#molly grace art

[realmollygrace]

Inspired by this post by @thisismyideaofhumor:

"When Martin learns that Jon can understand any language, he looks up the Unicode for his favorite emojis and memorizes them so that he can verbally say them to Jon. The first time he tells him '🥰', Jon doesn’t realize what’s happening and is like 'How are you doing that with your mouth'”

[ladychandraofthemoone]

2/28

正しさとは　愚かさとは

それが何か見せつけてやる!! -Ado Usseewa

————

ado’s lyrics of Usseewa fit Alfred quite well

he had a constant amount of expectations placed at him when he was young and he excelled at everything, they showered him with praise as long as he did everything right meaning he could get away with anything he could especially after having major realizations that every family member went through this combined with Mary’s death (his cousin he felt connected to and close out of his messy family besides molly and Alice) he threw himself into his work pushing aside his grief, unfortunately showing the exact same behavior that has harmed him in his attempts to prove his family wrong, starting with the fracturing friendship between him and cecil

[hyzenthlayroseart]

I decided to draw the cast of characters from one of my favorite musicals I've loved since I was little, Annie.

Honestly I think the musical would be as an animated film. I grew up with both the 1982 and 1999 film adaptations and I love them both dearly but to me the 1982 version will always be the quintessential film adaptation. 

[inksushii]

more pixel ponies

[oceanusborealis]

Poker Face - Movie Review

Poker Face – Movie Review

TL;DR – There could have been a good film here, but it gets lost in the mess of two competing ideas.      ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 2.5 out of 5. Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit sceneDisclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this film Poker Face Review – One of the things about reviewing films that can be frustrating is when you get a movie where you can see promise in there, but…

[evillillad]

Can we maybe get some character sheets for your ocs and id like to write about them!!

👉👈

AAAHH i really wanna do updated character sheets WITH personality and lore i just aint got time rn!! BUT thank you for being interested!! 😭😭

to make up for the lake of sheets, heres some facts and lore typed out lol

Molly: (based on persona) secret demon being attached to Nina

Mollys kind of a strange case. Not quite puppet not quite...other creatures. She popped into existence around the time nina was born, hence the shared birthday. Shes a bit scatter brained, very easily distracted but once she has her mind set on something, nothing can get in her war. She's quite inquisitive and is constantly asking questions. Her first day in the neighborhood was basically asking every neighbor she met the most wild and intrusive questions she had. Little to no filter, says exactly whats on her mind. Doesnt understand why that makes some people so uncomfortable. Isnt it good to be curious? To tell the truth? To be honest? Man these creatures are strange. Also doesnt have any boundaries, is an absolute open book and for some reason is suprised when not everyone else is too. Think of her almost like a more unhinged wally, very naive to the ways of the waking world, but well verse in the night time activities. frequently takes long walks alone in the middle of the night. she sees them. she knows them. she keeps them away. some have gotten a bit too close to the neighborhood for comfort, is it because of her? do they know shes one of them, if not atleast similar? shes suspicious wally knows whats going on, its not normal for these beings to be here, but what draws them in?

^ongoing plot line of Molly spying on Wally constantly. A bit obsessive with him-she cant tell WHAT he is but she knows he isnt like the other neighbors but hes also not like her. Constantly pushing and manipulating him to break, but he seems either annoyed or oblivious to her attempts. otherwise, general nuisance to Wally, Frank (eats his bugs), Eddie (stares at him thru the post office window), Poppy (constantly getting herself into trouble) and Nina (personal demon).

Also maybe kills the nighttime creatures?? it seems like shes protecting the neighborhood from an outsiders perspective but those that REALLY know her know its territorial...somehow isnt intimidated by home tho. maybe shes trying to work with home? two demon things band together?? idk lmao

clumsy but also graceful? very bendy. no bones...crawls around like a creep sometimes.

Nina: (self insert oc) regular spider gal with a knack for art

Ninas quite normal actually. She was raised by a normal family within normal circumstances, but found herself with the strangest imaginary friend. She was never quite sure why one day everyone was suddenly able to see Molly but shes glad she finally isnt crazy. Now she cant get rid of the annoying asshole. Stuck with this annoying ass demon puppet thing, Nina moves to the neighborhood to get a new start on independence. With her new home, Nina spends most of her days painting, sewing, crocheting, and sculpting. Of course she always has her music going on, its never quiet in the house. Wally spends lots of time with her, they will frequently setup figure drawing sessions where their fellow neighbors will pose for them. Howdy seemed more than happy to constantly volunteer, maybe a tad bit overzealous to show off his muscles. Nina was more than excited to have such an interesting subject to create art of, although with Wally by her side, he always seemed to end up drawing an apple. There wasn't even an apple in the set. Nina doesnt care, shes just happy to have her little darling with her!

Despite being easily excitable and down to earth, shes actually quite timid and easily flustered. Howdys first few advancements had Nina trying to come up with some sort of lie so she could hurriedly get out of the bugdega and hide her beet red face. After this its just the rom com do they like me pinning i love so much lol

Unlike the other neighbors, she is somewhat aware of what goes bump in the night. Shes not sure what exactly it is, but she knows its dangerous...and she knows Molly has too much fun dealing with it. Despite Mollys homicidal tendecies, Nina is NOT scared of her. Shes aware of the fact that without her, Molly wouldnt have a host to stay alive. She cant do anything to harm her and even if she did, Ninas not afraid to grab her by the tail and launch her into the sun (Molly is actually somewhat intimidated by Nina, so she shows some level of obedience).

and thats it for those two!! I also would like to add that I wanna work on an oc of my dog and make goofy content of him and barnaby being like dude tf are u doing. also i know i have other ocs but either they arent quite fleshed out (lilith, betty, batsy), they arent technically mine (tilly and mitzy), or im just really tired and its late rn.

but if u got this far wow ermgee thanks for reading my late night rambles im dying

TLDR: Mollys homicidal, stupid, cant read a room, and is a demon. Ninas just a timid, excitable, down to earth, artsy spider with a weird demon imaginary friend that came to life.

[eddysocs]

Time With The Owlets (Molly Weasley x OC)

Summary: Olivette brings Molly with her to show her how she takes care of young owls.

Word Count: 702

Warnings: Pure fluff

Olivette led Molly through the old oaken doors of the owl sanctuary. It was a hidden gem nestled in an unfrequented corner of the wizarding world, and if you weren’t looking for it, it could be easily looked over as it resembled a very large tree trunk. The air inside was thick with the comforting scent of aged wood and the soft hooting of owls echoed in the enclosed space.

"Welcome to the sanctuary, Molly," Olivette beamed, her eyes twinkling with the utter love she had for the owls within. "This is where I spend most of my time caring for these magnificent creatures. Occasionally we go out to train, but I basically consider this place my second home."

Molly's eyes widened as she took in the sight of owls of all sizes and colors perched on branches, some half hidden behind leaves and in intricately crafted nests. "Oh, Olivette, it's breathtaking! I had no idea this place even existed."

"Most everyone gets an owl, but few ever see where they come from," Olivette explained. "But I thought you might appreciate a behind the scenes tour of everything I do here and get to see the owls as they are off duty."

As they strolled deeper into the sanctuary, Olivette stopped at a cozy corner filled with soft hay and small, squirming bundles of downy feathers. "This is my favorite part of working here, the nursery for the baby owlets. Would you like to join me in feeding them?"

"Can I really?" Molly's eyes lit up and Olivette smiled back at her and nodded.

Olivette then handed Molly a small bowl filled with a mixture of minced meat and other supplemental nutrients. "Gently, don’t rush. They aren’t likely to bite, but if you move to fast you may startle them."

The baby owlets chirped and shuffled in excitement as Molly approached. With a motherly touch, she began feeding them, grinning with delight the entire time. "Oh, they're adorable! Do they have their own names yet? Do you get to choose them?"

"Each one does get a name when they’re born," Olivette explained. "When I get to name them, I usually pick a theme. This little fluffball here is Nimbus, and the one with the tufted feathers is Quill. This batch is all named after magical objects or phenomena."

Molly chuckled as she continued to feed the owlets. "It's a lovely touch. I can see the care and attention you put into this place."

