The Depth Without Darkness in Opalite

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Alrighty are you ready?

Are we centered do we look good? Yes, yes, we do

You look like the onyx night and I look like opalite. Yes, that's the intention

Welcome to the swifty and the scholar the podcaster we examine the lyrics lore and literary legacy of Taylor Swift

I am Angela McDowell this swifty

And I am Dr. Cherry Coates the scholar. Yes, we did it. How you doing Uncle Jerry? You know I I'm doing well

Thank you. It's a weirdly warm here. Certainly is it's mid February. It's currently 70 degrees outside

Like two weeks ago. We were frozen in our houses. It's crazy

We're I'm like I have flip-flops on today. Yeah, I mean I worked for a flip-flop company. So it's not that weird

But it is warm outside

Anyway

Anyway

We're gonna be showgirls today excited about that. I am excited to be a showgirl always yes

So this our third song from the life of a showgirl is it we did um

Yeah, we did oh, we did father figure yeah, and of course, we'll feel you. Yes. Yeah

Today we're going to do opalite because Taylor has just made this a single

And there is now a music video which

Is maybe my favorite thing that she's done lately. It is so silly so quirky so full of joy so fun

It came at exactly the right time, I think and um, I just want us to watch that music video. So that's why we're here

Okay, that sounds fun

people have been asking you to break down the music video

Um, because full of visual metaphors. Oh, all right, and we will do that a different time. Oh

Any day now

But yeah, this is um from 2025 the life of a showgirl these all the songs on this album are

written and produced by Taylor Max Martin and shell back when I think that's it. This is just uh

I think just before this we were talking about how we just recorded Cassandra and now we're doing opalite and that is a little bit of a

whiplash situation. That's a lot

A lot different. Well, I will have to say, you know, you sent me Cassandra and I read it and read it and read it and read it and thought and thought and I had to actually get on my computer and I had so many notes

I had to type them on separate pages and I thought Cassandra was really fascinating and with um a multi a tea of

thematic ideas that that drove it and

And then you gave me opalite

These are written with two different pens that Taylor has. Okay. Um, yes, I would say that Cassandra is

Maybe a found pen bordering on quill pen and this is pure

glitter gel pen

Definitely glitter gel, but you know, it's fun to highlight the the range that she writes with yeah

That's why I'm as you pointed out dressed as the onyx knight. Yes, that's night with an end not with a K

Right

Okay, let's do it. It's just a fun little bot. It is it's just it's a fun romp. Yes, so it's very cute

So okay, verse one. Yeah, or opalite. I guess we start with a title. Yeah

You know as someone who took a course in mineralogy

And as someone who loves to collect rocks. I've got some of them are back there. Yeah

Um, you have any opalite. Oh

Here's a

A um amethyst ball. Yeah, there's something here. What's this? Oh, yeah, yeah

Amel's a knight crystals. Oh, this is

Rose quartz my necklace is those quits. Oh, yeah, that's polished rose quartz

Yeah, this has only one polished side so it looks a little like it

So yeah, I mean I collect oh here's a here's a tiny geode

Cute. I don't know. I mean, I just these things are just sort of all around

Um, as I mentioned before I once took a vacation just to go rock hunting. I've been up to Mt. Vanille down by

Austin looking for

Geodes and things like that um, so yeah, I do I love that stuff

So her use of the word opalite is interesting to me because opalite's a

fabricated

Stone right, okay, so it's

Man-made, but I hesitate to use you know, gendered terms

Man and woman made human made human made

Opalite it's it's very pretty, you know, it's opalescent

They manufacture opalite so that it looks like opal sometimes it looks like moonstone

moonstone is just a quartz that's highly included that means it has lots of fractures in it and

um, so either one either one could be considered that um

As a man-made stone, I have to admit I'm a little prejudic prejudicially disposed against it

Right, you know, I I don't really care for a lot of man-made stuff

Oh, you know, although I've seen it. I've seen it titrated out, you know, so

Um, I've seen the process um, you know, there are also manufactured rubies emerals

Um, sapphires diamonds, of course

um

You know, when they when they

manufacture them they tend to come out without

A lot of inclusions, you know, one of the charm of a of a gemstone like emerald is that it has multiple inclusions

Or I think I have a

The piece of quartz back there that has

a little

Strations and um, you know, so

You know the different objects sometimes can be trapped

I've got one that has a little um, water

Vacuole trapped in it. Um, yeah, I mean, I you know some of the

Points that I have have ghost points where they where they grew and then they stop growing and then they grew some more

And so you can see the original called a ghost point. That's cool. Yeah

So I'm I'm pretty fascinated by what nature does

Generally

Manufactured items are less expensive or less prized

It's not always true, but um, opalite certainly is kind of a of a less expensive

Less prized over opal in its various forms. So when I think of opalite, I think of kind of a cheap glassy

Manufactured thing. Yeah, okay

And personally, I would prefer Onyx

Right the point is though

That it is manmade. That's right. Yes. So the point is that opalite is manufactured, right?

