#as someone who’s had cruel summer as her most streamed song for a couple years: IT DOESN’T

[an-ivy-covered-summer]

i’ve been meaning to say this for a while but i finally decided to do it. i’m breaking my silence: déjà vu sounds nothing like cruel summer lol

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Ok this isn’t directed at anyone or any fandom — also I actually can’t scroll my dash at the moment so forgive me if this has been discussed lol — but as someone who has a healthy interest in pop culture and the entertainment industry but doesn’t follow any fandom other than Taylor’s, and even at that only in a very curated niche of it, but is it really plausible that Taylor is directly targeting Billie or any other artist with her releases?

I find it really hard to believe a voice memo album repackage only sold on her website or a single remix would make that much of an impact on her numbers or other artists. Obviously they’re released for a reason and every bit helps and it’s to help maintain the momentum on the charts, but I would just be genuinely surprised if those alone could be enough to block another artist’s anticipated release.

To me, releasing bonus content/remixes/whatever a few weeks after an initial release seems to be pretty par for the course not just for Taylor but for many pop artists. I feel like I hear of so many who will release an acoustic or remix version or special limited time offer vinyl or whatever when numbers start to stabilize or decrease to keep charting for a little while. It doesn’t seem to my like Taylor’s schedule for TTPD is especially different from Midnights was, for example, and I don’t think much of it differs from what many pop acts are doing these days either.

If anything I think Taylor has held back considerably for TTPD. Not out of any kind of magnanimity or charity or anything, but just because I’m assuming that’s what feels right for her at the moment. A month or two ago so many people complained about how she was doing no promo for the album release. All she did, save for a couple of short teasers on social media, was release her album. No press, no interviews, no appearances. Aside from surprise dropping the album a la folklore, I don’t really know what else she could have done to be inconspicuous. And even with that, her album still went number one. I don’t think that’s out of any kind of Machiavellian scheming, I think she’s just that huge at the moment that anything she does is going to be news and going to be eaten up.

Yes, the limited time drops of merch on her website are annoying and sure the differing bonus tracks on her variants can be annoying, but again, it’s nothing other artists aren’t doing themselves. She had 5 variants of her album. Billie and Olivia and plenty of others easily double that. (And I’m not knocking them for that, I’m saying it’s normal for their industry and everyone does it.)

I’ve seen comments on non-tumblr spaces about how Taylor is stepping on the necks of other artists (like Billie) and I just don’t see how? She’s doing typical music business stuff and it doesn’t even seem particularly aggressive. Super aggressive would be releasing more signed physicals or a new variant with a different song or releasing The Anthology on physical or some other move that would appeal to the collector instincts in fans and drive raging capitalist tendencies. A couple of voice memos and a remix hardly seem like they’d make enough impact to significantly block also-big artists like Billie who are Grammy winners with huge fan bases themselves.

Taylor’s just so huge now that anything she does is going to loom large. Think about how Cruel Summer because a massive hit four years after it was released just by sheer streaming strength, and that was thanks to Eras piquing people’s interest. Taylor released a brand new double album in the middle of the biggest tour in the world and changed her set list to make it one of the most theatrical spectacles on social media at the moment. TTPD is kind of assured staying power for the foreseeable future for that alone. (Not to mention the increased interest in her personal life of late probably increasing streams of her music a tiny bit too. That’s probably an unfortunate byproduct of her fame, but when news drops I’d bet it does cause a brief spike.)

It’s not that I think Taylor does things purely out of the goodness of her heart or for artistic merit alone; I know she’s a shrewd businesswoman and I know she cares about charts and markers of success. I just don’t think she’s deliberately targeting other artists in some sort of feud. I’d bet she had her release plan pretty much pencilled in months ago, before anyone else’s releases were in the radar. This is chess, not checkers. Her imperial-level success at the moment does not mean she has to strategically cut off anyone else at the knees; it’s that she’s the closest thing we have to monoculture at the moment and she’s just everywhere whether she wants to be or not. She can make nearly zero effort to push the album and it’s still going to be number one. And the popularity will probably last through the summer thanks to Eras and the interest online.

So is the answer that she’s supposed to step aside for other artists? Is it unfair of her to occupy the national consciousness so pervasively? I genuinely don’t know though my gut instinct is no. No one would say that about other number one artists, but very few top artists are at her level of achievement at the moment. (I’d guess Beyoncé is probably her only contemporary in that regard right now.) I would very much bristle against that notion, because again, I don’t think anyone would tell any other artist that they’ve “had their turn” and should stop pushing their album so that someone else can have a shot. But Taylor is at such a level that even the most otherwise successful artists might struggle to overtake her for the time being.

And again in this specific case this week, we’re not talking about an indie act struggling to break through to their first big hit being struck down by Goliath. Billie is a multiple Grammy and Oscar winner! Her song was in one of the biggest movies of the year that dominated pop culture all summer! She is a headliner at festivals! She may not be quite at Taylor’s level of fame and numbers because no one is, but she has a huge fan base of her own! And I’m not pitting them against each other at all because I listen to her and Olivia and all kinds of current pop acts! My point is that Billie’s work speaks for itself as does her album release, just like Olivia and Dua and whoever else is releasing albums these days. At a certain point people need to step back and consider what is deliberate and what is just current industry trends that the pop acts in particular have to follow to get the numbers they want on the Billboard charts.

Maybe I’m completely wrong and maybe this is all a targeted plan to block other artists from taking over Number 1. But if I had to guess I really would think that at this point Taylor knows she’s going to dominate the charts no matter what she does — which is why she doesn’t have to make too many public moves anymore. Her fame and her work do it for her. I don’t doubt these extra drops help boost her numbers and there’s some sort of calculated reason why they come out when they do, I just don’t think that reason is “specifically block x person from beating me”. It’s probably more “try to maintain x sales” which at her level may de facto beat the next person behind her because she’s near untouchable, but the reasoning behind those actions is not the same, if you get what I mean.

