#Disco songs about Lesbians

[ladycharles]

My first soundtrack album, Oh Boy! is out now! It is for a disco version of Hamlet (seriously) and I drew inspiration from ELO, David Bowie, Abba, of Montreal, Late of the Pier, Rod Stewart (yes), Bee Gees, Kate Bush and even a little Eno, Nine Inch Nails and Philip Glass (half the album is instrumental score and it's the weird half).

(If you don't wanna hear some out there instrumental score skip to track 2 😅💖)

Other streaming or buying links 👇🏼

[fanhackers]

How To Be Gay, by David M. Halperin

While there are obvious fan studies classics, there are other books that don’t always fall into the “fan studies” canon that I have found incredibly useful for my own thinking.  I cited one of them, Carol Dyhouse’s  Heartthrobs: A History of Women and Desire (2017), a few posts ago; another is David Halperin’s How To Be Gay (2012)

How To Be Gay came out of a course Halperin taught at the University of Michigan, whose full title was “How to Be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation.”  The initiation in question was not sexual, but cultural:  Halperin believes that there are not only gay texts, a gay canon of sorts, but also gay ways of reading that are taught and learned and that help constitute something we might call a gay subjectivity (that you don’t have to be gay actually to have):  e.g. Hollywood movies, opera, Broadway musicals, camp, diva worship, drag, muscle culture, style, fashion, interior design. Halperin asked both why this set of things–why musicals? why this diva or that–and what do they tell us about gay experience? Halperin was trying to trace “gay men’s characteristic relation to mainstream culture,” which often involves collaborative and camp appropriation: a queering.

I find this book very useful, both because fandom also has its own shared languages and rites of initiation (consider the idea of watching something with fannish goggles or slash goggles or a fanfic lens, as was recently discussed in a previous post; think about all the languages and tropes and artistic structures we all learn from each other) but also because Halperin talks about modes of identification that aren’t representational or based obviously in identity politics. So, for example, he says that the gay male students in his class were more likely to express themselves vis a vis a shared text like  The Golden Girls than vis a vis the traditions of what Halperin calls “good gay writing.” There is, Halperin argues, a queer pleasure in the Broadway musical that’s different than the pleasures of gay identity or even gay sex; similarly, queer female fans might find pleasures in identifying with, say, Sherlock, Crowley, or Blackbeard that are very different from the pleasures offered by a woman- or lesbian-centered text. 

Here’s an excerpt that gives a good sense of the book, I think: fans might identify with this or recognize it as descriptive of their own fannish feels.  (FWIW, the italics are all his!)

[H]omosexuality is not just a sexual orientation but a cultural orientation, a dedicated commitment to certain social or aesthetic values, an entire way of being.  That distinctively gay way of being, moreover, appears to be rooted in a particular queer way of feeling. And that queer way of feeling—that queer subjectivity—expresses itself through a peculiar, dissident way of relating to cultural objects (movies, songs, clothes, books, works of art) and cultural forms in general (art and architecture, opera and musical theater, pop and disco, style and fashion, emotion and language). As a cultural practice, male homosexuality involves a characteristic way of receiving, reinterpreting, and reusing mainstream culture, of decoding and recoding the heterosexual or heteronormative meanings already encoded in that culture, so that they come to function as vehicles of gay or queer meaning. It consists, as the critic John Clum says, in “a shared alternative reading of mainstream culture.” As a result, certain figures who are already prominent in the mass media become gay icons: they get taken up by gay men with a peculiar intensity that differs from their wider reception in the straight world. (That practice is so marked, and so widely acknowledged, that the National Portrait Gallery in London could organize an entire exhibition around the theme of Gay Icons in 2009.) And certain cultural forms, such as Broadway musicals or Hollywood melodramas, are similarly invested with a particular power and significance, attracting a disproportionate number of gay male fans. What this implies is that it is not enough for a man to be homosexual in order to be gay. Same-sex desire alone does not equal gayness. In order to be gay, a man has to learn to relate to the world around him in a distinctive way.  (p. 12 - 13)

–Francesca Coppa, Fanhackers volunteer

[planet-gay-comic]

Cheeky Boys in the Wintergarden Waves of Freedom A Journey through the Evolution of Sexual Morality from Art Nouveau to Late Modernism

The development of sexual morality in the 20th century is a fascinating journey from strict societal norms to an era of personal freedom and self-expression. From Art Nouveau to the vibrant decades of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, we witnessed an impressive evolution in the perception and practice of sexuality and individual expression.

Art Nouveau - A New Aesthetic Emerges: Art Nouveau not only brought about a change in art and design but also ushered in a relaxation of traditional sexual morals. During this era, there was a growing interest in human sexuality and a subtle challenge to societal taboos, along with a new body consciousness, in an effort to move away from the prudish and rigid Victorian era. A notable feature of Art Nouveau was its association with the Roman Baths, which became a meeting place for people of different sexual orientations. In the Roman Baths, individuals of all sexual preferences came together without inhibition, creating an atmosphere of tolerance and openness. This ambiance contributed to Art Nouveau often being seen as a precursor to the sexual revolution of the 60s.

The 60s and 70s - The Age of the Sexual Revolution: The next decades brought an explosive change in sexual morality in the Western world. The 60s brought a new wave of sexual freedom with the Hippie movement and the introduction of the birth control pill, but that was just the beginning.

In the 70s, growing awareness and increasing acceptance led to a more open attitude toward diverse sexual identities and orientations. This time was marked by the emerging LGBT movement, advocating for the rights and visibility of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender individuals.

