Elvis | 26
Show Notes:
Pop Culture Makes Me Jealous and To All the Men I've Tolerated Before team up to bring you Still Comfy? a show that examines pop culture properties and whether or not Julia Washington and Natalie Katona are still comfy with them.
In this episode, the pair look at Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022) starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks.
Still Comfy? is a live production that can be found on YouTube or Instagram. This episode originally aired on YouTube on July 11th, 2022.
Transcript:
Natalie: You YouTube,
Julia: we're alive.
Julia: Welcome everyone to still comfy with Jules and Nat. I'm your host. I am, um, I'm Julia Washington. The host of pop culture makes me jealous where we analyze pop culture through the lens of race or gender. And sometimes both I'm joined by Natalie Katona, who will introduce herself for you now
Natalie: I'm Natalie Katona.
Natalie: I'm the host of the podcast to all the men I've tolerated before. And this is Penelope . We love Penelope. We love Penelope. We'll see if she'll behave tonight. Yes,
Julia: this is our very first YouTube live. We are. um, just so hang in there with us. We got this
Natalie: we're just doing things and
Julia: we are every Tuesday we do go live on Instagram to discuss a different pop culture, property, same show, but we get a little bit more in depth.
Julia: Meaning right now we're in the middle of win hill. And tomorrow we are reviewing episodes 7 8,
Natalie: 9, 7, 8, 9, Ellie. Those are the ones I watched today. Wow. So those are the ones I'll
Julia: have notes on. I'll make sure to do the same. Cause I ran out a time. um, today we come to you. We gather, we are gathering here today to discuss Baz Lomans recent film Elvis starring us starring Austin Butler.
Julia: I almost called him ster
Natalie: Butler. Let's rename him. I don't think he'd know. He still thinks his name is Elvis Presley, so it's fine.
Julia: It's fine. My brain works. I
Natalie: promise. Ooh, sorry about that
Julia: anywho. So I just thought we could just dive in and you could tell me if you love, we'll start. We could start with, did you love this movie?
Julia: Cause I don't know about you. I was literally the youngest person in the theater by like 40 years easily. Yeah. And then, so, so that made my kid the youngest by 60 years. So
Natalie: I went by myself on a two o'clock Friday afternoon. And so I was definitely the youngest person there and I was definitely the youngest person in my row and I was sitting by what I believe was these people's.
Natalie: Venture to a movie theater with the reclining seats, there was a lot of training there was a lot of now you press this button. Now that button will wor warm up your seat. And I'm like, should I be helping wait? Should I I'm just like quietly eating my popcorn. Like I hope no one looks at me. your movie theater seats warm up.
Natalie: Yeah. Mm-hmm , we're so fancy in Ohio. I am hurt. Well, I'm sorry.
Julia: And shocked and appalled because our
Natalie: seats it's already hot in California. It's very hot today. I don't turn it on because I don't like to be artificially warm. It is known like, and so I was waiting for the very old man. To my left, cuz I was sitting at the very end of my row.
Natalie: I was waiting for him to look at me and go young lady, are you alone? And me be like, yeah, they have to do this for work.
Julia: shouldn't you be in school
Natalie: right now. Right. And like having to like really like throw out my Elvis knowledge and be like, here ain't none Mona hound dog. No, I know him. I swear. I know him.
Natalie: I know who he is.
Julia: I promise you. I will not be confused that this is Austin Butler. Not the real Elvis. I promise you.
Natalie: I think it's hard to land on whether or not I loved the movie. I'm not mad that I saw the movie. Mm-hmm I had a lot of feelings during the movie. yeah.
Julia: Let's explore those feelings because I feel like they're valid.
Julia: Like I think I told you offline, this is very BA lumen. So like it sure is when I walked in and I saw. Everyone is 70 plus I thought, oh Jesus, this isn't gonna go well, they're not gonna get it. They're gonna walk outta here. I don't know.
Natalie: I don't know. The old were blown away. Yeah.
Julia: Blown away. Never seen a theatrical piece by BAS Loman before, or
Natalie: it was like, they were literally reliving bean on a field watching Elvis, wiggle his pinky, wiggle his pinky.
Natalie: And here's the thing like I, and it happened during the Aretha Franklin biopic too. My whole thing with biopics is I literally just wanted to be a live concert experience. Yeah. So we'll get like right to the beginning. I'll be like in. Movie will be like, I'm caught, I don't know, trap. And I'm like, yeah, here we go.
Natalie: Fuck. Yeah, this one's my favorite. I can't walk out. And I'm like, here we go. I'm like hit, hit it with the because. And then they go to a different scene and I'm like, wait, come back. it was my song. I was ready. This is not what I signed up for. And then this is the only movie where I've hated Tom Hanks. I'm like, I, he, Tom Hanks.
Natalie: And I don't wanna see you anymore.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah. He plays such a gross character and he does it so well. Or at least I thought he did it well, not everyone agrees that Tom Hanks did it. I was so creeped
Natalie: the entire time
Julia: I was. And I think that was the point. I think that was the intention. And I think he
Natalie: achieved it.
Natalie: And I don't think I was even that creeped out when he played Walt Disney and I'm like, that's when I should have been uncomfy. And then he's like, he's. Kind of walking around Vegas in a hospital gown and I'm like, Tom, put on some pants. Mm-hmm we get it. You are ill and then he's sweating all the time.
Natalie: And I'm like, I, I was like, can someone please wipe off Tom? ? I was like, I don't wanna hear there was, I mean, the movie was almost two, three hours long, so definitely halfway through. I was like, if Tom Hanks didn't talk for the rest of this movie, I would be fine. I hated the voice he was doing. yeah, it
Julia: was kind of, it was an interesting choice.
Julia: So now I'm like, does that, is that what Colonel Parker sounded like? Yeah.
Natalie: Should I have Googled him? I, I will tell you I'm gonna sound 80 years old right now. Um, that Austin Butler with the hips. Yeah. Austin Butler with the good hips. Uh, he nailed it.
Julia: Yeah. I actually have a note to talk about his performance
Natalie: because go for.
Natalie: Tell me where, oh, is he already up for an Oscar? That's what they're gunning for with this movie.
Julia: Seriously. I definitely succumbed to the frenzy of Oscar, but Butler as, as, uh, Elvis, like, there is no doubt that I fell into that and then became extremely embarrassed by it because he looks like a child.
Julia: Very happy to discover that he is only seven or eight years younger. I think he's seven. I think he's seven years younger than me, so it's like, oh, okay. Cool. Cool, cool. Cool. We're so good. I could date him. We're in the same. We're in the same window. It's we check different boxes when they ask for each demographic, but we're in the same
Natalie: window.
Natalie: If he sees this, Hey Austin, I'm wearing a dinosaur bra in case you're interested. It's got dinosaurs on it. Maybe if it had
Julia: rhinestones.
Natalie: Oh, in his current date of Elvis. Wasn't I'll give a Bedazzler and I'll be dazzle. These T Rexes. Don't you worry? Like
Julia: I think, I think that's not a bad idea, but he was
Natalie: so good was so good.
Natalie: He was, he was only out shined once for me. And it was by the kid who played little Richard that took me straight back to full house. I was like two different. And I was like, this is like actually saying little Richard in his prime. Yeah. That kid needs to play little Richard in a biopic. I'm demanding.
Natalie: Yes.
Julia: We actually need a little Richard biopic please, because that would be amazing. I need to know his life can highlight how much Elvis stole his work, which we will get into later.
Natalie: Because I would like to know what he was doing before he was hanging out with uncle Jesse on full house. That is my, that is my knowledge base for little Richard.
Natalie: Oh, Natalie. But that was my favorite part of the movie. I was like, okay, little Richard's here. Yeah. And they didn't let, did they let the BB king character sing and I missed it or it didn't affect me as much as little Richard. No, they didn't.
Julia: No, no. He was there to reinforce the narrative. That Elvis was just an appreciator of the culture.
Natalie: Are we going into it now? Not yet. All right.
Julia: I wanted to, I wanna give, so I, you know, you know, me and researching stuff on for shows you the
Natalie: research, I'm the researcher. I didn't read one thing. I, Hey,
Julia: that's your prerogative. And this is why we love you. Rolling stone did an article called Elvis is fantastic.
