The Original Renegade by Taylor Lorenz There’s a long, miserable history of pop culture appropriation that swipes innovations from their creators to earn riches for performers more immediately palatable to the masses. Digital interconnectivity has only turbo-boosted that process as … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Jalaiah Harmon School of Dance edition
The Most Important Comedy Writer of the Last 50 Years Finally Gets Her Due by Elyssa Goodman I am among the quickest to co-sign any declaration celebration the broad cultural impact of David Letterman. But I’m also keenly aware that … Continue reading Outside Reading — My Empty Dish Mocks Me edition
100 years after the 19th Amendment women still have yet to achieve equality by Lyz Lenz Using as a prompt the centennial anniversary of women belatedly earning the right to vote in the U.S., Lyz Lenz offers an agitated and … Continue reading Outside Reading — See Yourself Here edition
The Third Rail of Calling ‘Sexism’ by Rebecca Traister The endless frustration of the media’s coverage of political campaigns continued this past week as policy discussions (not to mention the ongoing criminality of the amoral marauders currently occupying the White House) were largely set aside to eagerly pursue an inconsequential squabble between two candidates who almost entirely agree. Even putting aside the likelihood that the reportorial astonishment about freshly unearthed behind-the-scenes discussion was likely hogwash, there was an especially nettlesome aspect to the need to contrive drama. Think pieces and cable pundit pontification proliferated, all musing about the electability of … Continue reading Outside Reading — Gender Specific edition
Lived in Bars by Helena Fitzgerald Writing for Good Beer Hunting, Helena Fitzgerald offers this absolutely marvelous appraisal of bar culture with a bracing honesty about the complicated intermingling of reasonable social norms and a potential problematic developed reliance on … Continue reading Outside Reading — But You Can’t Stay Here edition
We are seeing the very worst of our scientific predictions come to pass in these bushfires by Joëlle Gergis While the U.S. news media is distracted by the geopolitical instability fomented by the moronic lifelong criminal who’s perplexingly still allowed … Continue reading Outside Reading — Terra Australis edition
The Christmas Eve Confessions of Chuck Todd by Jay Rosen Earlier this week, Rolling Stone gave a platform to Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, interviewing him about an upcoming special edition of his venerable program. Todd and his producers … Continue reading Outside Reading — America’s Press Conference of the Air edition
Why ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Really Pissed Off Fans by Matt Singer As far as I’m concerned, Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi saved Star Wars from itself, or at least from the tepidly sycophantic revival of the classically derived … Continue reading Outside Reading — Lightsabers Out edition
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE FOR FOODIES: FROM MURDEROUS-MERMAID SALT TO LAMPS MADE OUT OF CROISSANTS by Helen Rosner Holiday gift guides are usually painfully dull. Writing for The New Yorker, Helen Rosner avoids the usual listing of marginally interesting wares for … Continue reading Outside Reading — Food on the Table edition
Filthy Rich by Michelle Dean HBO’s Succession was amusing and sharp-elbowed in its first season. For the recently concluded second season, the series engaged a creative turbo boost that rocketed it to delirious new heights. Writing for The New York … Continue reading Outside Reading — Thank You for the Chicken edition
Coffee for Two 