March 1st, 2014
The Pleb Commiserator 
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March 1st, 2014
Table of Contents
10 - Where’s the Line? (Vanessa Bellew)
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15 - Did the Free Market Save Arizona? (Dylan Harper)
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18 - Trigger Warnings 101 (Vanessa Bellew)
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24 - Would Sarah Palin have saved the Ukraine (Dylan Harper)
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28 - Oscar Predictions and Films of the Year (Cody Pasby)
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36 - Interview with Author Jason Reynolds (Clark Thomas Feeney)
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50 - A Review of Monuments Men (Cody Pasby)
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55 - On the 2014 All Star Game (Dominic Hebert)
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59 - Classism, Comedy, and Sochi (Dylan Harper)
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Editor’s Notes "
The overall thesis of the Pleb Commiserator is that every facet of society and life is relevant and worth discussing. The goal of this magazine is to provide a further platform for several thoughtful voices to present their ideas and opinions on a wide range of topics.
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The individual writers and contributors should not be viewed as endorsing any view other than their own. The editing staff does take full responsibility for all work present and welcomes any response and criticism regarding arguments, concepts, and ideas introduced or endorsed throughout.
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General Trigger Warning Several articles in this and all future issues may deal with potentially triggering topics such as abortion, sexual assault, and bigotry. While every effort will be made to provide a trigger warning on individual articles, this should serve as a general warning that sensitive topics are likely to be present in every issue, potentially every article. Those with triggers should proceed with that in mind.
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Revenge List
Georgia! Shortly after Arizona vetoed the anti-gay religious freedom Georgia made steps to create their own discriminatory piece of legislation. The state’s long history of bigotry seems more likely to pass through all checks and balances, as tourism and the impending Super Bowl ended up being the deciding factor for Arizona, neither of which influence politicians of Georgia quite as much. "
Tom Perkins! The aging capitalist jokingly proposed a plan to prevent those who don’t pay taxes from voting. While Perkins has rolled his eyes at criticisms saying that it was tongue and cheek but the disenfranchisement of the poor is a reality and something that could easily be exasperated if the votes in Washington existed. "
Susan Patton! In a Valentine’s Day op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Patton suggested women who want to get married “avoid falling for the P.C. feminist line…” Patton manages to fight off a sea of feminist straw men implying that the ‘feminist line’ women ought to avoid is that wives and mothers are ‘“retrograde.” In reality, there a few bigger allies for wives and mothers of the world than the feminist movement.
Sean Parker! Of Napster fame, the tech mogul recently compared Gawker to Nazi propaganda after a story about snow was bulldozed from his house into the street so he could have cables installed at his New York home. Reporting this millionaires version of being a bad neighbor apparently was enough for Parker to feel like he was being treated like an enemy of the Nazi party during it’s reign. "
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#BestTweet
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The Absolute Worst Thing That’s Ever Been Written
Seriously, look at that headline. Read it again. Marvel in its horrendous attempt to peak your curiosity. Speak every word of this atrocious attempt at UpWorthy style click baiting garbage, and, whoa! What a ridiculous piece of crap.
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Let’s actually analyze this, word by word. “At first” is as far as one needs to read to know this is going to translate to “if I just told you what this video was about, there’s not much chance you’d find it worth your time.” But this grotesque hyperbole, and even using a literary device like hyperbole seems degrading to the term, goes on: “He looks like a crazy man with a rake.” Ok, think about that situation, visualize it. You see a man with a rake on a beach, is your first reaction really to think “that motherfucker is crazy! Clearly he’s gone mad with beachrake fever and there is absolutely nothing else to this and those shapes and patterns he’s making are certainly at random.” No, no one thinks that. Even if someone, by some miracle, wasn’t even acutely aware that things can be created in sand to look cool from high places (literally every movie with a desert island features someone spelling ‘help’ or ‘will you marry me’ in the sand), than would they really jump to crazy person? At worst wouldn’t they think he’s just ripping off Spaceballs? The title mercifully ends with the well thought of “but then, zoom out… (THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME) whoa!” The picture they provided really isn’t even a good one to get this point across. From pretty much any angle this guy looks like someone working on an art project. Aside from the ableist slur, which is absolutely worth getting angry over and is harmful to those with mental disorders, should this misuse of feigned (hopefully) excitement really be rage inducing? Yes. Hyperbole is the new spam; it’s the latest 8
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minor annoyance that slowly breaks down the quality of our collective internet experience and it must be stopped.
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Where is the Line? Vanessa Bellew
(Trigger Warning: discussion of rape and sexual assault throughout.) In 1992, as the only agreed-upon fact goes, allegations of sexual abuse were brought against renowned filmmaker Woody Allen on behalf of his seven-year-old daughter, Dylan Farrow. Though he was never convicted, he was denied both custody and all visitation rights. After over two decades and uncountable articles, op-eds, blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts by anyone with an internet connection, can there be anything new or worthwhile left to say about this contentious subject? When even Woody Allen, who has previously been contented to let others defend his name, has finally crafted an open letter to the Times full of unsurprising but still deeply upsetting amounts of sexism and hugely misleading falsehoods in response to the now-adult Dylan's own Times piece, what is there left to contribute to this confusing and emotionally charged he-said-she-and-also-the-courts-of-law-said? At this point, everyone who hadn't already made up their minds in the court of public opinion in the 90s has found ample material to support whatever particular world view they require to function. They've shared it on their Facebooks and probably gotten into mostly civil but occasionally rabid debates in the comments with their friends, family, and acquaintances. For every article 10
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saying Allen is innocent, there is an article saying he isn't. There are extremely useful and thought-provoking articles on why it shouldn't matter one way or the other what the public thinks about Woody Allen because in the context of the Western world's historic and present tendency toward victim-blaming and silencing those who speak out about their sexual abuse and assault, to suggest that the victim is in any way lying or delusion is inherently damaging and only serves to strengthen what has become known as rape culture. Unfortunately, there are probably articles offering the opposite view as well. For those denizens of the polarized, post-internet world who cannot abide moral ambiguity, especially where their heroes are involved (and make no mistake, Woody Allen is a hero to neurotic and pretentious white man-children the world over), this is perhaps an easily dismissed issue. They can read the Daily Beast article, toss in Woody Allen's own response, and cast aspersions on the character of Mia Farrow (and, really, all women) before engaging in a solidarity marathon of Allen's greatest hits and obtusely ignoring all the references to sexual relationships with underaged girls. For the rest of the Hollywood-focused world, however, things are much more complicated. Unsettling questions have been raised that should not (and hopefully cannot) be ignored any longer: Is it possible to enjoy the art despite the villainy of the artist? Is it conscionable? At what point in a person's fame and success do they become more important than every other human being on the planet, especially those without a 11
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voice or the ability to defend themselves? If an actor is successful enough that working with a particular famous writer/director will no longer make or break their careers, is it ever justifiable to align themselves with said writer/director when he or she is a child rapist (for example)? Does the quality of the art ever excuse the iniquity of the artist? In 2014, are we really still having this conversation? And these are the easy questions. Because while this particular case is about Dylan Farrow and society's willingness to dismiss her inherent human value in the shadow of her father's success and our collective love for Annie Hall, the underlying issues run through nearly every facet of American life. Western culture as a whole has an obsession with successful people. Even as conservative politicians insist that anyone can achieve that level of money, fame, and power through a little good old fashioned elbow grease, those who have already reached those heights are held up as paragons of humanity, magnificent freaks who were born great and could not have lived any other life. They're doing better than the rabble and therefore they must be better, or so it suits us to think. Their worth as individual humans increases exponentially in step with their money and fame until they become -- and forgive the expression -- too big to fail. This is almost exclusively a privilege enjoyed by rich, white, heterosexual males, except when it comes to sports, when a man of color's value is proportional to the amount of money he can make the rich, white, heterosexual males who own the team for which he plays. Obviously there are some outliers -- men of color like 12
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Chris Brown, who can beat another superstar and still remain untouchable, the apparent serial harasser Bill Cosby, and even some women -- but on the whole it seems that achieving a state of worth that eclipses the worth of those around you is a club reserved for those born to the apex of privilege in the first place. So what if Woody Allen was just some guy living in the suburbs with a seven-year-old daughter who accused him of rape? What if he, following the allegations and losing his visitation rights to see the daughter in question, began attacking his daughter's mother's reputation and openly dating said woman's other, barely-legal daughter? Would he ever be allowed to adopt more children? What if Woody Allen were a black man accused of abusing his daughter? What if the famous, white, straight Woody Allen were accused of sexually abusing his son? Would he still be worth more than the people he hurt? Though nothing about this should ever be taken away from Dylan Farrow and her experience should never be trivialized or appropriated in any way, perhaps the real controversy here is about the invulnerability of success. Because at its core, this isn't just about Woody Allen or even just about rape culture (though certainly both of those things are hugely relevant). It's about a festering pattern in our society; it's about the alchemical way that being Caucasian (or passing), straight, and a man transforms any acquired power and celebrity into an invincible suit of armor.
