#reccomends

I like all my followers and think they’re all amazing but these are a few of my favourites. 

Even thought we don’t speak that much (really need to change that) - your blogs just make me smile

@zlatan–ibrahimovic @calchambaes @nixiswriting @aliischoppedliver @frommybeautifulmind @arsenalsfc @thiagomaia @azkathefangirl @antobellerin

I have a confession. But first I want to emphasize that none of us is perfect, y’all without sin etc. Everybody has some secret shame that if exposed should be penalized with nothing more stringent than forgiveness. Except this. This is worse. Okay here goes (deep breath):

I DON’T THINK THERE WERE ANY OSCAR SNUBS.

Nope. Not even Barbie. Despite Greta Gerwig’s masterful shepherding of what is so far Mattel’s greatest movie, if Zone of Interest (which I haven’t seen yet) is a dog, I’ll give Jonathan Glazer’s place to May/December’s Todd Haynes. Ditto for Robie who was almost perfect (But what’s up with her still using the Harley Quinn accent?). If Nyad isn’t up to snuff I’ll just slide in Past Lives’ Greta Lee.

It was that kind of year. Lots of good movies and for a change most of them got at least some kind of Oscar nod. But. There were those orphans and also-rans that came up all the way short. No nominations. Let’s honor them, okay?

In other words, it’s time for KEVROC’S ANNUAL BEST MOVIES THAT DIDN’T GET EVEN ONE LOUSY NOMINATION list!

Asteroid City. Wes Anderson had a short-lived Oscar vogue in the last decade with  Best Picture nominations for Moonrise Kingdom in 2013 and  Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, but this year the consensus was that this deadpan dramatization of the tension between postwar optimism and post-nuclear domination which defined the latter half of The American Century was just a collection of the director’s tropes instead of a humanist masterpiece. It should have been nominated if for no other reason than to give a push to “Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)” for the Best Song award it deserves. (But hey, Wes got a Best Live Action Short nod for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar).

A Good Person. Zach Braff’s directorial rep as the King of Emo, not to mention an early release date kept Oscar voters from this story of two addicts struggling not to relapse in the face of their lives’ biggest tragedy, that gave Morgan Freeman his best role in years and reaffirmed Florence Pugh’s status as the best actor of this decade.

All of Us Strangers. A simple dreamlike plot (a depressed gay man meets his soulmate, and simultaneously gets to see his long-dead parents) becomes a soul-wrenching mystical reverie brought to life by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell as the parents, Paul Mescal as the troubled soulmate and Andrew Scott, who gives a performance so exposed and vulnerable that if it went any further he’d literally shed his skin.

Monica. A trans woman (Trace Lysette) reconnects with her family and is taken for a nurse by her demented, homophobic mother (Patricia Clarkson). It sounds like Joan Crawford doing an Almodovar film but director Andrea Pallaoro goes for subtlety and nuance over camp drama in this quiet gem. Lysette should have been talked about more.

Air. This crazy-entertaining celebration of the marketing synergy of Michael Jordan and Nike got Oscar-overlooked because a whole movie devoted to a celebrity spokesperson deal is maybe just a little too on-the-nose. But it had great work by Chris Messina, Jason Bateman, a Macchiavellian Viola Davis and especially Matt Damon who might be too good an actor to ever win an Oscar for it.

Passages. Ira Sachs examination of why-good-people-love-irredeemable-pricks is a high point in the careers of Adele Exarchoupoulos and Ben Wishaw but was a breakout star vehicle for Franz Rogowski playing the kind of prick who has a one-night stand and is so smitten he can’t wait to tell his husband all about it.

Blue Beetle. You know the superhero movie is in trouble when this crackerjack film about a reluctant Latino champion of his family and community (and whose sidekicks include a Zapatista-veteran grandmother) could only find a fraction of the audience it deserved.  And the line “Now is when we cry” made me cry.

Strays. All apologies to Poor Things and American Fiction, but this profane and scatological tribute to couch-humping, trash-eating dogshit producing (and eating) canis lupus familiaris was the funniest movie of the year.

Bottoms. Even beating out this gloriously tasteless and bracingly absurdist tale of high school lesbians who start a fight club to meet chicks that would win the Jean Hersholt humanitarian award if they renamed it for John Waters.

After a holiday season filled with family, friends and a honeymoon! - I'm back with December and January recommendations.  Between the honeymoon and time off work there was a lot of time to consume culture. There's a mix of books, podcasts, blog posts, and movies that I've enjoyed over the last two months. Hope this helps you sort through the fray that is the internet / state of culture in 2015 

READ / FOCUS

Invisibilia

Invisibilia is a new podcast from NPR that "explores the intangible forces that shape human behavior." There have been three episodes so far, and their most recent, around the theme of expectations, is my current favorite. 

rembert explains

Rembert Browne is a writer for Grantland who also does a podcast every now and again. Rembert has a really thoughtful and humorous take on the world. His most recent podcast with Chris Hayes was a treat. I also really loved his episode with Jenna Wortham of the New York Times. You could argue that it's kind of self indulgent for Journalists to publish a podcast where they talk a lot about the state of journalism, but I think it's important. As consumers of news and information it's in our interest to know the point of view that's shaping the information we consume. Having a fuller understanding of the journalist and their perspective makes us all more informed. In a good way I think? 