Olivette smiled warmly. "It truly is a labor of love. I've always believed that owls are not just messengers but companions to their wizards and witches and deserve the best care possible. I was lucky to get the opportunity to work here."

They spent the afternoon in the owl nursery, Molly learned the delicate art of handling the tiny owlets and the importance of nurturing their potential. She listened intently as Olivette shared stories of each owl's personality and quirks, creating a bond between them and the small and graceful creatures Olivette helped to rear.

"I never realized how much went into the care of these birds. We tend to take the poor things for granted at times," Molly admitted, gently stroking Nimbus, who was nestled in her hands.

Olivette nodded. "Owls are extraordinary beings. They form deep connections with their owners, and here in the sanctuary, we strive to foster that connection from the very beginning."

As the day drew to a close, the two of them bid farewell to the owlets, leaving the nursery with their hearts full of warmth. Once outside, Molly turned to Olivette with a look of gratitude in her eyes.

"Thank you for showing me this place, Olivette. It's been a day I'll treasure forever."

Olivette grinned. "Anytime, Molly. The owls are always happy to have visitors, especially ones as soft and caring as you have been with them today. You’re welcome back whenever you like."

Olivette and Molly began their walk back to the car to head home, when Molly added one more thing. "I’d like to see you train some of the older ones someday, if possible. You clearly have a way with them."

"That can certainly be arranged," Olivette replied.

As requested by @yellowbird-flying

Forever Tag: @arrthurpendragon, @baubeautyandthegeek, @foxesandmagic, @carmens-garden, @bossyladies, @getawaycardotmp3, @misshiraethsworld, @kmc1989, @curious-kittens-ocs, @fanficanatic-tw

Olivette Littletree: @dancingwith-sunflowers, @madebyleftovermuses, @freshmoneyalmondathlete, @dollvi3e

[burlveneer-music]

Molly Lewis - On the Lips - don't know if I'm ready for a full-on lounge/exotica (re)revival, but it's the perfect milieu for a whistler

Consider this your invitation to Café Molly, a lounge bar like they don’t make them anymore. The lights are low, the martinis are ice cold, the banquettes are velvet, and the stage is set for the electrifying talent of whistler Molly Lewis. Molly’s soft-focus cocktail music conjures up visions of classic Hollywood jazz clubs, Italian cinema soundtracks and lingering embraces between lovers. After the exotica stylings of The Forgotten Edge EP and the tropicalia-indebted Mirage EP, Molly wanted to encapsulate the sound of Café Molly for her debut album On The Lips, a dreamy tribute to classic mood music. That spellbinding sound, which usually comes to life in Los Angeles, has also popped up in Mexico City dancehalls, graced the runways of Paris and London Fashion Weeks, and made a magical appearance at a children's fairyland. Molly Lewis’s love for this smoky corner of the world doesn’t end with her songwriting. She is a devotee and an archivist, capturing and enlivening the pieces that endure. She was a regular at the legendary shows by Marty and Elayne, the lounge duo who spent almost 40 years playing LA’s Dresden bar. The duo came to global fame after an appearance in 1996’s Swingers and kept going long after that spotlight faded, finally finishing their nightly residency after the death of Marty at the ripe age of 89 last year. “That felt like the end of an era,” says Molly. But there are still flashes of that world to be found, and she finds them. “I’ve been spending a lot of time in New York lately, where there are a lot more of those moody, classic jazz bars,” she explains. Over the past few years Molly has flexed her one-of-a-kind musical skill alongside Mark Ronson on the Barbie soundtrack, as well as with Dr Dre, Karen O, actor John C Reilly, Mac De Marco, fashion houses Chanel, Gucci and Hermes, and folk rock royalty Jackson Browne. After a performance with longtime friend Weyes Blood on Burt Bacharach’s The Look of Love during a Café Molly evening at LA’s Zebulon, Molly supported the singer on a US tour, introducing her sound to a brand new audience. “I forget sometimes that what I do has that factor of surprise and uniqueness – it is something that most people have never seen before,” says Molly. She too might never have entered the idiosyncratic world of whistling had she not as a teenager seen the 2005 documentary Pucker Up, which details the International Whistling Competition. Equally amused and bemused by the eccentric event, in 2012 she competed herself. Spending her early twenties in Berlin she then moved to LA to work in film – and returned to the contest in 2015 to take home first prize. One evening Molly did a turn at an open mic at the Kibitz Room, a tiny late-night bar inside historic LA deli Canter’s. Her display led to appearances at performance art happenings across the city, and she soon caught the ear of independent record label Jagjaguwar. On The Lips was recorded with producer Thomas Brenneck of the Menahan Street Band, Budos Band, Dap-Kings and El Michels Affair, at his newly-built Diamond West Studios in Pasadena. The pair bonded over the work of 1960s soundtrack composers Alessandro Alessandroni and Piero Piccioni, and, with something of an open door policy during the sessions, a stream of acclaimed musicians ended up across the album’s 10 tracks. With her intoxicating compositions, and wry brand of stagecraft (she might not be singing up there, but she can sure tell a joke) Molly Lewis looks set to join her heroes in the storied lore of the Los Angeles lounge scene and beyond. So pull up a chair, order your favorite drink, and prepare to fall for On The Lips.  PERFORMER LINE-UP: On The Lips Molly Lewis - Whistle, guitar, vocals Joe Harrison - Flute, bass Eric Hagstrom - Drums, clave Thomas Brenneck - Organ Written by: Molly Lewis

[kuwdora]

Multi-fandom Fic Recs

January 22 - What’s an underloved fic you loved in a fandom you don’t post much about? -@sargassostories

Oh, what a fabulous prompt, ty!!! I used to write so many recs back in the day and I’ve watched so much tv and read across so many fandoms over the years so this is far from comprehensive in terms of fandom reading spread. But it’s a good way to warm my reccing muscles up again. I always have more recs or can usually find some places with recs about that fandom.

Humor and Heart

Just Hear Those Slay Bells Jingling, Santa Clarita Diet. Abby/Eric. ~3k. Abby comes home from college on a break and just wants some time with her boyfriend but she just had to tempt fate. Laugh out loud perfect characterization.

Pain and Painting by foxtwin. Blackadder. Blackadder assists Prince George as he takes on a new hobby. This is one of the funniest, punniest wordplay fics ever. Blackadder fic writers are on another level!

Feel me like a steel knife by violet_pencil. Star Trek: Lower Decks. Mariner/Tendi. ~7k. Mariner is a trigger-happy baby and her heart is right between Tendi's sharp white teeth. The Mariner POV is incredible. I felt like I was joyriding through her brain.

Not a synonym for impossible by Siria. Elementary. Improbable was not a synonym for impossible. Joan and Alfredo discuss Alfredo’s crush on Miss Hudson, this is so cute.

Lest they be angels in disguise by singlecrow. Good Omens. Crowley, but Aziraphale/Crowley. 856 words. Buzzfeed, July 2019, "Top Five Off-the-Wall Theories About the Scary Instagram Plant Man.” Includes Instagram posts and internet gossip in this fic. 😂

There's a Fine Line Between Coincidence, Fate, and Jonathan Carnahan by celli. The Mummy. 483 words. Ardeth/Jonathon. Jonathan puffed up with outrage. "I will squander my fortune where I damn well please." 😍

This Dynamic

if loving you kills me by saiditallbefore. Wheel of Time. Nynaeve/Egwene. 642w. Nynaeve's eyes are warm and brown and full of life: so different from earlier, when Egwene had thought she was gone forever. ❤️🔥❤️

Finding Grace by Destina. Kings. Jack/David, Michelle/David. Post-series/futurefic. ~1300w. David's soul has three parts, and without all three, he is incomplete. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Porn

Gifts, Smiles, and Fingers by @daerienn. For All Mankind. Molly/Margo. ~200w. A single Tootsie roll can have a lot of impact.

Meet Me In My Dreams by LiraClayr007. His Dark Materials. Lyra/Will. Post-canon. 200w. It had been almost ten years since they’d said goodbye forever and closed all the doorways, but Lyra knew what Will looked like. He’d aged in her mind, day after day and year after year; she didn’t know how she could know, but she was sure he looked exactly the way she pictured him.

