Happy birthday to James Lee Stanley!
“[I] worked in a nightclub called The Shadow. And I think it was late June [1964] that the Phoenix Singers came through, and Peter [Tork] was in the band, he was the banjo player in — behind the group… And he and I hit it off, and that Monday night, we did an impromptu show together, we just played a couple of tunes, you know, and had a good time, and stayed friends. And then when I opened a club in 1965, there was no place to play in the winter in that area — Virginia Beach, Norfolk… So I opened a club on my own with two friends, we called it The Folk Ghetto, and I contacted Peter in New York City and said, ‘I wanna hire you to come down here for a week and be the headlining act.’ Which he did. […] [H]e was fantastic. He was so good.
[…]
Anyhow, we became friends, and we were friends ever since. [...]
And I can tell you that he’s been one of my best friends for my entire life. And one of the more generous people I’ve ever known. And just to give you a window into the kind of guy he was, he would come off a Monkees tour where everything was handled, you know, they would take care of his tickets, they’d take care of his room, they’d carry his instruments, they’d carry his bags, he just had to show up at the airport and they gave him the, you know, the ace treatment. And then he comes off a tour like that and he gets in a rented Dodge with me and we drive around the country playing little rooms, which we filled to the max because it’s Peter Tork, and then he demands that, because I booked all the dates, I take a booking fee off the top. And then he demands that we split the door. He, I mean, you know, he didn’t have to do that. [...] We would hang out, and I said, ‘Peter, I noticed that all the other Monkees have solo albums. Why don’t you have a solo album?’ And he said, ‘Well, I just never got around to it.’ I said, ‘Well, you know, I have a label, I have national distribution, and I have a studio.’ I said, ‘Why don’t we make a record and we’ll try, you know, we’ll shop it to the majors and if nobody picks it up, we can still put it out on my label. So there’s no doubt about it, we’re making a record that’s coming out.’ And he said, ‘Okay.’ So we worked on it about four months, and at the end of the four months, he said, ‘You know what, James? I don’t want to shop it. I want it on your label.’ So I got to put Peter Tork on my label without, you know, paying a huge upfront thing to have a world-famous celebrity on my label. You know, he just said, ‘No, let’s do it with you, man.’ He was, he was great, he was just a great guy, you know [...] He was, he was just my best friend, you know. And a great spirit." - James Lee Stanley, Tales of the Road Warriors, March 7, 2019 (x)
“James is about my oldest friend. No, make that my friend of longest standing. I worked with him once before, in my early days, and I thought, as a result of that experience, that it would be very good for me to work with him again [on Stranger Things Have Happened].” - Peter Tork, Beachwood Confidential newsletter, 1995
“My personal thanks to James, I have my first album, after all these many moons. How far freakin’ out, man. I waited a long time to work with him again. Thanks beyond words, buddy. Thanks, too, to those who stuck by me.
Love to all, Peter” - Stranger Things Have Happened 1994 liner notes
“In a nutshell, Peter and I are really good friends. Working with Peter, well, he’s like one of the best men on the planet.” - James Lee Stanley, Sacramento Bee, April 20, 1997
“James and I have a lot of fun playing as a tandem. We don’t just wail on the guitar in unison; we’re very articulate… I’ll be playing a light backbeat or playing the big bass strings while James plays filigrees. A lot is going on when we play together, and then James does his originals during his set… I love working with the Monkees, and I love working with James. I have the best of both worlds.” - Peter Tork, The Record, January 19, 2001
“Tork later confided in his brother Nick that Stanley had given him his life back. ‘I wept when I heard that,’ Stanley says.” - Stranger Things Have Happened 2020 reissue liner notes
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I’m not going to reblog the post itself because I don’t want that behavior on my blog, but oh my god I just saw a post about “looking for fics about your favorite character on ao3” and good lord the amount of bad takes both in that post and in the notes?? I have to just ramble about this for a moment because oh my god. it was ludicrous.
people were complaining that, and get this, unfinished fics exist. and that if you read an unfinished fic you’ll have to, get this, wait to read more until it’s published next. they were allll up in arms that there’s fics for a character that don’t cater to their specific interests. that they involve other characters and either do/don’t put them in a romantic relationship when they want the opposite for the character.
like at this point, most of you people in the notes on that post are 1) just being mean and condescending about FREE WORKS you can, may I remind you, READ FOR FREE and EXIT at ANY time! if you don’t like it!, don’t read it!, it’s so simple!, and 2) straight up do not know how ao3 works lmao
like I saw soooo many people in the notes complaining about a certain ship, dynamic, tag, etc, and like… y’all know you can filter by romantic vs platonic pairings, by ratings, by excluding certain tags or other qualifiers, etc etc etc… you know about ao3’s actually incredibly usable filtering and searching system… right… right??
