“What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?” - Anton Chigurh, No Country for Old Men In our daily lives, the most we bet on a coin toss is a couple of dollars or an embarrassing public act. We think it is a fair way to make an arbitrary decision: the coin has an equal probability of landing on heads or tails so we leave it up to chance to decide. Consequently, we associate … [Read more...] about Gambling With Luck
Humanities
The Empty Chair: Looking into the Eyes of Marina Abramovic
Performance artist Marina Abramovic’s retrospective collection, “The Artist is Present,” debuted in March 2010 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Comprised of over fifty pieces of her work from the last forty years, the exhibition calls attention to the divide between artist and audience, observer and participant, and repetition and stillness. Using the human body as a medium, … [Read more...] about The Empty Chair: Looking into the Eyes of Marina Abramovic
HUAC Goes To Hollywood: A Study of Communism, Studios, and Unions in Cold-War Hollywood
The Cold War came early to Hollywood. Only a year after Winston Churchill famously declared in 1946 that an iron curtain had descended across Europe, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began an investigation into the supposed infiltration of communist activity in the Hollywood community. Before the fears and terrors of the McCarthy era, Hollywood experienced its … [Read more...] about HUAC Goes To Hollywood: A Study of Communism, Studios, and Unions in Cold-War Hollywood
Attack of the Girls?
It’s a plot as familiar to movie goers as stale popcorn and sticky floors: two buddies on the run from the law, piling up a rap sheet of hefty charges on the highway to freedom. The tale never fails to inspire audiences, its on-the-road antics always keenly tuned to stick it to The Man at all the right moments. Problems arise, however, when those characters doing the sticking … [Read more...] about Attack of the Girls?
Teens, Toddlers, and Totoro
In both its historical and contemporary manifestations, fantasy as a narrative element has operated predominantly within the domain of childhood. Whether we discuss Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, or Harry Potter, fantasy stories typically feature child protagonists in order to target a child audience. Fantasy narratives can vary considerably: they can create … [Read more...] about Teens, Toddlers, and Totoro