#I felt like I was in that one Salvador Dali painting

[teddy06]

I send one text while out on the sales floor and the cameras see so a gun descends from the ceiling and shoots me in the back of the head

[otakween]

Digimon Frontier - Episode 13

Big drama time. The plot was really plotting this episode, which I appreciate. I'm impressed that they're not just lazily following a formula of introducing a new spirit each episode. It's more exciting when things are unpredictable.

Notes:

It's kinda late to be asking this, but why is Rika the narrator for this series in the dub? I like to imagine she's watching the show with us now that her show's ended lol.

I like how Cherubimon's goons all look like they were designed by a different artist. Mercurymon stands out to me. He kind of reminds me of a Salvador Dali painting or something.

It seems like every other food the kids have eaten this season has been gross. Guess they're being realistic lol. At least the soba looked delicious...

Some dub differences I noticed were they cut Deramon being strangled so the bad guys just kinda pointlessly appear at the restaurant and then leave. Also, instead of showing the digivolutions side by side they showed them separately. It must be an interesting job being an editor for a localized program.

Seraphimon's castle was aesthetic af. I was like "yaaaaasss" while taking screenshots lol

I've definitely seen Seraphimon in one of the video games before, can't remember which one though. His design is amazing. I don't think he was mentioned in D-Project, in that it was basically just Ophanimon vs. Cherubimon, so the lore has expanded.

When Sorcerymon was lore dumping the animation was really bad lol. They were basically just moving PNGs around. I liked how Bokomon was like "gee, this story sounds familiar" in the dub. It did feel weird that they felt the need to repeat it verbatim. They could have just told us the new part.

Kind of rolling my eyes at Sorcerymon's sacrifice. Just because Wizardmon sacrificed himself in Adventure its gotta happen again with Sorcerymon? Feels like Leomon's repeat deaths.

Again with the inconsistencies with death in this franchise. I think this is the first time in Frontier we've seen a digimon turn into a digiegg instead of just vanish. Also, Mercurymon took his data but he's still able to turn into an egg which sets this apart from Tamers (I know they're alternative universes, no need to explain that to me). The kids acted like they knew all about digieggs for some reason. I could have sworn we haven't seen one yet...maybe it's just obvious.

Only just realized that Ranamon is called that because rana means "frog." She's cute but why'd they have to make her boobs so pointy at the end? lol

It really bothered me that Takuya (Izumi in the dub) told Tomoki not to cry. Why not? If Izumi was crying would they have told her to stop? Just seems shitty to me. (Also though he was crying over a digimon he met two seconds ago which bothered me for a different reason lol)

Wait, why were they clinging to the sides of Trailmon instead of sitting inside him? I guess they were just in a hurry

[ualseyoung10]

How Iconic Movie Monster “The Pale Man” Was CreatedBehind the Scenes of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s LabyrinthBy David MartíSeptember 21, 2022

With every character I’ve created with Guillermo del Toro, he’s never said, “Right, so, this is exactly what I want.”

He’ll come with an idea and usually some drawings, and from there, it’s up to you to develop the concept. It’s a process.

The earliest take on the Pale Man, from Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), was of a wooden man with drawers in his chest. Inside one of them is a dagger that Ofelia has to find, but if she opens the wrong drawer, there’s a thin, long, slimy tongue that licks her face.

Guillermo was like, “No, no, no. We need something else.”

Next, we came up with a fat, old man, sitting at the banquet table, who suddenly becomes very thin.

Again, Guillermo was like, “No, no, no. Let’s change it.”

He wanted the Pale Man to be stick-thin with hanging skin, and for reference he gave us that Salvador Dali painting of melting clocks.

But he’s like, “I still don’t like it . . . Remove his eyes.”

I was like, “Remove his eyes? What the hell? But OK.”

We removed his eyes. Then Guillermo tells us to remove his nose as well. I’m like, “How is he going to breathe?”

So Guillermo says, “Do a manta ray sort of thing.”

As a director, he’s the most creative person I’ve ever worked with. But as a producer, his first and only priority is the film itself.

So we did those little, round holes. And we were getting pretty close to what we ended up with in the movie. But then Guillermo’s like, “It’s not right. Let’s do this: When Ofelia eats the grape, he’ll transform. He’ll open his mouth, his lips will recede, the screaming skull of a horse will come out, and he’ll turn into a four-legged creature that chases her.”

We were in the middle of pre-production, we had no money left, and suddenly Guillermo came up with something that not only required a make-up, but also a mechanical thing, and then a puppet. I told him he’d have to find someone else to do it and he got mad at me.

The thing is, whenever I talk about Guillermo, I always say the same. As a friend, he’s the best you could ever have. As a director, he’s the most creative person I’ve ever worked with. But as a producer, his first and only priority is the film itself.

We took some time to cool down and met a while later in Madrid. Guillermo backed down from the screaming horse concept, but the make-up was still not quite there. As he has no eyes, I asked, “How is he going to find Ofelia?”

Guillermo said to me, “Close your eyes and try to find me.”

I thought maybe he’d slap my face, but OK, I closed my eyes. First, I felt around on the table on front of me, then I reached out as far as I could, with my hands wide open. Guillermo yells, “Stop there!”

And he comes up to me and draws eyes on my palms. I was like, “That makes no sense! He grabs the fairy with his eyes?”

But he says, “Stop thinking about practical stuff and think about magic.”

I was like, “You’re right! OK. Let’s do this.”

The first make-up test we did was with just the face and the hands. Guillermo said maybe we should add some tattoos or something, but I convinced him we didn’t need more detail. That the simpler the design, the better.

So Doug Jones is sitting in the chair, playing with the make-up, trying things out. He holds his hands up to his face, like he’s staring at us, then he closes his hands, and opens them again, like he’s blinking. It was just the most amazing moment.

We painted his pointy fingers black, so they’d look like eyelashes. And finally, we agreed: we had our Pale Man!

He didn’t come from Guillermo’s mind, though, or mine. More, a mix of accidents, financial limitations and great ideas from many different artists. Plus Doug, of course, flapping his fingers!

And that’s how we somehow created what very quickly became an iconic movie monster.

[globalworship]

'Ascension' art + jazz song

The artist Fr. Jason Antiquera is behind Antiquera Art. He is a Roman Catholic priest from the Philippines, and lives in Seoul, Korea.

Here is one of his terrific pieces: Ascension of the Lord Acrylic on canvas 2023

Follow more of his art at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083956245743

Fr. Jason told me:

I am originally from the Philippines and I belong to a Catholic missionary group Society of St. Columban. As a missionary in South Korea (where only around 11% are Catholics), I engage art with ministry. I draw/paint both Church sacred arts and also secular arts. I facilitate art retreat and conduct spiritual art workshop. My artworks hope to invite people reflect on the message of God incarnate in human body.

+++

Here is more information on the painting, written by Fr. Jason:

Background: This painting was done ahead of the feast of the Ascension of Jesus. However, the creation of this work was based on Scripture from the Gospel of Luke, “As blessed them, he parted from them and was taken up to heaven” (46:53). This was painted with the thought of avoiding repetition of images that have been done a countless times by many Christian artists. So, going through paintings from the past and the present on the same this subject was necessary. I came across painting works from Giotto (14th century) and Rembrandt (17th century) to iconographies by Andrei Rublev (15th century). All depicted Ascension in fantasy realism showing Jesus flying into the sky with the disciples looking up from the ground. I want an image that is grounded and Scripture-based.

The Process: From Word of God to Image of God In my contemplative reading of the Gospel, the words “blessed”, “parted” and “taken up to heaven” called my attention. These elements are the idea behind the image. Three elements altogether in one single act. hree elements altogether in one single act. “He blessed them”. This act is explicitly visible in the position of the Jesus two hands, which still have the mark of crucifixion. The “laying on of hands” is the most common gesture of Jesus in the scripture. Likewise, the wide distance of his two arms from each other implies that the blessing is not only to one person but to a crowd.

“Parted from them”. This parting is not only a visual but a felt experience for the viewer-participants. The image gives you a sense that, certainly, there is going to be an increasing physical gap between us and the ascending Jesus. Both the angle of the body of Jesus and the colors forming like a moving vortex in the background give us this sense of parting.

“Taken up to heaven.” This is the core of the line. There are two important elements here. The first one is the “taken up”. The direction “up” is felt as we look are looking at the sole of Jesus’ feet that appears nearer to us and his head far from us. We are gazing upon a person who is over our head. The second element is “heaven”. Note that the word is not ‘sky ‘nor ‘space’ so there is nothing, either abstract or representational, that will give us a hint of either sky or a space out there. Rather, what we can see is an impression of an image that appears like a vortex or a whirlwind in the background. Therefore, the painting don’t have a representation of heaven but what I have is an image showing us that Jesus is brought into another dimension described in the Scripture as ‘heaven’. Worth-noting is also the grounded feet of Jesus while being taken up to heaven.

Inspiration: We can see a nude figure of Jesus in painting. How Jesus physically appeared and whether he was wearing something or not was never mentioned in the Gospel as that element is not significant to the writer. While I did not want to repeat the same images that were painted many times in the past, this painting was, however, influenced by one work. It is inspired by the work of Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali (1904-1989) titled The Ascension of Christ. Dali’s ascending Jesus is also a nude figure. It is the point of continuity from the painting. However, I modified it in many ways from head to feet in order to deliver the word from the Gospel. Because of this important modification, I had to use a real human model and pose in a way that you can see in the painting. The ascending Jesus as expressed by a live nude human model is the special character of this work. It was formed through real human body and therefore grounded.

Title: “Ascension” Acrylic on Canvas/ 650 x 530 mm/ 2022

+++

Here is a jazz instrumental song called 'Ascension' by Avishai Cohen.

He is an Israeli jazz double bassist, composer, singer, and arranger. He has Sephardic, Greek-Jewish and Polish-Jewish ancestry. He sometimes sings in Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino), to which he has a connection through his mother.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avishai_Cohen_(bassist)

This is the opening song of his 2003 album "Lyla."

