EPISODE 836: ROBERT REDFORD’S TEETH
Also: My Very Deep and Very Real Relationship with a Star Wars Character! Hollywood Refuses to Move Out of Its Parents’ Garage! And a Big Change to the Wow!
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi and welcome back to Pop Culture Spirit Wow, the newsletter that insists you really can talk about Godzilla, Barbra Streisand and Jesus all in the same sentence, and does its best to prove it. Lots, lots, lots going on in the Wow today, so let’s get into it.
THE WOWND UP
Should you find your spouse or work friends babbling compulsively about Queen Elizabeth, asteroid mining or Godzilla over the next ten days, rest assured, they have not lost their minds. It’s just a big couple weeks for prestige TV fans: The Crown drops the first four of its final ten episodes on Tuesday. The new Godzilla-and-other-big-monsters show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters debuts on Apple this Friday. Season four of the amazing space-race show For All Mankind started there last Friday. And Fargo comes back for a fifth season on November 21st and stars the great Jon Hamm, who just burned down season 3 of The Morning Show.
Meanwhile, Marvel’s latest The Marvels crashed and burned this weekend, with the second lowest opening day in Marvel movie history. There will no doubt be a lot of post-game write ups, but what really makes me frustrated is that all three main characters of that film are just fantastic. The idea that their futures may get swept away in the greater exhaustion with Marvel or superhero stories is just so sad. If you haven’t watched Ms. Marvel, I’ll just say it again: watch Ms. Marvel.
And Barbra “Buttah” Streisand released a 992-page memoir this week. (Don’t roll your eyes, you know you’re going to read it.) Vulture has a whole section on the fight that Streisand had to get The Broadway Album made and how incredible Stephen Sondheim was in the process; Vanity Fair has another about making The Way We Were and Robert Redford’s “great teeth.” The New Yorker also did a fantastic send-up of the book, with lines like, “P. 112 Barbra says Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is ‘an autobiographical masterpiece but the drawer pulls are all wrong.’”
Also, if you get the audio book Barbara will spend the next 48 hours reading it to you, and tell me that wouldn’t be two of the most hilarious days of your life.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
In June I reached out to a site I love to see if they’d be interested in an interview with a big writer. Sure, the site said, go for it!
I adore this site. They do fantastic stuff. I was so excited at their yes, I immediately pitched them a couple other ideas, too, and got two more greenlights.
When I turned in the first piece about 2 weeks later, I asked—for the first time—about how much I’d be paid for it.
I realize that might seem crazy. Why would you do work without knowing the pay? Well, I’d written for similar sites and so I assumed I understood the range of rates. But more than that, I just hate asking about money. I’ve never really had to do that, and so I don’t know quite know how. It feels rude, somehow, like I don’t trust the people I’m in business with. Of course they’re going to pay a fair rate.
Then they told me, we don’t really have a rate. Instead you get a cut of the advertising dollars on your piece. Okay, I say. And what does that look like? Oh, about $10 an article.
But we feel bad that you’ve done this work without knowing that, they say, we’ll give you $25/piece.
In the end it took almost six months to get that $75. I can’t tell you how many times I had to ask for it.
All of which is to say, when it comes to money I’m kind of a disaster.
For the last 5 months I’ve been trying to offer writing here that you can’t find elsewhere, from serious pieces like last week’s on the transgender baptism, aka “Baptism in Theory and with a Side of Shame,” to the silly. How many other pieces have you seen on Christian anti-Garfield memes ha ha ha?
I thought tipping would be the least aggressive way to help pay for that work. But while a couple people have been really generous, it’s mostly been a bust.
As I’ve shared this with friends, I’ve gotten some fascinating feedback about tipping. Some have pointed out just how much we’re all being inundated with tip requests at this point. Post-pandemic it seems like everywhere you go, no matter what kind of service is being providing, you’re faced with an iPad screen pushing for extra money.
One friend told me about a place that’s completely computer automated, but still asks for tips. “Like, who am I giving money to, the AI?” It’s all become kind of infuriating.
Someone else suggested that asking people for tips ends up feeling like you’re soliciting their pity. If you’re providing a service, it’s legitimate to ask to be paid for it. People can decide for themselves if they want it. Take yourself seriously already!
Honestly, as much as I love the tip idea as a low-key alternative to subscribing, I’ve also hated having to mention it every issue. It feels pushy and tacky.
So I’m going to shift to the more standard Substack subscription model. The Monday Wows will stay free. But as of Wednesday, the rest will require a subscription.
Substack offers two basic options: a yearly rate or a monthly. I believe if you do the monthly, you can cancel at any time, just like a Netflix or Hulu account. For anyone that subscribes by Black Friday, I’ll be offering the same rate which the mighty but few who have already subscribed pay: $80/year or $8/month. Saturday the 25th, it’ll go up to $100/year, $10/month.
Substack gets about 20% of that money, btw. For an $80 sub I see about $65. It’s a lot, right?! Another reason I tried tipping instead.
As someone who has spent most of his life not having to worry about getting paid, this is all more than a little uncomfortable. But my landlord is insisting I cannot pay rent with good intentions. (Another lesson for a priest on leave!)
And the more support I get, the more cool things I can do here. Speaking of which…
A Tease of What’s to Come
In honor of her new book, on Wednesday I’ve got a piece coming on Barbra Streisand’s Broadway Album.
I’ll be posting a piece on the vow of poverty in the Jesuits later this week, too. For as much as people ask about chastity, they’re usually almost as fascinated with how money works—how much you get, how you’re allowed to use it. I’ve got lots of stories.
