Pop Culture Mondays/5.18.20
The “Graduate” Edition
Happy Happy Happy Monday my pop culture junkies. Well we are all kind of over it now huh? I mean some of us are expressing our frustration differently — there are the people pretending none of this is happening and going to party at bars like Dorrian’s on the Upper East Side (Dorrian’s is ALWAYS ruining things FYI) or hitting the beaches with families and giving ZERO fucks. I have had to take myself off of THE FACEBOOK because even people I thought I liked are like THIS IS BS and we refuse to comply so I am like ok boo you be you. But nevertheless, it’s been more than two months for most of us, where losing days and doing the same thing over and over AND OVER again and we are OVER IT. Though I will say I do have friends having different experiences depending on where they live….whereas I have basically been locked down in a bunker in the middle of the woods, I have friends having socially distanced dinner parties and workout classes and surfing sessions and I sometimes feel I am living on a different planet. But California is really selling itself throughout all if this FOR SURE. Forget those celeb filled “Visit California” ads we are so accustomed to seeing…this lockdown, to me, has been the biggest selling point! Ok sure, there are fires and earthquakes but also..space and sunshine and pools and ok ok…I am JUST saying…WELL PLAYED CALIFORNIA. WELL PLAYED.
So, a big rule at PCM has been we are TRUMP-free. Which makes it HARD sometimes as there is so much pop culture content that comes from that guy. But in today’s PCM, we do have a couple of things that touch on it but we do not show his face so rest assured this is still a safe place. And HELL to the NO…I am not including that crazy altered speech from one of the greatest movies of all time “Independence Day” because President Bill Pullman deserves better. SO much better. ANYWAY, I wanted to warn you in case the sound of his voice is triggering or just the thought of him in general is triggering…I am giving you advance warning! So sit back with that cheese quesadilla you just made or that giant bag of Cheetos or all those red Haribo gummy bears and enjoy.
GRADUATE TOGETHER:
I was out walking my dog on Saturday when my Lockdown wifey Deborah texted me about this “Graduate Together” program, a graduation ceremony for the class of 2020 who were being robbed of their graduation ceremonies across the country, airing that night. What stood out about it was not only was it going to feature PCM faves like my boyfriend TIMO-TAY Chalamet, LeBron and PRESIDENT OBAMA, BUT that it was being aired on basically every network including FOX. I mean it was going to be everywhere. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?? I ASSUME it was not just the goodwill of the networks (ahem, Fox)…but $$$$. I mean I have no idea so if you know DEFINITELY tell me, but we absolutely have Laurene Powell Jobs and her XQ Institute and The LeBron James Family Foundation for making it happen. I think BY FAR it was the most incredible content created during this whole lockdown madness. In what was probably one of the most incredibly complex things to produce, we all came together to celebrate the graduating seniors across America, but we also just came together and were told we were going to be ok. AND OMG DID WE NEED THIS. We had stars like Zendaya and H.E.R and and the Jonas Brothers and TikTok star Charli D’Amelio all come out. You had high school seniors and teachers all around the country being showcased. And you had Megan Rapinoe, the soccer phenom, tell us how important it will be to vote this year — with VERY LITTLE to disguise that this was meant to get people to not just vote but vote for CHANGE.
I mean not subtle at all. This AMAZING class of 2020 high school graduates — kids who were born in the wake of 9/11, now get to vote in their first Presidential election and this entire program’s subtext was that. NOT just vote but CHANGE THE SITUATION WE ARE IN. I mean every single network was airing this. Can you imagine what was going on in the West Wing during this? I LIKE TO IMAGINE IT. And then we have President Obama. Obama who had come out swinging earlier that day in a virtual commencement address at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that DID NOT disappoint. Headlines starting emerging that Obama (I should say PRESIDENT OBAMA, sorry sorry I should never be so casual when speaking about this cool, calm, sensible, classy, measured leader) said that leaders of today “aren’t even pretending to be in charge…” OH DAMN. Get ready. His speech was a call to action to this graduating class to be global citizens and to help their communities and help change the world.
So, to be fair…I was READY FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA to come out swinging on #GraduateTogether. Without saying the name of the current President, he decimated him and the entire administration and all I kept imagining is what it was like with him and his speechwriters the days leading up to the speech. I mean….can you IMAGINE? And with grace and composure and most importantly, HONESTY, the Presidential former President…delivered:
Kind of amazing, that every network basically aired a GIANT Fuck You to the current administration. It’s one for the history books.
