Category: Pop Culture

Popular culture, culture that seems to spread beyond more than three people

White House social media strategy

Washington Post explores the new White House social media machine

After years of working to undermine mainstream outlets and neutralize critical reporting, Trump’s allies are now pushing a parallel information universe of social media feeds and right-wing firebrands to sell the country on his expansionist approach to presidential power.

For the Trump team, that has involved aggressively confronting critics like Gomez, not just to “reframe the narrative” but to drown them out, said Kaelan Dorr, a deputy assistant to the president who runs the digital team.

Ghoulish behavior through propaganda.

2025-04-04
Woman finds man under a bed

Nightmare fuel: Kansas babysitter checking for monsters finds man hiding under bed

2025-04-02
Torpedo baseball bats

Major League Baseball bat science doesn’t change much. Every so often there’s an innovation such as the Yankees and their torpedo bat designed by an MIT physicist.

2025-04-02
Severance is about slavery

An interesting take by Matt Pierce: Severance is about slavery.

Yet “Severance” and its parable about double lives has become hard to watch. Season 1’s subtler commentary about workplace alienation has given way a far more brutally explicit Season 2 plot, which is still being told as a “Lost”-style mystery: What is Lumon up to? There is no mystery about what Lumon is up to. The answer is on the screen in front of you. “Severance” is a titillating luxury TV show about slavery.

Part of the novelty of “Severance” is that the enslaver and the enslaved can share a physical body. Helena Eagan is heir to the Lumon corporation, an upper-level manager, and therefore the captor of the innies whose consciousnesses can’t escape Lumon’s offices. Eagan poses as her innie, Hellie R., to creep among the enslaved innie workforce without their knowledge. Helena Eagan exploits Hellie R.’s budding romantic relationship with an unwitting Mark S. to sleep with him.

2025-03-30
Airline safety videos become entertainment

I don’t fly often, so I guess I missed out on this train, but increasingly, airline safety videos are not filmed on on a plane.

… The airlines weren’t just making safety demonstrations. They were making entertainment, engaging in an arms race to make their safety videos bigger, better, and frankly: more ridiculous.

To track this evolution, I analyzed hundreds of airline safety videos spanning thirty years. And then, I took them apart. I dissected their locations, music, and celebrities.

2025-03-29
How Adolescence pulled off those one takes

Fascinating behind the scenes of how Netfix’s show Adolescence pulled off four one take episodes (steadicam & harness) plus seamlessly attaching a camera to a drone.

2025-03-28
A 500-year history of monsters

Natalie Lawrence goes through 500 years of monsters. Their origins often reflect the society and culture of the time.

At different points through history, individual monsters – both ancient and new – have had their moments in the limelight. They’ve becoming the emblems for specific events, conflicts and concerns that were troubling society at particular times.

The many topical monsters that have emerged over the past half-millenium can offer windows into an ever-shifting cultural psyche. What do they reveal about the zeitgeists of different periods?

2025-03-27
The Opposite of Fascism

I’d quote the whole article, but go read what Anand Giridharadas writes regarding the opposite of fascism.

The best revenge against these grifters and bigots and billionaires and bullies is to live well, richly, together.

The best revenge is to refuse their values. To embody the kind of living — free, colorful, open — they want to snuff out.

2025-03-23
Bed Rotting is a thing

‘When you’re bed rotting, you’re not sleeping, just lying there, scrolling on your phone, watching TV, or doing nothing in particular,’ Monroe continues. ‘It’s often framed as a way to “check out” from the demands of life, work, or stress. The term can conjure images of decay or stagnation, which can feel relatable to people who are overwhelmed or burned out.’

Of course the term bed rotting comes from TikTok.

2025-03-22
Capybyras are having a moment

Capybyras have moved up in popularity recently.

2025-03-20