reputation speculation

I am a Taylor Swift fanatic. 

My obsession started at age 12 when I fell in love with Fearless, and she became a solidified part of my soul after Red, which was inarguably the best album of all time.

TS6, aka "reputation" comes out on November 10th and you better believe the speculation over this album is controlling my life.

The end of the music video for her first single "Look What You Made Me Do" features 15 different Taylors all lined up, and that is the reason for this blog post. 

On tumblr, a fan speculated that because the album has 15 tracks, maybe each Taylor represents a song on the album. Well, Taylor herself LIKED this post. It's gotta be true.

SO, I have compiled a thoroughly thought-out and researched hypothesis of each song on the album based on the Taylor represented in the music video.

I know, I'm a freak. BUT I'm very proud of what I've created and I just had to share it with those who would appreciate it! Because even though Giuseppe has been a great listener, he doesn't really get it.

So, here's to the ones who get it:

1. Biker Taylor, LWYMMD music video. Released 9/3 ...Ready For It? The release of this song was kind of a punch in the gut, not going to lie. It's just terrible. And I HATE to say that about any of her work. This song is as rough on the ears as Biker Taylor is to the eyes. There is a scary, angry beat that now reminds me of football because of its use in NFL ads. Yuck. The lyrics are cheap. Lustful. Trying too hard to be bad. It makes me sad because this song is so obviously about Joe Alwyn- "younger than my exes but he act like such a man, so"- and it really dashed my hopes on what their relationship is all about. Such a shallow "love" song. Taylor & Joe have been together from as early as October of last year, and I was hoping this private long-term relationship is the real thing. From the lyrics of this song, I'm guessing it's not. But maybe she's joking around here, being satirical? Please, Taylor. Please tell us you're joking. I mean rapping? That's not you, hon. I'm hoping with all my heart that this will be her only attempt at rap on the album. And ever. I mean she used to rap for comedy! And now it's for real? How uncomfortable.

2. Bank Robber Taylor, LWYMMD music video. The bank robber character in the video references Taylor standing up to Spotify for not fairly paying artists for their work. Going with this "standing up for what's right" kind of theme, I'm speculating a call-to-action kind of song. A year ago, pop star Kesha posted a picture on instagram captioned: "making a **** OFF song with a casual Grammy award winning secret person. I got a good feeling about this one." She then posted 13 emojis which is widely known as Taylor's number. So my guess for track 2 is the hyped-up Kesha collaboration which hopefully is less vulgar than Kesha's little hint. Live Free feat Kesha. A couple years ago, Taylor financially supported Kesha in her sexual abuse lawsuit against her producer. And this August, Kesha sent flowers to Taylor during her own sexual assault trial against a DJ. Women's rights is what united these two. I think these girls got together and wrote some kind of power anthem for women, and I think it's going to be amazing. Kesha recently tattooed the words "Live Free" across her knuckles in the same font as Taylor's "reputation" album cover, and I think it's very possible this could be the name of their song. It's compelling, isn't it? I think lyrically it will be very powerful, though it will definitely be a party anthem. I'm picturing it sounding kind of like that 2013 Icona Pop song, "I Love It". Chanting. Beats. Proud proclamations. I'm sure it will be a hit.

3. "Rep" leotard Taylor, LWYMMD music video. For obvious reasons, I think track 3 will be called Reputation. This song will be a take down of the media. I hope it will be a very emotional song, where instead of violently throwing knives at the world, she'll humbly sing about the lessons she's learned while still portraying the harm of modern media. She'll sing about her family and friends, and about how in the end it doesn't matter what the world says about you, as long as those who really know and love you have respect for you. I hope it will be a hard-hitting song, and maybe she'll even get personal referencing her mom who is battling cancer. She'll cry singing it in concert. Sonically, it'll have a dark vibe to it. I'm picturing a mixture of "Tennis Courts" by Lorde and "Love" by Lana Del Rey. No party beat. No catchy chorus. Just quietly theatrical.

4. Red Ringleader Taylor. I think whatever this song turns out to be, it will be amazing because she'll be channeling her RED era, which is in my opinion the best era of all. To me, Red wasn't marked by a specific sound but more of an album full of high quality lyrics dealing with heartbreak. And this is what this song should be. She had a 15-month relationship with Calvin Harris that ended last year- her longest relationship by far- and I'm hoping this song will be a reflection on the relationship. Lyrically, it should be like "All Too Well" which documents her brief but intense romance with Jake Gyllenhaal with anecdotes and raw feelings. This is what I expect from this song. I think she's going to try out the Electronic genre on this album, so why not with this song? I'm imagining it would sound like what would happen if ODESZA did a remix of Red's "Sad Beautiful Tragic". Do you pick up what I'm putting down? She'll call it Timeless. According to the website Genius.com, a new song called "Timeless" was registered under her name. Though it's very possible that this Red-inspired electronic anthem I'm fantasizing about is far off, there will likely be a track called Timeless. And I definitely have hope for a song with such a beautiful title.

5. Fearless Tour Taylor. I can't help but wonder if track 5 will truly sound like the old Taylor. I mean how much more of a punch would that give to the next track, Look What You Made Me Do, when she proclaims her old self as dead? I don't think she'll do a country song on this album (I mean look at that album cover) but I'm thinking she might channel "Hey Stephen" for this track, though probably with a Martin/Shellback constructed chorus. It'll be a love song, obviously. I mean it's FEARLESS Taylor represented here. Love at first sight? Pining over unrequited love? Lamenting over broken trust? It'll have one of those themes for sure. As for the title, it'll be called A Second Glance. When Taylor released LWYMMD, her caption on social media was "...ready for it? New single #LookWhatYouMadeMeDo out now." And then a week later she surprised us with her single "...Ready For It?" captioning her announcement, "A second glance into #reputation". Hence, A Second Glance. I'm also going to throw out there that I think this will probably be the third single from the album, probably released sometime in October.

6. Kim Kardashian/Katy Perry Taylor. Look What You Made Me Do. The release of this song was kind of a slap in the face to me. As a devoted fan, it's like she was telling me, "I don't care about you, I'm just going to stay hung up on the small portion of the population that aggressively hates me. And I'll casually announce my album on social media without doing my usual very personal and interactive live video broadcast. Because they matter more than you do." Despite the victimized message of this song (which I don't agree with), the lyrics are really good and it does sound beautiful. It goes from an eerie magical fantasy film score to a cool moody chorus. I like it a lot. And the music video is fantastic.

7. Infamous 2009 VMA Taylor. Seeing as Taylor is all about revenge with this album, I'm thinking she's going to blatantly call out Kanye West for being so... Kanye West. I could totally see her doing a satirical song in which she takes on the role of West and acts like the king of the world, just like he does. Or in this case, Queen. It'll have Blank Space sass. Cheeky one-liners. Blatant references to him and his wife. It'll be really mean, because I guess that's what Taylor is into these days. :( I've gotta be realistic about this album, it can't all be theatrical heartbreak like it used to be. It'll be poppy. Electronic. Funky. Confident. It'll even have weird outer space sounds mingled in there because maybe she'll release a music video where she has some kind of mansion on the moon. I can see it, how about you?

8. Ellie Saab Taylor. Well this song is sure to be classy. Is it just me, or do you think it's time Taylor branches out vocally and gives a shot at an Adele-like ballad? My brilliant friend Liz had the most brilliant idea that she's going to name one of her songs Aw. This is in reference to an instagram post from like 2 years ago when she went on a tropical vacation with Calvin Harris and wrote in the sand "AW" which are his actual initials. I'm picturing what would happen if you combined 1989's "Wildest Dreams" with Adele's "Someone Like You". Wouldn't that be magic? It would be a beautiful song that would scream, "see! I'm more than my greasy hair and ragged sweatshirt!" which is really what we've all been praying for, right?

