Pop Culture Mondays/1.11.21
The “WTF WAS LAST WEEK” Edition
Well hello my darling pop culture junkies and I guess I can say Happy Monday despite all that has been happening around us? Last week, I thought as we were celebrating an historic election that puts the first Black Senator in Georgia…and the first Jewish Senator in Georgia (a place near and near to my heart having spent a LOT of time in Athens and owning a home on St. Simons which is a whole other newsletter) and I thought the biggest story of the week would be Kim and Kanye (more on that later). But no, we then became a chapter in American History for which will be taught in high schools and kids will be quizzed on with questions like:
A man dressed up in the storming of the Capitol was wearing:
A. An Auschwitz sweatshirt
B. Horns and bearskin hat
C. Full on tactical gear
D. Davy Crocket if he were a nazi racist
E. ALL OF THE ABOVE
YES my darlings. Good times. We are living in history making times…as if it’s not enough to have a deadly virus that has shut down much of the world — though America is DEFINITELY WINNING if winning is staying closed the longest with the highest spread and deaths but OK, I digress. Go team. We had the madness of King George and all of his people come out last week. And while the mad king has been silenced on the major platforms…I fear this is not the last of this. I have said it here before…PLEASE READ THIS BOOK which seems even more and more and more and more relevant today.
And if you don’t believe me, LISTEN TO ARNOLD. If you happen to be one of the few who have not seen his video from this weekend then here you go. Is it over produced? Yes. Does the background music make it a bit much? Yes. Out of context does this seem like a movie trailer or a scene from a movie? Yes.
BUT…it is effective and also, at least the first half, this man familiar to all of us as action star and sort of not a great governor, he tells a pretty chilling and poignant story that is pretty incredible to tell millions of people. And I didn’t think I would watch all 7 minutes but I couldn’t stop watching it and I have watched it now like 23 times:
So, with that…and there is a LOT of that…let’s try to switch gears and go back to being a fun escape from ALL OF THE MADNESS. We need a little candy…So please enjoy this totally calorie free walk thru your fave candy store.
KIMYE NO MORE?
While I would NOT put it PAST Kris Jenner to have orchestrated the fall of democracy JUST to get the negative press off of her daughter — is there ANYTHING SHE CANNOT DO? I think with this one, the fall of democracy just happened to fall coincidentally with the ALLEGED fall of Kim and Kanye. Look, I really don’t care about their marriage or divorce but the news took over the socials for a minute…first it was the alleged break up reported in the bastion of journalism, Page Six. And look, I cannot believe I am saying this but KIM seems like way more of an evolved human than some…I mean she is getting people out of prison who should not be in prison. A pretty incredible story arc and one that should ABSOLUTELY be celebrated. Whereas Kanye is still being a petulant child and clearly has emotional meltdowns where he tries to bring everyone down with him. Publicly stating his wife tried to abort their first child was PARTICULARLY delightful. But the point is, she seems to have eclipsed him by a lot.
Now, if it were just a break up (again, not confirmed) that would be a quick news cycle and done and done. BUT then the crazy not so crazy let’s all be internet sleuths rumors started flying. People I don’t even think of as celeb gossips…like literally I would think of them as candidates for Pulitzers or Oscars were sharing TEA with me about what they “heard” or “saw” or were told by a friend who had a friend’s sister’s cousin’s boyfriend once see…you get my drift. What was the goss?
So yes…rumor had it that KIM was seeing VAN JONES of CNN. And I have to say I was like well…that makes sense. This is the next chapter. SOCIAL JUSTICE KIM is like a thing. I can get behind this. But then not to be outdone and thanks to our beloved TIKTOK, another more salacious rumor started to pop up. Forget Kim and Van…let’s talk Kanye and Jeffree Star, the social media star and make-up entrepreneur.
For those of you unfamiliar with Jeffree, definitely click on link above to his Wiki. He’s not new onto the scene, in fact started with MySpace and then became a YouTube star. He’s super social media savvy and has grown his fame into a real make-up business. SOME even say this is one LONG LONG LONG game of a collab with Jeffree and Kylie on a lip line but I cannot even process that level of grift so I am letting that go. The rumors started from what I can piece together due to Jeffree apparently being in Wyoming and in one pic, people decided that the reflection in his sunglasses was Kanye.
And there have been other men now coming out on TikTok saying they were with Kanye and showing text exchanges with his security guy coordinating the rendez-vous. ANYWAY…it is all sordid on all sides and I really actually DO NOT CARE but my FYP (FOR YOU PAGE) on TikTok was FILLED with stories about this so if I saw it, your kids are talking about it.
Here Jeffree responds to the rumors and I have to say, of all the characters in this story, I like him the most. RED BULL FOR BREAKFAST?? A bag of ONLY pink Starbursts? I mean…I have never related to anyone more…
So, that’s that for whoever is sleeping with who I don’t really care but we need to go there…post. You’re welcome. PS: I chose that pic of Kim and Kanye because after all the time I still think about her outfit a lot. Like the whole wet look and that waist and how Kanye looked like a gave zero fucks. It really lives in my brain, rent-free as the kids say.
A VOGUE MISSTEP?
I will admit, yesterday I was not on my A game as they say. Normally, friends will share stories or Instas or TikToks with me and I am like, “OLD NEWS, that was so 2 hours ago…” Sorry Britt. BUT yesterday I was nursing a slight hangover after a much needed escape down a tequila sunrise..it happens. So when I started getting texts and seeing tweets about Vogue and the drama I was taken off guard. I had to pull myself together and inhale a pot of coffee and dig in.
