Caroline, or Change
When I went to see what turned out to be an extraordinary production of the Broadway musical Caroline, or Change (playwright Tony Kushner, composer Jeanine Tesori) I wasn’t sure what to expect. I remembered...
The Pop Culture Philosopher Blog
The Mysterious Disappearance of the Strangely Beautiful Woman
Please enjoy this repost of an affectionate parody of one of my most favorite authors, Haruki Murakami I was in the bathtub, playing with my rubber duck, when the phone rang. It rang exactly...
Soichi Sunami: Modern Artist
I always knew that my paternal grandfather, who died before I was born, was an unusual person. Born in 1885, fifteen years before the end of the nineteenth century, he was an early Japanese...
R.I.P. G.O.P.
I’m progressive, even radical on many topics, but I also hold some conservative views; and like most people, I’ve grown more conservative as I’ve grown older. I’m not a fan of the Democrats, and...
Quietly Subversive: Malcolm in the Middle
Bryan Cranston became a superstar playing a kindly suburban teacher turned deadly drug kingpin on the hit AMC show Breaking Bad, but before that he was best known as Hal, the emotional center to...
Reconstructivist Art: The Lion King
In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Lion King‘s premiere on Broadway (July 8, 1997) please enjoy this repost of an essay about it as an exemplar of Reconstructivist Art. Along with “The...
The Justice Trilogy
Growing up as a non-white kid who read science-fiction and fantasy almost exclusively, finding books with characters who looked like me was not an easy task. Ursula Le Guin’s famous protagonist Ged (A Wizard...
Reconstructivist Art: Every Day the Same Dream
I’m not usually one to rave about a video game, but this simple, easy to play , quick to complete game changed my entire evaluation of the potential of video games as an art form. A dark, existential humanist parable about an office drone, the game uses a severely limited set of options and locations as a strength rather than a weakness
Reconstructivist Art: Sgt. Pepper
I remember when the big news was that “It was 20 years ago today…” was actually 20 years old. Now it’s 50. In honor of the half-century anniversary of this groundbreaking album, please enjoy...
Wiley Reconsidered
A Response to the Toledo Art Museum Retrospective My first encounter with the work of artist Kehinde Wiley was in 2006, when the Columbus Museum of Art commissioned his first significant museum show. At...
Impeachment Time: Why We Can’t Wait
Whether or not it was illegal, Donald Trump’s volunteering of top secret intelligence to the spymaster of a hostile government was a clear violation of his oath of office. For a top government official...
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