The thing about Wierd Al is that he’s actually a creative genius and I think because he makes parody music people dont give him credit for how talented he actually is.
He can imitate any style of music, his vocal range is incredible, and his understanding of rhyme and meter is so good that his songs are instantly understandable on first listen, despite the speed and complexity of his wordplay.
He’s also apologized and owned up to offensive jokes he’s made in the past, he makes sure to get proper permissions for his parodies and by all accounts is a really decent person.
I’m just really inspired by him and his music, and his tounge twister lyrics are probably the reason I love and use so much wordplay in my own songs today.
For my 3D production class I had to create a three shot short that was a remake of an existing movie scene- with muppets. I ran out of time to do the particle water effects, but this is basically Pacific Rim anyway.
We’re losing our collective shit laughing at this. Holy crap it’s so funny, please turn the sound on.
As a trans guy who’s been working out for a few years now and has learned a lot about their body and building muscle and whatnot in the process, here’s something I don’t see mentioned, like ever.
I rarely see male body positivity posts in general but I’ve never seen this mentioned, and honestly? Call me stupid for it if you want, but I genuinely thought that super defined look was something that was achievable in a relaxed state, simply because I’ve never seen anything to the contrary.
As someone with body dysmorphia as well as dysphoria, you can imagine the damaging effects that might have had on my mental health trying by to achieve the impossible. I can only imagine how many other masculine folk out there could be struggling with the exact same thing.
Anyway like, this is mostly to point out for masculine folks that might be pushing themselves too hard, that you’re probably doing better than you realise.
Anecdotal stuff aside, this is an important thing for artists to remember as well! This is something I never realised despite being an artist that goes to figure drawing classes on the regular and having modelled for them myself- because of course people with abs are flexing for the poses! I was doing it too!
– Admin Pasta
Bodies actively being posed and relaxed bodies look VASTLY different and that’s ok! There’s nothing wrong about the natural and relaxed look of your body, it’s still just as wonderful
On this coming Fourth of July, it’s
worth pondering the true meaning of American patriotism – as opposed to the
malignant, distorted view of it propounded by Donald J. Trump.
For Trump, the central challenge of
American patriotism is to secure our borders. “Without borders, there can be no
nation,” he says.
But excluding foreigners has never
been a dominant part of American patriotism. For most
of its existence America has been relatively open to people from the rest of
the world, especially those fleeing tyranny and violence.
America’s core struggle has been
one of inclusion, not exclusion. We have strived to extend equal citizenship to
Native Americans, African Americans, women, and
LGBTQs.
The poems of Walt Whitman and
Langston Hughes, and the songs of Woody Guthrie, expressed loving devotion to
America while turning that love into a demand for justice.
“This land is your
land, this land is my land” sang Guthrie. “Let America be America again,”
pleaded Hughes: “The land that never has been yet–/And yet must be – the
land where everyone is free./The land that’s mine – the poor man’s, Indian’s
Negro’s, ME –.”
Trump’s patriotism centers on
symbolic displays of loyalty like standing for the national anthem and waving
the American flag.
But such displays haven’t been at
the center of American patriotism, either. Historically, American patriotism
has meant taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going.
This includes volunteering time and
energy to improving the community and country. It has meant paying taxes in
full rather than lobbying for lower taxes, seeking tax loopholes, or
squirreling away money abroad.
It also means refraining from
making political contributions that corrupt our politics, and blowing the
whistle on abuses of power even at the risk of losing one’s job.
Real patriotism involves
strengthening our democracy – defending the right to vote and ensuring more
Americans are heard, not claiming without evidence that millions of voted
fraudulently and pushing for laws that make it harder for blacks and Latinos to
vote.
True patriots don’t inundate
government with industry lobbyists, attack the freedom of the press, criticize
judges who disagree with them, or fill the airwaves with lies. They don’t
direct employers to fire employees who exercise their freedom of speech.
True patriots don’t court foreign
dictators, and don’t excuse tyranny by denigrating America.
When asked whether Vladimir Putin is a killer, Trump responded “you think our
country’s so innocent?” When asked about Turkish strongman Erdogan’s disdain
for civil liberties, Trump said “when the world looks at how bad the United
States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a
very good messenger.”
True patriots don’t fuel racist,
religious or ethnic divisions. They aren’t homophobic or sexist. To the
contrary, true patriots seek to confirm and strengthen and celebrate the “we”
in “we the people of the United States.”
Trump is the first United States
president to use the term “we” to refer only to his supporters. “My supporters are the smartest, strongest, most hard working
and most loyal that we have seen in our countries history,” he tweeted
recently. “As we get stronger, so does our country.”
A majority
of today’s Americans do worry that the nation is losing its national identity.
But that identity has never been centered on our support for a particular
president or his policies.
Nor, more fundamentally, has our identity
depended on the whiteness of our skin or the uniformity of our ethnicity.
Our national identity has been our
shared ideals.
If we are losing our national
identity it is because we are losing those ideals: a
commitment to the rule of law, to our democratic
institutions, to truth, to tolerance of our differences, to equal political
rights and equal opportunity, to participating in our civic life and making
necessary sacrifices for these ideals we hold in common.
We must share these ideals if we are
to have a functioning society. Without them, there is no America.
Trump is doing everything he can to
destroy these ideals. We must do everything we can to strengthen them.
Oakland firefighter Kevin Moore, who is black, was doing
vegetation-management inspections, in full uniform, with a radio and
identification, when residents became suspicious and called police.
According to a supervisor, the fire department sends out pamphlets
before the inspections, hosts community meetings, and does everything
else they can to spread the word. If nobody is home, the law permits
firefighters to conduct an outdoor inspection anyway. One day last
month, a resident called the police about Moore and another sent the
cops video of Moore ringing a doorbell to do an inspection. Then last
week, it happened again. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Moore said he suggested that if the resident were still concerned, he could simply look out onto the street where “a big red fire engine is right there.”
Do you like restaurants with “live and dead cockroaches” in the
kitchen and “slimy/mold-like build-up” in coolers and freezers? Try one
of Trump’s fine dining establishments, then. From The Daily Beast:
The comparative conditions in his own properties don’t even matter, to be honest.
What should be driving Congress to draft legislation or censure this shitty piece of crap is the fucking President of the United States of America is attacking a single small business, with the deliberate goal of destroying the business, and the American citizens who own it.
I know that we’re just starting to tune it out when he does these things, but not only is this totally beneath the office of the presidency, it’s reprehensible that the fucking PRESIDENT would attack a private business and private citizen this way.
This is true! The zoo where I volunteer (the illustrious Columbus Zoo & Aquarium) was one of the pioneers of this program.
Our zoo is known for raising cheetah cubs. Cheetahs have a terrible infant mortality rate and cubs are often rejected, so we get a lot of cubs to raise from all over the country (other zoos and sanctuaries, mostly).
The cubs are placed with a puppy friend when they are wee and small, so they grow up together like littermates. They play together, wrestle, and the dogs (yellow Labs) are so calm, friendly and well-socialized that the cheetahs take behavioral cues from them. When they meet new people, or go into new situations (which they often do, as ambassador animals for cheetah conservation), they check out if their dog friend is feeling chill – which he is – and then they know it’s okay for them to be chill, too.
Basically the dog is a service animal for them.
The cats need their dog friends less and less as they get older and more comfortable, but they still often hang out as grownups.
Our zoo does cheetah runs, where the cheetahs get to chase a lure and show off their speed. Often they’ll have one of the cheetahs run (we have like twelve cheetah), and then they’ll have one of the dogs do the run to show how much faster the cats are. People get a kick out of that. The dogs…let’s just say they try their best.
