As Uproxx notes, Jonathan Franzen was — back in the day, after the release of The Corrections — dismayed by the idea of being branded by Oprah’s Book Club, but he now has become one of 12 authors whose work is appearing on a new round of Chipotle bags and cups.Entertainment Weekly has ranked all of Chipotle’s new “Cultivating Thought” essays, and they’ve given Franzen #9, with All the Light We Cannot See author Anthony Doerr’s piece (which pairs best with Mr. Pibb) coming in first. In a similar vein to authors appearing on soda cups, LGBT pride is now appearing on chips.
If you haven’t already seen footage of Madonna spanking and humping Amy Schumer at Madison Square Garden (where the comedian opened for the pop star with a 40-minute set), well, “spanking” and “humping” pretty much sum up the viral moment. But if you still need the visual, here it is. Perhaps more exciting is her brief, searing response to questions about it being an “an exciting time to be a woman in Hollywood,” which came pre-spanking, during her stand-up set. And perhaps still more exciting is her announcement, during the set, that she’ll be performing solo at Madison Square Garden next year.
The BBC is planning on launching a streaming site à la Netflix, which will revisit the network’s old programming and also feature upcoming projects. The Atlantic notes that one incentive for this large undertaking is to compensate for the fact that their budget — most of which comes from the British government — was compromised during the 2008 recession. It’s predicted that it’ll be a monthly subscription service, and given that they’ve been making television since 1929, the archival viewing opportunities could be endless. In other news of large future endeavors, The Verge reports that China has now gotten involved in plans for a high speed rail system between Los Angeles and Las Vegas (a project that’s assumed to cost somewhere around $6.9 billion, and aims to “provide a foundation for high speed rail infrastructure in the Southwest Corridor”).