Tuesday, July 12 2011
Bought on the Fourth of July
With The Homeland Directive writer Robert Venditti offers a deep and meditative work on the nature of personhood in an era of mass marketing. Easily the equal of the illustrious works of John Reed or Jonathan Franzen, The Homeland Directive elevates both the political thriller genre and the comics medium.
Tuesday, December 7 2010
The Year in Music: February 2010
Let’s continue our look at the biggest events in music, one month at a time, with February 2010.
Wednesday, January 13 2010
The 411 on R&B
A new decade promises to bring fresh sounds and renewed vigor to R&B. Let's hope it keeps its promise.
Friday, December 11 2009
Precious and Lee Daniels: State of the Race
In adapting author Sapphire's difficult novel for the screen, director Lee Daniels is helping change the way spectators view African American women by deploying stereotypes and then exploding them.
Tuesday, November 10 2009
A Dyslexic’s Wet Dream: Lift Up and Fly Like a Bird
Mad love for Mariah Carey's artistry, exhibited through her "Fly Like a Bird" performance on American Idol.
Monday, September 28 2009
Verse-Chorus-Verse: Mariah Carey - “Dreamlover”
Pop Heroism, One Song at a Time
Tuesday, April 14 2009
Black people doing white people doing Black people.
Certainly, my wet dreams aren’t of some wanton tragic mulatto naked on her hands and knees, projecting that very old Plantation style racial order (See the next-to-last scene of Monster’s Ball). Rather, I fantasize about Mariah, Barack and Alicia.
Thursday, March 26 2009
The-Dream: Love vs. Money
Although perhaps the most album-like R&B album in recent memory, typical R&B pitfalls bring Love vs. Money down from the excellence The-Dream has proven capable of producing.
Thursday, May 1 2008
Mariah Carey: E=MC2
The second act of Mariah's comeback doesn't wisely expand her sound: it instead succumbs to the blueprint so carefully laid out by its predecessor, a pointless remake that exists only because it has to.
