Rachel Gregor

Rachel Gregor, The Back Bedroom (Ophelia I) 2018

wormfaves: vibes edition :>

i'm a short hair aisha truther though i do enjoy drawing her w/ longer hair sometimes. alec in my head always had, like, "forgor to cut his hair" mediumlong hair and "forgor to shave" scraps of teen guy baby mustache. i do regret not giving him a friendship bracelet to match with aisha though. i would guess vista doesn't wear green outside her cape outfit... the way I see it is, being "missy" is Playing A Role to her. hence she chooses clothing that supports the role + clothing she (12yo) thinks is Practical. and i can have one (1) sophia picrew. as a treat.

they're in order of How Much My Special Little Guy They Are.

Because David's death left me a lil saddened (I had the guy for over a year, he was the oldest of the current bunch + also I was listening to minecraft music when I found his body which made it sadder) I decided to hang out with Rachel. She's still getting used to handling but she's SO cute omg

Literally so tiny its insane

rereading animorphs and once in a while marco will say “people dont understand the word ruthless. they think it means ‘mean.’ its not about being mean. its about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from a to b. the line that goes from motive to means. beginning to end. its about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. not caring about anything else but the perfection of it.” and then repeat it, over and over, "i can see the bright clear line and i know she can too" as he tries over and over again, as he tries to lead a group of his friends to kill his own mother, who is host and slave to the leader of a race of parasitic slugs who have so much genocide and incomprehensible crimes on their hands its impossible to describe in a succinct post

and then they go to school the next day and giggle about cinnabon, play video games, and steal back a doodle saying "cassie ♡ jake" from another students house. bc theyre all like. 13 years old. and the second they stop having to carry the weight of a species and a war on their shoulders, theyre really fucking written like 13 year olds k.a. applegate did such a good job with this series

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) Review

Had a great time with this. The fact it even exists in Its final form is weirdly commendable.

The Lonely Islands comedic output may be decidedly uneven but the great stuff on the crew’s creative CV does stick out. From the early Internet memetics of the SNL shorts that found a global audience, The brilliant cult favourite Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and the underrated time travel rom-com Palm Springs. For every one-joke song or film that doesn’t work there’s something great as a…

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Still Summer, Rachel Gregor

Rachel Gregor - Backyard Refuse, Rudbeckia and Weeds, 2023

Worm Arc 5 thoughts:

Young lady, is your team about to make a deal with Nazis? What have I told you about making a deal with Nazis? Don't do it! That's what I've told you.

The school meeting was probably the hardest chapter to read so far. Do not want. Give me more horrible cape shit instead.

Also, Alan can die in a fire. Alan can get resurrected and die in another fire. Twice. Alan is absolutely a 3 fire asshole.

So many good wolfspider moments!! AHHHH! Taylor runs into the building to rescue Rachel. Rachel comes back to rescue Taylor. Rachel's dogs defend Taylor when Rachel isn't there. Taylor tells them to stay back so they won't get hurt!! RACHEL GIVES TAYLOR HER JACKET!!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taylor fucking rocked during the whole fight, I couldn't be more proud of her. Figuring out how to deal with Oni Lee, desperately working to save Newter, the shit she pulled on Lung? Beating him a second time? Giving orders to everyone, keeping people focused, and sharing money at the end to earn goodwill? God damn that is some top notch shit.

Seriously, the Oni Lee fight was crazy. That man is scary but Taylor found a way to lock him down.

Coil’s sniper!!!! I had heard about him with no context before, so I got super excited when I realized this was the scene that birthed him! Fuck ya you Clint Barton motherfucker, I love you.

“I made his crotch rot off. Accidentally.” Fucking amazing line.

Holy shit though, she just fucking cut out Lung's eyes without a second thought. God damn. Fuck girl. And you still think you want to be a hero? Child villainy clearly runs in your fucking blood!

It looks like the Nazi survived, that's really too bad.

