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Books

The Deconstructive Irony of Ortberg's 'The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror'

This collection gives us Ortberg's trademark gender-swapping, flipping of accepted norms of good vs evil even while blurring the line between them, and startling backstories that do not always reveal underlying motivations but definitely add dark, ironic humor.

Music

Power Play: Brian Williams, Leonard Cohen, and "First We Take Manhattan"

In "First We Take Manhattan", Leonard Cohen recognized the shared appeal of extremism in politics and art as the allure of power.

Games

“One in a million, that is you”: 'Device 6' and the Decentralization of Player Identity

Games seem like the medium that might best challenge the authority of the author, given as they are to allowing the player to manipulate their “texts", to build within their systems, and potentially to break, rearrange, or reorder them in some personally satisfying way. Games seem like that.

Games

Moving Pixels Podcast: Paths and Parables

This week we explore the branching narratives of The Stanley Parable to see if there can be a singular and straightforward way of understanding Stanley's plight.

Television

Stranger Than Zombies: Power, Privilege & Lesbian Subtext in 'The Walking Dead'

The premise of The Walking Dead provides many opportunities to study privilege. Who lives on the farm vs. who lives in the RV? Who sleeps in the woods vs. who drinks the Woodbury tea? Who can two women love, if not each other?

Games

Laying Bare the Protagonist: The Hypersexualization of Bayonetta and Dante

Strip her down. Dress him up.

Music

From Safety to Where: The Factory Years of New Order

The full sweep and glory of New Order's accomplishment -- from the static gloom of Movement and “In a Lonely Place" to the happy, confident likes of Technique and “Run” -- cannot be underestimated.

Featured: Top of Home Page

P-1's Box of Surprises

Chicago/NYC's P-1 would rather let their songs define them than any one style, which is probably necessary considering the cross-pollination of influences and sound incorporated in their mix. And his refusal to be pigeonholed might just be the thing that expands their audiences even further as they release their second album.

Games

Top Spin

Unlike other sports games and America's sports pages, Top Spin doesn't completely erase women from its sports world. Yet their presence is to fulfill male fantasies as sexualized commodities.

David Leonard

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Pop Ten

The 25 Best Classic Progressive Rock Albums

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '90s - Part 1 (100 - 81)

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '90s - Part 5 (20 - 1)

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '90s - Part 2 (80 - 61)

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The Deconstructive Irony of Ortberg's 'The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror'

This collection gives us Ortberg's trademark gender-swapping, flipping of accepted norms of good vs evil even while blurring the line between them, and startling backstories that do not always reveal underlying motivations but definitely add dark, ironic humor.

Power Play: Brian Williams, Leonard Cohen, and "First We Take Manhattan"

In "First We Take Manhattan", Leonard Cohen recognized the shared appeal of extremism in politics and art as the allure of power.

“One in a million, that is you”: 'Device 6' and the Decentralization of Player Identity

Games seem like the medium that might best challenge the authority of the author, given as they are to allowing the player to manipulate their “texts", to build within their systems, and potentially to break, rearrange, or reorder them in some personally satisfying way. Games seem like that.

Moving Pixels Podcast: Paths and Parables

This week we explore the branching narratives of The Stanley Parable to see if there can be a singular and straightforward way of understanding Stanley's plight.

Stranger Than Zombies: Power, Privilege & Lesbian Subtext in 'The Walking Dead'

The premise of The Walking Dead provides many opportunities to study privilege. Who lives on the farm vs. who lives in the RV? Who sleeps in the woods vs. who drinks the Woodbury tea? Who can two women love, if not each other?

Laying Bare the Protagonist: The Hypersexualization of Bayonetta and Dante

Strip her down. Dress him up.

From Safety to Where: The Factory Years of New Order

The full sweep and glory of New Order's accomplishment -- from the static gloom of Movement and “In a Lonely Place" to the happy, confident likes of Technique and “Run” -- cannot be underestimated.

Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren

After 9/11, many Americans acted as though this region of the Middle East, with its Arab people and some religion called Islam had sprung up out of the sandy soil to surprise us all.

P-1's Box of Surprises

Q and Not U: Power

Top Spin

Unlike other sports games and America's sports pages, Top Spin doesn't completely erase women from its sports world. Yet their presence is to fulfill male fantasies as sexualized commodities.

'Sports Is Hell' Narrows the Field to Identity Politics

Sunny Jain's Impressive 'Wild Wild East' Is a Compelling Call for Human Rights

Always the Bridesmaid? Laura Nyro's Debut Is Ready For Reappraisal

Shopping's Brand of Post-Punk Will Get You Moving

Daniel Krikke's 'Scared of Revolution' Brings Forth the Last Poet

Ben Watt Turns Middle-aged Angst Into Gold on 'Storm Damage'

Plugging Into the Third Mind

French-Algerian Rocker Rachid Taha Leaves 'Je Suis Africain' As His Final Work

The Ghostliness of Mark Jenkin's Post-Brexit Parable, 'Bait'

'American Dirt' Now That the Dust Has Settled

Counterbalance No. 3: Nirvana's 'Nevermind'

Punk Hybrids: Wham! Bam! Glam-Punk!

The 43 Group and the Moral Imperative to Fight Fascists

Love Songs: The Hidden History (Excerpt)

"A Certain Kind of Dream Quality": An Interview with Donovan Quinn

Hollywood Creative Accounting, or, How to Hide a Hit and Still Profit From It

Punk Hybrids: Wham! Bam! Glam-Punk!

'American Dirt' Now That the Dust Has Settled

Counterbalance No. 3: Nirvana's 'Nevermind'