Just a note of some of the funnest content I consumed last month (in no particular order):
– Mattel released an exclusive Monster High “Skullector” doll of Elvira… which is cute as hell, but maybe a little *too* exclusive for many collectors, who were complaining that it sold out in the blink of a newt’s eye!
– Anna Kendrick got high on hot sauce, while enduring her Hot Ones interrogation.
– Despite having been a “fan” of Sandra Bernhard since my early teens, and listening to her album Excuses for Bad Behavior (Part One) (1994) on a weekly basis back at uni, for some reason I’ve only just become aware that she released a video for “Manic Superstar” (1994), back in the day. The song is a glorious mash-up of “Everything’s Alright” from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar with “Manic Depression” by Jimi Hendrix, and the suitably-“schizophrenic” promo looks incredible, even if it is just a low-res rip from an old VHS tape!
– Joy Sunday gave Seventeen magazine a surprisingly emotional show-and-tell, explaining the stories behind some of her most treasured possessions/mementos. Turns out she’s kind of a “dork” (her words, not mine!), with a longstanding love of Fantasy fiction, and an ambition to be cast as a live-action-Anime (?) heroine!
– Somehow I was able to watch the first ep of the new (fourth) season of TBS’s Miracle Workers, even though the actual air-date has been delayed. I really enjoyed the post-apocalyptic “End Times” setting, and was simping hard for Geraldine Viswanathan‘s aggressive/intimidating goth-punk warlord ‘Freya Exaltada’… even if Jon Bass did steal every scene he was in as her dog-like sidekick, ‘Scraps’. I hope the rest of the eps get released soon… the jokes are kinda “out there” and often in “bad taste” (we first meet Daniel Radcliffe‘s Mad-Max-esque ‘Sid’ gnawing the dry flesh off a human arm-bone, for example), but the cast have such great chemistry/charm.
– Meg Tilly posted her first “Cozy Tea Time” chat in several months, after a break from social media for health reasons… but she seemed to be in high spirits here, and had plenty good news to share!
– Sadie Sink made an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, discussing the high-points of her career so far.
– Anya Taylor-Joy revealed the mildly terrifying contents of her “Lady Dior” bag, for the official YT channel.
– I finished the first season of Netflix’s Wednesday series, after rationing myself to one ep a week (which I always watched on Wednesday, obvs), and have rather mixed feelings about the experience overall. Jenna Ortega is absolutely incredible as the eponymous uber-goth, and totally deserves some sort of award (or two) for her unblinking commitment (and iconic dance moves). Gwendoline Christie, Hunter Doohan, Riki Lindhome, Emma Myers, Christina Ricci, and the aforementioned Joy Sunday were also a lot of fun in their respective roles, so no complaints there. But, as I said in a previous post, the premise and plot-line of this season were just too similar to Monster High: The Movie (2022) for me to fully enjoy and engage with… I kinda felt like I was watching a premature remake, where I already knew whodunnit and why! Sigh… hopefully the second season will bring something fresher to the table…? If it somehow turns out to have the same story as the forthcoming MH sequel, I’m going to be mightily suspicious/upset!
– Meanwhile, Ryan George‘s “Pitch Meeting” for the series did a great job of nailing/expressing the concerns I also had over the slightly inconsistent characterisation at the heart of its premise… i.e., Wednesday has always seemed like the sort of girl who’d fight *alongside* a murderous monster, not against them!
– Aubrey Plaza hosted ep #48.10 of Saturday Night Live, kicking off her reign by demonstrating her “impersonation skills” (and maybe some other skills as well, wink-wink) to Chloe Fineman in a promotional skit,* followed by one of the (very) few host/guest-announcement vids I’ve ever actually laughed at. As for the show itself, my highlights were Plaza’s opening monologue/set-tour (link), the “Miss Universe” pageant (link), the “Film Noir” parody (co-starring Sharon Stone!) (link), the increasingly horny “game night” (link), and the Black-owned “White Lotus” spoof (link) (which gave Ego Nwodim another chance to shine, and Fineman the perfect excuse to break out her officially-approved Jennifer Coolidge impersonation). This was probably the first ep in recent memory that I’ve watched from beginning to end without skipping one-or-two sketches, and that’s solely because of the awesome/intense star-power of Plaza!
– Perennial faves include Ryan George‘s Pitch Meetings (link), Bailey Meyers‘s gaming streams (link), Star Wars Explained (link), Honest Trailers (link), and Honest Game Trailers (link)!
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* It took me a while to adjust to seeing Plaza as a blonde… and Fineman as a brunette… the whole world’s gone topsy-turvy!
Valet of the Ultra-Vixens 
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