fen-the-space-dragon

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Just wanted to share some shockingly good news in these difficult times. The full article is really worth reading. [Find it here]

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this little glamorized misogyny "joke" has run its course right. can we leave this corny demonic shit in 2023. it is done now. we've had enough.

[fen-the-space-dragon]

Not to keep beating on the same drum but like…

I was thinking about faceblindness, and how some people handle it one way and others handle it another way, and like. I just think it’s really neat how we all retain information in ways that compliment our existing skill set?

Like… I’m an artist, and a visual learner, and I have been as long as I can remember. I have ALWAYS been the kid doodling on their assignments in class. And I find I can draw, with pretty good accuracy, faces I recognize- not because I retain the imagery itself, but like in the way you can remember which way the spokes on a bike when orient.

Like, I’ve memorized the shadows and the angles and the DETAILS enough to compose a face in my brain, and those are the pieces I look for when I’m looking for the actual person. So if I can’t draw someone from memory, or any of their traits, it’s a good indicator that I can’t recognize them in person.

Whereas I’ve heard OTHER people recognize people by like… their way of moving, or their voice, or their smell. And those don’t normally click for me at all. But I’m a good artist, because I retain angles and shadows and lighting and stuff.

Which I think is pretty cool

[fen-the-space-dragon]

this little glamorized misogyny "joke" has run its course right. can we leave this corny demonic shit in 2023. it is done now. we've had enough.

[fen-the-space-dragon]

this little glamorized misogyny "joke" has run its course right. can we leave this corny demonic shit in 2023. it is done now. we've had enough.

[fen-the-space-dragon]

Just wanted to share some shockingly good news in these difficult times. The full article is really worth reading. [Find it here]

[fen-the-space-dragon]

[fen-the-space-dragon]

This is fucking awesome LMAOOOO

article link

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Chocolate guy... What the fuck!?

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When I was a kid I thought there was a real job like an entomologist would do where someone could just draw insects all day long, and that’s what I told everyone I wanted to do when I grew up

and then later in highschool biology I was really really good at drawing diagrams from class dissections and I thought maybe I could do that for like… textbooks and stuff someday. And anyhow I never made it there but I have a new notebook to doodle in at work that doesn’t have any lines in it

[fen-the-space-dragon]

Okay, I’m gonna ask that nobody try and track this person down and harass them because sometimes we gotta be wrong in public before we can learn something important.

First off, I’m gonna explain this in terms that emphasize qualities valued by white culture in order to communicate a point to you specifically, but things don’t have to be valued by white culture in order to have value. The idea that things that don’t have worth to white people are worthless contributes to all manner of racial injustices, including attitudes towards Black music as you’ve expressed above. So maybe that’s something you can chew on for a bit, figure out if that’s something colouring your opinion.

Second off, I have to ask what kind of rap you’re describing. Gangsta Rap? Boom-Bap? Jazz Rap? ‘Mumble’ Rap? What about Crunk? Emo Rap? Drill? How about UK Drill? Metal Rap? Horrorcore? Can you tell the difference, or is this all the same to you? Are all these genres nothing but slightly different beats and imagery to “sing swear words fast” to? That’s weird, since Country and Bubblegum Pop and Opera aren’t all just about wanting to fuck. Which I COULD say, if I was feeling uncharitable. Do you see the parallels?

Thirdly, I’m not convinced you’ve spend any time at all actually listening to rap. Kind of hard to form an educated and meaningful opinion on something you haven’t actually spend any time studying, isn’t it? I’ve never read The Great Gatsby, but I’m pretty sure it’s just about some dumb rich kid and his girlfriend, so it’s probably just some shallow faffy crap anyways. Fuck off if you’re the kind of person to waste your time on that.

Fourthly, and hopefully lastly- this one is just between you and me. You can keep it a secret if you like, nobody has to know. You don’t even have to do it if you don’t like, I’ll never find out anyways, but I think it’d be interesting for you: why don’t you write a few bars?

It shouldn’t be that difficult for you. I’m not even asking you to compose music, or a beat, or anything at all. Just a few lines. Maybe for a diss track. I happen to enjoy rap, so why not “sing swear words fast” at me? I’m a 5’3” single dork in a polyester polo shirt, I don’t fuck and I’ve got daddy issues from here to Poland. I’m a bad dancer, I don’t pull hoes, and I get really sweaty when I’m nervous. Can you work with that? I also have a really bad haircut right now, and my new glasses look like Clark Kent had no cool alter-ego to fall back on.

Rap is poetry. It’s wordplay. It incorporates simile and metaphor and figurative language, rhythm and beat and double entendre and onomatopoeia and idiom, connotation and denotation and implied meaning, symbolism and rhyme and the basic mouth-sounds within the syllables of individual words in a way that communicates with an audience, in a way that no other art form I know of does.

