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Recent FeaturesSunday, February 25 2007
Sorting Out Farrakhan’s LegacyFarrakhan has been both vilified as an anti-Semite and also deified for championing the interests of the black poor. Friday, February 23 2007
MacGuffin PopRandy Newman's latest Academy Award nomination makes it easy to forget how truly deceptive his songwriting really is. His music, which rarely wanders far from New Orleans R&B, ragtime, or Brill Building pop, is the stuff of familiarity and comfort, an unassuming foundation of Americana into which subversive (confrontational, even) ideas can be planted. Thursday, February 22 2007
Beats and GeeksWhite rappers merge the worlds of hip-hop and computers in an underground scene called 'nerdcore'. 
The Bluth Company vs. Dunder MifflinWhy couldn’t Arrested Development find a mass audience when The Office is thriving? Wednesday, February 21 2007
Shallow GravesMartin Scorsese's hotly tipped Oscar fave, The Departed, plumbs the depths of the psychological and sociological motives of violence, loyalty, and duty. 
Pretty Surfaces, Sharp Edges: An Interview With Wet ConfettiWet Confetti's Alberta Poon fronts a three-person band that's drawing comparisons to Delta 5, X-Ray Spex, and the Au Pairs. Funny, though, she says she and her two band-mates never heard of post-punk until after they started making music. Tuesday, February 20 2007
Dixie-chickedIntroducing the Chicks' Grammys performance, Joan Baez called them "three brave women who are still 'not ready to make nice.'" It may be the long way, but it's the right way too. 
Bright Eyes: In Defense of PreciousnessDespite all the self-absorption, and directly in spite of criticisms about the brittle timber of Conor Oberst's much commented on voice, Feldman lays her love for Bright Eyes out in public to defend the mysterious power of the hope that slips through the cracks in Bright Eyes' usually gloomy demeanor. Monday, February 19 2007
From Love Songs to the Fake Mafia: An Interview with the QueersAfter 25 years, Joe Queer has opinions on sex, death, and, more important, punk, but he knows to keep it all in perspective with a sense of humor. 
The Redemption of Daphne Rubin-VegaOn her new album, Redemption Songs, Broadway star Daphne Rubin-Vega provides the antidote to the 24-hour cycle of bad news that framed our worldview in 2006, a collection of songs that stirs the soul and feeds the spirit. Friday, February 16 2007
Electric Light Orchestra: Too Much at Once Can Blow the FuseAlone, ELO's pop mini-symphonies are perfect confections that captivate with their careful sonic details and ear-pleasing melodies and hooks. 
The Fast and the CuriousMedia Darling Danica Patrick may never take the checkered flag. But does that matter? Thursday, February 15 2007
Permission to Follow: Interview with Juliet McMainsPopMatters talks to dancer and author Juliet McMains about how the forces driving DanceSport mirror American national identity: desire for both passionate abandon and steadfast rules, obsession with self-improvement and comfortable gender roles, and craving for a little thing called Glamour. Wednesday, February 14 2007
Love and Frogs: Dating John WatersThe unique filmmaker talks about his sweet compilation, his extreme romantic tastes, and the definitive way to divorce. Tuesday, February 13 2007
A Culture’s Sad Finale?It won't be long now -- maybe just months -- before we know if the glorious swamp culture of New Orleans has been washed away for good. 
The Kink ContinuumWhen Jason Fortuny baited BSDM fetishists on Craigslist, he exposed their personal information -- and our society's rampant sexual hypocrisy. Monday, February 12 2007
Race for the Super BowlTony Dungy's win in Miami was definitely a major event, but a quick look at Super Bowl history shows that the NFL, with its long-disparaging race record, is still far from a level playing field. 
Prince of the BallWhen His Majesty stood silhouetted against a billowing, yellow sheet, his phallic glyph guitar lunging into shadow, it was a bold display of virility that had many (including execs at Viagra, no doubt) shaking their heads in awe. I turned to my wife and checked her pulse. The night had reached its apex. 
Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, and the Importance of Winning It AllDid the Colts' Super Bowl win actually change who Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy are? Or did it just change the perceptions of who they are in the eyes of armchair quarterbacks everywhere? Sunday, February 11 2007
Dirty FacesGrimy, blue-collar rock and roll... or is it? Dirty Faces' Get Right with God would be the most intense and powerful straight rock record of the year. That is, if it really were a straight rock record. |
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