#works like syncing dark side of the moon to the wizard of oz

[deadpanwalking]

A Cooking Egg by T.S. Eliot

    En l'an trentiesme de mon aage     Que toutes mes hontes j'ay beues

Pipit sate upright in her chair Some distance from where I was sitting; Views of the Oxford Colleges Lay on the table, with the knitting.

Daguerreotypes and silhouettes, Her grandfather and great great aunts, Supported on the mantelpiece An Invitation to the Dance.

. . . . .

I shall not want Honour in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney And have talk with Coriolanus And other heroes of that kidney.

I shall not want Capital in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Alfred Mond: We two shall lie together, lapt In a five per cent Exchequer Bond.

I shall not want Society in Heaven, Lucretia Borgia shall be my Bride; Her anecdotes will be more amusing Than Pipit's experience could provide.

I shall not want Pipit in Heaven: Madame Blavatsky will instruct me In the Seven Sacred Trances; Piccarda de Donati will conduct me …

. . . . .

But where is the penny world I bought To eat with Pipit behind the screen? The red-eyed scavengers are creeping From Kentish Town and Golder's Green;

Where are the eagles and the trumpets?

Buried beneath some snow-deep Alps. Over buttered scones and crumpets Weeping, weeping multitudes Droop in a hundred A.B.C.'s.

[goodbyeyellowbrickcloset]

Midnights in Wonderland: Follow ME! Down The Rabbit Hole

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise, what it is, it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” – Alice in Wonderland (1951)

I want to be clear: I didn’t discover this sync. But when I first heard whispers of Midnights in Wonderland nearly two years ago, I knew I had to sit with it, comb through every detail, and try to understand why Taylor Swift would structure an album to align with Alice in Wonderland (1951).

What I found was something more layered than I ever expected.

This is not Dark Side of the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz + Dark Side of the Moon). This is not about Taylor simply being inspired by Alice in Wonderland. This is about time, disillusionment, queerness, waking up from illusion, and realizing the fantasy isn’t real.

If you want to experience Midnights in Wonderland for yourself, here’s how:

How To Watch Midnights In Wonderland

1. Start the 1951 Alice in Wonderland movie and wait until 3 minutes and 31 seconds in. (31 is 13, backwards).

2. Press play on Midnights (3AM Edition) – in reverse order (starting with “Dear Reader” and working backward to “Lavender Haze”). Midnights in Wonderland Playlist

3. You'll notice track 3 (“Anti-Hero”) and track 8 (“Vigilante Shit”) are switched, the theory here is that we believe Taylor foreshadowed this by flipping the phone upside down in Midnights Mayhem With Me (8/3, of course).

4. The sync will end right before the movie concludes at 1 hour and 13 minutes (1:13, of course).

→ I like to have the volume on for the movie until the music starts and to turn the movie volume back on so you can hear the conclusion to the movie.

What you’ll witness is an eerie, stunning, startlingly perfect alignment of music and visual storytelling.

So the question is—why Alice? Why would Taylor choose to layer Midnights over this particular fantasy? Why not The Wizard of Oz, given how deep her Oz references run? Why this story of a girl lost in nonsense, trying to find her way back to reality?

That’s what we’re about to unpack.

Follow The White Rabbit: What Is Midnights in Wonderland Really Saying?

“If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.” – The Cheshire Cat

This theory isn’t just about visual syncs. It’s about what the story of Alice means in contrast to what Midnights is trying to say.

Here’s what I discovered while analyzing this theory—a series of questions I asked myself, followed by my own answers.

1. The Intention Behind The Sync

"Never take advice from someone who's falling apart" - Taylor Swift

Q: If this sync is real, why Alice in Wonderland? Why not The Wizard of Oz itself, given how deep Taylor’s Oz references run? A: Maybe because Dark Side of Oz is already a phenomenon, and she wouldn’t repeat it. Midnights is obsessed with clocks, time, and spirals, which aligns with the Alice in Wonderland narrative.

Q: What is she trying to convey by layering Midnights over this particular film? Is it about disillusionment? Escapism? The loss of childhood wonder? A: I think all of the above. Beginning with Dear Reader sets a very sobering tone to the fantastical journey that we embark on throughout Wonderland. The fact that Taylor refers to the audience of the song as ‘readers’, sure it could be about reading her lyrics, but regardless it's a wonderful way to visually introduce the story of a historic fantasy novel. So, yes, I believe that the layering from there on out explores escapism, loss of childhood wonder, and disillusionment.

Q: Could this be a commentary on looking back at your past self and realizing how naive you once were? (Much like Alice waking up from Wonderland.) A: Totally. In the beginning of the movie, before you start the soundtrack, Alice is hanging out with her cat, listening to her older sister read a book while daydreaming about her own fantasy world. As she starts the journey that leads her to the rabbit hole (into what is ultimately a dream), the music begins and we take the journey throughout the movie and album. As Lavender Haze concluding (remember we are listening to the album backwards), the caterpillar blows a puff of purple smoke into Alice's face and asks, "Who are you?" Alice runs into a spiral haze of purple and then wakes up to her sister saying, "Alice?! Will you kindly pay attention and recite your lesson?" bringing her back to reality. Taylor herself recognizes Midnights is a reflection of sleepless nights, and the visual journey ends with her in the same place she started.

Q: Is this a reflection of how Taylor views her past eras? Has she been living in a Wonderland-like dream state, and now she’s waking up? A: Absolutely. Midnights feels like a retrospective album, with each song revisiting a different chapter of her life—almost like flipping through a dream journal filled with past versions of herself. Tracks like Question...?, You’re On Your Own, Kid, and Karma allude to distinct personal experiences, much like a collection of memories pieced together from her different eras. When paired with Alice in Wonderland, the visual alignment becomes striking. Dear Reader sets the introspective tone as Alice enters the unknown, The Great War plays as the animated flowers sing about memories and growth, and Anti-Hero overlays the Mad Hatter’s chaotic tea party, reinforcing themes of identity struggles and self-perception. These moments suggest that Taylor isn’t just reflecting—she’s exploring the dreamlike nature of her past and whether she’s finally waking up from it.

Q: Dark Side of Oz works because The Wizard of Oz has such an intense emotional journey—does Alice in Wonderland have the same impact, or is this sync meant to show how detached or disoriented Taylor feels in this era?

A: Alice in Wonderland doesn’t follow the same emotional structure as The Wizard of Oz—instead of a clear beginning, middle, and resolution, it’s a series of strange encounters that leave Alice more confused than when she started. Syncing Midnights with Alice in Wonderland feels like an intentional way to mirror that sense of disorientation.

Taylor’s songwriting on Midnights is deeply personal, structured like pages from a diary rather than a linear narrative. The album is full of self-examination, contradictions, and fragmented emotions—just like Alice’s journey through Wonderland. Pairing these introspective lyrics with the chaotic visuals of Alice in Wonderland adds depth to both; it makes Wonderland feel less like a whimsical escape and more like a metaphor for the confusion, loneliness, and exhaustion of adulthood. In this way, Midnights feels like a grown-up’s reflection on the instability of Wonderland—what once felt magical now feels overwhelming, and waking up might be just as painful as the dream itself.

2. Alice As A Stand-In For Taylor

"Who...are...you?" – Caterpillar

Q: Alice follows the White Rabbit into Wonderland—was there a “rabbit hole” moment for Taylor that changed everything for her? A: Taylor’s “rabbit hole” moment seems to be the decision to turn her life into art—to use her personal experiences as the foundation of her songwriting. From the moment she started writing about her own emotions, relationships, and struggles, she set herself on a path where reality and storytelling would always be intertwined.

In Midnights, "Dear Reader" feels like the moment she acknowledges just how deep she’s gone. It’s not just about where she is now—it’s about the entire journey that led her here. She’s addressing the listener (the “reader”) as if we’ve been following the story all along, warning us that she’s reached a place she can’t easily escape from. The narrative and visual storytelling of Alice in Wonderland parallels this perfectly. Just like Alice falls further and further into an unpredictable, surreal world, Taylor’s career has been a continuous descent into deeper layers of meaning, performance, and coded storytelling. The deeper she goes, the harder it becomes to separate reality from the mythos she’s created around herself.

