Taylor Swift

[Greg]

Truth

So I don’t even want to hear y’all ever talkin smack about me being a Swifty.

Like, ever.

You are fair game. Sorry. It's in the charter.

[Greg]

[Drunk Monk]

Truth

So I don’t even want to hear y’all ever talkin smack about me being a Swifty.

Like, ever.

You are fair game. Sorry. It's in the charter.

fair





Meanwhile this is so on point for me that I might just have to start watching football...

NFL Camera Crew Cuts Away From TD Pass To Show Slow-Mo Replay Of Taylor Swift Eating Nacho
SPORTS· Oct 10, 2023 · BabylonBee.com 
Click here to view this article with reduced ads. 

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[url=https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=NFL+Camera+Crew+Cuts+Away+From+TD+Pass+To+Show+Slow-Mo+Replay+Of+Taylor+Swift+Eating+Nacho&url=https%3A//babylonbee.com/news/nfl-camera-crew-cuts-away-from-td-pass-to-show-slow-mo-replay-of-taylor-swift-eating-nacho&via=TheBabylonBee]

KANSAS CITY, MO — Local television viewers were frustrated this week due to a director's decision to have the production crew cut away from a crucial touchdown pass to instead show a slow-motion replay of recording artist Taylor Swift eating a nacho.
"Look at the flawless execution," said CBS play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz as the replay painstakingly showed Swift devouring a particularly loaded tortilla chip. "It's moments like these that we live for as football fans. We've seen nothing like it before, and in my opinion, it's unlikely we will ever see anything like it ever again. History is being played out right in front of our eyes, ladies and gentlemen."
The Chiefs took the lead on a 3rd-quarter touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes to Rashee Rice. Since tight end Travis Kelce, Swift's current boyfriend, was not the recipient of the pass, the singer took the opportunity to dig into her nachos, giving the broadcast team the chance they had been waiting for all day. "This is the excitement everyone came here to see, Jim," said analyst Tony Romo. "I've been around this game for a long time, both as a player and now an announcer, and I'm transfixed. Absolutely awe-inspiring!"
Chiefs fans, many of whom are growing tired of the coverage of the team revolving around Swift, had strong opinions. "Get her off my TV!" shouted Chris Wilson. "I'm here to watch football, not some serial dating pop star lady!"
At publishing time, CBS had just finished airing an in-game advertisement for next week's episode of Taylor Swift Sitting in a Stadium Suite that was expected to be periodically interrupted by brief glimpses of a football game.

[Greg]

I think the Swift presence has had a huge impact on ratings for the NFL. It's astounding.

I'm thinking Taylor domination is just revenge for the Kanye moment at the MTV Video awards all those years ago.

[Greg]

I'm making my peace with the Swift-NFL crossover. Fortunately the mania has died down a little. And good for her for working hard and becoming a world wide force. It's funny to think Kelce is the powerful force in that relationship.

But when KC plays SF, I will hate with the fire of a thousand suns.

[thatguy]

https://deadline.com/2023/10/taylor-swif...235585613/

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Has Made Her A Billionaire
Dade Hayes

---

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Has Made Her A Billionaire

Taylor Swift performs during an Eras Tour stop in Mexico City Hector Vivas/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

Taylor Swift, whose ultra-lucrative Eras Tour is still going, has officially become a billionaire.

According to a new analysis by Bloomberg News, the 33-year-old pop superstar now has a net worth of $1.1 billion. The tour is a major component of her fortune, with about $700 million in ticket sales for shows performed to date. Its 53 U.S. stops this year have contributed an estimated $4.3 billion to the country’s gross domestic product, per Bloomberg Economics. There are still 89 more shows left on the tour, which has seen tickets go for hundreds of dollars apiece.

Swift’s fame extends well beyond the concert stage, of course. This fall, she has become a force on television and in movies. After becoming romantically linked with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Swift has cheered him on at multiple NFL games, captured on national telecasts rooting with members of his family and other Chiefs partisans. Her concert film, a document of the Eras Tour, is closing in on $200 million at the global box office, and its $92.8 million domestic opening was the second-biggest for any October release in history.

In her native music industry, another Swift initiative in recent years has also had a significant payoff. After discovering she had no control over the master recordings of some of her most popular albums, she decided to re-record them in chronological order, with the “Taylor’s Version” of each successive album lighting up social media. A new take on 1989, an album originally released in 2014, has just come out, complete with five new “vault” tracks. Over time, these newer albums are apt to draw increasing audiences via streaming algorithms, thereby pushing up the value of the catalog rights Swift does control. Many artists have sold their catalogs for hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.

Bloomberg describes its net worth calculation as “conservative,” saying it is based only on assets and earnings “that could be confirmed or traced from publicly disclosed figures.”

--tg

[King Bob]

Christina wanted to see the concert movie so we gave it a shot. We lasted about five minutes. We both found her stage persona to be very off-putting. I'm not sure I can explain it. I guess I would say she seemed like a robot that was extremely proud of itself for its simulation of human emotion. Very much "eww" inducing for both of us.

The songs didn't really register much. And it seemed more like karaoke than a concert. Was there a band somewhere under the enormous stage, or was it all recorded?

[Greg]

As someone put it on Threads, "I'm not a fan of Taylor Swift's music, but I am a fan of Taylor Swift"

[King Bob]

Fair enough.

[Drunk Monk]

As the token taytay swifty in D00M, haters gonna hate.

[Drunk Monk]

Aug 10, 2024 2:03pm PT
Swifties and Deadheads — Separated at Birth? What the Eras Tour and Dead & Company’s Sphere Residency Share, as the Concert Phenomena of the Year
As Dead & Company's mind-blowing Vegas engagement wraps up, and Swift's European tour leg comes to a close, these outings and their fan bases have more in common than meets the dazzled eye.
By Chris Willman

Getty Images for TAS Rights Management (Swift); Chris Willman/Variety (Dead & Company)
The worlds of Swifties and Deadheads might not seem to have a great deal in common. There may not be that many music fans who’ve registered equal numbers of spins on their Spotify playlists for “Shakedown Street” and “Cornelia Street,” or “St. Stephen” and “Hey Stephen,” or “Althea” and “Dorothea.” Yet there’s reason to fantasize that these two audiences were really separated at birth, even if their average age of Taylor Swift and Grateful Dead concert attendees wouldn’t automatically suggest that these are identical-twin fandoms.
What they share is a powerful and abiding interest in the power of live. And it’s not just about catching one show. Differently scaled as they are, Swift’s two-year Eras Tourand Dead & Company’s three-month residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere stand out out as the two most transfixing concert phenomena of the moment for similar reasons: because each gig in these respective runs is so stamped as its own individual, one-of-a-kind occasion that, for true fans, FOMO is literally a nightly thing. If you’re a true believer but can’t attend very many of either artist’s shows (and who, short of a trust-fund baby, can?), you’re still logging in obsessively to watch fan-generated livestreams or clips, or at least keep abreast of the variations in setlists, maybe even in real time. It’s not just the tour, or residency, that bears event status; it’s the sensation that every single gig is gripping, and will go down in lore.  
These fan bases don’t share much of a common language. But whether it’s Deadheads holding up index fingers in search of an unused extra, or Swifties standing outside European stadium shows with signs bearing pleading messages about desperation and karma, a “miracle ticket” is a miracle ticket.

I’ve been in a possibly unique position to witness both these phenomena, as someone in the Venn-diagram sliver of overlap between the two fandoms. I say “possibly” because maybe there is someone else in the world who has caught the Eras Tour seven times and the Dead & Company residence four times, though I kind of doubt it. In both cases, I can stand with the fans and say I would’ve liked to have seen even more. There is a grandiosity to both Swift’s oversized production and the massive visuals at Sphere that you can get a little bit inured to, upon repeat exposure, I can attest. But the combination of spectacle with the promise of nightly spontaneity? That’s addictive, and unbeatable.

