#bandstand fanfic

[the-river-rix]

Take the silly bandstand writing warm up I did I don’t like it but I feel like I should expose more bandstand fanfic to the world

Tw for panic attacks/flashbacks and war stuff

Donny played piano, slamming on the keys over and over again. The notes created a dissonant, jagged melody, wild, maniac, and haunting all at once. When he hit a chord his entire body moved with the force of it. His legs would jolt, his arms would shake, and his breath would falter. He played quickly, violently, mimicking the relentless onslaught of gunfire. His head shook back and forth, side to side, as he played. His lips moved endlessly, making words without sound. His eyes darted around the small, clammy apartment.

“Nova!”

He scrambled to find it, fumbling in the slick mud. His hands slid as he kept frantically clawing for the grenade he’d let slip through his grasp.

“GET OUT!”

He was rolling down the hill, his body battered by every single crevice and dent in the ground. His breath rattled out of his chest. Pain jolted through his ribs. There was a burning deep in his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut, faintly registering tears on his cheeks.

He prayed. He didn’t know who he was praying to. To god, to Michael, to himself. He prayed that Michael was rolling down the hill behind him, safe.

He made the worst mistake of his life and turned around.

[joyfulsoda]

Interview With Geoff Packard

Hi! It’s been about a week or so since I’ve posted about the fact that I had an interview I had with Mr. Packard, and I figured I would write up a transcript of the whole thing just because! I would post the audio, but the quality is not the best and also I do not like the sound of my voice on recordings. The entire interview was about 16 minutes long and both he and I speak pretty fast (there are a lot of words), so there will be a td;lr at the bottom.

For context, this interview was for a music class I’m currently in, where we had to present on a song that we like - specifically on how the music was written to make us feel, and how it actually made us feel. We could only play two minutes’ worth of whatever piece we chose, so I chose Proud Riff because it’s under two minutes and I figured I could put the clip from the show into my presentation. The idea to ask about an interview came later!

Before I begin, he was an incredibly nice man to talk to and I was super, super nervous but that went away a few minutes in! He asked if I planned on recording it and that he would be okay with it, I said I was, and then we got right into it!

-------------

Me: “So, to begin, obviously because you portrayed Wayne on Broadway, I thought it would be interesting to ask how the music influenced your performance. So, as an actor, how did the music of Proud Riff make you feel?

Him: “How did it make me feel..? Um, well, I think the music is sort of optimistic, I feel like it sort of bops and it’s sort of a swing tune and it’s sort of lighter than what is going on in Wayne Wright’s world. Although, the sort of genesis of that song was a conversation Andy Blankenbuehler and I had - Andy Blankenbuehler, the director, choreographer- (laughs) Tony Award-winning choreographer... We had a conversation about what their day-to-day lives may have looked like, and how we don’t really represent a lot of that for the rest of the guys, we see sort of what Donny goes through, but the rest of the guys that came back from the war, we didn’t get to see what their day-to-day was.

“And so, there was a couple iterations of what that Proud Riff would be, and we decided it was how Wayne would be spending his time at home, getting his kids ready for pre-school or school or something, and how he... sort of locks into a habit, or locked into a habit, y’know, he was obsessive-compulsive and he... really used his habits to sort of survive during war time. And we talked about how he probably gained that sort of germaphobia that he has in the play in his trench warfare, because of the necessity to keep everything clean and to have a clean, firing weapon, and all that stuff. So... We talked about that. On an otherwise normal, sunny day, what he might be doing during the day, and that’s where that came from. And so I think the music is sort of sunny, cheerful, and he’s... slowly, y’know, through the habit of cleaning his gun, is trying to stay sunny, and just simply can’t. And I think that’s where the minor changes come towards the end of the song, if I remember correctly. And all the rhythmic hits at the end that are physicalized through tap, and the sort of twitches that Wayne would have- that’s sort of a manifestation of his memory coming back, or him not being able to control those memories.”

Me: “That, actually, was really insightful. And y’know, like... you can kind of see that on stage, but to hear that directly coming from you, it’s like “oh, so that wasn’t just up to interpretation, that was actually what was happening.”

Him: “Yeah! You know, I think- so, for anybody that might be listening to this, I teach at the University of Michigan now, and so, the next generation of theater artists are what I care deeply about, and certainly when I was training, or when I was a young person sort of experiencing shows or reading a play for the first time, I often thought: “Wow! How do they come up with this? This is, y’know, Arthur Miller just writes a play and just, hands it in, and this is the thing?” And what I’ve learned over time is that it’s much more of a collaboration from all parties involved, so, it’s not that Richard Oberacker and Rob Taylor wrote everything you saw on stage in one sitting and then shared it with us- they wrote a lot of it and had a first draft, then we all collaborated and had different ideas that helped them have other ideas. It did not occur until previews, I think, of the Broadway production. We had done a production at the Paper Mill Playhouse that did not have that piece in the show at all, but through conversation and through an idea of how to give a little more insight in their lives, they created that.

“And I should mention, a large part of that creation came from Greg Anthony Rassen and Bill Elliott, who were the orchestrators of the piece. They wrote all the dance pieces and orchestrations, too, so they were very involved in that sort of collaborative process, and y’know, that’s what you got to see on stage.”

Me: “That’s really cool! Well, um... With that last question, you kind of answered the other questions I was going to ask, um...”

Him: “Sorry.” (imagine someone saying sorry in all lowercase).

Me: “No, no, that’s totally fine! I was just going to ask like, how the music influenced what Wayne was doing on the stage, and you answered that with him twitching and, y’know, him having his physical manifestations of trying to stay sunny, and how some of the stuff he did towards the end of the piece coincides with the minor tones and all the hits and stuff, so thank you so much for that.”

Him: “Mhm.”

Me: “So, because I wanted to keep this short, I didn’t have many questions to ask you- relating to Proud Riff; can I ask just, like, one personal question that doesn’t relate to it at all?”

Him: “Sure!”

