Pop Culture Mondays/3.16.20
Quarantine Edition
Hello my darling, home-bound, quarantined pop culture junkies. I must admit I wasn’t sure about putting out PCM this week and maybe even going on hiatus until we are all thru this — and I am still unsure — but I heard from a lot of you that you were looking forward to it. SO, here we are. A slightly different tone in a slightly different world. I had to check last PCM’s date a few times because I cannot believe it was only a week ago as WTF has this week been?? I just hope we all find solace in being in this together and I hope you are all safe and healthy or if you have the virus that you are seeking treatment and are on the mend. I just hope everyone has finally gotten the memo about not going out — except those spring breakers in Miami who are all terrible and who have terrible parental figures I guess! ALSO, PS — If you THINK you are sick or have actually tested positive and you live in an apartment building then DO THE RIGHT THING AND TELL YOUR BUILDING.
As some of you more loyal readers will notice, I have used the same Baby Yoda this week as I did last as I don’t know another more appropriate one. And maybe will keep this one for a while. BUT there are still things that will make us laugh or shake our heads or warm our cold little hearts so hopefully this will be a little escape from the weird moment in time we are all in. And as always, we are TRUMP-FREE.
UPDATE: 3/17/20!! There is new content added after this first published because it could not wait until next week!
THERE’S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL:
We all know by now that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced via Instagram they had tested positive for the Coronavirus and were self-quarantining in Australia where they were as Tom was filming a movie. For those of you who had just hours before the announcement, listened to that day’s episode of the Daily podcast, it was slightly surreal. For on that podcast, they talked about America needing a Rock Hudson moment….how Rock Hudson was able to get people to see AIDS as something that could affect them and was an actual illness people needed to pay attention to and stop ignoring. Rock was a real Hollywood star — a leading man who was the picture of health and masculinity and had been a Hollywood leading man at the same time as then president Ronald Reagan who had until then not ever said the word AIDS during the years AIDS was clearly becoming an epidemic. That changed with Rock Hudson and the podcast does an incredible job explaining how that changed many mindsets in America. And then BOOM. TOM HANKS. Someone many of us have grown up with, and arguably the NICEST MAN IN THE WORLD as evidenced in this incredible NYT profile on him). When Tom and Rita announced via Instagram that they had tested positive, this changed the tone considerably in America.
BUT DON’T WORRY!! We only let ourselves get down for a minute. Because then…THEN Tom Hanks did the unthinkable. He posted a pic of his toast with Vegemite…which for those of you who do not know is a beloved Australian spread made from yeast extract that has a CERTAIN ACQUIRED taste. And it seems that HE USED WAY TOO MUCH VEGEMITE and the people went NUTS.
There are a lot of hilarious comments worth your time to get a smile while you’re sitting there bored out of your mind on the couch or on a break from all your Zoom calls you have, or on mute on conference calls you’re not really paying attention to. I just wish this was Nutella as I can almost taste the Vegemite from this pic and it’s not a good thing. BUT, the point is…actually I am not sure what the point is other than let poor Tom Hanks eat his Vegemite anyway he likes!! But it’s funny to watch Americans grapple with what this all means:
Tom has had a good sense of humor about his whole situation and posted another update on Instagram and using his famous line from A League of Their Own about there being NO crying in baseball and my lord we love this man.
This seems SO dated now (a studio audience wha???) but a good few minutes:
ITS ABOUT ME ME ME:
And then Katy Perry and Madonna and I am sure others were like OMG it’s ALL ABOUT ME as they were duped into believing fake videos that seemed like all the Italians were singing THEIR songs. It’s so funny how many people fell for it and Katy and Madonna and others shared it with their socials like LOOK AT HOW I HELP THE WORLD UNITE. But no. Here is a tweet that Katy Perry retweeted thinking it was real (she has since deleted though so far Madonna has not deleted hers because girl is too busy.
And some just had a lot of fun with the meme:
GO BACK TO ALASKA:
THIS my friends, is the former governor of Alaska. The former VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate with John McCain, the mother of scandal ridden kids and this past week’s MASKED SINGER. OK, like I have never seen this show…and we may never see it again…but back when America didn’t quite get the situation we are in AKA a few days ago, this happened. So I guess the premise of the show is a “celebrity” is in a costume performing and the panelists have to guess who they are? Please correct me and send me comments but I do not want to watch this show in its entirety.
