The 21st Annual Postmodern Village Conference and Techno Petting Zoo (2014)

By E.W. Wilder

Northrup Frye-DadiRice-T: Rap and Hip-Hop as Commodity Crop in the Post-Fat-Boys Age
by Northrup Frye-Dadi

Our university's team from Monsanto deemed this the most productive of this year's presentations, but endowed professorships aside, we found the concept revolutionary: golden and green, with hints of jasmine and basmati, Frye-Dadi busted loose a torrent of intellectual irrigation that has us hungry for more. In other words, it was a wipeout: this human beatbox drove us nuts with an all-you-can eat smörgåsbord of cogitation. This presentation was the place to be.

Mike Rowe-FoneForget About It, Jake; It's Chiatown: Late Nite TV and the Marketing of Futility, a Study in Media Incest
by Mike Rowe-Fone

From the plenitude of Frye-Dadi, we were shocked into despair by Rowe-Fone's depiction of "paid-programming" as a veritable Cosa Nostra of intrigue and double-dealing. The glad-handing was dismal, but the pitch we'll buy.

Geoffrey FrauchewskiEggs Akimbo! Contemporary Physics and the Acceptance of Impossibility, a Study in Strings
by Geoffrey Frauchewski

Once the province only of surrealists, sci-fi novelists, conservative politicians, and other fabulists, the impossible as a feasible place for study has now moved into mainstream science and, by translation, right into our hearts. The magic Frauchewski works with a simple egg kept us quantumly entangled in his spooky interactions.

Nina Simone D'BensonUpchuck Mangione, or Feels No Good: Smooth Jazz, Crossover, and the Existential Nausea of the Radio-Friendly Instrumental
by Nina Simone D'Benson

D'Benson wooed us with the sickening void of radio acceptability; tunes both catchy and terrible denote the paradox, and therefore, the hegemony of bourgeoisie: rule through sheer ubiquity, power through obviating all possible points of objection.

Martin Syzygmund and Martin GyzygmundDupak Chakur: Eastern Philosophy, Gangsta Mentality, and the Power of Positive Rapping
by Martin Syzygmund and Martin Gyzygmund

All life is suffering, as any Compton-based rapper will tell you. Yet with the shift in tone from the politically charged raps of the 1990s to the luxury brand-based spins of today, Syzygmund and Gyzygmund posit that hip-hop could use an injection of Buddhism. Also, Jay-Z and Kanye have totally messed up their qi.

Sherwood FieroThe Hindenburgers: Disaster Sitcoms and Foodie Culture, a Hydrogen-Powered Cook-Off
by Sherwood Fiero

Fiero's emblazoning of the connection between the hilarity of apocalypse of TV's obsession with food recalls Barthes' famous lists: certain doom through the apotheosis of the mundane.

 

Papers, Part 2