zeldareville

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Brett Anderson at the 1993 Brit Awards

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Never noticed that reference before, and it's wild. I'd made a mental note to go back to noting the objectification of the female body by the viewer's (and mostly male painters') eyes, who knew that watching RGU would do this? I need to rewatch it again!!

Interestingly, Olympia's gaze still holds the power to rankle. An artist reenacted the reclining nude pose in front of the portrait and got arrested for indecent exposure.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20160118/artist-held-for-indecent-exposure-at-paris-gallery

ok so i thought something looked oddly familiar about this scene where mikage is lying in bed, specifically the background and bed itself don’t mesh with the animation— they look like something taken from a painting.

the first thing i thought of is a common theme in painting across history of women lying in bed. yk what i’m talking about

Sleeping Venus — Giorgione (c. 1510)

The Birth of Venus — Cabanel (1863)

anyway there’s different contexts to a lot of the Lying Down paintings but i was hooked on the venus ones because i’m intrigued by the idea of mikage as a venus figure— an idealized persona of beauty, frozen in time, unable to come to grips with his own human impermanence. BUT after i did some more digging i saw this painting

Olympia — Manet (1863)

and this is so obviously what the scene was alluding to. i’ve never seen this painting before so i decided to do some research (the context and critical reception of this painting is pretty interesting)

Venus de Urbino — Titian (1538)

Olympia is modeled after the painting above (fun fact: Titian is thought to have completed the Giorgione painting i included above after Giorgione died), but it’s important to note that olympia is not a venus figure, at least not in the way that classical painters depicted venus. this painting shocked the french public for its rejection of the “classical” depiction of nudity. classical nudity was demure, perfect, and most importantly antiquitous. modernity was not considered beautiful or desirable, and so it was not painted. olympia, however, is evidently a prostitute and she confronts the viewer in a way nude subjects never did. the reception at the time was that olympia was too modern, too vulgar. manet intended the piece as a rejection of the past.

there’s also the obvious racial and colonial element to the piece (which for some reason, articles were reluctant to discuss in detail hmmmmm. there is a section about it on wiki page though). there’s apparent controversy about what exactly the maid watching over the prostitute is supposed to symbolize. i personally like the (more modern) interpretation of the maid as a figure of the oppositional gaze; the wiki article cites an essay which talks about how critics of the past have ignored this very aspect of the painting and thus erased her prominent role within it.

back to rgu, the allusion to a painting that is an explicit rejection of past tradition is such a funny piece of foreshadowing (if you can even call it that) to mikage’s end. “mamiya’s” role in that scene is particularly interesting, since his position is initially as peripheral as olympia’s maid is often viewed as, but the camera zooms in on him as the scene goes on. and as the camera zooms in, he further covers his face with the bouquet, almost like he doesn’t want us looking to closely at him. which of course fits in with the fact that he isn’t mamiya at all and doesn’t want us to break the illusion.

#revolutionary girl utena

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9 times Brett Anderson wore lace tops better than you

#fuck off Brett #Brett Anderson

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1994

Select

#don't mind me I'm sad and just craving my Suede fix #Brett Anderson #Bernard Butler #Suede

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Suede live at The Roundhouse, London, 14 November, 2015.

photos by Daniel Quesada. 

#🤤 #brett anderson #suede

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PSA,

Hey hot take here but there is absolutely no reason to continue mining for gem quality stones especially diamonds because

A. The diamonds we actually use for industrial purposes do not need to be gem quality and are actually fairly common

B. There’s a whole fucking lot already in circulation precious stones don’t disintegrate they get passed down through the years

C. Artificial gems are aesthetically indistinguishable to the layman at this point anyway (plus lab diamonds are neat)

The amount of corruption and human suffering in the gem mining world is fucking ridiculous and the only reason is for bullshit status symbols for the outrageously wealthy

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I WILL SURVIVE

it’s time to talk about a weird animal again here at bunjywunjy dot tumblr dot com (my house), and what better way to begin the new year than with an inspirational survivor to motivate us all with its sheer bullheaded tenacity?

you see, this animal has been around a very, very, very, VERY long time. 

it’s called the Coelacanth, and it’s your grandma.

