“It’s just that all of these Caribbean resorts look exactly the same to me. It’s just a random beach.”
“Oh I see. You think this has nothing to do with you. You sit at your laptop, and you select… I don’t know, that all-inclusive resort for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what cookie-cutter consumerist hotel your parents made you go to.
But what you don’t know is that hotel isn’t just all-inclusive, it’s not Ixtapa, it’s not Zihuatanejo. It’s actually Cancún. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in the late 60s, Mexico ran a huge trade deficit with the US. They were industrializing rapidly, importing machinery and materials that had to be paid for in dollars. Then I believe it was INFRATUR, wasn’t it, that actually spent months building a computer model, feeding data to an IBM 360 to analyze Mexico’s entire coastline, evaluating climate, beach quality, accessibility, and development costs.
Then they identified Cancún as a strategic tourism development zone, deliberately modeled on postwar Mediterranean resort economies. By the mid-1990s, major U.S. and European hotel chains standardized the all-inclusive resort model there. That model was then replicated, refined, and exported across the Caribbean.
Eventually, that choice filtered down through Expedia algorithms, airline bundle deals, and trickled on down into some TikTok’s influencer video which you no doubt watched in bed doom scrolling. However, Cancún represents billions of dollars in coordinated state planning, private capital, labor arbitrage, and tourism dependency. Tens of thousands of jobs. Entire regional supply chains.
And it’s sort of comical that you think you simply picked "a random beach" when in fact you’re sipping a piña colada at a resort selected for you by the Mexican federal government’s years-long optimization process… from a bunch of random beaches.”
As someone who also sings and performs for 3 hour shows, I feel every bit of this! Miserable at the time, but worth it to not be completely huffing and puffing on stage 😂
Taylor Swift reflecting on the routine that carried her through The Eras Tour, a season of movement and discipline that made three hours on stage possible.
“Six months ahead of my first rehearsal, I was running on the treadmill every single day at the tempo of the songs that I was playing while singing them out loud [….] I think I run like 8 miles in the show.”
— “I’ve never worked out this much in my life…. it’s horrible.”
CRYRS / Rock N Bowl / Lafayette, LA / 6.14.25 / 800+ people
1st show back postpartum. Our highest attendance ever. In our home town. Very much looking forward to the run of shows this year 🤘🖤
Last year, I performed 9/16 shows pregnant. We played along the I-10 corridor from Austin, TX to Destin, FL. We performed 3 hour shows without breaks until I was 7 months pregnant. A month after giving birth, I was back at band practice trying to find my groove again.
Sheep falling on their backs happens a lot — and can be fatal. If you find a sheep like this, grab a good handful of wool and turn it around.
It typically happens to pregnat sheep, more vulnerable to falling over.
Really cool moment today where my 2 year old said he built a rocket ship with magnet tiles, then was able to watch a rocket take off ~5 minutes later 🇺🇸