Francis Ford Coppola's long-awaited Megalopolis premieres next week at Cannes so this week I thought I'd watch his The Conversation (1974) around its 50th anniversary for Review Roulette, and I am blown away by Coppola's careful direction of misdirection.
vaughnjoy.substack.com/p/the-cacophon…

The next ubiquitous trendy food place should be pierogi bars where you can fill up a way too big froyo cup with your choice of assorted pierogi and dollop sour cream from a soft serve machine and have all the toppings you want to your abominable culinary satisfaction. Please.

I knew I wanted to write about college campuses for my new The Saturday Evening Post Considering History column, & I knew I wanted to do so by highlighting both painful & inspiring histories from my own Fitchburg State campus. #twitterstorians

saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/05/consid…

The official dress code for guests at my wedding is 'Diane Keaton' and I have not elaborated further.

Finally, can’t get enough public scholarship? I’m with you, so make sure to check out Dion Georgiou 🇨🇾❤️🇬🇾’s latest Stop, Look, & Listen newsletter:

open.substack.com/pub/academicbu…

Gotta add one of my own to the thread, the new issue of Zeal, the King's College, PA Journal for the Liberal Arts edited by Robin E. Field:

zeal.kings.edu/zeal

İFeliz Cinco de Mayo! No better way to celebrate than with my 176th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Share widely, add more below, & enjoy, mi gente! #twitterstorians

& Vaughn Joy’s Review Roulette newsletter made a triumphant return with a #MayDay2024 review of Salt of the Earth:

vaughnjoy.substack.com/p/solidarity-h…

Vaughn Joy I now get why the end of the production code coincided with the rise of the modern women’s and LGBTQ+ movements.

The people cheering this development can only conceive of films as escapist entertainment instead of cathartic art that conveys the human condition, which includes sex.

Less access to sex in cinema feeds conservative purity narratives and historically always has.

There are so many positives to portraying a whole range of normal human activities in cinema, and I hope this downward trend changes soon.

With the diss done, I can finally get back to my real passion project, Review Roulette. But naturally I was still very much in the post-war mindset, SO please enjoy a many-layered piece on Salt of the Earth (1954) for this International Workers' Day! #IWD
vaughnjoy.substack.com/p/solidarity-h…

I wrote a whole ass PhD on U.S. military jargon and buzzwords in an international relations program. (I do study NATO!)

*Wholeheartedly* second Vaughn Joy - the PhD process will always be brutal but the topic is all yours.