A SWIFTIE EXTRAVAGANZA

 

Dear George, 

I am hopelessly out of touch with contemporary pop music. In its place I spend most of my time these days listening to 1920’s big band music, featuring vocals by Ruth Etting, Annette Hanshaw, Marion Harris, and others. I think this is because this was the music my parents grew up with and I must have been exposed while in my mother’s womb. I do know who Taylor Swift is, of course. Every time I go to the drugstore her image is featured on the covers of most of the weekly entertainment magazines. 

Given that the current news is dominated by toxic political events, I decided to look into one of the more joyous recent happenings, i.e., Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in New Orleans. She performed in three shows at the New Orleans Superdome on Friday October 25th, Saturday the 26th, and Sunday the 27th. The concerts were a complete success, each of them selling out to approximately 65,000 fans. Based on data from Ticketmaster, about 4.4% of people who tried to buy tickets actually got them. For each show Swift performed the same set of 45 songs in 10 distinct acts in three hours and 20 minutes. The concert features numbers from all of the musical eras in Swift’s 18-year career, from her early country roots to her pop and alternative rock phases. Official ticket prices ranged from $49 to several thousand dollars. Given extremely high demand, presale tickets were sold out within minutes of going on sale, and then they were only available by resale, prices sometimes reaching well over $5000. For the final Sunday show even the worst seats in the house cost over a thousand dollars. The Eras Tour in New Orleans had over $200 million in ticket sales, and it’s believed that Taylor Swift earned about $13.6 million dollars for each of the three shows. Thanks in part to the Eras Tour, Swift is the richest female musician in the world with an estimated fortune of $1.6 billion. 

The city went all out to embrace Taylor Swift and her tour. More than 160,000 people traveled to New Orleans for the three concerts. According to the U.S. Travel Association, the typical fan spent about $1,300 on food, lodging, merchandise, and other expenses, bringing in more than $500 million to the city. New Orleans put on a three-day “Embrace the Culture”concert at Duncan Plaza where fans were dropped off for the shows. Because fans trade Swiftie friendship bracelets with her name on them, a giant 140-foot friendship bracelet was hung from the Superdome. New Orleans police officers were also seen trading friendship bracelets with fans, and even the penguins at the Audubon Aquarium wore Swiftie-style friendship bracelets. Businesses decorated their stores, nearly every bar in the French Quarter had music tied in with the concerts, and the airport provided a karaoke stage for fans. The District Donut shop added nine new donuts, all named after Taylor Swift songs. Concert-themed alcoholic drinks at bars in the Quarter included the Taylorita and the Holy Ground hurricane. Antoine’s Restaurant wrote “Eras Tour 2024” on its signature dessert, baked Alaska. Tour fans and local residents were unanimous in describing Bourbon Street as the cleanest and safest it’s every been. Prior to the tour the governor of Louisiana ordered multiple state agencies to relocate homeless people who lived near areas that concertgoers might frequent “to ensure that New Orleans puts its best foot forward…” (though a federal judge later put a stop to the sweeps). 

Most area hotels sold out during the tour, often charging $800 or $900 a night. A Swift fan from suburban Metairie booked 191 rooms at the Holiday Inn for $500 apiece. Her intent was not to make a profit but to insure that Swift fans could meet and connect, and she re-sold all the rooms that she booked at the same price she had paid for them. The Eras Tour, unfortunately, was a hotbed for ticket fraud, scammers selling invalid counterfeit tickets or arranging to transfer tickets but never delivering. Journalists reported numerous instances of mothers and daughters weeping at the box office because their tickets proved to be fake. 

During “Karma”, her final song on the Tour, Taylor sang a line for her boyfriend, former UC Bearcat and N.F.L. Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce: “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me.” The fans erupted in cheers. At the end of the show she gave her mom two long hugs and said, “I have been so moved and so blown away by the way that this city has embraced us and welcomed us. So can we all just please say a big, ‘Thank you, New Orleans!’” 

