Quote for These Times #3

[not to be confused with its sister ongoing feature, Quote from a Fictional Character]

"Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone."

--- Czeslaw Milosz

Rec. #401: The Good Place, season 1

What: The show begins when Kristen Bell's character learns from Ted Danson's character that she's dead and in "The Good Place."

First problem: She realizes she doesn't belong there.

Second problem: Everything that follows.

Comparable to: Created by Michael Schur, so it's tonally similar to his other shows, Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Privilege check: The show passes the Bechdel test and (misleading poster notwithstanding) features characters of a variety of ethnicities. It's not too heteronormative, although this particular universe is comprised of paired soulmates, which seems to preclude both polyamory and asexuality. Overall, especially for a rich white dude, Michael Schur (and his team) do pretty well.

How to get it: Stream the whole thing on Hulu, including episodes with extended cuts!

Perfect for rewatching the whole first season, which is probably what you'll want to do after the truly excellent season finale.

Quote for These Times #2

[not to be confused with its sister ongoing feature, Quote from a Fictional Character]

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read."

--- James Baldwin

Weekly Wreck of the Web #5

Ten links of interest:

1. Hong Kong's "Villain Hitters" Use Sorcery to Vent Political Anger

2. A Reminder that Brooklyn Nine-Nine Is a Great Show

3. How Some Cool Silent Film Effects Were Done

4. A Moment of Silence for Black and Brown Talent That Grew on Vine

5. Spectacular Rooftops Around the World

6. There Will Soon Be 100 Days of Anti-Trump Songs

7. The Internet Is Becoming Unreadable Because of Lighter, Thinner Fonts

8. Lin-Manuel Miranda Wrote a West Wing Song

9. Newspaper Lists Trump Inauguration as a Twilight Zone Reboot

10. Hidden Figures as a GIF

Quote for These Times #1

[not to be confused with its sister ongoing feature, Quote from a Fictional Character]

"How happy we were, and how little we realized how nice it was to be lazy and happy, without fear and anxiety and horror knocking at the back of one's brain like a little gnome with a hammer."

--- Henrietta,

Henrietta's War, Joyce Dennys, 1939

(Rec. #344)

Weekly Wreck of the Web #4

Ten links of interest:

1. Yoko Ono's Cleaning Pieces

2. I Am Not Your Negro Trailer: James Baldwin Talks Race Relations in America

3. Travel Man Christmas special ["48 Hours in Florence"]

4. Hong Kong in the 1950s Captured by a Teenager

5. The Best Photographs of Barack Obama's Presidency

6. This Artist Is the Only Person Banned from Using the World's Pinkest Pink

7. This Year's Golden Globes, Grammys, and Academy Awards Will All Be Hosted by White, Straight Men Named James

Three-parter from The Guardian:

8. Climate Deniers, Conspiracists and One-Percenters: Trump's Cabinet of Characters

9. Trump's Cabinet Picks: Here Are All of the Appointments So Far

10. What You Need to Know: Confirming Trump's Cabinet

List #63: People in the Media I Actually Liked in 2016, Part Two

Corporate media let us down in many, many, many ways last year.

But! Here are some media people I actually liked in 2016:

[See Part One here for #1-5.]

6. Nadiya Hussain

Who: Baker, columnist, author, television presenter

Two of the whats: The Great British Bake Off (tv), Nadiya's Kitchen (book)

Where:
For The Great British Bake Off (series 6) - YouTube, intermittently
For Nadiya's Kitchen - library or bookseller of your choosing

7. Daniel Levy

Who: Actor, writer, producer

One of the whats: Schitt's Creek (tv show)

Where: Amazon Prime

8. Kate McKinnon

Who: Comedian, actor

Two of the whats: Singing "Hallelujah" on SNL as Hillary Clinton (tv), Ghostbusters (movie)

Where:
For "Hallelujah" performance - Hulu
For Ghostbusters - rent, buy, or borrow from the source of your choosing

9. Michael Schur

Who: Producer, writer

Three of the whats: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, an A+++ Twitter

Where:
For Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Hulu
For The Good Place - Hulu
For his Twitter - @KenTremendous

10. Ngozi Ukazu

Who: Web comic author/artist

One of the whats: Check, Please!
[you might think you don't care about fictional college hockey players ... you are so, so, so wrong]

Where: Start the comic here

List #63: People in the Media I Actually Liked in 2016, Part One

Corporate media let us down in many, many, many ways last year.