Both these ground-breaking outings have their end in sight: Dead & Company’s residence wraps up in Vegas this weekend, and next week brings the final dates of the European leg of the Eras Tour, with five last Wembley Stadium shows, before Swift wraps things up with a handful of North American shows later in the fall. So it feels like a good time to think about some of the deeper reasons why both these artists are able to keep their communities of fans so enveloped in what they’re up to, show by show.
I talked with Dead & Company’s co-manager, Bernie Cahill, recently about what Swift’s tour and the “Dead Forever” residency have in common. “I think the overlap is in the songbook, and with these two communities that really connect to the music and the lyrics and the storytelling,” he said. “And when that’s your foundation, you have an opportunity to create a real community. She’s got a huge and impeccable body of work, so there’s plenty to connect around and to resonate with her fans, and she keeps writing brilliant songs. And Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, the members of the Dead, they wrote what many call a Great American Songbook. And I think that’s always the best foundation for community and for a long career in music.”
This idea, about fan devotion to these riveting live performances being based in the bedrock of great songs, is undoubtedly true. What they also have in common is the fascination generated by how the pieces of that catalog are assorted and assembled for live performance, especially if there are surprises being pulled out on a nightly basis.
There is some ironic contrast to be drawn, for sure, between the quantitative differences between the unpredictability of a Swift show and how much of a Dead & Company comes as a surprise. With “Dead Forever,” although much of the video content repeats, the amount of musical overlap from one night to the next is literally 0%. The group (which includes original Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart as well as John Mayer) has been doing three shows a weekend in which, if you have back-to-back tickets, you are guaranteed of hearing a completely different set of songs. Meanwhile, with the Eras Tour, the amount of nightly overlap is at the opposite extreme of things, hovering at around 95%. And it is serious redundancy, if you want to call it that: Nearly all of Swift’s stage patter will be paraphrasing of the same nightly tropes; every dance step or catwalk strut will be pre-choreographed to the tee; not just that, but nearly each facial expression, and pretty much every side-eye glance, is something that was conceived and rehearsed a year and a half ago or more. The band is very much playing live, contrary to Dave Grohl’s possibly jealous insinuations (I can attest to this, after standing yards away from the backing musicians on the floor at a couple of European shows), but it’s not as if they’re gonna go rogue and throw jazz chords into “Style.”

But for Swift, what a difference that 5% makes — that is, the two numbers per night in which she goes completely off-script for the acoustic “secret songs” segment. It’s the revelation of what these two performances will turn out to be that fans live for, every bit as much as Deadheads live for the gradual rollout of the full setlist. It has long been a sign of Swift’s genius that she incorporates some unpredictable segment into her arena and stadium shows; on one tour, it was a nightly cameo by a guest star associated with the city in question. She since decided that there is no guest shot like the random appearance of one of her own deep tracks. In 2023, the gambit was that she would do two unassisted surprise songs a night, one on piano and one on guitar, but for 2024, she decided even that was getting old. So in Asia, Down Under and Europe, she’s been doing mashups of her own material, ensuring fans stay as intrigued and enraptured as they were a year ago.
The best part about these medleys is that Swift doesn’t introduce them, at least to the extent that she prefaces them with any explanation of what the two songs she’s mashing together have in common for her. This leaves an aura of mystery, sometimes — an essential addition to a crowd-pleasing show that otherwise isn’t set up to leave a lot of questions lingering in the air. Sometimes, the blend doesn’t require a lot of thinking to suss out: If “I Hate It Here” leads into “The Lakes,” it’s not hard to figure out that both these compositons share a similar theme, the desire to escape. But on some nights, the mashup songs are so dissimilar, they invite a lot of speculation about what connects them in Swift’s head.
One of the nights I caught Swift in Dublin at the end of June, she combined “Sweet Nothing,” a transparently romantic ballad that lives up to its upbeat title, with “Hoax,” one of her darkest, most brooding and frankly most mysterious songs. What could these two utterly disparite tunes possibly have in common? I developed a theory. “Sweet Nothing” was an inevitability, probably, for a show in Ireland, with its localized reference to “a pebble that we picked up last July / Down deep inside your pocket / We almost forgot it / Does it ever miss Wicklow sometimes?” But that song seems to be about her relationship with Joe Alwyn (who actually co-wrote it). If she felt obligated to play an Irish-themed song in Ireland, maybe she didn’t want to just leave it there, without acknowledging — for her fans, or herself — that the “sweet” relationship turned into something else… something that felt to her like… a hoax.
Am I reading too much into Swift’s choice of a song juxtaposition, there? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps she just put her catalog into a randomizer and “Sweet Nothing” and “Hoax” were the two songs that happened to come out that night. But something a lot of great performances have in common is that, even as we’re overwhelmed by production values and pure entertainment, they also leave us wondering, at least in the backs of our minds, what the artist’s thought process was, particularly when it has to do with choices that are obviously being made for one individual show. Just as I wondered about why Swift mashes up the songs she does, I can wonder how or why Dead & Company make their setlist choices. On Friday night in Vegas, I saw how beautiful a segue it made for the band to go from the psychedelic “Drums”/”Space” interlude into an instrumental snippet of the Beatles’ “In My Life,” then a full-on cover of “Dear Prudence.” Were they thinking about how Prudence needed to be brought out of her spaciness back down to earth? Chances are it was more intuitive than that. But it’s just part of the thrill of a live concert when unexpected song segues feel like kismet.

