Review: Sawako Decides
Small town girl Sawako is constipated both literally and metaphorically. Her dream life in Tokyo has ground to a halt. Her get up and go has got up and gone. She’s on her 5th job and her 5th...
Category: Themes
Mad Men marathon: 13 hours of the acclaimed series, back to back
Netflix has just made Mad Men available on streaming, just in time for the announcement that shooting for the long-awaited season five is due to start next week. This, of course, led my editor to...
Why is Casey Anthony being asked to do porn? Sex, scandal and punishing bad girls
It is very possible that Casey Anthony killed her daughter. Before we say anything else, we should say that: the fury that was unleashed over Anthony’s July 5 acquittal is based on some very...
Violent crackdowns in Syria: what next?
Like the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the one in Syria, the product of decades of fierce repression, was sparked by more immediate acts of defiance. As political analyst Emma Sky was told that...
Beyond Retro: The Artistry of Amy Winehouse
In the week since the death of English singer Amy Winehouse much newsprint, or the virtual equivalent, has been spent on her struggles with substance abuse. The analysis of her music, such as it is,...
Foodpocalypse Now: how climate change will affect food production
Global temperatures are rising, and they're bringing global food prices along with them. The last year has seen massive flooding in Pakistan and Australia, alongside devastating drought in China and...
The Further Adventures of Hermione Granger
It would be fair to say that neither I nor anyone else expected the sheer volume of the reaction to last week’s piece on Hermione Granger. It was a silly idea, one I submitted to my editor almost...
Scotland Yarn: A Chat with “Trainspotting” Tour Guide Tim Bell
A NYC schoolteacher now working in Amsterdam, an Australian-born Parisian hotel bartender residing in Edinburgh (who the schoolteacher met at her hotel the night before), and a vibrant chaplain...
You can’t hit a corporation in the face with a pie: Why focusing on the Murdochs falls short
It was a beautiful moment--Rupert Murdoch, “billionaire tyrant” as The Simpsons once called him, in the middle of being grilled by a House of Commons committee, was suddenly hit by a protester...
Meth, blood and ketchup: AMC’s Breaking Bad returns
AMC’s Breaking Bad returned last week with a deliciously dark season opener after forcing viewers to wait 13 months after last season’s cliffhanger finale. As the finale had led viewers to...