also just realized i haven't shown you guys none pizza with left beef yet

↑ none pizza with left beef

You guys I just realized that what I’ve always wanted out of werewolf fiction is a story where lycanthropy isn’t a purely human condition

Like this dude wakes up from his wolfbender and his room is full of all these fucking chickens from local farms that he initiated into his pack. They all start clucking and crowing at the moon and when it’s full they all transform into these tiny little weird bipedal wolves with wings.

I don’t remember making this post but it’s going around again and I’m losing my shit

Imagine becoming a werewolf because you got attacked by a fucked up chicken

I want to show you an actual training slide from my customer service job that I had to see yesterday.

ok since i don't think i've seen any semi-comprehensive lists of the tumblr holidays for the reddit refugees, here it is.

IT JUST HAPPENS

WEEKLY EVENTS

YEARLY EVENTS

December 23 (Christmas Adam) isn’t on here?

@copperbadge don't know if you're still around but congratulations on your Fifth of Wednesday being included in a (fairly comprehensive) Tumblr holiday list

HAHA, love having the Fifth of Wednesday included, thanks OP! And thanks for your work on this, that’s quite the compilation. 

one day I’ll finally write that ridiculously elaborate fanfiction that I’ve been carefully constructing in my daydreams for months and then you’ll be sorry. you’ll all be sorry.

Powerful statements like these, that juxtapose the condemnation of such a simple and pure thing as love with the honour and worship of violence and death, always hit me hard and stay with me for days

This is the tombstone of Technical Sergeant Leonard Philip Matlovich, the first gay service member to intentionally out himself in order to fight the ban on gay people in the military. He hadn’t only served for Vietnam, he was a career Air Force member in good standing who would have liked to continue his career even though he knew coming out would most likely make that impossible. He’d also been an elder in the LDS church but was excommunicated

He was on the cover of Time magazine in 1975 which was the first time an openly gay person appeared on the cover of a U.S. magazine and had their name printed in that magazine

He was an advocate for AIDs/HIV patients from the start of the outbreak in the 70s. He contracted the virus in 1986 and died 2 years later

His name doesn’t appear on his tombstone because he wanted it to be a memorial for all gay veterans

here’s the King himself

and here’s his grave in its full glory, with the pink triangles and everything! the words over the dates of his birth and death are referencing the extermination of lgbt people during the holocaust and the HIV crisis, respectively.

assorted ornamental birds! (2021)

I feel as if there's a correlation and wanted to find out! something to do with unlearning what society traditionally expects of you

if i told you what rhis sounded ljke i dont think youd believe me so just listen

[video description: a man playing saxophone in front of a large pipe. everything he plays echoes back through the pipe, resulting in a call-and-response type song. the person behind the camera claps along to the beat. end description.]

a reasonable society would base their entire economy around this

GUY BUILDING THE OTHER END OF THE PIPE: the jazz ghost is back

No No No! 🙀 Don’t take your hands. I feel so comfy. 💕🐊

HOW CAN SOMETHING BE THIS CUTE

But really, though 🥺

I am a recreational Noticer. I love to Notice Things and Make Connections and Identify Patterns. This is one of my favorite activities and it requires me to behave in compulsively silly ways online.

In real life, this manifests itself by suddenly asking a coworker "so how long has your wife known about your mistress?" Because he stopped bringing in a packed lunch and I saw him scrubbing lipstick off his neck one day when he "went to the bank"

how did that go?

So good

I'm obsessed with court jesters in fantasy stories so have another story concept about it:

A new person is introduced to the king's court, and as soon as they walk in the court jester announces that they are a thief and a fraud and rode in here with stolen horses. And just as the newcome member is about to retaliate, they're advised not to, and explained that nothing the jester says is true, ever. He just says completely baseless and wild shit, recreationally. The newcomer looks at the jester, who is currently bemoaning that the king won't kiss him in public, as if they are lovers. The king looks irate, but leads by example and ignores the jester's idiotic claims.

The more one learns about the court's inner workings, the more apparent it is that the jester really does do that. The false claims and absurd rumours that go around aren't regurgitated by the jester as often as they are apparently started by him, and are proven false on a consistent basis. The only way to make yourself a worse clown than the jester himself is to get defensive about it, or make any attempt to disprove him. Once a drunken high priest embarrasses himself completely by stripping down in front of the court to prove that he does not, in fact, consist of two smaller men standing on each others' shoulders, concealed by the priestly garb.

"And the king is fucking the jester" has become a standard sarcastic retort that people say to imply that someone is a naive fool who believes in wild and false baseless rumours. Along the lines of "You think the old marchioness' handmaid is actually secretly her personal assassin? Do you also believe that the king is fucking the jester?"

