Today is the 100th anniversary of the national premiere of “The Birth of a Nation,” D.W. Griffith’s simultaneously racist and classic movie. I made the argument today that everyone should watch the film. And I’d be curious to know: What piece of pop culture do you think ought to be on everyone’s list in spite of, or even because of, its troubling ideas?  • “Spock’s Struggle Was His Fans’ Struggle, Too,” by Jordan Orlando: There have been a lot of terrific reflections on Leonard Nimoy’s relationship to his most famous creation. But I particularly liked this one, which looks at Nimoy in the context of the rise of organized nerd communities.  “By the time ‘Star Trek’ was in its second season, the Boston-born theater actor with a Method background was already imprisoned in a gilded science-fiction cage. At 36, after more than a decade of acting and teaching, Nimoy was suddenly the breakout star of NBC’s hit show, receiving more fan mail than the rest of the cast combined,” Orlando writes. “Meanwhile the ‘official’ star of the series, William Shatner, resented that he was not the center of attention, famously counting lines of dialogue to ensure that Spock didn’t get more screen time than Captain Kirk. But it made no difference: Spock was the show’s lightning rod, even though the actor who played him viewed the character and its cultish impedimenta as a detour in a more serious career that was permanently forestalled.”  • “Maria von Trapp: The Preeminent Manic Pixie Dream Girl,” by Sophie Gilbert: I very much enjoyed my friend Sophie’s look at the flighty charms of the heroine of “The Sound of Music.”  “Maria, played with infinite grace by Julie Andrews, is an early exemplar of the kind of twee noughties heroine later embodied by Zooey Deschanel in ‘New Girl’ and ‘500 Days of Summer.’ She makes clothes out of curtains,” Gilbert argues. “She takes the von Trapp children on cycling tours of scenic Austria, where she teaches them to sing. She doles out romantic advice to Liesl, who doesn’t need a governess, in an infinitely empathetic and non-judgmental way, even if that wisdom ultimately isn’t helpful (Rolfe’s betrayal of the von Trapps to the Nazis ends up being one of the cruelest movie twists of childhood). She directs ambitious and quirky puppet shows about lonely goatherds, and yodeling is involved. She employs parataxis to conquer fear, creating long lists of happy thoughts that comfort the children during a thunderstorm, and these happy thoughts are basically a description of Taylor Swift’s Instagram feed: warm woolen mittens, cream-colored ponies, silver-white winters that melt into springs. If she’d only had access to a ukelele, you’d best believe she would have played it.”  • “Inside ‘The Americans’ Costume Shop,” by Bryan Abrams: Over at the Credits, Abrams looks at the research that goes into creating the gorgeous, period-appropriate looks for FX’s Cold War drama.  ” ‘I knew going in that people heard 1980s they’d automatically think neon, big hair, shoulder pads, and I also knew that was actually not true,’ costume designer Jenny Gering told us when we interviewed her about her work on ‘The Americans,’ ” Abrams reports. ” ‘1981 looks much more like the late 70s than what people associate with the 1980s. I knew it would be fun for me to reeducate the viewer to the way that time period actually looked. I’m a huge fan of what was going on in fashion at that time.’ Gering and her team has been a big part of what has made ‘The Americans’ so unexpectedly rewarding; here’s a spy show that feels unlike anything else on TV in its genre, and, one that represents a time period that’s often mocked for its fashion insensibility but, through Gering’s lens, was actually replete with great clothes.”  • “Oprah Winfrey on Closing Harpo Studios, OWN Expansion, Broadway Plans,” by Lacey Rose: This is a good summary of Winfrey’s future programming plans, which include a number of very interesting-sounding projects, but it’s also revealing to read her reflections on Chicago.  “In a phone interview from the Harpo offices in Chicago, Winfrey acknowledges a mix of excitement and nostalgia,” Rose writes. “‘[Chicago has] been everything for me. I’ve spent more hours in this building than I have any other building on Earth. … We were here when there was nothing but hoes and rats on the street, and now it’s one of the hottest neighborhoods [in Chicago],’ she says, noting that OWN will stop shooting shows there as of Tuesday. ‘The time had come to downsize this part of the business and to move forward. It will be sad to say goodbye, but I look ahead with such a knowing that what the future holds is even more than I can see.'”  Alyssa Rosenberg blogs about pop culture for The Washington Post's Opinions section.
Leonard Nimoy's struggles with Spock, Maria von Trapp as Manic Pixie Dream Girl, the inspiration for the costumes on "The Americans," and what Oprah Winfrey is up to next.