So the drama was around the Vogue cover photo of Vice President Harris. The picture above was what the Harris team “reportedly” agreed to as the cover photo…this has not been confirmed and the person who spoke about this do so anonymously. The pic that IS the cover is this one:
The socials erupted. The rumor that the Harris team were “blindsided” by it added fuel to this and people began picking it apart. It was disrespectful they said because it was too casual. They use her first name too casually. It was not to the quality of photographs normally seen in Vogue. Her skin was lightened, people said. The headline, “By the People, For the People: The United Stated of Fashion” was derided as frivolous and silly. People began to question if the photo was faked. Or if a junior employee leaked the photo purposefully or it was all an accident. I could just picture Anna Wintour sitting there with her team in her sunlit flawless living room seeing the floodgates open and just think to herself…WHY THE FUCK AM I STILL DOING THIS?? Ok, that’s what I would be thinking. But it’s NOT about me…
Vogue had to respond.
The photo is real. Apparently Madam VP is in her own clothes and Converse. And the pink and green — an homage to her sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha at Howard University. AND THIS was just the sort of rabbit hole a lot of us needed yesterday…I sure did as I sat there in bed with my 24 oz coffee and Advil chaser.
AND HERE IS THE COVER STORY ONLINE where they are using the other image:
IF I HAD TO WASTE BRAIN CELLS ON THIS, THEN YOU DO TOO:
Back in the old days when Democracy was still intact and a Civil War was not being mounted…way back to a week ago, this story was dominating the socials. And frankly, we DO deserve the mockery heard around the world for this.
My entire career has been around technology. I moved to Silicon Valley in 1997 because it was the land of endless possibility…the place for misfits who like to color outside of the lines. A place where anything was possible and we were JUST at the cusp of an online revolution…broadband was not widely adopted yet…people were still using dial ups…smart phones were not even a thought in our brains. We were so proud of the things that we were seeing being built. Sure there were some silly things…but we were all part of this amazing new world. It was heady at times to be sure…to be a part of something that the media was covering with bated breath…we would tell our friends and families that the Internet was AMAZING. LIFE CHANGING. When Disney thought the Internet was just ever going to be for information and education, we saw it as something SO MUCH MORE.
AND BOY were we right. REVOLUTIONARY:
It became a platform that launched an entire new industry → new category of people:
The Influencer.
Yes, we all really should be proud. We do not have flying cars or a cure for cancer. BUT WE HAVE THEM!
So, with that I give you these two special ladies:
These women are of this VERY special category. One is a model. One owns a boutique. They were friends. One had a child a few years ago and named her “Baybi” then recently, the other had her baby and named her…. “Baby”.
DRAMA.
The friends were at war. There was devastation heard around the world.
And of course, The Daily Mail got wind of it and covered it…breathlessly:
BUT really…it became PCM worthy with this amazing story for which when I saw it on Instagram I asked, “HOW DO I UNREAD THIS??” which you are probably asking yourselves right now. I know. I feel you.
This article deserves all the awards.
AND FOR SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (OR THINGS THAT ANNOYED ME BUT I HAVE TO SHOW):
GUYS!!! I mean my list of notes for things that happened this week is two pages long! Normally, I have 5 or 6 bullets but this week is fullllllll on. I mean I could sit here and write all day long and only scratch the surface…so I am going to try to squeeze some of the best, and worst, bits into this. Buckle up.
- Forget BAYBIE OR BABY…the new trendy name of 2020 is…..Via Getty! Yes, there are special people on BOTH sides of the aisle…and in this case, these were people out for blood on outing the “patriots” storming the Capitol. One person they were particularly after was the guy in costume, they believed was named Via Getty BECASE a journalist tweeted the photo explaining the photo was via Getty as in Getty IMAGES and that actually happened.
Though there were some other amusing memes that happened:
- Onion Girl. This is special. If you watched the TikTok above, it is a little boy NAILING an impression of her. The only thing missing? THE ACTUAL ONION SHE HAD IN HER TOWEL!
- Olive Garden is like JUST LEAVE ME ALONE YOU GUYS. OK, so I went to college back in the 1900s just outside of Orlando, the BIRTHPLACE of the Olive Garden. AND as a 18 year old with a really really bad fake ID there were only a handful of places I could go and get served. There was the Outback. There was BENNIGANS where I think I may have dated a waiter who wore a lot of pins on his suspenders but again, beer. AND THEN…the OG, OG. And man, I loved it. NEVER ENDING BREADSTICKS were my jam. So when Anderson Cooper went there I was like OH NO babes…that will backfire. It was a stupid elitist comment that he had to clarify but it was just TOO easy for this not to be taken by Fox and blown up:
AND OLIVE GARDEN FANS WENT NUTS as did Hannity but we won’t show him here because..No.
- And because we are all listening to cult leader Elon Musk and others, we are all dropping WHATSAPP en masse for Signal…trust me you are all going there if you are not there already.
- AND LAST BUT MOST DEFINITELY NOT LEAST….this beloved wonder IS BACK…AFTER 30 years and OMG how it is not been around for 30 years and I was actually driving and an actual person 30 years ago which seems so weird and I last tasted this magic when I was 16…16??? OMG.
Well…I tried. I ignored SOHO Karen, and Harry Styles and Olivia and Bean Dad apology and more Hilary Baldwin just because we had enough tbh. I know this past week has been one of the worst…but let’s not give in now…we are all here together and we got this.
Be safe, BE KIND, be good to yourself.
If you aren’t already a subscriber (PLEASE PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!!!) and SHARE with all your friends…and IF want this in your inbox please send an email to:
subscribe@popculturemondays.com
Or CLICK SUBSCRIBE below!