[girlyandunruly]

2023: Most important thing is family

First year I’ve felt a shift from my “forever young” lifestyle to realizing we are getting old. Our friends no longer join every big event. Both our grandmothers passed away earlier this year. We’ve also had some health problems we’ve had to manage. There’s more time spent at home with continued house maintenance and remodeling projects (and a little of relaxation when possible). I guess since we spend more time at home, we keep improving it. But overall, I’m like “what’s going on? Are we boring? Oh, we are just getting older”, blah.

The biggest focus this year has been family. Between birthdays, funerals, national holidays, and newborn family member, we traveled 8 times in the year to spend time with family. With all the life changes, I cherish the time I spend with our family.

Workwise, this year I hired three new people for my team, and it was the first time in 5 years working at Barr Engineering that I felt the workload was finally manageable. All those years of stress finally paid off; I have a solid team, way more money (ha!) and Barr did an article about me so getting some industry recognition.

Traveling to a new place or visiting family is my favorite thing to do. Here’s this year’s list, 9 different states and 3 new countries, not one full month spent in Denver.

JANUARY:

Jackson Hole, WY snowboarding with friends (Highlight: seeing a moose on the ski run!!)

FEBRUARY:

Taos, NM snowboarding trip with friends for my 38th birthday (Highlight: live music at a bar)

MARCH:

Tucson, AZ for work NAEM conference (Highlight: cucumber vodka lemonades)

APRIL:

Houston, TX for abuelita’s celebration of life

MAY:

Birmingham, MI for Luka’s birthday

JUNE:

Vienna, Austria trip with my mom (Highlights: ALL THE ART!! Absolute best and champagne breaks)

JULY:

Collbran, CO camping for 4th of July

Lake George, NY for Betty Brown’s celebration of life

AUGUST:

Nagawicka Lake, WI for grandpa Bob’s 95th birthday

Serbia and Montenegro for our 5th year wedding anniversary (Highlights: Basketball player Boban Marjanovic being at the same restaurant and all the cats in Montenegro)

SEPTEMBER:

Houston, TX for business trip (Highlight: Got to see SanJuanita and parents for a night)

OCTOBER:

Minneapolis, MN for work training

NOVEMBER:

Birmingham, MI for sisbro’s birthday and went to see Metallica (Highlight: Detroit Institute of Art with so many dutch paintings)

Tampa, FL for Thanksgiving with the Brown family (Highlights: Salvador Dali, wild dolphins and saving Sofi)

DECEMBER:

Houston, TX for Christmas with the family (Highlight: Go Karts with the siblings!)

The times I wasn’t traveling but stayed in Denver were memorable: 1- Goat yoga 2- Getting a limo to see SOFI TUKKER at Red Rocks 3- Bridgerton themed brunch with Elizabeth 4- Indoor mini golf with friends where I won :D 5- Denver Nuggets won the NBA championship and my obsession with Jokic started 6- Seeing The Book of Mormon 7- Makeup class with Kate at Sephora, and finally learning better makeup techniques (I know what to do with primer and bronzer) 8- Obsessed with Women’s World Cup games 9- Vivas Streets where Denver closed Broadway and Welton and had it open for bikers/walkers and no cars. So much fun. 10- Free outdoor movie The Goonies at Curtis Park 11- Tried something new: Hip Hop class with Holly 12- Seeing Jerry Seinfeld 13- Discovered new favorite restaurants: Jovanina’s Broken Italian and Bao Brewhouse

Relax time at home:

Creating art of any form is my favorite pastime. And this year I’ve become obsessed with creating miniatures. A few inspired by my recent travels: Mozart's home after Austria and Porto Winery after Portugal.

Favorite books I read this year: o The Blueprint for Revolution by Srdja Popovic o All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Bigger focus on skin care. I have a routine of drinking tea collagen every morning, take vitamins and use serum. The occasional face mask.

Favorite TV shows/Movies in 2023:

Shrinking

Beef

Transatlantic

Ted Lasso

Air

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

BARBIE!!

With all the art obsession this year I came up with our Halloween costume: Vincent Van Gogh and The Starry Night

Baby news!

New nephew Noah born in February 2023 and new baby announcement from Justin and Vanessa again on the same year! (another boy!)

Owen and Pearl had their baby Soren on November 7, 2023.

My 2024 wishes are for better health and continued happiness <3

[journeydb]

November 4 2022 Barcelona

Claire and I went during our French class today to the Salvador Dali exhibition at the Ideal theater and museum in Poble Nou. It was amazing, especially the Metaverse experience at the end when I felt like I was INSIDE the world of his paintings. The large theater presentation was also very interesting and immersive.

The theater provided a bit of an IMAX experience because images were displayed on the ceiling, walls, and floor and the music was enchanting.

Dali was a genius and his works of art are fascinating and bizarre. Unfortunately, it turns out he wasn't a very good person, which I never realized until I attended this exhibition. It seems he was not only a Nazi sympathizer, he was also a narcissist and a bully.

He was brutal to his wife and muse, Gala, who was the inspiration for much of his work. Her real name was Elena Ivanova Diakonova. The exhibition suggested they were in a sado-masochistic relationship for much of their marriage. Their relationship was one of love, hate, mutual respect and disrespect, and even cruelty. Perhaps they were both narcissists.

The visuals of Cadaques, on the Costa Brava, where they lived and which Bruce and I have visited several times with friends, were stunning. It makes you wonder how people living in such a gorgeous place and with wealth and fame could have become so destructive towards one another.

But that is the mystery of mental health issues that have only recently begun to have been investigated enough to provide us with insight into the pathologies and possible treatments for these maladies. Of course, Narcissistic Personality Disorder is in a class of its own and currently there are very few successful treatments and no cure.

[serenllewis]

Exhibition.

I emailed back and forth with the curator of Umbrella; Paisley and we discussed suitable dates and times for my team to visit the space. I tried my best to organise a time that was suitable for my team and other teams to look at the space, such as the curation team. Before attending the meeting with Umbrella I wrote down a list of questions to ask, we also had a brief discussion in class where other people proposed additional questions, I subsequently let the class know of the date and time we were going to the space so they could attend if they felt it was necessary. I felt a bit apprehensive before going to the meeting with Umbrella as this is a new experience for me. Although, I did feel reassured as I had another member of my team with me during the discussion. I was expecting the meeting to be more formal, but I felt relieved when we arrived as it was a very casual discussion.  During the meeting with Paisley, I found her to be very helpful and informative with her answers to our questions. She gave us advice on how to curate the exhibition and suggested we hold a closing event as opposed to an opening event because it landed on a Friday rather than a Monday, therefore more people could attend. I thought this was a fantastic idea and fed this back to the group, but after some consideration, it was decided against. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but an issue arose with the pricing for the venue. Umbrella’s set price for hiring the venue was £300, I spoke to my lecturers about this and was advised to try and get a venue for free or find someone to sponsor our event. I set about emailing different publishing companies in search of sponsorship from one of them. Unfortunately, none were able to sponsor our event, so the other teams decided on a fundraising bake sale and print sale to raise money for our event. In addition to this, Paisley mentioned during our Umbrella meeting that we were able to sell prints of our artwork throughout the course of our exhibition in order to raise even more money to pay for the space. There was still an element of worry about whether we would raise enough money to pay for the space, but in the end, we managed to gather enough money together to pay for the venue.

On the morning of our meeting with Umbrella, we had an email from Jacobs Market confirming that they also had availability, therefore we made the decision to visit the space after our meeting with Umbrella. After viewing the alternative space, we came to the conclusion that Umbrella was the more suitable option as it was closer to our University, and it was on the ground floor which made it more accessible.

Once the location for our exhibition was almost set in stone, it was time for me to begin creating ideas for my exhibition piece. The theme that was decided on for our exhibition was dreams and nightmares, with the title being Lucid. For my piece I chose to create a dreamlike illustration because I could create something more surrealist, using Salvador Dali as inspiration.

I began with a rough draft of my idea that was later shown to my lecturers for critique. One of the notes given to me was that I could utilise the empty space in my design and add more imagery. My very final rough draft consisted of distorted buildings and surrealist imagery in the sky. We were given a colour palette to follow by the curation team, the colour palette given for the dreamy illustrations was pastel pinks and purples, which I aimed to emulate using gouache paints.       

On reflection, I would have liked to give myself more time to create my exhibition piece so that I could practice with the gouache beforehand, as I had not painted with them in quite some time. I would have also liked to ensure I had the correct size paper to work with. Part of the reason I struggled with my time management came from being on the location team, which meant that I was trying to juggle the importance of getting a venue quickly and all that it entailed, along with meeting the deadline given for the art production because it needed to go to print. If I had been in a team whose responsibilities were further along in the exhibition process, I may have found juggling the work slightly easier. However, as I stated previously, I am pleased I was on the location team because I found the skills that I learnt beneficial and played to areas I needed to develop.

[groupsix]

Immersive Experience Research

The three experiences that I researched where:

1) The Dali Cybernetic Experience

2) The Summer Palace

3)The Virtual Express in Tibidabo.

1)I have not personally visited the Exhibit, so I studied images from the website. While not the same as being there in person, I still got an idea of what it would feel like to be in the exhibit. One of the elements that I noticed was that most of the projections had some kind of animation going on, like a walk cycle or slow zoom ins etc. The animations were things that didn't seem too time consuming or complex, but it seems like they added to the sense of awe and the surrealism of the paintings.

This is something that could be applied to the group project as well. We have little time to create the project, so going for simpler animations, like flickering lights and subtle movement wouldn't take as much time as creating complex animations, but could still enhance the atmosphere and give it a sense of wonder.

2)The Summer Palace is an experience where the visitors immerse themselves in a unique experience that combines renaissance paintings, animation, 3D visuals and particle simulations (2023)

I really liked the above image, because the focus is on the celling, and it makes the visitors look up. I liked the idea of the visitors being in a closed space, but having a really big window to an outside world, an it made me think about how we could use a similar idea for the group project.