Q: Alice constantly shrinks and grows. Does this reflect Taylor’s experiences in fame—sometimes feeling larger than life, other times feeling small and powerless? A: Absolutely. Taylor has spoken often about the duality of being a global superstar while still feeling deeply human. The Anti-Hero music video directly plays with this idea—Taylor appears as a giant at a small, intimate tea party, struggling to fit into a world that suddenly feels too small for her. It’s a visual metaphor for the way fame has made her larger than life, yet unable to fully belong in ordinary spaces.

In the Midnights in Wonderland sync, Alice’s rapid shrinking and growing mirrors this tension perfectly. The first time Alice shrinks to a tiny size happens during Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve—a song heavy with themes of regret, power imbalance, and vulnerability. The constant fluctuations in size throughout the film reflect Taylor’s own struggle with navigating the extremes of her existence—being idolized and scrutinized, feeling untouchable yet incredibly exposed. The world either makes her feel too big, like an overwhelming force, or too small, like she has no real control. Alice’s disorienting experience in Wonderland serves as a powerful parallel to Taylor’s own battle with identity under the weight of fame.

Q: Alice is lost, trying to navigate a nonsensical world. Is Midnights Taylor’s way of expressing the experience of feeling lost, disoriented, or manipulated by the industry? A: Throughout Midnights, Taylor explores the disillusionment that comes with fame, power, and the entertainment industry’s ever-shifting rules. In the Midnights in Wonderland sync, Alice’s journey mirrors this experience—she trusts figures along the way, only to be misled, trapped, or forced into bizarre situations that make no logical sense. This feels like an allegory for Taylor’s navigation of the music industry, where she’s had to decipher who truly has her best interests at heart and who is simply playing a game.

The Mad Hatter’s tea party is one of the most striking parallels. Alice arrives at what seems to be a lively, welcoming space, but the rules of the conversation keep shifting, and nothing she says is ever quite right. This could represent Taylor’s experience in an industry that expects her to constantly reinvent herself, answer to critics, and adhere to standards that change at the whims of those in power.

The Queen of Hearts scene is another moment that aligns with Taylor’s industry struggles. The Queen changes the rules of the game on a whim, unfairly winning the croquet match and demanding absolute loyalty. She disposes of anyone who doesn’t comply. This could reflect Taylor’s past experiences with executives, critics, or media figures who have manipulated narratives, tried to control her career, or written her off when she didn’t play by their expectations.

Through Midnights, Taylor tells a story of trying to make sense of a world that often feels absurd and unfair—just like Alice, who must navigate Wonderland’s chaos while clinging to her own sense of reality.

Q: The Cheshire Cat is known for leading Alice astray while acting like a guide. Are there figures in Taylor’s life who have done the same? A: The Cheshire Cat is one of the most cryptic figures in Alice in Wonderland, constantly appearing and disappearing, offering guidance that is both enlightening and misleading. In the context of Midnights in Wonderland, this character could symbolize figures in Taylor’s life who have influenced her, whether positively or manipulatively, leaving her questioning what is real and what is an illusion.

One possible interpretation is that the Cheshire Cat represents Taylor’s evolving understanding of her own identity—particularly her queerness. The cat’s distinct color palette aligns with the bi-pride flag, and its tendency to appear at moments of confusion or transition mirrors the way queer identity can feel both liberating and disorienting in a world that demands clear labels. If Taylor has spent years navigating an industry and a society that forces her to compartmentalize her public image and private truth, then the Cheshire Cat’s elusive nature could reflect that inner struggle—the push and pull between visibility and secrecy.

On a broader level, the Cheshire Cat might also represent people in Taylor’s life who have played dual roles as mentors, enablers, or even deceivers. Whether industry figures, former friends, or relationships that left her feeling lost, there’s an undeniable theme in Midnights of being led astray while searching for answers.

As the Cheshire Cat tells Alice: “We’re all mad here.” Perhaps Taylor, like Alice, has spent years trying to make sense of a world that thrives on contradiction, only to realize that sometimes, the only way forward is to embrace the uncertainty.

Q: The Queen of Hearts rules through chaos and irrationality—does Taylor see herself as someone who has to play along with the madness to survive? A: The Queen of Hearts is the ultimate symbol of erratic power—ruling through fear, demanding blind loyalty, and punishing those who step out of line. In Alice in Wonderland, her commands make little sense, yet everyone scrambles to obey, terrified of her infamous “Off with their heads!” decree. This kind of oppressive authority feels eerily familiar when thinking about the power structures in the music industry, where one wrong move can result in an artist being blacklisted, misrepresented, or turned into a villain overnight.

Taylor, like Alice, has had to navigate an industry full of unpredictable rulers—whether they be executives, critics, or even public opinion itself. To survive, she has often had to “play the game,” strategically choosing when to comply and when to push back. But much like Alice in the court scene, there have been moments where Taylor has grown in stature, asserting her influence in ways that challenge the power structures around her. The most obvious example is her Lover-era battle for her masters, where she stood up to the music industry’s own version of the Queen of Hearts and refused to be silenced.

However, just as Alice realizes the Queen's power is ultimately flimsy—built on intimidation rather than real strength—Taylor seems to understand that her true power isn’t in conforming, but in outlasting. By staying in control of her narrative, she continues to grow larger in the industry, becoming an entity even the so-called rulers can’t ignore. The Queen of Hearts thrives on absolute control, but Taylor has proven that she can thrive by doing the opposite—reinventing herself, adapting, and refusing to let anyone dictate her path.

In the end, just as Alice wakes up and leaves Wonderland behind, perhaps Taylor is working toward a future where she no longer has to play along with the madness to survive.

3. Midnights As The Anti-Wonderland

“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” – Alice

Q: Wonderland is a place of nonsense, fantasy, and illusion. Is Midnights an anti-fantasy, the realization of hard truths in the cold light of reality? A: Yes. If Alice in Wonderland represents the whimsical, unpredictable dream-state of Taylor’s past eras—where love, fame, and identity were experienced in larger-than-life, surreal terms—then Midnights is the stark moment of waking up. It’s the cold, quiet hours spent reflecting on everything that once seemed magical, only to realize how distorted and deceptive it might have been.

Unlike past albums that *supposedly* leaned into storytelling and character work (Folklore, Evermore), Midnights is intensely biographical. The emotions are raw, the self-reflection is sharp, and the illusions have shattered. Where Wonderland thrives on the nonsensical—contradictions, paradoxes, and a world where rules change on a whim—Midnights is structured, intentional, and brutally honest. It takes the experiences that once seemed like fairytales and holds them up against reality, forcing Taylor (and the listener) to acknowledge what was real and what was merely a fantasy she wanted to believe in.

A key lyrical choice in Midnights is her frequent use of “you” instead of specific pronouns or names. This technique makes the songs feel personal yet universal, almost like a diary written in code. It mirrors the feeling of waking up from a dream where the details are blurry, but the emotions linger. We don’t always know exactly who she’s talking to—but that’s part of the point. In Wonderland, identities shift, characters contradict themselves, and meanings are fluid. In Midnights, the themes of secrecy, longing, and disillusionment take center stage, but the details remain just out of reach—mirroring Taylor’s own experience of grappling with a reality that doesn’t always match the fantasy she once lived in.

So if Wonderland was the dream, Midnights is the reckoning. It’s the moment of realization that some fantasies were just that—fantasies. But instead of running from the truth, she lingers in it, analyzing every sleepless thought and making peace with the chaos of both the dream and the awakening.

Q: Is Midnights Taylor waking up from the dream of the past—whether that’s fame, a relationship, or her own illusions about life? A: Midnights feels like a reckoning with the illusions Taylor has carried—whether about love, fame, or even her own identity. The album is deeply introspective, filled with moments of clarity that cut through the haze of past experiences. If Wonderland represents the fantasy—the whirlwind of romance, success, and the world she built around her—then Midnights is her stepping back and asking, Was any of it real?

As I've said, “Dear Reader” sets the tone right from the start of the sync, as Alice falls down the rabbit hole. The song itself acts as a cautionary letter to both the listener and Taylor’s younger self, warning that nothing is ever as it seems. It’s a significant opening because it frames the entire journey as one of reflection—looking back on past choices, past relationships, and past personas with a more critical, perhaps even cynical, lens.

