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☆ Charles M. Blow on ‘Rapper’s Delight’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Charles M. Blow | Charles Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

America Is An Island Where the Rules Never Changepick the one piece of culture thatbest captures the country. America Is ... We asked 17 columnists topick the one piece of culture thatbest captures the country. Opinion America Is Black Pain and Joy“Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang was the first rap song I remember hearing. Struggle and pain are often a kiln for creativity, and that has meant that much of American culture is born of the story of Black American life. It took the crosscurrents of Black life and produced of them a chorus, and America — and the world — was enthralled.

Persons: topick, Joy “, Eric Reese, I’m, America — Organizations: Library of Congress, Sugarhill, America Locations: America, South, New Jersey

☆ David Brooks on Blind Willie Johnson’s ‘Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

America Is An Island Where the Rules Never Changepick the one piece of culture thatbest captures the country. If we’re going to understand America, let’s dive right into the dark pools of social pain that underlie our bitterness and division. Listen to “Dark Was theNight, Cold Was the Ground”by Blind Willie Johnson. It opens:Dark was the night, and cold the groundOn which the Lord was laid;His sweat like drops of blood ran down;In agony he prayed. The night in question is a cruel ordeal that anticipates the light and warmth of the coming dawn.

Persons: topick, Let’s, Willie Johnson’s, ” Johnson, you’re, Blind Willie Johnson, Thomas Haweis, Albert Murray, Murray, Black Locations: America

☆ David French on ‘Arrival’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( David French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The plot features the arrival of 12 mysterious alien spacecraft that hover, silently, at multiple points across the globe. The American government recruits a linguist named Louise Banks (Amy Adams) to communicate with the alien creatures hovering over Montana. It’s interesting to contrast “Arrival” with “Armageddon,” the 1998 Michael Bay blockbuster that also features Americans saving the world. “Arrival” feels different, just as we feel different. In America, as in “Arrival,” we push through not because we’re great but because we must, because our love for one another demands nothing less.

Persons: topick, Denis Villeneuve’s, Louise Banks, Amy Adams, Ian Donnelly, Jeremy Renner, Louise, Ian, lurks, Michael Bay Organizations: American Locations: America, Montana, United States, Soviet Union, American

☆ Ross Douthat on ‘The Great Gatsby’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Unless, that is, you recognize this opening as a summary of “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel about the innocence of the mountebank and his martyrdom at the hands of the wealthy married couple he tries to come between. This reversal is part of what makes “Gatsby” such an essential American text. In “Gatsby,” money is clearly corrupting once you have it, because the having imbues you with the “vast carelessness” of Tom and Daisy Buchanan or the cold-eyed manipulative spirit of the men who use Gatsby as their front. “If he’d of lived he’d of been a great man,” Gatsby’s father says before the funeral. But in dying young, Gatsby achieved the secret goal of all Americans: to get rich while remaining citizens of Eden, innocents till the last.

Persons: topick, charlatan, ”, Scott Fitzgerald’s, —, Ross Douthat, Gatsby, Tom, Daisy Buchanan, It’s, Gatsbys, who’s, Sam Bankman, Elizabeth Holmes, Holmes, Bernie Madoff Locations: America, Eden

☆ Farhad Manjoo on ‘South Park’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Farhad Manjoo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

But it isn’t the topicality of “South Park” that best explains America. In “South Park,” correctness of any sort — religious, scientific, pedagogical, geopolitical or whatever else — is sus. For Donald Trump Jr., “South Park” memes are the height of wit. In 2018 “South Park” even acknowledged that Al Gore was right: ManBearPig turned out to be real. But the damage was done; the monster had already begun to eat the people of South Park.

Persons: topick, ”, Trey Parker, Matt Stone’s, Parker, Stone, Donald Trump’s, Vladimir Putin’s thuggery, Ron DeSantis, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Stone’s, they’ve, Eric Cartman’s —, Andrew Sullivan, “, Donald Trump Jr, Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, Cartman, Bob White, Al Gore, ManBearPig Organizations: Trump Locations: America, Colorado, South Park

☆ Ezra Klein on ‘Her’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

commentary is missing: These systems are going to upend our relationships long before they remake our economies. That’s going to be a hurdle for anyone who wants to replace a lawyer or a researcher with an A.I. Conducting oversight for a system that’s more eloquent and knowledgeable than you are is going to be tough. America is, by any historical standard, unimaginably rich and powerful, and yet we’ve lost what matters most: community and connection. That’s the America these A.I.

Persons: topick, rewatching “, Spike, Theodore Twombley, Joaquin Phoenix, Samantha, Scarlett Johansson, Peter Drucker, Ian McEwan, It’ll, Jonze, Vivek Murthy, we’ve, machina Locations: America, U.S

☆ Lydia Polgreen on ‘Survivor’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Lydia Polgreen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

America Is ... We asked 17 columnists topick the one piece of culture thatbest captures the country. The show had grand ambitions: Jeff Probst, the host, repeatedly referred to “Survivor” as “the greatest social experiment.”Scroll to watch and read moreIt’s also a uniquely American experiment. Most strikingly, the show takes on — admittedly, in a ham-fisted way — the biggest divides in American society: gender, sexuality, race, age, class. One of the most admired and rewarded feats on “Survivor” is the blindside: voting off someone who thinks you are an ally. “Survivor” reminds us that living in our panopticon, with cameras in every pocket, we are content creators all, delivering a performance of ourselves.

