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tswiftdaily · 6 years

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In the 1960s and ’70s, Pattie Boyd stood at the intersection of fashion, rock ’n’ roll, art, and fame. Widely considered one of the greatest muses of all time, Boyd, who was married first to George Harrison and later to Eric Clapton, inspired the hits “Something” by the Beatles, and “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight” by Clapton. Recently I devoured this intriguing woman’s memoir, Wonderful Tonight. A few weeks later, I had the pleasure of sitting down with her in the kitchen of her beautiful Kensington flat. As the sunlight poured through the windows, her blue eyes lit up as she spoke. There is a playful quality about her and, surprisingly—considering how much she has experienced in her life—a lightness.

TAYLOR SWIFT: I have been so excited to talk to you because we’re both women whose lives have been deeply influenced by songs and songwriting. I stand on one side of it, and you on the other. Does the concept of being called a muse feel like a correct fit?

PATTIE BOYD: I find the concept of being a muse understandable when you think of all the great painters, poets, and photographers who usually have had one or two. The artist absorbs an element from their muse that has nothing to do with words, just the purity of their essence.

TS: What do you feel might be a factor that artists want to communicate with you through song?

PB: I think in my case both George and Eric had an inability to communicate their feelings through normal conversation. I became a reflection for them.

TS: I wondered who and what situation “Wonderful Tonight” was written about, and now I know it’s about you getting ready for a party, changing clothes, and saying, “I don’t like this, I don’t like that.”

PB: I came downstairs with trepidation thinking [Eric] was going to be so angry that I’d taken far too long, and instead he said, “Listen, I’ve just written this song.”

TS: That is so incredible to me.

PB: But you must do that too. You must be inspired by a few moments or something, the way your boyfriend turns or says something to you or a little bit of a smile or “Is he thinking this or that?,” and that would inspire you. Can you write it the moment it’s happening?

TS: There are definitely moments when it’s like this cloud of an idea comes and just lands in front of your face, and you reach up and grab it. A lot of songwriting is things you learn, structure, and cultivating that skill, and knowing how to craft a song. But there are mystical, magical moments, inexplicable moments when an idea that is fully formed just pops into your head. And that’s the purest part of my job. It can get complicated on every other level, but the songwriting is still the same uncomplicated process it was when I was 12 years old writing songs in my room.

PB: Right, right…

TS: I don’t know what it is that makes some people really creatively inspiring. There have been people I’ve spent a lot of time with who I just couldn’t write about.

PB: Yes, now what is that?

TS: I don’t know. It’s just that some people come into your life and they have this effect on you. It’s really interesting because in your case you inspired that creative output from two iconic musicians. That just blows my mind. It’s very rare!

PB: Well, the more you say it to me, the more it’s blowing my mind.

TS: You met George Harrison at 19 on the set of A Hard Day’s Night. All of a sudden your life was changed forever because you fell in love with someone who the world was obsessed with. There was no band as big as the Beatles. Did anyone prepare you for the attention?

PB: No. Nobody took on that role. Nobody thought that role would be significant for a start. I remember a journalist coming to our house one day and saying to George, “In all seriousness, when do you think the bubble is going to burst? When are the Beatles going to be finished?”

TS: Wow.

PB: If they thought that, there’s no reason anyone would think, “Ah, I’ll look after Pattie and guide her through what is going to be a tremendously difficult situation for a young girl to cope with.” The only thing Brian Epstein, their manager, told me and the other wives and girlfriends was, “Don’t talk to the press.”

TS: Were the fans the reason you decided to live in the country?

PB: Living in London with George, there were so many fans every day, it became impossible to leave the flat. Brian Epstein thought there might be an idea that John, Ringo, and George move to the country, have little houses about an hour out of London. We would decorate the outside of our house with spray-paint cans. The whole house was like a psychedelic monster.

TS: I remember seeing a picture of the house, and Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull had spray-painted their names on the wall with the words mick and marianne were here. I read a book about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor recently, and how there was this crazy frenzy surrounding them. In the book, Elizabeth is quoted as saying, “It could be worse, we could be the Beatles.” You are one of the only people who can say they experienced what Beatlemania was like from the inside. How did that feel for you?

PB: In my first experience, I found it absolutely terrifying. I got to see the Beatles play at a theater in London, and George told me that I should leave with my friends before the last number. So before the last song, we got up from our seats and walked toward the nearest exit door, and there were these girls behind me. They followed us out, and they were kicking me and pulling my hair and pushing us all the way down this long passageway.

