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Dont Let Me Fall: Hip-Hop in the Age of Austerity
Rappers have always wrestled with the question of how to succeed in a society where the odds are stacked against them. The biggest difference now is that their middle class listeners have the same worries. [9.Feb.12]
Playing Guarde: Music Metacreation and the Vanguard
To create something or to create something that creates something; that is a question. But if you lead an electric horse to art, does it dream of the avant-garde? [9.Feb.12]
ReFramed No. 19: Michelangelo Antonionis 'Zabriskie Point' (1970)
By Jordan Cronk and Calum Marsh
What happens when an admitted auteur makes a grand -- and quite insular -- artistic statement? Critics are dumbfounded, which means it's time for our preservationist pair to break out the accolades. [9.Feb.12]
Blue Estate: A Sardonic Pulp Paradigm?
By Michael D. Stewart
It's the turning of the final tide, the groundbreaking Blue Estate wraps issue #8, which closes the second volume of the collected editions, and launches issue #9, which opens the final volume. The stakes, and the value, couldn't be higher. [9.Feb.12]
The Top 15 Madonna Singles of All Time
In the wake of Madonna'a ostentatious Super Bowl halftime performance, PopMatters presents a rundown of the Queen of Pop's 15 finest singles. [8.Feb.12]
Today's Articles
9.Feb.12
Sharon Van Etten: Tramp
The way we heal is a huge part of the sweet exhaustion of Tramp, but it is a double-edged affair.
Dierks Bentley: Home
It leaves you with the impression that Bentley has made something special here -- not just his most consistent album and 2012’s first great country album, but even more.
Lawrence Ball: Method Music
Math whiz Lawrence Ball adds another baby step of progress for Pete Townshend's "Lifehouse" project.
The Devil's Blood: The Thousandfold Epicentre
While heckles are raised when terms like "vintage" and "retro" are tossed about, the Devil's Blood has undeniably evoked the electrifying rush of '60s and '70s occult rock. What other sprits they have invoked along the way, well, that's a whole other story.
Orchestra of Spheres: Nonagonic Now
Orchestra of Spheres should be recognized for its willingness to take chances and experiment with instrument-construction and sound in general. Unfortunately, the band’s ratio of hits to misses on this album is right about 50/50.
The Caretaker: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
Stalactites in the canyons of your mind.
Dont Let Me Fall: Hip-Hop in the Age of Austerity
Rappers have always wrestled with the question of how to succeed in a society where the odds are stacked against them. The biggest difference now is that their middle class listeners have the same worries.
Playing Guarde: Music Metacreation and the Vanguard
To create something or to create something that creates something; that is a question. But if you lead an electric horse to art, does it dream of the avant-garde?
The Dark Pop-Punk of the Shadow Delivers
Unlike potboiler musicians with kiss-off egos, the Shadow proves that Blank Generation music was open-ended and robust, a welcome home to punk brands of all stripes.
The Evolving Anthropological Tone of Star Wars in Dawn of the Jedi
When examining a work whose mythology is an expansive as Star Wars, it almost becomes a historiographical investigation as opposed to a literary one.
Blue Estate: A Sardonic Pulp Paradigm?
It's the turning of the final tide, the groundbreaking Blue Estate wraps issue #8, which closes the second volume of the collected editions, and launches issue #9, which opens the final volume. The stakes, and the value, couldn't be higher.
National Disasters: Michael Lewis's 'Boomerang'
Michael Lewis explores the global economic crisis through the eyes of a financial disaster tourist -- and brings back a collection of exotic stereotypes about the people and places that he visited.
'The Odditorium': by Someone Whose Short Fiction Should be Well Known
These stories are told with thick, evocative language that speaks of viscera and flowers and poetry and violence, from times distant and more recent, ringing individual and unique.
ReFramed No. 19: Michelangelo Antonionis 'Zabriskie Point' (1970)
What happens when an admitted auteur makes a grand -- and quite insular -- artistic statement? Critics are dumbfounded, which means it's time for our preservationist pair to break out the accolades.
Ben Gazzara and The End Of An Aura
Ben Gazzara: 1930 - 2012. What can you say about Gazzara? He was relevant in every decade going back to the '50s.
'United Red Army': Revolutionaries Lost Without a Map
This ambitious three-hour-plus examination of Japan's notorious radical left-wing militant group loses its way in the narrative fog.
Seijun Suzuki's Classic New-Wave Gangster Films: 'Tokyo Drifter' and 'Branded to Kill'
Fans of classic yakuza films and Japanese new-wave cinema have reason to celebrate today with Criterion’s release of Seijun Suzuki’s 1966 Tokyo…
ReelAbilities Day 1: 'Body and Soul' and 'Defining Beauty'
Body and Soul and Defining Beauty: Ms. Wheelchair America both feature admirable subjects who have "overcome obstacles," and also take refreshingly unconventional approaches to these subjects.
'Portlandia': The Tour: 18 January 2012 - Chicago
Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein were not out to throw a big production, nor re-enact characters and sketches. Instead they were onstage as Fred and Carrie, real people with a knack for casual conversational comedy looking to hang out.
Faith vs. Sonic
Despite sharing many of the same problems, I'm willing to cut Mirror's Edge more slack than Sonic CD.
Recent Articles
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
A Look to the Past, An Insight Into the Present: The Use of Gender in 'Mad Men'
Looking beyond the aesthetic surface of the series, what is the true motivation behind Mad Men’s frank depictions of these troubled social times? Is sexism being used as some sort of nostalgic trope, or does Mad Men actually delve deeper and explore these issues?
Does Silence Speak in the Loudest Voice?: Misconceptions about Silent Protagonists in Video Games
Granted, Link does “hiyah,” “eyah,” and “ahh” his way through all of his post-64-bit adventures, but no amount of elfish interjections can change his status as a silent protagonist. Is a failure to communicate much, a failure to communicate?
Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral
After eight years spent growling for others, Mark Lanegan returns with his most musically diverse album to date.
On President Obama's Mother: 'A Singular Woman' and Her Egalitarian Spirit
This book reveals Stanley Ann to be an intellectually curious, passionate, idealistic, and unconventional woman whose sense of wonder and love shaped the lives of two children -- including the one that would become the 44th president of the United States.
As Theo Van Gogh Knew, Hell Really is Other People: '3 by Theo'
Of his nearly 30 films, these three by Theo Van Gogh each focuses on verbal wrestling between a man and a woman.
Die Antwoord: Ten$ion
Die Antwoord may be strange and engrossing, but are they making good music? Yes and no.
Robert Altman Before and After 'M*A*S*H': 'Countdown' & 'Brewster McCloud'
These two early curiosities from Robert Altman's career are available on-demand.
Detective Inspector Malcolm Fox Returns in 'The Impossible Dead'
Ian Rankin's dialogue rings true; a sense of life as actually lived, and the lessons to be learned — or not — from history, all framed in an engrossing story never told hurriedly, but always well-paced.
Escort: Escort
A modern take on disco music; an old-fashioned take on male wish fulfillment.
Doug Jerebine: Is Jesse Harper
Lost rock 'n' soul classic from spiritual seeker.
Mark Sultan: Whatever/Whenever
Sultan blends together his doo-wop, garage, and punk influences, presenting himself as a peerless artist.
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Mitt Romney Can Reside at Today's Proverbial 'Downton Abbey'... Newt Gingrich Cannot
Downton Abbey reveals not only the play of chance that often confounds choice, but the power of social class to confine choice within established boundaries -- and we're comfortable with that.
The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time
While some want to question his authorship, there is no denying the lasting influence of William Shakespeare. These 10 titles prove that with accolades to spare.
Film Archiving: The Importance of Enlightening Those Audiences Sitting in the Dark
Special programs devoted to cinematic greats like Alfred Hitchcock or Deborah Kerr might be the flashiest part of an archivist’s job, but fiction curator Jo Botting also enjoys tracking down rare films and ensuring the next generation gets to see them.
Mental Pop & Beyoncé Beats: An Interview with Liam Finn
Crusty walls of distortion co-exist with pop hooks in the second and latest solo album from Liam Finn. Here the songwriter talks about taking a break from life on the road to write FOMO in far-off New Zealand, working with producer Burke Reed and percussionist Glenn Kotche to seriously tinker with his sound and taking inspiration from, of all people, Beyoncé.
'Driver: San Francisco' and 'Drive'
Two men dictated by driving: one driven by an intense focus on the calm precision necessary to master the physical science of it all, the other driven by the raw emotional power that a two ton extension of the self provides.
'Doomsday Preppers': Planning for the End of Times
If you’re a statistically average person, what are your chances of following these people’s lead and successfully preparing for social collapse? Well, pretty long, unless you have quite a few acres of land lying fallow in the country and a couple hundred thousand extra dollars.
Becky Cloonan's Smile: Dark Horse's Reboot of Conan
I'm sure the smile used by Becky Cloonan to signal her enjoyment is a perfectly good smile. But the smile she draws on Conan is sublime. It opens the character in a way very few writers have been capable of.
Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom
As musical interpretations of romance go, Kisses on the Bottom may only get you about halfway there, flowers in hand wondering whether a second date is on the cards, unsure if that’s even what you want at all.
Twin Sister: 29 January 2012 - Austin, TX
Twin Sister is a talented and smart collective of musicians, but their set at the Mohawk showed that they still have a long way to go before they can enter the realm of "captivating live act".
The Magician Inside Us All: Sleights of Mind'
Two neuroscientists show how magicians exploit our brains' cognitive process to fool us.
Vincent Gallo Is a Taliban Insurgent on the Run in 'Essential Killing'
Following a insurgent on the run in the mountains of Poland, this art house thriller has less to it than meets the eye.
Monday, 6 February 2012
'Nebraska': Bruce Springsteen's 'Heart of Darkness'
In 1982, with the charts ruled by “Physical”, “Don’t You Want Me” and “Eye of the Tiger”, along came a low-tech record about killers, small-time thieves and other forgotten souls -- and it's still one of the best albums in American music.
Not-So-Central Casting: Kevin Smith and the Birth of the Reality Podcast
Filmmaker Kevin Smith may be in a celluloid slump, but his new podcast network is on point.
Why Deathspell Omega's Trilogy Has Changed the Face of Black Metal
The concept of a “trilogy” is such an overdone thing. Be it film trilogies, album trilogies, book trilogies, video game trilogies… we have all seen trilogies in various forms of entertainment media to the point of it becoming banal. At the end of the Deathspell Omega experience however, do not be alarmed if you wake up to find yourself in Silent Hill.
The Moving Pixels Podcast Explores the World of 'Skyrim'
The Moving Pixels podcast crew get together to discuss the varied approaches that they took to exploring the vast world of Skyrim.
'Smash' Is a Drama for Adults
All of the central characters are people working at jobs. They're creative, highly skilled jobs for which few people are qualified, but they are jobs nonetheless.
Five Years Gone: The Folded Time of Action #6
Action #6's "When Superman Learned to Fly" reminds us poignantly that the superhero's struggle is never against their inner demons, but a never-ending battle to overcome the siren's call of mediocrity.
Of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks
Kevin Barnes takes Of Montreal out of its sexy funk phase and into its...20th century atonal minimalism phase? Yikes.
They Might Be Giants Slay on Tour: 28 January 2012 - Los Angeles
Weird was good at the seminal silly band's 30th anniversary gig.
Hunter S. Thompson, the Method and the Man: 'Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone'
When Hunter S. Thompson began writing for Rolling Stone magazine, he had already developed his distinct voice and highly recognizable style, but at Rolling Stone, he perfected it.
'My Fair Lady': Let's Revisit This Loverly Classic in HD
This musical gets criticized because of its outdated sense of romance, when in reality it's a subversive feminist piece.
'SoulCalibur V' Is a Very Vibrant Game
SoulCalibur remains the most accessible fighting game series out there, but it certainly won’t make anyone a pro.
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