The following is a new article by Tim Mitchell, published in the “depth” section of PopPolitics magazine. Mitchell analyzes how critically discarded “versus” horror films can tell us a great deal about how we see conflict in the post-9/11 world. Horror is like any other genre of film: The most popular titles of a given [...]

It’s about time. It’s been two decades since “Pretty Woman” made prostitution seem cool — a path to self-esteem and self-empowerment — and I have rarely seen, outside of academic journals and hard-hitting documentaries, such an effective puncturing of that cultural myth as I read today in an opinion piece by Anne K. Ream and R. [...]

Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times wonders at — rather than analyzes — the sea change that has made “Pop TV” the new favorite venue for politicians. With all the recent appearances by the President, candidates and their spouses on everything from “Deal or No Deal” to the “Colbert Report,” Stanley notes, “It’s hard [...]

A vegan Gentleman’s Club is something right out of The Onion — but you can’t make the comments of Casa Diablo owner Johnny Diablo up (unlike his name): Mr. Diablo isn?t concerned with the “feminazis,” as he calls them. As a vegan himself, he says he hasn?t worn or eaten animal products in 24 years and [...]

The Clinton campaign resorted to race baiting early and often in this election season. And lately they’ve moved on to fear mongering. But, after reading Orlando Patterson’s New York Times op-ed today, I might have to coin a new phrase: racial fear mongering baiting. OK, that phrase isn’t going anywhere — but Patterson’s [...]

Need to celebrate or drown your sorrows? Take The Wire food quiz First, if you don’t know “Sheeeet!,” you don’t know … well, you haven’t been following the best show on television. Whether it’s the best television show of all-time … that is a matter of fierce debate in critics’ circles. Check out this enlightening exchange [...]

Neil Young doesn’t think music can change the world. Oh, and Bush is a fine physical specimen.

My partner and I have been known to explore or dismiss a restaurant purely based on the font of the signage. And most of the time it works. Really. If it weren’t for this technique, we might never have discovered the Wicked Oyster in Wellfleet, Mass., or Moon and River Cafe in [...]

Have our Hollywood candidate and vote for him too: Actually, the cheese factor is a little high, but it is moving. In any case, as Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times notes after he saw the video debuted at a Oprah/Caroline Kennedy/Michele Obama rally (”the best campaign rally I’ve seen in 20 years of [...]

I’m quoted twice in Jennifer Parker’s abcnews.com story about the significance of the presidential candidates’ theme songs. It’s a nice, wide-ranging piece about how the candidates are tapping into pop music to add a boost to their campaigns. Of course, I had a lot more to say than what Jennifer was able to quote. [...]

So I dropped in on the new TV series based on the “Terminator” movie franchise: “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” And the usual lowest-common-denominator limitations of broadcast TV are certainly present. Everyone is “hot” (even the freaky and geeky kids at John Connor’s high school) — and many of the characters feel [...]

So here’s how my hypothetical one-hour news show would be covering this election cycle. Instead of hearing Chris Matthews or Anderson Cooper talk night in and night out to same pundits about the latest poll numbers or the latest gaffe on the campaign trail, we’d have a “Health Care Week.” Each night would start with some actual [...]

The problem with national holidays is that they make groups and individuals into symbols and icons that fit into comfortable narratives about American progress. We’re still celebrating Columbus Day, of course. True commemorations should, instead, act as unsettling reminders of what still needs to be done. I imagine that Martin Luther King, Jr., a rabble-rouser if there ever [...]

The return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to the airwaves tonight is bittersweet — but pretty much just sweeeet. Yes, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), who are on strike, will be picketing both shows — and they are certainly justified. The WGA’s grievances with the media industry are clear and undeniable. But we really [...]

Having already had an early look at the first episode in the final season of “The Wire” (premiering this Sunday on HBO), I’m ready to be as effusive as I have been in the past about what is clearly the best show on television and — bear with me as I flirt with hyperbole [...]