a case for leaving taylor swift alone
+ bel chimes in, asking: are you shining or are you polishing rn?
Once again, thank you for the love on my weird lil Monday morning edish about the pop culture that built me. Dunc said the most beautiful thing when I asked him if it was weird and crazy that I felt the need to document every single thing I’ve ever been interested in. He said:
“This is weird and crazy and totally makes sense. Like the internet has this built in impermanence but writing this down says “these things really exist and made me”
And that’s exactly it. Moments are fleeting. The internet is fleeting. Life is fleeting. The way I make sense of that (and curb my own anxiety) is by writing it down - but I’m sure we all have our own way of reckoning with time going by. Some of us make art. Some of us take photos. Some of us scrapbook. Some of us simply trust our memories to take us back to the places we need to be. What do you do?
Yeeeeesh, so many new Close Friends after yesterday!!! So cute to have u all here and I promise there will be Portugal content as soon as I get my visa (and you’ll know as soon as I do bc you better BELIEVE that’s going on Close Friends.)
We’ve also got our book club newsy/ podcast dropping at the end of this week for Yellowface, so become a paying supporter if you don’t wanna miss out on that!!!
A case for leaving Taylor Swift alone
Unrelated but also kinda related: people are dumping Scooter Braun
Bel Chimes In: Are you shining or are you polishing?
A wrap up of what’s going on around the world
A case for leaving Taylor Swift alone
If you’ve been on Twitter for the past 48 hours then you already know what I’m about to talk about, and if you weren’t then good for you, that sounds like a peaceful life, and let me explain.
Over the weekend Jack Antonoff (Taylor’s bestie/ producer) married Margaret Qualley (fun fact Rubes and I saw them while having dinner in NYC💅) and it cringes me out to even say this but Taylor Swift fans swarmed the rehearsal dinner.
After a tip-off on social media, hundreds of fans showed up, blocking streets, screaming and chanting Swift’s name, and even knocking on the windows of the venue, as if Taylor herself was going to be totally moved by this outpouring of love and desert her friends’ literal wedding celebrations to take photos with them and give them free concert tickets for life for their obvious dedication to her.
Unforch this didn’t happen, and when they realised that they weren’t wanted there by the police showing up, and the venue shutting the curtains, they had the audacity to BOO.
This was met online with outrage from Swifites who claimed that this was ‘not true swiftie behaviour’ and that ‘these aren’t real fans’ but honestly, this is just really unhinged and embarrassing behaviour.
I know I don’t have to explain this to YOU, respectful SYSCAhood member, but it’s one thing to wait outside a concert before or after the show - that’s at least safe - the artist and their team expect fans to be there. It’s another to swarm outside her recording studio, break into her house, or idk, try to attend her friends’ wedding? Between this kind of behaviour and all the weird shit that’s being thrown at celebrities on stage, can we please all just try and be sooooo for real right now.
Unrelated but also kinda related: people are dumping Scooter Braun
Speaking of Taylor Swift, her arch nemesis Scooter Braun has been having a bit of a rough one… In the past 48 hours alone we’ve seen news that Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Idina Menzel AND Justin Bieber are all allegedly dropping him as their managers. This is all incredibly fishy and I WONDER what’s about to come out about him. For now, all he has to say is:
This section is written by my crush, the refreshing-as-a-house-chardonnay-on-a-steamy-day, Bel Hawkins. She also writes our Sunday newsletter ‘No News is Good News’ which all our paying supporters receive. Upgrade your plan to get her newsy here!
Are you shining or are you polishing?
Mōrena crushes! Coming to you from where all life-changing rat girl moments occur, which is the greasy floor of an airport hooning a squashed nut bar and a rehydration sachet. But enough about me!
This week’s Chime comes from a convo Luce and I had on our latest Book Club pod (dropping this weekend, Bookies!) about being in one of two phases of life: shining or polishing.
I feel like in our chaotic online meets real life world it’s really easy to think everyone’s off living their best lives, and if you’re going through it or not feeling like you’re ~ phoenixing ~ it can be disorienting. Like… ‘when is this moment coming for me?’
So I like this idea that we’re swinging between polishing (working, putting lines out into the sea, cocooning, doing often invisible or unbraggable things for our own lives) and shining - the result of all those efforts. Mostly we only see the latter. But it’s just as important to talk about the former.
Knowing which of these phases you’re in can be wonderfully motivating ~ and always makes me feel more patient when I’m sitting round on an airport floor riding on the coattails of a two-day hangover wondering when the✨easy great shining bit✨comes. Make sense?
Love u! See you on the weekend when finally I will have recovered from the weekend’s ‘shot for a secret’ party trick. X
Around the world
Pakistan: Eight people (six kids and two adults) were stuck in a cable car that was dangling almost 300m above a ravine in Pakistan (in high winds!) for hours, but after a slow and steady rescue, they’ve all been saved.
North Korea: The first known international flight from North Korea since 2020 has just landed in Beijing.
Japan: In 48 hours, Japan is set to start releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean (despite opposition from its neighbours.) This is a UN-approved plan, and the water will be released over 30 years after being filtered and diluted.
Russia: A group of eight people who were on a tour of the underground Neglinka (a tributary of the city's main river, the Moskvain) have been found dead after being trapped by flood waters.
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I will never understand people who go out of their way to track down celebrities in public and pester them like the group at Jack Antonoff's wedding. That is incredibly invasive and embarrassing behavior. celebrities are people and they deserve to have private lives. paparazzi and fans like this have absolutely no business seeking out their locations and trying to see them, they don't exist to amuse you 24/7. I hope the happy couple weren't too bothered by the fans and Taylor and all the other guests were able to have a good time!!
Don’t really know how you could enjoy your wedding day with this behaviour.