#so the clip they show for y tu mama tambien is not the kiss I was thinking of when he mentioned the movie

[thedreadpiratebonnet]

Taylor talks his favourite onscreen kisses for TKB2 press

When I saw the title I thought it was talking about his own onscreen kisses and wondered how many he’d had by then, but it’s about his favourite onscreen kisses in other movies! Some very good choices

[cupcakefoggy]

So I was rewatching the 2009 Superbowl Halftime Show with Bruce Springsteen, because I live the party life, and exactly 30 seconds in I was already crying because Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons are truly BFF goals and it never fails to make me tear up at how absolutely Soft these two were for each other.

For non-music nerds, a quick backstory: Bruce and Clarence met while Bruce was working on his very first Big Deal album, Greetings from Asbury Park, which for anyone who's paying attention means Clarence was with Bruce pretty much from the literal beginning. Put it simply: if there's a sax riff on a Springsteen album that has you cooing in delight, it's Clarence Clemons. It was so important, this meeting of the musical minds, that Bruce immortalized it in "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out." Truly, these two go together like peanut butter and chocolate. They are the Reese's Cup of classic rock.

But see, it's better than that, bc not only are they both great musicians on their own that created actual perfection when they joined together, but they're also perhaps the most delightful example of non-toxic masculine friendship that the 80s had to offer.

Look up videos on YouTube of Bruce Springsteen performing in the 1980s. Specifically, look up his performance of the famous "Detroit Medley." I would bet actual money that at least a couple of the videos you find of this performance, come to a point where Bruce, like it's the most natural thing in the world, spares a moment from rocking out to casually peck his saxophonist/bestie on the lips. Why? Because they're best pals and hell with anyone who cares, that's why.

Keep in mind, babes, this is the EIGHTIES. This is the poster era for homophobia. Clearly, someone forgot to tell Bruce Springsteen, because the man is 100% out of damns to give. This man is secure in his identity and could give half a shit if someone sees him being Soft with his BFF. He knows he's a ladies' man and who the hell cares if some doink thinks otherwise?

It should tell y'all something that the first time I saw a guy kiss another guy, it wasn't some steamy clip from Rocky Horror or Y tu Mama Tambien. No. Just a couple of bros onstage taking a quick moment to share some casual affection before continuing with a kickass rock show.

The stills above from the 2009 Superbowl show never fail to melt me into a puddle. These two goofballs have been together since 1971, but before they start the set, Bruce still takes a second to reach back and grab his friend's hand. It's just a soft little "are you there buddy? just wanted to make sure..." and it's so damn cute it makes me cry. Every time. I can't imagine what it must be like to be friends with someone for forty years. Can't imagine what it's like to know each other better than you know yourselves. Can't imagine being about to play on live TV for billions of people and still reach back to squeeze your friend's hand, like a couple of kids nervous to start their first day of school.

Clarence Clemons died in 2011. I wonder if sometimes Bruce still reaches back to squeeze a hand that isn't physically there. I wonder if at every show, a ghost in a leather jacket with a sax slung over one shoulder waits in the wings, and reaches out to squeeze back.

[lids-flutter-open]

3 Fan-Made Music Videos About Brideshead Revisited and Maurice And How To Mute Them And Pair Them With Songs From The Shins’ Excellent New Album, Heartworms

First, a word on my methods. I have been prompted to embark on studies of this medium--that is, the medium of the fanmade music video about gay lovers from a piece of fiction that may or may not name them as gay--by the dearth of adequate visual representation of homosexuals in media. For a while this was a popular folk art form in America and worldwide. While most videos were about popular TV shows, teens learned video editing skills and then trained their attention on niche interests as well. There are no videos for “Y Tu Mama Tambien” (I’ve checked), but whiter, nerdier gay classics like Brideshead and Maurice have received the AMV treatment. Once in a while I like to regress, and during these times I watch these videos. I appreciate all the people who make these videos for me to consume. Sadly, the popularity of the art form has declined as other video art forms like snapchat and vine have encouraged youth to innovate in new ways. This has led to most of the videos still online for any given fandom (and there are almost always some for almost every fandom) being set to songs which are years out of date. You can remedy this in the comfort of your living room with no technical skills required at all. All you have to do is open a new tab and play a song you like which matches the video sort of. This article is intended to highlight my favorite songs from the new album which indie rock band The Shins has just put out, but you can play any Britney song from before 2005 and it will work just as well for all of these videos.

