#i need a different song analysis tag lol

[chezgender]

Cha cha cha / It's crazy it's party comparison

@tmrwds post and @izpira-se-zlato addition gave me brainworms. @kylla-kylla also saw the connection between ICIP and CCC and I saw their post after I started writing this. So I'm definitely not alone in being insane. Thus here is my own rant about It's Crazy it's Party.

Notes:

ICIP lyrics transcript taken from @koppitules on twt, translation taken from a Käärijä discord

CCC lyrics and translation from lyricstranslate.com

Disclaimer: This analysis is purposefully exaggerated/dramatic in order to highlight contrast. I do think Jere loves his job and career, ICIP is definitely a fun song in which you can find (or not) a deeper meaning, it's up to your interpretation. I just love angst lol please don't come at me I'm sensitive 🤡😭

(ps. sorry to all the people I tagged. You don't have to interact with this, I just wanted to give proper credit)

Let's start. Bear with me being cringe.

First verse

At the beginning of CCC, we see how partying is reserved for the weekend - it's something cathartic after a long week of responsibility and worries, it's an outlet for stress and negativity. The world can't scare him no more, as he mentions later in the song, now that he's having fun.

In ICIP, people have pointed out how the first verse reminds them of CCC, musically wise. This is definitely on purpose, the main difference lies in the lyrics. Here Jere reveals that partying now it's an everyday thing. It's an endless circus of traveling despite everything, he's the cog in a machine bigger than him. The world that seemed so tiny compared to the fun, is now scary - the party is now and tomorrow and 365 days a year, in Finland and even abroad. As if there was no safe place. He can't escape it and it's overwhelming to the point "you'll feel it in your hair and your ass" (honestly, weird phrasing, but it gets the point across I guess?). Either way, this party is almost ineluctable.

Chorus

In the CCC chorus he says he wants to forget about the pains of daily life by getting wasted and drinking with both hands on as many drinks as he can hold, until he won't even be able to get up. Honestly, although this doesn't seem like a healthy coping mechanism (but I'm none to judge), it does look willing and deliberate - he makes the choice of getting drunk on the weekend. He's in control of when the party happens.

In ICIP instead the chorus is shorter, and quite tautological: crazy is crazy, party is party, and life is life, you know? (see @tmrwds for a cultural insight on the "elämä on laiffi" phrase). There's a different feeling in this chorus, the singing is soft and maybe even a bit sexy but the lyrics hold a touch of resignation in between. This party is not a deliberate choice anymore, Jere doesn't get to choose when his life is crazy/party and when he gets to rest.

CCC 2nd verse / ICIP Tommy's verse

Without need for lyrics, also because most people have a hard time understanding what Tommy was singing live, I'll talk about this in brief. I chose to include it because Jere himself sang some parts of it during the live - mostly echoing, but still.

In CCC, Jere parties almost alone. Well, it's implied that there's more people to that party but the song is about him, his own liberation from stress and whatever thing was keeping him bound and off the dancefloor. There are no explicit references to other people.

In ICIP instead, Tommy sings about a club in which they enter and people go crazy. They talk about sex in a rather crass way, probably for kicks, but as mentioned in @tmrwds post, it could definitely hint at the wrong kind of attention Jere is receiving. People in his DMs and probably even in person are making more or less explicit advances on him, surely unsolicited, but it's part of the party.

And Tommy invites Jere to party with him (that modulated voice parodically reminds me of the beginning of Barbie Girl by Aqua). Jere says yes, of course he wants to party with him, right here right now (no matter the day, or his condition, does he really have a say in it?)

Another thing I'd like to point out:

Jere in CCC mentions "it's hard to talk when this different side of me does its part" / Tommy in ICIP mentions how the alcohol makes it hard to think (obviously, but I'm clinically insane and I see intertextuality everywhere) - so, basically, the "side of him" Jere talks about in CCC renders him carefree, maybe happy, definitely free of burdens. In ICIP, this "part of him" seems to have taken complete control to the point Jere can't tell himself from it.

Last part of ICIP

"Let's go party" leads to a countdown - inexorable and short, leaving everyone little time to get ready. The song explodes like a bomb, reminds me of a breakdown in a Korn song. The bass hammers hard and everyone is jumping, hearts bursting, everything is out of control. To quote @izpira-se-zlato , there's an apocalyptic feeling to it. Jere can't do anything but let himself be engrossed without a chance to escape. Which he can't, lest he gives everything up.

Where CCC was party metal with a touch of eurodance, ICIP definitely belongs to an insane rave. It reminds me of Dutch hardstyle, dubstep and a touch of eurodance until the end, which screams industrial/nu metal to me, only adding to the concept of hammering and exhausting work/lifestyle.

We could say that It's Crazy it's Party is the Välikuolema to Cha Cha Cha's Viuliunkieli, in a way.

Jere is a storyteller in most of his songs, and it's clear he likes such narratives to carry on between different tracks (i.e: I think the Viulunkieli/Välikuolema narrative carries on to Morgan), so it's only fair to assume the two songs combined tell a whole story.

Further speculation: Jere has often said he's really tired in this precise moment - the relentless touring throughout summer is obviously taking a toll on him, no matter how much he can love what he does. It would be exhausting for anyone. Plus, the "ghost" of ESC follows him everywhere: sometimes I get the feeling many people perceive him as the CCC-guy rather than the complete artist he is, so maybe he's trying to change this.

As many people already said, the story Mikke posted with the grave being dug could hint at the burial of green-bolero-Käärijä. I don't believe Jere is denying the fame and good things it has brought, but he's probably willing to turn the page and carry on with something new (and probably take a long, well deserved break). Or maybe the MV will just be homoerotic softp-rn featuring a grave, WHO KNOWS. I just know I can't wait to see what's next. I love ESC-Käärija (without CCC I wouldn't even be aware of his existence, so I'm forever grateful) and that love will forever be a part of me, but I also welcome this change with open arms in hopes to see him grow more and more.

Conclusion: the speculation is very real and material and I am very very cringe <33

[athemarina]

writeblr comeback!! (for real this time!!)

hello (again), marina here! i am back from another long break, and this time i am determined to rejoin the writeblr community properly, because i really truly missed it here!

it's been a couple months since i've been here, and there have been a couple of changes in my life and to the way i want to run this blog, so i thought i'd give an update to anyone who might still remember me and maybe get to know some new writers! <3

who am i?

i am marina/mina, 27, from austria. i've been on writeblr for quite some time now, but had to take a break due to work and uni being really demanding, and also my personal life kinda falling apart lol. but i've realised once more that writing is one of the things that give my life meaning and stability, and i want and need to reconnect with it.

i work full-time and am still finishing up my degree, so i'm quite a busy bee. nevertheless, with uni summer break just around the corner, i want to spend more time writing and finding inspiration here!

some random interests of mine: philosophy, linguistics, the beauty of greece, musicals, folk songs and folklore, horses, and formula 1. what a list.

what do i write?

i have put all of my previous wip on hold because i had no time to work on them at all the last few months. right now i am in the worldbuilding phase of a new fantasy story (it takes some elements from children of the king but will go in quite a different direction! there's robots in it now!!) i want to take working on this new wip really really slow though. i've spent the last couple months feeling horribly burnt out and don't want to push myself around so much anymore. so while a proper intro post will have to wait for a bit, i'll still share some of the stuff that's floating around in my head and can't wait to get to know other people's wips again!!

i want to try my hand at writing poetry and flash fiction! it's not something i've dabbled with a lot in the past, but i really want to expand my horizons!

i have read quite a lot this year and would like to share some reviews / media analysis as well!

things i love to write and read....

all kinds of fantasy, anything that includes vampires, grief and healing and not-healing from it, characters who make all the wrong choices, questions of identity, queerness, and love.

if any of that vibes with you, let's be friends pls!!

i'd love to be part of the community again, and i love talking about reading / writing / just about anything so pls never hesitate to send me a message if you wanna chat <3 i also love to do tag and ask games, but it might take me a while to get to it!

thank you for reading, and thank you all for being such a lovely community here! i'm back babyyyy

[no1ryomafan]

I will say this’ll take awhile cause I’m in school-I got homework already OOF-and I need to figure out how to breakdown my thoughts in word post but since god knows when I’ll make YouTube videos I think writing posts about music would be easier- and far less worry of copyright lol.

[sunshinedobi]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme

tagged by @hyeoni-comb (i'm so glad you enjoyed "worth the wait"! <3)

note: i consider “fanworks” to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

hi hi! i'm sunny, an alleycat that occasionally leaves gifts on your front porch in the form of bbs fics ;~;

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

april 2022-ish! in terms of being more active in fandom, maybe summer of 2022?

favorite ship(s)

MY PATPRANNNNNN

favorite character(s)

Pat! :]

favorite episode(s)

you do not ask a mother who her favorite child is :(

favorite scene(s)

D: i--i don't know! all of them! (episode 5 kiss? staircase proposal? PAT SINGING SAME PAGE? I DON'T KNOW)

one thing you would change about the show if you could

i love the original series with all its imperfections, but LOL if you ask about our skyy 2 that's another can of worms...

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people?

Rika's wlw!patpran fanart (I don't think she's on tumblr or twitter anymore?)

Ivy's (triplelovescore) "love too big for a love song"

Kayla's (@dimplesandfierceeyes) the LEGENDARY "Fine Line" universe

Miscellar's (@miscellar) "Pinocchio" that made me cry on a plane

Z's (@thechroniclesofz) healing "your love is your life"

Bea's (@pransobrave) heart melting "Beloved"

and many more!

(also not to be gooey on main, but the fact that i've met so many wonderful friends through bbs is something that makes me feel some kind of wonderful! :>)

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

"heart in a cage" - my eldest daughter, my beloved sapphic!patpran fic ;~;

"sleepless in bangkok" - honestly written self-indulgently for myself, but glad to see that people enjoy it! although y'all really, really need to get some sleep and stop relating to patpran. they are NOT in a good headspace rn.

a song that makes you think of bbs (the ones in the show don’t count lol)

"Same Page" (womp womp, sunny is not creative)

"Ni Yao De Ai" by Penny Tai (my own fault for projecting this song onto sib!patpran lol)

"double take" by dhruv

idk anything else you want us to know?

I REALLY MISS PATPRAN

[hereforlou]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme!

I was tagged by @dudeyuri to answer these BB related questions by @fiercynn Thank youuu <3 these are always fun but I often forget to do them u_u

note: i consider "fanworks" to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

I’m Maggie (Magui), from Argentina, in my 30s, just enjoying the creative burst this show (which I love very, very much) gave me until it petters out. I’ve been in a loOOooOOoot of fandoms under different usernames over the years and I tend to delete stuff from the internet without much warning, so save what you like (but don’t repost, please!)

