Digital Skulduggery & more
I’ve broken up the crazy end-of-the-semester season by sneaking in episodes of The Magicians, the SyFy series based on Lev Grossman’s novels. The premise of the novels and TV adaptation blends Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Paper Chase, and a host of generic 90s shows about good-looking 20-somethings to imagine a grad school… Continue reading Throwing Shade: The Metaphysics behind Objectification in The Magicians
Bethany Nowviskie has aptly summed up the current standoff between the University of California system and the Nature Publishing Group as a case of fight club soap. Bethany explains the metaphor much better than I can (I urge you to read her post), and she boils it down with even more economy on Twitter: "Fight… Continue reading Fight Club Soap, Sold by SD-6
Last spring I participated in an interdisciplinary symposium called Unthinking Television: Visual Culture[s] Beyond the Console. I was an invited guest on a roundtable devoted to the vague idea of "Screen Life." I wasn't sure what that phrase meant at the time, and I still don't know. But I thought I'd go ahead and share… Continue reading Unthinking Television Screens
It seems that public opinion is shifting toward the idea that Tony Soprano was whacked in The Sopranos series finale after the screen went black. That possibility can never entirely be ruled out, which is part of the brilliance of the abrupt, unsatisfying final seconds of the series. I want to suggest, however, that the… Continue reading Tony Soprano Did Not Get Whacked
Jane Mayer, an uncompromising journalist who's become a thorn in the side of the Bush administration (for her reporting on current U.S. torture tactics and the method of "extraordinary rendition"), has written a New Yorker profile of Joel Surnow, one of the creators of the hit television show 24. Her profile focuses on Surnow's support… Continue reading KUBARK on 24
I've been on the blogging equivalent of radio silence for several weeks now, waiting for my handlers to issue the code for me to go on active status. Last weekend was it: Vice President Dick Cheney shooting a 78 year-old man in the face with a shotgun. That was my signal. (Or, close enough: it… Continue reading Terrorism Means Never Having to Say Your Sorry
How many passengers on a transatlantic flight play Sudoku? Apparently all of them. Another observation from the flight...One of the in-flight movies was The Dukes of Hazzard. I assume this movie was supposed to appeal somehow to the retro-seeking, nostalgia-desperate Gen Xers like myself, who spent many Friday nights in the eighties watching The Dukes… Continue reading Puzzling over the flight home
After much grave, serious debate and heart-wrenching soul-searching, we finally bought Lo Mejor de Elmo from the media megastore FNAC in Madrid. This was a major decision. Our son has watched maybe ten minutes of television in his whole life. And we plan to keep it that way. But Elmo is so tempting. Despite never… Continue reading Lo Mejor de Elmo
I've been a devoted follower of The Sopranos ever since I borrowed the entire first and second seasons on VHS from a friend, back in 2000. I've managed to see every episode since, even without having HBO, by begging, borrowing, and sometimes just showing up unannounced, uninvited at the right place at the right time.… Continue reading Irregular around the Margins
The other day: from my hotel in Rosslyn, Virginia, there is a spectacular view of Washington, DC. It's just across the river. Nothing to do in Rosslyn itself though, so I watch some television. The local NBC affiliate closes the 11 o'clock news with a feature on Anthony Edwards, whose last appearance on ER was… Continue reading The Other Day