Pop Culture Mondays/6.26.23
The “We are all going to Hell” Edition
Hello, my darling pop culture junkies, and happy Monday.
MY LORD, was it a week! Even if you were Cannes-ing it up at Lions or on some beautiful sand and sun-filled holiday SOMEWHERE, you were consumed just like the rest of us back at home glued to the TV and even Twitter. I mean…the cable news channels HAD COUNTDOWN CLOCKS, you guys. COUNTDOWN clocks. Like, what the actual fuck is wrong with all of us? It gets worse, and I will get TO it because, in the end, humor does help us all cope with hard situations, like laughing at funerals. It happens. The whiplash from sub to Russia and, like the MOST RUSSIAN LOOKING dude ever, was enjoyable. Where is the countdown clock for when he “falls’ out of a building or “accidentally” eats a butt load of poison? Because we all are thinking it. My fave TikTok summing up last week was:
Because…YES. Correct. This was all of us. But OK, let’s get to it…I am TIRED from binge-watching Season 2 of THE BEAR, and let me just say this one little teeny thing about this show:
It is the best show on television right now. HANDS DOWN. This show is INCREDIBLE…from the acting to the music (UM OK, it is triggering for me, and if you know me, you know why, but it is ok because I am a rock n roll girl, and that period in my life was incredible, and I would not be where I am today if not for that time in my life. Hat tip: REM.) BUT…I digress. Watch this fucking show FOR THE LOVE of all that is good and holy.
And the cameos??? WATCH OUT, my loves. Just incredible.
AND if you missed my pod last week with the one and only Britt Morgan-Sacks, here you go for your entertainment:
Grab some Haribo and headphones…
ENOUGH:
There is nothing I can write that has not already been written about this needless tragedy. We have seen it all, heard it all, watched it all. What instead I wanted to do was highlight SOME of the stuff on socials….and let me be clear. Some of it is in such poor taste I debated sharing it and the really bad ones I have decided not to but I thought it was helpful to show the collective narrative going around. And two things that I personally find hard to watch:
- The idea that so many young creators have that because the tourists were rich, they somehow deserved it. That is a popular narrative which I find particularly ironic considering these creators have paid ZERO attention to….what becomes my second point…
- The fact that 700 people drowned last week because of a sinking boat and creators have given ZERO fucks about them. Women and children fleeing for a better life are gone because of terrible laws and terrible criminals putting them on terrible unseaworthy boats. This scene from the film “The Swimmers” on Netflix shows you what it’s like for many:
So yeah. Here we are. People think rich people deserve to die and that people with nothing but the clothes on their back are not worth our time and attention. Obama nails it here:
But let’s get to some of those horrible memes that we are all going to hell over because…they were funny.
The biggest one was thanks to Bill Hader, which I am SURE he appreciates (that is sarcasm btw.) Here are a few:
OK, we got it. I know. You are laughing and mad about it. I know. Humor helps anxiety. We have come to accept that this is our fate though:
And then of course there was the Blink-182 step-son who then posted his own video but I am not showing it. But reactions to him are wild:
And of course…the Jack and Rose ones came:
The last one broke me. SO we end there.
And I am sorry. I will see you all in Hell.
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT:
It was a rough week so I am making this short and sweet. Don't worry I didn’t forget Russia…but just like its “coup”, I am keeping it BRIEF.
Let’s look at some highlights (and lowlights) of some OTHER pop culture-y things that have gone down this week.
Is there really anyone more Russian-looking than this guy??
