chaos incarnate

[bidet-of-evil]

i can't believe i have to work tomorrow why does this keep happening to me

[inkshaman]

I don't have to work tomorrow!

[inkshaman]

Saying "I have migraine" seems like an open invitation to people to give me advice on what I should do.

I had this this illness for 20 years of all my 29 years of my life. What makes you think I don't know what I'm doing???!!

[ang6lwings]

appreciating this scene and the way dean unties the corset

[inkshaman]

I saw somewhere that it's transferable skills cause of laces from hockey skates

[inkshaman]

Tell me why I thought that Charlie and Zoey were endgame.

[inkshaman]

Toby is like a prickly cactus of a human being. He reminds me of my cat, Lilly (short for Lilith - yes, the demon).

He's loud and vocal at all times, even when he doesn't need to. He's set in his ways and is convinced he has some sort of moral high ground above others.

He has a little warmth for the Bartlet crew and favours Andy more than anyone else. That favoritism is not enough to stay married to the man, honestly, considering every conversation is an argument.

He has that victim mentality. "No one has it worse than him," but the thing is... among the Bartlet crew, he really is privileged and has it better than the most.

[inkshaman]

Maybe I've lost brain cells or am multitasking too much, but this is the first episode of TWW that I don't understand what the fuck is happening.

I get the whole ayatollah's son needing treatment storyline, but whatever plot around Josh and Toby is going right over my head.

Why on earth is the US democratic process so freaking complicated? Who's the minority leader? What do they do? Is he not from the same party as the President? Where's the vice president in all of this?

On a side note, I feel like they are making the path for Sam to leave the show... if that makes sense. I mean, I understand all their reasoning for him to run for House (how many elections does one person go through to be elected to... whatever they are being elected to, tbh).

[inkshaman]

"That goes to the Margaret Museum."

Which means Leo and the President talk about Margaret to a point that it's a running joke between them. THAT'S SO CUTE.

They are such girl dads though.

[inkshaman]

I just remembered that this is the exact format of debate that Will and the team in the Newsroom tried to pitch (but then they lost the chance to host it).

I think Sorkin has ideas that he's hell-bent on convincing people. And this debate format is one of them.

[inkshaman]

Toby is right in the way he breaks news to the crew.

If he tries to ease them into anything, they all will fall over themselves trying to solve the problem. They will either make the situation worse or completely miss the mark.

On a side note, I loved that we got to see the transition days and the first couple of weeks. At least snippets of those days. They were so cute!

[asleepinawell]

daily pep talk i give myself

[inkshaman]

The reason why my man takes me out to dinner when i'm in a sour mood

[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.

[ifvwasix]

Josh doesn’t know what a panda is and Toby doesn’t know what a lynx is. TWW universe’s education system is in shambles

[inkshaman]

Just like America's real education system

[inkshaman]

TWW x Newsroom headcannon

Tyler grew up and changed his name to Jim Harper, and became a journalist.

[inkshaman]

Is that Jim Harper, Senior Producer for News Night?

[inkshaman]

They got abandoned! Is the entire episode them trying to get back to DC?

[inkshaman]

Am I clocking in early because I truly love my job or because I want to start The West Wing Season 4?

[inkshaman]

I had to join a Teams meeting right after that god-awful episode.

I can't even concentrate enough to work.

Enough for today. I shall be back tomorrow.