Category Archives: Popular Culture

Image of Africa Syllabus

Here’s the syllabus for one of my fall courses. I’ve taught it before, but this is a fairly substantial fiddling with some of what I’ve done in the past. It’s a topic also that I’ve really changed my pedagogical orientation … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Africa, Popular Culture | 12 Comments

Recommended…

First, a trifling recommendation: Sky High is kind of fun. Nothing great, but amusing and with a few really great bits. Kind of like The Million Dollar Duck meets The Incredibles in its look. More seriously: I’m probably the last … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Culture | 8 Comments

Theories of People

When I teach my course on the history of consumerism, commodification and advertising, I often like to talk at some point about my favorite paradox about choice and agency in liberal democratic societies. From the last quarter of the 19th … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Popular Culture | 20 Comments

Woof, Woof! Zap!

My daughter was intrigued by the ads for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So I decided to strike while the iron’s hot. I haven’t read the book to her yet, (we’re halfway through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) or … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Culture | 7 Comments

Whoa. Yeah, yeah. Hmm. Yes! No! Whoa.

Or, “My weekend with the new Harry Potter book”. Spoilers abound, so avert your eyes if you want to remain innocent of the plot details. — At the beginning of the book, Rowling appeared to signal that the status quo … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Popular Culture | 43 Comments

The Funny Pages

Ok, seems we have a little consensus here that whether or not bloggers are thin-skinned, Doonesbury isn’t particularly funny or sharply observed any longer and hasn’t been for a while. I can go along with that. So what do you … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Culture | 9 Comments

Well, At Least It’s Over

I’ve got an op-ed circulating out there now looking for a home that combines my critique of the new African-American history course in Philadelphia with some politely negative comments on Live 8. My critique of the course really is a … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Popular Culture | 8 Comments

I’m So Old-Fashioned

It’s quaint of me. While I normally wouldn’t spare a thought about Tom Cruise, the fact that he’s going around claiming to know the history of psychology and psychiatry, and that said knowledge appears to consist of bullshit distortions straight … Continue reading

Posted in Miscellany, Popular Culture | 1 Comment

Batman Begins

The only bad thing about seeing Batman Begins in Vancouver before the DiGRA conference was reading the silly assholes in some Canadian newspaper do some dialogue thing about the film where they talked about how insanely great the Burton films … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Culture | 1 Comment

Nerd Hermeneutics, or Do Not Make Out My Ticket for Middle-Earth

Ok, one last Star Wars post (just one tiny wafer, sir…) and then I’ll return to more serious issues. (Sorry to those of you who read this blog looking for something other than a cadet branch of Star Wars geekery…) … Continue reading

Posted in Popular Culture | 15 Comments