Category Archives: Popular (and unpopular) culture

All the movies watched by Presidents Carter and Reagan

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Ampersand

Don’t know why I find this so interesting, but I do, so I might as well share it with you folks. Every Single Movie That Jimmy Carter Watched at the White House And FILMS PRESIDENT AND MRS. REAGAN VIEWED (Chronologically … Continue reading →

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A List Of Musicals I’ve Seen Live

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Ampersand

Scene from the production of “Come From Away” I saw in 2025 So I was chatting with Myca earlier today, and he mentioned seeing Amelie The Musical and wanted to know if I’d like the Playbill. No, I said, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 84 Comments

“Minions” may beat “Lava” for most sexist kid’s movie of the year

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Ampersand

“Lava,” as I hope you don’t recall, is the animated short that accompanies “Inside Out,” the otherwise wonderful new Pixar movie. As I’ve said before, some cartoonists draw women as “visual aliens”; men are allowed to be earthy and funny-looking … Continue reading →

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Feminism, sexism, etc, Popular (and unpopular) culture, Sexism hurts men | 20 Comments

Enough with the torture scenes, please

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Ampersand

A scene from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” in which Captain America and Black Widow are trying to get information from a bad guy: Jasper Sitwell: Is this little display meant to insinuate that you’re gonna throw me off the … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 29 Comments

TV and Movies I’ve Watched Lately: The Slap, Dear White People, Time Lapse, Tinker Bell And The Legend Of The NeverBeast, Sarah Conner Chronicles, The Hobbit

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Ampersand

The Slap. The first episode of the American TV show made me recall something Gore Vidal once wrote: “Bad books on writing tell you to “WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW”, a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 10 Comments

“Tribes” by Nina Raine

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Ampersand

(Spoilers ahoy!) I saw a performance of “Tribes,” the award-winning play by British playwright Nina Raine, today. It was good, but… is there a word in English for “something so good that it becomes actively frustrating that it wasn’t better“? … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 6 Comments

Red Pills and Ants

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Louise de Rênal's Left Shoulder

Recent events at a blog that rhymes with Shmetal-Moptimized reminded me of the existence of sociobiology and of people who imagine that human beings – and ants and bonobos and every other species — are driven primarily by biological imperatives, … Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-feminists and their pals, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc., Economics and the like, Feminism, sexism, etc, Fiction, Gender and the Body, Homophobic zaniness/more LGBTQ issues, literature, Men and masculinity, Popular (and unpopular) culture, Rape, intimate violence, & related issues, Sex | 14 Comments

Let’s discuss the Into The Woods movie!

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Ampersand

(Spoilers ahead! Also, the above image collage was swiped from ArtInsights Magazine.) I saw Into The Woods on Christmas, as part of my annual “Chinese food & a movie” Christmas tradition. Some thoughts: 1) Johnny Depp played the Wolf as … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular (and unpopular) culture | 43 Comments