kate

Grits are much like the southerners who make them, which means it's hard to pigeonhole them into any particular category. Some folks like to serve them sweetened with brown sugar, others prefer them savory with sharp cheddar. Our neighbors further south in Louisiana serve them with shrimp on top. I appreciate all of these variants.

I usually serve grits plain with mix-ins on the side so you can choose your own adventure, but my new favorite way to serve them is waffled!
Continued, click to read more...

Him.

The first Octavia Butler novel I ever read was Fledgling, and it was a revelation. While I had been taught by early exposure to Ursula Le Guin that genre fiction could be political, could comment on social and cultural morés, I never expected that someone would use vampires to discuss bigotry, racism, and slavery. It’s been almost a decade since I read it, but I doubt I’ll ever forget that sense of wonder.

And that, more than anything else, is why Butler ranks as one of my all-time favorites. Of course, her accomplishments are many—this is a woman who conquered both dyslexia and prejudice to become an award-winning writer and a MacArthur Fellow. Kindred alone is enough to put her in the ranks of influential sci-fi writers. But I am a lifelong genre fan and a somewhat-jaded reader, and I’ve read a lot of good books and many great ones too. So when I read, I’m looking for a return to that moment we’ve all felt, in which an author does something so original, so creative, so truly surprising, that it feels like your mind has been blown wide open. Octavia Butler’s books create that moment, time and again.

For the first U.S. World Book Night, I chose to hand out Kindred. There’s nothing simple about trying to convince strangers first, that you’re not trying to give them religious materials, and second, that they should take this sci-fi novel from you. And believe me, I dearly wanted to say, “Have you accepted Octavia Butler as your personal reading savior?” but wiser heads convinced me this was a bad idea. So instead, I often found myself babbling. “It’s not just a time travel novel,” I told people. “It’s a book that shows how you can use science fiction to talk about politics and society.” “It’s amazing. It will change the way you look at genre fiction.” “She’s the most famous female African-American sci-fi writer!”

I said all those things because they were true, but mostly because “It will astonish you,” doesn’t seem like enough of a pitch. But truthfully, that’s the highest praise I can give: Octavia Butler will astonish you.

This article was originally published June 22, 2013 on Tor.com.

With The Dark Tower hitting cinemas this year, his directorial debut Yardie having just finished principle photography, and John Luther set to fight London’s most twisted crime in an upcoming fifth season, Idris Elba is in the middle of a very prolific year. Elba’s always great, but some of his very best work to date has been in genre films, where he never fails to bring authority, humor, and intelligence to the role. Here are some of my favorites.

First up, a few honorable mentions. His work in RocknRolla is ridiculously good fun; in fact, the entire movie is. Gerard Butler, Elba, Tom Hardy, and Toby Kebbell as gloriously incompetent criminals must represent some kind of Brit actor singularity, and they’re all fantastic in the film, especially Hardy as Handsome Bob and Elba as the endlessly laconic Mumbles.

His work as Heimdall for Marvel is also impressive, as is his array of voiceover work. Then there’s his turn as tortured DCI John Luther, his work as Nelson Mandela, his mesmerizing role in Beasts of No Nation, and so on. But in genre terms, you don’t get better than his work in the following films—at least until The Dark Tower comes out…

 

Marshal Stacker Pentecost (Pacific Rim)

First off: BEST. CHARACTER. NAME. EVER.

Secondly, Elba’s turn in Pacific Rim is central to very nearly everything that makes the movie work. As Stacker, he plays a former Jaeger pilot who, it’s heavily implied, has been promoted off the line in order to keep him alive. Along with Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh he’s one of the only people in history to drive a Jaeger solo and live. Unlike Raleigh, it’s killing him, following a fatal dose of radiation.

This being Pacific Rim, and this being Stacker Pentecost, that mostly just annoys him.

Stacker’s persistence, years later, is the embodiment of the scrappy, bloody-nosed spirit of Pacific Rim. His speech to Raleigh about his job—“All I need to be to you and everybody on this dome is a fixed point—the last man standing.”—reinforces that. He is endurance and tenacity personified, the rock hard moral and ethical core that the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, and the movie itself, revolve around. He’s dying. He fights anyway. No one else has any excuse.

