0:12

Baby you change your mind,

0:14

life too many times Over

0:17

and over again, over and

0:19

over again Baby

0:21

you change your mind, life

0:23

too many times Over and

0:25

over again, over and over

0:27

again Hello

0:32

and welcome to Still Buffering, a cross-generational

0:34

guide to the culture that made us.

0:36

I'm Riley Smirl. I'm Sydney

0:38

McElroy. And I'm Taylor Smirl. I've

0:41

had some eventful weeks here in my

0:43

household. Oh. I mean eventful,

0:46

like not in a good way. Like I say eventful,

0:48

that sounds exciting. We

0:51

just had everybody had the flu. That's

0:54

not... That is an event. Yeah.

0:57

Yeah. That's not fun though. I

1:01

was working in the hospital and both the

1:03

kids got the flu. They're fine. I would

1:05

only talk about this like so flippantly if

1:07

they were fine. I hope everybody knows that.

1:11

They were just really snotty. Like...

1:14

That's so gross. Yeah.

1:17

And they both, I think

1:19

because they thought, well we're sick, we

1:23

don't have to clean up after ourselves. Which

1:25

like they barely do anyway. So

1:29

we can just throw these tissues everywhere. Oh god.

1:31

So I've just been picking up snotty

1:34

tissues everywhere.

1:37

On every surface. Tables,

1:39

couches, floors, beds.

1:43

They're everywhere. I know. That's

1:45

awful. It's

1:48

a testament to my own immune system though. I

1:50

have not gotten sick. Mmm.

1:53

Just waiting for the moment it takes

1:55

you down. Yeah. I don't know.

1:58

I don't know what your chances are like there, Sydney. I

2:01

don't know. I think I'm just very tough

2:03

and strong and right. That's

2:05

what that's what matters if you get sick or not

2:07

I had to have a strong you are yeah,

2:09

I Intimidate

2:12

the virus too much so

2:14

it yeah It

2:17

looked at you and went no not that

2:19

one we won't win with that one. Let's

2:21

not even try We don't we don't I

2:24

gotta be honest crushes if that's how it worked.

2:26

I don't know how Cooper got sick. Yes

2:31

I don't I if I were a virus. I'd

2:33

be like nah not that one. I

2:36

will say Cooper got through it a lot

2:38

faster a Lot

2:40

faster and but I mean Cooper is more

2:42

like me in that Like

2:45

she did she didn't acknowledge that she was

2:47

sick until it was like honey We

2:49

can tell like you're sick. We know

2:51

like you can't deny it anymore We can

2:53

see that you're sick and

2:55

then it's like she doesn't want to talk about

2:57

it She doesn't want to like fine whatever I'm

2:59

sick No, I'm not gonna do anything but could

3:02

we not dwell on it could we not like

3:04

focus on I don't want to think about it

3:07

And then as she shows it what her enemy is

3:09

doing her weakness It

3:11

really is like that like let's not let's

3:13

not discuss it. We've established it fine. I've

3:15

accepted it I will stay home from school

3:18

today, but we're not going to talk about anymore Whereas

3:21

Charlie is more of the like I

3:24

must take to the bed No Sickly

3:27

Victorian Charlie. Yeah, that makes sense

3:31

Yes lean in Too

3:34

sickness. Well quarter

3:37

fainting couches for Nice

3:42

we had we had sick days like

3:45

well I mean I was working through most of it

3:47

so Justin got some sick days with them

3:50

We like Marathon Gravity Falls and

3:53

we built two Lego castles and

3:55

I Don't know

3:57

those were good good quality sick days active

4:00

sick days Well,

4:03

I mean You know

4:05

we watched gravity ball It

4:07

was also an eventful day in many

4:10

many a Swifty household this

4:13

weekend Mm-hmm big

4:15

things happened and We

4:17

all we all got tricked. We

4:20

all were fooled and bamboozled once again So

4:24

you didn't know she was gonna announce the

4:27

new album I thought she was gonna announce

4:29

reputation Taylor's version everybody. Oh, yeah, everybody's been

4:31

talking about it because of the dresses She's

4:33

one because of the dresses she's worn and

4:36

because in in

4:38

the karma music video She

4:40

was holding a cup of coffee that had a clock

4:42

on the top like foam art and it was a

4:44

clock and she has

4:46

her nails painted according to all the eras on

4:48

her tour and The

4:50

fifth one is blue for 1989 the sixth

4:53

one is black for reputation and the

4:55

blue nail is next to the eight on the clock And

4:57

she ended up announcing 1989 in August On

5:02

her tour. So the black one was next

5:04

to the two So we

5:06

all thought so she's announcing reputation in February

5:09

It's February Right,

5:13

it's a whole new it's a whole new scene and she announced

5:15

the dead poet society the torture

5:17

poets department Are

5:22

Either of those the real title the tortured

5:24

poets department is the name of the album. Oh,

5:26

no Yeah, yeah me and

5:28

every dad is gonna be calling it

5:31

the dead Yeah,

5:33

it just it doesn't flow I sat there

5:35

after she announced it I watched the Grammys

5:37

with my friends who all are also Swifties

5:39

and we just sat there looking at each

5:41

other like that's not That's

5:44

not right. That came out, right? I just

5:47

want to know How

5:50

is she gonna if she didn't win What

5:53

was the plan there was that

5:55

was the album a reward to the

5:58

world for giving her a great? like

6:00

if not, she was like, never mind then. That album's

6:02

going into vault. She's got a vault.

6:04

It's a big deal about it. She

6:06

had her first concert of the Aeros tour of

6:09

this year. I mean, I

6:11

guess technically it was today on Wednesday, February 7th,

6:13

but in our time it was like

6:15

hours ago because it was in Tokyo. And

6:18

she said if she hadn't won anything, she was

6:20

going to announce it that first night in Tokyo.

6:25

And she said, but I was lucky enough to win, so I

6:27

got up there and it just came out. And

6:31

she won another one and she made history. She

6:34

won fourth album of the year. Yeah,

6:40

I told Charlie that she won another

6:42

Grammy because she didn't know. And I

6:45

told her, this was yesterday and I told her about the

6:47

new album and she had no idea. She was way behind

6:49

on this news. And

6:51

she said, so that makes 13 or 14,

6:53

14 now? Album?

