First there was this (“Wimps, wussies, and W. : How Americans’ infatuation with masculinity has perilous consequences,” in The L.A. Times). It features the following choice morsel, calculated to turn the nearest right-wing shark tank into bloody chum: SO THERE’S a smoking crater where Don Imus used to sit. That’s fine with those of us […]
We interrupt the unending torrent of comment spam (“Hello people, your site is best! Nice site look this: teen lesbians showering!”) to flog our product. The latest, insect-themed issue of the cultural quarterly Cabinet is in bookstores and on newsstands now, and includes my essay on the ginormous Jerusalem Cricket, which is, in fact, neither […]
Stuart Ewen and Elizabeth Ewen at home, NYC, 2006. Photo: Yoko Inoue. © Yoko Inoue. From my December 2006 ID magazine Q&A with the authors. (In its December 2006 issue, ID magazine ran my interview with Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen, two of our most incisive thinkers about the politics of images and the social history […]
Caveat lector: This summer, I’ll be posting even more infrequently than usual (!), which is to say: about as often as Kohoutek comes around. I’ve got my head in the big, shaggy maw of a book-in-progress, and unlike those authors who roll over in their sleep and snore out a book a year, effortlessly, I […]
I’m lecturing in Baltimore this Friday, at the Maryland Institute College of Art. If you’re within hailing distance, bum-rush the show. When: Friday, April 7, 7 p.m. Where: Falvey Hall, Brown Center What (From the official press release): Sponsored by MICA’s language, literature, and culture department, cultural critic Mark Dery explores the far fringes of […]
Can “pop”-ness be quantified? Is there a quality, inherent in the shiniest, rubberiest, squeakiest, squeeziest expressions of disposable culture, that can be distilled into pure essence of pop? If so, what is it? A product’s giddy embrace of its instant obsolescence? An earnest attempt at mass appeal that stumbles unwittingly into kitsch or camp or […]
I’m lecturing at SUNY Buffalo, Monday October 24, at 6 P.M. Details here; contact info here. If you’re in the area, feel free to crash the show. Or if you have friends in Buffalo, you might shoot them a heads-up about this event. I’ll be speaking on: “Skinners of the Visible World*: Images of the […]
Image copyright Time; all rights reserved. The other day, as I was musing idly, one foot in the remainder bin, the other on a banana peel, Time came calling, out of the blue. They were interested to know if I’d be willing to play a walk-on role as fringe futurist in their “What’s Next” issue […]
As mentioned earlier, the Sept./Oct. issue of Print magazine includes my feature on Mexican-American visual culture. Last summer, I interviewed cholo, Chicano, self-styled “pocho,” and expatriate Mexicano illustrators and graphic designers in L.A., San Diego, and Tijuana; this article draws on those interviews, as well as an extensive conversation with the brilliant Chicano cultural theorist […]
This blogging thing is thirsty work. Give me enough Premoistened Lemon Pledge Wipes, and I’d rather clean the Augean stables. I’ve been under the hammer of a dozen deadlines, hence my absence from the bully pulpit. That’s my cover story, anyway.