Los Angeles 2023
Taylor Swift & Disneyland
I recently signed up to be on the TSA Precheck list and this was the first trip where I used that perk. It was fantastic. No line. Didn't have to take my shoes off or remove liquids. I think I was to my gate within 15 minutes of getting to the airport. And that's saying something with the long hallway to B Gates in the SLC airport.🚶♀️
Me and a few friends planned a weekend getaway to LA to see Taylor Swift in concert and go to Disneyland.
You've probably heard all the hullabaloo about how much people are paying for tickets... we spent less than $150 on the tickets. One friend we met on the bus from Disneyland told us they bought floor seats and then sold them for $5,000 each. Dang.
I am a fan of Taylor Swift, but I wouldn't call myself a super fan. I was intrigued by all the records her tour is breaking. And I heard about the seismic activity at her Seattle concert. It's a cultural phenomenon I was excited to experience.
Me and a few friends planned a weekend getaway to LA to see Taylor Swift in concert and go to Disneyland.
You've probably heard all the hullabaloo about how much people are paying for tickets... we spent less than $150 on the tickets. One friend we met on the bus from Disneyland told us they bought floor seats and then sold them for $5,000 each. Dang.
I am a fan of Taylor Swift, but I wouldn't call myself a super fan. I was intrigued by all the records her tour is breaking. And I heard about the seismic activity at her Seattle concert. It's a cultural phenomenon I was excited to experience.
In terms of dressing up and memorizing lyrics, our group was on the 'unprepared' side of things, but I still enjoyed the concert! There were several songs I didn't know. 😅
Concert deets
I don't want to spoil the concert for anyone that wants to go see it and have it be a surprise...so spoiler alert. Stop reading if you don't want to hear concert deets.
There were two openers- Gracie Abrams and Haim. I wasn't familiar with either of them before that night. Gracie Abrams was cute and I enjoyed her songs, turns out she's the daughter of JJ Abrams. I also wasn't super familiar with Haim, but they were a lot of fun. It's a band of 3 sisters. My favorite of the three sisters was making faces and I was loving it. They had a ton of fun on stage and I also enjoyed their songs.
Taylor took the stage a little after 8? Maybe it was 8:30? And she went through several eras of her music. There was a little bit of a 'time' theme which makes sense, the concert was about her going through different eras or stages of her life and reliving what happened. There was also a little bit of a 'building a home' theme. At the beginning there was a house with different colored rooms projected on the screen and for different songs, different rooms lit up. During one of the songs there was a house on fire in the background. All of this was probably related to moments in her life I don't really know about. You'll have to ask a superfan.
Taylor was super likable. She mentioned how she was lucky to have wonderful openers and she thanked everyone who had gone through extensive efforts to get to the concert, dress up, and memorize lyrics. There was a moment after one of her songs, where she sat at the piano and just basked in the moment of the audience cheering. She admitted that she loves the validation of writing her feelings and putting it out into the world hoping that people can relate, and then feeling validated when they do relate.
She focused mostly on the albums she hasn't covered in other tours yet. But she wore a different outfit for each album. Most of her outfits were some form of sparkly body suit. Starting with LOVER she wore a silver sparkly body suit with super sparkly knee high boots. The whole concert was very sparkly. Everyone had a wrist band that would light up with different colors, synced to whatever song was being performed.
After Lover she did a few of her older country-era songs and then sang some from EVERMORE and then FOLKLORE. I didn't know most of the songs from these albums. But evermore was a very magical / fairytale like feel. She sat and played on a moss covered piano for one of the songs; Champagne Problems. That might have been my favorite performed song. She was at the piano and that's the song where she ended by chatting with the audience and smiling at everybody afterwards.
She wore a mustard yellow lace up dress with embroidery on the front. One of the songs, Willow, the dancer danced with magic orbs and dark green cloaks. Then for Folklore she was in a white dress with long flowing sleeves and lots of free flowing pieces of fabric. That album the songs were written from the perspective of characters she created. She mentioned she thought of like pioneer / frontier / victorian vibes while she was writing.