In the 80s and 90s, clubs and discos reached their peak as places of freedom and expression. Iconic songs like "YMCA" by the Village People and "We Are Family" were not only hits but also anthems of the LGBT community, which found a safe and accepting environment in these establishments. Concurrently, the first gay saunas emerged, serving as safe havens and meeting places. The sexual revolution of this era was characterized by an openness and diversity that continues to shape the LGBT movement to this day and represents an important part of the history of sexual liberation.

The evolution of sexual morality in the 20th century tells a story of freedom and progress. From the subtle beginnings of Art Nouveau to the exuberant freedom of the late modern era, these changes reflect the ongoing struggle for personal freedom and the acceptance of different lifestyles.

Text supported by Chat-GPT-4.0 These image is generated with StableDiffusion v1.5. The poses and the backround were obtained with ControlNet v1.1.410 via open pose. Faces and background overworked with composing and inpainting.

[darishima]

puppy your game collection is beautiful i dont know what most of those are except like the disgaeas (because youve explained them before), disco elysium (the occasional meme crosses my dash), roblox, and undertale maybeeeeee you could give me a tour of the others you like and what theyre about and stuff! whats muse dash ouppy that sounds like a rhythm game ^w^

thank you i know its incredible :3c soo here it is again i will go game by game and yap my ouppy little head off im sorry

starting from the left! desmume is a DS emulator that i got to play puyo puyo fever, a fullmetal alchemist ROM and a lucky star ROM and PPSSPP is a PSP emulator i got for uhh. i cant remember which game i specifically installed it for. i think it was puyo puyo fever 2?

roblox is. you know. roblox

my hero one's justice is a demo i downloaded from steam which i have not actually played LMAO i got the demo to see if i wanted to buy the full game but i guess its pointless because i havent bothered to check out the demo

class of 09 and class of 09 re-up (the sequel) are visual novels, hard to explain what theyre about.. basically its all about toxic evil yuri and drug abuse and self harm. its like if needy streamer overload was about coked up high school lesbians

disgaea pc is the second best game ever made

disgaea 2 pc is the number 1 best game ever made. no further explanation necessary

i have not actually played dont starve yet, it was recommended by a friend so i bought it during the steam summer sale for like 2 bucks. from what ive heard, its a survival game, kinda like minecraft if minecraft was way harder and the game hated you

disco elysium is the same, recommended by a friend, i bought it for super cheap during the summer sale, and have not touched it yet LMAO

muse dash is a rhythm game yes and its FUCKIGN INCREDIBLE. AND IM AMAIZNG AT IT. LOOK AT THESE SCORES BONESY ARENT YOU PROUD OF ME

full combo means i hit every note and didnt miss a single one >:3 im genuinely really good at the game not 2 brag,,, and YES you saw that right, hatsune miku and kagamine rin and len are playable characters!! they come with two respective DLCs which also come with a bunch of vocaloid songs and i bought them both <3 these are their sprites in game!

and if you buy it it gives you a bunch of adorable art on the loading screens :3 this isnt even all of them just a few i screenshotted. if i screenrecorded myself killing it in muse dash would you watch the video teehee...

ok back to game yapping. leaf blower revolution is an idle clicker game i got for free on steam, which i got insanely hyperfixated on for three days and played for like 14 hours straight once and then gave up and never touched it again

yume nikki is a little pixelated adventure game where you explore around a girl's weird dreams. the soundtrack is INCREDIBLE especially this song. its transcendental. listen to it while youre high trust me you have to

DDLC requires no explanation i think. its ddlc. you know what it is theres no way you dont

the song of saya (saya no uta) i will be yapping extra about because i LOVE IT. its a horror eroge visual novel about a guy named fuminori who, after a brain surgery, sees the entire world and other people as a disgusting fleshy abomination, whereas everything looks normal to other people. for example this:

is a completely normal hallway. but it looks like that to him. then he meets a girl name saya, who is the only thing in the world that looks normal to him, and he falls in love with her

and i reeeally really dont wanna spoil it cause its really good and i highly recommend you go watch it (theres a full playthrough on youtube) but lets just say saya is Not as normal as she looks.

celeste is a game ive only played a little of, but i love it so far. its a platformer about a trans woman named madeline climbing celeste mountain, and encountering a personification of her self doubt that she has to overcome to get to the top. i lovee the style of the game its so pretty and way easier than i expected it to be, which is great for me because im garbage at every game in the world that isnt muse dash or disgaea

disgaea 4 and disgaea 5 are self explanatory. i ADORE d4, though im not super far into it, but i havent started d5 yet im waiting until i finish d1 and 4

phantom brave is a game set in the same universe as disgaea which crosses over with it, i havent played more than a few minutes of the game but obviously i love it so far cause its similar to disgaea. im waiting to jump fully into it until i finish d1 and d4 though

OFF is an rpg also recommended to me by a friend, i downloaded it online but havent touched it yet 😭 pro at owning games i dont play

omori is also very self explanatory. i downloaded it off my friends steam account and he and i have been playing it together, im not far in but obviously i like it, i knew i would. aubrey is sooo mecore <3 i really need to keep playing it... i should have gotten into omori sooner. actually no i take that back because i think 14 year old me getting into omori would have been so world-ending that it would have shattered my psyche

spore is spore. idk how to describe it. you make a fucked up little creature and you make the fucked up little creature do shit thats the whole game

undertale is also very self explanatory. and boom thats all my games :3 well i also have animal jam classic which didnt fit in the screenshot but theres not much to say about that. other than the fact that i own a super rare nonmember mantis pet and im proud of it. and my den fucks

okay thats more than enough yapping im sorry .. stop asking me questions because i do not know how to shut up. ily though thank you for asking :3c

[shapelytimber]

A few days ago it was my mom's birthday, and as a second gift I offered to do any illustration she wanted :) Naively I though it would be easy, that she would ask something straightforward- But my mom, being who she is, just gave me three words : "cat", "melancholia" and "desaturated" lglglgkkflfojfn And here it is finaly ! A short nonsensical comic about a cat and melancholia (ft my moth lady because I could)

The lyrics are from the song "Along the river" by Stand High Patrol

Process below vvv (and what a fucking trip it was)

Ok so first thing first, this illustration began in a really really different direction. But I found it too 'rigid' and a bit boring but didn't know what to change.

