4.10.2014

Interesting article, important topic (warning: spoiler alerts for a number of current shows): From Washington to Westeros, how rape plays out on TV

Image: Tatyana Fazlalizadeh pasted her self-portrait Friday at the Krog Street Tunnel in Atlanta, known for street art. By Sunday night, the poster had been defaced. source

I just finished Dave Eggers' most recent novel, The Circle. Despite being around 500 pages, I polished it off quickly - a testament to it's compulsive readability. While certainly not a perfect book - no one will ever fault Eggers for being overly subtle - I was certainly quickly drawn in, and disturbed by, this book. In much the same way "Her" painted an image of a near future in which our use of technology has taken a few significant leaps and bounds, "The Circle" is full of thought- and conversation- starters about data, relationships, privacy, and what can (or should) be quantified. Not the most artfully written book but certainly a page-turner and sort of a stomach-turner as well.

Fit and Feminist, always killing it: I Read A Harper's Bazaar Article About Spinning And It Made Me Sad: "I’m not going to deny myself the things I love out of fear that I might not attain whatever it is those women are striving to attain. My life is worth more than that. So is yours. So are theirs." (Including a link to the wonderful You Don't Have to Be Pretty).

The Biggest Loser "is not a show about people becoming empowered through fitness, though on the surface, the show's slick marketing would have you believe that. The Biggest Loser is a show about fat as an enemy that must be destroyed, a contagion that must be eradicated. This is a show about unruly bodies that must be disciplined by any means necessary." My Body Is Undisciplined and I Deny Myself Nearly Everything I Desire

A good article for those interested: "Looking for Immigration Problems" and Other Misunderstandings of Crimmigration Law, and The Atlantic article it cites with mixed reviews, Is Stop-and-Frisk Worth It? 

WNYC [audio]: How the Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry Shaped the Birth of the First Subway