Kevin Smith on patronizing a strip club [more inside]
posted by reenum on Aug 8, 2009 - 158 comments

Fantasy Meets Reality. The very best works of science fiction illuminate controversial current events and the intricacies of human nature. So, it's no surprise that the United Nations Public Information Department and the Sci Fi (SyFy?) Channel co-hosted a panel yesterday evening on "humanitarian concerns" at the UN, with the creators and actors of Battlestar Galactica -- a show which regularly explores those themes. A 2-hour video webcast is archived here. (RealPlayer video). Entertainment Weekly has an additional write-up. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Mar 18, 2009 - 57 comments

Watching Conan the Barbarian with Arnold - DVD commentary track highlights (SLYT)
posted by sloe on Feb 11, 2009 - 50 comments

Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy - a commentary in Nature that says, "we call for a presumption that mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs". Farkesque debate here. [more inside]
posted by daksya on Dec 8, 2008 - 57 comments

A very interesting commentary on The Catholic League's boycott of Phillip Pullman's fantasy childrens novel, The Golden Compass. Nicole Kidman disagrees that the story is anti-catholic. [more inside]
posted by butterstick on Nov 30, 2007 - 93 comments

Darren Aronofsky has posted a bootleg commentary for his film The Fountain (the one with Hugh Jackman in a bubble with a tree flying through space) since the film company decided the actual dvd itself didn't need one. The direct mp3 download is here (16mg) [via].
posted by feelinglistless on Sep 17, 2007 - 72 comments

Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 rejoice! Three of MST3K's writer/characters — Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy — have started a new venture: The Film Crew.
posted by Dave Faris on Jun 28, 2007 - 48 comments

Who is Chuck Klosterman? in case you've never heard of the author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (among others - discussed here and here), you have now. [More Inside]
posted by grapefruitmoon on Mar 9, 2007 - 29 comments

Lance speaks out on cancer: one of cycling's all-time greats and possibly the world's best known cancer survivor, founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation with the goal of inspiring and empowering people with cancer. He now campaigns for more government funds for cancer research and treatment. {commentary on CNN}
posted by fluffycreature on Jan 10, 2007 - 20 comments

Ever wonder if that DVD commentary might put you to sleep? Well, wonder no more. Learn about the first, the worst, and find out what other people think are the best. Vote for your favorites, and add your own reviews. "The definitive commentary track database" is at your service. Link courtesy of Whedonesque.
posted by ZachsMind on Aug 31, 2006 - 60 comments

Commentary Magazine's Gabriel Schoenfeld suggests that the New York Times has violated the Espionage Act of 1917. Slate's Jack Shafer remarks that the case is not too far-fetched, while noting that Scott Johnson of The Weekly Standard seems to have anticipated the Commentary article. via
posted by Kwantsar on Mar 12, 2006 - 6 comments

Children review classic games- some more. Back in November '03, 1up.com rounded up some kids from the 8-12 age range and had them play video and arcade games from the 70's and 80's, including Pong, Donkey Kong, and Tetris. The resulting commentary was mostly along the lines of "Tim: They could've just as easily called this game anything—Baseball, Bowling, Escape From the Monsters. EGM: Did you score? Kirk: I bumped into a dot." In December 2004 they brought them back to review Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the 1983 Arcade version of Star Wars, among others. "EGM: What do those TIE Fighters look like? ...Are they scary? Anthony: No. It feels like they're trying to give me flowers."
posted by Meredith on Feb 16, 2006 - 44 comments

Storm Hits, Capitalism Preserves Profits, Humanity Drowns. Beyond pointing out that Bush cares greatly about rich white people, what does the Left have to say about Katrina? How accurate is it to blame racism and capitalism for the federal governments's lack of response?
posted by cleardawn on Sep 4, 2005 - 62 comments

Black Market Press: Back Again The Popular Tri-State Area Zine Team, Black Market Press is back again, older, wiser, and broadcasting to a much wider readership thanks to the popularity of the Blog. Social and political commentary from the pamphleteering team that brought you Media Blitz back in 1995. We encourage you to send us links, news, or hate mail.
posted by Mroz on Apr 18, 2005 - 2 comments

