She's the yee to my yee

remaking (and improving) old sets ✰ 1/?

@lgbtqcreators bingo: typography

buck + gay shit going down in his kitchen

thimking thots………………

oliver: i can absolutely see that some of those early moments [buck’s jealousy in 2x01] where they were kinda butting heads, there was some kinda feeling there that buck didn’t understand

BBC: The ancient remains of Great Zimbabwe

The ancient city of Great Zimbabwe was an engineering wonder. But archaeologists credited it to Phoenicians, Babylonians, Arabians – anyone but the Africans who actually built it.

W

Walking up to the towering walls of Great Zimbabwe was a humbling experience. The closer I got, the more they dwarfed me – and yet, there was something inviting about the archaeological site. It didn't feel like an abandoned fortress or castle that one might see in Europe: Great Zimbabwe was a place where people lived and worked, a place where they came to worship – and still do. It felt alive. 

Great Zimbabwe is the name of the extensive stone remains of an ancient city built between 1100 and 1450 CE near modern-day Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Believed to be the work of the Shona (who today make up the majority of Zimbabwe's population) and possibly other societies that were migrating back and forth across the area, the city was large and powerful, housing a population comparable to London at that time – somewhere around 20,000 people during its peak. Great Zimbabwe was part of a sophisticated trade network (Arab, Indian and Chinese trade goods were all found at the site), and its architectural design was astounding: made of enormous, mortarless stone walls and towers, most of which are still standing.

However, for close to a century, European colonisers of the late-19th and early-20th Centuries attributed the construction to outsiders and explorers, rather than to the Africans themselves.

Indeed, the author of the first written European record of Great Zimbabwe seemed to be staggered by the very idea that it could have been built at all. Portuguese explorer Joao de Barros wrote in 1552 that, "There is masonry within and without, built of stones of a marvellous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them."

Built between 1100 and 1450 CE, Great Zimbabwe was large and powerful (Credit: evenfh/Getty Images)

In the Shona language, zimbabwe translates approximately to "stone house", and because of the site's size and scope, it became known as Great Zimbabwe. Moreover, it was not the only such "Zimbabwe": there are remains of approximately 200 smaller settlements or trading posts spread across the region, from the Kalahari Desert in Namibia to Mozambique. 

According to Munyaradzi Manyanga, a professor of archaeology and cultural heritage at Great Zimbabwe University, the position of Great Zimbabwe among these settlements has been widely debated. Some people have speculated that it was a capital city of a very large state, but to Manyanga, that seems unlikely. "Such a state would have been too large. One wouldn't have been able to manage that kind of extent and size. So most of the interpretations talk of these as having been influenced by Great Zimbabwe." He added that the Kingdom of Zimbabwe is considered to be made up of Great Zimbabwe and the smaller settlements located closer to it.

The walls, which are made of granite, are stacked precisely and do not use any mortar to hold them in place (Credit: 2630ben/Getty Images)

The walls, which are made of granite, are stacked precisely and do not use any mortar to hold them in place. "The quarrying of the granite, taking advantage of natural processes of weathering and the shaping of it into regular blocks was a major engineering undertaking by these pre-colonial communities," Manyganga said. Iron metallurgy was needed to make the tools required to cut the blocks; it was also needed to make trade goods subsequently found at the site. All of this points to a highly organised and technologically advanced society.

The population of Great Zimbabwe began to decline in the mid-15th Century as the Kingdom of Zimbabwe weakened (possible theories for the decline include a drop in mining output, overgrazing by cattle, and depleted resources), but the site itself was not abandoned. Manyganga explained that it was regularly visited by different Shona groups for spiritual reasons right up until colonisation by the British in the late 19th Century. 

Europeans of the late-19th and early-20th Centuries attributed the construction to outsiders and explorers, rather than to the Africans (Credit: Agostini/Getty Images)

A decade later, in a speech to the Royal Geographic Society, British journalist Richard N Hall supported Bent's perspective after visiting the site himself. He talked about the artistic value of soapstone carvings that had been unearthed and the "marvellous cleverness" of a gold-mining operation that spanned hundreds of mines, before concluding that "it is quite a moral certainty that even the cruder methods of [these sciences'] application were imported from the Near East, and did not originate in South-East Africa." Instead, he and his colleagues held that Phoenicians, Arabians or Babylonians created the city.

According to Manyanga, "They wanted to use [this explanation] as a moral justification for colonising Zimbabwe. If there was this long-lost civilisation in this part of the world, there was nothing wrong with colonialism because they were resuscitating this old kingdom."

