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bananaofswifts · 2 years

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Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour opening weekend: Tears, joy and ‘therapy’

Fans descend on Glendale, Ariz. (a.k.a. ‘Swift City’) for a long-awaited chance to commune with their pop icon, revel in her lyrics and express their true selves

By Emily Yahr

GLENDALE, ARIZ. — Taylor Swift had endless choices when deciding how to kick off her first concert tour in nearly five years on Friday night, a captivating spectacle that stretched over three hours and included 44 songs. After starting with a brief snippet of “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” the namesake song to her 2020 Netflix documentary, she launched directly into “Cruel Summer.”

As the track’s hazy opening synth-pop beats blasted through State Farm Stadium, you could hear the gasps, with simultaneous shouts of “OH MY GOD!” barely heard above the ecstatic mayhem (and in some cases, heaving sobs) among the nearly 70,000 in attendance. Swift, resplendent in a shimmering bejeweled silver bodysuit and matching knee-high boots, beamed at the crowd, because she knew exactly what she was doing.

Swift fans believe that, in a parallel universe, “Cruel Summer” (the yearning anthem on her 2019 album, “Lover,” about a steamy and toxic relationship, with a chorus that demands you sing-scream along) was destined to be the song of the summer of 2020, released as a single as Swift planned to embark on a series of festivals called Lover Fest. Obviously, the global bummer of 2020 happened instead. Yet the obsession with “Cruel Summer” persisted, especially because Swift had never performed it live.

So this wasn’t just a song. For many, this was a stinging, subconscious reminder of how much we lost and what could have been. It was also a moment of pure, delirious joy — not only because of the thrill of hearing a beloved song live for the first time, but also because it’s clear that even one of the most powerful celebrities on the planet had felt all of that, too. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that at the top of her first show on her Eras Tour — 52 dates of sold-out stadiums — she wanted to pick up right where she’d left off before the world shut down.

“I don’t know how to process all of this and the way that it’s making me feel right now,” Swift told the stadium when the song was over, her voice slightly shaking. Later, she added: “I’m really, really, really overwhelmed, and I’m trying to keep it together all night.”

ying to keep it together” has rarely applied to the 33-year-old Swift, who, nearing the end of a second decade as a professional musician, has ascended to a rare, glorified status as a once-in-a-generation pop star. She has no chill. After rising to fame with songs about her awkward, unpopular teen years, she now embraces cringe and earnestness. That’s part of the draw for her legion of fans, who see her as one of them. After Ticketmaster melted down during sales for the Eras Tour, the parent company’s chairman went on the defensive by pointing to the extreme demand, claiming that the number of people trying to buy tickets “could have filled 900 stadiums.”

The Swifties shelled out hundreds — sometimes thousands — of dollars for tickets and travel and descended on Glendale this weekend, determined to make the often harrowing process of ticket-buying a distant memory. The Phoenix suburb, which recently hosted the Super Bowl, could hardly contain its excitement. The mayor declared it would temporarily change its name to “Swift City,” and electronic signs on the highway encouraged safe driving with Swift puns: “CUT OFF? DON’T GET BAD BLOOD. SHAKE IT OFF.” “RECKLESS DRIVING? YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN.”

But that was nothing compared to the electric energy surrounding the stadium. To be a Taylor Swift fan is to learn to master the clues and secret messages that could be embedded in every lyric, public comment and social media post, no matter how opaque. To be a Taylor Swift fan is to always come ready, which includes devising the perfect outfit to wear to a concert, with unlimited options bestowed by the singer herself, who chose a tour theme, “eras,” that celebrates her past and present.

Being in the crowd was like being in a force field where all pretenses are gone; Swift’s music covers the spectrum of bubble-gum pop (which she refers to as “glitter gel pen lyrics”) to deep introspective poetry, and her concerts are a place where you can dance or cry to either. Swift has laid bare her own insecurities and emotions over 10 studio albums and more than 200 songs. Here, in her presence and among one another, fans become their truest selves.

Scanning the crowd, you could see countless sequins and bejeweled skirts and jackets, an homage to the “1989” era. There were also dark blue dresses with stars for “Midnights”; red heart sunglasses, a black bowler hat and a T-shirt reading, “Not a lot going on at the moment,” a shout-out to the “22” music video; dark lipstick and black leotards as a tribute to “Reputation”; lyrics scribbled down people’s arms in marker, something Swift used to do before every concert; and No. 13 painted on hands, another former Swift tradition, from when she was starting out as a country star.

“My inspiration is the Red Tour, one of Taylor’s iconic outfits, and I just wanted to re-create it,” said Giacomo Benavides, a 26-year-old content creator dressed like a circus ringleader who traveled from Peru for the show.

Some were even more specific: Olivia Jackter of Tucson, 26, wore a traffic-light get-up that displayed the phrase “I don’t know,” referring to a lyric from the song “Death By a Thousand Cuts.” Would non-Swifties understand it? Of course not. Did that matter? Of course not. “This was going to be my costume for Lover Fest. I’ve been waiting for this for years,” Jackter said.

A group of 20-something women attached plastic Easter eggs to white T-shirts with photos of some of their favorite “Easter eggs” and hints that Swift has dropped over the years. One man dressed in a cat costume as Swift’s newest pet, Benjamin. Two women whooped excitedly when they walked by each other in a line for food and saw that they wore matching floral dresses similar to what Swift wore to the 2021 Grammy Awards.

Another popular theme was “All Too Well,” the searing breakup ballad that recently got a second life when Swift released the updated 10-minute version. Lots of fans wore outfits displaying those lyrics. Ivan Hernandez of Phoenix sported a blue T-shirt that read, “Where’s the scarf, Jake?” — a reference to the song’s supposed subject, Swift’s ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal, and the lyric that suggests that he swiped her scarf.

“[My son] wanted to go to the concert, and he said, ‘Let’s wear outfits,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I’m not going to wear an outlandish outfit,’” said Hernandez, 46, whose 13-year-old son, Eli, was wearing an Eras Tour shirt they had bought at the merchandise stand Saturday afternoon before Swift’s second show. “So I just went online and started looking for something about ‘All Too Well,’ and this is the one that came up.”

Swift, who misses nothing, praised everyone for their effort from the stage.

“You have really outdone yourselves, guys. The way that you decided to show up to this concert, you really, really decided to show up,” she said, noting that she saw people dressed as mirror balls (from the song “Mirrorball”); willow trees (from “Willow”); and “sexy babies” (from “Anti-Hero” — and too complicated to explain). “I have seen, like, really amazing, specific visual representations of lyrics or weird online inside jokes that we have.”

“I was thinking about tonight and how special this is,” she added. “You have led me to believe, by you being here, that it’s special for you, too, so it’s really nice that it’s mutual.”

Swift’s unusually close relationship with her fans started back when she was a country artist, a genre in which singers are supposed to think of listeners as their peers. Swift always went a step beyond, chatting with fans on Myspace back before Nashville executives even knew what that was, and that connection has continued to this day.

In concert, Swift referred to the journey that she and her fans have taken together, like they’re a family. (The “four new members of the family,” she said, are the four albums she has released since her last tour.) She made no secret of the fact that she monitors fans’ social media activity, even dryly noting that her 2020 record “Evermore,” is “an album I absolutely love, despite what some of you say on TikTok.” (People on the platform are convinced that “Evermore” is her “forgotten child.”)

This is all why her bond with her fandom remains so strong. She connected early on to fellow teenage girls who inferred from society that their crushes and feelings and dreams were silly, only to find someone in Swift who took them seriously and who could articulate, in songwriting, what they didn’t even know they were feeling.

“By the time she’s done living through something and writing about it and releasing music, I’m living through it,” said Briana McReynolds, 32, of Phoenix, who showed up in a T-shirt covered in lyrics, as well as a purple streak in her hair to represent “Lavender Haze,” Swift’s latest single. Her best friend, Chris, accompanied her to the concert as an “emotional support Swiftie.” (“I’m doing my best,” he said.)

She’s just accidentally kind of written the soundtrack for my life,” McReynolds said. “She’s matured with all of us, or we’ve matured with her. So no matter what age I am, she can totally sing my heart.”

Caitlin O’Connor, 32, of San Diego came to the show with her mom; they have seen every Swift tour together for the last 15 years, and O’Connor makes sure to go multiple times.

“You don’t need therapy; you need Taylor Swift songs,” O’Connor said. Swift’s concerts, she explained, “are my happy place, and there’s nothing else like it. It’s the most natural high you could get in your whole life.” On her arm, she has a tattoo of lyrics from Swift’s “Treacherous”: “All we are is skin and bone, trained to get along.”

“I love that line. Really, at the core, everybody is human,” she said. “And that’s also the thing with Taylor Swift concerts: Everybody is really nice. … You bond over something immediately.”

Swift is highly aware of the world she’s built, and she doesn’t shy away from it. In a surprisingly direct admission, while introducing the song “Mirrorball,” from her 2020 album “Folklore” during an acoustic set, she reiterated to the crowd just how intensely she’s missed them over the past several years.

“I was thinking about how one of the songs that I wrote with you in mind during the pandemic was one of the first songs I wrote on ‘Folklore,’ and it was me writing about how badly I craved the connection that I feel from the care that you have directed my way,” she said. “I was trying to think of a sort of eloquent way to say that I love you and I need your attention all the time.”

