Category Archives: Popular Culture

Why Trigger Warnings are Futile and Infantilizing

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Litsa Dremousis

Designed to protect the traumatized from further trauma, trigger warnings fail in their mission because they place the burden of maintaining our equilibrium on others, as if they could ever truly protect us from additional psychic harm. Continue reading →

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Love & Mercy and the Saving of Brian Wilson

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Robert Burke Warren

Beach Boy Brian Wilson, musical genius and cultural icon, should have died, but did not. Someone saved him. Who, exactly, did the saving is up for debate. In any case, hot new biopic Love & Mercy, fleshes out the less-familiar trope of “saving the artist,” and our own Robert Burke Warren digs that. Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Monday Rock City, Music, Popped Culture, Popular Culture, Religion, The Arts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

THE MARTYR WITH A THOUSAND FACES

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Lawrence Benner

Sometimes, the actors are so distractingly famous that latex appliances are required to aid in the suspension of disbelief. Nicole Kidman glues on a prosthetic nose, fills her pockets with rocks, walks into a pond . . . and Oscar history. Continue reading →

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Dead Finks and Warm Jets: Evolved Enough for Eno

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Mark Donato

Even if you don’t know Brian Eno’s music, you’ve still heard him, in groundbreaking clients Talking Heads, Bowie, U2, and Coldplay, not to mention the 3.5 second chime that heralds the opening of every Microsoft Windows 95 program. (Written by Eno on a Mac.) How did Eno grab the attention of the iconic before they were icons? Guest Weekling Mark Donato answers that question by taking you back to Eno’s fabulous, way-ahead-of-its-time solo work, songs that now sound like blueprints for so much quality late 20th/early 21st century pop. Because they are. Continue reading →

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A Song Shall Lead (and Annoy) Them: “Let It Go” from Frozen

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Robert Burke Warren

“Let It Go” crystallizes something intense and very real but otherwise formless, and little kids, who, bless them, do not know from “cool,” love it more than any other song, ever. Even boys. For the first time in history, boys do not categorically run from a Disney princess. They are drawn to Elsa. I am fortunate to bear witness to all of this, and so are you. At the risk of overstating it, it feels historic. Continue reading →

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My Night with Nico

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Holly George-Warren

What does one do when Fellini movie star, Warhol icon, former bedmate of Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, and Jackson Browne, and frontwoman of The Velvet Underground leaves the methadone clinic and walks in to your waitressing gig? Holly George-Warren, eminent rock scribe and esteemed guest at The Weeklings, was still slinging hash when she crossed paths with the chanteuse/muse in late seventies Manhattan, but she did not let the opportunity pass her by. Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Monday Rock City, Music, Popped Culture, Popular Culture, Rock and Roll Coffee, The Arts, The Weeklings, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The 50 Most Bad-Ass Movies Ever

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Sean Beaudoin

Sean Beaudoin curates the 50 most bad-ass movies of all time, then challenges you to a punch-up behind the Dumpster if you don’t agree with every single choice. Continue reading →

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