#the parade interview had a better quote so !

[gael-garcia]

Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna for Bad Hombre magazine 📷 Karla Lisker

PARADE: Diego, what makes Gael a great scene partner? And Gael, what makes Diego a great one? Luna: I think Gael is the most committed actor I've worked with. He goes in and he goes deep and nothing actually stops him. You feel he's on a mission, which is fascinating because there's no time to get distracted. It's all about what's happening there. It is fascinating to see that amount of commitment, because you just have to follow. That's one thing. [García]: I think what Diego has is a wonderful, beautiful energy that gives a rhythm to the scenes. It's like a heartbeat of the dramaturgy in a way. [He] puts it out there, and then everyone starts walking around. [Smiles and gestures moving along.] It is very appreciated because [on] the contrary are actors that you have to drag them from their kind of thing. And Diego's a very generous [actor], his energy is very forward and to many different places. It's very inspiring and very contagious as well. You have to catch up, also. You have to catch up. [Laughs] Luna: I want to say another thing about Gael. He's aware of what's around. He's aware of what you're doing, what's happening. I guess that's the theatre kind of background. Sometimes in cinema, you find actors that are just thinking about a frame or what's happening here, and he's aware of what's around. Generosity is part of his process, too

[raytoropussysupremacy]

Okay, so my partner and I just watched The Midnight Curfew, the unauthorized documentary, and the vibes were BIZARRE. I don’t see a lot in the tag for it, so here goes, it’s long, sorry:

Gerard is basically the only band member that’s talked about (shocker) and they’re painted as a tortured, mentally unstable genius and nothing else. One of the interviewees admitted to -punching Gerard in the face- to get them to calm down and seemed? Proud of it? And they called Gerard’s abscessed tooth an “overblown toothache” and said it caused them a lot of drama and hardship because they were in so much pain that it was making it hard to record and the interviewees were -annoyed- about it..

Mikey was mentioned as “Gerard’s brother, so I guess he HAD to be there, he was awful at bass, didn’t know how to play bass at all.” And then later in the documentary “Mikey saved the recording session from all of Gerard’s drama by being calm and just playing bass”.

Ray wasn’t mentioned significantly, but there -were- recordings of him talking about the beginnings of the band. Edit: I thought this was uncredited, but it was just really hard to tell through the captioning. It was credited, it was just his voice though? Like it was taken from a separate interview?

Frank was surprisingly mentioned almost not at all, his enthusiasm for the band, his scorpion tattoo, how his connections in the scene really helped with promotion, etc. none of that was mentioned. Basically nothing about the music itself was mentioned.

The owner of Eyeball Records called My Chem a nerdy band (confusing; they are, but that’s not their sound) and then said that once nerds started doing school shootings, we as a culture were forced to pay more attention to them so it didn’t happen again. And that My Chem seemed like the school shooting types of nerds??? Coldest take in the universe, what the fuck are you talking about.

Another interviewee (I can’t remember them all, sorry, they also look really similar) called their music ‘emo’ which is one of my biggest fucking pet peeves. Emo is not! 👏🏻 A! 👏🏻 Music! 👏🏻 Genre! 👏🏻 The bands that have been labeled as such do not sound similar at all, try again! Also My Chem have explicitly said, early on even, that that is not a word they associate with their music. They’ve used ‘violent pop’ and ‘rock’ as categories in interviews.

Also the documentary starts and is intermittently punctuated by a lilting, extremely posh-sounding English person that makes the whole thing feel like a David Attenborough nature documentary. Their perspective is very detached and it sounds like they’re writing an article based off secondhand knowledge, it’s very fucking weird.

The interviewees also talk about the band leaving Eyeball Records and signing to a major label and the vibe is ‘sad bitter exes’. The documentary feels like Divorce Court at this point. Not an actual quote but it was like “My Chem did what they had to do in order to break out and be bigger, and it stung. It was devastating, I cried about it, but I’m happy for them!! If I’m not what they need that’s fine! It’s….fine.”

And obviously the funniest part was everyone saying that they don’t know how the band are going to top themselves, and they’d better not overthink it or they’re going to crash and burn. This came out shortly before Black Parade, so RIP to these men’s egos.

I would love to know more people’s thoughts on this thing, weirdest hour I’ve ever spent in my life so far.

[dertaglichedan]

How To Create Conspiracy Theories

It is easy to birth conspiracy theories.

All that is required is chronic government stonewalling of reasonable requests for transparency. Then add in high officials serially lying under oath, along with the blatantly unequal application of the law. Institutionalize arguments from authority of politicians and bureaucrats who refuse to adjudicate arguments empirically.

Include the weaponization of investigatory and intelligence bureaucracies. Finish with the transformation of an obsequious media into a mouthpiece of the state. And presto, you end up with a skeptical, cynical public that learns to believe the very opposite from what it is told by elites.

January 6th

Curiously. some conservative politicians, media and politicos often remark of their surprise that so many of the Trump base insists that the January 6 riot at the Capitol was in part a federally driven conspiracy, or perhaps just a mere “demonstration” gone awry.

But whether true or not, why would some not believe that—given the efforts of the state to hide and warp facts?

Consider what drives rational people to embrace supposed “conspiracy” theories around the so-called “insurrection?”

One reason, of course, is that there was evidence of FBI informants present on January 6. Do not take the word of conservatives for such suppositions.

Instead, remember what award-winning New York Times’s reporter and keen follower of right-wing political activity, Matthew Rosenberg said of January 6, albeit in an ambush interview conducted by Operation Veritas:

The left’s overreaction — the left’s reaction to it in some places was so over the top. They were making it too big a deal … that gave the opening for lunatics in the right to be like, ‘Oh, well, nothing happened here. It was just a peaceful bunch of tourists,’ you know, and it’s like, but nobody wants to hear that.”

Rosenberg then remarked that he spotted numerous FBI informants among the crowd milling around the Capitol. Or as he put it, “There were a ton of FBI informants among the people who attacked the Capitol.” Cannot the FBI refute such allegations?

Apparently not. Given such speculation, one would expect that FBI Director Christopher Wray might at least categorically deny such inflammatory accusations.

Yet in congressional testimony when asked whether the FBI had inserted informants among the protestors, sphinxlike Wray merely shrugged, “So I really need to be careful here talking about where we have or have not used confidential human sources.”

Then there is the mysterious case of Ray Epps, initially sought by FBI “as a person of interest” for allegedly inciting demonstrators to break the law and enter the Capitol.

But then oddly Epps was de facto exempted for some 30 months from arrest—even as hundreds who urged no such action were indicted and convicted of “illegal parading” or unlawfully “demonstrating in front of the Capitol”—misdemeanors that ended up resulting in felony-type sentencing.

In one video clip, as Epps attempts to gin up the stationary crowd to move illegally into the Capitol, he is met with “conspiratorial” accusations from skeptical bystanders calling out: “Fed! Fed! Fed!”

Epps filed suit against Fox News for defamation on grounds that anchor Tucker Carlson had tied him to efforts to incite January 6 violence. Yet then suddenly Epps announced that he believes he will soon be charged, after all, by the government for his role in the January 6 protests.

If true, such an arrest was long anticipated, since Epps is caught on tape, unambiguously, on more than one occasion, urging demonstrators to enter the Capitol unlawfully (e.g., “We need to go to the Capitol”).

If one would like to hatch an Epps conspiracy theory, then one could do no better than quoting another Ray Epps braggadocious claim that he had texted to his nephew: “I orchestrated it.”

It did not help the Left’s construction of a January 6 “insurrection” theory that it serially misled the country about the actual loss of life. At first, Democrats insisted, falsely, that Officer Sicknick’s tragic death was due to protestor violence. Yet an autopsy revealed that he died a day later from a stroke.

Then Democrat leaders pivoted to claim that any law enforcement officer present on January 6, who for any reason subsequently committed suicide, was to be counted a victim of protestor violence.

FULL STORY

[mightyflamethrower]

It is easy to birth conspiracy theories.

All that is required is chronic government stonewalling of reasonable requests for transparency. Then add in high officials serially lying under oath, along with the blatantly unequal application of the law. Institutionalize arguments from authority of politicians and bureaucrats who refuse to adjudicate arguments empirically.

Include the weaponization of investigatory and intelligence bureaucracies. Finish with the transformation of an obsequious media into a mouthpiece of the state. And presto, you end up with a skeptical, cynical public that learns to believe the very opposite from what it is told by elites.

January 6th

Curiously. some conservative politicians, media and politicos often remark of their surprise that so many of the Trump base insists that the January 6 riot at the Capitol was in part a federally driven conspiracy, or perhaps just a mere “demonstration” gone awry.

But whether true or not, why would some not believe that—given the efforts of the state to hide and warp facts?

Consider what drives rational people to embrace supposed “conspiracy” theories around the so-called “insurrection?”

One reason, of course, is that there was evidence of FBI informants present on January 6. Do not take the word of conservatives for such suppositions.

Instead, remember what award-winning New York Times’s reporter and keen follower of right-wing political activity, Matthew Rosenberg said of January 6, albeit in an ambush interview conducted by Operation Veritas:

The left’s overreaction — the left’s reaction to it in some places was so over the top. They were making it too big a deal … that gave the opening for lunatics in the right to be like, ‘Oh, well, nothing happened here. It was just a peaceful bunch of tourists,’ you know, and it’s like, but nobody wants to hear that.”

Rosenberg then remarked that he spotted numerous FBI informants among the crowd milling around the Capitol. Or as he put it, “There were a ton of FBI informants among the people who attacked the Capitol.” Cannot the FBI refute such allegations?

Apparently not. Given such speculation, one would expect that FBI Director Christopher Wray might at least categorically deny such inflammatory accusations.

Yet in congressional testimony when asked whether the FBI had inserted informants among the protestors, sphinxlike Wray merely shrugged, “So I really need to be careful here talking about where we have or have not used confidential human sources.”

Then there is the mysterious case of Ray Epps, initially sought by FBI “as a person of interest” for allegedly inciting demonstrators to break the law and enter the Capitol.

But then oddly Epps was de facto exempted for some 30 months from arrest—even as hundreds who urged no such action were indicted and convicted of “illegal parading” or unlawfully “demonstrating in front of the Capitol”—misdemeanors that ended up resulting in felony-type sentencing.

In one video clip, as Epps attempts to gin up the stationary crowd to move illegally into the Capitol, he is met with “conspiratorial” accusations from skeptical bystanders calling out: “Fed! Fed! Fed!”

Epps filed suit against Fox News for defamation on grounds that anchor Tucker Carlson had tied him to efforts to incite January 6 violence. Yet then suddenly Epps announced that he believes he will soon be charged, after all, by the government for his role in the January 6 protests.

If true, such an arrest was long anticipated, since Epps is caught on tape, unambiguously, on more than one occasion, urging demonstrators to enter the Capitol unlawfully (e.g., “We need to go to the Capitol”).

If one would like to hatch an Epps conspiracy theory, then one could do no better than quoting another Ray Epps braggadocious claim that he had texted to his nephew: “I orchestrated it.”

It did not help the Left’s construction of a January 6 “insurrection” theory that it serially misled the country about the actual loss of life. At first, Democrats insisted, falsely, that Officer Sicknick’s tragic death was due to protestor violence. Yet an autopsy revealed that he died a day later from a stroke.

Then Democrat leaders pivoted to claim that any law enforcement officer present on January 6, who for any reason subsequently committed suicide, was to be counted a victim of protestor violence.

All the while, the media kept largely quiet about the fact that the only unambiguously violent death that day was that of military veteran Ashli Babbitt. She was unarmed as she was shot unlawfully entering the Capitol through a broken window.

The name and identity of the officer, remember, were suppressed for months—a protective protocol unlike any other accorded law enforcement officers in the country who lethally shoot unarmed suspects.

Asymmetries

If all that was not enough to create suspicion about media and political narratives, then there was the asymmetrical media coverage and the reaction of the Justice Department to the 2020 summer riots.

Touch an officer on January 6, and one sat in jail for months. Club an officer in summer 2020, and the offender was likely to become certified as a member of the Antifa or BLM resistance, albeit acting up a bit during the “summer of love.”

Unlike January 6, the violence of arsonists, murderers, rioters, and Antifa and BLM mobs resulted in 1,500 injured law enforcement officers, more than 35 violent deaths, nearly $2 billion in property damage, and 14,000 arrests. Yet most of the indictments were dropped, or plea bargained down to minor misdemeanors by sympathetic leftwing city and state prosecutors.

Note that the 2020 rioters also targeted iconic and government buildings. Rioters attempted to burn down a federal courthouse, a police precinct headquarters, an historic Washington D.C. church—all topped off by the mob’s nocturnal effort to stampede into the White House grounds to get to the president.

That failed assault precipitated a hasty Secret Service effort to put Trump and his family in a secure subterranean bunker. Again, why was such violence aimed at the White House largely unpunished given its intensity matched or exceeded that of the Capitol riot?

