2015年度全米図書賞受賞の大ベストセラー 『世界と僕のあいだに』（タナハシ・コーツ 著、池田 年穂 訳）特設サイト タナハシ・コーツ（Ta-Nehisi Coates） 1975年、元ブラックパンサー党員のポール・コーツを父としてボルチモアに生まれる。名門ハワード大学を中退。 Atlantic 誌定期寄稿者。アメリカ黒人への補償を求める2014年のカヴァーストーリー “The Case for Reparations” でいくつもの賞を受ける。2008年に回想録 The Beautiful Struggle を出版。2015年の本書 Between the World and Me は、全米図書賞を受賞、全米批評家協会賞・ピューリッツァー賞のファイナリスト。コーツ自身は、2015年にマッカーサー基金のジーニアス・グラントを受けている。しばしば「ジェームズ・ボールドウィンの再来」と称されるが、アフリカン・アメリカンの代表的知識人の一人として信頼を集めている。
Black Pantherについては最近のTimeでも取り上げていました。2ページ紹介でインタビューもありました。
Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Expanding the Black Panther Universe with The Crew Eliana Dockterman Jan 20, 2017 Black Panther's world keeps getting bigger thanks to writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. After taking on the Black Panther series in 2016 and collaborating with writer Roxane Gay and poet Yona Harvey on a spinoff, World of Wakanda, Coates is adding another comic book series: Black Panther & The Crew. It's a revival of an earlier series by Marvel's first black editor Christopher Priest but with a new set of characters. Coates will team again with Harvey to tell the story of a team of heroes—Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Manifold—set in Harlem. Coates, a National Book Award and MacArthur 'Genius' Grant winner, became the most famous comic book writer in the non-comic-book-reading world last year when he took on the Marvel character. The storied publisher recruited him to revive Black Panther, the first black superhero in mainstream comic books. Black Panther, whose given name is T'Challa, is the ruler of the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda, a scientist and an Avenger. Coates' 2016 version begins with a rebellion against Wakanda's monarchy. The first issue sold more than 300,000 copies.
「ジェームズ・ボールドウィンの再来」ともよばれているようですが、ちょうど最近本家James Baldwinのドキュメンタリーが出たようです。 （オックスフォード） James Baldwin (1924-87) a US writer of novels and plays. He had immediate success with his first novel Go, Tell It On the Mountain (1954), which, like much of his later work, deals with the condition of African Americans.
I Am Not Your Negro captures all that was galvanizing and forceful about Baldwin. The language in the film is his own–Samuel L. Jackson reads the manuscript excerpts–and it resonates, sometimes painfully, today. “I’m terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country,” Baldwin said in a 1963 TV appearance. The words my country are the clincher. Even if the place you will always call home doesn’t have the power to break you, there’s no guarantee it will never break your heart.
先日のブログで雑誌Natureの社説を取り上げAcademics, in particular, must break out of their cultural bubbles and work to understand the sentiments behind Trump’s rise.（特にアカデミックは業界の殻を破ってトランプの台頭の背後にはる感情を理解しようと努める必要がある）という部分を紹介しまたが、まさにBubbleをからかうSNLのスキットが先週放映されたようです。
Coming in January 2017, The Bubble is a planned community of like-minded free thinkers -- and no one else. So if you're an open-minded person, come here and close yourself in.
******
The Bubble is a diverse community and safe space for everyone. We don't see color here, but we celebrate it.
It’s a powerful segment—and not only because it’s intimately informed by things SNL’s writers likely know very well: the cultural and commercial habits of a very particular, and very stereotypical, cross-section of young progressives. “The Bubble” is Brooklyn, essentially, presented at once as geography and as a very precise set of political assumptions. SNL, with “The Bubble,” is making fun of that, and of itself—of its own generally progressive viewers, of its own generally progressive writers. It is having fun with, but also giving credence to, one of the criticisms most commonly lobbed against progressives: that they are smug. And that they are, in their way, just as narrow-minded as the people they condemn for their provincialism.
That wasn’t the only thing that made the sketch so powerful, though. “The Bubble” was also poking fun at—and, in the best way, exploring—some of the broader ideas that have informed aftermath of a divisive election: ideas about filter bubbles and homophily and destructive partisanship. SNL’s ad for The Bubble talked about “things everybody loves,” listing things that … really only some bodies love. The ad, in a pointed rebuke to Barack Obama’s united version, talked about “their America.” And then it talked about “we.” It took the transcendent anxieties of the current political moment—the fear that this vitriolic campaign might have fundamentally altered the “we” of the Declaration and the Constitution, the “we” whose realization has been the most crucial purpose of the American experiment—and satirized them.
