#‘fell in love in october that’s why i love fall’ < october related lyrics for this month 💘

[hyunpic]

october 2022 with hyunjin

[notoriousbeb]

Lighthouse Keeper Tweets

And now, the post literally no one asked for. The Lighthouse Keeper's tweets from March 29, 2023, through July 2, 2024, supplemented with my own Haylor notes.

Note 1: I’m not in the business of convincing people LK is HS. Read this though. Look at his feed and decide for yourself. :) I’m here to speculate and have a good time.

Note 2: I skipped a handful of minor tweets I felt were not related to the overall LK narrative or unremarkable. (Examples: LK tweeted "Ciao!" on July 22, the date of HS's last LOT show in Italy, and a little running gag on April 1; he also likes to post about cake on HS's birthday and Christmas wishes, etc.)

Part 1: March 2023 - October 2023

March 29, 2023 - "I'm in my lighthouse keeper era." "Did I do it? Am I cool and trendy now?" 12:15 p.m. CT

April 1, 2023 "I actually really dislike lighthouses... don't know why I chose this life..." 3:55 a.m. CT

Taylor is about to play Arlington, Texas, later that day. (I think Harry is there. Here's why.) Seems like perhaps someone thought it would be funny to take his phone and tweet from it...

April 1, 2023 "April fools of course!!!! I love Lighthouses and I love keeping them!!!" 5:06 a.m. CT

April 2, 2023 "It's been a hell of a year..." 3:00 a.m. CT

April 6, 2023 "You'll be good, my love." 12 p.m. ET (NYC)

LK mentions in his replies to this one that he's drank half a bottle of rosé. Splitting it with someone, perhaps?

April 12, 2023 "Homeward bound forever."

Tone of this tweet seems bittersweet to me. H spotted in LA this day on work pit stop in between final European leg of LOT. After this, Taylor starts to fall apart on stage.

April 22, 2023 “If you really knew me, would you really want me?” 2:39 pm PST

Despondent, right? As if they left things on not great terms?

April 26, 2023 “Time cast a spell on you, but you won’t forget me.”

Fleetwood Mac “Silver Spring” lyrics.

May 6, 2023 “I hate to feel the rain on my back as I watch you go from me.” 4:15 p.m. BST

Matty time has commenced. Harry is in London.

May 11, 2023 “You’ve got me counting down the days.”

Could be a reference to Wembley. Deux Moi reported Taylor chartered there and was spotted at the June 13 show.

May 19, 2023 “Welcome Home” 12 a.m. BST

Taylor plays Foxborough, just 18 miles away from Holiday House.

June 1, 2023 “Je t'aime, Je t'aime, Je t'aime!” 10:35 a.m. BST

“I love you, I love you, I love you” in French. On May 30, a photo of Harry walking outside Cartier is shared to gossip sites. Cartier is a French luxury brand. On May 31, Taylor begins wearing a very pricey 1980s vintage Cartier necklace.

June 20, 2023 “Our lonesome shadows toss and turn. Throw our doubts in the fire. We’ll watch them burn.” 12:06 a.m. BST

Does he want to to make it work. From his set selection it seemed like it. But then...

June 29, 2023 - Taylor records “Down Bad” and Harry and Taylor Russell go on their first papped outing to a museum. So, it all fell apart, clearly. Why?

July 11, 2023 “Fast car, alligator shoes” 3:45 p.m. BST

These are lyrics from I.N.V.U. Other lyrics include, “He rolls in with his roll neck and his Rolex/he’s mister MTV/he claims he’s cashing checks/and breaking necks/at least that’s what he wants you to think/…/he’s at the wheel while I’m trapped in the boot.”

This is the day of Travis’ first Eras show. This was posted before he even showed up. …Did H know beforehand that this relationship was all planned in advance? At least, the beginning? (Perhaps as way to cleanse the public's palate from Matty?)

July 18, 2023 “The sky and the stars” 12 a.m. BST

Taylor Russell’s birthday. Just to be a dick? Or unrelated because...

July 19, 2023 - Daylight MV no. 2 drops

July 20, 2023 “There’s been a load of compromising on the road to my horizon but I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me.” 10:10 p.m. BST

These are lyrics from “Rhinestone Cowboy.” Sounds like H’s fucking had it, to me. Other lyrics include, “Nice guys get washed away like snow in the rain.”

August 24, 2023 “Hide in the middle of the universe, where the hills are steep and complications low.” 10:10 p.m. BST

H went to TR’s play opening on 1989 TV’s announcement night. Tay continues to wear the Cartier necklace. H also goes to TR’s play again 8/28.

August 30, 2023 “Through the gaps of my curtains looking at the moon it’s like you’re here with me. It’s like you see it too.” 9:30 p.m. BST

"Pick You Up" leaks 8/31. Taylor posts Griff’s “Vertigo” on Instagram 9/5. "Try Honey" leaks 9/12.

Sept. 16, 2023 “What are we drinking tonight?” 9:10 p.m. BST

Comments in the replies that he’s drinking and probably needs water. Post 9/14 Travis talking about Taylor on his podcast.

Sept. 21, 2023 “And my whiskey sings the obituaries.” 12 a.m. BST

Sept. 30, 2023 “Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. It's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out. It doesn't matter much to me.” 9:30 p.m. BST

Lyrics from “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles.

Post TS’s first NFL game appearance.

Oct. 8, 2023 “So much for an early night” in Morse code 12:30 a.m. BST

Probably out with Tom and Tyler post recording. I hope.

Oct. 12, 2023 “Will you hold me dear and keep me warm? And I’ll shield us both from sorrow and the storm” 4:35 p.m. BST

Maybe he decides he and TR can keep each other company? That’s depressing.

Oct. 17, 2023 “You said ‘love is touching souls’ surely you touched mine ‘cause part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time.” 4:20 p.m. BST

Lyrics from Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You.”

Oct. 19, 2023 “And the rattle of the red line cuts through like a knife. So, what do you say we try to live this life?” 11:30 p.m. BST

Sad sad saaaad.

Oct. 23, 2023 “Moon, tell me if I could send up my heart to you?” 8:30 p.m. BST

Mitski lyrics. Suffering. Pain.

Ahead to Part Two

[in-my-feels-probably]

Congratulations on 400 followers!! That's so exciting! (this might be crap because English is not my first language)

This idea is fun but it makes me melancholic since my favourite character is Remus Lupin; the more I saw the films and read the books the more I was drawn to him... He was kind, a great teacher, he suffered more than I could ever take but at the same time I could empathize to his loneliness and insecurities as a child.

As I started to get older and getting more involved in the fandom as a teen and now young adult, I began seeing him in a romantic way and I guess two things happened: 1) I know what it feels to be (or feel) alone and unworthy of love, so I'd want him to NOT feel like that and just shower him with affection and give him a well-deserved hug; and 2) we already have his sweet and mature demeanor shown in the books so the rest of his personality and likes are 100% up to us - the reader. I, like many, picture him as a Welsh man who always carries chocolate with him, who loves literature and has a high emotional intelligence.

I always wanted to get a HP tattoo but something that was only mine... and I knew it had to be related to Remus. After months of thinking one post came up in my dashboard that read "the word or phrase that most accompained Remus Lupin throughout the series is simply 'Lupin smiled'" and I knew it. Now I have a part of him forever ♡

hi! thank you for participating :)

don't worry, your english is great, thank you for all the detail.

i adore remus, he's one of my favorite characters ever. and i'm so jealous of your tattoo, that's such a sweet idea. i've been considering a HP themed tattoo too, but idk what i would get yet.

i can't imagine going through the suffering that he did, and all the loss he experienced. and after all of it, he was still so willing to love and sacrifice. he holds a special place in my heart. i'd give him a giant hug if i could, he deserves one.

i'm glad you see him how i do, and i'm happy to see how much he means to you :)

so, my songs for you are:

fourth of july by sufjan stevens - particularly the lyrics "did you get enough love, my little dove, why do you cry?" and "shall we look at the moon, my little loon" and "we're all gonna die." i highly recommend all of sufjan's work, although i will warn you that it's sad. something about this song just hits me deep, and it makes my heart ache in the same way that remus does, if that makes sense.

we fell in love in october by girl in red - this song is really soft, and about love, and it just evokes fall to me. remus is such a fall character

yellow by coldplay - "look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and everything you do." there's something about the symbolism of stars that always gets me. i guess its kinda how i see remus as the moon and sirius as the stars. idk, but this song feels full of love, and i hope remus got to feel a love like that.

beautiful boy by john lennon - "close your eyes, have no fear. the monsters gone, he's on the run, and your daddy's here. beautiful beautiful beautiful, beautiful boy." idc what anyone says, remus is a beautiful boy, and i hope he knows it. every beautiful boy deserves to be told so.

good old-fashioned lover boy by queen - something about remus gives off the 80's to me, rock in particular. and despite what anyone might say, remus is the casanova of gryffindor tower, he deserves a song that matches that. i'm not entirely sure remus would like queen, but i think they would remind him of his friends, and that makes me smile.

i hope you like these songs, sorry if any of them aren't your taste. thank you again for participating, and than you for your kind words. hope you enjoy :)

[reviewsbykarla]

my favorite albums of 2019

it's december 30th and you thought i forgot!! here are my favorite albums of 2019 organized by time of year they were significant in my life, with a few choice words on each. I spent a large part of the year listening back to older stuff and not particularly into anything new, but with fall came albums that defined the rest of my year. 2019 was a year of positive change for me and reaffirmed to me that with tragedy comes growth. don't forget it!

find an extensive playlist of my favorite songs from 2019 here: open.spotify.com/playlist/0ZgjOmyLpLFAp1xxEa0e5j

Assume Form by James Blake (January-March)

The song "I'll Come Too" was a topic of discussion for a while amongst me and my best music nerd friend. He thinks it's about someone finding true, lasting love. I think it's about the intensity of orgasm with someone you truly love. Thoughts?

Purple Mountains by Purple Mountains (July-August, December)

David Berman has always been an influential songwriter in my life. When I first heard this album, I felt so sad; It sounded like he had given up on life. When he committed suicide soon after its release, I couldn't bring myself to listen to this album again for months. It's so tragic, that sometimes death is the only thing that can give you life.

Immunity by Clairo (August-October)

I had low expectations for this album and I was completely surprised. The production quality is so high and the style of the album overall felt very original. Clairo is a really great lyricist able to write relatable songs and working with Rostam was a really good move on her part. While I loved the album and had it on non-stop repeat, her live show was the worst show I have ever seen in my entire life. I'm sorry.

Essentials by Erika de Casier (August-September)

This album is SO good. It slaps in all the right places and is reminiscent of 90s hip-hop r&b, but better. Listening to this is like walking through a candy shop and getting all of your favorite things.

House of Sugar by Alex G (September-December)

I love Alex G. Always have, always will. I genuinely think he is one of the greatest artists of my lifetime. This is his best album yet hands down. I can't even begin to tell you why, but please listen to it. Go birds.

Pang by Caroline Polachek (October-December)

Wow! Pang is a masterpiece. If I had to pick a #1 album of the year, it's Pang. Caroline Polachek wrote Pang coming out of her divorce. Each song hits hard lyrically, both simple and complex at the same time. The production is incredible and the album is as niche as it is accessible. The perfect album.

Iowa dream by Arthur Russell (November-December)

Arthur Russell was a genius. Towards the end of 2019 I was reverting back to my old folk-rock sensibilities, Iowa Dream coming out at the exact right time. I felt nostalgic, content, excited. Every song on this album is beautiful and touching. I hope there is more to come from Russell's thousands of unreleased recordings.

Information by Galcher Lustwerk (December)

This album is hot. Every track is thick with beats that make me feel like jello. Play this at the club and get close with that cutie you want to dance with.

Zdenka 2080 by Salami Rose Joe Louis (December)

I only recently found this album and I immediately fell in love with it. It's so beautiful, minimalist and slightly haunting. An experimental album of this variety always tugs at my heart strings, reinforces butterflies in my stomach, makes me want to swim in a lake at midnight under a starry sky with the person I love.