It just all seems to be yet another point to villainize her for just doing her job and living her life, when at worst she’s just doing what everyone else is doing to play the system they all adhere do. It feels like another attempt to dehumanize her and turn her into this avatar for all of pop culture’s ills, ascribing her these Wicked Witch tendencies, when her team’s job, like all popular musicians’, is to make sales. It’s not that I think she’s some benevolent artist who doesn’t care because I’m sure she does, but I just find it really hard to believe the driving force is impeding other musicians as opposed to just maintaining her own sales. Perhaps the system is broken that any other act has trouble penetrating her dominance at the moment, and that’s another conversation, but if it were anyone else at this level of dominance right now, I’m positive none of these conversations would be happening to begin with.

[kaylorrehabcenter]

Gold Rush and Happiness are Sisters

Gather round everyone and witness the clown try to prove that Taylor Swift wrote songs about a married (now pregnant) woman in the year of our lord 2020.

Also this is a seven page doc in my google docs so like. Get a cup of tea and some popcorn.

Ok full disclosure this is…..mostly me clowning. Like seriously. Don’t take my words as the word of God, this is just my interpretation and how I listen to the songs. And as a (former? Idk man) Kaylor I’m going to want to make these songs about my ship. Acknowledge your biases kids.

Also like. I change my mind a lot, but for a while this theory that Gold Rush and Happiness are connected has been stuck in my head and I wanted to write it down and post it in case anyone else got something out of this.

If you read my last post on Gold Rush (here!) you’ll know I don’t think of it as a happy song. To elaborate further- I think it’s Taylor catching herself looking back on Karlie/that time in her life (Because I think Karlie is emblematic of the 1989 era for Taylor and is thus tied to the pain that came out of that, along with her ties to the masters heist) and reminding herself it wasn’t good and ended for a reason.

“Gleaming, twinkling/eyes like sinking ships on waters/so inviting, I almost jump in”

“But I don’t like a gold rush” 

The sinking ship line makes me laugh. I like to think it’s Taylor saying she’s literally sunk our (dead) ship, but that’s mostly regressing to 2015 tumblr humur.

To the actual analysis, she almost jumps into these waters, maybe it’s literal (don’t text your ex kids, write a bop like closure instead) or maybe it’s more metaphorical. She almost allows herself to think the good times were the only times. Maybe there’s a desire to move back to nyc, capture the magic that she may have felt during the era. 

“I don’t like that flying feels like falling till the bone crush”

But that’s the thing. It feels like flying at the time, but it isn’t a feeling that can last. These relationships built on temporary promises (we’re assuming here Taylor was a side thing for Karlie, not that serious and built not to last, even if there were genuine romantic feelings on both sides, which I think there were to some level) won’t last, and will hurt when they do end. At least, this one did.

“Everyone wonders what it would be like to love you”

Everybody wants who she’s singing about and is imagining what it would be like to be with them, they think it would be a fairytale. Hell, Taylor probably thought their relationship would be a fairytale against her better judgement. Karlie is a celebrity and a model no less, yes she has other things going for her (Koding and investments), her brand and her success in the fashion world depends to some degree people desiring and fantasizing about her.

“I don’t like that anyone would die to feel your touch”

The funny thing about that, Taylor’s the only one who knows the pain of that relationship, of being a side thing and never committed to. It’s draining. It's difficult. She isn’t allowing herself to jump into those waters.

“I see me padding across your wooden floor/with my Eagles t shirt hanging on the door”

I point out this line mostly because it feels like a Delicate call back (Echoes of your footsteps on the stairs). Am I reaching though? Probably. Also as someone with parents about the same age as Taylor’s (give or take ten years), I like the Eagles reference. Stream Hotel California for clear skin <3

“At dinner parties, I call you out on your contrarian shit”

Taylor was the first person to call Karlie out on her “I’ve tried!!” bullshit, how cute. <3

Besides this line being very iconic, it also shows to me that Taylor’s been frustrated with Kar even when she was busy giving her heart eyes. She’s a frustrating person to be around even when you are “turning her life into folklore”.

“What must it be like to grow up that beautiful?/With your hair falling into place like dominoes”

Damn that’s a gay couples lines you got there Tay. Wonder if you’re wondering what it must’ve been like for Kar to grow up in the model industry, and all of the pressure and exhilaration that entails. From a male’s perspective ofc.

I also take the dominoes line to be Taylor saying what must’ve it been like to have this easy idyllic childhood. Maybe Taylor is the first time Karlie’s been with a girl outside of a hookup and didn’t have to go through the pain of realizing she was into women until later in life. (Not that that’s not painful, it’s just different, and allows you to have a perfectly straight childhood/teenagerhood)

“And the coastal town we wandered 'round had nеver seen a love as pure as it/And thеn it fades into the gray of my day-old tea/'Cause it could never be”

Maybe this relationship never existed in the way she thought at all. You know Carrie Fischer’s character in When Harry Met Sally and how until she meets the right guy, she spends the whole movie insisting that whatever married guy she’s seeing really loves her!! And he’s gonna leave his wife for her!! That’s what these two songs make me think about, waking up and realizing they were never going to leave their wife, you were projecting this whole story onto someone else, but that doesn’t mean there was no value in what happened.

“And the coastal town we never found will never see a love as pure as it/'Cause it fades into the gray of my day-old tea/'Cause it will never be”

The coastal town seems an obvious Rhode Island reference, to get more specific it reminds me of when Josh and Karlie visited Taylor at her Rhode Island home in 2014 and Josh looks peeved as hell. 1, 2 Also if I remember correctly, enty has a blind where he says there was a huge fight between Josh and Taylor which ended in Taylor not wanting to be around him again. Just interesting to note. (And if anyone has the receipt, please send it my way!)

Taylor may have been projecting this fairytale narrative at the time of being able to make it work, of being friends with Josh even but it didn’t work and the fairytale is left to be folklore, never made real.

The outro is the same as the intro to the song, implying to me that while she’s telling herself it was bad, you weren’t happy, she’s still catching herself missing it and what she had with Karlie. She left a part of her back in New York see, and she can’t stop her mind from retracing old footsteps.

