“long hair on guys doesn’t make them less masculine. think keanu reeves, jason momoa, danny trejo, or the guy at your local dive bar who rides a motorcycle”

*the crowd nods*

“so long hair doesn’t necessarily determine masculinity”

*the crowd, more hesitant, still nodding*

“butches can have long hair—“

*GUNSHOT*

project shadow notes

Miley Cyrus  in fashion magazine Nov 2013

El touching peoples heads when she hugs them <3

bonus: she learned it from Joyce

btw this hug is so massively important to El you can see it echo through the seasons in the way that El adopts the head-cradle move into her own hug style, beginning with Max at Starcourt, which is the first time that El's ever had to seriously comfort someone as far as we know, and these two hugs look similar because El is drawing on her memory of Joyce to know how to show tenderness and comfort to Max. if you even care.

current dnd character: katith, tortle warlock

Webb’s Jupiter Images Showcase Auroras, Hazes by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Via Flickr: With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life. “We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program. Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” de Pater said. This image comes from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images. In this wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photobombing” this Jovian view. “This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system,” Fouchet said. Researchers have already begun analyzing Webb data to get new science results about our solar system’s largest planet. Read more about the image and how it was processed by Judy Schmidt here: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showc... Image credit: Webb NIRCam composite image (two filters) of Jupiter system, unlabeled (top) and labeled (bottom). Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt. Image description: A wide field view showcases Jupiter in the upper right quadrant. The planet’s swirling horizontal stripes are rendered in blues, browns, and cream. Electric blue auroras glow above Jupiter’s north and south poles. A white glow emanates out from the auroras. Along the planet’s equator, rings glow in a faint white. These rings are one million times fainter than the planet itself! At the far left edge of the rings, a moon appears as a tiny white dot. Slightly further to the left, another moon glows with tiny white diffraction spikes. The rest of the image is the blackness of space, with faintly glowing white galaxies in the distance.

favourite reads of 2023

Cyborg woman - firefly.

best of the year, 2022

i have not been as active over here as i intended to be, mostly because between my band, my life, and my job, i just haven’t had a ton of time to sit down and write. i’d like to say i’ll do more of it in 2023, but i know better than to lie to you or me.

however, that does not mean that i haven’t had time to listen to music — quite the opposite.

i bought a *lot* of music this year, and had no real regrets for any of my purchases, but here are some of my favorites from the year 2022. most links will be bandcamp unless there’s a good reason to link elsewhere. these are things i *heard* this year, not necessarily things that were released this year, though most of them were. 

first up, DRUG CHURCH. these dudes get a lot of buzz for sounding like the 90s, which they do, but i don’t think i quite agree with the grunge comparisons they get — to me, they sound a lot more like late 90s hardcore bands like AS FRIENDS RUST, albeit with some of the bigger, more creative guitar sound of 90s alternative bands like, amongst others, SMASHING PUMPKINS. 

i’m never not going to be an ARCHERS OF LOAF superfan, and i was absolutely fucking stoked to hear they had a new record coming out this year. this record is very, very good, and maybe my favorite since ICKY METTLE, which came out roughly 6,000 years ago. a lot of 90s-era indie bands have made returns to the stage in recent years, but these guys are one of the few who i feel like really grew in the intervening years — this song has as much of THE WHO in it as it has chapel hill, which i think is grand. 

BIG JOANIE seem to be blowing up everywhere, and for good reason, they’re fantastic. i’ve written about them a couple of times, so i won’t go too much more into detail here, but if you haven’t yet heard them, check this one out — if you get the time, check out the video, too, which is a sweet and lovely vignette of young friends and lovers. 

ELLEN RIPLEY HYPERSLEEP are a japanese band that i stumbled across on twitter (i think) who, if i had lottery money, i would fly out to the united states to do a west coast tour with. they’re a really, really great mix of synth-y 80s and early 90s new wave, but with a lot of very good shoegaze sensibilities. they’re a little hard to find, but they’ve got a youtube channel and they’re on spotify, so go check them out, everything they’ve done is great and i’m really hoping they start to gain ground, either in japan or worldwide.

years ago, when i lived in denver, i remember LEON BRIDGES playing at the ogden theater right after he broke out and thinking that he maybe wasn’t quite ready for that level of audience just yet — the show got moved to the ogden from a much smaller venue at the last minute. fast forward to 2022, and he’s working on really innovative and incredible R&B and soul, this time, with the unflappable khuangbin. 