That it is something that we make and so it has our

I don't know the thrust of our creativity

And that's really her thematic idea. Yes. I get that. Yes. I know you do

Do I still like it? Not really

But yeah, so it does have a point and we can talk about that

Yes

Okay, verse one. Yes. So first of all, let me point out the verse form. Okay. Yeah

So it has 10 lines. I think you could divide it into five and five

So they're coins or quintet, but um, it's called a design

A 10 line stanza and usually they're rhymed a-b-a-b-b-c-c-d-c-d

And this is not rhymed that way

You know, we've got habit past it

trash last

So you know past and last do I'm and then haunted ghosts couples know

No comes close to those ghosts, but don't

Um, you know, so yeah, we do we do rhyme

Some but not like a typical design which would be the 10 line stanza

Um

But she's going to sing this through so that's okay, too

um

The the poem starts in the past tense. I had a bad habit and now you're going to be impressed. Yes

So you have mentioned what it could have should have to me. Uh-huh

It feels like that would match that title. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. What would have happened? What could have happened?

What should have happened with a bad habit because

She is missing uh of missing lovers past, right? Yeah, and now we have a l-o-m-l

Yeah, see

I'm looking to you

This is a little swifty

Connecting songs. I I know you know, that is something that I have not been able to do

Yeah, um because I haven't really given you a tons that are well. Yeah, I mean honestly yet for those of you who are listening

You know the the only songs I know are the songs angel with one exception are the songs angel has given me so

You know the complete extent of my understanding of her work is limited to 29 songs. Yeah, yeah, and um

You know, so if she has how many songs to her 300? Yeah, somewhere in the 200s, I think yeah, so I maybe I know a tenth of her work

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It's pretty good though. So my ability to cross reference is fairly limited

So when I was doing it with this song I pretty proud myself. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely and I feel like

I mean, I feel like we could even take that further and say that you know a lot of her songs are

About missing lovers past, you know, yeah, so I think it's very typical

Yeah, these are the only ones I know so yeah

So I wrote them down like I want credit for that. I'm giving it to you. Thank you

We do have a kind of a rhythmical pattern going of missing lovers past bump bump bump bump bump bump my brother used to call it

Eating out of the trash. It's never gonna last. I thought my house was haunted. Yeah, yeah, okay

So we have I mean she kind of goes back and forth between iams and trokeys and I am a stressed

Unstressable trokey stressed unstressable. Okay. Yeah, she's kind of bouncing back and forth

Um, I don't think she's doing it. I mean, I think she's doing it probably to match the sense of the song

You know, I do remember I remember hearing the song when we saw the movie. Yes

You know, and so the song is kind of bouncy and fun. It matches that glitter gel 10

um

You know tone and so I think that the rhythmic pattern is bouncy and matches the tone of that song

agree. Yeah, um, it's also very typical of English verse

Overall

English verse does tend to be iambic

English speakers tend to use iams

English speakers tend to use iam

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, um, I think I told you the story of Ricardo Montabon who once sounded before he learned to speak english said

We sounded like barking dogs

Just we uh

Yeah, I mean, I guess I kind of is true. Yeah

So for those of you who are second-language learners. Yeah, English

barking dog

Yeah, that's

There's an internal rhythmic element to the English language

Tends to do that we tend to have stressed unstressed syllables that are paired off

We don't tend to have a lot um, you know

We're not far see or um, you know some or do you know some languages that have multiple paired syllables

um

You know, so

This is the way we talk. It's just kind of yeah, it is yeah, it is us and I think that's kind of

The other songs that we've talked about that have this really

Specific rhyme are the other pop like super pop heavy the other max martin songs like I think we talked about that with blank space

Which is another max martin produced track. So I think that's just a function of working with someone who creates these like pop hits

You know, I think it is it's the music that drives the rhythmic pattern more than the the poetics, right? So

Yeah, I'm gonna for I'm gonna foreshadow and say is this a great poem

It's fun. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so I had a bad habit of missing lovers past. So this is again in the past

Yeah, I'm not doing that anymore. Right. So she's like stacks two times. She got the blue perfect going on the

The past past. Okay

So yeah in English tenses you we do have in a lot of languages. They have multiple levels of the past

So there's the past and then there's the past that happened before the past

My brother used to call it. Okay. This is gonna be a theme in her poem that she relies on the advice the close advice of others people whom she trusts

So specifically her family and her family members, right? They appear in this poem. Yeah, so my brother used to call it the advice of others

Eating out of the trash

hilarious. Thank you Austin. It's

It's a hilarious line, right? Oh, that's right Austin is her brother's name. Uh-huh. Yeah

Emily Dickinson's brother. Exactly. Yeah, we talked about that

Yeah, it's a hilarious line

obviously

Metaphorical

Yeah, there's a metaphor

So trash is something that you should have disposed of

It is something should have been thrown away at this point and should not be recoverable

And the idea that she was eating out of it instead of having real food

That's also kind of funny that like Austin's also speaking in metaphors like it just runs in the family maybe

Yeah, so yeah, so you know

She understands from his advice that her past lovers maybe

haven't been quite up to par right

Yeah, and now of course I'm wondering are they all sitting around going? Is she talking about me?

And the answer is yes, yes, yes, she is

You try

It's never gonna last

Okay

I thought my house was haunted okay my house

Mm-hmm metaphor, right? She uses the house metaphor in Cassandra. Yes, right? And so I know aren't I am amazing?

