Showing posts with label Culture Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture Wars. Show all posts

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Interview with my favorite person...

I'm quite grateful for the very cool Nigel P. Bird for giving me the opportunity to join some fantastic talent on his blog and talk about my writing an upcoming book about conspiracy theory films.

Nigel let me and some great writers, like former Culture Wars guests Joelle Charbonneau, Hilary Davidson, Angela Choi, and Steve Weddle, talk about our work in a format where we pretend to interview ourselves.

Check it out right here.

www.nigelpbird.blogspot.com

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Skating Around the Law



With the return of a new season of my radio show, Culture Wars, I am pledging regular updates of this blog as well. Following a summer that has been a bit too eventful, brilliant opinions and commentary will be returning to this blog!

The most important opinion for this week, however, is the need to check out our first author interview on Culture Wars. On September 23, 12:00 pm Eastern Time, we are talking live to Joelle Charbonneau about her debut mystery novel, Skating Around the Law. Joelle will discuss how she brings a humorous edge to the cozy mystery, shaking up some of the staid conventions of the genre.

Published by St. Martin's Press, Joelle's book will be available in all bookstores on September 28. In the meantime, check out her web page right here, and read an excerpt of Skating Around the Law.
Culture Wars, of course, will be once again live every Thursday and available on podcasts at http://www.culturewars.libsyn.com/

Monday, April 26, 2010

True Crime on Culture Wars


The latest episode of Culture Wars - originally broadcast on April 22 on WSPC radio - is now available for podcast download right here.

Our special guest was WRAL reporter and true crime author Amanda Lamb. Her latest book, The Evil Next Door: The Untold Story of a Killer Undone by DNA, has just been released. If you are interested in high tech detective work and the hunt for an elusive serial killer, be sure and check this one out.

And, of course, check out the next episode of Culture Wars live this Thursday from noon until 1:00, EST!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Listen to shows about good books!


After the atrociously long time I've been spending away from this blog, I needed to update with some new information about...radio!

New episodes of Culture Wars radio have been archived at http://www.culturewars.libsyn.com/, including last week's discussion with award-winning science fiction author Elizabeth Bear about the serious side of SF. She just came out with a new book as well, Chill , which is well worth a read.

Plus, give the show a listen and let us know what you think about a book by Jersey Shore stars Ronnie and J-Woww! Recently someone asked me if that was some sort of an early April Fools day practical joke. Unfortunately it's not.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

As promised...

A new episode of Culture Wars is ready for listening at www.culturewars.libsyn.com

Listen to me and Ernabel Demillo interview crime writer Steve Weddle about mysteries, thrillers, true crime that's too spectacular to believe, and just what exactly is "flash fiction."

And don't forget to e-mail the show and let us know what you think about a new "Tiger" app for your iPhone that lets you erase all signs of a text message when you're having an affair. And should school kids be celebrating O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman, and Ru Paul during Black History Month??

Chime in by e-mailing us at wspcradio@gmail.com

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Mother Nature's war on Wars


Unfortunately, an East Coast storm that's supposed to turn into a "blockbuster" and something "paralizing" to the area is creating a havoc on the WSPC broadcasat studios.

But Culture Wars will definitely return for a new episode once we're rescued and from all this snow, and definitely on March 4, featuring special guest author Steve Weddle. Steve will be talking about crime writing and the love for the dark side in gritty noir thrillers, crime reporting, and he'll tell us all about flash fiction.

In the meantime, you can also check out some of his writing at http://www.dosomedamage.blogspot.com/

Thursday, February 11, 2010

We'll be back!

WSPC Culture Wars, starring yours truly and Ernabel Demillo, will be back and broadcasting again on February 18!

By then the apocalyptic blizzard that has shut down our broadcast facilities will be history, hopefully not to be replaced with a new batch of snow!

So we'll be back in a week, addressing anything and everything that fuels those culture wars, including...

Pink Ouija boards!

Yes, folks, most of the e-mails I've gotten over the last day have been about the pink Ouija boards, so we promise to talk about those!!

The date's February 18!!!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Predicting the future on Culture Wars


We hosted our last program for 2009 on yesterday's Culture Wars, but we most definitely will be back in January.

The episode is now available for downloading at http://www.culturewars.libsyn.com/

We attempted to do a little prognostication for the near future as the end of the year is almost here. One of our guests was award-winning science fiction writer Cherie Priest, author of the new alternate-history novel Boneshaker. So check out what someone who looks ahead to the future for a living had to say. It's a great interview and her book is a great read.

Other prognostications come from Alan Miller, CEO of Universal Health Services and the author of Health Care Reform that Makes Sense, commenting on health care legislation and predicting what Congress will do next.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Cowardly ABC and lying PTC

ABC television needs to be sent a different set of protest letters for their cowardly cancellation of Adam Lambert’s performance on Good Morning America. This time, the letters should be sent by a true cross section of America, people who, once in a while, actually take ideas like free speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of choice seriously.

