Dan Clarendon

storyteller, freelance journalist, graphic designer, pilot penner, editor, IB diploma recipient, City Year alumnus, Hampshire frog, cat lover, TV buff, tabletop gamer, colossus, klutz, southpaw, culinary wanna-be, cookie monster, cathedral-builder, punster, unabashed hedonist, frequent couch potato, queer husband

storyteller 📖
freelance journalist 📰
and graphic designer 🎨

featured post

recent work

TV Insider •

The Biggest Censor Fails in TV History: F-Bombs, Nipplegate, the Oscars Streaker & More

Fifteen years ago, on June 30, 2011, MSNBC suspended political analyst Mark Halperin for a Morning Joe segment in which Halperin referred to then-President Barack Obama as “kind of a d***.” That wasn’t the first or worst time that TV censors dropped the ball. Here are even more salacious and outrageous moments that went uncensored, our picks for the biggest censor fails in television history.
TV Insider •

What’s the Best Streaming Service for Sci-Fi Fans? Here’s What We Found

Streaming: the final frontier. These are the services of Hollywood enterprises. Their continuing mission: to showcase strange new worlds, to spotlight new life and new civilizations, to boldly show what no linear TV network has shown before. Yes, science-fiction stories live long and prosper on streaming services, and when it comes time for fans to pay those subscription fees, well… resistance is futile.

other highlights

TV Insider •

Christopher Nolan’s Best Films, Ranked

Christopher Nolan’s newest film is his biggest yet — quite literally. For The Odyssey, in theaters on Friday, July 17, the director shot all 172 minutes on IMAX film in a groundbreaking feat for cinema as he adapted Homer’s ancient Greek epic. Ahead of The Odyssey, we’re taking a voyage through Nolan’s filmography and listing our picks for his best works so far, with every expectation that his best is yet to come.
TV Insider •

Disney’s Live-Action Adaptations, Ranked From Worst to Best

Not even 10 full years after the release of the animated Moana, Disney is coming out with a live-action remake. Catherine Laga‘aia is taking over for Auliʻi Cravalho in the title part, while Dwayne Johnson is taking over for Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui. (But really, who else?) Though an original-to-remake gap of 10 years is quick even by Disney standards, the company has been prioritizing live-action versions of its animated hits recently, to mixed results.
Swooon •

9 Sports Romance Books That Could Be Next 'Heated Rivalry' Hit

Hockey suddenly became the hottest sport last November, when HBO Max started streaming the Canadian sports romance series Heated Rivalry, an adaptation of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers book series. Then we got more “pucking” action with the hockey-player-meets-tutor Prime Video series Off Campus, and before your ice skates get dull, Icebreaker will enter the rink at Netflix. But so many other sports romance books are ready for adaptation, including the MVPs here...
Remind •

Why 'Pretty in Pink's Original Ending Got Booed

Forty years ago, moviegoers watched a teenage love triangle play out in the comedy-drama film Pretty in Pink, as the working-class Andie (Molly Ringwald) weighed her romantic prospects with fellow outsider Duckie (Jon Cryer) or upper-class love interest Blane (Andrew McCarthy).

In the end — four-decade-old spoiler alert! — Andie chooses Blane, and Duckie sacrifices his own happy ending to support the new relationship. But John Hughes’ screenplay for the film didn’t originally end that way.
Remind •

Why Fred Rogers Took On His Only Acting Role Outside 'Mr. Rogers'

Fred Rogers logged hundreds of TV appearances in his persona as Mister Rogers — and not just on his long-running series Mister Rogers Neighborhood. But he only played another character on screen one time — and that rare acting role came 30 years ago, in an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

In the CBS drama’s fourth season episode “Deal with the Devil” — which aired on February 17, 1996 — Rogers played Reverend Thomas. And the role was familiar territory for the children’s TV star...
Queerty •

It’s Transgender Awareness Week, and trans folk are sharing their stories

Every November 13 to November 19 is Transgender Awareness Week, a time to educate the public about trans identities and the fight for trans equality and safety, all of which leads up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20. As GLAAD explains, trans advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith created Transgender Day of Remembrance in 1999 in memory of Rita Hester, a trans woman murdered the previous year.
Distractify •

Albert Einstein’s Brain Traveled the Country for Decades After His Death

Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein died in 1955, but the story of his brain has continued for years now, all because of one man who took the gray matter into his own hands and kept it for decades, even crossing state lines with the brain. What happened to Einstein’s brain?

Believe it or not, it was the pathologist who conducted Einstein’s autopsy who just took the brain without permission, as detailed in last year’s documentary film The Man Who Stole Einstein’s Brain.
Queerty •

Gay men sound off on the need to confront transphobia among other gay men

Hang out on Reddit long enough, and you’ll eventually see transphobic attitudes show up—explicitly and implicitly—in queer communities on the platform. And social media is, of course, a microcosm of a society which some think LGB equality is an acceptable substitute for LGBT equality.

One Reddit user recently shed light on transphobia in the gay male population, saying that although he loves being gay and trans, his interactions with cis gay men “[have], by and large, been less than ideal.”
LGBTQ Nation •

Young people are coming out in huge numbers. These families found beautiful ways to support their kids.

Paria Hassouri and her husband were thousands of miles from home, on vacation in Thailand, when they got a call from their daughter’s school. A teacher told them that Ava, then 13, was questioning her gender identity. During Ava’s coming-out experience, Hassouri educated herself about how best to support her daughter. Other parents are trying to do the same, as children and teens are opening up — sometimes even earlier in their lives — about their placement in a galaxy of queer existence.
Teen Vogue •

Gender Affirming Surgeries Are Being Delayed or Canceled Because of the Coronavirus Pandemic

On March 13, the American College of Surgeons recommended hospitals across the country minimize, postpone, or cancel all scheduled elective surgeries because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As many hospitals took that advice and shed certain procedures from the books, many transgender people were left with devastating setbacks as gender-affirming surgeries were canceled or indefinitely postponed as the question of which procedures are “elective” looms.
see more freelance work