#american-culture

#american-culture

It's almost 11:30 a.m. on a brisk, sunny Tuesday and Huck Finn Restaurant in McKinley Park is getting busier by the minute.Huck Finn retains the classic American diner traits: Squat glasses of water sweating on linoleum countertops, elderly couples silently stirring creamer into ceramic cups of coffee, toddlers gleefully digging their fingers into piles of scrambled eggs: this is a diner, from its white paneled drop ceiling to the vaguely wood-patterned tiles on the floor.

"You motherfucker."The two words, scribbled in a notebook, convinced Cristi Miles her vision was working.Since 2020, Miles-co-artistic director of Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble (PETE)-had been dreaming up a theatrical presentation that would capture the way she felt when she first encountered Swiss photographer Robert Frank's 1959 series The Americans, via an episode of The Daily, which noted their thematic overlap with that year's unstable summer.

Peter Laviolette may be out as the head coach of the Washington Capitals anymore but that doesn't mean he has stopped his praise of Caps captain Alex Ovechkin.In fact, perhaps some time to reflect on leaving DC has made the veteran bench boss even fonder of The Great Eight.That was on full display as Laviolette sat down with former NHL player Cam Janssen and St. Louis Blues reporter Andy Strickland for an over hour-long interview on the Cam & Strick Podcast.

On May 6, at the age of 74, Charles III was crowned king of England.A few weeks later, at 73, Martin Amis died at his home in Florida.One event seemed almost comically belated, the other tragically premature.Charles took over the family business well past normal retirement age, while Amis was denied the illustrious dotage that great writers deserve.

The latest metro Atlanta food hall opens in Dunwoody Friday, May 26, featuring nine restaurant stalls serving everything from Japanese street food to Caribbean fare.Located inside the former Henredon Furniture store building, the Hall at Ashford Lane also includes a large bar serving cocktails, beer, and wine, a TopGolf simulator, and offers full table service and multiple seating areas and arrangements.

In Dallas, Texas, Korean American bartender-turned-cart owner Sunny Hatch had a largely Western upbringing, a common tale for children of immigrants who choose to immerse their families in American culture as a means of survival."It didn't feel safe to be Asian," Hatch says."I feel like a lot of hapas that I meet tell me the same thing - that their parents wanted them to be super Western.

Halloween isn't a holiday traditionally celebrated in South Korea  but as Seoul has grown more cosmopolitan in recent years and with an increasing number of South Koreans returning after years abroad, it has become a more popular occasion, one in which the city's emerging diversity is on full display.

Luis Robert Jr. is red-hot.Jake Burger is back and is raking.Yoán Moncada continued his hot start after a brief injury.If you had circled this AL Central showdown at the beginning of the season, well, this is what you would have hoped for.But then, that's from just those three guys.Not anything else.

The first time I heard about Cinco de Mayo was when a restaurant advertised it.Of course, the information provided didn't say anything about the history behind the holiday.Then, I saw non-Mexican people wearing sombreros and I knew something was off.After doing some research, I realized that celebrating Cinco de Mayo without knowing its meaning or caring to learn about Mexican culture is where the problem lies.

French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf performs during the Nice Jazz Festival in southeastern France in July 2019.Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images Every time he works on a new album, trumpet player Ibrahim Maalouf asks himself: Am I doing something new or am I repeating myself?"Am I just releasing album to release an album because this is how I make a living?

The rapid meltdown of former British Prime Minster Liz Truss, who resigned after only 44 days in office and is being succeeded by former Boris Johnson Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, should alarm Americans.She is the supply-side ghost of Christmas future, a long-distance warning from an ex-empire to an aging superpower.

Thursday, March 30, 2023 by Seth Smalley
The Travis County Commissioners Court officially proclaimed February 2023 as Black History Month in a unanimous vote last month.The proclamation was made in conjunction with the Austin Independent School District's celebration of African American heritage.Commissioners drew attention to the fact that the proclamation stood in stark contrast to efforts to ban the teaching of the history of how minorities were treated in America.

The American Black Film Festival will introduce its inaugural comedy festival, " Because They're Funny ," at the Wharf in Southwest DC from October 6 to October 8.The three-day festival will highlight rising BIPOC comics, as well as feature performances by what are promised to be well-known comedy stars.

In this chewy theatrical epic, three versatile character actors unpack 160 years of American capitalism through the story of a family firm founded by Jewish immigrants.Lehman Brothers started as a general store in Alabama in 1844 and became the fourth largest investment bank in the US before collapsing in the 2008 financial crisis.

