#greenwell is right there

[aamirmitchell]

nah because let me find out y’all really out here shipping kourtney and ej

#y’all #fr? #oh! #and why are people calling it kourtwell? #greenwell is right there #smh #hsmtmts #kourtney greene #ej caswell

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

i’m not saying that if emmy rossum had been cast as debbie y’all would like her more except… i am. that’s actually exactly what i’m saying.

#pretty privilege is real #and although i believe emma kenney to be one of the most gorgeous actresses right now many people disagree #not once has emmy rossum been called ugly by this fandom #actually if i remember correctly- she originally wasn’t even allowed to audition because she looked to pretty and innocent #too* #but had shameless us been made 10 years earlier? #had emmy rossum been cast? #y’all would eat debbie up #i don’t even understand how people call emma kenney ugly when she is far from it but they do #i also believe that if jane levy had played mandy all throughout her six seasons y’all would like s2-6 mandy more #or if emma greenwell had played s1 mandy y’all would’ve liked her less #even though i believe emma greenwell is also one of the most beautiful and talented actresses some people disagrre #disagree* #shameless #debbie gallagher #emmy rossum #emma kenney

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

I love being absolutely NONSENSICAL in my sentence structure like what's the worst thing that's gonna happen???? I use too many commas?????

#garth greenwell coded posts #it's sooo fun tho like no this clause doesn't make any sense I'm a POETTTTT #commas aren't a pause in a sentence they're a brushstroke on a canvas..... a work of art in their own right.....

[milkovski]

.

#emma greenwell mandy has my heart but im watching s1 right now and MANDY!! S1 IAN AND MANY MY LITTLE BABIES MY BLORBOS MY MEOWMEOWS #MANDY* #theyre sooooo cute #giggling together heeeheehaha

[iwantyoursexmp3]

never needed a novel like i need small rain i think

#garth my best friend can you release like a small rain anticipatory reading list #how much alcohol would it take for me to dm garth greenwell and be like do you have any small rain comp titles #every time i write about the hospital. im like man i wish i was reading small rain right now

[ludmilachaibemachado]

Actresses Gilly Fraser (right) and Pauline Collins during a break from filming the TV Space and Time-travel series 'Doctor Who', London, UK, 27th April 1967. Photo by George Greenwell💐🇬🇧

Via @isabelfutre on Instagram💐

#60s icons #girlsofthesixties #60s actresses #pauline collins #gilly fraser #doctor who #swinging london #swinging sixties #1967

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

“I am not skilled to understand What God hath willed, What God hath planned; I only know at his right hand Stands One who is my Savior.” ~ from a hymn written by Dorothy Greenwell, 1873

“I’m sure there were many things Dorothy Greenwell could not understand. She was born into a well-to-do English family, but her father died and economic problems made it necessary for the family estate to be sold. She struggled with fragile health as she lived alone in London, England. Why hadn’t God given her an easier life? And she worked with children that were mentally and physically handicapped; why did they have to suffer so?

When Dorothy was 39 years old, she wrote her first book, The Patience of Hope. She was beginning to see how important patience is for dealing with life’s hard questions. But she didn’t want to dwell on life’s unanswered questions. Instead, she wanted to focus on God’s glorious exclamations… and His plan of salvation.

William J. Kirkpatrick put music to those words, and it became the hymn we know today.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkMTRKZYFNE

[marnz]

i’ve been thinking about the “no offense but almost every modern novel written by a misanthropic female author sounds the same” post for several days and part of me is like, you’re missing the point. these lonely pathetic and sometimes reprehensible narrators are this way because the books are about various types of alienation under capitalism. my year of rest and relaxation is the best and purest example of this. the narrator sucks, her life sucks, she can’t relate to herself or other people, and the book is devoted to examining life in the capitalist boom of 1999/2000 new york city right before 9/11 happened.

but also, the post is right! these books are definitely written in a specific style! of course, it’s not just women writing books in this style, it’s a style being used by the majority of modern lit fic writers so i think the focus and criticism of women is pretty stupid in this context but sure, let’s go with it. these books rarely have specific names for characters or places or the narrator, many things are under described, it’s really just a collection of thoughts and feelings as they move through a world that barely exists because it’s about alienation of the self...and frankly some of it is done badly! 