While CNN and MSNBC were still doing 24/7 news coverage from Newfoundland of the imploded submersible, the rest of us were onto the next thing, which was an ALMOST-COUP taking place in Russia. Twitter, not because of Elon and his little ultra-right-wing dwarves, was a stand-out early on in this with regard to getting information. Of course, unless you paid attention to Elon’s dwarves, and then it was the kind of experience that made you want to intentionally bash your head into a brick wall….BUT I digress. But it was WILD to see the cable news outlets totally ignore the show unfold. I am sure they will say they were waiting to know what was real or propaganda, but still…
But here is a CLIFF’S NOTES version of what happened, and I am piecing this shit together, so don’t swear by all of this, I have not studied the geo-political world of Russia, but I am GOOD at dumbing shit down, so let’s do that:
This dude above is Yevgeny Prigozhin which, from what I can gather, is pronounced: Pre-GO-ZHEN. Try it like that, and it will pass. Anyway, here’s the deal. The guy is basically an entrepreneur. He would have KILLED it in Silicon Valley…shocking, tbh he did not start a crypto or Web3 company. But back in his YOUTH, he was a petty thief. And a bad one because he kept getting caught. He went to prison, which in the 1980s in the Soviet Union was, I AM GUESSING, not awesome. So he serves his time and gets out to find a different Russia. OUR MAN starts selling hot dogs…like out of a cart. Like a family business. And apparently, many people like fucking hot dogs in Russia because he started to make a killing so…he expanded. He opened a few locations…like HOT DOG HOT SPOTS, if you will. Also some convenience stores…I mean the man had game. And the story goes that ONE of those places became a fave hang for our fave former KGB agent, Vladamir Putin. Now SOME report that he and Putin didn’t mean til 2000 when Putin was in office and the Kremlin had hired Prigozhin but I went pretty deep on some stuff and there are lots of reports that they def knew each other prior and LOOK…I choose to believe Putin and his posse hung at their local hot dog spot so let’s go with that.
SO, that is our meet cute of Putin & Prigozhin. I HOPE.
Prigozhin became known as Putin’s Chef, which is really because he owned the catering companies that would do events at the Kremlin, but basically, everyone knew Prigozhin was like Putin’s strong man. We have seen them in every Marvel and Bond movie…the guy behind the guy. The villain’s villain. Putin thought a private army of mercenaries was a good idea sometime back in the early days of the Crimea invasion. Like highly trained bad ass fighters to go on the front lines. This private army was called WAGNER, reportedly named after Hitler’s fave composer which is FUN. 🤬Also, they would provide security for their assets in other countries. Like you can only imagine as we have again seen the movie. Dictator in Africa has private Russian military protection. WHERE IS THE POPCORN?
Enter Ukraine. So BASICALLY, Putin realized that his people would not be stoked if their sons who fought in the Russian army were getting killed fighting Ukraine, and he would lose support. Dead sons for an already shaky invasion in the people’s minds mean angry parents and vocal discourse, which would be bad. So Prigozhin who is the head of Wagner realizes he needs to grow his army so he and Putin concoct a plan whereas to recruit criminals in prison to comprise his army of 25,000.
Good times.
I mean, these are BAD guys. Rapists. Child rapists. Murderers. PSYCHOpaths. People with zero moral compass who likely never would have seen the light of day but for this opportunity. They are told that if they misbehaved, they will be shot on sight. But if they serve and survive after 6 months, they are free men.
A video of him speaking to prisoners leaked some time back:
And Wagner advertised on billboards like these, for example:
But shit goes wrong and Putin’s strong guy has become increasingly vocal and disillusioned with the strategy and leadership. Something you JUST haven’t seen before…you speak against Putin, you die.
So, Friday rolls around, and we hear our Hot Dog guy is MORE PISSED at Putin because he has put his men in harm's way purposely and there is no effective strategy on Ukraine, and he has decided to take over from all the military leaders. Is it a coup? Will there be a revolution?? I love the visuals of tanks rolling into town and guys kneeling with huge guns, and Russians are like in shorts and tank tops wandering around as if it’s all normal, nothing to see here:
And like there was so much confusion like was this real, is this a distraction? Did Putin run away? Where the FUCK is Putin and all that, but that’s all covered extensively. Just as we were getting ready to cozy up to another 24/7 news cycle and prepare for a full-on coup which would be exciting but also would result in lots of lost lives…it was OVER. Worst coup ever, am I right? Apparently, Belarus came in and helped negotiate and Prigozhin will leave Russia and be in exile in Belarus, but like, COME ON…we know how this story ends, my man. Thoughts and prayers. (PS. There are unsubstantiated reports that the reason he retreated is that Putin’s people got a hole of some of the mercenaries' families and threatened them…)
But the memes again…funny!