But where the character of Stacker really shines is in the way he interacts with other characters, most notably Mako (played by Rinko Kikuchi). His adopted daughter, raised in the Corps and with the tips of her hair dyed the blue of Kaiju blood, Mako is a clenched fist looking for something to punch. That’s on Stacker, and the film is at its best when it shows that he’s both a devoted father and one that struggles to be good enough. Their final scene together, separated by a mile or so of ocean and multiple Kaijju, could be interpreted as melodramatic, and I’m sure it strikes some people that way. For me, though, it’s painfully emotionally honest and sweet.

It’s not just Stacker’s interactions with Mako that bring out the depths in this performance, either. His relationship with Herc Hansen, the other old warhorse, is sketched in but no less poignant. Herc, like Mako, knows that Stacker doesn’t have long to live. He also knows, when Stacker takes his place in the final run, that the odds are good he’ll never see his friend or his son again. He lets them go, making his peace.

Then there’s Raleigh, for whom Stacker is alternately an immovable object and a scalable peak to strive towards. The two men have shared trauma, a shared past, and far more common ground than they see at first. For Stacker, Raleigh is a proxy, a man who can do what he knows will kill him. For Raleigh, Stacker is the embodiment of everything he’s run from and everything he once aspired to be.

Most of all though, Stacker’s memorable because he’s Henry V in an angry, mobile skyscraper. The “cancelling the apocalypse” speech doesn’t just work because it’s rousing, it works because Elba is able to show us every emotion Stacker is working through as he rallies his troops. He’s terrified. He’s serene. He knows for certain this will kill him. And above all else he’s bubbling over with satisfaction at finally being able to DO something. The closed fist he’s made of his daughter is being thrown, and he’s there to help set up the punch. He’s happy, as much as he’s enraged and impassioned, and that’s what really lands the speech. That, and the “I don’t remember it being so tight” moment, which always gets me somewhere between laughing and crying. Stacker knows time has passed. He knows his time is almost up. And he knows exactly what he plans to do with what he has left.

Here’s to you, Marshal Pentecost. We look forward to your son continuing the family tradition.

 

Captain Janek (Prometheus)

Arguably Elba’s most high profile film role (prior to The Gunslinger), 2012’s Prometheus saw him playing the captain of the Prometheus itself. Janek is the sort of blue collar space trucker that Parker and Brett from Alien would get on with. Or, at the very least, they’d enjoy some good-natured arguments together.

Janek works because he’s such an honest and straightforward character. In a film that, thanks to some mystifying cuts, frequently appears to be full of idiots (RUN TO THE LEFT, VICKERS! RUN TO THE L—ahh, DAMN IT), Janek is never, ever one of them. He’s a welcome control for the movie and one of the parts that genuinely holds the rest of it together. (Plus, he really does love that tiny Christmas tree. It’s endearing.)

 

Chief Bogo (Zootopia)

While my (Manx) island boy heart will always gravitate towards Moana and Lilo and Stitch as my favourite Disney movies, Zootopia is right up there, too. It’s not only a clever and subtle story about race relations and Nature vs. Nurture debate but also a smartly constructed thriller and the best mismatched cop movie since…the last mismatched cop movie you really, really liked (take your pick).

A huge part of the film’s success is the voice cast, all of whom are fiercely great. Ginnifer Goodwin’s endlessly perky, wry Judy Hopps is fantastic, and she and Jason Bateman’s fast-talking fox, Nick Wilde, bounce off one another brilliantly. J.K. Simmons as Mayor Lionheart and Jenny Slate as Bellwether are great, too.

Elba’s turn in the movie is a small but vital role, and interesting in a couple of different ways. As Chief Bogo, he runs First Precinct and is Judy’s commanding officer. That instantly sets up a fun size/power dynamic, as Bogo’s colossal Cape buffalo frame towers over Judy. However, as the movie goes on it, becomes apparent there’s much more to the Chief than just size. Bogo’s attitude is as biased and bigoted as Judy’s, but in subtly different ways, and the film takes both of them through the other side of that with surprising delicacy and perception. His reading glasses, too, hint at an interesting age difference/generational gap, but it’s when you realize that he’s a herbivore in charge of a squad largely consisting of carnivores that the character really begins to unfold in interesting ways. Bogo’s had to work just as hard as Judy to succeed in the force for different reasons, and that changes how he sees her. At least at first.

