1. See you soon!

    I’m going to be taking a yiddle bit of an internet break for the next week and a half or so while I get ready to move in to my ~first ever rental property~ but I’m going to fill up my queue tonight with some cool art that I love a lot that you should look at and I’ll see you guys on the other side!

    (Also, Boston Calling with my biff this weekend, think of me Saturday night because I will probably be imploding with emotion because MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS AAAAUGGHGHH)

    (Bye ♥)

  2. sonofbaldwin:

    The black family shows up in ways the mainstream media can’t understand. We don’t always have wealth, but we try to pass on whatever it is we have to give.

    Incredible, incredible, incredible.

  3. twas brillig. | ashley mcquaid.

    twas brillig. | ashley mcquaid.

  5. ashley mcquaid.

    ashley mcquaid.

  6. Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl

    Gone Girl was stupid fun to read. I barreled through the majority of it in the space of a couple hours after work yesterday, which I rarely do (the last book that had me doing that was Mira Grant’s Blackout). It’s not a necessity for a book to make me do that in order for me to love it, but it’s definitely a plus. Gillian’s prose is fantastic and the story is well-crafted - in the first two-thirds of the book, the plot’s surprises are created through a gradual reveal of information, so they don’t feel contrived or too dramatic.
    I skimmed reviews on Goodreads before I went to write this because there were things I was waffling on and I needed some extra perspective. Some criticism I saw was related to not being able to care about Nick and Amy’s rich white people problems - but I think that’s misplaced. I don’t get the sense at all that Gillian wants you to care deeply about these people, or feel overly sympathetic towards them or relate with their problems, and I think that’s where the entertainment value comes in. These people suck. But maybe, one sucks less than the other, and as the facts come out you get tossed back and forth trying to decide who you want to “win.” Maybe not everyone’s literary cup of tea, and I didn’t think it would be mine, but I was totally into it. This book definitely places plot above character. But what did fall flat for me was that in the last third, the surprising plot points did gradually turn in to “sudden twists” that began to feel improbable and convenient. I’m still not one hundred percent certain I liked the ending. 
    [begin minor spoiler]
    I also never like the use of faked rape as a plot anything, so I could have done without that. It was semi-effective, and maybe there are things that could have made it fully effective, but as a rule devices like that will rub me the wrong way.
    [end minor spoiler]
    Despite these misgivings, though, I would still absolutely recommend Gone Girl. I’m excited to check out Gillian Flynn’s other work, because this was totally enjoyable and I’ve heard the other two are even better.

  7. paperdarts:

    Art: Wayne White

    When we grow up we want to be Wayne White. White is an artist, art director, illustrator, puppeteer, musician, and all around fascinating human being. In 1986, Wayne became a designer for the hit television show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and has been molding impressionable minds ever since. Now working as a fine artist, that familiar subtle beauty and singular sense of humor is still evident in his work. Behind the link you’ll find work from his word painting series, where White meticulously paints words over landscape reproductions. The series offers a surprising commentary on culture, the art world, and being Wayne White. 

    SEE MORE

  8. smithsonianmag: Photo of the Day: Jackals in the Kalahari in South Africa Photo by: Dale Morris (South Africa); Kalahari, South Africa

    smithsonianmag:

    Photo of the Day: Jackals in the Kalahari in South Africa

    Photo by: Dale Morris (South Africa); Kalahari, South Africa

  10. The thing with some varieties of phlox is that you try to take their picture and they just keep sticking their gd tongues out at you like NO COME ON JUST SMILE FOR ONCE THIS IS FOR GRANDMA

    The thing with some varieties of phlox is that you try to take their picture and they just keep sticking their gd tongues out at you like NO COME ON JUST SMILE FOR ONCE THIS IS FOR GRANDMA