#the chutzpah to gaslight us like this

[kelluinox]

What absolutely boggles my mind is that people who celebrated the murder of civilians, celebrated the rape of women and girls, celebrated the butchering of babies, celebrated kidnapping, are lecturing us on human rights, calling us racist, calling us fascists and calling us murderers and nazis

You can't make this shit up

[elder-millennial-of-zion]

Also i want to say that I know everything has been so scary lately but you're not alone! We are really uniting so much lately and I've been connecting to my Judaism more than ever. Sending you a lot of support and strength during this times and always

You know, everyone says we’re the bad guys. The “Zionists.” Those of us who have the chutzpah to believe that Jews deserve and need a homeland of our own, no more and no less than the Palestinians.

But it’s their side that dehumanizes Jews, sends death threats to Jews, yells at Jews who would be their allies but who refuse to apologize for their very existence as Jews, deliberately makes their spaces unsafe for Jews, and then gaslights us about it.

And then on our side, we have this. Beautiful, heartening messages reaching out to show us support, unity, empathy, and courage in the moments when we need it most. Messages from people we don’t even know, but that doesn’t matter. We know each other enough because we’re Jews. We share the experience of living in this world that the “good guys” are making so scary for us, where they won’t stop “defending humanity” and “protesting genocide” until every Jew is dead.

On our side, we reach out to each other just to say, “I see you. Thank you for existing as a Jew. Even if it doesn’t feel like much, it’s everything.”

Thank you for a message that reminds me that it really doesn’t matter if they call us the “bad guys.” I’ll take being a part of our Kehilah, part of Klal Yisrael, any day.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Why the hell is Thomas, supposedly a LB&SCR engine, on Sodor?

That's a long trek! Plus, E2s are way bigger than Thomas is portrayed in every iteration of canon!

The second thing can be explained away as "major rebuild" (I suppose—it's still weird), but the first is a pretty big strain on belief.

Here are some of the options:

Thomas was being sent to the front but his ship called at Tidmouth and his crew just rolled him right off into the docks. The NWR was in a state of half-built chaos and desperately needed engines, so no one questioned too hard what tf Thomas and his crew were doing hanging 'round so long as they were making themselves useful.

Young Thomas stowed away on a long-distance train out of his home depot wanting to see the world and/or show up whatever engines were currently teasing him. He managed to finagle odd jobs in the chaos of war preparation until he wound up on Sodor.

STH is plain lying about Thomas being an E2. It's an amazing bit of cheek. I'm thinking in this case Thomas is something close and handy, maybe a Johnson 2411 class or a contractor engine, and when his owners tracked him down to Vicarstown FC1 just bald-facedly claimed that this was an LB&SCR engine that had been sent to them for war service, sorry about your lost engine, if you have any posters we're happy to put them up. They were infuriated but Thomas had already been modded so much that they couldn't prove his identity.

Bonus to that: STH made it legal with the LB&SCR, who knew there were shenanigans afoot but who just shrugged and accepted his five hundred pounds or whatever for an engine they knew very well they hadn't lost.

Variant: There is also the @tethrendevez explanation!

For the "lying to his owners" theory I did not propose the obvious alt of Thomas as a Furness G5, if only because I can't see even FC1 having the chutzpah to try gaslighting his next-door neighbors. But consider: Thomas was a G5, but in 1960 he was embiggened in the post-breakfast rebuild. FC2 decided to have him rebuilt to look like a somewhat plausible LB&SCR E2... so that they could request that BR send one or two of these soon-to-be-withdrawn engines to them gratis for Thomas's "spare parts." The beaten, frightened engines arrived to find their mysterious long-lost brother was... just some northern sidetank rando winking at them and saying that he hoped they didn't mind being rushed off their wheels at their new assignments!

The North Western was one of the odd railways that were then air-braked, so when the Admiralty decided they needed to be loaned locomotives they sent some engines from railways like the LB&SCR that would be compatible with their stock.

Bonus to the above: Annie, Clarabel, and probably similar coaches were also donated during this time, being themselves air-fitted.

Thanks to @joezworld for helping spark this post.

[thesinglesjukebox]

DIXIE CHICKS - GASLIGHTER

[7.67]

Well, we're ready to make nice...