I sometimes feel I'm in a daily struggle not to become a shallower version of myself.The first driver of shallowization is technology, the way it shrinks attention span, fills the day with tempting distractions.The second driver is the politicization of everything.Like a lot of people, I spend too much of my time enmeshed in politics the predictable partisan outrages, the campaign horse race analysis, the Trump scandal du jour.

I sometimes feel I'm in a daily struggle not to become a shallower version of myself.The first driver of shallowization is technology, the way it shrinks attention span, fills the day with tempting distractions.The second driver is the politicization of everything.Like a lot of people, I spend too much of my time enmeshed in politics the predictable partisan outrages, the campaign horse race analysis, the Trump scandal du jour.

The Chinese government could use TikTok to control data on millions of people and harness the short-form video app to shape public opinion should China invade Taiwan, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday.Wray responded affirmatively to questions from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the panel's ranking member, on whether TikTok would allow Beijing widespread control over data and a valuable influence tool in the event of war in the Taiwan Strait.

Historical Figures
A new AI chatbot, Historical Figures, promises to take its users on a journey through space and time, simulating conversations with famous leaders - from Jesus to Joseph Stalin to Henry Ford and many more.Just, uh, one thing: apparently, pretty much every historical figure was absolutely perfect, and definitely feels bad if anything went wrong if or when they were in power.

Joni Mitchell is this year's winner of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from the Library of Congress.Since the lifetime achievement award was established in 2007, it has gone exclusively to A-list celebrities such as Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Stevie Wonder and Lionel Richie.Mitchell is the third woman to be recognized, after Carole King in 2013 and Gloria Estefan (in tandem with her husband Emilio) in 2019.

American society doesn't encourage gratitude.For proof, consider that mere hours after a feast celebrating thankfulness we are encouraged to go on a shopping spree rather than keep the feeling of gratitude going through the coming season.And with toy ads and lists, teaching kids gratitude can certainly get muddled when they start to believe the world owes them.

Terry Crews is one of the most talented men in America.He has enjoyed a diverse career, including playing in the NFL as a linebacker, acting in iconic shows like Brooklyn 99, hosting America's Got Talent, and writing books on masculinity (and .That's just the professional talents you know him for.A true multi-hyphenate, Crews is a fine artist (his photorealistic sports paintings are seriously wild), activist, and even furniture designer (his refined collaboration with design firm Bernhardt Design blended modern and ancient Egyptian influences).

SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned his party this week to change tactics in confronting the Biden Administration and its agenda as he argued, Republicans must learn to quit underestimating President Joe Biden.In a post on his personal website, Gingrich wrote, The clarity of winning and losing creates a clarity of analysis about who is doing well and who isn't.

Judging the photographs of an artist who is not primarily a photographer raises a prickly question.Are you assessing the photos on their own merits or examining them to better understand the artist's main work?With an artist like Degas, his photos can be regarded as preparatory sketches for paintings.

This episode contains strong language.Beyonce does all of her talking through her music, J Wortham says in this episode of Still Processing.And you get a sense of where she's at in her life based on how the music sounds.The pop star's seventh studio album, Renaissance, has ushered in a new era of Beyonce.

For Gail Jennings and her family, the Thanksgiving menu is never written in ink.One year, the turkey may appear on the table in her Durham, N.C., home burnished and whole, a Norman Rockwell painting come to life.The next, it may be roasted in parts, the drumsticks, wings and thighs swathed with onions and tomatoes.

Once it launches Monday, people will have a chance to get one of four collectible figurines of McDonald's mascots - Grimace, the Hamburglar, Birdie, and a new friend named Cactus Buddy - all packaged in a special edition Happy Meal box.According to a representative of McDonald's, the team is taking "one of the most nostalgic McDonald's experiences and literally repackaging it in a new way that's hyper-relevant for our adult fans."The massive fast-food chain McDonald's announced on Thursday that it would be releasing special Happy Meals for adults as part of a collaboration with the fashion streetwear brand Cactus Plant Flea Market (CPFM).

As we enter full autumn and All Hallows' Eve, the moment is right for dark academia.Some notes for the uninitiated: Dark academia is a subculture devoted to spaces like stony Oxford libraries, long, arched hallways and walls painted lamp black.Since the 2010s, it's been a popular aesthetic among the tweens, teens and 20-somethings  tweedy with a twist, preppy with a dash of shade, more gothic in spirit than goth.

Late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being honored with a new Forever stamp from the U.S. Postal Service, showing her wearing a white collar with her black judicial robe.U.S. Postal Service Ruth Bader Ginsburg put her stamp on U.S. law  and now the U.S. is putting the late Supreme Court justice on a stamp.