Media
When comedians deliver stand-up material, you feel like you get to know their actual personalities. Certainly more so than you do with a musician performing their set, or a painter at a gallery. Comedians explain their thought processes through everyday interactions, family and friendship dynamics, their failures, and their
Media
A gossip columnist from the 1930s understood something platforms would later build into software: attention grows when news, personality, rumor, entertainment and power share the same stream.
Offensive Band Names
If you missed Part 1: The "Political" Edition, give it a read here! If you'd like to listen along as you read, here are the ongoing Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube playlists for the music discussed in this "Offensive Band Names" series (where available)
Food
If you've ever seen the 2007 comedy-drama film The Bucket List featuring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, you may remember the scene in which Nicholson's fanatical character learns exactly what Kopi Luwak is. If you haven't seen the film or are unaware of
Art
Ancient Roman poet Horace's Ars Poetica is perhaps the defining work of meta-literature: a poem written to advise poets on the art of writing poetry. The title alone is sufficient shorthand for self-referential creation, an idea that would mean nothing to me if I didn'
Internet
Legal disclaimer: This article does not attempt to provide legal advice and should only be considered for entertainment purposes. First things first—what is a Pro-Ana website? Pro-Ana is a descriptor for online forums and sites that promote anorexia by providing community and advice. Her less popular sister,
Food
I don't watch TV or movies. Well, I should say that I haven't regularly watched TV or movies since I was fifteen years old. (In any year since, I can count on two hands how many hours I spend watching either.) With most plots regurgitated, predictable,
I was at Love Not Money, my friend's record store in New York City, when I discovered The Moldy Peaches and had a resulting epiphany: every fruit-named band I had listened to up till then made fantastic music. The Smashing Pumpkins, Strawberry Switchblade, The Cranberries… the list
"Too too tired of the trite and testy doomsday dilemma of late 20th century consumer garbage-kulture…" – Headpress #5, 1992 America is certainly not the only country participating in the "trash culture" genre. A favorite artist of mine—South African rap-rave duo Die Antwoord—brought
To the uninitiated, Suicide was a seminal punk band from '70s New York City. Fronted by vocalist Alan Vega and keyboardist Martin Rev, they laid the groundwork for applying electronic elements to rock music and challenged what punk meant and—more importantly—what it could mean. But that'
If Michael Jordan was bigger than basketball and Anthony Bourdain was bigger than food, Fugazi was certainly bigger than music. If you don't know the band from their music, you may know them from the myriad of rules and guidelines they lived by: all-age shows, no set-
A brain dumpster fire of niche insights, cultural musings, and prickly humor.
Unlike film or literary genres such as horror, drama, or comedy, musical genres have a tendency to mean one thing... until they mean another. We've seen this manifest itself time and time again, with some examples being more blatant than others. But how widely acknowledged or understood are
The grunge aesthetic—characterized by plaid flannel shirts, ripped jeans, and looser, oversized fits—was captured in Seattle and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Since the genre made its commercial debut in the early '90s, many have attempted to capture and recreate the look with personal interpretation, not least
Nothing says Rock 'n' Roll quite like business executives leaning into their creative sides... which is exactly what Andrew Mason—founder of Groupon—did after being fired from his CEO position. Known for his "goofball antics" (as CNBC's Herb Greenberg described after naming Mason
If we lived in the Harry Potter universe, insurance would likely be the Dark Arts. Described by Severus Snape as "many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal," the Dark Arts has a way of offending many and delighting few, and although I'd like to think of myself
Let's travel back in time to 1950. The world at large is functionally pretty similar. There are cars, furniture, televisions, magazines, and many other ordinary objects. The media we consume is entertaining, enlightening, depressing, enraging, and boring, and we can experience it via a screen or paper. If
For many years, I have considered and interpreted a city's signature pizza style to be a reflection of the denizens of that respective city. From rich to poor and simple to bizarre, cities have a way of bringing their personalities, stereotypes, strengths, and weaknesses to the dish. In
Art is not a math problem, but that doesn't stop me from observing it as one (or calculating it like one). As it pertains to music, we can approximate definitions for specific genres with generalized formulas. Pop? Under 4 minutes, hooky, predictable song structure. Bluegrass? Banjo/fiddle/guitar
Despite living in a world that overwhelmingly rewards and acknowledges art focused on quality over quantity, there are always those who go against the grain and succeed. Most artists would be afraid that a poor output could besmirch their brand or sully their reputation, and they are correct to think
Made famous for bestowing the earth with finger lickin' good chicken, Colonel Sanders made a name for himself in his golden years as a restaurateur. We all know this story. However, I may be alone in thinking that the only thing more delicious than his drumsticks was his tasteful
We've all encountered the experience of trying to overstand something when all we needed to do was understand it. Sometimes, that's the result of interpreting a piece of literature or witnessing a movie with a bizarre ending. Other times, it feels like there's really
There are countless ways to describe Chicago-based proto-industrial group Big Black, but "shy" is not one of them. From 1981 until their split in 1987, they brought to light what was often swept under the mainstream rug. Among other topics, their songs discussed animal abuse, murder,