Taylor Swift’s Nuisance Nashville Fan

Taylor Swift recently played three shows in Nashville, one even went on in the pouring rain! What a rockstar she is, whether you like her music or not. A lot of fans were able to get tickets after waiting hours and hours and hours and…. hours. Some people weren’t able to get tickets, obviously. There are only so many seats in Nissan Stadium, after all. So the shows came and went and then this story came out in the local Nashville news. An assisstant principal wrote Taylor a letter weaving in a lot of her song titles.

The gist of the letter, which goes on for a couple more paragraphs, was asking Taylor to come visit Hendersonville High School, where Taylor attended at some point in her high school career. Sounds innocent enough, right? But the writer made a major error. In the very first paragraph she said that she had tickets to Taylor’s show but sold them. I’m actually ticked off at this woman because she could’ve seen Taylor but didn’t. She made a conscious choice to make some money off the fame of Taylor Swift. That’s fine, but next she has the audacity to turn around and, after cashing in on the tickets, beg Taylor to do something for her. Now she just sounds like a selfish leech. I’m not at all surprised that Taylor didn’t show up to the school like a princess on a white horse. I wouldn’t have either… except maybe to ask the woman in-person how much she made from the tickets she would’ve, could’ve, should’ve, used. I’d ask her quietly, of course. Then I’d go hug all the students and be the highlight of their high school year while that woman knows that I know that she knows that I know.

Speaking of knowing things… Did you know Taylor was in a music video WAY before she was famous? Make a guess on which video it was then click here for the answer!

This assistant principal woman took advantage of Taylor and then wanted to double down by taking advantage again! Asking Taylor to change her schedule was a selfish idea. Having her show up at the school wasn’t for the kids, you know. It was so the woman would feel happy about herself and be liked by the students at the school. Nice try, Teach! Better luck next time and a piece of advice, don’t mention the way you used someone then ask the person you used to go way out of their way to be used by you again. That’s what a toxic relationship looks like, right? You should be embarrassed but soon you’ll get better if you can just shake it off.

-Out of the Wilderness

The Song in the New Walmart Commercial – Plagiarism and More

Walmart has a sweet (and slightly sour?) commercial featuring one of my favorite fruits – strawberries! Take a look then scroll down for more info about the ad…

The Music. The soundtrack to the commercial is a song called “I See It, I Like It, I Want It” by Shirley Ellis. Here’s the full track from 1965.

Same Thing Again. You might recognize the song from another national ad. This one was from Samsung advertising a couple of Galaxy phones, the fold and the flip.

Controversy. The decades-old song reminds me of one from Ariana Grande called “7 Rings,” released in 2019. Lyrics repeat the same lines I see it, I like it, I want it… then adding another line: I got it. I know it’s probably difficult to claim any kind of royalties or copyright infringement for a few short sentences but you’d think Ms. Grande would at least mention the peculiar similarity to to the song by Ms. Ellis. I haven’t found anything online mentioning the duplicate lyrics but what I DID find is other controversies about Grande’s song. Allegedly the song cadence was “stolen” from a 2010 Soulja Boy hit. Another part of the lyrics were called out as sounding like another female rapper, Queen Nokia in her song, “Mine.” Of course, the main melody of Ariana’s song is from The Sound of Music. Because of that, Ariana agreed to forfeit 90% of song royalties, which will go to the writers of the song featured in the movie.

How’s that for a little bit of a rabbit hole? Did you enjoy the Walmart commercial, which was the point of this whole post! Do you think Ariana Grande should address the similar lyrics as the Shirley Ellis song? Chime in below!

-Out of the Wilderness

1990s Bud Light Commercials that Haven’t Aged Well

Bud Light’s current situation makes the five ads below so much more funny, ironic, and cringe-worthy. Just wait till you get to the “in the can” ad. Takes on a whole new meaning now that Dylan Mulvaney (whose only option is “in the can” if you know what I mean) made an embarrassing video with his face on a can of Bud Light. Producing that can was the first bad choice Bud Light made. Since then, they can’t seem to do anything right. Every decision ads to the humiliation they’re enduring… or NOT enduring. People have dug up old commercials from Bud Light that make them look even worse than anyone ever thought possible. You see, by sending a personalized can to Dylan, they were making a statement: we embrace the trans community. That’s fine. But they clearly lost sight of their customer base. On top of that, it wasn’t long ago Bud Light was using men like Dylan as the punchline of their commercials. Here are a few of the ads from the 90s where Bud Light was making light of men in drag. And like I said, the last ad… it’s just perfectly horrible for Bud Light in 2023.

-Out of the Wilderness

DeSantis makes lethal career blunders?

I don’t know if I can take another 18 months of the politics as it’s being reported in the news and on various social networks. It’s mind-boggling that the next presidential election is so far away and yet here we are with politicians declaring their candidacy (Republicans mostly, as Joe Biden seems to be a shoe-in for the Democrats).

I voted for Donald Trump but I think his time has passed. That’s not taking away anything from what he did when he was in the office. In fact, I very much appreciate his four years as president. I just think his term was perfect timing and he was meant for the time he was president. Another term? I have my doubts. It seems like someone along the lines of a Ron DeSantis would be more fitting for where the country is now. The problem is that DeSantis seems to be making some blunders.

What’s it called when basically all someone needs to do is coast into the next phase of whatever they’re doing? Like when a football team is winning 40 to 7 with just a quarter to go. Don’t do anything crazy. Just play smart and win the game. DeSantis was poised to coast into a Republican nomination run but he’s made a few decisions that baffle me and others. Does that take away from his overall stance on what Americans care about? Maybe not. But changing laws in Florida to fit your political needs, feuding with Disney, and seemingly unnecessary overseas trips (as a governor of a state) certainly doesn’t look good. There’s a bit of a signal though, in him always being in the news. It means he’s making his opponents nervous. If he weren’t a threat, no one would really care what he does or where he goes. But it’s hard to get through a day without hearing about DeSantis in one way or another. To illustrate this point, when’s the last time you heard about Doug Burgum in the national news? Exactly. He’s the governor of North Dakota and I had to look up “who’s the governor of North Dakota” just to find out who it is.

There’s definitely an element of joy in NOT watching the news, and I suppose I’ll be going through phases where I watch a lot of it and then need a detox. It would be nice, though, if both sides could just calm down and do some actual compromising instead of fueling division.

-Out of the Wilderness