since we’re determined to criticize female authors writing this style, i am thinking about jhumpa lahari’s whereabouts, which is a novella mainly notable because lahari wrote it in italian before translating it to english. we know it’s set in italy, but no one has names and the narrator is determined not to address her fear and dread of what calamities the future will bring, including the death of her mother, with whom she already has a strained relationship. i wouldn’t say the narrator is misanthropic so much as bewildered by her own emotions. it’s like lahari is so determined to not give a name to any character or place but instead make us feel the nameless, overwhelming dread of the narrator that everything else in the novel comes across as a window dressing.

 is whereabouts an exploration of alienation of the self under capitalism? i think so, yes, because so much of the novel is obsessing over the future and how relentless time is, the same way capitalism’s drive for “”progress”” for progress’s sake is relentless--to the point that it doesn’t matter who dies or gets hurt. and the narrator obsesses over this. the book is called whereabouts and it mainly made me think about the temporal relationship to dread and regret, and how much of our lives are defined by time.  

circling back around to my year of rest and relaxation, the narrator sucks in every way possible and is misanthropic but honestly her story is very tragic and a fascinating exploration of reactions to trauma. again, i regard it as a story about alienation--the obsession with brand names, with wealth, everyone’s unhappy lives that they have no choice but to live. it’s fascinating! 

i don’t think it’s fair to be like well every misanthropic novel written by women sounds the same as if this style is specific to women but i also don’t think it’s fair to say this criticism is rooted in misogyny...i feel like the reality is that many people read books to think. and many other people read books to escape. and you can’t really escape in a book about capitalism alienation, can you? no. because that’s so much of our lives. but if you go into these sorts of books looking to see a reflection of your own life, you won’t always get it! 

tldr; i read garth greenwell when i want to see a narrator whose characterization is so deep and complex that his thoughts feel like my own. i read ottessa moshfegh when i want to see people suck and ponder why. the more i embrace art for what it is and what it’s trying to do instead of wondering why it isn’t doing what i want it to do, the happier i am!

#my year of rest and relaxation #ottessa moshfegh #jhumpa lahiri #books #lit #i really haven't read Sally Rooney so i didn't address her in this but i know she's very controversial #anyway i think a way the 'alienation under capitalism but i see a reflection of myself' style is done well is in garth greenwell's cleanness #truly go read garth greenwell and maybe you'll calm down #long post tag #this post is dumb but you know. just being pretentious and thinking about art

[krispyweiss]

Tedeschi Trucks Band at Palace Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, March 21, 2023

Comparing Tedeschi Trucks Band to other groups is unfair to other groups.

Comparing Tedeschi Trucks Band to Tedeschi Trucks Band is similarly unfair to Tedeschi Trucks Band, for TTB, when cooking with gas, is virtually untouchable, a group that douses fuel on any slow-burning audience and leaves ashes in its wake.

In the interest of the greater good, Sound Bites will take the latter tack with this review of the 12-piece collective’s sold-out, March 21 gig at Columbus, Ohio’s, Palace Theatre. By that measure, TTB, 13 years after its formation, has entered its own we’re-gonna-play-some-new-stuff phase, resulting in a down-and-up concert that featured top-flight performances of sometimes-middling material.

The single-set, 115-minute show began tepidly with “Hear My Dear,” one of many tracks culled from 2022’s four-album I am the Moon series. These are songs such as “Playing with My Emotions,” “Yes We Will” and “Ain’t that Something;” numbers with simplistic lyrics and arrangements that don’t take the band’s full capabilities into consideration. It was 30 minutes of these selections - and others later - before “Midnight in Harlem” emerged.

Where the setlist was lacking - light on the well-chosen covers that TTB so easily plug into - the players were fully amped, with the brass section blaring and the two-drummer backbone perfectly aligned.

