Drew (or Marilyn... whichever). Bicentennial baby — born in 1976. Yes, I am that old. Trans girl, happily married, queer, monogamous. Fiction writer, magazine editor, broke-ass struggler. I swear to god I do post things with artistic merit sometimes.
I’m reading Nick And Charlie by Alice Oseman (the prose novella starring the boys from Heartstopper) and I have discovered that British kids use the word “revise” to mean what American kids call “studying.” Which felt really weird to read, because I couldn’t understand how the things the kids were doing related to rewriting essays. Then finally after like 50 pages I got it.
So I’m continuing to dig through Lana Del Rey’s back catalog to refamiliarize myself with records I loved at the time but haven’t heard in years and also to catch up on the ones I missed because my music energies were going in different directions when they came out. So far, as I mentioned on here, I was blown away with how front-to-back solid Born To Die is, with every track at least a solid banger if not a stone classic. I’ve liked the others I’ve listened to since then, too – some quite a lot. But Norman Fucking Rockwell is the first one I’ve gone back to and had the same experience as I did with Born To Die. As in: “Whoa, I remember this being good but I didn’t remember it was THIS good!” Every fucking track is a solid-gold banger – even the fucking SUBLIME COVER is great! How is this even possible? Having said that, I remember I ranked it as one of my best records of the year when it came out. Still, though, I was not prepared. Sheer genius.
I’m gonna have to write about this later when I have more time (sorry I have neglected you lately tumblr), but I just wanna say real quick that I listened to the Free Cocaine singles compilation by the Dwarves recently and it blew my mind all over again. Despite their problematic lyrical content and imagery, I loved this band in high school. But I never noticed what a strong queer and even trans vibe their sex-obsessed lyrics often had. It made me feel like I was hearing them for the first time all over again.
I’ll just leave you with one example. With the life experiences I’ve had, it is all but impossible for me to read this song as anything but a closeted trans narrative:
I’m starting to be a little more open about the fact that I specifically do not want anything changed about my genitalia. I feel happiest the way I am now. For a long time, honestly at least two decades, I let the fact that I felt that way keep me from pursuing transition, and now that I finally understand that it’s a totally valid way to feel, I feel like I should be open about that so other girls and women who feel like me won’t feel as alone and invalidated as I once did.
There’s a happy ending to, because the robbery was unsuccessful, the couple ended up getting the money Eden needed from a movie inspired by em! Also John only had to serve part of his sentence. Check out their wedding photos btw they’re beautiful.
reblogging because I’ve seen this post a thousand times and I’ve never seen the happy ending!!
Everyone go watch Dog Day Afternoon please please please it’s the movie mentioned in this thread it’s Sidney Lumet’s best imo and Al Pacino plays John and he is heartbreakingly good in it.
Not only have we always existed, but there have always been people who loved us. Never forget that.
Another recommendation for Dog Day Afternoon, classic film.
