(I am traveling and therefore writing this post in advance, so if link selection does not seem to take into account very recent news developments... that's why.)
There hasn’t been a criminal defense lawyer on the Supreme Court in 25 years. That’s a problem.
How Donald Trump Bent Television To His Will
The First Time Party Bigwigs Tried to Stop a Front-Runner From Becoming President It Backfired — Big-time
What Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend reveal about the limitations of the Bechdel test
I always have such mixed feelings about publishing authors' (or other public figures') letters and diaries: Charlotte Bronte and Her Best Friend's Broken Promise
Yes: "The episode itself is the most important single unit of storytelling on TV, not the season or even the series. Without good episodes, shows inevitably end up feeling muddled and aimless."
The Consequences of Resisting a Professor’s Advances
I am fundamentally incapable of believing that anything said in giant closed Facebook groups will remain secret. Am I too cynical? Are these people too naive? Who knows!
Inside Will and Kate’s Privacy Obsession
Not Your Korean Sidekick: The Frustrating Career of John Cho (I miss Selfie.)
The Nine Lives of Isaac Mizrahi
“Oh…No, My Thing Is Happening”: Women Leaving Tactfully In Western Art History
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Morning Coffee (3/30/16)
ICYMI: I reviewed Chris Hayes's Twilight of the Elites.
Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager, Is Charged With Battery
We Expect Women to Have Impostor Syndrome. That’s Why We Can’t Handle Hillary Clinton.
Ivanka Trump Makes Donald Even Scarier
This is great: @MichelleObama: An exclusive look at how the First Lady mastered social media
Sent Home From Middle School After Reporting A Rape
"Twenty-first-century feminism’s primary medium, the diversity critique, has as its functional terminus the ‘freedom’ of consumers to purchase a picture of a utopia from a company whose interests lie in preventing any of those utopias from occurring."
Please don't believe anyone who tells you that trolls and online smears don't matter in real life.
Oh: Prominent Silicon Valley investor denies he kept a sex slave for 13 years
I will never tire of reading about Ferrante theories, and am also cynical enough to think that whatever her original intentions, this is a GREAT marketing strategy.
So I kind of disagree with this about how she OBVIOUSLY wants to be left alone but that piece makes some other interesting points. I guess I'm partially saying that I still don't really buy the Death of the Author.
End of an era: Grandchildren of Sound of Music's Von Trapp family announce farewell show
Every Meal In Jane Eyre, Ranked In Order Of Severity
Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager, Is Charged With Battery
We Expect Women to Have Impostor Syndrome. That’s Why We Can’t Handle Hillary Clinton.
Ivanka Trump Makes Donald Even Scarier
This is great: @MichelleObama: An exclusive look at how the First Lady mastered social media
Sent Home From Middle School After Reporting A Rape
"Twenty-first-century feminism’s primary medium, the diversity critique, has as its functional terminus the ‘freedom’ of consumers to purchase a picture of a utopia from a company whose interests lie in preventing any of those utopias from occurring."
Please don't believe anyone who tells you that trolls and online smears don't matter in real life.
Oh: Prominent Silicon Valley investor denies he kept a sex slave for 13 years
I will never tire of reading about Ferrante theories, and am also cynical enough to think that whatever her original intentions, this is a GREAT marketing strategy.
So I kind of disagree with this about how she OBVIOUSLY wants to be left alone but that piece makes some other interesting points. I guess I'm partially saying that I still don't really buy the Death of the Author.
End of an era: Grandchildren of Sound of Music's Von Trapp family announce farewell show
Every Meal In Jane Eyre, Ranked In Order Of Severity
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Book Review: Twilight of the Elites
Twilight of the Elites by Chris HayesI've long enjoyed Chris Hayes's reporting and commentary and had picked up a copy of his book Twilight of the Elites a while ago, but it sat in my bookcase with hundreds of other unread books until I started noticing how many of Hayes's Twitter followers were claiming that the book - published in 2012 - perfectly explained the state of the 2016 presidential campaign. I was skeptical. How could it? Clearly hyperbole! But these comments made me curious enough to give the book a try.
And: not hyperbole! I expected to like Twilight of the Elites but I was honestly shocked by both how good it was and how exactly it explained our current political situation, especially the rise of Trump and to a lesser extent Sanders. Hayes draws from a wealth of historical and cultural examples to analyze how the recent breakdown of trust in institutions (government but also the Church, the media, even Major League Baseball) due to corruption and failure have created a society that rejects experts and others seen as "elite" and creates an authority vacuum. It's engaging and readable and somehow both comforting, in that it makes what's going on make sense, and terrifying, in that it makes what's going on make sense.
