Album of the Week: Watch Out!

Raise your hand if you need a break from 2020 music, or from indie music, or from music in general. Can't help you with that last one (what the fuck are you doing in a record club?!), but I chose this album with those first two concerns in mind. With this week's album, we travel back to the '70s and all the way over to Zimbabwe, where the counterculture was fighting segregation and playing rock music.

In other words, welcome to the monthly Record Club pick that only gets one other review and then is quickly forgotten about. If you are one of the many people who are not interested in this shit, you can always check out the Record Club Playlist HERE, or the archives HERE. If you sincerely wanna check out what the hippie kids in 1970s Zimbabwe were playing, then continue below.

WEEK 70 — May 31-June 6, 2020

What we're listening to this week (Joe's pick):

ALBUM: Watch Out!
ARTIST: Wells Fargo

RELEASED: January 20, 2017, but technically it's a collection of songs recorded in the 1970s

WHAT GENRE IS THIS: "Heavy rock"

WHY JOE PICKED IT: I was going to attempt to write something about how Record Club needs more non-white artists, but... really, I'm just a basic bitch who listens to my favorite artists when they recommend something (Ctrl+F "Waxahatchee").

TRACKLIST:

1. Coming Home
2. Watch Out!
3. Love of My Life
4. The Crowd
5. Bump Bump Babe
6. Love Is the In Thing
7. Open the Door
8. Shades of Wells Fargo
9. Bwaname
10. Too Long Away
11. Carrying On

LENGTH: 31:57

READING SOME SHIT: This is one of those albums that doesn't have much extra reading material about it on the internet. The promotional spiel on the bandcamp page is repeated a few times on a few different websites. It seems to be expanded a bit HERE, so let's go with that for our weekly link. If I had the money, I would've bought the 72-page book that comes with the album when you buy a physical copy, but that's a lot of money to spend on a book about a band you haven't listened to yet.

Happy listening, fam! Have a great week!

This Is My Blood: Orval Trappist Ale

First, I want to take back something I wrote about a couple days ago, at the start of the JavaHead write-up. It just hasn't sat comfortably with me since I wrote it. Just because I pointed out the fact that it was self-pitying and egotistical while I was writing it, doesn't make it any less self-pitying and egotistical. I take it back. Now's not the time for self-pity, especially for those with tasked with having that unearned white privilege. It's time for action. And there's really one surefire way for non-POC to act right now, and that's putting our money where our mouth is.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund is a great one to donate to, but they are now at the point where they are asking people to divert their donations to other worthy organizations. I donated to Communities United Against Police Brutality (a hotline of sorts that takes police brutality cases and links survivors up with community resources) and Know Your Rights Camp (Kaepernick's organization that strives to empower black communities, and is currently providing legal assistance to all those arrested during the MN protests). I also donated to Joe Biden's campaign, because we need to get that other guy, the racially-dividing, violence-stoking motherfucker, out of the White House by any means necessary.

Do what you can. Just don't be like how I was, resigned to talking the talk and making myself the victim. That ain't right. Walk the walk any way you possibly can.

Anyway... I'm not sure why this is all being written in a blog post ostensibly about a beer that I drank today. Somehow, the This Is My Blood column has halfway morphed into a diary, where I write what I am thinking, and then later try to connect those feelings to the beer itself. That's not going to be possible today. I said what I had to say, and now I will talk about Orval Trappist Ale, and you'll just have to accept the fact that you get two mini blog posts today for the price of one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I spoke briefly yesterday about how I felt like I was drinking a "old" and "classic" beer whenever I drank something from England. I felt that way about Belgian beers too, before today. Maybe even more so than English beers, because a lot of Belgian beers originated from, and some even still are brewed by, the Trappist Monks. That is what makes it seem ancient to me, that idea that a religious order has been making a specific type of beer for centuries.

But today, I had a Belgian pale ale, and then read about it in Tasting Beer, and I was corrected in my assumptions. The book states quite plainly that Belgian pale ales were first created to compete in a market dominated by English pale ales. The monks were, in other words, playing catch up. This has nothing to do with how the beer tastes, obviously, but it adjusts how I view the beer historically. It gives these mysterious monks a little more depth, and makes 'em a little more human to know their flaws, at least in my mind.

This flows into my confusion about what constitutes a "trappist ale," and how that relates to Belgian beers in toto, as well as the Abbey ales that we've already discussed a couple times. Trappist ales are not a beer style, per se, but instead refer to who makes them (the Trappist monks). So a beer from Orval can be a Belgian pale ale and a Trappist ale, as they are not opposing terms.

Except, Tasting Beer is making it seem like this isn't a Belgian pale ale at all. Orval has its own subsection here, under the heading "A Few Classic Trappist Breweries." Orval was founded in 1132, burned down by the French, and rebuilt in 1926. Apparently, Orval only sells one single type of beer to the public, and that's the beer we had today. Randy Mosher refuses to call it a Belgian pale ale, though, despite the fact that that's what Beer Advocate lists it as.

This trappist ale has some of the trademarks of a Belgian pale, including subtle yeast character, light malt and hops, and even balance. But Belgian pales are supposed to have a malty finish, and you can't find a much drier finish than Orval's. So this is probably one of those situations where listing the beer styles doesn't give you the whole picture. Not every beer has to be one thing. Sometimes, a bunch of monks get together and create something totally unique.

In this regard, I am not counting this toward Belgian Pale Ales on the master list, but instead am just appreciating it for what it is. Apparently a lot of other people appreciate it for what it is—on Beer Advocate, it's listed as the #1 Belgian pale ale sold in America, according to reviewers on that site (this, despite the fact that, as we discussed, it might not even be a Belgian pale ale to begin with). 5,660 beer drinkers can't be wrong.

Three more notes, and then we'll bring it home: 1) It was much appreciated in our household how heavy the empty bottle of beer was. That glass was thick, and lended an air of stability and class to the whole affair. 2) Mosher mentions that this is a good beer for aging; apparently, if you let it sit a few extra months, it develops a "rich, barnyard aroma." I appreciate knowing this information, but I can't ever imagine intentionally leaving a beer sit just so that I can smell a barnyard... but that's just me. 3) It's a good thing that Belgian beers pair well with pretty much anything, since we had to settle for spaghetti tonight. It was a true cabinet-scraper of a meal—we are going food shopping on Tuesday, and had planned on ordering out tonight... but then the riots caused a citywide curfew. Not complaining—everyone here is safe, and a lack of tasty bar food just made us appreciate the fine beer in front of us even more.

NOTES

BEER: Orval Trappist Ale

STYLE: possibly Belgian Pale Ale, but probably an in-betweener (Tasting Beer says its a "golden ale in the style of a saison, if that helps (it doesn't))

ABV: 6.9%

BREWED BY: Brasserie d'Orval S.A.

LOCATION: Villers-devant-Orval, Belgium

PURCHASED AT: IGA (emphatically not the clearance rack for this one)

PAIRED WITH: spaghetti and sauce

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5

BEER COUNT: 205

Song of the Week: "Can't Get Out"

it's-a me, playlist-o, mama mia, click HERE

"Can't Get Out"

Woods

from Strange to Explain

2020

I'm glad it worked out (alphabetically) that I could write about Bend Beyond last week, right before Woods' new album dropped, because now I get to update y'all on how that album has been treating me. There's really only one song that truly matters at this point, to be honest.

"Can't Get Out" is so fiery that I almost couldn't believe it was still Woods at first. "Fiery" isn't even a word I have ever used for this band. Where did they learn to hit the bass notes that hard? It's so low I can feel it in my gut. The low notes blend beautifully with that almost orchestral synth part, and the syncopated handclaps are keep the whole ship running just a little crooked, in a terribly exciting way.

This isn't the Woods I know, but I don't give a fuck. This was the Woods I needed this week. There's no way that Woods could've known what this would mean to us at this stage of a stay-at-home order, how this song mirrors the intense anxiety I'm feeling right now over being stuck in one place. But Woods is able to turn that anxiety into a weapon. The songs isn't still like sadness usually is; instead, its the stillness associated with winding something up to its breaking point, and that stillness comes in right before the eject button is mashed.

