Stesichorean Palinode

my sense as somebody who watches and reads way too much old stuff is that a lot of stuff that reads to us as gay was not considered so at the time—like Wings, which was a hit at the time and (that I know of) caught no homophobic backlash, reads to modern eyes as being an extremely queer, and open about it, movie. Standards of intimacy, affection, relationships, etc. have shifted over time—you can see people in old books and movies interacting with their same-sex friends with huge amounts of physical and verbal affection, in ways that today read as romantic, and to my knowledge that was so normalized as a friend thing no one considered a queer reading into it. It’s a tragic slip of history that as queerness came more into the open, the heterosexual fear of being perceived as gay resulted in a lot of the “no homo” type behaviors and the expectations for what platonic relationships could look like shifted to the more distant version we have today.

WITH THAT SAID. There are gay characters in old movies who are clearly coded as gay! The “pansy craze” in the 30s, spotlighting gay drag culture from Greenwich Village, shows up bright as day in a Clara Bow picture. Here’s a clearly gay tailor measuring Jimmy Cagney in The Public Enemy. In Wings itself, there is a sequence showing various stages of a romantic relationship—and it includes a lesbian couple. The Hays Code in the 30s, and more broadly the great sweep of conservatism that hit the US in the 50s, killed a bunch of clear queer representation, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t showing up wherever it could, however it could.

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: March 7, 1976

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆: Berkeley, CA, USA

𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲: Community Theater

Hello!!! Thank you for the ask!! Sorry for the delay, sleep has been a fuck as of late.

Currentlyyyyy.... hm.

Centipede Legs by Luluyam Lake Pontchartrain by Ludo fuckin....... Jim Bob. by Hardy. Maphra's cover of Doomed by Bring Me The Horizon TOUBOU by DUSTCELL

\o/ yayayayayay~ thank you i love these things. Let me open up my notifs... I think I'm gunna ping instead of sending asks due to being kind of insane right now c: @static-static @ikemenomegas @demonic-silver-and-gold @featheredcrowbabbles @hemostatiquesheep @moonofmercury @junipersheart @forgotten-dustbunny @bagofdrymice @fipsthegreat

But the last couple of weeks, I've been craving and repeating:

Randers Station by TV2

Jeg Vil Ha' Dig by TV2

Perker Pop (Jeg vil ha') by Aand Z and Luna Ersahin

Gi' mig Danmark tilbage by Natasja

Julia by LIGA

...all of these songs are full of want in some ways, either for love or for some kind of freedom... yeah, it's exam season, alright..

What about you guys?

Vörjeans - Ta me heim KAJ - Karar i arbeit KUUMAA - Hyvänpäiväntutut Käärijä - Kot Kot Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer

Well right now I think 🤔 if we're talking pop/rock...

Queen: Drowse (it's the mistier mist the hazier haze. Always. 🫶)

VHB: Somewhere in the Middle (lately I've been feeling a bit nostalgic. Oh the memories with this one ♥️. Yeio.)

Tori Amos: Precious Things (why yes I'm also rather angry.)

KAJ: Kom ti byin (my go-to song with panic attacks and so much more. It's all about the layers 👌)

Vargas & Lagola: Since 99 (I'm not sure it's good but it will not stop looping so 🥲)

Queen: One Vision

Chuck Berry: Johnny B Goode

Dean Fujioka: Yuri on Ice theme tune

Take That: Shine

Duran Duran: Reach up For the Sunrise

Roger playing Scrabble, Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany, 1980.

QUEEN - SAVE ME

MELODY MAKER FEB 1980.