Recent Columns

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Wednesday, October 14 2009

Castle Walls of Blood and Bone: An Interview with Converge

By Adrien Begrand

With four landmark albums this decade alone, Converge has saved its best work for last. Vocalist Jacob Bannon talks with PopMatters about his music, his art, and his insanely talented band.

(more Blood and Thunder)

Tuesday, October 13 2009

Are Comics Like Reading with Training Wheels?

By Shaun Huston

Reading a comic requires multiple forms of literacy and levels of interpretation. Every movement from word to image and back again so as to create a coherent, narrative whole engages the reader’s brain in distinct ways.

(more Worlds in Panels)

Monday, October 12 2009

The Messengers

By Quentin B. Huff

K'naan's The Messengers series is a trilogy of episodes designed to highlight the genius of Nigeria's Fela Kuti, Jamaica's Bob Marley, and the United States' Bob Dylan.

(more Busted Headphones)

Friday, October 9 2009

Twitterpated: New Media, Old Frenzies

By Tobias Peterson

The latest craze in mini-blogging has been embraced by a variety of pro athletes to voice their opinions on everything from coaching advice to domestic violence.

(more From the Cheap Seats)

Does Late Night TV Still Matter? Part 2

By Michael Brett

Jimmy Fallon's Late Night will be a much more goofy, pop-culture centric, spontaneous affair than either his predecessors.

(more The Rockist)

Thursday, October 8 2009

New Kids on the Block: Hangin’ Tough, Refusing to Let Go

By Monte Williams

In 1989, I loathed the New Kids on the Block with a passion and intensity that only junior high-aged children can bring to their study of popular culture, yet when Hangin’ Tough Live hit DVD, I had to see it.

(more Lowbrow Literati)

Wednesday, October 7 2009

Rosanne Cash on Johnny Cash’s List

By Juli Thanki

Johnny Cash was a serious scholar of music, and this knowledge was reflected in his own work, which included covers of everyone and everything from Jimmie Rodgers to Nine Inch Nails, oldtime hymns to reggae.

(more Torch & Twang)

Tuesday, October 6 2009

Tools for the Job: Asserting Femininity in Super Metroid

By L.B. Jeffries

Super Metroid is unique in that it is the only game in the series that addresses something distinctly female about Samus besides her looks: motherhood.

(more Moving Pixels)

Monday, October 5 2009

Sharing: The New Imposition

By Rob Horning

Twitter is less about disseminating information than it is about subjects trying to make themselves feel more real, ontologically speaking, in a increasingly mediated world.

(more Marginal Utility)

Friday, October 2 2009

On the Sixth Day God Created Man…Chester: Part Three

By Iain Ellis

Manchester's working class population showed the world that trade unions can resist authority. Such solidarity and class consciousness is heard in the arrogant sneers of the Stone Roses and Oasis.

(more Alternative Rock Cultures)

Thursday, October 1 2009

They Came From Detroit

By Michael Brett

From Marshall Crenshaw looking spiffy in a powder gray suit with matching fedora to ... Carnival Cruise ship reggae?

(more The Rockist)

Kris Kristofferson: Leonard Cohen-esque

By Bob Proehl

Kristofferson at times evokes Leonard Cohen, with a voice that pulls the listener into the depths of darkened barrooms, whether to share a sob story or a bit of tongue-in-cheek sagacity. His 20th album is out soon.

(more Pickin' Down the Line)

Wednesday, September 30 2009

Wedding Players

By Ben Rubenstein

When it comes to controlling the behavior of revelers at a wedding fest -- or rather, rolling with the behavior of revelers at a wedding fest -- a live band can adapt far better than the average DJ.

(more Mixtape Confessions)

Truck Drivin’ Songwritin’ Man

By Andrew Gilstrap

Trucking songs, with their heart-of-gold waitresses, foggy nights, heavy loads, and rolling tires, must hit some modern emotional sweet spot, and musicians on the road share a kindred spirit with truckers.

(more Field Studies)

Tuesday, September 29 2009

Jay-Z: The Journey of an Icon

By Roland Laird

We can debate this greatest rapper business from now until the end of time. Let's just say Jay-Z is the greatest hip-hop icon ever, and call it a day.

(more Write Black at You)

Monday, September 28 2009

Creepy Crawly Ad Bots

By Jennifer Byrne

‘Contextual ads’ generated by Web crawlers based on private email content might provide fresh, up-to-the-second advertising copy, but these so-called geniuses are no Don Draper.

(more Pop Osmosis)

Friday, September 25 2009

Hal Ashby: Hollywood Rebel

By Rodger Jacobs

Films and books strive toward a common goal: telling a story. And very few modern filmmakers are as good at spinning a yarn as the late Hal Ashby was.

(more Deconstruction Zone)

Thursday, September 24 2009

If You’re Going to San Francisco…

By Michael Brett

The Complete Monterey Pop Festival perfectly captures the dangerously unstable compound called rock music right before it exploded and permanently altered the American cultural landscape.

(more The Rockist)

The Handmaid’s Tale: Not So Sci-fi

By Jennifer Makowsky

The terrifying, 'it could happen today' message of this story is best told in the Atwood's book, rather than the film version.

(more The Box Office Belletrist)

Wednesday, September 23 2009

The Frontier Doctor’s Fancy ‘Queen of the Cimarron’

By Kit MacFarlane

Frontier Doctor's church-prescribing gumdrop-toting hero comes face to face with the unthinkable: a tough-talkin' hard-done bad-girl with money on her mind (gulp).

(more Retro Remote)

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