Watching Midnights in Wonderland with the tracklist played in reverse order is particularly striking. The final song becomes “Lavender Haze,” where Taylor pleads to stay in the fog of illusion, resisting the pressures of reality. This mirrors Alice’s own journey: after all the chaos and confusion of Wonderland, she finally wakes up to the mundane reality of everyday life. The dream ends, but what comes next?

That’s the lingering question. Midnights doesn’t necessarily resolve the tension—it sits in the space between the dream and the wake-up call, between nostalgia and hard truths. If this album is Taylor coming to terms with what was real and what wasn’t, then the real story lies in what she chooses to do with that knowledge. Does she stay in the Lavender Haze, or does she finally step into a world of screaming color? That’s the question she leaves us with, and only time will tell how she chooses to answer it.

Q: In Alice in Wonderland, time is chaotic, controlled by external forces (The White Rabbit is obsessed with being late). Does this mirror Taylor’s own struggles with time—her career milestones, aging in the public eye, or the pressure to keep moving? A: Absolutely. Time, both as a theme and a source of anxiety, is central to Midnights. Taylor has always been hyper-aware of time—whether it’s the ticking clock of her career, the way the public fixates on her age, or the fleeting nature of relationships. In Alice in Wonderland, the White Rabbit is frantically running, always worried about being late, much like how Taylor has expressed feeling the pressure to evolve, reinvent, and stay ahead in an industry that demands constant motion.

Throughout Midnights in Wonderland, this theme is reinforced visually and musically. In Bigger Than The Whole Sky, which plays during a moment of reflection and loss, the White Rabbit bursts in, disrupting the moment with his panic—just as Taylor often finds herself forced to move forward before she’s ready. This aligns with how she’s spoken about the relentless pace of fame, where there’s rarely a moment to grieve, process, or simply exist.

One of the most significant moments in the sync happens during the tea party scene, where Bejeweled and Anti-Hero play. Here, the chaotic, nonsensical nature of Wonderland reaches a peak, and the clock—representing control, structure, and the passage of time—is destroyed. This feels like a turning point, both in Alice’s journey and in Taylor’s storytelling. If time is shattered, if the rules no longer apply, what happens next?

Taylor has never been one to let time dictate her narrative—she’s constantly rewriting her own story, reclaiming eras, and challenging the expectations placed on her. But Midnights acknowledges the weight of those expectations, the exhaustion of keeping up, and the moments where she just wants to stop the clock entirely. The sync with Alice in Wonderland only reinforces how deeply ingrained this struggle is in her music, her life, and the world she’s built around her.

Q: If Midnights is about sleepless nights and spirals, does that make Wonderland the dream state she’s waking up from? A: Rather than Midnights being the moment of waking up, it feels like the journey through the dream itself—each song a different chapter of a long, disorienting night.

So, what happens when the dream ends? On The Lavender Edition of the album, Taylor includes Hits Different, where she explicitly sings about waking up—unsure if the person at her door is the one she longs for or someone coming to take her away. It’s a jarring shift, a sudden snap back to reality. If Wonderland represents the escapism of Midnights, then Hits Different is the moment Alice opens her eyes and realizes the fantasy is over.

What makes this even more striking is what follows. In The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor trades the rich, whimsical color palette of Midnights for stark black-and-white imagery, positioning herself in an asylum—one of the most extreme visual representations of being trapped in her own mind. If Midnights in Wonderland is her subconscious spinning through illusions, Tortured Poets seems to be the aftermath—where the magic is gone, and she’s left with nothing but cold, harsh reality.

Just as Kansas and Oz exist in striking contrast, so do Midnights and Tortured Poets. It begs the question: is Taylor waking up to clarity, or just a different kind of illusion?

4. The Soundtrack Choice

“It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me At tea time, everybody agrees” – Taylor Swift

Q: Why would Taylor specifically create an auditory sync rather than a visual or lyrical one? A: Before Midnights was released, Taylor hinted it was a “visual album,” but instead of traditional music videos for every song, what if the visuals were hidden in something deeper—like Alice in Wonderland?

An auditory sync makes Midnights an immersive experience, aligning with Taylor’s love of layered storytelling. Alice in Wonderland is all about perception vs. reality, and syncing her album to the film could be a way of making us see Midnights in a whole new way—one that questions time, identity, and illusion, much like Alice’s journey itself.

Q: Does she want us to feel the emotional journey rather than just see it? A: The contrast between Alice in Wonderland’s whimsical, colorful world and Midnights’ raw, introspective lyrics is striking. Taylor has always balanced fantasy and reality in her storytelling, and this sync feels like an extension of that—using Wonderland’s playful visuals to heighten the weight of her sleepless-night confessions. It’s not just about seeing the parallels; it’s about feeling the dissonance between escapism and harsh truth.

Q: Is there something about Midnights that lends itself to being experienced alongside a story of confusion, whimsy, and eeriness? A: Absolutely. While Midnights isn't about Alice in Wonderland, its themes of disorientation, self-reflection, and emotional turbulence align seamlessly with the film’s chaotic, dreamlike world. Taylor masterfully intertwines her personal storytelling with Wonderland’s surrealism, making the sync feel almost inevitable—like she used its whimsical setting as a backdrop to amplify the complexity of her own narrative.

Q: Does the reversed track list + song swaps suggest a deliberate restructuring of the Midnights narrative to better fit Wonderland’s progression? A: Listening to Midnights in reverse order undeniably shifts the storytelling arc, especially with how it begins and ends. Reversing the tracklist mirrors Wonderland’s logic-defying nature, creating a sense of disorientation that aligns with the film’s surreal, dreamlike progression. The choice to swap Anti-Hero and Vigilante Shit suggests an intentional reordering, reinforcing the idea of reality unraveling and shifting perspectives.

Alice’s own words—“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't”—are spoken just before Dear Reader begins, a song that reads like a warning to question everything. Taylor’s life and career have often been a balancing act between public perception and hidden truths, making this backward sequencing feel like a direct nod to the “two Taylors”—the one the world sees and the one she keeps for herself. As you watch you'll see alllllll the other alignments that show up. It's truly quiet mind blowing.

5. Lyrical Parallels

“Within that world of my own I could listen to a babbling brook And hear a song that I could understand I keep wishing it could be that way Because my world would be a wonderland” – Alice

Q: In a World of My Own is about creating a world where everything makes sense—does Dear Reader contrast this by saying, “Actually, reality is cruel, so stop looking for a fantasy”?

A: Dear Reader is the antithesis of In a World of My Own. Alice dreams of a whimsical place where the world bends to her desires, but Dear Reader warns against that kind of escapism. Taylor’s lyrics feel like a wake-up call, suggesting that what seems idealized or romanticized is often an illusion. The song hints that the comforting, dreamlike version of reality people create for themselves is a performance masking something far more difficult beneath the surface. Wonderland is a fantasy world of talking flowers and friendly creatures, but Taylor’s Midnights rewrites that story into something sharper and more sobering, where the "rabbit hole" might lead somewhere much darker.

Q: The Mad Hatter’s tea party is chaotic and nonsensical—does this align with Karma’s playful but slightly manic tone?

A: While Karma doesn’t play during the tea party scene, the sentiment fits. In the sync, the tea party unfolds to Bejeweled and Anti-Hero, both of which tap into themes of performance and instability. The Mad Hatter’s world operates on erratic, surreal logic—much like Bejeweled, where Taylor sparkles through the chaos, and Anti-Hero, where she confronts her own demons in a theatrical, exaggerated way. The energy of the tea party, with its dizzying conversations and unpredictable shifts, echoes the hyper-aware, slightly unhinged mood that runs through these songs. It’s the moment Alice realizes she’s truly surrounded by nonsense—just as Taylor grapples with the performative, often absurd nature of fame and self-image.

Q: The Queen of Hearts is a tyrant who demands blind loyalty—does Vigilante Shit speak to taking power back from a controlling force?

A: I think so. The Queen of Hearts rules through fear, demanding obedience and using public executions as a spectacle of control. The fact that Vigilante Shit syncs with this moment in the film feels almost too perfect—this is the final confrontation, the moment of rebellion. The Queen, much like oppressive forces in Taylor’s own narrative, holds power by manipulating the game in her favor, making the rules up as she goes. But Alice, much like Taylor in Vigilante Shit, refuses to play along. The upside-down track list theory that led to Vigilante Shit aligning with this scene suggests an intentional mirroring—this is the battle, the moment of taking back agency from someone who thrives on control.

Q: The White Rabbit is obsessed with time running out—does You’re on Your Own, Kid capture that same sense of fleeting opportunity and loneliness?

A: You’re on Your Own, Kid is drenched in the panic of running out of time, a feeling that mirrors the White Rabbit’s desperate urgency. He constantly reminds Alice that she’s late, pulling her deeper into the chaotic world of Wonderland. In the same way, Taylor’s song wrestles with the pressure of fleeting moments—of youth, of relationships, of self-discovery. The song builds with the realization that time doesn’t wait for anyone, that you have to carve your own path even if it means doing it alone. Much like Alice chasing the White Rabbit through Wonderland, Taylor chases something elusive, only to realize that in the end, she’s entirely on her own.

Q: Alice in Wonderland is a trip—both figuratively and literally. Does Midnights explore the comedown from an era of delusion or idealism?

A: Midnights feels like a self-aware reflection on the illusions Taylor has lived through. It’s an album that acknowledges the high of believing in something, only to later recognize its flaws. Alice tumbles into Wonderland expecting adventure, only to face confusion, absurdity, and power struggles. Similarly, Midnights revisits Taylor’s past through a more jaded, self-critical lens. It’s a journey through memory, through idealized pasts that don’t quite hold up upon closer examination. The album arrived at a moment in her career when she was actively revisiting her own mythology—re-recording her albums, performing The Eras Tour, and, perhaps, realizing that the fairy tale wasn’t always what it seemed.

6. Queerness in Wonderland

“Curiouser and curiouser!" – Alice

Q: Alice in Wonderland has been analyzed as a queer-coded text, much like The Wizard of Oz. Is Midnights engaging with that same queer lens?

A: AB-SO-FREAKING-LUTELY. Midnights is deeply queer-coded, just as Alice in Wonderland has long been interpreted through a queer lens. The themes of disorientation, identity struggles, and hidden meaning that run through Alice are strikingly similar to the way Taylor constructs Midnights. Many of the songs on the album carry layers of queer storytelling, particularly when examined in the broader context of her work. The album plays with secrecy, longing, and a sense of having to navigate the world under a carefully curated image—sentiments that resonate heavily with queer experiences. And when you start mapping Midnights onto Alice in Wonderland, the connections become even harder to ignore.

Q: Wonderland is a world where nothing is what it seems, and identity is fluid—does this resonate with Taylor’s own relationship with self-expression and queerness?

A: Without a doubt. Alice in Wonderland thrives on contradictions—things aren’t what they appear, words don’t mean what they should, and identity is constantly shifting. Taylor’s work, especially Midnights, leans into these same themes. She blurs reality and illusion, weaving coded references into her music and public image. The dreamlike quality of Alice mirrors Taylor’s own career—where what we see on the surface may not reflect the truth underneath. There’s a deep longing in Midnights for a reality that’s different from the one she’s been confined to. The sync with Alice in Wonderland only emphasizes the idea that she exists in a world of contradictions, caught between what’s real and what’s a performance.

Q: The phrase “down the rabbit hole” is often used to describe falling into a new way of seeing the world. Did Taylor have a moment where she “woke up” to a new understanding of herself?

A: Taylor’s entire career has been a long journey through the rabbit hole—one where she has hidden, revealed, and rewritten parts of herself through storytelling. If Midnights represents the descent, then every coded Easter egg she’s left behind is part of that journey. And really, what’s more fitting than the idea of Taylor Swift—queen of Easter eggs—laying metaphorical “eggs” throughout her career as she navigates the world? A rabbit hole isn’t just a place you fall into—it’s a maze, full of twists, illusions, and revelations. The day Taylor stops leaving breadcrumbs for us to follow might be the day she finally climbs out of it. But does she even want to leave? Wonderland is full of color, hidden meaning, and magic. Maybe she’s exactly where she wants to be.

7. The Eras Tour Clock + Time Motif

“If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him!” – The Mad Hatter

Q: The giant ticking clock in the Eras Tour is reminiscent of the White Rabbit’s obsession with time—does this suggest Midnights and Alice in Wonderland are deeply connected?

A: Almost assuredly. The White Rabbit’s frantic anxiety about time slipping away mirrors the way Midnights fixates on late nights, nostalgia, and the haunting passage of time. Taylor’s use of a massive, looming clock in the Eras Tour stage design reinforces this parallel—it’s as if she’s acknowledging that time has always been one of her biggest struggles, both personally and professionally. The ticking clock in Alice in Wonderland isn’t just about running late; it’s about being controlled by time, about feeling like you’re constantly chasing something you may never catch. Midnights shares that same sentiment—reflecting on past moments, lost opportunities, and the relentless forward march of life in the spotlight.

Q: Taylor references time CONSTANTLY in Midnights. Does this parallel Wonderland’s distorted perception of time?

A: Without a doubt. In Alice in Wonderland, time bends, halts, and warps—it’s unreliable, dictated by forces beyond Alice’s control. Midnights operates the same way. The album is non-linear, jumping through past heartbreaks, regrets, and moments of clarity as if Taylor is unstuck in time, revisiting versions of herself that still haunt her. The imagery of clocks, sleepless nights, and “moments that turned into something bigger” all contribute to this sense that she is grappling with time as an illusion—just like Alice. The Eras Tour clock only cements this idea further.

8. If This Was Her Plan, What Comes Next?

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” – Alice

Q: If Taylor deliberately created this sync, what’s her endgame?

A: Taylor has built her career on storytelling, symbolism, and an almost obsessive attention to detail. She knows her audience thrives on unraveling hidden meanings, and this sync feels like another puzzle she’s left for those who are willing to look deeper. If Midnights truly aligns with Alice in Wonderland, then perhaps the next step is not just waking up from the dream but understanding why she needed the dream in the first place. While some theories suggest The Tortured Poets Department might sync with Dead Poets Society, I haven’t analyzed that theory in depth yet. But what I do know is that Alice in Wonderland is a journey into the unknown, and Midnights is Taylor’s most self-reflective album yet—so wherever she’s taking us next, it will likely continue peeling back the layers of performance and illusion she’s been building for years.

Q: Is Midnights her realization era—her breaking free from Wonderland?

A: I think it’s a turning point, but not the end of the journey. Midnights is deeply introspective, but it doesn’t feel like complete liberation—it feels like a reckoning. The album is full of hindsight, regret, and the desire to rewrite history. If Alice in Wonderland represents a dream state, Midnights could be the moment before waking—where you’re half-conscious, aware that you’re dreaming but not quite ready to leave. She’s still tangled in nostalgia, secrets, and the tension between fantasy and reality.

Q: If she’s leaving clues about waking up from the fantasy, what is she waking up to?

A: I think she has shown us that she’s waking up to The Tortured Poets Department. If Midnights was about navigating the disorienting haze of fame, love, and secrecy, Tortured Poets seems to be the stark, raw aftermath. The color has been drained, the whimsical illusions have faded, and she’s confronting the reality that she still isn’t living freely. The shift from Midnights to Tortured Poets feels like going from a surreal, dreamlike place to a stark, clinical reality—almost like waking up in an asylum after falling through the rabbit hole. She’s still dealing with secrecy and heartbreak, still writing about hidden love and longing, but now the magic is gone.

Q: Does this mean The Tortured Poets Department is her post-Wonderland album—more stripped back, raw, and grounded?

A: Yes, but in a way that still feels unresolved. She’s no longer in Wonderland, but she’s not in “screaming color” either. Instead, she’s in black and white. The shift from the whimsical, metaphor-heavy world of Midnights to the grayscale, sterile aesthetic of Tortured Poets suggests she’s still trapped—just in a different way. Instead of navigating the illusions of Wonderland, she’s now sitting with the consequences of waking up. And the question remains: does she want to stay awake, or does she want to dream again?

