I fucking love you, Portland.
This is the most adorable, sweet, cheesy, over-the-top-but-in-a-good-way type thing I’ve ever seen. Forget hot air balloon rides or things that cost money - the amount of time and effort that went into this proposal speaks volumes. Such creativity, too. I wish them much happiness!
Reblogged from ajournalofimpossiblethings May 26th, 2012 33 notes #live lip-dub proposal #tags you never thought you'd write*HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY SPOILERS BELOW*
I should be packing (so of course I’m on tumblr) - but I just finished the last book of the Hunger Games, Mockingjay (because I should’ve been packing >_<) I follow pop culture phenomenons from time to time (though I missed Harry Potter, oops) - and the last one I followed was Twilight. I found it incredibly disturbing that teenaged girls were presented with Bella as a role model as I found her whiny, weak, co-dependent, and ineffectual. While I was sucked in by the love triangle that developed in the second and third books, I *HATED* Breaking Dawn with a fiery, burning passion, mostly because it was a story about one of those *epic* loves, and when you have a love like that, it requires some sacrifice. Instead, Meyer wrote a self-indulgent tale of Bella getting everything in her life she could possibly imagine, so in the end, she ended up sacrificing absolutely NOTHING. As one reviewer put it:
Bella gets Edward. Bella gets to live forever. Bella gets a baby. Bella gets married. Bella gets to keep Jacob as a life-long friend. Bella even gets a dream cottage.
Contrast that with the Hunger Games. JESUS. I was thrilled when I started reading the first book and discovered the protagonist of Katniss. HERE was a much more fitting role model for teenaged girls, imho: she’s smart, she’s tough, she fiercely protective of those she loves, she’s fiery and she’s grown up fast while still being very much a teenager in some respects (like her inability to figure out her feelings for Gale and Peeta). So even when I started the third book and noted that it was reading more like a true war story than a science fiction novel, I still hoped that in the end, given how much Katniss had to sacrifice, that she would get some kind of a happy ending.
Boy, was I in for a surprise. :-/
Instead, she winds up in the dingy place she started, haunted daily and nightly by dreams, nightmares, terrors, images, smells, (that passage about the roses made my stomach clench) all after she’s given everything up, slogged through, unwittingly played the Games, once, twice - the third time as the Mockingjay - a constant pawn being pushed around by those in power - lost almost everyone in her life that meant anything to her (including Haymitch by the end) and barely able to keep track of reality. Yes, the epilogue gave you the tiniest flicker of hope that she’d really been instrumental in changing everything, but Jesus…at what cost?
I’ve been reading comments on the third book and yes, I guess I can agree that it’s important teenagers learn about the myriad greys that exist in wartime situations, but the message “nobody wins in a war” left me feeling so emotionally empty and drained. In the end, a true war story is never about war, I know. But it left me feeling pretty frustrated.
So I would like my next foray into YA pop culture phenomena to include an *emotionally satisfying ending.* Something in between gross self-indulgence and a horribly ironic ending which makes your entire protagonist’s journey and sacrifice utterly meaningless. I’ll take recommendations…
May 24th, 2012 1 note #YA pop culture #The Hunger Games #Twilight“ They love each other very much. The whole story is that, always has been - these two unshakeable friends who complete each other, and redeem each other. It’s a story over a century old, and we show no sign of getting tired of it, and why should we? Some people want that love to be, well, more romantic, and good luck to them. Everyone should enjoy the show the way they want to and all interpretations are equally valid - I’m only a writer. Personally, I thought Charlie’s Angels all lived in the same jacuzzi - I was happy.
Steven Moffat on the relationship/love between Sherlock and John
PBS chat 21.5.2012
(via ladylegolas)
(via moonblossom)
Reblogged from ladylegolas May 24th, 2012 17 notes #Steven Moffat #all interpretations are valid
Okay, this is going to be sappy, so you’ve been warned.
I look at this photograph and I’m reminded that there’s one other thing that makes Benedict stand out among other actors and celebrities of his generation.
There is a fundamental innocence about him.
I don’t mean that in a sexual sense, although for someone who probably has women (certainly female fans) falling at his feet, he strikes me as being remarkably unassuming about his attractiveness. (Even when he’s been photographed with a girlfriend, I’ve never seen him look smug or act like a lady’s man; he just always seems genuinely happy to have this person, whoever it is, at his side).
Here is a man who has grown up around famous names; walked dozens, if not hundreds, of red carpets; been styled and photographed and interviewed countless times. He’s traveled the world, taught English at a Tibetan monastery, been abducted by thugs and lived to tell the tale.
And yet for all that, he’s remarkably guileless and open and decent. Doesn’t he strike you as being such a decent man?
Someone who sees good in most people in spite of having been stuffed into the trunk of a car and not knowing if he’d make it out of there alive.
Someone who, in the commentary for ASiB, could have taken a joke about Lara Pulver’s nudity (a joke that Lara herself started) and run with it, but who chose instead to steer the conversation toward safer ground.
Someone who sincerely wishes a friend well, even when that friend has taken on the same role in a rival production.
I look at this picture and I see all of this. I see the focus, but I also see that remarkable guilelessness, that fundamental innocence and decency, that essential … unspoiledness, if there is such a word.
Yes, that’s it. He’s unspoiled: by fear or trauma, by fame and celebrity. When he sings, “Come with me, and you’ll be/In a world of pure imagination,” you can really see that this could be close to what his inner life is like: that sense of wonder, of gratitude at being alive and being able to do the things he loves.
And I hope that never changes.
The accuracy of what you just wrote is incredible. He’s genuinely humble and completely unaware of what it is that makes us all love him so much. There’s so much to love and admire about him that it always amazes me when he’s surprised by our attention. This is why I love him.
Bolded the section about his kidnapping. God, I heard him talk about this recently and it’s incredible to me how much he *downplays* it. Yes, he uses the word and variations of the word “grateful” in EVERY SINGLE INTERVIEW, makes references to the actors who are out of work, talks about how lucky he is to have work - but he actually talked about how lucky he was not to have just survived the carjacking, but he even elaborated to talk about how it could have been so much worse, talking about how he wasn’t beaten, pistol-whipped or tortured. It’s been 7 years, yes, but the amount of *perspective* this man has on life is just astonishing to me.
Then his constant self-deprecation. Nevermind that he’s received all this attention; he continually makes references to that quote about being ‘horse-faced and arse-named.’ But, then again, it’s little wonder he has so many women flinging themselves at him because when you are THAT humble, that down-to-earth, that intelligent, and THAT unaware/unaccepting of your physical attractiveness, you just become all the more attractive.
(via frenchsherlocked)
Reblogged from loookiiii-ddd May 24th, 2012 2,927 notes #Benedict Cumberbatch #how does he do it?
Marvel Comics makes history with a gay X-Men marriage.
Marvel Comics’ Astonishing X-Men is set to experience a new sound effect on top of its booms, whams, and sknits: the bong of wedding bells. Specifically, it’s the wedding bells of Marvel’s first gay marriage between longtime X-Man Northstar and his civilian boyfriend, Kyle. After pairing up the couple in 2009, Marvel is officially tying their knot in June’s Astonishing X-Men #51.
(x)
(via valeria2067)
Reblogged from iamthefirstavenger May 24th, 2012 11,680 notes #X-Men #yay for firsts #look at that awesomely diverse cover #yay for trailblazing subtextual allegories that turn into text
click-through for image credit
—
“To love is to be vulnerable.”
- C. S. Lewis
—
The words above made me realize that as terrifying the idea of entrusting your heart completely to someone else is… it’s actually more terrifying to own someone else’s heart. To step up and take responsibility of that heart. To be its caretaker.
And that takes greater courage and strength and determination and kindness and understanding and patience… with oneself. Because as terrifying the prospect of getting hurt might be, it’s equally terrifying to have the unwanted power to hurt.
