Coury Turczyn
In 1999, Sony was so sure it was destined to become a Digital Age Disney that it opened its own high-tech amusement park: the Metreon in San Francisco. But what this $85 million “urban entertainment center” with its...
The making of Tom DiCillo’s ’90s indie gem, ‘Box of Moonlight’
For a brief time in the 1990s, independent American filmmakers were suddenly important—or, at least, they were getting attention for their work. In this pre-Netflix era, when movies still seemed more like an art than a...
Rhapsody of Steel: corporate LP covers
It is in the best interest of corporations to invest in training us to become good, compliant consumers and workers. Today that means mining our private online data or inflicting “team-building” exercises...
How did British jazz get so cool all of a sudden?
In Ray Davies’ somewhat infamous track-by-track review of the Beatles’ Revolver, he tackled “Got To Get You Into My Life” by declaring: “Jazz backing – and it just goes to prove that Britain’s...
Reassessing: ‘Wolfenstein: The New Order’ (2014) saves Sgt. Blazkowicz
Castle Wolfenstein is my safe place. I’m very familiar with its deadly halls, having traversed them as a scrappy private on one of my first campaigns on the Apple II. In the early ’80s, combat was a game of...
A day in the life of MAD Magazine
Nick Meglin worked at MAD Magazine for 48 years, working his way up from contributing writer to editor in chief, a position he held for 20 years before retiring in 2004. Meglin led MAD in the post-William Gaines years...
The self-made animator: Joel Trussell’s unlikely start in the cartoon business
How do you become a professional animator? The typical first step, after graduating from art school, may be to relocate to Los Angeles and start networking. And then do lots and lots of begging for work. But if moving...
Q&A: cartoon artist Jhonen Vasquez and the return of ‘Invader Zim’
Jhonen Vasquez was born to be a comic book artist—he started drawing as a child and hasn’t stopped since, though it wasn’t his primary career aspiration. He simply enjoys illustrating. His first published comic...
Yee-Haw Industries’ “new church of typography” sparked a letterpress renaissance
Sadly, Yee-Haw is no more. The print and design shop—among the first of several boutique printers in the mid-’90s to rescue letterpress machinery and type libraries from oblivion—called it quits in 2012. Some of...
Tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain’s mastery of Indian drumming resonates in American culture
As a child of seven years, Ustad Zakir Hussain would begin his days at 2 o’clock in the morning when his father would wake him for drumming lessons while everyone else in their home slept. They would talk about drums...
The first rock band to bring you yesterday’s technology tomorrow: Man or Astroman?
In answer to the question posed at the end of this story: Yes, the Man or Astroman? invasion continues to this day. You can receive reports of their efforts at Facebook, while also contribute to their documentation...
Southern Culture on the Skids’ 35 years of pure rock ‘n’ roll (and occasional chicken dances)
The South’s portrayal, as a topic of media fascination, is in constant flux. Is it a quirky hotbed of creativity, full of unconventional artists, musicians, and chefs? Or a region that can never quite move past...
Reliving the ghost memories of video games past via the Internet Arcade
The names trigger recollections of long-ago visits to dimly lit arcades: Phoenix. Space Fury. Moon Patrol. These were games that did not inspire quite the same level of quarter-killing obsession as, say, Defender or...
Q&A: Lloyd Kaufman, creator of the Troma cinematic universe
Lloyd Kaufman doesn’t just make movies—he makes Troma movies. That’s an important distinction, since no other writer/director/producer has created a body of work quite like Kaufman’s since he started Troma Entertainment...
Reassessing: ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’ (2008), an Internet-age artifact that still holds up
Remember when Hollywood was going to take over the Internet? It was announced in the late ’90s, not too long after the Web was discovered to be popular among computer users. Naturally, the entertainment establishment...
Q&A: Lo-fi animator Joel Trussell on breaking the weirdness barrier at Disney XD
Love it or hate it, the animated series Pickle and Peanut accomplished something no one in the industry thought possible: bringing the bizarre to Disney XD. The cable channel’s programming is mostly aimed at young...
The art of crime jazz (and assorted cool thrillers)
In the ’50s, a fresh style of music was bustling its way into movie and TV soundtracks: jazz. Previously, movie music meant sweeping orchestral themes or traditional Broadway-style musicals. But with the growing...
Q&A: Tim and Eric’s suburban-hell masterpiece, ‘Tom Goes to the Mayor’
Comedy team Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (aka, Tim and Eric) specialize in the absurdity of American culture—to its ugliest extremes. While they often portray characters of uncommon repulsiveness, they’re also...