Posts made by moonmonday

Murder House is the most coherent and generally best in terms of production and consistency, probably because they had to try harder since it was the first season.

Coven was fun enough but really inconsistent, and it ended stupidly and exceptionally poorly. I just omit the last couple of episodes whenever I watch it; it was really clear the writers had no idea what they were doing and just forgot a bunch of things they whipped up in the last couple of episodes. Fun premise, disappointing attempt at realization.

Freak Show was interesting but didn't ultimately pay off. It puttered around too much and got rid of one of its most interesting antagonists too early on, then never recovered. The ultimate ending was okay in some cases but painfully awful in others.

I never got into Asylum. It was chaotic and incoherent, and the writing was just not very good. It had no idea what it wanted to do.

Hotel was just…the worst. So awful. Embarrassing and puerile. Lady Gaga was just the absolute worst in the history of the show, and it hasn't improved since then.

Coven is probably the most "mainstream", definitely the most popular and immediately accessible, but prepare to be disappointed and, at times, offended by its hamfisted handling of problems like racism that are far too complex for the writers to deal with.

I hope you'll have a happy holiday season too.

I know it's hard to be without, but it's better to be alone and okay with who you are than to be someone you're not with people who don't really care, pretending to be something you never were and feeling, at the end of the day, very hollow and dissatisfied. I can speak from personal experience.

But really, I do hope you can find people to relate to. I hope you will find special people who can understand and appreciate who you are. 2016 was a crap year, but I hope 2017 will be better. Let's hope for the best for both of us.

Believe in good things, hope for good things, but appreciate that which we have! The internet is a marvellous thing, and it makes it so easy for us to be not quite so alone as we might have otherwise been in days past. I do hope for the best for you.  :love:

If anyone is immature enough to fixate upon someone pursuing fitness, regardless of body type, size, or anything else, they're an idiot and their opinion is not worth worrying about or giving weight.

I used to dance on stage – ballet, modern interpretive, jazz -- I did it all! And while I still work to keep fit, I have no use for the body I once had because I don't practice for hours a day or perform anymore. But even when I did, I never had the statue build; that's not my body type. Everybody has a different body, everyone looks different in various states of fitness. Don't be brainwashed by the popular image of the "fit body" because that's not what everyone has. It's what a tiny percentage of people have.

Those who obsess over a certain-inch waist, or a degree of being "cut", or anything like that, aren't after fitness or health. Those who fixate on abs are most often unaware they don't generally occur without specific cultivation. And they certainly don't make a person beautiful.

It may take some time and work, judging by what you've written, but I think the first and most important thing to do is to accept yourself and to love yourself. You are not an object of ridicule. It is admirable when anyone takes steps to improve his health, for his own reasons. I say, good job and do whatever you're comfortable with. If you find that you're not comfortable with a public gym setting, perhaps think about buying free weights for home, or perhaps an alternative -- the Wii systems and a variety of fun exercise games are very inexpensive, especially right now with all the sales!

But any professional personal trainer will never ridicule you for wanting to pursue fitness. That is their job, to provide personal fitness advice and health encouragement. Don't worry about a professional. They aren't judging you; it's their job to keep themselves fit and to help others with their fitness goals.

One thing that I have always felt was especially excellent on the subject of body image, self-image, and which touches upon exercise, healthy living, and diet, is Joy Nash's "A Fat Rant". Check it out if you like! I hope this helps.

@LinkFe:

the battle of the basic bitches

Truth.

Hello everyone!

I'm an artist, specifically a comic artist in my focus, and specifically a gay comic artist.

I've always tried to be a good member of the community, here and in terms of the gay community at large. I'm not a blind follower of course – I call things as I see them -- but I have tried as best I can, in every way I can, to live the best life I can live and to do as much as I can to help the cause of progress and equality.

Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, things are hard right now. It's basically a time-wasting meat market with the Artist's Market (a publication with listings for potential contract gigs), and I'm hard up for good reliable paying work. So I thought I'd come to you all and see if anyone had any good suggestions, projects that could use a professional artist, ideas, or could point me to some places in our "gay family" looking for the kind of work I can do.

I'd appreciate it if you could keep these to useful and polite suggestions, though; due to disability, this is really the only work I can do, and it is work I have trained in for most of my life now. As an artist, I also have a style that is all my own, and I can't just change that; I'm not looking for critique. I work digitally, which shouldn't be a problem for a modern site, publication, or project, and of course I know how to create things ready for physical publishing if needed. My turnaround is less than 14 days, and I never miss a deadline. That's pretty much unheard-of in this industry.

I have a site at http://hushicho.wix.com/probpro if you're interested. I don't just do comics, of course, and I work in a variety of media and genres.

Thanks in advance for helping. I appreciate it very much.

Coke is by no means a great company, but Russia's government is a joke and I for one welcome them inviting more and more unrest.

There's a reason the soviet union collapsed in on itself. Maybe at last the people will get angry enough to actually affect some positive change.

It's cute and hilarious that anyone actually thought in any way that it was actually even likely he'd be nominated, much less win.

