C’è un pezzetto del folklore contemporaneo americano che passa attraverso la costruzione di non-luoghi alcolici. Uno di questi è la catena Margaritaville, che a sorpresa ha aperto anche su una terrazza che affaccia Times Square a New York. E ci racconta molto dell’America contemporanea.
Money quote: “But this is the kind of leisure Margaritaville is built on. Almost all the Margaritaville restaurants and resorts — a vaguely tropics-themed hospitality empire inspired by one of Jimmy Buffett’s most popular songs — exist within massive tourist destinations like Cozumel, Mexico, or Atlantic City, New Jersey. On the surface, Times Square feels like a natural addition. But while other locales can at least offer some seclusion from the world in the form of a beach or an island, Times Square is in the middle of everything. It is hectic, crowded, overpriced, and blatantly capitalistic, a place where no one actually lives and few New Yorkers hang out unless they’re seeing a show or bringing their out-of-town niece to the Disney Store. It has no chill. But maybe the point is it’s not unsalvageable. Amid the stress and the noise, if you delude yourself enough, you can turn off your brain and have fun. So for 24 hours, I tried.”
https://www.eater.com/22644505/margaritaville-times-square-new-york-hotel-restaurants
Money quote: “But this is the kind of leisure Margaritaville is built on. Almost all the Margaritaville restaurants and resorts — a vaguely tropics-themed hospitality empire inspired by one of Jimmy Buffett’s most popular songs — exist within massive tourist destinations like Cozumel, Mexico, or Atlantic City, New Jersey. On the surface, Times Square feels like a natural addition. But while other locales can at least offer some seclusion from the world in the form of a beach or an island, Times Square is in the middle of everything. It is hectic, crowded, overpriced, and blatantly capitalistic, a place where no one actually lives and few New Yorkers hang out unless they’re seeing a show or bringing their out-of-town niece to the Disney Store. It has no chill. But maybe the point is it’s not unsalvageable. Amid the stress and the noise, if you delude yourself enough, you can turn off your brain and have fun. So for 24 hours, I tried.”
https://www.eater.com/22644505/margaritaville-times-square-new-york-hotel-restaurants
Eater
Margaritaville and the Myth of American Leisure
My weirdly blissful 24 hours of coconut shrimp, psychedelic light shows, BOOZE, and the myth of American leisure
Tucker Carlson ha visto il fascismo: il nostro futuro è decisamente a rischio. Molto.
Money quote: "The Trump administration lavished Orban with praise. Trump has even likened the Hungarian strongman to himself, calling him a “tough man, but he is a respected man … probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that’s okay. You’ve done a good job, and you’ve kept your country safe.” Trump’s ambassador in Budapest confessed frankly that his boss envies Orban’s ability to bully and suppress his critics: “I can tell you, knowing the president for a good 25 or 30 years, that he would love to have the situation that Viktor Orbán has, but he doesn’t.”"
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/tucker-carlson-has-seen-the-future-and-it-is-fascist.html
Money quote: "The Trump administration lavished Orban with praise. Trump has even likened the Hungarian strongman to himself, calling him a “tough man, but he is a respected man … probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that’s okay. You’ve done a good job, and you’ve kept your country safe.” Trump’s ambassador in Budapest confessed frankly that his boss envies Orban’s ability to bully and suppress his critics: “I can tell you, knowing the president for a good 25 or 30 years, that he would love to have the situation that Viktor Orbán has, but he doesn’t.”"
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/tucker-carlson-has-seen-the-future-and-it-is-fascist.html
Intelligencer
Tucker Carlson Has Seen the Future, and It Is Fascist
An important marker on the Republican road to authoritarianism.
L'ho scoperto solo adesso grazie ad Andrea, ma all'inizio del 2022 chiude la mia rivista di critica letteraria preferita: The Believer.
Money quote; "“This was not an easy decision but a necessary one, unfortunately,” Jennifer Keene, dean of UNLV’s College of Liberal Arts, said in a news release. “The Believer consumed a significant portion of BMI’s resources. After reviewing the data with internal and external stakeholders, it was clear that there was no path forward to continue publishing the magazine. Print publications in general have been facing increasing headwinds in recent years, which makes them a financially challenging endeavor.”"
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-10-19/the-black-mountain-institute-will-cease-publishing-venerable-believer-literary-magazine
The final issue, No. 139, is scheduled to be published in February/March 2022.
Money quote; "“This was not an easy decision but a necessary one, unfortunately,” Jennifer Keene, dean of UNLV’s College of Liberal Arts, said in a news release. “The Believer consumed a significant portion of BMI’s resources. After reviewing the data with internal and external stakeholders, it was clear that there was no path forward to continue publishing the magazine. Print publications in general have been facing increasing headwinds in recent years, which makes them a financially challenging endeavor.”"
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-10-19/the-black-mountain-institute-will-cease-publishing-venerable-believer-literary-magazine
The final issue, No. 139, is scheduled to be published in February/March 2022.
Los Angeles Times
The Black Mountain Institute will cease publishing venerable Believer literary magazine
Months after the departure of director Joshua Wolf Shenk, UNLV's institute announced on Tuesday it will stop producing the Believer next spring.
Ci credete che c’è una serie tv, coprodotta e co-scritta da Amanda Peet, che racconta le storie di un dipartimento di letteratura inglese in un college americano? E che questa serie, scritta anche da una certa Annie Julia Wyman, che ha preso il suo dottorato di ricerca ad Harvard, è diventata un fenomeno su Netflix?
Money quote: ”Here is where I ought to disclose my own bias: I’m the child of an English professor, one I’ve interviewed for this website. For people like my dad, The Chair is something like Star Wars meets the Super Bowl; according to the texts I received this weekend, the show has managed to meet sky-high expectations. And that enthusiasm isn’t just coming from the ivory tower; following its release last Friday, The Chair has stayed squarely in Netflix’s Top 10, joining the likes of Grace and Frankie and Outer Banks. The average viewer may be more engaged by the presence of a Grey’s Anatomy alum than the casual references to affect theory, but it’s possible they’re picking up on the authenticity underneath.
Much of that authenticity comes from cocreator Annie Julia Wyman, who has an unusual credential for a Hollywood screenwriter: a PhD from Harvard, where she earned her doctorate in 2017 after penning her dissertation on the comic novel.”
https://www.theringer.com/tv/2021/8/24/22638728/the-chair-netflix-annie-julia-wyman-amanda-peet
Money quote: ”Here is where I ought to disclose my own bias: I’m the child of an English professor, one I’ve interviewed for this website. For people like my dad, The Chair is something like Star Wars meets the Super Bowl; according to the texts I received this weekend, the show has managed to meet sky-high expectations. And that enthusiasm isn’t just coming from the ivory tower; following its release last Friday, The Chair has stayed squarely in Netflix’s Top 10, joining the likes of Grace and Frankie and Outer Banks. The average viewer may be more engaged by the presence of a Grey’s Anatomy alum than the casual references to affect theory, but it’s possible they’re picking up on the authenticity underneath.
Much of that authenticity comes from cocreator Annie Julia Wyman, who has an unusual credential for a Hollywood screenwriter: a PhD from Harvard, where she earned her doctorate in 2017 after penning her dissertation on the comic novel.”
https://www.theringer.com/tv/2021/8/24/22638728/the-chair-netflix-annie-julia-wyman-amanda-peet
The Ringer
The Harvard PhD Turned Screenwriter Behind Netflix’s Hit ‘The Chair’
How Annie Julia Wyman transitioned from Cambridge to Hollywood and cocreated Netflix’s academic drama with Amanda Peet
RIcordi dalla pandemia. Fare puzzle per rimettersi insieme e rimettere insieme il mondo. Dietro però c'è molto di più.
Money quote: "Like many others, I turned to jigsaws at the start of the pandemic as a way to manage stress, and symbolically reimpose order on a chaotic world"
https://psyche.co/ideas/on-the-consolatory-pleasure-of-jigsaws-when-the-world-is-in-bits
Money quote: "Like many others, I turned to jigsaws at the start of the pandemic as a way to manage stress, and symbolically reimpose order on a chaotic world"
https://psyche.co/ideas/on-the-consolatory-pleasure-of-jigsaws-when-the-world-is-in-bits
psyche.co
On the consolatory pleasure of jigsaws when the world is in bits | Psyche Ideas
It’s not memory that makes us human but meaning-making. When life falls apart, jigsaw puzzles help us put some pieces back
La relatività dei sentimenti e degli stati d’animo, la capacità di apprezzare i miglioramenti e di evitare i peggioramenti, il bisogno di stare meglio, più che di stare bene ma per potersi sentire bene. Sono lezioni che troppo spesso dimentichiamo
Money quote: “The rest of my life will always be entwined with rheumatoid arthritis. But it’s my choice to also be something more, to not feel sick, to still find those shadows of a dancer, which is to say tiny flecks of magic, within me.”
https://longreads.com/2021/05/25/happy-is-a-relative-state
Money quote: “The rest of my life will always be entwined with rheumatoid arthritis. But it’s my choice to also be something more, to not feel sick, to still find those shadows of a dancer, which is to say tiny flecks of magic, within me.”
https://longreads.com/2021/05/25/happy-is-a-relative-state
Longreads
Happy is a Relative State
“The rest of my life will always be entwined with rheumatoid arthritis. But it’s my choice to also be something more, to not feel sick, to still find those shadows of a dancer, which is to sa…
Forwarded from Fumettologica
Oggi, 50 anni fa, andava in onda la prima puntata della serie animata di Lupin, quella a cui lavorarono Isao Takahata e Hayao Miyazaki.
https://www.fumettologica.it/2021/10/avventure-di-lupin-iii-anime/
https://www.fumettologica.it/2021/10/avventure-di-lupin-iii-anime/
Fumettologica
Quando Isao Takahata e Hayao Miyazaki reinventarono Lupin III
Nel 1971 veniva trasmessa in Giappone "Le avventure di Lupin III", una serie animata che regge ancora oggi alla prova del tempo.
Il più grande scandalo nel mondo del Bridge l’hanno fatto gli italiani. Sistematicamente. Reitaratamente. Ancora oggi. Sapevatelo.
Money quote: “More often than seemed mathematically conceivable, Fantoni and Nunes made unusual bids and low-percentage plays that succeeded brilliantly, suggesting that they were illegally exchanging information about their hands. But how?" The New Yorker: The Great Bridge Boycott. "At a recent tournament, thirty teams refused to compete when faced with the prospect of playing against Fulvio Fantoni, a notorious Italian player who has been accused of cheating."
https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/the-great-bridge-boycott
Money quote: “More often than seemed mathematically conceivable, Fantoni and Nunes made unusual bids and low-percentage plays that succeeded brilliantly, suggesting that they were illegally exchanging information about their hands. But how?" The New Yorker: The Great Bridge Boycott. "At a recent tournament, thirty teams refused to compete when faced with the prospect of playing against Fulvio Fantoni, a notorious Italian player who has been accused of cheating."
https://www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/the-great-bridge-boycott
The New Yorker
The Great Bridge Boycott
At a recent tournament, thirty teams refused to compete when faced with the prospect of playing against Fulvio Fantoni, a notorious Italian player who has been accused of cheating.
La cosa divertente, se non fosse che è da piangere, è che i cinquantenni se perdono il lavoro non ne trovano un altro a piangere. E invece, quando se ne vogliono andare in pensione (negli Usa, dove il sistema funziona in maniera diversa da noi), tutti a piangere che se ne vanno i migliori e i più competenti che sanno far funzionare le cose. Decidetevi.
Money quote: "Early retirements, whether desired or forced, will deprive the labor market of some of its most productive workers and have an impact on the economic recovery that is still too early to evaluate. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell this week cited a “significant number" of people saying they've retired as one reason companies are reporting labor shortages, although it's unclear if they'll eventually rejoin the job market."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-30/more-americans-are-considering-retirement-because-of-covid
Money quote: "Early retirements, whether desired or forced, will deprive the labor market of some of its most productive workers and have an impact on the economic recovery that is still too early to evaluate. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell this week cited a “significant number" of people saying they've retired as one reason companies are reporting labor shortages, although it's unclear if they'll eventually rejoin the job market."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-30/more-americans-are-considering-retirement-because-of-covid
Bloomberg.com
Affluent Americans Rush to Retire in New ‘Life-Is-Short’ Mindset
The unprecedented surge in shares and home values during an economic crisis is easing the retirement path for those who have savings and investments.