What do you call this? It can't be "leveling up"—that phrase is usually saved for sophomore albums from young bands who are finally finding their groove. Strange to Explain is Woods' eleventh album, and they been in the groove for a long time. But "Can't Get Out" finds them on a completely different groove, and it's amazing in a completely different way, and man... I'm just freaking out right now at this song, how fucking great it is, and how I'll always remember the strange circumstances under which I first heard it.

This Is My Blood: Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale

I'm working my way through different beer styles. Find the so-called master list HERE.

English Brown Ale
(#12)
Exemplified by Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale

There's something that just seems so "classic" about traditional beer from the United Kingdom, and I'm not even talking about the year on the label. The beer tastes like beer, for the most part. American ingenuity can be tasty but exhausting; give me the fucking old-school ales that they used to drink in taverns of ye olde.

English Brown Ale is but one of those classic flavors. Yes, the Nut Brown Ale was nutty, but only moderately so. This was a crisp, clean beer, an absolutely stunning brown/amber color, slightly sweet and not very bitter, meant to be drunk in a mug with a handle, possibly while wearing a Viking hat of some sort.

Here's the scoop on this style. The history of the Brown Ale style is muddled, only because there are plenty of historical records of ales that were brown, but it's not known if these were brown ales as we know them today, or even similar in any way other than color. So maybe brown ales were created in the 1600s. Maybe it didn't solidify as a type of beer until the late 1800s. There are plenty of variations of the style, and we will get to them soon if the local beer distributors are kind to me.

Most of the beer styles discussed in Tasting Beer end with a brief note of "SUGGESTED BEERS TO TRY," and they mostly all list five or six beers you can find in the U.S. that exemplify that style. When you look at the English Brown Ale section, though, there is only one example listed: Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale. I have to imagine this speaks more to how basic the American beer scene still is, rather than Samuel Smith's hypothetical dominance over some imagined English Brown Ale scene in our country. If I had my way, everyone would drink English Brown Ales, but as it stands, we are stuck with Samuel Smith.

Not that that's a bad thing. We already talked about this brewery a decent amount about Samuel Smith and his old brewery a couple months ago. Established in 1758! Talk about classic, right? Though the history of English Brown Ale is apparently not clear, if anyone has a right to stake a claim to such a beer, it's Samuel Smith. If they knew what a brown ale was back then, then I will take their word for it now.

NOTES

BEER: Nut Brown Ale (as noted last time we talked Samuel Smith, apparently old breweries don't feel it necessary to give their beers anything other than the simplest names)

STYLE: English Brown Ale

ABV: 5.0%

BREWED BY: Samuel Smith Old Brewery

LOCATION: Tadcaster, England

PURCHASED AT: Foodery in NoLibs

PAIRED WITH: McDonald's (old beer, new trash)

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5

BEER COUNT: 204.5

The Slow Rush, Bridget

Let me start this review by saying I had not heard of this band until last August when I went to their concert. I feel like it should also be said that I was on antibiotics so I was dead sober for the whole show... and it was incredible. What an amazing live show filled with an insane light show and mostly just ~good vibes~. I was really excited when their new album came out and I could noodle dance along with it in my room, and that’s exactly what I do when I listen!

The whole album has this great undertone of a rocking base that makes it really easy to bop to. Starts off great with "One More Year" and keeps grooving. My favorite song on the album is "Borderline," which you can really just dance to. Do I have any idea what he’s saying most of the time? No, but I still love it. "Breathe Deeper" makes me just want to shake it out. "Glimmer" reminds me of a song I would hear in a highlighter themed basement party at Scranton, and I’m here for it.

I truly love this album. It’s perfect to play in the background of a group hang or alone in your headphones on a walk. I hope eventually concerts come back so I can go and see them live and be 100% not sober. 4.5/5 stars 💫

The Slow Rush, Sunny

I was at a party once and someone was air-guitaring the bassline for "The Less I Know the Better" unprompted. That's what I think of when I think Tame Impala: distinct, funky bassline, electronic melody, his high ethereal voice laid on top.

The Slow Rush is mostly that with some efforts to alter the levels. "One More Year" begins in that expected electronic groove, but opens up into something fused with Kygo and Bono. It's an on-the-nose opener for the faux in-club concert you're at.

The next few songs vacillate between an older Impala and the newer, meeting at "Borderline," probably the best single. It's a fun song that uses new tools in the classic formulas.

That vacillation continues through the end insofar that I can't tell if larger efforts like "Posthumous Forgiveness" or pretty dumb songs like "Breathe Deeper" are more what the album is about. The expansion of efforts has revealed previously hidden cracks, placing a few 5+ minute skippers in the relisten list.

It's interesting to juxtapose this album with Perfume Genius. Two solo project electronic pop / indie pop / psychedelic pop / chamber pop / pop pop albums which are distinct. Viewed from a higher dimension they're orthogonal vectors that share much of the same underpinnings. They're differently styled mixed bags with some pleasers, some stretches, and some whiffs.

3.5/5

The Slow Rush, Sam

When an artist hangs around for a while, he or she begins to run out of things to say. The passion and specificity of the initial albums runs thinner when you put an album out every other year.

Tame Impala's "On Track" reflects the dilemma. This album is very much "On Track," as he promises in one song. It feels to me like the artist set his alarm for 6 AM, diligently went to the studio every day, and produced a piece of work. I can visualize "TIME??!?!?" written on a dry erase board.

To be sure, Tame Impala certainly explored what time means to him. Past, present, future. He covered it all. It's relatable enough: enduring another year, living in the moment, unsaid conversations with those we have lost. But rather than a reflection on mortality, this theme reads like a holding pattern for the trump era and longing for Obama. Remember when we used to be hopeful? Is this really who we are? Tomorrow can't get here soon enough.

Sometimes he explores the theme with a soundscape, sometimes with reflective lyrics pining for yesteryear. On balance (as always), I wish there were more short catchy songs and less long ambient ones that feel like rejected Daft Punk hooks.

Tame Impala promises to produce dancy and well-crafted songs as long as he can. He delivers on that promise with another solid day at the office.

The Slow Rush, Nate

This album's title is half accurate. It is certainly slow.

Look, I know that I am probably on the wrong side of history when it comes to Tame Impala, an "indie" "rock" "group" that has somehow gone from one dude making lush, slow songs in his bedroom to one dude making lush, slow songs for the delight of millions at festivals across this great, ruined nation. I know that the music-knowers, semi-professional musicians, and other "serious listeners" in my life find this music to be sensational.

I'm fine with it. This shit is the ultimate "chill study beats" shit, and that's fine if you don't like listening to rain sounds while you write. I recognize that the appeal is appreciating the expert craftsmanship that goes into it, but expert craftsmanship goes into making a ship in a bottle, too. This music feels just as pointless, and the experience of listening to it is as engaging as watching a person make a ship in the bottle.

If this makes me a simpleton, so be it. I'll be over here doing cocaine and kickflips with your girlfriend, sister, and mother. Enjoy the exquisite sequencing on your $1,200 studio quality headphones, you geek. How any of you absolute perverts watch this shit live is beyond me.

The Slow Rush, Joe

I came to this review sharpening my knives. Maybe I was just in the mood to do some damage, and Tame Impala was going to be the scapegoat. Or maybe I had reason to feel unfavorable toward this album.

The rollout seemed like it took forever, with the first single being released TEN MONTHS before the album proper. Even if I was super excited for another Tame Impala release, there's no way my hypothetical excitement could last almost a year. But it's not even like I was necessarily pumped up to begin with. Currents is good, Lonerism is okay, but nothing about those albums screams FESTIVAL HEADLINER to me. This translates in my mind to the band being "overrated."

