Character, book, and author names under the cut

Wei Wuxian- Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Tsukiko- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Therem Harth rem ir Estraven- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Jolene Whitaker- Stars Still Fall by Jules Kelley

Happy Bisexual Visibility Week

Cheers to Bisexual Visibility Week! 🌈

Did you know these iconic figures are bi, actually?

Let's take a look at bi-cons throughout history.

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo is infamous for a great many things. Her art, her socialist views and activism, her disability from a trolley crash, her bisexuality, and more. During her marriage to Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo had several extramarital affairs with both men and women. Frida was openly bisexual and would occasionally dress in men's clothing.

Josephine Baker

A singer, dancer, and a civil rights pioneer, Josephine Baker was a bisexual performer and activist. She helped to defeat the Nazis in France through her work as a resistance spy. She lived a queer life through and through - she dated Frida Kahlo, and after the war, married Jo Bouillon — a gay musician. Each had relationships with other people and they adopted 12 children who Baker called her “rainbow tribe.”

Malcom X

Malcolm X was America's leading advocate for black pride, upliftment, and freedom. He spoke with fierce eloquence and defiance for black liberation. Based on interviews with Malcolm's closest friends, Author Bruce Perry suggests he was not as solidly heterosexual as his colleagues have claimed. Friends say he had many queer relationships in his 20s and some suggested he might have as a sex worker for a period of time.

Virginia Woolf

Author Virginia Woolf's diaries indicate she was very in love with her husband, Leonard Woolf. They were both a part of the Bloomsbury group which tended to have more liberal ideas about sexuality than general society did at that time. They were not monogamous, nor were her lovers all men. Many of her novels, including Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando have bi characters and she famously dated Vita Sackville-West.

David Bowie

David Bowie's gender and cultural fluidity inspired a generation of queer people. He labelled himself variously throughout his life, originally coming out as gay, then straight when he married Iman later in life, but he had relationships with people of all genders across his life and undeniably influenced generations of queer people to be comfortable with who we are.

Marlene Dietrich

Dietrich, an actress, was "an early pioneer of cross dressing and of embracing bisexuality without apology,” She dd it in her very first Hollywood film — the 1930 drama, Morocco, which earned her her only Academy Award nomination. In the film’s most famous scene, her character, a cabaret singer, kisses another woman while dressed in a men’s tuxedo.” She was a trailblazer.

Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin of Big Brother and the Holding Company was an American singer-songwriter who sang rock, soul, and blues music. She had a short but eventful life, including relationships with rockstars such as Jim Morrison and her most sustained relationship with Jae Whitaker, and an on-again-off-again romance with Peggy Caserta.

Bisexuals make up over half of the LGBTQ+ population. Who knows how many historical figures may have been queer but unable to come out at the time?

This week, we celebrate all the people before us who made it possible to be who we are.

Happy Bisexuality Awareness Week!

The Littlest Angel  -  NBC  -  December 6, 1969

A Presentation of “Hallmark Hall of Fame”

Fantasy

Running Time:  77 minutes

Stars:

Johnny Whitaker as Michael

Fred Gwynne as Patience

Cab Calloway as Gabriel

E. G. Marshall as God

John McGiver as Angel of the Peace

Tony Randall as Democritus

George Rose as Celestial Sycopomp

Connie Stevens as the Flying Mistress

James Coco as the Father

Evelyn Russell as the Mother

Cris Alexander as Raphael

George Blackwell as the Coach Driver

Mary Jo Catlett as the Scribe

Lu Leonard as the Scribe II

Just watched the latest ep of Doctor Who and my thoughts, in no particular order, are:

The Master as Rasputin? A+. I dig it.

The Master singing and dancing to Rasputin? Fucking ICONIC. Like Toxic by Britney Spears, a traditional Earth ballad, being the send off soundtrack for planet Earth. TRUE CINEMA.

All the older companions racing around continuing to be badasses even decades after travelling with the Doctor - fuck yeah.

Graham coming back - LOVE.

Cybermen and Daleks looking at each other like THE FUCK?! as the Master dances to Rasputin, a true BOP. - relatable.

The Doctor's former selves coming back? Noice noice noice. Always love throwbacks to previous docs.

The former regenerations' faces morphing over Jodie Whitaker's? No thanks. Do not want. That was weird. Almost as weird as wrinkled prune 10 when the Master had him caged up.

CAN WE GET MORE OF FUGITIVE DOCTOR AKA JO MARTIN? BECAUSE I FUCKING LOVE HER.

LIKE SERIOUSLY. MORE OF HER, PLEASE.

WHY THE FRICK DIDN'T THEY ADDRESS YAZ AND 13'S ROMANCE WHEN THEY SO OBVIOUSLY REFERENCED IT IN THE PREVIOUS EPISODE OR TWO?!

LET THEM KISS.

All the companions lived? They all went home? Right time? Happy and healthy and...Damn. Way to go, 13. Ya did it, sis.

Speaking of 10 (Tennant 10 not #10 on my list here)...

I'M SO FUCKING STOKED YOU HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA. HOLY SHIT YES.

"I recognize these teeth!" It's the teeth for you? Really?

Art thou feeling FOXY, Mr. 10? LIke you wanna dance a samba, perhaps? heh heh

END OF NOVEMBER EVENTS!

woweeee, a busy end of the month ahead for me! not one, but TWO opportunities to stand in front of a crowd and talk nonsense.

First up, I'm reading fiction at Whitechapel Gallery on November 23rd to celebrate the launch of the TISSUE anthology, which I am being published in. I'll be reading a piece about gender dysphoria and constructed trans experiences alongside several other amazing trans writers, link here: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/events/tissue-6-wanting/

Second! Myself and Joel Whitaker will be screening CRUMB at the Cartoon Museum November 30th! My amazing pal Jo (@jo_wttrs on ig) did an insane poster hand drawn poster for the event, which you can see below. Crumb is a brilliant documentary about the life of controversial artist R.Crumb, directed by Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World). We will be doing a joint introduction, and you can grab tickets here: https://www.cartoonmuseum.org/whats-on-events/crumb

Exciting stuff! Hope to see you at one of these events, and if not you'll see me soon through my Nov23 film diary and MAYBE a short story beforehand if I get my editing done. xoxox Molly

What was your favorite thing about it?

I mean Whitaker is a master acto+r, he do+es such a go+o+d jo+b o+f playing a dude who+ is just in his o+wn reality. He just po+res o+ver his bo+o+k o+f samurai wisdo+m, and it's really clear ho+w this has shaped him into+ this bizarre ancient warrio+r fo+reign to+ mo+dern co+nvenience. It was fuckin go+o+d

I'm gonna miss Jodie so much 😭 I love 13 and generally, I realised as I watched it- how much its meant to see her as the doctor. Theres always been awesome female characters in Doctor Who, to look up to and see yourself in- but having her as 13? It actually feels so inspiring and good.

So, apropos of nothing, about the possibility of the Ruth!Doctor being a pre-Hartnell incarnation:

Like, as a Doctor Who fan. It’s definitely A Thing that the Doctor has tended to become more pacifistic over time, starting from Hartnell’s Doctor, in the first serial, seemingly being about to bash a caveman’s skull in with a rock just for being in the way. So, with the Ruth Doctor, taking that trend and going the opposite direction, to what the Doctor was like before that point, is interesting, character-wise?

Like, you could maybe argue given the Doctor explicitly forgets by the time they become Hartnell, but still.

...What I think is more. Troubling. Is the way Thirteen, (under this view at least) is the Oldest and most Mature and implicitly Enlightened incarnation, and she’s also. White. (and Blonde) And is telling the black incarnation to not use violence.

There’s. A Lot. To Unpack. There.

