#like you really think she could be with seward? lol

[tangents-within-tangents]

So here’s the thing

24 Aug: Lucy journals that she is dreaming and weak again, and it's noticeable enough for Arthur to worry 25 Aug: Lucy heard flapping at the window, had bad dreams, and wakes pale and with a sore throat (clearly was attacked that night) 30 Aug: Lucy responds to Mina’s letter about her wedding, says she is healthy, full of life, and no longer sleepwalking: “I think I have not stirred out of my bed for a week” 31 Aug: Arthur is so worried about Lucy that he asks Seward to come check on her. He says “she looks awful, and is getting worse every day.”

So options are: 1. Lucy was getting better but Dracula attacked again the night of Aug 30th (which is possible, it’s been five days since the last known attack, but Arthur’s description of her illness doesn’t sound like a sudden change) 2. Lucy was lying to Mina so as not to worry her, especially in her own time of happiness (which is pretty consistent with what we’ve seen so far)

I think both options can work and honestly both are sad. Finally hopeful and looking forward to a happy future only for a sudden change for the worse, or more of the suffocating propriety and emotional secrecy leading Lucy to isolate herself even more. There is one cool thing that comes of it though, which is that Arthur sees through it all, pushes past her reluctance to care for herself, and makes sure something is done about her illness. I just think it's really sweet that Lucy, who prides herself in being hard to read (especially by someone like Seward who kinda does it for a living) and literally practices hiding her emotions in the mirror, is in love with and being cared for by the man who sees and accepts all of her.

[livesinyesterday]

Manhunt (2024) - ep. 7 thoughts

Which I am also calling "We'll Always Have California"

I am planning on doing a rewatch of the whole series and then I will write my final thoughts on it as a whole but I finally watched the finale so these are my reactions to that.

I'm going to come out of the gate and say I am very sad they didn't end on Stanton barricading the doors of his office. 1. That is one of my favorite things Stanton ever did and I was so excited when he started moving his desk and 2. That slow pull back from him sitting on the desk as they pounded on the door would have been such a powerful note to end on. Then you would have just had black placards for the information that followed. The scene where his son tells him about his confirmation, then pulling out to a strange fade-to-white to SHOTS OF CALIFORNIA???

I'm sorry, but the mention of California in the Lincoln scene was not significant or powerful enough for the ENTIRE. SERIES. to end on waves hitting the California shore. Even if you wanted to try and say it represented the age of manifest destiny and a shore-to-shore United States or some such it just...it doesn't work for me.

But anyway, the barricading scene was perfect, no notes. I was so glad to have Lincoln back, definitely I think Linklater (Lincolnlater) had found his voice for this role by this point and puts in an emotionally effecting performance here. I really like the depictions of them bonding over grief. I find certain elements of these scenes strange though. If you wanted Mary out of the room why even have her in the scene to begin with? Why have the 'doctor lying to Mary' moment? Also in the second Lincoln scene the way they talk about work and vacation seems a little strange. California beach vacay, anyone? But overall I was glad these scenes were here. I can nitpick and mention the fact that first scene happens before Grant would have been Lieutenant (Willie dies in 1862, Grant becomes head of the Union army in 1864, Grant's great victory in the west at Vicksburg wouldn't happen until 1863) so Stanton mentioning him in this conversation is not really accurate but thats pretty insignificant for the plot and doesn't really bother me. It is funny to me though that this series sort of makes it seem like Stanton was Lincoln's only 'true' friend which is pretty much because the show left a bunch of people out lol. I know they want to keep the emotional heart of the series Stanton's relationship to Lincoln but I think it does somewhat lead to a bit of a misrepresentation of Lincoln and how beloved he was by his staff and others. I feel like we could have benefitted from some more of his close acquaintances being shown here and made his brutal loss all the more heartbreaking. I will get into this more in my final thoughts on the show, but I have felt strange about the depiction of Mary for the entire series. Mary is a complicated historical figure to depict, especially because many biased, unflattering accounts get written about her, notably Lincoln's old law partner David Herndon writes very negative things about her and his accounts are generally considered untrustworthy. So I appreciate the show trying to depict her with dignity but in doing so I do think they are ignoring the reality of the sheer mental health crises Mary was struggling with by this point in her life and certainly after the death of her husband and I don't know if simply ignoring that does her justice either.

I love that we give Elizabeth Keckley her time in the sun here. She deserves it.

Thoughts on the trail. Overall pretty solid. I wish again that we hadn't wasted so much time on the KGC plot and could have stayed longer with the trial part of the story. The addition of the 'pet' letter is bizarre? It did not exist, it was not a thing. So why add it? Who knows. Also strange to see Seward sitting in the courtroom just chilling. He would definitely still be recovering at this point and after the assassination attempt half his face was permanently sagging dramatically due to the muscles that were cut. Also his wife would have just passed away as she dies in June of 1865 while the trials are going on (and sadly his daughter, who we see in the scene standing next to him, would die a year later). Also the 'I could have accused you' line...not so much. There is little to no evidence that Stanton accused President Johnson of being part of the conspiracy.