Me: “Just because I was curious, uh, because Wayne is a Lieutenant in the show, I was doing some research and I found out that most Officers have college degrees, and I just wanted to ask what you think he might’ve gotten his degree in, because- well, I don’t know, it was just something I kind of wanted to know.”

Him: “Yeah! Oh my god, I’d have to go back to my original, sort of, research journal... Um... For that. I feel like at one point in time, I knew where he went to college, and I knew what he studied, but I don’t- I mean, y’know, in my mind what he studied, and it’s not in the script, and I don’t remember really talking about that- I know we talked about him being a Lieutenant a lot, and how that would have led to him being a leader, and not being very content under Donny as the leader of the band (laughs). But what would he study..? The thing that comes to my mind is something mathematical, so I wanna say an engineer of some kind.”

Me: “Oh, that’s interesting!”

Him: “Well, I feel like he, of all of the musicians in the band, he was obviously the most strict and maybe square of everybody? Y’know, I wouldn’t call him an improvisor, y’know, he has that famous line “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.”

Me: “I was actually gonna mention that when you said what you did about him and Donny not gelling well at first.”

Him: “Yeah! Well, you know, he is the only officer in the group, and what that would mean for these gentlemen, y’know, they know that more than- oh, what would they be called, I wanna say muggles and it’s not- civilians! They would know that more than civilians, so we talked about the relationships in that way, but yeah, I think he would be- I forget what it was, but I think it’s sort of engineering, or something that involves something that can be accomplished through math, and that has a specific answer and an end to it.”

Me: “That makes a lot of sense for him. Well, that all I really wanted to ask.”

Him: “Do you still have some time? Do you have any more questions? I mean, we’ve got three more minutes.”

Me: “Well, let me see if I can think of something, uhhhhh..!”

Him: “Oh, remind me, did you see the show- did you see it live, or did you see the Fathom Events recording?”

Me: “I really wish I could have seen it live; however, in 2017 I was only 14, and going from [REDACTED LOCATION] to New York was... Well, that wouldn’t have been possible, unfortunately, so I’ve only been able to see the professional recording, and- and I love it, I need to rewatch it again. But yeah, y’know, I do really love the show, I like going back and looking at all the little details that happen, like not necessarily what the focus is on the stage, but also looking at all the side interactions- like, there was one time I went back and watched, and I noticed that in Breathe, right after Davy makes his comment about Nick, the “choreography” bit, you walked over to Mr. Ellis, and y’know, Davy just gave Wayne a salute, and it was the funniest thing to me for forever. And these aren’t things that you notice on the first watch-through, but going back and looking at all of it is just- it’s just fun.”

Him: “And the interesting thing about the filmed version of it is that, since film and TV is such a visual medium, the editors, which I think Andy (Blankenbuehler) was a part of, they sort of tell you where to look. If you think about all the things that you’re like “Oh, I missed this from the filmed version,” there’s infinitely more moments like that when you have a whole stage that you can look at. So unless it was in a wide shot on the Fathom Events version of it, you only got to see what the editor wanted you to see in those moments, so... Y’know, that’s why I was asking you if you saw the live version. I really loved the Fathom version, and I’m so grateful that it exists; there’s really no substitute for being in the room. Although you can’t, y’know, you can’t rewind, it, so... (laughs) You just get what you get, you know?”

(After this point, we have a short conversation about me! There are a few identifying details in this section that I don’t feel comfortable sharing, though, so I would rather not type them out.)

Ta-da!

Td;lr:

Proud Riff was meant to give an insight into Wayne’s everyday life.

It shows how on an average day, the sun might be shining, but Wayne is still struggling.

Wayne most likely developed his germaphobia due to being involved in trench warfare, out of the necessity to keep everything clean and working.

(Including this just because some people might not have seen interviews where it is confirmed) Wayne has OCD, cleaning his gun is a ritual.

The taps are meant to be a physical manifestation of the memories that haunt Wayne- the ones he cannot control.

Proud Riff was not in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of the show.

Wayne obtained a degree in engineering or something relating to math. He likes how they have specific answers and ends.

Wayne is the only Officer in the Donny Nova Band. He usually takes on leadership positions and does not enjoy Donny being the band leader at first.

Wayne is, in Geoff Packard’s mind, the most strict and square out of everyone in the band. 

Wayne is not an improvisor.

There were a lot of side interactions onstage that we did not get to see in the Fathom Events recording. Sad day. :(

[randofanficrecs]

Today's random fic comes from the Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & TaylorNavigation and Actions fandom, Pulled Me Apart (I'm So Open) by aintweproudriff

Chapters: 3/3 Words: 4,674 Fandom: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Johnny Simpson/Davy Zlatic, Nick Radel/Wayne Wright, Donny Novitski/Julia Trojan, past Donny Novitski/Michael Trojan Characters: Davy Zlatic, Johnny Simpson, Donny Novitski, Julia Trojan, Nick Radel, Wayne Wright, Jimmy Campbell Additional Tags: Sharing a Bed, cliches, canon typical nightmares and trauma, canon typical alcoholism, the whole dnb is gay and there's nothing you can do about it Language: English Summary: "They did make their way up to the room, Davy holding out hope the whole way up that Donny had been wrong about his mistake and the two of them were actually getting a room with two beds. Upon opening the door, however, Davy had to let go of that wish. One bed, clear as day." OR I love to write tropes

[sondheim-girly]

Intro post!

Hey guys! You can call me Jean, and I use all pronouns. I'm not too big on labels, so my gender and sexuality are whatever they are. 

I’m a huge theater kid, and that’s mostly what I post about. I live all the way across the country from NYC though, so I am in constant suffering due to my insane Broadway obsession.

My favorite musical is currently The Outsiders

I love talking to people! Feel free to reach out or send me asks! You can add me in tag games, however I am very lazy so please don't be offended if I don't join. I rarely will respond or participate in ask box games, so please don’t be offended when I don’t answer those! I appreciate the sweet messages all the same.

I am a minor so please don’t be weird.

here’s the link to my ao3, the masterpost for my series about how the outsiders musical got to Broadway, my masterpost of headcanons for the outsiders, and this is the link to my masterpost of my marbit fanfic!

