In Praise Of Movies That Just End (Because They Used To Know When To End) by Mike Ryan This is exactly the sort of grumpy-old-man movie criticism I’m looking for these days. I’ve been slow to reengage in the moviegoing … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Last Frame of the Last Reel edition
Falsehoods Meddle in Humble Bid to Honor Past by Reid J. Epstein The news story out of Montana is an object lesson in the way right-wing brain worms have demolished the ability to get the simplest public works accomplished. A … Continue reading Outside Reading — Big Lie Country edition
The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever by Michael J. Mooney That superlative of that title might seem a bit much, but I’m inclined to agree with the assessment. The article is an extraordinary piece of writing, tracking one Texas bowler’s … Continue reading Outside Reading — Strikes to Spare edition
Memoria: The Most Consequential Release Date In Alt-Rock Was 30 Years Ago Today by Michael Tedder This splendid retrospective landed yesterday on Stereogum. With insight and ingenuity, Michael Tedder (who, I should disclose, I know personally, which contributes to my … Continue reading Outside Reading — Our Little Group Has Always Been edition
Eyewitness Who Snapped First Picture Of Would-Be Bomber Gives Her Account by Kate Riga This week, another delusional reactionary drove to the nation’s capital excited about harming others because he hasn’t gotten his way. This will keep happening because one … Continue reading Outside Reading — A Regular Tuesday Here edition
Sinead O’Connor Remembers Things Differently by Amanda Hess This fantastic profile of Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor, who also goes by the name Shuhada Sadaqat, offers a definitive, paper-of-record pardon of the artist’s notorious rending of a religious figure’s photograph. Better … Continue reading Outside Reading — Very Much an Irish Woman edition
The Girl in the Kent State Photo by Patricia McCormick More than fifty years after the Kent State shootings, Patricia McCormick profiles the girl who was at the center of the most famous photo of the government’s crime against the … Continue reading Outside Reading — This Summer I Heard the Drumming edition
The Year Has Taught Me a Lot About Nostalgia by Leslie Jamison Writing for The New York Times, as part of a set of reflections on one full year of living with the pandemic, Leslie Jamison pointedly addresses the problematic … Continue reading Outside Reading — Misty Watercolor Memories edition
Seattle’s Virus Success Shows What Could Have Been by Mike Baker “If the rest of the United States had kept pace with Seattle, the nation could have avoided more than 300,000 coronavirus deaths.” That sentence, from this piece of New … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Emerald Standard
Birds Of Prey’s costumes changed the game for female superheroes by Caroline Siede Although I remain devoted to the Academy Awards as an important and reasonably effective — if hardly infallible — measure of what should be added to the ongoing … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’s Wardrobe
