Thursday, March 18 2010
The Oscars: The Super Bowl of Egotism
Maybe we watch the Oscars because they remind us of our own high school days. Popularity and past work far outweigh the quality of work represented by the nomination.
Friday, March 5 2010
Please Don’t Call ‘This’ Country
You can say that this is just mindless garbage, no different than a Black Eyed Peas hit, but I disagree.
Friday, February 26 2010
Does Late Night Still Matter? Jay V. Conan and the Death of Network Television
The Rockist celebrates the demise of The Jay Leno Show. The Rockist shakes his head at the return of The Jay Leno Show.
Friday, February 19 2010
I Love You, Buddy Man
If the gift industry can create Valentine's Day, why can't the Rockist found Buddy Day? Prepare yourself for a weekend of 'Buddy Movies' and brotherhood.
Friday, February 5 2010
Hollywood’s New Dimension: ‘Avatar’ in 3D
The Rockist visits James Cameron's Pandora in search of stone obelisks but finds only Ewoks.
Friday, January 29 2010
Indie Ambition: Hold Steady
Can Craig Finn pull his bandmates with him and lift them up to his arena tour in the sky? The Rockist ponders the future of the Hold Steady.
Friday, January 15 2010
Does Late Night Still Matter? Heeere’s Stephen!
Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report is a comedic game-changer as culturally significant right now as Letterman or SNL were at their peak.
Friday, December 18 2009
Does Late Night Still Matter? Jon Stewart
What does Jon Stewart have to do with Will Rogers and Mark Twain? The Rockist answers that, thanks to what he learns from a week of watching 'The Daily Show'.
Friday, December 11 2009
Matt Pike Don’t Need No Stinking Shirt
High on Fire encapsulate everything metal should be: aggressive, epic, and uncompromising; its lead man's very being cries out “Seek and Destroy”.
Friday, November 20 2009
We All Know the Way to Sesame Street
In the 2008 presidential election, America crossed the Henson Point -- the point where we are a post-Baby Boomer society. The Rockist calls for a champagne toast.
Friday, November 13 2009
Does Late Night TV Still Matter? Jimmy Kimmel
In the third part of his never-ending odyssey of late-night talkers, the Rockist endures Kimmel and bits.
Friday, November 6 2009
Metal, Back from Purgatory
The Rockist attends his most eagerly anticipated metal show in over a decade only to find... the Banana Splits?
Thursday, October 29 2009
Crime, Delirium, and Paris
In the second installment of his overseas correspondence, the Rockist gets robbed. And this time, not by an American corporation.
Thursday, October 22 2009
The ‘Ol Crotchety One Kicks It Transatlantic Style
PopMatters sends its weekly culture columnist abroad, with hopefully a one-way ticket.
Friday, October 9 2009
Does Late Night TV Still Matter? Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon's Late Night will be a much more goofy, pop-culture centric, spontaneous affair than either his predecessors.
Thursday, October 1 2009
They Came From Detroit
From Marshall Crenshaw looking spiffy in a powder gray suit with matching fedora to ... Carnival Cruise ship reggae?
Thursday, September 24 2009
If You’re Going to San Francisco…
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival perfectly captures the dangerously unstable compound called rock music right before it exploded and permanently altered the American cultural landscape.
Thursday, September 17 2009
Football v. Football: the NFL v. the Premiership
Like US football, English soccer fans observe their own ritual every weekend. I spent a weekend with fans of both sports to get a taste of exactly what drives and defines these most profitable of cultural endeavors.
Thursday, September 10 2009
Does Late Night TV Still Matter? Craig Ferguson
With the greatest shake-up in network late-night television since King Carson left his throne, now is a perfect time to ponder where late-night television is today.
Thursday, September 3 2009
Drunk and Driven
Delilah's on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago is everything The Rockist wants in a bar. Loud. Comfortable. Cheap.
Thursday, August 27 2009
Dear Mr. Denby: In Defense of Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino drives critics nuts because he loves movies. 'New Yorker' critic David Denby drives The Rockist nuts because he hates movies.
Thursday, August 20 2009
Vinyl Dependent: The Needle and the Damage Done
The independent record store lives another day. But how long can the vinyl lifeline continue to keep them afloat?
Friday, August 14 2009
“No Dad, What About You?!”: The John Hughes Generation Conflict
John Hughes went to bat for us teenagers against the evil Baby Boomer adults and the damage their material expectations inflicted on the classic American nuclear family.
Thursday, August 6 2009
‘Green Onions’—The Greatest Single of All Time
Booker T. & the MGs found themselves together, in a city of segregation, in a time of severe racial tension, and recorded a progressive, utopian party song.
Thursday, July 30 2009
Patrick Swayze and the Tao of Dalton
Road House takes us back to a much simpler world, a world where you can measure a man's virility by how well-groomed a mullet he sports and how much glistening man-oil he secretes while practicing tai-chi.
Thursday, July 23 2009
Hipster Hatred Knows No Bounds
Our new columnist and satirist Michael Brett, an 'old', curmudgeonly rock guy, recalls when he first noticed the proto-hipster. It was the Weezer show at the Aragon in 1994
