erosart:

Original artwork by James Needham

So great, James… you are king of minimalist works in my book. Great color choice, excellent subject matter. Many thanks, my dear ~ Eros

erosart:

Danni Shinya Luo

ade-hikari:

I’m Just Your Problem (por FranFnrl)

humansofnewyork:

On October 31, 2011 a girl was dangling off the edge of the GW bridge. Several cop cars showed up a few minutes later after several 911 calls. Asked what she was doing, she said: “Enjoying life.” Strangely poetic that one person’s enjoyment of life can appear to so many as a desire for death.

FACES

so no one told you,

you could be beautiful,

no one assured you

that you were wonderful,

somebody told you

you should be miserable,

someone convinced you

that you were expendable…

are you a jigsaw?

puzzled, not fitting in?

are you a tear drop,

falling and forgotten?

in your veins, blood runs,

history, ageless, deep,

in your mind, thoughts scream,

important, strong and steep,

in your genes, combinations

of all that has been,

in your heart, powerful

force held only by skin…

every face that you show

does not define you,

but every face they have seen

helps to refine you,

so understand

you are beautiful, wonderful, loved,

and let your face show

serene, peace like

nesting doves…

…what YOU think?

…i haven’t posted anything on Tumblr for a minute, mostly because i know no one reads my stuff here anyway, but also because i hate to just put stuff up to kill time.  one, cause you can’t kill time,it just goes on while you sit still.  two, because i have books to sell and art to perpetuate and that is far more pressing than this.  however, since i do have a moment to fill, i’m going to fill it with this observation; Adventure Time, my current favorite cartoon.  i think Adventure time is a perfect allegory for what is going on with culture and politics today, it is like a focus or microcosm that contains all the elements of what’s good tainted by what’s wrong in the world we live in.  and i’m going to voice MY OPINION, which is all this is and which i have a right to.

first, an admission:  i had no desire to like Adventure Time.  i was a Chowder and Flapjack fan, and A.T. seemed to be a watered down version of Flapjack.  i was completely wrong; the only thing they truly had in common other than the creative minds behind them were young boys addicted to ADVENTURE.  thus, when i finally did catch on to Adventure Time, i was hooked. 

what i’ve gleaned from viewing and surfing for clues is this:  the world of Adventure Time is a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, where most humans perished in a nuclear war long enough past to only be remembered as the Mushroom war.  i don’t see this as a Piers Anthony kind of parallel world story, but more like an instance where what was once mere legend or fable was able to be born from the ashes of a dead society, a dead world.  in this new world, inanimate objects and fables both took sentient form and developed their own societies.  candy people, flame people, ice creatures, fire wolves, intelligent penguins, apple pie baking elephants and meat pie baking berry royalty.  fantasy, absurdist and whimsical.  but there’s a dark side to this world.  it starts with the fact that Finn the human may be the only human left in existence.  raised by Joshua and Margaret, both dogs, along with their canine children Jermaine and Jake (Jake having super powers), Finn becomes a hero and an adventurer by the time he is twelve, with Jake as his brother/adviser/sometimes protector/best friend.  Finn and Jake, in fact, are largely the protectors of the land of Ooo, which is ruled over by Princess Bubblegum.  now, the only human is assigned (or takes on) the task of protecting a world in which he does not belong.  very Biblical, if you want to read it that way.  (Finn speaks often of his purity, and has a code of ethics that is fairly unshakeable to be so young) 

as well, on the dark side, there is a vampire queen over a thousand years old, an ice king who may be responsible for the destruction of the old world and is totally insane, the vampire’s father who is the king of the underworld known as the Nightosphere, the Lich, who is an evil force bent on killing everyone in Ooo.  the dead are raised up as either ghosts or zombies, goblins enslave timid cultures, and bears party in monster’s guts.  if a person was to seek the bad in this cartoon, they wouldn’t have to look far.  i don’t see it as bad, though.  i see it as A CARTOON, and a damn good one, in fact. 

but it gets complicated.  Finn, being a hero/protector/warrior, is just into puberty.  he is lonely as no one else can be, for he is the only one of his kind.  he says he gets ‘all weird’, but it must be despairing to feel so alone.  he develops a crush on the Princess of Ooo, and why would he not?  she is female, older than him, smarter than him, kind of like a schoolboy having a crush on his teacher.  she is aware of this, and its known that she has feelings for him as well, because when she regressed by to his age they were, for all intent, a couple.  until she got back to being 18 again and rejected him, but we’ll get to that.  Finn does much of what he does trying to impress Princess Bubblegum, and has no one to teach him about his very human feelings because there are no other humans around.  so he stumbles, and he falters and he falls and sighs and cries and keeps trying.  and no one, not one fan or fan page that i’ve run across has ever really addressed this.  and why not?

