Hyperfixations for the week of Dec. 30, 2024

A list of pop culture that I can't stop thinking about

Here’s a roundup of my latest pop culture obsessions. What are yours?

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• Beyoncé Bowl, aka the Cowboy Carter halftime show:

  • “Look at that horse/look at that horse/look at that horse”

  • The Black cowboys and cowgirls (cowpeople?) standing on horses during the opening in the tunnel

  • Blackbird, especially that last harmony with Reyna Roberts, Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer and Tiera Kennedy. Chills!

  • The size of Beyoncé’s cowboy hat

  • The percussion that comes down as Beyoncé sings “Carriages”

  • Bey and Blue’s do-si-do

  • All the finger guns

• Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan. I admit, I’m tardy to the party with this one. This song popped up on a Spotify Wicked playlist, and I was caught off guard by its earnestness. Apologies for being late to Chappell Roan train, but I’m not getting off any time soon.

• sweetener by Ariana Grande. Spotify’s algorithm has noticed all the Wicked-ry happening, so it’s been feeding me a steady diet of Ariana Grande hits. I gotta say, some of these are absolute bops, especially sweetener (how E.E. Cummings of her). And I saw a lot of families at holiday gatherings in matching pajamas doing TikToks with the song. Delightful!

• Adding (complimentary) and (derogatory) at the end of a statement to clarify intent

• The character Tootie from Meet Me in St. Louis. This Judy Garland movie directed by (her future husband/father of Liza) Vincente Minnelli focuses on a midwestern family on the eve of the 1904 World’s Fair. I watch it every Christmas season because it’s the movie that gave us the absolute melancholy holiday banger Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

  Each viewing, I grow more concerned with Tootie, who is the little sister of Judy Garland’s Esther. This child is an absolute MENACE. Tootie’s most troubling transgression was when, after Esther sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas on what they thought would be their family’s last holiday in St. Louis, she runs outside and begins to knock down a family of snowpeople in her yard. “Nobody's going to have them, not if we can't take them to New York! I'd rather kill them if we can't take them with us!” she says.

  It’s ok to not be ok, but that’s downright murderous, Tootie.

And a couple more Wicked-specific hyperfixations because I just saw it again in the theater:

• The Dancing through Life number. When I first saw the musical on stage, the first act dragged until it exploded with Defying Gravity. But I have to give it to director Jon M. Chu — the way he translated Dancing through Life to the screen was masterful. The choreography, set design and lighting combined to give this number the frivolity it deserves. And when you throw in Jonathan Bailey and his crotch-forward (complimentary!) dance moves? 10/10, no notes.

• Ariana Grande’s face when she ties the cape onto Cynthia Erivo. Riveting!

What have you fixated on lately?