Pop Culture Mondays/6.28.21
The “I AM MELTING” Edition
HAPPY Monday my darling pop culture junkies. AND depending on where you are, either you are perfectly content OR you have sweat dripping down every part of your body and have opted to not go outside anytime soon. After one year away from NYC, I come back with the excitement and enthusiasm of a little girl on Christmas ONLY to be knocked down by the heat and humidity and I have now become my mother where I am asking restaurants for tables UNDER the AC and if they have no tables outside I cannot cut it and on we go. But scary, dangerous heat is hitting so many parts of theUS so all I can say is STAY INSIDE, STAY HYDRATED and watch the Tour de France because CRAZY SHIT is going on there. More on that below.
Welcome to my new subscribers and a reminder we are TRUMP-free. And Trump-adjacent free for the most part. Also, while not ALL pop culture is fun and games and some can be quite serious, this is NOT the format for what’s happened in Surfside, Florida. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this tragedy and all the lives and families and it’s too much to comprehend. So hopefully, this can be a little escape from all the sad news.
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IT’S NOT A MOMENT, IT’S A MOVEMENT:
I have written about Britney before over the last year and half since starting this thing. AND I have written about the Free Britney movement but MAN did their time to shine come this past week. It is a bit of a chicken and an egg situation: DID the FREE BRITNEY movement start out of a silly almost mocking call to arms that was on the fringe, but then turned into becoming an actual movement that became the wind behind Britney’s wings this past week? OR was the group orchestrated all along by a few people in the know? DOES it even matter? The point is, there were young people for years wearing these shirts and holding signs and I was like OK these are the same type of people you see in the movies with the signs welcoming the aliens, like actual signs saying “WE LOVE YOU ALIENS” only to be blown to bits BY said aliens. BUT I digress….
BUT MAN the kids DID it. Or at least they were right all along and that was Britney Spears has been living in extremely restrictive circumstances and treated as someone who is totally incapacitated mentally and physically BUT the kicker is she is still able to provide and make money for the very people holding her back. ANYWAY, we all got to hear her speak and I am not going to lie…the girl DOES sound like she needs help. She doesn’t sound totally together but her points are totally valid.Wait…before I get into it, you should probably listen to her yourself:
Here you can listen to the audio of her testimony. It’s a lot.
OR if you would prefer to read it, here you go:
SOOOOOO…there is a lot to unpack here. They forced this woman to work non-stop. They forced her to use their lawyers and not her own. They forced her to see a therapist in a public setting vs having them come to her house which is totally crazy. THEY HAVE MADE A DOCTOR PUT IN AN IUD. AN IUD. To prevent her from having a baby. I find this all so devastating and tragic. BUT what started as a sub-culture movement with what people thought were some crazed fans, turned into a very real cultural moment that brought people together all with the desire to #FREEBRITNEY. And all the conspiracies about her videos on social media where she said she was happy and good turned out to be CORRECT as she admitted to lying on these videos.
And JUST before we heard Brit’s testimony, we got a JAWDROP snapshot of her boyfriend in what seemed to be a FREET BRITNEY TSHIRT that sent the Internets wild:
SO, the energy was intense. Even people who knew there were problems were floored by the news of how she has been held captive by her father and family. AND even the skeptics were like, “OHHHHHHH yeah ok I see we were wrong wow…”
AND as always, I turn to my favorite Chinese Intelligence Spying app that I love with my whole heart and soul (they now have ALL my data), TIKTOK for some of my faves:
From a Backstreet Boy:
And Michael Rappaport who we know is bananas but SAYS ALL WE WANT HIM TO SAY:
And let’s just say that the TikTok community has come together to make JAMIE SPEARS the MOST hated man in America right now. WOO boy, the squad is going to rip him to shreds:
And JT (aka Justin Timberlake) came out strong:
For more on this, please read these as it gives even more insight into how controlled she is and how important information was withheld from her.
