#michigan ritual

[gothdaddyissues]

Clarkston, Michigan - August 14, 2023

Images by Shyanne Rese (posted with permission)

[sillingers]

columbus blue jackets’ hockey is for everyone night!

[snekdood]

ok, im sorry winter haters, but i fucking love cold weather

[all-that-jazz-93]

Carrying on my tradition of doing the four things I did when I came back to Chicago seven years ago

[luulapants]

stop feeling hopeless, start getting ready

If you are in a red state, your state either has an abortion ban in place or is rated by the Guttmacher Institute as likely to enact a ban. Your focus should be on protecting yourself and others who need abortions.

stop using electronic period tracking apps or software

educate yourself and others about pregnancy prevention and join groups that are making preventative birth control more accessible

learn the nearest and most accessible routes to states where you and your loved ones can access abortion

contribute to mutual aid funds to help transport people over state lines if they are in need of abortion

consider joining The Satanic Temple so you can claim protections under the Religious Abortion Ritual if you are prosecuted for obtaining an abortion

keep a stock of by-mail abortion pills for yourself and/or others who may need them (you may need to travel out of state to obtain them)

form community provider networks and see if you or someone you know can be trained to use manual vacuum aspiration kits or a Del-Em

all of the above should be done in complete secrecy using verbal communication, end-to-end encrypted apps such as Signal, or a VPN

If you are in a yellow state, you currently have constitutional abortion protections but they are in jeopardy. Get active in local political groups NOW to fight back against constitutional amendments to ban abortion. Your focus should be purely on political action.

If you are in Michigan, you currently have a ban in place which is being challenged, and your governor is working to add abortion protections into the Michigan state constitution. Your focus should be on supporting the work that is currently under way.

If you are in a green state, your state has constitutional protections for abortion that are unlikely to be challenged. Your focus should be on helping others to enter your state for abortion care.

connect with abortion access groups such as Aid Access, Abortion on Demand, the National Network of Abortion Funds, or Just The Pill

volunteer to help people enter your state for abortion care, either with transportation help or letting someone crash on your couch

if you live in a green state with no current or predicted primary routes from other states for abortion access, you can focus your efforts on supporting political action in other areas

If you are in a purple state, your state currently has no constitutional protections for abortion but is unlikely to implement a ban. You have two focuses: pushing for constitutional protections AND helping others to enter your state for abortion care (see green state list).

[letsgetrowdy43]

Domestic bliss—

Quinn Hughes x reader

Request: Quinn asking his girlfriend to move in with him

Quinn had been on a two-week roadie, and by the end of the second week, he wanted nothing more than to fly back to his apartment, to her, so he could be held in the comfort of his bed.

When the time came and he was home, pulling out his keys and unlocking the door, he was met with the reality of his dark and cold apartment. His house looked the same and when he had left, it was untouched and unloved in his absence and he hated it.

Quinn sent her a text asking her to come over for the night as he entered his bathroom to shower, the stress of the away games rolling off of his back with every step into his apartment, making it a ritual to leave the stress of work at the door, not bringing it into his safe space.

A soft smile took over his face as he opened his cabinet mirror to see her toothbrush in the cup, and many other little self-care items she had left in their designated spot in his bathroom. He loved that she took up room in his life, loved that he could go into every room in his apartment and see reminders of her, she was a constant presence and he loved it. Almost as much as he loved her.

She got in the door just as he got out of the shower, a shy smile on her lips as he walked out of the bathroom with wet hair and a towel around his waist. "Hey dove," his cheeks grew flushed as he walked into the kitchen where she was leaning up against the counter, a growing grin on his face as she pulled him in for a hug, "missed you so much, you have no idea." "I think I have some idea," she whispered back, taking a deep breath and inhaling the smell of soft eucalyptus radiating off of him as she pulled away, she took his face into her hands and planted a kiss right on his lips, "now get dressed, I wanna make dinner and watch a movie."

He made a bee-line to his room to grab some clothes, a warm smile on his face as she trailed right behind him. Quinn dug up some pyjamas for himself and her, handing her an old shirt to change into as well, his eyes wandering as she stripped herself of her work shirt, a smirk on his lips as she caught his stare. "Creep," she mumbled as he shook his head. "Just admiring how perfect you are," he shrugged as she pulled the shirt over her head. The look of his old Michigan shirt on her made him weak in the knees, adoring how heavenly she looked, the fabric showing just the right amount of thigh, she was honestly an angel Her laugh was like music to his ears as she kissed both of his cheeks, her heart pounding as his hands gently squeezed her torso, never getting used to how electrifying his touch was on her skin.