Time to delete my art!!!!!

The "narration" stayed relarively similar, but for the render.... I may have spend the last week playing Disco elysium for the first time with @quijicroix and after THAT I just wanted to paint sloppy style

So after a very quick ugly sketch, it was time to stop being a coward and add *textures*

(And made the lesbianism more prononced because I can't help myself)

[enbysiriusblack]

hi please tell me about emmeline :D

gryffindor in the same year as marauders. best friends with mary macdonald and florence

she's a lesbian and has dated sybill trelawney, pandora lovegood, lily evans (more made out a lot, didn't date)

scottish/korean- she grew up in south korea but her parents wanted her to go to hogwarts as it's a family tradition, so she lived with her grandparents in scotland during the school breaks every year

has an enormous amount of daddy issues (which plays part in her admiration of dumbledore). she gets in a lot of fights, and has a big temper/easily angered. she has very high ambitions (wants to get an order of merlin/be her generation's dumbledore) but doesn't really have the motivation. she sees education and success as the most important thing to her, but then would go socialising/partying over actually studying.

she plays drums in a band with peter, marlene, and xenophilius. they are suitably named 'the slackers'. the band tends to play more rock music because peter and marlene usually choose what to cover/write their own songs. however, she prefers pop and disco music.

[theradicalace]

htf gender, pronoun, and sexuality headcanons? (for pride month)

i think i've listed them before buuuut i can never turn down a pride month request Or a chance to ramble about the little guys + my hcs have changed slightly Again bc i'm indecisive so i'll do it again >:3

courtesy readmore for length

cuddles- he/him, the coolest cis man you'll ever meet, bisexual

giggles- she/her, cis woman, bi with a strong preference for women

toothy- he/him, trans guy, gay

flaky- mirror pronouns, nonbinary/genderfluid, demisexual bi

mime- he/they/she or other pronouns if they're funny, whatever gender is most convenient/funniest for the situation, bi

nutty- he/any neopronouns, trans guy, pansexual

disco bear- he/him, cis guy, bisexual in theory, pulls nobody in practice

lifty- he/him, trans guy, asexual (who's projecting? not me), bi

shifty+ he/him, cis guy ("what do you mean you only hc one of the twins as trans" shh i work in mysterious ways), bi with a strong preference for men

handy- he/him, trans man, bi

petunia- she/her, trans woman, bi

mole- he/they, if you asked he'd say "i just work here" but he's guy adjacent at least, bi in the loosest sense of the word but more accurately it's that he likes men and A woman (read: petunia)

(handy/petunia/mole polycule. it's canon in my heart)

sniffles- he/it/bot, transmasc nonbinary, demiromantic asexual

splendid- she/her, trans woman, aroace, shhh she's still figuring all that out give her a minute

splendont- he/him, trans man, gay

pop- he/him, cis man, he honestly believes he's straight just because he's never bothered to think about it but if he would stop to self reflect for literally five minutes he'd realize he also likes men

flippy- he/him, cishet somehow but he's cool about it

russell- he/him, cis man, aromantic gay but he'd never actually say that. if you ask hin he'll just say he's "married to the sea" and then disappear to hook up with a guy

lammy- she/her, cis woman but she's such a ride or die trans ally after she gets the 45 minute "transgender 101" lecture she'd need to understand what trans people are, a lesbian but she hasn't figured it out yet and she insists she's bi. sit her down with a glass of wine and that chappell roan song and she'll figure it out though

cro marmot- cro marmot

in short, i STILL have the disease that makes me hc nearly every character as trans and bi. it's called cool awesome epic swag disease and it's incurable

[inglorionamy-ammy]

9 People You Want To Get To Know Better! ~ Tag game

Thank you to @simpofwaterdeep for tagging me in this, I'm honored ;) Also why are our taste so similar lmao

-

First ship: Gale/Tav. I have a million Tavs in my head and my Gale AI phone record, but for now those that hatched are Ta'V the half-orc barbarian and Monkey the monk lol

Second ship: Wyll/Karlach. They fit so well that I don't even dare to romance either of them as a player.

Third ship: Dame Aylin/Isobel. I rarely pine for lesbian ships in media, apart from them and Caitlyn/V in LOL's Arcane lol

Last song: Koi no Disco Queen from Yakuza 0. Such an energy booster.

Last movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I watched it for Gale lmao

Currently reading: Two pages in Call Me by Your Name, but I may not finish it. Can previous readers tell me if it's good?

Currently watching: Started a bit of BoJack Horseman under Senua's recommendation.

Currently eating: I just ate a home-baked bread because I'm feeling a bit sick today.

Currently craving: I want to lie dead on my bed and spoon Gale. Aren't we all.

-

I don't know much about tagging so...please, if you see this post and want to join in, just join! Also, @senualothbrok because I basically tag you in every post I posted lol

[ladycharles]

Oh Boy track by track part 4

Cherry Chapstick (long read sorry)

No disco adaptation of Hamlet would be complete without a disco dance duet, and in this case it's Uncle Arvin (Polonius) and the father who do a Saturday Night Fever style routine tinged with jealousy and contempt.

More than any piece this one made sense to really lean on the disco cliches, and I thought the vibes called for the most hated disco of all: aging white rocker disco. And so Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy became the key muse. No lie though, Rod Stewart absolutely fucks on this one.