Obviously they play up Mary Simms' part in the trial and as well as Conover, but I understand that for the sake of television. If you are not going to make the entire series about the trial you can't stop and introduce a bunch of new people the audience won't recognize in your finale so none of that bothers me.

It's also true that they couldn't connect the conspirators to Jefferson Davis, he stays in prison for a couple years then gets bailed out. I do really like that there's a brief line of dialogue that hints at the fact that trying to try Davis was always really awkward because of the potential risk of legitimizing the Confederacy with a verdict. Davis ended up living to like 1889 and writing bullshit memoirs that support the Lost Cause Myth. And the missing pages thing. There is no evidence that Edwin destroyed them, it was a fringe theory that floated around and I can see why it makes intriguing television. Because we can't know for sure what happened to the pages (it's highly likely Booth tore them out himself for whatever reason) I view this in a similar vein as The Terror speculating on certain things that we can never know about the Franklin Expedition.

Overall I enjoyed the episode, as I have overall really enjoyed the show. But as always this show has a tendency to be really strong on so many fronts and then just make random weird choices that catch me off guard like "Huh??"

"California?"

[vergess]

speaking of gender markers i was reading that part and thought hm. purposeful parallels, in sync despite being on opposite hills. but really contrasting. All at once two voices shouted out to, "Halt!" One was my Jonathan's, raised in a high key of passion. The other Mr. Morris' strong resolute tone of quiet command.

van helsing had said that the laconic quincey was ''all man'', he is and looks like a rugged adventurer, likely tall and burly. and here i think that despite that he's american he acts like a british masculine ideal in this scene.

jonathan in contrast is all loud, passionate emotion. high emotion vs quiet command. also unlike quincey he looks frail- mina says he only started putting some meat on his bones late september, and since oct it's implied he's been neglecting himself. seward says his hands are ice cold. he's holding a blood-seeking "barbaric" weapon. he resembles more of a madman than the ideal hero.

Oh that is SUCH a good point.

Far and away, the character that my analytical relationship is weakest with is Quincey. I may not have fun talking about Dracula or Arthur the way I do Seward and the Harkers, but I at least understand their characters and can play with concepts around them (eg, I do actually know that Lucy is not symbolically associated with Gwenhwyffar save in the sense that she is the wife of their highest ranking guy, a british noble named Arthur, and people being little shits about that in the tags of my posts are more than welcome to make their own name posts about these characters because this is a non-scarcity scenario, THANKS)

But Quincey is like... Okay literally until the day he died, I had one (1) joke about Quincey, and it was that Bram Stoker clearly had a cowboy fetish.

Which made the emotional impact of his death and his little Gilgamesh acting three-parents ghost baby, VERY CONFUSING for me. Like WHY did I care so much?? How did his whole "stoic nod.GIF" and "Thank you kindly, little lady" shit SNEAK UP ON ME????

(Hint: Regardless of Stoker's situation, I do have a cowboy fetish so not thinking about Quincey may have been a survival strategy lol)

But Quincey acting as this impossible paragon of masculinity in isolation provides a great framework for me to examine him, especially in contrast to how blatantly and constantly GNC that... well, almost everyone around him is.

I say impossible, because as you point out, in his final scene Quincey is presenting a very English type of masculinity. Not even British, IMO. That's all England.

But that very English masculinity is, necessarily, incompatible with the Rugged American Masculinity he has been written to exude.

No, that's not right... the Rugged American Masculinity everyone keeps saying he exudes, while he primarily does insane nonsense.

Quincey is indeed "all man," in that he can and well become a paragon of whatever cultural ideal of masculinity is needed in any scene. Mutable in execution, yes, but always something you could summarize as "A Good Man," and get nods from everyone listening.

Which makes it all the more interesting that he seems (based on the novel I read, not any secondary sources) to have been written in solely to be impotent, impotent, impotent, then die in glory.

Hmm, hmm, hmm. Lots to consider!!

[marybeatriceofmodena]

Critical/negative thoughts about Theodora Goss's The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club under the cut

Like, I'm not going to snark about how the club is called the "Athena Club" (because feminist goddess, Athena is not, her whole point is that she protects Zeus' rule because goddess of order and all that), but while I would totally be down for an all-female team à la League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (which I hate mind you), there are so many things that show me that for some of the works included, I don't get the feeling the author really understands them?

Like, making Frankenstein's Monster the villain while Victor was a benevolent figure is... A Choice, and not the subversion Goss thinks it is (not that I dislike Justine, she's one of the club members I enjoyed more).

I liked the Mary/Diana parts well enough, although you could tell Goss really likes Sherlock Holmes (at least he's ACTUALLY in character) and he kind of ends up overwhelming that subplot more often than not. And boy was the Jekyll/Hyde resolution so unsatisfying lmao

The basic idea for Catherine Moreau is there, but she comes off as being the author's mouthpiece more often than not (when she doesn't remind us for the billionth time that she's a cat) and she gets annoying very quickly because she makes Goss's knowledge gaps about the Victorian era very... obvious lol

Beatrice Rappacini would be interesting if she wasn't a diluted version of Catherine Moreau in terms of personality - come on. Make her a tragic pre-Raphaelite muse. Have her accidentally kill a couple of artists.