And then The Slow Rush finally came out three months ago. I listened to it a few times, but nothing connected. It seemed like Kevin Parker (Tame Impala frontman/mastermind) was creating music to retroactively justify their mutation into a big-font band. It didn't help that he said that he "wants to be a Max Martin," i.e. he might as well tattoo "sellout" on his forehead. So what, your rock band is just a stepping stone on your way to creating pop music for empty shells to cash bigger checks?

I dunno, maybe I just wasn't in a good mood at the beginning of this week. That shit happens.

But, as often happens with these Record Club albums, my negative expectations eventually flattened out, and the album opened itself up to me, becoming something that is good enough to listen to 25 times in one week, and occasionally enjoy. You can do this with anything. How many of you hated the taste of beer the first time you sipped it? And now that you're on your 10,000th beer, it tastes pretty good, right?

There were moments that stood out to me on this album, and I was able to realize they were stand-outs because I found myself playing them in a loop in my head later on in the week. The "On the borderline" loop on "Borderline," the "I'm still on track" refrain from "On Track," the "Is it true" hook from "Is It True"... okay, clearly Kevin Parker named these songs appropriately at the very least. There's also the "Believe me / I can" repeated section from "Breathe Deeper," which makes you wonder why that song wasn't named "Believe Me I Can."

All pretty good. Though there is a ton of filler on The Slow Rush that will never worm its way into my brain, the moments that popped did so effectively. Got me moving a little bit when I felt like I should've been curled up in a ball. Even at its worse, The Slow Rush made me feel less depressed; this damns the album with faint praise, but it's the fate The Slow Rush most deserves. No knives required this time.

GRADE: 2.5 pukes out of 5

This Is My Blood: JavaHead

Oof. Bad day for our country, in a sea of bad days for our incredibly troubled country. It almost seems irresponsible to be writing about a goddamn beer I drank today while black men are murdered by our alleged peacekeepers and our cities appear to be burning to the ground. Days like today (and tomorrow... I write these days later and backdate them, sorry) really make bullshit like Puke on Your Birthday seem petty and useless. I try to look at it like a distraction, like if someone wants to take a break from scrolling through horrific newsfeeds about tear gas and looting, maybe they could come read about Tröegs JavaHead Stout. That's my excuse, anyway, that I'm doing it for the readers, few though there are. It's quite possible that I'm making this excuse to feel better about myself, to pretend like I'm actually providing some type of menial service instead of feeding my own ego. Philadelphia is in chaos, and I'm sitting here jerking off about some fucking beer?! Shouldn't I be doing something more productive? I don't know. Self-doubt is just one of the negative feelings that are weighing on me right now. Helplessness is another one. Helpless because I don't know what to do, and helpless because even writing about any of this comes off as self-serving. Black communities are being slaughtered by policeman, but this middle class straight white male feels helpless, boo hoo, right? I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to keep blogging.

Here are some words about Tröegs JavaHead Stout, written for the sole purpose of not losing my fucking mind about America's slow and painful demise.

• JavaHead is an oatmeal stout. We just talked about this style of beer the other day. I wrote about how much I love this shit. JavaHead was no different.
• Tröegs claims on the label that "it's hard to tell where the coffee ends and the beer begins." As someone who loves the taste of beer and who hates the taste of coffee, it was pretty easy to taste that this was more beer than coffee, thankfully. Not that it didn't share similarities to coffee (absolutely with the aroma, and then a bit of an acidic coffee finish), but the flavors more reminded me of cocoa than coffee.
• Excellent pairing alert: JavaHead paired with chocolate chip pancakes. Tröegs would be more accurate if they said "it's hard to tell where the chocolate chips ends and the beer begins."
• I will also be more likely to love any beer that I drink in the morning. Pam had night shift tonight, and I'm tired of trying to drink a beer during the tiny window between when Martha falls asleep and when I can't help but falling asleep (a window that lasts about eight minutes and starts around 9:17). So I got my daily beer out of the way. Bonus: Pam, the household's coffee drinker, was able to partake.
• I really appreciate how Tröegs prints all kinds of beer details right there on their labels. Not only could I find out JavaHead's ABV% on there, but I also found IBU (60, moderately high), and the types of hops included (Cascade, Chinook, Cluster... those names are familiar but don't really mean anything to me just yet). To me, this is a sign that this brewery gives a shit.

Alright, that's it. I recommend this beer if stouts are your thing. I don't know how to tell policemen to stop their brutality, I don't know how to tell bad actors to stop looting, I don't know how to tell everyone to wear a goddamn face mask, but I know how to tell you what beer to drink, so I'll be here for the time being.

NOTES

BEER: JavaHead (no space in between the words, per Tröegs' website)

STYLE: Oatmeal Stout

ABV: 7.5%

BREWED BY: Tröegs Brewing Company

LOCATION: Hershey, PA (no wonder JavaHead tasted like cocoa)

PURCHASED AT: Foodery in NoLibs

PAIRED WITH: chocolate chip pancakes and turkey bacon

GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5

BEER COUNT: 203.5

The Albums That Matter: Berlin

Joe runs through every album on his iPod, mostly in alphabetical order, and offers some brief thoughts. Check out previous columns HERE.

Berlin

Lou Reed

1973

Berlin is probably one of those albums that it more interesting to discuss than it is to actually listen to. The music isn't bad, but I've never been the biggest fan of Lou Reed's solo work. Honestly, I really only downloaded this album and couple other ones in 2013 because Lou Reed died, and there was such an outpouring of critical affection that I just had to hear for myself. This is a recipe for disappointment. No way an album like Berlin is going to stand up to the postmortem adoration. Still, there's a decent amount to unpack for this album.

First and foremost, it is basically a rock opera, though surprisingly it doesn't seem to be advertised as such all that often, from what I can tell. The songs tell a tale of a fraught relationship between characters Jim and Caroline, a cycle of domestic abuse, infidelity, violence, and ultimately suicide. It is unflinching, and brutally unpoetic. Reed has explained that Jim is a stand-in for himself, and Caroline for his now-ex-wife Bettye Kronstad, which is pretty scary. If the music isn't necessarily as compelling as it could be, then Berlin at least gives me an insight into who Lou Reed was, and it ain't pretty. If "Sad Song" is meant to be autobiographical, then a line like "Somebody else would have broken both of her arms," used as some limp justification for all the shit he's done, comes off as fucking horrifying.

I know, I know, we can't take it literal. If I were writing a rock opera about a declining relationship, I probably would be just as exaggeratedly self-critical, so I can appreciate all this for what it is. I can appreciate the drama that props up the typical Lou Reed musical fare.

Berlin was produced by a guy named Bob Erzin. I did not recognize the name, but I definitely recognized some of the same artistic flare from another album—The Wall. Sure enough, it looks like he co-produced that album too. (I am so proud of myself for making the connection just based on the music alone, but there's no way to prove now that I'm not bullshitting.) He layers on the orchestral flourishes thick on Berlin, and it really helps for some of the songs ("Caroline Says I," "Sad Song," and so on).

I can also appreciate the ballsiness it must have taken to release such an album in this particular context. Lou Reed had just released Transformer seven months prior, a.k.a. the album with "Walk on the Wild Side" (a.k.a. the only Lou Reed song that has made it into the WMGK Classic Rock Canon). The suits wanted Reed to capitalize on his new cultural stature and create an album that would generate some more of that sweet profit. Instead, he made Berlin, a depressing album that features plenty of death and misogyny but not much in the way of a hit radio single. I love the "fuck you" of such a gesture. Fuck expectations, Lou Reed made the album he wanted to make, and even if it's not my personal favorite album of all time, I can definitely appreciate that.

Critics certainly didn't appreciate it at the time. Rolling Stone infamously called it a "disaster" in its review. This is only noteworthy due to the fact that the critical perception has changed dramatically in the decades since (true, possibly even more so because Lou Reed is dead now). I know that I didn't like Berlin when I first heard it six and a half years ago, but my opinion toward it has softened significantly in the years since. Berlin is one of those albums that proves that forming an opinion after the first, fifth, or maybe even twentieth listen of an album is a dangerous fucking game. There's always more to uncover, even for an album has unsubtle as Berlin.