Love, 

Dave

Netflix and Amazon Prime Favorites

DEAR GEORGE, Like the rest of the world, we’ve watched a lot more TV than usual in the past twelve months of the pandemic, and we’ve run across many enjoyable offerings that we might not have otherwise seen. Katja and I both are drawn to murder mysteries, action thrillers, and BBC productions. Katja also likes historical dramas, biographies, and documentaries, while I lean toward comedies, sci-fi, and horror. Of the approximately one hundred shows that we’ve watched in recent months, here are our top ten favorite series currently available on Netflix and on Amazon Prime. I’ve also included Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer scores for each show [RT]. LOVE, DAVE

TOP TEN, NETFLIX: (#1) Schitt’s Creek. (Comedy) Rich video magnate Johnny Rose and his family find themselves broke and are forced to regroup in Schitt’s Creek. [RT = 93%]; (#2) Breaking Bad. (Crime/drama) A high school chemistry teacher ill with cancer turns to manufacturing meth to secure his family’s future. [RT = 96%]; (#3) Pose. (Drama) The story of ball culture and the gay and trans community in the late 80s and early 90s during the AIDS crisis. [RT = 96%]; (#4) The Crown. (Biography/drama) The political rivalries and romances of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign during the second half of the twentieth century. [RT = 91%]; (#5) The Good Place. (Comedy/drama/fantasy) Four people and their mentor struggle in the afterlife to define what it means to be good. [RT = 97%]; (#6) Fauda. (Action/drama/thriller) The human stories on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict. [RT = 100%]; (#7) The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. (Crime/drama) Explores the murder of designer Gianni Versace by spree killer Andrew Cunanan. [RT = 89%]; (#8) The Last Kingdom. (Action/drama/history) As Alfred the Great defends his kingdom from Norse invaders, Uhtred seeks to claim his ancestral birthright. [RT = 91%]; (#9) Marcella. (Mystery/drama) Having left the Metropolitan Police for her family’s sake, Marcella returns to her job on the murder squad. [RT = 70%]; (#10) The Sinner. (Crime/drama/mystery) An anthology series that examines why ordinary people commit brutal crimes. [RT = 90%].

TOP TEN, AMAZON PRIME: (#1) The Night Manager. (Crime/mystery/drama) The night manager of a Cairo hotel is recruited to infiltrate an arms dealer’s inner circle. [RT = 91%]; (#2) The Durrells in Corfu. (Biography/cmedy/drama) Based on the real-life events of the Durrell family as they resettle from England to Greece. [RT = 94%]; (#3) Curb Your Enthusiasm. (Comedy) The life and times of Larry David and the predicaments he gets himself into. [RT = 92%]; (#4) Goliath. (Drama) A disgraced lawyer gets a case that could bring him redemption. [RT = 82%]; (#5) Mozart in the Jungle. (Comedy/drama/music) A brash new maestro stirs up the New York Symphony as young oboist Hailey hopes for her big chance. [RT = 94%]; (#6) The Americans. (Crime/drama/mystery) At the height of the cold war two Russian agents pose as an average American couple complete with family. [RT = 96%];(#7) Line of Duty. (Crime/drama/mystery) Follows the investigations of AC-12, a controversial police anti-corruption unit. [RT = 100%]; (#8) Get Shorty. (Comedy/crime) The adventures of a mobster-turned-movie producer in Hollywood. [RT = 95%]; (#9) A Very English Scandal. (Biography/comedy/crime) British Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe is accused of conspiracy to murder his gay ex-lover. [RT = 97%]; (#10) Vikings. (Action/adventure/drama)m The brutal and mysterious world of Ragnar Lothbrok, a Viking warrior who years to explore and raid the distant shores across the ocean. [RT = 93%];

Lamar's and My Worst Night of the New Year

Dear George, 

Katja had been looking forward for months to Renee Fleming’s farewell tour performance at the symphony.  I was more conflicted since the concert occurred at the same time as the NFL playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Tennessee Titans.  Most experts had picked the Ravens to win the Super Bowl and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson to be named the league’s Most Valuable Player.  I’m not ordinarily a Baltimore fan but I joined the bandwagon this season.

The Symphony actually phoned us on Thursday, but Katja wasn’t at home and I didn’t bother to pick up.  It rained all day Saturday, and I suggested that we leave for Music Hall at 7:10 to give us plenty of time for an 8 o’clock start time.  As we walked out the door Katja asked if I had the tickets.  “No,” I said, “you have the tickets.”  “No,” she replied, “I left them right here on the counter for you.”  “I never saw them,” I said.  “I’m sure of that.”  We argued back and forth for a while.  Then it dawned on me that I’d sorted the mail on the counter, tossing most of it into the recycling bin.  I rummaged around and there at the bottom were our tickets.  Whew!

I dropped Katja at the front entrance of Music Hall and circled around to the parking garage on Central Parkway.  I gave the attendant $10 but I couldn’t understand her instructions when she gave me my ticket.  She repeated herself, but I still didn’t get it.  Finally she took the ticket back from me and held the bar code up to the scanner so that the gate opened.  I was surprised that the garage was so filled since I’d gotten there quite early, and I drove up to the top deck.  As I walked away from the car, I noticed that my front parking lights were still on.  I figured that they would go off in a second or two so I kept walking.  But they didn’t go off.  Finally I turned around and went back, wondering if I had failed to push some light switch on the dash.  We’ve only had the car for six months, and it’s still a bit mysterious.  When I sat down in the driver’s seat, I noticed that the keyless ignition button was glowing red.  The car, virtually silent, was still running.  Oh, no, not this again.  I turned the engine off, the parking lights went out, and I set off through the drizzle.  

Much to my bewilderment, the main front doors of Music Hall were locked, and nobody appeared to be in the lobby.  Were we there on the wrong night?  Fortunately a side door was open.  I had trouble getting my wet umbrella into a plastic umbrella bag, and a helpful usher held it open for me.  I put my car keys and coin purse in the basket and walked through the metal detector, but a buzzer went off and a security guy hurried over.  I stepped back, added my forgotten cell phone to the basket, and successfully passed inspection.  I showed my ticket to another usher, and she politely explained that the concert had begun at 7 p.m.  It was now 7:40.  “You aren’t the only one,” she said sympathetically, and she directed me to the Founder’s Room which was broadcasting the concert in real time.  The room was packed with latecomers.  “This is the waiting room for idiots,” I thought to myself as I found a seat in the rear.

After ten minutes the orchestra took a break while they removed a piano from the stage, and we latecomers were all encouraged to hurry to our seats.  An usher pointed Katja and myself to row M, but when we got there strange people sitting in our seats.  The concert was about to resume at any minute.  I rushed back to the usher to explain the problem.  She seemed taken aback, but she did straighten out the mix-up.

The gentleman sitting next to me was mildly amused by our late arrival.  He explained that the concert was an hour earlier than normal because many people had bought tickets for a special dinner at Music Hall after the concert.  Renee Fleming was wonderful.  The voice of an angel.  We were sad that we had missed much of her performance, and the concert seemed to very quickly.  We got up to leave, and, as we filed out of our row, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  The gentleman who’d been sitting next to me smiled and handed me my umbrella in its plastic bag.

The only redeeming note was that we would get home in time for the fourth quarter of the Ravens game.  It would probably be a blowout by the Ravens by that time, but a big victory would lift my spirits.  When we got home, much to my shock, the Ravens were losing, 28 to 6.  The final score was 28-12.  The Ravens had been overwhelming favorites, but Lamar Jackson had had his worst outing of the season.  Two interceptions, one fumble, and a quarterback passer rating of 63.2 (vs. 113 for the regular season).  A catastrophe for Baltimore fans but a fitting climax to our Saturday night.  

The way I’ve come to think of Lamar’s and my evening is that life isn’t perfect.  Most days include a blunder or two.   Occasionally, though, a whole slew of them arrive together, and that’s what happened to Lamar and me.  While I worried at the time that I was losing my mind, it’s really just a matter of probabilities.   Lamar actually had fewer blunders than I did, but they were a lot more consequential.   He took responsibility for his team’s  painful loss.  Then he added, ““I don’t really worry about what people say…We can only get better.  It’s only up from here.”  I think I will  make that my philosophy too. 

Love,

Dave 

Off to the State Fair

Dear George, 

Having grown up in a rural area, fairs and carnivals were among the most exciting places of my youth, and I still have that attitude, even after many decades in the big city.  I can’t think of a more pleasant outing than going off to a county fair, and you can imagine my excitement when we travelled last week to Columbus for the Ohio State Fair.  Here are a few pics and thoughts.  

The State Fair is huge, maybe a mile long by a quarter mile wide.  The SkyGlide was one of the first attractions we came to, and we plunked down three dollars to travel from our entry point to the opposite end.  Heights make me uneasy, but the panoramic views were a treat.

We went straight to the “Poultry and Rabbits” barn, the latter being our fair favorite creatures on earth.  I’m going to estimate that there were roughly 300 poultry and 10 rabbits on display.  We were impressed by the variety of chickens in the world, but our hearts still belonged to the rabbits.  Later, cows, pigs, goats, sheep, horses.  

I think I like the arts and crafts building the best.  The amateur art is always inspiring, even though I don’t seem to take action by the time I get home.  We like the veggies and the flowers too.  

There’s lots of high quality entertainment scattered about the fair.  We enjoyed the country rock band, break dancers, and a doo-wop quartet.  The very best, though, was the professional hypnotist who put 19 volunteers from the audience into a trance.  They went deep sea fishing, turned into butterflies from their cocoons, had steel rods implanted in their hands which bound them to the magnets in their knees, and circulated through an audience in which all the people had become animals in a petting zoo.  