Even more importantly, the investigatory January 6 committee also fed rather than quieted conspiracy theories. The Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives first denied nominated Republican representatives any seats on the select committee.

Instead, they cherry-picked just two Republicans—on the apparent requisite that both Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were a) die-hard Trump haters, and b) politically inert and headed for forced retirement.

The committee neither called any contrarian witnesses nor subpoenaed documents and videos felt to be antithetical to their narrative of a rightwing violent and armed “insurrection.” Yet, again, they did not produce evidence that anyone arrested inside the Capitol was in possession of a firearm.

Nor were any plans found of “insurrectionists” planning to occupy government property for any length of time—in the fashion of, say, Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) or (CHOP) “Capitol Hill Organized Protest.”

In that case, rioters simply annexed government space as their own for over three weeks, ran the sanctuary-like mini-revolutionary state, forbid the police to enter, and were granted exemptions from city and state authorities.

The January 6 narrative of continuous threats of an armed revolution was leveraged to justify deploying 20,000 armed soldiers —the largest militarization of Washington D.C. since Jubal Early’s Confederate raid of 1864. Again, such use of federal troops stood in dire contrast to the abject appeasement of the far more violent 2020 rioters, when sympathetic mayors and governors resisted calls to deploy federal troops to their jurisdictions.

Recall that the suspicions arising around January 6 followed a long series of revelations about government misconduct that confirmed the suspicions of once reviled “conspiracists.”

In numerous cases, the wild charge of conspiracists eventually were proven, while the sober and judicious defense narratives of government officials were exposed as outright lies, and occasionally themselves conspiracies.

The True Conspiracists

There was no “Russian collusion” conspiracy.

There was a Clinton conspiratorial effort.

It sought to hide campaign money through three paywalls to hire Christopher Steele to add to his ad hominem lies and to ensure that they were disseminated throughout the media and government. The point was solely to emasculate her opponent, Donald Trump.

As far as the first Trump impeachment phone call, given the multimillion-dollar corruptions abroad of the Biden family syndicate, and the boasts of Joe Biden about his past interference in Ukraine politics to fire a bothersome prosecutor, any president would have warned Ukraine to clean up its act with the Bidens or face holds on American largess.

The Covid-19 virus did escape from a nearby Chinese virology lab. It was a media and government fed lie that it was birthed naturally in the wild by a bat or pangolin, part of a three-year long effort to appease the Chinese communist party. And there was a clear role of the NIAID and NIH in funding dangerous gain-of-function research under the auspices of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Most of what the government assured about the quarantines and vaccinations proved eventually to be wrong or only half-true. That reality proved ironic when those who warned of lockdown dangers were eventually vindicated, but never received apologies from their accusers.

Given the blanket exemptions provided to Hillary Clinton for unlawfully destroying subpoenaed material and using a home server to transmit classified information, and the reduction of Hunter Biden’s numerous felonies to minor misdemeanors, and the likely exemption given Joe Biden for storing classified files for years at his various homes and offices, why would anyone not believe that the government and the media work hard to suppress the truth?

And why would any citizen believe the government or the media after the Biden campaign solicited “51 intelligence authorities” to swear falsely that the genuine Hunter Biden laptop was likely a product of “Russian disinformation.”

The entire concocted lie was a Biden-campaign effort to use the gravitas of former government officials and the complicity of the media to promote a fantasy to influence the impending presidential debate. And it worked to a tee.

Note as well that the FBI hired out Twitter employees to suppress information concerning the Biden laptop. The truth was deemed “disinformation” in order to mislead voters on the eve of the 2020 election.

Normally, distinguished government heads of hallowed bureaus carefully weigh in on investigations to warn against idle speculations and convulsed conspiracies. But who currently in Washington could be sure of any such voice since our most esteemed intelligence and investigative directors are admitted liars?

Former FBI Director James Comey feigned amnesia in congressional testimony. He passed off a dossier he knew to be fallacious as genuine evidence to a FISA court.

His successor Andrew McCabe lied on four occasions to federal investigators. Current Director Christopher Wray has continually stonewalled congressional oversight committees.

Special counsel and former FBI Director Robert Mueller preposterously claimed he knew nothing of the Steele dossier or Fusion GPS.

Both John Brennan, former CIA Director, and James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, admittedly lied under oath to Congress. None of these liars faced any legal consequences.

Anthony Fauci’s incriminating emails keep appearing in the public domain, making a mockery of his earlier, ludicrous claim that he had not channeled U.S. dollars to the Wuhan lab to ensure the continuance of outlawed gain–of-function research.

Worse still, so often those screaming “conspiracy theory” are conspiracists themselves. Hillary Clinton schemed with dark money and paywalls to smear her 2016 opponent.

As election denialists Hillary Clinton (“He knows he’s an illegitimate president”) and Jimmy Carter (“He [Trump] lost the election and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf”) refused to accept the 2016 verdict, projecting such denialism onto others.

So how does the government abort a conspiracy theory?

Simple: Quit the chronic lying and for once tell the truth.

[gaysimpsstuff]

Fatgum As a Dad

This was inspired by a conversation I had on a discord server, we all have daddy issues and want Fatgum to adopt us so here’s all the shit we collected.

There are some serious themes in here, mostly regarding the biological parents of the kid, but it’s vague as possible. If anyone wants me to add a trigger warning please let me know.

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

It all started when he was a kid, when he learned what an orphanage was. One of the kids in his class mentioned being from one, so when he got home he asked his parents about it. 

“Mom, what’s an orphanage?”

“Well, Taishiro, it’s where children that don’t have parents go. Then people can come and adopt the children. Why do you ask.”

“A kid at school said he’s from one, when d’you think he’s gonna get adopted?”

“He might, not all children get adopted. Some of them stay in the orphanage until they’re adults.”

“BUT THAT’S NOT FAIR!” he shouted. “EVERYONE DESERVES A HAPPY CHILDHOOD!”

“Well, honey, life’s not fair. And not everyone gets a happy life. It’s how most villains are made, actually. They were hurt more than everyone else and couldn’t handle it anymore. Not all villains are like that but many are. I think you should stay away from that kid, Taishiro. He might turn out a villain.”

But he didn’t stay away. And he made it his mission to become a pro hero so he could make a ton of money and help as many people as he could. He’d help even villains, keep them from doing something dangerous and inspire hope in them.

Then, he’d adopt any kid who needed a father. All the orphanages and foster programs would be empty. Homeless children off the street and in his house, being fed and clothed. He’d care for each and every one of them, not wanting a single person to feel like they didn’t belong. 

He finds most of his kids at pride parades. He walks around with a shirt that says ‘FREE DAD HUGS’ and a box full of candy. He remembered one of the kids walking up to him slowly.

“Um.. are you Fatgum?” 

“Yes I am!”

“Can I have a hug?”

“Yes you can, Kiddo!” he got down, and the kid put his arms on his stomach (Fatgum’s too big for anyone to fully hug, the dude’s taller than Allmight!) he wrapped his arms around the kid before he heard sniffles. He looked down and saw that the kid was crying.

“M-my parents never hug me like this!” they exclaimed. “They haven’t since I came out. They want to kick me out when I turn thirteen!” 

“Can I have their number? I’m going to... talk to them.”

He ended up taking the kid’s family to court, and since the parents were going to just kick the kid out anyways, they let Fatgum adopt them, but they kept nagging him about how he was ‘going to be raising a little demon.’

“Then call me Lucifer.” he spat right back. Now, that kid’s grown up, has pride flags all around their walls, and doesn’t ever doubt that they’re loved.

Fatgum probably bakes with his kids. Helping them up onto the counter to mix ingredients and play with the dough. If they mess something up or break a glass, it’s fine. He doesn’t yell at them or sigh and shake his head, he just kissed the kid on the forehead and helps them clean up the mess. 

The food always turns out amazing, and Fatgum always tells the kids that. All of his kids are now Gordon Ramsay level chefs and have probably met Gordon Ramsay. 

No matter what their body type is, Fatgum tells his kids their handsome/beautiful and are model worthy. If anyone comments of one of his kid’s body, whether it be negative or... ‘positive’ in a creepy way, you can expect that they’re getting slammed into the ground. No questions asked.

One of Fatgum’s kids is really good at make-up. Like, really good. So Fatgum did the only thing a rational father would do. 

Ask for a make-up job.

It didn’t end all that well...

“Hold still.. I gotta get the eyeliner on.”

“Gosh, Kiddo it’s making my eyes water.” 

“I know, just hold still... aaaand...... done! Now don’t touch it or it’ll smear!”

“Wow, that looks great! You’re really good at this!”

“Thanks, dad- you smeared it already didn’t you?”

“....Nope.”

Fatgum: I'm not gonna do it, it just seemed like a good option. 

Fatgum not even two seconds later after seeing a trans kid crying: now carrying said child on his shoulders while his spouse is chuckling in a corner after signing adoption papers I did it.

This man would get his kids almost anything they wanted. Especially kids with ADD/ADHD/Autism/Tourettes/Anxiety who need stim toys.

Kid: chewing on their nails.

Fatgum: here take this stim toy, and this one, you chew this one so that might help-

Kid ends up with more stim toys than they can count.

Fatgum: just doing his job 

The Daddy Issues Gang: Hi dad- oh shit wait- Hi- I- fuck- trauma ensues. crying

Fatgum: grabs the daddy issues gang we're going to the nearest courtroom say hello to your new father its me im the father ok lets go.

Kid: um, dad can I talk to you? 

 Fatgum, turning around quickly: yes? 

 Me: ‘he moved so quick, he's mad at me, I'm gonna get yelled at’ Sorry, sorry! 

Fatgum: uh, no. I'm getting you ice cream and a new stuffed animal no questions asked

He'd just know when something's wrong, and he’d be great at comforting.

His usual style of comfort is to let the kid sit on his stomach and tell him what’s wrong. His body is one giant pillow for his kids to lay on, he can fit at least eight of them if they cuddle in closely.

Once filmed a commercial dressed as the Cool-Aid man, and all of his kids were in the commercial.

Fatgum: Busts down wall  “OH YEAH!”

Director: “And CUT! Okay, try a little more aggressive-”

Fatgum, in tears: “I don’t wanna scare my kids.”

As stated before, if anyone makes his kids feel bad he’s punching them to the ground, but sometimes he’s not in a position where he can do that. Like if a Karen mom ever comes over.

"Linda stop bringing lemon squares if you're going to talk about my son that way because they're just as sour as your attitude."

Fatgum but he slaps the toxic members of your family and tells them to do better or he's taking you.

Then takes you anyway because you prefer him.

Fatgum with a sweater that says ‘mr dad guy on it’

Fatgum definitely watches ATLA, and quotes Uncle Iroh daily. When his kids are minding their own business they suddenly hear

“Leaves from the vine... falling so slow...” 

INAUDIBLE CHAOS AND PANIC

Fatgum agency cosplayed ATLA characters on Halloween.

Fatgum was Iroh.

Kirishima was Sokka.

Tamaki was either Momo or Appa.

Maybe get a couple others in on it too, Mirio could be Aang and if Kirishima convinces Todoroki to join for a while he’d totally be Zuko.

Fatgum lets his kids squish his face.

Fatgum used to work with a hero who was hard of hearing, so he learned sign language to help them, and he’s got the skill saved in case one of his kids might be deaf.

So one day, Kirishima invites Bakugou on patrol with him, and we all love that headcanon of Bakugou going deaf, so when he gets pissed at something, he starts insulting everyone around him in SL.

Fatgum notices and starts signing back to him.

YOU’RE ALL MOTHERFUCKERS AND I HATE YOU ALL!

Hey, now, let’s calm down and not call everyone motherfuckers.

FUCK YOU TOO

Bakugou...

Everyone thinks that they’re doing magic, because they’re making all these shapes with their hands and keep looking offended at each other.

Now, Fatgum tries his gosh darn hardest to keep up with the memes, so when his kids come home with good grades, he says “That’s so pog, Kiddo!”

All of his kids are embarrassed.

In the middle of a battle, he throws Kirishima at a villain and they both scream “YEET!” the villain afterwords forever lives in fear of the word ‘yeet’ because he thinks it’ll result in a human rock being thrown at his face.

Fatgum can’t text very well, because his fingers are just too damn big-

sonhsisntextsblooklikehthis'

Translation: so his texts look like this

you learn to understand his texts

Someone better get him a large tablet instead of a phone

If he gets married after he adopts the kids, there’s going to be a huge competition over who does the rings and who does the flowers etc.

If any of his kid’s ever bring home a romantic partner, you can bet your ass he’ll be all over them.

“What’s your average grade?”

“E-eighty percent sir!”

“And do you take sports?”

“No sir, I wish to be a biologist.”

“I see, I see...”

“DAD, YOU AREN”T INTERVIEWING MY PARTNER, ARE YOU? YOU SCARED OFF THE LAST THREE I DON’T WANNA DEAL WITH THAT AGAIN!”