Julia: Jittery, horny, tireless, and tragic, just like the king. And so, Kay, Austin Collins has said this about, uh, Austin Butler. LO's movie doesn't need an Elvis impersonator. It needs an actor who can survive the movie who can not only stand out from LO's heavy sensationalism, but who can also convince us that beneath all the shiny surfaces and visual outbursts.
Julia: There's a person I'm gonna tell you what. There were moments when I was like, this isn't Elvis, this is Austin Butler. Like this is Austin Butler. This isn't really Elvis. Like I had, he did such a good job at becoming Elvis. Yeah. From what I
Natalie: knew of Elvis. Cause he went very method mm-hmm
Julia: and I I'm like, I, if you guys really wanted to try for an Oscar, I feel like you should have released at
Natalie: Christmas.
Natalie: Oh, damnit. Now Austin's gonna get robbed. And you know, he went, I could overlooked cause
Julia: BA's such a shiny, shiny, shiny
Natalie: show with all the, with all the rhinestones from Vegas. Mm-hmm um, I loved that scene when
Julia: he's thrown out the Cape every time. Yeah. And they're just flashing between outfits. I was like,
Natalie: yep.
Natalie: Yep. I like it. I love an Elvis. I love an Elvis outfit. Shout out to my friend, Stephanie, who tried to be Elvis at my, like. Eighth grade, Halloween party. Um, she found an Elvis costume at a thrift shop. It was like $300. And her mom said, absolutely not. And she went, mom, I'll wear it to prom we don't, we don't have to buy me a new prom dress.
Natalie: I'll keep it and I'll wear it. And you know what? She ended up not being Elvis to everyone's sugar in . Oh summer.
Julia: I was really hoping that you would pull out a prom picture
Natalie: trust Elvis, and I have the visuals to prove it. Yes, no. So we love, we loved Elvis in the Midwest, in my very Midwestern Illinois or Indiana home, depending on where I was at when I was growing up.
Natalie: Yeah. My aunt's dog was named after Elvis. Oh, that's cute. She told her children that they were going to get to name that dog. And then I showed up and that dog's name was Elvis. And I was like, that's not what they picked. And she's like, mm aren't you smart? yep.
Julia: He's a big deal. He's a big deal. He's a big.
Julia: Okay. So talk to me about your relationship with Elvis. I know you said that you love Elvis, but like give it, give me more context, terribly
Natalie: like, sure. So when I was growing up, my family only listened to the oldie station. Do you remember when we listened to radio in the car? I see. And it was just whatever our families were into that day.
Natalie: Yeah. Um, so it was only oldies and that's why I love Motown or any, any song that says, shake it on baby. Now. I'm like, oh, here it is. I've been twisted and shouting since I was seven years old. Nice. Um, and nineties country. That's why the first song that I could sing word for word when I was not school age yet was Billy Ray.
Natalie: Cyrus's achy breaky, heart. . So we, and Elvis is my aunt's favorite musician. My mom was one of those moms who always had music playing in the house. We were always dancing. We were always singing a lawn. Um, and then Lelo and stitch. Yeah, just like Lelo. And stitch is my sister's favorite Disney movie. I think I could be Ron she'll yell at me.
Natalie: Um, and that soundtrack that's what keeps Elvis alive for me is the Lilo and stitch soundtrack. Yeah. And then Winona does that, um, this just look at the scrolling banner, like we're on CNN
Natalie: I love Elvis and I love Elvis with a white basic lady's passion who did not know that he stole all of his music. he's a cultural appropriate, right? Because I grew up around white people, white people who weren't gonna tell me that well, and maybe. Maybe they didn't know. And maybe they didn't know.
Natalie: Everyone I've talked to has yelled at me. Oh, Elvis was a wonderful man. He was a nice man. I'm like, okay, is he coming to new? Year's like, this was a nice man. He was a nice man. He, he, he made it so EV we could all make rock and roll. I'm like, none of us did in our family.
Natalie: I'm as rock and roll as we get in my family. oh, I love
Julia: that. That's the best.
Natalie: But yeah, we love Elvis. We love Elvis and you know, we're not getting to the, uh, appropriation yet, but you let me know and I'm ready.
Julia: if you're just tuning in I'm Julia Washington host of pop culture makes me jealous where we analyze pop culture through the lens of race.
Julia: Or gender and sometimes both I'm enjoy to find Natalie Catona
Natalie: he's CNN like banners where it's like no one told Natalie Elvis was a cultural appropriator. She lived her whole life. she had to go to a movie. She had to make friend with one Jules, Washington at you. Here we go. It's are you back? Oh, oh, now you're friends.
Natalie: There we go. You're back. I'm back. No, for one thing I, listen, I grew up in Northwest Indiana. None of those white people were gonna sit me down and be like, you know, Elvis from the Lelo and stitch soundtrack. He stole all that music from BB king. And then I would've had to go well, can we listen to BB king then?
Natalie: And they would've been like, no, we just can't find his him on the radio. they don't play him on our stations in Indiana. It's a very white upbringing. Do you wanna make a CNN banner that goes this Justin in Natalie is in fact, white
Natalie: is
Natalie: yo, this is our first time. There's a little logo next to my head. It has a duck on it. This is our first time using stream yard. So I guess we're just gonna, we're just gonna play around and you get to be here for it. Yeah. You're
Julia: you're welcome. Oh, as a reminder, we are talking about Elvis, the cultural appropriate, so let's get
Natalie: into it.
Natalie: I eventually grew up to love BB king. I was just like to, well, my wife fragility is coming in and I would just like everyone to know.
Julia: do you remember? So I grew up, listen, my, as Natalie knows, and some of you who are regular listeners and tuning in people may know I'm. My dad's black. So I grew up with, um, within the black community and black cultural experiences.
Julia: And so when BB king started doing the finger prick diabetes commercials, I was like, what is happening? I
Natalie: don't even know that. I didn't know BB king did that, is he a
Julia: diabetes or has I don't I think, did you just
Natalie: say like, Brent, Michael says it, the diabetes, the diabetes it's diabetes, you and Brett Michaels, every rose has its stored and you gotta perk your finger.
Natalie: If you have the diabetes
Julia: was like, what is happening? This is weird because I grew up listening to like my grandparents putting him on and just like being in the background. And he was like, this really cool bluesy guy. And then here he is like me and Lucie do do, and then like, it's so nice to have Arick. Free diabetes reading.
Julia: And you're just like, what is happening. But I do wanna say the decades long debate has been mm-hmm , he's a cultural appropriator, correct. And the Steeler of black music Uhhuh and then the other side says, well, he's just a vehicle that brought black music to white audiences. And let me
Natalie: tell you if this movie isn't the song of the white man going, you guys, Elvis had black friends and he tried to help them out in the music business.
Natalie: So,
Julia: so I was gonna say, you know, this movie also makes it appear that Elvis was close to all of the artists he stole from there's even a scene. I think it's when he sees little Richard playing where he goes, I wanna cover this song.
Natalie: I wanna do the two to fruit song.
Julia: yeah. And then you're just like, okay.
Julia: Okay. Okay. So Al Scott from the New York times who I think I might actually like love because all of his stuff is really good, but I don't know who he is, but every time I read his stuff, I'm just like, Hmm.
Natalie: And if he wants to slide into those DMS, Lou say,
Julia: no, I mean, I might, but he said, this is the best out of all the articles I read.
Julia: This was my favorite because I told you after I watched this. So I was like, they were very polite about him being a cultural appropriator. And I don't know how I
Natalie: feel about it. You were very downtown Abbey about it. Mm-hmm
Julia: AO. Scott says there's no doubt that Elvis like many white southerners of his class and generation loved blues and gospel.
Julia: He loved country in Western two, a genre, the film, mostly dismisses. He also profited from the work of black musicians and from industry apartheid and a movie that won't grapple with the dialectic of love and theft that lies at the heart of the American popular music. Can't hope to tell the whole story.
Julia: AO Scott with the New York times, I was. That is such a better way to say it than me saying it. They were so polite about his cultural appropriation.
Natalie: They, they sure were. Um, there was one time, there was one mention they like gave us the, like, he really felt bad about it. cause there was like one time he was like my mama, mama Thornton.
Natalie: She, uh, she, uh, called me on the phone and she asked if she could open for me and sweating, Tom Hanks just said, no and I couldn't. And it was during, when it was like drug spirals. Yeah. Paranoia scenes. And I was like, he's like, and I would've done it. I would've done it. But Tom said, no, the Colonel said no.
