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Taylor kept things exciting this past week introducing multiple mashups into the surprise song section of the Eras tour shows in Melbourne, Australia. Jessi & Anna talk about the madness from the shows, as well as initial thoughts on the new variant of The Torture Poets Department with the Bonus Track 'The Bolter'.
Creators & Guests
Host
Anna
Host
Jessi
What is TSPN | Taylor Swift Fan Published Podcast?
We are Jessi & Anna, 2 SwiftTokers who spend our free time down the rabbit holes of Taylor Swift’s art, analyzing lyrics, recognizing patterns, and hunting for Easter eggs. Our main goal is to be informative, insightful, and reflective about Taylor’s art and her impact on pop culture. This is designed to be a fun, stress-free podcast where you can come hang with us weekly as we talk all things Taylor.
This podcast is an independent and unauthorized fan publication. The podcast & its assets are in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the artist or any of the people mentioned or depicted in its content.
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Hey lovers, we have a packed episode for you today. Taylor just finished up her shows in Melbourne and we are gonna take it to our tourist respondent, Ty, to give us all the deets on that. And then we'll come right back where you left me. Hey, howdy and hello, and welcome to your weekly Ares Tour recap. Being the largest show of Taylor's career with over 288,000 Swifties in attendance this past weekend, the Melbourne Arrows Tour was a big deal and here's everything you missed if you weren't able to watch those shows. Before Taylor even arrived there in Melbourne, fans were excited for the Arrows Tour, waiting at the airport with signs for not only her but also Sabrina Carpenter, who returned to the tour for the first time in 2024 last weekend. And they both had some huge surprises planned for last weekend, as Sabrina Carpenter had new outfits every single night, alongside a new Nonsense outro, and Taylor Swift even debuted new white boots for the Lover set. But those new outfits were not the only surprises that we got last weekend, as Taylor also unveiled a brand new version of the Tortured Poets department, which was available on her website for a limited time. In addition to that surprise, Taylor also made a huge change to the surprise song section, as now she can sing any song as many times as she wants and can even include mashups, which we saw for the first time last weekend. For night one, we didn't see any mashups, with Taylor playing red on the guitar and you're losing me for the first time ever live on the piano. But night two is when things got interesting. as Taylor played Getaway Car, August, and The Other Side of the Door as a mashup on the guitar and followed that up by playing This Is Me Trying on the piano. Then on night three, we got Comeback Be Here and Daylight as a mashup on the guitar, followed by Teardrops on My Guitar played on the piano. Of course, with the Melbourne Air's tour being behind us and all those changes in mind, I am so excited for this weekend in Sydney. as not only should Taylor surpass that attendance record, which we saw her break last weekend, but we could also see even more mashups during the surprise song section. So get your golf clubs and get excited as this weekend, the Heiress Tour is headed to Sydney, Australia. Woohoo! Jessie. I'm ready, girl. For those who are listening on the podcast, Jessie just came back from our Tour-respondent with Ty with a golf club. Sydney. So we did talk about this on the last one. So this is the infamous Sydney where in the blank space section of the 1989 tour, Taylor did a little shout out with each city with the golf club, the pole, all of that. I think we don't really need to go too far into it. If you guys missed that, it is on the last episode. But if you hear us randomly say Sydney, that's where that's from. That's right. All right, so one of the things that I noted that I don't know that Ty touched on, but I think is really important for us to talk about is that the album title, The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor actually acknowledged this weekend or this past week on the tour that it is difficult to say. And so she said, you can just call it Tortured Poets. And so just as a listener, You know, we say TTPT, tortured poets, I've called it everything. So I'll just try and be better about saying tortured poets if the tortured poets department is too complex. It is complex. Yeah. And to follow that up, I had just been calling it poets. But the fact that she specifically said to call it tortured poets, like sets off alarm bells in my mind. Like that might be an Easter egg for something. That's something we need to pay attention to. Yep. What did you think about the surprise songs and how she said that she is just kind of throwing out that rule book in 2023, she said she would not sing any twice unless she messed up. I think midnight's there is an exception where she could play any midnight song more than once, but now she's like, heck, I'm going to play whatever the hell I want. So what are your thoughts there? Well, I mean, thinking about how she keeps saying, you know, she's going to change the rules, break the rules, this and that. She's kind of said that throughout tour. It kind of takes me to, you know, like the metaphorical her taking the gloves off at, you know, the Grammys when she announced TTPD, like throwing the rules out the window. I don't know that came to mind, but also, um, the surprise songs, I think that when she did the mashup of is it over now and out of the woods, I think that the response that she got from that online and from the crowd was just astronomical. And that was last year, not this year, just for any listeners who weren't caught up with that. Do you remember when that was? It was one of her last stops, definitely. But I think that she realized that the mashups are going to go over hard. So I think we're going to see more mashups just because it's generating. I mean, it's popular. People love it. They scream in the middle of it. I mean, I'll say it again, and I've said it before, I've never seen anything like this in my life, this tour. The whole tour, yeah. Which of the two mashups would you say were your favorite? I would say Getaway Car, August, and The Other Side of the Door. See, I like the other one better. Do you? Yeah, Come Back Be Here is one of my faves. It's like one of those bops that I didn't really know about that well until the re-records and then, um, you can't get wrong with Daylight. Like I feel like she mashed those up a little bit less confusingly. Like it was very much one song and then the other and then back and forth. Whereas the one mashup on night two where she did getaway car, August, and the other side of the door, there's a lot to take in there. There is, and maybe that's why my brain like gravitated toward that because her putting August in there when it's already in the setlist every night, that's an Easter egg. So, okay. So obviously the mashups are such a big deal and we had tons of people freaking out online. I do want to talk a little bit though, about just some random things that are standing out to me right now, because she started with red, which I found to be an interesting one, like of all of the things that we kind of saw in Melbourne. like the song Red, which is the title track from the album Red, kind of being the kickoff, especially with what happened later on night one where she dropped a like a new variant of Tortured Poets and she gave us that you're losing me like that was significant. So like why Red? Do you have any thoughts there? I do. So this is the second time on tour that she has played Red. All right. The first time she played Red was after the big range brain show in Foxborough, Massachusetts. So she played it on 521. It was going to be the second song that she's saying. So on piano, she gets to the piano and it starts playing without her playing it. So then, you know, I was watching that live on a live stream. So I'm thinking, okay, we're going to get haunted. You know, it's, it's the piano's go. It's not To me, that didn't seem like the rain damaged the piano and it just started playing awkwardly. I mean, it's Taylor Swift, this production is huge. They would have checked that piano, you know what I mean, or replaced it. So she gets up from the piano and she goes to the guitar and plays red on the guitar. It was one of the nights that she did two songs on the guitar and no piano. So that's what stuck out to me. So we don't really know the significance of her replaying it, but that was 521. And something's probably there. Something I'll look into it more, but yeah, something is there. So it's really stood out to me as well on top of red, just kind of being one off is the got, we got it in their debut song. So in Tokyo, we had come in with the rain and the outside this past week in Melbourne, we had, um, teardrops on my guitar. So that's like three debut songs within two cities, which really just stood out. I feel like there were several stints on the American leg of the tour where we did not get much debut at all. Um, so it kind of gives me like kind of questions of like, are we, are we hinting at debut, is there something that's bigger is coming out with it or, you know, why is she suddenly sprinkling more of those in? Yeah. Maybe she wants us to be kind of confused as to what Reaver Cord's going to come next. Or maybe she wants us to stop saying rep is and maybe it's debut. True. What stood out to me in particular, um, with debut was that she did teardrops on my guitar, on the piano, which I thought was super unique, um, and different. I'm not sure why she did that, but yeah. Yeah. I agree. It was beautiful. All right. So circling back to night one. So that was a pretty significant night. The mashups were super exciting, obviously, but she really dropped something big on the first night in Melbourne, Australia. And that would be the extra variant of the new album, the torture poets department. So this one has a different bonus track, which I don't think we've seen before. Have we were the variants have different boats? I mean, obviously the target one usually has an extra, um, but not like you know, the early rollouts. Right. So when she announced the Tortured Poets Department, you saw Manuscript, the manuscript, right? It was a bonus track. And that's all you really saw. Now, when she just announced this new variant, you saw the Bolter, which is a bonus track. Yeah. There's got to be some significance to just like highlighting the bonus tracks. So like, to your point, like it's front and center when you're on the website, it's, it's part of almost The color went from ghost white to more of a like Mauvy color. Do you remember what that was called? Parts, uh, parchment, part, beige parchment. Okay. Beige parchment. Yep. So like parchment paper, which she used to write poems on. Didn't she say that in Tik TOK? Yeah. She said, um, on tour once that she used to write poetry on parchment paper. Well, there you go. That was an egg. That was her definitely pointing ahead here. Um, well, so she drops a new variant. Everyone thinks that the next song that she's about to sing is going to be a single or just the first time that we've heard tortured poets, because any other time that she's done something like this on stage where during the surprise song set, she throws something on the jumbotron about an album, like it's, it's been a rerecord announcement or a rerecord release. And so, um, she, while the new tortured poets department variant is featured on the big old screen behind her. She starts to play the piano and she plays, you're losing me. And I'm laughing because I know you're probably going to tell your story, but uh, Jesse was on a live during that. And, um, what was your relive your reaction for us? Oh my goodness. So I was, well, what had happened was it's obviously, you know, we're in America. So it was like four 30 in the morning and I was not watching the live, but my phone starts blowing up and I. I get on and it's some of my friends, some creator friends, Courtney, Alex, and Alyssa. And they're on a live and I mean, I'm just like getting notifications left and right. Like Taylor's doing