ABC, you see, was sent some 1,500 letters by members of the Parents Television Council following Lambert’s homoerotic performance on the American Music Awards. By ABC’s own admission, that was something they considered a small number of complaints. Nevertheless, they suddenly got paranoid over a fringe group of censorious thugs like the PTC and suddenly cancelled Lambert’s scheduled appearance on GMA. What gives? Over a small number of protests??

The PTC’s own reaction to this, however, has been a display of their usual duplicity. According to this article, Dan Isett, the Director of Public Policy for the PTC, suddenly backpedaled from the group’s usual policy of advocating ever-more draconian and bizarre efforts at censoring broadcasting (the PTC are the yahoos who believe that shows like Ugly Betty and Lost and Law and Order are obscene and the government is justified in keeping them off TV). According to Isett, “the idea that he (Lambert) should be scrubbed from TV completely is not where we’re going.”

Yeah, right! The PTC are not in favor of censoring anyone…Sure, Danny, anyone with half a brain, or any passing familiarity with your scummy organization will even believe that for a second.

Blatant lies in the face of criticism and challenge are the PTC’s stock in trade. If one spends even a few moments looking over the PTC web page, they will be quickly overwhelmed by quote after quote, one article and essay after another, giving clear instruction and policy positions on how the group will fight to REMOVE various TV programs from the air because they deem such programming “obscene,” “filthy,” “sleazy,” “vulgar,” or “offensive.” They threaten to pressure advertisers to withhold support from TV shows until they are cancelled, yet a lying douche bag like Isett has the gall and the decency to say that censorship is “not where we’re going.”

But telling lies, even in the glaring media spotlight, has been a PTC specialty since its inception. The group’s founder, Brent Bozell, has threatened to publicly label advertisers as being complicit in murder for putting their commercials on professional wrestling programs that were proven to have contributed to children killing other children. NOT ONE SINGLE instance of a child killing another child has ever been proven to have been influenced by wrestling.

Bozell has also been less than perfectly honest about the political orientation of his group. The son of a former Joseph McCarthy speech writer, Bozell has repeatedly tried to claim – with the perfectly straight face of a sociopath – that the PTC is a nonpartisan organization and that he himself is not even a Republican. Yet on his bio on the PTC web page, he proudly claims to have been Pat Buchanan’s National Finance Chairman in 1992 and a one time president of the National Conservative Action Committee, which “helped elect dozens of conservative candidates over the past 10 years.” This is all on his web page! Check it out!!

As former pro wrestler Mick Foley writes so eloquently about Bozell in “Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker than Professional Wrestling,” the PTC founder is “a charismatically challenged, lying sack of shit.”

But he’s not the only one of his kind at the PTC. The organization seems to draw pathological liars to its membership ranks like some kind of a magnet. The head of the New Jersey chapter of the group, one Crystal Madison, most often will say that she opposes censorship, but has told TV Newsday magazine that she is a PTC member to fight for a future where shows like Dexter and Family Guy will be “eradicated.” I don’t know, eradication kind of sounds like censorship to me. But those people who listen to my Culture Wars radio show will also know that Madison has been giving instructions to her supporters on how to pressure my college’s donors until the radio show of yours truly is removed from the air. Confronted about this, just like Isett, she backpedaled and claimed that financial pressure was not really an attempt at removing my show from the air. Yeah, Crystal, sure, we believe that!

Nevertheless, ABC television has chosen to cave in to the bully tactics of a group of transparent liars who represent values light years removed from the sentiments of mainstream America.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Conning the con men on the next Culture Wars


Anyone who ever received those Nigerian bank account scam e-mails needs to tune in to a hillarious episode of Culture Wars on November 5!

Our guest will be author Diana Grove, talking about her new book, Dot Conned.

Not only did she expose the online scammers and swindlers in her book, but turned the tables on some of these Internet scumbags. So make some time for the next Culture Wars and enjoy listening to some sweet revenge.

And don't forget to let us know what you think of this or any other shows by e-mailing us at wspcradio@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

...and speak of the Devil



This Thursday, the WSPC Culture Wars show will air one of its two great pre-Halloween programs.

Be sure and tune in - or download the podcast if you miss it - as Ernabel Demillo and I discuss real life exorcisms and the Catholic Church's views on demonic posession and the very manifastations of the Prince of Darkness himself with Saint Peter's College's Father Mark DeStephano.

And learn about the College's connection to some key players in the infamous exorcism case that inspired the William Peter Blatty book and the William Friedkin-directed movie!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Weirdness in Australia


You can now download the October 15 episode of Culture Wars! As always, go to http://www.culturewars.libsyn.com/ and click on any of the episodes you like.

