Worlds collide.

[Buster's Uncle]

Taylor Swift vs. Nine Inch Nails - Shake It Off (The Perfect Drug)

I think this is a nice little video, juxtaposing, as it does, the dark and gothic world of Trent Reznor with the sunny wholesome appeal of -it could have been any cute pop princess who's still keeping it fairly clean- Taylor Swift.

That there's some sullen lust/opposites attract action.  Discuss...

[Geo]

Mmm. The visuals came over less extreme then I heard it first described.
More naughty then I'm used of TS. Actually the first time I hear of this Trent character.

[Buster's Uncle]

I don't believe Ms. Swift is playing herself when she shakes her booty in that video - it's a parody of any pretty blonde pop princess, most of whom never maintained as modest a public persona as she has...

I see the whole thing as parody, and find it funny.

[Buster's Uncle]

Incidentally, here are the two videos/songs that are mashed up above.

''The Perfect Drug'' (1997) Nine Inch Nails

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

Leaving aside the meta-message I found in the combination, I daresay the remix is just a catchier tune than either of the originals - the sum is greater than the parts.

[Unorthodox]

I don't believe Ms. Swift is playing herself when she shakes her booty in that video - it's a parody of any pretty blonde pop princess, most of whom never maintained as modest a public persona as she has...

I see the whole thing as parody, and find it funny.

Definitely a lot of parody in her video, yes. 

[Unorthodox]

Actually the first time I hear of this Trent character.

This Is A Trent Reznor Song OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO with Freddy Scott

[Buster's Uncle]

Dover Police DashCam Confessional (Shake it Off)

[Buster's Uncle]

Taylor Swift vs. Nine Inch Nails - Shake It Off (The Perfect Drug)

I think this is a nice little video, juxtaposing, as it does, the dark and gothic world of Trent Reznor with the sunny wholesome appeal of -it could have been any cute pop princess who's still keeping it fairly clean- Taylor Swift.

That there's some sullen lust/opposites attract action.  Discuss...

I find the vid in the OP -I didn't know it was a fan mashup of songs almost 20 years apart, and ran upstairs to tell Mylochka and Geo that Taylor Swift had done a collaboration with Nine Inch Nails and it was good! (I've never been plugged into the Gothic or Pop zeitgeists)- endlessly entertaining.  I was looking for something else, but when I saw this thread, I had to have another watch.

No real interest in either artist's ouvre, but Reznor's down in his dank gothic hell back in his Dracula phase, ironically looking up and craving the lovely (if superficial) Ms. Swift in her bright pop heaven - and who can blame him?  Her music may not appeal, and she's not actually all that pretty without her face on, I think, but that there's a very well-turned-out young lady.  I like looking at her, and she's rocking all the silly pop looks she sports in her half.

I do wonder how Shake It Off being everwhere last year -I've since looked it up, and I have a brother with a daughter the right age- affects how people who aren't as off the cultural grid as I react.

The Perfect Drug is actually improved by the heavy Shake it Off beat, the music is blended flawlessly, the video editing is immaculate...

And the new emergent theme the mashup creates tickles me a lot.

[Buster's Uncle]

Uno?  I think the Dracula look suited him better...

[Unorthodox]

Hm? 

Might be surprised I'm not into the gothic music stuff much.  I mean, the circles I run in I certainly get exposed to a lot of it, and thus have a general knowledge and can appreciate it on some level (I can listen to most anything, honestly, provided it's not purposely trying to be offensive), but it's not typically something that finds it's way onto my ipod unless I'm purposely building a playlist for Halloweenish things.  Even then, it would be in a mix with "Witchy Woman" and similarly 'light' fair. 

[Buster's Uncle]

I mostly assumed familiarity because of the parody video you posted.  It's pretty completely on the nose as far as I can tell, and the fellow playing him is an excellent likeness for the sorta emo look he sported at the time, so you can form an opinion from that and Perfect Drug.

