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Flavorwire

Media

Lean In's Stock Image Campaign Does More for Sheryl Sandberg's Critics Than the Feminist Cause

By Alison Herman on
Unequal pay. Biased hiring practices. Internal barriers to rising through the ranks. Too many photos of ladies climbing... Read More
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Web

Bill Nye Is a Better Poet Than Kristen Stewart: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

In today’s links… again with our favorite (imaginary) friend! Also, a few other things that are almost as lovely as Lupita. … Read More

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Art

‘The Made-Up Words Project’ Chronicles Our Weird, Personal Vernacular

By Tyler Coates on

You likely use your own strange words among your family and friends, with etymologies referring back to your early development, inside jokes, and misunderstandings. For example, my mother still laughs about how I spent my formative years calling hot dogs “dot dogs.” Illustrator Rinee Shah (whose previous collection, Seinfood, we featured here) created The Made-Up Words Project, a series of drawings that take these private colloquialisms and share them with the broader community. Check out some of the illustrations after the jump, and see how many end up in your own vocabulary. … Read More

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Music

Where to Start With Mark Kozelek and Sun Kil Moon

By Jason Diamond on

Mark Kozelek has one of the most distinctive voices in American music, and has steadily put out great albums since the early 1990s. Even though the names he’s used have changed over the course of his 25-year recording career, you know when you’re listening to Kozelek, whether it’s one of his earlier albums with the Red House Painters, a solo record, or something by his newer band, Sun Kil Moon. His deep, haunted, about-to-break-at-any-second voice is as unmistakable as the famous baritones of Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, or Bill Callahan. … Read More

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Film

‘Starstruck’ Author Rachel Shukert’s Favorite Legends of Old Hollywood

By Tyler Coates on

Rachel Shukert has always been obsessed with the fascinating lives of Old Hollywood icons — people like Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Fred Astaire, Loretta Young, and Clark Gable. Her deep knowledge of the goings-on of Hollywood’s golden years is on display in her young-adult novel series, Starstruck, which follows three young starlets — Margo, Amanda, and Gabby — as they try to make it in the pictures. Based heavily on the lives of real Hollywood stars, the books are like Valley of the Dolls for a new generation, set in an era when fierce talent and playing the part were vital to survival on and off camera. Love Me, the second book in the series, comes out today, and to celebrate I asked Shukert to talk with me about some of her favorite tales of classic Hollywood scandal, heartbreak, and desperation. Here are the stories she told. … Read More

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Television

How Winston and Coach Help ‘New Girl’ Subvert Racial Stereotypes

By Isabella Biedenharn on

New Girl’s relationship with race had a pretty rough beginning. In the Fox comedy’s pilot, Damon Wayans, Jr. played Coach, a personal trainer with a fondness for yelling. But in episode two, Coach mysteriously “moved to Santa Monica” and was replaced by another black guy, Winston (Lamorne Morris), who had just returned from a basketball career in Latvia. There was a legitimate excuse for Coach’s departure, of course: Wayans’ show Happy Endings got renewed, not canceled as expected, and he was contractually banned from further appearances on New Girl. Contract woes affect the television universe all the time, forcing characters to come and go (I still miss Henry Ian Cusick from Scandal’s first season), but this black-guy swap felt like New Girl‘s creators were trying to pull one over on us. A show many people were dismissing as twee and contrived wasn’t off to a great start. … Read More

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Media

Why Stuart Hall’s Groundbreaking Work on Culture and Identity Still Matters

By Brie Hiramine on

It’s a sad week for cultural theory geeks. On Monday, the news broke that Stuart Hall had passed away at age 82, due to health complications. He was born in Jamaica, went to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, and became a trailblazer in British cultural studies, founding the political journal New Left Review and establishing a visual arts center in London devoted to diversity. While Hall lacks the pop-culture dazzle of Žižek or the widespread name recognition of Foucault, he was one of the most important cultural theorists alive. And now, upon his death, his work is worth remembering more than ever. … Read More

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Advertising

Paris Street Artist Replaces Advertisements With Classic Works of Art

By Tyler Coates on

If you live in an urban area and rely on public transportation and your own feet to get around your city, you’re pretty much pummeled by advertisements. Wouldn’t life be a little bit lovelier if those ads were replaced with classic works of art? Paris-based street artist Etienne Lavie did just that, covering up public advertisements with more aesthetically pleasing pieces of art all over his city. Check out some images of his work (spotted via The Awesomer) after the jump.  … Read More

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Web

Philip Seymour Hoffman May Be Digitally Added to ‘The Hunger Games’: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

From a much-needed Game of Thrones update to a roundup of the best Sochi-related memes, it’s time for your daily links: … Read More

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Books

Introducing Flavorwire Author Club’s February Selection: James Baldwin

By Jason Diamond on

Flavorwire is excited to introduce our new Author Club series. It’s like a book club, but instead of focusing on a single work, we spend the month profiling several books by a single author and invite our readers to join in with comments that we will round up at the end of the month. We’ve chosen James Baldwin as the inaugural writer, and will spend each remaining week of February discussing one of his books. We’ll kick things off in a few days with his best-known work, 1953′s Go Tell It on the Mountain, then look at his second novel, Giovanni’s Room, finally finishing the month with some of his most famous essays. The Author Club aims to both start conversations about authors among those who are already familiar with them and serve as an introduction for readers who are new to their work. … Read More

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Books

A Deconstruction of Love: Mary and Percy Shelley Edition

By Michelle Dean on

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Flavorwire is deconstructing a few famous pop-culture romances. Here’s our first effort, on Mary and Percy Shelley.

You know, people present the romance of Mary and Percy Shelley as one of history’s great love stories. Possibly because it involved a sudden elopement, and sudden elopements seem so romantic in theory. But they are often just flat-out crazy in practice. … Read More

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