wordplay

honeysucklepink: Darren: “I could imagine Blaine singing this to Kurt at the end of Glee.”Darren:...

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 20:29:39 -0500

Darren: “I could imagine Blaine singing this to Kurt at the end of Glee.”
Darren: *plays Ben Folds “The Luckiest”*
Every fan that has read the fic of the same name:

Oh hi y’all.

What a way to wrap up 2020.

❤️

Goodbye, Lex.

Sun, 16 Aug 2015 14:00:40 -0400

I have been turtling so hard. SO HARD, y’all. I am tired. My body is tired and doing some new shit that I don’t quite know how to deal with; my work is in a very difficult period; I had a July that I don’t quite know how to process, still, but there is no time to sit and think about it and sort it out because life still goes on and there is my body and my work and they don’t wait for me to get my soul quiet. So I have been wallowing - in my children, in my partner, in my bed, in my own whirring head. These are places I can go when I need to heal, or where I can be quiet and wait when I can’t yet heal. They are my places for comfort when life is difficult. And it has been very difficult this summer - this year, really.

(The one-year anniversary of the beginning of my long hospital drama is on Tuesday, and I have felt it coming for me. That experience was just one more long punctuating period of drama in a life-long disease management process, but it changed me, and I haven’t yet figured out exactly how. That’s part of all that up scenery up there.)

I only heard this morning that Lex had died. And here is the thing: we were not close. We had never met, and we had only talked a few times over email, on the phone, in silly asks back and forth. Maybe… 10 sets of individual exchanges? 20? Not a lot, really. But enough.

There are these people that you meet sometimes; people who you don’t really know, but you sort of feel like you do, if that makes sense? I don’t even really know how to articulate it, except to say that sometimes you encounter people who feel like they’re sharing your vibe, people with whom you can be vulnerable and honest and instantly bullshit-free because yeah, you DON’T know them, but you feel like you could, like you probably should, if only you had the time and the energy to invest. They’re people who you know instinctively are your people, who make it easy to be who you are.

I always thought Lex was one of those people. He was someone I looked forward to meeting, someday, when I was in the area and dontbefanci and I bullied him out to have lunch with us. We talked about it, Fanci and I, idly planned how to make it happen sometime. When I read posts about him today, though, it seems much more likely that, no, it wasn’t that I had found one of these people - it seems much more likely that he was just… very kind, so gentle, and very very easy to trust and care for. It’s not that he belonged to me and my tribe; it’s that he was just a very good person, with a soul and a heart blown wide open.

Ultimately it really doesn’t matter, at least in my life, whether I got that wrong or not. Because he’s gone now, and whatever sorrow I feel is just background noise for so many others who are mourning a connection much deeper and much more personal. But I feel his loss in my own quiet, unsettled way, and I can’t even mourn that I didn’t have any more energy to pour toward discovering more of him while he was still here because I just… we are all just living, every day, as best we can, until we aren’t anymore, and that is all we can ask of ourselves.

I am an atheist; I am, at heart, a difficult scientist who doesn’t have a soft, gentle, slightly woo-woo way to wish him well as he goes. Instead I want to believe that the lives he touched will be changed by him. I want to believe that I, personally, will learn something - will be inspired to turn outward more, to make better connections with people while they are here, to not be left mourning a deeper friendship that maybe could have been.

Maybe I will. I don’t know; I’m still very tired and so guarded right now. But he makes me want to. Maybe that’s enough.

Thank you, Lex - for everything. Thanks for your kindness, your humor, your gentleness. I am so sorry I didn’t know you better; that is the shape of my loss.

reblog if you had a livejournal

Sat, 25 Jul 2015 12:11:01 -0400

amidnightradio:

cheynelightning:

sophia-helix:

altri-uccelli:

strangeetudes:

edwardspoonhands:

crazyloststar:

REPRESENT

PSH! #diaryland

Still do. Just about.

