Nicolo Paganini [1782-1840] was arguably the world’s greatest violinist. His incredible virtuosity totally revolutionized the instrument, and his amazing skills led many people to believe he had made a Faustian deal with the Devil in order to acquire his seemingly inhuman abilities. Paganini was so unbelievably good that audiences in the pre-Victorian era were convinced […]
‘The City’ is an iconic and constantly recurring theme in Science Fiction (SF) cinema. Huge, sprawling mega-cities are the dominant settings for many SF films. As author John R. Gold points out in his essay Under Darkened Skies: The City in Science Fiction Film, the city of the future is often as much part of […]
Science Fiction [SF] cinema has never received the degree of analytical and theoretical attention devoted to other film genres. In her book Alien Zone, author Annette Kuhn demonstrates that SF has been difficult to define as an actual genre, simply because it encompasses so many different elements. SF films rework and transform established themes and […]
In Federalist Paper #30, Alexander Hamilton argues that the new American government must possess unrestrained power to impose taxes to support all the basic functions of that government – particularly the power to raise and supply an army or militia. He mentions building fleets and paying debts, but most of his examples deal with the […]
Scholars have recently presented critical analyses of the popularity of zombies, vampires and witches to help explain the social and psychological implications of the undead in contemporary popular culture. Zombies are quick and easy metaphors that can be used for many purposes, representing any number of different themes. The proliferation of zombies in films, video […]
Historians have argued that New Journalism “degenerated” into Yellow Journalism because the lofty, idealistic goals of New Journalism were quickly subsumed into sensationalistic pabulum as newspapers tried to out-do each other for advertising revenue. With so much competition between the newspapers, stories were over-dramatized and altered to correspond to ideas that publishers and editors thought […]
One of the milestones in cinematic history was the first narrative film, The Great Train Robbery (1903). It was directed and shot by Edwin S. Porter, a former associate of Thomas Edison. The movie is only about 10 minutes long, with 14 scenes. It was the most popular and commercially successful film of the pre-nickelodeon […]
The USA was one of the world’s greatest mass social experiments; the only country to come into existence as a fully-fledged democracy, “By the People, for the People.” America was the land of the free, home of the brave; a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, blah, blah, blah… Sadly, America isn’t […]
The US century of American economic and political hegemony is collapsing right before our very eyes. Like so many of history’s past empires, petty idiocies and hubris appear to be accelerating this inevitable decline. The real winner in all this chaos is China. Xi Jinping only has to follow Napoleon’s famous advice: “Never interfere with […]
It’s a pattern historians have seen many times before: It starts with the quiet dismantling of oversight and the abolition of regulations, and it ends with institutions that serve only those in power. The US used to have strong institutions and a vigorous vocal opposition; but seeing these government watchdogs being laid off and summarily […]
Jason Darensburg's Blog-o-rama 