Saturday, June 28, 2014

ICYMI: Global Warming is a BFD and Obama is Starting to Do Something About it

The EPA announced rules to limit the amount of carbon power plants can release. This is a BFD and ThinkProgress has a great write-up on why.

#HireTheseWomen

I'd #HireTheseWomen. I just hope that someday they #hireme.

This is what happens when you take away women's rights

The Atlantic has a sobering look at the reality of the pro-life movement and the wreckage it causes.

Keep that in mind, SCOTUS.

"How to Train Your Dragon" Art Show

If you enjoyed How to Train Your Dragon and also art, you'd love to go to (or at least look at the photos of) Gallery Nucleus' new HTTYD artwork. It's super cool!



[via /Film]

So Many Movies to Be Excited About!

First off, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph are all doing The Nest together. Secondly, Kristin Wiig is going to write, direct, and star in her own movie, too. How awesome is that!? I cannot wait to see these future movies that don't yet exist!

[via Jezebel, /Film]

The Roots' Harry Potter Rap is Delightful

NBC Universal is (corporately-linked-ly) ecstatic over the launch of the expansion of the Harry Potter world at Universal Studios. Honestly, the new area does sound pretty cool if you're into theme parks and/or butterbeer, but most importantly, it has all led to this:



That's just some straight-up fun times.

[via HuffPo]

New "Inside Out" Concept Art!

The early buzz from the early, early footage people have seen of Inside Out has been entirely positive. I'm super excited for the movie, and this newly released concept art is making me even more pumped:


Lovely! And a nice Slate article on what the new film means for girls.

[via The Pixar Times]

Lava: A Love-a Story



Pixar announced the name and poster image for the short they'll play in front of next year's Inside Out. It's going to be called, "Lava" and it's "Inspired by the isolated beauty of tropical islands and the explosive allure of ocean volcanoes, “Lava” is a musical love story that takes place over millions of years." Like most Pixar shorts, it was completed well ahead of the feature it'll play in front of, and so many reviewers have seen it already. It looks pretty cute, and who doesn't like Hawaii? You can read more about the short over at /Film.

The Daily Show's Advice for College Men and Women

TDS took on sexual assault on campus (i.e. the least funny thing) in pretty much the best way possible (i.e. the most funny, poignant thing):



Jessica Williams is the best.

[via The Hairpin]

Two DC Colleges to Get Over Half their Power from Solar

This is super awesome news: G.W. University, American University, and GWU Hospital are teaming up to buy over half their power from three new solar farms in North Carolina. The farms will be completed in 2015, which means that sweet, clean energy will start rolling in soon enough. You can read more about the agreement at ThinkProgress.

Why Don't Girls Like Science? Spoiler Alert: They Do!

I'm no fan of commercials most of the time, but this is one where you can totally ignore the product and just absorb the message:



What we say and how we treat women matters in both the obvious and not-so-obvious ways. We're losing out as a world by not having more women involved in science and engineering. It's time we changed that.

[via ThinkProgress]

"Broad City' Ladies are Feminists, Obvs

File this under "Things That are Self-Evident" - Abbie Jacobson and Ilana Glazer (plus the whole Broad City staff) are totally feminists because, "feminist is gender equality." Yep!

Here's the rest of the interview for PopSugar:



Also, I saw them at their DCM show this weekend and it was totally baller. Also, obvs.

[via HuffPo]

Your Annual Depressing Media Diversity Stats

Here. Blarg.

Shonda Rhimes, "My Dreams Can Suck It"

Shonda Rhimes gave a killer graduation speech at Dartmouth this year. Below is the video (the speech starts at 1:41:20 unless you just randomly want to watch all of Dartmouth graduation), and here is the speech in full text mode.



The Toni Morrison part is my favorite. If not achieving my dreams means achieving something even better and more "me" than my dreams (and involves meeting Shonda Rhimes or Toni Morrison), I will be very satisfied.

Clone High Movie? Say Whaaaaaaa?

I'm only posting this story (which is a pretty big nothing burger since there's no way Phil Lord and Chris Miller have time/rights/etc to make a Clone High movie) to remind you to go watch Clone High again. It's so beautiful.

Comedy Central's New Lineup Includes Two Lady-Led Shows

With the success of Inside Amy Schumer  and Broad City, Comedy Central seems to have finally found the light on women-centric comedies - they are funny and people watch them - who knew!? They do, now.

They've ordered two new series, Another Period and Idiotsitter presumably to air sometime later this year (CC's not always on the same TV schedule, so I'm not going to make any assumptions). Another Period stars the super funny Natasha Leggero (Comedy Central Roasts) and Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel and Oates) as early 20th century celebrity-wannabes. Idiotsitter stars 22 Jump Street breakout Jillian Bell and Charlotte Newhouse as a bratty rich girl on house arrest and her straight and narrow babysitter.

