Maybe it’s because there wasn’t a lot of hugging in my childhood home, but I never liked too much space. I always craved the power of touch. A deep hug from a friend. Clasping of hands in a “you’re my brother” sort of way. Holding hands with a romantic partner. A massage after a hard workout. You name the touch, and I was in favor. You can imagine, then, by month two of our Covid-induced social distancing and quarantine rules, I was feeling a bit out of sorts with all the space thrown at me. I could handle the mask wearing, working from home, and canceling a few concerts. It didn’t bother me that people were asked to wash...
Photography by Charlotte Lea Photography by Charlotte Lea Emily Brownell is used to having a TV in the garage—in fact, she prefers it. Before the Los Angeles–based designer and her family moved into their Culver City home in March of 2019, they were in a small rental where the only space to set up a family room was in the detached garage, or “back house,” as her now 4-year-old liked to call it. “We realized just how nice it was to not have it in the main part of the home,” she says. “And it gave us a place where we could escape once the kids went to bed.” When Brownell and her husband purchased their current property, the garage...
By escaping into worlds brought to life through hand-drawn or computer-generated animation, kids can find solace, lessons, and entertainment during precarious times. Animated films and television shows certainly helped maintain the young ones' sanity throughout the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It's easy to see why, too: From the highly regarded to the woefully overlooked, quite a few animated gems blessed the year of 2021.In our opinion, these were the best animated productions that came out for kids this year. However, bear in mind that, in this case, "kids" is an inclusive term, not an exclusive one. After all, every fully-grown adult still has an inner child who should appreciate the playful innocence and the envelope-pushing maturity of today's animations. In fact,...
Image courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office Despite a surge in new coronavirus cases, New York City officials said classrooms will reopen after winter break and stay open. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Mayor-elect Eric Adams announced on Tuesday public schools will reopen as scheduled on January 3 with new health and safety measures in place, moving away from the remote learning model which many schools across the country have shifted to due to the recent surge in cases. Put together by the de Blasio administration and incoming Adams administration, the “Stay Safe and Stay Open” plan utilizes a massive increase in testing that will allow classrooms to stay open even if students test positive. Image courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography...
Ridley Scott's 1982 film, "Blade Runner," was not an instant classic. Stylish, intricate, and featuring a depressingly beautiful cyberpunk cityscape, it took fans years to bring this science fiction cult classic back into favor with modern critics. On the way, it went through a multitude of recuts, from the original work print to the controversial theatre release with an iffy narration by Harrison Ford, and ultimately to the Final Cut. Now understood as an eerily prescient discussion of loneliness and identity, "Blade Runner" is an integral piece of science fiction history.The sequel, "Blade Runner 2049," did the near-impossible. It understood the original film and its philosophies, twisting the original into a story about a robot who knows he's a robot,...
