PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture Why the Ayn Rand Institute getting a federal handout is the Rand-iest thing ever
What does Ayn Rand do when a global pandemic strikes? Does she use the impressive torque of her sterling bootstraps to vault over adversity? Does she seize the moment of a supine economy to make her own happiness and fortune — likely with locomotives — at the expense of all others? We’ll never know. Though…
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Culture NBC’s Jacob Soboroff on the ongoing crisis of family separation
Jacob Soboroff was among the first American civilians to witness what family separation looked like. By the time the NBC and MSNBC correspondent arrived at the Casa Padre center in Brownsville, Tex. in June 2018, the policy had already affected thousands of migrants. “Going to a former Walmart that’s 250,000 square feet and seeing 1,500…
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Culture What Trump’s “Garden of American Heroes” says about his America — and the way other countries handle their history
Standing before the graven images of four American presidents on Friday July 3, Donald Trump announced the establishment of a “National Garden of American Heroes,” an offer of further idolatry that left historians puzzled by its strange assortment of figures. At first glance, the American icons pegged for statuary treatment in the executive order declaring…
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Culture A look back at Beavis and Butt-Head’s best music video commentaries
Beavis and Butt-Head, those eternally immature adolescents, are returning right when we need them most — this time on Comedy Central. It’s good news, but this fan counts himself hesitant. The reboot is said to be a re-imagining of the franchise, and I’m comfortable knowing show creator Mike Judge is behind the project. But I…
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Culture Did the Trump campaign really slap a Nazi eagle on a t-shirt?
As wrongheaded as they were in vying to keep the U.S. out of World War II, the America First Committee took great pains to avoid fetishizing fascism. While the group certainly attracted its share of anti-Semites and German American Bundists, its trick was to appear as American as apple pie when courting isolationists. That meant…
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Culture What to read before you stream the ‘Hamilton’ movie
On Independence Day Eve, almost anyone can get a front row seat to “Hamilton.” It’s truly an American dream. The filmed performance of the cultural juggernaut about the inaugural secretary of the Treasury will arrive on the Disney+ streaming service July 3, a year before its intended theatrical release. To celebrate the occasion of this…
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Culture Do we really need Dustin Hoffman starring in ‘Our Town?’
When Broadway finally reopens, it will be in the aftermath of a revolution. A global health pandemic and a national revolt against racism should advance efforts that theatermakers of color have been pushing for for years: inclusion and diversity in casting and production and stories that reflect their lives. The reckoning hasn’t yet reached Grover’s…
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Culture Mel Brooks in ‘deep shock’ after losing Carl Reiner, says son Max Brooks
Mel Brooks was there when his longtime friend Carl Reiner passed away in the middle of the night on June 29. According to Brooks’ son, Max, the director doesn’t yet know how he’s managing the loss. “My dad’s friendship with Carl goes back 70 years,” Max Brooks said during a June 30 webinar for Moment…
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Yiddish אַ טור פֿון דער אויסשטעלונג „מגילת־אסתּר אין דער רעמבראַנדט־תּקופֿה“ — אויף ייִדיש!A tour of “The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt” exhibit — in Yiddish!
אין דער אויסשטעלונג געפֿינען זיך 120 מאָלערײַען פֿון דער פּורים־העלדין, געמאָלט פֿון די האָלענדישע קונסטמײַסטערס.
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