Devo's forthcoming studio, long play release is their first in twenty years and return as a working act comes in a new era where "de-evolution is real and Devo is normal".
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Devo Now, More than Ever
In Praise of Dwangela
Where Pam and Jim (a couple whose sweetness is wonderfully conveyed by the fused appellation “Jam”) are associated with mild and often toothless critiques of the corporate regime, pulling pranks and expressing symbolic (and frequently non-verbal) opposition to or incredulity about the absurdities of corporate life, Dwangela perform a more substantive critical function.
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Vancouver’s (finally) Ready for its Close-up, Mr. DeMille
After years of starring in more films and television than any city other than Los Angeles or New York, with the Olympics, Vancouver finally gets to play itself on television.
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New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Video Game Nostalgia
Like much about video game culture, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is profoundly nostalgic.
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Dear John: On The Meta-Celebrity’s Misguided Attempt to be Clever
In a sense, Mayer has become his own cultural intermediary. He is a meta-star text sustained in large part by his own mediatory endeavors. This has its benefits, but also poses problems for the many John Mayers jockeying for control over the text.
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Our Intractable Ideological Moment: Surnow, The History Channel, and the Kennedys
The latest ideological skirmish will be played out through a History Channel mini-series on the Kennedys by conservative producer Joel Surnow. The problem, though, runs much deeper than shoddy history. It is rooted in a fundamental epistemological divide between left and right over what constitutes truth and how we arrive at it.
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Lost Wednesday: Substitute Fanboy
Is Jacob the mystical SysOp of Lostpedia? Or is he just a teacher looking for a substitute?
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What Google’s Experimental Fiber Network Means for Broadband
Despite all the other Buzz around Google lately, its other announcement last week is the real big deal: Google's plan to build an experimental 1 Gbps, fiber-to-the-home broadband network will have a big impact on net neutrality and broadband stimulus policies.
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Network Branding, Convergence, and Hasbro/Discovery’s New Kids Channel
What's in a name? Hasbro and Discovery begin branding efforts for their new joint venture cable network debuting later this year.
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What Are You Missing? February 1-13
Ten (or more) media industry stories you might have missed recently
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Is it all Downhill from here for Winter Olympics?
Olympic winter games are a rudiment of a bygone modern era of (television) culture. Whereas summer games have adopted to changing viewing habits, Winter Olympics have essentially remained fifteen ways of sliding.
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Celebrity Doppelgängers, Vanity Fair’s “New Hollywood” issue, and Visibility
Celebrity Doppelgänger Week on Facebook and the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair have raised questions about the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in Hollywood and US celebrity culture and remind us that visibility still matters.
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Vampire Diaries: The Best Genre Television You’re Not Watching
A defense and explanation of teen melodrama Vampire Diaries.
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Lost Wednesday: Table Setting
One of my favorite television critics, Alan Sepinwall, ended his review of this week’s Lost with this spot-on reflection: Mainly, though, “What Kate Does” was a table-setting episode. I can see lots of things introduced here paying off interestingly down the road, maybe even as soon as next week, but there wasn’t enough meat...
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The Hogwarts Express Goes to Orlando
Universal Studios announced the arrival of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Super Bowl-watching muggles. What does this mean for the Harry Potter franchise?
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About the (w)hoopla: A few pedagogical thoughts about the Super Bowl ritual.
In an era of fragmentation it's the only media program left that has any kind of mass ritual component. Which, of course, is not only why so many debate its contents but why and how we , as scholars, should approach the program.
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