Sansa needs to know more about this brush situation.
I just woke up and saw the news that David Bowie has left the planet. He was a very special man. I will hurl you at Buzzfeed’s coverage bc I have lost the will to type:
I…am not capable of talking about the El Chapo / Sean Penn situation calmly. I hate Sean Penn with the fire of a billion suns, and I am obsessed with El Chapo (WHILE NOT APPROVING OF HIM, HE IS A LEGIT MONSTER), and that piece is SO TERRIBLE and also may have gotten him captured but I also hope Sean Penn goes to jail?
UNREAL SEASON TWO UNREAL SEASON TWO (I have been introducing Mallory to the first season, and she is HERE FOR IT.)
When it came to picking the right voice actor for the role of Brain, there was only one man for the job: Maurice LaMarche. In fact, as LaMarche recalls, he was the first and only man to audition for the role, because he had a lot of experience and his Orson Welles frozen peas rant impression was already a thing of legend. “I saw the model sheet for Brain, with that furrowed brow and dour expression and pudgy cheeks, I thought immediately, ‘Oh, this is Orson Welles,’” he tells us. “I did Welles with the dialogue and they went, ‘Oh my God, that’s genius. We didn’t think of that!’ They cast me on the spot. I was the first and last person to read for Brain.”
There is a new webseries about the lives of black girls in Rome!
Mallory and I are going to be doing a Shop Talk at Cornell on April 7th, and we would love to see you there!
This whole long piece about The Year in GOP Candidate Drama is full of gossip and horror, but the last sentence of this excerpt is a particular favourite:
With his exploration continuing in public, Romney more and more was leaning against running. Wife Ann supported the idea and wanted Mitt to be president, but their five sons were split. Tagg and Josh were for it, Matt and Craig were against it and Ben was on the fence. Romney suspected their wives were opposed, though they kept their opinions to themselves.
Baltimore public housing workers demanded sex for repairs:
M.G.’s refrigerator in her apartment in Gilmor Homes, a public housing complex in Baltimore, had been broken for years. She filed numerous work orders seeking to get it fixed or replaced, but nothing ever happened.
Until 2008, when an employee of the housing authority by the name of Michael Robertson told her that she had to have sex with him in order to get a new refrigerator.
“I was desperate,” she said in a sworn affidavit. “I am on disability and have limited means. I was consistently losing food and I was not able to afford new food. I felt that I had no choice.” She gave in and had sex with him twice. Afterward, she got two refurbished refrigerators over the course of two years.
On Friday, lawyers for M.G. and 18 other women who alleged that employees of Baltimore’s public housing agency demanded sex in return for critical housing repairs announced a settlement for all victims of sexual harassment in public housing.
On Friday, Mr. LePage, a Republican, characterized the statement as a slip of the tongue.
“I made one slip-up,” the governor said at a televised news conference at the state capitol in Augusta, organized after the remarks became public Thursday evening. “I made a one-word slip-up. I might have made many slip-ups. I was going impromptu, and my brain didn’t catch up to my mouth. Instead of saying ‘Maine women,’ I said ‘white women.’ I’m not going to apologize to the Maine women for that, because if you go to Maine, you’ll see that we’re essentially 95 percent white.”
After saying he would not apologize, Mr. LePage seemed to do just that. “So if I slipped up and used the wrong word, I apologize to all the Maine women,” he said.
*
David Chang on opening a new restaurant, and wonders why Asian food has to be cheap in the US (it’s a good question! high-end sushi being an exception, of course):
It pisses me off that Asian food has to be cheaper. Why? Not one person has given me a reason why. All the ingredients that we’re getting are top quality, and just as expensive as any other restaurant. Look at the version of cacio e pepe we’re serving here. The only expensive ingredient we’re not using is parmesan—and guess what parmesan is? MSG. We’re replacing the parmesan with our own fermented chickpea paste that took us six to nine months to make. So fuck you guys. I’m not getting on the phone and ordering a wheel of parmesan. Don’t tell me that I can’t charge like Italian food.
No, I shan’t (by the way, the STILL ROBUST pending comments on Nikki’s piece are now 98% racist and 2% dripping with condescending advice, in case you were wondering):
RIP in peace to David Bowie and happy 260-somethingth (he may have lied about his age so we don’t know the exact year) to Hamilton!
David Bowie is a time lord.
If anyone wants to traverse a labyrinth with me, I am sure that working together we can convince the goblins to give us back what they’ve stolen.
I may be planning to have Labyrinth on while I work today…
I’m putting it on this evening.
Same.
I put on his “greatest hits” album on my way to work and it was a mistake. It’s hard to ride a bicycle and suppress tears at the same time.
I’m not emotionally able to deal with Bowie today. Since I can’t do the emotional stuff I’m sticking with listening to all the Bowie and staring at pictures. What an epic person.
I have already spoken on the phone with my mom and Jaya this morning, because losing David Bowie is a matter of collective sadness and it’s nice to hear someone else’s voice.
My brother heard last night and woke me up because he couldn’t handle being sad about it alone.
“Wouldn’t that be a better way to turn it into a positive conversation” – oh my god, shut up.
Instead of saying ‘Maine women,’ I said ‘white women.’ I’m not going to apologize to the Maine women for that, because if you go to Maine, you’ll see that we’re essentially 95 percent white.” SHUT. UP.
Jamelle Bouie at Slate had a great piece on why LePage is a proto-Trump and it made a lot of sense and newly enraged me that he is the governor of Maine, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/p…
Not only is he Governor, he was RE-elected. Everyone I know in Maine is disgusted by this fact.
I will be SO HAPPY when we finally get a new governor. LePage is such an embarassment.
He is the worst and nothing he says surprises me anymore.
It isn’t even like this is the worst thing that he has said or done, which is why I’m so surprised that this is what the nation has picked up on.
Either way he does not represent he views of most of Maine.
Re proto-Trump: I assume that if trump somehow becomes president the nation will function the same way that Maine has functioned for the last five years- with republican and democrats in the legislature basically ignoring him and governing around him as much as possible. Unfortunately the stakes would be a bit higher.
Well, it is just so explicitly Highly Racist, both the initial statement and the follow-up. It’s just so clear. I had not been following the scandal particularly and thought it was going to be just a case of generic stupidity which can affect lots of people, foot-in-mouthism. It wasn’t until I read this summary here on the Toast that I knew the details… and that is just Openly Highly Racist stuff from a person holding high office. I have no idea what else he’s been up to, but I kind of don’t feel I need to know… there’s no way he can make this kind of “mistake” in speaking and not also be severely impaired as a thinker and decision maker.
I guess what I’m saying is, it’s notable how clear this is. Not even coded particularly, not a secret dogwhistle, just out there!
A friend of mine on Facebook this morning, that sent me straight into tears:
“David Bowie spent 69 years preparing for immortality. His greatest work is released today.”
Trying very, very hard to keep it together at work right now.
I am so glad to be working from home today; every time I see a new Bowie link I start tearing up again.
This got me. Wibbly now.
