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☆☆☆☆ Park Ki-joon (played by Park Seo-joon) Kang Hee-yeol (played by Kang Ha-neul) ↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name. A thoroughly entertaining cop-buddy film, "Midnight Runners" does a great job of blending comedy with action, while delving into the world of human trafficking and organ harvesting. The film is driven by the camaraderie between musclehead Ki-joon (Park Seo-joon) and nerdy by-the-book Hee-yeol (Kan Ha-neul). Even in their most dire moments, the pair offer wry slapstick comedy that makes this movie appear less serious than it is.

Now would be a great time to become a paid subscriber! You get so much extra stuff, and you help me keep this project going. Subscribe here. Peak: #10 on the Hot 100 Streams: 1.2 million I practically barked for joy when I learned the origin of Tommy James and Shondells’ hit “Mirage.” Apparently, while they were recording their album I Think We’re Alone N… ncG1vNJzZmikn6jBtLvNoKpnq6WXwLWtwqRlnKedZL1wucirmKCdXam8rrnYZqGapZWoeqK6w2aroZ1dqLWwusOeo6Wr

A couple of weeks ago in a newsletter thread, a subscriber raised an excellent question. She wrote: I have a 6-year-old who melts down before bedtime. What really throws me for a loop is when she's done yelling and stomping her feet and she calms down, she starts saying, "I hate myself. I'm not a good kid. No one loves me." I have no idea where this is coming from.

I remember during big celebrations (Christmas, New Years, celebrating my sisters and her friends in a local Filipino pageant in Tunbridge Wells), we’d have a giant feast with a roasted pig as the centre piece. Guests would bring food they made - the orange Filipino spaghetti, the steamy scent of dinuguan, one of my favourite dishes adobo, leche flan - and place on a table for everyone to have an endless choice of things to eat.

This is Throwbacks, a newsletter by me, Michael Weinreb, about sports, history, culture and politics, and everything in-between. Welcome to all new readers/subscribers, and if you like what you’re reading, please join the mailing list and share, on social media or through e-mail or however you feel comfortable sharing. (It’s still FREE to join the list:… ncG1vNJzZmismKe8uK7AnKKsZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe82oq2appZa%2FtbHRm5ico6lisq%2B71KCfZmlpbYY%3D

Emerald Fennell is in the business of controversy. Her first film, 2020’s Promising Young Woman, was a firebomb of a #MeToo rape-revenge tale that lit the film world afire. It was a polemic against rape culture with a pessimistic philosophy: that men are intrinsically toxic creatures (even Bo Burnham!), and that women are justified in pursuing violent retribution against them. (This is a film in which Carey Mulligan pretends to be a stripper so that she can torture Chris Lowell, after all.

Most of the men in Interpreter of Dreams, Jhumpa Lahiri’s wonderful 1999 debut collection, are losers. This tracks. Here’s a scene in the story “Sexy” where 22 y/o protagonist Miranda is out on a romantic afternoon w/ a guy named Dev, who is in his 40s and married w/ kids, and who first approached her at that most “definitely a spot to pick up chicks” of locations, a department store cosmetics counter:

[Photo by Karen Swallow Prior] "Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” – Simone Weil Welcome, new subscribers! I got quite a few of you last week with my “To Burn or Not to Burn” post, which generated a lot of response and much solidarity. I’m a little stunned but so very grateful. It helps to know that others see and recognize this crisis point (one others have certainly faced long before me).

“Get me out of your starry eyes and be on your way” A power pop band simply needs all the tunefulness of the British Invasion and the right amount of rock oomph -- just enough, say, to keep them from getting bottled off the stage at a rugby bar. It’s so simple and so joyous when it clicks. It’s also largely uncool. Since its emergence in the 70s, power pop has been adjacent to glam, punk, and new wave, which were all ways of describing people and the fashion sense that went with their favorite music.