Pop Culture Mondays/2.28.22

The 🇺🇦 Edition

Welcome to my brain…

Well hello, my pop culture junkies. What a difference a week makes. I made a slight reference to impending war last week thinking surely this was just another politicized moment that will pass but alas, here we are. A sovereign nation has been attacked. Children are dead and people are running for their lives or hiding for their lives. Men and women who were living normal lives last week are either fighting on the front lines with their President and leadership team or they are hiding or running from their homes with what they can carry and their kids and pets. Not such a fun week to write a newsletter around pop culture BUT…this strangely has become a pop-cultural moment with the love and adoration that has arisen globally for Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and for the war playing out in social media in real-time. And there are some LIGHT moments too just to keep us sane…so let’s get to it my darlings.

XO…

The World’s Hero at the moment

THE WORLD IS WATCHING:

I tweeted this morning questioning how in this day and age we could be living in a time when a country in Europe, a sovereign nation, a peaceful robust thriving nation, was invaded and thrown into turmoil and chaos. How we as a world could be following it all live via social media and holding our breath that the President has survived with HIS life another day. And someone responded that this was OF COURSE what was happening due to all the misinformation and propaganda that spreads globally now because of social media. I am not a journalist so I am not going to sit here and write news…I am going to do what I have done since I launched this newsletter in November 2019…show you memes and viral videos and TikToks and some of it you have seen and some might be new.

I remember first hearing about Zelensky when I was spending a great deal of time in London in 2018 and I heard that there was another celeb running for President. I rolled my eyes and thought oh no here we go again. Another clown trying to run for office. I did a quick scan of who Zelensky was to learn he was a comedian and an actor who had a HUGELY popular show in Ukraine that centered around him being a teacher who was unknowingly filmed by a student as he had an argument with someone over the strength and independence of Ukraine. As a result of the video going viral, this teacher became so hugely popular that he himself ran for President and was elected.

THAT’S THE SHOW. THAT IS THE PREMISE OF THE SHOW.

And then the actor/comedian playing the teacher…ran for President using a lot of the goodwill he created from that character. AND HE BECAME PRESIDENT. Before we continue, here is a trailer from that show, “Servant of the People”:

Mind-blowing right? I mean it is truly life imitating art. Think of “Veep” minus the ineptitude of the main character and add in a little Martin Sheen from the “West Wing” and here we are. The President on this show was depicted as human, a badass, a fighter of oligarchs, and a fiercely loyal leader who fights his own battles. But that was TV. But now that is reality. And speaking of reality there is another hot clip going around as the NOW President competed and WON Ukraine’s version of “Dancing with the Stars” or “Strictly Come Dancing” if you will. He was HUGELY famous as a comedian before his hit show and inevitably his campaign.

I cannot stop watching this tbh. The love we have for this man knows no bounds at this moment in time. To go from THIS guy to THIS guy is staggering:

I am in the Communications business. You could say there is nothing more important than how something is communicated. And President Zelensky is a master at it. He uses Twitter and social media platforms brilliantly. He is a man young people in Ukraine grew up watching on their TVs every day who is now fighting with his leadership team and showing them that, “WE ARE HERE. WE ARE DEFENDING OUR NATION.” Meanwhile, the world holds its breath as to what Putin and his goons are going to do and what will become of the country and its leader. Meanwhile, TikTokkers are losing their minds over him and his story:

And let us not ignore what is happening in Russia. A country that has made protesting illegal. A country that disappears anyone who criticizes Putin. There have been protests that are only growing where everyone there knows they are risking their freedom and their life to do so.

And there is a theme song emerging on TikTok for Ukraine I have noticed. Tom Odell, a British singer/songwriter has a song called “Another Love” that creators are using (the live version) to make TikToks around what's happening. Honestly, it triggers tears immediately, at least for me. Here are a few examples:

And this is truly a pop-cultural moment….will it be politics or diplomacy or sanctions that stop it? I think the bigger impacts are coming from sports teams and celebs and services like PornHub cutting its service to Russia having a much greater impact. Here are a few examples:

Star of the US show “Dancing with the Stars”, Maksim Chmerkovsky:

And other moments around the world:

SNL’s cold open this week:

The Simpsons:

Miss Ukraine is apparently fighting on the front lines:

And apparently, even children of Russian leaders and oligarchs are like HELL NO and posting anti-war messages. Like the daughter of the Kremlin’s press secretary:

And Ukraine itself has ONE HELL of a social media manager:

Ok, this post just goes and goes because there are so many FUCKING layers to what’s happening. On the dark side of socials, as always you had people looking to take advantage. People disseminate fake news whether, for political reasons or just good old fashioned clout, reporter Taylor Lorenz highlighted it in an important story for INPUT Magazine:

Scammy Instagram 'war pages' are capitalizing on Ukraine conflict

And leave it to some who have made some poor life decisions like Joy Behar of “The View” (can this show be canceled for the love of god….):

I CAN NOT.

But even more inexplicably was this video by actress/activist AnnaLynne McCord which INEXPLICABLY is still up. She wrote a poem to Putin or shall I say, DEAR MR. PRESIDENT PUTIN where she delivers it as if she is Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman like she studied how she recites her poetry and tried to mimic it and that’s not even getting into the actual poem. If you have not seen this then good lord, brace yourself:

But I am grateful to the creators who responded to this with some great ones like this:

And Andy Cohen took the moment to use the WORDLE craze to get his message across which many found “cringe” as the kids say, as well:

And then you have this poorly timed ad I happened to see live on CNN and was stunned by it. So much so that Applebee’s felt it need to issue an apology but let’s be clear this was not their fault…this was POOR GRAPHIC design — like why run the ad with the chyron around it? SO BIZARRE.

