Today My Anthro Professor Said Something Kindof Really Beautiful:

vintage playlists

you’re a lesbian pharaoh laying down naked on a velvet throne. beautiful women wrap you in jewels and gold and crystals, do your makeup, and make sure youre comfortable. then they bring in the most talented artists to paint your portrait.

you sneak out of your house to fight for women’s suffrage in the 1920s because your husband is a senator who opposes women’s suffrage but then you get arrested for protesting in front of the whitehouse. when he comes to bail you out, you tell him that you won’t go with him because a woman is not free in or out of jail. 

you and your best friend go to a dance together in the 50s. he comes to pick you up in his red thunderbird and you get in. you guys are of COURSE just friends, even though everyone thinks you are dating. you laugh about it on the way there, but as the night gets later and you start dancing, you notice you’re starting to get closer and closer to each other. then a slow song comes on…

youre a emo teen from the early 2000s and you just got home from getting snake bites. you slam the door to your room closed and lay down on your black comforter and stare at the picture of Gerard Way on the ceiling. you think, “no one understands me.”

i'm curating a c!tommy playlist and it currently only has three songs. i'm Failing rn

New episodes!!!

fuck therapy i’m becoming a knight

Folklore Reactions

going to do this in sections, so this is just tracks 1-5. I still know nothing! (well, and also everything.) But I wanted to capture some of my initial feelings. :) 

the 1: after several listens I understand so much more clearly what this song is doing and it ISN’T deeply sad, like I first thought. there’s a lightness to it. it’s a song about looking back at something nostalgically and being a little apologetic for doing that. “in my defense I have none for never leaving well enough alone/for digging up the grave another time.” she’s shaking her head at herself, acknowledging that she can’t help being this way, being so retrospective. the details are so fun and vivid. sunday matinees, bus stops, rosé flowing, but what i love about it so much is the main hook of the song. “it would’ve been fun, if you would’ve been the 1.” because it doesn’t matter how long it’s been, it doesn’t matter that this song isn’t a deeply personal one for taylor in that it’s not about her (and i don’t think it is, i think it’s a perspective one), taylor will always muse on whether something that didn’t last could have lasted and will always quietly, gently, in a third person way wish that it could have lasted. the ache in her voice when she sings “if my wishes came true, it would’ve been you.” this non-breakup song has more pathos in it than most artists’ actual breakup tracks. AND IT’S ALSO A BOP????? I CAN’T. 

cardigan: oh man, i can’t say anything coherent about it yet. this song is so big and so layered. i will say that the way that this, august, and betty have these HUGE intertwining bridges—- is everything to me. the whole heart of the song is about what betty kNEW and the way the bridge is just images stacked on images, moments stacked on moments, all the things she knew. and there really was so so so so much that she kNEW. and that knowledge couldn’t save her from heartbreak. because she wANTED to be someone’s favorite. a lot of knowledge when you’re young isn’t the same thing as wisdom and it can be its own heavy gift because you can’t make all the rest of you grow up to match that knowledge. you’re still just a kid, too. she saw how it would all unfold and fell anyway BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO BE CHOSEN AND LOVED. THIS SONG. 

the last great american dynasty: this was my breakthrough song!!!!! the one on first listen that makes me feel like I can breathe and that I can sort of process. :) I grinned SO WIDE the second I heard her sing “Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train.” It’s perfect, utterly perfect, every word hits a beat and every word tells a story. bitch-pack friends!!!! filled the pool with champagne !!!!! boys and the ballet!!!! the bridge is beyond delightful. THE CHILLS I FELT WHEN SHE SANG “and then it was bought by me.” a song about taylor’s rhode island mansion is not what I expected or thought I wanted but it is exactly what this album and I needed. It’s both a processing song for Taylor personally and the parts of her reputation that her RI mansion helped create but it’s also about STORYTELLING, about making a legend out of the woman who lived there before, sharing her story with the world and tying her past to Rebekah’s and in doing so immortalizing both. i’m obsessed. 

exile: this is a stunning collab, her best yet I think. his voice is deep enough that it holds up next to Taylor’s–which often ends up being more expressive than her duet partners. They feel like true partners as vocalists and storytellers; the story is equally theirs. Love the big sound, love the crosstalk, love the pain amplified in this big, big sound. “holding all this love out here in the hall” >>>>>> KILL ME. this was also a breakthrough song. it’s fairly straightforward but that doesn’t lessen its power.

my tears ricochet: oKAY so the biggest magic about this song !!!! to me!!!! is the fact that the thing that seems to work LEAST, that feels like it might be the weakest link in an otherwise stunning and layered and metaphor-driven song is actually the thing that ties it together!!!!!! and YES. BY THAT I MEAN THE TITLE. !!!!!!! it wasn’t until she sung the titular phrase that it all snapped into place for me. this is a SHARED grief, a shared bitterness, a union even in the separation in the sense that they both are hurting. (anywhere i want just not home//you would still miss me in your bones) the phrase my tears ricochet captures that perfectly, it IS the thesis, because they are not only her tears but they come from her. they strike him and then return again. the way she sings it too. the truth, the almost-acceptance? the ache, the sadness, but mostly the plain, matter-of-fact TRUTH and the lowness, the lowest of lows in terms of her register, that really drives it home. look at how my tears ricochet. what feels like it could be melodrama becomes reality in those three words. it is a perfect track 5. 

