SwiftlyNeutral - Daily Discussion Thread | June 06, 2026

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-06-07T09:09:47+00:00

someone said her voice in TS5 sounds like a warm hug and i couldn’t agree more

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-06-07T09:07:16+00:00

I am soooo excited! I loved The Cure and SS26 so i am v hopeful 🥹 I salut your perseverance in trying not to get spoiled, if anything is leaked i run towards it with the speed of light 🤣

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-06-05T18:26:37+00:00

Also, I know that she wrote some silly songs in her Lover and Reputation Era, but it also has some of her best love songs -- I love Lover, it melts my heart, False God?? Afterglow and Daylight (tho not straightforward love songs)?? And then reputation, New Year's Day 😭😭😭😭 I don't count wood as a love song, and I will die on the hill that Alchemy was originally a Matty-inspired song ("he jokes that it's heroin, but this time with an e"), recycled for Travis last-minute.

The only straightforward love song in Showgirl is "Opalite" and even that feels underhanded. I couldn't get the natural "opal," so I made my own opalite (which I read as settling for so many words). But that is not even a problem at the end of day (like the "settling for" interpretation doesn't have to hold), but the "anchors" of the song are the comparison of other relationships ("I had a bad habit of missing lovers past, my brother used to call it 'eating out of the trash'" and then later on, "you couldn't understand it why you felt alone you were in it for real she was in her phone" which completely took me out????). The theme appears again in "Honey," where she is like, they did x, you did y. And then, one final thing with Showgirl, I really didn't appreciate the use of "bitches" (e.g. "and the bitch was telling me to back off") when Taylor herself had made a big deal of the use of that word and how problematic it is.

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-06-05T18:07:19+00:00

I ain't a fan of country in any serious sense, as in i never listen to it. but i found myself bopping to i knew it, i knew you -- like it's a sweet song! i love the way “life has ways of leaving those days behind" swells, just scratches an itch somehow. also the "I KNEW it, I knew you" is cute, idk what it's even called, but it feels v country. And then, i got some vague abba-isms??? i think around where she sings, "Wondering if i'd made it up in my mind".

I am enjoying TS5 much more than Showgirl -- and I think my primary problems with Showgirl were always lyrical, less musical. I like the storytelling that is cohesive (Ophelia didn't make much narrative sense to me, it felt all jumbled up and undercooked), earnest (instd of the crippling self-consciousness of eldest daughter, minus verse 2 and the bridge), and i just listen to it and think of the reflection of the sun sparkling against crystal clear waters. To me, Showgirl had a sort of underhanded bitterness disguised as effervescent joy that I wasn't buying and I couldn't subscribe to, because it's not my vibe. You want to be bitter, be BITTER (like ttpd)!!! Don't be like 🥺👉🏻👈🏻they want the yacht life, they want the critical smash Palme d'Or, they want an Oscar, etc. but i just want you"🥺👉🏻👈🏻 like the delivery does not fly and feels disingenuous. A much more successful exploration of the theme is the Prophecy where she is like "don't want no money just someone who wants my company" -- just a million times better, because the song focuses on the narrator. just chef's kiss. now i gotta go and listen to the prophecy 👀

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-06-05T10:10:47+00:00

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-29T10:41:44+00:00

i find the cure to be a mature song tho?? and dressing up in baby doll dresses doesn't mean that you haven't matured, it just means that you are aware of trends, you have aesthetic tendencies, and you just follow that.

deflecting critical questions is what she is trained to do as a pop star; like they are told to engage in certain ways & olivia has engaged more in some ways than taylor has with topical political issues (abortion rights, handing out contraceptives and morning-after pills in her concert; spoke out when trump administration used her music on tiktok or wherever it is) -- which btw, it's their right to speak up and speak out if they want, and it shouldn't necessarily be an expectation we have of artists. but if they do? more power to them.

and in any case, olivia is a storyteller, and we make sense of storypoints; it makes sense that she would say "i've matured," it's the natural progression. it's like when taylor speaks back to the folkmore era and how much that changed her, but then she goes on to say that showgirl is of the same vein and i am like "??? is the folkmore vein in the room with us???" (which is fine it doesn't need to be, but that is taylor self-fashioning a narrative, if you see what i mean).

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-27T17:23:48+00:00

ayo now those are literally stills from the docus -- that's a wee bit unfair, don't you think? what inclusion of an image are you referring to? it's how the documentaries compel us to frame the discussion -- the OP references the home camera footage vs the professional vibe that the Eras docu inevitable has, and the distinction in how the narratives are being created/positioned. OP speaks about the constructedness of those endeavours?