something, something's happening. Yeah, she had said something during the champagne problem speech. I think that's whenever she said, Hey, you can call it tortured poets. And she might've said something else. I think that kind of like indicated to everyone like, Hey yo, what's up? get online for this. I was sleeping, obviously, I didn't get up. So during the champagne problem speech, she said she was talking about tortured poets and she said, we're gonna talk about that more later. And that's when everyone it like, blew up my phone blew up, like it just started going crazy. So I got up and I got on the live and the four of us are just watching this go down, right? And we're all like, dead silent, like you could hear a pin drop because we're like, oh my gosh, we're going to get to hear the first tortured poets, right? Like something. Um, and she starts playing, you're losing me. And it took me, you can tell when you watch, cause I have the video up on my Tik Tok, you guys can see it. Um, I can pin it too, but you can see me trying to process like what she's playing. I can't even tell that it's you're losing me for like the first 10 seconds. Yeah, everyone had different reactions. It was such a, if you guys haven't seen it, go to Jesse's TikTok, Jeffy, Jesse Swift talk. And, um, yeah, you had a recording of it and it's hilarious. I mean, honestly, the way that you guys all just had like completely different, I think lists started like looking stuff up and like, you would just tell everyone was like in totally different spaces. Yeah. Like I mean, it sounded like Courtney started crying. I was confused and trying to hear what song it was. Liss was like, yeah, looking stuff up and then she's just like bopping along, singing along to it. And like, I think Alex just looked too stunned to speak. Alex was stressed. Yes, stressed. Yes, that's exactly what it was. He, but the minute he saw it. So once I, it registered that it was You're Losing Me. and that she had the new variant up behind her and that this was very clearly about it being a breakup album about Jo Alwyn. So you can literally see the moment where I just, I start crying. Like, I mean, I kind of lose it because it's like, it's the first time you're hearing this, that's such a beautiful song, such a powerful song. And if this song is any indication of what Tortured Poets is gonna be like, we're wrecked. We definitely are. And that kind of led into a theory video that I had actually thrown up this week surrounding, um, the twos, right? So over the past, I don't know, gosh, years now, but more focused over the last several months, there have been situations like TikToks or when she's on stage where she throws up a little peace sign representing a two. And so, um, we had the variant that, uh, she dropped while she was in Melbourne. It obviously expired. It was a short-term thing and Taylor nation. on their stories on Instagram reminded us about the timer being up 22 hours ahead. And then again, two hours ahead. And then the variant expired at 2pm. So I was like, what the hell is happening with the twos? And so I started thinking like, is there something poetically about twos? Like, you know, where there's two poems that align or something like that. And I found contrapuntal poems, which is the concept of two basically poems that you could read. One. The other, or when you align them side by side, you could read them side by side. It creates a full story. And the reason that stood out was because not only the mashups, right? She's been kind of showing us that she can put her songs together in a way where it tells a third part of the story. But the use of you're losing me the first night when she announced the bolter variant of tortured poets stands out because when you're losing me dropped a lot of people, they layered it with. tons of songs, but it perfectly layers with Cornelia Street where the like interchanging of the pauses, because if you imagine Cornelia Street, it's like, we were in the back seat drunk on something stronger than the drinks at the bar. Okay. I'm sorry for saying to you guys, but then it's like, then it pauses and there's like a, I rent a place on Cornelia Street. So like between those verses on Cornelia Street. the timing of your losing me fits right in and it has pauses. And so it doesn't, it's not like a full story, but it's just kind of showing both sides. It's like the start of the relationship and the anxiety around, I hope I never lose you lose guys. I hope I never lose you. I hope it never ends. And now we have a song that's like, stop, you're losing me. And so that kind of idea that one song could maybe be the other half of the story or a later version of the story and layer in a way like that makes me question if that's where the twos are coming from and if there's going to be a lot more of that from the entire album of the Tortured Poets department. Definitely. I think that finding that it's incredible to think how many other songs has she done that can fit like that. Yeah. I know I'm like trying to find software on my phone where I could like layer songs together. Yeah, I could honestly, Anna, I could listen to you talk about that all day, like what you're talking about, because it you explain it so well. And it's so interesting to me. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I've been a little bit off my theory game lately, just with all the podcasts and, you know, my brain capacity. But This one really stood out to me and I've been doing a lot of research with poetry. And another thing that really stands out is on the back of each of the variants. So the original, and then now the Bolter variant, she has this like poem that the words are kind of placed in random spots. The, um, the white one I'm going to read from here. The white one says, I love you. It's ruining my life. And then the newer one, which is more of that, uh, parchment color is. It says on the back, you don't get to tell me about sad, which we'll get into. I'm sure you'll, you'll speak a little bit about the sad song thing, but, um, I kind of thought that could be two different types of poetry that I was looking up because the way that the words are placed on the back cover is it's not in any sequential order. They're kind of random. And so you have what they call concrete poetry, which means that the actual placement of the words is intentional and has meaning behind it. Um, but then it could also be what's called erasure poetry, where you take a existing body of work and like, let's say you imagine you had a newspaper article and then you black out sections of it and then the words that are remaining make the poem. And I feel like whatever we're seeing on the back is erasure poetry. I think it's probably to do with maybe. Lyrics of a song on the torture poets department. I tried to look up. Is there any, you know, interviews of Taylor out there that she's trying to rewrite by erasing words and making it have different meaning as their existing lyrics, but, um, not really anything coming up yet. So then I question maybe it's related to the bonus track in a way that poem, uh, is something it's, it's clearly not a one, like there's, this is not literal, there's something about that. That is very artistically unique. Absolutely. I mean, that's it's. It's so cool to hear you talk about that because like the different types of poetry and like I'm just learning like you are and everyone else I think I'm learning so much just before this album even drops about poetry. Like look, look what she's doing. Look at this effect. Like we are going out and seeking literature and learning like on our own and I'm sure we're not the only ones. No God, no. Well, and I had layered the two back albums together. Like I put them in Canva and like made one a little bit transparent over the other to see where the, um, where the words kind of align between the two variants. And I couldn't figure, you know, there's going to be probably more pieces. I couldn't really figure it out, but, um, I've seen other people say that they've seen people do that too. And I'm so like, I'm not the only one out here layering the, the back of the album covers and to your point, I think it's pretty fascinating that everyone. Is, um, is really kind of looking at art differently and trying to find poetic vibes. I do want to quickly circle back to the first night in Tokyo when she sang Holy Ground, obviously I mentioned last week that that's one of my favorite songs. I didn't even realize it until this week, but Holy Ground has the lyric, you fit into my poems, like a perfect rhyme. And so I'm like, maybe that was, maybe that was one of the reasons why she picked Holy Ground. So, um, she's, she's been talking about being a poet for a long time. It's not. just you know isolated to recent history. Yeah really I mean that's what she is. She's a poet. I mean she's a modern day William Wordsworth like literally Emily Dickinson. She is making poetry cool again. I've always loved poetry. Some people are not literature people. They're not reading people. They're not poetry people. But I'm seeing her do this in a way that's getting people to really get interested in it and come together. Totally. I like to joke that I think the album is going to have a whole new sound and it's going to be like slam poetry, like Hamilton style. Oh my gosh. What if she just like drops it on us and we're like, okay, no, we'll love it regardless. So we did get a Q and a submitted by Adam. that relates to all of what we're talking about. So pulled it out for the episode. Asks, how many variants do you think the Tortured Poets department will have? And what are your thoughts on the new bonus track, Bolter? So first, how many variants do you think? At least three, at least, because if you look at the logo, you can clearly see a Roman numeral three in there. You can. Some people have said two. You know, you kind of go back and forth because the one like is tied to the D or the P I think, um, but yeah, I, I've always seen three. Yeah. Um, yeah, I agree. I think three is an odd number. So I would say four, five. I don't know. I mean, if it's anything like midnight, do you even count all of the different versions as variants? Like if, you know, this more falls in line with the 1989 rollout or something where you get very specific. Vinyls that have different looks and probably have different inserts and everything. Right? She has a very, very good marketing strategy of just like with a perfect example would be Midnight's where the back four make a clock. Oh yeah. Midnight's had four variants. I didn't even think about that when I was just giving the example. So yeah. And she didn't really do that with ever more folklore, right? No, not like, not like she started doing with Midnight's and then you see it again with 89 and how she had the four different, you know. Sunrise Boulevard and, um, Aqua Marine. And I mean, it's just, it's, she's such a smart business woman. You think there's still going to be another 1989? It's, I cannot get over it. I can't, I can't get over a double 1989. I mean, I know we're probably well past that. She gave some. many signs like let's be fucking real there were so many signs yeah there were um especially with the 1989 on the man wall twice and like oh my gosh all the all the literal signs that yeah well the mashup of the three getaway car the other side of the door in august uh track eight track nine track 19 We won't get too far into that. I didn't mean to sidebar. Let's go back to Adam's question with the bolter and the significance behind that bonus track. Okay. So the minute you see the bonus track says the bolter, we run and start looking up, okay, is there a movie called the bolter? Is there a book? What is it? So there's a couple different things that it could be that I saw. And even these might not be right. I mean, This is what she releases a variant and then releases the title of a bonus track. And you have tons of people going and researching that title. Like I've said before, never seen anything like this. First and foremost, The Bolter is a book. It's a book by Francis Osborne and it's the story of Idina Sackville. It's a true story. And I'll read you guys just a quick synopsis of what this is. In an age of bolters, women who broke the rules and fled their marriages, Idina Sackville