Here at Flavorwire, we pride ourselves on not only writing some of the best content on the internet, but keeping an eye on all of the great writing that other folks on the ‘net are doing, too. Today, we have a roundtable interview with TV’s current crop of child stars, a real estate story about developers trying to turn churches into condos, an exposé on restaurants lying about their “farm-to-table” fare, and a meditation on the natural conflict between finding inner peace and looking like you found it on Instagram.
Thanks to ABC’s sitcom renaissance, there’s a new wave of child actors having a moment in the spotlight. Vulture gathered seven of the network’s child actors — all 12 or under — from Fresh Off the Boat, Blackish, Dr. Ken, and Modern Family, to discuss life as a child star in 2016.
“It was really uncomfortable, and every minute my parents and everybody kept asking me if I was comfortable and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m comfortable but are you comfortable?’ That’s more the question,” [said Blackish actor Miles Brown.] “It was kind of weird. I had to ask my dialogue coach how to say bad words.”
Backchannel published a story on how our obsession with Instagram and “living your best life” on social media may be interfering with our ability to actually do so, particularly when we’re on vacation.
That scene — the fight for the perfect Instagram — is one I’ve witnessed over and over, on at least three continents during the last year or so. At times, it felt like destinations were morphing into mere photo sets. In New Zealand, I saw adventure companies that made getting the perfect photo-op part of their pitch for kayaking, hiking or ziplining expeditions. In Thailand, a woman next to me on a beach squealed to her friends about getting her hair just right for a shot destined for her Tinder profile. Back home in New York, I have more than once found myself in the crosshairs of a narcisstick aimed at a scraggly Elmo in Times Square.
The Tampa Bay Times published a series of reports on the widespread fraud among the city’s restaurants and food vendors, who claim they’re offering consumers local meat and produce. In the first part of the series, which focuses on restaurants lying about their “farm-to-table” cuisine, explains that an increasing number of restaurants seem to be taking advantage of a long-standing agreement between chefs and customers.
What makes buying food different from other forms of commerce is this: It’s a trust-based system. How do you know the Dover sole on your plate is Dover sole? Only that the restaurateur said so. And how can you be sure the strawberries your toddler is gobbling are free of pesticides? Only because the vendor at the farmers market said so. Your purchases are unverifiable unless you drive to that farm or track back through a restaurant’s distributors and ask for invoices.
Curbed reported on a new trend in New York real estate: buying churches and other religious building from shrinking congregations, and converting them into high-end condos.
The aesthetics of the converted church are similar to those of a post-industrial loft: high ceilings, big windows, and a sculptural excess of space. In fact, just as they once occupied factories, artists are turning to churches as the supply of empty industrial real estate has dwindled or become unaffordable. “Industrial spaces aren’t as easy to come by as they once were because real estate developers are on to that,” says Sharon Butler, a painter who previously kept her studio in a church in Old Mystic, Connecticut. “Churches are sort of undiscovered. You can find a really big space and they’re relatively inexpensive, because who else is going to buy it?”