RIP, BB King. May we all keep letting the good times roll in your honor.
Let the Good Times Roll
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Category Archives: Entertainment
No Forehead Tattoos, Please
I really don’t care that Jared Leto’s Joker looks more like a Juggalo than an insane criminal mastermind. I am trying very hard to resist the temptation to make negative comparisons to Heath Ledger’s interpretation of the character. I don’t even care that Leto looks more like a fan of the Joker—who got way too carried away at the tattoo shop—than like the actual Joker.
© DC Comics / Warner Bros., via Twitter / @DavidAyerMovies
Any time I think a modern-day portrayal of the Joker is in any way ridiculous or unworthy of the character, I just remember that Cesar Romero’s Joker was once the only live-action screen portrayal of the Joker in existence. Continue reading
I Ask for Fal-Tor-Pan
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RIP, Leonard Nimoy. Perhaps George Takei said it best: “Rest in peace with the stars, my dear friend.” Here’s a bit of what the internet had to say: Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin … Continue reading
Monday Morning Cute: Oscars Edition
Feast won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film last night. Here’s the trailer:
I didn’t know anything about the film before the awards show, but I support any film in which a dog is the hero. The whole thing (all six minutes, fourteen seconds of it) is available on YouTube, Amazon, or iTunes for $1.99. Don’t torrent it, though, dude. That’s cold. Continue reading
What I’m Reading, February 17, 2015
New Study on Gender and Hot Sauce Has Exceptional Conclusion, Maggie Lange, New York Magazine, February 3, 2015
Just as you hoped, a new study from Penn State researchers titled “Gender differences in the influence of personality traits on spicy food liking and intake” has important information about the ways in which men and women are entirely different sorts of creatures, and how one group might be genuinely badass taste adventurers and one group might not be.
In the study, the researchers conclude that women are more likely to seek sensation from spicy food, while men are more likely to see other extrinsic rewards like praise and admiration.
To put it another way, no one eats Guatemalan insanity peppers because they taste good.
Stop what you’re doing, and GO READ THE BUZZFEED EXPOSE OF A VOICE FOR MEN’S PAUL ELAM. (SPOILER: He’s even worse than you think), David Futrelle, We Hunted the Manmoth, February 6, 2015 Continue reading
What I’m Reading, February 11, 2015
Food, Freedom, and Why I Stopped Using the Phrase, “Clean Eating”, Jennifer McGrail, The Path Less Taken, February 2, 2015
This is the food philosophy that I want to pass on to my kids:
I want them to see me eat food that nourishes me… in body, mind, and spirit. I want them to see me eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full. I want them to recognize that food is a fuel, yes, but that it’s also fun and interesting and to be enjoyed. I want them to understand that the way an individual eats should be a fluid, changing thing, and that sometimes needs are best met with a yummy salad, and sometimes with a warm and gooey chocolate chip cookie.
I want them to know that the act and art of eating is also highly personal, and not something that should be controlled or micromanaged by another person, even if that person is a well-meaning parent. I watch again and again as parents create food struggles, force their kids to clean their plate, make rules like “no dessert unless they eat x number of bites of broccoli first”, or refuse to buy certain foods because they’re not “healthy” enough. I can’t imagine it’s a super good thing for your relationship with your child, but it’s also a pretty surefire way to guarantee they’ll have an unhealthy relationship with food in the future.
Food isn’t supposed to be a battle! It’s not supposed to be about control, or stress, or pressure, or categorizing things into “good foods” and “bad foods.”
Orthorexia: When healthy eating becomes an obsession, Sarah Elizabeth Richards, CNN, October 12, 2014 Continue reading
What I’m Reading, February 3, 2015
“I am No Man” Doesn’t Cut It: The Story of Eowyn, Mariah Huehner, The Mary Sue, January 27, 2015
It says something to me that a WWI vet from a devout Catholic background wrote about a warrior woman in a book published in 1954 that was more feminist than her modern interpretation ended up being.
I know what you’re thinking. “But Eowyn kicked ass! She swung a sword and she fought the Lord of the Nazgûl! She said “I am no man!”
Yeah, I know. And look, I’d really like to tell you that that’s enough for me. But it isn’t.
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I guess what bugs me most is that they took a legitimately “strong” female character, and by that I mean a complex, flawed, brave, and ultimately a triumphant warrior woman who has her own major arc…and reduced her down to something less than that. To me, strength in a character is about more than their ability to hit or kill things, and while Eowyn’s big moment is certainly defeating The Lord of the Nazgûl, it’s her defiance in the face of insurmountable odds that truly makes her “strong”. I wish the film version had honored that more.