Berlin is not the album that is going to turn me from Lou Reed skeptic to Lou Reed adorer, but man, did I enjoy thinking about this album throughout this week.


If this album sounds interesting, try this song: "How Do You Think It Feels"




Stray Observations

• I suppose you can't blame Reed for being economical with his songwriting. He tends to use older songs of his and repurpose them for the current album. I recognized "Caroline Says II" as a redo of the old Velvet Underground song "Stephanie Says" (pumped up with more domestic violence). "Oh Jim" is apparently a VU song as well, previously called "Oh Gin." Seems cheap on the surface, but they're his songs, so you really can't blame him. (Come to think of it, I bet Patrick Stickles admires this about Lou Reed, and his similar tendencies to reuse songs on subsequent albums feel like an homage to his hero.)
• The title track is the worst one on here, but I acknowledge that it exists to set the scene (and yes, this is also a repurposing of an old song, this time "Berlin" from his first solo album—Reed figured that there was enough story in that song that he could make it into an entire album, and so he did).
• As we already discussed, there's a lot in songs like "Sad Song" that sounds like The Wall, but for me, the opening of that song is always gonna remind me now of the Record Club pick The Order of Nature.
• Naturally, Berlin received the full orchestral treatment when the critical resurgence occurred. There's a concert film and live album documenting the experience. I'm kind of surprised that there hasn't been a Broadway musical yet.
• ALBUM COVER: I wish every Wikipedia page had a section for "album art," but alas, sometimes I have to go hunting. Some random review on some random ass blog mentioned that the art was by "Pacific Eye and Ear." Internet hunting led me to find out that Pacific Eye and Ear was an artist studio created back in the day by a guy named Ernie Cefalu, who did a bunch of other album covers. Googling him lead me to his goddamn Facebook page, where he wrote that "I remember talking with Lou on the phone shortly after he received a finished package. He was tearing-up as he thanked me for the 'most beautiful album cover he ever had.'" Is it beautiful? I dunno, sure. There's the lyrics to the title track, there's Reed playing guitar, there's a man and a woman who I guess are Jim and Caroline, there's broken glass that maybe Caroline used to kill herself. "Beautiful"? Maybe not, but I could definitely see being intrigued if I had picked this one up off a shelf as a teenager.
• ALBUM NAME: It's worth mentioning here that Lou Reed had never been to Berlin before releasing this album.
• CHARTS: It hit #7 on the UK charts but could only manage #98 on the US Billboard 200. It peaked on 12/1/1973 (exactly fifteen years before I was born), when Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was #1. (There is some top shelf material up there on the chart on that date.) (Also, obviously, no songs hit the Billboard Hot 100. There are no hit singles on this album.)
• Let's talk about "The Kids." This shit is brutal, due to subject matter and to the sounds of actual children crying. If the character Jim is doing his damnedest to prove that Caroline is an unfit mother, then having the children taken away by social services is the most succinct way to do it. I've heard children cry like that before when they are removed from the home—it's as brutal on the album as it is in real life.
• Let's talk more about "The Kids." Bob Erzin had his own kids perform on the track. It is unknown how Erzin got the reaction out of them, but according to one urban legend, he told them that their mother had been killed in a car crash. That just has to be bullshit, no father could possibly be that cruel.
• Let's talk even more about "The Kids." I'm typing this at five in the morning, listening to the album as I do so. I'm typing as fast as I can before Willow wakes up. You better believe that "The Kids" tricked me into thinking that she was awake.
• A few of the songs mention a third character called "The Waterboy." I lose the plot when he is brought up—he is apparently either Caroline's lover, or an alter ego of Jim? I can't really make heads or tails of it (no one said rock operas ever made sense). There's a band out of Scotland called the Waterboys, who took their name from this character. I've heard so many good things about them and have been meaning to check them out for so long, so this revelation might finally get me to do it.
• Took me an embarrassingly long time to find this tweet.
• Add this to my growing collection of blog posts that I banged out at five in the morning because I didn't know what else to write and I'm still hanging onto the idea of blogging every single day, even if it kills me.
• The drums as the beginning of "Oh Jim" are good; the sudden switch to shitty acoustic blues halfway through "Oh Jim" is bad. Sorry, couldn't leave ya hanging on my "Oh Jim" hot takes!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEXT TIME: The Best Little Secrets Are Kept by Louis XIV

This Is My Blood: Walt Wit

I've had a Walt Wit before, but it was very interesting drinking one after five solid months of trying to learn everything I can about tasting beer. I have two new perspectives now.

First, and most superficially, I have a deeper appreciation for what makes a beer style taste the way it does, and so I'm able to more appreciate when a beer I already know has its secrets revealed to me. This might be Walt Wit #50 in my life, give or take, but this is the first time in my life that I understood that this was a Witbier, and what exactly that meant. To me, it's no longer "a light refreshing beer on Philadelphia Brewing's menu," now it's "a creamy, hazy beer, low on bitterness, around 4.5% ABV, with hints of orange peel and coriander." This is important!

I mean, I'm looking at Philly Brewing's beer list in a whole new light. Okay, so Kenzinger is lager that is a little hoppier than normal... Newbold is an IPA, which means it's hoppier and stronger than Pennsylvania Pale Ale... Joe Coffee Porter probably doesn't taste that all that much like coffee, and it makes me want to try it (a beer that I have often avoided in the past)... oh, they have a new Berliner Weiss? I know exactly what that means now... and etc.

Second new perspective is a deeper appreciation for the breweries themselves, and how complicated it must be to brew all these different types of beers competently and confidently. Taking beer seriously means taking the beer makers seriously. I wish I didn't come to this realization during a time when I'm not able to actually go to the damn breweries and pay my respects. So it goes.

I will probably have a lot more to say about Philadelphia Brewing Company at a later date, but since they are a classic brewery in my favorite city, and Walt Wit is the first beer of theirs I've had in 2020, there will be plenty of other opportunities to say it all at a soon enough date.

NOTES

BEER: Walt Wit

STYLE: Belgian Witbier

ABV: 4.2%

BREWED BY: Philadelphia Brewing Company

LOCATION: um, Philadelphia

PURCHASED AT: IGA clearance rack, Walt Wit deserves better!

PAIRED WITH: Chicken (marinated in Italian dressing) on the grill

GRADE: 3 pukes out of 5

BEER COUNT: 203

Bring Back My Girls: A Drag Race Season 12 Discussion

It's really weird to start watching a television show in its Season 12, regardless of what show it is. Even competition shows establish patterns and traditions, build running jokes, etc. Nevertheless, I watched Season 12 of RuPaul's Drag Race with Pam this year. I mostly enjoyed it! It's possible that I more enjoyed thinking about it and discussing it than I did actually watching it. So, in that same vein, I figured it would be nice to talk with some friends before the season finale, especially those friends who have watched Drag Race from the beginning.

Below is our group discussion, transcribed from Facebook Messenger. It took place over two hours last Sunday night. Other than changing the order of some of the responses (to fit them chronologically when Facebook Messenger lagged), and adding a couple italics and a couple apostrophes, the conversation is presented exactly as is.

Thanks to my friends for spending some time with me in a non-Zoom setting, and for being cool with me sharing their insights on the blog. And make sure you check out the finale, this Friday at 8 PM.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joe: I first wanted to ask about general impressions of Season 12. This was a weird season of TV, right? I'm asking this as someone who didn't watch the first eleven. And I'm not even talking about the Sherry Pie or the COVID of it all (we can talk about both in a bit). Was there something off about this season? Or is that just my RuPaul ignorance showing?

