The story of Marwencol is absolutely fascinating in every way:
None of the acclaim has enriched Hogancamp’s life in the slightest. In fact, I think he is a little annoyed that I am here today. He tells me that a muddy day like today is the perfect terrain for creating Marwencol dramas. A muddy landscape makes the photographs look more realistic, plus it’s easier to prop the figures up when the ground is soft.
“One time, a van filled with twenty-something kids came to the door,” he tells me. “‘Are you Mark Hogancamp?’ They sat here, a couple of chicks and a dude, and looked at me like I was a guru.” He shudders. “I’m a private person. I mow my lawn. I mow my late neighbour’s lawn. I’ve spent 13 years alone. No girlfriend, no social life. I still have no social life, I have no car.”
His life may be small and secluded but his photographs are leading amazing lives. A couple of days before I drive up here, in fact, the strangest thing happened. Bruce Jenner had just come out as Caitlyn Jenner and amid the celebrations a grumpy Facebook user named Terry Coffey wrote: “As I see post after post about Bruce Jenner’s transition to a woman, and I hear words like bravery, heroism and courage, just thought I’d remind all of us what real courage, heroism and bravery looks like!” He linked to a photograph – a powerful second world war image of a US soldier carrying an injured comrade through the mud while the latter points his gun at an unseen foe.
A deep dive into whatever the hell is going on with Bridget Jones:
That Daniel Cleaver is the baby’s father may be confusing for some. Many American readers, I imagine, are probably unaware of the series of columns in the British paper The Independent for which Fielding revived her character in 2005 and 2006. The storyline started out well within the Bridget Jonesbooks’ canonical boundaries. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason ends with Bridget and Mark Darcy together again after various mix-ups and miscommunications.
At the beginning of the Independent columns, however, Mark and Bridget have broken up again, and Bridget is at sea. Things get even more complicated after a one-night stand with Daniel, when Bridget falls pregnant (as the Brits would say). It is not immediately clear whether Mark or Daniel is the father, but, by the time the final column in the series ran, all the characters seem to have accepted that Daniel is the father of Bridget’s bouncing baby boy.
I’ve been watching Black-ish (Steve calls it “Black Dharma and Greg”) and I like it! It’s like Modern Family but pretty good instead of a trash fire. The church episode was A+++. I am also obsessed with Bow. Let’s discuss.
At this point in the compilation of my link roundup, I had to leave to take my daughter to an appointment, and then got sick, and came home and read part of a book about The Eagles and started to try to fall asleep at 6pm and then remembered I still had to finish the link roundup, so please know that every word that follows is from a sick and diseased woman who loves you.
OH, YOU KNOW I’LL BE WATCHING THIS
BIG roundtable on diversity in publishing:
MORGAN PARKER: More than once, editors have asked me to guest-curate issues of their magazines, and more than once, these editors have cited my connection to “communities” as their reason for approaching me. “We’re trying to be more diverse,” they’ve said. “You seem to be more plugged in than us,” they’ve said. “We don’t know where to start.” “Only white writers submit to us.” I’m a bit tired of hearing the word “trying.” It’s one of those words you hear so much it loses its meaning. I’m not at all surprised that Alexander’s been asked the same kind of questions, but I don’t applaud these editors in the way they, I think, expect to be applauded for this “effort” of outsourcing editorial responsibility. They’ve identified a problem, which is great, but it isn’t nearly enough. They want to be validated (“I’m doing the right thing, right Morgan?” “You know I’m a white person who means well, right?” “I’m trying.”), which, while understandable in the current climate of call-out culture wherein the very basis and structure of the publishing world is finally being loudly shaken, isn’t my job.
An epic thread on this labiaplasty Jez piece revealed to me that MANY women do not wear underwear under yoga pants and that surprised me a BUNCH.
Nikki sent this to me in preparation for my son’s first birthday, and I feel very inspired. However, my Halloween plans just got thrown a real curveball.
Deleted comment of the day:
People wear underwear under yoga pants? Not to be indelicate but how much yeast infection does one woman need? Good exercise wear, for running or yoga or anything, should be designed to not need underwear underneath it. When you’re making strenuous and/or aerobic physical efforts, the last thing you need is one more layer of potential chafe and airlessness.
People DON’T wear underwear under yoga pants???? What a world!
To be fair, I don’t actually do yoga and wear yoga pants exclusively for sitting on the couch and watching Netflix for 8 hours straight, so that might influence my feelings on this. I run, though, and for that I wear wee little workout thongs, which sounds terrible but is actually great.
I think the consensus last go-round on this conversation was that it may be an issue of how well-endowed you are in the backside. I cannot wear thongs because of my big ol’ booty, nor can I wear underwear under yoga pants without a visible panty line, for the same reason. Large butts: not always an easy life.
