The Schloss-Blog is examining a theory that Taylor Swift and the Grateful Dead have more jn common than you might think.
And Mike Mitrook is a blessing to journalism education.
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Taylor Swift, says Spender Ante in a Fast Company post, is to her generation of fans what the Grateful Dead were (OK, are) to theirs.
How so?
The former head of insights at Meta argues that the campsites surrounding the female pop star's concert venues are reminiscent of the Dead's heyday, when their "Dead Heads" followed them around, selling self-styled jewelry pieces to help pay their way and for tickets to shows while living a communal lifestyle and sharing food and pot.
Swift's groupies, meanwhile, are shuffling along trying to get their hands on any tickets for any one of her shows, having been denied the opportunity to purchase them in the Live Nation/Ticketmaster debacle that was the disaster that it was, getting the corporate entity called on Congress' carpet.
Ante claims, meanwhile, that both Swift and the Dead come from blues roots of sorts. Both pretty much wrote their own music and had record-setting tours ("Swift's "Eras" tour will smash everything).
They both have had brilliant commercial successes, selling licensed merchandise and albums, otherwise known these days as downloads.
So which is it for you - Swift or the Dead? Both are touring this summer, the Dead & Co. on their supposed farewell tour, Swift on her tour of tours, if you will.
You can't lose being a fan of either - unless you want tickets. What are you willing to do for them, that is the question.
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Mike Mitrook is an acquaintance dating back to my days on the AEJMC's News and Online Division board and membership in the Sports Special Interest Group (which should be a division, damn it - TV as we know it is dead without live sports).
The Florida professor gets high grades on the Rate My Professor website, where students go for recommendations on which instructors to take (as if they'd take an adviser's suggestion over their friends and peers).
On ResearchGate.net, his seven papers posted there have definite impact.
I like hearing him from him because he follows this blog and appreciates it, most of the time.
I'll have to do a segment on my radio show for him (radiofreephoenix.com). He's earned it.
Keep it up, Mike.
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I saw the Grateful Dead once. Me and Jocelyn saw them at Soldier Field on what would be Jerry's next-to-last appearance there. Sting opened for them.
Anyway, Bob Weir came out looking like he just stepped off a golf course; well groomed, nicely pressed khaki shorts, but still killing it in true Dead style.
Tickets were free, courtesy of their merch manager, who I knew. Sat up close and watched as the lights went down before they came on stage and the smoke cloud went up over Soldier Field. Did we indulge? I'll let you guess.
The Bulls were playing the Suns in Chicago that night in the NBA Finals, with a chance to close them out. They lost and clinched it in Phoenix days later. Had they won, every bar in the city would have emptied out and met up with the surge from Soldier Field on the streets of Chicago.
Outside the stadium, as we dashed out to beat the crowd, a Dead Head guy and a gal in a compact car asked us if we knew a nearby campground, their car stuffed with their ... stuff.
Sure, we know one nearby in the South Loop, if they want to get arrested.
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Did anyone else notice that the Cubs, in distributing a Billy Williams bobblehead, had the wrong number on it (1 instead of 26). He's a Hall-of-Famer, for God's sake.
I keep reading that the Cubs are calling up all these hot prospects from their minor league system. How about some for the promotion department?
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"Succession" is over.
I've read all the analyses by the TV critics and sociological pundits.
My take is that Kendall killed someone and got away with it; Roman tried to kill the business; Shiv wants to kill anyone in bed who had a love toy; and her husband is a lucky idiot.
All the lead actors on that show though got plum roles that will take them a long way.
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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Shiv.
More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.
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