Now, onto how I think Happiness and how I think it connects. I’m about to audition for the national team in the reaching Olympics. Wish me luck. :)

A bit of a preamble though, I don’t take this song ~super~ literally. Depending on what day of the week it is I think it’s probably her divorcee rpg simulator or her closing the book on her ex situationship gf on her own terms ~in a straight way~. So not to discredit this whole ass post but. Take with a grain of salt.

“Honey, when I'm above the trees/I see this for what it is”

See that bold bit? That’s the main connective tissue between these songs. She’s finally woken up and now that she’s this far removed from the relationship she sees what it was. To add to the pain of it all, this is especially potent if you wonder if Karlie gaslit Tay into thinking this wasn’t a big deal, they were just fucking around when Karlie has literal Softest Love Song You Are In Love dedicated to her.

“But now I'm right down in it, all the years I've given/Is just shit we're dividin' up”

This seems to me to be a masters heist reference. Karlie since Lover, is musically tied to this event in Taylor’s life, it’s what I think is keeping Tay from making a clean break from her so to speak. 

“Showed you all of my hiding spots/I was dancing when the music stopped”

This seems to be a Rep era/dwoht reference. Yes, Taylor constantly references dancing, but the hiding spots (loved you in secret! you had turned my bed into a sacred oasis!) combined with the dancing when the music stopped (I'd kiss you as the lights went out! Swaying as the room burned down!) brings out the full kaylor clown in me. 

“There'll be happiness after you/But there was happiness because of you/Both of these things can be true”

This is probably some of the most gut wrenching lyrics Taylor’s ever written. Damn, imagine having that written about you. Anyway, the point here is the thesis of this whole damn post. Gold Rush is Taylor catching herself daydreaming about the happy parts, and reminding herself about the bad to make her snap out of it. Happiness is her coming to terms that both parts of that relationship were true. Things aren’t that simple. 

“Haunted by the look in my eyes/That would've loved you for a lifetime/Leave it all behind”

This feels very Cruel Summer doesn’t it? “I love you ain’t that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?” These lines make this relationship read as two things to me. One, it was very one sided, and Taylor/the narrator, was obviously left behind at the end of it when she was heavily invested into making this work. And 2, it was doomed from the beginning. Again. Big cruel summer energy here.

Or it’s a divorcee rpg simulator 3000. Now with extra glamour and opportunities to dramatically drink wine in dressing gowns.

I don’t have a lot to say about the second verse of the song that. Karlie has a nice smile, Gatsby reference, dig at whoever the next person to take Taylor’s place as a side fling (or a dig at Josh, or a baby reference since that’s what the Gatsby line refers to). The only other thing worthy of note for this post is the line following the Gatsby reference.

“No, I didn't mean that/Sorry, I can't see facts through all of my fury”

 is the next line, where she regrets what she just said and admits to saying overly harsh things and overlooking the truth of the matter when she’s angry, which to me feels like a big Afterglow/Me! reference.

“There'll be happiness after me/But there was happiness because of me/Both of these things, I believe”

I think a lot of what Taylor’s doing emotionally in the chorus is legitimizing this relationship for herself. Yeah, Josh and Karlie will have a happy life in Florida with Ivanka and them, but Taylor also made Karlie happy too and she doesn’t want Karlie to forget it. 

It reminds me of the way she talks about August, that she genuinely loves James/Karlie, and thinks they have something. But she’s just the pit stop on the commitment highway, and the depth of her feelings for the other person will never be acknowledged. It’s exhausting you know?

“In our history, across our great divide”

“Guilty, guilty reaching out across the sea/That you put between you and me”

Nothing to see here, just a nifty parallel. Karlie doesn’t want wrinkles in her new life see.

“There is a glorious sunrise/Dappled with the flickers of light/From the dress I wore at midnight, leave it all behind/And there is happiness”

This bit (which has some of my favorite imagery in this whole dang album!!!) reminds me of the end of the Wildest Dreams mv where she runs out to the car with the lover following her after the big charade of pretending not to care as much as she does, while knowing you aren’t the one that got picked.

Interestingly, if you look at the shot of the four characters together near the end, the outfits parallel the ones worn by Kar, Tay, and Josh at the 2014 Met Gala. This was of course the one where Tay and Kar got ready together and Karlie proceeded to spend the night with Josh and where Tay just looks. Miserable. (see here!)

The line also parallels Wildest Dreams lyrically.

“Say you'll remember me standing in a nice dress/Staring at the sunset, babe”

Which you know. Worth noting.

The last line (And there is happiness) seems to point to there being happiness in leaving the bad situation just as much as there was happiness in the situation. It’s Time to Go anyone?

“I can't make it go away by making you a villain/I guess it's the price I paid for seven years in Heaven”

A series of thoughts. One, I love the first line where Taylor acknowledges anger isn’t going to make it better. There’s only so much being angry in this situation will do, and it’s not like Taylor’s record is clean here either. (I mean I assume. We know she went psycho on the phone anyway)

Two. Seven years in heaven is both a play on a famous game/turn of phrase (Seven minutes in heaven) but one of the more bold references to Karlie in her whole damn discography. Do I think they’ve been together for seven years straight? Not really. But do I think Taylor saw an opportunity and jumped on it? Yep. 

“And I pulled your body into mine/Every goddamn night, now I get fake niceties”

No thoughts head empty this line is a sucker punch and I love it. If anyone needs me I’ll be watching her perform ikywt on the vsfs and crying to yail.

“All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness”

Oh look! Another Gatsby reference. Or Taylor calling Karlie out on profiting off of her association with Tay after they clearly did not end on good terms. (Folklore themed maternity shoot anyone?) I mean, whatever floats your boat. 

A bit on the green light metaphor from Gatsby, because it’s worth noting even if I don’t have much more to say on it here.

“Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal.”

Yes I copied that from Spark Notes. No I am not sorry. I have an exam tomorrow and I’m writing about a dead ship on a dead social media website. Sometimes we do what we must do.

