My old college pal Dan (well, actually we got to be friends after college, but that’s a long story), who was the master of the new-music mix tape back in the middle-eighties, turned up on Facebook recently and has been freshening up my iTunes with all sorts of fun new stuff. So here are a […]
Entries Tagged as 'Culture'
New Music from Dan: I Was a Cub Scout, Alphabeat, and The Helio Sequence
June 24th, 2008 · Comments Off on New Music from Dan: I Was a Cub Scout, Alphabeat, and The Helio Sequence · Culture, Music, New Wave, TV, Video
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Uncertain Smile: McCain Shredded by His Own Side
June 5th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Media, News, Politics, TV, Video
Watch the Republican pundits on Faux News shred McCain’s speech from Tuesday night. I daresay we won’t see him get within a mile of a green backdrop again. And suddenly, I can’t wait for the debates this fall with Obama and McCain on stage together. In the meantime, I’m dedicating my favorite The The […]
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Wordslingers Appearance Now Online, and Poem of the Week on Deep Dish
June 4th, 2008 · Comments Off on Wordslingers Appearance Now Online, and Poem of the Week on Deep Dish · Blogs, Books, Chicago, Culture, Fringe, Journal, Lit, Performance, Poetry, Politics
For those of you who didn’t hear it on the public airwaves a couple of weeks back, because you were busy painting your toenails or defending the earth or something, my appearance on the Wordslingers poetry radio show from Sunday 5/18 is now online in the Vox Cafe archive on the Wordslingers Web site — […]
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McClellan, Yellin, and the Press Under Pressure
May 29th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Foreign Policy, Journalism, Media, News, Politics, Video
Boy, Scottie McClellan’s decision to come clean — well, I say clean, I mean slightly less dirty — on his role as the Mouth of Sauron, and how the press corps passed along the White House’s propaganda to sell the invasion and occupation of Iraq, has really opened all sorts of floodgates. In addition to […]
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Judybats on Popdose, and First Judybats Album Reissued
May 26th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Blogs, Culture, LGBT, Music
John C. Hughes has a post about The Judybats up on Popdose.com, part of the “Why You Should Like … ” series. He doesn’t have to convince me — the ‘bats were arguably my favorite band of the 90s and it broke my little heart when they busted up the first time. When their debut […]
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Saturday, May 24: The Relaunch of Planet Earth Chicago at Subterranean
May 15th, 2008 · Comments Off on Saturday, May 24: The Relaunch of Planet Earth Chicago at Subterranean · Chicago, Culture, Music, New Wave, News, Nightclubs, Planet Earth Chicago
Here’s another very fun event on the horizon: What are you doing next Saturday night? Feel like going New Wave dancing with some of the most flamboyant and fabulous Earthlings in Chicago, at a groovy new location? Here’s what I’m talking about: Some of you know that over the last eight years I’ve been heavily […]
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Sunday, May 18: Wordslingers Poetry Radio Show
May 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Chicago, Culture, Fringe, Journal, Lit, Performance, Poetry
This Sunday evening, May 18, I’ll be appearing on the radio program Wordslingers. Wordslingers, hosted by Michael C. Watson, airs on the first and third Sundays of each and every month, and features Chicago-area poets reading their work and being interviewed live on the radio. You’d think there’d be a law against that kind of […]
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Colbert on the O’Reilly Meltdown
May 14th, 2008 · Comments Off on Colbert on the O’Reilly Meltdown · Comedy, Culture, Journalism, Media, News, TV, Video
Sublime. Any comment would be superfluous. And in case you haven’t seen it, the dance remix. Warning: Loud, crude, uncensored language, accompanied by a nifty techno beat. Lots of bad words that cultural conservatives might find objectionable, uttered by a conservative! Definitely not safe for work, kind of like the Falafel King himself.
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Wild Puppet: Kate Pierson Plays “Speed Quiz” on Pancake Mountain
May 8th, 2008 · Comments Off on Wild Puppet: Kate Pierson Plays “Speed Quiz” on Pancake Mountain · Comedy, Culture, Music, New Wave, TV, Video
Via the Planet X mailing list, here’s Ocelopotamus’s moment of video bliss for this week. I’m not familiar with Pancake Mountain, but all you really need to know is it’s Kate from The B-52’s and a goat puppet named Rufus Leaking. And here’s the 411 on Pancake Mountain from Wikipedia. Sounds like a very […]
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Mr. Fish on Obama-Wright, That Ad, and the Big Gas Tax Swindle
May 5th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Comics, Culture, Energy, Foreign Policy, Infrastructure, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid, Video
The brilliance of Mr. Fish! I really need to start including him in my cartoon roundups. His take on Obama v. Wright is especially trenchant. I’m not necessarily saying that I absolutely agree with the cartoon’s comically reductive expression of certain religious beliefs, but its portrayal of the double standard regarding what’s considered fair game […]
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Capes and Crumpets with Roz Kaveney
May 4th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Blogroll, Blogs, Books, Chicago, Culture, Doctor Who, Journal, LGBT, Lit, Science Fiction, TV
Speaking of people on my blogroll: Pop culture critic, blogger, and transgendered activist extroardinaire Roz Kaveney of Silence Exile and Crumpets was just in town, promoting her new book Superheroes!: Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films — which I’m hoping to crack the covers of eventually. Roz is brilliant at analyzing the various mechanics […]
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After Hours Press Poetry Reading at DvA Gallery, Friday May 2
May 1st, 2008 · 3 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Journal, Lit, News, Performance, Poetry
I’ve been meaning to mention for ages now that I have a poem in the latest issue of the Chicago poetry journal After Hours … and I’ll be reading it in public this Friday night. I’ve always been really bad about actually submitting my poems for publication — I always think, here I am fussing […]
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Roundup: Pansies vs. Chair Sniffers Edition
May 1st, 2008 · 1 Comment · Comedy, Culture, Doctor Who, Factory Farming, Food, Gender, LGBT, Nature, News, Organic Food, Politics, Racism, Religion, Roundup, Science, TV, Video
A little sampler platter for you, my pretties … First up, a brilliant post by Hunter on Daily Kos: Things I have learned during this campaign season: In a race that includes a former First Lady of the United States and a multimillionaire Republican senator rumored to share up to eight residences with his wife, […]
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