Here we are in the United States of America, having just gotten past yet another July 4th holiday weekend, where you are required to show your official fandom as being an American patriot through draping yourself and your belongings with the flag, eating and drinking as much as you can with the people you love, and crowing over the explosions […]
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Hey everyone…just a quick one today, since I’m writing this one on the Fourth of July and have better things to do, like walk around the neighborhood and watch people celebrate American independence by firing off fireworks made in China. Plus, you’re probably all hung over from celebrating America’s enduring awesomeness, and probably so bleary-eyed you can’t really focus on […]
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Hey, what do you know? I’m back! Summer is upon us, which means I should have some time to crank out a few more of these here columns. To get back into the swing of things, I decided to write something simple that is somewhat based on the research I’ve been doing for my grad school thesis. That is why […]
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Almost a year ago, I first discovered that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is an amazing show that is capable of generating a fandom that crosses both gendered and generational lines. However, crossing and pushing these borders causes consternation about the bronies who organize because of it. However, bronies appear to welcome their challenge to social and cultural notions about what […]
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There is no denying that we live in an age where more than ever we are actively pulled out of our real lives and into an alternate one, a digital life. We increasingly live lives where we barely interact with people in person for days yet have an active social life in the ever-increasing digital playground available to us through […]
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Hey folks (or folk, depending on how many people actually read this column). Due to academic obligations and some family stuff that went down recently, today’s post is going to be a short one. Furthermore, since part of my grad school research is devoted to gender issues in the films of Nicolas Winding Refn, I decided to look at one […]
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We all have dreams. For some of us those dreams are to get a good education, a good job and live a comfortable life. For others, dreams take on a much different shape. For many of the subjects in Simon Ennis’ heartfelt documentary Lunarcy!, the dream is no less than the stars themselves; or more poignantly The Moon. Lunarcy! is […]
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Creating anything can be difficult, but for the painter Lars (Thure Lindhart), creating his masterpiece, his Mona Lisa, has taken him nearly ten years of blank canvases and frustration. Giving up hope that he can repeat his previous success, he leaves Denmark and settles on a teaching job for a struggling art school in a small snowy town in Canada. […]
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One of my favorite movies of all time is Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future. When I was young, the movie blew me away, and I had a total crush on Michael J. Fox. I even tried to conceptualize how to make the flight conversion on cars work, and sent a letter to the President of the United States with my […]
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Writing about a pair of films that examine the terror of writing on the eve of the death of one of your writing heroes is a surreal experience, but that is what I am experiencing right now. I hope this doesn’t sound crass, but this one is for Roger Ebert (1943-2013). While I didn’t always agree with him, I nearly […]
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