I know here on tumblr.org many of you are not that into the sportsball, but I know you love righteous drama and pettiness, and oof, do we have some for you over in football land.
So Hungary, as you may’ve heard, has put out some anti-LGBT legislation that would ban the depiction or promotion of homosexuality to people under 18. It’s not quite law yet but it’s just got to get through their president Viktor Orban who is, unfortunately, a shit.
Meanwhile, football, no the other kind of football- the one with the round ball, is currently having a big European tournament. Euro 2020. Yeah, they didn’t rename it. Doesn’t matter. Germany were due to play Hungary last night in Munich and they asked the governing body of the tournament for permission to light up the stadium in a rainbow. Like this:
But they said no. Specifically, they said no while dressed in a rainbow pfp and claiming that the rainbow isn’t a political symbol:
And Germany, bless them, looked at that and said, ooh bitch it’s on now.
Munich city hall got out the banners
Here are the fans going to the match
The German captain Manuel Neuer in his rainbow armband (which UEFA had previously made noises about disciplining him for, because they’re bastards all around)
A brief selection of the many stadiums across Germany that lit up in solidarity
And last but not least this absolute madlad who ran onto the pitch during Hungary’s anthem
Viktor Orban stayed at home and sulked, and Hungary got knocked out of the tournament.
I was thinking about how in video games “temple” is basically a word for “building with lots of pillars that has loot in it” and then I was like “haha what if there was a post apocalyptic game where you just looted megachurches” and wAIT GOOD IDEA ACTUALLY
Now THIS
is design, bitches
Just the right mix of religious awe, modernist mediocrity and glurge
Not gonna lie, in general I’m just a huge fan of how uncanny and gross “modern” church architecture is
it’s like, the architectural choices no longer really show that this is a sacred/religious space, and it’s like. what do we DO with this visually
The worst part is how many churches I have personally visited that look like this
This gives me the same feeling i get reading about long term nuclear waste disposals
These churches are not places of honour
god these are freaky. I’ve never been in a church like this to my recollection, and I honestly doubt there’s one in my province (the ones here seem to divide neatly into Huge but At Least 100 Years Old and Looks Like A Church, Built out of Reinforced Concrete Immediately Before the Quiet Revolution—Oops, and Literal Storefronts).
What we should talk about: HRT access, queer self-defense, the failure of respectability politics, building up community resources
What we talk about: Is it valid to be bi? Is it valid to be pan? Is it valid to be queer? Is it valid to be kinky? Is it valid to be ace? Is it valid to be trans? Is it valid to be non-binary? Is it valid t
I do want every queer leftist who regularly engages in debates about who’s ‘valid’ or who ‘belongs’ in the queer community to understand how much they really do be coming off like
I have never in my life seen an objet d'art that qualified for the Tiffany Paradox, but here we are. It looks like it fell off a middle school girls bedroom desk circa 1987.
I love this.
also I went and looked it up on the MFA website and as I suspected, it’s made of mother-of-pearl! the rainbow parts are probably from iridescent blacklip shells, and the rest is carved white oyster shell.
There are some Chinese porcelains which are definitely worthy of the Tiffany paradox - I mean, sure, it was made in the 1300s but it’s a lemon yellow tea bowl - but honestly this one really epitomizes the matter.
i walk into starbucks and order a pumpkin spice latte with 13 shots of espresso. i tell the barista that i intend to transcend humanity and become a god. i ask for no whip cream
you say this jokingly but i had a customer actually order a pumpkin spice latte with 9 shots of espresso (also no whip) and when i asked her to verify that she did indeed want 9 shots of espresso she looked me dead in the eyes and said “i have 5 kids”
I once had a woman come in and ordered an Americano with 19 shots of espresso. The drink took ages. It held up the line. I asked her why, and she shrugged and said “I just don’t care”. We still talk about that woman. We never saw her again.
new cryptid: exhausted woman at starbucks
Actual conversation I had at register:
“Hi, welcome to [Starbucks]! What can I get you, today?”
“How much is it to fill a Venti with Espresso?”
“I- I’m sorry?”
“A venti cup. How much to fill it with Espresso?”
“Oh. uh. Well, it’d be I suppose… I only have a button for a Quad. I don’t have special pricing for twenty ounces of espresso in a single… drink.”
“Price is the furthest thing from my mind right now. How many ‘add shots’ is that?”
*deep breath of fear* “It’d be a quad with,” *clears throat* “uh, sixteen additional shots of espresso. But, ma’am, I should tell you that the shots will start to get really bitter if they have to sit and wait for us to pull twenty of them-”
“Taste means nothing to me.”
