| Trainwreck |
[16 Jul 2015|01:47pm] |
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http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2015/07/trainwreck_review_amy_schumer_and_judd_apatow_s_rom_com_is_not_a_trainwreck.html The wiki site TV Tropes, in its infinite nomenclatural wisdom, has created a term for films or TV shows in which the protagonist’s first name is also the name of the lead actor: the Danza (after Tony Danza, who played a guy named Tony in two long-running sitcoms, Taxi and Who’s the Boss?). There are many reasons to pull a Danza, but the most important has to do with name recognition as brand leverage. Some performers, especially stand-up comedians (think Louis C.K. or Roseanne Barr), are so identified with their names that basing a character on their stage persona and then giving that character a different name just seems like a needless waste of ready-to-hand audience goodwill.
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| Would You Get on the Train? |
[16 Jul 2015|04:58pm] |
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http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2015/07/swiss_man_in_live_stream_ad_kiosk_prints_train_tickets_to_graub_nden_for.html You may have never heard of the Graubünden region of Switzerland, but this marketing stunt might have you checking ticket prices.
Tourism officials there broadcast a live Graubünden man into Zurich’s busiest train station, where he asks commuters to jump on a train and visit him in the country. The reactions are funny and sweet, especially when some adventurous city folks decide to join him for a lunch that looks absolutely delightful.
We aren't sure we'd accept an offer from a bearded man in a kiosk, but we're glad these people did.
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| Ghost Story from a Haunted Conscience |
[16 Jul 2015|09:37pm] |
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http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/07/go_set_a_watchman_by_harper_lee_reviewed.html Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird became iconic almost immediately after appearing in 1960: best-seller status; the Pulitzer Prize the next year; a classic movie soon after, with Gregory Peck in an Academy Award–winning role. It has since gone on to sell more than 40 million copies in umpteen editions, and has become obligatory on high school reading lists (which also means it is widely banned). The copy I picked up recently references the original cover art but the flap copy no longer describes it as a novel—instead, it is “one of the best-loved stories of all time,” for once not an exaggeration. The very idea of its being a “story” preserves Mockingbird’s Southernness—a tale told, and well—while transforming it safely into a kind of universally known folklore.
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