#Something about Taylor would definitely include tumblr

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

…

[chosetherose]

We knew it all along 🍊🩵

Taylor released Sweeter Than Fiction exclusive to the Tangerine vinyl at Target. She said this about it:

“There you’ll stand ten feet tall, I will say ‘I knew it all along’ 🥲 This song has always made me think of my friend Jack. It was the first song we made together and watching him challenge himself and make beautiful art over the years has been the thrill of a lifetime. How can he be 6 years older than me and also somehow still be my precocious young son? We may never know. “Sweeter Than Fiction (My Version)” is now available exclusively at Target on Tangerine vinyl 🍊🩵”

I find this funny for a couple reasons:

1. She created an orange (tangerine) edition with an exclusive track that repeats the lyrics “this life is sweeter than fiction”.

Let it sink in. Orange, which we picked up on as a stunting color, is the only version that includes this song. She is saying her true love is sweeter than the fictitious love we see in stunts.

2. She used the 🍊 emoji. And for some reason this makes me feel we are seen. She is aware of the hijinks that go on around here. (Extra giggles: @spade-riddles regularly uses the 🎯 emoji).

Looking deeper, the lyrics to STF are especially 👀 to me.

3. If you read this through a Tumblr Kaylor lens does it not sound perfectly like a redemption story? (Please I know we are just silly little internet people in all this but hear me out).

The first verse is about coming undone, watching us fall, watching our colors fade with a pain we thought would last forever.

In the second verse after the chorus, all we have is our shattered hopes. Then, they never saw it coming, but we were on to something and hit the ground running. 

In the pre-chorus, the light comes on. We proved her right, them wrong. And it’s like we don’t remember when we thought the rain would last forever.

The chorus repeats including that we will stand tall, the rest is history.

The bridge says we’ll be one of many saying look at us now, you made us proud. Then goes into the sentiment of loving someone when they are down, like we’ve loved Kaylor’s true love in its deepest darkness.

4. Notably, Taylor highlighted “There you’ll stand ten feet tall, I will say ‘I knew it all along’”. This reminds me so much of this riddle from Spade.

♠️ My riddles aren’t chronological but they do foreshadow. Piece them together and see the picture. You’ve known all along so now, follow along. - 05/11/2019

And generally, highlighting those lyrics gives me vibes of change in the air.

Bonus:

Taylor described Jack as like her “precocious” young son. Ok but any adjective would have worked there. Why this one? Here is its definition:

Showing mental development or achievement much earlier than usual

It fits the theme of knowing something before others. 💅🏼

I’ll be dissecting this post for ages 😂

[asteracaea]

Hello! This ask is way too long, I apologize 🥲

This is about your post regarding the albatross, and @bettyshoweduptotheparty’s addition (I wanted to send this ask to both of you but I prefer being anonymous, sorry I’m shy); if either of you (or anyone else) want to talk about this song, please do, here’s your excuse to do it. Mainly 2 things I wanted to talk about / ask.

1. So, I didn’t know the original line from romeo and juliet, and I hadn’t understood the line “a rose by any other name is a scandal”, and now I’m wondering if the reason I don’t understand many lyrics is that I’m missing the reference. I’m sure it wouldn’t be the only reason, my interpretation skills are rather limited, but I would love to find out. So if anyone wants to make a list off the top of their head of taylor lyrics that reference something, I would love that so much. If anyone would like to do it, please include the obvious ones, good chance of me not knowing it (wish I could blame it on english not being my first language but, again, probably not the only reason). But anything from english literature, and references to popular sayings, I probably won’t know even if it seems obvious. Of course this would be an extremely long list and very time consuming to make, that’s why I’m asking if anyone can add some that they remember off the top of their head. I would absolutely not oppose if someone wanted to make a complete list, though.

2. After gaining some insight on the rose line, I wanted to understand it in the context of the song etc etc and once again my (lack of) interpretation skills are failing me, so if anyone can help me out with the meaning of some other lyrics in this song. “Wild winds are death to the candle”, I figure it’s a popular saying (like “one bad seed kills the garden” in the next part), but I don’t really understand what point it’s trying to make. Next we have “one less temptress, one less dagger to sharpen”, “only liquor anoints you”, and the one I’d like to know the most: “devils that you know raise worse hell than a stranger”. Also the whole bridge (😭 look, I said the interpretation skills were poor) “and when that that sky rains fire on you, and you’re persona non grata, I’ll tell you how I’ve been there too, and that none of it matters”.

Okay, I guess this is it, I’m sorry it’s so long, I really won’t hold it against you if you just delete it.

Goodbye <3

oh dear sweet anon, your ask is not too long and i am very happy to respond! i'm sure @bettyshoweduptotheparty will be as well! thank you for writing!

taylor references so many things in her lyrics, and they often have multiple layers and interpretations, and that's what makes it so fun for me to contemplate and discuss them - i'm always discovering new meanings, even years down the road! and our wonderful brilliant mutuals here on tumblr are constantly discovering new meanings and drawing parallels that really deepen and enrich my experience of taylor's songs. i've been here 4 years now and i won't be leaving because i'm constantly learning about linguistics and art and symbolism and (lgbtq) history.

her music is amazing because it can be enjoyed on a surface level of fun and beautiful music, but you can also dive down the rabbit hole and learn things that are so much more complex and nuanced and universal than just what people she's dated or who she's writing about. imo, she is so much more brilliant than most people realize rn. it's funny because she's like the most popular successful beloved artist in history and yet i don't think most people even begin to know how brilliant she is, or appreciate the art she's been making!

i'm not sure if a comprehensive list of references exists yet, but that's definitely something i would love to do someday! can you imagine the tome... but i think tumblr is a living evolving compilation of references like that. taylor herself has said that she puts easter eggs into her art that people won't understand for years (as we have seen with things in rep, now knowing her conflicts with BMR and SB) and things about her private life that we cannot know now that she may or may not share with the world at a later date.

but i think you may be asking about literary and idiom/phrase/language poetical references? some people may have already created masterposts and analyses of individual songs and lyrics, and if anyone has or knows of any offhand please send them my way and i'll reblog them! but yeah, we're all collectively constantly finding new references which is why i can never leave this hellsite 😂 i'm constantly learning! and especially with this heavily poetic and linguistically dense new album, i'm sure we'll be mining it for YEARS! and that is just so fun and exciting and beautiful to me.

i hope i didn't go off on too many tangents! and you've inspired me to want to start an intensive comprehensive analysis of ttpd and all her music! so yeah in conclusión, that's a great goal, to make a compilation!

[mercuryonparklane]

Some quick thoughts on SNTV:

“I Can See You” is Tayliz

“Electric Touch” is either Tayliz v Taymily (requited v unrequited) or Swiftgron v Tayliz (more likely the first option considering the clear references to “Breathe”)

“When Emma Falls In Love”, “Foolish One”, and “Enchanted” could be about her unrequited crush on Emma S.

I’m very happy that she brought Liz (and Caitlin) back for this one, but I expected she would since she had already brought her back for Red TV. I still wish we could get an actual feature, though (“Better Man” was so close), their voices sound amazing together (maybe even more so now than they did when Liz was in the band).

I do not believe in late stage anything, including Tayliz. I think the rerecording process (which probably began to some extent before the pandemic in 2020) had her reflecting a lot on the past and previous relationships/situationships. That’s why there seems to be a lot of reminiscing about and references to older songs and past relationships on folklore, evermore, and Midnights.

I haven’t felt like posting as much about Tayliz, hence why this blog has become essentially inactive, because I noticed Liz seemed like the type who would manage to stumble across the theories (not this blog in particular, just all the Twitter and TikTok stuff) and I didn’t feel like adding much more to that discussion. And, in fact, I deleted and archived some of my previous posts for that reason.

I have seen tweets the last couple days about Liz watching Tayliz stuff, so I’m not super comfortable with that (that’s just a personal thing, not an admonishing or strong judgment on anyone who feels comfortable doing so). I’ll stick to my once in a blue moon tumblr posts, where I actively avoid using last names haha.

