February was another busy month, especially with an extra day in 2024. Welcome to MsMojo. Another month already down in 2024. Can you believe it? While Taylor Swift’s Superbowl takeover was dominating the media, there was a lot of other stuff going down this month.
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00:00 "Welcome to your mind."
00:01 "This is my mind."
00:04 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, another month already down in 2024.
00:09 Can you believe it?
00:10 While Taylor Swift's Super Bowl takeover was dominating the media,
00:14 there was a lot of other stuff going down this month.
00:16 So let's dive in and check out some of the stories that caught our attention in February.
00:27 Number 10. The Sears at the Simpsons get it right again.
00:31 "I'm so thrilled you agreed to go through with this."
00:34 "My pleasure, Dotty. One for the album, Gromit."
00:40 Nearly 20 years after Wallace and Gromit captured hearts the world over with their
00:44 2005 feature film debut Curse of the Were-Rabbit,
00:47 Aardman finally announced their return in 2022.
00:51 And this month we got our first details about the plot ahead of a Netflix release later this year.
00:56 "Look, if I must change me ways, at least let me do it my way. With technology."
01:03 The still-untitled adventure will see the pair dealing with Wallace's new invention,
01:08 a garden gnome that gains a mind of its own and starts to cause trouble.
01:11 It sounds quintessentially Wallace and Gromit, but also familiar.
01:16 The Simpsons, a show with an eerie track record for predicting the future,
01:20 parodied the duo with a gnome-centric segment all the way back in 2011.
01:24 "Crumble! Crumble! Where has that silly dog got to? Oh my!"
01:33 We don't know if the writers are just that savvy or actually supernatural,
01:37 but we're calling another accurate prophecy from the Springfield crew.
01:40 Number 9. Four-part harmony but make it biopic.
01:44 "Hey, look at that!"
01:45 "What's that?"
01:46 "It's our last set down there."
01:47 "Oh, should we go down? Have a go."
01:48 "Yeah, come on, man."
01:49 "There's trees and everything. There's a lot of fellas for one set. That's not a tree."
01:52 "It's good. It is."
01:53 As arguably the biggest rock band of all time, it seems odd that the Beatles have yet to receive
01:58 the big-screen treatment in the ever-popular biopic genre. But then again, it's tricky
02:03 enough distilling one life and career into two hours, let alone four. Well, Sam Mendes has a
02:09 solution.
02:10 "I tried it and discovered that I loved to do it and that I felt that I had something to say."
02:15 Rather than produce a single Beatles film, the British film and stage director announced
02:20 not one but four movies, each focused on a different Beatle, all to be released in 2027.
02:26 Mendes is an acclaimed director with a number of prestige awards to his name.
02:30 We hope he'll combine his film expertise with his background in directing stage musicals to
02:35 put a unique spin on each film in his ambitious biopic series.
02:39 "That degree of mythic storytelling. It's always had one foot in the real and one foot in the
02:43 fantasy. It's about a tone. It's about walking that knife edge between the two."
02:48 Number 8. A dramatic new chapter.
02:51 "Throw in the dungeon! Throw in the dungeon!"
02:58 Pre-debut author Kate Corain sent shockwaves through the fiction community in late 2023,
03:03 when it was revealed that they had created numerous fake Goodreads accounts to review-bomb
03:07 other new authors whom she viewed as competition, and who were overwhelming people of color.
03:13 In a lengthy interview with the Daily Beast this month,
03:16 Corain blamed their behavior on a neurodivergence and a mental health episode,
03:20 while claiming that the apparent targeting of POC was coincidence.
03:24 "You may not look at someone and go, 'Oh, I hate her because she's Chinese,' but you could be
03:28 looking at how she received a half a million dollar deal from your same publisher and automatically
03:33 feel that she doesn't deserve it." The affected authors have taken to social
03:35 media to push back on claims made in the interview, and highlight their own struggles as a result of
03:40 Corain's actions. The whole incident has also been used to call out the problematic environment
03:45 of Goodreads as a platform. And you thought book drama was the stuff in between the covers, huh?