#of shows ive seen on Broadway: 16

A full in order list of the musicals that I enjoy:

Hamilton

In The Heights

Rent

Wicked

Beetlejuice

Hadestown

Dear Evan Hansen

Be More Chill

Heathers

Mean Girls

Matilda

Six

A Very Potter Musical

Les Miserables 

Legally Blonde

Newsies

Book of Mormon

The Prom

Bring It On

Waitress

Come From Away

The Lighting Thief

Chicago

Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet Of 1812

Anastasia

Little Shop Of Horrors

Phantom Of The Opera

Sweeney Todd

Spongebob (the musical)

Fun Home

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

Into The Woods

Ride The Cyclone

Falsettos

Something Rotten

Sunday in the park with George

Parade

Shucked

The guy who didn’t like musicals

Company

Tick tick boom

Octet

Urinetown

Kinky boots

Merrily we roll along

Spring awakening

Moulin Rouge

Next to Normal

Catch Me if You Can

The Notebook

Gutenberg

Water For Elephants

The Outsiders

The Great Gatsby

Bonnie and Clyde

The Last Five Years

Bandstand

Warriors

The Mad Ones

The Jonathan Larson Project

[krakensdottir]

I just want to say something, guys. Because a lot of you need to hear it.

It's going to be okay.

THEY'RE going to be okay.

I grew up a fan of Star Wars. I'm not quite old enough to have been around when The Empire Strikes Back was released, but man, talk about a downer ending. One protagonist lost a hand and another had been kidnapped by a crimelord and they weren't sure they could get him back. I can't imagine what that was like for audiences at the time. And they had to wait years to see if everyone was alright.

What I'm trying to say is, this is a very very classic trilogy arc. And also makes a lot of sense in this context. Like, the first story was based on a standalone book. It ended in a good place because that might have been the end - at the time, they weren't sure there'd be a season 2. But now, there's a Rest Of The Story. And one way or another, Neil's promised he's going to tell it. And I believe him. Not because he's infallible or anything, but because it's for Terry. I trust that.

The rest of the tale is a certainty, even if Season 3 isn't for sure yet. (And listen, if we do our part, that's gonna happen. This show is insanely popular, we just have to prove it. That's all it takes.) Regardless, this is not the end. This is not the last we'll see of them.

Remember the bandstand scene? Heartbreaking. Imagine if that had been a cliffhanger, if we'd had to wait a long time to see them back together again. But in the end, it worked out. This is that, but bigger. The end of an act, the break before the rest of the story begins.

And in the end, they will be together. I'm absolutely sure of that.

We're going to get our happy ending. But this is the angst part. We've all read enough fanfic to know how this goes.

So I take your faces in my hands and say: They're going to be okay. There's no reason for despair. The story isn't finished yet, is all.

[wolfjackle]

Nine (or so) People You'd Like To Get To Know Better

I've been tagged twice in this game, so I should probably finally go ahead and do it. First by @drivingthesehillsaway like a week ago. Sorry I didn't reply sooner! I was in the middle of something and sent it to my drafts and then forgot about it. And I was tagged again today by @stealingyourbones. Both threads had a lot of replies, so I figured I'd just make a new chain.

Rules: Answer the 4 questions and tag 9 people you'd like to know better.

Last Song You Listened To:

It's a fantastic song. Everything by this artist is amazing and I cannot recommend him enough.

Currently Watching: I'm part of the way through a rewatch of Good Omens Season 2 because holy shit.

Currently Reading: Excluding fanfic, I'm most of the way through an audiobook of Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. I took a break to watch Good Omens, though, but I think I can go back to it. A lot of exciting things are going down.

Current Obsession: Well, it should be pretty obvious that the main one is the DPxDC crossover fandom. But there's also Good Omens. And my hands are itching to pick up my crochet hook and finish the second panel of the blanket I'm making. It doesn't take much to rekindle my obsessions for Jane Austen, Newsies, and the Bandstand Musical, either.

And 9 people I'd like to know better! I'm gonna tag people I don't talk to very often (or ever) because this is who I want to know. (No pressure, though.) In no particular order, and this in no way encapsulates all of you:

@gremlin-bot, @addie-lover-of-stories, @sangotori, @sjrose1216, @vythika96, @thederpclub, @georgelight, @foxachu, @serasvictoria02

[thezestywalru]

POSTED AND I'M WRITING THE LAST FIVE CHAPTERS RIGHT NOW.

Hello! Thought I'd do a "two sentence Wednesday" because my brain wants me to post what I have so far for this new fic I'm writing for validation but I know if I do that, it will never be finished. 

To summarise the plot: It's Bridgerton, specifically Polin, and a 1940s post WWII au inspired by one of my favorite musicals called 'Bandstand'. Colin has just returned from the war, during which his best friend in the army was killed by a grenade. A composer and piano player before the war, he decides to write a movie musical for a radio contest, he checks in on his friend's widow, who agrees to help him write the story and lines if he writes the music. The two of them grow closer, held back by the knowledge of what he saw and the past. 

"'Find something quick,” the man warned Colin. “I’ve been to three funerals this month.”

Colin froze. He, too, had attended the funerals he could for the men he knew overseas. It wasn’t out of the ordinary. Something in the man’s tone made him pause and listen.

“Nobody’s talking about it because those lads came back fine a while ago.'"

[dastardly-ethereal-love]

What do you do when you hear news that is both disappointing and a relief? So many mixed feelings. I actually thought it was going to be a proper Season 3. I never thought it was going to be cancelled - I trusted that paused meant they were clearing Gaiman out and making way for the good to continue to shine through. I never got into the mess of the news cycle around it and never got into predictions and fan theories. I just wanted to sit back and wait and see. Like the man said. I’ve waited and what I’m seeing is better than nothing. Better to see our Angel and Demon on screen again one last time to know they either get their happily ever after or not.

But really, now? It won’t be the real happily ever after or aching tragedy or whatever else it could have been. It will be something else.

