Avatar’s Cinematic Compression Implodes
M. Night Shyamalan’s compression of Nickelodeon’s stunning animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender has serious boots to fill. And it needs much more time to fill them.
journo
Absolutely Essential 90s Band Reunions
From the Cocteau Twins to Bowery Electric to the late, great Gravediggaz, we could really use some bands that were either born or broken in the 90s.
Best Album Art of All Time
By the time The Beatles got to their last proper album, 1969′s Abbey Road, they stripped themselves entirely of simulations and presented four friends parting at the road responsible for pop music’s most memorable sonics.
Neil Young’s Enviropocalyptic Comic, Greendale
Neil Young’s stirring Greendale started life in 2003 as a crunchy concept album about the enviropocalypse, and quickly became an indie film. The inevitable graphic novel arrives…
Deepwater Horizon’s Epic OilGas Catastrophe
If you’ve been railing for decades against the fossil fuel sector for everything from deliberately removing safeguards that could have prevented what will likely end up being the worst U.S. oil disaster in history to its lethal emissions that could, in the extreme, end up warming planet Earth to the point that human habitation is an impossibility, well, this is all old, sad news.
Geek The Beatles: Let It Be’s Recombined Reality Programming
Forty years ago, Let It Be closed out a decade of The Beatles’ artistic and technological influence.
Airbender Posters Whip Up Anticipation
High expectations for the film exist in a space apart from the trepidation found in some corners of the Airbender nation…
Showdown On Wall Street
[Scott Thill, AlterNet] Good thing Goldman Sachs reported its first-quarter profits on the popular pot holiday April 20. Because you had to be totally stoned to appreciate the sheer, corrupt […]
In Praise of Ralph Bakshi, Animation Pioneer
One of animation’s most influential artists, Ralph Bakshi made his mark on pop culture by refusing to sacrifice his singular vision to popular tastes and trends.
Name That Film-Based Band!
Murder By Death is one of the most ridiculous, and ridiculously hilarious, spoofs of all time. A smoking cast, a conscienceless goof on mystery greats like Hercule Poirot and Sam […]
Firefly Reboots! And Other April Fool Headlines
Sigh. Do you ever wish for the return of Joss Whedon’s Firefly, a reunion of the original Pink Floyd lineup, great films made from Alan Moore’s brain-melting comics, Neuromancer the […]
Ten Ways Mother Earth Will Strike Back
Welcome to our existential nightmare, from rising seas and runaway droughts and storms to the outer limits of dystopian catastrophes like the fart apocalypse.
Goldman Sucks Greece, Swallows The Eurozone
I’ve been writing about Goldman Sucks — that is, rapacious economics star chamber Goldman Sachs — for years now. And I’m glad the rest of the world is finally paying […]
Dark Side Eclipses Concept Album Classics
On March 10, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon turned 37. So given that it is my favorite concept album ever, I decided to call it the overall greatest […]
UN: Climate Crisis Attention Lacks Ambition
They would rather wait until the climate crisis has already ripped the roof off the world as they knew it, before doing anything significant about it.
Yellow Light Panopticon Crashes, Burns
With profit as the red-light camera’s primary motive, it’s hard for an already disenfranchised citizenry to find friends in those money-hungry local governments.
Colbert Would Pwn Obama, Says White House
How much do I dig Stephen Colbert’s viral hyperreality? Enough to write about him every chance I get. So when White House press secretary Robert Gibbs actually comes out and […]
What’s the Secret of Boba Fett’s Staying Power?
The bounty hunter has lately infused The Clone Wars with some much-needed threat, now that its main evils, such as General Grievous, have been unmasked as mostly comic relief.
Free Culture Now. Mass Culture Tomorrow.
I wrote about the Students for Free Culture’s conference Free Culture X, taking place on Saturday and Sunday in D.C., recently for Wired.com. But for those still unclear on why […]
Technocracy Blowback: Five Case Studies
“Why blame technology? It generally does what it is coded to do. It’s the human sentient understanding of how to take cruel advantage of human weakness that’s the problem.”
Global Warming’s Catastrophic Polarities
Climate change deniers argue that the frozen storms battering America have nothing to do with the arrival of hell on Earth. But destabilizing intensity on either end of the weather spectrum is our new normal, and we better get used to it.
John Oliver: Enjoy the Abyss, America!
[Scott Thill, Morphizm] After losing the visionary Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show has been leaning heavily on scathing comedians like Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, John Hodgman and this UK import, […]
New York Times Bites My Walkaway Rhyme
[Scott Thill, Morphizm] Look, New York Times: You can pay me for my cultural and political insights. People already do. Seriously. Like when you posted that article today advising underwater […]
Alan Moore Is Ready For Post-Civilization
“I have largely, completely given up on the comics industry,” Moore said. “I really don’t believe it is going to do anything to address the modern world.”