I was originally scheduled to depart Buenos Aires on Monday, October 17, but a mechanical failure or a Chilean volcano delayed my flight by a full day. I arrived in Las Vegas Wednesday, but I flew to San Diego the next day to attend the Taylor Swift Speak Now World Tour with Alec.

The event was held at the Valley View Casino Center, selling out 10,834 seats. There are 111 dates on the tour, and every seat has sold out.

The listed showtime was 7:00pm, but Swift did not appear onstage until 8:30pm. The show ended at 10:45pm. She played 18 tracks and went through nine costume changes, although she wore the same shoes a few times. Swift played 12 of the 14 tracks off Speak Now, omitting "Never Grow Up" and "Innocent."

Our seats were in the 6th row with a face value of $79.50 each, although we paid a market value of $240 per. Forbes Magazine estimates that Swift earned $45 million last year, but if I were her, I would be irate at my management and promoters for mispricing the tickets substantially below market value. The aggregate difference in millions of dollars between her gross tour box office and the actual street value is captured by the secondary market instead of her.

The concert was awesome, and I would definitely go to another Taylor Swift concert. I feel fortunate to have seen her at the second-smallest arena (Lubbock had a sell-out crowd of 10,419) on the North American tour. Seeing her from the next zip code at Gillette Stadium with 110,799 other fans would not have been as gratifying. Binoculars are available for rental at these concerts, but you have a terrible seat if you require one.


Latest film seen: Sing Your Song (2011).
Latest TV seen: Prohibition (PBS documentary, 2011).
Latest book read:  Darkness at Noon (1941) by Arthur Koestler.
Miles flown year-to-date: 67,368.