This page has moved. Please update your bookmarks.

Vox Pop
by Meta Wagner
Gay TV: Making Same-Sex Marriage Safe for America [19 October 2006]
At the same time that gay TV is shaping the culture, the culture is also shaping gay TV, containing it and restricting it from going "too far".
All columns by Meta Wagner

Travels in Little America
by Kathryn Hummel
Reel Australia [18 October 2006]
Hummel used to dread, simply dread, Australian-made films. But a number of recently discovered intelligent, evocative films have her singing her creative countrymen's praises. Here are some movies you shouldn't miss.
All columns by Kathryn Hummel

Stale Popcorn
by Amos Posner
The Great Wait for Oscar Bait [16 October 2006]
If there's anything to be learned from a review of the year so far, it's that 2006 will either go down as a terrible movie year or a tremendously back-loaded one.
All columns by Amos Posner

Variations on a Theme
by Chadwick Jenkins
The Profound Consolation: The Use of Bach's Music in the Films of Ingmar Bergman (Part 1) [13 October 2006]
In Bergman's films, Bach's music functions to give access to a rarified atmosphere of revelation and emotional depth; it reveals something previously inaccessible within a character.
All columns by Chadwick Jenkins

Channel Crossings
by Raphaël Costambeys-Kempczynski
Cooking Up a Fuss [12 October 2006]
The arrival of the celebrity TV chef is parallel to the rise of the techno DJ: both feed upon our hedonistic fin-de-siècle desires. The chefs do it by teaching us how to knock out cordon bleu dishes in only 20 minutes between the moment we get home from work and the moment we head out again to get blotto.
All columns by Raphaël Costambeys-Kempczynski

Negritude 2.0
by Mark Reynolds
Walking Away From It All: The New Great American Fantasy [11 October 2006]
Walking away from it all to pursue a quieter, less complicated life is an oft-recurring theme in American culture, from Henry David Thoreau's 1854 Walden to the 1932 Scarface — right up to the present day's Dave Chappelle and Aaron McGruder.
All columns by Mark Reynolds

Politics and Culture/East and West
by Robert R. Thompson
Fascist, Fascist, Who's a Fascist? [10 October 2006]
The term "fascism" is being appropriated, inappropriately, by a range of political interests in the US — including the Republican Party.
All columns by Robert R. Thompson

Marginal Utility
by Rob Horning
Virtual Utopia [9 October 2006]
Utopias we can recognize as such are doomed to failure, forever resigned to fantasy. Is online universe Second Life such a place, where one experiments harmlessly with fantasy, or is it an organic necessity, an inevitable outgrowth of an intolerable present?
All columns by Rob Horning

Shh... It's Starting
by Violet Glaze
Or Are You Just Glad to See Me? [6 October 2006]
This month, our cinematic classicist looks at the human love of firepower, and how one forgotten film noir in particular encapsulated everything good and bad, appealing and appauling, about this obsession with guns.
All columns by Violet Glaze

Blood and Thunder
by Adrien Begrand
Blind Guardian's Twisted Myths [5 October 2006]
For Hansi Kürsch, lead singer of Germany's Blind Guardian, there's no Justin Hawkins flash, no DragonForce pub chants, no hipster-pandering irony. If he's going to sing about faeries and orcs, he's going to do so and mean every damned outlandish lyric.
All columns by Adrien Begrand

The Outré Oeuvre
by Bill Gibron
Skunk Ape Confidential [4 October 2006]
From his humble roots as a woodland myth to his starring roles in several '70s monster movies, Bigfoot remains the Me Decades most misunderstood manbeast -- and most unlikely cultural icon.
All columns by Bill Gibron

PopShots
by Glenn McDonald
When Harry Googled Sally [3 October 2006]
A terrifying glimpse of what can happen when modern technology meets Happily Ever After.
All columns by Glenn McDonald

Busted Headphones
by Quentin B. Huff
Unsung Heroes: The Band of Extraordinary Women [2 October 2006]
Huff fantasizes about wielding Diddy-like power to create a supergroup of underrated, under-the-radar female musicians. Danity Kane, eat your heart out.
All columns by Quentin B. Huff

ReDotPop: Mediations of Japan
by tjmHolden
The Saga of Sagi Society [29 September 2006]
We ReDotPoppers find ourselves in the moment of con, in an age of deceit, trapped within the epoch of cheat, run-through by an ideology of insincerity. It is definitely time for a new Emperor, a Hisato, whose name includes virtue.
All columns by tjmHolden

Dread Reckoning
by Marco Lanzagorta
Fear Factoring: Part I [28 September 2006]
What elements categorize a horror film? Monsters? Murders? Mood and atmosphere? In this first of a two part examination on the subject, our resident macabre master argues that unlike other cinematic genres, the basic tenets of the terror experience can be difficult to clearly delineate.
All columns by Marco Lanzagorta

Mixtape Confessions
by Ben Rubenstein
It Shall Be Released [27 September 2006]
Rubenstein looks back at the release of a number of highly anticipated albums to contrast his opinions then and now. How much does personal expectation factor into our ultimate enjoyment of music?
All columns by Ben Rubenstein

Brazil with a Z
by Naitze Teng
So-Called Liberty, Justice and Peace, per the PCC, in São Paulo [26 September 2006]
The PCC has generated an urban war to fight for better conditions for their members in prison -- and the people of São Paulo live imprisoned within their city.
All columns by Naitze Teng

Field Studies
by Andrew Gilstrap
Wild Abandon [25 September 2006]
It may seem quaint now, even after punk's scorched-earth campaign, to think of '50s rockabilly as a danger to Western Civilization, especially in light of pop culture's rampant envelope-pushing since then. But a closer inspection would make even the seen-it-all cynics take pause.
All columns by Andrew Gilstrap

From the Cheap Seats
by Tobias Peterson
Collect 'em, Race 'em, Trade 'em: Putting the "Fantasy" in Fantasy Sports [22 September 2006]
For fantasy leaguers, today's athletes are but tools to be used in a make-believe struggle for dominance.
All columns by Tobias Peterson

The Box Office Belletrist
by Jennifer Makowsky
Lolita's Balls! [20 September 2006]
Between the scandalous novel and it's equally inflammatory big screen adaptation, Vladimir Nabokov's classic story of unnatural, obsessive love still has chutzpah.
All columns by Jennifer Makowsky

Queer, Isn't It?
by Michael Abernethy
Do You Wanna Funk with Me?: A Beginner's Guide to Gay Nightclubs [19 September 2006]
Going to a gay nightclub shouldn't be an intimidating experience, and could prove to be the most fun straight people have had out in a long time.
All columns by Michael Abernethy

TechKnow
by Yusuf Osman & Kimberly Springer
I Want My (insert movie/TV show/music), Now! [18 September 2006]
On-demand programming: it's all about you. At least, that's what you should think.
All columns by Yusuf Osman & Kimberly Springer

The Lost Signal
by Bill Gibron
Monkey Business [8 September 2006]
Performers in monkey suits hitting each other with mallets? Is that all that's left of Ernie Kovacs' television legacy? It's the subject up for debate during this overview of the more or less forgotten funnyman.
All columns by Bill Gibron

Paris Noir
by Miles Marshall Lewis
Rock Steady Revelations [6 September 2006]
How far from traditional Bronx breaking can one go before hip hop dance is no longer quite hip hop dance?
All columns by Miles Marshall Lewis

The Barbershop Notebooks
by Marc Lamont Hill
Why Hip-Hop Sucks, Part 3 [1 September 2006]
There's good hip-hop and there's mediocre hip-hop. The latter is outnumbering the former.
All columns by Marc Lamont Hill

