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jessconrad · 3 years

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Fine Line by Harry Styles: The Sunshine We Needed Through A Very Dreary Year

Or An Album Review (One Year Later)

On December 13, 2019, Harry Styles graced the world with his second studio album, Fine Line, and I don’t think it has ever left my Recently Played section on my Spotify account since its release.

I honestly don’t know how I would have survived 2020 without this album. As I reflect on everything this year had to offer, I realized this record will always shine through as it is tied to my best memories of the year.

I listened to this album a lot, with three of my five top songs from my Spotify Wrapped coming from Fine Line. (They were “Sunflower, Vol. 6″, “Golden”, and “To Be So Lonely”, respectively, if you were curious!)

I spent dull afternoons in January walking around the freshly snow covered ground on my college campus blasting “Lights Up” in my headphones. This single was released in October 2019, two months prior to the release of Fine Line, and had been a top favorite of mine with its 70s soulful style. Not to mention, the small choir of backup singers and layering synth gave me an almost nostalgic as the Christmas season started to come to an end. This song was all about finding who you are- and I was starting to figure out who I am with it.

The next month I visited Denver for a conference and I began noticing how this record was starting to become the soundtrack to my year. February’s track was “Sunflower, Vol. 6″ where I started to feel my attachment to this song. I am not sure if it was the mesmerizing lyrics, the drums, or even the Indian instrument known as a sitar that made me really hooked to this song... But as I walked through the streets of rainy Denver (which would normally make me feel very gloomy), I couldn’t help grinning from ear-to-ear as I listened to this song. It’s the feel-good musical track you listen to, in whatever mood you’re in.

Sometimes I can’t fathom how apocalyptic March felt. The beginning of March was completely normal, and I was at my peak. Looking back now, I can’t wrap my head around that I attended five live shows within one week during that month. But all good things come to an end, right? And of course suddenly, it all came crashing down. I was sent packing up my college freshman dorm and moved back home with my parents while juggling all my courses remotely. There was a song that I was always replaying though, and that was “Golden.” Arguably one of the most upbeat tracks on Fine Line, next to “Sunflower, Vol. 6,″ but the lyrics say otherwise. As the opening track, it has a very chill pop vibe, but listen closely to the lyrics. The contrast pulls at my heartstrings every. single. time.

“Cherry” and April go hand-in-hand for me. As I continued to navigate my thoughts and feelings with the pandemic, struggling with the course load of online courses, and overall the anxiousness of all the unknowns- “Cherry” was the comfort I needed. With its soft acoustic guitar, it is the perfect song for any in-your-feels playlist. And trust me when I say that the fragility of “Cherry” really helped me when I was in my feels.

Arguably the biggest summer hit of this year was “Watermelon Sugar,” and my go-to anthem of wanting to feel any normalcy of a summer that I stayed mostly indoors for. I remember when the music video dropped in May, I was grabbing coffee with a friend and begged her to watch the video with me. We sat in her car in the middle of a park, watching the YouTube video count down to the premiere of “Watermelon Sugar”. That “this video is dedicated to touching” opening message made me laugh and realized how truly brilliant Harry’s mind is. The warm, very enjoyable tune made this the perfect summer anthem with its really good electric guitar and slide guitar mixed with the horn. It’s the one song that will stay in your head for weeks.

Another song that feels like summer to me is “Canyon Moon.” In the end of June, I went ‘glamping’ (otherwise known as glamorous camping, we stayed in a very nice tiny house in the middle of the most wooded area that Nebraska could get) with my family. It’s a very upbeat song with a nostalgic feel, and the fun instrument rhythms can’t help but make you beam. The song also experiments with a dulcimer; a musical instrument with a long rounded body and a fretted fingerboard played by bowing, plucking, and strumming. I think this is what makes the song more upbeat and happy, especially the beginning as well as the slide guitar giving it unique sounds throughout. It personally is one of my least favorites on the album, but it does make me think of warm summer days and spending time with family every time I do listen to it.

July was starting to feel a little rough for me again. I was really getting tired of staying indoors and barely seeing any of my friends. I was really longing to go back to school and being around my people again. “To Be So Lonely” was a song that felt like it really understood me. Harry revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that the song was composed on a guitalele, which resembles the sound of guitar, for that light and upbeat tone that the chords give off, backing the lyrics. It’s the perfect song you listen to when you’re sad, and you’re ready to push past it. And I knew that I was ready to push past my sadness because I had one more month until I was surrounded in community.

“Adore You” was the second single of Fine Line that was released. This song is filled with so much love and passion- and it was the same immense feelings I had in August when I got ready to move back to my college town and see all my friends again. As I packed my bags and moved into my sorority house, I constantly played this song. What can I say? This was a really great song to vibe with, especially with the opening keyboard and the consistent bass that you cannot help but groove to!

Out of all the months of this year, surprisingly September was one of my darkest. With only two weeks living into my sorority house, I made the decision to move out for the safety of mine and my family’s health. I moved back in with my parents again during this month, and I felt completely lost. “Falling” had the same underlying message of being lost. This love ballad displays a theme of brokenness and creates a tone of unhappiness- the perfect song for a post-breakup or an in-your-feels playlist. I had this song on repeat more times than I can count- the soft piano setting a broken and lonely tone.

The beginning of October began to really turn around for me. I moved into an apartment with one of my best friends and I was back in my college town. I was starting to find community again and “Treat People With Kindness” became this month’s anthem. Coined after Harry’s Treat People With Kindness (TPWK) campaign, this song has a 1970s sound and makes you want to dance along with the catchy choir lyrics such as “Maybe we can/Find a place to feel good/And we can treat people with kindness”. The lyrics were very prevalent in my life, especially with the amping news of the presidential election and the continuation of the pandemic. This song was the best reminder to be kind to myself, and those around me. And let’s not forget the conga sound throughout! I believe Queen would have been very proud of this underrated track.

The timeless mature sound of “She” could have not fit November anymore. I celebrated my twentieth birthday this month (which of course included a Harry Styles themed birthday party with my roommate and some close friends). The guitar kicking in at the chorus giving so much emotion to Harry’s voice, and that’s exactly how I felt around my birthday. Lots of emotions. Not to mention, the guitar solo played by Mitch Rowland sounds like it could have been something that was released years ago, with a little modern touch. It’s growing to be one of my personal favorites on the album.

Lastly, we get to December and I felt as if this year was the longest year of my life (but also flown by way too quick). The song that resonated with me most this month was “Fine Line,” the last track of the album (and the longest at 6 minutes and 16 seconds). My favorite memories in December consist of driving around with my friend, looking at all the Christmas lights as we drink hot cocoa and blast “Fine Line”- singing our hearts out to the repetitive lyrics of “we’ll be fine line” and “we’ll be alright.” Harry discussed in an interview with Capital FM that this song would always be the last on the album, and how fitting that I resonated with this song most in the last month of the year. “Fine Line” represents the ups and downs of life, and the thin line that separates the two. This song that includes an orchestra, drums, horn, acoustic guitar, and melodies building in the background, it could not be the most perfect finale to the album- and to the year 2020.

Today is December 13, 2020- exactly one year after Fine Line has been released. Since then, Harry Styles has made headlines from petty to political. He has shown up for Black Lives Matter, cared for our sleeping habits by releasing an audio bedtime story, made us feel confident in wearing whatever we want as he appeared as the first solo male on American Vogue- all while accomplishing some of his greatest achievements with this album: releasing five music videos, being nominated for three Grammys, and climbing the music charts and catching the hearts of critics.

But Harry accomplished something even greater- he made an album that made us feel good when it was nearly impossible to. To put it frankly- Fine Line was my comfort album, and I know that it was a lot of other people’s too. And as we step into the new year, with the help of this album, it does in fact feel like... we’ll be alright.

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novelwritingtrash · 4 years

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When Harry Styles played the O2 Arena in 2018, his fans illuminated the cavernous venue in the colours of the LGBTQ Pride flag. Coordinated by a social media account called The Rainbow Project, each seating block was allocated a different colour, so that when Styles played the song Sweet Creature, an enormous rainbow emerged from the crowd. I was there, and it was pretty magical. But it was also emblematic of how Styles’s fanbase views their idol: as a queer icon.

There’s arguably never been a better time to be an LGBTQ pop star. Acts such as Sam Smith, who came out as non-binary earlier this year, Lil Nas X, the first gay man to have a certified diamond song in America, Halsey, queer boyband Brockhampton, pansexual singer Miley Cyrus and Kim Petras, who is transgender, have all enjoyed an incredible year, bagging the biggest hits of 2019.

Still, when Styles shared Lights Up, the lead single from his forthcoming second solo album Fine Line, there was a collective intake of breath. The song and video - in which he appears shirtless in what looks like a sweaty orgy as both men and women grab at him - was heralded as a “bisexual anthem” by the media and fans on Twitter, despite not really making any explicit or obvious statements about sexuality or the LGBTQ community. Instead, Lights Up was just another example of the queer mythologising that occurs around Harry Styles.

As a member of One Direction, Styles was – aside from Zayn Malik – the group’s most charismatic and enticing member. From his first audition on The X Factor to the band’s disbandment in 2015, the teenager from Cheshire managed to elevate himself and his celebrity swiftly rose to the A list. Helping him along was speculation about his private life: during his tenure in the band he was romantically linked to everyone from Taylor Swift to Kendall Jenner.

But there were two other rumoured relationships that dogged Styles more than the others. The first was his close friendship with radio DJ Nick Grimshaw. Styles and Grimshaw were often photographed together, and there were anodyne showbiz reports about how they even shared a wardrobe.

Inevitably, rumours suggested they were romantically linked. In fact, so prolific was speculation that during an interview with British GQ, Styles was asked point blank if he was in a relationship with Grimshaw (he denied any romantic relationship) and, in a move that upset many One Direction fans, if he was bisexual. “Bisexual? Me?” he responded. “I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I'm not.”

The second, and perhaps most complicated of rumours, was that he and fellow bandmate Louis Tomlinson were in a relationship. Larry Stylinson, as their shipname is known, began life as fan-fiction but mutated into a wild conspiracy theory as certain fans – dubbed Larries – documented glances, gestures, touches, interviews, performances and outfits in an attempt to confirm the romance. Even now, four years after the band went on “hiatus”, videos are still being posted on YouTube in an attempt to confirm that their relationship was real.

For Tomlinson, Larry was fandom gone too far. He has repeatedly rejected the conspiracy. Styles, meanwhile, has never publicly discussed it. In fact, unlike Tomlinson, whose post-1D career trajectory has seen him adopt a loutish form of masculinity indebted to the Gallagher brothers, Styles has largely leant into the speculation surrounding his sexuality. Aside from the GQ interview, Styles has told interviewers that gender is not that important to him when it comes to dating. In 2017 he said that he had never felt the need to label his sexuality, adding: “I don’t feel like it’s something I’ve ever felt like I have to explain about myself.”

Likewise, during his time touring with One Direction, and during his own solo tours, the image of Styles draped with a rainbow flag became ubiquitous. He has also donated money from merchandise sales to LGBTQ charities. His fashion sense, too, subverts gender norms: Styles has long sported womenswear, floral prints, dangly earrings and painted nails.

Nevertheless, Styles’s hesitance to be candid has met with criticism. He has been accused of queer-baiting - or enjoying the benefits of appealing to an LGBTQ fanbase without having any of the difficulties. I’ve written before about how queer artists, who now enjoy greater visibility and are finding mainstream success, have struggled commercially owing to their sexuality or gender identity.

Styles, who is assumed to be a cisgender, heterosexual male, doesn’t carry any of the commercial risk laden upon Troye Sivan, Years and Years or MNEK, who all use same-gender pronouns in their music and are explicitly gay in their videos. His music – with its nods to rock’n’roll, Americana and folk – doesn’t feel very queer, either. Looking at it this way, the queer idolisation of Harry Styles doesn’t feel deserved.

“The thing with Harry Styles is that he often does the bare minimum and gets an out-sized load of credit for it,” says songwriter and record label manager Grace Medford. For Medford, who has worked at Syco and is now part of the team at Xenomania records, Styles’s queer narrative has been projected on him by the media and his fans. “I don't think that he queer-baits, but I don't think he does anywhere near enough to get the response that he does.”

Of course, Styles does not need to explain or be specific about his sexuality. As Medford puts it: “he's well within his rights to live his life how he chooses.” However, he has also created a space for himself in pop that allows him that ambiguity.

It’s a privilege few pop stars have. Last year, Rita Ora was hit with criticism after her song Girls, a collaboration with Charli XCX, Cardi B and Bebe Rexha, was dubbed problematic and accused of performative bisexuality. Even though Ora explicitly sang the lyric “I'm 50-50 and I'm never gonna hide it”, she was lambasted by social media critics, media commentary and even her fellow artists until she was forced to publicly confirm her bisexuality.

But the same was not done to Styles when he performed unreleased song “Medicine” during his world tour. The lyrics have never been confirmed, but the song is said to contain the line: “The boys and the girls are in/ I mess around with him/ And I'm okay with it.” Instead of probing him for clarity or accusing him of performativity, the song was labelled a “bisexual anthem” and praised as “a breakthrough for bisexual music fans”.

Of course, there’s misogyny inherent to such reactions. But there’s also something more layered and complex at play, too. “There's such a dearth of queer people to look up to, especially people at Harry’s level,” posits Medford. “With somebody who is seen as cool and credible and attractive as Harry, part of it is wishful thinking, I think.

“The fact is, he was put together into a boyband on a television show by a Pussycat Doll. And he has rebranded as Mick Jagger’s spiritual successor and sings with Stevie Nicks; he's really done the work there. Part of him doing that work is him stepping back and letting other people create a story for him.”

One only has to look at how Styles’ celebrity manifests itself (cool, fashionable, artistic) in comparison to that of his former bandmates. Liam Payne (this week dubbed by the tabloids as a chart failure) has been a tabloid fixture since his public relationship with Cheryl Cole and relies on countless interviews, photoshoots and even an advertising campaign for Hugo Boss to maintain his fame.