Bogo was originally written as a one-note character, but with Elba’s casting he was expanded to take on some more comedic elements and greater nuance. His colossal love for Gazelle is the big payoff to this, as is the implication Bogo may be gay (at least according to some corners of fandom). It’s never confirmed, but he and Clawhauser make an adorable couple and whether you subscribe to that reading or not, Elba’s work is impressive, sweet and honest throughout the film.

 

General Stone (28 Weeks Later)

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 28 Weeks Later has none of the faux-Dogme 95 cinéma vérité stuff that chokes the life out of 28 Days Later. There’s no overbearing soundtrack, no ludicrously accurate drops of blood, and a definite change in focus. Instead of being a character-driven sequel, it’s an event-driven sequel picking up six months after the outbreak that began in the earlier film.

The result is a movie that feels like a hybrid of those moments in 28 Days Later that do work brilliantly (Jim’s parents, the contrail) and something we almost never get to see: what happens after the world ends.

An expeditionary force spearheaded by the U.S. Armed Forces has taken back a sizeable chunk of London and, with the Rage-infected population almost dead from starvation and attrition, resettlement has begun in earnest. The UK is a mass grave, streets deathly quiet, and the film follows one particular family group as they struggle to rebuild their lives. Inevitably, things go sideways and the action shifts to US Army medic Scarlet (Rose Byrne), Delta Force sniper Doyle (one of Jeremy Renner’s career-best turns) and chopper pilot Flynn (the always brilliant Harold Perrineau) as they race to get a pair of vitally important children out of London before it’s firebombed to sterilize the new outbreak of infection.

There is so much to be said about this movie—the interesting ways it builds on the original and just how badly it ultimately fumbles the landing—but that’s a story for another time. What’s particularly interesting is Elba’s turn here as the US Army CO, General Stone. Stone’s a gifted soldier and diplomat, and a man whose job clearly weighs heavily on him.

In a kinder movie, Stone would be a figure similar to the surprisingly nurturing and supportive Colonel Weber, as played by Forest Whitaker in Arrival. But he isn’t that lucky. Instead, Stone makes every right choice and it doesn’t matter. It’s a small role, but Elba gives it both the authority and dignity needed to make this smart, good, tragically unlucky soldier one of the movie’s most memorable characters.

 

To sum up: intelligence, charisma, humour, and, on occasion, colossal monster-punching robots, magical demon-killing six-shooters, or just a really great coat—clearly, Idris Elba’s got it all covered. When he’s the hero of the piece, there’s a good chance the apocalypse will be cancelled, permanently; can’t wait to see what he does next.

Alasdair Stuart is a freelancer writer, RPG writer and podcaster. He owns Escape Artists, who publish the short fiction podcasts Escape Pod, Pseudopod, Podcastle, Cast of Wonders, and the magazine Mothership Zeta. He blogs enthusiastically about pop culture, cooking and exercise at Alasdairstuart.com, and tweets @AlasdairStuart.

In the works since 2011, it’s opening Friday

New Yorkers have long been awaiting the arrival of DeKalb Market Hall — opening Friday in Downtown Brooklyn — that this website first began tracking back in early 2011. Very little was known about the food hall at the time of its announcement, which anticipated opening that same year. It did not.

Then, in 2015, things picked up again when DeKalb’s developer City Point and Anna Castellani announced plans for the hall anew. At the time, the only confirmed vendors included Fletcher's Barbecue, Elmhurst's famed Arepa Lady, and the star of the market, the first location of Katz's Delicatessen outside of the Lower East Side mothership. Additions rolled in after that announcement, including Bunker, Hard Times Sundaes, and Wilma Jean. When it opens to the public this Friday, DeKalb Market Hall will have over 40 food vendors.

The same City Point development also features dine-in movie theater Alamo Drafthouse, a Target, and a yet-unopened Trader Joe’s. Here, now, take a look around the 26,000 square-foot food hall, the latest addition to a New York food hall obsession. Maybe the installment of all these neon signs pushed back the opening date.

All the vendors at Dekalb Market Hall: Ample Hills, Andrew’s Classic Brooklyn Bagels, Arepa Lady, Belle Cheese, BK Jani, Bread & Spread, BK Juicer, Bunker, Bunsmith, Cafe D’Avignon, Craft and Carry, Cuzin’s Duzin, Daigo Hand Roll Bar, Dekalb Taco, Dulcinea, Eight Turn Crepe, Fletcher’s Barbecue, Foragers Butcher, Foragers Market, Foragers Rotisserie, Forcella, Fulton Landing Seafood Market, Fulton Landing Seafood, Guss’ Pickles, Hana Noodles, Hard Times Sundaes, Home Frite, Jianbing Company, Katz’s Deli, Kotti Berliner Doner Kebab, Likkle More, Lioni Heroes, Nobletree Coffee, Paella Shack, Pierogi Boys, Pop Cake Shop, Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, Two Tablespoons, Wiki Wiki, and Wilma Jean.

