T Lo’s Weekend Pop Culture Reading List

Posted on February 15, 2019

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Kittens, some unexpected travel and a whole lot of very expected book research kept us from recording a podcast for you this week, but one responsibility we did NOT neglect was leaving behind a bunch of our favorite articles and posts to tide you over for the weekend. And it’s not like we’re going anywhere, because the RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars finale is tonight, so we’ll be up bright and early on Saturday to yell about it.

 

A psychedelic kitchen from the 1970s, where Ebony magazine editors long tested recipes for cookbooks and columns, is available for $1 to buyers who will honor the room’s history.

Ebony’s Test Kitchen is For Sale by Eve M. Kahn at the New York Times

 

 

King, a performer whose power is both daring and familiar, is uniquely positioned to know. Her career has been on a logical, steady ascent, one that has seen her go from solid supporting player to dominant scene-stealer. If you took a bird’s-eye view of it, you’d see a 33-year series of quantifiable upgrades—starting in 1985, when the 14-year-old with sunset-brown eyes joined the NBC sitcom 227. She cut her teeth watching star and producer Marla Gibbs command the show in front of and behind the scenes. “It was like college,” she tells me. “Marla was the first boss lady I got to see up close and personal.”

It’s Good to Be Regina King by Yohana Desta at Vanity Fair

 

 

From the late ’80s through the ’90s, Meg Ryan shone about as brightly as any star in Hollywood. You know about her beloved string of romantic comedies — often written by Nora Ephron, often co-starring Tom Hanks. Less well remembered are her dramatic turns in the same era’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “City of Angels” and “Courage Under Fire,” all of which were commercial successes. But the harsh reaction to her 2003 erotic thriller, “In the Cut,” a critical and box-office flop that was widely seen as a failed attempt to complicate her winsome image, as well as her growing frustration with fame, compelled her to step into a less public, far happier life.

Meg Ryan on romantic comedies, celebrity and leaving it all behind: ‘The feeling with Hollywood was mutual.’ by David Marchese at The New York Times

 

 

Voting for the 91st Academy Awards ends on Tuesday, with roughly 8,200 movie industry insiders using a private website to mark their choices. Just what goes through their minds when they point and click?

What Will Win Best Picture? 20 Oscar Voters Spill Their Secrets by Brooks Barnes at The New York Times

 

 

New York Fashion Week came to a haunting end. But first there were Michael Kors and Barry Manilow!

Marc Jacobs and the Ghosts of Fashion Past and Future by Brooks Barnes at The New York Times

 

 

“I think…one of the most iconic [looks of Mercury’s] is the Live Aid look,” Day said, “which looks on paper to be the simplest look of all: jeans, sneakers, a tank, a belt, and an armband, but to get that right was very difficult because there’s so much imagery attached to it… everyone’s seen it, in some ways that was the most important to get right.”

Custom Adidas were one of the ways Bohemian Rhapsody’s costume designer brought Queen to life onscreen by Lucie Clark at Vogue Australia

 

 

Bradley Cooper’s remake started off as an awards frontrunner after its glitzy premiere in Venice but hit several bumps along the way that have complicated its Academy Awards prospects.

Oscars: How Did ‘A Star Is Born’ Become a Longshot for Best Picture? by Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter

 

 

Hannah Beachler, Fiona Crombie, Nathan Crowley, John Myhre and Eugenio Caballero share the paintings, sculptures, architecture, photographers (and one fashion house) that influenced their 2018 films.

From Ai Weiwei to Claude Monet, Oscar-Nominated Production Designers Reveal Artistic Inspirations by Katie Kilkenny at The Hollywood Reporter

 

 

“They didn’t have black hairstylists, and he asked me if I do white hair, pointing to a magazine with a Gibson girl on the cover,” says Stevenson. “There was an actress there getting her hair done, who had her sister with her. He asked the sister if I could do her hair, and I did it in 10 minutes.”

Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett’s Movie Hairstylist Reveals How He Broke Industry Barriers by Katie Kilkenny at The Hollywood Reporter

 

 

Directed by Marielle Heller, who also brought nuance to her film about adolescent female sexuality, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and co-written by a gay man, Whitty — who says he knew Julius’ “incredibly well” — Can You Ever Forgive Me? avoids some of the most tired gay movie tropes. There’s no against-the-odds love story here. Israel is so emotionally closed off she can’t understand why her ex left her years ago, or bring herself to accept potential affection from a woman (played by Dolly Wells) who clearly respects and likes her. There’s also no neatly concluded tragedy; Hock may be HIV positive, but this isn’t his defining characteristic and we don’t see him die. Instead, we get pitch-black quips from Israel about his failing health.

“Can You Ever Forgive Me is a Touching Portrayal of Queer Loneliness” by Nick Levine at i-D

 

 

Still: Johnson’s size does pose a unique challenge. Mata said that the key to designing clothes for Johnson is knowing his client’s exact measurements—that, and “a lot of tailoring”: “Dwayne always fluctuates a bit in weight, depending on the project he’s working on. He’ll say, ‘I’ll increase my chest a little bit more,’ or ‘My arm’s going to be a little bit bigger and my quads are going to be a little more substantial.’ So I just have to make sure my measurements are correct.” Mata illustrated this point by talking about tailoring a pair of Johnson’s suit pants. “We have to be real cautious that we can’t take too much fabric in because of his 31-inch thighs. Sometimes, if the pants are too fitted, he’ll blow out the crotch just by trying to get in his car.”

Velvet Blazers and Strategic Unbuttoning: How to Dress Dwayne Johnson by Simon Abrams at Vanity Fair

 

 

But the 25 or so people who showed up to protest mostly peacefully outside the venue were well outnumbered by the 500 people Contra Costa County Libraries estimated to have attended the event. It was more people than the organization expected to attend to hear Bella Aldama read to young guests, a spokeswoman for the group told SFGATE, but it was nevertheless “a rousing success.”

After protests, an estimated 500 attend East Bay library’s ‘Drag Queen Story Hour‘ By Alyssa Pereira at SF Gate

 

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