I do think they may have had something in the past and that Taylor has possibly written songs about her and vice versa, but neither one of them have made a clear statement on their sexuality and Liz seems to be currently dating one of her longtime close friends.

I think Taylor and Liz, for whatever reason, had a little bit of a falling out around fall 2012, but are on good terms now and likely have been for many years. Liz is one Taylor’s oldest friends at this point and she (and Caitlin) was there to see first hand the transition from playing small shows in bars to selling out arenas. She’s one of her few “industry” friends who knew her and admired/supported her before she blew up, so I do hope they are at least friends at this point.

I still think Tayliz is way more likely Taylor/Martin or any of the alleged public boyfriends, slightly less likely than Taylianne, and moderately less likely than Swiftgron and Kaylor.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m like 90% convinced that they had a situationship, and at the bare minimum had a very strong romantic friendship, it’s just that I am always skeptical about everything, so unless one of them confirms it, I can’t be fully on board. At this moment, I do believe they had a situationship and that both have written multiple songs about the other and have referenced each other in music videos. I am not convinced that they ever had any kind of defined, serious, committed relationship. I definitely find Tayliz far more convincing than any of the men we are meant to believe Taylor has been attracted to.

[holyyground]

okay so hiiiii 😊

starting off by saying i'm kind of a gaylor myself, in spirit mostly than in action shsbshs i mean i do believe she's not straight and might have been in relationships with women, but that's that, i don't care about the rest.

anyway, i've been thinking about it for a while, that the reason most anti gaylors are so opposed to the idea of taylor possibly being not straight- well, apart from good ol' homophobia, that most of them don't even try to hide, is the connection to relationships and certain people. what i mean by this, and disclaimer; those are just personal thoughts and not something i believe as a fact for everyone- anyway, what i mean by that is that most of them hear the term gaylor and immediately think of kaylor. that people who believe taylor is queer (gaylors) only mean her possible relationship with karlie, does this make sense? and since most swifties have a personal vendetta against karlie, for reasons i don't really care to know, i don't really care about taylor's personal life and relationships (i say as i write this message 💀) tbh, just her music but i do observe 👀- anyway, you get what i mean? since they don't like karlie for whatever reasons, they don't like the thought of a relationship between taylor and karlie = taylor being into women. they can't separate taylor from that relationship and see taylor as an individual, outside of this relationship, who might be queer. i don't know how else to explain this and sorry bc english isn't my first language but yeah it makes sense in my head. like, my perfect het queen taylor absolutely cannon be in a queer relationsh with a woman i hate!!!!1!1!1!1! something like that.

also, i think a lot of people, gaylors included, only see two possible options for taylor: either the hettest heterosexual of heterosexuals or a lesbian. the thought of her being bisexual, pansexual, you name it- just fluid with her sexuality is, as i see it, out of the question. (please, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong but that's how i see it from behaviours inside the fandom.) and here you have lesbiophobia, biphobia, panphobia- queerphobia in general, all fighting each other just because 1. people can't grasp the thought of taylor not being only into men 2. people thinking she can't possibly be into men at all and 3. people plainly refusing to accept that, wow shocking, she might be into women/or any gender as well!! as i said at the beginning of this message, good ol' homophobia 🤩. and anyway, i think that's unfair to taylor. i think most anti gaylors are so aggressive towards gaylors and the idea of taylor being queer because they only see her as a lesbian. and that's truly disgusting. i mean, bisexuality or pansexuality or whatever i mentioned earlier being out of the question, as i said before, is what fuels their hatred towards the idea of taylor not being *only* into men.

oof, i hope what i said makes sense bc my thoughts are just boom all over the place. anyway, cant wait to read your thoughts on this. thank you for your time and patience <3

First I want to say THANK YOU for this massive ask, holy shit. I love hearing y’all’s thoughts about this topic.

Second, I absolutely agree! Over time I’ve seen several comments from non-gaylors accusing us of only seeing Taylor as a lesbian, and that the word “gaylor” only means lesbian, but anybody who spends any time in gaylor spaces would know that isn’t the case. Even for myself I don’t put a specific label on what I think she is because it doesn’t matter. Do I think it’s most likely that she’s bi? Yeah probably, but my opinion on it changes and ultimately I don’t care that much because her individual label is her choice and none of my business.

A lot of the backlash towards gaylors does definitely come from a dislike of Karlie, and having been around the swiftie tumblr community since 2014, that definitely has always been there. A lot of it, in 2014, was because people were generally far less accepting of the idea that Taylor is queer than even they are now, and when she posted that tweet about not making dating rumors about her friends, it only got worse. But then as time went on and Karlie began having connections with the Kushners, it became that much easier to paint her as a villain. But honestly a lot of the hatred comes from the “crook who was caught” line and some dumb rumor started by Perez Hilton, of all fucking people. But a lot of her other relationships with women are shown more subtly or almost not at all, and so because Kaylor is the most visible, it becomes easiest to attack Karlie specifically. And it was also the most recent one we have documentation about, which is also why I think it gets more attention than her other previous relationships like swiftgron. But her queerness is so much more all encompassing than just Kaylor, and it does actually bother me that so many non-gaylors reduce it down to this one relationship specifically. Her whole career is a story of a queer woman, and it has so much depth to it that just gets so overlooked.

In a major way though, I also think a lot of the distrust of gaylors comes from this idea that Taylor is our friend, that she knows us, and wouldn’t lie. A LOT of swifties are VERY attached to who she dates, which we of course saw with the Joe breakup but we still see with Jake gyllenhall, and even Harry. (If I have to see another “I’m a child of divorce” comment about Harry and Taylor I’m gonna Kermit.) This idea that she’s omitted huge chunks of her dating life is horrifying for a lot of people because then suddenly you realize that you matter to her far less than you thought you did. And I get it, we’re all parasocial with her in SOME way, but still.

But yes! Thank you again for this ask, I hope my answer made sense!

[sapphicscience]

super interesting results! very long breakdown of data, including the promised pie charts, under the cut.

first off, several research notes on potential pitfalls of the data:

#1: this poll referenced a taylor swift song and then included a brief description of the scenario in the song. some people familiar with the song felt that the description was incomplete, and that while the supplied description ("fantasizing about someone who's not your partner") is emphatically not cheating, the scenario in the song (which involved texting your ex, sending each other music, and THEN fantasizing about them) was more of a gray area. thus, people familiar with the song may have been more likely to choose "yes" or "gray area," while people unfamiliar with it may have been less likely to do so. the poll circulated both in swiftie and non-swiftie spaces, so both perspectives are likely represented.

#2: the poll was tagged #tswift, so people who have that tag blocked may not have seen it.

#3: it became clear through the tags that many ace people did not feel that there was an option for them in this poll. though i did not intend straight/bi/pan/gay to refer exclusively to sexual attraction, i could have included a note telling ace people to vote based on their romantic orientation if applicable, and could have included a more explicit option for aroace people, rather than just "something else?"

#4: related to point #3, again based on the tags, it seems that some ace people chose the "something else?" option, while others, wanting to include their opinion on the poll topic, selected the "bi/pan" option. for most people who made this choice, i have no idea if bi/pan represents their romantic orientation or if they just felt it was the "closest" to ace. (as one tagger put it, zero does equal zero.)

#5: given how a tumblr poll spreads online, there is no way to say that those polled represent a random sample, either of tumblr users or of people in general.

#6: a few people indicated that they clicked the wrong button when trying to vote. however, this was a small number of people and is unlikely to affect the results as a whole.

now for the visual data.

Figure 1, a breakdown of the orientations of people who responded to the poll. I excluded people who selected "something else," since that could have referred to their opinion OR their orientation.

Figure 2, opinions of people of all polled orientations.

Figure 3, opinions of people who identified themselves as straight.

Figure 4, opinions of people who identified themselves as bi/pan.