I am being slow about getting on the Hamilton bandwagon but have now listened to all of Act 1. I have a lot of feelings about, in particular, “Alexander Hamilton”, “Yorktown” and “Non-Stop”.
Well. The second half is really low on feelings. Just, you know, discussion of treasury policy, child rearing, and boundaries in marriage.
Oh yeah, no feels at all in the second half. Nothing for me to avoid listening to at work because breaking down at my desk is NOT A GOOD LOOK.
Heh. My daughter and I made the mistake of listening to disc 2 while I was driving her back to college after winter break– already full of emotions– and we were just a sobbing mess after Eliza and her damn orphans.
RIGHT? “I live another 50 years” is the line that hits me the hardest. Probably. There might be a dozen other lines contending for that honor.
“It is not enough.”
I’m tearing up right now just reading that
For me, it’s either there or Washington’s “She tells my story.”
~*~ the oooooorrphanaaaaaage ~*~ inevitably leads to me in tears. or sniffling. it’s ridiculous.
Made the mistake of listening to Act II for the first time on a long run in subfreezing temperatures. Running while totally choked up and tears are freezing on your face is…. not great
Yeah, I have to remember not to listen to it while walking my dog, because I don’t want to be the weirdo crying while walking through the neighborhood. Stupid disc 2.
It’s Quiet Uptown is all the sobs.
Burn is the one that has been wrenching me open.
When my ex chose Metamour (who is nonbinary) over me, my response was, “They don’t get to know what I said.”
As well as an explicit acknowledgement of how the women whose accomplishments are forgotten by history were instrumental in preserving the legacy of men
Feelings what feelings I don’t have any feelings about Eliza whaaat
I have literally spent the last three weeks flailing madly because Peggy is mentioned and then forgotten for the rest of the damn musical and she’s barely remembered anywhere online and it makes me SO frustrated! I HAVE PEGGY FEELS AND I ALSO FEELS ALONE IN THAT.
I legit tear up whenever I listen to “Yorktown.”
Really glad I’m not the only one.
I highly recommend finding the videon youtube…for some reason it’s one of the few songs available with the full staging. The look on Daveed Diggs’ face when they all say “we won” gets me every. single. time.
DUDE YES it’s so good, everyone, go find it if you haven’t. #freedomforAmericafreedomforFrance
OH MAN just watched it, thank you! Now to just spend forever aspiring to be HERCULES MULLIGAN I NEED NO INTRODUCTION
The exposition songs! I have a particular weakness for those, too. They each have a couple moments of solid feel-punches. Those and Washington’s theme are definitely my faves of the first act.
At first I was mostly into the songy-songs, like Satisfied and Helpless, but the more I listen the more I love the exposition. I vote LMM re-do the entire AP US History curriculum.
The exposition songs are legitimately my favorite, I cannot explain this, but oh god they are just… they are just perfect
The harmonies? The beautiful explanations of important points in USian history? The humanity behind the legends?
The momentum, maybe, reinforcing the urgency? “And so the American experiment begins” is a strange line to make me cry, relatively speaking, but it does every time.
I have to work so hard to prevent myself from just jumping up and down at the line, “MAAAAN, the man is NON-STOP!”
I woke up at 3:30 this morning because of cramps, checked my phone and saw that David Bowie had died and kept waking up after that because I wanted to believe it was a bad dream 🙁 Today is going to be a rough work day.
I couldn’t sleep last night for various reasons – I MAY have gotten 2.5 hours max. I assume now that it was just psychic shift ruling all of it.
Yes totally, I didn’t realize that the news actually broke around 3 am my time, so I’m choosing to believe that I woke up specifically around 3 for Reasons.
I woke up at 5:30 with asthma-related coughing, checked FB on a whim, and saw the collective cry of anguish on my wall.
It’s always been a bit of a thing for me, knowing that one day I’d live in a world without David Bowie in it. And that’s now. It always used to comfort me in some way, just knowing that he was going about his business somewhere and now he’s not. But what a way to go. I haven’t listened to Blackstar yet, going to need to give it some time.
It’s funny you say that because a world without Bowie is one of the last things I was expecting. I had just assumed, without really considering it, that he was immortal and that was that. It just doesn’t seem possible that he could be subject to something as normal and regular as death.
I never went through that stage of childhood where I believed my parents were immortal, but I absolutely 100% believed it about David Bowie.
This is me today too. :(((
Me too. I was poking around Facebook when his official page posted the announcement. I was completely convinced it was a hack or something because how could David Bowie die?
I’m still not 100% convinced anyway, deep down.
I’d gotten ★ on Friday, but hadn’t had a chance to listen to the whole thing over the weekend. I did this morning. It helped.
Someone posted on Facebook that we can be grateful that, in 3.5 billion years of existence (or whatever the figure is), we got to be alive at the same time as David Bowie.
Good point. Sorry, babies of tomorrow.
I feel like this Sean Penn situation should inspire a Jane the Virgin spoof, where Rogelio somehow accidently meets with Sin Rostro or Mudder.
I just found out Rogelio’s new show is going to be Doctor Who/Quantum Leap style telenovela and I am FREAKING OUT
I didn’t know that! Oh my gosh, that sounds AMAZING. I want them to create that show for real as a spinoff.
Sad forever that he couldn’t get Los Hombres Locos off the ground. And that it’s not a real show that I can watch.
YES I am here for this.
Related: every time I tweet about Jane the Virgin, Rogelio favorites my tweets.
Your wish is granted! http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jane-v…
*gasp!* are you…are you magic?
Yes. Yes I am. (If I did have that magic power, there would be slightly less love triangle this season, because Rafael and Michael both have overcorrected from being too perfect to being the worst.)
I do not like the world I woke up to this morning. I saw a comment to the effect that they always assumed that David Bowie would regenerate like the Doctor, and I’m also just now realizing that was true.
In the words of TLo, Don’t rest in peace. The universe deserves better. Keep going, Space Oddity. All of us down here on earth will continue to cheer you on.
Dance magic dance, y’all.
David Bowie’s entire existence was a celebration of oddness; a seven-decade manifesto that taught us not only that we didn’t have to be normal if it didn’t suit us, but that the pursuit of abnormalcy in one’s life can be an aesthetic, philosophical and most importantly, moral choice with true value and rewards.
That’s beautiful.
Social media are a mixed blessing at best, but in times like these I do think they’re a net positive: twitter this morning was a great way both to share sadness and grief and to celebrate this great man’s many lives.
Put on my best gold glitter makeup for the office this morning.
I remember Blue Jean – the blue lips, Bowie dancing on that catwalk thing, and I think about how many people this morning have said that he made it okay to be different, and how now that he’s gone, that really is up to the rest of us today.
Celebrating Bowie with gold glitter seems like the most appropriate tribute. Happening now.
I only had green glitter. But I wore it and all black (even lipstick) anyway, the world needs more fabulous to make up for its loss.
Between David Bowie leaving the planet and my inadvertent viewing of a clip from “Room” at the Golden Globes last night, I’m starting the week a total mess. Hi everyone!
It’s going to be one of those weeks, isn’t it? Let all stay home and curl up with a book and our warm drink of choice until things suck less.
