T Lo’s Weekend Pop Culture Reading List

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Kittens, as we dash off to a weekend of hall-decking and gift-wrapping, we simply had to drop a basket full of our favorite articles, essays and posts on your asses. Enjoy!

Just as voguing dancers tell a story through a series of poses gleaned from the pages of fashion magazines, in her cinematic self-portraits, Kia practically dances with the camera, her soundtrack the click of the auto timer. It’s a performative approach that Kia, a queer cis-gender woman of color (she is half African-American, half Filipino-American) who was born HIV-positive, uses to bring multiple personal narratives into focus.

Kia LaBeija Is Remodeling One of Ballroom’s Legendary Houses For the Future by Horacia Silva at W Magazine

Harper Lee’s beloved father figure became a talking point during the Kavanaugh hearings and is now coming to Broadway. Is he still a hero?

The Contested Legacy of Atticus Finch by Casey Cep at The New Yorker

In the section of thank-yous, the speech turned fractionally more serious, and Louis-Dreyfus wound her way toward her health. “ ‘The old cliché about laughter being the best medicine turns out to be true: when I was getting my hideous chemotherapy, I’d cram a bunch of friends and family into the tiny treatment room with me . . .’ Gosh, as I’m saying this I’m going to cry,” she said, and started to. She shook her head in self-rebuke, then continued, “ ‘We really did have some great laughs. Of course, I was heavily medicated and slipping in and out of consciousness, so I was a pretty easy audience.’ ” She wiped her eyes. “ ‘My point is that laughter is a basic human need along with’—oh, fuck!” she said, crying harder but also sort of laughing, “ ‘along with love, and an HBO subscription.’ That would have worked better if I weren’t weeping.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Acts Out by Ariel Levy at The New Yorker

Ms. Pelosi had shopped her closet, and this was not, as it happened, the first time she had worn the coat for a public political event. She purchased it in honor of President Obama’s second inauguration in 2013, and the choice this time around served as both a reminder of her longevity in the seats of power and a hint of exactly where her allegiance lies. (Her dark sunglasses did not provoke quite the same reaction, but for those who care, they were Armani; the shoes were from Stuart Weitzman.)

Nancy Pelosi’s Coat Catches Fire by Vanessa Friedman at The New York Times

Feeling boxed in by her reputation for kindness, the comic is weighing whether to leave daytime TV, as her wife wants, or to stay, as her brother urges.

Ellen DeGeneres Is Not as Nice as You Think by Jason Zinoman at The New York Times

“In a moment where I intended to admire the courage of a few of my sisters, I said something that I now realize can be perceived as not respectful, and I apologize,” Summers wrote in the post.

‘What normalized xenophobia looks like’: Miss USA apologizes for comments about other contestants’ English by Allyson Chiu at Washington Post

Just how much wisdom does a multi-hyphenate star with a career several decades long have to share? If they’re Jennifer Lopez, it’s a lot. A few hours before she walked the red carpet on Wednesday night in a hulking hot-pink Giambattista Valli gown for the world premiere of her new film, Second Act, Lopez sat down at The Wing in Soho to talk about what she’s learned.

What Jennifer Lopez Has Learned by Liana Satenstein at Vogue

Eliza Dushku, an actress on the popular CBS show “Bull,” was paid $9.5 million to confidentially settle allegations that she was dismissed from the series after she complained about being harassed on set, sources confirmed to The Times on Thursday.

Actress Eliza Dushku was paid $9.5 million by CBS to settle harassment allegations by Ryan Faughder and Meg James at Los Angeles Times

Nancy Wilson, an award-winning singer whose beguiling expressiveness in jazz, R&B, gospel, soul and pop made her a crossover recording star for five decades and who also had a prolific career as an actress, activist and commercial spokeswoman, died Dec. 13 at her home in Pioneertown, Calif. She was 81.

Nancy Wilson, acclaimed ‘song stylist’ who defied musical boundaries, dies at 81 by Adam Bernstein at Washington Post

Of course, when the average American throws away an estimated 80 pounds of clothing per year, a few extra buttons are not the problem. The problem is everything else: our busyness, our desire to never repeat an outfit on social media, the psychological and physical obsolescence of fast fashion.

The spare button represents all the ways we fail to be good consumers by Alden Wicker at Vox

Ask any producer, supervisor, or artist in the VFX industry about the difference between effects for movies and effects for TV and you will hear the same thing: These days, there is no difference.

How TV Finally Got Its Own Blockbuster Special Effects by Calum Marsh at Vulture

Then, in October of this year, I passed the power of the papers to Epi’s food editor, Anna Stockwell. We’d been tossing around ideas for our annual holiday menu, so I suggested Anna cook through the Christmas menu in the stack. ”Just once,” I said. “Just to see what happens.” If the recipes didn’t work, or we didn’t like them, I’d walk away from the papers for good.

The Lost Christmas Recipes of Gourmet—and How We Found Them by David Tamarkin at Epicurious

And finally, the TEASER TRAILER FOR THE DOWNTON ABBEY MOVIE OMG

[Photo Credit: Sarah Lawrence/Vox]

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