Highlights from the past few months of gun-related news October 16, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in News Roundup.Tags: gun control, police brutality, Politics
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I haven’t managed to post any of these for a while, but that’s not for lack of material.
“A first grader who found his grandmother’s loaded gun at school this spring pointed it at another student[…] [Vicky] Nelson was allowed to carry the weapon as part of the district’s concealed-carry plan adopted last year to arm administrators and select staff members to protect students from potential gun violence.” Sounds like that “put more guns in reach of small children” plan is going swimmingly.
“Police say the two children broke into a locked bedroom, took a semi-automatic pistol out of a drawer, and were playing when the gun discharged. [The 10-year-old died.] Capri says the homeowners were legally able to own the gun and ‘did what they felt necessary to secure the firearm.'” Gun security should be regulated by laws, because obviously “feelings” aren’t cutting it.
“A Texas police officer confronted by a loose dog pulled out his gun and opened fire [August 1], missing the animal and striking a woman standing nearby, killing her.” In the chest. No, the dog was not that tall. Either his aim is so bad that he has no business being a cop, or he’s lying, he meant to shoot the unarmed pedestrian, and he has no business being a cop.
“‘He didn’t just die down there did he?’ an officer asked minutes after 32-year-old Tony Timpa lost consciousness while being restrained by police. ‘I hope I didn’t kill him.'” Justice for Tony Timpa.
“Ten days after he testified in the murder trial of a former Dallas police officer [Amber Guyger, finally convicted off murdering Botham Jean], key witness Joshua Brown was gunned down at his apartment complex.” Justice for Joshua Brown.
“A black woman was shot and killed by a white police officer in her Fort Worth, Texas home after a neighbor called dispatchers to report the woman’s front door was open, police said. The officers were searching the perimeter of the woman’s home when they saw a person standing near a window inside and one of them opened fire. […] She died at 2:30 a.m. Saturday in the bedroom of her home.” Justice for Atatiana Koquice Jefferson.
“…data from the 15 years following the [assault weapon ban]’s expiration now provide stronger evidence that permitting the gun industry to flood the market with increasingly powerful weapons that allow for faster killing has facilitated exactly that outcome. In the decade after the ban, there was a 347 percent increase in fatalities in gun massacres, even as overall violent crime continued downward.”
Music recs: Lorie, Marc Almond, Michael Stanley [Band] September 24, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in Recommendations.Tags: music
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Lorie: fun, catchy, energetic ’00s teen pop (mostly French). She’s also the French VA for a bunch of animated characters, so you can imagine any of these being sung by, say, Tinkerbell or Violet Parr. (Lorie playlist.)
This first one is a cheesy bilingual song about a cross-cultural romance:
Marc Almond: synthpop, new-wave, drag-show cabaret. He was the lead singer of Soft Cell (i.e. the Tainted Love guy); this is mostly the solo stuff he did afterward. (Marc Almond playlist.)
This last one is a heartfelt song about the drag scene:
Michael Stanley [Band]: classic ’70s and ’80s rock with a working-class Midwestern heart. It’s like if the E Street Band was from Ohio. Their highest-charting single even got Clarence Clemons on sax. (Michael Stanley Band playlist.)
Monday works roundup, 9/23 (SheRa, Leif & Thorn, and more) September 23, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in But I'm A Cat Person, Leif & Thorn, Works Roundup.Tags: art, Comics, life drawing, She-Ra
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But I’m A Cat Person
Drying the Floof (sketch | Timothy, Reseda | worksafe)
Leif & Thorn
Volume 2 Cast Banner (art | Rowan, Kale, Lulen, Del, Olive, Plum, Leif/Thorn | worksafe)
Stand Still, Dream Silent (textless comic | Leif/Thorn | G)
She Ra and the Princesses of Power
Shoes That Are Slightly Nicer Than My Regular Shoes (art | She-Ra | worksafe)
Welding Goggles (art | Entrapta, Emily | worksafe)
Sparkly Cape (art | Glimmer | worksafe)
Wrist Wraps (art | Huntara | worksafe)
General/Miscellaneous
Figure drawings 9-15-2019 (sketches, NSFW)
This Week in Leif & Thorn:
Cute director’s-cut jokes from The Burns and the Bees. And we’re still kickstarting Volume 2!
