#no one likes mael

[maelswife]

I cannot explain into words how I hate CBL's Celestial realm and how its the only way its ever been shown for more than 1 frame

Like.. that's where yall live..... okay... like there are some buildings and stuff but... this looks bad

atleast in the anime in that one simple frame it looked A BIT cooler 😭 5 small islands with the same size and on the same height like....ok... wheres the flavor. There could have been so many cool things done with it and instead it looks like something I could have built in my minecraft world

[pineapplefulfillseveryneed]

Sparks tour 2023

[carcarrot]

'Spark-ling Russ Writes To You': A collection of writings from Russell Mael's weekly column in Mirabelle magazine, 1974, pt. 1 (pt. 2)

[levinbolts]

so sorry, eloeryn you've been retired, and he's taking your spot.

[the-genius-az]

Maizulee as men.

Mai is named Mael, Ty Lee as Ty Len, and Azula is obviously Azulon.

When they first saw Azulon they simply thought he was a very pretty boy.

Azulon felt his heart beat very fast when he met Mael and Ty Len.

At first Mael and Azulon had a fragile masculinity, fortunately Ty Len did not.

Ty Len loved touching his friends, and he felt butterflies in his stomach.

Mael thought of poems describing Azulon and Ty Len.

Azulon was always the one who bought everything his friends wanted, Ty Len made fun that he looked like a Sugar Daddy.

Maybe they masturbated thinking about each other for the first time.

When they met again, Mael and Ty Len couldn't help but tease each other about how short the Prince was.

When betrayed, Azulon scoffed that all men are equal.

It was worth waiting for her prince to come out of the asylum to go on a date.

[musicthatyoucandanceto]

sparks photographed by gered mankowitz, 1977?-1980

NUMBER ONE BOYS EVER!!! (The photographer says the top two are from 1977 but they look more No 1 in Heaven era to me… possibly even later than that but who can say)

[cilogram]

This is from the Sparks Guide Book, explaining the people mentioned in Sparks songs. As you can see, the text is written by Ron.

Please excuse the curved pages, and enjoy!

[thenwethrowitonthefire]

it doesn't have to be that way.

okay

I need you to know that I've been thinking about this ask non-stop for the last 3 days. This song came for us all and took us under its wing. I live here. It's a gem of a song. (This reply will get very long.)

My first time hearing it was live, as it was for a bunch of us as the album release was at the beginning of the tour. To set the scene, I was obviously really excited for any new songs I'd be hearing that night, and then Russell introduced the song like this:

"This is another brand new song for any of you who feel like maybe you're not on the right course. [He pauses briefly.] It's a song that's called 'It Doesn't Have To Be That Way'."

I was already nearly in tears, and then it started:

They always said that you cannot change your mind, Do it once and you're defined, do it twice and you're divine

...

It doesn't have to be that way, okay?

Every line of the entire song hit me like a brick while also being the most comforting thing I've ever heard. It was beautiful. And coming from the guys who for over a decade have been my personal champions of "things not having to be that way", the guys who are my people, who have by their very existence been telling us all this exact message for all these years. And here it was, in words, aimed at all of us.

They always said that you need to have a plan, Doesn't matter, any plan, any plan they'll understand, It doesn't have to be that way, okay?

... They've not been known to go for songs that bring people to tears, and I'm not known to be the kind of person to listen to songs and cry. And yet here we were.

While I can write an essay on every verse, a part that's especially meaningful to me, as a queer person, as an aspec person, is this:

They always said that it must reflect your life, And incorporate your strife, maybe mentioning your wife, It doesn't have to be that way, okay?

