ghost-oakes:

d0wn2cl0wn:

iwilleatyourenglish:

iwilleatyourenglish:

i was reading an article about how some professional clowns are afraid IT is going to cause business issues, and this one guy came forward to say he didn’t think it’d be a big deal and everything from his statement to description sounds like something made up for a tumblr shit post:

“‘A load of the folks who say ‘this is terrible for the industry’ have been clowning for about five minutes – they’ve not been through this before,’ says Ian Williams, honorary secretary of Clowns International, which claims to be the world’s oldest clown organisation. ‘It’s not going to kill off clowning. [The TV miniseries adaptation of It, starring Tim Curry] came out 27 years ago. I was clowning then, I’m still clowning now.’”

i’m sharing this again because this guy is possibly my hero he’s seen it all and does not give a fuck

he was clowning then and he’s clowning now

hes still clowin around

need a shirt that says “clowning then” on the front and “clowning now” on the back

kontextmaschine:

I took the opportunity to get out of town for a needed vacation, and I’ve been 2 days driving from Portland to LA by way of Reno. Thoughts:

In the high desert and mountain towns, there’s a surplus of buildings so there are all these slapdash restaurants with no money for gut renovations so the bathroom’s somewhere real weird.

The valleys and basins have the national chains that build standardized designs new, though

Foming in from the north, Reno is like 40 villages orbiting a downtown that looks like a scale model even when you’re in it. Fuckin early-PS3 GTA knockoff-ass city.

Northwestern Nevada is like Red Dead Redemption with the ballsiest Golden Age of American Civil Engineering stuff built through it, it’s like scrubland and incongruous impounded lakes and meadows and Eero Saarinen swooping highways, there was a gratuitous monumental concrete bridge just so the freeway could take a “fuck you geography” foothill route

Also the cities there have these weird banlieue islands of dense multifamily housing surrounded by like half a mile of empty desert on all sides, keeping land and construction costs down but accomplishing no urbanist goals whatsoever

It’s true what they say though, Nevada is like a vision of an America that continued to build cheap, dense multifamily housing after WWII but built it into a car culture anyway

I hear all this about “bro country” but I’ve just been hearing a lot of ‘90s VH1-ass chick country on the radio. In fairness I do have ‘90s VH1-ass chick taste in music

Like, there was a duet with Sheryl Crow! And then the singer did an interview about how empowering it was to pose in Playboy!

In fairness she really sold it, referencing Dolly Patton’s cover in the 70s and how she had this all-female creative team recreate this 70s-80s country look, you almost forgot the point was to raise her profile by helping guys jerk off about her

This is Maren Morris we’re talking about. How do I know? Well…

Gardnerville, in the Carson Valley, looks like a gem that’s been discovered locally but not yet wider

Sierra Wave is one of the best radio stations I’ve ever come across.

So lately I’ve been warned that I’m losing my ability to focus both my eyes on the same point, which now that I think of it I’ve noticed a weakness in since childhood

At the end of a long day of driving it was getting to be kind of a struggle but when they deresolved I noticed I was seeing the road doubled but vertically, with one version “steeper” than the other to the furthest reflecting posts

I realized that’s because I was seeing two different focal lengths, because apparently I CAN do that pulp fiction assassin thing of focusing them independently, one was focusing on the road ahead and one on the distance, and by focusing I could even flip them from say L near/R far to vice versa

If that seems a little scary to work out at 70mph it did to me too at first but it was a straight, empty road and I calmed down when I realized that if I stayed between the lines in *either* vision I definitionally would in the other, and then it was fun to flick between them

kontextmaschine:

you reap what you sow

I get messages about this all the time; I have no goddamn idea what I meant by it but I stand by it anyway

kontextmaschine:

aint no party like a Bolshevik party cuz a Bolshevik party don’t quit until it’s accomplished the difficult transition from manorialism if not tribalism to an industrialized market economy

archatlas:

Bright Moments Sebastian Weiss

A small sampling of the images by Sebastian Weiss you will find on his tumblr. This set includes contemporary architecture in the cities of Schillig, Milan, Lyon, Marseille, Hamburg, Lisbon, Montpellier, Barcelona, Ronchamp. The images show his passion about concrete aesthetics & the beauty seen in city shapes. 

Check out this tumblr!

gayasscommie:

So a friend of mine made this based off a fb status I made and now it’s *everywhere*

argumate:

kontextmaschine:

Proposed: the 1980s farm crisis (which was where family farming finally died in America) at some level fed into the development of anti-abortion activity and identity in the same period, by way of agrarian-magical fertility rites.

