I don't even read a lot of fanfic (not because I dislike it but because I know if I start I will never stop) but these seem pretty legit. I also feel like there are some missing but I don't know who.
i was thinking this morning about how i categorize fanfic authors that i enjoy like AKC breeds and decided to share my rubric with you:
the specialist: this author has a favorite kink or trope and has written 80% of the content in that tag. you know exactly what you’re getting. they have A Brand™️. no matter what other traits they display, dedicated rare pair authors belong here.
the chocolate box: essentially the exact opposite. this author will try anything once. they have 80+ works in the fandom with no discernible pattern. the shortest one is 268 words and the longest is well over 100k. this breed of author may or may not be related to:
the renaissance fan: they’ve written three things in your fandom: your favorite fic, your notp, and a bizarre crossover with a show you’ve never heard of. you hit “expand fandoms list” on their author page and have to scroll down twice to reach the bottom. whenever you curse the fact that you can’t legally commission fic writers, this is the author you’re thinking about.
the horn dog: they’re here for one thing and one thing only. if someone’s dick is not in another character’s mouth within 500 words, they apologize for it in the author’s notes. they have one (1) g-rated fic.
the rookie: this writer is usually young, new to fandom, or just got a beta-reader for the first time. their fics are a little all over the place, quality-wise, but you’re excited whenever their name pops up because their unique voice gets stronger every time. you feel a personal investment in their development, like you’re an old man reading the local high school sports page and saying “this kid’s the one to watch.”
the live streamer: the most prolific author in the fandom. their works are all over the front page when you sort by kudos. you have no idea how they generate this much work, and have seriously wondered if they have access to an extra-dimensional time portal. their stories are usually un-beta’d and the characterization varies wildly, but their best works are inspired and you’ve read them 30 times.
the cryptid: this one comes out of nowhere every two years, drops the best fanfic you’ve ever read, and disappears. fifteen months after you left a three paragraph comment about how they changed your life, you get a message in your inbox that just says “thanks.”
the novelist: we talk about “filing off the serial numbers” when someone reworks their most popular story to pitch it as an original novel; this author somehow does the reverse. their fics are excellent, usually long-reaching multi-chapter AUs that have almost nothing to do with the on-screen characters except their names. i’d like to extend my personal thanks to this breed of author because it’s the closest i get to reading an actual book.
the reunion tour: this author wrote some of the most popular works in the fandom, but either moved on to k-pop or burned out when canon took a turn for the worse. they put out one new thing a year, often an old draft that’s been haunting them from under the floorboards. their last six author’s notes all say they never thought they’d write this pairing again and “this will probably be the last time.”
The librarian in me finds mutilating books deeply unsettling. But if a book is already damaged, why not put its corpse to a good use? Perhaps Inès Mélia, an artist in Paris, agrees. She turns old books into classy tissue boxes that would look elegant in any home.
One of the more popular genres of abstract painting is fluid art. And though the final pieces themselves can be very beautiful, the actual pouring process is also fascinating to observe; colors flow together, forging winding paths and merging into non-representational forms. Roman De Giuli, the German photographer and filmmaker behind Terracollage, captures the organic movement of his fluid compositions in 8K videos. Combining the footage with expert sound design and background music, he elevates the abstract configurations to a cinematic plane. In his latest project, SATELLIKE, the artist mingles earth tones with a natural color palette to imitate the scenic landscapes of Asia.
De Giuli completed SATELLIKE as part of a project he executed for the National Palace Museum of Taipeh, where he was asked to create abstract fluid interpretations of several iconic drawings and artworks in the institution's collection. Over a period of four months, he experimented with a variety of handcrafted inks, pigments, and other natural substances—including jade, malachite powder, and even sand—creating designs mimicking vibrant earth-scapes that transform before your very eyes. You could almost imagine that you're getting a bird’s eye view of magnificent deltas or rushing rivers as they burst through deep canyons.
“What you see in SATELLIKE are very long shots of watery ink in motion on several coats of half-dried paint,” De Giuli explains. “Drying the paint leads to organic structures which can be brought to life again with water, ink and sour flow release mediums. The results look different from my usual approach, way more realistic and less otherworldly… Although this is the final result for now, it feels more like I’m at the very beginning.”
Scroll down to take a look at the fantastic fluid landscapes of SATELLIKE. To see more of Roman De Giuli’s spectacular work, visit his website.
For his project called SATELLIKE, Roman De Giuli created striking fluid art that mimics water flowing across vivid earthen landscapes.
The artist also captured the fluid motion in 8K video and combined it with sound design and music to create a cinematic masterpiece. Take a look!
on another note, watched The Mummy (1999) the other day and I couldn’t help feel like the O’Connells and the Addams (Addams Family Values (1993) would get on really well ya know? The O’Connells are basically the pastel adventure version of the Addams, surely they would just be vibin’ over tea and crumpets in an extremely haunted mansion having a ball of a time
Morticia: “So what is it you do for a living my dear?”
Evelyn: “We dig up dead people who often have monstrous curses placed on them!”
