Notes from the field
Let’s keep it short and sweet this week. February came and went like a commuter train you really thought you were gonna make it in time to catch. I’m drowning in work at both of my jobs and I’m also trying to savor every second that I have HBOMax so I’m not playing around this time. Let’s get right into the meat of it. Read on for news about Lady Gaga and Azealia Banks, my thoughts on the Reply-All/Bon App saga, and another edition of Calloway Corner.
I Live for the A-Paws, A-Paws, A-Paws: A Tail of Dog Walking Gone Wrong
Somebody shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stole her dogs. This felt unreal to read and even more unreal to write out myself. The way my heart stopped when my best friend sent this to me in a group chat…an unrivaled feeling of sadness as a Gaga stan and sometimes dog lover.
So what happened? On February 24th around 9:40pm, Lady Gaga’s dog walker was shot while walking two of Gaga’s French bulldogs. The dogs were then abducted at the scene of the crime.
Gaga offered a no questions asked reward of $500,000 for their return. Luckily, the dogs were recovered by police on on Friday February 26th. The person who returned the dogs to Gaga appears not to be associated with the original crime.
According to a witness, the crime seemed to be targeted; the assailants were specifically after the two French bulldogs (fuck the other dogs I guess).
Now I don’t write about serious crime often but this is…bizarre. Celebrities don’t often have their dogs stolen. Really, really nobody has their dogs stolen frequently. This isn’t the 101 Dalmatians Cinematic Universe; it doesn’t happen.
I’m glad Gaga’s dogs are okay and that her dog walker is making a recovery but I’m left with so many questions. Who’s after these French bulldogs? Or maybe who’s after Gaga? And why were they returned so quickly?
Could this be an elaborate Cruella themed publicity stunt? Needless to say that French bulldogs aren’t quite the same as Dalmatians…But in the absence of one black and white dog maybe two black and white dogs will do?
I mean it could be any number of things but in our current climate it’s just so rare to see a case like this…maybe somebody’s mad about the Chromatica oreos. Or, dare I say it, A Star is Born. Who’s to say?
Obviously I’ll be following this story closely and keeping an open mind to all possibilities. And of course, until proven true or false, all of these “theories” are alleged.
Engaged and Deranged: Azealia Banks Strikes Again
(TW: Transphobia; homophobia)
So Azealia Banks is engaged to Ryder Ripps, who’s a “conceptual artist”, whatever that means. The hip-hop queen of mean is FINALLY betrothed! This is so exciting. Good for her, she could probably stand to be engaged to someone who won’t get her any more media attention than she already gets.
But if you’re thinking “aw maybe she’s just a happy person now” you’re wrong. She’s still the same old Azealia Banks.
Banks posted on Instagram that she got engaged.
In her caption she says “I’m Jewish now.” Evidently Ryder Ripps is Jewish and like theoretically she could become Jewish but obviously there’s a bit more of a process than simply getting engaged. Oversimplification aside it’s a perfectly normal engagement post.
And then shit hits the fan in the comments. I don’t want to post her comments here, but you can read them via screenshots on this Twitter post. (Please don’t read if you’re particularly sensitive to transphobic content.)
One commenter pointed out that that’s not really how converting to Judaism works. Banks’ response was a transphobic argument that boils down to the idea that gender confirmation surgery doesn’t actually make someone a different gender.
Now, like, in a sense that’s true. That’s not what gender confirmation surgery does. But her comments were purely coming from a place of hatred and vitriol toward the trans community that’s frankly disgusting. The logic behind her logic is honestly indecipherable. It’s just pure hate.
And of course there’s the obvious fact that Banks’ comparisons between converting religions to transitioning make no sense. These things are only connected in Banks’ purely misconstructed philosophies of identity.
And this is not the first time in recent history that she’s gotten into hot water for her comments toward the queer community. Just a month and a half ago she called Perez Hilton a “messy faggot” in a now deleted Tweet. (You can read her apology here).
I think for a while I and many other gays found her to be entertaining. We’d point out that she’s hateful and then stream her music and then make fun of ourselves for doing that. She’s fodder for any good old fashioned culture vulture like me. But there’s a big difference between calling Perez Hilton a slur (low-key an objectively funny moment, as judged by gay man) and spewing such vitriolic, disgusting hate about a community that’s already so marginalized.
Cancelling isn’t real. We can’t just cancel her. But honestly, it may be time to de-platform her. I’m not the only one who thinks so. The National Black Justice Coalition has called for Instagram to ban Banks for her harmful comments.
My other suggestion for de-platforming would be for us to collectively stop using her song “Competition” as the go-to fancam song. There’s gotta be something better out there; preferably not by a noted transphobe. Maybe we can stick with the iconic “Beef FloMix” by Flo Milli (unless she’s bad too; please don’t let that be the case).
The Reply All of it All
The fall-out of a fall-out. Who could’ve thought that reporting on a toxic work environment in a media company could open a can of toxic worms for your own media company? Yeah, we’re talking about the Reply-All Bon Appetit (BA) miniseries.
You may remember the great Bon Appetit fallout of 2020. I’ve written about it before (I’ll be posting a collection of those segments on Substack soon). You can also read this timeline for more comprehensive coverage leading up to and including the Reply All fallout.
