“You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.”
– Frederick Buchner
The 100 Best Movies of the 2010s
Indiewire is early out of the gate with their list of the 100 best movies of the decade, betting that anything coming out in the next 5 months will not be worthy of inclusion. There are a few eyebrow raisers on there — 75. A Star Is Born? 26. Magic Mike XXL?? 5. Inside Llewyn Davis??? 2. Under the Skin?????!!? (reader, I didn’t like it) — but mostly this list is a goldmine for good movies I haven’t seen. Here are some that I have seen and enjoyed seeing on the list:
92. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
78. Inside Out
72. The Handmaiden
63. Inception
60. Black Panther
37. Roma
32. The Grand Budapest Hotel
23. O.J.: Made in America
13. The Tree of Life
9. Mad Max: Fury Road
7. Carol
78. Inside Out
72. The Handmaiden
63. Inception
60. Black Panther
37. Roma
32. The Grand Budapest Hotel
23. O.J.: Made in America
13. The Tree of Life
9. Mad Max: Fury Road
7. Carol
Should Books Include Credits The Way Movies Do?
Trapeze, an Orion/Hachette imprint, is starting to do just that. David Barnett observes that almost 60 people were involved in the publication of his new novel: “the editors, the marketing and PR types – but also the smaller but crucial roles: the proofreaders who make sure you haven’t started calling Maisy Maisie in chapter 12, the all-important cover designers, the team behind the audiobooks, …” – The Guardian
Books That Can Take You Deep Into Travel
“As much as I’d like to dissolve the beach read label entirely, I must also admit I have a type: I want a meaty, absorbing book that takes me further into a vacation by connecting with the cultures that produced it. I want a book that can’t be disposed of, one that will take me somewhere entirely new.” – The Conversation
Why Do We Do Things To Be Perverse?
Unruliness, perversity, pigheadedness—psychologists have long been interested in this bestiary of paradoxical thought and action. Perversity is a puzzle. It’s hard to explain, scientifically, what Edgar Allan Poe described as “the imp of the perverse.” – The New Yorker
A Tiny Russian Town Of Artists Has Made Icons For Centuries. Now Its Livelihood Is Failing
It survived the Soviet Union, changes in taste, the rise of cheap knockoffs and fakes. But the modern world might prove too much. – The New York Times
GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY: How China Lost Hong Kong.“Compromise or crackdown are the only options left for Beijing.”
‘Russian Ark’ Director Closes His Film Foundation, Citing Hostility From Putin’s Government
Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark, Faust, Father and Son, Mother and Son) set up the Primer Intonatsii (Example of Intonation) foundation in 2013 to aid young Russian filmmakers. But the organization has had trouble getting and maintaining funding and suffered what Sokurov called “unfriendliness and aggressiveness,” including an embezzlement investigation, from Russia’s Ministry of Culture. (Yes, Sokurov is a critic of Vladimir Putin.) – The Hollywood Reporter
Iran says it has broken CIA spy ring, some sentenced to death
Iran
has captured 17 spies working for the US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and some have been sentenced to death, Iranian media have
reported.