Category: American culture
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Awesome Garbage: Cool as Ice
At one point in the history of America -specifically the beautiful, stupid early 1990s – there was an awkward transition in pop culture when rap music was on the verge of being a mainstream genre and something entertainers aped to seem hip without actually working too hard at making their rap good or authentic. While…
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Perfect Movies: American Psycho
“You like Huey Lewis & The News?” I sure do, and Patrick Bateman makes a great argument for the strengths of their 1983 breakthrough album, Sports. It would be a great moment in any retro film for the main character to espouse his love of mainstream contemporary music, but becoming a counterpoint to the action…
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Perfect Movies: The Breakfast Club
It is a truth universally acknowledged that being a teenager sucks. Not objectively, of course: as an increasingly cantankerous adult, I look at teenagers and want to let them know that they are young and healthy and will never be this free or full of promise again in their lives so they should stop moping…
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Perfect Movies: Dazed and Confused
Nostalgia is a powerful force. The sentimental longing for the past as it connects to personal and positive memories is the kind of feeling that, when brought up in conversation, makes older people unbearable to younger generations. Meanwhile, those who have gained a certain experience in life know that the callous youth that reject their nostalgic…
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Great TV: The Addams Family
Let’s play a word association game. If I used the words creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky, and ooky, my guess is that you would snap your fingers twice and say The Addams Family. And it’s amazing at just how deeply the TV show has permeated popular culture at this point: running from 1964 to 1966 and…
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Awesome Garbage: Mac and Me
True story: I saw Mac and Me in theaters when I was 6 years old. I was visiting my grandparents in Virginia Beach and spending the day with my grandma, mom, and sisters, and since everything else out in the theater was definitely not kid-friendly (the weekend it opened, August 12, 1988, here were the…
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Cult Classics: Better Off Dead
Lane Meyer wishes he were dead. He tries over and over – self-immolation, carbon monoxide poisoning, jumping from a bridge, even hanging. But like most things in his life, it never quite goes his way. Did I mention this is a major plot point in an 80’s teen comedy? Better Off Dead isn’t just another…
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Perfect Movies: Monkey Business
There was no more perfect comedy configuration on film than the Marx Brothers. I have had some dark days (and wow, who hasn’t?) and despite hardships or emotional upset, I can turn on a Marx Brothers movie and it lifts my soul completely for at least a short while – and hopefully for a while…
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Perfect Strangers – “The Lottery”
Sometimes the world looks perfect, nothing to rearrange; sometimes you just get a feeling like you need some kind of change. Well, standing tall on the wings of my dreams (whatever that’s supposed to mean), Perfect Strangers became the anchor show for TGIF in 1988 in its fourth season on television, joining the insipid Full…
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The Unstoppable Horror of the 21st Century
Originally published on September 11, 2019 For readers of this site, I have written extensively on the horror genre. While mostly in a humorous manner, live-recapping horror films as I watched them, I have a sincere appreciation of the genre. Mostly because it delves into subject matter that we consciously, and perhaps forcefully, push out…
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Perfect Movies: The Big Lebowski
The Dude abides. But how? With the Gulf War raging in the background and as the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune–mostly concerning a soiled rug that really tied the room together that escalates into a wild series of improbable events–fall about him, The Dude, bleary-eyed as always, maintains an inner calm. Everyone else around…
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10 Best Movies That Criticize Consumerism
Consumerism is the natural by-product of capitalism. Really, it’s the natural by-product of being alive: we all need things to survive, after all. Food, housing, clothing, from beginning to end it seems it’s our natural state to consume. But living in a capitalist society also complicates the matter, particularly since in a such a society,…
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