Category: Entertainment

Essays on books, movies, television, music, video games and other forms of entertainment

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Music Genres in the 1990s

They were playing 1980s “hair metal” at the coffee shop recently: bands like Guns ‘n Roses and Mötley Crüe. Then all of a sudden, I heard the opening riffs of Nirvana’s “About a Girl”....

Cable Guy Sports Logo 1

Big Sports and the Cable TV Bubble

In economics, a “bubble” occurs when when something gets wildly overvalued. Its value increases to ridiculous amounts, until people realize what’s going on. Then the bubble bursts. This has happened many times throughout history,...

Tom Bombadil and Jar Jar Binks in "Bad Boys 8" 2

The Problem with Prequels

We live in an age of fictional universes. It’s no longer cool to write a self-contained story. Instead we like to geek out at extended franchises, like the Star Wars or Marvel universes. Even...

Waco Texas Fixer Upper Logo 2

The Formulaic Comforts of HGTV

I grew up on a steady diet of This Old House, but since that’s only on every so often, I settle instead on HGTV. I watch it on the treadmill at the gym, and...

Body by Pokemon Go 1

Getting in Shape with Pokémon Go

“That’s so last summer,” said one of my friends when I mentioned Pokémon Go. “I can’t believe you’re still playing that.” That seems to be a lot of people’s reaction, in fact. When the...

Matrix Rebooting 1

The Matrix Rebooted

Back at the turn of the century, The Matrix was the coolest thing in sci-fi. I was a fan of the movie, like so many others. But 16 years later, the movie and its...

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More Interesting YouTube Channels

I watched a lot of YouTube during my unemployment, and I discovered a lot of cool YouTube channels. I love YouTube channels that are educational but entertaining, channels that fill the role abandoned by...

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The Plants of Jurassic Park

I love Jurassic Park (especially the first one), and I’ve watched it more times than I care to remember. But up until recently, I didn’t notice a major plot hole in the series. Plants....