“You are going to love this”

The Doctors Say Thank You | #TheBigNightIn

I don’t really watch Dr Who anymore, but I think Jodie Whitaker did an amazing job, same with Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor. I thought it was great

reading list - 900: history & geography

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS MY OTHER READING LISTS.

✵ ACTIVELY UPDATING ✵

☐  901: FOUCAULT, Michel – Les mots et les choses ☐  901: GOULD, Stephen Jay – Questioning the Millenium ☐  901: McNEILL, William H. – The Rise of the West ☐  902: WEIR, Stephen – Encyclopedia Idiotica ☐  907: JONNES, Jill – Eiffel's Tower ☐  909: HARARI, Yuval Noah – Homo Deus ☐  909: ROGAN, Eugene – The Arabs ☐  909: TOYNBEE, Arnold J. – A Study of History ☐  910: POOLE, Robert M. – Explorers House ☐  911: BROTTON, Jerry – A History of the World in 12 Maps ☐  914: SHANAHAN, Brendan – In Turkey I Am Beautiful ☐  914: WEST, Rebecca – Black Lamb and Grey Falcon ☐  915: FLETCHER, David – Brian on the Brahmaputra ☐  918: SIMONS, Eric – Darwin Slept Here ☐  919: KAVENNA, Joanna – The Ice Museum ☐  920: COLLINS, Paul – Banvard's Folly ☐  920: STRACHEY, Lytton – Eminent Victorians ☐  933: PEROWNE, Stuart – The Life & Times of Herod the Great ☐  936: TACITUS – Agricola ☐  937: BEARD, Mary – SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome ☐  937: SUETONIUS – De vita Caesarum ☐  937: TACITUS, Publius Cornelius – Annals ☐  938: McKEOWN, J. C. – A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities ☐  938: THUCYDIDES – History of the Peloponnesian War ☐  939: CLAPP, Nicholas – The Road to Ubar ☐  940: CHURCHILL, Winston – The Second World War ☐  940: MARKS, Leo – Between Silk and Cyanide ☐  940: TUCHMAN, Barbara – The Guns of August ☐  942: FRASER, Antonia – Faith and Treason ☐  943: HETT, Benjamin Carter – Burning the Reichstag ☐  946: ORWELL, George – Homage to Catalonia ☐  946: SHRADY, Nicholas – The Last Day ☐  949: ROSEN, William – Justinian's Flea ☐  951: SCHELL, Orville & DELURY, John – Wealth and Power ☐  951: SPENCE, Jonathan D. – The Gate of Heavenly Peace ☐  955: AXWORTHY, Michael – Revolutionary Iran ☐  956: ROBERTS, Jo – Contested Land, Contested Memory ☐  960: MEREDITH, Martin – The Fate of Africa ☐  966: De VILLIERS, Marq & HIRTLE, Sheila – Timbuktu ☐  967: DINESEN, Isak – Out of Africa ☐  970: KING, Thomas – The Inconvenient Indian ☐  971: HELE, Karl S. – The Nature of Empires and the Empires of Nature ☐  972: GLASSMAN, Steve & ANAYA, Armando – Cities of the Maya in Seven Epochs ☐  973: CUMMINGS, Joseph – Ten Tea Parties ☐  973: DUBOIS, W. E. B. – The Souls of Black Folk ☐  973: FOOTE, Shelby – The Civil War ☐  973: HOFSTADTER, Richard – The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It ☐  973: McPHERSON, James M. – Battle Cry of Freedom ☐  973: TURNER, Frederick Jackson – The Frontier in American History ☐  973: WILLIAMS, William Carlos – In the American Grain ☐  974: CARO, Robert A. – The Power Broker ☐  974: SHORTO, Russell – The Island at the Center of the World ☐  978: DRURY, Bob & CLAVIN, TOm – The Heart of Everything That Is ☐  981: LÉVI-STRAUSS, Claude – Tristes Tropiques ☐  985: ADAMS, Mark – Turn Right at Machu Picchu ☐  996: ALEXANDER, Caroline – The Bounty ☐  998: MULVANEY, Kieran – At the Ends of the Earth ☐  999: LEMONICK, Michael D. – Other Worlds

