MetaFilter posts tagged with pop and Culture

Painting From History

netbros — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:45:18 -0800

Tomokazu Matsuyama was born in Japan. He moved to the US when he was around ten years old, not speaking any English, and being overwhelmed by the culture shock of 1980s Los Angeles. His artistic work is a reflection of this upbringing. Matsuyama’s paintings envision traditional Japanese imagery through the lens of American pop art, creating a unique and beautiful hybrid. He strives to portray this global melee through a conscious “appropriation” of all of his influences: cultural, artistic, and personal. Matsuyama’s unconflicted and positively ebullient works do not ask, “What am I?,” but assert, “I am everybody.” (via) Matsu's work is a more conscious and introspective response to the tensions of bi-cultural experience. An upbringing split between Japan and America spurred the questions of national and individual identity that figure prominently in the style and subject matter of his paintings — attempting to parse the “natural chaos” of our social environment, Matsuyama pushes viewers to confront their conceptions of cultural homogeneity, which seems to contradict notions of Japaneseness. Discerningly appropriating influences from modern art and Japanese art from the Edo and Meiji eras, Matsuyama’s paintings are an aesthetically exciting and culturally fascinating facet, which portrays the lifestyle of this time.

It doesn't matter who's wrong or right. Just beat it.

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:23:44 -0800

Beatin' it in Seattle

Plaid Stallions!!

pearlybob — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:12:27 -0800

All Kinds of 70's awesomeness!! Plaid Stallions!!

That riff is so gay

klangklangston — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:30:10 -0800

Rainbow in the dark: Gays in Metal From the best metal magazine around, Decibel.

American Idol bigger than ever?

skepticallypleased — Wed, 24 May 2006 20:54:18 -0800

Taylor Hicks wins American Idol.... It could be something worth talking about given how powerful the show has become: #1 show on television, contributed to over 30 million records (records -- yes records not itunes singles) sold, and a show where Queen, Rod Stewart, and, tonight, TAFKAP (or he could be Prince again) are clamoring to be on it. Moroever, some conventional wisdom seems to support that the show is not karaoeke-izing pop music and instead contributes to it surprisingly positively. While it might not lead to debates on metafiler, arguments as to what makes a good Idol can be seen here.

Your own personal GOD warrior

Lola_G — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 14:28:21 -0800

Marguerite Perrin gained infamy as the self-proclaimed "God Warrior" on Fox's Trading Spouses. If you hurry, you can claim your own personal "God Warrior" to help you defend yourself against all the tainted, ungodly elements in the world.

Vote For The Worst

herc — Sat, 07 May 2005 09:19:26 -0800

Vote For The Worst American Idol contestant and be a foot solider against cornball programming. In the battle between an Internet movement and television producers, so far the rouge site has the lead. But as we get closer to the show's finale, can the contrarians keep the worst contestants in the mix?

Hornby on pop music

grumblebee — Wed, 26 May 2004 10:11:48 -0800

Nick Hornby discusses pop music in this NY Times essay: "Maybe this split is inevitable in any medium where there is real money to be made: it has certainly happened in film, for example, and even literature was a form of pop culture, once upon a time. It takes big business a couple of decades to work out how best to exploit a cultural form; once that has happened, 'that high-low fork in the road' is unavoidable, and the middle way begins to look impossibly daunting. It now requires more bravery than one would ever have thought necessary to try and march straight on, to choose neither the high road nor the low. Who has the nerve to pick up where Dickens or John Ford left off? In other words, who wants to make art that is committed and authentic and intelligent, but that sets out to include, rather than exclude? To do so would run the risk of seeming not only sincere and uncool - a stranger to all notions of postmodernism - but arrogant and vaultingly ambitious as well."

Pop Culture vs. War!! (avert eyes)

theplayethic — Wed, 02 Apr 2003 01:27:52 -0800

Pop Culture vs. War!! (avert eyes) So Madonna pulls her anti-war video at the last minute, "never to be seen again". Have to say, it sounds just as finely-wrought a piece of art as G.Micheal's Shoot the Dog. Meanwhile, Lil' Kim attempts some bridge-building between the cultures with this subtle intervention. In times of peace, we expect pop musicians to shoot their mouths off about anything - that's what we pay them for. But I haven't been impressed by anything from rock'n'pop yet in this war. (Micheal Moore's press conference at the Oscars rocked harder than any of them). Is it straight forward fear of career death (see Dixie Chicks)? Or is it just that nobody can do this (dylan) or this (Starr) anymore?