Figure 5, opinions of people who identified themselves as gay.

and now some analysis, and a summary of the additional commentary provided by people's tags.

as far as Fig. 1, with nearly 5,000 votes and the smallest slice being straight with 23%, each orientation that was polled was well represented. based on the "side" of tumblr that this poll started on and the generally known demographics of the tumblr userbase, straight people being least represented was unsurprising.

in Fig. 2 we see that "no" is the most common response, followed by "gray area," with "yes" being the least common response.

for Figs. 3-5, I frankly don't remember enough statistics to know how to determine the statistical significance of the differences between orientations, and it's not a random sample, so any statistical analysis would be spurious anyway. however, I think it's reasonable to say that based on the magnitude of the differences, bi/pan people and gay people have very similar views on this topic, with the "no" response overwhelmingly dominating the responses, followed by "gray area," with a vanishingly small percentage saying "yes." meanwhile, straight people seem more likely to consider this scenario either definitively cheating or a gray area. though the "no" response is the majority among straight people as well, more than half of straight people responded with either "yes" or "gray area," indicating potential cultural differences between straight people and gay/bi/pan people in terms of relationship expectations.

as far as the tags and replies that people left on the post, the most common refrain was probably "thoughtcrime isn't real," largely from people who said they voted "no." a few people mentioned that certain mental illnesses can cause a person to have thoughts like this that they are unable to control, suggesting that policing others' thoughts could be considered ableist.

there were also a lot of interesting comments from people who considered this a gray area. a common statement was that it matters who you're fantasizing about, with fantasies about people you know in real life being seen as less acceptable than those about celebrities or fictional characters. near the end of the poll, a few people also suggested that this behavior becomes cheating if it happens during sex with your partner. many people who chose "gray area" also said that it's probably not cheating, but it would deeply hurt them to find out that a partner did this and would cause them to reconsider the relationship.

since there were fewer "yes" votes than those in the other categories, there was little elaboration on that answer found in the tags.

overall, I deeply enjoyed getting to see a variety of perspectives on the topic, and though I have my own opinions on the topic (and voted in the poll), I will leave them out of this analysis. thank you to everyone who voted and discussed!

[catblgog]

Topic: Wings

(this is the only topic I have this week dawg I managed my time sooo poorly. Also I'm losing steam on interest for my topics.)

I am going back to a tumblr post (link here) that I found a year ago that had the idea that I mentioned in last week’s research too. The one with the British wartime operators looking for bomb planes and sometimes getting signals of large and strangely moving things and they didn’t know what they were. So they called them angels. Later it turned out to be echoes caused by birds– they didn’t know because they thought birds wouldn’t be detected by their radars. I liked the idea that an angel could be an echo. 

Observe

Skip to TLDR at the end for my summary on what my friends / family said to me. 

Question that was asked:

"Do you think there was a higher being that intentionally created all things we perceive as beautiful, and does that belief (either way) make you appreciate beautiful things more or appreciate them less? "

Explaining the question for clarity for the sake of notes, since some people didn't totally understand my intention and perhaps I could have worded my question better:

What I was trying to ask was A. if people believed in a higher power or not (either answer was totally normal and cool) and B. if they believed that beautiful things were created intentionally or not changed their interpretation of how beautiful that thing might be.

Taylor

I don’t think so - if there was, peoples ideas of beauty would align completely, which they don’t. And if they were intentionally created, I think I would appreciate them less, because it would never feel serendipitous, which is a very good kind of beauty.

Amanda

i also don’t think there was any one being that created what we think of as beautiful, i agree with taylor that multiple beauty standards wouldn’t be a thing if this was the case but i also think that it kind of takes away from the artistry of individuals exploring what they think of as beautiful through art and also how accidents or random things can be beautiful. i definitely think i appreciate beauty more knowing that it can be spontaneous and random or something that was planned by someone who is just like me, that i too can create art, not just copy what some higher power has already made

Janelle

I think that a higher force does exist that is responsible for the creation of the universe and all the beautiful things within it, but our concept of 'intention' probably doesn't apply to it. This doesn't change how much I appreciate beautiful things. In either case, intention or not, beauty is valuable intrinsically as a reason for living. Beauty is the recognition of good in something, so if you believe that life is a good thing, you can find beauty in anything.

Jacob

im definitely not sure if there was some greater force that created everything, much less things we perceive as beautiful. i think in part our ability to perceive beauty was evolved and refined through generations and generations. even if there were such a being that created all things including that which we perceive as beautiful, i think there’s some cruelty in the things outside of that qualification. regardless, my appreciation of beauty is grounded in my own perception and wouldnt be influenced by the “will” of a higher power

Emory

First question - I don’t really think about it and I don’t really care ??? Like it’d be cool if there was and I’d like to believe that there is some higher being but like there’s probably not ?? And I think I appreciate them no matter what - when I experience beautiful things I don’t think about why or how they came about sooo idk I don’t really care 😁👍

Philip

I think that a higher force does exist that is responsible for the creation of the universe and all the beautiful things within it, but our concept of 'intention' probably doesn't apply to it. This doesn't change how much I appreciate beautiful things. In either case, intention or not, beauty is valuable intrinsically as a reason for living. Beauty is the recognition of good in something, so if you believe that life is a good thing, you can find beauty in anything.

Jack

ChatGBT is correct about the "begging the question" fallacy - we would have to accept that a higher being exists in order to provide an answer. For the sake of argument, let's assume a higher being exists.

*Little off topic - if a higher being exists, I’d like to define it (Dad touched on this a little when talking about simulation theory). Is this higher being just some powerful force that created the physics of our universe? Or is this higher being more akin to what we'd expect from a religious text (does stuff that affects us directly and personally)?

If this higher being is just some force that created the universe without intent, then it didn’t create beautiful things with some random primates on a random planet in mind. Especially because those primates didn’t exist until BILLIONS of years had passed.

*Back on topic - So I guess to answer your question, if some being intentionally designed everything, then no, I would appreciate beautiful things less - It would greatly cheapen the value. If it was all designed, I’d think “Well of course it’s beautiful, it was specifically made for me to think so.” LAME

Amy

Marc

Cheryl

The wording of my question was apparently mis-representative of what I wanted to ask and Che had the question dissected by chat gpt. 

And then some more texts with garbage from chatgpt. I did not waste my effort screenshotting them.

Dani

(no response yet)

Hannah

(No response yet)

Alex 

(No response yet)

Myself

I do not think there is anything that was created intentionally because there is no thing doing the creating. I think through the random chances of the scattered protons in the universe we are here and able to feel moments of serendipitous beauty. I think because they are random, this means they are more beautiful because of how lucky we are that we can process and interpret them as so. 

TLDR; (A summary from what people said)

A lot of people thought that the first half of the question was irrelevant, and that their perception of beauty was unchanged by if it was created with intention or not. There was also opinions that thought the lack of intention (whether from a creator or not) would make things more beautiful. No one said that they thought beautiful things were created intentionally by a creator, and multiple people said that they believed there was a being that created things but they could not understand what beauty meant to us therefore did not do anything with intention. 

Make

List / poem:

Things that are angels to me

An echo

The dreams I forget before I wake up

The smell of rain on the breeze before you can feel the storm

A single feather I saw floating from the sky the other day

A promise 

The roaring sound of the ocean when you walk by the beach on a dark night

When you’re overtaken by a sense of deja vu

A warm blanket from a dryer wrapped around your shoulders

A hug

When you lay in bed after a long day and realize that your blankets are softer than you remember

When you laugh so hard you can’t breathe

Hope after a long moment of despair

A smile

When you step outside and the sun is kindly warm on your skin

The dragonfly that landed on my shoulder and looked into my eyes and in the moment that our gazes connected all of the world stopped

The first day that the hint of spring is in the air

An angel is an echo

Reflection

I liked asking people a question, that was a lot more fun than doing research. But this whole capstone thing feels like blindly groping about in a huge unlit room on a cloudy, moonless night with not so much as a single match to light to see with. And it's so dark and there's so many obstacles in the way and you keep slamming your shin into things you can't see. In short, I find this capstone process confusing and frustrating.

[tobbesdiscordkitten]

1,4,8,16,21 girl lemme know about your answers!!! ❤️❤️❤️

AAHHH! Thank you so much for the ask, love 🥰 Hopefully my answers aren’t too messy, however, I probably did overthink each one lol.

