A Collection of Calaveras
The Library of Congress has scans of José Guadalupe Posada broadsheet illustrations, including many calaveras for your enjoyment!
“The Ministry of Sickness and Death”
Jake Adelstein has shared an unpublished chapter of his book Tokyo Vice online. “This chapter never made the final cut of Tokyo Vice because it’s not about crime or the underworld. It is about the battle to tell the truth when it is inconvenient for the powers that […]
RIP, Ruby Dee
Actor and activist Ruby Dee has died. Dee appeared in many roles in film, television and on stage. She appeared in St. Louis Blues (1958), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Guiding Light (1967), Peyton Place (1968-9), Buck and the Preacher (1972), Do The Right Thing (1989), Jungle […]
RIP, Rik Mayall
Actor and comedian Rik Mayall has died. Mayall is probably best known for his roles in The Young Ones (1982-4), Blackadder (1983-9), The New Statesman (1987-94) and Bottom (1991-5). He also starred in Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Guesthouse Paradiso (1999). The Telegraph, The Guardian and Rolling Stone […]
Powers That Be
By some strange quirk of timing and location, I am currently involved in or gearing up for three different elections at once. On the federal front it’s just a by-election to fill a recently vacated seat: it is the least visible and strident of the three. The provincial […]
Ushering In A New Regime: Johnnie To, Crime Films and Dissent
Last month, I wrote about British (and a little pre-People’s Republic Chinese) censorship of Hong Kong movies and the ways that wuxia and kung fu movies in particular got around British control of political speech. And now, with wuxia and kung fu movies seemingly all nationalistic, dissent has […]
The Cultural Gutter 