It’s A Cruel Summer

At about 3 o’clock last Saturday my lovely wife said we were going to the Taylor Swift movie, which went from being news to me to a modern-day metamorphosis.  “We are?” I said. “I thought we were watching the Ole Miss game.” Turns out I was wrong and on the way to the show I learned that the movie was really a concert, and that I’m encouraged to stand up and sing. “I am?” I said, “I thought I was going to be sitting down watching football on my phone?” Turns out I was wrong so I asked what songs Taylor sings in the concert. Janine rattled off about 15 songs and the only one I knew was Cruel Summer. “Oh, well that’s a good one,” I said, optimistic that maybe the show wouldn’t be so bad. “That’s the Bananarama song from Karate Kid – awesome.” Turns out I was wrong and this was not at all the same song. So I decided I would just turn the movie into a market research exercise. I planned to interview all the other guys there about why they had to go, did they want to go, and did they too think Cruel Summer was the Bananarama version.  But it turns out I was the only guy in the theater and instead of doing the research, I had moms asking me “why are you here?” I had 13 year old swifties giving me a look like what are you doing here old person with the funny Italian cap, and 8 year olds just giggling. One murmured, “I think he’s lost.”  So I grabbed my box of Reese’s Pieces and decided to just tolerate it, but as the movie played I started to realize there was a health benefit to the whole exercise – turns out I like Taylor Swift, and if that makes me a Swiftie, sign me up. -BC