3)The Virtual express in tibidabo, is an amusement park ride where visitors wear VR headsets. The concept of the ride is that you are in a mine cart and are riding though an abandoned mine. As someone who was in the ride, I found it really fun. While some elements broke the immersion slightly, for the most part it was really exciting and it felt really cool to be able to turn your head and look around the setting of the mine.

Looking around the setting felt immersive and fun on it's own. Applying this to the group project, I think that it's not necessary to have a story happening, and that just having a beautiful and interesting setting could be enough to dazzle and amaze an audience on it's own.

Sofia Stefanis

Bibliography:

Dalí : Cybernetics London - the immersive experience - tickets: Fever (no date) Fever. Available at: https://feverup.com/m/120949 (Accessed: February 1, 2023).

Dalí London exhibit: The immersive experience (no date) Cities. Available at: https://immersive-dali.com/london/ (Accessed: February 1, 2023).

Outernet & Agustin Vidal Saavedra present the Summer Palace (2023) Outernet London. Available at: https://www.outernetglobal.com/news/outernet-london-and-agustin-vidal-saavedra-present-the-summer-palace (Accessed: February 1, 2023).

Salfrais, T. (2022) Tickets to the Salvador Dali Digital Exhibition with 'metaverse' experience are on sale, Secret London. Available at: https://secretldn.com/dali-cybernetics-tickets/ (Accessed: February 1, 2023).

Tibidabo (no date) Tibidabo Amusement Park. Available at: https://www.tibidabo.cat/en/amusement-park/rides/virtual-express (Accessed: February 1, 2023).

[ohfugecannada]

@best-animated-short-tourney Ok, this poll has one day left with Pop Squad in the lead, but I can’t let Destino go without me making my case for it.

First, a brief history lesson: Destino was originally invisioned as a Fantasia segment where surrealist artist Salvador Dali provided story and concept art. However, due to several factors such as the Disney studio’s financial situation at the time, and creative differences between Disney and Dali, the project was ultimately scrapped. Leaving only Dali’s concept art and a few seconds of animation. I remember this project was mentioned in an interlude in Fantasia 2000 where one of the celebrity hosts talks about scrapped and unused segment ideas for the og Fantasia.

50 or so years after Destino was scrapped, the project was revived in the 90s/early2000s with director Dominique Monfery at the helm.

Why I love this short is, like a few people, Dali was my introduction to the surrealist art movement. There was always something about his landscapes that simultaneously evoked a sense of otherworldlness and unease, and a sense of curiosity, beauty, awe and wonder in young me. And in my opinion, the animation of Destino perfectly captures that sense of otherworldy awe and wonder I felt as a child looking through a book of Dali’s paintings. All while telling a bittersweet, dreamlike and beautiful love story between our unnamed protagonists.

And I mean, just look at this imagery.

(Threw in a few gifs because the still images alone don’t do this film justice)

Not only is the rendering of Dali’s painting style unbelievably on point, the animation enhances their feel. With some characters movement fading from one frame to the next to evoke this dreamlike state, cg animation that, while a little dated by todays standards, only adds to the surreal atmosphere in a way only late 90s/early2000s cgi can, and even some use of what looks like stop motion/claymation in one scene.

The sheer creativity on display in Destino from its perfect capturing of the look and feel of Dali’s paintings to the marriage of so many different animation techniques is incredible and just goes to show how much of a labour of love this film was to its creators through their willingness to go the extra mile like this.

The only good reasons I can think of for someone to not vote for it are A) they’ve never seen it/only watched Love Death and Robots or B) they know of the more problematic side of Dali’s legacy and his facist leanings (of which some say occasionally bled into his art). If the latter’s the case, than that’s completely understandable. However, in my opinion, the work of art Dominique Monfery, David Berthier, Yoshimichi Tamura and every individual artist in the creative team created with Destino transcends Dali as a person. It fully captures the spirit of not only the paintings that inspired young me to peruse art all those years ago, but also the creative, artistic and innovative spirit of Disney films like Fantasia and Fantasia 2000s that inspired me see animation as a limitless and beautiful art form and peruse animation and filmmaking as a possible career.

Destino is a testament to the power of both fine art and animation made one. It shows a level of artistry, passion and experimentation which made disney films of the golden age and renaissance so incredible, and which I feel is missing from the more safe and corporate Disney of today. As well as a reverence for the timeless artistic mediums (painting and traditional animation) that inspired it.

If you have six minutes of your time to spare for it, please watch Destino. At least once.

Choose Your Favorite!

Vote in the other polls

Where to find the shorts:

Destino is available on Disney+

Pop Squad is available on Netflix as Season 2, Episode3 of Love Death + Robots

[ladytheoris]

Nanami x Reader

Glimpse: An unexpected date(?)

100% Fluff.

Gojo never got his timings right, and this was one thing you hated him for. As for today, it was after this pop-up mission he decided to leave you and Nanami behind to "catch up" with something.

After all, being your best friend and senior, he did know a lot about you. Which unfortunately included your unrequited love for this blonde man, who now sits opposite to you in the bakery trying to figure out the menu.

You desperately tried to avoid any situations that involved this man because of two reasons. One, respecting the boundaries that he had set. two, in fear of falling for him, and him not catching you.

After taking your order, the young boy -Itadori who is doing part-time (reporting purposes for a certain blue-eyed white-haired man-child)- went back to the counter, never failing to leave his eyes from that particular table you and Nanami sat. Your coffee and his milk tea arrived seconds later, and it was Nanami who suggested the art museum nearby.

You, as someone who knew little to nothing about art, were definitely supposed to be bored there. But the perfect art which was with you never made you not forget any second of it. The way he described the way Salvador Dali's painting and its interpretation according to him, though you understood nothing, the way he spoke was unforgettable.

Maybe this was the reason why Gojo teased you too. Whenever he is in your vicinity, every other thing just fades away, it's just him. Although you know how much he talks out of the idea of a relationship, you just could not help but fall head over heels for him. Who would not, when he is perfect in every aspect?

Even Gojo once admitted the fact that had he been a girl, he would have definitely been your competition, not that he would not now.

"Where do you want to go next?" His voice stops your train of thoughts.

Anymore second here, you might lose that last strand of sanity that your mind is holding onto.

"I guess we'll call it a day." Your voice was weak but determined.

You both walked back to the entrance of the museum. You walked slightly ahead of him. Reaching the entrance you noticed that the sky was darkening, and the clock read four in the evening. It wasn't supposed to rain according to the weather forecast today. As if a jinx, the rain poured down. As if the heavens wanted you to stay there a bit more longer.

"You have an umbrella?" He asked.

"No. But the bus station is not much away, I'll manage." You smiled back at him.

Without thinking further, you walked into the rain. The cool drops of water on your dress felt like a winter hug. But he was faster than you. With an umbrella, there he was, beside you.

You looked up at him, the sudden closeness haywire your brain. His arms wrap around your shoulder, pulling you closer to him. The winter hug was now more like a scorching heatwave. You knew it as a matter of fact, that your ears, nose, and cheeks felt hot, and his sudden glance at you, then a slight smile; you are blushing.

Taking smaller steps towards your destination amidst the heavy rain, you were very much cautious about the distance between you both.

"Why do you hate me?" his eyes locked on your wide-open ones.

"Huh?"

"I asked why do you hate me?" his voice was close to your ears because of the proximity.

"Who said I do?" The weather was still giving no sign of sunlight. The bus station was a mere foot away from you both, and you stopped in your tracks. He followed your action.

"Your actions." His eyes were searching for something in yours. you could feel the intensity in his gaze.

"I don't." You looked away.

"Look me in my eyes and tell me." His demand was too much for you. Why? The fluttering in your stomach and the buzzing in your ears was all the more of the notifications that this definitely not going in the direction you wanted it to go.

"Nanami-" "No Y/N, I need your reason for why you hate me, nothing else." Your words were stopped in the middle with his. You looked into his brown eyes, and at that moment you knew, all this better be a dream. The way his eyes lingered on you made you feel like you were floating in the air.

You couldn't say to him just like that that you liked him. For what? Getting badly humiliated knowing it was one-sided all this time? For having feelings for a man whose existence is like that of a Greek god in yours? He was perfect and you were not.

With a gloomy smile, you said, "Nanami it's not that I hate you."

"Then what? Why do you steer clear from me all the time?" He kept his respectful stance. You wished for once in this lifetime, you'll see him break his poise outlook, just towards you. But that was just a dream, never gonna happen.

"I ..." You couldn't bring yourself to say that three words. How much of a coward are you? That was the day you realized that the mask of a strong persona you wore was broken by that man in front of you, even though he did nothing. For this should you be afraid of him? Or is he the only one who will ever see you like this? Were you afraid of getting rejected and being pushed away? Yes, you were. Especially when your mind made you believe that whatever is going on between him and you is not returned. It was just you in a room; that is what you saw.

His firm eyes were solely on you. You could feel it. "I..."

Yet again, you couldn't bring yourself to complete the words. With a sigh, you said, "I won't be able to tell you that Nanami."

"Fine, then hear me out." He said. "I do not want you to avoid me."

"Why?" Your sound was stuck in your throat. The air around you both could be sliced by a knife.

"I like you." His words just stopped everything happening around you from fading out of its existence. You just stood there not knowing what to do.

"What?" Your eyes wide open, mouth slightly parted staring at him as if he said some incorrigible language.

"I said, I like you. So I don't like it when you avoid me." He said.

You could feel the heat rushing to your face. All you could do was give a smile and fall into his arms, he was there, by your side, holding you.

"I don't know what I should say," you really didn't know. After all, it was not supposed to happen this way.

"You don't have to say anything. Just know that I like you, and I don't want you to hate me." His words held his usual calmness. Unknown to you, his heart too was beating as fast as yours.

Your eyes met yet again, "guess I was so wrong with my assumptions." His eyes wrinkled around the edges, and his eyes never once left yours.

"I like you too." Now it was his time to freeze. "You hated relationships, so I thought it would be better to keep myself away from you. So that I won't catch the feelings."

He smiled; you got butterflies in your stomach. "Guess that plan was a failure." He chuckled.

"Think so." The moment the words left your mouth, he pulled you closer to him. His hands wrapped around your body, cradling you in his warm embrace. You could feel his hot breath fanning your eyelashes as he looked at you.

You couldn't meet his intense gaze. You knew that there will be no going back once yours and his eyes met. Yet, his hand found its way to your neck, slowly making you face him.

"May I?" His gaze was locked on your lips. The intense gaze made you bite your lips.

"I would do that for you, Y/N," his voice broke into your mind. You looked in his eyes and could feel him closing the mere inches between his and your lips.

"Yes, please." You breathed those words out. As if waiting for that, his lips crashed onto yours. Lips moving in synchronization that you never knew off to be this perfect. His tongue traced your lips, and the movements were like him asking you to follow his lead, and you did. If you were to fall for him, you were thankful that he was there to catch you. Now was the time the skies above decided to show a bit of sunlight, the whole city was basking in a golden glow' or so you felt.

"Yo guys get a room," a voice broke your heated moment. You and Nanami were meters apart in a matter of seconds. You saw that annoying white-haired senior of yours giving you both a nasty look. You looked over to Nanami who had a faint smile on his lips. Gojo never got his timings right, and this was one another moment you hated him for that.

[loverockawaitsyou]

Took some mushrooms last night and went to party...

I had planned to take mushrooms and chill out at home in my room with some music, but the BF invited me to a friend’s party after I had already taken my mushrooms. I decided to go.

I took some pure mushrooms. I’ve done it once before, but I stayed at home. The experience was pretty great, and I felt relaxed and “spiritual”. This time around, I was feeling really good for the first couple of hours, but I started to feel really trippy towards the end of the night, and not in a great way.

I can’t even begin to describe what I was seeing. I felt like I was in a Salvador Dali painting, and at the same time, I felt like I was peering through a fish-eye lens. I could see and hear in 4K, LOL. Additionally, my concept of time was skewed, and it seemed as if people were teleporting. I never noticed when people walked from one spot to another.

Anyways, I think I got a little over stimulated, I was in an unfamiliar place with lots of lights, screaming sounds, music, fog, and I could sense a bit of bad vibes from a couple of people at the party-- included two or three guys who didn’t seem to like my BF and I could tell they didn’t want him there. I’m pretty introverted, so I can handle being around people I don’t know/am not comfortable with for only so long. Perhaps that’s what caused my trip to go south. All I know, was that I was ready to go back home and lay back in my warm cozy bed, and not be passed out on some stranger’s couch.

I am not a heavy drug user at all, I had taken pure mushrooms for the first time in nearly a year. I smoke weed a couple times a week, and occasionally have a drink.

Just detailing my experience!

I’ll probably try mushrooms again, but I’ll definitely stay at home and enjoy them there.

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Richard Kruspe interview - Oxmox Hamburg Stadtmagazin 2021-12

Published 2021-12-04

Richard about Emigrate's new album, working with Till and Lemmy, cover songs, an Emigrate idea that ended up on a Rammstein album and more..

Disclaimer:

Before taking offense with anything RZK says in this interview, please consider

although my intention is do translate as correct as possible, there may be nuances lost in translation (neither english nor german is my first language)

the interviewer may have written down RZK's answers with a different nuance than Richard intended

Exclusive interview with Richard Kruspe

I had to break out of the Rammstein cosmos

Richard Kruspe (54) has shaped the sound of Rammstein with his massive guitar riffs for more than 25 years . The guitarist, singer and songwriter also works with Rammstein- Frontmann Till Lindemann on his own project, Emigrate .

Richard Kruspe: I had a difficult time. After our stadium tour, I fell into a hole. When at Rammstein concerts you hear every day how great you , you become addicted to it in a way. As a result, before the pandemic, for the first time in my life I had no motivation to even think about music . I had to move into the past to re-find myself. And in the process I came across old songs that I thought were beautiful. A very important process for me to again make music at all.

Just like the album “The Persistence Of Memory” there is a painting by Salvador Dali by that name. An coincidence?

No. I thought this name and this picture were so fitting for the time I had just experienced. I needed this urgency of memory to write this album ... The music has to touch me, for me to have images in my head. These can also be abstract. That happens to me in a very extreme way when I write and mix music.

What images did you have in mind during the dark “Blood Stained Wedding”?

With this song I had pictures from the movie "I Am The Legend" in my head, in which Will Smith walks alone through the streets of New York. "I am the last survivor in this world" . I often write intuitively about things I see or process. It doesn't always have to be about current affairs. Sometimes these themes come back ... Personally I already isolated myself before the pandemic. When that started, being isolated was nothing new to me. Dealing with yourself is something that makes you lonely. This always logically results in lyrics or music .

" Freeze My Mind" is one of the very first Emigrate songs, written in 2001.

Yes. That originated at a time when I felt I had to break out of the Rammstein-cosmos in order to create a balance. At that time I needed distance to define myself and developed the desire for something of my own. I always want to take new roads. While showering this morning, I wondered when the next musical revolution is coming. I don't know if it will ever happen. Rock music was the sound of the revolution in the 60s and 70s. Later came the rave-techno-electro wave. The rebellion of hip-hop I didn't really understand anymore.

Emigrate is a balance to your artistic work with Rammstein.

I needed this balance. Through Rammstein I learned that the big picture is more important than your own ego. On the other hand, I also have a vision. You can't necessarily enforce that in a democracy. I could only do that in my own world.

Till Lindemann also belongs to the Emigrate family. He did the lead vocals for the cover “Always On My Mind”. Is Lindemann your muse who always inspires you to new songs?

Yeahno. Naturally Till is part of my life. The original idea was that Till and I wanted to do Emigrate together . Understandably, the band had a problem with that. The Elvis song actually had nothing to do with Till . Years ago our record company wanted to make an album with Elvis songs. I thought Elvis ' voice incredibly exciting and started working on the song "Always On My Mind" . Later I considered who else could sing it.

And then you thought of Till Lindemann?

That was only at the last moment. Till has a very special voice and immediately agreed. I then sang along to it myself, which is very emotional ... It's exciting to bring what is muscially inside you, into a cover.

Is a good cover as labor-intensive as a completely new song?

Definitely. Sometimes even more labor intensive. When Rammstein covered “Stripped” by Depeche Mode , it was more difficult for us than writing a new song. Because you always try to keep the balance between the original and your own trademark.

Are you particularly happy when the original artists like your new versions?

In Elvis' case, that's difficult. The last Rammstein cover was made by Balbina . (Note: "Sonne" ) I thought that was really good. I heard it on Radio Eins , where it was played all the time. On the new “Black Album” there are also a couple of extremely good Metallica covers.

Did you still find Emigrate songs from the early days with Till Lindemann in your archive?

No. The basic building block back then was the song "Don't Die Before I Do" . We later recorded it with Rammstein and Sharleen Spiteri for the album "Rosenrot" . After that I continued Emigrate on my own. And the new album closes an era. I would like to move in a completely different direction. I like to play the piano and electronic instruments because nothing new happens to me on the guitar.

With Emigrate you also worked with Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead. Was that exciting?

Of course! The idea was to do something exactly with people I adore. With Lemmy it was a very special moment shortly before his death. Even though he was already very ill, he particpated. Especially when you have grown up in the East like me and have idealized certain musicians, at such a moment you feel as if Christmas, Easter and a birthday happened at the same time.

How did you work with Lemmy back then?

I sent him the song and he sang on it. Lemmy was a rock *).

At the end of the 80s, Till Lindemann and you and your band, First Arsch, applied for a playing permit in order to be able to perform publicly in the GDR. 

That was the time of the rebellion when punk bands suddenly came together. Punk arrived relatively late in Schwerin. Anyone who wanted to make music in the East needed a degree. The idea that you just pick up a guitar and start playing - you had to get used to this at first. At First Arsch we thrashed and let out emotions. Till on drums and me on guitar went on stage without rehearsing. I don't even know if that was even music, but the audience thought it was super awesome. Because it just was different. A liberation from the state and society.

What did you sing about back then?

There were no lyrics with First Arsch . Our bass player just made noises. It was a really exciting time. I went to the conservatory for four years, where I learned to play jazz guitar. And it took me another four years to forget it all again. Music that happens intuitively cannot be made on a drawing board. In retrospect, of course, I use parts of classical music to understand things. But you don't need a degree for these types of emotions.

Rammstein will go on a European tour in 2022.

You always like to do things that you haven't done for a long time. What I missed most during the pandemic was going to concerts myself.

-----

*) the word used is 'Urgestein' which literally translates 'Premieval rock', and means something like 'Founding member', 'Old guard' or something.. My feeling is that Richard thinks of Lemmy as a very experienced singer, very professional in getting the song done.

[tcm]

Imitation of Lana Turner By Jessica Pickens

Hollywood and its celebrities have influenced fashion and beauty trends since its inception. In 2017, Kim Kardashian popularized contouring face foundation, adding an extra step in routine application of makeup. Hairstylists across the United States in the 1990s mimicked Jennifer Aniston’s layered Friends haircut, and in the 1940s, Veronica Lake’s peekaboo bangs caused concerns about the dangers of women’s hairstyles in wartime factories.

One fashion and beauty influencer from the 1930s through the 1950s was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s top stars: Lana Turner. From her early days as a pin-up girl to her peak of top glamour, Turner influenced beauty trends internationally. The trends of some of Turner’s contemporaries faded as times changed. Dorothy Lamour’s sarong went out of style and Lake’s one-eye-covered hairstyle was no longer in vogue as shorter haircuts of the 1950s became popular. But Turner evolved with her audiences.

In the late 1930s, audiences were introduced to her as a teen actress. By the 1940s, she was a bona fide star and a top World War II pin-up. In the 1950s, she became every inch the star — a sophisticated glamour queen. Throughout her career, her looks changed from red hair to long blonde tresses, to occasionally brunette. Swathed in Hollywood designs, furs and jewels, Turner influenced a number of trends throughout her film career.