Natalie: Is it the
Julia: Colonel Colonel? No, he wasn't even a real Colonel. We planned out. He wasn't a real person. he? Wasn't a real person.
Natalie: They, Tommy Hank said that mama Thornton, big mama Thornton. She couldn't do it. She couldn not do it. Yeah. And. And like, I would love to know the validity of that statement of like Elvis was still taking phone calls from big mama Thornton and BB king and trying to get them on his record or whatever, because when the movie starts mm-hmm , he is technically a vehicle for a small time record labeled to try and get people of color onto radio.
Natalie: Like they wanted to use Elvis Elvis. Right, right. They wanted to use Elvis first. Like, don't worry, we got a white and then they were like, but have you met BB king? so like, I, I believe, I believe that Elvis had the utmost respect for those people where, where the marriage of these two truths come for me is, is that it honestly can be both.
Natalie: It can be that suspicious minds is one of the best songs that I've ever fucking danced to. So is devil in disguise, however, It can also be that Elvis was a man who loved BB king and little Richard and big mama thorn and all of them. But he is also a white man who benefited from the era that he was living in.
Natalie: And we should be able to talk about both. Yeah.
Julia: Because the people that he. Quote borrowed from mm-hmm didn't receive the same benefit that he did. They did not get the same. I mean, BB king. Sure. But BB king didn't have the crossover that Elvis had. Right. Or some of the other artists. And it's funny that you bring that up because I, another, you know, me in my quotes mm-hmm, vanity Faire did an article titled what did black artists of the era really think of Pressley?
Julia: And they basically confirmed in this article that the film accurately portrays his relationship with BB king and in King's memoir, he even defends Elvis by saying all of this was Elvis's interpretation. So these songs were just Elvis's interpretation of the originals. And that kind of like landed that didn't land well with me because.
Julia: Nobody else got as wealthy as right. Elvis did. So if you're gonna take my shit, my intellectual property and reinterpret it and make millions off of it, I'm I'm gonna ask for a kickback. Yeah. Give me at least
Natalie: half. I didn't see him moving in BB king and big mama Thornton into Graceland. Right. I saw a bunch of other bros on Graceland and 14 and, and one 14 year old Priscilla Presley.
Natalie: Um . Yeah. Um, so there's also that and again, I mean, you know, I love that movie and I was like, you know, that poor Elvis, I was quietly weeping. I, I was quietly weeping. Yeah. I guess, and here's something that I love about film is when I do live like leave questioning my own reality. Mm-hmm and I'm like, well, what if it is both?
Natalie: What if he was the king of rock and roll? And he had no right to that title because he stole all of his music. But what if he was a bro who really loved the rhythm in blues? I also love R and B I also, and I mean, I won't be releasing my album white sugar, but I do love Motown and R and B. Oh. And then, you know, cuz I told you that I was gonna go to this movie and just seep into my white guilt.
Natalie: So you know that the more that Elvis hung out with black people and was like, I love your music and I love your take on the gospel and God, I was sitting there and I. Fuck. Am I Elvis? Oh my God. Am I, am I always the white girl who really thinks that she can hang and she's just like, I love R and B and I love Motown.
Natalie: And I swear that I am here to support you. I'm like, am I, Elvis is no one going to tell me until they do a biopic with me and a sweaty, Jared Lido is playing my manager. And that's when they're gonna tell me that I, in fact, was Elvis.
Natalie: Is that what they're gonna put on? My tombstone was in fact Elvis because as you know, I am an appreciator of all things. Not white
Julia: and I feel like that's, you know, that's fair. I mean, look at Jack Harlow. When he show up at the B E T awards this year, I was like, wait, I'm confused. We're all. Cause I haven't followed the Jack Harlow train, right?
Julia: Yeah. Like I'm not on that fan wave. So when they announced, like, you know, when they, his name flashed up on the screen and the opening credit or whatever it was where I saw that he was gonna be there, I was like, wait, what?
Natalie: Which is fine
Julia: because cool. But at the same time, I'm just like, no B E T was specifically created because black people couldn't get on TV.
Julia: right. But so we've grown, we've grown. We've we've evolved, which is nice. Cuz now everyone's allowed on TV. If you follow the right narrative that execs want you to have.
Natalie: Kind of kind you are technically allowed on TV now, whether or not you'll find yourself on TV, it's a whole different story. It's a whole different story.
Natalie: Yeah. Thanks the help.
Julia: we ain't got that kind of time. I ain't got a whole lot of opinions about that book slash movie. Like, I
Natalie: feel so bad
Julia: for Viola Davis. Like she absolutely is the best actress I've ever seen perform in fences, cuz I've only ever seen her perform in fences, but like mm-hmm, even, she's got stuff to say about having been in that movie and it breaks my heart.
Natalie: Go ahead. So, and I think that's why they had gross sweaty Tom Hanks. Tell the story because then you do end up sympathizing with Elvis, which there are a list of reasons that I left that movie. Yeah. Sympathizing with Elvis. But do we wanna get to the Priscilla of it all before I start sympathizing with this man?
Natalie: Just
Julia: one more note on the whole narrator narrator thing, that's a very Boorman uses that technique. Yeah. In almost everything that he does. So I, you know, there was rumblings on the internet about how it shouldn't have been from Colonel Parker's perspective and duh da, da. And I was like, do you not pay attention to Baz Luman?
Julia: Like he used the father fr in Romeo and Juliet to narrate that movie. Mm-hmm um, he used, I think you and McGregor's character is the narrator for Mullan Rouge. And then I'm trying to remember, I, I saw great Gatsby and I think I watched half of it and I was like, oh yeah, I still hate this story. F you
Natalie: F Scott is Ian MC McGregor the narrator or is it that little man who like starts off
Julia: the movie?
Julia: I think it's the little, I think it's the per the person who starts off the movie. You're probably, it's been a couple years since I've seen it. I listen to the soundtrack pretty regularly. Yeah. I mean, um, but you know, that's a very, that's what he does. Like. B, cuz I don't wanna keep saying his name gets has somebody to narrate the stories because
Natalie: what if he finds us I'm scared and he's like, Elvis was a great man and I made a movie.
Natalie: So you would get on board with him being a great man. And I'm like, man, I , it's fine.
Julia: Okay. But yeah, it's just, it's that's just what he does. So it was one of those moments where I thought, did you forget, or have you never seen a BAS Loman movie before?
Natalie: I mean, people don't pay attention to shit that they're going to the movie to see also true.
Natalie: Okay. I watch a mother, a grandmother and a teenage daughter walk into 40 year old Virgin. Oh they were? Yeah. And I had to sit in that movie theater, knowing that they were watching that together.
Julia: Oh, that's so uncomfortable. That's awkward.
Natalie: I'm not a fan, not a fan. What is this
trend?
Julia: Bringing children into like children into like rated our movies,
Natalie: like hot take.
Natalie: I don't like it. Leave your kids at home.
Julia: please. And I understand it's hard to get a sitter. You don't wanna pay for it. I get it. But with streaming, it's gonna be there in a week. Right. And also, I don't wanna listen to sex jokes with your children in the room. No,
Natalie: I wanna laugh at said sex jokes. Yeah. And I wanna make an audible noise when Jeff Goldblum is sexy during Jurassic park.
Natalie: Did you like that? That is my right as a grown woman. did,
Julia: did, did you like that? Uh, that, uh, me, my DMG about Jeff Cole. Did you. Okay. Just checking to make sure you saw it. Cuz I think I like bombed you that day with a bunch of stuff. So while I was on vacation yes. I was like, shit, I'm so sorry. I'm just spamming right now.
Julia: But all these things you need to see. Um, yeah. Okay. Let's dive into your Priscilla
Natalie: because this is why I'm here as a host of, to all the men I'm tolerated before everyone. Let me weave you a tale of Priscilla Presley. And can we like, and again, Elvis was a great man. He was a king of rock and roll. So damn talented.
Natalie: Can we also say in the same sentence that he married a 14 year old? he number one? This was the movie that I became aware because as you know, I have no idea of the general timeline of our country, our universe, anything I'm a time traveler. I don't need to know this fucking timeline. It's hard. It's the wrong one.
Natalie: Keep straight anyways. Yeah, it's the wrong one, Tom. Hitton take me back and I'll know that
Julia: timeline. He's gonna be a daddy soon. That must be real hard for him to take you back.