My main quibble with the book was that it was too short; I would have happily read many more pages of analysis of each of Hayes's examples. There were a few points at which the differentiation of the themes of distinct chapters could have been stronger, but over all the book maintained momentum and felt remarkably cohesive for a text touching on so many varied subjects.
I've seen some reviews fault Twilight of the Elites for not being prescriptive enough, but that didn't really bother me: it's certainly possible to diagnose and analyze a problem in a useful way without also claiming you know exactly how to solve it, and if anything I'm glad Hayes didn't offer easy solutions to something so complex.
If you want to know how Trump could happen here, or if you just want a fascinating synthesis of recent American history, politics, and culture, I'd definitely recommend picking this up.
(If you'd like to see more reviews and other non-link posts, support the blog on Patreon!)
Morning Coffee (3/29/16)
Lest we forget what we're fighting against: Angola jails 17 activists for rebellion after public reading of political book
Oh good: North Carolina Sued Over Anti-LGBT Law
Bernie Sanders just won landslides in 3 diverse states. He's still toast.
This may shock you: Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest
Max Fisher sincerely tried to understand Trump's foreign policy positions and pretty much concluded that Trump just has no idea what he's talking about.
Related! Comments by Donald Trump Draw Fears of an Arms Race in Asia
Alyssa Rosenberg at the Post is doing a neat thing: she sent a survey about positions on the arts to all the candidates. Trump is the first to respond.
Well. This is an interesting Gallup poll for those who are convinced no one's excited about Clinton.
Lost in Trumplandia
The Onion, barely: Advisors Tell Trump, Cruz To Stick To Just Attacking All Women In General
A model first lady, despite receiving unprecedented scorn
Dirtbag Ethan Frome
Oh good: North Carolina Sued Over Anti-LGBT Law
Bernie Sanders just won landslides in 3 diverse states. He's still toast.
This may shock you: Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest
Max Fisher sincerely tried to understand Trump's foreign policy positions and pretty much concluded that Trump just has no idea what he's talking about.
Related! Comments by Donald Trump Draw Fears of an Arms Race in Asia
Alyssa Rosenberg at the Post is doing a neat thing: she sent a survey about positions on the arts to all the candidates. Trump is the first to respond.
Well. This is an interesting Gallup poll for those who are convinced no one's excited about Clinton.
Lost in Trumplandia
The Onion, barely: Advisors Tell Trump, Cruz To Stick To Just Attacking All Women In General
A model first lady, despite receiving unprecedented scorn
Dirtbag Ethan Frome
Monday, March 28, 2016
Morning Coffee (3/28/16)
Me elsewhere: TV news!
Wow: Deal reached to boost California's minimum wage to $15, avoiding ballot box battle
Interesting point: Terrorists in the Family
Well, this'll be fun: All-out warfare is about to break out between Bernie Sanders’ supporters and the political press
Terrible: 'Good girls don’t protest': report exposes attacks on Sudan's female activists
Well. This doesn't make them look . . . good. N.F.L.’s Flawed Concussion Research and Ties to Tobacco Industry
Twilight of the neoconservatives
I'll admit I'd sort of forgotten that we were supposed to feel bad about eating quinoa, but I'm glad that dark time is over.
I hope whoever stole Shakespeare's head used it in a production of Hamlet.
Wearing Hijab: On Truth, Fear, and Empowerment
If you would like to develop a crush on Bill Hader and also add a bunch of stuff to your reading list, read this interview.
"Stop reading the tea leaves of indifferent male faces and get the fuck on with your life."
I... I give up. Paul McCartney Joins Johnny Depp & Crew For ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’
Wow: Deal reached to boost California's minimum wage to $15, avoiding ballot box battle
Interesting point: Terrorists in the Family
Well, this'll be fun: All-out warfare is about to break out between Bernie Sanders’ supporters and the political press
Terrible: 'Good girls don’t protest': report exposes attacks on Sudan's female activists
Well. This doesn't make them look . . . good. N.F.L.’s Flawed Concussion Research and Ties to Tobacco Industry
Twilight of the neoconservatives
I'll admit I'd sort of forgotten that we were supposed to feel bad about eating quinoa, but I'm glad that dark time is over.
I hope whoever stole Shakespeare's head used it in a production of Hamlet.
Wearing Hijab: On Truth, Fear, and Empowerment
If you would like to develop a crush on Bill Hader and also add a bunch of stuff to your reading list, read this interview.
"Stop reading the tea leaves of indifferent male faces and get the fuck on with your life."
