shut up gray

Here is the full clip of this scene with all the dancers' names- which includes Norma Miller's bonkers aerial. She's a legend!

Both Frankie Manning and Norma Miller traveled in the late 70's and 80's teaching Lindy Hop, mostly across Europes and they were still dancing well into their 80s. They were among the dancers responsible for passing on Lindy through the generations.

Here's Frankie Manning talking about his partner in the video, Ann Johnson.

Do Lindy hoppers still dance like this? Maybe? Rarely do folks dance to music at this tempo, much less do aerials at the tempo.

But that video has inspired dancers!

Here's a the finals from Camp Hollywood a couple years ago. This is the fastest tempo I've seen in a comp so far (and I'm a pretty green swing dancer)

You can see variations and if not the some the exact arieals from the Hellzapoppin' clip.

I love writing characters who think they’re fine but are actually walking emotional house fires with bad coping mechanisms.

They stop doing the things they used to love and don’t even notice. Their guitar gathers dust. Their favorite podcast becomes background noise. Their hobbies feel like homework now.

They pick the path of least resistance every time, even when it hurts them. No, they don’t want to go to that thing. No, they don’t want to talk to that person. But whatever’s easier. That’s the motto now.

They’re tired but can’t sleep. Or they sleep but wake up more tired. Classic burnout move: lying in bed with their brain racing like a toddler on espresso.

They give other people emotional advice they refuse to take themselves. “You have to set boundaries!” they say—while ignoring 8 texts from someone they should’ve cut off three emotional breakdowns ago.

They cry at something stupidly small. Like spilling soup. Or a dog in a commercial. Or losing their pen. The soup is never just soup.

They say “I’m just tired” like it’s a personality trait now. And not like… emotionally drained to the bone but afraid to admit it out loud.

They ghost people they love, not out of malice, but because even replying feels like too much. Social battery? Absolutely obliterated. Texting back feels like filing taxes.

They stop reacting to big things. Catastrophes get a blank stare. Disasters feel like “just another Tuesday.” The well of feeling is running dry.

They avoid being alone with their own thoughts. Constant noise. TV always on. Music blasting. Because silence = reckoning, and reckoning is terrifying.

A popular artist suddenly made a trans man comic, and the viewers are not getting it

Happy Black Fae Day!

I did this as part of a collaboration post with many other wonderful black creatives over on IG. My theme was Warrior Fairy.

Creative Direction and editing by me

And I just remember sitting there going that can't be right, that character just thinks the same way I do and *I'm* not autistic, she's totally in the wrong about that