“SORRY, KIDDO! I’LL LET THEM GO NOW! I’ve got my fucking eyes on you. Don’t screw this up.”

Hope y’all enjoy this, if y’all want I can write some headcanons for if Fatgum’s kid becomes a villain-

[peachpeachplumb]

Welcome To The Fat Parade

Hey hey its time for the collab with @justanotherworthlessweirdo , hope you enjoy! This is more of a setup chapter so get a good look at the three ladies now because soon they’ll look very different 😉

It was Billy Corgan who said that the moment a band starts writing about themselves, and how hard it is being as famous as they are, and how tough being on tour is, is the moment they cease to be relatable, the moment they become egotists. Admittedly, Ebony thought, Corgan had never been regarded as a particularly humble man, but he was one of her main musical inspirations so she felt compelled to take his advice to heart. It seemed good advice after all: don’t forget how normal people live or they’ll forget about you.

That quote had been rattling around inside Ebony’s brain for months now. Ever since the tour cycle for Burial it felt like all she wanted to write about was how hard it was being famous and how tough touring was. Sixteen states, plus Europe, plus Japan; Ebony felt like herself and the rest of Juliet is Dead had spent ninety per cent of their time in airports for eighteen months. And the shows themselves were no better, because like idiots they’d decided to make Burial a hyper-elaborate concept album about the thought-processes of a young woman buried alive by her husband; that necessitated equally elaborate live shows with enough props and pyro to make Muse jealous, and Ebony being the control freak that she was couldn’t so much as sing a note until she knew that everything backstage was working as it was supposed to. And on top of all that she was supposed to write a new album while they were touring? Fuck that. Linkin Park had done it, sure, and it’d turned out amazing for them, but Bennington and Shinoda were musical prodigies. Ebony, meanwhile, was not. She knew that.

And yet, she was a rock star. An idol to millions of teen girls. A masturbation fantasy to just as many teen boys. As much as she felt otherwise, Ebony knew she had it all. Furthermore, she knew she’d come a long way. Back in high school, back when she was still Tara Smithers, she’d been the laughing stock of the classroom. Ten-Ton Tara they called her, the tallest and fattest girl in school, the big fat crybaby with no friends other than those goth-looking dweebs who hang around the parking lot. Ten-Ton Tara, who stress-ate her soul away. Ten-Ton Tara, who nobody would be seen dead at the prom with. Ten-Ton Tara, the basket-case. The loser.

But she’d moved past it. She’d lost the weight, she’d formed a band with her besties, she’d become Ebony Styles and written three platinum-selling albums. And if she was now forgetting where she’d come from, how awful her life once had been, what right did she have to sing for all these depressed fans and say she was just like them?

And so, Ebony decided that Juliet is Dead needed to break up.

When Ebony first suggested this to her bandmates the room went dead instantly. Even Raven was shocked into silence. Not for long, though.

“Of course it would be you,” the redhead muttered quietly. “It was always going to be you...”

“I don’t understand-” Ebony began, but she was soon interrupted as Raven let her rage fly free.

“Of course it would be you!” she screamed, in a shrill voice like distant thunder. “It’s always been about you from day one, you’ve got the fans, you’ve got the interviews, you’ve got the tits!”

“She’s not just eye candy,” Willow said softly, desperate to diffuse the situation. It hadn’t worked. It rarely did.

“Don’t you see?” The pint-sized fury turned to Willow. “This is all about her, just like always, she’ll ditch us and she’ll have a solo career, that’s what this about!”

“I love you two,” Ebony said, “I’d never-”

“Of course you’d say that! This is all about you, we’re just dead weight to you, aren’t we? We gotta be cut loose so you can really shine!”

“It’s not like that at all!” Ebony was shouting too now.

“Quit lying! We’re Michelle and Kelly, we’re JC and Chris, you fuck off, you get all the money and fame to yourself and boom! Nobody remembers who the fuck we are!”

“This is not about fame!”

“Yes it is, it might not be for you but it is for us, cause unlike you the rest of us stand to lose everything!”

“So what? We’re all gonna lose it all anyway!”

“What?” That hadn’t been the reply Raven had expected. Ebony was crying now.

“You know it’s over,” she said. “We all do. It’s 2010. Emo’s dead, it’s over. Everyone’s moving on. MCR’s gone prog rock, Panic’s gone pop and Paramore are doing whatever the hell Hayley Williams wants these days. The goth get-ups, the scene, it’s all beyond uncool at this point: made a punchline by Pitchfork and Tobey fucking Maguire. Today’s teens don’t want misery, they don't want relatability, they want dreams, laughter, they want Katy Perry and Rebecca Black. When they’re not laughing at tus they’re scared of us. We’re the man now. Everything we rallied against. And hanging on to our heyday means letting go of all we stood for.”

Raven, for once, was lost for words. But Ebony was right, she knew that, so did Willow. But none of them felt comfortable accepting that just yet.

So, the band decided to soften the inevitable blow as much as they could. One last album, one last tour, one last gift to their fans for being so loyal all these years. That album was Cliffjumper.

It'd earned the usual sneering reviews from middle-aged critics, but as she stood on stage at what she knew would be her final performance, Ebony didn’t give a shit.

Twenty thousand people, right there in front of her. Twenty thousand people longing to see her, desperate to hear her voice, elated to be so much as in her vicinity. Twenty thousand people who loved her. And when Ebony said she loved them back, she meant it. From the bottom of her heart, she meant it. These were the people who made everything worthwhile. She’d brought joy into their lives, even saved some of their lives, and in turn they had all helped save hers. Thanks to them, she didn’t feel like Ten-Ton Tara anymore, she felt like Ebony Styles, saviour of the broken, the beaten and the damned. They had transformed her.

And now, as the lights went out, they were gone.

[bleedinglovehes]

liam payne sucks tbh

This compilation is for my dear friend, who goaded me into making a comprehensive list of every time Liam Payne has been openly homophobic in the past ten years, with a couple of bonuses at the end! Because he has been. A lot. He’s displayed his privilege and offended LGBTQ+ people on multiple occasions and shows no signs of even attempting to educate himself or empathize with those his words have hurt. On that note, let us begin this journey.

Let’s start with the obvious, shall we? The infamous Duck Dynasty's Family Values tweet. Anyone who’s been in the One Direction fandom should be able to easily recall the incident, but I’ll break it down for you. On January 18th Liam tweeted about how he loved the “family values” on Duck Dynasty. By that time, it was know that the family was openly homophobic. Just one month prior, in December 2013, the families patriarch (Phil Robertson) was suspended from the show following homophobic remarks that received backlash. (He compared homosexuality to beastiality).Liam immediately received backlash for the tweet, for good reason, so later that day he took to twitter to claim that “Being a fan of someones show and the way they still hold a family together doesn't mean i am ok with all they say”. (https://twitter.com/LiamPayne/status/424679109634314240) That was his “apology”. Now, Liam’s association with the Robertson’s did not end there. 8 months later he posted a happy birthday message from Willie Robertson (Phil’s son) on his instagram. Though his interacting with the Robertsons had upset many LGBT+ people, Liam continued to openly support the family.The very next month he, and close friend Andy Samuels (pay attention to that name, we’ll reference it later) went shooting in Louisiana with the family. Andy and Willie Robertson’s sister in law both posted about the event at the time, but the posts have since been deleted.

Now if you were one of the delusional people still convinced of Liam’s membership in the LGBT+ community, you may find lot’s of faults in my logic. Him supporting a family sticking together doesn’t mean he shares their homophobic values, and you’re right, to an extent. But a queer person would not be so careless. Liam is displaying his privilege as a straight white man by ignoring the disgusting homophobia displayed by the patriarch, and likely shared by his sons and grandchildren. So, with that incident we have, at the very least, hopefully shown the audience Liam’s blatant ignorance when it comes to the LGBT community.

Let’s continue. 2014 was the start of a startling trend of tasteless comments Mr. I-Used-To-Be-In-1D-Now-I’m-Free has made in relation to the community. In August of 2015, Liam said that Girl Almighty (a One Direction song he wrote on) is about "trying to find that number one woman of your life” which would have been fine, except he went on to say that “none of [the fans] can relate to, because most of you are girls. Except for the boys in here, you know what I'm talking about." Almost immediately, his remarks were under fire for being too heteronormative, and he was accused of being homophobic. Instead of using the incident as a learning experience, Liam took to twitter to first clarify he is “in no way shape or form homophobic that's a ridicules thing to say and I'm not here to offend people so take it as you will”. Essentially, rather than apologize to every LGBT girl at the show, he decided to say since he’s not homophobic the comments weren’t offensive. He went on in another tweet and called the statement that deeply offended his non straight female fans “throwaway”. All I can gather from his little twitter tirade is that Liam was upset that his “throwaway” comment hurt LGBT people and that those people would not let it go. He finished by tweeting “crap end to a good day”, blaming the backlash rather than his own ignorant comment. All of the tweets are still on twitter and a quick search will bring them up for you.

2015 was a big year for Liam in terms of casual homophobia, and just one month after the Girl Almighty Incident, he was back at it again with… The Pride Flag Incident. Now, to provide some background, pride flags started making appearances at the shows in large numbers thanks to The Rainbow Project. The project was started to promote a safe space for LGBTQ+ fans. It garnered a lot of attention and the starters of the project clarified several times that it had nothing to do with the infamous “Larry” ship, which I will not discuss as frankly it’s not relevant to my main point. So a month before the Pride Flag Incident The Rainbow Project was getting attention from the media. Anyone who took two seconds to research the project and motivation behind it would know that it was only to support queer fans.

Okay but seriously, the Pride Flag Incident was a big deal. Let me explain. In the summer of 2015, gay marriage was legalized in the US. LGBTQ Americans were absolutely thrilled, for good reason, and pride flags were seen in abundance. So here’s what happened. Liam was interviewed by Attitude, a UK gay magazine. Now he started off alright, claiming that he found it, “funny that being gay is still something that’s talked about as though it’s not natural”. The use of the term “funny” is… troublesome for me, but that’s not the issue with the article. It’s his next statements that, once again, show his ignorance. He talked about there being an increase in rainbow flags at One Direction shows following the legalization of gay marriage. He made the correct point and he should've stopped there. Unfortunately, he continued, saying “I think that was mainly because people think of the Louis and Harry thing, which is absolutely nuts and drives me insane.” Once again he ignored the huge queer fanbase One Direction had amassed at that point and was subject to backlash. He, once again, took to twitter and, once again, stood by his ignorant comments rather than make a real apology. I won’t bring up Harry. I won’t bring up Harry. I won’t bring up Harry. I won’t bring up Harry… ok fine I have to. Harry actually waved a pride flag at the next concert they had. AKA, the one right after Liam’s comments were made public. Harry was, according to Liam, one of the people being disrespected by the pride flags.

I’m sensing a trend here. Liam makes an ignorant comment that offends people, Liam goes on twitter and stands by the ignorant comments, Liam claims people offended are in the wrong. Moving on, I'm honestly not sure what Liam did in 2016. I think that’s when Strip That Down was released. Anyways he only offended…. every one direction stan with that.

2017 though, that one was big. That’s when Liam made The Clothing Comments. So in May he was on the radio, probably promoting something, and was asked which members of One Direction he would let watch his child. He said that he’d pick Louis, because he’s a dad, and that neither Harry nor Niall made the cut. The issue? His reasoning behind why Harry wasn’t a suitable babysitter was that, “I couldn’t rely on Harry because I feel that my child would come out dressed in something that I just wouldn’t understand”. Yet. Another. Ignorant. Comment. Harry had, beginning in 2014 and continuing to 2020, been dressing in a non traditionally masculine way. 2014 had him sporting pussy bow blouses while 2020 has gifted us with a lace jumpsuit equipped with matching lace gloves. Now, therein lays the issue with his comment. Harry doesn’t dress in a traditionally masculine way. That was apparent in 2017. That’s what Liam had an issue with. Also, Liam has been making comments about Harry’s fashion sense on a semi consistent basis since that article dropped so… yea.

2018’s… incident… is almost funny to me because once again Liam display’s absolute ignorance when it comes to the LGBT community. It began with Liam taking place in Adidas’s Prouder campaign in June. It was sponsored by a bunch of celebrities and an article was released where each gave a quote about what makes them proud, obviously in relation to Pride. When Liam was asked the question he answered “I think since I’ve had a little boy, everything changes in life. ‘I’m aiming more for him to be prouder of me, and already he’s making me a better man, which I think is incredible.’” He did not reference the community he was supposedly supporting. He received immense backlash for his “straight pride” comments on twitter and gay news outlet Pink News.All in all it was just insensitive. He was dragged on twitter for not knowing the meaning of pride and the movement he was supporting.That’s not where the incident ended though. On July 7th London hosted the annual Pride Parade, that I’ve heard Liam promised to attend. I do not have receipts for this, so my next point may seem a little weak at first, but stay with me. Instead of attending the event, Liam attended a Dolce and Gabbana fashion show. Why might that be an issue? Well, since 2015, the fashion label has been called homophobic after two directors made insensitive comments about same sex parenting. So, if you don’t believe he promised to attend the show, the fact that he attended a show for a homophobic brand should upset you.In fact, Liam has shown no indication of distancing from the brand. In contrast, Harry has only been seen wearing Dolce and Gabbana once since the comments were made. (Performing on the Jimmy Kimmel show in Nov. 2015). Liam has worn D&G several times in the years since the comments were made.

