Annie Berke
@sayanniething.bsky.social
Senior editor @ LARB, freelance culture writer, mom in the DC burbs. Here for the nuanced takes, the good faith arguments, and the jokes
At @defector.com -- the frat pack of 2000s comedy, then and now, the good, the bad, and the less bad... defector.com/is-less-bad-...
Is Less Bad Still Good Enough? | Defector
In the 1957 drama The Three Faces of Eve, Joanne Woodward plays a woman with a split personality. By day, she is Eve White, an uptight housewife with a whisper of a voice, but sometimes, White is over...
defector.com
I'd been reading EAST OF EDEN for so many weeks, it kind of became my personality, and now that I finished it, I don't know who I am anymore. Timshel, folks.
I’m on the last five minutes of this podcast, talking about horror movies. It was fun — and fast! I don’t intend on listening to it (cringe), but would love if you do (supportive!), but never tell me (embarrassing!!). Deal? 👻 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
BBC World Service - World Business Report, Counting the fuel costs of two major conflicts
European foreign ministers condemn President Trump's plan to import diesel from Russia
bbc.co.uk
Okay okay maybe I do need to watch YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING…
A Midlife Pitch! [new @Substack post on #freelancewriting and #perimenopitching] Read, like, follow, subscribe 🎩🎩 substack.com/@sayanniethi...
A Midlife Pitch
On Youth, Witnesses, and Writing for The New Republic
substack.com
Yin yoga answers the question “what if meditation really hurt, like, physically?” I don’t know why I like it so much. Is this why people get lots of tattoos?
a double review of DIGGER and THE SOCIAL RECKONING, two flawed films about whether it's ever too late to tell the story that needs telling thanks as always to @newrepublic.com and @lauramarsh.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...
The Unbearable, Unstoppable Moguls of Digger and The Social Reckoning
Two movies, two unfolding catastrophes. And in both movies, holding the rich to account is an epic struggle.
newrepublic.com
Bad news: I am the same age that Delta Dawn is when her daddy still calls her baby 🥀
For the Monday morning crowd! I wrote about DTF St Louis and the wonderfully strange TV Steven Conrad has made over the years (Patriot! Perpetual Grace LTD!), and why all that textual idiosyncrasy hits so good right now lareviewofbooks.org/article/dtf-...
Nonpredictive Texts | Los Angeles Review of Books
Exploring ‘DTF St. Louis’ and the anti-algorithmic worlds of Steven Conrad.
lareviewofbooks.org
My review of PRIMETIME is live! Thank you so much to @simontorracinta.bsky.social rracinta for commissioning and to the editors at @dissentmag.bsky.social ag for their keen insights every step of the way:
Dissent Magazine@dissentmag.bsky.social · 4w agoThe moral of Lance Oppenheim’s exploration of "To Catch A Predator" may be an obvious one. Yet it succeeds because its performances are too big to be contained by the small screen.
"In an age of highly predictive text, improbability has the virtue of assuring viewers: this was made by human hands." @elizabethalsop.bsky.social reviews HBO's "DTF St. Louis": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/dtf-st-louis-hbo-steven-conrad-auteur-emmys
Alison Laurence on "The End of Oak Street": "All dinosaur stories, from scholarly articles to science fiction, contain elements of fact and fantasy working together." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/end-oak-street-social-dinosaur-popular-imagination-prehistoric/
We Tell Ourselves Dinosaur Stories in Order to Live | Los Angeles Review of Books
We live within a library of antediluvian narratives, with more accessioned every day.
lareviewofbooks.org
"The oeuvre of every great poet is a canon unto itself, and Bloom’s ideal required an authoritative canon of canons." Alex Lanz on Harold Bloom and the context of "The Man Who Read Everything": http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/harold-bloom-letters-man-who-read-everything-influence
"the HEAD, by way of the EAR, to the SYLLABLE/ the HEART, by way of the BREATH, to the LINE"
Los Angeles Review of Books@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · last mo."The pleasures and practice of poetry exist in the world, even if our pens do not always draw lines around it." Frank Falisi reviews Kent Jones's film "Late Fame": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/late-fame-kent-jones-willem-dafoe-poetry-manhattan
"In 'Late Fame,' playing pool in a bar with friends and singing for an appreciative audience are acts given dignity equal to that of our most vaunted verse." Frank Falisi reviews Kent Jones's film, "Late Fame": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/late-fame-kent-jones-willem-dafoe-poetry-manhattan
❤️ 🦕 ❤️
Alison Laurence@dinostalgia.bsky.social · last mo.I wrote about those antediluvians in The End of Oak Street for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. Thanks to @sayanniething.bsky.social for letting me get a little weird with the Michigan of it all! Some general spoilers, but only one specific one re: fate of the dog. #FossilFriday tinyurl.com/dinostories
College professors, this is what you put in your syllabus as “Policy on AI Usage.” From John Steinbeck’s EAST OF EDEN (1952)—
I enjoy THE PAPER more than I ever liked THE OFFICE.