Natalie: Fine. Sorry. He can take me and that baby. Yeah. That made me don't need me on this timeline. Um, baby's gonna be team mixed. I'm so proud of him.
Natalie: Yeah. And eventually that baby probably ain't gonna have no rights. So take it on my timeline where I thrive. So anyways, um, I, Elvis Presley didn't go, um, to war, which is what I grew up believing when they told me that Elvis was also a soldier who served our country. I was like, wow. Elvis went to war. They sent the cane of rock and roll to war.
Natalie: That's not what happened, but he, all of the Southern people who loved Jesus decided that Elvis was the devil himself. Maybe the devil in disguise, maybe the devil in disguise. And so sweaty, Tom Hanks, the Colonel one was like, you know what? Fix that up real quick, real quick. We gonna send your boy to the service.
Natalie: He's gonna serve his country. Like I pretended I did and he's gonna come back an all American hero and they just sent him to Germany. and then open up on a pretty little girl staring out the window in Elvis's bedroom. and that's where we meet Priscilla. This just said, Elvis, didn't go to war. I didn't know that.
Natalie: I thought he went to war like my cousins, like
Julia: Joe DeMaio did, when he enlisted during world war II,
Natalie: like Joe DeMaio did. I thought my cousins served some war and my uncles with Elvis. Like, so despite
Julia: their age gap,
Natalie: it's amazing. Right? It's amazing what children will tell themselves. . Um, so anyways, open up to a pretty little girl in Elvis's room, her name's Priscilla.
Natalie: And I don't know if anyone caught this, but the other grown men in that dormitory were making fun of Elvis. Yeah,
Julia: yeah. Yeah. I was like, why are you like these people clearly have an understanding of you probably shouldn't be alone in the room with this person.
Natalie: You, right. You probably shouldn't have a 14 year old in your dorm room.
Natalie: Elvis. It's not a great look. They're making fun of him. He's pissy about it because Elvis was a little moody and that's what, the way
Julia: Austin Butler says I've never met anyone like you before. I was like, you have Austin Butler. I'm amazing.
Natalie: Actually actually, so this is what happened, everybody. I don't know if we all know this, um, Elvis paid Priscilla's stepdad.
Natalie: To let him bring, bring her back with him to the states. You heard it here first. She was 14 years old, I guess in my family, the saving grace for Elvis is, I mean, at least he put her through boarding school. Um, that's not what Jerry Lee Lewis did with his 14 year old cousin. I'm like, you know, I guess if we're comparing apples and oranges you're right.
Natalie: At least Priscilla got an education . But at the end of the day, I think we should be asking ourselves why we turn a blind eye. Every time the musician in the room is courting a 12 year old. And writing songs about it. Like there are so many rock and roll songs.
Julia: He didn't write any songs about it. He
Natalie: just stole 'em.
Natalie: Well, no, I was thinking of sister Christian. Oh yeah. Christian. All the time has come
Julia: or the one where it's like, um, of that era that you're, so you're 16. You're beautiful in your mind, you know that what I'm talking about. Yeah. Um, why did I think that that song was amazing when I was a
Natalie: child? I don't know.
Natalie: I guess the same way that I'm a full ass adult going blur last, you know, I want it, I know you want it in times or however the fuck
Julia: that song goes. Yeah. Yeah. Basically it's just all about sexual assault. It's fine. And then one of the, uh, models came out later and was like, yeah, no, I totally was manhandled by Robin thick.
Julia: So right. That wasn't
Natalie: fun. And, and then Fox is like, we'll make him the. The judge on the mask singer and Natalie will forget all about it. And she did and every once in a while, I'm like Robin thick is kind of delightful. And my sister's like, he is literally a predator
Julia: he's wrote up Hanks he's he's he and Che Hanks are like in the same club.
Julia: Kind of. Yeah. She's no, I don't know if Chad Hanks is a predator. I just know that Che Hanks says weird dumb shit where you're just like, how are you? America's dad's child.
Natalie: She, he she's like, he's literally a predator. He literally wrote a song about how he's a predator. And you're like, but he likes it when the people are dressed as ducks and sing the pop songs.
Natalie: I do. Um, so it's even when it's
Julia: flashy like this movie, it was so flashy that I forgot for a minute until they reminded us politely that he stole from black
Natalie: people. Right. And then let's talk about Priscilla for a second. And how they painted her to be this beautiful, supportive wife, which I'm sure that she was all 17 years of her, because what else are you gonna do when you're marry to a grown man, except for tell him, baby, you seem like an angel.
Natalie: You seem like an angel and you should just be singing in the songs that you find fun. that's a very 17 year old thing to say. Yeah, rocking a baby. Lisa Marie. I don't know how Lisa Marie sat through this movie. If it was this hard for me, she loved, loved it. She gave
Julia: it, she loved it. Yeah. She totally loved it.
Julia: Gave it her seal of
Natalie: approval.
Julia: Because whole thing about how she wished her son was here to see it too,
Natalie: because eventually it was so difficult for me to be watching. I was concerned for her wellbeing. I was like, how did Lisa Marie sit through this movie? I am so
Julia: sad. Especially the scenes where he's like clearly being drugged.
Julia: Yes. Like that was hard.
Natalie: Yes. So then, and then, so Priscilla's being painted as a very. Dotting wife. And then Elvis is being hated as kind of just like an absent husband. I was like, are we gonna pretend like he didn't hit her in his, in his drug
Julia: rage? There's a lot of things. This movie pretended didn't happen.
Natalie: Listen, I watch great balls of fire with Dennis quiet as the killer himself. Jerry Lee Lewis, at least once a week when I was a child, because I was wildly unsupervised wasn't Winona writer. The one who Winona writer was Mora. Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm I watched that movie once a week. I loved it. It was always on TV.
Natalie: Yeah. I loved it. Yeah. I loved Dennis. Quite do, do do do. Yeah. You know, he has a band, right, Dennis? Quiet. Yeah. Dennis quit. You hit me up with your tour dates.
Julia: They, they came when I was working at the county fair, the year I worked at the county fair, his band came through, they were one of the one. He bought a hamster from our FFA
Natalie: kids.
Natalie: You know, I missed it when Kevin Bacon's band came through town, the bacon brothers and I'm so, oh, I'm still so hurt. I, it was before I was comfortable going to things by myself and everyone ditched me.
Julia: I support your hurt because that's hard, super hurt. It's Kevin hards. It's Kevin
Natalie: bacon. Yeah, Footloose himself.
Natalie: So anyways, in that movie that made for TV movie that they put on television every day, you watched Dennis KU smacked the shit outta Winona writer. And I'm like, you know what? I respect it because that's what happened. And I would've respected if Austin Butler had also gone there, I'm like, are we just gonna pretend?
Natalie: And then they have like one girl in Elvis's bed. And she he's like, I don't know, honey. I, I just think you need to go. I don't know what this voice is.
Julia: I don't know either, but I'm here for it, keep it
Natalie: up. And so then I was doing karaoke in one of my Facebook groups and I chose suspicious mind because it was like, do the classics and, you know, do you know that for the last 20 seconds of suspicious minds, it's just, we're calling a trap.
Natalie: Mm-hmm we can't walk out. And it's just that for 20 seconds, he had me do that for 20 seconds. So eventually I started doing crowd work I was like, I was like, do you think we're calling a tra that Priscilla suspicious? Might we can't walk out, uh, is because that she had to witness Elvis every night, kiss women in his audience.
Natalie: that was like,
Julia: I could not, I was
Natalie: like, but you know what? I remember. I remember all of the older women in my family talking about that. When you went to an Elvis show, I don't know if they ever went, but they talked about how, if you went to an Elvis show yeah. He would make out with you. oh,
Julia: man. I don't know if I'd wanna make out with the actual Elvis I'd make out with Austin Butler Elvis.
Natalie: I mean, well, here's the thing I would make out with Elvis that is one year into that Las Vegas tour. Yeah. Like his first couple of shows when he thought he was only gonna have to do five weeks, I'd make out with that Elvis day. Yeah. I am. However, are we ready to move into why I was so sad throughout this whole movie?
Natalie: Yes mm-hmm. let's do it. So again, hi everyone. My name is Catona and I'm just here to tell you the hard truth. Um, we have a huge problem in our society. and in mostly the music industry where it is just known that we drug these people. Mm-hmm to make them complacent mm-hmm and able to work as far hard as I need to work them and to get them into situations that benefit me more than them, their are their music, any of it.
