Taylor Mania

First, an admission.
We didn’t actually go to Vancouver to see the much-hyped Taylor Swift tour.
I mean we’re not stupid.
We didn’t just pay off our mortgage, only to take out another one to buy three overpriced tickets to see a pop star.

In fact, we didn’t even go to see Taylor Swift. Instead, we went to see acclaimed tribute artist Katy Ellis (a self-described Swiftie) with an incredible live band and a couple of talented and energetic young dancers. Together they were ‘Taylor Mania’ the UK’s number one Taylor Swift tribute act.
We made a point of buying the tickets directly from the venue and avoided the criminal markups by ticket reseller services pretending to be free enterprisers instead of scalpers, with tickets denominated in US dollars.
That meant we had to get seats in three separate rows. I was in the back my granddaughter in the middle and my wife in front of her.

As a bearded, grey-haired man in my early seventies I sat in the middle of a row otherwise made up of 8 to 13 year-old girls and their mothers, and tried desperately not to look like a pedophile.
I hadn’t really listened to Taylor Swift before – except for a duet with country singer Chris Stapleton. As a child of the seventies and the British invasion, I’ve recently developed a bit of a guilty pleasure listening to country music.

Taylor Mania –

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Launch – June 16th, 2023

The MAIN STREET JOURNAL was launched online in 2023, as a kind of Canadian, small business counterpoint to the venerable WALL STREET JOURNAL (WSJ), established in New York City in 1889.

Canada’s small businesses are smaller than most people think.

This is true for people that work in small businesses, for policymakers, business schools, and the business press. The self-employed and other small business owners don’t ‘get no respect’ and yet about 73% of private sector employment in Canada is made up of the 2.85 million self-employed individuals, and 1.3 million small employer businesses which average less than 7 employees.

We believe it’s time that these workers, and the small business owner-managers that employ them, got some respect. What’s more, we believe that business schools and policymakers should get out of their ivory towers and take a walk on Main Street!

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