Every Inch the Star

It’s no wonder that Turner was influential on pop culture of the past and the present. Nicknamed “The headline girl,” Turner dominated the news – from her eight marriages and divorces and the murder of her boyfriend. She was also nicknamed “The Queen of the Night Clubs.” Whether it was Ciro’s, the Mocambo, the Cocoanut Grove or The Trocadero, Turner was a fixture of Hollywood nightlife. Her daughter and biographer Cheryl Crane wrote that when Turner made an entrance into a nightclub, bandleaders would start playing “You Stepped Out of a Dream” from ZIEGFELD GIRL (’41) and a hush would fall over the crowd.

The MGM commissary even named a dish after their top star: The Lanallure Salad. In addition to all of this, she proved to also be a great actress with performances in THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (‘46) and THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (‘52). Turner may have only stood 5’3”, but every inch of her was a star.

The Sweater Girl

Starting with her first movie, Turner was already setting trends and turning heads. In THEY WON’T FORGET (‘37), Turner’s character walks down the street in a form-fitting sweater — a sight audiences didn’t forget. This scene caused Lana Turner to be nicknamed “The Sweater Girl.” At 16 years old, Turner and her mother weren’t thrilled with the nickname. Turner was embarrassed and at one point said she was ashamed to face people. But it also influenced a trend of tight sweaters that emphasized the bust size.

“I believe it is no exaggeration to say that I have done more for the sweater than the sheep, the silkworm, or the Yale football team,” she said. The Sweater Girl trend continued throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, with almost every major female star photographed in a tight sweater. In a December 16, 1949 article in The Pittsburgh Press, Harvey J. Scott is quoted as saying, "But our real problem is with bobbysoxers. They are the sweater girls — just kids showing off their curves and apparently liking it. What kind of mothers and wives are they going to be?”

Global Influence

It wasn’t just American audiences who were fascinated with Turner’s glamour — her influence reached globally. Eva Perón (known as Evita) was the wife of Argentine President Juan Perón and she was First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. Perón was known for her high-fashion wardrobe, which highlighted her rags-to-riches background. Perón was heavily influenced by Hollywood, especially when she wore her hair blonde.

During a visit to Argentina in February 1946, Lana Turner’s jewelry was seized by customs, which held her up for hours. “She learned that every piece was photographed to be copied later,” Crane wrote. While at a party during her visit, Turner felt Perón watching her the whole time. Perón was said to have copied fashions and hairstyles unique to Lana Turner. When Patti LuPone played Evita on Broadway, Turner met her backstage and shared this story with her as well, according to LuPone’s autobiography.

Another admirer was Spanish artist Salvador Dali. Turner was in Carmel at the same time as Dali, who she met over cocktails. Dali wanted to paint Turner but only wanted to paint the corners of her eyes. “You have the most beautiful corners of your eyes I have ever seen,” he said. Turner refused the offer for the painting.

Still Influential

Even though Lana Turner died in 1995, her legacy and influence lives on. In her 1990 song “Vogue,” Madonna lists Turner as one of the many other classic stars with style and grace. That same year, author James Ellroy worked Lana Turner into his neo-noir novel L.A. Confidential. Turner’s character is also mentioned in the 1997 film version and portrayed by Brenda Bakke. Singer Elizabeth Grant took on the stage name Lana Del Rey, influenced by Turner. The popular singer/songwriter was inspired by Turner’s first name and “Del Rey” came from the Ford Del Rey sedan. Releasing an album in March 2021, Del Rey’s style and moody musical sound is heavily influenced by vintage style and Los Angeles imagery.

[patriciamccarthy]

Artist research notebook!📚📓✨🎇2D Work!

Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. It also encompasses the study of human expression - visual, tactile, spatial and aural.✨🌟

I researched artists such as Salvador Dalí and Jeff Koons as I thoroughly enjoy the genres of both surrealism and pop art/modernism art. Through researching the book “Dali” by Dawn Ades, I learnt that surrealist artists created a range of their own vocabulary in their artworks to explain specific objects or elements featured in their work. Dali renamed statues as “menhirs”, and this unusual use of creative licence also reminded me of the author Roald Dahl where Dahl made up a word to express a combination of ideas or an imaginative idea. Reading this book also allowed me to understand the political movement behind surrealism, and how this movement was created from Sigmund Freud ideas and the analysis of dreams, as well as the controversial life of Dalí himself!

I recreated Dalí’s oil painting artwork titled “Atavistic ruins”, via the medium of oil paint and took notes and references down in my sketchbook. I decided to construct a digital 2D artwork of this painting too as I wanted to create a pop art/modern style inspired by Dali’s surrealism genre and techniques of oil painting, I edited floating foxes and jokers into Dalí’s painting, recreating and editing artworks is a famous technique used by Andy Warhol and I wanted to play around with this idea too. My painting below is an oil painting with markers on canvas and is A4 in size. As I have an interest in pop art, I decided to research Jeff Koons as he is currently one of the most influential modern artists of our century. Koons engages with the idea of changing shapes and creating both large and small shiny, metal objects, his artwork reminds me of balloon artists, his famous “Balloon dog” was an extremely unique idea and I really liked it as my friend Mizhqua is talented at creating balloon artwork and she made me a mini “Balloon dog” too which I think is adorable!🌻🎈🐕✨💫

Also, I made a digital photoshop edit of the Board Game Monopoly as I felt that the concept of capitalism, entertainment and animals all are extremely interlinked. Capitalism changes our view on animals and turns them into a commodity/object of capital as animals are sold, locked in circuses, removed from their homes and families, sold as medicine, transformed into a fur lined jacket or into a leather car seat. I felt that the symbolism of the joker is interesting to represent how sometimes people treat animals as a joke and also how foxes are depicted as both predators and prey, interchanging between many mammals fear of foxes and how people hunt foxes for entertainment and their fur. This role reversal is interesting and is a reminder of the circle of life and how capitalism impacts our society, the animal kingdom and behaviours in several ways. This also relates back to my other theme of “animals playing”, in this oil painting, animals are playing with board games and gambling.

[reidecorating]

Waking up Slow

Requested: Nope, this is just what happens when I decide to avoid studying for physics 

Pairing: Matthew Gray Gubler x Female Reader 

Word Count: Around 2k

Summary: It’s been a dream of mine to wear Gube’s alien shirt and make him food and just have a good old yarn with the man so I decided to write about it. This is just a whole lot of flirting and banter and making out on a Sunday morning

Warnings: None, a lil spicy but pretty SFW, might mistake this for a pillow though, with the amount of fluff

Rays of impatient late morning sun poured in through the gaps in the curtains, which were hastily shut the night before, as they failed to meet in the middle. Matthew never minded sleeping with them half open. Some nights, he would squint and try to make out constellations in the cosmos as his whole world lay curled up beside him, her ear against his heartbeat the way a young child would listen to the ocean through a shell. Other nights, when they would both lay tired and out of breath, she would call him moonlight as her fingers danced along his collarbones, shimmering in the star shine as the thin veil of sweat painting them was the only evidence of what they had been doing previously. However, now, while the two of them remained entwined, the white sheets appeared to glow yellow in the wake of the stars which had collected into one, hours ago. She woke up to Matthew’s arm draped around her waist, having found its way under the fabric of the shirt that scantily covered her, in an attempt to share the warmth of her skin. Stretching and letting out a yawn, she debated falling back asleep, seeing as her only interlocutor was still doing the same. Craning her neck over the pile of poetry sitting on the bedside table, obscuring her view, she made out the small digital numbers reading just before midday, and turned to face the dozing man beside her.

Her eyes brushed over him in all his sleeping beauty, head resting against the supple skin of his upturned palm, brown hair brighter in the morning light, pixie nose tilted up towards the headboard. His eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks at whatever he was dreaming of, and she wanted, so badly, to taste the pink of his parted lips, to join his dreamscape by breathing into his lungs. A large portion of the sheets had been stolen by her in the middle of the night. While she was bundled up like a cinnamon roll, Matthew lay exposed to whatever monsters and ghosts he claimed reside in his house. His bare chest rose and fell with each breath, but her eyes trailed down to where the waistband of his pyjamas hung temptingly low on his hips, leaving very little to the imagination. Catching her off guard, he pried open one eye, the murky waters of a pond spilling into her view. “It’s rude to stare,”

“Not at art, it isn’t,” she combated his teasing. He groaned theatrically as he stretched out across the span of the bed before regaining his position. “I won’t take sugar in my coffee then, you’re sweet enough,” he smirked. “Oh no, could you please move, I’m actually trying to look at the portrait behind you,” she teased. “Evil,”

“But you love me,”

“I do.”

He removed his arm from where it rested, a little too low on her body, to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger on her cheek, absentmindedly stroking his thumb against the slight flush of her face. She tilted her head slightly to delicately graze her lips against the inside of Matthew’s wrist, making his breath hitch. “Kiss me?” She asked, giving into the adoring look in his eyes. “Your wish is my command, m’lady,” 

“Wow, a magician and a genie, I really hit the jackpot with you,”

“You’re really going to leave bodybuilder off the list? With muscles like these? I’m built like…Dwayne Johnson. Did you know they wanted me to be in the Fast and Furious series? But they actually thought I was ‘too buff’ and ‘too macho’ and all my sex appeal would distract from the plot, so they had to settle for Dwayne.”

Laughing into his chest, she pulled herself up and straddled his waist, bringing the blanket with her as if it were a cape. “I’m not joking, Y/N, my net worth is sixty thousand dollars per muscle,” he continued, one hand behind his head and the other now resting on her bare hip, tracing light circles on the skin where her giant shirt had ridden up, revealing the black band of her underwear. “Essentially, what you’re saying is that I could sell you on the black market and make a lot of cash?” She asked him raising an eyebrow and toying with the mess of his hair. “You could, but then you would miss out on this.” He finally kissed her, slow and tactile. Resting on her forearms, linked together above his head, she let her hair drape down and tickle the sides of his face. He swiped his tongue along her bottom lip, at a painstakingly low pace, his hands now caressing her jaw and dabbling with her hair. She breathed him in while he continued to gently suck at her lips, then jaw, then neck, eliciting faint moans from her. “We’re hungry,” he spoke, halting his actions, removing her from her reverie. “Matthew, don’t stop,” she whined semi-facetiously. He gave her a smug look, eyebrows raised. “Fine, I’ll make you food - only because you did it yesterday - but we’re not done here,” she huffed, making him chuckle as she crossly got off him, and out of bed. “It looks nice on you, pumpkin,” Matthew chirped. Tilting her head in confusion, she looked down and realised he was referring to his whimsical alien shirt she had stolen the night before. The buttons that were undone torturously left Matthew craving her skin, as she gave him a glimpse of his favourite view each time she bent down to slide on a sock. “Considering it is a woman’s top…”

“Hey!” He threw a pillow at her, “I thought it looked nice, something a space cowboy would wear during his leisurely time,” “I didn’t say it didn’t look nice!” Her hands went up in surrender, suppressing a smile when she threw the pillow back in his direction. Making her way towards the kitchen, she left him starstruck and staring at the ceiling, smiling to himself like a teenager in love.