I still do but had to friends-lock it. But I miss it a lot. :(((

Haaaaad?
I don’t use it as much now because my friends are all in different fandoms, but if you joined fandom only in the Tumblr/Twitter era YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MISSING.
1. Threaded comments that don’t have to be replied to with a whole separate post
2. Profile pages so you could find out about a person and also check out their followers to see if you know people in common/find other people into what you’re into
3. Communities for fic, and newsletter communities for fandoms that rounded up daily news (actor stuff, pics, videos, etc)
4. Much better signal to noise ratio (not seeing the same thing 15 times or having to install xkit just to make your dash readable and filter out fandoms you aren’t in)
5. Just a way, way more grounded sense of where and who people are, instead of shouting into a crowded room all the time
This is my third go-around with Tumblr and fandom, and it’s only manageable now because I’m following hardly anyone (sorry guys). I really cannot wait until somebody makes something that combines the ease of image-posting on Tumblr with the actual content of LJ, because I feel like this place encourages you to be silent.
Shhh, don’t make an original text post, no one wants to read that, especially if it’s just about your personal life (which you couldn’t lock/filter anyhow). Shhh, don’t add text to that reblog, just hide your comments down in the tags, where people have to scroll to see them. Shhh, all you can contribute is a picture of an actor that’s probably already been posted with six different edits to the tag. Just reblog, baby.
I love fandom and fans and it makes me so sad, too, to see what’s been my culture for going on 20 years now get eroded and lost. I don’t know where fandom will be in another 20 years but I’m guessing the history of my chunk of it (Usenet, mailing lists, personal websites, LJ) won’t get carried on.

All, all, all of this. I still have my LJ, have a DW account, too, and use them every day. TALKING - what is it? Tumblr is for pretties, LJ is for conversation.

I still use my LJ but it’s only during the summer for a specific fandom. I’m still bitter about the migration.

I have a lifetime (permanent? whatever it was called) account over at LJ and I never use it but I still miss it every. single. time. I get sucked into a lot of tumblr usage. Scroll up there and read that numbered list and you will likely understand why. I can’t ever find stuff here.

And so this, dear readers, is why I will be forever bitter, and forever sad, because LJ wasn’t perfect (so many reasons it wasn’t, SO MANY, remember the censoring and the Russians and, just, EVERYTHING that was so irritating?) but it’s where I learned how to do fandom, and my way of doing fandom will forever be informed by that structure, and I’m just… not over it.

Every birthday I end up crying a little bit; they seem to leave me feeling soft, open, and...

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 15:55:21 -0400

Every birthday I end up crying a little bit; they seem to leave me feeling soft, open, and vulnerable.

So, you know: just keeping up the tradition like a boss! Woo?

PRIMER: BITTLE/ZIMMERMANN

Wed, 22 Jul 2015 23:36:40 -0400

magneticwave:

Canadian Tire reported the most important piece of sports journalism of the decade when they tracked down the guy who clearly spent his adolescence gently boning Jonathan Toews in a shack next to Lake Winnipeg, and that’s still not as great a story as the one I’m about to tell you about Eric Bittle and Jack Zimmermann.

PRIMER: ERIC BITTLE / JACK ZIMMERMANN

Once upon a time, when I was a tender babe entering the woods of Hockey RPF with nary a clue in my head as to how much I was going to eventually care about which hockey dude was fictionally boning which other hockey dude and whose hair was the worst, half of fandom was like “Jonathan Toews! Patrick Kane!!” and the other end of the cesspool of fandom was all “SIDNEY CROSBY!! EVGENI MALKIN!!!” I am not here to contest that Crosby and Malkin are tenderly making love every night in Crosby’s ridic Pittsburgh manse, mostly because hello, I have eyes, but I am here to make the gentle suggestion that in a world where we can dream about a Gagner-Tavares Future Hockey Dynasty we need to acknowledge the most beautiful of the shamefully unrecognized We Grew Up to Hockey Good Together ships, which is to say: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann.

BUT WAIT, you cry. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BITTLE/ZIMMERMANN? LITERALLY NOBODY CARES BRO.

