Taylor Swift - Midnights

Boo - I like it! It's sweet and affecting. How often does a personal essay about music challenge assumptions as much as this?

idk why it was posted in that thread, it's a good piece

Does she have monologues about not getting drafted to Vietnam?

"I used to go out at night and drive. It didn't matter where, I would just drive all night, as long as I could keep my eyes open, even until the gaslight went on. But even then, I would sometimes just keep driving, further and further, as far as I could get from my worries, the childish things that bothered me, the darker, more grown-up things that scared me, kept me up at night. And no matter what time I came home, I'd find my dad sitting there in the kitchen, alone, in the dark, smoking a cigarette. Usually he wouldn't say a word, he would just stare at me, his face tired, the cigarette dangling between his calloused fingers, thick from the long hours he put in as a stockbroker. My eyes would meet his and, without a word, I would just turn around and head back out to the car and drive and drive some more, drive all night, until the sun came up, or the car just stopped. I can still remember my dad's eyes staring back in the dark. When I was younger, I used to think they were filled with anger, or sadness. Now that I'm older, I know they were filled with love.

This is for you, dad. It's called 'Getaway Car.'"

Boo - I like it! It's sweet and affecting. How often does a personal essay about music challenge assumptions as much as this?

― Indexed, Thursday, September 7, 2023 1:42 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

to be honest I seem to be the only one on earth who found the whole thing a bit distasteful and that’s probably for me to sit with

what was it that you found distasteful, out of curiosity? not asking out of judgment, but having read it myself, just curious to compare notes

I also found it a bit distasteful

ok if this is a safe space…

the guy killed someone and lied about it for years. I looked up some of his other writing and it’s…not really professional level. I’m glad hes going to be up for parole, 20 years is enough…but I’m not sure that if I were editing the new yorker I’d be using my limited resources editing college-level essays for a guy who’s trying to build his CV for a parole hearing

Yeah that pretty much nails it for me. The writing is fine but not really at the level I associate with The New Yorker (not that I read it regularly), and it felt a little weird reading it without knowing anything about the guy's particular case (I didn't look it up). I didn't think it shed much light on why he has a particular connection to Swift's music – beyond a few rote-seeming lyric references and clichés. Its most interesting through-line (and all I really took away from it) was the logistics of owning/listening to music in prison.

yeah I mean it’s benefited from some good editing for sure

where'd you find info on the dude's case? xpost

xp The ghost of Harold Ross nixed a reference to Antonoff by jotting "Who he?" in the margin (that's a gag for all you Eustace Tilley charm-bracelet wearers).

where'd you find info on the dude's case? xpost

― Make the chats AI (Neanderthal), Thursday, September 7, 2023 8:22 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

google lol

I mean look like any good left wing dude I’m all for leniency from the legal system. the court of public opinion imo reserves the right to judge

Taylor Swift's power reaches even those who are imprisoned -- especially those who have some romantic woes going on in their lives.

Google doesn’t help much with a name like his

yeah you gotta search the state and year etc iirc

fwiw the NYer publishes a lot of stuff online that they probably wouldn't consider for print, this essay included

yeah I mean again…it’s pretty sophomoric stuff imo, it’s not gramsci or letter from a birmingham mail or anything. though I do agree the detailing of the mechanics of finding records in prison was interesting

Yeah something come up for California in 2007 but the killer was 22, so he would not be 53 now

Yeah something come up for California in 2007 but the killer was 22, so he would not be 53 now

https://casetext.com/case/people-v-garcia-1641

I guess it’s tough to say if that’s him idk, murderer cum mediocre journalist writes essay for the new yorker either way

Yeah that’s who I mean. He would be around 40 now.

IIRC, he doesn’t even mention any albums btw 1989 and Lover…

(Oh sorry that’s just one. I mean he mentions 1989, Lover, and then Midnights. What’d he think of FolkMore?)

i mean who cares, it is not even music writing really. i’m sure he was tapped into the pandemic era

so what is it exactly…?

Yeah, his fandom was the entire hook. Like when he mentioned arguing with another Swiftie about her best albums… like, tell me more. Those are the details I wanted; something to make it feel concrete from a “fan” perspective.

xxxxpost I think this is his actual case: https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/shots-fired-call-leads-officers-to-dead-body/

idk i think a guy in prison detailing the specific ways he obtained and engaged with the music he likes is not exactly "music writing" and it's probably way closer to something like idk the obscure genre of writing known as the "personal essay" (which, sure, can also be music writing)

xp Yeah, that's consistent with his brief account of the crime in a 2019 piece: https://archive.ph/UZ96g

Well it’s not a very interesting or illuminating personal essay (IMO), and almost perhaps seems to put the New Yorker (Online) reader in an uncomfortably condescending position of marveling that a person in prison has an inner life and can express it in a serviceably written but basic essay. Just IMO

*blinks* ok

i think you’ve projected a whole attitude onto this essay that literally no one will ever approach it with bc you’re angry he didn’t mention folklore

willing to drop this entire convo tho. i learned the specifics of how difficult it is to obtain music in prison, and how much more precious this can make like the experience of fandom itself. never encountered an essay that offered me that info before. it’s not beautifully written but it didn’t need to be. i’m not googling this guy also sorry

Well that’s all fair. If anything, I’m probably projecting a certain attitude toward The New Yorker. (My request for more Swift specificity just comes from the desire to actually understand why he connects so strongly to Swift, which is the whole reason they published it – let’s be honest, they would not have if it were about Maroon 5 – and which I don’t feel it conveyed.)

xp That's fair. I first heard about this essay from my dad, who has only heard one Taylor Swift song (the 10-minute All Too Well) but is sort of a Taylor Swift fan in theory - he thinks she's a wonderful human being and always lets me know whenever she does something nice for someone. What he got out of it was the part about starting out a closet Taylor Swift fan and then realizing that prison is full of Swifties, which he found surprising and endearing. And really I think this essay is aimed more at someone like my dad than at people writing about Taylor Swift on a music board.

yes! she’s got jams! loved that part

I understand the impulse to do so but I find googling the guy way more "distasteful" than the essay itself

sorry my curiosity got the best of me after the link to the wrong case was posted

yeah googling the thing he admitted to doing in detail in several articles and is actually public record is 'distasteful'

(in my case, it was mere curiosity since he hinted at it in the Swift article and my brain doesn't like loose ends)

I don't even think it's that distasteful in the grand scheme of things that are as such and I only pretty much said what I said because I still don't know what's so distasteful about the article but you do know that something being in the public sphere doesn't exclude it from being distasteful, right

I don't get this whole thing about not being able to figure out what he liked about Swift - I thought he made it pretty clear several times. He liked that she gave him a connection to the outside world. He liked how excited she was to talk about songwriting. He liked that it gave him a way to connect to his fellow inmates. He liked that her lyrics mirrored his own experiences with relationships and coming to terms with his own mistakes. 

sure it's not written in the most articulate way but surprise, writing about music is hard. and a lot harder for people who don't read pitchfork reviews and ilm posts regularly

and i'm personally glad that the new yorker is publishing and editing writing by prison inmates, they should do that more often instead of agnes callard or whoever

lol Gannett is hiring an actual "Taylor Swift Reporter" — https://us231.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePortal/en-US/gannett/Posting/View/63544.

Taylor Swift Reporter

USA TODAY and The Tennessean/tennessean.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, seeking an experienced, video-forward journalist to capture the music and cultural impact of Taylor Swift. 

Swift's fanbase has grown to unprecedented heights, and so has the significance of her music and growing legacy. We are looking for an energetic writer, photographer and social media pro who can quench an undeniable thirst for all things Taylor Swift with a steady stream of content across multiple platforms. Seeing both the facts and the fury, the Taylor Swift reporter will identify why the pop star’s influence only expands, what her fanbase stands for in pop culture, and the effect she has across the music and business worlds. 

The successful candidate is a driven, creative and energetic journalist able to capture the excitement around Swift's ongoing tour and upcoming album release, while also providing thoughtful analysis of her music and career.

We are looking for a journalist with a voice — but not a bias — able to quickly cultivate a national audience through smart content designed to meet readers on their terms. This reporter will chronicle the biggest moments on the next portions of Taylor Swift’s tour, offering readers of USA TODAY, The Tennessean and more than 200 local news sources an inside view.

This journalist must be willing (and legally allowed) to travel internationally.

lol I came here to post that and hoo boy

Wake me once the New Yorker hires a Taylor Swift correspondent

what happens if she gets cancelled and becomes a pariah overnight

does the reporter lose their job too or gets transferred to another dept

"you were the Taylor Swift Reporter, now you are the City Hall Reporter"

Reassigned to Jason Aldean

“You’re on the Greta Van Fleet beat”