6:58

She has count of her Grammys. Grammys,

7:00

Grammys. Yeah, that was her 14th. Charlie

7:04

knew this off the top of her head. And

7:10

I said, honey, why do you know that? I'm sorry.

7:13

And she said, I'm a Swifty. And I was like, yeah,

7:15

but I'm sorry. You

7:17

didn't know she won a Grammy and

7:19

that she announced a new album two nights ago,

7:21

but you do know the exact number of Grammys

7:23

she has, including the one, I just told you

7:25

she had one so you could update it quickly.

7:27

Like, oh, well, that would make you 14 now, I think.

7:32

I'm hoping it's because of the Taylor

7:34

Swift Factbook. I got her for Christmas.

7:37

I'm hoping it's in there somewhere. Maybe

7:39

she's just really good at reading. She

7:42

loves any kind of fact books. Yeah.

7:45

We were reading, that was another thing. I

7:47

do too. We were sick. We read through

7:49

like these 500 weird facts for kids or

7:52

something. Mm-hmm. And we

7:55

had to stop though, because we were in the animal section.

7:58

And like almost all the weird animal. Animal facts

8:00

are gross and we

8:02

were at a point where like both of them were sort of coughing up

8:05

a lot of mucus and they weren't really in a,

8:07

like they didn't want gross information. They

8:10

were the gross animals in the room. You didn't

8:12

need more. They didn't eat about them.

8:15

But it was strange how many of the animal

8:17

facts were like really grody things. I

8:21

don't know why that makes sense. I mean kids like

8:23

grody stuff but you

8:26

know that when rats like nest

8:29

together their tails can get knotted together

8:31

and they become a rat king. Yeah.

8:35

Yeah. And then sometimes they get

8:37

like they pee on themselves because

8:40

they're all stuck there together and

8:42

they can freeze into like a

8:44

frozen rat pee cube. I

8:53

like how you read these gross facts and you were

8:55

like you know what I'm going to do with these.

8:58

I'm going to wait until I'm on a podcast with

9:00

my siblings and I'm going to make them listen to

9:02

them. Well I

9:04

just, I didn't know this thing. I said this

9:07

thing and I thought Justin was just going to be lying. How did

9:09

you not know about a rat king? Yeah I

9:11

don't know. I

9:13

knew about a rat king. I saw a video

9:15

of it happening with squirrels. I

9:17

guess that's a squirrel king. Oh no. Yeah.

9:21

That has to be Justin's worst nightmare I guess. I

9:24

know I said it and Justin like literally fell out of

9:26

his chair and just like hit the floor. He

9:29

was like please don't ever, I can't. I

9:31

have to leave the room. I can scrub

9:33

my brain. Yeah. I

9:36

don't know. It's been

9:38

eventful. Cooper's

9:42

birthday party is this weekend. It's Willy Wonka

9:44

themed so we've been planning that. That

9:47

just means you get a bunch of candy right? Mom

9:50

keeps, no. Oh. Mom's

9:52

involved. So. Okay. She

9:55

was like we're going to put the chocolate river in the playroom. She

10:00

said this to me at one point this past week on the

10:02

phone when I was like, I was working on something else and

10:04

I was like, that sounds good. That's what she was talking about.

10:06

There's a like pin the gum on Violet's

10:09

mouth game and like

10:11

there's a bubble like she blew a bubble and you're supposed to

10:13

like put it on a picture of her mouth. I pin the tail on the

10:15

donkey. She did like

10:17

toss rings on the fizzy lifting bottles. So

10:20

she's made up all these games and then she was like,

10:22

she said something about the chocolate river and I was like,

10:24

the what? She was like, we're going

10:26

to put the chocolate river up in the playroom. Don't

10:28

worry. So I'm not asked

10:30

like, is it really

10:32

chocolate? I'll follow up on

10:34

that one. I would

10:37

ask some questions. Yeah. Is it

10:39

actually chocolate? I think that's necessary information.

10:43

I bought a chocolate fountain, like,

10:46

you know, a chocolate fountain for

10:48

them to have because I thought that would be fun.

10:50

We'll have that for the kids and like I'll cut

10:52

up fruit and have pretzels

10:54

and marshmallows, whatever you dip in a chocolate fountain.

10:57

And I found myself like I was looking

11:00

for one and I was showing Justin like, this

11:02

looks like a good one. Like, I don't know. They

11:04

had some like $20 chocolate fountains and that made me

11:06

a little nervous. And

11:09

I was looking at it and reading reviews like,

11:12

do you think it works? Like what if it

11:14

breaks? Like, we'll probably use this more than once.

11:16

Should we invest more? Invest

11:18

in a chocolate fountain. Like, should we go for the $30 chocolate

11:20

fountain over the $20 chocolate fountain? And

11:25

it occurred to me that I think on

11:27

some level I still think chocolate fountains are

11:29

fancy. Yeah. Yeah.

11:33

So I was getting lost in like,

11:35

they're so fancy. They,

11:37

first of all, I can't believe I'm just allowed to buy

11:40

one. And secondly, I need to make sure like I

11:42

get a good quality one. Because

11:45

chocolate fountains are fancy. I mean, they

11:47

are. Well. I

11:51

don't know. What? Can I

11:53

just say, it is so, so

11:55

Cooper coded for her to be like, ah,

11:58

you know the one thing that I I want

12:00

a fountain of at my birthday that I

12:02

love the one thing my sister hates. Oh,

12:06

yes. So Cooper-ver. I

12:09

know. That's why there's going to

12:12

be so much chocolate and I don't know. I told

12:14

Charlie, I said we will make sure there's, because Charlie

12:16

does like white chocolate. I was like we'll make sure

12:18

there's white chocolate and then we'll, you know, there'll be gummies

12:20

and fruity candies. Are you

12:22

sure mom's not just going to turn that fountain on

12:24

its side and let it like shoot chocolate across your

12:27

playroom? I am not sure. Just

12:30

get a water slide with a pump mechanism and

12:32

just fill it, fill it with chocolate. There you

12:34

go. Oh, God. I

12:38

don't know. I'm very nervous about this now. She

12:41

was showing me these giant mushrooms, like

12:44

these giant inflatable mushrooms she got. And

12:46

I'm like, I didn't really ask questions and now I'm thinking

12:49

like, are we going to put frosting on

12:51

them, you know, like in the movie? Like,

12:54

how deep is this going? I don't know. The

12:57

invitations were golden tickets and those are really cute. That's

13:00

very cute. Yeah, I'll report back about

13:02

the chocolate fountain, or the chocolate river. Chocolate

13:05

fountain as well. Yeah.