Kotti Berliner Doner Kebab

Wilma Jean

Andrew's Classic Brooklyn Bagels by Hard Times Sundaes

Andrew's Classic Roadside Hamburger by Hard Times Sundaes

Katz’s Deli

It was just five years ago that the arrival of a couple taquerias serving breakfast tacos was a novelty greeted with great fanfare. Of course, Texans’ collective passion for this morning staple knows no bounds, and they’re one of those foods that everyone obsesses over. While it seems...More »

Meet Bas de Groot, a man who should duke it out with certified water sommelier Martin Riese for the world’s easiest-to-make-fun-of food job. De Groot’s very niche area of expertise is milk — the planet’s one and only milk sommelier, as far as he’s aware. Cows’ milk is...More »

The best places to get a scoop right now

Summer is the ideal time for ice cream whether it's regal vanilla, black sesame, or the mayhem of a blueberry with buttermilk and honey scoop. Read on for where to go for the city's best scoops and consider visiting every shop before the season's end.

1-year program will develop practical animator skills, have Sunrise animators as lecturers

It’s The King’s 100th Birthday this year, and Comic-Con is celebrating with a Kirby themed cover by Bruce Timm that references Kirby’s own Don Rickles cover because…circular portraits always work. The cover will grace the annual souvenir yearbook, which will also feature: The Comic-Con International 2017 Souvenir Book is given free to all attendees (while […]

Soon, dirty-water dogs will get report cards. Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign into law new legislation that requires street vendors to receive letter grades from the Department of Health. The idea has been talked about for a few years, but received traction...More »

New York always has some impossibly monumental city-improvement project in the works (hello, Hudson Yards and Second Avenue subway), but truly one of its more ambitious plans is to send zero waste to landfills by the year 2030. One of Mayor de Blasio’s big...More »

This guy is certainly not afraid of corporate

Dominique Ansel excels at many things: making pastries, creating viral sensations like the Cronut, and capitalizing on all that to make some sweet, sweet cash. The latest case in point: Ansel has teamed up with corporation Nabisco for an Oreo cookie spread.

The spread is only being offered at Ansel’s Soho bakery at 189 Spring Street as a promo for the #MyOreoCreation competition, and it contains milk-flavored ganache, as well as a dark chocolate ganache with the chocolate cookie part of Oreos. Ansel’s non-Cronut viral hit, the milk and cookie shot, was created after the chef tried an Oreo for the first time in 2014.

Oreo did not mention how much they are paying Ansel, a classically-trained and James Beard-award winning gourmet pastry chef, to participate in this collaboration to offer a grocery store cookie-based item in his bakery.

As arguably the most famous contemporary pastry chef in the world, Ansel is no stranger to corporate relationships. He’s also teamed up with Nutella for a special Cronut bite filled with the hazelnut spread and with Belgian chocolate chain Neuhaus.

Other big chef shills include Christina Tosi of Milk Bar, who literally created a menu for a restaurant only serving Kellogg’s products, The Chew host and fried chicken chef Carla Hall doing a very creepy Kraft ad, and Bobby Flay for Fage yogurt. Chef Richard Blais has also done it for pet food.

The Oreo spread will be available on Saturday, June 10th and Sunday, June 11, and the bakery is giving it out for free while it lasts.

Oreo

Shima Kōsaku no Jikenbo manga features protagonist in escape drama

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (aka: Salazar’s Revenge) hit theaters over the weekend. It’s the fifth movie in a series that arguably should have finished after the third one, and it’s coming out at a time when its star is not so much in decline as plummeting back down to Earth in flames. Enthusiasm for the franchise as a whole, is…well…it’s actually still relatively massive given that the previous film, On Stranger Tides, took just over a billion dollars at the box office. But despite that, Dead Men Tell No Tales is a movie that no one seems quite sure they really wanted.

So I figured now would be a perfect time to take a look at what made the first movies work and if they still stand up…turns out, they do!

