My doggo, Ezri, who rarely barks and mostly borks.
When I got her, she’d been abused and would cower and pee at almost everything, and had been mistreated when she’d barked, so she never would. One day months after I had her she got excited on a walk and borked at a bird, and then immediately cower-peed. I had to re-teach her to bark by gathering her whole human pack and having everyone bark and howl and feed her treats and pet her till she got excited enough to join in, and then got more treats. Took a while but I was able to teach her to bork on command (and she’s gotta be excited or she just stares at me like “Sorry, the bork system needs charging”) and she’ll do it happily when she’s excited to go for a walk or upon seeing a friend, and at birds. I love her croaky borking, especially when she started off terrified of making a joyful noise.
What kind of dog is Ezri? I love her!!
I… did not expect this post to blow up this much but I am delighted at all the tags and replies and Ezri has been told the internet thinks she’s a Very Good Dog. 😀
She’s a German spitz – in the same family as keeshonds and pomeranians. She might be crossed with something else as her freckled coat, non-pointy nose, and personality are not standard for her breed (they’re usually a lot more high energy and excitable – she’s super laid back and chill). She’s a bit less fluffy than breed-standard too, mostly because she’s grown out from her spring/summer trim (not usually necessary/good for her type of coat but she gets terribly itchy otherwise). It also makes her look like a puppy of a large breed:
Ezri’s best friend is Murder Cat, who is a gentle friend to humans and Ezri, but does things to mice that would make Hannibal Lecter go “Isn’t that a bit much?”
I got Murder Cat as a kitten, and she used to try to nurse on everything when she was small. Eventually, she settled on her favourite thing to nurse on, Ezri, who has never had puppies and a little confused at first but eventually went with it. She grew out of it, but they have stayed snuggly buddies ever since.
New Years here is full of fireworks outside and Ezri gets Vry Scared. I usually set her up somewhere with a snuggly spot right by me, and Murder Cat comes and does this all night:
She goes everywhere with me in my bakfiets (cargo bike) and lets me warm my hands in her fur on cold days.
And her ears disappear if I say her name to get her attention.
ok so great thanks for coming to my TED talk about my dog, good night, drive safe
“I just…I don’t know. I LOVE drawing Erik’s face. I love it. It’s hideous, but that’s what makes it so much fun. It’s always so much fun for me, every single time, to try and portray the beauty in the grotesque. Because I do believe that beauty extends far beyond airbrushed notions of perfection. If you look at things through an artistic lens–in terms of light, shading, color, and form–suddenly, beauty can be found in the most unusual places. I suppose Erik just became my channel for that message, as ridiculous and lofty as that sounds. I try to preserve his dignity and beauty, in all its gruesome detail, when I draw his face. It’s a challenge. Because in essence, Erik resembles the one thing that mankind reviles the most: death. It’s horrific. It’s abject. No wonder he was so feared; he was a living corpse, an embodiment of decay, so monstrously impossible to ponder that society cast him off, and he even cast HIMSELF off by hiding his face and walling himself up in a glorified tomb.
Therein lies the challenge every time I draw Erik: take something so despised and feared and, through an artistic lens, redeem it as best I can. He deserves it, at least. 🙂 After all, we’re still in love with this character 100 years after he first crashed that chandelier! ”
-Muirin007
Personally I just can second that comment.
Phantastic art is here again!!
I love it that she uploads so much in the last time. C: My day is suddenly great when I see it.
I just saw this and first of all, I’m so touched that you posted this with my quote. I’ve never been quoted before. Except when people mimic me screaming. Which happens often.
Secondly, I still feel this way. It never gets old. Ever. This story has been so fundamental in helping me challenge my ideas of what beauty really means. I don’t think I could every really express how important Phantom is to me. Because of this guy, I find myself almost automatically thinking, “That is gorgeous” when I look at something–anything–that’s not considered conventionally beautiful–even something grotesque. I think Erik has made me a much more open-minded person. Feels somewhat odd to be grateful to a fictional character, but I definitely am. I’m touched that my portrayal of him resonates with people.
If we can learn anything from his story, it’s to love intensely and to remain open-hearted. The world needs more of that.
It’s us again! So a lot of VERY EXCITING stuff happening in VC TV land these days! We got together to talk about it and recorded this minisode for ya!
We discuss the latest developments in regards to VC TV aka The Vampire Lestat TV show finally landing with a network and what we think about that. Then we talk future Vampire Chronicles merchandise at Hot Topic and Kacy tells us a vampire related anecdote from her babybat days!
We’re excited to hear your thoughts on the VC TV developments, let us know in the comments what you think or send us an email!
