Swift City

Glendale is a suburb of Phoenix, and was host of this year's Superbowl . Turns out Taylor Swift is a bit popular and has a couple sold out shows at the stadium. And there's a bit of city rebranding going on.

Glendale, Arizona, is changing its name to Swift City in honor of Taylor Swift launching the Eras Tour at State Farm Stadium with two sold-out performances on Friday and Saturday, March 17-18.

The temporary and symbolic rebrand takes effect Friday, the opening day of the tour, and lasts through Saturday.

The name Swift City was unveiled at a news conference on Monday where Glendale Mayor Jerry P. Weiers read a proclamation laying out the case for Swift and Glendale in a series of sentences beginning with "Whereas" and referencing lyrics to several hits on his way to a closing involving the words "I do hereby declare."

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Of An Age

Obviously you can never over share on the internet. And I'm of an age now where I'm going to do a thing. A really really fun thing. Want to guess? Here's a clue.

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Lullabye

Espen Kraft (who has a wonderful YouTube Channel by the way) released his latest album Dreams at the end of last year. It's a great trip down 80s synthwave nostalgia lane. I'm loving the instrumental track Lullabye that closes out the album.

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Ghosts Again

Today Depeche Mode released Ghosts Again from their upcoming album Momento Mori. In January I mentioned I have a complicated relationship with the band but ultimately I was cautiously looking forward to the new material.

And here it is. And I must say, I love it. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in a way no Depeche song has done in a long time. So bravo gentlemen.

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Super Bowl

You may have heard that the Super Bowl is this coming Sunday. And it's here in our fair city. Well, it's in Glendale to be fair, and we used to live in walking distance of the stadium before we moved into Phoenix proper.

As you can imagine it's the only thing the local news is talking about. There are "NFL experience" events all over town, concerts, and visitors. Drove past one of the smaller public airports this morning, the private jets of the rich and famous are already arriving and parked.

This is my one "football" game I watch a year. I don't have a horse in the race obviously so just hoping for a decent game. The fun of it is really going to see friends and the odd frosty beverage while the game is on TV.

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Phoenix This Very Winter

When the never ending summer has day after day of the same weather you yearn for something, anything, that's just different. Variety, after all, is the spice of life. And we Phoenix residents are a funny bunch. We're never more happy when clouds appear over the mountains, even happier when they deliver rain.

So at this time of the year it's nice to be…cold. It's been bitterly cold here in the mornings every day this week. Like, see your breath and make sure your plants are covered, cold. My car's dashboard pinged a 'low temperature outside' warning as we hit 32°F driving to school.

There's just something about being able to wear a coat, sip hot Americanos, and breath in that crisp air.

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