#CouchWorthy:The Circus Is Back In Town on September 19
The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth returns on Sunday September 19 at 8pm on Showtime (Crave in Canada.). Woot!
It will be interesting to unpack the tonal shift as they transition from President Trump to President Biden. Though it’s most likely President Biden is gonna be Benghazi-ed over this Afghanistan hot mess. A Democrat mess is a Republican gift.
I assume Republicans will employ the effective Benghazi playbook: they’ll force hearings and testimony and issue dubious talking points: anything to weaken Biden’s support and stain his legacy. (Though I can give Hillary a get out of jail card for Benghazi; Biden does own some responsibility for the sloppiness of Afghanistan. Not like he needs to resign as President sloppiness. President W Bush started two wars under false pretenses and Americans kept him. So the Presidential bar of sloppiness is not that high.)
Unfortunately Benghazi was how everyone discovered Hillary had a private server which lead to the email controversy so that’s like the Son of Sam serial killer who was eventually caught not by forensic evidence or good solid police work…the police found him because he had a parking ticket. He double parked to go commit murder (which kinda makes sense…if you’re willing to commit murder why would you respect any of the other laws?!) so my point is it may start with Afghanistan but if something juicy like a private server is revealed that could spell trouble as they pivot to that.
A Democrat mess is a Republican gift.
Plus Canada is gonna elect somebody on Monday, September 20 so that’s be interesting to see half the story. (It’s not looking good in Canada…none of the candidates are any good or offer much leadership. So while it’s great we’re free to vote we’re settling for mediocrity.)
The Circus teaser…not much since they hafta go shoot the show but it’s back in less than a month.
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
#SetTheVCR: December 6-12, 2020
We’re getting deeper into the Holiday Season…so you know what that means right? A Lord of the Rings style quest to find non-Christmas movies. I…didn’t totally succeed. My Bad: We Good?
The series finale of The Reagans. The fourth and final episode explores the Reagans’ second term (including Iran-Contra scandal). It also reveals why the docuseries is called The Reagans plural; this isn’t just about Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Nancy’s behind-the-scenes machinations to shape the Reagan legacy reveal her true power and her agenda. Turns out as first lady her agenda was entirely focused on legacy and making her husband great again. Fascinating yet disturbing docuseries. The past is prologue.
Way before Stranger Things appeared in 2016 “Strange things were afoot at the Circle-K.” Indeed. 1989 give us Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure a movie that lived up to its title. Though Coronavirus disrupted 2020 gave us the third Bill & Ted movie. So with Hollywood Suite’s free preview now on why not go back to their Excellent Adventure. (Bogus Journey is also on Hollywood Suite though that movie…sigh also lives up to its title.)
Tomorrow: A #SetTheVCR heads up! You’re getting Part 1 and Part 2 of The Bubble: An Open Gym Documentary. It’s a 4 part docuseries so tomorrow Wednesday, Dec. 9 is Part 1 and 2 while Wednesday, Dec. 16 is Part 3 and 4 both nights it starts at 8 pm all on TSN. As you know the NBA shut down on March 12. And with the season three-quarters complete and no champion crowned: the question was always how do we finish what we started? The answer became the NBA bubble: on July 30 the NBA resumed its season on an ESPN Florida campus. Too much success. While this NBA Bubble documentary is focused on the Raptors I hope it expands: we’d never witnessed anything like this before and I cannot speak for the players and staff experiences. It was an unusual social experiment and we’re still sorting out the ramifications.
Sammy Suggestion: Happiest Season (Anytime / Amazon Prime Canada)
Sigh. It’s a Christmas movie sure but I haven’t succumbed to Christmas Cheer just yet. Rather this is a PSA. Hulu TV shows and movies are scattered on various Canadian platforms so it can be hard to track em down. Still the popular (I assume it’s popular because I saw it trending) holiday hit has made its way to Canada via Amazon Prime. Thank you Jeff Bezos. It’s your basic generic rom-com: half of a gay couple (the female Terminator from Dark Fate) wants to take the other half home for the holidays (the human girl in Twilight) only…she hasn’t told her family she’s gay. Cue Frasier style hijinks with a Christmas tree in the background: hence the title Happiest Season right? (If you’re in the mood for a great Kristen Stewart movie Panic Room is on Starz via Crave.)
Recently David Fincher signed a four-year exclusive deal with Netflix and it makes sense for both parties. Fincher’s movies haven’t done well at the box office which isn’t reflective of their quality. So Netflix gives him a small space to quietly create and he doesn’t hafta open against an MCU movie. You would think Steven Soderbergh would want a similar deal with a streamer. Well, today he’s on HBO Max with Let Them All Talk. The bulk of the dialogue was improvised by the cast and he shot this movie using natural light. Not your standard HBO Max movie even though the description sounds like it: “An author goes on a trip with her friends and nephew in an effort to find fun and come to terms with her past.” So yeah Let Them All Talk about how Soderbergh should score a similar Fincher-Netflix deal.
Sammy Suggestion: I’m Your Woman (Anytime / Amazon Prime)
I dunno if this movie will be any good. I’m simply sharing it because I can use the phrase “go on the lam!” We rarely get an opportunity to use that. (Especially in real life…) So yeah a criminal’s wife must go on the lam with her baby. Works for me!