13:09

Did you go, did you go high quality? Did

13:11

you go top of the line? I

13:13

did not, okay. How high does the top

13:15

of the line go in chocolate fountain? I thought

13:17

I was going to ask. So, like, just from a quick

13:19

search, I think you're right. I thought that was happening. So,

13:23

like, just from a quick search for them. So,

13:25

like, I don't know. I'm sure that there are,

13:27

like, actual catering supply companies where you

13:30

can buy, like, industrial strings. You

13:33

know what I mean? I

13:35

am certain that they go much higher than this. But as

13:37

far as for commercial purchase by moms

13:39

throwing birthday parties, the

13:41

cheapest I found was 20 bucks. And

13:45

then I found some that were, like, $120, $130. There's

13:50

that whole range. And

13:52

some of it is that they get an extra tier. You're

13:55

paying for, like, four tiers of chocolate or

13:57

three tiers of chocolate. I

14:01

went with the $29.99. That

14:04

felt like a good, and it's

14:06

from Wilton. They

14:08

make chocolate and cake things, right? Yeah.

14:12

That feels good. With

14:15

a piece of equipment like that, I feel

14:17

like the emphasis would be on how cleanable

14:20

is it because I

14:22

use chocolate fountain to

14:25

biohazard pipeline is probably a

14:28

short one in general. I

14:31

wondered if that's like, if you look at

14:34

the ones that are restaurant grade, for

14:36

all the restaurants that have chocolate fountains. Yeah,

14:38

yeah, common. Yeah. That's like all of them

14:40

in New York do, right? Because they're fancy?

14:43

Oh, no. Just

14:45

a public use chocolate fountain. No.

14:51

But I imagine those are some

14:54

sort of metal, right? Like

14:56

probably. Yeah, like the ones

14:58

you see at weddings. Yeah. The

15:00

fancy weddings. So I mean, that I

15:02

think is where the place break down

15:04

comes. If I had wanted to pay over

15:07

$100 for a chocolate fountain,

15:09

if I was thinking, today I'd like to wake up and pay over

15:11

$100 for a chocolate fountain, I

15:14

think I would have gotten the metal ones, which

15:16

probably are easier to clean and more sanitary. Under

15:20

that, you're really looking at plastic things. And

15:22

then it's just like how sturdy and hard to put together,

15:24

I think, is what you're going to be

15:27

dealing with. So this one looked, I mean,

15:29

it's plastic. It looks cleanable.

15:32

It looks pretty easily to like take apart

15:34

to wash all the pieces. I

15:36

don't know. I went with

15:39

enough that I thought if we want to use

15:41

this again, we can use it again. It's not

15:43

something that it's going to like completely crumble after

15:45

one use, I don't think. I

15:48

just, in my head, when you said easy to put

15:50

together, I don't know

15:52

why I thought the chocolate would

15:54

be there when you put it together. I

15:57

was envisioning you like this.

16:00

Chocolate I'm trying to put it together. No that

16:02

you put the chocolate in later. I mean I

16:04

bet the chocolate I bet the chocolate goes in

16:06

after the fact Anyway, well, that's

16:09

what led me to this one Is that

16:11

when you search for chocolate fountains you also

16:13

just get like links to like the bags

16:15

of the little chocolate discs That

16:17

you melt to make the chocolate

16:19

fountain them anyway,

16:21

so Those are also made

16:24

by Wilton if you want. I mean I am

16:26

certain lots of people make those little chocolate discs,

16:28

but yeah There's the connection

16:32

Anyway, I'll let you know how the chocolate fountain Is

16:35

very fancy. I know

16:37

I bet that somehow that part of

16:39

my brain Where as a kid looked at a chocolate

16:41

fountain and thought wow Someday,

16:44

I hope I could own a

16:46

chocolate fountain of my own that

16:48

part never grew up. Oh There

16:51

you go Yeah,

16:54

I know I I understand

16:56

that that feeling but I I

17:00

don't know to me. It just feels like that

17:02

was just a chocolate fountain with

17:04

little grubby kids That's just

17:06

good the growth They're

17:10

gonna be putting their grubby little hands in

17:12

there, and it just gets recycled up in

17:14

there Oh you bet that's gonna just be

17:17

just a germ just to be chocolate with

17:19

a side of germs Yes,

17:23

I thought about this as I

17:25

was sitting there telling Cooper Cooper was telling me all

17:27

the things She wanted me to put around it to

17:29

dip into it Then

17:31

she was telling me and I said Honey

17:34

just on a side note. You know you can't stick your

17:36

finger in it, right? And

17:39

she said well why? And

17:42

I was like oh no oh no yeah So

17:44

I've had a long talk with Cooper about why

17:46

you can't stick your fingers in the chocolate fountain

17:49

But like I don't know that every other five or six year

17:51

old who's coming to this birthday because these are I mean

17:53

that's Cooper's Turning six so these are five and six

17:55

year olds. Yeah, you're not gonna have a party full

17:57

of five and six year olds and reflowing

18:00

chocolate and not just have Fingers

18:03

that at least of your concern. It's gonna

18:06

be whole arms Didn't

18:08

they? Yeah What

18:14

we're gonna have to put one parent on

18:16

chocolate fountain duty What's our

18:19

deal as a society with melty things that

18:21

we stick things into why is that fun?