I love the ending of this song, I really really do, it feels like taking in a breath of air and finally feeling free of the weight you’re carrying. It feels like a final goodbye, like Tay’s getting closure on her own terms and I truly love that for her. Bb’s stepping out into the daylight. <3 

There is happiness

In our history, across our great divide

There is a glorious sunrise

Dappled with the flickers of light

From the dress I wore at midnight, leave it all behind

Oh, leave it all behind

Leave it all behind

And there is happiness

So, what was this whole seven page post for then? 

Gold Rush and Happiness being connected has been a theory rattling around in my brain for forever and I’ve wanted to write it down for just as long. The tldr of it all is pretty simple, Gold Rush is about her reminiscing about the good parts of Kaylor, and pulling herself out of it, reminding herself it was bad and bad for her. Happiness is her legitimizing the relationship, and moving on while acknowledging there was bad and good in their story. It just took me seven goddamn pages to articulate that.

If you’ve reached the end of this. Damn. Thanks. Go get a snack or something, you deserve it after reading this.

[savedbystyle]

cruel summer (b.b)

pairing: highschool!bucky barnes x reader

warning: angst, death of major character

summary: falling in love was scary, but thrilling especially when it was with bucky barnes

a/n: this is the second part to the lover series!!! i have received such positive feedback about i forgot that you existed and OMG it makes me incredibly happy:) also i know that during the times bucky went to high school it was all white students BUT that would suggest a white reader, and my aim is to make the reader as fitting to YOU as possible. I get it i’m indian and the pain, but yeah so were just gonna pretend were in those times but with todays diversity:)

song: cruel summer by taylor swift 

gif credits to original creator

****

Fever dream high In the quiet of the night You know that I caught it

You were walking through the halls with your friends June and Sara, careful not to bump into anyone. “I can’t believe that you and Connor are going out Sara” June said with a big smile on her face. “Oh for lord’s sake June, calm down its not that big of a deal” “Oh Sara darling, it IS! I mean Connor is one of the most well known boys in school plus he’s as cute as a bug’s ear” 

You laugh at the banter between June and Sara when you accidentally bump into someone.You bend down to pick up your books, but not before someone does it for you. You stand up and look at the attractive man standing in front of you. Your eyes meet the steel blue eyes in front of you. “I’m sorry doll, didn’t mean to hurt ya there. I’m Bucky” you smiled at him “I know, Bucky. My name is y/n, thanks for helping me” You smiled at the attractive man in front of you and made your way back to your gaping friends. “That was-” June paused “Bucky Barnes” Sara completed for her friend. “Oh stop it you’re gonna get flies in your mouth. He’s just a boy, now come on we gotta get to our class” What you didn’t notice was Bucky staring at you and your friends, a small smile etched onto his face. 

Bad, bad boys Shiny toy with a price You know that I bought it

Throughout the week, you never saw Bucky again. It didn’t bother you, but you didn’t mind seeing that gorgeous face of his. Your class had just ended and it was time to go home. You were walking home when you heard someone shout behind you. You turned around to see Bucky, running towards you with a smile on his face. “Hey there doll” he said panting, trying to catch his breath. “Hello James, what is it?” He raised his eyebrow when you called him James, but excused it. “You’re such a pretty dame you know that” He said, smiling even bigger when he saw the blush take over your face. 

“Thank you James, but you’re not here to tell me that are you?” “No doll, uh, I was wondering if you’d let me take you out sometime?” Your heart skipped a beat, but you doubted the words considering you’ve never talked to him before. “This ain’t a joke, is it James cause that wouldn’t be very nice” “No, I promise doll. Let me take you out” You looked up at his face and noticed the genuine look “Fine. This Friday after class, alright? I got Miss Jamie last” You left him on the side of the road, continuing your walk home, smiling and excited about your date.   

Killing me slow, out the window I'm always waiting for you to be waiting below

It was Friday, and you were tapping your foot anxiously, waiting for the bell to ring out. “Remember, you all have to read Act 3 Scene 1 of the Great Gatsby by Monday’s class!” Miss Jamie told your class as the bell rang. Your heart was racing as you got your books in your arms and waited to get out the door. When you got out you could see Bucky’s head perk up, noticing you. He smiled, and you returned it with a shy one. “Hey doll, you ready?” He asked, holding out his hand for you to take. “Yeah James, lets go” 

The two of you walked to the diner all the couples in high school went to, and sat down at a booth. The waiter approached your table and asked what the two of you would like “Can we have an all the way please” “Sure, that’ll be right out” You smiled at Bucky, but hesitating to ask the questions you’ve been dying to know. “James, can I ask why me? I mean you’ve never talked to me before” “Y/n, you’re the first person who didn’t go out of their way to talk to me. It gets tiring you know? But I can tell you’re a special one” You smiled at him and you two talked the day into the night, and the waiter could tell that the twi of you were already in love. 

Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes What doesn't kill me makes me want you more

After that date, you and Bucky went on many more. Even during school Bucky would hold you by your waist, or when you’re going to your next class he’d sneak up on you and sneak a kiss leaving you blushing. You even met Bucky’s best friend, Steve Rogers, who was one of the most honest and kindhearted men you ever met. You met Steve’s dame as well, Peggy Carter, and the four of you quickly became a close knit group, doing everything together. Of course, you would ask to bring your best friends along, who quickly approved of Bucky seeing as he made you happy. 

You went home that day and decided to tell your parents about your new partner. You opened the door and saw your mother sitting on the couch watching some television and your father who had come home early reading the day’s newspaper. “Hi darling, how was your day?” your mother asked approaching you and kissing your forehead. “It was great ma, hi papa” Your father said hi and smiled at you, patting the now empty seat besides him signaling for you to come sit. “Uh, ma, papa? I’ve been meaning to tell y’all something. I’m going out with James Barnes now” Your mom had a smile on her face, while your dad’s expression didn’t change. “Papa?” You asked, your voice quiet “I will not allow it, you’re still too young y/n” “Nonsense y/f/n, we met each other at the same time” Your mother butted in “I said I won’t allow it” He met your eyes, and you rushed out the door trying to get to Bucky’s as fast as you can. When you found him, you started crying and pulled him close to your chest. “Doll, hey, what’s wrong?” He asked, comforting you “My papa, he doesn’t want me seeing you. Say’s i’m too young to see people” you say in between tears. “I just wanted him to like you, James” “Hey doll, it gonna be alright. We’ll make it work, alright? I’d do anything for ya” You looked up at him, and pulled him down to meet your lips.