I... I give up. Paul McCartney Joins Johnny Depp & Crew For ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Morning Coffee (3/27/16)
Happy Easter! I am writing this on Saturday because I am TAKING SUNDAY OFF. It's kind of shocking, an entire day off; I'm not sure how I'll handle it.
I meant to link to this a few days ago, but Radovan Karadzic was finally convicted of genocide.
The Sisterhood of the Easter Rising
"I’m not here to argue about Clinton versus Sanders. I genuinely like them both. I’m here to say that I’m sick of seeing her reviled for the same things people forgive easily when they’re done by men, and that the stakes are too high this election cycle to indulge that or leave it unexamined."
"Through this series of tiny gestures, Obama achieved what 50 years of American resistance to Cuba was not able to. He defused any lingering military tension. He showed the Cuban people that America has good intentions. And he managed to humiliate the Castros, utterly, without appearing, even in the slightest, aggressive. He did all that in a couple of hours. There's only one word for it: genius."
Wow: French journalist Florence Hartmann jailed by war crimes tribunal
Voters in Arizona had to wait in line for hours to cast ballots. Here’s why that matters.
Slate has started a Trump Apocalypse Watch, if you're into that kind of thing.
Here is an important read about Jian Ghomeshi.
On Race, Good Intentions, and the Benefit of the Doubt
I think this overstates the supposed current awesomeness of Manchester a bit, but it's an interesting read on the history of the city.
We should make espresso in chocolate Easter eggs a thing.
People In Western Art Who Can Only Be Lovingly Described As “Wan” And “Bitchy”
I meant to link to this a few days ago, but Radovan Karadzic was finally convicted of genocide.
The Sisterhood of the Easter Rising
"I’m not here to argue about Clinton versus Sanders. I genuinely like them both. I’m here to say that I’m sick of seeing her reviled for the same things people forgive easily when they’re done by men, and that the stakes are too high this election cycle to indulge that or leave it unexamined."
"Through this series of tiny gestures, Obama achieved what 50 years of American resistance to Cuba was not able to. He defused any lingering military tension. He showed the Cuban people that America has good intentions. And he managed to humiliate the Castros, utterly, without appearing, even in the slightest, aggressive. He did all that in a couple of hours. There's only one word for it: genius."
Wow: French journalist Florence Hartmann jailed by war crimes tribunal
Voters in Arizona had to wait in line for hours to cast ballots. Here’s why that matters.
Slate has started a Trump Apocalypse Watch, if you're into that kind of thing.
Here is an important read about Jian Ghomeshi.
On Race, Good Intentions, and the Benefit of the Doubt
I think this overstates the supposed current awesomeness of Manchester a bit, but it's an interesting read on the history of the city.
We should make espresso in chocolate Easter eggs a thing.
People In Western Art Who Can Only Be Lovingly Described As “Wan” And “Bitchy”
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Morning Coffee (3/26/16)
ICYMI, in yesterday's Friday Five I talked about mystery series that should be TV shows.
Here's what's going on with Cruz and the National Enquirer. FWIW, Anne Helen Petersen, who knows whereof she speaks, pointed out on Twitter that the people who investigated things that turned out to be real (like the Edwards story) are no longer AT the Enquirer. So.
And this, about tweets alluding to this story for a while now, almost made me sad that I don't follow more conservative media figures on Twitter. Almost.
UGH: Bernie Sanders’s Hail Mary: maybe superdelegates can save me Hint: If you need the party elite to overturn the will of the people to give you power, you are NOT inspiring a populist revolution.
The one thing he's consistent on: Donald Trump Hates Women
And: White Men Prefer Trump's Overt Misogyny to Clinton's Failure to Center Them Every Moment
"If Kasich wins the nomination after effectively determining that primary voters’ preferences needn’t count, then that establishes primary voters’ preferences needn’t count."
Good Friday and the feast of the Annunciation fell on the same day this year (yesterday) and here is a fascinating post about the history and theological and artistic significance of that.
Kate Spade’s Shiny, Sparkly Success Story
Need a reading list? A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction
Better late than never? NFL acknowledges, for first time, link between football, brain disease
This tragic story brings up a lot of interesting questions about the interaction between cultures; I'm inclined to think that, at least in this case (as described in this article), some of the "they have to be kept isolated to preserve their pure primitiveness" feels like fetishization more than like what the people themselves necessarily want.
Every Meal In Wuthering Heights Ranked In Order Of Sadness
Here's what's going on with Cruz and the National Enquirer. FWIW, Anne Helen Petersen, who knows whereof she speaks, pointed out on Twitter that the people who investigated things that turned out to be real (like the Edwards story) are no longer AT the Enquirer. So.
