Lil Nas X Popped Off 💅
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Omg so I have another incredible story for you all - ONE OF YOU GENUINELY THOUGHT I WAS ACTING AS EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE SYSCA CINEMATIC UNIVERSE!! Here’s the email I got:
Reader:
“Honestly never felt more stupid in my life, I've listened to the podcasts, I've read the daily newspapers [luce note: they’re newsletters but I kinda love that we’re the new newspapers] and yet somehow I thought it was one singular person who made up characters and they played the characters. I blame covid”
And I thought ‘SURELY NOT’ so I replied with:
“WAIT! YOU THOUGHT I WAS PRETENDING TO BE LIV, RUBY AND SQUISH TOO????”
And they said:
“Yes I did... look fam... I just... I believed that yall were fake and that yall were characters... I'm disappointed in myself. Please accept my sincere apologies. I love you”
I honestly can’t - I love this so much - the fact that this person thought I was playing all these different characters on the podcast - EVEN NICK???? - is literally... kinda flattering?? But I am happy to inform you all that Liv, Ruby, Squish and I are our own individual people XD
PS, this is a super pop-culture heavy newsy, but it's Friday, so I think a bit of lightness is okay <3
Lil Nas X Calls Out ‘Homophobia in the Black Community,’ BET Responds
One Direction fangirls created the internet as we know it
New Shit Show, and it’s a shit show
Baz Luhrmann Says Harry Styles Was Already Too Much of an ‘Icon’ to Play Elvis in New Biopic
THE BILLBOARD 50 BEST SONGS OF 2022 SO FAR
Andrew Garfield, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, and Jeremy Strong content
It’s Friday so you get horoscopes
Do you like pizza crust?
Lil Nas X Calls Out Homophobia in the BET Awards
Yesterday I was scrolling on Twitter (as you do) and I saw Lil Nas X absolutely pop off about something. Turns it, he didn't get nominated for a BET Award (these awards were established by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate African Americans in music) and he had points to make.
Here’s what went down:
He released a snippet of a new song called called “Late to Da Party” where he sings “Fuck BET, fuck BET,” and then talks about how he doesn’t need anyone to validate his success:
And then clarified by saying:
And then when people told him to chill out because he’s ‘won a grammy’ here’s what he said:
And then when people compared him to Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator (who've been nominated in the past), he said:
And then doubled down with:
Last week he also sent out a tweet (which has now been deleted) saying: “Thank you BET awards. an outstanding zero nominations again. Black excellence!”
Anyway, the BET awards have ALSO responded with a statement, saying:
We love Lil Nas X. He was nominated for a best new artist BET Award in 2020, and we proudly showcased his extraordinary talent and creativity on the show twice: He performed ‘Old Town Road’ with Billy Ray Cyrus at BET Awards 2019 and his BET Awards 2021 performance was a highlight of our show. No one cheered louder that night than BET.
Unfortunately, this year, he was not nominated by BET’s voting academy, which is comprised of an esteemed group of nearly 500 entertainment professionals in the fields of music, television, film, digital marketing, sports journalism, public relations, influencers, and creative arts. No one from BET serves as a member of the voting academy. At BET, we are passionate advocates for the wonderful diversity that exists within our community. We are committed to using all of our platforms to provide visibility and inclusion for all of the many intersections of the Black community.
I mean we can't deny that POINTS WERE MADE by Lil Nas X, but I also don't think I've thought hard enough about all of this (or have any of the lived experience necessary) to have a super thoughtful take rn, but I'll keep you in the loooop <3
One Direction fangirls created the internet as we know it
Omg so the amount of people who sent me this piece... I LOVE YOU! What I do need to say is I have had the book that this piece is from/referring to pre-ordered for MONTHS and I cannot WAIT to read it (and add it to my list of recs for our paying supporters!!)
A bit that I can't wait to read about:
"The most exhilarating experience for me was when I was looking for the woman who scattered the thousands of tiny pictures of Pregnant Harry Styles all over the state of Utah. I found an email address for her and she responded and agreed to speak anonymously.'
This episode of The Shit Show was... a shit show
You're gonna PISS yourself at this episode. Everything that could've gone wrong went wrong, and since Nick was in the states and in a place with like NO reception, we couldn't speak to each other properly - so we recorded individual episodes that Rubes has HILARIOUSLY pieced together, and you're going to love it I think.