Of course, the biggest part of the appeal of the Eras Tour and “Dead Forever” is how much they both push the envelope of production values. No one who attends either artist’s concert will forget what the Silent House production company did with Swift’s staging, or what Treatment did in coming up with the visuals for Sphere’s wrap-around screen for Dead & Company. Giant office scaffolding, neon bicycles, and other sets and props in her show… giant dancing skeletons and starfields in theirs… these are images that will last devotees a lifetime.
But for other artists looking for what to take away from these groundbreaking shows, without the means to conceive gigantic effects or hire the top production companies in the business… there is still something to take away. It’s the beating hearts and thinking minds at the core of these concerts, via artists who are determined not to phone it in, but to make each show feel unmissable, even if catching them all is an impossibility. That’s a hunger that artists can duplicate — or do their damnedest to try to — even on a club scale.

I feel seen

[thatguy]

The Swift boat has spoken

https://gizmodo.com/taylor-swift-officia...2000497324

Taylor Swift Officially Endorses Kamala Harris After Trump’s Debate Meltdown

Swift signed the post as "Childless Cat Lady," a dig at Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance.
Matt Novak
Updated September 11, 2024
© Kate Green/Getty Images

Taylor Swift officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president Tuesday night in an Instagram post after months of speculation. The pop star said she was prompted to make her voting preference known after seeing an AI video where she endorsed the convicted felon and Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump. Her post came just minutes after Trump’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harriswhere he showed how unhinged he was to the world.

“Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most,” Swift wrote. “As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.”
Swift went on to explain how she’d been alarmed by seeing an AI video of herself saying something she didn’t say on Instagram.

“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site,” the pop singer wrote. “It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

Then Swift went on to officially endorse Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift explained. “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.”

Swift’s decision to endorse Harris isn’t entirely out of left field, given the fact that she endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. But there was some question about whether she’d declare her official support of Harris and how she might do that. Swift similarly made her endorsement of Biden known through an Instagram post.

Swift was quick to point out to her fans that there are some hurdles that need to be overcome if you really want to make your voice heard on November 5. The pop star said that anyone who wanted to join her in voting needs to make sure they’re registered first.

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make,” Swift wrote. “I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.”

Swift finished by signing the post, “With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.” That last part is obviously a dig at Trump’s running mate JD Vance, who said childless cat ladies were ruining the country.

The debate was an absolute disaster for Trump, as he found himself completely outmatched by Harris in just about every possible way. Harris was calm, cool, and collected but forceful in pushing back against Trump’s lies and obfuscations. Trump was visibly agitated, often shouting and frequently confusing basic facts. For example, Trump referred to the leader of the Taliban as “Abdul,” which isn’t even close to his real name, Hibatullah Akhundzada. And the Republican candidate also tried to talk about the governor of Virginia, but said West Virginia instead.

Trump rambled on and on, spewing lies about immigrants eating household pets in Ohio (that never happened) and even tried to deny things he’d said recently, like when he accidentally admitted that he lost the 2020 election. Trump insisted, “that was said sarcastically.” But ABC News moderator David Muir said it didn’t seem sarcastic to him.

Incredibly, even the far-right propaganda network Fox Newsseemed discouraged by Trump’s performance on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Harris presented a clear and coherent vision for the future of the country,  emphasizing that she was not going to take America back to the regressive policies of the Trump presidency.
“I am not Joe Biden. And I am certainly not Donald Trump. What I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country,” Harris said in one of several good linesfrom the night.

The choice couldn’t be clearer. And the biggest musician in the world has made her choice known. Taylor Swift is voting for Kamala Harris. The only question left for November is whether the American people do the same.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Took her long enough

I was beginning to lose faith.

[Greg]

Timing!

[Drunk Monk]

fair

That was well played in grabbing the spotlight. I guess that settles who I'm voting for...