I don't mind Van Helsing and Seward being villains (although it could have been better done, because I don't buy Van Helsing ever doing that to his own daughter, if he had one), but also making Jonathan a villain is not a subversion in the slightest. If Goss really wanted to go full feminist with this plotline, have Mina be the one going on adventures, kicking ass and taking names, while he's quite alright staying at home with Quincey and sometimes helping from a distance.

Irene Adler, Carmilla and Laura are quite good. No notes.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CHRISTINE DAAÉ? Or even if Goss wanted to go for the Lloyd Webber version rather than the Leroux version, Meg Giry would have been a pretty good fit.

[theladypeartree]

I posted 268 times in 2022

15 posts created (6%)

253 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@gingersnapwolves

@swaglexander-the-great

@catslock

@i-like-plan-m

I tagged 262 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#the untamed - 55 posts

#dracula daily - 31 posts

#lol - 27 posts

#wow - 20 posts

#art - 17 posts

#stray kids - 17 posts

#😄 - 16 posts

#😆 - 15 posts

#😆😆😆 - 13 posts

#omg - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 109 characters

#a-yuan is the same age when lwj wwx and nhs visit dafen pre-war as when lwj rescued him after tge seige at bm

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Jack:

Van Helsing:

39 notes - Posted September 13, 2022

#4

Van Helsing: although Jack is a trained medical professional, Lucy might not feel comfortable mentioning her periods in front of him. I'll subtly ask him to leave the room.

Tumblr dot com: oh HO!!! Van Helsing m.d. PhD etc etc says Jack doesn't know ladies!!! He roast him!!! AHAHAHA Jack's such a loser!! No bitches for you!!

42 notes - Posted September 6, 2022

#3

I'm really sad to hear about the passing of our beloved friend Lucy Westenra. She fought until the bitter end and deserved so much better.

55 notes - Posted September 21, 2022

#2

I think the wildest experience reading Dracula Daily is the realisation that every other piece of "Dracula" media I've been exposed to is actually ooc fanfics of a rare pair despite Mina canonicaly hating the count 👀

177 notes - Posted October 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

"How can he' [...] 'know anything of a young ladies?"

Really appreciating the fact that Van Helsing was like "get outta here Seward! Now tell me Lucy, have your periods been heavier than normal? Are you having abdominal pains? Could it be a miscarriage?"

Because yes her symptoms are related to excessive bleeding... it just so happens that in this case it is from her neck...

250 notes - Posted September 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[lord-of-the-ducks]

Ok but everyone collectively having a Dracula book club is perfectly timed because I literally just started coming up with a Dracula AU for Our Flag Means Death yesterday for reasons completely unrelated to Dracula daily. I was a little worried that I’d be the only one who actually has any interest in that sort of thing, but I guess I’m very wrong lol

Anyway, so here’s a basic outline of what I’ve got so far. If anyone wants to run with this and write their own fanfics or something, go ahead, just tag me so that I can read the hell out of it

Blackbeard as Dracula because if you really think about it, their characters are EXTREMELY similar. In some of the more humanizing moments, Dracula laments that even if he knows how to speak English, that doesn’t mean that he’d actually fit in London, and that he’d still stick out like a sore thumb. Pretty much exactly like Blackbeard’s desire to fit in with the nobles in episode 5. Dracula isn’t even a name, it’s an epithet, and so you bet your ass I’m gonna run with the parallels to the Blackbeard title

Stede as Jonathan because they’re both chronic dumbasses who have no idea what they’re doing and completely disregard the red flags that everyone around them have been begging them to look at. Also because it is my firm belief that Jonathan and Dracula should have kissed.

Mary as Mina. I love Mina Harker and don’t want to just dismiss her as “the female love interest”, and I think that Jonathan and Mina have a very sweet relationship, but in a theoretical Dracula AU fit, Mary makes the most sense as “woman who doesn’t hear from her fiancé for months before he finally gets found in a hospital in Budapest with PTSD”. If I do end up writing a full fan fiction, I’ll try to make sure that she isn’t just an obstacle to Blackstede and that she gets to have the cool moments that Mina has in the book

Lucius as Lucy because they’re both polyamorous and they both get killed/almost killed by Dracula/Blackbeard. Also, someone on discord pointed out that their names are basically the same already

Jim as Van Helsing because the prospect of Jim as a vampire hunter who acts first and then explains nothing until the very last minute is perfect to me. Also, I’m pretty sure Van Helsing’s wife was killed by vampires, and that could easily translate into Jim having their family killed by vampires as a motivation.

Oluwande as John Seward. This is something I still need to work on a bit since a large part of Seward’s character is that he’s in love with Lucy, but besides that, Seward is one of the few characters who actually has brain cells, and he’s also paired up with Van Helsing for most of the novel and since Jim is already filling that role, it makes sense to have Olu as their sidekick.

Black Pete as Arthur Holmwood just because he’s dating Lucius in the show and Arthur is boring enough that it’s very easy to copy and paste Black Pete in his place.