Natalie: Yeah. And it kills me.
Julia: And there's no protection, like when no protection, you, if you do have somebody who is there to sort of like, be your guardian, a family member, or what have
Natalie: you, they it's have, they manipulate first mm-hmm
Julia: because if, and I wonder all the time too, like what would've happened to Elvis, if his mom hadn't died, when she.
Julia: Right because she really was a mama bear. At least it portrayed in this film. She really was a mama bear who would do whatever she could. And that closet scene where sweaty, Tom Hanks is basically manipulating. Yeah. Manipulating Austin Butler and like believing that he's gonna uphold his mom's best wishes and hopes for him.
Julia: And it's like, no, you're not, no, you're not. We all know. You're not never trust somebody who isn't like, I don't know. I just, I was like, that's it, that's the end of Elvis. This is where he falls apart. This is where we lose him.
Natalie: and like, here's the thing I hear way too often that that's just part of the gig being pushed upper and downers all the time.
Natalie: Mm-hmm like, that's not gonna fucking Roach you and kill you one day. Right. Right. And then everyone wants to talk about what a tragedy it is. Once you are dead. Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse, Elvis Presley. She legit,
Julia: I mean that song rehab mm-hmm, tried to go to rehab, but they said no, no, no. Yeah. And then there's a documentary where somebody whose name?
Julia: I won't say, um, basically was like, yeah, don't go to rehab. Right. These songs, like she's killing herself with drugs and you are telling her not to go to rehab and to finish the album. Right. Like that's a problem.
Natalie: So, and then what kills me is it couldn't just stop at the medical abuse by the time he's at that Las Vegas show.
Natalie: Mm-hmm for so long. I mean, I went, oh my. Elvis was a caged tiger. That's what I thought too.
Julia: He was a caged
Natalie: animal. Eventually he re someone, oh, it was the hotel man. The guy who owned the Las Vegas building, he, he called Elvis besides show attraction. Oh, he's like your carnival acts one of the, be best ones I've ever seen.
Natalie: I went he's the fucking king of rock and roll . Yeah. And they had him trapped in that. I was like, so no wonder he was paranoid. Number one, he was paranoid because he was pushed to be paranoid. Yeah. He lied to him. Yep. Um, and then no wonder that he died. And, and I think that when I was growing up, I was always given.
Natalie: I was given the funny story, right? Cause like family full of comedians, I was like, oh, you know, Elvis died on his golden toilet, eating a PB and J . I was like, what? And it ends there. Yeah. But when you're sitting in a two and a half hour movie and you're just watching him be pumped full of drugs and then his world tours getting taken away and then he's getting his he's on stage, not knowing that he's getting his life signed away for some fat asses gambling debts.
Natalie: Mm-hmm . I don't know how Lisa Marie sat through it, but maybe she was so blessed that this part of the story came out. Right. Because they do
Julia: gloss over a lot of other things. There was a handful of articles. Oh, I think it was in the AO Scott, New York times article where he was like, everything in this movie that you see in this movie, you can read on Wikipedia because they avoid so many other things that happened in Elvis's life.
Julia: Um, but she did. She went, she, I think she took to Instagram and was just like, this is incredible. Like everyone goes, see it. It's amazing. Da da, da. The hard part for me. Was cuz you know, I was on your show and we talked about all the musicians I've dated yeah. Let's just keep scrolling apparently. Um, I haven't learned my lesson apparently.
Natalie: Um, it's me shaking out your list. Mm-hmm
Julia: um, there are elements like where it was just like, like to your point about, well, you're not gonna show the volatile relationship between he and Priscilla. Well, when they're having their fight and she's like, I'm leaving you. And he is like, when I'm 40 and you're 30, which is the only mention
Natalie: of the age gap.
Natalie: Yeah.
Julia: That conversation like when you love somebody so much and they are just losing themselves, mm-hmm in the music, but not the music, but in the system of the music, it's really hard. And for me like that scene. Wasn't as emotional as the one from a
Natalie: star is born. Oh, that's what I was gonna bring up.
Julia: And like a star is born is a movie that I love.
Julia: I can listen to. I listen to the soundtrack all the time. I can only watch it once I watched that movie once and I was like, I know this life, not the celebrity, but the, but the drug addiction and the, and the fighting and the self deprecation and the self hate, but being super talented, like I was like, I, I don't know who wrote this, but this is like the most accurate portrayal of a volatile yeah.
Julia: Um, addiction relationship with music I've ever seen. And it, and, and Elvis doesn't capture that. She does say same way that I think they could
Natalie: have. And I think it's the first
Julia: time that someone has given me first. Again. Damn it are.
Natalie: It worked. I did the thing, you did the thing. Okay. Um, it is the first movie that I've sat through and someone gave voice to what that is when she says you'll never love me as much as you love the adrenaline that you get from that stage or whatever she gets.
Natalie: Yeah. Because as a person who has an addictive personality, look at me doing this and I'm gonna check, how many times are we going live this week? I'm gonna check the likes and the comments every day. What up cinema do I check those likes and comments every day. It's not even my show. It was just a guest.
Natalie: And, and I get it. And then to watch how easily that pivots into alcoholism, Uhhuh pills, harder drugs, any, and all of it. You really. Have to steal yourself. Mm-hmm against that. And then if your entire team is telling you, no, this is what you need to do for the music mm-hmm . And you know that the music is the only thing, keeping you going you're you're gonna put whatever they say in your mouth.
Natalie: Yeah.
Julia: And there were some instances when he didn't even have a choice, they were just pumping him full of whatever they could. Anyway, keep him just high enough, Jeff, just out of it enough to like, just hand it over and it's no big deal. And then at the
Natalie: end of the day, we still body shame the poor man with fat impersonators.
Natalie: Yep. When's the last time you saw a skinny Elvis impersonator in his prime John Stamos son, full house. Hey John Stamos, we love you still hot, still comfy with John sta house. Mm-hmm until John. Do you know, something that you need to tell me?
Julia: please don't ruin John's stainless for me, please. Don't ruin uncle Jesse for me.
Natalie: So, so it just makes me sad and it makes me sad that when I was growing up, that that was a joke. Yeah. And it makes me sad that it's still a joke. And I think it still makes me sad that it's always a joke. Mm-hmm we have to get to the point where addiction isn't a comedy, right? For our amusement or a tragedy for us to trauma dump, we have to get to the point where addiction is literally something that we have a baseline on.
Natalie: Mm-hmm where it's like people live with this. They deserve treatment. They deserve to have people around them who are going to support them. And they for hell sure. Do not deserve to have people in their employment who are going to use their addictions. Against them to make them a cash cow.
Julia: Yeah. It's interesting too, because when you think about the different types of addiction that we allow or sort of say are okay in our country, mm-hmm right.
Julia: Like
Natalie: people, my soda pop addiction, I was
Julia: just gonna say, I, I can't have Oreos in the house cuz I'll eat the whole pack and people will give me Oreos as a gift. And I thought, you know, if I was on Coke, you wouldn't gimme Coke for Christmas. You know? So the, the cookies is okay, but the Coke is not. But really what we should be addressing is what is causing us to be addicted to said, item, what are we root of that?
Julia: What
Natalie: are we escaping? You know, Sophia Bush. So back to one tree hill that we cover on Tuesdays, Sophia Bush, when. Brooke was definitely the heaviest drinker on the show. And she was a teen girl who was always blitz and always drunk or whatever. She said that that's what she used. She goes, I had to sit with Brooke Davis and I had to figure out what exactly it was.
Natalie: Yeah. She was trying to escape. Yeah.
Julia: And that, and we all deserved to have the opportunity to figure that out because we do so much in this country, pick yourself up by the bootstraps. You don't have time to process your emotions. You gotta go, go, go, go, go. Right. And if you have any emotions, especially if you're male, it's viewed as being weak.
Julia: Um, and if women have emotions, you're too emotional and you're just kind of like, but we're clearly not. Okay. Right. So what can we do to become, okay. I don't know. Maybe like make mental health services mandatory and affordable would be
Natalie: nice. Oh, are you talking about socialized healthcare? . Can't wait to have that argument with my doctor when she's like, you never got your blood work done.