And then it was haunted. This is again very typical

Taylor Swift she loves the whole haunted ghosts the ghosts are everywhere the ghosts are everywhere

Yeah, and someone surely has written a paper. Yeah, we got to find that yeah on ghosts

You know when we're done with all this

Okay, let me just give you a forewarning when we're done with all this I think because I do this without

Research, right? I use my own resources

You know, but I don't I don't go online and see what other people have said or I don't go and see if there's a paper written on ghosts in

Taylor Swift's

I I don't do that. Um, I really just want to rely on my own

initial response right

But or and yeah

And it would be interesting when we're all done and we're just tired of this um you over it

I know I'm tired of just saying that's another matter for people

Uh, it would be interesting to go back and see what the literature does say and do uh do a comprehensive lit review

Yeah, it's what we do in academic. Yeah, there was one time this was very early on and I can't remember

I don't remember the specifics of like what you you mentioned a

um, like a literary term or something and till I link everything that we talk about I link in the the episode descriptions so that y'all can go

Learn and you know learn more about the things that Uncle Jerry is teaching us about and um

You mentioned some literary term and I went to google it and I found a paper that a woman had written

Using that literary term to talk about Taylor Swift songs. Oh cool. And it was like on the first page of results

So it was like, you know, people are just talking about that related to I think you might have been champagne problems or something

Um, so I know there's tons out there. Oh sure. I just don't know what they are

Yeah, I mean, it's true that I'm brilliant, but there are there are also other brilliant people

Um, and there are people, you know, who who do literary studies on songs and literature

Um, you know, I have not in my own research, but uh, it's been fun to me now you have now I have

Now I have yeah, you know, if if I were um a serious if if I wanted to be a serious literary scholar in the vein of Taylor Swift

I would do a lit review

A lot of dissertations some theses will begin with a lit review

You know, what have people published in the past about this author or this particular work

And then what am I going to say about it that's different from or in addition to what they have published. Yeah

So yeah, it would be kind of fun when we're done to go back and do a lit review on one of these songs

Well like Cassandra, which has a great deal of depth to it or ivy

Which has a multi-added meaning it'll be fun to go back and do a lit review and see okay

What if other people said about it and then what what could I say about it that would be different

You know what what would my interpretation of Cassandra's

um, you know

mythological referencing in the modern world have to say about

About the poem and us. Yeah, I want you to do that

You know

And we're done with this okay

So um, yeah, she thought her house was haunted she had so many she'd been eating out of the trash so long

They're just all around so I used to live with ghosts. Oh, you mean people who are are you ready

Talking rings and talking candles

I know I know

They're dancing phantoms dancing phantoms on the terrace. I know right

I also think whenever she says this one the vision that comes to my mind

I think just because it has like an actual

Image is the anti-hero music video that we just recently watched where she has there's like go people wearing sheets

You know like right like it goes to in her house

They're just like sitting around the kitchen table itself just hanging out. Yeah, that's our always picture

The memories of all these crappy guys just kind of hanging out with a goofy sheet over exactly just in the corner

Well, you know what she needs to do is she needs to have a priest come and exercise her demons. Oh my gosh. Look at you

I know I thought of black dog

Right, so I wrote I wrote that down in my nose all that's too funny so many callbacks

Yeah, well, yeah, again, this is my limited 10% understanding of her lyrics. Oh, yeah, I

You know, so

My comment is going to be that she is referencing

Previous works and motifs right which makes sense sure because she's talking about like the pack that was all wrong

I was doing it all wrong and here's what I changed to like, you know

Yeah, I mean this is clearly in terms of tone a light hearted

ironic, you know, you could say a little sarcastic

But certainly very light-toned work. Yeah, so

Even though there are ghosts yes, so yes there are ghosts and all the perfect couples said

When you know you know and when you don't

You don't so essentially she's again seeking advice right the perfect couples now. I don't know

What perfect couples she might know

It's funny because this resonated for me

Because Leslie my wife

You know, we we got married just a few years ago and she had not been married before she waited till she found me and

Which was lucky for me

Um, but she it's funny because she mentions a couple of different couples that she talked with about getting married and

One of Miss or cousin and she thinks that her cousin and and her cousins

Husband are just a perfect couple and they are I've met them. They are just wonderful

You know, and it's just it's it sweet that we seek out that kind of advice. Yeah, I do have a a story or what I think this is referencing for Taylor

Oh, really yes, so um you know the perfect couple well no

But well, I mean me obviously and juniper not just getting chased

Chase chase not juniper

Just slightly below the dog

He knows that and I was like you're my favorite except for juniper and some days Taylor Swift um

So there is so our good buddy Jackie Antonov

Yes, he um his band is called bleachers and do you know Lana Del Rey? Yes, I do um she works a lot with Jack as well

Oh, okay, and she has a song titled like her although I haven't heard yeah a lot from her lately

There um Taylor and her have a song together as well. Oh, we should do that. Okay. Um not one of my favorites um

But Lana Del Rey has a song titled Margaret

About when Jack and his now wife Margaret met

And in Margaret she says

When you know you know and then that song actually features bleachers

Which is Jack Antonov's band and Jack Antonov's part says

Something about like if you have to ask then that's your answer basically

So she's like when you know you know when you know you know and then Jack is like yeah, and if you have to ask then

You don't it's the answer's no the answer is no

Well, I think that's like a direct kind of reference to that song. Oh, that's fun. Yeah

Yeah, I mean, I I think that she's like all of us seeking out the advice of family

Friends people we admire people who've done it right right and um and maybe the best answer is when you know you know

And you know when you don't you don't so I you know essentially what she's saying is use your intuition

Right go back and be Cassandra and

And the feminine intuition you know in in that trope is a powerful tool. It's a powerful instrument

