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      Taylor Swift Fans Crave a Presidential Endorsement

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      Taylor Swift’s coveted support went to President Biden in 2020. A shadowy figure in an Instagram photo led some fans to make the leap that she will champion Kamala Harris.Are they just seeing things, or does that silhouette of a Taylor Swift backup dancer resemble Vice President Kamala Harris?The internet army of Swift fans often treats decoding the pop star’s Easter eggs as a part-time job, so speculation spread when some suggested that a photo Ms. Swift had posted to Instagram from her Eras Tour, which has been crisscrossing Europe this summer, could be a hint at support for a certain presidential ticket.And yet, there has been no endorsement from Ms. Swift, who has increasingly thrown her outsize influence behind progressive politics. In October 2020, her pronouncement of support for Joseph R. Biden Jr. did not leave anything up for interpretation.The photo in question, which Ms. Swift included in a post about her recent concerts in Warsaw, aligns with a standard transition from the tour in which her backup dancers — wearing pantsuits not unlike the kind that Ms. Harris happens to favor — strut offstage between songs.Despite the counterarguments, some Swifties were convinced that the post was a coded message. A liberal segment of the fandom is eager for the singer to make her allegiances known, and the leap underscores Ms. Swift’s power as someone who can influence electoral politics in a single social media post. (In 2023, one Instagram post of hers led to 35,000 new voter registrations.)A representative for Ms. Swift did not immediately respond to a question about the fandom’s reaction to the singer’s post.Ms. Swift’s Democratic leanings and her supercharged cultural prominence on N.F.L. broadcasts last season have irritated supporters of the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, some of whom have pushed conspiracy theories that her presence was meant to boost President Biden’s now-scrambled re-election. Ms. Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, named Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota her running mate on Tuesday.The chatter about Ms. Swift’s recent Instagram post revived debate over the role of a pop star in politics.“If we’re going to pay that much money as consumers, you don’t need to serve up politics for that,” Harris Faulkner, the Fox News host, said on television after the speculation about the concert photo swept the internet. “When people pay to see you, just perform.”The Eras Tour has been on its major European leg this summer. On Wednesday, three concerts in Vienna were canceled after Austrian officials announced the arrests of two men whom they accused of plotting a terrorist attack, saying that one of them had focused on several stadium shows Ms. Swift had planned for this week.Ms. Swift had begun to openly flex her electoral influence toward November’s election — but not toward any specific candidate. In March, when Mr. Biden was still at the top of the ticket, Ms. Swift encouraged her millions of Instagram followers to make a plan to vote in the presidential primaries, in a nonpartisan message that urged fans to “vote the people who most represent YOU into power.” More

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      Taylor Swift’s Vienna Concerts Are Canceled After Terror Plot Arrests

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      Three shows were called off after Austrian officials arrested two men and accused them of plotting a terrorist attack, and said that one had been focused on her upcoming stadium concerts.Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has been canceled in Austria after officials announced the arrest of two men whom they accused of plotting a terrorist attack in Vienna, with one of them focusing on several stadium shows the singer had planned for this week.An Austrian concert promoter, Barracuda Music, announced the cancellation of the three shows in a post on Instagram. Nearly 200,000 people had been expected to attend the Vienna concerts, which were to start on Thursday.“We have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety,” the Instagram post said.Officials in Austria said at a news conference on Wednesday that two men had been arrested and accused of plotting a terrorist attack. One of them, a 19-year-old Austrian citizen, had recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State online and had focused on the Eras Tour as a potential target, said Franz Ruf, an Austrian public security official.Law enforcement carried out a raid at the man’s home in Ternitz, a town south of Vienna, and found chemical substances, Mr. Ruf said, noting that officials sent a bomb squad to the home.The other man was arrested in Vienna.“Both suspects had become radicalized on the internet and had taken concrete preparatory actions for a terrorist attack,” said a news release from the Austrian interior department.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Green Day Comes Around, Celebrating Two Album Anniversaries

