Conversation Piece, May 21, 2017

A weekly series.

Conversation Piece

Enjoy our Sunday series, Conversation Piece, a NUVO–curated digest of things on the Internet we think you’ll want to talk about.

Damn good pie. Finding an authentic recipe for “Twin Peaks” cherry pie is about as easy as figuring out who killed Laura Palmer, but The New York Times is on the case, visiting Pacific Northwestern cafes to taste-test latticed sweet cherry pies and secure a composite recipe for fans who want to ring in the show’s revival (this Sunday on Showtime) with a slice that would make agent Cooper proud. Find it here.

To Bechdel and beyond. The Pudding breaks down 2,000 screenplays by gender and age to put numbers behind the rhetoric that white men dominate movies—a concept that, while anecdotally obvious, previously had little data in its support. So, when do men age out of Hollywood compared to women, and how frequently do female characters really speak? The data is… unfortunately predictable, but worth seeing for yourself, here.

The great ocean cleanup. The Ocean Cleanup foundation, initiated by Dutch engineering student Boyan Slat when he was just 20 years old, has just announced it will begin clearing the ocean of plastic by the end of 2017, two years ahead of schedule. Slat’s garbage collecting design—a floating barrier—has been engineered to usher plastic to shore, where it will be recycled. Learn more, here.

Making America fierce again. The Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber notes that drag has flourished as a form of political critique under the Trump presidency, and interviews drag’s most enduringly relevant figure—none other than RuPaul Charles—on why the performance medium has taken on a special charge. Drastic times call for dragtastic measures. Read more, here.

Meh-est dressed list. Has anyone noticed that celebrity fashion is, well, frequently boring? No one takes style risks anymore, claims Vogue, and rather than shopping, thrifting, and assessing looks for themselves, stars are turning to stylists for low-risk outfit options geared to keeping them off “worst-dressed” lists. Why did young people become so afraid of having fun with fashion? Find out, here.

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