Going to try to do the impossible: link to the bulk of what I’ve written. Let’s begin! A quick glance shows that I conducted about 30 interviews last year, read at least 69 books for work (a. HA and b. definitely more from January - March and also with my own reading), and no wonder I was very tired in December. Obviously after the jump if you’re interested, but it’s very long. Will probably pick some highlights for later in the week.
March links
Interviews:
Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams
Max Brooks, The Harlem Hellfighters
Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven
Astra Taylor, The People’s Platform
Mimi Pond, Over Easy
Bryant Terry, Afro-Vegan
Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things to Me
Geoff Dyer, Another Great Day at Sea
David Zweig, Invisibles
Joe Berlinger, Whitey: United States of America vs. James J. Bulger
Alex Tizon, Big Little Man
Chaz Ebert, Life Itself
David Rees, Going Deep With David Rees
Dan Krauss, The Kill Team
Elizabeth Little and Abigail Haas, Dear Daughter and Dangerous Boys
Hannah Hart, My Drunk Kitchen
Jon Ronson, Frank
Sheila Heti, Leanne Shapton, and Heidi Julavits, Women in Clothes
Jill Soloway, Transparent
Christian Rudder, Dataclysm
Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped
Bob Odenkirk, A Load of Hooey
Sam Shaw, Manhattan
Katha Pollitt, Pro
Mallory Ortberg, Texts From Jane Eyre & The Toast
Lynn Shelton, Laggies
Jenny Slate & Dean Fleischer-Camp, Marcel the Shell
Laurie Penny, Unspeakable Things
Megan Amran, Science… For Her!
Nancy Kates, Regarding Susan Sontag
Amy Sedaris, Goodbye to All That
Reviews:
Craig Nelson, The Age of Radiance
Ellen Gilchrist, Acts of God
Veep Season 3
Justified Season 5
Joshua Ferris, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Elaine Lui, Listen to the Squawking Chicken
Muriel Spark, The Informed Air
Maya Van Wagenen, Popular
Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special
Pixar, Creativity, Inc
Molly Wizenberg, Delancey
Adelle Waldman, Nathaniel P. prequel
Sophia Amoruso, #GIRLBOSS
The Nellie Bly Reader
Dan Barber, The Third Plate
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The Fault In Our Stars
Brando Skyhorse, Take This Man
Joanna Rakoff, My Salinger Year
Hillary Clinton, Hard Choices
Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr.
Rectify Season 2
Kevin Birmingham, The Most Dangerous Book
Joan Rivers, Diary of a Mad Diva
Jon Ronson, Frank (the inspiration for the movie)
Courtney Robertson, I Didn’t Come Here to Make Friends
Jane Bowles, Two Serious Ladies
Begin Again
Marja Mills, The Mockingbird Next Door
I Origins
Beth Macy, Factory Man
Nora Ephron and Food
Manhattan, Season 1
Benoit Denizet-Lewis, Travels With Casey
Jess Row, Your Face in Mine
Michael Harris, The End of Absence
Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist
Megan Amran’s Science… For Her! & Mallory Ortberg’s Texts From Jane Eyre
Monterey Pop
William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep
Jo Piazza, If Nuns Ruled the World
Worn Stories
God Help the Girl
Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On
Steve Almond, Against Football
Merritt Tierce, Love Me Back
Happiness: Ten Years of N + 1
Eula Biss, On Immunity
Lena Dunham, Not That Kind of Girl
Transparent, Season1
The 50-Year Argument
Brian Morton, Florence Gordon
Madam Secretary, Season 1
Nicholas Carr, The Glass Cage
Cary Elwes, As You Wish
Hector Tobar, Deep Down Dark
Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Amy Poehler, Yes Please
An Open Secret
Heaven Adores You
Charles D'Ambrosio, Loitering
Los Angeles Plays Itself
Happy Valley
Meghan Daum, The Unspeakable
Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking
Jon Safran, God’ll Cut You Down
Big Eyes
Joshua Davis, Spare Parts
Commentary:
Gilmore Girls: Secretly a Twin Peaks tribute show
In Praise of 42-Year-old Jared Leto
Why 538 is soulless dreck
Take Cosmopolitan seriously
Adult Magazine’s Millennial erotics
The Man, the Writer, and His Cigarette
Lauren Hillenbrand is America’s best nonfiction writer
How Lauren Hillenbrand works
I miss the video store
Talking about Lena Dunham & Aziz Ansari
2014: pop culture and prison
Book Criticism should be more poptimist
D'Angelo at the Afro-Punk Festival
Jennifer Egan is a prophet
Will Adam Brody happen?
