From the Observatory

Honestly be pretentious as fuck about the stuff you create. Do a press release for your fanfic updates. Do a Q&A about your webcomic. Make fake merch designs for your OCs. Commission "official" book covers. Very few of us will ever get to a stage where something we've created Makes It Big but even if you have an audience of 5 people plus a shoelace fucking indulge yourself and pretend!! It's the only way to live!!

sometimes i feel like im climing up this incline again alone but thankully sisypus and the itsy bitsy spider and here with me

holy shit is that kate bush

Unintentionally ominous sign a friend took a photo of at a JoAnn's that's closing.

Those of you who follow me may be aware of Mathilda’s story — she traveled from Germany to the front lines in Ukraine, where she was murdered* by the russians while serving as a combat medic.

(*And I consider it murder when a.) it’s an unlawful invasion and b.) when the aggressor blatantly violates international law when waging war, and goes out of their way to kill civilians and medics.)

My friend @radaghastly snapped this for me while in Kyiv this year. It hit me like a ton of bricks, both because this was someone I knew only as an online friend; and because it’s a testament to her sacrifice, and to the character of a grateful nation.

Today marks three years since the beginning of russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and this year marks eleven since its illegal annexation of Crimea, to say nothing of Ukraine’s extensive past as a war-torn country. You need only to know history to understand the importance of standing on the right side of it, which is a fact lost on the current US leadership, who feels that betraying an ally and conceding to the aggressor is the right move.

You need not be a defender, or live in a war zone, or even be ethnically Ukrainian to understand the threat posed by russia. You just need to know who the good guys are and be willing to stand up for them. The US has learned habits of complacency and entitlement because they have no living memory of what it’s like as a country to face such a large, existential threat. And it’s those same habits that have helped lead us to where we are today.

My support for Ukraine has only grown stronger since the war started and since I started learning about their resilience as a people. They exemplify ideals that the world can learn from, that when it comes to a threat like russia, that the approach is all-or-nothing. There is no such thing as a “measured response” to tyranny and authoritarianism; you meet the challenge head on and beat the enemy into total submission. Ukraine represents a pivotal moment in our journey as a species and as believers in a free, democratic society, that we either support Ukraine’s right to freedom and sovereignty, or let ourselves become a victim to despotism and oppression.

The world is anxiously watching.

Slava Ukraini

Lingcod, 2013.  Wire, recycled plastic, ducting, miscellaneous junk, paint. 8ft long. 

When life gives you bears… trick them into doing market research?

@mercuryjellyfish

What I really like about this is that the containers all have prominent labels with a camera pointing directly at them, but it’s still called a double-blind trial because the researcher isn’t present and the bear can’t read

The Frame

The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively--because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins.

You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?

If John Cage, for instance, says, "I'm putting a contact microphone on my throat, and I'm going to drink carrot juice, and that's my composition," then his gurgling qualifies as his composition because he put a frame around it and said so. "Take it or leave it, I now will this to be music." After that it's a matter of taste. Without the frame-as-announced, it's a guy swallowing carrot juice.

--Frank Zappa, from The Real Frank Zappa (link to google books)

Hallmark Christmas movie but the salt-of-the-earth small-town guy moves to the big city and falls in love with the cynical career woman and they stay in the city and work side by side to make the world a better wait that’s Superman, once again I have just written Superman

if somebody you knew for a year said "listen. im just gonna be honest here. i know ive known you too long to not know your name. but i simply do not. i dont know how this happened. im reasonably confident you told me your name at some point. could you remind me please" how would you react

27% chance I'd be like "Thank God, I don't know yours either."

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Four of Swords. Art by Jesse Lonergan, from The Unveiled Tarot.