Ken Loach does Star Wars
(via Andrew Layden)
The heartwarming story of the pink R2 robot that will appear in the new Star Wars film.
And this was a very important mission for the stormtroopers (via Sam W)
Great video summary of the case for JarJar Binks as a hardcore evil Jedi (via the Alligator)
’tis the season for bemused articles about the Star Wars Holiday Special! Here’s the Guardian’s take (via Alastair G) and the AV Club’s. (It was actually a Thanksgiving special, but everyone associates it with Christmas these days, because that makes it funnier.)
Enough Star Wars. Here’s an exceptional piece by David Roberts explaining Trump and his crazy lies. Money quote:
“Republican billionaires and political operators have spent decades building a self-contained epistemic bubble in which they could pump up the right-wing base with fear and paranoia. Now the Frankenstein’s monster has lumbered off the table and crashed into the cocktail party.”
East/West cross-cultural differences depicted as pictograms. Lovely & insightful, simple images that communicate so much. The networking one!
Via Scott A: reflections by the woman who accidentally sent NZ into a Taytay frenzy.
Lovely New Yorker cover by Chris Ware that unfolds into a sumptuous story in the This American Life mold.
Everyone loves the rapping Pope.
The writer of Withnail & I has a new book giving his theory of Jack the Ripper’s identity. There’s no reason here to give his effort any more credence than the billion other theories, but the way he talks about it is just wonderful. I hope the book is in the same voice!
Dangerous Minds has a revelation – there was a Fast Times at Ridgemont High spinoff TV show! With both Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling involved! DM reckons it was pretty good – I wonder how it possibly could be, given the nature of 80s TV and type of movie they’re trying to adapt. All seven episodes are at the link, for now at least.
And finally, also via DM – it turns out “And so you do what they told ya” sounds, in Japanese, something like “Break the chicken nuggets, daddy”. And so:
Bruce Robinson’s published screenplay for Withnail & I is one of my favourite reads, so I have high hopes indeed!