urban bicycle journeys

Tootie’s sister Kathryn has a friend Suzanne. They met in college over forty years ago and remain close, even though the whole time Kathryn has lived in Winston-Salem NC, five hour’s drive from Suzanne in Virginia Beach VA. Very coincidentally Suzanne, growing up in Virginia Beach, had been friends with MY sister Jane, but only in elementary school. I guess they grew apart.

Suzanne now has three grown daughters. Almost a year ago Suzanne asked Kathryn to ask Tootie if two of her daughters plus a granddaughter plus a friend could in a year from then stay in our one-bedroom New Orleans condo. They had tickets to see Taylor Swift at the Superdome. We had no plans for that late October and we said of course they could.

October came around and we had a problem. Tootie and I were enjoying our condo and really didn’t want to leave. We have a friend Kirk who graciously offered use of a vacant apartment at her Uptown compound. We decided it better if WE moved there for three days and let Suzanne’s crew stay at our place.

All of New Orleans seemed afire with Swiftomania. The Superdome can hold 83,000 but to give each seat a decent view these shows were capped at 59,000. For each of three of three days the venue was sold out with many visitors coming from out of town. The morning before the first concert I bicycled the ten minutes from my condo to the Superdome. I used to read about rock stars bragging how many tractor-trailers it took to transport their show. For Taylor, it was apparently four!

I do bicycle through the French Quarter and the CBD almost every day, as it is on my usual route between our Lower Garden District condo and the Lafitte Greenway. One has to assume that all these women are Taylor fans.

For three days it seemed like everyone on the street was female.

Tootie wanted to buy something for Kathryn’s granddaughter back in Winston-Salem NC. The morning of the third day Tootie and I bicycled over to the 20,000 seat Smoothie King Center, which sits beside the Superdome. The Center had been appropriated entirely just to sell Taylor Swift merchandise. There was a monster line just to get in and spend money on Taylor Swift clothing.

Tootie got in line while I sat on my bicycle outside, watching women walk out of the Taylor Swift “mall” each clutching the signature plastic bags.

For more than a hundred dollars total Tootie bought two pieces of clothing. We cycled back to our temporary space in Kirk’s Uptown apartment. We heard through the grapevine that Suzanne’s daughters, granddaughter, and friend all had a great time at the show,

Taylor Swift is an accomplished singer-songwriter. My only criticism is that she might be getting TOO much attention while there are hundreds, maybe thousands of other singer-songwriters, many or most of them female. We should support lesser known artists, who often can be seen in much more intimate settings than a football stadium.

I have not begun to listen to most of Taylor Swift’s work, but I do like the song All Too Well. YouTube has revolutionized music listening by allowing us to view multiple live performances of the same work. This version is my favorite, from way back in 2014.