This Can't Be Broccoli

I know there's a lot going on right now, but I have to ask-- Why is Ellen still here? Debates about cancel culture aside, I have not seen someone so thoroughly dragged continue on with their career as though absolutely nothing happened at all. I'm tempted to compare Ellen's protection by the people she makes money for to Chris Brown, but I know some of you would come at me for saying Ellen never did anything as bad as assaulting someone, and you'd be right, but I can't think of another example of someone having their true, awful self broadcast to the world only to end up keeping their career. Even Brown saw his career take a nosedive, whereas Ellen's entire career is predicated around her talk show, and aside from some gossip about the show being cancelled (most likely created by the show itself to create the illusion of possible consequences), the show has not changed at all. I was flipping channels the other day and saw that it was on. I stopped. Watched a bit...

A few months ago, I wrote about Sarah Cooper. You can read it here: https://thiscantbebroccoli.blogspot.com/2020/10/on-sarah-cooper.html Since the election, the question of "What will happen to her if 45 doesn't get re-elected?"  has been answered. I think it's fair to say she's...pretty much been discarded. If I felt somewhat bad for her before, I really feel bad for her now, because whereas I had a feeling she wouldn't be as prevalent post-election, I had no idea she'd evaporate this quickly. I can only imagine how bizarre it must be to be Sarah Cooper. Obviously thrilled that we have a new President and also understanding that your relevancy was snatched from you the same way the Pentagon had to snatch the nuclear codes from the former President as he was making his way to the helicopter. My essay was never meant as an attack on Cooper, but an attack on--here's everyone's favorite phrase-- The Culture Specifically a Content Culture that loves th...

  A few years ago, I attended an event for a friend where she was being honored by a wonderful organization. The event had different speakers talking about my friend, and an emcee who was in charge of bringing on the different speakers and saying nice things about the person being honored in between speeches. I ended up next to a colleague, and we could both tell the emcee was struggling. Being an emcee is often a thankless job, and if you do it as good as it's ever been done, it usually still feels like you just barely got through it. It's also not something a lot of people have a vast amount of experience with, and it happens to be something I love doing. My colleague knew this, and at one point during the ceremony, she turned to me and said-- "Why didn't they ask you to do it?" Before I could answer, she followed up with-- "Wait, why didn't they ask you to speak? You've known _____ for years." I didn't know it at the time, but I had a susp...

Well, this has been an interesting year. Normally, I would have seen all of my favorite movies in theaters, but this year, I streamed nearly all of them. I watched nearly a hundred and forty different films that were meant to be released in theaters (that's how I distinguished between films and TV movies--no shade to TV movies, but you can't really ask them to compete against movies with more resources). You won't see Minari or Nomadland  on this list, because as far as I'm concerned, they're 2021 movies. I realize that the pandemic threw off a lot of release schedules, but a movie that the majority of the movie-going public cannot see until late February is not a 2020 film. Again, these are my favorite  movies, not necessarily the best  movies. I will admit that this year, more than any other year, I couldn't get into super depressing films. That's why I haven't watched Pieces of a Woman  yet, because to be frank, it sounds like grief porn, and I don...

Before I do the big Best Movies of 2020 list, I thought I would just give you a few random lists of music, books, and streaming movies and specials I liked in 2020. I'm not ranking any of these, because I'm not particularly good at discerning between good music and great music, amazing books and books that are just okay. So, like the podcast list, these will just be things I enjoyed. Happy Reading My Favorite Books of 2020 Memorial, by Bryan Washington Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfeld Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell Riot Baby, by Tochi Onyebuchi Weather, by Jenny Offill Cleanness, by Garth Greenwell And I Do Not Forgive You, by Amber Sparks Writers & Lovers, by Lily King Just Us, by Claudine Rankine Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson (My Favorite Book of the Year) My Favorite Albums of 2020 Aloha, Son Little Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa Superstar, Caroline Rose Saint Cloud, Waxahatchee Local Honey, Brian Fallon Supernova, Caitlyn Smith Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple We Are Sent Here...

Just as I thought I was over my doom-scrolling addiction after managing to make it through both the election and the Georgia run-offs without sitting in a bathtub, hitting refresh on the Washington Post website twice a minute, along comes an insurrection. And suddenly, that special kind of anxiety-mixed-with-dread is back and bolder than ever. But this time, there's an added bonus. Whereas during both elections, there was plenty of coverage all about how everything could--at least, potentially--be fine, allowing me to get one or two hours of sleep a night, this time around, the news seems to be-- We're freaked out and nobody is making us feel any better. Woohoo! Now listen, it's clear that part of coming up with a plan for a safe inauguration would be keeping a lot of details private. I laughed reading the Huffington Post article that was all about how they spoke with Congressional representatives about what was going on and all they could say "They didn't want us ...

Every year, I like to start out this list by pointing out that I'm calling it "My Favorite" and not "The Best," because I acknowledge there are some truly excellent things happening on television that aren't my favorites, but are still objectively excellent. I have preferences just like everyone else, and there are shows I enjoy and those I can't get enough of, and with more time than ever to watch television this year, even some stuff I loved didn't make the cut. To be clear, and oh boy I can't believe I'm going to admit this, I watched over a hundred seasons of television last year. In some cases, I started from the beginning and watch multiple seasons of the same show (I'm finally caught up on Better Call Saul . It's good. But I was never that big of a Breaking Bad  fan. Rhea Seehorn though? Incredible.) Some of the series were trashy reality shows and some are prestige drama. I don't have any hang-ups about admitting which tra...

It's my favorite part of a brand new year! Talking about all the things you loved from the previous year. I know the go-to line about culture in 2020 was that it was as awful as every other year, but in many ways, that's not true. We got tons of great books, television shows, and yes, movies. But I'm starting with podcasts. I'm not going to take the chicken way out and not rank all the lists, but I'm not going to rank the podcasts, because some are perennial favorites and some are new, and they're all very different, so I'm just going to pick my Top Ten in no particular order. A couple of things I should mention-- - I listen to podcasts at 1.75, which is INSANE, but hey, life moves at you fast. It's possible some podcasts don't sound as good at that speed, probably all of them, but whatever, I make no apologies. When the world goes back to normal, I'll go back to 1.25, but never to 1. - The Daily has some done amazing work this year, but, like a...