Over the years BA’s had a revolving door of assistants, writers, and editors of color who have each moved onto better things. But it wasn’t until June of 2020 when the reason behind that pattern became clear. It all boiled down to a toxic culture fueled by racism.
For many people interested in food media, this was a devastating blow. And what’s worse is that it was more like several devastating blows, one after the other.
First it was Adam Rappoport, former Editor in Chief of BA getting exposed as a racist. (This was less of a shock). He had been rightly exposed by Tammie Teclemariam, a food writer who has dedicated a lot of time to exposing racism in food media.
Then it was fan favorite Alex Delany getting exposed for homophobic comments and a Confederate flag cake he made (you can’t write this shit).
Then it was the fact that the best on-camera personalities, like Sohla El Waylly, Rick Martinez, and Priya Krishna, weren’t getting paid the same as their white counter parts. (They quit over pay negotiations and are doing better).
Then, many BA staffers spoke out and stood in solidarity. This even landed a favorite video editor, Matt Hunziker, a suspension. I guess the BA powers that be needed a scapegoat.
And what’s worse is that some staffers said more with their silence than with words (looking at you, Brad Leone and Chris Morocco).
So yeah, this past summer was rough. But it was clear that we had only scratched the surface. There had to be more to this story, right?
I wasn’t the only one who thought so. In fact, the team behind the successful internet culture podcast Reply All (from Gimlet Media Inc., which is owned by Spotify) decided to report on this story. Now it would be a little weird for the two white guys who work in media and host Reply-All to cover a story on racism and misogyny in a media company, right?
That’s where Sruthi Pinnamaneni comes in. She was a staffer at Reply All and she seemed, at the time, a better conduit for the narrative Reply All hoped to weave through their reporting.
The podcast was like wildfire. Everyone who was obsessed with BA flocked to it when it first dropped. And what we heard was compelling.
The first episode demystified how BA came to garner the cool reputation it had in its YouTube channel’s heyday. It also showed a quieter form of racism that had been stewing in the background at BA for years.
The second episode showed how explicit many BA staffers were in their mistreatment of Black staffers and other staffers of color. It featured interviews with fan favorites like Rick Martinez, Priya Krishna, and Christina Chaey. It also featured interviews with two Black staffers who were working hard to change the culture from within: Jesse Sparks and Ryan Walker Hartshorn.
But this second episode was a clear misstep for Reply All. While our intrepid host disclosed that she hadn’t always responded to accusations of toxicity in her workplace in the best manner, the truth was a bit more complicated.
In a Twitter thread, an old Gimlet staffer—Eric Eddings—revealed the truth behind Pinnamaneni’s vague comments on her shameful behavior. But Pinnamaneni was not alone on her day of reckoning; one of Reply All’s usual hosts, P.J. Vogt, was socially indicted on the same charges.
The thread tells the story of upper level staff who displayed a blatant disregard for Black staffers and staffers of color. It also tells the story of union busting, toxic workplace practices, and a clear lack of accountability.
They stepped away from Reply All rather quickly, as if they had already packed their emergency bags and were just waiting for a fire or earthquake to occur. What did they know and when did they know it?
But what happens with the story now? Pinnamaneni’s reporting was supposed to be a four-part series. It’s been announced that Reply All will not publish any further reporting of that story.
There’s so much more to be said about the BA story. Frankly, there’s a lot more to be said about Gimlet as well. But can anyone tell these stories? Is there a media company that can take this on without exposing their own transgressions? Or should we just hold out for an independent journalist with a steady enough income to take on a project of this magnitude?
The carcasses of years of toxicity and pain are sitting there. Maybe they’ll rot; maybe they’ll decompose and grow a tree; maybe some other vulture will pick at them and spit out whatever they can’t stomach. Whatever happens I’ll be here, watching from a safe distance.
Calloway Corner
What is our queen Caroline up to this month?
For starters, she went on the popular leftist podcast, Red Scare. Despite my politics the words “leftist podcast” give me more agita than it’s worth so I didn’t give a listen. But I sure did see her Insta post and wow. She’s a lot, but I love her anyway.
Also she tweeted this and she really had a point!
She’s often kinda wrong but on this one…she has a real point. She’s not a felon. She’s made mistakes (not fulfilling a book deal and offering a rather scammy workshop). But really even the workshops weren’t so bad. It wasn’t fraud…she charged a price for services that she mostly delivered on.
Have we been too harsh? Have I been too harsh? I’ve certainly linked her to Anna Delvey in the past, something I did out of admiration of mess and drama. But in seeking drama and good humor did I contribute in my small way to the dramatization of her situation?
We don’t need to reopen the case on Elizabeth Holmes, because she ACTIVELY put people in harm’s way. Anna Delvey’s case was less severe, but nevertheless even defrauding rich institutions isn’t something we should necessarily celebrate. But Caroline Calloway? I’m not sure if we’re ready for that conversation but one day we’ll have a lot more to say on the matter.
A farewell
If you liked this, laughed at this, hated this, whatever, please subscribe and read on in the future. I publish Poppington twice a month, so you can expect to see another edition sooner than you’d think.
Thank you so much for reading!
I love you (allegedly).
