I'm cringing as I write this.
Academia has made me doubt every single word I write. As I write this my heart is beating fast. Did I use correct grammar? Will the red lines pop up on...
Is this camp?
I take my designation as the arbiter of camp and satire seriously. So it’s important for me to make a call on the new “camp” entry, the opening credits to...
When Did Working Out Become Performance Art
When did the gym become a performance art studio? I blame YouTube. I blame fitness influencers. I blame the hacking culture. I blame optimizing. I’m walking...
My Favorite Films of 2021
Weakness of the Cat Papier Ditch The Living Individual Frankie Broccoliboy Perpendicular Fathers Jesus and the Person Young The Condo of Forever 21
My very timely thoughts on Dune
I saw Dune a month ago in the theaters, and rarely felt much coldness in a movie. The characters were ice figures come to life. At some point, I just settled...
Proud: A Peloton Fan Fiction
Marika arrived at the windowless, stainless steel studio 48 minutes and 20 seconds before air time. That was three minutes and twenty seconds earlier than...
My Yard Sign
In this house, we believe: You stand back and wait for people to exit the elevator before entering. Backing into a parking space is a useless waste of time....
An important list
Movies about a privileged white woman with no sense of self who are driven to the edge of sanity by pervasive surveillance, all while living in a fantastic...
I Miss My MTV: Spooky Edition 2021 Edition
[This is a reprint of last year's Halloween list....so sue me.] It’s the Halloween edition, so I’m sharing the videos that are the scariest and have stayed...
Vintage Golden Girls Recap: Chaos Reigns
Season 2, Episode 22; "Diamond In the Rough" as Reviewed By Lars Von Trier Romance is a falsehood, only pain and suffering provides us with the human...
I am Chill Person Who is Very Fun to Talk To
I watched both Dune and Titane so I am currently leaning into my THOUGHTS about each. Like thinkpiece-level thoughts. Meanwhile, here's things to read by...
Life Isn't Hard When You have a Library Card
I reached my goal of reading 75 books in 2021. This included reading for pleasure and reading for my dissertation. If it sounds like I am bragging, it's...
Vintage Golden Girls Recap
Season 2, Episode 10, "Love, Rose"; As Reviewed By The Designer of Dorothy's Monstrous Teal Crushed-Velvet Tuxedo Dress Some people live on this earth,...
I'm an Anti-Careerist
An Onion article appeared in 2013 that I still think about constantly: Find the thing you're most passionate about and do it on nights and weekends. At the...
My Ark of the Covenant
Do you have a piece of cultural ephemera that you know exists and are dying to see? I can't think of another example other than my own answer, but just nod...
Team Dawn or Team Sonya?
If you love workplace drama + creative types + very online people, this one's for you. Everyone (online) is talking about this NYT piece, Who is the Bad Art...
Peloton fan fic
Recommended reading: Towards a Unified Theory of Peloton. Today was my first day at special Peloton Academy. Only special people got invited. So I was...
The un-death of the author
I don't usually count things that happen on Twitter an event, but this was a moment that made me think about the state of the content creator/audience...
Weekend Reading
This weekend, I am reading Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon. Here's some other things to read: The Elizabeth Holmes Line: Sunny made me do it Ebooks Are an...
Rachel Hollis Quotes, Ranked By How Useless They Are
I love to hate on Rachel Hollis! She is a Christian influencer who, after a viral post, launched an empire with the world's most obvious self-help and girl-...
How to Succeed in Graduate School With Actually Trying (Part 3)
Read Part One. Read Part Two. I see many incoming graduate students asking for advice on Twitter, and I am here to give you the real deal. (Turns chair...
How to Succeed in Graduate School With Actually Trying (Part 2)
Read Part One. I see many incoming graduate students asking for advice on Twitter, and I am here to give you the real deal. (Turns chair backward and...
How to Succeed in Graduate School With Actually Trying (Part 1)
I see many incoming graduate students asking for advice on Twitter, and I am here to give you the real deal. (Turns chair backward and straddles it). A lot...
Longform John Silvers
I’ll spare you the thinkpieces on The Chair and give you some of the other things I’m reading this week. Towards a Unified Theory of Peloton The Mysterious...
Chappaquiddick, in theaters now.
I hate to be that sort of grad student who is constantly claiming "I have no life; my dissertation is my life!" but yea, that's where I am at because there's...