I created a synth-string melody that recalled it or Abba's Man After Midnight, then set about laying down some disco guitars and building an arrangement. It was very difficult and much more fussy than the rest of the album, since essentially I was composing to a rigid set of rules with no particular creative spark.

My friend Emma came by to collaborate since I was hitting a wall and we threw some ideas around. What appealed to us both was to take the basic 'boy meets girl, do they like each other, yes they do' narrative and transpose it onto something a bit gayer.

And so the song became a sort of response to Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl - in this case it's the firmly Lesbian character who is unsure if the friend she's fooling around with actually wants her or just wants to experiment.

I was really hoping that Emma would sing most of it, both because she's a great singer and because I am observed at all times by a number of insufferable TERFs who would absolutely hate me singing as a lesbian character.

Emma is, however, a complex person with a tendency to disappear for long stretches and unfortunately she did so right after we had drafted the lyrics and recorded some preliminary takes.

From there on the song really defeated me. The key was too high, I must have done a hundred takes in a shaky falsetto before finally rewriting the melody. I found that the more I fussed over the song the more its threads unravelled, and eventually it was such an unwieldly mess of issues that I threw my hands up and admitted defeat. I would put it out, but it wouldn't be polished like I wanted.

Well as it turns out because this song was the last one finished and took forever, Erin was unable to mix it having just had an amazing family milestone, and I ended up getting in touch with another great producer to mix the last tracks, this and Hands.

Mark Plati was the bandleader and guitarist for David Bowie back in 2003 when I saw him perform in Toronto. He produced Earthling, a searing industrial dance record that established the 50 year old Bowie as someone who still had tricks up his sleeves.

He was amazing to work with, but the thing with professionals, especially in that generation, is that they are direct and honest...

And he called out the utter mess that was Cherry Chapstick, absolutely read it like tea leaves. Though my confidence had bottomed out, that lit a fire in me to load up that project and finally kick its ass rather than letting it kick mine. I redid my vocals (some were embarrassingly off to the point I can't believe I sent them to fucking Mark Plati) but I put every ounce of strength I had into my breath, control and phrasing and finally had something to be proud of.

His mix found the pulsing 4/4 backbeat that was buried in my rough mix, and was the finishing touch to turn it into the disco song it very nearly failed to be.

[alicelufenia]

About me and what I'm doing here

There's been quite a few new followers the past few weeks so might as well update my pinned post.

So first off, hi! I'm Alice, I use she/her pronouns, I'm 29+ (bit sensitive about that), a bi lesbian trans girl, and huge nerd. While I do some roleplay around these parts I don't strictly post in IC or OOC voice, so you can for the most part assume what I'm saying is me and not any of my characters unless I make it REALLY clear.

PFP Credit

What you'll find here

My Final Fantasy XIV reblogs and gposes mostly, though rather than keep side blogs for my interests I just sorta drop it all here haha. As well as any lore and snippets about my OCs and ships too.

I also dabble in roleplay, and am open to just about anything, though we should have a talk before any ERP. For that reason, while this blog is not strictly mature only, I must insist minors do not interact when it comes to roleplay.

Occasionally I'll also drop something about Disco Elysium, aka the Best Written Game Ever.

And now, introductions to all of my OCs! Under the cut to spare your scrolling:

Chosen By Hydaelyn

Alice Lufenia (She/Her) - Background Coming Soon

Identity: bisexual trans woman Titles: Conjurer Knight, Warrior of Light, Champion of Eorzea, The Boundless Queen, Soul of Magic, Art Assistant Homeland: Born in Gridania, raised in Corvos Died: 4 times

Inheritor to the seat of The Traveler, she is Eorzea's Hope, our Weapon of Light. You'd think she never asked for this, but OOPS she kinda did! Nowadays she'd rather just sit back and work mammets to death, except her Bookworm Husband and Murder Boyfriend have other ideas. And thus the adventurer's unending journey continues...

Character Tags The Boundless Queen - pertaining to Alice's life and the canon MSQ A Mirror for the Princess - pertaining to Zenos and Alice's relationship, and canon divergence Griffin and Bear - pertaining to G'raha Tia and Alice's relationship, and canon divergence

Cadwyn (They/Them) - Background Coming Soon

Identity: pansexual, agender Titles: Wandering Vanguard, The Song upon the Wind, Stargazer, At Land's Horizon Homeland: Dalmasca Sightseeing Log Entries: 473 (they've been around)

The winds of change having taken them on the latest of life's diversions, the elusive rava serves as the Scions' eyes and ears across Ilsabard. Also Thancred's favorite drinking buddy. If Estinien remains clueless of what is happening but goes along with it anyway, Cadwyn knows exactly what is going on, but will feign ignorance to avoid responsibility.

A'zhel Meteo (She/Her) - Background Coming Soon

Identity: lesbian cis woman Titles: Warrior of Light (in solo canon), Of Unyielding Steel, A-Towa-Cant Reborn, Master Goldsmith Homeland: Oakwood Girls Kissed: 14

Born to a humble family of merchants in an unremarkable corner of Vilbrand, A'zhel tired of the simple life at home and desired to travel abroad, only to find her future was more lively that she could ever imagine. With greataxe and hammer in hand, she will smash the walls of heartache. And heart to heart you'll win, if you survive.

Chosen By Divinity

Un'dine Dalamiq (She/They) - Background Coming Soon

Identity: demiromantic cis woman Titles: Khagan of the Steppe, Tamer of the Undying Flame, Moonwalker Homeland: Azim Steppe Crystals of Light: 1 (embedded in her chest since birth)

Serving her people as a highly revered black shaman, she has been on a 5+ year pilgrimage to Eorzea to investigate the fall of Dalamud, that this crisis of faith may be put to rest. Carrying a blessing of Fire from birth, they are unexpectedly calm and resolute, slow to befriend others yet loyal to the pain of death to those they care for.