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This is nothing new. Sean Penn broke into Madonna's house, tied her to a chair, and beat her. For hours. Jimmy Page kidnapped and raped and then held hostage (for years) a fourteen-year-old girl. Ted Kennedy drove drunk into a tidal channel, resulting in the death of his passenger. He didn't report the accident or the death for nine hours. Bill Murray, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Cage, and even charming Gary Oldman have been the perpetrators of domestic violence, though they most definitely are not the only famous men to do so. High school, college, and professional sports are riddled with allegations (and cover ups) of sexual assault, child abuse, vehicular manslaughter, the torture and horrible deaths of dogs for entertainment, and even premeditated murder. Some of these (read: really just the black men) entitled criminals and morally bankrupt narcissists serve mild time or settle out of court. Most of them just had to dust off their barely tarnished reputations before going back to pulling in money and accolades hand over fist. So where is the line? Does success entitle a person to live above the morality of his fellow man? What is the criteria Western society has decided on that turns a depraved or dangerous individual into an infallible deity? How much wealth or notoriety must a man accrue before his twisted and base animal impulses become more important than the health, safety, and well-being of a child? Just how good does Annie Hall have to be for the world to pretend Dylan Farrow's pain doesn't exist? Where is the line? Because even Mia Farrow has defended Roman Polanski." 14
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Did the Free Market Save Arizona? (no) Dylan Harper
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A long line of businesses, the NFL, and several commerce institutions in the
state of Arizona voiced their opposition to SB 1062, and in the end, that was enough to convince staunch conservative Gov. Jan Brewer to veto the bill, citing ‘broad wording’ as the main flaw. The libertarian rhetoric before the law was passed was that businesses should be allowed to discriminate and the free market will put bigots out of business; the rhetoric after the veto has been that the pressure of private entities demonstrates that the free market will come to the aid of oppressed communities. There is virtually zero historical grounding for these two talking points. Throughout the Jim Crow era thousands of businesses discriminated against the black community. Legal segregation was readily enforced by private entities, and, while some individuals outside the black community would join in boycotts, the black community did all the heavy lifting, staging sit-ins, getting arrested, and,
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eventually, forcing the hands of enough politicians to ensure the end of legal segregation. The free market didn’t end segregation, black protestors and the eventual threat of violence (going by the usual libertarian definition of any sort of lean, liability, penalty, or tax) from a central government did. There are two key issues with the idea that an oppressed community will be equalized by the free market. First, it’s puts the onus on the community to utilize the free market to make themselves equal. A community shouldn’t have to boycott businesses, transportation, or engage in protests to get what they want. Second, it doesn't work. Even getting to legal action takes years and costs lives, and in the end, the threat of legal violence is still necessary to actually put an end to the bigoted action. The idea that Arizona’s bill wouldn’t have harmed the gay community is baseless. When every business can refuse service to queer patrons, some will, and often in subtle (to those outside the queer community) ways. There won’t be a sign outside a restaurant that says ‘gays keep out’ for well to do liberal capitalists and socially aware libertarians to turn their noses up at and pretend they’re helping. To even point out the businesses participating in the bigotry, it would have taken some scale of action from the queer community, which is already asking too much. But the real insult is to the idea that the NFL and other businesses saying no proves that the free market would do the job. These businesses argued in favor of the threat of state violence to ensure this bigotry wouldn’t take place. The NFL, in 16
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saying they’d move the Super Bowl only if Arizona promised to maintain the current threat of state violence directed towards anyone who refused service based on orientation. Aside from the queer community, who did the real work, there are two groups of people that are trying to place themselves on the correct side of these causes: people worried about bottom line tourist dollars, and companies who want their Wikipedia pages to have a line proving they were on the right side of history. Commerce groups want gay couples to stay in Arizona’s hotels, and go to their restaurants, the NFL wants to be viewed as a progressive organization. Neither of these can be counted on to look out for oppressed communities, and neither of these are responsible for keeping the bigoted SB 1062 off the books.
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Trigger Warnings 101 Vanessa Bellew
A little over a year ago, I was diagnosed as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and my trauma therapist and I concluded that I’ve probably had it since I was around eight or so. Up until that point, any psychiatrist or therapist I had seen had talked about my having major depressive disorder and anxiety and that I had obviously had numerous traumatic experiences at a time when I did not have the resources to deal with them. That covered enough of my symptoms that I didn’t seek a second opinion, but I knew other people with depression and anxiety (yes, I know, everyone’s different) and somehow my dealings with dysfunction seemed to not quite match up. I was dubious when in December 2012 I was told by both my therapist and my psychiatrist, separately, that I was a lifelong sufferer of PTSD because I’m pretty smart about these things and yet I’d only ever thought of it as something that veterans can get. I haven’t seen combat in the strictest sense of the word. I’m just a civilian girl in my twenties trying to navigate out of a tumultuous childhood. So after speaking with them, I went home and did what we all do---I Googled symptoms. Suddenly everything matched up.
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There is one word in particular that, if you are on a PTSD forum or just going through private therapy for it, you end up hearing and saying all the time. All the time.
" “Trigger.”
" No, not Roy Rogers’ horse. Not even that easy little lever on a loaded firearm, although that’s a little closer. In psychology, a trigger is a sight, sound, smell, occurrence, person, place, thing (nouns!), etc. that “triggers” the traumatic experiences in flashbacks or intrusive memories or overwhelming emotion or panic attacks or debilitating depression or... You get the point. But you may be wondering what all this has to do with you. Why am I bothering to fill you in on my mental health? Because you -- yes, you, Internet -- have the incredible ability and opportunity to improve the lives of anyone who sees your comments or blog posts or YouTube videos or even just a link you’re posting on Facebook. You can help your fellow humans cope with life after trauma. As Captain Planet says, “The power is yours.”