We were determined to have a Bloomin’ Onion for supper, and we looked for the food stand all the way back to our entry gate.  When the Information lady told us that Bloomin’ Onions were back at the opposite end of the fair, Katja insisted that we should walk back.  So we did.  The Bloomin’ Onion was worth it.  

All in all, our adventure was a success.  Ever since 2016, I’ve been fed up with the Heartland, and the fair did make me feel a little better about living in Ohio.  In particular, I’ve been infuriated with rural Trump voters, and it was encouraging to watch farm folk working with their livestock — a more immediate and pervasive part of their lives than politics.  We spend most of our social time with well-educated, upper-middle class, predominantly white people, and it was a treat to be out among the bigger community.  “Real people.”  Mostly the fair was a testament to things people value in their lives — art, quilting, raising animals, gardening, baking, canning, quilting, woodworking, collectibles, hobbies.  Fairs make me feel good.

Love,

Dave

At the Butler County Fair

Dear George, 

County fairs have to be among the top two or three places in my life.  This attachment goes back to my childhood in the predominantly rural U.P.  We didn’t have museums, zoos, or symphony orchestras.  But we did have the county fair each summer, and it brought together all of the wonders of life as we knew them — farm animals, crops, flowers, cooking and baking, arts and crafts, clothing and fashion, woodworking, delicious food, amusements, games, hobbies of all sorts, and a huge communal gathering.  Many years later, our son J was born, and we started doing the annual county fair all over again, now in Cincinnati — riding the rides and being terrified by Zambora the Gorilla Girl.  

This is fair season in Southwest Ohio, and this past week Katja and I took in the Butler County Fair in nearby Hamilton.  We headed straight for the rabbit barn, our thrill of thrills.  (Katja had raised rabbits for years in the 1970s.)  There must have been 100 or more furry sweethearts on display.  Here are just a few.  

The big animals, of course are quite as amazing, and the fair is the only place we get to see them up close.  Most were raised by 4-H club members.  

The gardeners — flowers and vegetables — were equally proud of their prize-winning products.  

I always enjoy the arts and crafts, especially the children’s art.  Now I wish our family had submitted things to the Menominee County Fair. 

Probably because it’s so unhealthy, fair food is uncommonly delicious.  Katja dined on a gyro, while I opted for a Polish Sausage, and we shared a lemonade and a Tunnel Cake for dessert.   

The evening Grandstand Event was the Broken Horn Rodeo.  Along with a thousand other audience members, we marveled at the bucking broncos, calf roping, steer wrestling, bull riding, and barrel racing.  Gene Autry couldn’t have done better.  

After dark, the fair takes on a whole new atmosphere.  Teenagers throng to the midway, and the night becomes filled with intrigue and adventure. 

Our visit went by too quickly.  I hope that we’ll go again soon.

Love,

Dave

At the Cutting Edge

Dear George, 

I see from our local newspaper that Greater Cincinnati is about to get its second axe-throwing bar.  I’m embarrassed to admit that I wasn’t even aware of the first one.  Coming from Menominee, of course, there’s a history of axe-throwing that dates back to the late 1800’s when we were the world’s largest lumber port.  Lumberjack competitions still feature axe-throwing as a mainstream event.  As children, we spent most of our time throwing our hunting knives, though we did try throwing our axes from time to time.  Not at one another, but at a stump or a fallen log.  It’s hard enough to get your knife to stick into a log, much less your axe. 

I’m proud of Cincinnati for being an axe-throwing pioneer.  It attests to our ruggedness and virility.  I doubt if they have any axe-throwing bars in Savannah or Martha’s Vineyard.  The promoters are pitching this to local business organizations, recruiting corporate teams who can then compete against one another.  Probably there aren’t any corporations that actually use axe-throwing in their daily work activities, but it is another way of encouraging cutthroat attitudes and excitement about violence.  

The ads for our new bar feature lots of women.  All are white, all are in their twenties or thirties, all are beautiful, and all are having a thrilling time.  One night a week will be “Axe Your Ex” night in which participants can throw axes at a large photograph of a man.  Whether or not it’s a photo of one’s actual ex is unclear to me.  In any case, this is definitely not a male-only pasttime. 

It seems important to drink alcohol while throwing axes.  In fact, I can’t even imagine sober adults throwing axes as their leisure activity.  I do worry a little bit about the volatile combination of drinking, inter-group competition, and axe-throwing.  Reportedly there have been no known cases to date of bar patrons turning their axes on one another, but we’ll keep an eye on the news. 