Mostly.

The first four movies share a remarkable amount of DNA, and the overarching concepts and motifs bind the first three in particular together very strongly. Let’s deal with the fading icon in the room, first off. For all the countless legions of faults Johnny Depp is reported to possess off-screen, Captain Jack Sparrow remains an iconic performance in an iconic role. From that epic first appearance, sailing heroically into Port Royal as his ship sinks under him, Jack is a perfect combination of eccentric chess genius and completely, totally rubbish pirate. He’s very funny, very clever, and very careful to ensure that the first one of those qualities obfuscates the second.

As we’ll see, the first two sequels have some pretty serious problems, but Jack’s character development isn’t one of them. Dead Man’s Chest forces him to face up to who he actually is and the consequences of his actions. The charming moral grey area he sits in through The Curse of the Black Pearl is replaced by the frantic energy of a man running so fast to keep up with his own hype that he laps himself. The end of Dead Man’s Chest—in which Jack is outmaneuvered by Elizabeth, who uses the exact tactics he would normally employ—is one of the standout moments in the entire series, not just because Jack gets to die (temporarily) on his own terms but because of how impressed he is by Elizabeth’s strategic coup. The series is genuinely brilliant at callbacks, and the returning use of the word “pirate” in the climactic scene is bitter, proud, sad, and resentful all at once.

Of course, death is the one thing that doesn’t stick in these movies. At World’s End takes the war between Jack the hero and Jack the embodiment of Do What Thou Wilt to its logical extreme. We see every one of his internal impulses externalised in Davy Jones’ Locker and, later, in the real world. In doing so the movie implies several things, all of them really interesting. The first is that Jack is clearly a genius. The second is that he’s permanently scarred by his time in the Locker—a welcome change, given how often every sort of injury is shaken off in these movies. The third is arguably the most interesting; that Jack is genuinely conflicted about whether to do the right thing, the profitable thing, the fun thing, or the shiny thing.

This being Jack, he manages to do all four at once while picking your pocket, but it still gives him a level of intellectual depth that lead franchise characters can often lack. It’s a shame, then, that depth isn’t continued into On Stranger Tides: without the emotional balance of Elizabeth and Will, he’s not much more than a feral id in a good hat.

Speaking of the future Mr. and Mrs. Turner, they too get progressively more interesting as the movies go on. The Curse of the Black Pearl cleverly plays on Orlando Bloom’s colossally earnest screen presence to give Jack a very good straight man to bounce his jokes off. That in itself is fun, but the evolution Will goes through in the following two movies is brave, ambitious, and pretty successful. Will’s transition from reluctant accomplice to accomplished pirate becomes apparent right around the time that Dead Man’s Chest goes full pirate noir, and it does wonders for him. Will, Jack, and Elizabeth all become far more alike as the movies go on and Will’s development, through a combination of lightening up and maturing, is one of the anchors that grounds the entire first trilogy. Like Norrington, he’s out of his depth. Unlike Norrington, he’s able to find his feet and adapt.

And there’s Elizabeth: the most badass character in the entire series.

Elizabeth Swann is no one’s damsel. She spends the first movie standing toe to toe with undead pirates, using pirate culture to serve her own ends, and saving both of the other two lead characters. Her transition from respectable young woman to pirate is partially forced on her by the actions of the East India Company, but they merely accelerate a process she’d already begun. Having her wedding sabotaged annoys her. Being sidelined by everyone makes her angry. Some of the very best stuff in Dead Man’s Chest is all Elizabeth, especially the way she manipulates the crew’s fundamental fear of women to her own ends and the noir-ish way she plays with Jack’s affections, even as he does the same with her.

At World’s End, however, is where Elizabeth truly comes into her own, as the circle of guilt, attraction, regret, and annoyance she’s trapped in with Jack is finally resolved. Elizabeth’s speech as Pirate Queen is chilling—she’s a young woman who has lost almost everything using the sheer force of her will to marshal forces toward an impossible goal. She knows this, and does it anyway. Like Will, she adapts to the endless chaos of their lives. Unlike Will, she does so completely on her own terms, instead of embracing familial expectations or a preexisting destiny. Both paths are understandable; Will’s fate lies with the Flying Dutchman, after all, but Elizabeth’s continual battle with the expectations of others and her own darker impulses is by far the more interesting narrative. Will was born into the same chaos as Jack. Elizabeth is thrown into it and chooses not just to swim but to thrive.

