Wednesday, March 9 2011
Quantum and Woody’s Mildly Postmodern Gags
Are Quantum and Woody a dynamic duo, or just another wearying odd couple with a duo dynamic?
Wednesday, February 9 2011
Raimi’s Last Hunt: A Brief Reappraisal of the ‘Spider-Man’ Trilogy
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is like his Evil Dead trilogy: the first entry is self-conscious, the second is more of a remake than a sequel, and the third is so different from the first two that it almost qualifies as a different genre.
Wednesday, January 19 2011
Mighty Morphin’ Masterpiece: One Man’s Inexplicable Love for ‘Power Rangers: The Movie’
The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers TV series was after my time, and a passing glance at any given episode was enough to convince me that it was, well, 'stunted'. So why have I seen Power Rangers: the Movie five times?
Tuesday, November 30 2010
The Devil Wears Spandex
It seems that Todd McFarlane designed Spawn’s cape to billow wildly just so that it would obscure Spawn’s feet, so that he wouldn’t have to draw them.
Friday, November 5 2010
Take Your Daughter to Work Day: A Father Reflects on Years of Force-feeding Pop Culture to His Child
How will my daughter feel when her friends greet her in 2030 with an enthusiastic shout-out to Hannah Montana or SpongeBob SquarePants and she can only remember Bebop, Rocksteady, the Gentleman Ghost and Gyro Gearloose?
Thursday, September 30 2010
Crisis of Faith: The Struggle to Believe in ‘Preacher’
If Preacher’s longtime fans were to take a fresh look at its nine uneven volumes today, would nostalgia keep them from noticing its flaws, or would they banish it to the realm of other crude, corny, ostensibly shocking ‘90s relics like South Park, Attitude-era WWF shows and Kevin Smith movies?
Wednesday, September 22 2010
Three Days Was the Mourning: Three Scenes That Define ‘Six Feet Under’’s Nate Fisher
Nate was always searching desperately for deeper meaning, and so it was not surprising that he would see his dead wife’s soul peering at him from the eyes of a dog.
Thursday, August 12 2010
Less Is More Satanic: A Prescription of Restraint and Subtlety for Slayer
Who writes lyrics more menacing than those of thrash-metal legends Slayer? Pretty much everyone.
Thursday, July 8 2010
Sequels We Were Unfairly Denied
While most moviegoers bemoan the glut of Hollywood sequels and remakes, City Slickers II: Coffee and Cake is just one of many unproduced sequels I wish we had the chance to see.
Thursday, June 10 2010
Fruity Islands, Paw-Paw Bears and Gleaming the Cube: The Internet at Its Most Essential
Every utilitarian object in my home boasts an invitation to visit its website. Are there forums where pleased consumers come together to share their contentment about lip balm and adhesive bandages?
Tuesday, May 11 2010
‘Cause Who Would Hear Me Scream? A Faith No More Mixtape for the Joker
One could almost make the case that the four Faith No More albums produced during the Mike Patton era were written for the Joker.
Wednesday, April 21 2010
Isn’t This Where We Came In?
Have you ever combined the first and last sentence of a novel or a song? The results are often amusing, and sometimes revelatory.
Wednesday, March 24 2010
Wake the Dead or No One Will Listen: Skid Row’s Subhuman Race
In 1995, Skid Row fell back on the only choice that remains for a metal band with no place in the mainstream culture: they made the heaviest damn album in the world.
Wednesday, March 10 2010
Diorama-Rama: Can Playtime Produce Art?
Are toy photography "dios" a new art form, a different breed of fan fiction, or nothing loftier than playtime for the stunted?
Thursday, January 7 2010
The Matrix: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
If the first act of The Matrix calls to mind eXistenZ, with Pikel licking Allegra’s bio-port and sucking gristle and skin from a gun, its third act is as antiseptic as a bad Star Trek rerun.
Wednesday, November 25 2009
Are We All Mythtaken About Star Wars?
Fans are mistaken about Return of the Jedi and Luke Skywalker (dismissing the Ewoks, and Skywalker is deemed a wuss). Might they also be wrong about the prequel trilogy? And how.
Monday, November 2 2009
The Ghostbusters Twinkie Defense
More surprising than the still-impressive special effects and the jokes that hold up to modern scrutiny is the fact that there are moments throughout Ghostbusters that are legitimately scary.
Thursday, October 8 2009
New Kids on the Block: Hangin’ Tough, Refusing to Let Go
In 1989, I loathed the New Kids on the Block with a passion and intensity that only junior high-aged children can bring to their study of popular culture, yet when Hangin’ Tough Live hit DVD, I had to see it.
Wednesday, August 26 2009
G.I. Joe’s Future Hangs on the Unbalanced
The fate of 'The Rise of Cobra' (both the toys and the movie) might depend on something completely out of Hasbro’s control: nostalgia.
Thursday, July 16 2009
Let the Kayfabe be Unbroken: My Breakfast with Blassie
This movie provokes a guilty-pleasure curiosity, followed by a yearning to somehow feel above the ridiculous performance you’re witnessing.
Tuesday, July 7 2009
Truth Against Truth: The Work of Adrian Tomine
Tomine has a gift for capturing body language and facial expressions -- his characters often say more in a silent panel than most say with an entire word balloon.
Sunday, June 7 2009
Footnotes in the Great Book of Gummi
Still cute, funny and entertaining, Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears holds up remarkably well on every level.
Wednesday, May 6 2009
Metal Up Yours, Mine & Metallica’s
Metallica’s got identity and projection issues -- James Hetfield repeatedly directs a string of insights or even accusations at some mysterious "you", only to concede by song's end that he is talking to himself.
Thursday, April 9 2009
Looking Back at ‘Back to the Future’
The most irreverent, knowing, daring and hippest time travel story of all time has, inevitably and fittingly, become a time capsule.
Thursday, January 29 2009
Metabots and Deconstructicons: Transformers Goes Postmodern
I am happy to report that after 25 years, the 'Transformers' franchise has finally gone postmodern… no thanks to 'Transformers Energon'.
Thursday, January 8 2009
Bret Hart: A Real Life in a Cartoon World
In a surreal world dedicated to a uniquely haphazard and comically inept breed of pretense, Bret Hart’s appeal was simple: he made everything seem 'real'.
Monday, December 1 2008
There Was No Way to Tell This Man Was a Monster
Scott Keith's Dungeon of Death is a confused, unfocused, meandering account of the most gruesome death yet in an industry known for killing off its performers at startlingly young ages.
Friday, November 21 2008
From a Fluid Culture to a Culture of Steam: Alan Moore
For all the self-serious Deep Thoughts and the sometimes unsettling material in DeZ Vylenz The Mindscape of Alan Moore, Moore can be a startlingly funny host.
Wednesday, September 3 2008
Galaxy Rangers: No Guts, No Glory, No Clue
Having missed out on the show in its '80s heyday, a hapless Monte Williams shares his thoughts during his baffled first look at The Galaxy Rangers.
Friday, June 13 2008
The Incredible Hulk: Madly in Anger with You
With The Incredible Hulk ripping through movie screens in mind, Williams hunkers down on the couch with two silly, strangely stirring seasons of the TV show.
Tuesday, April 22 2008
We Dream We’re the People in Songs
Is he strumming your face with his fingers? And singing your life with his words?
Monday, March 31 2008
Whitewash
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.
Monday, February 25 2008
Missing Places I’ve Never Been: A Love Letter to Alex Ross
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.
Tuesday, December 18 2007
How Far Will A Man Go for G.I. Joe?
Sigma 666: Wherein I offer my soul to Satan in exchange for G.I. Joe dolls.
Wednesday, November 7 2007
Godless
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.
Wednesday, October 10 2007
Autobiographigure: The Courageous Quest for a Toy in One’s Own Image
The shelves of our great nation's toy retailers are seldom stocked with action figures of flabby, furry, graying columnists, but that could change . . .
Thursday, September 6 2007
Where Gods and Monsters Watch Over Me
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.
Monday, August 6 2007
By the Power of Softcore
One Man's Daring Look Back at He-Man and the Masters of the Universe… and Porky's
Tuesday, July 3 2007
Transformers: Autobotic Asphyxiation
Autobotic Asphyxiation occurs when someone crosses that thin, tremulous line separating a passionate hobby from an unhealthy obsession. Watch for these symptoms . . .
Wednesday, June 6 2007
Who Will Watch the Watchmen?
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.
Monday, May 7 2007
Lose Your Delusion: An Open Letter to William ‘Axl’ Rose of Guns N’ Roses
A disillusioned fan calls for the resurrection of Guns N' Roses, already. Please. Now would be good.
Thursday, March 29 2007
A Miscarriage of Justice: The WWE and Political Campaigning
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.
Monday, March 12 2007
Toys ‘n the Addict
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.
Thursday, February 15 2007
The Red Envelope Held Sway Over All
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.
Monday, January 22 2007
Wish or Wishout You
Move over, MySpace, Amazon.com's 'who you are is what you buy' Wish List is the new hip virtual community.