At this point I am truly fearing for my very existence in the presence of what must clearly be an eldritch being.
“Oh. Well, okay.” I put on my absolute best customer service smile to hide my terror and accept that I must face this dragon, fae, or demon with dignity. “We can certainly get that for you! The price will be _____.”
She begins to pay, I shit thee not, with golden Sacajawea dollar coins. We are a block from Wall Street, and this eldritch demi-being is paying for an unholy elixer with golden coins. My life will end soon, I am sure of it.
“Do you still have the ‘Add Energy’ packets?”
My heart began to race at this request. “Yes ma’am.”
“How many can I add?”
Futile though it is, at least I know the rote response to this. “For health reasons, we won’t add more than one per drink and we cannot sell the packets individually.”
“One then.”
I alter the order and tell her the new price. She pays, dumps the change and five golden dollars into the tip box. I write the order on the venti cup and pass it silently to the girl working the hot beverage station. Normally we called and pass, but this was … not something to be spoken aloud.
My fellow takes the cup, not thinking anything of the minor break with protocol, until she sees the order. She stares at me. “No.”
The woman, which I call her for no other greater insight into her terrifying being is within my grasp, simply stands on the other side and says, calmly but with a commanding tone I expect of Admirals in bad movies, “Yes.”
My fellow barista pales before her task. But we are dutiful, we are true to our task, great though it may be. She sets about clearing the two brand new Mastrena’s of all distraction, and sets two tall cups in the ready position. The energy packet is emptied into the venti cup, and the shots begin pouring.
The barista was damn near shaking. This woman’s gaze felt like the fires of the sun. Finally, the shots are pulled, the cup is filled, and the hand off takes place.
Our visiting Incomprehensible takes it to our milk bar and adds a dollop of cream. Satisfied, she proceeds to down what must have been half the damn cup.
Then she smiled at us, like a benediction and I was honestly filled with joy. And horror. She left, and we knew nothing more of her after that.
When I talk with other former employees, we quickly begin talking about “The Company” as if we’d never left, perhaps knowing that part of our soul still powers that awesome and terrible corporate machine. And when I share this story, other Baristas at first act shocked but quickly settle and comes the chorus,
Bro, if you were really playing Devil’s Advocate for fun, you wouldn’t be restricting yourself to attacking positions that challenge the status quo. Like, you want to see something fun? Put on your best Dispassionate Rational Actor™ face and play the “let’s interrogate your unexamined assumptions” card on somebody who thinks there are only two genders. Funniest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen.
my brothers share special interests and my favorite thing to do is walk in a room and be like “hey guys can you tell me about the mariana trench” and then sit there for an hour while they both infodump to me about the ocean it’s extremely entertaining
and my parents are always like “oh my god why would you do that” bitch. I want to learn about the ocean and these two thirteen year old boys r my most trusted source
fr
I mean, I could google questions I have about medieval weaponry and horsemanship, but on the other hand I could message my sister the simple statement “have question about historical saddles” and get both a phone call and a comprehensive 3 page google document within an hour
Seriously, if you know someone who has a special interest you’d like info about, go ask them! It costs zero money, you make them happy, and you learn way more than a basic google search would tell you.
As a mass comm major, IF THERE IS SOMETHING UNJUST OR IMMORAL BEING DONE CALL YOUR LOCAL NEWS STATION THEY WILL HELP MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE
Cities and government agencies HATE bad press. This story that was told to me by the journalist that covered this, and he showed us the piece:
There was a traffic light that was set up on the far side of an overpass, but it was improperly hung so you couldn’t see the light until it was too late. There were accidents there EVERY SINGLE DAY and calls to the city did NOTHING.
Someone had the idea to call the local news station and this dude went out to see. As he was interviewing someone, there was a wreck.
Guess what happened after that piece aired?
Suddenly the city had the time to lower the traffic light and the accidents stopped.
Journalists get a bad rep, and while big stations like Fox deserve it, I think more thought should be given to who you’re actually shitting on when you say “I hate journalists.” Because we’re overworked, underpaid, constantly shit on, but we still do the job because we want to help people. All professional, prestigious journalists that I’ve met hate the government and will do whatever they can to get the information and change that’s needed. Being a journalist is a dangerous profession: at every professional convention I’ve been at there’s a fund for the families of journalists that have been killed (there’s a lot!) and a long memoriam roll.
SUPPORT LOCAL NEWS STATIONS
I sneaked a video camera into my dorm when it flooded and showered black mold down on us from leaky ceilings. Got footage of light fixtures leaking water, tiles covered in mold, ankle-deep water on the seventh floor because it was coming in through uncaulked windows. Took video of girls crying over ruined textbooks, computers, personal items. Sent it to the news.
