Nerd vs Hipster

Did Nerds Destroy Hipsters?

Where did all the hipsters go? You may have noticed, as author JD Cowan did, that the hipsters who once infested the cultural landscape seem to have vanished overnight. So did writer Sam Kriss, who has an interesting theory as to where all the mustache wax-sporting, Pabst Blue Ribbon-drinking oddballs…
June 24, 202423 Comments
Time Machine

We All Have Our Time Machines

Getting my new dark fantasy novel The Burned Book ready for launch is demanding more of my time of late. So here's a blast from the past that didn't get enough love the first time around. Did you know that you own a time machine? As a matter of fact,…
June 19, 20248 Comments
Conservative Art Starving

Spencer Klavan vs Conservative Art™

Why does every piece of "Conservative art" inevitably turn out to be cringe-inducing pabulum or hamfisted kitsch? Spencer Klavan, son of best selling author Andrew Klavan, takes a crack at the answer and suggests some solutions. For as long as I’ve been alive and longer, the Right has had a…
June 13, 202425 Comments
Anime ONA

Original Net Animation: The Future of Anime?

Today's post is a guest essay by author JD Cowan: Anime in the ’90s was being squeezed out during Japan’s economic bubble popping, but it was still being produced in the highest quality possible. Despite the downturn, anime was still growing domestically and abroad. And it was still aiming high.…
June 12, 202413 Comments
End of Gainax

Anime Ground Zero and The End of Gainax

Despite the overwhelming evidence collected on this blog that anime, like all forms of pop culture entertainment, suffered a fatal blow in the late 1990s, some still cling to that dead art form, hoping for a miracle. Well, if a miracle were to resurrect the Japanese animation industry, the logical…
June 11, 202421 Comments
Movie Theater Closed

Remembering the Movie Theater

The movie theater I once worked at years ago closed for good recently. To anticipate longtime readers' follow up question, yes. It was the location notorious for high strangeness that's been featured on this blog before. But whether or not it really harbored ghosts, that defunct theater has joined other…
June 4, 202418 Comments
Star Trek Horror

Star Trek Is Zombie Horror

Recent interactions on X revived the evergreen debate over which genre Star Trek belongs in. Writer Isaac Young sparked the discussion with this incisive thread. But it was user Brainwright who introduced a related topic that bears on today's meditation: Related: Star Trek—The Motion Picture Miles of page inches have…
May 30, 202410 Comments
2D 5

How AAA Studios Killed 2D

A recent thread on X by author JD Cowan kicked off a trip down gaming memory lane. In particular, he addressed how AAA studios killed 2D games for a generation. Related: FF7: The 1st Unfinished AAA Game? JD is right. The fifth home video game console generation was when game…
May 22, 202418 Comments
Deadpub Hollywood China

Deadpub, Hollywood, and China

The death of oldpub and the implosion of Hollywood are two subjects that get a lot of play in the new counterculture. Newpub authors and anti-woke film critics alike have come to resemble End Times preachers interpreting the Book of Revelations to mean the eschaton is right around the corner.…
May 16, 20242 Comments
Spielberg 1

The Spielberg Hollywood Prophecy

The major woes facing Hollywood are the movie industry's worst-kept secret. But did A list director Steven Spielberg deliver a grim prophecy over a decade ago that predicted Hollywood's implosion? A series of interviews the Indiana Jones and Saving Private Ryan director gave in 2013 suggest a surprising answer. Steven…
May 6, 20244 Comments