EPISODE 737: THAT TIME WHEN BARBIE'S DREAM HOUSE WAS MADE OF FIRE
We steal your water and sell it back to you lol
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
It’s dark here now before 5pm. And it seems like that happened all of a sudden, like the sun has had a timer on it that just went out.
We’ve had unseasonably warm weather in November, but that, too, seems to have disappeared all at once. Tonight walking down the street you could almost feel the snow coming. Or at least maybe Christmas.
Certainly the city itself is gearing up for the holiday season. On the way home from seeing my nephew and sister-in-law last night I came upon a whole group of people standing outside a glass building where a tree was being raised. Down the street from my house an apartment 7 or 8 stories up has pretty colored lights hanging between the windows.
I wonder whether these little glimpses of Christmas aren’t the best way to experience the holidays in New York. We’ve been taught by the movies and advertisements that there is nothing quite like wandering over to the tree at Rockefeller Center or checking out the window displays at Macy’s. But in fact those kinds of settings are usually a mob scene. You mostly fight not to drown in the crowds.
Meanwhile turning a corner and seeing someone has decorated one little tree on the block seems to say everything about the season.
THREE TWEETS OF A BIRD ON FIRE
So are you enjoying watching what was a semi-functioning ecosystem burst into flames?
I must say it’s been pretty eye-opening.
Who knew the blue checks were actually that important.
I’ll tell you, the one weird thing that I’m finding is that most of the new followers I’m getting now are young women wearing next to nothing. It’s very weird. I am a Catholic priest with a rainbow flag in my bio. I am not the target audience for whatever is going on here.
And what exactly is going on here? None of these women have reached out to me for anything. So if this is some kind of solicitation, I guess it’s of the “Here is my business card, call me if I can be of help to you” variety?
Or could it be that following a bunch of random people is a means of attaining some kind of legitimacy on the site?
(Actually someone on Quora says this is exactly what’s happening. The sites are bots that use women’s pictures. They follow thousands of people hoping to get hundreds of follow backs, and then to use that in some way that I still don’t totally understand.)
I’ve got no idea how this could possibly be connected to the Musk-over, but it has never happened to me before.
THIS IS YOUR WEEKLY REMINDER THAT BROADWAY STILL DOES ORIGINAL MUSICALS
I’ve had the chance to see a bunch of new musicals the last few weeks. Two of them are probably going to get a ton of tourist attention. One is a musical version of the old buddy comedy Some Like it Hot, where two musicians dress up as women and join an all-female band to hide from mobsters. The other, & Juliet, is a jukebox musical built around the premise of what if Juliet didn’t kill herself at the end of Romeo & Juliet.
They’re each fine in their own way. Hot has some seriously brilliant tap dancing numbers; & Juliet has a pretty great story at the heart of it.
But I have to say, if you’re coming to New York the show you have to see is Kimberly Akimbo. It’s the story of a 16-year-old girl who moves to a new town and school while dealing with the fact that she has a rare disease that makes her age at four times the normal rate. So while she’s actually 16 emotionally, she looks 64. (She’s played by 63-year-old Broadway legend Victoria Clark.)
Unlike the other two shows, it’s a completely original idea and delivered in a sweet, poignant way. It’s so rare to see a show that is actually new and unique.
The first 45 seconds of this ad for the show pretty much captures the vibe I fell in love with.
ATTENTION FANS OF ROYALTY
The Crown has returned. I have watched four episodes. One did this to me.
I will report back.
Also I have not yet seen Black Panther, do not @ me it will not work anyway.
I had three things to get done today and I only got done two and it’s 2am so I should probably go. Have a great week.
Countdown to Thanksgiving: 10 Gobbles.
WOW! What a great edition!👏🎉🐨
The "hot babes" bots have been running well before the Twitcastrophe. I retweet hot takes from dead saints from Robert Ellsberg's essays on the saint/blessed/servantofGod of the day and I used to only get likes from @GiveUsThisDayLP, then one day the hot babes bots some how found me, but why they're interested in motivational hagiography, who am I to judge?