Music recs: Kansas, Laura Branigan, Lifehouse September 13, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in Recommendations.Tags: music
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Kansas: classic rock with complex symphonic arrangements. All we are is dust in the wind, man. (Kansas playlist.)
Laura Branigan: pop-rock, synthpop, dance, heartfelt hurt/comfort love songs. (Laura Branigan playlist.)
Lifehouse: Post-grunge alt-rock. Some of the songs have spiritual overtones, but they’re not a religious band. (Lifehouse playlist.)
This first one is an eerily-perfect “Stephen Colbert” theme song.
Monday works roundup: Good Omens, SheRa, HDM, a Kickstarter, and more September 9, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in But I'm A Cat Person, Leif & Thorn, Works Roundup.Tags: art, Comics, Dragonmage, Fic, Good Omens, Hellsing, His Dark Materials, life drawing, Lucifer, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Revolutionary Girl Utena, She-Ra, The Good Place
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Along with the usual fanart, illustration, and the first actual fic in a long while…this is the post where I tell you the campaign for Leif & Thorn Volume 2 is live!
Volume 1 was 27% funded at the end of the first day, so Volume 2 is already outpacing it. Let’s see how much farther that energy can go…
But I’m A Cat Person
Waltzing Miranda (sketch | Bianca, Miranda | worksafe)
Tiger Enclosure (sketch | Miranda, Poe | worksafe)
Leif & Thorn
Crystal Maze (wallpaper | Leif/Thorn | worksafe)
Volume 1 Trailer (check it out, it’s on Youtube now)
Volume 2 Cover – Sword Lilies (cover art | Leif/Thorn | worksafe)
Dragonmage
Grasswind (art | Rheariel | worksafe)
Good Omens/The Good Place/His Dark Materials/Hellsing/Lucifer/Evangelion
Team Humanity, chapters 1-6 (fic | Crowley, Aziraphale, ensemble | PG)
She Ra and the Princesses of Power(/Utena)
Crop Top (art | Bow | worksafe)
My Magic Sword (comic | SheRa, Utena | G)
General/Miscellaneous
Figure drawings 9-2-2019 (sketches, NSFW)
This Week in Leif & Thorn:
Racing to beat the storm.
Music recs: Jean-Jacques Goldman, Julia Ecklar, ABWH September 4, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in Recommendations.Tags: music
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Jean-Jacques Goldman: pop-rock, currently the highest-grossing French-language artist alive in the genre. (Jean-Jacques Goldman playlist.)
Julia Ecklar: filk (SFF-themed folk music produced by fandom), in between being a sci-fi writer. Covers the gamut from “earnest odes to space exploration” to “comedy songs about tribbles.” (Julia Ecklar playlist.)
(See also: To Touch The Stars playlist, a multi-artist album of space-exploration tribute songs.)
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe: progressive rock, four former members of Yes that released a single album as their own group. No specific homages (that I know of), but IMO it has the same general weird/hopeful/cosmic vibe of ’70s-’80s SF. (ABWH playlist.)
Monday roundup, 9/2 (She-Ra, life drawing, and more) September 2, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in But I'm A Cat Person, Leif & Thorn, Works Roundup.Tags: art, life drawing, She-Ra, wallpapers
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But I’m A Cat Person
BICP Chibi Bouquet mark 2 (dolls | ensemble | worksafe)
Leif & Thorn
Team Violet (art | Violet | worksafe)
Profiles – simple and clean (art | Leif, Thorn | worksafe)
She Ra and the Princesses of Power
Leather Jacket (art | Catra | worksafe)
General/Miscellaneous
Cello (backer reward, worksafe)
Figure sketches (sketches, mild NSFW)
Rainbow Night background (free stock, worksafe)
This Week in But I’m A Cat Person:
More inter-chapter bonus material.