She then stripped herself of her jeans, "can you grab me the shorts I left here last month," another example of her life overlapping with his, the thought of her clothes mixed in with his made him feel a little dizzy, the domesticity of it all was perfect. "And what if I don't want to?" he asked, a hint of suggestion in his voice as she rolled her eyes at him. "You want me to make dinner in my underwear?" He looked at her with a knowing look, "I wouldn't object." She let out a huff of fake annoyance, "fine," she grinned before making her way to the kitchen.

She stood over the stove, a grin on her face as she began making breakfast for dinner, his favourite comfort food. He loved how she just knew things about him like that, it made him feel all bubbly inside, heart-melting even.

He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her torso, head dipping in the crook of her neck as she started the scrambled eggs, "Dove, I think I'm obsessed with you," he mumbled into her skin, hands gripping her his shirt. Her face grew hot at the confession, but she played it off as if it had no effect whatsoever, "sounds a bit like a 'you' problem Q." "It is a problem, and a growing one, I can't get enough of you," he placed a wet kiss on the exposed skin of her neck, a chill running up her spine at the purest form of love he was displaying.

"I'm gonna burn the eggs if you keep it up." "Burn them for all I care, just need you," he grinned at the vibrations her laugh sent through him. "You can have me all you want the moment you're fed and we are in bed watching a movie" she reasoned as he let out a pretend groan and returned to unpacking his away bag.

Once dinner was done and eaten Quinn had taken it upon himself to load up the dishwasher, not wanting to put in the energy of hand washing, as she readied herself for bed and picked out the movie for the night.

She laid basically on top of Quinn as he ran his fingers through her hair, limbs a tangled mess as they watched whatever comedy she had decided to play. "You played really well this trip, you're getting really close to beating that record," she grinned into his skin. "You've been keeping up with my stats?" he asked, voice hoarse from the tired state he was in. "Of course, I watch every game," She moved up on the bed to be face-to-face with him, "I think I'm obsessed with you," she quoted him with a grin as he leaned forward to peck her on the lips.

He stared at her for a second, eyes tracing over her features, words on the tip of his tongue as her fingers ran up and down the length of his arm. "Y'know I was gone for two weeks and you were all I could think about," he whispered, his thumb gently running over the apples of her cheek, "and how I couldn’t wait to get home to you, I've never felt that way about anyone before."

She blinked, her eyes full of adoration as she smiled at his confession, "I missed you an unhealthy amount, always forget how much the distance sucks," her hand held the wrist of his that was cradling her face. "I'm sorry" "Don't apologize for living out your dreams," she shook her head slightly, "besides if you weren't you we never would've met, and I would never have the bragging rights that I have a hot superstar defenseman boyfriend, what's the fun in that?" He laughed as she leaned forward and kissed just below his eye, "I never really believed in soulmates, but if life had been different, I still think we would've made our way to each other," he mumbled, arm looping around her waist to pull her into his chest, chin resting on top of her head, "I would've made sure to find you, in this life, and every other one after it." "You're such a sap," he laughed again, her lips placed gentle open-mouthed kisses to his arm.

"All week I was itching to get home, and when I got here everything felt so wrong." "Why?" "You weren't here, my house was lacking my real home, you," he said truthfully, Her eyes began to water at his words, head dizzy from the amount of love she was holding for him. "And it made me realize that I don't think I ever want to come home to a house if you're not living with me in it," she pulled away to look at him again, his crooked smile found its way onto his expression, and his eyes were filled with some sort of relief from the revelation.

She returned his smile with a dopey grin, "are you asking me to move in?" "Only if you want to Dove, if you're not ready, that's okay, but I'd love to know that when I get home you'll be here waiting for me." The girl placed a kiss on the hand intertwined with her, "I'll always be here for you, for however long you'll have me," she admitted, a bit embarrassed by how her eyes had begun to water again and face filled with bush at her confession. "So forever sounds good to you?" she nodded as he dipped his head down to capture her lips in a slow kiss, not one filled with hunger, or desperation, no, one that showed his love for her. It was tender and caring, and so full of emotion that even his eyes began to fill with tears.

And in that moment he knew that this wasn't just about having some sort of domestic bliss with her, this was a future in the making, a whole life flashing before his eyes as her hands gently tugged at his damp curls. Melodic laughter left her lips as he broke away for a second to whisper a short ‘I love you’ before pulling her as close as humanly possible in to his chest.

