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Stuff my Kids Watch

The Wild Robot and Found Family

December 2, 2024

Kindness is a survival skill in this heartwarming film.

Celebrating the Living

George Wyner

December 1, 2024

Famous for playing the lovable Aunt Bee; in reality something of a recluse who didn't get along with her coworkers.

Welcome to Media Magpies

December 1, 2024

Your introduction to our new site!

Attention Must Be Paid

Frances Bavier

November 30, 2024

Famous for playing the lovable Aunt Bee; in reality something of a recluse who didn't get along with her coworkers.

Hot and Bothered

November 27, 2024

My thoughts on how sex scene discourse seems to bring the worst out of people

Intrusive Thoughts

Starring Meryl Streep as My Mother the Car

November 27, 2024

Thinking back on the unnecessary spate of '90s movie versions of classic TV shows and wondering who let it happen again.

English Teacher, Your Dunning-Kruger Thirties

November 25, 2024

English Teacher is a straightforward sitcom that ends up capturing what it's like to be in your thirties and finding out how much there still is to learn.

Celebrating the Living

Diane Baker

November 24, 2024

From Anne Frank's sister to Dr. House's mother, Diane Baker has had quite the career!

Wicked Wows New Audiences

November 24, 2024

How new audiences are enjoying a Broadway favorite.

Attention Must Be Paid

Andy Griffith

November 23, 2024

Andy Taylor or MAAAAAAATLOOOOOOOCK? You be the judge!

Disney Byways

Another Year, Another Disney+ Discussion

November 22, 2024

Every November, a look at the state of the Disney+ service and what you're still missing.

Streaming Shuffle

Eden Lake

November 22, 2024

This is both effective horror and shameless fear-mongering.

Film

Hot and Bothered

November 27, 2024

My thoughts on how sex scene discourse seems to bring the worst out of people

Intrusive Thoughts

Starring Meryl Streep as My Mother the Car

November 27, 2024

Thinking back on the unnecessary spate of '90s movie versions of classic TV shows and wondering who let it happen again.

Celebrating the Living

Diane Baker

November 24, 2024

From Anne Frank's sister to Dr. House's mother, Diane Baker has had quite the career!

Wicked Wows New Audiences

November 24, 2024

How new audiences are enjoying a Broadway favorite.

Streaming Shuffle

Eden Lake

November 22, 2024

This is both effective horror and shameless fear-mongering.

The Others

November 21, 2024

A chilling contemporary classic.

Intrusive Thoughts

Great Man Theory and the Movies

November 20, 2024

The movies, especially Westerns, are the way the are due to the efforts of a single man who worked in Tombstone, Dodge City, and Hollywood.

A Modern Analysis of The Wicker Man

November 1, 2024

Analysis of The Wicker Man from a modern perspective. Contains a comparison with Castlevania, so beware of spoilers for both

TV

Celebrating the Living

George Wyner

December 1, 2024

Famous for playing the lovable Aunt Bee; in reality something of a recluse who didn't get along with her coworkers.

Attention Must Be Paid

Frances Bavier

November 30, 2024

Famous for playing the lovable Aunt Bee; in reality something of a recluse who didn't get along with her coworkers.

English Teacher, Your Dunning-Kruger Thirties

November 25, 2024

English Teacher is a straightforward sitcom that ends up capturing what it's like to be in your thirties and finding out how much there still is to learn.

Attention Must Be Paid

Andy Griffith

November 23, 2024

Andy Taylor or MAAAAAAATLOOOOOOOCK? You be the judge!

Disney Byways

Another Year, Another Disney+ Discussion

November 22, 2024

Every November, a look at the state of the Disney+ service and what you're still missing.

Intrusive Thoughts

It’s Parental Neglect, Charlie Brown!

November 6, 2024

Charlie Brown is one of many fictional children living in a world where the parents don't help.

Celebrating the Living

Jerry Hardin

September 22, 2024

One of the great Hey It's That Guys of TV!

Disney Byways

“Eyes in Outer Space”

August 23, 2024

Futurism and weather control, Walt Disney style, with animation by Ward Kimball

Music

All Hell can't stop them now. Los Campesinos! roar back to life with their improbably excellent new album

November 18, 2024

Usually age is  a liability for rock bands, but on Los Campesinos! recently released seventh album, All Hell, “the U.K.’s first and only emo band” unequivocally proves that their well-earned longevity is an asset.  The band describes All Hell as an album on “drinking for fun and drinking for misery // adult acne // adult […]

Year of the Month

Now she’s gone, and I’m back on the beat: Squeeze, Singles 45s and Under

November 13, 2019

The band's first greatest-hits collection, covering the period before their initial breakup, is full of diverse, witty, mature power-pop gems

Year of the Month

Yesterday Once More: If I Were a Carpenter

May 21, 2019

The 1994 Carpenters tribute album is a worthy set of cover versions as well as a fascinating cross-section of alternative rock of the time

Year of the Month

I know where you’re from, but where do you belong? Modest Mouse, The Moon and Antarctica

February 15, 2019

Isaac Brock and company's third album is their most existential and transcendent

Year of the Month

I don't got that bad of a mouth, do I? Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP

January 21, 2019

Eminem's best album features him at the peak of not only his rapping skills but his sense of play

Year of the Month

Something's Gone Wrong Again: Buzzcocks, Singles Going Steady

December 21, 2018

While not as popular or acclaimed as some of their peers, Buzzcocks' work is just as vital, and this hits collection is the best representation of it

Year of the Month

This Ain't No Disco: Talking Heads, Fear of Music

December 15, 2018

Talking Heads' third album is where the band's synthesis of influences bloomed into something new, unique, and artist-defining

Year of the Month

We are standing on the edge: Radiohead, OK Computer

November 28, 2018

One of the most heralded albums of the 1990s holds up both musically and in its anxiety about our digital future

Gaming

The More Realistic Sex Game

September 2, 2024

Examining how relationships work in The Dragon Age Saga prior to Veilguard.

The many endings of Spec Ops: The Line

October 16, 2023

How the multiple endings of Spec Ops: The Line ask the player to judge their protagonist.

Books

Year of the Month

No One Likes Chili Dogs That Much: Gone Girl

June 26, 2024

Amy Dunne knows that it's literally impossible to be a woman, too.

Year of the Month

The Absurd Weight of Existence: Camus in 1942

January 15, 2024

“The Myth of Sisyphus” and Absurdism didn't happen in a vacuum.

Year of the Month

“The Aleph” and the Perils of the Full Picture

January 15, 2024

The limits of knowledge, and of cynicism.

Let There Be Light: The Complicated Labyrinth of The Tombs Of Atuan

September 12, 2023

Le Guin swerved from the expected in her second Earthsea book.

Year of the Month

Anne Rice at Her Most Anne Rice: The Queen of the Damned

October 31, 2022

The third book in Rice's romantic, blood-soaked Vampire Chronicles dramatically upped the stakes and scope.

Intersectional Femivision

Kiki’s Delivery Service: A Look at Purpose, Hardship, and Perseverance

March 13, 2022

When and how we ask kids to grow up

Intersectional Femivision

The Need for A Bechdel Test for Books and Why I think that Gail Carriger’s PARASOL PROTECTORATE Series Would Still Pass

March 19, 2020

A look at Bechdel Tests and Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate Series

Girl Trouble, by Holly Goddard Jones

July 2, 2019

These short stories are thoughtful and wrenching.