Fanfic will have to hold me aloft for the longest time. I’ll read Factory Settings again. I think Literarion did a podfic of it. It’s huge and when I read it the first time it felt like it could have been canon. Listening to it may salve some of the hurt.

But I’m grieving so quietly for all that could have been… what should have been? Had a man not sullied it with his disgraceful actions to women. Why are women treated this way so often by men? Why did it have to enter this beautiful fandom?

I’m going to drown myself in Slow Show and Shotgun Wedding and Don’t Fall Away From Me… I’m going to drown myself in the joy and agony of this fandom. But right now I’m numb. I’m in shock. I can’t cry. I don’t know if I need to cry. I feel like there are likely howls of disappointment that are waiting to be born in me as the news settles and I process it over time. All the loss. 90 minutes instead of 6 episodes to wrap up something that has so completely gripped my heart. It’s a firm hug goodbye and then a wave as they walk away when I need hours and hours of just sitting and soaking in their presence before I’ll ever be ‘ready’ to say goodbye. It’s like the bandstand scene that tears out your heart and makes you want to run after them and say, no no! I didn’t mean it… I take it all back! Please stay!

Gah. There is a scene in Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind when Jim asks Kate not to go… but doesn’t know what to say, just don’t go. I feel like I’ve been there so many times. That ache. The knowing. This will hurt… this isn’t even healthy but I am not ready to let you go. Well, this hurts. I’m not ready to let go of the idea of the whole story being told. If I have to let it go… let me try and process it but right now I just want to say stop, stay… hold on… I know this is probably for the best and SA victims absolutely need to be heard, respected and be vindicated. But like this? Is this the best outcome we could have hoped for? :( If it is, I’ll take it and be grateful for all that I get… but yeah, so numb and sad and hurting.

[trailingoff]

The first season of Good Omens brought me immense joy, so bright and pure that it burned out gradually over a few years, all through the pandemic and a big difficult thing happening in my life. So I watched the second season hoping for more joy. The fact it wasn’t forthcoming isn’t a flaw in the show or a failing on Neil’s part, and I think the story is brilliant, funny, engaging and heartbreaking. It still hurt because for me all the joy had been sucked away.

Yesterday I felt silly for ever believing there could be a canonical queer couple who met my admittedly very high standards. Cishets don’t have to yearn for representations of not only healthy relationships but idealised, near-perfect relationships as well -- they get those in bucketloads -- while I can’t think of another story, outside of fanfic, that gave me what GO season one did.

But then I remembered Margaret Atwood’s very short story ‘Happy Endings’. Here’s a link to the only copy I could find online. It concludes:

“You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality. The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.

So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with. That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what. Now try How and Why.”

Neil has pointed out that Aziraphale and Crowley have faced similar relationship crises before. Season one could have cut off right after the bandstand break-up. Over six thousand years, how many times have they broken up forever and got back together in a relatively short time? For them, that could be a few hundred years. This seems to be the first time they’ve kissed -- well, some of what they said at the bandstand was probably a first for them too.

We aren’t at the end of their story. Hopefully we’ll never get to Atwood’s authentic ending. I’m holding out for an even heftier dose of excessive optimism and downright sentimentality.

[the-river-rix]

001 for ummmm....who are those guys you talk about?..... do them :]

Anon I’m not sure who you mean but I took a guess assuming you’re one of my Starkid/Tcb moots. Tysm for the ask this was very fun!!

Screwy Bastard (Wayne/Nick) from Bandstand

When I first started shipping them: Over a year ago, the first time I watched Bandstand

Thoughts: OUGHHHH I have so many thoughts. I adore these two they’re very special to me. I love a good bitchy married couple vibe. I love relationships where they are opposites and the same all at once. They have what the other needs, and they fit perfectly as a result. I love healing together. I love fighting. I love the historical context of their relationship (and how being queer complicates it). I love that they both have a aspect of their various traumas and neurodivergence (Nick- trust/vunerability Wayne- physical touch/vunerability) that they struggle with in relationships except for (to an extent) one another.

What about them makes me happy: Their banter and bitchiness makes me happy. I think they’re so silly. Also just like their softness with each other. Their physical affection and just how well they know each other. Also subtle moments of jealousy.

What about them makes me sad: They’re both quite tragic characters to me so they both make me sad separately as well as together. I guess just the knowledge that they could never safely be open and definitely experience a lot of prejudice (external and internal) especially because of the specific intensity of 50s anti-queerness. Also Wayne’s messy ass divorce definitely causes complications. Idk it’s hard to put everything into words, ultimately they make me more happy than sad.

Dislikes in fics: I don’t like when fics take away or soften how mean they can be to each other. I think there’s definitely a softness in their relationship but they also love bullying each other. I’m also not a huge fan of them knowing each other in highschool/dating in highschool. There’s no reason for it, it’s just not for me.

What I look for in fics: I am not picky otherwise, because there’s so little fanfic out there. I’m a big fan of fics about the night at the Astor and character studies (especially involving Wayne’s suicidal tendencies).

Who else you ship them with: No one 💀

Happily ever after?: I think they sort of get their happily ever after in canon. Living together, playing with the band. I like to think that they just get to exist free of outside pressures or lavender scare policies.

Big spoon/little spoon: I think they alternate big spoon and little spoon. When Nick is having a better night he’s the little spoon, when he’s having a bad night and needs a sense of control he’s a big spoon. Similar with Wayne.

Fav nonsexual activity: I think their favorite non-sexual activity is playing together or debating/bickering.

[in-restless-walks]

okay i don't know sorry if this is a weird ask but right now im high and watching a youtube video of simon and garfunkel singin the boxer in the concert in central park and idk i got like a vibe from them so my question is are you a simon and garfunkel historian? do you know the context of their relationship during that moment? i don't know you i just searched simon and garfunkel and ended up in your blog so forgive me if you are not that kind of fan or something idk. i know that simon and garfunkel is big on tumblr but idk sometimes is like in a yaoi kind of way sometimes is like an ironic meme i dont know what im saying tbh im sorry for this. anyway if you don't know could you give me some blogs recomendations so i can ask them? is this a weird thing to ask? do i sound crazy? again im really high and this is taking too much to write because i don't know if i make sense sometimes i forget what word i put before the word i'm writing. anyway. can you help me with my issue? thanks a lot! oh for context i don't really know simon and garfunkel lore so just in case i need context i just know their relationship was like weird like sometimes they got along and then they missed each other or something? okay thanks! <3

Wow, okay, thanks for sending this, and first of all, I hope you enjoyed getting high, LOL. I guess there's nothing like getting high and starting to wonder about the yaoi side of Simon & Garfunkel.