at this point I’m just convinced a lot of these people are spoiled by large fandoms with 100k+ works for their characters and have decided to just be mean and condescending for no reason on main, about literally free fan works you can read for free any time that people spend hours and hours pouring their free time into out of sheer love for their craft. cuckoo bananas behavior if you ask me 🫠
I was legit so close to commenting that maybe they should try shipping two characters with <10 fics, with 0 fics, try liking a rare pair, try hyperfocusing on a character or niche type of fandom with a tiny but lovely circle of fans, and stop treating fan works and fic as Content TM that they deserve to have handed to them that caters to exactly what they want for free and maybe they’ll calm down lmao
like y’all aren’t cool you’re just being mean. we fundamentally approach fic in wildly different ways and honestly the way you do sounds exhausting. literally could not be me, I’m to busy finding joy in shared love for characters and not flipping the table in a rage because there’s one (1) element of the fic that isn’t specifically catered to me, maybe try that and you’ll feel better, hmm?
and yeah I’m aware that last sentence is me being condescending towards them, but frankly it’s warranted when so many people are being that mean and haughty for no reason lmao but truly those takes were horrific. fellow fic writers and even fellow fic readers I interact with, am mutuals with, authors whose works I read, readers who comment and interact with my works, fans of niche fandom subsets that run in the same circles as me— I hope you know this is so wildly not how I approach fics, I love just finding fics for my characters and forming these lil communities where we share our interests and love for them and hype each other up. I love what we have in these fandom niches and I hope you know I would never dream of being so mean and condescending towards y’all. fic writers and readers and fan communities are so special and I cherish it even if clearly there’s people in the notes on that other post who don’t know how to do that lmao. I love your unfinished WIPs, I love your fics that may only partially be what I’m looking for, I love when you write characters in a way I wouldn’t expect but shows your love for your particular headcanon, I love the variety and diversity and variance in fic. I love us. genuinely. fic writer moots I am hugging all of you and I frequently reread your works, even the unfinished ones. ♡
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ANYWAY now that ive gotten my firefly rant off my chest and on a more positive note about the story overall; i Really liked it!!!! and character-wise specifically the biggest surprise for me in a huge W way was actually acheron??
& given i was actually somewhat committed to pulling her anyway (well. initially as kafka replacement to pull my first lightning carry after losing 50-50 but. Well. she had mercy on me at the v last moment thank goodness 😭😭) so actually ending up liking her character this much just cemented that resolve for good too. cant wait for her!!! like i am still meh on her base design not bc its that bad by itself but simply bc seeles existence just cheapens it so much like. Why are they so similar. but its not bad lmao
anyway to her actual characterization. first of all. the VAs delivery omg yall beidous english voice is already one of my all time favorites in genshin and shes doing an amazing job as acheron like. she started talking and im just INSTANTLY warmed up to her just from that KDJSKDKJK i love love love her attitude and energy!!!!!
n personality wise too??? like ive seen others mention a similar sentiment but its just the way how. even after getting the warnings from now Two separate characters that shes up to no good. im just like. "nah id win" abt it SHSKDKSI like throughout the story she comes off as so damn likeable and grounded and realistically friendly (as in not like. too open n aligned w the player from the get-go to feel believable for the character as opposed to a plot contrivance) that i just. even if shes bad news im team acheron truly.
she has genuinely funny one liners too ??? like not necessarily jokes outright but the kinda comments she says are just . very realistic in that dry witty way that comes off as natural and entertaining shes so charming!!! i love her. the more contemplative stuff she says too
but also like. girl whats up w the ominous red text ily but are we cool 😭😭 and the whole shredding us into thin slices on first encounter in the dreamscape like. Ok uhhhhhhhh ik i said nah id win and team acheron forever but this is kinda. worrisome
BUT that just means im so fucking excited to see her go apeshit too lmao like. oh shes an emanator here to do murder and spread death? COOL i hope she has fun!!
(and ik i said firefly rant over but. what the actual hell is that post firefly merk dialogue option where the games like very heavy handedly implying ur supposed to be blaming ACHERON for "letting it happen" in some emotional frenzy???? bro what 💀💀 0/5 moment i would never. n even if she plausibly did im just. dude her being cold towards firefly is just a plus for me when the narrative has just railroaded the TB into being sooo charmed by her magical presence lmao i Liked that acheron was suspicious n cold)
overall Definitely wasnt expecting acheron to establish herself as such an instant favorite for sure but. shes here now and im v happy abt it im super looking forward to seeing those more dubious goals of her come to the forefront in the future like. im so curious about whats up w her and her memory and that red text and everything
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