Autumn Sings the Blues

"I think Danny has been around these guys, and he wants to be one of them, which is a total illusion. You can't be one of them. But by being a vampire, he's now in the club. His life was going nowhere prior to getting invited to Dubai. There's been this gravitational pull of these characters, so now he gets to party with them the way that they party, except that's not going to work either." (x)

like it is supposed to feel jarring and insane. it is supposed to feel like lestat has been violently submerged in modern young people trends and culture and is now repeating all the new words he learned like a beautiful fresh baby. but because the book is from 1985, all I think is oh interesting huh I didn’t know that slang term even originated in the 80s how vintage how retro how lestat wow he’s so embarrassing aw aw so cute.

this caused a lot of issues both in terms of fixing said space-time-continuum and in terms of nautical navigation, and after a long and heavy battle in the international maritime organization it was decided that the bureaucratic burden of dealing with this was to be upon Ireland, much to their dismay. the Irish Government then released an app for all sailors and seafarers so they could report titanic sightings during their journeys, even though they heavily dissuaded you from reporting them given the paperwork it caused.

anyway i woke up with a clear image of the app in my head and needed to recreate it for all of you:

Because, yeah, I'll be honest...as a fan of shows like Farscape (especially the episode Scratch 'n Sniff) and films like Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Velvet Goldmine, I found the episode very entertaining and also very easy to follow. It's only the first episode so of course there are some unanswered questions...but, like, it all felt like a pretty straightforward depiction of a traumatic, drug-induced crash out.

But I'm curious about other folks familiarity with the visual language of the show. Not to, like, shame anyone for not being able to follow it...but just because I'm curious.

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT | "Detroit"

So many of LMM's books have this thing about people saying the seasons are different. Is there a historical reason?

Roaring Abel?

Interesting that Roaring Abel also "killed" his wife. Of course, unlike Uncle James, he loved her. And as the conversation continues we see two sides:

a. Roaring Abel is an alcoholic who excuses the behavior that hurts others

b. Deerwood judges a great deal and Roaring Abel has some right to blame them

Here we see the comparison between Valancy's Blue Castle and Roaring Abel's drunkenness again, which made me realize that we haven't gotten further descriptions of it since Valancy set herself free. Roaring Abel isn't free so he still has to escape to drunkenness. (That whole bit about predestination being about how he feels trapped.)

I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.

The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.

Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.

A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:

Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.

Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.

Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns

Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.

I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.

It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears