Month: Dec 2014

prettyarbitrary:

obsessiforge:

bluandorange:

so I’ve got this headcanon that Guardians of the Galaxy is really the Avengers playing a table top roleplaying game, where Bucky’s the DM who suffers through heaps and loads of trolling 

Mostly from Steve

Especially from Steve

Which means Natasha was the one who sat down and wrote out the long, comprehensive backstory for her kickass space assassin Gamora, that Bucky keeps trying to work into the campaign but they keep getting sidetracked by –

Tony who just created what he sees himself as – the suave, wise-cracking space vagabond.

Thor who needed a lot of help building his character and decided on a couple easy to remember traits (Strong, honor, doesn’t get metaphors)

and Bruce who’s actually too busy to pay full attention so any time Bucky asks what he wants to do he just says “I am Groot” and lets Steve decide

It’s everything RPGs should be.

Can you tell me why Frodo is so important in lotr? Why can’t someone else, anyone else, carry the ring to mordor?

iridescentoracle:

notbecauseofvictories:

but someone else could.

that’s the whole point of frodo—there is nothing special about him, he’s a hobbit, he’s short and likes stories, smokes pipeweed and makes mischief, he’s a young man like other young men, except for the singularly important fact that he is the one who volunteers. there is this terrible thing that must be done, the magnitude of which no one fully understands and can never understand before it is done, but frodo says me and frodo says I will.

(when boromir is thinking of how he can use the ring to defend gondor, when aragorn is thinking of how it brought down proud isildur, when elrond is holding council and gandalf is thinking of how twisted he would become, if he ever dared—)

but then there’s frodo, who desires nothing except what he has already left behind him, and says, I will take the Ring.

it is an offer made out of absolute innocence, utter sincerity. It is made without knowing what it will make of him—and frodo loses everything to the ring, he loses peace and himself and the shire, he loses the ability to be in the world. It’s cruel, the ring is cruel, it searches out every weakness you have and feeds on it, drinks you dry and fills you with its poison instead, the ring is so cruel.

and frodo picks it up willingly. for no other reason except that it has to be done.

(the ring warps boromir into a hopeless grasping dead thing, the power of the palantir turns denethor into an old man, jealous and suspicious, it bends even saruman, once the proudest of the istari, into a mechanised warlord, sitting in his fortress and bent over his perverse creations—all the best of intentions, laid waste)

but there’s a reason gollum exists in the narrative, which is to show—well, to show what frodo might have been. because even as frodo grows mistrustful and wearied, as the burden of this ring grows heavier and heavier, he is never gollum. he is gentle to gollum. he is afraid—god frodo is so afraid for 2/3 of these books he is so tired and afraid, but he keeps moving, he walks though it would pull him into the ground, because he asked for this, he said he would.

someone else could have carried the ring to mordor, I suppose. the idea of a martyr is not dependent on the particular flesh and blood person dying for some greater purpose. but such a thing has to be chosen, lifted onto your shoulders for the right reason, the truest reasons, and followed into the dark, though it would see you burnt through and bled out.

I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way.

#the older I get the more defensive I become of frodo #because frodo was whole and pure and unthinking and he did this terrible necessary thing #thinking of nothing except that it had to be done #and that is so hard #in the world #that is so much #that is a hero’s burden (via notbecauseofvictories)

Female character: *cries over emotional trauma*
Fandom: UGH she’s so annoying i hate her all she does is cry and whine and sulk SHES SO USELESS!!! weak female character!!
Male character: *cries over emotional trauma*
Fandom: o h my gosh. my baby. noooo dont cry ily. precious child. my baby boy. must protect at all cost *tear of inner misogyny rolls down cheek*

gingerchic333:

never-let—it-die:

midnattenswidunder:

cockman-dickman:

fuckyeahjerm:

metanoianmayhem:

sapphirefiber:

ohthewhomanity:

sizvideos:

Video

But…what about learning to read sheet music?

What about it?

Boo fucking hoo, technology is making music more accessible and removing the barriers associated with sheet music. Fire is scary and Thomas Edison was a witch.

Yes, I said barriers.

Not everyone is great at reading sheet music. I started playing piano when I was four and I still absolutely SUCK at sheet music. It’s just never clicked for me. I can identify notes, given enough time, but it takes me forever to learn a new piece, I often have to literally mark what a note is, and sight-reading is incredibly far beyond me. If I had access to this, maybe I would still be playing piano instead of just letting it gather dust in the spare room. Maybe I would still be improving my skills. Heck, maybe I could use it as a tool to IMPROVE MY SHEET MUSIC READING.

Think of how accessible this makes piano music to the sight-impaired. How much easier it is to see those colored bars and lit keys than the little dots on little lines on a page.

Stairs didn’t go out of style because we invented escalators. Books didn’t go out of style because Kindles are a thing. Sheet music isn’t going to just up and vanish because there’s a new alternative on the block. You can keep playing from sheet music if that’s your thing, and people will keep learning from it.

But I can see this being fantastic for people who sheet music just really isn’t their thing, because of accessibility or other reasons.

as someone who really struggled with sheet music, this is fantastic

The sheet music system is a huge obstacle for any musician. When I wanted to be a musical therapist, I sat in on a rally of classically trained pianists who teach music at the University level, and every one of them agreed that sheet music is a failed system. It may have been the best option to write music ages ago, but it’s outdated, and restrictive to creation. 

Many of them mentioned that a color-coded system would be a more ideal approach, and I think this is a beautiful step in that direction.

I don’t think sheet music is like, an intentional barrier-it’s intended to make music more easy to communicate, and does pretty well at that!

That said-I think this would make learning pretty much any music a lot easier, and it seems super cool.

Who in their right fucking mind thinks sheet music is a failed system are you kidding me lol

NO, FUCK ALL OF YOU! I WASTED 6 YEARS OF MY CHILDHOOD BEING FORCED TO LEARN TO PLAY PIANO BY READING SHEET MUSIC AND NOW THEY’VE TURNED IT INTO GUITAR HERO WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS

misscarletwitch:

I NEED EVERYONE WHO LOOKS AT THEIR GODDAMN DASHBOARD TONIGHT TO KNOW THAT IN THE ORIGINAL LEGEND, PART OF THE REASON ROBIN HOOD LOVED MAID MARIAN IS THAT SHE WAS OUT ADVENTURING, DRESSED AS A MAN, AND BESTED HIM IN COMBAT

AND THEN JOINED HIS MERRY MEN

ROBIN HOOD HAD NO EQUAL WITH A SWORD EXCEPT FOR MAID GODDAMN MARIAN

AND IF THAT ISN’T THE MOST BADASS THING YOU’VE HEARD TODAY I DON’T WANNA FUCK WITH YOU