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07 January 2010 @ 12:32 pm
I haven't seen the movie, but I've gotten hooked on reading responses to Avatar. Some recent ones:

Erik Davis sounding very Erik Davis (Aya Avatar: Drink the Jungle Juice):

With its floating Roger Deanscapes and hallucinogenic flora, the manifest world of Avatar instead spoke another truth: that the jungle pantheism that now pervades the psychoactive counterculture has gone thoroughly mainstream. Of course, noble savage narratives of ecological balance and shamanic wisdom have been haunting the Rousseau-mapped outback of the western mind for centuries.
 

k-punk sounding very k-punk ("They Killed Their Mother": Avatar as Ideological Symptom):

What is foreclosed in the opposition between a predatory technologised capitalism and a primitive organicism, evidently, is the possibility of a modern, technologised anti-capitalism. It is in presenting this pseudo-opposition that Avatar functions as an ideological symptom.

Bob Rehak sounding very Bob Rehak (Watching Avatar):

Cameron’s nifty trick, though, has always been to frame his visual and practical effects in ways that lend them a crucial layer of believability. I’m not talking about photorealism, that unreachable horizon (unreachable precisely because it’s a moving target, a fantasized attribute we hallucinate within the imaginary body of cinema: as Lacan would put it, in you more than you).

Maybe that's the true genius of the movie -- it's a magic mirror which reflects back what so many different people bring to it, an enchanted well that so many different people can drink from.
This entry is cross-posted to http://crypto.dreamwidth.org/90699.html (comment count unavailable comments there)
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02 January 2010 @ 11:41 pm
My dissertation, which I've been posting here in installments since mid-2007, is finally finished! You can download the finished project here, if you're interested.

With that, there will be no further public content at this LJ. If you'd still like to keep up with my professional life, you can follow [info]jlr_blog

Many thanks to my readers!
 
 
02 January 2010 @ 07:28 pm
Mark your calendars: James Roday and Dulé Hill from Psych will be guest-hosting Monday Night Raw on January 25th.

Suddenly professional wrestling is relevant to media fandom!

For those of you planning to tune in, I will be happy to field any and all of your wrestling questions. This entry is cross-posted to http://crypto.dreamwidth.org/90443.html (comment count unavailable comments there)
 
 
01 January 2010 @ 08:31 pm
reaction )


This entry is cross-posted to http://crypto.dreamwidth.org/90011.html (comment count unavailable comments there)
 
 
01 January 2010 @ 11:56 am
 I've been laid up in bed with a nasty cold for a couple of days, so I rang in the new year by marathoning the first few episodes of MTV's new reality show, Jersey Shore.

So what are the chances that people will start writing Jersey Shore RPF? Anyone? This entry is cross-posted to http://crypto.dreamwidth.org/89611.html (comment count unavailable comments there)
 
 
29 December 2009 @ 12:51 pm
One of my favorite things about media fandom is the experience of watching a TV show within a semi-synchronous distributed collective of fans. You know, when half the pleasure comes from watching the show itself, and the other half comes from rushing to refresh your friendslist to see what everybody else thought of the episode. I've been missing that lately, since I'm mostly out of sync with current fannish favorites, and I'm pretty far behind myself on stuff I've been meaning to watch (Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, Skins, In Treatment, Sons of Anarchy). Apparently this wasn't my year for serious drama?

So here's what I have been watching and enjoying over the past twelve months, in no particular order except when it is:

Sarah Connor, You're Beautiful, Sea Patrol, Thick of It, Torchwood/Doctor Who, The City, wrestling, Venture Bros. )

Honorable mention:

LOST
(actually a pretty strong season this year, and I seriously can't wait until the final season)
Better Off Ted (loved the first season, but the recent episodes have been funny but mostly disappointing)
Battlestar Galactica (sadly not on my favorites list -- and Ron Moore, you know why)
SYTYCD (the Australia series should probably be listed above, except that my memories of it have faded under the onslaught of more recently aired and decidedly subpar U.S. and Canada versions)

Wow, that's a lot more than I thought I'd watched this year. Now I don't feel so bad about falling behind on the serious drama side.
This entry is cross-posted to http://crypto.dreamwidth.org/89490.html (comment count unavailable comments there)
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28 December 2009 @ 01:31 pm
Recently, you heard from me about our 2009 accomplishments and plans for the year ahead. 
This is a critically important moment!

No, I'm not joking. Yes, there's a long, hard road still ahead.
That’s why I’m challenging you today—by offering to double your gift—to be
as generous as possible.

In a tough economy, deciding where to give is more difficult than ever.
Here's a year-end, tax-deductible opportunity to
support an effective organization with a proven track record.
Please help us to continue saving lives.

Your participation at this point in history is very important, and I'd like to send you some
free gifts to show our appreciation.
Please send in your gift today!

Thank you!
We owe the deepest debt of gratitude
Thank you very much,
Thank you so much for all that you do.

This entry is cross-posted to http://crypto.dreamwidth.org/89313.html (comment count unavailable comments there)
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