Libraries are wonderful resources. Several times at my local Barnes & Noble, I’ve scoured the local philosophy section (Shiny new Foucault but no Baudrillard, bleh), looking at the stoics. I’ve read some Seneca, and most of the Meditations, but one wants something a little more systematic, a little more Aristotelian in it’s presentation. The parables… Read More Epictetus, Aversion, and the Escape From Cosmic Demand
It must be Biopic season, because I’ve just sat down of my own free will and watched two fictionalizations of actual events: one from my infancy, which I look on with fascination, and one from my early adulthood, which I disdain with the snobbery of a thousand dead aristocrats. The second thing, Pam & Tommy… Read More Pam and Tommy and Steve and Johnnie
Every right-thinking person should deplore Rolling Stone magazine for being a glossy nostalgia rag and corporate liberalism enabler. But every now and again one may gaze into the void and find insights. Imagine record sleeves without the advent of Hipgnosis, the photo-design company responsible for Pink Floyd‘s mysterious black prism, Led Zeppelin‘sflaxen-haired nudist children, AC/DC‘s censored everyday villains, Black… Read More Hipgnosis, and the Great Age of Album Covers
This will be the last time I write about this hack until he delivers another book. And even then, I might not bother. The ending of Game of Thrones was so bad I’m pretty well done with the whole universe. There’s no shortage of fantasy literature out there, if you’re into that sort of thing,… Read More George R.R. Martin Doesn’t Get Why Everyone’s Mad, and Other Statements Written by Marketing Reps
In my hunger to put my eyes on actual New Content instead of the same old lamentations on Endless Trash, I decided to give the Hulu series on Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, The Dropout, a try. It was pretty good, as such devices go. It had points to make about what Elizabeth Holmes was and… Read More Elizabeth Holmes and the Mystification of Commerce
I’m gonna be crystal-clear on this: being a fan is a market-induced mentality. The word is derived from “fanatic“, which is an early-Modern Latin derivative referring to religious zealotry. Late Modernity, having removed religion from the public square, substitutes devotion to entertainments as simulacra to the epics and sagas of old. That’s why they’re using… Read More Destroy all Fandoms
Adam Manstroianni has written an article on his Experimental History Substack about a thing long lamented, how everything in pop culture is on repeat. In every corner of pop culture––movies, TV, music, books, and video games––a smaller and smaller cartel of superstars is claiming a larger and larger share of the market. What used to be winners-take-some has… Read More The Hidden Masters of Pop Culture
I come to the chilly end of April and realize how little of pop culture has any impact on me anymore. The front page of Variety may as well be intel from another planet. For example, James Corden leaving “The Late Late Show” is the first time I realize that he was the host of… Read More Cultural Dissociation is the new Rite of Spring
That’s the kind of spicy headline that brings in clicks, I hear. I have a complicated relationship with Star Trek. I enjoy it. I watch it upon occasion. I recognize the quality of it’s early works. I cannot stand its fandom. I have often said that I refused to get that deep into Star Trek… Read More Anyone Who Willingly Watches Star Trek: Picard is the Reason the Terrorists Hate Us
Last night I sat through a YouTube video nearly as long as a feature-length film, discussing a cartoon cat I haven’t cared about in decades. When I was a young fellow, I had a whole slew of Garfield books, at least the first 14 or so. Adolescence brought changes, and the existence of Calvin &… Read More Garfield and the Consumer Event Horizon
Content Blues 