I saw Taylor Swift in concert last weekend. This is something that a lot of people are doing, given that tens of thousands of people can fit into the stadiums she’s playing, and many more people wanted to do but couldn’t for various reasons. I felt a little bad about this, since I would describe my level of Taylor Swift knowledge as “correctly identifies her music on the radio about 70% of the time,” and most of her fanbase has ascended to a level of arcane lore that I think members of the Illuminati would be jealous of. But I have a generally pro-concert policy in my life, and a friend asked if I wanted to go and then heroically battled Ticketmaster to get us seats, and so I went.

It was very fun! Most of the concerts I see do not involve fireworks or costume changes of any sort, and Taylor had several. Although ultimately I felt a bit bad about the costume changes, since my friend and I lucked into “the rainiest rain show that ever rain showed,” as Taylor put it. I assume all of her costumes have some kind of hidden snap release that makes her quick changes under the stage easy, but it was hard not to think about how unpleasant it probably was to peel off sodden clothing over and over again. It rained virtually nonstop, but things really picked up, weather-wise, as the show went on, to the point where giant bursts of flame designed to amp up the vibes during “Bad Blood” functioned more as a pleasant blast of dry air.

I kept thinking about how they didn’t really have a choice about continuing the show, since rescheduling something with this level of coordination is probably impossible. And all of it comes down to one single human, who has to stand on a stage in the midst of the monsoon, maintaining energy and a positive attitude and the crowd’s attention. Thousands of people’s incomes are dependent on her being willing to perform in that weather. If that show gets canceled, that’s a hit for concessions and local restaurants and merch sales and any hourly workers who all do not get paid. Taylor Swift has been doing this a very long time, and so I assume she is keenly aware of how much she does need to go on at a time like that. She talks about loving rain shows, but I did wonder if even she thought things were getting a little ridiculous. My assumption is that any pop star doing stadium shows under those circumstances knows they have to get out there and do the show anyway, but she was a pro about it. She smiled and made a few jokes about it and at no point, even for a second, did it seem like she was giving less than 100%. She danced, she climbed set pieces, and at one point she made me slightly nervous by sprinting across the soaked stage, but maybe it’s made out of some impervious material just for this purpose and she wasn’t worried about slipping.

Of course, this was almost a week ago now, and the Taylor Swift news cycle has now moved on firmly to the concept that she may or may not be dating someone who has said some nasty stuff, particularly about Ice Spice, who has just recorded a song with Swift. If you’re terrible curious, there are abundant explainers out there about the whole saga. She also said something during the show I saw about how happy she was now in all aspects of her life, and at the time, I just thought, well, sounds like someone just went through a breakup. And then the comment turned into a whole news cycle itself, even though the show banter was very scripted and I do not believe she says things by accident. I don’t think I have some meta commentary about the whole thing, other than the fact that it’s very strange for a person to have an entire gossip ecosystem based around herself, and one of the many ways I am not cut out for fame is that this entire paragraph of information being public about my own love life and offhand comments would make me go live in a hole in the ground. But also, girrrrrl maybe there are other dirtbag rockers to date on this earth, come on now.

What I’m Reading Online

The trans actress Trayce Lysette has been getting rave reviews for her performance in Monica, but I appreciated how blunt she is here about how hard it is to be a trans actress in Hollywood, and how easy it is to get taken advantage of if you don’t have the right people in your corner (or the right name).

This McSweeney’s piece accurately reflects what it has been like for me, a person who works in digital media but isn’t that young, as TikTok has gotten more popular. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the coworkers under the age of 30 who I made explain basic things about TikTok to me. And also, to all of my friends over 30 who I made do the exact same thing.

If anyone else got annoyed that their HBO Max app turned into Max for bewildering reasons, perhaps you will enjoy reading about how the company tried to switch director and writer credits for movies to a mass “creator” heading alongside everyone else. It didn’t go great!

Moment of respect for the passing of legend Tina Turner. Someone posted this video of her performing early in her career and you should watch it! I would pass out from exhaustion roughly 30 seconds into this and instead she’s just up there absolutely tearing the roof off.

And finally, in a shocking twist, the latest effort to “save” journalism by publishing “unbiased” news is maybe just some kind of early oughts-style click farm? For the sake of all the journalists they hired with promises of serious, important work, I hope that’s not the case. But generally, do not trust anyone who claims to have solved the problems of media and has the backing of some huge VC fund for unclear reasons.

What I’m Reading in Print

To be honest, I read one book I didn’t like very much very slowly over like two weeks. I almost gave up and then I stuck with it because I thought it would come together in the end, because that’s often the case when I struggle with a book, but instead I continued not liking it that much straight through to the end. Do you often give up on books? I used to more often, and lately I’ve been making more of an effort not to read things solely because they sound impressive and trendy, and also to give in every single time I see something I know I’ll absolutely speed through. Anyway I’m not going to name the book I didn’t like that much (sorry?) because it wasn’t actually bad, I just couldn’t get into it. But if you message me and admit a book you didn’t like very much and/or gave up on, I’ll tell you the name.

What I’m…Podcasting?

We have a podcast at work and have just published my first episode, where I interviewed the author Chuck Hogan about his new book, and what it was like to see his earlier book become the movie The Town, and at one point I told him to blink twice if he was working with Ben Affleck on something.

What I’m Watching

I went out and saw Polite Society last weekend. It’s about a young British Pakistani woman who dreams of being a professional stuntwoman, and who becomes fixated on preventing her beloved sister from marrying a man she doesn’t trust. Action! Comedy! Sisterly bonds! Everything you want in a movie. It’s from Nida Manzoor, the writer of the great Pakistani-women-in-London-form-a-punk-band show We Are Lady Parts, and there are some definite tonal similarities, and you should watch both if you have seen neither.

That’s all we’ve got for the week! Oskar quietly celebrated his 15th birthday last Sunday, and would like you to know he’s 15, flirty, and thriving.