9. I Heart TS Lead Dancer Taylor, LWYMMD music video. This Taylor is very cool, wouldn't you say? Bad. Aggressive. A while back there were some very convincing rumors that Taylor was collaborating with rapper Drake. Just to keep things realistic, I will include this rap song in here. I honestly hate rap to my very core, so I don't even want to waste mental energy speculating this one. I wouldn't even know what to compare it to. Let's say it's some kind of "I'm too cool/don't care what you think of me" message with Drake backing up Taylor's vengeful emotions in a quick-paced, rap/pop song. Really Don't Care feat. Drake

10. You Belong With Me Taylor. In the LWYMMD music video, Taylor updated her iconic "Junior Jewels" t-shirt by handwriting the names of some of her closest friends. So.. this song will be about her friends! But not like a "let's go, G.N.O." kind of song. Something more real than that. I think she'll call it People Watching and she'll talk about what she admires about her friends! She'll call them out by their attributes, not their names. I can't really picture how she'd pull this off lyrically, but isn't that a cool idea for a song? It'll definitely be an upbeat pop song. Liz speculated that one of the songs might kind of sound like- wait for it...
Hillary Duff's "The Math". Hahahahaha!! I think she's onto something though, I mean once again have you seen the album cover? So that's what I'm picturing for this song. So maybe not the highest quality, but definitely fun.

11. Zombie Taylor, LWYMMD music video. Dark, messy, violent. This will be the ultimate heartbreak song and she's going to get mad on this track. She's going to channel her inner Florence + The Machine (we all have one) for a beautiful theatrical performance. I'm imagining a swiftified "Cosmic Love" in which she belts out stinging words and shares her melancholy with biting metaphors. It's going to be amazing and beautiful. It will probably be about Calvin- he's been her biggest heartbreak since we've last heard from her, right? She'll give it a yearning title, something like Come Home. I'm getting chills just thinking about it. I hope I'm not setting the bar too high here...

12. Shake It Off Ballerina. Ballet is a delicate form of dance. When I think of ballet, I think of strength yet fragility. Hard work before the reward. Flexibility. Pain. Grace. What if track 12 is about the struggles of her new relationship with Joe? In 1989's "I Know Places" she shared how lack of privacy threatened her budding romance with Harry Styles. Taylor has been dating Joe since at least February of this year, but it could have been as early as October of last year. She kept it quiet from the media for the longest time- we didn't find out about it until May of this year! That's the longest she's been able to keep a relationship secret. I'm sure that was really good for them, though of course extremely difficult to keep it hush-hush. This song will be about this time in their lives. The sneaking around, the falling n love. It will be beautiful! It'll be called something simple like Just Us. I'm picturing a moody pop song. Kind of like 1989's "Style" but also like her duet with ZAYN "I Don't Wanna Live Forever". Pretty, right? It'll have classic romantic Taylor Swift lyrics with anecdotes and endearing one-liners girls will use in their twitter profiles.

13. Serpent Queen Taylor, LWYMMD music video. The Girl In The Red. I have some big dreams for this one. First of all, isn't that an amazing title I came up with? Yes, it will reference her most amazing album ever, but it will also label her as a target, which definitely seems to be the theme of this album. The lyrics will be very poetic and metaphorical. Almost so metaphorical we aren't entirely sure what she means, but it sounds so beautiful we don't really care. She'll call out society for being so twisted. She'll talk about how she's constantly targeted with the negative- but in reality she's just a regular girl trying to figure things out just like the rest of us. She'll complain about how she hates fame. Is she ready to take her money and her dignity and get the hell out? Maybe. The best part about this song though will be the sound. I'm picturing it sounding like a "The xx" song. Quiet. Rhythmic beat. Low voice. Artsy. Moody. Revolutionary. Also a great song for a Target commercial, which is usually bundled in with her pre-album promotional ads.

14. Orange Taylor, LWYMMD. I really don't know what this pretty-haired shiny orange-clad look represents. Perhaps a shout out to the early 2000's? I mean look at that mini skirt and tall length boots. What if this track sounds like an early 2000's pop song? Think Avril Lavigne or Sheryl Crow. A sing-along-in-the-car love song with a Martin/Shellback mettled chorus. It'll be all about her summer romance with Tom Hiddleston. Simple. Sweet. Girly. Catchy. She'll call it We'll Remember This and use it for her concert music video.

