Selling Sunset & Steve Bannon

[mallorys_camera]

I continue to be Svengali'd by Selling Sunset, a reality show that is so-o-o horrifyingly Pynchon-esque, I simply cannot take my eyes off it.

It's about an ultra-luxury Ellay real estate brokerage that's run by two identical twin dwarves (no, I am not making this up) whose top agent is named after a gas station.

Every single $50 million property that's being shown to D-List celebrities (Jo-Jo Sliwa anybody?) looks like some house I designed in The Sims 15 years ago.

So, now I'm beating my breast. Did I make the wrong midlife career move? Should I have become an architect instead of an entertainment journalist?

###

In other news of the Deeply Horrible...

Steve Bannon is spot on in this analysis and the danger Mamdani represents to people who think like Bannon.

(Steve Bannon is another one of those things I get Svengali'd by occasionally because deeply as I disapprove of him, the guy is crackerjack smart about the Long View, such that the hackles on the back of my neck often rise when I read him.)

Comments

[halfmoon_mollie1]

The Steve Bannon thing truly is Deeply Horrible...

[mallorys_camera]

Bannon is a scary dude, but very, very smart.

[fuzzilla]

**real estate brokerage that's run by two identical twin dwarves (no, I am not making this up)**

Charles is always complaining about formulaic Hollywood movies. So, last weekend we watched this insane Werner Herzog movie called "Even Dwarves Started Small." I was like - so...definitely not formulaic, definitely unforgettable. Enjoyable? Hmm... Kind of interesting study in what people would do if left to their own devices. (I'm not a religious person and at one point I said, "y'all need Jesus!" Or some kind of moral compass).

[mallorys_camera]

Werner Hertzog is one of my celebrity boyfriends. 😀

[asakiyume]

Best-accented celebrity boyfriend ever ;-)

[asakiyume]

You had your own good election news, but maybe I need to scroll back further to find it?

[mellowtigger]

"I continue to be Svengali'd..."

Oh, so THAT'S the origin of Svengoolie's name! Today I learned something new.

I agree that populism is a threat to plutocracy. Of course, obviously I disagree that we should preserve plutocracy in USA politics. I think the potential threat of populism is badly explained, and we shouldn't assume it always results in autocracy.

[mallorys_camera]

Can you give me examples of populism that didn't end in autocracy?

[mellowtigger]

Obama famously didn't achieve widespread changes, despite the populist slogan that led to his election. I'm not sure, though, that populists "fail" only when they fail to achieve their intended agenda. The agenda should be objectively authoritarian, whether it succeeds or not. South of the border, Sheinbaum has a supermajority and passed many constitutional reforms, none of which appear authoritarian. She's definitely a populist, winning more votes than any president in the history of Mexico.