And this, about tweets alluding to this story for a while now, almost made me sad that I don't follow more conservative media figures on Twitter. Almost.
UGH: Bernie Sanders’s Hail Mary: maybe superdelegates can save me Hint: If you need the party elite to overturn the will of the people to give you power, you are NOT inspiring a populist revolution.
The one thing he's consistent on: Donald Trump Hates Women
And: White Men Prefer Trump's Overt Misogyny to Clinton's Failure to Center Them Every Moment
"If Kasich wins the nomination after effectively determining that primary voters’ preferences needn’t count, then that establishes primary voters’ preferences needn’t count."
Good Friday and the feast of the Annunciation fell on the same day this year (yesterday) and here is a fascinating post about the history and theological and artistic significance of that.
Kate Spade’s Shiny, Sparkly Success Story
Need a reading list? A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction
Better late than never? NFL acknowledges, for first time, link between football, brain disease
This tragic story brings up a lot of interesting questions about the interaction between cultures; I'm inclined to think that, at least in this case (as described in this article), some of the "they have to be kept isolated to preserve their pure primitiveness" feels like fetishization more than like what the people themselves necessarily want.
Every Meal In Wuthering Heights Ranked In Order Of Sadness
Friday, March 25, 2016
Friday Five: Mysteries Series That Should Be TV Shows
Grantchester returns to PBS for season two this weekend, and I am VERY EXCITED, so let's talk about other mystery books that should be TV shows, and what networks they belong on! I look forward to hearing your ideas.
1. I've said this for years, but Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books are much better suited to an open-ended show than a frankly rather terrible movie franchise. (I'm pretty attached to that scene where Jason O'Mara makes her an omelet, though.) If USA still made what I think of as USA shows, this would be perfect for them, but these days I guess I'd give a female-driven soapy procedural to ABC.
2. J.D. Robb's In Death series of futuristic procedurals with a romantic suspense angle would also be perfect for an open-ended TV series. Anything sci-fi makes me think Syfy at first, but this would actually be perfect for Fox - it's like a mix of Bones and Almost Human. They could launch it off Bones's final season. They need something. Now I'm angry they're not actually doing this.
3. I feel so strongly that Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series would make the perfect anthology mystery series - one complex case per season, rotating protagonists with some cast overlap - that I text friends about it at least once a week. (It has been optioned but there's been no news in quite a while.) I don't know enough about Irish TV to know if there's someone suitable there to make and export it, but if not, let's give it to ITV.
4. P.J. Tracy's Monkeewrench series, about anti-social game developers helping the cops solve murders, sounds a lot like CBS's Scorpion when I put it that way. Huh. It has a more adult feel to it, though, and involves less action, and . . . let's give it to TNT. After CSI: Cyber I don't actually trust CBS to make anything that not intensely stupid about programmers.
5. Jane Haddam's Gregor Demarkian mysteries, about a retired FBI agent who returns to his Armenian-American neighborhood and starts freelance consulting on murder cases, are probably my favorite series that virtually no one I know reads. (Though someone must, as there are almost thirty of them and you don't publish that many books if no one's reading.) The complexity and standalone nature of the cases lends itself to the traditional British model of short seasons of movie-length episodes (think Poirot or Foyle's War), even though these are American. Hey, PBS is trying to do more original drama. Let's put this on Masterpiece! Mystery.
1. I've said this for years, but Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books are much better suited to an open-ended show than a frankly rather terrible movie franchise. (I'm pretty attached to that scene where Jason O'Mara makes her an omelet, though.) If USA still made what I think of as USA shows, this would be perfect for them, but these days I guess I'd give a female-driven soapy procedural to ABC.
2. J.D. Robb's In Death series of futuristic procedurals with a romantic suspense angle would also be perfect for an open-ended TV series. Anything sci-fi makes me think Syfy at first, but this would actually be perfect for Fox - it's like a mix of Bones and Almost Human. They could launch it off Bones's final season. They need something. Now I'm angry they're not actually doing this.
3. I feel so strongly that Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series would make the perfect anthology mystery series - one complex case per season, rotating protagonists with some cast overlap - that I text friends about it at least once a week. (It has been optioned but there's been no news in quite a while.) I don't know enough about Irish TV to know if there's someone suitable there to make and export it, but if not, let's give it to ITV.
4. P.J. Tracy's Monkeewrench series, about anti-social game developers helping the cops solve murders, sounds a lot like CBS's Scorpion when I put it that way. Huh. It has a more adult feel to it, though, and involves less action, and . . . let's give it to TNT. After CSI: Cyber I don't actually trust CBS to make anything that not intensely stupid about programmers.