Natalie: And I was like, that's right. I woke up. And once again, didn't have socialized healthcare, but at that . Yep. Um, so I almost didn't make it through Unchained melody because I did, they pepper in real, um, footage of Elvis.
Julia: Okay. I was waiting for you to have this conversation to say that final scene where he's singing.
Julia: That's his final that's really him. Right. I
Natalie: remember him them saying that I have footage of Elvis. I was there for Elvis's final performance and it is him mm-hmm they don't even bounce between Austin Butler and
Julia: Elvis. And at first I was like that still kind of, I still kind of feel, and it wasn't it's it's it's the footage from that show.
Julia: I couldn't do it.
Natalie: And I untrained melody is a very long song to not be able to sit through it. Mm-hmm and I was wrecked mm-hmm and I'm like, oh, I can't. It was the same when. Carol keen saying to aha Franklin. At the end of that biopic, it was, it was all of it. I was like, I, I can't watch people's last performances.
Natalie: I can't like do not make me sit through a sweaty, uncomfortable dying Elvis after you told me what we all did to him. Yeah. Because, and it's go ahead. I think the beauty of this movie is that it does start with him as a 15 year old kid who basically joined the circus. Yeah. And I think that there are currently Thankss to, to, and YouTube and all of it, a lot of 15 and younger children who are trying to join the circus mm-hmm and right now I don't find that circus to be a very safe place for anybody still.
Natalie: Yeah. Cause the medical abuse happened to Kesha justice for Kesha all day, every day. , I'll never not say it when I see one of these movies and they're like, I can't believe that Aretha Franklin was drug to the point where she couldn't even sing her own songs. I go, why it happened to ke up it ha yeah.
Natalie: It's happened to ke up five years ago. Yeah.
Julia: Yeah. And that's, you know, it's the,
Natalie: it happened to Brittany. We just freed Brittany.
Julia: Yeah. And we were awful to Brit 20 years
Natalie: ago. We were awful to Brittany and I don't even know how Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera escaped it or what they've kept under wraps.
Natalie: Yeah. Yep. So it's literally a luck of the draw mm-hmm and sometimes it comes down to. How resilient are your parents, right? Cause that's
Julia: the other part of it too. Right? Like I know I mentioned Judy Garland earlier. Mm-hmm and to bring her back into the situation, they literally forced her mom out. Yeah. So you could still be a mama bear and they're still going to be somebody who's going to politely walk you out of the studio.
Julia: Yeah. And that's not okay either. And so it's that concept and idea that, because I have something that can make you money. I'm now a commodity. I'm no longer human and we do whatever we can to dehumanize that person. So we can continue to keep that cash flow going. I mean, God, the Britney spear situation is the most egregious of the mall in recent history.
Natalie: Yeah.
Julia: But it's, it's so heartbreaking and it's. Not okay. How the system still sort of feeds into that. And to your point about TikTok, a lot of TikTok creators kind of went and we're like, we're done. We can't keep up the system. We can't keep making content. Like it's, I'm burning out. How are you not doing something to, and, and, well, we have 70 year old people who don't understand the, um, internet trying to make loss.
Julia: Right. So
Natalie: they're at all. Yeah. And I don't know. And then, because again, I left the movie sad and quietly weeping. Mm-hmm trying to get on my very fashionable sunglasses. Um, shout out to the guy outside of the movie theater, just hanging out to be like, was your movie good? yeah, it was a fine movie. Well, did he do hound dog?
Natalie: Yep. He did a couple times usually go see it. That's why I'm crying actually, because hound dog's my least favorite one. Yeah. That's not true. You right know the ma hound dog gets me every time when I
Julia: trained in dance. That was one of my songs as a kid. further
Natalie: recital, but here's the thing. Then I had to go home in all of my white guilt and be like, well, what if Elvis had been in charge of his own career?
Natalie: Would he have helped out big mama Thornton? What if that's true? Would he have uplifted the artist whose songs he was, you know, stealing mm-hmm would he have gone on a world tour and lived until he was 80 years old and maybe gotten, uh, back together with Priscilla? I don't know. Cause supposedly he did help get BB king work.
Natalie: Okay.
Julia: So according to one of the articles I read now, I can't remember which one it was. I don't remember if it was vanity fair or New York times or the rolling stones, but you're not wrong because at some point. all of these musicians who sort of go through this tragedy of being abused. Mm-hmm in whatever form it is.
Julia: Cuz Taylor swift has her own version. You know, the beach boys have their own version. Michael Jackson has his version, et cetera.
Natalie: They all, who, some
Julia: of them are allowed to come back and have a form of redemption where they write the wrongs mm-hmm so would Elvis have been one of those people? Right? Had he had, you know, made it past, how was he?
Julia: 43.
Natalie: Yeah.
Julia: Which when you look at the video of him at being 43 years old, and then I think about everybody, I know that's 43. I'm like, man, he looks old compared to the 43 year olds. I know, but that's what happens when you're pumped full
Natalie: of drugs and alcohol and living off of being a butter as my sister lives to call me once a day and tell me, you.
Natalie: The reason he had that heart attack and his heart exploded was because he was constipated from all of the peanut butter. I'm like what a fun tip . Is that a real thing that could happen? It's a thing that she heard at trivia. Huh?
Julia: I eat peanut butter every day.
Natalie: I also eat peanut butter every day, but we don't eat it for every meal and that's what makes us healthy.
Julia: Yeah. And so I put it on some toast and do a little sliced banana,
Natalie: put it, put it on a bagel. Maybe there's a granola situation. Yeah. Oh, I don't wanna be scared of food. I don't wanna die on my toilet. I'm not the queen of anything yet, yet.
Julia: yet. Um, okay. So, oh, sorry. What were you for?
Natalie: I was just saying, I just say I was just filling in the silence.
Julia: Oh, okay. I was gonna ask
Natalie: you mm-hmm . Are
Julia: you still comfy with Elvis? The man, the myth, the legend,
Natalie: when it comes to Elvis, am I comfort level? It definitely has changed. Now. Am I going to take the Lelo and stitch soundtrack off of my selfcare plan? No, I'm not. Okay. I deserve the Lelo and stitch soundtrack and to be honest, I'm sick of men ruining everything for me.
Natalie: and it's not, when I think of Elvis, it's not even Elvis that I'm uncomfortable with because he was a dumb kid who the wrong man looked at him twice. Yeah. And then he became the rock, the cane of rock and roll all because he could do something weird with his. I think Elvis had undiagnosed ADHD. Like probably, probably that's what that was.
Natalie: They didn't know what it was back then. it's like wrong with this kid. He has undiagnosed ADHD, just like I do. Mm-hmm um, it's not even Elvis that I'm uncomfy with. It's it's the legend part of it. It's the way that we talk about Elvis. It's the way that it's okay for Elvis to have stolen all of those, those shows because we love him.
Natalie: Mm-hmm and he used to make out with us in the audience. And it's the fact that people can't bridge that gap to where both stories and both narratives are true where it's, I'm not saying that it was Elvis's fault that he got to live in a world where he was handed more opportunities than people. The systems that we have in place are technically no one's fault, except for the old cronies who put them in place.
Natalie: Mm-hmm . But we have to start talking about it honestly. And we have to say things like, damn, I love the devil in disguise, but do you know that that man married a 14 year old weird and just like, say that it's weird. Yeah. So that Robin thick can't marry a 14 year old. So that Ezra Miller can't currently be kidnapping a 12 year old.
Natalie: Yeah. Is she okay? Does she wanna call me? So maybe if we would rewrite our hero worship of Elvis, like I'm not saying shut down Graceland. Yeah. I'm not saying take his corpse and throw it into prison. Cuz he is a predator. I'm just saying like talk about it, how it happened. Mm-hmm talk about it, how it happened and then.
Natalie: Take the time to get to know BB king mm-hmm and big mama Thornton and pay your respects. This is why I can't stand about, um, people who claim that they love a thing. When I love a thing, I wanna go to the roots of the thing. I, I wanna get to know BB king. I wanna get to know big mama Thornton. I wanna hear where all of those things he came from.
Natalie: It's part of the experience for me. Yeah. Yeah. So don't just stop at the comfy white guy that you like looking at because he is got real good hips and be like, well, now I don't have to check out BB K. I already heard all of his songs and like, literally, because the thing of it is covers aren't new no, they are not.
