I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift. That said, I’m not not a fan a Taylor Swift either.
Like many of us, I know of her, I’ve heard her music, probably bopped around in the car to one of her tunes if I thought nobody was watching. So outside of Swifties and Swift-haters, I fall in the middle of the spectrum with respect to the pop megastar, and I hope I haven’t offended with the word pop, since she kind of straddled the country/pop line for a bit there at the beginning.
I love my kids, and I feel they love me too. But if that love were to be dependant upon me lining up for weeks or moving heaven and earth to get tickets for Taylor’s shows in Toronto, I fear, then, that the love of child to father might be in trouble. Fortunately for me, my children haven’t insisted upon that being included in the father-child contract, and I hope I haven’t given them any ideas for the next round of negotiations. Luckily for me again, I don’t think my kids read my stuff.
I’m not a Kansas City Chiefs fan because she is, and if I were, it would be because of the team’s quarterback. But I’m not going to roll my eyes when the cameras drift to the corporate boxes to see what Taylor’s up to. I’m not a football purist enough to think that football’s not a form of entertainment like any other, and so if the camera goes to Taylor, it means that enough people want it to go there, and so it does. I don’t turn away. Take Super Bowl Sunday. Which is the most watched? The game itself, or the halftime show? And for better or worse, which is most talked about on Monday morning?
I don’t have a Taylor Swift lunchbox, having no need of a packed lunch anymore. I don’t own/wear a Taylor friendship bracelet. I don’t follow her on X, or Twitter, or whatever that moron is calling his platform these days. And speaking of billionaires, when the hell was there ever one that was genuinely likeable? Maybe Bill Gates, but then he and his ex-wife Melinda are involved in that whole COVID vaccination scheme to implant chips into everyone so that they can control us for purposes unknown. You know, the kind of things that the local sillies spout out when they don’t want to get vaccinated.
What’s not to like about this woman? She’s seemingly got it all, as if talent alone wasn’t enough. She had the pluck to go up against that sleaze-ball Scooter Braun who had the temerity to buy up all her music masters then prevent her from having any influence over them, even attempting to forbid her from performing her own music at some live appearances. So Taylor, not satisfied with this, decided to go out and re-record five albums, her albums, just to get the rights to her own talent back. She included creativity that set them apart from Scooter’s albums, and let it be known to her followers that the re-records were HER music, and not some Music-Town scumbag’s.
Scooter Braun is no longer in the industry. Taylor Swift sits atop it.
And Donald Trump hates her. So huge props to Taylor right there.
Swift has six concert days scheduled in Toronto, three already completed as of Saturday, with three more to come later this week. Whether you like her or not, these events are among the largest public events that the city has ever entertained, events that bring untold millions of dollars of revenue into the City of Toronto, and into the pockets of AirBnD opportunists.
For reasons that are eminently and obviously practical, her arrival at Rogers Centre requires a police escort. An escort, not a presidential motorcade, but an escort. A freaking motorcycle cop up front, and the ubiquitous police SUV, lights flashing, behind. With other police rolling through intersections to momentarily stop traffic from entering the escort route immediately before the arrival of the five-vehicle motorcade, releasing traffic again as the entourage passes.
It’s not like they shut down Planet Earth to have a parade. It’s rather a simple matter of traffic control and security.
What would you have them do? Toss her in the back of a Volkswagen and let her fend for herself? As if.
This is a city that lost it’s shit when Kawhi Leonard, the one-year Raptor, was spotted at the airport and touched off a frenzy that almost took on the look of the OJ Simpson/Ford Bronco chase of the early 1990’s. Complete, utter, and breathless mayhem, as fans took it to mean that Kawhi was going to resign with Toronto. And so the fans streamed out of their holes and flocked to wherever they thought they might catch a glance at their hero, and possibly show him enough love to make him realize that he should be a life-long Raptor. And when you look back at the years since, it’s a good thing for Toronto he didn’t listen.
Remember last year and Shohei Ohtani? The California Angels double-threat superstar was looking around for a new home, and it was rumoured that he was interested in Toronto, but that was really a joke to begin with. But anyways, “his” private plane, meaning the plane that he was on, was seen leaving Los Angeles with a flight plan set for Toronto, and Oh my God! Toronto lost its shit again. Japanese compatriot and Toronto Blue Jays starter Yusei Kukuchi had apparently reserved an entire sushi bar in downtown Toronto, just a stone’s throw away from the Rogers Centre, for that very night. Toronto swarmed in the certainty that Ohtani was going to join Kukuchi, both former students at the same high school in Japan, as a Blue Jay.
Too bad when the plane landed, some other guy stepped off, perhaps bewildered at his new-found fame. But it sure as hell wasn’t Shohei Ohtani. He went to the Dodgers and won a World Series instead.
My point here is that Toronto goes completely bonkers when their heroes come to town. Could you imagine if they were to ever win a Stanley Cup?
So having a police escort for Taylor Swift is hardly an overstep. Could you imagine the effect on traffic if she were to not have one? She’d never make it to her own concert.
As to those who were stuck in traffic as the motorcade passed, what in the hell was any different from any of the other day you were stuck in traffic in Downtown Toronto? I mean, really?
One comment from an angry commenter on social media, which is I think is a default setting for most commenters, was the question “Is she the pope?”
Um, no. No she’s not.
Whether you like it or not, agree or disagree, she’s not.
Right now, in Toronto, she’s bigger than the pope.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 