The stadium quieted as she strummed and sang.

“I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try; I’m still on that trapeze, I’m still trying everything to keep you looking at me. ’Cause I’m a mirror ball. … I’ll show you every version of yourself tonight.”

And although she asked the members of the crowd for their attention, she didn’t need to; it was already there, and it always will be.

#taylor swift #the eras tour review #the eras tour

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paul-walker9 · 1 year

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joyland2022 · 3 years

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from Matt Damon used to escape controversy, while Ben Affleck used to be the punchline. What changed? by Emily Yahr

#a really great read

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parcival2 · 3 years

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[The Washington Post] Joe Rogan has covid-19, is taking unproven deworming medicine

Joe Rogan has covid-19, is taking unproven deworming medicine

By Elahe Izadi and Emily Yahr

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/01/joe-rogan-covid/

Arrest the animal

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insanityclause · 4 years

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Re WS, I have a very petty dream. That it ends in an excellent series, even better than TNM and has a premiere at an international film festival outside UK (Berlin would be fine) and LA redcarpet and Tom talks with UK media only there, without giving a long interview to any Brit newspaper. As WS is a Netflix original series, he and others don’t need to care about UK rating, award at all. That’s my pettiness. But I would feel totally happy as long as it is good and Tom’s role is challenging.

I love petty daydreams like this. Let me get more specific, just for fun.

Let his co-stars do most of the interviews with UK media. He can do the icy RC walk that he did for IW’s London promo. Smiles for the actual photographers, rush past the RC interviewers as others take up their time. He can limit his UK media to Chris Hewitt/Empire (Helen O’Hara’s not to be trusted.) No Graham Norton under any circumstances. BBC TV can suck it in general, though perhaps a group radio interview with Samira Ahmed or Edith Bowman, or something like the Nicholas Britell thing he did for Betrayal, where he’s not being interviewed, but still able to promote.

Full media blitz in the US with LA/trade papers. Obviously Jenelle and Josh, but also LA Times. Guys like Scott Feinberg are good too (The Awards Chatter podcast). All those SAG-AFTRA interviews.

NY Times - obviously not. WaPo only if it’s not Emily Yahr. Don’t go near Taffy Akner. Vanity Fair and Esquire are probably OK. GQ - maybe a photo shoot, nothing more. Colbert, Kimmel, Fallon, Trevor Noah - all good. Pretty much all the late night shows.

Sorry, I got lost in my reverie there for a second. This isn’t actually how it will/should play out, nor is it realistic. But it’s fun to dream sometimes.

Anyway, hopefully this will be happening next fall, so we’ll see how it plays out then.

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roamertv · 4 years

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"As the Chicks take the Democratic convention stage, three generations of country singers challenge the genre’s conservative stereotypes"

By Emily Yahr

Gotta love Dolly, The Chicks & of course Taylor!

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skippyv20 · 5 years

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interesting story in Washington Post....

so nothing that I can see about her me-me-me attitude, arrogance, extravagance, and constant lying about things to cover things up…if they think they’re going to “control” the media, they don’t know who/what they’re dealing with…

Analysis: U.K. tabloids were a royal pain

Emily Yahr, The Washington Post – Published 6:13 pm CST, Thursday, January 9, 2020

When Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, made their shocking announcement Wednesday on Instagram - that they plan to step back as senior royals and split their time between the United Kingdom and North America - they also encouraged their 10.4 million followers to visit their new website, SussexRoyal.com, to find more information.

One part of the glossy site that hinted at a possible reason behind their bombshell decision? The “Media” section.

In several long paragraphs, Harry and Meghan explained that they will be taking a “revised media approach” in their new roles. Most significantly, they will no longer be a part of the “royal rota” system - essentially a press pool - in which a group of U.K. outlets get exclusive access to royal events and share that information with other publications.

However, the couple emphasized that they will “provide access to credible media outlets focused on objective news reporting,” adding that they understand that there is great interest in them as members of the royal family. “They welcome accurate and honest media reporting as well as being held to account if appropriate,” the website reads.

The key words here, of course, are “credible,” “accurate” and “honest,” apparent digs at the brutal tabloid stories that Harry and Meghan have endured for the past several years. In the fall, the couple sued the Mail on Sunday newspaper for publishing a private letter that Meghan wrote to her estranged father after her wedding; Harry also filed a lawsuit against The Daily Mirror and The Sun, claiming they hacked his phone.

Royal experts and observers say there are many complicated reasons behind Harry and Meghan’s new path. But it seems clear that intrusive tabloid coverage added to their motivation to step away from royal tradition.

