You Can Catch a Cricket in Your Hand

This is like the literary equivalent of meeting someone who doesn't know Darth Vader is Luke's father.

So they go "I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with this relationship! Yeah he's older and there is a class/power difference but he clearly respects her as a person and it's so refreshing!" and you just cackle, cackle, cackle behind your screen until the inevitable day you get this message.

Vanilla protein shake chugged (it tastes like vanilla bean ice cream, which is excellent but they were out of my precious strawberry so I am suffering). Also my butt hurts from working out on Saturday.

Which movie has the hottest mustache? I need a hot mustache guy for the weekend.

-🦆

now here's a duck who's asking the right questions.

I feel like no man ever loved his mustache the way Cesar Romero did.

because one of the most common criticisms leveled at almost any mainstream western style for women pre-1920s is "it was impractical!!!!"

and like. okay. impractical for what though?

sure you can't like. I don't know. wrangle an escaped farm animal back into its pen in full Natural Form. but most women weren't doing that, any more than most of us are now, and the ones who were....wore Work Clothing during livestock-wrangling hours

had someone tell me the other day that you couldn't work a 9-5 job in Second Bustle dresses

you could go to the office in this. you could send memos to Janice in accounting in this. you could work many types of non-food retail in this. you could do several different types of museum jobs in this. you could be a dressmaker, miliner, seamstress, or lady journalist in this, at the time. you could be a doctor in this, although nowadays we know you shouldn't.

what do you MEAN you can't work a 9-5 in this? there are so so so many jobs, modern and otherwise, that could be done in exactly this outfit

I make most of my own clothing from patterns that usually date to like 1869 or 1879-82. long skirts and corsets and the whole shebang (well, okay, I do corset sometimes and bra sometimes, but I digress). my average day is walking to the train, taking the train to work, either sitting at a desk or walking around a museum for several hours, running errands, taking the train back, and walking home

dressing like a Victorian vampire countess is no impediment to my daily life whatsoever. and I average 2 miles of walking per day, so I'm MORE active than most of my fellow USAmericans on a daily basis

on the flipside. can you do aforementioned livestock-wrangling in modern fashion jeans? in trendy oversized tops? is the Clean Girl Aesthetic 100% practical and possible to maintain in all situations that could possibly arise?

what's that? it doesn't matter because you don't have to do those things in your clothing and you'd wear different clothing if you did?

OH WOW. WHO WOULD HAVE EVER CONSIDERED. SUCH AN IDEA.

surely not our Dumb-Dumb Stupid Brainless Ancestors, But Only the Women, Who Were Complete Idiots With No Concept Of Situational Clothing Adaptations

If you watch older movies / TV, you see a lot of men wearing suits who unbutton their suit coat when they sit down and rebutton it when they stand up. Most of them do it without appearing to notice. As someone who never wears a suit coat, I don't know if I would think to do this. Does that make suits impractical?

As someone who wears long-sleeved shirts in winter, I automatically shove my sleeves up to do wet or messy tasks with my hands and pull them back down afterward. Would someone who never wears long-sleeved shirts think to do that? Would the resulting wet / grubby hems show that long-sleeved shirts are impractical?

Someone who is used to wearing a long skirt will treat it differently when going up stairs, either by lifting the front hem or by moving their legs around differently on each step. I know that this is a learned skill because I remember learning it as a child. Does an inexperienced wearer tripping on their hem mean that skirts are impractical?

It is awkward to put on or remove a winter coat while wearing mittens. Most people who wear these things regularly handle them in the right order without thinking. Does someone getting stuck in their sleeves mean winter clothing is impractical?

yknow what yeah I think that's just about how anyone would react in this situation. fair enough.

alright this isn't how just Anyone would behave in this situation but I'm humble enough to admit that there have been times in my life when I was doing badly enough that I'd probably also fumble it like this

happy 20 year anniversary of Neil banging out the tunes!

though every rat is special, it's a wonderful and unusual thing for their accomplishments to be remembered and cherished by so many people so many years later. we're all so fortunate to know about the rat who banged out the tunes!

thank you to all the people who sent me reference photos of their beloved rats for this piece!!! credits under the cut!

I try not to make sweeping statements but I think there’s a case to be made for bernini as the greater sculptor there’s ever been.

here’s his bust of costanza bonarelli

here’s apollo and daphne from the front, where she’s mostly human

from the back, where she’s mostly tree

and details

Insanely detailed feet with veins from “Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius”

Another foot from the same statue because a) he textured underside of the foot and the folds of skin in the arch and b) can you see the light coming through the thin marble between the toes?

One of the mouths of Cerberus from “The Rape of Prosperina”.

Prosperina/Persephone’s facial expression and HAIR TEXTURE

Hades’ hair as well - this man was entirely too good at making CURLS out of ROCK.

A (poorly lit) close-up on the tree textures from “Apollo and Daphne”.

Hand, sling, and rock from “David” which I think deserves to be at LEAST as well-known as Michelangelo’s. Saw them two days apart and I prefer Bernini, honestly.

Facial expression from “David” - I just love the character in this so much.

Kind of a weird angle but look at the texturing on the sling pouch!!!

We also got to see one of Bernini’s earliest works (possibly his very first) in the Uffizi; it’s not currently on display, unfortunately, but look at this:

Forgive the poor photo quality but. He was 14 when he carved this. FOURTEEN.

Man was a straight-up wizard.