Entertainment

How advertising in works of art illustrates an economic problem.

The subjectivity of art is annoying for its ludicrosity.

Debating the freedom to choose based on the poorly-written script of a mindlessly fun movie.

Don't decry consumerism; decry the fact that not everyone has the same opportunities to earn the money to participate in a consumerist economy.

Comparing social networking sites, it seems that only Facebook can successfully impose order on the chaos of social relations.

How reflecting on Spiderman led to a reflection on education and literary analysis.

A reader has listed this as one of five blogs which make him think, placing a netiquette obligation on me to list five blogs which make me think.

In 2006, Crash controversially won the Academy Award for Best Picture. This movie takes on the topic of race relations in America, raising hard questions without any easy answers.

Three years after its release, I finally watched Sepet, and have come away amazed. The film's incisive criticisms and depiction of Malaysian society make it a movie unlike any other.

A study of the parallels between the novel (not the magician) and communist ideology.

Pop culture has always been meant to appeal to the lowest common denominator - it's a fact of life. But it's still creepy seeing underaged girls gyrate in sexually provocative ways, no matter what you may say.

As anybody who knows me well is aware of, I'm a fan of the Beatles (or at least their music). So, for fun, I've decided to analyse the Beatles' astounding success. After all, there's never been a band like them, and there never will be another one like them, in all probability. To date, they're the only musicians ever to occupy every spot in Billboard's Top 5 in the charts. They're also the only ones to have had back-to-back-to-back (taking over from themselves twice) number ones in the Billboard charts. Not to mention that they (or their estates) are still making oodles of money off everything to do with them. But why is this?

Of late, many from the past generation have been lamenting the dearth of talent to be found in today's superstars. In the past, of course, such complaints existed, but for once, the old fogies may actually be right in some way. Most popular musicians are hardly anywhere near the rock stars of yesteryear — the Rolling Stones and the Beatles come to mind. Likewise, when it comes to filmmaking, actually being able to act seems to have dropped quite low on the priority list of directors, in favour of special effects and/or more talentless music.

Well, the Apprentice 3 and American Idol 4 have wrapped; Kendra Todd gets to do some crap for Donald Trump down in Florida, while Carrie Underwood gets some sort of record deal. Neither of these surprises me; from the start, I predicted the third Apprentice would have book smarts, and Underwood's win was a no-brainer.

Last night, I managed to watch the silver screen adaptation of this musical for the first time. It was quite interesting, although I did find enough boring moments to return to reading Fortune for a few minutes.