 DANAH BOYD - An old fogey's analysis of a teenager's view on social media

Every few months there is an insightful and well written account of how a teen (and therefore all other teen's in the world), use social media. This is the perfect response to these powerful and well written anecdotes that aren't necessarily representative of a larger population. It's also a good reminder that we need to work to combine these anecdotes and storytelling with better data to get real insight. 

 McDonalds Versus Shake Shack

Shake Shack, the popular burger chain that started in Brooklyn, recently filed for its IPO. Based on this filing, there have been lots of articles comparing the recent downturn of McDonalds to the potential growth of Shake Shack. While all of this talk was interesting (see the article for full background) - the tweet below was pretty fascinating.  Much of the explanation around the McDonalds downturn is focused on McDonalds' failure to brand itself effectively for "health conscious" Millenials.  While that may be true, there is also another story - The sheer size of the market opportunity for Shake Shack. Upscale fast casual restaurants with organic and natural ingredients are no longer "niche." What's more - the data below suggests that the market for catering to the tastes and preferences of the top 16th percentile in the US, is the same size as it was for McDonald's  to market to anyone above the median household income in the 1950s. I would also guess that those tastes and preferences of the top 16th percentile that probably enjoy Shake Shack will become aspirational for those outside of the top quintile of median household income. Maybe this is why McDonalds is serving Quinoa in Australia. 

 Goran Therborn - The killing fields of inequality

This was quite an uplifting beach read. Just kidding. I really loved the way Therborn articulated his argument around the evils of inequality across the globe. While Piketty has gotten certain circles of power to talk about inequality with the beautiful simplicity of his economic argument, Therborn raises powerful questions about whether as a global society we should be shooting for equality of opportunity or for equality of outcomes. As the world continues to get "wealthier" we need to keep a lot in mind, and maybe get more sophisticated about  the way we judge and understand progress. The book ends with some examples of equalization that Therborn determines somewhat successful. While his quantitative examples are thought provoking and persuasive - I think the true power in this book lies in its ability to force us to think about what meaningful economic growth means if a true goal is combatting inequality, rather than pure growth at all costs. What are the real outcomes that indicate that life is getting better for most people? 

Pew research - 14 striking findings of 2014

This is just fun. Pew does a great job of data visualization even if they do oversimplify and try and play up generational differences that may or may not exist. I've been playing around with a lot of overlapping histograms lately (like the one below). 

 WATCH

The honorable woman (Netflix)

The Honorable Woman is one of the better TV shows I've watched in a long time. It is expertly written, acted, and paced. It is both gripping and affecting. Just watch this show.

  selma

After seeing this movie it's kind of hard to believe it was only nominated for one academy award.  

empire (Fox)

Timbaland written music, Terrance Howard, Taraji P. Henson and Cuba Gooding Jr. just made an appearance in the latest episode with a bunch of horses. This show is great. 

 DRINK

Spoke wrench stout apple

As we've dug in for winter here, the winter beers have emerged. I guess I wasn't quite ready to give up on cider however, and, as luck would have it, a perfect winter cider exists in the form of Spoke Wrench Stout Apple. Imagine a malty stout base mixed with crisp tart apple cider. If Spoke Wrench Stout Apple isn't around where you are, try mixing a dry cider with a stout. Do it. 

 WEAR-

Uniqlo Ultra light down vest

I was lucky enough to get one of these for Christmas from my mother in law and I kind of can't stop wearing it. 

  EMILY'S PICK - 

Trader Joe's One Dollar Pizza Dough Pizza Cooked just right

Emily makes a mean pizza from Trader Joe's pizza dough.  Here is what she does :) 

Step 1:

Roll out flat with flour, pre-heat oven to 425, heat up pizza stone or cookie sheet in the oven

Step 2: 

Take warm cookie sheet out of the oven and add olive oil and garlic on top of the dough, cook for 10 minutes

Step 3: 

Take pizza out and add toppings (try artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms), cook for five more minutes to melt cheese. 

The Program by Suzanne Young - Book Review 

First... when I was reading this book... just...

I cried so many times it's unbelievable... And my exams are coming up in under two weeks which is why like a normal person I decided to read this book in one fucking day... Yup, I'm normal!

Okay, if you're reading this and you haven't read the book, I'm going to give a quick outline of the book before moving onto the spoiler-y bits :)

This book is about a future in which a disease is going around that makes teenagers between the ages of 13 to 18 suicidal. Teenagers are killing themselves all over the world and to control this someone comes up with The Program, which takes teenagers in who seem depressed and try to extract the disease out of them that makes them suicidal... But at the same time they essentially make you forget your previous life.

***Spoilers after this :)**** ______________________________________________

Anyways, let's get started with the actual review... I gave this book a 5/5 on goodreads because I enjoyed it thoroughly. It made me laugh, it made me cry (I mean shit got serious in this) and it made me happy cry (the flashbacks... they were killing me and the fact that... she was losing those memories...)

I absolutely loved the whole premise of it and I usually don't fall in love with characters as quickly as I did in this book... I fell in love with James like 50 pages in... I loved his character the most... and duh I shipped James and Sloane... I like his character because of how strong he was and how he was always there for all of his friends, making them laugh when neccesary. He was so cute, and through out the book we got to see two sides of him... the sweet side, and then the jerky side (which I also loved).

I also loved how Sloane (the main character) developed as a character :) 

Sooo I would reccomend this book to people who like YA dystopian books because I don't think it's the type of book everyone could love, I may be wrong but yeah... It's really interesting and it touches upon some dark matters.