All posts tagged: the must read

Out on a Limb With Jeremy Strong

Out on a Limb With Jeremy Strong

Published by skeptic

I read a book by Siri Hustvedt, who was married to Paul Auster, this great book called What I Loved. I read it a long, long time ago, but I remember something she wrote. There’s a sentence that said, “Only the unprotected self can experience joy.” And I guess that I’m interested in that—not just joy, but I would say life. And so if I then sit down with you and start calibrating everything I say and I start protecting myself, then I’m just in some mummified life. I was thinking about why people take potshots at you—because you very earnestly go all in on everything, you really mean it—and I wondered if it’s because we live in a time where people have a fear of really meaning what they say. Like if you say everything ironically, you can more easily take it back. Sure. I think we probably do. I think the fact that cringe has become a word is evidence of that. But I guess I feel like, if you’re not risking that, …

LA Asks: Was Mike Davis Right?

LA Asks: Was Mike Davis Right?

Published by skeptic

Davis’s argument in “The Case” is forcible, and kinda obvious: It chronicles the region’s fire history to show Southern California as a place that ignites regularly. Making the point that to live here, alongside the Santa Monica Mountains, in the flightpath of Santa Ana winds, is either to accept fire as part of the ecology, as natural as the Pacific’s waves, or to live in denial. Because the fires don’t care, but that doesn’t seem to stop celebrities from building mansions in fire-prone zones, or the city, county and state to continue blowing taxpayer money to protect and rebuild them. As a result of the cyclical, ever-expanding builds and rebuilds, Davis wrote, “our horticultural firebreaks are gone, strawberry fields are now aging suburbs, and the quest for beach fronts, mountain view lots and big trees has created fire hazards that were once unimaginable.” On a personal level, it’s an extremely tough argument for me to endorse, especially this week. My mother’s cousin, my first cousin once removed, just lost her adorable, petite hillside home, where …

Heartstopper’s Joe Locke and Kit Connor Are Making Out Just Fine

Heartstopper’s Joe Locke and Kit Connor Are Making Out Just Fine

Published by skeptic

(This seems to be the general tenor of the Warfare camaraderie, according to Gandolfini. “It was an unbelievable bond that I certainly have never had with a group of 16 men,” he explains. “Noah Centineo says we fell in love with each other.”) Garland first learned of Connor in what he describes as “classic middle-aged-guy” fashion: the filmmaker’s daughter is a Heartstopper fan, and when Garland watched the show himself, he saw an actor who seemed not only charming but talented. “The thing about Kit is that there’s something disarming about him,” Garland says. “In acting terms, there’s real craft and that craft is not like a sort of wide-eyed ingénue. That is someone who’s working extremely hard at what they’re doing.” And in Connor’s Warfare role, which Garland says required a great deal of physical and psychological endurance, the filmmaker observed that “as a person, as a young man, there’s some steel in there.” Rachel Zegler, who’s playing Juliet to Connor’s Romeo, was relieved by “how much he cared about the work,” she told …

The Watch World’s New Indie King

The Watch World’s New Indie King

Published by skeptic

Rexhepi is handsome with a strong jaw, permanent stubble, and boyishly pointed ears. If Hollywood ever catches watch fever and decides to give Rexhepi a biopic, Tom Hardy would fit the bill. He is meticulous about everything, not just watches—even the workbench he uses is of his own design. His desk is stacked with notebooks filled with drawings of watches and mechanisms. He designed the notebooks too. On the day of our meeting, he is wearing a camel-colored knit polo and matching sport coat. He cares so much about his clothes that he’s talked about designing his own one day. On his wrist is the vintage Rolex Milgauss he’s known for, but he tells me he also has several of the brand’s Daytonas at home. The Chronomètre Contemporain II is Rexhepi’s current masterpiece, considered by many to be one of the finest modern watches in the world. Rexhepi’s office is decorated with objects that pass his smell test: samurai swords and a handmade knife from Emmanuel Esposito that clicks into place so smoothly, like those …