Makes sense! All of my endowedness issues are in the, uh, upper half of my body, which is an entirely different set of challenges.
…so that’s why thongs are never remotely comfortable for me…
Everyone just gets to see my panty line at yoga (/ on the couch). It will not hurt them. And it keeps pubes from poking out through my pants. And provides insurance for those times there is a pants seam failure. And those (many) times when yoga pants are not actually opaque.
And frankly I’d rather have cotton underwear crotch against my crotch than lycra-whoknowswhat yoga pants…
ahhhh yes
Or you could be me and really, genuinely not care about panty lines.
Oh man, we had this conversation like months and months ago in some other link roundup and I vividly remember the shock I felt at realizing that other people are wearing underwear under yoga pants/leggings, and wondering if I were some kind of slatternly fool, going commando in my athletic wear.
I think the discussion has also been had about underwear and tights — and may I add the idea of socks under Keds / Chucks / Bensimons / what have you? Most of my friends don’t wear socks with them and I find that uncomfortable, though I get it that it can look better aesthetically…but maybe my shoes don’t get smelly as quickly, so there’s that.
I wonder if it’s just an issue of what kind of sensations bother you- I can’t stand the feeling of fabric bunched up against my skin, which is why I try to avoid underwear under leggings, socks, or sleeping while clothed.
Makes total sense! I find shoes against bare feet / pants against bare butt / sheets against bare skin too coarse, and bunching I suppose doesn’t bother me much.
SAME
Oh my god no if I am wearing any sort of closed-toe shoe THERE MUST BE SOCKS
I RAN OUT OF TINY SOCKS TODAY AND I’M WEARING FLATS WITH NAKED FEET ON :(:(
I literally just shuddered at the thought. Can’t do it. I’m so sorry 🙁 🙁
I have this variety of laundry failure every few months or so, and I always end up here at my desk thinking “if I only had a little carpet I could take off my shoes and feel so much better” but I never have gotten a little carpet 🙁
What? No underwear??? That’s a thing? I feel like I would notice in the change room at the gym if half the women were leaving out the underwear. (Uh oh, now that I’m curious I’ll be looking, let’s not get in trouble queermo.)
I do not wear underwear under yoga pants. That just sounds uncomfortable–would they bunch up when you’re doing different poses?
Not if they fit you.
Underwear do not fit me. Ever. Sad panda.
When I run, I have to wear knickers. Have to. But in my barre classes, commando all the way.
WOW you’re not supposed to wear underwear while working out? Truly I am beginning to appreciate just how deep my ignorance runs re: all things fitness.
It’s not a matter of “supposed to.” Do what feels comfortable to you!
This is really one of those conversations in which you find out half the world lives VERY differently
(team underwear, mostly because I’m too lazy to wash my yoga pants after each use)
YES.
I do my laundry once a month (joys of laundromat life). Pants need to last.
Oh boy THIS.
Team underwear. I don’t have enough yoga pants to wear them only once between washes. To be fair, I’m never doing yoga when I wear yoga pants. I might be climbing or biking, but usually I’m just lounging. I do go commando in bike shorts w/ chamois, but I think that’s universal.
Oh it absolutely SHOULD be universal. You would not believe the amount of people who came into my shop to buy chammy butter/shorts and I’d have to explain that you do not wear underwear.
And being a year-round cyclist, this is why I started going commando during runs, etc. I won’t at the gym because… I don’t know? Weird? I do weights? But riding a lot in lots of gear and lots of weather apparently irks my ladybits PH. Phuck you, PH. I will not stop riding my bike.
I once went on a month-long camping bike trip, with only two pairs of shorts and one laundry stop. We hand washed our shorts every night, but for a few days in a row it was raining so I made the choice not to wash my shorts (rather than wash and wear wet). I decided wearing underwear would make it fine. NO. It was NOT fine. Underwear while biking is so painful and it took me the rest of the trip to recover from that one day of bad decision making
It really, really depends on the undies. I have a few pairs I have happily done dozens of miles in.
But then, bike shorts and I have a tempestuous relationship. I end up wearing the liner-style ones because anything thicker than that makes the cut-out on my saddle pointless, and mashes some delicate bits, and then I am REALLY UNHAPPY.
Yeah, I know people who tried to wear underwear under bike shorts on long rides, and the results were… unpleasant. (If someone is shy, they can always wear shorts or skirts on top of bike shorts, but if they’re in a group ride, that becomes less of an issue.)
I can’t be bothered about VPL. I wear underwear for my comfort. If it bothers you to see evidence of that, you can stop looking at my ass.
Co-sign!
oh dang are there special pants for yoga? I’ve just been wearing jeans.
When I do yoga, it’s at home, and I just do it *in* my underwear. No need for special pants!
One of the major joys of yoga at home! Wear whatever! Or not!
Jeans? I can’t imagine doing any kind of stretchy movement in jeans, not even my lycra-filled pairs.
