"It seems like the more we explore and get to shoot and be vulnerable with these sort of like pseudo-real versions of ourselves, that you're faced with it, and you have a self-awareness of it, so that when you leave that character on the floor of the scene or whatever, you can actually learn to grow away from it, and you learn about yourself and you go, “Oh wow, I'm glad I'm not actually out of control of this part of myself, but I have it in control.”"
Beginning with the breakup of the Beatles and focusing in on the 1970s when Paul was running on that sweet, uncut Sad.
September 20, 1969: John tells Paul he's quitting The Beatles. As John beats him over the head and shoulders with a large stick, Paul apologizes profusely and asks John to please reconsider. In retaliation for this, John murders him, to raucous applause.
April 10, 1970: Paul announces his departure from The Beatles, is publicly beaten, and then fired out of a cannon.
April 11, 1970: John tells The Media that Paul McCartney is the greatest fiend to ever walk the earth.
April 12, 1970: Paul releases a statement to the effect that John's comments seem a bit harsh, but his dear friend is entitled to his opinion. In retaliation for this, John murders him, to raucous applause.
A montage set to How Do You Sleep (released Sept 1971) begins. We see Paul sinking into depression and self-isolation, all his selfless overtures to John cruelly rejected. Every time he leaves the house someone throws a tomato at him, and when he tries to sleep he sees only John's laughing face. He bravely soldiers on, taking solace in music and family and nature and his own innate goodness, and briefly in vast quantities of liquor, but luckily the love of his wife quickly cures his alcoholism.
May 17, 1971: Paul releases RAM, considered by modern critics to be the greatest record of all time and the birth of the genre that would come to be known as "Good Music." In retaliation for this, The Media murders him, to raucous applause.
September 13, 1971: Paul adds another child, Stella, to the pack of abandoned and unloved children he has chosen to shelter on his farm. The pack began with his adopted son, Julian Lennon, who had contact with Paul no more than two years ago. Like most fathers, Paul will see him again in at most a couple of decades.
A montage begins, and Family Man Paul sets his life to rights to the delicate poignancy of Blackbird. The world still despises him, but he no longer cares, not when he's Family Man Paul. John publicly admits he was wrong to abuse Paul so cruelly, and Family Man Paul smiles and shakes his head. Oh, John.
December 9, 1980: Paul receives a phone call. We hear only his end of the conversation:
Paul: Hullo? What do you mean? Something's happened to.... John?
His face slowly empties of all emotion as a dull roar fills our ears. The screen cuts to black and holds it for several long moments as the roar fades away.
A tragic montage set to Let It Be begins. Paul's beautiful, aching sadness is in every frame, in every moment of his life from this point on. In a crowded room, surrounded by the rich and famous, Paul gently touches a picture of John's face. In sleep, cuddling his many millions of dollars, he whispers John's name.
2002-2006: Paul Does Not Hit Heather Mills.
After a jarring cut, the montage resumes. The Media lavishes Paul with awards, and he graciously accepts, with no trace of lingering bitterness or trauma. Over his beautiful, noble heartache, all we hear is that gentle echo, "let it be."
Finally, we find Paul sitting alone against the sunset, his humble farmhouse behind him. Shoehorned dialogue with a different wife character than before informs us he's become a billionaire, and he smiles wryly, indifferent to his well-deserved success. We know in this moment that only the love of John could heal his aching heart. After a long pause...
Wife, softly: You miss him, don't you?
The audience waits with bated breath. Is the wife character admitting that she knows he's in love with John after all these years? Is she a proxy for us, the audience, deeply in love with Paul and yet even more deeply in love with his tragic, unfulfilled love for John? Will he finally say it aloud, make the tragedy real, tangible, make it ours?
it's been a fun ride over the last few months. I've been working for a bit on a google drive of every monkees episode in 1080p HD, and I'm pleased to finally be able to post it! hit the readmore for the link 🐒
it is now monkee time ✨🐒✨
please feel free to spread this -- to friends, discord servers, upload it as a torrent, whatever. all I ask is that you use good judgement and not tell a million zillion people, or publicly post it to large audiences on twitter/reddit or something. less eyeballs on the link = more time it remains available for us. I'm sure there are other monkee google drives out there, but I would love for this one to stay up as long as possible 💖
ALSO if you have free disk space, I highly recommend you download the episodes from google drive and watch on a computer using VLC/mpv/etc. not only will you have the files saved in case the drive is taken down, but most episodes have extra audio tracks with commentary! the commentary tracks will not play from google drive, you have to download the MP4 files to hear them. subtitles for all episodes are also available.
that's all I've got for now -- I'll be starting 33 1/3 this weekend, but wanted to do this first. enjoy, and let me know if there are any quality or playback issues.
--monkeesmvs
paul mescal... you go to do character preparation to play paul mccartney and you select, i don’t know, that regressive ian leslie book for instance. because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about previous portrayals of the beatles, but what you don’t know is that mclennon isn’t just a subversive acting choice that’ll earn you an oscar nomination, it’s not just shipping, it’s not just RPF, it actually happened.
you’re also blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2000, michael lindsay-hogg did a movie about john and paul, and then it was aaron taylor johnson and thomas brodie sangster, wasn’t it? who were in the mclennon multiverse video. i think we need a mclennon monday video here.
and then mclennon quickly showed up in the fanfiction of eight different bloggers. then it filtered down through the podcasters, the youtubers, and then trickled on down into some tragic waterstones where you, no doubt, plucked it off some new releases display table.
however, that mclennon represents millions of hours of analysis, connection and interpretation by gay fans, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that separates you from an existing understanding of the beatles when, in fact, you’re opting for a portrayal that was selected for you by the people on this website… from a pile of “stuff”
"I look at early pictures of meself, and I was torn between being Marlon Brando and being the sensitive poet - the Oscar Wilde part of me with the velvet, feminine side. I was always torn between the two, mainly opting for the macho side, because if you showed the other side, you were dead." John lennon - The Last Rolling Stone Interview: By Jonathan Cott, Rolling Stone Magazine 1980
theartofmadeline
amandla
gummygunk
dailybridgerton
turnnoffyourmind
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