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

I watched it from episode 1 as it aired and could feel the brain rot spreading week after week but didn’t write fic until the day after the last episode came out, and I don’t think I posted any drawings until one or two months later? But I have the first couple of doodles I made on an old sketchbook after the first ep! (note I needed to write their names to remember what they were)

favorite ship(s)

PatPran and InkPa

favorite character(s)

I really can’t choose so I’ll say Nong Nao.

favorite episode(s)

I have a soft spot for ep 11 - running away together to a safe place, both trying to understand each other, the silly guy scene, Our Song, the imaginary montage at the end, the memory of watching it for the first time and being sucker punched by the ep 12 preview??? perfect all around x_x

favorite scene(s)

Off the top of my head (and in chronological order): the trashcan scene in ep 1, the bus stop role-play, rooftop kiss, the last scene/montage in ep 7, the simultaneous parent confrontation and rooftop meeting in ep 10, the silly guy convo at the beach, the last scene with the tin cans on ep 12 ;_;

one thing you would change about the show if you could

I think everyone answered the same thing but the whole Wai conflict and how they resolved it (including maybe Pat getting shot, though at this point would it really be BBS without Pat getting shot?)

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people? 

I'll stick to people instead of particular fanworks, and only those I know for sure are on Tumblr so I can tag them, I'm really sorry if I forget someone!!

@architectxengineer @kit-teung @kornswasianguyswag @miscellar @dimplesandfierceeyes @yourunwiththewolves @icouldhyperfixatehim @fiercynn @charthanry @isaksbestpillow @pransobrave @faillen @jemmo @snickerdoodlles @alexshenry @nanons @mantrisanu

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

Have I shown you the fridge magnets I made over a year ago? They’re pretty wonky but I think they're cute, considering I don’t know what I’m doing

a song that makes you think of bbs (the ones in the show don’t count lol)

I'll tag the same people I mentioned above, if you haven't done it and want to:

@architectxengineer @kit-teung @kornswasianguyswag @miscellar @dimplesandfierceeyes @yourunwiththewolves @icouldhyperfixatehim @fiercynn @charthanry @isaksbestpillow @pransobrave @faillen @jemmo @snickerdoodlles @alexshenry @nanons @mantrisanu

[dancing-out-in-space]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme!

Tagged by @fiercynn, it's a lovely idea. Thank you!

note: i consider "fanworks" to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself Hello you can find me most places online as sweet_exile (except tumblr). I am terrible at intros so please ask if you want to know anything.

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom? I watched BB in April last year after a friend recommended some Thai BLs and this was the one I fell in love with. I kind of accidentally fell into the fandom after writing a couple of fics.

favorite ship(s) sorry to be obvious but patpran. I love inkpa too, as soon as I saw the 'oh no, I've lost my contact lens' scene I instantly thought, that's such a meet cute moment.

favorite character(s) Pat is my beloved. So dramatic, one thing goes wrong and he's ready to throw himself off the balcony. I absolutely do not identify with that.

favorite episode(s) Aaaaah! A tough choice beyond the obvious episode 5 answer. Episode 2 is great, the pre-credits scene is a work of comedy genius and I love episode 3 as well.

favorite scene(s) the epic rooftop kissᵗᵐ (of course!), episode 6 - playing in the sea and the 'you must hate me' conversation afterwards, the library scene in episode 3 - my favourite cheeky kind of Pat and also returning Pran's guitar.

one thing you would change about the show if you could I'm glad they didn't overdo Pat's jealousy of Wai but I do think patpran needed to have a conversation about why Pran left his guitar with Wai.

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people? Oh so many, you're welcome to check out my bookmarks but a couple of my favourites are:

traffic was slow for the crash years by @fiercynn

What's in Your Head? (Zombie Eh Eh) by aworkingprinter (miscellar on tumblr)

A Soft Boy in Soft Sweaters by @dimplesandfierceeyes

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

I've only written a couple of BB fics but the one I'm most proud of is Love is Careless in its Choosing It's the longest fic I've ever written and started off as a stupid thought - why is it always Pran who is ill with Hanahaki Disease what if it was Pat and it kind of grew from there.

a song that makes you think of bbs (the ones in the show don’t count lol) I have a habit of using David Bowie lyrics as fic titles, so a lot of Bowie songs remind me of patpran, which is my own fault I know.

Days from the Reality album is very them - "Do I need a friend? Well I need one now" "All the days of my life, all the days I owe you." "With redeyed pain I'm knocking on your door again, My crazy brain in tangles pleading for you gentle voice"

I could pick loads of them though. I'm fine honestly.

idk anything else you want us to know? I don't think so.....

I think @fiercynn has already tagged everyone I know in BB fandom so if you stumble across this and want to join in please consider yourself tagged!

[mautacore]

Last Song: Epilogue (Nothing ‘Bout Me) by Sting. I barely know this band. I got this song from a montage on YouTube and it’s been a comfort song for the past two or so years. It’s just really calm and rhythmic. The type of song you’d expect to see as the outro for a show in the 60s.

Favorite Color: Purple. It’s just a really good one, and I wish I wore purple on a more regular basis. Then again that would require I do laundry more often.

Last Movie: Jerma Baseball Stream.

Last Show: I haven’t watched TV in a long fime. Sometimes I get shown a family guy clip against my will.

Currently Watching: Yet another Skyrim analysis from someone who desperately needs a script editor. They ramble and ramble and ramble and I love them for it. This one is only 5 and a half hours, though.

Currently Reading: Oh fuck dude where do I start. I’m reading at LEAST six webnovels, a certain webcomic who I shan’t speak of and a few fanfic here and there. Here are some thoughts:

Chrysalis - Absolute staple of LitRPG writing, and devastatingly underrated for its quality and dedication on the part of the author. I consumed 1100 chapters in about a week.

That One Webcomic: I’m confused out of my mind, but a friend has been reassuring me that that’s okay. The characters are funny and I can see why people get so attached to them. The world has a lot of thought put into it, though it can be hard to tell what to pay attention to sometimes. I’m learning to accept that. Overall, I kinda like it so far.

Infrasound Berserker: Another excellent work from the author of Azarinth Healer, with a system in its infancy that seems superficially similar to Azarinth’s albeit with quite notable differences.

Bog Standard Isekai: It’s good. That’s all. It’s very slow-paced, but the characters are consistently engaging and I like the main character.

Does my own writing count? It’s… there. No one will be allowed to read this for the sake of their eyes.

Salty, Sweet or Savory: Savory and salty in equal measure. I eat a lot of chicken, seafood and ramen. Universally these are laden in copious amounts of spicy material.

Craving: Hash browns. The satisfying crunch, the delicious potato-y goodness, an absolute perfect texture. Also roobeer.

Coffee or Tea: Coffee, though I don’t drink it very often. Only when the sleepy tired overwhelms me and I don’t think I can even keep my eyes open. The taste is rancid no matter what you do, but I’ve gotten used to it and I think that says things about me. Bad things.

I can’t think of anyone to tag. I actively interact with like 3 people on this platform lol.

you know what, I never do these things, but actually I’ve decided I would like to get to know people better! I would like to partake of the mortifying ordeal! I would like to talk about myself for a bit!

ok for the next…let’s say five days I will answer any of these things that people tag me in, or any random personal questions you plop in my ask box. I don’t have an ask meme on hand but just….pick one you’ve seen recently, or make up questions of your own, and I’ll answer. (the answer might be ‘nope that’s private’ but I will answer.) (@ the anon who asked for book recs - I see you, I’ve been thinking of books all day, I’m going to give you SUCH a long answer, I hope you don’t regret your choices bc it WILL be full of gushing)

alright, let’s go!

🌻 Tag 9 people you want to get to know better

Tagged by @booksandchainmail​

Last Song: I’m currently listening to “Falcon in the Dive” from the Scarlet Pimpernel musical on loop. I watched one or two Scarlet Pimpernel movies when I was just barely too young to fully get what was going on, and the story’s held an odd but deep-seated place in my heart ever since. A few years ago I found out there’s a musical and most of the songs are pretty stellar (go listen to “Madame Guillotine” if you like big ensemble broadway numbers, it’s a banger, the bit where he cries out for God has been running through my mind on and off for a few days now haha not like that’s topical or anything), so every once in a while I spend a few days listening to them a lot.

Sometime last year I read the actual book, and got super into the whole concept of the Scarlet Pimpernel for a while. I plotted out Pimpernel aus for several fandoms, I read the entire wikipedia article, and I went looking for bootlegs of the musical. I didn’t find one, but I did find a full radioplay-style recording of the script, complete with full musical numbers, and listened to it like a podcast.

Reader, I was so disappointed. The play adds some scenes, bc a lot of the dramatic tension of the novel comes from internal conflict and that doesn’t stage super well, and the very first scene of this play – a play written in the NINETIES – features our dashing hero rescuing some aristocrats from a French prison, and then saying to the person in the next cell, who begs for rescue but is not an aristocrat, “We have enough of your kind in England.”

Enough! of your KIND! What in the merry frickety HECK my dudes!! The book has some rather unfortunate™ takes but it is from 1905, it’s regrettable but sadly to be expected. This play is from 1997. It has NO excuse. This scene wasn’t even in the book! What! the heck!

I was so disheartened that I lost my excitement for the play, and a couple songs later I stopped listening. It occurred to me just a few days ago that you could actually stage that ironically, with the person in the cell giving the audience a “can you believe this” look, and then the rest of the play could feature assorted non-aristocratic ensemble members constantly looking at the audience like they’re on The Office. And hey, maybe that’s what they did, or something similar – maybe that was never meant to be taken as a cleanly heroic stance, and the play deals with it in a complex way. It’s possible. I wouldn’t know. Kinda doubt it though, based on song lyrics.

Favorite Color: red, probably

Last Movie: I watched that new lesbian christmas movie with my family for christmas, the one with kirsten stewart and the guy from schitt’s creek. it’s very sweet and good and kinda sad, and I really enjoyed it. it also incidentally has the best gay best friend trope in probably anything ever, bc it’s not a trope (I didn’t realize until several hours after watching that it technically fits), it’s just a guy who is the protagonist’s best friend, and they’re just all gay, and then when he Gives Relationship Advice as a gay best friend always does, it’s advice about how to deal with your partner’s hangups around coming out.

actually every part of the gay best friend trope becomes better when they’re just best friends who are both gay. the big dramatic gestures (in this case, driving some ungodly distance in the snow on no notice) go from “haha how kooky” to “queer man will do anything he needs to to rescue his queer friend from an isolating & potentially triggering situation”. the relationship advice isn’t “honey you deserve some self-respect, treat yourself”, it’s a deeply sincere reminder of the vulnerability that is shared across almost everyone’s queer experience, and look I could ramble about this for a long time before reaching a coherent point but I’m INTO IT, okay? I’m into it.

