Pop Culture – Phill 365

Day 340: Why Kylo Ren is so compelling

December 30, 2017 phillPop Culture

I wanted to wait a bit before writing on this, but it’s spoiler time if you haven’t seen the Last Jedi. SPOILERS SPOILER SPACE Okay, so in the Last Jedi, we get the[…]

Day 333: The 12 Days of Rusev

December 22, 2017 phillPop Culture

For those who aren’t tuned in to the WWE, one of my favorite wrestlers, Rusev, has been running wild with a gimmick of “Rusev Day” (based on the mayor of his hometown naming one day[…]

Day 328: Soundtrack Part II

December 18, 2017December 19, 2017 phillmemoir

After a day’s break, back to my Soundtrack to Phill. Again, the rules: 40 songs, no repeat artists (though side projects and solo work from bands is acceptable). Songs must fit onto the list because[…]

Day 325: Changing the meaning of a song forever

December 15, 2017 phillPop Culture

There’s plenty of semiotic research on how much impact sound has on our memories vs. visuals. It’s fairly easy to draw on specific memories by using music for recall (for me, and many in my[…]

Day 313: this week’s South Park and benign violation

December 3, 2017 phillPop Culture

This week’s South Park featured a cool moment where Kyle finally realizes that Terrence and Phillip farting on people’s head isn’t funny for the person being farted on. And this was all braided together nicely[…]

Day 303: Thanksgiving cometh

November 22, 2017 phillgames

Tomorrow I’m going to do the cheesy “what I’m thankful for” post, but for today, I wanted to share my sentiments as an “Indian” on Thanksgiving. For those who don’t know the actual history of[…]

Day 301: Wrestling Kayfabe, the suspension of disbelief, and breaking the 4th wall

November 21, 2017 phillPop Culture

Last night, I watched part of the Kevin Owens 365 documentary on WWE Network. About five minutes in, I said to Julie “I can’t tell if this is kayfabe or not.” Upon watching more, I[…]

Day 296: Baudrillard and Mr. Robot

November 15, 2017 phillPop Culture

I saw a post on Reddit that proved to me that other people have been applying Baudrillard to Mr. Robot. So… here goes. I think some people use Baudrillard and the simulation in weird ways–and[…]

Day 294: What the WWE Network pay model can inform us about games and game pricing

November 14, 2017 phillgames

I had a candid talk with my students about game pricing this last week. Some of my reflection on this appears in my post on arcades from a few days ago, but let me review[…]

Day 287: Thinking about Mr. Robot

November 7, 2017 phillPop Culture

I don’t think I’ve posted much, if at all, about my love of Mr. Robot. It’s back for a third season, and this week there’s apparently an amazing episode coming from all the murmurs. I[…]