Bridget: I think the editing around sherry really messed things up for me! 
Bridget: I know we’re not supposed to talk about that but to me that’s why it fell a lil flat

Allison: I think the editing had something to do with it

Hannah: I loved the season and felt queens were more talented than most recent ones

Maeve: I think this has been the most “prepared” season thus far? Like all the queens came in knowing exactly what to expect, so that alone made it weirder than normal. And then the editing was nuts

Joe: It almost became a game, like, "alright, how would this episode have been with Sherry in it?"
Joe: (some other good points made by y'all, we'll circle back to them!)

Bridget: yeah so much talent this season! And nobody can be surprised about the snatch game

Hannah: Beyond sherry and covid it didnt feel off to me
Hannah: Maybe less drama

Allison: I don't think I would have liked Sherry even if she had been fully in this season

Maeve: I feel like I probably would’ve liked her? She feels like a Nina west/Ben dela creme combo-ish? Idk, so tough to say. But also it was wild she never had to lipsync towards the bottom eps

Allison: Less drama for sure. "This isn't Rupaul's best friend race" has become the mantra but... it kind of is?

Joe: Alright, let's go down the "less drama" road, and circle back to Sherry
Joe: Drama is important to reality TV, right?

Maeve: They all know they’ll perform together in the future on tours etc, right? So it’s in their best interest to get along? But the less drama has made Untucked unwatchable

Bridget: As someone who never watches Untucked I never really follow the drama

Hannah: This is more of a competition show than reality tv?  Are those things different? I don’t expect drama on British Bakeoff
Hannah: That being said i do think the drama is what makes this show fun its just not the only reason to watch it

Maeve: That’s true. And I get mad at any drama on Top Chef. But it feels like drag queens should be “shady” and full of drama?

Joe: Yeah, I mean, RuPaul the TV show is advertised as a show with drama. Like all those soundclips at the beginning of Untucked. That's the expectation

Allison: I will admit, I was on the fence about even watching this season until the Sherry Pie story broke

Joe: Interesting, how come?

Allison: I've watched every season since the first but my love for the show has been waning in the last few years

Bridget: It just sucks that it broke so late that they couldn’t even talk about it!

Joe: Where would you say this ranks in the 12 seasons? Toward the top? Bottom?
Joe: haha bottom

Hannah: Allison is a good example of a person who caught this before it was mainstream and honestly joe this is not an ideal season for you to watch as your first

Allison: Towards the bottom for me. I think it will be memorable unfortunately for the Sherry Pie drama "Remember that season where they had to cut around that one queen for being a creep?"
Allison: Not to say that there havent been some really stand out queens this season
Allison: but there have been over 100 queens at this point. It's really hard to make a lasting impact at this point

Bridget: Good point. And I feel like they tried to make broccoli the schtick of this season and it really didn’t work.

Joe: I'll admit, I laughed at the broccoli thing

Hannah: The element of perfection and that standard is so high that the more perfect they get the less room there is for shade.  Earlier seasons you see more raw stuff less perfect clothes and makeup and less practiced queens
Hannah: Thats why uk was entertaining they were trash

Bridget: Omg I did love the UK!

Allison: I didn't catch the UK, but i'll have to seek that out

Maeve: The UK feels like season 3 of normal drag race!

Allison: Oh perfect

Hannah: But jackie cox sucks right guys

Joe: That's a really good point though, Hannah. I feel like that ties in with the point you made a couple minutes ago: what is the point of all this? competition or reality TV?

Maeve: The point is definitely competition, you’re rooting for girls to make it to the end.

Allison: NOOOOOOoooooooooooooo

Hannah: Allison im not sure if you heard but shes middle eastern

Joe: Are the queens always talking about their moms this much?

Hannah: Joe pretty typical

Allison: And Gigi loves her mom and Crystal is kooky, you gotta have a thing to get air time

Maeve: I didn’t mind Jackie, but I thought she was there too long

Hannah: Haha yes

Maeve: Brita was from New York

Allison: Who would you have preferred to see in the top 5 spot?

Hannah: Heidi instead of jackie

Bridget: Def Heidi!

Maeve: Heidi!
Maeve: I wanna watch a Heidi show....just not the one she performed that sent her home

Allison: I thought Heidi was adorable but she needed SO much help

Hannah: Haha id watch that but she was not good

Bridget: I’m still laughing at Jaidas solo performance

Allison: I do wish Ru would have let up about her name, though

Joe: Alright, if we're getting "she's good, she sucks," I feel like we gotta talk about what it means to "like" a competitor on this show

Hannah: Solid performance outfits and all around threat and not a horrible person backstage.  Also needs a personality ( my biggest issue with jackie )

Joe: Yeah, I feel like there are different categories of reasons to like/dislike a queen, and I have trouble combining them

Hannah: Last seasons winner was a complete and total crazy person back stage and when that happens you are like come on Ru.

Maeve: I think it’s personality and also how they perform throughout the show?

Joe: 1) Are they good at their craft (good at "drag queening"?)
Joe: 2) Do they seem nice/fun or annoying?

Hannah: Yes.

Joe: 3) Do they give me a boner (i.e. is she conventionally attractive to me, a heterosexual male)?

Hannah: Haha noooo

Allison: ...sure

Joe: I know I'm the wrong audience for this, and this is the wrong crowd for this, but #3 is legit

Hannah: The third one no.  You dont have to be attractive to be a good drag queen

Joe: No, I'm not saying that
Joe: I'm just saying, if you're asking who the "best" queen is, then there's different ways of looking at it

Allison: i think it's an interesting perspective

Maeve: I also feel like it’s just whatever type of queen you prefer? Like comedy queen, pageant queen, etc

Hannah: To be a winner then you still dont have to be conventionally attractive

Joe: Not saying "winner" either, just personal preference of who one could like as a queen/competitor

Hannah: Oh like some people prefer that? Sure. Then you like a pageant queen

Maeve: "fishy queen"

Bridget: Yeah cause there’s so many different types of makeup!

Maeve: And personality!

Joe: Fair enough. This is where my ignorance is coming through.
Joe: I don't think I'm rooting for whom I think is the most attractive to win, at least not this season

Allison: i dont think it's ignorance, the beauty of a competition like this is that there are SO many different types of drag and while Ru has the final say, the fans get to choose who they fall in love with

Hannah: So true
Hannah: As a first time watcher were you surprised by any of the transformations
Hannah: Or what it takes to get dragged up

Joe: Hannah—not really. I mean, I appreciated the skill it took to transform in that way, but I get the professionalism aspect of it. These chicks are good. I trust 'em to do well with the drag (doesn't mean I didn't still scoff at some of the outfits)
Joe: Allison—definitely wanna get back to Ru's influence on this.
Joe: But yeah, to clarify, I think being "good at drag" is the most important thing, with personality and actually looks coming tied at second
Joe: But I'm saying this as me, dunno if RuPaul thinks differently

Hannah: She must because bob won

Joe: And Bob the Drag Queen does not have  a good personality?
Joe: I'm asking I don't know

Hannah: Looks

Joe: Okay

Maeve: Hahahahaha I love bob so much

Allison: Ok, hang on, if your going to come for Bob i'm going to have to get my husband, a true Bob stan

Hannah: Haha get him !

Bridget:

Maeve: But his makeup is not great, but I love him

Hannah: Reading is fundamental

Allison: "who did she expect to win that season, fucking Britney Spears motherfucker"

Hannah: Hahahaa nooooo but did you see derrick is back on all stars

Allison: uuuugh

Hannah: I know im not a fan

Maeve: Hahahaha Derrick has one talent

Maeve: Joe, have you watched the HBO show We’re Here starring Bob, Shangela and Eureka? It’s like Queer Eye but for drag queens? Every ep is a real tear jerker

Joe: Nah, Pam's been watching it, I dunno if it's the show for me

Hannah: Yes joe and go watch season 6 7 or 9 of Drag Race

Joe: I was going to say "too feel-good," which sounds awful to say, but that goes back to what we expect out of these shows... where's the drama?