2019 was a bad year for Liam, and not just because he took Zayn, Harry, and Niall’s number ones and slapped them together to debut at #111 on the Billboard Hot 100. In July he was paid by the Saudi Regime to perform in Saudi Arabia. The issue? In Saudi Arabia being gay is a crime and women’s rights activists are jailed. Nicki Minaj was also set to perform at the festival but backed out due to the Saudi Regime’s blatant homophobia and sexism. Once again he displayed his ignorance and privilege. He’s not queer, he’s not a woman. So he accepted the money and performed. Now I know he had fans there excited to see him, but he made the wrong choice. He should’ve backed out and not accepted any money from the Saudi Regime. July was just not a good month for Liam.So he was asked whether or not he planned to vote in the election. His response? “I think I will vote but I am always out of the country. We need a mobile app where we can vote with our thumbprint or something. I mean, in regards to Boris or Jeremy, I don’t think we give people enough time. Same with West Brom football club. They always change their manager every week it seems and we never get time to gel with anybody.” He’s just so ignorant. As a rich white straight man, the election had no effect on him. He seemed to indicate a preference for Boris Johnson, a racist sexist homophobe. December was by far his worst though. So his debut album, LP1, dropped at the beginning of the month. Immediately, Liam was attacked for his fetishization of bisexual woman, seen in the song “Both Ways”. It’s just disgusting, and made worse by his history with the LGBTQ community. A straight man singing about how hot it is that his girlfriend likes girls is just… so bad. That whole incident speaks for itself in my opinion. That brings us to the reappearance of his comments about Harry’s clothing. He claimed that “I couldn’t put myself in that. I’d look fucking… It’d look weird.” Now, has anyone seen what Liam has worn over the years? Liam’s issue is that the Met Gala look was feminine. He’s claimed to be the antichrist version of Harry, and you know what? I see it. He’s a straight man uncomfortable with men wearing feminine clothing and gay people in general. Harry is a queer man who thrives in feminine styled or women’s clothing. They really are opposites.

So what have I established? A pattern of ignorance that have hurt LGBT people on multiple occasions. Now, ignorance does not equate homophobia, so here’s how we know. Remember his friend Andy Samuels? Well he’s been openly homophobic (and sexist) on his social media. He’s been friends with Liam for over a decade. Remember when Harry made his iconic “not that important” comment? Liam’s reaction is… troublesome. He does a short laugh, and then glances off camera with an uncomfortable look on his face. Take from that what you will. There are UNCONFIRMED rumors of Liam using homophobic language backstage at One Direction concerts. Like with his reaction to Harry’s “not that important'' comment, there is no proof, but, based on his other actions, I am inclined to believe it happened. So there you have it. Liam’s history of ignorance. Homophobia is defined as a “dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people”. I think it’s safe to say that applies to Liam. He’s uncomfortable with feminine styled men, supports homophobes (The Duck Dynasty family, Dolce and Gabbana, Boris Johnson), and makes ignorant comments that are extremely offensive to LGBTQ people. He may not go around screaming slurs, but he is homophobic. He’s the type of homophobic person who claims not to be because he knows a gay person. Who claims the pattern of ignorance is simply the fault of the one getting offended. That’s who Liam Payne is. Look, you don’t have to agree that he’s homophobic, but you have to agree that he’s ignorant and refuses to get educated. And you have to admit that there is no way he’s LGBT. There is no way anyone could orchestrate a smear campaign that relied on so many casually ignorant statements and incidences.

This post was not my fault. Really. It’s wasn’t. It’s actually my friend’s fault. She told me that there were people on tumblr who actually believe Liam Payne is LGBTQ+. Shocking, I know. She also said that some people were comparing the experiences of Liam, a straight man, to Harry, his queer former bandmate. Which, no? And because I am so sure people will deny everything I have presented, a link to a google doc with links to each article and tweet I referenced has been included. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i2lWQPr0oQeA_MYLdkmp6G19waj9KSYaQgcBek8O2OE/edit?usp=sharing

[nevergenders]

some thoughts on mcr’s reunion

disclaimer that this is all just speculation, just my own thoughts.

we all know my chemical romance started after the events of september 11th, 2001. the band was formed out of a couple things:

the much-needed fight against the political climate at the time

the desperation for the members to make something of their lives, especially seeing as gerard was suicidal

creating art as an escape from the real world

catharsis

mcr provided this for many fans around the world, as well as for themselves. as gerard way once said, “it saved my life, and it’s there to save other people’s lives.” this is a well-known fact, as i’m sure many of us have experienced this.

mcr was also a vessel for growth, which we all witnessed. mcr was about working through trauma and mental health with many other people, all joined together by one band. mcr was about being true to yourself and finding a place of community. i liked how gerard put it: “Fiction. Friction. Creation. Destruction. Opposition. Aggression. Ambition. Heart. Hate. Courage. Spite. Beauty. Desperation. LOVE. Fear. Glamour. Weakness. Hope. Fatalism.”

when the band broke up, in gerard’s vigil on birds and glass, gerard writes about the metaphor of the bird that flew into their house, trying to escape through a window and continually hitting the glass. i think the metaphor is clear when you consider when gerard talked about writing the ever elusive mcr5, “the paper kingdom,” during which he realized he was very depressed, and the most suicidal he had felt since the band’s inception.

this mindset was captured in “fake your death.” the lyrics are extremely self-critical, and seem to convey, more clearly than mcr lyrics usually tend to be, that he felt like the whole course of the band was for absolutely nothing; people still hurt, and so did they; their career was meaningless; they never really helped anything. it’s incredibly depressing to listen to, and upsetting to think that he ever felt that way. 

another thing from his essay was that he referred to the band as being a perfect machine with a fail-safe box that would detonate if certain events occurred. looking after the fact at the things that happened toward the end of the band, from an outsider’s perspective, seem to indicate that some of those “events” are things that affected mcr’s purpose that would have made it become counterproductive -- the fight against the system, the growth from trauma, the creative growth together. gerard also specifically stated that part of the reason the band ended was because of the political climate in the us, especially considering 

that’s where the bird metaphor comes in. they were the bird hitting the window -- trying to take flight, seeing where they could go, but held back by something invisible. with the band ended, they could grow on their own -- create their own families, chase their own creative endeavors, take some time to do what they needed to do for themselves, away from each other. it was totally necessary.

july 20, 2016. a cryptic video is released to tease the ten-year anniversary version of the black parade. the internet explodes, and the band’s account posts ��we’ve been really touched and blown away by the response to the teaser trailer.”

november 1, 2019, the day after the return is announced: “from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for the warm welcome back. we truly did not expect this.”

i really don’t think they realized that their band continued to help heal hearts even while they were gone. to quote gerard himself, “it is not a band. it is an idea.” even if the band wasn’t together to tour, create new art and messages, and spread their love, it just kept happening. i think throughout 2018 and 2019 i’ve really started to realize exactly how much of an effect my chem made on the world, and how much they influenced the scene today and all of the newer bands we love and care about. it was widespread, and couldn’t be stopped by the band’s end in 2013.

this is a stark contrast to the attitude conveyed in fake your death. i really think we proved them wrong. i also really enjoy how that turned out, because chapter two of mcr, as frank deemed it in his last instagram post, has been kicked off by blowing away that negative mindset.

not only that, but the reformation of the band seems is under completely different circumstances than how they originally formed. whereas the original formation was out of desperation, we are starting to see now that the decision to return was made much more comfortably; they tested the waters together all the way back in 2017; they have grown and healed a lot, and are generally so much happier with their lives, and as @kiraisstillhere said, the perfect example of an “it gets better” story.

i will admit, the reunion show had much less bells and whistles than i expected. mcr have always been known to be over the top and bursting with art, so i thought we might see that from them upon the first show, especially with all the witchy hints they’ve been dropping about their future concepts. but to my surprise, it was very simple. they were wearing their normal clothing, they played many fan favorites as well as personal favorites, and the show felt like it was just as much for the fans as it was for them. it was totally thrilling to see them performing together for the first time since 2012, all grown up. i think adding the bells and whistles would have been a bit too overwhelming.

in the same interview as gerard speaking about the political climate during the breakup, he also stated that if mcr ever reunited, it wouldn’t be a machine anymore, it would just be them releasing music. (he was also being a goddamn liar and said that the band had gotten together recently, and didn’t talk about releasing music or touring and he didn’t know if they would do anything in the future. mind you, this was february 2019.) that attitude is reflected in the reunion show, but not in the hints and symbols they’ve been dropping. 

i think there will always be an element of art to my chemical romance, since it is part of what makes them unique. however, it’s hard to imagine mcr without the fighting energy we’ve always seen from them, but when you think about where they are in their lives now, it makes sense. they are a recovery story, and now we get to celebrate and watch them live out their best lives together as the band we all know and love.

in conclusion, my chemical romance is back and i’m ready to see them thrive. it won’t be the same as before, that’s for sure. i think they have a lot of great things and a lot of cool art to share with us. i don’t think they feel the need to fight anymore, like gerard said in a danger days interview but i can’t remember which one it was anymore. either way, we all just get to celebrate and watch this band thrive, and i’m here for it!

feel free to add on, contribute, or respond!

[forsomeonessake]

Slow Snippets

For @mia-ugly ...

Hey! Fixomnia here, radioing in from my GO!Sideblog. This is the simplest way I could think of sending a longpost your way.

I think you know how deeply your Slow Show has resonated with me. It’s been a rare delight to anticipate each chapter. These are just some random fluffy clouds that drifted by as I was reading (and re-reading) that I thought I’d share. Feel free to take them as a compliment, mere reflections of the light you’ve sprinkled about – or do what you will with them!

Having the kids down to the cottage to give Sarah and her husband a weekend to themselves now and then. It’s awkward at first, but Anthony turns out to be a wicked kids’ cooking teacher. He somehow doesn’t mind icing sugar all over his black jeans while holding forth on Meringue Technique.

Even the eldest teenager opens up to him, feeling weird and lonely and nothing like the rest of the family. Anthony knows an adolescent anxiety shrub when he sees one and takes the kid for a walk. He nearly teaches him to smoke, but doesn’t. God help him, he teaches the kid pranic breathing and sensory grounding tips by the river, like some hippie guru.

Uriel and Beez genuinely loathe each other, but the two of them are grudgingly in awe of each other, and they realize they’re each holding half of a goldmine if they can handle working together. Because Beez suddenly has Anthony, Avery, Anathema and another half dozen variously non-conforming young actors on their list and everyone wants a piece of them.

Beez has to deal with being regarded as a Safe Space and a confidante. Jesus wept. Eyes could not roll any harder. It’s not tough love they practice so much as battlefield foxhole tactics to keep everyone alive another day, but it works. Mostly. Beez gets so wrung out that it’s Anthony’s turn to talk her down from a fugue state score now and then.

Anthony and Avery manage to escape their first Christmas with The Families. Avery’s not ready to deal with being Uncle Avery and Uncle Anthony quite yet. (Sarah’s youngest came up with Uncle Az and Aunt Tony, which shows signs of sticking.)

Anthony is tempted to bring Avery to his parents’ New Years All Day Champagne Brunch out of spite. Who better to parade in front of their noses than Avery Class Act Fell? Because Anthony knows that whatever quotes his parents’ publicist released, they aren’t exactly proud, even if they generally wish him well. Vera and Reginald knew they’d be crucified in the press if they were anything less than supportive of their famous gay son’s prodigal return to health, love and career success, but they will never understand how they could have a son like Anthony.

Avery’s dad, unlike Anthony’s, does get to meet “that actor chappie friend of your’n”, before the big wedding. They have nothing in common except for a working knowledge of Vera and Reginald Crowley’s film career, but it’s enough. They both love Avery deeply. And Anthony’s scones don’t hurt.

During the visit, the Garrity lads’ teenaged kids come round to ask for autographs, to the Garrity brothers’ chagrin. Pints together down at the local doesn’t cancel out the hard years. (Anthony insisted on accepting the invite, with a sharkish grin, and threatened to femme out completely, though he settled for sparkly diamond earrings and a scarf. Totally demure by London standards.) But it’s worth something to see the younger Garritys teaching their elders about simple appreciation of different kinds of folk.

