Pop Culture Mondays/7.12.21
The “ZAILA IS EVERYTHING” Edition
Happy Monday my darling pop culture junkies! I hope you are all rested and recovered — and those of you who were in Sun Valley (I KNOW MY SUBSCRIBERS) please put the vests away in a drawer and if any of you MEN were there wearing slides/shower shoes (we have seen the photos), I have a lot of thoughts and none of them are good. Look, I don’t care if they are $600 Gucci slides…you’re grown men at a worky thing, DO BETTER. OK, I will chill out as I will only get myself in trouble here but can we please not normalize grown men with gross feet wearing slides if they are not on a beach? OK THANK YOU for listening to my TED Talk.
In other news, we are going to keep it light and fun this week despite impending doom of the Delta variant which seemingly is everywhere now…and the water shortage in California, and the billionaire space race which is weirdly fascinating and I am so glad Sir Richard is ok because I know there were a bunch of you who watched with your hands slightly over your eyes and holding your breath…so we can all breathe that he is OK. As for Jeff Bezos…there will never be a day when this song is not funny to me so I will kick things off with a silly TikTok someone did showing his boat or maybe not his boat but could be his boat and it just fucking makes me laugh every time.
So without further adieu…once again, we have Bo Burnham’s “JEFFREY BEZOS”:
IT KILLS ME. OK, I digress…enjoy this fun week and if you are on summer HOLS then aI hope you are KILLING it. We are and always will be TRUMP-free. So it’s a safe place my little lovelies.
XOXO….
ZAILA AVANT-GARDE, THE UNDER ACHIEVER:
THAT right there is sarcasm. NO one is less of an under achiever than her. So first of all, do me a favor and GOOGLE her. Just watch what Google does when you Google her name. I LOVE THE INTERNETS you guys. I do. It’s cute. I mean yes the end of democracy comes with a price but DAMN IT IS CUTE when they get all GOOGLY. OK, let me get back on track. THIS GIRL IS SOMETHING ELSE. Zaila is just 14 and is from Louisiana and is the first Black American to win the Scripps Spelling Bee which she won with the word “murraya” which according to my research because I have never ever heard the word it is a genus belonging to the Rutaceae family, which is a citrus family of flowering plants. OBVIOUSLY.
And Zaila goes on to thank BILL freaking MURRAY for the win because she says her favorite movie as a “kid” was “LOST IN TRANSLATION” because you know that is every little girl’s MUST SEE MOVIE (am I right?) and she loves Bill Murray and knew the word was spelled like his name even though it is not pronounced this way.
Let’s backtrack for a second. How is it that Zaila sees this movie and she becomes basically the most interesting and talented young girl in the world, whereas I was obsessed with this movie and every single detail and all it did was make me smoke more, drink more, and chase the wrong dudes?? OK it is not about me but MAN I did not get what Zaila got from that movie which not only includes being THE Spelling Bee champion but also she‘s a GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORD holder for 3 different things.
SHE HAS THREE WORLD RECORDS:
- Most balls juggled in one minute with four basketballs
- Most dribbles in 30 seconds with four basketballs
- Most basketballs dribbled by one person simultaneously (6)
She is considered to be one of the best 8th grade basketball players in the country. Check her out here:
Zaila Zaila Zaila. This is a name we will never forget and she is only going to do even MORE amazing things it seems. While she considers spelling as her side hustle, as basketball is her number one priority, she still practiced 7 hours a day for the Bee. In her own words…
“I kind of thought I would never be into spelling again, but I’m also happy that I’m going to make a clean break from it,” Zaila said. “I can go out, like my Guinness world records, just leave it right there, and walk off.”