This episode is a real Shit Show :P — open.spotify.com
Some technical difficulties have made this one of the most chaotic (and possibly hilar) episodes of The Shit Show yet!! We hear about a rumour that Luce is trying to get to the bottom of (apparently it's spread across the world), people actually have confidence in Boris Johnson, Elon is getting cold feet about Twitter, and a bunch more! Tune in wherever you get your pods!!
Baz Luhrmann Says Harry Styles Was Already Too Much of an ‘Icon’ to Play Elvis in New Biopic
I saw this interview on TikTok and HAD to share it with you all. So Baz Luhrmann went on an Australian podcast where they asked him about why Harry didn't get the role of Elvis in the upcoming film (which I'm dying to see but WHY can't Austin Butler drop the accent????) Anyway, here's what Baz said:
“Harry is a really talented actor. I would work on something with him. The real issue with Harry is, he’s Harry Styles. He’s already an icon.”
So true Baz, he is an icon.
“Harry and I came to a place, genuinely I mean, he was just desperate to put the suit on and explore. He’s such a great spirit and I have nothing but great things to say about Harry Styles.”
And then quickly, here's what he said about Austin:
“The thing about Austin was that he will tell you himself, I didn’t pick him: It’s as if he was drawn, like the role drew him in because he was almost born to play it,” Luhrmann explained. “You know, we can talk about it now, he loses his mom at the same age that Elvis did. He sends a video to me of this thing and… It just happened like two years of non-stop living and breathing as Elvis. He’s now going through a sort of deprogramming thing because it’s been a long time since he’s known who he was.”
THE 50 BEST SONGS OF 2022 SO FAR (according to Billboard))
Here's the full list but lemme give you their top 5:
As It Was (Harry Styles)
Woman (Doja Cat)
About Damn Time (Lizzo)
N95 (Kendrick Lamar)
Provenza (Karol G
📚Shit You Should Read About📚
Every ✨SYSCA Supporter✨ gets access to our bumper book list as soon as you sign up! It's all the books we loved, hated, and the books that changed us.
What supporters are saying about the book list:
Louise: "Omg there are so many books and little write-ups! I was literally expecting a list (which would have been totally cool) 🥺 but you guyssss 💕
Taylor: "So excited to watch this list grow. From one book lover to another, thank you for this and everything else you do!"
Jessi: "Already loaded three recs onto my Kindle so safe to say early on that this perk is the move. 😍"
🎶SYSCA Playlists🎶
If you’re a monthly or annual ✨SYSCA Supporter✨ then we are opening up our souls to you and gifting you some 🎶playlists🎶
What supporters are saying about the playlists:
Michelle: “Luuucee anybody with Can’t Fight the Moonlight on their playlist is immediately my best friend. I don’t make the rules, I just follow them.”
Allison: "Ahhhhhhh these are amazing—but please especially give my compliments to Chef Ruby for cooking up a playlist that is s e n d i n g m e"
Hannah: “This is the greatest thing. Of all things. At this moment right now. I've been CRAVING new music (cheers Hazza for helping me out) but I don't trust spotify playlists because the ones they recommend to me I never seem to enjoy!!! So thank you. Off I go to listen!”
Become a supporter to get access to all of these perks🥺
I'm dying to watch this:
AND THIS!
It's Friday so you get horoscopes
Here XD
Our Love Island Debrief is BACK
Our Love Island Debrief Is BACK!!! - Culture Vulture — open.spotify.com
We're bringing back our weekly Love Island debriefs (in a slightly shorter format) to cure our winter blues here in NZ. Each week we'll be coming at you with our hot takes from the week's antics (and hopefully some smart analysis too) - let's get crackin on!
Do you like the pizza crust?
I'll leave the pizza crust annnny day of the week!
67% of you like it
8% of you don't eat it
25% of you don't really like it. but you eat it
This episode is a Shit Show :P (The Shit Show Podcast)
What we can all learn from the Johnny/Amber verdict (Culture Vulture Podcast)
TikTok Helped Reshape Colombia’s Presidential Race, Strategist Says (Bloomberg)
Gynecology Has a Pain Problem (The Cut)
How Love Island Became a TV Reality of Sex, Fame, and Sometimes Tragedy (Vanity Fair)
SYSCA playlist (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
