We need to talk about lucha libre
Before the witching hour strikes on this Halloween, we need to have a talk about lucha libre. Why? Because, well, it's Halloween. Lucha libre's most famed and recognizable attribute is masked...
Category: Culture
Ghost Gab with Louise: When Dead Relatives and Your Feng Shui Master Mom Are Against Your “Coffin” Apartment
“No. Absolutely not. You cannot move into that apartment. Do you know how much I’ll worry about you if you do? Absolutely not.” Standing on a street corner in Brooklyn, in front of a bank I was...
The Heaven’s Gate Podcast is a Must-Listen
The 1997 mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate cult in Rancho Santa Fe, California, remains the largest such action ever committed on American soil. Believing that their alien allies would arrive in...
Stop blaming mental illness and start blaming men
This week, Stephen Paddock, surrounded by dozens of lethal firearms, shot 59 people dead and injured hundreds of others in Las Vegas, USA. In May of this year, Salman Abedi blew himself up in...
It’s time to confront antisemitism on the left
In Charlottesville, as white supremacists, Nazis, and KKK members marched through the streets, they chanted, among other things, “Jews will not replace us.” As Jews watched the most galling...
Assisted suicide is dangerously disablist
For many disabled people, the prospect of legalised assisted suicide is chilling. We spend our lives hearing “I’d rather die than be in a wheelchair / use a feeding tube / lose the ability to see...
Top of the Lake’s ‘China Girl’ explores the white gaze
I've been an avid Sundance Channel watcher for many years, for better or for worse. From the good old cinephile-focused days to the current, slightly more commercial with a hint of edgy times, I feel...
Ed Skrein Sets an Example by Leaving Hellboy Over Whitewashing, But What Took Hollywood So Long?
On August 21, it was announced that actor Ed Skrein, most notably of Deadpool fame, would be joining the cast of the upcoming Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen. Skrein’s casting immediately...
Should the police be allowed at Pride events? I’m starting to think not
At Sheffield Pride in July, a small group of evangelical Christian protesters set about disrupting the event. Reading obnoxiously from the Bible, the Potter’s House Church cherry-picked...
Estonia’s Craftswomen: Preserving Handicrafts Through Soviet Times
After the Great Patriotic War, when those Estonian artists who had been evacuated to the rear of the country and those who had survived the fascist occupation, united into homogeneous...