Hentai Senpai

i will never be against piracy ever but i also need physical media to remain

the average blockbuster carried about 3x as many films than that that are streaming on Netflix or any other streaming service, physical media along with piracy is more important than ever.

I thought this wasn’t true, because how could it be true? How could one small store have more movies than an online database? So I googled it.

I am surprised and depressed to learn it’s 100% true, according to google. A Blockbuster store was required to have a minimum of 7000 titles, but most averaged about 10,000. Netflix has 4000 movies. (And 1800 tv shows if you want to count those, but even included, it’s still less)

Now I’m even more depressed about the collapse of physical rental stores.

BONUS: They weren't beholden to Who Owns What IP Right Now. They got videos from everyone. You didn't have to pay separately for the rights to rent from the Disney Shelves and the WB Shelves and bler bler bler, and they only STOPPED having those movies when the tapes broke or someone never returned 'em.

friendly reminder that your local library will have lots of physical media and if they don't have what you're looking for you can most likely ask them to purchase it or order it from another library through interlibrary loan

Shoutout to Scarecrow Video- they have over 148,000 titles, most of which you can rent by mail. Rentals have been down in the last few years so they're asking for support!

boosting this for Scarecrow Video. It's also now a non-profit.

Actually that no punctuation plot hole ooc wattpad fanfic written by that 12 year old will ALWAYS be better than character ai. And I love that 12 year old btw

The tragedy of my life is that I keep acquiring and displaying fetish art and having to be corrected by my friends.

Most recently, a friend came over my house and saw my computer background and went, "Wow, um, I didn't know you were into that." To which I look at the picture of the well drawn muscular female minotaur in historically accurate Greek clothing and I start geeking out about how I love the detail the artist did with the clothing and I point out the period appropriate folds and pins, how the artist even inserted the native plant that was used to dye the clothing this particular shade in the background, and even how the belt has technology AND historically accurate weaving patterns on it.

Then I start explaining how I love the muscular choices of the minotaur, that I was so impressed with the artist's anatomically correct depiction of the muscles converging into the neck. That many people get an upright cow's neck wrong because cow's don't have collarbones, so it can be very difficult to merge the upper arms and a chest of a human with a cow's body. I draw her attention to the beautiful way they've merged the pectoralis major so smoothly while also staying true to how muscular they've depicted the rest of the body.

I finish up with my thoughts on the artist's bold choice to depict the minotaur as a female, and despite the underlying themes of a minotaur being violence, child murder, strength, and muscles. I segue into how unlike bulls, cow are perceived as mothers. That they are the major source of milk in human culture, and that idyllic depictions of them in a field usually depict calves frolicking nearby, yet the minotaur kills and eats children.

I finish and there is a long pause.

"Urban, this is fetish art." and she takes me to the artist's twitter and god dammit it's fetish art, not a bold statement on cultural perceptions of women and violence throughout history. I have been tricked again.

So I just wanted to expand upon the fact that I don't believe the art is bad, craftmanshipwise or morally, but that I am so faceblind to it for some reason, that even my tiny hundred year old Catholic grandmother is like, "Urban, why have you displayed this oil painting of the pornography in your kitchen?" And I have to explain to her that, "Grandma, I really thought it was just someone being incredibly enthusiastic about eating cake in a wedding dress, and you know how I love wedding dresses from the 20th centaury."

Also, I didn't want to admit this in the original post because it really is embarrassing, but after I was shocked to discover minotaur lady was more than I had assumed, my friend looked me square in the eye and pointed out how on the Amphora vase in the background, there is a depiction of another female minotaur leading a man on a leash. So this situation is very obvious, but it's like a magic eye picture that everyone in the world can see but me.

#i love this actually. #OP your kink blindness has led you to discover what many other people never realize: #extreme fetish artists make some of the most interesting and thoughtful artistic decisions of any big art genre #the period-accurate folds and the thought put into the gender dynamics didn't happen by accident! #artist lovingly rendered it all in perfect detail because the whole thing is hot to them. and got to connect with you. by accident #hilarious. i've been the kink person in this scenario so many times (though never about minotaurs). i love it. #'why is that guy on a leash' me panicking: um i'm a horror writer playing with a traditionally male expectation of control. yeah (via @crimeronan)

Can we please get one thing straight?

Nobody should be giving Mao Zedong any ups. None whatsoever.

This is a man who accidentally killed tens of millions of his own citizens (look up Great Leap Forward) and then killed or brutalized millions more on purpose while also decimating his country’s intellectual and artistic landscape in ways that took decades to recover from (look up the Cultural Revolution - and if you could stomach Neil Gaiman’s interview, you may be able to stomach firsthand accounts from survivors of it).

I LOVE what’s happening on 小红书 right now! I am SO EXCITED for more Americans to realize the lies they’ve been sold about modern China and to discover this rich cultural, historical, and linguistic landscape that many of us in Chinese fandoms have become obsessed with.

But do not romanticize Mao or the devastation he wrought. The only reason he’s still venerated there is that the CCP felt like admitting he was wrong would undermine people’s trust in The Party and so after his death they managed to blame most of the worst of his shit on his wife Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four.

There are other issues, obviously - it will be interesting to see what happens when TikTok refugees run up against CCP censorship, which tends to be harder to get around than just saying “unalive” - but this is one that I’m truly worried about. Don’t forget that capitalism and communism are economic systems, not systems of government, and they can both be paired with many types of government - yes, we’ve got a guy who wants to be a capitalist dictator, but that doesn’t make Mao less of a communist dictator.

These wonderful people have a single braincell to share but unfortunately none of them are using it

I don't watch Wrestling nor Japanese Wrestling but sometimes I come across photos and they do very specific things to my brain I can't identify

another one

the grandeur of the kinetic form. lightning splitting a sandstorm. a phobia of equilibrium

American Pronoun (2000) dir. Mary Harron

he didn't say that

Yes she did

my most controversial ship? heh...the Thomas W Lawson

motherfucker unlimited

you like that? I got more, how bout the SS Bessemer

This experimental piece o' shit, courtesy of Sir Henry Bessemer, had a stabilized cabin meant to combat seasickness. Unfortunately, due to the kinetic consequences of building a ship like that, it also combatted seaworthiness, and the instant this thing touched water it enthusiastically slammed itself into the pier with all the grace of a twelfth round boxer.

Not to be deterred, Bessemer repaired the ship, hired a veteran sea captain, slapped the stern and sent her out for a second go. The ship then proceeded to crash into the Same Fucking Pier even harder, demolishing it.

The SS Bessemer, her bloodlust satiated, retired from the cruise ship life and settled down in Swanley, where she became a billiard room, and then a lecture hall, and then rubble, due to an encounter with bombs.

This one's for the SS Bessemer. Rest in peace you wild bitch.

free my girl. she did all that but so did a male character and nobody cared

This but the genders are swapped

i need everyone to know that i blocked this person pretty much immediately but she then used another blog to start arguing with someone about wheatley in the replies. and after i blocked that second blog she used a THIRD to keep arguing about wheatley

This was an interesting read. Surprisingly nonpreachy given the subject; and well worth the time.

This is oaywalled but it made me weep with relief to see an honest recounting for once, so I’ve saved some good bits:

you were going somewhere. you can’t remember where.

hold on I gotta look something up

About ten, fifteen years ago I wrote a story about a guy living in a Capitalist dystopia. His walls, furniture, and tableware are all covered in smart displays. Basically animated wallpaper. It's sold as being able to turn your room or objects into anything - A nice forest view, outer space, a fantasy realm... but the companies that run this stuff keep sneaking ads in.

It gets so bad he's always being woken up by adverts that offer insomnia cures and better bedding that play when he tries to sleep.

So he buys the ad-free tier, and it's great... for a few months. And then he starts getting adverts from 'premium partners'. So he goes up a level... and the same thing happens.

So he jailbreaks his wallpaper and sends all the ad servers to 0.0.0.0 and voila... he can sleep.

Until this SWAT team blows his door off and drag him off to jail. The Ad companies are suing him for loss of revenue for the products he' notionally have bought if he'd watched their adverts, based on some weird 'The average consumer buys X products with an average value of Y' calculation.

The judge is like 'well I dun wanna annoy the sponsors' so he RICO's this guy's house and possessions and sends him to jail.