And it's new The shape of your body, it's blue The feeling I've got And it's ooh, whoa oh It's a cruel summer  

Your school year had ended, meaning that the both of you were about to go to university now. You had gotten into Columbia considering both your parents were alumni, but Bucky on the other hand decided to enlist in the army. “Bucky, I swear you’re nuts” you walked across his room back and forth “Why would you do that? Why would you enlist in the army James?” Bucky winced. You had stopped calling him James, but rather Bucky so when you called him James he knew he was in trouble. “Doll, I thought you’d be more supportive of me” He said, dropping his head. 

You fell silent, and went to sit beside him “I am proud of you Bucky, honest” “Then what is it, doll?” he asked voice breaking. You replied eyes full of tears for the unknown “I’m scared that one day, someone is gonna come knockin on my door and tell me that the last time I saw you was truly the last time. I’m scared that you’re gonna get shot and hurt, and you will spend the rest of your life upset over it. I’m scared that when I kiss you goodbye at the train station, its the last time i’ll ever kiss you and see you Buck. I’m just scared of loosin you” you admitted, tears streaming down your face. Bucky was crying as well know. He lifted your face to meet your eyes, and kissed you with as much vigor as he could. “Doll, no matter what, I will always come back home to you” You kissed him, not letting him go. And that night ended up with you two sleeping in each other’s arms.

It's cool That's what I tell 'em, no rules In breakable Heaven but Ooh, whoa oh It's a cruel summer With you

That entire summer, the both of you spent almost all of it together. Day after day, Bucky would take you out on a date sometimes with Steve and Peggy, but most times just the two of you. You enjoyed every moment you had with the love of your life, refusing to thing about when he get’s deployed. You enjoyed strawberry sundaes, and ferris wheels at the fair. You even went to the Stark Expo, where the both of you had the time of your lives. You had later found out from Steve that he had secretly enlisted in the army as well and got in. That night, you and Bucky yelled at Steve but later pulled him into a hug. “I swear to god punk if you hurt yourself” “I will personally come over and kill you Steve” you said jokingly. Steve chuckled “I promise I will be alright” 

When Steve went home, Bucky and you went to the roof of his apartment and laid down watching the stars. “Darling, i’m leaving next week for the army” You got up and looked at Bucky “Buck, I thought it was the end of the summer?” “They needed us to do some extra training for the war darlin. I promise I will write to you everyday, not a chance i’d miss it” You scooted closer to him and put your head on his chest. “I’m countin on it James” 

I'm drunk in the back of the car And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar (oh) Said, "I'm fine", but it wasn't true I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you And I, snuck in through the garden gate Every night that summer just to seal my fate (oh) And I screamed, "For whatever it's worth" "I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?"

It was the week after you dropped Bucky off at the train station, and you missed him so much. He sent his first letter two days back, sending his dog tag along with it. He wrote, 

Hi Doll,

     Every night I lie awake thinkin of you darlin. There isn’t a day that goes by where you don’t cross my mind. I remember the first time we met, and I now know that that was the first day I fell in love with you. I fell in love with the strong, independent woman you are. I fell in love with kindhearted woman you are. I fell in love with you. I love you y/n y/l/n and I hope you love me too. I am giving you one of my dog tags so you always have something of mine to wear. I promise you when I come back, i’m marrying you doll. I know I should be telling you this in person but I feel the need to tell you know. I hope you have a great day doll. I miss you a lot. 

Yours truly, 

James (Bucky) Barnes

You felt a tear trail down your cheek as you held the dog tag close to your heart. It felt as if he was still there with you, and you murmured “I love you, Bucky Barnes” The two of you wrote for months on end, until one day an officer knocks on your door telling you that him and his regiment were captured by the opposing side. They called it Hydra. But you didn’t care for the name, you cried for Bucky and his safety. You missed him. You had also found out that Steve was injected with the serum and became plenty rugged. Meanwhile, you were at school continuing your studies like you know Bucky would’ve wanted you to do.  

It's cool That's what I tell 'em, no rules In breakable Heaven but Ooh, whoa oh It's a cruel summer With you

You heard a knock on your door and went to open it. Standing in all his glory was the love of your life. You flung your arms around Bucky, smelling his cologne you grew to love. “Bucky, oh lord, I thought you died” you sobbed into his shoulder and pulled away to see his face. He smiled, caressing your face pulling you into a kiss. “Steve saved us, doll. I’m alright” “I love you Bucky, and whenever you choose to I will marry you” He smiled kissing you again as if it was the last time he could. The two of you spent the entire night surrounded by the others naked body, memorizing each and every curve and scar. When Bucky left again, you had a little more hope this time that he would come back to you. The letters never ended, until they did one day. 

You heard a knock on your door, letting the person know you were coming. You opened the door to see a shattered looking Steve holding Bucky’s uniform. “Bucky, uh, fell off a train during a mission. Y/n, I tried to catch him but I couldn’t” Steve was sobbing, and you put a hand on your mouth not believing this cruel joke the universe played on you. “Oh Steve” The both of you held on to each other, the last piece of Bucky both of you had. Both of you mourned for the loss of a best friend, the loss of the love of your life. 

A couple of weeks later, you went to the place Steve was at to surprise him. You saw Peggy and went over to her. “Hey Pegs, have you seen Steve” Her eyes started watering and she sighed before gaining her composure. “Captain Steve Rogers went down in the Arctic last week. I had assumed you had found out, but i’m sorry y/n. Steve’s gone” You were numb, you felt no pain. First the love of your life, and now your best friend. You went home that day and cried for the loss of America’s heroes. You mumbled to yourself, “It’s been a cruel summer with you, Bucky Barnes”.  

slang used: 

all the way: chocolate or fudge cake with ice cream

cute as a bug’s ear: very cute

doll and dame: a woman

nuts: crazy

[all-at-once-you-are-the-one]

Stream of Consciousness Lover Album Reaction

I wrote out my first thoughts while listening to the album and put them in one big post. I hope you find them as funny as I do lmao

1. I Forget That You Existed

LOL so that’s what the drake Easter egg was about!

