Pop Culture – Page 5

Day 44: The Simplistic Narrative Joy of Pro Wrestling

March 7, 2017 phillArmchair phillosophy

“That’s it. You (long pause) just made the List!” -Chris Jericho, on just about any WWE Raw in late 2016-early 2017 As far back as I can remember, I was a wrestling fan. I can[…]

Day 43: Teaching Character development

March 6, 2017 phillPedagogy

I’m going to do a little twofer today. I need to do a longer explanation of one of my assignments for my Writing for Games class, and I also wanted to talk a bit about[…]

Day 41: the Wolverine as metaphor

March 5, 2017 phillPop Culture

“I’ve hurt people.” -Logan, from Logan Julie and I went to see Logan tonight. I won’t spoil it, but it was a good film, easily the best non-Deadpool Marvel mutant film by a long shot. Other than[…]

Day 30: The Procession of Pineapple Pizza Simulacra

February 22, 2017 phillPop Culture

“I do not have the power to make laws which forbid people to put pineapples on their pizza,” Guðni, a former history professor at the University of Iceland, wrote. “I am glad I do not[…]

Day 29: Batman is Lex Luthor or Why I never liked Superman

February 21, 2017 phillPop Culture

“Do you worry that you’re not liked/How long till you break/You’re happy cause you smile/But how much can you fake?” -Our Lady Peace, “Superman’s Dead” from Clumsy I have always loved the iconography of Superman’s[…]

Day 23: Nostalgia and the Power of Persuasion

February 15, 2017 phillPedagogy

It’s day 23, and ironically my childhood was marked in many ways by the 23s I wore on pretty much everything. I was a huge Michael Jordan fan. In fact if you were one of[…]

Day 16: A little Tuesday levity: 10 Things World of Warcraft taught me about life in the Real world (satire)

February 7, 2017 phillPop Culture

10. If you want to discuss politics, the very best place, time and method for doing that is yelling as loud as you can in a packed city center full of people who have gathered[…]

For anyone ever in my FYC class– the year I graduated from HS

May 20, 2013 phillfeatured

So I don’t expect many people– and certainly not students just starting college– to ever see the email I’m speaking of, but any of my peers or those who are my elders in the academy[…]

CM Punk and Kairos — the potential seeds for a deeper discussion

May 20, 2013 phillfeatured

Again, originally offered to a class as an example, I am considering expanding on my reflections on CM Punk. This one starts from a Wikipedia definition of Kairos and goes weird places. The first[…]

I am a sucker for guys with a twang in their voice, or: in defense of Counting Crows

April 2, 2011 phillMusic

Note before starting: I’ve loved Counting Crows since I first heard them, or first heard Adam do one of their songs, anyway, as the Himalayans on one of my “crawl the local record store” adventures[…]