AND JUST LIKE THAT:
My parents passed away in the late ’90s and the AMOUNT OF STUFF the world has seen since then is staggering. Like I feel nothing reallllly changed from the 70s to the 90s…like ok we got walkmans and then discmans and we had MTV and Atari and Nintendo and rotary phones became push button but I really think the biggest innovation throughout my entire childhood was CALL WAITING. BUT NOW…new innovation and progress every minute of the day. If my parents came back for one day and were faced with iPhones and wifi and services you can order on your phone and ALL THE FUCKING OPTIONS FOR ROSÉ, they would be blown away. But another thing that would blow them away is how far we have come as a society with PRIDE. My mom was a Gay Rights activist and she was shunned many a time by some of her high society circle and she gave ZERO fucks. BUT I don’t think she would have ever imagined how we as a society are now (OK not everywhere but PROGRESS) and last week for the first time EVER, an active member of the NFL, on his terms, very nonchalantly, let his fans know he was gay and he was proud and used it as an opportunity to raise money. It was just like that that history was made. YES FORMER NFL players have come out, but never one who is currently playing. AND his team rallied around him and man, I cried. I REALLY cried. IN case you missed it:
His team, the Las Vegas Raiders (like I had no idea the Raiders were now in Vegas when did that happen sorry to be THAT girl but I thought they were in a Oakland so now you know how much sports I watch BUT I DIGRESS….) came out in strong support:
It’s a really interesting and important time. As I walked thru the VERY muggy streets of NYC yesterday in the HEART of PRIDE in the Village where I live, it was impossible not to notice how different it is from years ago. When I first moved to Greenwich Village in 2003, it was very much the counter-culture tucked away in it’s safe and wonderful pocket of NYC. AND NOW? It is the mainstream. Kids are out and proud and free and things we would have been ashamed of when we were young whether it be our sexuality or our appearance or are obsession with tatts and piercings are NO longer sub-culture but culture culture. It is an amazing thing and something I think would bring tears of joy to my mom. (THOUGH let’s be clear, she would be horrified by my tattoos.)
AND PLEASE DO follow his lead and donate to THE TREVOR PROJECT:
And for more on this….
AND JUST A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (AND SOME DESPICABLE ONES TOO…)
OK there were just so many great and not so great moments I thought I would make it a bit shorter this week and just showcase some of my fave moments. BUCKLE UP!
- America’s Got Talent GOT US AGAIN! Though this one feels a LITTLE less authentic in that Simon and the judges seems scripted and in on it like they knew what was coming but whatever it is still great and I LOVE JIMMIE HERROD and he has a hell of a voice. JUST WATCH:
- THIS video I have personally watched 176 times I am pretty sure. It makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I know many of you have seen it in your feeds but it’s worth it to watch again and for those who have NOT seen FLASHBOB, enjoy….(watch the whole thing)…humans are awesome.
- I LOVE ME A GOOD sex scandal from across the pond. LOVE IT. And this one was particularly good because this is the guy who was responsible for how the UK handled COVID and was much criticized and then we found out that he was SLIGHTLY distracted. This is not his wife but his “aide” sorry and like WTF IS HE DOING WITH HIS HANDS this makes me so uncomfortable. BUT the Brits are always so horny I love it. Anyway, Bye Matt Hancock…
Some very funny memes have come out that I could devote pages to but alas, here are just a few:
And his resignation video just was a PERFECT GIFT for this much used Home Simpson meme:
- I mean the fastest I can run is a sprint and that’s only for coffee. Sha’Carri Richardson is a woman I bow down to and we all are now ALL EYES on one of the fastest humans ever. SHE DOMINATED at the Olympic trials for the 100 meter sprint and with style. SHE FLIES it gives me chills.
- I KNOW I said humans are amazing…but we can be pretty terrible too though I now feel bad for THE most wanted woman in France right now. This lady caused a catastrophic crash during the Tour de France because she wanted a PICTURE. I mean…I am sure she is in hiding and I feel bad but seriously….A rough translation seems to say “GO GRANDPA” but no one really knows anything more yet…we WILL THOUGH. We. Will.
- And did you hear about the SUBWAY TUNA DRAMA? First Subway puts all their marketing dollars behind Jared who now rots in prison for being a pedophile. NOW, they have been discovered to have NO TUNA in their tunafish. AND there is a big lawsuit…like what is it. THE NYT did a deep dive but like look guys…it’s a LONG read and I tried but I still don’t know what the tuna is if it’s not tuna. BUT lmk if you figure it out.
BUT the greatest gift for us GEN Xers was the Jessica Simpson tweet. For those of you unaware (I have said this a MILLION times btw, read her book it is sooooo good) when she was on her ICONIC reality show with her now ex-husband Nick LAchey, we learned she was confused as to whether CHICKEN OF THE SEA Tuna was chicken OR Tuna. So she (or her genius social media manager) tweeted this:
- And lastly, remember William White?? WELL THANK YOU NEW YORK TIMES for including me in this MUST READ ARTICLE from the SUNDAY PAPER:
THAT IS IT. Have a beautiful week my lovely readers. STAY COOL.
Be safe, be kind.
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