15. Real Taylor (Taylor on the jet plane), LWYMMD music video. If you notice, there are only 14 Taylors lined up at the end of the music video. But if you look closely, you'll see the fifteenth Taylor standing on the jet plan in the background. She isn't dressed like any of her past selves. Could THIS be the real Taylor? The new, resurrected Taylor? Probably. She's wearing kind of funky outfit, but other than that she looks pretty normal. My guess for this culminating track is a raw, unedited acoustic song. No Max Martin. No forced rapping. No backup vocals. Just Taylor and her guitar. I'm hoping that in her year of silence, Taylor has developed a mature, hopeful outlook on her life. Maybe Joe is The One. Maybe this relationship is the real thing. Maybe her 12-year bad luck streak of heartbreak is over and she's ready to settle down. Romantically, at least. She'll sing about the hope she sees in her future with Joe. She'll call it Last One. Maybe she'll be candid with us and talk about her dreams of marrying him one day and having his babies. Can you just imagine how beautiful this song would be? Joe Alwyn if you're reading this, PLEASE make our girl feel safe and secure with you. If not for her sake, at least for this potential song's sake? Haha.

And that's a wrap.

Reputation, from the hopeful yet still realistic eyes of a longtime and clearly thorough fan.

If you are a Swiftie reading this, please comment and tell me what you think! And share it with your other Swiftie friends. Better yet, send me your OWN speculations!

If you think I am a freak and yet you have somehow made it through this entire post, you can keep your opinions to yourself and I strongly suggest you go find some headphones of the highest quality, light a candle, isolate yourself, and listen to "All Too Well". I promise it will make your day (and probably your life) better.

College Kids

I have a wretchedly sore throat today, so I’m skipping school and catching up on some things. Here’s what’s been going on since I last posted:

I started my senior year a couple weeks ago and I love this semester. I’m taking four French classes and one linguistics class. Two of my French classes are super challenging literature classes and the other two are grammar/translation classes. The grammar/translation ones are sooo fun! I always do the homework for those classes first because I’m so excited. The literature classes vary on enjoyment, depending on what we’re reading. I really don’t like reading epics from the 1500s!! I hated reading those in English and its even harder in old French. But a lot of the later stuff I really enjoy, even if it’s hard to understand. I think by the time I get my degree I will be better read in French classics than in English classics. Formidable!

I’m going to start observing/helping in an ESL class at SLCC later this week, so I’m excited about that. I did a similar project last semester at an elementary school and loved it. I love my majors!

After over a month of babysitting and half-heartedly looking for a job, I landed a position as a waitress at a sushi restaurant! Giuseppe wanted to make a boxed cake we had, but we didn’t have any frosting, so we went to the grocery store. Near the grocery store is a little sushi restaurant with a “looking for servers” sign, so I walked in and 24 hours later I was starting my first shift!

This is actually a dream come true for me haha. I’ve always wanted to be a waitress. Is that lame? I figured I might as well fulfill that dream before I get my college degree! I work weekends and nights, so that isn’t idea but so far it’s the only drawback of the job! The best part? I get fed FREE sushi every Friday and Saturday between my lunch and dinner shift!! They could just pay me in sushi and I’d still work there. Waitressing is kind of hard and stressful, and the kitchen menu is pretty complicated to memorize, but I know I’ll get the hang of it. The other day a man I wasn’t serving asked me to come over to his table. He pointed to his chicken plate and told me, “I didn’t order this.” I called over the waitress who was serving him and he said, “I thought I ordered the (soup)?” but he said the Japanese name for this specific soup. She said, “Yeah that’s what this,” and she repeated the name of the dish he had just said. “Oh. I thought I was ordering ramen.” “Oh, you may have meant the —-,” and she said the name of a type of Japanese Ramen, which was pronounced exactly like the chicken dish but with a slight variation. She just looked at him kind of like, “Yeah, well, this is what you said.” Haha I guess that’s how we do things here?