Styles, meanwhile, doesn’t really engage with social media. He also rarely appears in public and carefully chooses what kind of press he does, actively limiting the number of interviews he gives. Styles’s reticence to engage with the media and general public – perhaps a form of self-preservation – has awarded him a rare mystique that few people in the public eye possess.

This enigmatic personal, along with his sexual ambiguity, his support of LGBTQ charities and his gender-fluid approach to fashion, creates the perfect incubation for queer fandom. It also provides a shield against serious accusations of queer-baiting. As Medford argues: “Harry's queer mythology has been presented to and bestowed upon him by queer people whereas other acts feel like they have to actively seek that out.”

Ultimately, the way that Styles navigates his queer fandom doesn’t feel calculated or contrived. For Eli, an 18-year-old from Orlando who grew up with One Direction, seeing Styles “grow into himself” has been important. He suggests that Styles’ queer accessibility has helped to create a safe space for fans. “Watching him on tour dance on stage every night in his frilly outfits, singing about liking boys and girls, waving around pride flags, and even helping a fan come out to her mom, really helped me come to terms with my own sexuality,” he explains.

Vicky, who is 25 and from London, agrees: “To be able to attend his show with my pansexual flag and wave it around and feel so much love and respect - it's an amazing feeling. I'm aware so many queer people can't experience it so I'm very grateful Harry creates these safe spaces through his music and concerts.”

There’s appeal in Styles’s ambiguity, too. Summer Shaud, from Boston, says that Styles’ “giving no f----” approach to sexuality and gender is “inspiring and affirming” for those people who are coming to terms with their own identities or those who live in the middle of sexuality or gender spectrums. “There’s enormous pressure from certain gatekeeping voices within the queer community to perform queerness in an approved, unambiguous way, often coming from people with no substantive understanding of bisexuality or genderfluidity who are still looking to put everyone into a box,” she argues. “Harry’s gender presentation, queer-coding, and refusal to label himself are a defiant rebuke of that “You’re Not Doing It Right” attitude, and that resonates so strongly with queers who aren’t exclusively homosexual or exclusively binary.”

Shaud says that the queer community that has congregated around Styles is another reason she’s so drawn to him. “Seeing how his last tour was such an incredible site of affirmation and belonging for queers is deeply moving to me, and as older queer [Shaud is 41] I’m so grateful that all the young people growing up together with Harry have someone like him to provide that.”

In fact, she argues that there’s a symbiotic relationship between Styles and his queer fans. She cites an interview he gave to Rolling Stone this year in which he said how transformative the tour was for him. “For me the tour was the biggest thing in terms of being more accepting of myself, I think,” Styles shared. “I kept thinking, 'Oh wow, they really want me to be myself. And be out and do it.’”

All of the queer Harry Styles fans I spoke to agreed that it really didn’t matter whether their idol was explicit about his sexuality or not. “It’s weird that people scrutinise people who don’t label [their sexuality] when they have no idea what that person feels like inside or, in Harry’s case, what it’s like to be under the public eye,” argues Valerie, who is 18. “It's an individual choice, not ours,” agrees Vicky.

Ollie, 22 and from Brighton, takes a more rounded view, however: “On one hand, I think that quite simply it isn’t any of anyone else’s business. On the other, if you place yourself in the public eye to the level of fame that he has then you should be prepared to be probed about every minute detail of your personal life, whether you like it or not – you should at least be prepared to be questioned about it.” Still, he says that the good that Styles does is what’s important: “He brings fantastic support and attention to the community, whether he is actively a part of it or not.”

Arguably, the ambiguity and mystery that surrounds Styles only allows more space for queer people to find safety in him and in the fandom.

Still, if fans are expecting a queer coming of age with new album Fine Line, they will be disappointed. Lyrically, he doesn’t venture into new territory, although there are some new musical flares. He also seems like he’s started to distance himself a little from the ambiguity, too. “I’m aware that as a white male, I don’t go through the same things as a lot of the people that come to the shows,” he told Rolling Stone. “I can’t claim that I know what it’s like, because I don’t. So I’m not trying to say, ‘I understand what it’s like.’ I’m just trying to make people feel included and seen.” Having said that, within weeks Styles appeared on Saturday Night Live playing a gay social media manager, using queer slang and even wearing an S&M harness.

And so the cycle of queer mythologising continues, and is likely to continue for the rest of Styles’s career. And maybe things will change and maybe they won’t.

“If you are black, if you are white, if you are gay, if you are straight, if you are transgender — whoever you are, whoever you want to be, I support you,” he said earlier this year. “I love every single one of you.” In a world where LGBTQ rights are threatened and there’s socio-political insecurity, perhaps, for now at least, that’s enough.

#is it enough?#that the privileged cis white man gets to cosplay the gay saviour?

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accidentalharrie · 4 years

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maybe you or one of you followers has access to the telegraph article about Harry "Why does the world want Harry Styles to be gay" I don't know what to think about this headline and I really want to read it but its online only for subscribers

Here you go, Nons. (I hesitate to post this but…)

“The thing with Harry Styles is that he often does the bare minimum and gets an out-sized load of credit for it,” says songwriter and record label manager Grace Medford. For Medford, who has worked at Syco and is now part of the team at Xenomania records, Styles’s queer narrative has been projected on him by the media and his fans. “I don’t think that he queer-baits, but I don’t think he does anywhere near enough to get the response that he does.”

Of course, Styles does not need to explain or be specific about his sexuality. As Medford puts it: “he’s well within his rights to live his life how he chooses.” However, he has also created a space for himself in pop that allows him that ambiguity.

It’s a privilege few pop stars have. Last year, Rita Ora was hit with criticism after her song Girls, a collaboration with Charli XCX, Cardi B and Bebe Rexha, was dubbed problematic and accused of performative bisexuality. Even though Ora explicitly sang the lyric “I’m 50-50 and I’m never gonna hide it”, she was lambasted by social media critics, media commentary and even her fellow artists until she was forced to publicly confirm her bisexuality.

But the same was not done to Styles when he performed unreleased song “Medicine” during his world tour. The lyrics have never been confirmed, but the song is said to contain the line: “The boys and the girls are in/ I mess around with him/ And I’m okay with it.” Instead of probing him for clarity or accusing him of performativity, the song was labelled a “bisexual anthem” and praised as “a breakthrough for bisexual music fans”.

Of course, there’s misogyny inherent to such reactions. But there’s also something more layered and complex at play, too. “There’s such a dearth of queer people to look up to, especially people at Harry’s level,” posits Medford. “With somebody who is seen as cool and credible and attractive as Harry, part of it is wishful thinking, I think.

“The fact is, he was put together into a boyband on a television show by a Pussycat Doll. And he has rebranded as Mick Jagger’s spiritual successor and sings with Stevie Nicks; he’s really done the work there. Part of him doing that work is him stepping back and letting other people create a story for him.”

This enigmatic personal, along with his sexual ambiguity, his support of LGBTQ charities and his gender-fluid approach to fashion, creates the perfect incubation for queer fandom. It also provides a shield against serious accusations of queer-baiting. As Medford argues: “Harry’s queer mythology has been presented to and bestowed upon him by queer people whereas other acts feel like they have to actively seek that out.”

Vicky, who is 25 and from London, agrees: “To be able to attend his show with my pansexual flag and wave it around and feel so much love and respect - it’s an amazing feeling. I’m aware so many queer people can’t experience it so I’m very grateful Harry creates these safe spaces through his music and concerts.”

There’s appeal in Styles’s ambiguity, too. Summer Shaud, from Boston, says that Styles’ “giving no f—-” approach to sexuality and gender is “inspiring and affirming” for those people who are coming to terms with their own identities or those who live in the middle of sexuality or gender spectrums. “There’s enormous pressure from certain gatekeeping voices within the queer community to perform queerness in an approved, unambiguous way, often coming from people with no substantive understanding of bisexuality or genderfluidity who are still looking to put everyone into a box,” she argues. “Harry’s gender presentation, queer-coding, and refusal to label himself are a defiant rebuke of that “You’re Not Doing It Right” attitude, and that resonates so strongly with queers who aren’t exclusively homosexual or exclusively binary.”

In fact, she argues that there’s a symbiotic relationship between Styles and his queer fans. She cites an interview he gave to Rolling Stone this year in which he said how transformative the tour was for him. “For me the tour was the biggest thing in terms of being more accepting of myself, I think,” Styles shared. “I kept thinking, ‘Oh wow, they really want me to be myself. And be out and do it.’”

All of the queer Harry Styles fans I spoke to agreed that it really didn’t matter whether their idol was explicit about his sexuality or not. “It’s weird that people scrutinise people who don’t label [their sexuality] when they have no idea what that person feels like inside or, in Harry’s case, what it’s like to be under the public eye,” argues Valerie, who is 18. “It’s an individual choice, not ours,” agrees Vicky.

Arguably, the ambiguity and mystery that surrounds Styles only allows more space for queer people to find safety in him and in the fandom.

And so the cycle of queer mythologising continues, and is likely to continue for the rest of Styles’s career. And maybe things will change and maybe they won’t.

#I hope it goes without saying that I disagree with a LOT in this article #telegraph #not sure how else to tag this #asks #Anonymous

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theghostpinesmusic · 4 years

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I've been having a hard go of it lately, mostly because of *gestures at everything*, but music has, as always, been the thing that helps me keep my head on straight the most. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of JRAD in particular and I'm starting to feel like I really understand, for the first time in my life, what it is that has drawn so many people to the Grateful Dead's songbook over the last almost-sixty years. I can't claim to be a *good* songwriter, but I've been writing songs and thinking about what makes a good song for twenty years, and Hunter's songs are just so incredibly elegant and beautiful that it makes me wonder why it took me so long to hear it. Everything in its time, I guess.

Anyway, thanks to my tendency to need to neurotically dive into things I'm enthusiastically about as opposed to just casually liking things like actual humans do, I've always tended to have one band in particular that eats up most of my listening hours for years at a time, that I end up driving cross-country to see and that I spend way too much on records and merchandise for. In college, it was Phish (because of course it was), then Phish broke up, and for awhile it was Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, and then Ryan Adams freaked out (because of course he did). Then Phish came back, and that was pretty much 2009-2016. It took seven years, but eventually I got a little burnt out on neo-Phish and at the same time came across a northern California band called Chris Robinson Brotherhood.

Traveling around the northwest to see these guys play in tiny dive bars and basements (and once, memorably, in a VA cafeteria in Redding, CA) was the most fun I've ever had as a music fan. Going on winter CRB tour over Christmas break became a yearly ritual that I looked forward to for all of summer and fall each year. Then, suddenly (or so it seemed to me) the band broke up, and right afterward, the band's guitarist, Neal Casal, one of my biggest music idols and just a heartbreakingly nice guy, hung himself to death, and that was that.

Right before that happened, though, I took a trip down to Oakland in the fall of 2018 to see JRAD play two nights at the Fox Theater, and the second night of that run was what I imagine church must be like for people who believe in God. Like, the ones who *really* believe in God. It was amazing. Then this past summer, JRAD played a show at Red Rocks that I watched live from my couch, which they dedicated to Neal. They played a take on "Brokedown Palace" that they almost couldn't finish. People in the audience cried. The band cried. I cried. It was one of Neal's favorite songs. I saw four JRAD shows later in the summer and they were amazing. I had tickets to see five more this summer before COVID-19 hit; now, I'll have tickets for summer of 2021, and we'll see if it's safe to hold concerts by then when we get there.

So, "The Wheel." It's one of my favorite songs, not just because it's a great song, but because it's about the medieval concept of The Wheel of Fortune, which I teach my HUM 148 students about every winter. I'm always tempted to play this song for them. But I don't.

This is one of my favorite JRAD versions of the song because it showcases everything I love about them. All of my favorite improvisational rock comes from bands who are able and willing to listen to each other, and communicate through the music, and they're locked in in this sense from the very beginning of this version. Tommy throws in a few teases of the song "Joeline," by another of his bands called American Babies, and then we're off into the song proper:

The wheel is turning and you can't slow down You can't let go and you can't hold on You can't go back and you can't stand still If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will

Pure Chaucer-by-way-of-Americana, that.

Post-verses, the jam calms down into Marco doing a gorgeous but understated mellow piano thing until, at the 9:00 mark, he plays the main riff from Coldplay's "God Put a Smile On Your Face," which causes him and Joe to both burst out into laughter. I love this so much: it's completely unplanned, it happens, they both laugh, and without breaking stride Joe switches over into the drumbeat from the Coldplay song. The jam builds in intensity from there until the whole band is improvising around "God Put a Smile..." except for Joe and Scott, who start jamming *at the same time* on the Benevento/Russo Duo song "Becky." This finally all resolves (somehow) into a reprise of "The Wheel," but we aren't done yet, because Tommy teases Radiohead's "The National Anthem," which then leads to the whole band turning the end of "The Wheel" into a "The Wheel"/"National Anthem" medley. And it's so perfect because it's unplanned and arises organically from these guys' musical talent, their willingness to listen to each other, and the fact that together they likely have more music-nerd knowledge than a whole room full of indie record store owners. In all likelihood, they just had "The Wheel" written on the setlist when they walked out on stage, and everything else happened instead.

Anyway, this is how and why these long, meandering songs bring me joy, especially in times like these. I can only hope that if you've read this far, long, meandering essays also bring you joy. If not, thanks for hanging in anyway.

And check out A Rush Of Blood To The Head by Coldplay. It's not just about "The Scientist" and "Clocks," it's a real good album, from back before Coldplay got all...Chris Martin-y.

Cheers!

#music #live music #almost dead #jrad #joe russo's almost dead #grateful dead #coldplay

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alecodys · 5 years

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Camp TV Biographies

This is a very, very, very long post!! There’s literally every Season One character in here and Tumblr tried to get me to cut it in half multiple times but like. lol no. Anyways, everything is under the cut!

Beth What’s your best quality? My detective skills! I have solved many small cases back on my farm at home, the largest of which being who was responsible for the grain going missing. Turns out it was just a rat.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

My parents only have music from the 60’s, so that’s the only music I know.

I love pink! Especially more reddish ones.

What’s that one with a talking pig called? It reminds me so much of my own pig, Bertha!

