Pop Culture Mondays/7.20.20
The “Not Everything Should be Cake” Edition
HAPPY MONDAY my pop culture junkies! I am in LA now so if you notice this is coming a bit later to you on Mondays, my apologies but I do crank it out in real time starting at the crack of dawn. People ask me why I don’t write it over time throughout the week and while that probably would make for a less crazy Monday, it’s just impossible because SO MUCH STUFF HAPPENS ON SUNDAYS OMG. Guys, we can talk about Kanye a bit later but COME ON. Like I continue to say, we need to spend more money on education AND mental health in this country. Chrissy Teigen, whom I don’t know and have never interacted with but I am 1000 percent certain she’s not involved in a child sex ring, is being harassed online (as well as anyone close to her) by so so so many people on Twitter and Instagram — crazy trolls who either really believe she is or just love the concept of trolling. Either way….EDUCATION AND MENTAL HEALTH.
There was a lot of content for PCM this week. But first — we lost a giant this week in John Lewis…who if you are not aware whether American or not, was a giant in the civil rights movement and monumentally important and critical in the advancement of American society. While I would not want to insult his legacy by making him a post in my silly newsletter, I encourage you to listen to today’s DAILY podcast here because you will learn a lot about him. His parents were sharecroppers, meaning they were not really free as initially they didn’t own their land but instead got to use land owned by others and in exchange had to share some of their crops. That’s how John Lewis grew up in rural Alabama. And then there was this, his winning a National Book Award in 2016 — full disclosure…grab some Kleenex but it’s a MUST SEE:
On top of losing John Lewis, we also lost another Civil Rights giant, The Rev. CT Vivian. The man The Rev. Martin Luther called “the greatest preacher ever…”
So with that my little PCMers…get yourselves into some #GOODTROUBLE whenever possible. And for those of you new to PCM, welcome, and please note, we try to be TRUMP-FREE just to give our hearts and souls a break for a minute. I would obviously love to show you every Sarah Cooper video ever but you guys are able to do that on your own. Enjoy this calorie free jaunt thru Wonka World where everything is filled with sugar but it doesn’t rot your insides…NOT REALLY at any rate.
NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES:
For those of you who don’t know, this is Susan Orlean. The famous author behind books including “The Orchid Thief” which was actually masterfully turned into the film “Adaptation” starring Meryl Streep, and most recently “The Library Book”. She is also the woman who brought so many of us together this weekend and somehow spoke for SO many of us…in an inebriated Twitter stream of consciousness.
Thankfully because of the Twitter, even though I wasn’t following Susan (I MOST DEF am now!) I was able to catch on pretty quickly what was happening as my Twitter stream was FULL of responses and retweets. But this was not something horrible where everyone was coming together whether to grieve or speculate or bash like so many of these moments tend to be. NOPE. Instead we were with her in unity, like watching our best friend get drunk for the first time and giggling at everything she says. Also, we all needed to know that others like Susan — world famous author and journalist — was also “OVER IT” just like us!
It started, I believe, with her tweet about praying for Ruth Bader-Ginsburg because WE CANNOT deal with this in 2020. We all had just heard the news of her hospitalization and it sent shivers thru a lot of spines. And then just like that, Susan started tweeting things, some of which were incoherent, some we could piece together, something about fennel candy, and she acknowledged her family was shunning her because she was drunk. HAMMERED.
But really where she really hit a nerve with everyone..where we were all realizing she was fast becoming our Patron Saint of 2020 was when she tweeted this:
And she legitimized cat people (I am currently not sharing my home with a cat because my menace of a dog would lose his mind, but JUST so we are clear ,I LOVE cats and have been a cat lady before.)
It was a helluva ride. And frankly, even sober she’s hilarious and exactly what we need right now. THANK YOU SUSAN ORLEAN. WE ARE HERE FOR IT.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF HYPER_REALISTIC CAKE SLICING VIDEOS:
I remember about a year ago, someone sent me a video of a very very real looking dog all of a sudden being cut in half…because IT WAS NOT A DOG, but a cake. I watched it 50 times…GUILTILY as it felt weirdly like a snuff film. Like WTF did I just watch?
Well, I was not alone and this (realistic cakes being cut) has become like THING. And the more I watch TikTok (I am THAT lady, the one way too old to be lurking on TikTok but I CANNOT STOP) the more I was seeing of these crazy, yet crazy satisfying to some degree, cut caking videos. They have carried over to all the socials TBH (TO BE HONEST, for you kids not familiar with acronyms), and now are mainstream due to a story about it in The New York Times. I was thinking of writing about this FONDANT PHENOMENON a few weeks ago but I could not admit to you, my darling readers, JUST how much time I had spent watching these videos. But now, it is really actually MY DUTY to bring these to your attention. SO may I present:
And here is that awful dog cake video…of a dog that looks just like my 🥔 Dog so it haunted me.
