Remember when movie theaters served hot buttered popcorn in a generic cardboard container? Not anymore. Movie night at the local theater is now an event—with swanky popcorn buckets at the helm. That’s excellent news for collectors and thrifters, as many of these limited-edition vessels become more elusive after the movie’s popularity fades. COVID-19 and Popcorn Many people have long enjoyed watching a movie at the local theater. However, the COVID-19 pandemic shifted movie night from theaters to the living room. After the world reopened, the movie business struggled to get consumers back into theaters. Enter the popcorn bucket. Companies like…
Author: ANGadmin
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has agreed to suspend a controversial requirement that grant applicants certify they would not “promote gender ideology,” a condition imposed under an executive order from the Trump administration. The retreat comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of several arts organizations, arguing that the measure is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. While artists can now apply for funding without signing the contested pledge, the NEA has not removed broader eligibility restrictions that continue to exclude projects deemed to “promote gender ideology.” The legal battle is…
Of all the platitudes about art, the one I’m most skeptical of is “they don’t make ’em like they used to.”On some level, they don’t. Movies used to be silent; they used to be black and white; they used to be recorded and then projected on strips of celluloid film. None of that is true anymore. They don’t make anything like they used to; not cars, not Coca-Cola, and not movies.But when people say “they don’t make ’em like they used to,” they don’t mean technologically. They’re talking about quality, and insisting in some mythic past that Hollywood produced one hit after another.…
Art MarketVeena McCooleInterior view of ARCOmadrid 2025. Courtesy of ARCOmadrid. Despite the drizzle and clouds overhead, collectors, fairgoers, and gallerists from across Europe and Latin America gathered in force for ARCOmadrid’s 44th edition in the Spanish capital, which concluded on Sunday, March 10th. Hosting 214 galleries from 36 countries—including nine international exhibitors making their ARCO debut—the fair is a highlight not only for Spain’s art world, but the art industry at large. About one-third of the booths this year were Spanish galleries, with strong contingents from Portugal, France, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina.Vienna-based gallerist and former ARCOmadrid advisory committee member Rosemarie…
A Julien’s Auctions run that featured iconic recording artist Leonard Cohen‘s artifacts ended with some significant returns. The auction, which ran on Friday, February 28, caught national attention in Cohen’s native Canada, thanks partly to the unique items up for grabs. Not surprisingly, the biggest moneymaker was one of Cohen’s notebooks. Dated 2007, the handwritten collection of poetry and lyrics went for just over $120,000. As noted by the auction house in its lot description, the notebook features lines from “Treaty” and “Anyhow” and a tribute to Anjani Thomas, with whom Cohen collaborated on multiple occasions. “This is the only…
The man who coined the phrase “Life is pain” never met Nathan Caine. Nate is afflicted with an extremely rare genetic disorder called “congenital insensitivity to pain analgesia” that makes him incapable of feeling any sort of pain. (Yes, it’s real.) To a moviegoing public drowning in comic-book movies, that might sound like a superpower. To Nate, it’s more curse than gift.It’s important for a person to feel pain. Pain keeps us alive. It tells us to move our hand away from a fire before we permanently damage our hand, or to go see a doctor so that an illness or an infection can…
Developer Hazelight Studios has made a name for itself by strictly making co-op games, a genre where two people have to play simultaneously. The studio won the coveted Game of the Year category at The Game Awards 2021 for “It Takes Two.” Now, Hazelight is back with its newest co-op outing, “Split Fiction.” While its level design and gameplay hooks are top-notch, the levels tend to overstay their welcome. Still, “Split Fiction” is one of the best co-op games in recent memory. “Split Fiction” follows two girls, Mio and Zoe, as they try to get their stories published by a…
When are the spoilers for Blue Lock Chapter 296 expected to be released? This question emerged after the previous chapter concluded with Ego Jinpachi about revealing the final auction rankings. While not much information about the plot of Blue Lock Chapter 296 has been disclosed, here are all the details readers need to know regarding the timeline for its leaks. When to expect Blue Lock Chapter 296 spoilers? Readers can expect the spoilers to be out on Saturday, March 15, or Sunday, March 16, 2025, based on the previous release pattern. Chapter 296 of the Blue Lock manga is expected…
The doc program at SXSW reflects the left-of-center tone of both the festival and the city of Austin. Where else would you find documentaries about The Butthole Surfers and Carl Lewis in the same program? With such a relatively short festival, it can be hard to get to the non-fiction selections. Still, I was lucky enough to check out a trio that premiered on opening weekend, and they’re all testaments to human resilience, profiles of people who survived impossible conditions to become the people they are today. The best of the trio is Rodney Ascher’s “Ghost Boy,” the story of…
“Steak ‘n Shake has gone Nazi” isn’t a sentence I ever expected to see, much less type. But here we are. On Friday, the social media account of the fast-food chain Steak ‘n Shake published a series of fascist-pandering posts on X (formerly Twitter), then deleted them after public admonishment by everyone who wasn’t a Nazi. X is owned by Tesla and SpaceX mogul Elon Musk, who is currently the world’s richest man, the unelected co-president of the United States of America, and one of the primary drivers of the executive branch’s aggressive attempts to roll back American history and…
