Tolkien, Steven Universe, The Owl House, Disney, Wholock, Undertale, Night in the Woods, Percy Jackson, Professor Layton, Good Omens, Miraculous Ladybug etc.
And I was put in the seat instantly, of course. I said, “your honor, I can’t be a juror on a two week trial, I have opera rehearsal.” And she said, “opera huh, well, sing something for us.”
And I did. In a federal court of law, in front of the judge, 75 jurors, the lawyers and the fucking DEFENDANT, I sang o mio babbino caro.
YO I DIDNT EMBARRASS MYSELF IN FEDERAL COURT SO YALL CAN DOUBT ME.
I know a lot of opera singers, and singing a full-on aria in a court room with only a hint of provocation is EXACTLY what they would do.
I know a lot of judges, and demanding an impromptu opera solo on a whim is also something they would do.
(And also one of the main reasons you can be excused from jury duty is economic hardship–basically, it would cause you unreasonable financial damage. If you’re a professional singer, a two week gap in your rehearsal schedule could do that for sure.)
As a muso, I absolutely believe this. I’ve got my accordion out of my carry-on and played a tune when airport security couldn’t recognise its weird mass of levers. Singers and musicians are just Like That.
Accurate.
My friend got stopped at the Canadian border coming back into the US. Border patrol took one look at his tattoed, ear-gagued, mutton chop wearing, hipster self, and said “I don’t believe you’re an opera singer. Sing something for me.”
His wife immediately put down her knitting and plugged her ears, because Matt’s a contrabasso, and he does NOT sing quietly.
Every other booth along the border stop had a head poking out of it within twenty seconds. And they let them pass without further contest.
The unwillingness of some people to believe that literally anything remotely interesting happens in other people’s lives is truly astounding.
Can we all please just take a moment to appreciate that OP’s url is literally @melodramaticsoprano and yet she still was doubted?
disney when they spend exactly $2 promoting their new movie and release it during a busy weekend and then it flops
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@artist-heart83 There is actually a reason for this. A very disgusting and greedy capitalist reason but a reason nonetheless.
Basically, they are banking on it not doing well in theaters, but doing well on streaming services in October, over three months after the release date.
Most of the writers/actors/workers/etc paycheck depends on how well they do in theaters and the three months after the release.
Since it’ll fall in theaters and won’t pick up in streaming until after everyone has gotten (the majority of) their paycheck, they won’t have to pay their workers as much as their work is worth.
Basic rules for analysing fiction, an incomprehensive list jotted down in a hurry:
The protagonist isn’t always right
The protagonist isn’t always good
The protagonist isn’t always written to be relatable or likeable
The narrator isn’t always right
The narrator isn’t always good
The narrator isn’t always telling the truth
The narrator isn’t always the author
The protagonist’s moral compass, the narrator’s moral compass and the author’s moral compass are three entirely different things that only occasionally overlap
Pay attention to what characters do and not just what they say
Pay special attention when what the characters do is at odds with what they say
A lot of the time the curtains are blue for a reason. If they aren’t, you should read better books
One more:
12. The antagonist isn’t always telling the truth
So many times I have seen people apparently just … forget that it’s possible for fictional characters to be (a) mistaken or (b) lying, and say things like “we know this to be true because [character] said so here” (or, worse, “this fact is canon because [character] said it”).
The antagonist isn’t always telling the truth, the protagonist isn’t always telling the truth, the secondary and minor characters aren’t always telling the truth, the narrator may be telling the truth but if the narrator is also a character in the story then don’t count on it.
This looks like a shitpost but it’s actually solid advice, like, if you want to achieve a goal you have to pace yourself and be patient instead of expecting too much too soon and then giving up
people on here r rly like ‘attraction to big people is fetishistic, attraction to small people is pedophilic, having sexual thoughts about a real person is objectifying and basically harassment (and having them about fictional people is perverted), kinky sex is immoral, if youre open about your sex life in any way youre a pervert, if youre not open about them you are queerbaiting. basically you should be completely sexless while everything you do is sexualized and up for debate/speculation. this is good for the lgbt community’
Isn’t there some article about the MCU that was like. “Everyone is sexy but no one is horny” or something. That’s what this feels like.
My next book is The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation: it’s a Big Tech disassembly manual that explains how to disenshittify the web and bring back the old good internet. The hardcover comes from Verso on Sept 5, but the audiobook comes from me — because Amazon refuses to sell my audio:
Amazon owns Audible, the monopoly audiobook platform that controls >90% of the audio market. They require mandatory DRM for every book sold, locking those books forever to Amazon’s monopoly platform. If you break up with Amazon, you have to throw away your entire audiobook library.
That’s a hell of a lot of leverage to hand to any company, let alone a rapacious monopoly that ran a program targeting small publishers called “Project Gazelle,” where execs were ordered to attack indie publishers “the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”:
The publishing industry 100% loves DRM on books. Like the publishers themselves will often insist upon it because they think it stops piracy.
FUCK DRM!
Also, fantastic to hear Cory Doctorow’s got another book out! 😁
FYI, the Kickstarter includes your choice of audiobook, ebook, and/or hardcover copy of the new book!
You can buy DRM-free ebooks from ebooks.com. I don’t know anything about their ethics or how big a cut they take (feel free to milkshake duck them for me), but I have bought books from them just to avoid supporting Amazon and ebook DRM.
And audiobooks purchased through Libro.fm are also DRM free and a portion of the sale supports indie bookstores.
You can get a monthly subscription on Libro.fm, paying $15/mo for ebook credits that never expire, and sometimes they have sales on top of that - I got all the Murderbot Diaries novellas for like $8 each.
Libro.fm takes their anti-DRM so seriously that they won’t sell books where the publisher requires it. They just put a notice on the page that the publisher’s policies conflict with their own.
being in your 20s is like im 17 and i don’t know who i am. im 55 curled up with a book. im ancient. i’ve been here forever. i never left. i’m 5 years old and i’m lost at the supermarket
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