Last Show: you want me to remember what show I last finished???? impossible, cannot be done, it was a long time ago and the adhd has eaten everything that happened before last week. here, instead I’ll tell you about another movie I watched, late at night with my mom in cozy companionship just a couple days ago. it’s called Quigley Down Under and it’s about a cowboy who goes to Australia and kills a bunch of racists, 10/10 would watch again. it’s from 1990 but it feels much older, with the music choices and the cinematography of a 70s Western. the cowboy is great, honorable and fearless and kind, but the breakaway star of this movie for me is the woman who attaches herself to his side and refuses to leave. her name is Cora, and she’s crazy, in the sense that she’s not altogether tethered to reality, but this never for a second diminishes her agency. she’s fierce and clever and compassionate, and she basically never does anything she doesn’t want to in the whole movie. her arc is about overcoming trauma by taking charge of her own fear and facing it head-on, she is never belittled or dismissed by the narrative or the protagonist, and look she’s just so cool. I love her. she’s so vibrantly alive. her story could probably have been handled with a bit more nuance, but honestly for the 90s it’s pretty great. I’m no expert, but I found nothing objectionable in it, just a bit of heavy-handedness.

anyway the theme of the movie is that racism is evil and racists deserve to be shot, and this too could have been handled better (not a single aboriginal character speaks a single line of english in this movie), but it follows through on that message in every way, while still being a fun kinda campy cowboy movie. overall a very good time.

Currently Watching: started showing my sister Hilda the other day, and she’s liking it! I love that show, it’s so incredibly cute. can’t wait to see season 2

Currently Reading: lmao I wish. lately the brain has firmly rejected all attempts to read anything of any length. currently pending, bc I was halfway through them when my brain stalled out, are tano’s fic What Does Kill You Can Make You Stronger, Too, a Toby Daye book - I think it was The Brightest Fell, I got like half a chapter in and haven’t picked it up in over a month, the Locked Tomb series, and probably a few other things too. ooh! also a book called Making Sex by thomas laqueur, which is my fancy academic reading that I’ve been doing in short bursts for the past year or two when I feel fancy and academic. it’s about the development of the concept of biological sex and of gender in Western society, and it’s fascinating. has among other things introduced me to the idea that until quite recently, fathers were a matter of faith. the mother? yeah, you can watch the baby pop out, we all know who the mother is. but the father? how can you know? how can you really know? we have paternity tests these days, but for all of human history up until now, we’ve just had to take fatherhood on faith. (not to mention we didn’t even know what fathers were contributing to the production of a fetus. clearly it was something, since you can’t get pregnant without a penis getting involved, but we have literally not known what until the past few decades. and that is wild. it has colored ALL of human history, all of our conceptions of society and family and kinship and gender, all of it, and it hadn’t even occurred to me until it was spelled out for me in this book, and it’s just……wow.

Salty, sweet or savory: for christmas my sister and I made seven different types of cookie, most of them involving chocolate somehow.

Craving: no bc I ate so many cookies. unless sleep counts. or maybe pringles, it’s been many moons since last I had a potato chip and I miss them.

Coffee or Tea: no thank you

Tagging: @coloursisee, @krchy-tuna, @sam-j-squirrel, @xzienne, @mirandatam, @viciousmaukeries, @sepulchritude, @elidyce, and @navigatorsnorth bc it’s been a while since we’ve talked, and I’m super hyped that you’re married now. v happy for you!

[cozy-the-overlord]

Ooo yay!!! Can you do champagne problems? 😄💖

This took so much longer than I thought it would lol. I actually had already annotated this song a while back, but typing this up I ended up getting really into it and going down a bunch of different rabbit holes. It was really fun-- thank you so much for asking me to do it!

“champagne problems” is the second track on Taylor Swift’s ninth studio album evermore and was written by Taylor along with her boyfriend Joe Alwyn (under the pseudonym William Bowery). Taylor described this song as “the one where longtime college sweethearts have very different plans for the same night, one to end it and one who brought a ring” (x). As you can tell from that description, this is a very sad, depressing song, but it also relates to one of the main thematic elements of evermore that I discussed in my analysis of “coney island”: closure or the lack thereof at the end of a relationship. It also deals with mental health struggles and questions about what counts as a “real” problem.

Sidenote—I’ve actually considered doing one big mega post about how all of the songs on evermore come back to this idea of closure in some way or another, but it would take a really long time and I’m not sure if it would be worth the effort if no one’s going to read it. But if you’re interested, please let me know because I’d totally be down for it! :)

As with any analysis I do, this is simply my interpretation-- if you interpreted something differently, feel free to share!

Let’s get into the lyrics:

You booked the night train for a reason

So you could sit there in this hurt

Bustling crowds or silent sleepers

You’re not sure which is worse

We open with the narrator describing a person who is catching the night train because they are very sad and they need a moment to think. They’re not sure if they feel better in bustling crowds, so loud and chaotic that it’s difficult to think clearly, or alongside silent sleepers, where they’re alone with nothing but their thoughts to distract them. Clearly, they’re confused as well as hurt—they don’t really know where to go or what they should be doing (there’s no specification on where the train’s going— the destination is not something on their mind at the moment). They’re just trying to understand what it is that went wrong for them.

As we’re about to find out, the person on the train is the college sweetheart who brought a ring, and the narrator is the one who did not accept it. I want to emphasize this now because despite being from the narrator’s perspective, she focuses much more on the pain of her rebuffed sweetheart. The song starts with their emotionally tumultuous train ride and continues to focus on their life throughout. Even though she’s telling the story, we never find out what the narrator did after rejecting their proposal or really anything that happens to her after that moment. Keep this in mind—I’ll be coming back to it.

Because I

Dropped your hand while dancing

Left you out there standing

Crestfallen on the landing

Champagne problems

Here, the chorus gives us the explanation as to what led to this train ride. Immediately, there’s a sense of abandonment: being dropped, being left behind. The person is crestfallen, or disappointed or dejected, as they stand alone where the narrator left them—a perfect image of loneliness. The way the narrator describes the events of the night is also very focused on her own actions—all of this happened because of something she did. She dropped their hand while dancing, she left them out there standing. She doesn’t try to explain or frame her actions in a way to make her seem justified in doing this. She’s not telling this story to defend herself. All she’s told us is that this is something that she did, and as a result this person was hurt by it.

The chorus also gives us the title, the rather bitter shrug at the end of each stanza. “Champagne problems” is a way to describe an issue that is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Similar to “first world problems,” they’re the kind of things people would complain about to their friends while sipping champagne—if you can afford to complain to your friends while sipping champagne (an expensive drink usually associated with celebration), then your problems can’t be that bad. However, the phrase here is used a bit ironically. The narrator has just spent the first two stanzas describing an event that to these characters is clearly not insignificant. It goes to show that “insignificant” is subjective—to the rest of the world, one couple breaking up doesn’t really affect anything. But to that couple, their entire world has been changed. The subjectivity of what is or isn’t a champagne problem is something that Taylor returns to throughout the song.

Your mom’s ring in your pocket

My picture in your wallet

Your heart was glass, I dropped it

Champagne problems

The second stanza of the chorus continues to dive into the heartbreak of this break-up, with tragic details such as how the narrator’s sweetheart was carrying her picture with them alongside their mother’s ring. These two lines tell us a lot about this relationship. The way “your mom’s ring” and “my picture” mirror each other in structure connect the two, showing how important the narrator was to this person—they thought of her as family. This is further proven by the fact that the ring they had planned to give to the narrator belonged to their mother—clearly, there’s a sentimental value there that they wanted to share with her, which makes the rejection all the more gut-wrenching. The mom’s ring also serves as a way to tell us that this person has a close relationship with their family, something that will continue to pop up throughout the song. On the other hand, you’ll notice that there is never any mention of the narrator’s family at all.

“Your heart was glass, I dropped it” is not only a particularly poetic reworking of the cliché of breaking someone’s heart, but also serves to further depict the narrator as the guilty party, the cause of all this pain. This is the second time she describes herself as dropping something important to her now-ex—first their hand, then their heart. This is an even more visceral description than the first, as it gives the image of glass shattering across the floor, broken beyond repair and a mess to clean up. Again, she makes no attempt to give an excuse for her behavior.

You told your family for a reason

You couldn’t keep it in

Your sister splashed out on the bottle

Now no one’s celebrating

On the surface, the scene she describes here simply continues to add to the heartbreak of this night. This person had been so excited to propose that they told their family all about it, and their family had been so certain that the narrator was going to accept that their sister bought an expensive bottle of (what do you know!) champagne to celebrate—to “splash out” is British slang meaning to spend a lot of money. However, this detail continues to show how close this person is to their family—they confide in them, they celebrate with them, and when things don’t work out, they turn to them. They clearly have a firm support system that they can turn to within their family. Again, you’ll notice that the narrator never mentions anything about her family, or any kind of support system she has to turn to.

Dom Perigon, you brought it

No crowd of friends applauded

Your hometown skeptics called it

Champagne problems

More depressing details follow in the second chorus. They brought the Dom Perigon to the date in which they planned to propose, assumedly the same champagne their sister splashed out on for them. Along with their mom’s ring in their pocket, this goes to show that they clearly had their family’s blessing and support in regard to this marriage. Everyone seemed really excited to help them make this proposal perfect, which just makes the unexpected rejection all the more painful.

It also makes the third line in this stanza really interesting: “your hometown skeptics called it.” Firstly, you’ll notice that the narrator separates herself from this hometown—it’s “your hometown,” not “our hometown.” It makes sense that these two wouldn’t be from the same place, as according to Taylor’s explanation they met in college, but it’s still worth noting that the rebuffed ex has both a family and a hometown (emphasis on “home”) that are mentioned several times throughout the song but the narrator, the person who’s actually telling the story, doesn’t ever mention her own.

Then there’s the fact that this person’s hometown had people who were skeptical about their relationship. That seems to indicate a couple things—for one, it gives the impression that this town is pretty small and close-knit, a kind of “everyone knows everyone else” situation. That in turn gives the impression that the narrator, as an outsider, may have had some trouble fitting in. A picture is beginning to take shape, despite the scant information we’ve been given. We have the rebuffed, heartbroken ex, coming from a supportive family and a close-knit community, and the narrator, who as far as we know has no family or hometown to look to for support. You begin to wonder if she’s the reason people were speculating that the relationship would not last. After all, she blames herself for the breakup, and she says they “called it.”

You had a speech, you’re speechless

Love slipped beyond your reaches

And I couldn’t give a reason

Champagne problems

With the second stanza of this chorus, the narrator does something a bit differently than she has been thus far. For the first time, this rejection isn’t painted as simply something she did, the way it was in the first chorus (“I dropped your hand while dancing” “I left you out there standing” “Your heart was glass, I dropped it”). Instead, it’s something that neither of them seemed to be able to understand or control. Her ex, who had been so prepared for this moment, is rendered speechless, but not because of something she did—the line “love slipped beyond your reaches,” doesn’t really assign guilt. It just slipped away, which is why they are so confused. The narrator also reveals why she hasn’t tried to defend herself or explain why she made this decision—she doesn’t have a reason, neither for her sweetheart nor for herself. This is where it becomes clear that her sweetheart is not the only one suffering because of this night: the narrator is struggling with something that she doesn’t know how to explain. Perhaps this internal struggle has something to do with her apparent loneliness, and the reason why hometown skeptics thought this relationship was doomed to fail.

