On HU
Featured Archive Post: Ng Suat Tong on comics adaptations of Lovecraft.
Bert Stabler on the art show “Shojo Manga! Girl Power!” (reprinted from the Gay Utopia; I’m hoping to move posts over from there to here weekly.)
What’s the most underrated band/musical act? Votes for everyone from Sly Stone to Gang of Four to Terence Trent D’Arby.
Alex Buchet lists the original sources for Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy.
Patrick Carland wishes Disney wouldn’t de-evilfy Meleficent.
Chris Gavaler on V for Vendetta, the superhero Alan Moore hates.
Frank Bramlett thinks about representing song and speech in comics for PencilPanelPage.
Me on Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and fascists fighting fascism.
Jacob Canfield has updated his review of the Graphic Textbook with extra bonus hate.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At the Atlantic I argue that Lupita Nyong’o is a fashion icon because she decided to be, not because she’s been fetishized.
At Salon I did a list of 10 songs for Hobbits.
At the Dissolve I reviewed:
—Bethlehem, a film about espionage in the Palestinian territories which is the best thing I’ve seen so far this year;
—u want me to kill him?, which is a piece of offensive exploitation dreck.
At Splice Today:
— I watched Nightjohn, which is okay but not the masterpiece all the film snobs say it is.
—I argued that decentralization is not a moral good in itself.
And the study guide for the Bourned Identity which I worked on is up at Shmoop.
Other Links
Always good to see someone hating Andrew Jackson.
Simon During on how we should stop defending the humanities.
Some idiot opines on why black people like Instagram.
Dahlia Lithwick points out that civil rights attorneys are now disqualified from being confirmed for executive positions.
Mary McCarthy provides blogging advice.
What in the world happened in the comments to your Lupita Nyong’o article? Pretty much the only thing you do in that article is quote Lupita Nyong’o, herself, talking about black fashion icons to say that she’s probably purposefully positioning herself as a black fashion icon. That seems pretty straightforward and non-controversial to me…
Partly it’s people reacting to the headline rather than the article. Partly it’s people loathing fashion and disliking the idea that success in it could be worthy of praise, or even notice. Part of it’s standard issue racism.
As one commenter noted, Bo Hansson really should have been on the otherwise intriguing Tolkien music list!