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      With a raised eyebrow, a wrinkled nose and lips curled into a defiant grin, Billie Joe Armstrong looked wide-eyed into the crowd at Citi Field in Queens on Monday night and mouthed the words “I love you.” Tré Cool sat, blue-haired and snarling, at the drum kit. Mike Dirnt planted his feet firmly in a wide stance, with his bass at his knees.Green Day, the long-running California punk band, opened the full United States leg of its Saviors Tour in New York this week, with a bill featuring contemporaries (Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid) and young upstarts (the Linda Lindas). The tour, supporting the group’s latest album, coincides with the 30th anniversary of its breakout 1994 LP “Dookie” and the 20th anniversary of its acclaimed 2004 release “American Idiot.”Both albums were played in their entirety before a cross-generational crowd that became a pulsing sea of black, red and neon pink. Despite the smothering humidity, there was gelled hair as far as the eye could see. Studded belts sat atop black skinny jeans and red ties adorned black button-down shirts.Green Day’s bassist Mike Dirnt, left, and drummer Tré Cool backstage.Billie Joe Armstrong preparing for the show.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Missy Elliott on Her Out of This World Tour and Groundbreaking Career

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      The tour’s fun house stage The tour’s fun house stage “Lose Control” (2005) “Lose Control” (2005) Another look from the Out of This World tour Another look from the Out of This World tour Elliott’s “sexy hip-hop” outfit Elliott’s “sexy hip-hop” outfit Elliott’s ‘Out of This World’ stage design Elliott’s ‘Out of This World’ stage […] More

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      As Ukraine War Goes On, Where Is Teodor Currentzis’s Red Line?

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      Teodor Currentzis, whose MusicAeterna receives funding from a Russian state bank, has eluded censure at the prestigious Salzburg Festival.When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the classical music world’s reaction was swift. Artists with ties to President Vladimir V. Putin, or those who had publicly supported his war efforts, were dropped by orchestras and opera houses across the West.One person who seemed to elude such punishment, though, was Teodor Currentzis, who is leading concerts and a production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” at the prestigious Salzburg Festival in Austria. More than two years into the war, his continued presence there is frustrating to many, raising uncomfortable questions about what is acceptable in service of music.Currentzis, who was born in Greece, was given Russian citizenship by Putin’s government in 2014, the year Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula. Two decades ago, he founded MusicAeterna, a small musical empire that started as an orchestra and now includes a choir and dance company in St. Petersburg.MusicAeterna doesn’t have any direct affiliation with Putin, but it came under scrutiny after the 2022 invasion because of support from the state-controlled VTB Bank (which has been penalized by the United States), as well as other government-related donors. Currentzis has been silent about the war, neither denouncing Russia nor supporting Ukraine.And he has lost some work as a result. Earlier this year, the Wiener Festwochen in Austria canceled an appearance by him and the German SWR Symphony Orchestra after fierce criticism from the Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv, who appeared at the same festival with Ukrainian musicians.Salzburg has stood by Currentzis but not by his Russian musicians. The “Don Giovanni” here is a revival of a production that originated in 2021, with him conducting. Then, the pit ensemble was MusicAeterna. Now it’s Utopia, the all-star group, in the spirit of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, that he started in 2022; pointedly, it is based in Western Europe.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Lincoln Center Taps Education Leader as Next President

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      Mariko Silver, a former president of Bennington College, will take the reins of the organization as it seeks to expand its audience and increase fund-raising.Mariko Silver, a prominent leader in education, government and the nonprofit sphere, will serve as the next president and chief executive of Lincoln Center, the organization announced on Wednesday.Silver, who previously led Bennington College in Vermont and the Henry Luce Foundation in New York, will succeed Henry Timms, who left last month after five years in the job.She will take the reins of Lincoln Center as it works to broaden its audience, navigate an uncertain economy and push through an ambitious plan to tear down the barriers between the center and the surrounding neighborhood. She will also help shape its programming; the center has recently shifted away from classical music in favor of genres like pop, hip-hop, social dance and comedy.“Lincoln Center is the beating heart of New York City,” Silver said in an interview. “I’m incredibly excited to get going and do the work of bringing more beauty, more joy, more art and more human feeling into the world.”The appointment is a milestone for Lincoln Center: Silver, 46, whose father is Jewish and mother is Japanese American, will be the first woman of color to serve as president and chief executive. It is also a homecoming of sorts: Silver grew up a few blocks from the center and studied dance and theater as a child.Steven R. Swartz, the president and chief executive of Hearst, who serves as chair of Lincoln Center’s board, said the organization was impressed by Silver’s record as a nonprofit executive. At Bennington, where she was president from 2013 to 2019, she oversaw the largest capital campaign in the school’s history, raising more than $90 million. She also serves as chair of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art’s board and was an official at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Blondie’s Debbie Harry Taps Personal Style for Wildfang Collection

