@meganburbank
reporting on culture, politics, & post-Roe abortion policy. bylines at Slate, The Nation, NPR, The New Republic, Axios. girl about town at Burbank Industries. previously Crosscut, Seattle Times, Portland Mercury, The Stranger. meganburbank.substack.com
the new Ballerina Farm ad is a rich text (derogatory) so I’m sorry to say this but I do think it’s good she hired real dancers from Ballet West. I’m not sure what’s in the collab for them tho
It's such a bittersweet symphony to love the princess sports and also want them to change, so I wrote about how exciting it is to finally see this happening in figure skating!
Plus: the helpful practice of approaching every game like an exhibition game
meganburbank.substack.com/p/alysia-liu...
it's incredible that they put a sexual assault on tv, put white girls in blackface, and fired the Jays and Nigel, and Tyra's sitting here blinking dramatically like she doesn't understand what all the fuss is about because "we blew open the doors!"
just begging for newspaper websites to remember that yes I am already a subscriber
watching the new ANTM doc and horrified at how much footage I recognize because I watched it every week in college
I love trash but this show? may have been a trash too far
Still from the pilot episode of Twin Peaks. Kyle MacLachlan, playing Special Agent Dale Cooper, is driving his car holding a tape recorder to his mouth. Text reads: “Diane, 11:30 am, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks.”
happy twin peaks day!!! hope you celebrate with a damn fine cup of coffee and a slice of cherry pie. #twinpeaksday #twinpeaks
Awwwww Team USA's group skate was so cute. More corps de ballet on ice please
I love how an Olympic gala performance is either a beautiful, dignified goodbye skate or the campiest shit you’ve ever seen in your life, with no middle ground.
imagine: instead of watching skaters do their jumps to weird voice-overs, we could have Lady Gaga and KPop Demon Hunters and weird Tom Jones covers of Prince
Alysa Liu treats all her programs as exhibition skates and I think everyone else should start doing that too
I take issue with Tara's "all joy and all fun" description of galas, because sometimes gala programs can be quite serious and emotional...
...I type as Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck come out in Spain soccer jerseys to skate to "Tubthumping"
#MilanoCortina2026 #figureskating
I love the gala skate because everybody looks so much more relaxed and you get to see that actually their competition routines and outfits COULD be weirder
Also, these sports have historically thrived on women’s pain. It’s so cool to see what can happen when someone actually has fun
The Ghost routine too
Being yourself in these spaces can mean losing out on opportunities. It’s amazing to see her challenge them at such an elite level and win 💕
I dance with a lot of women who don’t fit the girly mold these sports require - or who aren’t girls at all. Who have tattoos & piercings, who hate leos, who aren’t starving or shrinking, who are there because they love the thing, not the rules
I’ve been trying to put into words one of the reasons I find Alysa Liu’s triumph so inspiring, and I think it’s because I take ballet and it is so meaningful to see someone excel in a similar sport while breaking the strictures of it
I love this figure skating intel 💕
I feel like Alysa Liu's win is such a victory for every ballet / baton-twirling / figuring skating girl who ever had to cover up their tattoos or got in trouble for a messy bun. hell yeah
isabeau did so well in her first time on olympic ice! amber got redemption and went from 13th to 5th!! alysa came back on her own terms and is leaving with an individual gold medal!!!
our blade angels made us so so proud 🥹🩵
#MilanoCortina2026 #WinterOlympics
YES. And an athlete who has stated on the record that she was coming back to this incredibly gender-rigid sport only if she could pick her own music and not be starved. Her gold medal shows what's possible when athletes are allowed to be mentally healthy and treat every skate as an exhibition skate
I was crying
(It's fine I cry at sports a lot it feels good!)
Alysa Liu saying "That's what I'm fucking talking about!" after a flawless free skate on live TV was the peak of my Olympics viewing
also I am so happy for Amber Glenn and her triple axel. what a relief to see women skaters being themselves. the sport has changed so much since the 90s, thank god
I think it should be banned. I do not EVER want to watch a beautiful spin to a spoken interlude
very happy we are all talking about Wuthering Heights, gothic literature and the Brontë sisters.
icymi we’ve been saying our forthcoming album is gothic in the Brontë sense for many weeks … and we were worried people would find that reference too obscure!
Mtfog.bandcamp.com
Amber is part of a very small, elite group of women who have landed triple axels on Olympic ice. I hope she is able to be proud of that.
“Wuthering Heights” Sidelines the Novel’s Most Queer-Coded Character
Ok, you’re free to disagree with me but I just don’t think that my sharing an opinion on the internet harms or lessens her achievements and I stand by what I said 🙂
The new Wuthering Heights does Nelly so dirty. Thank you
@them.us for letting me yell about it!
www.them.us/story/wuther...
It's not invalidating her achievement to say people in their forties are capable of competing at elite levels in sports.
Plenty of the other skaters in pairs are in their late 30s. Two bobsledders in their 40s won gold yesterday. It's amazing, but it's not unusual, and I think that's a good thing
I actually don't think she's one of one. People are capable of all kinds of athletic feats in their 40s, and many former elite athletes do return to their sports later in life, even after injuries, often on their own terms. I think this is something we're going to see more and more of