Scusate il vuoto di post, è la prima volta che succede ma è stata una settimana luuuuunga e ho sbagliato io la gestione dei post (my bad!)
Cosa vuol dire aver vissuto attraverso un lockdown o due? Lo racconta perfettamente Jon Mooallem
Money quote: "But it meant I’d never been forced, or forced myself, to acclimate to the virus as much as other people seemed to have done. I wasn’t learning to live within the odds. This made me uneasy — personally uneasy, because I interpreted it as a lack of toughness, but also ethically uneasy, because I knew that in a broken society like ours, my comfort came at the expense of other people’s demoralization and discomfort. Still, that’s what happened. And while I’m sure this left me with an exaggerated sense of the risks of leaving my particular bubble, the real problem was, I’d started chronically undervaluing the rewards. I’d been forgoing so much that forgoing felt easy. Too many things I imagined doing began to feel skippable, arbitrary, not a tragedy to decline. Either I was approaching some new state of equanimity and contentedness or I was depressed."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/magazine/spokane-indians-minor-league-baseball.html
Money quote: "But it meant I’d never been forced, or forced myself, to acclimate to the virus as much as other people seemed to have done. I wasn’t learning to live within the odds. This made me uneasy — personally uneasy, because I interpreted it as a lack of toughness, but also ethically uneasy, because I knew that in a broken society like ours, my comfort came at the expense of other people’s demoralization and discomfort. Still, that’s what happened. And while I’m sure this left me with an exaggerated sense of the risks of leaving my particular bubble, the real problem was, I’d started chronically undervaluing the rewards. I’d been forgoing so much that forgoing felt easy. Too many things I imagined doing began to feel skippable, arbitrary, not a tragedy to decline. Either I was approaching some new state of equanimity and contentedness or I was depressed."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/magazine/spokane-indians-minor-league-baseball.html
Nytimes
I Had a Chance to Travel Anywhere. Why Did I Pick Spokane? (Published 2021)
After 18 months of pandemic parenting isolation, the writer Jon Mooallem knew just where the cure might lie: a minor-league baseball game in eastern Washington.
Cos'è veramente Meta di Zuckerberg e perché i metaversi falliscono? - quelle che o tre cose per niente sbrodolate che volevo scrivere, su Macity
https://www.macitynet.it/cose-veramente-meta-di-zuckerberg-e-perche-i-metaversi-falliscono/
https://www.macitynet.it/cose-veramente-meta-di-zuckerberg-e-perche-i-metaversi-falliscono/
macitynet.it
Cos’è veramente Meta di Zuckerberg e perché i metaversi falliscono?
FaceBook, Mark Zuckerberg, Social
Le "China girls" erano delle foto di ragazze messe dai tecnici all'inizio delle pellicole dei film come forma di controllo di qualità. Apparivano per un attimo, già nel passaggio al cinema o in televisione venivano tolte e rimanevano solo in casi di trasmissioni fate da operatori non competenti o riversaggi in Vhs di scarsa qualità. Oggi sono una rarità da ricercare e c'è chi le colleziona, con varie esposizioni su YouTube. (E no, non sappiamo perché si chiamino "China girls").
Money quote: "For many years photo labs would produce unique China girl images; around a couple hundred women, perhaps more, had their images hidden at the beginning of films. As movies have transitioned from analog to digital, though, the China girls are disappearing."
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-forgotten-china-girls-hidden-at-the-beginning-of-old-films
Money quote: "For many years photo labs would produce unique China girl images; around a couple hundred women, perhaps more, had their images hidden at the beginning of films. As movies have transitioned from analog to digital, though, the China girls are disappearing."
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-forgotten-china-girls-hidden-at-the-beginning-of-old-films
Atlas Obscura
The Forgotten ‘China Girls’ Hidden at the Beginning of Old Films
Used as quality control, these haunting images were never meant to be public.
