Arcana

Nyan Waits http://bit.ly/IqGTJ5 May 02, 2012 at 10:39AM

I think I might now actually like Dinklage more than his character, Tyrion Lannister. The man has standards and those standards made his life difficult. How can you not respect that?

Dinklage stayed in New York and soon was landing stage work and the occasional low-budget film. But he couldn’t book commercial jobs, because he wasn’t interested in the kinds of roles that paid well for dwarves. Specifically, he wouldn’t play elves or leprechauns. Even after Dinklage’s memorable first film role in the 1995 Steve Buscemi indie comedy “Living in Oblivion” — Dinklage played an actor who’s annoyed to be cast in a dream sequence, demanding, “Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it?” — he still couldn’t get an agent. “Word got out,” he says. “I started to build up a resentment. And that fueled my desire to live in a cold apartment and be like: ‘I don’t need you! I’m gonna write poetry. Why would I want to be a member of your club if you don’t want me?’ ”

Last night I saw the new Muppet movie. It was terrible. Name other films that are critically acclaimed but are secretly crap.

Titanic doesn’t count because it’s no secret.

There was a very, very strange database error (strange to me, anyway) and we lost seven years of comments. It’s still not clear to me whether or not it was a hack or a database glitch, but last Sunday’s backup was the most stable, so here we are.

(thanks, Laura)

I can’t shake this photo by Danielle Houghton

They are amazing live. (Thanks, Laura)

We had a server hiccup. I got it ironed out, but we lost a few comments. Sorry about that.

This piece by Teju Cole puts words to my feelings after seeing the Kony 2012 video and, frankly, almost all the viral activism I’ve seen in the past five years:

Let us begin our activism right here: with the money-driven villainy at the heart of American foreign policy. To do this would be to give up the illusion that the sentimental need to “make a difference” trumps all other considerations. What innocent heroes don’t always understand is that they play a useful role for people who have much more cynical motives. The White Savior Industrial Complex is a valve for releasing the unbearable pressures that build in a system built on pillage. We can participate in the economic destruction of Haiti over long years, but when the earthquake strikes it feels good to send $10 each to the rescue fund. I have no opposition, in principle, to such donations (I frequently make them myself), but we must do such things only with awareness of what else is involved. If we are going to interfere in the lives of others, a little due diligence is a minimum requirement.