Flanked by their 10 compatriots, with horns and choir on opposite risers and drummers perched between, wife-and-husband namesake band leaders and guitarists Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks proved the wisdom of opposites pairing. She - lifting her legs and swinging her axe - is a demonstrative soloist from the Buddy Guy school while he is a stoic slide player channeling Duane Allman. And together, they’re a two-alarm, 12-string blaze.

Similarly fiery on the mic, the raspy Tedeschi benefits from co-leads from keyboardist Gabe Dixon and background singers - and occasional soloists - Mark Rivers, Mike Mattison and Alecia Chakour.

Tighter than any 12-piece band has any right being, TTB also mixes up the instrumentation. The horn section thus sat out the soulful, Mattison-sung “Emmaline” and Trucks led the a five-man iteration through “Pasaquan,” the “Third Stone from the Sun”-inspired instrumental that ran 20 minutes, including a drum duet that found Tyler Greenwell playing with his hands while Isaac Eady slammed his kit.

Trucks - who walked around the stage all evening to silently commune with soloists - sat down and looked on.

When the remaining players returned, the home stretch ensued with full-throttled takes of “Let Me Get By” and “Show Me,” songs and presentations that found Tedeschi, Trucks and the entire Band at their best and in their element.

Anyone seeing TTB for the first time would’ve been bowled over by the show. Anyone who’s seen the group multiple times would’ve been slightly underwhelmed. And it just goes to show that sometimes, what they play matters almost as much as how they play it.

Grade card: Tedeschi Trucks Band at Palace Theatre, Columbus - 3/21/23 - B+

3/22/23

#tedeschi trucks band #susan tedeschi #derek trucks #2023 concerts #duane allman #the allman brothers band #buddy guy #jimi hendrix

[man-reading]

‘What Belongs to You,’ by Garth Greenwell

In a controversial 1999 New Yorker review of Alan Hollinghurst’s novel “The Spell,” John Updike summed up a common prejudice about gay stories: namely, that they have nothing to interest straight readers.

Updike, the author of the sex romp “Couples” (among other sexually frank novels), complained that Hollinghurst’s “relentlessly gay” fiction bored him because in gay stories “nothing is at stake but self-gratification.” In contrast, stories with heterosexual characters “involve perpetuation of the species and the ancient, sacralized structures of the family.”

Essentially, Updike is asking: What’s the big deal? It’s just sex.

Garth Greenwell’s masterly debut ­novel, “What Belongs to You,” provides a ringing answer to Updike’s willfully dense question. The book is set in contemporary Bulgaria, still struggling to move on from its Communist past. Here, gay desire remains a cultural taboo, so that expressing one of the most basic of human emotions is quite a big deal, with plenty at stake ­beyond “self-gratification.”

Because the novel opens with a man cruising for sex in a public bathroom, some readers may initially be tempted to write off “What Belongs to You” as gay fiction. The cruising man in question, Greenwell’s unnamed narrator, resembles the author: a gay American poet teaching abroad at a college in Sofia.

Looking for sex and maybe companionship in a land where gays find one another in the shadows, the narrator encounters a small-time hustler named Mitko. Their relationship begins as sexual, then turns to something more mysterious, fraught and destabilizing to them both.

It’s a compliment to Greenwell’s writing that the vividly written sex scenes are the least compelling aspect of this wonderful book, which is divided into three sections. The first section, “Mitko,” was published as a stand-alone novella in 2011. It follows the two main characters as they go through the initial paces of their unequal relationship, complicated by the relative financial privilege of the narrator and the elusive personality of the charismatic Mitko. A 21st-century answer to Christopher Isherwood’s shabbily charming ­Sally Bowles, Mitko veers between attracting as many male admirers as possible, in person and online, and then plaintively professing a desire to “live a normal life.”

Despite this dynamic character and Greenwell’s dexterous prose, the plot of “Mitko” feels slightly thin. Readers may want to pull an Updike and tell the narrator: Hey, it’s just sex. What’s the big deal?

The resounding answer comes in the next section, “A Grave,” in which Greenwell powerfully expands the book’s scope. Sparked by news of his estranged father’s impending death, the narrator recounts several evocative vignettes of his own youthful attempts to grapple with his sexual identity in red-state Kentucky.

