Check out UI journalism teacher adds video game narrative writing course to Fall 2012 curriculum - The Daily Iowan

Check out UI journalism teacher adds video game narrative writing course to Fall 2012 curriculum - The Daily Iowan

Scapegoating, Holy Terror, and Catching Hell

This week brought the premiere of two mass media products that serve to enlighten how the past decade has created a very ugly society. The documentary Catching Hell and graphic novel Holy Terror come from people that are masters of their craft: Alex Gibney (Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Taxi to the Dark Side – all masterful documentaries) and Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, Sin City, where hyperbole and control mix elegantly), respectively. However, what we’re looking at today is not the author, but rather the very artifact of people that cannot let go. By talking about scapegoats and creating a donkey on which people can pin the fears, despair and anger of a certain situation, we feel collectively better about ourselves.

And that’s messed up on several levels.

The Stagnation of Popular Culture By Intellectual Property

Have we reached the end of popular culture?

I’m not being facetious here, and I’m not (just) trying to do this for hits. I’m asking a simple question: What’s REALLY changed in popular culture in the past decade? And is anything honestly POPULAR at this point? I’m not so sure that our culture has moved to a point of differentiation from the films and products of a decade ago beyond surface aesthetics, and it saddens me to state this.

Guy Debord - The Society of the Spectacle

I can't recommend this man's writing enough. If you haven't seen it already, sit down with some pen and paper and watch this video. Note that his ideas have changed and become a large part of the culture, but this was pretty revolutionary in 1967.

Summer Movie Series - American Graffiti

“High School is closer to the core of the American experience than anything else I can think of” – Kurt Vonnegut

Limp Bizkit - Gold Cobra

Gold Cobra, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Holding Pattern


Okay, I knew that one day I’d have to face up to this, and I think it’s time to face facts. No more hiding that I too once did it all for the nookie (yeah!). No more hiding that I too once owned Jnco Jeans, a baseball cap that was turned backwards, and exercised my faculties with vulgarities while hearing detuned guitars in the background.


I was a teenage mook.

KRUI Appearance

Hello, it's been a while, hasn't it? While I wile away over piles of grading and composing graduate papers, there's been a marked lack of time that I've spent with you. However, I've found time to head over and guest DJ at KRUI on the University of Iowa's campus. If you're not already listening to their programming, click here to begin correcting that sad mistake. Myself, I was lucky to spin a two hour set tonight dedicated to summertime tracks and grooving, and I took full advantage of that opportunity to provide something close to a story. Okay, not really, but it was still gratifying to do this, and it won't be the last time. Keep listening as you wait for the next entry in the summer teen movie series and further music reviews; they're happening sooner than you think.

Here's last night's playlist. I think you'll find some excellent, acceptable songs here for your consumption.