I’ve also got some great interviews coming, including one with a former priest who has written a great book about being gay in the church, and another with one of the piano players at Marie’s Crisis, the premier show tunes piano bar in New York City. Depending on how this subscription idea goes, I’m hoping to offer something arts-related much more often. There’s a little taste of that at the end of the issue today.
With the holidays coming I’m also planning some fun holidays pieces, and a group activity for the subscriber community that I think people will really enjoy.
I’m really grateful to you all for reading. I hope that you’ll join me on the next stage of the ride. If you’ve got any questions, feel free to email me at jptmcd@gmail.com.
MY DEFINITELY PLATONIC AND TOTALLY CEREBRAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN
I am neck deep in a six book, in-canon Star Wars series written by Timothy Zahn about Star Wars “villain” Grand Admiral Thrawn.
For those who are not yet in the know, Thrawn is basically the new Big Bad in the Star Wars cinematic universe. Having made a number of appearances in the animated shows, he crossed over into live action on Ahsoka and is almost certainly going to be the villain of the next couple years on The Mandalorian and everything else going on in the post-Return of the Jedi period.
(You know how in the Star Wars sequels we hear about this big final battle against the remnants of the Empire that took place over Scarif, where Rey Skywalker will grow up? I’m betting we’re going to see that battle in the upcoming Mandaloriaverse movie, and Thrawn’s going to be leading it.)
But none of the TV portrayals of Thrawn prepared me for what a total rock star he is in his books. Basically, Thrawn is the greatest strategic mind in the Star Wars universe. The Sith may have plans, but they’re so overwrought. A galactic civil war? Really? And the Rebels don’t strategize so much as they pour their hearts out and die hoping someone down the road will save them all.
Thrawn thinks. Thrawn observes. Thrawn learns. Thrawn comes up with ingenious plans. Thrawn takes me to art museums and smiles at me when I do something right. He also looks amazing in white.
What? He does.
He’s also not really a villain. And I don’t mean that in the way of that tired old actor’s chestnut, “Every villain is really a hero in his own story.”
Thrawn actually is a good guy. He helps those under him to become better at their jobs (which okay, are jobs in the Empire, but still). He also has enormous respect for other cultures and forms of life, and works hard to ensure his actions don’t harm them.
It turns out he has this whole other agenda than the Empire, too, which is really refreshing after 46 years of obsessing about that. Thrawn actually comes from the Unknown Regions of space, a vast area of worlds and civilizations far beyond the Empire/Republic. Over the course of the two three-book series, we learn that Thrawn has joined the Empire to try and gain their help for his people against shadowy civilizations within the Unknown Regions that are able to incite civilization-ending civil wars and enslave whole worlds to their cause without even revealing they’re there.
Both trilogies are absolutely fascinating for the cat and mouse game that Thrawn plays with these groups, and the dangers that they represent. They’re so good, in fact, I’m a little disappointed to see Thrawn being pulled into the live-action universe, where he’s still a genius, but his life is consumed by the Empire nonsense. His real life plays on a much bigger stage.
He’s so freaking cool, you guys.
THIS IS YOUR WEEKLY REMINDER THAT HOLLYWOOD IS STILL YOUR 30 YEAR OLD SON LIVING AT HOME WHILE HIS BIG IDEA “GESTATES”
The Hollywood Reporter has a great story this week about where Hollywood finds itself after what it calls “the summer of strikes” (I can confirm, in Southern California it still pretty much feels like summer in November). The piece is definitely worth a read.
Personally the thing I find most fascinating is seeing formerly ad-free networks like Netflix or Disney+ really pushing people to go for their ad-based options. Streamers clearly think they’re going to make more money from advertisements than from subscribers and/or the ship is sinking and they’re hoping advertising dollars can slow their destruction until they figure something else out.
Personally, I think if they really want us all to watch, they’re going to have to make it a lot more painful for those of us who don’t want them. Paying $2/month more for Netflix, as I just found I have to do, is just not a hurdle.
At the same time if they do raise the rates high enough, I think the question will be, do people agree to the cheaper option, or just walk away until the next time they hear about something they have to see?
I can’t tell you how many times in the last couple months I’ve heard friends say, we have way too many streamers that we’re not using. To me, that kind of awareness and desire for change is another bad sign.
MOMENT OF WOW
New SNL cast member Chloe Troast had her first big SNL moment last night with an Annie riff, and she knocked it out of the park. Brava, Chloe!
THEATER WOW: OVERHEARD IN THE THIRD BALCONY
Comments from the cheap seats…
Harmony
Do they not realize that they have Julie Benko?
Chip Zien must have strong shoulders, because he is carrying this show.
Merrily We Roll Along
We should have that Lindsay Mendez over for Thanksgiving. Those boys are not good for her.
Maureen and I felt bad about using the kids’ college funds to pay for these tickets, but based on the show they’re all going to end up unhappy anyway.
I Can Get it For You Wholesale
Julia Lester is a goddamn super star. (Mom, language.)
Nobody betrays his mameshi like Santino Fontana.
The Frogs
Hell actually seems like a lot of fun.
Why is it all of the shows I don’t want to see play forever but The Frogs gets just two days?
Pal Joey
I don’t know who that Joey thinks he is, but he’s no pal of mine.
See you Wednesday with Theater Wow: The Broadway Album!
"I can’t tell you how many times in the last couple months I’ve heard friends say, we have way too many streamers that we’re not using."
I do not understand this. If you are not using them, then drop them. I have at most one streaming service I am subscribed to at any given time. I sign up for Netflix for a month, catch up on whatever shows they have that I care about, then drop them and do the same thing the next month for Disney+ (or whatever). Some months I am not subscribed to anything at all.