TS: What were they saying?

PB: “We hate you.”

TS: That is my worst nightmare. You probably felt like, “If you knew me and I knew you, you would not be pulling my hair in an alleyway and saying, ‘I hate you.’”

PB: Exactly.

TS: Has the dynamic changed with Beatles fans now that you put on these incredible exhibitions of your photographs?

PB: George is no longer with us, or John. It was such a long time ago, and the fans haven’t held on to the same antagonistic feelings toward me. Actually they seem happy that I’m sharing the photographs I took. One time I was having an exhibition, and these girls turned up dressed like me in A Hard Day’s Night.

TS: It’s so cute when people do that. I love that.

PB: It is adorable.

TS: That is amazing that you could go from a place of feeling incredibly frightened by the idea of this attention from people who loved the Beatles, and now there is just a huge amount of gratitude from them. For me, one of the most heartbreaking moments in the book is when, years later, you and Eric get married, and George and his new wife, Olivia, come to the wedding party, Paul comes, Ringo comes, but John couldn’t go. He said later that he would have loved to come. That night there was a huge jam session, and had he been there it would have been the last time the Beatles played together.

PB: Can you imagine? I was heartbroken.

TS: My heart was pierced by that.

PB: John felt he couldn’t come because he thought if he left America they wouldn’t let him back in, and it was important for him to be in America.

TS: I found it staggeringly beautiful in the book how you had been through many ups and downs, and told these stunning truths about your relationships, but everyone seems to be on really good terms. I mean, Eric even gave you permission to publish his love letters. What did it take for you to arrive at such a place of goodwill with people you’ve been through so much with? Is that just time passing?

PB: I think time must play a big part. Because it all broke up for whatever reason, there is no need to carry on some sort of hate or dislike for this person. And then with time I thought, “I’ll just call on Eric and see if he’ll let me use these wonderful letters that he wrote, and if he needs anything from me, he just needs to call me, same thing, and I would say ‘yes’ to him.” I think this is all based on my memories of how it was when we were first married and what fun we had, the love that we’d enjoyed together as well.

TS: It sounds like you take ownership of the past, and not just the good parts.

PB: I do. Absolutely.

TS: Lastly, what advice would you give a 28-year-old who’s deeply inspired by your outlook? I would love to look back on my life with the same clarity, wisdom, and peace that you seem to have.

PB: You have to remember that nothing remains the same. It’s always going to change. The whole world keeps changing, we keep changing, things in our lives keep changing. Nothing remains the same. If you’re happy or you’re sad, it’s not going to last forever. You just have to keep remembering that.

This article originally appears in the August 2018 issue of Harper's BAZAAR, available on newsstands July 24.

#taylor swift #harper’s bazaar #patty boyd #interview

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britneyshakespeare · 6 years

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tagged by my love @r3nton 💗💞 i hope u’ve been doin well zuki we haven’t talked in awhile and i miss you

1. what song’s stuck in your head right now?

oh oh cheri by francoise hardy but i also happen to be listening to tous les garcon in full again

2. what was the first word you learned to read and to write?

love :) that’s really cute now that i think about it

3. what would you like to change about yourself?

i could think of a lot of things. i am very far from perfect. but perhaps one of the simplest but most effective would be if i could just zap away my social anxiety. i can’t help but ponder on what kind of person i’d have grown up to be if i weren’t so painfully shy my whole life.

4. what was the last movie you saw? what did you think of it?

i can’t remember off the top of my head. i’ve not been watching many movies lately. i think the last thing i watched was mean girls with one of my brothers and my sister? i had seen it before, but i actually didn’t watch that movie for the first time till i was like, 17, and it was kinda boring because i already had heard just about every single joke in it from pop culture. it’s a good movie but i think it’s just over-referenced. it is undeniably funny.

5. what’s the dreamiest song you’ve ever heard?

i always say it but is ar eireann ni neosainn ce hi by mary o’hara. i’ll try to add an alternative then. how about... counting by marianne faithfull. dindi by astrud gilberto. la vie en rose by edith piaf. world of chances by demi lovato. now we’ve got some nice language variety in options.

6. what makes you happy?

lots of things! animals, poetry, music, other people when the mood strikes me. cheesy sitcoms. shakespeare plays. you know :-)

7. what makes you sad?

i don’t know that i can be made sad by external causes. or, i don’t know, maybe it’s just a recovering-from-mental-illness thing. surely things can trigger me, but, idk. that’s not really what this question means to me. ordinary disappoints just don’t bother me all that much; i’ve dealt with worse.

8. what makes you unbearably angry/annoyed?

uhhhh the noises people make w their mouths when they eat, and willful ignorance. quite a combination.

9. who do you wanna be more like?

uhm. most of my role models tend to be complicated older women who have tragic/mysterious pasts. this extends from celebrities like marianne faithfull, to women from my own family. i guess that’s the best option i have to grow into, considering that now i am a complicated younger woman with a tragic/mysterious past (or present? you decide). whatever. i just wanna be someone who makes it through, and so far i’m not doing too bad.

10. what are you looking forward to?

hmmm. that sabrina the teenage witch reboot comes out at the end of the month. i’m definitely going to watch it. i have no idea how i’m gonna like it, the trailer doesn’t really tell me that much about the things that could make or break it for me. if salem doesn’t talk and isn’t bisexual then that’s definitely some points off. i really hope they don’t lean in too hard to the ‘take this stuff, which is adapted from a series of comics originating in the 1960s, very very seriously’ stuff and that it’s more like buffy, where there’s a grounded main plot and great characters, but there’s also lighthearted humor and camp so that the heavy stuff has room to breathe. i know it’s from a related team to riverdale, which i haven’t watched and i have no idea how closely those two shows will be associated with each other (like how sabrina and the archie gang have had crossovers in the comics many-a-time). but from what i do know about riverdale i wanna be wary, but also, i have heard some good criticism of that show from people whose opinions i trust? can it be really that bad? i’m not going to watch it to find out because i’m not interested anyway. but. all i need to know is, is the sabrina reboot going to be any good? i have no idea. can’t wait to find out because i’m already so emotionally invested in it anyway.

i probably should’ve answered that with something more profound but this has been weighing on my mind ever since i read the casting call for this show, like, a year ago.

11. what’s your favourite halloween movie?

don’t know if it counts as a halloween movie really, but american psycho. i also love the original novel it’s based on, as well.

my questions:

1) When’s the last time you wrote something for pleasure?

2) Do you think about the weather?

3) Do you have any unconscious biases you just can’t get over?

4) What’s your favorite book you’ve ever been assigned to read?

5) Do you believe in the concept of guilty pleasures? Do you have any?

6) What’s the last compliment you gave someone?

7) What’s your favorite theme song of a TV show?

8) What’s the strangest band/musical artist you regularly listen to?

9) Do you have a favorite poem or poet?

10) If you could acquire fluency in any 3 languages immediately, which would you choose?

11) Of the five senses (hearing, smelling, seeing, tasting, feeling), which is your favorite?

i’ll tag @shecomesincolors @nospoonsgiven @sneez @pavlovers @a-stringofpearls @bohemian-brian @buddyhollyscurls @mylittlehappy @beatlesgirlfab @yerawizardjimmeh and @uhohitsthecops if they’re interested

#tag #thanks again zuki :) this was fun

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achraf1149 · 4 years

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Best Books 2019: The Best of the Year

With the end of the year upon us, it’s time to talk about the best books of 2019.

Last year when I wrote my best books of 2018 post, I had only been a book blogger for a few months. Consequently, I had to rely heavily on reviews and bestseller lists to decide the best books of the year.

Let’s just say, I was determined not to do that again.

This year, I went all out in my drive to read every 2019 release I could get my hands on. I emailed publishers for Advance Review Copies, I joined NetGalley to get more Advance Review Copies and put library holds on every 2019 new release I could. In all, I read 74 different new releases!

Thus, I can definitively say that these are the best books of 2019.

While I still relied on reviews and bestseller lists for the books on my list, I feel much more confident in my selections.

Without further ado, here are my picks for the best books of 2019.

book cover Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane Just listen to this premise: NYPD cops Francis and Brian happen to move next door to each other in the suburbs. Though their children Kate and Peter become the best of friends, Francis and his wife have learned to keep their distance from Brian’s wife due to her precarious mental health. When tragedy strikes between the two families, Brian’s family moves away in shame. But when Kate and Peter fall in love, the two families must learn to confront the tragedy that ties them together. A story of love and forgiveness, Ask Again, Yes serves up the perfect blend of family drama and character study to win it all the stars and a place at the head of the best books of 2019.

A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum Following three generations of Palestinian women, Rum’s powerful story highlights the dangers of beliefs that view women as inferior. The tale begins with the arranged marriage of Isra, forced to move to America where she knows no one. Years later, Isra’s daughter Deya herself faces an arranged marriage in Brooklyn. This raw account of the oppression of women in an extremely strict family is depressing and at the same time beautifully written. Certainly worth a read, and easily one of the best debut novels of the year.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib Yara Zgheib hits the emotions hard in her debut novel. Professional dancer Anna Roux is plagued with uncertainties. In an attempt to take control, she starts controlling her eating and eventually weighs only 88 pounds. Admitted to a treatment facility for her anorexia, Anna meets other brave women fighting their own battles with eating disorders. Once you get past the formatting (short disjointed paragraphs and heavy use of italics indicating thoughts and dialogue), the raw emotion of the story draws you in as you see into Anna’s thoughts throughout her struggle with her disease. A great reminder of the power of mental illness and the awful toll anorexia takes on the body.

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin When asked what inspired her famous work, The Love Poem, renowned poet Fiona Skinner tells the story of her family. After her father’s sudden death, Fiona’s mother goes into a deep depression for three years, basically leaving the young children to fend for themselves. The four Skinner siblings’ lives forever changed during this period which they refer to as “The Pause.” They emerge closer than ever, but that time changes each one of them, with consequences following them throughout the rest of their lives. A solid piece of literary fiction, I felt just missed the mark of being great, though The New York Times bestseller list seems to disagree.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren In this hit romantic comedy, the ever unlucky Olive seems to have finally stumbled into some good luck. At her twin sister’s wedding, all the guests end up with severe food poisoning, that is except for Olive and the best man Ethan. Since there’s an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii just waiting to be used, Olive decided to swallow her extreme dislike for Ethan and go with him. When they run into Olive’s future boss, Olive’s plan to avoid Ethan runs amok as she is forced to pretend they are newlyweds. An enemies-turned-lovers romance that Amazon, as well as much of the book world, has declared one of the best books of 2019.

book cover Normal People by Sally Rooney

Normal People by Sally Rooney Irish millennial Sally Rooney is back with certainly one of the most anticipated 2019 books among critics with her second novel in the new adult genre. Exploring the relationship between two people – Marianne, whose family has taught her she doesn’t deserve love, and Connell, who is too concerned with what other people think – Rooney gives an insightful look at the connection between two people, sometimes positive and sometimes negative. A solid entry into the new adult genre, it delivers plenty of food for thought. Be warned, the romance gets a tad graphic. Also, I spent a chunk of the book wanting to smack the characters in the back of the head for the choices they continued to make.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid Already snapped up by Reese Witherspoon’s company to become an Amazon miniseries, Daisy Jones and the Six is making waves this year. After her highly successful novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid is back with an addictingly fun read about the rise and fall of a fictional 70s band. With sex, drugs, and plenty of drama, you’ll feel like you are watching a biopic on VH1 – but an extremely well-written one. Daisy Jones and the Six is my pick for the best book of the entire year.

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo Eleven-year-old Ren is given one final task when his master dies: to find his master’s severed finger and return it, in the next 49 days, or his master’s soul will be doomed to wander the earth. From there, his story will mingle with that of dance hall girl Ji Lin who has found the finger, all while a tiger stalks the town. Mixing Chinese folklore and superstition with historical fiction, Choo brings the time to live in this beautifully written and imaginative story. You’ll feel completely swept away into the slight mysticism of the story, and I agree with Amazon that this is one of the best books of 2019.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes From the author of Me Before You, one of my top sob-worthy books, comes a new novel that will charm you. Set during the Great Depression, Englishwoman Alice Wright marries a handsome American and finds herself transplanted to rural Kentucky. To escape her unhappy home life with her withdrawn husband and overbearing father-in-law, Alice agrees to become a traveling librarian, riding around the countryside bringing books to residents. In her new job, she meets other fierce women and gains lasting friendships. Add in plenty of drama, love stories, corrupt businessmen, and even murder, and you have the perfect light historical fiction for anyone who wants a Hallmark Channel style novel to read.

