Content Consumed: Taylor Swift, Chargers and Padres, and the Twilight renaissance
Hello! Whatcha listening to this morning? How’s your Friday going? This is the 99th edition of Content Consumed and I feel like I should do something special for #100 but I really don’t know what!
Anyways, in today’s NINETY-NINTH edition of Content Consumed:
🎊 Mini-review of T-Swift’s album and full review of Arctic Monkeys’ album
🏈 My weekend #sports line-up (NFL, MLB, F1, and more)
🌜 The Twilight renaissance isn’t new
🐶 Read of the week: From Gordon Wilde-Sudeikis’ dogwalker
Mini-review of Taylor Swift’s Midnights
I felt like I couldn’t really write today’s edition of Content Consumed until I listened to the two biggest album drops of the month, which both happened at midnight EST last night:
Arctic Monkeys' The Car and Taylor Swift’s Midnights.
I won’t write a full review (yet?) of Midnights as I did below for The Car, but here are my quick thoughts:
(1) I like when she goes back to synthy pop but I do get bored of it multiple songs in a row.
(2) Her admitted narcissism and obsession with revenge is refreshing, even as we continue to get Harry Styles relationship references a decade after their romance.
(3) The Lana del Rey collab almost lives up to the hype—where’s a solo Lana verse?
(4) I just don’t think I’m a Swiftie. So so sorry.
Favorite song on the first listen: “You’re On Your Own, Kid”
Least favorite: “Vigilante Shit”
Also, it’s hilarious how she forced her fans to watch the Thursday night football game in order to see a sneak preview of the album’s visuals.
Album review: Arctic Monkeys’ The Car
What a genre-bender.
A grand and cinematic journey, to be sure. If you were hoping for a re-run of Alex Turner’s greaser-era A.M., turn away now. We’re in the band’s Bond-esque orchestral era, continuing on in a much stronger way from their last album.
My first takes after one full listen:
- The lead singles, “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball” and “Body Paint”, certainly felt like the strongest tracks.
- No one’s a romantic like Alex Turner, and no one can turn it into devastating lyrics like him. A sampling of my immediate favorite lines: “I’d throw the rose tint back on the exploded view” and “And if wе guess who I’m pretending to be / Do we win a prize?”
- And even just the concepts he thinks of… like “Jet Skis in a Moat” being one track’s title. Who thinks of that as a metaphor for the end of a relationship? Apologies if I’m too much of an Alex Turner stan. It goes back over a decade now and he’s inspired my own writing quite frequently.
- “Perfect Sense” is surreal, “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” is a groovy 70s throwback, “Sculptures of Anything Goes” is dark and spooky (the closest we get to A.M. sound on the album), “The Car” could’ve been made for a Tarantino film, and “Jet Skis On The Moat” is warmly retro and, as I keep saying, cinematic.
- ✨ Cinematic ✨ is certainly the keyword for the entire album.
- It’s so short. Barely 38 minutes. Give me more, damn it! But also I’m happy with this.
- As Esquire writes, “The Car rewards an immersive, uninterrupted experience. The way things go these days, it’s more likely to be split into Spotify playlists, curated both by algorithms and wistful teenagers, which is fine, too.” I’m in agreement.
This weekend in #sports
There are a lot of #sports going on this weekend. Here’s what I’m amped up for. Mimosas will accompany most, if not all, of these events I’m tuning into.
⚾️ Friday night: Padres vs. Phillies (MLB)
Yup, it’s that time of year when I finally tune into baseball. My main memories of baseball feature the 7 years I lived in the Bay Area when the SF Giants won 3 World Series. We’d go trick-or-treating and all the TVs inside the houses would have the game on. We’d come home from school and the game would be on. We’d go to a restaurant and the game would be on.
And now, I’m back to bandwagoning with the Padres, since I also lived in San Diego for 7 years and goddamn they are good. Go Pads. F*ck the Phils.
🏈 Saturday afternoon: Ducks vs. Bruins (college football)
Can I get a “SCOOOOOOOO!”? From everyone but my proud UCLA alum dad, perhaps? The no. 9 UCLA Bruins battle the no. 10 Oregon Ducks tomorrow for what should be one of the best Pac-12 matchups of the season. Here’s hoping the Ducks come away with victory, because screw the Bruins for hopping on the Big Ten train.
🏎 Sunday morning: The United States Grand Prix (Formula 1)
Sure, sure, Max Verstappen already secured the World Driver’s Champion title (in a very bizarre way) two weeks ago in Japan. But listen, this race is worth watching. Because it’s actually in my timezone, the Constructor’s Championship title has yet to be awarded, and I’m interested in the tight battle for second place between Checo and Charles LeClerc. Also I desire more Danny Ric antics—more horses maybe?
🏈 Sunday afternoon: Chargers vs. Seahawks (NFL)
I’ve been a casual Chargers fan for about two decades and a hardcore fan for… when did Justin Herbert get there? Yeah, that long. But it’s not just former Ducks star Herbo that makes me love the franchise; it’s the whole team’s vibe and the fan base and the other stars like Keenan Allen and Austin Ekeler. And they’re playing Pete Carroll’s Seahawks? Yeah, my bets are on the Chargers. BOLT TF UP.
The Twilight renaissance isn’t new
Every day, I’m seeing articles from this one from Jezebel claiming that Twilight, and its vibes, is making a comeback.
But they’re wrong. Twilight has always been here.
To be fair, I’m writing this on a rainy (FINALLY) day in the Pacific Northwest, with my moody candles burning and the lights dimmed. For ~5 months every year, the place I live becomes the Twilight universe. Dark clothes, pale skin, frigid sexiness, angst and grunge, black humor, and foggy forests aren’t anything out of the usual for folks around here.
Okay, fine, as I wrote that I realized maybe I’m geographically different from those begging for the return of Twilight-adjacent indie sleaze style of the 2000s.
TikTok, as usual, can be blamed for Twilight becoming—dare I say it?—trendy again. Its soundtrack and visuals lend themselves to thematic living. Very dark themes, like being so emotionally tethered to a partner (Edward and Bella) in a way that feels like you can’t breathe without them. Indie sleaze itself leans on gloom: romanticized abuse, eating disorders, drugs and alcohol.
Sorry if I got dark there for a second. Twilight vibes aren’t all bad! Neither is indie sleaze! But it's worth ruminating on. BRB, putting on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack.
Read of the week:
“I dogwalked Gordon Sudeikis-Wilde”
There’s a lot happening in the Olivia Wilde — Jason Sudeikis — Harry Styles tabloid shenanigans. But I have dug up the most niche content on the subject.
The famous couple’s former dog’s former dog walker breaks her silence for Gawker, and it’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time.
Her description of Jason Sudeikis had me rolling:
He’s in tie-dye, but he’s no hippie. The style’s counterculture origins have long faded, and now announce the arrival of a man who may have never even seen the business end of a gravity bong. Maybe he took to the bongos at a college party after two Mikes Hards once… and yeah, that was badass. But then he threw up. The tie-dye hasn’t been earned.
Jason says he’s busy with “big Hollywood meetings”. There’s a comparison of their dog to Harvey Weinstein.
I don’t want to spoil anymore before you read it, except for my favorite line of it all: “I know why the caged nanny sings.”
And that’s all from me today! I love you. Thank you if you’ve read all 99 editions of Content Consumed so far. Thank you if you’ve read only this one. See you on Monday!
Cheers,
Casey
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👉🏼 Interested in more long-form pieces? Check out my extended columns:
