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Last time I was in Washington, I walked over a mile to go see HER again.

J. William Fosdick, Adoration of St. Joan of Arc, 1896, fire etched wood relief, three panels, each: 109 3⁄4 x 49 1⁄2 in. (278.8 x 125.7 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans, 1910.9.8

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As you may know, many of the effects in Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies were practical, not CGI. That included physical models of most of the locations, called "big-atures" (because they were much bigger than the word "miniature" would imply). Which brings us to today's poll:

#cirith ungol

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he’s one of us

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EMERALD GREEN CUT VELVET CAPE, 1870’s - 1880’s. 

Velvet triangle having a deep floral border with cord and velvet trim having knotted fringe and quilted silk lining.

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DOLCE & GABBANA at Milan Fashion Week Fall 2020 if you want to support this blog consider donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

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weirdguy wednesday

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Stuck on the idea of vampires as a kind of reverse fae, or like someone's twisted, perverse attempt at moulding humans into fae.

They're repelled by liminal spaces.

A vampire could never enter fairyland, not just because they'd never be welcomed, but because most of the usual entry-ways are naturally barred to them.

They can't cross running water. They can't be seen in mirrors. They will wait forever at a crossroads, unable to pick a direction to go in. They can't even step over a thresh-hold unless there is absolutely no ambiguity about whether they are welcome inside.

They crave human blood, iron and salt, but are repelled by herbs and plants. They are supernaturally prevented from harming you unless the rules of hospitality have been invoked.

A fairy may replace your newborn child with something unnatural and ever-hungry. A vampire will do the same, but with your grandmother's corpse.

The fae are typically associated, even in stories where they're the bad guys, with flourishing and purity. Vampires, even in stories where they're the good guys, are typically associated with decay and corruption.

The fae turn ancient human burial mounds into fancy halls for their courts. Vampires take ancient human castles and let them grow mildewed and cobwebbed, exchanging the beds for coffins, turning them into burial places.

Fae don't tend to live among humans, but can generally pass for them with relative ease if they so choose. Vampires nearly always live among humans, but tend to find not revealing themselves a huge struggle.

I can't think of many stories I've read where fae and vampires even exist in the same universe, let alone ones where they actively interact. I feel like their enmity is almost more inevitable than that between vampires and werewolves, however.

The rivalry between vampires and werewolves is, essentially, the rivalry between two apex predator species who share a territory. (Even in stories where the werewolves aren't actually hunting humans.)

The vampires hate the werewolves because the werewolves interfere with their access to prey. The werewolves hate the vampires either because they consider themselves aligned with humans (the prey species), or because they are also predators and the vampires are competing with them.

By comparison, I think there's some story potential in the fae finding something genuinely creepy and uncanny valley about vampires.

They're immortal, like them, but also dead. They can be beautiful, like them, but that beauty is something they actively require humans to sustain. They like to inhabit beautiful and ancient ex-human dwellings, like them, but they actively work to make those places dark, damp and empty.

Fairies who are unflappable in the face of all sorts of Otherworldly monsters, can look an eldritch horror in the eye(s) without blinking, and have never been phased yet by any human, but will recoil from even the weakest vampire.

Vampires who hate fairies just as much, but in a more envious way. The way that the creature for whom immortality is a curse is bound to hate the creatures for whom immortality is an eternity of sunlight and laughter.

Maybe their touches burn each other. Maybe vampires can't stand physical contact with anything so alive and vital. Maybe immortal fairies become ill from too much exposure to the undead.

Maybe they fight over the human population when their territories overlap. The fairy need for servants and people to make deals with, competing with the vampire need for thralls and blood to drink.

Just… fairies and vampires. We need more stories about them interacting.

#Help i love this!

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in another timeline wes anderson is a middle school theater teacher bankrupting his art department with the most over-budget production of suessical the musical jr. that suburban houston will ever see

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Before voting, spin the wheel and get a Lord of the Rings character.

Not sure who your character is? You can look them up on this Tolkien Gateway character list, or just vote based on vibes.

For the purposes of the game, assume your vote is not "LaCE compliant." (That is, fucking an elf does not instantly mean marriage or death for that elf.)

Poll concept from @pollsnatural.

#... lol I got gollum #i will not be fucking or marrying gollum tyvm

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SCREAMS

#I AM NOT IMMUNE TO THE LOL SHOW

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I wish I had wings I could curl up in. And then sit high up on the roof of a gothic castle. And then fly around in the moonlight, scaring people to cheer me up! (But also help people who's lost in the woods and stuff, maybe by scaring them so they run in the right direction)

A midnight/early-early morning doodle, while thinking about a lot of things, being awake because I slept too much too recently. But it'll be fine. Just fine. Fine.

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Published May 31, 2024

Any common face mask provides significant protection against the virus that causes COVID-19, but N95 masks are most effective at slashing the amount emitted by infected people, according to a University of Maryland-led study released Wednesday.

So-called “duckbill” N95 masks scored highest in the study, which measured the exhaled breath of participants who were tested both masked and unmasked to measure comparative outputs of SARS-CoV-2. The inexpensive masks, which have two head straps and a horizontal seam, captured 98% of exhaled virus, according to the study published in eBioMedicine.

The researchers also found that—in what might come as a surprise to many—cloth masks outperformed the specific brand of KN95 mask that was tested. Surgical masks brought up the rear in performance out of the four types, but even they blocked 70% of the virus, the tests showed. (To reflect the general public's use of masks, study volunteers were not fit-tested for their masks or trained how to properly wear them.)

“The research shows that any mask is much better than no mask, and an N95 is significantly better than the other options. That’s the No. 1 message,” says the study’s senior author, Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health and a global expert on how viruses spread through the air.

#go terps beat [covid]!

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Vampire fashion by DevilInspired.

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Kate Moss & Luka Isaac in Belle de Nuit for W, March 2017

Shot by Mert & Marcus

Styled by Edward Ennin ful

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Illustrations from Selected Poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne by Harry Clarke (1928)