1. If someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?

If someone wanted to understand my pessimistic soul they would need to read Fyodor Dostoevsky, Stephen King, and lots of historical fiction/nonfiction works. On top of this, they would need to read DC comic books such as Batman and the Joker AND read magazines about celebrities/films.

As far as movies go I’ll list some of my all-time favorites: The Shining, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Ghost Rider, Moulin Rouge, Mean Streets, The Godfather: Part 2, JFK, Last Night in SoHo, and The Great Dictator. Sometimes the sequels are better (based on this list) 😅 But when I was younger I used to watch a lot of horror movies (Chucky, Friday The 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Halloween, Scream, Paranormal Activity, Saw, etc.) then I got out of that phase and started watching a lot of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger action films like Rambo and Commando, until I started watching more contemporary cinema a few years ago. My film tastes have been all over the place…

My music taste is even worse lmao. People would definitely need to listen to Lana Del Rey, specifically her Dark Paradise song. Other artists/bands would include Tears for Fears, Queen, Mötley Crüe, Subvision, Oasis, Billie Eilish, and Ghost. Below I’ll list a few other songs that resonate with me deeply on a personal level:

• Daddy Issues - The Neighbourhood

• Congratulations - Post Malone

• Talking Body - Tove Lo

• In This Darkness - Clara La San

• Hey Now! - Oasis

• American Trash - Innerpartysystem

• Mad World - Gary Jules

• She’s Electric - Oasis

• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

All in all I’m mostly a pop/punk-rock kid who grew up listening to a wide range of genres. I had artists like Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Adele, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj play on the car radio everyday before going to school. Then my older sister would share her music with me and my brother, and she listened to bands like The All-American Rejects, Green Day, Three Days Grace, Panic! at the Disco, and Evanscence. My father even played his ‘80s music around the house which included Journey, Van Halen, Simple Minds, and Guns N’ Roses. As long as the songs are catchy I like a variety of different music. And I only have my family to thank for broadening my musical palette 🖤

4. Do you like your name? Is there another name you think would fit you better?

My real name? Not really. It’s too simple. I do like how it’s spelled differently tho, granted people often mispronounce it. As for my Tumblr name (Cine)? I like it better than my actual name. Idk…if I had to change my real name I would switch it to Dimitri or something.

8. What musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?

Since I’m an old soul I connect a lot with Lana Del Rey. I LOVE how her aesthetic is vintage Hollywood glamour mixed in with 1950s-1970s Americana. I favor those time periods more than the one I’m currently living in. Her music speaks to me and I’m grateful to have found her in my life.

16. If you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?

I don’t think any of us would tbh. The environment we grew up in shapes us and if that changes then we change, either for the better or for the worse, depending on how good or bad the situation is. The environment I grew up in was not perfect, but was it downright horrible? No. However, I was sheltered and it did cause me to form attachment issues and daddy issues well into my adulthood.

21. Do you love easily?

Yes 😆 Sometimes I love people a little too much lol. What’s funny is, if I look at someone, my gut instincts immediately tell me if they are a good or bad person, based on the feelings they provoke at first glance. If I feel weary of someone then I won’t have a good impression of them, but if it’s the complete opposite, then I’ll trust that person with my whole heart. It’s weird.

Phew…thanks again for the ask! 🫶🏻

✨Identity Crisis Ask Game���

[hmslusitania]

A meta about Buck and Eddie’s current relationships compared to their past relationships (but it's under a cut so that I don’t have to tag the characters for people who have them blocked, thereby putting this into those characters’ Tumblr-wide tags and summoning angry stans back to my inbox)

Because I haven’t seen anyone else mention this and it’s sort of been driving me nuts. On the one hand there’s a relationship where it’s:

someone he was previously with and this is a renewal of what might have been

someone who he has serious sexual chemistry with but a blatant emotional disconnect

who he separated from and time (roughly two years) has passed during which interim there has been no contact between them

and now they’re trying it again and although he clearly forgives her for past transgressions he still doesn’t trust her when it comes to the most important things, even if he's enjoying spending time with her to a certain extent

but he’s decided to have her back in his life after some negotiation which definitely included her saying at least one excoriating thing against his character that cut directly to the heart of his insecurities that made him feel like he'd failed and needed to do better ("I needed you to have my back" vs "You're so needy")

And when it was Eddie and Shannon, the resolution of that relationship was Eddie deciding that he wanted to try and make it work, build a family and a future together, only for Shannon to bail on him (again). And obviously we haven’t seen the end of Buck and Taylor but based on everything we’ve seen about Buck’s development and growth, it seems pretty clear that what he’s looking for in the long run is to build a family and a future, most likely with children.

Now, we don’t know enough about Taylor to know how she feels about that sort of future trajectory but based on the very little we do know about her, I would hazard that this sort of future seems…unlikely as something she might want.

And obviously, the relationships came about in different circumstances, but the structure of season 4 Bucktaylor versus season 2 Eddie and Shannon feels like a funhouse mirror to me.

And then on the other hand, there’s a relationship where:

It starts after they met once a while ago

With a person who is also presented as a contrast and possibly a more reasonable choice than the other relationship mentioned above (“Ali’s a more grown up and less wild choice than Taylor” vs “such a healthy choice moving on from Shannon with Ana”)

Which begins with a coffee date

And which is all the development we really get in the relationship until an episode that seriously implies doom ahead

And ends with him getting severely whumped

with her there for the initial homecoming

But there’s something kinda off about that homecoming (Ali being unsure the firefighter lifestyle is for her; Eddie kissing Ana on the cheek the same way he kissed his grandmother?? Like my dude my guy there are perfectly acceptable chaste and polite ways to kiss someone on the mouth if you’re worried about scandalising the Youths or the Elders and that ain’t one of ‘em)

And the resolution of that relationship is that Ali was gone without ever officially saying the words “we should break up” before the next season began, and based on behind the scenes sleuthing while it seems like we will see Ana at least once at the start of season 5, it doesn’t seem to be a significant presence.

And idk!! I don’t know what to do with this, but like it seems really obvious to me that in a structural way, Taylor is Buck’s Shannon and Ana is Eddie’s Ali, even while the characters of Taylor and Shannon don't really resemble each other (and I'd argue we don't actually know enough about either Ana or Ali to say how alike or different they were/are, but they don't strike me as similar people), and I hope the boys both get the same as things out of these relationships as the other did -- just with better resolutions.

I want Buck to be in this relationship and evaluate what he wants from his future the way Eddie figured out he wanted to try being in a family, but I want him to have the opportunity Eddie didn’t and I want him to come to the conclusion that if he wants that future, it’s not going to be with Taylor because that’s just not who she is. And I want him to get the opportunity to end it on his terms in the way Eddie never got to.

And I want Eddie to — god I’m sorry this somehow circles back around to my entire shitpost about getting back on the horse/learning you don’t like horses — but I want him to acknowledge that his relationship with Ana, while important for his growth and for moving on after the traumatic end of the most significant relationship he’d had before, simply doesn’t go beyond that. It’s a relationship and it’s “nice” and “easy” but it’s not where his heart is and even though ending a relationship always hurts a little, it won’t devastate him. But most importantly, I want him to get to acknowledge that he’s choosing what he wants, which Buck sort of didn’t get to do with Ali because she made that choice for him.

And then, because I’m me, once they’ve gone through each other’s relationship mistakes and hopefully learned from each other’s example how to do it better, I want them to embark, nervously but so glad to be doing it, on something new and untried together.

ETA: Eddie and Ana’s first date was explicitly not coffee, but it had the same vibe as Buck and Ali’s first (coffee) date in that it was a casual café setting and we know nothing of it after the initial “its nice we’re doing this right?”

ETA(2): Both Shannon and Taylor have “changed” when they’re brought in to be love interests in season 2 and 4 respectively but Shannon’s change ultimately turned out to be insufficient for building their relationship forward. We have yet to see how deep Taylor’s apparent change runs and it’s clear that so far Buck does not trust it.

[gonnagowherethedreamersgo]

I posted 438 times in 2022

62 posts created (14%)

376 posts reblogged (86%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@dailywilliams

@searchingforjunecarter

@tattoos-n-puffers

@still-into-paramore

@melindasordinos

I tagged 413 of my posts in 2022

Only 6% of my posts had no tags

#tegan and sara - 70 posts

#paramore - 40 posts

#hayley williams - 35 posts

#elliot page - 32 posts

#kristen stewart - 31 posts

#the umbrella academy - 29 posts

#taylor swift - 22 posts

#a league of their own - 22 posts

#the umbrella academy spoilers - 21 posts

#tegan quin - 19 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#confirmed actually her baby from the liked comments on twitter and the podcast released today where she mentions installing a car seat cause

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

So, I took this guy’s information and maybe about a year later I emailed him and told him I was moving to Montreal. It was February the week I moved there and it was fucking freezing, the kind of cold where you know that if you stay out too long you’ll actually fucking die. Anyway, we began to hang out and go out for dinner, but I started to get the sense that maybe those dinners were like dates or something. I don’t know that to be true, and he seemed really cool and sweet, but after nine days or so I knew I had to just be straight up with him. I asked him if he knew any gay people and he said, ‘Actually I’m in art school with a girl and I think you’d really like her,’ and he took me over to introduce me to her. Her place was in a brownstone, kind of like in New York, and we climbed all the stairs up to the top apartment, and when we got inside there was what sounded to me like a horrible racket. The kind of music where you’re like, ‘What in the fuck is this?’. Then this girl comes around the corner and I was immediately kind of intimidated, because she was clearly gay and super cute. She took us into the living room and gave us a beer and then went to get ready because we were going to go to some kind of lesbian Meow Mix kind of event. I’ll never forget Antoine and I just looking at each other and I was like, ‘This song, right? Crazy!’ and it was “Fuck The Pain Away” by Peaches. Anyway, the end of that story is that I ended up dating that girl and she became our band’s art director, and has been our art director for almost 20 years. She absolutely fucking loved Peaches. I was so not ready for that electroclash sound at the time, but because I desperately wanted to be cool and I thought she was the coolest person in the world, I started to love everything that she loved. And so I became obsessed with Peaches too.

Sara Quin talking about meeting Emy for the first time

28 notes - Posted November 28, 2022

#4

I felt so supported by everyone. We were shooting right after I disclosed that I’m trans, in total isolation. That was definitely an overwhelming period, but I feel so lucky that I was going to work and getting to be with so many supportive people. I’m so lucky to work with this cast. And in any moment that I did express fear and anxiety, I felt listened to and cared for. And obviously, that should be the case all the time, but we know how things are. So, it’s special. And that Steve, you would make the choice to do this and commit to doing it the right way. I feel like that’s the kind of showrunner you are and have been doing that the entire time we’ve been making the show, including last season with Sissy. So it was just building on already that you’re so wonderful because you have your distinct singular vision mixed with being so collaborative and I’m really grateful for that, always.

Elliot Page

30 notes - Posted June 26, 2022

#3

See the full post

31 notes - Posted March 29, 2022

#2

See the full post

58 notes - Posted June 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

“I am deeply gay - sorry concerned, deeply concerned. It just feels like this is gonna make kids gay and trans - sorry depressed and suicidal, and I just think these laws are lesbians - sorry unconscionable!”

88 notes - Posted March 6, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[omegalomania]

I think tumblr ate my ask or it just didn't sent but what are your favorite Bastille songs / what are some songs you recommend?

i did NOT get this ask im very sorry anon.

it's genuinely hard for me to narrow down cause bastille is pretty up there in terms of favorite artists. i love all their shit, but a special mention goes out to their second studio album wild world since it's the one that made me a Fan

uh so here's a primer i guess i spent too much time on this lmao.

if you wanna listen to their big hits:

flaws - their first single in the uk. if you ever listened to ship playlists on 8tracks in like 2013-2015 then you've probably heard this song or a variant on it at some point.

pompeii - this is the song that really put them on the map and you definitely know it. it dominated the charts all over the place.

happier - the marshmello song that you've definitely heard before too. i think bastille wrote this for justin bieber or some shit but then decided they liked it too much to give it to him? lmao. anyway if you're not digging the version you hear on the radio all the time i recommend trying the stripped down version

good grief - their big hit off their second album. big in the uk, didn't really make as many waves elsewhere, but it's a really solid song anyway. one of those "upbeat tunes that's actually really fucking sad" ones

things we lost in the fire - another one off their first album. if you live in a wildfire area this might not be one to turn to. or maybe you'll find it cathartic idk i certainly do!!

quarter past midnight - a song about escapism, as was fitting when it was released in 2018 and equally fitting now. running away for a night of fucking around with friends, craving any kind of brief departure from the chaos of the modern world

skulls - this one was not a hit or a single and is technically a bonus track but i'm including it because once again if you ever clicked on a ship playlist on 8tracks in like 2013-2015 you've heard this one. and you know what that was justified this one is also good

if you wanna feel existentially depressed:

their whole discography. i mean i kid but i also don't. that's just kind of how bastille does it. BUT IN ALL SERIOUSNESS ones that hit me in particular would beeee

two evils - kind of a grim, haunting one introspecting about morality of the self.

oblivion - musing about the afterlife, love, and how time changes all of us.

those nights - contemplating what it is we seek when we plunge into reckless escapism, and the inherent loneliness of it; how even when surrounded by people there's still the pressure of the world outside, continuously coming to pieces

the draw - this one was written about the pull of pursuing a career in music vs. staying home with family and friends. in a broader sense, it can apply to a lot of things. i always felt it resonated with feelings of paranoia and displacement

winter of our youth - discusses childhood, nostalgia, and regret. if it feels like everything's slipping away, is it easier to relive the past, especially if the past is tinted rose?

sleepsong - loneliness, desperation, and the cyclical, abyss-like nature of all it encapsulates

if you want discussion of serious topics:

final hour - a bonus track off their second album that also became a bonus track off their third album? anyway this song talks about climate change and gun control. happy stuff

doom days - this one talks about, uh, everything! doomscrolling, political divides, escalating national tensions, climate change again, etc.

the currents - a song centered on political rhetoric and the power that figureheads have over the masses, the way they can orchestrate hate. basically it's not so subtly aimed at donald trump lmao, dan's literally sung it as much in a few live settings

WHAT YOU GONNA DO??? - social media addiction and the way capitalism and corporate interests have annexed our online experiences, fighting desperately for our attention as they seek to monetize every available aspect of our lives

four walls (the ballad of perry smith) - well this one is about uh. perry smith. who was charged with the death penalty for killing 4 people in the late 50's. but it's less directly about him and more a discussion of the morality of the death penalty and capital punishment

snakes - burgeoning anxieties and the impulse to turn to easy outs, like ignorance or alcoholism, to escape the world's global problems

if you want some pop culture sprinkled on top:

icarus - greek mythology. i like this one because it addresses something that i feel isn't addressed enough in discussions of this myth, which is that icarus is a very young lad. less about the pride of the fall, and more about the inherent tragedy of that.

laura palmer - the whole song is a david lynch shoutout. i've never seen twin peaks myself but the song still slaps.

daniel in the den - christian mythology. discusses the biblical tale of daniel in the lion's den and links that up to themes of betrayal and family.

poet - this one's a double feature, referencing both william shakespeare's sonnet 18 and edmund spencer's sonnet 75. also one of my favorites.

send them off! - this is another one of my favorites of theirs. it's also been described by dan as "othello meets the exorcist" and it very much delivers there

if you want something uplifting:

joy - while bastille (understandably) has a bit of reputation as a band that makes sad music about sad things, they've definitely got some happier songs in their catalogue. pun intended cha ching. this one's one of their more straightforwardly happy tunes

survivin' - this was a song they wrote while they were touring and then felt weird about releasing once the panini hit because it felt a bit on the nose. they ended up releasing it anyway and i am so glad they did cause it's a mood

act of kindness - the "happy" part here is debatable but i'm gonna include it anyway. it’s when someone does something nice for you and that impulse Changes you way down deep you know???