I am not a Simon & Garfunkel historian, so to speak, but I have been a fan for quite some time and I have read all the biographies there are to read, I have done my fair share of research into them, so I do think I know a bit about the S&G "lore". Ever since the first time I saw the Concert in Central Park and seeing the same "vibe" you did during The Boxer, I've also 'shipped' them. That is to say, while I do not think that they were ever in a romantic relationship and everything that that entails, I don't rule out at all that anything of a sexual nature happened between them. Other people seem to think that too, hence the 'yaoi' posts you see on tumblr.

Their relationship was/is a really complicated one and I'm not sure any of us know exactly what happened to make them where they are now - supposedly on no speaking terms. I mean, Paul said in his recent documentary that Art turned from someone who 'got it for him" into someone he hopes never to see again, which...ouch x 1000.

For you and for everyone else getting into Simon & Garfunkel, here's a little crash course.

TL;DR they're both idiots who got along reasonably well if it wasn't about their professional business. Their creative differences re: music (and personal grievances) were always so large (as were their egos) that they followed a pattern of getting together to try (again), fought, were on no speaking terms for a decade, thought to give it another try, and repeat, ad infinitum. In fanfic terms, they are the epitome of strangers to friends to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers to enemies to...

1950s

Paul and Art are childhood friends. They lived a few streets away from each other in Queens, NY, and they went to the same school. They're the same age, born three weeks apart. They formally met when they were eleven, at the school play for Alice in Wonderland (Paul was the White Rabbit, Art the Cheshire Cat). Soon after, they started recording songs in their basements, trying to copy their heroes, the Everly Brothers. They got signed by Big Records by someone called Sid Prosen, called themselves Tom (Art) and Jerry (Paul) and released a fairly successful single called 'Hey Schoolgirl' when they were 16, which even made them go on Dick Clark's American Bandstand show (footage sadly does not survive). Paul recorded a song by himself, without telling Art, while he called himself True Taylor, and Art found out, 'shattering' the friendship with Paul for the first time. (It seems to have never recovered to how it was before). I coin this the True Taylor Incident™️. Alledgedly they didn't speak to each other for a couple of years after graduating high school (1958-1962-ish). During that time, Art recorded a few songs as Artie Garr, and Paul did as well, as Jerry Landis.

1960s

Paul went to study in Queens College, NY, and Art went to Columbia University (there he met his blind roommate Sanford, which is a whole other interesting side story). Paul and Art got reacquainted with each other, performed as a duo again and managed to get signed to Columbia records to record an album in March 1964, which was to be released in October 1964.

Meanwhile, Paul often went to England and mainland Europe (France, Denmark, the Netherlands...) and there he met Kathy who became his girlfriend (Hence, Kathy's Song, and "Kathy I'm lost, I said" from America). He also recorded a solo album while in the UK, called The Paul Simon Songbook. Art went to visit him a few times.

Their first album, Wednesday Morning 3AM, flopped; Art stayed in school and Paul went back to the UK. The album did contain the song The Sound of Silence (acoustic version) and a really interesting thing happened in late 1965 when someone decided to put electric guitars to the track and suddenly it got airplay. Paul was in Denmark when the song was really starting to do well on the charts, and he had to rush home to NYC when the song became number one.

Then, Paul and Artie were suddenly famous! They quickly recorded another album with several songs that were on The Paul Simon Songbook, but now Art's harmonies were on there. They did a lot of tv performances in 1966 and 1967 and toured mainly in the college and university circuits. (I will link some tv peformances and so on later, in another post).

I'm skipping over some things now, but in my opinion, trouble for their relationship really began again when they started recording their album Bookends and Paul had been writing music for The Graduate (Mrs. Robinson) (1968). The director of The Graduate, Mike Nichols, had asked Art and Paul to act in his next movie, Catch-22, but Paul's scenes got cut, and Art went to Mexico on his own for the better part of the first half of 1969, just when they were supposed to record their next album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Tensions ran super high at that time. Plus, Paul had written the song Bridge Over Troubled Water for Art to sing, but he later said that Art first refused to sing it (Art said that he wanted Paul to sing it in a lovely falsetto voice) and later, during concerts, Art took standing ovations while finishing the song, while Paul was jealous that he didn't get songwriting credits on stage. Paul also said that Art was leaving him to do movies...not long after Catch-22, Art got invited to play a role in Mike Nichols' next movie, Carnal Knowledge. (see also: Why Don't You Write Me...."if it's only to say that you're leaving me"). The whole Bridge Over Troubled Water album is one big breakup album.

Meanwhile, Paul had gotten married to Simon & Garfunkel's manager's ex-wife (I still can't fathom this) and Peggy also kind of encouraged him to go solo. Paul also claimed that his musical interests and Art's were drifting apart, so eventually, they split in 1970. Artie thought they were only taking a break, and allegedly he didn't realize they were really done.

1970s

Both starting solo careers, they reunited a few times as well, such as for the McGovern benefit concert in 1972, and most notably in the second Saturday Night Live episode in 1975 (tell me they're not flirting the whole time). Paul had even written a song, My Little Town, that the both of them performed for the reunion and was featured on both of their (solo) albums There was also a reunion for Paul's The Paul Simon Special (1977), the Brittania Awards (1977) and some other benefit concerts.