My mum makes the best food ever, especially when it comes to pies.

Describe your craziest dream. I was a real detective, just like Sherlock Holmes! It was so cool, and I got to solve a murder, and I had a sidekick and everything!

Best memory from childhood? The day I got Bertha. She’s like a little sister to me.

Most embarrassing moment at school? One time I’d forgotten which shirt I had gotten dirty and I was in a rush, so I went to school in a muddy shirt with pig hoof-prints on it.

Describe the first job you ever had. I work on the farm as much as I can, in between school and detective work!

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’ll have moved to England, and become the best detective in all of Scotland Yard!

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but it would be less of a date, and more like me interviewing him and asking him what goes on in the mind of a detective as great as Sherlock.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Find out what caused it!

Bridgette What’s your best quality? My patience for others!

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

I’m not all that into music, but I do listen to recordings of the ocean like, all the time.

Definitely ocean blue.

I’m super into mermaid movies.

Anything that’s vegan, but especially seaweed brownies.

Describe your craziest dream. It’s not really crazy per say, but I was a dolphin and I got to hang out with this clownfish, and we were totally the best of friends. It was really cool, actually.

Best memory from childhood? My first time going boogie-boarding. It what made me fall in love with the water, you know?

Most embarrassing moment at school? We went out to the beach for camp one year and we got to go surfing, and I totally wiped out on one of the waves in front of everyone! It was terrible.

Describe the first job you ever had. I’m a lifeguard at the community pool after school! It’s not exactly glamorous, but hey, it’s pretty fun sometimes.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? Living back in Fiji with a nice girl, in a house by the beach and helping out Mother Earth.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? I can’t really think of someone off the top of my head, but we’d totally go surfing.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Make the most of it.

Cody What’s your best quality? Hm... my creativity, I guess? It helps for getting out of tough situations sometimes.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

There’s this musician, uh.. Neil Cicierega! I like his songs, but the Samsung ringtone is pretty good too.

I like pale oranges and blues!

I don’t really watch movies all that often, but uh.. don’t tell anyone I told you this, but I really like kid films, especially LEGO ones. Weird, I know.

I’m a sucker for anything with sugar! Although, it tends to make me super sick.

Describe your craziest dream. I was actually popular. I was so freaked out I woke up before anything could happen.

Best memory from childhood? Whenever I got to go to my aunt’s house! She has, like, the greatest German Shepard ever!

Most embarrassing moment at school? Literally the entirety of grade eight. God, I used to insist on being called stuff like “Codester” and “Codemeister”. Ugh.

Describe the first job you ever had. I got to dog-sit my aunt’s dog when I was 12 and she paid me ten bucks.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? Hopefully going out with the person of my dreams, but if not then probably just chilling at home, eating ice cream, wondering where I went wrong.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? Okay so like, there’s this really cute guy at my school, so probably him, and we’d just go to the carnival, eat cotton candy and go on rides, and after it’s all over we’d watch the sunset and it’d be super cute. I’ve put more thought into this than I should have.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Cry over it.

DJ What’s your best quality? How kind I am, and it’s all thanks to my mommas!

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Jamaican Reggae.

Lavender.

Anything with tons of animals!

My Mama’s chickpea Roti, although that may be tied with Ma’s cherry tarts... don’t tell her though.

Describe your craziest dream. I dreamt one time I was a cameraman for this reality TV show that took place in an abandoned film studio, and that I wasn’t paid a cent.

Best memory from childhood? Definitely the day my mommas adopted me. The orphanage was alright, but my mommas just give something that it could never, aside from stability.

Most embarrassing moment at school? The first day of school here in Canada, I only had shirts and shorts. I was freezing all day! I haven’t gone outside without a jacket or two on since.

Describe the first job you ever had. It’s not really a job, but Ma pays me a couple of dollars during summer to pick all the cherries from the cherry trees. They ripen late since it’s so cold here, but they’re absolutely beautiful.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’m in my house with my mommas, with a bunch of animals I adopted from the local animal shelter, eating chickpea Roti and cherry tarts.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? I don’t really date. I just don’t see anyone that way, y’know? But I’d love to go around Central Park with my mommas in a horse and carriage!

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Hang out with my mommas.

Duncan What’s your best quality? My ability to break out of juvie.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Punk rock.

Neon green.

Any slasher film, really.

Το σουβλάκι του παππού, not that hard of a question.

Describe your craziest dream. I was a four year old trying to scare the shit out of this girl with pigtails, but I got tethered to some kid with a gap in his teeth. We ended up scaring everyone as a mummy. It was kinda funny.

Best memory from childhood? When I snuck my younger cousin into an R rated film with my older sister. My sister was thirteen, I was ten, and my cousin was four. I’m surprised we managed to pull off that dumb trench coat trick.

Most embarrassing moment at school? I used to get embarrassed when my sister would pick me up in her smart car. I kind of miss it now, though.

Describe the first job you ever had. Job? Ha! Yeah, right.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’ll probably be hanging around the town my cousin lives in, maybe score a couple of gigs in some punk band I’ve started to rival that garage band that plays over there.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? Depends if anyone could take me. Or look past my criminal record.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? ...Visit my sister.

Ezekiel What’s your best quality? My ability to list my best quality in eight different languages, eh!

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Choir music! It’s the only music I know!

Forest green.

I’m not allowed to watch movies...

My mum and I work together to make the greatest biscuits ever, eh!

Describe your craziest dream. I was like a king of these mutated woodland creatures, eh. But I was all green and was wearing these really strange clothes, and I had no hair.

Best memory from childhood? My childhood wasn’t really all that eventful. I just stay inside all the time, eh.

Most embarrassing moment at school? When my teachers caught me trying to leave the house to go to a local school. They weren’t very happy with me, eh. I got grounded for five weeks.

Describe the first job you ever had. I don’t have a real job, since I’m always at home and my parents won’t let me outside.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’m at the farm, sitting on the porch and looking out over the fields. Pretty much what I do whenever school ends anyways.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? A girl like me, eh. We can talk about living on our farms and not being able to interact with other kids until we graduated school, and bond over archery.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Say goodbye to the cows.

Geoff What’s your best quality? I can party all night and all day, man! Also my hair is really soft apparently.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Party in the USA is my favourite song, dude! It’s, like, my anthem!

Bright pink! I may get weird looks for it sometimes, but I think it’s an awesome colour!

Literally any movie where parties are involved, dude.

Party pies! It’s the name, my man!

Describe your craziest dream. One time I dreamt that I threw the biggest party in Canadian history, and it was so big that like, even the news reported on it dude! But then the cops came and we had to shut it down. It was a massive bummer.

Best memory from childhood? My first birthday party ever! I was three and I invited all my friends from kinder, and we got to hit this disco ball shaped piñata and eat this giant cake! I’m still proud of it.

Most embarrassing moment at school? When I went to school with a blue shirt on instead of a pink one. I have a brand to uphold, man.

Describe the first job you ever had. Some kid at school tried to pay me five bucks to prank his bully and record it. I told him to keep the money and I did it anyways, because bullying isn’t cool, dude.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? Hosting a wicked party!

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? I don’t really know who I’d go on a date with, but we’d totally be having an awesome party out on the beach!

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Party hard!

Gwen What’s your best quality? My complete and utter lack of enthusiasm.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

I like early 2000’s emo music, I guess.

Dark red.

Bloodbath 2: Summer Camp Reign of Terror. If this camp isn’t like the movie then I’m not going to be very happy.

Those teeth gummies, the minty ones.

Describe your craziest dream. I dreamt I was having a good time being interviewed for some dumb summer camp my parents forced me to go to. Can you imagine?

Best memory from childhood? When my little brother learned to ride his bike. It makes it easier to get away from him now.

Most embarrassing moment at school? I spilled blue food colouring over my clothes in science class one time and had to walk around with that stain in my shirt for the rest of the day. It doesn’t sound bad, but it kinda looked like I’d drooled all over myself.

Describe the first job you ever had. I cut my brother’s hair for five bucks from my mum one time. Of course, she didn’t give me any clear instructions, and I was six, so I absolutely destroyed his hair.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’ll probably have some dumb degree, I don’t know. Probably just have a job and hanging out with somebody who I live with and love.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? It’s not a date really, but I’d love to time travel and meet Van Gogh. Unlike most artists, he was actually a really cool dude, and really tragic too. I’d like to meet Branwell Brontë too, but his whole family is cool.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Watch the last sunset.

Harold What’s your best quality? My high tolerance for those who are intellectually and behaviourally inferior to me. But my mum tells me not to say that so I guess it’s how good I am at building fantasy worlds.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Nothing beats the Pokemon Red soundtrack.

Mossy green.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, duh!

Beef stew, but especially the stew they serve at Medieval Steve’s Medieval Camp.

Describe your craziest dream. They named the Lord of the Rings something really dumb like Master of the Spheres.

Best memory from childhood? My first time going to a summer camp was pretty good. It was MSMC, but for “junior” kids, which basically meant people under the age of six.

Most embarrassing moment at school? Getting a fact about medieval history wrong in history class.

Describe the first job you ever had. I got paid by one of the kids at MSMC to beat the head troll in chocolate coins.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? A famous, bestselling author of a hit fantasy series that has been adapted masterfully into film.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? One of the elves, I guess, but mainly so they could teach me about their culture and their language so I could one day join and become one of them.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Try and stop it.

Heather What’s your best quality? I don’t really have that many good qualities, but people say they like how nice I am, so that counts for something, right?

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Lo-fi

Any shade of red!

I liked that one Pokemon movie with the... ah, yes! Shaymin!

I love mochi! It’s so yummy...

Describe your craziest dream. I dreamt I was, like, super tall! It was really cool beans, until everyone began calling me mean things and they were talking about something I did to this girl named Gwen? I don’t even know any girls named Gwen!

Best memory from childhood? The first Christmas I remember! My parents got me this super cute tricycle and it was red with little blue streamers on the handlebars, and I rode it around everywhere! Or maybe when we rescued Cupcake... gosh, now I can’t decide!

Most embarrassing moment at school? When my friend yelled at me for not getting her an iced chai latte in front of the whole class... it was horrible!

Describe the first job you ever had. I run errands for my friends all the time! Sometimes the things they want me to do get pretty gross though...

Ten years from now, what are you doing? Opening a cafe that serves the best mochi in all of Canada!

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? With a nice guy that likes me for who I am, going to cafes and petting cats and dogs and just doing what I wanna do for a day... I think that’d be totally awesome sauce.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Buy a Shaymin plushie! Then hug it for the rest of the day. Shoot, that was over the word limit...

Katie What’s your best quality? Sadie always says she loves my, like, optimism!

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

I love listening to pop and, like, 70’s rock!

Pastel pink.

Sadie and I love, like, watching Mean Girls together!

Dark cherries! They also make for some, like, really tasty earrings.

Describe your craziest dream. I was without Sadie for, like, an entire day!

Best memory from childhood? The day I met Sadie, when she moved to the house, like, next door to mine. She was, like, kinda hard to understand at first, but over time her Scottish-ness mellowed out a bit.

Most embarrassing moment at school? When I tried to stand up for Sadie when a bully was, like, pushing her around, and accidentally hit my funny bone on the locker door.

Describe the first job you ever had. Sadie and I work at this super cute ice cream shop together!

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’ll own the ice cream store and have added, like, a bazillion more flavours! It’s quiet during winter, but there’s tons of people during summer, and that’s really all I need.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? I’d so, like, love to go on a date with Sadie. We could go to a sewing workshop and I’d stitch her the best stuffie, like, ever!

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Kiss Sadie...

LeShawna What’s your best quality? All of them, duh.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Anything I can dance along to, sugar.

Yellow.

High School Musical 2.

Mango chutney is always good.

Describe your craziest dream. It was more of a nightmare, really. I was stuck in a room full of spiders and those eight-legged freaks covered me head to toe, but I couldn’t scream.

Best memory from childhood? When I won my first ever beauty pageant. Mind you, it was kindergarten, and I was the only participant, but that doesn’t matter.

Most embarrassing moment at school? Honey, I don’t get embarrassed. I haven’t got anything to be embarrassed about.

Describe the first job you ever had. I work at this dumb coffee shop. The only reason I’m still there is because I get free pastries.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’m the CEO of a multinational corporation, and, obviously, the most famous billionairess in the world!

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? Look, sugar, do you seriously think anyone is up to my standards?

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Dance the day away.

Lindsay What’s your best quality? My looks, of course.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Pop songs, definitely.

Pinkest Pink. It’s the pinkest shade of pink that exists.

Legally Blonde.

Anything that helps me keep my figure.

Describe your craziest dream. I was some other girl’s lackey. It was disgusting.

Best memory from childhood? The first time I tried out sparkly lip gloss. I still have the empty container somewhere so I can, like, look back on it and remind myself how far I’ve come.

Most embarrassing moment at school? Ugh, definitely when I forgot to apply my eyeshadow. My ‘friends’ may have pretended not to notice, but I could tell they had.

Describe the first job you ever had. I’m a cashier at Lush on the weekends. They give me discount on face masks as long as I, like, sell enough. So, obviously, I get, like, three free face masks a week.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? Applying my makeup.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? Some hunky model, walking around town so everyone can envy us.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Spread rumours.

Noah What’s your best quality? My cynicism.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

The kind I can’t hear.

Meh.

No thanks.

Just ate.

Describe your craziest dream. I don’t care about my dreams enough to remember them.

Best memory from childhood? My first time playing a video game. I was three and I completed the first level within a minute.

Most embarrassing moment at school? People with brains and wit like mine don’t get embarrassed.

Describe the first job you ever had. I was a tutor for some high school jock when I was five.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’ll be at home, sitting on my couch, relaxing and reading a book.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? I wouldn’t want to go on a date with him, since I have no idea what he looks like, but there’s a guy in my Underground Alliance that is really good at organising raids, so I guess him.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Sleep.

Owen What’s your best quality? My appetite, haha!

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Nickleback all the way! Woohoo!

Maple syrup brown!

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs! I don’t care what anyone says, it just looks so deliciously good!

