The Willy Wonka fiasco, the city without traffic deaths and the truth about one euro homes
These are the best things I found on the internet in the past week!
Hello and greeting to all the Fremen out there,
While I really love how many of you all reached out over the weekend to gush about how great Dune 2 is, and normally I’d love nothing more than chatting about it, I had to shut you all down this time because unfortunately I haven’t seen the movie yet. Based on what I’d heard, I really wanted my first experience of hte movie to be in 70mm IMAX, the gigantic seven-story screen at Universal’s CityWalk, where tickets were sold out until Wednesday. Don’t worry! The full review will still be in your newsletter on Friday, and if you want to talk all things Arrakis, hit me up after Wednesday night.
In the meantime, you can join my Oscars pool, check out this video of a guy riding a DIY sandworm into the AMC to watch the movie, and of course enjoy this fresh batch of “conversation starters,” my weekly roundup of the best, most interesting, and most entertaining content on the internet in the past week. If you like, share with a friend, please!
What’s the coolest story or thing you found on the internet this week? Reply to this email and shoot me a link. Would love to hear from you!
We’ve all heard about the “1 euro homes” in Italy. Some of us have briefly thought to ourselves, “Well…maybe I could…” But this fantastic CNBC video feature went to Sicily to actually ask a handful of people who actually did it whether it’s worth it to buy a $1 home in Italy.
Joe Biden has done a shockingly low number of interviews during his presidential term. But as he launches his reelection campaign, Biden sat for the famous New Yorker profile treatment. Political leanings aside, it’s rare to get a hard objective look at the most powerful man in the world, so it’s our Long Read of the Week.
If you thought the Fyre Festival was bad, maybe you haven’t heard about this week’s fiasco in Scotland. A so-called immersive Willy Wonka live experience that promised elaborate optical illusions and chocolate fountains was basically just an abandoned warehouse. The actor hired to play Wonka gave The Hollywood Reporter all the sordid details, including giving kids one jelly bean and a quarter cup of lemonade. The photos are hilariously grim.
My alma mater, Ball State University, lost its basketball game on Saturday in the most humiliating way imaginable. Unfortunately this is a regular part of being a Ball State fan. Heavy sigh.
Disney and Netflix both replaced the head’s of their film divisions in the past couple of weeks, and ordinarily I wouldn’t bother you with executive msuical chairs, but Puck’s Matt Belloni (one of the foremost Hollywood insiders) says both moves signal Disney and Netflix’s recommitment to *gasp* original, high quality movies. For Netflix, more mid-budget genre fare (comedies, rom-coms, thriller) and for Disney, an attempt to launch new franchises. I’ll believe it when I see it!!
If you’re into the incestuous subgenre of journalists writing about other journalists (what still other journalists call “media coverage”), then you’ll probably really enjoy this New York Mag profile of how Matt Belloni became “the must-read columnist for Hollywood’s executive class.”
There’s a city with 600,000 residents in New Jersey that hasn’t had a traffic death in seven years. Its secret? Limited street parking. Yet further evidence of one of my strongest-held beliefs: give cities back to pedestrians!
The mashup you didn’t know you needed — someone spoofed Lewis Capaldi’s hit song “Someone You Loved” to be about Lee Harvey Oswald. It’s hilarious.
Thanks for reading and sharing! On Friday we’re talking Dune 2!!