no passport required does what taste the nation tries to do, but successfully. anytime i tried to watch taste the nation, it felt like it both only existed because bourdain had been a thing, but desperately wants to pretend he never existed (because why watch taste the nation ape bourdain when you can just go watch…

they already laid off and furloughed 26,000 workers who aren’t going to be seeing this 750 million (which is the minimum they’re citing just to keep their head above water at *current* expenses.) those workers need to make rent, pay bills, buy food.

bailing out the corporation doesn’t do anything for them- and wont…

little odd to see current day A/V club lobbying for a multi-billion dollar bailout of a monopolistic corporation at the expense of workers

ehhhh, i grew up in similar circumstances and i was unaware that certain racist statements weren’t ok until i went to college. 

the book was sold as a political work, the author has repeatedly said it was a political work and continues to sell it as such. you can try and adapt something that is designed to be political as not political, but getting mad that people assess it within its original concept is obviously lame

i have been told that i am not allowed to watch this garbage show because my shouting at how stupid it is might disturb my childs sleep

spy is an absolute delight and sits as an argument for why McCarthy has been chronically wasted in her movie roles. 

the government removed it because they knew crazy people would wander off and die if they left it now that enough people who know how to do deep desert hikes have posted youtube videos. they also wont say it because they don’t want crazy people to yell at them about aliens, which is deeply fair

ernest cline is dan brown for gen X and should be treated as such. terrible prose, stupid plots, poorly written, but very readable for a specific age group. silly, but nothing wrong with that

i agree with you- i would say the first few books feel fresh because they had an interesting world they created and that papers over the weak characters. but once they have to rely on their ability to write stories based around characters their whole thing falls apart. the show (so far) has managed to work around that

this movie did not deserve the drubbing it took due to bad marketing. but it also does not deserve a critical reevaluation, because its also not good. its a middling film, with a few high points and a bunch of low. the best that can be said about it is that its forgettable.

china’s system absolutely has no appeal around the world. they’re throwing money around, but they’re angering every person they run into. they may take the money, but they aren’t winning hearts and minds. and if you’ve seen either their endless recreations of ‘journey to the west’ or their sad attempts to recreate…

i don’t think it is reductive- china is currently pushing a conservative drive to have its citizens rally around the flag. they’re cracking down on hong kong, ethnic minorities. even outside of the Uighurs, anyone muslim is being targeted. they’re antagonizing anyone who has anything nice to say about taiwan. and as…

grilled cumin duck intestines in suzhou. i also had some grilled snake in shanghai that was basically a chicken wing, but perfected. basically, if you want to do every food option in china, head to shanghai and hit up the area just past the ‘off the strip’ area the bund

i look at a lot of that stuff and see it as somewhat pointless. say what you will about bollywood, or some of the crazy no budget stuff coming out of africa, but at least its representing artists working with what they have, representing their culture. chinese mainstream films are ‘die hard, but without any soul.’

our current gun control laws are a direct response to the black panthers carrying guns in the 60's in California- under governor reagan

i think the problem is that the average middle class chinese person has no trace of irony. china faces a lot of issues, on a lot of fronts. in some respects, its literally doomed (fresh water is a thing you need if you are a person and china... doesn’t have much) but i worked with and spent time with essentially upper…

as someone who has worked in and spent some time in china, they fully believe they will win the culture war with their brilliant cinema (despite being so obsessed with marvel movies that the joking ‘don’t tell us what happens’ was tinged with actual hopefulness.) they are honestly baffled why their output to date can’t…

they also have that new superman show

also the neck is delicious if you roast it up