Not that I wear yoga pants for my stretchy movements either, since I don’t own any. But that’s what leggings and bike shorts are for.
I am joking about how I am not flexible enough that I need anything besides jeans to do yoga in, but actually I have loose-fitting kung fu pants for it which solves both the problem of “being able to move freely” and obviates most questions about whether or not I should wear underwear.
See, I took it at face value because there’s this group of little old ladies at my local YMCA who really do work out in street clothes. Not even particularly stretchy street clothes but, like, exactly the same thing they’d wear for any errand. Like the inverse of people who wear yoga pants 24/7. It’s not jeans but I thought maybe you were just extra talented or something.
I solve the problem altogether by just not taking yoga. No one’s looking at my butt during tai chi.
oh man you’re lucky because people look at my butt all the time during kung fu
(this is also a joke, yesterday I went to kung fu and I was the only one there!)
I was confused for a super long time by discussions of “yoga pants” because the pants I usually wear to do yoga are just short sweatpants. They are very comfy and neither skintight nor made of spandex. I don’t think skintight spandex leggings would be very comfortable to do yoga in personally but everybody is different!
This is literally the first time I have ever heard of this, and I have to assume this is because my main goal in life is to do laundry as infrequently as possible.
I just really, really hate sweaty underwear. Taking off my athletic bottoms after a workout and putting on sweat-free panties is an amazing feeling.
Hear, hear.
I just take off my sweaty workout underwear and put on sweat-free clean underwear!
But that would require packing an extra pair of underwear, which is a level of preparedness that I am unable to achieve on a regular basis.
I have more feelings than I ever knew about this subject. I am pro underwear all the way. Mostly because (TMI warning) when I get all sweaty down there my, um, normal discharge become much closer to a fluid than solid and having that extra layer to catch it makes clean up easier, helps keep down the swamp ass, and helps make me much less prone to chafing. My under-the-hood parts are quite sensitive and react to the slightest bit of chafing by quickly becoming inflamed and swollen to the point just sitting is pretty painful for a week.
Yesssssss. I also have (as discussed in the Jez article) slightly longer inner labia and if I wear underwear that don’t have a wide enough crotch gusset thing, wearing jeans can get real uncomfortable. And I can’t even imagine having sweaty workout pants up in that business. I need barriers!
Me too on the fluid, but I just wear black yoga pants and let it all evaporate out
Huh! Rich tapestry!
WORD.
Mine is ALWAYS fluid, y’all. When I first heard about women EVER going without underwear I was shocked and appalled, because if I did I would literally get damp spots on my pants/skirts. Damp pants slapping against my thighs = HELL NO
I have a personal theory that underwear vs. no underwear under things like tights, hose, & active wear comes down to whether you were involved in dance as a child. That’s how the split has been among my own friend circles. Me + friends who took dance = no underwear. No dance = underwear.
Sorry, 8 years of dance, team underwear. But I also got my second period in the middle of a two mile race and had to wear my sister’s cloth diaper home, so I carry extra undies with me ALL the time.
There is photographic evidence of me wearing my cartoon-printed underwear underneath my leotard and tights in ballet at 5-6 years old. Eventually I learned to pick the nude ones on class days.
See, my dance teachers would’ve had us flogged for that! They had a very strict no underwear under leotard policy. I guess it just depends on where you took dance. There goes my theory.
It may have been gently suggested by our teacher, but don’t remember many people following through on it. Mine was a small town that really loved conformity. And big underwear.
Zero years of dance, but seven years of cross-country running, which is probably where my no-underwear inclination came from.
I did probably six years of cross-country running, and I wore underwear running. Body Glide is my friend.
I think it’s BECAUSE of doing ballet from ages 3-16 that i dislike not wearing underwear. I didn’t wear it with my tights + leotard, of course, but my leotard was basically the same fit as underwear you know? and my tights NEVER fit because my legs were too long so the crotch fell really low or they were too loose, so i had to wear the leotard just to hold it up.
i still have trouble with the crotch on my leggings and tights falling too low, even though i’m nothing as skinny as i was as a kid. and i hate that feeling. so i just always wear underwear. (I never liked the short-style swimsuits when they were in fashion in the 90s, either. they always tended to wedge up in my business instead of covering flat, and come to think of it, that’s still a problem)
I go commando in dance class because tights + leotard + underwear chokes my fancy bits. But I always wear underwear when I’m at the gym to lift weights. It would recently occurred to me that I could skip underwear at the gym, but then my favorite pair of workout pants ripped in the crotch while I was stretching and now I’m too afraid to go commando.
I did dance as a little girl and I’m team undies.
Jumping in as another person who has literally never encountered the idea of going commando under workout wear. I would be SO self-conscious if there were only a thin layer of spandex-y stuff between my ass and the world. I’ve also only had a yeast infection once in my life, and it was unrelated to working out.
