Health issues caused me to post this late. I hope you can forgive me my lovelies. On with the articles…

On the 30th, Bonnie Blodgett of the Minneapolis Star Tribune looked back on 100 years of F. Scott Fitzgerald:
“He was referring to a certain kind of rich, the kind who ooze entitlement. He loathed, and portrayed in his novel’s characters, both the clueless extravagance of new money and the clueless self-importance of those for whom life’s persistent question was, ‘What if I lost it all?'”

Damon Linker talked about the inevitable deaths of rock stars on the 31st for The Week:
“Though popular music sales in general have plummeted since their peak around the turn of the millennium, certain genres continue to generate commercial excitement: pop, rap, hip-hop, country. But rock — amplified and often distorted electric guitars, bass, drums, melodic if frequently abrasive lead vocals, with songs usually penned exclusively by the members of the band — barely registers on the charts. There are still important rock musicians making music in a range of styles — Canada’s Big Wreck excels at sophisticated progressive hard rock, for example, while the more subdued American band Dawes artfully expands on the soulful songwriting that thrived in California during the 1970s. But these groups often toil in relative obscurity, selling a few thousand records at a time, performing to modest-sized crowds in clubs and theaters.

But there’s another sense in which rock is very nearly dead: Just about every rock legend you can think of is going to die within the next decade or so.”

On the 3rd, Frances Ryan of The Guardian asked you (yes, YOU!) to let her enjoy her Friends reruns:
“Friends is prime for valid criticism over how poorly the show has aged, from stripper jokes to a whitewashed New York City. It is frankly bizarre that Monica’s entire backstory was that she used to be fat. Ross should probably have been given a restraining order for breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s house.

But complaining about the show’s quality, rather than its politics, seems to miss the point. I love Friends. I watched every episode as it aired, and have rewatched many since. I will undoubtedly do so again. It is also – by any objective, technical standard – not that great. And that’s entirely OK.”

Also on the 3rd, Kieran Fisher explored the career of Yahoo Serious over at Film School Rejects:
“Yahoo Serious’ best-known contribution to the world of pop culture is Young Einstein. The movie chronicles the exploits of the titular scientist who came up with the Theory of Relativity. In this movie, though, he’s depicted as a wacky Tasmanian (played by Serious) who infuses bubbles into beer, brings rock ‘n’ roll music to the world, saves the lives of Thomas Edison and Sigmund Freud, and enters a romance with Nobel Prize-winner Marie Curie. It’s weird.”

Finally, on the 4th, Kyle Buchanan talked to my boyfriend, Brad Pitt, for The New York Times:
Pitt recently called acting ‘a younger man’s game,’ and in his mid-50s, he has found himself increasingly drawn to other artistic pursuits. He is prolific as a producer — ‘Producing just means you don’t have to get up really early and put on makeup,’ Pitt told me — and Plan B, the production company he runs with Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, has backed films like ’12 Years a Slave,’ ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ and ‘Selma.'”

Enjoy!