... which is a nice relaxed non-volent offender jail for the corporately disenfranchised. But because these people have no money... there's no ads and now he's happy because the only place he's free... is in prison.

Which at the time was a bit much and now it's like: Called it.

Elon's suing companies for not advertising because he's losing revenue. He's also cranking the price of Ad Free Twitter. Disney and Amazon play adverts on their paid service when services used to be free because of the adverts... and now you have to pay to watch the adverts or go up a couple of tiers.

And google's going around freaking out about ad-blockers.

thinkin about a baby of my acquaintance & how when her parents are hanging out & chatting, she’ll almost fully participate in the conversation–politely watching who’s talking, saying something approx the same length & tone of what her parents are saying, occasionally using a questioning cadence & looking at someone specific for an answer, laughing when they laugh–doing everything except actually using any recognizable language

this baby also once tipped me a granola bar at work. she’d been watching everyone in line very closely & when it was her parent’s turn, at exactly the right point in the transaction for a tip, she pickpocketed her mom’s granola bar & shoved it in the tip har

This baby has better social skills than me

This baby has better social skill than this entire antisocial media site.

this baby has better social skills than my baby good for her

i once took an uber driven by an eccentric older gentleman who told me about his young man’s travels in nepal. he said that in a town too small for any formal hospitality, he had been hosted overnight by a nepali family who spoke no english. he spoke no nepali. i asked what they did all night. with an air of matter of factness, he said they shared drinks and talked. “there we sat,” he said, “sipping i’m not sure what. it was white, and strong. and they’d tell me a story in nepali. didn’t get a word. but i could tell when they’d finished and we’d all laugh together. then i’d tell a story in english. they didn’t get a word. but when i finished, we all laughed together. lovely night. lovely, lovely people.” i think this baby gets it

People loved reblogging that post about the bartender who immediately kicks out a Nazi and talks about how you can't give them an inch, you have to put your foot down and get rid of them immediately.

And then like over 90% of those people didn't emulate the bartender at all when it was their turn.

you see, the thing is that almost everyone missed the point of that story, which is that nazis hide their true nature to insert themselves into communities.

Most people read that story and thought to themselves, "sure, i can recognize a nazi" and then imagine a skinhead sieg heiling and shouting slurs. But nazis are masters of dogwhistles and obscure iconography. and they're clever enough not to scare the normies with their full mask-off opinions before it's too late.

and so, most of the people who read that story imagined themselves as the bartender. i.e. the person who recognised the threat and acted on it. but in reality, they are all the clueless patron who just sat next to a nazi and thought nothing of it.

and when we told them that they were rubbing shoulders with a nazi, instead of kicking him out, they cursed us and kicked us out instead.

Black cats are lucky. (via leahweissmuller)

MAN [IN THICK ACCENT]: Black cat bring good luck.  Not bad luck.  I have black cat - See, him face - And I am not dead today: Good luck!

“See him face”

I sure fucking do see him face

Him face

Reblog him face for good luck in 2021

Reblog him face for good luck in 2021 (2)

Reblog him face for good luck in 2022

Reblog him face for good luck in 2023

Reblog him face for good luck in 2024

Reblog him face for good luck in 2025

i hauve a cold

I want to tell a story to the artists and would-be artists out there.

When I was 19, I made a large oil painting of the nerd I would eventually marry. I poured all my attention and care into this painting. It's the only art I have from back then that still holds up as a work I'm proud of today.

I entered it into a judged show at the local art center. It got an honorable mention. I went to see the show with my beloved model. One of the judges came up to talk to me, and highlighted that all the judges really liked the painting. It would have placed, except, you see, the feet were incorrect. They were too wide and short, and if I just studied a bit more anatomy-

I called over my future wife, and asked her to take off her shoe. Being already very used to humoring me, she did. The judge looked at her very short, very wide little foot. Exactly as I'd lovingly rendered it. I would never edit her appearance in any way.

The judge looked me in the eye, and to his credit, he really looked like he meant it when he said "Oh I'm so sorry."

Anyways the moral of the story is that all of those anatomy books that teach you proportions are either showing you averages, or a very specific idea of an idealized body. Actual bodies are much more varied than that.

So don't forget to draw from observation, and remember that humans aren't mass produced mannequins. Delight in our variation. Because it's supposed to be there.