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talking to a friend who didn't vibe with TTPD and said she can't get over the Matty of it all and the album gives her the ick and she isn't enjoying it and I'm just like... I respect that and you feel what you feel and shouldn't apologize for it... but I'm glad that after the initial 😵‍💫 of it all I was quickly able to appreciate the music for music's sake and the story being told because I find the album beautiful lyrically and sonically and narratively.

so glad im not in the bg3 fandom because all i see from it are bad takes, an absurd amount of entitled behavior, and incorrect character hate for literally every single character

I have complicated thoughts about atw10. I go back and forth on it - sometimes I hate it, sometimes I love it. but I think I always end up at those extremes because I can’t help but compare them.

first you have the og atw. perfect, no notes, whether or not you agree it’s her magnum opus it does deserve every bit of hype it gets because it’s a great fucking song. (the magnum opus conversation is intertwined with the lore about the song - that taylor wrote it all in a vent sesh with her band; that it wasn’t a single but became a fan favorite because it’s a great fucking song; that there’s A Scarf™️; that taylor recognized all this history and played it up; that by rerecording her music taylor gets the opportunity to carefully prune, as one would a bonsai tree, narratives and how her eras are remembered and how this is the one she’s cemented in history; that now the focus on a song’s lore has intentionally and unintentionally become integral to its endurance and popularity….) the original song has extreme dynamic peaks and valleys despite its nearly unwavering four chord progression. it has lines about autumn leaves and repeat phone calls so insightful that you marvel at how anyone could have been so talented as to string those precise words together. but its emotional punch is twofold: the details are just clear enough to make you recall one of your own experiences and just hazy enough to prevent the writer’s experience replacing yours. the whole thesis is about remembering all too well, forever. you can’t get rid of it. because you remember it. you remember it all. the song is a tour de force and taylor’s skillful manipulation of emotional/musical tension in this song is something that will be appreciated and studied for years to come.

then on the other hand you have atw10, which not only sounds and reads differently but could even be considered antithetical, or at least a foil, to the original song. the zeniths and nadirs are less pronounced and she expands the story with new verses largely interpreted to be about a toxic relationship with an age gap. the musical arrangement is more modern and features an expanded palette of instruments: tension and release comes from subtle harmonic differences, staccato background vocals, or a wild violin. the new verses - were they really part of the original song? or do they clearly betray the perspective of someone who’s 10 years older? the short film - it hammers home this exact expanded story and was admittedly written as a retrospective, with the insight that being 10 years removed from a toxic relationship provides. the ultimate effect is that atw10 is not about remembering it all because you can’t get rid of it. it’s about taylor remembering it all, even though she can finally get rid of it. the “it” is clearly her own experience (though this is not to say the atw10 story is not a relatable story or that it’s not a valuable story to tell or hear.) “I was there, I was there….” the memories and the pain all trail away with time. but, these memories are very clearly not yours, the listener’s. atw10 may be an expansion of the original all too well story, but this expansion does not simply intensify the same emotions from the original song—it explores a rather different emotional profile. musically and lyrically, and whether intentional or not, atw10 argues that the pain of remembering is dulled and even remedied with time.

and thus the ways that atw10 excels and fails are quite different than the ways the og atw does. whether one is “good” or “bad” depends what we value in a song, and more generally, why we enjoy the songs that we do and the extent to which we value an artist’s interpretation of their own experiences. have we been in toxic relationships and can relate to the specific story of atw10? are there traumas we can’t heal no matter how hard we try? are we moved by brash drums and isolated guitars or playful violins atop chords that chug on and on? does taylor swift’s word supplement or supplant our own connections with her songs?

I know that I personally would find atw10 less confusing if I stopped comparing it to its shorter relative. but the various lengths and mediums in which the all too well story is told make it seem destined that we’ll all be comparing the versions until the end of time. and yet just as there are shades of red for every possible intense emotion - burning, cherry, so scarlet, maroon - so are there reasons to love all too well. just as it will endure in the popular zeitgeist as one of taylor’s best, most famous, most impactful, most beloved songs, so too must all too well live on in every listener because of (and only because of) each and every one of us loving it for unique reasons.

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Ok friends it’s time for my thoughts on The Locked Tomb since my gf gifted me Gideon the Ninth yesterday and I’m 3 chapters in:

Idk if this is a hot take but my first impressions are that it feels like the author vomited a thesaurus on the page. Like, at first I thought that I was just a really shitty writer compared to the author and then I realized that I was struggling to read each sentence because the flowery language was taking away from my ability to actually form a mental picture because I wasn’t familiar with the words being used.

Also reading the word “titty” in an otherwise high-fantasy sounding sentence threw me for a loop but given the setting of high-fantasy in space I feel like it’s probably going to feel more normal as the book progresses.

My thoughts on this first book so far are leaning towards enjoyment because other than the thesaurus vomit the premise is really interesting and the characters seem fairly well written so far. There’s just only so many words to describe dark tunnels and like 90% of them are not within the wheelhouse of the average English-speaking person’s lexicon.

you ever hangout with someone and their company is actually much worse than being alone?

Just so y’all know I am not a multi shipper. I am not a fan of Kaka*ru or Kaka*bi, and I’m not a huge fan of Kakay*ma, so please don’t go in my posts and tag them! I’m happy you found joy in these Kakashi ships, but I am not someone who enjoys these relationships at all, so keep it off my posts please and thank you :)

AU where Roman take off his mask but his face is a horrible burnt mess beneath.

Ick had a crush on Fezzik from Princess Bride as a child. Bring this up please if you want to embarrass him.

hmm just a little thot idk

jesus fucking christ.

Older men will deadass just tell you to shut up and not talk over them on theyre first day of the job.

Iv been here for two years.

I’m almost done listening to an LP of the 2nd question chapter of Higurashi, and I’m going to give the same Youtuber one last try before I switch over to Rose Matter or LHCollider

Also, the one I’m watching is playing the older steam version where paragraphs of text go down the screen. The two girls have a more recent version with actual backgrounds (instead of filtered photos) and CGs. The translation seems the same based on the little I saw. Oh and music and sound effects. The guy I’m watching doesn’t have it in his recordings (he can still hear it) so it’ll be nice to have a more complete experience. Two chapters will be sacrificed, but I have another 6 to go.

watching gilmore girls is probably one of the things i hate myself most for. like it such an awful guilty pleasure.

In books I like it when the love interest calls the FMC/MMC sweetheart (condescendingly) but hate when they say sweetheart (lovingly)