Bush Junta: A Field Guide to Corruption in Government - A substantial visual document (200 pages of comics from Fantagraphics, fact-checked with an extensive bibliography; the link goes to a number of sample pages) on the Bush Dynasty, from its beginnings benefitting off of Hitler and WW2 (that entire piece, which is printed in english, is posted in its original dutch online here), to the Bush's connection to Reagan's assassination, CIA and Iran-Contra, ending with the unsettling origins and profiles of the current administration. A great election primer, featuring comics and art by Steve Brodner, Ralph Steadman, Spain Rodriguez and many others. (Amazon link provided for a better description)
posted by Peter H on Oct 11, 2004 - 11 comments

If you get all your news from watching Weekend Update or The Daily Show, you might find FootnoteTV helpful. The site comments and expounds on the newsworthy topics that often crop up in television shows. The parent site, newsaic, has subsites that examine comics and popular culture, among other things, as well.
posted by EatenByAGrue on May 3, 2004 - 3 comments

Star Wars Trilogy DVD Commentaries Leaked . Five three-ish minute clips of Lucas-audio leakery! w00t! I can't wait til September!
posted by armoured-ant on Apr 1, 2004 - 12 comments

It's just not cricket - it would appear that the Cricket commentator at The Guardian is having a bad day.
posted by chill on Mar 14, 2003 - 24 comments

Cultural Commentary in 10 Easy Lessons "....there's an astonishing abundance of cultural criticism these days -- in magazines, newspapers, web sites, blogs, television....if you removed the five or 10 most abused forms of criticism, there would be a deafening silence. Or perhaps room for other kinds of commentary to grow..." With so much published and available these days. it's damn near impossible to sound original.
posted by Voyageman on Dec 15, 2002 - 16 comments

The greatest bit of sports commentary ever, according to the Guardian, is Norwegian TV's Bjørge Lillelien's response to Norway beating England 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Sept 1981: "Lord Nelson! Lord Beaverbrook! Sir Winston Churchill! Sir Anthony Eden! Clement Attlee! Henry Cooper! Lady Diana! Maggie Thatcher - can you hear me, Maggie Thatcher! Your boys took one hell of a beating! Your boys took one hell of a beating!" (Listen to it as Windows Media Audio) Is your favorite on the list, and if not, what is it?
posted by dagny on Oct 7, 2002 - 37 comments

Amateur DVD commentary. The site is a little rough around the edges, but it is a fascinating exercise in voracious fandom nonetheless. Roger Ebert is heralded as giving the idea to the masses [NYT article], but as always, there seems to be prior art. ;)
posted by pedantic on May 20, 2002 - 7 comments

Three propositions:

1. Like everything else cultural, language goes through phases and fads, and what seemed one week like a fresh, inventive phrase quickly becomes debased through misuse and overuse.
2. Tracking such things, and commenting on them, is fun, and it's nice to have a corpus of examples to draw on to make your point. It might be fun to take Metafilter as a starting place. You could even build a site around it.
3. Those smaller fish that swim around with sharks are called remoras.

posted by rodii on May 15, 2002 - 94 comments

Why Doesn't the US Value Art? In Italy, school children have notebooks with grids. In America, you have notebooks with lines." In other words, we are taught to think in a linear manner, while they are taught to think spatially. First, is it true that the US doesn't value art? Second, does ruled note paper, or any number of other seemingly minor details of life, really materially effect the way somebody generally approaches the world?
posted by willnot on Mar 31, 2002 - 38 comments

Was the Gospel of Mark a rewrite of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey? The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark is a book that sets out to show just that. Several scholars who reviewed or commented on it have said this book will revolutionize the field of Gospel studies and profoundly affect our understanding of the origins of Christianity. Will it?
posted by willnot on Feb 20, 2002 - 31 comments

Martin Amis writes: 'Our best destiny, as planetary cohabitants, is the development of what has been called "species consciousness" - something over and above nationalisms, blocs, religions, ethnicities.' Naively idealistic or something to hope for?
posted by normy on Sep 18, 2001 - 12 comments

NPR Commentator Jim Sleeper on recent events Links to Real Audio file. I spent some time today looking for a transcript but this is the best I could find. I heard this yesterday and it's the one of the most reasoned piece of commentary I've heard and places this incident in an appropriate historical context. "We'll have to be tougher and smarter than ever before but also wiser and, if possible, more noble."
posted by amanda on Sep 14, 2001 - 0 comments

Media Deception and Iraq
An interesting quick story-- one journalist smells a rat in an AP report about Iraq using money to buy weapons, investigates the genesis of the story, and finds more deception. Meanwhile statistics on children dying from sanctions go unpublished.
posted by chaz on Jul 11, 2001 - 8 comments