GMU's Comm 399 students on pop, art, fashion, and more
In a Houston Chronicle interview, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan discusses why he hates the album format, why he hates nostalgia tours and why he hates negative reaction to his new work.
Watch the classic video for the Pumpkins’ 1993 hit “Today”…just don’t tell Billy you did.
A well respected literary critic, Stephen Burt is particularly occupied with, and interested in, the poetic realm. Throughout his career, he has been published on various platforms (i.e., magazines, newspapers), and his work involves the criticism and creation of poetry.
Burt boasts six books under his scholarly belt, his most recent being Close Calls with Nonsense: Reading New Poetry (2009), in which he summons both the inexperienced and the seasoned poetry reader to find poetry that matters to them. He says, “The poets I know don’t want to be famous people half so much as they want their best poems read; I want to help you find and read them. I write here for people who want to read more new poetry.” To some, poetry speaks a totally different language; a language that requires translation. This can be a turn-off, a load too heavy to carry. In Close Calls with Nonsense, Stephen Burt attempts to, and succeeds in, creating a remedy for the intimidation that poetry can so often present.
Also on Burt’s extensive literary resume is an assortment of essays and reviews for esteemed publications, including The Boston Review, The New York Times Book Review and the Poetry Society’s Poetry Review. One such review stands out among critics as being influential in the world of poetry: In a 1998 essay for The Boston Review, Burt introduces the term “elliptical poetry,” which has since been reinterpreted and expanded upon. To Burt, the label of “elliptical poetry” is largely a way to depict a poet, rather than a poem. It alludes to a poet with a manic frame of mind, and a slightly jumbled poetic vision. (Sounds like my cup of tea, actually). In short, and to simplify, “elliptical poets” are like the Jim Carey’s of film, or the Mariah Carey’s of music; over-the-top and frenzied, and most of the time, fabulous.
For all of this and more, Stephen Burt is a leading poet-critic, and is held in high esteem by others in his arena. To boot, he is a professor at Harvard University where he teaches English (not the language), and where he has recently received tenure. Check out his personal blog where he casually imparts his brilliance and provides insight into the sometimes scary, most times elliptic but the always beautiful world of poetry.
Tags: "elliptical poetry", literature, Poetry, Poetry Society, Stephen Burt, The Boston Review, The New York Times Book Review
Here are four reviews that I think do very good jobs of accomplishing what I would like you to accomplish in your 800-word review. I recommend you read these reviews carefully, listen to how the writers unpack what they’re writing about, and work in your own review toward doing some of the same things.
A.O. Scott on the new Woody Allen movie
Hank Stuever on the new show LONE STAR
Douglas Wolk on a surprising Liz Phair album
Robin Givhan on the new Tom Ford collection
In addition, our Wednesday guest, Heidi MacDonald, has some reading for you. I want each of you to come prepared with TWO QUESTIONS to ask Heidi about comics journalism and blogging. You’ll be turning them in at the beginning of class.
From Heidi:
Hah well you picked an amazing week to be talking about this as it’s all the rage. I would say this is something everyone should read:
This is all the major players today being neurotic about their work.
This is not a traditional journalism piece in any sense of the word and yet awesome.
Here’s a piece from 7 years ago.
And a more recent one
And coverage of all the stuff going on at Marvel and DC
Here’s an interesting article to feast your eyes on! Is the wishy-washy, fast-paced music with the distorted guitar sound really coming back into the public’s eye? With many 90s grunge bands such as Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots and The Smashing Pumpkins reuniting, there is a distinct possibility that grunge is making a comeback.
Get lost in the soothing sounds of Soundgarden: Link
Check this out! As two young girls sing and dance to Justin Bieber’s Baby, their awesome dad dances in the background, ruining their video. Wait, did I say “ruining?” I meant “making it awesome.”
Link: here
Meat dress on the red carpet. Kermit the frog costumes during interviews. Okay, I’m glad someone finally said something – enough already! It seems to me that Lady Gaga has gone from “unique” and “funky” to just plain strange. Daniel O’Brien takes a look at why exactly we are so fascinated with Gaga’s obscene antics, and why society needs to stop feeding her attention.
Rob Sheffield and the cover of "Love is a Mix Tape"
Rob Sheffield a current contributing editor and music and pop culture blogger for “Rolling Stone” magazine. His blog can be found at http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/rob-sheffield/blog/79703/16. Sheffield has a wealth of experience in the music journalism field. Prior to working for “Rolling Stone” he was a contributing editor at “Blender” (RIP) and “Spin” magazines. Sheffield can also often be found as pop culture “talking head” on various VH1 specials.
Sheffield’s blog “Pop Life” consists of humorous looks at musical pop culture events, like the MTV Video Music awards and the American Music Awards. “Pop Life” also features pop music reviews from artists like Pavement, Katy Perry, M.I.A., and Lady Gaga. In addition to “Rolling Stone” Sheffield has also written two books, 2007’s “Love is a Mix Tape” and 2010’s “Talking to Girls About Duran Duran.”
One of the most clever examples of his writing is his entry on Adam Lambert’s 2009 AMA performance. As he describes the performance he crafts clever gems. In one instance he refers to Lambert fans as “glamskanks” and describes the performance as a “full frontal Glambgasm,” both plays on Lambert’s nickname of Glambert.
Fellow music journalist, and personal favorite of mine, Chuck Klosterman speaks highly of Sheffield’s body of work. Klosterman states, “No rock critic, living or dead or otherwise, has ever written about pop music with the evocative, hyperpoetic, perfectitude of Rob Sheffield.”
And I couldn’t agree more.
Tags: critic profile, Music, Pop Music
Instead of creating your typical advertisement for the fall season premiere, ‘The Office’, has once again shown why they are known for their hilarious and unique comedy. To access this admirable advertisement, click here.
Legendary streetwear brand, The Hundreds, recently opened their first flagship boutique in New York City. The Hundreds was founded in Los Angeles, where they opened their first boutique in West Hollywood. A year ago, they branched out and opened a boutique in San Francisco. Their newest venture, The Hundreds New York, is located in the heart of Soho alongside shops ranging all the way from Louis Vuitton to Quicksilver to A Bathing Ape. Their always-clever, always-edgy advertising this time had them putting up stickers that say “Keep The Hundreds Out of New York” all over the city. What a way to get the consumers attention.
http://www.complex.com/blogs/2010/09/08/dropping-bombs-bobby-hundreds-talks-the-hundreds-new-york/
Tokyopop is busy trying to find a junior film editor in order to edit their net-based reality show “America’s Greatest Otaku.” This show according to Tokyopop is “to find America’s Greatest Otaku, the person who best exemplifies a truly unique fervor and passion for all things influenced by Japanese pop culture.”
I personally believe that if this thing isn’t going to be on the air on television, I don’t know why Tokyopop is even bothering with a show like this. They were at one time the biggest manga publisher in North America and now that they have been shut out of the big titles from Japanese publishers, they are trying desperately to find ways to make them more money and they continuously fail to do that. Its not going to be too long where they are going to have to accept where they are in the market now or just continue to fail over and over again and maybe go under.
Tags: America's Greatest Otaku, Anime, Manga, Tokyopop