18:23

Like there's a whole restaurant chain. It's just

18:25

about giving you pots of melty things for

18:27

you to dip things in Fondue

18:30

yeah Yeah, well just melty things

18:32

you did why we love that so much Cheese

18:36

is great. Yeah cheese is

18:38

great Like

18:40

I've been I've been to those fondue places. They don't just

18:42

give you the cheese they give you like like

18:45

plate flavored boiling oil

18:48

for you like cook your Meat

18:50

in and put vegetables in and stuff It's

18:54

like an activity and a meal. Yeah,

18:57

I just want to be brought food that I can then

18:59

put my mouth That's the activity. I want to do is

19:01

the putting the food into my mouth That's

19:04

it. Well, I

19:07

don't mind an interactive dining experience,

19:09

but I don't I

19:11

don't know the That

19:14

the I don't know what has happened

19:16

to this chocolates before it's recycled and

19:18

now it is on my strawberry That

19:20

makes me uncomfortable Yeah

19:23

Yeah, I know that I it's the chocolate fountain

19:25

is gonna look really cool And then as soon

19:28

as people start using it everything is gonna fall apart

19:30

is what I am what I am afraid of I

19:32

hope it descends into total anarchy just

19:34

chocolate covered children running around Waiting

19:41

in the chocolate river Just

19:45

floating down there like eyes peering up

19:47

above the water like a crocodile In

19:52

the chocolate river that is going to be in

19:54

my playroom, okay Take

19:57

pictures. I will I

20:00

will have lots of pictures of this of this event.

20:04

I mean that is what's going to happen. The

20:06

first kid to break that seal and

20:08

stick their full arm or face in

20:10

the chocolate fountain then

20:12

it's just all bets are off.

20:17

I want to you know what I think I'm going

20:19

to put myself on chocolate fountain duty. You just

20:22

want to be in charge of the chocolate fountain because

20:24

it's fancy. It's fancy but also like

20:26

then if you if you find a job like that

20:29

at a kids event that like someone has to do

20:31

but they have to stay in that one place and

20:33

do it the whole time then you don't have to

20:35

do any other jobs. That sounds

20:37

my job. This is my job at

20:39

this event. Well

20:42

that means if it goes to goes to

20:45

total chaos well then you take the blame. That's not

20:47

a new high risk

20:49

high reward. But

20:51

you are chocolate adjacent the whole time too.

20:55

I know. Well and I can stick my fingers

20:57

in it as much as I want. No. Whoa

21:00

whoa. That's not.

21:02

I'm kidding. I wouldn't do that. With

21:05

your your four day incubation on the

21:07

the flu. I'm

21:09

not getting it. You're a medical

21:11

physician Sydney. Hypoid Sydney. I'm

21:14

not getting it. My

21:17

white blood cells are too strong. And

21:20

BC cells. They're

21:22

muscular arms just like boop

21:24

boop. We refuse.

21:27

Antibodies are attacked. Can

21:30

you explain that to a doctor

21:32

when you're sick? Well you see

21:34

my immune system is very intimidating

21:36

to invading pathogens so nothing dares.

21:39

So they don't mess with me. So

21:42

I know you might think I'm sick but I'm fine. I'm

21:45

fine. I scared the germs away. We're

21:47

mounting an offense right now. We'll win handily. Don't

21:50

worry about it. Yeah I

21:52

have this. I'd rather not talk about it anymore if

21:54

you don't mind. I don't want to acknowledge sickness. This

21:58

is fine. This is actually. healthy attitude I

22:01

have. Yeah that's what I was gonna

22:03

say that's good. This has

22:05

not driven me to work

22:07

sick ever in my life. Now

22:10

that we spent 22 minutes

22:12

talking about chocolate fountains. What

22:14

are we supposed to be talking about Riley? Supposed

22:16

to be talking about the album The

22:18

Good Witch by Maisie Peters which

22:22

is an album that I brought for us to

22:24

discuss. It just came out last year. And yeah

22:28

I was lucky enough

22:30

to see Maisie Peters in concert when

22:33

she came to DC in October and

22:36

I've been a fan of her since well before that but

22:39

seeing her in concert reminded me that we had never

22:41

talked about her. Now

22:44

I'm gonna admit right off the bat I listened

22:46

to the wrong album at first. Cool. So

22:49

way to start. Yeah well I

22:52

got confused so I listened to her

22:54

other album twice. Okay. Well cause

22:57

I really wanted to be prepared and so I

22:59

listened to that twice and I discussed it with

23:02

Charlie and we talked about

23:04

songs and it wasn't until

23:06

later that I realized. Oops. So

23:08

I did listen to The Good Witch but I had I

23:10

had listened to the I had prepared I had studied

23:13

for the other one I studied for the wrong material

23:15

is what I'm admitting to you now. I don't know.

23:17

That's not how a test works. You

23:21

can't show up and say you studied the

23:23

wrong material so. Give me

23:25

a test on that material please. Please give me

23:27

that test. No. I

23:30

realized that I knew a lot of

23:32

these songs at least snippets of them

23:34

from from TikTok. This is a very

23:36

TikTok album. It is. It's a

23:39

very TikTok album and Cindy I'm glad

23:41

you mentioned you signed up for this

23:43

because one of the songs

23:45

on that I'm trying in Prince's Not

23:47

Friends is like the

23:49

reason I was aware of who Maisie Peters was because

23:52

it blew up on TikTok so much. I want to

23:54

say like I think the album came out in 2021

23:56

so around then it was several years ago. But

24:00

I heard that on TikTok so many times that

24:03

I thought out who sang it and that was

24:05

the reason I became familiar with the

24:07

rest of her stuff. But yes, it is

24:09

very TikTok-ed. It is

24:11

very TikTok-able. How

24:17

was the live show? It was great. It

24:20

was very, very good. She was very good.

24:25

Very entertaining. I like I was thinking about while

24:27

I was re-listing to this and while I was

24:29

thinking about the show, I feel

24:33

like she isn't like a solo artist. She

24:36

isn't a band. She is Maisie Peters. But

24:39

I do feel like she in her performance

24:41

and in her songs also incorporates

24:44

her band a lot

24:46

and makes it about them as a group and

24:48

less about her as a singer, which I like

24:50

because it is fun to watch

24:52

a whole group of people

24:54

having fun making music. I

24:59

was trying to figure out if the

25:01

song the band and I was about

25:03

a band that she did have because

25:05

it doesn't sound like there is a

25:07

band. It sounds like a singer-songwriter situation.

