Sidebar: Pop Culture Escape Room

From Panda Videos to Dolly Parton: Pop Culture for a Terrible Week

This is my weekly roundup of links and recommendations. If we talked IRL, I’d likely derail our entire conversation with “Sidebar, have you read | watched | listened | deep dived on this?” This is a weekly newsletter for paid members of Landline. If you’d like to receive it, update your subscription here.

I am feeling pretty defeated at the moment, so it’s hard to have a normal list of things I’d recommend for any given week. I am trying to hold on to my optimism that we can live in a world that has some semblance of a conscience and rejects the racism, transphobia, and homophobia a plurality of our country appeared to choose this week. I am thinking of everyone who is in a similar place, and can only provide the list of pop culture I send to friends and family in a custom get-well zine I send out. This will not make it better, but I hope it can provide a moment of distraction.

I studied bibliotherapy, or the use of books as medicine, for a long time. I may still write a book about it someday. In my research, I saw time and again that people going through difficult medical issues would either want to read more about the issue to get comfort from knowing more about it, or seek out some kind of escape from it. Consider this email my pop culture escape room.

I would love for you to share your own comfort pop culture for everyone to enjoy in the comment section below.

Normally, this extra weekly newsletter is for paid members, but I’m sharing it with everyone this week because I think we all need it. Sending love to everyone reading this.

😂 First, some things to make you laugh:

• I love Meg Stalter and think she’s hilarious. Here are two of my fave tiktok “characters” she’s created:

• LA WOMAN HAS BREAKDOWN:

  

  @megstalterLA WOMAN HAS BREAKDOWN #fyp

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  Girl who wasn’t happy with her part in the Christmas play:

@megstalterGirl who wasn’t happy with her part in the Christmas play

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• This account is chaos and absurd and hilarious: Sylvaniandrama: https://www.tiktok.com/@sylvaniandrama?lang=en

• This completely unhinged scene from a Murder She Wrote Movie I can’t find anywhere:

murdershegrammed

A post shared by @murdershegrammed

• “Small Opening” (Absolutely Fabulous). One of my all-time favorite episodes of TV. A daughter writes a play about her dysfunctional mother, only for her mother to find out. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tyy7d

❤️ Some cute things:

• Baby Panda Content:

• Cute baby animals:

👀 Some things to make you cry in a “this is too much but in a good way” way:

• Desi Arnaz message to Lucy at Kennedy Center Honors:

• Dolly Parton surprises Newport Folk Festival:

💥 Some things that amaze or entertain me:

• Rescue& Restore: This account restores old toys and household objects. It’s cool to see things come back from the brink: https://www.youtube.com/@RescueRestore

• MTV Cribs Vault. Nothing wrong with taking a casual house tour of a celeb’s home: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjwvTaJGeSmQfzhApDigzyCH0_Hu82fQf

• AD Open Door Tours: Ditto: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpi4YdMCC439sN_5vIza6IfQm0qc-IqPO

• Asya Kozina’s paper art: https://www.instagram.com/asya_kozina/

What is your favorite comfort pop culture we could all enjoy?

Call Me! (or not!)

I’d love to hear from you! Drop your thoughts in the comments to share with the Landline community, or reply to this email to contact me. You can also find me on Instagram, or email me. I don’t have a dedicated phone line yet (just like in my youth), but maybe someday I’ll achieve Claudia status and get a Landline.

Thanks for reading!

This is a paid post for subscribers of Landline. Help me spread the word by sharing it with a friend who would love it. Thank you for being a friend!

Call Me! (or not!)

I’d love to hear from you! Drop your thoughts in the comments to share with the Landline community, or reply to this email to contact me. You can also find me on Instagram, or email me. I don’t have a dedicated phone line yet (just like in my youth), but maybe someday I’ll achieve Claudia status and get a Landline.

Thanks for reading!

This is a paid post for subscribers of Landline. Help me spread the word by sharing it with a friend who would love it. Thank you for being a friend!

Note: All books referenced in Landline can be found in my bookshop.org storefront from which I earn a small percentage of all books purchased.