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Posted inNational Politics

Live Blog: Trump Fanatics Attempt a Coup; Breach the US Capitol

Police try to defend US capitol from Trump supporters who have breached the building. Drew Angerer / Getty Images The US Capitol was placed on lockdown today after Trump supporters broke through police barricades and stormed the buildingโ€”an action that was encouraged yesterday by Trump himself. Congress, who were meeting to certify the electoral college […]

Posted inTech

Animal Crossing Gets Real

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s social media team has been teaching marine biology by playing Animal Crossing on their Twitch channel. Nintendo The Los Angeles Times published a great feature over the weekend about how Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo’s wildly popular (and cute) social simulation game, has “become the sort of dominating cultural touchstone usually […]

Posted inTV

Meghan McCain Rails Against Jeff Bezos, Says Essential Workers “Should Have Their Pay Doubled”

It would be nice to hear some more actual Democrats say the same thing YouTube Screenshot Following Meghan McCain’s pandemic rendezvous with leftism has become one of my pandemic hobbies. Last week, the heir of Arizona thought we needed to “start easing up” on rents, prevent stock buybacks, and make Jeff Bezos pay. Today, she […]

Posted inCannabis

You Can Now Stream SPLIFFโ€”Our Cannabis-Themed Short Film Festโ€”Online!

I’ll be blunt with you: SPLIFFโ€”our hilariously fun cannabis-themed short film festโ€”is my favorite part of the year. Premium stoner entertainment is flowering yet again. Witness the rise of High Maintenance, Broad City, and basically every TV show created for Viceland. And, most notably, The Stranger presented your new favorite film festival, SPLIFF Film Fest, […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Locally Made Missing Link Was a Box-Office Bomb… and Now It Might Win an Oscar

COURTESY OF LAIKA STUDIOS / ANNAPURNA PICTURES Early in January, everyone seemed to agree that Toy Story 4 or Frozen II was going to take home this year’s Golden Globe for best animated motion picture. Both of those Disney-backed films were beloved by critics and audiences, and Frozen II had just become the highest-grossing animated […]

Posted inMovies & TV

There Are Apparently Hundreds of Streaming Services. How Many Should We Care About?

The homepage for Hi-YAH!, a martial arts and Asian action movie streaming channel. Right now, there are “more than 300 streaming video services to choose from” in the United States, according to a digital media trends survey published earlier this year. The survey pulls its estimate from another report, which I’m unable to find, but […]

Posted inEvents

A Beginnerโ€™s Guide to SPLIFFโ€”the Mercury‘s New Film Festival, Made by the Stoned for the Stoned Hosted by Dan Savage!

The stoner film has come a long way. Nothing against Cheech & Chongโ€”Tommy Chong played an excellent (and sexy!) singing pineapple on this season of The Masked Singerโ€”but weโ€™ve moved away from the stoner trope of two dudes smoking weed while driving around in their car. (Which you shouldnโ€™t do! Itโ€™s dangerous! Youโ€™ll get a […]

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