Ambient Composer Rafael Anton Irisarri’s Dispersion of Belief
For a record conceived of following the 2016 US election and a global pandemic, ambient maestro Rafael Anton Irisarri is ready to soundtrack our downfall.
Politics
The DNC Misses a Beat: A Political History of Migration through Latinx Pop Songs
What should we understand as the connection between politics, people, and places? Can Latinx pop songs be trusted to represent us?
Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here Is an Homage to Fearless Women
Masterfully layered and confidently executed, I’m Still Here swivels between intimate family drama and sweeping political thriller in an homage to fearless women.
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The Art of Psychological Warfare
From marketing manipulation to all-out psychological warfare, Stories Are Weapons clarifies how our world – and worldview – is seldom our own.
Son of Freedom: Dissident Iranian Rapper Toomaj Salehi
Dissident Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi – an heir to the legacies of Persian rap’s founders – carries a torch for Women, Life, Freedom as death looms.
The Abortion Discord Sewn into Faded ‘Blue Denim’
Today’s discord and desperation over abortion in America has roots in Philip Dunne’s faded Blue Denim, one of the first Hollywood films to address the issue.
Strange Bedfellows? Rap and the Political Right
Hyper-masculinity, sexism, homophobia, offensive speech and distrust of institutions are some of the traits shared by rap culture and the American far right.
Rachel Maddow on the Bit Players’ Big Effects on Promoting American Fascism
Rachel Maddow’s latest book on political history, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, weaves varying players past into a singular danger present.
Christopher Hitchens and Fights Worth Having
You can smell the cigarette ash and Johnnie Walker Black Label on the pages of A Hitch in Time, a gleefully pugilistic posthumous Christopher Hitchens anthology.
Trapped in the Long Tomorrow: ‘Blade Runner’, Cyberpunk, and Our Stuck Future
Blade Runner serves our vision of an inevitable dystopian future because we live in a “stuck future”, refusing to heed cyberpunk’s warning.
The Alt-Right’s Roots Go Deep in Co-Opting Pop Music
As with the Nazis and Goebbels and the Ku Klux Klan, the alt-right’s desire to co-opt pop music for their purposes requires ideological and ethical gymnastics.