After that, Avery seeks out Daniel, to finally have that talk. It turns out Daniel had known instantly what Avery was going through, when they were kids. He’d kicked himself for nudging Avery too hard towards an admission when he wasn’t ready. They were both painfully young and inexperienced at the time. Unlike the Garrity situation, this one ends in a genuine friendship that just skipped a few decades. Daniel and his family are delighted to attend the wedding.

Tracy and Shadwell are actually married-married within a year. Shadwell looks like he doesn’t know what’s hit him, but it’s definitely good. Trace doesn’t go off with the ladies for a long while after, preferring to find jobs on film sets near Shad, wherever he’s working. After keeping Avery going for so long, she’s a natural actor’s PA. And part-time psychic. It starts as an improv in someone’s trailer, showing off her old persona, but Madame Tracy Draws Aside the Veil soon turns into her popular party thing.

Turns out Anthony can sing. Properly sing. He used to have a decent New Romantics croon, back in the 80s, but it’s mellowed into a Nick Cave-ish I’ve-seen-some-shit baritone when he wasn’t paying attention. Avery catches him singing along to some afternoon piano junketing, and prods him into an actual duet. Avery has a stage-trained lyric tenor, self-conscious, but sweet. (“Trace was always the one for singing in the car or while she was doing the hoovering. I just hummed along. Bit of a metaphor, really.”)

Getting Avery to let out his full powerful singing voice becomes something Anthony can actually help him with, something they can work at together. You can imagine how many buttons that pushes for both of them, the sensitive ones and the good ones.

Oh, God, and Beez gets wind of their musical interludes, and next thing they’re signed up to do that Christmas charity CD. And then a West End Panto, one Christmas season when Sir Patrick and Sir Ian are both away filming in America. Avery was made for Dame roles, and Anthony for the Evil Magician. It becomes an annual thing.

One of Beez’ young clients, kicked out after coming out to his parents, ends up billetting with Avery and Anthony for a while. Then he gets into Central for drama school, and it’s decided he might as well move properly into the bottom floor (technically the old servants’ quarters of the London townhouse Avery and Anthony bought together) with a classmate till they’ve finished their course.

The usual papers start to get slimy about them moving a pair of young gay men into the house, but they tackle it head-on with a blistering interview about the rates of homelessness, depression and suicide among LGBTQ youth without support. Avery speaks powerfully about setting himself up for a life of hidden abuse and self-loathing while Anthony manifested his on the outside, and how close they both came to disaster.

The response is so great they find themselves doing something of a speaking tour, working to publicize youth support networks and self-resilience campaigns. It’s not what they’d expected to become Their Social Cause, as actors, but once Avery sees how they’ve been able to help even one young man, it’s as if his shackles have fallen away. (Anthony can’t stop grinning through it all, because people keep congratulating his parents on having such a son.)

Thirty years later, they both somehow end up with Knighthoods for Services to the Arts, a few years apart, and a couple more major industry awards each. The recently crowned King William V recalls watching Avery as the conflicted missionary St. John Rivers in a mid-90s BBC-1 Jane Eyre, with his mother Diana, which makes Sir Avery tear up.

Sir Anthony too. Big Diana fan, him, after all.

[hearttstopper]

“i have a lot of thoughts about this too especially with the whole watermelon sugar/nameless thing” pls miss britt share ur thoughts id love to hear them

This got so long. I’m really sorry. My thoughts about HS2/In Watermelon Sugar/a bunch of other random stuff under the cut.

These are all thoughts that are only vaguely connected, and stuff that I’m sure has been said a hundred times before mixed with a ton of my own personal conjecture, so please bear that in mind… This is just like total rambling from me. 

But I have been fascinated with Harry’s connections to In Watermelon Sugar since we first heard the stupid rumors about the song. Especially the quote from the book about the narrator’s name. That quote got me thinking about how when it comes to Harry, tons of people only see what they want to see based on whatever ‘version’ of Harry is most appealing to them.

Read these quotes from the book with that in mind:

My Name

“I guess you are kind of curious as to who I am, but I am one of those who do not have a regular name. My name depends on you. Just call me whatever is in your mind.

If you are thinking about something that happened a long time ago: Somebody asked you a question and you did not know the answer.

That is my name.

Perhaps it was raining very hard.

That is my name.

Or somebody wanted you to do something. You did it. Then they told you what you did was wrong—“Sorry for the mistake,”—and you had to do something else.

That is my name.

Perhaps it was a game you played when you were a child or something that came idly into your mind when you were old and sitting in a chair near the window.

That is my name.

Or you walked someplace. There were flowers all around.

That is my name.

Perhaps you stared into a river. There was something near you who loved you. They were about to touch you. You could feel this before it happened. Then it happened.

That is my name.”

and:

“My Name. I do not have a regular name. I am a mystery to you. I wished Margaret would leave me alone…”

— Richard Brautigan, In Watermelon Sugar

The narrator of In Watermelon Sugar isn’t just a nameless figure, he actually invites the reader to give him whatever name they find most fitting for him. A positive connotation, a negative one, a nonsensical one… whatever you, the reader, decides. And that feels like a very apt description of Harry and the various ways fans have perceived him from the very beginning… by now, so many people have projected so many different images onto Harry that over time it has completely blurred all lines as to who Harry actually is. 

Here’s a review I found of the book that summarizes the world within In Watermelon Sugar better than I can (as well as somehow still aligning perfectly with the concept of struggling with fame and identity, etc): “Much of the sense of disparity in [in Watermelon Sugar] results from the incongruity inherent in the person of the narrator, who insists that everything in iDEATH is exactly as it should be—the people gentle, pleasant, and tolerant. Despite the narrator’s insistence that iDEATH is a stable Utopia, however, many of the things that happen are fraught with pain and violence. Balancing the easygoing and vegetarian people with their light chores and flower-filled parades are the man-eating tigers, the burning of the mutilated corpses of inBOIL and his gang, Margaret’s suicide, and the emptiness felt by the narrator but never named.” 

So essentially within In Watermelon Sugar, we’re shown that in the surrealist, post-apocalyptic setting of iDeath, things are only perfect on a surface level. Everyone in this world appears to be happy (or at least, they should be), but a closer look reveals the true nature of iDeath: it’s beyond grim. And so despite the happy, shiny surface, being a part of that happy, peaceful commune is unable to cure the narrator of the inexplicable emptiness he feels inside of him. (‘All the lights couldn’t put out the dark running through my heart.’ ‘Having sex and being sad.’)

The sadness that Harry has already admitted is very prevalent in HS2 has already been implied to be about a ‘breakup,’ but it’s clear to me that Lights Up is anything but a breakup song… (“[Lights Up is about] freedom, self-reflection, self-discovery, things that I had thought about and wrestled with…” + “For me, it’s a very uplifting song. In some places, it’s kind of dark, but to me, it’s like, very liberating. I think, you know, over the past couple of years… It’s about self-reflection, and freedom. It feels very free to me, which is I guess things that I’ve been trying to process… I guess, kinda wrestled with a little over the last couple of years. It’s kinda like, about accepting all of those things.”)

His sadness/whatever emotions and problems he’s been wrestling with have seemingly spanned the course of a few years, and are very personal to him… which is why I feel that releasing Lights Up as the first single sets the tone for the rest of his album centering around his own identity. The line “Lights up and they know who you are, know who you are… Do you know who you are?” poses the question - who is Harry? - and then, “Shine! Step into the light… Shine! So bright sometimes. Shine! I’m not ever going back.” shows us Harry having the strength and bravery to overcome his fears (stepping into the light, although it’s ‘so bright sometimes’ - overwhelming) and reclaim/express his own misunderstood identity.

A lot of people have been trying to tie the In Watermelon Sugar thing back to someone else, but at this point I completely disagree. Not only have we seen him make literary references in the past (the Charles Bukowski reference in Woman), but… given everything that he’s said about Lights Up so far – which was surprisingly a lot – I think that Harry genuinely just took a lot of inspiration from the book because it seemed to hit close to home with his own feelings about self-acceptance and living an authentic life within the public eye. 

I think a lot about the scene we’ve yet to see from the directors cut - a room full of many different iterations of Harry.

“My name depends on you… Just call me whatever is in your mind.” 

Which leads me back to more total conjecture on my end, but I think that when Harry initially set out on tour / kicked off his solo career, he seemed determined to continue performing within the safety of the walls that had been built around him, so to speak. In one of the interviews he did earlier, he talked about tackling his first album from the perspective of ‘bowling with the bumpers up’ - he wanted to play it safe. He didn’t want to veer too far out of his own comfort zone and fuck it all up… and in doing so, he seemed to hold himself back quite a lot. “I wanted to see if people would enjoy an album without knowing everything about me.” 

I think that heading into writing with that mindset explains songs like ‘Complicated Freak’ and ‘Medicine’ being scrapped and excluded from being released on HS1. In retrospect, all of his tour - and especially Medicine - seem a lot like Harry dipping his toes in the water. Being totally presumptuous again, but I find it likely that Harry has had it ingrained in his mind for a long time that he needs to fit certain molds and keep certain narratives alive in order to continue to be successful. And I imagine that this idea is not his own, but instead something that has been hammered into his head over and over from a young age. And I would guess that a lot of anxiety and doubt has stemmed from that - go back and watch that shaky first performance of Medicine and tell me what you think he was likely feeling in that moment. But again, it circles right back to the strength and bravery of doing what he knows needs to be done to expel all of the darkness inside of him - stepping into the light. (“Never going back now / Be so sweet if things just stayed the same.” It’d be so sweet if he could live in that fantasyland forever.)

Anyway. I really don’t think Harry was at all prepared for just how many people would show up to support him in that sense… but his own community just rolled up in droves, bringing a total outpouring of love for him every single night. He had entire arenas lit up in rainbows, people bringing hilarious and heartfelt signs, flags after flags after flags after flags… all in celebration of him and the feelings of safety, strength, and bravery that he has continuously imparted back onto his fans. It was such a queer lovefest that even other artists likened his tour to “pride parades every night.” That’s so unbelievably powerful? I can’t think of any other artist who’s crowds do that for them… not even gay icons like Elton John? I still maintain that one of the most incredible things to have come out of HSLOT was the safe spaces he + his fans created for one another. It meant a lot to us, and it clearly meant a lot to him:

“The tour, that affected me deeply. It really changed me emotionally. Having people come to sing the songs… For me, the tour was the biggest thing in terms of being more accepting of myself, I think. I kept thinking, “Oh, wow. They really want me to be myself. And be out and do it.” That’s the thing I’m most thankful for, of touring. I feel like the fans in the room — it’s this environment where people come to feel like they can be themselves. There’s nothing that makes me feel more myself than to be in this whole room of people. It made me realize people want to see me experiment and have fun. Nobody wants to see you fake it.” 

I think that going on tour, and seeing the reaction and the acceptance of his audience, definitely made him want to take the bumpers down… to ‘be out and do it’ because ‘nobody wants to see him fake it.’ It seemed to help him massively in terms of his own ‘self acceptance and the things he’s been wrestling with’ and to make an incredibly, incredibly long winded answer short, it’s why I STILL do not think that releasing Lights Up on National Coming Out Day was in any way incidental. I think that was a big part of what Harry meant when he said that no one wanted to see him ‘faking’ things.

And… that’s basically it, I think, for now. I’ve just been sitting here nodding along at everything he’s been showing us the last few weeks… Impressed by the direction that he seems to be heading. And taking notes. I’ll go ahead and shut up now because I KNOW it’s still too early to draw definite conclusions on his intent for this new ‘era’ (and this new song could be about choking on literal fucking watermelon seeds for all I know, nothing Harry does ever makes any kind of sense does it), but I can’t help but come to my own conclusions based on what I feel he is sharing with us.

[silent-era-of-cinema]

Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898 – April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned eight decades—from silent film to sound film, including theatre, radio, and television—and her performance in The Broadway Melody (1929) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Love was born Juanita Horton in Midland, Texas, to John Cross Horton and Emma Jane Horton ( Savage). Her father was a cowboy and bartender, while her mother worked in and managed restaurants. She attended school in Midland until she was in the eighth grade, when her family moved to Arizona, New Mexico, and then to California, where they settled in Hollywood. When in Hollywood, her father became a chiropractor, and her mother worked at the Jantzen's Knitwear and Bathing Suits factory.

In June 1915, while a student at Los Angeles High School, Horton went to the set of a film to meet with actor Tom Mix, who had recommended that she visit him if she wanted to "get into pictures". However, when Mix was unavailable, she was advised to meet with pioneering film director D. W. Griffith, who put her under personal contract. When it was decided that her given name was too long for theater marquees and too difficult to pronounce, Griffith's associate Frank Woods gave Horton the stage name Bessie Love: "Bessie, because any child can pronounce it. And Love, because we want everyone to love her!" Love dropped out of high school to pursue her film career, but she completed her diploma in 1919.