Morticia: “fascinating”
Gomez: *leaping out from behind a pillar which is encrusted with ominous looking runes* en garde!
Rick: *grabs sword from equally ominous looking wall full of weapons one of which seems to be glowing* fantastic I was getting a bit rusty
Gomez: *nearly in tears* oh he’s screaming nonsensically, what spirit! what reslove!
*Rick and Gomez, still frantically sword fighting*
Rick: Have I mentioned how wonderful my wife is yet, I really feel like I haven’t really expanded enough on how wonderful she is
Gomez: do go on, I would be delighted to hear about how wonderful your wife is, I strongly encourge all men to extoll the virtues of their wives with rapturous praise, however I should perhaps mention my wife is in fact better
*sword fighting intensifies as both men rapturously extoll the virtues of their wives*
Love starting media late in the game. I just picked up the mandalorian and I’m like. Does anybody know about this baby yoda guy he’s really cute you should check him out. Like did y'all hear about this kid. Amazing. && Every person in a 30 ft radius does this really cute thing ppl do when they’re excited for you and they’re all like “oh have you seen episode 6 yet??” “Oh wait for this other thing you’re gonna lose your mind!!” “Oh wow I can’t wait for you to get to that part” like… Ppl really love to share. We love holding each other in this super innocuous way – we guide each other along the same paths that brought us joy, and we say - welcome!! I’m so glad you came!! I can’t wait to show you everything here. I can’t wait until you catch up.
I texted my friend - baby yoda!! And you know what she’s been texting me for an hour? How excited she is for me. FOR me, because I get to experience her favorite show for the first time. I love this passion. I love that we love when ppl experience our favorite things. The world is really warm, is all. Also. Baby yoda… Very small.
The South by Southwest virtual festival kicked off Tuesday with keynote speaker Stacey Abrams in conversation with award-winning sci-fi and fantasy author N.K. Jemisin. The two started off expressing their mutual adoration—each said that their cool points were raised significantly in the eyes of their respective friends and families when they found out they’d be speaking to the other—before moving on to subjects of writing and politics, and the surprising ways in which the two influence each other.
Abrams, though widely known for her work in politics in Georgia, has a background as a romance novelist—something a lot of people didn’t know until fairly recently. She started writing and publishing romance novels while she was a student at Yale Law School (as if that doesn’t take up enough time and energy on its own), and her books, written under the pen name Selena Montgomery, have been huge hits.
Sourced from a question from a SXSW attendee, Jemisin asked her, “How did romance writing help you enter politics?”
“I wouldn’t say it helped me enter politics but it has always informed how I do my job, all of them,” Abrams answered. “I’m a writer because I love words. I think like you, storytelling is innate.”
Abrams says that when she started writing, she wanted to write an espionage novel, but that genre was pretty closed off to women writers, especially Black women.
“My heroine was a Black chemical physicist who was going to unravel this very complicated, intensive story,” she says. “So I talked to some friends who were in publishing, said here’s this book I want to publish, and they were like ‘Yeah, you’re not going to get that published.'”
Clearly, that didn’t stop her.
“One of my first rules for myself is ‘OK, they say no one way, figure out another way to do it.’ So I made my spies fall in love, killed the same number of people, got it published as Romantic Suspense.”
A brilliant solution! And exactly the kind of creative persistence you’d expect from the woman who “lost” a gubernatorial election due to extreme voter suppression and instead went to war with voter suppression and helped transform the political landscape of an entire state.
“If I think about how this is imported into my political career, it’s that you may want to do something one way and you may have your sights set on it, you may have an entire orchestration, but it may not work out the way you intend but that doesn’t relieve you of the responsibility,” Abrams says. “And I needed to tell that story, I wanted to write that book, and so I just had to find a different way to do it.”
“It may not be the traditional way, but I still got it done and seven novels followed it. So I did eight Romantic Suspense novels, they all got published, and I got to tell my stories.”
(image: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Tyler Perry Studios)
You know,
if I had to describe my experience as an aromantic in one word, I think I’d go
with “alienating”. Let me explain:
Imagine you’re
aro and watching TV. There some kind of SciFi show on and they are debating the
personhood of an AI.
The AI
shows curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. They have desires. They have
strengths and weaknesses. None of this convinces the doubters.
The AI
makes friends. They take up hobbies. They talk about their hopes and dreams for
the future. Surely this is enough to relate to them as a person? It’s not.
The AI is
shown to fall in love. This is framed as the ultimate proof, the one
thing that must humanize them even to the staunchest denier of their
personhood or else that person is irredeemable.
You change
the channel.
There’s a
children’s cartoon on. “What is this?!” the villain cries, pointing at a couple.
Their inability to understand the romantic love between those two is framed as
stemming from the fact that somebody so deeply evil simply cannot understand
something as pure and good as romantic love.
You change
the channel.
There’s a sitcom
on. Two characters are discussing a third character. “He’s really not that
weird,” says one character. “He hasn’t been in a relationship for [x] years!” the
other refutes. Cue the laugh track. The implication is clear: If he’s not in a
relationship, it must be because he’s too weird.
You change
the channel.