Um, you know take it out of your toolbox and use it. Yeah

So yeah, I mean there's not a lot more to this verse. No, you know usually I'm throwing down a lot of literary devices or you know

um

Multiple interpretive elements, but yeah, it's pretty straightforward. Yeah, it's pretty self-referential

I think so too. Yeah, you know, and the use of

The way I felt, you know

Thinking about black dog or or LOML or things like that, you know

If she's going over in her mind past relationships, which she has written about before. So why not? Yeah

Um, so the pre-chorus. Yes

And all of the foes and all of the friends of you know, the alliteration very cute

Um, but not a iteration that strikes

deeply at the heart of the tone

So I think it's lighthearted. It's just I'm you know, gonna play with this all the foes the

the critics who have you know written about me talked about me. Yeah, how bad I am at relationships

And all the friends the Swifties, you know, the the great cadre of people who follow her and support her

Um, you know, she knows that both sides are out there. Um, and they've all seen it before

They'll see it again. Ha-ha

And obviously it's starting. Ha-ha. This is not a series. Yeah, we're not we're not taking ourselves too seriously here

We started it by talking about eating out of the trash. So

Right exactly

My life is a song. It's a metaphor, right? But I think it is to her life has centered on her music for so long

You know, and and her life literally has been lived out in her music. Yeah, absolutely

You know, at least as much as I know, you know, I mean again of the 29 songs you've shown me

So many of them are about her

Relationships and her joy and her angst

her promises and her hopes

So um, you know, I think that it's true that her life is a song and it ends

When it ends I was wrong, you know, we're assured that everything

ends

Yeah

That's kind of what I get from that right like she's like in the past

She's written a little bit about you know, is it gonna be forever? Is it gonna go down in flames?

I can see it end as it begins like yeah, so also another call out is that we do have an acoustic version of this song that she put out

and um, not as fun, you know, but um the lyric is changed here and this one in in the

Acoustic version it says love is a song it ends when it ends oh really and I can't I can't figure out why

That happened like why she did that you know, I do like that too well because I think her life and love are

relatively synonymous everything is just kind of intertwined and yeah or synonymously relative

Sorry, I'm just playing with words now because it's a bit of a goofy. So I don't mean goofy. I mean playful. Yeah

Um, and yeah, you know when she writes about her life and her loves in her music

I mean name one that came out

Beautifully to perfection. Yeah, just just the one this is about exactly. Yeah, it's to this point

Travis is the only guy who's made it to the finish the well

Close to it. He's so close

Yeah, but you know, I think it looks like he's gonna get there. Yes

Right, but you've you've made a list for me of the people who did not um some lasted years some lasted months

some really

Only one night

You know, so for her

The expectation is that love ends when it ends love always has an end, you know that

That's finite right, you know now my love for for

You know

Not Diet Coke Leslie infinite infinite

Right, and so it's fun that she says at the end of the pre-chorus. I was wrong

Right, she says it ends when it ends kind of a shrug which is a terrible way to feel about love relationship

Going into it expecting it to end. Yeah, yeah

This is gonna be great for a while, but I know it'll be over soon. Yeah

But in this case, I was wrong

Travis has has been around has stayed around and it looks like he might be the permanent deal. Yeah

Well good for you Travis

So we get to the chorus. Yes

But my mama told me it's all right. Oh now we're to the mama. Okay, so we visited her brother

Her friends and the perfect ones and now we're at the mama. Mm-hmm. So again, she's making the rounds of seeking advice

And look at the rhythmic pattern, but my mama told me it's all right. Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum

Right, you were dancing through the lightning strikes. Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum

So if there's a great line in this poem

Yeah, I think this is it and I'm sorry

You've got you've done this to me because you told me several times ago. This is my favorite line

Yeah, I know I do like to point out favorite lines

So I'm gonna say this is my favorite line. Okay. Yeah, I do a lot. I mean, it's very fun. It's it's like a such a fun image

Yes

Yeah, and it's metaphorical

right and

Yeah, it's a fun image. She's dancing through lightning strikes so

You know she's

You know she's been able to

dodge and weave through

Yes, yes, through the obstacles of life

Um through the dance and through it all. Yeah, then she's still dancing, right? She's

She's making it through

Through all these dancing phantoms

I have water in my mouth

Gotcha

um

And she almost takes me to a place where I think oh this this is going to get serious

sleepless in the onyx night

So although dancing through the lightning strikes maybe my favorite line

I think maybe the most beautiful line is sleepless in the onyx night. Yeah

That's lovely the adjective onyx is is beautiful. Yes, a great um, but then the the use of another

um mineral a

You know gemstone if you will onyx is agate

It's a kind of quartz um

And um

You know the use of that is really it's really beautiful um and when I think of onyx

It's it is black

But it's not always completely black. They'll they'll be striatious streaks of calcidney that run through it

Calcidney is actually kind of like opalite is like an

opalessened white material and um in in some

um

Art people will take onyx with a lot of the calcidney running through it a lot of the white streaks

And they will polish it away and they'll make like cameos out of it

um

The

You know what's interesting about onyx to is it's black it reminds us of sadness death

um in the Victorian age onyx was uh frequently used as

Uh, feonary jewelry

Yeah, so um, it makes sense

uh, so

I suppose the name of the there's a novel by ws Bryant uh possession

In which this pair are trying to track down a pair of lovers from the 19th century a pair of Victorian poets

