A Post Where I Try Not to Discuss Politics

I won’t gloat, but I feel pretty vindicated by the political events of the week. Indeed, I feel strangely psychic. It’s such a pleasure to be back in the territory where the Democratic Party candidate is hopeful and intelligent and agile at communicating. I don’t think we have this race in the bag but I like where we are today better than I did a week ago.

Now that I no longer feel personally responsible for the task of worrying Joe Biden out of the presidential race, I can turn my thoughts to other things. Based on this NYT recommendation, we watched Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar (on Hulu) and I thought it was very funny and very fun and I wish there were more movies like it. It was like a cross between Austin Powers and the Barbie movie. Coincidentally (or because the algorithm knows me) I saw an interview with Kristen Wiig where she said Airplane and Police Squad were two of her favorite movies and it makes complete sense when you watch this movie, which she co-wrote.

Another fun thing to watch is We Are Lady Parts (on Peacock). This TV show is about five young Muslim women who start a punk band, recruit a singer, and try to land gigs. It’s really sweet and very funny and their songs are really good and hilarious. I like this show so much that I have twice pretended I haven’t seen it so that I can snooker other people into watching it with me. Season 2 just came out. Go watch it.

Okay, I made it two whole paragraphs without talking about politics but we do need to talk about the veepstakes, right? If only so I can tell you that I finally started watching Veep this week. I had put off watching this show because, in my mind, it was as embarrassment-driven as Curb Your Enthusiasm, which makes me cringe so hard my stomach hurts watching it. Veep is a little bit cringy but I’ve either outgrown my anxiety about it or it has just aged well and I like Julia Louis-Dreyfus more than I like Larry David (not a stretch).

I’m only three episodes in so I’m not going to write much about it, but I do want to tie it in to the current political moment. Fox News anchors have been complaining that Kamala Harris hates plastic straws (watch Colbert clip below, start at 10:00 mark). The first season of Veep concerns Selena Meyer’s campaign to replace all the disposable cutlery in the federal government with compostable cutlery. Life imitating art, etc. The GOP is vapid and nonsensical and I hope the “calling them weird” strategy that Kamala is using effectively marginalizes those assholes.

Since you asked, I think that the three most likely VP candidates will be Mark Kelly, Roy Cooper, and Tim Walz. My alternate pick is Pete Buttigieg. I appreciate that I basically named half of the people under consideration. It’s not because I’m indecisive; it’s because Dems have an incredibly deep bench of smart people who could do the job and it’s nice not to worry so much about it.

Have a great weekend!