Cultural Criticism from the World of Pop. Reviews, Essays, and Ideas in Culture, Music, Film TV, Books, Games, Comics

The Weekly Ansible Seabozu: the angsty self-aware monster of the dead themonstervault: “Monsters are tragic beings; they are born too tall, too strong, too heavy, they are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy"-Ishiro Honda Seabozu is an odd monster to begin with for the Vault, but I’ve chosen him because he embodies the meeting of the camp aspects of monster films and the more serious side.Appearing in an episode 35 of the original Ultraman series titled, “The Monster Graveyard,” the kaiju Seabozu is unlike any other being faced by Ultraman. Daytrotter Indie Music Blog – Indie Music, Live Sessions WaCon - A Texas Game Convention (Waco, TX) Dallas/Austin/Central Texas DeQuan Watson United StatesUnspecifiedTexas For those of you that may not be aware, we're hosting a game convention right here in Waco, Texas on the weekend of September 28th and 29th. We have some really cool stuff planned. Right now we've got a kickstarter project running to help get some extra funds and secure a couple more guests and cool extras:

Aeon Magazine – ideas and culture Ink Tank - Make words not war The ten greatest short story writers of the twenty-first century? What, we scoff, only ten? After all, the century’s fourteen already – that’s enough time to compile a list twice as long as this one! However, we’re going to restrict ourselves to ten because we’re also interested in your input: which story writers have blown your mind since the big Y2K? BrooklynVegan Neo-Griot April 8, 2014 Note from BW of Brazil: Today, we take on a topic that will undoubtedly be part of any conversation about the imagery of Brazil: sex tourism. Let’s face it, Brazil has long promoted itself as a country of sexual freedom, sensuality and beautiful women. But these images often portray Brazilian women as simply another commodity available for consumption in the global economy while ignoring the fact that these persons have lives, challenges and aspirations.

Slingshot! By Quinn Ginger The outskirts of Buenos Aires are grim and cluttered, and our route out of the city was lined with weathered billboards stuck like hectic postage on every flat surface. In contrast with the sleek, tech driven city center, the rim of Buenos Aires is still deeply industrial. It's a place where workers sell the hours in their day for a wage and spend the majority of their waking lives inside a factory answering to a boss. I was there to seek out another way to conduct business; One that provides lives and livelihoods separate from the hierarchical wage system, which for the past 12 years since the economic collapse has been growing in the rubble, inside large warehouses and dusty offices. For the past two months, I have been visiting, interviewing and working with the worker-owners of Argentina's empresasa recuperadas, or "taken factories".

Left of Black Left of Black S4:E27: What is the ‘Art of Cool’ Festival? Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined in studio by Cicely Mitchell, co-founder of the Art of Cool Festival, which runs in downtown Durham, North Carolina, April 25-26, 2014. Acts scheduled to appear include Maceo Parker, The Foreign Exchange, Bilal, Alice Smith, Nnenna Freelon, + Miguel Atwood Ferguson, among others. Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University. Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in @ iTunes U

Is Henry Jaglom the real Woody Allen? IRENE IN TIME opens; Q&A w/ filmmaker Henry Jaglom (shown below, right, with his new leading lady Tanna Frederick) may be an acquired taste. It took TrustMovies awhile before he realized how hooked he'd become on this guy's films. Now, he can't wait for the next one to pop up -- which it does, every couple or three years. Alan Lomax Collection (The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress) About | Lomax FAQs About the Lomax Family Collections The Lomax family has a long history of collaboration with the Library of Congress.