Anything that my stomach can take is good in my book! Which is just about everything, haha!

Describe your craziest dream. Hm... probably the one where doughnuts were raining from the sky! I wish something like that could happen in real life...

Best memory from childhood? When my Ma and Pa got me my first cookbook! There were so many delicious recipes in there, like that Cookie Monster ice cream cake, and the chocolate fudge cookies!

Most embarrassing moment at school? When I forgot to add one of the ingredients to my nachos in food tech, it just didn’t have the same cheesy, gooey goodness!

Describe the first job you ever had. I work at my parents bakery sometimes! I make apple strudels for them, and they always get way more customers when I do! It makes me feel super happy!

Ten years from now, what are you doing? Working at the bakery with my parents, making as many apple strudels as the people want, haha!

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? All of my pals from school, throwing a party in a cottage where we can make as many s’mores and finger sandwiches we want!

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Write down all my recipes!

Sadie What’s your best quality? Katie says she, like, loves how my eyes sparkle when I smile!

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

Late 2000’s pop music, the kind you can, like, jump around and party to!

Red, like the colour of my shirt.

Katie and I, like, love to watch Mean Girls together!

Honeycrisp apples! But, like, only honeycrisp.

Describe your craziest dream. Katie wasn’t my best friend, and it was, like, so weird!

Best memory from childhood? The day I met Katie! She acted kinda, like, weird at first, but we’re, like, the best of friends!

Most embarrassing moment at school? I tried to stand up for Katie because, like, this bully was teasing her, and, like, bullying isn’t cool! But I tripped on my heels and, like, knocked the bully over like a bowling pin. So, like, it wasn’t that bad.

Describe the first job you ever had. Katie and I work at the, like, cutest ice cream shop ever!

Ten years from now, what are you doing? I’ll own a cafe that’s, like, right next door to Katie’s ice cream shop, and there will be this door connecting the buildings so people can, like, buy lunch and then go right next door to Katie’s!

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? Oh, I’d love to go on a date with Katie! She’s just so nice, and pretty, and says, like, the sweetest things! We could go to the beach and I’d collect all the, like, prettiest seashells for her!

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Kiss Katie...

Trent What’s your best quality? Either my straight A’s or my ukulele playing skills, depends on who you ask.

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

I like those covers on YouTube where it’s just people singing and playing the ukulele, no matter what song it is. It helps calm me down.

Green, but I’m pretty sure that’s kind of obvious.

Love, Simon. I read the book, too, and both of them are fantastic!

I know it’s not really a food, but I love orange juice.

Describe your craziest dream. I followed my dad’s advice and became an accountant. I mean, can you imagine? Me? An accountant?

Best memory from childhood? When I won my first ever award at the school talent show. Looking back on it, I can’t see why they voted for me, since one of my ukulele’s strings broke mid-performance, but I’m still proud.

Most embarrassing moment at school? I don’t know, maybe when one kid almost set fire to the end of my hair in chemistry? But that wasn’t really embarrassing for me, really.

Describe the first job you ever had. It’s nothing that cool, I’m just a cashier at some supermarket.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? Hopefully, I’ll be known world-wide for my music and be on tour, playing ukulele and making fans happy.

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? Probably just hanging out with a couple of mates at the beach, swimming, building sandcastles, you know. The works.

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Write a song.

Tyler What’s your best quality? My sporting ability!

Faves? (music, colour, movie, food)

I like those tunes they play at the beginning of the sports part of the news, with the swishy 3D logo and everything!

Blue and green!

Bend It Like Beckham!

My high-protein high-carb energy bars!

Describe your craziest dream. I dreamt all the colours in the world were, like, inverted! To be fair, I had had around ten of my energy bars that day, so...

Best memory from childhood? When I headbutted the soccer ball into the net in my first ever soccer game! So what if it was just me and my dad playing, it’s the thought that counts!

Most embarrassing moment at school? When my mum was my substitute gym teacher and she kept assigning me places on the court where I couldn’t do anything. It was like she was trying to make me look bad or something!

Describe the first job you ever had. My parents won’t let me get a job. Something about me being too ‘clumsy’ or whatever.

Ten years from now, what are you doing? Playing in the big leagues! In every sport!

My dream date would be with __________, doing what? Jess from Bend It Like Beckham! We could play soccer together, and it’d be totally cool!

It’s the last day on earth. In five words or less, what would you do? Everything to the extreme!

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tswiftsedits · 5 years

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For years, it seemed as though the internet had one collective request for Taylor Swift: Use your platform for the greater good! The singer-songwriter was noticeably silent after the 2016 election, save for a vague voting selfie that didn’t give any insight into the specifics of her politics, and a tweet during the inaugural Women’s March that many fans found lacking. And throughout the first year of Trump’s presidency — a time when so many celebrities came forward to take a stand against his policies and administration — Swift remained quiet, despite fans urging her to speak out at every turn.

Swift’s current era is a lot different. Beginning in October 2018 with an Instagram post declaring her intention to vote Democrat in the Midterm Elections, this version of Swift is anything but apolitical. At the start of Pride Month (June 2019), Swift shared a letter written to Senator Lamar Alexander asking him to support the LGBTQ community via the Equality Act, and her latest music video for “You Need To Calm Down” urges her fans to do the same by linking to a Change.org petition. On top of that, Swift has donated $113,000 of her own money to the Tennessee Equality Project, a LGBTQ advocacy group in her home state. In a word, Taylor Swift has gotten political. And yet, for some, it’s still not enough.

Taylor Swift’s new song “You Need To Calm Down” is her first track that openly tackles socio-political issues, with a verse dedicated to taking down homophobia. The single was initially met with positive reception from her fansand fellow celebrities, but others soon expressed skepticism about the singer’s allyship, questioning the motives behind her choice to advocate for the LGBTQ community. One review says “YNTCD” simply “feels insincere,” calling it a “half-hearted protest anthem” with a message that seems “forced and unnatural.”

But the facts of Swift’s activism tell another story. At the time of writing, Swift’s Equality Act petition has garnered over 275,000 signatures, with a goal of 300,000. GLAAD reported an influx in donations in the amount of $13 (AKA Swift’s favorite number) shortly after the release of “YNTCD,” which nods to the organization in one of its lyrics. And after Swift posted her letter to Senator Alexander, her fans followed suit, writing letters of their own, and the singer’s first political Instagram post seemingly served as the catalyst for an uptick in voter registration in Tennessee.

Critics should note this isn’t a new occurrence. In 2017, Swift testified in a countersuit against a DJ whom she accused of groping her at a meet-and-greet four years earlier. Shortly thereafter, sexual assault hotlines saw an increase in calls, with organizations attributing that increase to the singer’s choice to speak out. “[Swift’s victory was] a great demonstration to other victims that there is strength in coming forward and pursuing justice,” RAINN President Scott Berkowitz told ABC News at the time. “Seeing someone that they respect, that they identify with [state they've been assaulted], has a big impact.”

Swift’s personal generosity has also been long documented. Back in 2011, the singer donated nearly $70,000 in books to her hometown library. Upon the success of her 2014 single “Welcome To New York,” Swift donated $50,000 of the song’s proceeds to the New York Department of Education, and she has a reputation for personally helping fans in times of need.

In the wake of Swift’s recent political activism, plenty of public figures, politicians, and organizations have voiced their gratitude to the artist. Senator Cory Booker, who co-introduced the Equality Act in May 2017, said: “Throughout our history, movements powered by people have propelled our country forward, and today’s times are a true reflection of that legacy. I’m so grateful to Taylor Swift for starting this petition. Seeing it grow...in a matter of days is a demonstration of how change happens, and it’s inspiring.” Anthony Ramos, Director of Talent Engagement at GLAAD, called Swift’s actions the “true sign of being an ally,” and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) thanked the singer for “her commitment to equality.”

But Swift’s biggest critic has always been the collective voice of the internet, as she herself even recognizes in the opening lyrics of “YNTCD.” And it seems as though the internet will always find a reason to dislike Taylor Swift no matter what she does; yes, even when she does exactly what people have called on her to do for years. That same review that labeled Swift’s song as “insincere” also used the phrase “valley girl” to describe her lyrics (an insult that is both tired and sexist), arguing that “YNTCD” sounds like “a dozen Taylor Swift songs you've already heard.” Some on social media have accused Swift of once again playing the victim with a song leveraged at her “haters” — a common theme throughout her career.

Quite often, the negativity directed towards Swift isn’t tied to anything tangible: her song feels insincere, she seems like she’s being fake — the list goes on. When she was silent on politics during and after the 2016 election, the public decided to fill in the blanks, with many assuming Swift was a Trump supporter simply because she didn’t say anything to the contrary. And now, even with concrete numbers to reinforce the fact that Swift is making a positive impact by using her voice in the exact way she’d been called on to do, there are some who still aren’t satisfied.

The pervasive disdain for the singer — regardless of her words, actions, or lack thereof — seems to suggest that none of this has ever been about Swift’s politics. A lack of outright activism allowed Swift to become a punching bag, and some folks are having a hard time reversing that narrative to align with the facts.

But regardless of how anyone feels about Swift’s music, her impact is undeniable — and it’s only going to grow. With over 83 million followers on Twitter, and 118 million on Instagram, she has an enormous audience of impressionable fans, ready to jump on board with whatever she says or does. Swift has power, and she knows it. And this time around, she’s not using that power to reclaim the snake emoji or stir the pot of age-old celebrity feuds; instead, she’s using her voice to advocate for issues that matter. She listened to what the internet had to say. Maybe it’s time we returned the favor.

#taylor swift #about taylor #long post #listen i know for a fact this got probably posted somewhere else and has a thousand billion notes but #i'm too lazy to look for it and i want this article on this blog because i love it so much

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asagi-s-garden · 5 years

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So I've been seeing posts about how "You Need To Calm Down" isn't the "right kind" of queer support and allow me, a humble bisexual, to interject my opinion

Though as a disclaimer: I obviously do not speak for the entire LGBTQ+ community and we all are different with our own opinions and that's fine, but I want to make a post from the side that SUPPORTS YNTCD and explain WHY I do as a queer person myself

Listen, I LOVE the positivity anthems, I love songs like "Born This Way" and songs by LGBTQ+ artists like Troye Sivan and Halsey, but I love YNTCD too, because sometimes- I'm just a salt pile and want to express that

The biggest complaint I hear about YNTCD as a song is that it's comparing homophobes to haters and instead of pushing LGBTQ+ people *UP*, it's trying to put homophobes *DOWN* and ? I mean ? That.. that isn't a bad thing, necessarily..? Obviously pushing our community up is the bigger priority but I'm a bitter gremlin and am always elated for EVERY chance to see homophobes put down

Lately it's become A Thing to out the assholes in art- be that visual art, music, film, literature, etc- but for the most part, in mainstream, queer people don't seem to be getting to have alot of these moments, a big problem with the way we're represented- still- is that there's still a limit in mainstream media that wants all queer people to be Happy And Gay And Quiet Unless You're Flamboyant all the time, Angry Gays aren't really a thing but ... they should be

I have as much a right to be angry about the people who would want me dead for liking girls as anyone has a right to be mad at anyone, and I could express that anger through Tumblr rants or poking trolls or sitting here being bitter.. or I could tell myself "These idiots need to calm down" and blast that song and go about my day

The fact is that sometimes I'm in the mood for celebrating who I am through Pure Positivity and being entirely about "Being Queer Is Good The End" ... and sometimes I'm in the mood to be salty about homophobes and say "Being Queer Is Good And Also Ya'll Are Morons" and that's ok too, I don't need to calm down, I can be be angry and listen to YNTCD and feel like someone who's voice is louder than mine is speaking my anger for me and that feels REALLY good

The fact is, Taylor has never really been someone who expressed her feelings through Positivity Anthems, she's always been about calling out the people who piss her off- for better or worse, so YNTCD is very much HER style of support, it isn't less supportive for being a shade song, it's just a different kind of supportive than what most mainstream media wants to express, but that isn't an inherently bad thing

Taylor has put so much into this video and this song, so much that no one ever pushed her to put in, she is one of, if not THE, most watched face of music and she's using that power to not only say "I'm An Ally", she's saying "Yeah I'm an ally and also homophobes are no better than petty haters and also please sign this petition so we can actually DO something about the idiots who have power over this community thanks" and .. ?? Thank you?? I'm not asking anyone to like Taylor who doesn't already, but as a member of the LGBTQ+ community it's just kind of exhausting to see someone who's legitimately doing A Big Deal Thing for this community being criticized and bashed for it, and to downplay the fact that she's not just "being an ally" by putting up a rainbow photo on Instagram and calling it a day but actually taking legal action- and using her platform as a giant celebrity to ENHANCE that legal action- for a community that she isn't even part of herself, is a really unfortunate thing to do

You don't have to like YNTCD or Taylor, you don't have to think it's a queer anthem, but ya'll have really got to stop saying that Taylor isn't an ally/isn't a good ally when she's literally taking legal action to help us stay safe from the kind of people who would rather see us dead, and also acknowledge that just because this support isn't the flavor of support you personally prefer.. that doesn't make it less supportive, there ARE plenty of queer people out here who really appreciate having a Tea song, and downplaying homophobes as haters and not, you know, legitimately dangerous people who kill people like us all the time, might help some of us feel a little better, a little less afraid, it can be terrifying to confront just how violent and, at times, powerfull this particular brand of "haters" is, acknowledging that they're no better than petty assholes who pitch Twitter tantrums is cathartic in a way, and I personally actually appreciate the comparison, it makes these idiots less scary, seeing the way Taylor represents them and the way she represents us is cathartic, maybe it's not Pure Positivity... but that's ok, not all support has to be

TL;DR: Sometimes a salty bi just needs a tea-spilling bop to listen to *shrug*

#Taylor Swift #You Need To Calm Down #YNTCD

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dreamcatcherjmo · 7 years

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“Niall is the straightest member of 1D”

No one is probably gonna read this but I’m writing it anyways because I feel like it’s important to talk about, and no one really did before.

