Month: August 2023

Taylor Swift:  A Concert Experience

My wife and I have won “aunt and uncle of the year.”  For Christmas last year, we got my three nieces, who live in North Carolina, tickets for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles with us.  We also took my two sisters.  My oldest niece is 15-years old and a huge Swiftie.  She has seen Taylor Swift twice before and knows all of the inside information that Swifties know.  My other two nieces, who are 12 and 9, are Swifties in training.  As the concert was about to begin, my oldest niece told me that it was going to be more than just a concert.  It was going to be an “experience.”  She was right.

Taylor Swift put on a concert like no other concert I have ever attended, and I am not an amateur concertgoer.  Just in the past year, I have been to two other big concerts at Sofi Stadium; Paul McCartney and Billy Joel, as well as seeing Styx, Cheap Trick, 3 Doors Down, The Doobie Brothers (in Phoenix), Rod Stewart (in Las Vegas), Sting (in Las Vegas), and The Cure (in England).  Here are some of the things that make Taylor Swift stand out.

The Bracelets – The experience actually starts way before the concert.  In one of Taylor’s songs, there is a line about making friendship bracelets.  Her fans took the line as a call to action, and now they make friendship bracelets to wear and trade at her concerts.  My wife and I had heard about the phenomenon, so we bought some bead kits from the local craft store, and when my nieces arrived, we had a bracelet-making party at Grandma’s house.  We listened to Taylor Swift music while we made bracelets that spell out album names, song lyrics, or other Taylor-related tidbits.  When we arrived at the concert, everyone had them.  My wife’s biggest takeaway from the concert was that everyone was so open and friendly.  Nobody was shy, which I love.  From the moment we arrived, complete strangers were walking from person to person trading bracelets, having conversations, and making new friends.  Even celebrities have been spotted participating.  This seemed to be my youngest niece’s favorite part, because we could barely drag her away from trading bracelets to leave at the end of the night.

The Clothing – My wife asked me what to wear to the concert and my response was, “it’s not the theatre, it’s a concert.  I would guess people just dress casually.”  Then, I asked my oldest niece.  I was wrong.  She said a lot of the people dress in outfits from Taylor Swift album covers or performances.  She had already picked out a very sparkly dress that looked kind of like a disco ball, along with disco ball earrings.  When we got to the show, there were thousands more sparkly dresses, along with ringmaster outfits, elegant flowy gowns, and other elaborate getups that I don’t even know how to describe.  My mom dropped us off and picked us up from the stadium because parking was over $200, and she said it was worth the drive just to see all of the outfits.  Then there was the number “13” written on most of the girl’s hands.  That is, as you might guess, because 13 is Taylor’s lucky number. 

The Technology – After seeing the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, I was left pondering if there was ever a show in the past that was even close to comparable visually.  The best comparison that I could think of was KISS, who was famous for elaborate outfits, crazy makeup, and breathtaking pyrotechnics.  Technology from the past could not compete with what they were able to do for Taylor Swift.  There was a huge video screen on the back of the stage.  Since the Eras Tour was over 3 hours long, covering her 17-year career, the videos and images on the massive backdrop denoted which “era” of her career she was on. 

The gigantic stage went out into the crowd about 80 yards for Taylor to dance and sing down with her backup dancers.  It had hydraulic platforms that would lift her up from the stage at different times during the show, as well as trap doors that she could drop down into between songs for costume changes. (She probably changed costumes more than 10 times.)  It was also a video stage, which allowed for cool effects like snakes striking at dancers, bicyclists leaving tracks around the stage, and one point where Taylor Swift dives into a trap door and appears to swim from the front end of the stage all the way to the back.

Finally, the coup de gras.  I remember when I first started going to concerts and a ballad would come on, and people in the crowd would hold up a lighter.  Then a few years later, when they became more common, people started to hold up their glowing cellphone screens.  At the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, as you walk into the stadium, you are handed a wristband.  This wristband has a geolocator inside that knows exactly where in the stadium you are.  Then it lights up and flashes different colors depending on where you are standing.  This allows for some amazing effects.  They can flash with the beat of the music.  They can create waves of light or colors, almost like when people do the wave at a sporting event.  They can also make patterns of light in the crowd.  For example, at one point there are hearts made of light on either side of the crowd.  It was astonishing.

The Music – It is, of course, a concert, so the music is what matters the most.  Now, if you have read some of my other articles where I talk about values, politics, and religion, you may think I am exaggerating when I say this, but I am about to say the most controversial thing I have written yet.  Taylor Swift has songwriting chops in the same league as Lennon and McCartney.  As a huge Beatles fan, that is almost blasphemous to say, but she really is a brilliant songwriter.  Just like Lennon and McCartney were able to churn out catchy hit after catchy hit in the 1960s, Taylor Swift is already able to play an over three-hour concert with songs that people sing along with, and most of them you would recognize even if you are a little older than her target audience.  Not only that, but she is still in her songwriting prime, so I am sure there are more chart-toppers to come. 

Speaking of singing along, before going to her last Taylor Swift concert, my oldest niece wanted to be surprised by the setlist, so she didn’t look it up.  She did, however, want to be able to sing along with anything Taylor played, so she looked up and learned the lyrics to all her songs!  Apparently, that is not uncommon.  At one point, Taylor Swift asked the crowd if anybody did any lyric memorization for the show, and there was a thundering response.

The Excitement – The excitement is palpable.  I had only ever seen anything like it in old film of the Beatles.  There were a group of girls sitting near us who were literally sobbing through most of the show.  People (including men) were screaming “Taylor!” at the top of their lungs.  At one point in the show, she finishes a song on the piano and looks up into the crowd and lets everyone go crazy.  It was possibly the loudest I had heard a crowd since being at the Kirk Gibson game at Dodger Stadium.  My niece looked over at me and said, “Last time this ovation lasted 8 minutes before she started again.”  After 8 minutes this time, the ovation was still going for another minute or two, and might have continued longer had Taylor not started talking.  It certainly was an experience I will never forget. 