There’s a Christmas
movie on. The main character is a successful businesswoman. She’s shown talking
to her friends and family regularly. “You need a man,” her mother says as they
bake together. The daughter denies this. The rest of the movie is all about proving
the mother right, as suddenly her career, her friends and her family are framed
as not being enough for her to lead a fulfilling life.
You change
the channel.
It’s some
show aimed at young teens and tweens. “Ew,” one character comments as the idea
of them having a significant other one day is brought up. This is treated as a
sign of their immaturity.
You turn
off the TV.
Your
experiences aren’t enough to humanize a non-human character. You’re the
villain. You’re a weirdo. Your life is incomplete. You’re immature.
You’re tired.
There’s a
reason it was an aro who coined the term voidpunk.
OMG I WANT IT. Also I followed the source and found a video of a repro of the outfit. The little round thing is a target for mark where you hit the target. The white thing is beeswax (presumably for your string). https://twitter.com/Fashion_Curator/status/928325104685207555
Actually wearing this would probably drive me crazy but it is adorable and so clever with the stream of "tea" connecting the cup.
I really like this cute silver ring by Etsy seller Astha. When viewed from the right angle, it looks like a high quality piece of dollhouse furniture resting on your hand, offering a hospitable cup to guests.
This looks like fun! I do hope they allow her to be truly cleverly wicked and not just erratically capriciously destructive.
So. When I heard about Cruella some while ago (don’t ask me when time stopped having meaning last April) my reaction was, understandably, some combination of “why?” and “ugh” but a bit of “oh … kay?” sprinkled in. That’s understandable, I hope, given that Disney’s live-action remakes have been a mixed bag in terms of quality, to say the least. Some are fine and even fun (Hi Aladdin! Lookin’ good, Jungle Book!) and others are lifeless slogs (go sit in the corner with Beauty and the Beast, Lion King).
But hey, I think arguably the most successful Disney revamp was Maleficent because it took a story we knew and told it in a different way, rather than just making a copy of the original. So, I guess Disney decided to try that again with another iconic villain: Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians. But it’s hard to make a movie about a villain and let them be, well, a villain and protagonist. But if the trailer is any indication, Disney isn’t trying to make Cruella a hero. It looks like Emma Stone had incredible fun in this role and that might actually make this … work?
This looks … interesting and makes me want to see the film to find out what the heck is going on with Cruella, so the trailer has certainly done its job with me. I love the visuals and costumes and the overall punk aesthetic that Cruella seems to be bringing to stodgy London society. I mean honestly, setting a cape on fire to reveal a red dress at a black and white party is very punk and I’m all for it. The official description for Cruella gives us a few more clues as well:
“Cruella,” which is set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute, played by two-time Oscar® winner Emma Thompson (“Howards End,” “Sense & Sensibility”). But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
What Cruella is clearly doing–that I totally approve of—is allowing Cruella to be bad. And yeah, there’s a reason for it, but all villains are heroes in their own stories so, this could work. Again, this is a new take on something but it’s staying true to the villainousness of the title character and it honestly looks pretty cool. I’m down.
But of course, because people are assholes predictable, the Twitter jokes started flying as soon as the trailer hit the web this morning, with “Disney’s Joker” trending in various forms. Now, I can see the comparison, what with the villain origin and all, but … this movie looks better than Joker. It looks like fun! Not some full of itself exaltation of toxic masculinity. And some are calling out the sexist jokes and comparisons.
So, count us in for this one because it’s something new and creative and fun. We’d also like every single one of Cruella’s costumes, please. Minus the fur, of course.
I’ve already spoken about the amount of criticism that gets hurled toward fat people who dare to exist, even within the body positivity movement. It’s been something I’ve talked about for years, to be honest, but I haven’t really talked about another layer of frustration: trying to create positive fat characters. I don’t just mean that from the perspective of knowing that someone’s gonna jump in the comments and call you an [insert large animal] or tell you to stop eating [insert unhealthy food] while also telling you to not eat too much salad because then it’s like you’re a cow grazing on grass (a real-life, actual factual comment I received in cosplay once).
I mean from the perspective of trying to find references to work with for creative projects you want to illustrate fat people in.
Trying to find photo references to use for art proved to be a difficult task if I wanted to sketch characters who were closer to my body type, and well, it never occurred to me to take pictures of my damn self because I thought art pages would have many body types at the ready. As you’ve probably already guessed if you’ve been in the same boat as me, many of the resources I found either didn’t have my body type at all or had limited poses. Let me tell you, trying to find fat body references in dynamic shots was a crapshoot and I got real frustrated real fast.
Ruby is an artist who decided to take matters into her own hands when it came to finding fat photo references by making an entire website full of images. Not only did she model several of the pictures with her partner acting as her photographer, she made it open for others to submit to so she wouldn’t be the only photo reference available.
The website (Fat Photo Reference) is a password-protected page where once you get the password from Ruby (just DM her on Twitter) you have access to a library of photos featuring fat people in all kinds of poses. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. More poses besides “hand on the hip.” You could search by category and through tags. There was a page dedicated to more resources besides the website.