Do you have a sudden irresistible urge to dance to disco music with half your shirt open?! No need for Web MD: you have come down with a strong case of Saturday Nigh Fever. Despite being one of the biggest pop bands of all time I don’t know much about The Bee Gees. So I’m grateful this documentary is here to enlighten me. Ok let’s get into it. (Also on Crave in Canada.)
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
The Glass Ceiling of Hate
You know what’s telling?
My Dad and I watched the recent Kamala Harris and Joe Biden victory speeches.
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#TrailerAlert: August 17, 2020
Amazon release this trailer for this documentary on voting and voter suppression in America this afternoon.
Americans are addicted to “vote!!” as an effective solution but voting has no value if the candidates are lousy. When the system forces voters to choose between Trump or Hillary it’s not clearly not good; it’s clearly not working.
You’re really honestly telling me those are the 2 best choices to represent 300 million people?!
The way the candidates are selected (in America and in Canada); the way we present them…the media all of that needs to be overhauled. In everything else we can research reviews…from cities we’re flying to; to a washer…to a book…there are reviews and opinions and recommendations and suggestions so people can avoid mistakes or bad choices. We don’t really do that properly with political candidates.
The debate used to be can you do more good outside the system or should you get elected and attempt to change the system from within. Now it’s obvious no good comes from within the system.
So yeah voter suppression is a major issue and yes it is racist but if the choices suck that’s not good either. So I hope this doc addresses some/all of that.
All In: The Fight For Democracy is on Amazon Prime on September 18. I’m In! I’ll make some tea and chill with this.
Colin Kaepernick’s Nike ad is decent but not as powerfully potent as 2016’s Come Out of Nowhere NBA campaign: MAKE HISTORY NOT APOLOGIES.
Yo so good; soul good.
Kaepernick’s Nike ad means sneaker culture goes full circle: in 1968 Tommy Smith and John Carlos protested during the anthem police brutality (they held up a Puma shoe.) Exact same template as Colin: ostracized from sports, abused…death threats etc.
“But, having examined Peterson’s work closely, I think the “misinterpretation” of Peterson is only partially a result of leftists reading him through an ideological prism. A more important reason why Peterson is “misinterpreted” is that he is so consistently vague and vacillating that it’s impossible to tell what he is “actually saying.” People can have such angry arguments about Peterson, seeing him as everything from a fascist apologist to an Enlightenment liberal, because his vacuous words are a kind of Rorschach test onto which countless interpretations can be projected.”
Yeah. Just because you interpreted writing one way doesn’t mean it’s automatically universal. That’s personal not universial.
~ Sammy Younan
Trump reopens a seemingly settled video-game debate
“Reminder as Trump is set to meet today with video game makers to discuss gun violence: “Roughly two decades of research has repeatedly failed to uncover any such link.”
I am surprised President Trump is going after video games…it totally doesn’t support the he’s a racist narrative when rap is an easy and far more effective target. He’d get way more support going after rappers: remember when Marilyn Manson was the Columbine culprit? That’s the standard M.O. for gun shootings…pick a type of media and throw em under the bus. It works too.
~ Sammy Younan (March 8, 2018)
The surprising link between your politics and what you buy
“We found that Republicans with high social status were 9.8% more likely than high-status Democrats to buy a luxury car.“
"The researchers hypothesized that these patterns in consumption behavior stemmed from an urge to assert a sense of social hierarchy and socioeconomic order.”
New Book Alert: Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right
There’s a book that came out this past October: Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right by Anne Nelson.
Ready for this?
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142 | Meghan Daum (The Problem with Everything)
My Summer Lair Chapter #142: Is This Book (In A Way) Thinking Out Loud?
From the 1992 song Tennessee by Arrested Development:
“Now I see the importance of history Why my people be in the mess that they be Many journeys to freedom made in vain By brothers on the corner playing ghetto games I ask you Lord why you enlightened me Without the enlightenment of all my folks
He said cause I set myself on a quest for truth And he was there to quench my thirst But I am still thirsty
The Lord allowed me to drink some more He said what I am searching for are The answers to all which are in front of me The ultimate truth started to get blurry.”
Make curiosity a habit; broaden your thinking so it’s not reduced or suffering from being black and white. One of the many inspiring takeaways from The Problem with Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars by Meghan Daum.
A society is only as strong as its readers. On page 59 Meghan writes: “As I see it, the eye-roll GIF is the most cavalier and snot-nosed form of retort since “talk to the hand.” If you disagree with someone on ideological grounds, the reasonable response is to either lay out your own argument or, if the provocation is indeed too tiresome, disengage altogether. Disengaging does not make you, as they say now, “complicit in oppression” (or, as we used to say, “part of the problem”). It suggests you have better things to do, which, let’s face it, is the kind of suggestion that drives Twitter trolls and ideological opponents berserk. I can’t for the life of me see why a GIF of Emma Stone rolling her eyes in disgust is considered a substitute for a counterargument. I don’t see how saying “fuck” all the time makes you sound tough when it’s actually laziness incarnate.”
Whew this is refreshing. The wrong can “feel” like a loud majority but you are not alone. Those of us who’ve chosen rationality as our North Star (as opposed to the unsatisfying narcissism of retweets and likes) must find ways to rudder our pop culture slowly (painfully) back to intelligence. It’s not easy but it can and should be done.