1980s

Paul was approached by a concert producer about playing in Central Park and maybe doing a few songs with Art, and Paul was like, I can't very well play support to Simon & Garfunkel, so it was decided that the whole concert was supposed to be the both of them. And time it was, what a time it was! Safe to say the concert was a success, even though they were fighting again (Art wanted to stay as close to the accoustic sets they used to do in the college performances, and Paul wanted a big band on stage). The interviews before the performance are awkward as usual, but it seems that for the performance itself they kind of set their differences aside, and they seem to be having a good time on stage, as good as it gets with these two. The back rub during The Boxer is...I can't explain it, but that was a lovely gesture by Art.

Because the concert in Central Park had been so successful, they were going to bank on that success and do a whole reunion tour AND a reunion album in 1982-1983, but that seems to have been a very miserable experience for them both. Their body language in interviews says it all. It culminated in Paul wiping Art's vocals from what was supposed to be their reunion album and releasing it as a solo album. Safe to say they were on no speaking terms again for a while, lmao, especially when their professional endeavours were concerned. They did hang out sometimes in private, because Paul had married Carrie Fisher and Art was seeing Carrie's friend Penny. Then Paul got famous with Graceland and Artie was once again, forgotten.

1990s

They got inducted in the Hall of Fame (another miserable experience), Paul did another concert in Central Park (without any sign of Art this time) and they did a few reunion concerts in NYC and so, but neither of them looked very happy about that, if you ask me. In fact, the less they had to look at each other, the better. There was apparently one instance where they were fighting and someone had to stand in between them, or they would have physically started attacking each other? Sounds like a lot of fun, huh? Start of another decade of not speaking to each other.

2000s

After getting a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, they thought it was a good idea to get together again and do a reunion your, and that seemed to work, for a while. They toured the United States (2003-2004), Europe (2004), Australia/NZ and Japan (2009) and were about to embark on yet some more shows in the fall of 2010, but then Art Lost His Voice (you can see this happening right in front of your salad at the April 2010 Jazz Fest, but they were still very chummy then).

What happened in 2010...no idea, but it wasn't good. And then Art made things much, much worse when he did an interview in 2015, called Paul a Monster, and idiot and a jerk, and how could he leave a successful formula like Simon & Garfunkel behind and no amount of groveling that Art has done since (like begging Paul to call him in an interview) has helped. They are still on no speaking terms.

Now all we can do is wait and hope they come to their senses and kind of make up before they die. Under no circumstances do I still want them to sing together, but damn, if all of us don't want them to just both sit on the edge of a park bench, like bookends, I don't know anymore.

My take on the whole thing: they were good friends as kids, Art never got over the True Tailor Incident and that stayed with him forever; he always saw Paul as someone who could betray him in the blink of an eye. Paul was envious of Art's looks (and height); meanwhile Art wasn't a songwriter, so Paul had that advantage over him. It's not a good balance to be in such a close partnership. Perhaps at one point something did happen between them, complicating things even more, because can you really hate someone that much if you don't have strong feelings for them either? In later years, it seems to be mainly the "creative differences" about the music that was causing a rift, but maybe after all is said and done, perhaps Carrie Fisher said it best "not only do I not like you, but I don't like you personally." Paul 'cheated' on Art with True Taylor and, like any other one half of a (married) couple, he tried to get over it, but never could. (and maybe Paul is a jerk lmao. But Art was no angel either).

I've skipped over a lot of things, so if you have more questions, shoot. There are quite a few of us who are posting regularly about them, and who know about everything I've written above. In fact, there's a Tumblr community on S&G now (see my pinned post) but so far there haven't been many people interested in joining, lol, so if you want in, let me know. People could do a lot more theorizing there, haha.

[give-soup-please]

been doing some thinking about good omens (when don't i these days?)

and i've noticed that, especially in season 1, we get a lot more of a 'behind the scenes' look at crowley than we do aziraphale, especially where emotional responses are concerned. we often see crowley's pain, but almost never see aziraphale's. Take for example when he's asking god what she's doing, and the 'i lost my best friend' line.

^ this one too. a very public expression of grief.

these are all extremely vulnerable moments for crowley, any way you slice it. but what i thought about as i woke up this morning was that (besides the finale of season 2, which i'll talk about in a sec) there are no points when aziraphale gets this vulnerable.

i think the closest two we see in season 1 are when crowley leaves aziraphale at the bandstand-

and just after this scene when the metatron says that the point of the war isn't to avoid it. (i can't find that exact expression, this is the closest i can manage to get to it)

right after this, his hopes are dashed, and he has this heartbreaking expression on his face

WOOF. poor angel. but these scenes with aziraphale are much more reserved than the vulnerability we see with crowley. It's still there, it's not as if he feels nothing. Now, is this an example of self control, or repression?

personally, i'm willing to bet repression.

so i think what i'm trying to say is, my initial idea that aziraphale felt less than crowley was completely false. what's been on my mind is that there's so much going on under aziraphale's mask that we just- don't have access to.

there are times throughout the show where crowley is devastated, whereas aziraphale is much, much more restrained. and the truth is, if we look at the narratives, i think there's much more of a focus on how crowley feels (possibly because he's the more expressive of the two? but it feels intentional to me)

a demon is supposed to be miserable, according to hell. it's probably part of the job description somewhere.

which makes me so curious on whether or not heaven has its own toxic counterpart to that, where angels are 'required' to appear happy at all times.

take for example, the multitude of fake smiles aziraphale gives to the other angels.

keeping up appearances? the dude's freaking miserable when he has to talk to other angels. the quick scans, the smile not really reaching his eyes. this is someone who's anxious as heck. doing his best to hold it together as the world crashes down around him. i'm not going to do an analysis of fake vs real smiles for aziraphale, because others have done that much better than i have. but if we compare these with aziraphale's real smiles...

much brighter, huh?

so... i'm not great at critical readings when i let my own feelings and biases get in the way. and i kind of did with good omens.

i assumed that aziraphale didn't feel as much, that his control was greater. in comparison to crowley, he's got better emotional regulation. in a lot of fanfics, he's placed in the role of caretaker, of guardian. and yeah, it makes sense.

then season 2 happened. with that finale. and suddenly aziraphale is just as raw.