From the moment I joined the 1d fandom (2012) Niall was referred to as the captain of the Larry ship, and later the captain of the Ziam ship as well. A big portion of this fandom saw him as the guy who was secretly outing his best mates by sending ‘signs’ or just simply standing in the middle of them. He was the biggest ally to them but also the only straight member of the band. These people didn’t just call him ‘straight’, no, they called him ‘the straightest’. They based this all on stereotypes because Niall loves beer, sports and the way he dresses is TOTALLY straight.

This isn’t some post about proving how ‘not straight’ Niall is, this is a post that explains how wrong and disgusting it is that people gave him this role in the band.

First of all, let me start off by saying Niall NEVER stated his sexuality, he never even talked about it on any public occasion. Which means if you think Niall is straight, you’re basing it on nothing but stereotypes. If you’re basing it on the fact that he’s dated women, I’d like to congratulate you on your bi/pan erasure.

Second, Niall goes around calling men attractive, hot, sexy, you name a compliment and Niall probably gave it to a guy. Not to mention he’s very cuddly and touchy with other men as well. Now I’m not saying this means anything for his sexuality, he could be straight and still be like this. However, when Harry (or any of the other boys, but Harry is the most similar to Niall in this) gives a guy a compliment about his looks, or when he’s close with another man people freak out because this OBVIOUSLY means he’s gay. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.)

Third, Niall has shown his support for the LGBT+ community on multiple occasions but this is usually swept under the rug because most people don’t CARE!! Just recently Niall wore rainbow socks that are literally called ‘pride socks' on the Happy Socks website and the description says ‘wear to show your support for the lgbt+ community.’ He did this in a country where homosexuality was recently ruled as a disease and yet barely any of these people commented on it, and if they did it was often something like ‘okay but rainbows don’t always stand for lgbt+ pride… :/’ or they see it as proof he’s ‘SUCH an ally, he really wants Larry and Ziam out!!’ AND YET these same people flipped shit when Harry grabbed a random rainbow mug (that didn’t even have the right colours) in the DMD video. And don’t get me wrong, I think Harry is amazing for all the support he gave the lgbt+ community, and I think the stuff he’s doing with the pride flags at his concert is great but there’s a reason people started taking these pride flags to Harry’s concert, and never took one to Niall’s. Why are you assuming if a pride flag was thrown on stage during Niall’s gig he wouldn’t take it?

And last, people are often analyzing the songs Harry, Louis, Liam and Zayn wrote to see if their could be a hint of why that song is a gay anthem. They talk about it for YEARS on end when a song doesn’t have pronouns (or no she pronouns) While the biggest percentage of Niall’s album has NO pronouns and no one cares? He might have done this without even thinking about it, and once again I’m not saying we SHOULD be analyzing his lyrics, but the double standards are insane. It’s not even just in lyrics, when Harry uses ‘them’ pronouns while talking people go: “NO STRAIGHT MAN EVER DID THIS” but Niall is talking about ‘someone’ and ‘them’ instead of a girl all the time. And when asked about what This Town was about he said (quote): “It’s basically about when you had a girl or a guy you dated when you were like 12, but when you go home you bump in to them everywhere.” could you IMAGINE the hundreds of posts being made about this if it was any of the other boys who said this? Yet, when it’s Niall no one gives it a second thought.

I’m really sorry about this long post but this had been bothering me for a long time. Niall is NOT the straightest member of 1d, Niall’s sexuality is unknown and remains unknown until he decides to speak up about it. Niall deserves so much more love for the things he does and he doesn’t deserve to be used to prop up a ship.

#niall horan #larry #ziam #one direction #1d #lgbt+#harry styles #louis tomlinson #zayn malik #liam payne #i kinda went off #i'm just so done

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deadcactuswalking · 3 years

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BRIT Awards 2021: Observations, Comments & Review

I don’t have a commentary post on the BRIT Awards like I usually do because be honest: nobody wants to read that, but regardless I do feel the need to keep up with the tradition of the event and post some comments about the awards since, well, it’s going to impact the chart. It would make a hell of a lot more sense to broadcast the show on a Friday as a result of that so it makes the biggest possible impact and doesn’t leave me with confusing left-overs and assorted gains that only picked up traction in the mid-week... but I digress. You should get the gist but I’ll do some explaining prior for the sake of it. Regardless, I guess welcome to REVIEWING THE CHARTS?

So, how do the BRIT Awards work? Well, every year, the BPI – the British Phonographic Industry – holds the BRITs to celebrate pop music in the most high-profile ceremony for popular music in the United Kingdom. Back in the 1990s, it used to feature some of the craziest, most unexpected moments in the history of British pop music, with this anarchic reputation that has since been sanitised and refined to where it is now: a high-budget award ceremony hosted by some idiot, probably, and recorded live for broadcast on ITV. This year, it’s hosted by Jack Whitehall – as it has consistently been in recent years – and was delayed as a result of the global pandemic, but regardless, it’s back and we’ll see how the show copes with restrictions and social distancing... okay, well, it does involve Dua Lipa so I don’t think much of that will be going on but regardless, the show will naturally be affected by COVID-19, even if our response is going better than it was this time last year with all the vaccines coming out. What has not changed is our host and, oh, my God, I wish it did because Jack Whitehall is an annoying void of personality who’s never not been unfunny and awkward, especially on such an improvisational show like the BRITs. I think the only host who can live up to the flamboyancy of the show is Graham Norton, but he’s got his work cut out for him as the Eurovision narrator and he does a damn good job at that too.

Most awards are announced on the night but some, like the Global Icon and Rising Star award, were already decided – it’s Taylor Swift and Griff, by the way. I do play a little game every year where I have a scorecard, and that’ll be posted right now. After that scorecard is posted, you’ll come back to me from after the awards have finished with some of my comments – nothing of a gret deal of detail, probably, but definitely observational. See you in a tad.

Well, that was a nice slice of rainbow capitalism, if a bit too refined for what it is. I’ve felt this for years now but the BRITs do feel so factory-processed to go perfectly now that some of the charm is lost. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the ceremony as that would be largely untrue – a lot of the performances for one were great. Some highlights included Olivia Rodrigo’s performance which in my eyes certified her as a popstar to watch, especially with that husky, imperfect vocal delivery towards the end that really sold it for me. The Weeknd delivered the most consistently and aesthetically high-quality performance with a “Save Your Tears” Zoomed straight from I assume Canada. Years & Years paraded around with Elton John on a technicolour stage pretty befitting for the gay anthem they performed, Headie One and AJ Tracey traded some new politically-charged verses with less impact than Dave but pretty fitting of the entire aesthetic of the show. The last BRIT Awards felt perhaps too serious, not that I’m offended by social messages being placed into award shows, but the fun just wasn’t there and was actually here in spades, especially with the vibrant Y2K choice of aesthetic that made perfect sense for a lot of these performers, especially the Dua Lipa medley that basically started the show off with some high-energy girl-group nostalgia.

In fact, a lot of that was there this evening, with Little Mix becoming the first all-female group to win Best British Group, to my surprise, and HAIM of all people winning Best International Group, although it seems clear to me that the awards were just given to whoever was there as a result of certain restrictions. Said restrictions in fact made the show arguably smoother and more refined than ever, and I’m actually happy for it. There were barely any noticeable mistakes either, other than an indecipherable few verses from Headie One in which he performed gestures that made it quickly obvious what was being rapped anyway, and Lewis Capaldi commanding everyone in the audience, including key workers, to shut up before his quickly-censored profanity, long after the watershed, bled out through emergency mute functions.

The whole “key workers” bit has annoyed me since the pandemic started – if the government is going to be this performance, at least provide them adequate pay and mental welfare for all of the arduous work you put NHS frontline workers through long before and including the pandemic. I’m saying that not because I wanted to spew my own diatribe but because that’s pretty much what Dua Lipa said as the Queen herself made sure to not only have one of the best performances of the night but also deliver some of the longest and most meaningful victory speeches, in which she dedicated her awards to individuals you may not have even heard about who have served their local and national community on a certain scale. Charities were often brought up, whether it’s Boy George blessing the rains down in Africa much like he patronisingly did on the at-best misguided, at-worst maliciously ignorant “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” all those years ago. Proceeds from Years & Years and Elton John’s performance will go to charity, as will those of Rag’n’Bone Man and P!nk’s “Anywhere Away from Here” (which is actually a genuinely good song live rather than on studio recording). Rag’n’Bone Man may have the biggest impact next week on the charts because he had both the closing performance and the album boost, so watch out for that on Friday.

Speaking of that, this awards show was on a Tuesday, meaning its chart impact will be muted or at least split between two tracking weeks – although I do think this is the type of event that can help a song have some mid-week rebound. The impact of the BRIT Awards as a whole intrigues me – I mean, it has much less prestige than the GRAMMYs and was known for its campy chaos. It’s never been about awarding credibility or artistic reputation, even if Taylor Swift may have thought it was in her semi-inspiring speech, it’s always just about putting on a fun, extravagant show. Money should probably be pumped into something more representative of Britain – the only Scottish man who spoke was Lewis Capaldi – but as we have this tradition, we might as well engage and enjoy the mindlessness of it all. The cynic in me says it’s fake-woke circle-jerks for millionaire popstars but I can never watch it and conclude that it’s anything as deep as that. I mean, it started with Coldplay sounding like hand gel and featured a sea shanty acting as a roast of the guests but still had some serves and looks from everyone on the red carpet and somehow managed to get Michelle Obama to big up The Weeknd for two minutes straight, so it’s doing something right. In the nicest way possible, the BRITs this year were very lame and very gay, but that’s the purpose they will always need to fill in pop culture. See you on Saturday!

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tastethegrace · 3 years

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Analyzing “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”

I don’t often post things as they’re having their cultural moment. However, this song by Lil Nas X, a rap/hip hop/pop artist, who is famous for his song “Old Town Road” a few years ago, has caused quite the stir. On one side of the fence is the LGBTQ+ community, who touts this song as an anthem to the artist’s sexual identity. On the other are the Christians, many of whom have posted warnings on social media, urging fellow believers to “wake up,” guard their children, and many calling down the name of Jesus against the Satanic imagery associated with it. The music video for this song sees the artist depicted as Eve in the garden of Eden, being seduced by the serpent. He is then on trial, then descends into hell, where he himself seduces the Devil. The artist has also partnered with street wear brand MSCHF to produced what many are calling “Satan shoes.” These shoes apparently have contain one drop of human blood in the soul, have a black and red color scheme with pentagrams painted on the soul and attached to the laces.

So first off, the reason I’m writing this post is to critique the Christian reaction to this song and its associated media. It’s important to understand this right off the bat, as I will not be analyzing this song on its artistic merits. Instead, I will attempt to analyze the artist’s intent behind the imagery and symbolism he chooses to use.

If there’s one thing that I have grown to understand, it’s that the American Church has a fundamental misunderstanding of how believers are to interact with culture. We have been stuck in the same culture war for decades, with this idea that we must enforce our beliefs on others, affect change through politics and protests, and fear all that is antithetical to the Christian belief system. This latter point is the most significant, and one that many of my Christian friends may dispute.

Let me explain here. In the age of social media, everyone judges and reacts quickly, posting their affirmations and protests for everyone to see without putting much thought into what they’re actually critiquing. Sadly, the American Church, most of the time, has followed suit. Rather than choosing a different way to interact with the world on social media, it has become a leading reactionary voice -- a more intense version of what already exists in the mainstream. It has so become the case that the world looks on and mocks.

As a younger Christian, I went with the flow, just as everyone else did. But as a I grew up, and especially in college, I learned the importance of questioning, of slowing down, of considering the ins and outs, the truths and lies present in our everyday world. I believe this process gives insight into the presence of God in our everyday lives, presenting us with his truth and beauty, present even in the darkest of places. It also gives us the ability to, like Jesus, call something what it actually is, diminishing its power, and responding to it with the importance/weight it deserves.

Now understanding this context and the process by which I will move forward, let’s talk about this song. First of all, the lyrics explicitly discuss the artist’s encounters with one specific person, a male in this context. There’s a couple of levels to this song. The first, that many in the LGBTQ+ community point out, is that he says that his partner “lives in the dark,” while he himself “cannot pretend.” This refers to the fact that his partner is a closeted gay man, while Lil Nas is out. As for the rest of the lyrics here, Lil Nas discusses his attachment to this man and the sexual experiences he has and wants to have with him. He mentions the use of drugs to illustrate a hellish environment. On a deeper level, evidenced even more clearly in the music video, Lil Nas is using this situation as a metaphor to reach out to his former, closeted self.

In the interest of digging for the truth, I would go one step further here. While it is obvious that the artist wishes to affirm his former self and encourage a lifestyle that is honest, at the very least, he also confesses what he wants very clearly. All of the explicit imagery here is true to his experience. So what does he want? He wants deep connection, intimate experiences, and he’s ultimately willing to go to “hell” to get it, even if his partner won’t come out.

Why is it important to understand this? Am I trying to affirm how Lil Nas gets what he wants? No, but that’s also not the point. Understanding the artist’s questions are just as important as understanding his answers; in my opinion, even more so. In order to make any sort of true judgment of merit or integrity, either subjective or objective, it’s important to understand fully how the artist is coming to his conclusions.

Moving on to the music video, I’m going to use an analysis posted by reddit user margarita_atwood, as she discusses much of I what I found myself.

Everyone is going to have an opinion on this video, whether that opinion is heavily in favor or disfavor...Later, I’ll talk about why the negative opinions about this video don’t really matter and actually play right into LNX’s plans.

Lil Nas as every character: Through the miracle of CGI, LNX plays every single character. Some people might interpret this as LNX making love to himself in some scenes, but I think it has more to do with the Jungian concept of the Shadow Self (explained some in this video). There’s definitely some interesting psychology behind LNX playing all the parts. He’s talking to himself, seducing himself, running from himself. And I don’t think it would have had the same impact if the main characters were played by anyone else. He’s definitely being a little narcissistic, which he winks at with his own face on a Narcissus flower (daffodil) that I’ll get to next...He also says in the intro: “Welcome to Montero”, which is both this fantasy land he is creating for us in the video, and introducing us to his real self, saying welcome to the real me.

