Paul McCartney’s thoughts from 1983 on Phillip Norman’s ‘Shout!’, marketed as the supposed ‘True Story of The Beatles’:

“My problem is to me, I come over as this very together guy, always got his finger on top of everything: the man with no problems. School – a doddle, got all the exams. This is the sort of image of me. Actually, I had murder getting through exams, like I was saying about being on tour during my GCEs. I was like the kid who was getting the cane. Just like John was, but he [Phillip Norman] makes me the very shrewd, always-going-to-succeed guy, and John is the kind of cute, working-class hero. In actual fact though, John was just as shrewd and ambitious as I was. What does me in is he adds to this image I’ve got; I resent that, because I know I’m not that, and I know I’ve never been that.

Like in the book, I almost kill Stu Sutcliffe. The way it comes over is that I used to really put Stu down, whereas in actual fact, I had a little bit of a thing against Stu, but that was for one reason – he couldn’t play bass. I had a purely musical thing about it ‘What are we going to do about a bass player who can’t play bass?’ And the other great legend is Pete Best – ‘Why did they get rid of this poor lad?’ Because George Martin told us – ‘Your drummer can’t drum. Get rid.’ What are we gonna do, try and pretend he’s wonderful drummer? We knew he wasn’t as good as what we wanted in the group, so we got another drummer that we wanted. He was called Ringo. It had got to the stage that Pete was holding us back.

You can’t help it, if there’s somebody in the group who doesn’t click. Like Stu. Stu was a great guy, a lovely guy, and I didn’t understand him, it’s true. There’s a lot of people in my life I haven’t understood; I’m not the world’s most psychic person. I make a lot of mistakes, and I misread people, I’ve read a lot of stuff about Stu since that I didn’t know about; I was taking him all wrongly. But it certainly wasn’t just me who was getting at him, everyone had their little goes. But I suddenly come out as the ‘go-getter’ and the ambitious one in the group. And John’s portrayed as the kind of nice guy who always falls into situations. And he has George standing there with his plectrum always waiting for a solo. Now that does George an injustice there’s a lot more to George – than just this idiot waiting for a solo.”

I had gotten the impression that Stuart grew up in a stable privilleged home, but the more I actually read about it the more it turns out that it wasn't stable at all. I have read before that Charles was physically abusive, is that true?

Hi anon,

Yep, 'instability' and 'anxiety' are two things that come to mind when combing through Stuart's upbringing. This is a very basic summary.

I've read that before as well, though it doesn't appear in most biographies. In Shout!, this is written about it:

I suppose it's up to your interpretation of 'cruelty'. It should be noted that Shout! is one of the earliest biographies that touched on Stuart's history, and the family was interviewed by Norman. Pauline does not mention violence or cruelty of any sort in her recollections of her childhood. But even from Pauline's accounts, it seems like Charles was very impatient and had a short fuse. So although you could say it's either a mistranslation or escalation of Millie and Charles' 'passionate rows' and 'volatile relationship', at the very least, it was unstable and harmful - an awful situation for Millie and her children. The more intense reports of their marriage come from Millie. Pauline always remained adamant that "they always loved each other, often through difficult husband-and-wife times" and seemed rather proud of the kind of man her father was - artsy, worldly, supportive of his wife's ventures outside the house. So.... there's that.

Stuart's father is a bit of a blind spot in Stuart's reported history, he's usually absent or at the very least a ghostly kind of presence on the borders of Stuart's life, only referred to briefly. What is mentioned is either Pauline's very 'Modern Man under a lot of domestic stress', or the heavy-drinking absent father that had explosive fights with his wife that left her shaken and upset. I think everyone is obviously telling their truth, Pauline has just left details out of her account, which is understandable, but does not erase what Millie has discussed in her interviews with biographers.

“CLOWN” from “SHOUT!” series by AKIRA Yonekawa

Hey all, you know how internet searches suck now? When the results are awful, full-of-AI, death-of-the-internet levels of bad?

Start appending date constraints to your searches - "before:2023".

My results have gone from 90% AI bullshit to ~60% usable - which frankly at this point is a huge improvement.

Having your own personal blog is honestly quite a nice change of pace compared to Reddit. I could put a funny GIF of George Bush getting hit by a shoe on here and the worse case scenario is that no one even notices.

You put that on a big subreddit and you get your eyes gouged out and a heap of political discourse underneath your post.

This starts out as a nice gesture, then quickly becomes absolutely ridiculous.

1,024 dice. Man.

"You can't be a lurker on tumblr." Yes, you absolutely can. I've been quietly reblogging things since 2014 and I haven't interacted with anyone in years.

Red riding hood comic collab with the wonderful @yeehawpim (go check out their blog for loads of great comics!) 🌷 See the layouts he did here!

having a snuggable animal in your home is like a constant minigame of ancestral persistence hunting, every morning this beast is getting yoinked from various parts of the house to indulge our daily ritual of bringing him back to bed for cuddling purposes. im like the doom guy in hell meme but instead of ronald reagan im looking for my cat

I don't see people gas up gnc and butch transfems nearly enough, can we get a fuckin round of applause for gnc and butch transfems

Man just doesn't stop fucking MURDERING white men who've done very shitty things

Edit: Yes I'm aware that Hbomb wasn't really The Guy to take down Wakefield, and Wakefield was gotten by Deere, however it was for the meme

Edit two: When referring to Shapiro I was talking about the Aquaman clip

not to be controversial bc I know this is like…not in line with shifting opinions on fanfic comment culture but if there’s a glaring typo in my work I will NOT be offended by pointing it out. if ao3 fucks up the formatting…I will also not be offended by having this pointed out…

‘looking forward to the next update’ and ‘I hope you update soon!’ are different vibes than a demand, and should be read in good faith because a reader is finding their way to tell you how much they love it. I will not be mad at this.

‘I don’t usually like this ship but this fic made me feel something’ is also incredibly high praise. I’m not going to get mad at this.

even ‘I love this fic but I’m curious about why you made [x] choice’ is just another way a reader is engaging in and putting thought into your work.

I just feel like a lot of authors take any comment that’s not perfectly articulated glowing praise in the exact manner they’re hoping to receive it in bad faith.

fic engagement has been dropping across the board over the last several years, and yes it’s frustrating but it isn’t as though I can’t see how it happens. comment anxiety can be a real thing. the last thing anyone wants to do is offend an author they love, and that means sometimes people default to silence.

idk where I’m going with this I guess aside from saying unless a comment is outright attacking me I’m never going to get mad at it, and I think a lot of authors should feel the same way. ESPECIALLY TYPOS PLZ GOD POINT OUT MY TYPOS.

Create cool summer treats for your vampire with this one neat trick

I get to draw Sidon and Link again in the year of our lord 2023

OBSESSED with this new su signing poster. pearl holding greg just because. slightly older steven with attempts at growing out facial hair. the little pebble in the corner. garnet criss-crossed on greg’s van. lapis’ pants riding down so low you can see her hip. bismuth with that muscle definition. connie’s preppy outfit. peridot’s blank glasses.

They stole our fucking boy!! He’s in the abyss now!!!!

Edit: guys he’s not banned anymore you don’t have to cry in my tags now. He’s free 🕊️