We have a full episode coming out very shortly, hurry up and subscribe to be alerted of new releases!
^this thumbs up from Al Bundy is probs closest to my feelings bc (at least out of its original context) it appears to be approval, begrudging approval, maybe a little sarcastic, but you can tell that he IS glad, too, he’s so tired, but always open to the good in the world… he’s waited a long time, he’s acclimated to waiting.*
IDK much about Hulu and the shows/movies they have, just that they’re often sending out free trial offers and like, it reminds me of drug dealers trying to get new ppl hooked in with free samples, which is standard operating procedure but still makes me wary.
I am, as always, and forever shall be, ~#cautiously optimistic~, and I am glad that someone who’s kind of a big deal showed interest enough that it seems like things are in motion again!
*(As a side note: I always loved ‘Married… With Children,’ and I think it was partly bc as bitter and grumpy as Al was, and as mean-spirited as he could behave at times, deep down, you could tell he loved his wife, family, neighbors, and friends, and had made some peace with his life choices. Maybe I was projecting onto him, but anyway, this was a formative character for me.)(Which is my long-winded example of smne who may appear to be just another unlikable/problematic character in a sitcom, but I found smtg good and substantive in him, which will hopefully be the case with the new VC TV series with all the problematic characters/stuff in it).
Additionally,
1) Re: international fans:
2) Also, fanart about it, by Miriam Meza (link below cut):
3) Aaaand as per Hulu as a content creator/provider:
“According to The Hollywood Reporter, which was the first to announce the news, Anne and Christopher will executive produce the Vampire Chronicles series with David Kanter and Steve Golin.
Hulu received a record 27 Primetime Emmy nominations when the Television Academy made the announcement last week. That includes mentions of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Looming Tower, I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman, and March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step.”
– Entertainment Weekly, July 17, 2018 (link below cut). This is heartening info, I’d say 😉, even though I don’t watch those shows or know about Kanter or Golin. Emmy nominations on those shows are hopefully a good sign.
^this thumbs up from Al Bundy is probs closest to my feelings bc (at least out of its original context) it appears to be approval, begrudging approval, maybe a little sarcastic, but you can tell that he IS glad, too, he’s so tired, but always open to the good in the world… he’s waited a long time, he’s acclimated to waiting.*
IDK much about Hulu and the shows/movies they have, just that they’re often sending out free trial offers and like, it reminds me of drug dealers trying to get new ppl hooked in with free samples, which is standard operating procedure but still makes me wary.
I am, as always, and forever shall be, ~#cautiously optimistic~, and I am glad that someone who’s kind of a big deal showed interest enough that it seems like things are in motion again!
*(As a side note: I always loved ‘Married… With Children,’ and I think it was partly bc as bitter and grumpy as Al was, and as mean-spirited as he could behave at times, deep down, you could tell he loved his wife, family, neighbors, and friends, and had made some peace with his life choices. Maybe I was projecting onto him, but anyway, this was a formative character for me.)(Which is my long-winded example of smne who may appear to be just another unlikable/problematic character in a sitcom, but I found smtg good and substantive in him, which will hopefully be the case with the new VC TV series with all the problematic characters/stuff in it).
“Whether the Andrea Gail rolls,
pitch-poles, or gets driven down, she winds up, one way or another, in a
position from which she cannot recover. Among marine architects this is known
as the zero-moment point – the point of no return.” –Sebastian Junger, “The
Perfect Storm”
Posts like this aren’t my usual fare, but there’s a lot of
readers on Tumblr. So y’all might be interested – or, if not, you really should
be.
On Monday, this went down:
That’s the bloodless, matter-of-fact, ho-hum business event
way of describing it. Let me paint you a different picture.
On Monday morning, every single Barnes & Noble location –
that’s 781 stores – told their full-time employees to pack up and leave. The
eliminated positions were as follows: the head cashiers (those are the people
responsible for handling the money), the receiving managers (the people
responsible for bringing in product and making sure it goes where it should),
the digital leads (the people responsible for solving Nook problems), the newsstand
leads (the people responsible for distributing the magazines), and the bargain
leads (the people responsible for keeping up the massive discount sections). A
few of the larger stores were able to spare their head cashiers and their
receiving managers, but not many.
Just about everyone lost between 3 and 7 employees. The
unofficial numbers put the total around 1,800 people.
People.
We’re not talking post-holiday culling of seasonal workers.
This was the Red Wedding. Every person laid off was a full-time
employee. These were people for whom Barnes & Noble was a career.
Most of them had given 5, 10, 20 years to the company. In most cases it was
their sole source of income.
I-want-my-IWTV 