For The Record- 17. February. 2024

All that glittered had me mesmerized

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Welcome to another edition of For The Record, a good old-fashioned link drop and benefit for paid supporters of On Repeat.

As a reminder, On Repeat is 100% reader-funded. And as always, there are 7-day trials for anyone looking to test the waters.

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This week, we’ve got news on Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam, Tony Orlando, and tubas.

All that and a LOT more, including Ted Leo, They Might Be Giants, Wall of Voodoo, and the strange story behind an Alabama radio station going quiet.

Let’s get to it!

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This week, three fundamental parts of the American experience came together: football, Taylor Swift, and mass shootings.

At the parade celebrating Swift’s victory over the San Francisco 49ers, a fight quickly escalated into gunfire, with the same sad, predictable result they always do. The score? One dead, and 20+ were injured; many of those were kids. Players who last Sunday were heroes on the field were again heroes- this time for leading some in the crowd to safety.

At this point, I have to wonder if newspaper editors don’t just keep a template on hot standby, ready for the next shooting. After all, it's only a matter of time before the next one. Why write new copy when you can just swap out the city and specific numbers? It's something like MadLibs but 100% less fun to do/read.

These headlines don’t have to write themselves anymore; they already have. The work is done.

We’re so far gone that even the usual “thoughts & prayers” crowd didn’t show up (at least not on my timelines, anyway). Nor did the memes denouncing them. The fallout from the latest incident seems different only because the usual repeated catechisms are absent. Their work is done, too.

Instead, we rationalize this epidemic by telling anyone who’ll listen that this was an isolated dispute and not an act of terrorism or a lone wolf. Well, thank god it was just a fight! I’m sure the family of DJ Lisa Lopez-Galvan will take comfort in knowing that, as will the families of everyone else fighting for their lives. Lives that’ll never be the same, by the way.

After spending a week in the headlines being accused of playing a part in some sort of PsyOp, Swift is again making headlines— this time for kicking in $100k to a GoFundMe for Lopez-Galvan’s family.

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In 2012, I watched Sandy Hook play out on live TV while waiting in line at the bank to get $2 bills for Christmas. Hell on Earth is playing out in real-time during the high holy days. It was hard to hold back tears. Tears for kids I didn't know existed until that moment and had never met. For the world the toddler holding my hand was going to grow up in. For the lives that would never be the same.

Like millions of us, I thought for sure that would be the catlyst for real, sensible gun reform in this country., This is not unreasonable and comes from someone who used to love target shooting and grew up with a man who proudly displayed his “NRA lifetime member” sticker on his truck (how very American!) until it all became too much even for him.

If not for child safety, for what then? Surely, we’d had enough. Yet here we are, countless mass shootings later. Silly me.

Several years later, the Milwaukee Bucks (#BucksInSix!) won the NBA title, and the city went berserk. That toddler, now a teenager, and his friends went to the celebration. I wasn’t worried about them getting into trouble; I was worried about gunfire erupting, which, of course, happened. Because of course it did. This is America. Thankfully, the worst thing my son & his friends had happen was getting stuck in traffic on the way home and having to grind through an (almost) all-nighter the next day. Lucky me.

Nothing says America quite like a blonde, blue-eyed girl falling in love with a corn-fed boy from the Midwest. It’s the plot basis for pretty much every rom-com ever. Doubly so when some sort of victory is involved. It's also the sort of thing most far-right conservatives are enamored with. They love football too. As a soccer fan, I’ve been reminded of this my entire life.

Some of them spent the last couple of weeks trying their damndest to deny their affinity for it—or at least for the Chiefs. But maybe—just maybe—this time, we can find common ground on a football field and something rare in 2024 America—consensus. What a win that would be for us all.

This is America. Everyone loves a parade. No one should have to worry about getting shot at one.

And now for some links: