Taylor Swift performed Out Of The Woods on Kimmel last night. They shut down the block for her. I told you last week that I love the song – click here for a refresher – and that I can’t stop listening to it. Seeing her performing it is an entirely different experience. Taylor Swift’s new stage presence is an entirely difference experience.
Perhaps it happened over time. When I took my niece to her RED concert in Vancouver summer 2013, there was no hesitation in her attitude; I wouldn’t say she was lacking in confidence. But now, that confidence seems a lot more potent. Almost like she’s challenging you. With a slight swagger? It’s there, right? I’m not imagining it?
I think I like it.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend some time with Lena Dunham. She was a guest on The Social and then I introduced her before her reading at the Toronto Public Library. Dunham is articulate and thoughtful. Duana picked it out first – that she speaks in full, proper sentences with all kinds of punctuation, often complicated punctuation, without ummmming and ahhhhing and very little “likes” between words. Listening to her speak is mesmerising because she’s actually saying some real sh-t. You might not agree – you don’t have to agree – but her ideas have been fully considered; that’s not to say they’re still fully formed but you know immediately that they’re being worked on in a mind that is, refreshingly and consistently, always at work.
I am much older than Lena Dunham and I find that she influences and provokes. So I wonder what she might influence in Taylor Swift, what she might provoke in Taylor Swift, and how that might be manifested in this iteration of Taylor Swift.