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris In the sequel to her highly successful novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris takes on another remarkable true story. After surviving Auschwitz, sixteen-year-old Cilka finds herself convicted for collaborating with the enemy. Consequently, she is sentenced to a Siberian gulag where the horrors start all over again. Yet, there she meets a doctor who helps her find a purpose in her suffering by caring for the injured of the camp. A tale of love and hope even in the most desperate circumstances, Cilka’s Journey is an inspiring fictional work based on a true story.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See On the island of Jeju just off the Korean peninsula lives a society where women are the breadwinners – sea divers risking untold hazards to provide for their families from the ocean. Among them are best friends Mi-Ja and Young-sook, two girls just entering their village’s diving collective. Telling the account of their lives from the Japanese occupation in the 1930s, through World War II and the tumultuous aftermath up to the present, Lisa See’s latest historical fiction novel is a beautifully written account. If you love reading historical fiction about different cultures, this is one of the best books of 2019 that you don’t want to miss.

The Gown by Jennifer Robson Jennifer Robson’s latest book release got rave reviews from almost all my blogger friends. In The Gown, Robson takes a peek behind the scenes at the women involved in making Queen Elizabeth’s famous wedding dress. I love historical fiction novels because I always have so much fun researching facts from fiction. If you are a fan of royal weddings, be sure to try out this one.

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evelynmcdonnell · 5 years

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Death and the Maiden panel, Pop Conference 2019: Solvej Schou, Michelle Threadgould, Lucretia Tye Jasmine, Holly George-Warren, and Evelyn McDonnell. Photo by Janet Goodman, artwork by Marianne Stokes.

We should have packed tissues. The theme of the annual Pop Conference at the Museum of Pop in Seattle this year was death. It was couched in a lot of verbiage: “Only You and Your Ghost Will Know: Music, Death, and Afterlife” was the official 11-word title. But it didn’t take a seance to locate the ghosts. They were all around, as we tried to pontificate without breaking into tears. I failed at both the panel and roundtable I moderated, suddenly finding myself unable to speak. I believe so did everyone else I shared a dais with. It was weird to find oneself suddenly, repeatedly vulnerable in the quasi-academic space of delivering a paper. As I always tell my kid, weird is good.

MoPop felt like a safe space to let oneself feel, perhaps because in the conference’s 17 years, so many bonds have been formed. I was riding with multiple posses myself. And of course, there was a ghost in this machine: It was the first year PopCon was not run by Eric Weisband, with keynote assistance from his spouse Ann Powers (both of whom I have known since long before there was a PopCon). Charles Hughes, of Rhodes College, nobly and ably ferried us across the Mersey to this Pop afterlife. It was the saddest year, and the funnest year.

There were more than 100 presentations over four days, and I can’t possibly mention even all of those I saw. Let’s just say it began with a keynote panel where Journey frontman Steve Perry was the most solid, emotionally honest classic rock star you could imagine sitting with a bunch of scholars and lesser luminaries, and it ended, for me, with a fascinating rumination on the influence of Franz Liszt on Donny Hathaway by I. Augustus Durham. The highlight, perhaps of any PopCon presentation I have ever seen, was the slideshow duet by Hugo Burnham and Jon King on the strange business of rock-band reunions, a subject they know all too well. They were brilliant and poignant and funny, and they were one-half of Gang of Four!!! Dave Allen was in the audience, and the Gang of Three DJed that evening. Women who write Vivien Goldman and Holly George-Warren and I danced till the midnight hour.

Earlier that day, I moderated What Becomes Legend Most, a panel featuring the authors of the first four books from the Music Matters series, which I not incoincidentally edit (along with Oliver Wang) for University of Texas Press. Fred Goodman delivered seemingly without notes a lyrical summary of the extraordinary art and life of the late singer Lhasa de Sela. At the end, he simply played a video of her performing “The Bells” a few months before her death from cancer at age 2010. You could have heard a pin drop in the JBL Theater.

LHASA_LIVE IN MONTREAL 2009, part 5 from Vincent Moon / Petites Planètes on Vimeo.