I didn’t think I had tears for celebrities, but I also kind of forgot David Bowie was a mortal man.
I sort of always thought he’d outlive me, in particular, but also humanity in general, and I AM SO FUCKING SAD.
The thing going around that is “Earth has been around for whatever billion years, you were lucky enough to share it with David Bowie” is frankly not a lot of consolation right now.
No, no it’s not. The only thing to be done for me is to listen to Ziggy Stardust (my only answer to “What album do you want to listen to?” ever) on repeat while quietly sniffling at my desk.
Ugh yes, as I said to my friend “I didn’t know glittery space aliens could die????”
From Roddy Doyle this morning:
-See David Bowie died.
-See now – that makes no fuckin’ sense. Wha’ you just said.
-I know wha’ yeh mean. How can Bowie be dead? He was never alive, like the rest of us.
-Tha’ makes no fuckin’ sense either. But it’s bang on.
That’s it, that’s exactly it.
Aw, that link goes to this link roundup! Where should it go?
Sorry! Roddy Doyle’s Facebook page! If this link still doesn’t work (been having linking issues all morning) just go straight there.
In case you needed more terrible news, today is the day the Supreme Court begins hearing arguments against fair-share fees for public sector unions:
http://gawker.com/today-they-try-to-break-the-pub…
This is going to be a fucking disaster.
The “political speech” argument is unspeakably inane. If you don’t want to be associated with the advancement of statements that may or may not have an impact on public policy– wait, why did you become a teacher?
God that guy wrote an editorial for the WSJ about it and it just made me want to punch him in the face so hard.
“I don’t like what the California teacher’s union is doing, so I plan to torpedo every public sector union in the country.”
FUCK YOU, you simple motherfucker.
I am so willing to bet the woman whose name is on the case has never worked in a district where she desperately needs union protections (eg large urban district). If she had she’d never agree to this nonsense. The union contract was the only thing that saved us from all kinds of foolishness sometimes at my last job.
My wife is at a non-union charter school and it’s a god-damn nightmare. The only reason it isn’t worse is because the school has to set salary and benefits in a way that’s competitive with union rates.
For now, anyway.
You’re in Philly right? This whole system is such a mess. Those poor kids, I feel bad for leaving and I miss them but I couldn’t anymore and the more I hear the less I regret it.
Yeah, it’s a disaster. She’s trying to get out of there too, but it is an unbelievably tight market right now.
*nod* My wife is at a neighborhood school that Philly wants to convert into a charter. They’re all working so very hard there, and it’s awful.
I know, it’s like, sub forever and pray someone quits or get a job in another field. Or c) stop working entirely, which is what I did to SAHM although I kept up a few ed-related side gigs. It was a hard choice though since I don’t know if an English job will ever open up again, anywhere.
And then people are all, “why don’t you just get a job at a private school?” Like they’re hurting for teachers so bad they’ll just take whoever.
Yeah and the Philadelphia area is awful, because ten years ago we were telling everyone, “oh, just go get a teaching degree, people are always looking for math teachers.” Fun fact: people are NOT always looking for math teachers, not when every third school gets shut down and sends all its teachers back into the job market!
JESUS BALTIMORE
My last year there was spent basically shaking my fist and shouting this every morning. I tried to love you, Baltimore! Why you keep letting me down?!
The news on this has been out for a few weeks in the Sun, and yet everytime it crosses my eyes again I wonder why Graziano still has a fucking job
I like the trailer for “Black Girls In Rome”, but I feel like it lacks necessary information. What is it about? Is it just this one girl and the two older ladies? Is she going on a vacation or living there for an extended period of time? Is the presumably cheating boyfriend gone for good (I hope so)? What does “Spring 2016” mean? I need this nooow!
Of all the people to take, did it have to be David Bowie? What a wonderful start to the week (and the semester).
Completely off topic, but did the Toast always have 48 freaking trackers active? I mean, yeah, some ad trackers are useful, but… 48?! Is that intentional? I, of course, have adblock disabled, but that seems kind of overkill, no?
We usually have way fewer but John is fiddling with new ad sources right now to see what is worth our while (our ad revenue is down post-re-design, which we anticipated, and are now working on rebuilding) and I anticipate more trackers until everything settles.
Ah, that explains it! I was just a little bit shocked when Ghostery’s initial count was too long for the window to contain it, and worried about shenanigans. Thanks for the reply. 🙂
FYI lately when I visit the Toast on my (Android) phone I sometimes get one of those spammy “click here to keep using Whatsapp for free!” ads that takes over and freezes your entire browser, so one of those new ad sources may be dodgy.
Me too!
The death of David Bowie has sent me into a tailspin I’m unsure I can come back from.
He’s meant so much to me for so many reasons.
I’ve cried off and on all morning over this.
there’s nothing in our eyes, something in the air, something in my eye, i’ve danced with you too long
Guys there’s some elderly folks discussing Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz at the coffee shop I’m working on my job interview presentation at! This lady is all “my son said I should watch it” about Hot Fuzz! Dying. And they’re now very seriously explaining to each other than SotD is a PARODY of zombie movies. Good for them.
Also, I’m struggling not to dash over to Hot Fuzz lady and ask WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON MARTIN FREEMAN, I NEED TO KNOW, IT IS IMPORTANT.
I’m not a regular here, but I’m getting the impression that they are and it’s delightful.
I feel like maybe you should try and become a regular there and start joining in on their discussions. They sound delightful!
How elderly are they? Over 40? Over 60?
(JK, I tease my teens all the time that “over 40” is not the same as “elderly.”)
Anyways, I would expect those older folks are probably well-versed in all of the British cozy mysteries that Hot Fuzz sends up. I’ve loved HF since first viewing, but recently I’ve been on a cozy mystery kick, and every plot point, line, or odd coincidence that features in Hot Fuzz fills me with effervescent delight.
Yeah I hear ya, as someone who is almost 40 🙂
My spouse’s mom was a woman who could never ever understand satire. We would always try to watch, like Christopher Guest movies with her and she just did not get the joke. She was around 40 at this time so it’s not like not grokking satire is even the sole province of the elderly.
They’re…..probably 60-70. So maybe not exactly elderly, sorry! They’re at least my parents’ age, maybe older.
I didn’t hear about David Bowie until I got to work and I had to close the door to my room and go cry in the corner where no one could see through the window. I almost never get really upset about celebrity deaths but he was just so important to me. I have people in the room now and I have to hold it together but as soon as I have a break I’m closing the door again.
I also didn’t find out until getting to work. I’m glad my desk is in a back corner and I can blame my red eyes on being up to late last night.
Hearing this first thing after arriving at work really, absolutely destroyed me. I’m like, “Wait, why is the company not closed? How are other people working today? Why are there cars on the streets and flags at full staff?”
In short, today is a good day to have an office door I can close.
Hamiltoasts, I need your advice:
A friend has forwarded me an e-mail from an airline that offers a flight to New York for less than 200 €. I then realized that this was for a one-way ticket, but I could still get away with under 400 € for both ways.
