Some #TIFF20 thoughts. NOMADLAND is as beautiful as you've heard. It's very hard to make a story that is about both poverty and difficulty without making it entirely about misery. Also one of the most gorgeous studies of the United States west of the Mississippi you'll ever see.
BEANS is a terrific coming-of-age story, moving with enormous grace between stories of adolescent identity and a history of Mohawk communities at a particular moment in history. #TIFF20
For someone who grew up near Philadelphia, 40 YEARS A PRISONER is a fascinating look at the history of MOVE *before* the bombing and at the members who spent decades in prison. #TIFF20
I so appreciated the wit and melancholy and quiet weirdness of APPLES, a story about memory and loss under a soft haze of speculative fiction. #TIFF20
Watching Pete Souza's photos go by in THE WAY I SEE IT is ... well. It will make you recall the Obama years vividly, however you recall them. #TIFF20
I really liked HOLLER, a story about decay that makes very literal the idea that communities falling to pieces do whatever they can to salvage what's left. #TIFF20
AKILLA'S ESCAPE is a somber take on the one-long-night film, with a dynamite central performance from Saul Williams. Liked it a lot. #TIFF20
I'd be lying if I said I'm certain I'd have liked everything so much if this were a normal year. But it's not. It's a very not normal year, and other people's art is like a jolt of humanity that just means the world to me.
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I want to talk about producers for a minute. Specifically, producers of roundtables like @pchh, whose jobs are maybe less understood than producers of narrative shows that involve extensive sound design and scripting.
Our producers do a huge number of things that make the show possible. They are an integral part of our planning meetings. They pitch ideas for things we should cover. They pitch guests we could invite. They provide crucial perspectives on things they have expertise about.
They do our booking. That means, in our case, arranging a time when up to four panelists, who are sometimes not only in different time zones but in different countries, can all do it at the same time. As needed, they troubleshoot tech for people recording at home or book studios.
The ability of forces within baseball to successfully, vigilantly stamp out fun is really impressive. si.com/.amp/extra-mus…
Was there really some kind of concern that this hat was going to make people think, “Aha, apparently there is more than one official MLB hat!” sportingnews.com/us/amp/mlb/new…
One of the things they get at in this episode is that the vast majority of popular relationship self-help is aimed at straight women. And one reason these books work when written by men is that women hope it will help to have their feelings backed up by a man with authority.
But often what happens is that there’s a little of that (“yes, you should indulge your wife’s little expectations, like kindness and drying dishes”) combined with a lot of undermining bullshit (“stop being a NAG”).
And what women walk away with is a continuing feeling that the relationship is a job they have that their husbands can be persuaded to help with if wooed correctly. Like the dishes.
Today I made this apple cake soaked in a literal cup of bourbon. It was delicious and tasted exactly like a good cake soaked in a cup of bourbon. If it had had *any* more, it would have been too much. It was maximum bourbon.
I poured the bourbon (and sugar and butter) glaze over the cake with it still in the Bundt pan and I thought, “This is not going to soak in. It’s too much! I’ve flown too close to the sun!” But no. Almost! But no.
I would be tempted to start the day tomorrow with a taste of it at breakfast with some coffee, but that’s really too early to drink on a Monday.
“If we make exceptions, we will teach that there are no rules at all” is a ridiculous position to take. Basically all rules have exceptions. As is pointed out in the piece, the normal result of backing out of an agreement is compensating the other party.
And particularly where minors are involved, the law has always recognized that they may change their minds! There is probably a letter-of-the-law justification for how this went down, but in principle, “a deal is a deal” is not typically enforced against kids.