Achilles Pyrrha (She/Her) - Background Coming Soon

Identity: bisexual trans woman Titles: The Red, The Azure Dragoon, Halone's Consort Homeland: Tailfeather Prayers to Halone: 3054

After a lifetime of having her true self denied by peers and family, the young Dragoon received the blessing of Halone at the moment of the Calamity, waking five years later as a woman reborn. She has a temper as fiery as her hair and a bloodlust to rival NIdhogg, yet more than anything else she yearns for peace.

Heroes' Companions

D'vunta Tia (He/Him) - Background Coming Soon

Identity: gay trans man Titles: Archon, Master Culinarian, Head Chef of The Rising Stones Homeland: Old Sharlayan New Recipes Penned: 251

D'vunta has served as the head chef at The Rising Stones for years now. His expertise extends far beyond simply cooking dishes more palatable than archon loaf however, for it was by special request from Lady Ameliance that he journeyed to Eorzea, serving as guardian and escort to the Leveilleur twins abroad. While not much use against primals, his Academician skills are without peer, and he always has a hot dish ready to sooth the souls of returning champions.

Dolani Dola (They/Them) - Background Coming Soon

Identity: asexual, non-binary Titles: Voidbound, Of The Swirling Abyss, Alice's Avatar Homeland: Ul'dah and the Void Rejoined: 8 times

The part voidsent thaumaturge has accompanied the Warrior of Light through many adventures, slaking their hunger on the enemies she has felled. The stagnation of aether heralding the coming Eighth Umbral Calamity forced them to resume their voidsent form. At which time, Alice formed a pact with them. Thus they serve as her reaper Avatar, feeding more deeply than ever before. Delicious...

[razorsadness]

Paul sat on his bedroom floor, circled by unsteady stacks of his and Christopher’s CDs and tapes. He wanted to explain something to Diane in the only way he knew how. Christopher’s music collection ranged from Patti Griffin all the way to Emmylou Harris, plus a few obvious disco compilations. Christopher was more of a lesbian than any actual lesbian Paul knew. He needed Jane for this. Paul packed up his stacks and headed over to Jane’s on Christopher’s bike.

     Jane wasn’t home, so he let himself in with her emergency key and plopped down on the ironic purple shag carpet in front of the stereo system. Much better. Jane had tape-to-tape, for one thing, and lots of vinyl, and everything the Pixies had ever released. Fags 0, Dykes 1.

     “Ooh,” he said into the empty apartment, fondling the Bikini Kill/Huggy Bear split LP before succumbing to the distraction of Jane’s mighty cassingle collection.

     Diane was definitely going to get the message: Paul was fun and intense. He lifted out his most precious mixtapes from his backpack and lined them up next to Jane’s music. Was it cheesy to pass Jane’s superior collection off as his own? Or was it a sign of his dedication? He could also go down to the club during the day and use some of the vinyl there, if he wanted dancier songs; that would be really intrepid but maybe too faggy? Yeah, too faggy. He wanted to give Diane things she couldn’t get herself, to turn her on to new things, to share his access, to provide, to shore up his girlfriendable-ness.

     He had 90- and 120-minute tapes, and Jane had some 60s, but you had to be really stuck to use a 60 anymore. And weren’t the 120-minute tapes supposed to be of inferior quality? He’d bought the most expensive ones available, German-made.

Side A:

I Am a Poseur - X-Ray Spex

Pretty on the Inside - Hole

Cherry Bomb - The Runaways

What’s Inside a Girl? - The Cramps

Rebel Girl - Bikini Kill

Pumping (My Heart) - Patti Smith

Golden Thing - Throwing Muses

Rid of Me - PJ Harvey

Touch Your Woman - Dolly Parton

If I Was Your Girlfriend - Prince

Beauty and the Beast - David Bowie

That’s Really Super, Supergirl - XTC

People Are Strange - Echo and the Bunnymen

     Paul was happy with Side A, though not entirely sure about that last track. Also, maybe “Me-Jane” would have been a better PJ Harvey track after “Golden Thing” because of the beat, but the lyrics weren’t romantic. Paul knew that some people didn’t consider the lyrics when making mixtapes, but he always did. Occasionally he’d choose a song for ironic purposes or to say the opposite of what the lyrics said or for litotes (for instance, “Rid of Me”) but always lyrics were involved in the decision. Paul disliked instrumental music. He wanted stories, all the time. He wished he could make a tape of all the moments from films he wanted to show her, but how was that even possible? Maybe if he hooked up Jane’s VCR to another VCR and rented all the movies… He felt that old familiar electricity surging up in him, a desire to accumulate and then display a complete collection. He imposed a small measure of self-control and returned his attention to the mixtape.

     He would listen to Side A to check the flow, to subject himself to its momentum before he started Side B. Start out strong, pumping, then go for counterpoint with Dolly, then take it to a sexy place, but not for too long (keep the tension), then—maybe the Bowie was too much? He wasn’t sure about any of the last three songs, really, but sometimes the songs you weren’t sure about were the genius choices. No, he couldn’t dismantle the tape now. He made a sandwich, leaving Jane with one slice of bread. She might not notice; she was kind of rich.

     Paul tried to imagine Diane listening to the tape on auto-reverse, driving down some street in Provincetown, maybe driving to her new job. Okay, what should the first song be on the second side? You’ve got that moment where the tape reverses, the antici…pation, and so the first song on the second side is the heart of the tape. By that point, you’re committed; you’ve listened to an entire side and you’ve entered the world of the tape—you’ve waited, and what are you waiting for? He decided to go for a declaration. Forget subtlety. His tape would be a manifesto of his readiness. He wanted to be Diane’s girlfriend, whatever that meant.