And I think this is the real vulnerability of falling in love: embracing and accepting the fear — not of being hurt by the one you love, but the fear of hurting the one you love, however unwittingly. It’s not only the crumbling of walls that’s terrifying, but also equally frightening is the idea of stepping over someone else’s walls and breaching their defenses.
We fear not our sudden loss of power in love, but our sudden overwhelming power because of it. We fear having the power to hurt, because we don’t want to, and yet sometimes we end up doing so anyway, because of our mistakes and weaknesses and flaws.
Because we’re human.
And I think it’s why it’s also another, subtler form of defense mechanism whenever people believe they don’t deserve to be loved by the other person. There is a risk in owning someone else’s heart much as there is a risk in entrusting your own to someone else. We fear hurting more than we fear being hurt.
… And yet.
There is a certain freedom to be had in that vulnerability as well. There is nothing as liberating as having the burden of control and responsibility taken out of your hands, to have your own well-being not be only your own concern anymore, and turn over the reins, the steering wheel, to someone else. And in letting go of that control — in entrusting your heart — you become… completely free.
And in what I belatedly realize is an equally beautiful thing, there is a certain freedom in owning a heart too. Because you know your own capacity to love and nurture and cherish that heart, and it is liberating to know that that heart will now be loved the way it deserves to be, with absolute certainty… simply because you know it will now be loved by you. Because even though you can never be sure about other people’s capacity, you are sure of your own. And it is more of a risk to let someone else own that heart, because you don’t know if they’ll take care of it.
But you know you will. To the best of your ability. And you now have the freedom of that certainty, in having it in your own hands.
And so I think I understand now what they say about the risk in loving… and the two ways love can be one-sided.
Because I now believe that love, therefore, is an exchange of hearts. Because it is only through that equal exchange that love stops being a risk and a vulnerability… and instead becomes a freedom and a strength.
The crumbling of walls, relinquishing control, entrusting one’s whole self… it is a risk only when the other person doesn’t wish to own or care for the heart being entrusted. That is when the heart becomes vulnerable — when there is no one to own it. No one to care for it. No one to cherish it.
And conversely, being the caretaker of a heart is a risk only when it is not willingly given. A heart can be hurt only when it is forcibly taken or stolen or bargained for. A heart should be a gift, gratefully accepted, not turned away, but cherished.
And perhaps that is when the risk and vulnerability in love becomes irrelevant. The risk of being hurt is replaced by the certainty and freedom of having your heart cared for and cherished by the person you love and trust. And the risk of hurting is replaced by the certainty and freedom of knowing that the heart entrusted to you is a gift willingly given.
The freedom of relinquishing control of your heart is simultaneously balanced with the freedom of owning and being the caretaker of the heart of the person you love.
And so perhaps Yvaine from Stardust was revealing the truth about love, after all:
“My heart… it feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it’s trying to escape because it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I’d wish for nothing in exchange. No gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too.
Just your heart, in exchange for mine.”
To love is to be vulnerable. But being vulnerable doesn’t have to be a risk. It doesn’t have to be an unfair, precarious, terrifying imbalance, in which the fear of hurting and being hurt combine to cripple us, weaken us. Because in loving — truly loving — there is strength and freedom in that equal exchange of hearts. Freely given. Gratefully received. Mutually cherished.
And that, I believe, is what it truly means to fall in love beautifully.
That moment where you realize you’re reading something completely and utterly as how it relates to your real life and not your fandom life. And then you stop, consider it, and realize that it’s more *applicable* to your fandom life. But then you keep thinking, and real life seems like the better way to carry this sentiment with you and ponder it further.
(via afrogeekgoddess)
Reblogged from behindtintedglass May 23rd, 2012 83 notes #falling in love
Tattoo of Leviticus 18:22 forbidding homosexuality: $200
Not knowing that Leviticus 19:28 forbids tattoos: Priceless
I’ve gotten to the point where I can pretty much list all of the things which are “displeasing” to the Lord but had forgotten about tattoos. Which just makes this picture perfect.
(via bendingsignpost)
Reblogged from facebook.com May 23rd, 2012 9,354 notes #cue ironic laughter
So many white heterosexual embraces, so little time.