That’s fair. Individually you’ve probably heard of them, if only because Zimmermann is the kind of second-gen hockey royalty that you’d nominate to be put on Canadian currency and Bittle is seriously the cutest human being on the face of the fucking planet. People like to argue about whether or not Jeff Skinner is made of real live unicorns but nobody argues about Eric Bittle because if you have eyes you have seen the truth.

Keep reading

Dear people I met/saw this weekend

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 21:35:17 -0400

I am totally not responding to your messages right now! WHAT AN ASSHOLE.

Well, yes, obviously, but also: this weekend was the end of 2 solid weeks of travel for me, as well as the launch of the book, and I am so DONE with being social that I can barely think straight. I am exhausted in pretty much all the ways a person can be and right now, even the minimal social effort of responding to very kind messages (and sending out my own) is just a little bit more than this outgoing introvert type can bear.

So please: feel free to think I am an asshole if you need to, that’s fine, but please don’t take it even a little bit personally or wonder what the fuck you did (I have met you, tumblr; I AM you, and I know how you think). It’s not you, it’s 100% me; I am turtling mega hard right now and I will be back to tell you how awesome you are.

IF you listen to pop culture podcasts, and if you listen to one that dropped a new episode today,...

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 15:30:46 -0400

IF you listen to pop culture podcasts, and if you listen to one that dropped a new episode today, and if in that episode you heard a “favorite TV Carries” segment about 20 minutes in that was actually a happy birthday wish, then congratulations: you have discovered my family’s birthday card for me.

So THAT was surprising and I am still blushing in my car for some reason.

I know we have seen a zillion better photos of the crowd...

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 17:07:24 -0400

I know we have seen a zillion better photos of the crowd yesterday after the last performance, but I wanted to go ahead and share this one because… I just wanted to.

I only took 2 pictures this weekend: one of my Playbill from Hamilton, and this. We were in the front row so we were slow to leave, plus we popped down to the bathroom, PLUS Rae kept getting stopped to talk to people, so by the time we made it out of the theater this was the view from the front door.

We were inside the cafe next door when he came out, and I wish I had managed to get a photo of him standing on the car from in there, complete with all the people crowding into their windows in the hotel across the street. It was hot as balls out there and I was so impressed that so many people stayed and waited.

laughingsquid: Confused Black Lab Puppy Tries to Eat the Cold...

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 16:07:24 -0400

laughingsquid:

Confused Black Lab Puppy Tries to Eat the Cold Air Coming at Him From the Car Air Conditioning Vents

Everybody on the East Coast today.

There was a time when we used to dread summers because that’s when assholery was peaking; the show...

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 15:13:25 -0400

There was a time when we used to dread summers because that’s when assholery was peaking; the show was on hiatus and school was out and the kids just had nothing to keep them busy besides being deliberately, actively hateful. It always took a while for them to find other shit to do besides just poke at people because they felt sad and empty and bored.

I’m seeing it happen now, today, I guess because book tour and Hedwig are done. I have seen three separate hostile, bitchy, pointless attacks on friends and y’all: I follow nobody, I’m barely on tumblr, so if I have seen three, you know there are a shitton more.

Maybe a good idea to keep your anon turned off for a while. Be careful out there.

chriscolfernews: Chris Colfer is helped out of Chateau Marmont...

Sun, 19 Jul 2015 12:53:45 -0400

chriscolfernews:

Chris Colfer is helped out of Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood [HQ]

Oh god, y’all, I just saw a picture of my kid on stage with Darren TWO YEARS ago come through my...

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 18:43:32 -0400

Oh god, y’all, I just saw a picture of my kid on stage with Darren TWO YEARS ago come through my feed, and I had sort of COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN that that happened so I had to go watch the video, and okay so (a) one of the photos from that show is still the background on her phone but (b) she has changed so much! She has grown and she’ll be 13 in September and she’s our 2nd kid so there isn’t as much video of her as there could be and, just… yeah. He’s come so far, but in a tiny corner of my heart he will always be that dude who charmed the shit out of my kid and took me along for the ride.

