Welcome to My Fangirl Fugue State

💛✨'CERS IN 7 ✨💛 Plus, notes on And Just Like That, HAIM, We Are Liars, the latest Sabrina Carpenter discourse, Jax Taylor, Ryan Murphy's Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy disaster + more.

Jun 22, 2025

Hi hi.

I’m finally putting the finishing touches1 on this post mere hours before the tip-off of the biggest professional basketball game of my lifetime, after one of the most fun playoff runs the NBA has ever seen.

All by our Indiana Pacers.

ONEMOREONEMOREONEMOREONEMOREONEMOREONEMOREONEMORE.

The city of Indianapolis2 is palpably pulsing and has been for the past two months.

I’m both exhilarated and exhausted. I wouldn’t want it any other way. This is community through fandom at its finest and nobody does it better than Indy. I’m working on a post about all that this run has meant—no matter what happens tonight—so I’ll save some of my sappier shit for that.

But my goodness do I love this team. I fully wept this morning watching this video. Twice.

Thursday morning, I decided it was necessary for my brother and I to be at Game 6…and so we were.

Core memory formed.

ALWAYS GO TO THE SHOW (WHICH MIGHT BE A BASKETBALL GAME)

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Yes, Hoosiers on the big screen during a timeout. Duh.

I would just like to call out that we were in row 17 and ended up winning by 17. Witch shit maybe?!?

In case you3 need a few more reasons to hop on board for one last ride…

We have a coach who is a single mom and she is hella supported by the organization and her colleagues. Our head coach Rick Carlisle is a real one in a million ways.

Coach Jenny 🙌

Reggie. #31. Our forever guy.

But I wanted to make sure all the non-Pacers lifers (or those whose lives don’t date back to the 1900s) are aware that he had a local late night talk show in the ‘90s on WTHR.

It just so happens that on this day (June 22) in 1987, we drafted Reggie Miller with the 11th pick4—and everything changed.

pacers

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TJ. McConnell.

Our two young superstars are besties and go on double dates with their significant others. Oh, and swap some hoops tips now and then.

Share We Have Notes

So, this is basically me rn. I apologize if there are extra typos I missed either in writing or editing. Blame it on the b-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-sketball.

All the focus on Indy got me thinking about what I’d be discussing if there was a We Have Notes segment about the city (and Indiana, in general) during the pre-game show5.

I think most people know that the Jackson family is from Gary, Indiana, David Letterman is from Indy, and that we host a big ass car race every Memorial Day Weekend.

But I thought I’d give those of you less familiar with Naptown a few more names of people who almost certainly know how to play Euchre—the Midwest card game of choice. You can throw them out during the game like you’re a clever girl, or boy.

Fellow North Central High School Alums ❤️🖤

Kenneth “Babyface” Edmunds6

Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars7
- In fact, the gas station Gus goes to buy one of his symbolic pack of cigs near the end of the book is where I, too, oft bought (um, less symbolic) packs of cigs.

please also note the butler bulldogs shirt. gus is a true indy jock.

Marc Summers, of Double Dare fame8

Gary G, aka my dad

with the ‘rents for my HS graduation, which took place at Market Square Arena, the former home of the Pacers

Priyanka Chopra9
Um, and Jared Fogle. Yes, Subway Jared. You gotta love the NCHS Wiki ⬇️

Other boldface names of interest—to me and the culture—from Indy.

Mike Epps, always + forever repping the ‘Cers

therealmikeepps

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Jane Pauley, a fellow Halloween-born Scorpio with a love for media

Here I am doing my first-person famous Hoosier presentation in fourth grade, as Jane who was then co-hosting the Today show. Shout-out to Dayle Jacqueline and Tim Otis for standing in as Jane and Garry Trudeau’s fraternal twins.

Ryan Murphy, who I have some choice notes for later
Kristina Wagner née Malandro

Frisco + Felicia 4EVA

ALL I NEEEEEEEEED. I can still sing every word. Do we need to rank famous soap opera love ballads from the ‘80s?!? Mayhaps.

Trista Sutter

Madam CJ Walker
- If you don’t know about America’s first female self-made millionaire (as a Black woman at the turn of the century!!!), get thee to a research hole stat. Her imprint is all over this city and the world of beauty. She made her fortune on hair and cosmetics products for Black women.
Joyce DeWitt, aka Janet from Three’s Company whose niece (or was she a cousin??) went to my high school.

Abraham Benrubi who you may remember from Parker Lewis Can’t Lose or a little show called ER. My friend’s dad was high school bffs with his dad which was a very cool thing to young us when he appeared on our TVs.

Okay, we’ll move on from basketball to the things that have tried to tether me to some sort of sanity the last couple weeks.

