Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Possible inspiration for #BoycottStarWarsVII As you may have heard, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has taken in more than a billion dollars worldwide, so far. $1.09 billion, to be exact. But the folks over on Return of Kings still think that their “boycott” of the film was a HUGE SUCCESS. How’s that, you ask? Well, as RoK contributor…
It must have been fate that “Tomatogate” would happen in the same year that women inadvertently kicked down the doors of the boys club that is country music. Earlier this year, esteemed radio consultant Keith Hill walked into a firestorm when he suggested in an interview that country music radio stations must limit the number…
/end .figure It is a time of tranquillity for the New Republic. The remnants of the Empire now lie in complete disarray, and the reemergence of the Jedi Knights has brought power and prestige to the fledgling government on Coruscant. Yesterday’s Rebels have become today’s administrators and diplomats, and the factions that fought against Imperial…
Fromm Star Wars to Mad Max, a new, more diverse kind of storytelling went mainstream this year – and the backlash shows how much it matters. I saw Star Wars this week like everyone else, and yes, it was madly entertaining, and no, it wasn’t perfect, and if I want to see a film that’s…
The Netflix documentary series “Making a Murderer” reexamines a murder case that the filmmakers believed to be potentially biased against the defendant. As the popularity of the series exploded over the past week, angry commenters and trolls have turned their anger toward the law enforcement and prosecution team featured in the series. The 10-episode series follows the…
Moustafa Bayoumi is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, where I teach political science. His book, “This Muslim American Life,” came out in September. It’s a fascinating collection of pieces—sometimes hilarious, often unsettling, always probing and provocative—about, well, Muslim life in America, past and present. There’s a mini-memoir about the time Moustafa worked as…
Gather round. Tokyopop are doing portfolio reviews at this year’s SDCC and as a creator who managed to complete two series with them before they went bankrupt* previously, I have some things to say about this. Should you, young aspiring creator, go and have your portfolio reviewed by them? Should you enter a Rising Stars of…
“Return Of The Jedi is great, but the Ewoks are so annoying.” That’s a pretty common refrain from Star Wars fans. In fact there are whole fan edits dedicated to removing the little fuzzy bears from the film’s climax; I can only assume they’re made by the most hardcore of Star Wars lovers. The idea…
Kylo Ren had a huge legacy to live up to in the new Star Wars, because Darth Vader is one of cinema’s all-time great villains. But Vader’s legacy is also a huge part of what makes Kylo Ren so fascinating—because he’s everything that Anakin Skywalker should have been in the prequels. A warning: there will…
My daughters, who are 10 and 12, have never been that into the Star Wars franchise. Princess Leia and her braided buns — and Padme Amidala with her ceremonial headdresses — didn’t interest them, even when their brother was busy snapping together the LEGO Millennium Falcon. But after I saw the The Force Awakens, I…