27 -0700

thingsfortwwings:

[Photo: A latte in a cup; the foam is poured and manipulated into a portrait of Iron Man]
tanyalokot:

Iron Man latte art! And more - The Amazing Latte Art of Kazuki Yamamoto

theletteraesc: jamesmcavoyarchive: James McAvoy - Photoshoot...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:32:53 -0700

theletteraesc:

jamesmcavoyarchive:

James McAvoy - Photoshoot by Mackenzie Stroh [5 x MQ] [Copy @ Imagebam *here*]

Please do not [re]post photos from the set, please only use the reblog option. Thank you.

How are you so ridiculous and hot AT THE SAME TIME.

ars-amatoria: velogiraffe: ars-amatoria: oliviacirce: Chris...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:32:28 -0700

ars-amatoria:

velogiraffe:

ars-amatoria:

oliviacirce:

Chris Cobb, an artist based in San Francisco, has created an amazing installation in bookshop called Adobe Books- he catalogued every single one of the 20,000 books by color. The project is titled There is Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World. They were arranged by hand over a 10 hour period, and he enlisted the help of 16 volunteers. Such beautiful results, they transformed the bookshop overnight.

(via)

Like, okay, this is TOTALLY GORGEOUS and I love it, but holy crap how do you ever find anything?!

I can’t find a source for it right now, but apparently every now and then they hire a new employee who gets excited about reorganizing the store so that it’s easy to find things. And then the store owner pulls them aside and explains that that is Not How Adobe Books Works.

Sadly, they’re being evicted so that Liz Claiborne can open a “Jack Spade” store. :(

(Side note: you’ve totally been to Adobe! It’s the book store next door to Big Lantern on 16th St, with all the plants out front.)

Ars-Amatoria, are you thinking of nextian’s post about Green Apple Books?

(This really is beautiful, but I get anxious even thinking about trying to find something. I like browsing very much, but even then I like to have some idea of what sort of books are on the shelf in front of me.)

Yes, I was totally thinking about that post! I mentally conflated it with all the blog posts I’ve been reading about Adobe Books closing.

I think Adobe only had this up for a week or so before they put things back into their regular “the stacks on these shelves mostly correlate to categories, often even the ones on the labels” state. Less anxiety-inducing, but still a challenge. Adobe’s always felt more like visiting someone’s overflowing-with-books house than a bookstore.

I love to visit, but it always feels a bit wrong to take books away from their home there. Which I guess is part of why they aren’t that successful as a business. (That and the way the owner always gives everyone unexpected discounts.)

"You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you..."

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:31:15 -0700

“You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,” thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.”

- John Berger Ways of Seeing

#it’s okay to follow creepshots but when a celebrity’s nudes are leaked she’s a slut #it’s perfectly normal to watch objectifying porn but when a woman decides to film herself having sex she’s a whore #it’s alright for you to harass women on the street but when they approach you first it’s arrogance #it’s cool for you to fantasize about a woman who’s out of your league but when a woman you deem unattractive likes you you’re disgusted #no don’t worry you can make female bodies public property but when they discuss your masturbation habits you can be offended

(via siriusbingers)

Picking the right guy to play Obama, that was the challenge, I...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:29:28 -0700

Picking the right guy to play Obama, that was the challenge, I mean, who is Obama really? We don’t know. We never got his transcripts and they say he’s kinda aloof. So I needed someone who could really dive in and really become Barack Obama and as it turns out, the answer was right in front of me all along: Daniel Day Lewis. He becomes his characters – Hawkeye from ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ and Bill the Butcher from ‘Gangs of New York’ and Abraham Lincoln in, ‘Lincoln’. And you know what? He nailed it. - Steven Spielberg (x)