Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Photo George Takei Credit Andrew T. Warman for The New York Times You’re very busy for someone your age. You’ve written three books; you have a web series; and your musical, “Allegiance,” based on your family’s time in an internment camp during World War II, will debut on Broadway in November. As a matter of…
The problem comes at the interface where this notion collides with reality. Names aren’t that simple and the reasons people use names are also not that simple. It’s been covered a thousand times before. We use names that don’t match our ID on Facebook for safety, or because we’re trans, or because we’re just straight…
Photo Beth Hoeckel’s “Lips” (2013). Credit Image from “Babe” Last year, the pop star Rihanna posted a series of photographs on Instagram from a shoot for the French magazine Lui. In the photos, she’s sporting striking tan lines — and little else. Instagram objected, and the photos were deleted. Shortly after, Rihanna posted another image…
Actors Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons and Shameik Moore in Dope David Moir /sl-art-illo-cap /sl-art-illo-cntr First, let’s get this out of the way. Dope is a good movie. It is enjoyable, watchable and sweet. But it is also so sweet that if it were a drink, it would be a hipster, artisan rum punch drowning in…
Coming-of-age stories are about going through something defining. Movies like The Breakfast Club endure because the experiences they capture, like grappling with identity or awkward sexuality, are meant to be universal, signposts that mark the moments where we quit being kids. Resolution comes as each character — our teenaged avatars — take those first steps…
AddThis Button Begin NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Aiming to curb gender bias and harassment in New York City, officials are readying a plan that would require businesses to convert one-person restrooms into gender-neutral facilities. Legislation is being introduced that would require publicly available, single-occupancy restrooms in both public and private buildings to be designated as…
After her set at a Chicago bar last weekend, comedian Tamale Rocks made a sickening discovery in the women’s toilets. Directly facing the toilet was a full-length mirror (always awkward to get acquainted with your own peeface, but not intrinsically sinister), behind the full-length mirror was a door (sure, fine), and behind the door was…
“Dope” begins with an onscreen definition, which is a known characteristic of satires that ultimately fail in their satiric visions. Usually, these films open with a definition of satire, which they don’t live up to by the closing credits. “Dope” opts instead for Webster’s take on its title, defining it as slang for a stupid…
Photo From left, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons and Shameik Moore in “Dope.” Credit Rachel Morrison/Open Road Films A coming-of-age story that is at once a parody of, and a tribute to, ’90s-vintage ghetto dramas, “Dope” wears its pop-culture obsessions on its sleeve. So does its hero, Malcolm (Shameik Moore), a teenager navigating his senior year…
How do young black men see themselves in America today? This is the formidable question buried under the high-top fades and Cross-Colour jeans of Rick Famiyuwa’s natty new film Dope. It’s the story of Malcolm, a retro-obsessed hip-hop geek with Harvard aspirations navigating senior year in a rough section of Inglewood, California. He and fellow…