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Mike Barthel
@mikebarthel.bsky.social
Writer, critic, researcher. Writing a book for DUP “Singles” about “Party in the USA” (and also a speculative novel). Fiction in a bunch of places, ex-Pew, Awl, blogs. mikebarthelauthor.com
255 followers553 following722 posts
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Over on FB somebody posted the lineup for a Catskills borscht belt resort in the summer of ‘64. Pretty packed!

Page from a newspaper. Vic Damone, Sammy Davis Jr., Nipsey Russel, Connie Francis, many others.
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That’s what I started with, but I dunno, I had a hard time getting a handle on it in terms of a stylistic theme or something? I also liked the back half a lot more than the front half, which was a confusing experience for a Taylor Swift album.

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This is also a quiet way of saying that I really, really, really like “Florida!!”—the multiple voices lend complexity, the details are sharp, the meta feels earned—and that I should listen more a random Tortured Poets songs outside the overwhelming album. It’s her Blueberry Boat, after all!

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Right right, invisible string. And “Seven” is the PA one.

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Yeah and I feel like Pennsylvania and Tennessee get mentioned at some point?

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Yes! That’s not getting mentioned enough, quite frankly.

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Starting a playlist that I can only assume will get much longer!

Screenshot of a Spotify playlist called “Taylor swift 50 states project” with the songs “Florida” “Welcome to New York” and “Carolina”
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Everyone knows the lead in a musical can sing. What Joker: Folie à Deux presupposes is: what if they couldn’t

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Working as a legal assistant at a label and reading all the contracts that came through…it did not make me want to be signed to a record label, let me tell you that much. (The licensing deals that started happening later in my tenure looked ok, though.)

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MB
Mike Barthel
@mikebarthel.bsky.social
Writer, critic, researcher. Writing a book for DUP “Singles” about “Party in the USA” (and also a speculative novel). Fiction in a bunch of places, ex-Pew, Awl, blogs. mikebarthelauthor.com
255 followers553 following722 posts