Who is this about????

NIIIIiiiiiiiiiIIIiiiiCE

SHE SOUNDS SO GOOD

I JUST FORGOT WHAT THEY WERE LMAOOO

HER LAUGH!! SO CUTE!!

This track is somehow savage and adorable at the same time

So......yeah.......

ShnfhKJHGKSHDKGHSKGHSJG

2. Cruel Summer

This is giving me Katy perry vibes

The devils roll their dice line is from this?? Didn’t expect that

This is maybe the catchiest song I’ve ever heard

Why is this not a single??????

STILL DONT KNOW WHAT SUMMERS A KNIFE MEANS

EXPLAIN TAYLOR

This also kind of gives me Jonas brothers vibes, why???

Again.....what is this about???

OooOOoooOooWhoooooAAAAhh i loveeee this

OOOH no you know what this gives me GETAWAY CAR vibes

Wait...do we think that at the beginning joe wanted to keep their relationship private and Taylor agreed but then changed her mind? WAIT NO.....is this about her having to keep her love for joe secret at first the summer they met because she was with someone else/it was too soon??

3. Lover

Ok SUPER WEIRD transition into lover but OK

As much as I love albums with a clear narrative like rep I also like being all over the place so this is fine

CAN I GO WHERE YOU GOOOOOO

FOR EVER AND EVER ANDIIIII

YOURE MY MY MY MYYYYY LOVER

I wonder what inspired her to use the term lover? Does she not know that normal people don’t speak like that?

WAIT IS THE REASON LOVER COMES AFTER CRUEL SUMMER because of the 3 summers line?? Like look how we started...now were here

Does the album begin with i forgot you existed because its like ok this Kanye situation happened...but now were gonna forget about that and talk about the realer real story of the past couple years of my life rather than seeing it through the lens of that story like on rep

4. The Man

THE ACCURACY

THE ACCURAACCCCYYYYYYYYY

IT HUUURRTTSSS

Honestly though i actually thought this one would be more savage, i thi

DID SHE JUST SAY BITCHES AND MODELSSSS?????

SLJGSHUKGHKDG

Never mind this is as savage as i wanted

I should know better than to judge a Taylor song before the bridge

Again why isn’t this a single.....it better be

5. The Archer

The emotional whiplash this album is giving me is insane.

It’s like RED but with synths

Is the archer placed here because part of her lack of self confidence comes from the things the media says about her (because she’s a woman not a man?) INTERESTING THOUGHT

Don’t have much else to say about this, we already know

.....

Wow the cake i bought for tonight is somehow way too sweet

6. I Think He Knows

Definitely didn’t think i think he knows was about being horny af

But this is so catchy

Why is everything so catchy?? Literally every song should be a single

BOY I UNDERSTAND the confidence!! After the archer!! I love that he makes her feel that way1!!

I THINK HE KNOOOOOOOWWWWSS

This gives me teenage dream vibes and i fucking love that song

7. Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince

Ok time for the one with the weird title

I love how she keeps comparing her current feelings to how she felt as a teenager!! How its the same and different....very good.

SHES A BAD BAD GIRL

More dice!

Is she imagining what it would be like if she was in this relationship in high school? Because I DO THAT ALL THE TIIIIME GIRL SAME

THATS MY WHOLE WORLD SOOOO CUUUUTE

YOU PLAY STUPID GAMES YOU WIN STUPID PRIZES

VOTED

MOST

LIKELY

TO

RUN

AWAY

WITH

YOU

I really like this one. I didn’t expect I would.

This should be a single.

8. Paper Rings

THE VOICE EFFECT

She’s singing so fast on these songs!!!! I CANT KEEP UPP

UH HUH

THATS RIGHT

This is so retro and i loooooooooooooooooooooove it

DIRTY DREAMS??????? TAYLOR PLEASE

OMG THE COLOUR WE PAINTED YOUR BROTHERS WALL

THE PICTURE

THE PICTURE

FROM THE REP MAGAZINES

SDIHGUSHGUKHDZRKUGHKUDZHGUHDZGHDKZHGYIDZJLGJLDJGJSDJGDHZGHLGHLSHGHDG

II LIKE SHINY THINGS

THIS SONG IS SO FUN! ALL THESE SONGS ARE SO FUN!!

Ok baby boy that’s kinda weird but you know what..

....

....

Ok its still weird but maybe it will grow on me

This should be a single.

9. Cornelia Street

HERE IT IS!!! THE FIRST TAYLOR PRODUCED SONG

I NEVER WANT CORNELIA STREET AGAIN?? WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?? THEIR WORST FIGHT? ANOTHER RELATIONSIP? QUESTIONS

The storytelling!

Wait......is this about before they ran away together in CIWYW?? Like she thought he didn’t really want her so she was gonna run away alone...but then he was like no i really do lets go

I totally thought that this was the one with the staring out the window like I’m not your favorite town line was from

She ended it with the line she started with (i think)? Ike she used to!

Kinda feel like people hyped this one up too much but i do like it

10. Death by a Thousand Cuts

The piano!!!!

Like a thousand notes a thousand cuts

Look through the windows of this love - like the heart on her eye! I get it I GET IT lmaoooo

If this song was on red it would have the saddest production but on this album its a bop

11. London Boy

IS THAT JOE??? OMG lmao

HER ACCENT LMAOOOOOOOOO

I don’t know if this song is supposed to be as hilarious as i think it is but i really do think its hilarious

What does like a Tennessee Stella McCartney even mean????

I kinda feel like this song is too specific to her life to be relatable so maybe that’s why i feel that way about it?

12. Soon You’ll Get Better

Ok great... so we went from that to the sad one

I have to prepare

I didn’t tell you i was scared....

Cause you have to...

The fact that this is the country song...

