You are cordially invited to this week’s brew of High Tea, your dispatch of 🔥 internet culture served piping hot. This week: tidbits from the zeitgeist that we’re thankful for, fan behavior over the reinvention of Miley Cyrus and benzo shopping for chess sets.
Drink up 🐸☕️
what we’ve been sipping on:
🎵 Miley’s comeback. We didn’t have Miley Cyrus carrying the weight of the entire music industry on our 2020 bingo card, but here we are. We’ve been all eyes on the reinvention of Miley since her peroxide-Pepto-Bismol-foam-finger days (circa 2013), but this year saw the rise of the child star into her final rock star form. Let it be known: we’re here for it. After this dumpster fire of a year, it was Miley to the rescue at the eleventh hour with her cover of Blondie’s Heart of Glass in October, which sent TikTok tongues wagging – generating more than 123k videos created to the sound. Due to popular demand, the song made it onto Spotify where it has since been streamed more than 41 million times and, thankfully, onto her seventh studio album, Plastic Hearts. Standout bops: Night Crawling (ft. Billy Idol) and Bad Karma (ft. Joan Jett & The Black Hearts). Now go stream Plastic Hearts for clear skin.
🐀 The rat of all our dreams. Nine months into a global pandemic, it was inevitable that Gen Z would create an entire musical from scratch on TikTok. What started as a humble and unassuming ode to Remy (the rat of all our dreams, ofc) posted on TikTok back in August by Emily Jacobsen, has since blossomed into a fully formed musical, complete with set design, choreography, crowdsourced musical numbers and even willing stagehands partaking in the trend. In case your thirst for the superstar rat still isn’t quenched after a deep dive into #ratatouillethemusical, there’s also a 10-hour-long opening number to bop to. We. Can’t. Stop. Listening. Since blowing up, both Pixar and Playbill have acknowledged Gen Z’s *chef’s kiss* efforts, so...Broadway 2021? 🙏
♟️ The Queen’s Gambit. I need a bad bleep...Beth Harmon. We’re just gonna assume you’ve all already seen the Netflix record-breaking series (viewed by 62 million households in 28 days), re-read the book it’s based on (appearing on the NYT bestseller list 37 years after release 👀), and even been so inspired to get back in the game (215% increase in eBay sales related to chess & its accessories). Not only are we infatuated with the rags to riches story of Beth Harmon aka Kentucky-orphan-turned-chess-prodigy, but we also cannot deny our glee that the finale isn’t a 1960s picture-perfect-postcard, despite its setting in the era of white picket fence homogeny. Rather than Beth owing her champion status to another male lead or, rather limply, culminating in a season finale marriage, The Queen’s Gambit ends by celebrating the rise of a hungry, ambitious woman, who built her own path to success (and looked queenly 👑 af while doing it). Well done, Harmon.
🎙️ High highs to low lows. All good things must come to an end and The High Low is no exception. A podcast that we hold very close to our hearts (a High Tea 🐸☕️ inspiration no less!), this week co-hosts Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton announced the show would be coming to a close after a successful 4 years with over 150 episodes and 27 million downloads. aRE wE fEEliNg oK? 🙃 Despite the fact that this week’s news left us reaching for a glass of Flagingo (if you know, you know), we are both beyond elated for what the pair achieved in their relatively short, but incredibly powerful time in the podcasting spotlight.
Queens of combining some of the most hilarious moments of pop culture (Wagatha Christie anyone?) with well-constructed discussions on world politics and feminist issues, Dolly and Pandora prioritized authenticity, friendship and accessibility, a trio that left them largely unchallenged in the podcasting arena. While these two will be missed, they have been kind enough to leave us 4 years worth of ear candy in the archive for whenever we need a pick-me-up. Leaving on a high – as per 💅. Grab a ticket to their Christmas special livestream (Dec 8th) in aid of Blood Cancer UK here.
📰 Dazed and Confused. Yes we did that...and you would do it too, for a check 💅. This week we partnered up with Dazed (‼) to spill some tea on that fateful episode of Dinner with the D’Amelios – how the deadly combination of a snail + the admission of ambition threatened to derail the career of 16-year-old TikTok matriach, Charli D’Amelio. Catch our juicy scoop on social media schadenfreude here.
🏆 Emotional Motion Sickness. Look, we’ll be thankful for Phoebe Bridgers in this life and the next, but it’s only fitting that our favorite sad gurl gets her High Tea dues in the same week as snatching four Grammy noms. Queen behavior! If November wasn’t already booked and busy enough for Phoebe, just earlier this month we were treated to (as promised, pls see below) a cover of Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls ft. Maggie Rogers. The pay-what-you-want download on Bandcamp (which was available for one day and one day only) raised more that $173k for Fair Fight, a voting-rights and advocacy organization led by Stacey Abrams. Please, your fave could never. Phoebe, we luv u. 🐸💚
🗳️ We did it, Joe. We did it. What a beautiful segue into what is shaping up to be our favorite meme of the year (but you’ll just have to wait for our 2020 in review to see what we crown as meme supreme 🤫). Til then, we’ve been inhaling “we did it joe” TikTok, which got resuscitated this week for an improvised Thanksgiving grace (we approve). The things you get your families to do in the name of TikTok…
🎤 OMG did you call me baby? Maybe. If there’s one thing we’re sure about, it’s the hot-off-the-press certified banger from Will Joseph Cook, aka new album ‘Something To Feel Good About’. Please…we need this hooked up to an IV since it’s the (un)official antidote to 2020. Sound familiar? Well, that’s because Will’s Be Around Me hit the jackpot on TikTok, catapulting to trending audio and soundtracking 945k videos to date. We tried to warn you back in October, it really is that much of a bop. The vocals on ‘21’ will make you feel a bit weepy and that’s okay. As Tracy Beaker would say, “it’s just hay fever”. It’s only fitting that you spend the final moments of this holiday weekend horizontal, bev in hand, with Something To Feel Good About giving you that last dose of serotonin before Monday morning hits.
Okay, you made it. Now you can get back to your leftovers.
ttyl,