Letters From a Broad
by Kimberly Gadette
It's Not Just a Job... It's a Dead End [30 August 2006]
An appeal to those who feel drawn to military service out of economic necessity.
All columns by Kimberly Gadette

The Pop Factor
by Audrea Lim
Five Colors Rock Taiwan [29 August 2006]
Che Guevara, John Lennon, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein -- and Taiwan's late DPP legislator Lu Hsiu-yi -- all met up on a rock 'n' roll stage to rouse up a revolution.
All columns by Audrea Lim

Foreign Devil
by Jon Campbell
Foreigners in Foreign Lands, Part II: Exotic Occidentals [28 August 2006]
The second in a series of two examinations of foreign musicians, in which the Devil returns, literally, to China, to suss out those abusing the "foreign" tag.
All columns by Jon Campbell

Alternative Rock Cultures
by Iain Ellis
Bubblegum Pops the (Counter-)Cultur [25 August 2006]
Fake and faceless, bubblegum pop in the late '60s and early '70s offended the prevailing rock myths of artistic creativity and rugged opposition to the powers-that-be.
All columns by Iain Ellis

Jazz Today
by Will Layman
Previte, Horvitz, Goldberg, Byron (and Zorn), and the New Face of "Fusion" [18 August 2006]
The fermentation of so much "fusion" is now producing a contemporary jazz scene of unprecedented variety and real brilliance. The question is whether the term "jazz" really applies, any more.
All columns by Will Layman

Jeepney Ride
by Kaye Luiz Alave
For God and Country [16 August 2006]
Alave expounds upon the Philippine's separation of church and state; or rather, the lack thereof.
All columns by Kaye Luiz Alave

On the Corner
by Michael A. Gonzales
Soul Rebel [3 August 2006]
What makes Al Green a true legend 34 years later is the fact that his music is still putting a mojo on young women's minds and making men strut like pimped-out peacocks.
All columns by Michael A. Gonzales

Arabesque
by Ursula Lindsey
Darkness Falls on Beirut [28 July 2006]
This will go down in history as an infamous summer, the summer Lebanon — with all its hopes, its charms, its weaknesses — was abandoned.
All columns by Ursula Lindsey

The Armchair Anthropologist
by Jodie Janella Horn
Castle of Assholes: The Big Brother All-Stars [10 July 2006]
If it's July, it's time for another installment of CBS's voyeuristic reality series. Unfortunately, while she loves the show, our arbiter of televised treats isn't thrilled with the 'all star' format.
All columns by Jodie Janella Horn

Remote Couture
by Courtney Young
MTV's New Post-modern Voyeurism [7 July 2006]
Known for its televisual lows over the years, MTV seems to have struck a nerve with its latest scandalous offerings: a showcase for insufferable materialism, and a competition where racist slurs are rewarded as a winning strategy.
All columns by Courtney Young

Never Mind the Bollocks
by Justin Cober-Lake
Talk of the Town [21 June 2006]
Cober-Lake speaks with Chris Pugmire of the Seattle band Shoplifting about politics' place in punk rock, the role of men in feminism, and the dangerous power of language.
All columns by Justin Cober-Lake

People Person
by Matt Thomson
New Suburbans: Field Explorations with Chaz and Brittany [30 May 2006]
The stratum of the human species we're studying here is a prevalent, yet often elusive breed.
All columns by Matt Thomson

The Tipping Point
by Pierre Hamilton
The State of the Single, Part One [3 May 2006]
Singles: can't live with 'em and can't live without 'em. How the single's domination of the marketplace continues to distort expectations and ruin the album format while serving its greater purpose of cultural ubiquity.
All columns by Pierre Hamilton

Café C'est What
by Tom Terrell
Death and Music [28 April 2006]
As my eyes locked on that stark casket, my mind tripped out. The cognitive dissonance of it all shut me down until they played Aunt Shirley's "Here's to Life".
All columns by Tom Terrell