cimorene | Network

Earlier this week we saw new Black Swan musical, which felt so obviously necessary and important that it was only like a few days prior that I realized I had never actually seen the movie Black Swan. So! On Monday we watched Black Swan (2010) and then on Tuesday we went to see the show.

For those of you who missed Black Swan (2010), it's just under two hours of tightly-wound ballerina Natalie Portman getting cast as the lead in Swan Lake and then dramatically unraveling betwixt the combined pressures of controlling live-in stage mom, ambitious shadow-double understudy [ft. hallucinatory toxic yuri], and psychosexually exploitative artistic director Thomas Leroy.

Black Swan (the musical) (2026) is also two hours of a tightly-wound ballerina getting cast as the lead in Swan Lake and then dramatically unraveling, but there are some key differences; most significantly, there is no psychosexually exploitative artistic director! Instead, towards the beginning of the show, the company manager explains that the celebrity guest choreographer for Swan Lake has had to pull out unexpectedly ["cancelled," the corps mutter sagely to each other] and is going to be replaced by a different celebrity choreographer, Margaux LeRoy, who appears and immediately delivers a speech about how in her Swan Lake Reimagined there will be NO prince! NO evil wizard! It's ALL about the swans!

I admit I do think it's very funny that the creative directors explained the thesis of their creative project by sending the beautiful and charismatic Amber Iman out as their stand-in to go "We're doing Black Swan without the heterosexuality! Please clap!" But also I am really sympathetic to and interested in the project -- this adaptation is making an argument that voyeuristic sexual exploitation by domineering men is not the only kind of horror story you can tell about ballet, that you can focus the horror explicitly on a pressure-cooker of women in a toxic system fracturing against each other in various ways and have it be just as sharp and scary and powerful. I really appreciate this as an adaptation tactic and I think the show gets like 75% of the way to being something that could, if successful, be better than the film.

( unfortunately I don't think the show actually manages to prove its point; that said there was some stuff I really liked )

austin_dern

My humor blog this week brings us a lot of comic strip stuff! Much of it is plot recaps of Popeye but there's also some nonsense about Beetle Bailey and B.C. so enjoy that.

Next thing on the photo roll is the trip we made with MWS down to Cedar Point for their closing day last season. We thought this would be a pretty good riding day and maybe give him the chance to ride his 100th and 101st roller coasters and turns out the park was packed, rides were slow, and he had to go back to the car and rest a while, so the day ended up disappointing, and we promised we'd have a better trip this year.

Cedar Point's welcome sign up front of the Midway Carousel, which I think I only shared photographs of from the back side before.

You know the season's gone on too long when the pumpkin pig statue has fallen over.

Tall skeleton walker pointing to one of the kids near the Bonewalk.

Here's what one of them --- there were several working the crowd --- look like with their handler acting all casually on the left side there.

I suppose this was a pretty boring park map anyway. (I assume they were swapping out the Halloween map for the Regular Season map but it seems like they had like five months more to do that in.)

SkyHawk and the building that used to be the far end of the Frontier Trail sky ride, but in a really good afternoon light.

We took the (full-size) train to get back to the front of the park, and I got a picture of this antique carriage just because, you know, who knows when it'll be gone?

As long as I'm photographing boring stuff in the park that might suddenly disappear? How about the Perey-brand turnstile counting the riders?

Ride operator giving warning abut what not to do on the train (mess around).

There's bunches of scenes of comic mayhem starring skeletons in a vaguely old west town that's not part of the Halloweekends decoration, at least not anymore; they're there year-round.

Moment of afternoon sun behind the Mine Ride roller coaster and the lake it runs over.

And a picture-postcard-ready photograph of the Mine Ride over the water. The smoke is from the train carrying us.

Trivia: The expression ``mail-order'' is first recorded in English in 1867. Source: The Grand Emporiums: The Illustrated History of America's Great Department Stores, Robert Hendrickson. Etymology Online gives 1875, by the way, but since Hendrickson doesn't say what his citation is I suppose it's impossible for the truth to ever be known. Hendrickson offers the speculation that ordering of specific goods by mail during the Civil War left United States customers ready to think of buying stuff generally by mail and setting them up for department-store catalogues the rest of the century.

Currently Reading: Natural History Magazine, May 2026, Editor Erin Espelie.

muccamukk

Some of the spelling may be off. A petition to the Chancery Court of England, from the late 1400s:
( Long paragraph, no punctuation of any kind )

imhilien

I've done a new acrylic painting, ‘Lily Pond in Bloom’, based on a photo I took at the Winter Gardens in town.