warmth - one of those "the world's going to shit but at least we have each other" kinds of tunes

the anchor - one of those "the world's going to shit but you're the one fucking thing that's still keeping me here" kinds of tunes

give me the future - their latest single as of this writing and one of the more optimistic tracks in their catalogue imo! it's yearning, but it's also with a genuine hope for the future.

and LASTLY. because im going to take every chance i can to plug this band. im going to throw some collabs and covers at you because there's one thing this band does SUPER well and it's collabs and covers.

of the night - this is the big one. it mashes up rhythm of the night by corona and rhythm is a dancer by SNAP! and it's so good they still do this one live and it goes off every time.

no angels - a mashup of "no scrubs" by TLC and "angels" by the xx, poured into a strangely mournful tune with clips from the hitchcock movie psycho. doesn't sound like it should work but it does. kinda really does.

torn apart - with GRADES and lizzo no less!!! it's got two parts but they're both excellent listen to them both

weapon - collab with angel haze, dan priddy, and F*U*G*Z and one of my absolute favorites

remains - remix of their song "skulls" but featuring rag'n'bone man and skunk anansie that adds an entire new dimension to the song, really fucking excellent

old town road mashup - lil nas x's old town road meets lizzo's good as hell meets radiohead's talk show host meets talking heads' road to nowhere meets the osmond's crazy horse. "what the fuck that shouldn't work" i KNOW and yet here it is!! BLATANTLY BANGING!!!

we can't stop - one of the few times dan smith subtly changes the lyrics of the song he's covering (most of the time he opts to keep the original pronouns and the like, which is very nice to see). anyway this one mixes miley cyrus's we can't stop with eminem's lose yourself and billy ray cyrus's achy breaky heart. and also the lion king's i just can't wait to be king is there. yes i know it sounds batshit especially because the whole thing is surprisingly melodic and heartfelt and you know what it works.

anyone but me x nightmares - mashing up joy crookes' anyone but me with easy life's nightmares and absolutely one of my favorites.

bad guy mashup - how many songs can they include with the word "bad" in the title? we've got bad guy (billie eilish), bad decisions (bastille), bad romance (lady gaga), and bad blood (taylor swift). bastille even has a song called bad blood and they didnt use it. they used taylor swift's version. also the distinctive guitar riff from dick dale's misirlou is there.

somebody mashup - how many songs can they include with the word "some" in the title? someone like you (adele), somebody told me (the killers), somebody to love (queen), use somebody (kings of leon), and someone you loved (lewis capaldi). seriously these guys take mashups to a new level.

final song - this is a cover of MØ's final song. it also adds in craig david's 7 days and, impossibly enough, europe's final countdown. how does it work. how.

ALL RIGHT. THATS ALL IVE GOT IN ME. HOPE THIS HELPED ANON AND IM SORRY IF THIS IS TOO MUCH

[queerlennon]

Lesley-Ann Jones Is Untrustworthy

So I’ve seen some people in the fandom reading and citing Lesley-Ann Jones’ biography The Search For John Lennon recently and to be honest it’s concerning to me. Lesley Ann Jones has proved in the past to be an extremely untrustworthy source for info about the people she writes about. I understand that it’s exciting to have a book about John that’s not written by the typical “Lennon biographer” type (aka an ageing straight man) and for said book to also promise to shed light and focus on his bisexuality but, if we’re going to analyse John respectfully and accurately, it’s important to identify sources that are biased and untrustworthy, even if they’re technically within our favour. Especially when it relates to his queerness. And seeing as LAJ doesn’t have the best record when it comes to writing about rockstars’ sexualities in a respectful manner, it’s best to treat her words with caution.

Info about exactly how she’s a bad source is under the cut

Firstly, it's key to talk about LAJ's journalistic background when discussing what sort of writer she is: she's worked for papers such as The Sun, The Daily Mail, and The Mail On Sunday. Essentially, the bulk of her work has been for tabloids and traditionally the writing style for those kinds of publications place an emphasis on sensationalism and gossip. Now obviously that doesn’t discredit her work immediately, authors are usually able to write in more than one style so it doesn’t necessarily mean the tabloid style is going to carry over to her biographies; but it’s good to keep in mind when discussing and analysing the legitimacy of the narratives she creates and the stories she recounts in her work. 

LAJ has received criticism in the past, particularly from the queen fandom of often overexaggerating, or just straight presenting false information in her bios about Freddie Mercury. She is the champion of the claim that Freddie was bisexual and not gay. Her evidence for this is over-exaggerating and (seemingly intentionally) misinterpreting the nature of the relationship between Freddie and his friend, Barbara Valentin. LAJ claimed that the two had a relationship and even lived together:

“Barbara was very open with me about the sexual relationship she had with Freddie.”

(x)

(x)

However, no-one in Freddie’s life has ever corroborated that Freddie and Barbara were anything but friends. As for the claim they lived together, according to Peter Freestone, an extremely close friend of Freddie’s:

In the event, Freddie never actually lived there although Barbara fulfilled a huge role in Freddie’s life at that time... Freddie became very disillusioned when with more and more frequency articles were appearing in the German press’s gossip columns... about the relationship between him and Barbara... After one article claiming to have knowledge of him and Barbara getting married, Freddie... concluded that it could only be Barbara who was providing the information.

(x)

This exaggeration of their relationship and the insistence LAJ has on presenting Freddie as bi because of it has attracted criticism from queen fans for obvious reasons. For one, it’s borderline homophobic to essentially lie about a gay man having a relationship with a woman while downplaying his relationships with men. No, she’s not portraying him as a straight man, however it’s still erasure of the specific struggles Freddie would’ve faced being a gay man in his time, therefore those who want to analyse him would be missing some of the picture when trying to understand him and his life

LAJ’s research methods are also... questionable. This is a post from Crystal Taylor (one of Roger Taylor’s roadies) about her methods for her David Bowie bio which, if to be believed is particularly concerning.

(x)

LAJ is also known to greatly exaggerate her own relationships with her subjects. She often claims to have been friends with the people she writes bios about (coincidently the people she does this with are dead.) Back in the day she would meet with artists while on tour so the idea is convincing enough. However besides her word there’s nothing to suggest that she had close friendships with Freddie or Bowie, two people she claimed to be good friends with. There’s also this comment from Brian May which actually goes against the idea that she was close with Freddie:

(x)

So with all of this in mind, let’s look at the quote from The Search For John Lennon that’s been circulating around Beatles tumblr:

That Bowie worshipped Lennon is no secret. He'd banged on about it often enough. The ex-Beatle had gone to his hedonism. They'd met in Los Angeles, during John's Lost Weekend. I lunched from time to time with David in New York while working there as a music journalist, before he married Iman. He lent me his house in Mustique, to write the first draft of my first biography on Freddie Mercury.

The crazy pair went out to play, according to David, when John was on yet another break from May and far away from Yoko. They genderbender-ed about, John indulging again that 'inner fag' of his. What larks.

They later 'hooked up': 'There was a whore in the middle, and it wasn't either of us,' David smirked. 'At some point in proceedings, she left. I think it was a she. Not that we minded.' By the time they made it back to New York, the ambisextrous pair were 'lifelong friends'.

I’m suspicious of this story for several reasons but first I want to make it clear that none of them have to do with John having sex with men or being bisexual. I’m a very firm believer of John’s bisexuality (my username is literally queerlennon lmao) but once again I think it’s good to examine the legitimacy of sources, even when they favour our position.

Firstly, LAJ’s source for this story is the claim that David told her, which considering I can’t find any info about them being friends besides her word, combined with the fact that she’s lied about having close relationships in the past raises a lot of flags.

But even if we assume LAJ isn’t lying and did know Bowie, the quote is still suspect, particularly the line “John was on yet another break from May and far away from Yoko.” According to May in her book Loving John, her and John had only one break from their relationship (the phrase “yet another break” implies multiple) that lasted a week, and for the entirety of that week, John was with Yoko. (x)

Finally, the language LAJ uses to describe John and David’s sexualities not only puts me on edge but very much makes me question her intention. Phrases like “the genderbender-ed about,” “indulged his ‘inner fag,’” and “ambisextrous,” all come across to me as fetishisation. Bisexuality is already very highly fetishised and sexualised and LAJ is most definitely not concerned with deviating from that representation. That phrasing combined with the way she also discusses Freddie’s sexuality, where she’s alleged highly sexualised claims about him having threesomes:

And quite often that involved other people as well. Other men, other women. There would be a number of them in the bedroom at any given time. In fact they were raided by the police once and the police stormed in and they found more people than they were expecting to find in the bed that morning.

(x)

— leads me to believe that LAJ is an author less concerned with exploring John’s sexuality as apart of his life, something that made him who he was, and more concerned with including details about “bisexual threesomes” as shock value, as a sensational point she can use to to promote her book in press tours and interviews. Like a tabloid writer. And this sort disrespect representation of John’s queerness, imo isn’t that much better than the biographers who dismiss or underplay it. I totally understand that for a lot of us, finding out new info about John’s queer identity is exciting, especially for those of us who are queer and identify with a lot with John for that reason, myself included. But we shouldn’t be giving credence and legitimacy to someone who firstly, isn’t trustworthy and secondly who’s reason for talking about it is gross and exploitative at best and biphobic at worst.

tl;dr, LAJ is an incredibly untrustworthy source of info and in her own over exaggerations, treats discussions of queerness in an extremely problematic and exploitive way so please take anything you read from her with a massive grain of salt.

[ofmushroomsandmoss]

✨✉️Penpal Wanted✉️✨

Hi all! My girlfriend is interested in finding a pen pal to exchange letters with. Please get in touch with her (or me) if you are interested! Reblogs are also appreciated to help find potential pen friends ^¬^

Hi!!

I’ve never had a pen-pal before but my gf has and I’m interested to give it a go myself, so I may not have the prettiest letters. I can defo include a lot of stuff in it though!

I’m Victoria, and I’m 22 so I would preferably like to write to people age over 18. I live in the UK and I have a kitty cat named Smoothy, and I have just started a job at a HR consultancy.

I have a few interests that I will definitely talk about- you don’t need to share those interests and I would love to hear about yours! These are:

- Cosplay

- Rollerskating

- Taylor Swift (not reflective of the rest of my music taste for the most part)

- Games- particularly Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Zelda BOTW and Danganronpa

- Star Wars

- Animals! Particularly cats

- Experimenting with style and makeup looks

I also love discovering new music so playlist recommendations would be something I would super appreciate in letters!

If you are interested in writing to me then either message me on tumblr @noboysonlycats or on discord victoria!#1123

Thank you!

[soundsof71]

FIVE ALBUMS YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW!!!

aka, My Top 5 of 2020, but I didn’t want to seem too retro!

Yep, I have a classic rock blog. Yep, I think that the best rock and roll in history is being made RIGHT NOW. And yep, ALL of it is being made by women. 

(Shown at top, Nova Twins by Ant Adams [x] and The Tissues by Michael Espleta [x]. I was planning to make a collage of all my faves in concert, but  not all of them were able to play in 2020. Both of these photos are pre-pandemic.)

There’s been quite a bit of movement on this list, and all five of these have spent some time at Number 1 as the year has done (gestures broadly) All This™. Anyone looking for rock and roll is going to dig any of these. 

Rocking out is just the start of it, though. Wrestling with my bipolarity and schizophrenia is tough on a good day, and there haven’t been too many of those lately. The plague has also taken its toll around me, with two family members dead and a third who’s doing better, but will likely never be all the way back. (Mask up, kids!)

I’ve written plenty about how deeply Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers have moved me this year (and will do so again), but in those rare stretches where I’ve had enough spare energy to listen to music at all these days, I’ve mostly been looking for more than beautiful music. Heavy times need heavy lifting, and I find that in heavy music. 

The five albums here have all helped carry me, pointing the way toward light.

1) BULLY, SUGAREGG

Alicia Bognanno is a force of nature as a guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer/engineer. (While working on her degree in audio engineering at MTSU, she interned with Steve Albini, who remains both a fan and an admirer). A Nashville transplant from Minnesota, she’s still a natural fit in her home on Sub Pop: as heavy as Soundgarden, as hooky as Sleater-Kinney. 

I was blown away hearing her searing honesty while working through her discoveries of her bisexuality and bipolarity (double bi!), and her triumphant roar lifts me out of my seat every time I listen.

“She sings the hell out of [these songs], her voice fraying to the point of combustion every time she launches to the top of her range. This is phenomenal music for converting anger and anxiety into unbound joy.” ~Stereogum, Album of the Week

Also, check this fantastic interview with Alicia in the New York Times talking about what she’s gone through to get here. 

TURN IT UP!

2) GANSER, LOOK AT THAT SKY

Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions and other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual pseudohallucinations and a decreased state of consciousness. ~Wikipedia #it me

‘Just Look At That Sky’ doesn’t presume to offer solutions; it’s an honest document of what it feels like to wade through anxiety, day by day, not a survival guide or handbook of answers none of us actually have. Whether or not you pay attention to this, Ganser are simply one of the most invigorating, exciting new bands. ~Clashmusic

I saw one very positive review compare Ganser to a cross between Fugazi and Sonic Youth, but I think they hit much, much harder than either of those. And as you can surely guess, I also deeply relate to their themes of mental illness and dissociation while trying to make it through All This™. But my god, are they TIGHT. This is a BAND.

Ganser has two fantastic lead vocalists, and on “Bad Form”, bassist/vocalist Alicia Gaines wrote the song for the voice of keyboardist/vocalist Nadia Garofolo. Alicia also wrote a FANTASTIC essay on the strains that making an album during a pandemic puts on the mental health of the entire band at talkhouse: “Writing, recording, reaching out, balancing relationships outside and within the band, I found (and still find) myself under-rested and agitated to no particular end. More than not doing enough, I was not enough.” 

(If you can’t relate to that, I can’t relate to you, tbh.)

This video also does a fantastic job of showing dissociation. TURN IT UP!

3) THE TISSUES, BLUE FILM

“Blue Film” is a ten-song shot of dagger-twisting electro-(s)punk. It’s completely addictive from the very first listen. The tour de force is “Rear Window”, an art-punk masterpiece of slashing guitars and mad caterwauling. Copious doses of jaunty poetics and social commentary reward the earlooker patient enough to untangle Kristine Nevrose’s hysterical meowing about intergalactic salt shakers and hysterectomies, but I’m too emotionally invested to look under the hood.” ~ Sputnik Music

“Rear Window” is in fact my most-played 2020 track. TURN IT UP!

4) GUM COUNTRY, SOMEWHERE

It’s not all heavy! But even when I’m looking for something light and hooky, I need a bite, and Gum Country has done it with the kind of swirly, feeedback-laden wall of sound that Lush or Yo La Tengo would make if they lived in LA. (Recent transplants to SoCal from Vancouver, I do think that the sunshine has gone straight to their heads, in the very best way.)

Indie music nerds will know guitarist/composer/singer/front woman Courtney Garvin from The Courtneys, and she really does throw up a glorious wall of sound. I adore this video too! Sweet, swinging, fun -- and yes, the drummer is playing keyboard with one hand while slapping the skins with the other! 

I mentioned earlier that all five of these albums have spent part of the year at #1 on my list -- I think that this one might have spent the longest stretch there. Like all shoegaze, even as hooky as this, the truth of these songs is revealed in VOLUME. TURN IT UP!

5) NOVA TWINS, WHO ARE THE GIRLS?

Now, THIS is heavy! Amy Lee (vocals, guitar) and Georgia South (bass) are fucking LOUD, and insanely intense. A mix of grime, hip-hop, metal, punk, and good old rock and roll, they’re a harder-hitting, more theatrical Prodigy, with a pyre of intensity that recalls the heaviest howls of Rage Against The Machine. Indeed, Nova Twins spent a good bit of 2019 playing heavy metal festivals and toured as openers for Prophets of Rage. (Tom Morello has been a fan and supporter from the beginning.)