Dracula’s wives are Izzy, Ivan, and Fang, just because that’s Blackbeard’s crew. The wives aren’t really developed in the book so it’s very easy to just throw them in. I am also incredibly amused by the prospect of Izzy being Blackbeard’s malewife and getting scolded for almost eating Stede

Buttons is Mr. Swales and I will not be taking any questions at this time. I’m correct.

That’s everything I have so far. I’m still trying to figure out who to cast as Quincey Morris, the third of Lucy’s suitors and resident cowboy. I’m tempted to throw in Calico Jack purely because of the cowboy vibes he gives off, but it doesn’t make much sense besides that.

I do have an idea of what the story would look like, and I’m VERY excited because it’s surprisingly easy to tweak the story of Dracula to fit OFMD, but I don’t want to throw all of my ideas out here since I’m genuinely interested in seeing other people’s ideas of what this AU might look like

[the-golden-ghost]

Dracula: A Comprehensive Summary

Part 1 (I wrote the whole thing out and it was too long, so I’m gonna do it in parts.)

This is so that @necromancy-savant can participate in that sweet, sweet Classroom Discussion and Get An A

Also because I was super bored HERE WE GO:

Chapter 1:

Here we meet the guy who you’d think would be our hero but isn’t, Jonathan Harker. He is a good soul. Really likes his fiancee, Mina.

He is traveling to Transylvania to meet his new client, a gentleman known as Count Dracula.

As he’s going there he talks about the food too much and describes the scenery a lot. But what’s this? The locals constantly make the Anti-Evil Sign at him whenever he mentions his destination? Rumors abound of a warlock, demon or other spooky spook living in Dracula’s castle?

But that’s surely all superstitious nonsense, says Jon. Those silly locals.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also wolves exist outside the castle and some of them chase Jon’s carriage so surely this is going to be a good trip.

(Also just a note on how the book is written; it’s done in like a collage format, with different parts being done as different people’s journals, or sometimes as memos, letters, or news articles. The first bit is Jon’s travel diary, and then later in the book the narrator will switch like crazy, sometimes multiple times per chapter. It’s a weird style so I thought I’d point that out.)

Chapter 2:

Now it’s time to meet our villain, Count Dracula!

Dracula is this weird old dude with wild hair and a monobrow and protruding fangs and hairy... palms. Yeah really. Jon thinks he’s just the Ugliest Shit but he doesn’t say anything, cause he’s very polite.

Dracula basically is a nice host and leaves Jon all alone at a table to eat like an entire roast chicken by himself. Because he doesn’t eat dinner. Ooooh spooky

Also he likes wolves. He has a bunch of pet wolves. Why?  We Just Don’t Know

Anyway the next day (or night, rather, since all of Drac’s meetings take place at night ooooh spooky) Dracula invites Jon to a business discussion in which they talk about real estate. Because heck

I guess Jon like sells real estate in London. Booyah

And then Dracula goes off on this long creepy tangent about nobility and his bloodline and loosely implies that he’s hundreds of years old.

Oh and he also really likes dead bodies cause that’s not weird

Then he ditches Jon again and Jon goes to shave in his bathroom, only for Dracula to show up for some reason. At which point Jon sees that Dracula does not show a reflection in the shaving mirror! Egad!

Panic ensues, Dracula gets pissed and tosses the mirror out the window, Jon cuts himself with the razor in the event, Drac sees blood and wigs out and briefly strangles Jon before he accidentally touches a crucifix that Jon conveniently had on his neck, which turns him Normal again. And then he just scolds Jon for having such an evil, wicked bad device as a mirror and leaves.

Jon is like “what the fuck how am I supposed to shave without my mirror though :/ “

The next day Jon’s like “all right fuck this shit I’m out” and realizes that - oh dear - he is Locked In.

Chapter 3:

I mean, he can wander around the castle but all the doors are locked.

The next day night Drac and Jon have a long talk about Transylvanian History. It’s boring.

Although Dracula does let it slip that he intends to keep Jon For All Eternity “for at least a month :) “

Jon’s like “ah FUCK no”

And Drac also lays down some Rules like “Don’t Write Letters Telling People How I Live” and “Don’t Wander Around the Castle At Night”

Jon’s like “whatever bro” and goes back to his room where he spots Dracula pulling some Spiderman bullshit along the side of the castle wall.

Like, crawling along the side “like a lizard”

Jon’s like “all right fuck this noise” and decides to break the Don’t Wander Around the Castle At Night rule.

He breaks into a locked room which is Clearly A Great Idea and wakes up - to no one’s shock except Jon’s - in moral peril.

Basically Dracula’s three wives live in that room and Boy Are They Hungry.

They attempt to eat Jon except Dracula shows up and tells them all to fuck off so they just retreat and eat a baby that they were carrying around in a bag? I guess?

Chapter 4:

Jon wakes up and everything seems normal. Or Is It?

It isn’t. Drac starts making him write Fake Letters home so that he can make it look like Jon vanished on the road home. Oh dear.

Jon begins trying to Escape. It fails miserably.