SEE-la-kanth. say it right sonny, my ears aren’t what they used to be

Coelacanths are the oldest form of lobe-finned fishes on the planet. their  relatives first appeared 400 million years ago, and immediately made themselves famous by being the very first vertebrates to wiggle onto dry land. (they immediately wiggled right the fuck back into the water, as they had forgotten to evolve lungs first)

these fishes later evolved those weirdly buff fins into actual legs and developed into the first true land animals, though tragically they lack the Coelacanth’s roguish sense of style.

there’s a lot of stumpy little legs in this picture

while these lobe-finned fish did go on to become literally all land-dwelling vertebrates ever INCLUDING YOU, the Coelacanth was content to retain its fishy shape and continue on as it always had. for 400 fucking million years. 

they probably barely even noticed all those major extinction events. meteor who?

it’s coelaCAN, not coelaCAN’T.

today, Coelacanths are still more closely related to you than they are to most other fish. think of it as the weird cousin that never gets invited to the mammal family reunion.

the Coelacanth’s relationship to land vertebrates has long been known from fossils, but Science believed it had gone extinct sometime in the Cretaceous period more than 60 million years ago. so imagine Science’s surprise when a live Coelacanth was pulled up by a fishing trawler in 1938, off the coast of South Africa.

surpriiiiiiise! bet you thought you’d seen the last of me

this makes them the first ever example of a Lazarus Taxon (which is an absolutely badass phrase that would make a damn good name for a rock band), meaning it’s an evolutionary line we thought was extinct but they lived, bitch.

today, the Coelacanth is known to live in the Indian and South African oceans, where they thrive in deep water far away from the prying eyes of their nosy hairless ape relatives. 

they are mostly active at night and can grow to be 6 and a half feet long, and live more than 60 years. they don’t have much personality, but BOY are they tenacious.

I make up for it with my stunning good looks

Coelacanths mostly drift with the current, eating whatever happens to pass by that’s smaller than they are. this just goes to show that laziness does pay off in the long run! 

it’s a valid survival strategy, MOM.

Coelacanths don’t have many natural predators, as they taste completely disgusting. sharks are pretty much the only predator who will give it a try, but sharks also eat outboard motors and license plates so that’s really not saying much.

all that aside, these ancient fish can motivate us to face the challenges of the new year. just remember, if a weird fish with demi-legs can survive for 400 million years on the benefits of laziness and just being kind of weird and disgusting, so can you!

coelaCAN, AND SO CAN YOU!

#fishies #biology

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does any1 else go thru periods where u don;t want 2 talk anybody not bc ur distressed/angry or u dislike the people ur talking to but bc the pressure of having convos gets overwhelmin sometimes and u jus want 2 step away 4 awhile like i feel like an asshole for going ghost a lot but it;s therapeutic 4 me the pressure of being present and vocal all the time is tew much

#me #so sorry #for being a ghostie asshole

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#uh oh how many of these have i done unconsciously without realizing #:-/ #unhealthy boundaries

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I was gonna keep this until Halloween but I can’t. A renaissance Brett, everyone. Don’t leave a fangirl with Photoshop unattended. Lol Original painting by Giovanni Batista Moroni (Can’t find the original source of Brett’s photo it’s the one with pink background and Bernard behind him)

#please let me DIE #Brett Anderson

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signs as lyrics from “hounds of love” by kate bush

gemini - “and i’ll be two steps on the water.”

aquarius - “take your shoes off and throw them in the lake.”

aries - “and i don’t know what’s good for me.”

cancer - “i’ve always been a coward.”

leo - “i found a fox caught by dogs.”

capricorn - “i’m ashamed of running away.”

libra - “i need love love love love love, yeah!”

scorpio - “i just can’t deal with this.”

taurus - “now hounds of love are hunting.”

virgo - “it’s coming for me through the trees.”

pisces - “and feel your arms surround me.”

sagittarius - “running in the night.”

#wow nice #Kate Bush #zodiac signs

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#the skank is back in town #Brett Anderson #suede

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So a friend of mine told me how yesterday his coworker died on the way to work due to speeding and crossed a red light (she was late for the third time, so I’m guessing she was trying to avoid a write up). As soon as she crossed the light she was hit on the drivers side by a semi. The messed up part is that in less than an hour her table was cleared for a new worker. In less than 4 hours they had sent out the news that they are hiring. By the end of the day the hiring manager had contacted 4 people for an interview. Moral of the story is, these jobs don’t care about your ass. They will replace you in a snap. Don’t risk or waste your life trying to go above and beyond for a job that could care less about your wellbeing.

#:'-( #sad but true

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Ayahuasca

How, best,

to persuade myself,

that the dark

was only the sonorous prelude

to a devastating new dawn?

How best, then,

to swallow

my owned ennui,

tasting as bitter as the medicine

it was supposed to be

where you could feel

it going down the throat,

working its twisted magic

around that seductive word:

"This is you. That is definitely you."

"Why don't you? Why can't you?"

"You! What did that person say!"

"That's not you! Defend yourself!"

As the first spit

of bulleted words

come out of reflex,

allowing cynicism's seeds to win the war -

Thought patterns of negativity?

Nope. Nope!

Welcome to my new positivity!

ii

Now let's take the other roundabout.

Maybe I should

sip gently at grief instead,

taking it for a flute of champagne -

which Ol. Mrs Diddlydum thrusts

into your shivering hand, saying:

"Plum, and plumpest

of them all -

the entertained always pull

the biggest strings.

So, of course,

the most bigoted capitalist

makes for the best agony aunt!"

Tell me, then -

who spins the purple umbrella,

while coaxing

the most virile tongues

to do the dirty work?

iii

All the woodwork

of the old,

the bastardizations

of the new -

Is this now

the only exception to everything:

a strictly allowed diet of blood, and only blood?

#poetry #poem #ayahuasca #spilled ink #poets on tumblr #twcpoetry #writing

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y’all: ugly trenchcoat outfit

me, an intellectual: high lesbian fashion

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#moon phases

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So I had the strangest dream this weekend and nobody understands me so I need to share it with you because you might. Press J to skip this post if you can’t deal, I will accept this.

In my dream I was standing on the back deck of a rural cabin that overlooked a beautiful Vermont/Scottish Highlands landscape of unspoiled wilderness. It was a crisp, perfect autumn morning. I held a cup of cooling coffee in my hands as I leaned against the railing and scanned the perfect rolling hills in the midground, behind which the great patterned mountains with their snowcaps marched on until they blended with the horizon: #aesthetic

As I gazed at a distant meadow clearing in the trees, a pair of brightly coloured humanoid creatures emerged from the woods and began to dance for each other. It was an esoteric, beautiful mating dance, a strange combination of instinct and choreography. I felt awe washing over me. I marvelled. I felt a deep sense of wonder and peace as I observed this vanishingly rare encounter that I had never thought to observe in person. These animals were instantly recognisable but had never been studied in the wild. I felt incredibly humbled and privileged to witness this behaviour - I knew that I was the first human witness to observe this behaviour - and I reached for my phone, wondering if I should film it, so it could join the scholarly record, where it NEEDED to be. This could change everything. But then I held back - something told me “no,” to let the creatures have their privacy.

Ok, I can’t go any further without telling you that they were Teletubbies.

A red one and a yellow one. I know. I know. Stay with me here.

The cryptids melted back into the woods. My subconscious drew a discreet veil over the rest of their mating ritual, but I knew instinctively that this had been a dance of courtship. I was busy pondering the implications, because they were critical. You see, although the creatures were instantly recognisable as Teletubbies, as I had studied them, even at a distance, I had an incredible realisation.

They were adult Teletubbies.

This realisation dawned on me and in my dream I understood it fully. The ones that we know of - the captive ones that we have seen on television - are juveniles. In fact, they are the equivalent of toddlers. When you see the adults this becomes obvious. The garbled speech and silly movements of the four captive Teletubbies we know are the babbles of babyhood, a private primal toddler-language brewed up between sentient beings who have never encountered an adult of their own kind.

The adult Teletubbies have more branching, complex antlers and shaggy coats. They are less brightly coloured. They are terrifyingly large. Their strangely human faces, emerging from the thick fur, are unquestionably adult; remote, serene, reproachful. Their television screens are glitchy, esoteric and unknowable. They are cryptids whose public exploitation has undermined their rarity and their strange, alien dignity.

In my dream my feelings of awe and peace turned to great sadness at the fate of the captive toddler Teletubbies. I realised that I had to be the scientist who brought this discovery to the world and raised awareness of their plight. And I also questioned: are Teletubbies like axolotls? Do they exhibit neoteny? (Axolotls, the cute aquarium pets with flaring gills, are actually juveniles of an amphibious species - if given the right conditions they’ll grow up into land-dwelling black newts. But they can breed in their aquatic juvenile form, and most spend their whole lives in this form. Deprived of their wild potential, will the Teletubbies ever mature? Or are they merely experiencing a long childhood, natural for a species that is unimaginably long-lived?)

So in my dream my husband came out onto the back deck and I began to share these discoveries with him and before I could even bring up the axolotls he just said “what the fucking fuck” and went away again.

I woke up disgruntled and unable to capture the feeling of peace and sadness. I then tried to explain this to my husband in the waking world, and he said “what the fucking fuck” and walked away before I even got to the explanation of the Teletubbies being toddlers, which just goes to show that you never know someone as well as you think you do.

Anyway I’m sure you guys will join me in this knowledge. And also I’ve googled it and apparently the Teletubbies reboot features infant Teletubbies, so clearly they are getting more from somewhere and the time to question this is NOW

#f u c k