Learned Arts, by darthjamtart. Elementary. Moriarty/Joan. ~400w. Explicit. Jamie knows how to be subtle, but rarely bothers. Not with this.

Domina, Spartacus, Illithya/Lucretia, power struggle, submission “Domina,” Illithya whispers before pressing her lips against Lucretia’s bare, inner thigh.

Kissing Girls, Leverage, Parker/Sophie Devereaux, falling, twirling Parker used to think that kissing was a lot like falling. Sometimes, if she knew she was in complete control, if she had all her safety equipment ready to catch her, if she could see exactly where she was going to end up, then falling was more thrilling than sickening. Kissing too.

Impossible Words, Doctor Who, Jack/Ten, the l word He still can't say it, the words. Those words that make everything so impossibly complicated. He digs his fingers into Jack's skin, feeling it give, knowing he will leave bruises there, visible in the morning.

Caged, Mario Games, Bowser/Peach, kidnap Don't tell anyone, but Peach doesn't entirely mind being kidnapped.

Not Charity Work, Better Off Ted, Veronica/Linda, mentoring Veronica's hair is spread over the pillow, her face flushed and sweat covering her skin. "I'm an excellent mentor."

Soup on the Wall, Star Trek AOS/Star Trek: The Original Series, Chapel/Spock. dream, pon farr, crash To be certain, it was not Ambassador Spock's idea to be ferried to New Vulcan aboard the Enterprise.

Three Sentence Fictionathon (not always 3 sentences, still excellent micro-fics!)

Any, any, Cards Against Humanity as played by nonhuman species by archersangel. Star Trek: Voyager. Tuvok, post-canon.

Boimler and Mariner, Ill-Advised Decisions by silveradept for my Star Trek Lower Decks prompt of “look what you made me do!”

The Expanse, Avasarala/Amos, flirting by vialethe. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Narnia, if Narnia were written by Tolkien by arveldis. 😂 AND LASTLY:

These two ficlets are based on this prompt:

Based on this Tumblr Post where Sirens lure sailors to their death with offers of hot garlic bread, fast Wi-Fi, and $1000 Amazon Gift Cards.

An Informational Sign on the Coast by fallen_stage.

Netflix and Kill by syrena_of_the_lake

More Kuwdora Recs

+350 Porn Battle Recs, grouped by fandom, lots of crossovers and fandoms (dreamwidth)

+100 multi-fandom recs, grouped by whatever I read at the time and Yuletide reading marathons over the years (dreamwidth).

Even More Recs

Linky's Rec Post - A recs post by Linky on dreamwidth about communities that feature curated recs for fanfic, fanvids and art.

[realmollygrace]

This dynamic is so great because it always involves a third person who is, for whatever reason, quite invested in watching two idiots dance around their feelings for each other.

[meta-squash]

Squash's Book Roundup 2023

Last year I read 67 books. This year my goal was 70, but I very quickly passed that, so in total I read 92 books this year. Honestly I have no idea how I did it, it just sort of happened. My other goal was to read an equal amount of fiction and nonfiction this year (usually fiction dominates), and I was successful in that as well. Another goal which I didn’t have at the outset but which kind of organically happened after the first month or so of reading was that I wanted to read mostly strange/experimental/transgressive/unusual fiction. My nonfiction choices were just whatever looked interesting or cool, but I also organically developed a goal of reading a wider spread of subjects/genres of nonfiction. A lot of the books I read this year were books I’d never heard of, but stumbled across at work. Also, finally more than 1/3 of what I read was published in the 21st century.

I’ll do superlatives and commentary at the end, so here is what I read in 2023:

-The Commitments by Roddy Doyle -A Simple Story: The Last Malambo by Leila Guerriero -The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell -Uzumaki by Junji Ito -Chroma by Derek Jarman -The Emerald Mile: The epic story of the fastest ride in history through the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko -Venus by Suzan-Lori Parks -The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington -Sacred Sex: Erotic writings from the religions of the world by Robert Bates -The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And The Feebleminded by Molly McCully Brown -A Spy In The House Of Love by Anais Nin -The Sober Truth: Debunking the bad science behind 12-step programs and the rehab industry by Lance Dodes -The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima -The Aliens by Annie Baker -The Criminal Child And Other Essays by Jean Genet -Aimee and Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 by Erica Fischer -The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov -The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere -Maldoror by Comte de Lautreamont -Narrow Rooms by James Purdy -At Your Own Risk by Derek Jarman -Escape From Freedom by Erich Fromm -Countdown: A Subterranean Magazine #3 by Underground Press Syndicate Collective -Fabulosa! The story of Britain's secret gay language by Paul Baker -The Golden Spruce: A true story of myth, madness and greed by John Vaillant -Querelle de Roberval by Kevin Lambert -Fire The Bastards! by Jack Green -Closer by Dennis Cooper -The Woman In The Dunes by Kobo Abe -Opium: A Diary Of His Cure by Jean Cocteau -Worker-Student Action Committees France May '68 by Fredy Perlman and R. Gregoire -Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher -The Sound Of Waves by Yukio Mishima -One Day In My Life by Bobby Sands -Corydon by Andre Gide -Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson -Man Alive: A true story of violence, forgiveness and becoming a man by Thomas Page McBee -The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art by Mark Rothko -Damage by Josephine Hart -Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai -The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector -The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock n Roll by Simon Reynolds and Joy Press -The Traffic Power Structure by planka.nu -Bird Man: The many faces of Robert Straud by Jolene Babyak -Seven Dada Manifestos by Tristan Tzara

-The Journalist by Harry Mathews -Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber -Moscow To The End Of The Line by Venedikt Erofeev -Morvern Callar by Alan Warner -The Poetics Of Space by Gaston Bachelard -A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White -The Coming Insurrection by The Invisible Committee -Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson -Notes From The Sick Room by Steve Finbow -Artaud The Momo by Antonin Artaud -Doctor Rat by William Kotzwinkle -Recollections Of A Part-Time Lady by Minette -trans girl suicide museum by Hannah Baer -The 99% Invisible City by Roman Mars -Sweet Days Of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy -Breath: The new science of a lost art by James Nestor -What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund -The Cardiff Tapes (1972) by Garth Evans -The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe -Mad Like Artaud by Sylvere Lotringer -The Story Of The Eye by Georges Bataille -Little Blue Encyclopedia (For Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante -Blood And Guts In High School by Kathy Acker -Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton -Splendid's by Jean Genet -VAS: An Opera In Flatland by Steve Tomasula -Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want To Come: One introvert's year of saying yes by Jessica Pan -Whores For Gloria by William T. Vollmann -The Notebooks by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Larry Walsh (editor) -L'Astragale by Albertine Sarrazin -The Decay Of Lying and other essays by Oscar Wilde -The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot -Open Throat by Henry Hoke -Prisoner Of Love by Jean Genet -The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia -The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx -My Friend Anna: The true story of a fake heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams -Mammother by Zachary Schomburg -Building The Commune: Radical democracy in Venezuela by George Cicarello-Maher -Blackouts by Justin Torres -Cheapjack by Philip Allingham -Near To The Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector -The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander -Skye Papers by Jamika Ajalon -Exercises In Style by Raymon Queneau -Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein -The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

~Some number factoids~ I read 46 fiction and 46 nonfiction. One book, The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia, is fictionalized/embellished autobiography, so it could go half in each category if we wanted to do that, but I put it in the fiction category. I tried to read as large a variety of nonfiction subjects/genres as I could. A lot of the nonfiction I read has overlapping subjects, so I’ve chosen to sort by the one that seems the most overarching. By subject, I read: 5 art history/criticism, 5 biographies, 1 black studies, 1 drug memoir, 2 essay collections, 2 history, 2 Latin American studies, 4 literary criticism, 1 music history, 2 mythology/religion, 1 nature, 4 political science, 2 psychology, 5 queer studies, 2 science, 1 sociology, 1 travel, 2 true crime, 3 urban planning. I also read more queer books in general (fiction and nonfiction) than I have in years, coming in at 20 books.