was the most celebrated of them all. Her relentless affairs, wild sex parties, and brazen flaunting of convention shocked high society and inspired countless writers and artists from Nancy Mitford to Greta Garbo. But Idina's compelling charm masked the pain of betrayal and heartbreak. So That's the synopsis of the book, The Bolter, which a lot of people are kind of relating a little bit to Taylor's life and our history. Yeah, there were things. So I got the ebook after I saw a creator, her name is Megan. So it's M-A- Megan, that's like the most letters that sound the same. I just had to say that three times. Okay. So Megan has been reading the book and she's the one who got me to get the audio book, um, just because she has, uh, noticed things like even the blackened reputation that is referred to really early on, there are things within the book, the way that it's written, the way that they describe Edina that are just so parallel to themes that we see in Taylor's discography. So it's one of those things where. It doesn't feel like a coincidence. Um, and the idea of like the fact that this woman in the 1920s and thirties was scandalous and she was always getting married and then running onto the next. Like there's, there's some fun themes there. Um, so I got the auto book. It's a little bit painful to listen to. I'll be honest. It's just, it's like hard to follow, but I also have ADHD. So my brain just will, if you're not captivating, I will start to think about other things. Um, but Megan's been doing a great job kind of recapping things as she reads it. If you do want to jump over to our page. Um, and then she's also been supporting Jesse's six 30 theory. She's a big, uh, she's a big advocate that something is coming on six 30. So, so I've also been reading, um, blue blood by Craig Unger. And that's the story of Rebecca Harkness. And if you guys go to my tech talk on my playlist and look at blue blood, I have been like reading that chapter by chapter and breaking it down for you guys. So you don't have to do it. Um, I have yet to put a new one out, like read a new chapter, but I've been busy, but I will get back to that. So, yeah, it's interesting. Like now, now you're behind, we got to read about the bolter and Edina. And now we've got to read about, uh, Clara bow, you know, so I'm like, Taylor's got to slow down. I'm just kidding. We want more albums. We can, we'll take more music, but there's definitely some literary, um, people that she has been referencing. Obviously Rebecca Harkness is no dispute. That's what that song was about. Um, but this Bolter book is just one of the potentials, um, that could be related. So what are some of the other ones that you thought of whenever you heard the bonus track name? So in doing some research and seeing, you know, what other people online have found, um, there is a pub in London called the Bolter. So we do not have any pictures or confirmation that I know of. that Joe and Taylor had been there or frequented it, or if he went there with his friends or if she went there. I mean, but it could be, it could be about that. That could have been, you know, one of the bars that she sings about in her songs. We don't know. It could be where something significant happened between them, but there is definitely a pub in London called the Bolter. The bar, yeah, the pub could definitely be something kind of like how she talked about the bus stop. What song was that where she talked about the bus stop and she wasn't literally talking about a bus stop. She was talking about the cafe in New York. I thought I saw you at the bus stop. I didn't though. What song is that? Oh, oh yeah, yeah. I thought I saw you at the bus stop. I didn't though. And we were something, don't you think so? Oh, from the Closen Family and if, what could it, The One. The one, um, people have said the bus stops, not literally like the bus stop. Is she's talking about a cafe, I guess in New York, um, called the bus stop. So that definitely could be if, if the bolter is somewhere they've been, I could see her referencing it. Um, the thought that I had, which is not so, uh, driven by research or any type of theory, just when I heard the word bolter, I thought about being bolted down. I know we talked about Adina and how she bolted from marriages that You know, that's kind of the theme. I'm assuming that's why they called her the bolter because she would leave. And I can see Taylor being a bolter in that sense of just like renewing her life and jumping from life to life. Um, you know, you're on your own kid is kind of that theme of starting anew. But when I heard bolter, I thought of being instead of bolting from something as a person, I thought about being bolted down. Like, so if you imagine, I don't know why this is the imagery in my head, but like a flag pole, um, usually you could very eat like. clearly see the rivets that are bolting the pole to concrete. And so that's the bolts that I thought of. And so again, it could also be a theme like that of being like held down. And to go along with that, my first thought was a deadbolt lock. So not that she was like, literally locked away by him and he had a key and locked her up, but like, they were never seen hardly ever. So maybe that's just a reference or matter metaphor for being You know, deadbolt locks. Well, and one thing too that stands out with the key and the deadbolt. So in, we were in Paris, wasn't that the one where she's like, is that your key down the hall? No, it wasn't. It's different. It hits different. Yeah. And she says, is that your key in the doorway? Is it you or have they come to take me away? And, um, that, you know, kind of like a mental institution vibe there of like, have they come to take me away? Am I going crazy? And then Clara bow in her life. So Clara bow is the, uh, track name on one of the tracks on the tortured poets. And, um, she is somebody who late in her life is known to kind of maybe have like schizophrenia or something like that. And, um, really kind of lost her sanity. And so the idea of like losing Taylor sanity, I could see the key in the doorway down the hallway, dead bolts, the bolter, like there's something