And obviously Ticketmaster has Hamilton re-sale tickets. And then I had a look around Airbnb, and discovered a nice sounding, women only, not expensive lodging, along with the note “This is a rare find. This accomodation is usually full.” Obviously this doesn’t mean it would still be free when I’d actually go, BUT THEN my flatmate told me her sister got in a master’s programme in NY, and if she gets her visa in time, she’ll be there from February onwards.
It would still be a lot of money, but – should I do this? I feel like if I don’t go, I’ll regret it later on. But all the money?? I mean, I probably won’t decide this right now and instead wait for the visa news of my friend, but it also might be to late then for the relatively cheap flights??
I don’t know if it will sway you, since it won’t be the original cast, I’m sure, but! I heard Hamilton is opening in London in 2017… which might be cheaper to get to? But if it’s to see a friend AND an amazing show, then by all means (if you have the time and means) yes! It sounds like it would be splendid fun.
Wellll, she’s not actually a friend – she is my flatmate’s sister. Sure, I’ve met her, but actually I’m so excited about her moving to New York because I could maybe perhaps hopefully stay with her.
And I heard that too about London! Would definitely be cheaper, but as you said, not the original cast…
Since I’m going back to university in October, I do have a lot of time right now, and I had actually planned to travel – I just didn’t mean “going to New York to see a musical and then don’t have any money left for other travels”, but if I have the opportunity… Oh man, I just don’t know!
DO. IT.
I knew I could count on someone to say this 🙂
Ummmmm, I would consider selling a kidney to see it. So, there’s that.
It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime things.
I am all in favor of stunt traveling, normally, and also I believe in being transformed by art, but at the same time that is a heckofalot of cash you’re thinking about dropping (maybe as much again to a scalper as to an airline) for one performance of a musical that plays 8 times a week and will run for years. The group enthusiasm of the Internet makes it feel like this moment is unmissable, but in fact most people here will miss this lineup or this show and be none the worse for it. There will be other Super Hot and crazy talented men and women of color in the next cast and the London cast. And remember, none of these guys are single, the ticket doesn’t mean you get to have sex with any cast member.
If you’ve got that kind of money burning a hole in your pocket, do it and have a blast. You probably won’t regret it? But it isn’t the Ultimate Lived Experience, so think a while about what else you could do instead.
Well, as I said to secondursula above, I’m only going back to uni in autumn, and had already planned to spend some money on travelling – I just didn’t expect this to be a trip to New York. I just got really excited about this for a second (or some hours) before I knew that the under 200 € ticket was for one flight, because WOW WHAT A BARGAIN THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN.
You are right about the internet enthusiasm; and part of my longing also stems from the fact that another friend’s sister (not to one who is going to study in New York) is going there with her parents to see Hamilton (and probably at least one other show) – this is her gift for high school graduation (!!), and I’m super jealous and also feel that she doesn’t see the value of this gift – her parents are spending a lot of money, and she hasn’t even taken her final exams yet.
(And I can’t tell whether you’re joking about the sex part or not…? I do hope so, but if not, I can assure you that I had nothing of that kind in mind.)
I am of course joking about the sex, although there is a very, very strong carnal element to female fandom around this show, so the ‘original cast’ element is tied up to the rockstar charisma of some of the current actors. But it will be equally possible to project that fantasy onto the next cast. Their roles are, after all, extremely well written and extremely well costumed.
I saw the show and loved loved LOVED it, but in your position I’d wait for the London run, or at least until non-resale tickets are available in New York, and use the travel money for a more extended trip now. Part of the reason is that I saw an understudy for Burr and he was incredible, and it makes me feel like any professional cast doing this show is going to be not only talented but passionate and on fire and steeped in the work this original cast has done.
Yeah, you’re probably right, I just got carried away there for a moment…
Thing is, I can’t really plan for the time non-resale tickets are available, because I don’t even know what’ll be in three months from now, much less in the summer, and I’ll probably be moving in September to start my master’s, and I just can’t make plans for a time other than February or March right now. So it would have been now or never. (Or, in all likelihood, London.)
Do you have any interest in going to New York aside from Hamilton? Have you been before? If it is a trip that would interest you even without Hamilton, I’d say go for it. If you’re flying all the way from Europe just to see a musical and then turn around and go home, maybe reconsider. (Context: I live in New York, work in theatre, and enjoy Hamilton.)
These are very good questions that I have already asked myself, I just didn’t like the answer ;). Because, no, I probably wouldn’t want to go to New York if not for Hamilton. It just seemed to be a very cool, spontaneous thing to do, and I don’t often do this and then feel like I’m missing out on things. But yeah, you’re probably right, thanks for making me think about this!
It is so cold where I live, and I am so sad about David Bowie, but man. Sansa is adorable, and I will cling to that.
I have a radio alarm clock, so the news of David Bowie’s death was literally the first thing I heard this morning. I was a bit late for work because I could only lie there in disbelief – my brain just couldn’t process this information. How can David Bowie of all people be dead.
My husband pulled an all-nighter for work (poor guy) and was coming to dead a few minutes before my alarm went off, and he shared the news. 🙁
If you’re up for a proper wallow go listen to his last release, and presumed memento mori, Black Star. Be warned though that the song Lazarus stars with the line “Look up here, I’m in heaven” and it is crushing.
Oh god no I can’t. Space Oddity is almost too much right now.
Listening, crying- it’s one and the same.
The track ‘Blackstar’ is possibly my favorite from the album. Since it came out the other week, every time I’ve listened to it I’ve found more to like about it. I love a good, lengthy, multi-genre track. And the music video is amazing, too.
I just watched the video to Lazarus, and now I’m crying at my desk.
My co-workers don’t UNDERSTAND. I’m going to go drink tea out of my David Bowie mug now.
I just heard the title song “Blackstar” on my local indie radio station, and I am completely blown away by it. It’s unbelievable. (It’s also about death, so be warned.)
I love Lazarus. I’ve been listening to it loads ever since it was released and I was so thrilled to get my copy of Blackstar so I could listen to it while driving. But it’s been so hard listening to it since the news. Crushing indeed.
According to The Telegraph, his producer has confirmed that the entire album and all the videos were intended as a parting gift to his fans.
My brother was also a musician and after his death, listening to the last handful of songs he wrote also had an eerie Memento mori quality in his absence. Gutting and heartwrenching and beautiful all at once.
“How does my public feel about me, Mother?”
They appear to really need a fluffy animal today.
“Well, I am here to be the best potato I can be.”
Definitely the best potato ever.
This potato is my favorite potato.
Thank you for this potato
So fluffy.
*signs incorrectly*
We like your potato.
…sorry yall, my brain is still all sherlock christmas special all the time.
This is a good potato.
The very best potato. Thank you ❤️
Charlie, you are the best potato.
Thank you. You are indeed the best potato that can be.
an excellent potato.
THAT PUPPY IS SO FLUFFY! AAAAAAAAAAAFHGSSDFSEFJHGGGGGGGGGGGHhhhh
It’s weird how much I am in favour of Charlie’s fuzziness, because usually I am opposed to potatoes being fuzzy.
