#yeah the beatles were insane and I got beef with every single one of them for different things

[pbstarot]

idk if you know but john was abusing yoko troughout their relationship so choosing that couple for your pac is kinda :/ especially for a pac about a future partner

Hi!

So, I chose John and Yoko, because their relationship was symbiotic. I know that John never physically abused Yoko (which cannot be said about May Pang and Cynthia Lennon, unfortunately, as he used to push May Pang around. He hit Cynthia on her head once only in their relationship which lead to her not speaking to him for 3 months, which was bad, of course, but Cynthia denied any further abuse (and Yoko herself denied he ever laid a hand on her, although I unfortunately couldn't find the source for that (but anywhere you look most people talk about bis 1960s abuse which, yeah, totally fair and completely unwarranted). Now, not to add salt to injury, but Ringo Starr beat his wife Maureen Starkey so much she had to go to the hospital once, but you never see him painted as the wife beater. I always hated that so I am bringing it up cause I personally got beef with Ringo. I personally have beef with all of the Beatles actually but that's neither here nor there).

You could argue that the abuse that John inflicted on Yoko was emotional (co-dependent), BUT you could also argue that the abuse Yoko inflicted on John was likewise emotional, because of the alleged influence she had one him ("She's gone to his head, they look just like two gurus in drag.") Or because of the way she made him stay with her at all times and the way she kept her relationship open towards the end, also alleged (like the legend of how she moved her lover into their place at the Dakota right after John was shot). There's obviously more, like she controlled his diet (she went on record saying she didn't allow John to eat chocolate, but she let him do it on the last week of his life because he wanted it so much. He had to go behind her back to do a lot of things, which is more or less portrayed in Two of Us, the movie (which, even though a fictionalized account, it was written and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who was also behind Let It Be, the documentary which the footage from Get Back came from. Paul McCartney himself said it's one of his favorite Beatles biography films cause of accuracy, which I don't have it here but I know for a fact he said it on a podcast). So yeah, complicated. The reason why John and Yoko broke up the first time, which lead up to the Lost Weekend, was because John cheated on her, and then she threw him out. Then she sent May Pang after him and even encouraged her to get into a relationship with him, so Yoko could exercise some control there (although accounts differ on the real reason). So, yeah, I think both John and Yoko were a bit weird when it came to their relationship.

So, idk. I find them really interesting as people. And largely I just saw them as more of a means for people to choose a pile than anything. Even if I don't condone John's actions in the past and definitely don't think Yoko was the saint that revisionism is painting her as (although I love her and she's one of my favorite people because she's just so creative, I always say she's the poster child for the sign of Aquarius. They should just put a picture of her in astrology books for people to go "Oh, I see," and carry on). I just had them on my mind. Sorry if you didn't like my choice, but I love the Beatles and that's what I felt like talking abt.

If you're really uncomfortable, look at another Future Spouse PAC for guidance, I guess.

[marauders70s]

which audiobooks do you prefer?? the stephen fry ones or the jim dale ones?? personally ill always love stephen frys voices and intensity better. jim dales voices just seem more cartoony to me. hp audiobooks are my fave method of consumption honestly

Hello! Thank you for your question! 

I HARD STAN JIM DALE. 

And here’s why (long, personal version): 

I really love Stephen Fry. I just listened to his Audible audiobook “Victorian Secrets;��� I loved his shows touring the country; I even loved him on Bones as a guest star. He’s such a strong LGBTQ ally and supporter, and great speaker and advocate for so many important things. He makes me feel like even though he’s cynical and annoyed generally, his love of learning, interest, being snarky, and being rad and cool friends with awesome people (both here and ones gone before, like Douglas Adams), makes me wish we were personal friends. One day, I really hope to meet him, and the news of his prostate cancer makes my stomach clench with unfairness and sadness.

However, my family purchased the Harry Potter audiobooks on CD. They came in big chunky boxes and had fun little segments saying things like “This ends disc four, please insert disc five to continue the story.” My dad had a flexible work schedule and drove me and my sisters to school every single day. During our morning commutes, we used to listen to The Beatles, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. But then came Harry Potter when I was about 12. (I actually saw “Chamber of Secrets” the film before ever seeing the first film or reading any of the books because my dad wanted to see what all the hype was about and dragged me to see it in theaters! The basilisk fight scene was so scary I had to close my eyes and felt just like Harry). 