Conclusion: Are You Ready To Wake Up?

The Midnights in Wonderland sync isn’t just a coincidence. It’s a conversation. A visual, musical, and thematic experiment in how we interpret Taylor’s work.

It’s her Wonderland, but it’s also ours.

So—have you watched the sync? Did anything stand out to you? What are your thoughts on the connections? And more importantly—if Taylor is waking up, what is she waking up to?

Let’s discuss.

(P.S. If you’ve spotted any especially queer-coded moments in the sync, drop them below. I’d love to hear them.) ✨

[notesofaninsignificantmusician]

Today In Music History—March 1st, 2022:

On this day 49 years ago, in 1973, Pink Floyd released their eighth studio album, “The Dark Side of the Moon.” To this day one of the top three albums in music history, the album debuted at #95 on the US Albums Chart, but quickly climbs up the ladder, and became the album with the most weeks on the tally. A conspiracy theory has arose in the past few decades, when it was discovered that “The Dark Side of the Moon” when played alongside the classic film “The Wizard of Oz” syncs up scarily perfectly. My family has taken part in this experiment, and not only does it work, but it does not matter the song nor the album by Pink Floyd, nor even the movie in question. We have synced the band’s classic movie from both “Dark Side of the Moon” “The Wall” and much more to classic films such as “Mary Poppins” “Wall-E” “Inglorious Basterds” “O Brother Where Art Thou” and many more without a flaw in the conspiracy. Just another reason why this album paved the way for music history

If you’d like to see my copy of “The Dark Side of the Moon” on vinyl, you can find it here on my series, “Vinyl Fridays”

I also challenge you all to take your favorite movie, and push shuffle on your Pink Floyd library, and see what happens!

[joecial-distancing]

2019 in review in review:

A few years ago I started tracking yearly goals, books read, movies watched etc in a year, along with overview blurbs, in private posts. End of 2019/beginning of 2020 I was really frazzled/burned out about a lot of stuff and just never finished up making the thing. 8 months later, got the urge to read back what I’d got done, then figured I’d maybe go ahead and see about finishing. 

Media tracking below the break. thoughts/blurbs written in 2020 italicized, 2019 not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_____________________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Didn’t do so hot on explicit personal goals, but had a lot of stuff go ok around them this year.

School’s been fine/better than fine.

Job’s probably the biggest failing. Still with same job, haven’t made the firm moves to jump off, dragging my feet too much on exploring stuff w/ Columbia/NASA GISS.

Did not get better with covid, lol

Dating life still non-existent, but I’ve registered on apps, gotten more comfortable with selfies, improved general social life dramatically, been flirted with, updated my wardrobe, and generally started to get comfortable accepting that I’m a hot person.

Somehow got extremely better during covid.

Books

Grant (finished)

We stan a taurus legend

Guy was good at exactly one job, and was fortunate enough to have been in the right place/right time to get to do it.

Mort (discworld)

Definitely best discworld I’ve gotten to so far.

Don Quixote p. II

Really entertaining in a way that part 1 wasn’t; I was shocked how much the meta element landed for me.

Consider the Lobster (DFW collection)

had zero context on who DFW is/was when I read, and still don’t exactly tbh. Wanted to wait for a pause in The Discourse before diving into more of him, but dunno if I’m ever going to get that.

Crime and Punishment (revisited)

Weirdly didn’t get much more out of this than I did the first time I’d read it

Better Than Sex (HST Gonzo papers)

Xerox/widespread fax accessibility opening citizen access to mass media in a manner really reminiscent of what social media would go on to do at a much larger scale. Has a much more deliberate narrative arc than the other gonzo papers collections, also has that excellent HST richard nixon eulogy

The Brothers Karamazov

SPQR

Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Didion collection)

Pet Sematary

Not my favorite King, but not bad

Sourcery (discworld)

still funny/charming, but Mort really made clear/reminded me how much the hapless sadsack Rincewind mold of protagonist wears on me after a while.

The Devil's Teeth

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Liked it a lot more once I realized it was doing a Fear and Loathing thing.

Homage to Catalonia

This should be the Orwell that gets taught in schools. Make it a followup to All Quiet on the Western Front or something, jeez.

Lyndon Johnson I

Having now finished all of them, this one’s probably the least-interesting but sets up a bunch of important context that the others still then feel the need to retread.

The Razor's Edge

Recommended to me as a “white guy discovers eastern mysticism” book, but also is more interesting in its treatment of that than I’d expected (helps it was written in the 40s). 

Cat's Cradle

There’s a part in this where Vonnegut’s making fun of people who try to bond with strangers over being Hoosiers, and my dumbass immediate thought was “ooh, Vonnegut’s a hoosier? Me too!”

Lyndon Johnson II

Robert Caro felt compelled to apologize for spending so much words lionizing Coke Stevens, segregationist opponent to Johnson’s senate run. His goal was pretty clearly to show lbj’s lack of campaign charisma by contrast, definitely definitely overcommitted in his own narrativising.

Libra

I want to go back to this after reading some more De Lillo.

Gravity's Rainbow

This book absolutely kicked my ass

Overstuffed and referential in a specific way that really keeps me hooked in instead of put off. When I learn about some piece of cultural context that I retroactively recognize as being referenced in this, I want to go back and reread the entire thing.

From Caligari to Hitler

Kind of fails both as film criticism and cultural analysis, but absolutely made me want to run for the hills when considering current relationship between mainstream movies and demands of pop culture.

I took a class on Weimar cinema in undergrad that I now realize was probably biting pretty heavily from this and never once referenced it.

Movies

Venom

Movie itself is not as fun as the Tom Hardy hype coverage. PG13 was the absolute worst space to aim for, PG- or R- versions of this could have been a blast.

Harryhauser Argonauts

Was tripping when I put this on, and it was all kinds of fun.

2001: a Space Oddyssey

First time seeing this, all-time classic for a reason!

A Good American (the NSA doc)

Dr. Strangelove

Mel Brooks History of the World p. I

Not my favorite Brooks, best joke was at the beginning.

In Bruges

Had been a while since I saw a proper dark comedy.

Spiderverse

Fukkin awesome!

Visually great, and extremely better than usual superhero stuff for being aimed at PG instead of PG-13.

You Only Live Twice

Highlander (Revisited)

I watched The Old Guard on netflix recently and it mostly just made me wish I was watching Highlander instead, because at least Highlander knows exactly how goofy it is

Moonraker

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Much like The Shining, I though this would have been 100% spoiled for me by cultural osmosis, but turns out it wasn’t, and even the scenes I had seen *totally landed* in-context still.

Kung Fu Hustle

Ichi the Killer

Really gross, really fun

Matrix Reloaded (watched thru highway scene) (Revisited)

The highway scene was not nearly as cool as I remembered it being.

John Wick 3*

Probably dumbest plot of all of them, best choreography. I like how every single fight had its own distinct flavor. “Knife museum fight” “horse fight” “halle berry dogs fight” 

Akira

A classic

Pet Sematary * (ugh, bad)

Why can’t john lithgow be in good movies anymore

The Revenant

MCU Spiderman

Fuck this was awful.

MCU Spiderman 2*

Really weird, complete Rorschach Test of a movie: it’d be totally valid to read into this that global warming is Fake News, for instance.

Lmao this was completely awful

Rites

Dredd (non-stallone)

oh hey Lena Headey’s in this

For All Mankind!

Watched in honor of moon landing anniversary

Lion King *

Watched it way too stoned, was like dark side of the moon + wizard of oz except instead it’s a lion king script reading + nature footage edited for lip syncing.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood *

Many scenes of very long setups for really stupid shaggy dog jokes, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. I do kinda want to rewatch now knowing more about manson, which I knew pretty much nothing about beforehand

Blowout

A good john lithgow movie

also I think I like travolta in things.

Lord of War

A Good cage movie

I like when Eamon Walker shows up in stuff.

Taxi Driver

A classic

Snowpiercer

Watched in a bar with only one speaker working, which is the correct way to watch. Weirder and funnier than I thought it was going to be, which still doesn’t make it good, but,

dbz big green dub

Exorcist III

Brad Dourif just tearing it apart

Deep Red (argento)

Suspiria (1977)

Watched the remake in 2020, which was ok, but nothing tops the Goblin score.

Elf Bowling

Thanks, Gnome

Parasite *

Interesting to me that this one seems poised to hang around people’s good esteem for a while

TV

FMA: B

Rick & Morty

Saw some episodes, generally pretty funny, some misanthropy that’s probably appealing to a certain type of teen al a something like House, but ultimately I don’t totally Get the intensity of discourse about it.

Leterkenny

Mob Psycho 100

One Punch Man

Deadwood

Watchmen

Only watched like half of it. Was playing around with a lot of hefty imagery/thematics, but didn’t really seem ready to rise above playing (tho also I feel like it’s weird on some level to *expect* them to rise above that in the first place)

Music

New Avantasia

HEALTH/ show

lol remember concerts

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard/ show

Just learned about King Gizz in 2019 and got completely obsessed with them. I don’t tend to expand my music selection very readily, and a lot of what I currently *do* know is old/inactive stuff, so it was/is incredibly exciting to have an active group with good momentum just immediately win me over like that.

Mistimed the edibles and ended up with a really good finale and a really long subway ride home.

New Yeasayer

Sad they split up

Steve Wilson Tull remixes

Aqualung’s a good album and the sound mixing’s kinda bad, so I liked this project.

Stonefield

Opened for Gizzard. Really good as studying music

Video Games

Civ VI: Gathering Storm

Hades

Turns out Supergiant’s design proclivities all work *extremely well* on a roguelike

Baba is You

Untitled Goose Game

Cute, if maybe a bit overhyped

finally fucking finished Pillars of Eternity

Had fun with it, but too long, and really dour for how long it is.

Pillars II

Kinda drifted off it eventually, but I do genuinely like that the flavor of the fantasy is colonial era rather than medieval.

There’s a Balancing Bastard Factions element where it’s like the writers are just being smartasses after a while. Having to go extremely out of their way to make siding with colonizers seem like a competitive option.

Pokemon shield

Cuphead

pisses me off, which was a nice outlet when I was stranded by flight cancellations during thanksgiving

Celeste

Also very difficult, but really easy to stay patient with, which is nice.

Disco Elysium

None of the discourse made me want to play this, but people talking about the mechanical stuff it did got me extremely interested. Mostly Delivered IMO.

Breath of the Wild

You can approach the nodes of the main quest in the order you choose, and the second one I chose made ninjas start fucking spawning everywhere when I’m just trying to explore, and there’s no way to make it stop. May go back to it one day.

Podcasts

Relentless Picnic Patreon feed

The treats really helped me start distinguishing individual personalities, compared to the regular eps.

Picnic Discord!

<3

FatT Counterweight

Fun, but also I think Mechs are not my shit.

FatT Spring in Hieron/ end of that particular world

8 months since I’ve last tuned into FatT. ah well.

Law School

He’s in everythiiiing!

You Must Remember This: Manson family

*There’s* the context

Misc.

Kindle train guy

Times Square sleeping guy + kids taking selfies w/ him

toddler singing along after Psycho killer (a, ya, ya ya, ya)

drunk and dragged to a drag show

Central park football family

Soft Steel Drum Subway Busker

Weird old lady going to grand central for oysters

2018 in review (cards):

MySelf (CC)

Self: Tower

Blocked: 10 Cups

Ethereal/subconscious: 8 Swords

Material: 3 Swords

Past: Justice

Future: Page Wands

Attitude: Sun

External: King Swords

Hopes/Fears: 5 Coins

Trajectory: High Priestess

Also Self:

Hierophant

7 Cups

7 Coins

Blind Spot:

(self & others): 5 cups    ||    (others not self): High Priestess

(self not others): Moon   ||    (nobody): 3 Cups

[1ff]

Scene-by-scene analysis of Inception (spoilers)

We have begun a group project to create an album that syncs up with the movie Inception (similar to how Dark Side of the Moon supposedly syncs with The Wizard of Oz, except intentionally). The working title for this soundtrack album is Incite.

I have chosen to contribute by creating a chart of every significant scene cut and visual cue, timed as accurately as possible. I have so far watched the first 7 minutes and 56 seconds of the movie over the course of roughly an hour and created 36 lines of detailed notes cross-referenced with keywords.

It is fascinating, when you are pausing the movie and going back and forth over scenes frame-by-frame, what you start to notice.

I have seen two close-ups of watches so far. The shot that occurs in a dream is upside-down. I will be watching to see if this is a pattern.

Also, I find it interesting that early in the movie Cobb ties a rope to a chair that Mal is sitting on, and rappels out the window. Since I have been using keywords I have noticed that chairs associated with falling are a repeated motif (which is stated outright, but also seems to be subtly inserted in several places). Mal then leaves the chair and Cobb falls again. Originally I assumed this was malicious, but now it looks like Mal was intentionally trying to wake Cobb out of the larger dream she insists he is still in. (In the previous scene she asks if she would die if she fell.)

-Prog

[ihearthisto]

Do you have any tips for how to study histology? I'm about to begin and really nervous!

Every picture tells a story

Thanks for your question anon!

There is a short answer to your question - and that is that there is no magic bullet that works for everyone. You have to find what works best for you. Having said that, I have never been one for short answers so here is something much more lengthy that will hopefully help you.

It isn’t a trick or a mnemonic. It isn’t a method to improve your memorization capacity. It is merely a shift in the way you think about histology. For many, a simple adjustment in the way you think about the subject can bring into focus a whole new world from what was once was vague pinky purpleyness.

Think of it like this. Every histological image you look at is a work of unique biological art. Instantly recognizable by experts (even at high magnification) based upon the patterns, shapes and colors of its constituent connective tissue and cells.

Take another look at the pictures I posted above:

I bet you recognized the Mona Lisa from a highly magnified shot of those brow-less eyes? Or the album artwork for Abbey Road by the Beatles from a close up shot of that pedestrian crosswalk? Or Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon from that ‘prism’?

Those patterns are instantly recognizable - iconic.

Histology is the same (except the club is more exclusive). Every image has unique features that make it what it is. Can you instantly recognize the cartilage of the ear in its highly magnified state? Maybe not, but with practice you will be able to.

The first time you saw Mona Lisa you probably had no clue who she was but seeing her image in countless magazines, art class, on TV, in museums made even the tiniest details of her face instantly recognizable.

So my first tips for learning histology are:

1. Pattern recognition. Learn to see those unique histological patterns that make that tissue that tissue. Patterns don’t lie.

2. Expose yourself. Not in the Friday night nudity get arrested kind of way. But expose yourself to as many images of the same tissues as possible. Pattern recognition skills only improve with plenty of varied (look at different slides not the same one) practice.

Very soon you will see that the Pancreas and Parotid gland are as different as a Da Vinci and a Van Gogh.

But remember, histology is not just about identifying tissues…which brings me to my last piece of advice (promise).

Every one of the images above tells a story…

a. Mona Lisa’s story

Some say that Mona Lisa is Lisa del Giocondo a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The painting is thought to have been commissioned for their new home, and to celebrate the birth of their second son. Others say that this is actually a Da Vinci self portrait which explains the fact that the more I look at this painting the more I see her more masculine features.

b. The Abbey Road story

Did you know that Paul is not wearing any shoes? Or that the VW Beetle car was owned by the guys in the flat opposite Abbey Rd studios? After release of the album the cars license plate was regularly stolen! It is now on display in a museum in Germany. The distracted man in the image is an American tourist in London, his name is Paul Cole. He died in 2008 forever immortalized on this iconic album sleeve. And stoutly disliked the music of the Beatles. [Whether Mr Cole was telling the truth or lying is debated, either way it is a great story and I feel there is a novel in this somewhere…]

c. The Dark Side story

The spectrum (missing indigo) from the prism is said to represent the magnificent light shows the Floyd wowed crowds with at their live shows. But at the same time it could be a rainbow…which feeds the theory that if you start playing the album at the same time as you start watching The 19439 Judy Garland classic ‘The Wizard of OZ’ the lyrics sync with the events on screen. Full version here. Maybe there is something over that rainbow?

d. The Ear story

The ear is pretty flexible. Those jug handles protrude from the sides of our head and are at risk of being torn off every time a kid pushes his/her head into a tight space where a head is not meant to go. Think about how many times a dog or cat does this. To avoid this, those black filaments you see make sure that the ear bends and springs back into its original position - they are elastin fibers. Like those in the waistband of your pants. The cells are chondrocytes, beady eyes peering at you. they make the cartilage matrix which is lightweight (so our heads aren’t overly heavy), flexible (so the ears can bend) but really strong (so they can take some abuse before they get damaged).