[mthenvs3000w23]

My Two Favourite Topics Crossover: Music x Nature

Personally, music is one of the most important things in my life. I know that sounds dramatic, but it is so versatile and holds value to me for many reasons. I enjoy finding new music, songs I can relate to, and bonding with others over it. Music influences my emotions, my energy, and helps me focus. I could go on for a while about all the reasons I love music, but today I want to address how it relates to nature. 

Growing up, camping was a big deal for my family. In the summer, every moment we could, we would go camping either just ourselves or with extended family and friends. A lot of people look at camping and ask, “why would you want to sleep on the ground and be dirty for a few days?”. Though this is completely valid, my family looked at camping as a way for us to connect together. We become so infatuated with our own daily lives that we forget to reach out to one another. What does this have to do with music? Well, one of my favourite camping activities is a nighttime campfire while my Dad plays the guitar and we all sing songs together. This music in nature empowers my family and brings us closer together. Bringing a guitar outside is of course not the only time music is found in nature. The most natural form of music includes birds chirping, wind howling, and trees blowing. Often when I go on nature walks, I take time to remove my headphones, and let nature’s music make me feel at peace. It is times like these that I feel calm, and am more in tune with both myself and the natural environment around me. 

Music requires inspiration behind it. I think relationships with nature are impactful enough to inspire many songs. A student from the University of Linfield wrote a thesis on The Essentialism of Music in Human Life and Its Roots in Nature. The student describes ways in which composers relate their music to the 4 seasons. She demonstrates how composers convey their emotions that accompany the seasons changing in their own music, or how they perceive one season in particular. Though I’m not familiar with classical music myself, I’d like to share a few songs that relate to this topic. 4 Seasons by Rex Orange County depicts how he feels about caring for someone who doesn't care for him, and how through the seasons though others have moved on, he still has not. we fell in love in october by Girl in Red describes a blooming relationship becoming more serious in October, and the complicated feelings she has about being in her first lesbian relationship. Lastly, in Autumn Leaves by The Walters, the group describes the difficulties in moving on from a relationship, and still being reminded of the one you love as time continues to pass (ie. the autumn leaves fall, similar to the meaning of 4 Seasons). 

A song that always brings me back to a natural landscape is YUKON (INTERLUDE) by Joji. I expect when most students respond to this portion of the blog prompt, they will likely choose a song that has lyrics that resonate with them or songs that they enjoy while they are out in nature however, I choose this song because of its title. The artist, Joji, happens to be one of my favourate artists, and he released this song at the end of summer 2022, which was the end of my time living in the Yukon for 4 months. It is a beautiful song, but every time I see the title, let alone hear it, I am reminded of all the fun I had in the best summer of my life, and how much I look forward to returning to the North.  Linfield University Thesis: https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1005&context=muscstud_theses

[megan-callitwhatyouwant]

What Taylor Swift means to me: An essay

Taylor Swift is not just another popstar - not to me at least, and I need to vent.

Taylor Swift’s debut self-titled album came out on October 4, 2006, I was 7 years old at the time, about to turn 8. I felt really alone, my parents were in pre-divorce meaning they were still trying to work through a failing marriage and living in my home was like walking on eggshells, it didn’t help that we had just recently moved from Kentucky to Illinois, hours away from any family so we were on our own. It was summer of 2007 that my mom’s dad and stepmother came to visit us from Kentucky. My Nana (my mom’s stepmother) really loved country music. I did not, I hated it, and was really disappointed to see that CMT was the channel she had chosen to watch (not to worry I have since grown and seen the light that country music can be in dark times, I also discovered old country which is honestly ~iconic~.) As I was actively bitching in my head about how much I hate country music Taylor Swift came on the screen with her super curly blonde hair talking to “Drew” in front of some lockers and I was of course intrigued, the next scene is her laying in a bed snuggling a guitar with rhinestones on her face and lip gloss on her lips  (which was and always will be iconic) and I was absolutely obsessed. I begged and begged my mom for the album and finally received it in November of 2007 for my 9th birthday, by this point my dad had lost his job, at the time I didn’t know why but I later found out he was so depressed about his relationship falling apart that he had just quit going to work, his options were to find a new job in Illinois where we lived or to take his old job in Kentucky back. He ended up doing the latter and moved away. We stayed in Illinois so my mom, who went back to school late could finish her degree, at the time the understanding was 2 years. It was like really really hard on me when my dad left, I fell apart a bit and was angry at my mom for keeping us in Illinois and angry at my dad for leaving but it’s hard to be angry at someone you miss. My dad always got me a white teddy bear on Valentine’s day and the most recent one had been easily my favorite and I started taking it to school with me everyday to still feel close to him, everyone knows how kids can be especially when you’re taking a freaking stuffed animal to school and you’re almost 10 years old. I knew it was going to happen, I knew I was going to get shit from other kids but it was so important to me to just have that little piece of my dad and to not feel alone but things got really hard with the other kids. Taylor Swift felt like my only friend and she sang about being an outcast in songs like “The Outside” and “A Place in this World.” She gave me songs to feel sad to when I was angry like “Invisible” and “Cold as You.” Absolute bops to make everything feel right in the world like “Mary’s Song”, “Our Song”, and “Should’ve said no.” This album had everything I needed when I was going through this as a kid and listening to it even now serves as a reminder that things eventually get better and the songs on it are all still absolute bangers. Taylor knows how to capture feelings that feel unmanageable and unexplainable and make them magically feel manageable and like a shared experience. This is I believe what has made Taylor such an unrelenting force in the music industry and why she so seamlessly was able to transition from country to pop. It was never about the genre it was absolutely always about her lyrical genius and the shared human experiences she has always been able to portray so well.

I am so lucky that I found Taylor at such a young age, dumb luck has had her releasing albums exactly when I needed them most. Fearless came out a little before my birthday in 2008, Taylor has a pattern of releasing albums in the fall which also happens to be when my birthday is so it works out perfectly for me. Fearless served as a healing album for me, it was one I danced around my room with my one friend to. It helped me cope with my first crush who obviously didn’t like me back and it made me feel normal despite how hectic my life was with my dad being gone and my mom being essentially a single mother with 2 kids while pursuing a college degree (which was an amazing feat for her but didn’t leave her much time to spend with my sister and I.) I absolutely adored Taylor Swift and every song she released just made me feel everything and I loved her. Fearless for me is like a time capsule to simpler times, I listen to Fearless and it makes me feel like everything is going to be okay and everything was for a while. I found out in Summer of 2010 that my parents were getting a divorce, I had thought that they were trying to work things out so this came as a shock to me, my mom wouldn’t tell me what happened. Me and my friend I mentioned earlier, Margaret-Rose, were on a spy kick we had just gotten our hands on the Nancy Drew movie that came out in 2007 and had recently watched Harriet the Spy so we came up with a plan to figure out what had happened. My mom is the type of person to tell every bit of her own and everyone else’s business to her friends on the phone so me and Margaret-Rose thought it would be an excellent idea to have a sleepover, put on all black and sneak downstairs and out into the garage where my mom would have private phone conversations, we snuck out and hid behind my mom’s van in the garage and waited for her to come out and call a friend, we knew she would do this because she did this every night, she still does. What we found out is that my Dad had cheated on her and she had already been cheating on him, in my little 10 year old brain this computed to both my parents are terrible people and I was of course extremely hurt. I didn’t know how to tell my mom that I’d heard her, I laid there venting and crying to my friend all night it just was all around bad.  Of course not too long after Speak Now came out and had the songs “Innocent” and “Never grow up” on it which were a huge part in my healing from what I’d heard. “Innocent” helped me realize that I didn’t have to be mad no matter how wrong the things they did were, I could be hurt and forgive them without holding onto the anger that I felt, I could see them as innocent people who just made some mistakes. This is of course easier said than done and I sometimes do still feel angry but it really helped me adjust my perspective and I come back to both songs frequently. The album also had, as always, a few bangers to help you forget and feel magical.  Speak Now is hard for me to listen to now despite being such a beautiful and heavy body of work just because it takes me back to such dark times, but I think sometimes it’s important to take yourself back there just to show yourself what you went through and know that you got through it. Speak Now for me serves as a testament to the strength it takes to get through that kind of emotional pain and broken trust.

Taylor’s album “Red” came out in the last half of my 8th grade year, this year was rough for me because I knew it would be the last school year I’d spend in Illinois with the people I’d been going to school with for most of my life and then I’d be moving back to Kentucky to be near my Dad, 5 years later than the initial plan. It was just too hard for my parents to be around each other so they chose to stay in separate states which obviously wasn’t easy for the kids involved. It just served as an escape from my usual life as all previous albums had, I loved how much raw emotion was involved in this album especially. With “All Too Well” I couldn’t relate to the romantic part of it, but there were so many lines in the song I could relate to easily which is an amazing thing about Taylor Swift songs almost exclusively, even if the entire song doesn’t quite fit your situation you can always find a line or verse somewhere that just hits you hard in the chest. For me anxiety about moving away was eating me up and the line, “Time won’t fly it’s like I’m paralyzed by it, I’d like to be my old self again but I’m still trying to find it” just hit home so hard the first time I heard the song, that line comes to mind every time I feel nervous or scared about anything for a while because it just embodies that feeling so well of just not feeling like you and wanting what you’re going through to be over. I’ve never been through a romantic heart break but I’ve had friends break my heart and parents and just life in general and Taylor just embodied that so well with this song. This album is one I come back to frequently as I get older, it’s amazing how coming back to the albums you can experience them differently with your new life experiences. I’ll get back to Red later.

1989 came out October of my sophomore year of high school and I didn’t listen to it. My parents were actually going through the legal process of a divorce and things were just bad. I lived in a hotel for 2 weeks bad and didn’t want another one of her albums to feel like a time capsule to terrible times so I was waiting for things to get better but they just got worse my junior year. I listened to a lot of My Chemical Romance those 2 years if that shows at all just how angry and unhappy I was, I’m not going to get into it too much but my junior year of high school was the worst year of my life hands down. I FINALLY listened to this album in its entirety my SENIOR year of high school. I’d obviously heard songs from it on the radio despite trying not to and they were amazing and the album won a Grammy for album of the year, I was extremely excited to hear Taylor’s first all out pop album. She’d experimented with pop on a few songs on Red and those were, of course, iconic bangers. 1989 will always be one of my favorite albums by Taylor. I was (am) in a happy relationship, I was (am) in love, and I was thriving as a senior. It was one of the happiest times of my life and I could finally listen to her love songs and actually fully understand what she meant. “You are in love” will always always always mean everything to me and be about my boyfriend. “Clean” absolutely brought me to tears after the years I’d had before, I was reminded how healing she can be. “Style” is THE bad bitch anthem, there is no other song you can hit a strut to like “Style.” Taylor really made the perfect pop album on her first try and I’m so glad I waited to listen to it despite missing out on following the tour and watching the press conferences because 1989 will now forever be a time capsule into one of the happiest times of my life.

Reputation came out when I was starting college and let me tell you I HATE college. I was hating life and in the midst of all the college hating I was doing I find out that my boyfriend had chosen to attend a college in Pennsylvania which, for reference, is a 12 hour drive away from me. Aiden is the actual light of my life, he is what is good in this universe. He’s patient with me when I don’t deserve it, he understands me, and is there for me when I need him and how I need him without fail. He, much like Taylor, just knows what to say and how to make things better, they are the type of people everyone should strive to be like. Aiden being there makes things so much better so finding out he wasn’t going to physically be here anymore was rough. Life was rough, and I of course had a fresh Taylor album right when I needed it. This album was different from the rest because she was happy and in love when she wrote it, she had overcome hardships and I had never been able to relate to one of her albums more. I knew what it felt like to be misunderstood and seen as the bad guy by the people around me and watching her rise from the ashes the way that I had to not too long ago made me feel so good, I was so glad to see her happy and I was so happy to have the love songs to describe what I was feeling to go with it. “Dress” reminds me of how I felt about Aiden before he was my boyfriend, “Call it what you want” reminded me of him still wanting me despite the rough years I’d had previously, “King of my heart” ,“New Years Day”, and “Don’t blame me” will always be Aiden songs to me, always. Not to mention the absolute bangers Reputation delivered in “Delicate”, “I did something bad”, and “Ready for it…” Reputation deserved album of the year hands down and I’ll leave it at that. Despite Reputation being Taylor’s most lovey album by far Red has some of the most iconic love songs on it as well, “Treacherous” and “Come back, Be here” fit my situation so well it’s scary and they really just help me a lot right now because long distance is hard and I don’t know anyone I can talk to who can relate to what I’m going through fully and Taylor really just is there for me, again.