Artwork by Ruby Ball
More importantly, there were different varieties of fat bodies to draw inspiration from because, well, fat comes in a lot of shapes and sizes.
I reached out for an interview and am happy to share it with you all. Ruby took the time to talk about the inspiration behind the site, some behind-the-scenes of her reference pictures, and future goals with the page and with her art.
I am so excited to see a photo reference site with body types that are closer to what I look like! What inspired you to create your fat photo reference site? Why fat bodies in particular?
I’ve been fat since I was a kid. I honestly can’t recall a time in my life where I wasn’t shamed or judged about my weight. Additionally, I can basically count the number of positive depictions of fat people I’ve seen in art, media, and pop culture on one hand. The idea for Fat Photo Ref (FPR) came about while I was in college taking a life drawing course. I loved the class, but I hated how similar all the models were. Sure, the ages and gender of the models would vary, but rarely—if ever, would their weight.
As a fat artist, this felt wholly unacceptable and inspired me to focus my thesis solely on fat women. When I started looking for models for the show, it was nearly impossible to find any willing participants. Finally, I settled on focusing that body of work on women sharing lewd nudes or partially nude photos in a BBW forum on reddit. That show was in 2014, and while I’m still proud of the work I did, I wanted something more. I started thinking about the art I personally enjoyed and began taking stock of the things I liked in those works. Pop surrealism is really where my heart lies, but I realized it was rare to see fat people in those pieces, if ever. I decided I should just start making that work myself.
I’m a big believer in always using reference photos. However, trying to find reference of any kind of fat person online is a literal minefield of shame, mockery, and diet culture.
I will say that SenshiStock on DeviantArt was a small oasis in this reference desert. Their DeviantArt gallery of poses, while not limited to fat people, did and still does have a wonderful collection of fat people in everyday poses. Literally, nearly every fat artist I know has used their gallery at some point. However, for the most part, stock photos of fat people are the same; fat person looking sad at scale, fat person looking adoringly at a cheeseburger, fat person with measuring tape, etc. Outside of stock images, porn or fetish media there wasn’t much available for me to reference. And while I have no issues with that kind of work, that’s not what I wanted to make.
It was massively frustrating, and all of my frustration came to a head this past summer, and thus, Fat Photo Reference was born.
What do you hope to accomplish with this website?
Honestly, I just want to encourage people to paint, draw, or otherwise create art of fat people the same way they’ve created art of thin people. Fat people don’t exist to be the butt of jokes or the monster in cautionary tales. We exist, we are beautiful, and we deserve respect.
Is this a solo endeavor for you? Is there anyone else we should be showing love to with this website?
Currently, yes! Ideally, someday it would be nice to have a team of folks helping run things, but for now, it’s just me. I will say my partner, Olivia, has been invaluable in helping me brainstorm poses, supplying props, and taking a good portion of the photos for me. I also have some excellent moderators on our Discord server, Jordyn and Kelly.
There’s such a wide range of poses on the site, from lounging, to ballet, to playing the ukulele! How do you come up with the poses you use in your photos?
Other than just grabbing whatever we have lying around our apartment, we have an FPR discord server (there’s a link on the site!) with a channel where people can request poses they’d like to see or need for the art they’re working on, so I’ll usually check there first and make a vague list. Again, my partner Olivia is very good at suggesting ideas for me as well.
Photographer: Olivia. Model: Ruby Ball
Any favorite poses you’ve done? Any favorites that others have done?
My personal favorite of mine is probably the “pinup” pose I did in my first round of photos. I honestly had never thought of my body being used for a pinup, but the pose turned out so good and I just love it. My favorite that others have done would absolutely be by Catuallie on Twitter. She and her partner have submitted a couple of sets of their own photos to the site and while they’re all gorgeous, she has one of her spinning in a twirly dress and it’s just incredibly good with lots of magical-girl-transformation vibes.
I see that people are allowed to submit photos, what inspired you to let others take part in this website?
Primarily it was because I knew that being fat, like a lot of things, isn’t one size fits all. There’s a spectrum of fatness, shapes of fat, etc. My body, my shape, and my size is just one speck in the vast array of fat bodies that deserve depiction. Also, as a white cis woman, it felt incredibly important to emphasize the intersectionality of being fat and – basically any other identity(s) whether it be race, gender, sexuality, etc.
Are all photos fair game or are there restrictions on what the site will take?
There are definitely limits, but I try to evaluate photos on a case by case basis. Ideally, I ask for photos to be mostly Safe For Work (SFW) but non-sexual nudity is permitted. I truly don’t have a problem with NSFW art, artists, or people who enjoy that type of art, but I just wanted FPR to be different.
Have you used any of the references on the site for your artwork?
Absolutely! My favorite so far has been this piece I did for Fat Craft – an incredible annual zine run by Shelby Bergen and Jess Booworth. I’m still so honored I got to be a part of Volume 2.
Artwork by Ruby Ball for Fat Craft zine Vol 2
How long have you been doing art?
My Mom was always painting and doing art with me as a kid and I just never stopped. I started pursuing art as a career back in my freshman year of high school.
