'Media' Category
Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible + Fried
My first experience with Wax Trax Records happened in the mid-80s. I happened upon the store late. The founders had moved on to Chicago to start a record label by the same name. They maintained ownership of the original store in the seedy Capital Hill area of Denver, just south of Colfax Avenue behind the […]
Generation Kill
The wars in Iraq have figured as prominent cultural events in my adult life. I arrived in Berlin two weeks before the 1991 invasion and experienced firsthand the anti-American sentiment that decision fostered. When I returned to the States, I noticed how differently my experiences were from those of my friends and family. Germany’s perspective […]
If You Post It, They Will Come
I am away from home on business this week. I’m in Arlington, Texas, living out of a hotel. One of the perks of living out of a hotel– besides not having to make the bed or wash the dishes– is that the newspaper arrives right at my room every day before I get up. Granted, […]
Anti-Social Networking
In response to the Megan Meier story that broke this past week I wanted to write something about what I think being online means. I also want to confess to more than a little curiosity about the process of how a given story becomes newsworthy. I want to know why various media outlets do or […]
Chuck Klosterman IV
Chuck Klosterman has created a collection of previously published essays as Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas. The title is a tribute to Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth album– commonly known as Led Zeppelin IV. He breaks the volume up into three sections: Things That Are True, Things That Might Be […]
The Bridge
I have been anticipating the availability of this film on DVD since I first learned of it last year. The Bridge is a documentary film about suicide. Inspired by Tad Friend’s article “Jumpers” published in the New Yorker, Eric Steel filmed the Golden Gate Bridge for a year. Steel captured footage of the suicides and […]
Climate Change
I find talk of climate change seemingly everywhere I look. Yesterday more than a 150 of the world’s most popular music acts contributed to the worldwide concert, Live Earth. Twelve locations, seven continents, an audience of two billion. I have a difficult time wrapping my mind around something that large in scale. I wonder […]
Long Way Round
It’s spring of 2004. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are trying to decide what to do with their summer. They come up with an incredible plan. Both are motorcycle enthusiasts and they want to do something unique. They decide to take the summer off and ride motorcycles around the world. They plan to start in […]
Above the Fold
I am tempted to start this entry with a quote from Agent J from Men In Black II. “Old and busted; new hotness.” I know that phrase fails to capture either the tone or the facts of the latest change in my life. Still, I like the humor in it. It makes me smile. In […]
One More Time
Mike Royko wrote a newspaper column in Chicago for thirty-four years. He started at the Daily News, then moved to the Sun-Times when the Daily News shut its doors. In 1984 he left the Sun-Times for the rival Chicago Tribune when the Sun-Times sold to Rupert Murdoch, claiming, “No self-respecting fish would be wrapped in […]