It was cool that she has the resources to make her imaginations come to life. I thought about that a lot this weekend with the concert and also Disneyland. Wouldn't it be so cool to have the money, time, and talent to make a story come to life in a way that made people feel really deeply and relate to what you're telling them? I think that's why people like Disneyland so much. It's well made and it appeals to your emotions.
REPUTATION was also a fun segment of the show. It's like she had a different persona for that era, which makes sense. All of the songs are a little angsty. She sang a few songs from Speak Now and Red. She gave Kobe Bryant's daughter her hat in the middle of singing '22' (Paul looked up who the kid was after the show). There was one part of the show where she decides to pick a different song for every show, I didn't recognize either of the songs she picked, but the occasional acoustic song was a nice change of pace.
'All Too Well' hit me more emotionally than it had before, I don't know if it's because she was there, but I connected with what she felt when she was writing the songs. That was cool. Again, I've been thinking a lot about effective and magical storytelling this weekend. The MIDNIGHTS era was fun too. I knew most of the songs from that era. I loved that she ended with 'Karma'.
There were two openers- Gracie Abrams and Haim. I wasn't familiar with either of them before that night. Gracie Abrams was cute and I enjoyed her songs, turns out she's the daughter of JJ Abrams. I also wasn't super familiar with Haim, but they were a lot of fun. It's a band of 3 sisters. My favorite of the three sisters was making faces and I was loving it. They had a ton of fun on stage and I also enjoyed their songs.
Taylor took the stage a little after 8? Maybe it was 8:30? And she went through several eras of her music. There was a little bit of a 'time' theme which makes sense, the concert was about her going through different eras or stages of her life and reliving what happened. There was also a little bit of a 'building a home' theme. At the beginning there was a house with different colored rooms projected on the screen and for different songs, different rooms lit up. During one of the songs there was a house on fire in the background. All of this was probably related to moments in her life I don't really know about. You'll have to ask a superfan.
Taylor was super likable. She mentioned how she was lucky to have wonderful openers and she thanked everyone who had gone through extensive efforts to get to the concert, dress up, and memorize lyrics. There was a moment after one of her songs, where she sat at the piano and just basked in the moment of the audience cheering. She admitted that she loves the validation of writing her feelings and putting it out into the world hoping that people can relate, and then feeling validated when they do relate.
She focused mostly on the albums she hasn't covered in other tours yet. But she wore a different outfit for each album. Most of her outfits were some form of sparkly body suit. Starting with LOVER she wore a silver sparkly body suit with super sparkly knee high boots. The whole concert was very sparkly. Everyone had a wrist band that would light up with different colors, synced to whatever song was being performed.
After Lover she did a few of her older country-era songs and then sang some from EVERMORE and then FOLKLORE. I didn't know most of the songs from these albums. But evermore was a very magical / fairytale like feel. She sat and played on a moss covered piano for one of the songs; Champagne Problems. That might have been my favorite performed song. She was at the piano and that's the song where she ended by chatting with the audience and smiling at everybody afterwards.
She wore a mustard yellow lace up dress with embroidery on the front. One of the songs, Willow, the dancer danced with magic orbs and dark green cloaks. Then for Folklore she was in a white dress with long flowing sleeves and lots of free flowing pieces of fabric. That album the songs were written from the perspective of characters she created. She mentioned she thought of like pioneer / frontier / victorian vibes while she was writing.
It was cool that she has the resources to make her imaginations come to life. I thought about that a lot this weekend with the concert and also Disneyland. Wouldn't it be so cool to have the money, time, and talent to make a story come to life in a way that made people feel really deeply and relate to what you're telling them? I think that's why people like Disneyland so much. It's well made and it appeals to your emotions.
REPUTATION was also a fun segment of the show. It's like she had a different persona for that era, which makes sense. All of the songs are a little angsty. She sang a few songs from Speak Now and Red. She gave Kobe Bryant's daughter her hat in the middle of singing '22' (Paul looked up who the kid was after the show). There was one part of the show where she decides to pick a different song for every show, I didn't recognize either of the songs she picked, but the occasional acoustic song was a nice change of pace.