Lo so che siete dei timidoni e non venite a iscrivervi alla newsletter perché Mostly Weekly vi sembra troppo figa per voi. Ed è vero: ma per fortuna è talmente figa che viene lei da voi sia su Twitter che anche qui su Telegram
https://antoniodini.com/weekly/139/
https://antoniodini.com/weekly/139/
Mostly Here
~139
The Halloween Issue
Uno strano teatro giapponese
Money quote: "At tonight’s show in Osaka, the zachou, or troupe leader, is Shinya-san. “Nothing makes me happier than having people from all walks of life watch the shows,” he explains. “If there’s one thing to expect from taishū engeki, it’s to have fun and enjoy yourself.”"
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/taishu-engeki-theater-japan
Money quote: "At tonight’s show in Osaka, the zachou, or troupe leader, is Shinya-san. “Nothing makes me happier than having people from all walks of life watch the shows,” he explains. “If there’s one thing to expect from taishū engeki, it’s to have fun and enjoy yourself.”"
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/taishu-engeki-theater-japan
Atlas Obscura
In Japan, ‘Theater for the People’ Makes Fandom a Part of the Show
Dance, drag, and fandom collide in taishū engeki.
La frugalità eletta a sistema
Money quote: "But the most impactful way to improve your financial outlook isn’t a one-time, band-aid type solution. It’s the slow fix of adopting more frugal lifestyle habits. You’re not going to save a fortune—at least not right away—but if you take on a few small changes, you’ll rack up a snowball of savings that will set you up for life."
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/100-frugal-habits-to-live-by-if-you-re-trying-to-save-money
Money quote: "But the most impactful way to improve your financial outlook isn’t a one-time, band-aid type solution. It’s the slow fix of adopting more frugal lifestyle habits. You’re not going to save a fortune—at least not right away—but if you take on a few small changes, you’ll rack up a snowball of savings that will set you up for life."
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/100-frugal-habits-to-live-by-if-you-re-trying-to-save-money
Pocket
100 Frugal Habits to Live By, If You’re Trying to Save Money
Specific, actionable changes you can put into practice to improve your financial outlook.
Ho ripescato un appunto che mi ero preso prima della pandemia, per intenderci, quando ero passato all'allora nuova Bash 5. Un po' di cose erano cambiate. Bisognava ad esempio capire come gestire gli aggiornamenti di Homebrew, perché ogni volta il binario finiva da una parte diversa. Bisognava cambiare la configurazione generale. Però c'erano cose interessanti. Poi siamo tutti migrati a zsh.
Money quote: "This release fixes several outstanding bugs in bash-4.4 and introduces several new features. The most significant bug fixes are an overhaul of how nameref variables resolve and a number of potential out-of-bounds memory errors discovered via fuzzing. There are a number of changes to the expansion of $@ and $* in various contexts where word splitting is not performed to conform to a Posix standard interpretation, and additional changes to resolve corner cases for Posix conformance."
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2019-01/msg00063.html
Money quote: "This release fixes several outstanding bugs in bash-4.4 and introduces several new features. The most significant bug fixes are an overhaul of how nameref variables resolve and a number of potential out-of-bounds memory errors discovered via fuzzing. There are a number of changes to the expansion of $@ and $* in various contexts where word splitting is not performed to conform to a Posix standard interpretation, and additional changes to resolve corner cases for Posix conformance."
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2019-01/msg00063.html
New York City ha un nuovo sindaco, per la seconda volta di colore. Ma è solo l’inizio.
Money quote: “New York is about to have:
a Black Attorney General
a Black DA for Manhattan
a Black DA for the Bronx
a Black US Attorney in Manhattan
a Black US Attorney in Brooklyn/Queens
And a Black mayor of NYC.
Let's see if it makes a difference in policy.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/nyregion/alvin-bragg-wins-manhattan-da.html
Money quote: “New York is about to have:
a Black Attorney General
a Black DA for Manhattan
a Black DA for the Bronx
a Black US Attorney in Manhattan
a Black US Attorney in Brooklyn/Queens
And a Black mayor of NYC.
Let's see if it makes a difference in policy.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/nyregion/alvin-bragg-wins-manhattan-da.html
NY Times
Alvin Bragg Wins, Becoming First Black D.A. in Manhattan
A former federal prosecutor, Mr. Bragg will take over an office that has brought charges against the family business of former president Donald J. Trump.