Team underwear for lyfe!! It had never occurred to me that ppl would go commando under workout clothes…
Also, what…what about period times?
Also, I was frankly fairly shocked when i discovered that some people wear thongs while working out, nevermind no underwear. I am fairly anti-thong (for me) in general though.
Oh god, it’s hard enough finding yoga pants where I can do squats without people getting a glimpse of my underwear colour/pattern, I can’t imagine taking the risk of the rest of the gym getting a look at my pubic hair colour/pattern instead.
I’m team no-underwear, but that’s because I partake in the hot variety. So either I’m not wearing underwear in my yoga pants, or I’m not wearing the sweat-soaked pair when I change back into street clothes. Haven’t had any crotch-splitting accidents thus far, knock on wood.
Just so you don’t think team undies is grossly walking around public in sweaty knickers: no, I change my underwear too, I change everything. My underwear-for-the-day gets taken off along with my street clothes, and my underwear-for-today’s-workout goes on with my exercise clothes. Reverse process, with shower insertion, after workout.
Yes, thank you. I was very confused by the posts here that somehow seem to think those of us on team underwear just continue to wear the same sweaty underoos after the workout. . . no, they come off along with the workout shorts/pants to be replaced by nice fresh clean underoos for the rest of the day (or evening).
Yeah, I guess that’s me being lazy about having to pack one more thing before work. None of my yoga pants are see-through, though. I made sure of that!
wat
Going to start a line of workout wear – with gusseted crotches and no see-thru-ness, and call it Nonederwear.
This is making me so, so, so happy.
Since posting that, I can not get this chant out of my head. This is from one of my favorite MST3K Shorts, Home Economics.
Loooooooooook! AT MY CROTCH!
eta: I love your username!
[Edited] Whoops, forgot this was Friday! Movin’ this on over to the OT later.
Bridget Jones reproduced with that vile Daniel Cleaver? Headcannon REJECT.
Yeah, my headcanon ends with Bridget and Mark getting hitched at the end of the first movie and leading a socially awkward life together. No sequels.
One thing I like about fiction is that I can just pretend things I don’t like never happened! What? No, there’s only two Bridgette Jones books (I rather like the second one because I love Persuasion). What do you mean everyone died (Spoiler) in Atonement? That’s crazy talk. You’re crazy. I like you, but you’re crazy.
Concur. There are only two Bridget Jones books, and the second one was never made into a movie. There has only ever been and will only ever be one Bridget Jones movie. You must be thinking of another movie.
I love love love the Colin Firth interview in book 2! I think I literally fell out of my chair laughing the first time I read it. Like an actual book-induced ROTFLMAO.
Yeah, Bridget Jones begins and ends with that first movie. Notwithstanding that excellent fountain fight, which was the only part of BJ2 I approved of.
Yeah seriously, what the crap? I had no idea about the columns, and never saw the movies because Renee Zellweger kind of irks me, but WHAT? Daniel? NO. NOPE. And Rebecca was a lesbian in the movie? Ugh no nope no no no. Yuck.
I could have gone my whole life without contemplating for a single nanosecond whether my labia were an acceptable length, but for Jezebel. And, I suppose, The Toast.
I do not see enough labia of other women to have self-esteem issues about my own. I’m good with that.
Likewise. I have no idea what constitutes “long” or “short” or “in-between” labia, and I probably wouldn’t care to know if offered the information. I got what I got, yo.
Yesterday someone on a comment thread on Pajiba told a story about an ER patient who had decided her labia were too big and CUT THEM OFF WITH SCISSORS!! I sat shocked for a couple of minutes. WTF!
I am fully team “why should anyone care what my labia looks like,” but if you ARE concerned about aesthetics down there, I feel like giant bloody scabs are way worse than “too long” (whatever that even means)
I have been self conscious about the length of my labia since early high school, when I needed a hip MRI and you could see my labia, distinct, pedal like, doin’ labia stuff on every single one of the scans.
For a couple years (late teens) it really bothered me, but now I’m mostly over it.
Annoyingly, the slight physical discomfort they occasionally cause means I have pondered this about mine – I don’t care how they look in relation to anyone else’s, but I care if they feel weird!
Look, I actually enjoyed the second Bridget Jones movie (possibly because it’s the first R-rated film I snuck into as a teenager) as well as the two original books, but I can honestly say it’s a series I never felt the need to revisit ever again. I don’t know why there are now three? parallel Bridget Jones universes. Maybe there are parallel worlds, and they’re all based on who Bridget Jones does or does not have a baby with
So what is it, movie universe, book universe, and column universe? Silly.
Oh my Goddddd #ParksandHam it’s like somebody created heaven just for me! And the Lil’ Sebastian/Wait for It one? I goddamned teared up you guys.
