brain in a jar

t    -    they/them   -  fallen london

[ineffag-swag]

I guess I must have amazing taste because somehow everything that I like are things that I enjoy

[nickyandmikey]

when two musicians sing into the same microphone and lean in very close to each other… like omg are you guys gonna kiss now to relieve the homoerotic tension?😳

[nickyandmikey]

THIS IS NOT ABOUT ONE DIRECTION I DON’T KNOW WHO THIS “HARRY” PERSON IS GO WATCH BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND CLARENCE CLEMONS KISS ON STAGE RIGHT NOW

[irrelevantlyvalid]

op is the only valid person i’ve ever met. everyone else needs to come to the light

[chokolattejedi]

Okay, but this is really important: Bruce Springsteen occupied this really weird place in music history. His songs were all from this pessimistic, nihilistic view of an America that had let him down:

Just like the anti-Vietnam War protest songs that we associate with the 1960s, or the early nihilism that spawned punk music in the 1970s. But he didn’t *sound* like a punk anarchist; he sounded like a country rock singer. When he released Born in the U.S.A. people completely misinterpreted (or possibly ignored) the lyrics in favor of the tone of the music.

Politicians used his music to promote their ‘Murica Yes! brand, and he had to literally explain that that was not what he was about. He’s over here asking when we’re going to have jobs and heathcare, not stanning the politicians who weren’t helping the people.

It was also kind of a big deal that he had an integrated band, because even as late as the 1980s music was still kind of segregated and MTV was straight up racist. They refused to play and promote black artists and then claimed that were no black artists in the first place. Michael Jackson’s record company had to threaten a boycott of their white artists to get MTV to play his Thriller video.

Plus, the first black/white interracial kiss on TV was in 1968 (OG Star Trek). Also it took us until the 70s to get sympathetic gay characters on screen, and the 90s to get gay characters to kiss onscreen. And all of those firsts were met with outrage.

So keep that in mind when you see Bruce Springsteen not just playing with an interracial band, but engaging in an interracial, gay kiss on stage repeatedly.

Passages from American Popular Music by Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman

[executeness]

I used to think that Bruce and Clarence kissing onstage was exuberance, showmanship, and telling racist homophobes to fuck off. Like, they picked up a certain kind of audience and went “Racist homophobes? Not in our house!” And started the kissing then but then I actually looked it up and

https://www.gq.com/story/this-fucked-me-up-bruce-springsteen-singing-about-clarence-clemons

It was a story where… we remade the city. We remade the city, shaping it into the kind of place where our friendship and our love for one another wouldn’t have been such an exceptional thing. - Bruce Springsteen

It wasn’t about showmanship or rejecting bigots or anything it was just. Damn right that was one of the loves of his life and damn right he was going to kiss him onstage

It gets me a little that Bruce has had a divorce, that he’s been married twice, but he loved Clarence for the rest of Clarence’s life and will presumably love him the rest of his own

Clemons said in one interview. “Bruce and I looked at each other and didn’t say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other’s lives. He was what I’d been searching for.” In another version of the story, Clemons says “He looked at me, and I looked at him, and we fell in love.”

I’m having some emotions about it!

“He was elemental in my life,“ Springsteen adds, “and losing him was like losing the rain.”

Not just! I love you pure and deep and true but! I am going to love you like that in front of the whole damn world!

We have fewer narratives about taking risks and making statements for platonic love rather than romantic and supposedly it would be easier to downplay this onstage than romance and! They refused! They fucking refused! In front of hundreds of thousands of people, over the course of years! In the spotlight, in word and deed, I love you!

God I’m not okay about it

[ramshacklefey]

Now I’m mad that this is not among any of the things I was ever told about this artist.

[jbbartram-illu]

I knew about this in general (& via all those fabulous photos), but this just adds even more beautiful context <3

[eregyrn-falls]

Just to add to the pile: this was the cover of Springsteen’s break-through album Born to Run, in 1975:

I mean, will you LOOK at this:

This was the pic chosen for the album cover from an extensive photoshoot, too. A few others:

There’s a lot more online if you search. They’re all pretty amazing. But the photographer is right, the one chosen for the album cover just pops.

[ot3]

its awesome that neither mind reading nor god are real and all of the thoughts inside of your head are completely private and consequenceless forever #myprivacy

[microraptorhours]

i love you archival work. i love you alphabetizing. i love you sorting. i love you reshelving. i love you document restoration. i love you shelf reading. i love you inventorying. i love you analysis. i love you archival work.

[manuciruja]

awww the like button turns into a rainbow when you press it! that's so cute...hey staff what's with all the trans women you keep nuking?

[manuciruja]

i think we should be ridiculing them more for this. you don't get to try and go all "queer website" when your staff likes to go on nuking sprees targeting the trans fem users

[smadsel]

would be remiss not to mention that the rainbow notably straight up just removed the trans flag colors from it. like they’re gone. it’s the progress flag minus the trans flag colors.