Because that would have been honoring the proto-feminist character Tolkien created.
10 reasons Christian heaven would actually be hell, Valerie Tarico, Salon, February 1, 2015 Continue reading
Politics Are Everywhere (Even Games)
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Gamers only call something politics when it challenges the politics they themselves hold so deeply they don’t realize it’s already a political view. Games are meant to challenge dexterity and spatial awareness, not morality or politics: any games that do so are “pushing” politics or an agenda. These gamers never stop to think the politics they hold are themselves being “forced” on the rest of us for most of our lives. And we think games can do better and show more.
And this is a cycle:
Why is it not an “agenda” that the game industry’s view of white men is grim-faced, gun-holding, gravelly-voiced hetero dudes? That looks nothing like most of my friends. Why is it not an agenda?
Well, it fits. It’s comforting. It’s traditional.
Consider how including – merely including – gay people, black people, etc., is often considered “pushing” an agenda. There’s nothing wrong with pushing an agenda: for example, an agenda of “these people exist on the same world as you, please acknowledge them” seems like a good one. I’d argue “all white men are grim and heterosexual and monogamous” isn’t a very good agenda. [Emphasis added.]
– Tauriq Moosa, “Let’s own up to our politics in gaming culture” (see also)
What I’m Reading, January 28, 2015
‘Selma’ and the woman who should have made history: Ava DuVernay, Nicole Sperling, Entertainment Weekly, January 21 2015
[T]he real reasons behind the Selma snubs are more complex than race alone. They speak to the entrenched nature of Hollywood politics, the intricacies of Oscar campaign strategies, and the simple power of perception to define a filmmaker’s place in history.
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As production on Selma, her 1960s civil rights drama, began in Atlanta last year, DuVernay was determined to keep a promise to herself. “It was important to me that my voice, my vision, stayed intact,” she says. “Because if this movie failed, then it did so based on what I truly liked rather than on some compromise someone got me to make. I would have never forgiven myself because I knew there was not going to be another chance.”
So she fought for what was hers, and it worked. What we see on screen in Selma is entirely her vision. “So much of it is real,” says Congressman John Lewis, who marched with Dr. King. “The first time I went to see it, I cried to be reminded of what happened on Bloody Sunday.”
That refusal to yield created one of the best films of the year, but on the Oscar-campaign trail it would prove to be a double-edged sword.
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Race continues to be a thorny issue for the Academy. “We are committed to do our part to ensure diversity in the industry,” Cheryl Boone-Isaacs, the Academy’s current and first black president told the New York Times. “We are making great strides, and I personally wish it was moving quicker, but I think the commitment is there and we will continue to make progress.” As of 2012, according to the Los Angeles Times, voters were 94 percent white, and 77 percent male. Still, in the last 15 years that membership has awarded more nonwhite actors and films about people of color (e.g., Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave) than in previous 60 years combined. When it comes to racial issues, they like to think they’re the good guys. Confronting them on that topic can backfire. “The Academy loves to be liberal,” says one member. “But they like to be nice and comfortably liberal.”
Azealia Banks vs Iggy Azalea: ‘Privileged white people shouldn’t steal hip-hop’, Reni Eddo-Lodge, The Telegraph, December 23, 2014 Continue reading
One Additional Thought on “Boyhood”
Boyhood is a landmark achievement in filmmaking, and it deserves a place in history. Its actors, director, and others who put so much time and effort into it deserve all the accolades in the world. I thought I had a criticism of the film, but really it’s a criticism of what comes next. As brilliant and compelling and wonderful as Boyhood was, I’m wondering about the potential for future films. Obviously the movie resonated with me, but once the credits ended and I’d had time to think about it, I realized that it hadn’t told me anything I didn’t already know.
Mason’s childhood was different from mine in many critical ways, but it was very much alike in many others. We both grew up in Texas, yes, but we also both grew up in the United States, and in a particular version of this country. In additional to nationality, Mason and I share features like race, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. I may have had a more affluent upbringing than Mason, but his was still reasonably comfortable.
Again, these are not intended as criticisms. This was an extremely ambitious project, and Linklater had to make the film at least somewhat autobiographical, if only in the sense that this unprecedented type of film took place in a world that was accessible to the filmmaker. I am hopeful that something like this is possible for other settings, be it on the basis of race, geography, or whatever. I don’t know of any projects like that in development, and anything that got greenlit today wouldn’t be in theaters until at least 2027, but I still hold out hope.