“Ferb I know what we’re gonna do today, we’re gonna try to bring mom back”

someday i will remember that tumblr is also a place to promo

last night i posted the first chapter of a two-part FFH au wherein Beck takes a different approach to getting EDITH. this one’s a bit of a vent fic so please read the tags and warnings on the fic and in the author’s notes, and skip it if you need to. 

main tw: non-graphic sexual assault (by way of dubcon), grooming

safe reading y’all

fic title: i waste my truth on you

summary: 

Peter looks away, across the sloping lawn, to the lake. “I’m almost 18.”

Tony shakes his head. “Yeah, doesn’t matter. You’re still my kid. And besides,” here his voice turns careful, a little shrewd, a lot gentle. “It’s not just about your age on paper. It’s also about experience, power- a lot of things that go beyond just how many times you’ve traveled around the sun.”

Peter’s heart is thudding in his chest now, the rush of blood in his ears deafening.

“Peter.” Tony’s voice is so quiet, so impossibly gentle. Peter feels like he might crumble apart under the weight of it. “You want to tell me what happened in Prague?”

Or

Feeling shut out by his friends on their junior class trip, Peter finds himself drawn into a fight alongside a new, strange superhero. And if that man, Mysterio, has a gaze that lingers, that makes his stomach turn and his cheeks heat and the hair on his neck stand up? It’s fine. He can handle it. He’s got this all under control.

And when Mysterio shows his true colors, stealing EDITH right from under Peter’s nose? That’s fine too. He can fix his mistakes. He doesn’t need any help taking down Mysterio. And he definitely doesn’t need any help dealing with the aftermath.

Video essays by poc:

India and its UNFAIR beauty standards

Everything culturally wrong with Mulan 2020

The Wind can GTFO (a Gone with the Wind breakdown)

Memento-- telling a story in reverse

That mysterious "S" thing we used to draw

Indiana Jones -- a primer on racist film tropes

Reality show secrets: was MTV'S "my super sweet 16 100% real?

Why Aquaman Sucks (the commodification of the polynesian body)

"Black sounding" names and their surprising history

Let's revisit the fashion in the Aladdin remake

Train to Busan: how to kill a character

YouTube Channels for Your Quarantine Workout Needs

Rebel Wilson had an amazing 2020 despite everything that happened around the world because she made it her year of health, and I’m taking notes from her and transferring that energy to 2021 for myself. I’m planning to get out of this quarantine the hottest I’ve ever been and to then hit the nice gyms around town. While I’m currently unable to do that, I’m utilizing this time to save money and working out free by using different YouTube channels that offer these videos. Below are some of my favorites! 

1. Emi Wong

Last year I found out that everyone and their mother were doing Chloe Ting’s workouts like there’s no tomorrow. I naturally had to check out for myself what the rave is all about. Her workouts are great, but for me they’re just a little too hardcore. So, I found an alternative. Emi’s workouts are still challenging, she posts regularly, and her husband’s cameos are quite entertaining. You can find targeted exercises as well as full-body workouts.

2. The Fitness Marshall

You’re having a bad day and you just want to let it all out? Then look no further than to The Fitness Marshall. Caleb and his crew regularly put out hip hop dance workout videos to today’s hit songs. You will sweat and you will laugh, his videos are literally an antidote to any negativity you might be feeling at a particular moment in time. I guarantee that the videos will lift your spirits up!

3. Sweaty Betty Ballet Workouts

I am 100% inspired by @sylth-glow when I looked up ballet workout videos on YouTube. There aren’t that many videos, but the few that exist will make you feel graceful, improve your posture, and tone you up! I love the cohosts and I strive to emulate their fluidity in movements. I’m still far from where I want to be, but at least I’m not where I used to be. Maybe when quarantine’s over I will take adult ballet classes.

4. Popsugar Fitness

I’m linking to just one video, which is arguably my favorite of all, but Popsugar Fitness is to me the IT workout channel on YouTube. You can literally find any and all types of workouts on there. Some of my favorite instructors are Christa DiPaolo (her boxing videos truly kick ass), Nicole Stein (girl’s got moves), and Marnie Alton (she’s very flexible). Check them all out and find some that you love and keep doing them!

5. 375 Dance Studio

As you can already tell, I love to dance and I think that as a society (mostly Western and East or Southeast Asian), we just don’t dance enough! I do their exercises when I want to feel sexy, burn some calories + tone up, and get out of my head. I’m an over thinker (it’s a work in progress!), so being able to move my body more and to have my body take over my brain is a joy for me. I envision myself dancing these sensual Latin dances with a partner in the near future, but for now this will suffice.

Much love!