They came and did an interview with the head of resident life, who tried to convince them it was just a couple of isolated incidents and disgruntled students. However, he also wouldn’t let them into the actual dorm.
….so I did interviews with students from three different floors and asked each one how many people on their floor were flooded out.
Sent that to the news station, too. Along with the information that the college had told us we did not need renter’s insurance, but was now telling us to go through our renter’s insurance and that they couldn’t replace anything.
SIX WEEKS LATER the university unveiled plans for a new set of dormitories.
And when a pipe burst in one of said dormitories the first year it was open, they paid all damages and for alternate housing. No questions asked.
“Nina, you’re not a journalist, though.”
No, I’m not. But at the time, I WAS a journalism major. And I turned a bunch of raw, smuggled footage (yes, smuggled—they were refusing to let cameras into the dorm!) over to professional editors and journalists, and they turned it into a coherent story.
manifestación contra la ley de peligrosidad social. madrid, 1978.
madrid had its first pride in 1978, organized by the “frente de liberación homosexual de castilla” (homosexual liberation front of castille, FLHOC). as usual, brave trans women are leading the march. this rally called for the abolishment of the “law on dangerousness and social rehabilitation”, which imprisioned gay men and trans women. the articles criminalizing “homosexual acts” were repealed in 1979, while the ones that criminalized “public scandal” (such as kissing in public) were revoked in 1989. the law, which included other acts considered morally dangerous by the post-fascist regime (begging, vandalism, prostitution, proxenitism, illegal immigrants…) was finally abolished in 1995.
I feel like book piracy has become so normalized now and its honestly so ugly and disappointing. Like I totally understand that some people in other countries have straight up no library access but for people in the US/UK?? saying that pubs are their 'free trial' without even trying to use a library??? I truly think younger readers using them don't realize how badly it could fuck an author over
i think book piracy comes down to people not understanding the differences between the film industry and the book industry. i don’t fully understand the film industry bc it’s not my focus, but i do know that pirating movies or shows is not going to directly impact the actors and/or the little people behind the movie or show. (if someone wants to elaborate on how, please do! i’m not really sure.)
however, pirating books is going to directly impact authors, not publishers or CEOs or any other bigwigs. an author is paid thus: they sign a contract for a certain amount of money, say, $100,000 for a two-book deal. that means that each book will be (technically) worth $50,000. depending on the contract, a check will be written for $25,000 upon the author turning in the version of the manuscript that the editor bought. that check will go to the author’s agent, who will take their 15% commission, which will be $3,750. then, the agent will send the remaining $21,250 to the author, minus taxes. with that same scenario, a check with the remaining $25,000 will be written upon the author turning in the final copy of the manuscript, aka the version that will go to the printer, and the process repeats (the check is sent to the agent, the agent takes their 15%, the author gets the remaining $21,250, minus taxes).
that’s not where this story ends, though: in every contract is a thorough section detailing royalties, aka how much the author will receive per sale of a copy of their book in the book’s entire lifespan. if an agent is good, this will be one of their most important areas they focus on during negotiations. it’s imperative that people know that royalties can make or break an author’s career. it’s better to have larger royalties than a larger advance, bc an advance is only once, whereas royalties will continue as long as the book continues to sell (hardcover, paperback, audiobook, ebook, etc). the higher the author’s advance, the more pressure there is for the author to break even, aka for the author to make back the $50,000 spent on that first book. in a worst case scenario, if an author doesn’t earn back their advance (a big turn of phrase in publishing), they could have book 2 canceled, or they could possibly never be able to sell another book to a publisher again due to a poor sales record. in that case, it’s likely the author will have to re-debut under a pen name so the publisher backing them can treat them like a debut author. or, you’ll see an author’s first printings tank between book 1 and 2 or book 2 and 3 etc etc. for instance, Enchantee by Gita Trelease had a first hardcover printing of 175,000 copies (which is big for a debut!), while book 2 of that series, Everything That Burns, has a first hardcover printing of 75,000 copies. now, i can’t see the sales numbers, but it seems likely a lack of sales is the culprit here.
so when people say that pirating books will directly influence whether or not your favorite author gets to publish more books, they really mean it. it won’t affect the publisher (who has massive protections in place) nearly as much as it will affect the author (who doesn’t have those same protections), and it could mean that your favorite author never gets to finish that series you love or can never publish another book again. in conclusion, don’t pirate books, kids.
Anonymous Asks:
pomme-poire-peche Said: