In January 2019, my wife and I took a long-planned trip to Joshua Tree, not knowing that Trump’s idiotic government shutdown would be happening at the same time. The fear was that flights would be delayed and that Joshua Tree National Park would be a wasteland. Fortunately, neither was the case. We stayed at a… Continue reading joshua tree, january 2019 (photo essay)
Category: blog
trying something new(sletter)
When I started teaching communications last fall, I had one goal for the class – to explore how ideas move through the world. On paper, my class is about public relations. But when you strip away the myths, pseudo-sciences, and caricatures of the field, PR – and strategic communications, more broadly – is about self-awareness,… Continue reading trying something new(sletter)
2018 in pictures
I posted a picture per day in 2018. Sometimes more. To wrap up the year, here are some of my favorites.
failure and the fast track to cult success
Cultism has evolved throughout history in the bacterial space between symbiosis and parasitism. It is not an extraterrestrial phenomena, but always contingent on the boundaries of the cultural present. Whatever the dominant culture deems to be heretical or subversive, in any given age, is the place where cultism congeals. The location of the fringe constantly… Continue reading failure and the fast track to cult success
New Mexico, May 2018
powerviolence, or how to play punk with a hammer
A few years ago I wrote an essay about the history of powerviolence, an obscure sub-subgenre of punk rock that originated on the West Coast but has since spread to all corners of the world. It’s part of “The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global,” an edited collection published in November… Continue reading powerviolence, or how to play punk with a hammer
Outside Art: Alok Vaid-Menon in Chicago (Quiet Lunch)
My newest “Outside Art” column is up @ Quiet Lunch, looking at Alok Vaid-Menon’s recent performance in Chicago.
New article for the Center for Digital Ethics & Policy
I’ve got a new article posted at the Center for Digital Ethics & Policy: “Facebook is a media company, but what’s a media company?” When Facebook says that it’s a tech company and not a media company, a silent shudder echoes across the internet. It’s like the reaction that, say, Morton Salt would get if… Continue reading New article for the Center for Digital Ethics & Policy
Cult Cinema Bibliography
When I completed grad school in 2015, I was awarded a Media Studies Award from Oxford Bibliographies (Oxford University Press) for my work in cult cinema. After nearly three years (because academic publishing moves at a glacial pace), Oxford finally posted my bibliography for cult cinema. Here’s the intro: Though relatively young in the world… Continue reading Cult Cinema Bibliography
New Column for Quiet Lunch
I have a new column for Quiet Lunch, “Outside Art.” My first entry is on Chicago’s Intuit Museum of Outsider Art. Compared to the usual culture-media pipeline, I’m not writing this series from New York City or L.A., but from my home city of Chicago. With this series on outside art, I’ll continue exploring the… Continue reading New Column for Quiet Lunch
ben van loon 