I've painted this lily pond in a hothouse before, but from a different angle. In this painting, you can look through the door and see an ornamental pond in the distance and then the doorway to the other hothouse.

Now available on things to buy at my Redbubble store, such as greeting cards and tote bags.

https://www.redbubble.com/i/postcard/Lily-Pond-in-Bloom-by-NicciArt/181604777/vk5y

Current Mood: chipper

palominocorn

I am extremely picky about love stories in fiction generally: a number of common romance conventions annoy or even infuriate me (not backing off after "no" as a show of how strong someone's feelings are; love being demonstrated primarily by jealous behaviors; the cliched third act misunderstanding), either because it's so contrary to how I experience love, or because it's just bloody dysfunctional.

Queer love stories, in addition to these pitfalls, also have two common things I'm not particularly interested in reading at this point in my life: the queer awakening and coming to terms plotline, and the bigotry. We need stories that deal with both of these, and I fully encourage people to read and write them. They're just not for me - I'm not joking when I say I've been out longer than some of my subscribers have been alive. I want my stories to have queer people who exist and do awesome (and mundane) things and it's not a big deal.

autobotscoutriella

Watching nature documentaries with cats is way more high-energy than watching them alone. Yes, Springs, I know you can see the bird and you can hear the bird, but you can't catch the bird, please stop leaping onto the TV...

Current Mood: amused

stardust_rifle

The kind of people who go "If you want Actual Queer Rep, go out and look for media that actually has it, you don't need to rely on making it up yourself via shipping" are so puzzling to me. To my ears, it sounds similar to someone saying "If you want a cool toy car or a model of the Death Star, you realize you can actually buy those things, you don't have to rely on making them via Legos". Sometimes, people actually enjoy playing with Legos!

holmesticemods posting in

holmestice

Title: The Many Uses of Blood
Recipient: EstelRaca
Author: REDACTED
Verse: Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Characters/Pairings: Holmes & Watson & Mycroft
Rating: M
Warnings: Aftermath of self-injury
Summary: “What have you done to my brother?” Mycroft demanded as soon as he wrenched the door open.

Read on Ao3: The Many Uses of Blood

soc_puppet posting in

queerly_beloved

Hello again, all! I hope you like Thursday Recs!

Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!

Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!

hannah

This afternoon, I heard someone proudly talking about how they're featured in every chapter of their psychiatrist's upcoming book.

It's a book about living with and recovering from eating disorders.

I'm not sure what she was trying to communicate, or why she wanted to talk about it with a relative stranger in the room. It reminded me a little of a conversation a while back where someone else at the table was trying to impress and shock the group by crowing about how she was in such a bad place in college, she had to take mandatory therapy sessions.

At that dinner, I said, "Who hasn't?"

At the gym today, I didn't ask a thing.

At that dinner, she doubled down on trying to explain her therapy had been mandatory - "Yeah, who hasn't?" I said again, casually, having been there myself and taking a certain sense of pleasure in deflating a moment by reminding someone that while their experiences might not be universal, neither are they unique or unprecedented.

At the gym today, the person was talking about the therapists and doctors she sees on a regular basis, and at multiple points her trainer asked her to slow down because she was talking too fast for him to understand, and I had the wicked thought of asking about a speech therapist, and said nothing, only asking her for the author's name. I didn't find out about the book's subject matter until I got back to my apartment, so to go from hearing someone attempt a flex about simply being in their psychiatrist's upcoming book to a book on eating disorders added the additional dimension to have me wonder about it with a greater level of specificity.

I keep wondering if she was talking like that because she's so proud of her accomplishments, just as I keep wondering why she's announcing that.

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: nothing now

sovay

I left the house for this afternoon's doctor to discover that the mail had already brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #87, containing my poem "Gramarye." It owes a title to Susan Cooper and the rest to anger and the sea. It belongs to the talent issue, sharing double edges with the fiction and poetry of Joseph Hirsch, Marissa Lingen, J. Hellend, David Kopaska-Merkel and more. I love the alert, alien camera contributed to the cover art by John and Flo Stanton. Pick up a copy, add to the weirdness. Its digest-sized persistence is a gift.

I love the idea of adding Glasgow to Boston's roster of sister cities, or Boston to Glasgow's. I keep forgetting we're not officially twinned with Halifax.

WERS played Aretha Franklin's "Eleanor Rigby" (1971) as I was driving from

a_reasonable_man's to my mother's. I may have been given a new motto. It is fine that the tornado watch seems to have expired in a very brief monsoon.

Current Music: Belly, "Feed the Tree"

senmut

You all spoiled me with tales of your critters. Thank you all.