Scene 1- Garden of Eden: In the first scene. We’ve got the temptation of Adam by the snake/Satan in the Garden of Eden story mixed with Greek classical architecture motifs (sans Eve, as LNX raps “If Eve ain’t in your garden/ You know that you can/ Call me when you want”). In the reaction video I mentioned earlier, LNX talks about how growing up gay in a black church (or any church for that matter) made him repress and feel ashamed about his budding sexuality as a young adult. So while the lyrics are explicit, all of the themes in the video are very pointed allegories about how he’s dealt with his sexuality. He runs away from his tempting snake-self, meanwhile running past a Lion King-esque Mufasa cloud featuring his fate/destiny, and Narcissus flowers AKA daffodils (in the Greek myth, daffodils grew where Narcissus drowned after staring at his own reflection for too long), only to be caught by his temptation in a scene that gives me a ton of Labyrinth vibes. After his literal fall with possible Paradise Lost references to this perceived “sin,” we nearly see his alien-snake-self fellate his Adam-self. Finally, we close in on a shot of Greek writing on a tree. Some people smarter than I were able to find out that this is an excerpt from Plato’s Symposium which reads: “So in the beginning when they were cut in two, they yearned for each other’s half.” Symposium is basically a bunch of Greek philosophers telling metaphorical campfire stories about love (let’s ignore once again problematic themes of statutory rape in some of this). The excerpt in the video in particular is a part where one of Plato’s students Aristophanes gives an account of the origin of soulmates. Originally people were joined as two people to make one whole person. In this story, there were male/male, female/female, and female/male pairings and the gods became jealous and split them in two. The Montero excerpt is explaining this splitting of soul mates where they’re doomed to long for their other halves to become whole for eternity. Lots of allegories there regarding LNX trying to seduce a possibly gay man who is still in the closet.

Scene 2- The gladiator’s Colosseum: LNX then is taken as a prisoner in chains to a Greek colosseum, also full of LNX judges in Marie Antoinette wigs and faceless LNX mob spectators. I believe his character in this scene is supposed to be a Ulysses-type as his pink, fur shawl he’s wearing has a ram’s head broach...the blue LNX jury sentences him to...jail, and he gets literally stoned to death... Ulysses-LNX presumably dies and his soul is being lifted up to the heavens. An angel awaits him above, with a lot of Creation of Adam motifs (which was also hinted at on LNX’s IG). But just before he reaches his guardian angel.... a stripper pole rises up from the earth...and he rides that b**** all the way to the seventh inner circle of h*** in some thigh-high boots, tricking all the way down.

Scene 3- Twerking on the devil: And now we get to the biggest scandal. LNX said to those of you who think gays deserve to go to hell, watch me go to hell and give Satan a lap dance....he’s one-upping the shock factor in each part. Think it’s scandalous to go down on myself? Just wait. There’s some trolling of Illuminati/Satanist conspiracy rumors in the motifs. Honestly, the purpose of this scene is that he knew religious types would try and metaphorically crucify him over the lyrics. So he said let me beat you to it. He’s trolling the religious hater that I’m sure made his life growing up a proverbial hell already. And hey, the more times they stream and react to the song out of anger, the more money he makes from their anger. And then he goes and pulls a mafia hit, killing Satan after seducing him, and taking his horns of braids and becoming the fallen angel...

While perhaps not stated the most eloquently, and obviously from a more approving light, the OP gives us some insight into the symbolism used in this video. On first glance, the believer might gag at how biblical imagery is used and twisted here. However, I would encourage that believer to be patient and consider for a moment a few things.

1. If we let our gut reaction to this imagery become our public reaction, we prove the artist’s perspective of believers correct in the eyes of the world.

2. If we consider the symbols and imagery used, it is obvious that this piece was intricately planned by Lil Nas to suggest his conclusions through the subversion of cultural norms. This is not a new technique by any means, and it is important to acknowledge this.

3. Remember that Lil Nas was raised in the church. His use of biblical imagery is intentional here. If you detect a hint of bitterness in the twists he uses, that’s because there is, and not without reason.

See, I think that if Jesus looked at this video and gave us his reaction, it would not be a warning to us to guard our hearts. That’s common sense. I think it would be sadness that Lil Nas has not experienced the true intimacy and connection that he so desires in a healthy context, but also that he would be so bitter as to use the imagery as a “F*** You!” to the church. Granted, this is all speculative, but when I look at Jesus in the gospels, I never see Jesus trying to separate or isolate his disciples from sinners. He sees right to the heart of why sinners sin, and urges his disciples by example and speech to have compassion. It is the the Pharisees and teachers of the law who he preaches against, urging his disciples to guard their hearts against them.

Finally, there’s the even bigger deal being made in Christian circles of the “Satan shoes.” Let me set the record straight here. This company put out “Jesus shoes” a couple of years ago that claimed to have holy water in its soles. This was a stunt by the artist for the very purpose of causing controversy. It was done out of anger. The imagery only has power if we let it be something other than what it is.

I have seen so many people decrying the use of this imagery as an act of devil worship. That’s not what this is. Is Lil Nas believing a lie? Most certainly, as all humans do every day. But this should not be shocking. We must look behind the symbols to what they’re really pointing to.

In conclusion, I felt that it was important to share my feelings on this, as the social media chatter is a prime example of how the American Church has lost its way. However, on a more personal note, I have a lot of history and connection that helps me to deeply understand what’s happening in this song. That drive for connection, that willingness to put myself in horrible places to find it, the feeling of dirtiness and the running away from it...and especially the now often used intimate metaphor “call me by your name,” referring to the book/move of that title...I’ve been there. I even embraced it for a time. So more than most, I am more inclined to have compassion on those who are in that place, even if they don’t see the fruitlessness of it. The Lord has been good to me. He was with me in that place, just as he is with me now. It is important for all who call themselves Christians to remember that before we judge, we must seek empathy and compassion, fullness of understanding, and most of all, the heart and mind of Jesus himself.

#culture #review

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Is Marvel’s Avengers the Next Anthem?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Anthem‘s rise and fall is one of those stories that will almost certainly be told countless times in the coming years as we all try to wrap our heads around how a project that had so much going for it fell so hard and fast with hardly a chance to pick itself up. In some ways, it felt like the game was cursed.

However, if the recent news that Anthem‘s reboot was canceled got you thinking of another live-service game that got off to a pretty rough start…well, you’re not alone. Shortly after news broke that Anthem Next had been canceled, many wondered whether Marvel’s Avengers would be next. After all, the game has reportedly lost millions of dollars so far as well as a huge chunk of the player base that eagerly signed on for the chance to play what seemed to be an infinite Marvel adventure. In reality, the final (or initial) product fell well short of that dream.

Even still, is it really fair to say that Marvel’s Avengers is fated to fall as hard as Anthem did? Well, a comparison between the two titles reveals some striking differences that prove the two are not mirror images of each other as well as more than a few noteworthy similarities that suggest there is at least a realistic possibility that Marvel’s Avengers could indeed become the next Anthem.

Marvel’s Avengers Campaign and Story Are Much Better Than Anthem’s

Let’s start with the one area where Marvel’s Avengers pulls ahead of Anthem in a big way: its campaign and storytelling.

Many people hoped that BioWare’s storytelling experience would at least ensure that Anthem’s story was better (or at least more cohesive) than Destiny’s, but Anthem’s story was often underutilized and never really hit that second gear. To Marvel’s Avengers‘ credit, the story in that game is legitimately quite good. It’s not particularly long or complicated, but while it lasts, the game offers a heartfelt and interesting Marvel adventure that feels pleasantly distinct from the tones and themes of the MCU films and shows.

You could make the argument that it’s worth keeping an eye on future Marvels’ Avengers expansions for the new story sections alone. That’s not something you could ever say about Anthem or many other games in the live service arena.

Marvel’s Avengers Has More DLC…But That Could be a Bad Thing

Some fans have speculated that Anthem would have eventually gotten better if BioWare had been able to release enough DLC for the title. Given that the game’s Cataclysm update did actually make the game somewhat more appealing, it was fairly easy to buy into that idea.

However, Marvel’s Avengers shows that things can just as easily go the other way. Right now, the biggest draw of Marvel’s Avengers’ upcoming DLC is the ability to play as new heroes. While it doesn’t seem like the pricing plans for those DLC releases are going to be quite as expensive as some feared, the arrangement still comes down to you spending money or spending time on the game in order to take advantage of the new content.

It’s not going to take too many disappointing DLCs for those who spent money on the game to start to feel burnt. For that matter, any future DLC that introduces a character many players simply don’t care about (looking at you Hawkeye) isn’t going to be as valuable as DLC that puts more of an emphasis on adding content for all players. We’ll have to see if more frequent DLC updates will make Avengers feel fresh or like more of a burden than it already is.

Marvel’s Avengers Loot Problems Are Very Similar to Anthem’s

One of Anthem’s biggest early problems was the game’s loot system. Simply put, loot just didn’t feel especially rewarding in Anthem due to both the underwhelming quality of the average piece of gear and the frustratingly random ways that you were often asked to acquire it.

Marvel’s Avengers doesn’t suffer from the exact same issues, but the game’s loot is also often fundamentally unsatisfying. Part of the problem is that there’s very little deviation between the average piece of loot besides a higher power level number. That’s not necessarily uncommon in these kinds of games, but unlike Destiny where exotic loot is often associated with the best in-game content and random play can sometimes reward you with incredible unexpected items, acquiring loot in Marvel’s Avengers is still all over the place. The game’s rarity system often conflicts with the actual stat level and abilities of individual pieces, and you rarely feel like you’re truly building out your character over time through new items and gear combinations.

That last bit actually touches upon the biggest issue with Marvel’s Avengers (and Anthem’s) loot system: a lack of character progression and customization

Marvel’s Avengers and Anthem Struggle at Making You Feel Like a Character is Truly Your Own

Early on, Marvel’s Avengers players called out the fact that your characters’ looks hardly ever change as you acquire new pieces of gear. According to Crystal Dynamics, their decision to limit the visual impact of new gear stems from their belief that fans would rather use pre-made costumes and designs pulled from Marvel history.

There are two problems with that explanation. First off, not everybody does want that, and the game doesn’t really give you the option to play your preferred way. Even if they did, the idea of having to grind for those costumes outside of the grind for gear doesn’t appeal to everyone. Second, the fact that your character’s abilities and appearance are almost never affected by new gear makes it that much harder to buy into the idea that you’re building a character over time who truly becomes your own.

That’s kind of a big deal considering that part of the appeal of games like Diablo and Destiny is not only watching your character’s abilities improve over time as new gear and skills unlock new strategies but watching them visually transform as well. At the moment, Marvel’s Avengers is struggling at both of those concepts.

Like Anthem, Marvel’s Avengers Simple Combat is a Double-Edged Sword

The fact is that many people are ok with Marvel’s Avengers being a fairly simple beat-em-up title that lets you turn your brain off (mostly) and just enjoy playing as your favorite superhero as you unlock gear with bigger numbers and shinier stat screen colors.

However, there’s a reason why “Easy to learn, tough to master” design makes games like Tetris so popular even if you don’t particularly care about the “tough to master” part. It turns out that even when there is an invisible wall hindering progress, you still benefit from that wall being there as it helps ensure that your personal ceiling remains engaging.

Such as it is, Marvel’s Avengers’ simple gameplay is a tremendous draw and a fair hook, but when you’re looking at the game’s long-term value, it’s clear that Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have to figure out what the next level is in a way that BioWare never really did.

Marvel Avengers Is Already Too Dependent on A Community It Doesn’t Have

The first time I ever played Anthem, I actually had an ok time running around with friends laughing at the unrefined early bits and comparing gear. It wasn’t great, but it certainly wasn’t unenjoyable.

However, my interest in the game pretty much tanked as soon as I tried jumping in solo. That’s when all of the title’s problems started to reveal themselves in a way that’s easy enough to ignore when you’re just flying around with friends and goofing off. To make matters worse, chances to make online friends begin to dwindle as the game’s player base did the same. Besides, it was fairly easy to solo much of Anthem‘s content, so I rarely felt obligated to form more than a casual alliance.

Marvel’s Avengers is in a similar place at the moment, and that has to be considered the most disturbing similarity that the game shares with Anthem’s early (and certainly later) days. Because Marvel’s Avengers doesn’t even offer local co-op and because some of the problems we previously spoke about quickly make solo play feel like the grind it’s supposed to disguise itself from being, the incentive to hop back into Marvel’s Avengers has remained low during the post-launch period.

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Marvel’s Avengers will have a chance to turn itself around in a way that Anthem never really did due to a number of factors that prevented that game from making a second impression. All the same, the game’s current trajectory isn’t just eerily similar to Anthem’s; it’s reminiscent of a number of come-and-gone live service games that promised the world and ultimately offered poorly disguised mouse traps.

The post Is Marvel’s Avengers the Next Anthem? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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The Clownish Way to Doom A Generation

By following Colin Kaepernick’s “they’re both the same, why vote” philosophy and skipping the 2016 election, progressives and Black abstainers opened the door for Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to reshape the federal judiciary in a way that’s set to have dire consequences for Black people and progressives for the next 30 years.

Late in August 2016 as the American National Anthem blared through the Levi’s Stadium loudspeakers, reporter Jennifer Lee Chan tweeted a relatively innocuous photo shot from high above the field where the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers were set to engage in a preseason contest.

A then minor detail captured in the picture confirmed the impetus for a story Chan’s colleague Steve Wyche had been keeping his eye on for the past couple of weeks. What it showed was 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick sitting during the playing of the anthem while everyone else in view of the lens stood. In and of itself, standing for the playing of the national anthem before a sporting event is a peculiar ceremonial ritual so boring that it only makes it to the TV broadcast for title games and big-time celebrity performances.

But once Kaepernick explained his rationale for not standing, and eventually kneeling, during the anthem, suddenly those two minutes of pre-kickoff pomp and circumstance became the biggest thing in sports.