My point in all this is that Taylor Swift will be an icon long after she stops producing music and writing songs. I’m confident that this generation’s children will listen to her music and their children’s children because she is timeless. The raw emotion that goes into her songs is timeless and relatable. Her music isn’t popular because it’s catchy (though she’s good at that too - see “Shake it off”,) Its popular because she captures those raw emotions that you don’t know how to put into words or cope and puts them into words, she makes them normal, she makes you feel like you are not alone. She not only does this with her music but in the way that she treats her fans, she invites groups of fans to her home to play the album for them before it becomes available to the public, she interacts with them online, her mother handpicks fans from the crowds at her concerts to meet her backstage. She feels like a friend more than a celebrity and that is the magic that is Taylor Swift. I can’t wait for the next chapter.

@taylorswift

[lesbianphan]

R-O-C-K me again

A/N: October 2nd: a story based on the song Rock me by One Direction (yep, Katie did that and it’s just the SECOND DAY oh boy lol). @velvetnoodle​ do I thank u or no cause I’d say NO (but really thanks ahaha).

“This cannot be actually happening right now,” Jean muttered to himself, angrily putting dishes away in the dishwasher.

Out of all people his mother could invite to her home this beautiful Sunday afternoon, it had to be Mike. The only motherfucker in this god-forbidden town who knew his well-kept secret. The only one cheeky enough to show his face back here in his house anyway, without any regard for his feelings on the matter.

Granted, it’s been almost 10 years since they… Y’know… Kind of dated? He didn’t know how to classify the intense teenage fling they had, but he remembered it well to this day. So it must have been something, right?

“That doesn’t matter, Jean,” he tells himself firmly, away from earshot of his eager and loving mum, “you just have to get through today without making it obvious that you two were together. Very simple!”

The shakiness of his hands as he put the plates in told a whole other story, however.

Jean’s lips begged for mercy, the corners of his mouth in absolute agony from all the fake smiling he’s been doing for the last hour. His mum decided that inviting Mike for lunch wasn’t bad enough, he also had to stay a little longer so he could catch up with her son. She said she figured they were such close friends as kids, and it was just so sad to let a childhood friendship drift away because one of them went away to university! It was just a shame! So she insisted that they all sit there in her living room and catch up.

Mike was playing nice, but the sly smile on his lips when their eyes met told a whole different story. Or the way his eyebrows seemed more expressive than usual. Or how his hands kept touching Jean’s knee in a seemingly friendly gesture, but lingered a bit too long. Jean felt a little more breathless than normal, gravitating towards the charming man sitting on the couch next to him.

“Dammit,” he thought, “he’s gotten even sexier with age.”

“That’s so lovely, dear!” Mrs. Smith gave Mike a smile after whatever story he just told. Jean was too preoccupied to really listen.

“I know, right?” Mike smiled big and it felt like Jean’s heart skipped a beat, “I can’t believe it myself! It’s truly been way too long since we last did this. I feel like everything changed so much,” he paused and deliberately met Jean’s eyes, “well, almost everything.���

“I must be blushing,” Jean thought to himself, averting his eyes down to his trainers. “Why is he torturing me so much? Does he hate me?” He looks up at Mike who’s still staring at him. “I hope he doesn’t hate me.”

There’s a beat of silence that goes on for way too long, Nervously, Jean interjects with an awkward laugh, and says, “yeah, things are definitely way different from when you left, huh? Who would have thought we’d be here again just… Just like old times, huh? Amazing!” he swallows, feeling his cheeks grow even hotter. What an arse he must have sounded like!

Mike laughs and it’s the best sound ever. It feels just like those late nights back then, when he’d play Jean songs on his guitar, and they’d laugh and joke around until morning, watching the flames in the fireplace. Those sleepovers were maybe his favorite part of his childhood, and Mike’s laugh was one of the reasons he fell for him in the first place.

“Wait,” he thought, “did I… Did I fall for him for real?” In Jean’s teenage mind, he rationalized it away as a hookup filled with raging hormones and discovering their sexualities together. They were young and a little stupid and it was a mistake, right? It always felt like that, so much so that they drifted away and left all the other stuff behind too.

Shit, maybe it was more than that. He wouldn’t bet his life on it right this second. Not with how close together they were sitting and how much Mike’s now more mature and deeper laugh messed with his mind.

“It feels right, doesn't it?” Mike says, smiling at both him and his mum, “we should do this more often! I remember how fun it used to be, hanging around here all the time and staying up way too late.”

“You two were joined at the hip,” Mrs. Smith says, eyes flickering between both of them, “so full of energy too! I could never keep up! I miss how lively the house used to be, but I definitely don’t miss the stress from having two teens trudging around!”

“Yeah, we must have been a handful, huh mum?” Jean says back, feeling himself genuinely relax for the first time the whole afternoon.

“My favorite part,” Mike starts, and Jean notices a myrth behind his eyes that probably means danger for him, “was all the times we’d stay up super late and… Rock out,” he says, dramatic pause and big smirk and all.

“Oh, hm…” Jean is absolutely positive that he’s as red as a tomato right now, “yeah, I liked those times too.”

“Yeah, you sure did, didn’t you?” his smirk grew bigger and he wouldn’t stop staring right into his eyes. Jean swallowed hard and he swears the bastard licked his lips at the memories of said times, “I remember you used to beg me to stay too. No matter what I had going on, I couldn’t really resist the invitation, could I?”

Absolute silence. Jean was willing himself to stay calm and not jump his teenage fling right there and then, with his mother watching, of all people. He willed his body to calm down, but the way he reminisced about their times in the past brought back a lot of very exciting memories that his whole body was very much into at the moment.

“Oh dear!” Mrs. Smith exclaimed, breaking him out of his spell, “I left the dessert in the oven! I should go get that. You two behave!”

As his mum walked away, Jean shamefully looked into Mike’s eyes. He looked just as turned on as Jean himself, and he reached out and touched his teenage sweetheart’s face, the smirk finally dropping and revealing the nervousness beneath.

“Finally,” Jean thought,”I can relate.”

“I missed you, Jay,” he says, voice shaky, “I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to see you again. After everything.” He looked down, always scared of showing emotion.

“I think I did too, Mikey,” he breathes out, hand grabbing onto the man’s significantly bigger arm, “Can I ask you for something?”

“Anything,” he says, and he sounds more choked up than Jean was expecting.

“Come back to my room with me,” their eyes meet and Mike seems less scared now, “just like old times.”

“So you’re saying you want me to… Rock you? Just like old times?” he clarifies, a big smile.

“If you’re lucky,” he whispers, “I’ll even let you do another thing that ends in a C-K and is a lot less appropriate to say with parents in the room.”

He winks and Mike just pulls him in, kissing him just like old times.

From the kitchen, Mrs. Smith smiles to herself, flicking through her recipe book. She now had to find a suitable dessert recipe to get started on. It was fine, though. It sounded like these two would be a while, she thought, laughing to herself. She figured it was about time her son and his best friend had some times for themselves. Definitely pleased with how her plan turned out, Mrs. Smith got started on a lovely pie recipe that her son would love.

A/N: So I listened to the song (which I liked btw thankfully lol) and read the lyrics and went like... this song... is v explicit aasnjkda in a weird censored way. Then I ruined the song for katie you’re welcs mate. Anyways I think the story turned out pretty cute. Drop me a line and let me know what you think if you read :D

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #57: Thanks, Jay Z (8/9/2018)

Turns out last week was a pretty good one to take off. Very little of major note happened in the Twenty One Pilots sphere while I vacationed in the Canadian wilderness. This week, however... that’s a whole other story. 

New music. New music video. New track list. New merch. Let’s get into it. 

This Week’s TØPics:

“Levitate” and Trench Track List Leak, and Then...

“Levitate” Video and Trench Track List Released

“Jumpsuit” Drops Off the Hot 100 (But Still Gains At Radio...)

Mark Goes Off

AND MORE

Major News and Announcements:

On Tuesday, the streaming service Tidal briefly posted the third promotional track for Trench before realizing their mistake and taking it down. This still provided the Clique with plenty of time to record and post it in so many places across the Interwebs that Warner Music Group’s copyright bots couldn’t hope to catch up. The likelihood that Tyler and Josh leaked it themselves is honestly pretty low extremely high.

The track, entitled “Levitate”, is the most unmistakable hip-hop track in the band’s discography thus far. Running at a tight 2:20, Tyler delivers some truly impressive bars in what is essentially a single extended verse, constantly mixing up his flow against a slick trap drum beat and the eerie synth that was hinted at in the end of “Jumpsuit” (if the entire album flows from song to song like this... automatic 10/10). 

Lyrically, “Levitate” sees Tyler discussing the role of songwriting in his life, a form of expression that allows him to “fire-breathe” and “levitate” beyond his problems. The song is littered with gems (“we are not just graffiti on a passing train”) and jabs against the music industry for trying to rein him in or make him into something he’s not (“this culture is a poacher of overexposure, don’t feed me to the vultures”, “you’re the worst; your structure compensates, but compensation feels a lot like rising up to dominate”). The reference to Tyler getting back “what I once bought back in that slot, I won’t need to replace” is perfect, and I’m still emotional about it.

I do have a few minor quibbles with the song. I think the looped instrumental is a little too minimalistic to justify the length of the outro. “At least they all know what they hear comes from a place” and “you can levitate with just a little help” lack specificity and fall a little flat for me. And I’ve expressed before that I’m not overly interested in songs about the music industry that aren’t directly applicable to most people’s experience (sorry, "Fairly Local” and “Lane Boy”). 

All that said, the production and presentation is so slick. Plus, Tyler grounds the song in enough personal experience and relatable struggles that it succeeds in crossing over that gap of fame and success to actually hit home. Lines like “danger in the fabric of this thing I made,” “I thought I could depend on my weekends on the freezing ground,” and “don’t feed me to the vultures, I am a vulture who feeds on pain” show the same vulnerability and self-aware introspection that attracted me to the band in the first place.

“Levitate” wasn’t all we got from the leak. An updated version without the yellow duct tape over the track list was included as the background, revealing the names of the other eleven songs that we’ll hear sometime between now and October 5th. The track list is as follows:

Didn’t think that I’d struggle with a song title more than “Bandito”, but “Pet Cheetah” and “The Hype” are really gonna have to go the extra mile in ways that no other song from the band has before to justify those artistic choices. (That said, “Neon Gravestones” sounds rad as hell.) We’ll save picking apart the meaning for all of these titles for a later date; we’ve still got another two months before the album is out, and I don’t think we’ll be getting any new songs or videos until late September at the earliest, so we’ve got time.

ln the wake of the leak (much like with “Heathens” two years ago), the song and video for “Levitate” were pushed out the following day, two days earlier than originally planned if the date on Tidal is anything to go buy. The third installment in this Trench trilogy features Tyler and Josh performing the track at the Bandito camp while vultures fly around looking cool. At the video’s conclusion, Tyler is snatched away from a campfire by a bishop and dragged without a struggle back to Dema. One Bandito looks frightened by this, but another just ominously states “Welcome to Trench”.