#CONTENT:
I have never ever shied away from a Hamilton-related news item here and I am not starting now. Everyone has a vice, and mine is Hamilton. I have seen the performance an embarrassing number of times and have OPENLY petitioned to be people’s plus ones when they came to NY to see it. Like I was shameless. I remember what I was wearing and the time of day and date of when Lin-Manuel Miranda liked one of my tweets. HE LIKED IT, HE REALLY LIKED IT. So yes, if you are a loyal PCMer you know I do love me some musical theatre, and that Lin-Manuel is the Patron Saint we worship here at PCM, and I use a Hamilton lyric ANY chance I can get, but just you wait…just…you..wait…
Because LAST Tuesday a gift of all gifts was presented to us all. I had reported — pre-pandemic — that Hamilton was going to be a movie. We would have a WHILE to wait but they were turning the actual stage performance with the OG cast into a beautifully filmed movie so everyone would have the chance to see the show as it was written. It was meant to be released October 15th.
2021!!
But last Tuesday, the gods, aka Lin (and Bob Iger), gave us a gift. A gift for all of us locked in and losing our minds. Disney+ will be releasing the film version of Hamilton to all of us on July 3rd, 2020. THIS JULY. Like a mere WEEKS away. I mean if you watch the video of the announcement you can hear producers who are probably meant to be muted say “that’s pretty cool!” while the announcement is being made.
Let’s be real…a brilliant marketing push by Disney as they will get a shit ton of subscribers as a result. But they have been really gifting us lately, as they also released the INCREDIBLE The Last Dance docu-series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls for all of us to enjoy. I am still making my way thru this series which details the Jordan (and Pippen and Rodman) years of the Bulls and which I wrote about a few weeks ago…but it was SO smart for ESPN/Disney to release this when they did as it has captivated a nation and whether you were a basketball fan always, or started watching because you thought it was a reality show about dancing…you became obsessed with it along with everyone else. The gift of content will be something that this period of time will be remembered for and the pandemic has been good to content creators….
Unless you are QUIBI.
Quibi stands for QUICK BITES and is the billion dollar “startup” founded and led by former Hollywood titan Jeffrey Katzenberg and tech titan Meg Whitman. The company got a lot of press not just because of those names involved but because they have raised over a BILLION dollars,a ctually closer to 2 billion….
DOLLARS.
The premise being they are making content — quick bites of original content using famous people with their own built in (we assume) audiences like Chrissy Teigen. But you have to pay for it. And you can only watch it ON YOUR PHONE. The idea being when you are waiting on line for a coffee, or for the subway, or for your therapist…you will get a quick “hit” and watch Quibi instead of scrolling thru Insta, the Twitter, TikTok…but OK.
Now FULL disclosure, in my day job I advise tech CEOs on press strategy and so forth…and one of those companies, Eko, is in a lawsuit with Quibi.
But that’s not the point of this post…the point of this post is that the socials went wild this past week over an interview that Katzenberg gave to The New York Times about Quibi’s failure to capture a significant audience since it has launched. (No one is standing on lines or on a commute or anywhere far from their couch and TV at the moment.) Now to be FAIR (and that’s hard here I will admit) I cannot imagine using a few weeks as a measure of success when you’re looking at subscribers. THAT SHIT TAKES TIME. But, then Katzenberg should have just said THAT when asked the question. But instead he plays the blame game. Something that never ever goes over well. But not just any old blame game… he blames coronavirus for the failure for EVERYTHING in terms of Quibi not taking off (at the time of the interview it had just over a million active users — and TBH, if I had a million active PCM readers I would be doing cartwheels naked in the middle of the streets celebrating, but I digress). He says it is ENTIRELY the fault of the virus…the virus which is actually killing people, putting people out of work, breaking up families and disrupting lives so lets just add one more thing to it…IT HURT POOR QUIBI. But at the same time as blaming the virus, Katzenberg says, “but we own it.”
BUT YOU OWN NOTHING SIR when you blame something else for your failure. That’s the exact opposite of owning it. Literally…the EXACT opposite. But look, I am all for new content companies to succeed..Quibi included (HARD TO BELIEVE BUT I STAND BY THIS). If content is good, it has a way of winning. It just takes time….but Jeffery Katzenberg…will never be satisfied (see what I did there?) #hamilfilm
And a little bonus…before most of us knew who Lin-Manuel Miranda was…he married the love of his life and his wedding reception was filmed giving us a glimpse into the genius and gift that he is to us all. WATCH AND CRY BUT TRUST ME…WATCH THIS:
MEDIA TWITTER LOSES ITS SHIT:
For those of you who do not follow “Media Twitter”, consider yourself LUCKY. This is a mad vortex that can bring you to the edge of insanity…and you have a choice to step away, but if you’re me you cover your eyes with your hands but just enough to be able to keep reading. When it explodes, like it did last night…all I can say is WOO BOY…sit back and ride it out.