" I’m about to drop some buzz words on y’all like it’s my new single. Ready? Here we go: 19
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" “Trigger warning.”
" Did I just blow your mind? Yeah. I know.
" I first became aware of trigger warnings on a PTSD forum before people would tell their personal stories, which were often horrible and usually contained multiple triggers for the rest of us. It was Dylan Harper who delighted me by introducing them on social networks and has saved me probably weeks of my life by allowing me to choose whether or not I can handle one of those sensitive topics on any given day. They’re basically exactly what they sound like: the trauma equivalent of a spoiler alert, except that instead of figuratively ruining someone’s life, you could literally ruin someone’s life. But don’t worry! It’s easy! Say that you’re posting something that may contain a fairly graphic or controversial or dangerous subject and you’re a decent person who cares about the world around you, or at least some of the people you’ve friended on Facebook. You don’t want to have someone casually scrolling down their News Feed only to stumble accidentally upon your material and suddenly they’re spending the rest of their week bedridden and sobbing. Because you’re a good friend.
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Instead of leaving that material out there on the cybernetic byways for some unfortunate individual to happen upon unawares like you’re one of those dickwads that don’t pick up your dog’s poop on the sidewalks of New York City (you know who you are), this is what you do:
" “Trigger warning.” And then you leave some space before you start your rant or add your link or whatever it is. If it’s a graphic image, maybe don’t let there be a thumbnail so that people who can’t handle looking at it won’t be triggered via sneak attack. If you’re really looking to impress the worthwhile people on the internet and score some karmic bonus points, you can add what the trigger topic is. These can include but are not limited to rape/sexual assault/sexual abuse, physical abuse, any kind of graphic gore or mutilation, death, drugs/alcohol, eating disorders, suicide, self-harm, genocide, kidnapping, school shootings, bombings, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, murder, bullying, slut-shaming, animal abuse, disease, racism, ableism, mentalism, rampant homophobia, weapons, cult behavior... The list is literally endless because every person who has encountered trauma and is still triggered will have their own unique issues that set them off. For instance, someone in my life with a very particular facial feature abused me for two years. No matter where I am, what I’m doing, even now, years later, when I see someone who has something similar to that look, I shut down. I dissociate. I 21
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can no longer be present in my body. Obviously this isn’t a thing you can know in advance and I would find it sweet but absurd if you tried to filter all pictures you posted on Facebook, for instance, because someone you know looks like that person in my life. But those big things? Those things that are almost universal traumas? Those are things you can cushion. Those are subjects that may deserve a gentler introduction. You may think you don’t know anyone with PTSD, but it’s only in recent years that it’s being widely recognized in the non-military population and maybe the people you know who have it don’t even know that’s what it is. Or maybe you do know people who have PTSD but because of the stigma attached to it and the intense pain they are suffering probably all the time, they have chosen not to reveal it in a public setting. Think of it this way: one in four American girls and one in six American boys will be sexually assaulted by the time they’re eighteen and the second largest cause of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is sexual assault. Now look at your Facebook friends. How many of them are female? Divide by four. How many of them are male? Divide by six. And even if someone doesn’t have PTSD, they still may find that a particular item of discussion really, really upsets them. This is especially true of people in maligned minority groups, be it because of their religion, their
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orientation, their gender identity, their vaginas, where they came from, a physical or mental handicap, a psychological disorder, or the color of their skin. We at The Pleb Commiserator (the Commiserati, if you will) will be making it one of our highest priorities to make sure that any potentially traumatic material we provide will have a trigger warning. We’ll try to always tell you ahead of time that you’re about to embark on some treacherous waters and we’ll do our best to name which monsters there be. Won’t you please do the same?
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Did President Obama Fail the Ukraine? " "
Dylan Harper
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin once ‘predicted’ that if then Senator Obama were elected, Russia would feel so unthreatened by the United States that they’d invade the Ukraine. Republicans have been quick to bring this up as an ‘I told you so’ but the statement they’re really making, that, had McCain (or presumably Romney) been elected over President Obama Russia would be too scared of the United States to consider invading anyone, is perhaps one of the most laughable ones out of the consistently hilarious (if they weren’t destroying the country) Tea Party. Historical counterfactuals are already an exercise for the foolhardy. It’s of course impossible to know what could have been in any given situation. What makes this particular rhetoric especially worthy of considerable rebuking, aside from the scale, is the inconsistency and hypocrisy that would have to be accepted to even take the hypothetical seriously. The same Tea Partiers that are building survival bunkers because of the deficit fail to realize that it would only increase exponentially for any tangible ‘threat’ that would suitably deter Russia from any 24
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sort of invasive military action. And even then, it’s unlikely Putin would pass up the instability the Ukraine is currently facing no matter who was in the Oval Office. The Tea Party rhetoric is to be poorly thought out; ignorance is to be expected of a group who named themselves after a group of culturally appropriative, salve owning, tea wasters. But the lesson here is that the Tea Party agenda should always be crossed checked with the deficit and budget because of the imaginary, ideal Tea Party America is about as feasible as a land invasion of Russia in winter.
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Culture
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Stuff to Watch What more can be said about Twitch Plays Pokemon at this point? The surreal event that’s probably the closest thing to the moon landing internet cultural enthusiasts will ever have finally ended on Friday, reaching over one hundred thousand individuals actively playing the same Pokemon Red game. Almost forty million tuned into to watch what was called “the final battle for the soul of the internet” and “twenty thousand monkeys at a single typewriter.” If you missed out on the magic, a new adventure will begin March 2nd."
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The same channel that brought you Pretty Little Liars is now giving you one of the most progressive shows on TV. The Fosters presents tough issues (race, gender, drug abuse, sexual assault, sexuality, etc.) in a heartfelt, gentle, but honest way. And it's actually really good. With the continued lack of representation on prime time television, and the stunning decline in quality of Modern Family, the Fosters is a welcome change For a taste, check out the five short webisodes that take place inside a multiracial group home for troubled teens. Rosie O'Donnell guest stars."
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If John Carpenter were going to write and direct a kids movie, it would be The Lego Movie. Parodying everything from capitalism, to the GOP, to pop culture, to the Lego company itself, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller create the best non-Disney animated feature in recent memory. But the subversive humor is only one of the reasons to catch the sure to be classic. What could have been a ninety minute Lego commercial ends up featuring a heartfelt ending that will be meaningful to anyone that’s played with Legos, or really any toys, with their parents, or an older sibling."
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The first two seasons of Girls saw the writing and direction improve exponentially and it’s finally all come together in the latest season of Lena Dunham’s masterwork. Where the writing and directing has succeed, the plot creation has failed, however, as the already tough to relate to HBO show has taken huge steps backwards and narrowed the scope of individuals who could possibly see themselves in Dunham’s characters. Jessica Williams has made multiple appearances and been likable in her brief screen time, and hopefully she’ll hang around, as the show doesn’t have a single other consistent woman of color. Girls third season is still worth checking out for the dialogue, and shot choices, but don’t expect to lose yourself in it unless you’re a semi-successful writer or recently got cast on Broadway. "
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Going for the Oscar Gold "
Pleb Comm’s critic-at-large Cody Pasby looks back at his favorite films from the year that was and looks ahead to the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.