However, a few archaeologists of the time countered that the site was not nearly old enough to be from Biblical times. "The then-colonial government suppressed these views, and the official narrative in public media and museums was that Great Zimbabwe was of foreign origins," said Manyanga. This version of history was upheld through the 1960s and 1970s by the white-minority government of the colony. Only in 1980, when Zimbabwe achieved independence, could the new leaders finally affirm that the site was built by their own ancestors. During the 1960s, black nationalists had even settled on Zimbabwe as the name for the country they hoped to lead to freedom, harkening back to Great Zimbabwe.

Since 1980, local archaeological research has been slow to resume and has dealt largely with maintenance and repair. Research has instead focused on the satellite sites, in part because they were less disturbed by early excavations. Manyanga emphasised that scholarly understanding of Great Zimbabwe has shifted. "Eurocentric models interpreted the site as though you were looking at a castle in Europe. What has come to light from recent work is that Great Zimbabwe was built over a long period of time; it was not built once and then occupied, but grew over time. Even the walling came at a later stage because earlier on there were farming communities at Great Zimbabwe."

Today, the great ancient city remains just as important for Zimbabweans. Shona villages are located nearby, and many residents work to maintain the site. A religious centre is close by too, and the site still attracts worshippers who practice traditional Shona faiths.

"It was Africans who created this," said writer Marangwanda. "And over a millennium later it's still standing. It's a testament to who we are." 

BBC Travel's Lost Civilisations delves into little-known facts about past worlds, dispelling any false myths and narratives that have previously surrounded them.

BBC: The ancient remains of Great Zimbabwe

The ancient city of Great Zimbabwe was an engineering wonder. But archaeologists credited it to Phoenicians, Babylonians, Arabians – anyone but the Africans who actually built it.

W

Walking up to the towering walls of Great Zimbabwe was a humbling experience. The closer I got, the more they dwarfed me – and yet, there was something inviting about the archaeological site. It didn't feel like an abandoned fortress or castle that one might see in Europe: Great Zimbabwe was a place where people lived and worked, a place where they came to worship – and still do. It felt alive. 

Great Zimbabwe is the name of the extensive stone remains of an ancient city built between 1100 and 1450 CE near modern-day Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Believed to be the work of the Shona (who today make up the majority of Zimbabwe's population) and possibly other societies that were migrating back and forth across the area, the city was large and powerful, housing a population comparable to London at that time – somewhere around 20,000 people during its peak. Great Zimbabwe was part of a sophisticated trade network (Arab, Indian and Chinese trade goods were all found at the site), and its architectural design was astounding: made of enormous, mortarless stone walls and towers, most of which are still standing.

However, for close to a century, European colonisers of the late-19th and early-20th Centuries attributed the construction to outsiders and explorers, rather than to the Africans themselves.

Indeed, the author of the first written European record of Great Zimbabwe seemed to be staggered by the very idea that it could have been built at all. Portuguese explorer Joao de Barros wrote in 1552 that, "There is masonry within and without, built of stones of a marvellous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them."

Built between 1100 and 1450 CE, Great Zimbabwe was large and powerful (Credit: evenfh/Getty Images)

In the Shona language, zimbabwe translates approximately to "stone house", and because of the site's size and scope, it became known as Great Zimbabwe. Moreover, it was not the only such "Zimbabwe": there are remains of approximately 200 smaller settlements or trading posts spread across the region, from the Kalahari Desert in Namibia to Mozambique. 

According to Munyaradzi Manyanga, a professor of archaeology and cultural heritage at Great Zimbabwe University, the position of Great Zimbabwe among these settlements has been widely debated. Some people have speculated that it was a capital city of a very large state, but to Manyanga, that seems unlikely. "Such a state would have been too large. One wouldn't have been able to manage that kind of extent and size. So most of the interpretations talk of these as having been influenced by Great Zimbabwe." He added that the Kingdom of Zimbabwe is considered to be made up of Great Zimbabwe and the smaller settlements located closer to it.

The walls, which are made of granite, are stacked precisely and do not use any mortar to hold them in place (Credit: 2630ben/Getty Images)

The walls, which are made of granite, are stacked precisely and do not use any mortar to hold them in place. "The quarrying of the granite, taking advantage of natural processes of weathering and the shaping of it into regular blocks was a major engineering undertaking by these pre-colonial communities," Manyganga said. Iron metallurgy was needed to make the tools required to cut the blocks; it was also needed to make trade goods subsequently found at the site. All of this points to a highly organised and technologically advanced society.