This Week in Leif & Thorn:
Thorn has to make up for getting Elisa zapped by accidentally giving her an order.
Vintage gay wedding photos, more-vintage cheap souvenirs, super-extra-vintage fossils, and other neat things August 30, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in Uncategorized.Tags: everything old is new again, lgbtq, Politics, SCIENCE!
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“…the photos depict him in a commitment ceremony with another man, and unbeknownst to him, the store manager had a policy of withholding developed photos if he deemed them “inappropriate”—as he did these.The photos, though, lived on because the manager of the shop had another policy: Staff were allowed to do whatever they pleased with confiscated pictures. An employee held on to the photos.”
“About a month after they met, Hay and Gernreich combed the gay beaches of Malibu and the Pacific Palisades looking for new Mattachine members. They brought along copies of the Stockholm Peace Petition, which called for a withdrawal of troops from Korea. They mistakenly believed that the peace petition was so radical it would make the new gay organization seem mild by comparison. Nearly 500 people signed the petition. No one signed up for Mattachine.”
“IDK” was attested as military slang in 1918.
“It sounds just like the kind of joke that is ubiquitous in today’s cheap-and-cheerful souvenir industry: ‘I went to Rome and all I got you was this lousy pen.’ But the tongue-in-cheek inscription recently deciphered on a cheap writing implement during excavations in the City of London is in fact about 2,000 years old.”
“As the water slowed and became slack, it deposited everything that had been caught up in its travels—the heaviest material first, up to whatever was floating on the surface. All of it was quickly entombed and preserved in the muck: dying and dead creatures, both marine and freshwater; plants, seeds, tree trunks, roots, cones, pine needles, flowers, and pollen; shells, bones, teeth, and eggs; tektites, shocked minerals, tiny diamonds, iridium-laden dust, ash, charcoal, and amber-smeared wood. As the sediments settled, blobs of glass rained into the mud, the largest first, then finer and finer bits, until grains sifted down like snow.” A geological dig preserving the day of The Asteroid.
“It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little.”
“He stopped taking ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) three months ago and there continues to be no evidence of infectious HIV in his system. Each of the three patients were being given the procedure with that aim of treating cancer, so while a bone marrow transplant is not a viable option as a common cure for HIV infection, it does give us hope that we’re getting closer to a permanent cure.”
Music recs: Icehouse, Jack’s Mannequin, Jann Arden August 23, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in Recommendations.Tags: music
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Icehouse – new-wave synth-pop, lots of romantic ’80s earnestness. Originally known as Flowers, published an album titled Icehouse, then changed their band name to Icehouse, because why make things easy. (Icehouse playlist. The end has a bunch of videos with lyrics, but apparently-random instrumental audio.)
Jack’s Mannequin – 2000’s California alt-rock. Touching, melancholy/hopeful — the frontrunner retired the name in part because these albums were “wrapped up in a whole lot of turmoil and tumult in a very difficult time in [his] life.” (Jack’s Mannequin playlist.)
Jann Arden – romantic pop, lot of yearning ballads. (Jann Arden playlist.)
I’m so confused by the publishing sequence of Jane’s World August 19, 2019
Posted by Erin Ptah in Erin Watches.Tags: Jane's World
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Okay, I’ve spent way too long trying to puzzle this out, so now I’m inflicting it on the rest of you.
Jane’s World is a gay-centric sitcom-style comic — a lot like Dykes To Watch Out For, but with cartoonier art, and less topical political commentary in favor of more surreal misadventures.
It was launched in March 1998, picked up for syndication in April 2002, and concluded in October 2018.
Here’s a review of the printed omnibus volume 1, if you want a bit about the contents without diving into the full online archive.
This post is just about the order things were published in. (more…)