On yesterday's segment, however, we did talk about the swine flu, hoaxes by people who did not win the lottery, Rush Limbaugh and the NFL, as well as a bizarre story out of Australia.

You can check out a story about it here as well.

Australia is considering a suggested TV ban for children under 2 years old. Now the wackiest part of this is that such a drastic recommendation is made because research on how television might effect toddlers has found nothing! Yup, some studies have been done about whether or not those baby videos, things like the Baby Einstein DVDs, might actually turn babies into...Einsteins. No effect or impact on the children could be found whatsoever. Nothing good, nothing bad...nothing at all. One could just as well show political debates, car racing, or hard-core, triple X-rated pornography to a toddler and absolutely no impact would be made on that kid.

Nevertheless, some brain trust down under has now decided that babies need to be barred from the TV set.

Hmm...because no effects were found. Kind of leaves me scratching my head.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

"New New Media" on Culture Wars



One of the best past guests on Culture Wars returns for the October 10 episode!


Check out Fordham professor Paul Levinson as he talks about twittering, blogging, and the reasons to love all the new new media when he discusses his latest book...New New Media.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

UFO abduction expert David M. Jacobs on WSPC Culture Wars!


You definitely want to check out the podcast of the latest episode of Culture Wars right here.

Ernabel Demillo and I had an excellent discussion with Temple University Professor, Dr. David M. Jacobs, one of the most prominent experts on the UFO abduction phenomenon and a historian of the UFO controversy.

Check out this new book!


I just needed to put in a quick plug for a new book by one of the best guests we had appearing on Culture Wars this year.

Karen Sternheimer, USC sociologist and debunker of the media-made-kids-killers/drug-addicts/sex-maniacs nonsense has just come out with her new book, Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media is Not the Answer. Check it out and just calm down, let junior play with video games, listen to that rap song, and just get over your media paranoia!!

Paranoia can ruin your health!!!

And listen to all the Culture Wars podcasts right here.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Culture Wars Podcasts!

The premiere episode of the new season of Culture Wars is now available on podcast. To download a free episode, just go to www.culturewars.libsyn.com and point and click.

In today's episode, hear me an Ernabel Demillo recap a wild media summer, from Michael Jackson to Ted Kennedy...and the more harebrained 9/11 conspiracy theories!

If you have I-pod, subscribe to the show for free!!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Culture Wars are back ON!


On Thursday, September 12, at 12:05 pm, a whole new season of "Culture Wars," with yours truly and Ernabel Demillo will be back on WSPC!

Tune in and catch all the action at www.spc.edu/WSPC

Monday, September 7, 2009

But that's what THEY want you to think!

This article about the Michael Jackson death hoax hoax is just priceless. Apparently someone started the online rumor about Jackson faking his death as an "experiment" to see how fast rumors and conspiracy theories have spread on the Internet. And, indeed, they spread very fast because there is still a whole crop of Michael Jackson conspiracy theory web pages up and active. As conspiracy theorists usually do, they point out all the "obvious" mistakes and inconsistencies in the "official version" of the story.

So now that the death hoax conspiracy has been outed as joke, I wonder how quickly the true believers will claim that the real conspiracy is the claim that that conspiracy is not real?

Confused yet?

Well, keep surfing the web this week because as we're heading toward Friday, the 11th, all the "9/11 was an inside job" nutbars will be busier than ever, so confusing conspiracy theories and conspiratorial fantasies will be busier than ever.

And tune in to "Culture Wars" on the 10th to hear me and Ernabel Demillo put in our two cents' worth!!!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Well, it's about time!



The Michael Jackson death-hoax conspiracy theories are starting to spread on the Internet. At last!! Check out the story here.

Actually, I'm kind of surprised that it took so long for this conspiracy theory to get going. I do have something of a fascination for this since my book on the cultural history on conspiracy theories and conspiracy theory films should be available from McFarland publishing by next year. So now I'm looking forward to reading more of how this particular theory will grow and play out in cyberspace. Will it have the sort longevity as the Elvis is alive or the government-was-behind-the-9/11-attacks conspiracy theories?

Although my favorite cyberspace conspiracy theory is still the one being spread by a small handful of Apocalyptic religious nuts. These are the folks who believe that the third Antichrist is none other than...Arnold Schwarzenegger!! Just google that one and check it out.

As someone who was called the "Antichrist" on the Culture Wars radio show (Returning on September 10, only on WSPC radio), I am kind of partial to all the Antichrist conspiracy theories.

Friday, May 15, 2009

A Culture Wars Podcast Update

Here's an offer you can't refuse! One more update to the Culture Wars podcasts until September.

Because of some unfortunate technical problems, our interview with Dr. Barbara Oakley about her book on sociopathic behavior, "Evil Genes," has not been previously posted. But the episode is up now and it sounds great. Check it out at either http://culturewars.libsyn.com or subscribe to the Culture Wars podcast on I-tunes.