Emmys on tonight so of course my mind goes here... www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNRz...
2015 Emmys | Andy Samberg's Opening Routine
YouTube video by Television Academy
youtube.com
The holiday weekend is over, time to go back to avoiding work at work by reading my newest Substack post ;)
Annie Berke@sayanniething.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy new post on Coyote vs. Acme, May December, and laughing at others' pain went live this AM on Substack -- please check it out and, if you like it, please follow and subscribe (it's free)
My new post on Coyote vs. Acme, May December, and laughing at others' pain went live this AM on Substack -- please check it out and, if you like it, please follow and subscribe (it's free)
Annie Berke (@sayanniething)
“Well, I’m not gonna cross-examine you. Say what you wanna say” On Coyote vs. Acme, May December, and laughing at others’ pain — If chatty, personal, occasionally associative criticism, together wit...
substack.com
"Taking a permission slip from her book of animal sex, I decided to run with the messy lot of it." Emma Wood reflects on watching and reading the work of Perrin Ireland: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/perrin-roosevelt-ireland-thirsty-science-poking-the-squid/
"The arts and humanities are a small piece of the AI pie, but they are our piece of the pie." Tom Comitta talks to @aarthivadde.bsky.social about "We the Platform": http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-the-platform-artificial-intelligence-aarthi-vadde-internet
Such a thrill to dive into We the Platform and the many modes of literary Web 2.0 with @aarthivadde.bsky.social : from fan fic to icon novels to punk anti-fiction to fiction as institutional critique!
Aarthi Vadde@aarthivadde.bsky.social · 2mo agoI was lucky enough to sit down for an extended interview about We the Platform with the endlessly creative @tomcomitta.bsky.social. We talked about experimental writing, the early days of the Web, mail art, and escaping the doom loop around literary study. lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-t...
Thanks to everyone reading my review at @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social & feeling proud of Lori, Melanie, and Tim, whose essays I commissioned and whose work is, unsurprisingly, catching 🔥
“In his biggest misstep, Thomson brings up Hitler.” Tim Riley reviews the arguments of David Thomson's "A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of Movies": http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/david-thomson-sudden-flicker-light-film-history-revisionist
"Fiction gives you empathy in a way that nothing else does, and I think empathy is a much more valuable education than reading facts.” Comedian Anthony Jeselnik about what he wanted from a book club: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/anthony-jeselnik-comedy-celebrity-book-clubs-classics-canon/
"The thing about time and art is that in the unending march of years, art can get lost, sometimes so lost that it takes a real sleuth to find it." Mesha Maren on the power of the reissue: http://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mesha-maren-reissues-women-publishing-conglomerates-independent-presses
No Reason to Hide It | Los Angeles Review of Books
What is going on with the reissue trend in publishing?
lareviewofbooks.org
My latest piece is a reported essay in the pages of New York Magazine and now, online. www.vulture.com/article/miss...
Miss Piggy Is Our Last Movie Star
Like Mae West and other classic Hollywood icons, Miss Piggy plays with femininity in delightful, contradictory ways.
vulture.com
If you haven’t looked at my Substack, please do, and consider subscribing while you’re at it! Your support and eyeballs motivate me to write… but not too much… The posts I have planned will be informative, full of humor, and, in the words of Cher Horowitz, *sporadic*
Annie Berke@sayanniething.bsky.social · 2mo agoHappy Monday, everyone... Gird your loins, I started a Substack: it's called TWO HATS! It's about the culture of writing / writing about culture, and it's totally free. Please check it out, subscribe, and share <3 annieberke.substack.com/p/welcome-to...