25:12

Yeah, that was fun to see live because of

25:14

course all the people she is naming in that

25:16

song are on the stage with her. That

25:19

was fun. That is cool. I

25:21

like that one. Generally

25:25

speaking across both albums, I

25:27

like the vibe. Again

25:30

I feel like this, you bring a lot

25:32

of artists that like the music, it's

25:34

a vibe. Charlie

25:39

and I were listening to it on

25:41

her sick day and so we were sitting there

25:43

together listening through the album and talking about the

25:45

songs and then she would sort of tell me

25:47

a story from school or something while we were

25:49

listening to the music in the background. I

25:52

don't know, she really liked it too but it

25:54

was fun. It was just a

25:56

very laid back, relaxed,

25:58

we are talking. She's

26:00

sharing some stuff about friends and things and struggles

26:03

and it fits that kind of mood too like,

26:05

ah, growing up, let's talk about what you're going

26:07

through. And I don't know, it just, it

26:10

was like the right music for this mother-daughter

26:13

bonding we were having. Yeah. Yeah,

26:16

I agree. I find myself most of the

26:19

music listening I do is while I'm either

26:21

walking somewhere or while I'm studying or reading.

26:24

So I like things that I can kind of turn on the background

26:26

to have. Like, you know, I

26:30

can focus on other things while I am listening.

26:33

I definitely think she is one of those artists that I

26:35

like having on, but I also like having on when I'm

26:37

in the car driving home and can, you know, sing along

26:39

and dance. Hard

26:43

dance. Hard dance. She

26:46

definitely gives me like a

26:48

lot of Taylor Swift vibes. Yeah.

26:50

Both in content, like lyrical content

26:53

of her song and like the

26:55

musical stylings. Yeah. I

26:58

agree. She said before that Taylor

27:00

Swift is an influence of hers, which I think

27:02

you can tell because there's a lot more emphasis

27:04

in a lot of her songs on the lyrics

27:06

as opposed to like the hook or the music.

27:10

Even in some of her songs, she does more of

27:12

like a, I'm trying to remember which one it is

27:14

that I'm thinking about now. Holy

27:19

Revival maybe. She does a lot

27:21

of almost talking and

27:24

that's not exactly on the beat of

27:26

the music, but it's like, I

27:30

don't know. There's not always the same like

27:32

uniform structure to her songs, if that makes

27:34

sense. It's a lot more focused on the

27:37

lyrics and the words as opposed to the

27:39

actual music. Probably

27:42

a little more influenced by the,

27:44

where are the two Taylor Swift,

27:46

the folklore and what's the other

27:48

one? Yeah. So

27:51

it's more like that. Evermore. Yeah.

27:54

In my head was the word everclear and

27:56

I knew it wasn't that. Very strong

27:58

everclear influence on this. Everclear.

28:01

Oh no. That's what I'm gonna call it now.

28:04

Well, I mean, Everclear, like,

28:07

do you mean Grain Alcohol

28:09

or do you mean the band Everclear?

28:13

Which I would say Daisy Peters does not

28:15

sound anything like the band Everclear if we're...

28:19

or like the Grain Alcohol. No,

28:21

I think either one actually. It doesn't remind

28:23

me of either of those. Taylor Swift doesn't remind me

28:25

of either of those. No. No.

28:28

So good. No. It's

28:31

always good to list things that an artist doesn't make

28:33

you think of. That's

28:37

important. Thank

28:39

you, Sydney, for bringing up the antithesis,

28:41

if you will. Yeah. I'll

28:45

name some other 90s bands that this isn't like. Go ahead. This

28:51

isn't like Pearl Jam. That's

28:53

true. You're right.

28:56

This isn't like Blink 182. That's

28:59

fair. I

29:01

would say it's a little bit once I

29:03

was a little bit heavier, but a little bit more like,

29:08

like, I don't know, dreamy,

29:10

but it reminded me a little bit of Avril

29:12

Lavigne. Like, there's a bit of that to it,

29:14

maybe. Yeah. Her singing also,

29:16

her voice kind of reminds me of Avril Lavigne. Just

29:20

the style of her singing and her sound. I

29:23

agree with that. I can see that.

29:27

Granted, listen to her older

29:29

album first, but I

29:31

felt like there were some Regina Specter

29:33

moments here and there scattered

29:36

throughout. Some quirkiness and

29:38

playfulness, who I always love

29:40

about Regina Specter is like sometimes we're

29:43

sort of leaving the structure of

29:45

what we think of as a song or

29:47

something that's a little playful or fun before

29:49

we get back into the song. There were

29:51

moments of that that I was like, oh,

29:53

that feels a little Regina

29:55

Specter-ish. Yeah.

30:00

I also appreciate all of the references she

30:02

makes to pop

30:05

culture or literature or other forms

30:09

of art. I feel like she has a lot of references

30:11

in there that you can tell. These

30:13

aren't just generic stories

30:15

she's sharing. Something about them is

30:18

very personal to her, like Yoko

30:20

and History of Man. Both

30:23

are very loaded with

30:25

references to literature

30:27

or history or whatever. I

30:31

think you can tell it shows that those

30:33

are things that are important to her or

30:35

to the story that she's sharing. That's

30:39

a generic break up song. I

30:41

like the Coming of Age, the lyric, but is

30:43

it Baby I'm the Iliad? Of course you couldn't

30:45

read me. It's

30:48

an intense lyric for a 22 year old. Yep.

30:52

That

30:54

was fun to yell. I

30:58

also appreciate that because you can tell she's

31:00

an artist who knows her lines that hit

31:03

especially hard and knows

31:05

her lines that have gone and blown

31:07

up on TikTok. So when you see

31:09

her in concerts like, this is the one everyone's going to

31:11

want to yell. I'm going to give it an extra beat

31:13

so that everyone can get in on

31:15

it. It's good to be aware of

31:17

that. Yeah. There are so

31:20

many songs that seem to revolve around. Definitely

31:24

a relationship that ended and I

31:26

don't know, she still seems to be in love

31:28

with this person, but she's also telling this person

31:30

why she's too good for him. There's

31:33

a lot of that. It's like, is this just one

31:35

dude? Because that's a lot of songs for this one

31:37

dude. That one dude's got

31:39

to feel real bad. I think his name's Andrew.

31:41

Yeah, it's Andrew. Is it all Andrew? She

31:45

put his name in the song. Is

31:47

it really Andrew? I mean, do

31:49

you know the backstory? I know that there's one

31:51

song that he sings towards an Andrew, but I'm

31:53

like, is there all of, there's a lot of

31:55

songs that are like, you're just a little boy.