So here is what happened last night. Ben Smith, formerly of Buzzfeed, and now the media columnist at The New York Times…a role that belonged to the esteemed David Carr until the day he died suddenly, tragically, in the newsroom. Now, you need to understand that David Carr was a god among men to me. He was not JUST someone I looked up to and revered, he’s a man I was able to call a friend and who once put his hands on my head like a priest does with his flock and said, “You got it kid. Stay the course. You will surprise all of us.” I will never forget that moment for as long as I am here.
Anyway, Ben is now tasked with writing this column. And it takes time to get your own footing and make it your own. And that time was last night, when Ben was like OH HAI and his column dropped which is about Ronan Farrow and titled “Is Ronan Farrow Too Good To Be True?” I was in bed when I saw the tweet and I was like OH NOOOO and literally ducked under the covers trying to hide. Basically, he uses his column to check Ronan and ultimately The New Yorker who published Ronan’s investigative pieces, and question if Ronan was allowed to/empowered to cut some corners. It has some doozies of quotes in there too including from Ken Auletta who I have to say MIGHT NOT BE THE person to questions corners (am I right??) but I digress. The fact is David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, is pretty much one of then most well-regarded and respected editors IN THE WORLD. And this column tries to blow that up…it’s like BOMBS being dropped by The New York Times on The New Yorker and journalism is attacking itself and I just want to crawl under the covers and hide — like hearing your parents fight and you just cover your ears begging it to stop. Some people find it ironic (it is) that Ben Smith is the one calling into question Ronan and his reporting on sexual misconduct at NBC and with Harvey Weinstein especially since he was the one behind publishing things like the “Steele Dossier.”
The article focuses on this thing being called Resistance Journalism and whether Ronan Farrow got away with things other journalists would not have been allowed to get away with. Look, read “Catch & Kill”, Ronan’s book about his reporting on sexual misconduct both at NBC and with Harvey. It’s fascinating. We are better for it. And Ben is no dummy….he knew exactly what would happen once this published. AND HERE WE ARE.
AND THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS….
This week was HARD you guys. Not to mention I just got shot up with cortisone in both my wrists because this thing I used to think was a fake, made -up syndrome called Carpal Tunnel is FREAKING REAL. I mean imagine having your hands on fire like all the time? That feeling when your hands or feet “fall asleep” and just begin to come back to life all that tingling and burning but imagine it never ever going away?? I am here to say the shit is REAL and I apologize to all those people who told me they had it (like the tennis elbow of the ’80s) and I rolled my eyes at over the years….KARMA IS A BITCH and she has hit me hard. ANYWAY, the point is that typing currently is problematic..also I am just LAZY today. So let me just give you a quick summary of some of my favorite things that we saw this week:
- Jimmy Fallon brought us joy. An incredible Zoom performance of “Under Pressure” with Panic at the Disco’s Brendon Urie and The Roots and Jimmy and….well here you go:
- Ingrid Nilsen is my hero. She is also my friend. When I posted a pic from my FRIENDSGIVING a couple years ago, people went nuts. NOT because of Kara Swisher though SHE WOULD LIKE TO THINK SO. But because Ingrid was in it and the Millennials and Gen Zers I know were like “HOW DO YOU KNOW INGRID??” So it made me cool with the young peeps. She’s a huge YouTuber. She has a MUST-read newsletter and podcast. And she tackles the idea of beauty in the age of COVID-19:
- TRUMP TRIGGER WARNING: Sarah Cooper is EVERYTHING. If we have to listen to Trump, this is the only way to do it. She is a comedian and an author and she has brought comic genius to the ongoing tragedy of Trump.
- The Tucci DOES IT AGAIN. We do not deserve The Tucci.
- Baby Making Pizza made the Internet feel warm and fuzzy
- Never Have I Ever is the Netflix show you NEED to binge right now. NO, you don’t have to be a teen girl (or a 46 year old going on 16 year old)…trust me, it’s SO good. Thank you Mindy Kaling and Netflix for this gift.
Until next week my Pop Culture Junkies….PLEASE stay safe AND SANE everyone — Go watch everything above, and stop going to parties and bars and gyms and resorts!
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…and PLEASE do send me things you want to see in next week’s edition. Also please feel free to share this with anyone you know who could use some PCM right now. I WANT QUIBI’S SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS. 😂
