&

Ginger Rogers was a FUCKING BADASS. Ignore for a sec the rampant sexism in Hollywood (they once bleached  her hair blonde in wardrobe without telling her beforehand), the fact that she fought her whole career against typecasting and stereotyping from fellow actors (Katharine Hepburn famously said of the Astaire/Rogers partnership “she gave him sex. He gave her class” ) for starting out in musicals, and went on to have a career lasting over fifty years, winning a Best Actress Oscar (Kitty Foyle, 1940). But… JUST focusing on the Astaire movies…

Not only did she dance “backwards” in high heels, the dances were a task in themselves. Astaire was an absolute perfectionist and choreographed for himself, so as a younger, less experienced dancer Rogers came in at a disadvantage and worked her ass off to match him. 

Then there’s the filming complications… these numbers were filmed in ONE TAKE. So one thing goes wrong and you have to start over. Maybe you make a mistake or maybe your dress flies up because…

Ginger had to contend with her wardrobe. Dancing in heels is the norm at this time, but dancing in a dress designed for cinema cameras… not so much. They were heavy, embellished, uncomfortable, restrictive and cumbersome and essentially a third member of the dance, strapped to the body of one partner.Not only did she have to dance and look good, she had to control the dress too!

Take this routine from Swing Time… (it gets going proper at 1:30ish)

This dress has weights, YES WEIGHTS, sewn in to the hem to make it fly out and create a visual effect. So it’s heavy, it hurts if it hits you, and your partner gets mad if it hits him. So you gotta control it. 

Well it turns out all these factors on this set, this particular day aren’t going so well. So you’re doing take after take, here’s no labour laws, so at 4am after 18 hours you’re still going, even though part of the routine requires you to spin up those curved stairs with no rail at high speed….

Okay so now back to those high heels. In Ginger’s autobiography she vividly remembers this night as the night she bled though her shoes. They did so many takes, her feet blistered, bled, and the white satin high heels she was wearing finished he night pink because they were literally full of blood. And still they keep shooting. She keeps dancing.

The take they use in the film is the last. Early hours. Bloody feet. And she spins, acts and bosses out until that last second. Because she was that professional, talented and bloody minded. This is the last set of spins… 

So I say once again. Ginger Rogers was a badass.

Glossy Ibis

The Good Omens Love-Fest Continues

Featuring Michael Sheen and David Tennant talking about working with each other (and the Crowley/Aziraphale relationship) in Good Omens

MOVIE PROPS

JOHN WICK                

Director: Chad Stahelski

Propmaster: Vinny Mazzarella

Set Decorator: Susan Bode

Did you know that international assassin John Wick retired briefly and pursued his love of restoring and collecting Victorian children’s books? Well, that was in the original script, at any rate. I was hired to recommend, track down and purchase books, including first editions of Thomas Bewick’s beautifully illustrated Fables of Aesop. I also trained Keanu Reeves in various bookbinding skills, worked on set as technical advisor while they shot those scenes, and doubled for his hands in close-ups. His shop – which you see briefly on screen when he smashes open the floor – was filled with my books, cabinets, tools and equipment. On the sequel, I also helped out with the marker book and a few other things.

source

This is the election that counts. Start educating yourself now on who will be campaigning to be your congresspeople/governor/etc. 

Register to vote NOW. Don’t wait. You can do it any time.

This is the fight we need to win.  VOTE  VOTE  VOTE

Get your birth certificates. There may be a fee or long wait times. Make sure you get a certified copy.

Make sure you have ID. Dig into your state’s laws and the whole Real ID thing, because (and sorry I can’t research this now, but pneumonia) I believe there are certain states whose driver’s licenses don’t qualify for Real ID.

Make sure you’re registered to vote. Google it. Follow the instructions for your state.

Know where your local polling place is or find out if you can vote by mail.

Vote in ALL your upcoming elections. Yes, that means the little ones for city council or dog catcher or whatever. Vote those racist, homophobic, bigots out at every level.

They’re like weeds. You can pull up every visible bit, but if you leave one tiny segment of root, they’ll just come back.

Here’s how to find out if you’re registered.

Here are the deadlines for when to register.

Here’s how to register, if it turns out you’re not.

Am i the only one who got pissed by the fact she didn’t got to fight in the tournament and instead did the chearleader? I don’t do fan arts often, but i want to get better at handling japanese model sheets

look at this shit

In the wild capybaras live in large groups so naturally a female capybara will take care of not only her own offspring, but all of the other offspring in the group. So capybaras are super great mothers who will adopt pretty much anything and take care of it.

Lots of places that rescue different animals will give a group of baby animals to a capybara to raise if they have one.

Like puppies

Ducks

Deer

Emus