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Culture Tag

Posted by Tyler Hummel on January 22, 2019 39 Comments
Maybe the best entertainment drama of the year thus far has been watching the Oscars squirm their way through bouts of relevancy. Over the summer, it was announced by the Academy of Motion Pictures that the next awards season would introduce the decried "achievement in popular film" category that many film fans lambasted as the end of cinema as an art form. It was a stupid, cynical call to try and help the Oscars maintain relevancy as ratings drop with every yearly broadcast. Then, of course, Kevin Harte was forced to step down as the host of the Oscars when homophobic jokes he made years ago surfaced. The academy demanded an apology. In turn, Harte stood on principle and declined the offer to host.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 18, 2019 20 Comments
We recently noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that drug overdose deaths surpassed 72,000 in 2017, with fentanyl overdoses contributing significantly to this grim, new statistic. New analysis of mortality statistics shows that for the first time in American history, the odds of dying from an opioid overdose are higher than those of dying in a car crash.
The National Safety Council report used data from the National Center for Health Statistics – Mortality Data for 2017, the 2017 U.S. population and the average life expectancy to approximate the one-year and lifetime odds of someone dying from selected external causes, including heart disease (1 in 6 chance), cancer (1 in 7) and suicide (1 in 88). It determined the lifetime odds dying from an accidental opioid overdose for a person born in 2017 were 1 in 96, while the chances of that same person dying from a motor vehicle crash were 1 in 103.

Posted by Tyler Hummel on January 17, 2019 45 Comments
The Star Trek franchise is in a strange place artistically and commercially. With the J.J. Abrams trilogy of films largely falling by the wayside due to financial problems at Paramount Pictures, the only thing fans have been able to enjoy for the past two years has been Star Trek: Discovery. Fans of Star Trek haven't been happy with this new series. While progressive critics have come to the show's defense, non-progressive fans of the show have largely disregarded the show, criticized it's more overtly political elements and ignored it.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 16, 2019 57 Comments
Monday, I blogged about Gillette's new ad which used the  30 year birthday of their slogan “the best a man can get” to shame all decent men for the actions of sleaze bags. The ad campaign is premised on men not being "at their best" and having loads of work to do to satisfy the toxic feminism that's weaseled its way into the current culture.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 04, 2019 14 Comments
This year's flu season is shifting into a fever pitch, as the disease spreads through the nation. It is the H1N1 strain, which is the same one as the infamous Spanish Flu that struck a century ago. However, today's version isn't nearly as potent.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 02, 2019 8 Comments
Seems like only yesterday that Kanye was taking a break from politics. But that was late October and 2019 brought with it a brave new world. In case there was any doubt about where Kanye West stands, his first tweets of the new year indicate the rapper is back on the Trump train.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 02, 2019 20 Comments
The Women's March has lost celebrity followers and local chapters as more people pick up on the anti-Semitic beliefs of those at the top of the food chain. The slow drip started to hemorrhage in November when Tablet magazine exposed the hatred inside of the leaders. Now actress Rosanna Arquette threatened to boycott the march if the organization doesn't do anything about its leadership.

Posted by Tyler Hummel on December 31, 2018 16 Comments
There was a recent tweet by filmmaker and professor Brandon David Wilson that was shared by director Guillermo Del Toro that sparked an interesting crystallization.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 30, 2018 7 Comments
You know, people often concentrate on the horrible things that happen during a year. It reminds me of a speech by Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings when he tells Frodo that there's good in this world and it's worth fighting for. That's why for my top 2018 list I'm going to list the good things that happened this year, the times that humanity showed its decent side. Thing is, this happens a lot more than people think, and we should acknowledge these deeds more often.

Posted by Tyler Hummel on December 25, 2018 19 Comments
They Shall Not Grow Old is a documentary collaboration between the acclaimed director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the British Imperial War Museum and consists entirely of restored World War I footage from the British trenches with exposition taken from hundreds of hours of recordings of actual war veterans talking about their experiences in the trenches. They Shall Not Grow Old is a rare technical achievement that applies the best of modern post-production. The bookends to Jackson’s documentary are presented in the style of a classic zoetrope in smaller dimensions than the rest of the film. This is important because these two segments represent two vital themes presented of the Great War:  naïveté and denial.
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