Tom Smucker compared the crazy death of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson to the unlikely survival of his brother Brian. Karen Tongson pondered the suburban tragedy of her namesake, Karen Carpenter. Donna Gaines paid ode to her heroes and friends in the Ramones. Hearing their literary meditations all together made me understand on an emotional level what we are trying to accomplish with this series: putting on the page that ongoing argument you have with every music lover you know, about why your favorite band/musician is the GOAT. That night we held a release party for Tongson’s Why Karen Carpenter Matters that doubled as a launch party for the series; attendees included future authors Caryn Rose (Why Patti Smith Matters), Michelle Threadgould (Why Rage Against the Machine Matters), and Annie Zaleski (Why the B52’s Matter).

Too early after the late night of parties and dancing, Saturday morning I moderated Death and the Maiden, a roundtable of contributors from Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyonce. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl. The venue was the museum’s capacious Sky Church, so we began the proceedings with Solvej Schou singing “Amazing Grace”, then took a moment to pay respect to Nipsy Hussle and Gary Stewart, two visionaries from the City of Angels who are now angels themselves. We discussed how death – supposedly the great equalizer – can be shaped by gender. Holly George-Warren compared the tragic trajectories of Patsy Cline, whom she wrote about for Women Who Rock, and Janis Joplin; her biography of the music legend will be published in the fall. Lucretia Tye Jasmine spoke hauntingly about hunger, shaming, and Karen Carpenter (yes, I presided over two papers about Carpenter). Schou paid homage in words and song to Sharon Jones. Threadgould weaved a poetic narrative about mortality through the works of Diamanda Galas, Laurie Anderson, and Selena. Folks were smart and deep. I was proud to be their editor/interlocutor.

Donna Gaines, Karen Tongson, Tom Smucker, Fred Goodman, Evelyn McDonnell. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Donna Gaines, Karen Tongson, Tom Smucker, Fred Goodman, and Evelyn McDonnell. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Solvej Schou, Michelle Threadgould, Lucretia Tye Jasmine, Holly George-Warren and Evelyn McDonnell at Pop Conference 2019. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Michelle Threadgould, Lucretia Tye Jasmine, Holly George-Warren, Evelyn McDonnell. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Solvej Schou, Michelle Threadgould, Lucretia Tye Jasmine, Holly George-Warren and Evelyn McDonnell at Pop Conference 2019. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Solvej Schou. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Michelle Threadgould and Lucretia Tye Jasmine. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Casey Kittrell, Donna Gaines, Evelyn McDonnell, and Fred Goodman. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Music Matters writers Donna Gaines and Karen Tongson. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Fred Goodman and Evelyn McDonnell. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Dr. Donna Gaines sermonizes about the Ramones at Pop Conference 2019. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Tom Smucker at Pop Conference. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Donna Gaines and Karen Tongson. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Donna Gaines, Karen Tongson, Tom Smucker, Fred Goodman, Evelyn McDonnell. Photo by Janet Goodman.

Women Who Rock writers Ann Powers, Evelyn McDonnell, Vivien Goldman, Michelle Threadgould, Solvej Schou, and Liz Pelly.

Vivien Goldman on the monorail

Evelyn McDonnell on the monorail

Vivien Goldman and Evelyn McDonnell at Pike Place

Music Matters authors Michelle Threadgould, Donna Gaines, Caryn Rose, Annie Zaleski and editor Evelyn McDonnell

Jon King and Hugo Burnham at Pop Conference 2019.

Jon King and Hugo Burnham deliver a master lecture on band reunion tours.

And then we had fun fun fun. Vivien and I took the theme literally, ghosting for an afternoon to shop at Pike Place. Donna and Tye read tarot cards. There was sushi with Tricia Romano. For the first time at Pop Conference, I checked out Saturday night karaoke, and was glad I did. Attendees’ love of the music they get all theoretical about was on drunken display, and I marveled at everyone’s humility, their lack of embarrassment – as well as at some genuinely great voices (Kate Kay, Kathy Fennessy). Hearing Karen Tongson sing “On Top of the World” made me all weepy again. Girl sings it like she writes it. The day that began with Solvej’s “Amazing Grace” ended with her karaoke of “Respect.” Baby she got it.

We should have organized a jazz line. That’s how I felt flying back from Portland on Tuesday, having followed the conference with a visit to my oldest bestie, Cindy, who has been busy the last seven months kicking cancer’s butt. If you’re going to spend four days talking about death and music, book a New Orleans brass band to march you outta there. And then on Thursday came the Tweet. Thanks, Beyonce.

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Pop Afterlife We should have packed tissues. The theme of the annual Pop Conference at the Museum of Pop in Seattle this year was death.

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