Allison: It does seem like a lot of the drama has been pushed to Untucked (which i have not watched this season)
Allison: And even then it's manufactured

Joe: It was weird during the reunion when the NY chicks were like "yeah we're all friends," like, I don't want you to be friends, I want you to be cuthroat
Joe: Which, again, is bad, which is probably why I shy away from reality TV in general
Joe: brings out the worst in me

Allison: True, but I think at this point, winning isnt really everything
Allison: the prize is great, but the exposure is what they really want

Joe: Which is a detriment to this show, I'd argue

Hannah: I think that you would see more drama on honestly any other season and in an in-person reunion. Joe go watch those other seasons and report back

Bridget: I agree! You need more of a taste!

Allison: yes, watch all 11 seasons and then lets regroup

Joe: Okay, see ya

Allison: Season 7 is wild

Bridget: I’ve honestly only watched the more recent seasons and I even know the difference

Hannah: But the show is about some thing bigger with some of those other reality shows are not about.  Every single one of these people no matter how popular they are or how much money they will make after the show have been either disowned by their family or will never “fit in” society

Bridget: True. Love their personal stories!!!

Hannah: As much as they may disagree with each other they are all suffering the same thing.

Joe: You're right, Han. And that's why this show is IMPORTANT, for sure.
Joe: I know it's not right to lust for blood here

Allison: But, at the same time, the show wants to push the drama

Joe: "Can it have it both ways," basically?

Allison: pre-commecial edits are always "shady out of context comment" "biiiiiitch"

Maeve: There were more spicy comments in the reunion during the “reading” than in all of Untucked

Hannah: But Allison don’t you think that’s an ingrained part of the culture? Where are they are allowed to read each other and then come together at the end of the day?

Allison: Oh for sure. I just think the editing is a little suspicious sometimes

Hannah: It’s almost like they are satirizing drama on reality shows

Joe: Oooh, that's an interesting point. Satirizing? I don't know if I picked that up, but I want to hear more.

Hannah: I don’t know if I just used real word

Joe: No, I'm not mocking, I legitimately think that's an interesting point. I would not have thought of this as a satire, but is it?

Allison: I think the first few seasons are a great example of what Hannah said

Pam: OMG I CAUGHT UP

Hannah: Ha ha Pam thank God you’re here

Pam: DAMN YOU WILLOW AND YOUR SUMMERTIME BEDTIMES!!

Allison: they had mini challenges straight out of Fear Factor

Hannah: And the whole thing is a knock off on Top Model

Allison: right!

Pam:

Pam: Season 2 is weird drama bc of that psycho phi phi ohara

Allison: OH and All Stars Season 1 (terrible) was basically Amazing Race
Allison: (Season 4)

Pam: Oh yea they had that weird final challenge where they had to drive around in a van to all those different spots

Joe: Was there anything specific about S12 that was a satire?
Joe: Or are they playing it straight at this point?

Allison: The America's Worst challenge
Allison: i guess more spoof than satire

Pam: The debates challenge...?

Maeve: Season 12 is just insanely self aware to the point of spoof?

Pam: I honestly hate those. When they did it in that same first season of all stars it was just as (maybe more) awkward

Hannah: Beyond all of the obvious references and ingrained stuff (e.g. bring back my girls) the actual drama isn’t satire but the way they market it with the voiceovers is mocking of Real Housewives “prostitution whore” like memes they try to make happen

Hannah:

Allison: (Jackie Cox was great in Snatch Game by the way)

Hannah: She was good at that Allison

Pam: She was good—I'm a Jackie Cox fan

Maeve: “My husband, Harry Hamlin”

Pam: I wanted her to be in the top from the beginning

Hannah: Pam not sure if you caught this but she’s middle eastern

Pam: Is she?!

Hannah: (I’m laughing at myself you guys)

Bridget: I’m laughing at you too hehe

Joe: I think Jackie Cox was probably the queen with the best comedic timing / sensibility? I don't know if that translates to competent queen?

Maeve: Who did you guys think would be in top from the beginning? It felt clear Gigi and Sherry would be

Hannah: Yes agree Maeve

Bridget: Gigi for sure!

Pam: Almost every joke from Gigi after snatch game felt like she was a one-trick pony... like that robot thing was her only schtick
Pam: But yes I did think she was gonna be in the top (Gigi)

Joe: That's a good point... I liked her a lot more toward the beginning than toward the end
Joe: She got stale

Hannah: Yeah she showed her youth and inexperience I think as it went on

Maeve: I totally agree! I soured on her but felt like the producers were having her not win and that was her emotional arc

Bridget: Yeah true

Pam: I still think she might win the whole thing
Pam: BUT I WANT CRYSTAL TO!!!

Allison: It could be anyone at this point

Hannah: You think the producers make that call outside of ru

Joe: Hold up, let me ask a question about this

Bridget: Also crystal always made me die with her outfits and makeup

Hannah: CRYSTAL

Maeve: I liked her at the reunion!
Maeve: (Gigi I mean)

Allison: Crystal might be at a slight disadvantage with Yvie Oddly as last years winner

Pam: Ugh! Yvie Oddly is the weirdest win

Maeve: That’s EXACTLY what the podcast I listen to said, Allison!
Maeve: Like two out of the box queens back to back

Pam: I thought Brooklyn Heights was gonna take that season
Pam: Yea thats a good point though

Allison: Oohhhh that shoe reveal!

Hannah: YVIE ODDLY UGHHH
Hannah: Allison please don’t tell me you liked her

Pam: Hannah who do you like more? Yvie or Bob?

Hannah: Bob
Hannah: 100000%
Hannah: Bob is actually really talented

Allison: Last season was also pretty meh for me

Pam: Im a Bob fan too. I've been watching that HBO show... it's fo sho Queer Eye + drag (Maeve I think you said that ^^)
Pam: Yes besides Miss Vanjee last season was a little stale

Allison: I liked Yvie because she was weird and something new. But I also liked Brooklyn (but felt like she was using Vangie for screen time but that's a whole other thing)

Maeve: Vanjee truly killed me on this seasons reunion

Pam: YES

Maeve: Same! I really liked Brooklyn and was never annoyed with her dancing

Allison: She's a dancer? from Canada?

Pam: But couldn't do a proper Celine accent LOL

Hannah: Lol

Maeve: LOL but also I hated Silky so much last season but I think the producers thought we would all LOVE her

Pam: OMG Silky. I have mixed feelings about her.
Pam: I liked her towards the end but she was a little TOO much in the beginning

Joe: Let's get all the previous-seasons discussions out of the way.

Allison: I was just reminded that she was in the TOP 4?
Allison: Throw that season in the trash

Pam: Yes throw it out the window!!

Hannah: Ok joe back to the deep stuff. I’m ready for ya

Joe: Haha thank you.
Joe: So when we're saying things like this chick as a good chance of winning, this chick has a disadvantage, etc., what do we mean by that? It's been brought up a couple times and brushed over. Is RuPaul the one with her fingers on the scale? Are the producers deciding this? Who or what actually determines the winner here?

Hannah:

Pam: OMG I'm literally LOLing at that Silky gif

Bridget: Silky is STRAIGHT TRASH

Hannah: I also can’t stop laughing and Joe I’m googling To find out

Pam: I always thought Ru had the final say... I never questioned that until... this very moment

Maeve: I feel like Pam and Allison would know better because they’ve watched every season, buuut I think it’s a mix. I think the talent level is very apparent, but the producers probably have a hand in who should stay overall, but Ru has the final decision?

Pam: Is Michelle a producer?
Pam: Looks like Michelle has 3 producer credits

Allison: So, not to harp on last season, but this became more apparent to me when thinking about Silky
Allison: did anyone like her? But Ru kept pushing her because i dont think Ru is sitting in a director's chair watching the werkroom dailies after every challenge

Pam: Oh yea I feel like Ru makes a point to NOT know what's going on in the werkroom...?