The rest of my commentary and thoughts under a cut because it's fairly long

Here’s a photo of all the books I read that I own a physical copy of (minus Closer by Dennis Cooper which a friend is borrowing):

~Superlatives and Thoughts~

I read so many books this year I’m going to do a runner-up for each superlative category.

Favorite book: This is such a hard question this year. I think I gave out more five-star ratings on Goodreads this year than I ever have before. The books that got 5 stars from me this year were A Simple Story: The Last Malambo by Leila Guerriero, Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher, The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko, The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere, The Passion According to GH by Clarice Lispector, trans girl suicide museum by Hannah Baer, The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia, Mammother by Zachary Schomburg, and Blackouts by Justin Torres. But I think my favorite book of the year was The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia. It is an embellished, fictionalized biography of the author’s life, chronicling a breakup that occurred just before she began her transition, and then a variety of emotional events afterward and her renewal of a connection with that person after a number of years had passed. The writing style is beautiful, extremely decadent, and sits in a sort of venn diagram of poetry, theory, fantasy and biography. My coworker who recommended this book to me said no one she’d recommended it to had finished it because they found it so weird. I read the first 14 pages very slowly because I didn’t exactly know what the book was doing, but I quickly fell completely in love with the imagery and the formatting style and the literary and religious references that have been worked into the book both as touchstones for biography and as vehicles for fantasy. There is a video I remember first seeing years ago, in which a beautiful pinkish corn snake slithers along a hoop that is part of a hanging mobile made of driftwood and macrame and white beads and prism crystals. This was the image that was in the back of my head the entire time I was reading The Fifth Wound, because it matched the decadence and the strangeness and the crystalline beauty of the language and visuals in the book. It is a pretty intense book, absolutely packed with images and emotion and ideas and preserved vignettes where reality and fantasy and theory overlap. It’s one of those books that’s hard to describe because it’s so full. It’s dense not in that the words or ideas are hard to understand, but in that it’s overflowing with imagery and feelings, and it feels like an overflowing treasure chest. Runner-up:The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere. However, this book wins for a different superlative, so I’ve written more about it there.

Least favorite book: Querelle de Roberval by Kevin Lambert. I wrote a whole long review of it. In summary, Lambert’s book takes its name from Querelle de Brest, a novel by Jean Genet, and is apparently meant to be an homage to Genet’s work. Unfortunately, Lambert seems to misunderstand or ignore all the important aspects of Genet’s work that make it so compelling, and instead twists certain motifs Genet uses as symbols of love or transcendence into meaningless or negative connotations. He also attempts to use Genet’s mechanic of inserting the author into the narrative and allowing the author to have questionable or conflicting morals in order to emphasize certain aspects of the characters or narrative, except he does so too late in the game and ends up just completely undermining everything he writes. This book made me feel insulted on behalf of Jean Genet and all the philosophical thought he put into his work. Runner-up: What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund. This graphic designer claims that when people read they don’t actually imagine what characters look like and can’t conjure up an image in their head when asked something like “What does Jane Eyre look like to you?” Unfortunately, there’s nothing scientific in the book to back this up and it’s mostly “I” statements, so it’s more like “What Peter Mendelsund Sees (Or Doesn’t See) When He Reads”. It’s written in what seems to be an attempt to mimic Marshall McLuhan’s style in The Medium Is The Massage, but it isn’t done very well. I spent most of my time reading this book thinking This does not reflect my experience when I read novels so I think really it’s just a bad book written by someone who maybe has some level of aphantasia or maybe is a visual but not literary person, and who assumes everyone else experiences the same thing when they read. (Another runner-up would be The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, but I think that’s a given because it’s an awful piece of revisionist, racist trash, so I won’t write a whole thing about it. I can if someone wants me to.)

Most surprising/unexpected book: The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere. This book absolutely wins for most surprising. However, I don’t want to say too much about it because the biggest surprise is the end. It was the most shocking, most unexpected and bizarre endings to a novel I’ve read in a long time, and I absolutely loved it. It was weird from the start and it just kept getting weirder. The unnamed narrator decides, as a joke, to shave off the moustache he’s had for his entire adult life. When his wife doesn’t react, he assumes that she’s escalating their already-established tradition of little pranks between each other. But then their mutual friends say nothing about the change, and neither do his coworkers, and he starts spiral into confusion and paranoia. I don’t want to spoil anything else because this book absolutely blew me away with its weirdness and its existential dread and anyone who likes weird books should read it. Runner-up: Morvern Callar by Alan Warner. I don’t even know what compelled me to open this book at work, but I’m glad I did. The book opens on Christmas, where the main character, Morvern, discovers her boyfriend dead by suicide on the kitchen floor of their flat. Instead of calling the police or her family, she takes a shower, gets her things and leaves for work. Her narrative style is strange, simultaneously very detached and extremely emotional, but emotional in an abstract way, in which descriptions and words come out stilted or strangely constructed. The book becomes a narrative of Morvern’s attempts to find solitude and happiness, from the wilderness of Scotland to late night raves and beaches in an unnamed Mediterranean city. The entire book is scaffolded by a built-in playlist. Morvern’s narrative is punctuated throughout by accounts of exactly what she’s listening to on her Walkman. The narrative style and the playlist and the bizarre behavior of the main character were not at all what I was expecting when I opened the book, but I read the entire book in about 3 hours and I was captivated the whole time. If you like the Trainspotting series of books, I would recommend this one for sure.

Most fun book: The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko. This book was amazing. It was like reading an adventure novel and a thriller and a book on conservationism all wrapped into one and it was clearly very passionately written and it was a blast. I picked it up because I was pricing it at work and I read the captions on one of the photo inserts, which intrigued me, so I read the first page, and then I couldn’t stop. The two main narratives in the book are the history of the Grand Canyon (more specifically the damming of the Colorado River) and the story of a Grand Canyon river guide called Kenton Grua, who decided with two of his river guide friends to break the world record for fastest boat ride down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The book is thoroughly researched, and reaches back to the first written record of the canyon, then charts the history of the canyon and the river up to 1983 when Grua made his attempt to race down the river, and then the aftermath and what has happened to everyone in the years since. All of the historical figures as well as the “current” figures of 1983 come to life, and are passionately portrayed. It’s a genuine adventure of a book, and I highly recommend it. Runner-up: Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton. It asks “What if Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was actually a trans woman?” Actually, that’s not quite it. It asks “What if a trans woman living in poverty in southwest America believed to an almost spiritual level that Brian Wilson was a trans woman?” The main character and narrator, Gala, is convinced that the lead singer of her favorite band, the Get Happies, (a fictional but fairly obvious parallel to the Beach Boys) is a trans woman. Half the book is her writing out her version of the singer’s life history, and the other half is her life working at a hostel in Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, where she meets a woman who forces her out of her comfort zone and encourages her to face certain aspects of her self and identity and her connection with others. It’s a weird novel, and definitely not for everyone, but it’s fun. I was reading it on the train home and I was so into it that I missed my stop and had to get off at the next station and wait 20 minutes for the train going back the other way.

Book that taught me the most: Breath: The new science of a lost art by James Nestor. In it, Nestor explores why humans as a general population are so bad at breathing properly. He interviews scientists and alternative/traditional health experts, archaeologists, historians and religious scholars. He uses himself as a guinea pig to experiment with different breathing techniques from ancient meditation styles to essentially overdosing on oxygen in a lab-controlled environment to literally plugging his nose shut to only mouth-breathe for two weeks (and then vice-versa with nose breathing). It was interesting to see a bunch of different theories a laid out together regarding what kind of breathing is best, as well as various theories on the history of human physiology and why breathing is hard. Some of it is scientific, some pseudoscience, some just ancient meditation techniques, but he takes a crack at them all. What was kind of cool is that he tries every theory and experiment with equal enthusiasm and doesn’t really seem to favor any one method. Since he’s experimenting on himself, a lot of it is about the effects the experiments had on him specifically and his experiences with different types of breathing. His major emphasis/takeaway is that focusing on breathing and learning to change the ways in which we breathe will be beneficial in the long run (and that we should all breath through our noses more). While I don’t think changing how you breathe is a cure-all (some of the pseudoscience he looks at in this book claims so) I certainly agree that learning how to breath better is a positive goal. Runner-up: The Sober Truth by Lance Dodes. I say runner-up because a lot of the content of the book is things that I had sort of vague assumptions about based on my knowledge of addiction and AA and mental illness in general. But Dodes put into words and illustrated with numbers and anecdotes and case studies what I just kind of had a vague feeling about. It was cool to see AA so thoroughly debunked by an actual psychiatrist and in such a methodical way, since my skepticism about it has mostly been based on the experiences of people I know in real life, anecdotes I’ve read online, or musicians/writers/etc I’m a fan of that went through it and were negatively affected.

