T Lo’s Weekend Pop Culture Reading List

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Kittens, to tide you over during the cold weekend ahead, here are all the posts, articles and essays that caught our eyes or our fancy this week. Enjoy!

“People will see your coat wherever you go,” said Marquez, who still wears expensive coats he purchased more than a decade ago from brands like Burberry and Prada. “You want to make sure that it’s high-quality and that it will have an impact. You want people to look at you and think, ‘Wow! They’re well-dressed!’”

But you don’t have to blow your entire paycheck on one coat. Tom Fitzgerald, the other half of Tom + Lorenzo, said that he scooped up one of his longest-lasting pieces, a $900 Marc Jacobs peacoat, for $200 during a sale. (Both Fitzgerald and Marquez like to shop offseason, which means they scour websites for articles of clothing they like during the winter and wait for them to go on sale during the summer.)

Buying Winter Clothes Should be an Investment by Bethany Ao at The Philadelphia Inquirer

It turned emotional intelligence into a type of sabermetrics, tasking writers with creating posts and headlines meant to match the reader’s point of view instead of the author’s and engineered to take advantage of social media’s algorithmic distribution mechanisms. Though BuzzFeed didn’t invent the listicle or the personality quiz, it did relentlessly optimize them. Its influence, good or bad, cannot be overstated.

BuzzFeed’s Experimental Era Is Over by Brian Feldman at The Intelligencer

Upon hearing the news that Jussie Smollett faced a homophobic and racist attack Tuesday in Chicago, I was brought back to that same emotional place. Sitting in my bed, tears rolled down my face, prompted, once more, by a stark reality, that while being Black, LGBTQ+, and visible is a revolutionary act, visibility alone doesn’t protect us.

Jussie Smollett’s Attack Shows Visibility Doesn’t Protect Us by Tre’Vell Andersen at Out

While Singer’s upfront pay on Rhapsody is unknown — his up to $10 million fee for Sonja will be a career-high — Singer likely negotiated a percentage of profits after the $50 million movie broke even, as well as box office bonuses at various milestones.

But this is where it gets complicated. Backend could be forfeited if a director is fired for cause (studios reserve the right to fire over creative differences). Singer was indeed fired….but he retained credit, thus ensuring some sort of contingent compensation, according to top dealmakers who work with directors and producers. A negotiated resolution in this case was likely, say sources, but that would have been before Rhapsody became an $800 million box office behemoth.

Bryan Singer Stands to Make $40 Million From ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ by Borys Kit and Tatianna Siegel at The Hollywood Reporter

A 24 year old Black trans woman known as Pinky was chased Thursday morning through a busy Chevron station parking lot just after 11 AM CST. The gun wielding miscreant shot at Pinky twice, cornered her by the front door of the gas station located on the corner of Beltway 8 and Richmond Ave in West Houston, and fired three shots at her at point blank range.

Houston Trans Woman Shot, Misgendered By Houston Chronicle by Monia Roberts at TransGriot

According to local Utah news station KUTV, Terry Sanderson, the man who filed the lawsuit against the Hollywood actress, claimed Paltrow was skiing “out of control” and knocked him down from behind. In court documents obtained by KUTV, Sanderson claimed “Paltrow got up, turned and skied away, leaving Sanderson stunned, lying in the snow, seriously injured.” A skiing instructor who claimed to witness the incident blamed Sanderson for causing the crash, however Sanderson insisted the instructor was lying and did nothing to help him when was injured.

Gwyneth Paltrow Is Being Sued After ‘Skiing Out of Control’ by Nerisha Penrose at Elle magazine

The song went on to become her highest charting hit and included the telling lyric “Tell her that I’m happy, tell her that I’m gay.”

Throughout her career, Shane was written about as a man who frequently performed in flamboyant outfits that were either androgynous or suggested femininity.

“I would travel with about 20 trunks. Show business is glamour. When you walk out there, people should say, ‘Whoa! I like that!’ When I walk out onstage, I’m the show,” Shane said in an interview decades later.

This transgender soul singer publicly transitioned in the 60s & ruled the charts while she did it by Terrance Heath at lgbtqnation.com

The retired schoolteacher converted his three-wheeled van into a mobile library, the Bibliomotocarro. Driving the hills and mountains of Basilicata, Italy, La Cava is able to reach children in remote villages like San Paolo Albanese, which only has two children of primary school age.

“I was strongly worried about growing old in a country of non-readers.” La Cava believes that it’s important to spread the joy of literature to as many children as possible: “carrying out such action has a value, not only social, not only cultural, but has a great ethical meaning.”

The tiny library bringing books to remote villages at BBC Culture

MAYA RUDOLPH: What are your thoughts on Elon Musk?

LYONNE: I’m a big fan of his. We’re in a climate change catastrophe that is so sweeping, and it’s kind of like there’s only one guy who’s even up for the challenge of getting us out of this. So if he wants to have a consensual hookup with Azealia Banks and smoke weed and talk about space all day—or whatever his scene is—fine! I mean, I’m sort of into the fact that his type is Grimes. TMZ should back off and give the guy some breathing room. Who else is going to save us from the beef-eating, smog-producing catastrophe we’ve created with this nightmare of a president?

18 OF NATASHA LYONNE’S FAMOUS FRIENDS ASK HER ANYTHING THEY WANT at Interview Magazine

But it is nothing compared with the ongoing, stomach-sinking absolute non-joy that is sparked by the ever-shifting screen of what’s new, what’s trending, what I should be watching based on what I have watched before, or what my family has watched, or what everyone else is watching that confronts me every time I venture onto the cultural streamscape of Netflix.

Or Amazon Prime Video, or Hulu, HBO Go, BritBox or any of the endless streaming platforms I can access via my Fire TV stick/smart TV/iPhone/iPad/laptop and my DirecTV subscription.

I gave up trying to control my DVR queue long ago — honestly, how many hours can a person spend deleting missed episodes of “The Blacklist” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”?

If Marie Kondo wants to tidy something, she should start with Netflix by Mary McNamara at The Los Angeles Times

[Picture courtesy of Heather Khalifa/philly.com]

• T Lo’s Weekend Homework