That’s all.

yahtzee63: Hey, guys, heads-up: My XMFC Cherik fic “Anarchy in...

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 16:06:21 -0400

yahtzee63:

Hey, guys, heads-up: My XMFC Cherik fic “Anarchy in the U.K.” is going to be taken offline in one month. If you want to read it, re-read it, download it, etc., act now! I’ll post other reminders between now and August 15. Please reblog and help me spread the word, because I want to give its readers in the fandom plenty of time. The story is going away for what I personally consider the best of reasons, but it is going away. So I want to make sure the people who loved the story and sent me so much good energy and support while I was working on it are covered. Thanks to every single one of you who’s given AITUK some love. You’ll never know how much it means.

substantialityou: That was… Only partly useful.

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 12:04:30 -0400

substantialityou:

That was… Only partly useful.

"Starred Review"

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 12:00:40 -0400

“Starred Review”

- American Library Association Booklist Reviews on “The Luckiest”
High-school friends gather at the home of one of their own for a week of wedding prep and reminiscing. For New York essayist Aaron, it means more than just helping with the dresses and the cake, it means facing his ex, Nik, who broke his heart. The two have been in and out of each other’s lives since they were scared, shy high-school boys stumbling their way around a passion they couldn’t live without. Now, as they are on the brink of adulthood, Nik is committed to winning Aaron back. Longing to let himself love Nik once more but not wanting to get hurt again, Aaron is hesitant to let Nik back into his life, but he isn’t hesitant at all about letting Nik into his bed. The scenes between Nik and Aaron as they define and redefine their relationship over the course of a week in the humid, salty Texas setting are passionate and honest. A strong supporting cast rounds out this solid and sizzling NA romance, which resonates with the amorphous time between finishing college and venturing out into the real world and the choices we make to be with the ones we love.
— Ilene Lefkowitz
(via interludepress)
This happened yesterday. It’s pretty exciting. It also required me to send text messages to my librarian friends.

Came home from dropping off amidnightradio at the bus stop to find my oldest son streaming Law &...

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 11:37:22 -0400

Came home from dropping off amidnightradio at the bus stop to find my oldest son streaming Law & Order episodes and wearing a red clown nose. I have never felt so warmly welcomed home.

You’re alright. You let me sleep in your guest room and feed me and let your cat torture me. <3333

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 23:25:52 -0400

You say that like I can control that evil giant beast. You know, the one who drools all over you when she’s happy - THAT asshole.

Yeah, I’m keeping you too. (Will come visit in a few minutes. Dork.)

i think you are WONDERFUL. you are easy to talk to and make me feel warm and comfortable and i am forever grateful to know you.

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 23:14:01 -0400

You are so kind. Lucie and I talked about you tonight, about how excited we both are to see you and hug the crap out of you. I will tell you more about your wonders this weekend, because some of it is private, but :D :D :D <3 <3 <3

You, ma'am are not annoying. I decided to come to DC at the end of the month for OutWrite, and seeing you again is one of the things I’m looking forward to. So. Pft.

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 23:07:41 -0400

BRING IT, YAY! I can’t wait! I had no idea you were coming so that is EXTRA AWESOME. We should start planning - after this weekend, because that is still way up in the air and I am already pretty spent. <3 <3 <3

What I really think of you: Um. I am still unsure of you at this point, because we’ve never actually spoken, but I admire you as a writer and a fellow IPer (and I loved The Luckiest btw and I will write some form of review for it at some point) and you seem lovely and experienced in fun ways and confident and I enjoy all of those things.

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 23:05:19 -0400

It’s funny, the difference in perspective, because I feel like you are one of the people on tumblr who I’ve talked to... I mean, not in the like top 5%? But probably in the top, like, third of my follow list. (I am a little hermit-y, it’s true. I like my quiet little shell.)

These are very kind things; thank you! While we are here: I like how hard you love your kid, how active it is, and how good you are to your friends, and how engaged you are. It’s awesome; you are kicking some ass, and I’m into it.