EPISODE 703: DIE, ANNIVERSARY CAKE, DIE
Something great happened but now it's over.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
This week in PCSW, some things that I’m pretty sure are true and definitely very wow:
Facebook has not produced a single new feature of its own since the News Feed in 2006. Mark Zuckerberg had a Very Bad No Good Awful kind of Day last week, when he lost 30 billion—that’s more than U.S.’s entire GDP (WAY more)—months after announcing he was taking over a universe that doesn’t exist and no one wants from him so as to try and get people to forget the many horrible things that he and the people around him have been doing to confuse, divide and mine its users for a very very long time.
Two takeaways which I hope are true, but what do I know I just sit in my room and write stuff (thanks, omicron!): 1) If you don’t respect your users eventually it’s going to backfire. (This would be a corollary to Marx’ famous manifesto, “Do no shit where you eat.”)
2) If you want to keep innovating you need to actually keep innovating, aka making new stuff.
Ryan Broderick says this is all way better here. He also posted the TV news tweet on February I posted below, which is somehow reassuring even as it says February is garbage.
Queen Elizabeth has been queen for 70 years.
Yes you read that right. Apparently at her party (after literally murdering her cake) she insisted on singing “I’m Still Here” 15 times. When she saw some of her family yawning she is said to have shouted at them, “Oh, this is boring, is it? Try being your mother.” Then she threw back another Dubbonet and started the Karaoke machine over again.
Other people that have done a thing for seventy years: the guy that supposedly didn’t eat or drink for 70 years. The guy who spent 70 years in an iron lung. Some married couples and religious….
Yeah, it’s a pretty short list. Happy anniversary, Lillibet!
Encanto is the first Disney movie to tell a story about a character with mental health issues.
Last night some friends of mine were talking about Encanto, the newest Disney movie, with songs from the 2010’s main crush Lin-Manuel Miranda. If, like me, you have yet to see it, the story involves a family of Colombian refugees who found a home amongst a group of mountains, and everyone in the main family has powers which they are meant to use to protect their refuge, except for main character Mirabel, who wasn’t given any at her coming of age ceremony, which was not a great experience for her. But then the refuge starts to fall apart…
It’s an interesting story about how the expectations of family can end up destroying not just any one person but the family as a whole. And there’s a fascinating subplot-that-is-actually-central about a member of the family named Bruno, who is no longer around and no one is supposed to talk about.
Maybe you’ve heard this song about him on the radio.
Note the way he’s presented throughout the song. He’s hooded in a green outfit that is that shade of green that so many bad guys wear. He’s got a Snidely Whiplash mustache. He’s got creepy glowy green eyes with dark circles under them. He’s a friend to rats. And he mumbles.
These are all traits generally associated with villains. But then it turns out rather than evil he’s this very vulnerable person who loves his family, and also has a form of OCD.
The story does not focus on his health issues; no one ever mentions them, in fact. His journey is rather about overcoming the stigma he’s taken on from his family in order to help them. It’s a great story.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie/TV show about someone with a mental health issue that isn’t a Story about A Person With A Mental Health Issue. And as much as I liked Encanto, I really want a sequel that gives Bruno a story and adventures of his own.
A couple great pieces about Encanto: Lin-Manuel talking about how he used the “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” song to ensure that certain supporting characters would not get written out; this amazing piece about how different characters represent different struggles that first generation immigrants face; a great fan theory about where the magic came from in the first place. (The origin of the magic is absolutely the Hanging Chad of the story and definitely needs explanation.)
Also, I had had an article published in America on Friday which seemed to totally fit with Encanto and so of course I used it. (See: I am a monster.)
Never mind me, I’ll just be packing my bags and preparing to be thrown out.
THREE TWEETS
Malala comes to Wordle ready to play.
If you ever need crazy factoids to distract your children, this thread is for you:
You’ll have to click on this to watch it, but trust me when I say it is the greatest commentary on February ever.
OTHER THINGS
And then the pandemic came for chocolate milk.
Also, Serial has a new season out! Remember Serial, it was that podcast show we all talked about back before all the things and now it’s owned by the New York Times, so that should be good, right?
I haven’t listened yet, but they did some great stuff in the Before Times, so maybe everything is going to be fine.
That’s all from the corner unit here at 16th and 6th. Hope you have a great week. And if you don’t, remember, it’s not you, it’s February.