Most interesting/thought provoking book: Mammother by Zachary Schomburg. The biggest reason this book was so interesting is because the little world in which it exists is so strange and yet so utterly complete. In a town called Pie Time (where birds don’t exist and the main form of work is at the beer-and-cigarettes factory) a young boy called Mano who has been living his childhood as a girl decides that he is now a man and that it’s time for him to grow up. As this happens, the town is struck by an affliction called God’s Finger. People die seemingly out of nowhere, from a hole in their chest, and some object comes out of the hole. Mano collects the things that come out of these holes, and literally holds them in order to love them, but the more he collects, the bigger he becomes as he adds objects to his body. A capitalist business called XO shows up, trying to convince the people of Pie Time that they can protect themselves from God’s Finger with a number of enterprises, and starts to slowly take over the town. But Mano doesn’t believe death is something that should be run from. This book is so pretty, and the symbolism/metaphors, even when obvious, feel as though they belong organically in the world. A quote on the back of the book says it is “as nearly complete a world as can be”, and I think that’s a very accurate description. The story is interesting, the characters are compelling, and the magical realist world in which the story exists is fascinating. Runner up: trans girl suicide museum by Hannah Baer. This is a series of essays taken (for the most part) from Baer’s blog posts. They span a chunk of time in which she writes her thoughts and musings on her experience transition and transgender existence in general. It is mostly a series of pieces reflecting on “early” stages of transition. But I thought it was really cool to see an intellectual and somewhat philosophical take on transition, written by someone who has only been publicly out for a few years, and therefore is looking at certain experiences with a fresh gaze. As the title suggests, a lot of the book is a bit sad, but it’s not all doom and gloom. A lot of the emphasis is on the important of community when it comes to the experience of starting to transition and the first few years, and the importance of community on the trans experience in general. I really liked reading Hannah Baer’s thoughts as a queer intellectual who was writing about this stuff as she experienced it (or not too long after) rather than writing about the experience of early transition years and years down the line. It meant the writing was very sharp and the emotion was clear and not clouded by nostalgia.

Other thoughts/commentary on books I don’t have superlatives for:

I’m glad my first (full) book read in 2023 was A Simple Story: The Last Malambo by Leila Guierrero. It’s a small, compact gem of a book that follows the winner of an Argentinian dance competition. The Malambo is a traditional dance, and the competition is very fierce, and once someone wins, they can never compete again. The author follows the runner-up of the previous year, who has come to compete again. It paints a vivid picture of the history of the dance, the culture of the competition, and the character of the dancer the author has chosen to follow. It’s very narrowly focused, which makes it really compelling.

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington could have easily won for most fun or most interesting book. Carrington was a surrealist writer and painter (and was in a relationship with Max Ernst until she was institutionalized and he was deported by the Nazis). In The Hearing Trumpet, an elderly woman called Marian is forced by her family to go live in an old ladies’ home. The first strange thing about the place is that all of the little cabins each woman lives in is shaped like some odd object, like an iron, or ice cream, or a rabbit. The other old women at the institution are a mixed bag, and the warden of the place is hostile. Marian starts to suspect that there are secrets, and even witchcraft involved, and she and a few of the other ladies start to try and unravel the occult mysteries hidden in the grounds of the home. The whole book is fun and strange, and the ending is an extremely entertaining display of feminist occult surrealism.

Sacred Sex: Erotica writings from the religions of the world by Robert Bates was a book I had to read for research for my debunking of Withdrawn Traces. It was really very interesting, but it was also hilarious to read because maybe 5% of any of the texts included were actually erotic. It should have been called “romantic writings from the religions of the world” because so little of the writing had anything to do with sex, even in a more metaphorical sense.

Every time I read Yukio Mishima I’m reminded how much I love his style. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea almost usurped The Temple of the Golden Pavilion as my favorite Mishima novel. I’m fascinated with the way that Mishima uses his characters to explore the circumstance of having very intense feelings or reactions towards something and simultaneously wanting to experience that, while also wanting to have complete control and not feel them at all. There’s a scene in this novel where Noboru and his friends brutally kill and dissect a cat; it’s an intense and vividly rendered scene, made all the more intense by Noboru desperately conflicted between feeling affected by the killing and wanting to force himself to feel nothing. The amazing subtle theme running through the book is the difference between Noboru’s intense emotions and his desire/struggle to control them and subdue them versus Ryuji’s more subtle emotion that grows through the book despite his natural reserve. I love endings like the one in this book, where it “cuts to black” and you don’t actually see the final act, it’s simply implied.

In 2016 or 2017, I ran lights for a showcase for the drama department at UPS (I can’t remember now what it was) that included a bunch of scenes from various plays. I remember a segment from Hir by Taylor Mac, and a scene from The Aliens by Annie Baker. In the scene that I saw, one of the characters describes how when he was a boy, he couldn’t stop saying the word ladder, and the monologue culminates in a full paragraph that is just the word “ladder.” I can’t remember who was acting in the one that I saw at UPS, but that monologue blew me away, the way that one word repeated 127 conveyed so much. This year a collection of Annie Baker’s plays came in at work so I sat down and read the whole play and it was just incredible. I’d love to see the full play live, it’s absolutely captivating.

Narrow Rooms by James Purdy was a total diamond in the rough. It takes place in Appalachia, in perhaps the 1950s although it’s somewhat hard to tell. It follows the strange gay entanglement between four adult men in their 20s, who have known each other all their lives. It traces threads of bizarre codependency, and the lines crossed between love and hate. The main character, Sidney, has just returned home after serving a sentence for manslaughter. On his return, he finds that an old lover has been rendered disabled in an accident, and that an old school rival/object of obsession has been waiting for him. This rival, nicknamed “The Renderer” because of an old family occupation, has been watching Sidney all their lives. Both of them hate the other, but know that they’re destined to meet in some way. Caught in the middle of their strange relationship are Gareth, Sidney’s now-disabled former lover, and Brian, a young man who thinks he’s in love with The Renderer. The writing style took me some time to get used to, as it is written as though by someone who has taught themselves, or has only had basic classes on fiction writing. But the plot itself is so strange and the characters are so stilted in their own internality that it actually fits really well. Like The Mustache, this book had one of the strangest, most intensely visceral and shocking endings I’ve read in a while. It was also “one that got away.” I read it at work, then put it on my staff picks shelf, and only realized after someone else bought it that I should have kept it for myself.

The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector blew my mind. I really don’t want to spoil any of it, but I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t read it to do. The build in tension is perfect and last 30 pages are just incredible. Lispector’s style is so unique and so beautiful and tosses out huge existential questions like it’s nothing, and I love her work so much.

Moscow To The End Of The Line by Venedikt Erofeev was another really unexpected book. It’s extremely Russian (obviously) and really fun until suddenly it isn’t. The main character, a drunkard, gets on a train from Moscow to Petushki, the town at the end of the line (hence the title), in order to see his lover. On the way, he befriends the other people in his train car and they all steadily get drunker and drunker, until he falls asleep and misses his stop. Very Russian, somewhat strange, and I was surprised that it was written in the late 60s and not the 30s.

Dr. Rat by William Kotzwinkle was what I expected. Weird in a goofy way, a bit silly even when it’s serious, and rather heavy-handed satire. The titular Dr Rat is a rat who has spent his whole life in a laboratory and has gone insane. The other animals who are being tested on want to escape, but he’s convinced that all the testing is for the good of science and wants to thwart their rebellion. Unfortunately, all the other animals who are victims of human cruelty/callousness/invasion/deforestation/etc around the world are also planning to rebel, connection with each other through a sort of psychic television network. It’s a very heavy-handed environmentalist/anti-animal cruelty metaphor and general societal satire, but it’s silly and fun too.