I cant

GOD NOW IM CRYING THIS IS SO SAD

That was the only song so far i had to actually stop typing for. God....I’m so sad for her and her family.

13. False God

I can barely take this song in because of what just came before.

But i really like it. And i really like the theme of religion on this album

14. You Need to Calm Down

NOW YNTCD IS PLAYING

??? IM LITERALLY SOO SAD FROM SOON YOULL GET BETTER STILL

I CANT

PROCESS

THIS

This album is literally all over the place, i keep trying to assign a narrative to it and its not working out so I’m just gonna give up

Sometimes albums are just collections of songs and not a coherent, linear story and that is ok! Even if its not what i prefer

It certainly didn’t bother me on her first few albums.

The one thing i take away from this is like...no wonder she’s so determined to be so overly positive, i think for her its that or break down crying in the face of what’s happening in her family

15. Afterglow

I really love this song!!! Hashtag relatable

......

Man..you can really tell even just from my typing that my heart isn’t in this anymore after that song

Like

Fuck

I think I’m just sad for me too, because i know that i will go through that too sooner rather than later and I already have friends dealing with losing a parent.

16. ME!

My only thought on this is god bless brendon Urie for injecting so much additional joy and energy into this song and making Taylor happy, i just get the vibe that she really needed that

ALSO WHAT THERES REALLY NO HEY KIDS SPELLING IS FUN

TAYLOR EXPLAAIAIIIIIIIAIAIIAN

We’ll see if its on my physical cd copies when they arrive...if not then maybe it was always planned to be a line only in the single version

17. It’s Nice to Have a Friend

Ok I don’t really like this song that much but i really like the messages she’s trying to send like...real love feels like hanging out with a childhood bestie, so comfortable

18. Daylight

I WAS LIKE MEH

BUT THE FUCKING BRIDGE

THE BRIDGE

IM EMOTIONALLY DESTROYED

Also something about the chorus reminds me of the chorus of starlight

STEP INTO THE DAYLIGHT AND LET IT GO

YES

I WAS LIKE NO IS THAT NOT A LYRIC??

BUT IT ISTHANK GOD

THE END

YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE

THAT WAS LIKE

MY MANTRA FOR A COUPLE YEARS A WHILE BACK

BECAUSE

I LOVED SO MANY PEOPLE BUT THEY DIDNT LOVE ME

AND I WANTED TO BE DEFINITED BY THE FACT THAT I LOVED THEM NOT THAT HTEY DIDNT LOVE ME

IIIIIIIIIIII

I

IN CONCLUSION:

My feelings are everywhere. Some songs disappointed me but some blew me away - soon you’ll get better is basically the new Never Grow Up for me which is saying a lot. Everything is catchy a hell though even the songs I didn’t like as much. Ultimately i would have liked more songs about varying subject matter esp. self love but as it is, it is still somehow so all over the place. It really just shows how many emotions and phases can be contained within one relationship (i mean I’m assuming every song about a relationship is about joe). I really think that the song about her mom maybe should have been placed somewhere else...I don’t know where I would have put it but that shit is HEAVY. I am so honored that she and her family would share that with us though. I have a million question about how Andrea is doing and if my theory on why tour hasn’t been announced is correct...maybe she will explain more in the interviews/secret session audio we’re getting in the next couple days. I think my favorite song is Lover but that may change. I don’t think any song on here tops my current all time favorite Taylor song though which is CIWYW. That’s a little disappointing but not every song or album has to be my fave! And this album will probably grow on me esp as i hear Taylor’s explanations of it. Rep did. I really did nooott feel good about most of rep at first, it took a few days.

[ethanalter]

How to make a successful Stephen King movie? 'Gerald's Game' director Mike Flanagan tells all!

Bruce Greenwood and Carla Gugino in Gerald’s Game (Photo: Intrepid Pictures/Netflix)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the film version of Gerald’s Game.

When Mike Flanagan started production on his dream project — an adaptation of Stephen King‘s “unfilmable” 1992 novel, Gerald’s Game — last year, he had no idea that he’d be part of 2017’s great King-aissance. The calendar year has brought such major motion pictures as The Dark Tower and the reigning horror blockbuster It, as well as TV adaptations of Mr. Mercedes and The Mist. Even though it’s coming at the tail end of this fresh wave of King adaptations, Gerald’s Game, which premiered on Netflix last week, has arguably received the best reviews of the bunch. And this film’s critical success, along with It’s monster box office, means we’ll be seeing a lot more Stephen King real soon. “As a lifelong fan, I love it because I’m getting new King stuff every couple of weeks,” Flanagan raves. “I hope what it does is shake loose a lot more opportunities to get his other properties made that, even a year ago, people would be reluctant to take on.” We chatted with the rising horror star — whose credits include such well-reviewed frightfests as Hush and Ouija: Origin of Evil — about the secret to making a great Stephen King adaptation and some of the notable differences between King’s book and his film.

Yahoo Entertainment: One of the interesting things about this current Stephen King boom is that hasn’t just been a string of horror movies in a row. It has encompassed a sci-fi/fantasy film with The Dark Tower, a detective yarn with Mr. Mercedes, a ghost story with It and now a chamber room thriller with Gerald’s Game. It really speaks to his range as a novelist. Mike Flanagan: Oh, yeah. He’s capable of so many different things when it comes to characters, suspense and tone. His library is so diverse. It’s lovely to see people discover Mr. Mercedes, which I’m loving, and then going out to see It and having a completely different experience

Mr. Mercedes (Photo: AT&T Audience Network)

The odd film out in this case is The Dark Tower, which wasn’t very widely seen. Maybe more people will come to it on DVD or via the planned TV series. I have high hopes for the TV series. I’ve heard a rumor that the series is going to be based on Wizard and Glass, which is my favorite of the book series. So if that’s the case, I’m all in. But that’s an almost impossible property to adapt, and having just done Gerald’s Game, I feel confident saying that! I’m still amazed that people would try [adapting] The Dark Tower. It’s like trying to adapt a mountain; I don’t know how you’d approach it.