And they go to with me and they go to a jet shop and jet is petrified wood that's black

And queen victoria after prince albert died queen victoria would

tended to wear jet jewelry or onyx jewelry

Yeah, because it was black she was perpetually in mourning

After the death of her beloved husband makes sense. Yeah, so um you know when I see sleepless in the onyx night

It's a lovely image. It's not just black, but it's reminiscent of funeral um

I guess I should say just just because I touch on the classics um onyx was actually used in ancient Rome as a symbol of

Strength um, it was considered to be the stone of Mars

Mm-hmm. I kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's interesting. Um, I think of sleepless in the onyx night

That makes me think of midnight's the album. Oh, yeah, because you said that was things that keep her up in the middle of the night

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah. Oh, look at you. Yeah. Well, you started this

um

Yeah, I mean, I obviously I think of the movie sleepless in Seattle

Classic that classic um, I also think of the book. Uh, it's a dark night of the soul

You know where you're staying up and trying to imagine

You know, what's the nature of the soul and how do I negotiate this life in the next um

That I don't know. I just think it's it's a lovely line and a serious one that comes in the middle of what's otherwise a very lighthearted poem

um

But now and you get the clear transition is like

She's getting serious with onyx night and then she says oh, oh no wait, wait take it back. Yeah

Glitter gel pen

She's trying to be a torgent pellet for a second

Just for a second. No, no, I'm a showgirl now

Well, and that's why I'm thinking about onyx, you know, what does it mean in the classical age?

What did it mean to the Romans? What did it mean to the victorians?

You know, how does it work as a symbol of death of darkness? And then it's like oh, no, but now

Stop that thought the sky is opal light. So opal light, you know, like moonstone like opal multiple colors translucent

Glittering conveying light as much as it reflects and refracts

Um, oh, oh, oh, oh

I don't remember how she sings this but honestly like can't even get it in my head right now

But like I'm like trying to like how do like how do all those oh-ohs go? Yeah

Um, the sky is probably a metaphor

Right, yeah, it's limitless like her future. Mm-hmm. So I think the sky is a metaphor for

You know eternity the opposite of love that she found ended when it ended. Yeah

So the sky is limitless eternal

You know her future is yeah, she's another song all about like finding, you know

being having a bad time and then finding

Happiness and it's all about day. It's called daylight. Oh, so kind of the same thing. Yeah

Yeah light tends to be happiness and it's just just that idea of opal light reflects some multiative color, you know

And it's translucent so it conveys light. Yeah

And she just seems overwhelmed with the next line up by lord

Never made no one like you before

um

You know, so

Okay, so now I get the use of opal light never made no one like you before

um

Onyx is is naturally occurring

But you know onyx is dark and conveys another meaning

um and

Maybe if she has a there a serious theme here one of those serious themes is you have to be in charge of your own life

Exactly. Yes, so opal light is manufactured if I'm going to find real love

That is lasting and it doesn't just end when it ends. I I'm not just going to shrug again with the expectation

It'll be over. Mm-hmm. I have to make it

Right, it's you know, I have to be in charge. Yeah, I have to keep choosing to move forward

I have to stop eating out of the trash. I have to do something different

Um a fun thing that we learned

um in the eras to her documentary when they're backstage her and her mom are backstage and um

They're telling the story of Travis

Of how they met and we had known that somebody

You know, Travis called her out on their on her him and his brother's podcast and said I tried to meet Taylor when she was in town and Kansas City

And they wouldn't let me meet her

And I made her a friendship bracelet with my number on it

But they wouldn't let me give it to her and she like they called this out on the podcast. Well apparently

um

Taylor's mom Andrea she's she saw that she saw of that happening and um

She called up her cousin who lives in Kansas City and is a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan

And said is Robin she said I called cousin Robin and I said tell me about this guy

And

Robin said he's great and he loves his mom

Was that it that's all they told us I don't know and so um

You know up to this point Taylor had like only dated these like artsy struggling

Like too good for you

Actors and songwriters and stuff and she said that when Andrea called Taylor and said we got to do something different

I just saw that this guy brought something because she said I just really appreciated how he he was trying to come into your world

He came to your show he made a friendship bracelet

He was like

Not trying to bring you into his world

He was trying to come into your world

Which is like different than these other men before and so she said I think you need to like give him a call and see what's up

so we learned in that that

Taylor's mom is the reason that why they're together. Yeah, wow. Okay. Isn't that funny. That still blows my mind

Yeah, yeah, that is funny, but then it matches the tone of the song where she seeks out

Yeah, you know the brother of the mother the friends whom she respects. Yeah

So yeah, that's kind of a fun story to yeah

um

Okay, so yeah, you have to do it you have to take charge you have to manufacture your own

uh, relationship. Yes, and she kind of ends the stanza. They ends the chorus with that, but you had to make your own

Sunshine, but now the sky is opalite. Oh, oh, oh, oh

Yeah, and so this whole this whole chorus. I'm just realizing is in

parentheses

Hmm, not not parentheses

Quoting quotes. Yeah

um

And so all of this is her mom saying uh-huh is saying

Her mom is saying all of this. Yes, it is

Yet, this is all her mom's advice. Yeah, so her mom gets serious and then the mom says, but you need to take charge your life

Yes, and go meet this nice boy who loves his mom

That's exactly right

Yes

Verse two yes, okay

You couldn't understand it why you felt alone

um you were in it for real

You

Don't change page. Oh she was in your phone and you were just a pose

What do you get from this? You know, I didn't know who she was in her phone

So I think that that first verse is about tail is Taylor and her mom and about Taylor's relationships