Side B:

Kinda I Want To - NIN

Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might be Giants

Take Me With U - Prince

     Paul stopped. Something was wrong. He didn’t want to seem queeny, male, obvious. This side was all dudes so far. Jane had a few compilation CDs, so Paul scanned the track listings until he hit gold: Jane Wiedlin from the Go-Gos. Apparently she was a PETA person. He cued up the tape:

Fur - Jane Wiedlin

     Halfway through, Paul knew the song was too campy; Diane might think he was making fun of her feelings about animals. He rewound. He could do better. He retrieved a bag of Oreos from Jane’s cabinet and took stock of the situation.

Fur - Jane Wiedlin

     Paul considered a tape Tony Pinto had made him, so long ago. Two years ago. Was it entirely ethical to copy a song, or multiple songs, from a mixtape someone else had made you? What if you changed the order? What if the person who made you the mix had copied at least half of the songs from Just Say Yes, Volume III: Just Say Mao, which you later discovered while looking through their CDs? What if the person who made you the mixtape was in love with you but you weren’t in love with them? What if the person who made the tape was in love with you and you had been in love with them, maybe, but you weren’t anymore? Was it really even okay to copy any songs from a mixtape? Paul decided it was okay if the tape had been given to you in the spirit of true love and had then become part of who you now were. It was not just okay, it was in fact crucial, then, to share this with your new love, so they could understand you.  He put the Joan Armatrading on, wondering what Tony Pinto would say about Diane. Or about Paul’s new look. What would Diane say about Tony Pinto? Some things were perhaps best not discussed.

I’m Lucky - Joan Armatrading

Caribou - The Pixies

(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Carole King

Kangaroo - This Mortal Coil

Hounds of Love - Kate Bush

Witchcraft - Book of Love

Freedom ‘90 - George Michael

Kool Thing - Sonic Youth

     The last song fit exactly on the tape. If that wasn’t a sign, Paul didn’t know what was. Diane was a Kool Thing. She did walk like a panther. They both were like fuck you to male white corporate oppression. Paul thought about how hot they looked together in the Polaroids they’d taken at Michigan. He couldn’t believe he was one of the hot girls in the pictures but there he was, four times a lady.

     He played the finished tape all the way through one last time while hunched over Jane’s kitchen counter with an X-acto knife, rubber cement, and a 1955 Playboy, collaging two tiny Bettie Pages onto a campfire scene for the tape cover. He listed the song titles on the cassette itself, as he’d seen art students do, using a fine-point silver paint pen, and on the outside of the case he carefully printed the words “Volume One.” He immediately second-guessed this title and swapped out the case for a fresh one, on which he carefully printed the words “For Diane.” Better not to be quite so obvious, he thought.

—Andrea Lawlor, from Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl (Rescue Press, 2017)

[littlestarlost]

Ten Great Cover Songs That Aren't "Hurt" By Johnny Cash

I have a spotify playlist called "Total Coverage" and it's where I put the covers I collect. My parameters are strict but, I feel, fair: the song must be covered by a band that does its own material (so no covers-only bands), and they have to do something more interesting with the source material than slowing it down on piano and/or ukulele. There are over 100 songs on the list by now, and I do go back to add more when I find them, but apropos of nothing but my desire to procrastinate here are ten of my favourites, in no particular order, which are NOT the same old covers you see on every single covers list.

1: "Bittersweet Symphony" Originally by The Verve, covered by The Knocks and Foster the People

This track ended up on my most-listened to list of 2022, because it fucking rules. The original is fine, but there's something about how Foster the People elevates the vocals that just makes it catnip for my ears. It's great.

2: "Rosanna" Originally by Toto, covered by Weezer

I'll never forgive Weezer for what they did to "Africa", also by Toto. That cover sucks balls and I hate it. But equally as appalling is how great their cover of "Rosanna" is; they turned up the grit on the guitars and infuse it with edge and energy that the original simply lacks. Goddammit, Weezer.

3: "Jackie and Wilson" Originally by Hozier, covered by Jazz Morley

The golden rule of Hozier covers done by women is that you cannot, under any circumstances, change the pronouns of the song. Hozier writes about women like a lesbian, and either you respect that or you shouldn't cover his stuff. This version of "Jackie and Wilson" is gorgeous and lush, Jazz Morley's voice is great, and she sings it the way it should be sung: sapphically.

4: "Freedom" Originally by George Michael, covered by Christine and the Queens

As my friend Jill put it, somehow this is chill as hell and goes hard as fuck at the same time. Christine and the Queens needs to do more stuff like this; recontextualizing gender and sexuality is basically their bread and butter.

5: "Flagpole Sitta" Originally by Harvey Danger, covered by Elohim and AWOLNATION

This is the only reason I know the lyrics to this song and it's worth it. It's a very Lana Del Rey approach to the tune, with twinkling piano and sultry vocals, and it works incredibly well.

6: "Higher Love" Originally by Whitney Houston, covered by JR JR

Another one that I've listened to so much that it's crept into my regular rotation. Indie pop boys taking on the greatest voice of the generation might not sound very good, but as an OG hipster I can tell you that this is exactly the sort of bright poppy nonsense we ate the fuck up in 2012.

7: "I Think We're Alone Now" Originally by Tiffany, covered by Billie Joe Armstrong

I think Billie Joe always wanted to be a pop princess girlie, and now that Green Day is in the "whatever the fuck we want" phase of their career, he gets to do great covers like this one. Takes a somewhat dated classic and makes it sound absolutely timeless.