Jessica Doyle: I made the mistake of reading some of the hell-hath-no-fury-like-Natalie-Maines-on-vocals early publicity, and ended up expecting something a lot less jaunty. If you played "Gaslighter" for a non-English speaker, I'm not sure they'd hear the angry breakup from the music and vocals alone. That stray "Look out you little--" heading into the chorus at 2:05 sounds downright affectionate. This makes for a less emotionally clean song, and the video feels like overcompensation (was the "Daisy" ad really necessary?). But it makes a certain sense. This isn't a fictional story à la "Before He Cheats"; the Chicks chose to eschew the luxury of marinating in two-dimensional righteousness. Adrian Pasdar, as much as he will now forever be known as That Guy Who Did Something on Natalie Maines's Boat, is also presumably tied up irrevocably with Maines's two sons and a couple decades' worth of her memories; she's allowed to refrain from hating him straightforwardly. "Gaslighter" is less cathartic than it could have been -- it might get bellowed into karaoke mics less often than it could have been -- but truer. [6]

Katie Gill: Someone please just tell me what Adrian Pasdar did! I suspect that part of my love of this song is sheer nostalgia. I adore the Dixie Chicks and I'm so happy to see them make a comeback now, even if I worry that, with the current state of country music, it won't go anywhere. And I am here for the big divorce energy this single has. It's wonderful to see that the Dixie Chicks can summon up the beautiful cathartic anger that made their last album, Taking the Long Way, so good even over ten years later. And that anger is matched with gorgeous harmonies (that, granted, are a little bit too hidden by the arrangement), a cathartic chorus, and a brief moment of wonderful vulnerability from Maines near the end. Top that off with one of the best lyrics in 2020 in "you're sorry but where's my apology" and, look, I just can't wait for this dang album to come out already. [8]

Alex Clifton: "Gaslighter, you broke me/You're sorry, but where's my apology?" has rung in my ears for nearly two weeks. I wrote a boatload of bad poetry for years around that sentiment, and the Dixie Chicks sing ten words what I couldn't do in a thousand, and I love them for it. [10]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: "You're sorry, but where's my apology?" So many lines in "Gaslighter" speak truth to my experience of being emotionally and psychologically manipulated, but every time I hear this one in particular, several things happen. First, my blood starts to boil and race and I feel my hands get clammy. Then, I instinctively clench my teeth and get the urge to pump my fists in the air. Finally, I remind myself that if the Dixie Chicks can get through the past decades, I can too -- and my anger dissipates like air from a balloon. That's the argument the Dixie Chicks are making here: winning the argument means not letting anyone else's actions consume your emotional state. [7]

Tobi Tella: "Repeating all of the mistakes of your father" cuts like a knife, the harmonies are tight, and the lightness of the production makes it clear that they can still do fun. If there's any justice in this world, this would be a hit on country radio. [7]

Michael Hong: "Gaslighter" is the Dixie Chicks' first single in fourteen years, and by virtue of being that, is interwoven with each thread its own narrative: 1) the story of the Dixie Chicks -- the rise, the fall, the good, the bad, all of it always culminating in the idea that the women had something to prove. 2) Jack Antonoff on writing and production, straying into bold country territory, furthering his influence in modern music. 3) The rampant use, and in some cases, overuse, of the term "gaslighting," and how it's already led to thinkpieces on whether or not Natalie Maines was actually gaslit. And finally, 4) the politicization of the Dixie Chicks, broadcasting the political as a mirror of the personal. All of these narratives matter, and yet, none are necessary to understand "Gaslighter." The track is compact in all the right ways, with tight harmonies on top of fiddle and banjo arrangements and verses that pick up right where the chorus lets off. The Dixie Chicks package the gleeful realization of the truth into a chorus so jovial you can't help but sing along. All that's to say, even divorced from every narrative that you can throw at "Gaslighter," "Gaslighter" still demands you turn the volume up when you hear it through your car stereo. [7]

Alfred Soto: The inevitable emphasis on the dropped hook is purest Jack Antonoff, not Dixie Chicks, but the best of their tunes relied on outside help anyway. "Gaslighter" squeaks by on chutzpah, skill, and nostalgia from the silent minority of lib country listeners. But Antonoff's infatuation with percussion gives the Chicks the gaslighting urgency necessary to sell the songs in Labelle, Lynchburg, and Mena. They're still not ready to make nice -- except with Taylor Swift's producer's platinum cred. [7]

Joshua Lu: Jack Antonoff is perhaps the last producer I'd expect or want to produce a Dixie Chicks comeback song, largely because his limited palette of plinky pianos and muted synths isn't something I'd think I'd like to hear in country music. To Jack's credit, though, "Gaslighter" is a veritable romp, even in spite of how unfulfilled some of the instruments are and how the chorus sounds like it's coming from a couple of rooms over. The real charm, though, is in the lyrics, so full of the charm and wit that really signify that this is a Dixie Chicks song -- "you know exactly what you did on my boat" alone makes the song a perfect addition to the sizable "My Partner Cheated on Me and Now I Must Destroy the World" section of the country music canon. Fourteen years might've been a long wait, but at least it was worth it. [8]

Jackie Powell: So while 2020 has absolutely been an abysmal year, here's it's one redeeming quality: it set up an absolute glorious return for the Dixie Chicks. Their new single "Gaslighter" comes in at the right place at the right time. So do we have Taylor Swift to thank for this? Is it fair to assume that their vocals on "Soon You'll Get Better" (which might be the most beautiful song on Lover) were an introduction to Jack Antonoff? His signature drums on the second chorus and beyond provide the track with the train that will entice stans of Spacey Kacey Musgraves. A divorce anthem that is also reflexive to frustration with the world in 2020 is so on brand I want to cry. But tears of joy this time. The Dixie Chicks were some of the original victims of cancel culture. But really they were gaslit by their entire genre. Tomato-gate didn't happen until 2015, but the sexism the Dixie Chicks faced preceded the incident. What's fascinating about their return is they won't be in this fight with their genre and the country music establishment alone. Since the Dixie Chicks' hiatus, Musgraves, Maren Morris, The Highwomen and others have taken a spot on the no bullshit mantel next to the trio. It's refreshing. In classic Natalie Maines fashion, she regrets nothing, calling the repercussions of "Not Ready to Make Nice" a "blessing." But really, in 2020, we are the ones who are really truly blessed. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: "Gaslighter" is triumphant both in its specificity ("you know exactly what you did on my boat"!!!) and its broadness (the harmonies, Jack Antonoff's shiny-as-hell production.) Despite that glory, though, "Gaslighter" feels a little empty at its core. It's the rush of the breakup without the consideration of the fallout, the thrill without any crash. [8]

Edward Okulicz: On first listen, this sounded too small, too restrained, too modest for its concept. These aren't things that you would expect from the big ambitions and big voices of the Dixie Chicks. But when the chorus comes in a second time with the drumbeat, it works as a mantra for a protagonist no more ready to forgive than she is to forget. And, as if you needed to be told, their voices still sound gorgeous together. [8]

Oliver Maier: A tumbling boulder of rage for a chorus and Jack Antonoff graciously refraining from turning "Gaslighter" into a big echoey 80s-inflected synth pop confection. "We moved to California and we followed your dreams" is such a great opening line for the verse, charging the events of the song with a mythological, Dust Bowl-era resonance and signalling the relationship's disintegration before it even occurs, like something out of a Steinbeck novel. Maines rattles off each charge against her ex just vividly enough to get the raw emotional beats across, without fixating long enough to stall the song's momentum. A relationship is cremated and catharsis is achieved; no need for an autopsy when there's no ambiguity left. [8]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[maggiejulienne]

I do exist!

Hey, The Internet.

The last few months have been . . . a lot. I am not the same person I was in 2016 and I am so happy about it.

Getting back into therapy is the singular best thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. In the last nine months, I was taught the terms “gaslighting” and “narcissistic abuse” and made the hardest decision of my life to GTFO of an abusive relationship I had been in since 2010, that had defined my life, my career, my choices pretty much every single day.

In doing so, I made the decision to put myself as a human before myself as an artist, something that had never, ever occurred to me before. I felt that by taking that risk, there was a good chance I would be sacrificing my career. 

Since then, I 

- Finished my first pilot, which got me a meeting at Comedy Central, and subsequently have written the next two episodes and half each of the four after that (things kept getting in the way because I also . . . )

- had a residency at the Drama League (the same one the same year as Duncan Shiek whaaaat) where I wrote a play in three days of which I am SO proud.

- Found a new writing partner, have created tons of new content with HER (female composers FTW!), including starting on a musical called “Mina and the Monster,” a 7-person actor musician project that I get to star in!