I love Newter he is fun. Taylor made some comment about him being attractive "if you looked past the odd appearance" and I'm just sitting here going "the odd appearance is what makes him attractive!!"

Labyrinth is super fascinating and I want to know more about her.

Taylor, child, have you put any thought into the fact that you've defeated Lung twice, Oni Lee once, and Bakuda once? That basically the entire leadership of the ABB is going to have it out for you forever? Not that you could have prevented all of that (I mean, if you hadn't blindly attacked Lung on your first outing you could have but we're ignoring that), you had to defend yourself, but are you going to plan for the future? Or just hope that Lung never escapes again and the other two forget you?

Interlude thoughts - There is that unethical parahuman testing I've been waiting for. I knew it had to show up sometime. Why leave all your subjects tattooed though? The people running this are either kinda dumb, or the tattooing thing is part of an elaborate scheme and they want people to look into it. I really hope Gregor the Snail and Newter figure out what they want though.

Rachel Gregor, Nosebleed, 2023

max's october 2023 reads

weird reading month. lots of shortform articles/comics; lots of early modern english literature. also still experimenting with my format for these, so have a listening tab.

fiction

Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, books 3-4

the latter two episodes of What Happens Next comic

Epistolary by Sacha Lamb (again, for reasons of Got Sad)

Fresh Meat comic (cw for suicide and psychiatric hospitalization)

Something's Not Right by yves. @yvesdot (review + promo)

Edmund Spenser's Amoretti & Epithalamion (review)

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins (review)

Blankets by Craig Thompson (review)

Shakespeare's Coriolanus (again, + Janet Adelman's lecture "Anger's My Meat")

the first half of Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

nonfiction

The Way We Weren't by Jules Gill-Peterson (↳ on hypervisibility and the history of passing)

Fiona: The Caged Bird Sings by Chris Heath (↳ fiona apple is the only celebrity i actually read about)

Can ChatGPT Do My Job? by yves @yvesdot (↳ on AI, book reviews, copyright, and capitalism)

Picture Limitless Creativity at Your Fingertips by Kevin Kelly (↳ linked in the former--on the potential of AI image generation)

The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism by Jonathan Lethem (↳ also linked in the former--on plagiarism, and one of the coolest things i've ever read)

Allies Behaving Badly: Gaslighting as epistemic injustice by Rachel McKinnon (↳ on allyship and 'allies' who refuse to believe you)

Debunking "Trans Women Are Not Women" Arguments by Julia Serano (↳ i knew a lot of this, but it's still a really good breakdown and a good link to have on hand)

the first half of Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price (the book, but i also recommend the article)

the first fourth of Down Girl by Kate Manne (rapidly becoming one of my favorite reads of the year)

The Spectre of Orientalism in Craig Thompson's Habibi by Nadim Damluji (↳ i haven't even read habibi but this was fantastic anyway)

"Half-Envying," from Reading and Not Reading the Faerie Queene by Catherine Nicholson (↳ delicious supplemental reading for class)

The Gaza Diaries via the Guardian (↳ not sure what to say about this one. very harrowing but very important)

The Landlord, the Tenant, and a House Fire in Milwaukee via ProPublica (↳ cws for child abuse and child death. extremely powerful piece of reporting that quite genuinely ruined my night)

listening

Mike Duncan's History of Rome, episodes 14-19

WordofGodcast, episode 2

Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine

Dorian Electra's Fanfare

I should probably do this at more regular intervals! [5.7-6.X]

