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P op culture is often outlined
as commercial culture
based on popular taste, but
for a concept that never sits still, a
more fluid interpretation is needed
by default.
Pop culture and kitsch are usu-
ally in a constantcpush-and-pull,
but a feature article in September's
issue of icon magazine zoned in
on how the
two clashing
concepts stem
from the same
basic equation, }
though the
motives and
outcomes are CAROLINE
much different.
"Popular = IIRMANN
kitsch = bad,"
William Wiles wrote. Consult any
thesaurus, and the negative con-
notations of kitsch are instantly
clear: tacky, tasteless, gaudy, cheap.
Pop culture has no such authorita-
tive list, butcuntil recently it hasn't
fared muchbbetter in academic cir-
cles. Materialistic, superficial and
submitting to corporate whims,
the pop-culture rap sheet rarely
caters to well-respected analysis, if
Rethinking the
vital function of
pop culture.
it's given extra notice at all.
Silly, frivolous, not to be taken
seriously.
Just as icon's Wiles attempted
to re-explain kitsch, imbuing the
term with a new sense of original-
ity and artistic design, I'm pro-
posing a renewed outlook on pop
culture - one that goes beyond
the banality of a Grisham thriller.
Erase the painfully limiting defini-
tion from your mind and embrace
the possibilitythat pop culture
involves more than its dictionary
entry. A lot more.
If you think celebrity gossip
junkies are the only ones affected
by "lowly" pop-culture influences,
you're kidding yourself. Not even
the most devoted hipsters, with
their five-o'clock shadows and
vintage cowboy boots, can distance
themselves from Perez and "Amer-
ican Idol" at will. If anything, their
so-called rebellion only offers the
mainstream an even juicier supply
of products and ideologies to be
packaged and sold en masse (read:
Urban Outfitters) at the risk of
becoming - gasp! - trendy.
The advertising industry spends
more than $200 billion a year.
According to Jean Kilbourne in
the acclaimed documentary series
"Killing Us Softly," we're exposed
to more than 3,000 ads a day, and
most ofus will spend about three
years of our lives watching TV
commercials. With that kind of
exposure, there's no way we can
tune out the images and ideas
flooding our mental infrastructure.
At the very least, our subconscious
is constantly updating its inven-
tory.
But it's not just advertising. It's
the weathered jeans you put on in
the morning, the Cheerios you eat
for breakfast (or don't eat, accord-
ing to the latest fad diet), the songs
streaming through your iPod on
the way to class, the Facebook
pages you browse during lecture,
the YouTube video you watch later
to procrastinate, the football game
you're going to Saturday - and the
body paint you bought in prepara-
tion. Your life is an unavoidable
reflectionof pop culture, and
there's nothing you can do about it.
Junk mail, subwaysigns, info-
mercials, this season's lipstick
colors: Call it the mass media or
capitalist consumerism, but it's
inescapable, no matter where you
fall in the social food chain.
"We live in a landscape charac-
terizedbyextreme eclecticism,"
wrote Daniel Harris, author
of "Cute, Quaint, Hungry and
Romantic." "We watch 'Gone With
the Wind' one week and 'Do the
Right Thing'the next; we wear
battered Reebokrunningshoes
while swingingglamorous Prada
bags, and high-waisted granny
dresses while sporting cool black
shades."
Our world is constantly being
divided into good and bad, high
and low, right and wrong. We're
taught to think that pop culture
has to fall into one category or the
next, without stopping to think
that it's intrinsically relevant to
any pursuit we might engage in.
See POP CULTURE, Page 4B
For Bobby and Peter Farrelly, gross-out comedy has lost its way.
Brother directors
eye comeback
By BLAKE GOBLE pled with unrestrained gross-out,
DailyArts Writer the brothers sought to produce a
romantic escape with dirty jokes
There's something to be said for to buoy it.
the longevity of gross-out come- Add to this that the brothers
dy. Yes, the old-school wit of Billy haven't had a showstopper hit
Wilder and Groucho Marx can this decade, and the film arrives
live on, but there just aren't that in a different light. With films like
many punch lines that achieve the "Superbad" and "The 40-Year-
kind of immortality as, say, a star- Old Virgin" now dominating the
let who inadvertently uses semen market once monopolized by the
as hair gel. brothers, they made it clear they
At least that's what Bobby and think the genre's latest movies
Peter Farrelly think. The brothers veer in the wrong direction.
and veteran co-directors believe On this summer's Apatow-
old-fashioned slapstick is the directed hit "Knocked Up," Peter
highest form of comedy, and they was especially frank: "Here's a
kind of proved it with "Dumb & movie about getting a woman
Dumber" and "There's Something pregnant onthe first date, and yet,
About Mary," their best-loved no nudity. The only thing we saw
movies. was (lead Seth Rogen's) ass.
"'The Three Stooges' and that "You can cut heads off before
type of comedy we were really big you show a woman's nipple. It's a
fans of," said Peter, the elder of warped way of thinking," he said.
the brothers. "If you look back at A little candid for a major stu-
what was funny in the '40s, a lot dio director, but these two are not
of it is not funny now. It's just not. shy about what they look for in a
But occasionally there is a comedy comedy. They want you to laugh
that lasts, and it's usually because at frank sexual images, but not
of physical comedy." without a caring relationship with
The brothers sustain this prin- the characters as well. The broth-
ciple with their new movie, the ers said this philosophy is clear in
Ben Stiller-led remake of "The "The Heartbreak Kid."