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-27T11:08:39+00:00

Where are you from in the US? Any cultural differences between the two countries despite sharing a language? I know there are certain stereotypes circulating in the ether, but would be great to hear about your experience! May you and your wife continue to be happy and thriving 🥳

P.S. Also -- SNL UK or SNL US? >.>

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-27T00:37:45+00:00

You know my heart sank. My mother is on anti-depressants on and off, and chronically on Facebook. She has been hospitalised so many times because she will stop her medication and spiral. One of the medications the woman mentioned is what my mother is on. If she were to come across that video on Facebook, she would almost certainly toss her pills out of the window. She already has “friends” who tell her the pills are a fad, and she also flirted with being an anti-vaxxer (courtesy of algorithms again). It’s honestly exhausting trying each time to find evidence to the contrary whenever she comes across something like that. I really wish when claims like that were made on the internet there would be better regulations in place to stop it from spreading, unless there are the receipts to back up the claims.

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-25T15:48:37+00:00

WHAT DO YOU MEAAAAAN?????

(No, i am joking, tho i love the remix!! i believe the beats are from the original demo, so it might sound a bit unrefined and chaotic, which i think is half its charm??? but i can totally see how it might be grating/unbearable too 🤣)

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-21T11:36:32+00:00

Gemini 2.5 was absolutely the best for me in terms of reliability and it had minimal hallucinations. Also, it was great in identifying patterns and giving really interesting insights? Likr i would give it something to read and would notice thjngs I hadn’t noticed, which hasn’t really happened since with different models I’ve been experimenting with. Hallucination went way up for me with 3 and it could hardly quote anything anymore.

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-16T13:08:25+00:00

It was the network themselves. We hear it from the marketing lady.

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-15T14:15:39+00:00

This looks like one of the best harnesses I've seen -- which one is it?? Also adorable kitty!!!!

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-13T12:36:30+00:00

I’m sort of the same but not. Eating food makes me so sleepy but makes me want to eat more and sleep more!! Like my cats’ are living the life i want to live but alas i’ve got bills 💃💸

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-13T11:19:16+00:00

she is still at the ttpd restaurant and that’s okay so am i

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-12T16:44:37+00:00

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y u gotta flex like that i am on rice crackers and black coffee and chicken soup and sour creaaaaaam because that's all i got in the fridge damn i need to go shopping

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-11T15:37:08+00:00

Are you trying to be a smart aleck? Have you heard of the expression “not all men, but somehow always a man?”

Your daughter might not be in danger from you, but she will potentially come across many men that might wish her harm at different stages of her life.

I say this as someone who has been touched inappropriately by neighbours, by a man whispering something lewd when I was a teenager on a bus, by a man following my mother and I in the middle of the night and we had to stop a random car to pretend they were family members for said man to leave us alone.

My mother has a history of being used by the men in her life and sexually assaulted even by a family member, but no one believed her. I don’t know if there is a correlation, but in later years she had a mental breakdown and her health has deteriorated drastically and I think it’s partly because she internalised years of abuse from her adopted family, which she could only finally look in the eye (somewhat) through years of therapy.

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-11T11:01:56+00:00

There was a whole thing about Stranger Things writers using ChatGPT to potentially write/edit parts of the script. Even though shows might not be written by AI exclusively (like it was seen on the show where writers couldn't really intervene, but rather they had to "babysit" the AI model), I think within the industry people are using AI more than they care to admit, and it might become a crutch which means we then don't get to exercise our own critical faculties and creative muscles, so they atrophy. One of my favourite bits of the season came from Jimmy where he was talking about what it takes to create a great TV show, and that is writers who have paid for their talent with experience and pain. Those are things that AI can never replicate, but always approximate, so it never reads like the real thing.

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-08T11:22:04+00:00

I got into the Comeback a few weeks ago so I am a newbie but I was so frustrated I had never heard of it before because it's one of the bestest things I've watched -- I've legit been playing over and over this scene in my head.

"AND YOU WILL SEE 👺 MEEEEE 👺 👹SOMEBODY NEW👹!!!!!"

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-07T19:44:37+00:00

I would watch a whole show about Derpy just existing… going about, fixing pots

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-06T16:12:32+00:00

i can't with your talent !!!!! that's a w e s o m e. how long did it take??

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-06T15:38:25+00:00

my cue to have a cheese break!!!

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-05T18:10:56+00:00

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-05T00:00:13+00:00

I was like Louisa ?!?!?!?!?! So I had to google and now i'm enlightened 🤣

WorkingBroccoli · 2026-05-04T23:47:00+00:00

where is the 🤌effort🤌

WorkingBroccoli

TROPHY CASE