blast-o-rama. • issue 077 • 2023-02-26
blast-o-rama.
issue 077 • 2023-02-26
a glimpse of the other side of the coin, by way of rhianna
Hello and Happy Sunday!
This morning, we kick off with a little of perspective.
Two weeks ago today, Rhianna took the field for the halftime show of the Super Bowl. A glossy production funded by Apple Music, if I took just my timeline as any indication, it was well received and beloved by all. Even if it looked like a stage from Super Smash Bros..
That said? It wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, as presented in these equal parts hilarious and infuriating complaints to the FCC, filed by normal(?) Americans, and catalogued by Jon Blistein at Rolling Stone:
“The sexualization, genital grabbing, sniffing of her fingers, man pulling off his jacket and then girating all while singing lyrics far too inappropriate for a family sport event. I will NOT watch this again next year if this is how you are going to disrespect our nation.”
“Rhianna, The gyrating and rear end and crotch grabbing is too far for broadcast TV. It seems like almost every year performers want to do some version of this in their dancing. Please put an end to this.”
“On top of all this 4 of the songs she chose to sing were about sex. This is supposed to be a family friendly show…”
“Perpetual air humping and glorifying being a stripper isn’t child friendly for the Super Bowl.”
“Very disappointed that you would allow this to be shown a this big stage. America is better than this.”
This goes on for 103 pages! Well, the original filing. Not the article. Note, some of the language is spicy, but if I’m Rhianna? I’m posting a good half of these up on my fridge.
…but now that I think of it, if I’m Rhianna, have I evolved past needing a fridge?…
bart simpson was right
Homework. The Bain of existence for most American children’s lives, ages 5-17.
Turns out, we might not need it after all. And its continued use puts children in low-income communities and other disadvantaged situations at risk.
Jacob Sweet at Vox writes:
I first began to wonder if the homework abolition movement made sense after speaking with teachers in some Massachusetts public schools, who argued that rather than help disadvantaged kids, stringent homework restrictions communicated an attitude of low expectations. One, an English teacher, said she felt the school had “just given up” on trying to get the students to do work; another argued that restrictions that prohibit teachers from assigning take-home work that doesn’t begin in class made it difficult to get through the foreign-language curriculum. Teachers in other districts have raised formal concerns about homework abolition’s ability to close gaps among students rather than widening them.
Many education experts share this view. Harris Cooper, a professor emeritus of psychology at Duke who has studied homework efficacy, likened homework abolition to “playing to the lowest common denominator.”
Check out the full story here.
also from across the web
Other reads I enjoyed this week:
- Your Tax Data Shouldn’t Be Up for Grabs – The Markup
- Why Morioka? Japan Answers. - The New York Times
- Inside the NBA’s Great Generation War | GQ
- Before Ant-Man, Fox Launched Live-action Series The Tick – The Hollywood Reporter
- Teller Reveals His Secrets - Smithsonian Magazine
- My Valentine’s Day Date With Bernie Sanders - Intelligencer
- ‘If She Had Killed You With an Oscar, it Would Have Been Like a Scene From One of My Movies’ - Vulture
- I watched the XFL 3.0 so you don’t have to (but you should!) - The Athletic
- Shigeru Miyamoto is working with his hands again - The Verge
- I Changed My Mind About Section 230 - Gizmodo
- After Testing Four-Day Week, Companies Say They Don’t Want to Stop - WSJ
- The Oral History of ‘Party Down’: Are We Having Fun Yet?! - The Ringer
- The Best Mac Gaming Experience Is a PC Sitting in a Dallas Data Center - MacStories
- Why We’re Still Obsessed With the Rainforest Cafe - Eater
- My Surreal Years Tutoring the Children of the Super-Rich - Vogue
- Hanging out: Americans report fewer friends. Could the cure be simple? - Slate
- Ted Leo’s Ever-Changing Lanes - SPIN
- Inside the Secret Shady World of Corporate Concerts - Vice
- The Battle for the Soul of Buy Nothing - WIRED
- Marvel VFX Workers on ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ - Vulture
- Social media used to be free. Not anymore. - Vox
thanks for reading.
Have an awesome Sunday. Remember: March begins this week.
See you in seven!
-Marty