Too long; do not read.
Since 1583, the British Empire has been a name you can trust for all your industrial, cultural, and brown-people subjugation needs. We’ve brought you the railroad, tbe spinning jenny, the difference engine, and the electronically controlled bassoon, not to mention William Shakespeare and a little show called Doctor Who. Whether we’re …
As I write this, the American government is engaged in yet another air bombardment campaign in the Middle East. In response to a series of relatively minor, but alarming and shocking, provocations by an extremist militant group usually known as ISIS, President Barack Obama — who initially campaigned on a …
(Note to producers: Mr. DeGrasse-Tyson is out with a bad case of sarcoidosis. Because of time constraints, Mr. MacFarlane has volunteered the services of his friend Jud Granderson to complete the voice-over content. Mr. Granderson is a technical consultant on American Dad, has a semi-degree in physical education, a keen interest …
Some movies are impossible not to like. Despite your best efforts not to be suckered in, they have some elusive quality – a game cast, eye-catching design, or an indefatigable sense of energy – that win you over. Bride and Prejudice isn’t one of those movies. But it’s so, so …
Dear Dan Harmon, Last night I had the unexpected opportunity to see Harmontown, the documentary film by Neil Berkeley that documented a whirlwind tour across the U.S. of your podcast of the same name. The tour came after your notoriously well-publicized firing from Community, a show you created and which I consider …
If it has an Ur-Image, if it has a Defining Moment the way that the national memory switches to color after the Kennedy assassination, it is the savage beating of Rodney King by L.A. police officers in 1991. The footage seems crude, noisy, and primitive by the standards of today’s …
As has been discussed here and elsewhere ad nauseam, when you are dealing with certain pop-cultural icons, they belong to everyone, regardless of the opinions of their corporate attorneys. Like any other mythological figure, from Odin to Jesus to Sherlock Holmes, there is no really ‘right’ or ‘correct’ interpretation of the …
Kelly Reichardt’s films are, to put it mildly, deliberate. Their pacing is so careful and precise as to be torpid (if you’re generous) or boring (if you’re not). I’ve seen every one of her movies, and I’ve enjoyed every one; like Chantal Akerman, there is a method to her maddening slowness. …
As America prepares to enter a fresh round of bombing in the Middle East, and as Barack Obama becomes the fourth president in a row to order attacks against a country that has not once conducted any aggressive action against our own, the world seems more and more like an …
In the cutthroat world of the DJ, fame can come in a second and go in half that time. Those who make it to the very top do so only because they possess a brilliance of technique combined with an understanding of crowds that no one else can touch. Frankie …
I’ve never been much of a fan of American football. As I detailed here and elsewhere, while I grew up an natural mark for practically every team sport that finds favor in the lower 48, football never took hold with me for a variety of reasons. Although the same set …
While I’ve always been opposed to the death penalty, I cannot say it has always been for lofty moral reasons. I’m certainly not opposed to killing in self-defense, and there are absolutely a lot of people who will leave the world significantly improved once they are rotting away in a …
Every four years, something truly special happens in the world of sport: one group of Americans gathers together to make fun of another group of Americans on the internet for liking soccer. Yes, it’s World Cup time once again, and while even the laziest poseur can bring himself up to …
When I was a kid, growing up in Phoenix — then a fairly small town, long before the arrival of the Diamondbacks and without any notion it would soon grow into one of the ten largest cities in the country — there was some kind of rivalry going on with …
I am a postmodernist, whatever that means, even if it doesn’t mean anything. If it does mean something, it means that I am perpetually opposed to the idea of canon, of the idea that there are certain things that belong in the realm of capital-A Art and other things that …