"I think it had a significant impact,“ said Elaine Lui, the "etalk” and “The Social” TV personality who runs the website LaineyGossip. com and has monitored the media’s obsession with the royals. “I don’t think it’s the whole story, but I think it’s part of it. If we go back historically, Harry has hated the royal rota forever. That’s a fact. It has been made very clear, he blames a lot on the media for what happened to his mother… . I’ve heard from people I’ve talked to that he was already asking questions about detaching himself from the royal rota as far back as a year ago.”

Harry and Meghan started dating in summer 2016 but managed to keep their relationship under wraps until that fall, when the Daily Express broke the news that Harry had been secretly dating actress Meghan Markle, best known for her role on USA’s “Suits.” The articles were initially positive; the paper gushed that Harry was “besotted” with his new girlfriend: “In recent weeks royal watchers have noticed that Harry, fifth-in-line to the throne, has had a notable spring in his step and can’t stop smiling.”

Things quickly took a turn: “The fact that she is American and a divorcée will also have raised eyebrows in Buckingham Palace,” The Telegraph wrote. The Sun ran an interview with Samantha Markle - who deemed her half sister “a social climber” who “is not fit to be a royal” - and published a post about one of Markle’s scenes in “Suits” that showed up on a porn website. (The tabloid deleted the latter and apologized.)

Multiple sites noted that Meghan had an African American mother and white father, resulting in racist headlines. “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed - so will he be dropping by for tea?” The Daily Mail headlined a story that included crime statistics from Meghan’s mother’s neighborhood in Los Angeles.

Several days later, Harry took the extraordinary step of publicly confirming their relationship by releasing a statement that condemned the “wave of abuse and harassment” that Meghan had seen. He noted “the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments.”

Although the couple were still photographed everywhere after they got engaged in November 2017, the tone of the articles seemed to calm down - at least the ones about Meghan herself. The U.K. press still delighted in printing details about her family, from her estranged father to her nephew’s legal marijuana farm. Their wedding the following spring also received fairy-tale coverage from many tabloids - although it didn’t remain cozy for long.

"Not long after the wedding, they took their gloves off,“ royal historian Marlene Koenig said, "because it sells papers.”

There was an onslaught of critical stories, most of them pointed claims about Meghan: She’s too demanding and bombards her staff with text messages at dawn. She’s feuding with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, about Meghan’s treatment of the palace staff - oh, and she also made Catherine cry during Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaids dress fitting. She’s coming between Harry and his brother, Prince William. She had the nerve to ask if St. George’s Chapel could be sprayed with air freshener before the wedding.

"They would always bring up the word ‘protocol,’ “ said Koenig, pointing to the many gasps when Meghan made fashion choices that were said to be frowned upon by the queen. "Protocol applies to official state events, or who sits next to who… . It does not apply to off-the-shoulder dresses or nail polish.”

The stories continued at a relentless pace, even after Meghan announced she was pregnant - how she was “flaunting” her bare legs without tights at six months pregnant, or even how she cradled her growing stomach. (The Telegraph: “Meghan CAN’T STOP showing off: Duchess uses these SNEAKY tricks to flaunt her baby bump.”) She was ruthlessly criticized after she attended a baby shower thrown for her in New York and paid for by her friend Serena Williams.

Meghan had plenty of defenders as well: Five of her closest friends were dispatched to People magazine to “stand up against the global bullying” of Meghan. Celebrities from George Clooney to Elton John spoke up on the royal duo’s behalf.

Lui said that if there was any “tipping point” for the couple’s frustration with the media, she would guess that it was the “hoopla” made over their use of private jets this past summer.

"What a huge story, for almost two weeks, the British tabloids made out of that when they’re not the first and only members of the royal family to fly private,“ Lui said, pointing out that another royal story - the revelations about Prince Andrew’s association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein - didn’t get the same amount of attention in the press at the time.

Though the royals are known to rarely speak out about such personal issues, in an ITV documentary this past fall, Meghan was candid as she spoke about struggling with her treatment.

"When I first met my now-husband, my friends were really happy because I was so happy. But my British friends said to me, 'I’m sure he’s great. But you shouldn’t do it. Because the British tabloids will destroy your life,’” she told reporter Tom Bradby. “I think I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a stiff upper lip. I tried! I really tried. But I think what that does internally is probably really damaging.”

Now, as Harry and Meghan start the complex process of moving away from the traditional duties of royal life, they have certainly found a solution - by leaving. Unsurprisingly, the British tabloids are critical and furious about that as well. But Lui added that the outlets’ issues with royalty go far beyond nasty headlines and columnists.

"I think it’s far too simplistic to just blame the tabloids,“ Lui said. "It’s a multilayered problem - the tabloids are getting leaks from somewhere… . Only certain people are able to leak that information. There are vipers and backstabbers all over the place in the royal family.”

Thank you! Harry is NOT with her....😊❤️❤️❤️❤️

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