I appreciate the measures you’ve taken to try and protect the people who submit photos to the site (letting them blur their faces out, letting them choose if they want to be credited, and letting them know they can tell you if they’re harassed). I think it’s important to not only have this site as a resource but to protect the people involved (to the best of your ability). Is that why the website is password protected? It’s kinda frustrating that it even has to be, but I know how people are when it comes to fat bodies.
Yep, unfortunately, there’s a lot of people on the internet who just viscerally hate fat people. That’s also why I only use my photos to promote the site. I knew what I was signing up for and I’ll usually get some hateful comments or DMs, but so far the site hasn’t had any major issues, so I think the password seems to be helping.
A site like this will, hopefully, help creators in creating more versatile portrayals of fat people. Who are some of your favorite fat characters, or fat people outside of fiction?
This is a fun question and I have the weirdest answer for it. One of my all-time favorite fat characters is Bobby Hill from King of the Hill. There’s an episode where Bobby talks about his weight and it has always stuck with me. In the scene, he says “Mom, I’m fat. But big deal. I don’t feel bad about it, and you never made me feel bad about it. And just because there are people out there who want me to feel bad about it doesn’t mean I have to. So Bobby Hill’s fat. He’s also funny, he’s nice, he’s got a lot of friends, a girlfriend. And if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go outside right now and squirt her with water. What are you going to do?”
As far as real fat people go, the singer Mary Lambert has been an idol to me for a long time. A lot of people don’t know her outside of the part she sings in Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ Same Love, but her music is raw and powerful and so important to me.
What’s next for you? Any projects we should know about?
Lots and lots of photo-taking, site updating, and painting hopefully. I lost my Dad in April of last year, so I didn’t get to make a lot of work in 2020. I’m really hoping that 2021 is the year I get to focus more on myself and some purely self-indulgent art.
As far as projects coming up, my friend Jordyn (referenced in the interview) and I are running a project called “Fat Folks Tarot” which is really exciting. We’ve got 78 artists on board, each designing a different Tarot card featuring a fat person, and at the end of it all, we’re going to be selling the deck to fundraise for Trans Lifeline. The sketches and in-progress pieces I’ve seen so far are just incredible! We’re hoping to open pre-orders in March, but a date won’t be set until we can get a proof from our manufacturer.
_
I greatly appreciate a resource like this being available and hope that it inspires creators to do more work with fat bodies in mind. This is a welcome addition to the art community and an amazing way to champion body positivity.
(Image: Photography by Olivia. Artwork and modeling by Ruby Ball)
What a lovely tribute! And I'm not a fan of rose flavoring but I'd still give this a try, I'm intrigued by the use of lotus seed. I've only ever had it in a small handful of very sweet or very seasoned holiday Chinese dishes so I don't know what it tastes like on its own.
With the never-ending news cycle, it can be tricky to remember to savor a moment—or a historical milestone—as it happens. The East Bay’s Koolfi Creamery’s aims to do just that with its new flavor, Kamala Blossom.
Priti Rama Narayanan, the company’s co-founder and chief ice cream engineer, clearly remembers the day the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013. It was the day she proposed to her wife. She also remembers how then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris performed the first federally recognized gay wedding in her home state.
“We felt validated in some way,” Narayanan says.
She and her wife, Madhuri Anji, who is Indo-German, co-founded Koolfi Creamery in 2018, drawing from their own mixed-South Indian roots to create a uniquely Bay Area ice cream company. Their latest flavor, Kamala Blossom, is a tribute to the vice president-elect in the form of a delicious, pink lotus seed-rose flavor.
“It’s been a really difficult four years,” Narayanan says. “But that shouldn’t take away from our ability or our desire to celebrate this historic inauguration of Kamala Harris as the first of so many things: first woman, first Indian American and first Black woman.”
The flavor has deep roots. Narayanan recalls that her father, who grew up in a village in southern India, told her about how he used to go swimming in a pond to find and munch on lotus seeds. As a child in Mumbai, Narayanan grew up eating them in popped form, like popcorn. She had always wanted to use them in an ice cream flavor, but struggled to figure out exactly how to showcase the “slightly nutmeg-y” taste.
‘She’s my primary taste-tester,’ says Koolfi Creamery co-founder Priti Rama Narayanan (left) of her wife Madhuri Anji (right). (Courtesy of Priti Rama Narayanan)
After Joe Biden picked Harris as his VP, the choice was clear. The name Kamala, which means ‘pink lotus’ in Sanskrit, prompted Narayanan to experiment with rose water and come up with the flavor. “Her name was the seed for making this ice cream,” she says.
“It’s been extremely popular, and is the most popular flavor to date,” Narayanan says. After selling out of the first batch, she and Anji made another. “I think the flavor is very quintessentially a Desi flavor,” she adds, noting that it’s mild and sweet.
“All the flavors we make are like a two-tone silk sari,” Narayanan says, “with a first flavor that hits your palate and another flavor that follows it.” She’s considering making Kamala Blossom a permanent fixture of her brand.
