The Cautionary Tale of Spider-Man
Why do bad things keep happening to a good superhero?
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The Musical Talmud: “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” by Kelly Clarkson
Pop musicians love quoting Friedrich Nietzsche. But do they love what he means?
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Overthinking “Temple Run”
Temple Run is an insanely popular iPhone game with an insanely simple premise: like Indiana Jones from the first scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you play the part of an adventurer who “takes the idol” from the eponymous temple, … Continued
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[Think Tank] Obama, The Wire and Conan the Barbarian
What does Barack Obama’s taste in TV and movies tell us about him as a leader?
Irony Fail! Or: That Video for Skrillex’s BANGARANG is Extremely Frustrating, I Tell You What
Skrillex’s Bangarang is a good song with 2/3 of a really great video. But only 2/3.
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Use and Abuse of Power in Avatar: The Last Airbender
Power should never be concentrated in one person’s hands – except when you’re the Avatar?
Analyzing the 2012 Oscar Acceptance Speeches
Subjecting Oscar acceptance speeches to a level of scrutiny they definitely don’t deserve.
Silent Star, Surfer, Spy: Jean Dujardin and Characters About Characters
This Sunday, Jean Dujardin won the Best Actor Oscar for the role of Georg Valentin in The Artist, playing a charismatic silent movie actor incapable of coping with the world of sound. Intellectually motivated movies about movies tend to punch … Continued
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The Biblical Terminator: Heteroglossic Discourse and Poetic Authority in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
How “Terminator 2” imitates the epic language, and the problematic self-contradictions, of The Bible.
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Subjecting “Fridge Nuking” to Scientific Peer Review
George Lucas claims Indiana Jones could survive a fridge-nuking. Dr. David Shechner tells us why that’s crap. Science!