Millennial with a flip phone
Why we still love Moby Dick
Online jealousy is boring
What is Lana Del Rey wearing?
YA is for everybody
Celebrity feminism is hot
Adam Driver is a new man
Justin Bieber and Shia LaBeouf are wrecks
Who is Jake Silverstein, the new New York Times Magazine editor?
Katherine Boo & Adrian Nicole LeBlanc at the NYPL
David Lynch at BAM
High Maintenance at BAM
GoodReads nihilism
Rating Olive Kitteridge’s Maine accents
Zadie Smith and the New York City essay
Ebola freak-out
Why is women’s confessional writing provocative?
October’s best reads
November’s best reads
Realistic Young Adult Movies
Gone Girl’s cool girl speech is a meme
Seth McFarlane, “satirist”
Tilda Swinton is a mystery
James Franco lost his narrative
James Franco Piece #3
James Franco’s poetry and the New York Times Book Review
Blake Lively’s Preserve
Stylized violence is immoral
Manic Pixie Dream Girl still dead
Is To Kill a Mockingbird YA?
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s marriage works
The skeptic’s guide to Elizabeth Gilbert
The grown-up’s guide to John Green
The grown-up’s guide to Rainbow Rowell
Margaret Atwood’s writing advice
Mindy Kaling, role model
Bechdel Test/Manic Pixie Dream Girls nihilism
Joan Rivers was mean
Why a Game of Thrones actress should be known for her acting
10 Years of Questlove’s faith in D'Angelo
Love locks are the worst
Do teen YouTube celebrities matter?
Don’t do rape threats
Factcheckers are geniuses
John Green’s Reddit AMA
Lena Dunham loves books
What’s with the marketing for Melissa McCarthy’s Tammy?
Where to start with John Cheever
Maya Angelous + Oprah = luv
Will the book last?
Seth Meyers is smug
Johnny Depp isn’t cool anymore
Things we learned about Mad Men’s Matthew Weiner
Mark Wahlberg is entitled
Shailene Woodley on feminism
Caitlin Moran Doesn’t Read YA
Media on Jill Abramson
Longform:
Surfing
Wells Tower
Race
Celebrity profiles
Life in the country
Scary Viruses
Mary Gaitskill
David Lynch
Kathleen Hale
Guernica
Muses
Teen Idols
Mike Nichols
Feminists
Writer’s Choice
Lists:
2014: Best Cultural Criticism
2014: 15 Best Nonfiction Books
25 Best Music Documentaries on Netflix Streaming
25 Writers Who Wrote Great Books Before 25
27 Writers on Whether or not to Get Your MFA
Muppet Twin Peaks
Gilmore Girls’ Highbrow Cameos
Underrated Books of 2014
90s Pop-Culture WItches, Ranked
28 Feminist Writers Recommend Books For Men
My So-Called Life, Ranked
50 Books For 50 States
10 Essential Neil Gaiman works
10 Best Nonfiction Books So Far in 2014
10 Obscure Nonfiction Books by Fiction Writers
10 Juicy Books About Scandal
10 Ways We Totally Relate to BuzzFeed’s Jonah Peretti
50 Writers to See Live
50 Best Films About Writers, Ranked
30 Writers Give Advice to the Graduate
10 Books for Gone Girl Fans
25 Films to Watch With Your Mom
10 Mysteries If You Like Serial
15 Films to Watch With Your Dad
20 Nonfiction Books for the Summer
15 Teen Feminist Books
25 Must-Read Fall Books
15 Boring Superpowers
11 Hilarious Women (Who Aren’t Comedians)
Recaps:
Orphan Black:
2.3: “Mingling Its Own Nature With It”
Mad Men:
Season 7 Review
How Don Draper avoided cliche California rebirth
Why People Wanted Megan Draper to Die
7.1: “Time Zones”
7.2: “A Day’s Work”
7.3: “Field Trip”
7.4: “The Monolith”
7.5: “The Runaways”
7.6: “The Strategy”
7.7: “Waterloo”
The Affair:
Overly optimistic review based on the pilot
Short piece on its use of sex scenes (generally good!)
Episode 1: “Pilot”
Episode 2: “2”
Episode 3: “3”
Episode 4: “4”
Episode 5: “5”
Episode 6: “6”
Episode 7: “7”
Episode 8: “8”
Episode 9: “9”
Episode 10: “10”