Content Consumed: Bama RushTok, NFL’s Black Friday, and more
It’s really just one of those summers where the days go so slow, but the weeks go so fast. Happy Wednesday!
In today’s Content Consumed…
🤪 Bama RushTok returns
🥁 NFL adds Black Friday game
⛪️ “New York’s Hottest Club Is the Catholic Church”
🕹 Who plays Netflix games?
🌎 U.N.’s way of “helping” people in the oil-heavy Amazon
It’s that time of year… sorority rush
Last week at my family reunion, I got to catch up with my little cousin who goes to a Southern university with a really good football team (take your own guesses). Annoyed that I asked but receptive to my request, she performed one of the five chants that her sorority (“we’re mid-tier”) demands she memorize.
Odds it’ll end up on TikTok like a rival school of theirs, the University of Alabama, always does? We’ll see!
It’s that special time of year when every TikTok user is thrust into the world of sorority recruitment. Video after video of ominous chants, get-ready-with-me’s (according to very specific dress codes), and acronym explainers. Good luck out there, y’all!
NFL adds Black Friday game
Because we’re AMERICAN, dammit! Of course there should be a Black Friday NFL game for the post-turkey hangover-coma! And, because this is America, Amazon will be the “channel” broadcasting it.
You’ll be on Amazon anyways for the biggest shopping day of the year, so you might as well stay online a little longer to watch the Big Game. There’s plenty of college football on that day too, so just glue your eyes to your screens and keep snatching leftovers from the fridge. The American way.
Controversial NYT piece of the week:
New York’s Hottest Club Is the Catholic Church
Nope, this isn’t a classic SNL-Bill-Hader-as-Stefon bit. Traditional morality has once again acquired a transgressive glamour and all the hot young thangs are converting to Catholicism. The aesthetic appeal has always existed—just look at the 2018 “Heavenly Bodies” Met Gala. Stained glass windows, guided gold everywhere, rich hues of red and green across heavy frocks. So glam!
A standout quote from this piece: “You just do the rituals, and then it becomes real, even if you don’t [initially] believe in it. That’s what religion is.”
Apparently, Netflix has games—that no one plays
When I hear “Netflix Games”, I think of that one Black Mirror (I think?) choose-your-own-adventure simulation from 2017ish. But apparently, Netflix has dozens of games. As Gawker writes, “Netflix continues to dominate in terms of not understanding why people use Netflix or how they use Netflix or what they want Netflix to provide.”
Supposedly Netflix Games launched in late 2021 with a plan to offer 50 games by the end of this year. Less than 1% of their subscribers, about 1.7 million users, play the games daily—hey, still more than I thought!
Green mission, dirty partners
I recently read a really good book called Things Are Never So Bad They Can’t Get Worse, about the recent crisis in Venezuela. Previously, I’d been entirely oblivious to the machinations of the oil industry in the Amazon region. But hey, I’m more informed now! So I wanted to share this Times article with you.
The subhead: the United Nations Development Program, or U.N.D.P., worked with energy companies to quash opposition and keep oil flowing, even in sensitive areas. You’d think the $1.9 million regional aid package would help a village with no running water, unreliable electricity, and persistent poverty. But…
The aid program partnered with GeoPark, the multinational petroleum company which holds contracts to drill near the Siona reservation and their ancestral land. To the Siona people, oil drilling is an assault, akin to draining blood from the earth.
Whoof! That’s it for today. Thanks so much for reading. I appreciate you all!
Love,
Casey
P.S. Don’t forget to check out “I Finally Read a Colleen Hoover Book” to get all my thoughts on Verity and Hoover as an author.