Heartbreak Kid." The film, which "(It's) about adults, it's sexual
opens tomorrow, is an update of and they're on their honeymoon,"
the 1972 Neil Simon vehicle that Bobby said. Added Peter: "This
made infidelity farcical as a man was right for an R rating. It's much
finds his true love while on his more in our wheelhouse and what
honeymoon. The Farrellys, who we do well. It just takes the cuffs
have built their reputation on off you."
graphic gross-out humor, said Asked about the signature
revising the story for a contem- moment that defines most of their
porary audience with the now- movies - the tongue frozen to the
rare ease of an R rating motivated pole, the bodily fluid in the hair
them to remake the original. - the Farrellys promised some
"When we were watching (the good, dirty fun.
original movie), we realized it was "The first couple of scenes that
just startingto age," Bobby said. they sleep together, those are
Anopportunityto hitthe restart the scenes that you're gonna be
button on a graying work, the Far- talking about long after," Peter
rellys wanted another crack at the said. "It's sorta groundbreaking
bittersweet. Looking for their sig- because there hasn't been a sex
nature tropes of compassion cou- comedy like this."
HALO
From page 1B
any means. The single-player cam-
paign still isn't great, the graphics
are fairly standard and it still costs
$100 for a damn wireless trans-
mitter to connect to Xbox Live -
although that last one may in fact
be Bill Gates's fault rather than
Bungie's.
But multiplayer has always
been where the game has irrefut-
ably shined. Where "Halo 2" was
excessively unbalanced with few
relevant changes from the origi-
nal, "Halo 3" has added enough
new options to be innovative but
maintains the immortal features
of the classic.
One-man wrecking machine:
All right, so single player is easy.
You-can-beat-it-in-8-hours easy.
But this campaign is easily the
least repetitive in the series; final-
ly, every room and hallway don't
look exactly the same. Still, the plot
is still as incoherent as ever (appar-
ently Master Chief is in love with
that hologram chick and aliens
can build space stations as big as
the sun), and prepare yourself for
one of the most anti-climactic final
stages of all time, which involves
fighting exactly zero enemies and
driving more than 30,000 acres of
space real estate.
No, it's on Xbox 360,1 swear:
OK, the graphics aren't that great,
either. And after playing "Gdars of
War" and "Bioshock," you'll swear
you're playing "Halo 3" on the
original Xbox. But really, nobody
remembers the greatest games for
their graphics. It's all game-play
and replay value for the classics,
and "Halo 3" has both.
How to use your "Man-Can-
non" effectively: It's not what
you think. A completely new
aspect to the game, players now
have an option of an array of dif-
ferent combat tools to use. There's
the Bubble Shield, which protects
against enemy fire while you
reload and recharge; the Radar
Disruptor, which wreaks havoc on
snipers everywhere; and the afore-
mentioned Man-Cannon, which
launches unsuspecting enemies
high into the air. There are about
10 of these, and they give "Halo
3" far more dimension than any
point-and-shoot game to date.
Getting hammered is a bad thing:
There are a host of new weapons
here, most notably the Gravity
Hammer, capable of sending oppo-
nents hurling through the air with
a wicked headache. Also making
debuts are the Spiker (a spine-
spewing machine gun), the Flame-
thrower (guess) and the Spartan
Laser (a vehicle-annihilating laser
beam). There are close to 10 new
fun and useful ways to kill people.
Old devastators like the sword
have been toned down and the pis-
tol sucks as much as ever.
Since "Grand Theft Auto IV" got
delayed:
The new vehicles make you won-
der how there used to only be a
Warthog. There's a new battle
cycle (the Chopper); a mammoth,
indestructible mobile fortress (the
Elephant); and a little weaponless
ATV (the Mongoose).
Thursday, October 4, 2007 - 3B
Becoming God when dying gets
old:
Another unique addition is a ter-
rain editor, and while you can't
change the physical structure of
a level, you can mess around with
things like weapon and vehicle
placement and spawning points.
Not only that, but you can do this
in game. So instead of support-
ing your team by, you know, kill-
ing people, you can help them out
by placing equipment where and
when they need it.
Slow-motion for me:
One of the coolest additions to this
installment is instant replay, for-
merly reserved for sports games.
Corkscrew a Chopper off a Man-
Cannon and smack your friend
manning a turret in the face?
Replay that back and forth, slow-
motion, fast-motion, until every-
one admits that you are indeed the
shit.
The greatest of all time?:
I mean, no, but by the third go-
around, "Halo" is getting pretty
close. This is a better game than,
say, "Bioshock," because while you
may not be engrossed by its rich
storyline of seductive holograms
or notice the way light glints off
a Warthog fender as it charges
toward your head, you'll be play-
ing "Halo 3" much longer. A nar-
rative masterpiece it's not, but an
interactive one? With-
out a question.
M~itUniversity of Michigan
Learn more about the latest developments in IT
Security
at the University of Michigan's Annual IT Security
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This event is free and open to the public.
- Measuring Security, Dan Geer, Sc. D., Chief
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* The Case for Secure Coding, Mary Ann Davidson,
Chief Security Officer, Oracle Corporation
* The Jihadi Cyberterror Threat, Dorothy Denning,
Professor, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
* John Hurley, Ph.D, Security Policy Architect, Apple
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