It’s a recurring notion among human agricultural societies that the health of the land, and of the crop, rely, through sympathetic magic, on the enactment of human fertility, in ritual or actual childbearing

These fertility cults constitute a folk religion symbiotic with any variety of nominal official religions, if not actively parasitic and tending to supplant

At some fundamental level the failure of the agrarian economy is understood or at least felt as a result of the failure of women to bear children, and for them to return to fertility will renew the golden age

To perform abortions is, essentially, to perform black witchcraft, cursing the crop and ruining the harvest; if a witch has cursed your crop the solution is to kill the witch.

This would explain the origin of Operation Rescue in the mid-1980s, and why it would choose Wichita of all places for its Summer of Mercy, this would explain the geographic distribution of the most intense anti-abortion sentiment and violence, this would explain why if you drive too far into farm country the cultural footprint consists of decaying human settlements and roadside signs condemning abortion or beseeching women to give birth

admit it, this kind of post is like catnip

kontextmaschine:

hello friends

kontextmaschine:

“Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don’t want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”

“Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world”

William Moulton Marston - reputed psychologist, polyamorist, inventor of the polygraph, creator of Wonder Woman. Y'know, wielder of the Magic Rope of Domination +3. (Though in the early stuff she sure does spend a lot of time tied up herself.)

Strong Female Characters, 1940s edition.

Honestly, I love genre fiction for the way that even the really good, well written stuff will be spiced with completely unreflective takes on the author’s kinks.

Like, Kim Stanley Robinson will write these great epic sagas about politics and ecology and postcapitalism and the role of scientists in society, all sorts of settings, and good money says there’s gonna be intergenerational sex in a public bath.

And my, Joss Whedon sure does love stories about psychologically vulnerable teenage girls who beat men up.

(Also pioneer of the “redhead geek girl” thing. Said once it was his explicit goal to make Alyson Hannigan a sex symbol. Plus Christina Hendricks, Felicia Day, Kitty Pryde, Kaylee hired ‘cause she can fix engines on her back with dudes she just met)

And well okay, that’s men. Except that the genre fiction by and for women is like pure kink. Before the internet, grocery and drug stores used to have, just hanging out there, a section full of rape/submission fantasies for women. Now it’s relegated to fanfiction. Or, y'know, the bestseller lists, like Twilight. Or bestselling Twilight fanfiction.

kontextmaschine:

monetizeyourcat:

the running theme of the big lebowski is that the mystery genre is basically incoherent, that you can’t really just assemble clues into a story, and searching for them is ridiculous. the dude doing a pencil rubbing of jackie treehorn’s notepad thinking he’s finding the clue that will break the bunnie case wide open. in any real life situation that would simply reveal a dead end - shorthand only treehorn can read, a note that means nothing outside of the context of a conversation he didn’t hear. the movie takes this completely over the top, revealing that jackie treehorn literally doesn’t save information from phone calls at all - he simply doodles huge dicks to pass time

it’s one of my favorite gags

- - - -

my favorite running theme of the big lebowski is the poverty of the human intellect. everyone is pretty much running on autopilot, repeating things they’ve heard, and rehashing images from culture. it’s not that all the characters are stereotypes, it’s that all the characters are people trying to be stereotypes. the only actual stereotype is the cowboy, who is an omniscient idiot

- - - -

the big lebowski ends with the cowboy treating the story like it’s a conventional narrative with a happy ending, even acting as though the dude acting as a sperm donor is creating a happy family somehow. the attitude of idiotic benevolence he takes into both the closing and opening narrations goes a long way to making them classics of postmodern comedy

Shuffling these separate posts together for the sake of riffing off all of them.

I’ve mentioned that the framework that I’ve found productive for understanding The Big Lebowski is that it’s a Raymond Chandler tribute. I didn’t get that until I read Chandler’s short stories but when you do it’s really obvious.

And one thing about them is that you read them and you think you’ve read a story about an investigator unraveling a mystery. I mean, there’s a mystery, and at the end there’s not, and in between the protagonist applies investigative techniques, information is periodically revealed that makes you reevaluate what you knew already, there’s a lot of witty dialogue and enthralling characterization and scene-setting and a bit of violence.

But when you go back and look at it closely you realize that these things happened in sequence and in proximity, but none of them really lead to the others. The protagonist never really mastered any challenge, but just maneuvered into place for the next coincidence.

The notepad bit isn’t the only “actual” detective technique that goes nowhere. Walter tracking down the kid who left his homework in the Dude’s stolen car - that’s actually clever and competent. It’s clever competence applied to a clue discovered by accident about a crime that has nothing to do with anything else, and used to set up an incompetent interrogation on the basis of another “clue” - the new car - that’s completely unrelated.

That might be my favorite bit of the movie, that Walter does “good cop, bad cop” backwards, alternating both roles towards different people in front of each other, and then getting rough with an unrelated third party. It really plays to the defining nature of his character - that he demands that proper respect be paid but constantly focuses this respect on completely ridiculous objects - the rules of competitive bowling, his ex-wife and her religious heritage, the Vietnam War dead, retired showrunners, himself - making grandiose gestures at the expense of the petty respect of everyday life the people around him are trying to maintain.

