jomobimo:

Vermillion Flycatcher by flickr quickr on Flickr.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46809694967.

leslielikesthings:

Anybody who follows my Tumblr knows the overwhelming love that I have for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. This is not a surprise. But those who have been paying attention also know that there are some elements of the series that didn’t always work for me. I have commented on them, though in the last couple of weeks I haven’t been focusing on them. Instead I’ve been swept up in a wave of emotion about the series ending and the wonderful romantic conclusion. Now that those waves are subsiding I’m starting to think more comprehensively and critically about the series as a whole. Those elements that didn’t work for me – I had put a pin in most of them, waiting to see how they concluded before I decided whether or not they worked in the end. Now that we presumably have all the information we’re ever going to have, I think I’m ready to draw some conclusions. 

Some criticism follows under the cut, and it gets long. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – even when I don’t agree with every creative decision that was made, I still really admire what the team did with this series as a whole. I may have sometimes found things to be imperfect or even problematic, but for me that doesn’t take away from any of the overall love that I have for the end product. The experience that I’ve had with this series over the past several months has been wonderful.

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I agree with the large majority of this.

I’m still wrestling somewhat what how I feel about the Lizzie/Lydia conflict and the Lydia/Wickham abuse subplot. That had a different tone from much of the rest of the show, obviously. Whether or not that different tone was a problem is a judgement call. The people who made a mini-career out of hating on it made some good points. But I also think there was more going on than just good choices vs. bad choices from a storytelling standpoint.

I’m suspicious of my emotional reactions to that part of the story. Part of what I had a problem with from the time of Lizzie and Lydia’s big fight was a sense that my expectations for these characters and their relationship were being thwarted. I disliked what was happening partly because it upended things I’d come to really enjoy about what came before. I also had a sense that I was being hit over the head repeatedly with aspects of the story that came off as kind of melodramatic. I resented feeling like Lydia was being woobified, and like the characters were descending into a weird dysfunctional box from which they should have been able to extract themselves more easily than they did.

I was unhappy with what was happening, but on some level I was supposed to be unhappy with it. I didn’t like feeling that way, especially given the thimbleful-of-wine pace of the realtime storytelling, and maybe that made me want to subconsciously find fault with the creators of the show. But I don’t think that’s really fair.

One thing I’ve thought about is how easy it is to lob criticism at someone else’s creative work, versus how hard it is to actually create something worthwhile. LBD was good in so many ways that it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t really the same sort of thing as a television series or movie. The resources they were working with were minuscule compared to mainstream entertainment. In some ways LBD had more in common with amateur theater and fanfiction than it did with commercial entertainment. Whether it was amazing or awful really depends on what standard you measure it against. And it blows me away how much they were able to accomplish while basically bootstrapping a whole new approach to fictional storytelling.

I appreciate that there were people who hated aspects of the show enough to go into hyper-articulate detail about it. At a certain point, though, I made a conscious decision to push that criticism away and just enjoy the show. I unfollowed several people, and only went back to see what they’d been saying once in a while when I felt up to it. Yes, the things they were identifying as problems kind of were problems, at least some of the time (though at other times I got a sense of Lizzie-sees-only-what-she-wants-to-see). But many of the problems, at least in my mind, weren’t so much the moral failings and glaring stupidity that the haters saw, but were merely the result of well-intentioned people without a lot of experience doing the best they could to lay down tracks in front of a moving train heading through uncharted terrain.

I really loved this show. Which isn’t the same thing as saying it was perfect. Shows are made by people, and people aren’t perfect. But sometimes people and the things they create are worthy of love anyway.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46807067317.

fairy-wren:

Sarus Crane Courtship. Photo via indianaturewatch.net

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46788417801.

rainbowrowell:

cbswim:

I painted a still life of my three favorite books. (watercolor)

This is beautiful.

And I can’t even describe how it feels to know that it exists.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46767872019.