Natalie: Yeah. They all that's. What I learned about biopics is who actually writes people's songs and who bought those songs and who took those songs and made it a pop number. And then who like the transition from Dolly Parton's, uh, , I will always love you. Mm-hmm that's about her manager and how she's having to fire him compared to the Whitney Houston ballad that we love to pretend that we can screech into the night at karaoke.
Natalie: Right? How many times after Whitney died? Was I not even knowing that I was at karaoke and some sad woman was at the mic screeching, I will always love you. And I'm like hit that note, baby and then they don't and then they don't cuz no one's Whitney, no one wait, the sharing of music isn't new and I'm not even saying stop it because that's how we evolved.
Natalie: That's how things get better. Mm-hmm so I'm not even uncomfortable with the fact that he w he like me was an appreciator of things that were outside of his realm of things to be fans of mm-hmm . I'm uncomfortable that my side of the world can't acknowledge it. Yeah. That's what makes me uncomfy. And that is why I'm having so many hard conversations with all of my family
Julia: members.
Julia: Yeah. or dismisses it as great it's okay. Because they brought it into the white audiences to which I, my response is always not really, because then the white audiences aren't educating themselves, like you're saying, doing the, getting to the root of that information, that's sort of that just stopping right there.
Julia: Some really great examples of when things like that ha like that we see in pop culture where they call, call that out, you know, the movie dream girls mm-hmm, like, that's a really great example. And then there's that scene in hairspray too, where it's like, you have this Saturday where all of the black folk can come onto the bandstand.
Julia: Yeah. And then on Monday, it's the white girls doing it. It's a completely different version. Um, I think that. having those difficult conversations is really important because we're noticing as, you know, as we all see the world's getting more minded
Natalie: and scary. Oh my gosh, is it? That's so weird. I know. I only talk to my cat.
Natalie: like, right, right.
Julia: And I think when for me with Elvis, I always lived in that world of like, well, I love to rock out to his music. I loved his movies. I had, it was like some of the movies they mentioned in, in the movie. I was like, oh, I used to have that. Yeah. I had that, oh, I had that. But I also knew where it all came from.
Julia: And, and it was a part of my culture. And it was part of my being, not because I'm black, but because that's my family listened to it. Mm-hmm my grandparents listened to that music. And we had, you know, that in the house growing up. So it didn't occur to me that not everyone knew right. That he was borrowing music.
Natalie: I think the first time I heard fool's rush in was on a Lizzie McGuire movie. Oh my. And it was a woman singing it. So I was like, so then to learn that that's an Elvis song or whoever the fuck wrote it before Elvis. Yeah. And it's the, it's the same. I didn't know that Elvis had his own version of Unchained melody for me.
Natalie: It's the other guy who does Unchained melody. Oh, oh
Julia: shucks. Who's the, that guy that
Natalie: does Unchained melody. Listen. Oh my I'll say it. So to fill in this time, my, the righteous brother. Yeah. It was always the righteous brothers
Julia: for me. Can't believe I forgot that. Please. Won't tell my dad
Natalie: excuse me. Be so mad Mr.
Natalie: Washington. Jules Kirk out about the righteous brothers. I mean, I did too, but I am a white
Julia: well, they all take my cart away. Well, and you know, for me, my first exposure to Elton John, my dad loves Elton John Love, but my first exposure to Elton John, like outside of my parents was almost famous when I was 15 years old.
Natalie: Exactly.
Julia: Like, or not even. And then my first exposure to queen was the mighty ducks.
Natalie: listen, the I for the longest time, the only queen song I knew was bill Heian Rhapsody, because they used to play it in movies. Oh, we will. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We, unfortunately our, I mean, not unfortunately, because we have our own Elton John's wood up, Harry.
Natalie: I'll say it every day of the week that he's the new Elton John and that he is our generations, Elton John, and that video of him. And he should have played Elton John in the
Julia: biopic. He, no, he doesn't look anything like him, but that video of him and Shania Twain at Coachella, I could watch that shit. I have watched that shit on me
Natalie: thing because it's so good.
Natalie: Like Jeff fold Looman makes me wanna hel be
Julia: furniture and I don't watch thrillers or suspenseful movies, you know this, but I'm still gonna go see that Olivia wild movie with him
Natalie: hitting prison. Florence pew hit me up because I'm in love with you. I'm in love with Florence, pew.
Julia: I don't blame you. I can't be her.
Julia: Wait that
Natalie: Harry styles kinky. Little third. Um, so the next
Julia: step, that movie just kidding. Right?
Natalie: So, I mean, we should, it's some really great for my podcast. Mm-hmm mm-hmm but anyways, basically, We have the luxury of getting to look backwards at all of this. Like, I understand why the people who lived through it and maybe sat there and held Elvis's hand and got to make out with them in Vegas, have a hard time letting go of their picture of VA of Elvis of Vegas, because we have the luxury to look backwards and learn and be like, wow, the rightio brothers and Elvis did Unchained melody.
Natalie: That song is still too long. Yeah. it is too long. I love it. It's so funny. You can't have sex to that song. It's embarrassing when men try to, cause it's too long. It's too long. The woe was too long, like half the song um, so, but I'm saying that everyone has to be comfortable looking back on. I hate the phrase, like, well, you can't judge the past over what we know now.
Natalie: Well then what the hell are we doing? Why would we ever learn
Julia: anything? Yeah. And that's a ridiculous thing to say, because if we don't pay attention to the past,
Natalie: you can't have sex to
Natalie: mom who wants me to cut an album? I'll do my own
Julia: covers. Yeah. But to your, oh my God, there's a spider on my AC. It's gonna
Natalie: be fine. It's gonna be fine. Do you remember when we went through a whole live at the very end of it, I told you I've been staring at spider the entire time and you were like, how did you hold it together?
Natalie: And I'm like, cuz I am a professional. yeah.
Julia: My only concern is, is it like, if it, my hair is big, it will get lost in my hair. Okay. Anyway, back to the point, the point is. If we don't examine the past, which is the point of my show. If we don't examine the past, how are we gonna do better for the future? You know?
Julia: Um, Abram X shit, what is his whole name? I don't know. I love him,
Natalie: but he gets
Julia: Ebra X Kennedy recently was on Cober Cober and he was cuz you know how everyone's like losing their shit about like, we can't talk about stuff that deals with the stuff that's bad that we did to black people cuz then white people will feel bad and Ebra ex Kennedy said shouldn't we also give people the opportunity to identify with the abolitionist.
Julia: Yeah. And I was like, that's a fucking mic drop because absolutely because if you're coming from a place where you think that the message is is that all white people are bad. You need to look inside of you.
Natalie: Right here. That's what I'm begging people to do at the end of everyone of my podcast episodes.
Natalie: I'm like, hi gain. Um, if you like last week's episode about, uh, geeks and how they're hateful when we game look me in the eyes I'm onto you. You're hateful. And you're mean, okay. And, and I said, listen, everybody, I think it was Naly my guess. She was like, listen, everybody you just have to sit in the uncomfy and that, and we haven't been trained to do it.
Natalie: No, we haven't been trained to do it. Some lady tried to write a white fragility book about it, and then people were mad and they were like, we mean, I'm fragile. I'm like seeing there it is. So there's that fragile response right out on the tip of your dot? Um, we haven't been taught to sit in UN uncomfy.
Natalie: We have been taught to, um, distract drown mm-hmm , um, move away from hide. Push it down until it's an ulcer, the uncomfy, and we don't ever ask them, but why am I uncomfortable? Why is it so uncomfortable for me to learn that Elvis memorized all the BB king songs and then turned them into hits and I don't buy the well because of Elvis could do it.
Natalie: I could too. Okay. But you also could have done it with BB King's permission. Yeah, because now we copy write music. Yeah. Taylor swift. Isn't gonna be that, uh, happy for me if I turn blank space into an interpretive dance about my abusive relationships. Yeah. But I'm ready. any day, any day, here we go.
Julia: Yeah. I.
Julia: You're right. At the end of the day, we have to have the conversation about the both can exist. Yeah. And that's
Natalie: where it begins. Um, also, except for sweaty Tom Hanks, there's no villain in this story at no point. Then I did, I go, Elvis was a Dick and he deserved to die on that toilet. Elvis was also a victim of the times that he lived in mm-hmm Hasha was able to take a guy to court for drugging her without her consent.
Natalie: Yeah. Elvis wasn't able to do that.