BIOGRAPHY

☐  ADAMS, Henry Brooks – The Education of Henry Adams ☐  ANGELOU, Maya – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ☐  BASCOM, Tom – Chameleon Days ☐  BATE, Walter Jackson – Samuel Johnson ☐  BETANCOURT, Ingrid – Even Silence Has an End ☐  BOYD, Julia – The Excellent Doctor Blackwell ☐  CAMPBELL, Olivia – Women in White Coats ☐  CHANG, Jung – Wild Swans ☐  CHENEY, Margaret – Tesla ☐  EVERITT, Anthony – Cicero ☐  FRANK, Anne – The Diary of a Young Girl ☐  FRANKLIN, Benjamin – The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin ☐  GILMOUR, David – Curzon ☐  GOWING, Lawrence – Vermeer ☐  HACKEL, Steven W. – Junipero Serra ☐  ISAACSON, Walter – The Code Breaker ☐  JAGER, Eric – Blood Royal ☐  JOHNSON, Paul – Mozart ☐  KALANITHI, Paul – When Breath Becomes Air ☐  KAPLAN, Fred – Thomas Carlyle ☐  KAY, Adam – This Is Going to Hurt ☐  LEKUTON, Joseph Lemosolai – Facing the Lion ☐  LEVI, Primo – Se questo è un uomo ☐  LOFTIS, Larry – The Princess Spy ☐  MALCOLM X – The Autobiography of Malcolm X ☐  MAN, John – Attila ☐  MAN, John – Gutenberg ☐  MARCHANT, Jo – The Shadow King ☐  MARKHAM, Beryl – West With the Night ☐  MEYER, G. J. – The Borgias ☐  MILTON, Giles – Samurai William ☐  MUKHERJEE, Siddhartha – The Emperor of All Maladies ☐  NABOKOV, Vladimir Vladimirovich – Insomniac Dreams ☐  NABOKOV, Vladimir Vladimirovich– Speak, Memory ☐  NIMURA, Janice P. – The Doctors Blackwell ☐  OLSZEWSKI, Erin Marie – Undercover Epicenter Nurse ☐  PARKER, Richard – The Improbable Return of Coco Chanel ☐  PAUSCH, Randy & ZASLOW, Jeffrey – The Last Lecture ☐  RANDALL, Margaret – Che on My Mind ☐  SCHILLACE, Brandy – Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher ☐  SINCLAIR, David – The Land That Never Was ☐  SKLOOT, Rebecca – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ☐  STEINEM, Gloria – Marilyn ☐  TWAIN, Mark – The Autobiography of Mark Twain ☐  WALLS, Jeannette – The Glass Castle ☐  WASHINGTON, Booker T. – Up From Slavery ☐  WEATHERFORD, Jack – Genghis Khan ☐  WELSH, Mary Sue – One Woman in a Hundred ☐  WESTOVER, Tara – Educated ☐  WHITAKER, Robert – The Mapmaker's Wife ☐  WOLFF, Tobias – This Boy's Life ☐  WOODHAM-SMITH, Cecil – Florence Nightingale ☐  WRIGHT, Richard – Black Boy ☐  XUE, Xinran – Sky Burial

On October 12, 1942, FDR delivered a Fireside Chat titled "On the Home Front,” saying: "Whatever our individual circumstances or opportunities, we are all in it, and our spirit is good... and do not let anyone tell you anything different."

To do our part during this period of social distancing, we will be sending a weekly digest of online programs, resources, and diversions. To sign up, visit: https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001x9-V8yQgJyE0BShlZYE3Nq5xCCaUEnlfy_bbbVJqbaxVBfcCcMWyvd3sKQFnx0oOwibeVUj2OqlN9zTZvnCXV0MFBBvZ9YWjitVkYHFzOUQ%3D

Here’s a sample of content:

Program Archives

Essential Advice from Eleanor Roosevelt

From Oct 2018: Historian Mary Jo Binker on Eleanor Roosevelt’s advice column written for more than 20 years for Ladies' Home Journal and McCall’s Magazine. (An FDR Library event broadcast by CSPAN click here»)

Resources for Teachers

In an effort to assist teachers who are shifting to online classroom scenarios, the FDR Library will highlight our free online educational resources every week.

New Curriculum Guides for 2020

Investigating the Holocaust

A six-section guide with 15 short films, 21 primary source documents, and questions that touch upon essential subject matter, all available online.

Civics Curriculum Guide 2020

The 2020 update to the Goodman Initiative for American Youth Civics Program is now available, with twenty-eight different activities for your students available online.

Online Curriculum Guides»

Other Teacher Resources

FRANKLIN»A virtual research room and digital repository that provides free and open access to the digitized collections of the Roosevelt Library.

The Periodic Table of the New Deal»The table presents major programs, players and events surrounding the New Deal and includes brief definitions or descriptions.

Distance Learning»Through its Distance Learning Program the Pare Lorentz Center now has the ability to bring many of our workshops, resources, lectures, and presentations directly into the classroom free of charge.

Topical Features

Travel with FDR and Eleanor»Who says we can’t travel? Tour the world with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt through materials from the National Archives.

FDR and the Dust Bowl CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker narrates this short animated film by FDR’s great granddaughter Perrin Ireland about Roosevelt’s response to the Dust Bowl.

More Time with Your Pets»Every morning Fala had a bone that was brought up on the President's breakfast tray, and other important facts about FDR's beloved dog.

Thinking about Fugitive of the Judoon, and one impression that’s stayed with me, one day after broadcast is that it did feel as if I was watching the wrong show. 

I really liked it. I’ll wait for the finale to see if Chibnall sticks the landing, but for now I haven’t been this excited since Chibshow started. Also I am really scared because if the arc turns out to be about the Secret Origins of the Doctor, I’m gonna throw a fit.

It was new and exciting... But... 80% was just a riff from the Davies era, from the Judoon to the pseudo fob watch and chameleon circuit, to fucking Captain Jack. Some scenes between Thirteen and Ruth were taken straight from Human Nature, and thirteen whole years later, we’re still left with the same Judoon joke. 

I mean it just feels like Chibnall is screaming : Remember RTD? Everyone loved Doctor Who when RTD was running the show. Well our show is just like the one you used to like. Please please please, make us as popular as the Tenth Doctor era was back then... Which is... Okay Ten’s era was popular for a reason. But as I’ve said, always prefer the original to the copy. I don’t want a rehash of the most successful beats of 2000s Doctor Who. It’s been ten years since then. And I desperately want the show to move forward instead of getting stuck in a nostalgia trip. And as nice as it was to see Captain Jack (not gonna lie, not one of my favorite characters of the show, and I can’t stand Barrowman, so...) his cameo was a bit the embodiment of some of the problems I’m having with Chibshow right now. 

So yeah watching the wrong show as: Why am I watching an RTD pastiche, when I can go and rewatch series 4 and Donna instead?

And the second thing which made me realise I was watching the wrong show was Ruth. Because Ruth!Doctor is awesome, and Jo Martin owned every single scene she had, and to me actually acted Jodie Whitaker off the screen. I appreciate what Whitaker’s been doing this season with her character, but her performance still tends to be a bit to one note for me. She has some great moments, including in this ep, but mostly her delivery tends to stick to “the Doctor is really earnest about everything”. 

So yeah, I love Ruth!Doctor. I’m in love with her already. I want to watch more of her... Hell I want to ditch Series 12 and watch Ruth show, because judging by the glimpses we had this ep, it looks much stronger than what we have now.