And Ann Coulter? She's lucky her agent apparently gives good BJs, there's literally no other reason why she's still anything anyone ever talks about.

Seriously. Maybe do some reading about what the president's role and powers are…to say nothing about sensationalistic 'campaigns'. Trump failed at running a casino and he's declared bankruptcy multiple times through his own incompetence. If, by some miracle, he should actually manage to achieve the office of president – which he won't -- there would be far more serious issues, obviously, than his hilarious sham of a presidency.

The whole thing's basically a huge put-on. You can't 'act straight' any more than you can 'act gay'.

Statistics on the matter will always be inaccurate as long as being non-heterosexual carries any sort of stigma. You can't depend on honest answers in any study related to orientation.

A lot of gays are conditioned into insecurity and as a result, try to latch onto the hyper-masculine ideals that don't really exist in the world. In porn, this is played off of.

There are also plenty of them who are enchanted either by straight boys 'playing gay' (when in reality they're probably not so strictly straight), or by feeling like they're getting a glimpse at some sort of forbidden secret. The reality is that straight boys are just as pressured, on the whole, towards that same hyper-masculine nonsense.

In many cases it's 'the grass is greener on the other side' – it becomes alluring when they feel they're privy to something they'd otherwise never be able to witness...or at least, that's what they imagine.

I do think it's always troubling when one comes across these obsessive, often self-loathing types so fixated on playing pretend that they end up being just embarrassing and sad. There are people of all kinds, male and female, gay, straight, and everything else, that believe in these stereotypes. But what people don't often think about is that putting on a 'straight act' is often as embarrassing and insulting as the other way around. Funny thing, I was shocked the one time I can remember seeing it pointed out once on a show...Dante's Cove, of all things!!

I wouldn't even use some public bathrooms for the purpose they're intended. I certainly wouldn't have sex in one!

What do you think about the Marquis de Sade?

Sensationalist or misunderstood genius?

I know plenty of us have the experience of living in circumstances where we're singled out, demonised, reviled, and underappreciated simply due to some singular factor or, sometimes, none at all – de Sade lived a controversial life and it's sometimes difficult to discern what is said of him is true and what is simply overblown lie.

Do you find his works stimulating or erotic at all? Certainly they are significant in the history of erotic literature, but definitely not in the same way something like Lady Chatterley's Lover is; much of de Sade's writings reflected a tremendously cynical perspective, and works like The 120 Days of Sodom were fairly brutal in the criticisms that can be derived from such a narrative.

What are your thoughts on this controversial man and his controversial creations?

I last watched Exeter (imdb title tt1945044) on netflix and would probably rate it a 3 at best, and that's stretching it. It just wasn't very good at all. It ended up being very smug without actually having any wit. It wasn't funny or really even entertaining. It certainly wasn't scary or tense. It started off well and I thought it might actually be a dark comedy, but it became clear that it was funny only unintentionally. A really miserable time. Watch anything else.

Being able to get married is great…if you're into marriage, if you're into only having one partner (or an open relationship), and if you don't actually expect it to afford you any magical equal rights.

I have no interest in marriage. It feels far too much like attempting to mimic something that doesn't really mean that much even to the people who had it exclusively for so long. I don't believe in it, I don't agree with it, and I'm only going to be treated equally if I can rely on any authority to actually treat me that way...which is a lot to expect.

It's fine to have your own preferences.

It's not fine to be an asshole about them.

End of story.

Though honestly grindr is pretty much a leaky trashbag, so if you're looking there and expecting anyone much, you're setting yourself up for disappointment from the get-go.

I know a lot of the people around now don't remember, but for a long time the gay community decided that they would just live in a separate world, more or less, than the mainstream 'straight world'. I know even a lot of the younger gay people experiencing the 'gay ghetto' in a city for the first time didn't really give it much thought that, in fact, the atmosphere was always so different there, and that the gay community had completely different attitudes, overall, to a number of things.

I agree – I think marriage is a sham. And I think that frankly it's insulting that now that marriage is worthless and basically something discarded by the people who always took it for granted, oh -- now we can have something like it? Gee, thanks.

To be frank, nothing's going to change unless and until these authorities, these politicians, and everyone else, actually stand behind what they say. It's great to say 'you have to honour visitation rights', but it's not that special if you don't actually enforce that. Equality isn't going to happen until we have that enforced. It doesn't matter if you call it marriage, civil unions, or pootonkto glameetra. And yeah, being able to marry is important to some, but the rest? Who cares! I'm never going to get married.

But I do expect the same human rights afforded to everyone else. And that is not an unreasonable expectation. Until that happens, I'm not going to be satisfied.

And I'm certainly not going to be one of the self-loathing hypocrites who bashes gays who are comfortable in their identity because ooh, we might not get a pat on the head and blend in with the heteros. Some of us need to get over this fixation on approval by straight people.

The last two presidents have been crap.

But if you're going to throw in with a man so incompetent he's declared bankruptcy four times and failed at running a casino, then I don't know what to tell you except please remember to shut your mouth in a rainstorm and it's amazing you've lasted this long without drowning in one.