Confessions Of A Part-Time Lady by Minette is a self-published, nearly impossible to find book that came into my work. It’s self-printed and bound, and was published in the 70s. It is the autobiographical narrative of a trans woman who did drag and burlesque and theatre work all across the midwest, as well as New York and San Francisco, from the 1930s up to the late 60s. It was originally a series of interviews by the two editors, who published it in narrative form, and it includes photos from Minette’s personal collection. It’s an amazing story, and a glimpse into a really unique time period of gender performance and queer life. She even mentions Sylvia Rivera, specifically when talking about gay activism. She talks about how the original group of the Gay Liberation Front was an eclectic mix of all sorts of people of all sexualities and genders and expressions. Then when the Gay Activists Alliance “took over”, they started pushing out people who were queer in a more transgressive or unusual way and there was more encouragement on being more heteronormative. She mentions Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson, saying “I remember Sylvia Rivera who founded STAR – Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. She was always trying to say things – the same kinds of things Marsha P Johnson says in a sweeter way – and they treated her like garbage. If that’s what ‘order’ is, haven’t we had enough?”

Whores For Gloria by William T Vollmann was exactly as amazing as I thought it would be. I love Vollmann’s style, because you can tell that even though the characters he’s writing about are characters, they’re absolutely based on people that he met or saw or spoke to in real life. The main character, Jimmy, is searching for his former lover, Gloria, who has either died or left him (it is unclear for most of the novel). He begins to use tokens bought from sex workers (hair, clothes, etc) to attempt to conjure her into reality, and when that doesn’t work, he pays them to tell him stories from their lives, and through their lives he tries to conjure Gloria. This novel’s ending had extremely similar vibes to the ending of Moscow To The End Of The Line.

Prisoner Of Love by Jean Genet was a lot to take in. It was weird reading it at this moment in time, and completely unplanned. It’s just that I have only a few more books to read before I’ve made my way through all Genet’s works that have been translated into English, and it was next on the list. Most of the book focuses on Genet’s time spent in Palestine in the 70s and his short return in the 80s. He also discusses the time he spent with the Black Panthers in the US, although it’s not the main subject of the book. Viewing Palestine from the point of view of Genet’s weird philosophical and moral worldview was really interesting, because what he chooses to spend time looking at or talking about is probably not what most would focus on, and because even his most political discussions are tinged with the uniquely Genet-style spirituality (if you can call it that? I don’t know what to call it) that is so much the exact opposite of objective. It’s definitely not a book about Palestine I would recommend reading without also having a grasp of Genet’s style of looking at the world and his various obsessions and preoccupations, because they really do inform a lot of his commentary. It was also written 15 years after his first trip to Palestine, partly from memory and partly from journal entries/notes, which gives it a sort of weirdly dreamlike quality much like his novels.

Blackouts by Justin Torres was so amazing! It blends real life and fiction together so well that I didn’t even realize that most of the people he references in the novel are real historical figures until he mentioned Ben Reitman, who I recognized as the Chicago King Of The Hobos and Emma Goldman’s lover. The book follows an unnamed narrator who has come to a hotel or apartment in the southwest in order to care for a dying elderly man called Juan Gay. Juan has a book called Sex Variants, a study of homosexuality from the 1940s which has been censored and blacked out. Back and forth, the narrator and Juan trade stories. The narrator tells his life story up until the present, including his first meeting with Juan in a mental hospital as a teenager. In turn, Juan tells the story of the Sex Variants book and its creator, Jan Gay (Ben Reitman’s real life daughter). The book explores the reliability of narrative, the power of collecting and documenting life stories, and of removing or changing things in order to create new or different narratives.

Again, Clarice Lispector rocking my world! Generally I can read a 200-ish page novel in somewhere between 2 and 4 hours depending on the content/writing style. Near To The Wild Heart took me 9 hours to read because I kept wanting to stop and reread entire paragraphs because they were so interesting or pretty or philosophical. The story focuses on Joana, whose strange way of looking at the world and going through life makes everyone sort of wary of her. This book is so layered I don’t really know how to describe it. So much of it is philosophical or existential musings through the vehicle of Joana. Unsurprisingly, it’s a beautiful book and I highly recommend it.

I’m just going to copy/paste my Goodreads review for Skye Papers by Jamika Ajalon: This book had so much potential that just…fell short. I could tell that it was written for an American audience but the way the reader/Skye is “taught” certain British terms and/or slang felt a bit patronizing. The characters were fleshed out and interesting and I liked them a lot but the plot crumbled quickly in the last half of the book Things sped up to a degree that felt strange and unnatural, the book’s pacing was inconsistent throughout. Perhaps that was deliberate considering the reveal at the climax, but if it was, it should have been utilized better. If the inconsistent pacing wasn’t deliberate, then it just made the book feel strange to read. There were moments were I felt like there should have been more fleshing out of certain character relationships. Even with the reveal at the end and the explanation of Pieces’ erratic/avoidant behavior, I wish there had been more fleshing out of the relationship or friendship between her and Skye at the beginning, when Skye first arrives in London. Characters who seemed cool/interesting got glossed over and instead there was a lot more dwelling on Skye walking around or busking or just hanging out. I could have gone without the last 30 or so pages after the big reveal, where Skye went back through everything that happened with the knowledge she (and the reader) had gained. It dragged on and on and at that point I felt like the whole story was so contrived that I just wasn’t interested anymore. A friend who read this book before I did said she thought it was an experimental novel that just hadn’t gone far enough, and I completely agree with her. I think if the style with the film script interludes went further, into printed visuals or more weirdness with the interludes, more experimental style with the main story, or something, it would have been really good. It just didn’t push hard enough.

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson was a fun little true crime novel about a young flautist who broke into a small English natural history museum in 2009 and stole hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of preserved rare bird skins dating back to the 19th century. He was a salmon fly-tying enthusiast and prodigy, and old Victorian fly designs used feathers of rare birds. The book first goes through the heist and the judicial proceedings, then examines the niche culture of Victorian fly-tying enthusiasts and obsessives, and then chronicles the author’s attempts to track down some of the missing birds. It was a quick, easy read, but fun and an unusual subject and I quite enjoyed it.

In 2024 I don’t plan on trying to surpass or even reach this year’s number. I’m going to start off the year reading The Recognitions by William Gaddis, then I’m going to re-read a number of books that I come across at work or in conversation and think Huh, I should reread that one of these days. So far, the books I am currently planning to reread: Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, The People Of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere, McGlue by Otessa Moshfegh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neil, Acid Snow by Larry Mitchell, and Nightwood by Djuna Barnes.

[llucidus]

・｡ [  pat  chayanit .ciswoman .she/her] -  KITTIYA “KITTI” WATCHARATRAKUL  was blasting RX QUEEN BY DEFTONES on the sidewalk in austin today . according to other atx residents , the THIRTY year old UNEMPLOYED HEIRESS  has been given a reputation of being FICKLE , but also ASSERTIVE . [ EMPTY BOTTLES OF TOP SHELF CHAMPAGNE, SMOKE MINGLING WITH THE SCENT OF TONKA BEAN AND CINNAMON, TRIPLE SHOTS OF ESPRESSO ]

drug use tw.

s t a t i s t i c s .

BASICS:

FULL NAME:  kittiya watcharatrakul.

NICKNAMES:  kitti, kit.

GENDER:  cis female.

PRONOUNS:  she/her.

SEXUALITY:  pansexual.

AESTHETICS:  empty bottles of top shelf champagne ; smoke mingling with the scent of tonka bean & cinnamon ; triple shots of espresso ; extravagant acrylic nails ; dancing on tables ; perfectly pouty glossed lips ; pupils blown wide behind designer sunglasses.

AGE:  thirty

DATE OF BIRTH:  august 10th, 1993.

ZODIAC SIGN:  leo.

OCCUPATION:  unemployed heiress.

APPEARANCE:

FACECLAIM:  pat chayanit.

VOICE CLAIM:  pat chayanit.

HEIGHT:  5'5".

BUILD:  slim.

HAIR: naturally black and waist length, usually in mermaid waves or pin straight.

