Episode 206: RIP Barbara Billingsley and Tom Bosley, shout-outs, Bet’s make-up quiz, movies (Stennie: Al Franken: God Spoke; Bet: None), Pet Stories, New Favorites (Catalog Living and WHEEEE), What’s Up With That – Glee-Q and Ginni Thomas, fuck-offs and you-rules, quick round of Fact or Crap.
Music: “The Hucklebuck,” performed by Sierra Rein, Lee Rocker, and Frank Sinatra.
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My bullying story: I was in the 9th grade overseas in a school that was grades 7-10. Steve Duvall, one of the 10th graders, was a real prick who really got a kick out of terrorizing me (and nobody else). I never knew why, except maybe because the girl he was going out with was my science class lab partner. She was always nice and tried to get him to leave me alone, which always resulted in him pushing me around even more. One day at the end of the lunch hour I was grabbing my books from my locker when Steve and his buds walked in. Steve walked by me, put a hand on my books, and shoved them down to the ground as he walked to his locker on the other side of the room. I said something like, “goddammit Steve, what’s your problem?” He turned around, walked up to me, and tried to shove me back into the lockers, but I got my arms up and blocked his move. He tried it again and I did the same thing. So we stared each other down for what seemed like an hour before he turned and walked away. He could have creamed me, and he knew that, but he also knew what kind of trouble he would have gotten in. And he never bothered me again. (Bonus fact: our fathers worked together and did not get along, either.)
The happy ending to this was that a few weeks after school was out (that all happened near the end of the school year) I ran into him again and he was perfectly cool with me. The ultimately sad ending is that a couple of years ago, after finding a bunch of old schoolmates on facebook, I found out that he was killed in action a few years ago in Iraq (I believe). That affected me more that I thought it would, since I honestly never liked the guy.
To me, the Glee pictures in GQ simply reflect the state of our entertainment industry. If you look at the list of top 10 female celebrities you’ll see names like Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansson, and Madonna. All these women present a slutty image and aren’t shy about showing off. Even Miley Cyrus is getting her slut on with recent videos showing her in compromising positions. Little Miss Disney realized as she grows up she must appeal to an older audience and that audience demands blatant sexuality.
The Glee girls are just responding to audience demands. If you compare those who parade a whore image to those who don’t, it’s clear the whores win. There isn’t a single top female celebrity who made it past the minor league without it. You must have an outrageous personna of sexuality to be a superstar. Even Cher realized it many years ago.
The Glee girls want to be superstars. They want to be major celebrities. What they did is practically mandatory.
Speaking of political ads, where can I find one of those coked up squirrel monkeys?
I already gave Bet all the gory details about the Day The Hackensaw Boys Ate Dinner At My Dining Room Table And Mapped Out Their Next Two CDs, so I hesitate to brag here…
But the really big news is that by the time you record again (next Friday) the topic Bet submitted to Gimme a Minute will have aired and you all will have the opportunity to watch it!! I’ll post the link to it on the Hucklebug comments next week.
And if one more person reminds me to vote, I will scream.
<3
Marla
I appreciate that fact that you’ll watch the Sarah Palin show for us.
My one cat loves to hop up on the counters. I’m going to try some new methods to get her to stop. My mom read an article about putting a bunch of foil that will make noise when they hop up or try to put some cookie sheets full of water hanging off the edge, so it’ll tip over and scare them. You have water all over, but maybe it’ll work.
Stennie-When I read the heading for this week’s episode, I thought you were talking about that “Weeee” website we used to crack up over at work together.
Any publicity is good publicity in Hollywood. Anytime you can keep your name in the press, your star rises. Out of sight, out of mind. The Glee actors’ PR people probably told them it would be good for their career to do the shoot. Sad that sex is what sells. If you say no, then you’re branded a bitch and hard to deal with. I was once at a film festival that Felicity Huffman spoke at after her film TransAmerica finished and she did nudity in it. I got to ask her if nudity was a must for a career advancement. She flat out said, “Yes.” Nuff said.
Mike’s lyrics quizzes, even the “easy” ones, leave me emotionally obliterated. I will say that I immediately recognized the lyrics for “Come Monday,” due mostly to the fact that during the summer between my third- and fourth-grade years, I worked as a roadie on Jimmy Buffet’s tour. (Slight embellishment.)
The Glee-Q stuff is just appalling. I’d find it merely tacky and tasteless if glee hadn’t positioned itself (and for the most part rightly so) as beacon of self-affirming role-modeldom. But it’s for that reason that the shots, especially of Lea Michelle represent such a huge, destructive step backward. If the producers of the show knew about or signed off on those, that’s especially heinous. If they didn’t know, then I think the actors ought to be fired or suspended.