Taken in succession, these two sections expose the process of gay shame: how a traditional upbringing conditions a sweet, innocent kid to link desire with humiliation and hiding, and then how that kid transforms into a man addicted to that connection. Why would any contemporary American gay man in his right mind move to of all places Bulgaria? Perhaps in this case because it reminds the book’s hero of his old Kentucky home.

In the novel’s final section, “Pox,” the narrator has overcome some of his internal hurdles and formed a healthier relationship with a man from Portugal called R. At the same time, he can’t quite let go of Mitko — or is it that Mitko will not let go of him? Greenwell poignantly evokes the narrator’s inability to resist the draw of Mitko’s erratic neediness. Much (but not all) of the sexual charge of their relationship has dissipated for the narrator, yet a mysterious feeling of responsibility for Mitko’s increasingly grim fate remains.

Greenwell is one of several contemporary writers working in an “all over” prose style, similar to that of a Jackson Pollock abstract expressionist painting, in which all compositional details seem to be given equal weight. (Other current all-over practitioners include the literary darlings — and presumed heterosexuals — Ben Lerner and Karl Ove Knausgaard.) In these works, even the stories themselves seem barely shaped, merely lifted from the authors’ lives and flung directly onto the page like paint on a Pollock canvas.

Though this style has roots in the works of European writers like W. G. Sebald, Thomas Bernhard and (further back) Marcel Proust, its recent resurgence feels born out of a new and different impulse, perhaps an eerie echo of the relentless, formless “I, I, I” of social media.

Yet Greenwell’s writing stands out from that of his “all over” contemporaries, whose language sometimes slides into blandness or cliché. By contrast, Greenwell takes more consistent care with his finely wrought words and sentences. His prose regularly delivers dazzling treasures:

“How helpless desire is outside its little theater of heat.”

“Three long walkways extended from the beach into the sea, branching out at their ends into three separate promenades, like the arms, it seemed to me, of a snowflake as drawn by a child.”

“At the very moment we come into full consciousness of ourselves what we experience is leave-taking and a loss we seek the rest of our lives to restore.”

And he is equally memorable on up-to-the-minute concerns like online communication — on, for instance, the “symbols and abbreviations of Internet chat that make such language seem so much like a process of decay.”

While other writers use the all-over style somewhat indiscriminately, lavishing the same degree of attention on descriptions of morning coffee or a joint as on Big Thoughts about art or mortality, Greenwell has an instinctual feel for sharpening his focus at key moments to create depth of feeling. For instance, in the bravura opening to “A Grave,” the narrator’s reaction to learning that his father is dying becomes an object lesson in suffusing description of setting with a character’s emotions.

Perhaps for readers who share Updike’s point of view on the subject, the fact of Greenwell’s narrator’s gayness makes his story less “universal” — as if the job of fiction were to act as a mirror, rather than a lens that can introduce readers to characters of all stripes. Yet, objectively speaking, the hazards of being gay for Greenwell’s characters make their plot at least as dramatic as (say) that of Knausgaard’s socially awkward teenager trying to sneak alcohol into a party in Book 1 of “My Struggle,” or Lerner’s expatriate poet adrift on a haze of hash in “Leaving the Atocha Station” — or either of these writer-protagonists’ vainglorious preoccupations with their literary reputations. In Greenwell’s book, the stakes are higher.

It’s a shame, then, that “What Belongs to You” is burdened with such a vague and unmemorable title. And the emphasis on Bulgaria’s history and culture could have been stronger, to help solidify its choice as backdrop. Likewise, even if the country’s thematic role is clear, it might have been nice from a straightforward narrative perspective to understand more about how the protagonist ended up there. Of course, an amiable laxness with story structure is a hazard of the all-over style — at first, the pace lags — but in a short book like this, a little slowness is not fatal. None of these quibbles are. “What Belongs to You” is a rich, important debut, an instant classic to be savored by all lovers of serious fiction because of, not despite, its subject: a gay man’s endeavor to fathom his own heart.