-

-

-

[talonabraxas]

Eclipse Portal Order of the Solar Temple

Many aspects of our world offer compelling ways to see our deep time history, Ancestors, and often similar ways to think about future generations. For me, total solar eclipses are a wonderful case of this. Total solar eclipses are not common. In any given place (say, the Sphinx of Egypt, Mt. Fuji in Japan, or the Yucatan Peninsula, etc.), one needs to wait usually many centuries from one to the next total solar eclipse. For me here in Detroit, Michigan (which will be missed by the path on April 8th), the most recent total solar eclipse was in 1806, and the next one is in 2444, a wait of over 600 years! What if it were possible, when a total solar eclipse happens, to look from one’s current time and place, to see out into another time and place when a total solar eclipse happened or will happen? An eclipse portal?

As with so much in our world today, science can bring us some ability to do exactly this. We now know so much more about past times and our Ancestors, that you and I can often look up enough info to get a good idea of much of what you’d see if you could look through a literal eclipse portal. I find it incredible to realize how much more we know now about life in so many ancient times compared to even our great-grandparents! Plus, we know when and where total solar eclipses happened, going back thousands of years!

The idea of eclipse portals – of using a total solar eclipse as a mental tool to step into the world of one our Ancestors (all the way back!), can be used in one’s eclipse ritual, guided meditations (both during the eclipse and at any other time), group ritual (I led a guided eclipse meditation back in 2017), and more. That means that we can find a time and place of interest, and use the emotional and psychological power of the eclipse (either during the eclipse or outside of it) to enrich our experience of envisioning this other time.

[copperbadge]

Always nice to see Chicago popping up on Duolingo.

Although...all I can think about is going into a Paris post office and telling the cashier I was from Chicago. Most Europeans, when I said I was from Chicago, immediately said "Ah! Al Capone!" but this guy had a nephew who had visited and come back with stories, so he said, "Ah! Lake Michigan!"

And as I opened my mouth to express my joy at his knowing Lake Michigan, he leaned in a little and said, very seriously, "Vast."

Indeed, we do have a Lake Michigan, and it is Vast.

(Also just gonna drop in a quick summoning ritual here and tag @chicago-mentioned .)

[ID: A screenshot of Duolingo featuring the character of Oscar; he is saying "Si chiama la citta ventosa" which I have correctly translated to "It is called the windy city."]

[gothhabiba]

For Hobsbawm and Ranger, historicizing tradition means finding the historical means by which a tradition was first invented and then naturalized as tradition. Tradition is sharply distinguished from custom [...]. Custom simply refers to a set of practices that combine flexibility in substance with formal adherence to precedent [...]. Tradition, on the other hand, is a set of rituals and symbolic practices that are fundamentally ideological rather than practical. Tradition, as Hobsbawm uses it, is bad, because it is usually a kind of modern ideological mystification which is installed as a constant by the elites and governments whose real interests are thereby served. To show that traditions are invented is in effect to show that traditions are not true, nor real, not legitimate.

[...] The clearest example of how the "invention of tradition" ploy can go wrong can be seen in the article by Hugh Trevor-Roper, "The Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland" (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983, 15-41). Trevor-Roper begins by arguing that the kilt, the tartan, "the clan, and even the bagpipe, rather than being signs of great antiquity and cultural distinction, are "in fact largely modern." If these things existed before the Union with England at all, Trevor-Roper asserts, they did so only in "vestigial form," and as signs of "barbarism." Trevor-Roper goes on: "Indeed, the whole concept of a distinct Highland culture and tradition is a retrospective invention. Before the later years of the seventeenth century, the Highlanders of Scotland did not form a distinct people (15)." And so Trevor-Roper proceeds to demonstrate, with convincing historical flair and wit, the recent vintage of Scottish national culture.

The only problem with Trevor-Roper's argument is that while Hobsbawm debunks mystification in general as well as in the particular forms of its manipulation by states, ruling classes, or colonial powers, Trevor-Roper debunks the the necessary claims of Scottish nationalists — necessary because of the hegemonic terms that became set in the eighteenth century for nationalist or populist political aspirations — that Scotland had its own authentic traditions, epics, and histories. Indeed, Trevor-Roper's argument has a genuine colonial ring to it, for, in recounting the invention of clans and kilts and the forgery of the great epic Ossian, it uses smug notions of authenticity and historical privilege to contest what appear to be absurd claims about Scottish customs and traditions. At the same time, and with similar colonial resonance, Trevor-Roper uses his historical mastery to conceal his own moral position, one that appears to justify, at least to support, the unification claims of the British state. The effort to historicize tradition and custom can thus both expose the mystifications of cultural hegemony, and be appropriated by them. When historical methods are used as if the methods themselves are exempted from historical scrutiny and critique, history becomes a way of deauthenticating everything but its own authority, denigrating difference and displacing the categories and logics of historical discourse.

