Category Archives: Series

Utilitarian Review 8/11/17

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Los Jaivos

 
On Patreon

Advice for academics talking to journalists, and vice versa.

For Patrons, the first draft of my essay on race in Hateful Eight.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Playboy I interviewed Zinnia Jones about straight men claiming they don’t find trans women attractive.

In the romance criticism series I’m editing at Public Books, Qiana Whitted wrote about Alyssa Cole and the possibility of love for black women.

At Bandcamp I put together a list of awesome Latin American prog.

At Splice Today I wrote about

—Lee Fang, neoliberal shill.

—Jacob’s Ladder and Vietnam as American dream.

At the Reader I wrote a short blurb about British R&B newcomer Jorja Smith.

Utilitarian Review 8/5/17

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I talked about Katie Halper’s interview with Angela Nagle and why taking the arguments of Nazis at face value is bad.

I did a brief list of best albums of the year so far.

For $5 patrons, the first draft of my piece on Atomic Blonde, this time with more cursing and Freud.

 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Forward I wrote about Eli Roth’s Death Wish and fascist empowerment fantasies for white Jews.

At Splice Today I wrote about

—Al Franken’s enjoyable and startlingly honest campaign biography.

—Zero Dark Thirty and tough decisions about torture as cynical marketing ploy.

On twitter I tweeted through the entirety of Angela Nagle’s Kill All Normies about internet culture and the alt right. Spoiler: it’s not any good.

Utilitarian Review 7/28/17

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On Chapo Trap House’s Wonder Woman episode, and leftist Clintonian triangulation.

On why the Vulture is not a working-class hero.

For $5 Patrons, the never-before-seen first draft of a piece on how Elvis didn’t invent rock and roll.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At Quartz I wrote about

—why conflating Judaism and Zionism is bad.

—Atomic Blonde, and why Jane Bond is better than James.

At Splice Today I wrote about Iron Man, and why it makes sense that a dumb superhero narrative is our iconic Afghan war film.

Utilitarian Review 7/21/17

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Why you should welcome our Oankali overlords.

Online interactions are real interactions.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Slate I wrote about how Dunkirk points the way to better anti-war movies, even though it isn’t anti-war itself.

At Playboy I wrote about George Romero and smaller than life horror.

At Quartz I said we need to SMASH ALL EASTER EGGS!

At Splice Today I wrote about

—why battle metaphors are a bad way to talk about cancer.

—Three Kings and American savior fantasies.

—Music that isn’t planning to change the world from Dustin Wong & Takako Minekawa, My Purest Heart for You, and Red Pill.
 

Utilitarian Review 6/15/17

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Bert Stabler and I put together a list of the 100 Greatest metal albums of all time.

For Patrons I wrote about Lego Batman and evolutionary morality.

Utilitarians Everywhere

At the LA Times I argued that diversity is a euphemism meaning don’t be a bigot.

At the Verge I wrote about superheroes, race, and Cleverman.

At Splice Today I wrote about

—Elon Musk and working long hours to flatter the ultra rich.

—Full Metal Jacket as rape/revenge Vietnamsploitation.

At the Chicago Reader I wrote about briefly about dronegaze band Planning for Burial and growing up in Wilkes-Barre.

A long twitter thread listing art I love with links to essays.

Utilitarian Review 7/8/17

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I wrote about Baby Driver, Legion, and disability as superpower…for directors.
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At the Forward I wrote about how Spider-Man isn’t Jewish anymore.

At Splice Today I wrote about:

—Rambo as Native American and racializing veterans.

—how Wyonna Earp is crap and the Golden Age of Television is a sham.

At Bandcamp I wrote about the fractured pop of Larkin Grimm’s Chasing an Illusion.

Utilitarian Review 7/1/17

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On Patreon

On Angela Nagle, the Handmaid’s Tale and how the religious right is in fact part of capitalism.

The difference between Handmaid’s Tale book and tv show. (TV show has more empowerment.)
 
Utilitarians Everywhere

At Playboy I wrote about Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled as neo-Confederate feminism.

At the Verge I wrote about

—how Preacher the television show is different from the comic (Jesse doesn’t walk with God.

—Blood Drive and our retro-future disgusting Reagan apocalypse.

At Splice Today I wrote about

—electronica releases by Juana Molina, Jlin, and K. Reinshagen.

—First Blood as reverse colonial fever dream.