"Grave" Robert TOMBshany
@robtomshany.bsky.social
610 followers 1.2K following 3.5K posts
Reply guy turned alt-text scold. Film buff (esp. animated, funny or arty stuff), music nut (polyjamorous), fan of sf/fantasy/comics. Favors extending freedom to people who can't take freedom for granted, opposes putting people "in their place". He/him
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Reposted by "Grave" Robert TOMBshany
anarcish.bsky.social
People know she’s here to get pictures of scary antifa guys so a very small group gathered and played twister with a guy in a chicken costume so all the propaganda would make her look stupid.

Portland is capable of being a war zone, but what we excel at is being the goofiest city in America
robtomshany.bsky.social
"The Bread Scale of Triviality," alt-texted:
The Bread Scale of Triviality, by @madepn.bsky.social - a horizontal line akin to the number line, but with various breads assigned positions on the line based on their presumed triviality, the most trivial on the left and the least trivial on the right. From left to right:

Nothingburger
Burnt toast
Wonder Bread
Matzoh
Crepe
Tortilla
Paratha
English Muffin
Injera
Naan
Cornbread
Challah
Xiaolongbao
Babka
Everything Bagel
Reposted by "Grave" Robert TOMBshany
kiixlyn.bsky.social
i took tylenol while i was autistic and now my son is pregnant
robtomshany.bsky.social
I read about that once! I remember Stravinsky advised young Warren to keep his melodic inspirations in the key in which they were conceived (which the adult Zevon noted was not always practical for a pop composer).
robtomshany.bsky.social
Igor Stravinsky could have heard all the original Beatles albums. And he DID hear Charlie Parker live in a club once; Parker acknowledged his presence by quoting a melody from the Firebird (in some tellings, the Rite of Spring), causing Stravinsky to pound his table in laughter, spilling his drink.
Reposted by "Grave" Robert TOMBshany
gremlin.world
I will never not repost this

(Sound on for maximum effect)
robtomshany.bsky.social
Syke-uh-dellick!🌈😵‍💫
pfrazee.com
The animation work for The Music Scene by Blockhead remains one of my absolute favorite animation work of all time. If you've never rabbit holed on the work of Anthony F. Schepperd, do yourself a favor and track down everything he's ever done
Blockhead - 'The Music Scene' (Official Video)
YouTube video by Ninja Tune
www.youtube.com
robtomshany.bsky.social
I'm fond of Watterson's characterization of "Garfield" (in one of his few interviews), which I remember as, "'Garfield' is [pause to search for an accurate but diplomatic word] consistent."
robtomshany.bsky.social
The one time I visited my long-distance girlfriend in her home city, I went to a service at her Methodist church and embarrassed the heck out of her by singing along with all the songs, but what was I to do? The ones I didn't know from my folksinging dad, I knew from O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
scalzi.com
When we moved to our little rural Ohio town in 2001, one of the first questions we were asked was which church we were going to join. I allowed that we hadn't given it much thought and if memory serves the fellow suggested we might like the Methodist Church in town and two decades later he was right
maniagnosis.bsky.social
The first time I was asked if I was a member of a church by an acquaintance was shortly after we moved to Alabama. I was caught off guard.

But now that I'm ready ("Starry Wisdom!"), nobody has ever asked since.
Reposted by "Grave" Robert TOMBshany
adapalmer.bsky.social
I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections
robtomshany.bsky.social
I have noted that animation and comics tend to attract artistically inclined workaholics - people for whom a day without drawing is a day squandered - but it's a little disconcerting to encounter such behavior "in the wild," as it were. Glad to see you drawing, but PLEASE take care of yourself!
robtomshany.bsky.social
In a similar vein, a lot of today's fiction about beleaguered robots and other artificial sentiences (e.g. Martha Wells's "Murderbot" stories, among many others) has less to say about the actual issues of "artificial intelligence" than about the contemporary dehumanization of labor. 2/end
robtomshany.bsky.social
Snow Crash is a great example of how a lot of the best science fiction isn't so much about "the future" as it is about the time in which it was written (though it's uncanny how much of it remains relevant). 1/2
Reposted by "Grave" Robert TOMBshany
robtomshany.bsky.social
Even if Trump wasn't a factor in the 2016 election, we would have had to deal with some sort of unprincipled authoritarian demagogue sooner or later, because that's what the people who voted for Trump in 2016 WANTED in the worst way. (And that's arguably what they got, in the worst way.)
robtomshany.bsky.social
Very much in the spirit of a lyric I wrote recently, "We need all kinds of people in this new world that's coming/Whether straight as an arrow or gender-nonconforming." But it runs counter to right-wing culture warriors' commitment to oppression, as noted in this post: bsky.app/profile/robt...
robtomshany.bsky.social
This is a great example of two different perspectives on white supremacy - people who can be reasoned out of it, and people who can't. Alt-texted, but the money quote is "A free society would be a more prosperous one. This, to slavery's defenders, completely missed the point."
Abraham Lincoln prior to the Civil War argued against slavery not just on moral but economic grounds: large plantations would be displaced by free workers. A free society would be a more prosperous one. This, to slavery's defenders, completely missed the point. John C. Calhoun, a proslavery senator, in a famous speech responded:

"Can as much, on the score of equality, be said of the North? With us, the two great divisions of society are not rich and poor, but white and black; and all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected...and hence have a position and pride of character which neither poverty nor misfortune can deprive them."
robtomshany.bsky.social
For sure. Seeing Tootsie as a teenager opened me up to the idea that a film could have subtext - it could be about more than just what was up there on the screen - and I could imagine Dirty Dancing doing that for someone else.
robtomshany.bsky.social
OK. I watched the Winona Ryder version because it was scored by my favorite film composer Thomas Newman, and the Saoirse Ronan version when it was up for the Oscar; they're both very good. My mom saw the June Allyson version as a kid; I haven't seen that one or the Katharine Hepburn version yet.
robtomshany.bsky.social
Cool! Second with me (I'd watched The Road Warrior on home video a few years earlier). Ummm...how about Little Women (any version is OK)?
robtomshany.bsky.social
As someone with a long-standing aversion to war movies, it's maybe not too surprising that I haven't seen Apocalypse Now yet, despite its high reputation and status as a cultural touchstone.