holy shit. this entire time, aziraphale has been feeling strongly, struggling under the weight of his responsibilities, and is desperate for things to be okay just as much as crowley is. and it feels like up until these moments, he's been hiding it from everyone, including the audience. i don't want to depart from what's shown on screen, but i'm so curious what's going on under the hood.

is aziraphale supposed to be 'the strong one'? does he he feel like it's not safe to express his emotions? it seems that way, doesn't it?

i assumed (incorrectly) that aziraphale was more 'put together'. more 'rational'. more able to 'control himself' (which i interpreted as a good thing, for complicated and personal reasons. because the toxicity in heaven is very similar to my bio family, and i came to the wrong conclusion.)

no. he's wounded, and struggling just as much. i didn't see it until now. on my first viewing, that's why the ending for S2 felt so out of left field for me. i was thinking to myself, 'where the hell is this coming from? aziraphale's supposed to be making smarter decisions than this. he's supposed to be better, supposed to-'

i was wrong. my anger was somewhat misplaced. he's broken and scared too. he's just better at hiding it.

[thealogie]

I think GO2 also really threw a wrench in the fic writing ecosystem because it's like a photonegative of a lot of post season one fic. Crowley and Aziraphale haven't quite gotten together. there's pining. the author has decided to address the shared emotional underpinnings of the st. james fight and the bandstand fight & get into what it means to transition from what they had to be to each other before and what they can decide to be to each other now. then instead of Aziraphale somehow indicating he's resolved his end of things and is ready to commit he doubles down and says it actually does matter very much that Crowley is a demon and he's going back to heaven, which is the side of goodness truth and light. if you thought he'd permanently learned some things last season you really have to adjust your theory of the character and i think it makes people overly eager to rush the development back to where they thought it was.

I agree and disagree. I truly think they really wrote a s2 that cannot be fan ficed. sorry to use this analogy twice in recent memory but it’s truly like that episode of 30 rock where Jenna is trying to write a song that weird Al can’t parody. They did it, they wrote a season so fanfic that fanfic has nowhere to go. And I agree that part of that is that fic depended on them both being on the same page by now

But I’m of the view that aziraphale isn’t saying he cares crowley is a demon (though I think crowley takes it that way) but thinks he can fix heaven and that both of them being angels is the way they can both be safe and happy and do good at the same time. And he feels obligated to do good if given the chance. But none of that goes with the fic story beats

[penig]

So, on my one episode a day rewatch of Good Omens prior to the airing of Season 2, yesterday was E4, "Saturday Morning Funtime," which is a hard episode to stop at the end of btw, and some ideas I've been percolating for a long time finally brewed up.

One of the most striking things about the adaptation, and why it hooked me so hard (I'd been a fan of the book for thirty years without ever feeling a need to fic about it), is the way Aziraphale and Crowley communicate in modern day. The first two episodes adhere closely to the book. We are introduced to the archangels and Beelzebub and get views of Heaven and Hell setting up the adaptation's characterization of them as competing departments occupying the penthouse and basement, respectively, of God's vast impersonal corporation, as opposed to the original Cold War analog; but otherwise those of us who have already read the book get no new information, just the pleasure of seeing familiar material onscreen.

Then comes the E3, "Hard Times" teaser, all 30 pre-credit-rolling minutes of it, and suddenly that familiar day-long conversation in which Crowley convinced Aziraphale to work with him to balance the antichrist's influences isn't the same one anymore. Suddenly every conversation they have, every communication they make to each other, is a hundred times richer. Because now you know that they talk in code - every conversation is the sort of allusion-dense, shorthand-riddled, blank-filling communication that happens between old friends, married couples, roommates, and siblings who have private conversations in public. Once you realize that "Let's do the Ritz" is a reference to the conversation in the car in 1967 - "You said maybe one day we could dine at the Ritz. Well, time is running out for it - now or never -" and add into it the significance of the revolutionary crepes, and how shared meals operate for them - well, I for one get impatient with fanfic that claims they can't communicate, and wonder what happened with the gravlax in dill sauce that got it into the opening salvo, because you can't fit much of 6000 years into a 30 minute teaser but now I know that every single item on that list of things that'll go whooosh with the earth has its own reference point in their shared past, and every harsh-sounding attempt to parry with the regurgitation of the company line, on Aziraphale's part, is a plea: Make it possible for me to do something about this.

Every conversation is like this. Every conversation has to be like this, because of the fear of surveillance by Heaven. (Crowley's electronics can ambush him at any moment, but he clearly is on a longer leash than Aziraphale; Heaven is the one we see with pictures from the Earth Observation files and each one we see is, indeed, a picture in which they are performing their conversational Dance of Deniability in order to subvert their orders). It is also, of course, a huge convenience, as any couple who has ever won a team game by exploiting their private communication system can attest.

And then it starts to break down at the Bandstand, in the very same episode, as Aziraphale tries desperately to hang onto all his disparate loyalties, dithering and lying to everybody and trying to find a better solution that covers all the bases, including protecting Crowley from his own side. Because if Crowley kills the antichrist, or is responsible for his coming to harm, Hell will destroy him unless an equally powerful force protects him. (It annoys me to see people reading the Bandstand as Aziraphale rejecting Crowley when his agreeing to run away with him would mean abandoning Earth. A lot of things are going on at the Bandstand, but rejecting each other isn't in there, even though breaking up the team is.)

Then next episode it breaks down completely, a panicked Crowley discarding the dance in order to make a direct plea, trying to save what he can from the inevitable destruction of Earth - his car, Aziraphale, and whatever Aziraphale elects to pitch into the back seat. (Of course he intended to drive his car to Alpha Centauri.) No codes, no tempting, none of his serpentine subtlety: he sees Aziraphale on the street outside his shop, screeches to a halt, and leaps out making his pitch for escape. And what does he lead with? An apology.

But Crowley never apologizes.

He never acknowledges responsibility.

