Buttercups And Echo Flowers (part 2)

buttercups and echo flowers (part 2)

I'VE GOT AN ADDRESS!!!! ALEX WANTS THE PUPPETS!!!!

I managed to get in touch with Alex via Emmy Cicierega (THANK YOU SO MUCH!), and Alex wants to give the life-sized Bill, Stan and Ford a new home :D

Please enjoy the archive of material here... and who knows, someday maybe I'll make a much smaller, more portable Bill for myself.

I'll of course update you all with what happens with the puppets as I figure out how to pack and ship and get them to Alex!

What to do if you suddenly find yourself homeless

FOOD

Find your nearest food bank or mission, for food

grocery stores with free samples, bakeries + stores with day-old bread

different fast food outlets have cheaper food and will generally let you hang out for a while.

some dollar stores carry food like cans of beans or fruit

SHELTER

Sleeping at beaches during the day is a good way to avoid suspicion and harassment

sleep with your bag strapped to you, so someone can’t steal it

Some churches offer short term residence

Find your nearest homeless shelter

Look for places that are open to the public

A large dumpster near a wall can often be moved so that flipping up the lids creates an angled shelter to stay dry

HYGIENE

A membership to the YMCA is usually only 10$, which has a shower, and sometimes laundry machines and lockers.

Public libraries have bathrooms you can use

Dollar stores carry low-end soaps and deodorant etc.

Wet wipes are all purpose and a life saver

Local beaches, go for a quick swim

Some truck stops have showers you can pay for

Staying clean is the best way to prevent disease, and potentially get a job to get back on your feet

Pack 7 pairs of socks/undies, 2 outfits, and one hooded rain jacket

OTHER

first aid kit

 sunscreen

 a travel alarm clock or watch

 mylar emergency blanket

 a backpack is a must

 downgrade your cellphone to a pay as you go with top-up cards

 sleeping bag

 travel kit of toothbrush, hair brush/comb, mirror

 swiss army knife

 can opener

The Mouth and Teeth in Snowpiercer

The importance of teeth in Snowpiercer is alliterated and emphasized consistently. By virtue of the starving narrative, we are already drawn to the mouth. Several of the shots in the tail emphasize the mouth (More specifically, that of Andrew’s open-mouthed shout of pain when his arm is freezing, and that of Mason’s overly phlegmy, dentured mouth; the latter of which is one of the first characteristics of the woman that is noticeable, beyond her richly purple and yellow clothes).

The soldiers in the infamous Cod scene are, for the most part, covered entirely except for their mouths- they are reduced to nothing more than flashing teeth in the upcoming fight. 

Curtis constantly chews on his fingers. 

The introduction to Old World pleasures is by an oral object- the cigarette, reinforced by smell (when the Tail practically sways as Namgoong lights up). It’s one of the first things Namgoong does, and the mouth is again reinforced by the necessity of a device to translate both English and Korean.

Mason removes her teeth as a sign of innocence, to show that she’s no threat. It’s her way of pleading, and it’s not small detail that she’s issuing this plea to Curtis.

In fact, the teeth and the mouth always comes back to Curtis. It’s the tip-off to his characterization, and it often runs hand in hand (heh) to what his hands are doing.

The mouth is Curtis’ imagery. He consistently covers his mouth with his hands, clenches his jaw, and rarely shows teeth; the only place I can really remember him showing teeth is when he’s animalistically baring them at Mason’s throat. 

It’s important to remember that this is the one part of the film where Curtis’ visible anger and reactionary actions are so sudden and unexpected, compared to his normally reserved and tense self. 

Moments before this baring of teeth?

He’s holding his hand in front of his mouth, his own physical sign of restraint. 

We’re later drawn back to the benign imagery of the cigarette. At this point of the film, we’ve gotten so much of what the mouth is, and what it should do (It’s interesting to note that the people in masks on the bridge don’t get mouths) and the manipulation that a mouth can cause, that we as an audience expects Curtis to actually smoke the thing. 

Instead, he wastes it and other than one or two tiny drags, he doesn’t put it in his mouth, as he tells the audience why the mouth is so important. Why teeth are so emphasized. Each instance of the mouth within this film is to build up the realization that the mouth is Curtis’ core trait, the thing he ultimately holds the most guilt over- It’s a physical representation of his guilt, where his hands are his anxiety, his suppression. 

Characters co-owned w @_magic.stardust_ on IG 😌✨ (a couple more comics abt this on my account already)

I'm not a very positive person, i have a LOT of doomer tendencies. I feel everything like it's cranked up to the max, and as you can imagine it doesn't feel great. Every day throws more atrocious things in my face, and i can't ignore it 🥲

I see other people feeling the same way. We dissociate and numb ourselves by watching, playing, buying stuff. Hateful movements are gaining traction and climate change has its foot in the door

And it's all happening either way, to some degree. I feel like shit, and i'm sick of that. I might as well have a little bit of hope, otherwise i'll go bonkers 😭 Do we continue doomering our way through life or ignoring things altogether, or do we choose to hope a little?

That's why i'm looking into Solarpunk and am thinking of taking any readers (and myself) on a little journey through a better world, and how it might work, through a series of mini-comics I'm posting here. I don't have all the answers (no one person ever does), and i don't hold any pretenses that this kind of world is going to be our future. But i often hear "You love critiquing the status quo, but what do you propose instead?" I'd like to find out too. Here's to something we can hope for, no matter how slim the chances are! Because as I said, i might just lose my mind otherwise ☠️

P.S for new peeps: this is an AU with me and my friend's OCs, so all characters are genderless and go by they/them. It's not identical to our world in that regard, but other than this fact we try to keep it more or less realistic 🤙

I spent a thousand krillion hours on this and the other Solarpunk comics, consider throwing 2$ at me on Buy Me A Coffee to raise my spirits :] I'm not doing well mentally these days, but people's appreciation helps a lot. Thank you very much!

safe haven