The gothic and you I had wondered about - it wouldn't surprise, given the givens.  However, late 70s FM rock is actually excellent stuff; people just got a little overloaded at the time.  That Boston/Fleetwood Mac/etc.-type stuff is A-Okay.  Mellow is good.  It's a good space to try to be in, to permeate your environment.

I believe these days, Reznor's look is more or less Henry Rollins...

[Buster's Uncle]

I have to say that I haven't changed my mind about the mashup being more interesting and an improvement on the originals - but the mashup is The Perfect Drug made catchier and with his obsession on-stage, and the theme of Shake It Off is entirely lost.

I have gained appreciation of the later greatly in the meanwhile.  -That is British understatement.


...I have a reputation, and the bad parts of it held so dear in some quarters are entirely earned by my missteps and bad actions, mostly as a newb over six year ago, when I didn't understand the community as well as I thought I did, and I was decidedly less stable than I've since become.

I came here on 6 February 2012, full of rage and bleeding from every emotional orifice - probably the most unfair thing that's ever happened to me in my entire sad life that didn't involve anyone hitting or touching me had just gone down.  AC2 was sisko's side-project while we were working hard on building the AC community at WPC, and I'd only made very modest efforts to throw it a little support fairly recently.  Nothing much had come of yet; you can find posts here from 2010-2011, but not many and virtually all of substance in MP.  But I was done for good at my previous online home -my real life has been the Civ/SMACX community since early 2009- and amidst my rants and rage and nuclear swearing in the private GotM folder, I pitched getting serious about this place and making it live to sisko.  It would be a long and tedious job that would take forever, but it was just barely possible with the right team on the job (and I'll always be grateful to the GotM guys and other early supporters of AC2 - I was completely useless on the posting-activity-generating-more-activity front without a few people to talk to).

-Of course sisko said yes - it's really exactly what he'd wanted since he made AC2 two years before, though he hadn't asked.  He, he doesn't say a lot about a lot of things, so I have to guess a lot, including what he really thinks of me - but I'd venture that he believes his butthole friend BU generally means well, and is totally a machine at a lot of the things you need to turn an empty new forum into a vibrant community.  (I imagine that me thereafter turning out to have a good hand at the people management was as much of a shock to him as it was to me, a profound one.)  I don't know for sure what he really thinks of me, but I know that he knows that we're a powerful partnership - we regarded each other as equal partners as citizen workers for the SMACX community at WPC, equal when I instigated him being made moderator of WPC AC, and equal when I was later briefly promoted over his head - and equal here when he was sole owner and I mere admin, equal when I stepped up as co-owner (though I concede him ties on policy to prevent deadlocks; he's the Founder).  We worked well together beginning almost six years ago, heavily and continuously since, and he's never, ever, burned me, and is pretty much it for someone in the community that I trust implicitly - because he's proven over and over that I can.

If only he didn't have a RW life eating up his time...  (If you make a little person, you TAKE CARE of that little person, no excuses.)  So I've been running this forum all by myself for long stretches from fairly early on.  I do better when he's around, even at the stuff that's my specialties, because of his cautious counsel making me think, but I don't think it's a wild fancy of mine to say I do pretty doggon well on my own, outside forum tech issues over my pay grade, for which I do have three d00dz for that, including a fast response from sisko in rebooting the forum this morning.

I learned a very long time ago to be careful about bragging, but it's obvious to anyone that I'm a man of many talents, and not trivially talented at a great many of them.  It's something even people who choose to be my "enemies" freely concede.  I don't let my arrogance out to play in obvious ways (I hope) very often at all, but arrogant I most assuredly am, and I daresay no one can rationally argue that I haven't earned it, indeed, proved over and over that I have excellent grounds to be my own biggest fan - if also my greatest critic.  (Believe me, I have "BU sux" covered better than all my haters ever put together -perhaps even including my late father shouting "THINK boy!  Use your noggin!" forever- I know better than to talk about that much, too, putting a big target on my back as admitting my shortcomings too enthusiastically would.)

