Jon Beckett (jonbeckett.blog)While walking back from town earlier with groceries I turned a corner and came across a man in his mid-thirties walking his dog. The dog was attached to him via an extending lead. Both he and the d…
The View is a sort of mythical beast, with the head of a chat show, the body of a reality show and the tail of a politics forum. And it also plays like a pro-wrestling spectacle: a lowbrow morality play with protagonists, antagonists and a lot of conflict. Ruth Graham writes in Slate that "The View is the show you watch if you want to see a former Survivor contestant debate a former professional wrestler on the morality of waterboarding. On the other hand, it’s the daytime show that debated waterboarding." Ramin Setoodeh is the author of Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View and the New York bureau chief for Variety. Bob and Setoodah talk about how a show populated with B-list celebrities has become a center of gravity for political discourse.
It was the biggest disaster in the history of the music business — and almost nobody knew. This is the story of the 2008 Universal fire.
I’m surprised that the author doesn’t whip out any references to the burning of the Library at Alexandria, which may have been roughly on par in terms of cultural loss to society. It’s painfully sad that UMG covered up the devastating loss.
The artwork for the piece is really brilliant. Some great art direction here.
Influencer-style pictures are simply the way we document our lives now.
There’s an interesting societal shift happening here in photography. For counterpoint, compare this with Pictures of Death: Postmortem Photography by Nancy West (The Atlantic).
Comparing 2010 and 2018 side by side makes it clear what a changed media universe we now live in.
On this episode, Adam and Ralph have their first guest, Dr. Lisa Funnell. Dr. Funnell’s research explores the performance and intersection of identities—specifically gender, race, sexuality, nationality, and ethnicity—in Hong Kong martial arts films, Hollywood blockbusters, and the James Bond franchise. We recognize we should have held out this discussion for episode 007, but we were too excited to contain ourselves.
Show Notes
- Lisa Funnel (personal site)
- Purchase her books on Amazon
- Gal Gadot will only be ‘Wonder Woman’ again if Brett Ratner is out(Page Six)
- We Are All Implicated in the Post-Weinstein Reckoning (The Cut)
A 50 minute documentary following filmmaker & Class of ’82 John Muir High Alumnus, Pablo Miralles (“Gringos at the Gate“) as he questions what has happened to his once diverse alma mater and whether or not to send his own son to the school today. In the film, Miralles explores the complex history of Pasadena’s schools and the 1970 court order that created the first Federal desegregation plan outside of the south. Weaving stories from alumni, administrators, and civic leaders of John Muir High School’s multi-cultural community, Miralles illustrates the challenges and failures of California, and the United States, to promote well-funded and diverse public education.
How the utopian kingdom at the center of Black Panther falls into a long history of black liberation struggles.
On Sunday night, Marvel’s Black Panther film won the Oscar for three of its six Academy Award nominations: Ludwig Göransson for Best Original Score, Ruth E. Carter for Best Costume Design and Hannah Beachler and Jay R. Hart for Best Production design — just a few of the artists who helped bring Wakanda, the Black Panther’s mythical homeland, to life.
A persistent site for utopian longing, Wakanda has once more captured the public imagination: endowed with unlimited access to the most precious natural resource in the world, unsullied by the ravages of colonialism, Wakanda has reignited conversations about what black liberation can and should look like. According to Johns Hopkins University history professor Nathan Connolly, this latest chapter is part of a much longer tradition of imagining and reimagining black utopias. Connolly speaks with Brooke about how Wakanda arises from a 500-year history — from Maroon communities to Haiti to the actual Black Panther movement — a journey that takes us from "dreams to art to life, and back again."
This segment originally aired on February 23rd, 2018.
Changing this one thing about the way you pay can save you money without being unfair to servers.
It started with Stephen King’s book. With the new movie, the curse is poised to go international.
Tressie McMillan Cottom (tressiemc)The title is click-bait. If you follow me on That Social Media site you know two things about me: I love Dolly Parton and I am mad for Hallmark Christmas movies. As the former goes without saying, …
I do wish you had the time to write the Hallmark Christmas movie book–it would make a fascinating read. I’ll bite at the question about why the “dead parent” is your favorite, but I’d be more interested in your take on the premier of this past years’ Memories of Christmas which breaks some of the traditional molds. Like all the rest of their originals, I’m sure(?) they’ll rerun it in subsequent years.
It turns out I know two of the writers of the Memories of Christmas production. At least one of them mentioned a Hallmark Movie “playbook” though she didn’t indicate if it was one internally created by the network or if it was her own as I suspect that she’s got the same affliction some of us other “fans” do.
The Conservative Bible Project's authors argue that contemporary scholars have inserted liberal views and ahistorical passages into the Bible, turning Jesus into little more than a well-meaning social worker.
The pop star’s legacy has been shadowed by sexual abuse accusations for decades. Wesley Morris grapples with why the world has, for so long, looked the other way.
Wesley Morris joins us to talk about “Green Book,” the latest Oscar winner to focus on a white character’s moral journey in an interracial friendship.
This may be one of the best podcast episodes I’ve heard in two months. I highly recommend it.
They traveled to Syria, swore loyalty to the Islamic State and married its fighters. Now, as the extremist group’s “caliphate” crumbles, they’re asking to come home.
I can only think that given the terrorism that they experienced and their mindsets as depicted here that they ought to be treated more like brainwashed ex-cult members than enemy combatants. Of course this also means that they should certainly be getting the appropriate mental health care after the fact as well.
I have to wonder whether they would have gone if they’d even spent a little bit of time thinking about the long term consequences.