Julia: No, this movie is very sympathetic to Elvis. Yeah. Very, very sympathetic to Elvis, which I don't know how I feel about that. Right. But also the expectation when you hear Lorman is in charge of a biopic about anybody or in charge of a movie about anything you sort, I at least walk into it going.
Julia: Okay. So there's gonna be a level of disconnect. Except for, with the great Gatsby. I think he probably nailed that because that book is trash F Scott was trash.
Natalie: I try to not be app an apologist anymore, just because I have connections with people, unless you're the critical roll cast. What up Liam? O'Brien I love you.
Natalie: You can do no, Ron, that man could kick a puppy in front of me. I'd be like, what'd that puppy do Liam, talk again about anything. It sounds like a warm hug. yeah, but yeah, like we have to stop being apologist. Mm-hmm we don't have for one thing. We're so hung up on the villain and the hero of every story you can respect Elvis.
Natalie: It doesn't make him a, he a God, right. For people who want to live in one country under one. We sure love to make any Schmo who makes our bodies wiggle a little bit. Mm-hmm our God, myself included. I have referred to Kesha as my high goddess. I
Julia: mean, I do get, I admitted earlier today, I fell into the frenzy of the Austin Butler Elvis, and there was a period of time where I thought I wasn't gonna get out of that.
Natalie: We even go into his full method. He, he did the full Elvis mm-hmm he, he still believes he's Elvis. I don't know when he's gonna get out of that. He, I mean, he D
Julia: he, I, well, we've had this conversation, a slight Southern draw. I would love
Natalie: to meet the original. I would love to meet the real Austin Butler. Hon.
Natalie: You can come back the movie Dudy out. You went to Fallon,
Julia: maybe when it's, maybe when it's done
Natalie: in theaters. You know who Austin Butler should play with his actual perfect Southern jaw. If we take away that fake tan , then they put
Julia: him and he's actually blonde. It's so
Natalie: cute. He could be gambit. I've been waiting my whole fucking life for someone who could actually pull off gambit.
Natalie: He could in an Xmen movie. Yes, Austin, baby, you call me, you call me and we'll work on that together. I got a rogue costume. Ain't nobody need to know why and we will work it out. Sugar. We'll work it out.
Julia: I've been waiting. Can we put this on a vision for so it'll come true.
Natalie: Of course people do. People do that, right?
Natalie: Because vision boards make things come true. You know, I love chanting Tatum. I love that big dumb oath. I love that. Did he play gait? They tried to make him gait. No. In the gambit movie. No. And I was like, how chanting Tatum gonna do that? No chanting Tatum is charming with his body, but not with his mouth.
Natalie: Like, that's not how he was. He was cute in law city. He was cute in law city. Like his little fake FIO. So mm-hmm he was so cute. He was so cute, but he's cute. Like a, like a puppy, like a puppy. Yeah. GA's not a puppy gut gait of my hand. GA he's like Gator, gaits gonna
Julia: respectfully push you up against the wall to make out with you.
Natalie: yeah. The things I would let gambit do to my body. Uhhuh, Uhhuh. Yeah. The things that go through my mind when I watched that cartoon,
Julia: my brother had a gambit poster room. We were, well, when I was a child, cuz he
Natalie: was and what older did you do to it? He, he
Julia: wanted to throw it away
Natalie: and I was like, I'll keep it.
Natalie: I'll keep it. I'm there right above my bed. But I
Julia: couldn't cuz I had popcorn ceiling, but you know, I thought about it.
Natalie: when I was outraged that they thought that Channing Tatum could handle my gambit and people would be like, well. Who would you have do it? I didn't know. Now we know because Heath ledger was dead and I'm like, it's really heat.
Natalie: R I P R I P heat. Who was a method actor, Austin. I need you to think real long and hard. Could you imagine Austin Butler going method, um, with GABA and he's just got a deck of cards with him at all times, we would need blaming them at people.
Julia: We would need to assign him mental health support. So we don't
Natalie: lose him.
Natalie: Just fleeing card up,
Natalie: pretending his girlfriend sucks. The life force us out of him. mm-hmm
Julia: okay. Okay. Okay, Natalie, you wanna tell everybody what we have coming up this week? Um, on
Natalie: still comfy. Sure. Um, on still comfy this week, uh, tomorrow night at 10:00 PM, Eastern 7:00 PM Pacific, we will be doing episodes 7, 8, 9 of one tree hill.
Natalie: Um, if you are, if you're sitting there going, I don't know what one tree hill like, did I watch that show? Let me give you a sense memory. I don't want a mean, and then what I'm in, try me lately that it's that show with the brothers who played the ball.
Julia: Yeah, a show. I did not watch in our, when it originally, um, aired, so I watched all of it.
Julia: She did, she sure did. So we're revisiting
Natalie: it a great time. Mm-hmm I'm having a great time. You know what show still makes me comfy one tree hill. Yeah. except for when they're real sexy, like it still makes me go. Ooh, stop it. Yeah off of her Nate well, Nate, just as
Julia: awkward when he's wants to be like, anyway, where can we, he's the
Natalie: only one that's 17 on that cast.
Julia: Yeah. Which is makes for a whole weird thing, trying to hold her
Natalie: own women.
Julia: Yes. Oh, but you can tune into that on Instagram live. Yeah. Pop culture makes me jealous to all the men I've tolerated before what's happening on your podcast
Natalie: this week. Uh, so last week onto all the men I've tolerated before the episode that is currently out is you are not too geeky to gate keep.
Natalie: And it's all about my platform where I shed some light onto how fem gamers are actually treated or. Players of color. All of 'em anyone. Who's not a white guy. how we're treated in the gaming community. This week. Jules is actually the guest on the, uh, podcast. And we're talking about it really fits in with Elvis.
Natalie: Wow. Because we're talking about, um, how, as a society, we love to shame celebrity so we can hide all of our indiscretions, right. Under a rug. I'm so
Julia: excited. It's our episode. Yeah. I don't remember anything I said, so I can't wait to
Natalie: listen. We also tried to plan three more episodes on that episode. We're like, and then we'll do this
Julia: we just went talking to each other about all the things, right.
Julia: We do. Um, where
Natalie: can they find you? Um, so the podcast is called to all the men I've tolerated before. It's wherever you find podcasts, but if that's hard, you can find me at. Men I've tolerated pod on Instagram, and I put it all on a link for you, including all of the ways that you could support the podcast with love or with my love language money.
Natalie: I'm
Julia: excited. I'm excited for, uh, this week's episode and friends, you know, pop culture makes me jealous the pod where we talk about, uh, pop culture through the lens of race or gender. And sometimes both last week we talked with a sex therapist. Mm-hmm about the TV show,
Natalie: normal people. So hot.
Julia: Yeah, it's a good one.
Julia: She's gonna come back actually to talk about conversations with friends. I'm real excited, cuz that has Taylor Swift's boyfriend rumored fiance on it. Joe Alwin. Um, this week it actually kind of ties in a little bit with your episode last week where I have somebody, um, Joe Gonzalez from the comic oh, news insider that took me a minute.
Julia: Um, He is one of the co hosts of that show. Yeah. Came on to talk about Stephen universe, um, as well as role player games and what being a part of a community like being in the Q community and Stephen universe and role player games, how those two things sort of helped give language or hide depending on where you are in life.
Julia: Exactly. You can find us wherever you find your podcasts. And we're also on Instagram. Pop culture makes me jealous. And it's super fun if you get caught up with Natalie and me, because we're a good time.
Natalie: We're a good time. We have an entire series on the time Traveler's wife and why Steven Moffitt is my sworn enemy.
Natalie: he fucked up Dr. Who? And I'll never forgive him. Matt Smith. Final adorable episodes. And Steven Moffitt's like what? With all of his Moffitt on them.
Julia: I love Matt Smith. We all love Matt Smith. He's cute.
Natalie: He's so cute. He, one time wore, I think it was a Lego mask or a Bart Simpson mask around comic con. So he could shop comic con and interact with people and get a little thrill because they didn't know it was the doctor under me.
Natalie: I love that. So freaking cute. That's
Julia: ADOS, friends, non friends who will become friends soon. We thank you for your time. We will see you in
Natalie: the DM smile, but only if it's with joy, everybody. That's the tag line of, to all the men I've told read before. Oh, I'll say no. Sal. We figure it out. Ma thanks for tuning in.
Natalie: You're the devil in guys. Oh yes, you were.
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