Griffith gave her a small role in his Intolerance (1916). Although Intolerance was her first performance to be filmed, it was her ninth film to be released. The first films Love made were with Griffith's Fine Arts company, yet Intolerance was the only film that he formally directed.

Her "first role of importance" —in the second of her films to be released—was in The Flying Torpedo (1916). She later appeared opposite William S. Hart in The Aryan and with Douglas Fairbanks in The Good Bad-Man, Reggie Mixes In, and The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (all 1916). This string of appearances and supporting roles led to her first starring role, in A Sister of Six (1916). In her early career, she was likened to Mary Pickford, and was called "Our Mary" by Griffith.

As her roles got larger, her popularity gradually grew. In early 1918, Love left Fine Arts for a better contract with Pathé.[ After the Pathé films were unsuccessful, she signed a nine-film contract with Vitagraph later that year, all of which were directed by David Smith. Her performances often received positive reviews, but her films often were shown at smaller movie theaters, which impacted the growth of her career.

Upon the completion of her Vitagraph contract, Love became a free agent. She took an active role in the management of her career, and was represented by Gerald C. Duffy, the former editor of Picture-Play Magazine.

Love sought roles that were different from the little girls she had portrayed earlier in her career when under contract to studios. She played Asian women in The Vermilion Pencil (1922) and The Purple Dawn (1923); a drug-addicted mother in Human Wreckage (1923); a woman accused of murder in The Woman on the Jury (1924); an underworld flapper in Those Who Dance (1924); and versions of her real-life self in Night Life in Hollywood (1922), Souls for Sale (1923), and Mary of the Movies (1923).

As a film star, she was expected to entertain studio executives at parties, so she learned to sing, dance, and play the ukulele. She gradually honed these skills and later performed them onscreen and on the stage. Because of her performance in The King on Main Street (1925), Love is credited with being the first person to dance the Charleston on film, popularizing it in the United States. Her technique was documented in instructional guides, including a series of photographs by Edward Steichen. She subsequently performed the dance the following year in The Song and Dance Man.

In 1925, she starred in The Lost World, a science fiction adventure based on the novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In 1927, she appeared in the successful Dress Parade, and was so impressed by her experiences on location that she wrote the unpublished novel Military Mary. A year later, she starred in The Matinee Idol, a romantic comedy directed by a young Frank Capra. Despite these successes, Love's career was on the decline. She lived frugally so that she could afford lessons in singing and dancing.

Love toured with a musical revue for sixteen weeks, which was so physically demanding that she broke a rib. The experience she gained on the vaudeville stage singing and dancing in three performances a day prepared her for the introduction of sound films. She appeared in the successful sound musical short film The Swell Head in early 1928, and was signed to MGM later that year.

In 1929, she appeared in her first feature-length sound film, the musical The Broadway Melody. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the success of the film resulted in a five-year contract with MGM and an increase in her weekly salary from US$500 to $3,000 (equivalent to $45,000 in 2019)—$1,000 more than her male co-star Charles King.

She appeared in several other early musicals, including 1929's The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and 1930's Chasing Rainbows, Good News, and They Learned About Women. Her success in these musicals earned her the title "the screen's first musical comedy star."

However, the popularity of musical films waned, again putting her career in decline. Love is quoted as saying of her career: "I guess I'm through. They don't seem to want me any more." She shifted focus to her personal life, marrying in December 1929.

She semi-retired from films, and traveled with a musical revue that included clips from her films The Broadway Melody, The Hollywood Revue, and Chasing Rainbows. While on tour, she learned she was pregnant with her daughter, who was born in 1932. Love stopped her stage work to raise her daughter. In 1935, Love moved to England, briefly returning to the United States in 1936 to obtain a divorce.

During World War II in Britain, when it was difficult to find employment as an actress, Love worked as the script supervisor on the film drama San Demetrio London (1943). She also worked for the American Red Cross.

After the war, Love began acting again, this time primarily in the theater and on BBC Radio as a member of their Drama Repertory Company; she also played small roles in British films, often as an American tourist. Stage work included such productions as Love in Idleness (1944) and Born Yesterday (1947). She wrote and performed in The Homecoming, a semiautobiographical play, which opened in Perth, Scotland in 1958. Film work included The Barefoot Contessa (1954) with Humphrey Bogart, and Ealing Studios' Nowhere to Go (1958), and she had supporting roles in The Greengage Summer (1961) starring Kenneth More, the James Bond thriller On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), and John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). In addition to playing the mother of Vanessa Redgrave's titular character in Isadora (1968), Love also served as dialect coach to the actress.

When television became popular, Love appeared in dozens of episodes of British television shows in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. In October 1963, she became the subject of This Is Your Life when host Eamonn Andrews surprised her at the stage door of Never Too Late after its London opening. Guests included London Scrapbook director Derrick De Marney, her Forget Me Not (1922) co-star Gareth Hughes, actor Percy Marmont, her friend and Those Who Dance (1924) co-star Blanche Sweet, and her daughter Patricia.

Love appeared in John Osborne's play West of Suez (1971), and as "Aunt Pittypat" in a large-scale musical version of Gone with the Wind (1972). She also played Maud Cunard in the TV miniseries Edward & Mrs. Simpson in 1978. Her film work continued in the 1980s with roles in Ragtime (1981), Reds (1981), Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981), and—her final film—The Hunger (1983).

Love married agent William Hawks at St. James' Episcopal Church in South Pasadena, California on December 27, 1929. Mary Astor (Hawks's sister-in-law), Carmel Myers, and Norma Shearer were among her bridesmaids, with Irving Thalberg and Hawks's brother Howard serving as ushers. Following their wedding, the couple lived at the Havenhurst Apartments in Hollywood, and their only child, Patricia, was born in 1932. Four years later, the couple divorced.

Love moved to England with her daughter in 1935, a year before her divorce was final. Her life in England kept her out of the eye of her American fans, which resulted in the American press erroneously reporting her as dead multiple times. Love became a British subject in the late 1960s.

Love was a Christian Scientist.

After several years of declining health, Love died at the Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood, London from natural causes on April 26, 1986. Her ashes are interred at Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip, Hillingdon, England.

Cartoonist Alex Gard created a caricature of Love for Sardi's, the famed restaurant in Manhattan's Theater District. It is now part of the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Portraits of Love are also in the collections of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Love periodically was interviewed by film historians, and was featured in the television documentary series The Hollywood Greats (1978) and Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980), both about early filmmaking in Hollywood. She also loaned materials from her personal collection to museums. In 1962, she began contributing articles about her experiences to The Christian Science Monitor. In 1977, she published an autobiography entitled From Hollywood with Love.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Love was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 at 6777 Hollywood Boulevard.

[nerdygaymormon]

You said you feel like there is one more thing you are meant to do from inside the church, would you mind sharing what that one thing is? Also, I love your insights on everything, it has truly blessed me and my perspective as a gay member :)

Thank you so much for that compliment! :)

I feel like I need to keep that last thing private as it involves another person and their family.

Thanks for being interested. I appreciate that.

—————————————————————    

In Nov 2015 there were several things I thought would happen if I stayed

Helping young gay Mormons accept themselves

speak to leaders and help them understand better

speak to youth of my stake about being gay

maybe have a chance to share my story as a gay Mormon

Each of these went much bigger than I anticipated. For example, I thought I might talk with some local bishops or the stake president, not General Authorities.

—————————————————————    

Here is a list of things that I think fall within this idea of a work to do in the Church if I stayed rather than walk away in Nov 2015:

2016 - January - My church assignment changed from stake young men president to stake executive secretary. The stake president says it is so my unique viewpoint can be heard in all the highest councils of the stake

2016 - June - I wrote my first blog post and it received exactly 0 likes or comments (prior to this I had only reblogged from others). It was about meeting the Sistas in Zion.

2016 - August - met a Seventy, Elder Joaquin Costa, and came out to him and he treated me with kindness

2016 - November - received my first anonymous ask/comment

2017 - April - After Elder Joaquin Costa spoke in General Conference, I again wrote about meeting him in 2016, this time with more details. That post went viral, receiving over 500,000 hits (mostly from Facebook people linking to it).

2017 - April - that viral blog post caused a lot of people to contact me, including a lot of queer teens & twenty-somethings who were hurting.

2017 - November - met Elder Claudio Costa. He and I got off to a rough start on a Friday night, but by Sunday afternoon we were friends & he invited me to visit him in Utah

2018 - January - Spoke at a stake youth fireside, gave message specifically for LGBTQ youth who may be in attendance

2018 - February - Spoke to the bishops in my stake about how to respond if someone comes out to them

2018 - March - The Out Foundation published a profile of me as a gay BYU alumnus

2018 - June - PFLAG of Provo asked me to create a square for a quilt that would be carried at the July 4th parade

2018 - September - Had lunch with Elder Claudio Costa in Utah. I told him God must love LGBTQ people because He keeps making more of us

2018 - November - I was on an episode of the Queerstake podcast

2018 - December - I had dinner with Elder Dale Renlund and we discussed a letter I had sent him about being a gay member.

2019 - January - I received a letter of apology from a Seventy who had told me that my assignment was to get a wife. I had written to him about why that was inappropriate and how to better approach others about that subject in the future.

2019 - February - I was quoted in an online article about my reaction to the Policy of Exclusion and having it added in the Preach My Gospel for missionaries

2019 - April - A bishop asked me to help him be more sensitive to LGBTQ members in his congregation

2019 - June - Went to Utah and met both Elder Claudio Costa and Elder Joaquin Costa again

2019 - July - I was on an episode of Richard Ostler’s podcast Listen, Learn & Love

2019 - September - I was interviewed by a French weekly newspaper

2019 - October - I spoke in a stake priesthood meeting (all males age 12+) and I included some ideas of how they could use the new Church youth initiative to be sensitive to gay youth in their ward

2019 - November - I received an impromptu request to speak in my ward. I spoke about being gay and how that puts me in the position of Hagar, the servant of Abram & Sarai. Hagar gave God a name, “the god who hears me.” Like her I deal with hard things, and God hears me and other marginalized people

2020 - January - I wrote a letter to Elder Holland

2020 - February - Received my 1000th ask on Tumblr, which is just incredible to me. This has been a way for me to address subjects that are of concern to LGBTQ+ people

2020 - February - Became President of Affirmation’s Florida chapter. It’s been dormant for 5 or 6 years, so basically it’s like starting a brand new chapter. Will organize a few events each year so LGBTQ+ people, their friends & family, whose lives intersect with the LDS Church, past or present, can get together and meet each other and feel supported & part of a community.

2020 - ??? - I will have several quotes in a book by Richard Ostler

—————————————————————   

Seeing this all compiled into one list is, wow, I don’t even know how to describe what I’m feeling, but I can see that I have done what was asked of me by staying.

If something happens tomorrow and I get hit by a bus or I feel like God releases me from being a member, I can leave satisfied

This list doesn’t include all the one-on-one interactions.

And also this list doesn’t include how I tried to use this this blog to provide some honest experiences and feelings of a gay member, including good and hard times, which I feel are often missing in church.

Also, on this blog I provided resources for queer members along with some perspective & history. I wanted to reframe how we view ourselves because the church & scriptures are often so negative about us. We aren’t meant to hate ourselves, we’re meant to have joy in this life.

“[People] are that they might have joy.” 2 Nephi 2:25

Have Joy! Research shows, and my own experience corroborates it, joy is most likely to be found in association with others.

Let’s find joy in life. If that means being part of the church with your friends & family, then find joy there. If it means finding companionship and letting go of loneliness, find joy in that. If it means walking away from institutions and people who hurt you and inhibit your ability to feel joy, then go find joy.

[precure-stuff]

Aikatsu On Parade Rewrite (Episode 6-10)

So here we are again. Feel free to read part one first:https://precure-stuff.tumblr.com/post/615727361525202944/aikatsu-on-parade-rewrite Also this is basically fanfic at this point so feedback is greatly appreciated

Episode 6-

This happens just after Raki designs her first PR inspired by Elza.I’m also making this the halloween episode. Now that she’s left Venus Ark Yume asks her to perform a live with her and show off her PR. However when she enters the dressing room they end up in Starlight Academy. Yume is confused as she comes face to face with Akari. The two share a hug as Sumire walks in. She pulls out a tarot card and says she foresaw a fateful reunion in her morning reading. She makes a joke about spirits crossing over into worlds on this night. Raki explains her magical Aikatsu pass and leaves Yume and Akari to catch up. Sumire and Hinaki give her a tour of Starlight and she reveals she’s a designer. Hinaki mentions that Akari often inspires her muse Sena and suggests she should have a muse. Sumire says that there might be even more fateful encounters that day. The rest of the episode is Raki getting to know Luminas and Juri. The day ends with a festival where Akari and Mirai perform Identity. Raki is surprised to see top idol Mirai and mentions she’s a fan of Love Me Tear. She gains some respect for Akari being able to keep up with Mirai who she views as a top idol.