– Nicholas Dirks, "Is Vice Versa? Historical Anthropologies and Anthropological Histories." In The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences. Terrence J. McDonald, ed. pp. 17–51. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 21–2.

[mifhortunach]

Horror Short Films You Can Watch For Free - Right Now!

Just a 'small' post collecting some less well known horror short films that you can find mostly on youtube & vimeo! All worth a look!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUNGAZER 9min, 2020 (You'll have to log in to vimeo to watch this one!) "A short, wordless horror film about the terrors lurking just beyond the veil of reality." - Or, a man waits, and performs a ritual. Wicked atmospheric, manages to really paint a world despite the run-time. Looks great as well. [TW: flashing lights, body horror, harsh noise]

The Color Out of Space 5min, 2017 "A meteorite, strange vegetation, a colour: an experimental take on H.P. Lovecraft's spiral into madness, shot with a vintage camera on truly unique LomoChrome 16mm film." <- All accurate! Eerie little film.

My House Walk-through: 12min, 2016

Short, sweet, and unnerving!! The person who made this has done a tonne of other (more classical) 'internet horror' shorts, but this is a really wonderful & understated piece. Visually it feels very PT inspired, but its even more about atmosphere and repetition. Worth checking out the making of as well, pretty much the whole thing was done practically!! [TW: unsanitary conditions, blood]

Possibly in Michigan 12min, 1983

Cecilia Condit mostly does weird, dreamy short films. They have a kind of cake with a worm inside feeling, if you get me; things are rotting inside. This one is a cannibal musical! [TW: cannibalism, unreality, insects, murder, animal death]

The Black Tower 23min, 1987

More unsettling than scary. A man finds himself followed by a mysterious building. I really love how this one gets built up visually. The most like a tma episode out of all of these, or something out of Blue Jam. You can read more stuff about it here! [TW: unreality, talk of mental institutions, disordered eating]

Heck 29min, 2020 If you've seen any of these, I think it'll probably be this one. Its the short that originally inspired Skinamarink. I personally kind of prefer this. Digitally gritty and mean. [TW: Same warnings as skinamarink for the most part, there's a kid in danger, a little body horror].

Juliet in Paris 18min, 1967

Juliet moves to Paris for college, is lonely, and keeps losing blood. Kind of a vampire thing? But also not a vampire thing. Vibes and vignette heavy.

[TW: blood, animal death, self harm]

Dawn of an Evil Millennium 20min, 1988 (in 3 parts!)

A palette cleanser! Getting a honourary nomination through me hearing about it on a found footage podcast (lol). A trailer for an 18hr movie that doesn't exist; staring demons, 'olds mobiles', space-travel and cops. Deeply 80s, kind of ooey-gooey, pretty fun! [TW: some vomiting, a lot of fake blood gets splashed about]

Thanks for reading!

[viasplat]

I typed up the Pentiment bibliography for my own use and thought I’d share it here too. In case anyone else is fixated enough on this game to embark on some light extra-curricular reading

I haven’t searched for every one of these books but a fair few can be found via one of the following: JSTOR / archive.org / pdfdrive.com / libgen + libgen.rocks; or respective websites for the journal articles.

List below the cut!

Beach, Alison I, Women as Scribes: Book Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Bavaria. Cambridge University Press, 2004

Berger, Jutta Maria. Die Geschichte der Gastfreundschaft im hochmittelalterlichen Mönchtum die Cistercienser. Akademie Verlag GmbH, 1999

Blickle, Peter. The Revolution of 1525. Translated by Thomas A. Brady, Jr. and H.C. Erik Midelfort. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985

Brady, Thomas A., Jr. “Imperial Destinies: A New Biography of the Emperor Maximilian I.” The Journal of Modern History, vol.62, no.2, 1990. pp. 298-314

Brandl, Rainer. “Art or Craft? Art and the Artist in Medieval Nuremberg.” Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg 1300-2550. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986

Byars, Jana L., “Prostitutes and Prostitution in Late Medieval Barcelona.” Masters Theses. Western Michigan University, 1997

Cashion, Debra Taylor. “The Art of Nikolaus Glockendon: Imitation and Originality in the Art of Renaissance Germany.” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, vol.2, no.1-2, 2010

de Hamel, Christopher. A History of Illuminated Manuscripts. Phaidon Press Limited, 1986

Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. Translated by William Weaver. Mariner Books, 2014

Eco, Umberto. Baudolino. Translated by William Weave. Boston, Mariner Books, 2003

Fournier, Jacques. “The Inquisition Records of Jacques Fournier.” Translated by Nancy P. Stork, San Jose University, 2020

Geary, Patrick. “Humiliation of Saints.” In Saints and their cults: studies in religious sociology, folklore, and history. Edited by Stephen Wilson. Cambridge University Press, 1985. pp. 123-140

Harrington, Joel F. The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013

Hertzka, Gottfied and Wighard Strehlow. Große Hildegard-Apotheke. Christiana-Verlag, 2017

Hildegard von Bingen. Physica. Edited by Reiner Hildebrandt and Thomas Gloning. De Gruyter, 2010

Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. Translated by Barry Windeatt. Oxford University Press, 2015

Karras, Ruth Mazo. Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others. Routledge, 2017

Kerr, Julie. Monastic Hospitality: The Benedictines in England, c.1070-c.1250. Boydell Press, 2007

Kieckhefer, Richard. Forbidden rites: a necromancer's manual of the fifteenth century. Sutton, 1997

Kümin, Beat and B. Ann Tlusty. The World of the Tavern: Public Houses in Early Modern Europe. Routledge, 2017

Ilner, Thomas, et al. The Economy of Dürnberg-Bei-Hallein: an Iron Age Salt-mining Centre in the Austrian Alps. The Antiquaries Journal, vol. 83, 2003. pp. 123-194

Làng, Benedek. Unlocked Books: Manuscripts of Learned Magic in the Medieval Libraries of Central Europe. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008

Lindeman, Mary. Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2010

Lowe, Kate. “'Representing' Africa: Ambassadors and Princes from Christian Africa to Renaissance Italy and Portugal, 1402-1608.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Sixth Series, vol. 17, pp. 101-128

Meyers, David. “Ritual, Confession, and Religion in Sixteenth-Century Germany.” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, vol. 89, 1998. pp. 125-143

Murat, Zuleika. “Wall paintings through the ages: the medieval period (Italy, twelfth to fifteenth century).” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, vol. 12, no. 191. Springer, October 2021. pp. 1-27

Overty, Joanne Filippone. “The Cost of Doing Scribal Business: Prices of Manuscript Books in England, 1300-1483.” Book History 11, 2008. pp. 1-32

Page, Sophie. Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013

Park, Katharine. “The Criminal and the Saintly Body: Autopsy and Dissection in Renaissance Italy.” Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 1, Spring 1994. pp. 1-33

Rebel, Hermann. Peasant Classes: The Bureaucratization of Property and Family Relations under Early Habsburg Absolutism, 1511-1636. Princeton University Press, 1983

Rublack, Ulinka. “Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Female Body in Early Modern Germany.” Past & Present, vol. 150, no. 1, February 1996. pp. 84-110

Salvadore, Matteo. “The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John's Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458.” Journal of World History, vol. 21, no. 4, 2011. pp. 593 - 627

Sangster, Alan. “The Earliest Known Treatise on Double Entry Bookkeeping by Marino de Raphaeli”. The Accounting Historians Journal, vol. 42, no. 2, 2015. pp. 1-33.

Throop, Priscilla. Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: The Complete English Translation of Her Classic Work on Health and Healing. Healing Arts Press, 1998

Usher, Abbott Payson. “The Origins of Banking: The Primitive Bank of Deposit, 1200-1600.” The Economic History Review, vol. 4, no. 4, 1934. pp. 399-428

Waldman, Louis A. “Commissioning Art in Florence for Matthias Corvinus: The Painter and Agent Alexander Formoser and his Sons, Jacopo and Raffaello del Tedesco.” Italy and Hungary: Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance. Edited by Péter Farbaky and Louis A. Waldman, Villa I Tatti, 2011. pp. 427-501

Wendt, Ulrich. Kultur und Jagd: ein Birschgang durch die Geschichte. G. Reimer, 1907

Whelan, Mark. “Taxes, Wagenburgs and a Nightingale: The Imperial Abbey of Ellwangen and the Hussite Wars, 1427-1435.” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 72, no. 4, 2021, pp. 751-777.e

Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2008

Yardeni, Ada. The Book of Hebrew Script: History, Paleography, Script Styles, Calligraphy & Design. Tyndale House Publishers, 2010

[xxgoblin-dumplingxx]

I can picture handyman!jason helping miss Maggie with her car like…. Thinking of Jason in a tank top with grease covered hands, working in the heat, gently swiping away sweat from his eyebrow, trying not to get grease on his forehead is doing something to me rn 😵‍💫🫠

Jason looked up from where he was working on his bike and blinked.

