Lowbrow Literati

We Dream We’re the People in Songs

[22.Apr.08] :. Is he strumming your face with his fingers? And singing your life with his words?

Whitewash

[31.Mar.08] :. A small town white boy looks back at pop culture's impact on his concept of race while growing up, and how racism and homophobia are expressed and addressed in today's pop climate.

Missing Places I’ve Never Been: A Love Letter to Alex Ross

[25.Feb.08] :. The appeal, the madness of Ross' painting is that it makes a scene involving a fight between spandex-clad do-gooders seem almost as important as Rockwell's depiction of the first step to end racial segregation.

How Far Will A Man Go for G.I. Joe?

[18.Dec.07] :. Sigma 666: Wherein I offer my soul to Satan in exchange for G.I. Joe dolls.

Godless

[7.Nov.07] :. I'm not here to mock God and his fanatical fan club, I'll sit back and let much more clever men and women mock them for me.

Autobiographigure: The Courageous Quest for a Toy in One’s Own Image

[10.Oct.07] :. The shelves of our great nation's toy retailers are seldom stocked with action figures of flabby, furry, graying columnists, but that could change . . .

Where Gods and Monsters Watch Over Me

[6.Sep.07] :. My DVDs and books and toys are so seductive, and the outside world so unappealing, that it's sometimes all I can do to force myself to walk out the front door every morning.

By the Power of Softcore

[6.Aug.07] :. One Man's Daring Look Back at He-Man and the Masters of the Universe… and Porky's

Transformers: Autobotic Asphyxiation

[3.Jul.07] :. Autobotic Asphyxiation occurs when someone crosses that thin, tremulous line separating a passionate hobby from an unhealthy obsession. Watch for these symptoms . . .

Who Will Watch the Watchmen?

[6.Jun.07] :. To reduce Watchmen to just another superhero movie is to miss the point entirely, and one can't help but anticipate that the result will have all the cultural relevance of a supermarket paperback novelization of Citizen Kane.

Lose Your Delusion: An Open Letter to William ‘Axl’ Rose of Guns N’ Roses

[7.May.07] :. A disillusioned fan calls for the resurrection of Guns N' Roses, already. Please. Now would be good.

A Miscarriage of Justice: The WWE and Political Campaigning

[29.Mar.07] :. The time has come to admit to ourselves that young America's polite indifference towards partisan politics and the wrestling industry stems from the uncomfortable but increasingly undeniable fact that the two have grown indistinguishable from one another.

Toys ‘n the Addict

[12.Mar.07] :. As wild-eyed Rob (John Cusack), in High Fidelity, explains that his chaotic collection of LPs is not organized alphabetically, nor chronologically, but autobiographically, so, too, many toy collectors amass and display their plastic trinkets in an effort to compile something of a three-dimensional, pop cultural autobiography.

The Red Envelope Held Sway Over All

[15.Feb.07] :. Practically everyone in Boonville loathes Wal-Mart and Home Depot, and yet despite its role in the loss of two local independent businesses, Netflix has been granted a rare and elusive "Get Out of Our Smug Disapproval Free" card.

Wish or Wishout You

[22.Jan.07] :. Move over, MySpace, Amazon.com's 'who you are is what you buy' Wish List is the new hip virtual community.