(via moonblossom)
Reblogged from firelordazula May 23rd, 2012 33,507 notes #snicker #accuratePartially in honor of the X-Files ending 10 years ago this week in conjunction with the final airing of series 2 of Sherlock in America this past Sunday…This is the most epic crossover in the history of cross-overs. I have nothing more coherent to add other than THIS OFFICIALLY WINS THE INTERNET.
May 23rd, 2012 2 notes #Sherlock #The X-Files #cross-oversPhoto spread for an imaginary Sherlock Holmes of the Harlem Renaissance.
Wentworth Miller as Sherlock Holmes.
Idris Elba as Dr. John Watson.
1925: Harlem, New York City.
Sherlock Holmes is the light-skinned, blue-eyed son of a Black mother and White father, a man who has grown up with a foot in both worlds. By necessity, he is an astute observer of those around him, and frequently ‘passes’ as White. Holmes puts his powers of observation and his chameleonic tendencies to good use as a private detective in New York City, where he moves back and forth between downtown (White) Greenwich village and uptown (Black) Harlem, investigating illegal gambling rings, brothels, and speakeasies, where he is not above sampling the wares himself.
Dr. John Watson is a Black doctor who served in an integrated regiment during the First World War. One of the few commissioned Black officers in the U.S. Army, he occupied a respected position in the Forces, only to return to the harsh reality of a segregated society when the war ends. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Watson moves to Harlem in order to establish a private practice, where he can serve the up-and-coming Black middle class of New York City.
In a divided city, Harlem is where the classes and the races meet:
A major element of Uptown allure was its enormous social fluidity; in this urban free zone …the elite not only frequented public restaurants, but basement speakeasies, where they mingled not only with non-Social Register customers but with people of color.
From Hide/Seek (p. 28):
Prohibition…closed bars and dance clubs in white areas, but permitted them to fluorish in black neighborhoods like Harlem. Many white citizens first came to Harlem during Prohibition, crossing a profound racial divide that made Harlem essentially a black city in the midst of a white one. There, they first encountered Harlem’s personalities, social mores, and artistic culture.
The culture these white tourists found in Harlem was notably more tolerant of sexual difference, giving many whites their first taste of an unashamed, well-integrated queer culture. In venues like the Cotton Club, openly queer performers regularly entertained, and as the evening’s entertainment was already in violation of the law under Prohibition, it encouraged a sexual openness unavailable in other parts of the city.
Harlem thus became the center of many white homosexuals’ existence…For many white queers, Harlem was a ‘sexual playground’, and its poverty, un- and under-employment, and racial tensions were less germane to their experiences of the place than its erotic possibilities…
Fresh from the Army, Dr. Watson is thrust into this fervent neighborhood, into a Harlem where black and white, male and female, queer and straight, collide and converge. But his own understanding of himself, his race, and even his sexuality, is challenged when he meets Sherlock Holmes, who is investigating the death of a pair of singers at the Cotton Club. Originally called in to identify the cause of their deaths, the staid and sober Watson is thrown into a world where nothing is as it appears at first glance: a world where black is white and white is black, where the police pay pimps for the right to the street, and where moonshine flows like milk and honey. To make matters worse, the whole investigation is led by Holmes, a brilliant, crazy man who plays the dangerous game of passing as white in the city that never sleeps.
Thanks to AfroGeekGoddess for suggesting Wentworth Miller as a possible Sherlock Holmes in this canon.
Love minority reimaginings of Sherlock. Automatic reblog (see the Kerry Washington/Lucy Liu as Holmes/Watson.)
(via afrogeekgoddess)
Reblogged from emmadelosnardos May 23rd, 2012 998 notes #Minority Recasting #The End of the Affair
I'm DV. Grad student who should spend more time on her studies and less on tumblr flailing over fiction, especially given her age. This fiction can include anything Benedict Cumberbatch-related (especially Sherlock), but also Doctor Who and Downton Abbey. There will also be venting about real life issues in various shapes and forms.