OK moving on….
Speaking of going to hell….
Look, this is a super inappropriate image created by Beeple, but THIS IS WHERE WE ARE MY DARLINGS. In case you are not aware of who this is, it is Space Karen aka Elon and Meta Karen, Mark Zuckerberg. And this is them having a cage match and why would they be fighting? BECAUSE THEY HAVE AGREED TO A CAGE MATCH. Basically, it started as a reaction the news that Meta is launching a Teitter competitor:
To which Elon responded with:
And then Zuck enters the convo…not on Twitter natch, but on the platform HE owns…Instagram:
Here is the question. Mark has been able to sit back for a while now and have the heat off him while Elon gets all the negativity sent his way. It’s been great for Mark…he’s no longer the evil villain everyone is paying attention to. Having spent a little time with both of them…they are both awkward conversationalists, but like Mark is way less EVIL VILLAIN vibes to be sure.
SO why does he enter the convo? Like why does he use this as the opportunity to be like HEY GUYS, I AM OVER HERE? Whereas Elon does everything impetuously with no thought or consideration or consultation, Mark is the opposite, seemingly. He has a team of people who counsels him and gives him guidance and feedback so I imagine he came to his guys like HEY what should I do? AND THEY SAID:
LET’S DO THIS BABY.
I mean there is always a reason. Will it happen? If Dana White has his way it will. I am telling you, I am working off of very little steam these days so if it indeed does happen (bets are being made, Rogan will MC it) I am packing it in and moving to Jamaica and living my days high AF eating beef patties and jerk chicken. WHO is to say.
BUT….only for the story to get even weirder? Elon’s MOM has entered the convo and this 50-something-year-old’s mom will NOT let him do it, several reports are saying. She had been advocating for a debate vs a fight I guess?
And here mama bear is really getting into it:
OK XANAX….take me to a different place.
Onto fun things…
We have had a break from all things Hamilton on the socials for a while now. I mean I still listen to the soundtrack in its entirely on a weekly basis but for the most part we have moved on.
But a new trend amongst theatre geeks on the TikTok is to lip sync this famous song between Hamilton and Burr but like ACT it out. Oh also, the song is sped up because…TIKTOK. Here are a couple examples:
Lots of stuff went down at Glastonbury this year:
This year I am not going to lie, made me wish I was there. I MIGHT make the journey next year because FOMO was hard this weekend. But here are a few highlights.
Let’s start with my new girl crush Rina Sawayama, a British/Japanese artist who came out SWINGING on stage, LIVE, calling out Matty Healy, aka Taylor’s recent “ex” from The 1975, and one GIANT walking RED FLAG as I have said many times here. So he has made some racist comments on a podcast recently. And talked about his kink porn. He also is apparently a co-founder or part owner of the record label that owns her masters. Anyway, she is a QUEEN, and we all must stan her and. I cannot wait for the Taylor/Rina HIT song:
Cate Blanchett did a thing of her own:
For anyone confused as to why….she starred in the Sparks recent music video wearing same outfit:
And frankly, this one kills me. As any good Band-Aid aka Penny Lane out there knows…this is our theme song. And with Brandon Flowers AND Elton…I die:
And I will end here because this guy os a FREAKING LEGEND who set up his tent at Glastonbury like this:
Nod to the BUD LIGHT. Excellent move there.
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
Yes, I am skipping over stuff. The one very much on purpose is RFK Jr and his anti-vax stuff and Rogan love and Elon and his merry pranksters all genuflecting to him and RFK Jr working out shirtless to show his physique and saying he is getting debate ready? GROSS. Like the majorest of major ICKS. So no. I am not going there. You’re welcome.
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Xx,
Brooke