But if one could wiggle their way all the way through to the deepest bottom layers of court scheming without getting killed along the way, it turns out that there are a handful of these claims that actually are true, but nobody would ever believe them - or believe you if you told them about it - because the truth is disguised as such open-faced blatant lies that you'd look like a fool trying to actually prove them. And all of these most outrageous things are schemes that re-inforce the power of the throne or directly benefit the king. And the system is so sturdy that the jester could flat-out say that out loud and nobody would believe it because it's the jester saying it.

Because the truth is, the king is fucking the jester.

The proof copy of the short story anthology has arrived! The cover actually looks great in person, much better than the digital version did. I'm still going to tweak a few things (the kerning on the title block to start) but I'm actually very pleased with the look of it.

I've already found two typos in the book itself but that's normal, and that's why I buy a proof copy. It's easier to proofread something you're extremely familiar with if you change it up somehow -- read it in paper instead of on a screen, or in a new font, or upside-down.

[ID: A slim book with a patterned green cover; the title reads "Dinner At The Palace" and below that "The Shivadh Short Stories". Beneath that, above the author line, is the dragon of the Welsh flag, but in deep warm brown instead of red.]

My shit is deeply and unbelievably not together just now, but I did manage to get the typos fixed and the new proof copy out and it’s looking good SOOOO

Watch this blog! Next Wednesday, August 16th, Dinner At The Palace will go on sale in paperback and epub, and of course as always will be uploaded as a free PDF. There will be a post here on Tumblr, as well as appropriate edits/links on my author website, and the sales pages will go live on lulu.com. Unfortunately Lulu does not make preordering possible, but the good news is that unlike with trad and small-press publishing, preordering wouldn’t really have an impact in my selfpub novelistic career, so while it’s slightly less convenient for you guys, it’s at least not doing me a harm. 

Unlike previous volumes, this will not be available on Amazon or at other retailers; the artificial price inflation there was driving up the price for everyone. Without that added fee, this book of short stories will retail for $8.99; the price varies a bit by region (it’s not a direct exchange-rate change) but should be pretty reasonable regardless of currency. 

Day after tomorrow the book goes live! 

...and here's another cartoon featuring an angry mob.

HAH I FINISHED IT. Will have to get Real Pictures outside when the sun returns. I learned I need to use more strongly textured glass at that scale but overall this has been my smoothest sailing stained glass yet. Straight edges help a lot.

This is beautiful!

@lady-feste-pendragon

The history of Solarpunk

Okay, I guess this has to be said, because the people will always claim the same wrong thing: No, Solarpunk did not "start out as an aesthetic". Jesus, where the hell does this claim even come from? Like, honestly, I am asking.

Solarpunk started out as a genre, that yes, did also include design elements, but also literary elements. A vaguely defined literary genre, but a genre never the less.

And I am not even talking about those early books that we today also claim under the Solarpunk umbrella. So, no, I am not talking about Ursula K. LeGuin, even though she definitely was a big influence on the genre.

The actual history of Solarpunk goes something like that: In the late 1990s and early 2000s the term "Ecopunk" was coined, which was used to refer to books that kinda fit into the Cyberpunk genre umbrella, but were more focused on ecological themes. This was less focused on the "high tech, high life" mantra that Solarpunk ended up with, but it was SciFi stories, that were focused on people interacting with the environment. Often set to a backdrop of environmental apocalypse. Now, other than Solarpunk just a bit later, this genre never got that well defined (especially with Solarpunk kinda taking over the role). As such there is only a handful of things that ever officially called themselves Ecopunk.

At the same time, though, the same sort of thought was picked up in the Brazilian science fiction scene, where the idea was further developed. Both artistically, where it got a lot of influence from the Amazofuturism movement, but also as an ideology. In this there were the ideas from Ecopunk as the "scifi in the ecological collaps" in there, but also the idea of "scifi with technology that allows us to live within the changing world/allows us to live more in harmony with nature".

Now, we do not really know who came up with the idea of naming this "Solarpunk". From all I can find the earliest mention of the term "Solarpunk" that is still online today is in this article from the Blog Republic of Bees. But given the way the blogger talks about it, it is clear there was some vague definition of the genre before it.

These days it is kinda argued about whether that title originally arose in Brazil or in the Anglosphere. But it seems very likely that the term was coined between 2006 and 2008, coming either out of the Brazilian movement around Ecopunk or out of the English Steampunk movement (specifically the literary branch of the Steampunk genre).

In the following years it was thrown around for a bit (there is an archived Wired article from 2009, that mentions the term once, as well as one other article), but for the moment there was not a lot happening in this regard.

Until 2012, when the Brazilian Solarpunk movement really started to bloom and at the same time in Italy Commando Jugendstil made their appearance. In 2012 in Brazil the anthology "Solarpunk: Histórias ecológicas e fantásticas em um mundo sustentável" was released (that did get an English translation not too long ago) establishing some groundwork for the genre. And Commando Jugendstil, who describe themselves as both a "Communication Project" and an "Art Movement", started to work on Solarpunk in Italy. Now, Commando Jugendstil is a bit more complicated than just one or the other. As they very much were a big influence on some of the aesthetic concepts, but also were releasing short stories and did some actual punky political action within Italy.

