I’m sorry I haven’t written in a little bit, my mental energy has been fully zapped in the time that’s elapsed since Donald Trump lost the debate to Kamala Harris, and I almost can't even lift my head from my keyboard anymore.
Trump is losing bigly and badly to MVP. He knows it, Fox News knows it, and his campaign staff knows it. And he knows we all know it too, so that’s why he’s fear-sharting in all caps on his failed SPAC scam app about Taylor Swift and lying about Haitian immigrants eating pets. He’s also creating new grifts on the daily because those lawyer bills won’t be paying themselves.
Donny Three Card Monte expects some sucker to pay up to $100,000 for a special edition of a cheap gold-plated watch that’ll only show the correct time twice a day and the date will always be January 6th.
Aside from this bullshit, there’s plenty of other bullshit, like JD “Vladimir Futon” Vance still not backing down from the “immigrants are eating pets” lie even after admitting he makes up lies all the time. No, really, Hillbilly Effigy? There’s also a whopping 40-point difference between Jerkface Donuthole and America’s New Dad, Coach Tim Walz, who’s going to pound the proverbial snot out of Vance at Tuesday’s Vice Presidential Debate.
Terrified Trump has been out there holding unhinged rallies and crazy press conferences, while Kamala Harris has given a few excellent interviews full of cohesive complete sentences outlining her plans for her first term. The Vice President is also bringing her trademark joy and humanity to those interviews, so of course MAGA is losing their shit over it.
I mean, if you’re not rambling about sharks and Hannibal Lecter to Tucker Carlson, are you even running for President? How dare the Vice President of the United States treat an interviewer with respect while making sense!
I realize the constant barrage of stupid from MAGA is part of the plan to wear us down so we won’t notice they’re trying super hard to steal the 2024 election (nice try, Marc Elias is filing over 60 election interference-related lawsuits, SUCKAS). They’re so weird, they think we can’t multitask our outrage.
My brain is aching for real political discourse again, which we had in the pre-Trump years when “Fuck you, libtard” wasn’t considered a response to anything. The Republicans back then cared about weird stuff like policies and political track records instead of putting on a clown show for an audience of one overgrown babyman.
Please vote for the smart Democrats who want to protect women, I beg of you. Also, please buy my book The Sound of Settling. I have other things to get to here, so consider this the usual plug and let’s fucking go already.
Thankfully I’ve managed a lot of self-care in the middle of all of this stupid. I’ve been doing fun things to remind myself that I’m a feeling human who can still experience joy.
On Tuesday night, my beloved Low Bar Chorale played a show at Mississippi Studio with an all-female string quartet and it was magical.
On Wednesday, I went to see Green Day with Smashing Pumpkins with my friend Alison. Because of rain and bus delays, we missed the two other openers, The Linda Lindas and Rancid, which was kind of a bummer. BUT Green Day was fantastic. Wanna feel old? This year is the 30th anniversary of “Dookie” and the 20th anniversary of “American Idiot,” and they played both albums in their entirety, along with a handful of songs from their new album. And of course, it ended with “Good Riddance.” Fantastic visuals, the band sounds great, and hot damn, but Billie Joe Armstrong looks and sounds like he’s 25.
Dave who? 😈
And then last night, there was another Low Bar Chorale, this time in Salem, Oregon at the historic Grand Theater. Sometimes we take the act on the road, and this time it was for an ALL-TAYLOR SWIFT SINGALONG that made me as excited as a teenager. My friend Christine came over and we made friendship bracelets while listening to the entire Eras Tour playlist, which is more than three hours long.
While I knew I would love whatever set our lead singer, Ben Landsverk, came up with, and that we’d have a great time despite it not being our usual venue or crowd, what I didn’t consider was that we were at an all-ages theater. Our usual meetups are in bars, so it didn’t occur to me that anyone but adults would be there.
But there were SO many young Swifties in attendance, girls who sang every line at the tops of their lungs in that earnest way when you’re in the full sway of your first fandom. It was beautiful to see them so excited to sing with a band of three dudes (plus a guest appearance on “Style” by the awesome force of nature that is Ruby Friedman). We exchanged friendship bracelets! It was the sweetest thing ever.
As a mother of sons who lives 3000 miles away from my nieces, I don’t have a lot of experience hanging out with tween girls. But here’s what I know, as my friend Christine told the awesome women working the concession who were sporting their first-ever Swiftie friendship bracelets:
Taylor Swift concerts are one of the few public safe spaces where girls of every age and background can feel safe. They can be screaming crying perfect storms, and everyone will be enchanted to meet each other. Last night, I watched those girls exchanging names and Snapchat handles along with their friendship bracelets. Music connects us like nothing else, and this particular fandom is one of pure love and acceptance. We’re going to do another one in Portland at another all-ages theater so that we can have all of that again.
So hey, vote for Kamala so those girls won’t be birthing vessels in a Trumpian Project2025 nightmare of America.
I will leave you with the joyous sound of a roomful of people, most of them under the age of 14, screaming “FUCK THE PATRIARCHY!” and the reminder that no matter how stupid the MAGA shit gets, we’re going to win. Because we are.
❤
Great posting Tara......self-care is big time these days. You brilliantly covered so much ground .
One person needs the Dublin take down for sure. The grift queen, Melania is back!! The stupid book....the glass dolls....dumb interviews.. Please go for it.......any ideas for the Sound of Settling part 2?