there. I can't say it's like so true that I'm like, yeah, this is a theory. But if anybody's listening, just kind of start to clock those things as we get this new album out because there may be more clues kind of tying those pieces together. Well, and also a big portion of Joe and Taylor's relationship was during COVID. So there was a lockdown. So that could be, there we go. We just thought of another one. I mean, there's so many different. we heavily saw going on around online was the video. It's like a two second clip of Joe, they're holding hands and he's like dragging her into a car after like an awards show or event or party and like literally bolting from the door to the car and like dragging her behind him. And people are saying, oh, he's Like bolting he's fast. Maybe it's about that. I know, I don't think that's what it's going to be about, but, um, that's just a theory that I have seen a lot of. And then the, also the archer and the bolter, right? We talked about contrapuntal poems and you know, could this be, um, you know, just some parallel to that, just the way that it is a ER. So it describes a person like, like a, an archer and a bolter. So who knows that could be another time. So many, so many different options, but you just don't see this with anybody. Like any artist, like they put out a song title, we don't know anything about it and we just go research it and we have like a list of things that could be about before we even hear it. Yeah. And like there's no price to winning, like to knowing. It's just, it's just fun. So now that we've really hit on Melbourne and talking about what has unveiled this past week with the Tortured Poets department, we will talk next about the Sydney shows. Um, first I do want to hit on some things before I get to Sydney, just kind of plugging back some unfinished business from previous episodes. So two 16, Jesse, that was a date that everyone was I in because of the one 12 theory, it was exactly 112 days from the release of 1989, which was October 27th of last year, so you know, many of us thought it reputation. She dropped the announcement of the tortured poets at the Grammy. So that really kind of made everyone, huh, what? And then I was joking. I'm like, maybe we'll just get a merch drop on 216. Like maybe she'll still throw us a bone, but that has now come and passed. Any kind of thoughts or lingering things there? That was the day she released the Bolter and the second variant. No, it wasn't really. Am I stupid? I get mixed up with the times of Austria. No, you're right. I mean, no, yeah, I think that was the same day. Okay, so yeah, she didn't like leave us hanging. Yeah, I mean, there's something but I don't I don't know if it fits or how it fits into the 112 theory. You guys make sure you keep up with Nikki on TikTok with that. But I find it interesting that we're filming today, which is Wednesday, February 21. Um, so a couple of things about this day that's significant is that it's Joe Alwyn's birthday. Happy 33rd, Joey. I don't know how happy this birthday will be for him, but, um, yeah. So Taylor today in the news, um, you would have seen that she was seen at the Sydney zoo and Travis has just landed in Sydney to be at her show tonight. Yep. I'm very interested to see what surprise songs she plays. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. If I didn't have like a normal nine to five, I would just like legitimately take a Red Bull, right? Take a Red Bull. It's not a pill. I would drink a Red Bull and stay up because the surprise songs are going to be fire. And to Jesse's point, by the time people are listening to this... that you were already going to know more than we do now. But super, super thrilled to have another really jam packed week of hopefully some really good surprises. I'm going to make a prediction. I'm going to make a prediction because so Joe's birthday, Travis lands in Sydney. I think the surprise songs, I think there is going to be a mashup. But I think the first song is going to have to do with the ending of the relationship with Joe. And the second song will have something to do with her new love, Travis. Oh my God. What if it's be, what if it's begin again? That's my prediction. It is Wednesday, February 21st. And if she plays begin again, you guys clock it. Oh, on a Wednesday in a cafe. Yes. Yeah. What are your predictions? We gotta think, let's think of a few for the, for the pod here. Anything that we think would be, cause like obviously there's good love songs. Was there anything that's really the, if he wanted to, he would type of thing? Is there anything about like somebody going above and beyond? Oh my gosh. That's I have not thought about that. Um, yeah, I think begin again is a good prediction. I'm gonna have to think more. Yeah, we'll, we'll think on that. Um, but you know, she'll probably mash up a bunch of shit and it's going to be all these numbers and we'll be back here next week trying to clue in like what it means and it's not going to be so literal, but I am excited for karma to saying the guy on the chiefs. Cause let's be for real. She better sing that you think she'll do it. I think so. I'm really looking forward to my Tik TOK feed as well. Just being like random ass videos of Travis in the booth with Scott Swift. And, uh, I'm like, I'm kind of being sarcastic, but I'm also not like, I really think that's so enjoyable. It's just like, I don't know. It's just innocent entertainment. There's really not much that's problematic about it. And it's a good time to watch. I did see one person was talking about, they watched the, um, the Taylor and Travis videos online like in first person, like it's like happening to them. And I'm like, I think we all kind of are to some degree, like not that, you know, we're not like happily married or in relationships or, or even if you're single. Um, but you just like the amount of, um, emotional wholeness that you feel to see Taylor in love, knowing how much she's been a part of our lives. It's it's really significant. So I'm excited that he's there and I'm excited for all of our Australia Swifties who are going to be able to experience that in person. Definitely. Um, up