We now move on to the bridge. Taylor has often spoken on her love of writing bridges, and specifically talked about “champagne problems” in her interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, saying “that was one of my favorite bridges to write. I really love a bridge where you tell the full story in the bridge, like you really shift gears in that bridge” (x). The bridge here sees the narrator’s tone becoming increasingly more frenzied, with the words rushing from her uncontrollably as she looks back on this relationship leading up to the moment in which it ended, building and building until it finally reaches a climax. There’s a lot going on here, so I’m going to go through it slowly.

Your Midas touch on the Chevy door

November flush and your flannel cure

One of the things that has always made Taylor’s songwriting so powerfully relatable is how she uses small, innocuous, and yet deeply specific details to describe a relationship. Here, she uses them to describe how important this person was to the narrator. “Midas touch” references the Greek myth of King Midas, a man who turned everything he touched to gold. The narrator sees her sweetheart’s Midas touch on something very boring and normal like a Chevy door, showing how they brought something incredibly meaningful and precious into even the most mundane things in her life. “November flush” is likely referring to the way her cheeks would flush in cold weather, and “your flannel cure” is probably her sweetheart giving her their jacket to stay warm. While also being just an incredibly sweet image, it also paints her sweetheart as a type of healer, someone who takes care of her when she needs help and “cures” her when she’s suffering. This person is clearly someone the narrator relied on and cared for, the only type of emotional support of hers that she will describe in this song, which is why it hurts her just as much to end things as it hurts them.

“This dorm was once a madhouse”

I made a joke, “Well it’s made for me,” how

Like many things in this song, this serves as both a sweet memory of past relationship as well as reveals something about the narrator. The reference to a dorm indicates that they’re in college here, likely in the early stages of their relationship shortly after they met. The self-deprecating humor from the narrator seems like a natural joke for a college student to make, but the fact that she’s essentially calling herself crazy has raised a few eyebrows amongst listeners. Many have theorized that the narrator of this song is struggling with something relating to mental health and that that struggle played a role in why she turned down the proposal. While I of course have no way of knowing if this is what Taylor intended or not, it does seem plausible. The narrator has repeatedly categorized herself as an outsider with no apparent emotional support beyond that of her sweetheart. She seems to be the topic of gossip amongst their “hometown skeptics” and definitely feels as if this whole situation is her fault. All of this could be indicative of some kind of greater, invisible struggle.

Evergreen, our group of friends

Don’t think we’ll say that word again

And soon they’ll have the nerve to

Deck the halls that we once walked through

This bridge includes a lot of winter/Christmas imagery—she mentions her “November flush,” describes her friends as “evergreen” (like a Christmas tree), and says that soon they’ll “deck the halls” of their old college campus, a reference to the Christmas carol of the same name. This serves a few purposes: generally speaking, Taylor said during the premiere of the music video for lead single “willow” that she considers evermore to be the fall/winter companion to the spring/summer folklore (x). As a result, “champagne problems” includes a lot of wintery imagery along with other songs on the album (eg. “tis the damn season,” “ivy,” “evermore”).

However, this imagery also serves a purpose within the song itself. The fact that this horrific breakup is occurring right before Christmas, supposedly the happiest time of the year, is not only woefully ironic but also plays into the subjectivity of a champagne problem. Everyone is happy and joyful and blissfully unaffected by this breakup, but to the two people involved, the world is crashing down around them. The narrator is probably even more isolated than her ex, seeing as Christmas is a time for family, something her ex definitely has, but as far as we know she doesn’t. No wonder she’s getting frustrated at the people who will be putting up Christmas decorations—they only serve as a reminder of how alone she is.

She also describes their friends as evergreen, like a pine tree. Pine trees get this name because, unlike other trees that lose their leaves in the fall, their needles remain green and fragrant even in rough winter conditions. She’s remembering their group of friends as evergreen, something that they thought would never change, but at the same time she realizes that they probably won’t be saying that word (“our”) again— they aren’t their group of friends anymore, so they did change after all. This all just adds to her sense of alienation.

One for the money, two for the show

I never was ready so I watch you go

This is a play on the common children’s rhyme “one for the money, two for the show, three to make ready, and four to go.” It’s been around since the mid-1800’s and was often used as a countdown for games or races in playground scenarios. It got a lot of recognition from Elvis Presley’s 1955 hit “Blue Swede Shoes,” in which he sings “Well, it’s one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, now go, cat, go” (x). Here, the well-known rhyme is twisted so that the narrator backs out when it’s time to commit to the action. There’s no “three to get ready.” Instead, she watches her sweetheart go—go as in leave the date, but also go as in move on without her, as we’ll soon see.

Sometimes you just don’t know the answer

‘Till someone’s on their knees and asks you

She reveals that this rejection was a spur of the moment decision for her—unlike her lover, who had carefully planned out the ring and the Dom Perigon and the speech, she had no idea what she was going to do in that moment. It seems that it was the fear of commitment, as described in the previous two lines, that got the best of her in the end.

“She would’ve made such a lovely bride

What a shame she’s fucked in the head,” they said

Here’s another instance of town gossip that shows how both the narrator and the relationship is perceived by the others around her. She doesn’t fit into the mold that they want to put her in, she’s blamed for the failure of the relationship, and she’s thought to be crazy. It seems that everyone is supporting her ex in this breakup. And while her ex is certainly deserving of support (this night has definitely put them through the emotional wringer), she needs support too, and as far as we know she’s only getting the opposite.

It’s also worth mentioning that the clean version of this song includes the line “what a shame she’s stuck in her head” in place of the f-bomb, which does change the meaning slightly. While it’s still referring to the narrator as crazy in a way, it’s more insinuating that they think she’s living in a fantasy world and doesn’t seem to get what’s happening or what she’s lost. Regardless, they still blame her for everything, and she still receives no kind of support.

But you’ll find the real thing instead

She’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred

Here’s where we get the connection to the album’s theme of closure. The narrator promises her lover that they will move on from this relationship, that they will meet someone who loves them like they deserve and who will help them heal from this horrible moment. Their loneliness on the night train will be temporary. They will find closure, and they will be happy again. But the narrator?

And hold your hand while dancing

Never leave you standing

Crestfallen on the landing

With champagne problems

Your mom’s ring in your pocket

Her picture in your wallet

You won’t remember all my

Champagne problems

She doesn’t get that closure. She’s left alone with her champagne problems, issues that everyone else writes off but that she really struggles with, alone and unsupported. Even she seems to try to write them off, emphasizing the importance of her ex and how they will find happiness. After all, she’s been singing this entire song about their champagne problems, not hers. They’ll be able to forget hers—those problems no longer affect them. The narrator, however, can’t. To her, they aren’t champagne problems. They’re her life.

[finelinegynandromorph]

harry, gender, and musical consonance: a follow-up look at falling

okay so after getting that monster of a post out the other day (thank you so so so much for all of your thoughts and engagement with it!!), i spent some time musing on @laurelier​’s tags and i of course fell down a rabbit hole after talking further with meg. so here we are! consider this an addition to the original post, linked here, to give falling the space she deserves! more under the cut :) 

p.s. i’ll likely be writing a follow-up post sharing some wonderful thoughts from the tags on that post, i just got carried away with this so it’s coming out first lol.

falling: studio

i’ll be splitting this post up into an extended look at the studio vocals and a brief look at harry’s live vocal choices for this song. i’m still thinking of writing a larger post on patterns in harry’s live note changes some day too!

i will be looking at falling primarily from a gender lens here. of course, i think lenses are really all combined and a song can speak to many different themes and experiences simultaneously. linking here to @ialwaysknewyouwerepunk’s close reading of falling for some lyric analysis that looks at falling as a song that might speak to harry’s relationship with a partner, with fame/an audience/his fans, and with himself.

alright here we go!

the only harmonies we get in the studio version of falling occur in the choruses. everything else is in a singular harry voice. he delivers the verses in his normal harry alto (once again, i know i know, but it’s what makes sense to me!). he’s alone, singing without the backing of his usual vocal doubling and harmonics.

what am i now? / what am i now? / what if i’m someone i don’t want around?

we slip into a higher register for the melody in the chorus, but it’s still clear and full-bodied, harry singing in his chest voice.

what if i’m down? / what if i’m out? / what if i’m someone you won’t talk about?

halfway through the first chorus however, we get the hint of a consonant harmony in the backing track. it’s one octave higher than the melody and sounds like a head voice to me, forceful in texture but soft in volume (a production feature). 

when we get to verse 2 we’re back to the singular harry alto. by the 2nd chorus we have the alto melody and higher consonant harmony straight from the get-go, carrying us all the way through to:

i get the feeling that you’ll never need me again

ah the pain of this bridge! harry delivers this line in a singular voice again, without the accompaniment of the higher consonant harmony from the chorus. it’s painful, it’s heartbreaking, it’s harry questioning his relationship with himself. who is he now?? (and who is he when he strips away all these registers?)

we get some nonverbal vocals in a higher register as we swim into the final chorus. they’re an expression of anguish but soft in volume, a muted higher register.

for the final chorus harry employs the same combination of melody and consonant harmony but now there’s vocal doubling on that harmony (it almost sounds like two harry’s are singing the harmony) so the delivery of these lines in a higher register is just that much more perceptible. (sounding a little like all those other times harry uses a higher register for emotional expression in the conclusions of his songs?...)

we’ve got this harmonic combination right up until the last word of the song:

falling

this is delivered solely by the singular harry alto voice (that is, the voice that’s been delivering the melody), with some slight vocal cracking that’s only just audible in the studio version. this is desperation, harry dropping back down into the singular, he’s vocally falling down from the consonant harmonies, his voice is cracking open, it’s a far cry from the triumphant resolution of fine line with a choir of harry registers singing in unison. it blows me away that the last word of this song about isolation (“someone i don’t want around”) is delivered alone, without the company of some of harry’s other registers.

for me, falling has always been a song about gender pain and struggling to just be with yourself. because this is harry and songs can contain multitudes, it’s just vague enough that it can easily be read as a song about relationship-angst (which, hey! it could totally be both! songs don’t have to just mean one thing!). the juxtaposition between the stripped nature of the vocals here compared to some of the other songs on fine line, and the way that isolation and displacement from oneself is mirrored in harry’s harmonic choices only underscores the sheer ✨gender✨ of this song!

when i listen to falling, i’m often moved to tears. i also cry during fine line but it always feels different. i think this is because falling is gender pain that harry is actively struggling with, while fine line is gender pain that soars up into triumphant self-acceptance. there are some hints of resolution in falling (“what if you’re someone i just want around”), but this is a heartbreaking song for a reason. fine line always seems to break me down and build me back up again, which is a profoundly emotional experience but of a very different nature. in falling, i feel like i’m sitting in that brokenness and trying to make sense of it.

falling: live

a quick disclaimer as we hop in here that harry is a dynamic performer who often performs songs in many different ways while live, so this section is not meant to be all-encompassing but rather addressing some of the features of live delivery that harry often seems to use in falling. i’ll be drawing heavily from harry’s first live performance of falling at the BRIT awards in 2020 (linked here), because i think it can provide some insight into the stylistic choices harry was making when he first presented this song to the world in person. 

alright here we go!

to note: when performing falling live, harry tends to sing at a pitch just slightly lower than his studio version. this could be to protect his voice? to give himself a better shot at hitting that raw, heartbreaking yell of “again”? 

as a personal aside, my most comfortable register is in roughly the same vocal space as what seems to be harry’s most comfortable register (that “harry alto” i keep blaspheming about). i find that harry’s slightly lowered pitch in live renditions of falling is easier on my throat too, so i’m guessing this is likely why!

okay so usually harry has two vocalists from the band he’s performing with do the harmonies. they recreate the consonant harmonies recorded in harry’s voice for the studio version but with a subtle striking twist: they are ever so slightly dissonant. (!!)

let’s break this down!

the vocalists sing the same consonant harmonies from the studio version throughout the chorus and then we get to:

falling again / i’m falling again / i’m falling

the vocalists deliver “falling” in that same consonant harmony as harry in the studio version. 