As he would later go on to explain many times across multiple platforms, Kaepernick’s decision came in the wake of the police killings of Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Oscar Grant, and the ongoing systemic oppression faced by Black people in America.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color," Kaepernick told Wyche. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

From the moment Kaepernick made known the reason for his protests the backlash was as predictable as the outcome, and thus his fate as an NFL quarterback was sealed in such a way that only an MVP-caliber performance could have extended his run. That didn’t happen and he hasn’t played another down in the NFL in nearly four years.

Kaepernick’s on-field performance in 2016 and 2017 left a lot to be desired. After being relegated to backup quarterback he was thrust back into the starting role after the team got off to a 1-4 start. His presence under center didn’t really change 49er-fortune as the team won only one of its remaining 11 games.

While statistics suggest Kaepernick’s performance wasn’t atrocious, it wasn’t good enough for the 49ers to make a long-term investment in him either. At the end of the season, the 29-year-old decided to opt-out of his contract and try his hand as a free agent, a designation that would allow any interested team to add him to their roster.

But despite having guided his team to a Super Bowl appearance just four years earlier and having declining but decent stats, not one of the NFL’s 32 teams took a serious look at Kaepernick. A few coaches and front office people made statements that someone should definitely pick up Kaepernick, just not their teams.

Was his performance poor? Yes. Was his performance so poor that 31 other teams couldn’t find a spot for him even as a third-string quarterback? No. Clearly the controversy-averse NFL owners, even if not overtly expressed, were in cahoots to ensure Kaepernick never received another shot in the league — a theory born out by the fact that in 2019 the NFL and Kaepernick reached a confidential monetary settlement regarding his claims that owners colluded to keep him unemployed.

But that part of the story we know.

They're All The Same?

As the Kaepernick controversy ballooned in 2016, the quarterback became the avatar for everything from the opposition of systemic racial oppression, the opposition of police brutality, and opposition of institutional racism to disrespect of the flag, disrespect of the country, and even (bizarrely) disrespect of the military.

The opportunity to drive a golf wedge into America’s racial fissures and exploit the emerging culture war wasn’t missed by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump who infamously said to an approving crowd of hootin’ n hollerin’ red state whites, “Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners when someone disrespects our flag to say, 'get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He's fired. He's fired!”

With the presidential campaign coming to a head, football season well underway, and the pro and anti-kneeling camps firmly entrenched, reporters asked Kaepernick to weigh in on the race between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Kaepernick, clearly the most prominent voice in professional sports at the moment surprised many when he said he didn’t plan to vote because essentially all politicians are the same, including Clinton and Trump.

Specifically, he said, “Both are proven liars and it almost seems like they’re trying to debate who’s less racist. At this point, in talking to one of my friends, you have to pick the lesser of two evils, but the end is still evil.

"I think the two presidential candidates that we currently have also represent the issues that we have in this country right now," Kaepernick said. "You have Hillary, who has called Black teens or Black kids super predators. You have Donald Trump, who is openly racist.

"He always says, 'Make America Great Again.' Well, America's never been great for people of color," Kaepernick said. "And that's something that needs to be addressed. Let's make America great for the first time."

And that was the gist of his abstinence rationale —they’re all the same, so I’m not voting.

It’s a relatively juvenile argument most often posited by people who don’t want to do the work required to actually change the reality of their political choices. And not only was Kaepernick not going to vote, turns out he never even registered to vote in 2016 or ever as far as any records show.

However, to his credit, Kaepernick is not your average apathetic abstainer. In the years that he has been out of football, he has become a high-profile activist, highlighting the issues that led to his anthem protest, held forums on a variety of social justice-related topics, and raised and donated millions of dollars for various causes.

He even started the Know Your Rights Camp, a non-profit organization that holds seminars for young people across the country to “advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.”

He even managed to get one of America’s most beloved brands, Nike, to side with his efforts. According to various financial news outlets, Kaepernick’s partnership with Nike for their 30th Anniversary “Just Do it” campaign resulted in $163 million in earned media, a $6 billion brand value increase, and a 31% boost in sales, which includes the $50 t-shirts and $150 jerseys that routinely sell out in hours, with a portion of proceeds going to charity.

But corporate sales numbers aren’t really the ones that matter.

Inside The Numbers

When the dust settled on the 2016 presidential campaign Hillary Clinton received 65,853,516 votes to Donald Trump’s 62,984,825 but lost the election thanks to the Electoral College, a holdover from a bygone era that lifted two of the last three presidents who received fewer actual votes than their opponent (George W. Bush and Donald Trump) into the White House.

Having long outlived its usefulness and practicality as a means to ensure less populous states have a voice in the election outcome, the Electoral College process has shifted focus away from states with the most people and onto a handful of smaller “swing states” whose election-day results typically determine who becomes president.

In 2016 it didn’t matter that Hillary received nearly three million more votes than Trump because Trump received 306 of the possible 538 electoral votes to Hillary’s 232.

Despite the electoral vote total, a closer look at the numbers shows just how close America was to avoiding the four-year national nightmare/embarrassment/sideshow that has been the Trump presidency.

In Pennsylvania, Hillary lost the popular vote 2,970,733 to 2,926,441, a difference of 44,292 votes that resulted in Trump receiving the state’s 20 electoral votes.

In Wisconsin, Hillary lost the popular vote 1,405,284 to 1,382,536, a difference of 22,748 votes that resulted in Trump receiving the state’s 10 electoral votes.

In Michigan, Hillary lost the popular vote 2,279,543 to 2,268,839, a difference of 10,704 votes that resulted in Trump receiving the state’s 16 electoral votes.

Had Hillary Clinton won these three states, she would have won the presidency, leaving “shithole countries” and kids in cages for the next Mad Max movie instead of the front page of The Washington Post.

A Midwest trifecta for Hillary was plausible because it’s not as if these three states are deep Republican strongholds. Barack Obama won all three in 2008 and 2012.

Exit Stage Right and Not College-educated … and White

Exit polling showed that Donald Trump was able to pull off the biggest political upset since Truman defeated Dewey in 1948 by turning out trailer-loads of Rust Belt whites without college degrees, many of whom had never voted or previously voted for the Democratic candidate.

This so-called silent majority of disaffected white people bought into Trump’s sales pitch and promise to save them from the murderous, marauding hordes of Brown people threatening to rush the border and sack their suburban enclaves while he would simultaneously rewind the hands of time, bringing back jobs technology and environmental regulation had long-since shipped off to the Third World and China. And most importantly, he would “Make America Great Again” — a curious phrase that simultaneously causes his white followers to well up with star-spangled pride, while Black people, women, immigrants, the entire LGBT community, Muslims, and many more wonder just what great period he’s referring to because America has only very recently begun to consider treating us relatively civilly.

And while pundits point to some questionable campaign decisions made by Hillary and the underestimation of her unfavorability among the electorate, Trump’s ability to turn out record numbers of white voters without a college degree was the biggest factor in his victory.

However, an argument can be made that the biggest reason that Hillary lost is that she was unable to turn out voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania at the same level as Barack Obama.

In fact, Hillary wouldn’t have needed to worry about the white voters that jumped ship to the Republicans had she reached the Obama threshold with Black voters.

Analysis of the polling data shows that Black voters who previously voted for Obama didn’t cast a vote for Trump, instead a large percentage simply didn’t vote at all — a critical mistake.

Turning Out and Falling Off

According to the Pew Research Center, overall Black voter turnout fell from 66.6% in 2012 to 59.6% in 2016. The 7% drop might not seem like much but it represented the largest turnout decline of any racial or ethnic group in 30 years and was the first time in 20 years the Black voter turnout rate declined. 2016’s numbers represented the lowest Black turnout rate since 2000.

Even among Millennials, voter turnout increased for every single racial group except Black Millennials. The general Millennial turnout percentage increased from 46.4% in 2012 to 50.8% in 2016. The Black Millennial turnout decreased from 55% in 2012 to 50.6% in 2016.

A Slate article analyzing the 2016 election results cited a study by researchers from the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University that found the Black voter drop-off was sharpest in states where Trump’s margin of victory was less than 10 points. In Michigan and Wisconsin, Black turnout dropped by more than 12 points.

The combination of rises in white votes combined with declines for Blacks set the table for Trump to claim the electoral victories in those key states and thus win the presidency.

With all else remaining the same, had Black voters turned out in the same numbers like 2012, Hillary would have won Michigan. If white voter turnout remained at its 2012 level instead of going up, Hillary would have won Michigan and its 16 electoral votes.

In Wisconsin, the turnout rate among Black voters dropped 19% from 74% in 2012 to 55% percent in 2016. Turnout for Asians and Latinos also dropped by 6%. Coincidentally, the 2016 presidential election was the first time Wisconsin’s new voter ID requirement was in effect. Critics of the requirement and multiple studies have found that minority voters are less likely to have a driver’s license or another form of ID that satisfies the eligibility requirement. And this could be the reason Black voter turnout was disproportionately low in the state, allowing Trump to be the first Republican since Ronald Reagan to win Wisconsin.

A study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that nearly 17,000 potential voters in Milwaukee and Dane counties did not cast votes due to the voter ID requirement put in place by Republican Governor Scott Walker and backed by the majority of Republicans in the State Legislature. Hillary lost Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes by less than 23,000 votes.

In Pennsylvania, where Black voters comprise 10% of the electorate, the .2% decline in Black voter turnout wasn’t as sharp as it was in other key states, but it was the only turnout decline recorded among the voting groups identified in the Center for American Progress study of 2016 voter trends. Had Black voter turnout matched its 2012 levels, with all other factors remaining the same, Hilary would still have lost the state because of a 4% increase among white voters without a college degree.

The election outcome proved Trump’s effectiveness at weaponizing white grievance to drive up uneducated white turnout — gains that were not offset by a necessary increase in minority voters and were assisted by the low Black turnout, even though even more Blacks were eligible to vote than in 2012.

All-Star Influencer

In terms of the pro-athlete social activist hierarchy, in late 2016, Kaepernick was king. Even four years later he remains 1 or 1A with LeBron James despite their nearly 116 million combined Twitter and Instagram follower gap. While LeBron is famous for his willingness to tackle topics and causes of importance beyond the basketball court, his legendary basketball feats remain the primary draw. With Kaepernick’s NFL days increasingly far behind him, the activism is the draw.

According to sports marketing and data analytics firm Hookit, in the months before the Green Bay game, Kaepernick was gaining approximately 50 followers per day on his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.

In two weeks just after his protest and the rationale behind it were revealed, Kaepernick began gaining approximately 18,000 followers a day — an increase of 35,394%.

According to Hookit, from Jan. 1 to Aug. 25, Kaepernick gained 40,372 followers on Twitter. Between August 26 and September 8, he added 98,730 Twitter followers.

In the same two-week period Kaepernick had seven unique social media posts that were liked, commented on, or shared an average of 46,553 times per post — nearly four times more activity than his posts received prior to kneeling.

His mentions were also way up, with Kaepernick’s name tagged or mentioned 235,549 on various platforms during the two weeks — nearly 10 times more mentions than in the previous eight months.

And those numbers have only increased with Kaepernick possessing 3.9 and 2.4 million followers on Instagram and Twitter respectively.

But in November 2016, long before reporters rushed to LeBron for comment on the latest racial injustice, Kaepernick was the man at the center of the storm.

With his profile, his voice, his exposure, his activism, and his traditional and social media presence increasing exponentially in short order, it’s even more baffling that Kaepernick would choose not only to not endorse a candidate but to simply not vote at all.

In hindsight, it is a move that was counterproductive and best and wildly irresponsible at worst.

Woke Dummies and The Big Problem

The so-called Woke community of activists, to whom Kaepernick and Bernie Sanders are probably patron saints, is looking to push American society far to the left concerning all aspects of public policy and social life. The progressive agenda includes defunding police departments, abolishing prisons, criminal justice reform, ending fossil fuel usage, free college, healthcare for all, universal basic income, etc.

Depending on where you stand on the political spectrum, these moves can be viewed as either necessary steps to achieve social equity and justice or pipe dreams from people disconnected with theories related to practical application.

The problem for supporters of these issues aren’t the issues themselves, but the fact that enactment of any of them requires a political solution, and when challenged, a legal outcome favorable to the proponents.

By adopting the Kaepernick, “I’m not going to vote because they’re all the same” position, abstaining progressives ceded critical political and legal ground to the Republicans who, in the past four years, have plowed ahead making moves that will entrench their policy positions as law to be upheld by the conservative judges they’ve helped install — for decades to come.

If we reverse engineer the Republican masterplan, we can start with the U.S. Supreme Court, where President Trump has successfully appointed three justices to life terms. With his latest appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, who replaces liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the balance of the court has shifted 6-3 in favor of the conservative and ultra-conservative wings.

What this means for progressives like Kaepernick is that any law that seeks to fundamentally change or challenge the status quo or anything not rubber-stamped by a conservative think tank is likely to be struck down by a court packed with justices who believe the words written by slaveholding, sexist, landowning, rich white men in frilly tops, writing with quills, are still the standard by which rulings should be made almost 250 years later.

And again, Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, with most serving well into their 80s. The three Trump-appointed justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett are 53, 55, and 48 years old respectively, meaning they will likely be ruling against progressive interests for the next 20-30 years, dooming a generation.

But that presumes the cases even reach the high court. The path to the Supreme Court winds through federal courts where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been hard at work for the past six years working to ensure his insidious plan to put a conservative stranglehold on the federal judiciary came to fruition.

When Donald Trump began his presidency 105 empty federal judgeships had not been filled by President Obama — and that was by Republican design.

When Republicans won back control of the Senate in 2014 they obtained the final say on who got to fill or not fill the federal court vacancies.

In the two years before Republicans took the Senate, nearly 90% of Obama’s nominees were confirmed. After McConnell and the Republicans took over, that rate fell to 28%.

To achieve this result Republican senators used various tactics to either obstruct or delay the confirmation process. A Democrat-sponsored effort in 2013 removed the filibuster, a classic delay tactic often used by the minority party to continue debating an issue to prevent a vote, as it pertained to nominations to executive branch positions and federal judgeships.

This led to the Senate confirming more of Obama’s nominees at a higher rate because they only needed a majority of senators to vote to end debate and move on to the confirmation vote. While Senate Democrats confirmed many of Obama’s nominees, many judgeships were left vacant because a backlog of potential federal judges was created by the Republican stall tactics.