03:50 "Help! Help! Over here!" "Careful, mate. Not all sharks are in the water."
03:57 Number 7. Pop Funk
03:58 No award show in recent memory has made as big a stink as the 2024 Hantau Music Awards
04:14 in South Korea. And we mean that literally. The ceremony was spread over two days in mid-February.
04:21 While day one seemed to go smoothly, day two took a foul turn.
04:25 "What is that smell?" "It's poo-poo with a dash of caca."
04:30 Audience members report someone defecating in the standing section, splattering bystanders' clothes,
04:36 and generating a stench that filled the venue and caused several artists in attendance to lose their
04:40 composure. Needless to say, tensions were already high. And when fans of the group Zero Bass One
04:46 started pushing to get closer to the stage during the group's performance later on,
04:50 a violent altercation broke out in the crowd.
04:52 Petty Grammy drama seems quaint by comparison.
05:02 Number 6. Subscribers say "We've added up to here, Amazon."
05:07 "You get a subscription, and you get to watch all this stuff without commercials. Fabulous.
05:11 But then the streamers started realizing, 'Huh, you know what? Traditional cable television had
05:18 it right. That's where the real money is.'" When Amazon announced in 2023 that it intended
05:22 to introduce an ad-supported tier to its Prime service, it felt like a frustrating but inevitable
05:28 development. However, the implementation of their new model in January of 2024
05:33 defaulted all accounts to the ad tier, with the uninterrupted streaming experience only
05:37 being available for an additional fee. This infuriated users who had already paid for
05:42 yearly subscriptions under the previously advertised terms of ad-free streaming.
05:46 "If you were promised one thing, and that what you were paying covered all of those items,
05:52 then you shouldn't have to pay more money. It's plain and simple."
05:55 In February, customers used all the extra time they had during ad breaks to file a class action
06:00 suit in California federal court alleging false advertising and breach of state consumer protection
06:05 laws. Though a victory will only amount to a slap on the wrist for Amazon, we applaud the effort to
06:10 stand up against this frustrating bait-and-switch. "It's not an unreasonable thing to charge three
06:16 more dollars for ad-free when Prime gets you all this other stuff and everybody else is charging
06:21 you more than that. I'm fine, but when somebody's already paid for something, deliver on it."
06:26 Number 5. Extraordinarily Good News
06:29 It's no secret that streamers don't always promote their shows well. Add in a case of
06:34 superhero fatigue, and it's all too easy for shows like 2023's Extraordinary to fall through the
06:39 cracks. "We're just gonna ignore the fact she broke a great record."
06:43 The British series, distributed through Hulu in the U.S., is a fresh and funny take on a
06:48 world where most people are superpowered, yet its first season attracted little notice.
06:52 Though it was renewed around the same time it premiered, fans have learned that nothing's
06:56 guaranteed. "Have you got a job yet? I have a job. A real job. I didn't leave my home and family and
07:03 brave the boat to England for you to squander all my sacrifices. We definitely flew here."
07:09 Thankfully, February 2024 started with the happy announcement that our heroes were indeed returning,
07:14 with a March 6th release date for season two. A trailer dropped several weeks later,
07:19 priming us for more extraordinarily relatable laughs and groans with this lovable group.
07:24 "This is a fresh start. Everything's gonna change. We see this as an opportunity to reinvent
07:29 ourselves. Out with the old. What's wrong with these? They don't even cover your bum hole.
07:33 Even better."
07:35 Number 4. Iris Cited Over Grease
07:38 "Today is a day of joy, because from tomorrow,
07:43 a gap between us will be closed, and a bridge of coexistence will be built
07:51 between a free state and free citizens."
07:56 When it comes to human rights, it sometimes seems like there's more bad news than good these days.
08:01 However, the Greek goddess of the rainbow was flying high over Athens on February 15th,
08:06 as the nation's parliament approved a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.
08:09 "We said immediately, 'Great, how about May? In spring? What will we wear? Will we get flowers?'"
08:16 The measure, which passed with a decisive 176-to-76 vote, makes Greece the first country
08:22 in Southeastern Europe, as well as the first with a majority Eastern Orthodox religious base to
08:27 legally protect the rights of all people to marry as they see fit. Additionally, the bill legalizes
08:32 the ability of same-sex couples to adopt children. We can't think of a more perfect Valentine.
08:37 Number 3. A Moving Milestone at the Grammys
08:58 Canadian music legend Joni Mitchell won her first Grammy Award in 1969 for Best Folk
09:03 Performance with her album Clouds. In the intervening decade, she's become one of the
09:07 most celebrated singer-songwriters of her generation, racking up numerous Grammy nominations
09:12 and awards, and serving as an inspiration for countless other artists. But it wasn't until the
09:18 2024 ceremony on February 4th that she made her debut as a performer on the Grammy stage.
09:23 "I look at life from both sides now, from win and lose."
09:33 Accompanied by a number of notable musicians, the 80-year-old Mitchell gave an evocative
09:37 performance of her most famous song, "Both Sides Now." The more mature quality of her voice brings
09:43 the themes of the song even more vividly to life, creating a rendition that would bring a tear to
09:47 even the most unsentimental eye. "I really don't know life at all."
09:52 Number 2. Lisa Frankenstein Gives Us Life
09:58 "Are you hot for any of this?" "Come on."
10:04 This story of a 1980s teenager and the 1830s bachelor she accidentally brings back from the
10:11 dead arrived in theaters right in time for Valentine's Day. Written by Diablo Cody,
10:15 and inspired by everything from German Expressionism to John Waters,
10:19 Zelda Williams' feature film directorial debut was a goth camp triumph.
10:23 "Lisa looks good." "She could probably even do pageants if she had congeniality."
10:29 Its dark, irreverent sense of humor and a bloody romance were never going to be to
10:33 everyone's taste, though, and low box office numbers had commentators declaring it D.O.A.
10:38 Much like the love story at its center, though, we think Lisa Frankenstein is destined to rise
10:43 again as a beloved cult classic, like its spiritual sister Heather's or Cody's own Jennifer's body.
10:49 "I have the cure." "No." "Oh. No. It's not that kind of cure. It's like a...
10:57 it's a band. They can't make you better. I mean, they can, but emotional."
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11:19 Number 1. Good Luck, Bridget
11:21 "Where have you been all my life?" "If I told you, you probably wouldn't believe me."
11:29 Actor and musician Bridget Mendler used to be all over our TV screens as the star of Disney
11:34 channel hits like Wizards of Waverly Place, Lemonade Mouth, and Good Luck, Charlie. But if
11:39 her work on-screen impressed you, you'll be blown away by what she's done off it.
11:43 "I'm studying anthropology." "Really?" "Yeah." "And why?"
11:47 "Well, um, I'm interested in it, for one."
11:53 Mendler would go on to earn a bachelor's at USC, a master's and a PhD at MIT,
11:59 and a law degree from Harvard. Feeling unproductive yet? On February 20,
12:04 31-year-old Mendler announced the launch of Northwood Space, a company she founded with
12:08 Shaja Luthra and her husband, Griffin Cleverley. The company hopes to mass-produce ground stations
12:14 that collect satellite data, while hoping to overhaul the industry technology sector for
12:18 better efficiency and accessibility. Talk about reaching for the stars.
12:22 "Push until you can and then demand more. Determinate, determinate."
12:29 How about you? What caught your eye this month that no one seems to be talking about?
12:34 Share in the comments.
12:35 "I can't do that. Not until we bury the body."
12:38 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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