Pop Culture/Film

Why I Don’t Block: On Black Mirror’s “White Christmas”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Black Mirror, Ethics, Film, Film Reviews, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values, Television, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

[NOTE: This is the another installment in my series of reviews of Black Mirror. These posts DO include spoilers. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know!] When I originally posted my ranking of Black Mirror episodes at the beginning of this year, I didn’t include “White Christmas” in part because, in the grand architecture of the series, “White…

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Black Mirror for Experts

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Black Mirror, Film, Film Reviews, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values, Television 0 Comments

In late December of last year, the fourth season of Black Mirror was released on Netflix, which is why many fans (myself included) had been hoping to see the much-anticipated fifth season released over the holidays. As 2018 draws to a close, though, no official release date has been announced and we still haven’t seen any Season…

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#30DaySongChallenge, Day 3: A Song That Reminds You Of Summertime

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson #30DaySongChallenge 2018, #BlackLivesMatter, 30 Day Song Challenge, Film, Music, Politics, Pop Culture/Film, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I live in Memphis, so summertime makes me think of heat. Hot heat. Sticky heat. Unrelenting heat. Oppressive heat. The kind of heat that you can’t escape and you can’t recover from, despite the fact that you spend most of your time between May and September mad-dashing from one air-conditioned place to another air-conditioned place….

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It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s Man’s World: On Black Mirror’s “USS Callister”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Black Mirror, Ethics, Film, Film Reviews, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values, Television, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

[NOTE: This is the next installment in my series of reviews of Black Mirror. These posts DO include spoilers. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know!] I really liked S4E1 “USS Callister,” which is the only episode from Season 4 to make it in in the top ten of my Black Mirror rankings. This came as a…

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Someone Like You: On Black Mirror’s “Be Right Back”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Black Mirror, Ethics, Film, Film Reviews, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values, Television, Uncanny Valley 0 Comments

[NOTE: This is the next installment in my series of reviews of Black Mirror. These posts DO include spoilers. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know!] Back in 2013, when the second season of Black Mirror was released, I was only just beginning to expand what was, at the time, a somewhat niche-market interest in the tech phenomenon…

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Black Mirror for Beginners

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Black Mirror, Ethics, Film, Film Reviews, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

In my experience, of the people who have actually watched Black Mirror, there are two types: those who absolutely LOVE it, and those who never got past the pig episode. To be fair to the second group, “the pig episode” (aka, “The National Anthem”) is the very first episode of the very first season and it packs…

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Uncanny Vulnerability: On the Creepiness of “Hi, Stranger”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values, Uncanny Valley 0 Comments

In the last couple of weeks, Kirsten Lepore’s brilliant claymation short “Hi, Stranger” has taken the internet by storm.  It features a nameless, gelatinous, nude, humanoid protagonist (pictured left) with a soothing, gender-ambiguous voice who engages in a spontaneous, quasi-therapeutic, and strangely intimate conversation directly with you, the viewer. Reactions to Lepore’s short have been…

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TEDxMemphis Recap

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Film, Memphis, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I just got home from a whole day at the first ever TEDxMemphis event– I say “first” because it looks like plans are already in the works for another one next year (THIS MUST HAPPEN!)– and I cannot possibly exaggerate what an amazing, informative, inspirational and motivational event it was.  Especially for this city, my city,…

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On Blurred Lines, Pop Music, Pirates/Thieves and Memphis’ Mustang Sally

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Ethics, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Yesterday, a Los Angeles federal jury awarded $7.4 million to the family of late, great R&B singer Marvin Gaye for copyright infringement by contemporary pop-icons Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams.  The jurors determined that Thicke’s 2013 chart-topper “Blurred Lines” copied elements of Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up.” Although they were instructed to consider only…

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Social Networking, the Ivory Tower, and “Friend”-ly Disagreement

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature 9 Comments

There is an old, well-worn and tired stereotype of academics that figures them/us as people who restrict their/our lives to the Ivory Tower, engaged in intellectual pursuits and disengaged from the practical concerns of everyday life. (Incidentally, the “tower” pictured to the left really is one of the towers on my campus.) I suppose that…

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