5. Jane Haddam's Gregor Demarkian mysteries, about a retired FBI agent who returns to his Armenian-American neighborhood and starts freelance consulting on murder cases, are probably my favorite series that virtually no one I know reads. (Though someone must, as there are almost thirty of them and you don't publish that many books if no one's reading.) The complexity and standalone nature of the cases lends itself to the traditional British model of short seasons of movie-length episodes (think Poirot or Foyle's War), even though these are American. Hey, PBS is trying to do more original drama. Let's put this on Masterpiece! Mystery.
Morning Coffee (3/25/16)
Happy Friday! (As usual, my Friday links are positive/light/funny/cute; we'll return to the usual misery tomorrow.)
If you are a Patreon backer! You should have gotten my March update yesterday, complete with a survey on what content you'd like to see here.
ICYMI, my thoughts on Tana French's Faithful Place.
It's Friday: Let's watch President Obama dance the tango. (He did well enough that I wonder if someone prepped him a bit, just in case this situation came up on this trip to Argentina.)
It's Friday: Let's ogle Prince Harry with a beard and a hat and an adorable baby in Nepal.
It's Friday: Let's watch the Hamilton cast do one of their songs as a scene from The West Wing IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
It's Friday: Go look at my friends' adorable new puppy. (I envy Nicole Cliffe her daily dog pictures in her link roundups on The Toast - do you read those? You should - but not enough to actually get a dog, so.)
I pretty much want one of everything from the new Liberty London line for Uniqlo.
This is just PERFECT and hilarious: Debilitating illnesses in literature, ranked
If you need an ego boost, this Which Jewish Woman Writer Are You? quiz gives GREAT results. I'm Dorothy Parker! My friends all seem to be Nora Ephron or Judy Blume! There is no downside here!
Ooh, a new Cole Porter musical may be headed to Broadway!
If you're watching The People vs. O.J. Simpson (and you should be!) check out this interview with the production designer and set decorator.
Keep Track of Every Mission Throughout the Solar System with This Handy Map (It's also GORGEOUS.)
I would have LOVED AltSchool as a kid.
This is so cool: How Gallaudet University’s Architects Are Redefining Deaf Space
If you are a Patreon backer! You should have gotten my March update yesterday, complete with a survey on what content you'd like to see here.
ICYMI, my thoughts on Tana French's Faithful Place.
It's Friday: Let's watch President Obama dance the tango. (He did well enough that I wonder if someone prepped him a bit, just in case this situation came up on this trip to Argentina.)
It's Friday: Let's ogle Prince Harry with a beard and a hat and an adorable baby in Nepal.
It's Friday: Let's watch the Hamilton cast do one of their songs as a scene from The West Wing IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
It's Friday: Go look at my friends' adorable new puppy. (I envy Nicole Cliffe her daily dog pictures in her link roundups on The Toast - do you read those? You should - but not enough to actually get a dog, so.)
I pretty much want one of everything from the new Liberty London line for Uniqlo.
This is just PERFECT and hilarious: Debilitating illnesses in literature, ranked
If you need an ego boost, this Which Jewish Woman Writer Are You? quiz gives GREAT results. I'm Dorothy Parker! My friends all seem to be Nora Ephron or Judy Blume! There is no downside here!
Ooh, a new Cole Porter musical may be headed to Broadway!
If you're watching The People vs. O.J. Simpson (and you should be!) check out this interview with the production designer and set decorator.
Keep Track of Every Mission Throughout the Solar System with This Handy Map (It's also GORGEOUS.)
I would have LOVED AltSchool as a kid.
This is so cool: How Gallaudet University’s Architects Are Redefining Deaf Space
Thursday, March 24, 2016
2016 Books: Faithful Place
Faithful Place by Tana FrenchPenguin Viking, 2010
400 p.
Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad books have quickly become one of my favorite mystery series, and I can't decide whether I want to tear through the rest or space them out. (Book six comes out in August, so I'll probably catch up by then.) With each book in this series, I wonder if I'll be able to get attached to a new protagonist, but of course I always can. I love how these are so different in character and case specifics but all strongly written and absorbing. Faithful Place has two murders that take place a few decades apart - I tend to like that in a mystery - and French does an admirable job of drawing the Ireland of the 1980s as well as the current setting. I really liked Frank and his complicated family; the one thing I missed in this one was the time the previous books spent in the actual Murder Squad headquarters.
If you like complex, character-driven mysteries, you should definitely try these, but start with In the Woods.
See all the books I've read this year here.
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