Episode 8 - Meat Dress, ’90s Sitcoms And The Dog Bed Of Repose
Title: Meat Dress, ’90s Sitcoms And The Dog Bed Of Repose (September 17, 2010)
A large chunk of this episode is taken up by their post mortem of the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, which they largely deem “innocuous.” They discuss the two performances that was billed to be the most controversial, Kanye West singing “Runaway” and Taylor Swift singing “Innocent.” There is some commentary on Lady Gaga’s win for Best Video (“Bad Romance”) and Justin Bieber’s dance number (“Baby-Somebody to Love” medley).
(I know that the topic is already two years old but I urge you to download this episode. Their discussion of Taylor Swift’s performance and Lady Gaga’s giant iceberg of gay still cracks me up.)
What Is Making Them Happy
Glen - The 2010 Small Press Expo, and event made up of indie comics creators and publishers, awarded the Ignatz Awards to some of the titles that Glen Weldon has reviewed for NPR. You can read some of his pieces here, here, here, and here.
Trey - Trey loops back to the VMAs and talks about the meat dress that Lady Gaga wore for the event. He mentions Lady Gaga’s interview on Ellen where she talked about her political and artistic intention for wearing it.
Stephen - Linda Holmes’ gift of a 9,600 word recap of the Episode 5, Season 1 of Bachelor Pad. In 2010 Stephen asked fans who are interested email him for a PDF copy of the recap but since PCHH had created a Facebook Page (like it!) the Bachelor Pad recap is now available for the world to enjoy.
Linda - Season 1 of Friends is helping Linda through some sleepless nights. She talks about how it is now acceptable for the Friends cast to be appreciated in their new projects.
Some Episode Highlights
- The first few minutes is a callback to past Gymkata-related episodes. There’s also a callback to their discussion of The Great Food Truck Race.
- Clip of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 VMAs. The dramatic performance of this was performed by Stephen Thompson on the episode.
- Trey Graham’s description of Taylor Swift at her House of Sadness sitting on her Rocking Chair of Contemplation playing a Steel Guitar next to the Dog Bed of Repose.
- Lyrics to “Innocent”: (It’s okay, life is a tough crowd / 32, and still growin’ up now / Who you are is not what you did. / You’re still an innocent.)
- “If you take away sexuality out of dance, it becomes calisthenics.” - Glen Weldon on Justin Bieber’s VMA dance number.
- Glen briefly discusses his ambivalence regarding people’s desire for facetime with the creators of works they have loved. Stephen poses some of his theories which dovetail nicely into What Is Making Stephen Happy.
- Lady Gaga first wore a meat bikini for the cover of Vogue Hommes Japan.
- Performance artists that have used meat in performance art, as listed by Trey: Jana Sterbak’s “Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorexic,” Carolee Schneemann’s Meat Joy, and Zhan Huan’s My New York. (Blanket warning for all the links on this bullet point. They contain graphic imagery)
- Trey also mentions Steven Kaplan of the contemporary art blog post.thing.net.
- Linda Holmes used to be a recapper for Television Without Pity, where she wrote about illustrious shows such as The Amazing Race, Survivor, and The Apprentice.
- Trey made a short Pop Culture Blind Spot segment by talking about Seinfeld.