In the end it’s a story about failure, about people completely failing to overcome their own limitations. As far as I remember there are only two times when characters actually succeed at something they attempt - Maude gets pregnant, the guys get In-N-Out - and it’s no accident that both happen offscreen and are completely irrelevant to anything else.

But, a story about people failing due to their own inherent limitations, we have a term for that. That’s why the cowboy’s there as chorus/narrator, because the brilliant thing about The Big Lebowski is that it isn’t a stoner comedy, it’s a stoner tragedy.

gadgethackwrenchrussiancult:

trashfirefallon:

trashfirefallon:

internet-sentences:

Please hit me up if you know where I can find more of these surreal ~2014 (?) 4chan memes of female NEETs that I find incredibly compelling

You fools. You can’t see the forest through the trees. This is literally revelations, complete with the mother harlot, the four horsemen, the behemoth with seven heads, and various other imagery. 

In care you think I’m joking. Revelations 17:18 is when the whore of Babylon is mentioned. 

this is a quote from Anne mccarfferey (wrote dragon riders of pern)

Revelations 7:13 

  A great multitude stand before the Throne of God, who come out of the Great Tribulation, clothed with robes made “white in the blood of the Lamb” and having palm branches in their hands. (7:9–17)

Seventh Trumpet: The Third Woe that leads into the seven bowls (11:15–19)
The temple of God opens in heaven, where the ark of His covenant can be seen. There are lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.

This is a quote from “ The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible “

In the book, Jacobs discusses biblical rules, both the obscure and the well-known, and tries to follow them as literally as possible. He even attempts to stone an adulterer and to offer animal sacrifice. He also goes to visit numerous religious groups in order to show their particular views on the Bible, as well as their methods of worship.

Do I even need to explain the four horses?

The Four Angels, bound to the river Euphrates 

THE SEVENTH TRUMPET: (il) THE SIGN OF THE WOMAN .2 Then a huge sign became visible in the sky the figure of * a Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head

I dont feel like looking for more, but here you go.

this is thousands of times more terrifying and foreboding than anything else ive seen come out of 4chan

kontextmaschine:

kontextmaschine:

just remembered that ‘90s SNL skit where some frat guys rub a lamp and get a genie and wish to like “see two lesbians getting it on until we bust a nut”

and they get two lumpy greyhairs interrupting tedious foreplay to ask if the other picked up bulgur for their solstice potluck

‘90s lesbian chic, do you remember that? That Tanya Chalkin “Kiss” poster, that’s gotta be one of the most ‘90s things in the world

When I moved into a house last year of college it had two different copies of that Kiss poster already on the walls

(even though the poster’s from 2002)

kontextmaschine:

koboldandthebeautiful:

the ancient and medieval worlds actually often had somewhat organized urban piss recovery or depositing due to the value of urine for dry cleaning wool and in the tanning industry. for a very long time britain’s most valuable industry was its wool exports. therefore, it naturally follows that british people would have a deep cultural fear of their piss being thieved, feeling that it in some way undermines their national economy even though these days the use of piss is pretty much limited to politicians and business executives drinking it.

In Tokugawa Japan, fertilizer was in such high demand that urban investors would build public lavatories in exchange for the opportunity to sell the accumulated human waste. In turn, it became a serious problem that thieves would steal waste from the cesspits. Using mouth siphons.

kontextmaschine:

honestly the development of the “football field” and the “first down” as power-of-10 imperial units was the American Century in a nutshell

argumate:

the-selfie-ofdoriangray:

argumate:

the billion dollar app idea is to make a virtual friend you care about more than anything else in the world, then charge you a monthly fee to keep it alive.

If you stop paying, it stops talking to you and makes new friends, then sends you pictures of itself hanging out with them

oh I’m gonna need you on the team

kontextmaschine:

kontextmaschine:

honestly you read the old Sterling/Gibson-era cyberpunk it doesn’t seem far off from where we are now

you pay attention to the downsizing/rightsizing era that brought us Dilbert, and Falling Down, and Office Space, and it doesn’t seem far off

but then the internet happened!

and it bought us two decades, apparently

the bike messenger thing!

“We Will All Be Vulnerable Temp Contract Workers In Hypercapitalist San Francisco”!

butch-dyke:

A coworker of mine found this truly bizarre presentation on the “30 year vision” of a huge multinational corporation, and it honestly reads like some kind of absurdist vaporwave shitpost. If you’d like to see the entire thing in all its original glory, you can find it here.

My insecurity: if you were a REAL Machiavelli, you'd be running things and not just sitting in obscurity tossing off pseudo-profound insights.
Me: that is canonically untrue