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Features

Wednesday, April 13 2011

Joss Whedon: Pioneer of the Body Count

Among Joss Whedon's greatest contributions to television has been the continual use of the Body Count, the willingness to kill off recurring characters in order to ratchet up the narrative tension and create a sense of danger.


Tuesday, April 12 2011

Joss Whedon 101: Cabin in the Woods

Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods has been as star-crossed as a show can be. Although Goddard and Whedon had finished principle filming, MGM requested a year delay to convert the film to 3D, and then promptly went bankrupt.


Friday, January 7 2011

The Year in Television Conspiracies

Secret, usually evil, plots dominated TV drama in 2010, from Lost, Rubicon, and Persons Unknown to 24, V, Flashforward, and Terriers.


Wednesday, October 21 2009

A Decade of Change

Between the Internet, DVRs, and DVDs, television viewers have been almost completely freed from the vagaries of network scheduling. We can watch our favorite shows whenever we want.


Thursday, August 7 2008

Comic-Con 2008: Bigger Than Ever, But Does That Mean Better?

Comic-Con 2008 was a long weekend of geeked-out bliss and a chance to rub elbows with everyone from tiny independent comic artists trying to sell their books to big Hollywood stars. But it also meant gigantic crowds and impossibly long lines.


Reviews

Thursday, February 9 2012

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.


Monday, February 6 2012

Of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks

Kevin Barnes takes Of Montreal out of its sexy funk phase and into its...20th century atonal minimalism phase? Yikes.


Thursday, February 2 2012

Buxton: Nothing Here Seems Strange

As solid as Buxton is, they're doing nothing to set themselves apart from other bands in their genre, and they don't quite have the songwriting chops to overcome that lack of character.


Friday, January 27 2012

moe.: What Happened to the La Las

Moe. is still going strong, and yes, they still know how to translate their sprawling live shows into succinct rock albums better than almost any of their jam-band peers.


Thursday, January 19 2012

'Archer' Returns, with Burt Reynolds

Creator Adam Reed doesn't seem too concerned about making Archer accessible to newcomers, but rather, trusts the audience to keep up.


Milk Maid: Yucca [20.Jul.11]
Falcon: Disappear [10.Jul.11]
Mike Gordon: Moss [14.Jan.11]
Fanshaw: Dark Eyes [26.Mar.10]
Cougar: Patriot [5.Jan.10]
Björk: Voltaic [24.Aug.09]
NOFX: Coaster [18.Jun.09]
Skew: Skew [13.Jan.09]
The Revival Tour [9.Dec.08]
Dredg [25.Nov.08]
sBach: sBach [22.Sep.08]

Blogs

Wednesday, December 14 2011

Bubbling Under the 75 Best Albums of 2011: Fountains of Wayne

This week we presented our Best 75 Albums of 2011. Here are several more just bubbling under the top 75...


Monday, December 5 2011

Bubbling Under the 75 Best Songs of 2011: Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit

Today we presented our Best 75 Songs of 2011. Here are several more just bubbling under the top 75...


Wednesday, July 20 2011

Armchair Quarterbacking Comic-Con 2011

Grading the upcoming Comic-Con, from who's in attendance to who decided to stay behind...


Wednesday, June 22 2011

Feeling Burned By 'The Killing'

We stuck around for the whole season, got our hopes up when things improved in the last few episodes, and this is the way it ends? Ugh. Spoilers abound, of course.


Thursday, September 9 2010

A Bad Month for Independents in Houston

In a period of just under two weeks in August, Houston, Texas, lost its eclectically-programmed college radio station and 75% of its dedicated arthouse screens.


Why I Gave Up on Glee (Channel Surfing) [1.Dec.09]
Legend of the Seeker: Season 2 Premiere (Channel Surfing) [11.Nov.09]
True Blood Season 2 - The Wrap-Up (Channel Surfing) [24.Sep.09]
Anticipating Comic-Con '09 (Graphic Novelties) [22.Jul.09]
Auto-Tune the News #6 (video) (Mixed Media) [14.Jul.09]
Harper's Island: The Death of Cheesy Fun? (Channel Surfing) [10.Jul.09]
Three More Memorable Albums from 1999 (Sound Affects) [29.Jun.09]
Prison Break: An Epitaph (Channel Surfing) [18.May.09]
On the Bubble: 5 TV Shows Worth Saving (Channel Surfing) [1.May.09]
Weezer - "Pork and Beans" (Sound Affects) [26.May.08]
Now on PopMatters
A Painting Come to Life: 'The Mill & the Cross' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 4:00 pm]
A Far Too Safe... and Strained... 'House' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 9:00 am]
'Safe House' Is Ersatz Edgy (Reviews) [Fri, 8:06 am]
The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 7:50 am]
  1. 'Nebraska': Bruce Springsteen's 'Heart of Darkness' (Columns)
  2. The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader)
  3. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 1: From 13Ghosts to Friendly Fires (Features)
  4. The Best Games of 2011 (Features)
  5. Not-So-Central Casting: Kevin Smith and the Birth of the Reality Podcast (Features)
  6. The 10 Greatest Movie Spies Ever (Short Ends and Leader)
  7. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 2: From the Go! Team to the Phoenix Foundation (Features)
  8. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 3: From Real Estate to Youth Lagoon (Features)
  9. Lana Del Rey: Born to Die (Reviews)
  10. The Top 15 Madonna Singles of All Time (Sound Affects)
  11. Get Off of My Cloud!: 'Collecting' Music in the Digital Age (Features)
  12. Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas (Reviews)
  13. Google and the Production of Curiosity (Marginal Utility)
  14. Carole E. Barrowman’s Authorial Journey to Hollow Earth (Features)
  15. Tower Songs: Townes Van Zandt (Columns)
  16. “Don’t Let Me Fall”: Hip-Hop in the Age of Austerity (Features)
  17. Black Bananas: Rad Times Xpress IV (Reviews)
  18. The Gay Ole Countryside (Columns)
  19. Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom (Reviews)
  20. Of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks (Reviews)
  21. Counterbalance No. 67: John Coltrane’s 'A Love Supreme' (Sound Affects)
  22. The 10 Best John Coltrane Solos (Sound Affects)
  23. A Look to the Past, An Insight Into the Present: The Use of Gender in 'Mad Men' (Features)
  24. A Tale of How Great Journalism Became Revisionist History: Grambling State U Football (Columns)
  25. Chairlift: Something (Reviews)
  26. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - "Heart Attack" (Cosmic Kids Remix) (PopMatters Premiere) (Mixed Media)
  27. Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral (Reviews)
  28. The Barbaric (and Poetic) Yawp of Shelby Lynne (Notes from the Road)
  29. After Cease to Exist: The Far-from-Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (Features)
  30. Mitt Romney Can Reside at Today's Proverbial 'Downton Abbey'... Newt Gingrich Cannot (Features)
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