Charlie Potato Hashbrowns, you soothe my grief. <3
Charlie Potato Hashbrowns, we thank you for this much-needed fluffiness. Your devotion to duty is an inspiration to us all.
Thank you for sharing your potato. I spent my morning listening to Republican dad jokes while getting a root canal; I wish I could shnorgle your potato’s belly right now ngl.
*offering all the scritches / hugs / cuddles to the floofy potato that he would like*
Woke up to a loud wail from my partner, who read aloud the headline while trying to snooze. He ended up not going back to sleep.
I love Roddy Doyle’s tribute to him. His two old men commenting on life and world events in an Irish pub is one of my favorite things on the internet.
Re Paul LePage: Here is a list of ridiculous things he has said between the years 2010-2013. My partner and I alternated between groaning and laughing incredulously at some of the shit he has sad, but mostly are bummed that we could not get a sane person in his seat the last election.
I was physically ill when I heard he was re-elected.
Read that as RuPaul LePage, FWIW. Not sure what I was expecting there, but it was sure as shootin’ gonna be better than reality.
And that’s not even dealing with LePage’s lying about Stephen King moving out of state to dodge Maine taxes. (Here’s King’s latest tweet about LePage.)
That tweet is GOLD. No, DIAMONDS. Because screw platinum.
I never comment (though I read basically every post and comment), but I created an account solely so I could say HOW EXCITED I AM that Nicole and Mallory are coming to Cornell in April!! But I am also devastated that I appear to have a conflict on my calendar during the time of your talk… please tell me you are doing more things at Cornell (or have free time and want to hang out in my office between things?).
We are at the Statler for two nights (the 6th and the 7th), and I am happy to have Cornell/Ithaca Toasties meet me for drinks and chatting during that time!
I AM DEAD with delight! We have a mutual acquaintance who can attest that I’m fun to get a drink with. And I owe the Toast for my having requested and received the soundtrack to Hamilton for Christmas, so I’d like to buy you a drink as thanks for that.
Oh please please can there be a Toasties night at Cornell? I too am super psyched that you will be there.
Hi everyone! So I know this isn’t the OpenThread, BUT my mom and I are looking in to getting tickets to go see Hamilton together and I am sooo excited! But I have so many questions about buying them. So if you have some advice, I’ll post my questions in the reply threads.
Ok, so my mom and I are looking in to getting tickets either this May or June. The tickets are all the resale ones. Is that typical? I don’t quite understand that system. I know the tickets will be a little more costly than if we were to buy them non-resale, but that is only what is available at this point.
My second question is when exactly we should go. So I looked as to when the Tony Awards are, and it looks like they are the weekend of June 11th. So we are definitely NOT going to go then (as every main cast will be gone). But what about the weekends leading to the awards show? And the weekend just after the Tony awards? Do any of you have recommendations as to when might be the best time to go? The earlier the better?
And just a final note, I am most excited because we are going to go see Eclipsed as well! I have been traveling to Liberia regularly the past 5 years to teach, so it is the perfect opportunity for us to go see that as well and I am just beyond excited!!!!!!
Thank you all for any advice, and also for turning me on to Hamilton in the first place!!!
Go 6-30 cause I’ll be there too! Not that I’ll see you, what with the scrim of tears obscuring my vision.
I wanted to go 7-11 (day of the duel) but even months ago getting tickets that day was impossible. I bought non-resale (months ago) so the 4 of us are separated- 1 gets primo seat, but is on his/her own.
Other than Tony stuff (I think they’re dark that night anyway?) you should be good anytime. LMM prob won’t be doing any summer matinees (a guess) and if you want to be in NY for a HamforHam, those seem to be weekends only.
Good luck with whatever you decide!
I believe Hamilton is sold out through at least July, so resale tickets will be the only ones available.
Normally, actors will be in their shows on Tony weekend. Show schedules will change to accommodate the ceremony (no Sunday evening performances and possibly no matinees), but otherwise it’s business as usual. The first post-Tony performance for any show that wins big is usually really fun to see, so that would be June 14. All other shows before and after the Tonys won’t really be affected by the awards.
My first thought on hearing that David Bowie had died was, “But I haven’t pulled him yet!” It turns out that that a small part of me truly believed that I would get to sleep with David Bowie one day, and is now outraged.
I think we all sort of believed we would. Like you know, be a good person, live a good life and at the end of it David Bowie sleeps with you and you have coffee and some nice buttered sourdough toast with Iman the next morning.
This was also my understanding. I am bitterly disappointed and would like an explanation.
I suppose being so insufferable that nobody wants to be around you is one way of avoiding casual racism at parties, yes.
I am glad to have CP Hashbrowns photos this morning. Thank you potato dog.
I always read that as Cpl. Hashbrowns, and it’s super-adorable.
Yesssssss all dogs need a military rank right
In my head, he’s the dog version of Radar O’Reilly.
Maurice LaMarche was born here in Toronto?!?! Whaaaaaaat?
(I miss Animaniacs)
I keep re-reading this poem by Tracy K Smith about Bowie and crying a bit at work: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/243882
my incredibly small dumb personal contribution: david bowie has eaten soup out of one my bowls! My roommate was working on a david bowie music video set and they needed pots and bowls to make soup for david bowie and I think about the fact that david bowie has touched a bowl that I have also touched and now I’m going to go home and look at my bowl and feel very sad.
David Bowl-ie.
wow I’m very upset I didn’t think of that
oh, now I’m trying not to cry at work too 🙁
OMG that poem Yes.
I’m just numb, looking out the window at the gray world, always and forever gray and glitterless.
The first inkling I had this morning about David Bowie was a friend’s FB post simply wishing him farewell. My response: “I don’t like the sound of that.” (I told FB friend later that I was glad I heard the news from her first.)
Going to “Anomalisa” later today. Any Toast thoughts?
Anomalisa was so damn good. If you’re a fan at all of Charlie Kaufman’s work, you will enjoy it. It was touching, uncomfortable, and truly a glimpse into the human condition. Also puppets! And stop motion! It was so well done.
No Anomalisa thoughts, but super curious to hear yours. The two things I keep hearing are a summary that sounds uncomfortably close to MPDG, and that it’s an amazing piece of filmmaking that defies any attempt at summary.
Watched it hungover on New Year’s Day. It is very very good, but not a film to be watched in a fragile state.
THE TOAST ACADEMY!!
If anyone is still interested in doing intro philosophy courses through MIT’s Opencourseware, braak and I have set up a free forum at FreeForums.
First readings for Problems in Western Philosophy are “due” a week from today, January 18, and we are aiming for an eight-week module ending on March 18.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. We are super excited about this!
This seems AMAZING.
Sorry to thread jack but today 2 out of three of my kids are in mental health crisis, one needing emergency attention and probably meds, and can I stop watching my boys cry now please?
Also today I have to be super-competent coach material for 40+ potential lacrosse parents at our recruitment meeting, I’m not ready, and I was late to work and forgot my laptop due to kid crises. Please send mojo!!
