Source Details And Larger Version.

Oh my god yes literally. Pre transition I had the biggest lighthouse keeper chops and moustache. I miss it sometimes but shaving beats explaining to strangers 🙄

anyway, uh, fish fish fish fish fish

Why do I keep shaving my beard? Is it because I prefer to look more feminine? Is it because I prefer a smooth complexion? No. I shave my beard because I cannot let it get too powerful. I shave it to keep others safe

Nosferatu (2024) is unquestionably a multifaceted work, but what I personally consider to be the unifying idea behind its facets is that, for Ellen, Orlok represents validation.

Her fears are dismissed and called childish?.. He's a nightmarish manifestation of them.

She is consistently disrespected by everyone around her?.. He considers her his only equal. She never uses his title, it's permitted.

She is told to fix herself, misunderstood, and always isolated?.. He knows all the darkest parts of her and is delighted by them. He wants her just as she is, so much that he will lie, kill, and cross the ocean to find her.

The scene in their death/wedding bed is a direct parallel to the scene of her waking in that bed at the beginning of the film. She complains to Thomas that the "honeymoon is yet too short" and tries to pull him down with a kiss - however, he is worried about being late for work, and so he extricates himself and leaves. Cut forward to her sharing the same bed with Orlok, similarly early in the morning; he is startled by cock-crow and begins to rise, but she guides his head back down - and, even though he knows that he will die, he stays. He is her sexual and emotional desire, realized.

Given that there is a plethora of emotions Ellen is forced to suppress on daily basis, there is no singular correct interpretation of her relationship with Orlok. To erase any one of them is to render it shallower than it actually is; but there is no doubt as to why their attachment is mutual. To each, the other is something they’ve never had before.

Piper Bangs (American, 2002) - The Dance (2024)

Les Hallucinations du baron de Münchhausen (1911)

Samira Abbassy (Iranian, 1965) - Suspended by Belief (2022)

The Trophy Hunter

Their crowns may gleam, but they are dust, Built on tales and borrowed trust.

Today I cried a little bit because I remembered that when Beethoven conducted his ninth symphony for the first time he got a standing ovation and one of the sopranos had to turn him around to see the audience. 

I fucking loved Nosferatu. The Death and the Maiden imagery, how faithful it was to the original FW Murnau piece (including some of the recreations of iconic scenes), all the ‘Little Deaths’ and how FINALLY there’s some gnarly vampire erotica that doesn’t feature the vampire as some glazed twink, and has him as a rotten old corpse instead. Loved the Romanian dialogue. Loved that gruesome death scene, and the final frame was a fucking work of art.

Unfortunately it makes me so frustrated that not everybody will get it or understand it and why it’s so good. Everyone I’ve spoken to about it were too preoccupied with “all the weird moaning” and laughing at the full frontal vampire cock.

Meanwhile I’m sat there trying to explain vampire folklore and their cultural history, documents of ‘real’ vampirism, their symbolism and roots in xenophobia and antisemitism, blood libel, the manifestations of demons as personifications of shame and desire, Bram Stoker’s possible closeted homosexuality and his ties with Oscar Wilde and how Dracula was published around the same time Wilde was imprisoned, the ‘bohemian’ movement in the victorian period and how it simultaneously romanticised, fetishised and demonised Romani culture, la petit mort and necrophilia and how grief, sex and death are intertwined, the science behind why humans both are attracted to and repelled by the smell of indole, why funerals make people hungry/horny, the Victorian Christianity perspective on blood transfusions, the significance of blood as a ritualistic symbol and device throughout mythology and history, mental illnesses and medical conditions connected to vampirism and other vampiric folkloric creatures like the Nachzehrer and the Gwrach y Rhibyn whilst everyone looks at me like I’ve grown five heads

And honestly? I’ve never kinned Dr Van Helsing more in my life than at that exact moment.

By all means, take me to the cinema to watch a piece of vampire media but do not expect to win an argument concerning vampires against me because I can and will put you on your arse. This is my domain, my special interest.

Every few years I remember that the Alternative Limb Project exists and get blown away once more by their work.

This one is half hyper-realistic, and half swapable sections based on the woman's personality, moods, and spirituality.

This one comes with a DRONE and has control panels in the wrist and forearm, as well as a flashlight and laser pointer.

This one is older, from 2012, but I still love it. Shiny shiny.

This one has a WORKING CUCKOO CLOCK IN THE KNEE. A WORKING. CUCKOO CLOCK.

Another older one, this one with realistic snake.

This is a two part one, dedicated to railway workers/builders/passengers who lost limbs. The limbs can be hooked together to allow the little train to travel between them.

This one is a literal swiss army knife arm, full of survival supplies.

Just. GAH. They are all so neat.

The project was started by Sophie de Oliveira Barata and you really have to check out her work: https://thealternativelimbproject.com/

Great block, very beautiful and full of life

Mossy Stone Brick Stairs