And all of that was happening in 2012, where the term really started to take off.

And only after this, in 2014, Solarpunk became this aesthetic we know today, when a (now defuct) tumblr blog started posting photos, artworks and other aesthetical things under the caption of Solarpunk. Especially as it was the first time the term was widely used within the Anglosphere.

Undoubtedly: This was probably how most people first learned of Solarpunk... But it was not how Solarpunk started. So, please stop spreading that myth.

The reason this bothers me so much is, that it so widely ignores how this movement definitely has its roots within Latin America and specifically Brazil. Instead this myth basically tries to claim Solarpunk as a thing that fully and completely originated within the anglosphere. Which is just is not.

And yes, there was artistic aspects to that early Solarpunk movement, too. But also a literary and political aspectt. That is not something that was put onto a term that was originally an aesthetic - but rather it was something that was there from the very beginning.

Again: There has been an artistic and aesthetic aspect in Solarpunk from the very beginning, yes. But there has been a literary and political aspect in it the entire time, too. And trying to divorce Solarpunk from those things is just wrong and also... kinda misses the point.

So, please. Just stop claiming that entire "it has been an aesthetic first" thing. Solarpunk is a genre of fiction, it is a political movement, just as much as it is an artistic movement. Always has been. And there has always been punk in it. So, please, stop acting as if Solarpunk is just "pretty artistic vibes". It is not.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, I guess.

Hi! Admin Jay here! Great overview thanks @alpaca-clouds! Commando Jugendstil are good friends of ours, we love them a lot, solidarity!

For now tho, for those interested, you can find a (more or less complete) history of Solarpunk media online from 2008-18 at the reference guide we put together.

The first Solarpunk post on Tumblr ever was our 'The initial equation' posted by Admin Adam Flynn, June 2012.

Concurring with Alpaca, Solarpunk has always been about more than pretty aesthetics: Check out Adam's July 2012 essay 'On the Need for New Futures' republished here with a forward which was written after the IRL/Online Solarpunk meet-up at WeirdShitCon Portland 2012. Post which, many of the other early admins on this blog got added and involved.

It's worth mentioning that 'Need for New Futures' ends with a bunch of open political and social questions asking what Solarpunk could become? (as it wasn't anything at all at the time) the last two being:

Solarpunk as it's known today originates in Brazil!

When 'Need for New Futures' went online 'Histórias ecológicas' was yet to be published, but novelist JesseaPerry was aware of it, and said the word 'Solarpunk' to Adam - and the rest is history.

Subsequently, Solarpunk had parallel development in the Anglosphere and in Brazil with NO contact between the two scenes until after the publication of the Kickstarted translation of Histórias ecológicas in English by Sarena Ulibarri at Worldweavers in 2017. We (folks behind this blog) have had our lives enriched immensely by contact and dialogue with Solarpunks in Brazil since this happened! The Solarpunk movement at large is in great debt to Sarena!

The first self described Solarpunk story in English was “Sunshine State” written by Adam Flynn and Andrew Dana Hudson - also the winner of 2016's Everything Change: An Anthology of Climate Fiction short story competition.

Sunvault and Wings of Renewal, Biketopia etc all came out in subsequent years.

For some early Solarpunk thinking which clearly demonstrate that its about more than just aesthetics: check out Adam's massively viral Solarpunk: Notes toward a Manifesto from 2014 and Andrew's 2015 essay 'On the Politics of Solarpunk' - also the reference guide.

Many of the early Solarpunk voices were interviewed by VICE a few years ago and we explicitly say Solarpunk is about the end of capitalism lol.

As for me (@thejaymo) you can read my pretty viral 2019 essay: SOLARPUNK – Life in the Future, and this more recent one Solarpunk: A Container for More Fertile Futures which is about what Solarpunk means to me.

Being involved in Solarpunk and its community of - kind, motivated people, who are concerned with the struggles en route to a better world, the solutions to live comfortably without fossil fuels, how to equitably manage scarcity and share abundance, to be kinder to each other and to the planet we share - for the last decade, has been one of the biggest and most meaningful experiences of my life.

Thank you Solarpunks 🙏.

I'll close with our groupblogs tagline since the beginning:

Solarpunk: At once a vision of the future, a thoughtful provocation, and an achievable lifestyle. In progress...

Who’s with us?

reminders: a list poem

1. Fresh air against your skin at night resets the switch. 2. Movement is a way of life. Even in stillness, the song carries on. 3. You are more lotus than mud now. Stretch your spine toward the sky and be the unfolding. 4. Sometimes you can see better with your eyes closed. Listen. 5. Sometimes you can see better with them open. Witness. 6. Pay attention.