The population of Great Zimbabwe began to decline in the mid-15th Century as the Kingdom of Zimbabwe weakened (possible theories for the decline include a drop in mining output, overgrazing by cattle, and depleted resources), but the site itself was not abandoned. Manyganga explained that it was regularly visited by different Shona groups for spiritual reasons right up until colonisation by the British in the late 19th Century. 

Europeans of the late-19th and early-20th Centuries attributed the construction to outsiders and explorers, rather than to the Africans (Credit: Agostini/Getty Images)

A decade later, in a speech to the Royal Geographic Society, British journalist Richard N Hall supported Bent's perspective after visiting the site himself. He talked about the artistic value of soapstone carvings that had been unearthed and the "marvellous cleverness" of a gold-mining operation that spanned hundreds of mines, before concluding that "it is quite a moral certainty that even the cruder methods of [these sciences'] application were imported from the Near East, and did not originate in South-East Africa." Instead, he and his colleagues held that Phoenicians, Arabians or Babylonians created the city.

According to Manyanga, "They wanted to use [this explanation] as a moral justification for colonising Zimbabwe. If there was this long-lost civilisation in this part of the world, there was nothing wrong with colonialism because they were resuscitating this old kingdom."

However, a few archaeologists of the time countered that the site was not nearly old enough to be from Biblical times. "The then-colonial government suppressed these views, and the official narrative in public media and museums was that Great Zimbabwe was of foreign origins," said Manyanga. This version of history was upheld through the 1960s and 1970s by the white-minority government of the colony. Only in 1980, when Zimbabwe achieved independence, could the new leaders finally affirm that the site was built by their own ancestors. During the 1960s, black nationalists had even settled on Zimbabwe as the name for the country they hoped to lead to freedom, harkening back to Great Zimbabwe.

Since 1980, local archaeological research has been slow to resume and has dealt largely with maintenance and repair. Research has instead focused on the satellite sites, in part because they were less disturbed by early excavations. Manyanga emphasised that scholarly understanding of Great Zimbabwe has shifted. "Eurocentric models interpreted the site as though you were looking at a castle in Europe. What has come to light from recent work is that Great Zimbabwe was built over a long period of time; it was not built once and then occupied, but grew over time. Even the walling came at a later stage because earlier on there were farming communities at Great Zimbabwe."

Today, the great ancient city remains just as important for Zimbabweans. Shona villages are located nearby, and many residents work to maintain the site. A religious centre is close by too, and the site still attracts worshippers who practice traditional Shona faiths.

"It was Africans who created this," said writer Marangwanda. "And over a millennium later it's still standing. It's a testament to who we are." 

BBC Travel's Lost Civilisations delves into little-known facts about past worlds, dispelling any false myths and narratives that have previously surrounded them.

Stuck on the couch of it all - much like so many of us but I’ve been thinking about the couch in the camper (still so obsessed with the camper van - so so much to unpack and unpick with that camper and how its Buck, Eddie and Christopher in microcosm!!) and how Eddie was trapped between it and the fridge - but also how he was essentially thrown into the couch and then trapped by the fridge and how that actually ties in very interestingly with both theories - fridge and couch.

Because there is something in how the woman who was a reflection of Buck - taking care of her friends child and keeping the things they shared alive and so the memory alive as well (not to mention the coffee metaphor thrown in there too!)- ended up laid out on the couch before she was rescued and have that shown to us from very similar angles that we see Buck sleeping on the Diaz couch.

Then to have Eddie thrown into that couch and hold out his st Christopher over said couch that he is now pinned to by a fridge which is the same colour as his ovens (the very thing we’ve seen him and Buck using in their respective houses this season when we haven’t before) and kitchen utensils (again the colour of which Buck ad Eddie share). When we have a fridge theory that is an embodiment of of Eddies life - the magnets and their comings and goings representing aspects of Eddies life (the little magnet people being the firefam - his found family, the ghost of Shannon memorialised in photographs and Christopher - always being present in varying amounts through pictures and school calendars etc) and where he is mentally - forcing him and trapping him on a couch when the Diaz couch has visually been shown to be a place of safety, comfort and home for all three of them. 