But! Here are some media people I actually liked in 2016:

1. Richard Ayoade

Who: Writer, director, actor (of the British variety)

One of the whats: Travel Man (tv show) (Rec. #396)

Where:
Channel 4 if you're in the U.K.; otherwise, YouTube

2. Samantha Bee

Who: Late-night host, author

Two of the whats: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (tv show), I Know I Am, But What Are You? (book) (Rec. #285)

Where:
For Full Frontal - TBS or, you guessed it, YouTube
For I Know I Am, But What Are You? - buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able

3. Carrie Brownstein

Who: Musician, writer, actor

Two of the whats: Portlandia (tv show), The Realest Real (short film)

Where:
For Portlandia - IFC, or stream on Netflix
For The Realest Real - YouTube

4. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins

Who: Comedians, hosts

One of the whats: The Great British Bake Off (tv show)

Where: Was on the BBC in the U.K.; PBS in the U.S.; sporadically findable on YouTube

5. Adam Goldman

Who: Writer, director, actor

Two of the whats: The Outs (web series) (Rec. #280), Whatever This Is (web series)

Where:
For The Outs - season one at TheOuts.com, season two on Vimeo
For Whatever This Is - at WhateverThisIs.com
(also, his twitter is really great)


[Read Part Two here for #6-10.]

Weekly Wreck of the Web #3

Ten links of interest:

1. The Guardian's Travel Photographers of the Year

2. On Twitter: Sondheim Lyrics

3. Americans — especially but not exclusively Trump voters — believe crazy, wrong things

4. Wes Anderson Officially Announces New Film Isle of Dogs

5. Considering the Ankara Assassination Photos As History Painting

6. Lagoon Table Created from Merged Travertine and Marble

7. Trump Supporters Especially Oppose Public Policies When Cued to Think about Black People

8. Watch Footage from New Broadway-Bound Musical Amélie

9. Trump victory spurs women to run for office across US

10. The Best Dataviz of the Year: The IIB Awards Winners 2016

List #62: Five Songs That Capture My Year

1. "Play for Today" - Belle and Sebastian

Key lyrics:
Life is a secret,
Death is a myth,
Love is a fraud,
It's misunderstood.
Work is a sentence,
Family's a drag,
This house is a trap.

Moment in time captured: March 2016

2. "I'm Ready to Move On / Wild Heart Reprise" - Bleachers, Susanna Hoffs

Key lyrics:
So put your shotgun back in the glove
C'mon and wait another year for the dream far away
To come home, to be brave
Snow is falling all the time
Snow is smiling all the time
I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready to move on

Moment in time captured: August 2016

3. "Head Underwater" - Jenny Lewis

Key lyrics:
I put my head underwater, baby,
I threw my clothes away in the trash
I stood barefoot on the blazing concrete,
I was waiting for the gut of thunder to crash

Moment in time captured: October 2016

4. "Impossible Year" - Panic! At the Disco

Key lyrics:
There's no good times
This impossible year
Just a beachfront of bad blood
And a coast that's unclear

Moment in time captured: December 2016

5. "God Draws Straight" - original cast recording of Here Lies Love*

Key lyrics:
As I turned on my walkman,
And all I could hear - every station was Marcos, he’s on every TV
In an appliance store window he fills every screen,
Then the TVs went blank and his face disappeared.

Moment in time captured: Maybe the future?




* For those not familiar with the show, this is the final song --- its lyrics are taken from the oral histories of participants in the People Power Revolution that forced an end to the Marcos regime in the Philippines