Oh no! I hope your kids get better soon, and your day only improves from now on. Y’all can and will get through this. <3
*hug*
Mojo sending!!! You will all get through this.
:mojo: :hug: :mojo:
*thinks aggressively good thoughts in your general direction*
I am sending you enormous love. I have been the kid in this situation, and I sincerely hope that your boys get the help and meds (I promise you, meds can be brilliant!) that they need soon, and also that you get a chance to have a minute to yourself, and make a cup of tea, and take deep breaths.
Just seconding this and sending my own hugs.
The tea was such a good idea, it really helped!
Sending!! <3
I hope your kids feel better soon and that your coaching goes splendidly!
Sending good vibes your way! YOU CAN DO IT!
Thank you everyone!!
Kid who had me the most worried came home from school laughing, so that was good. And, if I do say so myself, I totally rocked that parent meeting. Last year I wad brand new and had belligerent parents yelling at me, so I went in super prepared this year and it was a great group. I even have two kids that want to be goalies!
I saw something on the twitters today along the lines of “The earth is 4.5 billion years old. Think about how lucky you were to have shared some of those years with David Bowie.” And then I lost it completely.
This is the first time I’ve ever gotten upset at a celebrity death. David Bowie. I thought there had to be some mistake. He was such a beautiful, majestic human.
I have to listen to his farewell album. I’ve got starman looping in my head and just, Niagara falls 😢
I am ambivalent on Bowie. I have no attachments to his music, and he only functions as the creepy Goblin King in Labyrinth who my friends find inexplicably sexy.
But the whole “sex with underage groupies” thing is not endearing him to me amid all the tears.
I had no idea everyone cared so much about him.
I think the Buzzfeed post about how he was an LGBT inspiration is a good starter for why people care so much about him. And TLo’s essay on how he made weirdness not just beautiful, but a valid life pursuit.
I was aware that some of my friends liked him, particularly some of the queer and trans ones, because they got me to go with them to the Bowie exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art last year. I just wasn’t prepared for like basically EVERYONE to be seriously upset. It’s not like they all talk about Bowie constantly. This level of National Mourning has surprised me.
Hey, so that is not something I knew about, and I’m sure something that other people here who are sad about him dying didn’t know about.
Yeah I also did not know that! I found a link, trigger warning obviously.
http://elegantgatheringofwhitesnows.com/?p=349
Honestly (sadly) it doesn’t surprise me since they were all at it. At the very least there are other reports which suggest he didn’t make a habit of it (destructiontheory’s addition to this post http://theroguefeminist.tumblr.com/post/934260202… but being ‘a less prolific child rapist than Jimmy Page’ is hardly an endorsement.
I didn’t know about it specifically, but I do tend to assume that most 1960s/70s male celebrities will have some dubious consent sex in their past, including the beloved ones. Bowie also made pro-fascist statements in the 1970s. There are lots of people where stuff like that means I just can’t enjoy their art at all, but yeah, I love Bowie despite all that stuff.
I think with the fascist stuff it’s important to remember that he was on so many drugs (mostly cocaine obvs) that he was having constant paranoid hallucinations. Whether he was actually into it is debatable at least.
Honestly, with musicians from that era I basically have a “not as bad as could have been” threshold, which is depressing but also reality.
Oh, NO. But also, of course. JFC.
Yeah, I’m here with you. Although, when my musical idols kick it I’m sure there will be people coming with the awful things they did (and since mine are the last remaining ex-Beatles, I’m there’s probably plenty.)
I just don’t know if “Hey, this person just died, so it’s a good time to remind a bunch of grieving fans of the shittiest thing he did” is really that helpful. Like, today? How does it help anything?
I’m really not in favor of covering shit like that up, nor in favor of idolizing celebrities as flawless. But I’m seeing so many other stories here of what he meant to them, how affected people are today, and I question whether a memorial post is the right timing for kicking dirt up. (Maybe it is, other people could have different perspectives that are equally valid, etc.)
ETA: If reminding people about rock stars having sex with underage groupies helps prevent child abuse, by all means, bring it up every day in every conversation.
The majority of people I’ve seen bring it up have said they did so because it hurts them as survivors to see him lauded and celebrated so uncritically. I can’t ever find it in myself to say someone in that position shouldn’t be able to express that, especially in places they’ve normally found support.
Nor could I! That’s an excellent argument for bringing this up today.
There’s an interesting take on the subject from The Frisky: http://www.thefrisky.com/2016-01-14/lets-talk-abo…
i absolutely adore david bowie, but i recognize that he got really into fascism for a while and did some pretty offensive things (and the fact that he was subsisting solely on cocaine and milk doesn’t negate the privilege and shallowness that allowed him to indulge his nazi fantasies). and his status as a queer icon is complicated by his rejection of queer identity when it was politically convenient. i didn’t know about this, but like the commenters below i’m not especially surprised, given the rock star life style at the time.
however, i am still mourning him because his music was so nourishing to me at so many stages of my life. it brought me joy and strength and pure gratitude at being alive and hearing such beautiful sounds. i felt similar gratitude when michael jackson died, despite being aware of the harm he caused. i think a lot of the adoration online today is not necessarily about painting bowie as a perfect person or even a role model, but commemorating the many ways he moved people and became a part of their own narratives. i hope that we can confront our idols’ dark sides while giving thanks for what they created.
This is a much better response than the one I wrote — I’m glad you commented.
There were a LOT of annoying things about last night’s Golden Globes, but the thing I most want to complain about at the moment is Quentin Tarantino accepting the award for Ennio Morricone, pissing all over movie music as a genre, and then yelling about how HE directed this movie, IT WAS HIM, HE DIRECTED THE MOVIE THAT WON THIS SOUNDTRACK AWARD, without even managing to say anything like “this music enriched our film” or “Morricone wrote the legendary theme to The Good The Bad and the Ugly, what a treat to get him to work on this new western.” Plus Morricone has won three previous Golden Globes so Tarantino had his facts all wrong.
(I don’t really love film enough to enjoy these award shows the way they want me to, but I love the soundtrack to The Mission enough to care about this.)
God I hate that guy. Contrast to the classy way Clint Eastwood translated for Morricone in 2009 at the Oscars, you know? He didn’t stand up there and be like “HIS MOVIES WOULD HAVE BEEN NOTHING WITH OUT ME.”
UGH, that made me so mad. Like I get it QT, you’re drunk/high as fuck and An Ass, but please stop talking and just accept the award on his behalf graciously.
(The soundtrack was one of the only redeemable parts of The Hateful Eight so I’m fine with the award going to Morricone, but.)
It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that QT was “Quentin Tarantino” and not “Cutie”…
hahahaha, I just did a full body shudder. OH GOD NO.
Wow. I’m glad I didn’t see that because the urge to punch my screen would have been very, very high.
You made the right call! He called movie music a “ghetto”; Jamie Foxx came onstage afterward and just said “…ghetto.”
Honestly, I was just watching in hopes that Mark Rylance would win something and give a weird speech, but he lost in both categories he was nominated in, so the evening was kind of a bust. (Wolf Hall did win best miniseries though.)