‘An homage to the strength, ambition and feminine power of our first Madam Vice President, we are thrilled to introduce Kamala Blossom,’ wrote Koolfi Creamery in an Instagram post introducing the new flavor. (Courtesy of Priti Rama Narayanan)
Narayanan’s venture into ice cream came in part as a result of an unexpected accident. One evening, in 2014, she and Anji were walking in San Francisco after a performance by comedian Hari Kondabolu when they were hit by a bus.
“They took us to the E.R. at SF General, and the nurses were so funny, saying, ‘We can’t say anyone threw you under the bus anymore,’” says Narayanan. The incident was traumatic, but it gave her a break for the first time in a long while, allowing her the space and time to think about what she really wanted to do. “I should be doing something I like,” she thought at the time. And for her, the thing that kept popping up was Koolfi. “Why not take all the flavors that we grew up with and incorporate that into a fusion version of flavors?”
In 2018, the partners started Koolfi Creamery. And while it’s not a traditional Indian koolfi made of milk boiled down with spices, Koolfi Creamery uses a French custard base combined with unique flavors like Bombay butterscotch and jackfruit pudding.
Narayanan sees her own Bay Area story as woven into that of VP-elect Harris. “I’m really proud of Kamala and particularly her mom, Shyamala [Gopalan Harris], for stepping out of the norm to be in this relationship,” she says, referring to her marriage to Harris’ father, Jamaican-born economist Donald Harris.
She sees acts of courage in relationships as a benefit to society. The act of “being who you are and being comfortable with that,” Narayanan says.
Anji echoes this sentiment: “To see someone who is biracial and of Indian heritage, like me, so visibly support gay marriage truly mattered to me, and I think someone who stands for equality and fairness is much needed in D.C. right now.”
This is a skateboard. Hannah Jensen, an artist in New Zealand, covered it with 57 layers of paint. Then, drawing upon her background in printmaking, cut away selected layers until she was left with this eye-popping image of a kingfisher on the hunt. In an interview for Museum Week, Jensen succinctly described her technique as "textural and topographical."
This video shows Jensen at work. You can see more examples of her finished products on her Instagram page.
Insects are the most diverse group of organisms on our planet. There are around 900,000 different kinds of bugs we know of, representing around 80% of the world's species. Late physicist, biologist, and photographer Andreas Kay dedicated his life to documenting the fascinating insect world. From 2011 until his death in 2019, Kay spent time in Ecuador, where he explored the area’s epic biodiversity. From caterpillars and beetles to spiders and ants, he’s captured all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures. But there’s one particular insect that stands out as particularly special—a flatid planthopper nymph that looks just like a walking piece of popcorn.
Kay shared a video of the strange creature in May 2019, where the tiny insect is seen scurrying across his fingertip. This is no ordinary bug, though—it looks like a tiny cloud or a piece of popcorn resting on little insect legs. There’s a reason for this strange appearance. The insect—which can be found in the Amazon rainforest—is covered with waxy white filaments for protection.
The unusual bug is one of roughly 12,500 known planthopper species on Earth. Planthoppers are insects that closely resemble plants that grow in their own environments. As their name suggests, planthoppers are able to “hop” around from A to B. Kay doesn’t capture this movement in the video, but we’re sure the insect would look just like a popping kernel.
Check out the video below, and find countless other insect videos on Kay's YouTube channel.
This flatid planthopper nymph looks like a tiny piece of popcorn but it's actually an insect captured on video by Andreas Kay.
I would think that the neutral evil would be the lawful evil and the chaotic evil would be the eggs but half of them are either cockatrice eggs or carefully weakened so that when you pick it up, it shatters into goop and shell shards all over everything. But not all of them, just random ones. Neutral evil would be an empty carton.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase, My Modern Met may earn an affiliate commission. Please read our disclosure for more info.
Books are such an important part of everyday life, whether for personal, recreational, or educational purposes. But have you ever wondered how you can make one of your own? Bookbinding is a centuries-old trade and art that has a detailed and rich history. But despite the complexity and depth of the craft, there’s a pretty low barrier to entry for those who want to try it out. And whether you are an experienced book artist or just a curious beginner, there are some wonderful bookbinding kits that will have you creating your own books in no time.
With a variety of techniques and binding styles to choose from, this new hobby will keep you occupied indefinitely. Want to buy a journal for a friend or a photo album to hold your memories? Why not try making it yourself instead? If you’re just looking for a few tools to get started, try a kit from Journal Shop that includes bookbinding basics like a bone folder, an awl, needles, thread, and glue. If you’d prefer a more project-oriented kit, then a DIY Leather Journal kit from Arte of the Book might be more your speed.
Scroll down to see more carefully crafted kits that will get you started on your bookbinding journey.
Want to try your hand at bookbinding? Give one of these kits a try!
Taika Waititi is one of the busiest men in Hollywood, and good, he should be. One of my own, personal favorites, Waititi is working on multiple projects right now including Thor: Love and Thunder, as well as Next Goal Wins and random little projects that seem to continue to appear online that continue to show his creative prowess. And now he’s teaming up with Sterlin Harjo to bring Reservation Dogs to FX.