31:57

You still love me and I still love you.

31:59

I love you, but you missed out on a

32:01

really good thing, buddy. They're

32:04

smarter lyrics than that, but I wonder if it's all

32:07

to Andrew. I don't know. I

32:09

actually don't know if it all is.

32:11

I know that she, there's

32:14

a song that she wrote, I think around the same time

32:16

as this album, but it's not on this album. I think

32:18

it's on the one before this called Blonde. And

32:21

the refrain is, I'll F your life up as

32:23

a blonde. And then she gets

32:25

into the chorus and she says, you'll

32:27

rule the day you did me wrong, put your name in

32:29

all the songs. So then she came

32:31

out with this album where she did, she did put his

32:33

name in the songs. So

32:36

I don't know. I don't know if they're all about

32:38

the same person. I know she's like my age, so I don't

32:42

know how many relationships

32:44

she's had. I mean, you know, as a 23 year old.

32:48

That's true. So, you

32:52

know, I think that's kind of, I

32:54

would say that's a, it

32:56

depends on whose side you're on of that. As

32:59

someone who has had songs like

33:01

angry songs written about me,

33:04

I kind of wish my name was

33:07

in it. What?

33:11

I would like to own that now, like

33:13

with distance, like, that was me. Yeah,

33:17

I would, I would like, like I would think that

33:19

was kind of cool. Because

33:22

you see when everybody eventually moves on and

33:24

nobody's still hurt. Yeah, Sydney, I

33:26

don't think that's what John Mayer thinks. I

33:29

don't think he thinks that about Taylor

33:31

Swift. Yeah,

33:34

I guess that's true. Because

33:37

everyone's still yelling at him. Because

33:39

the flip side is that you're the

33:41

one running around saying, I promise you,

33:43

you're so vain is about me. That's

33:47

the flip side. Yeah. And

33:51

isn't it better to just like, nah, well, you know,

33:53

it's about me. My name's right in it. But

33:57

then maybe as the artist, maybe you'd rather not put their name

33:59

in it. like now you don't

34:01

even get that. I

34:04

mean I think the benefit of not

34:06

including a name as an

34:08

artist is that one it

34:10

like you know it protects you but

34:13

also it makes it so more people

34:15

can listen and relate and you don't throw a

34:17

name in there that like makes it like very

34:20

clearly about a person you know what I mean

34:22

like people can listen and make it about their

34:24

own stories but also it makes it so you

34:26

can't have people like Cindy out there like still

34:28

bringing up your song all those years later like

34:30

this is about me. Yeah

34:33

I can't I've never I've

34:36

never burned somebody

34:38

to the point that they've written an

34:40

angry song about me so I can't

34:42

really speak from experience. I

34:45

don't know.

34:50

Is it a good song at least? I

34:54

feel like I shouldn't

34:57

answer that. Okay. We

35:01

were all young. Yeah I've

35:04

never had an angry song written about me. It

35:06

wasn't Justin. I feel like I should clarify that

35:08

like Justin didn't write it. Justin

35:11

I mean I assume that you're married

35:13

and have children so I assume that you

35:15

know. Yeah but we had like a

35:17

tumultuous you know like we were together

35:19

we broke up we got back together but like he

35:21

never wrote an angry as far as I know. As

35:24

far as you know. I mean

35:26

if you ever wrote a song about me.

35:28

Maybe. It's in the vault. I

35:33

don't think he's ever written a no I

35:36

don't think so. I'm

35:38

pretty sure. I'm gonna ask him when we're

35:40

done though. No

35:45

I'm just I'm just saying I think it would be kind of

35:47

cool to be Andrew. I would

35:51

feel terrible. I was

35:54

like wait oh my ex wrote a song

35:56

about me. No no no my ex wrote

35:58

20 songs about me. me. Yeah.

36:01

I think there are two songs on this

36:03

album that are not about a relationship

36:06

that has –

36:08

like they're not about – usually like even if an

36:11

album is all about relationships, there's usually a mix of

36:13

like this is about a

36:15

good relationship. Yeah. This is about

36:17

the end of a relationship. I think most of these songs

36:19

are about the end of a relationship. Yeah. In

36:22

the – you know what's interesting though since I

36:24

listen to the other album, that

36:26

was not – well, I mean two. Like

36:30

on that album, that was not the

36:32

case. So there

36:34

were some like happy love songs. Well

36:37

those from when she was still with Andrew. That

36:39

was still like – so

36:41

you really get both sides of Andrew. You

36:44

really get to know Andrew. Because

36:47

there was one – I'm just going to

36:49

mention it because I really loved it, Talking to

36:52

Strangers that was on the other album. Yeah. Which

36:55

was about like the idea of you

36:57

know she's going around like all these strangers know

36:59

all these facts about you because I'm just talking

37:01

about you all the time. And I thought that

37:03

was such a really sweet little like when you're

37:05

in a new relationship and you're so excited about

37:07

the person that you're seeing that you

37:09

want to talk about them all the time. And

37:12

so you keep trying to find excuses to bring

37:14

them or even subconsciously you just keep bringing them

37:16

into conversations even if they have nothing to do

37:18

with it. Well, it was a really sweet little

37:21

ode to that thing that happens. So

37:24

maybe Andrew got that. Maybe those were

37:26

all about Andrew, those conversations. Maybe.

37:30

We don't know though. That's why you have

37:33

to name them in every – no. Better

37:35

back. Now

37:38

he's just a guy on a horse. Yeah.

37:41

Which really? He doesn't understand the Beatles. It's

37:44

so – that guy on a horse is so

37:46

funny to me post Barbie. Yeah. It's

37:50

just so perfect. Yeah. Now

37:52

that doesn't understand the Beatles. That's rough.

37:54

Yeah. Pretty – I

37:56

can't say that. I was going to say a D word.

37:59

It's darning. Yeah. It's

38:02

darning about someone to learn, but

38:05

I don't... But it is fair that like, I

38:08

don't know that everybody who's in their early 20s

38:11

would connect with the Beatles as strongly as us old

38:13

people. I don't know. Mm-hmm. I

38:17

don't know. Should I have that much

38:19

connection to the Beatles? Like, I don't

38:22

know. Well, I mean...