Living across from the pool had it's hazards. He'd seen more flabby ass and geriatric mating rituals than he ever cared to... But today, laying on a tanning chair in the blazing sun- was you.

And his initial assessment of your chest still stood. And the rest of you... holy god. The man you'd left back in Michigan was blind or stupid.

He jerked his head back down, forcing himself to focus on his bike. You were getting leered at by men old enough to be your grandfather. You didn't need him doing it to. But- damn. He adjusted himself, shifting over and coughed. It had been a while. A long while. And it didn't help that he was already so... aware of you. Your comings and goings.

Out and about with Maggie and her little cohort of cantankerous older ladies. To and from work. Just living your life. But... There was a subtle way the air changed. It seemed to get staticky and crackle. A breeze that always blew through your hair just the right way.

It made him want... things that he'd always been afraid to want. More than a fling or a one night stand.

"Fucking damn it," he muttered, fumbling with his tools. Not noticing until a shadow had fallen over him. And he looked up, blinking in surprise.

"I- hi-" he said, coughing again. Rocking back on his heels to be able to look into your face better, "everything ok?"

"Fine," you tell him, hitching your tote closer on your shoulder, "I just wanted to apologize for the other night I-"

"It's fine," he said getting to his feet and wiping sweat out of his eyes with the back of his hand. "I had a good time-"

"Maggie means well she just-"

"I'm the only single guy under 40 she sees on a regular basis," he said grinning. "At least that she'd want to set you up with-"

"It's true," you tell him ruefully. "She had me drive her and her girls to a male strip club last week-"

"Oh no."

"She tried to buy me a lap dance."

"Do anything for you?" he teased. "I mean-"

"He was sweet, just not my type," you tell him. "Working his way through nursing school. And he has a lovely boyfriend."

"Aww."

"So I guess we're going shopping some time." You shrug and smile a little.

Jason bit his lip for a moment and exhaled slowly, "I uh- dinner was really good."

"Thanks, Mags loves her Tex Mex- remind her of her first husband I think-"

"Maybe I should return the favor and cook for you sometime," he blurted.

You blink for a second. The words not quite sinking in and Jason holds his breath. Waiting.

"I'd like that," you say, looking away. "We just can't tell Maggie-"

"Oh god no," Jason agreed, laughing as he let out the breath he was holding, "She'll have a church booked and a honeymoon planned before we make it to dessert."

[starry-hughes]

https://www.tumblr.com/starry-hughes/743959022096596993/kendall-almost-breaks-up-with-elias-when-it

NO

the season had ended. elias and kendall both just wanted to rest. kendall was nursing a sprained ankle throughout all of playoffs. it was hard to even lace her skates up for the final games.

elias and her are packing for the summer and quinn calls, he’s already in michigan. “i don’t know who told the media. but they know.”

kendall panics, opening twitter and there it is. a story about how the canucks locker room functioned while in the playoffs. one paragraph. “pettersson, seen exiting the locker room of kendall, seems to have a pregame ritual of kissing her before the game starts, former canucks employee says, confirming that the two phenomenal players are together.”

she thinks she can live in bliss ignorance. but then it gets worse. “seems we know how she gets her contracts now.” and “now we know why they wanted to stay in vancouver.” and “bad look for kendall. making it seem like you can play like shit and then fuck your allstar teammate to be able to stay employed.”

it causes the huge fight. “you’re really going to end us for this?” elias shouts. “my reputation is on the line here elias! you don’t understand! i fought so hard to get here-”

“you always say that as if i didn’t work hard to get jere too.”

she stares at him in disbelief. “cancel my ticket to sweden. i’m not going with you.”

[lemonlyman-dotcom]

Nice ask! Do you have any frivolous lone star headcanons? (ie, something that doesn’t matter to the plot and maybe there’s no real evidence for but you believe it anyway)

Hello! Thank you for this very nice ass(k) 🍑

I do!!

Paul lived with Owen and TK for the first couple months when he moved down to Austin. That’s why he’s got such a close easy-going relationship with TK and why he’s not phased by any of Owen’s idiosyncrasies.