I thought about asking Katja if she wanted to go to the new bar, but I don’t think she’d be that interested.  Also it’s probably not a good idea to encourage axe-throwing by your spouse (for much the same reason we don’t have a gun in the house).  Next time that our son J visits, I’ll see if he wants to go.  This seems like more of a father-son activity.

Love,

Dave

Off to the Ohio State Fair

Dear George,

Katja’s recollection is that we last went to the Ohio State Fair in Columbus sometime before our son J’s birth in 1969.  I vaguely thought we might have gone there when J was about 10 or 12, but I was unsure.  Whatever the case, forty or fifty years is much too long to wait between state fair outings.  I myself love county and state fairs.  Some of my most exciting  childhood memories are going to the U.P. State Fair in Escanaba with my family.  Katja, J, and I went to the Hamilton County Fair in Carthage for many years, and we always were excited to be frightened by Zambora the Gorilla Girl.  Columbus is further away from Cincinnati — a hundred miles — but definitely worth the trip.  

The Ohio State Fair is one of the nation’s largest.  It lasts for twelve days in late July and early August and attracts close to a million visitors each year.  The first Ohio State Fair was held in Camp Washington outside Cincinnati in 1850 and had about 25,000 attendees in its two-day run.  Then it changed locations every year (e.g., Sandusky, Zanesville, Toledo, Cleveland) until it moved permanently to Columbus in 1874.  It’s been at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fairgrounds since 1886.  

We arrived about 3 p.m. on Tuesday and were pleasantly surprised that tickets were only $4 on Senior Day.  We stopped first at Cardinal Hall with all of its arts and crafts.  The youth art exhibition by elementary, middle school, and high school students was inspiring.  There were wonderful fantasy creations by first graders, and the high school students’ works were near-professional quality.  In addition, there were quilts, leather-working and woodworking, model railroad trains, knitting and sewing, fudge brownies, and even a competition for the world’s ugliest cake.  

We made our way down Food Highway where Katja got a squeezed lemonade.  I will guess that there were at least a hundred food vendors, all of them competing to see who could be the most harmful to Ohioans’ health.  Katja and I decided that there wasn’t a single place that catered to good nutrition.  It didn’t matter since they all seemed to be doing a good business.

We briefly watched a magician, a comic, a knife-juggler, and a rock band.  Some of the events were of particular interest to Katja, and I would wander off to take a few photos.  She always likes the cooking demonstrations, and, along with several hundred other audience members, she enjoyed the 4-H fashion review with 8- to 12-year-olds modeling outfits that they’d sewn.  Katja visited the ring-cleaning booth, had her ring cleaned, and invested $20 in a bottle of their magic formula.  We also had free lunch (salad with nuts) at the “Cooking with Peanuts” show.      

There were, of course, several animal buildings.  We stopped by to see the cows and petted a couple of week-old Holsteins.  The Pork building featured Marvelous, the Big Boar, who weighs 1140 pounds and struck me as nearly as large as a cow.  While the photo doesn’t do him justice, I think Marvelous must be the largest pig in the world.  

We looked forward to the rabbits the most, but were disappointed that it was “Changeover Day” and so there were only a dozen or so rabbits to be admired.  Nonetheless, they were all show winners.   

The Fine Arts Building, with adult art, photography, and sculpture, offered a massive exhibition with lots of museum-quality work.  I was most moved by the Wounded Warriors exhibit which consisted of seven eye-catching wood sculptures of wounded military dogs from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. 

We were hungry by 6 p.m. and had a Bloomin’ Onion as an appetizer.  By the time we finished it we were filled up and decided that it had been our evening meal.  

After walking back and forth a couple of times I finally decided to test the guy who guesses ages and weights.  I paid him three dollars and was happy when he guessed me to be 8 years younger than my actual age.  I thought I was going to get $6 back, but instead I won a small stuffed monkey head which would might be sold at the 99 Cents Store.  It was worth it.  

On the way out we asked a couple to take our photo, and then we headed for home on I-71, stopping for Dairy Queen sundaes in Wilmington.   I’m glad we went to the fair.  Despite all these years, I never think much about living in Ohio.  It always seems rather bland compared to more exotic places we visit.  However, there were so many wonderful and amazing things produced by Ohioans that I found myself experiencing a unfamiliar touch of Buckeye pride.  There are a lot of gifted people out there in the hinterlands.   I think we’ll come back to the State Fair again next year.

Love,

Dave