- Was hired to adapt “Princess Ten Ten and the Dark Skies” for the Guardian Princess Alliance, which I just got to Skype in for the first table-read of earlier today! It is described as the first original musical presented by University of California Riverside as well as “the first musical featuring a pan-Asian gender non-conforming superheroine princess” and yes you read all of that correctly.

- Was hired by my favorite Bway/N’tl tour AD/director who I worked with last year and liked me and my work enough to call me up and get me a job adapting the middle grade novel “Invincible” with a very talented composer from Yale who actually cast my godbrother in a play there! It is ALSO about princesses (living the DREAAAM) and also not your typical princess - this one is wheelchair-bound and learning more about herself through therapeutic horseback riding yes you read all that correctly as well.

- Danced in a short film which I had written lyrics to three songs for, making it the first film project my little sister and I were in together! It was a ton a ton of fun.

- Was made Director of New Work for The Harpers Theatre

- Finished a second pilot in time to submit it to a women NYC TV competition - jury is out but I was proud of getting it in and writing my first TV Bible and finally getting to collaborate with my BRILLIANT artist cousin who did the concept art for it!

- Finished a rewrite of my screenplay, got a great potential director 100% on board, had a budget drawn up, and got the FIRE in my soul to GET. IT. DONE.

- Got a call from a Broadway-vet actor now director who had worked with me in 2015 and I haven’t seen him since saying that he has a new manager in LA who wants him to direct another movie musical and asked me to write the screenplay

- Started working with the current music director/onstage pianist of the West End and now National Tour of Fiasco’s Into the Woods as my composer on a new musical that is just in its nascent stage so shhhhh ;)

- Got hired to restructure/write a summary of a musical I was briefly a dramaturge on this summer

- Just did some paid spec work for a project that I will either get or I will lose because I stood up for myself and my worth as a writer so honestly I am equally proud of myself either way :)

- And more that I’m sure I’m forgetting, because as you can tell, I have been a busy busy busy little bee

But MUCH more importantly, I 

- Got a LOT of my confidence back as a singer/performer. It’s still a process, but boy howdy was this a huge leap forward

- Went to the National Eating Disorders Association Conference in Chicago, where I met beautiful amazing brilliant inspiring women and artists whose empathy and insight I will cherish for the rest of my life

- a side-effect of which is that I stayed with a friend in Boston whom I hadn’t seen in a good five or so years and didn’t even realize how much I had missed

- Got a MUTHA’UCKIN TATTOO that is DOPE AF and I love it and her name is Rattattooie and she helps me remember to love my body

- Went vegan and started learning to cook, which makes me feel more self-sufficient and it’s nice

- Finally confronted my body dysmorphia/confidence issues after years of anger at myself for not having enough feminist chutzpah to magically just will them away. But I couldn’t. And CBT kicked my butt into gear with enough tools to give me body peace, but even MORE astoundingly -

- CBT diminished my skin-picking enough that for the last WEEK or so the urges have been almost NON-EXISTENT. I don’t even know how it’s possible. Dermatillomania has been a huge inescapable part of my life for the past decade and I barely remember what it was like to live without it. I’m so so fortunate that my mom made me believe that I deserved to tackle this problem, which was the trigger for EVERYTHING else falling into place, and that my parents were able to afford this ridiculously expensive incredibly specialized treatment for a problem that used to take up, I kid you not, upwards of 40 minutes to an hour EVERY DAY and now takes up maybe five minutes maximum and steadily diminishes every day

*Angelica Schuyler voice* Anyway all this to say . . . 

I have no regrets. Not from the last six years, and DEFINITELY not from the last ten months. Most days I feel like pinching myself because I can’t even believe how happy and healthy I feel. There are CERTAINLY bad moments and bad days, but they are so so outshone by all of the good ones :)

So that’s where things are now. We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see which projects go forward and which ones fall through, but I know now that my worth is an intrinsic thing, and not based on which jobs I land and which ones I don’t. My friends are incredible incredible people and I am now only keeping around those who make me feel better about myself and not worse, which I am pleased to say that upon close examination, is literally almost every. single. person. with whom I associate. I love them I love them I love them. 

So here we go. If this is how the first quarter of the year is going, I am very very excited to see (and CREATE!) all that is to follow.