Lil’ Sebastiannnnnnnnnnn. We were not worthy. Death doesn’t discriminate indeed.
oh nooooo I just browsed the hashtag and that tweet synced up PERFECTLY with the soundtrack playing on my computer.
Full on tears on that one.
Okay well I know where I’m going to be spending my time today when I’m not on the OT.
Boston-metro Toasties! Did you see that Mallory will be at Brandeis tonight?
No way! I live in Waltham! BUT I’VE ALREADY MADE PLANS! What do I do?!
…. combine plans somehow?
I’m going to try so hard!
I did see this, and instead I’m driving to New Jersey right after work ;____;
I will be there!!
Yay! I planned my ikea trip south to coincide with this
(LacunaKale if I can’t log in)
(I am going to try very hard to be there, but given the way this week has been going for me, I refused to get emotionally attached to the idea just in case something else goes wrong)
WAY TO GO ALMA MATER WHY DO I LIVE SO FAR AWAY?
When I learned about this on Twitter via the wonderful Margaret Willison (@MrsFridayNext) and cried about how I don’t live in Boston anymore without even tagging Brandeis, they responded and told me that not only are they bringing Mallory to campus tonight, but Anita Sarkeesian will be there Monday. My alma mater is GREAT.
Totally going! Wheeee!
“bagels [progressives love bagels; no one knows why]”
I wondered about the bagel obsession when I moved from California (where we had doughnuts on Fridays,as God intended) to the East Coast, where they would bring in giant boxes of bagels, and act like round chewy bread was a TREAT.
I attribute the Bagel Heresy to Law Partners who grew up in New York, and who passed on the bagelness to their underlings. It must be a status marker kind of thing, like saying you only drink artisanal bourbon.
Because Jews. (raises hand)
OH YES. No good breakfast spread is complete without a good selection of bagels and schmear. Pretty sure that’s the only reason we went to synagogue on Saturday mornings.
Our synagogue has religious school family breakfast on the first Sunday of every month, which is an entirely reliable way to ensure my kid wakes up before 8:30 one Sunday a month.
It’s all bagels & donut holes, i.e., perfect.
No synagogue here, but we have an excellent bagel shop run by a family named Bialy. My kids when small would ask for donuts, and then complain when they got a glazed donut instead of a mishmosh (with salt or it doesn’t count) bagel.
I heard somebody on the radio describe themselves as a “gastronomic Jew”, which pretty much describes me perfectly.
My Jewish side of the family is basically 100% atheist, and I didn’t grow up with any kind of religious observance, but I <3 every variety of smoked fish known to humankind.
I’m not in any way jewish but I’ll take a bagel with cream cheese over a doughnut any day.
So……you’re a little bit Jewish.
That explains all the wine glasses I’ve broken then! (Or, you know, it’s just clumsy+ wine.)
Same here. I think partly at least it’s because I do not care much for sweet things, and especially not sweet things in the mornings. Also oh man I NEED a toasted bagel with cream cheese, like, RIGHT NOW.
Now desperately craving bagels! Send help!
Second.
Yeah, I mostly prefer savory over sweet. I do like a doughnut on occasion, but usually I’d take the bagel.
See all the good we’ve done for the world? Except somehow we made the world safe for nasty, nasty capers.
I will eat all your capers, thank you in advance
You are one of my favorite Toastfriends, Mrs_Peel, but don’t think I won’t fight you for my share of those capers.
NYC BAGELS ARE VASTLY INFERIOR TO MONTREAL BAGELS!!!! THEY ARE DOUGHY MONSTROSITIES
/Montrealer
CORRECT
Yeah but still way better then almost anything you can find on the west coast 🙁
Chewy bread is the greatest of all treats!
Oh boy, I have some thoughts about that diversity in publishing piece, which I can’t really share without doxxing myself. BRB, flipping a table.
@deleted commenter: *fewer
What?
Oh, I just love calling annoying people on grammar mistakes. I make plenty myself, and I usually don’t correct people I like, but I just love being pedantic with people like this deleted commenter.
Oh, no problem. I was actually making a nerdy reference to Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire… the same grammar correction is made by a character there, responded to with a befuddled “what?” and followed up by the corrector with a “nothing, never mind.” Responding to the misuse of “less” with the one-word response “fewer” is something of a fantasy nerd shibboleth, to which I reflexively replied.
Of course! How could I forget Stannis the grammar pedant. I am just terrible at getting pop culture references.
I really enjoy Black-ish! I especially like how Bow and Ruby get to be just as ridiculous as Dre and Pops, instead of having to be the sensible ones.
I love Bow, but Junior is my favorite. He is so earnestly nerdy.
My appreciation for Junior has really grown in the last couple episodes. He’s so goofy and sincere.
The kids are one of the rare examples of child actors bringing something substantive to the table in a multi-generational show. Heart eyes for Diane even if she does Jack wrong every week.
