Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
Steph Curry. Photo: AFP
It’s Stephen Curry’s Game Now – by Scott Cacciola, The NY Times
“If you have somehow missed watching the Golden State Warriors this season, you might have a quaint notion of how basketball is played. You might believe, for instance, that 3-point shots are difficult. Or that players should generally avoid hoisting jumpers 35 feet from the basket. Or that, in the N.B.A., a team cannot clinch a playoff berth in February, with six weeks left in the season. None of that is true anymore, thanks to one player: Stephen Curry, a butterfly with a jump shot who is reshaping people’s understanding of the game.”
How We Remember Frank Ocean's Nostalgia, Ultra Doesn't Matter Anymore – by Sam Hockley-Smith, The Fader
“Being a Frank Ocean fan in 2016 is not about being frustrated; it’s about being a frustration meme. Have you expressed your annoyance that he hasn’t released anything new yet? If not, are you really a fan? Waiting for Frank Ocean has become the new listening to Frank Ocean.”
The real problem with New Zealand TV drama – by Duncan Greive, The Spinoff
“Instead it’s the commissioners at TVNZ and, to a lesser extent, TV3 and Prime: a vanishingly small group, numbering between five and ten people, who have exercised enormous influence over hundreds of millions of dollars of public money over the past couple of decades. The troublesome part is that they are approaching those commissioning meetings with a very specific vision of their audience in mind. In so doing, their intention becomes less about creating something great, than creating something which can be sold to advertisers, and not alienate their audience.”
Aziz Ansari Goes to India – by Aziz Ansari, T Magazine
“If people glance twice at me in America, it’s usually because they recognize my work as an actor (or the work of a different Indian actor, or because I remind them of some Indian guy they happen to know). But in India, it was because the locals could tell I wasn’t from around those parts. Sure, I appear Indian, but my clothes and sneakers were clearly American. Even in India, I was kind of an outsider.”
The rules of the game: Did New Zealand get its prostitution laws right? – by Jeremy Olds, Sunday Magazine
“Smart, empowered, a feminist – Bella is the kind of worker that is thought to make up most of New Zealand's 3500 prostitute workforce. “I earn good money in my daytime job. I don't need to do this; I choose to do this,” she says with confidence.”"I think that's what scares people. They're like – 'You want to have sex with old men? Why would you possibly want to do that? You must be being forced.' No! I willingly want to f*** these men.””
Twitter Has Become a Park Filled With Bats and Perverts - by Julieanne Smolinski, Following
“I’m quitting Twitter for a specific, practical reason: Because I keep getting bothered by assholes and perverts and Twitter doesn’t seem willing or able to do anything about it. I’m quitting Twitter the way you quit your favorite restaurant when it suffers an E. coli outbreak. I'm quitting Twitter for the simple fact that Twitter’s been bumming me out.”
Laverne & Curly: The slapstick anarchists of “Broad City” - by Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker
“Glazer described the show’s premise as “vulnerability is strength.” Out of context, that might sound gooey, but it reveals something about “Broad City” ’s compassionate take on shit and sex, its insistence that bodies out of control are hilarious and lovely, not dirty and grotesque.”