What's On My Mind Fridays

I need you all to know that the fact you have me defending Jimmy Fucking Kimmel pisses me off. If you have me defending Jimmy Fallon, I swear to god I am going to riot in the streets... And with that out of the way here are my three things that are on my mind this Friday.

Robert Redford

This was a sad one for me. His death was unexpected (to me). I also didn't realize he was 89 and retired from acting. Apparently, his cameo in Avengers: End Game, was one of his last acting performances. The founder of Sundance, a champion of many worth causes including the environment and cleaning the world's oceans, and the reason why we have some iconic lines from Sex and the City (The Way We Were references if you have any idea what I am talking about). I do not have an extensive, intimate knowledge of Redford's films and for that I am upset however, there are plenty of films that I have watched and my favorite of his is The Sting from 1973 with Paul Newman (it's not available on any streamers that I can see, I did watch it on Netflix but I have a feeling the Criterion Channel will do something for him). Films I want to see that I have not are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Way We Were, The Natural and All The President's Men (I know, I have so much to see). He also directed Ordinary People which he won the Oscar for and for which Mary Tyler Moore was nominated for Best Actress (this film is available on MGM+ so I will be watching that soon and will report back). As someone who also loves Donald Sutherland, he is also in this film and I have only heard good things. I guess Robert Redford will be my deep dive for the rest of the month (sorry to Robert Altman, whose collection I was working through on Criterion).

Pumpkin Flavored Everything

At the beginning of August, for some deranged and awful reason, corporations decided that we need to push FALL and ALL PUMPKIN products. Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Pumpkin t-shirts,. pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pies, pumpkin lip gloss, pumpkin nail polish, pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin and I for one will never fall for this tactics. I have stated and I said this the last time, Fall begins September 22 so do not force me into accepting that it starts at the end of August because your kids are back in school. I don't care about your kids and their school schedule. It was 80 degrees twice this week. On what planet do you think Summer is over? Deranged behavior and I for one will not listen to that nonsense. The only pumpkin I want is The Smashing Pumpkins! HOWEVER! I went out for ice cream (once Thursday night and once last Friday) and because it is ice cream and still summer and I was definitely trying it, I had two pumpkin flavored selections. The one I had at Wells Hollow Farm was a hard ice cream and it was Pumpkin Cheesecake Crunch and was extremely delicious. I love cheesecake and this was an excellent ice cream (there will be a review on Shelton next week, I have some thoughts) and the one from yesterday was from Durham Dari Serve and they had pumpkin soft serve (soft serve is my favorite) and it was delicious. I am not a hater of pumpkin as the summer winds down so don't tell me that I am be contradictory. This is ice cream, baby! Also, you do realize pumpkin doesn't actually taste like this right? Pumpkin spice is nutmeg, cinnamon and all spice. I like those spices but don't serve that shit to me in the dead middle of August.

Emmys

I have a few thoughts on the Emmys but don't have the energy to dedicate an entire newsletter to it so I am going to give you a high level commentary on my favorite and not so favorite moments:

1) I think Nate Bargatze was a fine host, I really did enjoy his open but the money count on the Boys & Girl's Club was overused and became old real fast. I love a novel idea to keep speeches a tight forty-five seconds but this bit was tired and too many winners referenced it and I want memorable speeches that don't last three minutes.

2) Tramell Tillman had my favorite win (Best Supporting Actor in a Drama series) and favorite speech of the night. I love him in Severance and he was the best actor in Season Two. I also loved his outfit, the jokes and the shoutout and dedication of the award to his mom, who was his date. He needs to be in more things and I hope this opens so many more roles for him.

3) Shrinking winning zero awards pisses me off because I love that show and I really wanted Harrison Ford to win (though I am not mad Jeff Hiller won for Somebody, Somewhere and now I need to watch that on HBO).

4) Apparently, I need to watch The Pitt, Adolescence, and Hacks because they did a lot of winning (I am already halfway through The Studio and I am very happy for their many wins).

5) Hannah Einbinder had the best closing to a speech "Go Birds, Fuck ICE, and Free Palestine".

6) The in memoriam was weird, the song choice was bad and if they were going to pick a country singer, they had Reba right there.

7) Lastly, so happy for Stephen Colbert's win.

And those are my three things. Expect my review of Shelton next week as I went last Friday night and did some things!

In the spirit of Hannah Einbinder:

Go Pats, Chinga La Migra and Free Palestine.