According to Deadline, the show has been ordered to series and comes after the half-hour project set the tone for the overall series. Shot in Okmulgee, OK, Reservation Dogs follows a group of Native teens committing crimes and fighting them—so, a television show that seems perfect for both Waititi and Sterlin Harjo to bring to life.
What’s incredible about this show isn’t just the premise, though. It’s bringing indigenous voices to life and telling a story with Harjo bringing his own experience with growing up in an indigenous community in Oklahoma and Waititi bringing his own experience from his upbringing in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Rez Dogz is coming. I am so proud to be a part of something that amplifies indigenous voices. And especially making it with my brother #SterlinHarjo
More often than not, when we do see diversity onscreen, it’s rarely reflected in the writers’ rooms, and it has me incredibly excited for Reservation Dogs.
Harjo spoke with Deadline about working with Waititi to bring the show to FX.
“As longtime friends, it was only natural that Taika and I found a project together, and what better than a show that celebrates the complementary storytelling styles of our indigenous communities – –mine in Oklahoma and Taika’s in Aotearoa? We’re thrilled by the opportunity to tell the Reservation Dogs’ story with our amazing cast and crew, Garrett Basch, and the whole team at FX.”
The cast includes some amazing young talent with D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear, Devery Jacobs as Elora Danan, Paulina Alexis as Willie Jack, and Lane Factor as Cheese. The pilot also features guest stars Tamara Podemski, Zahn McClarnon, Macon Blair, Kirk Fox, Matty Cardarople, Dallas Goldtooth, Lil Mike, and Funny Bone.
The news comes after the renewal for the third season of Waititi’s What We Do in the Shadows at FX, as well, and I’m ready for more content from the Oscar-winning writer and director. He’s one of our most visionary creators out there today, and I love seeing what stories he wants to bring to life next.
my arch nemesis cynthia is, of course, at the bank, because we both were sent like clockwork to pick up the checks of our husbands. she is wearing a lovely long green gown, which i know was on behalf of me, because, as my husband will tell you, our house abhors green and glamour. already the tellers look at each other under their little hats, for they love our tirades, i’m sure, although not more than i hate them.
“oh, is that your knitting?” my arch nemesis cynthia peers her eyes at my hands. “is it some kind of… sock?” everyone knows she and i used to be close before we were married and our husbands, smartly so, have introduced us to the idea of true vengeance.
“it is a scarf,” i say. i want to tell her that when the time comes and the world gets cold it will go over my mouth and i will breathe warm air and it will fill my lungs and i will be able to run around with my love even in the dark night. “it is not,” i say, “over surprising that you should be caught unawares of a scarf,” i say, “as i’m sure enjoying winter festivities are too beneath the handsome qualities your husband prefers.” pompous ass.
the tellers pass each other eyes for now it has started and they are delighted.
my arch nemesis cynthia thrusts out her hand. a white bottle. “rat poison,” she says. “i would expect the whole town knows about your little problem.” stage whisper. “such a shame, my dear.” then she rustles her long green skirts - which i know she wore on behalf of me - and she shimmies herself out of the room like royalty. oh, she floats everywhere she goes, beautiful black hair behind her. the bottle in my palm is cold. i will devise how to get her back starting first thing tomorrow.
the week, as always, is a long week, for there is much to make and do and knit and be. my husband comes home and i love him for who he is; for he never comes home without checking the state of the house up and down. he is the kind who loves his home so completely and sets each room like a stage for a great band to come playing. i am too ashamed to tell him why so many of the rats go missing, only make him a stew the next morning to celebrate. his favorite, although not mine, i’m afraid. plenty left over.
my arch nemesis today - of course - in a green the color of rotting. a bruise is uncarefully covered on her cheekbone, so striking against all of her dainty. her husband would say it was for her ungraceful nature, and i know mine would agree. i strike first, already delighted by my master plan, shoving over our best picnic basket tied with a bow. “i made you and yours a stew,” i say, “for beneath all that you carry” all that horrible wealth of your husband “it seems you’re getting rather skinny.” i can’t resist one last comment. “i am worried you’re about to waste to nothing.”
She plucks it out of my hand. “yes, if it weren’t for you and your husband’s dwindling wealth,” her sarcasm is biting, “i’m sure i will be nothing in, oh, 5 weeks time.” she arches a brow. “so long from now.”
“i am counting the days,” i tell her. her lips purse. the tellers behind me make a choked titter. perhaps, by their estimation, i have won this round quite completely. i go home to my husband smiling. he asks where i have been and i tell him i’ve been at the bank, but he checks anyway because i like to get up to tricks and he doesn’t like to fall for it. it is a good game we play. at night, when he is asleep, i am so in love that i must convince myself to pull the covers over my nose and practice breathing. how silly to wake him up for a young girl’s feelings.
the first week of five: she gives me a solid, ugly ring that requires three knuckles to hold. “i feel so badly for your status, and i must remember to practice charity,” she says. “it such a small thing, but do be careful amongst all that thin pine furnishing of your house, which dents so easily.” my husband appears at the bank’s front door. just checking. so lovely to be picked up by him. at night, in a rage, i try it - beneath the table bends easily. i scuff out the scratch with walnut before my husband can see. i pull the covers over my face in bed and breathe.
