Mack's bullheaded presence belies his "soft power" stance, but his Myron Florenesque lusty eyework drove all the ladies wild. And that was sort of the point: there's no power without the attraction of the locals, and peace breaks out when the invader slips easily into the available orbit. We weren't sure that the sherbet-orange suits of the backing band would win the hearts of Guy and Ralna, though. |
As opposed to T. Crystal Mack's imperial incursion through insidious traditionalism, Albright goes the other way, hooks the world in a slab of colonial bubble gum. Judging by the tunes oozing from the local disco, she might not be wrong. But that still fails to make lite right. |
Shay-Russ shakes up your Faygo with this hard
slam on how pop music makes us feel rebellious while actually
placating the otherwise restless masses. It's disarmament through
catharsis of the treble clef, he says, and only high art can
erode the co-optation of high-finance. We'll believe it as soon
as we can get over our PBR hangovers from last night's Fallout
Boy concert. |
Beginning with a series of audience-selected
XXX-rays helped Bordeaux reveal his message: using the "security"
excuse for the most intimate form of pub(l)ic invasion is merely
a manifestation of what we already were becoming. From drunken
Facebook photos to uploading sex clips as a means to garner
fame, Bordeaux succeeds in getting into our heads as well as
beyond our travel togs; our complicity strips bare the last
thing we're hiding from: ourselves. |
The pub has always been a place to loosen tongues, but bending the friendly elbow making us susceptible to commercial messages would appear to be a new side-effect. Not so, says Gram, who contends the whole success of viral marketing campaigns by the likes of Gray Goose is presaged in Finnegan's Wake. If so, the homespun and aw-shucks marketing campaigns of the titular wine cooler company is just another indication of how far we've fallen: from modern art to trailer park, this Zima is raised over the grave of culture. |
Brown excerpts his upcoming critique of consumer culture by showing how "the soft bigotry of low expectations" has morphed into promoting mediocrity up. This, coupled with simply redefining the "left behind" children as incorrigible criminals allows the Dems to appear "law and order" and "compassionate" free-market reformers all at once. This requires a numbers game that factors out the collective failure of either party to actually, you know, help the poor. Point taken, but we fear Brown's ancillary attempt to bring soul food to France will be the more effective of his campaigns. |
Lawrence of Awelkia: Accord-ions and Counter-Insurgency, a Guidebook for "Going Native"
True
Bielebers: Cultural Imperialism, Pop Music, and the Hegemonic
Powers of Justin Bieber, a Proposal for a More Effective Foreign
Policy
In-Sync
Clown Posse, or From Shock to Schlock, Pop Music as Faux Refuge
and Faux Rebellion
Securitease:
the Full Body Scan as Metaphor for the Body as Political Object
Bartyles
and James Joyce: Alcopops and the G(r)ift of the G(r)ab 
Slummer
Reiding Pogrom: the Real Agenda Behind the White, Demo-Mormon
Agenda (Interpolating the Fried Chicken Manifesto)