38:24

Like our parents or grandparents? I don't know.

38:26

If you're a musician, maybe your connection to

38:28

other musicians of the past is

38:31

different. Sure. Yeah. That's

38:33

a different perspective. I will say

38:35

I appreciate BSC, the song.

38:39

I can't say what it stands for because it's

38:41

bad word. Oh, yeah. But

38:43

that is one of my favorites because

38:45

I appreciate when, you know, I as

38:48

a woman can recognize when I am indeed

38:51

BSC. And

38:53

when other women do as well. That's

38:57

a good thing to be. That's fine.

39:01

That's okay. It's okay. It's

39:03

okay. Deal with it, Andrew. Deal

39:05

with it, Andrew. And

39:08

Coming of Ages is my favorite personally because it

39:10

does make me feel like I'm in my own

39:12

Coming of Age movie with

39:15

it on in the background. Yeah. Yeah.

39:18

Well, I liked how that kind of turns around

39:20

the classic, like the lyrics, like the classic trope

39:22

of the woman is just an, you know, just

39:24

an accessory in a man's Coming of Age story.

39:27

It's like, no, this is my story. You're just the random person

39:29

on the side. That's good. Yeah. Yeah.

39:34

I know they all are about, pretty

39:36

much all of them are about the ending of

39:38

relationship or like the bad parts of relationship. But

39:40

I do think that at least a

39:43

lot of them are expressed in

39:45

very different ways or like focusing

39:47

on different aspects of it. Like

39:49

something like Wendy, you

39:52

know, is a very, very sad, like kind of

39:54

trying to get out of a relationship song and

39:56

finding yourself. But then you get to Coming of

39:58

Age, which means before that. which

40:00

is like empowering and recognizing,

40:04

I let you lead my story kind of

40:06

now I'm taking it back. So

40:09

it at least has the ups and downs in that way. Cause

40:11

I know what you mean. Usually you would

40:14

have the positive songs that balance

40:16

out the sad ones. Even in

40:18

like a quote unquote breakup album, you're still gonna have

40:20

a little bit of both. But

40:23

you at least get the highs and lows

40:25

kind of in the vibe. Yeah,

40:28

well it's impressive to write that many songs

40:31

that are so sonically different and lyrically

40:33

different, like unique, doesn't sound repetitive. It's

40:36

just that the subject matter is the same. But yeah,

40:38

very good. All that answered. Definitely

40:40

not a read on my part. Oh no, no, no, no.

40:43

I would be terrified to read this. Yeah,

40:47

it's like a whole album about you. You're

40:50

very talented and very

40:53

nice and not crazy at all.

40:55

It's a very long album too, isn't it? It is.

40:58

21 songs. I

41:00

hadn't realized, but that is a very long album. I

41:03

wonder, you know, it's interesting because so, like

41:06

you said, so many of the songs

41:09

TikTok uses, you know, blew up on TikTok.

41:13

It seems like that that would

41:15

give artists who maybe do appeal

41:18

more to like a demographic that

41:20

doesn't get catered too much, like

41:22

young women, right? Which

41:25

usually gets sort of disregarded as

41:27

an important demographic. I

41:30

wonder if it gives artists the opportunity to like

41:32

find their audience better that way, you

41:35

know? Yeah. Like

41:37

you can create music that isn't for

41:39

the people who

41:41

get to decide what music is. It's for

41:43

other people. And they can find you because

41:46

of things like TikTok, not just TikTok, but

41:48

like as a good example. And

41:50

then you can have an artist like this who

41:53

is able to locate her audience, connect

41:55

with them, and be successful doing what

41:57

she likes to do because... Otherwise,

42:00

you know, there was a long time where like

42:02

she wasn't gonna get a CD

42:05

right so We

42:07

weren't gonna buy the CD and we weren't gonna see

42:09

it at Sam Goody. So when would we have heard

42:11

the music? You know what? I mean? Yeah Yeah,

42:14

I I've seen that a lot especially with

42:16

history of man is a song that just

42:19

recently has blown up on at least a

42:21

tick-tock I am on of a

42:23

lot of young women around my age discovering her music

42:25

for the first time through that song And

42:28

I think that's a really good What it's

42:30

a great song but to it's an introduction to

42:32

like kind of her whole vibe Because

42:35

it is kind of more of

42:37

an empowering women vibe How

42:41

you can go through breakups kind of like the way

42:43

we've talked about with like Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift

42:45

and a lot of other More

42:47

modern young female artists that are talking about

42:50

getting their heart broken But in a way

42:52

that is like you're allowed to feel the

42:54

feelings you have And

42:56

they're valid and you're not overly emotional. You're

42:58

not overreacting. You're just a person with feelings

43:02

And I I think I think that's very

43:04

very clear by the way that song has blown

43:07

up especially On a

43:09

tick-tock. Yeah, it's

43:11

so interesting now Tick-tock is a medium

43:13

caters to artists like this like

43:15

organically But like you

43:18

if you have that one kind

43:20

of like sucker punch line that

43:22

somebody can you know, make a video out of

43:24

them that's that's gonna get repeated by you know

43:27

Millions of people on tick-tock that gets you

43:29

out there and you see there's lots of

43:31

artists But yeah, her music is specifically is

43:33

like very well suited for

43:35

that Just because so many of those one-liners

43:38

and each song has one like oh,

43:40

this is this is the tick-tock clip That's

43:44

that's smart. That's a smart way to design a

43:46

song it is cuz cuz I

43:48

feel like that's such it's like a blessing And

43:50

a curse. It's a great medium with which to

43:52

find an audience And

43:54

then and like quickly, you know

43:57

garner that kind of attention that

43:59

man you go You gotta keep doing stuff

44:01

to keep it, right? Like, that's the other thing

44:03

about it. You don't get to produce

44:05

an album and then you have

44:07

a whole machine behind you to promote that album,

44:10

to promote you, to sell your brand, to

44:12

take you on tour, to do whatever. So

44:14

that gives you kind of a moment to take a breath

44:17

before you produce whatever your next thing is. You

44:20

kinda just have to keep throwing

44:22

stuff out there that people are gonna

44:24

enjoy to maintain that level of attention

44:26

until you break through to something bigger.