These *are* lines that seem to reflect their life (the entire song seems to, just as it does ours), and they're all things I've always loved so much about them, things that have paved the way for all of us. But I'm going to especially highlight the "maybe mentioning your wife" line. Here we have two (likely) heterosexual men, but they don't bring their love lives to the public eye - very consciously, and by choice. What they do with their lives is all about their music. Their lives are highly meaningful, to them and to so many people, and you don't need amatonormativity or the nuclear family to have a beautifully meaningful life. They show that every day, in all they do. Their work has always attracted many queer people of all sorts for obvious reasons, and it's been so easy to find aspec people among the fans which is a real treat. While they likely both have partners, the beauty is that we don't really know. We don't know that part of their lives and we don't need to know to know them, if they're not telling us it doesn't concern us. There's a lot of people who don't understand this though, people who feel like they don't know who Sparks are as people because these people feel like in order to know who a person is, they need to know their relationship status and whether they have a family. (In reality these people are looking at the wrong things, they're trying to classify and understand life in the only way they know, and therefore they seem to be unable to see what's there.) The added beauty of all this is that it doesn't just gives Sparks some privacy, but also it creates a safe space for all of us who aren't looking to live that way, who aren't looking to build our lives around a romantic partner, for whom the ideal life isn't one where you build a family, or for whom that do wish to live that way but where it isn't the thing that defines you. You don't have to mention a partner or make your life about that. It doesn't have to be that way, okay?

And then there's those parts of the song that go,

I may be wrong, I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it,

No chart-bound song, I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it,

No sing along, I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it

I'll pay for it

Which can be read and felt in a number of ways which all mean so much to me ... There's their own lives in it, where they've always done things their way, where people may tell them to not do things that way, and where it might not work out - I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it. Theres our lives, where we equally all make our decisions, try to just live our own ways to the best of our abilities and where we make mistakes - I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it.

And then, thirdly, to me, there's the feeling to it where they've got our backs. No chart-bound song, no sing along, that can be about an album not becoming the success it was hoped to be, but if you just look at No sing along, I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it, to me there's also an aspect of not wishing it upon another - instead carrying it for you, don't sing along. (This feeling feels further supported by the ending of the song, how 'bout a drink, I'll pay for it, it's been too long, I'll pay for it, which to me reads as paying for that drink for your friend so no one has to go through it alone nor without support.)

I'll look uncool, I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it

I'll look the fool, I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it

I'll look too schooled, I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it

I'll pay for it

The price of authenticity, the price of following your heart and your beliefs. And we all felt that.

As you can tell, this is one really really special song. It had so many of us in tears. We all spoke about it for weeks, I'm still talking about it. It's kind of like Sparks' life concepts we all already understood, that drew us here in the first place, got beautifully distilled into a song. (So much of this recent album has that quality, and it was felt all throughout the entire tour too.)

Every night Russell gave the song a slightly different introduction that hit people right in their heart. There's a quality to it performed live that makes it hit even harder than on the album. I recorded it at every show I've seen. Here's two of them:

... it especially hits hard when you're near the front, looking at these guys with your big eyes, locking eyes for a second and you know they know. (I also did a quick shot of Ron's Jordans here, seeing him wear them was always a dream of mine and here I was, stood right in front of him seeing him wear Jordans.)

[ylly22-2]

[eddie-rifff]

lol. im gonna be ruminating about my interaction w bill bruford in the hotel for the rest of my life. he was clearly like not expecting a fan to approach him then and there but he was also trying to be cordial and normal despite me probably looking like i had just witnessed a tragic event or something. we exchanged a few words n then he was like "ya so we're heading up to manhattan now" just like making small talk and i was so intimidated and starstruck i dont even remember what i said LOL i think it was pretty normal but i wanted to ask him something (if the weird modulated voice on back to the beginning is him tho im pretty sure it is but id like confirmation) and get a pic but. i was unable to do so on account of the being absolutely petrified. anyway props to bill for trying to be normal to me when i was probably visibly trembling

[crystalblast]

he likes what shoe???

[cakedrawings]

@mousepregnant

im thingking their dynamic would be like this? goldie is a little unhinged ngl

[pineapplefulfillseveryneed]

Sparkstember day 20: Hello Young Lovers✨

[carcarrot]

'Spark-ling Russ Writes To You': A collection of writings from Russell Mael's weekly column in Mirabelle magazine, 1974, pt. 2 (pt. 1)

[meikyuunolovers]

Tom in the Ramones' "Something To Believe In" music video 😊

[bawnjourno]

Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel // "The Angels" by Sparks

Sparkstember Day 18: Balls