Guess how I spent my sunday afternoon! I'll try and do this every, like, 3 chapters, maybe? Because fuck, there's a lot to talk about. Let me try and do it in order. Arc 5 (.7 onwards) So, the Lung rematch honestly took me by surprise. The whole arc did, really? Going from a pretty depressing but harshly real depiction of what happens to girls like Taylor, to 'Fuck it, let's fuck shit up', to Lung is back! Already! It's Arc 5! I was so sure his escape and reappearance was going to be a big thing the characters dreaded and came back to bite them at the last moment, but-- And yeesh, was 5.9 a chapter. There's a certain passage in the introductory page for Worm: "Morality isn’t black and white, Taylor and her acquaintances aren’t invincible, the heroes aren’t winning the war between right and wrong ..." Every fight has me at the edge of my seat. Last year for me's been pretty brutal for media depicting major-character-deaths like it's no big deal-- and the moment Lung came back, I was so sure someone was dead. I thought it might've been-- and after the interlude, real glad it wasn't-- Newter. But somehow, everyone managed to get off scott-free. And after the fiasco that was Arc 6-- we'll get there!-- I just don't know how long this'll last. Even for the Undersiders. Which makes me want to predict deaths. I think because of the phrasing of the opening page, I know that Taylor is the POV character as a standard, and interludes are the exception. So unless this does some huge POV-shift, I think she's safe. From death, not from anything else. I am not entertaining the thought of Lisa's death. Brian and Alec, though? I don't know. I don't know about Alec at all, actually. He's kind of a scary guy? Horrifyingly subtle power, but really scarily applied in Arc 6. He's low-key one of the strongest, at least potential wise, in The Undersiders. I think Brian is going to have more story to him, now that his past's all been laid out? But later on, I just can't say. I really hope he doesn't, he means a lot to Taylor, and he's a good shoulder to lean on. Rachel-- 'Bitch'? I can't remember if she prefers one or the other... -- is a little harder to talk about. It was hard to like her after how she introduced herself! Mauling the POV character practically unprovoked isn't a good first impression. But, like Taylor's described, I feel, she's started to grow on me. Arc 5 touched on her character and personality in a nice way. I'd already started to sympathize with her come the end of Arc 4, rather than just view her as a begrudingly amazing tool for the team, but the dynamic between her and Taylor in Arc 5 was peak. She gave her her jacket!

Arc 5 Interlude This is really sweet! It left Arc 5 off on a high note. 'Kinda. I don't know what to make of the 5.X interlude. It was interesting. Newter was nice to see again. Flatline was intriguing to get a closer look at. Gregor is a strange person, but so-- I don't know if blunt is the right word, but 'sincere'-- almost refreshingly so given the web of deception going on in every other Arc-- that I liked him by the end. What I don't know what to make of in particular is the tattoos. Does it imply that there's a different-type of origination for parahuman powers? Is it artificial? I don't know! But I'm interested in finding out! Arc 6 Anyway, that was what, 4 chapters' thoughts? Let's talk about Arc 6. I started off my liveblog talking about how one of the most interesting plot threads was the growing inner-struggle Taylor has of working with The Undersiders and having agreed to double-cross them. Something I neglected to mention as well, was Taylor's dad, Danny. Straight from the get-go, both of these are the spotlight. They almost seem to slowly be intertwining the further the Arc goes on-- something I felt especially towards the end, and a final decision Taylor makes. If it wasn't painfully clear already, I like how this arc brings to the forefront how muddy the line between traditional 'good and evil' is. Armsmaster is blatantly not-good. He does not seem to value what is right and what is wrong, and-- while we do not see inside his mind-- Taylor does, and that his reputation is above all else is very telling. Luckily, he gets what he deserves. Cue my favorite passage of the serial so far:

