“The job of a sicario is to do away with the victim immediately, either with a bullet, a knife or a blow.” As he speaks, the hooded subject of El Sicario—Room 164 writes in a notebook, a numbered list of the weapons he names. “Quick and lean,” he continues, “So that the victim feels nothing more.” In answer to his own question, “How?”, he begins to draw a childlike outline of a car and to explain the difference between a professional sicario and an imitation sicario. Where the pretender fires dozens of bullets at a car—here he stabs at the page, bullet-dots all over the car he’s drawn—the real thing takes aim, needing only one shot to get the job done.

With the intent of providing continued intelligent and entertaining content in the PopMatters’ Columns section, we are looking to broaden our staff of columnists and the voice of our writers’ community. We’re particularly interested in writers who live and work outside of the US, but that is not a deciding factor; in all cases, no matter the writer’s locale, we’re looking for those who can approach an array of cultural subject matter from their patch of the world with an international sensibility; that is, contextualize the local with an awareness of its place, historical and current, in the broader world.

Qualified writers are already readers of PopMatters (as but one vital supplement in their varied intellectual diet). They are familiar with the work of our current columnists, as well as other areas of the magazine, and they have a solid sense of what we’re looking for in content and caliber in these essays. We deliberately use the terms “essays” and “columns” interchangeably; as pieces are broad in scope yet grounded in real-world examples, and they are tied to regular deadlines and an established identity (and therein lay the “columnist” element). With these expectations in mind, we have monthly and every-other-month column slots available. Suitable writers are dedicated to regular deadlines and enjoy participating in friendly, ongoing communications with their editor.

June brings us the start of summer movie blockbusters, but there’s plenty of other types of entertainment available this month. If you’re also wondering what addictive video game hits the shelves soon, what albums are vying for song of the summer status, or which recently renewed TV series is only just now wrapping up its first season, read on.

Pitch Deadline: 15 June 2013
Final Essays Deadline: 31 July 2013
Contact: C.E. McAuley and Sarah Zupko
Email:  mcauley at popmatters dot com - and - editor at popmatters dot com

Although his first feature film, Citizen Kane, continues to be regarded by the high guard as one of the finest films ever made, Welles spent the rest of his life producing pictures that would either be derided or neglected, if he was even able to complete them. Reduced in his twilight years to acting in wine adverts and second-rate blockbusters in order to personally bankroll projects no real producers would, Welles was always working, even at the very end of his life, on films every bit as potent and radical as the debut that eclipsed his career.

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