That chaos suffuses this world. One of the most successful elements of the first trilogy is the way it uses the East India Company to expose the fragility of this way of life. As well as putting its officers in constant physical peril, the Company’s way of life represents a cultural model that’s under constant threat. This thematic undercurrent becomes more pointed in the second and third movies with the arrival of Lord Beckett (played with wonderfully smarmy aplomb by Tom Hollander. No, not Spider-Man). Beckett is a memorable villain precisely because he’s so resolutely mundane. Commodore Norrington is as much of a swashbuckler as Jack, he just happens to be on the other side (well, most of the time). Beckett doesn’t just want to control the oceans, he wants to tabulate them. He wants things to conform to his strict definition of “normal,” and monstrous evil lurks inside that desire—witness the moment where Jack finds the Kraken’s corpse, murdered by Davy Jones on Beckett’s orders. Or Beckett’s earlier, chilling line, “The immaterial has become…immaterial.” Beckett sees a world where everything is good business, everything is for sale, and individuality, freedom, and humanity are simply not relevant—they have no columns on the balance sheet.

That ethical and cultural collision leads to some surprising turns. Barbossa’s multiple shifts in allegiance throughout the series are a product of this larger conflict, but it’s the darkest turns in At World’s End that really stand out. The death of Elizabeth’s father, murdered off screen, is a truly tragic note that not only severs her last tie with her old life but shows just how savage Beckett’s banal evil really is. Likewise, Commodore Norrington’s realisation that he’s sacrificed everything for a career that no longer means anything is unflinchingly grim.

Most tellingly, the catastrophic attempt to bind Calypso, and the price that Will pays for his father’s life, show that this world has been in a state of flux long before the first movie began. It also sends a clear message that attempting to subvert the natural (or supernatural) order is a recipe for disaster. So, no wonder Jack does it all the time.

That chaotic, almost self-destructive element driving the action in At World’s End ties back into the noir elements that work so well in the second and third films. Loyalty is as constantly shifting as the tides the pirates rely on and that instability, when coupled with the action beats of these movies, makes for exuberantly over-the-top fights and chase scenes. The three-sided sword fight between Jack, Will, and Norrington in Dead Man’s Chest—which starts on the beach and returns there ten minutes later thanks to a giant runaway mill wheel—is a franchise high point, not just because it’s a great fight (it is) or it’s funny (it really is) but because it’s action driven by and focused on character. All three men have very personal, very good reasons for fighting. None of them are entirely right. None of them are entirely wrong. They’re off the ethical map and making it up as they go, the danger and humour and joy of these movies encoded in every sword stroke.

That comes to a head in the closing scenes of At Worlds End. In the history of Hollywood, there certainly are more over-the-top action sequences than a pair of ships blasting away at each, circling a whirlpool, during a storm, while the two crews duel to the death and one captain marries two of his occasional allies…but none spring to mind right now. The action scenes throughout the series are almost musical in how they combine, build, and resolve—but none of them are more musical, or larger in scale, than this glorious exuberant mess. The fact that Barbossa’s laughing the whole way through, especially while he officiates the marriage of Will and Elizabeth mid-fight, is just barnacled icing on the ship’s biscuit.

For all of these strengths, though, the movies are far from free of problems. Elizabeth and Tia Dalma aside, there’s a notable dearth of decent female roles in the series, with On Stranger Tides’ Angelica ultimately far less nuanced or interesting than she should be. Likewise, much like in the early seasons of Black Sails, this is far too often a remarkably Caucasian Caribbean. Worse still, the series never met a negative stereotype it didn’t like—every native is a savage cannibal, every Asian character is a piratical gangster.

On the practical side of things, there’s a notable stylistic shift from the second movie onwards. The obvious increase in CGI means that much of the later three movies is shot through that dirty sea green/grey filter often used to cover or obscure CGI’s sins. Some of the action scenes (especially the second Kraken attack) feel oddly weightless for the same reason.

Worst of all, there’s the sneaking suspicion that these movies have taken one victory lap too many. On Stranger Tides counts Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, and Sam Claflin among its principle cast members, and only McShane really registers. Cruz’s Angelica should work: she’s Blackbeard’s daughter, a former lover of Jack’s, and every bit his equal. Instead she’s little more than a foil, easily overshadowed and lacking the spark of Elizabeth or the forceful screen presence of Tia Dalma (as portrayed by Naomie Harris). There’s also a massively overlong opening sequence set in London, as well as an equally dragged-out first act—not to mention a ton of broad Spanish stereotypes along the way.