Oh, sure, he "exaggerates in memos to head office." He claims credit for all sorts of evil deeds that he may or may not have had any hand in, and accepts his commendations. But from literal Day 1 he is deflecting his responsibility for anything happens, when he talks to Aziraphale; it's the very first element of the conversational dance established. If God didn't want the humans to eat the apple they shouldn't have put it on a tree in the middle of the Garden with a big "Don't Touch" sign and what's so bad about knowing the difference between Good and Evil anyway?

A lot of this excuse making is acknowledging human agency in a way that Heaven and Hell's official policies never seem to. In the "Hard Time" opening Aziraphale accuses Crowley of orchestrating the ongoing disasters in both the French Revolution and the Blitz and Crowley denies it outright - the humans thought of this themselves. In the conversation in the bookshop after Warlock's party he bemoans having been saddled with responsibility for the antichrist and makes excuses about making false claims to his bosses - the humans do these things before he can get around to tempting them, that's not his fault.

Nothing's his fault - pedestrians in London are on the street and know the risk they're taking, he didn't hit Anathema she hit him, "we lost the boy" when Aziraphale knew nothing about the delivery of the antichrist until well after the switch was complete. Before humans even enter the picture, he didn't so much fall as "saunter vaguely downward." When talking to God/himself/his empty apartment about the Fall he "only ever asked questions" and "hung around with the wrong people." Even his declining to be thanked when he does something for Aziraphale feeds into this general refusal of responsibility. He, apparently, has no agency in any of these things.

I've seen meta to the effect that, while Aziraphale lies like a rug to everybody, including Crowley, Crowley lies to everyone except Aziraphale, and that's true as far as it goes. But thanks to the code, when Aziraphale lies to Crowley (except about the location of the antichrist) he's really saying something quite different which Crowley understands, right up until the bandstand, and Crowley's excuses are also incorporated into the code. Aziraphale's accusations of wrongdoing, his pontificating about evil, "get behind me foul fiend - after you" is all ritual. A certain amount of it is probably private joking, in which Aziraphale's stern straight face is the funniest thing of all.

But what's the first thing out of Crowley's mouth in the street in front of the bookshop, surrounded by witnesses, in full view of any Heavenly or Hellish operatives who happen to be around? "I'm sorry, Angel, whatever I did, I apologize." For what? For the bandstand breakup? For being unforgivable? For being a demon, losing the antichrist, not knowing how to save the world, not tempting properly the first time he suggested running off together? You'd think what would seem to be his first ever acceptance of responsibility in 6000 years would be for something specific but nope, he just tosses it out there in the street - an apology for everything, everywhere, all at once.

You can tell the world is ending, because the Serpent of Eden is apologizing.

But Aziraphale, fresh from being mugged by archangels, in possession of truly occult knowledge, is still desperately trying to dance. He still has one last throw of the die to make before he resorts to the killing-the-antichrist-together solution that is so likely to get Crowley destroyed. So he Forgives Crowley, an apparent direct response to a direct plea, but Crowley's not dancing now, he's just desperate and for the first time ever he loses the beat and doesn't understand what Aziraphale is trying to tell him. With Crowley having disrupted the steps, it's possible that Aziraphale doesn't understand what he's trying to say, either, except that this may be the last speech of all and if that's so, he wants to give Crowley the one thing that he by definition cannot have.

Maybe he has tried to stop dancing, too, but no longer remembers how.

So they go their separate ways, Crowley to don his hazmat suit and booby trap a door, Aziraphale to call in the biggest gun of all, while Adam frightens his friends and his Dog to the point of rebellion, and the weather goes weird and everything climbs into the handbasket to go to Hell, but Shadwell rallies to save Newt (and incidentally trigger a subdisaster within the larger disaster) and Anathema decides that y'know, there's worse ways to go out than orgasms with a hapless virgin witchfinder so let's do something fun and life-affirming during the tornado like Agnes predicted, and she can sort out what the implications of that are if there's a later.

It's really hard to stop watching at the end of this episode.

I wonder if I've gotten to the bottom of those conversations yet.

[oneiriad]

Good Omens 2 episode 6 reaction post

Last episode.I am starting to suspect things won't get wrapped up.

Maggie? Oops.

I am going to need a little more than nah. Why the change of heart?

Guess Aziraphale was a bit traumatized by that fire.

Awww, Shax.

This is not a daytime show. Needs more lighting.

Are Gabriel and Beelzebub flirting? So much fanfic.

Still missing the motivation here.

Good for Shax.

What are you up to, Metatron?

Aziraphale, ruler of Heaven? Please no. And angel Crowley? I - no. Oh, Aziraphale. You still haven't got it, have you?

Oh Crowley. You're not good at this, are you?

10 minutes to resolve this mess. Hmmm.

We're back at that fucking bandstand, aren't we?

Damnit, Aziraphale!

Right, when's season 3? (I hate cliffhangers.)

[ineffablyausten]

Ineffably Austen Week 5 Prompts

This week we are focusing on perhaps Jane Austen's most controversial novel Mansfield Park. So different in tone and subject matter from the others, with it's Cinderella-like premise and quiet protagonist.

Our main prompts for this week are:

Working Class: In no other Austen novel is the working class as much acknowledged as in this one. The scenes in which our heroine Fanny Price visits her working class family are some of the most unique in all of Austen's work. In GO fanfiction, too, the theme of class is often not addressed. With an angel and a demon who never have to worry about money, work, or privilege, that's easily done. So this one could be an interesting challenge.

Unrequited Love: This second prompt is much more in keeping with Austen's opus in general, and there are many ways in which authors and artists can take inspiration from it. Be honest, you're not over the bandstand scene and neither are we. Unrequited love, whether real or only presumed to be unrequited, plays into so many aspects of storytelling we adore: misunderstandings, communication, the development of feelings and the act of courtship. Lots to play with.

Other ways to get inspired by the themes of Mansfield Park include:

Cinderella stories

adultery

introverts

Priest AU

And remember, anything goes for this event. Canon-compliant works and AUs alike, set in any period and place. Fanfic, fanart, and anything else that takes inspiration from Austen and turns it into a Good Omens fan work.

Don't forget to use the tag #IneffablyAusten when you post on social media so we can find and share your creations!