[smadsel]

that’s not the whole flag, now is it

[manuciruja]

hey staff what the fuck

[lovelyl0tte]

they flagged this as mature content holy shit

[cuppydogshane]

My Name is 8 PM. and I am always arriving when you atrent Looking

[the-disemvoweler]

M Nm s 8 PM. nd m lws rrvng whn y trnt Lkng

[consonant-remover]

8.y

I o a a i's ooa eo

[cuppydogshane]

if you two had a baby it would be a regular sentence. or perhaps silence.

[unyieldingsilence]

‎

[cuppydogshane]

Right.

[threedollarsdotcom]

letd go eat parts of that guys car

[gumptioncretaceous]

hate it when you're looking for a good painting to watch on cave wall and by the time you find one your mammoth hunk is cold 😭

[stillnaomi]

using violence to liberate people from sweatshops, unsafe mines, and grinding poverty isn't the same as using violence to impose those things on people. the idea that violence is morally repugnant regardless of context is a belief that every oppressor throughout history would love for the oppressed to hold

[thevioletscout]

Oh I just remembered- does anyone have a list of the known items on Dante's menu? Or at least a healthy guess of what a 1890s devil-owned grill would have? I need it for later.

I know there's Deviled Kidneys and Moss Balls (if I'm remembering that bit of Light Fingers correctly).

[ihniwtr]

allow me to introduce you to Eat the Neath: a Sunless Gustiary!

Eat the Neath: a Sunless Gustiary

(Originally created by Mr. Menagerie! Matcha currently updates and maintains this version!) There are many types of food you can eat in th

and iirc @light-lost-logs is compiling a list every single food ingredient that's canon too, if you want

[light-lost-logs]

Canon and implied in canon! It's... taking a very long time. Because I'm just one person, it's impossible to really search for these things on the wiki without already knowing they exist (not really a category listing for all foods mentioned) and I am trying to provide a source listing for each item so it's. Yeah. But if you want to have a look dm me!

[dickstolebyanalien]

snowstorm that makes you old

[dickstolebyanalien]

baby its old outside

[charl0ttan]

i really cant age

[charl0ttan]

baby its old outside

[alicentsgf]

no you do not need to hold fictional characters "accountable". they are not real.

[alicentsgf]

[eddysonline]

The original flag, by Gilbert Baker, June 25, 1978.

[fidelcostco]

WAIT HOLD ON I cannot fucking believe when I was like four years old my parents were cajoling me to walk with the family and trying to get me to keep up even though I kept insisting that I was "tired" until they took me to a doctor and found out my LUNGS DIDN'T WORK. how insane that we live in a world where reasonably loving parents think their FOUR YEAR OLD is trying to be LAZY. like they were mortified to be clear. adults are just so trained to ignore children's complaints as untrustworthy, kids just need discipline, they can't possibly speak for themselves. what the fuuuuck.

[fidelcostco]

YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE BTW you should always be trying to take children seriously, especially very little ones but definitely all of them. the most disempowered class basically legally defined as property and most people are like "yeah that's good actually I hate when they Loiter lol they're stupid and loud and i actually think children should stop existing. restrict their personhood more actually"

[endcrys-art]

This pride month I need every aromantic to get more annoying about being aromantic

[crabussy]

people who express seething, violent hatred towards cyclists: you make people feel unsafe as fuck! you're allowed to be annoyed with cyclists. some of us are dicks who need to learn the road rules. but anytime I see someone "joke" about hitting cyclists with their car I feel a little bit sick to my stomach.

[crabussy]

feels like as soon as my feet are on the pedals of my only reliable mode of transport, I become a target for people driving a terrifyingly fast and heavy car. when I was barely a toddler, my dad had to go on rallies to raise awareness about the fact that people on bikes are PEOPLE who do not deserve to be KILLED BY DRIVERS.

[crabussy]

he had slogans trying to remind people that he was a dad with a 2 year old son at home, because both him and his friends have had drivers swerve at them any time they got on their bicycles. I just find how "normal" it is to want to kill cyclists pretty fucking scary.

[crabussy]

"it's just a joke" yep! but jokes are rooted in ideas that you are reinforcing. you can laugh about how annoying cyclists are without sounding like you want us to get life ending injuries for inconveniencing you.

[tlirsgender]

Everybody talking about how diy hrt is so haaaard and dangerousssss is lying btw it's literally fine. Yes even for testosterone. Do you know how many cis dudes are taking grey market steroids? Nobody gives a shit unless you're going through customs or already getting pulled over for something else

[tlirsgender]

Also the whole "taking t is dangerous for your health" thing like. It's not going to turn your blood into pudding and kill you. Do you know how much higher than the suggested max/cis male dosage you have to go for anything weird to start happening? You are not going to accidentally overdose on a sex hormone your body already naturally produces. Your body will start converting it to estrogen (which still isn't ideal, sure) Long before it reaches that point. It's Literally Fine. Do your actual research on this don't let detrans grifters scare you out of at least Reading About It as a possibility

[tlirsgender]

You can also get bitcoin via cashapp in like two seconds, yknow, if you don't want to email some dubious website your banking information. None of this is as hard as they want you to think it is

[queeranarchism]

Here's a free book about it

It's true that the risks aren't as scary as the detransers say, but some risks (like being allergic to the injection oil) do exist and getting your dosis right is better for your health. So if you can: gather information, get blood tests, transition safely on your own terms.