WHAT BELONGS TO YOU

By Garth Greenwell

194 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $23.

#Garth Greenwell #writer #author #What Belongs to You #books worth reading #gay fiction #contemporary novels

[newplancomics]

Achievement Unlocked: Longshot I received a birthday present #mailcall from my best friend today. Inside was a GCG graded 9.8 copy of Longshot issue 3. With that my goal of collecting the original Longshot series in near perfect condition. Longshot is one of my favorite heroes. His powers of probability manipulation (good luck) only work based on Altruism, by doing the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do. I recently met with one of Longshot's original creators, Ann Nocenti. She let me know that originally people found hom boring. I couldn't believe it. Now I want to meet Chris Claremont and asked him why he added him to the X-men line up? So now my Longshot collection includes: Longshot 1-6 CGC graded 9.8 Longshot 1-6 signed by Ann Nocenti Marvel Age #29 (first appearance?) Longshot bust by Sam Greenwell Now I'd like to find an Amazing Heroes issue 39 for this set. Thank you, Matt Pomeroy, for helping me finish the set. Your a true hero my friend. @annienocenti @arthuradamsart @greenwellstudios @marvelstudios @collectdst #longshot #xmen #spiral #marvelcomics #passionforcomics #comicgeek (at Crofton, Maryland) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck7MYfOs9zt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#mailcall #29 #longshot #xmen #spiral #marvelcomics #passionforcomics #comicgeek

[hxartshxpedbox]

&&*Mandy Intro

Word on the street is that [MANDY MILKOVICH] from [SHAMELESS] is in Bar Harbor. They seem to look a lot like [EMMA GREENWELL]. They’re [TWENTY FIVE] and have [ALL THEIR MEMORIES] in tact. Somehow they’ve managed to get a job at [ATLANTIC FINE WINERY] as a [VINTNER/WINEMAKER] to help pass the time. Looks like they’re ready to settle in for the long time. (Ari, 22, CST + she/her)

NAME: Mandy Milkovich  AGE: Twenty-Five BIRTHDAY: January 11th (Aquarius) FANDOM: Shameless US JOB: Winemaker at Bliss & Co. Winery  RELATIONSHIP/FAMILY: Mandy is the daughter of Terry Milkovich and a younger sister to Colin, Iggy, and Mickey Milkovich. She has a half sister named Molly Milkovich and was best friends with Ian Gallagher throughout her time on the show. 

ARE THEIR MEMORIES IN TACT?: Mandy has all of her memories in tact, and has been pulled from a life she had after her canon time on Shameless. 

DO THEY ENJOY BAR HARBOR?: It hasn’t stuck on her yet. She thinks its an odd place to be, and an even odder place for her to end up. Mandy always believed she didn’t have to get “stuck on the south side” but that doesn’t mean she would have pictured herself in a place like Bar Harbor. For her, it’s a little too weird, and there are certain things that just don’t sit quite right with her...

A BRIEF BIO: Mandy Milkovich is a force to be reckoned with. She would do anything for those she loves, and that means anything. She comes from an incredibly strong, low-income, crime affiliated family. Coming from that family taught her how to fight for herself more than anything else. Mandy can come off as bitchy, but that’s mostly because she isn’t afraid to put you in your place if you disrespect her. She isn’t ashamed of her family, or of who she is, and she isn’t about to let anyone put her down or label her as ‘lesser than’. 

#thg: intro #intro #MANDY &* - study

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Hello!! Your prose is divine! Do you have any advice on how to improve prose?

Thank you so much, ahh I’m happy you like it! Going to sum this up in 3 very simple points because typically I just say “practice” !

1. Practice

Lol sorry yes, we’re starting here because I think this is the most effective way to improve your prose. Actually the idea of improving prose isn’t something I think any writer should worry about at all but especially in the early stages, however the reason my writing is the way it is is because I’ve been writing consistently for 10 years, nothing much else to it! I got to know my own style and voice over time and continue to develop it with practice. I still have ugly writing. I’m still insecure about it. My early work is bad. Some of my early work is actually excellent and paved the way for me now. I wouldn’t be here without all that exploration so my best advice is just to write in a way that gets you to keep going.

