Tuesday, May 30 2006
New Suburbans: Field Explorations with Chaz and Brittany
The stratum of the human species we're studying here is a prevalent, yet often elusive breed.
Friday, May 26 2006
Mechanical Animal
Who's the perfect silent film comedian for our techno-centric age? Here's a hint: he's the classic 'stoneface' who made machines his friends, not his entertainment enemies, during the course of his amazing cinematic career.
Thursday, May 25 2006
Breaking News in Japan
Athletes such as Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui prop up the national psyche at a time when youth crime, economic decline, and political dysfunction are at their highest.
Tuesday, May 23 2006
Passion as Fashion? Rock Meets Religion on Manchester’s Streets
Manchester united around something other than soccer on Good Friday, as rock, religion and theatre came together for a unique presentation of Christ's crucifixion.
Monday, May 22 2006
How Pretty is Too Pretty? Oscar De La Hoya’s Problematic Stardom
De La Hoya's flashy smile and cosmopolitan demeanor are signs of a sellout for many boxing fans.
Friday, May 19 2006
Judging a Bach By Its Cover
If people are no longer as interested in classical music as a cerebral escape from the banalities of the everyday, then certain producers of classical recordings are willing to embrace this cultural condition by selling Bach not as an alternative to popular image culture, but as a part of it.
Thursday, May 18 2006
The Great Beast Resurrected
The long, strange trip of seminal metal band Celtic Frost is unexpectedly outfitted with a new plot twist: a new record that redefines a career over 20 years after it began.
Wednesday, May 17 2006
Black Like You
When is trading 'races' not as entertaining -- or insightful -- as trading spaces? When it's all part of FX's highly implausible 'social experiment', an idea fated to fail from the first smudge of groan-inducing greasepaint.
Tuesday, May 16 2006
Monday, May 15 2006
Monster Mash-Up
With the connection between tots and terror as tenuous as ever, it's time to celebrate a pair of shows that meld the minor to the macabre with equal amounts of horror... and hilarity.
Friday, May 12 2006
It’s Different for Girls
Rounder Records' new tween collective, a manufactured group of girls with inflexibly 'distinct personalities', is little more than harmless fun for a very specific target market. But what potential effects will Girl Authority have on the developing identity of its audience?
Thursday, May 11 2006
Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British Rock
As skiffle's working-class trailblazer, Lonnie Donegan infused '50s British rock 'n' roll with a regional accent and music-hall comedy style missing from the popular American exports.
Wednesday, May 10 2006
I Know How You Feel, I Really Do!
Call it 'trading races' or 'playing princess and the pauper', it is the latest trend in the world of reality television. But oppression swapping has a disingenuous side; one that makes this format more problematic than empowering.
Tuesday, May 9 2006
The Cult of Mediocrity: Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg and the Medio-cultural
The UK and US are often accused of promulgating the cult of celebrity because of their post-industrialist, neo-liberal take on the world that sees culture as a commodity. France, however, is guilty of pandering to the cult of mediocrity.
Monday, May 8 2006
Three Ring Circus
While polygamy has a place in the study of human history and culture, it has long been considered taboo. Leave it to HBO and its new hit drama series to make this socially profane subject seem... almost normal.
Friday, May 5 2006
Headphones and Head Space
The quest for a perfect synthesis of public and private existence may lead us to online 'metaverses' where we don't really exist at all.
Thursday, May 4 2006
Trilogy of (T)errors
What do murderous Halloween masks, a monster enclosed in a Carpathian fortress, and a legion of interstellar soul suckers have in common? According to our resident scare scholar, they are part of a trio of '80s horror films that have been unfairly maligned by critics and fans alike.
Wednesday, May 3 2006
You Almost Saw It TV
A behind-the-scenes peek at television pilot programs the networks almost wanted you to see -- until someone got wise.
Tuesday, May 2 2006
The Anchor Wars
Their best anchors gone, now, their viewership bailing for Internet sources, US network news programs find themselves drifting.
Monday, May 1 2006
A Month to Remember… a Month to Forget
From natural disasters to political upheaval, chaos reigns as Alave chronicles an unforgiving February in the Philippines.