" Cody’s Best of 2013 Honorable Mentions: Inside Llewyn Davis, The Wolf of Wall Street, Mud, The World’s End, Rush
" 5. The Wolverine I’ll be the first to admit, this inclusion seems a little wild. I’ll also admit I’m a sucker for all things superheroes, sci-fi or anything remotely “nerdy”. But during the summer of 2013, I started to grow weary of the superhero genre. Last summer saw the release of Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel, both good movies (and yes, I fully expect to defend Man of Steel for the rest of my being) but lacking the excitement of The Avengers or the intensity of The Dark Knight. The genre is living in a post Avengers world where bigger is assumed to be better. That might be true in a film with six different superheroes, but not necessarily when it’s down to just one. With that in mind, along comes The Wolverine, a focused character study filled with spectacularly choreographed action sequences and one of the most faithful adaptations of famed X-Men writer Chris Claremont’s work. After the embarrassing X3: X-Men United and abysmal X-Men Origins: Wolverine, there were more than enough reasons to stay away from this film. But an inspired choice of director with James Mangold and the always rock solid Hugh 28
March 1st, 2014 Jackman work wonders. Unlike ninety five percent of superhero movies, The Wolverine keeps things small, giving us more time to focus on the inner workings of everyone’s favorite anti-hero and setting itself apart in an increasingly crowded genre. It’s introspective, visually striking, pulse pounding and features one of the best battles the genre has ever seen between Jackman’s Wolverine and Hiroyuki Sanada, one of Japan’s greatest action stars. Essentially, it’s everything fans didn’t expect after Origins and everything they had ever wanted from a Wolverine solo film.
" 4. Her Who would have thought that a romance between a lonely man and his computer would become one of the most realistic portrayals of the triumphs and tribulations felt over the course of a relationship, setting itself alongside classics like Annie Hall and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Spike Jonze did, once again proving why he ranks as one the most original and wildly creative filmmakers in Hollywood. Her could have just become a huge punch line, but the chemistry between Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore and Scarlett Johansson’s Samantha is perfect. Their relationship is not presented with a wink and a nod, but as serious as the one you may have with your real human boyfriend or girlfriend. The fact that Theodore is doing everything with a computer becomes irrelevant early on and it makes you realize that movies are still capable of magic. Her is a beautifully simple movie about love, the responsibilities we have to the ones we love and sacrifices we make for the ones we love and ourselves.
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3. American Hustle Director David O. Russell looks at his films like a playground for actors to do whatever they please. Sometimes it blows up in his face (if you have ever watched behind the scenes footage of I Heart Huckabees, you know what I mean) but when it works, his films are an absolute thrill to watch. American Hustle lands in the latter category. Like last year’s big Oscar winner Argo, Hustle is not obsessed with the hard facts of the ABSCAM scandal and is more interested in the wild personalities surrounding it. Christian Bale has been largely ignored in this years Best Actor race, which is surprising considering how much he transformed and how captivating he is as con-man Irving Rosenfeld. Amy Adams continues her unstoppable hot streak as Irving’s cohort Sydney, Bradley Cooper is a blast as the grimy FBI agent Richie and Jennifer Lawrence is absolutely hysterical and fiery as Irving’s wife Rosalyn. Granted, these characters are certainly not the most well behaved or nicest people, but part of the thrill is living in their world for a few hours, a la Pulp Fiction or fellow Best Picture nominee The Wolf of Wall Street. Put it all together with a script that will have you in stitches and a soundtrack that would make Martin Scorsese blush and you have David O. Russell’s best film to date.
" 2. Gravity There are a few movie moments I would love to experience for the first time again. Watching Toy Story at five years old would be one, or uncovering the mysteries of 2001: A Space Odyssey with my dad would be another. Now you can put watching Gravity for the first time, in IMAX, in 3D on that list as well. Telling your friends who hadn’t seen 30
March 1st, 2014 Gravity yet to go see it “only if it was in IMAX 3D” almost became a joke considering the amount of times I heard it, and, admittedly, said it. But the hype and overhype was completely warranted for Alfonso Cuaron’s visual masterpiece, and the excitement I felt watching it and afterwards can only be compared to that fateful day when I watched Pixar’s first film at five years old. There was an immediate excitement, a sense of awe and the feeling that not only had we never seen anything like this, we may never see anything close to it again. Gravity was Cuaron’s passion project; taking him over four years to finish, and the results are breathtaking. Sandra Bullock is great in this film as well, fitting in perfectly to a movie that was never really about the characters as much as it was about the journey. If this film is still being shown in a theater near you, hopefully in 3D, go watch it now. If not, still watch it. No film since Kubrick’s 2001 has looked at space in such a realistic and frightening way. Gravity is a tense and mysterious thriller that will never be forgotten by those who experienced it the way Cuaron intended.
" 1. 12 Years a Slave The best films transport you to a time and place you could have never visited otherwise. Often times these places are magical, wondrous and beyond our imagination. But 12 Years a Slave transports you to a much darker place, a place that no one in the United States ever wants to go to, but we must. We go not because we want to, but because not to would be to act like it never really happened. We are sucked into the darkest time in U.S. history the moment Solomon, a free man played Chiwetel Ejiofor, is captured and struck mercilessly, with each of his screams more piercing, more blood curdling and more real than the last. What is being seen on screen never feels like actors simply
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March 1st, 2014 playing their part, it feels like real villains, real victims and real horror. 12 Years a Slave is not an easy film to sit through, nor should it be. Director Steve McQueen presents slavery as it has never been seen, with all of the complications, violence and conflict that previous films and television shows have failed to portray. Ejiofor is stunning as Solomon, the once free man who was captured and forced into slavery. His performance is subtle and nuanced, with still shots of Ejiofor overcome with emotion or shock saying more than any words could describe. Newcomer Lupita Nyong’o serves as the films emotional rock, and while her time in the film is short, she gives one of the most emotional and powerful performances caught on screen in years. Michael Fassbender plays Edwin Epps, quite possibly one of the vilest personalities in film history, and elicits such revulsion that it’s almost impossible to appreciate the amazing acting job he does. And it would be a disservice to not mention Hans Zimmer’s spectacular score, featuring the perfect mix of brazen and unsettling percussion pieces and more heart wrenching and melodic tunes. 12 Years a Slave brings us face to face with the demons of our past, and it is not just the best film of 2013 by a landslide, it is one of the most important films to ever be released.
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Oscar Predictions Best Original Screenplay What should win – Her What will win – Her
" Best Adapted Screenplay What should win – 12 Years a Slave What will win – 12 Years a Slave
" Best Animated Feature What should win – Frozen What will win – The Wind Rises U.S. audiences have not seen legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s final film yet, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Academy honor Miyazaki and make The Wind Rises his swan song.
" Best Supporting Actress Who should win – Lupita Nyong’o Who will win – Jennifer Lawrence Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic in American Hustle, but it certainly doesn’t come close to Lupita Nyong’o’s performance. Both actresses have won on 33
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the awards circuit so far, but I think Oscar will go with the hotter name over the better performance.
