Ta-Nehisi Coates’ MAJESTERIAL piece on mass incarceration in America is out, and I am highly confident it is brilliant, but I am going to bed before I can read it, so I’m linking pre-emptively and we can talk about it in the morning!
The Awl has a very long and good thing about the rise of adblockers, and how they will murder and destroy my beautiful website that I cherish so much, already knocking out an ABSURD percentage of our revenue. Once the redesign hits, and the site becomes beautiful and easy to read and free of auto-play weirdness, etc., I will have to have a long talk with you about the need to whitelist our site. Most regular readers are pretty good about it, honestly, it’s more Facebook traffic, etc., but the single nicest thing you can do for the site is to whitelist:
The math is even starker for smaller publications and individual bloggers, who rely more heavily on display advertising—and who have already been battered by shifts in the advertising market; some longtime professional bloggers, like Heather Armstrong, have given up writing their blogs full-time. The Awl’s publisher Michael Macher told me that “the percentage of the network’s revenue that is blockable by adblocking technology hovers around seventy-five to eighty-five percent.” Nicole Cliffe, one of the founders of The Toast, said that “adblocker is brutal for us. And people always break out the ‘Subscribers model! I donate twenty bucks a year!’ thing but it doesn’t add up.”
Joan Acocella on Elmore Leonard:
In 1981 a fan of Leonard’s, Gregg Sutter, began doing research for him; eventually he went to work for him full-time. Sutter is editing the Library of America’s three-volume set of Leonard’s work. The second volume was just published. Each volume ends with an invaluable twenty-eight-page chronology—almost a biography—and Sutter is at work on a full-scale biography. It is no doubt owing to him that I now know how to open a metal door locked by a deadbolt, where to shoot an alligator (right behind the skull) if I mean to kill it, and how to obtain financing for a movie. Indeed, I believe I could steal a car.
A roundtable on Nancy Meyerssssss:
Tyler: It seems unavoidable to compare Meyers to Nora Ephron, although I agree with what Durga says: Meyers’ women never completely unravel the way Ephron’s can (I’m thinking, in particular, Meryl in It’s Complicated vs. Meryl in Heartburn). Meyers’s M.O. is “keep it breezy, keep it beachy.” Maybe my appreciation for it is rooted in the extremely low stakes she sets up for her characters’ conflict. That’s probably also why a lot of people find her movies somewhat annoying! But again, the stakes are always subjective, and I generally feel as though someone’s hatred of Meyers’ movies is indicative of some deeply rooted anger toward, I dunno, rich white women? Who, as a group, can be annoying, but are probably the least offensive and awful demographic out there. I always mention a co-worker who screamed—SCREAMED!—at me when I said that It’s Complicated is a good movie. “Oh, the one about the lady buying a new kitchen? Yeah, I can really relate to that!” This might be my queer experience here, but…do you have to relate to a protagonist to enjoy a movie? I rarely see many characters exactly like me, and I grew up having to see myself in a variety of people on screen. (Also, does my former coworker “relate” to any of the characters in Pulp Fiction? Gimme a break.) Maybe the idea that Meyer’s successful formula has influenced copycat movies is something that seems so tiresome to mostly male critics, who would rather watch movies about things other than emotional catharses and, well, feelings in general. Those types of movies (at least in Quentin Tarantino’s point of view) are not what anyone “will remember,” because I guess they lack some sort of prestigious filmmaking quality? But I would suggest that Meyers is as much of an auteur as anyone else.
This is a great cause, which helps poor people gain access to affordable legal representation in Canada, and would be a nice thing to support! And here is another one, aiding refugees seeking asylum.
Canadians are known for a few food treasures: poutine, Montreal-style bagels, Tim Horton’s and All Dressed chips. Though we can’t bring you a Timmy Ho’s donut anytime soon, Ruffles isbringing All Dressed chips to a U.S. store near you for a limited time only, from Sept. 14 through Dec. 7.
The terrible world of casting notices:
I’m about a size 10. I don’t go on many auditions, but when I do, the roles I go for are described as “underdog,” “chubby,” and — my favorite — “not aspirational-looking.” I recently did a Listerine audition where a leaf-blower was blown into my mouth from ten inches away as I shouted the phrase “I’m a trainwreck!” over and over again, while the older white male “boss type” I was playing opposite reacted in horror. The roles I am considered “right” for are never those of bosses (because I am not male) or strong, confident women (because I am not thin by commercial standards).
My friend Carrie’s new puppy ate about twenty pounds of treats in puppy training class:
You know we love us any story about our favourite lady pirates:
The fateful meeting of these two “fierce hell cats” occurred when Calico Jack’s crew overtook the ship Mary Read was currently crewing. Mary joined Calico Jack’s gang. Legend has it that Anne became attracted to the feminine man with the high pitched voice. When Mary revealed her true gender to Anne, it only deepened their friendship–which some say turned to romance.
As a Key and Peele megastan, I am only reconciled to the show’s end by being able to enjoy all the retrospectives and thinkpieces the final season has spawned. I have plenty of quibbles with this definitive ranking of all 298 sketches, but we agree solidly on the genius of the Gremlins 2 script doctor sketch, which I literally cannot stop watching:
