The Pop Culture Philosopher

The Dangerously Talented Miriam Makeba

January 17, 2019January 17, 2019 Chris SunamiMusic

Repost: Parisian audiences famously rioted at the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Although often cited as evidence that the audience simply didn’t understand what they were hearing, the opposite is arguably true –they recognized[…]

The Hidden Dragon

January 10, 2019 Chris SunamiFractals

I hope you’ll forgive me blowing my own horn a bit. After all, it’s not every day you discover something new about something invented nearly two-thousand years ago. The photo above is of an ancient[…]

Is Our World a Computer Game?

December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 Chris SunamiGames

I’m glad to announce I’ve expanded the below post into an entire book-length series that will be premiering in January 2019 on Partially Examined Life. In the meantime, please enjoy this repost of the original.[…]

John Cleese Seeks God

November 29, 2018November 27, 2018 Chris SunamiReligion

In the age of Dawkins, you don’t tend to expect good religion, or even bad religion from the Brits, and you particularly don’t expect anything that hints at faith from a man who, as he[…]

Image by Bo Hampton

In Memory of William Goldman

November 22, 2018November 21, 2018 Chris SunamiMovies

William Goldman passed away this past week. Like most other late Gen Xers (or early Millennials) I first encountered him through my unabated love affair with his book and movie The Princess Bride, which was[…]

Happy World Philosophy Day!

November 15, 2018 Chris SunamiPhilosophy

Happy World Philosophy Day, everyone! Here’s an unusually multicultural list that makes a real effort at covering the philosophy of the world, not just a tiny corner of it. 70 Philosophy Books Everyone Should Read[…]

We Invented the Remix, Part II

November 8, 2018November 7, 2018 Chris SunamiHip Hop

Last time, we looked at hip-hop sampling as a outgrowth of African polyphony, a way of creating something new by placing a different and contrasting line over the original. But there is more to it[…]

Black Music As Philosophy: We Invented the Remix, Part I

November 1, 2018October 31, 2018 Chris SunamiHip Hop

Hip-hop music is unique. It has been multiracial from the start, and it has been embraced and naturalized all over the globe, and yet it still retains a basic, unbreakable connection with its natal black[…]

Reconstructivist Art: Y Tu Mama Tambien

October 25, 2018October 25, 2018 Chris SunamiMovies

In honor of his new movie Roma, please enjoy this repost about the film that first introduced me to my favorite director, Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) as an example of Reconstructivist Art[…]