Pop Stars & Popped Balloons 🕺🎈
➕ Netflix fucked around and found out, and drama at the Grammys 🏆
I’m currently still half asleep and writing this after a HUGE weekend because my brothers were in town!! It started where all good weekends start, on Waiheke Island, drinking wine and looking for the infamous Sausager (which we DID ask about.) We ate the best pate of our LIVES at Tantalus, had one too many espresso martinis at The Heke and hiked (for what felt like miles) to some other wineries to finish off. And just like last time we had to pre-game with some Gaviscon for our heartburn/ indigestion because we are weak (if Mylanta, Gaviscon or Quick-Eze want to sponsor us, hit us up.)
The next day we nursed a nice lil hangover & hung out until the evening when we went to a ‘Block Party’ (like a mini festival on the street) to listen to Fat Freddy’s Drop - it rained pretty hard to most of it (what’s new in Auckland eh????) but the vibes were good, and while Squish got lost in the crowd (not me - I hate crowds) my little brother Ben and I hung out at the back and freestyled together (no doubt we got a lot of strange looks.)
And then on Monday (Waitangi Day) we had brunch in Cornwall Park (it was raining again), Squish went out to Piha, Hayden made scones, & I dropped them back to the airport! How was your weekend?? Did you look after yourself? Did you pull the clutch out? Let me know!!
The Grammys happened
Did you hear about the Chinese spy balloon?
Netflix fucked around and found out
Are your stomach and gut the same thing?
The Grammys happened
And it was a big night for Twitter (when isn’t it?) I’ll get into some of the takes I saw flying around soon, but first, here are the winners of the four BIG categories:
RECORD OF THE YEAR: "About Damn Time," Lizzo
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: "Harry's House," Harry Styles
SONG OF THE YEAR: "Just Like That," Bonnie Rait
BEST NEW ARTIST: Samara Joy
Harry also won ‘Best pop vocal album,’ Beyoncé scored her 32nd Grammy (making her the artist with the most Grammys ever) Taylor Swift won for her ‘All Too Well’ music video, and lots of other people won things too!
Now to the part where people weren’t happy. It seemed to be a HUGE upset that Harry won ‘Album of the Year’ espesh because he was in the category with some literal legends (Beyoncé, Lizzo, Adele…) and an even bigger upset that as part of his speech he said:
“I think on nights like tonight, it’s obviously so important for us to remember there’s no such thing as best in music. I don’t think any of us sit in the studio making decisions based on what is gonna get us one of these. This is really, really kind. I’m so, so grateful. This doesn’t happen to people like me very often and this is so, so nice. Thank you very much.”
The nine words that have taken all my feeds by storm are “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often.” And I get why people are mad - because I can’t really think of a type of person that this kind of thing happens to MORE - but we all say things in the moment, and the thing the internet is really good at is interpreting EVERYTHING in the least gracious way possible, which is of course what has happened here. (God, I can’t imagine what shit I would accidentally say if I was up there making a speech on the spot in front of millions of people.)
Obviously, as a Harry Styles fan, I was stoked for him to win such huge awards. Was Harry’s House my album of the year? No. Was I surprised he beat out the likes of Beyoncé, Kendrick and Adele? Yes. Is it saying something about who’s making decisions at the Grammys? YES. Should he have said that in his speech? Noooooo. But does he deserve the level of hate he’s getting for it? Definitely not. It’s possible, and good, to use cultural moments like this to understand the systemic issues within institutions like the Grammys and the lack of transparency in who votes/ how they decide who wins (and Liv and I did a whole episode of Culture Vulture on this here) without wanting the person who won the award to be shunned from the planet. But anyway, can't wait for all the think pieces on this today!
Meanwhile, Kim Petras (who won best pop duo/group performance with Sam Smith for their song Unholy) is the second transgender woman to win a Grammy and:
Did you hear about the Chinese spy balloon?
Because I did. Alllllllll weekend, thanks to Squish (who was giving me the updates.) For those of you who have had the joy of not hearing about the spy balloon saga, let me fill you in (it’s my job, after all.)
It all started at the end of last week when US military official says that they had detected a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” from China floating above Montana. China, however, assured them that the big floating orb was actually “mainly meteorological” and had floated into American airspace due to a “force majeure accident.”
A “force majeure” is “a contract clause that excuses who breaches the contract when performance is prevented by the occurrence of certain events such as natural disasters (earthquakes, floods), war or labor strike, that is beyond the party’s reasonable control.”
so basically an accident that was out of their control
Despite the claims that the balloon was just ‘accidentally there’ (it was surveillance besties) the next day, when the balloon was over the Atlantic Ocean, an F-22 fighter jet downed it with an air-to-air missile.
What does this mean for the China/ US relashe?
Well, my bachelor’s degree in International Relations makes me think it can’t be good. And the fact that the US State Department cancelled Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s planned trip to Beijing (the first by a Biden cabinet secretary) without rescheduling it backs that up…
And also, according to The New York Times:
“Beijing was left defensive and angry over the United States’ decision to shoot down the balloon. The Chinese Foreign Ministry described the Biden administration’s reaction to the balloon as “excessive” and indicated that Beijing could retaliate against the military action; the ministry noted that it “retains the right to respond further.”
I’ll keep you in the loop if Squish keeps me in the loop!
Netflix fucked around and found out
Netflix, who previously announced all those new password-sharing rules really said “sorry! my cat ran over my keyboard!” and let us all know that they had released all those new rules ‘by accident.’
According to The Streamable, the new rules appeared on the site (and included the US) but were in fact only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.
“For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries,” the spokesperson told The Streamable. “We have since updated it.”
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I feel like Harry's comment was so firmly rooted in the intense British class system, which is why Adele's initial reaction (which was in agreement) made a lot of sense. But as per usual it got lost in the interpretation of an American audience. Great newsletter Luce!
Anyone else secretly wish it was Tom Cruise who shot down the balloon?