…
I really do dislike that man a LOT. He’s so insufferably up his own ass.
Mark Rylance and his acceptance poems are the best thing about any theater awards show. Need more Mark!
I so wanted Mark Rylance to win, just for his own sake, since he’s amazing, and so we’d get to hear one of his acceptance poems. The one he read at the Tonys about walking through walls was wonderful.
That Jamie Foxx comment was up there with Jamie Alexander’s “who’s typing this shit?” (re: teleprompter) and Kate Winslet’s “I’m SO SORRY” right after she won. Everything else about the telecast was terrible.
Oh, except Taraji P. Henson and her cookies. Also great.
Wait, is it not ok to use the word ghetto in any context anymore? I’m not joking about political correctness here – I’m seriously asking this. I understand, of course, that’s it’s offensive to use “ghetto” to describe people and things, or as a stand-in for talking about black culture. But using the term “ghetto” or “ghettoized” to talk about “a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity” (quoting from the Merriam Webster dictionary) seemed to be in common and unremarkable usage until quite recently?? Am I just out of touch?
I’m not posting this to defend Quentin Tarantino, who is definitely obnoxious and quite possibly racist, but just to try to make sure I don’t offend anyone in the future.
I’m not the best person to answer this question in the broader sense. I would say it was obnoxious and tone-deaf of Tarantino to use that term to describe 1) a lucrative and prestigious line of work and 2) work that people in the audience were there to be honored for. To me it felt a little like if you started claiming Garth Brooks was oppressed because people make fun of country music: like, that’s what you think oppression looks like? That’s what you think a ghetto is, all these people getting rich and famous in a way that some hypothetical snobs might not appreciate?
Yeah especially when stuff happens like oh, say, movies that cast primarily black actors are isolated and treated like “black movies” that are only for black audiences and aren’t taken seriously by the Hollywood establishment. THAT might be a more proper use of the term ghettoized. Not a somewhat technical and occasionally overlooked but lucrative (and possibly mostly white if I had it guess) and well-recognized (John Williams anyone) field.
Jamie Foxx quietly saying “. . .ghetto . . .” was the highlight of the night for me. Perfect one-word take-down of the insufferable QT.
Once Upon a Time in the West is a beautiful score as well.
Wow. I hit the mute button as soon as Tarantino took the stage because I can’t stand him in general. Clearly this was the right move.
The Hateful Eight is awesome (Jennifer Jason Leigh! Kurt Russell! Walton Goggins!) and the soundtrack is mindblowingly badass so I’m glad he won. I love Quentin as a director I just don’t think I ever need to see him do any public speaking. Like ever.
If he could just direct things and then fall off the face of the planet for the rest of the time I’d be pretty cool with that.
Just need to get something off my chest:
I SAW HAMILTON LAST WEEKEND AND IT WAS AMAZING
Nothing has ever lived up to unreasonably high expectations so perfectly. I cried, twice.
GO NOW before your student loans notice where your money is going!
48 days!!!
TWO MORE DAYS! I CAN NOT WAIT.
Only 265 days!!
… aughghhg
18 days!!!!
TOMORROW!!!!
UPSTATE NEW YORK TOASTIES we have an email group and maybe we should plan something for this Cornell thing? I think most of the people on the list are Rochester, but I’m in Syracuse and I know at our meetup we had at least one person from Ithaca, so clearly we are people who don’t mind traveling for awesomeness?
Anyway if anyone wants to get on the list, I don’t remember who started it but you can email me at shakerethyl@gmail dot com. Planning will happen via email I’d imagine?
I’m hoping to go to that! (If I can escape from work that day). If I do, I’d definitely be up for lunch or dinner someplace in Ithaca.
Sigh. If only I weren’t a displaced Upstater. 🙁
me too… I miss Ithaca
I’m in shock still? I was sitting around last night waiting to hear news about my grandfather (and still!) instead: BOWIE
69 is kind of young, considering. Even if we didn’t all think of him as immortal. He seems to have lived the life he had. He released an EP Friday, and if I can do anything like “release an album two days before I die; album may or may not be about my own death” I can go happy.
I think I’m going to watch a lot of youtube videos and Velvet Goldmine in my free time today.
I’m not handling the David Bowie news well. I listened to Starman on the way to work and cried.
Of all people I expected him to somehow transcend the laws of nature and live forever.
Does The Toast ever close comments on an article? I mean, is there a point where all variations of rational response have been made and multiply liked, and all that’s coming in is either repetitive or unacceptable?
Sort of! I do not usually approve new comments on pieces that are over a week old, whether they are positive or negative.
There is support for impeaching LePage for one of his earlier moves (threatening to withhold state funding from a school unless they fired one of his political rivals) http://www.wmtw.com/news/lawmakers-to-debate-impe…
Com’n folks, lets do this
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I HOPE THIS HAPPENS AND WE DON’T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL 2018 FOR A NEW GOVERNOR.
I woke up my fiancé, before looking at any media, because I had woken and it was late enough that he had to wake up for work. The first thing he does when he’s *actually* trying to wake up is pick up his phone and look at the news. I was getting back out of bed after a cuddle when he offhandedly announced David Bowie’s passing, like it was a footnote (this is probably due to sleepiness, please, I promise he’s a good person!).
I threw myself back into bed and demanded that he bring me my phone so I could immediately call my father and cry. I’m going into lab today – the undergrads are all like 21 and have no idea who he is for the most part, because we have massively failed the younger part of my generation. I have loaded all the Bowie I own onto my phone and will be playing it through the nice computer’s speakers all day. You know, if I can convince myself to get up.
I’m still a little in shock, I think.
Also, re: Asian food – is that more true on the East Coast than the West? I live in SF and generally find that restaurants set pretty similar price points for similar ranges of quality and price of ingredients. I expect the hole-in-the-wall pho place to be inexpensive, but also the hole-in-the-wall burger place, unless they’re advertising that they serve humane grass-fed etc etc, in which case I expect both places to be marking up their prices for the cost of ingredients, the sustainable image, and the image of exclusivity they are probably cultivating by being a hole-in-the-wall organic pho/burger shop.
That whole rant and “parmesan is just MSG” thing surprised me too. I mean, I get where he is coming from, but I feel like it hasn’t been true in major cities anywhere for the last 10-15 years at least?
It seems like that phenomenon is a much bigger dynamic for Mexican food. (and a real problem because then you don’t get the amazing Mexican dishes that exist beyond tacos & burritos). I dunno. I live in a place with really, really expensive and delicious Cambodian food, very high-range different regional varieties of Chinese food, etc, all of them priced at a height that I have only eaten at them at the most special of occasions and have spent over $50 per person at them on said special occasions, and I’m on the East coast.
Gotta say, I do know places where you can get more than just tacos and burritos, and it is possible to find regional Mexican fare, as well as cuisine from other Central/South American countries, but not a restaurant that I know of is more than what I’d call “mid-range”. You might spend $50/person but only if you order a lot of meat and drinks.