the second week: i wear her ugly ring and give her more stew, this time hearty with meat. her dress is a meadow. my heart each time it sees her collapses on itself. she hands me clothes for my husband, since his wealth continues to go missing, and the charity of her heart is so loving. i am so ashamed i bury them far by the old tree, where all my shames go hiding. again, the covers. it, by now, helps me sleep. i have gotten so good at it that i can simply shimmy my shoulders to be perfectly toasty and buried.
the third week: she asks how comes my knitting. i tell her it’s nearly complete. she asks how comes my husband, whom she must know has been ill recently, and who is doing quite badly. i go home to him, shaking. even sick he is a good housekeeper, who comes home examining for dust and dinge so i do not fall behind on my chores. who checks to be sure i spoke to only him and no one more, for fear a man might snatch me. tell me, who else has a man so involved, in this day and age?
the fourth week she is envy green. i shove a whole heaping of stew at her, for now her husband has gotten it. i say it will return him to spirits, she laughs, a sudden, beautiful sound, even in the quiet of a bank. everyone stares. maybe it is the stress that is making her quite improper. i feel the same way. so much is happening and it always seems she knows. she says she heard he has left me nothing in the will, which everyone already knows. she says she doubts either of us can dig upwards from the hole we’re both in. i look at the bruise on her nose. i tell her to mind her own husband, and be careful where she goes.
the fifth week: so final. her, garishly lime green. and i in black, to pick up a check that hardly seems the effort. it will be enough to cover my husband’s funeral. she smiles at me and hands me a silver bottle. she says quietly: now that i am destitute, there is one thing for it all, and everyone would understand quite completely. it would be quiet, and quick, and complete.
it is the night of the new moon, so dark no man can see in it. i receive notice her husband has died, and i am sorry to say i find a terrible joy in it. the air has changed cold. i have left a note asking to be buried in my scarf, the last thing i have made on this earth. i go through each perfect room, but there is nothing else to take with me, for the house has always been his and his alone, and now aches to be gone of him. i would not serve as a good tender for it. having spent so many nights watched carefully, the silly girlish freedom i’d gain would surely set the house ablaze.
i follow her instructions. quick, quiet, complete.
the horrible rustling is what does it. like a million green skirts. and then it is dark, and i am in my own coffin, eerie with pine. my head hurts but i must be quick and quiet. they have listened and buried me with my scarf. i shimmy my shoulders just-so and get it over my face. bring my arms up, ugly ring heavy, and begin to hit as hard as i can, over and over, the thin wood of my husband’s favorite furniture, the cretin. it would be pine, of course - he left me no money to be buried in any nicer recourse.
the wood splits so horribly, and then it is very hard to breathe, harder than under the covers, and i have to remind myself to be patient and continue to dig upwards, while my throat closes and my heart beats so loudly and the whole thing is so heavy it is a universe. the shifting of gravedirt is loud, and loud, and i feel i will be turned into a worm, and i fear everyone has forgotten about me, or i have gotten the timing wrong, or i will really die down here in the dirt and the cold
but then her hand, and my hand, and we are both digging towards each other, and she lifts me so easily from the ground like a plucked turnip and holds me against her, us both panting and muddied. we can only stay like this for so long, here in my pauper grave, and then we are both running to the old tree where we met, and unburying a second thing; my lovely box of shame, and men’s clothes, and all of my husband’s dwindling fortune i have slowly been squirrelling away.
my love and angel cynthia, who has black hair like a curtain and a mind so fast i sometimes am in frank awe at it, who is, even now and dirty and raw: even now the only sun in my life.
like this, i a man in an almost-dawn, and us cleaned by the river, and her smiling so widely, and only a faint bruise on her, and our pasts behind us in ugly garish colors. and her delicate hand and beautiful nose and when i finally get to kiss her it feels like green feels; my favorite color, all warm and nature and sunny grace and grass and lying awake so filled with love it makes you shake.
i hold her, and she holds me, and our future is a love like a dream unburied.
Sitting in front of a fireplace on a cold winter night is one of the special joys of winter life. Yule log videos are a substitute for those of us who lack a functional fireplace. You can try videos with Lil Bub the cat, Nick Offerman, or the corpse of Darth Vader.
But this is 2020.
So it's more appropriate that this dumpster fire of a year feature a dumpster fire celebration. That's why AM/FM, an advertising agency in Edmonton, Alberta created this symbolic view of the year with Christmas carols playing softly in the background. The materials burned are themselves representative of 2020: CTV News quotes a partner in the agency:
"We filmed it for an hour straight and just threw stuff in a watched it burn," said Anderson. "It was interesting for sure."
Each of the 2020-related items were handpicked by the team and had its own backstory.
"Struggling with puzzles, not wearing ties, the White Claw craze. They were all just little inside things I think that our team shared and went through and it was a good laugh for all of us," said Anderson.
"The sourdough starter was hilarious to me because I couldn't get mine started for the life of me."