Some elements of the film, especially McShane’s Blackbeard, do work very well…but ultimately it’s not enough. The fourth movie feels distinct from the others and far less successful. The stakes feel lower, the characters more rote. It’s no surprise, then, that Dead Men Tell No Tales reportedly features the return of several familiar faces. Even then, there’s still a lot of work needed to right the ship and return the Pirates franchise to its former glory, especially as it’s purportedly the first part of a two-part grand finale for the series.

Of course, if any movie franchise were to buck the law of diminishing returns, it would be this one.

I don’t know, yet, if Dead Men Tell No Tales is any good. I do know that the original three movies have aged far better than I expected. Five movies may be a bit much, but as for the first three? It’s a pirate’s life for me. Avast, me hearties, and yo ho…

Alasdair Stuart is a freelancer writer, RPG writer and podcaster. He owns Escape Artists, who publish the short fiction podcasts Escape Pod, Pseudopod, Podcastle, Cast of Wonders, and the magazine Mothership Zeta. He blogs enthusiastically about pop culture, cooking and exercise at Alasdairstuart.com, and tweets @AlasdairStuart.

Baker Max Santiago had a cult following

Celebrity favorite sweets chain Sugar Factory is about to open a slew of standalone doughnut shops with pastries from a Miami chef with a crazy cult following.

The Drake- and Kardashian-approved chain will start by opening a nearly 80-seat Upper West Side doughnut bar called Sugar Factory Artisanal Doughnut and Coffee Bar at 1991 Broadway and an outpost in the Gansevoort Market. The UWS location will open in June says a spokesperson, with plans to open several more doughnut and coffee bars across the city.

All creations will be by Max Santiago, a longtime Miami pastry chef whose doughnuts regularly drew long lines when he worked with the team at The Salty Donut. Its most popular doughnut, a cannoli flavor with cream in the middle, won the Cooking Channel’s competition TV show “Sugar Showdown,” and the Salty Donut team basically launched the doughnut craze in Miami with flavors like maple bacon and creme brulee. Santiago left The Salty Donut in March and is now spearheading the menu for Sugar Factory’s expansion.

No word yet on what will be on the menu at the Sugar Factory doughnut shops, but to be on brand, they’ll likely be completely ridiculous.

Currently, the restaurant’s flagship dessert is a $99 ice cream sundae called “King Kong” that has 24 scoops of ice cream and sparklers on top. Here is picture of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter with the sundae at the Las Vegas location, which pretty much sums up the Sugar Factory brand:

Santiago’s doughnuts at The Salty Donut were also pretty over-the-top, including doughnuts with toppings like an entire chocolate-covered strawberry.

Of course, New York has no shortage of artisanal (and outrageous) doughnuts. With doughnuts that look like everything bagels and Walter White-inspired “crystal methadoughnuts,” Santiago and Sugar Factory will have some real competition in the ridiculous pastry department.

We see you, burger gods

The Shake Shack bus is rolling into the East Village later this year, with a location at 51 Astor Place, the Post reports. As early as the fall, Danny Meyer is planting his rapidly growing burger chain inside a 3,000 square-foot ground floor space facing Ninth Street and Third Avenue.

The Shack crew signed a 15-year lease in March after Ian Schrager moved his sales office from 51 Astor leaving the space vacant, the Post writes. Other food vendors inside the building include Chop’t and a branch of Bluestone Lane.

While the number of New York Shake Shacks is plentiful — 24, to be exact — there are currently, maddeningly zero Shacks between 23rd Street and Fulton Center. It’s unclear whether Shake Shack EV will open before or after Danny Meyer’s other East Village project, Martina — currently under construction just two minutes away at 55 Third Avenue.

• Shake Shack is coming to the East Village [NYP]
• Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Moves Forward With Martina [ENY]

Undersized foods are cute, but let’s be honest here: Graded on functionality, they stink. (Go ahead — see how full you get nibbling at a hamster’s hot dog.) Partly to prove there are exceptions to every rule, and partly because this masterstroke is sure to score them weeks,...More »

Pixar has launched a new internal unit dedicated to experimental storytelling and creating shorts without executive oversight.