Thanks for reading We Have Notes! This post is public so feel free to share it.

All Over Me

Haim’s new album—I Quit—arrived on Friday and I am SO IN. Because I love it, and them, I want to wait until my brain isn’t NBA Finals mush before I properly write about it.

haimtheband

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But get on it, if you haven’t listened already.

The Sisters Haim also dropped the MV for the latest banger of a single “All over me” on album release day—complete with paparazzi-inspired cover shot and another one of the internet’s boyfriend (Will Poulter) in the video.

Obsesssssssed with this song.

It took me a mere millisecond to recognize the inspo for the single art.

haimtheband

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I have pretty much every public photo of Gwyneth and Brad catalogued in the recesses of my addled mind. I think about this photo ALL the time.

This would have been a dream situation for me. Can you imagine?!?

@chrisschramel A @haimtheband singalong in the streets of NYC on a Tuesday night?! SAY👏🏻LESS. #haim #iquit #haimtheband #nyc

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I Promise I’ll Believe

Speaking of Este, Danielle, and Alana, one of the earliest musical cues in the Amazon adaptation of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars is “Forever” from their 2013 album Days Are Gone.

I loved this book SO much. I read it immediately when it came out in 2014 because I will always, always, always be a YA girlie. But I didn’t really remember the plot or the big twist. To be honest, so much of 2014 is really fuzzy for me because…deep grief. But I do know I recommended this book to everyone I knew for a spell.

I will not give away anything here and it was kinda great going into the series essentially fresh because I’m guessing if I had remembered more details or read the book more recently, I’d have many more nits to pick.

But basically, you’re going to a fancy, riche east coast locale a la Martha’s Vineyard with the Sinclair family and trying to figure out what went down during a summer that our main girlie, Cadence (Emily Allen Lynd), can no longer remember because of traumas both physical and emotional.

There’s a big old cast that includes…

One of the girls from the Gossip Girl reboot, a Gummer10, Caroline from Vampire Diaries, Serena from UnREAL S3, Ravi from iZombie who is also in lots of the brilliant Mike Flanagan horror series.

There are also some very heavy bangs and other questionable hair choices. I really don’t get so many of the decisions, not just based personal preferences but what I think would make sense for these characters in this timeframe. Now, I understand they needed to do some delineation to help us know which timeline we’re in. But OOF so many misses both conceptually and in execution.

This choppy ‘do is not a 2017 haircut, nor do I buy this character (Mirren, with the terrible fake hair above) having it then or now.

The bangs all go so far back on the head! Why????

If you mash up Cadence and Mirren, it’s giving the maddening hair from the lead detective on Cold Case—a show I absolutely watched as it aired and in reruns. I think about how confounding her hair styling was at least 4x a year.

So much styling up front and on top….tiny bun or pony in back. Confusion pour moi.

Anyway, I binged the eight episodes and didn’t have a bad time. Though I feel like yet again we have a show that is tonally in a lot of different places. We’ve got some strong performances and some that are less so, but I would definitely recommend a watch if you’re looking for something with some mystery and (at least wannabe) big feels.

That said, adaptations are hard. Especially with twists and timelines. A book works better in that way, so there’s always that option too. Did anyone else watch yet?

And Just Like That…Yep, It Can Get Worse

I was chatting with a friend the other day who said she might be done with this terrible show. I totally get it—and that was before this week’s god awful ep. AJLT is indeed becoming more insufferable by the day, but I’m still hate-watching away. I reserve the right to change my mind on a moment’s notice however. You do whatever feels right for you.

Below, a mixed bag of haterade statements/questions/concerns from eps 3.4 and 3.5.

Stabby

Is Aidan fucking MAHA? Because that’s what he’s giving with this whole Adderall storyline though at least it isn’t that Rosemarie DeWitt is addicted because that’s one thought I had after she called Carrie for pills (WHAT?) for Wyatt. That toxic ass motherfucker. How’s Team Aidan doing these days? You all should be ashamed.

Wyatt. Everything about Wyatt. They didn’t give this kid one redeemable quality and I do not watch this show to see Aidan’s family dysfunction.
Evergreen: Aidan’s words and delivery of said words, .
- The way he talks to his kids, calls his son “Tater”, and makes jokes like “Goober, Hillbilly Uber” is vomit-inducing.
Carrie sleeping in the guest house at Aidan’s yet referring to her place in Gramercy as “theirs” “ours” what the fuck ever. No, it’s YOURS, Carrie.
So Aidan just has his kids painting the guest house in the morning when he knows Carrie’s in there and wouldn’t let her sleep with him because he hadn’t laid out the plans for his teen and up sons the night before? Jesus. Also, does he think he’s Mr. Miyagi?