Today, I am inviting you all to share a small piece of trivia. Any subject, just a little something you learned and retained.

The band Filter's lead singer is the brother of the T2 Terminator's actor. (Richard and Robert Patrick, respectively.)

rivers_of_london_ao3_feed

Posted by LonesomeOctober2

https://archiveofourown.org/works/86954991

by LonesomeOctober2

Martin finds an appreciative audience for his poetry, and makes an unlikely friend. And his relationship with Jon starts to improve dramatically.
Rated teen for some 'f word' use, and sexual references (no actual sex though, since I am old, white, British, and can't even write snogging let alone smut)

Words: 3972, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Angel: the Series, Good Omens - All Media Types, Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch, Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Doctor Who (1963)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: F/M, M/M
Characters: Martin Blackwood, Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Henry Gordon Jago, Susan Sto Helit, The Quiet People, Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens), Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Additional Tags: The Magnus Archives Season 1

https://archiveofourown.org/works/86954991

anais_pf posting in

thefridayfive

1. What is your biggest waste of time in your home?

2. When at work, what is the activity that you find wastes the most time?

3. When getting busy with a date or significant other, what ritual could you do without?

4. What is the biggest waste of time on the Internet?

5. What do you do at a restaurant to waste time when waiting for your meal?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7104 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 05 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1014.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

rolanni

Thursday. Rainy and cool. Sitting in the comfy chair in my office with an orange cat on my lap. Drinking my first cup of tea.

First load of towels is in the washer and in a minute, when Tali lets me, I'll get up and get some breakfast and then I'll go write for a while.

Yes, that's boring. I can probably use some boring.

How's the day shaping up at your house?
#
Lunch break. I have done my duty to the cats, and also due diligence on my new medication, which leads me to believe, given the other Real Medication that I take daily, lisinopril needs to be taken at lunchtime. Since linsiopril holds out the tantalizing possibility that it may induce dizziness and I should be cautious on stairs*, cat box cleaning is hereby shifted to before lunch, rather than after.

I've had a pretty good morning of writing, and intend to go back to it after lunch, since I haven't finished my scene yet.

I don't know that I've mentioned this before, but Rookie da Cookie has taken to curling up with his head on the pillow next to mine at bedtime, which I'm at the moment finding adorable, and also canny. Tali sleeps tucked up under my right arm, and Firefly sleeps across my ankles. This way everybody has room, nobody gets swatted in the face with a tail (including me), and there are therefore very few midnight squabbles.

. . . and it looks like lunch is warm.
______
*I remain amazed by the people who scold you for being Old and At Risk for Falling who then prescribe med after med that "may make you dizzy."
#
And that's a wrap. For local definitions of "wrap." One thousand six hundred fifty-five words, bringing the WIP Entire to!

+/- 10,660 words.

Time for a cup of tea and a cookie, is what I'm thinkin'...

musesfool

My nephew Victor entered Mayor Mamdani's lottery for the 300 seats at City Hall for today's Knicks parade, and he won! So he and Trish got to sit through the ceremony and see everything from relatively close up! They said it was awesome. I watched but did not see them in the crowd. I enjoyed it. There were so many high points - Mamdani's speech, Brunson's speech, seeing Alvarado and KAT, who are local and really understand what this means to the city, dancing to Alicia Keys! Mariska Hargitay! Her and Brunson's mutual admiration society is so cute! A fitting end to a magical post-season.

*

Current Music: New York State of Mind - Billy Joel

copperbadgetumblr_feed

https://copperbadge.tumblr.com/post/819795291358330880

They are :) I knew I wanted a bonded pair of kitties, and I wanted them to have fun matching names. I went through a couple of options, but Dearborn and Polk is essentially my "home" intersection (we live very close by) and they're reasonable names on their own as well.

Chicago locals laugh when they hear it; midwesterners generally recognize Dearborn as a regional name, and it's kind of a cute name for a cat even if you don't know the name from living locally. But I do get a lot of out-of-towners who will go "Did you name one of your cats after a president?" (Polk Street was named after the president.)

https://copperbadge.tumblr.com/post/819795291358330880

copperbadgetumblr_feed

https://copperbadge.tumblr.com/post/819790538190602240

So earlier I posted about a neighborhood restaurant that was causing ongoing noise and nuisance complaints, to the point where our local alderman and the city’s legal office were holding community meetings about it. Well there have been DEVELOPMENTS.

I’ve been attending the meetings out of curiosity; I hear the restaurant’s music sometimes, but I’m far enough away that it doesn’t actually bother me. I rarely go out at night, so I hadn’t encountered the “nuisance” aspects of it, which include lots of loitering drunk people, mysterious box trucks with no license plates blocking bike lanes while unloading, and bouncers swearing and trying to stop and frisk people walking past the restaurant.