or down on Jason Kelsey showing up and then showing up on stage. Have you seen the meme of him on stage during? No. There's one going around. It's good. Yeah. No, I'll have to look at that, but no, I don't think so. I don't even think it'll show up, but great. Do you want to circle back to June 30th? Is there anything there that we want to touch on as far as your reputation theory? Oh, yeah, actually. With my June 30th theory that she's going to announce reputation, Taylor's version in Um, she has started saying lucky a lot on stage, so I'm really lucky to be here. I'm like, she's, I mean, she's said it several times now, so that kind of gives me like, makes my alarms go off that. Okay. Yeah. And then she did, this might be unrelated, but the Taylor nation post from this week with the cats, it was the image from the funeral scene and anti hero music video where she has the 11 cats on her. And the caption said, if we won the lottery, you wouldn't know, which apparently is a TikTok trend. I didn't know about it. But it doesn't matter. I mean, there's tons of trends. Like, Taylor Nation doesn't just do every trend. If there's something that aligns with what they're kind of thinking, they might jump on a trend. And so it stood out to me the concept of a lottery, not only was the whole Ticketmaster debacle a lottery system in getting a code and being able get online to purchase tickets. That is the lottery system. Um, but midnight's mayhem with me, which is how she rolled out the midnight's track names in 2022 ahead of its release, she had one of those little ball cages, you see like an old school bingo type thing it's, it's called like a bingo machine or a bingo ball machine or in a lottery machine, like a power ball. And so she would roll it and then one of the balls will fall out. And then she picked it up and it was a number. And with that number, she revealed the track name. So seeing the word lottery stood out to me. And then apparently she's been saying this for a long time, but it's something that I did catch in Ty's video that he did specifically for one of the nights in Melbourne. So Ty, our correspondent, he does those videos for us, but then he'll do a more detailed one on his TikTok page per night. So if you want like more of the deets and then he'll include footage and stuff like that, definitely go to his page. But he had featured Taylor on stage giving a speech during the Lover Set. And she said, you know, speaking to the crowd about how large it is that she feels like she's won a contest, you know, a contest winner, she said both contest winner and like, I want to contest back to back. So the concept of contest alongside the lottery and some of the things that we've just seen with her in the past, like those are just things that I'm clocking right now, I don't really know where that's headed, but. Well. She, so I did a video on this too, on my Tik TOK. Um, when they had posted that, what came to my mind was a contest, a poetry writing contest. And if you win that contest, maybe you get ariestor tickets. I don't know. I just thought, cause Taylor did win a poetry writing contest when she was 10. Yeah. Shout out to Courtney. I think who helped us figure that one out. Yes. Yeah. So there's, there's something there. Like I said, sometimes we'll, we'll kind of sprinkle things out as we're thinking it. We don't necessarily want to wait until we have fully fledged thoughts to see. You guys can help us and have a little bit of fun doing some of the research too. Um, but yeah, contest prizes clues, you know, you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes, like, um, there's definitely, uh, we were just talking about a lyric the other day of, um, game, game token, high infidelity. Yes, that's a good, that's one you guys are gonna have to watch for a video. Yeah, we got a whole theory around it, but yeah, even just the word game token, whenever you think back to like this idea of a contest, like there's something about it. Yep, yep, definitely. Also, you'll want to keep a watch on Jessie's page here in the coming days. After we launched this, her and I had some major epiphanies this morning. We were... We were looking for one thing and we found another and it was one of those like magical moments I wish we were recording because you're like, holy shit. So instead of half baked ideas right now, Jesse's kind of get a full video together, so just if you don't follow her yet, go follow her because, um, there's some things that, I mean, I feel like this is Argyle big, not, not to relate it, it has nothing to do with Argyle, but just like, I feel like there's a lot to it that people don't know yet and it's going to shock a lot of people. Yep. It's something that Anna just kind of stumbled upon while looking for something else. And it's huge. Yeah, like it was a stumble. Like I don't know where I was on the internet. And then next thing you know, I'm on a Wikipedia page and reading it and I'm like, hold like I won't even get into it. Just keep an eye for it. Jessie Swift talk and definitely follow the pod, too. So if you don't yet, TS pod network is our handle throughout the Internet. So. Um, that's obviously our YouTube handle. We've got a tick tock. We've got an Instagram guys. Please go follow our Instagram. We look kind of pathetic on there. I think we have like 84 of the followers. So if you are on Instagram, just if you punch the follow button, and then also just make sure you're telling your friends about us, just because we've seen such a great amount of momentum. And so if you are watching this or listening to these, um, you know, just letting your friends know about the podcast will do such a great. service for us to allow us to grow because we would love to monetize at some point and be able to, you know, pump these out quicker and hire support and, you know, all those things. So right now we're just kind of bootstrapping it. But essentially, we see the end in sight and we're really excited and we appreciate everyone that's been here already because this has been faster and bigger than our expectations absolutely in this first month. Oh, definitely, definitely. And thank