I CANNOT EVEN WITH THIS GIRL. What a champion. And HER LAST NAME IS AVANT-GARDE. Her dad apparently gave her the last name as a tribute to John Coltrane:
She wants to be in the WNBA and I am pretty sure she will get there…she will also probably become a thoracic heart surgeon and own multiple basketball teams while being a champion player and just do that IN HER SPARE TIME. Well, she now has all the hearts of the best in basketball:
#RACISTENGLAND IS TRENDING:
It just seems to be never ending. Racism is everywhere and despite it being 2021, here we are. It almost feels like we have gone so backwards the last 5 years there is no recovery. I know the truth is that racism has always been there, but as of late, with leaders like Trump giving permission to hate and leaders like Boris who criticize players for kneeling, it seems like people feel they are allowed to behave a certain way. It is just appalling and man how I wish the fucking billionaires racing to get to space and be an astronaut could put their money to things more useful to society such as combatting racism and so forth, like it would be a better world TBH. Like this guy points out:
SOOOO…in case you missed the latest hateful moment in society…England lost to Italy yesterday in penalties in the Euro 2020 Cup. I actually know LESS than zero about football of ANY kind so I will not get into the details. There were some great viral moments from this game prior to the heartbreak. Including Prince George looking like a little banker boy which is so weird like an actual Alex P. Keaton (only the Olds will know this reference but click link if you must know):
Then there was Mario and Pizza Girl that took over for a bit:
And then some amusing takes on the IT’S COMING HOME trend (the Italians took this and changed it to “IT’S COMING TO ROME”):
OK…so now that we have had our fun…I hate to break it to you, but the ugly trolls now take over and have turned what was a game of elite athletes into a disgusting cesspool of racism.
Three players for England, who happen to be Black — Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho & Bukayo Saka, missed penalties in a shootout. And this has kicked off so much hate it is bone chilling. From racist rants online and offline to fights to threats, it has put a very sad and ugly shadow on what was an amazing achievement for both teams. This is the best England has done in a long time and to have that taken from them by this hate is heartbreaking. I am not going to share the racist posts because they are truly just the worst things and you can only imagine but I will leave at that.
And it brings up another ugly truth and as someone who lives and breathes social media and has grown up in the tech world and who’s entire career revolves around tech and innovators, it pains to me say but this is the ugly side of tech. Twitter and Facebook and TikTok and every other social platform that uses the excuse of “we are a platform and we are not to be blamed” for the perpetuation of hate and bullying they allow to take place, should be held accountable. Are they to blame for racism? No. Are they to blame for allowing this to spread and be shared and to influence those who can be influenced? ONE THOUSAND PERCENT.
Twitter claims it is trying to tackle it, but none of the companies are doing enough.
But the abuse continues because these companies, led by dudes too busy going on meditation retreats or hydrofoiling to John Denver to be bothered, so here we are:
For more on this:
THE BEST OF SOCIALS THIS WEEK:
So while there is a lot of ugly on the socials, there is a lot of fun and I just hope this wins out ultimately. So I have just decided to be light and breezy after the horrible so we can just exhale and enjoy. Below are just some of the things that dominated recently:
- This has been my favorite thing on TikTok lately. These guys went viral for this video which I LOVE (also maybe the only TikTok dance I could legit do):
AND there are a million videos built off of it but this is my fave:
- TikTokkers making fun of their dads and how they prepare for travel brigs me great joy. Dads…watch out!
- AND the best response to cultural appropriation I have ever seen.
- So the flooding in NYC is real. It is worse than ever which I do blame the city for because it’s due to garbage piling up and sewers being clogged because THIS SHIT is bananas. Also let me point out there is no amount of money that would get me to do what this lady does and walk through this water to get the train. Not to mention the fear of electrocution is too much for me to take.
Come on NYC get it together….
- This woman posted this TikTok that was literally asking people to come aty her and they did like Charlie Puth who was one of MANY MANY to run with it:
BUT the original creator came back with a response and an explanation of the video which I thought was cool to see the full-circleness of it all and to get insight on what viral moments can lead to:
- Forget about sourdough bread or feta pasta…we have a NEW FOOD TREND and that is…..PASTA CHIPS. Go and get yourself an air fryer if you don’t already have one (how do you not have one are you an animal??)
- NO to local carnival rides guys. It’s not worth it.
- The socials erupted when the new trailer of Succession dropped. THIS SHOW is everything you guys. If you missed it:
- AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST…I totally one hundred percent STAN Kathy Hilton, the mother of Paris and the newest star of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. WHO IS HUNKY DORY??
THAT IS IT. Have a beautiful week my lovely readers and let’s do more to tackle racism and less to tackle getting billionaires to travel to space ok? Thanks.
Be safe, be kind.
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