And I think this verse is about

Travis's relationship before. Oh really? Yes. Oh

Okay, I didn't know you had a relationship before yes

We're not gonna get into that because that's weird um

But yes, he was how weird

She just she won't stop now like she's still like uh

Like she's kind of just known as like Travis's ex who hates Taylor now um

But I think this is about her like so I think I think this is about him

So this is her I think talking to trailers Travis like you couldn't understand it

Why you felt alone in that relationship because you were in it and you thought she was in it too

But she was just in her phone

And she was just dating you to like look good on Instagram together and like

Yeah, this is me with Travis

Yes, this is me at the games. This is me after the game. This is me out. Yeah

I get it. Yeah

Oh

And why it's okay, so this is one of my other favorite lines and

Just because it's got two different meanings um, why don't we try to love love and then in parenthetical inclusion love come up love

So why don't we try to love love why don't you

Just love the emotion, right? It's time that you just embrace love and and then she says love

Which is a an imperative verb comma

Love which is the noun of direct address

Am I using too many grammar terms for you?

Maybe

Yeah, so the the fun thing about the parenthetical inclusion is it's got a comma between it. So you've got to love my love

Okay, yeah, I get you. Yeah, so the second love is Travis. Yeah, she's calling him love. Yes

The first love is the imperative verb form telling him you have to love do it. You must love my love

Got you. Yes, right and but the first love love is you've got to embrace the emotion when you have it

Right, so you've got to love love and you've got to love love my love

So yeah, it's a fun play on words because it's love love love. Yeah, but separated by the common

There's a question mark in between. They all mean different things. They all mean different things. Yeah, that's nice

Yeah, I think that's fun. It's a fun play on words

We give it all we've got give it all we got. Okay, so this is a cliche and she doesn't do anything with

Completely non-tailor swifty

Yeah, that's very true. Yeah, usually she takes cliches and twist them or gives them a funny ending or gives them a sarcastic or satiric or

Something but no, this is just the cliche. Yeah, give it all you got

It also sounds very much like something you'd tell a football player

It does it does like sound like yes agreed. Yeah, it's just go out there and give it all you got

Give it a hundred percent. Yeah, leave it on the field

Yeah, or something maybe that he says and so she's like echoing it back to him or something

Wondering is is this football lingo

You know, I had a basketball coach once he would end our locker room talk before the game. You'd always say

um

You know get out there and have fun, but remember it's more fun to win than to lose

He's not wrong. No, I always thought that was funny. Get out there and have fun, but remember it's more fun to win than to lose

Yeah

Get out there and get it all you got

um

You finally left the table uh-oh or uh-uh

um, so you know

You finally left the table of eating trash

You know, so we're echoing the whole eating metaphor from the very first answer. Yeah

You know, and literally push away from the table push away from this banquet

You know the smorgasbord of guy after guy after guy after guy

And what a simple thought you're starving till you're not

You know, so yeah eating trash ain't no fun. Yeah, she's been starving up to now

So again, we have this metaphor if there is a consistent metaphorical use in this poem

It surrounds eating. Yeah, it certainly does doesn't it? Yeah, so love as food. She's been starved for love up to now

Yeah, so she uses tables a bit

um

There is in the song lover

um

She says

It's like all about it's like kind of like these are all the things that I will do and I do do for you, you know

blah blah blah

Did you say do I do I did I was hoping you would you would just let it let me know I'm not going to

Something you would just let that pass

Yeah, just let the do-do pass

Okay

Anyway

um

She says at every table. I'll save you a seat. Oh, and then on the eras tour there's a song from um

uh evermore

Uh called tolerate it. That's like my love should be celebrated, but you just tolerate it and the performance

Changed the song for me

Sorry, I know that's rough. That's a that's a funny. That's a fun line. Yeah

Yeah, that we'll have to do that one soon because I really do this this performance like change the song for me

Yeah, there's a big difference being loved and being tolerated. Yes

Um, but at the the performance for this song is just a huge long table and there's a guy sitting at one end and Taylor is like

Throwing stuff off the table and she's up on the table crawling towards him and he's just sitting there like nothing

You know, and so I feel like she uses tables quite a bit to be like, you know, it's sort of like the house

It's like the place where you gather, you know

But even at those tables like these other the other people

Both Travis and for Travis and for Taylor like they're just not giving you anything nothing to eat

Well, that's fun though. Okay, the pre-chorus

Of all the foes and all the friends so we're back to that um

Have messed up for them mess up again. Ha ha. Kind of cute

Life is a song it ends when it ends and you move on which is a little different from

You know the middle line have messed up before they'll mess up again

And I was wrong and she says you move on. So yeah, you I guess you just move on

Um

That's when I told you that's when I told you now she's the one giving advice. Yeah. Okay

She's repeating her mom's words. Yeah, it's all right. You were dancing through the lightning strike sleepless in the onyx night

The sky is opalite. So you you make you find your joy you make your joy

Oh my lord never met anyone like you

You had to make your own sunshine sunshine. It's opalite. So pretty much a repetition of the previous. Yes

Um, but now she's like owning her mom's words, which is pretty cool. And then we go to the bridge. Yes

The bridge. This is just a storm inside a teacup. Okay, it's kind of a cliche a tempest in the teacup

Except now she is manipulating the tea cliche just a little bit

And it's also a metaphor right storm inside a teacup. So it's just a tiny tiny bit of a kerfuffle

Yeah, I've definitely heard that um saying before but I didn't really know like what it meant

So is that just saying like this is just it seems big because it's in a tiny

In a tiny space. Yeah, it's just it seems big because right we're in it right now. Right we're in it right now

It's just a little bit of a hiccup. It's not that big a deal. Gotcha

Shelter here with me my love. So shelter under the storm. So again, she's extending that metaphor

Thunder like a drum. So she's pushing that metaphor down through the bridge. So it becomes a conceit. It's a conceit

Yes, so

This life will beat you up up up. This is just a temporary speed bump. So she's changed the metaphor

I do like the line this life will beat you up because you feel the beating of the the thunder like a drum

So like a drum similarly the thunders yet another metaphor for the for the tiny upsets that we face

Um, so yeah, this is kind of fun in terms of the literary devices

I think the bridge is is the more complex element in the form

This is just a temporary speed bump

You know secondary metaphor

And but failure brings you freedom and I can bring you love love love love

So unlike the previous four loves

Yeah, where she had two messages. I think this is pretty much just this the one

Just the one this is my favorite part to sing

Was that right? Yeah in the car. Can you sing that? I will not on my microphone now

How many of you would join patreon to hear Angela sing

Just as long as I don't have to sing they love when you sing I will sing only if it's to ballad meter and I can sing it to the tune of

uh

The yellow object said clamp it said clamp it yeah

um

And then we go to the chorus. It's got my favorite word baby in it. Yes, don't you sweat it baby

It's all right

Oh, please

But this is a glitter gel pen song, right? It's got to have a baby in it. We got to throw a baby in there

Uh, don't you sweat it? It's cliched, but you know what she's gonna embrace the cliché. That's okay

Because she says it's all right

Yeah, yeah, I kind of feel like that bridge in this last chorus. I always picture her

Saying that to Travis like after he's had a bad game or something like it feels like something that

He would that she would say to him. Yeah, that she would say yeah

And then she's dancing through her there dancing through lightning strikes

Strikes sleepless in the onyx night. The sky is opalite remember it's glistening

multifaceted multi-colored and limitless

um

Never met no one like you before and then no

No, so apparently she's never found anyone quite as open clear and honest and

Limitless as good old Travis

You had to make your own sunshine, but now the sky is opalite beautiful. It's lovely

It's just a fun little song. It is fun. Um, you know, there are some themes, right? Yes

The theme of personal development

Okay, yeah, right. Yeah theme of perseverance. Don't give up. They're gonna be lightning strikes

You know, there might be a storm in a teacup. There might be a temporary speed bump, right?

Perseverance

I think there's also a

juxtaposition of the past in the future

Um, remember we began in the past tense. I had a bad habit

Right. I no longer have it because I have you love love love love love

Um, you know, she met some really bad people who were like trash, but now

Um, you know, I've never met anyone like you. No

No, no

So past versus present

Um, and I did kind of skip by the um, comparative between light and darkness

You know, there's some nice work going on between light and dark. Yeah, great between opal light and

Onyx both of which begin with the letter O, you know, so they're kind of

Bookend each other. Okay. Yeah, different ends of a literal spectrum. Yeah. Yeah

So that's fun

Um

You know, I don't mean to

When I use a word like cute, I don't mean to say it isn't a good song

Um, but it's as a poem. It's cute. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a sweet little there's there's not a ton of depth here

Yeah, I think there's more than there is just on the surface a little bit more

But it's not a

You know, it's not Cassandra or Ivy or right um, so long London or yeah, the poetic devices aren't as um

Complex and they're and I don't think that she intends them to be yeah, you know, I think it's it is a celebration

Agreed. Yeah, so that's part of the tone is the celebratory tone of the work

Um, really does come through

So and just as you say you can't start out with talking with a line like eating out of the trash and and expect anyone to think this song is going to be

filled with darkness and death

I love things said darkness and depth because Taylor did describe Travis as

Depth without darkness. Oh really and that's exactly what this song is. Yeah, I couldn't agree more depth without the darkness

There's no onics here. Yeah, yeah, a great

Okay, anything else. I don't think so it's fun

Um, we are going to I think we'll just watch the music video. Okay, um, the music video is a 90s dream

Which is my favorite. I love it so much um as I said before we will um after Uncle Jerry sees this and I think I'm going to

Assign you. This is fun. Now I get to be the one assigning instead of you being the one assigning. You always assign

No, I know, but I mean like in your career. Oh, yes

Yeah, you mean for the past 48 years I was making the assignment. Yes. Um, I kind of want to break down the music video

As if like in the same way that you do this

Okay, for its visual imagery metaphor and that kind of thing. Yes, sure. Okay, so we're gonna watch it

And we'll be right back and then we'll talk about all of those things

Edilator date, but we'll be right back. Okay

Okay, yes about time

Um

Give me thoughts

What it's so fun

Um, are we gonna do this later on or am I good? You can talk about it now, but I want you to have like time with it later

Yeah, Donald Gleason is one of my favorite actors. Yeah, um, I think he's brilliant

I think his dad is brilliant. You know, uh, his dad was in um

Banshees of in his share

Yeah, my favorite baby. He was nominated for the Academy Award

Um, but the younger Gleason was in Brooklyn

And I'd love that movie that is a matter of fact the first movie Leslie and I ever saw together