I am totally fine suspending disbelief for many of my programs, but on what planet would Seema not know how old her business partner is? Her name is on the GD door which also makes it so weird that the old man could sell anything without speaking to her or that someone would want to buy it but not include this person we’ve been led to believe is one of the best in the biz. I cannot.

Irked

Why is everyone’s bed so small??? These people are rich and you don’t even have to be to sleep in a queen or a king.
Wait, so Carrie and Seema didn’t go get their luggage out of the rental car last week? Then why was it dark by the time they got to dumb Aidan’s dumb house?
Miranda’s Buzzfeed era meme. It’s not that deep girl, but it’s also not 2012.
Inviting people over to an apartment in NYC that isn’t yours and doesn’t have furniture. It’s Manhattan. Just go out.
This.

SATC was built on many a clever (and corny) pun or metaphor but they are hitting us over the head too hard on AJLT. I hate it so much.
- Seema and the “don’t go back” sign almost sent me into a huge rage spiral
- Oh, are there things unsaid in LTW’s marriage? Is that why she’s talking in her sleep. Because my god what a dumb storyline. I at least thought she was going to mumble something about the hot new editor. NOPE.
Is Harry gonna have prostate cancer? Is that where we’re going with peeing himself and not being able to get it up?

Sure, Okay

Apples to Apples — a banger of a game.
Bob, Aidan’s ex Kathy’s boyfriend. I’m with Bob.

Other Things That Made Me Chippy

I’m on the edge of, um, everything right now. And I’m more feisty than usual after two months of having people come for my basketball team and my city.

The moral panic and pearl clutching and slut/kink-shaming of both the low and high key varieties over the new Sabrina Carpenter album cover is pretty embarrassing. Especially when so many people don’t know how to properly use a term like male gaze or, frankly, feminism.

I did refrain from popping off in so many comments section though and that calls for another of my go-to MVP: GIFs…

My algorithm at least brought me some generally like-minded folk.

@hallehallle like yall the same people who was screaming about a brat summer and loving her lil positions on tour make up your minds #sabrinacarpenter #sabrina #manchild #fyp #madonna

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@girlsgirle EDITED bc upon reflection/feedback i worded the caption poorly: would there be backlash if doechii had the same album cover? yes. BUT would the backlash involve language like “abuse” and “victim”? i don’t think so. that’s what my caption was alluding to. ORIGINAL CAPTION FOR ACCOUNTABILITY: yall wouldn’t be nearly as mad if it was doechii and imma leave it at that #sabrinacarpenter #fyp #mansbestfriend #xyzbca #popculture #womanism #feminism

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HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO CBK?

As I’m sure many of you saw, the first images from Ryan Murphy’s American Love Story series about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy emerged and they were…an abomination.

What a fucking mess. I was and am furious. So is every fashion and costume design person I know.

How can you miss this hard???

diet_prada

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The hair is so deeply wrong in many ways, but most dramatically, the color. Carolyn’s hair was not an icy blonde AT ALL. One of my very first thoughts was, “OMG, what must Brad Johns think?”11

I was so glad to see that Vogue got him on the horn. This is the kind of story I would love to do or assign back when I was running websites. Like, here’s this big trending conversation, what can our unique day 2 (metaphorically, if not literally) story angle on it?

I’m very happy to see that type of story is not totally extinct. Vogue is exactly the right publication to do it, too. For a second it felt like the old days when the magazines and their sites actually had discernible identities.

Lauren Sherman also got some time with Ryan Murphy as the internet rage continued to swirl. You should def read their chat. He sounded about as defensive and pissy as I’d expected. Really, Ryan Murphy? You didn’t know how invested people are in Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy while putting together a show about her and John? Really?

Ughhhhhh. What a PR misfire with the photos. Lordy.

Jax Taylor should not be on The Valley any longer and we won’t miss him. It’s the darkest show on Bravo and I love reveling in it all. But I’ve clocked enough time with Olivia Benson’s Special Victims Unit to say that Jax is fully giving family annihilator. He’s so full of shit and absolutely terrifying. PS: Do we want to delve deeper into this season of the show? I’ve fully been watching but I keep bumping the notes. LMK!

He’s full of shit, has learned nothing (esp because that “rehab” was so not “rehab”), and is essentially a rage-fueled stalker. Don’t even get me started on his face.

Vibe Shift

We cannot leave the energy in such cranky place and so we shall cleanse the pop culture palate.

First, just some real CBK style.

I’m sure many of you saw clips from Blondie’s visit to a children’s hospital in Florida. But just in case you haven’t…and I can speak from experience that they never get old.

Felicity and Ben will make me happy on even the most stressful day.

thewbsavedmylife