I must confess that this music video didn’t fully do it for me. While the production value remains stellar, the “Car Radio” call-back with shaving Tyler’s head is great, and I love any opportunity to see the boys perform together, “Levitate” as a song is frankly too short and moves at a too breakneck pace to make a truly compelling video out of the song alone. I’m honestly shocked that there wasn’t a longer extended scene attached to the end of the video to provide a stronger narrative conclusion to the pieces laid in the last two videos, especially considering that “Jumpsuit” opened with such a scene. As it is, the video moves by so quickly and shares so many aesthetic qualities with its two predecessors that it didn’t leave much of an impression on me.

There is, however, one (potentially unintentional) aspect of the “Levitate” video that really resonated with me. Tyler enjoying himself while performing and being with people only to be yanked out of the group once the energy dies down a little is a perfect representation of anxiety and depression, which so often sets in without warning in circumstances where one would think are supposed to feel happy and safe. The fact that this story ends on such a down note reads as an honest reflection on the nature of mental illness, even if it is perhaps narratively unsatisfying. Besides, I highly doubt this will be our last exploration of the Trench universe; we’ll just have to see where else Tyler and Josh take us when the album drops.

With the initial wave of promo singles out of the way, the marketing team has moved ahead with the business of actually selling the album. Trench is now available for pre-order on iTunes. The Twenty One Pilots webstore is now full of various bundle packages for pre-order that include t-shirts, hoodies, a dope bandana, a 10′’ vinyl EP with the three promo tracks, CD and cassette versions of the full album and (if you order before the end of the month) a neat little patch, all at pretty reasonable prices.

Other News and Shenanigans:

There isn’t too awful much to report outside of the mountain of major developments (thank God). Andrew Donoho posted some dope behind the scenes pics starring Clifford the Vulture. Josh is still occasionally tweeting and posting pictures of hanging out with Debby, his brother, and other cool people. Tyler is still quiet as ever, and I’m not sure why that shocks people. It bears repeating that he was rarely on social media pre-hiatus, that this is probably going to be a regular thing, and that stepping back from social media is honestly one of the better decisions one can make for your mental health and overall leisure time.

The only really notable thing that I missed during my vacation was Mark clarifying on Twitter that the Trench music videos have all been in chronological order and that he’s been happy to be giving Andrew Donoho creative control over how the videos have developed. With how cryptic things have been surrounding this album’s release, it’s refreshing to have a voice of reason to tell it like it is. Thanks Mark.

Chart Performance:

While the new song has been at the forefront of everyone’s mind, its predecessors have still been putting in work... but perhaps not as much as might have been expected based on the last album cycle’s success.

In spite of the release of the new music video two weeks back, “Nico and the Niners” slipped off the Hot 100 after its first week and has declined in all metrics. This week, “Jumpsuit” also fell off the Hot 100 and has also been steadily sinking in sales and streaming. There are plenty of reasonable explanations for this: the too-heavy-for-Top-40 rock sound, the constant stream of other TØP content drawing focus away from any one song, the lack of promotional appearances from the band itself on TV and radio.

Many hopeful fans have pointed to the performance of “Stressed Out” as a hopeful sign that “Jumpsuit” may mount a future comeback, but I have my doubts about that comparison. 2015 was a very different time for the band- “Stressed Out”, like “Fairly Local” and “Tear In My Heart”, debuted on the Hot 100 because the Clique was as ravenous then as it is now, but the band still had next-to-no mainstream recognition. Those songs thus debuted low and fell off pretty quickly. It wasn’t until months later that the Clique’s grassroots support and the band’s rising esteem within the industry resulted in “Stressed Out” getting picked up at radio and being shared with new audiences, creating a snowball of promotion that launched Twenty One Pilots into the popular consciousness. When “Heathens” was released, the band’s profile was big enough to ensure it debuted at #14 and remained in the Top 40 for months. Compared to that performance, “Jumpsuit” is flopping commercially, no question.

However, there is still a glimmer of hope for the song’s future. While it is falling off pretty hard in most categories, it is still gaining spins at radio. It took #1 on the Rock Airplay chart for this last week. That means that more casual music listeners are hearing it than ever, which could make for another snowball where these listeners go back and search for the song themselves in the weeks to come. We will have to wait and see how the band and Fueled By Ramen decide to market the song and promote the album as it gets closer to its release date.

One thing is for sure: the band is not in any financial trouble. Even if “Jumpsuit” never returns to the Hot 100, even if “Levitate” is rejected by both lovers and haters of hip-hop and fails to chart, even if Trench somehow fails to match the Week 1 chart-topping sales of Blurryface even after the band picked up millions of new fans over the last three years, two things remain true: Blurryface made them more money than any individual will ever reasonably need, and they’ve already sold tens of thousands of tickets for their next tour. The days of worrying about this band are over for the foreseeable future; for now, we can just enjoy the music.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[mymusicalitylove]

Dive

In my feels. Trying to be productive and direct them in a positive way.

The other night I feel like I broke because the latest disappointment (that I created for myself), came to the surface. I took a hot shower, cried and told myself to let it all go. Hardest I have cried in a long time because I replayed a lot of scenarios about this endless loop I seem to be stuck in: I give up on this notion called ‘love’, discard it and begin to focus elsewhere.. then along comes another unsuspecting fool that says all the right things to get me twitterpated and caught up in the fantasies my brain creates. I get sucked in and think, ok, maybe this will go somewhere.. just to BAM! Slam my face into a wall of unending disappointment. Wash, rinse, repeat. It feels as though this scene has been on replay about eleventeen times over these last few years, and all I can say is: How. Fucking. Stupid (Who is the REAL fool? Ya, that’s me).

I went to bed after my therapeutic shower and slept ok, but kept waking up. I finally decided to get up and be productive, and had Ed Sheeran’s “Dive” stuck in my head. Hadn’t heard it in a while so I’m not sure where it came from, but it stayed with me the entire morning. 

My entries on this thing almost always relate to music and how the lyrics relate to my life. I’ve saved some drafts with songs I’ve wanted to write about later. When I realized I wasn’t going back to sleep, I decided to write; I checked my drafts and whoa.. “Dive” was already on there.. I don’t even remember saving it. 

(Despite there being a few too many typos for my taste in this post above, I feel it, Rising Woman!)

September 2019 is the most notable time I can remember starting the self-destructive cycle. My boss left at work and I decided I needed to do something to change my life up. I put all my energy into planning my amazing sabbatical in Italy. Everything was set up; all the wheels were in motion for me to see Europe, do me selfishly, and not worry about shit! In my mind I put together plans of sightseeing, concerts, volunteering, gymming, wandering, and getting lost in the country I fell in love with a year prior.

In October on a night out with friends, I met an EMT at a bar. He worked his bullshit game, and did it well because he was intriguing. He made me feel good over a two hour convo that honestly felt like a first date, and convinced me to give him the digits (which I don’t freely give to strangers). Too bad the man never called. Womp, womp.

After a taste of those vibes I craved that “feeling” again. I tried a dating app again for a couple months. In a comical turn of events, said dating app matched me with this same EMT! This presented me with the opportunity to call his ass out, and incidentally feel validated as to why it actually was better he never called. Talked to a few other guys on the app, but really can only report on a couple stupid funny anecdotes of just how sad it is that guys don’t know how to talk to women anymore. At least this time I wasn’t taking it seriously and only did it for shits and giggles. Decided okay, just keep focusing on plans for Italy, stacking that paper, and looking forward to the new year (*point and laugh at the idiot who had no idea what 2020 had in store!*). 

In January a boy (with a girlfriend) who I’d had innocent flirtation vibes with for a while tells me he’s now single. I had already placed him in the “not gonna happen” folder, and his confession obviously began a different wave of chemistry and banter for months. We had a conversation about the reality of where I am/what I’m ready for, and where he’s at/what he’s not ready for. Oh, and in the midst of all this, Covid hits and I have to make the heartbreaking decision to cancel Italy and deal with the feels of defeat that followed. And let’s also add all the sadness of being stuck with only me, myself and my thoughts in quarantine.

One last convo in April with “previously not gonna happen” sealed the deal of this endless string of flirtation not going anywhere and back in that folder he went. I then decided to give my number to this other guy who had shown interest a while back (but I hadn’t paid him any mind cuz I was stuck on folder guy). New dude didn’t really engage, so I disregarded him again, and worked on rearranging my place, organizing, decorating, spring cleaning and purging. Fast forward to now, it’s June and new dude comes back to work, asks to hang out, we have a great first “date” lasting three hours, and now here I am less than two weeks later wondering what happened. New dude: MIA / Me: WTF?

I truly do not understand why this cycle continues. Each time I feel like I get closer to something real, just to be lead into feeling like a fucking moron. I can’t stand it anymore, and it honestly makes me want to go back to being guarded and jaded, but I know that’s not the right way to find anyone. So I open up and allow some level of vulnerability, even though I’m scared af cuz of how hard I fell five years ago with the man I thought I was going to marry.

This is gonna hurt, but I blame myself first

'Cause I ignored the truth

Drunk off that love, my head up

There's no forgetting you

You've awoken me, but you're choking me

I was so obsessed

It was a matter of time

But you are the fire, I'm gasoline

Gave you all of me, and now honestly, I got nothing left

'Cause I loved you dangerously

More than the air that I breathe

Knew we would crash at the speed that we were going

Didn't care if the explosion ruined me

Baby, I loved you dangerously

I learned a lot from that short but impactful relationship. It was the love of my life and I went into it with complete abandon. I loved him dangerously. Things felt “right” and escalated quickly, which lead to our demise because we did not explore all the things before going full force into a relationship. We mutually thought this was “it” and talked about the future we would have. It completely broke me to end things, and upon rebuilding the pieces of me, I promised myself I would never rush into things like that again. 

I know that I do it to myself, but I guess I don’t know how else to do it. If I’m closed off and guarded, I’m not welcoming anything in; if I’m open and vulnerable, I start to dream in fantasyland with expectations just to be let down and end up inevitably disappointed. I clearly don’t know how to find the balance that works and it has become maddening beyond words. 

I need to find that balance, and it would be a lot easier to find in non-Covid times where I could have something else to focus my precious energy on, rather than wanting to find “my person”.

Maybe I came on too strong

Maybe I waited too long

Maybe I played my cards wrong

Oh, just a little bit wrong

Baby I apologize for it

I could fall or I could fly here in your aeroplane

And I could live, I could die

Hanging on the words you say

And I've been known to give my all

And jumping in harder than ten thousand rocks on the lake

So don't call me baby unless you mean it

Don't tell me you need me if you don't believe it

So let me know the truth

Before I dive right into you

And I've been known to give my all

And lie awake, everyday don't know how much I can take

I could fall, or I could fly here in your aeroplane

And I could live, I could die

Hanging on the words you say

And I've been known to give my all

Sitting back, looking at every mess that I made

This new dude made me really feel this. I tend to fall, and fall hard because I am so ready to give my heart to someone. But I need to put on the brakes and slow my damn roll. 

I can’t keep getting my hopes up. That is ultimately my problem. I tell myself to not have expectations and I do well to begin with, then have an amazing connection and am fed (what is obviously) bullshit and fall for it like a moron. I have grown thicker skin this time around, so at least there’s that.. but hopefully this has been my last lesson. 

I have found a new diversion for my focus and just put in my first offer for a new home! This will be my new passion project and will take up my thoughts and energies for a while, so as freaked tfo as I am, I am equally excited for this new venture. If it’s meant to be, it will be, and if it’s not, my new little home is out there somewhere not ready for me yet. 