you for all your sweet words, everyone. You know, said that they listened to us every Friday morning on their walks. And I mean, that's just incredible to me. Yeah. We're living for you. Like I, like whenever I'm up late at night posting this stuff, I'm like, I love it. I love going to bed and then waking up and having watches and listens already because we do have an international listener base, like over 25% of our listeners are non-U.S. and so I know a lot of that is our international Swifties. So just huge shout out there. And if you are, if you are in a different country, like drop it in the comments on our YouTube, like we would love to kind of, you know, start to clock like where everyone is. Yes, yes, absolutely. All right, great. Well, as we kind of wrap here, I do want to touch back on the 87 hat that we talked about on the last episode. We are running the giveaway contest through the end of the month. So that is February 29th. Head over to tspodnetwork.com and there is a form that you can fill out. So the way that you enter is that you can follow us on TikTok. You can subscribe to our YouTube or if you want two entries, you can do both, but we won't know that you're trying to get the hat unless you fill out the form on the website. So just because you're already a follower or you run and follow right now, because again, existing followers can enter. Um, but make sure you come and let us know through that form. It will ask you for your contact information, and then it will just ask you to verify a couple of things. And then the full contest rules are listed on the site if there's any questions, but this is the exact hat. Um, it's like a replica because it's the same pattern. It was made by our friend, Beth Moss. She does have an Etsy shop and we did launch a page on our website last week, featuring a few of the creators who have been so kind to gift us stuff, things that you may have seen on the pod. So linking those things out to the Swifty creators who gifted them to us so that if you wanted your very own champagne problems sweatshirt or I've got the lavender haze painting behind me, there's prints of it. So definitely just keep checking back. We're going to spend some time expanding that and continuing to grow it, but, um, go, go submit for the contest. And then if you, if you just want the hat, go buy it. Cause we've got the link on our site. Yeah. And also I want to kind of. piggyback on that. If you are an Etsy creator or you do some of the small business stuff and you do want to send us something, let us know and we will feature it on our TikTok, on the pod, all of that. Yeah, we'll put it on our site too, like at the very least, like if you know, even if it's not something crazy, like we're happy to help you out, especially, you know, if you are a Swiftie making Swiftie products for Swifties, like that's kind of the the goal here, we're not trying to do, you know, sponsored. I mean, we would love to be sponsored, let's be honest, but that's like, those are the big name companies, but for the Etsy creators and all of our Swifty friends, like we're not charging for this, so send us stuff, we'll feature it, we'll try and get your name out there for you. Small business for sure. Support it. And then I would love to do a giveaway each month. So we'll just kind of keep an eye out on that. Obviously we're a little bit, I'm, you know, putting the cart before the horse because it's going to be March here in like a week. Um, but definitely the end of February marks the end of this giveaway. And then if you do have anything you'd like to donate or be featured, just, just give us a shout out. You can message us on any of our social channels. And then of course we've got a email on our website. Yep. And also make sure you guys are paying attention to me, my background, because I'm leaving an Easter egg in every episode. And toward the end of the month or the beginning of the following month, I'll let you know what was in each episode, but there's a link or a form on our website that you can go. Yeah, I'm obsessed with the Easter egg guesses. Like guys, keep guessing. They are so good. Like it's making me realize like what we're not noticing about your background. So yeah, I'm just laughing so hard. I don't want to give it away, but somebody guessed something and I was like, huh, yeah, it's about the lighting and just whatever. But um. But yeah, definitely keep guessing. And like she said at the end of each month, we'll give it away. It's just good fun. You know, things that are maybe new in her background. And like I said last week, my background is just a bunch of shit. Like it's going to move around. There's going to be, oh yeah, no, I think, I mean, it is this chaotic. It's gorgeous. Yours is gorgeous. Mine's just like, we're going to work on it. Yeah. Well, I'm not leaving any clues is what I'm saying. You guys can zoom in all you want and check it out, but there's nothing back there for the Easter eggs. Well, go to Anna's Tik TOK. Creative Chronicles and she does a lot of DIY stuff, home based stuff. And it's amazing. She is a great interior designer. I must say. Thank you. I do owe a video of how I did this wallpaper. I recorded the whole thing and, um, you know, I'll get it up at some point, but yeah, that's really where my tick tock journey started was, uh, teaching the tricks and tips of how to make your home look good on a budget. Yep. She's actually going to help me with my house and we'll film it for you guys. Yeah. So exciting. Um, all right, great. Well, I think that really wraps up for today. So like we said, Sydney is likely going on right now this weekend as you guys are catching up on this podcast. So we're really excited to meet up with you next week. Jesse pulled out her golf club for that one. Sydney. So, we will be back next week. We'll recap on that and hopefully she just does a bunch of crazy shit this weekend and it's completely unhinged and we have tons of topics to talk about. But in the meantime, we appreciate every single one of you who comes back and listens each week. It is just driving our lives. We absolutely are just so fulfilled by this and we love you guys. Bye.