#SUPER TALENTED IN EVERYTHING THEY DO

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

[catastrxblues]

EVERMORE by taylor swift (feat. bon iver) — “and i was catching my breath, floors of a cabin creaking under my step. and i couldn’t be sure, i had a feeling so peculiar, this pain wouldn’t be forevermore.”

my #swiftiegiftexchange2024 for @lovesickallovermybed!!!! 🫶🏽🫶🏽

[artsycooky13]

top 3 fave bbys in the burrito show (bonus SUPER LONG tags on how i feel bout the characters)

[nebulous-tundra]

ERIKAR WEEK DAY 1 - VACATION

he HATES the water

@erikar-week

[pourcap]

i know i'm late to capri but it's so cool and such a huge testament to the quality of the writing and the appeal of laurent and damen's love that there are still so many posts, theories, fanfics and pieces of fan art circulating in the capri fandom

[moonmoonthecrabking]

renee rapp the woman that you are

[dramatic-dolphin]

my primary school class was so funny, you'd leave a group of the girls unsupervised for a few minutes and we'd organize a talent show. we'd run to the teachers like "erika néni i had an idea, we're gonna do a talent show during recess! :)" and the teachers would be like. sure why not. go have your fifth talent show this year so far. we support you.

[musubiki]

Is there anything that lime is bad at? (Other than emotional vulnerability)

i have been contemplating this for many a year....YES but i haven't decided what it is yet. i want to be something insanely mundane where someone in school asks him "Hey can you do [thing]/We're gonna do [thing], wanna join us??" and lime spends the entire day making excuses or otherwise avoiding it to an insane level.

meanwhile his inner monologue being like "All this time I've been able to hide it...I can't slip up now....the fact that I can't do [thing] for the life of me..."

[kenobion]

Andrew Garfield at the SBIFF Cinema Society Q&A on tick, tick...BOOM!

[call-me-copycat]

oh I didn’t know you were a cheese monger!

That I am! Not official yet (need to take the training course), but I've been working as one for about 8/9 months so I've gained a bit of knowledge :⁠-⁠)

This wasn't my dream job or anything, it's really just something I signed up for since I need a way to save for college, but it's a fun job so I don't think I'd want to leave it soon (unfortunately will have to eventually)

To answer your next ask about cheese facts, I have to admit I only really know what to say when people ask me questions about cheese, so I'll try to find random tidbits of what I can remember:

All of our cheese is imported from all over the globe (so we're a pretty expensive shop >⁠.⁠<)

There are certain ways to cut certain cheeses. Like "pie cut" (horizontally), "Cake cut" (circular ones like you'd cut a cake), "mountain cut" (huge triangular ones cut into a specific arrangement for their size, too intricate to describe), "barrel cut" (for cylindrical shaped cheese)

Harder/Longer aged cheeses are easier on the stomachs of lactose intolerant people (as I've learned myself)

There are lots of sweet cheeses (We had a pumpkin spice Bellavitano which was paired with this sweet oat cracker and apricot jam and it tasted similar to cheesecake)

Some of them lose flavor and color the older they get (probably common knowledge, but an example of this would be our Port Salut - It tastes really good and tangy when fresh cut but tastes plain when old, exactly like yogurt)

Mold spores can't penetrate most cheeses, so it's common practice to cut off some small mold bits on the harder cheeses (sounds gross, I know)

Blue cheese can mold. But with the mold you don't want to eat.

There are lots of Bellavitanos. Tons. Garlic and Herb, chili lime, pumpkin spice, bourbon, espresso (covered in ground coffee beans), Merlot (wine soaked), etc. We're still getting new ones currently

Bellavitanos "cry" when you cut them :⁠-⁠( [moisture seeps from small holes and they get slimy fast and I don't like it the slightest]

Real Parmiano Reggiano apparently "tastes a bit like pineapple" (I've tried it, I don't think it does)

Some of our cheeses are comically large. I'm very small and get paid to heft around ~30lb wheels of cheese to cut daily (not all the time - I'm infamous for avoiding them actually)

If you've ever seen those videos where people take a huge half wheel of cheese and scrape off the melted portion onto some food, it's most likely raclette cheese

Tried to think of some more but that's all that came to my mind right now ‎(´-ᴗ-⸝⸝ก) A lot of it wasn't official as I'm still learning a lot, but it's stuff that I've discovered while working there

I do not like the one rule we have where we have to eventually know what all the cheeses taste like, which means whenever we're cutting something and our manager finds out we don't know what it tastes like then we're forced to try a sample (·︿· `)

A lot of the time I do not like it! (⁠ ⁠･ั⁠﹏⁠･ั⁠)

I hope you're doing well! It's nice hearing from you! (〃´∀`)

[salsflore]

ummmm

[mmmthornton]

god, there is not enough stakhemy content out there... >:(

[sureuncertainty]

literally tho why are my friends so fucking talented what the FUCK

[whysamwhy123]

Swerve lost because of course he did, what else were they supposed to do? Moxley's there, after all! 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

[pimientos-especiales]

Also this is dumb but I started wondering how I would've reacted to Miraculous Ladybug when I was a kid, at various ages? I 100% would've watched it and loved it, and I KNOW I would've come up with my own original characters

What I wonder about is how I would've reacted to Adrien and Marinette. Like, for some shows, I root for what is obviously the main, intended love interest of the show but gravitate towards a lonely side character. In this case, who? Would it have been Luka that I made an OC girlfriend for? Probably would've made her a holder of the mouse miraculous to go with him getting the snake.