“again” however, is sneakily dissonant!! 

in all his recorded studio vocals, regardless of pitch (ie. melody or consonant harmony), harry drops to a lower note for the second syllable of “again”. it looks sorta like this:

_

       _

a   gain

but in live performances the vocalists hold the same note for both syllables!! ie:

_      _

       a   gain

remember, dissonance tends to be unsettling!! this song is painful in its beauty!!

okay, i promise i’ll get to what i think this might mean but first let’s complete our journey through this performance.

for verse 2 we’re back to the singular harry alto, but on the line

at the beachwood cafe

the vocalists come in with a consonant harmony that’s one octave higher than harry’s melody. dramatic. atmospheric. the higher register making an appearance. we then move on to:

and it kills me ‘cause i know we’ve run out of things we can say

here we have harry singing the alto melody, one vocalist doing the previously used consonant harmony one octave higher and now the other vocalist doing a new consonant harmony that’s two octaves lower! the higher consonant harmony is much louder in volume, which could just be the nature of the vocalist singing it, but i do think it’s interesting that the higher register is highlighted (a consistent pattern in harry’s songs), and that the lower register is an almost eerie undercurrent that you can barely pick out.

another thing to highlight! in recent live performances of this song on love on tour, harry has upswept into a higher register for “we can say”, shifting up a note starting with the pronoun we. i’ll return to this in a second.

we have the same 3-punch-combo on the heartbreaking “again” of the bridge (harry melody, vocalist one octave higher, vocalist one octave lower). as with above, the lower consonance is softer in volume than the higher consonance.

alright, remember the upswept “we” i just mentioned? well in the last chorus we get to the line

what if i’m out

and harry shifts up a note on “i’m”. wow okay chills and let’s see if i can make this coherent: harry is highlighting individual pain using a collective pronoun. the upwards tonal shift on “i” and “we” suggests a confluence of the two, as if the “you” and “i” harry refers to in this song are not two separate people but rather harry himself. 

damn okay, so what is he even saying here?

i mean, i don’t know but i’ll give it a shot. 

i think harry is consistently foregrounding the conflict contained within an individual. he does so through a variety of vocal elements, including but not limited to vocal differentiation between harry’s harmonies and those delivered by vocalists, and slight upsweeps in tonation on certain pronouns. the subtlety of these changes (the note that’s ever so slightly higher than the studio version, the very slight shift that creates dissonance when the vocalists sing “again”) seems to suggest to me harry’s profound awareness of the public perception that is his context as he grapples with his identity.

he can speak to these gender feelings because he’s aware that this song will be widely interpreted as about another person, not himself. so he can let himself really feel that pain (linking here to a wonderfully eloquent discussion by meg and ella of live versions of falling and she and this idea of the complexities of when and how harry can express himself) but he needs to be careful with how much he conveys because there’s an audience receiving this heartbreak.

there’s a level of repression, even in his sadness, that just breaks my heart as a queer person to hear what i truly believe is another queer person singing about their anguish and pain and also having to veil that narrative because of the circumstances of their closeting, their public image, etc. etc. it’s also entirely possible that harry is just keeping his gender exploration more private, but the constant vague nods to perceived het relationships make me think it’s not solely harry’s personal privacy that’s keeping him from being open (“he is broken / and i’m hoping someday he’ll open” holy shit unreleased golden lyrics i need to tackle you and give you a giant hug).

harry comes back down to his usual alto for the last word of falling because he’s harry styles, he’s performing this for a crowd and his emotional outpouring in his higher register is confined to a breathy soft nonverbal expression (“we’ve run out of things we can say”) that sounds like a faint musical chime in the studio version right before the last chorus.

to me, some of the most heartbreaking aspects of harry’s music involve his sheer honesty in the face of the painful self-awareness that his art is being sold for mass consumption. in this vein, falling feels like a very public exploration of a very intimate pain, and i think harry’s harmonic choices reflect that balancing act. what to show, what to hide, what he can get away with in the spotlight (“so bright sometimes”)...

okay, okay i’m stopping here for now. big hugs and gender love and do chime in if this makes you feel or think something! <3<3<3

[bluewinnerangel]

I love your blog I love your masterposts and ramblings and gayvinci tags and song analyses I LOVE YOU and I hope you have a great day. Also do you have an analysis on Perfect (did H&L really write in different rooms LOL)? Some ppl say it's about Pr relationships/closeting but I'm slow and need help connecting the dots. Thank you!

OOOOH PERFECT ANALYSIS YES

totally not just putting in gifs before the cut to grab peoples attention

Hi! Thank you so much <3 Sorry anon this really took me a while. I do have my opinions on Perfect, and iiiieee I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion or just a duhdoink of course this is the way to see it and everyone else in the room is seeing it too. There's just my interpretation, what makes way too much sense to me to view this song as anything else, so I'll share that. 

And about the rooms thing, I think it was a joke among fans because god forbid they are interacting whatsoever right ;)

his silhouette is something else

I’m just gonna put in a cut here because of course it’s gonna be too long not to.

An analysis of Perfect below the cut:

First let’s go into what they’ve said about the song, of all the songs Harry has explained (if that) this one maybe most often. Still it isn’t much, watch it here and here and here. So the way I see it they are HAMMERING on that it’s not what it looks like and it’s so much honestly it’s pretty entertaining:

First answer: “yes we write from personal experience”, but then: 

“no matter how loose that might be”

“it’s not literal”

“to be honest it translates to whoever”

“it doesn’t always have to be an exact story”

“not everything is so obvious”

“things can be taken in different ways”

“it’s not always necessarily about what it sounds like it’s about”

....and they just go on like this. So what I’m reading here is basically GUYS. GALS. BROPALS. IT’S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. THERE ARE DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS TO THIS. WE WROTE THIS IN A WAY TO HAVE LAYERS. PEEL THE ONION.

So in any case, in any possible case it’s definitely not just about what they think it’s sounds like it’s about. An then the question is what they think it sounds like it’s about then? Maybe it’s just towards the GP: it’s clearly assumed to be about Taylor (the media seemed to be really pushing this idea as well) and that’s totally fair and even true in some regards as you can’t really ignore the in-your-face Taylor nods in there. Then it could be that they’re just like yeah we see it looks like this is about haylor (as a real relationship) but it’s not like that. But, and this is a reach, it could also be their fear that those who support their relationship (Harry & Louis’ that is) might interpret this song as them being casual together, which people have. It doesn’t not make sense as a thought process right? Because they wrote it together. So maybe they’re like no oh no nononononono it’s not about us together! Not in that way! and just hammer on about this because they don’t like the idea of them looking anything less than whipped and married, sure hella farfetched I know but egh no harm in mentioning it.

Anyway this song is so much smarter than it looks! Nomnom the layers lets peel. It's a really good example of what we see time and time again especially in Louis' songwriting, his lyrics are so straightforward and so simple but once you start looking deeper into there’s a hold up and you find all kinds of things hiding in plain sight. (Harry too, but I mean his lyrics aren’t pretending to be easy, let’s put it like that) 

On the surface we got this narrative of "im a chill boybander dude and im traveling the world yehyeh and you girl yeah im perfect for you if you're looking for that and nothing serious gurl yeah" which works perfectly as a 1D song. But then they’re also playing with that haylor narrative, and there are some wait that’s gay’s too. So my interpretation is that they’re being ironic/sarcastic whatever you wanna call it towards PR relationships, and more specifically the loudest of them all that already had a couple of songs to its name at that point being haylor.

It works as a response to Taylor’s Style as these songs are doing the same thing. In Style, Taylor describes how she and tOtAlLy nOt HaRrY are perceived, how they look, how they don’t go out of style because they look like this perfect hollywood couple. Perfect’s doing the same, they’re both painting this story of seeming perfect for each other, not because they’re actually romantically involved but because they’re something the tabloids/GP/whatever are going to love love love to eat up and/or that doing such a stunt is mutually beneficial (in some regards, namely money, fame, and having these narratives they can work with for their music I guess, and yeah I think it totally broke him, but at the stage of releasing Perfect this isn’t really the direction he went in with corporating that whole side to it into his music just yet).

So I’ll drop my personal ugly powerpoint slide and then do a lyric breakdown (yep I need a ptt to just barf out whatever song parallels I see sometimes otherwise it just keeps haunting me, it’s a like a notebook full of brainfarts and right now I can’t be bothered to recreate it into something less uh... chaotic looking and more nuanced, so just have this monster):

The pic says it all but let’s get into a lyric breakdown:

I might never be your knight in shinin' armor I might never be the one you take home to mother And I might never be the one who brings you flowers But I can be the one, be the one tonight

I'm not gonna save you, I'm not gonna date you, I'm not even gonna do romantic shit for you, I'm just not it. I’m truly really not it for you.

Surface lvl is “im a cool boybanderboy and yeah we can have some fun together tonight here in my hotel room but then you gotta get tf out of here because I’m a player lol bye”

Orrrrr it’s a joke: “girl I ain’t it, yaknow, because I’m taken. And not into girls. But I can pretend be the one, just for tonight tho when we step out to go stunting and get our pics taken and stuff”

(future) parallels:

Couldn’t take you home to mother in a skirt that short - Only Angel can’t do shit with this parallel but it’s there, I see I point, that’s all

When I first saw you From across the room I could tell that you were curious, oh, yeah

Yeah no that’s just gay. Spotting eachother from across the room, sneaky lil glances while standing physically apart in public, and being able to tell the other is curious? That’s the choice of word you’re going with? Curious? Really? Yeah no that’s fine.

Girl, I hope you're sure

Oh sorry it's not gay nvm he said “girl”

What you're looking for 'Cause I'm not good at making promises

back to im just a chill dude wanting to have fun and nothing else, no commitment whatsoever.

But if you like causing trouble up in hotel rooms And if you like having secret little rendezvous If you like to do the things you know that we shouldn't do then baby, I'm perfect Baby, I'm perfect for you

Yeah so hey girl if you wanna do all these secret things in private that seem to be sinful then I’m totally perfect.