A Wartime Consigliere

“I think it’s sad that these are our choices.  It seems like we can do better than Biden or Trump.”  This sentiment was recently overheard at a barbeque I attended, and it is not the first time it has been proclaimed as we lead up to next year’s presidential election. 

With an incumbent president who has given us massive inflation, rampant crime, porous borders, unparalleled corruption, and shown weakness to our enemies worldwide, it seems obvious that he should be replaced in 2024.  The part that is not obvious is who should replace him.  Under normal circumstances, there would be a clear candidate.  We have a former president running with an impressive record on almost all of the important issues.  He was feared by our enemies, leading to unprecedented peace treaties in the middle east, and putting China, North Korea, and Russia in a holding pattern until America became weaker.  He was a great friend to Israel.  He fought to protect our borders.  He lowered the government’s interference in our lives, leading to a booming economy.  He appointed three Supreme Court Justices who make rulings based on the Constitution instead of the political whims of the day.  That person, of course, is Donald Trump.

With all of that in mind, it seems as though the case should be closed.  President Trump should be the easy pick.  Unfortunately, there are obstacles that come with President Trump.  He has an unpolished image and often says things that turn off large swaths of the population, including many conservatives.  He has been attacked by the media and entertainment industry obsessively for 7 years, and some of it has poisoned the opinions of many people who agree with almost all of his policy decisions. 

The supporters of President Trump try to use logic to point to all of the great accomplishments that he had in office.  Then, they are frustrated that logic does not make much of an impact.  Those on the left simply hate his guts.  They will never change their minds, but they will feel the same way about Ron DeSantis or any other conservative candidate, so their opinion should be irrelevant. 

The problem is the many otherwise conservative people who cannot stomach his antics.  Their concerns are not imaginary.  His unpolished persona and sometimes outlandish rhetoric contribute to his unlikability in some circles.   These are the ones who prefer candidates like former Vice President Mike Pence.  Many Trump supporters are incensed by Pence and call him a RINO (Republican in Name Only).  He is not.  Mike Pence holds conservative positions and is a very nice Christian man.  This is what those conservatives long for.  They want a candidate who is nice.  The problem is, nice only works with a nice opposition party and an honest media.  The United States today has neither of those things.

Our opposition party, the Democrats, is relentless in its dishonest attacks.  Our media is their propaganda wing, and will stop at nothing to destroy anybody with an R after their name, or who espouses traditional Judeo-Christian values.  They vilified President George W. Bush as a far-right monster, and he was a moderate, and a nice man.  They even crucified candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney as extremists, and they are not even close to conservative.  The media will cover for Democrats who do unethical things.  Then they will dig and dig and dig to find the smallest piece of dirt, real or imagined, on Republicans, and never let it go.  They are at war with us and they fight to win.

A nice candidate has not, and will not work in this climate.  I recently rewatched one of the greatest films of all time, The Godfather, and there is a scene that seems relevant to the situation we are in now.  After things have gotten out of hand and the five families are at war, Michael Corleone returns from hiding in Italy and becomes the leader of the family.  He gathers together all of his top men and lays out his plan for the future of the Corleone family.  During the meeting, he does something that always seemed a little unfair to me.  He tells the consigliere (the top advisor in the family), Tom Hagen, played by Robert Duvall, that he is no longer the consigliere.  Tom Hagen was Vito Corleone’s adopted son, a savvy lawyer, extremely smart, and very loyal.  Tom protests.  Then Michael says, “You’re not a wartime consigliere, Tom.”  I did not understand it until recently.  I thought Tom was cunning and completely trustworthy, so why would you want to demote him?  Then I realized what Michael meant.  Tom is a pretty strait-laced guy, who likes to work within the system and avoid getting dirty.  As the narcotics trafficking Virgil Sollozzo says earlier in the film, “I know you’re not in the muscle end of the family, Tom.”  As much as you can be in a movie about mobsters, Tom Hagen is the nice guy.  This is what my conservative friends who wish we can do better than President Trump remind me of.

This is not an endorsement of President Trump.  I have still not decided who I am going to support.  It is, however, a defense of his tenacity and combativeness.  He calls out the left for their lunacy and he calls out the media for their hypocrisy and bias.  At this moment in time, those qualities are a necessity.  Maybe DeSantis, Larry Elder or some other candidate has that fight.  Hopefully, they do.  We need a lot of fighters.  The people who are hoping for a better candidate are looking for an unrealistic candidate.  They want someone with the looks of Brad Pitt, the kindness of Mr. Rogers, and the magical ability to unite people who hold biblical values with people who think that men can get pregnant.  That person does not exist.

If we try to play nice against people who are playing dirty and playing for keeps, we will continue to get used as a punching bag, and we will lose.  In the past, both sides shared Judeo-Christian values and wanted America to prosper and lead.  Now, the Democrat party stands for the destruction of Judeo-Christian values and no longer wants a prosperous, powerful United States.  This is not the time for compromise.  We need to utterly defeat the left and we need a leader who will push on without regard for what the left thinks.  For those of you who want a nice president, instead, let’s make them an offer they can’t refuse. *

*My proofreader suggested I change the last line because the left might accuse me of making a threat and use it to attack me.  While I think it is naïve to think that the left needs a reason more than that I disagree with them to attack me and try to silence me, I will clarify.  That line is not a threat or a call for any horse head shenanigans.  It is just a tie-in to The Godfather, and it means that we should support a candidate who will be uncompromising on any issue of importance.