And the whole office crew is sublime.
Diane and Louise from Bob’s Burgers need to have their own show.
I would watch this in a heartbeat.
YES YES YES YES
There’s really not a weak point in the cast.
It sounds really terrible to say Diane is who I aspire to be…but it’s also a little true? She’s just so good at devious schemes.
Diane is slowly creeping into a creepy child, just inch by dead-eyed inch, and I love it.
Also, there was a scene a couple of weeks ago when Zoe was doing Diane’s hair as they all sat around, and it reminded me of how subtly smart the show is about weaving in everyday life things without making a huge deal about it.
I love everything about this show. That’s all I got 🙂
I saw this yesterday and I think it’s kind of brilliant? The Thames Valley police have released an educational video about consent…using tea as an analogy.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/27/poli…
“Unconscious people don’t want tea, and they can’t answer the question, do you want tea?–because they’re unconscious.”
I wish they had a clause about: if someone consented to having tea with milk in it, don’t put sugar in it without asking them first. Just because they said they would have tea with milk, doesn’t mean they would also like to have tea with sugar. Let’s say someone had consumed half of their tea with milk in it. You would not run over and put sugar in it!
The end.
Not the end. If someone had tea with milk and sugar in it last week, they don’t necessarily want the sugar this week.
The end.
When I was a kid, I babysat for a couple going to a Halloween party. She was 8 months pregnant. They went as a nun and a priest.
Reader, this is when I learned how to define my #lifegoal.
Marwencol. It almost physically hurt to read the story and see the pictures. The artist’s pain is so vivid in his work.
Have you seen the documentary? You must do so, immediately.
Except Coffey had got it wrong. He had accidentally chosen one of Hogancamp’s photographs – called Rescuing the Major. After other Facebook users took great pleasure in pointing out the irony to him – that he had linked to an art project created by a cross-dresser who had been beaten almost to death by bigots – he followed up with a second post, a mea culpa: “I could have chosen one of hundreds of other photos. But I didn’t, I chose this one. Do I think it was an accident? I don’t. What happened to this man was wrong, cruel, and unforgivable. Hate helps nothing … (And irony makes us think).”
…jesus christ. right in the gut
The Snap Judgement Podcast has an episode called “The Proxy” all about Marwencol and Mark Hogan. It was riveting!
I don’t listen to Snap Judgement regularly but sometimes I go back and try to catch up on them. Last time I did that I found out that my supervisor had been featured in a story? It wasn’t work related but it was still so strange to hear, and I have no idea why she didn’t mention it.
Here’s the link to the Snap Judgement Podcast that just has the Marwencol story if folks are interested. http://snapjudgment.org/marwencol.
I had just listened to that episode this week!
The entire run of Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting is currently livestreaming on Twitch.tv, and its usually garbage community is endearingly into it. A new little brightness in my day.
People being mean about Bob Ross would really put another dent in my general opinion of humanity, so I’m very happy to hear that.
Ha! I watched a bit of that yesterday, and whenever he’d switch brushes, the comment stream would go crazy.
My friend group and I came up with the best “while intoxicated” activity while we were in the mountains this summer: painting along with Bob Ross. Basically we put on an episode, and try to match his painting as well as we can, in real time (no pausing!) … it’s so fun, and challenging, and sort of like those wine-and-painting classes. Usually we only have markers, too, which adds a whole new level of challenging.
*scribbles down new party idea*
I 10000% appreciate your describing the anxiety riddled hellscape that is Modern Family as a “trash fire”. I thought everybody loved that show (similar to the inexplicable devotion viewers have to The Big Bang Theory or any of the endlessly interchangeable 4 jillion CSI/NCIS/Law and Order joints)(plus also, no judgement on the latter, I love me some trashy procedural cop dramas. love them) and I’m so delighted to not be alone in my distaste regarding said show.
I know I’ve read an article somewhere about how completely economically unlikely the actual families are. Among other unrealistic features.
I was watching Modern Family late last night because it’s one of those shows I turn on when just flipping around, instinctively, and I liked it well enough in the first couple seasons but I was watching and remembering Mallory’s and Nicole’s TOAST STANCE about how all of the people are garbage people and all of the relationships objectively garbage relationships, as if each was specifically designed to torture both people in the relationship, and I was trying to defend it like, and the best I could come up with is that “it’s…representation for terrible gay relationships? at least now we are representing gay people in our terrible and cheesy comedies that focus largely on how much you hate the person who you are currently in a relationship with, right, it’s only fair they get in on that action” so yeah, I was trying and I couldn’t even convince myself so MODERN FAMILY = TRASH FIRE COSIGNED.
Modern Rich Racist Family
I used to watch it just to laugh hysterically at everything Ty Burrell says. The man can do deadpan obliviousness like no one else.