As you may have noted in the photo at the top of this post, their musical audacity extends to visuals too: they design their own clothes, hair, and makeup, they art direct their own videos, and more. They impress the hell out of me, and I’ve been a huge fan since hearing their first singles in 2018. I’ll plant a flag and say that Georgia South in particular is the most innovative musician on any instrument in any genre right now, but they’re both absolutely monsters. 

I’m honestly not at all sure that #5 is high enough for this, but I’m absolutely certain that after this video, you’re gonna need to rest for a little. LOL

“Taxi” is the story of two gleefully and creatively violent women shaking up the local crime syndicate as they use a vintage cab for their moving murder scene. This is the movie that Robert Rodriguez wishes he was making with Sin City, if it were combined with Blade Runner and The Matrix. And gangsters. And a snake.

I’m gonna take your crown I’m gonna, I’m gonna bleed you out We demand it by the hour We devour, control, power

I’m gonna burn it down Even the, even the royals bow

So not the same kind of therapeutic work being explored on this rekkid, but you know what? Fucking shit up is therapeutic too! 

Definitely take this full screen, and for the love of fuck, TURN IT UP!

SO. Not done with the best of 2020 yet? I’m sure not! A lot of my favorite songs aren’t on albums (at least not yet), so for an unedited list of everything I’m finding, check out my Spotify list, 2020: Shuffle This List! 268 songs and counting, over 15 hours, and not finished yet. I’m still checking out everyone else’s Best of lists (including yours! Message me links to yours!!!), so will probably be adding to this for most of 2021, too. 

And for more banging tracks by women from 2020, plus a few 2019 gems that I’m still grooving to, check out my more thoroughly curated Spotify playlist Women Bangers: A Tumblr New Classics Jam. (You’ll see a couple of these tracks there!) I’m working on a YouTube playlist and an essay to properly roll that one out. I’m also still tweaking the ending, but the three dozen or so tunes there are definitely bangin’.

Tell me if you hear anything you dig here, and tell me what YOU’VE found! We’re gonna get through this together.

Yr pal, Timmy

[moonnsongs]

Tsc characters who are Swifties(or would be)

Kit- Did y'all really think I wouldn't include him. He loves Taylor swift! Red came out around the same time he left the LA Institute so he was definitely belting out All Too Well 24/7 while Tessa and Jem looked on, concerned. He thinks that she is a GENIUS(as I do) and when given the aux cord is gonna play her. He first discovered her when Fearless came out and Love Story played on the radio. He kept listening, but secretly, since he wasn’t sure what would happen if Johnny Rook found out. But he never illegally downloaded a song because he wanted to support her. His favorite songs are The Way I Loved You, Look What You Made Me Do, and You Need to Calm Down. PARTICIPATED IN THE LOVE STORY TIK TOK TREND.

Dru- She first discovered her when someone recommended a song from 1989. She loved the rest of the songs in that album, but mainly Blank Space and Bad Blood. She started to listen to the other albums, and knows most of the songs, but likes the ones from 1989 best. Until Reputation comes out. She and Kit will scream out the lyrics all. the. time. She likes them so much because they're badass and different. Dru will be really defensive if someone insults her taste in music. Her favorite songs are Don’t Blame Me, Mad Woman, and I Knew You Were Trouble. The only ones she actively avoids are the ones with Ed Sheeran. 

Ty- He doesn't like the loud, pop songs but some of the earlier ones and the ones from Folklore. During tda he heard Kit talking about it, and asked who she was. Ty likes how soothing and bright her voice sounds, but his favorite part is the song lyrics. He says they’re like poems set to music. His favorite album at first is Speak Now, but later it’s Folklore. His favorite songs are Seven, Mean, and Back to December.

Will- If he was in modern times, he would be ENAMORED by Taylor. He’d pretend he doesn’t listen to her, and actually does listen to something more “manly” but he does. He acts super emotional when he hears them. Cries during the sad songs, does elaborate dance moves during the up-beat ones, etc. Everyone he knows has to pretend that they don’t know he listens to Taylor. They have all found his secret fan account on Tumblr. He likes the later albums better, because “Its like she's speaking to my soul!”. His favorite songs are Cruel Summer, Lover, and Betty.

Matthew- He’s the type of friend to send you a Taylor Swift song and say that it reminds him of you. An unapologetic supporter. He will probably mention her within the first 30 minutes of meeting a new person. If you give him a concert ticket he will love you forever. In a modern au, he found her when she started getting really popular, which I'm pretty sure was when Love Story came out, and dropped everything to frantically listen to the rest of her songs. His favorites are Champagne Problems, Gold Rush, and Wildest Dreams.

Clary- She doesn’t listen to Taylor all the time like the others do, but she still loves her. She was there when her first album came out, and listened to it a lot when she still believed she was a mundane. It came to the point where she asked Simon to teach her guitar so she could try to learn it. When the whole Shadowhunter business happened, she listened to her less, but the music was still a great comfort in her crazy new world. She, of course, listened to the new albums as they came out. Her favorite songs are Teardrops on my Guitar, Stay, Stay, Stay, and All Too Well. 

Sebastian- I KNOW WHAT YOUR THINKING HEAR ME OUT. When I imagine Sebastian I think of him aggressively working out or doing evil things with Reputation playing in the background. 

[ur-jinji]

Omg, can u do music taste hc for modern au gaang + azula, ty lee and mai 🥺

okay okay so i kind of did something like this before but i’ll elaborate

aang is a hippie god. no doubt about it. that kid has oldies on repeat

he’d definitely listening to the beatles, the bee gees, kc and the sunshine band, earth wind fire, bill withers, etc

he’d die to go to woodstock

katara vibes with indie & bedroom indie shit. lots of soft girl vibes

she’d listen to like clairo, lana del ray, SALES, men i trust, SZA!!!!!!!!, conan gray, beach house, the lumineers, girl in red, phoebe bridges. she’s an avid taylor swift fan. obviously stans harry styles, also bumps frequently to zayn’s mind of mine album. she cried when 1D broke up

sokka listens to indie & indie pop as well, and also alt hip hop

he worships tyler the creator. literally worships that man. his playlists would include frank ocean, tame impala, joji, cage the elephant, rex orange county, vacations, j cole. also gets down to the beastie boys often.

suki also listens to indie genres & alt

LOVES rex orange county & tyler the creator & tame impala. she’d probs listen to trippie redd ngl. definitely went through a 2015 tumblr arctic monkeys, the neighbourhood, lana, the 1975 & marina and the diamonds phase and isn’t ashamed of it

toph listens to lots of punk & also hardcore shit

loves metallica, blink 182, sum 41, green day, slipknot & rage against the machine.

also you can’t even tell me she doesn’t secretly listen to taylor swift’s new albums

zuko is definitely an emo/alt rock & rap baby

went though an emo phase in middle school, but still listens to all those bands. vibes with my chemical romance, pierce the veil, twenty one pilots, nirvana, juicewrld, xxxtentacion.

this kid worships lil peep & freddie dredd

azula listens to bad bitches and bad bitches only.

definitely a barb. knows every nicki song by heart.

huge megan thee stallion fan. is obsessed with rihanna and manifests every day for a new album. she streams anti on the daily. loves flo milli and she’s always saying “flo milli shit”.

bhad bhabie is her guilty pleasure, but doesnt stan. same with doja cat

also a miley stan

ty lee listens to a lot of pop and rap

but she’d currently be streaming the fleetwood mac rumors album

loves harry styles (also cried was 1d broke up), brockhampton, dua lipa, khalid, ariana grande, doja cat, post malone, saweetie, etc

mai’s an egirl. lots and lots of alt

simps for blackbear

went though a melanie martinez phase in middle school

likes current joys, men i trust, billie eilish, lil peep, juicewrld, lana, the neighborhood, ratboy, gorillaz, arctic monkeys, joji

black sheep by metric is on replay