8: "Needle in the Hay" Originally by Elliott Smith, covered by Vanessa Carlton

As someone who had both an Elliott Smith and a Vanessa Carlton phase, this is just good synergy for me. But also, more women need to do covers of Elliott Smith. Let's get a trend going. He deserves to be reinterpreted that way.

9: "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Originally by ABBA, covered by Zachary Staines

This man really took a disco classic and made it sound like the best Ed Sheeran song that Ed Sheeran could never do. Outstanding.

10: "I Love You Always Forever" Originally by Donna Lewis, covered by Betty Who

I can't believe Betty Who didn't originate this song. It's literally perfect for her. A+, no notes.

[riverscasino27]

INTRO POST TIME!!!

little bit a bout me

I’m River!!! i’m 17(18 in like 18 days HAHAH) i cosplay and im like emo ig idk what to say. Nonbinary (They/Them) Lesbian!!! im currently crazed over twenty one pilots but it will change everyday. I have other socials just ask!

Fandoms

Chainsaw man

i love denji pls talk to me about chainsaw man

faves-denji and makima and asa

Supernatural

i’ve loved it since i was a little kid

faves-castiel dean and a lot of the minor characters

Steven Universe

my best friend sam got me into it and now i cosplay from it and cry to the soundtrack every month

faves-Ruby Sapphire Blue Diamond Garnet

Mystic Messenger

LITERALLY FREAK OUT PLS I LOVE THEM ALL i have an account dedicated to my 707 Cosplay @godluciel707 on tiktok.

faves-707 luciel saeyoung

Genshin Impact

This is my red flag

faves-Diluc childe raiden ei nilou YELANNNNN and some others

JoJos Bizzare Adventure

i love this anime it is so sad and fun

faves-jolyne joseph joestar and so others

Markiplier!!!!

Music i love

Twenty One Pilots

fave songs-holding on to you,no chances, all of trench and all of blurryface pretty much

Melanie Martinez

fave songs- all of them

Waterparks

fave songs- brainwashed,Fuck about it ,Telephone

BoyGenius and The Solos

fave songs-cool about it savior complex sour breath Night shift

Panic At The Disco

fave songs-all of a fever you can’t sweat out

MCR

faves-the basics yk

And some others!!!

anyways i edit as well on video star now

[mermaidsirennikita]

We need the full lashings against the margarita show

Honestly, I don't have much new to say except that it's actually such a bummer to see a book I love this much be turned into not only a bad adaptation, but a bad show. If it made a lot of changes but was well-written and created, I'd get over it. One example of an adaptation of a book I enjoyed that was a bad adaptation but a good movie is A Simple Favor--it's really not all that much like the book and has a totally different ending, but tbh? The stylistic choices made it better. This can be done. Interview with the Vampire (the show) changed a lot of things about the source material--the time period, Louis and Claudia's race and origins, a lot about Daniel, the explicit sexuality and romance of Louis and Lestat's relationship--but it honestly, for the most part, elevated the story.

But this is like... legitimately a super weak show. I've actually never experienced this before lol. Most of the books I truly love love love don't get turned into shows or movies, and those that have I'm usually pretty happy with. This is new for me!

(Also, wasn't Nicky an Italian prince in the book? This is such a non-issue, but I feel like random Italian royalty~ is way more believable than random Irish royalty. For fuck's sake, a Borghese "prince" was on THE BACHELOR. Beverly d'Angelo was married to an Italian prince. They're not that hard to find. WHERE ARE THESE IRISH PRINCES??)

Special callouts for the latest batch include:

--the "I don't regret that dress", an objectively cool, punchy line that absolutely sums up Daisy's character--a woman who's lived hard and wild and is aware that she's messy and feels bad about some things but also objectively enjoys certain aspects of living hard and perhaps misses them--getting flipped into "I don't regret that day". LOL. WHAT WAS THE REASON. That's what I don't get about so many adaptational choices. There's no fucking reason. No reason at all. It really feels, sometimes, that they want Daisy to be more approachable and everygirl when the point of her appeal is that she isn't approachable and everygirl. You aren't supposed to identify with Daisy; you're supposed to admire her, want to be her, and then realize that there is a catch to being as cool as Daisy. You also have to commit to being as fucked as she is.

--Simone's queer disco queen subplot was legitimately one of the most interesting things the show has given (the song was one of the better ones too, even if the lyrics were... still rough....) but ultimately, she still exists to go save Daisy and that sucks. Honestly surprised the show didn't replace Simone going there with more DaisyBilly fanservice. There's a lot the show sort of skirted around about Simone wanting to be successful as easily as Daisy, a privileged white woman, could be; how much she wanted to be open with her own truly committed lesbian relationship the way Daisy could be about her fly by night straight marriage. But rather than delving deep, we have Daisy literally going "IT'S LIKE YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH ME OR SOMETHING" a la Regina George.

And if Daisy had been sympathetic versus obnoxious up until this moment, if we'd had real investment in that friendship, I think it could've read as a slap in the face. Like "oh wow, this woman who seems cool and chill and impossibly chic is actually a fucking messy drug addict who, like many addicts, says ridiculously gross, fucked up shit in a moment, she is cool and she is chic and she is talented but she has a serious ugly side", which is something I think... Let's give an example. A Star Is Born (2019)! Did well. Yeah, you could make jokes about Jackson Maine pissing his pants, but to ME, the moment that rang as "oh this is ugly, even though he's been so lovely otherwise" is when he, while shitfaced and jealous, calls his wife, who he knows is insecure about her looks, ugly to her face. While she's naked in front of him. That scene, after you watch how loving and tender he is, even while fucked up, reads as a harsh slap. It's very realistic, if you've been around people who are otherwise loving and amazing, who struggle with addiction. They do that shit. It hurts. It doesn't necessarily invalidate who they are when they're in better places; which makes it hurt more.

