Astrology is one of those things that I just don't understand how people believe in it. The human experience is so different for everybody that everybody born in the same month has the exact same character traits. I can disprove that notion real quick: I'm a twin, and we are very different people. And then with all the added rising and moon and whatever, it's just a caveat to explain why two people born in the month of February might be different.
(I do believe in jinxes. Because that is something that happens specifically to you. It is not prescribed, you are the one that tempted fate and she is coming for you. )
So the first track from Taylor Swift's mission to re-record all of her music that she doesn't own has been released. I was a bit surprised she started with Fearless, thinking she'd go in chronological order with her debut, but it makes sense. Taylor Swift may have been her first album, but Fearless was her introduction to superstardom.
I think people were expecting radically different versions of these songs, but when this dropped I think people realized what this undertaking actually was. There will be some differences, because playing these songs night after night on tour, you'll find new ways to play them and that can be worked into the arrangement and not be a drastic change. I will say, I can't wait to hear how time has affected the rest of the album. One of my favorite Taylor deep cuts is "The Way I Loved You", so that is high on my list, and I don't have to wait that much longer for it.
I am on the record about not liking Reputation and Lover. While folklore and evermore were better than those two works, my hope for what she gets out of revisiting her older albums, and specifically her country albums, is a better sense of who she is as an artist. It's felt like the last few years she was trying so hard to be this mega pop star, that she lost a lot of her power as a songwriter. When she gets around to Red, that's the album that I think will reawaken what's been hiding from her the last few years. And "State of Grace" is at the top of my wait list because it's my favorite song of hers and it deserves more love and attention.
One of the joys of the Super Bowl is watching the ads. It's one of the few water cooler events we have left. The ads, the halftime show, the show that's on afterwards, and sure, the game too. But now that all the companies that paid hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars for ad space during the game are releasing the commercials ahead of time, what's the point of sitting through the whole game if you don't actually like the game? Just wait for the halftime show and maybe check back in for the tv show premiering?
The ads build anticipation for the game, because more often than not the actual game is average at best. We need the spectacle to keep watching and not turn off as if it were a lackluster regular season match. I'm still gonna watch the halftime show and watch Queen Latifah kick ass in The Equalizer.