I finally got around to finishing the interview with Ashley and Mary Kate on Whatstrending from the other day, and at one point they asked Ashley for a future adaptation she’d like to work on, and she mentioned The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. And I hadn’t heard of it before, so I googled it, and the first hit that came up was for the audiobook version on Amazon. So I clicked through, and read this:

The Forgotten Garden [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [MP3 CD] Kate Morton (Author), Caroline Lee (Reader)

Caroline Lee

Caroline Lee

So, we finally have our answer to what Caroline does for a living.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46761731930.

blowing up bridges 

Because sometimes just burning them isn’t enough.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46752941275.

ornamentedbeing:

Mirror Mirror – Eiko Ishioka 

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46719993671.

thevintagethimble:

Portrait of Marie-Louise de Tassis, by Anthony Van Dyck, 1630.
Marie-Louise de Tassis wears a short-waisted gown with a sash over a tabbed bodice with a long stomacher and matching pettiicoat and virago sleeves, c. 1629–30.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46700436890.

madame-bazaar:

Alexander Von Humboldt.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46681125718.

roulettegirl:

“While Pando’s estimated age of 80,000 years may be staggering, even more amazing is the possibility that experts have underestimated its age. Because the age of the organism cannot be determined through tree rings (the average age of the stems being around 130 years), many factors such as the history and climate of the local environment over millennia. Taking different factors into account, some experts think that Pando could be closer to 1 million years old!”

Via TreeHugger.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46665666361.

Enter to win Eleanor & Park at the midnight garden:

This review does a really good job of explaining the weird pull this book has on me. It’s how real it feels, how powerfully it transports me back to what it felt like to be 16 and in love for the first time.

I picked up the copy of the book I’d ordered thought the local children’s bookstore today, and biked it over to the library and donated it. On my way out the door to do that I grabbed the copy I’d previously ordered through Amazon, since I’d been unable to interest either my wife or daughter in reading it and I figured I might as well donate two copies to the library. But I made one last try, asking William if he’d be interested in reading it. “Sure,” he said, which made me really happy.

I think it’s the fact that the first paragraph in the book mentions Skinny Puppy, which is one of his favorite bands. I don’t care; whatever it takes. I hope he actually follows through on reading it.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46656588302.

leslielikesthings:

I AM JUST SO HAPPY YOU GUYS! and drunk…

You know what I really liked about the epilogue? The people in the background. For once, the LBD characters weren’t in a post-apocalyptic landscape where no one else exists.

I’m assuming those aren’t extras or friends of the show. They’re all pretty distant and hard to make out, which makes me think this might have been shot guerrilla-style without releases.

Whether or not those people were in on it, I love that in this, the show’s final moments, the visible in-universe population pretty much doubled. I like to think that those were real people at a real bar, who just happened to be there at the same time the Bennet/Darcy/Lu celebration was crashed by an adorable and slightly ridiculous gentleman just in from Winnipeg.

I like to think that I could have been at that bar. I like to think that I could have glanced over at just the right moment to see an energetic younger sister throw her double-jointed arms wide and photobomb her beloved big sis and big sis’s rich mancake boyfriend. That I would have seen her flash that Lydia smile, a smile that promises many future pig-piles.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46654661584.

Haha. Yeah, that one definitely goes in. Thanks! I’ll add it tomorrow.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46648058005.

Lizzie Bennet Diaries videos spreadsheet:

In the interest of making it more useful, I’ve started adding more videos to the Lizzie Bennet Diaries spreadsheet I maintain. If you have a favorite fan video, interview, or clip from a public appearance that you think should be added, please forward me the link and I’ll put it in there. Basically anything on YouTube or Vimeo (or any other video-hosting site I can link to) that’s LBD-specific is fair game.

There’s one video I’d really like to find: Ashley mentioned it in an interview she did a few months ago, and I corresponded with her about it afterwards, but neither she nor I have been able to find it. It’s a video someone shot at Vidcon that just happened to catch the moment when Ashley was walking into the room where the cast signing event was happening, and she was agog at the line, and someone told her that it was actually the line for LBD.

She remembers seeing the video at one point. If you know where it is, please let me know. Or any other videos that you think an obsessive fan might want to watch. Thanks!

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46634953551.

stopwithoutafarmhousenear:

lies:

anonsally:

leslielikesthings:

ruanchunxian:

stopwithoutafarmhousenear:

Dacry Compilation

In which Lizzie says Darcy’s name… a lot…

Many hours were spent on this video.  Apologies for the occasional glitches with the counters, VideoPad was surprisingly difficult with this aspect of the project.  Glitches aside, the video was quite a beast to make, so I really hope you enjoy it!

