“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” MLK Jr.

The week of Jan. 16, 2016 was: Sean Penn Who? It’s a Mexican television star who got El Chapo’s attention; Wikipedia turns 15; Snoop narrates Planet Earth (it’s the best); Cakeage: the new corkage? Also, thinking of carpooling with Adele.

We will miss you ‘Severus Snape’ and David Bowie. The latter’s love story with Iman is the ultimate Mash-Up.

Mash-Ups in the News:

Watch David Bowie, Circa 1983, School MTV For Not Featuring Black Artists

“I’ll tell you what maybe the Isley Brothers or Marvin Gaye means to a black 17-year-old. And surely he’s part of America as well. Do you not find that it’s a frightening predicament to be in? Is it not possible it should be a conviction of the station to be fair? It does seem to be rampant through American media. Should it not be a challenge to make the media far more integrated?” — Bowie to MTV VJ Mark Goodman

via Rolling Stone

The Illegal, Underground Ballerinas of Iran

It is illegal to dance in Iran. This glorious culture that used to fund the arts and is responsible for so much beauty in history, doesn’t allow dancing or many other forms of expression. Cut to an underground scene of ballet dancers quietly fighting the regime with pas de bourree.

via Vice

My Wife and I Are (Both) Pregnant

Japanese-White-Lesbian Mash-Ups were ready to start trying to have kids. They were having trouble so their fertility doctor recommended they both try and, well, they had babies four days apart. It’s an amazing story about what it means to make a family.

via The Cut

How Nikki Haley was Redeemed by Donald Trump

An Indian-American writer explores his complex feelings about Nimrata Randhawa, aka Nikki Haley, and about being reflected in American politics. The message seems to be: anglicize your name and convert to Christianity to fit in. And yet, after the South Carolina governor delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union address, the writer was totally inspired that Gov. Haley owned both her Indian roots and her Republican ideals.

via NYT Magazine

The 2016 Oscar Noms: And the Winner (Again) is #OscarsSoWhite

We understand that different people like different films but how is it that not one person of color or movie about people of color, is nominated in most of the categories, especially the big ones? This is not what America looks like. We’re going to keep telling great stories loudly and making our voices heard!

via Vox

Saoirse Ronan Teaches Stephen Colbert How to Pronounce Irish Names

Siobhan. Tadhg. Niamh. Oisin. Caoimhe. You know we talk a lot about names here at Mash-Up and damn, these Irish names are harder than most to pronounce. Colbert makes a valiant effort.

via Entertainment Weekly

Why People Need to Stop Calling Asian Food ‘A Trend’

Stop Columbus’ing Asian food! Just because it’s new to you, doesn’t mean you discovered it. And also, everyone is welcome to enjoy it because it’s delicious.

via Yahoo

‘One Day at a Time’ to Get Latino Reboot on Netflix

Watch out Valerie Bertinelli! We don’t know who comes up with these ideas (Norman Lear), but we are pumped because we loved ‘One Day at a Time.’ And which Latino isn’t used to a whole bunch of friends and family and neighbors showing up all the time unannounced! That’s totally our jam.

via US Magazine

Why Some Spices Are So Expensive (& Why You Should Spend the Money)

Whenever a recipe calls for saffron, as many delicious Mash-Up recipes do, we tend to just leave it out because it’s so expensive for, like, two strands of it. It turns out this isn’t some saffron conspiracy. It’s actually just really labor-intensive to get to those two strands.

via Food 52