He also watches Dracula feed some lady to his pet wolves and realizes that He’s Next.

He eventually manages to spot Dracula in his coffin (in the daytime) Nopes the fuck out of there, and goes back to his room which is at this point the only place he feels safe. Ish.

He decides the next that he’s going to find Dracula’s Creepy Coffin and go and steal his key while he’s sleeping. (A+ Plan but he doesn’t really have a lot of options so)

He does this except he gets caught and proceeds to beat Dracula up with a shovel

He doesn’t find the key either. He just plans to Escape By Any Cost and also to rob Dracula while he’s at it because he feels like he’s entitled to financial compensation for putting up with this bullshit lol

AAAAND that’s the end of Jon! No, really. It just ends on a big ol’ cliffhanger and we make a jump to London to meet the rest of the cast. Eventually we find out what happened to poor Jonny, but.... it isn’t good. And that is why Jon is Not Our Hero! He’s not dead though don’t worry

Chapter 5:

Time to meet the Rest of the Squad!

Mina Murray (eventually, Harker) is our Fearless Heroine. She’s kind, she’s brave, she’s loyal, and she has All The Rationale and Reason of a Man (because nothing like good ol’ fashioned Sexism veiled as compliments!) She’s engaged to Jon.

Lucy Westenra is Mina’s Bestest Buddy and is also a good soul. She’s more of a Society girl. Engaged to a lord and stuff. She also doesn’t have a Man’s Brain :(

Lucy and Mina discuss their love lives through letters back and forth. Mina is waiting for news of Jon, Lucy, meanwhile, had proposals from THREE men!

Who are also significant characters so here we go

Lord Arthur Godalming is the man Lucy actually loves and decides to marry. He’s... I dunno. Pretty boring as a character tbh but he’s there a lot so I’ll mention him.

John Seward (yeah Stoker decided to have two guys with almost the same first name, gj, although Seward mostly goes by Seward and Jon goes by Jonathan) is a doctor at a local asylum. Which isn’t creepy. He likes to Study his patients I guess. I say “patients” loosely cause he only has one and Hoo Boy Are You Going To Hear About That One.

Quincy P. Morris is a cowboy. Yes. A cowboy, straight out of Texas. Why did we need to have a vampire-slaying cowboy? No reason, we just did, AND WE’RE GONNA LIKE IT.

Also Quincy, Arthur and Seward were like college friends or something idk

Moving on

Chapter 6:

Mina goes down to the dock and talks to a weird old man about superstitions of dead people coming to life. Fun times. She’s also trying to figure out where her fiance is :(

Seward actually does some doctor business to take his mind off the fact that Lucy rejected him. He adopts R. M. Renfield (the R. M. doesn’t stand for anything as far as we know) as a patient because he’s the most Interesting of all the lunatics.

And he confesses to pushing him to act more insane because he finds him interesting to study? Seward is a terrible doctor fyi

So Renfield is ah... fun. He keeps pets! Specifically, flies.

Seward says “no flies in your room :/ “ And Renfield promises to get rid of the flies.

So Renfield gets rid of the flies by using them to lure spiders so he can have New Pets!

Seward The Buzzkill says no spiders either

So Renfield just starts fucking eating the spiders AND the flies because He Can’t Have Nice Things. Also he wants to absorb their life

And then Renfield catches a sparrow! And tames it and keeps it as his friend and pet. How the fuck did he get a sparrow in his room? Uh

And then he gets a whole BUNCH of sparrows and any idiot could tell you this is going downhill but Seward is simply too Curious, you see

Anyway Renfield tries to get a kitten

Seward does not give Renfield a kitten

Anyway as it turns out Renfield fucking ate all his pet birds and Seward is like “aha! This is a victory for psychology! I have discovered a new form of lunatic!” and it’s like bro you already knew he was eating the flies, you dork

So Renfield never gets a kitten. :(

[missroserose]

I swear I thought I'd sent you asks last night, lol. I have some questions! What's one thing you love about Chicago? Miss about Alaska? Favorite comfort foods? What's one hobby you enjoy outside of fandom? What's your fav Trek series? Lol okay okay I'll stop!

Never stop, lovely. 💕

Love about Chicago:  Oh man, so many things.  World-class museums.  Parks everywhere.  Good (not great, but great for America) public transit.  The food!  The architecture!  The fact that no matter what time of year it is, there’s always something going on.  People love to complain about the taxes, but let me tell you:  I spent four years living in southern Arizona, paying every bit as much in tax (seriously, the sales tax had been bumped to almost 10% in the wake of the housing crisis, which had wiped out all the property taxes the state depended on, plus the state tax was the same) and for that money I got a big fat Nothing—it all seemed to go to building golf courses in Phoenix.  So yeah, I’m okay with paying that same amount to live in a city with a functioning infrastructure that helps to build this kind of vibrant community.

Miss about Alaska:  Honestly?  I never saw this coming, but…the mountains.  There’s no mountains in the Midwest, and I didn’t realize how fundamental they were to a sense of a place until I’d been here a good year and a half.  I remember looking out at the lake multiple times and thinking “that’s pretty, but something doesn’t look quite right…” and it wasn’t until I went back home to visit and was driving along the Seward Highway when I realized what was missing.