I gave up a few years ago and now I’m just annoyed it’s keeping him from doing other, much better comedy things.
He was a joy to watch in Muppets Most Wanted.
I liked the first season or so ok, then it just got so awful.
The Huffington Post UK (whatever) ran a column by Tamal from GBBO about coming out, which is part of “month-long focus around masculinity in the 21st Century, and the pressures men face around identity,” which I’m always going to be interested in– http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tamal-ray/tamal-b…
That was lovely.
You could actually write a pretty interesting article analyzing masculinity on GBBO. Maybe I even will. I mean, this last season, several of the male contestants cried, but it wasn’t ridiculed or seen as embarrassing, or even remarked upon, really. Many of the male contestants lovingly refer to their partners and kids, without ever giving the impression that they’re trophies. One of the male contestants was a prison warden, for chrissakes, but he was just as concerned about getting his colorful decorations to come out right as any other contestant, and in fact his decorations became one of his strengths.
I think it’s one of the things I love about the show: niceness is centered, and never framed as weakness, regardless of gender.
Oooh. Do it! I would absolutely read that.
I love it when the male contestants cry (not in a “relishing their pain” way – it’s just nice to see that they can do so openly and nobody’s treating them any differently to a female contestant who happened to cry).
I would cry every week on the Bake Off. I do not handle stress well.
(Also, yes, please write that!)
I can’t lie, my ladybits were utterly disappointed when I learned that Tamal was gay, but he’s such a fluffy bundle of happiness who’s impossible not to love. I want him to have all the most wonderful things in the world (and feed me baked goods) <33333333
Although the actual coming out conversations themselves were giant canyons of awkwardness, the little freedoms they gave me were priceless: to be able to talk about relationships honestly or make a passing comment about which character on The OC was the hottest (Seth, obviously).
You’re so right, Tamal.
Do you think we can request a Seth vs. Ryan Would You Rather? I mean, Seth, obvs, but I’d love to read the discussion.
I’m confused as to why this is on HuffPo since that website is generally a fetid pit of garbage, but here is a really intense article about the actual, literal witch hunts in Papua New Guinea. OBVIOUSLY don’t read the comments, and TW for sexual violence, graphic imagery, violence in general.
http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/th…
I don’t watch Blackish, but I feel like I should, just to spite every single person who has ever said to me, “Oh they can call a show Blackish, but what do you think they would do if we had a show called Whitish?!?!”
That is an actual thing that actual people have said? More than one person, even?!
Sadly I’ve heard it at least twice. Same garbage rhetoric as “Why can’t we have White History Month???”
Sent from my iPhone
Oh, honey: run far, far away from those ignorant morons! 🙂 AND watch Blackish!
They made that show. It’s called Friends. And Seinfeld. And Everybody Loves Raymond. And The Brady Bunch. And Happy Days. And Family Ties.
I have a few more examples if they need ’em.
AUUUGGHHH
The Mark Brandanaquitz Parksandham tweet is amazing.
https://twitter.com/ezwrites/status/6597488320083…
Also, re: Marwencol, the best episode ever of Raising Hope has to do with resident nut Frank becoming obsessed with it and creating a miniature version town of Natesville (the place the show is set) in his home.
http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/raising-hope-the-men…
I’m gonna say it – I LIKED MARK AND I’M SAD HE LEFT.
I did not particularly like him and I don’t think his character did much for the show, but I wish they’d at least acknowledged his existence at some point after he left because it’s a bit creepy how thoroughly he became an un-person.
Here’s the thing: I liked Mark.
When he left, though, we got Benji & Chris. Them I loved.
It was a trade off and we the viewers reaped the benefits.
Everything about everything Bridget Jones makes me feel horribly depressed, in the same way that Harry Potter And The Cursed Child being two (TWO) plays (PLAYS) about Harry Potter being a stressed adult makes me sad.
I understand that it’s the author’s right to keep writing about whatever she wants, but LORD I wish they wouldn’t.
I was just wondering this morning: Is the sign of good writing when it leaves you hungry for more, or when the story is perfectly complete as it is?
I think a perfectly complete story should leave you hungry for more? Like maybe if you can put down a book and not be a bit bereft, it’s probably not a brilliant book.
I think it can be either, but as I learned in journalism school, the key is to know when the piece is finished, whatever that may mean.
Wait, what? How and why is it two plays??
God yes. I’m tentatively intrigued by the Fantastic Beasts movie, because I think the HP world in general is quite interesting and the plot has literally nothing to do with Harry & co., but when the description for that play came out, my heart just sank. And then I felt like a bad fan, because JKR is basically my hero and I don’t like feeling at odds with her choices. =/
Yes. I will go see ‘Fantastic Beasts’, because it’s adjacent, but I’d really rather Jo had been working on the encyclopedia than a new directly-related story.