And for more on this…and everything you need to know and a lot you do not need to know here you go:
I TRIPLE CAN’T:
I mean I don’t even know what to say anymore. I DO know if I was his wife, I would divorce him immediately and protect my children from his crazy unless he agreed to get into a mental health facility immediately. So, Kanye announced his candidacy for President of the US and while I am of the mindset of ANYONE but who we currently have, this proves that statement wrong. Yesterday, at Kanye’s first “rally”, which looked more like a sad meet and greet under a tent while he wore a BULLET PROOF VEST with the word “SECURITY” taped to it, Kanye went on to cry and tell the “crowd” how he and his wife, Kim Kardashian, nearly aborted their first child. I mean can you imagine? That poor kid will read that when she’s old enough….it’s just shocking and painful and selfish and my heart breaks for that little girl and I hope that family does what they can to shield her and the other kids from this.
He also went onto say that Harriet Tubman — another American icon, an abolitionist who fought to free slaves — actually didn’t do that and proceeded to insult her legacy and her impact on the world which was so offensive to some women there to watch the Kanye “show” that they left mid-speech:
I am not of the mindset of making fun of mentally ill people…UNLESS they pose a true danger to society (Trump, for example) and Kanye poses a real danger. With 2020 shaved into his head, he proceeds to fully breakdown at one point while talking about abortion:
For more on this train wreck:
TWITTER HACK MELTDOWN:
Twitter was hacked and the world stopped for a moment. Yes, can you believe that was only last week? It feels like a lifetime ago. But for those of you who don’t know, some Bitcoin crazy kids HACKED TWITTER…and not just hacked, but got into the accounts of people including President Obama, Vice President Biden, Bill Gates (Sorry BG!) and PCM patron saint Elon Musk. Among others. The hackers apparently say they were able to access private Twitter slack channel where they got credentials to the platform from pinned credentials on SLACK so it’s an entire HOT MESS of a situation.
The tweets that went out were this:
Twitter went dark for a bit while they obviously franticly tried to figure out what was happening and stop it. And the verified users who have a WHITE CHECK (people say BLUE check BUT it is NOT a blue check and that drives me crazy just like when people say “I could care less” which is NOT the statement because if you could care less then you literally could care even less…it is “COULDN’T care less”…so VERIFIED is a white check with a blue background.) And since the people who were hacked were verified, all verified users were prevented from Tweeting (I am verified BTW) but it was a nice place without all of us annoying people I must admit. What was NOT fun was all the subsequent tweets from people like that Kara Swisher and other WHITE CHECKS all saying the same thing and I had to stop reading (love you Swish…)
“Is this thing on?”
“Hello hello anyone there?”
“DID this work?”
“Testing….1,2,3..”
For more on the hack The New York Times did a VERY detailed look into it:
AND THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS….
So, I have to go back to my day job…we have an amazing female-founded startup launching tomorrow which I will SHAMELESSLY plug next week because it’s my newsletter and I can do that! I have compiled a few other things that happened this week that I would write about if I had all the time in the world…but I am busy also watching TikToks and being catfished on dating apps (TRUE STORY but alas, not for here…maybe later..).
- Mark Zuckerberg can be criticized for any number of things but wearing sunscreen — actually ZINC which protects better AND is not harmful to ocean life like reefs (sunscreen IS is toxic to the ocean and to you frankly with all the chemicals but I DIGRESS…) — is NOT something we should be going after Zuck for. Lots of people coming to his defense on this NY POST article…but lots of people turning his ZINC Face into a meme.
- Henry Cavill AKA Superman, made nerds around the world SO happy and I can say this as I am one and watching him BUILD his own Gaming PC was really everything and more:
- Another trend popping up on the TikTok are people dishing on their experiences with celebs. From hostesses at clubs and restaurants to wait staff…there is a LOT of content and it’s strangely soothing to me:
And it got so much attention, one star who was criticized, Hailey Bieber had to actually issue an apology:
- And lastly I leave you with this:
Until next week, my Pop Culture Junkies. If you have ANY FEEDBACK or suggestions please lmk and as always please share this with EVERYONE!
Anyway, please stay SAFE. Wear 😷 when you are out in public and be kind to one another and STOP USING FONDANT!!!
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