For some shows, I totally hate what is obviously the main, intended love interest, and in most cases the female lead has to stay on the show so I just sort of let her do her thing but create a much better original character do not steal for the male lead. So I wonder if I would've done THAT instead of gravitating towards the lonely side characters. I mean Luka wasn't even in season 1 and we don't really get enough screen time for the guys who ARE in it except for Nino, and he sucks. So if that was the path that younger me went on, what would I have done? Would there have been some "white cat" miraculous that pairs up with the black cat miraculous? She probably would've been like Adrien - a young, rich model who's lonely because she's been sheltered her whole life, and he falls for her because who else can understand him? She's also of course kind, talented, beautiful, everybody likes her because every OC I made when I was like 11 was like that if they weren't outrageously quirky but too quirky for anyone to be like "hey you're really annoying, leave us alone."

It's just a weird thing I was thinking about the other day - if this show had been on when I was a kid, what would my reaction to the love stuff have been? For Sailor Moon I left Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask completely alone, and ignored the very rarely present love interests for the other girls in the anime and just made my own. For Ranma 1/2, I left Ranma and Akane alone but did introduce another fiancee just for kicks, while creating an OC for Ryoga (this was before his canonical love interest showed up). And then for Inuyasha I basically went "nah, fuck you" to every single love interest and made up my own for all the dudes, leaving Sango and Kagome forever alone and Kikyo dead.

So I couldn't say for certain which path I'd choose if Miraculous had been on when I was a kid. And I'll never know, but it's fun to think about. But I mean I LOVED black cats as a kid so I know I would've loved Adrien/Cat Noir. And although in the real timeline I was initially hesitant about Luka, he turned into one of my favorite characters so I probably would've liked him enough to make a love interest for him.

...Which then brings us to the question, if I chose the path of "Adrien falls for someone else" would I have decided to pair Marinette up with Luka, or still made another love interest for him? Probably.

I also just had a horrifying realization that if this show was on when I was 10 I would definitely have made kwamis based on Pokemon. All the jewels would just be Pokeball keychains and like if you had the Pikachu kwami you would have the power of Thunderbolt, the Squirtle kwami would give you the power to shoot water guns or something. I made Pokemon-themed Sailor Scouts, I know I would've made Pokemon-themed miraculousessesesesses.

[teaboot]

Because a few have asked

Teaboot's Super Okay Guide To Developing A Brain That Makes Art Work

Or: How to get your eyes to talk directly to your hands without your brain micromanaging you

Or: How to draw better

⚠️ Warning for super fast gifs cause they all gotta be 5 seconds or less or else my phone shits the bed ⚠️

1. Do the following exercises. Don't just think about doing them or figure out a clever way to not do them, just do them. Yes even the boring ones and the ones that look ugly

2. If you have any pride, crush it. Kill it. Crunch it up into itty bitty bits and feed it to the ducks at the park. You have no talent and don't know anything and everything you make is hot garbage. Believe that. Make yourself believe that. That is where you live now. Surrender any indignation or shame you have to the void and embrace rock bottom.

3. Read step 2 again and actually do it this time. My methods will not work if you try to make this process pretty. Don't.

4. No drawing from your imagination on these. Actually draw from real life. If it's boring like eating day old oatmeal in in beige room but your usual art still feels wonky then I'm talking to you specifically. You can't write poetry until you learn words and yes learning words is as dull as horseshit sometimes but do you wanna be Robert Frost or not

5. Pick up some cheap paper and a ballpoint pen. Grab a small object, between the size of your hand and the size of a microwave. Set a timer for fifteen minutes. Put the tip of your pen to the paper and press "start".

Now without looking at your paper, only looking at the object, draw the object in as much detail as you can. Do not break contact between the paper and the pen tip until the timer goes off.

This is a continuous line drawing, and you're doing it in pen because you need to know what rock bottom looks like and rock bottom looks like no eyes no erasers no shading no do-overs.

6. Sit down in a public place. As someone walks by, draw their their body in as much accuracy as you can before they are no longer in view. Once you can't see them anymore, the drawing is done. No adding details. Pick someone else and do it again. No "base sketch". Just them. If it barely looks human you're doing great

7. Get a black pen. Put a small object on a dark, flat surface. Now draw the surface without drawing the object. Don't draw the outline of the object. Don't do a sketch. Just draw the surface that is visible around the object until only a silhouette remains. No time limit just do it.

The ability to draw accurate proportions from sight comes from learning to see what exists between a thing and the absence of a thing and if that hurts to think about then you need to do it more

8. Keep doing these until you are Ready.

9. You will know when you are Ready. It will make sense when you are Ready. You will Understand.

10. Unwind with some goofy shit so you don't forget why you wanna improve to begin with