Category Archives: Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities

The New Machine

I know my anxiety about this political season won’t end until November. And really not then, because I don’t want this ever to happen again. And that depends upon a Clinton Administration doing more than just maintaining the status quo. … Continue reading

Posted in Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Politics | 2 Comments

It Is Better to Have Wanted and Lost Than Never to Have Wanted At All

Kickstarter is, not at all on purpose, saying some interesting things about this moment in the history of capitalism and about this moment in terms of the availability of disposable income. About capitalism, I think this: people will give to … Continue reading

Posted in Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Politics | 5 Comments

What Meets in Vegas, Stays in Vegas

I wouldn’t quite say I was surprised at this report of unrest within the American Sociological Association over the choice of Las Vegas as the location for the 2011 meeting. And I’m fairly certain that some of the more extreme … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Good Quote, Bad Quote, Popular Culture | 6 Comments

I Want My AuthenticiTV

I largely believe in the everyday critical capacity of contemporary audiences. In many ways, I think cultural consumers today are the most sophisticated in human history. To some extent, that’s because their toolkits, both intellectual and technological, have a lot … Continue reading

Posted in Blogging, Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Politics, Popular Culture | 3 Comments

I For One Welcome My New Infrared Faucet Overlord

Interesting post and discussion at 11d on Sandra Tsing Loh’s latest essay in the Atlantic Monthly, which I read on the train this week. I thought the essay was terrible for a variety of reasons, many of them stylistic. There’s … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Books, Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Domestic Life, Miscellany | 12 Comments

A Facepalm Moment

There’s a lot of discussion going around gaming sites about Stardock CEO Brad Wardell announcing that his company would boycott UPS because UPS was pulling its ads from Fox. Wardell’s backtracking since the story began to circulate is the kind … Continue reading

Posted in Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Games and Gaming, Information Technology and Information Literacy | Comments Off on A Facepalm Moment

Simplicity vs. Sustainability

Last week, I was at an event where there was some talk about Swarthmore trying to embrace sustainability and simplicity to a greater degree. Afterwards, I was trying to parse out why those two words provoke really different gut-level reactions … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Domestic Life, Swarthmore | 5 Comments

Social Production, the Good Life, and the Ways of Desire

Ever since I studied the history of consumption and commodities, I’ve been uncomfortable with the conventional terms of what James Twitchell has called the “jeremiad against consumerism”. I’m still uncomfortable with the proposition that what we now need to aim … Continue reading

Posted in Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities | 1 Comment

Different Cliffs, Different Bottoms, Different Parachutes

There is a kind of confusion that happens anytime there is a major historical conjuncture where histories of failure and crisis which have independent roots happen to coincide. Because they coincide, they become part of the same “event”, and by … Continue reading

Posted in Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities | 16 Comments

The Manufacture of Culture

You know, we worry too much about the Punch-and-Judy show of political blogging, not to mention the quiet, relatively cobwebbed corner of the Internet occupied by self-declared academic blogs. If you want a look at what blogs are really for, … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Food | 10 Comments