SO this past week it was Former Governor, Sarah Palin. The SUPER CHRISTIAN VALUES candidate..the TEA PARTY candidate, singing “BABYS GOT BACK “while dancing with the host (because of COURSE HE IS THE HOST) Nick Cannon.
I CANNOT.
I think we can safely say this is when things took a turn for the worse for society.
So that happened.
WASH YOUR HANDS SO MUCH THEY BECOME DRY AND CRACKED:
Not sure about you but I have gone from lovely looking hands to hands of a 99 year old mountain woman and I do not care. I am GUESSING once everything goes back to normal whenever that may be, the genius dermatologists and plastic surgeons will be offering some hand recovery procedure and I WILL BE ALL OVER IT. Vampire facial for my hands? YES PLEASE. But until then, we wash and wash and wash some more.
And the PSA of the week has been various celebrities doing hand washing videos for their followers to remind everyone to wash their hands but also to wash them the right way! That means for at least 20 seconds and THUMBS too! But nothing is easy these days so even when someone like our Greenwich Village living, French Bulldog loving Hugh Jackman posted a video of him washing his hands the people LET HIM HAVE IT. Why? Because he left the tap running while he washed which is ALSO APPARENTLY a no no (like also don’t leave tap running when you are brushing your teeth…but you all do it right? Don’t.) SO Mr. Hugh Jackman acknowledged his mistake and RE-did his video though I think he should have been washing longer:
And a bunch of others got into it:
And this is just CREEPY:
For more creative ideas:
ALL THE TV:
So, I think we are at that time when we need to be looking for the POSITIVE in things as we are filled with anxiety about what’s happening. FOR EXAMPLE, I am grateful this is happening in 2020 and not when I was a teen because we didn’t have ANY technology. I mean I guess I could have READ or watched the 4 VHS tapes I had over and over and tuned into Days Of Our Lives and Marlena and Roman and all my besties from Salem BUT I digress. I AM GEN X AND I WAS BORN FOR THIS. We have Netflix! We have Hulu! We have Disney+! We are SO lucky with ALL the content. And I mean long form content not quick bites or whatever the old people think we all want….I am talking about WHAT WE NEED. And what we need while we are SOCIAL DISTANCING, is some good old fashioned marathons like The West Wing, or Madmen or Survivor or The Bachelor. Disney released Frozen 2 early as a gift to parents (and really all of us) and I know a lot of people who are asking Bravo’s Andy Cohen to RELEASE ALL THE REAL HOUSEWIVES SHOWS NOW….please please Andy!
SO, that’s really all I got this week. I am going to go back to doing my day job, playing with my dog, going for walks, facetiming with friends and baking. Here are a few things that definitely made me smile this week:
- This dog is me (sound ON):
- I ❤️ NY
- Emergen-C is NOT HAVING IT with the Quarantini
- NOBODY wants Dasani. NOBODY.
- Carbs don’t count in quarantine
NEW CONTENT:
OMG ARNOLD. First of all, let’s say that we all need Whiskey and Lulu. WE NEED THEM. Also, can we talk about why Arnold still has such a pronounced accent after living in the US for like 50 years? I mean I love it and his way of say “resterents” is weirdly soothing. This whole video is soothing and I have watched it 1000 times and counting. I mean let’s dissect the whole thing. He’s wearing his Terminator shirt. He has a mini horse and a donkey I think and he’s like obsessed with them and he’s surrounded by knick knack like pottery and his cluttered homey kitchen gives me all the feels. WE NEEDED THIS:
So until next week my Pop Culture Junkies, unless we take a brief hiatus. PLEASE stay safe everyone, meditate, talk to friends (ALL THE TIME), bake cookies, get some fresh air, try to sleep,
I’m playing around with the formatting and sign ups, so if you want this in your inbox (or if you want to provide any feedback or send me snacks) PLEASE send an email to subscribepcm@gmail.com and PLEASE do send me things you want to see in next week’s edition. Or send me French Bulldog pictures, a sure way to my heart. Also please feel free to share this with anyone you know who could use some PCM right now.