44:29

It's gotta be intense. Because we've definitely seen the

44:31

people on TikTok that get that one viral song, but

44:33

then the next thing they come out with, it's like,

44:35

oh, that didn't catch you. Yeah.

44:39

Yeah, that's why it's interesting, I think, with

44:41

her music that it did blow up that

44:43

way because I've seen other artists, like, there's

44:46

one, I'm not gonna call it the song or the

44:48

artist by name, because I don't wanna say they flopped,

44:50

but like, they came out with a song for

44:53

TikTok and through TikTok, you know what I mean?

44:55

Like, it wasn't published. They put it as a

44:57

TikTok, like, here's a song I wrote, and then

44:59

it blew up and it got millions of views,

45:01

and then they signed a deal, and then it

45:03

was like, officially recorded and published and put out,

45:06

and then they tried to put out more music and

45:08

it didn't do as well. This is kind of the

45:10

opposite, where like, this album and

45:12

her music, she's been publishing music for years,

45:15

but people are just discovering it

45:18

and then sharing it. Like, the line in

45:20

History of Man where she says, "'The Men Start

45:22

Wars Yet Troy Hates Helen," I've

45:24

seen that in endless TikToks with like,

45:26

little suggested search at the bottom of

45:29

like, who is Helen and

45:31

what is Troy? I'm like, people

45:33

hearing this and not knowing what that means,

45:35

and it started this whole discourse online of

45:37

like, what does this mean? And

45:40

then people listen to the restroom music from that and they're

45:42

like, oh, there are more references in here. Oh, there are

45:44

more songs like this. And then they find her and they're

45:46

introduced to her, but it's really interesting

45:48

because she's definitely not an artist,

45:50

you know, that like, use TikTok as

45:53

the way, or social media as the way to get

45:55

out there. She was already making music and it just

45:57

really, really boosted her. on

46:01

top of her already existing audience. Now

46:06

people know more about ancient Greek

46:08

history, given history lessons. Also

46:14

I will just say the people I met at this concert were some

46:16

of the nicest people I've ever met. It

46:18

was just a very safe environment. It was just

46:20

a bunch of women who

46:22

may age all

46:24

hanging out. They're all very nice. I lost

46:26

my friend at one point because I went to the bar

46:29

to get drinks and was trying to feed my way back to the

46:31

big crowd of people standing in the middle. Trying to find where

46:33

she was but she's only five feet tall so I couldn't

46:35

see her. I was just desperately looking around

46:37

with two drinks like where do I go? They were all helping

46:39

me out and letting me through. It

46:41

was a very just all around nice experience. It was

46:43

a very good time. It was lovely.

46:47

You can tell by the music the kind of audience that

46:50

curates. Well I enjoyed it.

46:52

Thank you for sharing it. Thank

46:55

you all for listening. Do

46:57

you have a favorite off the album to share

46:59

before we go? Off

47:03

the appropriate album? Or Sydney if it's not off the

47:05

appropriate album. Well that's why I

47:07

had already picked it because I was going to say I

47:09

like that Talking to Strangers a lot. I thought it was

47:12

such a sweet idea and such a sweet song. It

47:14

is a very good one. It was off the wrong album.

47:18

Taylor do you have one off the appropriate album? I was

47:20

trying to. I

47:22

wish I had paid attention to the name better of the one

47:24

that was a little bit... I

47:27

don't know. I liked so many of them. The

47:30

ones that I feel like history is man. I

47:34

liked the you're just a boy and I'm kind

47:36

of the man. That was good. I love that.

47:38

Yeah I like that one. But

47:40

I also like you mentioned Riley. I like Coming

47:43

of Age. I thought that was

47:45

very empowering and uplifting. Is that

47:47

your favorite Riley? That is my favorite.

47:49

I think that and Wendy is a

47:51

close second but Coming of Age

47:53

is very fun to listen to. I

47:56

like the title song The Good Witch. I

47:58

watched a lot of her lyrics. videos that are

48:01

all done like tarot cards. I like

48:03

the theming of this whole project too.

48:05

Yeah. That's cool. It's very good.

48:07

Well, thank you all for listening. I appreciate it. We

48:11

enjoyed it. What's next,

48:13

Sydney? Somehow

48:15

we've never talked about Clueless. Yeah. I

48:17

don't know. I don't know how that's possible. Major

48:20

oversight. We will rectify it next week. Cool.

48:23

Sounds good. All right. Well, thank

48:25

you, Riley. Thank you for sharing Maisie Peters with

48:27

us. Thank you. Her

48:29

new album is called The Good Way. That's

48:33

the one we just talked about for 45 minutes.

48:36

That's the one. Yeah. As

48:39

always, Apple Music can provide all the

48:41

music you're late for. Yeah. Yep.

48:46

Or wherever you hear music. But

48:49

thank you. You should go to maximsfun.org and check out

48:52

a lot of other great podcasts that you'd enjoy. You

48:54

can email us at stillbuffering at maximsfun.org. And thank

48:56

you to the novellas for our theme song,

48:58

Baby, Change Your Mind. This has been your

49:00

cross-generational guide to the culture that made us.

49:02

I am Riley Smirl. I'm Sydney

49:05

McElroy. And I'm Taylor Smirl. I

49:07

am still buffering. And

49:10

I am too. I

49:17

think you

49:19

tell me

49:22

after we're

49:25

off, what artists you were talking about. Because

49:29

I had a name in my suit and I wasn't going to say

49:31

anything. Yeah. I don't want to be

49:33

mean. No, me neither. Soundheap

49:37

with John Luke Roberts is a real podcast

49:39

made up of fake podcasts. Like, if you

49:41

have a cupboard in your lower back, what

49:43

would you keep in it? So I'm going

49:46

to say mugs. A little yogurt and a

49:48

spoon. A small handkerchief that was given to

49:50

me by my grandmother on her deathbed. Maybe

49:52

some spare honey. I'd keep batteries in it.

49:54

I'd pretend to be a toy. If I had

49:56

a cupboard in my lower back, I'd probably fill

49:58

it with spines. If you

50:00

had a cupboard in your lower back,

50:03

what would you keep in it? Doesn't

50:05

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50:07

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50:11

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