The Princess Bride (1987) dir Rob Reiner
by Gerard Donelan
For historical context, this is about making a panel for the AIDS quilt, a memorial project which began in San Francisco in 1985. Due to the stigma surrounding both homosexuality and AIDS during this time, victims of the epidemic were often cremated and disposed of or buried without ceremony, their bodies unclaimed by their families or origin or held by hospitals rather than released to same-sex partners.
Each panel in the AIDS quilt memorializes a life lost to the disease. Each panel is 3′ x 6′ (approximately 1 meter wide and 2 meters long), the approximate dimensions of a cemetery plot. The quilt, which then consisted of 1,920 panels representing 1,920 individuals lost to AIDS, was first displayed in Washington DC in 1987. The public response was immediate, positive, and overwhelming, and the quilt began taken around the country to be displayed in more cities. At each stop, the names of the dead were read out loud. At each stop, more panels were added.
By the time the quit returned to the US capital in 1988, it had more than 8,000 panels.
The quilt continues to grow. Today, it has over 50,000 panels memorializing over 100,000 of our dead. It’s too large now to physically display in its entirety, but you can view the entire thing online. There are also curated virtual displays of just panels which honor the Black and native people killed by the virus because in the US (and likely abroad, although I don’t know enough about public health elsewhere to say so with confidence), communities of color are disproportionately impacted by epidemics, as we have seen time and time again.
If you’re unable to access the quilt, here’s a zoomed in screenshot of the bottom left corner:
The quilt is made up of several panel, each panel itself consisting of 1 to 8 quilts.
Here’s a screenshot of the whole thing:
This is only about half of the people - our people - who were left to die because the government didn’t think “the gay disease” was a problem. This is why we march.
Happy pride month to the tiny cowboy and tiny Trojan man from Night at the Museum
People love to talk about the immortality of the machine, but I'm a mechanical engineer, so I know they delude themselves. Most machines are far more mortal than flesh.
How long does a machine last? A car is a very solid machine, expensive, precision designed, and you're lucky if you get more than three decades out of them.
Your enemy is not the flesh. It's entropy. It's the death knell of the energy imbalance. If you want to live as a complex machine you will, by necessity, generate a great deal of entropy until your machine breaks irrevocably.
You want to be immortal? Then don't worship the machine, worship the stone, the forest. Seek that which is either simple enough to never know death or diffused enough to accept every death.
In honor of Day of the Dead, here’s a repost of my comic about the San Francisco Columbarium and the man who spent 26 years restoring it.
This comic originally appeared on Medium at The Nib. Go check out my other work there.
Emmitt and the Columbarium.
Okay but like. Imagine that you’ve had a long day. You’ve been captured and tortured by some neo nazi punk bitch and your mission is super compromised and you don’t know where your little robot buddy is or if he’s gonna be okay and in walks this stormtrooper. You’re like “okay this is it he’s either here to imprison or kill me but I’m not going down without a fight” but then he just pulls you aside and takes of his helmet to reveal not only the WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL MAN but also that he’s helping you escape because hes DEFECTING from the FIRST ORDER which you’ve probably never heard of a stormtrooper doing because the whole lifetime of brainwashing thing but despite the literal LIFETIME of brainwashing this one is too KIND and GOOD and BRAVE to be a part of the first orders cruelty. Like how are you NOT supposed to be like “I’m gonna call you Finn and also if you want the last name Dameron that can 100% be arranged.”
And then he shows up again and he’s WEARING YOUR JACKET because he thought you were DEAD and he’s been mourning you this entire goddamn time!
Being raised by areligious jews with 0 exposure to christianity outside pop culture is so fun. One time I asked my ex-catholic friend why a picture of jesus had a bristle crown and she looked at me like I was insane. One time I heard someone mention the "lance of longinus" and responded, word for word, "Like from Evangelion?" One time during a history lesson my professor described an important monk and scholar as "Dominican" and I spent the rest of class super confused and hung up on it because I was very sure that the Dominican Republic didn't meaningfully exist as an entity back then, maybe she meant he was a native Taino or something but that's a weird way to say that and I'm pretty sure this was pre- European contact? Really fucks people up when they realize I genuinely have no idea.
I once saw the seven deadly sins written out on a board at school (probably was a writing prompt idk) and I went oh the Homunculi from FullMetal Alchemist! and my friend looked at me cross eyed
Oh hey it's me reading Narnia! It's about Arthur right, because Lions are Kings, and he'll be back in the time of England's need!
subtitles should be on automatically. people who don’t want them should have to turn them off
I realized I only know 1 person besides myself that wears a non-smart watch every day. I'm curious how common wearing one in general still is? And if the majority of wearers use smart watches.
Unrestrained summer fun
BREAKING: Joe Biden today signed an executive order ending new federal contracts with private prisons.
This is great news, and a reminder of one of my three favorite memories from LEVERAGE (longtime humans know this one, you can skip)
The S2 finale -- which would have been a perfectly good series finale -- left Nate Ford in the hands of law enforcement. And Portland had this perfectly good empty prison sitting there. So S3 started with an episode about Nate, in prison, discovering a cash-for-inmates scam.
This episode was of course based on the famous "kids of Cash" scam where two PA took kickbacks to jail over 2000 kids. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal
So @Dean_Devlin as was his wont, arranged for the premiere episode to be shown in a proper theater, but party, etc. It was (insanely) shot on 6k, so why not?
At this screening I was sitting next to an older Hollywood agent ...
During the screening he leaned over to tease me. "This one is a bit much, isn't it?"
"No, this one is real," I whispered back.
He stared at me.
"Except in real life, it was kids."
A beat, then in full voice, in a crowded theater, he exclaimed "IN AMERICA?!"
Yeah, man. Welcome to the country you don't know exists, in the dirty little corners of your shining city on the hill.
I don't think we changed his politics. But we opened up his world a little. So I'll take that win.
Aperture Science Announcement Voice: “Congratulations, Homosexual! Your existence has been deemed profitable in the following regions: North America, Western Europe, and Australia.”
“To celebrate the occasion we have temporarily recolored all Aperture Science appliances in these regions to your favorite flavor of gay.”
“For further pandering on a wider area please continue fighting for basic human dignities and Aperture Science will be right there to celebrate your victory with you. Afterwards.”
It’s that time of the year again.
Nedra Glover Tawwab, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, The Six Types of Boundaries
THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?????
I get recreationally pissed off whenever people say they find Worf boring but im also aware that if they said it to his face he'd just nod and say "Good."