Paul is a diehard Michigan football fan. This is because his father went to University of Michigan, and would drive 3.5 hours from Chicago to Ann Arbor for every home game. When Paul was a kid, his dad would bring him to games sometimes. He has very fond memories of those long drives with his dad, listening to music and chatting. If they won his dad would stop at a roadside diner and get him a blackberry milkshake. (He would if they lost too, but then they’d also split a piece of pie). He and TK drove over to Houston on Monday to watch them win the National Championship. On the way home they stopped for pie and blackberry milkshakes, and Paul told TK stories about games his dad took him to.

TK loves spicy food. Carlos was teasing in that pho scene in S3. He grew up eating all kinds of international cuisines in NYC, he loves chicken feet with his dim sum, and habanero hot sauce on his tacos and jerk chicken and egusi with scotch bonnet.

Paul & Carlos have eaten at all the West African restaurants in Austin, and they are on first-name basis with all the staff at this point.

Paul has been trying to recreate/perfect his grandma’s goat curry for years, and Carlos is his most eager taste tester.

In episode 3, after the police station scene & Carlos’s chat with Michelle, he’s still hesitant to reach out to TK. But then they have that scene where the woman falls on the car. And TK is so sweet, talking to her and rubbing her arm. I always kinda headcanon that Carlos saw him being all sweet with her and he was like “damn, okay worth it to put myself on the line for another shot with him.”

TK learned to drive when he moved to Austin, and he’s a very good driver, but he doesn’t particularly enjoy it. He’d much rather catch a ride or even take public transportation or walk if it’s not too hot. Carlos, on the other hand, spent a lot of money on his car and he does like to drive. So he’s usually the driver. But! He knows TK’s a good driver, and absolutely lets him drive the Camaro.

TK & Marjan have a ritual where they meet for pie & coffee at a diner in East Austin whenever one of them has had a tough day and they need someone to talk to, or even just to sit and be sad with. They have an unspoken pact that, no matter what they’re doing, if one of them calls or texts with a pie emergency they drop everything and show up for pie.

TK is a music nerd. He grew up immersed in the NYC indie music scene, he’s seen LCD Soundsystem play like 20 times, Gwyn took him to see Prince when he was 12, he’s got an extensive vinyl collection and also a box of old band T-shirts in Owen’s garage. Also he could wire any speaker system.

Paul’s sister has visited several times since we first met her. The Catan crew has adopted her, she thinks TK and Carlos are really weird but she loves them. She’s obsessed with Marjan and Nancy.

Paul has an extensive record collection ranging from 70s afrobeats to disco to classic rock n roll.

Marjan’s father was diagnosed with a rare, treatable but incurable cancer a couple years ago. When she found out she was devastated, and TK insisted on flying to Miami with her and staying with her family for a while to help out. One night he tried to make Andea’s chili relleno, because it always make him feel better when he’s sad, but he destroyed Marjan’s mom’s kitchen. He called Carlos out of desperation, and Carlos laughed and told him to toss everything and then ordered them all his favorite comfort foods to be delivered to the house. Carlos and Marjan now regularly make “fold in the cheese” jokes when TK cooks. Which is often!

Sorry this was very long!

🍋<3

[rustbeltjessie]

The rituals

Mostly involved stories. The legend of the monkey bars the red smell they left on your palms. The penny whistles

And the bullies. We jacked, we beanstalked.

—Jessie Lynn McMains, from “Deer Forest (Michigan Fairy Tales)” (Tupelo Press 30/30, Day 13)

Each day’s poems can be found here. My fundraising page for the month is here.

[edensliterarydiaries]

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. The dangerous pursuit of climbing the social ladder.

The Secret History (SH) is an account of a murder in Hampden College, New England, through the eyes of outsider Richard Papen. A academic life that is similar to Tartt’s own, this novel artistically blends the rational with romantic ideals. However, after reading this stunning narrative, I have to address the title, so many say, it ‘truly deserves’: A Modern Classic. SH can plausibly be classified as a psychological crime novel that is derivative of other writings before it. From Crime and Punishment to Sigmund Freud’s essays, Tartt transforms the ideals of college life and academic study into one of morose horror. The knowledge of characters is greatly outweighed by the clear obsession with academia. From a first person account, we never get to know Papen’s fellow classmates, or the teacher Julian Morrow, on any other level beyond physical appearance. Instead, we become familiar with their love of Greek stories and rituals (only to kill a local man in the process, oops 😬😯).

SH is ‘devoid of character but has plenty of personality… there is nothing good beneath the heavy surface of academia’. -J.Wary, Michigan Daily

The influences of psychology in SH are evident in the difficulty these characters face outside the walls of academia. Papen, seeing hope for a better life in attending Hampden, only comes to observe that his ‘existence was tainted’ in the process and after. Yes, the death of his friend Bunny may have been the catalyst for such a perspective to be drawn. But, can the fact that Morrow insisted that his students have him as their only teacher be the cause for such an outlook too? (You had it coming as soon as you switched your tutor to Morrow as well Papen, we all saw it coming!)

