Recent Columns

Sex or Gender

By Sam Vaknin

Are gender identity and sexual preferences . . . immutable lifelong features or dynamically evolving frames of self-reference?

(more Artificial Intelligence)

2002 Nostalgia

By Jessica Hodges

Pop is finally eating itself.

(more Pop Tart)

Narrative Journeys

By Valerie MacEwan

I see it as the globalization of the Southern experience.

(more True Tales of the New South)

Pop Politicians

By Robert R. Thompson

In my high school a constant 'battle' went on between the Kennedy emulators and the Elvis crowd. Our hair told the story: the bushy tousled look with a smart part vs. the wild, unruly pompadour.

(more Politics and Culture/East and West)

Toward a New Type of Culture

By Brian Ruh

. . . in their quest for knowledge of and acquisition of the products of the Japanese animation industry, they have surpassed the daily concerns and cares of ordinary human beings.

(more From Here to Shinjuku)

The Art of Speed

By Stefán Snaevarr

A Norwegian film critic pointed out that film is the first form of art that is entirely capitalistic; invented in order to make money.

(more A Viking View)

White Chocolate

By Mark Anthony Neal

In the past, it has been all too easy to identify many of these white artists under the rubric of 'blue-eyed soul'. But I'd like to argue for a separate category known as 'white chocolate' -- that which 'looks' different but contains all the flavor and the texture of the original.

(more Critical Noire)

You Can’t Take It With You: On Being Young and Middle Aged

By Margaret Schwartz

(more Anecdotal Evidence)

The Merits of Stereotypes

By Sam Vaknin

(Discrimination) has little to do with stereotypes and a lot to do with societal and economic power matrices.

(more Artificial Intelligence)

Can You Dig It? Yes I Can!

By Mark Desrosiers

This was a band that thrived despite being jeered and pissed on by critics, hipsters, jazzbos, even its own ex-members.

(more Pomo Audit)

The Noble Sarariman

By tjmHolden

He was a dupe, a fool, a brainless, clueless buffoon who'd been sold a bag of goods, and willingly sacrificed everything to gain nothing in a world that had quickly gone to garbage.

(more ReDotPop)

California Dreaming: US Band Plans British Invasion

By Simon Warner

He was seeking advice on how an unknown Yankee combo could approach the mysteries of this tiny island and not leave with their tail between their legs.

(more Anglo Visions)

San Francisco Daze

By Tara Taghizadeh

The myths of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, and the cafes and bars of North Beach where the Beats proved that anyone incapable of rhyming poetry was cool, continuously lure thousands who cling to the nostalgia the city offers so readily.

(more Global Graffiti)

Takin’ Comics to the Streets: Glimpses of the Medium’s American Future

By Brian Ruh

. . . Manga is a perfect example of what the comic medium can become: it is as omnipresent as television in its home country and has been likened to air itself, in that it permeates every facet of contemporary cultural life.

(more From Here to Shinjuku)

Joan Miró: An African Experience

By Robyn Sassen

. . . improvisation with materials that represent throwaway elements of our day-to-day existence is par for the course, both visually and economically.

(more Just Another Day in Africa)

Still Love H.E.R.

By Mark Anthony Neal

. . . I've come across more than a few hip-hop generation artists and intellectuals who are beginning to show strains of gray in their locks, twists, beards, and fades.

(more Critical Noire)

Prague Is Pop

By Robert R. Thompson

Sure enough, before the soup arrives the band of young, shaggy musicians is working hard to blow the breadbaskets off the dinner tables.

(more Politics and Culture/East and West)

Pregnant PopTarts

By Jessica Hodges

This celebrity baby boom, as some are calling it, as well as the showing off of bumps by said celebs, has truly put a new glimmer on motherhood.

(more Pop Tart)

A Case for Legalizing Some Crime

By Sam Vaknin

Millions of professionals . . . derive their livelihood, parasitically, from crime.

(more Artificial Intelligence)

Johnny Clegg:  A South African Story

By Robyn Sassen

He was the first vocal artist to use Nelson Mandela's name in lyrics, but South Africans only got to hear them after the new democracy had come about.

(more Just Another Day in Africa)