PIERCINGS:  rook, cartilage, conch & double lobes on left ear. tragus, upper lobe and double lobes on right ear. tongue & bellybutton.

TATTOOS:  click, click, click, click, click.

OTHER DISTINGUISHING FEATURES:  scar on lefthand under pinky.

STYLE: CLICK FOR PINTEREST BOARD.

PERSONALITY:

TRAITS: + assertive, alluring, candid, gregarious, vehement, resilient. -fickle, abrasive, boisterous, decadent, impetuous, possessive.

LIKES: shopping, drugs (mainly weed, coke & molly but she does dabble in the harder stuff), a menthol cigarette after a few cosmo's, sex and the city, dark chocolate, fantasy novels, p.d.a., clubbing until 3 a.m., house plants & succulents, getting her nails done.

DISLIKES:  unwanted physical contact, cats, doing laundry, clutter, tequila, dark roast coffee.

FEARS: spiders, snakes, reptiles, heights.

PHOBIAS:  arachnophobia ; fear of arachnids.

HOBBIES:  dancing, partying, shopping, gaming.

PET PEEVES:  people who play music loudly on their phones in public, interrupting someone in the middle of a story, people who talk during movies.

FAVORITES:

ICE CREAM FLAVOUR:  pistachio (preferably gelato).

TIME OF THE DAY / NIGHT:  dusk.

WEATHER:  crisp fall days.

BREAKFAST FOOD:  eggs benedict.

DINNER FOOD:  steak.

DESSERT: tiramisu.

COLOURS:  heather grey, royal purple & mint green.

ITEM:  diamond earrings from her grand mother on her moms side.

COFFEE ORDER: iced chai latte with oatmilk, vanilla cold foam & cinnamon on top.

PERFUME: angels share by kilian.

a b o u t k i t t i .

being born with a silver spoon in her mouth is an understatement when it comes to kittiya. the daughter of a thai oil tycoon and a beloved socialite from china, kittiya (thai for "fame" or "renowned"), or kitti as she as dubbed early on, was born in thailand in the summer of 1993, but spent her childhood growing up in new york city.

being an only child of a mother who never really wanted children, and a father who grew up in a loveless home and had no idea how to show affection was not easy. she was lonely a great deal of the time, and her only friend was her nanny, a kind young turkish woman in her twenties, whom was unceremoniously fired when kitti's mother felt she had over stepped her bounds, much to kitti's horror.

kitti was put into pageants and dance classes at a very young age and while she hated the pageants, she fell in love with ballet. she exhibited a natural grace and talent and was even accepted into the laguardia high school of performing arts on the upper west side, which she graduated from in 2011. while kitti's parents begged her to attend college, and she was accepted into several (inclusing nyu), she had no desire to and decided to travel the world instead.

she spent the next six years traveling to various places in the united states as well as europe and asia, staying in thailand for over two years with family. after returning to new york she had a particularly bad coke scandal that ended with her mother begging her to return to thailand. being chased out of new york had not been on her bingo card that year but her lack of relationship with her parents and a friend who already lived in austin made it an easy choice! she's been in austin since 2017, and she considers it her real home now.

h e a d c a n o n s .

favorite drink at the moment is a dirty shirley temple.

has a female doberman pinscher named rei, after the sailor scout.

is allergic to cats, and really doesn't care for them after she was attacked by one as a child.

has an entire room in her fancy luxury apartment dedicated to her collection of plants. she collects succulents, monsteras, hoyas, just about anything you can think of.

loves spicy food!

w a n t e d c o n n e c t i o n s .

ride or die / bestie.

exes (m/f/nb)

one night stands.

plug / dealer.

good influence.

original friend that lived in austin and convinced kitti to move there.

[slowthypiglordblr]

TGAMM cast Represented Through Mythological Creatures

Molly Mcgee as Kinnari (her Wraith self as Hongsa)

Kinnari are celestial musical beings with the head, torso, and arms of a woman and the wings, tail, and feet of a swan. They reside in the Himalayas and watch over people who are in danger. Completely friendly in nature, they are well-known for their musical talents, and are the symbol of feminine beauty, grace, and achievement.

Hongsa are celestial swans with flowing tails, beautiful crests, and long bills and beautiful singing voices. Little is known of their origins, but they frequently appear in architecture and serve as the mount for lord Brahma. It is said that Lord Buddha himself was once born as a hongsa.

Scratch as an Imp (The same applies to Geoff)

Contrary to what many would believe, imps are more mischievous and troublesome than outright evil. In earlier depictions, imps are actually lonely creatures who utilize pranks to win over human friendship, though this often backfires. 

Libby as Chalkydri

Chalkydri are sub-species of archangels with the colors of the rainbow head of a crocodile, the tail and paws or a lion, with twelve wings. They are described in the Second Book of Enoch to dwell the sun alongside their counterpart the Phoenix, and break out into song at sunrise while the birds rejoice a new day.

Or possibly Estries (art by Samantha Mash)

(This mostly stems from Libby’s love for the macabre and also cause who doesn’t love vampires.)

Estries are female vampires from Jewish Folklore and are stated to be beautiful yet deadly. They are said to come out at night to feed on blood to survive and are capable of shape-shifting into various animal forms at will. Estries can also fly utilizing their hair, provided it remains unbound. If an Estry is wounded, it must either drink to blood or eat the bread and salt to the individual who harmed them to survive. 

Pete Mcgee as Gnome 

Pete gives off this kind of gnome vibe to me.

Gnomes are depicted as friendly, virtuous earth dwelling spirits that guard mines, treasures, and other precious resources. They are described as ingenious friends of man, and never ask for any reward for their kindness. Gnomes also hold the title of the earth elemental as they are described as being able to “move through the earth as man moves through the air”.

Sharon Mcgee as Naga Serpent

Naga are serpentine creatures that originate from India in Hinduism as well as Buddhism, and thus have spread across Asia. They’re many variations of the myths depending on who you ask, but the “classical” Naga are depicted as being able to shift between a human form, a serpent’s form, or something in-between. They are often depicted as having multiple heads and are described as powerful and dangerous, however they are just as capable of good and evil as any person.

Darryl Mcgee as Kappa

I struggled to find a creature from Thai mythology that matched Darryl's delinquent and crafty personality, but the Kappa from Shinto mythology fit the role nicely.

Grandma Nin as Byangomi

Byangomi are legendary (typically human faced) birds from Thai fairy tales that are said to be wise seers that bring guidance to those deserving of it.

Andrea Davenport as Mermaid

Mermaids are a staple in modern day media, they’re as synonymous with fairy tales and folklore as dragons and unicorns. Given Andrea’s self-centered and vain nature combined with the her wealth and popularity make this a perfect match.

Jilly and Billy Mcgee as Trolls

Trolls are typically large burly creatures that live in small but tight family units in caves or mountains far away from humans. Their appearance varies considerably depending on who you ask, ranging from being short goblin like creatures, big hairy brutes, to being completely indistinguishable to humans. 

Howling Harriet as Banshee 

Lost spirit out in the woods? Check. Feared by all who enter her domain? Check. Lets out an absolutely spine-chilling wail? Check.

Jinx as Tsuchigumo

Tsuchigumo are fearsome spider yokai that similarly to the more well-known Jorogumo, use illusions and trickery to ensnare unwary people. However, unlike their more seductive counterparts, they utilize more diverse means of deception, and are far more ambitious. 

The Chairman as Tatarigami 

Tatarigami are vengeful malevolent yokai born from either fallen gods or especially powerful people who died in anguish that bring about death, calamity, famine, and destruction in retribution. Examples of Tatarigami in myth are Emperor Gozu, the Bull-headed God, and Yamata no Orochi (yes, the Orochi).