GP understanding: if you wanna sneak away with me for a one-night-only yeah we can

PR stunt understanding: listen you wanna be with your secret little rendezvous person that you really shouldn’t be with according to what we’re advised shouldn’t enter the public eye, and you know I wanna be with my person too, so I’m perfect for you to be associated with publicly so the heat will be taken off of those rumors and then you can continue to go off and be with whoever you actually wanna be with in secret and I can do the same, thanks now I’m going back to that hotel room without you byebye

And if you like midnight driving with the windows down

Style nudge: “Midnight, you come and pick me up, no headlights” / “just take me home”

Kinda wanna put SOML here too: “The story of my life, I take her home, I drive all night, to keep her warm, and time is frozen”

And if you like going places we can't even pronounce If you like to do whatever you've been dreaming about Then baby, you're perfect Baby, you're perfect So let's start right now

I mean she knows places? Right? Hah. hah.hah. But here again, like “if you like to do whatever I’m perfect”, like, I’m stunting with you because this whole PR circus is helping you achieve whatever it is you’ve been dreaming about, it can take you places where you haven’t been as in you can reach new heights (also may be just a nudge to touring really, places they’ve never been salad in the wind).

I might never be the hands you put your heart in Or the arms that hold you any time you want them But that don't mean that we can't live here in the moment 'Cause I can be the one you love from time to time

Really they’re just finding more and more ways to say the same thing: Girl, I’m not it. None of this should be taken literal, ending with “the one you love from time to time” which works for both having a .. uh.. buddy with uh bedroom benefits but also for a PR stunt counterpart.

And if you like cameras flashin' every time we go out

mirror mirror on the wall what’s the most obvious “this is about PR stunts” line of them all

Also this line counters “And if you like having secret little rendezvous, If you like to do the things you know that we shouldn't do“. So what is it, are they having secret little rendezvous or are camera’s flashing every time they go out? It’s basically and if you like doing things in the public eye vs if you like doing things in secret. How does it make sense that they’re doing these things with the same person, like these things wouldn’t matter enough to become seperate themes in a song if these are both about the singer + the same girl doing these things with each other. So I conclude PR relationship with flashing cameras + actual real relationships being the secret rendezvous.

It can also be another Taylor nudge ahgain (that’s me saying “again” with a sigh) as I Know Places and I believe some other songs on the 1989 album with Harry as designated driver mention some flashing camera’s and stuff.

Ok last about this line is that “every time we go out” is implying that they only go out to be seen and have their picture taken.

And if you're looking for someone to write your breakup songs about

aaaaand the most obvious Taylor nod of them all. Everyone else in the room can see it.

Baby, I'm perfect Baby, we're perfect

We never go out of style, we never go out of style

Yep that’s that. I think it’s a very clever song, I really love it, and yes they are singing about their relationship, just not the way it looks. It’s here instead:  

But if you like causing trouble up in hotel rooms

And if you like having secret little rendezvous

If you like to do the things you know that we shouldn't do

And maybe here:

If you like to do whatever you've been dreaming about

That’s it, that’s how I see the song. They’re being smart lil shits joking about / reflecting on / seeing the irony in their situation in the most lighthearted way.

Read my other song analyses here

[everything-laito]

(TW) I don't know if you've answered thus BUT in ep 4 (i think) Laito us clearly harassing Yui and humiliating her in the church. He does the same in the game. But does he r@pe her or just sucks her blood? Cuz it wasn't clear and the scene itself was so confusing

OOH OH!!!! OK!! I’ve been meaning to talk about this for a LOOOONG time LOL! Because it is very confusing going over it for the first time! I’ll break down the scene that it was based off of in the game (HDB Dark 09) and episode 4 in the anime.

Buckle up fellas! I’ll give y’all a brain blast.

For some tangential and/or extra reading, here’s my entire HDB analysis and an analysis I’ve done on episode 4 before. Definitely not required to read this one though!

And as always, more under the cut!

GAME VERSION:

So in Dark 09, we start out with Yui being at the church. She’s reminiscing all the warm memories she had at the church, so she came to pray. However, Laito comes in, teases her that she expected a “knight in shining armor” (although this isn’t important, it’s just funny in an awful way), and asked her if she came to “pray.” However, he says プレイ (purei) not 祈る (inoru- “to pray”). The katakana spelling of “pray” can also be translated to “play” (or even prey) in English. So the double (or even triple, depending on the context) meaning is very interesting. He knows Yui came to pray, but he is considering this time with her to be more of a “playtime.” He uses this same double meaning in his song, “Bloody Sabbath.”

Laito furthers a guardian angel motif by comparing them to his familiars he has watching over Yui. This is how Yui finds out that he has familiars watching her every move. He continues to harass Yui in the same Laito fashion, with rhetoric similar to the one in episode 4.

Laito: Exactly. I don’t think I need to remind you, but on days like this…It aches so badly… Yui: …! Laito: Even the Church is a place I would rather avoid if it wasn’t for these special conditions.But today I am especially greedy. I want you. I want to pin you down and drink your blood to my heart’s content.

Here’s just some snippets of Laito’s harassment upon Yui. In my HDB analysis, I mention this:

On top of him continuing to gaslight Yui, this scene takes place in a church. It’s incredibly symbolic to the shame Yui feels before and especially after she is forced to endure Laito’s games. The church is a home for her, and for Laito to take that away from her by making her ashamed of practicing her religion anymore is soul crushing. 

Not exactly related to whether or not Laito rapes Yui in this scene, but I do love this scene so much because of how symbolic it is. So let me compare it to the church scene in the anime.

ANIME VERSION:

This scene is a lot shorter than it is in the game. Laito says a lot of the similar things in Dark 09 like “wanting to expose Yui” and how much he wants to drink her blood, and how he’s getting excited by her facial expressions, etc etc etc. I think most of us know this scene well. It is also revealed in this scene that Yui’s being watched by familiars, but on top of that, we learn how Yui was given to the brothers by the church. This doesn’t happen in the game, but I felt like I needed to put it in anyways.

BOTH SCENES AND CONCLUSION:

Both scenes still have the blood sucking motifs and actions. We all know how blood sucking is still a sexual activity. So regardless of Laito raping Yui, this is still assault, and most definitely sexual harassment and assault given his words that he wants to expose Yui and give her love––which we know is a sexual kind, whether through sex or blood sucking. It’s still making Yui vulnerable in a nonconsensual manner. She’s still going through sexual trauma regardless. Even if they weren’t vampires, this would still be sexual assault.

So in Dark 09, we know that he does not rape Yui. Why? Well, the first time he rapes her is in Maniac 07. We know this because of this exchange and rhetoric that I also mention in my HDB analysis:

Laito: Fufufu…Oh well, it’s okay. Seems like it’s almost the right time. I’ve gotten worked up as well. I’ll do even more pleasurable things to you, okay? Yui: Let me go…already… Laito: Fu…Come on, the starting shot has been fired. (5)

And in Maniac 08, Laito and Yui have this exchange:

Laito: More importantly, hey? How was that thing from the other day? Does it still hurt? Yui: …! Laito: So it really does after all~ Nfu~ Ah…Rather than ‘hurting’, the term ‘aching’ might be more accurate. Did it feel better than usual? Yui: …!

------

Laito: Well, you’d be in trouble if such a small thing already left you in shock.

So we know something different happened than usual. By the wording of Laito treating it as such a “small thing,” it can be implied that this is when he first raped her, considering he’s used to being sexually abused in that manner with Cordelia. Obviously, it is not a small thing, but he’s trying to write it off as one. It’s kind of like saying “oh you didn’t know *insert fact here?* I thought that was common knowledge!” kind of teasing or just general statements.

So from Dark 09, we know that Yui did not get raped in the church. For episode 4? It is harder to tell on that scene alone because a lot of it is meant for interpretation, so I believe you could go either way with that scene. Analysis can’t do much for that scene, unless if you were to argue two ways. In the start of episode 5, Yui’s just remembering what Laito said about how she’s a sacrifice. She does not act like how she acts in Maniac 08. However, that’s just my opinion and regardless, the anime is not as good as the visual novel when it comes to showing and not telling, and it is a pretty short runtime. So they had to cut a lot of it out. But once again, I think you could interpret it either way in the anime.

If you were to base it solely off of the source material, then no, she did not get raped in episode 4.

Hope that helps! As always, if you need clarification on anything or have any questions, please feel free to reach out! 

-Corn

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KO-FI | ANALYSES MASTERPOST | ANALYSIS TAG | FAQ

[usermaha]

I saw your tags on my BTS post and YES the person V stabs is his father and the girl in the room is his sister! Obviously not his real life family but in their storyline/universe, it’s confirmed that it’s his father and sister, and On Stage: Prologue kicks off right after he kills his father….and then Run kicks off when On Stage: Prologue leaves off and it’s why V is shown underwater throughout that video!! I love the Bangtan universe lol I even got a tattoo of the smeraldo flower symbol from it…..literally if you ever have any questions about any of BTS’s storyline videos I will happy share analysis/explanations!

Im so glad you even read my tags and also reached out to me!! I am quite attached to I Need U and well as Run (both being connected as titles of HYYH Part I/II). I find the videography, the imagery and the themes of the MVs really cool and i theorized a lot about what they meant in my head.

Especially the scene where V kills his dad is so intriguing to me. The whole music video is very dark, with almost all members committing a different kind of self destruction. But it takes a turn for darker with a literal murder, it comes out of left field and it all happens so fast that it seems like even V couldnt process what happened. the whole music video seems like its building up to that scene. It’s like “one of them will really kill themselves” but at the end its not V dying, but V killing a part of himself forever.

I had a lot of questions regarding this scene and i watched it over and over again to figure it out (even though it made me feel queasy). The main question was who are the two ppl. I had two theories: A. the girl is V’s girlfriend who is cheating on him with the guy. Even though she is hurting him, when he sees him hit her he goes to protect her (which would fit the song) B. She’s his sister and he’s her boyfriend. But it never occurred he might be his dad. So your post really answered a burning question in my head lol.

[skepticalarrie]

Hii allies!! I'm trying to teach my friend everything about Larry Stylinson... Like their closet / babygate/ why it's not just a fandom ship... So how should I go about it?

Like for me I had a very rough journey... I started from YouTube and watched A LOT of videos then joined Instagram ( read a lot of song analysis) & Twitter-tumblr ( then I re-read everything and from a completely different perspective)... And few things took a lot of time for me to understand...it was a complete mess really!

Now where should I start from-- (this was how I got to know about things)

1) why I think there are together ( the proofs,parallels, outings,etc)

2) their closets and queercoding

3) babygate

4) rbb -sbb

Can you help me with the sequence? I mean this is a rough one you can definitely change the names make sub-heading whatever:)

Hello dear! I’m so sorry you asked me this ages ago. Your friend probably already fell down the rabbit hole at this point but oh well… sorry 😬

I don't think there's a "right" place to start from. What makes more sense to each person individually is very subjective. But I have this huge essay here lol I just answered that last week and I linked a few things there that can be very useful for beginners. But basically I think you should begin presenting facts about the industry, closeting, contracts and business, before anything else. If the person doesn't really understand how toxic this industry is, what kinds of abuse are happening right under everyone's noses... I don't see why they would ever consider that larry could be real. And then maybe some context on their sexualities and stunts too. People need context. For me, my first contact with larry was probably larry moments, which... well, it didn't mean anything to me since I didn't know them, I didn't understand why, it was just boys acting like boys lmao. You know? Make sure to check my for beginners tag too, because I have a little bit of everything there on the most important topics. And I also have everything tagged on my blog on "categories"(kind of). I hope that helps! Good luck!!!