Episode 7- 

Since Aiparade is only 25 episodes, it makes a bit more sense to switch up characters A LOT. I’m not a better writer than the people behind an entire show but I can try. Anyway Raki wakes up in the Starlight Dorm and wonders where Akari and the rest went. She wanders out and crashes into Rin who was dancing on her way to class. Madoka apologizes on her behalf and they introduce themselves. Madoka mentions she’s been sleeping late practicing for an event and Rin merely wouldn’t sleep until she came back. They take Raki to Mitsusishi’s office where she tells her that she’ll be allowed to take part in the Starlight classes. Raki nods bluntly and Mitsuishi asks her if she’d rather opt out. Raki brings up that she’s lonely as she’s always being separated from her friends. Mitsuishi remarks that she understands her, as when she was in Masquerade she was lonely often as she practiced a lot and outside Ringo, she didn’t have anyone else. Raki apologizes and says she didn’t mean to be selfish. Mitsuishi tells her it’s okay to vent. She joins the rest in class and we get to see Rin and Madoka perform their solos. Seeing their friendship makes Raki realise the importance of bonds. She ends the episode by befriending to Rin and Madoka.

Episode 8-

It’s Ichigo time. Rin, Madoka and Raki are enjoying the Starlight Cafe sweets and notice Madoka isn’t eating any. Rin asks her whether she’s okay and Madoka mentions that she’s worried about the event. Raki realises she hasn’t asked about it even once and shyly prods Madoka about it. Madoka says that her grandmother, Designer Amahane is visiting Starlight Academy and there will be an event held in her honor. The event will show off Angely Sugar and include performances from both her and Ichigo. Hearing Ichigo brings Akari over who begins to rave about Ichigo surpassing Mizuki and inspiring her. Yume also arrives with a huge strawberry shortcake. She mentions that she wishes Koharu were with them to see all the coords in Starlight. Yume and Akari offer to practice with Madoka and Raki joins them. The four lovely types work out in a montage and decide to warp it up by running laps. Raki isn’t nearly as fast and stops to catch her breath. Once again she feels incapable and squats to catch her breath. She looks up to see a bottle of water thrust in her face. She sits down by her to listen to her problem. Ichigo uses a quote Mizuki told her in episode 28. “It may be unimaginable to compare yourslef to something greater than you. But as long as you hold on to it, maybe then you’ll be 10 times greater than what you wanted to be at first.” As their talk comes to a close, the girls head to the event. Ichigo performs first “Idol Activity” with Akari. Madoka is up next but is still nervous about performing right after Ichigo. Raki comes to comfort her with Rin and offers to perform with her. She tells Madoka what Ichigo told her and the two perform “Hello New World” Raki wears the Sweet Gingham coord(pictured above) and Madoka wears her PR. They perform their individual appeals and Amahane(the designer) says seeing the two of them together gave her a spark of inspiration. Ichigo also offers to buy them all parfaits afterward. 

Episode 9-

This episode opens with Reflect Moon arriving at Starlight Academy. Kaguya is hesitant to enter and suggests they do a reading. Kaguya and Sakuya come to the same conclusion. Their fate is to meet another pair with a strong bond between them. You see where I’m going with this. The duo encounter Yurika and Kaede and the four get acquainted. Sakuya mentions that they’re looking for Raki who has been missing school. Yurika is unaware who she is but Kaede insists they have to help them look. Yurika reluctantly agrees and the search begins. When RM mention that they came from the moon Yurika retorts that she is a vampire far older than the moon. Kaede eventually finds Raki and jumps out of a window to catch her. Raki is confused and Yurika warns that she’ll suck her blood. Raki rushes toward Reflect Moon as she knows them from Star Harmony. Yurika and Kaede are surprised to find out that RM are idols and then RM perform Have a Dream with Jeweling Dresses/ Or miracle aura if you prefer that. Raki raves about how amazing they were and Yurika jealously insists that she and Kaede must perform too giving us the first CGI live of “Ragtime of the Moonlit Night” (coords pictured above) The episode ends with Yurika and Kaede befriending Reflect Moon.

Episode 10-

This time were getting a lot closer to canon. Amahane finally reveals her new design and Ichigo insists on bringing Raki along. Soleil comes too and Raki is interviewed by Aoi. Ran mentions that she likes her brand but she personally wouldn’t wear it. Raki appreciates the compliment and they make it Angely Mountain. They gear up to climb and Raki sighs as she notes how hard idols work. They climb to the top and Amhane gives Ichigo the Bless Aurora Coord. Ichigo remarks at how pretty it is as Raki wanders about the room looking at the other coords on display. She notices the Mermaid Pisces Coord and sketches some of it’s elements in her sketchbook and Amahane notices this. Raki says she didn’t mean to steal her design however Amahane tells her not to be sorry. She challenges Raki to come up with  a coord inspired by it that meets her standards. The girls go home and Raki stays up all night designing a coord but she can’t. The next morning, Akari and her girls(Sumire,Hinaki,Juri,Rin,Madoka) tell her that its unhealthy to work obsessively at something. Akari takes her aside and talks to her about the importance of being careful while pushing yourself. She talks to Raki about when she could barely do an appeal and pushed herself too far. Raki takes this in and Sena walks up from behind them. He introduces himself and said he overheard their predicament. He says he can help Raki if she promises to get some rest. The next day, Akari and Raki are driven by Johnny Sensei to the Dreamy Crown HQ to meet Sena. The two bond over their love for design. Sena mentions that since he worked under Amahane he knows what inspired her to make the Mermaid Pisces coord. He takes Raki to a nearby lake and mentions that the water was so pretty in the sunlight that she had to make it. The rest of the episode has them spend the day in the water having fun and by the end Raki designs her Pastel Fin Pisces Coord. The next day Amahane approves and insists she unveils her new PR alongside Ichigo’s Bless Aurora Coord. They perform ‘Admired Customisation’ The appeals are Premium Angel arrow and Premium Ribbon Holic.

[wikipediaredoengl199fa20]

John Lasseter: Hannah Chestnut’s Wiki Redo! Assignment

TW: SEXUAL ASSUALT, SEXISM

Hannah Chestnut

Wiki! Redo Revisions: Sexual Assault Allegations against John Lasseter

In January of 2019, John Lasseter stepped down from his position as Chief Creative Officer over both Pixar and Disney’s animation studios. As I read through the article at that time, I found Lasseter’s statements extremely underwhelming. He claimed he had taken “missteps” and that he was sorry “to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape, or form,” and I found my eyes stuck on that phrase, “unwanted hug or any other gesture.” I was thinking to myself that there must be more to the story for a man, who had a net worth of $100 million dollars and was in charge of two of the most successful and prominent animation studios in the world, to voluntarily step down from a company he played a pivotal role in creating. As someone who had extensive knowledge of animation history and the history of both studios, I was extremely confused as to why John Lasseter, one of the most influential advocates for computer animation, would step down from the company and technology he pioneered, to go and work for another studio because of a few “unwanted hugs.” 

John Lasseter had been one of the most influential individuals in animation history. He had pioneered computer animation and was a driving force behind bringing that technology to Disney. His influence was not inconsequential, he was one of the most powerful people in animation. So, when I read through all of this, it just didn’t add up to me. It didn’t add up, I was so sure there had to be more to the story. I had forgotten about it until now, and once I found the Wikipedia article for this assignment, I read through it. When I found the section about the allegations, I found one quote detailing the unwanted “grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes.” While this was more than what Lasseter himself had described, it still felt like it must be an understatement. So I decided to do some more investigation into the matter, and thanks to the bravery of a former Pixar employee, I found a full account of the sexist workplace environment Lasseter had created and more details of the allegations against him. Most of the statements and quotes from victims were anonymous, in order to protect their careers within the tightly knit animation community, however Cassandra Smolcic came forward after working at Pixar for 7 years. Her detailed account of how difficult it was to speak out against these microaggressions shed more light onto Lasseter’s discreet departure. 

The first revision I made was fixing the language of the first sentence. The original statement was as follows: “In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month leave of absence after acknowledging allegations of workplace sexual misconduct that he described as "missteps" with employees in a memo to staff.” I changed it to “In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month leave of absence after allegations of workplace sexual misconduct.” I made this revision in order to take out Lasseter’s underwhelming characterization of his behavior from the first sentence regarding these allegations. I find the inclusion of said quotation to undermine the reality of his harmful actions and to also exclude the voices of women from the account of this problem. This is an example of implicit bias in favor of a powerful man who had abused his power to objectify women in the workplace. The next revision I made was to write an additional paragraph, citing Smolcic’s account of his behaviors at work. Originally there had been no additional information regarding what exactly he had been accused of, and it included no quotations or citations of the women Lasseter assaulted. I felt the exclusion of these quotations failed to give voice to the victims, another example of how the exclusion of information is a form of implicit bias.  

Lastly I added more information in the second section about Lasseter’s departure from Pixar and his new position at Skydance Studios. This section only quoted Lasseter, painting himself as someone who “deeply” regretted his actions, and felt acknowledging this behavior would “make him a better leader,” further undermining the unsafe environment Lasseter created at Pixar Studios. In order to remain as neutral as possible, I left this quotation in this section in order to allow Lasseter to speak for himself and to keep record of Lasseter’s statement. But in order to challenge the implicit bias of only quoting Lasseter and Skydance, I added an additional paragraph about how Skydance’s decision to hire Lasseter was not unanimously supported by Skydance employees. In fact, both the actress Emma Thompson and director Alessandro Carloni left the production of the 2021 film “Luck,” after Lasseter’s hiring. Since Emma Thompson made a public statement claiming the reason she left was because of Lasseter joining the production team, I felt giving her a voice as a woman in the entertainment industry would be much better than silence. This was another example of how omitting a certain perspective is indicative of implicit bias. 

Sources

Amidi, Amid. “Is Skydance Endangering Its Female Employees? Here Is A List Of Accusations Against John Lasseter.” Cartoon Brew, Toggle Navigation       Sign in Membership Film TV Shorts Awards Tech VFX CG Animation VR Tools Biz Business Box Office Report Artist Rights Studios Cities Bay Area London Los Angeles Montreal New York City Vancouver Paris Toronto Charts & Data 2021 Animated Features 2021 New Animated TV Series For Broadcast, Streaming & Cable Most-Viewed Indie Youtube Shorts Streaming Animation Guide Search: Film TV Shorts Interviews Business VFX/Tech Artist Rights Box Office Festivals, 10 Jan. 2019, www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/is-skydance-endangering-its-female-employees-here-is-a-list-of-accusations-against-john-lasseter-168942.html.

Masters, Kim. “John Lasseter Taking Leave of Absence From Pixar Amid ‘Missteps.’” The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Nov. 2017, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-lasseter-taking-leave-absence-pixar-missteps-1057113?utm_source=twitter.

Masters, Kim. “John Lasseter's Pattern of Alleged Misconduct Detailed by Disney/Pixar Insiders.” The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Nov. 2017, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-lasseters-pattern-alleged-misconduct-detailed-by-disney-pixar-insiders-1059594.

North, Anna. “John Lasseter, CEO of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Sexual Misconduct Allegations.” Vox.com, Vox, 9 Jan. 2019, www.vox.com/a/sexual-harassment-assault-allegations-list/john-lasseter.

Smolcic, Cassandra. “Pixar's Sexist Boys Club.” Medium, Be Yourself, 24 Sept. 2019, byrslf.co/pixars-sexist-boys-club-9d621567fdc9 

Statt, Nick. “Pixar's John Lasseter to Leave Disney Following Sexual Harassment Complaints.” The Verge, The Verge, 8 June 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/6/8/17443370/pixar-walt-disney-animation-john-lasseter-leaving-company-sexual-harassment.

Wit, Alex Dudok de. “Skydance Animation's 'Luck' Loses Director Alessandro Carloni Over 'Creative Differences'.” Cartoon Brew, Toggle Navigation       Sign in Membership Film TV Shorts Awards Tech VFX CG Animation VR Tools Biz Business Box Office Report Artist Rights Studios Cities Bay Area London Los Angeles Montreal New York City Vancouver Paris Toronto Charts & Data 2021 Animated Features 2021 New Animated TV Series For Broadcast, Streaming & Cable Most-Viewed Indie Youtube Shorts Streaming Animation Guide Search: Film TV Shorts Interviews Business VFX/Tech Artist Rights Box Office Festivals, 16 Jan. 2020, www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/skydance-animations-luck-loses-director-alessandro-carloni-over-creative-differences-184832.html. 

Aguilar, Carlos. “Read Emma Thompson's Scorching Resignation Letter To Skydance Over John Lasseter Hiring.” Cartoon Brew, Toggle Navigation       Sign in Membership Film TV Shorts Awards Tech VFX CG Animation VR Tools Biz Business Box Office Report Artist Rights Studios Cities Bay Area London Los Angeles Montreal New York City Vancouver Paris Toronto Charts & Data 2021 Animated Features 2021 New Animated TV Series For Broadcast, Streaming & Cable Most-Viewed Indie Youtube Shorts Streaming Animation Guide Search: Film TV Shorts Interviews Business VFX/Tech Artist Rights Box Office Festivals, 26 Feb. 2019, www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/read-emma-thompsons-scorching-resignation-letter-to-skydance-over-john-lasseter-hiring-170742.html. 

