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"And it seems that I'm just getting started." Hanan Levin (MeFite growabrain) has watched more than 4000 movies in the last four years and shares short reviews, favorites, and bits of film history on an extensive and engaging set of Tumblr posts (with a bonus spreadsheet of movies watched). [via mefi projects] (growabrain previously)From this year's summary: In January 2021, during the Covid lock-down,...

Mr. Feiffer was primarily known as a cartoonist. His syndicated black-and-white comic strip, "Feiffer," which astringently articulated the cynical, neurotic, aggrieved and ardently left-wing sensibilities of postwar Greenwich Village, began in The Village Voice in 1956 and ran for more than 40 years. But his career also encompassed novels, plays, screenplays, animation and children's books. from Jules Feiffer, Acerbic Cartoonist, Writer and Much Else,...

In the beginning, I thought Biden was going to do a second term. When doubt crept in, I began to sink into despair at an-all-but-unthinkable Trumpian future. But before I ever needed to really grapple with that possibility, Harris popped up. For a little while, I dreamt of a modern American presidency. Ugly doubt crept back in when her numbers started to stall. Early...

"Challenger brands always went up against an enemy: either a competing brand, or something more nebulous like social conformity. The first question for the ad agency to answer was not, what should this brand say or sell to people, but what should this brand stand for? The second was, what should it stand against? (In fact, it was often the other way around –...

Kim Kelly Offers Advice and Reading Suggestions for How We Might Survive the Depredations to Come We can go one step further, though, because it shouldn't take a catastrophe for people to care for one another. Mutual aid—a voluntary, collaborative exchange of resources between members of a community—is a daily practice, and an act of everyday resistance.

The Peppermills of Jens Quistgaard Over the course of his prolific and varied design career, Jens Quistgaard created a series of peppermills for Dansk Designs. Taking the dispersal of salt and pepper as the jumping off point, JHQ's designs are a meditation on the possibilities of shape for a common household object. This website intends to serve as a guide for collecting these peppermills...

How The Color of Money's "One For Them" Assignment Reignited Martin Scorsese's Hunger for the WorkSome of us first learned about an actor named Forest Whitaker by watching him steal this scene from Paul Freaking Newman like The Joker taking down a Gotham bank. Tom Cruise is now older than Paul Newman was when The Color of Money was released.

Born in the bush, Mawuyul Yanthalawuy survived Japanese bombs before becoming a teacher and a movie star. Award-winning actor, educator and community leader Mawuyul Yanthalawuy, who starred in the film Manganinnie, is being remembered as an Australian national treasure after her death at the age of 85.

'Untitled'. 'Bronze Form.' 'Figure' 'Reclining Figure' 'Bird'Henry Moore enlisted in the British army at age 17. "...gassed at the Battle of Cambrai and returned to England. After the war, he received an ex-serviceman's grant that enabled him to become a sculpture student at Leeds School of Art. This is where he became friends with fellow artist Barbara Hepworth."Later, with Unit 1. In 'The Writings...

Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act ... the U.S. wind industry, especially manufacturing, has been enjoying a renaissance. ... That growth is now in question, as just this week, [Donald] Trump stated that he plans to ensure "no windmills" are built during his term in office.... Over the long term, a total pause in wind development would have significant impact not only...

It's 2026 and you wonder what your friends are up to [SLMastodon thread]. In which Dan Fixes Coin-Ops on Mastodon gives us a taste of would could still become true if we only could make it so in one, long, delicious fever-dream of a toot-thread. (Dan, previously.)

For people who don't know what Mothership is. For people who do.Some people love it. Some don't.

These social mechanics—wherein creative rivalries oscillate between friendly and zero-sum—are universal, and I know them well. I only learned about them in practice when I encountered the Dimes Square scene during the pandemic. The pandemic created just enough squalor and gloom, and lowered rents just enough, for just long enough, for that latest bohemia to emerge. The downtown of the 2020s is centered on...

A coalition representing veterans, public health professionals, teachers and other groups filed a suit today against DOGE, citing the the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), and asking a court to block DOGE's activities until it complies with law. The 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act says that committees of outside government advisers must be "fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented," and...

"Autonomy" is a short scifi/horror story by Meg Elison, published January 2025 in Clarkesworld, that partially takes place in an autonomous vehicle. Elison notes, "Here is my story of bloody revenge, a theme I can't get enough of these days." Content note for sexual assault and gore.

FANFARE THIS WEEK... A special event thread for live commenting on the US inauguration. New movies: apocalypse musical The End; a queer examination of Kevin Smith's 90s romcom in Chasing Chasing Amy; Barry Keoghan and Nykiya Adams in the social realist drama Bird; and a woman becomes romantically entangled with her stepson in French drama Last Summer. In TV, Severance is back, Silo season...

Crys Matthews calls herself the poster child for intersectionality. Her new album released last week,Reclamation (Youtube, Apple,Spotify, Autographed CD, reviews 1 ,2,3,4,5) "is both sonically and ideologically the fullest representation of who I am as an artist and as a human, she says. A preacher's kid, a Black woman, a Butch lesbian, and a proud Southerner who sings social justice music right alongside 'traditional'...

Joe Biden has granted clemency to Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, in one of his last actions as president. Clemency isn't a pardon--the conviction stands--but the 80-year-old Peltier will be released from prison.

Matt Stoller Explains the TikTok Dispute from a Legal Perspective That said, despite the 270 deadline, in the law, there's also a 90 day extension the President is able to offer if he thinks that there is a path to divesting the app... Basically, TikTok said it is subject to a law banning the app, and praised Donald Trump for somehow thwarting that law....

EPIC: The Musical is a musical adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey created by Jorge Rivera-Herrans Per Athena Scalzi, I found out about EPIC, an online musical that's beautifully mind-blowing.(note: all video links are YouTube, not TikTok.) Official concept album recordings playlist here. Songs with animated videos to go with them playlist here. Recap of the first four sagas here. A TikTok Musical That's Truly...

1. Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then start to do it without being asked. You've already done this, haven't you? Stop. Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom. - Historian Timothy Snyder from On Tyranny with...