Well, I'm proud, sinfully proud, Paradise Lost-Satanically-proud, about a lot of things I do and have done, but this right here, this forum and the people it's made of, THIS is my masterpiece, this is its own Oscar, Pulitzer, Nobel prize to me.  AC2 is the thing I'm proudest of in my entire 50+ years of life.  It was born of my arrogance and monolithic, not-entirely-realistic, ambition.  And hard work.  And persistence.  And HOPE.  And my ambition has only grown with success, coming to extend to the larger online Civ community with the realization that all our best interests are ultimately intertwined.

I juggle and dance and sing, balancing a million needs and concerns and many many many long-term projects -and others not so long- all connected to my grand plan, rarely so much a plan as riffing, playing by ear - much of it doesn't show, but I'm filled with gladness and hope that what parts of my song you can see and hear look and sound as good as they do.

I love you people and this. is. my. LIFE.  Your happiness here is almost as much a goal to me as is my own, the two being inextricably intertwined.  AC2 is my instrument, my heart, and my blood runs through it as I play my song.

Watch the video; I don't look like Ms. Swift, but that's me.

I've got this Muusic in my mind saying it's gonna be all right!

[Unorthodox]

...I have a reputation, and the bad parts of it held so dear in some quarters are entirely earned by my missteps and bad actions, mostly as a newb over six year ago, when I didn't understand the community as well as I thought I did, and I was decidedly less stable than I've since become.

Yeah, I remember being told about the reputation.  Wondered at times whether you were just trolling me or not.  In the end I didn't care if you were being serious or trolling (honestly probably some of both, at least in the beginning) because you provided a sounding board I needed EITHER WAY.  Half the time I just needed to type something out when I was posting.  That someone responded at all was gravy.  The longer we were at it the fewer the trollish things were posted. 

You shake it off all you want, I've always felt more like this one:

! No longer available

[Buster's Uncle]

WELL-

That vid made me cry actual running tears - but then so does Ms. Swift, today, performing her glorious triumph in her music in the face of taking all the slams.  I will not be shaking it off all I want, but not for lack of trying.  Both songs are true, and if I didn't say the Devil's in the details clearly in my last, it was not for a lack of trying.  These are my life; please enjoy your meal and tip your waiters generously - I'll be here all week.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yeah, I remember being told about the reputation.  Wondered at times whether you were just trolling me or not.  In the end I didn't care if you were being serious or trolling (honestly probably some of both, at least in the beginning) because you provided a sounding board I needed EITHER WAY.  Half the time I just needed to type something out when I was posting.  That someone responded at all was gravy.  The longer we were at it the fewer the trollish things were posted.

You do know what a paranoid's dream that first sentence is, don't you?  Haters are, indeed, going to hate hate hate hate hate hate.

I don't recall -and I just skimmed the entire Halloween Workshop thread for my own posts Saturday- intending any initial trollyness, trolling all being in the intent, and me being the way I am, I've probably become infinitely more comfortable being rude to you as I've come to know and like you.  I did, and still do, talk a lot of silly crap, but I didn't see it early in that thread.  Perhaps there was some confirmation bias after the 'friendly' warning about me?

Your friendship and overt support over the years and -all you do to entertain us all- are certainly noticed and treasured.

---

Much as I loved and identified with that Delta Rae song, I did find it to hint at a categorical error that I used to engage in to the serious detriment of my will to live; just taking it.

Yes; do the right thing - put your head down and do your job, keep your obligations, take care of your own.  Yes.  Absolutely.  ALL that wonderful 'square' values stuff, seriously.  No excuses for doing otherwise.

But I used to be that fellow on the beach taking it, because I was strong and tough and I can take a lot.  I made the mistake of never turning and beating the holy crap out of an abuser.  It was a mistake.

I did a bad job of taking care of number one, and it made me a miserable SOB who wanted to die and wasn't much use at all at the Steady Man stuff, because Miserable SOB to be around.

So I'm suggesting that anyone finding themselves on that beach pick their battles carefully and try to swat a few buckets of paint aside before they hit, and do a lot of dodging whenever you can - you may be able to avoid having to beat up any tormentors, but don't just take it as you make your way.