And while I am sure real news is being suppressed as much as possible in Russia, the news has a way of getting out hence the protests and backlash from the Russian people themselves much to the probable shock and anger of Putin and his peeps. And speaking of access, hero/villain depending on the week ELON MUSK has responded to Ukrainian leadership and announced many many of his Starlink satellites are being deployed to help Ukrain have internet access. And while there are ALWAYS critics and some saying this is an absurd thing as there are many pieces of hardware needed to make use of these satellites, let's just be thankful for what IS happening and I for one believe Elon has probably thought of all that is needed.

The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine tweeted:

And Elon responded:

THINK ABOUT THIS, YOU GUYS. This is truly a remarkable thing unfolding before our eyes. How do we even understand it really?

There are a lot of Ukrainians TikTokking this war but this woman has been one, in particular, I have been riveted by in terms of her storytelling:

And let me leave you with this video of a mom being reunited with her child because her husband couldn't leave Ukraine so he trusted his children with a stranger to get them across the border safely. It’s too much.

And finally, how can YOU help? I am sharing a few links I have found that you might want to check out:

Голоси дітей

250222_Ukraine

And obviously, another hero, Chef Jose Andres, is on the frontlines AGAIN:

World Central Kitchen

CARE - Fighting Global Poverty and World Hunger

And lastly, the sunflower is the official flower of Ukraine. Many of us saw this video of a Ukrainian woman confronting Russian soldiers and telling them to put sunflower seeds in their pockets so when they die their bodies give sunflowers to Ukraine.

Sunflower of Peace - Help the people of Ukraine

AND SOME OTHER THINGS…

Yeah, it’s just one of those weeks. There are other things to cover, not all happy, but that’s life.

• For a palate cleanser, if you will, I urge you to listen with headphones and I don't know about you but this music literally massages my brain. And listen to it on repeat. That’s the only way to describe it:

• And sorry, but more tears. A bunch of PCMs ago, I wrote about the singer who goes by Nightbirde and her appearance on “America’s Got Talent” where she sang a song she wrote. It would have been an exceptional performance but it was even more so as she was fighting a very aggressive cancer. And she lost her fight this past week and the world mourns her and her incredible spirit.

• Now I do NOT know if this is true but if it is, then it's wild. TikTok is owned by a Chinese company and this guy says that the algorithm serves different kind of videos vs what is served in the US. So, is it possible China is actively engaging in dumbing down our youth?

• This trend is a nice break from the enormity of the world falling apart. Creators use this sound to look back at something from their childhood with a different um…lens:

And then of course we have to have a Zelensky one:

• And in news the world needs right now and DEAR BABY JESUS please let this be true:

• And not sure if you heard that the Queen is NOT dead from COVID despite some ridiculous pop culture daily news site called HOLLYWOOD UNLOCKED it claimed on GOOD authority that the Queen had in fact died. Despite all signs pointing to this NOT being true, they doubled down. It SEEMS like there was some confusion due to a wedding guest attending the nuptials of Vogue UK editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful. Apparently, tragically musician Mark Lanegan had passed away and he was in the band QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE and the belief is said wedding guest heard Queen….and before they knew it ran off to drop the tea. GOSSIP IS A HELL OF A DRUG.

Hollywood Unlocked Finally Admits the Queen Is Alive

• And surely if you have a TIKTOKKER at home you are familiar with this guy who has over 28 million likes AND almost 200 MILLION views of this TikTok. 200 FREAKING million. Think about that. 200 M I L L I O N for this short clip which people have then dueted and added to and it is wild…WILD.

• Rosie O’Donnell another former “The View” person continues to out Karen herself. This time she outed herself for some reason publicly on meeting Priyanka Chopra, actress and activist and wife of a Jonas brother. She explained she met her at Nobu and said she knew her dad because she ASSUMED her dad was DEEPAK CHOPRA. OK. But as she outs herself she refers to her not by name but as “the Chopra wife” INEXPLICABLY. Ms. Chopra responded:

• OK CONTENT. I am entirely skipping over the SAG awards because I did not watch. There was fashion and good light-hearted moments I hear but as the GREAT George Hahn says…FER ME, it wasn’t my thing. But we had TWO finales you must tune in for.

One was Euphoria…and instead of a clip, I am just showing you my fave TikTok related to the show so you can go watch it. Again, this is all music you will know if you are a parent of a TikTokker or a TikTok VOYEUR like me:

And TWO, was “Love is Blind” finale which was the weddings of the couples..or NON-weddings. AND WOO BOY this show kills me and I appreciated it SO much this week. Again instead of a clip, here is a taste:

This show is the gift that gave and gave and gave.

And lastly, for content, I watched this amazing doc on HBOMax. And it had some of our faves like ANDREW ROSS mother fucking SORKIN who is SO good on TV it is bananas. Anyway, even if you think you don’t care ONE ounce about Carl Icahn or investors or capitalism LORD STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING and watch this doc. I learned more from “Icahn: The Restless Billionaire” than I have in 25 years in my job tbh:

THAT IS IT my darling pop culture junkies…

What a week. Be kind to yourself and to one another.

Stay safe and healthy my beauties.

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