weekend rumpus roundup
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks personifies a crucial part of all stories in “The End: A Biography.” Then, in the Saturday Essay, Lisa Ellison recalls the comforting presence of Molly Ringwald on her television screen alongside difficult memories of her mother’s drug…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in the Saturday Review of The Martian, Louise Fabiani exposes strengths and weaknesses of Ridley Scott’s film. It is “exquisite” in a visual sense, but the protagonist, played by Matt Damon, seems to lack an essential humanity. Jeff Daniels and Kristen…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks’s most recent comic provides a guidepost for the maturing male artist. Then, in a cutting Saturday Essay, Eileen G’Sell exposes the forward-looking and regressive trends in advertising. Though Progressive’s fully-clothed and “offbeat” spokeswoman, “Flo,” is a step in the right direction,…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
In a focused and engaging Saturday Interview, Arielle Bernstein talks to essayist Karrie Higgins—the author of a 2015 Best American Essay titled “Strange Flowers”—about the generative quality of chaos within the creative process. Higgins points to the influence of forensic science on her approach.…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks illustrates the silly and circular patterns of being a romantic. Then, in the Saturday Essay, Amanda Choutka reminisces about her adolescence and growing up with an autistic younger sibling, whose favorite program was Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show.…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
Caroline Smith writes about parenthood and television in the Saturday Essay. The wildly popular AMC drama Mad Men provides a thematic frame for Smith’s own foray into marriage and motherhood. She even teaches a college writing course on the television show,…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks gives us “Leonard: The Dad From A Different Generation.” Next, Gayle Brandeis offers a personal and insightful portrait of female body image in the Saturday Essay, “Thunder, Thighs.” Before Brandeis’s own view of her thighs was changed forever, they…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks takes a hilarious look at “The Stop Sign.” And in the Saturday Essay, Kyle Dargan provides a thoughtful response to a New York Times article on female body image. Dargan recounts his positive exposure to female athletes, dancers, and…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
“If there was one thing I learned from Tess Durbeyfield, Lily Bart, and Constance Chatterly,” writes Gina Di Salvo in the Saturday Essay, “it was not to get trapped.” When Di Salvo becomes a mother, classic works of literature that…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks’s illustrated meta-story of advertising woe, “Your Face Here: A Biography.” Then, Jonathan Harper recounts the challenges he faced growing up as a queer gamer in the Saturday Essay. From Dungeons & Dragons to video games like Dragon…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in the Saturday Essay, Kathryn Buckley reminisces over the 1988 Bette Midler film Beaches, which portrays a friendship between two women whose friendship deepens over the years as they grow older. The similarities between Buckley and her on-screen doppleganger lead her…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, Brandon Hicks compares a nostalgic past with a scary future in “When I Was A Kid… A Personal Essay.” Then, in the Saturday Essay, Josie Pickens tries to reconcile the real Bill Cosby with the one we’ve come to admire…