Toxic Wellness
There’s a trend (ok, two shows in a row about spoiled people at expensive resorts) and as I watch television, and pretend to not take it so seriously, but in...
I Miss My MTV: Accidentally Queer
Many music videos are queer even if they are not showing explicitly queer behaviors; the nature of the medium allows for a break from traditional narrative,...
F you, F Boy Island
Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” I am sure she had the abyssmal show Fboy Island in mind when she said...
Long live the longform article
Let me help you cut through the garbage and get to the good stuff… There’s not one, but two recent pieces exposing Goodreads as bad for authors, bad for...
Sounds and the City
I recently moved, which is interesting to me only. Some people are surprised that I moved to a downtown of a city whose downtown is not very thriving...
Sifting Through the Sludge
There is still some good writing on the internet; these journalists probably aren't getting paid enough for it. When I read something I love, my reaction is...
Discussion Questions for Teaching The Tomorrow War in your seminar
Discuss the story structure. Did the writers purposely make three different films to refute a general story structure? Does this make it outsider art? How...
The Zoom Archive and Repertoire
Remember to mute yourselves. Can you see my screen? I’m going to make you a host. If you have questions, please add them to the chat. Sorry, my cat keeps...
I Miss My MTV: The Iconic, Often Forgotten, Perfect Shakespeare's Sister
Shakespears Sister - Stay (Official Video) - YouTube Taken from the album “Hormonally Yours” released February 17th 1992Listen to “Stay” ⇨...
I Miss My MTV: Girls Gone Wild (Walking on Broken Glass)
Ladies be horny, am I right? We continue our journey into lusty videos with “Walking on Broken Glass.” (1992) Annie Lennox, like most of us, watched...
I Miss My MTV: Women Gone Wild (I Get Weak)
Music videos of the MTV era are about sexual desire. Putting it on display, assuring the audience about who is sexually desirable, who deserves to be desired...
Tales of Tenure Terror: Do what you love and you'll never be paid for a day in your life
Since I have written the last one of these, there’s been so many potential to write about because academics keep! Going! Wild! Whether its double downing on...
I Miss My MTV: Intergalactic Choreo
The Backstreet Boys, "Larger Than Life" (1999) One of my favorite science fiction tropes involves space travel that takes so long that passengers need to be...
The Guilty Remnant
I was a guest on the Positively Popular Culture Podcast talking about The Leftovers, one of my top 5 tv show...no, pieces of media ever. Also, as you can see...
I'm Going Through Changes
I’m moving…to downtown Toledo in June. Very excited to live like a savvy city girl again. This small college town has been good to me, but I’m ready to break...
Social Media Vaccine Brags
“I just got my first dose today! Feel free to ask me any questions.” “Woops! I double-booked a vaccine appointment. Must be Covid brain!” “Vaccine selfie!...
F*ck that documentary about Elisa Lam and the Cecil Hotel
I was already skeptical about the Netflix documentary series Crime Scene: Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. Even the title tells you what you need to know. It’s...
I Miss My MTV: Xtina: chaps, children, and plumbing problems
Questions I have after watching Christina Aguilera (featuring Redman)’s “Dirrty” video Did someone on Christina’s team tell her she had to sex up her image...
Tales of Tenure Terror
I turn my back for a few weeks and academics act like total monsters. Maybe I manifested this? There’s a lot here, and if you love a deep dive, follow the...
A list of things to read that are not about Trump or COVID
The problem with new media is that some wonderful long-form reporting is more quickly forgotten. Here’s some of the best stuff to read. (Ok, some are sort of...
I Miss My MTV: The Perils of Touring and being Beloved By Fans
When a rock band makes it, they think, enough with the crazy touring, partying, and fucking. We are more than that. It’s hard. It’s time to let people in on...
Tales of Tenure Terror
Monster Level Awful Trolling People While Wasting Their Time Academic Wiki Job Universities to Fear Stop Citing Yourself Like Page Six for Academia Predatory...
I Miss My MTV
Archives Intergalactic Choreo Xtina: chaps, children, and plumbing problems The Perils of Touring Too Young to Fall In Love Strike It Up Spooky Halloween...
The Best Film of the 21st Century is on Netflix Today
I rarely enjoy writing, much less reading, someone declaring that a [film] is good and if you don’t like it, you’re wrong. You’re not wrong if you hate this...
Michael Alig: My Problematic Fav
How do you mourn the loss of someone who maybe wasn't great in life but a genius contributer to the larger cultural project? Michael Alig did some horrible...