[phoneybeatlemania-bit-the-dust]

I’d disagree with the anon that Paul was “incapable” of love, but I do agree he was very distanced, and pretty cruel (to women) when he was younger. (It was unfortunate they bought into the love at first sight myth, but he was also a charmer, and dropped affection and got colder after fucking them.)

But I just can’t see romantic interest on Paul’s end. I’m sure he loved John, but a lot of the “sexual/Romantic evidence” really can just be as construed as platonic love. I feel there may be some confirmation bias looking for “clues”. (Not an attack on anyone, but some of the analysises seem to try too hard, really).

He does make references, with the whole “calling him babe during concerts”, and “in bed” but that could just mean he’s not uncomfortable with coming off “gay”. He has a quote about it somewhere I think. He’s supportive of the community at any rate.

This is kind of my own bias, but at times I think he…plays it up a little during the present day? Again, I’m positive he did love John a lot, but with how he is, a charmer, good at manipulating his image, he knows there is a benefit to building up the “magical” Lennon McCartney dynamic. John’s dead, and the old conflicts have faded, so he has no reason not to. I don’t think he’s anti-social, or a psycho or anything, but he certainly does put a lot of thought into his image, especially now, with how he wants to leave his legacy.

I’m less knowledgeable about John, and the speculation about his mental illnesses, but on his end, I can certainly see it. Maybe he’s just blind, but the looks are very much…yeah. He does seem to rely Paul a lot, and hold him in very high regard (REGARDLESS of what those old male biographers might make of him). You just know he was suffering over Paul, poor bastard.

Not sure if anything happened. I think Paul knew though, and either ignored it, or was kind, knowing John wouldn’t act on it. OR he didn’t notice! With the whole “we shared beds A LOT. you would think he’d make a pass at me, darling~”

I guess that’s how I see it. I don’t really have strong feelings on the nature of their relationship, or want them to be “confirmed”, so I try to be as objective as possible! Not a shipper, but not a male biographer. In fact, I was very put off learning the ship was a thing at first! With every fan base “having to” ship the main male leads, that’s what I thought this was. But after three years, reading actual books, primary stuff, I’ve began to change my mind on its legitimacy, and this was my conclusion. But new information can always change!

(Sorry for the long long analysis, god! I just took my adderall and I should go eat! Feel free to block me for spam/harassment.)

Yeah, this is basically my big mclennon dilemma: did Paul love John?

Of course he loved him, but I mean did he harbour any homosexual feelings towards John - and I just go back and fourth on that a lot.

In my last response to an anon I wasn’t necessarily trying to argue that Paul was romantically/sexually attached to John, because all in all, I don’t believe he did - but it probably came off that way because I didn’t particularly like the way the anon had phrased some stuff (like calling him “a master manipulator” and “incapable of love”) and so I just sort of wanted to show that the relationship was more nuanced then just “john was simping for paul”. My overall point with that response was more so that whilst I think Paul struggles in showing real affection and emotions, I don’t think he was incapable of love prior to Linda. I think he did really love John (in whichever form of love you want to take it: romantically, platonically etc.)

And so my point I guess wasnt so much that Paul was always capable of love (because I think he did at least love his family, his close-friends, probably Jane etc.), but maybe more so that he was always capable of intimacy with another person, though he struggled with it.

But yeah, he was quite cruel to a lot of the girls he slept with in the 60s, but I wouldn’t say that suggests he was incapable of love (i know thats not what you’re saying but other people might interpret it through that lens) I would just say he was young, dumb, ridiculously rich and famous and not emotionally mature enough yet to really empathise with most of those girls. Not trying to completely excuse him, but like, i dunno, i always just try to view people from the most human perspective. Everyones an twat sometimes yknow

I also really struggle to see romance on Pauls behalf towards John - the only times I think “wait but maybe he did fancy john back” is when I read some of his lyrics (like in ‘Coming Up’, ‘Yvonne’s The One’, and to some extent ‘Here Today’ - though I think interpreting Here Today as strictly platonic love is still a valid interpretation). I mentioned this in a different post though, that analysing his lyrics just isnt particularly convincing for me, because it feels more like speculation - and also as someone who does write songs, I know that a lot of lyrics just arent as deep as we wish they were. It is really difficult to be truly introspective and honest in a song, without exaggerating or hyperbolising or fictionalising any autobiographical aspects.

I do see your point with Paul possibly playing up the “Lennon/McCartney m a g i c” - im not entirely sure how much I agree, but I do agree to some extent. I think he’s always been very image conscious, and being in what is probably the all-time most famous pop band definitely wouldve heightened that. Even as a teenager I think he’s always just had this natural charm about him, and that tends to stem I guess from a need to be liked; I think you can see it in every interview he’s ever done to be honest. Its not necessarily a bad thing, (because id take a charmer over a rude knobhead any day) but I guess it sort of just shows that Paul is flawed like everybody else. Also, just read @mothernatures-sons tags and I agree with her - Paul just knows when to be a nice person! Nothing wrong with that! It isnt manipulative like the last anon suggested, its just how most people are: polite :) Ive heard a lot of anecdotes from people who have worked with or met Paul and the majority of them say he was a just a nice guy. Not saying he was never an arsehole (cause yeah he was pretty cruel to those girls in the 60s) but I think overall, hes a pretty good guy 👍

On the other hand though, you could also say that superficial journalists are looking for superficial answers - and Paul knows what the people want to hear. But occasionally ill hear an interview that does seem more intimate then most - I havent listened to it in awhile, but the interview he did with Sean I remember felt more honest to me then most. And when he said he’d like to spend the day “in bed” with John, to me that felt like a genuine and fitting response. Because, whilst it has sexual connotations, it also just feels like he’s saying he’d just like to sit around, chat, dont chat, just whatever with John for a day. Like he would just like another moment of intimacy with him.

I think we are pretty much in agreement on most of this though! At first I was also like “nah, mclennon isnt real, teenage girls just love shipping guys!” (I am a teenaged girl and I can confirm this lol) but then it just sort of became apparent to me through reading more and more about their relationship that there probably was something more on Johns behalf. If John wasnt in love with Paul, then it feels as though a lot of things he said and did just dont add up (the big one for me is him marrying Yoko so soon after Paul married Linda - like I really cannot come up with a heterosexual explanation for that!)

But when it comes to Paul, though ill have moments of doubt, I dont think he was in love with John (homosexually) and I do think a lot of the evidence on Pauls behalf seems like a stretch (but like you, im not having a go at anyone, because I understand that it is easy to carried away, plus its fun - but realistically, most of Pauls evidence just is not convincing to me). He’s comfortable with his sexuality, and I really do try to respect that and not force a gay interpretation of quotes or songs from him, unless it is genuinely making me question his sexuality and mclennon.

PS dont worry, I didn’t take this is spam at all!! And also, I would never block someone just for disagreeing with me! I enjoy discussion and I think its good to engage with people who disagree with you! To be honest, id only block someone if they were purposely being a real arsehole <3

[kyidyl]

Kyidyl Does Archaeology - Part 5

(as per usual, all these posts are collected under the KyidylCL tag)

Pottery and shErds

So, what are we talking about today? Well, I think the next thing is gonna be pottery.  This is where we’re gonna talk about time, space, and dating a site.  Because most people think that the only way to date an archaeological site is via C14.  That’s not true, and actually we don’t always do it.  C14 dating can have some problems, including that the wood used in the fire is likely older than the time in which it was cut down and burned.  It also only goes back 50,000 years, so anything older than that won’t have any carbon isotopes (it’ll have all decayed), and we have to use other things that are more expensive.  And c14 testing itself is expensive - we sent in 2 samples and it was around $500/sample so we spent about $1000 on testing.  Instead, there are other ways to date a site and one of the most accurate is pottery.  

See, like all other kinds of material culture (AKA, stuff people leave behind.  Non-material culture is like...song and story and stuff like that.), pottery follows stylistic trends and trends in how it was made.  And it does this both regionally and chronologically.  Which is great, because if we find bits of one type of pottery we know is made in one place in a settlement in another place, then we know the two people traded with each other.  But I have to explain something else so that determining a date from pottery makes sense.  

Every area of the country has what’s called a “type site” for a given period of time.  In undergrad I was lucky enough to actually get to work on the type site for the Safety Harbour period, which is Weedon Island....ironically enough there’s a Weedon Island period and Weedon Island isn’t the type site for that period so uuuhhh...yeah it’s weird lol.  Anyway, a type site is a site that is considered stereotypical for a given time and place in history.  Usually they’re large and well-preserved, and they’re often the first sites found in that time period/area (but not always, which is how the above weirdness happened.). And so what happens is we dig ‘em and analyze the finds and do testing on those finds.  So now we know “hey, this kind of pottery comes from here and it is X years old”. Now you know when you find it in other places where and when it comes from.  This is all a very generalized explanation, but I think any more is like extraneous detail you don’t need.  Just know that things like type sites help us determine where and when stuff like pottery was made.  Lots of literature usually exists for type sites, but I actually can’t remember the type site for this area for this time period.  

We also use a term called “diagnostic”, which is used much as it is in medicine.  If we find a certain thing that was only made during a specific time period or in a certain place, then it’s diagnostic.  IE, a certain kind of pottery is diagnostic of the late, middle, or early Woodland.  The pottery we have at our site is diagnostic of the late Woodland.  Some of the lithics we thought might be a bit earlier, but honestly I think that was just misidentification by the site director bc we were in the field at the time.  Lastly, identifying pottery has a few components.  Color and decoration I think are easy to understand (they didn’t have glazes, but you can make different colored pottery by varying the composition of the clay and the temperature at which it is fired.). Paste and temper are the other two.  IDK how modern pottery is made, but old ass pottery is made with paste - the main body of the clay, the matrix that contains the temper - and temper. Temper is stuff they’d crush up and mix in to help it not break during firing and heating during normal use.  So we combine these factors to ID the pottery and thus the age of the site and trading habits of the people in question.  One last thing you need to understand about pottery - ancient people used pottery the way that we use disposable things.  They didn’t think it was like an important thing that had to keep safe.  They’d use it until it broke and then toss it in the garbage pit and make a new one.  So it’s really common and we find it all over the place, but TBH in the future pottery *won’t* be diagnostic anymore because our ceramics come in such a wide variety that we couldn’t possibly hope to narrow down time or place.  

Alright, so who wants pictures? You, of course.  Who *doesn’t* want pictures? Here’s some of the pottery we found: 

This is the larger shard that I found in the features I’ve talked about in previous installments.  You can see where I accidentally broke it. >.> Anyway it’s kind of unique bc of the light color outside and the black inside.  It’s like...idk, 4 or so inches long.  

