Content Consumed: Swifties, NBA “jokes”, and grammatical communism
Hello and happy Tuesday! It’s been such a lowkey week for me so far, which is nice because Friday will begin a chaotic week of travel to see family across the Pacific Northwest.
Anyways, in today’s edition of Content Consumed:
👀 Swifties are in a Hunger Games-style battle
⚡️ My 2023 Grammy picks
🏀 The NBA broadcasted a rape joke…
🕺🏼 Magic Mike’s last dance is here
✏️ Book excerpt of the week
Thank god I’m not a Swiftie
It’s a freaking warzone out there, y’all. Across Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and even in my own DMs, Swifties are freaking the f*ck out about getting tickets for Taylor Swift’s biggest stadium tour of all time, the 52-stop Eras Tour.
This is where the chaos starts.
Today marked the first day of ticket presales and was only open to those who signed up for the Ticketmaster Verified Fan program. While the presale production was an attempt to weed out scalpers and give as many fans as possible tickets, it’s clear the site was unprepared to accommodate the sheer force of hundreds of thousands of Swift fans battling to see her perform — as Ticketmaster crashed less than an hour after tickets officially went on sale.
I know folks who signed up their brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles grandparents, neighbors, coworkers, everyone they knew to the Ticketmaster Verified Fan program in the hopes that at least ONE of those emails would be selected for the early access code.
Strategic plans were made weeks in advance, as I witnessed all over the Internet. Brides even talked about moving their weddings after the tour dates were announced so they and/or their guests could attend the Taylor show (priorities, people!). Hacks were shared, tips were traded, and “the tenor of SwiftTok was akin to being on a boat en route to Normandy in 1944”, as Gawker said.
“My boyfriend’s Ticketmaster is the one that got Taylor’s presale so now my chances ride on a 21-year-old Phi Psi and an alarm clock on his iPhone 6,” one TikTok read.
NIGHTMARE!!!
Half my social feed is pictures of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Ticketmaster queue right now. I swear I’m getting secondhand stress over it.
Good luck, Swifties. I hope you get everything you dream of.
Your 2023 Grammy nominees are…
The headlines
Beyoncé leads the count, Dave Chapelle and Louis C.K. are both—controversially—in the running for best comedy album, and new categories include Songwriter Of The Year (Non-Classical) and Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games.
My picks for the winners
Listen, I don’t bop to genres like metal and rock, so please accept that I don’t have picks for those categories! Here are my picks for categories I do have a passion for.
Record of the Year
“Woman” by Doja CatAlbum of the Year
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers by Kendrick LamarSong of the Year
“As It Was” by Harry StylesBest Pop Solo Performance
“About Damn Time” by LizzoBest Pop Vocal Album
30 by Adele OR Harry’s House by Harry StylesBest Dance/Electronic Music Album
Renaissance by BeyoncéBest Rap Album
It’s Almost Dry by Pusha TBest Dance/Electronic Recording
“Break My Soul” by BeyoncéBest Alternative Music Performance
“There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” by the Arctic MonkeysBest R&B Song
“Cuff It” by BeyoncéBest Rap Song
“The Heart Pt. 5” by Kendrick LamarBest New Artist
Latto
All nominations can be found here.
Really? A rape joke during an NBA game?
Former Warrior greats Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin had the honor of announcing Golden State’s game last night.
But, as Hardaway literally admitted to ESPN, he “hardly paid attention” during a recent online production planning meeting where they tell you what you CAN’T say on air.
In all honesty, I would hope he’d know that you shouldn’t make a rape joke on air—or ever.
The “joke” Hardaway made after a foul call: “So y’all thought that was great D? I thought that was just raping him. I think you should call the police on that.”
Once again… you have to be told that you shouldn’t say that?
The standards… the bar… it’s all so low. On the ground. Here’s hoping the thousands of young men listening to the broadcast didn’t walk away giggling at that. Ugh.
Trailer: Magic Mike’s Last Dance
This one goes out to all the MILFs! It’s Magic Mike’s (Channing Tatum) last dance and Salma Hayek gets all the sexy solos.
The first Magic Mike was a drama, the second was a comedy, and we’re going straight back to drama again for the final movie of the ~trilogy~. Naturally, it comes out on Valentine’s Day and follows Magic Mike on his journey to London to put on a whole new show with the help of his sugar mama (Hayek).
Listen, the producers know their audience. They know the college girlies loved the first movie but the audience jumped up a couple of generations after that. I probably won’t watch this. Unless a couple of gal pals decided we should make a silly night of it for Galentine’s Day. But still… not likely! The trailer was enough, thank you.
Quote of the week
New segment alert! Sort of. Who knows if I’ll do this again.
I love literature, I love international journalism, I love political history (especially Balkan history), and I love grammar.
I started reading Café Europa (finally, I know!) by my fellow Croat, Slavenka Drakulić, and got one page in before I paused to reread. Her connection between the first-person plural and authoritarian communism is so simple yet so astute.
Anyways, I got about a fourth of the way through Café Europa last night and couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it before, considering my passion for the subjects she writes about. (Check my Goodreads to see what I mean.)
I’m sure I’ll have finished it before the week’s over.
That’s all for today, folks! Love you lots. Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Casey
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