LOS BITCHOS weren’t new in 2022, but this record was, and it’s a delightful spring and summer record to play with the windows open. they get a lot of totally justified comparisons to THE GO-GOs, but i think people sort of snooze on the way they’ve also got a sound that’s similar to some of LUSH’s best work. also, their percussionist might be the best drummer i’ve heard all year, really creative and technically precise. 

i really like jazz, but i am not, like, a jazz-knower — i just hear things, like them, and sometimes buy them. this JOHN PATTON reissue was a good example; i came across it on bandcamp, loved it, and bought it even before the first song ended. 

i have been absolutely thrilled by the resurgance of of electro, new wave and post-punk in recent years, and LEATHERS absolutely hit all of the sweet spots here. LEATHERS are a side project of another great canadian band, ACTORS, but whereas ACTORS are a little louder, more rock, and a touch grimier, LEATHERS are all neon and cool. 

speaking of cool, neon and electro, 2022 saw the return of one of my personal favorites, LADYTRON. i am stoked as fuck to catch them on one of their very few US dates next year, because everything i’ve heard from this new record so far sounds like a return to their classic LIGHT & MAGIC sound, which is somewhere in my top 50 favorite records of all time. 

i’ve included them on a couple lists before, but SOFT KILL’s CANARY YELLOW may get my album of the year. it’s a bummer that this may end up being the last record they put out, but if you’ve got to go, you can do a lot worse than going out on at the top of your game.

so my roommate is completely straight edge like no drugs no alcohol etc and so im sure y’all can imagine my surprise when i saw she brought home this sign

so i immediately inquired

and now you may ask. what the fuck did my roommate think that sign meant? well

anyways i moved the sign so it’s now front and center in our living room and ive been laughing every time i pass it

📌[TRÉSOR] 🐳 10 LIVRES MER 2 I 10. Avouons-le, c’est la couverture de sa version originale parue aux EDITIONS ALBIN MICHEL qui m’a marqué, même si je préfère d'ailleurs celle de la version anglo-saxonne (Cf. ci-dessous).

J’ai lu ce récit quand je me suis intéressé aux navigatrices qui à la rame (ANNE QUEMERE) ou en planche à voile (Raphaëla LE GOUVELLO) s’attaquaient à leur tour à la traversée du Pacifique.

Je dois aussi confier que le nom du protagoniste – Thor Heyerdahl – m’interpellait. Cela faisait très viking comme sonnait bien également « Kon Tiki », le nom de son radeau lancé dans une traversée d'un océan à tord baptisé de Pacifique.

La promesse d’aventures et d’inattendus était forte…

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📚 10 LIVRES MER 🌊 #2 BEST-OF I Par Stéphane Dugast

✔ L’EXPÉDITION DU KON-TIKI sur un radeau à travers le Pacifique de Thor Heyerdahl, 1948.

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✒️ HISTOIRE Le récit de l'expédition maritime menée en 1947 par Thor Heyerdahl, anthropologue, archéologue et navigateur norvégien, à bord du radeau baptisé « Kon-Tiki ».

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💬 CITATION

« Plus d'une fois enfin, en de telles nuits, nous avons sursauté parce que deux yeux ronds et brillants surgissant, soudain de la mer à côté du radeau, nous fixaient sans faire un mouvement, comme pour nous hypnotiser. Nos visiteurs étaient souvent des pieuvres géantes qui venaient flotter à la surface de l'eau, leurs yeux verts diaboliques luisant dans l'obscurité comme du phosphore.»

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feral clowns and feral wizards... love me some critters the clown one got really popular on twitter for some reason, but every friend i show it to is absolutely horrified, wonder how that could be! just look at how cute and harmless they are. :D

Donna Feldman in a black Jitrois “Kill” Stretch Leather catsuit for VISA Black

El fresh out of the lab and having to learn food

Mike wiping El off with a washcloth: "I know yeah they look the same when they're hard boiled"

"El what do you do with your banana peels?" "what" "whenever I bring you a banana to eat I never find the peel, where do you put them?" "what is peels?" "wait have you been just

El, very weird face, watering eyes: "Mike.. why are they called oranges when some of them are yellow" "what do y- no.. no"

El, pretending to bring an onion to her mouth "wait El that's-" "joke! haha" "oh haha, ok" "peel first, I know" (bites in)

Mike finds a whole bowl of peaches all with one big bite taken out. "rocks" "what do you mean rocks?" "there was a rock in it. all of them"

"pineapple hurts. I ate the wrong part?" "yeah no that's the right part actually it just makes your mouth hurt"

"Wait El don't bite into chicken like that, watch out for the bones" (horrified whisper) "bones?" "yeah" "like people have?" "I... guess"

"Mike help me find my popsicle" "what" "I left it on the table earlier and it went away, there is only the bone now"

El lying on the lawn, crying, leaking snot: "how do you know if a pepper is nice or mean"

El taking notes after every meal

Feminine Inspiration