And good rap- like, REALLY good rap, the stuff you either haven’t heard or didn’t understand because if you had then you wouldn’t be writing it off like this- makes you play it on repeat, listen to it over and over again, look up the lyrics and study them the way you study classic lit in school because the layers and nuance and craftsmanship need to be disassembled to be appreciated fully- like notes in a fine wine, or individual instruments in an orchestra.

And frankly, that kind of skill- even if it WAS all just people shooting insults back and forth for the hell of it- it’d still be impressive.

You ever look at a Caravaggio or a Matisse and go “fuck that boring shit, it’s just dudes and flowers”? Or do you study the history, the symbolism, the craftsmanship? Do you admire the technique? The artist’s unique style, the texture, the way it elicits an emotional response?

Are you the kind of person who walks into the Louvre and see nothing but worthless smears, meaningless portraits and a hundred different ways of drawing fruit?

Or do you take it all in as a meaningful, cultural experience, a product of history and human emotion and passion?

If you do, why can’t you do that for Rap? What’s stopping you? What’s the difference?

And if you don’t, perhaps it’s not the art that lacks depth.

[fen-the-space-dragon]

Okay, I’m gonna ask that nobody try and track this person down and harass them because sometimes we gotta be wrong in public before we can learn something important.

First off, I’m gonna explain this in terms that emphasize qualities valued by white culture in order to communicate a point to you specifically, but things don’t have to be valued by white culture in order to have value. The idea that things that don’t have worth to white people are worthless contributes to all manner of racial injustices, including attitudes towards Black music as you’ve expressed above. So maybe that’s something you can chew on for a bit, figure out if that’s something colouring your opinion.

Second off, I have to ask what kind of rap you’re describing. Gangsta Rap? Boom-Bap? Jazz Rap? ‘Mumble’ Rap? What about Crunk? Emo Rap? Drill? How about UK Drill? Metal Rap? Horrorcore? Can you tell the difference, or is this all the same to you? Are all these genres nothing but slightly different beats and imagery to “sing swear words fast” to? That’s weird, since Country and Bubblegum Pop and Opera aren’t all just about wanting to fuck. Which I COULD say, if I was feeling uncharitable. Do you see the parallels?

Thirdly, I’m not convinced you’ve spend any time at all actually listening to rap. Kind of hard to form an educated and meaningful opinion on something you haven’t actually spend any time studying, isn’t it? I’ve never read The Great Gatsby, but I’m pretty sure it’s just about some dumb rich kid and his girlfriend, so it’s probably just some shallow faffy crap anyways. Fuck off if you’re the kind of person to waste your time on that.

Fourthly, and hopefully lastly- this one is just between you and me. You can keep it a secret if you like, nobody has to know. You don’t even have to do it if you don’t like, I’ll never find out anyways, but I think it’d be interesting for you: why don’t you write a few bars?

It shouldn’t be that difficult for you. I’m not even asking you to compose music, or a beat, or anything at all. Just a few lines. Maybe for a diss track. I happen to enjoy rap, so why not “sing swear words fast” at me? I’m a 5’3” single dork in a polyester polo shirt, I don’t fuck and I’ve got daddy issues from here to Poland. I’m a bad dancer, I don’t pull hoes, and I get really sweaty when I’m nervous. Can you work with that? I also have a really bad haircut right now, and my new glasses look like Clark Kent had no cool alter-ego to fall back on.

Rap is poetry. It’s wordplay. It incorporates simile and metaphor and figurative language, rhythm and beat and double entendre and onomatopoeia and idiom, connotation and denotation and implied meaning, symbolism and rhyme and the basic mouth-sounds within the syllables of individual words in a way that communicates with an audience, in a way that no other art form I know of does.

And good rap- like, REALLY good rap, the stuff you either haven’t heard or didn’t understand because if you had then you wouldn’t be writing it off like this- makes you play it on repeat, listen to it over and over again, look up the lyrics and study them the way you study classic lit in school because the layers and nuance and craftsmanship need to be disassembled to be appreciated fully- like notes in a fine wine, or individual instruments in an orchestra.

And frankly, that kind of skill- even if it WAS all just people shooting insults back and forth for the hell of it- it’d still be impressive.

You ever look at a Caravaggio or a Matisse and go “fuck that boring shit, it’s just dudes and flowers”? Or do you study the history, the symbolism, the craftsmanship? Do you admire the technique? The artist’s unique style, the texture, the way it elicits an emotional response?

Are you the kind of person who walks into the Louvre and see nothing but worthless smears, meaningless portraits and a hundred different ways of drawing fruit?

Or do you take it all in as a meaningful, cultural experience, a product of history and human emotion and passion?

If you do, why can’t you do that for Rap? What’s stopping you? What’s the difference?

And if you don’t, perhaps it’s not the art that lacks depth.

[fen-the-space-dragon]

inherent gay need to redesign my bedroom every 3 months

[fen-the-space-dragon]

situation dire. i've been saying 'huzzah', 'alas', and 'tis unironically for like a year now. harmless so far.

however. i hath noticed i now mark half of my goodbyes with 'i must away'. it's spreading

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