SINCE WHEN CAN BOTS CREATE POLLS??? EXCUSE ME?? ALSO WHAT ARE THESE OPTIONS?

Universities love to make their websites a fucking maze

Universities websites love to tell you to email a guy who died 5 years ago

fucker! we wanted to trek those

People who live in rural areas going to a city and experiencing light pollution.

can i come over and implant false memories of us being childhood friends?

Sure! You always did that when we were younger!

I do. God help me I do

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

Depends on whether it’s pre- or post-9/11.

Post-9/11 is mostly jingoistic dreck. Pre-9/11 you got stuff like American Remains and Sixteen Tons and The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia. Bangers, each and every one, and no mistake all of them were about pointing out flaws with how authority is handled.

post 9/11 country by male artists is jingoistic dreck. the female artists are doing songs about fun nights out at the bar, grief, and murdering your abusive husband

Okay, you know what, I’ll give you Girls Lie Too and Before He Cheats.

I think reducing all country post-9/11 (23 years of music!!!) to jingoism + Carrie Underwood is, well, reductive, and seriously misses a lot of beautiful music that's come out in the last two decades. Even from the last couple years, here are some of my faves in no particular order:

Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs (2022) by Blanco Brown, an artist who started off in hip-hop and rap who has been recording more generally "Southern" music, not confined by a single genre, for a few years now. You might have seen the album's single, The Git Up, go viral on TikTok during the pandemic (while the album is from 2022, The Git Up was released in 2019). The album is fun romp, chalk full of influences from Johnny Cash to Outkast to disco to everything in between, and The Git Up is a bouncy line dance.

Deeper Well (2024) by Kacey Musgraves. Pretty much everything Kacey Musgraves has put out has been golden, from her first hit Follow Your Arrow in 2013 to her latest album, Deeper Well, which came out just a few weeks ago. It's a sad, reflective album with slow songs and heartbreaking lyrics reflecting on family, relationships, and the sacrifices made in life. In the words of my little sister when I was texting her about the new album, quote, "yeah zelda all of kaceys stuff is pretty sadgirl summer". Nerds on this website might especially like Anime Eyes, where she compares the way she feels about looking at her partner to shoujo filters in anime.

American Heartbreak (2023) by Zach Bryan. This album is the closest to bro country I'm willing to come, and let me tell you: there is a fucking reason. Zach Bryan's voice is electrifying. He makes me long like I've never longed before, completely encases me in the emotions of the song. I feel his vocals in my fucking soul. I first heard Something in the Orange while I was driving into the sunset in South Carolina and something inside of me irreversible changed. It's a whole album of done-her-wrong songs, every one of them designed to teleport you to the bar where you're sobbing into your fourth glass of whiskey.

Through the Madness vols. 1 (2022) and 2 (2022) by Maddie & Tae. Maddie & Tae have been one of my most adored country acts since they came out with Shut Up and Fish 8 years ago. They have the irreverence that made 90s country so much fun! While they're primarily a touring act and usually release their songs one at a time on YouTube/Spotify/etc, their release of Through the Madness put a lot of their songs out for purchase on CD. Drinking to Remember has been absolutely feeding my fanfic brainworms in the last few months. I'll leave you with my absolute favorite song from them though, Tourist in this Town, which is basically the most perfect representation of losing a close relationship I've ever heard—a breakup song for any kind of breakup.

Palomino (2022) by Miranda Lambert. When people say they "only like women's country," they mean Carrie and Miranda. Kerosene and Gunpowder & Lead are pretty much the only things that got radio play in the years that weren't bro country in 2005 and 2007 respectively, which is also approximately when these people stopped looking for new country. Can't blame them, really; 2007 was a very bad year for country in general. Here's the secret though: Miranda hasn't gone anywhere. She's been recording the whole time. Palomino is her latest album, and if I recall correctly the first one she's released since she split with Blake Shelton (her ex-husband and fellow country star). While a lot of my all-time favorite Miranda songs are from her 2007 album Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, since that was released when I was about 12 and nothing will ever compete with the music you heard when you were 12, I've loved the shift in her sound on Palomino and the themes of independence that run through it. If I Was a Cowboy is my particular favorite because it gives me so much gender.

And I'm not even going to bother trying to sell Cowboy Carter (2024) by Beyonce. It's fucking Beyonce. You've already heard of it.

TL;DR not only is the last 25 years of country made up entirely of jingoistic bro country, not even the last *two* years of country are. The good stuff is getting airplay on the radio, even, and country radio is by no means the primary way tumblr users are going to be hearing new music. All you have to do to hear the good stuff is be a little curious and click on new things, or even old things that you already know you like and see if they have any new things.

I'll also throw my country-liker hat in the ring for Brothers Osborne, Elvie Shane, Tenille Townes, Tanner Adell, Lily Rose, Ashley McBryde, Dasha, Shaboozey, Ian Munsick, Lainey Wilson... I could keep going but I'll stop for now lol

like, it's perfectly valid for a genre of anything to not be your thing! but just like most genres, there's plenty of good stuff across all sorts of sounds and kinds of people if you dig anywhere deeper than the surface.

okay also adding to this, PARKER MILLSAP!!! Heaven Sent is still one of my favorite ever songs and his other work is really really great.

I’m quite fond of Sturgill Simpson!

platforming palestinian joy is just as important as sharing the suffering they're enduring during this genocide. despite continued displacement and bombardment, you cannot steal their joy and spirit. happy birthday to this sweet baby 🖤🇵🇸 may they grow up to see a free palestine

edit: @saffronlesbian made a video description for this post!!

[vd: a screen recording of a tweet from the 20th of April 2024 with 2.5 million views, from Ruhi @/ruhi_hi. the caption reads, "This video of this little Palestinian angel celebrating his bday in a refugee camp" followed by three emoji of a smiling face with teary eyes. the video clip is 11 seconds long and shows a one-year-old baby seated on the sandy ground, smiling hugely and clapping his hands while people sing to him from offscreen and a large cake is placed in front of him. stuck into the top of the cake is a decoration that reads "happy birthday" in english. the video has the tiktok handle @/ibrahim.jamal99 visible in it. /end vd.]

"don't mass reblog/like :/" coward. fool. somebody just went through and liked and reblogged 64 things from my blog in the span of half an hour at most. and i've never felt more alive in my life

[ID: The first is an image of Canada and Mexico with the United States edited out that reads "Oh thank god it was just a dream". The second image is an image of North America with all lands labelled with the names of the tribes living on them that reads "Oh thank god it was just a dream".]

here is a REALLY detailed hq map of indigenous american nations if you're interested (you are.)

and alaska. and hawai'i.

looks like we all talked enough shit that staff put The Community Guidelines Violating Maps™ back

THIS MEME'S FOR YOU MORPH!!

the silly

This is very urgent so please share however you can. Islam, the mom of this family in Gaza, is eight months pregnant but has a fractured pelvis and therefore cannot give birth safely. She needs a C-section, but the conditions to perform those no longer exist in Gaza. For months women in Gaza have been getting C-sections without anaesthesia. We need to get her out before she goes into labor, which could happen at any time now. We're halfway through the goal and even if everyone just chipped in 5-10 dollars it adds up quick!

Their GFM

14,000 feet in the air

no babe!!! we're not gonna die!!!! we're gonna push for change and reach net zero!!! probably not by 2050 but we will get there!!! dont let the defeatist attitude take over babe!!! we're still very much alive and we have time!!! every 0.1 of a degree we dont warm by is a success!! dont give up now!!!! keep fighting!!! there is hope!!!!!!!!!!!

signed, an environmental science student <3