Sunday night (here) was the Super Bowl (over there). So I obviously needed to keep my brother aware of events of such magnitude. Not just because he hates all football equally; American, English, Women’s, Gaelic, even German!!, but because it’s a story about Taylor Swift. But yet again; he’s no fan of my favourite songstress ever. He doesn’t like ‘pop’ music. Never did. As soon as they invented Black Sabbath, in the late 1960s, he never really looked at ‘the charts’ again. Once metal got heavy, he was lost to the mainstream. Held it in contempt as some sort of merely commercial enterprise cynically exploiting the massed young into buying repetitive, formulaic shit to play on their stereos. ‘Tie a Yellow Ribbon’ kind’a exemplified this rationale. Whereas ‘heavy’ music was the sounds piped directly from Hell. And he loved that. He never bought ‘singles’, only albums. And is probably not aware of Taylor Swift musically. You can’t avoid her altogether but unlike me, he would never listen to a song. Or drool over her videos. Like… some do. Not in an objectifying way, no, but in respect of her strong feminist stance. Obviously. One day the brother came home from Petticoat Lane market wearing a ‘black sabbath’ cross. My grandmother (born in Poland, irreligious but as proudly and superstitiously Jewish as you can ever be without growing a beard) went ape-shit. He tried to explain that it wasn’t a normal ‘cross’ in the Christian sense, it was… well, it was a Satanic thing. Oh, that’s ok then. Oyyyyy, my grandson is joining the Devil! And for this I should be happy??? He put it away and kept if for Black Sabbath concerts exclusively. Possibly Deep Purple.

So they played the season’s defining NFL match. The Kansas City Chiefs played the San Francisco 49ers for the year’s ultimate gridiron glory. And Taylor’s latest ‘beau’? Squeeze? Shtup?? happens to be Travis Kelce, a ‘tight end’ for Kansas. So the queen of pop played a gig in Tokyo on Saturday night then jumped on a private jet which whizzed her over to New Orleans so she could support him. Never mind what Greta Thunberg thinks. But Taylor was born and raised in Pennsylvania. Then moved to Nashville. And now lives in New York, London, California, wherever she wants. Yet she’s now a Chiefs fan? That would never happen with Adele. She’s a Tottenham fan and wouldn’t suddenly support Leeds because she was shagging Joe Root. (If you can actually think of a less likely scenario, please let me know). But Taylor is American and over there you follow the team where you live. Or your boyfriend lives. No fucking loyalty, no history, no pride, just geographic convenience. Although from Tokyo to Louisiana is possibly not that convenient.

Anyway. They’ve just rushed him back into surgery. Again. Oh my.

Be well Bruvva

xxxxxxx