cerebralisis

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I just noticed that all the album posts have black backgrounds except for Debut and 1989, which are 🧡 and 🩵.

It’s giving Karma chaos, sister albums, opposites on the color wheel, a merging of divided selves.

That Debut photo is not nearly as iconic as the other two for depicting her self-titled era, so you know this had to be an intentional choice!

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Andor Appreciation Day 2 - Everyone Has Their Own Rebellion

@andorappreciation

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Turn this into an oil painting and hang it in the Louvre. This is HIGH ART.

It's nice to have a friend of Dorothy 💚🩷

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Did you really beam me uuuup?

6 years ago today, a signed copy of 1989 by Taylor Swift was launched in a time capsule into space!

(On December 16, 2018)

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One more post before the show? Okay fine. I’ve been thinking a lot about You’re on Your Own Kid now that this is wrapping up. What do you wanna bet she plays it tonight?

From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes = This has been the fight of my career. From the beginning, I should have said no. And now we’ve got bad blood.

Summer went away. Still the yearning stays. I play it cool with the best of them = Summer 2019 came and went. The plan failed. I pretend I’m fine, but I’m not. I still want to be free.

I wait patiently. He’s gonna notice me. It’s okay we’re the best of friends. Anyway. = I’ve dropped so many hints for my fans. They say they love me, and they’re really good at picking up on Easter eggs so surely they’ll notice the real me… right?

I hear it in your voice. You’re smoking with your boys. I touch my phone as if it’s your face = There she goes again - the pop star is out in public hiding behind smokescreens with another of her masquerading men.

I see the great escape. So long Daisy May. I picked the petals, he loved me not = My fans never figured it out, so it’s time to go. I’ve found a way to leave behind this phony trademark character.

Something different bloomed writing in my room. I play my songs in the parking lots. I’ll run away. = While writing folklore and evermore, I realized that I don’t need the industry or the pop star at all. I’ll re-record everything, I’ll cut out the middle man, I’ll ditch my brand and do it on my own.

I search the party of better bodies just to learn that my dreams aren’t rare = My dreams are to be free. As I walk through these industry parties, I see that I’m not the only one. There are a lot of us trapped in here.

I gave my blood sweat and tears for this. I hosted parties and starved my body like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss = I’ve given all I have and turned into the unhealthiest version of myself to make everyone else happy and be who they want me to be

The jokes weren’t funny, I took the money, my friends from home don’t know what to say = This whole process has been so humiliating. I’ve sold out my authenticity for money and success.

I looked around in a blood-soaked gown and I saw something they can’t take away = No matter what the public or the industry does to me, I know who I am, and there are people close to me who know the real me and love me.

Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned - It’s time for the next chapter. Even if I burn bridges with my fans and the industry, and I burn down the bridges of my songs, there’s more beyond that.

So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it. You’ve got not reason to be afraid = I’ll make new friends in the process. I have to do this. It’ll be okay.

You’re on your own kid. Yeah you can face this.

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I just watched and reread The Secret Garden because I’m so nervous and excited for the show tonight and want to stay immersed in this world as long as I can. I think we all agree that she is unequivocally referencing this book/movie in her music, and there are so many cool connections that I just want to document here.

1) Starting with this chapter:

Every single word of this is infused with imagery from Taylor’s lyrics. Her boredom at being stuck in the castle alone with nothing to do.. the ivy covering the stone walls.. thinking she could visit the garden (or Wonderland or Neverland) without anyone having to know.. her trying to find the door to the garden so she can unlock it with the key.

In the garden would you trust me if I told you it was just a summer thing?

2) What is the key?

Everyone is talking about the Secret Garden key looking like the Eras tour stage, and how the google search vault key last year was also the Eras tour stage.

I go to secret gardens in my mind [that] people need a key to get to. The only one is mine.

Sabrina Fleetwood’s l/me/u/mine theory of interpreting Taylor’s lyrics is insightful here. In most cases, “I” is the real Taylor and “you” is the pop star character she’s created. This is the key for us to access the garden where Taylor spends all her time.

3) Where is the door?

There are roughly 10 billion lyrics that Taylor has written about doorsteps, doorways, side doors, back doors, and all the (closeted) implications of what she’s really saying with this. She has spent her whole career trying to walk through the door, and the Eras Tour is the key (see above) that will finally unlock it for her.

All I need is on the other side of the door.

5) The robin leading to the door

In the book, the robin represents wildness and reconnecting with the part of yourself that is unconditioned by society. The robin says that Dickon can “speak robin” because he’s already so connected with nature. As time goes on and Mary becomes untamed, she learns to speak robin too.

This is the same journey that Taylor’s been on (very Glennon Doyle-esque). Being ‘tamed’ is being who everyone wants her to be. Being ‘wild’ is reclaiming her authentic inner child. Please picture me in the weeds before I learned civility.

In the song Robin (which is significant as it’s the only one that doesn’t have a Fortnight canvas), Taylor is showing us the “key.” She is showing us that she’s using the Eras tour to unlock the door and step into the garden.

From the book: The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off - and they are nearly always doing it.

From the song: Strings tied to levers, slowed down clocks tethered, all this showmanship to keep it for you in sweetness. Higher and higher, wilder and lighter for you.

Taylor is the robin. She has been showing off with this entire record-breaking blowout Eras tour spectacle. She is slowing down the plan so she can give this final bit of showmanship to her fans and to her legacy, in sweetness.

6) The house

This is the Lover house, her ivy-covered castle, the career she’s built which has left her lonely, isolated, and hating her reflection. In the 2020 version of the movie, Mary yells at her uncle: “He needs to live. This house is a prison for you both.” In the next scene, the house burns to the ground, and we see the twin ghosts burning down with it.

See you all tonight! 💋🔥

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Of course she’s going to perform for an extra hour on Vancouver N3. How else are we supposed to meet her at midnight?

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This is a state of grace

This is the worthwhile fight

. . . . .

This is the golden age

of something

good and

right and

real

The way she sang this part so clearly and pointedly tonight, like she wants us to really listen to the words… my god. It’s been a long time coming indeed. Let’s bust this blender up!

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This is so beautiful and heartbreaking. I interpret it as Taylor singing to her fans, as she’s not only about to destroy her reputation but also the trust and relationship she’s built with her fans, which has been so constant throughout her life (the warmest bed she’s ever known).

It’s not pleading to her fans like she’s been doing with Stay Stay Stay, but it’s hoping that maybe they will understand and stick around since they have shown so much love and loyalty for her and treat this fandom like a religion - even if it’s a false god. Even if everything they think they know about her is a lie.

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Wait, does this message from 🫚 anon refer to the 10 years that have passed since 1989 came out?

Years 1-2, See what they drew = Oct 2014 - Oct 2016, "We were laughing drawing aces", 1989 era

Years 3-4, Keep searching for more = Oct 2016 - Oct 2018, searching for more aces but coming up empty handed, dark Reputation era

Years 5-6, Lay it on thick = Oct 2018 - Oct 2020, heavy flagging during the Lover era and Miss Americana

Years 7-8, Isn't fall great? = Oct 2020 - Oct 2022, release of her two most fall-themed albums, Evermore and Red (TV)

Years 9-10, The final act ends = Oct 2022 - Oct 2024, release of Midnights and The Eras tour, which brings us to the present.

It would make so much sense if Taylor has been under a contract or NDA for the past 10 years. She has been hinting for a while that 1989 was the problem era. Having her evil twin in the Antihero music video wear the 1989 colors and literally point at herself saying “I’m the problem, it’s me.”

Leaving her normal signature off of the infamous 1989 (TV) prologue, which is essentially saying “This isn’t me, I’m not signing off on this.”

Releasing the Bejeweled music video in Oct 2022, almost exactly 8 years after 1989 was released, and using it to tell us that exile ends in 2 more years: Oct 2024 🎃

This is just a theory, but maybe in the move from country to pop, she negotiated an agreement that would offer her a lot of money and the chance to become an even bigger star than she already was, but in exchange, she had to give up control of her public image. She’s written that she put her career first and “took the money” around this time. In doing so, she might have had to sign something that silenced her for the next 10 years.

Her career popped off with 1989, and she was feeling so Gatsby - but then she fell in love with someone who (again) didn’t fit the public image they chose for her, and it sounds like she’s been fighting her decision ever since. You understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars.

To make it worse, after (allegedly) making the difficult decision to sign her life over, she was nearly canceled right after that 🐍 and left with nothing except a relationship that she would have still been contractually obligated to hide.

We can see that she tried to roll with it for Reputation and stayed in the dark, but she ultimately decided to leave Sony and negotiate better terms for herself under Universal so that she could find a way to step into the daylight. And we all know how that sparkling summer went down.

As the decade would play us for fools… but the decade is over now and she’s clean.

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I was listening to Red TV today (as autumn requires 🍂) and remembered the equal sign that Taylor scratched into the wedding cake in the I Bet You Think About Me music video.

Always reminds me of the red and pink equal sign that went viral during the original Red era as a sign of support for marriage equality. Started by the Human Rights Campaign, it was posted all over social media in 2013 as the US Supreme Court discussed the constitutionality of Proposition 8 and the Defense Against Marriage Act, which set the stage for legalizing same-sex marriage in the US.

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Taylor: here’s my eras tour

Fans: so crazy how the eras really are so distinct!

Taylor: yep

Fans: like they could all be played by different people in a film hahah

Taylor: yeah

Fans: like I swear you have a different personality for each one lolol 🙃

Taylor: mmhmm

Fans: as if you were acting out 11 parts! Ha…

Taylor: *nods*

Fans:

Taylor: *stares*

Fans:

Taylor: *smirks*

Fans: Taylor… who are you?

Taylor: *lights a match*

Fans: Taylor, no

Taylor: Meet me at midnight.

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Such an interesting choice for Taylor Nation to edit this clip mid-lyric so the video starts with “We ditch the whole scene.” Not only because of everything we’ve been predicting, but also because of all the news coming out about the music industry this week 🔥👀

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I’ve been keeping an eye out for recent Taylor Swift “camper” references since it’s next up in the Barbie transportation sequence described in my post below. I think we got it!

In the I Can Do It With a Broken Heart music video, Taylor includes a shot of her wearing the pink fur coat from the You Need to Calm Down video. This coat obviously doesn’t appear in the Eras Tour or belong in their rehearsals, so it has to be an Easter egg. And of course, in the scene where she wears this coat, she happens to be walking away from a flaming camper van.

Honorable mention goes to the Chiefs’ camper ⛺️post during preseason. This one could be a coincidence, but who really knows.

And while we’re here, I’d be remiss not to point out the fact that her pose with the pink coat is in front of the Lavender Haze ladder/cloud prop, which has been largely speculated to be a reference to The Ladder, one of the first lesbian publications in the US.

Also worth pointing out, the camper scene in YNTCD includes 2 of my favorite references.

First, we see a blender going haywire while fire breaks out all around. Many have speculated that this is a reference to Chely Wright’s blender metaphor used to describe closeting in the music industry. Chely was actually interviewed about the music video right after it came out, which I don’t think was accidental.

Second, the video cuts to a frame on the camper wall that says, “Mom, I am a rich man” which is a quote from Cher in response to her mom saying she should settle down and marry a rich man. “I love men, I think men are the coolest, but you don’t really need them to live.”

All in all, lots of symbols packed into these references. Next up, snowmobiles? 🤔

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I appreciate the work put in by the Taylor Swift Styled page for finding all her outfit pieces so quickly, because what an interesting combo. It makes the whole football performance slightly more interesting.

Her two middle-finger rings were the most interesting to me: the “Ruby Cocoon Ring” and the “Ruby Impetus Interlocking Puzzle Ring”

These rings with the maroon boots are very much giving the rubies that I gave up, except now the rubies are in their cocoon waiting to be a free little butterfly while she finishes completing this PR puzzle mastermind strategy.

This, paired with the “Long Love Explosion Starburst” earrings, the GRLFRND denim shorts, the custom TNT bracelet, and the Medusa head full of snakes turning men to stone with her gaze denim top? And the step by step reenactment of her So High School choreography throughout the game? Sad girl autumn for real, but she’s doing it. I’m here for it.

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New merch drop from Taylor. Choosing this color combination out of all 36 possible combos? With the pink and orange seagulls flying around her? I am not ready for it, I fear. 🩷🤍🧡

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🔥 In case of fire, please use fire exit 🔥

(what if I told you none of it was accidental?)

“I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault.” 🐍 “The upcoming vault tracks for reputation will be ‘fire’ she promises.”

"Spring breaks loose but so does fear. He's gonna burn this house to the ground."

"Wise men once said: 'Wild winds are death to the candle.' A rose by any other name is a scandal."

"I'd rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning. I'll tell you something about my good name; it's mine alone to disgrace."

"Dear reader: Burn all the files, desert all your past lives, and if you don't recognize yourself, that means you did it right."

“Camera flashes, welcome bashes, get the matches, toss the ashes off the ledge”

“Oh what a way to die. My bedsheets are ablaze, I scream your name.”

“My castle’s crumbling down, and I watch all my bridges burn to the ground.”

“And when that sky rains fire on you, and you’re persona non grata, I’ll tell you how I’ve been there too, and that none of it matters.”

“Our field of dreams engulfed in fire. Your arson’s match, your somber eyes. And I’ll still see it until I die.”

“So yeah, it’s a fire. It’s a goddamn blaze in the dark, and you started it. So yeah, it’s a war. It’s the goddamn fight of my life, and you started it.”