Actually has me grinning while reading this chapter. It is unlikely Armsmaster is the only Hero that isn't all too much of one. I'm certainly not the most researched on the subject, but the parallels between Heroes and the Cops of today seem to be a major theme. With Coil entering the picture-- and, what a fucking reveal, by the way!-- I can't imagine this idea is going to take a backseat any time soon. I don't know much about Coil, and by his own words, he is not a good person. But as the only person striving for meaningful change-- whether his methods are morally sound or not-- I think I'd feel more comfortable with Skitter under his wing than, say, Armsmaster's. From his actions and his one-chapter-of-glory alone, he's a character I'm interesting in looking out for. Arc 6 made me cry! This will likely be a running theme, as I'm warned. 6.9 in particular is where it got me. That shit was crushing. As someone that struggles with anger, I admire Danny for keeping as collected as he did given the circumstance. He really does love her, and it's awful that Taylor's gotten so deep into things so quickly that she just can't be honest with him. Not until he knows what she is, and what she does. I thought Danny and Taylor's relationship was going in a healthy direction, after the incident in the mall, but I think that was just far too wishful thinking, with how everything was going to play out. ..Conversely, it looks like Taylor is figuring herself out. Writing that letter I think finally helped her analyse what she was doing, what she cared about, and what she wanted-- contextualized after finally learning about Coil and his intentions, and everything she and The Undersiders'd been through up until now. It was a powerful moment-- burning it especially. And maybe my favorite ending to an arc so fa-- Oh! Wait! There's an interlude! This is horrifying! It sure didn't shy down from takes about law and justice! The idea of a Rogue is interesting, and one I didn't even consider in the context of the world just yet. Apparently, the world's still working on that front, too. 'Making an example' of someone in a legal context is terrifying enough. That example being that the use of powers in any altercation, if you aren't grinning and willing to be part of the governments personal army of upholding the status quo, is LIFE IMPRISONMENT IN THE MONSTER DUNGEON-- like, fuck. If this is the system Heroes are defending, it's a little bit beyond muddied good and evils, it's a swamp.

Here is a bisexual Newter as a treat for making it this far among my ramblings. (thank you, mischievious magpie.) I'm sorry that they're so -rambly-! I had a lot of thoughts, and couldn't even get all of them down! Like, here's a few more bonus-thoughts: -The way Taylor via Newter-poison fucking owned Lung was rad as hell! - This!

But, yeah. I just wanted to get this out so I could keep going this evening, and on my walk. I'll stop again at 7.4-ish, and write my thoughts so this doesn't happen again. I certainly won't do more than an arc at a time. Az out!

Rachel Gregor, Quarters Player (Bloody Knuckles) 2021

every book i read in 2023:

outlander by diana gabaldon

the duke by kerrigan byrne

stolen by lucy christopher

the love hypothesis by ali hazelwood

the house of mirth by edith wharton

the hurting kind by ada limón

in the cut by susanna moore

my year of rest and relaxation by ottessa moshfegh

gregor and the curse of the warmbloods by suzanne collins

the secret history by donna tartt

mistakes were made by meryl wilsner

the idiot by elif batuman

release by lucy christopher

heartburn by nora ephron

lord of scoundrels by loretta chase

the lonely hunter by aimée lutkin

trespasses by louise kennedy

it happened one autumn by lisa kleypas

devil in winter by lisa kleypas

olivia and the masked duke by grace callaway

a long time dead by samara breger

strangers to ourselves by rachel aviv

y/n by esther yi

emma by jane austen

euphoria by lily king

the lady's tutor by robin schone

romantic comedy by curtis sittenfeld

thirsty by mia hopkins

the goldfinch by donna tartt

strip tees by kate flannery

teaching to transgress by bell hooks

pineapple street by jenny jackson

happy place by emily henry

what i did for a duke by julie anne long

Just gonna show you guys Kolchek next to Rachel. My goodness.

November Release 1

Cabaret - West End - November 2023 - Nic Myers as Sally Bowles, New Cast

Les Miserables - West End - November 2023 - Ellie Ann Lowe as Fantine, Harry Lake as Marius and Rosy Church as Eponine

Sunset Boulevard - West End - November 2023 (1) - Perfect capture of Nicole Scherzinger as Norma Desmond

Sunset Boulevard - West End - November 2023 (2) - Gregor Milne’s debut as Joe Giles, Rachel Tucker as Norma Desmond

Book of Mormon - West End - November 2023 - Dionne Ward Anderson as Nabalungi