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Friday, November 20 2009

We All Know the Way to Sesame Street

By Michael Brett

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.

(more The Rockist)

What We Talk About When We Talk About Supergirl’s Shorts

By Shaun Huston

Supergirl's summer costume change -- which included concealing shorts under her skirt as she flew about, kicking butt -- reveals a lot about our changing superheroes.

(more Worlds in Panels)

Thursday, November 19 2009

Strange Muse: Jack London and Ernest Gallo

By Rodger Jacobs

One bad novel, gallons of cheap red wine, and spring-fed creeks of sweat.

(more Deconstruction Zone)

Wednesday, November 18 2009

Dimensional Walls Getting Thinner: The Collective Minds of Krallice

By Adrien Begrand

What started out a back-to-basics project has turned into one of the coolest, most forward-thinking American metal bands of this decade.

(more Blood and Thunder)

Tuesday, November 17 2009

Hip-Hop & the Contrast Principle

By Quentin B. Huff

Hip-hop, as a culture and a musical genre, moves at lightning speed. Keeping up requires an awareness of our expectations and a willingness to revisit our assumptions.

(more Busted Headphones)

Monday, November 16 2009

What’s More Dangerous on the Web—Hackers or Hacks?

By Liz Colville

Content producers have the power to be whomever they want, but if they let themselves be dictated too much by factors like Google, page views, and ad revenue, they end up simply joining a droning, mundane chorus of mediocrity.

(more Backslash)

A Cat’s Triumph and the Midlife Crisis of a Dog

By Michael Antman

The popularity of the “pet memoir” can be traced to a lot of factors, ranging from honest sentiment to rank anthropomorphism. But our pets, and our books about them, reflect spirit of our age, as well.

(more Read Only Memory)

Friday, November 13 2009

An Education: Carey Mulligan Comes of Age

By Matt Mazur

Danish director Lone Scherfig spares audiences the trite clichés of a young woman's coming of age, directs a magnificent cast of actors, and defends her film against allegations of inappropriate sexuality.

(more Suffragette City)

Does Late Night TV Still Matter? Part 3

By Michael Brett

In the third part of his never-ending odyssey of late-night talkers, the Rockist endures Kimmel and bits.

(more The Rockist)

Thursday, November 12 2009

The Prisoner: ‘Fall Out’

By Kit MacFarlane

The Prisoner's unapologetic payoff of surrealism and absurdism heads into that artistic realm where meaning is defined more by resonance than by immediately identifiable relevance.

(more Retro Remote)

Wednesday, November 11 2009

So You Think You Can Make Me Like Dance?

By Ben Rubenstein

Rubenstein views dance much like his girlfriend watches a baseball game; the subtleties are lost on him.

(more Mixtape Confessions)

Tuesday, November 10 2009

Nobel Prizes and Nobel Promises

By George Reisch

President Obama probably rattled and hummed in disbelief when he got his Nobel Prize. Ask Bono.

(more Pop Goes Philosophy)

Monday, November 9 2009

Table Space: The Final Frontier

By Bill Reagan

The impressive part of 2001: A Space Odyssey isn’t what they have in the future, it’s what they don’t have: clutter.

(more Rabble Without a Cause)

PopShots: The Lighter Side of Swine Flu

By Glenn McDonald

Researchers have largely ignored the pop cultural value of the H1N1 virus: hours on the couch catching up on DVD.

(more PopShots)

Friday, November 6 2009

Parent-Child Bonding: Video Games that Bridge the Generation Gap

By G. Christopher Williams

Can Gen X parents bond with the newest generation of gamers given the ways that cooperative gameplay has changed over the years?

(more Moving Pixels)

Metal, Back from Purgatory

By Michael Brett

The Rockist attends his most eagerly anticipated metal show in over a decade only to find... the Banana Splits?

(more The Rockist)

Thursday, November 5 2009

Neil Patrick Harris: The Other Sort

By Michael Abernethy

Neil Patrick Harris is riding high these days. But in years past, if the average person sitting in his or her Barcalounger knew a TV star was gay, it would have been disastrous for both series and star.

(more Queer, Isn't It?)

Wednesday, November 4 2009

The Music That Matters Part One: Bill Monroe and Ralph Rinzler

By Juli Thanki

In the late '30s and '40s, Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys were the biggest stars in country music, but when he appeared onstage at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, he did so after a number of years spent toiling in relative obscurity.

(more Torch & Twang)

Tuesday, November 3 2009

After the Rapture: Passing the Saving on to You

By Jennifer Byrne

The Rapture may whisk the Saved up to Heaven ... leaving all of their corporeal assets untended. For the business-minded, earth-bound heathen, there’s money to be had in the leavings.

(more Pop Osmosis)

Monday, November 2 2009

The Ghostbusters Twinkie Defense

By Monte Williams

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.

(more Lowbrow Literati)

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