The thing is, basically the whole 'political correctness' stigma came about because some political groups decided to try and shame people for being more tolerant, inclusive, and considerate. They decided that calling it being 'politically correct' and making it out to be like some brain-damaged oversensitivity would create a backlash…which they helped to foster. It's led handily to the modern sociopolitical climate of a bunch of people acting out in ways that would embarrass a toddler to pearl-clutching disdain, all with the handy excuse that they're 'against political correctness' -- because who wants to think about other people bearing social labels you don't share?

This whole issue boils down to people wanting to have excuses for being assholes and trying to shame people that make them realise they're not always good people. There's always been a huge amount of contempt for people who try and consider others' feelings, try and help those less fortunate or in different circumstances, even people who protect and help animals who have no other defenders...and that's what this dialogue boils down to: people excusing their immature, irresponsible, intolerant behaviour and pointing to 'political correctness', which has been handily savaged and has nothing whatsoever to do with political anything.

The actual things people to, to consider the feelings, circumstances, and social groupings of others, are good and beneficial to society. The whole 'politically correct' debate, however, has far outlived its day. Call a spade a spade. But of course, in politics, we can't do that, and the only people who are open and plain-spoken tend to be morons like Donald Trump, who wouldn't know a spade from a tiffany lamp.

Honestly it's about as ridiculous to say you're done with 'gay-themed movies' for that reason as it would be to say you're done with straight-themed movies because you don't like romantic comedies or were unfortunate enough to see Gigli or something.

There's much more of a variety now for and by gay audiences. Because you're right – for a while, you could only hope to get any sort of mainstream notice by putting ridiculous tragedy in your movie, almost as if they were trying to prove 'gay' was a misnomer. Anyone who grew up around that shit in the 70s through the 90s got sick of it, and by the time we actually had movies like In and Out, it was like a fresh miracle. You are definitely not the only one that hates the obligatory tragedy shoehorned into gay stories. It's an old chestnut I wish people would toss out.

But basically the original post here seems to be taking everything, lumping it into one bag, and deciding you hate it because it has the gay aspect to it. If you don't like tragic movies, don't take the time to watch them. It's not like this information isn't out there; you can look up keywords on imdb or look up reviews that tend to mention a film's major genres. If you don't like wacky youth hijinks, don't watch those movies…but it just seems like you're not pleased with anything right now. And I get that. It can really burn you to get into something you hope will be different, but it ends up being just another flavour of the same.

And yeah, there are vastly fewer gay productions than there are more mainstream ones. But there are loads of fantastic movies, series, books, comics, music, everything for and by gay people.

You have a whole lot of resources at your fingertips. Don't go in uninformed. Maybe you don't like spoilers, but you can still get the idea of whether something will or won't be your cup of tea without spoiling yourself. And at least in my experience, hearing about something, even if you do spoil the entire plot, is very different from watching a movie or reading a book.

Life's too short to waste time on things you know you aren't going to like. It just upsets and provokes drastic statements like this. Save yourself a lot of grief and annoyance. Just do a little reading first. Maybe ask some friends who know your tastes what they think you might enjoy, but always make the ultimate decisions yourself. There's so much out there, even online -- all kinds of creative stuff that people make independently, too, that stands a far better chance of giving you more what you want. Check it out! There's a world to be discovered.

Don't lose hope! The whole creative landscape is changing. It's just slow.

The plain truth is, not every relationship involves sex heavily, or even at all between those involved.

Masturbation is healthy and should be encouraged. A partner in a relationship is not just 'someone around to fuck'. People have moods, feelings, thoughts, and preferences. Timing is not always going to match up when you're in the mood or they are. It's usually best to masturbate regularly anyway. Too much tension in that area can have bad effects on some people's decision-making. Always best if the pipes are clean!

I didn't like her at first, but I think I heard the wrong songs.

It's not surprising that Born to Die was kind of uneven, since so many artists like her now do a number of varied style songs before hitting it big and then, with their first album, just compile those songs and add some more. Paradise was also a fairly typical modern follow-up, with a much smaller track list, but it was surprisingly solid. Ultraviolence, however, was the really consistent masterwork. I felt like it really hit a consistent level of quality and really showed her ability as an artist and her particular niche as a writer.

The songs she writes cannot be called 'shallow' by any means, aside from a few of the tracks from Born to Die, which were early works likely done to test the waters. The thing about Lana is that just because she writes a song about something, it doesn't mean the narrative is of her, or that she agrees with it or that it really in any way applies to her life. I find it kind of interesting and kind of sad that, especially in the case of female artists, it's often assumed that it must be so, when such an assumption is ludicrous from the start.

I did take some exception with her tendency to toss in profanity where it didn't always belong, but over the years she's balanced it out to where it fits very well and serves a good and useful purpose. It took me a while, but now I'm a fan of her work. I don't know how I'm going to feel about the upcoming Honeymoon, but Ultraviolence was a superb work of a strong artist.

Lucius - "Hey, Doreen"

Great video, look it up!