'All Too Well' hit me more emotionally than it had before, I don't know if it's because she was there, but I connected with what she felt when she was writing the songs. That was cool. Again, I've been thinking a lot about effective and magical storytelling this weekend. The MIDNIGHTS era was fun too. I knew most of the songs from that era. I loved that she ended with 'Karma'.
Disneyland
We spent two days doing Disneyland and California Adventure. Each day we went to the park in two groups- I was always with the sleep in group.
Guys. 8 hours of sleep is super important. You can't make it up later.
Because of that, I had a good time. :)
Tried a few different kinds of churro- the pineapple churro was the best. The grey stuff *was* delicious. And so was that cheesy bowl of tater tots you see in that picture. One night I had a PB&J with banana and bacon from Pym's Kitchen (from Ant Man) where they made some of their dishes small samples and some large. It was fun. I'm all about travel food you guys. Even at Disneyland. (you know this if you've been a follower of my travels 😅). Growing up we were a 'bring-food-with-you-into-expensive-places' kind of family. I get it. Eating can be expensive. But as an adult, I think the cost is #worthit.
We rode on some fun rides, Rise of the Resistance is still my fav. We did that twice. It was a good weekend. Not a lot of sleep, but a lot of laughs. I would like to thank my friends for putting up with my weird poetry and giggling. Especially that night on the train. Anyway. Stay cool kids.
Guys. 8 hours of sleep is super important. You can't make it up later.
Because of that, I had a good time. :)
Tried a few different kinds of churro- the pineapple churro was the best. The grey stuff *was* delicious. And so was that cheesy bowl of tater tots you see in that picture. One night I had a PB&J with banana and bacon from Pym's Kitchen (from Ant Man) where they made some of their dishes small samples and some large. It was fun. I'm all about travel food you guys. Even at Disneyland. (you know this if you've been a follower of my travels 😅). Growing up we were a 'bring-food-with-you-into-expensive-places' kind of family. I get it. Eating can be expensive. But as an adult, I think the cost is #worthit.
We rode on some fun rides, Rise of the Resistance is still my fav. We did that twice. It was a good weekend. Not a lot of sleep, but a lot of laughs. I would like to thank my friends for putting up with my weird poetry and giggling. Especially that night on the train. Anyway. Stay cool kids.
Trip overview
Loving TSA precheck
Hung out at crescent cove beach
Lunch by round table
Taylor Swift
Slept in before Disneyland both days. Would recommend 😉
Lunch at 85c bakery. We bought a ton. Everything was delicious. and really affordable (pastries $2-$3)
This trip emphasized the importance of using storytelling in art, both with Taylor Swift and Disney experiences. Also, wouldn't it be so cool to have the resources to make your incredible dreams and wildest imaginations come to life? (thinking both about Disney and Taylor)
Importance of reflection after experiencing things. How things made you feel. Way to connect.
Hung out at crescent cove beach
Lunch by round table
Taylor Swift
Slept in before Disneyland both days. Would recommend 😉
- California Adventure (soarin, guardians, little mermaid, avengers campus store, swarma / falafel, incredicoster, radiator springs racers, pyms kitchen)
- Disney (matterhorn, astro blasters, space mountain 2x- once we went through secret room!, small world, toon town, mickey & minnie's runaway railway, chip and dale's gadget coaster- appreciated line details, Red tavern dinner 🥀, pirates, indiana jones 2x, haunted mansion, rise of the resistance 2x, smuggler's run, galaxy's edge, quest for great churros, big thunder mountain 2x, disney railroad being weird, jungle cruise 2x, cozy cone root beer float, tiki room)
Lunch at 85c bakery. We bought a ton. Everything was delicious. and really affordable (pastries $2-$3)
This trip emphasized the importance of using storytelling in art, both with Taylor Swift and Disney experiences. Also, wouldn't it be so cool to have the resources to make your incredible dreams and wildest imaginations come to life? (thinking both about Disney and Taylor)
Importance of reflection after experiencing things. How things made you feel. Way to connect.