Thursday, May 24 2012
In Defense Of… Rock Radio: A Force in Popular Culture
With Clear Channel recently purchasing Boston's WFNX, almost certainly with the intention of changing its format, we look at how important it is for alternative radio to exist -- and evolve.
Monday, March 19 2012
Politics R Us, or, Who’s Your Daddy?
Rich white guys are not the only ones who can be counted among the 1%. The label is not just about income, it’s also about privilege and position… and nepotism.
Tuesday, March 13 2012
Metric Madness
Our obsession with brackets and rankings -- in everything from NCAA March Madness to soup -- reflects a desire to give some order to the world, to quantify things that are not generally thought of as quantifiable.
Wednesday, February 1 2012
A Tale of How Great Journalism Became Revisionist History: Grambling State U Football
For all of the good will and good information generated by focusing on Grambling, there is still a deeper story to be told about the other great black college football programs and coaches.
Friday, January 27 2012
The Tabloidization of Errol Morris
By the end of this film, the line dividing Tabloid from “the tabloids” thins to the point of imperceptibility.
Tuesday, January 24 2012
Navigating the SOPA Soap Opera
The most frustrating thing about the controversial new copyright legislation making its way through Congress? It lacks creativity.
Friday, January 6 2012
The 2011 Looking Glass Awards: Anger Is An Energy
Welcome to the 2011 Through the Looking Glass awards, the Anger Is An Energy edition. This was the year the whole earth shook, sending shock waves in all directions. We don't mean to imply that the seismic shifts were of equal magnitude: not every violent disturbance registered the same on our Richter scale.
Friday, December 16 2011
O Captain! My Captain! Going Where No Octogenarian Has Gone Before
As "Bill" explores the meaninglessness of celebrity, "Shatner" embraces the shallow and the superficial like an Andy Warhol soup can come to life.
Monday, December 12 2011
Hollywood’s Steep Hills: Gender Inequality and ‘Miss Representation’
Gender inequality in Hollywood reigns supreme, but as Miss Representation shows, the male/female binary is so insidious that it even makes its way into productions that aim to counter it.
Thursday, December 1 2011
Herman Cain and the Myth of Acceptable Black Behavior
Called a 'Stepin Fetchit', an 'Uncle Ruckus' and worse by black pundits, I have to wonder... Has Herman Cain found a way to talk about racism in America without actually saying that word?
Friday, November 4 2011
Occupy Everywhere
The Occupy Wall Street and the 99% movements have gone viral. We are everywhere, indeed.
Thursday, November 3 2011
This Show Just Got a Little Too Real: Bravo’s ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’
Bravo’s schadenfreude is such a fundamental part of Real Housewives that every episode unavoidably concerns a tragic figure that never appears on screen and cannot defend the character assassination the show perpetuates.
Friday, September 23 2011
Bursting Wikileaks’ Bubble
Freedom is just another word for contemplating our own reflections. Indeed, the way internet users process information predates the advent of computers, and merely reflects the way we want to see (filter) the world in the first place.
Thursday, September 15 2011
Stop Tweeting Sh%! and Buy This
They say art imitates life, but so does advertising. What does that mean when we live our lives online?
Wednesday, August 31 2011
BBC Radio: Tune in for a Grin
The BBC has recognised that its mission statement "to inform, educate and entertain" must, simply must, include radio comedy.
Tuesday, June 21 2011
In Praise of Silliness
They say you gotta laugh to keep from crying. A simple dose of pure silliness taken on a regular basis is much needed, these days.
Tuesday, May 10 2011
Selling Sex: The Media, Fantasy, and How I Fell in Love with Britney Spears
It all started when I was in Walgreens buying deodorant and I saw her looking me right in the eye with a glossy glow from the cover of an October 2010 issue of US Weekly.
Wednesday, April 20 2011
How TV Ruined Charlie Brooker
Everything the media told us we now had to question, because Charlie Brooker showed us the truth. But hearts were broken when television's biggest critic was seduced by the boob tube's charm.
Tuesday, January 25 2011
The Bird’s the Word: What Does Celebrity Reporting on Twitter Say About Those of Us Who Follow Them?
Apparently, American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert was the most influential tweeter on Haiti, and Conan O’Brien and Ricky Martin reigned atop the list of those commenting on the Chilean miner saga. Sorry CNN, NPR, et. al.
Friday, December 3 2010
Bullshit Detectors! The Garage Is an Outside Place, and a Place for Outsiders
As the commune was to hippies, so the garage has been to garage bands and to their proto-punk, punk, and post-punk successors: an enclave where marginalized youth can fantasize or realize their visions of independent alternative art and lifestyles.