06/19/2020 - 11:51 PM

[musicholicinfp]

Artist: Niall Horan Album: Flicker Release Date: 20 October 2017 Genre: Folk pop Rating: 4/5 Tracklist: 1.On the Loose 2. This Town 3. Seeing Blind 4. Slow Hands 5. Too Much To Ask 6. Paper Houses 7. Since We’re Alone 8. Flicker 9. Fire Away 10. You and Me 11. On My Own 12. Mirrors 13. The Tide

1. On the Loose 4.50 +++ It’s one of my favourite songs. It’s a perfect song for the begging of the album. It extremely reminds me of One Direction’s What a Feeling. I always loved that song and this one is as good as the 1D’s track. I always liked Niall’s voice the most in that song. I thought it fitted it really well, so I’m glad to hear a song like this from Niall. I really like the instrumental at the end. It’s very mature and I love the sound of the guitar there. 2. This Town 4.50 I didn’t like this song that much at the first listen but then as I listened closer to the the lyrics I thought that this song is just so sweet and simple. And it was the simplicity of it that made me I liked it very much. 3. Seeing Blind 4.25 ++ I really like the voice of the girl who’s singing with Niall. I think their voices fit together very well. I love the way she’s singing the 2nd voice there. The lyrics are also very sweet. And the verse of this really reminds me of Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years. I’m not saying that it’s plagiarism or anything. I’m just saying it reminds me of that song. And there are going to be a lot more songs that remind me of other songs that I know which doesn’t mean I’m accusing Niall of plagiarism. 4. Slow Hands 4.50 ++ This is actually the only song that doesn’t fit the fally vibe of this album because I heard it right when it was released back in May and I fell in love with it. I was listening to it all the time. It was my jam back then alongside Miley Cyrus’ Malibu and Harry Styles’ album. This is why the song reminds me of spring and not of fall. But still this is also one of my favorite songs on this album even though it doesn’t really fit its style. 5. Too Much to Ask 4.50 This is a very well done slow song. Slow songs usually sound all the same for me but this one is different. It grows on me with every listen. It’s actually pretty catchy too with is very rare for slow songs. 6. Paper Houses 4.25 ++ At first it may seem like all the other slow tunes we’ve all heard before but when you take a close listen it turns out to be very rich. Just like the previous one it’s a very well done slow song. The lyrics are beautiful and poetic. It isn’t boring at all. 7. Since We’re Alone 4.25 ++ This song reminds me of What a Feeling a little too. The style is a little similar. I must say it’s worse than On the Loose which is an amazing song, but this one’s nice too. I like the lyrics and the topic is very similar to the lyrics of a song that will come next called Fire Away. 8. Flicker 4.50+ It’s a beautiful song! Another amazingly done slow track. All of the slow songs on this album are very strong and unique. It’s very well done instrumentally and Niall’s voice is so silky and smooth. The melody is relaxing and soothing. It’s a pleasure to listen to it. 9. Fire Away 4.50+ I love the lyrics of this song. They’re so relatable for me! It’s almost like I wrote them! 😂 It’s also a very, smooth song, nice to listen to. The verse remainds me of Joe Brooks’ Someday (OK). 10. You & Me 4.50 ++ It’s an amazing song! It’s so well sung! Especially in the verse Niall’s voice is so deep and beautiful! I’m impressed. I think Niall has done such a great job with training his voice lately. It’s totally different form what I remember from 1D’s times. The song itself is very good, nice and relaxing. It reminds me of a Polish singer Piotr Zioła’ s song Safari. 11. On My Own 4.25 + It’s a very nice, hedonistic song! It reminds me of some Passenger’s tracks. It makes me feel like life is worth living. It’s so happy that it makes me wanna dance. 12. Mirrors 4.50 +++ At first I thought the chorus was too ordinary and that it was lacking something but it grew on me. Now it’s one of my favourite songs on this album. I love the pre-chorus and the chorus itself. They’re so well done melodically! It’s a very good, energetic song. I can imagine One Direction singing it together. 13. The Tide 4.25 I must say this song isn’t anything special. However it’s still nice to listen to. It’s a perfect ending song. If it wasn’t placed at the end I’d be very disappointed. Also you can clearly hear how Niall’s voice has improved.

I’m impressed with how well done this album is. Seriously I didn’t expect this album to be so good. I actually didn’t expect a solo album from Niall so soon at all. I thought it’s gonna be a boring one filled with soppy ballads that all sound the same. And I was so surprised after hearing what Niall did here! You can really hear it’s his own work. You can hear him through the songs, you can hear he’s given his all to this album. It’s so well done, so mature and very coherent. And it fits the time it was released in perfectly. It has this kind of fall vibe to it! It’s the kind of album you listen to on fall days with a cup of tea just chilling at home. As for a first solo album this is a very decent one. I read once that One Direction’s name was a joke cuz they all ended up in five different directions. I must say Niall’s music is the most similar to what they’ve been doing as a group. Now after listening to this album I can see how much influence he had on their last album. Anyway great job Niall, great job! 👏👏👏 I’m impressed with the amount of work you’ve put into this album. I really hope it pays off. Keep it up!👍

[poeplepound]

!!! i !!!! love these guys so much!! theyre so spectacular omfg !

also i tried to do this once already ! and i was very far into a very long info dump about these guys and i was ALmost done ,,, and my browser crashed, but im doing it again anyway because i need it (i might make typos and sound like a bum jus btw)

sean bonnette and benjamin gallaty started releasing musci together in 2005 after having worked together in a coffeeshop in pheonix arizona - sean was 18, and the buds released their debut album “candy cigarettes and cap guns” and have since released four other full albums, a handful of singles, two eps, and a compilation

sean has a bachelors degree in social work, and has always been working in homeless shelters, volunteering with youth programs, and trying to give a voice to one of the largest groups of stigmatized humans on our planet

candy cigarettes and cap guns was released when sean (30 y/o) was only 18 - and he has since recieved lots of negative feedback on offensive content in ajj’s older songs - to this, sean apologizes but says , quite frankly , that he was a yung edgy boi at that time in his life, and even if his music was offensive then , it represents a time in his life and hes not going to let its content discount that relevance

this is similar to how ajj changed their name from “Andrew jackson jihad”, sean and ben publicly decided to stop using the old band name because they aren’t muslim and have to right to use the term jihad as a part of an aesthetic - neither of the guys expected ajj to get so big, and andrew jackson jihad was adequate for a yung edgy boi garage band

ajjs vast discography centers around themes of social anxiety, privilege, depression, mania, loving how horrible life is, making the most of nothing, being nothing, and how wonderful our shitty planet is

ajj is considered folk-punk, and to a certain degree i agree with that, but to me music genres are irrelevant, and often times musicians fail to fit a category

the idea of organizing music by genres is restricting to a musician and songs and music grow as people do.  in an interview with verbicide, sean said that he acknowledges ajj’s influence on “folk punk” but how the identification of what folk-punk actually is is very vague and unclear, what really Is folk-punk?

ajj has albums that are way more based in folk music, and some that are way more based in punk - some songs are very poppy, some kind of choral in nature - but somehow, ajj has a very cohesive, recognizable sound that never fails to impress and comfort me

this is in part to sean’s wonderful lyrics, they are so very very raw and uncut - he is incredibly relatable while staying poetic, and i admire that So Much.  his use of metaphor in his lyrics has alwasy been apparent, but even more so in his more recent albums, and his political commentary songs are more prevalent in older songs - but they stay SO RE l AT a b LE !! every time i listen to ajj, i feel so whole and accepted and like im listening to my deepest internal thoughts and feelings in the form of beautiful lyrics and entrancing music

when asked if sean’s lyrics are a reflection of a darkness inside of him, he usualyl replies by saying that hes no darker than anyone else is - he just has a way to express and expel that darkness.  after the release of knife man, sean was asked if his emotional songs were about his past and what he’s been through as a person, and hes replied by saying that a lot of what he sings about is stuff that hes seen through his job, and learned about through people he’s met and interacted with.

shortly before christmas island was recorded, sean’s grandfather passed away.  his grandpa had lived with him from the time he was 13 tot he time he was 18, and he was a very major male role model in his life.  christmas island has lots of imagery around death, and a lot of the songs on the album personify grief and death.  sean has said that christmas island is an album about “pre-grief” meaning the way that people feel bad about death and grieve loses before theyve even happen, just beause they know theyre coming.  sean’s grandfather’s death was not unexpected or sudden, and he died very happily - surrounded by all of his grandchildren, and the feeling of knowing someone you love will die shortly is what fueled a lot of the tone of christmas island.

sean is a big big fan of 90′s hip hop, and a lot of his lyrics and writing style is heavily influenced by his favorites - aesop rock, brother lynch hung, biggie, and ol dirty bastard (seriously sean is SO Iconic)

i’ve been listening to ajj since their release of “knife man” in 2011, i could never pick a favorite album of theirs  - i love each of them and theyre each incredibly important to me

their 2007 album “people who can eat people are the luckiest people in the world” gave me a completely new worldview , and showed me that the world is incredibly imperfect, and humans are incredibly imperfect, but life is so worth living, and there is still so much good amazing stuff in the world

in 2008 they released the ep “plant your roots” and in 2009 “cant maintain” - both of theses eps were the first time i had found relatable emotional music that felt so accurate to myself - it was raw, it was unapologetic, it was beautiful, and it was sad.  these eps have an incredible tone, and theyre both so different (cant maintain being more light and - dare i say - playful) but still so connected and deeply rooted (pun intended ;) ) in my head as near perfect expressions of my feelings

“knife man” was released in 2011 and it came into my life at a time where i was trying to learn about myself and discover who i was, and this album guided me in such a strong positive direction - it introduced me to white privilege, taught me about forgiveness, how to be unapologetically me, but still let me stay in touch with my dark, cynical, pessimistic side of myself - knife man is somehow so negative but still so positive and i think thats how a lot of real life is, and ajj captures that incredibly well 

knife man was the first ajj show i ever saw, and i will never forget how captivating sean is when he preforms, his body language and his expressions reflect so much of what he’s singing, theyre so true

in 2014 they released “christmas island” and im not gonna lie when i first heard it i really didnt like it - i thought it was too poppy, and not raw enough like how ajj usually is - it felt wrong to me.  but alas, i kept listening, and i soon fell in love with this album.  it is indeed poppier than their other stuff, and when it came out in may of that year, i didnt really want to like it that much - and so i avoided it, and once Taylor Swift’s super poppy 1989 came out that october, i avoided it Even Harder because i felt like 2014 would be the year of great musicians selling out to labels to gain hits.  eventually, i let myself sink into christmas island - i allowed myself to like it, and boy o boy did i fall in love. i saw the show and i cried. the album seamlessly ties together themes from older albums - optimism, death, unrest, self-loathing - but it introduces a new style to seans words - theyre less direct, less blunt, less in-your-face , he starts using metaphors that dont make sense the first time you listen, his lyrics take on a new type of poetry on this album - and its beautiful

christmas island is softer, its more about introspection and knowing why youre the way you are - its about emotional intelligence - this album taught me how to know whats happening, and how to accept it and learn form it and let myself dream and live, despite how shitty stuff is, and i love it.

in 2016 “the bible 2″ was released, and i waited to listen to any of it until i went to see the show - i binged the album twice through right before i went to see them, and i had really really mixed feelings about it - some of the songs i didnt understand, i didnt like the sound of some of them, and i felt like they got very preachy.  once i saw them play the song “small red boy” though, i was 110% hooked - it suddenly made sense to me as an album.  the sound is so personal to me, and i connect with the radio static and the messy raw noise, and the lyrics take on such a poetic, innocent tone, and all the songs are equal parts inspiring, funny, and dark.  i really really really truly love this album.

this is kind of just a silly extra, but in 2015 they released a single called “keep on chooglin” and i honeslty dont understand what most of the song means, but its really a bop and its poppy and upbeat and positive, and i can gather that basically to “choogle” is to be yourself unapologetically and just do your own thing and basically fucc the haters, and its a nice song to listen to if youre feeling down because the lyrics are funny and the message is bright

ajj’s discography has gotten me through some of the hardest years of my life, and have seriously, literally, kept me from killing myself on so many occasions and i am forever grateful - if i had not stayed alive until now, i would miss so much and i would throw away my life, just because i didnt feel like making it, and now i can say in full confidence that this band has ridded me of all my suicidal ideation , and if anyone is down here reading this, im gonna make an ajj “dont die” playlist that i Will post here

in 2012, ben gallaty recorded a couple songs under the name wiccan babysitter, adn then a few years later (2016) he recorded a few more under the name benjamin galaxy - he compiled these songs in 2016 onto an lp, one side being the wiccan babysitter ep and the other being the ben galaxy ep.  i didnt know this was a thing until recently? which is weird? but i have listened through the lp many times - i still dont have a strong grip on what the songs mean, but i can say that the wiccan babysitter/benjamin galaxy lp is super comforting to me as well.  the sound is unique and different from ajj, but it is still warm and whole feeling, and the lyrics are still relatable to me, and i want to read more about what ben wrote about and why, but im having trouble finding info on this project

im mostly done for now, it’s very late at night, and i have work tomorrow morning, but i’ll leave u with this - youre an irreplaceable human soul with your own understanding of what it means to suffer, and thats a huge bummer

[vileart]

Quarterife Dramaturgy: Yolanda Mercy @ Edfringe 2017

THEATRE (New Writing and Spoken Word) 

Yolanda Mercy, Gemma Lloyd and Jade Lewis in association with Underbelly Untapped presents: 

Quarter Life Crisis 

WORLD PREMIERE 

Tackling heritage, expectations, generational guilt and wanting to keep a 16-25 railcard, Yolanda Mercy asks what does it mean to be a grown up? Written and Performed by Yolanda Mercy Original Music composed and played live by Luay Eljamal Underbelly, Delhi Belly, 3 – 27 Aug 2017 (not 14), 14.40 (15.40) Part of the Underbelly Untapped season, Yolanda Mercy looks at her own life and the lives of the generations before her in a semi-autobiographical, painfully honest piece about being in your mid-twenties all depicted through the relatable character Alicia. 