" Best Supporting Actor Who should win – Jared Leto Who will win – Jared Leto Leto always goes all in with his performances, maybe never more so than as a transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club. Probably the safest bet of the night.
" Best Actress Who should win – Cate Blanchett Who will win – Cate Blanchett Despite six nominations, Blanchett has never won Best Actress, although she did win for Supporting in The Aviator. Expect her to win her first top prize for a fantastic performance in Blue Jasmine.
" Best Actor Who should win – Chiwetel Ejiofor Who will win – Matthew McConaughey There’s the slightest chance Leonardo DiCaprio sneaks away with this, but this year’s race is between Ejiofor and McConaughey. McConaughey is on a major hot streak, and his performances in Dallas Buyers Club and Mud 34
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were spectacular. It would be such a shame though if Ejiofor’s powerful performance doesn’t get the proper recognition.
" Best Director Who should win – Alfonso Cuaron Who will win – Alfonso Cuaron Gravity was a technical marvel that pushed the boundaries of filmmaking, and the Academy is likely to honor that achievement with an Oscar for Cuaron.
" Best Picture Who should win – 12 Years a Slave Who will win – 12 Years a Slave It’s a much tighter race than originally anticipated, but 12 Years a Slave is a landmark film that simply can’t be ignored. It would be a huge upset to see anything else take the top prize.
" " " " " " " " 35
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" “Family is family. You can’t pick them, and you sure as hell can’t give them back.”
" Clark Thomas Feeney sits down with author Jason Reynolds to discuss his book When I Was the Greatest 36
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"
" “Family is family. You can’t pick them, and you sure as hell can’t give them
back.” These are the words of Ali, the often poignant protagonist of When I Was The Greatest by Jason Reynolds. To say reading a young adult novel about a black teenager growing up in Brooklyn is a “breath of fresh air” would be a drastic understatement. The stark lack of young adult literature about and by people of color would be reason enough to read this book, but luckily this book also happens to be incredibly refined and touching. Reynolds spends a great deal of time establishing the vivid world his characters live in - Bed-Stuy, a complex neighborhood of Brooklyn, riddled with poverty and crime, but with a distinct personality and deep sense of community. Ali, the reticent young boxer, lives with his overworked, yet devoted mother, Doris, and his little sister, Jazz, who is wise beyond her years. His father, John, a former criminal who is not totally in the picture these days, does his best to show his love for his estranged family when he can. But Ali’s family extends beyond blood. His best friends, Noodles and Needles, live in the building next door, and are a permanent fixture at family dinners and the stoop down below. Noodles, a wannabe tough guy, hides deep insecurities, many of which involve is brother, Needles, who suffers from Tourette syndrome. Needles, who is perhaps the most compelling character in the book, though well treated by his friends and family, has
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a very hard time fitting in because of his condition. But once fitted with some yarn and needles, he is able to focus his energy on knitting and better control his vocal outbursts. Without giving away any spoilers, Ali, Noodles, and Needles find themselves at a party they are way too young to attend, with people who are way out of their league, in pretty much every sense. And between Noodles’ big mouth and Needles’ involuntary ticks, an incident occurs that puts all of their lives in jeopardy. And it’s up to Ali’s tight-knit family to stop the bleeding before the whole situation unravels. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. It is well balanced with laughter and deeply moving moments. And the manner in which the characters speak, truly paints a living, breathing tapestry that you can reach out and touch. “When I Was The Greatest” is easily one of the best young adult novels in recent years, and arguably one of the most important ones. Reading a young adult novel that is not about a dystopian future with white teenagers who have super natural powers or some other bullshit cliche is a welcomed change of pace. What we get instead, is a very real, very nuanced story about black teenagers in the real world, with real world struggles.
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I was lucky enough to sit down and talk with Jason Reynolds (pictured below) about the book and some of the themes that are brought up in it. We met at a local Bed-Stuy coffee shop, called “Little Brother”, which is at the intersection of Lewis avenue and Decatur street - the exact intersection in which the book takes place. Before I could even get the tape recorder going, Jason jumped right into conversation. (Some very minor spoilers for those who haven’t read the book yet.)
" JR: We have to start pushing literature. Balancing it out. Kids around here - we live in this neighborhood. That’s how you wanna see yourself. In the things that you read. That’s sort of like the attraction of Hip Hop, always the attraction of Hip Hop - the attraction back in the day, in the 80s. Because it was saying the shit we were living back in the day when no one was saying it. Pop music wasn't covering it, soul music was so good on stage, but it was all just love love love, and, like, no. That’s not how we living, it’s the 80s.
"
CTF: And then it just took flight at that point and became somewhat mainstream.
"
JR: If it’s something that rings true people always like to see themselves.
"
CTF: Do you think it loses any kind of meaning when it gets beyond the community that it was originally intended for, and moves to a national scale?
"
JR: I think it depends on the integrity of 39
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the music, the integrity of whatever the art form is. Take an art form like Afrobeat, right? Arguably, Afrobeat should never had made it to America. It was a Nigerian thing, but then you know, Fela and yadda yadda yadda - and it gets to America. And I like to believe that, like, though its not, like, in the mix of every American station - but in urban cities, it has a nice pocket of people that helped it maintain its integrity. Of what African people want it to be.
"
CTF: Definitely in cities, but I don't think that stuff reaches middle america, like… ever?
"
JR: Ever. (laughs) I don’t know, man. It’s such a strange dynamic in the middle. I feel like the way it is, people like it that way, and there is no sort of unrest. No one is upset about the fact that there is nothing here. People are used to it. It’s unfortunate. I think the people who leave middle America to come to a city to Chicago, to New York, or to DC, they never go back. Cause it’s not like you can go back and put something there.
"
CTF: Totally. Thats what happened with me when I moved from the suburbs. People are just clueless out there. Not exposed to other cultures.
"
JR: I was talking last night to my buddy, L, who's a white girl who grew up in Miami - in a black neighborhood in Miami. And she always talks about it. She’s like, “Yo, whenever I try to explain to my white friends that did not grow up in this kind of place, its like-“
" CTF: It’s not something you can explain. "
JR: Right. It’s funny, she’s always like, “I want you to recognize the privilege you have, but that doesn't mean you have to feel bad. No one is trying to make you feel guilty. We want you to acknowledge that these things are what they are. Just acknowledge that this is what it is. It doesn't mean that you should be mad at yourself - shit, it ain’t even your fucking fault, right? We’re just saying this is what it is.”
"
CTF: Obviously the book is really important for young people of color to read, because of the shocking lack of representation of literature about people of color-
" JR: Yeah, (laughs) about that. "
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CTF: But I think it’s also important for young white kids to read it, because they have just no actual concept at all of urban life - they just don’t know. It’s an educational tool.
" JR: Right, here we are. This is what it looks like. This is what it sounds like. " CTF: Thats the other thing too, the vernacular, and the way it is written is unapologetic - which is what is so great about it.
"
JR: I got one bad review because of that. From some small independent reviewer, you know, “I write reviews on books, this is my blog”, but its fine. I respect that. But he said, “Oh, he’s advocating guns and drugs and sex,” when its like-
"
CTF: Wow, I had the complete opposite reaction. I feel like the book, in a lot of ways, is about anti-violence.
" JR: The kid is a boxer who cant even box! "
CTF: Right! And there is the ending, when Ali makes the assumption that his father-
" JR: Was gonna kill those guys. " CTF: Yeah, and he is shocked that he didn’t. " JR: Well, his dad is shocked that he even would think that he would do that. "
CTF: Exactly. Which I think is an interesting societal reflection, and I was curious if you intentionally had this be a thing, like, this what our society at large would expect to happen. And it’s unfortunate that that would be the assumed, default reaction.
" JR: But that’s what it is. "
CTF: I like the fact that it changes that, and sort of flips it on its head. Is that something you were intending on doing, calling out peoples assumptions?
"
JR: Well, you know, for me, I think it was really important not to fall into cliche. I didn't want it to fall into a stereotype, right? Because this book could have been half the pages. I could have gotten right to the point. This kid gets beat up, his 41
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father goes and guns this guy down, and goes to jail for the rest of his life. That’s what people - everybody - would expect. That we have this code, you know, the “G code” as they call it in the hood. You don’t rat, you don’t cry, and you always seek revenge. And that is the way that everybody does it, the way that everybody operates. And of course, some people do operate that way, but 95% of people who live in black and brown communities, live normal lives.
"
CTF: And then of course you hear a few stories here and there that get sensationalized by the media.
"
JR: Everyone thinks we just run it and gun it, and that’s just not what happens. It’s just not true. Basically all of Bed-Stuy has been whittled down to the Marcy Projects. Thanks to the celebrity sensationalism of Jay Z - he is such a celebrity - and his stories about growing up in Marcy Projects. If you don't live in Brooklyn, you think that all of Brooklyn is the 5 building project that is Marcy. I mean, 188,000 people live in this neighborhood. 188,000 people… it’s huge. And people are like, “ohhh… Bed-Stuy, man. I heard about Marcy!” And really, it is this big!
"
CTF: Right. Its just a tiny little pocket. Did you grow up in Bed-Stuy?
"
JR: No, I grew up in DC. Moved to Bed-Stuy about 10 years ago. Spent all my 20s, right here, in this neighborhood.
"
CTF: This intersection (pictured left) - this is where the book takes place. Which for me, living in the neighborhood, I get to see exactly what you mean when you say, “The other side of Lewis avenue.” It’s a trip. When I read that, I was like,
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“oh man, I know exactly what you are talking about - those beautiful brownstones on Decatur…”
"
JR: It’s so different. When I moved over here, the house next to me was a crackhouse. It’s not now, because it has been gentrified. But it was this crazy slum house with the crack addicts and the whores, and they'd all be outside. No one wanted to live here. No one wanted to park their car. You could always find parking, because no one wanted to park in front of their house.
" CTF: How long ago was this? " JR: Shit, probably about 3 years ago. "
CTF: Wow, this area has changed a lot in just 3 years. You brought up gentrification. What are you feelings on that, in this area in particular?
"
JR: It is a bit of a double-edged sword. At this point, I think it is almost silly to be upset about white people or anybody moving into the neighborhood. Because it is inevitable. It’s gonna happen. It happens all the time. It is a cycle that always comes around in urban environments. My issue is, not with the gentrification and flipping of homes - my issue is with the whitewashing of culture. I take issue with people who move to this neighborhood and act like I’m the one visiting. Come to the neighborhood that I’ve been in, that my family, my friends, their families, they all grew up in, and treat them like they are the visitor. And that is the kind of thing that bothers me the most. A prime example - Park Slope. You walk around Park Slope today, and you will not see one remnant of black life anymore. And there is an energy, a thing about black neighborhoods its intangible, but you can feel it… Park Slope in the 70s? All black. Black and poor.
" CTF: Which is really weird, because now it is all white stroller moms. "
JR: Stroller moms, coffee shops, vintage stores, Thai restaurants. And you don’t even feel- you lived in Harlem, you know what I'm talking about - there is this thing, when you walk around in a black neighborhood that you feel. A pulse. I don't know what it is, but i like to think it is just this thing that black life emanates. It comes from way back, slave culture, African culture - it is a thing that is the black experience.
"
CTF: And you can see it. 43
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"
JR: You can feel it. Often times these communities - Park Slope, right? It seems pretty sterile now. Vanilla at this point. And thats the issue I take with gentrification.
" CTF: Because it erases the past. "
JR: It literally wipes it away. And to gentrify - to say that something is made Gentry, is problematic in and of itself. To civilize things that are already civilized. And I think anyone who would moves into a historic black or brown neighborhood, needs to walk into that experience knowing that it is already Gentry. It is already civil. There is nothing wrong with it. It is already special. It doesn't need to be changed. It just needs to be respected. And we will welcome you. Come to the fuckin’ block party, please! Make yourself a part of the community. That’s my only issue. But new stores and shops? Shit, I could use some more amenities around in this mo’ fucker! I mean, I don’t wanna pay for it, but it is what it is. If you are gonna be coming in here, be sure that you respect the people that built this community.
"
CTF: Another aspect of the book I really appreciated, was that you have a character with mental illness - Needles. Which, of course, is another demographic that is greatly overlooked in young adult literature. Do you feel the treatment of Needles by his friends and family represents how mental illness is treated in the black community, in particular? Because it is very positive and supportive in the book. Everyone understands his situation and they are very accommodating.
"
JR: I think that mental illness in the black community is tricky. It’s two fold, right? There’s one side that says black people do not discuss mental illness. We do not admit or accept mental illness. We don’t deal very well when it comes to the admission that mental illness is actually a thing. It just one of those weird sort of its an ego thing. We don’t think we should ever see ourselves as weak. And mental illness would be perceived as weakness, right? That being said, once a person is seen as mentally ill, what happens in the black community, most times, is we protect them. No one is mean to them. No one laughs at them.
"
CTF: That is one of the things I found so touching in the book, and I’m glad that you feel it is a reality. Because I feel like that is not a common perception of how the black community would handle things like mental illness.
"
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JR: It’s true. But I mean, black people - we are territorial. Very territorial. Because so much had been taken from us. You ask anybody on any block around here, and they'll tell you - you live on this block, you one of us. As long as you're on this block, in one of these 50 odd houses, then you are safe. Thats just how it is.
"
CTF: A strong sense of community. And you really paint that picture of the summer on the stoops, breaking the fire hydrants open, the sidewalk BBQs, where everyone in the neighborhood is invited and brings something. And that is another thing, that if you are not from or have lived in one of those communities, you’d have no perception of it. The whole block is a family.
"
JR: It’s the one thing about Brooklyn that I think people see on TV, see in movies, the idea of “the block”, right? We've seen the Spike Lee thing - we've seen the hydrant on the block, but I don’t think people really understand what thats actually about, you know?
" CTF: It’s symbolic. The communal water that we are all sharing. "
JR: And everybody can get it, right? Cause kids don’t care. You on the block, you are apart of the festivities. Even if you don’t want to be. And you are gonna be included. And you can be mad about it if you want, but you are gonna get hit with the water. You’re in it.
"
CTF: I read a statistic that said, in 2013, only 1% of all YA novels were about people of color and less than 1% were written by people of color.
" JR: Wow. "
CTF: Do you think that is a trend that is gonna change? I mean, obviously we hope it will.