Daisy has been so fucking obnoxious when she's... Sober? High but reading sober because the show hasn't gone in on how much of an addict Daisy is and their version of "functional heavy drug user" is "basically sober, maybe a little stoned"? That this moment just read as more of Daisy being obnoxious. Plus, a lot of this agency is taken from Daisy's hands, and we're told that Nicky is manipulating her. The thing is that Nicky was a total symptom in the book--he was a symptom of Daisy's addiction issues, her mental health problems, and her damage with Billy. He was not a cause. He may not have encouraged her to get better, he may have sped up some escalation, but honestly? Daisy was already a pretty fucking messy person before marrying him. Daisy was already showing up high and drinking throughout the day. She handled it worse on the tour, but a lot of that was touring and having to be around Billy while being in love with him and rejected by him. The show, imo, has done such a poor job of portraying the extent of Daisy's issues that it feels like they suddenly RAMP UP in these episodes, when in fact Daisy had always been an addict with PROBLEMS PROBLEMS, which is! A huge reason! Why Billy can't be with her. The show boils a lot of that down to Camila v. Daisy, and while Billy's love for Camila (and his kids) was a major roadblock... It's possible that if Billy and Daisy had met while he was married to Camila but without the addiction issue in hand? Maybe things would've been different. I don't know. Maybe. But Billy also literally wanted to be alive and a present father, and he could've done that had he and Camila broken up, but he couldn't have done that had he relapsed.

--I found the "Daisy in the shower with Billy" scene so funny. It was just so... corny. Like, this literally reads as bad fanfic. Camila is shuttled off to the side, barely present and mostly dealing with a guy who she isn't into. Billy is holding Daisy and going "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! NOAH THIS ISN'T YOU". It's so unbelievably corny. Billy in the book would've been wrecked about Daisy almost dying and then sublimated that by keeping his distance and then showing up to be like ".... so was it worth it? Almost dying for a bump" and then they would've either been completely cold or had some massive blowup about a song.

Similarly, the way Billy and Daisy fight on this show is so contrived lmao. A lot of the way they fought in the book was similar to how they expressed their love; the love was conveyed in lyrics and performance. The anger was conveyed into conflict about the music, which the show sorta does but it also has them getting up in each other's face to scream about Nicky, and it seems like they are BEGGING you to believe in the chemistry and I.... don't.

--The downplaying of Camila is very sad, and I find it endlessly hilarious that the show is all "pat us on the back, we champion diversity by having Simone go from The Black Best Friend to The Black Best Friend with a Minor Subplot, also Billy's Latina wife is going to be more complacent and mostly just sad about his cheating and probably die sooner also".

Again I say, as Warren and Camila speak Spanish to each other and Eddie gives us his best Nice Guy... If we were going to give Camila full affair.............. why not have it be Warren......

--Karen just announcing her relationship with Graham, which was a full secret in the book even decades later, in order to prop up Graham's ego.................. truly wild. Lol so much of Karen on the show is about male ego, it's ridiculous.

[torchickentacos]

Middle school experience jumpscare. You get on the bus in the morning with your earbuds that are half dead. For them to work you have to hold them at a really specific angle. You're listening to Dear Maria, Count Me in by All Time Low. Your choker from hot topic is really uncomfortable but it looks cool and feels gender so you go with it. You have 10 bucks in your backpack, as well as crumpled homework, absolutely zero pencils (you ask the teachers for them and they hate you for it), and if you're feeling like it, your nintendo DS on sleepmode so it can get streetpass miis. You have a blue emo fringe dyed with manic panic hair dye with the side shaved because you're edgy. You're wearing a Nirvana shirt but you bought it before you liked nirvana and felt guilty about it so you start listening to them, but not the hits first because you're not some mainstream prep. You haven't phased XD out of your vocabulary. You wear bath and bodyworks brown sugar vanilla lotion. You've got C lunch with your two friends and the crush you won't get over for at least six or so years, maybe almost ten and you really need to say hi to them soon on discord oops it's been weeks Friend 1 just got into this really cool indie game called Five Nights at Freddy's. Markiplier plays it, but you're more of a jacksepticeye person-especially goat simulator and happy wheels. Friend 2 thinks sjw jokes are funny and has pewdiepie merch and you really don't even like them or know why you hang out with them. Crush/friend 3 asks if your parents will let you guys go to a panic! at the disco concert (it slapped ngl). You're pretty sure you're a lesbian except for the guy you like and also you may not be a girl but you don't feel like unpacking any of that. You play guitar and completely unironically learned wonderwall first because you don't have a capo and it was a reccomended no capo song. You get your memes through pinterest because your mom won't let you have real social media, but turns out pinterest is more of a trash fire than any of them. You're really excited for the next warrior cats book to come out. You're fourteen and the most miserable you ever have been and hopefully ever will be and feeling emotions you could not hope to replicate in three year's time.

[spacey-png]

I saw you reblogged the song meme again! Have you done #2 or 20 if you’re still taking asks for those? :)

2: A song you like with a number in the title

Spent Gladiator 2- The Mountain Goats

Sighs. I found this song looking through disco elysium playlists one day and it kickstarted a mountain goats phase I had for like. Half a year (that ended up coinciding with a TMBG phase) i think I may have overplayed this one a lil but I still love it

20: A song that has many meanings to you

I’m gonna be so honest with you I’m not certain of any songs that exactly have multiple meanings to me. But I can tell you a song i didn’t realize the for real actual meaning of until recently; Fell in Love With a Girl-The White Stripes. For the longest time I was???? Under the impression this song was gay??????? Even though the singer is male I was so fully convinced it was about lesbians???? Still a banger to me however.