This s the most hilarious thing!

This is AMAZING! And the name “Darcy” now sounds like complete gibberish.

I laughed so hard I cried. 

Hey, this should get added into the spreadsheet! How many times did Lizzie say Darcy’s name in each episode! What do you think, lies/John? (Still not sure of Tumblr etiquette. Do I call people by their blog name or real name if the real name is known?) Don’t worry, I am kidding—I’m sure it would be a huge pain to add that info.

Haha. This video really was awesome. I totally loved it. I think adding at least some of the fan vids to the spreadsheet is totally something I can do, and will do, starting with this one.

Adding a column for number of times Lizzie said “Darcy” per episode is probably a bit much for me, but I loved seeing the count tick upwards in this video. Though I thought I noticed an uncounted utterance really early on; in the first or second video, maybe? That would have thrown the whole count off, though, and if I’d made this video I would just as soon not be told if anyone noticed something like that.

People on Tumblr refer to me by URL or name pretty much interchangeably; I guess I slightly prefer the name, but it’s not a strong preference.

Thanks!

I hope I’m not intruding!  I’ll be the first to admit that I could have missed a “Darcy” or two, if that’s the case I’ll edit the description and add an annotation.  Despite all the work and obsessing (and late nights) spent on this video, it wouldn’t surprise me if some Darcy’s have slipped past me… 

Anyway!  If there is anything I can do to help with the spreadsheet, let me know!  I still have all the files and things to make the video, it could shave off some time if you wanted to pursue this!  I’m more than happy to offer my assistance to and LBD-related project.  :)

ETA:  And thank-you for watching and liking my video!  I’m so glad so many people are getting a kick out of it!

Heh. Yes! You’re intruding! You’re intruding on the sadness I would otherwise be feeling at the end of the show and replacing it with joy.

I just rewatched, and I think on my first viewing I must have missed that the count did indeed increment between the first episode shown and the second (when the count went from 1 to 2), but without the audible “ding!” I overlooked it.

So you were right (yay!) and I was wrong (unsurprisingly). So, whew. Good.

I’ve added an entry for your video to the spreadsheet, and will go back and add some more of my favorite fan videos when I get a chance.

Thanks again for making it. I can totally get behind that kind of obsessive zeal. :-)

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46633025499.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46631507582.

anonsally:

leslielikesthings:

ruanchunxian:

stopwithoutafarmhousenear:

Dacry Compilation

In which Lizzie says Darcy’s name… a lot…

Many hours were spent on this video.  Apologies for the occasional glitches with the counters, VideoPad was surprisingly difficult with this aspect of the project.  Glitches aside, the video was quite a beast to make, so I really hope you enjoy it!

This s the most hilarious thing!

This is AMAZING! And the name “Darcy” now sounds like complete gibberish.

I laughed so hard I cried. 

Hey, this should get added into the spreadsheet! How many times did Lizzie say Darcy’s name in each episode! What do you think, lies/John? (Still not sure of Tumblr etiquette. Do I call people by their blog name or real name if the real name is known?) Don’t worry, I am kidding—I’m sure it would be a huge pain to add that info.

Haha. This video really was awesome. I totally loved it. I think adding at least some of the fan vids to the spreadsheet is totally something I can do, and will do, starting with this one.

Adding a column for number of times Lizzie said “Darcy” per episode is probably a bit much for me, but I loved seeing the count tick upwards in this video. Though I thought I noticed an uncounted utterance really early on; in the first or second video, maybe? That would have thrown the whole count off, though, and if I’d made this video I would just as soon not be told if anyone noticed something like that.

People on Tumblr refer to me by URL or name pretty much interchangeably; I guess I slightly prefer the name, but it’s not a strong preference.

Thanks!

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46622650210.

republicx:

Eyes as Big as Plates series by Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46622168598.

malformalady:

Micro photography of a llama’s eye.

Photo credit: Suren Manvelyan

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46602558199.

fairy-wren:

Fiery Throated Hummingbird

(photos by Sam Bobbing)

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/46586891179.