because…somewhere along the line came a situation that some felt they could claim as their own.  ‘what was missing’, the episode that is still in my top three.  it is revealed that some kind of feelings exist between Marcelline the Vampire Queen and Princess Bubblegum.  it has been claimed that apparently they were once lovers but fell out.  it’s been suggested that they should get back together, and i’m  sure that would please many folks, IF THEY WERE EVER TOGETHER IN THE FIRST PLACE,AND IF A CARTOON REPRESENTED HUMAN LIFE, WHICH IT DOES NOT.  is this really important enough to comment on?  it shouldn’t be, and yet it is. 

because, if you’re going to look at something in a worldly way, you should look at the whole thing, and not just the part that you want to see.  that’s what happens in the world today.  special interest people and groups create scenarios from dataless perhapses and create alternate realities where they choose to live and condemn anyone who will not give full credence to their skewed perspective.  so, here’s the breakdown of this situation from me:

Bubblegum is a vicious tease.  she knows Finn may be the last human, because he told her so, yet she continued past that point to enjoy the benefit of his heroics and his adoration while never telling him such would not be because of his youth. she has the ability to change her age, obviously, but if she gets younger she loses the throne, so power is what she values.  if this is true, and if she and Marcelline did used to be an item, it would stand to reason that Bubblegum’s need for power would have been the wedge that was driven between them, which could be implied by the statement ‘I NEVER SAID YOU HAD TO BE PERFECT’, and the inference ‘Marcelline, that’s too distasteful’ when Marcelline began her song.  I, however, do NOT believe that they were ever an item.  BECAUSE…Marcelline is a MILLENNIUM OLD. we know candy people age and die, as is evidenced by the graveyard and the candy corpses that Bubblegum attempted to bring back to life, several of which were very old.  i don’t know if they have the same lifespan that humans do, and i would imagine they probably live longer.  but Marcelline came through the Mushroom war, so she would likely have been a full-grown woman/vampire by the time Bubblegum was born, or made, or however that works out.  likely, they were friends, and they fell out, because of Bubblegum’s quest for power and the image that she had to maintain as ruler of a kingdom.  i believe that now, with all the traffic wanting them to be lovers, something may be written to that effect, but i don’t believe that’s how it started out.  they started out as barely polite frenemies, and because of one episode became ex-lovers who may or may not reconcile. 

…and what of poor Finn, left out in the cold because he needs interaction with a female?  well, he apparently doesn’t matter, because he is a male.  i mean, as a male myself, i felt my heart pang with Finn’s song ‘all gummed up inside’ because i’ve lain on the floor with frustration and anguish over a female that i felt i loved.  and to have kissed her and been hugged by her, to have had a chance to be with her when she was younger and to, through no fault of your own, have no chance with the woman that you feel the most love for?  is there no empathy for this?  well, it’s a cartoon, and a damn finely written one.  but a cartoon still, needing no more interpretation than just the basics.  but it gets more because adult fans demand more, so i hypothesize as well.  perhaps the real deal is that Finn is not of royal blood, and therefore not really a prime candidate for her affection.  but that’s not likely, as there are a slew of princesses but no princes to be found (except in the gender-swap episode, as it is now referred to).  maybe much of Finn’s acumen is based on his ‘purity’, and the writers know if he loses his ‘virginity’ he might be much less virtuous, much more vulnerable to damage.  but i don’t think so, because he is going to have a new interest in his life in the next season, probably  the fire princess seems a good combination of both Bubblegum and Marcelline, with the Ice King’s insanity thrown in for good measure.  Finn has a thing for dangerous women.  and there are other things that remain far more interesting than simply figuring out the sexuality of two cartoon characters.

like, will the quintet of PB, Marcelline, Finn, Jake and Beemo ever cut a record and will it be available to the public?  who plays bass for Marcelline’s character (we know Olivia Olson does a spectacular job with her voice and vocals), will there be some kind of fallout between Jake and Marcelline due to Finn’s new sword being made of demon’s blood, probably from the Nightosphere where Marcelline is daughter of the ruler, will Me-Mow get revenge on Jake, did the Snow Golem survive and is the Fire Pup still with him, what’s the deal with Peppermint Butler and Gunther, how will Finn ever make things right between himself and the Fire Princess for Jake rejecting her while pretending to be Finn…

i mean, wow, there’s so much, and i’m dying to see what’s coming.  but i don’t want to think of it as anything except a cartoon.  i’m not going to be drawn into wondering what the deep and meaningful ramifications are of Marcelline giving PB a tee shirt really mean.  i don’t want to belong to any pro-this or pro-that with my cartoon being held hostage as a result.  and i’m sure the kids don’t want that either. 

there’s enough of that kind of nonsense going on in the big world that is falling apart, perhaps on the verge of its own mushroom war.  we should just feel whatever we feel, and enjoy the show. and if i’m wrong for thinking so, then i’m wrong, cause i’m going to think so anyway. 

i’m just your problem.