renaissauce
i'm thankful for how the opening monologue of the renaissance tour movie is literally beyoncé saying a litany of sentences that start with "i'm thankful for".
i'm thankful that the movie was really good (and sitting in a movie theater in a soft reclining chair having had 60mg of edibles is really the only way i want to see three hour concerts), though i was struck by a paradox, which is that in the taylor tour movie, the live arrangements of the songs were generally more interesting to me than the recorded versions of same, whereas for beyoncé the recorded versions have so much more texture and exquisite detail, are so much richer, that i found the live mixes to pale a bit in comparison (and yet their liveness is essential because at the core of the film is witnessing the superhuman voice and body of the artist, who is wagner and maria callas and anna pavlova all at the same time). i'm thankful that while i think i found the taylor movie more purely enjoyable on the surface level, i left the renaissance movie more inspired and invigorated as an artist (thankful for both)
i'm thankful for the iconic philomena cunk moments 1) about "single ladies" vs. the renaissance and 2) renaissauce and to provide a yearly reminder of her christmas special, which, as someone with a chronic allergy to schmaltz, is one of the only bits of christmas content i enjoy partaking in (the other bit is, of course, the GOAT "background singers")
i'm thankful that i tore the roof of my mouth on a perfect bahn mi (worth it)
i'm thankful to have uncovered an erasure in an op-ed by amanda hess:
