Liars and Saints

  Ira Gershwin and Cole Porter liked to write in an ostentatiously clever way; they weren't always in a "simple and direct" state of mind. The climax of the plot Should be the marriage knot... But there's no knot for me... And: When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her) Can get Russian reds to "yes" her... Then I suppose..... Anything goes..... A special treat for Cole Porter--a gay man--was to insert sex wherever possible: Birds do it.... Bees do it.... Even educated fleas do it.... Let's do it. Let's fall in love.... And: If, Baby, I'm the bottom.... You're the top! I think Sondheim found this tiresome--and, also, he could do the work better than Porter and Gershwin. He wrote in that same style, for "Follies," and it's as if he were channeling the spirit of a dead artist: Careful-- Here's the home of... Beautiful girls... Where your reason is undone.... Beauty... Can't be hindered from... Taking its toll... You may lose co...

Because I have to: -Taylor Swift's "Red" could just as easily be called "Jake Gyllenhaal's Neediness." For that is what it is. It is a portrait of one (recognizable) man's neediness. -This neediness takes the form of phone-calling. Apparently, shattered by the breakup, Gyllenhaal would call and call TS so he could waffle, in real time, on the phone. He infected her with his mealy-mouthed-ness. Clearly, the sadistic and mind-blowing phone calls had a strong impact on songwriter TS. She alludes to them in not one, not two, but three songs. -Song One. "You call me up again, just to break me like a promise. So casually cruel in the name of being honest." -Song Two. "So he calls me up again and he's, like, I STILL LOVE YOU. And I'm like, THIS IS EXHAUSTING...." -Song Three. "You think I moved on or hate you. Cuz each time you call? There's no reply." -TS is the younger half of this relationship, but clearl...