Stories written by Scott Timberg

Wendell Pierce on the tragedy and triumph of New Orleans after Katrina: “It’s created a schism between the haves and have-nots”

Salon talks to Wendell Pierce, star of "The Wire," to discusses his poignant new book "The Wind in the Reeds"

Scott Timberg Saturday, Sep 5, 2015 6:30 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Wendell Pierce, Books, The Wire

Lonely Diamond Medallion seeks bored coach-class prole: Meet “Lounger,” the latest depressing Tinder knock-off

Maybe Ashley Madison could merge with this "find a +1 for your airport lounge" app and revive its flagging brand

Scott Timberg Friday, Sep 4, 2015 4:13 PM UTC 0
Entertainment AShley Madison, Air Travel

Please, Apple, stop: Focus on making better tablets, not engineering the next “Orange Is the New Black”

If Apple's rumored original TV programming is rolled out like Apple Music, we know it will be a bust

Scott Timberg Wednesday, Sep 2, 2015 8:53 PM UTC 0
Entertainment streaming TV, Apple, Steve Jobs

J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” trivia tweets: Changing the role of author, 140 characters at a time

What happens when an author won't let her characters go when the books have ended?

Scott Timberg Wednesday, Sep 2, 2015 4:58 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Social Media, Harry Potter

Taylor Swift’s logic-defying “African safari” fiasco: Why her “Wildest Dreams” music video lives down to the hype

There are good reasons this controversy doesn't seem to be going away VIDEO

Scott Timberg Tuesday, Sep 1, 2015 11:51 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Video, Taylor Swift

Could Jonathan Franzen be more complicated than we thought?

Some of his statements are hard to take, but he's not just a caricature

Scott Timberg Tuesday, Sep 1, 2015 4:25 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Books, Jonathan Franzen

The (very human) secret of Ashley Madison’s fembot success

Why didn't men catch on that they were talking to an updated ELIZA?

Scott Timberg Monday, Aug 31, 2015 8:59 PM UTC 0
Life Infidelity, Ashley Madison hack

Kanye’s vulnerable, contradictory VMA speech is already a classic Generation X TV moment

He announced he's running for president in 2020—and that's not even the most exciting part of last night's speech

Scott Timberg Monday, Aug 31, 2015 4:40 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Kanye West

“We’re now back to being at least as polarized as ever”: Why the gun control tipping point hasn’t happened yet

A cognitive psychologist talks about why changing minds on guns, even after public shootings, is so hard

Scott Timberg Sunday, Aug 30, 2015 2:30 PM UTC 0
News Psychology, Gun Violence

Donald Trump, performance artist: Is he really “a very nice fella” when the microphones are off?

How else do we reconcile these reports from "Apprentice" producers?

Scott Timberg Friday, Aug 28, 2015 8:23 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Donald Trump, the apprentice, TV

Spike Lee’s dubious honor: Is the Honorary Oscar a way for the Academy to say “this is as close as you’ll ever get?”

These awards lately go to retirees, but at 58, Lee still likely has decades of films ahead

Scott Timberg Thursday, Aug 27, 2015 8:43 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Academy Awards, Spike Lee

Are these really the best songs of the ’80s?: Picking apart Pitchfork’s fascinating, frustrating list

Hip hop and soul are well represented, but alt-country and U.S. alternative, not so much

Scott Timberg Thursday, Aug 27, 2015 6:53 PM UTC 0
Entertainment R.E.M., hip hop, indie-rock, Music

Mass shootings and the dark side of American exceptionalism: “They happen because there’s a large gap between what people are aspiring to and what they can realistically achieve”

A new study shows a direct relationship to a country's number of guns and its rate of public rampage killings

Scott Timberg Thursday, Aug 27, 2015 3:03 PM UTC 0
Life Gun Violence

The time to talk about gun violence is now: Following the NRA-approved script of dignified silence is getting us nowhere

Gun violence occurs every day in America—if not now, when?

Scott Timberg Wednesday, Aug 26, 2015 4:57 PM UTC 0
Life Gun Violence, Social Media

Dear Starz: Please don’t screw up Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”

Production starts in March on the TV adaptation of the novel—let's hope it retains its wacked-out sense of place

Scott Timberg Tuesday, Aug 25, 2015 8:27 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Neil Gaiman, Books, Television, TV

The one thing Jon Stewart and Chris Christie can agree on: A salute to Bruce Springsteen, on the 40th anniversary of “Born to Run”

It's not just working-class angst or '70s nostalgia — Springsteen's sensation stands the test of time

Scott Timberg Tuesday, Aug 25, 2015 4:48 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Bruce Springsteen

The New York Times sells out artists: Shallow data paints a too-rosy picture of “thriving” creative class in the digital age

The magazine's cheerleading for the post-Napster Internet is being described as "an exercise in gaslighting"

Scott Timberg Monday, Aug 24, 2015 11:00 PM UTC 0
Entertainment New York Times, Internet

Morrissey’s writing a novel: Will “List of the Lost” be a morose delight or a shrill garbage fire?

So hard to predict!

Scott Timberg Monday, Aug 24, 2015 4:59 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Morrissey, The Smiths, Books

You can’t make “Game of Thrones” on a YouTube budget: Why “it’s the best of times and the worst of times” for prestige TV

Sure, right now we're spoiled for high-quality shows — but an expert predicts why it might not last

Scott Timberg Sunday, Aug 23, 2015 10:00 PM UTC 0
Entertainment TV, Game of Thrones, HBO

“The Fat Jew” defends himself and comes up short: Even on “the cutting edge of the Internet,” stealing actually is “a matter of right or wrong”

Maybe Josh Ostrovsky's "army of interns" can explain a few basic citation rules to him?

Scott Timberg Friday, Aug 21, 2015 5:31 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Plagiarism, Internet, The Fat Jew

The “moral narcissism” of Ashley Madison gossip: “It’s a bad way to think about your own moral status”

Schadenfreude is not a helpful way to see this, a moral philosophy scholar from Cornell says

Scott Timberg Friday, Aug 21, 2015 3:48 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Ashley Madison hack, gamergate

This new TV show is totally not about Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Scientology — and we’ll be watching, for sure

A new show about a TV actress marrying a huge Hollywood star with an unusual religion — nope, doesn't ring a bell

Scott Timberg Thursday, Aug 20, 2015 4:22 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Tom Cruise, Marriage, Scientology

It’s time to reread Dave Eggers’ “The Circle”: Why his under-appreciated Silicon Valley workplace novel resonates now more than ever

The upcoming film will give the 2013 novel about a ubiquitous, Orwellian social media company new legs

Scott Timberg Wednesday, Aug 19, 2015 11:00 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Books, Movies, Dave Eggers

Why the Ashley Madison hack should have everyone (yes, everyone) worried

The mess over the compromised infidelity website is still accumulating

Scott Timberg Wednesday, Aug 19, 2015 4:20 PM UTC 0
Entertainment AShley Madison, Internet

Data is not always “liberating”: The New York Times was right to focus on Amazon’s damage to real people instead

The big corporate exposé was not flawless, but let's not capitulate to tech-cliché

Scott Timberg Tuesday, Aug 18, 2015 8:04 PM UTC 0
Entertainment amazon, New York Times

Preventing movie theater gun violence: Why extra security — even if we’re willing to pay for it — isn’t the answer

We need to pay attention to the larger crisis, and fund efforts to fight it accordingly

Scott Timberg Tuesday, Aug 18, 2015 4:45 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Theater shootings, NRA

Comedians are calling out “The Fat Jew” for theft: Why the online backlash against stealing jokes is long overdue

Josh Ostrovksy, hailed as the next big voice in comedy, is being taken down by the comedians he "aggregated"

Scott Timberg Monday, Aug 17, 2015 8:40 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Internet, Comedy, Patton Oswalt

Jeff Bezos, Orwellian overlord: Why his defense of Amazon’s “bruising” workplace culture is so hard to swallow

The in-depth New York Times report on the punishing culture inside Amazon has even Jeff Bezos rushing to spin

Scott Timberg Monday, Aug 17, 2015 6:18 PM UTC 0
Entertainment amazon, Books, New York Times

TV beyond the binge: What we lose when we gain the entire story at once

Networks are trying to figure out if the weekly rollout is a thing of the past. Let's hope not

Scott Timberg Sunday, Aug 16, 2015 6:00 PM UTC 0
Entertainment binge-watching, Netflix, amazon

A moderately forceful high-five for Obama’s summer music and reading choices

The wide-ranging fare tells us something about his taste, but he remains hard to read

Scott Timberg Friday, Aug 14, 2015 7:46 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Jazz, President Obama, Books, Music

David Foster Wallace was not a bro: Let’s not paint the writer with the same brush as his fans

Do some pretentious dudes love "Infinite Jest?" Of course—but it would be a shame to dismiss him on that alone

Scott Timberg Thursday, Aug 13, 2015 8:37 PM UTC 0
Entertainment David Foster Wallace, Books

Please let the HBO “Deadwood” movie rumors be true

Why we're eager for any second life for this brilliant, prematurely cancelled series

Scott Timberg Thursday, Aug 13, 2015 4:28 PM UTC 0
Entertainment HBO, deadwood, TV

Syfy’s new “Childhood’s End” could be the perfect show for our quasi-populist, government-hating times

Sure, it's no "Sharknado" — the Arthur C. Clarke novel is one of the genre's classics

Scott Timberg Thursday, Aug 13, 2015 2:20 PM UTC 0
Entertainment science fiction, syfy, TV

Cuckservatives, libtards and the obscenities of angry white men: “If he’d called [Megyn Kelly] a bitch, we’d never see Donald Trump again”

Linguist John McWhorter decodes the way we talk about politics, gender and race

Scott Timberg Wednesday, Aug 12, 2015 11:00 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Donald Trump, Language, Books

The worst Best Picture decade: How “Crash” capped off the strange crossover years when the Academy lost its collective mind

Paul Haggis admitting his film didn't deserve its win has us thinking about what else the Oscars got wrong

Scott Timberg Wednesday, Aug 12, 2015 9:45 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Academy Awards, Paul Haggis, Film

Stop the hand-wringing over campus PC culture: Corporations and the far right are a much bigger threat to free expression

What if we interrogated corporate media interests' impact on speech as much as we fret over comedian paychecks?

Scott Timberg Tuesday, Aug 11, 2015 4:27 PM UTC 0
Entertainment Comedians, campus culture

Scott Timberg

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