Or Is Joe Rogan Just A Festering Boil on the Nethercheeks of Humanity? In the event you’ve been bingeing the fourth season of Ozark this week (and yes, it is spectacular) and haven’t had time to read about the kerfuffle over at Spotify, let me fill you in on the…

And He’s From My Adoptive Hometown of Amelia — In the years between 2016–2022, dozens of celebrity authors, including Margaret Atwood, the estate of Stieg Larsson, Sally Rooney, and the actor Ethan Hawke, along with hundreds of unpublished writers, found themselves on unlikely common ground: all were victims or near-victims of a scam artist who grifted them out of…

And we must help them do it. I’m pretty sure we’re on the brink of civil war and we’re all going to die, but let’s circle back to that. Right now, I’d like to talk about the effect this pandemic has had on the mental health of young people, who…

It won the top prize this year at the Berlin International Film Festival, but if you prefer multiplex fare, stay far far away. — I am, unabashedly and (hopefully) without pretension, a huge fan of Romanian New Wave cinema. Here’s why. Without the stifling influence of Big Money, without the strong-arming of an organized film industry, Romanian directors like Cristian Mungiu (the surreal yet harrowing 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, Beyond the Hills…

When pelting me with refuse, aim for the head — I have a long list of things I abhor that other people love, and it probably doesn’t cast me in the best light: shopping (desperately boring), parties (hives), booze (rancid), eating (waste of time), sleeping (even bigger waste of time) … and Christmas. Lord, how I hate Christmas. But lately…

Our first civil war was about ownership of Black bodies. This one will be about ownership of women’s bodies. And that’s just the beginning. In the event that you were trapped in a mall somewhere or marooned on a desert island, I’ll give you a precis of what just happened…

Was it drug-induced psychosis, vaulting ambition, or the indignity of being Black in a lily-white art world? I kick it old school, being one of those crusty old Gen X dinosaurs who believes there’s freedom in discipline, that the goal of any artist should be (quoting monochrome painter Joseph Marioni)…