Now back in the day, CD players just held one CD at a time, and sometimes if that CD got stuck, you had to use a pen to nudge/unjam the felt lip of the CD player to let the CD get out. And the day we started Order of the Phoenix on CD it plays little intro music and Jim Dale says happily: “Chapter 1: Dudley....Demented” with a very long dramatic pause. Well the CD got stuck or skipped or sucked up a crumb or something and I swear to fucking god we listed to “Chapter 1: Dudley....Demented” about 48 times in a row in fifteen minutes while my dad is trying to unjam it and I’m in the backseat trying to lean up/climb up and he’s like “get back get back sit down” and I’m like “let me do it! You drive! Let me do it!” And then of course once I get in the front seat I can’t do anything and my two younger sisters (the youngest about six) were shrieking with laughter and have started joining in on the unending chorus of “CHAPTER 1: DUDLEY.....DEMENTED” with the same sort of zeal and insanity of “none pizza left beef.” We finally pull up in the carpool line of school and my dad can put it in park and unwiggle the CD and unjam it and reinsert it and we can finally start listening but at that point we’re all so giggly and ridiculous there’s absolutely no point in trying to start a new book.

The cool thing about getting into Harry Potter at 12 was that Order of the Phoenix was the first ever “release” of the book I had to wait for. Of course I had swallowed it up immediately after my parents had finished with our SINGLE hardback copy. And my Dad turned to me to warn me “Now...someone dies at the end of this book.” And I was so upset that he was spoiling for me, but he was like “I know you love Sirius.” (Guys I did love/was in love/am still in love/love Sirius Black the best). And I just got so angry at my dad for spoiling it, yet my voice still squeaked: “does he die?” And my dad is backing the car up in the driveway and he’s doing the thing where his hand is on the passenger seat and he’s twisting around and there was this heart stopping stomach drop where he stops looking out the back window and the car is still rolling and he looks directly at me. And to me, that’s the swooping, horrible feeling I still associate with Sirius dying. And even though when I read it and I cried, I never felt as much dread and as much sadness and as much grief as that moment when my dad looked straight at me and said nothing at all.

Jim Dale is also an incredibly talented amazing guy. I think that listening to Stephen Fry read Harry Potter is a bit like having your uncle or grandfather reading to you. Very a la Princess Bride. But when Jim Dale reads it, at least to me, when I was 12 and all my life since then, it felt like the characters were real. That his voices were real. When Hermione squeals “Oh HARRY!” but says it “har-eeeeee” in her anxiety; if Mrs. Weasley is scowling furiously and vocalizing her annoyance with huffs and gasps; how gentle Remus Lupin sounds, how raspy Sirius Black does; how very old, and very kind, and very wise Albus Dumbledore comes across. And how through his own inflections, Minerva McGonagall became more Scottish than you could have believed possible, and her voice the most instantly recognizable in the whole series. Jim Dale even commits to Peeves, and uses the inflections of David Bradley and Alan Rickman from the first film to help weave into Filch and Snape’s characters for continuity.

Jim Dale became the first person to win a Grammy for an audiobook, prompting a new category to be added in 2000 (post his nomination into a non-existent category for Sorcerer’s Stone). He created 134 distinct voices specifically for OOTP. He carefully recorded each individual one into a sound file so before he spoke that person’s lines he could re-listen to the voice he had made for them if he hadn’t spoken for them more than once or twice a book (or series - like Dedalus Diggle). His level of dedication and perfectionism is something I GREATLY admire and greatly adore. 

Although I do like hearing Harry Potter as a bedtime story read to me by a man I wish I could befriend, in my heart of hearts, I want Harry Potter to be as magical, as intangible, as silly as “Chapter 1: Dudley...Demented” for my whole life long. And maybe it’s because I have deep connections of listening to it with my dad, who has since passed on in a way that made me understand that feeling when he looked back at me in the car. The sick stomach Harry felt when Sirius was gone. Or maybe it’s because my mom listens to Jim Dale’s Harry Potter every. single. night on her old fashioned iPod before bed, carefully copied from the original CDs, skips and all, even though we own all of it on Audible. She says she’s missing several 5 minute segments throughout the series, but she fills them in from memory anyways. My mom knows more about the canon of Harry Potter than anyone I know, and can recite most of the first book by heart, because its her favorite. 

Obviously I run a Harry Potter blog because Harry Potter is important to me for many sentimental and personal reasons. And the audiobooks are part of that. Sometimes when I’m down or blue, I want Fred & George to tease me in their own voices, to tell me: “We thought we heard your dulcet tones!” “Yeah, it’s not good to bottle that up!” I still really admire and like Stephen Fry as a person, but in my heart, my books and my experience will always be narrated by the wonderful Jim Dale, a man whose voice I adore so much that I watched Pushing Daisies, and searched by narrator on Audible to fall in love all over again with Peter Pan. Harry is a personal experience for all of us, and this is mine. Thanks for listening.

tl;dr - Jim Dale. He does a really great opening line in Chapter 1 of OOTP.