It was on I think our third date

Um, and it's a brilliant movie with Sareesh Loet Ronan. Yeah, I think she's amazing. Yeah, me too

Um, and he's in the movie about time which I just love it is, you know, everybody's got a guilty pleasure

Is that with um

Rachel McAdams. Okay, I was gonna say Regina George, and I was like that's not really

And Bill Nye. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he he kills me every time

Yeah, so it's it's a goofy quirky

Call it a sci-fi romance. I don't know. It's uh, it's written by Richard Curtis

who also wrote

love actually

Ann Brooklyn and

It Richard Kurt so love actually there's that movie Valentine's Day that's like the same style with like all the

The ensemble cast and Taylor was in that. Oh, was she really? Yeah. Oh wow

You know, I didn't realize she was in cats. We're gonna say it's catch was on Netflix. It was going off

I thought maybe I should watch it. It's terrible. It's so bad. Um, yeah, yeah, of course based on um

lyrics by uh T.S. Eliot um

The song midnight it isn't in old possums book of practical cats, but now I go off. Yeah, I do tend to do that

Yeah, that's okay lots of connections. I know I love Richard Curtis's work

I think love actually he's just a fun Christmas movie

You know, and so yeah about time is just

Pure fun and and he's great in it, you know, he's also glee since also in um

The Harry Potter movie he's bill weasley and he's in he plays some general in

The last three of the Star Wars trilogies

Yeah, yeah

I mean he's great

You know, not great movies

I don't know

Yeah, so he she like pulled everybody from that so he made that joke

He's just trying to make a little joke and then Taylor's like actually I'm gonna hire you

And then she's like not just you but everybody else on this couch right now including Graham Norton

Who's just hosting right like how fun and they all did it even kill Ian Murphy

He wasn't in it, but he's voice yeah, but his voice is the the info martial art at the beginning

That's his voice, okay, that's fun. I love the style of it. I love the commercial. Yeah, I mean it reminds me of

It reminds me a little of some of the things we're heard in kill bill

You know if you saw kill bill one or kill bill two, you know

He loves that kind of retro sound and feel

So yeah, that was fun. It was cute

Very glitter gel pad lots of glitter gel. Yes, yes

Glitter gel that she smooths on her

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Yeah

Yeah, so more more to come on that video, but I just love it so much like I can't stop thinking about it

I just think it's so fun

it it it's

Has it once you dig into it more there really are like a ton of visual metaphors in there and it's I don't know

It's just so fun and it's like it really tells a story to me and so I'm excited to talk more about that

Q's it can be yeah

Okay, you ready to great. Oh sure

All righty

All right, opalite from the torture. No, we're not tortured anymore. We're showgirls now the life of a showgirls

larical strength

Oh, you know 92 okay fair enough fair enough

um narrative and structure

Narrative yes

Tells the story about what was and what is um I'll say 91

Okay

Um, then we have production and atmosphere

That video is fun over the top. It is pure dance and joy

I do

When I was watching unless that I want to see my grandkids dancing it

Yeah, they'll be good at that dance. I think so too. Um, I'm gonna say I would watch that again again. I'm 99

Okay, that was absolute fun. I agree lore and literary references. Oh literary references. It's like a zero, right?

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to give it a zero, but you know, I'm gonna tailor lore you

Self-referential it is self-referential

And we do have a a scattering of metaphors and and one

One great line with dancing through the lightning strikes and

Uh, and I do love the line about the onyx night. Mm-hmm kind of lovely. Yeah. Um, well, let's say 88. Okay

And then emotional impact. Oh, I was just heart struck by it. I was just overwhelmed by the love love

Love love

Um, you know, I okay, so

I I never knew anything about her private life. I mean, just a tiny tiny

Thumbnail sketch in her private life and you've told me so much more than I ever needed to know um

And you're welcome

Um, and

You know and nevertheless, I am happy. I'm happy that people find joy

I'm happy that people find happiness. So if she and Taylor have found happiness

Good on them. I am not gonna rain on that parade. Let's give it a 90. Okay

And that gives us a 92. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, you know, as a song. I mean, that's where it hits for me for sure

You know, it's not a great literary work like as a poem

You know, this is not Shakespeare, right? Um, none of us are this this isn't

Even Matthew Arnold

Exactly, right? Yeah, born in 1822. I died in 1888. Matthew Arnold was the son of Thomas Arnold. Okay. Sorry. I won't teach that lesson

Yeah, um, yeah, it has a purpose. It did what it's supposed to do. It is a relicking fun song. Yes, yes

And like I said, I would listen to it again

Um, you know, what I study it as a poem

Did you need um, days like you did with Cassandra? No

No

No, yeah, when I got Cassandra, I thought it's this is gonna take a while. This is

Yes, I'm gonna have to come back to it and study it and think about it and you know, I kept going through all the different

There are so many stories and

in

Classics about Cassandra and the way they use Cassandra and how we talk about the Cassandra

Complex and modernity and then there's Opalite

Yeah, different the sky is open and it's glittering pretty and fun and

Could last forever. Yeah, we hope it does. We hope so. Yeah

Okay, anything else? No

Happy for your Taylor. Yeah me too. Honestly, that's kind of what I get out of all of this

Especially the video when you really study it. It's like oh, yeah, she's like telling everyone that

This is all perfect and great and I'm having a great time

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