Joe: I brought that point up to Pam earlier in the season, how I thought it was weird that all this shit that they do seems to come down to the whims of RuPaul that day. But she pointed out that it's the same with other competitions. The judges from British Baking make the same kind of decisions. So I dunno. Maybe it's just a matter of "do I trust RuPaul's judgment?" And the answer for me is "sometimes?"

Pam: So just based on performance alone—Silky kinda killed it
Pam: Like she was amazing as Oprah in the Rusical

Hannah: I wouldn’t want anyone but Rupal to make a call
Hannah: It would be disappointing to me if it wasn’t mostly him

Pam: Same
Pam: I think Ru and Michelle really liked Aiden too and that's why she lasted as long as she did

Allison: I do feel like the judging is all over the place

Bridget: Omg she should have gone home week 2

Joe: I dunno, he was giving some bad advice this season

Hannah: Like what?

Joe: The whole Heidi's name thing, trying to get people to change their snatch game personas

Hannah: The snatch game persona thing happens every season

Bridget: El DeBarge!

Pam: Well maybe if Jan had switched to Kris Jenner she would have done better!!

Bridget: Like it’s not completely planned out already...

Pam: Like Bernadette Peters was... fine

Hannah: I truly think the name thing was kind of a joke but also ru being like get with the times

Maeve: Aiden lasting long made me think the producers were like “keep a non-professional small town queen longer so we don’t get shit online” but also I think the pod I listened to put me into conspiracy corner

Joe: Bridget, exactly. Like, if you come into this competition preparing for something, it's shitty for Ru to tell you to do something else

Pam: And I think Ru was also joking about Crystal doing El DeBarge for snatch game

Joe: But not for Heidi to do a Housewife she didn't even know

Pam: But even if you know like the tiniest bit about someone you CAN make it funny if you are funny

Hannah: They tell them to come with a couple of options that we know. Ru makes a point every single season of telling the girls what will be successful and calling out the ones he doesn’t think are gonna be funny

Pam: Like when Katya did Björk

Allison: Is it ironic that Ru and Michelle will often tell a queen to not rely on this or that but then RuPaul is like "you have a mullet, that is all i will reference now"?

Hannah: Yes it truly comes out to like are these girls funny!

Joe: I dunno... as someone who is so so bad at improv, and would absolutely need to prep for this, I empathized with those who Ru told to change up last minute

Hannah: Flashbacks to Joe’s improv 101 audition

Joe: UGH

Pam: yes watching them like makes my palms sweat in the snatch game if they are tanking bc just the thought of improv gives me anxiety

Maeve: I feel like whenever they listen to Ru’s advice, they’ll at least be safe

Joe: That's the only reason Heidi lasted that long

Allison: She took SO many ideas that Ru handed her
Allison: which she'd be stupid NOT to take
Allison: but she needed so much help!

Maeve: Exactly! She kept doing whatever Ru said

Pam: She DID!

Hannah: Oh no you betta don’t

Joe: But isn't that weird though, that Ru gave GOOD advice to someone, and it was only GOOD because he was also a judge?!

Hannah: It’s like when your boss gives you advice and is also in charge of your raise

Pam: Yes but Ru is also an EXPERT

Allison: Ru is not an unbiased impartial judge. She is more akin to a god.
Allison: She plucks you from obscurity, hands you an opportunity, and you better not fuck it up

Pam: Has anyone ever done really well with a last minute snatch game change up?

Hannah: And if you do a little digging on RuPaul you quickly learn that he is is not really in this for the drag. He’s like a life coach and Oprah like personality
Hannah: Who happens to be worth $60 million

Pam: A cool $60 mil

Allison: Ru will not do drag unless she is getting paid

Pam: Did anyone watch Ru's SNL ep? No drag

Hannah: No but I did watch his awful Netflix show

Pam: SNL was disappointing, but it usually is these days anyway lol

Hannah: Lol

Joe: Tangential point: I hate how he says the word "dollars"

Bridget: Doll hairs

Allison: Hahahahaha, I think that's an homage to his mother
Allison: i thiiiiink

Pam: There are so many coined phrases from the show now that I don't even notice that it's not the right way of saying things
Pam: "Condragulations"

Hannah: What’s the documentary about the balls in the 80s? Joe needs to watch that because a lot of this culture comes from that

Allison: Paris Is Burning
Allison: Darliiiing

Hannah: Yesssss

Pam: Ah yes... in the great tradition of...

Joe: I didn't do a lot of prep for this, clearly

Hannah: Joe if you watch anything else watch that
Hannah: It’s actually an interesting piece on the early communities of drag and trans in nyc and how dangerous it was

Pam: That show Pose was all about that too but it was a little too weird for me when I first watched

Allison: I still havent watched Pose!

Bridget: Ahhh I need to watch both of those things!

Hannah: I loved pose but it was really hard to watch

Pam: We watched maybe just the pilot

Joe: Okay, here's a devil's advocate question
Joe: is Drag Race too SAFE?

Hannah: In what way joe give us more dahhhling

Pam: Like safe how?

Joe: Well you said that in Paris Is Burning, drag was dangerous. No one is getting beat up at a RuPaul taping. Thank god, obviously. But does that take the edge away?
Joe: I regret asking this already
Joe: I don't wish violence on anyone
Joe: obviously

Allison: Season 4 lip sync Mini Imfurst v India Ferrah comes to mind

Joe: But is there enough "me vs. the world" mentality in Drag Race, or is that an integral part that's missing

Allison: It's true that drag is much more mainstream now than it was 11 seasons ago.

Pam: I think if anything, drag race is educating people about that history
Pam: ::ahem:: herstory

Hannah: I mean you got a little glimpses of it when people talk about their past and sometimes even their current. I don’t think the intent of the show is to provide a place for people to talk about that but rather a place for them to be themselves away from that
Hannah: And obviously is part of the therapy some of the hurt comes out
Hannah: Celebrity drag race is starting to inch that Way in putting very masculine men in drag

Pam: And usually if there's an old queen on the show, they like to let the youngins know that they SHOULD know their history (Chad Michaels and Jiggly Caliente... right?)

Hannah: But if anything ru has gotten criticism for not being Forward thinking enough. E.g. with his stance on trans

Pam: What is his stance on trans?

Hannah: He doesn’t really comment on it publicly and allison maybe you know more than me But with gender lines blending he has been hesitant to open the door completely to trans people

Joe: boomers, amirite

Allison: Ru has said some problematic things in the past

Allison: something along the lines of a trans woman on drag race is like an athlete on steroids

Pam: Yea I guess usually they reveal that during the show...I guess meaning that Ru hasn't picked someone knowing that they are trans
Pam: Except Gia Gunn but she was an all star

Allison: There have been a number of queens who have transitioned after the show or come out as trans on the show
Allison: I think Peppermint on season 10 was openly trans while filming
Allison: Ru has also to walk back the use of the word "tranny"
Allison: and the pre-filmed rupaul message to the queens at the beginning of every episode used to say "Ooooh girl, you've got she-mail"

Joe: Asking this out of ignorance again—is a drag queen defined as a cisgender male who dresses as a woman? Or is it more nuanced?

Pam: In the HBO show they put anyone in drag—gay men, straight men, women

Joe: So is the definition of drag queen something that has evolved over time?

Pam: Oh yea! I didn't even think of the connotation there...

Hannah: Yes over time.  But I’m no expert

Allison: I think the more that drag is regarded as an art as well as a form of self expression the more it has been widely adopted

Pam: It seems like... drag is for anyone but being in a competition... maybe those born female or trans women might have unfair advantages?
Pam: Like real boobs and butts

Hannah: Yes I think that’s rus argument

Allison: I think it will be a long time before a cis-female drag queen on drag race
Allison: But maybe a drag king?

