Tentacles Tumblring

"this herb is supports menstrual health!" Cool. what does it DO? Like physically, what? Be specific.

How do your bodily organs function? Could you identify the individual organs? Can you explain how they work? If that organ is ill or not functioning correctly, do you know exactly what's going wrong and what needs to happen to fix it?

What component of that plant is affecting the body and how? Does your body need extra support in that way? How do you know? What other effects can this plant have on other parts of the body? Will it have chemical responses to other medications, herbs, or foods you are putting in your body?

Some minerals can start sweating sulfuric acid in high humidity, did you know that? Other rocks and crystals can contain toxic elements and heavy metals like mercury that can poison you. Sometimes they will straightup just dissolve in water — that doesn't mean they disappear, that means the water is contaminated with whatever elements and chemicals were in that stone, and it is probably not safe to drink.

Look, I'm all for herbal medicine. Crystals and stones can have really interesting uses for magic. But you can't just start smoking random plants or throwing things in a tea based on correspondence lists, or you're going to poison yourself or your loved ones.

I mean, the prospect of a cool beverage is -

"... Thinking in terms of male and female, which of the two Cinzano ice cubes would be female? ... Now ask, what is going on between this female and male set of ice cubes?"

?????????

"... much credit must be given to the American advertising industry for its success in creating a sexual affair between two pieces of ice as a subliminal device with which to merchandise a liqueur."

This is the Sprite ad:

Do you see the subliminal seduction? Do you see it?

Relax again and look deeply into the almost hypnotic organization of bubbles surrounding the lime slice. Something rather strange is going on in the bubbles. The ear, an orifice of the human body, suggests that the effervescence rising from the glass may have aphrodisiac qualities, at least at the symbolic level, especially with the two-balled earring with one ball hanging lower than the other. Something highly symbolic is, indeed, going on in the bubbles above the lime slice. Before reading further, try to psych out the ice cubes in the glass. What is Sprite trying to tell you? The right side of the ice cube above the lime slice forms the back of an animal—a large shaggy dog with a pointed nose, or quite possibly a polar bear. The animal’s legs are extended outward to the left, parallel with the top of the lime. The animal’s arms (or legs, as you will) appear to be holding another figure which is human with long, feminine hair. Her face is located just above the animal’s head. The two figures, animal and human, are in what can only be described as a sexual intercourse position. The polar bear, dog, or whatever, is in sexual embrace with a nude woman.

the concept of star-eating microbes causing a crisis and the solution being the introduction of space wolves to space yellowstone to control the space elk population. i love a good trophic cascade

dr ryland grace immediately pitching "turn the spaceship into a giant centrifuge to generate gravity" and then not balancing his actual centrifuge later on

the entire "life is reason" scene really

grace forgetting to open the mystery alien container in a fume hood AND immediately sticking his nose in it. if we did this in chemistry lab we were executed on the spot

academia drama being one of the cornerstones of grace's character

grace switching through every spectrum setting on the microscope to try to see into the astrophages and not being able to (relatable)

also: the astrophage dying and grace going "ohhh it died..." (very relatable)

grace having his not-scientist buddy Carl to give him frank solutions when he's overthinking. yes, often the solution is just to put the box in another box

copious duct tape usage

just sticking a filter into the path of the petrova line to collect astrophage goop

eva going "so it's alive" when grace tells them the astrophage are moving, and him being like "WELL ok that could be for a lot of reasons" in the tone of someone who doesn't even know where to start explaining why that's a hasty assumption

grace referring to the first new astrophage as his and carl's baby multiple times (HIGHLY relatable)

I have a little bit of a rep for getting in the know about good tv shows before they really pick up steam. Mostly because I have just about every streaming service except for Netflix, and watch too much scripted television, especially when it's a new show that's not based on an existing franchise and looks like it's going to do something interesting with genre conventions. Earlier this summer I got the beat on Widow's Bay back when it was just 'coming next week' trailers, and six weeks later it was the surprise Emmy darling of the season.

So when I saw a new animated TV series on Disney+ that had received no buzz, had an eye-catchingly dark and gorgeous art style, and had dropped 22 full episodes along with special features all in one day at the end of June? My spidey-senses started tingling. Because this felt like the kind of thing they've pulled to hide The Owl House or other shows that they don't really want to promote.

So I watched the first episode without any trailers or googling.

And it's a fucking masterpiece.

The whole story is filled with love letters to classic horror movies and pastiches, set in a tiny town in France that is bursting with as much of its own personality as the Pacific Northwest had in Gravity Falls. Which makes sense. This show was written and animated by a French-American team, which is part of why we've never heard of the people working on it, and why there's so little crossover buzz. Please. Please help the buzz.

The writing is clever, filled with jokes that work culturally in French but translate well, and the story is compelling from the very first episode. The characters are nuanced and you want to know more about the family situation the 13 year olds have going on than the demonic portal in the woods by the end of the first episode, and if that isn't good writing I don't know what is.

It's Funny. It's Dark. The soundtrack Slaps. Did I mention how Colorful and Gorgeous it is? And there are 22 episodes up right now on Disney+. This feels like a show they are trying to bury with minimal fanfare, that they've sat on for 2 years and released in full at the end of pride month with every episode and special feature dumped all at once.

This show is going to get sold to you as a Gravity Falls spiritual successor in what little print media you can find, and I get why. But please, don't let that be the thing that defines it. It is So unique and its own thing I could cry. And yet the elements of 2010s Cartoons like Steven Universe and Gumball and a dozen others are so obvious even to someone like me who didn't watch those shows regularly.

I've only gotten through half a dozen episodes. I only needed one. I have no idea if they'll respond to a sudden outpouring of fans for a second season if it's popular, but I would like it to at least, be popular.

If you want new comfort media, something easy to pick up and consume, even more so than Widow's Bay but in a similar vein this summer? Try This Show.

Made this post about 15 minutes after the repair guy who fixed the pump on my dishwasher packed up his tools and left, as the dishwasher was whirring along doing my dishes from that morning.

I painted this in honor of my hometown & then i got super depressed and plans for making prints fell apart. As a bonus, the original started growing mold because my apartment is a swamp, so I'm putting this up on Inprnt for everyone who enjoyed it while I work on fixing or remaking it:

I always try to show my thought process on this blog, but I’ve been thinking about creating some more generalized information. Like, what fact-checking is and how to do it yourself if something seems iffy. There’s so much disinformation and AI slop floating around on every topic now that some easy-to-read explainers might be helpful?