Eyes getting tired of reading the words of Robert Frost, when his stomach grumbled loud enough to genuinely frighten him, he placed down the book and followed the enticing aroma wafting into his room. When he saw her, she was humming to herself, swaying to the rhythm of whatever song was playing in her head. He admired her bare legs as the hem of his shirt skimmed the tops of her thighs. Gazing at her tied hair swinging to and fro, giving him snippets of the back of her neck, he became eager to pick up where they had left off. “Hey there lover of mine, wasn’t it you who told me its rude to stare?” She beamed at him, turning around cradling a giant bowl of some sort of mixture in one arm while sporting a giant wooden spoon with the other. He realised she must’ve heard him shuffling around, he wasn’t the most graceful person alive after all. His heart melted at the smile she sent his way, tucking his lip beneath his teeth to avoid grinning back so hard he would sprain something. “You’re so beautiful, Y/N,” he glanced down at his feet from where he leant against the doorframe. She still made him nervous. However, the man never failed to make her fall past the point of no return each day, so they were even. “I’m so in love with you, Gube,” she shook her head and laughed, facing the stove again. He stepped forwards and slunk his arms around her, planting a kiss on her cheek before dipping a finger in the batter to taste it. “I tried making us heart shaped pancakes,” she muttered sheepishly. “Key word, tried.” He stifled a laugh, looking at the piles of pancakes on their plates, decorated in berries and cream. “Maybe if you squint and look at them from really really far away they look a little bit like hearts…”

“Do you have a warrant for all this pancake slander? Because I wasn’t aware that you were the geometry police,” she poured the last of the batter into the pan before piling up more dishes. “The proportions in my paintings can speak to that,” He pointed to his latest work in progress leaning against the wall, its newest layer drying in the spring breeze which was fleeting past the rickety handles of the kitchen windows. “I’m glad Picasso came and went when he did, poor man’d be facing some real competition if he was still around,” setting down his warm brew in front of him as he dug into his - what was now - brunch, she continued to tantalise him. “Are you mocking my curvaceous abstract cockroach? It actually came to me in a dream once,”

“Matthew, you did not just use the adjective ‘curvaceous’ in regards to an insect,” she chuckled, “but a dream? Really?” She pressed on, wondering, one, why he was dreaming about the revolting beasties and, two, whether she should leave him while she still could. “No, I lied, I just saw your face and felt inspired,” he winked. “Hurtful,” she scoffed. “All the artistic recognition is getting to your head, fame changed you Gube,”

“What’s a man without his roach?” A fake western accent glossing his words as he made a gesture of stroking a bug between his hands made you throw your head back in laughter. “Well, I’ll be damned, a roach-less man!” She chimed in, sounding almost as Texan as he did, making it his turn to laugh.

They ate in a serene silence, aside from Matthew’s odd compliments to the chef, both enjoying the view from opposite sides of the kitchen counter.  “So, aside from finishing that horrid thing,” she tilted her head in the direction of his painting, “what’s on the agenda for the one, and the only, Salvador Dali, today?” Matthew breathed out a laugh in response to her comparison. “Would you still love me if I grew out my moustache like his?”

“Bold of you to assume I love you even without the moustache,” A false and dramatic look of hurt found its way onto his face as she teasingly blew him a kiss from where she stood at the sink. “Anyway, now that you’ve completely destroyed my self confidence and broken my tiny, fragile heart, to answer your question… You are, actually,” he spun around on his bar stool. A sea of scarlet rose up her neck and made a home in her cheeks at his simple remark. “Well… I’m glad, because you’ve been at the top of my ’To Do’ list for a while now.”

She placed their cups in the sink and made her way over to where he sat, the seat of the stool resembling a bottle cap. “Is that so?” He smirked, now wearing the same shade of blush she was, as she stood between his knees, letting her hands snake up around his neck. “Mhm,” she gently planted her lips on his, “and you’re one thing I’m not going to procrastinate on getting done,” 

“You’re killing me, Y/N,” he breathed against her mouth. “You’ve always wanted you be a ghost, haven’t you?” She felt him smile against her as her lips glided over his. She placed one hand, still warm from the coffee it had been cradling, on his chest while the other inattentively played with the wiry tendrils of hair at the nape of his neck. The effect she had on him hadn’t changed with time, even after two years, she realised, his racing heartbeat evident beneath her palm.

This time, when their lips met, it was slightly more desperate, the need for one another gushing from both of them. She captured his bottom lip beneath hers, gently biting down before drawing back for air. Matthew gazed at her devotedly, eyebrows furrowing together when she kissed him again. While her tongue traced over his lips, enchanting him, his hands travelled down to her thighs, gripping each of them firmly before standing up and lifting her onto the counter. Their lips separated with a small smack as she gasped at the contrast in temperature between the granite and her skin. His nose skimmed hers when he made his way back down along the same path he had travelled earlier that morning, this time, unbuttoning the remainder of the shirt she wore, the heavenly sounds she was making leaving him in a trance. He adored seeing her this way, unguarded and sinking in his touch.  “You’re sensational, Matthew,” she sighed, tugging at his hair and craning her neck back to allow him more access. He nipped at the column of her throat, smiling to himself at the comment. She had no clue what she did to him. “Angel, I don’t often get dessert after breakfast, but do you think you can make it happen for me today?”

[tillidontneedfantasy]

A Track-by-Track Breakdown of Taylor Swift’s 8th Studio Album: ‘folklore’

Taylor Swift’s 8th studio album, folklore, starts off with the lie, “I’m on some new shit.” Perhaps to someone who hasn’t been paying attention this would seem to be true. But to those listening, folklore is the essence of her skill and success throughout her entire career stripped down for all to see, but more refined, enhanced, and impressive than ever.

Even prior to her pop-world domination with 1989 (2014), Taylor’s storytelling ability has always been her most compelling strength as a writer. In 2010, she released her third album, Speak Now, penned fully solo to prove to the cynics that she does, in fact, write her own music. And it’s damn good. Widely considered her best song, “All Too Well” from Red (2012) is a five and a half minute epic about love had and lost, all in walks through autumn trees, almost running red lights, dancing round the kitchen, and a scarf reminiscent of innocence, unreturned.  

Yet her pop prowess over the last six years perhaps leads to her storytelling being overlooked to those more focused on the music. There is a particular genius in writing a successful pop song, let alone three successful pop albums, that still has hard-hitting lyrics underneath the synth. Take the excellent “Cruel Summer” from Lover (2019) for example. The song is just under 3 minutes, and the production is so enthralling and infectious that it can take such a hold on you, you might miss the tale being told along with it about a fraught summer relationship that was actually just the beginning of her own love story.

But without the pop production, her stories on folklore demand attention. Swept up by a strong wave of creativity and inspiration, Swift secretly wrote and produced this album in around three months with Aaron Dessner of The National, one of Swift’s favorite bands, and long-time collaborator and friend Jack Antonoff. A surprise album is a new endeavor for Swift, as she generally spends months meticulously planning an album rollout. It is refreshing, and as a dedicated, long-time fan of Taylor, it is thrilling. Due to the album cover where she is standing in the woods, and the genre of the album itself, there have been think pieces regarding the “man in the woods” trope and what it means that Taylor seems to be embodying it. As a result of over-exposure, people are unable to stop focusing on her image and the way she presents herself. It’s understandable, as she is a very smart and deliberate businesswoman, and clearly cares about how she is perceived. But with this album, it is clear that none of that was at play. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Her mother has been battling cancer for years. Isolate a creative person in a dangerous world and they will dream up an escape. She understands more than ever how precious each moment is, and does not want to waste another one. The woods being the landscape for the photo-shoot is most likely attributed to the fact that it is the safest place to have one under these circumstances. She’s not pretending she removed herself from society and became enlightened, she didn’t dabble into a more alternative sound to prove anything; she is just sharing stories she wants to tell that she is proud of, and nothing more.

Of course the music of the album is important, but the lyrics are the heart of it all, and I wanted to focus on them. Upon its release, Taylor explained in a foreword that the album was a mixture of personal and fictional accounts. The beauty of stories is that once they are shared, they never live one single life; each person who consumes a story interprets it uniquely, and the story becomes a multiverse, with different meanings and outcomes than what initially drove the pen to the paper. As explained by Swift in a YouTube comment prior to the album’s release, three songs on the album are all one story, which she has dubbed “the teenage love triangle.” The three points of the triangle are “cardigan,” “august,” and “betty.” But if someone had not seen her say that, they might not have figured it out. Maybe they’d interpret each song as their own story, and connect it to their own. Taylor knows this. It is why she loves storytelling and is why she is so good at it. The album itself is a mirror ball, shimmering with every version of the stories being told, reflecting a bit of each person who listens. These are my interpretations, but they can mean whatever you make of them. 

1. the 1 The melody of this song helps set the scene; picture yourself skipping rocks on a lake, reminiscing on the one that got away. “the 1” is about learning to assimilate into a life without them, resentfully accepting that they might be moving on, too. She ruminates on what went wrong and what could have been. In a very Swift fashion, she puts the blame on herself when she sings, “in my defense, I have none / for digging up the grave another time.” Perhaps this song is fictional, perhaps it’s a revisit of a past feeling or relationship, but its relatability makes it feel real and present. She searches for explanations, restraining herself from asking, “if one thing had been different, would everything be different today?” But it’s good she didn’t ask, because she’d never find the answer, anyway. Best lyric: “We never painted by the numbers, baby, but we were making it count / You know the greatest loves of all time are over now.”