"
JR: Do I think it’s gonna change? I mean, I'm a pretty optimistic guy - I have to be. I think, that if I have anything to do with it - I’m very intentional in the work that I’ve created, and I am working very hard to sort of tip the table. I can’t do it alone, but I think there is an uptrend of black writers coming into the industry - not so much in YA (young adult), but I’m trying to encourage my buddies who are adult novelists, to just put something out there for young adults. I mean, if you can write an adult novel, you can do this.
"
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CTF: Yeah. Well, there is also something more difficult about writing young adult novels, in that you have to avoid certain language. I mean, there is a pretty big lack of profanity in the book-
" JR: Yeah, you gotta cut down on the profanity. "
CTF: And obviously that is something you have to do, right? But is that something that if you lived in a different world and didn't have to adhere to those rules-
" JR: Hell yeah. Censorship is bullshit. " CTF: It sanitizes it. " JR: Especially when it comes to teenagers. "
CTF: Right, because its not like teenagers aren’t fucking cussing all the time anyway.
" JR: Exactly. Teenagers are fucking crazy! " CTF: It’s not like they’ve never heard the “f word” before. " JR: And the truth is, this book has a curse word in the first 5 sentences. " CTF: And thats about it. "
JR: That’s about it. But that was intentional. Because to me, if I'm 16 years old, that’s the hook. Cause if you have language that they relate to and speak, they will read a book in no time. But every YA author deals with this censorship bullshit. We all laugh and joke about it all the time, but our editors are trying to get our books into libraries and into schools. And the schools are afraid of it. Some of the schools are afraid of this book. Some of the schools wont take this book, because of the gun on the cover.
"
CTF: You had mentioned to me earlier, that this is the first YA novel to feature a gun on its cover.
" JR: Oh yeah, it’s an issue. "
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CTF: And its funny, because that is such a misperception. I mean, the symbolism on the cover, it’s about not using violence, its about using something else-
" JR: I cant understand how people don’t see that. "
CTF: There is an amazing about of symbolism in the book - the knitting metaphor, about the family unravelling and stitching it back together.
"
JR: The entire book is about that. How family and friendships and relationships that’s how they work. It’s like knitting with Tourette syndrome. All of our lives are like knitting with Tourette syndrome. You are stitching things together, but at any given time, you can have sort of a twitch - and it all comes undone. And there is nothing you can do, but just start up again.
" CTF: What do you think Bed-Stuy is gonna be like in 10 years? " JR: Just like Harlem - unrecognizable. " CTF: Kinda how Bushwick is changing now? "
JR: Man, I hope not. I mean, the one thing that I do know about Bed-Stuy, and that I do appreciate - is that, so far, over the last 5 years since this all started, black business owners are clinging to this area. Y'all might be turning these houses over, but there are more black business owners in Bed-Stuy than ever before. And there aren’t any white business owners in this area., except for the white dude who owns Saraghina up the block. But black people are holding on to their businesses. And there are black celebrities, actors and writers, who are intentionally moving to BedStuy now to fortify the community. Which gives me a ton of hope. Like, we have a say in this. We don’t have to leave if we don’t want to.
" CTF: I just hope I never see a Starbucks open up here. " JR: Thats when you know it’s over. You see a Starbucks? Game over, man. "
CTF: So, my favorite scene from the book, is when Ali gets home from the fight and has to tell his parents what happened - there is no way around it. And his mom gets choked up, and asks if Needles is okay. He says something like, “yeah, I took care of him.” And like, she and his father are mad at him, of course, but they are still so proud of their son for doing the right thing. It is a wonderfully realistic mixture of emotions that show how supportive this family is. Do you think it’s 47
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important to instill, in young readers, positive familial pictures and role models like Ali’s family?
"
JR: Yeah, especially for black kids. The image of the black family in media is always the same thing, and it is just not that way. A lot of our families are complicated. And arguably dysfunctional. So, I think it is really important for me to give some nuance to the black family. My own personal family - my mom raised us. My dad wasn't there after we were 10 years old. I mean, he was a nucklehead. John is based on my father - he was a nucklehead. Just a wild guy. Not bad intentioned - and he loved my mom, he loved us - he just didn't know what to do, you know what I mean? It was kinda like, okay, I’m gone, I know I shouldn't be gone, but I don’t know how to be there for you or what to say or what to do, and just tried to work out his own humanness. And thats part of what I was trying to tell in the story. These people. His parents are human. And they love their children and their family, even if they don’t always know how to show those type of things. And as far as that scene, I think that’s what happens. We are all raised to, like, not fight, you know?
"
CTF: That’s definitely what I got from that. Like I said earlier, the book seems almost anti-violence. It makes the point that violence does happen. Sometimes it is necessary. But you shouldn't rely on it, and it shouldn't be the expectation.
" JR: And what are your intentions, right? What was his intention? " CTF: Protection. "
JR: It was all about protection. Everything about him, which is you know, what the title is about. “When I Was The Greatest”.
" CTF: Which is an allusion to Muhammad Ali, right? "
JR: Muhammad Ali. Exactly. And this notion that there was this one time - I’m not a very good boxer, I’m not a particularly aggressive guy - but there was this one time, that I was the greatest. This one time where I was Ali. The real Ali. And I handled it. And I did it because I knew I had to do it. To protect the people that I love. Which makes me even greater. This was my moment.
" " "
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Jason Reynolds book When I was the Greatest can be purchased in hardcover, paperback, or as an ebook on amazon.com
"
Clark’s entire unabridged interview with Jason will be available after the release of this article at plebcomm.Tubmlr.com
"
For updates on his work you can follow Jason on Twitter @JasonReynolds83 or go to his website IAmJasonReynolds.com
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“Call it Inglourious Basterds for your grandparents, featuring ninety percent less blood and a lot more inconsistency.”
" A Review of George Clooney’s Monuments Men Cody Pasby
" Ever since Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 revision of Ocean’s Eleven, it’s been hard to shake the idea of guys like George Clooney, Matt Damon or Brad Pitt serving as this generation’s version of the Rat Pack. Not like the 50
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Brat Pack or even the Frat Pack, but a modern version of Frank, Sammy and Dean. Like those crooners before them, the newer Ocean’s trio exudes a coolness that can’t be measured, they’re immensely talented and they have a reputation as Hollywood’s biggest pranksters. It shouldn’t come as any surprise then that The Monuments Men feels like a film that was made during the golden age of cinema where the Rat Pack thrived. Directed by Clooney, Monuments Men is the extraordinary story of a group of soldiers whose task was to recover thousands of paintings, sculptures and other culturally significant items before the Nazi’s destroyed them. For a movie that takes place across a decimated Europe during the tail end of World War II, the film is surprisingly light hearted and moves along at a fairly fervent pace. It’s not just the breezy feel or the soundtrack, which sounds like it was plucked straight from Disneyland, that makes this film feel old fashioned, it’s the wonderfully talented and insanely charming all-star cast, led by Clooney and Matt Damon. Like the all-star films of yesteryear, actors like Clooney, Bill Murray and John Goodman aren’t necessarily playing characters but rather slightly exaggerated versions of themselves. With another group of actors, the movie might fall flat on its face. But thanks to those actors, it’s hard not to smile at many fun moments, like Murray and Bob Balaban befriending a Nazi soldier over a
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cigarette or watching Goodman and Jean Dujardin become an adorable odd couple. There are some very nice moments in Monuments Men, but it feels like something is missing throughout. There’s lack of emphasis on whom the titular men and women were, and part of that has to do with the actors basically just playing themselves (other than Cate Blanchett). Once the Monuments Men meet up, the narrative follows each group of men as they split up. Call it Inglourious Basterds for your grandparents, featuring ninety percent less blood and a lot more inconsistency. Each set piece either doesn’t get enough time to shine or doesn’t ever add anything important to the story, and the result is a disjointed film with some noticeably rough editing. The importance of what the Monuments Men are doing is never lost on the audience, but that could be due to the fact that Clooney explains why it’s important in about three of four different soliloquies throughout the movie. The script OK at best, the tone is a tad inconsistent, the message might come off as trite and the climax is a complete dud. The film is a major misfire for Clooney as a director, which is especially disappointing after the promise of his last directorial effort, The Ides of March. Simply put, The Monuments Men spends too much time basking in the glow of nostalgia and not enough time developing characters and relationships. Monuments
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Men is not a bad movie, it’s kind of fun actually, but it should have been so much better with the amazing cast and crew that was assembled. What was once a film pegged as an Oscar contender before moving to 2014 is now a movie that will be shown until the end of time to listless high school students in history class who will probably forget about it a week later.