However, in 2014, when Republicans gained control of the Senate, it became clear that the “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster was going to come back and bite Democrats in the ass — and boy did it ever.

When McConnell became majority leader confirmation of Obama nominees ground to a near halt, culminating in the prevention of a confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, Obama’s pick to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who died in February 2016.

In what would turn out to be perhaps the millennium’s boldest act of hypocrisy, McConnell justified holding no hearings for Garland claiming that in an election year the American people should have the chance to weigh in on the decision by allowing the next president to fill the vacancy — despite the election being nine months away.

Once Trump was elected McConnell shifted his plans for the federal judiciary into high gear and the Senate began moving to fill every vacancy with what Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee member Diane Feinstein called, “young conservative ideologues, many of whom lack basic judicial qualifications.”

From expressed opposition to everything from the Affordable Care Act to Abortion Rights to equal rights for LGBT Americans to environmental regulations to voting rights, and much much more, Trump appointees check nearly all of the boxes the religious right, conservative fringe, and a sizable number of racists have been waiting for generations to see reflected in the federal courts.

And in the off chance some progressive policy enacted into law in a blue state gets challenged and lands before the Supreme Court, McConnell’s machinations will likely result in the court striking it down with the approval of the six conservative justices, including Barrett, who McConnell saw sworn in just days before the 2020 election, forgoing all that stuff he said in 2016 about not confirming nominees in an election year.

Do you Really Care?

It would be one thing if Kaepernick didn’t care about social justice or Black people or right and wrong. But the fact that he clearly cares about those things makes his “I don’t vote, they’re all the same” position even more infuriating because, again, every progressive idea he supports requires a political and legal solution to be put into effect.

And once they’re put in place, they aren’t necessarily safe from political or legal processes.

For example:

The Affordable Care Act — The Supreme Court full of conservative justices will decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act as Republicans seek to strip away the means through which millions of Americans are able to receive health care during a deadly global pandemic.

Police Abuse — The decision to bring criminal charges against police officers who abuse and murder Black people or any people is made by the district attorney, an elected official, or, as in the case of the killing of George Floyd, the state attorney general, also an elected official.

Elimination of Qualified Immunity — Qualified immunity is the doctrine that prevents government officials, police officers in particular, from being held personally liable for misconduct on the job that would get the average person locked up for life or paying a huge monetary settlement. In 1982 the Supreme Court expanded the definition of qualified immunity ( https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/457/800/ ) and police unions and prosecutors have used it for decades to justify a lack of criminal accountability in scores of cases involving claims of police abuse.

A Reuters investigation examined how qualified immunity has made it extremely difficult to hold police officers accountable for misconduct and abusive behavior.

In one incident, qualified immunity was invoked after a police officer in Utah gave an unarmed man brain damage after slamming him to the ground during a traffic stop.

In 2010 a Houston officer shot Ricardo Salazar-Limon in the back during a traffic stop after claiming he thought the man was reaching for a gun. There was no gun.

Salazar-Limon claimed his constitutional rights were violated and sued the city of Houston and the officer who shot him. In federal court, the defense argued that the officer was protected by qualified immunity, the courts agreed, a summary judgment was entered, and the matter never went before a jury.

When the case reached the Supreme Court, a majority of justices agreed with the granting of qualified immunity to the officer.

In the dissenting opinion Justice Sonia Sotomayor was joined by Ginsburg in stating, “Only Thompson and Salazar-Limon know what happened on that overpass on October 29, 2010 … What is clear is that our legal system does not entrust the resolution of this dispute to a judge faced with competing affidavits. The evenhanded administration of justice does not permit such a shortcut.

“Our failure to correct the error made by the courts below leaves in place a judgment that accepts the word of one party over the word of another. We have not hesitated to summarily reverse courts for wrongly denying officers the protection of qualified immunity in cases involving the use of force. But we rarely intervene where courts wrongly afford officers the benefit of qualified immunity in these same cases.”

Restrictions to the application of qualified immunity would require the Supreme Court to hear a related case and come to a different conclusion, thereby setting a precedent for lower court rulings.

Voting Rights — Efforts to suppress the votes of Black people in particular and people of color generally have deep roots in America. In recent years Republicans across the country have led efforts critics have said are specifically aimed at suppressing or denying the votes of African-Americans. The reduction of the number of polling places in predominantly Black communities leads to hours-long waits to vote. Voter ID laws disproportionately impact minority voters who are statistically less likely to have the necessary documentation. The attempt to reduce the number of ballot drop-off locations in densely populated urban areas disproportionately impacts minority voters. Solutions and corrections to all of these issues require a political or legal solution and sometimes both.

Gerrymandering — Gerrymandering is the process by which politicians draw voting district lines to create districts in which one party is all but guaranteed to hold power indefinitely and doesn’t need to be responsive to anyone other than members of their own party. This has been a crucial tactic for Republicans looking to maintain power even as political shifts show more people moving away from their party. Bringing an end to gerrymandering or even drawing districts in a more logical, straightforward fashion requires a political solution that will almost certainly be challenged in federal court.

Abortion — This is the Holy Grail for conservatives who have been waiting for nearly 50 years to get enough right-leaning justices on the court to reverse the landmark ruling that protected a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. With a court now full of conservative Catholics, that dream is closer to fruition than ever.

The Census — Conducted once a decade, the U.S. government uses the census to count the number of people living in the country. The census results determine how many representatives each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives, how an estimated $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding is distributed for the next 10 years, and how many electoral college votes each state is allocated. The Trump administration made repeated attempts to undermine the census, most notably by trying to add a citizenship question to the census intended to scare undocumented people away from participating, thus driving down the population totals in key Democratic states such as California and New York, diminishing their political power. Even though COVID-19 and social distancing restrictions made collecting census data more difficult the Trump administration successfully fought to cut the count short. That decision was upheld by the Supreme Court despite the argument that the decision will prevent a fair and accurate count.

Felons Voting — In 2018, Florida voters passed Amendment A that restored voting rights to people convicted of a felony who served their sentences. Many expected that a large portion of the 1.4 million newly eligible voters would vote Democratic but we may never know because the Republican governor and lawmakers quickly passed a law in response to Amendment A requiring people convicted of felonies to fully pay back fines and fees to the courts before they become eligible to vote. Depending on the person, the cost could range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars — effectively nullifying their voting rights.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit claiming the new law was unconstitutional because it created a financial barrier for people attempting to exercise their right to vote. In 2019 a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs and agreed that the law amounted to a poll tax and was unconstitutional.

But in September 2020, just two months before the presidential election, a federal appeals court overturned the previous ruling that will prevent any former felons who have not paid all of their back fines and fees from voting. Five of the six votes to overturn the ruling came from federal judges appointed to the court by President Trump.

Republicans know that Florida is arguably the most crucial state in their bid to capture the presidency. If Joe Biden or any other Democratic presidential candidate were to win Florida, the handwringing over states like Michigan and Wisconsin goes away because of the Sunshine State’s 29 electoral votes. Hillary Clinton lost Florida by 112,911 votes, a number that seems minuscule if you consider a pool of 1.4 million new voters, a majority of whom may lean Democratic.

Good intentions Meet Reality

While Colin Kaepernick is clearly well-meaning and puts his time, energy, and effort behind the causes he supports, it was unimaginably negligent of him to brag and boldly promote the fact that he does not vote, didn’t intend to vote, and voting doesn't matter because all the candidates were the same.

The margin of victory was so narrow for Donald Trump that there is no reason to think Kaepernick couldn't have moved the needle by choosing to use the soapbox upon which he stood in 2016 and the social media megaphone he wielded to push and encourage his hundreds of thousands of supporters to vote.

Is it improbable to think that the most prominent and popular politically active Black athlete could not have convinced a large number of Black people to cast a vote instead of sitting the election out?

And if you still think voting doesn’t matter, consider this as we continue to live altered lives under the cloud of a deadly global pandemic: In 2009, after multiple recounts and legal challenges, Al Franken became the certified winner of the Minnesota Senate election by 312 votes and became the 60th Democratic senator, a key number that allowed Democrats to end the Republican filibuster and vote to pass the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare aka the only reason many millions of Americans have healthcare access.

Every single progressive cause Kaepernick advocates for can be broken down to a simple equation:

Progressive Idea + Progressive Activism + Progressive Political Action + Progressive Legal Victories = Progressive Laws that move America closer to the fair, just, and equal society we should all be aspiring to.

Remove one part of the equation and things fall apart.

The idea that voting doesn’t matter and all politicians are the same is a position that is factually wrong, strategically incompetent, and downright imbecilic. That position makes Kaepernick and the abstainers just as responsible for Trump’s 220 judges and the decades of judicial beatings liberals and progressives will face as the MAGA hat-wearing racist Proud Boy.

Do not make the same mistake twice.

Do not be that stupid.

Go vote!

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standup2abully-blog · 4 years

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Bullying Op-ed

Feeling attacked and bullied by all those not approving of your own voice and beliefs is causing a lot of tension in the world today.

There are enough problems in society to also have to handle getting bullied.

In response to all those getting bullied, we all must build trust among each other and ourselves to help those suffering from this crisis. Trying to keep a positive mindset and availability to help others is so important to those struggling.

Within society today, not just the typical teenage in person/cyberbullying is going on, it’s much more than that. Race and politics are starting to get involved which is causing a lot of hate throughout the world.

For instance, MLS players kneeled during the national anthem, which got them booed by their own crowd and harassed by social media. Causing lots of tension between coaches, players, and fans. Right here is one major problem in the world right now. “You can’t even have support from your own fans in your own stadium,” the article reports Reggie Cannon as saying, “It’s baffling to me.” Being victimized by your own crowd has to be one of the worst feelings. Knowing that your community and fans don’t support you for your own actions and beliefs is wrong. When players and officials feel attacked by the fans then there is a definite issue. The players discussed, “You can’t even have support from your own fans in your own stadium. It’s baffling to me,” Cannon said. All athletes and coaches just want support from their own fans, but feeling attacked by others is all they are getting. All MLS coaches are wearing “Black Lives Matter” shirts during games. Feeling attacked and bullied by all those not approving of your own voice and beliefs is causing a lot of tension within the world today.

Bullying is getting pushed to the side right now because of everything that is going on in the world. Reading through all different types of news feeds, social media, newspapers, etc. I am coming to the conclusion that bullying is not a problem in society at the moment. Yeah, there might be bigger problems, but bullying is something that revolves around all of this craziness. Pushing this harmful topic to the side does not do any good in the world. While the world is struggling with racial injustice, the election, and the coronavirus- bullying is such a simple part of life right now. Fighting for freedom of speech throughout this whole pandemic recently has caused those stress, which end up taking it out on others. Bullying is such a harsh way to approach anyone, and with those struggling with racial injustice right now, society is not having any open arms for those fighting for freedom.

Discussing more on the topic of racial injustice- the amount of hatred people receive on social media, in person, on tv- is insane. Bringing back the point of how MLS players and coaches were threatened and booed by their very own fans for kneeling during the national anthem shows how much their community is against it. Right in that moment, those players and coaches felt threatened which is a form of bullying- which goes right behind others backs. Those players and coaches were standing up for what they believed in and having a voice, and unfortunately the community did not respect them for having a voice and wanting to be heard.

The problem isn’t that people should have different convictions, but as a society we should make room for those who differ from us. Being there for others and supporting them will make others feel included and involved. There are so many in the world that are struggling with confidence and their dreams are being impacted just by horrifying words from others. Racial injustice is a very strong and powerful topic within society and those not accepting of anything within that hurts those being affected. Rather you feel personally attacked or you know of someone struggling with not feeling accepted, it is so important to reach out to those for help and to talk. At the start of this pandemic certain events started to occur, and time went on, there are many that feel as if they don’t have a freedom of speech or feel as if they don’t have a voice. Being accepting of others is so important during this pandemic because there are so many struggling rather it’s personally getting bullied or you feel threatened by something/ someone.

Thinking of the term “Black Lives Matter”- that touches a lot of people, and those words are not taken lightly. Community support especially during a pandemic is so helpful and gets you through the most rough of times. The community needs to work together during this pandemic and support one another rather whether you agree with someone's beliefs or not. Everyone has a voice and should feel able to use it. Racial injustice is a huge headline right now, and there are people within society that are getting mistreated for using their freedom of speech. As there are so many on social media that are being harassed for posting their beliefs. Cyberbullying has increased in numbers since the pandemic and it's crazy to think that those posting on social media feel threatened by so many in society.

October is national bullying prevention month, which is when we all need to come together as one and speak out against bullying. Those who are victims of this- its so important to reach out for help even if help doesn’t come to you first. Sometimes it’s difficult to read others and some don’t know when to help. Allowing others into your life when you are struggling the most is very crucial. For those looking for help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline. There are so many different types of bullying, and unfortunately some stand out more than others.

Bullying is something so much more than physically beating someone up or calling them a name, there are way more aspects to it. Some aspects that the society does not typically see is when someone is being cyberbullied, or when someone makes a comment out in public. The behavior is constantly being repeated and those who bully or get bullied tend to have long lasting problems. Recovering from getting bullied is something so hard to get over. Those feelings of ever feeling worthy enough or loved take so long to go away, and the only solution to the problem is by talking to someone or getting help. Unfortunately, there are too many children getting bullied within society today. Witnessing children go through this is so difficult for many reasons, but the biggest reason is that bullies are just crushing some of those children’s dreams and starting at a young age they won’t have much confidence at all.

As for adults also getting bullied, those that seem shy to others or insecure have most likely been mistreated sometime in their life, or there has been a big rut in their life. Everyone should be treated with respect, because you never know what someone is going through/ or has gone through. For most cases, a person holds onto something someone has said to them that is very disrespectful and that takes a lot to get over. Bullying is such a harsh piece of some people’s life. Most bullies mistreat others for the reason of them being insecure about themself or they are just jealous of the opposing person. Mistreatment unfortunately happens in schools, sports, workforce, and social media- and is an issue society has dealt with for a longtime but has never overcome.

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