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      For a new collection with the brand Wildfang, the Blondie singer took inspiration from a personal wardrobe she cultivated by dressing “as daring as you could.”A designer lives inside Debbie Harry. She’ll tell you so herself.As the lead signer of the pop-punk band Blondie, iterations of which have been performing for six decades, Ms. Harry has assembled her own stage wardrobe, a rough-hewn bricolage of shredded prom dresses, spandex bodysuits, fishnet arm warmers and skin-baring vintage castoffs.“I’ve always fiddled around and tried to make statements out of combining things that normally would not be looked at,” she said. “That was the fun — to make it as rock ‘n’ roll and as daring as you could. It was part of the expression of breaking out.”Since forming Blondie in the 1970s with the guitarist Chris Stein, her onetime boyfriend, Ms. Harry has rarely drifted out of public consciousness. In recent years, she has released a memoir and, with her band, albums featuring new music as well as classic songs like “Heart of Glass,” the disco track that helped make Blondie a household name. It has been covered by younger performers like Miley Cyrus, who, in a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone, credited Ms. Harry with blazing a path for new generations of artists.To some, Ms. Harry’s image as the Blondie front woman has been as influential as the band’s music. Her rocker style was the basis for a new collaboration with Wildfang, a brand in Portland, Ore., which this month released a small collection inspired by pieces that the 79-year-old singer pulled from her closet.Pieces in Ms. Harry’s Wildfang line are inspired by items from her own closet.Nicholas O’Donnell/WildfangThe collection includes a suit jacket and trousers, two shirts and a sweatshirt. Those items, priced from about $45 to $200, make liberal reference to Ms. Harry’s familiar wardrobe staples — and to her raw, tear-down-the-barricades sensibility.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Stop Asking Celebrities to Sing Our National Anthem

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      The tradition of performing the anthem took off because people wanted to express their own love of country — not outsource it to guest stars.It was the first game of the 1918 World Series. The Chicago Cubs were playing the Boston Red Sox in Chicago. The country had entered World War I the previous year, so the baseball season leading up to this series had been cut short — men of draft age had been given a deadline to join the war effort.During the seventh-inning stretch, the military band in the stadium tried something new. The song they played was an old one, and it had been played at baseball games before — typically on special occasions, like opening day. But it had been recently rearranged by a team that included the renowned John Philip Sousa. When the band broke into this new version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” there was no script to follow; everything was improvised. Players took off their hats and faced the flag. Fred Thomas, an active-duty sailor who played for the Red Sox, struck a military salute. As for the audience: “First the song was taken up by a few,” The Times reported, “then others, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field. It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day’s enthusiasm.”The moment was powerful enough that the band played “The Star-Spangled Banner” again at the second game of the series, and again at the third. When play moved to Boston, the band there played it, too — now at the beginning of the game, and accompanied, in one case, by the presentation of wounded soldiers who had been given tickets. The song has been played at every World Series game since. In 1931, it became the nation’s official anthem. By World War II, the spread of electronic public-address systems meant it could be performed — and eventually sung — at every professional baseball game, not just those where someone hired a band.Today it is a fixture at most all American sporting events, professional and amateur alike. (In many countries, the national anthem is typically played only before international competitions.) Promising young vocalists sing it at local games. Celebrities vie to perform it at high-wattage events like the World Series and the Super Bowl. What was once a novel, improvised wartime gesture has become a ritual — something we expect as a matter of course.It is a tough gig, whatever the circumstances. The song’s melody is notoriously difficult to belt out. Amateur singers are cut plenty of slack — it’s the spirit that counts — but pop stars are held to a high standard. We ask them to apply their talents to stir us into special contact with our own love of country. But we ask them to do so as part of big-budget, for-profit spectacles, in a media culture that valorizes novelty over tradition.Anthem fails constitute a subgenre of their own.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More