This is an expansion of something that I occasionally mention at the top of the Morning Briefing. From time to time, the 24-hour news cycles can get a bit repetitive, often sticking with the same few stories for days, or even a week or two on end. The worst was, of course, 2020, when the whole year was one news cycle.
Look, I'm not complaining about my job. I love this gig. Not everyone is wired for devouring news content for 10 hours a day, five days a week. Negativity sells, and the majority of the news pimps out there are in the business of being as soul-crushing as they can with their content.
If one doesn't have the proper tools to detach on a regularly scheduled basis, one's corner liquor store is soon going to have some barren shelves.
One of my favorite ways to take a quick break from politics is to get lost in entertainment industry news. Yes, there are a lot of politics in entertainment too, but I avoid those stories.
I've spent most of my adult life with feet planted firmly in both showbiz and politics. While the entertainment industry is known for epic levels of ego-driven dysfunctionality, it's the very picture of sanity when compared to politics. That's why catching up on its particular weirdness is a palate cleanser for me.
After weeks of war, campus Nazis, and Soviet show trials to rig the election, I was desperate for some real stupidity in the entertainment world. I knew that the Met Gala was coming up, and that's always good for at least a day of "WHAT DID I JUST SEE THERE?" mocking. Because God has a great sense of humor, the weekend leading up to the Gala was filled with a very public exchange of hissy fits by rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
Now, before everyone gets in conservative "Harumph!" mode and rushes to the comments, let me say that you don't have to be a rap fan to enjoy this. I keep up on all facets of entertainment pretty much by just perusing Twitter/X. It's the town square that's in stumbling distance from my house because it's in my house. I end up being aware of a lot of what's going on without delving deeply into any of it.
On Tuesday morning, I was already thinking about moving into an abandoned missile silo out in the desert until well after the election when I happened upon this article about the Kendrick Lamar/Drake feud in The Washington Post. After 40 minutes of reading biased sensationalism about the current Trump trial (remember — it's my job), I was thrilled to spend a few minutes reading about two wealthy male rappers going at it like high school mean girls who have a crush on the same boy.
Thank you, Lord, for the aforementioned sense of humor.
The most fun, however, was enjoying this post at our sister site Twitchy that makes fun of Monday's Met Gala, um, "fashion." By the time I'd added the link to the Morning Briefing last night, I needed to get it finished and didn't have time to savor it, which I knew I'd want to.
When Twitter/X decides to get back to its roots and be fun, it's the best cheap entertainment out there. It was a blast seeing the Twitterati deliberately misname the celebrities when reposting the pics. Here's one of my faves from the Twitchy post:
The usually camera-shy Travis Kelce gladly posed for photographers at the #MetGala pic.twitter.com/MDzwq34WoI
— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) May 7, 2024
I will be forever grateful that, even in these trying times, I'm still able to find a bit of silliness here and there that helps me recharge without doing any damage to my liver.
Click the button below to get the Morning Briefing emailed to you every weekday. Have your coffee with me, people. It's free and it supports conservative media!
