gnossienne
n. a moment of awareness that someone you’ve known for years still has a private and mysterious inner life, and somewhere in the hallways of their personality is a door locked from the inside, a stairway leading to a wing of the house that you’ve never fully explored—an unfinished attic that will remain maddeningly unknowable to you, because ultimately neither of you has a map, or a master key, or any way of knowing exactly where you stand.
(via cherrylet)
BlackBook talks about Beyonce’s amazing all-female band
One of the coolest things about Beyoncé’s live show won’t get nearly as much play as the impressive choreography or the light show or the ’90s-kid-Twitter-detonating reunion, and that is The Suga Mamas, Beyoncé’s all-female tour band, with whom she has been touring for years (as NPR’s Ann Powers helpfully pointed out, “not a gimmick”).
An all-female backing band may be part of her image and a very deliberate decision, but in an age where women playing rock instruments is still totally novel to a lot of people because most of America and the world is in a dumb time warp about stuff like this and women who are guitarists, drummers, etc. still have to “prove” themselves more than their male counterparts, to have The Suga Mamas on the biggest and most mainstream stage, performing to millions the world over, is really goddamn impressive, even if they were supporting one of the biggest names in music and of course they’d be there.
And leading this pack is Bibi McGill, who in addition to having a pretty incredible stage presence and complementing Our Bey well, can play like nobody’s business. It’s a shame people probably missed her playing because everyone was waiting so attentively to see if Destiny’s Child would show up, because it was boss. There were pyrotechnics. There was shredding. The planets aligned and all was well.
Find out about every member of The Sugar Mamas, Beyonce’s all female band here.
From the archives: Behind the scenes of the Museum, a staff member arranges the leg bones of a Haplocanthosaurus, date unknown.
Explore all the photos from the Picturing the Museum collection here: http://bit.ly/l8nOsp
© AMNH Library/#335819
People overlooking the beautiful salt Lake Urmia in Iran before it dries up due to the dam built nearby by the government
(Source: theparalleluniverse, via monkeyknifefight)
I Didn't Build That
Over the years, I’ve encountered a few successful people who believe they did it all themselves and achieved success because they are just better than their fellow human beings. Some were bankers; some were writers; some were lawyers. Some male, some female. Some rich, some not. Some were born into privilege, some weren’t. I guess they’re a pretty diverse crowd. They only have one thing in common, really: They’re all assholes.
yes yes yes. i believe this so much.
some days are so beautiful that i feel nearly incapacitated by gratitude. nothing particularly special happened, but - i don’t know. i was just so glad to be a part of the world. there are days when that feels like an obligation; today i wanted to find someone to say thank you to.
everyone should see this movie, it’s the best thing i’ve seen in years
unimaginable
things i’ve been thinking about lately: the feeling of forgiving someone. more specifically, forgiving in a way that is honest. how it tastes in your mouth, how it lets you breathe, how it crouches on the tip of your tongue. trying to accept that you’ve forgiven someone without being afraid that all it really means is that you’re going to let them hurt you again, in all the same ways, or close enough anyway. wondering if it means that you’re growing up, at least a little, if you accept someone as they are when part of that means that they don’t know how to handle you without bruising you at least a little. or if it means that you’re just being stupid. can you learn how to stop wanting something? i used to be so sure i could, and that certainty was safe. but i’m starting to think that there will always be a few things i’ll never stop wanting, and that it’s okay to live with them instead.
and i’ve been thinking too about the bigness of the world, and my smallness inside of it. there’s something comforting in that - or at least something that forces me to take a step outside of myself. there’s the hope that my life will grow to, at moments, encompass all of that bigness. to touch it, somehow. there’s the realization that it may and that it may not, and that it won’t be entirely, or maybe even mostly, up to me. yet still there is the need to say to someone, to make them understand: i am small, tiny, but at the same time vast.
the more i think i truly grow up, the more i realize how young i am. i used to think i knew so much for my age. now, the thing i am most surprised and pleased and scared by is how much life has yet to happen. i hope it does i hope it does i hope.