I'm sure excited for both series - they sound really fun and silly!

[via Comic's Comic]

"Cosmos" Doesn't Appreciate Your Climate Denying BS

I love how Cosmos closed its final few episodes. For most of the series, I got about halfway through an episode and then fell into a nice, excellently-CGI'd sleep, but I stayed up for the last few episodes of the series once I heard they were about global warming. They were. And they didn't pull any punches. They reminded us of the importance of trusting in science and discovery, and how important it is to make the hard choices that better our future. Act Four at WaPo has a nice write-up on it you can read here.

Tobacco is Wacko if You're a Teen Farmer

Daily Show did a great segment on the super, horrible legal loophole that allows teenagers to work on tobacco farms:



The saddest part of the segment is how self-aware the tobacco farmer is - he's not just some deluded guy they found. He legitimately knows what he's doing to these kids and thinks it's totally ok.

Also, Sam Bee = amazeballs.

36 Hours in San Antonio If You're From There

My friend Shira wrote this great piece of fiction for The Hairpin, "36 Hours from San Antonio If You're From There." You should read it! It's funny/sad, like all visits to your hometown.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Mindy Kaling's Writing a New Book Because We Did Something Good this Year

We must have major karma rolling in to be getting books from Amy Poehler *and* Mindy Kaling this year! Mindy's new book is titled, Why Not Me? which she says has been her motto for life. Makes sense. It'll cover essentially everything that's happened since her last book, which has been, well, quite a lot. I'm stoked to read it! Also stoked to find out when it's going to be released! You can read more about the new book here (oh, look who it is, Davies again! Clearly, this is why we are friends).

Julian McCullough - What, What!!

And here's a shout out of a different flavor. My friend Julian McCullough was on The-Flipping-Tonight Show a few weeks ago and totally killed it, like the baller he is. Check him out!



Killed it, am I right!? And yes, he is that delightful in person.

Furious Feminist

My friend Maddie (of Amy Poehler book cover "via" from the last post fame) wrote a really great piece on #YesAllWomen at Jezebel that I forgot to direct you all to last month, so I'm telling you to read it now. I actually think, if anything, it's better to read it now if only to remind ourselves how quickly the media cools off after these kinds of horrible events. It sucks when all your righteous anger dissipates instead of actually being resolved. Keep up the great work and keep fighting the good fight, Maddie!

"Yes Please" Let Us Read Amy Poehler's New Book!

I can't wait for Amy Poehler's book, "Yes Please" to come out in October (which I think is prime book-releasing season since it creates a buzz before Christmas and weirdos - i.e. me - only give the gift of books because they think it's more personal *and* more cheap than whatever fancy thing the recipient actually wants), but that means they forgo the wonderful summer reading season! I can totally picture myself on the beach, huddled under an umbrella saying, "Why is it so sunny and nice!? I can't read in this weather!"

Anywho - in the meantime, you can enjoy the cover art. I know I do:


It's reminiscent of her theater days, and makes me think of "yes, and" but in a more fun, "give me more" way. To that end, I wonder how much of her life and which aspects it will focus on. She's such an interesting lady. I can't wait to *Amy Poehler-style newsie boy* "Read all about it!"

[via Jezebel]

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Let's Cleanse with a Ridic Period Ad

An epic follow-up to the delightful Camp Gyno, Moon Party is the kind of period ad I am totally fine with watching:



I'm sorry, but that isn't embarrassing - that's a killer party. I can't be the only one who wants to know what's in that uterus piñata.

[via HuffPo]

What White People will be Watching Instead

Instead of watching those great videos, we're all probably going to go out and see this movie:



It looks so self-indulgent and navel-gazey. And I am so probably going to watch it when it comes out on Netflix, or maybe in theaters if it gets stellar reviews, because I totally love Aubrey Plaza, Jane Levy, Max Minghella, and Schmidt.

[via /Film]

"If Asians Said the Stuff White People Say"

Dear white people, please stop this:


I just watched that first exchange happen the other day and it was so long, awkward, and uncomfortable. Afterward, another person in the group just went, "That conversation could have been 100% shorter." Think before you speak, am I right?

[via Jezebel]

On that note, "Dear White People"

Super excited to see this movie:



I KNEW there was a reason I always sided with the Gremlins.

[via /Film]

Black Women Run Hollywood

Maybe this is the reason? It would explain a lot in a way less depressing way:




Not quite buying it. I'm sorry, but Bey and Oprah do not get kicked out of secret societies. They leave to form better secret societies of their own.

[via HuffPo]

These guys get it

Speaking of representation of women in the media:



Excellent points, bros.

[via HuffPo]

FML, Hollywood

Serious-thefuck-ly? Serious-thefuck-ly.


[via Jezebel, of-thefuck-course]