2. Read work that you like & don’t be afraid to emulate it

I did this a LOT when I started noticing I had a style. I don’t mean copy work or steal work, I mean look at a sentence you enjoy and see if you can break down HOW the writer achieved that effect and if you can apply it to your own work. If you have a list of literary godmothers, focus on studying their work. Doing this right now with Garth Greenwell and for example, I notice the syntax in a lot of his sentences seems inverted from what you’d typically expect which can create a sweeping voice. That really fits the voice I’m currently writing so I’ve affirmed that’s a good technique to continue to use in my draft.

3. Focus on literary elements you enjoy and apply those to your work

In the past I might’ve just said “focus on specificity especially in nouns and verbs” which can be a WAY to improve prose but isn’t the only way. At this point I believe it’s more important to find techniques YOU like and employ those into your work. The above exercise can help with that. But if you like specificity, try to be more specific. If you’re trying to be maximalist (like me in BODY BACK), be maximalist! This is your writing & nobody else’s and your joy comes first and IMO is the most important factor in whether you think your prose has improved.

Anyway I don’t really like to talk much about improvement because I don’t want to make it seem that writing is a goal to achieve. You can do it and enjoy it at any time no matter where you’re at in your journey. So this is probably the last I will talk about improving writing for now but very happy to ramble about specific writing techniques etc! And I hope this helped!

#asks

[noodledesk]

For the book asks! 1, 7, 12 and 15!

7. is there a series/book that got you into reading?

in grade school it was probably ranma 1/2 that first got me into reading, and then when i had a long break from reading a little life by hanya yanagihara got me back into reading a couple years ago :)

12. did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

yes i did actually! some that come to mind right away: a room of one's own by virginia woolf, the edible woman by margaret atwood, a doll's house by henrik ibsen, king lear & macbeth by shakespeare...i am sure there are more :)

15. recommend and review a book.

cleanness by garth greenwell — american teacher in europe mopes and looks at things sensually…actually I think he has a very hypnotic, spellcasty kind of voice, very rhythmic, very tender…but this is definitely a dude writing about dudes! which is why I think it worked so well actually. anyway

#ask #book tag #thank you for sending this :)

[iwantyoursexmp3]

you guys are just gonna have to trust me when i say i'm writing beautiful garth greenwell wannabe prose right now. combining the pornographic with the literary yeah. i promise

#LIKE DO I EVEN POST IT ON HERE?? def not on main LOL #the elusive writing update is already gonna have an 18+ warning so #ive spent an hour tinkering a couple of sentences involving thumbs and mouth and saliva. is this what garth does for a living.

[relnicht]

you can't keep talking about buying gay books and not say the titles 👀 (I want to know please :D )

I bought two Dutch books:) One is called 'Je mag wel bang zijn maar niet laf' by Toni Boumans and it's a biography of a Frisian family and some of them went into the resistance in WW2 and some of those were gay. I also bought 'Lieve Ganymedes: Homo-erotische gedichten uit de middeleeuwen' which has Latin homoerotic poetry from the Middle Ages with a facing Dutch poetic translation, by Stijn Praet.

I also recently bought 'God's Children are Little Broken Things' by Arinze Ifeakandu, those are queer stories set in Nigeria. I read the first story and I thought it was good. I like how idk frank contemporary gay writing by men is idk. He said he likes Garth Greenwell and I think the book of his that I read has the same frankness. And I got the Queer Tattoo book from my partner for my birthday:) They always buy me expensive queer books haha:) (ty❤️).

And I keep seeing ads for Len&Cub: A Queer History. It's like, they were together in the early 20th c and one of them was keen on taking photos so I think it's the photos and some context and things about their lives that are in the book?

I also bought myself some other books earlier in summer (like Bitterhall and the Bad Gays book) and I'm also wanting to read more Christopher Isherwood idk. Also Look Down in Mercy by Walter Baxter and some other books idr right now:)