Nestled above a charming general store near the Quechee Gorge, the Vermont Toy Museum’s vast collection of dolls, action figures, lunchboxes, yo-yos, and matchbox cars is a hidden treasure right off the White River Junction. Around 100,000 toys are housed inside the museum. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe museum’s items largely came…
A couple have a difficult night in Malcolm & Marie, the latest from writer/director Sam Levinson. The night was supposed to be a celebration. Malcolm’s movie premiered earlier and it seemed inevitable that acclaim would roll in. In the meantime, though, they’re stuck waiting, and in these quiet moments, personal grievances come to the fore. Turns…
The Brady Bunch first aired on September 26, 1969, and ran until March 8, 1974. It was based on a blended family with Carol Martin Brady having three girls, and Mike Brady having three sons. The family also had a live-in maid named Alice Nelson, whose character was a major part of the show’s success and…
A lock ladder or staircase is used to raise canal boats over large vertical distances within a small horizontal range. They operate by allowing the lower gate of one lock to form the upper gate of the adjacent lock. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonTo avoid wasting water, they require very careful…
The sands of time ravage all, stripping structures from the Parthenon in Athens to monuments in Persepolis of their color. But in rare cases, the past prevails, and structures retain hints of their once-vivid polychromy. The sandstone vestibule (or pronaos) of the temple of Esna, abutting the Nile about a half hour south of Luxor,…
[Note: Spoilers ahead.] Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonI sit staring at my laptop, and let my eyes go out of focus. I have just received a message from a dear friend. By message, I mean an apology about never believing that I was raped. I read phrases like “I can’t believe I…
“I’ve never yielded to anyone.” Netflix has unveiled the official trailer for an indie Italian drama titled The Last Paradiso, also known as L’ultimo Paradiso originally in Italian. This film tells the true story of an impossible love, a dream of an indomitable man who has a sense of rebellion and justice coursing through his…
Ratatouille: The Musical, the musical of our dreams. What started as a meme last year on TikTok — that the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille has Broadway musical potential — unexpectedly exploded in popularity, with hundreds of creators contributing songs, performances, choreography, set design, costuming, and even a playbill. The internet’s favorite “musical that’s not a…
This story is excerpted and adapted from Kristen J. Sollée’s Witch Hunt: A Traveler’s Guide to the Power and Persecution of the Witch, published in October 2020 by Red Wheel Weiser. To German witches—hexen—the Harz highlands of northern Germany is home, a mountain range steeped in pagan lore. Here, Quedlinburg, a dazzling medieval town untouched…
This story was originally published on SAPIENS and appears here under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license. On South Africa’s southern coast, above the mouth of the Matjes River, a natural rock shelter nestles under a cliff face. The cave is only about three meters deep, and humans have used it for more than 10,000 years….
The film blogosphere can’t get enough of Gina Carano. That’s not a good thing for “The Mandalorian” star. Carano, an MMA fighter turned actress, appears to lean to the right, politically speaking. She’s questioned the accuracy of the recent election vote totals, refused to follow the trans community groupthink and spoke out for free speech….
Andong Hahoe Folk Village is a traditional Joseon Dynasty village home to the Ryu clan of Pungsan, and harkens back to the 16th-century. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonAn important relic of Korean culture, this village was designed in Joseon period-style architecture and is home to many folk traditions. The village is…
★★★★ Directed by: Ambrose Smoke Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: Ambrose Smoke Starring: Lauren Engels, Jonathon Sawdon, Benita Katende, Paula Isiegas Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Film Review by: Jason Knight Angie (Engels) is intelligent, hardworking and determined. She got a job at…
Sometimes a film’s trajectory from inception to viewers can impact expectations. Let’s just say that the list of worthwhile movies that sat on the shelf for years and were the dumped into theaters with almost no promotion and no critics screenings is incredibly short. So while it’s nice to say that we approach all films…
While episode two is a big upgrade from season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race’s premiere, there were really only three big takeaways: 1) Tina Burner has a copyright on the color combination of red, orange, and yellow; 2) Gottmik’s storyline is allowing the show to widen its scope in a positive way as drag becomes more…
In 1966 during the Vietnam War, Tran Van Lai, a politician, brought a house at 287/70 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Road in District 3 of what was then Saigon. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonOver the next few months, he constructed a secret cellar without the knowledge of his family. He used the secret hideaway to…
In 1916, West Virginia established a system of fire towers that were located on various mountain peaks throughout the state. By utilizing a chart and telephone system, employees were able to quickly pinpoint forest fire locations that helped increase response times. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe earliest towers were wooden structures….
In his backyard in Kerala, India, Vinod Sahadevan Nair, 60, grows bananas and plantains and rears chickens and ducks. Situated as it is in an agrarian region, abutting the biodiverse Western Ghats, his farm may seem typical. But a walk through his four acres reveals bananas growing in every conceivable shape, size, and hue: from…
With Exam, writer-director Sonia K. Hadad and co-writer Farnoosh Samadi expose the familial and cultural demands that an Iranian teenager must confront over the span of 15 suspenseful minutes. Exam is a riveting short film about a teenage girl named Sadaf (Sadaf Asgari) who lives in Iran. The film follows Sadaf over the course of…
Usually, looking at public art is a fairly passive experience. Often, viewers are completely forbidden from directly interacting with art, much less changing how it looks entirely. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonBut Show Your Stripes by Jim Conti, a glittery piece of public art above a vacant San Jose storefront, is different….
Deep in the Lost Coast of Northern California, one stand of peculiar redwood trees survived multiple logging efforts that cleared most of the old-growth in the surrounding forest. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonSalty ocean air and frequent harsh ocean winds through Shady Dell are thought to have caused these trees to…