She wrestles with responsibilities and expectations, tries to justify herself against generations who had a plan by the time they were 20, attempts to balance her London upbringing with her Nigerian heritage, and trying to figure out where the fun in all that is... Alicia is a hot mess. She doesn't know what she's doing with her life. Swiping left, swiping right to find the perfect match. 

Even though she's a Londoner, born

and bred, the scent of Lagos peppers her existence in the ends. Everyone around her seems to know where they're going in life, but she's trying to find ways to cheat growing up and keep her 16-25 railcard. What does it mean to be an adult, and when do you become one? Quarter Life Crisis mixes addictive basslines, spoken word and audience participation. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

 My cousin was getting married, my friend was having a baby and all I could think about was ways to cheat the system by keeping my young persons railcard (past being 25).  Realising that everyone around me was “adulting”, I turned to my laptop and made this story into a play.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Yes, I really believe that performance is still a very good space for ideas. We spend hours listening to our favourite artist (Drake if you are me), then await the moment when you get spend an evening seeing them perform live with other people who are drawn to the lyrics, beats or energy of the artist. 

I believe the same is for theatre. We spend money to hear the thoughts or messages of an author, who has questions about the world – so places this on stage, with lights, set and a talented team. By doing this, I believe we (writers) offer up a platform for discussion which can sometimes offer a place to empower the voice of people who feel underrepresented. 

I found this when I wrote my first play On The Edge of Me, which explored graduate unemployment and mental health issues. It was astonishing to receive messages, tweets and sometimes be grabbed (physically) by audiences who would say ‘that's my story on stage’. 

I always get taken aback when I hear that, as I know it is not possible for it to be that persons direct story- because I wrote my play in Stockwell and they live in Manchester, but it is very clear to me that the themes within the play resonates with the audience- enough for them to want to start a conversation, seek support (in regards to mental health issues) and find ways to break the stigma attached.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I became interested in performance from watching…. Lord knows I used to watch a lot of people growing up. Be it the spice girls or the Matthew Bourne Company… Yes I love me some of The Car Man. I spent hours learning routines from shows, and reciting lines (from Grease)- all to the amazement of my silent audiences (who were my Barbies and Teddy bears). 

Of course this was when I was 5 years old (or maybe last week…shhh!). But I fell in love with how artists can tell a story through their body and voice. This then led me to pursue the arts further by studying dance at The Royal Academy of Dance, then attending the BRIT school (from age 14), where I learnt from amazing artists about how and why you make performance. 

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I would say that I prefer approaching a show in a collaborative way, because 3 heads are better than 1. I may sit down and write the script, but I share my drafts with my wonderful dramaturg (aka script doctor) Jules Haworth who really helps me to dig deeper and investigate “what am I really saying”. 

Jules is really amazing because she’s worked with a variety of artists independently and through her role at Soho Theatre (so she really knows her stuff). Alongside of Jules, I work with my core team Director Jade Lewis (Creative Associate at The Gate) and Producer Gemma Lloyd – who always find innovative ways in approaching the production, be it working with an amazing PR agent (wink wink) Mobius, or collaborating with a talented sound/visual designer Luay Eljamal. 

All of these people are key ingredients into making a show, as our collective skills help us to create a show which we are all fully invested in and proud of. I always say to everyone I work with, lets make “our” show exciting for an audience, because it is just as much my show as it is there’s.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Quarter Life Crisis is my second show, which is kind of like giving birth to a baby- and like every baby they are so different but just as special. Audiences who saw my first show On The Edge of Me, then managed to nab a ticket for our sold out previews of Quarter Life Crisis, say that the shows definitely feel like they are from the same family- but Quarter Life Crisis is way more epic. I think when they say epic, it means the show has a stronger production value as it has projection, set, original music (which makes you want to party) and way more costume changes than On The Edge Of Me. 

I wrote On The Edge of Me almost 2 years ago, and I have changed as a person. I have been fortunate enough to have had more time to invest in my craft by seeing more shows in the UK/international, collaborate with diverse plethora of artists (visual designers, set designers, sound designers etc) and attend CPD workshops which have helped me to grow as an artist. I feel that Quarter Life Crisis is stronger production, as I have endured the labour pains of giving birth to my first child On The Edge Of Me- so I am better prepared….I think….

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Good question. Well this show really takes you on a journey (without giving too much away). A journey which I have been told is very relatable, but the aspect that people say that really grabs them is the heritage part. In the show, we really get into my culture more….. 

I am Nigerian. So audiences get to experience a bit of my culture, by hearing my tribes language “Yoruba” on stage, learn a bit of my country’s history and also some music (with a slight London twist). I think by mixing the relatable aspect with my heritage, it’s made audiences feel curious about their heritage. 

Discover who they are. Celebrate what makes them unique and questions western societies notion of  “growing up” in 2017.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I studied. I studied real hard. I was inspired by 3 people when thinking about creating this show Lusia Omielan, Lady Gaga and Tyler Oakley. They are all from very different mediums. But what they all have in common is their relationship to an audience. 

They truly believe in their messages and find ways to make it appeal to their audience. For example I was lucky enough to see Lady Gaga in concert a few years ago. From start to finish I felt I was taken on a journey which made me laugh, cry and then dance (like ive never danced before). Lady Gaga gave everything she could to us, so much so that she even fell over in the show- but in true Lady Gaga amazingness she got back up and continued the dance routine. 

I remember standing their frozen and thinking “I want to do that” (falling over and all). I wanted to make a show which had a strong message/theme and took an audience on a journey. I wasn't sure how to do this, so I studied Lusia Omielan’s What Would Beyonce Do?,  Tyler Oakley’s Slumber Party and all things Lady Gaga- and made my own response to this. 

I then tested this response (aka) Quarter Life Crisis at various scratch nights such as Brainchild’s Hatch and in previews in front of a sold out audience at OvalHouse, which has shaped how I deliver the show. I know that doing the show at Edinburgh Fringe it will also mould/change depending on the audience. 

Yolanda Mercy said, “‘It got to a point in my life where my friend was having a baby and my biggest concern was trying to keep my young person’s railcard. The more I looked around me it seemed that everyone was ‘adulting’; getting a mortgage, planning weddings and leaving big tips at restaurants. Feeling like Peter Pan and watching everyone leave Neverland, I turned to my laptop and started writing Quarter Life Crisis.” Yolanda Mercy is a London-based actor and playwright who works around the globe. She trained at the Brit School, Laban and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her work is a springboard to discuss personal and social issues including mental health, unemployment and heritage. She is a winner of the Rich Mix Small Story Big City Award, Associate Artist at OvalHouse Theatre and was previously Resident at The Roundhouse and the Almeida Theatre. She has been partnered with and commissioned by: The British Council, Arts Council England, O2 Think Big, Soho Theatre, Rich Mix, Wandsworth Council, Talawa, Lyric Hammersmith, SE1 United, OvalHouse Theatre, Tamasha, The Migration Museum, Arc Stockton, Ideas Tap and Peggy Ramsey Foundation. Quarter Life Crisis will tour after the run at Edinburgh Fringe, with dates at Attenborough Arts Centre, Cheltenham Everyman, Arena Theatre Wolverhampton, Churchill Theatre Bromley and The Albany London confirmed for October and November 2017, with more dates to be added.

from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2s5WOFH

[europeanromanticism]

Byron, Shelley 6/19

Prometheus Unbound BY  PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Background:  Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on August 4t  h 1792 in Horsham, Sussex, England and died at the age of 29 on July 8t  h 1822. Percy was a very influential, and inspiring amongst lyric and philosophical poets in the English language. Percy did not see fame during his lifetime However, all his recognition came after his death. He was well known for being a rebellion against authority, his power of the visionary imagination and of poetry, and his spirit in search of freedom. This was not only displayed in his works but this is also how Percy chose to live his life. Most publishers and journals declined to publish his work for fear of being arrested for either  a religious crime o  r  troublemaking . One can say Shelley’s poetry was harsher than what the people were ready for. This can all be seen in Shelley’s poem  “ Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Prometheus Unbound is a four act lyrical drama that was published in 1820. It is a story of Prometheus, who betrays the Gods and gives fire to humanity. He is punished for this action and is left to suffer. Prometheus struggles to become free from captivity because Jupiter refuses to let him go. However, Jupiter is later left behind with his authority and ends up falling from power.

Quote 1: Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate, Hast thou made reign and triumph, to thy scorn, O'er mine own misery and thy vain revenge. Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours, And moments aye divided by keen pangs

Till they seemed years, torture and solitude, Scorn and despair,—these are mine empire:—

Question 1 : What does Prometheus mean when he says “these are mine empire”?

Quote 2 : Nailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain, Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb, Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life. Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!

Question2 : How do you think religion is tied into the poem? What is Prometheus describing?

Quote 3:

The curse

Once breathed on thee I would recall. Ye Mountains, Whose many-voicèd Echoes, through the mist

Of cataracts, flung the thunder of that spell! Ye icy Springs, stagnant with wrinkling frost,

Which vibrated to hear me, and then crept Shuddering through India! Thou serenest Air, Through which the Sun walks burning without beams! And ye swift Whirlwinds, who on poisèd wings Hung mute and moveless o'er yon hushed abyss, As thunder, louder than your own, made rock The orbèd world! If then my words had power, Though I am changed so that aught evil wish Is dead within; although no memory be Of what is hate, let them not lose it now! What was that curse? for ye all heard me speak.

Question 3:

How would you describe the poems ending verses it’s beginning? Do you think Prometheus truly learned a lesson?

Question 4:

How would you connect this poem to the time period of romanticism? Does this poem relate to any of the past stories or poems we have read?

Question 5:

What do you think is this poem’s overall message? How do you think the writer wanted his audience to receive this poem?

Argument:

One can argue that in the poem  Prometheus Unbound  Shelley wrote with an intent of raising some questions in the reader’s head. Does religion play as a dictator in our lives? Or is it a guide that one can use to seek freedom and peace? In the poem it states

Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise, Where it states those that pray and worship are enslaved mentally,physically and spiritually.  Shelley was known to despise marriage and institutions like the

Christian Church and the Monarchy. Which is why he identifies Jupiter as a Monarch.   Shelley uses symbolism to show that resistance against authority can lead to extreme punishment and isolation from society.   Shelley was a radical thinker that believed  in freedom.By going against Jupiter and giving humanity  fire , Prometheus is essentially a hero for challenging the authoritative figure. He feels that everyone should live this way so that they can experience true freedom. Prometheus was willing to sacrifice his own comfort and life in order to stand up to power of Jupiter and live within his freedom.

