This Just In: I Don't Know What I'm Doing Anymore

Me: omg I love that marvel character so much! 

Normal Person: oh so you like the mcu?

Me: no. fuck marvel. I hate them with a burning passion

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.

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!

Meanwhile, rich people rely on government all the time. They lobby for policies that benefit them. They own patents to destroy competition and allow them to price gouge or plan obsolescence. They rely on police to protect their property so they don't have to hire their own private security. They use prison labor to save money on labor costs. They profit from wars.

Recipes from the 1910s and the Great Depression are great, and I suspect it’s because they were made by someone with limited resources. But they found a way to make something good, maybe even something fantastic with those limited resources, and they wanted to write it down and share with their friends so that they could also make something out of saltines and potatoes. Recipes from the 1910s and the Great Depression are written down and shared in love.

M:  “We did a good job stopping the Russians from doing [thing the United States literally did in real life], but now some bad guys have got their hands on a laser beam that’ll blow your dick clean off.  You gotta stop ‘em before they de-dick the entire world in like 5 minutes.”

James Bond:  “Well that sounds … ridiculous.”

***

Moneypenny:  “James Bond, you must have sex with me.”

James Bond:  “Oh, alright.”

M:  “James Bond please do not have sex with my secretary in front of my door I am begging you for this”

***

James Bond, in the center of town, through a megaphone:  “HEY!  IT’S ME, THE JAMESBOND SECRET AGENT MAN!  I AM HERE TO DO SECRET SPY THINGS BUT I’M ASPOSED TO BE UNDERCOVER SO DON’T TELL NOBODY!”

***

Girl:  “Hello, my name is Sexy Bigtits and I am definitely not evil.”

James Bond:  “That is a very suggestive name.  You should make sex with me.”

Girl:  “No.”

James Bond:  “… pwease? 🥺“

Girl:  “Oh, alright.”  [Time passes]  “So I actually was evil but your dick turned me good.  Now I will die.”

***

Mr. Bad:  “Now, James Bond, I will demonstrate my laser beam that blows your dick clean off by using it to blow your dick clean off.”

James Bond:  “Actually you will not because at the beginning of the movie I picked up a Chekhov’s Gizmo that is perfect for protecting my dick from this exact specific situation”

Mr. Bad:  “Aw, beans.”

****