The post Pixar Created An Experimental Shorts Division, First Film Is ‘Smash And Grab’ appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Author, comedian Akihiro Nishino makes directorial debut

Artist Alley applications for New York Comic Con 2017 have just gone live, and as feared, Artist Aley is moving to a downstairs hall, in this case Hall E. In the ast this has variously been used for meeting rooms and demonstrations. Last year it was VR. Javits North, where AA was located for the last few years, […]

Strange things are afoot at Marvel to say the least. Anyone who’s been paying attention is already familiar with the controversy surrounding the “Hydra Cap,” with ardent fans going so far as to boycott not only the Secret Empire miniseries but all Marvel products. Yesterday Marvel issued the following statement before the release of the […]

With over 100 animated features in development and production across Latin America, the region is setting itself up for an animation renaissance.

The post The New Wave Of Latin American Animated Features: 10 Films To Watch For appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

A theatrical release is set for fall 2017 in the United States.

The post Cartoon Saloon Releases ‘The Breadwinner’ Teaser Trailer appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

App with map features launches in late June in Japan

New York has clearly benefited from the third-wave coffee boom — it’s hard to walk two blocks without finding amazing lattes, for example — and now, the specialty-tea movement is gaining momentum. A few businesses that started by selling their tea to luxury restaurants (Té Company, Kettl) have...More »

Author's Tsukikage Baby manga recently concluded in March

In a recent study analyzed by MoveHub, women's statuses were investigated in all 50 U.S. states based on "gender pay gap, political representation in the state legislature, equality in education, accessibility to health insurance, reproductive rights, and the number of incidents of violence against women at the hands of men."

After each of these factors were analyzed, the numbers were combined to determine the best and worst states for women to live in the U.S. in 2017.

The overall scores determined that Hawaii (lowest score) was the best place for women in the country, while the worst was Oklahoma (highest score). Essentially, the study showed that (to no one's surprise) "the quality of women's lives is somewhat determined by inequality in government."

Check out the 10 best and worst states, and see all of the in-betweens in the infographic below:

10 Best States For Women:
1. Hawaii
2. Vermont
3. Minnesota
4. Illinois
5. Maryland
6. Maine
7. New York
8. California
9. Massachusetts
10. Delaware

10 Worst States For Women:
1. Oklahoma
2. Louisiana
3. Utah
4. Mississippi
5. South Carolina
6. Missouri
7. Texas
8. Michigan
9. Virginia
10. Georgia

NEXT: These Are the Best and Worst States for Women's Equality 2016 »

Related Stories:
• The Best and Worst States for Women's Careers
• The Best and Worst States for Working Moms

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Ongoing Investigations: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return from Netflix, Rudolf the Black Cat from OLM Digital and Sprite Animation Studios, Hayate the Combat Butler (finale) by Kenjiro Hata, Robot x Laserbeam (Ch. 1-3) by Tadatoshi Fujimaki, Your Name from Comix Wave Films.

Song: “Nandemonaiya” (movie version) from Your Name by RADWIMPS

Food for Thought: Which type of ending has the most emotional impact to you–happy, sad, or ambiguous? Why?

Topics: Leiji Matsumoto Writing Work that Connects His Universe, Japanese Digital Manga Market grows 27.5%, Rumiko Takahashi Has 200 Million Copies in Print, Blazing Transfer Student Live-action Netflix Series, New TV Anime Block.

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Filed under: Anime, Editorials, Live Action, Manga, Podcasts, The Speakeasy Tagged: Hayate the Combat Butler, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Robot x Laserbeam, Rudolf the Black Cat, Your Name

Variety reports that Sony Pictures Television will produce the TV adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. The news comes just about a year after Harriet McDougal, wife of the late author, announced that the TV rights for the 14-book epic fantasy series had been optioned by a major studio. Sony will produce with Red Eagle Entertainment and Radar Pictures.

The series has also set a showrunner: Rafe Judkins, who has written for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Chuck, and Hemlock Grove, will write and executive produce. Other executive producers include Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon (from Red Eagle), Ted Field and Mike Weber (from Radar), and Darren Lemke. Harriet McDougal will also serve as consulting producer.

Leigh Butler, who knows her movies and knows her Wheel of Time, has some casting ideas for Rand, Egwene, Moiraine, and the lot!