Hannah: Even some of the stuff they do though like with the pit crew in undies seems a little outside the times

Allison: It's still camp

Hannah: I can’t imagine they will get away with that for much longer

Maeve: Celeb drag race had two diff eps with cis-female drag queens, Vanessa Williams won! But clearly that was the exception to the rule

Allison: A few years ago they did Drag U which was old contestants making over regular women and it was... fine

Pam: Yea I remember one of the roasts they were roasting Ru about Drag U but I've never watched

Hannah:

Maeve: Yeah, the transformation on these celeb drag eps were always “ehhh, that’s slightly more makeup than normal?”

Allison: Oh, here's a thought
Allison: Crystal won for a challenge doing a male drag
Allison: and they LOVED IT

Hannah: I was thinking about that too Allison because they used to give people so much shit for wearing pants

Joe: Crystal consistently made me realize I know jackshit about drag
Joe: every other getup for her, I went "oh god, no" and then she would get so many compliments

Pam: In the past they usually read them for doing male drag

Allison: Season 7 Milk wore a beard on stage and they were like A BEARD?! THIS IS DRAG RACE!
Allison: No, season 6
Allison: then season 7 they were like "category is: bearded queens"
Allison: evolution, i guess

Maeve: RIGHT?!

Pam: I think Crystal gets praised bc as weird as her looks are, they are complete looks

Hannah: But the one with chest hair they cannot accept

Bridget: Ahhhh that sounds awesome. I need to watch old seasons

Allison: She fully commits to everything she does

Joe: Alright, good segue to get back to season 12!

Pam: Sorry one more thing—Milk was SO SWEET in her first season and then became a complete psycho on all stars
Pam: just had to get that out

Allison: I saw Milk live at Voyeur a few years ago and it was... weird

Pam: OMG really?

Maeve: WHAT
Maeve: Next time I see ya, I need a full review of that

Pam: SAME

Hannah: You sure it wasn’t my friend Aaron they look alike

Pam: hahaha they do
Pam: same nose

Allison: shit, i hope not. i paid money for that!

Joe: no beard though for aaron

Hannah: Ok joe hit us with your hard hitting q

Joe: haha nothing too hard hitting, but I feel like we need to talk about sherry pie a little more... did they handle that whole thing as best they could've? Or was there a better way to work around her?

Pam: UGH Sherry Pie how you fucked this season

Hannah: I guess it really depends on what the season looks like with her in it

Allison: At times i wish they had leaned into it more. Like, blur her face and distort her voice
Allison: fast forward through her runways

Bridget: I think how far she made it she would have been a main focus

Maeve: I truly can’t picture how they could’ve handled it better because it was all filmed and to not show the season would’ve been awful for the other queens

Hannah: Like if she was a complete and total bitch I should’ve just left it as is and we all would’ve been cheering to surprise find out that she was a creep

Maeve: Sometimes they didn’t show her runway when she was safe!

Joe: I think i agree with what you said earlier, Allison—sexual creep or no, she didn't seem like she deserved to make it as far as she did

Hannah: Joe why do you say that

Allison: She wasnt exactly ground breaking

Joe: She was completely one-note in a way more grating way than Gigi ever was

Hannah: I’m waiting for Joe to tell me she wasn’t attractive enough

Bridget: She should have been out for the product challenge!!!

Joe: I mean, she was definitely the worst looking...
Joe: But I'm not judging on that, I swear!!!

Pam: But she was super polished and funny and good at the acting challenges

Hannah: Yeah I think she was honestly pretty professional

Bridget: She’s only 27!!!!!!!!!! How insane is that

Pam: yea that is a shock

Maeve: Same. It made me mad that she was professional, polished and prepared for the challenges, but so was Jan and they knocked Jan for being “over-prepared” etc.

Allison: I will say in the makeover challenge, i could not tell her and her partner apart

Hannah: Was what she did illegal?

Pam: And I kinda feel like not showing her the werkroom just made it look like she had her shit together
Pam: Like there was never a moment where Ru questioned what her plan was or gave her advice

Hannah: I agree it made it look like it was an easy glide in for her

Maeve: [two 100s, both double-underscored]

Joe: I honestly didn't think she was doing a good job, but I was curious about self-examining, whether I thought that because I truly thought that, or if my knowledge of her sexual crimes subconsciously influenced me at all.
Joe: Hannah - I honestly am still not sure, but I feel like it's the same as a lot of the #metoo stuff, it doesn't need to be illegal for it to be wrong

Allison: Allison ^^ I agree I 100% thought she had that makeover challenge in the bag...I was so surprised that Jaida won!!

Hannah: Oh no you’re right I totally agree it was wrong I’m just wondering if she’s going to jail

Allison: They cut her almost entirely out of the work room

Pam: Joe knowing you I think you let that stuff influence your opinion of her

Allison: I would love to see the original cut of the show

Hannah: I also think that if there was legal issues there is a different way the situation must be handled

Joe: I tried googling "is sherry pie going to jail" and it suggested "is sherry pie alive"
Joe: is she?!

Bridget: Oh dang

Pam: OMG I just said that to Joe the other day... like I'm sure she's getting death threats and shit...

Maeve: Those people have to be suing her though, right?

Hannah: She caught coronavirus while in character as Catherine Hepburn and the hospital chose not to treat her because she looked so old

Pam: The fans of drag race sound pretty relentless with that kind of stuff

Allison: The fandom is pretty brutal

Pam: Hannah did you feel personally offended having also played a Katherine Hepburn character in Philadelphia Story
Pam: who did a better job?

Allison: http://www.shadebutton.com/

Hannah: I think our performances are indistinguishable from one another

Pam: Sherry Pie didn't get to tongue kiss Sam Fran though

Joe: Sam was tricked into jerking off on webcam

Hannah: Sam‘s grandmother did think I had extremely big feet in the production so perhaps she thought I was a drag queen

Allison:

Pam: "I FEEL VERY ATTACKED"

Joe: Seems like a good place to start wrapping it up 
Joe: Having a good time though!

Bridget: Yeah what an interesting convo!!!
Bridget: I, like joe, need to go back and watch some older seasons!

Joe: Final questions? Who do we think is GOING TO win, and who SHOULD win
Joe: one at a time

Maeve: I think Gigi is going to win, I think Jaida should win, I want Crystal to win

Pam: Gigi will win. CRYSTAL METHOD SHOULD WIN!!!

Bridget: I think jaida is gonna surprise everyone and come out on top

Hannah: I think crystal or jaida will and anyone but Jackie should

Pam: Most I've been rooting for someone maybe ever

Allison: With this bizzaro world zoom finale it's really going to be anyone's game BUT I think Gigi will win but I would like to see Crystal win

Pam: Sherry Pie should win

Joe: If I'm going gut reaction, I want Crystal to win, but I think Jaida earned it, and I think she is going to win it

Pam: Jaida probably earned it more than Crystal but I just love Crystal

Maeve: Totally agree Pam

Hannah: Let’s see how weird these virtual lip syncs are

Maeve: I cannot wait

Pam: Right???

Joe: Oh yeah, we didn't talk about the COVID of it all
Joe: Kinda sucks, right?

Maeve: They said there’s 5, right? Am I imagining that’s what they said on the reunion?

Pam: Are they going to be on some kind of stage? or just at their apts??

Hannah: It sucks for the queens but for us the watcher it’s actually kind of interesting

Pam: Yep, 5

Allison: This would have been a great year for Valentina

Allison:

Maeve: Allison, that made me laugh so hard. I want a Valentina mask

Pam: Valentina...the "fan favorite"
Pam: Also GUYS I HAVE TO WERK ON FRIDAY NIGHT SO NO SPOILERS ME AND JOE WILL BE WATCHING SAT

Hannah: Time for bed for me

Pam: Oh wait  - so Heidi is gonna get Miss Congeniality, right?

Maeve: yes! I think so?

Pam: Or Jan?

Allison: Poor Jan

Maeve: It's between the two of them for sure

Pam: BRITA, Miss Congeniality
Pam: HAHA

Joe: fuck New York, goodnight everyone

Allison: Miss Vangie! *walks backwards out of room*

Bridget: Going to pluck my brows like aiden zhanes! Byeeeeeee

Maeve: