FILM
Everyday Existentialism: The Next Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece
Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan's films are both a little grounded and a little weightless.
[5 November 2004]
The Sounds of Fear
by Marco Lanzagorta
From symphonic to choral, electronic and progressive rock, these very different scores reveal innovation that is rarely found outside the horror genre.
[30 October 2004]
Man of Steel: Christopher Reeve 1952-2004
by Tim O'Neil
Reeve's Kent was an essentially tragic figure, a man set apart from the masses by dint of a powerful secret.
[15 October 2004]
Grab Bag of Queerness: 17th Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival
by Jennifer Bendery
Whether they reflected something true-to-life or were just bizarre, these films united a whole community of queer people who might not otherwise feel connected to each other.
[23 September 2004]
BAMcinématek Presents: The World According to Shorts
by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece
The World According to Shorts this year offered punchy films organized so their rhythms meld into a syncopated pulse.
[23 September 2004]
Frankenstein 9-11
by Michael Nenonen
The family values movement teaches people to be loyal only to their own kin, and to pursue familial interests without concern for a larger society.
[15 September 2004]
BAMcinématek Presents: Steve Buscemi and Jo Andres Select
by Jesse Hassenger
You may not fully appreciate Steve Buscemi's abilities as an actor until you see him in person.
[30 July 2004]
Are My Methods Unsound?: Marlon Brando, 1924-2004
by Kelly Manion
On screen, he rebelled against 'the man'; offscreen, he rebelled against the rebel stereotype imposed on him.
[8 July 2004]
Living in Dreams: Wong Kar-Wai
by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece
Fluid and erratic, viscous and elusive, Wong Kar-Wai's films are feats of dream logic.
[3 June 2004]
The 18th Annual Washington, DC International Film Festival
by Elbert Ventura
This year's Filmfest DC, the 18th, was mild cause for excitement among locals and hardly at all for international cinephiles. Thus, it seems, it will always be for a film festival located in the capital, where the national soap opera invariably drowns out everything in its radius.
[13 May 2004]
Better Than the Material
by Jesse Hassenger
Groundhog Day reconciles the smart-ass and nice guy aspects of Bill Murray's persona completely, and weirdly parallels his career.
[6 May 2004]
47th San Francisco International Film Festival
by Sharon Mizota
At the San Francisco International Film Festival, it's entirely possible to assemble your own festival within a festival, to choose your own adventure. Like life in San Francisco, you can forget about the next big thing in favor of doing your own thing.
[6 May 2004]
The Philadelphia Film Festival Report
by Michael Christopher
This year at the Philadelphia Film Festival, the movies are the focus, from a 30th Anniversary screening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Control Room, a documentary on Al Jazeera filmed during the takeover of Iraq.
[28 April 2004]
Mortality and Mercy in Los Angeles
by Michael Healey
In the decade since Pulp Fiction's release, fans and detractors alike have had difficulty reconciling the film's spiritual aspect with its violent imagery, ironic tonal fluctuations, stylized dialogue, and ubiquitous pop culture references.
[21 April 2004]
The Passion of the Dead
by Michael Nenonen
The Passion of the Christ is as much a horror movie as Dawn of the Dead writes Nenonen. Both films deal with damnation, death, and resurrection. Neither offers any hope for salvation through human virtue.
[12 April 2004]
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GENERAL
These Times/This Place
by PopMatters Writers
PopMatters is pleased to bring you These Times/This Place: a collection of essays from various parts of the globe devoted to what the world looks like from this time, in that place, where each writer is standing.
[2004]
International Bright Young Thing: Five Years of PopMatters
by PopMatters Writers
PopMatters looks back over the last five years and reflects on where we started, where we've been, and how far we've come. We're also presenting a list of Editors' Picks from each section of the site -- pieces collected from five years of the sharp, incisive writing that has been the hallmark of the PopMatters standard.
[2004]
Godzilla at 50
by PopMatters Writers
Godzilla has changed. At 50, he is no longer the hulking, pea-brained brute we thought. Our writers contemplate his transition from bringer of Armageddon to bringer of agathon, a fierce and ironic comfort to children who sense that theirs is a dangerous world.
[2004]
The Year In U.S. Politics: New Lows and Scattered Saving Graces
by Terry Sawyer
Ooooh to writh under the blinding glare of his piercing eye, to bear the stinging lash of his sassy tongue. It smarts to be pinned down so and held in the vise-like critique of Terry Sawyer, but 2004 revealed so many deserving people... Ah, but the sparks that fly from this year in review also light up the darkness, giving us glimmers of hope. Not all is lost. Read on.
[30 December 2004]
The Real Nigger Show
by Mark Anthony Neal
Maybe Sambo did die, but there's been a resurrection -- one worthy of a billion dollar industry -- and the opening segment of last week's Monday Night Football broadcast, the Vibe Awards ceremony that was broadcast the following night and the closing minutes ESPN's Friday night NBA game between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers were proof that Sambo and the minstrel stage that so powerfully nurtured his existence are still alive and well and whetting the appetites of those desiring the 'real nigger show'.
[24 November 2004]
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad 527?
by Katie Zerwas
The reality is that while speech, assembly, and petition are guaranteed 'free' that does not mean they do not have a cost.
[27 October 2004]
Kerry Cakewalk: The Second of the 2004 US Presidential Debates
by Terry Sawyer
It's stunning to see the President think that's he's handily dealt with his opponent's charges when he's in fact just lit another one of his hallmark stupidity flares.
[11 October 2004]
Gargoyle Eats Choir Boy: The 2004 US Vice-Presidential Debate
by Terry Sawyer
Cheney may have won if the discussion is dispassionately viewed as a series of chess moves, but the fact remains that he frightens the horses and bores most folks with the scowling, ancient grind of his voice.
[6 October 2004]
Road Kill: The First of the 2004 US Presidential Debates
by Terry Sawyer
Bush and his handlers want the election to be a referendum on the war on terror as some kind of skeet shooting, coon skinnin', bare knuckle boxing triathlon.
[1 October 2004]
Republican Convention: Day Four
by Terry Sawyer
Bush's speech was designed to soft-pedal his ideological psychosis, recycle 'compassionate conservatism,' and excoriate what was his speechwriter's best turn, 'the soft bigotry of low expectations.'
[8 September 2004]
Republican Convention: Day Three
by Terry Sawyer
Zell Miller delivered this blustery bullshit with maximum venom, his mouth drawn tighter than a Crown Royal whiskey sack.
[8 September 2004]
Republican Convention: Day Two
by Terry Sawyer
Tuesday's show felt like one long lull, a string of clichés tepidly delivered. I kept chugging Starbuck's espresso-and-cream cans, wishing Jerry Falwell would come on to talk about how God hates fags and the ACLU.
[1 September 2004]
Republican Convention: Day One
by Terry Sawyer
The greatest feat of the Republican National Convention is to hide the GOP's true beliefs. It's a sign of great discipline that the party machinery would line up its most maligned moderates to speak during primetime, while shuffling the ghastly religious right off to the cold cut line, keeping its theocratic designs tucked under the Wonder Bread.
[31 August 2004]
Don't Call Me Mule, Jackass
by Josh Jones
Now I've come around to the real reason for my decision to vocalize my identification with Richard Wright. There it is, that word: mulatto. An ugly word. Give me a basketful of racist, sexist, homophobic epithets over this word any day. Many such mean-spirited words have fallen out of use, and others have been 'reappropriated,' as they say.
[6 July 2004]
Attack of the Killer Fashionistas
by Vince Carducci
With outsourced private security forces, i.e., corporate mercenaries, conducting interrogations and protecting business interests in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Prada installation in Soho, NY, looking much like a community-based paramilitary organization, can be read as playing on our fears of terrorist activities and our longing for protection from them.
[14 June 2004]
America: Dressed to Kill
by Vince Carducci
Camouflage chic is 'in' again, but not as some form of protest, this time. Rather, it's like the American civilian landscape has been carpet bombed with the imagery and rhetoric of war -- and we're buying it.
[10 May 2004]
Guardians of the Secret
by John Kennedy
Jackson Pollock is the Celtic artist transported to another time as lightning post, all feeling instrument, all-American shape shifter, a radar screen chronicling the psychic energy of the ancients swimming in the ethereal blue unconscious.
[16 April 2004]
Baby-Girl Drama: Remembering Sakia
by Mark Anthony Neal
While it is perhaps easy to suggest that Gunn's murder was an isolated example of gay bashing, such an interpretation obscures the relationship between sexuality and gender. Gay men are often 'bashed' because of an affinity to women and lesbians are bashed because they 'are' women. In many regards, homophobia is rooted in misogyny -- a hatred of women.
[27 January 2004]
Five Reasons Why Global Culture Didn't Suck in 2003...
by Scott Thill
Here's 10 more watershed moments of the past year whose impact will most likely be felt long after Dick Clark's balls drop on New York City and Los Angeles.
[16 January 2004]
Worst 10 Media Events of 2003
by Terry Sawyer
From film and TV to Bush and Madonna, our very own intrepid Terry Sawyer breaks down 2003's worst media moments.
[6 January 2004]
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MUSIC
Negotiating the Dense and Boorish Clots, Or Shopping for Music
by PopMatters Music Critics
In this first of two installments of our look at music shopping, Zeth Lundy explains to us the need to continue seeking missing treasures the old-fashioned way. He might provide hope to Mike Schiller, who bemoans the death of the record collector in the age of easy searches and instant gratification. Mark Harris point out that physical stores aren't helping their own cause by letting genre distinctions shift in irrational ways. Still, Andrew Gilstrap argues that we have to keep supporting our local record stores, and Matt Cibula gives us 21 very good reasons to keep digging through the stacks.
[22 December 2004]
"Dimebag" Darrell: Forever Stronger Than All
by Adrien Begrand
Darrell Abbott's influence on the entire genre of heavy metal is massive; after Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power, every notable young American metal band since has, in some way or another, copped their guitar style from those records: Tool, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Hatebreed, Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, Mastodon... the list is endless.
[10 December 2004]
Dimebag Darrell: High Times With a Cowboy from Hell
by Michael Christopher
Christopher reminisces on his time hangin' with Dimebag Darrell back in 1993.
[10 December 2004]
Best of 2004: The Midwest Reborn, Shades of Gray, and a Chakalicious Classic
by Mark Anthony Neal
Noted cultural critic Mark Anthony Neal picks the best hip-hop and R&B of the year. Yeah, he's a Kanye guy.
[10 December 2004]
...And That's the Way It Was (2004 Yearbook)
by Patrick Schabe
PopMatters Music Editor Patrick Schabe reflects on the year in music and asks if music can remain consistent and familiar and yet still vital. And yep, he thinks Franz Ferdinand is the best of the year.
[9 December 2004]
Best Music of 2004
by Zeth Lundy
PopMatters' own Zeth Lundy looks back on the year and music and gives us his 20 picks of the year, crowning Nick Cave's double-set, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, the best of the year.
[6 December 2004]
What of the Voodoo Child?
by Adam Williams
What would Jimi Hendrix sound like now? The anniversary of the great guitarist's birth has us wondering what kind of records he would have made, what evolution of the blues he would have pioneered, and whether he had even begun to fulfill his limitless potential
[29 November 2004]
Athens' Rich Pageant: The Whigs Breathe New Life into the Famed College Rock Capital
by Jon Garrett
Athens has been coasting on legacy; the town has remained mostly dormant since R.E.M.'s emergence. But something strange is afoot in the idyllic college town once again.
[19 November 2004]
The Way We Get By
by Jon Langmead
Stepping outside the romantic glory of rock and roll Jon Langmead stops and asks a group of seasoned musicians how they survive off stage and beyond the studio.
[17 November 2004]
Angel with Dirty Wings, an ODBituary
by Lee Henderson
The Ol' Dirty Bastard brought impressionism to rap. His rap style was a kind of scarily funny addict-talk. He was an original. Ol' Dirty Bastard's influence on MCs is difficult to chart because, unlike Jay-Z, his style couldn't be easily diluted for mainstream audiences.
[16 November 2004]
Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins
by Adrien Begrand
Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain possesses all the ambition of a slick rock 'n' roll epic, employing such sounds as country, pop rock, noisy art rock, and even jazz. In February of 1994, very few people still had no idea who Pavement were, but on this album, the band ostentatiously carries on like they're the biggest band on the planet.
[15 November 2004]
Talib Kweli's Beautiful Struggle
by Mark Anthony Neal
On his way to commercial breakthrough, has Talib Kweli sacrificed his social conscience? Or has he simply grounded it in the more fundamental matters of family and the love of the flow?
[12 November 2004]
Songs for the Dumped
by Elisabeth Donelly
Breakup albums are universal -- everyone has their particular album or song that has helped them through a difficult time. The healing power of the breakup album is transference in action (And it doesn't involve sleeping with your therapist). But how do you know when you are fully healed? When can you love again? When will early, angry PJ Harvey or Helium stop seeming relevant?
[9 November 2004]
I Went to Ozzfest So You Don't Have To
by Stephen Haag
Follow our own Stephen Haag inside the leather clad suburban subculture for a day of dehydration, S&M whippings, hatemongering tee shirts, topless women, violent physical confrontations, and, oh yes, music.
[8 November 2004]
Where There Had Been Something, There Was Suddenly Something More: John Peel 1939-2004
by Raphaël Costambeys-Kempczynski
John Peel was the man. For the past 40 years he made sure that Britain didn't just listen to over-produced throwaway one-hit-wonders.
[26 October 2004]
CMJ Music Marathon 2004: Day Three: To Be or Not D.C.: Making a Ruckus in the Nation's Capital
by Devon Powers
PopMatters takes to the streets of New York once again for the annual CMJ Music Marathon.
[18 October 2004]
CMJ Music Marathon 2004: Day Two: The Ultimate in Short Attention Span Theater
by Shannon Wearing
PopMatters takes to the streets of New York once again for the annual CMJ Music Marathon.
[17 October 2004]
CMJ Music Marathon 2004: Day Two: Marathon This!
by Devon Powers
PopMatters takes to the streets of New York once again for the annual CMJ Music Marathon.
[15 October 2004]
CMJ Music Marathon 2004: Day One: Moving Units, Saul Williams, Gang Gang Dance followed by Sonic Youth
by Philip Robertson
PopMatters takes to the streets of New York once again for the annual CMJ Music Marathon.
[15 October 2004]
Smile at Last: Brian Wilson's Genius Resolved
by Rino Breebaart
Anyone who's ever been serious about listening to or collecting the Beach Boys' music will have heard about Smile. Often called the greatest unfinished, unreleased record of all time, it was begun in 1966, but was abandoned before completion due to a mysterious concatenation of forces.
[12 October 2004]
Johnny Ramone: A Cool Guy Doing His Job
by Marshall Bowden
The Ramones offered rebellion, but they didn't work all that hard at it. They just were that way.
[23 September 2004]
Thanks John...
by Adam Williams
Who'd have thought that burnout kid would grow up to be the legendary Johnny Ramone? Damn, I miss him already...
[23 September 2004]
The Ramones: An Appreciation
by Hank Kalet
The Sex Pistols would sing of 'no future' with rage and desperation, wearing their fury against adult culture and the failing English economy as a badge; the Ramones turned their alienation into a joke.
[23 September 2004]
'80s Nostalgia and the Vicious Circle: How the Music Industry's Subversive Culture Agenda Has Allowed for the Return of Some of the Decades Most Prodigal Sons
by Colin Snowsell
Fifteen years after our heroes were shabbily decommissioned, our new champions have failed us. With mediocrity and conformity threatening to usher us into The Banal Age, who will save us?
[9 September 2004]
The Fate of the Album
by PopMatters Music Critics
Music critics have been bemoaning the death of the album format ever since the heyday of Napster, and the subsequent dawn of music related digital technology in the late 1990s. The music staff at PopMatters have put their collective heads together and compiled a list of albums released since January 1, 2000 to illustrate the continued relevance of the long-play format. The death of the album has been greatly exaggerated.
[2 September 2004]
Live From Planet Soul
by Mark Anthony Neal
Donny Hathaway and Laura Nyro were both products of an era when Soul music had a transformative power and These Songs for You, Live! and Spread Your Wings and Fly capture their singular talents in the context most befitting of their power as artists and spiritual beings.
[25 August 2004]
Remembering Rick James
by Adam Williams
While the untimely passing of musicians is always painful, the loss of Rick James is particularly troubling; not simply because he was a rare talent, but more so because he is destined to be remembered for the wrong reasons.
[10 August 2004]
The Wilco You Weren't Supposed to Hear
by Chuck Hicks
At a relaxed distance, in a part of the country where Wilco seldom travels, I can play dumb to all that fan chatter and, taking a cue from John Crowe Ransom, use a little 'formal criticism' to evaluate the 'Demos' in their own context.
[6 August 2004]
How Hip-Hop Music Is Slowly Transcending Its Circular Culture
by Stefan Braidwood
If it is to stand any chance of representing a people, then hip-hop must be allowed that most fundamental of human compulsions: to grow, to transcend its own limitations, to change.
[28 July 2004]
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
by Zeth Lundy
Your band has released not just its career-defining album, but a record that will undoubtedly go down as one of the decade's artistic hallmarks. The world is your oyster and then, A Ghost Is Born.
[14 July 2004]
Instrumental What!?? MC-Less Hip-Hop and the Square One Dilemma
by Tim Stelloh
It sounds like a paradox: instrumental hip-hop. For all logistical purposes, it is. Sample-based instrumental hip-hop artists like DJ Shadow, RJD2 and Prefuse 73 are a long way from the sound of their forebears. In one sense they've pushed rap music to the apex of its identity crisis; but in another sense, they've taken hip-hop back to square one.
[9 July 2004]
Lollapa-loser? A critical look inside the rise and fall of Lollapalooza 2004
by Jason Korenkiewicz
On paper Lollapalooza 2004 looked to be the most anticipated offering of the festival in a decade. The event was to traverse North America hitting 16 cities with an unprecedented two-day bill in all but one town. In hindsight, one has to wonder if there were other options tour organizers could have used to prevent this unfortunate end. The only certainty, right now, is that Lollapalooza 2004 is cancelled leaving an enormous void in the touring plans for many bands and their followers.
[29 June 2004]
Don't Steal My Sunshine: Is the resurgence of college rock legends good for the future of music?
by Jason Korenkiewicz
Before you lay your hard earned cash down on this summer's multitude of reunion tours and related merchandise, stop and think about what they're trying to do to you. We ask the question: Is the resurgence of college rock legends good for the future of music?">
[23 June 2004]
Ray Charles: An American Genius
by Hank Kalet
Ray Charles took nothing from no one, staking his claim to the world, thriving despite his blindness to become one of a handful of truly legendary and groundbreaking artists in the history of music. Rest in peace, Brother Ray.
[22 June 2004]
Merlefest 2004
by Chris Fallon
For four days each April, the place is vibrant with humanity, as people from all over come to this Mecca of roots music called Merlefest, which gracefully celebrates the old as much as it concedes to, and welcomes, the new.
[1 June 2004]
The Real Significance of Kurt Cobain
by Michael Abernethy
It's been 10 years since Kurt Cobain's death. So what? Don't get me wrong. I love genuine musical talent. But when artists are dead, no amount of memorializing will change that fact.
[26 May 2004]
Morrissey: Why Do We Still Love Him Like We Used To?
by Colin Snowsell
Smiths fans have always been among the most fanatical fans of them all. They make Deadheads look uncommitted. To those infected with the Morrissey disease, the Smiths were never just another band: They were everything. They were more important than family and friends, than fortune or the plans for the future.
[21 May 2004]
Diddy-cized
by Mark Anthony Neal
For all the fluff and blunder and dare I say 'brilliance' of Sean Combs, it's easy to forget why the cat is the very essence of hip-hop branding
[18 May 2004]
An Open Letter to My Friend Chris Regarding The Mountain Goats' "We Shall All Be Healed"
by Jesse Jarnow
I'm on the subway, trying to listen to The Mountain Goats' We Shall All Be Healed on a disintegrating Discman (it stutters inexplicably, plus it slathers everything in a this weird static) through a pair of headphones with a right channel that's constantly cutting in and out. It's kind of fitting for what John Darnielle's up to here.
[12 May 2004
New Movies Inside His Head: Notes on Recent Dylan Arcana
by Jesse Jarnow
Masked and Anonymous may possibly represent Dylan's final creative spike, and Dylan seems all too aware of that possibility. It would explain why he sees himself everywhere in Masked and Anonymous's wartorn landscape, and hears himself coming out of every radio.
[9 April 2004]
WHO'S 40?
by Adam Williams
Gazing up at the carved images on rock music's Mount Rushmore, one will see greatness in a variety of forms: The Beatles as mop topped pioneers; the Rolling Stones as sneering pop marvels; Led Zeppelin as bombastic virtuosos; and the Who as, well, the Who. It can be argued that success and immortality were assured for three of the four, but somehow the Who survived in spite of themselves to become the best of the bunch.
[7 April 2004]
Art Imitates Angst
by Michael Calderone
In Stoned and Dethroned, Slater Bradley's recent exhibit at Chelsea's Team Gallery, the photographer pays homage to Kurt Cobain on the 10 year anniversary of his untimely death.
[4 April 2004]
Black Roots Renaissance: Robert Randolph and the Family
by Mark Anthony Nea
Robert Randolph is on the cutting edge of a Black Roots Renaissance, on the strength of his mastery of the pedal steel guitar, or the 'Sacred Steel' as the folks refer to it. Playing an instrument with a long history, Robert Randolph is taking black music back to its roots.
[23 March 2004]
Matthew Shipp, Restless Visionary Behind the Blue Series
by John Kenyon
Matthew Shipp is the most adventurous, prolific jazz musician out there, bar none. That's saying something in a genre that, at least on its fringes, is made up almost exclusively of adventurous, prolific types. The closest competition comes in the form of frequent collaborators like William Parker.
[18 March 2004]
Dancing Queen: Donna Summer's Journey Through the Heart of Disco
by John Davidson
Disco is dismal, dire. Disco is done. But not Donna Summer. And the artist we know as Donna Summer is not so much a 'she' as a 'they.' She is one of the most under-rated vocalists of her generation, yet without the production genius of Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, it's possible we might never have heard the name 'Donna Summer' at all.
[22 January 2004]
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