Category Archives: pop culture

Someone please educate me…

Perhaps I’m the only one who’s run into this sentiment, but I’ve heard three different people now marvel at youngsters’ prowess playing Guitar Hero, noting (with variations) that, if only we could “harness that ability,” we could do great things. … Continue reading

Posted in Kids These Days, pop culture | 16 Comments

Since Disney is buying Marvel Comics…

Enjoy this little page of mash-ups. H/T Eli Gaultney

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Battlestar Galactica‘s Boethian Satan

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote one of my favorite posts here about Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica and the wildly different moral universes they set forth. ?By that time I had finished Sopranos but was waiting for the third … Continue reading

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The Most Interesting Man and an Early Prediction of Newspapers’ Doom

I don’t often watch beer ads, but when I do, they’ve got to be something like this: The billboard that goes with this ad campaign has been up on the Atlanta Highway in Athens for a while now, but it … Continue reading

Posted in Heard it on NPR, pop culture | 6 Comments

The Best Holocaust Book I’ve Read

I have a feeling that at least one or two of my readers will take this occasion to shoot me a bit of mockery for writing about a comic book.? (I don’t figure all three of you will do so.)? … Continue reading

Posted in Books, pop culture | 1 Comment

The Last Fact

The Future! (Comics). It looks like the liberal Internet has deemed this meta-critique week, with Greenwald’s piece that I wrote about yesterday leaving the partisan battlefield to comment on journalism as a profession and this Tom Tomorrow cartoon noting the … Continue reading

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Access Journalism and the Medium (or Media?) of Sycophants

The Corruption of the Cocoon Like Binx Bolling in Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, one of my hobbies is to read both conservative and liberal texts.? (Because he’s a mid-twentieth-century novel character, he doesn’t do so on the Internet as I … Continue reading

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Clapton, Shreddin’

I just love this video. ?My brother Ryan sent me a link to one of StSanders’s dubbed-over guitar-solo clips a while ago, and I think this Clapton send-up is my favorite. ?In case you’re as slow as some of the … Continue reading

Posted in Goofing Around, Internet, pop culture | Leave a comment

Valentine’s Day

I remember what I did every year in high school on February 14–out came the black T-shirt (not that I was averse to the black T-shirt during the rest of the year), and whether I had a girlfriend or not … Continue reading

Posted in Family, pop culture | Leave a comment

Jeeves and Wooster: Should Have Stopped after Three

After we went to Wall-E on Saturday, we came home and put Micah to bed, and then Mary and I watched the very last episode of Jeeves and Wooster, an A&E series from the early nineties which we’ve been watching … Continue reading

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Advertising and Evangelism

Why the Devil Takes Visa First of all, thanks to Robert, one of this blog’s best readers and a friend of mine, for tracking this essay down and linking to it on his own blog.? It’s a classic in my … Continue reading

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Colbert Clip

Cornel West Interview Normally I don’t post video links, but this was just too wonderful not to share.? Yes, it was last night’s show–give me a break.? I don’t stay up near late enough for the new episodes. I love … Continue reading

Posted in pop culture | 2 Comments

Why Morgan Spurlock is Bad for my Soul

Having finished what they’ve released to DVD of Battlestar Galactica, Mary and I have started viewing the series 30 Days, the ongoing project of Supersize Me documentarian Morgn Spurlock.? I think I like Spurlock better than I like Michael Moore … Continue reading

Posted in pop culture, teaching, UGA | 13 Comments

The End of The Wire

If you’re scandalized by the fact that… ah, you read the disclaimer on my Sopranos post.? I finished the last season of The Wire last night, and looking back, there’s simply nothing like it on TV or in the movies.? … Continue reading

Posted in pop culture | 4 Comments

Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica: The Moral Universes of Television Drama

First of all, a disclaimer for the folks who are already shocked that I would watch Sopranos: I’m a teacher of literature.? I’ve taught plays in which sons murder their fathers and have sex with their mothers.? I teach (or … Continue reading

Posted in pop culture | 11 Comments

The Last Polite Bigotry

I really did have high hopes for Bill Maher’s podcast. I started downloading podcasts a couple weeks ago, and when I discovered that HBO offered the audio of Maher’s show for free, I downloaded the last bits of last season.? … Continue reading

Posted in Gripes, pop culture, Reflections | 2 Comments

The 700th Anniversary of Left Behind’s Forebear

It was set to be a hit from the time letters hit paper. (No movable type yet, so it wouldn’t hit the presses for a couple centuries.) It had glimpses into Hell and Heaven, the doom of the Pope, and … Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Books, medieval, Political Entertainment, pop culture | 1 Comment

Should I be surprised?

I read this morning that the opening week of sales on Grand Theft Auto 4 outgrossed opening weekend for Iron Man, which is now the runner-up for biggest non-sequel opening movie for a weekend, by one hundred fifty percent. When … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Gripes, Kids These Days, Political Entertainment, pop culture, Sports | Leave a comment

No, I don’t like it. No, I’m not a prude.

Once more this week (it happens about once a year), I found myself the object of scrutiny because I neither watch nor enjoy South Park.? And once again my interlocutors’ working assumption seemed to be that I must not like … Continue reading

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Another Surrender to Pop Culture

I’ve finally gone and downloaded a ringtone.? (The content was free, but I’ll have to pay for the data feed, which does not receive a monthly allowance on my phone bill.) Now, if my phone isn’t on silent, my phone … Continue reading

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