HELLO and welcome to the 133rd installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about hospice care! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
I know I said it was the 133rd installment last time, too, but I WAS WRONG. Sometimes I make mistakes you guys. We all do. It’s part of being human.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
No Country for Old Pervs: The Fall of the Houses of Terry Richardson and Dov Charney (June 2014), by Molly Lambert for Grantland –“The constant sexualization of female images in magazines like Vice, the AA ads, and Terry Richardson’s photography created a false binary; if you couldn’t tolerate it, you must be a square. To be offended was to condemn sexual freedom entirely, even if all you were offended by was that the nudity focused so heavily on pretty young women to the exclusion of everyone else. The best you could do was to be indifferent and wait for it to pass. It’s confusing but common that someone can be incredibly transgressive and intelligent on some fronts and remain willfully dumb about others.”
The Voices in John Mark’s Head (June 2014), by Bryan Smith for Chicago Magazine – What’s really heartbreaking about this is SURPRISE how the mental health system in this country failed a brilliant, talented and ambitious young person who just-so-happened to suffer from a treatable mental illness. Apparently this guy was on Master Chef and almost won, I’ve never seen the show but it’s a really sad story.
Black Glamour Power (June 2014), by Lisa Hix for Collector’s Weekly – This is a really interesting interview with the creator of Vintage Black Glamour, which is an excellent tumblr and is now becoming a coffee table book! She’d been working on a novel inspired by her aunt, who was a model in the 1950’s, and through researching her aunt discovered this world of pageants and beauty contests just for black women. These women were really well known within the black community but white people were oblivious. Anyhow this research became her gateway into ‘vintage black glamour’ in general. The interview covers a lot of history and interesting shit about actresses & celebrities and the Civil Rights movement and respectability politics and all this stuff.
Prey (June 2014), by Kathleen Hale for Hazlit – This was intense. “In the aftermath of rape, and throughout the two-year-long rape trial, I was obsessed with dangerous animals. This is how I went from prey to predator.”
Remembrance of Matinees Past (June 2014), by Niles Schwartz for Letoile Magazine – “It’s obvious that what we’re looking at, assuming I’m measuring the demographic correctly, are the films of our own lifelines, and in remembering those moving pictures we’re struggling to remember the consonance and reason of our lives and relationships. That’s kind of the allure of motion pictures anyway–the alchemy of taking something still and lifeless, and through a magic spindle and light, resurrecting it. It bridges on a kind of religious longing for the eternal, or as Martin Scorsese remarked, “The reality is, for people who create anything…you always want to be remembered.”
Hospice Inc: How Dying Became A Multibillion-Dollar Industry (June 2014), by Ben Hallman for The Huffingotn Post – This is a serious longform journalism investigation situation which means you don’t have to deal with HuffPo’s intensely irritating sidebar nonsense because it takes up the whole page! So anyhow this is the latest on how depressing the present situation is for old people in any type of for-profit care in this country.
Quack, Quack, Quack: An Oral History of the Mighty Ducks Trilogy (June 2014), by Eric Dodds for Time Magazine – When I saw The Mighty Ducks for the first time in the theater, at Briarwood Mall obviously, the film reel died in EXACTLY at the film’s most dramatic moment (some kind of free shot, I think? Like he’s approaching the net with the puck and goes “one… two…” AND THEN THE MOVIE DIED) and we all got a bunch of free passes BUT like the reel was officially dead so we had to go back and see it another day and then I probably saw it another 56 times after that. The recruitment montage is still one of my favorite recruitment montages. THEN when my Mom and brother went to see The Mighty Ducks 2, they were mere moments from the ending when my Mom and brother were yanked out by the theater manager (this was before cell phones, so I think they had to turn the lights up and ask for her by name and everything) because I had just accidentally chopped my finger off and was in the emergency room! Anyhow, this article is not my own personal oral history of The Mighty Ducks, unfortunately. In fact, I would argue that this article is 500 times better than anything I could ever say about the movie. This shit is EXTENSIVE. Besides “remember when Pacey was just a little boy? PACEY YOU GUYS.” (Also wtf Emilio Estevez why wouldn’t you be interviewed for this article?!!!)
I actually had to look up Terry Richardson because I keep hearing people mention him and I had no idea who he even is.
Holy shit, that Mighty Ducks article! I was completely obsessed with those movies. It was a sickness. I rewatched them again recently and dammit, they were still magnificent!
I loved The Mighty Ducks trilogy so much! The first movie always made me super emotional at the end.
Maybe you should put trigger warnings next to the articles? These can get pretty intense and I could see how people would be triggered by them. Also, I didn’t know Rahm Emanuel closed down 1/2 of Chicago’s outpatient clinics in 2012. Wonder how many he’s closed down since then. For shame.
omg, that mighty ducks article! my childhood!
up until dawson’s creek, joshua jackson was always charlie. then he was pacey, and when he grew up and was in that show that i didn’t watch, i still called him pacey. i’ll catch up sometime. in the future. if ever. at all.