In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – What Are We Watching?Post + Comments (140)
This post is in: Balloon Juice, Commentary, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In, Guest Posts, Medium Cool, Open Threads, Popular Culture
In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – What Are We Watching?Post + Comments (140)
This post is in: Balloon Juice, Commentary, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In, Guest Posts, Medium Cool, Open Threads, Popular Culture, TV & Movies
In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
One of our commenters suggested we do a Medium Cool on the rise of Fascism as portrayed in art. So, this being a full-service section of the blog, let’s do that.
What films, or books, or music, comic books, or anything in the art world has done good work in representing the rise of Fascism?
And perhaps you could give us an idea how such a work accomplishes such an important task.
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – The Rise of Fascism!Post + Comments (143)
by WaterGirl| 86 Comments
This post is in: Guest Posts, Medium Cool, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In
In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
Happy Mother’s Day! In this extra special Mother’s Day edition of Medium Cool, tell us how your mother influenced you in some artistic way. It could be pushing you to read, taking you to movies, an art gallery, or making art herself. Give us what you got.
by WaterGirl| 47 Comments
This post is in: Guest Posts, Medium Cool, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In
In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
First, an Announcement about next week’s Medium Cool
Join Medium Cool on Sunday, April 24 at 7:00 EST for a Q&A with John Lingan, author of the forthcoming biography of Creedence Clearwater Revival, A Song for Everyone (Hachette, August 9, 2022). John will be there in comments to field questions and chat about the book and the band.
In this week’s Medium Cool:
Let’s talk environmental lit.
I’m reading a really fascinating novel by Sequoia Nagamatsu (How High We Go in the Dark) about a plague from the Arctic that sweeps the world. One thing that makes it so interesting is the way it ties pandemic issues to environmental issues.
It got me thinking about other books that explore environmental catastrophe from an international angle, such as those by the terrific Paolo Bacigalupi (The Windup Girl, Ship Breaker).
What other novels, or films, or other artistic works do this? I’m especially curious about international writers who give us a different (not American) perspective on this subject.
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – International Eco-LitPost + Comments (47)
This post is in: Guest Posts, Medium Cool, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In
In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
First, an Announcement
Join Medium Cool on Sunday, April 24 at 7:00 EST for a Q&A with John Lingan, author of the forthcoming biography of Creedence Clearwater Revival, A Song for Everyone (Hachette, August 9, 2022). John will be there in comments to field questions and chat about the book and the band.
?
In this week’s Medium Cool, let’s talk about the films of Wes Anderson.
I can’t think of an American filmmaker who divides opinion more than Anderson (OK, maybe the other Anderson (Paul Thomas)). That a film like Don’t Look Up was nominated and The French Dispatch wasn’t is an indication. Anderson’s films are often dismissed as style over substance, and I could not disagree more.
So, it’s clear what I think, but I’m curious what you all think. From Bottle Rocket to the aforementioned film from this past year, what about it?
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Wes AndersonPost + Comments (101)
by WaterGirl| 99 Comments
This post is in: Guest Posts, Medium Cool, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In
In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
There’s a great piece in Crime Reads this week about upcoming TV series, and I was amazed at how much new stuff is coming out.
In this week’s Medium Cool, let’s talk about TV we’re anticipating and currently watching.
by WaterGirl| 80 Comments
This post is in: Guest Posts, Medium Cool, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In
In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
In this week’s Medium Cool, let’s talk about science in literature.
I just had a week off, and during my downtime read three books for pleasure: The Red Prince: The Life of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (2021, Helen Carr), Fugitive Telemetry (the most recent Murderbot novella, Martha Wells), and Project Hail Mary (2021, Andy Weir).
All three books are terrific, but I had a blast with Weir’s book. As you probably know, he wrote The Martian, which is full of science and engineering stuff, as a botanist stranded on the red planet has to use whatever he can to survive. No spoilers here, but Project Hail Mary has a similar premise, but with global stakes. It’s more ambitious and more fun. One of the things I loved about both books is that they spare no detail: everything gets explained without finessing how things work (physics, math, chemistry, biology, botany).
What other literary works pay such close attention to the details of the scientific process?
Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Science in LiteraturePost + Comments (80)