2. cardigan (teenage love triangle, part 1: betty’s perspective) “When you are young they assume you know nothing,” Swift sings in her smooth low-register on this Lana del Rey-esque single. “But I knew everything when I was young,” she asserts. They say wisdom comes with age, but there is wisdom lost, too, of what it felt like to be young; but she has held onto it. In this track, the narrator (Betty) is looking back on her relationship with someone she once loved (James, as name-dropped in “betty” later on in the album). Her insight on his character was always spot on; she knew he’d try to kiss it better, change the ending, miss her once the thrill expired and come back, begging for her forgiveness in her front porch light. As soon as she was feeling forgotten, he made her feel wanted, his favorite. The ending in question is unclear, whether she granted him her forgiveness or not. But what is clear is Taylor’s understanding of the pull of young love, the intensity, the immortalization of all the smallest of details, the longing to be someone’s favorite. It’s why we look back on it so often, read stories and watch films about it, even as we grow old. It’s the cardigan we put back on when we want to be Peter Pan and remember what it was like to fly with Wendy. Best lyric: “You drew stars around my scars / but now I’m bleeding.”

3. the last great american dynasty The story of Rebekah Harkness and her destruction of the last great American dynasty, Standard Oil, is documented in this track, as each verse covers a different part of Rebekah’s life, going from a middle class divorcee to one of the wealthiest women in America by marrying into an empire. Swift paints Rebekah as an outcast, the Rhode Island town blaming her for her husband’s heart giving out. Rebekah used her inherited fortune on her ballet company, throwing lavish parties with her friends who went by the “Bitch Pack,” playing cards with Dali (Yes, as in Salvador Dali. It’s not clear if they actually played cards together, but her ashes were placed in an urn designed by him), and feuding with her neighbors. Then, fifty years later, Taylor Swift bought that very house and ruined the neighborhood all over again, bringing with her the triumphant return of champagne pool parties and women with madness, their men and bad habits. It’s a note on how women will be blamed for tarnishing what is sacred to men rather than celebrated, specifically when its related to wealth and power. They will call them mad, shameless, loud. But just like Rebekah, Taylor learned to pay them no mind, and just have a marvelous time. It is also interesting to note that Rebekah went by Betty. Perhaps Taylor felt inspired by and connected to her and gave her a whole backstory, and thus the birth of “the teenage love triangle,” or maybe it’s just a coincidence; but that’s the fun of it all. Either way, this track is a standout showcase of how Swift has truly mastered her craft as a songwriter. Best lyric: “Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / and then it was bought by me.”

4. exile ft. Bon Iver You know that feeling when your parents are fighting and it’s upsetting you but you can’t help but listen? That’s kind of what listening to this song feels like. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon co-wrote the track, and he lends his gorgeous vocals to play a man who has been exiled by his ex who has moved on with someone else while he desperately tries to understand where it all went wrong. The bridge is particularly poignant, both proclaiming, “you didn’t even hear me out,” while talking over each other. He thinks he was expected to read her mind, but she is adamant that she gave him plenty of warning signs. Miscommunication is one of the most common downfalls of a relationship, and the emotion in Swift’s and Vernon’s voices really draws you into the argument with them, transporting you back into your own exile from people you once called home. Best lyric: “I couldn’t turn things around / (You never turned things around) / ‘cause you never gave a warning sign / (I gave so many signs.)”

5. my tears ricochet Taylor describes this song in the foreword as “an embittered tormentor showing up to the funeral of his fallen object of obsession.” If you know enough, you can put the pieces together that the tormentor is Scott Borchetta, the head of Big Machine Records, and the funeral is of their professional and personal relationship. Taylor was the first artist ever signed to Big Machine. Borchetta and Swift had to trust each other in their partnership for it to be a success, and oh, how it was. But prior to Lover’s release, Taylor announced that she would be signing to Republic Records as her contract with Big Machine had ended and Republic offered her the opportunity to own all of her masters moving forward and negotiate on Spotify shares for all their artists. It all could have ended amicably there, but then Scott Borchetta sold all of Big Machine, along with Taylor’s masters from every album prior, to Scooter Braun. Braun manages some of the biggest stars out there, and had previously managed Kanye West. Taylor publicly spoke out about this purchase, stating that she was not made aware of this before the announcement, and how much of a betrayal it was considering she had cried to Scott before about Scooter’s mistreatment of her. Taylor has continued to be vocal about this, and so she sings, “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace.” There is a lot to unpack in this song, but the main takeaway is that this betrayal hurts him just as much if not more than it hurts her, because his career was built on her achievements. He buried her while decorated in her success, becoming what he swore he wouldn’t, erasing the good times for greed, all just to be haunted with regret for pushing her out and stealing her lullabies. The pain is palpable, and it is notable that this is song is placed at track 5, the spot generally reserved for the most vulnerable on the album; it shows that there are different types of heartbreak that can shatter you just as much as those from romance. Best lyric: “If I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake? / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed.”

6. mirrorball On Lover’s “The Archer,” Taylor expresses her anxiety over people seeing through her act, her own grief at seeing through it herself, wondering if her lover does and whether he would stay with her regardless. “mirrorball” is about the act, one of the more obviously confessional songs on the album. She talks about how a mirror ball can illuminate all the different versions of a person, while also reflecting the light to fit in with the scene. Taylor’s critical self-awareness is heart wrenching, and it’s clear that the anxiety that surrounds the public perception of her is still prevalent. She describes herself as a member of a circus, still on the tightrope and the trapeze even after everyone else has packed up and left, doing anything she can to keep the public’s attention. It hurts to hear the desperation in her voice, but there’s hope in the song, too. She is speaking to someone (we can assume her long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn) and thanking them for not being like “the regulars, the masquerade revelers drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten.” In 2016, the height of Taylor’s fame and subsequently her farthest fall from grace, all the people who pretended to be her friends and attended all her parties celebrated her (temporary) demise, continuing to dance over her broken pieces on the floor. But he stayed by her side as she put herself back together. And so now, when no one is around, she’ll shine just for him, standing even taller than she does for the circus. Best lyric: “I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why / I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try / I’m still on that trapeze, I’m still trying everything / to keep you looking at me.”

7. seven Her voice gentle and haunting, Taylor recalls the freedom and innocence of her childhood in Pennsylvania. She asks to be remembered for how she was, swinging over the creek, before she learned civility when she would scream anytime she wanted, then letting out a very pretty one. She sings to her old friend soothingly about taking them away from their haunted house that their father is always shouting in, where they feel the need to hide in a closet, perhaps literally, or figuratively, or both. They can move into Taylor’s house instead, or maybe just to India, just be sure to pack their dolls and a sweater and then they’ll hit the road. She can no longer recall her friend’s face, but the love she had for them still lives in her heart, and she wants it to live forever through story. Just in the way that folklore itself blends reality and fiction, but the truth within it passes on, so will the purity of that love and friendship. Best lyric: “Please picture me in the weeds / before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously / any time I wanted.”

8. august (teenage love triangle, part 2: the other girl’s perspective) If you had to assign the feeling of longing to a song, it’d be “august.” It’s when you’re teetering at the edge with someone, unsure of where you stand with them, clinging to anything they give you and doing anything just to raise your chances, “living for the hope of it all.” August, the last month of summer, its heat causing it to slip away the fastest in a haze before reality hits. This track is a display of how sometimes losing something you never had causes an even deeper ache than losing something that was yours, and Jack Antonoff’s signature production intensifies the emotion even more. It’s the story of shattered hope, and the longing for the days where it could still fuel you. Best lyric: “To live for the hope of it all / cancel plans just in case you’d call.”

9. this is me trying “this is me trying” is like a drive through a tunnel at night, hearing your loudest anxieties and insecurities echo all around you, caving in. The track is another apt insight into Swift’s struggles with her self-image, with the pressure she puts on herself, so much so that she sometimes pushes herself too close to the edge, her fears luring her out of the tunnel and down, down, down into her own cage, stunting her own growth and keeping those who care out of reach. She tells us how she was “so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere.” Every action has an equal, opposite reaction, meaning that she was pushing herself so hard, she rolled back to where she started, and now has to reset. This could be referring to the period between the end of the 1989 era and the release of reputation (2017), or a different time in her life, or just a general sentiment. It doesn’t really matter, though, because no one’s growth is a neat, straight line; growth is jagged. Just like any of us, Taylor will always have to face new obstacles, new pitfalls, new reasons to get back up. She sounds most vulnerable as she cries, “at least I’m trying,” and you feel comforted knowing someone so beautiful and successful has to push herself to try, too, and yet that motivates you more to try yourself. Best lyric: “They told me all of my cages were mental / so I got wasted, like all my potential.”

10. illicit affairs A quiet, slow-build testament of the passion, the tragedy, the secrecy, the inimitability of a romance that shouldn’t exist, “illicit affairs” demonstrates how you can ruin yourself for someone from just one moment of possibility or truth, quite like the narrator of “august” does for the hope of it all. An illicit affair can be many different things: infidelity, forbidden love, a love that can never be fully realized, a relationship that is inherently wrong but electrifying all the same. It’s a reminder of what so many of us would do just to see new colors, to learn a new language, even if the one moment of enlightenment destroys us forever. We might lose the iridescent glow but we don’t forget it; we carry it with us, but must be careful to remember its blinding effect, to remember how fatal the fall is from the dwindling, mercurial high. Best lyric: “Tell your friends you’re out for a run / you’ll be flushed when you return.”

