Living Labor

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Introduction to Millennials Killed the Video Star!!!!

Introduction to Millennials Killed the Video Star!!!!

the cover to my book!!!!!

For the last decade (more or less) I have been reading, watching, writing, and editing (and editing and editing and editing). And now, at long last, my book on MTV is REAL!

Millennials Killed the Video Star: MTV’s Transition to Reality Programming historicizes and analyzes MTV’s original cycle of scripted, identity-focused reality shows that started with Laguna…

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My Mom's 2020 Oscar Picks Redux

My Mom’s 2020 Oscar Picks Redux

[blows dust off blog]

Hello frenz. As you may have noticed, I basically only use this blog once a year now, so that I can post my Mom’s annual Oscar picks. It’s been our tradition since 2012. If this is your first visit to my Mom’s Oscar picks, you may be wondering what makes a 77-year-old retired politician from central Pennsylvania an Oscar pundit. The primary answer is: she watches A LOT of…

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“They should never have given us uniforms if they didn’t want us to be an army”: Contemporary Media Multiplicities in a Time of Crisis

“They should never have given us uniforms if they didn’t want us to be an army”: Contemporary Media Multiplicities in a Time of Crisis

This keynote was delivered at the the 2019 Literature/Film Association Conference, held in the beautiful city of Portland, Oregon. I am grateful to the Board of the Literature/Film Association and its membership for the opportunity to deliver these remarks.

As I sat down to write this keynote over the summer, I found it difficult to concentrate. When I wanted to immerse myself into the work of…

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The Fallacy of Fake News & Both Sides-ism

The Fallacy of Fake News & Both Sides-ism

Note: I was asked to give a sermon at the local Unitarian Universalist Church. The audience was mainly folks over 60, and I think they found this talk useful. I hope you will, too.

I’m a Democrat but I come from a long line of Republicans, so it’s always been difficult to hold different political beliefs from my family. But things have never been so taxing as they have been since the election of…

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My Mom's 2019 Oscar Picks

My Mom’s 2019 Oscar Picks

Welcome back to my legion of faithfuls (waves to 6 people) who come to this blog every year for the hottest Oscars take in Hollywood: my Mom’s! I’m not even pretending to use this blog space as anything other than a place for me to put this post. It’s now the blog equivalent of a Parking Chair, but I only park here once per year. C’est la vie!

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Scandal alert: this…

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[fuckyounofuckme]

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My Mom's 2018 Oscars Picks

My Mom’s 2018 Oscars Picks

Welcome to the 5th Annual edition of “My Mom’s Oscar Picks.” We started this tradition 6 years ago, not long after the death of my father, at a time when my mother and I both found a lot of solace in going to the movies. Since that time, we both look forward to this annual tradition, and do our best to see as many of the Oscar-nominated films as we can.  She has even developed her own fanbase,…

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[mondo80s90spictorama]

[typhlonectes]

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My Mom's 2017 Oscar Picks

My Mom’s 2017 Oscar Picks

Welcome to the 5th Annual edition of “My Mom’s Oscar Picks.” Please know that my mother takes this interview very seriously and prepares for it every year by seeing as many of the nominated films as possible. She often tries to talk to me about these films right after she’s seen them but I have to cut her off with “Save it for the blog, ma!” Now, at long last, we can finally rip La La Land to…

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An Open Letter to My Friend Who Voted for Donald Trump

An Open Letter to My Friend Who Voted for Donald Trump

As someone who is deeply troubled and fearful about the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, I find myself–as so many of us do–in a position of wondering about the motives and intents of those who voted differently than I did. I find myself feeling angry and outraged at the 26.3% of Americans who decided to vote for Donald Trump. But, as this long and painful…

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[depsidase]

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Tell Us a Story is all new!

Tell Us a Story is all new!

As some visitors to this blog may already know, I curate a true story blog over at tellusastoryblog.com. For our first three years of existence, we aimed to publish one new true story every Wednesday (we took summers and holidays off). But we found that model to be unsustainable so we have just switched to a quarterly format, which we are very excited about! We also redesigned the look and…

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Erasing the Pop Culture Scholar, One Click at a Time

Erasing the Pop Culture Scholar, One Click at a Time

Hello darlings. I am super pleased to have this piece published over at The Chronicle of Higher Education on the need for well-researched pop culture writing. Yes, even in thinkpieces. Also pleased to have co-authored this with my dear pal, Kristen Warner, who is a big smartypants. Read, enjoy, make snarky comments about how this article means we are elitists [shrugs]: Click here to read.

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[memewhore]

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