(“Why does a restaurant have bouncers?” you ask. Well, one of the complaints was “He’s operating a nightclub but just using a restaurant license to do it.”)

Anyway, I was intrigued to attend the latest video call because last time ONE DERANGED PERSON got on the line and spent ten minutes telling everyone else that the place is fine and if it isn’t nobody cares and if you do you’re a narc. I wanted to see if they were gonna come back to rant again and they did, but they got stymied by the moderator, who insisted that if you wanted to talk you had to “raise your hand” in the video call and they clearly couldn’t figure out how to do that.

But then. After the airing of grievances and the owner’s lawyer apologizing for no-showing at the last meeting, the alderman’s spokesperson got on the line. FIFTY MINUTES into a one hour meeting, she said, “Before you inform the owner about the steps he needs to take to prevent this from becoming a legal issue, the Alderman has a question. He understands that the building landlord has served the owner with an eviction notice for the business, and we’d like to know if you and your client are aware of this?”

Every visible face on the video call did a jaw drop. It was awesome. I was muted and I still went “OooooohOOOOOOHHHHH!”

So yeah turns out the owner is “a little behind on the rent” but is confident he can bounce back, and then the moderator gave him a list of twenty things he needed to do (or not do) to fix the non-rent-related problems, two of which were “Stop doing unlicensed bottle service” and “No sparklers indoors”.

The next meeting is the second week in July. I’ve already put it on my calendar.

https://copperbadge.tumblr.com/post/819790538190602240

sholio

Writing up a few books I've read over the last few months and never wrote about. (There will be a separate post for the nonfiction. Probably. Eventually.)

Out Law by Jim Butcher - This is a Dresden Files novella set during or perhaps shortly after Twelve Months that came out in May. It took me a while to read it because the summary looked like it featured Marcone heavily and I ... really do not like Marcone AT ALL. (I know this is a very minority opinion among Dresden Files readers.) However, it turns out that he appears for a couple pages in the beginning to set up the plot, and is otherwise Sir Not Appearing In This Book. And I really enjoyed it!

Spoilers/reactions: ( Under here )

Emmett Hardy series by Chris Kelsey (books 1-6) - This is a noir-flavored series of mystery/crime/police procedurals set in small-town Oklahoma in the 1960s and 1970s that I inhaled over the course of the spring.

More about that: ( Under the cut, no specific spoilers )

The Inheritance by Ilona Andrews - This is "Ilona Andrews does portal fantasy." The first 2/3 or so of the book was GREAT. And then the ending was staggeringly disappointing. So all in all, I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it.

Spoilers proceed: ( Under here )

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Cimorene

June 2026

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skygiants - (no subject)
austin_dern - Aaron's here without a Betty without a Charlie
muccamukk - I had to transcribe this for history, and think it's very funny, so you're getting it too.
imhilien - Lily Pond painting
palominocorn - (no subject)
autobotscoutriella - (no subject)
stardust_rifle - (no subject)
holmesticemods in holmestice - Treat for EstelRaca: The Many Uses of Blood
soc_puppet in queerly_beloved - Thursday Recs
hannah - Encounters.
sovay - I know all this and more
senmut - June 18 - Share a small piece of trivia
rivers_of_london_ao3_feed - Effulgent
anais_pf in thefridayfive - The Friday Five for 19 June 2026
case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #7104 ]
rolanni - Thursday at home
musesfool - but i know what i'm needing and i don't want to waste more time
copperbadgetumblr_feed - Wait, are your cats named after the stop where you (used to) catch the 22?!
copperbadgetumblr_feed - So earlier I posted about a neighborhood restaurant that was causing ongoing noise and nuisance&hell
sholio - Reading roundup, fiction edition

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Style: Practically Dracula for Practicalitesque - Practicality (with tweaks) by cimorene
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(no subject)

Aaron's here without a Betty without a Charlie

I had to transcribe this for history, and think it's very funny, so you're getting it too.

Lily Pond painting

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

Treat for EstelRaca: The Many Uses of Blood

Thursday Recs

Encounters.

I know all this and more

June 18 - Share a small piece of trivia

Effulgent

The Friday Five for 19 June 2026

[ SECRET POST #7104 ]

Thursday at home

but i know what i'm needing and i don't want to waste more time

Wait, are your cats named after the stop where you (used to) catch the 22?!

So earlier I posted about a neighborhood restaurant that was causing ongoing noise and nuisance&hell

Reading roundup, fiction edition

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June 2026

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