" TL;DR Download It The Monuments Men is a fun and breezy movie, but the jumbled narrative and uninteresting characters makes it adequate at best.
" " " " " " " "
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Sports "
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On the 2014 All Star Game Dominic Hebert
Nearly every year for six decades, the NBA has held a celebration of sorts of it’s top players. Of course, there have been many ups and downs, but it was the performance of participants rather than format which hurt review. This past NBA All-Star Weekend came with a few tweaks (as has been customary the past few years) which left me feeling a bit disappointed overall. Saturday was particularly trying because it lacked the excitement that fans tune in and hope for. The four main events of All-Star Saturday are (in this order) a team shooting competition, a display of individual skill, the three-point shooting contest, and the much-maligned dunk contest. The first event involved teams composed of a current NBA player, an NBA veteran, and a current WNBA player. Each team takes turns making shots from a few spots and the times are then compared. Excluding Chris Bosh’s team (he made the half-court shot on the initial try in both rounds), the event was slow and only four made shots total are needed to win. The whole setup was dull. New commissioner Adam Silver should make some changes which will keep fans interested. My suggestion would be to add a few more spots to the list such as one 55
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behind the backboard and also a difficult angle which they are required to bank in. The goal should always be entertainment which means the more ooh’s and ah’s from the crowd the better. The problem that has existed with the skills challenge (and the All-Star Game for that matter) is lack of effort. This is a timed event which puts a player’s passing, shooting, and quickness on display for the crowd. Unfortunately, most players don’t move as fast as we’re accustomed to seeing during the season making the whole event lackluster. An added incentive is the usual suggestion, but these players already make so much money that anything short of their regular season per-game check wouldn’t be worthwhile. Larger charity donations to the organization of the winner’s choice might get those charities to pressure them to work harder in it. This, still, was more enjoyable to watch than the final event of the night. In the 1980s, legendary dunkers like Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan battled it out on the court for the fans to see. They were very competitive players who accepted being nothing less than the best. They also cared about what the fans wanted to see. One glaring issue with the dunk contest has been a lack of superstar (and often all-star) participants. While I understand that it is a chance for lesserknown young players to showcase their athleticism, viewers mostly want to watch elite players. The last great NBA dunk contest was fourteen years ago when Vince Carter shut down the arena with a show for the ages. Since, there has been 56
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disappointment with the creativity and talent pool of the players that enter. There have definitely been some incredible dunks since 2000 (Jason Richardson’s final dunk in 2003 anyone?), but not more than one in any contest. This year, the whole event was worse than it’s been in a decade because the the format was altered to exclude individual competition almost entirely. We, the audience, were deprived of the head-to-head matches that once made it must-see television. I would recommend a stronger push to get at least one big name player (not LeBron because he’ll likely never enter) to participate every February.. All-Star weekend is something most basketball fans want to enjoy every year, but saturday just ruins so much because the players fail to energize the crowd and the format sometimes prevents them from having much of a chance to do so. The NBA’s goal for this event should always be providing a platform for players to create a fun atmosphere for fans while the players’ duty ought to be providing entertainment and flair.
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" " " " " Classism, Comedy, the Cold War, and the Sochi Olympics Dylan Harper
" " Bungled hilarity was definitely the theme of the Sochi winter Olympics. Between the constant Twitter pics of the decrepit hotel conditions, to a video of what may have been a wolf outside an athlete’s room, and of course the technical failure that lead to a memorable butchering of the Olympic logo during the opening ceremonies, the Sochi Olympics provided endless comedy for the Buzzfeed internet society. The inevitable pushback came, and several of the jokes were 58
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labeled as classist, or xenophobic, and it’s hard to argue that isn’t some validity to those claims. “Oh look at those silly poor Russians” has been a punchline in America for a long time. One of the key cultural norms of any capitalistic society is to make sure to mock any non-capitalistic societies. The trend, which rose to prominence in the Cold War, sitcom heavy 80s, didn’t die away with the falling of the Berlin Wall, but the actual harm being done did change to some degree. One of the key problematic elements with mocking Russian living conditions is that it ignores who the actual target of the joke is. Whoever you think is responsible for poverty in Russia, the poor are still poor, and pointing and laughing should never be viewed as acceptable. The other aspect is that it distracts from inequality and poverty in Western culture. There’s no absence of poverty in the US and the idea that the Russian poor are in their economic state because their government implies that the poor of the West deserve what they have. Sochi related comedy didn’t exclusively drift into this pure Cold War territory however. In many instances, the corruption allowed or instigated by Putin was the butt of the joke, and mocking the conditions in which Olympic athletes are being housed in quite as mean spirited or lack the same self awareness as mocking those actually underneath the poverty line. But the line between harmless mocking Putin’s friends and their inability to create a suitable hotel, and outright mocking
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the poor that don’t have a suitable internet connection, is a thin one and was certainty crossed on more than one occasion. The Sochi Olympics should serve as a reminder that international comedy is a tricky business, and poking fun at those that deserve can often still have unintended consequences and needs to be done with extreme caution. Making fun of Putin, his rich buddies, and his general Dick Cheney, dictator like attitude? Perfectly aceptable. Making fun of lower class living conditions? Not so much.
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Staff Writers Vanessa Bellew - Actress. Displaced Texan. Procrastinator. Full-time nerd. Clark Thomas Feeney - Writer. Director. Actor. Singer. Songwriter. Cliche. Dominic Hebert - Student at UC Davis, and California native. Cody Pasby - A native of the San Francisco Bay Area and a graduate of San Francisco State University, where he majored in broadcast journalism. Cody also reviews films on The Screen Watcher's Guild podcast and writes about baseball on his blog, Off the Beaten Basepath.
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Contributors Bethany Geiger: Cover artist and designer. Mallory Gold: Format and copy editor.
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Thank You A sincere thank you to Jason Reynolds for taking the time to sit down with Clark, and contributing a terrific interview to our humble publication.
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Editor Dylan Harper
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