This Is The Pinnacle Of Art.

It’s been unseasonably warm this weekend in Iowa and I’m having dreams of a grand garden this spring (the kind where I'd never actually be able to keep it all weeded, but a girl can dream; I’ll probably end up with at least a few herbs and some pumpkins and peppers, though).

I’m also getting really into the idea of making one of these super cute faerie gardens. They are adorable and fantastic and I want one. I’ve been shopping for fairy houses and I have far too many tabs of them open.

Well... heck. My mom literally just called me and told me this was happening (”I know it meant a lot to you when we visited it, so I wanted to let you know”, she told me) and I just... didn’t really know how to react. Honestly, I opened tumblr to kind of distract myself, but then I suppose I am glad to know some more facts and specifics on exactly how bad it is. 

I did look up the video of the tower collapse, too. Wow. It does feel like a gut punch to watch. 

But I am glad most of the stone structure of the building should be alright. I was in first grade when we visited it, and I would love to go there again; I know you can’t exactly order a new church spire online, but hopefully they can get it fixed.

Thank you for the information. My prayers are with you.

notre dame is burning.

this is ok.

it has happened before. it will happen again. it has been lost before. it will be lost again. and again. and again. and again. art and architecture are transient, and temporary, and 850 years may seem like a lot to the individual, who will live maybe 100 if they are very lucky and very healthy, but even the pyramids at saqqara have only existed for about 6000 years and that’s still not all that much, if you consider the grand scheme of things.

yes, this is terrible. as someone who is deeply religious and literally a professional historian with a focus on art and architecture, this is terrible. im mourning. im gutted. im horrified and upset and miserable. but.

it’s not over.

victor hugo wrote hunchback because notre dame du paris was in the process of collapsing and falling apart, and revitalized the entire world’s focus and love for this church, and that was not even 200 years ago. it led to it being renovated.

the roof has fallen in. the scars of fires are on its buttresses. the rose window has fallen out. the beams and piers have collapsed. the spire has toppled. the stones have suffered, and will suffer again, but it is not gone.

renovation work is essential. sometimes things collapse and burn and break and have to come back. it’s not a terrorist attack, it’s renovation, an accident, but we have so much evidence, history, carefully documented everything on one of the most studied places in the world.

it’s not the end.

I gotta say it's poetic that song #100 on my youtube recap is Saturday by Fall Out Boy. My playlist ends the same way as a Fall Out Boy concert. Couldn't've planned it better.

This almost made me tear up. This was such a fantastic twist to Annabelle’s origin story! When Taliesin’s character first came in I hated him so much (the character; obviously I love Taliesin) because we believe, like Annabelle, that he straight up murdered her and then just left her to figure out how to be a vampire on her own. But man, the reveal that she died in her own fire and he saved her the only way he could? All of the feels. 

Then, of course, the way that Jasper just cares about her so much, and how he works to keep her grounded through this whole emotional interaction, and the way that he points out that she shouldn’t discount herself as a casualty of the cause she believes in... He just cares for her so deeply, in his subtle, quiet way. He gave me so many feels with just a single word. 

victor: you FIREBOMBED a sentor’s building?!?

carver: it was beautiful

annabelle: nobody got hurt!

jasper, so softly i could barely hear him over the crosstalk: you

Oswald and his family, being happy and sweet. 

At first I was disappointed that Ed was left out, but then I realized, even though he’s not pictured really, there are two gifs of Os looking at him/attempting to confess his love for him, so he’s implied in it. 

Three generations of Cobblepot cuteness :) 

I hope no one minds my Christmas spam, but I feel like I’ve got to post all this cuteness tonight because it will be late tomorrow. So much Christmassy fluff, so little time...

Merry Christmas!

For my DCTV Secret Santa giftee @khenq

I have recently discovered that cat cosplay is a thing. In fact, I think it’s my new favorite thing :)

“You’re just as sane as I am.”

Gaah, Treasure Planet is such a beautiful movie. It really is a shame it never got any sort of sequel. 

(*Whispers hopefully*: Treasure Planet live action sequel?)

“Why, look at ya. Glowing like solar fire. You’re something special, Jim. You’re gonna rattle the stars, you are.”

Treasure Planet (2002) dir.  Ron Clements, John Musker

BroTP or OTP, they’re adorable together and this is super cute art. Fairs and fireworks make for such pretty backgrounds <3

I guess I could maybe get behind them as a couple... As long as they’re happy. 

I didn’t say????? They’re my new fav now😉

My boi Alexei deserves everything, of course his American boyfriend!!!! And cherry slurpee!!!!!!!

The show I’m currently in with my theatre company opens tonight (I almost missed making my customary opening night eve post, but I think it still counts as long as I do it day of!), but since it’s an original work written by our director, I couldn’t just search up the show on here like I usually do. So, since the show explores themes of home and what it means to be home, to go home, to have a home, and what makes a home, I decided to search up pictures that remind me of the place I still think of as home--the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

I haven’t lived amidst them for nearly a decade now, but there’s still something in me that only settles when I feel the arms of the mountains wrapped around me. I still felt it immediately last summer when we were driving out through Ohio--there’s a point in the state when it passes from flat lands to hills to the edge of the mountains proper, and the embrace of the mountains always feels like a homecoming to me. When we moved while I was in high school, I was sure I’d move back to Virginia as soon as I became an adult, but now I’m 26 and I still live in the Midwest. Most of the people I know back home have moved away; all my closest friends from the street I used to live on are now off in New York or California or Oklahoma seeking their own life dreams, and though I still love the place, it’s harder to return when I no longer know the people. The things that made up my home have been scattered, divided and strewn across the country, leaving me to choose between the places and the people I’ve thought of as home--and often, I choose the easiest thing, staying where I was planted. Home is a difficult thing to find. I don’t mean to get too philosophical and sad; where I am has its own charms, among them the theatre family that sparked this whole post, and there are things I’d miss about here too. 

But when I think of home and what it means to me, I can’t help seeing images like this in my mind’s eye--softly rolling mountains bathed radiant violet in the setting sun’s light, fading to misty periwinkle in the distance beneath pink clouds. If I could stick my face through the screen and breathe that crisp mountain air, take a sniff of those pretty flowers (phlox I think?)--well, my nose would already be deep in the screen, haha. When I mutter wistfully to myself “I miss home”, this is what I’m picturing. I love this gorgeous photo :)

Anyways, we open tonight, and two people dropped out of the show last minute so I’m going to be doing a quick change to a scene that I have only rehearsed with the other actress twice now, so... wish me luck and broken limbs! 

Hehehehehe silly kitty :) Also I reaaaally want to pet its fluffy little belly <3 

Side note, no one let me near an actual snow leopard. I would definitely get myself mauled. BUT.... KITTY!!

The majestic snow leopard