Having just come off your own challenging adaptation, what’s the secret to getting Stephen King right? The secret for me, even just as a fan, is to stay as close to the book as you can. Then, when you come up to elements that aren’t easy to translate cinematically, rather than try to reinvent the wheel or take off in some other direction, the best thing you can do is ask yourself, “What was the experience emotionally that I had when I read this? And if I can’t do literally what’s on the page, how can I still protect that emotional experience and be true to the experience of reading it?” That keeps the train on the tracks. The further away you get form the experience of reading the book, the more likely you are to see an adaptation go off the rails.

With that in mind, what was your experience of reading Gerald’s Game for the first time? I first read it in college when I was 19. I had started reading Stephen King in the fifth grade and declared him my favorite author, so I had been catching up on his stuff for years and finally got to Gerald’s Game. I remember putting the book down and exhaling for a solid minute. It was so visceral; I don’t that that I’ve ever been dive-bombed into the psyche of a character as completely as I was with that book. Outside of all the terrifying stuff, what I thought was incredible about it was what it had to say about survival and female empowerment, as well as the lasting effects that abuse and trauma have on women in particular. I put it down and thought that if someone could recreate the experience I just head reading this on film, what a movie that would be.

Gerald’s Game (Photo: Intrepid Pictures/Netflix)

But I also thought it was unfilmable! [Laughs] Still, it wouldn’t leave me alone and for the next 19 years it kept turning over in my head until I started to see a version I thought would work. I carried the script around in my bag to meetings, and if someone said, “Hey what’s your dream project?” I’d pull it out. So it’s a real dream come true for me to have made it. I don’t think it would have happened without Netflix taking an interest and Stephen getting behind it.

Let’s talk about some of the changes you did make to the book, starting with the casting of Bruce Greenwood. He’s a very different Gerald than the one described on the page, much more fit and movie star handsome. Reading the book, I pictured someone like John Carroll Lynch in the part. We talked about him! It’s interesting, the person who first suggested Bruce to me was Stephen King. I had put together a list of actors, whittled it down to a top five and Bruce was on it. Stephen had worked with Bruce on another project and said, “I would love to see Bruce Greenwood tackle this.” It is very different from the character in the book, but I figured if Stephen was talking him up, he wouldn’t be to upset.

What we liked about having this aggressively masculine Gerald is that it gave us a whole other tone to play with; I thought of him as the failed alpha male. Another important thing to me was that it needed to be someone we realistically believed Carla would marry. In the same way that Forrest Gump is built like a linebacker in the novel, I didn’t think that the physicality of Gerald was the element we needed to be the most faithful to. In the battle of the sexes seen in the movie, [Bruce’s version] made him a much more formidable opponent and a much more meaningful victory for her.

Bruce Greenwood in Gerald’s Game (Photo: Intrepid Pictures/Netflix)

On the other hand, casting Henry Thomas as Jessie’s abusive father almost seems like a cruel joke. As soon as he was cast, I remember saying, “Take that, decades’ worth of goodwill of audiences!” [Laughs] I’d worked with Henry on Ouija: Origin of Evil, and people are so quick to remember him from E.T. that they forget he’s an incredibly gifted actor and capable of so much more. We could have cast someone as her father who you could look at and see immediately that he’s slimy and disgusting. The fact that it was Henry actually made it feel so much worse, because you sympathize and trust him [because of E.T.] For that trust to be betrayed, I though, was incredibly powerful. It’s some of the hardest work he’s had to do. He has a daughter about the age of Chiara [Aurelia, who plays Jessie in flashbacks], and that was hard material for him. But I also thought it was very brave. I plan on working with him many, many times. He’s in The Haunting of Hill House series I’m making for Netflix.

Chiara Aurelia and Henry Thomas in Gerald’s Game (Photo: Intrepid Pictures/Netflix)

Stephen King is very precise with his song choices; in the novel, the eclipse sequence where Jessie’s father abuses her is set to a Marvin Gaye song. Here, it’s Sam Cooke’s “Bring It on Home to Me.” Was that change, in part, due to licensing issues? I had written the Sam Cooke song into the script; that was the song I wanted. It took us a long time to get the rights, because we did have to say, “This is what we’re doing,” and it was a bit of a battle. What was amazing to me was when the film was finished, Stephen asked me, “Was it Sam Cooke in the book? Because that’s one of my all-time favorite songs!” And I was like, “Um… yeah, sure.” [Laughs] I’m so grateful that we got that song, because I think it fits the movie so heartbreakingly well. We can ruin Sam Cooke and Henry Thomas!

Last, but not least, the ending: the final section of the book is a challenge to adapt because you’re basically introducing an entirely new character in the form of serial killer Raymond Andrew Joubert. Did you consider completely rewriting the conclusion? As it is now, it has a very different tone than the novel. I knew the coda was polarizing, even among King devotees, but I always loved the ending of the book and wanted to execute the book as I read it. What we did do was view Joubert as a collection of all the diseased maleness that Jessie has been victimized by in her life. If we could take every injury and wrap it up in this tumorous figure, she deserves the chance to confront it. In the book, she spits in Joubert’s face in the courtroom. To us, that didn’t feel sufficient. What we settled on was her line of dialogue, “You’re so much smaller than I remember,” which deflates and defeats him.

That’s the last spoken line of the movie, and it echoes the first line that young Jessie says when she sees her summer house. She goes, “It’s so much smaller than I remember,” and her dad says, “Because you’re bigger.” We loved the symmetry of that. Jessie has earned moving on with her life, and we wanted one last moment to crystalize that. I take it as a compliment that the ending is as polarizing in the film as it is in the book! That tells me that we adapted the book very well.

Gerald’s Game is currently streaming on Netflix.

Watch: Here’s what’s going to be in the It director’s cut:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

Stephen King speaks: Horror master dishes on killer clowns, Stranger Things, and his secrets for scaring us silly

Back to Derry: An oral history of Stephen King’s It

Stephen King at the movies: We rank 42 films based on his works

Stand by Me turns 30: The screenwriters on that R rating and showing the movie to Stephen King