You can't buy the streets
Tuesday Post: Musings, Laughter, and What I've Been Watching
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Warm weather has arrived in Brooklyn and Adam has begun asking what days I wanna escape to Riis for an afternoon (yes he is perfect, thank you for noticing.) Pride month is two days away, and I’m day dreaming of a lazing about on a pool floaty listening to DaniLeigh’s Tasty on repeat.
Last week you received a special post to your inbox, chock full of sexy NSFW music videos! Paid subscribers will continue to receive posts like that one, as well as personal essays and a whole lot more! Fret not free subscribers, you’ll still get the Tuesday Post each week, just like you did today 🫶.
Before we jump into this week’s post, some house-keeping:
This week I discovered that there is an entire group of people who have never heard Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls1, one of the best songs on the band's seventh studio album Jazz (1978)- along with Bicycle Race and Don’t Stop Me Now, of course. If you are one of these people, remedy that and give the song (or album) a listen. You won’t regret it.
My hand is feeling much better, thank you for asking.
There are spoilers below for Fast X, Succession and Barry. You have been informed.
Let’s get into it.
Jinkx Monsoon: Red Head Redemption was so funny that I scared the dog from cackling so hard. There’s a reason Jinx is the first two-time winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race and significantly resparked sales for Chicago on Broadway. It’s because she’s flipping talented: she can sing, she can act, and she is funny. Her jokes are well written, her comedic timing and delivery are golden. I’ll definitely be watching this a second - and possibly a third- time, because it’s that good. 10/10 recommend, available to rent and buy on Prime Video.
Adam is a big fan of the Fast franchise so I’ve grown to appreciate just how stupid and fun it is. The latest installment - Fast X - may not be as good as its predecessor’s but is still a great time. Dom continues to sport his $10 silver plated cross as he walks around, his hands permanently clenched into fists like an action figure, waxing poetic about family (“Without honor you got no family, without family you got nothing.”) and delivers heartfelt one liner life lessons throughout the film like “You can’t buy the streets.”2 and “In a world where there is no code, nobody is safe.'“3
My biggest critique: the blatant queer coding of the villain, played by a man who has been clawing to get back into the good graces of fans after proudly boasting in 2011 that his favorite part of being in GoT was being able to “r— beautiful women” on screen.
Flagrant Hollywood homophobia and fuckboy aside, the movie was a solid first act jam packed with fight scenes, car chases, and physics defying stunts, leaving me curious to see how they’re going to handle the massive (and absurd) cliffhangers they left the audience with. Bummed to have to wait till 2025 to see JM’s character get demolished by the Millenial A-Team in iMax, but will be there middle row in iMax to watch it all go down.
What I’m Watching
Succession: No one wins, everyone’s miserable! Hooray!
There have been a lot of critically acclaimed shows over the years, but I fail to recollect a show in which every actor delivered, each season, a more powerful performance than the last. Succession has from the start felt like a play, a dark comedic tragedy, and it ended perfectly with every Roy child forced to witness their delusions dreams of power - and control - crumble. Though the Roy kids failed to achieve anything and everything they set out to do, Logan in the end fell the hardest- he built an empire but failed to raise children to uphold and protect it.
Though I will miss the schadenfreude4, what I’ll miss most of all is jumping into the group chat, synchronizing us all pressing play at the same, and talking shit while we watch an hour of the best American TV drama ever acted, written, and directed. Kudos to the cast, I hope you take home all the awards.
Barry - I always knew that Barry’s finale would be a bloody one, and boy was it ever. It’s fitting that the only one who gets a somewhat happy ending is his son John, who has a little bit of closure in knowing the loving father he knew would be remembered as human, and not a monster.
The Great - I recently rewatched S1 & 2, and have been taking my sweet time watching the latest season because I don’t want it to end. A longer review to come once I finally finish S3.
ATTN NEW YORKERS:
Vote for how NYC should spend $5 million - “For the first time, New Yorkers anywhere in the city who want a say on how and where to spend a pool of taxpayer money can cast their votes in-person or online through June 25.”
Plus, the primary election is coming up. Don’t be the transplant that does nothing for the city. Participate in local politics, fold your pizza slices, and stand on the right side of the escalator!
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Apparently not everyone’s Godmother woke them up when they were hungover (or just felt like sleeping in, honestly) by blasting Queen till they got out of bed, nor have many people played Queen’s albums on repeat for months while they toiled away in a mailroom with a bunch of other queers making copies of depositions for divorce lawyers. So weird.
This one actually made me laugh out loud in the movie theater in a very embarrassing way. It’s so dumb, and isn’t meant to be funny, but Vin’s over the top serious delivery is hard not to laugh at.
How did I remember these quotes? Because I was laughing so hard in the first ten minutes at the awful dialogue I decided to take notes throughout the film. (Notes taken w/ pen and paper, keep your phones off in the theatre.)
I can’t believe I’m saying this but: if you were rooting for RoyCo to succeed, you have been watching TV wrong. A friend asked me this weekend if I had to empathize with one character who would it be, and only because I had to choose one person, I chose Gerri - but f*ck the rest of those people lolol.