The poor man was so embarrassed over his “grand pronunciation error” and agreed to eat the meal he had ordered. But then the waitress took the plate and said, “no, no, we’ll bring your ramen right out.”

Giuseppe started school yesterday. He just has two classes until he finishes his business associates at LDSBC in December! He’s not sure how he feels about his IT class yet but his business strategy class sounds interesting. He’s still working full time at Tumi, which I love because he always looks so nice and he manages to get me discounts at Anthropologie and Sephora! Giuseppe likes it too, though of course retail hours are not ideal. He’s started doing some financial advising training, and he’s looking into possible career options in that field. Go G!

We went to California right before I started school. We had so much fun! We stayed with my cousin Carly for a night in St. George, and then ended up in Orange County early Friday afternoon. 

We visited Giuseppe’s grandpa, Les, in the house G spent most of his childhood in. Les asked us if we wanted to go to Disneyland for FREE that afternoon and I was all for it. Giuseppe was kind of on the fence but after I convinced him to stop being boring, we drove over there and had SO MUCH FUN! We had delicious food, went on our favorite rides (Pirates, Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, California Screaming) and more, watched World of Color, and just had a blast. Thanks Les! 

This banana salted carmel Ghirardelli shake is haunting me. 

On Saturday morning we went to brunch with Giuseppe’s friend Brendon and his wife Amanda and their adorable one-year-old baby Macy. Amanda works as a head waitress at a yummy diner, so we ate for free! Maybe I’ll be cool like her one day and be a head waitress. Unfortunately she had to work, but the four of us headed to Newport Beach! For the first time in my life I tried boogie boarding and it was so fun! I wasn’t very good at it at first, but Giuseppe taught me how to do it and I followed his lead. I caught one wave (haha) and you better believe I talked about my “sick wave” for weeks afterwards. 

After the beach we headed over to the Simco’s (Giuseppe’s older sister and her husband. They have four kids) production of The Little Mermaid. It was so cute! I also got to meet Addison and Michael too, Vinny’s (another of Giuseppe’s brothers) kids. They were so cute. All of the Hess kids turn out stunning. The play was cute, Baily played the lobster, John was the prince, Autumn was the seagull, and baby Liam wasn’t in the play and wanted nothing to do with me haha. After the play we went to a park and met some more of Sarah’s family. We stayed over at their home that night where Baily made a delicious dessert and we played games and chatted. I wish we could have stayed longer, it’s weird to me that I have a brother-in-law and sister-in-law and nieces and nephews in California that I hardly know. On Sunday morning we met up with some more of Giuseppe’s friends, went to church, and then had dinner with the Madsen’s, a good family of Giuseppe’s. I got to meet Brigham, one of Giuseppe’s friends whom he hasn’t seen in years and get to know their really cool family. Then we headed home, arriving back in Salt Lake around 3 am. Such a fun trip!

Something weird happened on the first day of school for me, which also happened to be the same day as the eclipse. My class started at 11:50, about 15 minutes after the eclipse reached its peak in Salt Lake. I walked into class just 10 minutes late and nobody was there! I thought that was weird, especially because none of my other classes that day were cancelled. I checked online and there was no announcement or email that class was cancelled. I sat around for a bit, assuming people would trickle in later and that we would all be late because of the eclipse. As I sat in the classroom, I realized a lone word was written on the chalk board: l’ombre. This means shadow. I got even more confused. Did that mean class was cancelled because of the shadow of the eclipse? Haha I’ll never know. I eventually left. When I went to class on Wednesday, everyone jumped right into a discussion of a book they had all started reading. Still, nothing was posted online. I caught up after that, but it was a really weird way to start that class. The mystery of the shadow. 