（スクリプト） The unthinkable has finally happened. Our nation torn, broken. You could move to Canada, but you love your country. What can a person like you do?
What if there was a place where the unthinkable didn't happen and life could continue for progressive Americans just as before.
Now there is.
Welcome -- to The Bubble.
Coming in January 2017, The Bubble is a planned community of like-minded free thinkers -- and no one else. So if you're an open-minded person, come here and close yourself in. In here, it's like the election never happened.
While who knows what the hell is happening outside in their America, The Bubble will be a fully functional city-state.
With things everybody loves: like hybrid cars, used-bookstores, and small farms with the rawest milk you’ve ever tasted.
Now that’s more like it. Even though you’re in the bubble, you’ll still stay fully connected to the world outside.
We’ve streamlined our high speed internet with only the good sites, like HuffPo, Daily Kos, Netflix documentaries about sushi rice and the explosive comedy of McSweeney’s.
Hmm, clever.
Need entertainment? The bubble has so much to do. Go to the bar and engage with a wide array of diverse viewpoints.
Yes, exactly! Totally! Right?
The Bubble is a diverse community and safe space for everyone. We don't see color here, but we celebrate it.
And unlike the rest of America, anybody is welcome to join us. One bedroom apartment starts at $1.9 million.
Planning is underway to give you everything you need. Except police or firemen, because we haven’t found any who’d agree to live here.
It’s their America now. We’ll be fine, right here in the bubble.
Join Us! Starting in 2017, the bubble. It’s Brooklyn with a bubble on it.
NHKラジオの実践ビジネス英語の５月号がSizing Up the Millenials（２０００年世代の評価）で、６月号はLiving the American Dream（アメリカンドリームを生きる）でした。ちょうどUnwindingやDivideを読んでいたタイミングもあったので、興味深く読むことができました。日本語訳を読むだけでも英検や国連英検対策になるのではないでしょうか。
When Friends Debuted 20 Years Ago, People Gave It a D+ Early reviews for one of the best-loved sitcoms of the '90s called the show's stars not just "sexy" and "urbane," but also "dysfunctional morons." MEGAN GARBER SEP 22 2014, 2:25 PM ET
There was a time when the phrases "how YOU doin'," "could I BE more excited?" and "we were on a break!" didn't make people laugh. There was a time when the unemployed twenty-somethings making their way in New York City lived in terrible apartments in Queens. There was a time when Rachel was not a haircut, when smelly cats weren't the subjects of troubadourian ballads, when friends who happened to live near each other were not also, in their way, a family.
That time was, pretty much, the entirety of human history that came before September 22, 1994—the day Friends debuted as part of NBC's Thursday-night lineup. The show would go on not only to average more than 20 million viewers (25 million as of its eighth season), but also to reach a kind of cultural ubiquity in the form of catch-phrases, quizzes, reaction gifs, and many, many knock-offs. Between TBS and Nick at Nite, Slate's Willa Paskin points out, the show "is currently rerun eight times a day."
It wasn't clear from the beginning, though, that Friends would become such a success. While many of the critics who reviewed the show liked it, there were also some who found Central Perk to be decidedly unperky. One resented the show's "rimshot writing." Another, the characters' promiscuity. Another called the friends themselves "dysfunctional morons."
記事ではいろいろな媒体のレビューがありますが、D+のPeopleとTimeのレビューが以下です。
People The scripts are filled with pop references—e.g., gags about David Hasselhoff, Shari Lewis and Mentos mints. A game cast delivers the barrage of banter with an arch coyness that suggests they think they're in some Gen X Neil Simon play. The show's saving grace is that as the weeks go by, the characters begin to grow on you. That has more to do with the actors' animation than it does with the rimshot writing. NBC (Thursdays, 9:30 p.m. ET) D+
*******
Time Life on Seinfeld may be laid back, but its characters always seem to have someplace to go. In Friends the crowd is always around to share their latest personal woes or offer a shoulder to cry on. But who would want advice from these dysfunctional morons, with their obsessive pop-culture references?
オックスフォードの英英辞典でもこのドラマが見出し語になっています。しかもジョーイのHow you doin’?も紹介しています（笑）
（オックスフォード） Friends a popular US television comedy series (1994–2004) about six close friends in New York. The characters are Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Ross and Joey. The stories are about the joys and problems of love, work and friendships. How you doin’? Joey in Friends
There was a time when the phrases "how YOU doin'," "could I BE more excited?" and "we were on a break!" didn't make people laugh.という冒頭の文がピンとこなかった方のために。フレンズファンは"how YOU doin'"とあればジョーイの顔が、"could I BE more …?”とあればチャンドラーの顔が浮かぶことでしょう。
AtlanticにWhy Steve Ballmer Failed（バルマーが失敗した理由）という記事があったので、今さらどうして？と思っていたらマイクロソフトがプレスリリースを出していたようですね。
Why Steve Ballmer Failed The resignation of Microsoft's CEO is also an acknowledgement: The computer world changed, and Microsoft hasn't. DEREK THOMPSON AUG 23 2013, 11:37 AM ET
Microsoft still isn't a place that builds things people really like. It's a place that builds things people -- and, particularly, business people -- think they have to use.
BREAKING NEWS Friday, August 23, 2013 9:25 AM EDT Microsoft Says Steve Ballmer Will Retire as C.E.O. Within 12 Months Steve Ballmer, who succeeded Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as chief executive of the company, will retire within the next 12 months, the software giant said Friday.
“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement on the company’s Web site.
Mr. Ballmer will stay on until a successor is chosen by a special committee of the board of directors that includes John W. Thompson, the board’s lead independent director, and Mr. Gates, chairman of the company. The committee will consider both internal and external candidates, the company said.
READ MORE » http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/technology/ballmer-announces-retirement-from-microsoft.html?emc=edit_na_20130823
as chief executive of the companyと役職なので冠詞が使われていないとか、後任選び・引き継ぎ期間はtransitionだ、後任はsuccessorだなとか実感しながら読めますね。また「主任」という意味のleadがthe board’s lead independent directorとして使われています。
The committee will consider both internal and external candidates, the company said.と最後にさらっと書かれていますが、社外からも候補者を探すということはマイクロソフトの危機感を感じ取れるかもしれません。
次にプレスリリースの確認です。オフィシャルな文書なのでupon the completion of a process to choose his successor（後任選考プロセスが完了次第）のupon the completion ofといったフォーマルな表現が使われています。
REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 23, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer has decided to retire as CEO within the next 12 months, upon the completion of a process to choose his successor. In the meantime, Ballmer will continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its transformation to a devices and services company that empowers people for the activities they value most.
“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time,” Ballmer said. “We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company’s transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction.”
The Board of Directors has appointed a special committee to direct the process. This committee is chaired by John Thompson, the board’s lead independent director, and includes Chairman of the Board Bill Gates, Chairman of the Audit Committee Chuck Noski and Chairman of the Compensation Committee Steve Luczo. The special committee is working with Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., a leading executive recruiting firm, and will consider both external and internal candidates.
“The board is committed to the effective transformation of Microsoft to a successful devices and services company,” Thompson said. “As this work continues, we are focused on selecting a new CEO to work with the company’s senior leadership team to chart the company’s course and execute on it in a highly competitive industry.”
“As a member of the succession planning committee, I’ll work closely with the other members of the board to identify a great new CEO,” said Gates. “We’re fortunate to have Steve in his role until the new CEO assumes these duties.”
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
leadについて取り上げたついでに、さまざまなかたちで使われていたものを見てみます。
動詞lead「率いる」 In the meantime, Ballmer will continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its transformation
形容詞lead「トップの；主任の」 This committee is chaired by John Thompson, the board’s lead independent director, and includes Chairman of the Board Bill Gates,
形容詞leading「大手の；主要な」 The special committee is working with Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., a leading executive recruiting firm, and will consider both external and internal candidates.
名詞leaderここでは「大手企業」 Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
“The board is committed to the effective transformation of Microsoft to a successful devices and services company,”
ビルゲイツの言葉も紹介されています。 “As a member of the succession planning committee, I’ll work closely with the other members of the board to identify a great new CEO,” said Gates. “We’re fortunate to have Steve in his role until the new CEO assumes these duties.”
work closely with （人） to do 「（人）と連携［協力］して〜する」とか、誰かを選ぶという意味でto identify a great new CEOと動詞identifyが使われているなと、すでに知っている言葉でも用例に触れて実感していきたいですね。
後任が決まるまでバルマーがCEOを務めることについて“We’re fortunate to have Steve in his role until the new CEO assumes these duties.”と感謝を述べているところも気遣いとして学んでいきたいです。