[of-foolish-and-wise]

Welcome to New York’s legendary hotel for women, the Barbizon. Liberated after WWI from home and hearth, women flocked to New York City during the Roaring Twenties. But even as women’s residential hotels became the fashion, the Barbizon stood out; it was designed for young women with artistic aspirations, and included soaring art studios and soundproofed practice rooms. More importantly still, with no men allowed beyond the lobby, the Barbizon signaled respectability, a place where a young woman of a certain class could feel at home. As the stock market crashed and the Great Depression set in, the clientele changed, though women’s ambitions did not; the Barbizon Hotel became the go-to destination for any young American woman with a dream to be something more. While Sylvia Plath most famously fictionalized her time there in The Bell Jar, the Barbizon was also where Titanic survivor Molly Brown sang her last aria; where Grace Kelly danced topless in the hallways; where Joan Didion got her first taste of Manhattan; and where both Ali MacGraw and Jaclyn Smith found their calling as actresses. It was home to American royalty like Liza Minnelli and Little Edie Beale, who made their way here as they attempted life beyond their famous family homes. Students of the prestigious Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School had three floors to themselves, Eileen Ford used the hotel as a guest house for her youngest models, and Mademoiselle magazine boarded its summer interns there, including a young designer named Betsey Johnson.

x

[theimpossiblescheme]

soldiers, poets, and queens - playlists for ulysses, rosaline, prufrock, and caprizant for @bombawife‘s OC week (album art by @thedragonchilde)

ulysses: 01. setting up the courtroom - joby talbot | 02. bone + tissue - gallant | 03. still - colton ryan and molly gordon | 04. god bless the child - billie holiday | 05. how i am - jason howland | 06. thunder in a blue sky - namo feat. aedan peterson | 07. the nutcracker, op. 71, act I, scene 1: no. 4, arrival of drosselmeyer - pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky | 08. paper forest (birds) - emmy the great | 09. birdhouse in your soul - they might be giants | 10. hello my old heart - the oh hellos | 11. howl - black rebel motorcycle club | 12. when your feet don’t touch the ground - ellie goulding | 13. fragile - poets of the fall | 14. reflets dans l'eau - claude debussy | 15. relay - fiona apple | 16. god only knows - clay hine, drew mcmillan, tim brooks, and tim reynolds | 17. a long way past the past - fleet foxes | 18. lean - oh land feat. vitamin string quartet | 19. any other world - mika [listen]

rosaline: 01. mother and child reunion - paul simon | 02. garden song - phoebe bridgers | 03. la niaise - leila huissoud | 04. all of the women - allison russell | 05. just my imagination - the cranberries | 06. more than close - oneke | 07. what it is - amber mark | 08. i lost something in the hills - sibylle baier | 09. joy - nataly dawn | 10. glowing - the oh hellos | 11. the healing process - koh lantana | 12. night still comes - neko case | 13. blue skies - kathryn calder | 14. flower garden - joe hisaishi | 15. back in my body - maggie rogers | 16. olalla - blanco white | 17. te regalo - carla morrison | 18. it ends with us - steve mokwebe | 19. je suis pret - brooke fraser [listen]

prufrock: 01. the croquet match - joby talbot | 02. learning to fly - the weepies | 03. in my city - ellie goulding | 04. grace kelly - mika | 05. good old-fashioned lover boy - queen | 06. the 59th street bridge song (feelin' groovy) - simon and garfunkel | 07. song of the baron - yuji nomi | 08. on the street where you live - bill shirley | 09. romeo - donna summer | 10. everybody talks - postmodern jukebox | 11. king of the world - young rising sons | 12. shining star - earth, wind, and fire | 13. un sospiro - franz liszt | 14. into a fantasy - alexander rybak | 15. heavy balloon - fiona apple | 16. ain't no mountain high enough - diana ross | 17. feel it still - portugal. the man | 18. rounds - the oh hellos | 19. if the world turned upside down - goo goo dolls [listen]

caprizant: 01. six weeks - of monsters and men | 02. patience worth - faith and the muse | 03. hurricane - ms mr | 04. ivory tower - nova twins | 05. flowers - in love with a ghost feat. nori | 06. i know the end - phoebe bridgers | 07. so afraid - janelle monáe | 08. where did i leave that fire - neko case | 09. the girl i mean to be - daisy eagan | 10. supergirl - krystal harris | 11. cuando seas grande - miguel mateos | 12. hey you - pink floyd | 13. mood indigo - duke ellington | 14. pepper'n'sand - ingrid and the ministers | 15. s.p.c.l.g. (society for the prevention of cruelty to little girls) - the society girls | 16. bad trash - switchblade symphony | 17. four pink walls - alessia cara | 18. my friends - oh wonder | 19. ready now - dodie [listen]

[maddiesbookshelves]

Radium Girls by Cy (March 2023)

In the 1920's, the discovery of radium takes the United States by storm. This miracle element discovered by Marie Curie bathes America in its phosphorescent aura. In 1918, Edna Bolz sits, along with Grace, Katherine, Mollie, Albina and Quinta, in front of USRC's workbenches. There, they will meticulously paint their quota of watch faces with this very special paint that allows you to read the time in the dark. Lip, dip, paint. Three words, three gestures that will lead them to their death.

This is the tragic story of (some of) the Radium Girls, told through Cy's stunning art style (go check out her instagram). The use of limited colors was so smart on her part.

The story itself goes pretty fast, introducing us to this group of friends just living their life outside of work. How that works slowly starts ruining their health and their lives. We see a little bit of their fight and how the people responsible in their company did everything in their power to delay the proceedings so the girls would die before they could be judged for their actions.

Although I felt like it went a little too fast (and it kinda has to, since it's a graphic novel), it was still a great starting point if you're curious abour the story of the Radium Girls. Since it goes fast, you don't have to ingest tons of scientific details about radium, you just get glimpses of how it (and capitalism) ruined those women's lives. It's an important story to tell because it's the spark that lit the fire for the fight for workers' rights (at least in the US).

I think how I came to read this book is pretty funny so I'll leave it as an anecdote: I saw this post about the Radium Girls at the beginning of the month. Then I saw this graphic novel (sorry, it's only available in French) at the bookshop I'm interning at right now. When I asked my coworker if it was a one shot, she told me it would be 4 books but that the illustrator had another graphic novel about the Radium Girls! So I borrowed it and here we are.

French version under the cut

La découverte du radium fait une entrée fracassante dans les États-Unis des années 1920.

L'élément miracle, découvert par Marie Curie, baigne l'Amérique de son aura phosphorescente.

1918, Edna Bolz s'installe aux côtés de Grace, Katherine, Mollie, Albina et Quinta devant les établis d'USRC. Elles vont y peindre minutieusement leur quota de cadrans de montres, avec cette peinture si spéciale qu'elle permet de lire l'heure dans le noir.

Lip, dip, paint.

Trois mots, trois gestes qui les mèneront à leur perte.

Ceci est l'histoire tragique (de certaines) des Radium Girls, racontée à travers les dessins magnifiques de Cy (allez voir son instagram). Son utilisation d'un nombre limité de couleurs était vraiment un choix intelligent.

L'histoire en elle-même va plutôt vite, elle nous présente ce groupe d'amies qui vivent juste leur vie en dehors de leur travail. Comment ce travail commence doucement à détruire leurs corps et leurs vies. On voit un peu leur lutte et comment les personnes responsables dans leur entreprise ont fait tout ce qu'ils ont pu pour retarder le procès pour que les filles meurent avant qu'ils puissent être condamnés pour leurs actes.

Même si j'ai trouvé que ça allait un peu trop vite (et c'est un peu obligé vu qu'il s'agit d'un roman graphique), c'est un bon point de départ si vous voulez en savoir plus sur les Radium Girls. Vu que ça va vite, pas besoin d'ingérer des tonnes d'informations scientifiques sur le radium, on a juste des aperçus de comment il (et le capitalisme) a ruiné les vies de ces femmes. C'est une histoire importante dont il faut parler parce que l'étincelle qui a mis le feu aux poudres dans la lutte pour les droits des travailleurs (au moins aux USA).

Je trouve que la manière dont j'ai découvert ce livre est assez drôle donc je vais le raconter ici pour l'anecdote : j'ai vu ce post sur les Radium Girls au début du mois. Puis j'ai vu ce roman graphique à la librarie où je fais mon stage en ce moment. Quand j'ai demandé à ma collègue si c'était un one-shot, elle m'a dit que ça serait en 4 tomes mais que l'illustratrice avait fait un autre roman graphique sur les Radium Girls ! Du coup je l'ai emprunté et voilà.