Then to have him hold up the representation of the will over the couch present in the scene - over the place where the woman who was a representation of Buck - well thats pretty telling to me. 

especially when we then saw Buck help Eddie get out of where he was trapped and then have them sit together for a moment (where Eddie shuffled a little bit closer to buck) - they of course got called away to continue rescuing and helping the fire fam, but the fact that we got to see that little moment was a call back to the hardware store and Bobby telling Eddie how ‘Athena sat with him in the moment and things grew from there’ 

The universe is pushing Eddie closer to the answer - to figuring out things for himself because if the fridge is a metaphor for Eddies thoughts/feelings - a physical representation of where Eddie is mentally (for the audience) then a fridge (in a microcosm representation of the Buddie story) pushing him closer to the couch and then waving the will over the top of it (the st Christopher) while under a rug is meant to be read as a clear signpost to the audience that while Eddie and Buck are not talking about that will at the moment - while they are still  this is actually where things are going because its a representation of all the threads beginning to come together and create that string of fate!

listen if oliver ever says the words trapped dads in an interview im buying a plane ticket and showing up at his house with a baseball bat

#Buddie Wedding Season 10 Everyone's Invited

putting him where he belongs

when oliver said buddie fans aren't wrong, what he was actually saying was buddie fans are right about everything. they've been right about everything all along and i'm going to make sure they and everyone on the planet know about it. i'm about to make buddie canon EVERYBODY'S problem and who's gonna stop me? fox? FUCK those guys.

oopsie! You got a bit too manic about a creative project too close to bedtime and now your brain is too awake to sleep. One million dead 10 morbillion injured

I was gonna say it's so funny that canonically the very first thing buck notices literally immediately upon setting eyes on eddie is how hot he is but then I remembered I really can't even isolate that to buddie cause it's also the first thing infamous pussy-lovers hen and chim noticed too. eddie just IS that girl. only buck tuned in his hot-new-coworker psychic damage frequency to a constant barrage of what a man what a man what a man what a mighty good man though I'll give him that

someone might have already said this, I’ve been a little mia, buuut now that I have thought about it more, the couch scene actually makes so much sense?

the thing is, we’ve only been considering the couch metaphor from a meta standpoint - and don’t get me wrong, that is def an important aspect and they have been using it as such, for examply by showing us that the answer to the couch question is eddie’s couch (thank you 6x12 couch scene my most beloved <3) - but in that we are kinda forgetting that in contrast to the other metaphors (most notably heart and water metaphors <3) the couch metaphor first and foremost isn’t a meta metaphor, it is buck’s metaphor and thereby the only metaphor that the characters are actively aware of and so while the meta aspects of it definitely are at play (and in my opinion do hold up, because of course he has grown, but not yet enough and so this time the couch choice is half his own, while half still put on someone else again, and he still doesn’t see the one right in front of him) more importantly buck is actively trying to use the couch metaphor and is actively trying to put it into play by being proactive, but it also means that the couch metaphor is not infallible, because buck is not infallible

from buck’s perspective, natalia is a good candidate and he didn’t compromise on his own boundaries for her and she still came back and stood beside him through the emotional mess that was kameron having the baby even tho that was what originally made her run - of course he would want the couch metaphor to work for the two of them (people have said it before, but it bears repeating: buck is not omniscient, he does not see the narrative signs for why he and natalia are doomed!) and of course that would make him actively put the couch metaphor into play, it’s almost like a test, like him asking can we actually ‘pick a couch’ together that works for both of us synonymous with him asking if they actually fit (which is a big step up, because it IS him making that choice and him recognizing that ‘picking a couch’ kinda needs to be a both partners kinda thing and a compromise, not him accepting couches that are hoisted on him) - and only s7 will tell us and more importantly buck the answer to that, even tho we as the audience know that the couch buck is at ease on is already out there and waiting for him to see it <3

Oliver we know you're on tumblr. We know you're one of us. So if you're reading this... Please shut the fuck up oh my god enough what is wrong with you

can oliver address the ring cutter now

im taking media away from some of u guys until you can pass a 6th grade literary analysis test

you guys think im fucking joking but im not. i cannot deal with another second of people complaining about stories "glorifying" their subject matter just because no one turned to the camera and said, "hey guys, just so you know, this thing is Bad and Not Good, and this story is about Why it is Bad and Not Good."

i say this with love in my heart. But i genuinely do believe some of you on this horrid webbedsite are so used to only consuming media that explicitly tells you what you are supposed to take away from it (i.e. children's media) that youve lost the ability to examine media beyond a surface level

this is not to say that children's media is bad. or that adults can't enjoy it. i'm an adult, i love cartoons, and i probably always will. but if all you are consuming is tv shows made to teach children about kindness, you are going to rot your brain

If ur annoying on this post you will owe me 300USD

Discussion questions:

1) When OP says "I'm taking media away from some of you guys until you can pass a 6th grade literary analysis test," this is an example of a rhetorical device. Which rhetorical device is an example of? Is it effective? Why or why not?

2) Why might OP only mention the website he is posting on? Does this mean he thinks every other website is without these issues, or is it in order to make it relevant to the viewers?