Separation Anxiety
Absence only makes the heart grow fonder under limited conditions; extend it, and you are looking at a different cliché entirely: out of sight, out of mind.
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Twelfth Night Blues
For Black Americans, the questions might be asked, what does Christmas mean to us? And how can we make Christmas something usable for us? If, as Frederick Douglass argues, Christmas was tainted by the power politics of slavery, as the stories in Collier-Thomas’s collection make clear, it was equally tainted by Jim Crow and segregation.
Jungle Boogie: Some Reflections on Nick Stewart, Victor Millan and the “Minority” Actor
Millan had some of the same challenges as Black actor in dealing with certain types of “minority” roles, but he also had some advantages in getting more roles. Latino actors were often all-purpose “minority” actors, playing East Indians, Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, any of a wide swath of so-called “people of color.”
Our Anger Complex
What does it mean to live in a country where anger is entertainment and power, and fights break out on airplanes? Some of this rage is by now a cultural habit; the rest is raw and fresh.
The Eighth Sense
Western scientists conveniently overlooked emotion for decades, dismissing it as irrational and female, a source of bias and hysteria best avoided altogether. Now they are forced to acknowledge that simply by paying attention to internal sensations, you can head off hysteria, angst, or dejection.
The Death of Joan Didion
Photo of Didion in 2008 by David Shankbone, courtesy Wikimedia Commons Didion has died. She was the last of American peers (save Gay Talese, who is 89) dubbed New Journalists, and the only woman widely acknowledged to be in the group. The label meant, at least in part,…
What the Metaverse Is and How It Will Seduce Us
Writing for The Atlantic, game designer and Washington University media prof Ian Bogost calls “metaverse” “a sexy, aspirational name for some kind of virtual or augmented reality play.” Also: “a fantasy of power and control.” Which seems to be the key.
Earning the Faith
I was so stunned the first time I heard “And the Glory of the Lord” that I thought I would faint. My heart pounded like a runaway train. It was for me at that young age the most beautiful thing I ever heard in my life. And I heard it that day and thought, “If I could be a Christian as beautiful as that music; if I could, as a Christian, help make the world as beautiful as that music, that would be something!”
Goldfinger and How James Bond Becomes a Cultural Behemoth
As all the commentators have noted, "Goldfinger" provided the template for future Bond movies. First, a title song played over the opening credits. Second, a pre-credits action sequence which has become the sine qua non of the Bond movie. Third, "Goldfinger" made technological and mechanical gadgets a permanent aspect of the Bond film effect.
How AR Could Explode Traditional Teaching
For centuries, the humanities have been taught with texts and lectures; art history with slideshows and lectures; the sciences with experiments and lectures. Then came VR and AR. And now, professors who have never felt the slightest desire to play a video game are downloading VR software, begging for I.T. help, and teaching their students—and themselves—how to construct worlds within worlds.