Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down

but then I realised that same challenge would be infinitely more funny with folks who have atypical or horror OCs

- despite Bianca being an anatomically accurate sex doll, Lars never touches her or even looks at her with any sort of sexual intent. There's something deeply soothing and comforting about the way he treats her and looks at her. (I think reading Lars as asexual is honestly a really good way to look at his character too. I feel like having no interest in sex makes it hard for people to connect with their partner, especially if that partner is allo. Lars never seems interested in his coworkers porno talk at work, he never talks about or really views Bianca as anything sexual, he never entertains or answers questions about Bianca and him that are sexual in nature, and when he's asking Gus what made him finally feel like a man, he asks almost hesitantly- like he doesn't want to- if it was sex.)

- Lars does not like to be touched. He's working on it as the movie goes on, but it's something that never gets fully "fixed", and I don't think it does even in the future. I'm sure it gets better, gets less painful for him, but I don't think he'd enjoy hugs or prolonged touch anyways. Idk something about Lars constantly backing away from people who get too close to him, constantly trying to remove himself from other people in his personal space- it just feels really good to see. I'm sure this is something that made a lot of people feel sad for him, but honestly it's just comforting to me.

- the whole bowling scene. It was just Lars and Margo- until the group arrived and I was a little scared they'd be mean, but no. They just join the two and they all have fun. There's high fives when someone manages to get a good throw, but Lars is never forced or pressured to share a high five. Besides just that, he's there with them, and he's not forced into the conversation, but he's included and welcome. Him tearing up in this scene was so beautiful.

- Gus trying to do better. He's a fucking asshole at the start of the movie, but he learns. He's feeling guilty, thinking it's his fault that Lars is delusional, but eventually still goes out of his way to help and learn. He learns the difference between delusions and hallucinations, and he talks about it at work, knowing there's a big chance his coworkers will mock him, like they've done in a previous scene.

- the older ladies chasing Gus and Karin out of the house to spend some time with Lars. The scene is so simple it's almost painful. They bring him food. They knit and chat while he just sits with them. They tell him not to worry about anything, to just eat his food and relax a little.

10x Mushishi | 蟲師

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!

I mean, will you LOOK at this:

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