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ADVERTISEMENT America is always in a hurry to kill itself. Just observe its eating habits, alienating social practices, and unrelenting facilitators of stress. This doesn’t exist anywhere else, at least not in such seam-bursting concentrations. Just look at Spain — not perfect, but better. It’s a culture that we should strive to be like in [...]

This year’s Grammys came and went without a bang, with most of the awards going to chart-toppers, money-makers, and dust-settlers, as per usual. Art and risk-taking is foreign to the Grammy voter.  It doesn’t help that a large percentage of the public accepts the Grammys at face value, looking at them as qualified, gavel-toting evaluators of [...]

It’s nice to see that some things stay the same; comic books are among the few art forms that have always maintained strict artistic integrity. Very rarely does the medium rely on digital technology, or anything more than a talented individual’s fine motor skills, and a clean sheet of paper to manifest the contents of their wildest [...]

In literature, “onomatopoeia” is a word that’s employed to mimic any audible sound not pertaining to any spoken language.  Examples include buzz, crack, pop, whoosh, etc.  Inserting these “meaningless” words into a piece of prose, however, does have the effect of capturing a more-convincing snapshot of reality. But this doesn’t just work on paper; it [...]

Ricky Gervais is a bit like a vampire, and not just because he has fangs.  He also maintains an air of privacy about his personal life, while also seeming to be everywhere at once.  Also, he loves to watch people bleed, with his sadistic sense of humor.  Whether he’s taking bites out of fair-skinned Hollywood [...]

As humans, we take a lot of pride in how much we’ve accomplished in such a short period of time.  We continually pat ourselves on the back for our achievements, and overall greatness as human beings.  But there comes a point where we need to realize that we aren’t the Alpha and the Omega, and [...]

When you think of the term “period piece,” what usually comes to mind is Jane Austen, powdered wigs, and petticoats.  Many films depict these distant eras with a beloved sort of detachment– these eras only remembered otherwise in written documents and various memoirs. But what of the eras that many, to this day, can recall [...]

Jim Henson was an undeniable wizard, who left a sheer magical legacy in his wake.  He always had children in mind, probably because he never resigned his childish sense of wonderment.  He brought out the child in us all and sought, more than anything, to ensure children never completely grew up.  Without Henson, the world [...]

Sleep by itself can be boring; that’s why when you “sleep with someone,” you never just sleep with them.  When you stay at a hotel, that’s really all you need, but it’s never what you want (by itself anyway).  You expect room service, complimentary breakfast, and little soaps and shampoo bottles.  You are paying, in [...]

Sometimes a picture says a thousand words; sometimes a word says a thousand letters.  There are a few instances in the English language where a word is not constructed for the sake of communication so much as to break a world record, for spectacle’s sake.  In that way, the English language is much like the [...]