Favorite comfort foods:  Hrm.  I have a weird relationship with food—I resent the time it takes to prepare and eat, so day-to-day I will happily just live on the same five or six items that don’t take long, keep me going, and don’t tweak my blood sugar—but I love really well-prepared delicious meals, especially as a social experience.  So the answer might be “anything someone else makes for me”, haha.  I do love Mexican, especially good seasoned refried beans and carne asada.  Ooo, and queso fundido—there’s a place in Lincoln Square that has a chorizo variety.  Literally just a giant plate of melted cheese piled high with spiced sausage, greasy and artery-hardening and delicious.

Hobby outside of fandom:  I do a lot of various crafty things—sewing, embroidery, knitting, scrapbooking, what have you—but I tend to go on six-to-twelve-month benders with them and then set them aside for years at a time.  The two things I’ve kept picking up consistently are writing and music, though I’ve come to terms with the fact that I don’t have the drive to “do” anything with them—but hey, that’s what makes them hobbies!

Favorite Trek series:  Just going straight for the jugular, there, aren’t you? :P  Honestly, I like (and dislike) parts of all of them—with the possible exception of Enterprise, which I tried but truly could not get through the first season.  I tend to be drawn more to characters than specific series.  Growing up I loved Deanna Troi, which maybe isn’t surprising given the fields I went into (even though as an adult I recognize that she was underutilized and badly written and generally suffered from all kinds of sexism—if you haven’t seen the clip of Marina Sirtis telling the story of her various costume changes, you’re missing out).  Still, a sci-fi show acknowledging the importance of empathy and mental health was (and kind of still is) so unusual and I loved that.  As an adult (and now having access to Netflix so I can watch all of the episodes in order, rather than trying to piece things together via syndication), I really love Kira on DS9—she still had some issues with the sexism but damn if she doesn’t portray a once-idealistic now-broken character struggling to figure out how far she can trust the new and improved but flawed community around her, which is, like, my life story.  And I completely adore several of the characters on Discovery, including Tilly and my new possible #1 favorite Jett Reno.  Oh god I laugh so hard every time she’s onscreen and I really really hope she gets to be a regular character next season.

[copperbadge]

tienriu replied to your post “Almost got my ass kicked on an airplane”

Sam, you pulled an adult on some kid. And forgot that you're an actual facts adults. Also I bet you are now being immortalised in a 'this one time -' story a bunch of the people around you are telling.

LOL I’m not even sure if anyone else heard me, you know how airplane accoustics are, but he definitely did. :D I swear I just meant to think it to myself.

I don’t think I ever really internalized that I’m an actual facts adult myself -- it took me realizing that this kid was probably 15-20 years younger than me to realize that I actually appear to have authority.  

winds-wanderer replied to your photo “Man, you guys, the Guggenheim is EVEN UGLIER IN PERSON. Nothing...”

Funny stories re the Guggenheim (from former prof who used to work there as an art handler). 1. The walls are a bitch for hanging art. Many drill bits were required. 2. The incline of each floor was too steep for driving small vehicles carrying art work. As for me, the distance between the wall and the rail is too narrow, preventing proper viewing of big art works. So Guggenheim = great architecture, shitty space for displaying art.

Yeah, I did a bit of reading on it and Frank Lloyd Wright never seems to be really interested in the ultimate use of the piece -- I think he was really a frustrated installation artist before they existed (hence the frustration). His architecture was art applied to structure, but he seemed heavily disinterested in what that structure was surrounding. 

jeanninedupree replied to your photo “Some photos I didn’t get to post today! Lanterns in a park in south...”

Sam, I don't know if you ever ran across the work of Rex Stout's sister Ruth, but it's well worth your time. She's mainly known as a gardening writer (author of "How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back") but her book "If You Would Be Happy" is good general philosophy of life.

Oh neat! I wasn’t aware of her, thank you. I’ll add it to my reading queue! 

jaythenerdkid-official replied to your photo “Some photos I didn’t get to post today! Lanterns in a park in south...”

I always read that the address of wolfe's brownstone (which changed quite a bit in the books, just like the name of wolfe's lawyer - IS IT NATHANIEL OR IS IT HENRY GEORGE,, REX) would put his house somewhere in the river. that plaque is so cool, though! wolfe is one of my favourite detectives. he and goodwin are my favourite bickering old married couple to go and visit when I'm feeling down.

Yeah, he shared with Conan Doyle a certain lack of concern with the finer details of his stories, but then I think he thought of them as fun little pulps -- he made them as literary as possible and he had some social commentary to make especially in the later ones, but I don’t think he ever thought they’d be seriously studied by people. 

There were definitely a lot of addresses I found when I decided I’d go searching for the brownstone (there aren’t any brownstones in that area anymore) but once I happened on the fact that there was a plaque, I decided to take the Wolfe Pack’s word for it :D 

sphinxyvic replied to your photo “Some photos I didn’t get to post today! Lanterns in a park in south...”