In fact, I feel like we’ve actually gotten to the point (on the East Coast) that the cliched complaint is “They’re charging WHAT for dumplings? Why, for one dollar I can get SIX dumplings on Mosco Street…!!!”
Which is I think kind of what he’s complaining about, which is an attitude I don’t think I see as much here. I mean, you can get a burger for a couple bucks at a fast-food place and a burger for ten dollars or more at a locavore gastropub and I hear only a few complaints about the gastropub price. To me, that’s an equivalent comparison and I don’t see people complaining about the price of “fancier” Asian places vs the shops where you can get dumplings for a few bucks, because people recognize that they’re not the same thing. The people who complain about the dumping prices are the same people who complain about the burger prices – they just don’t think food is worth much.
Sorry, what I meant (but failed to express clearly) was that it’s the old, worn-out, not relevant/accurate complaint. The kind of thing your dad might say when visiting from Cheboygan. Not the kind of thing Chang’s audience would generally say.
I think I understood what you meant – it’s a complaint that’s not coming from foodies, it’s worth an eyeroll – I was just trying to expand on it. While I was writing, though, it occurred to me that I’m not sure I hear the same complaints about “canonical” high-end cuisine as much, though. People might mock hundred-dollar dinners but they don’t say “oh I could get that for five dollars at the diner” so much. They don’t necessarily see French or Italian cuisine as having a cheap equivalent that all food of that type should therefore be priced like. (Except pizza.)
Which is funny because I’m regularly finding new things that are “fancy” and “expensive” which, like, are considered cheap peasant food in Italy. Like radicchio, which seems to be having a culinary “moment”, and literally grows in all the ditches at the side of the road in my dad’s hometown.
Like the sudden elevation of grappa! (I don’t think radicchio is expensive or “fancy”, though, just perhaps having a moment, and that just goes in cycles. It’s always been around, in salads etc, it’s just popular. I mean, I guess it’s fancier than iceberg.)
I think that there’s still an other-ization of Asian food, with the canonical high-end foods still being thought of as Eurocentric (Italian, French, etc) and Asian cuisine coming in from the margins. And there might be kind of an understanding in culinary circles that while those “canonical” cuisines can be fused with international styles, that fusion doesn’t flow the other way. So taking an Italian flavour note and adding it to Korean dishes is still seen as really strange, but running the equation backwards is pretty standard.
Whether or not this is actually the way people in pro kitchens cook is a different story. And I think Chang himself has done a lot to challenge what high-end cookery can be, and should be. But there’s still a cultural conception that Euro foods are intricate and polished (mostly because this is what they teach in chef’s schools), while foods from elsewhere (think: Mexican, Korean, Ethiopian, Thai, Indian, etc) are still some kind of glorified home/street food, and therefor not “worth” as much. Which is, of course, bull.
You are definitely correct about the fusion seeming to only flow one way, for the most part, but the area I’m in, at least, “Asian fusion” is so old hat in the culinary scene that it’s nearly synonymous with “California cuisine”, and the most expensive meals I’ve eaten have been Asian/fusion. Personally, except when it comes to pastry, I see non-Western cuisine as being potentially more difficult, but that may be from a partial lack of familiarity with cooking it. (In the end a lot of food prep is pretty similar and it’s the flavors that differ – broth is broth, stew is stew, braising is braising, etc.)
I think you may be right about Chang’s influence on how we see Asian cuisine, because I haven’t quite seen the same for South Asian, African (except *maybe* North African – Tunisian, Morroccan etc), or Latin American cuisines in terms of filtering into high-end restauranting as much.
David Bowie is dead and Dick Cheney is still alive. Why did I get out of bed this morning?
MrChouffe is thoroughly perturbed that McCartney and Nugent have now outlived David Bowie.
Ugh, now I’ve been reminded that Ted Nugent exists. I had almost forgotten.
How about something like, “perhaps you’re just not very familiar with the fact that faces are attached to a human person and your generalizations are hella insulting?”
Also see “Because I know pretty much about racism” and I thought blackface was totally the right move in this situation.
Bowie and Lemmy in two weeks. I quit.
This morning, when I broke the news of Bowie to my partner, he paused a moment in deep shock, looked at the ceiling and said, “You take Lemmy from me and now Bowie!? Who’s next God, are you going to take Ringo?!” Then we cried on the couch for a while and were both late for work.
I guess I have the jumpies this morning because on my way to the train I saw this and about jumped out of my skin
I would have, too. I think my first reaction would have been thinking it was one of those horrible giant crabs – coconut crabs?
My Bowie feelings are all mixed up because last night I got woken up by a phone call at 11pm telling me my neighborhood is on a boil water advisory and the news wanted to talk about Bowie when all I really wanted was to know why my water might not be safe right now.
i’ve never felt this affected by a celebrity’s death before! david bowie just meant so much to me, as a queer person but also as someone who felt very different and lonely and freakish growing up. i’ll be playing all of my favorite of his records all day, in chronological order, at my coffee shop in memoriam.
So I read the excellent Pinky and the Brain article, but I didn’t see the quote that was pulled for the post here. Is that from a different article? Did I just miss something? Because I will read everything about Pinky and the Brain, I promise!
There’s something weird about the article format. If you look at the URL and there’s a number at the end, delete that, then see if it shows you the whole article.
Thank you! I knew I had to missing something.
I approve of the typo in this comment.
David Bowie means a lot to me. And everyone else. And I love that we all care. And I’m loving all of the intimate outpourings of how we’ve all processed Bowie. It makes him even greater to me.
But Pinky & the Brain. Their holiday special–in which Brain actually gets close to taking over the world, but in a moment of overwhelming sentiment, friendship, and humanity, wishes the world a merry Christmas, because Pinky’s letter to Santa only requests the World for Brain–is THE holiday tradition in my house. My brother and I would watch it as kids and cry our freaking eyes out. I own it on iTunes and continue to watch it every year.
I am definitely in the same boat as everyone else in my grief at David Bowie’s passing. On a lighter, more hilarious note, though, I would totally endorse an article (or several) just ragging on Sean Penn’s general shittiness and taking the piss out of his sanctimonious, smug, unhygienic ass.
He’s so dreadful!
Honest Lewis said it best: “playing Bowden comes with a side order of assassins. He’s doomed.”
Bowie’s music was the background to some really great memories for me–going dancing in my 20’s, doing the yearly Bowie vs. Prince bike ride here in Portland.
They’re doing a bike ride followed by karaoke tonight and I am stuck at work. 🙁
I am Not Okay at David Bowie’s death because… immortal and magical! How can this have happened?
You gotta get one of those brushes that have a button on the back you can push that makes all the hair slide to the very ends of the bristles so it’s easy to clean. This will save you many hours (which, in turn, you may spend admiring your Sansa).
Yeah and the Philadelphia area is awful, because ten years ago we were telling everyone, “oh, just go get a teaching degree, people are always looking for math teachers.” Fun fact: people are NOT always looking for math teachers, not when every third school gets shut down and sends all its teachers back into the job market!
There's an interesting take on the subject from The Frisky: http://www.thefrisky.com/2016-01-14/lets-talk-abo…