DON JUAN, CANTO III

Background

George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron, was born 22 January 1788 in London and died 19 April 1824 in Missolonghi, Greece. He was among the most famous of the English ‘Romantic’ poets; his contemporaries included Percy Shelley and John Keats. He was also a satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. His major works include Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-18) and Don Juan (1819-24). He died of fever and exposure while engaged in the Greek struggle for independence.

Born with a clubfoot, he was taken by his mother, Catherine Gordon, to Aberdeen, Scotland, where they lived in lodgings on a meager income.He was extremely sensitive of his lameness; its effect upon his character was obvious enough . It was rumored that his nurse, May Gray, made physical advances to him when he was only nine. This experience and his idealized love for his distant cousins Mary Duff and Margaret Parker shaped his paradoxical attitudes toward women.

In 1803 he fell in love with his distant cousin, Mary Chaworth, who was older and already engaged, and when she rejected him she became the symbol for Byron of idealized and unattainable love. In 1805 Byron entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he piled up debts at an alarming rate and indulged in the conventional vices of undergraduates there. The signs of his incipient  sexual  ambivalence  became more pronounced in what he later described as “a violent, though pure, love and passion” for a young chorister, John Edleston. Alongside Byron’s strong attachment to boys, often idealized as in the case of Edleston, his attachment to women throughout his life is an indication of the strength of his heterosexual drive.

During the summer of 1813, Byron apparently entered into  intimate  relations with his half sister Augusta, now married to Colonel George Leigh. He then carried on a flirtation with Lady Frances Webster as a diversion from this dangerous liaison. The agitations of these two love affairs and the sense of mingled guilt and exultation they aroused in Byron are reflected in the series of gloomy and remorseful Oriental verse tales he wrote at this time:  The Giaour (1813);  The Bride of Abydos  (1813);  The Corsair  (1814), which sold 10,000 copies on the day of publication; and  Lara  (1814).

Seeking to escape his love affairs in marriage, Byron proposed in September 1814 to Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke. The marriage took place in January 1815, and Lady Byron gave birth to a daughter,  Augusta Ada , in December 1815. From the start the marriage was doomed by the gulf between Byron and his unimaginative and humorless wife; and in January 1816 Annabella left Byron to live with her parents, amid swirling rumours centring on his relations with Augusta Leigh and his bisexuality. The couple obtained a  legal separation . Wounded by the general moral indignation directed at him, Byron went abroad in April 1816, never to return to England.

Byron sailed up the  Rhine River  into Switzerland and settled at Geneva, near  Percy Bysshe Shelley  and Mary Godwin (soon to be  Mary Shelley ), who had eloped and were living with Claire Clairmont, Godwin’s half sister. (Byron had begun an affair with Clairmont in England.)

At the end of the summer the Shelley party left for England, where Clairmont gave birth to Byron’s daughter Allegra in January 1817. In October Byron and Hobhouse departed for  Italy . They stopped in  Venice , where Byron enjoyed the relaxed customs and  morals  of the Italians and carried on a love affair with Marianna Segati, his landlord’s wife.

In the light, mock-heroic style of  Beppo  Byron found the form in which he would write his greatest poem,   Don Juan , a satire in the form of a picaresque verse tale. The first two cantos of  Don Juan  were begun in 1818 and published in July 1819. Byron transformed the legendary libertine  Don Juan  into an unsophisticated, innocent young man who, though he delightedly succumbs  to the beautiful women who pursue him, remains a rational norm against which to view the absurdities and irrationalities of the world.

Summary of Don Juan

The story, told in seventeen cantos, begins with the birth of Don Juan. As a young man he is precocious sexually, and has an affair with a friend of his mother. The husband finds out, and Don Juan is sent away to Cádiz. On the way, he is shipwrecked, survives and meets the daughter of a pirate, whose men sell Don Juan as a slave. A young woman, who is a member of a sultan’s harem, sees that this slave is purchased. She disguises him as a girl and sneaks him into her chambers. Don Juan escapes, joins the Russian army and rescues a Muslim girl named Leila. Don Juan meets Catherine the Great, who asks him to join her court. Don Juan becomes sick, is sent to England, where he finds someone to watch over Leila. Next, a few adventures involving the aristocracy of Britain ensued.

Canto III A long digression from the main story in which Byron, in the style of an epic catalogue, describes Haidée and Don Juan’s celebrations. The islanders believe Haidée’s father, Lambro, has died, but he returns and witnesses these revels.  Towards the end of the canto, Byron insults his contemporaries  William Wordsworth ,  Robert Southey  and  Samuel Taylor Coleridge . In this latter section is “The Isles of  Greece ”, a section numbered differently from the rest of the canto with a different verse, which explores Byron’s views on G reece’s status as a “slave” to th e Ottoman Empire .

Don Juan  remains unfinished; Byron completed 16 cantos and had begun the 17th before his own illness and death. Over forty operas have been based on his works, in addition to three operas about Byron himself (including Virgil Thomson’s Lord Byron). His poetry was set to music by many Romantic composers, including Beethoven , Schubert , Rossini , Mendelssohn , Schumann , and Carl Loewe. There are 900 different poems of George Gordon, Lord Byron and almost all of them are about love to a woman.

Question 1: Byron removes himself from his writing and critiques his own characters; writing about love and women in an ironic and satirical fashion. Is it means to provoke just humor, or is this in response to others who do not approve of his previous works?

Quote 1:

“Haidee and Juan were not married, but The fault was theirs, not mine; it is not fair, Chaste reader, then, in any way to put The blame on me, unless you wish they were; Then if you ’d have them wedded, please to shut The book which treats of this erroneous pair,

Before the consequences grow too awful; ’T is dangerous to read of loves unlawful.”

Question 2: Byron goes off on a stagnant where a poet entertains DJ and Haidee with a lyrical ballad “The Isles of Greece”, a lament for Greece’s present state of subjection to Turkey. After the poem, he then deviates on the subject and talks about how a poet’s words has a lasting effect on the temporary nature of human fame, calling out (mocking) Wordsworth, Coleridge and other authors. What purpose does this serve in this canto and how does it tie into the original story being told?

Quote 2:

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think; ’T is strange, the shortest letter which man uses Instead of speech, may form a lasting link Of ages; to what straits old Time reduces Frail man, when paper—even a rag like this, Survives himself, his tomb, and all that ’s his.”

“Which pye being opened they began to sing’ (This old song and new simile holds good), ‘A dainty dish to set before the King’ Or Regent, who admires such kind of food. And Coleridge too has lately taken wing,

But like a hawk encumbered with his hood, Explaining metaphysics to the nation. I wish he would explain his explanation.”

“And Wordsworth in a rather long Excursion (I think the quarto holds five hundred pages) Has given a sample from the vasty version Of his new system to perplex the sages.

'Tis poetry, at least by his assertion, And may appear so when the Dog Star rages, And he who understands it would be able To add a story to the tower of Babel.”

Question 3: Byron fails to mention what happens to DJ and Haidee’s relationship and whether or not Haidée realizes that her father has come home. Why not go on with his satirical pros on the development of romance or tragedy? And do you think this Canto was purely written to mock or to express his political views of society?

Argument:

“Soft hour! which wakes the wish and melts the heart, Of those who sail the seas, on the first day, When they from their sweet friends are torn apart; Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way, As the far bell of vesper makes him start, Seeming to weep the dying day’s decay; Is this a fancy which our reason scorns? Ah! surely nothing dies but something mourns!”

Byron embraces his speaker Don Juan and uses him to express his own criticisms of English people and their culture. He takes on various views about gender,societal roles, the plea for conquered Greece, and the amusing attacks on poets while keeping to his satirical nature. In the midst of all of his own criticisms, I believe the point of this work is to express how life is short lived and even when something is gone, words written and read can send a message to be remembered throughout the ages.

[musicmixtapes]

December 5, 2018 Mix

Hello! Hope you're having a great week so far, hopefully this will make it even better. I love this mix and would love for everyone to enjoy it equally as much.  Spotify Playlist 1. I Was Young When I Left Home by Antony & Bryce Dessner - So on the last mix I believe I included a wonderful song by Antony and had mentioned how infatuated I was with the unique tone of his voice. Now, we get to enjoy it once more in coordination with a member from The National on guitar, which is always awesome. This song is a cover of one originally written and recorded by Bob Dylan from his Love and Theft album, which I highly recommend listening to if you like this version of it! Like most songs penned by the Nobel Prize winning lyricist, this piece tells a thoughtful narrative story about a traveling man trying to find his way back to something that isn't quite there anymore. The sense of traveling back tone of the song is carried out in the music as well because the guitar moves around with finger picking a lot, but always returns to the original dominant chord which resonates quite beautifully with the equivalent lyrical meaning. There's nothing quite like laying on your back at night and letting this lull you to sleep 2. Manhattan by Kings of Leon - So, the title of the song seems pretty self explanatory, but in fact, I think it's a great contrast to the actual meaning of the piece we get to hear by one of my all time favorites. Caleb of KOL said about this piece, "Yeah, Manhattan, I think it means the hilly island, or something like that. As soon as my friend … I was playing it and I said, ‘Man, I think I’m going to call this song “Manhattan,” and I hadn’t even written the lyrics yet, and he said, 'Yeah, man. That’s a Native American word.’ And I was like, ‘Really?’ And I already had the first line, “I like to dance all night and some of the day.” And it worked out." So there you have it; most songs glorify and bask in what we know as the city we have today, but very few know the true history behind it and the cruel way the land was stripped from its original owners. I think it is a really outside the box way to create an alt rock song, I mean we don't see artists going around describing horrors of American history all the time. This goes to show that some of the worst topics about the worst cruelties can be taken and learned from and told in a way that speaks to people on a personal level. 3. we fell in love in october by girl in red - Wait... you're probably thinking I'm making some huge mistake by including a song with the word 'october' in the title when we are already well into December, right? I would disagree if you thought this, and here's why. I do not like songs that talk about falling in love at the exact moment that it is happening, like "hey, i'm looking at you right this second and i can tell i'm falling in love." First of all, this is super unrealistic because no one always first person narrates songs in their head while their falling in love. Second of all, people usually don't notice that they are falling in love until after they have done so. This song is great because it shows the realization of exactly when the falling has happened and coincidentally it is also when the leaves of autumn usually begin to fall, so it has happened very perfectly timed (or at least for the sake of this song it has). This bedroom pop artist always makes me feel like I am in the scenario she is describing, on a roof top or watching stars or smoking cigarettes with a girlfriend... so lovely. 4. Looking Out for You by Joy Again - This is so typical "nerdy indie man singing about a girl who probably doesn't know he exists, but then hears the song and falls in love with him because oh he's so cute and shy and look he sung about me" type of song... and I entirely fell for it in every type of way. This just reminds me of a less angry and angsty and stripped down Front Bottoms style of song with a little STRFKR and MGMT electronic dreamy type of vibes added into it as well. But in another sense, I think this song is pretty genderless in the way that a person can get the feeling that they have a huge, huge, huge crush on someone who literally does not think about them at all (if you are my friend in the city you definitely have heard me reference this happening to me with people a lot of times). Also details the way that two friends could have one sided love tension that the other is oblivious of, which is very Harry Met Sally-esque (if you are my friend at all you definitely hear me reference this movie as my favorite). 5. Lottery by Jade Bird - All credits for discovery of this song go solely to my mother, if this was someone else I might forget to put a disclaimer but my mom literally reads every one of my blogs which is so amazing and heartfelt, so shoutout! This song centers all around the idea of numbers, logistical thinking and winning a lottery in terms of a relationship, which is pretty ridiculous because that just sounds like solving a word problem in math class. But, I was so genuinely surprised by my pure joy listening to this song because of it's ever so accurate portrayal of the way some people treat the aspect of "feeling so lucky" to have met someone and that it had to have been a stroke of luck, or that certain things just added up. I am a nonbeliever in this respect, not because I'm a cynic or not romantic, but just because I don't believe things happen because of luck, I think they happen because of partially just chance and partially work that is put into a relationship. I believe Bird's beliefs fall more in line with mine because she's disagreeing with the man who told her love was "a lottery.... a game". 6. Touch by Ghostly Kisses - As a child of the early 2000s, I was very influenced by certain music like the styles of artists such as Evanescence, so when I heard this song I was thinking oh my god, it finally happened, Evanescence and Enya finally came together and had a baby. I am very pleased with the outcome of this song because it is so emo and questioning, but at the same time keeps the same tempo and strength throughout the whole track, which is surprisingly a very hard thing to do in music. Usually, I find that when songs have dramatic swells, it all becomes like something I have heard hundreds of times in music, so I am more impressed when the levels are balanced throughout without being altered too much or impregnated with unnecessary sounds. Also, I tend to write about touching and spirits and ghosts a lot in my own writing so this was very much catered to my personal style of music and writing but I think the universality of the unknown and ephemeral presence is very nice to see in music. 7. 1980s Horror Film by Wallows - Oh my god, this is great for numerous reasons. I literally was not expecting the lowkey acoustic song at all looking at the title and was pleasantly surprised by what followed. At first we totally go in thinking it's going to be a typical song about a guy and girl falling in love or going on a cheesy date together to see a movie or whatever, which is perfectly fine if you want to listen to that, I have no qualms with such songs. And for awhile, it totally fits that line of thinking... then it totally doesn't. The twist ending, which is SO fitting with the 80s horror film vibe, is that the girl "is not that into guys" which I loved so much, I just replayed that section like five times before adding it to the mix. We always hear people getting upset about not being liked back, but never getting a reason why; this is the opposite because the guy just can't get mad at the girl for not reciprocating, which is so fantastic and a-typical of music we listen to all the time. More twist endings in songs, more storytelling in songs, more friendships in songs please! 8. Say, Can You Hear by Men I Trust - The throbbing bass in the beginning of this song sends out the immediate vibe that the message sent to our minds is going to be succinct and probably pretty serious, and this remains true. This song's lyrics hit really hard because it details a person asking someone they are close to about their grief and sadness and the way they go about making other people miserable with it. The 'self absorbed, cryptic ways' she sings about concerning the subject of the song is so relatable on both ends because I think that at one point or another we have been both on the giving and receiving end of this notion. At some time, we have caused someone pain by being self obsessed and emotional about small things and on the other hand, we have probably also experienced someone not giving us a second thought because they were so wrapped up in their own issues. We can always trust Men I Trust to be the most real about issues and tell us how we are feeling. 9. Riverside by Agnes Obel - This song works in just about any background of any film or TV show in some contemplative/dramatic/sad/tragic scene, thus also working on any of my morning, afternoon or nighttime walks in the city or at home in Jersey. Honestly, I truly could not decide if I like the dynamic piano or the simple melodic and harmonic pairings of the vocals in this piece because together, it is so strong and deeply striking. This song, not only in lyrics, but the musical aspect, is so transformative because it starts very simplistic with just a few notes being struck back and forth, and the same chords throughout the song are extended and arpeggiated in such a modernized classical piano type of way. The singer/songwriter genre is something that is not recognized as much nowadays, but I think that Agnes Obel is someone who never fails to remind us of this ever present thriving solo artist type of person. 10. Pills by Joji - I was just listening to the beginning of this song again and realized that the beginning chords of it with just the guitar are so similar to the song 'I Was Young When I Left Home' which is literally the first song featured on this week's mix. It's so funny the way your brain has certain neural pathways that are created when listening to certain songs and they definitely overlap with certain pieces and create this wonderful shared quality with one another. Joji, as I have mentioned before, is a great artist who takes the hip hop experimental genre to a fresh perspective and without being vulgar and cliched with his music, is able to have sincerity and honesty in every line. In this specifically he talks about not feeling mentally well and needing to get away from this problem, while missing someone a lot at the same time (possibly the cause of his depression that is outlined in this piece). I just love him as an artist in general because he proves that you don't have to adhere to the rules of 'genred music' and you can just be a musician in whatever way you see fit. 11. Fear of Intimacy by zack villere - Finding a song that correctly represents and identifies what falling in love with someone whilst struggling with really terrible anxiety is very hard to do. Sure, some songs talk about getting generally nervous around a crush or feeling uneasy, but true anxiety based songs are very hard to come by probably because it's difficult to explain in a candid way. The sound of the click clopping throughout this song reminds me of a really fast heartbeat happening because of a panicked state, which I think was surely the intention of the artist. The artist actually has talked in various platforms about what this song means and what it means to him, which is a rare thing in the musician world. In one of his tweets, villere said, "takes me a while to warm up/be comfortable around new people & that shit is so frustrating dude especially here meeting new ppl all the time/but i guess ill get better w time or people are just gnna have to get used to me being quiet at first." I really like this sentiment of coming to a realisation that if someone cares about you truly, they will have to accept the anxiety and shyness of a person. 12. Movement by Hozier - I will never forget the moment that my best friend Shivani and I were at the Hozier concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York earlier this fall, watching the majestic and godly Andrew Hozier Byrne perform. As if the night could have gotten any better than it was already, he told us he was going to play a song that had not yet been released to see if we enjoyed it... this is that song. Ever since hearing it (I took a video of course too) I have been waiting for such song to be released to the public so I could literally talk about how I already heard it live two months beforehand, and here I am now doing exactly that. Also, we need not forget the huge shift of sound and rise of instrumentals in the last quarter of this song, where organs, a choir and several more background noises are added in so magnificently. The title is so evocative of exactly what you will hear for four minutes, a song that moves you, changes your hearing and most of all, makes you feel like you can sing as well as Hozier for a few minutes of your life. 13. Alligator Girl by Langhorne Slim - Deeply regretting not being more appreciative of having the ability to have seen LS perform live with Lumineers a couple of years ago at an outdoor venue in the height of the summer. I don't remember much about them from that performance, but I do remember thinking that they had a folk sound that was unmatched by few artists in the present day company that they have. Interestingly enough, I have gotten really into them this year because I love the narrative storyline they give with their songs, again in a very folk Bob Dylan style... just going back to the first song again, I think my brain is having a big renaissance of Dylan and his musical influence, just because of how expansive and powerful he is as a musical influence and probably will be forever. For this song, I really love the soulful jazzy, New Orleans style of piano played because it so matches the meaning of the song which rambles about meeting a woman in that area of the country. 14. Snake Song by Jess Williamson - I originally found out about Williamson from a book of poetry as lyrics that I've mentioned here before; to sum it up, there are a bunch of songs that are especially poetic in the book, written as poetry instead as songs. This gave me so much material to listen to, and she was one of the singer/songwriters featured in the book, thankfully. There are no descriptions of this song that helped or guided me in the determination of what it was about, so bear with me here. I see it as a maturation of a woman in the sense where she understands the intentions of someone's actions and motivations towards her. Instantly, the image of the snake evokes biblical metaphors of Eve in the garden being coerced and tricked by a snake, offering her something that was not his to give and the woman being painted out as a villain mistakenly. I'm not sure if this is at all what she intended while penning this strange but lovely song, but I think musical meanings are always subjective to the listener. 15. All I Want by Joni Mitchell - I have a long standing love affair with Mitchell's music, due in part to my father and in other part to my grandpa (who is a huge Joni fan and also reader of this blog, Hi Pops!). The thing about this song specifically that I enjoy is that there is not one shred of negativity towards the subject from the speaker of the song. This is a very difficult hard facet of a track to find in modern music, so sometimes I must turn to the older indie classics to hear a really pure intentioned song. And the second best part of this song is that Mitchell fully knows the cliched tone of the song and instead of denying it, leans into it in the lyrics, categorizing each 'cliche' that she wants to do with the subject of the song, which I think is just such smart songwriting. Also I love to analyze titles in correlation with the song because the "all i want" phrase is often used to list the ONE thing that someone wants from another person. But this piece is ironic in the way that she is listing a ton of things she wants to do with that person, not just one thing. Good job Joni. 16. Quarter Past the Hour by Jack and Eliza - Quick brag before we continue with an anaylsis of this song: Jack Staffen, the Jack of Jack and Eliza, went to NYU literally four years ago and is now absolutely thriving so shoutout to an artist hailing from my very artistic, very success driven university. OK, continuing. This piece is so evocative of a relationship where the two people have known each other for a long time, but things are starting to get lonely and the people are drifting apart subconsciously. I think sometimes without knowing I choose songs that could narrate my past experiences because I literally heard the lyrics of this and was like, Wow this exact thing happened to me and _____ and I can't believe some else wrote about it so perfectly. The idea of getting called 'past the hour' signifies that the person is late to show up, is trying but not hard enough, they just don't have the time to be in the relationship anymore... sad but true. 17. Eyes Like The Rest by Matthew E White - A swell of dramatic strings and then a smooth baritone with a cool bass line in the back --- it seems like I could be describing a song from one of the Beatles' later albums when they start to tap into their grass roots style (late 60s!) but alas, I am not. Let's talk about this super bluesy alternative track by the completely underrate artist that is Matthew White. The uncomfortable chords given when the words pause are quite similar to the intended meaning of the words. I think this is mostly about trying to have an honest conversation with someone about a difficult topic and it feeling very eerie and complex to get through, especially when the speaker has a little bit of a temper - his repeating of the line "I ain't gonna lose my shit" makes me think he has lost his shit in the past- and he needs a little bit of help to get through said conversation. The phrase that someone has eyes just like the rest of pluralized "you" signifies that there is common ground amongst people and perhaps some good could come out of a conversation between the two. I like the slight hopeful tone in the speaker's voice, despite deep hesitation that we can explicitly hear. 18. Into the Ether by Leif Vollebekk - Sometimes, songs have very convoluted meanings that could be analyzed for decades and perhaps never have a clear meaning on; other times, songs slap you in the face with a blunt story and that is great too. In this case, this song does not fall into either one of these categories. In an email sent to The FADER, Vollebekk said, "Into the Ether was the first song we tried to record but it didn’t come out right. It was only when I went swimming one day that this very simple drum groove came into my mind and I knew what had been missing. […] This song is the kind of song you might sing to yourself in a dream or perhaps in someone else’s. I was thinking a lot about Freddie Mercury when we did this one." The funniest thing is, I thought for sure I could have been the most insightful on this song over all the other ones on this playlist, but sometimes, isn't it better to not think about the meaning? I mean, for this one at least, just sit back and put some headphones in and let it wash over you completely. 19. We Walked Downtown by Flatsound - I'm 99% sure that the writer of this song must travel with me on my walks in the Village on any given day because this is very close to how I feel on a cold end of autumn day when I am all alone, thinking of perhaps having had walked the same route with a person I don't talk to anymore. Flatsound isn't really a popular artist, even in the indie or low-fi world, mostly because their music does generally consist of the same type of sound running through a lot of the songs. But, I actually enjoy when an artist is comfortable with writing music that flows together beautifully, especially when the lyricism is so wax poetic, like this artist has done with much of their discography. The title of the album that contains this song is, 'I Stayed Up Until Sunrise But Got To Fall Asleep To The Sounds Of Birds Singing', which I think just shows the experimentation and creativity that words can contribute to a musician or a group, and in turn tell a cohesive story. 20. Used to Be by Beach House - We all know that ending a mix with a song by BH is always the right way to go. Something about the peaceful, melodic quality of their pieces while saying the truest statements ever is very comforting for a person who overthinks pretty much everything all the time. This piece actually made me think about the music of Fleet Foxes a lot because of the chords used along with the echoic harmonies splayed throughout the track and the backing tracks as well (and the awesome tambourine thrown in for depth). This song is definitely a bit different than some other work by BH because it's more folky and less space cadet vibes which is what I usually get from them; this could also be because it's one of their earlier tracks where they were still finding their sound and influences fully. More than anything, though, this puts me in the location of the end of some coming of age film (perhaps my own) where summer is winding down and the protagonist has to realize that they must become single and independent.