Gotta show this to Parhelion! We’ll have to look for it next time we’re in NYC!

It’s at 454 West 35th Street -- though I have to warn you there is no brownstone attached to it, it’s just a very nice kind of vintagey-designed apartment block. 

thetimesinbetween replied to your photo “Found hipster foodie Steve’s favorite coffee joint. (It is in...”

pause, i live here (in brooklyn)—where is this???

It’s called The Flat BKSpeed Coffee -- I guess it’s kind of a sales point for a coffee micro-roastery in the area? 

luthorchickv2 replied to your photo “Well I found something to top yesterday’s Vermeer.”

Was in a cab going up first when i was this post and managed to look out the window at exactly the right moment to see it.

Aw yay, how serendipitous! I actually quite like it, it’s weird and I’m not sure where it’s going but it’s having fun on the way there. According to news coverage, it’s meant to be a welcoming, whimsical first sight on the way to the new children’s hospital that’s going up nearby. 

persian-slipper replied to your photo “Well I found something to top yesterday’s Vermeer.”

Who is the artist? It isn't S. Johnson, is it?

No, although there is a Seward Johnson nearby, apparently, I passed close to it on the bus ride back from the doggo. It’s by Donald Lipiski. 

laughingacademy replied to your photo “Well I found something to top yesterday’s Vermeer.”

Too bad it wasn't raining, that causes the windshield wipers to turn on.

I HEARD. I was so mad too because it rained later that day! 

myotherblogisatardis replied to your post “The little statues are in the 14th St/8th Avenue stop, not 34th. St.”

Ohhhh... Those.... I *hate* those guys!

I have to admit the first ones I saw I was like “Oh, how cute!” and the second one I saw next to it I was like “Well that’s funny!” and then the more I saw the more creeped out I got. 

bobcatmoran replied to your photo “Okay kids, you said Ess-A-Bagel so here I am, and bagels aside, the...”

Midwesterner who lived in NY for a few years - I think the thing about NYC bagels isn't necessarily that the best NYC bagels are on a different plane than the best bagels in, say, Chicago. It's that the average NYC bagel is so, SO much better than the average bagel in a Midwestern city, even one as big as Chicago. And they're so ubiquitous.

That makes sense, and the ubiquity I will acknowledge -- the ease of getting a really good bagel in New York is undeniable. If I lived in a city where I could get bagels that good that easily, I’d have a bit of civic pride about it too.  

This does, however, reinforce my belief that people who hear the question “Hey where can I get good bagels in XYZ city” and respond “You can’t, go to New York” are being assholes. It’s not helpful, it just generates noise, and it’s worse now! Because it’s SO EASY to find good bagels in New York! New Yorkers should be sympathetic to the plights of those trying to find good bagels elsewhere. It’s the pettiest of punching-down maneuvers.   

truly-a-gryffindork replied to your photo “Okay kids, you said Ess-A-Bagel so here I am, and bagels aside, the...”

If you want a side of religious experience with your bagels you’ll have to go to Montreal

I am willing to test this hypothesis the next time I find myself in Montreal! 

lh7 replied to your post “Sam I have an important Chicago question: just north of the DuSable...”

hey @copperbadge​ this post on my blog was flagged

Thank you! Even Tumblr knows how atrocious Seward Johnson’s art is. I’ve had it unflagged. 

fanmouse replied to your photo “IT HAS BEEN A VERY EXCITING DAY. I went to Tal’s bagels for breakfast...”

I want to know if one of the silver pitchers in the Met collection belonged to Vermeer (or the model). Wishing you safe travels.

I actually backtracked yesterday morning to the public-access storage room and went through the rack of silver pitchers looking for one that matched, but alas, none had the right shape and spout. 

melinda-t-charville replied to your photo “Funnily enough mum used to complain that people randomly followed her...”

Thank you! I was able to find it now - you must have got a good deal bc they're selling it for $20 on Amazon!

Oh lord, you can definitely find it cheaper than that -- I saw it for like $8 using Google Shopping. Good luck in your quest! 

[the-golden-ghost]

Dracula: A Comprehensive Summary

(part 4. Now you all understand why this took 4 hours)

Chapter 19:

The Squad Discusses Renfield. Quincy’s like “okay dude either he’s an INCREDIBLY good actor, or you’ve got a sane man locked up in there”

Seward:  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They all break into Dracula’s house and mess with his pet doggos cause whatever. He’s not there anymore

Mina sleeps late the next morning uh oh

Van Helsing decides to talk to Renfield again and Renfield tells him to go fuck himself

Mina has been having trouble sleeping, and hears the barking of dogs in her dreams. Does this sound familiar? We’re in for it NOW

Chapter 20:

Dracula moved houses and now lives in a beer dispensary cause you know why not

Renfield is starting to lose it again. He is now terrified and haunted by the souls of the living

Seward thinks he’s gonna become a cannibal, and start eating people hence the ‘soul’ thing

He keeps insisting that he only eats living things for their life, and does not want the burdens of their souls. Seward realizes that Dracula got to him somehow and is now trying to turn him into some sort of living vampire OH shit

They go away for a bit to plan more Dracula Slayin’ until Seward gets a message from the asylum that Renfield got in an accident

He is dying

Chapter 21:

So it turns out Renfield somehow ripped the skin off his face, caved his head in and snapped his own neck

How is this possible, you ask? IT’S NOT.

