Recent

"We are all Rachel Dolezal": on Asad Haider's 'Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump'

Among other critiques of identity politics, Haider believes that we each can slip between identities at will. Indeed, it's a universal human condition.

Books

"Pounding Humility into You Permanently": On Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain was loved not for his wit or charming temerity, but for confronting us with our own alienation and cultural isolation. He reminded us that there were connections to be made over the dinner table.

Television

'They Came to a City' for a Vision of Utopia

J. B. Priestley's sense of social conscience permeates every frame of They Came to a City.

Lee Broughton

Film

Norman Lear's 'Cold Turkey' Satirizes Nixon, Narrowmindedness, and Tobacco Addiction

The humor in this film goes hand-in-paw with the blunt, vulgar symbolism of a dog's lifted leg in the opening credits.

Film

Informed or Inflamed? Author Steve Almond Talks About How We Consume Trump

With the recent release of Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country, Steve Almond talks in-depth about the US president whom most parents wouldn't even let on the playground -- and about his beef with the American left.

Books

Walk a Comfortable Mile in All Kinds of Shoes

If you can't make it to the Bata Shoe Museum, then pick up this oddly thrilling explanation of things we already suspect about footwear.

Books

For a Comedy of Manners, 'The Philadelphia Story' Is Awfully Screwball

Often screwball comedies feature sharp contrasts between social classes, with not-so-subtle commentaries on the idle rich, and that's here in triplicate.

Film

'I, Tonya': Sympathy for a Tabloid Villain

This biopic about ice skater Tonya Harding is a slashing, kickass comedy about class warfare, media manipulation, and one of history's stupidest criminal conspiracies.

Film

Fantastic Negrito's "Working Poor" Is the Soundtrack to the Summer of '16

America's working poor exist in a shadow cast by the harsh light of prosperity. "Working Poor" speaks from those shadows, creates light within that space, and insists on being heard.

Music

Pink Floyd: The Division Bell (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

Welcome to the machine.

Music

What Happened to Imperial Russia's Most Powerful Aristocratic Families?

In Former People, Douglas Smith follows the fates of two families during the revolutions and Civil War that played out across Russia between 1917 and 1922, and he continues to track the fates of those who chose to remain in the Soviet Union.

Reviews

The 'Grand Theft Auto' Rampage: The Violence of Cultural and Subcultural Politics

Grand Theft Auto V's Trevor picks on social groups, rednecks, gang bangers, military personnel, and hipsters, and when he does so, he takes offense at one or two members of that social group before he then allows his rage to explode into a kind of murderous generalization. If one hipster offends, then kill them all.

Games

Gold Teeth, White Teeth, and Lorde's 'Pure Heroine'

On her debut album, Pure Heroine, Lorde explores adolescence in the modern digital age by singing about her life, her friends, and... teeth. Lorde uses types of teeth to signify differences in class and social circles as well as a demarcation of authenticity.

Music

An Affectionate Look at the Privilege of the White and the Middle Class: 'The Last Days of Disco'

Amongst themselves, the main cast of characters are nominal equals, and that contributes to a particular kind of status parsing.

Reviews

Deriding Desire: Dorothy Dandridge and the Raced and Gendered '50s

In 1957, Academy Award-nominated actress Dorothy Dandridge found herself at the center of a smear campaign that betrayed the patriarchal and racial politics of Hollywood and the US at large. The '50s were far from calm.

Film

Pop Ten

The 60 Best Songs of 2018

The 70 Best Albums of 2018

The 20 Best Avant-Garde and Experimental Albums of 2018

The 20 Best Americana Albums of 2018

The 20 Best Folk Albums of 2018

Short Stories: The 12 Best Collections of 2018

The Best World Music of 2018

The 10 Best Indie Rock Albums of 2018

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