Persons: topick, ”, Jeff Probst, MeToo, Probst, can’t, Erving Goffman Organizations: Survivor Locations: America

☆ Maureen Dowd on ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Maureen Dowd | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

America Is ... We asked 17 columnists topick the one piece of culture thatbest captures the country. Opinion America Is Highly SusceptibleIn America now, it seems, everyone has been snatched. The 1956 horror movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” with Kevin McCarthy, conjured one of our deepest fears as humans, one with particular resonance for the American ethos: Your humanity is replaced by something similar but frighteningly different, your self erased. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” has been repeatedly adapted because the fear it plays on is one at the core of the American self-conception. As (the good) Kevin McCarthy says in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “At first glance, everything looked the same.

Persons: topick, Kevin McCarthy, Donald Trump, — Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz —, Trump, Covid, individualists, ” “, ” Organizations: Trump, Republican Party, Capitol, Republican Locations: America, California

☆ Michelle Goldberg on Susan Faludi’s ‘Backlash’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Opinion America Is Triggered by ProgressI keep reaching for Susan Faludi’s 1991 book, “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women,” because it explains so much about American politics and culture. In the wake of Trump’s “Lock her up” campaign for president in 2016, it’s simply text, with gender emerging as a central fault line of American politics. Listen to an excerpt from “Backlash” narrated by Michelle Goldberg. A lot has changed since “Backlash” came out 32 years ago, especially in the news and entertainment, two of Faludi’s prime targets. The reaction has been a backlash that is in many ways more brutal and angry than what Faludi described, even if the fragmentation of American culture means it’s less all-encompassing.

Persons: topick, Susan Faludi’s, Donald Trump, TikTok, Tucker Carlson, Faludi, “, ’, —, it’s, It’s, Michelle Goldberg, ”, Candace Owens, Andrew Tate, ” Faludi Organizations: Progress, Fox News Locations: America, Romania

☆ Gail Collins on ‘The Most of Nora Ephron’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Gail Collins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Enter writers like Nora Ephron, a fighter for the cause who was a genius at using wit to handle any woe. “The Most of Nora Ephron” is a tome that includes so much of what she published, from current affairs journalism to food blogging to Broadway plays. “I hope that you choose not to be a lady,” she told the 1996 graduates at her alma mater, Wellesley. “I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. Pointing out how ridiculous the status quo is breaks its spell and gives us the freedom to dream up something better.

Persons: topick, Nora Ephron, Nora Ephron ”, Nora, “, Carl Bernstein, Gail Collins, ”, ” Doris Lessing’s, Miss, Nick Pileggi, Clarence Thomas, it’s Organizations: Broadway, White, Disney Locations: America, Washington, mater, Wellesley, “

☆ Zeynep Tufekci on ‘Breaking Bad’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The TV drama “Breaking Bad” does an exceptional job of capturing America’s other exceptionalisms. So Walter turns to yet another American institution that stands out among the nation’s peers: a vast and violent drug trade. Walter worries about his family’s future — especially that of his son, Walt Jr., who has cerebral palsy. But Walter Jr. is talented: In an episode that aired one year before the crowdfunding site GoFundMe was founded, Walt Jr. designs a website to solicit donations to help pay for his dad’s cancer treatment. 1 cause of bankruptcy in the United States.

Persons: topick, Alexis de Tocqueville, Barack Obama, “, Ronald Reagan, Walter White, Walter, —, Walt Jr, Walter Jr, Walt, Jr, ”, don’t Organizations: Caltech, National Rifle Association Locations: America, United States, GoFundMe, Covid

☆ Tressie McMillan Cottom on ‘Ted Lasso’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Tressie Mcmillan Cottom | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Opinion America Is Waking Up From a DreamWhen “Ted Lasso” premiered in 2020, it was supposed to rehab masculinity’s brand. “Ted Lasso” asked us to believe that we could rehabilitate American masculinity without rehabilitating the strictures of gender. “Ted Lasso” premiered near the aftermath of Trump’s presidency, with Covid still roaring. Ted asked Rebecca to hire a private detective to spy on his estranged wife and her new boyfriend. The “Ted Lasso” finale is satisfying fan service about the power of friendship, but altogether the uneven third season teaches us a more important lesson.

Persons: topick, “ Ted Lasso ”, Donald Trump’s, Ted, Ted Lasso ”, Keely, Rebecca, Jade, Trump’s, Covid, Ted Lasso, Ronald Reagan, witticisms, Kate Manne, Nate, Trump Organizations: for Disease Control, Prevention, Cornell, CNN, Mother’s, Trump Locations: America, American, British, Britain, U.S

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