11. invisible string Clearly the most outright autobiographical track, “invisible string” is the plucky pick-me-up needed. The song is like sunshine, as Swift endearingly links all the little connections between her and her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, since before they even met. She compares the green grass at the Nashville park she’d sit at in hopes of a meet-cute to the teal of his yogurt shop uniform shirt, and gives a nod to her smash hit “Bad Blood” from 1989 with the delightful line “bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to LA.” She reasons these coincidences as a fateful, invisible, golden string tying them together since the beginning, always destined to meet at the knot in the middle. She thanks time for healing her, (a callback to “Fifteen” from Fearless [2008]), fighting through hell to make it to heaven, transforming her from an axe grinder to a gift giver for her ex’s baby (the ex in question, Joe Jonas, and his wife Sophie Turner, happened to have their first daughter two days before this album’s release). As she has on her previous two albums, she uses the color gold to illustrate how prized their love is to one another. It’s sweet to know in all the gloom that the string has not been severed, and the trees are still golden somewhere. Best lyric: “Cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart / now I send their babies presents.”

12. mad woman Throughout her entire career, Taylor Swift has defiantly defended female rage, all the way back from throwing a chair off a platform on her Fearless Tour during the impassioned “Forever & Always,” to her patient, vengeful reliance on karma in reputation’s lead single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” to her most recent tackling of the matter on Lover’s last and final single, “The Man,” where she explores society’s acceptance and encouragement of angry men yet disdain for angry women. “The Man” is catchy and upbeat, and a fun thought experiment into how Swift’s career would be perceived if she was a man, something that is even more interesting to think about now as she releases an album in a genre heavily dominated and lauded by males. But on “mad woman,” she further explores the creation and perception of female rage, though masked under a smooth, haunting piano melody, her vocals subdued, taunting. In the album foreword, she describes the inspiration behind this song as “a misfit widow getting gleeful revenge on the town that cast her out.” This could be the continuation of Rebekah “Betty” Harkness’s story at her Holiday House in Watch Hill, RI, and how she further alienated herself from the rest of the neighborhood as they cast stones at her for the collapse of the last great American dynasty. (Or perhaps Daenerys Targaryen’s descent as the Mad Queen played a part in the song’s inspiration, as Swift has spoken of her love for Game of Thrones and her character specifically.) Taylor herself could also represent the widow, her music and masters as her love lost, and the men behind the crime as the “town that cast her out.” In the first verse she sings, “What do you sing on your drive home? / Do you see my face in the neighbor’s lawn? / Does she smile, or does she mouth ‘fuck you forever’?” It’s the first f-bomb of Taylor’s career (though a much more playful one will come two tracks later in “betty”) and it speaks volume. Taylor has received a lot of condemnation for expressing her anger at their transaction, for calling out their greed for what it is. Some view Swift’s stance on the ordeal as petty and trivial; they see the men as orchestrating a good business deal, and Swift as the girl throwing a tantrum. Ask any woman, and they can tell you about a time a man told them they were crazy for being justifiably angry; it only makes us angrier. “No one likes a mad woman,” Taylor states, “You made her like that.” Swift underscores that here, how they will poke and poke the bear but then blame it for attacking, as if they had never provoked it at all, and how dare it defend itself. Just as they blamed Rebekah for her husband’s heart giving out, they somehow manage to blame Swift for not being allowed to purchase the rights to her own work. And yes, she’s mad, but the song is measured and controlled; she’s used to her anger now, and knows just how to wield it. Best lyric: “Women like hunting witches, too / doing your dirtiest work for you / It’s obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together.”

13. epiphany This is another track Swift provided some background on, stating it was inspired by her “grandfather, Dean, landing at Guadalcanal in 1942” during WWII. The first verse paints this image, while the second verse depicts a different kind of war, happening right now, fought by doctors and nurses. She speaks of holding hands through plastic, and the escape folklore has granted you suddenly lifts. Watching someone’s daughter, or mother, or anyone suffer at the hands of the COVID-19 pandemic, just as watching a soldier bleed out, helpless, is too much to speak about. As she points out, they don’t teach you about that vicarious trauma in med school. We are living in a tireless world with barely any time time to rest our eyes, but too much going on while we’re awake to make sense of any of it. “epiphany” is a cinematic prayer, pleading for some quiet in order to find an answer in all the noise. We’re still waiting for that glimpse of relief. Best lyric: “Only twenty minutes to sleep / but you dream of some epiphany / Just one single glimpse of relief / to make some sense of what you’ve seen.”

14. betty (teenage love triangle, part 3: james’s perspective) It makes sense that a song reminiscent of Fearless would exemplify some of the best story-telling on folklore. The final puzzle piece of the teen love triangle, “betty” is a song sung by Swift from the perspective of the character of her own creation, James, attempting to win back his true love, Betty, who he slighted in some way. He proclaims that the worst thing he ever did is what he did to her, without explicitly stating it. Though the infamous deed is unclear, here’s the information we collect from this song: James saw Betty dancing with another boy at a school dance, one day when he was walking home another girl (from “august”) picked him up and he ended up spending his summer with her yet still loved Betty, and though he ended things with his fling and wanted to reconcile with Betty, he had returned to school to see she switched her homeroom (James assumes, after saying he won’t make assumptions. Classic men). So in order to make it up to her, he shows up at her party with the risk of being told to go fuck himself (the second and charming “fuck” on the album! Which is repeated!). Upon his arrival, there is a glorious key change (ala “Love Story”) and all the pieces fall into place for the listener; we realize Betty is the girl singing in “cardigan” as he lists the things he misses about her since the thrill expired, like the way she looks standing in her cardigan, and kissing in his car. He’s 17 and doesn’t know anything, but she knew everything when she was young, and she knew he’d come back. The way I see their story conclude is that she led him to the garden and trusted him, but as they grew older they grew apart, but the love she had for him never faded completely. Listening to this song is like being back in high school, whether you were the person who did someone wrong or the person so willing to forgive in the name of young love, or Inez, the school gossip, you’re right there with them. The other great thing about this song is that it is sung to a girl, and though it is set up so we understand it is most likely from a boy’s perspective, it doesn’t have to be. It’s really great that girls in the LGBTQ community can have a song in Taylor’s voice to fully connect to without changing the pronouns or names (even James, which is unisex and is one of the names of the daughters of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Taylor’s close friends, mentioned in this song). That is the beauty of folklore: the infinite ways a story can be told, perceived, retold from a different perspective, and told again. Maybe you’ll hear it from Inez. Best lyric: “But if I just showed up at your party / would you have me? Would you want me? / Would you tell me to go fuck myself, or lead me to the garden?”

15. peace One of the most beautifully solemn songs of her career, “peace” echoes the same fears explored in “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” from reputation; will the person she loves be able to weather the ever-present storm that comes with the life of a superstar, but also dwells within herself? Will holding him as the water rushes in be enough? Will giving him her wild, a child, her sunshine, her best, be a fair consolation? Presumably another confessional track and about Alwyn, Swift puts him up on a pedestal, praising his integrity and his dare to dream. She proclaims that she would die for him in secret, just as she told him she’d be on her tallest tip toes, spinning in her highest heels, shining just for him in “mirrorball.” She highlights some of the greatest gifts of love, such as comfortable silence and chosen family. She knows what they have is special, but she also knows the value of peace, the ultimate nirvana, and does not want to deprive him of that. It is so deeply relatable- to me, at least- to feel like you can give someone so much of yourself but know it still may never be enough, and to fear either losing them or robbing them of something better. But looking at what they have together, maybe peace is overrated. Or maybe, she’s looking for peace in the wrong places. The calm is in the eye of the storm, and sometimes, there’s nothing more freeing than throwing away the umbrella and soaking in the rain. Best lyric: “I never had the courage of my convictions / as long as danger is near / and it’s just around the corner, darling / ‘cause it lives in me / no, I could never give you peace.”

16. hoax The truest enigma of the album, the closer, “hoax” is a devastatingly dark ballad about the uncertainty, or perhaps incredulity, of someone’s love for you, a love that is your lifeline. The lyrics are ambiguous, which gives way to a plethora of interpretations. Perhaps she is speaking about a hypothetical situation that has yet to happen (and hopefully doesn’t) in which someone she loves and trusts betrays her. Maybe she is talking about a relationship, real (hopefully not) or fictional, in which despite the torment it brings her she holds onto it for dear life. I’m most inclined to believe that the song represents her difficulty in accepting that someone is willing to love her through such dark periods, that their love must actually be a hoax, but she chooses to believe in it anyway and uses it as the motivation to rebuild her kingdom, to rise from the ashes on her barren land. And even through the downs that come at some point in every relationship, she can still see the beauty in it all. Yes, their love is golden, but waves of blue will crash down around any partnership, because life does not exist without them. So even when things are as blue as can be, she’s at least grateful it’s with him. Best lyric: “Don’t want no other shade of blue but you / no other sadness in the world would do.”

Although we still have yet to hear the deluxe track, “the lakes,” as a fan of Taylor for almost 12 years, it feels so obvious that this is her strongest work yet. The storytelling I fell in love with on Fearless as a teenager (which, much like folklore, was highly inspired by imaginary situations and real emotions) is even sharper now as we have both grown into adults. The music on this album might not be everyone’s speed, and that’s okay. But it allowed Taylor to dip back into what made Fearless such a success: using pieces of her own truth and the whims of her imagination to develop a multi-faceted narrative that becomes universal. During her Tiny Desk concert, before performing “Death By A Thousand Cuts” from Lover, Swift explained the anxiety she felt around the possibility of stunted creativity when people would ask her what she would write about once she was happy. Taylor has released an abundance of beautiful, fun, complex love songs since the start of her relationship almost four years ago now. But “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” which is a fan favorite, helped her prove to herself that she can still write a killer breakup song while being in a happy, fulfilling relationship; the song was the last track written for Lover and was inspired by the film Something Great on Netflix. And so it makes perfect sense that Taylor used folklore to continue exploring this new avenue for songwriting. All of her discography and all of her life experiences have culminated to the folklore moment: as all the best artists do, she will never stop finding inspiration in hidden corners of this dark, mystical, wondrous universe, and falling in love with new ways to share those wonders. And that love will be passed on.

DISCLAIMER - REVIEWER’S BIAS: I love Taylor Swift more than any person in my life, yes including my parents, they are aware and have accepted this fact long ago ❤️