Someone DID that to him. And the culprit?

Yeah it’s Drac lmao

Renfield basically says that Dracula has been sending him flies and moths and shit to eat and Renfield was loyal to him because he wanted some of that power

But then Drac started trying to hurt Mina

And since Everybody Loves Mina, including Renfield, Renfield decided to just straight-up Fite Dracula with his bare hands and he lost miserably and got fatally injured

He presumably dies from his injuries but we don’t get to know cause the Squad leaves immediately after that and so we never find out the ultimate fate of Renfield  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They hurry to Mina’s house and find some Freaky Shit going on.

Drac has her, is drinking her blood and is also making her drink HIS blood by holding her mouth to his chest which is like

Yuck

Drac bails when everyone comes in, and Mina is now Officially Cursed :(

So it’s only a matter of time before she ends up like Lucy...

Chapter 22:

The Drac Attack has caused Jon to lose it and Mina to think she’s cursed forever

Van Helsing’s like “nah you’re fine” and they go to a church to bless the devil out of her

Except all it does is burn a scar onto her forehead which makes everything worse honestly

Chapter 23:

Except PLOT TWIST now that Mina’s linked to Dracula she knows his every move. Suck on THAT, Drac!

So now even though she’s rapidly becoming a demon, they have a Spy on their side!

They keep breaking into Dracula’s hidey-holes to destroy his fake coffins but it doesn’t do anything really

They actually catch him one (1) time and try to kill him but he’s like “nah” and escapes

And leaves the country. Everyone is briefly like “oh cool problem solved” but Van Helsing is like “um no actually cause he still has Mina’s soul and if she dies even of old age without being freed she’ll still become a vampire” :(

Chapter 24:

ROAD TRIP TO TRANSYLVANIA

Eventually. Mostly they just Discuss it in this chapter

At first it’s just gonna be The Boys and they’re gonna leave Mina in safety and Jon to “protect” her (really it’s cause Jon is not well enough to go) but then Mina is like “no you need a spy so I’m coming too” and Jon, being the coolest and best husband ever, is like “I’ll go because my wife needs me :) “

Even though tbh she doesn’t but they love each other a lot

Ride-or-Die couple these two

Chapter 25:

Before they go a’Slayin’ Mina calls a meeting

And is like “hey listen if this ends up with me damned to hell for eternity to save you guys, I’m gonna fucking do it cause you’re my bros and I love you”

And then says “but get this: if there comes a point when I’m too far gone and there’s nothing left of me but a demonic shell, PLEASE fucking kill me.”

And they all agree to do it :(

Even though nothing could be worse for anyone than killing Mina. Since everyone loves her

And then, since it’s likely she’s not going to come out of this alive, Mina makes Jon read her burial service. :( But he doesn’t get all the way through because he’s too sad

Anyway FEELS OVER TIME TO SLAY A VAMPIRE

TRANSYLVANIA HERE WE COME

THIS ONE’S FOR LUCY and Renfield

Anyway it takes forever cause the train is delayed but that’s Eastern European rail service for you  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chapter 26:

They travel slow. Mina is spying all the way via hypnosis and mental link with Drac.

Quincy is like “LET’S KILL DRAC WITH A GUN” like an American

Everyone preps Battle Stations and Van Helsing decides to stay with Mina cause “he’s old and can’t fight” which is coward talk but heck

Literally the last few chapters are mainly planning and traveling I’m sorry but it gets dull right before The End

Chapter 27:

The End

Mina hates garlic now lol (the locals keep putting it in their food)

The Boys (including Jon) go to Vampire Slay and Van Helsing stays behind with Mina, putting her in a Holy Circle so she can’t get out lest she go Full Vampire, and also so that Drac can’t get in and take her or something.

While they’re hiding out, Drac’s wives come and try to lure Mina to them. It doesn’t work. But Van Helsing is also unable to link her to Drac via hypnosis now :(

Everyone writes their goodbye letters to each other :(

Van Helsing actually discovers Dracula’s Final Coffin and fucks it up so Drac can’t get in and rejuvinate. Rock on

The Boys meanwhile find Drac riding along to his castle on a cart and break into the box he’s traveling in and all four of them Do A Stab on him. Which actually kills him! Who knew!

They didn’t even use garlic or anything just knives. It was really That Easy

Quincy got fatally wounded in the fight though, but as he’s dying he points up at Mina’s forehead, where the scar left by the blessing is gone, and she is free.

NICE EPILOGUE: Everyone is happy, Mina and Jon have a baby named Quincy, Seward and Arthur got married (Bram Stoker said Gay Rights) and Van Helsing is like... the Team Dad idk

And it ends the way it begins: with Everybody Loving Mina.

No literally the last sentence of the book is about how much everyone loves Mina lmao

And that’s a wrap on Dracula! Now you never have to read it, because boy oh boy is it ever a trip