March 26-30, 2012
After months and months of streaming, Kevin Mattison re-embraces the discipline of limitation and goes back to the disc. Read “It’s not you, it’s me: breaking up with Netflix Streaming”
Mad Men is back, but a show that was once confident, sexy, defiant, and unapologetically mysterious, is now paranoid, aggressive, alienated, and tangibly nervous. It leaves Ana Holguin feeling a bit funny, and not always in a good way. Read “A little bit funny”
He treats humans more like puzzles than people. He has no compunction about manipulating people or dropping them entirely. He just doesn’t give a shit, and Sarah Pavis argues that, objectively, this makes Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor the best of the modern Doctor Who Doctors. Read “A tale of two Doctors”
What happens when an author’s personal life or beliefs force you to reconsider your feelings about their work? Kelly Hannon considers her deep and abiding love for Orson Scott Card’s novels in “The author, in and out of shadow”
Jill Kolongowski has strict standards for breakfast, which until recently did not include sausage gravy. She starts to make up for lost time in “Biscuits and vegetarian gravy, with apologies”
It’s not you, it’s me: breaking up with Netflix Streaming
Netflix streaming seemed like a dream come true — thousands of titles instantly accessible, right at my fingertips. Sure, I read the complaints regarding Netflix’s lack of “quality” content, but my tastes are far-reaching and I never had any real trouble finding something worth exploring. Streaming was particularly helpful with television shows, allowing me to … Continue reading
A little bit funny
AMC’s much anticipated Mad Men premiere came and went this past Sunday night and boy did it leave me feeling. . . funny. This show that once revelled in style, laid on the cool and laid it on thick, has definitely gone through some changes. Following Don Draper’s lead, where the feel was once confident, … Continue reading
A tale of two Doctors
Having watched all of the modern Doctor Who series and some of the classic Doctor Who series I think I can confidently call myself an unimpeachable expert. My esteemed college and, more importantly, fellow Sarah, has asserted Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor is the best Doctor. While in every subjective way her opinion is … Continue reading
The author, in and out of shadow
For the past two years, my favorite author, Orson Scott Card, has published a new book very close to my mid-January birthday. I’ve always anticipated his new books with glee. The new publishing dates had made it seem as though he was giving me a new book just for my birthday. It’s pretty much the … Continue reading
Biscuits and vegetarian gravy, with apologies
I’m a breakfast purist. Even if, like yesterday, I’m not up and out of bed until noon, I’m having breakfast for my first meal of the day. No cold pizza or soggy leftover bullshit. Breakfast is way too good to miss out on. I also have strict ideas about what breakfast should be. For example, … Continue reading
March 19-23, 2012
Technological alienation? Old news. Australian band Regurgitator was all over it back in the 90s, and they were funny, too. Mike Vincent revisits two of their best albums in “Regurgitated”
The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is the single best event in American sports, but there’s always room for improvement. Gavin Craig offers some (somewhat unusual) ideas on making March Madness just a little more crazy in “Snark Madness”
Sarah Wener finally dives into Doctor Who, and finds that she had the good luck to start with the best Doctor, Christopher Eccleston. Read “A noob watches Doctor Who”
Comics are more interesting when things are more than just black-and-white, in the storytelling that is. Matt Santori-Griffith takes on two examples where characters and their choices don’t fall clearly into neat categories, X-Factor/X-Statix and The Secret Six. Read “Mutants and misfits”
Gavin Craig takes on homemade (and handmade) mayonnaise. See if his whisking is up to the task in “Beefy forearms and emulsions”
Regurgitated
I wonder what is like being from another country. This sounds sort of stupid, but Americans often have a strange, warped view of the music of other countries. It is not unexpected to have a country-specific oritentation towards your own pop culture. We are the center of our experience and of our own perspective. In … Continue reading
Snark Madness
I’m a big fan of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, commonly known as March Madness. As a 64-team [*ahem* 68, but who’s counting?] single-elimination tournament spread out over roughly three weeks, there’s simply nothing else like it in college or professional sports. The first and second rounds alone consist of forty-eight games in four …
A noob watches Doctor Who
Last year I finally decided to start watching Doctor Who. I’m not sure why I hadn’t before. I think it always seemed too hardcore. Everyone I knew who watched the show was constantly making in-jokes with other Who fans. (One indication of how out of it I am: are fans of the show Who fans … Continue reading