We started working out again, it’s been almost a year since we gave this any team effort. I am kind of disgusted by how long I went without exercising. My body felt so weak and tired for so long but ever since starting up again I feel amazing! Exercise is not a natural habit for either of us, which is a shame, but I am dedicated to making it a habit. So far we’ve just been doing at-home Beachbody workout videos which are so fun! I’m sure we’ll branch out later, but for right now we are really enjoying the Beachbody videos. I prefer strength training over cardio. Although occasionally I’ll go on a little “run” if I discover an upbeat song that I really like. I usually only like slow, sad songs though haha. The other night I was really wanting to do an upper body workout because my arms are PATHETIC, but we don’t have any weights. I knew the upper body video had at least a few moves that required weights, so I gathered our two bluetooth speakers which are roughly the same weight for Giuseppe, and a hand held mirror and candle that were roughly the same weight for me. Giuseppe thought this was the most ridiculous idea and refused to do it :( So my limp noodle arms are his fault. We will be buying weights later this week for sure though.

We went to a cute outdoor market one evening and bought local snacks and treats. We found a cool booth selling ties and we made friends with the creators. They are a young married couple and we just thought they were the coolest! You can look up their company on instagram @kasnkels. Giuseppe bought this tie as well as a leather key clip that is waaaaay better looking than the ratty lanyard he used when we were dating haha. He wore his cool bolo tie to church the next day.

I convinced Giuseppe to buy us a marked down Harry Potter puzzle we found at Barnes and Noble. I LOVE doing puzzles, and Giuseppe was nice enough to agree to do one with me. It was so fun! We talked, watched/listened to our latest Netflix obsession “Paranormal Survivor”, and ate delicious snacks. Now we’re on our second puzzle: a panorama of Times Square!

I should probably mention that we moved into a new apartment when I came home from France. We live in family student housing next to the U campus, and it’s pretty good. It’s cheap, so that’s nice. But the linoleum floor and lack of A/C is killing me! I’m really looking forward to being a homeowner one day. Student life is a sacrifice.

I spent one evening with my friends Jodie and Alissa in Midway. We drove Jodie’s jeep up to one of my favorite places in the world, Guardsman Pass, and had a little picnic. Jodie just got engaged to a really great guy and Alissa just headed off to spend the semester in Jerusalem! I have such cool friends.

My bff Mailm (Brooke, long story) came back from her mission in the Philippines while I was in France, but her family moved to Texas while she was gone so I didn’t get to see her until a couple weeks ago! We sat at Cubby’s for like five hours and did the usual Mailm & Mose: eating fries and desserts while talking about everything under the sun. Haha it was so great!

On Memorial Day G and I were have a lazy morning, cuddling and snacking and shirking responsibility. Then Giuseppe started to get ready for work and his mom called to announce she was on her way to Salt Lake! We met her at the train station, she bought Giuseppe some lunch, and then she and I headed on the train to Provo to meet up with my family. We went to Vivian park with my dad’s side of the family for a picnic. Laura is so funny! An ice cream truck drove by and she yelled, “kids! kids! who wants some ice cream?!” and then she ran towards the truck waving a ten-dollar bill in the air. The little cousins followed her and they came back with a bag full of popsicles. It was such a fun day! I love spending time with my mother-in-law, she is a ray of sunshine, full of funny stories and life lessons.

Last week we got the opportunity to watch Vin and it was SO fun! I was so excited to see him. I was wondering if he would remember me after our almost three month break. He was so funny when he saw me, he acted totally nonchalant, like he didn’t even see me. I tried saying hi but he would just look away, and then I’d catch him glancing at me. He allowed me to hold him and he warmed up to me really fast. We had such a fun night together singing and throwing balls around! I love that little boy.

I got together with my roommates again and it was perfect! I predict we'll be having these girls nights until we all die. Stephanie is pregnant with a baby boy! So maybe this isn't technically a girls night?? Chew on that.

Also, the sun was super rad the night we got together because of all the fires in Utah. 

I am realizing I have titled this blog:

NOTHING LIKE US
Giuseppe & Katrina

yet all of the posts are all pretty much about my life. I mean I write about G’s life to the best of my ability, but I can’t just project his opinions and feelings for him, can I? Maybe I’ll see if I can get him to write a blog post. I don’t think he even reads this thing though.

And to finish this post up, here's a selfie because after all this blog is all about me ;)

Au revoir!