America is a series of scams. That’s the only conclusion to come to after watching HBO Max’s documentary Beanie Mania, directed by Yemisi Brookes, which explores the brand of capitalism unique to the United States as filtered through the Beanie Baby frenzy of the late 1990s: get rich quick schemes, exploitation of workers, tax evasion, … Continue reading
“To live in a country where you can take an ugly old mountain and put faces on it—faces of great Americans who did so much to make our country super great—well, that just makes me…proud to be an American!” No, this perversely patriotic phrase wasn’t uttered at one of Trump’s demented and near unintelligible Rose … Continue reading
What the hell am I looking at? This was the question I continually asked myself as I wandered aimlessly through the Carnegie Museum of Art’s 2018 Carnegie International. What is this pile of industrial materials in the Hall of Sculpture? What is this coffee stand? What are these random photographs? Why was I so tragically … Continue reading