shacklefunk:

shacklefunk:

yknow theres a lot of pressure to be successful, particularly on artsy kids whose professions are seen as useless unless theyre famous, but life is fucking hard and sometimes things dont turn out

but i think thats not bad. my dad has wanted to be a musician forever, and hes rly pretty good. but then he joined the military to get away from an abusive family, and then he got married, and then he got divorced, and a lot of horrible shit HAPPENED. he has ptsd and severe anxiety and he could never really get back on the horse. and he never made it as a musician, and now hes 53

but i grew up in a house full of instruments, and he can play all of them, and some of my earliest memories are of him playing guitar on the front porch and me thinking there wasnt a better musician in the world. so. even if you dont get to the stars, exactly, what you do isnt worthless. its not a waste of time if life is difficult and you cant make it, or if you arent famous, or if your work doesn’t influence thousands of people. it will influence someone

there are a million ways to be happy and a million ways to be a successful artist. we create what we do to enhance the human experience and relate to each other and improve ourselves. theres something to be said for just doing that,,,for the sake of doing it, yknow

im glad this post is making the rounds again bc the older i get the more i pursue happiness over success and i think thats. really how it should be done, in my opinion

anything that makes u happy is worthwhile

quicksilver-rain:

quicksilver-rain:

quicksilver-rain:

One of the contractors at work drove past my shack on a forklift yesterday, stopped, backed up to my window and said, “hey, do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?”

My knee jerk response when asked this, even if it’s by a companionable dude old enough to be my dad, is to go, “uh, nah-” and then ramble uncomfortably until someone stops me-

-which is what I started to do, only to be cut off by Contractor saying, in an embarrassed rush, “some of the guys were asking me because you and I talk sometimes, but I didn’t want them to hit on you at work, so I told them that you Worship the Devil and would Hex them if they tried. I’m sorry.”

Which leaves me wheezing helplessly, trying to get my shit together, because this is honestly one of the nicest, most hysterical things I’ve ever heard someone say to me.

Oblivious to this, Contractor then follows up with, “and they were like ‘forreal??’ so I was like, ‘yeah, she’s probably a sadist, too, you can tell by her jewelry. She’ll stab you or something.’”

And tbh I can’t even come up with anything witty to say in response, so all I manage to choke out is, “pleASE LET THEM CONTINUE TO THINK THAT, I’M BEGGING YOU.”

And Contractor just smiles and is like, “Okay! I just wanted to let you know!” before driving off with his forklift.

Like?? Thank god for Contractor tbh. He’s an angel among men, and I hope the rest of his life is filled with prosperity and happiness and like, that he finds $20 on the ground every week for the rest of his life.

Update: Every time Contractor sees me, he does a little Devil Horns gesture at me and its adorable.

Update the Second: I saw Contractor while doing my tour and he told me that the guy that asked if I was single was around, and that if I saw him, I should just make complicated hand gestures at him while I walk by to scare him off.

This guy’s a fuckin gem.

thebookrose:

shorthistorian:

hymnsofheresy:

hymnsofheresy:

hymnsofheresy:

ok the shittiest part about christmastime is the fact people keep skipping over the forth verse of “we three kings” like… we get it. y’all are white protestants who can’t even think about mortality for one single second. 

also people who skip the third verse of “o holy night” are reactionary cowards

ok but these lyrics are so powerful and amazing. im so pissed.

We Three Kings (4):

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

O Holy Night (3):

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Important context on O Holy Night: The English lyrics by John Sullivan Dwight are from 1855, a full decade before the abolition of slavery in the United States. In fact, abolition was still a VERY fringe position. Pro-slavery advocates, meanwhile, were arguing that slavery was God’s gift to white civilization. In that year, six years before the Civil War began, Americans were already shooting each other over whether slavery should expand out in Kansas.

Dwight–unsurprisingly, a Unitarian minister–put the most inflammatory possible political statement of the day into his Christmas carol.

I didn’t know it was common to skip the third verse of O Holy Night! It was a tradition for my high school choir to sing it every year, and we ALWAYS had that verse. It’s horrible to leave y out, it’s the most compelling part of the song. What’s the point of Christmas without the message of joy and peace for everyone?

thoughts on the bbc trailer

maraudeuselunaire:

  • some of the visuals (most stunningly jean valjean on parole and the barricades, but also the costumes of jean valjean as mayor and fantine in general) look strikingly similar to the 2012 movie?? i’m not even mad i just don’t understand how we ended up here again after all the bashing
  • we’re also back at trying to pretend there is a happy end…please protect the first time viewers…i went to the cinema unprepared in 2012 and i know how it feels…
  • on a positive note, i like that it seems we’ll see fantine before things start to go downhill as it could really add to her as a character that’s not solely defined by the things that happen to her. on a negative note, i feel the sex scene with tholomyès creeping up to us. it’s lurking out there…waiting…
  • is this…is this a waterloo flashback…are we actually doing this because i’m genuinely here for it
  • mentally preparing myself for a total of 15 minutes les amis de l’abc and insurrection without any historical context though. but possibly the trailer just doesn’t want to scare people off this family-friendly christmas series
  • i told myself i’d just watch this series as another adaption that i didn’t really care about, why do i suddenly care
  • weirdly annoyed by the valjean & cosette scenes
  • not 100% sure why
  • my man mabeuf ups my total score of this trailer by at least two points
  • seriously though i’m not over how much this looks like the 2012 movie