I know how Krazy Kat feels up there. A brick to the head, the absurd July heat—they’re basically the same thing. We’ve been pretty sluggish lately, as you may have noticed, with our summer blogging being “sporadic” at best. But never fear! We’ll be bouncing back with new content in the next month or two. In the meantime, try to stay cool, avoid bricks, and enjoy these links…
- Stephen of Checking On My Sausages writes about Cinema’s True Avengers, five filmmakers whose work continues to be vital, imaginative, and ambitious. I disagree with some of the essay’s specifics but can’t argue that those are five extraordinary men.
- How come we’d never heard of Rauch Brothers Animation before last week? They have great, intimate vignettes matching interviews with beautiful animated segments.
- Melissa Anderson in Artforum: “There’s no redeeming [Otto Preminger’s] Skidoo. I suggest you see it immediately.” (Skidoo‘s recent DVD release has led to two other essays on it—Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Acid Test” and one by Dennis Lim in the L.A. Times—as well as the fascinating “When Celebrated Directors Lose The Plot” by Oliver Lyttelton at The Playlist.)
- Ruminations on the end of Harry Potter at the New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Film Forager.
- Alyssa Rosenberg of ThinkProgress discusses (with reference to Harry Potter) how some people don’t like politics in their pop culture.
- Jim Supanick of The Brooklyn Rail gives us a brilliant essay called “Notes on W.C. Fields.”
- Brendan Kiley of The Stranger covers a play called Mr. Burns that deals with The Simpsons‘ cultural legacy.
- The depressing facts about rising homophobia in Minnesota.
We’ve only got one out-of-the-ordinary search term this week and it’s “princess ariel fucks other princesses pussy.” OK, it’s not really unusual for us, but it’s extremely straightforward. It’s like they’re telling Google, “I want Disney porn. Please give me Disney porn.” Different strokes for different folks, right? (Though “strokes” might not be the best choice of words there…)
Ash
Alice