So my second tips for learning histology are:

1. Learn the tissue’s story. The reason the patterns exist in the first place is because the components play a distinct functional role in that tissue that make that tissue that tissue. If you make this link between structure and function histology will make much more sense.

2. Enjoy it. If you enjoy science/biology/medicine then embrace histology. It is the story of your body. How it is put together, how it works. It is not often you get to gaze into the building blocks of your own soul and marvel at them in full vivid color. And for those of you who don’t have that insatiable curiosity about how your own body works then…maybe…maybe medical science is not the wisest career path to venture down.

I wish you the very best of luck with your studies in histology.

i♡histo

[ymoviesuk-group]

Was The Shining Stanley Kubrick admitting he faked the moon landing?

As part of part of our series on mind-blowing movie fan theories, we're changing the way you watch some of Hollywood's most famous films. This week: 'The Shining', whose source book by Stephen King turns 40 this year.

The theory

There are several bonkers theories on 'The Shining', nine of which are detailed in the excellent documentary, 'Room 237'. 'The Shining' is the perfect film onto which to project such theories, because a) Stanley Kubrick was incredibly detail-oriented and never left anything to chance, and b) Stanley Kubrick is dead, therefore unable to disprove any of the crackpot conspiracies you'd care to sling at his movies.

Read more: Shia LaBeouf’s anti-Trump project Sir Ian McKellen had the best sign at the Women’s March Rogue One crosses $1 billion at the box office

Several theories detailed in 'Room 237' are interesting, including a claim that the Native Americans on the hotel's food cans suggest an underlying theme of American imperialism, and an interesting dissection with a dolly cam that proves that the spiralling architecture of The Overlook Hotel is, in fact, impossible. One theory, however, outdoes all the others in terms of lunacy: theorist Jay Weidner claims that Stanley Kubrick littered 'The Shining' with clues to suggest that he filmed the fake Moon landing for NASA in 1969.

I'll just let that breathe a little. It's a conspiracy wrapped in a riddle wrapped in an enigma. But is it true? Humour us.

The evidence

Deep breath. Weidner believes that NASA were so desperate to beat Russia in the space race, they contacted director Stanley Kubrick to shoot a fake landing, so they could at least appear to have beaten them to the surface of the Moon. The evidence for this, says Weidner, is that there are apparent signs of the lighting technique known as 'front projection' in the infamous NASA Moon landing video, which Kubrick had pioneered for use in movies like '2001: A Space Odyssey'. 'The Shining', released 11 years after Neil Armstrong walked on the 'Moon', is heavy with symbolism that suggests Kubrick was confessing his 'secret'. Symbolism like...

- Little Danny Torrance is wearing the film's biggest clue: a jumper with the Apollo 11 rocket knitted right into the pattern. It's hardly subtle and suggests that Kubrick really wasn't doing such a great job at keeping quiet.

- One change from Stephen King's book that Kubrick saw fit to make was to change the number of the iconic room in the Overlook from Room 217 to Room 237. The reasons for this are obvious, apparently: the average distance between the Earth and the Moon is 237,000 miles. Room 237 represents the fake lunar landing set, The Overlook Hotel represents America and Danny, who approaches the room, represents Stanley Kubrick's artistic side. Still following? Good. Because it gets weirder.

- The page that Jack leaves behind at the typewriter? Cast iron proof that Kubrick faked the Moon landing. Where you see the word "All", as in 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy', Weidner sees "A11", short for Apollo 11. Apparently, this line is an insight into Kubrick's mental condition: that working on the Apollo 11 'project' and having to keep it a secret has made him go a little crazy. Obvious, really.

- If Jack Torrance represents Kubrick, then Shelley Duvall's Wendy represents Kubrick's own wife, Christina. The scene in which Wendy confronts Jack about his behaviour and suggests he has to quit has parallels with Kubrick's own secret. Jack's response? "That is so typical of you!… I've made an agreement… I have obligations to my employers!" It's so blatant! Wake up, sheeple!

- Weidner also claims the iconic hexagonal pattern found on the carpets in the Overlook Hotel were designed specifically to reference the Apollo 11 launching pads. This is how Kubrick effectively owns up to his engineering of the biggest fakery in human history: via carpet samples.

- Weidner didn't stop at room numbers and carpet patterns. He claims that the fact Danny sees the corpses of twins is a reference to 'Gemini', the NASA missions before Apollo. There were seven Apollo space missions, but only six landed; in the hotel lobby, there are six crates of soft drink 7-Up. Dick Halloran comes from Florida, which is where Apollo 11 was launched. The owner of the hotel has an eagle on his windowsill; the Apollo 11 lunar module was nicknamed 'The Eagle'. The truth is out there! If you look hard enough!

The verdict

It's tempting to instantly dismiss this as twaddle, and… well, we are going to dismiss it as twaddle, because it's a flagrant case of over-analysing – if you search long and hard enough for something, you'll start seeing the results you want to see. Rather like how some claim Pink Floyd's ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ syncs up perfectly with 'The Wizard Of Oz' (it doesn't, at all), the idea of the Kubrick Moon landing theory is so much fun you can't help but entertain it. Once you open yourself up to the idea, your findings are coloured.

But yes. No. Obviously Stanley Kubrick did not fake the Moon landings for NASA while shooting '2001: A Space Odyssey' and did not confess his secret in the form of 'The Shining'. We feel we can say this with no small amount of conviction.

Read more Who should win the VFX, according to VFX experts Can anything beat La La Land at the Oscars? Jimmy Kimmel reveals Oscar host wages

Watch a trailer for ‘Room 237′ below...

Photos: Press Association/Rex/Warner Bros.

[changterhune]

RED DESERT Re-IMAGINED by Cathode Ray Tube

I first discovered the film Red Desert on a cold winter’s day after watching several documentaries. It seemed like a perfect addition to the day’s viewing as well as expanding my knowledge of Italian new wave films which is woefully inadequate. 

Red Desert is the story of a woman trapped in her own mind’s terror following a car accident. The bleak industrial landscape of post-war Italy is reflective of her fractured mind and nervous state. As we follow her through the film her situation becomes more and more troubled especially after meeting “L’uomo” played by Richard Harris. It ends inconclusively with our main character in no better place than when she started which is about as much as you can expect from an Italian art film. 

It’s gorgeously filmed with each scene framed beautifully. The landscape is as much a part of the film as the actors. Monica Vitti is as stunning as she is skilled at her portrayal of a woman slowly going mad. The color is vivid even when so many scenes are of the bleak industrial landscape of early 1960’s Ravenna, Italy.

Someone much more versed in film could say so many things about it better than I can so if you want to read more about it check out these fine write-ups:

Criterion: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1491-red-desert-in-this-world

Film Stage: https://thefilmstage.com/a-closer-look-at-michelangelo-antonionis-red-desert/

The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/dvd-of-the-week-red-desert

Red Desert is a spacious film both visually and aurally. There’s lots of landscape even in the cramped, industrial passages. There’s sparse dialogue for the most part. And the soundtrack is virtually non-existent but for some passages of exquisite electro-acoustic synthesized warblings of Vittorio Gelmetti. I fell in love with it immediately and watched it a few times over. And the more I viewed it I noticed certain things about the film, how the soundtrack was for one thing so sparse as to be nonexistent. The more I watched I was intrigued by the idea of creating a score for it. 

Sacrilege, I know.

And yet… I couldn’t stop myself. So, I began to imagine who might create a soundtrack for it and what they’d do. Then again if anyone’s going to do it I suppose it’d have to be me, right? 

Not gonna lie: it takes balls to dare and re-score a classic film with an already renowned (if extremely minimal) score. As I wrote in the liner notes for the Bunnyhead OST on Component Recordings (LINKY) I love soundtracks. It’s always been a dream of mine to score a film all by myself. So taking a classic film and creating my own score is the next best thing while also highly unorthodox (and possibly illegal though I claim fair use in this case).

Re-imagined soundtracks are nothing new, of course. Queen, The Grateful Dead, Cabaret Voltaire, and Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto to name a few have taken on re-writing the scores of classic films. And I wanted to go somewhere different and weird with Red Desert (as if those two words weren’t already firmly embedded in the descriptions of the film). Eventually I settled on this highly unlikely but very amusing premise:

What if Richard H. Kirk and Rammellzee were to steal a time machine then go back to 1970’s Dusseldorf, break into Kraftwerk’s infamous Kling Klang studio and record the score for Red Desert 

Sure, I know, The Simpson’s already did this. Or was it an episode of The Sopranos? No? Well, after that well it practically wrote itself. 

Not. 

But it gave a me a framework to start from. It was an interesting challenge to create music to fit the tone of the film and various scenes. For instance, a long time ago I read an interview in The Wire with Jim O’Rourke where he talked about interpreting what “gestures” or sounds might mean spooky, sad, scary, happy, etc. based on social agreement and common fears, phobias, etc. I often think of that but especially when I was composing music for Red Desert.

Then I expanded on these ideas further by incorporating some different versions of my existing material which I felt worked well with the film. I tend to think most of my music is the score to scenes of my life, anyway. What was even more interesting was some of the original files for tracks were lost so either I had to re-write them entirely which yielded new tracks or worked the older versions into the score.

For the purpose of this collection I’ve chosen the full versions of songs as opposed to pieces of them (“cues” as they say in the biz). There’s so much happening in these that one would never get to hear otherwise so enjoy the full monty (This also means if you want to try and view the film whilst playing the soundtrack alongside it ala Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon you’ll be out of sync and playing the movie a few times over)!

In a few places I’ve left the original score intact out of respect for the director and composer as they are critical to the film as a whole. That may seem a little odd but then so am I. 

Overall it’s been an interesting experiment which I hope others will enjoy. Call it sacrilege, call it defamation. I call it a loveletter to film and original scores. 

Here is as good a place as any for acknowledgements so without further ado, thanks be to:

- Deftly-D for wanting to put this out on Voidstar and believing in the insanity of this project. 

- My pal Jay for hearing me out despite being a diehard fan of the original film as is without some yahoo messing it up with his beep-bopp-boop soundtrack.

- My wife Alice and my kids Sophia and Ellen for enduring multiple viewings of my rough cuts of the film with my score. Not easy considering it had no subtitles and is entirely in Italian. 

- Robert Galbraith for his excellent mastering work.

Be well and rock on!

- CRT

August, 2020

Scarborough, Maine, USA, Earth Planet

[laurenh-art]

There’s No Place Like ... Knowing Yourself

Alien: “differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility.”

Since the solar eclipse a few weeks ago, I have felt a huge drain of my energy. Perhaps a combination of intense cosmic activity and extreme heat, like an alien laser gun, my energy level the past couple weeks seemed to have been completely zapped to the point that anything beyond the basic necessities of living day to day have felt exhausting. 

The full moon this past week began to recharge my energy a bit, enough to get back in the kitchen and back some cookies - chocolate chip oatmeal cookies that it. 

Click Your Heals 3 Times and Repeat: 

There’s Nothing Like Homemade Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

2 cups old fashion oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 cup coconut oil (melted)

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 flax eggs (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons water = 1 flax egg)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips

Optional: 1/2 cup walnuts or 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Directions

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl or cup, mix ground flax with water. Let set for a least 5 minutes. You want the flax to have absorbed most of the water and be kind of a jelly consistency. (see below)

In one bowl, mix together flour, oats baking soda, and optional salt.

In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil on low. 

In a second bowl, or mixer (however this recipe is easy to mix the old fashion way with a spoon or your hand), mix together sugars with melted coconut oil. Then add flax eggs and vanilla. 

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir dry and wet ingredients together in a mixer, using a large spoon, or get your (clean) hand in there. 

Add chocolate chips and any other optional add ins, nuts and/or shredded coconut. If using a mixer, I recommend just using a spoon or your hand for this part.

If at this point, the mixture is too dry, add a little more oil, or if it feels too wet, add a little more flour. It should stick together pretty easily, but still have a little crumbly feel to it. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Now I really hate using parchment paper because it seems so wasteful, however I have yet to find a replacement that works as well for keeping perfectly good cookies from sticking to the baking sheet. I do reuse the parchment paper 2-3 times when making the same cookies. I just label a corner of the paper so I know which sheet is for which flavor. 

Form the dough mixture into 1″ balls, and place in oven once sheet is filled (see below)

Bake for 10 minutes, then open oven and slightly (very gently) press cookies down using a spoon or folk, close oven and let cookies finish baking for another 2-3 minutes. 

Remove cookies from oven and let cookies cool for 20 minutes. Yeilds about 20 cookies. 

Side note: because these cookies are made with coconut oil and not butter, they will not be big and flat, they will more so hold the ball shape and be super dense and bursting with flavor!

Step by Step (in photos)

Flax egg ready to be added to other wet ingredients. 

Dry ingredients mixed together.

Wet ingredients mixed together. 

Mixing all ingredients together.

Before going into the oven.

Don’t forget to set your timer!

And just as quick as Dorothy returned back to Kansas, your cookies are done!

“Food which entails cooking in its preparation should only be eaten when it has been cooked with mantra and/love.” - Ram Dass

…………………………………

There are many things that I associate with home, and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies are certainly one of those things. Good food, feeling safe, comfortable, and loved are also things that remind me of home.

Where The Dark Side of the Moon ends, the yellow brick road begins, a phrase that popped into my mind not too long after moving to LA. Perhaps because The Wizard of Oz was my favor movie as a child, and I just so happened to move across the country for the first time, right down the street from where that movie was filmed. Right down the street from that film studio, is now where I call home.  And while it was a long, painful and fearful journey to get here, there are times when I stare out at the pacific ocean and it almost seems as though I just clicked my heels 3 times, repeat the mantra, and here I am, home. 

Home doesn’t necessarily need to be a single place though. It could actually be a couple places, or no place at all. Ultimately, home is a feeling, or things we remember that remind us of a feeling we once had. Going inward, feeling safe, comfortable, and loved within ones self without external factors is really the true home. 

If you start the record Dark Side of the Moon on the lions 3rd roar at the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, the record syncs with the movie so well, it almost seem intentional. It is what Carl Jung called, synchronicity, “a phenomenon in which coincidental events seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality." 

Maybe it was intentional. Maybe not. However, what I find even more interesting is where the record ends. It ends not too long after Dorothy meets the scarecrow and they begin their journey down the yellow brick road together with the track entitled Eclipse playing. 

Perhaps though, oh just perhaps, an Eclipse was exactly what I need to just get on with it, so get me, to get the world for that matter back on the path. 

“With, without. And who’ll deny it’s what the fighting’s all about?” - Us and Them by Pink Floyd 

Embrace the ebbs and flows of the universe with grace. During the times when the tide is high, and the endless waves of life seem to be relentless against the vibrations of your being, don’t fight a battle you can’t win. Embrace the ebbs and flows of the universe with grace. Go inward and find your home. 

Eventually, the seas will once again calm, and clarity will slowly beginning to reappear through the fog of worry and doubt. 

This is all a set up, setting up your own base that is. Building a strong set of roots, so that the tree which is your life can grow to its fullest potential. 

"Eclipse" All that you touch And all that you see All that you taste All you feel And all that you love And all that you hate All you distrust All you save And all that you give And all that you deal And all that you buy, Beg, borrow or steal And all you create And all you destroy And all that you do And all that you say And all that you eat And everyone you meet And all that you slight And everyone you fight And all that is now And all that is gone And all that's to come And everything under the sun is in tune But the sun is eclipsed by the moon. (There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark.)

…………………………………

Reading - The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Listening - A Deeper Understanding by The War on Drugs

Watching - Your favorite childhood movie