I take issue with Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego being called “obscure old testament characters”
Someone clearly wasn’t exposed to enough Veggie Tales and the bunny factory.
I’d dress up as Rack, Shack and Benny for Halloween.
“The bunny, the bunny, WHOOOAAAA I love the bunny…”
I think every kid in my school just memorized their names simply because those are distinctly weird names, even for the old testament.
That’s how I chose which Old Testament names to remember.
There was a Shadrach in my elementary school, so I was very confused when we got to that story in Daniel. Because clearly, Shadrach was an uncommon enough name that *they had to be the same person*. But he didn’t look old!
I don’t love my mom, or my dad, just the bunny.
I don’t want a tissue when my nose is runny, I just want a knife and a fork and a bunny
You know they eventually released a bowdlerized version of that song? With the lyrics “I don’t love my soup or my bread” instead of “I don’t love my mom or my dad” and “I won’t eat no beans (shocked gasp from Rack, Shack and Benny, which no longer quite works), and I won’t eat tofu” instead of “I won’t go to church *gasp* and I won’t go to school”?
I get that little kids probably drove their parents mad singing the original, but that movie was never the same, dammit.
Some books I read as a child and loved (The Tree That Sat Down, The Stream That Stood Still and The Mountain of Magic) had a character who ws a witch and who had three toad familiars called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Definitely not too obscure!
…or never did a community theatre production of Guys and Dolls…
Definitely not too obscure. When I was little my dad would tell me and my three siblings a short Biblical story in the evenings; the punchline was “Shadrach, Meshach, and To Bed We Go!” Then we’d go to bed. It was very Dad.
Is your dad the same person as my dad?
Anyone who hasn’t seen the Marwencol documentary must rectify that posthaste.
My former stepmonster (to distinguish her from actually good stepmothers) used to teach classes at the YMCA, and used to wear thongs only under hers, and I guess no underwear is a better solution than that. But I still wear underwear because <3 you underwearie.
Lol those halloween costumes 🙂 Question though – in america is there a perception from Christian groups that halloween is “satan’s holiday” or is that part of the joke? (I think I’ve heard a similar from “stuffy” characters on american tv but could be completely wrong!)
Anyway just interesting to me because I’ve always seen halloween as a festival rooted in Christian ideology (the eve of All saints day/ Hallows day) but obvs mixed with earlier pagan celebration and now very commercialised – same as Christmas 🙂
For some sects, yes. But many sects take it for the secular festival it has become.
Only the very fundamentalist Christian groups! My cousins weren’t allowed to go trick or treating when we were kids, which was horrifying and bizarre to me and my sisters at the time, but they were the only family I ever personally knew who had an objection.
Yep, I was raised halloween-less, in a conservative Christian home. I was also homeschooled, and my whole community of friends did not celebrate it either. To me it was just one more weird and possibly wicked thing that the “public school kids” did. 🙂 I started celebrating it in college.
I wouldn’t call Halloween “rooted” in Christian tradition. The Christian holidays only coincide because the newly converted pagans were already celebrating it and didn’t want to stop, afaik.
Those church Halloween festival costumes are AWESOME. Even though I was raised a Catholic (hippie variety) they are still thoroughly amusing.
“Are belts keeping you from relating to today’s generation? LEAVE YOUR BELT AT HOME AND UNTUCK YOUR SHIRT.”
I LOVE BOW IN BLACK-ISH. You are probably not reading this but…I love her! I love how intense she is and how her outfits are so diverse and amazing. She wore a grey dress in one episode that was just amazing. I want to be as cool and beautiful as Tracee Ellis Ross when I grow up.
Just to be clear, I have even less of a problem seeing other people's underwear lines under their workout wear or indeed under anything else than I do with the possibility of other people seeing the occasional vulvic (SP?) outline when I'm doing something complicated in yoga pants (that is to say, no problem at all).
But this is an amazing how-the-other-half-you-didn't-know-was-there-lives sort of subject. My attitude is that good sportswear is pretty much underwear already, so why would you wear two sets of underwear?; however, I do get the points about laundry and discharge and specific kinds of comfort made throughout this thread. And I must say it has made sportswear shopping more complicated than it might otherwise have been, in terms of having to find things with the right kind of seams and whatnot. I've wondered why I've seen some of the fucking annoying crotch-riding seams I've seen, and I guess the fact that half or more women aren't going commando while they work out is the answer that never occurred to me.
However, turning up my nose at underwear has provided one reason among LEGION to avoid Lululemon and their bullshit overpriced tee-hee-is-it-transparent-or-not? wear like the plague and that always feels great.
AUUUGGHHH
I wouldn't call Halloween "rooted" in Christian tradition. The Christian holidays only coincide because the newly converted pagans were already celebrating it and didn't want to stop, afaik.
I've done this too!
Nice Post!
Great text!