This is a rim piece that I happened to find two matching sherds of.  I always check the rim pieces because the patterns on them usually make them easier to fit together.  Honestly I’ve got hundreds of pot sherds from this site and I don’t have the sanity to try and make pots from them.  

This is the outside and inside respectively of the largest piece we have.  TBH taking this thing out of its box and handling it makes me nervous because of how large it is - about the size of my hand, but I did include my earbuds for scale.  The black is charring from both firing and subsequent use, and it came out of the pit feature I’ve been talking about.  And do you wanna know the cool thing about the inner surface of pottery? Because they didn’t use glazes, the surface was porous and retains the unique chemical traces of what was made in them.  However, the vast majority of the time those kinds of tests aren’t done because archaeology as a whole is extremely underfunded and trace chemical analysis of pot residue is an expensive test requiring expensive equipment and expensive scientists.  Funnily enough I probably could do some of this testing bc I used to be premed and so I’ve taken a lot of chemistry and know how to read a mass spec thing, but I don’t have access to the chemicals or tools to do these kinds of tests.  Plus, they’re often destructive...which....I mean...there’s so much pottery that it doesn’t really matter if one piece gets destroyed but like you do still have to be careful *which* piece you destroy.  

Anyway, you also can see the striations on the outside piece, and that’s decoration on the pot.  It probably also helped with gripping it.  This is a piece of Shepardware, which is diagnostic of the late Woodland period in the Shenandoah valley. Here’s some more cool pottery: 

This is a random assortment of the kind of stuff we regularly pull out of the ground when it comes to pottery.  The most common kind we have is the orange on one side black on the other (3 upper rt pieces), whiteish (upper left 2), orange on both sides (lower left 3) and totally black (lower right 3).  All of ‘em are some variety of shepard or pageware.  You can see the texture on a lot of them, too.  We have a good mix of textured and untextured, and that’s why the composition of the pottery is more diagnostic than the decoration.  Frankly, people can and will put whatever design they think looks cool.  But they made that particular design by wrapping twine around the end of a flat stick and pressing it into the surface of the wet clay.  I also chose those two upper right pieces because they have really visible temper.  Here’s a side shot of one of them: 

You can see how big the bits are compared to my fingers (yeah, there’s dirt under my nails....I haven’t taken some tweezers to them yet after working on the car.). And...wait, I WAS going to try to describe this to you but then I was like “no, they deserve better” and I broke out my DSLR and my macro lens and took some pics.  Here are some macros of the temper: 

The white balance is a little off on the top one...the bottom one is more true to color (they aren’t the same piece of pottery, but they are a similar color).  So you can see that it’s crushed up limestone.  Pardon the depth of field on those...I had to open the aperture pretty wide to get one that wasn’t blurry bc I don’t exactly have bright lights in my room.  

Anyway....so that’s the pottery we’ve gotten at the site and what we can learn from it.  It’s going to take some time before we can start determining patterns and whatnot in regards to style, but we do have some evidence of trading here because some of the pottery we have is from the piedmont culture....

...wait, let me explain what that means.  When archaeologists need to describe a group of people who existed in a given place in a given time based on similarities in material culture regardless of ethnic and social grouping we call it a culture.  This is different than the standard meaning of the world culture, or even the way a cultural anthropologist would use the word.  So when I say the piedmont culture, I mean people that lived in the general area of the Piedmont plateau during the late woodland.  They were of varying tribes, languages, etc.  And we do this to describe the extant boundaries of cultural influence of particular trends in physical objects and not the social groupings of the humans in question.  So, for example, lots of people are familiar with the Clovis culture.  When archaeologists use this term we mean “these are the boundaries of the places we are finding physical objects in the group we’ve named Clovis” not “everyone in this area was a Clovis person”. Like no, obviously, they weren’t.  There were tons of social groups, tribes, etc. that were all distinct and different.  It’s a way of mapping cultural influence via physical objects to see how far they spread and who was using them.  

So, we have some piedmont stuff despite not being in the piedmont area, so we know that they were trading with those natives.  If you’re interested in more detail here, this is the VDHR resource I use for IDing pottery.  It looks like it came to visit you from the late 1990s, but the info is good and it’s easy to use. 

Anyway, that’s it for tonight.  Tomorrow is gonna be rocks and weird stuff, depending on how much I end up saying about rocks.  Probably not much bc we know how I feel about rocks.   ;) 

[cowboyshit]

twenty questions

tagged by: @dustofinsanity (thank you so much my dear!!!!!!)

what do you prefer to be called name-wise? honestly I’ll probably answer to most things as long as they aren’t mean. but ash, ashley, doe, those seem to be the solid three I’m known by around here when is your birthday? november 30th!  where do you live? in a tiny, backwoods cow-town smack dab in the middle of california three things you are doing right now? filling this questionnaire out, eating dinner I just finished cooking, and petting sadie with my foot since she’s curled up at my feet after she finished her dinner four fandoms that have peaked your interest. I guess I can go with four I’ve been heavily involved with, even though there’s plenty more than that since I’m a little fangirl at heart, but wrestling (obviously), black sails, the night shift, and pirates of the caribbean how has the pandemic been treating you? uh, I mean, it hasn’t been great and I’ve had to deal with some pretty bad shit as all of us have, and probably some of my worst mental health battles I’ve had to face in about a year or so, but honestly? I just kind of count my blessings these days. lucky to still be employed, even if my pay got a little cut it was nothing that keeps me from paying my bills. all I had to do was take away a few luxury things to make ends meet, and that’s a lot, LOT less than other people have had to do. so yeah, it’s been pretty shitty, this year has been bad news after bad news both personally and globally, but whatever. it could be worse. a song you can’t stop listening to right now? it is no-joke like a four-way tie. a bunch of good songs were in my discover weekly and I’ve been playing four of them on non-stop repeat one after the other. oh! and one my best friend showed to me. this baby don’t cry by k. flay, rock bottom by grandson, ok ok by hoko, and insurgents by the poolside by denny recommend a movie. i’ve jumped into holiday mood early af because tbh I need the holiday cheer, so keeping in that theme, I suggest the holiday with jude law because DUH how old are you? thirty! school, university, occupation, other? had some college, been working in my current career for the past ten years. hoping to pursue a promotion finally since my supervisors have been telling me for the past eight years that I need to promote do you prefer heat or cold? cold pleeeaaaase! I’m a radiator and put off heat like nobody’s business. I’m always warm. name one fact others may not know about you. this is hard because I just constantly blab everything about me, and I have two people who literally know EVERYTHING about me lmfao uhhh I guess... something people may not know... uhhh... on my dad’s side of the family one half was ashkenazi jewish who had to flee germany to avoid the holocaust, where they went to live in italy, while the other half were nazi’s committing some pretty bad stuff that my family won’t talk about, even to this day. funny how two descendants eventually met in america and fell in love, huh? and when they DID fall in love one of them was half italian and in the mafia! so I always joke that my bubbly cheerful self is a descendent of some pretty evil shit, and it feels like a nice little stab at those shitty ancestors of mine. are you shy? uhhh yeah and no??? like. I think I’m shy, since all interaction terrifies me and exhausts me, but everyone tells me I’m a social butterfly? and I’ve noticed in places I’m comfortable and confident, I do tend to be less shy and more involved and interactive? but I think I can be shy. a lot of waiting for other people to initiate because I’m too afraid to, struggling to talk or carry a conversation at times... I don’t know I think I’m overcomplicating this answer LOL preferred pronouns? she/her!  biggest pet peeves? gatekeeping, to be perfectly honest. I stopped following wrestling back in 2014 because when I first tried to get into the fandom, someone was trying to gatekeep a wrestler I also liked and had started making content for and they made me feel like shit for liking them, and I absolutely hated it. that’s why it took me an entire two years of quietly lurking in the wrestling fandom before I finally got brave enough to come out of the woodwork, and I’m grateful I’ve been so well received this time around. but now I’m hyper-sensitive to gatekeeping and I fucking hate it. no joke. and since it’s a pet peeve and I’m irked just remembering all that bs I went through, ima say I’m only a part of fandom to share my love of whatever that thing is with other people who love it too. I can’t stand anyone who thinks they have some sort of “claim” over a celebrity or a show or anything. get a different identity that isn’t wrapped up in that thing and stop seeing it as a threat when other people like it. be happy someone else is as passionate about that thing as you are and make a friend. damn. what is your favorite “dere” type? I’m pretty sure this is something with anime or that originated from anime, right? unfortunately I don’t know what they are so I can’t say LOL I don’t even know if I’m right about it coming from anime tbh rate your life from 1-10, 1 being crappy and 10 being the best it could be. 4, 5, but I’m putting in the foundation now and working to make it a 6, 7, or possibly 8 by a year or two from now. what’s your main blog? funnily enough? this one. my OTHER blog that was my main blog since I joined tumblr in 2009 got shoved to the side for this one last year LOL I assumed I’d log onto this blog once in awhile, but now it took over my whole damn life so here I am I guess list your side blogs and what they’re used for. I’m going to be fair and ONLY list my active ones because I have a few side blogs from when I role-played on tumblr that I haven’t touched in over a year. @doedreamss is my non-wrestling blog that WAS my main blog before this one, @cowboysht is my archive where I am ONLY putting my original gifsets/analysis/fanfiction so that one day I can offer people a blog of just my original work and no other posts (the queue is very slowly catching up I think I’ve queued posts up until june this year), @illfatedandstarcrossed is just a non-frequently used outlet for me to mope and dump emotions when I get sad about my relationship things (like a diary! but... public? and not my original thoughts? LOL), and then I have one more blog but it’s locked and private and it’s LITERALLY my diary where I can just vent when I got shit I wanna get off my chest but don’t necessarily want people to see it. Is there something people need to know about you before becoming friends? I probably won’t talk to you daily, tbh. I may not even talk to you weekly. socializing takes a lot out of me, on top of an already energy draining day-to-day in my personal life. I have a handful of people I connect with who I talk with frequently, but unfortunately as much as I’d love for it to be endless, I have to keep that list short for my own sanity. my infrequent conversations mean absolutely nothing about my lack of interest in you or how much I care about you. my granny once said I would be the perfect friend for someone you only want to talk to twice a month and she thought she was insulting me, but deadass I just said “YEAH! EXACTLY!!”

tagging: I really like this one so I WANT to tag people, but I feel braindead and also just want to post it cause I feel like I am definitely gonna forget to tag someone tbh aaaaahh okay okay I’m just gonna throw some names out there but please don’t feel pressured to do this (it is TWENTY questions) @kennyhoemega, @champbucks, @superkickparty, @adampage, @hintsofsunshine, @audreyhrnes, @sheslikealostflower, @lancearchers, @champnick, @janelanutella, @edgecution, @superrezzy00, @wardl0w, @writinglionqueen, @orangechuckiet, @hungmanhorsecarriage, @icouldbesus, @thatnerdwriter, @rampagewriting, @snarkandsarcasmftw, @tetsuyainthesky AND I DUNNO JUST ANYONE WHO WANTS TO OK I LOVE YOU ALL BYE