We can see that his ‘morbid longing for the picturesque’ (NY Times) is a parallel to how private colleges are perceived by the common folk. As a ‘idyllic’ as it was on the brochure As the outsider, Papen’s, opportunity to escape the dull reality of Californian life is only met by the Dickensian tradition of financial and societal desperation; a long way from the better life he once dreamed of when coming to Hampden.

The opportunity to entrench yourself in the worlds created by classic literature is something our original five Greek students do persistently. With lots of money behind them, it is easy to get captivated by the romantic fantasy without feeling the consequence. The richest of the five, Henry, states that ‘Death is the mother of beauty… and what is beauty (without) Terror?’. The ideas behind Henry’s speech links back to the passage read by Camilla in the first class together.

In a ‘harsh and low and lovely’ voice, she reads about the ‘dark red and violent-driven rain of bitter savoured blood (that makes the character) glad’.

The repetition of ‘and’ both lengthens the sentence and makes Camilla’s speech creepily seductive. Yet, finishing the passage with a character that is ‘glad’ could be Tartt alluding to the murder later on in the novel. In the mean time, the excitement and vigour stemming from both Henry and Camilla’s imagery is plausibly seen as escapism away from the ‘monkish bare’ windows and ‘whitewashed walls’ of Hampden.

As a former student of the said ‘elite’ school life, time between those tall walls can be reminiscent of prison. Pursuing the idea rehabilitation was in the form of etiquette (often indirectly) and hazing Saturday matches and army training. All of which spat you out into the world with your school plastered on your psyche.

To be a Modern Classic, SH had to focus individuals personal morals and ethical behaviours both in their daily lives and in unusual situations (such as a murder). As a first person account, Tartt avoids this. She only lets us know Papen’s opinion on their physical appearance and any actions they commit. This alone, speeds up the pace of the novel. As Tartt does not stop to give us any background information of these students, especially Henry and Bunny, whose interaction is quite intriguing to Papen.

In contrast to the world of Greek literature, Papen’s description of his fellow students is reminiscent of the contents of a photo album. We see the images of people and know about what they did in life. But, we don’t know them beyond their physical appearance, what they like and dislike for instance.

The replacement of character development with the obsession with Dionysian madness, distances Papen (us as readers), from the original five Greek students. Under the spell of Dionysus’ words, it is plausibly easy for the students to be captivated by the colourful imagery displayed in such books. Especially in the black and white surroundings of Hampden, the classical world created connotes a Baroque undertone that is both captivating and sinister; the latter is more prominent to us than the former.

Can we plausibly see that Tartt is suggesting that literature was a way to escape the daily grind of academic life?

In the end though, it is difficult to see how SH can be a Modern Classic. Yes, Greek literature and elite university settings are visuals that are associated with the adjective ‘classic’. But, the limited character development does make Papen’s account of the events ,leading up to the murder, dry; no conflicting emotions or true feelings about certain events (beyond Papen) revealed in any way. Furthermore, being publishing in the early 90s, SH was released into a world that was in love with murder mysteries and psychological thrillers both in the book and on screen.

It is a product of its time, not a Modern Classic. The latter is used on a piece of work that is going to last and resonate with everyone over centuries. To state it’s a modern Classic would be to compare it against the works of authors from the early to mid 20th century.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928), for instance, uses letter writing and indirect and direct dialogues to convey Constance’s character development to us. Through letter writing and talking to specific ‘trusted friends’, we know how difficult her life was becoming with Clifford (the plausible predecessor of Richard Papen!). The main point to take away is that the character development aided the progression of the narrative. It did not lead the reader to express doubts or question anyone’s motives and inner beliefs and it certainly did not leave us to speculate what lead up to certain events.

Anyway, coming back to SH, I can say that it is a psychological crime novel. Tartt does suggest to us that there is more that meets the eye when it comes to elite colleges and the academic world. She also draws a dark shadow over feelings of temptation and ambition, especially in the case of outsiders like Papen.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone seeking something to read under the bed covers this autumn. If you grow to love it and form opinions about it (like I have) and fancy something more- then watch some crime movies from the 90s! (A good place to start would be The Good Shepherd (2006) and The Skulls 3 (2004).

Hoped you enjoyed this post as much as I did writing it!

See you in the next one!

Yours sincerely,

Eden xxx