Allegations of sexual misconduct and exit from Disney/Pixar 

See also: Weinstein effect

In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month leave of absence after allegations of workplace sexual misconduct.[45] The alleged misconduct towards employees included "grabbing, kissing, [and] making comments about physical attributes".[8][9] The alleged conduct became so well known that, according to Variety, at various times, Pixar had "minders who were tasked with reining in his impulses.” 

Additionally, former Pixar employee, Cassandra Smolcic, wrote an essay in order to share her experiences of sexism and harassment while working at Pixar. She was told that it had been decided that was “best if you don’t attend art reviews on this production. John has a hard time controlling himself around young pretty girls, so it will be better if we just keep you out of sight.” She also provided details about how John Lasseter behaved at social events outside of work, claiming that “Quite a few of my female friends refused, year after year, to enter the costume contest — even if they’d worked for hours on a prize-worthy outfit — because of how infamously uncomfortable the costume parade became.” All other sources on John Lasseter’s behavior remain anonymous, with one anonymous source asserting that he witnessed Lasseter place “his hand on her knee, though, moving around." This male Pixar employee later asked the woman about this occurrence and reported that, "She said it was unfortunate for her to wear a skirt that day and if she didn't have her hand on her own right leg, his hand would have traveled."  

In June 2018, Disney announced that Lasseter was leaving the company at the end of the year, taking a consulting role until then. 

Skydance Animation

On January 9, 2019, Lasseter was hired to head Skydance Animation, which will produce animated films with Paramount Animation and Ilion Animation Studios.[1] In a statement, Lasseter expressed his gratitude for the opportunity, adding "I have spent the last year away from the industry in deep reflection, learning how my actions unintentionally made colleagues uncomfortable, which I deeply regret and apologize for. It has been humbling, but I believe it will make me a better leader."[1]

During a meeting at Skydance that same month, Lasseter expressed regret over his actions at Disney and Pixar. Lasseter said that ,"[he] will continue to work every day for the rest of [his] life to prove [...] that [he has] grown and learned".[47] An investigation conducted prior to his hiring found that no previous claims of sexual assault, propositioning or harassment had been filed against Lasseter,[47] and "[...] there were no findings of secret settlements by Disney or Lasseter to any parties asking for a settlement.” 

However, Skydance’s decision to hire Lasseter was met with internal controversies. Both Emma Thompson and director Alessandro Carloni  left the production of the upcoming 2021 film, “Luck,” Thompson, leaving with a publicly published letter to the studio, questioned why the studio “would consider hiring someone with Mr. Lasseter’s pattern of misconduct given the present climate in which people with the kind of power that you have can reasonably be expected to step up to the plate.” She also asked the studio if the women working at Skydance were “supposed to feel comforted that women who feel that their careers were derailed by working for Lasseter DIDN’T receive money?” 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, inside sources have said that Alessandro Carloni left the project after this letter was published, citing “creative differences” as the explanation behind Carloni’s departure. (387 words)

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Thurs 7 Mar

"We're fine, I'm the boss"- Louis Tomlinson

460 days since Louis' last musical release, 468 days since his last performance, but today doesn't count because we got both! Two Of Us is, and facts only here, always, REALLY REALLY FREAKING GOOD HOLY SHIT FRIENDS. It dropped in the middle of the day on a Thurs, totally unreasonable, but immediately shot to number one on the iTunes charts in 33 countries so far and counting, and debuted at number one on the worldwide chart hell yeah baby, trended at number one on twitter for 8 hours (he has his own emoji and it's precious omg), tumblr too, the gorgeous stunning beautiful lyric video is already at a million views, and he made the front page of everything from Rolling Stone to non music related media outlets and was promoted heavily by spotify and shazam and by NIALL YAY and of course (only not really of course so it's still exciting) by Louis' team and label, and by Louis himself, loads of tweets and updates all day long! And he played the song live to a small audience and livestreamed it. The livestream showed only the single being performed, and fans were asked to check their phones so we have no video of the rest but he also answered questions and sang Just Hold On acoustic. Pertinent answers, he said out of the avengers he'd be the Hulk "cause I'm massive" (lol, and sorry spidermanLouis enthusiasts!) and did an impression, he said performing the song was a lot more emotional than he'd expected, and when a fan who had asked him before but never received the promised reply asked again what was his favorite lyric he'd written he said idk I'll get back to you in 18 months! The trolliest my god. What a demon!

There are interviews and articles everywhere (and a cute reading tweets video), he says he "misses the band every day", he says that "between this single and the one we'll have after this, it's a good representation of what the album will be like" ummm yes talk to me more about this multi-single plan you have already omg, he says the album will be "honest, live, and catchy", and he talks about the song, a lot! The coverage is respectful and music focused and so far totally stunt free. There have been some stunty print articles but with zero new material, they are just recycling old quotes some of which REALLY don't seem to have much to do with what they're putting them in about. It's pretty funny to watch them scramble tbh. We were ten for ten until Dan Wootton swept in to rain on our parade with an announcement of a coming interview that will apparently address everything but the music, but we'll see when we see. For now let's focus on the fact that the things that have actually happened are fucking. Amazing. Louis' face looked like it was gonna spilt in two beaming this morning and things have only gotten better since, it's his time to shine and nobody can drag him down.

Business notes: for those who had been waiting for the liner notes to see, yes, Louis is still with Syco. But is he emotionally with them? His retweet of only Arista's promo tweet was entertaining. Two Of Us isn't quite to #1 for the UK/US at press time and the label and LTHQ are asking fans to not wait until tomorrow to buy, so listen up and buy TOU on iTunes today! Not tomorrow! They're making a big push with sponsored posts on ig and Facebook.

And- remember that plagiarism case against everyone involved in writing Night Changes? Sad news for anyone still hoping for a thrilling OT5 courtroom reunion, it was settled out of court. The case is over.

For anyone that can keep track in all this chaos and is wondering about those phone calls that were promised to early hotspot arrivals? It seems like they didn't happen :(

Liam started his day (way too early) with a beautiful sunrise pic and ended it late at the Global Awards, where I hate to have to report that he was up for two awards and didn't get either of them. #liamdeservesbetter friends, but we're seeing now that it can happen, may this be the year lilo rise and see all the good things. He seemed in good spirits though, there are cute videos of him with Roman Kemp and he talks about wanting to do a Mark Ronson collab. He interacted briefly with Cheryl on the red carpet which is getting lots of press.

Harry was spotted out running in London, and despite his eagerness to be off doubled back to say hello to the thrilled fan.

The I Heart Radio Awards voting closes tonight and I'm not saying it was fishy last year but I will say that today, prior to any awards being officially won, they contacted a large (though I wouldn't say popular) Harry UA and offered to fly their American members out to the ceremony and put them up for some weird reason. HSHQ is not involved, that we know of.

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"Devil Made Me Do It" Case / Arne Cheyenne Johnson Trial

It all started on July 3rd of 1980, when David Glatzel, at the time just 11 years old, woke up screaming about “a man with big black eyes, a thin face with animal features and jagged teeth, pointed ears, horns and hoofs.” The Beast Man warned David to “beware.”

David wasn’t the kind of kid who watched scary movies, and he sure wasn’t one to make up stories or have such vivid nightmares, and this one really shook the kid. His whole demeanor changed the once happy go lucky lad became quiet and nervous. David’s sister Debbie asked her fiance to stay with the family for a while to see if he could help David out of his funk. That fiance, as I’m sure you guessed, was Arne. Things didn’t get better. David had more nightmares of the Beast Man, who promised to take the boy’s soul. Odd scratches and bruises began to appear on David, the injuries seeming to happen while David slept. Odd noises came from the attic, but Arne couldn’t find any reasonable answer for them. Worst of all, David began to see the Beast Man while he was awake, claiming that the monster would appear as “an old man with a white beard, dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans.”

With nowhere else to go, the Glatzel family turned to their church. A priest came to the home and blessed it, which seemed to do little more than piss off the Beast Man. The sounds in the attic became louder, David’s dreams and daytime visions increased. David began to hiss at his family and speak in multiple voices. He started to quote PARADISE LOST, a book that I don’t think many 11 year olds read. During the night, someone would have to stay up and watch David, who would wake up every 30 minutes, sometimes having seizures. To put it bluntly, things really sucked for the Glatzels. Unsure of what to do, the priest reached out to a kindly couple who had helped out in the past (Ed and Lorraine Warren). The Warrens took the short trip from Monroe to Brookfield so that Ed could speak with David. As the ex-cop turned demonologist interviewed the boy, Lorraine watched. She would later explain what she saw to People Magazine…“While Ed interviewed the boy, I saw a black, misty form next to him, which told me we were dealing with something of a negative nature. Soon the child was complaining that invisible hands were choking him and there were red marks on him. He said that he had the feeling of being hit.” It became clear to the Warrens that David was possessed. There is some question as to what happened next – while the diocese of Bridgeport admits that they did investigate the Glatzel case, they have never spoken to more than that. According to Lorraine, the Warrens, along with four priests, held three exorcism to free David from the hold of 43 demons.

During one of the exorcisms, Arne Cheyenne Johnson made what would be a tragic choice – he taunted the demons within David, going so far as to claim that the monsters were too frightened to try and enter him. When the exorcism was over, the Warrens called the Brookfield police and suggested that they keep an eye on Arne. As November 1980 started, things seemed OK. David’s parents took him to a psychiatrist and their family physician. David was, according to the doctors, a normal kid with a slight learning disability, though he still had trouble sleeping. Debbie and Arne moved into their own apartment, rented out by Alan Bono.

But Arne had changed. In all his 19 years, Arne had never gotten into trouble. He was the proverbial “good guy” – when money was tight, he dropped out of high school to get a full time job and help his mom out. He even bought his mom a car, an $80 junker, so she wouldn’t have to walk to and from work. Arne was well liked and hard working all the way up to that day. That day he challenged whatever was inside David. According to Debbie, Arne would go into trances where he would growl at nothing and claim to see the Beast Man. When he would come out of the trances, Arne wouldn’t remember any of it. Arne started to get into trouble with the police. Nothing that crazy, but certainly out of the usual for the guy.

Then came February 16, 1981. Arne called out of work, choosing instead to spend it with Debbie and his sister Wanda at their job at a kennel. Debbie’s cousin Mary was also spending the day at the kennel – it was President’s Day and school was closed. As the gang goofed about at the kennel, playing with what I can only imagine was an endless parade of cute puppies, Alan Bono showed up and took them all out to lunch at a local bar – a perfect place to bring a 9 year old. Depending on which reports you read, either both Arne and Alan were drinking a serious amount of booze for lunch, or just Alan was. Either way, when everyone returned to the kennel, there was an uneasiness. An argument between Arne and Alan broke out. Arne started to growl and hiss. Debbie feared the worst tried to get Wanda and Mary out of the room. Alan was faster – he grabbed Mary and refused to let go.

That was when Arne pulled out the knife and stabbed Alan Bono in the stomach, pulling the knife up and creating an incision reaching Alan’s heart. Arne then stabbed Alan Bono a few more times before leaving the scene. Martin Minnella, Arne’s lawyer, was the one who came up with the idea of pleading not guilty by virtue of possession. Minnella found two cases in England where demonic possession was used as a plea, though neither of those cases ever went to trial. Still, Minnella figured if it was good enough for the Brits, why not give it a try here in the states? It didn’t work. The judge refused to accept the plea, what with there being no way to show evidence of a possession and all. With that plan thrown out the window, Minnella and Arne Johnson went with what would have been my first choice for a plea self defense. Afterall, Bono had taken the nine year old Mary and refused to let her go. All the same, Minnella hadn’t planned on using that defense, and I suppose it showed in the courtroom the jury found Arne Johnson guilty of first-degree manslaughter, giving Johnson a 10-20 year sentence, though he only served five. Arne and Debbie married after he was released, and are still together today. The trial was quite a sensation in 1981, leading to a made for TV movie called THE DEMON MURDER CASE starring Kevin Bacon and Andy Griffith, and a book, THE DEVIL IN CONNECTICUT.

In 2006, the book was reprinted, and it became something of a bother for those involved. The Glatzel family sued the publisher and the author, saying that it violated their right to privacy, was libelous, and that it intentionally caused emotional distress to the family. David and his brother Carl claim that the possession story was a hoax created by the Warrens so that they could exploit David’s mental illness. Both Lorraine Warren and Gerald Brittle, the writer of the book, deny David and Carl’s claims. The lawsuit was settled out of court in February 16, 2012, exactly 31 years to the day of the death of Alan Bono.