27bored

The wife on this show is a little too serious and intense for me. She’s got the easier job but she always has this arch, bug-eyes, close-to-losing it thing about her. The guy seems way more laid back and is way easier to watch.

Two things: 1. The whole Naya Wallace trying to have a baby subplot. Im only asking because I honestly don’t know but when women around her age can’t have children, uh, isn’t there some homespun advice that they might be doing too much? Like, I’ve heard women say they were able to get pregnant after trying once their lives calmed down. If you have a bunch of projects and other things going on, can it be that much more difficult to actually get pregnant? And I don’t just mean having time for sex. Has anyone else heard of or experienced this? 2. I wonder if the subtext to how Lily and Rose behave is that Lily, because she’s adopted and Charlotte and Harry were a wee bit younger, she’s easier to deal with than Rock. It’s giving Kardashian-Jenner vibes. The Kardashians were raised in privilege but they had to work and make nice to become the celebrities they are. Kendall and Kylie were born rich and didn’t have to work as hard and it kinda shows. Just sayin’.

I'd argue that if lots of twelve year olds are having sexual activity of any orientation or identity, that's a big problem. Also, if the school, the other kids, and the other parents, and TikTok knew...this isn't an issue of the school outing a kid to their parents. And the whole idea of outing a child -- again, a twelve year old -- because you're not sure how the parents will handle it, is BS, both in theory and in context. It's not the school's job to raise these students and assert their personal mores on them. And it's bogus because Charlotte is clearly a very involved, very caring parent. The school should respect Charlotte and Harry enough to keep it on the level with them irrespective of how they feel about gender non-binary children. Exactly. And that's not what I meant. Like I said, you can't conflate tolerance with good parenting. Because sometimes you don't get to be the nice guy when you're practicing good parenting. So Rose wanting to go by some nickname because she claims she doesn't feel like a girl, and her not wanting to wear dresses and heels, doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. And it may just come down to her wanting to present as more "boyish" than "girly" (and I'm speaking in preteen logic here). Well, eventually that's more than likely going to translate into wanting to act on the sexual feelings everybody has when going through puberty. The issue for me is Rose is a child and doesn't even have a full understanding of masculinity and femininity, yet she's sure she doesn't want to "conform" to a gender. My point is the school and Charlotte and Harry will have a long time to come to terms and accept Rose/Rock for who they are if they are truly non-binary. I'm not necessarily looking down on them as bad parents or bad people because they don't immediately conform to their twelve year-old's chosen gender identity and pronouns. I completely understand one doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the other as a technical matter, but I'm saying it's probably not a good idea for schools or parents to let their preteens start defining themselves based on their sexuality. And I say that as a general rule of thumb, not just within this context. When I was that age, I remember so many of the boys and girls I went to school with trying to act grown. And I think that's where a lot of issues even in cis het relationships starts. Because many kids were in too much of rush to act grown when they didn't know anything about sex or relationships and nobody told them to go sit down somewhere. So many boys grow up not knowing to treat women, and girls grow up to distrust and somewhat despise men because they associate them as just wanting nothing from them but sex. But that's what happens when you get sexualized too early.

She had on a crooked wig and drug store lipstick, but didn’t have sense enough to shave her thick ass mustache. She looked like a detective who had to go undercover as a woman but fucked it up. TOM SELLECK COULD NEVER. She had six daughters, all of whom had prescription medicine names, and three dogs. I was like baby that’s why your shit is peaching…the peach fuzz is fucking you up. Like for real.

Wow, I had no idea. Okay, YouTube started randomly suggesting videos to me about him a few weeks ago. Just out of the blue. I don’t know why I thought he was still alive.

Okay, you were right both times, though I misstated my point. Originally I meant to say it was back on the charts after all these years. I didn’t necessarily assume it was a #1 hit, even though that’s what I wrote, though I figured it must have charted pretty high for the song to be an enduring classic the way it is. I corrected myself in my follow-up post and still wound being confusing. Sorry! As for Maren Morris, yeah, the vibe I get from her is that she wants to be a star more than anything. And I feel bad for nitpicking her fashion sense because maybe she just likes looking cute, so who am I to judge? But she just gives me Halsey vibes. Like, early on Halsey seemed more into playing the role of pop star even when she didn’t quite have the hits yet. Maren Morris was three singles in to her solo career before she featured on The Middle.

Pentatonix is too YouTube-Gimmick-Made-Good. I don’t think a capella singing is a gimmick per se, but it does kinda have its place. Caroling, recital halls, in front of the quad of college on TV...that kind of thing. Not on drive time radio or harmonizing with Stevie Wonder on the Grammys, y’know? And they even look a little bit like the creation of some Lou Pearlman type (currently incarcerated founder of *NSYNC and BSB). They’re like the Planeteers of singing groups. But really, I just think they’re filing the void left by the industry not signing actual talented people. People want to hear vocal harmonies and runs and riffs. Nothing wrong with that, but maybe we could hear that in the context of fully fleshed out music compositions. Not from kids who look like extras from DeGrassi.

Yeah it is neat that that song hit #1 at the end of this decade. Not sure why I figured it was a hit when it came out. I guess it’s because out of all the Christmas pop songs that have been released that seems to be one of the few original ones that has legs. Anywhoodle, I came here to talk about “The Middle”. I kinda feel like we need more pop songs like that. Maybe not in that same vein, but songs that encourage large groups of people to sing at the top of their lungs. I listened to it today and I realized that I kind of wish they had kept looking for a singer. Quick backstory: they went through over a dozen vocalists and no one could sing it like Sarah Aarons, one of the co-writers, who did the demo. NYT did short film about the song: Go to 1:20 to hear her do the first take of the chorus. It’s so...good. Affecting. Emotional. I wind up going back to listen to that part from time to time. There’s a mixture of anger, frustration, and sadness. They really wanted to find a singer who could conjure that up. They settled on Maren Morris whose tone sounds like Sarah’s, but Maren’s not emotional enough. She’s way too into being hot. IJS. Every time I’ve seen her perform I’ve thought she put more effort into dressing snazzy than how she performed. Anyway. I find myself listening around her during that song, if that makes any sense. It’s a good pop song. Close to “pop perfection”, a concept I’ve talked about before. Just wish the vocals gave me more life than they do. I’ve often thought that some songs would work well if the singer learned the song then sang it in like 1-2 takes. This is one of them.

Ha! Why? I do too kinda, but I wanna hear your take. UO: We might have to cancel Camila Cabello. First, uh, not sure if you guys heard but apparently Camila Cabello is in some hot water because her own Tumblr resurfaced where she had posts of all kinds of racially insensitive things back when she was a teenager (including a photo of a white female basketball player holding a bucket of chicken away from a black player and a redrawing of Piglet with an Afro and brown skin, and yes, they renamed Piglet, and yes it’s what you think it is, and no, I won’t be repeating it here). She’s come out and apologized but there’s a line between finding offensive jokes funny because you’re immature and devoting a portion of your social media presence to Racial jokes. And she’s been propped to an extent because of her Cuban heritage and the cultural moment we’re in. I’m normally not a fan of canceling people but aside from the racial stuff, I’m tired of them pushing this plain chick on us. She’s an average singer, average in the looks department, makes mostly uninteresting pop music, and yet they want her to be everywhere. I think it’s starting to slow down, though. Apparently her album Romance that just came out flopped, she’s scheduled to be in this ridiculous adaptation of Cinderella that not too many people are interested in, more and more people are convinced her and Shawn Mendes are fakety fake fake, now this. Maybe Camila needs to take the next year off.

Not if you sit by and watch it happen to others without speaking up (like all of them do). Not if you yourself do it all the time (like Joy does on a daily basis). And not if you’re simply doing it to virtue signal (like all of them do). It’s more a matter of convenience at that point.

As a matter of political commentary, it’s tired. And while I watch this show because I genuinely like seeing women discuss current events and like to hear their opinions, I can’t think of anything that enforces more negative stereotypes about women than the View taking the time to chronicle every unkind word or shady comment or angry tweet from President Trump, especially apart from any larger context so it just looks like he had no rhyme or reason for saying those things besides being a meany-head. And cross-reference their prickliness over Trump’s personality with how they handle disagreements on this show or social media backlash. It’s all condescension, dodginess, “you need to calm down”, and defensiveness (“w-well, you wouldn’t say that if we were men!”).

Being smart means you can’t and won’t just carry the water for one side irrespective of what that side says or does. It means you understand how to call balls and strikes. And, it means you don’t leave it up to others correct blatant details of the issue you’re discussing because it doesn’t jibe with your narrative. Sunny has said way too many times that she doesn’t understand how Republicans won’t impeach Trump but they impeached Clinton. She’s been corrected, at least once, that Clinton lied under oath. So, Sunny, that’s why they’re not in favor of Trump’s impeachment! Just simplifying it down to “the President did something wrong” and expecting the same reaction is, well, not something a smart person would do. There are levels to it. Plus, Sunny was a prosecutor. Her point is like saying, why would a prosecutor give a press conference on a murder trial but not speak up about someone cheating on their spouse? After all, they’re both wrong! This is...not how smart people think. And for a long time I’ve felt Sunny was just dumbing herself down because this show is very surface, but she hasn’t had an opportunity to use her brain in awhile, so I think she’s actually lost some IQ points. One other point Is like to make. Well, two. First of all, I’m tired of them saying that no Republican has tried to defend Trump on the issue as if that means something. They’re defending him by voting against impeachment! They’re not trying to tidy up his image so they can bring him home for the holidays. It’s telling they want impeachment to be a referendum on him and not on the Ukraine thing. Just because they can’t compartmentalism doesn’t mean other people can’t. Second, Meghan said Trump lost any good will he had by saying what he said about the man who died. Oh, Meghan. Everybody didn’t grow up with John McCain as their father. Pointing out that Trump said something tacky and mean is sooo 2016 I could vomit. She’s gotta stop calling herself a conservative who won’t be quiet and start acting like one. She uses Trump’s lack of manners as a crutch to hop aboard the Trump hate train, and saying something about a veteran irrespective of why, is her ticket. But in the end, nobody’s buying it.

Again I’m referring to a panel, not a show led by Joy. And I’ve seen Meghan on other panels and whatnot and never have I found her to be nasty. But that’s just my opinion. Whoopi, Joy, and Sunny...are blue state liberal Democrats. Period. I’m not saying they’re always in lock step with one another and literally have no differences, but they’re usually in lock step with one another as it pertains to the main issue they discuss as far as politics are concerned. Plus, Ana, Abby, and Meghan might be nominally Republican, but like I said, they all hate Trump, and with Ana, I mean, you’d be hard-pressed to find her saying Republican-y things in any medium she’s on. All three are tepid examples of conservative women in media, and the only reason stands out is she’s a bit more outspoken in sharing her conservative views. Hence she’s a big bitch. Yeah, I disagree. Meghan’s never going to endear herself to the View’s audience because of her political affiliation. I think Meghan gets more hate than any other co-host and having to sit on the show and constantly be the contrary one has probably made her more defensive than she is by nature. She’s a lot of things but I don’t think from a personality perspective she’s any worse than any of her co-hosts. I think Abby is the nicest, that’s it. I remember when Elisabeth was on the show and she was routinely derided as being a bitch too (Elisabitch???) and she was way less pugilistic than Meghan. I mean, it’s the reverse Halo Effect, really. Any conservative woman on this show who dares to be at all assertive in her opinions is going to be derided as a bitch, and many of those people are going to swear it has nothing to do with her political views, it really is just her personality and lack of manners. This is why I keep saying the show’s format is unfair to MM and Abby. They should understand that and at least try to mitigate a little instead of always setting them up to play the spoiler to the running commentary.

Meghan usually waits until the end to speak, so I don’t know that she simply can’t control herself. Methinks some people want Meghan to be a sweet li’l lady and wait her turn because they’re not really trying to hear what she has to say anyway. It’s not like Meghan is the only person who ever interrupts anyone; she gets interrupted too. Plus, and I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but when you have three liberals and one Nice Person, there’s no reason to interrupt if you’re all saying the same thing and agreeing with one another. Meghan is the only one who may have a hot take that goes against the grain, so she’s the one who has to try to get a word in edgewise. Joy’s ebullience is due to being in a safe space. She can crack wise and the audience will cheer. Put her with a group of conservatives who aren’t here for her Eff Trump energy and she may not be as light-hearted. Conversely, Meghan on a show of other conservatives might actually seem more friendly and upbeat because she’s not always on defense.

The “Meghan’s interrupting people” thing is a little unfair, IMHO. This isn’t an AA meeting; it’s supposed to be a conversation. Maybe they all need to learn how to make their points without speechifying and applause-wrangling and then maybe it won’t seem so OMG HOW RUDE when they interrupted.

Eh, Sunny can be a little on the long winded side and telegraphs that she’s just looking for applause. Like, there are only so many minutes between segments. Bash Trump and Republicans all you want, just please do it at shorter length.

I knew she would walk it back too. But that was complete bullshit. First of all, Whoopi, most people were praising you for dragging Meghan. So who exactly needs to calm down as far as you’re concerned? Unless somebody behind the scenes got in your ass for that, nobody was upset with you for what you said. Except the twelve people who like Meghan. And she played the sexism card...biiiitch, get the fuck outta her with that. You and Meghan were being catty. If someone said you guys were being catty, and that cattiness runs amok on this show, they’re saying it because it fucking does. It’s not sexism because you’re not a good representation for women of differing opinions.

I think you guys missed my point. If Joy was the lone liberal voice on a conservative panel, she would come off as bad if not worse to their audience as Meghan does. If they always teed stories in a Trump’s Great/Dems Suck kind of way, Joy would be the bad-hearted contrarian who people wish would get kicked off the show. Meghan can be one-note as it pertains to veterans, but as I said I think that’s because of her father more than some abiding respect for veterans in general. But politically Meghan probably gives the most varied answers. Like I said, Whoopi, Sunny, and Joy don’t defend conservatives, Republicans, or Trump. So you can guess their reaction 95% of the time. I think she said she has a hard time discussing him because they know one another personally, and even then I think implicit assumption was that she disagreed with him but didn’t want to join in on the dragging because of their personal relationship. To be fair, she’s said something along the same lines about Joe Biden. So, this is another example of what I mean by her having nuance that the others don’t have and how the tenor of the show is set up to make her look bad accidentally/on purpose. First of all, they all know Meghan and Lindsey know each other. So she’s not going to drag him like the rest of them regardless. I’d have more of an issue with that if I felt that wouldn’t be the case with the rest of them if someone they knew was “wrong” and they had to call them out. If they talked about it, they would do so in the most sterile way possible to avoid a phone call. Second, not to get too political, but Meghan’s opinion, to me, seems like she’s saying, Lindsey is wrong for telegraphing how he’s going to vote prior to getting the case, but House Democrats weren’t exactly impartial and by-the-books, so turnabout is fair play. I think she resents the implication that it’s okay for the others to carry the water for a bunch of politicians they don’t know but she has to sit there and criticize a close family friend for doing the same thing.

Well, I mean, I wouldn’t accuse Meghan of being a soft touch in any context. She’s not Abby. But I think Meghan’s personality grates more in this setting because of the dynamic of the show than her just being, well, a bitch. It would be like if Joy Behar was a host of The Five on FOX. Same points, same personality, just a different show. I’m sure their audience would find Joy’s personality insufferable as well, and if she was unwilling to pare down her personality and opinions for the sake of the show and/or their audience, she would be getting a lot of the same hate comments Meghan gets. On a show like the View, Joy is just the funny, brash Italian grandma from Brooklyn. Maybe you don’t agree with her all the time, but hey, what are you gonna do? Joy’s Joy.

I said they were more nuanced than the other three. And it’s fairly easy to see. Meghan doesn’t just sit and defend Trump or any other Republican irrespective of what they say and do. I’ve probably said before but I could easily put together several minutes of Meghan dissenting with the GOP talking point. And sometimes I think she takes a more neutral, dispassionate “numbers-crunching” position than taking a side. So she does have nuanced opinions, attitude aside. Which is why I don’t get mad at her when she gets huffy about not being allowed to speak. We get it: Whoopi wants to moralize, Joy wants to crack-wise, Sunny wants to tell lawyerly lies. Abby usually acts like a Pre-K teacher. Meghan’s the only person keeping the format from being stale. Whoopi, Joy, and Sunny don’t defend the GOP, they don’t defend Trump, they don’t defend conservative positions. But they sure have their critiques that they’re all too eager to share.

UO: I’ve probably said this before, but taking a song and doing an “unplugged”, slowed down, “intimate”, stripped version of it doesn’t automatically make it better. Usually it makes it worse and boring. This is a general point, but I’m especially talking about some of the renditions of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” I’ve heard lately. I’ve heard more than a few singer-songwriter attempts at that song and they all suck. Stripping down songs does tend to place more emphasis on the lyrics, but taking the bop out of songs, the part that makes people tap their toes, nod their heads, want to dance —especially songs like that — miss the point. It’s supposed to be a festive little ditty, not a spare, longing ballad about unrequited love. I swear that’s the one bit of hacky, rote, industry advice American Idol has wrought on an entire generation of musicians: this nonsense about “making a song your own”. How about if you can’t do the original justice, pick another song. I get it; not everybody is Mariah Carey. Hell, Mariah Carey isn’t even the same Mariah Carey who recorded that song. But leave it where it is and do something else.

Apparently Mariah Carey’s modern Christmas classic, “All I Want For Christmas” is back at the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s cool that song managed to hit the top spot over 20+ years after it was released. Good for Mariah. I like that she was gracious to Lil Nas X when he broke her record earlier this year. Mariah now has nineteen #1 hits and if this song keeps the record in 2020, she’ll be one of the only artists in history (if not the only one) to have a number one in the 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s. I’m not a chart watcher, but credit where credit is due.

No, it’s not. It’s not Whoppi’s show just because she’s sitting First Chair. Introduce the topic, then let everyone speak on it. And if she has to referee the conversation — as if they’re saying something of great importance — there’s a way to do it. Talking down to one of her co-hosts like she’s Mother is not the way. I wouldn’t agree with that characterization at all, but aside from that, this goes beyond the conversation over impeachment. I think Meghan is set up to look bitchier than she is, and I think the show being so one-sided frustrates her which is where some of her sassiness comes from. I think she and Abby resent having to play the spoiler to Trump Sucks kee-kee session that The View has become. Ana is a Republican in brand only. She doesn’t have to sit there and actually say Republican things and defend Republican ideas because the main topic of discussion is Trump, whom she doesn’t like. It’s no surprise she comes across better given she’s usually right there with Joy cracking wise and smirking. I’m not a fan of going both sides just to avoid criticizing your side when they do something wrong, but I think it’s perfectly fair to mention it as a matter of calling out blatant hypocrisy. And Whoopi, Joy, and Sunny are blatant hypocrites. Meghan and Abby are way more nuanced in their opinions than the other three, so I don’t take their occasional water-carrying for their side as being completely disingenuous. I think a Democrat could come out and give the same “Mexican rapists” speech Joy loves bringing up about Trump and she would insist it’s totally different.

I’m sorry, but Whoopi tried it and had that been me in Meghan’s spot, it would’ve gone a little worse than that. Whoopi, I don’t give two fucks how you think Meghan was acting, she’s a grown ass woman and your co-host. That doesn’t entitle her to disrespect anybody but it doesn’t entitle you to disrespect anybody either. If you think the conversation is getting too heated, go to a commercial. If you think Meghan is being wrong or unreasonable, explain why you feel differently. But “girl please stop talking”? “Bitch who the fuck are the fuck are you talking to” would’ve soared out of my mouth before I realized it. See, the reason why I cut Meghan a little more slack than most is because I know the show is set up to make her and Abby the contrarian voices instead of just two women with an opinion. Every topic is set up to dump on Trump/Republicans and Abby and Meghan get to either join in on the dragging or bless his actions as the two conservative ladies on the panel. Whoopi knows that, but she pretends like the dynamic of the show is fair to Meghan. Meghan might be a bit sassier than Whoopi, Sunny, and Joy would like, but the reality is that’s the show you guys have. If you want honest conversations where both sides get their just due, there are other major changes that need to be made besides Meghan shutting up. But this is pro-wrestling, so play your part, but don’t get mad when someone else plays theirs.

Meghan was rude to Tom Steyer, but I can’t be too mad about it because that’s what they do. Sunny had too many slick things to say to Don Jr when he was on the show; it’s what they do. To be honest, that’s one of the more annoying parts when they have a political person on either side of the aisle on the show. They spend most days talking about Trump, and more specifically talking about something mean/rude/unpresidential he said. So it’s not like any of them are tough. They know a lot of people aren’t going to push back because they want to be invited back, or they don’t want to be blackballed from any other ABC programming.