Without further ado, here’s the shit that’s keeping me up at night still to this day because this is how I engage with my own emotions rather than seeking a therapist or something:

1. Maurice/Alec- Keep Holding On - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQIOu2RmEm0 --pair with “So Now What?”

This video is a classic, posted on Youtube in the brighter year of 2008. Its low-res quality doesn’t impede the seriously artistic way this four-minute long video is put together. Part of the credit goes to the brilliant cinematographers working on the actual movie, but Youtube user perrythaler has a great sense of how to choose clips which convey the narrative arc of Alec and Maurice’s love while punctuating the flow with shots of them embracing, sharing glances while playing cricket, and (most wrenchingly) Maurice undergoing hypnosis. The video also mixes in a lot of variety between dark blues and bright outdoor summer scenes, so it stays interesting. The song isn’t one that currently strikes me as emotionally resonant, but that’s why God gave us mute buttons and allowed us to open new tabs. Like a fine wine, you can pair this video with any music which matches its joyous, nostalgic, hopeful ambiance. For this, I recommend “So Now What.” Mercer’s vocals are floaty and dreamy. Featured lyrics: “I had this crazy idea/that we’d just coast to the end/change lines in every direction/guess we’ll just begin again.” The words to the song really are, you realize, about Alec and Maurice suddenly realizing they are willing to take risks for one another and give up literally everything stable in their respective lives in order to achieve intimacy which transcends class distinctions and which flies in the face of homophobia and, hopefully, avoids the brutality of the oncoming first world war. 

2. Brideshead Revisited-  With All Of My Heart - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulEHogq4Xwo --pair with song of your choosing but “cherry hearts” works well for the first half

I highly recommend watching the actual video with sound, but you will also want to mute it and use it with other songs, because this is, sadly, one of the very few Brideshead videos out there. It is four glorious minutes long and tracks the happy-to-tragic trajectory of the overall story. There are shots of Charles and Sebastian dancing, laying arm in arm, etc. The later parts of the video are about Sebastian’s alcoholism and Charles falling out of love with him.If you have a song about being in love or longing, mute it and play from the beginning. If your song is about tragedy and grief, start somewhere about two minutes in. “Cherry Hearts” fits with the beginning pretty well, and the lyrics are just so so in line with Brideshead that it prompted me to start on this whole spiral. 

You're not wanting anybody wanting you I get it, all is fair But I've been biting all my cherry hearts in two You don't even care Won't you ever come down from the big rock I found you climbing Stowing your diamonds away [Chorus] You kissed me once When we were drunk It left me spinning on my heels Called the devil for a deal You kissed me once When we were drunk My head went rolling on the floor Past the window, out the door

Cut to me crying!!

3. Shattered- Maurice and Clive -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTOJ11iF4d8-- pair with “Heartworms”

I have one complaint for this video, which has to do with the multicolor filters that seemed to the creator to be a good idea and which were indeed very fashionable for AMVs created between 2011-2013. Everything else about this video (when it is muted, anyway, and paired with a really good song) is perfect. It’s heart-wrenchingly organized in almost reverse chronological order, starting out with the scene where Maurice tries to rekindle the physical affection he and Clive had always shared and is brutally rejected by his sweetheart. Maurice starts to cry, and the rest of the video is a montage of the past and then of the scenes where Maurice visits Clive at his country estate after he is married, when Maurice is still mooning over him and has not met Alec yet. I think the original song the creator chose is probably okay, but I won’t ever know because I am only listening to “Heartworms” over this video, over and over again. “Heartworms” is a song about being rejected and not being able to get over it and feeling like while maybe part of it is about homophobia or pain or something personal it might also kind of be about class (which with Maurice and Clive it almost certainly is, since Clive really is from the gentry whereas Maurice is just a middle-class workaday stiff, especially after dropping out). It’s half bitter and half loving, and this video paired with the song captures that sense really well.

There we have it, folks, my midnight infodump! This is what I found myself obsessing over on emotional late nights in the years after I got done caring about Harry Potter. That said, though, if you are ever interested in which Remus Lupin AMVs are good enough to pair up with your favorite mountain goats song, give me a call.