Recent Columns

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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)

Keeping Some Dirt Under the Grass: John Hartford and the Roots of Newgrass

By Bob Proehl

At a time when country music was shining like a new dime, John Hartford and his collaborators were digging into old time music to find something new.

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Friday, October 30 2009

Can Tyler Perry’s ‘For Colored Girls’ Resurrect BAM?

By Roland Laird

Film adaptations from black masterpieces -- and the Chitlin Circuit -- are rejuvenating America's Black Arts Movement.

(more Write Black at You)

Thursday, October 29 2009

Crime, Delirium, and Paris

By Michael Brett

In the second installment of his overseas correspondence, the Rockist gets robbed. And this time, not by an American corporation.

(more The Rockist)

In from the Fog: Monstrous Fishermen in Popular Culture

By Chris Justice

To paraphrase Nietzsche, when fighting monsters one should be careful not to become one, but that’s a major reason why many people fish: to slay the proverbial dragon.

(more The Tackle Box)

Wednesday, October 28 2009

A Ghost Story of Dubious Origins

By Jennifer Makowsky

No matter the vercity of the tale, The Haunting in Connecticut has just enough creep quotient to keep me engaged, especially since I grew up a few miles from the house.

(more The Box Office Belletrist)

Tuesday, October 27 2009

Let Him Pay: Rush Limbaugh as Corporate Mascot

By Tobias Peterson

If the furor surrounding Limbaugh's possible entrance into the league has to do with this political disposition, it's laughable to suggest that the rest of the owners don't share his views to a large extent.

(more From the Cheap Seats)

Monday, October 26 2009

Frightful Rome

By Marco Lanzagorta

Profondo Rosso, the Dario Argento store in Rome, hints at a dramatic cultural shift taking place in Italy regarding the appreciation and analysis of classic Italian horror films.

(more Dread Reckoning)

Health Care in America has Gone to the Dogs

By Meta Wagner

Compared to the modern-day American, their dogs have the best of everything: questionable intelligence (i.e., happiness), poor memories (i.e., forgiveness), and low expectations (i.e., contentment).

(more Vox Pop)

Friday, October 23 2009

The Name of This Land is Hell: Mexico in Literature

By Rodger Jacobs

When the author of a sitcom-styled novel about Mexican heritage cannot resist mentioning the modern-day carnage, then it's fair to assume that the murders have become a significant part of the national identity.

(more Deconstruction Zone)

Thursday, October 22 2009

The ‘Ol Crotchety One Kicks It Transatlantic Style

By Michael Brett

PopMatters sends its weekly culture columnist abroad, with hopefully a one-way ticket.

(more The Rockist)

Is there Virtue in Virtuosity?

By Will Layman

Two recent releases by leading saxophonists Chris Potter and James Carter raise the question of the utility—or the misuses—of virtuosity in jazz.

(more Jazz Today)

Wednesday, October 21 2009

Bluegrass Grows in Brooklyn

By Derek Beres

The Five Deadly Venoms are leading the charge of a thriving bluegrass scene in Brooklyn.

(more Global Beat Fusion)

Tuesday, October 20 2009

Pete Kelly’s Blues

By Kit MacFarlane

Jack Webb's glum radio series 'Pete Kelly's Blues' is a sigh of a tribute to the roaring '20s, a melancholic parade of blistering jazz and the pointlessness of its own nostalgia.

(more Retro Remote)

Monday, October 19 2009

Nobody Puts Twitter in a Curation Corner

By Liz Colville

Twitter has fast become a land of curators. But where does curation go from here, and do we really want it to go there?

(more Backslash)

Friday, October 16 2009

Looking for the Lost: Memoirs of a Vanishing Japan

By Michael Antman

With its narrow streets and dark and hidden infoldings, there’s a distinctly feminine, mysterious, and inexplicably magnetic aspect to Japan that exists in few other places in the world.

(more Read Only Memory)

Thursday, October 15 2009

Sitting on the Mountaintop

By Michael Abernethy

Did Obama calm the rash of criticism regarding his inaction on gay rights with his recent speech to the Human Rights Campaign?

(more Queer, Isn't It?)

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