They say everyone today wants to be a celebrity. Certainly, we're all happy to watch them. From reality television and talent shows to tabloid splashes and gossip magazines, the road to modern fame is littered with the hopeful, the misguided, and, occasionally, the downright cynical. It's often a tale of rags to riches and then back to rags again. So why can't we stop looking? And who exactly buys the T-shirt, wears the perfume, visits the salon?In...

"To speak ironically is to speak just for the effect. To speak superactually is to do something with words and take responsibility for that action. This is a book of short, provocative essays. Some are on fun topics in pop culture (hackers, dubstep, cat memes, thinking green, parkour, and the girl next door). Others are takes on technical topics in social theory (sensation, hype, discrimination, imagination, and the typical). This is a book to help...

"In the beginning was the word, and... ...you know the rest. Not like this you don't. In a new twist on a classic tale, Tom Carver re-imagines the Old Testament without the leading character. The Newer, More English Version takes an erudite look at the supporting players of the Pentateuch, with no Jehovah to steal the show. What's left is a varied cast of egomaniacs, revolutionaries, war criminals, genii and perverts: Joseph, smug careerist and part-time...

"From pop culture podcaster and a voice of a generation, Kate Kennedy, a celebration of the millennial zeitgeist One In a Millennial is an exploration of pop culture, nostalgia, the millennial zeitgeist, and the life lessons learned (for better and for worse) from coming of age as a member of a much-maligned generation. Kate is a pop culture commentator and host of the popular millennial-focused podcast Be There in Five. Part-funny, part-serious,...

Despite the clichés which govern much of its current forms, the cinema continues to have a vital political and aesthetic significance. Our commitment to, and our sincerity towards, our ways of being in the world have become catastrophically eroded. Nihilism and despair have taken hold. We must find a way to renew our faith in our capacity to transform the world, a faith that will give us back the reality of a world eroded by the restrictive...

A Northern Irish writer explores his adopted homeland through film in this irreverent yet moving journey through each of the 50 states. Set among a personal backdrop of immigration memoir, he takes on American myths in their most powerful form--the motion picture--by setting out to determine if a Kansas yellow brick road really does lead to the end of the rainbow, and whether it first has to pass through Colorado's Overlook Hotel. Amid the multipurpose...

When journalist and author Alison Stewart was confronted with emptying her late parents' overloaded basement, a job that dragged on for months, it got her thinking: How did it come to this? Why do smart, successful people hold on to old Christmas bows, chipped knick-knacks, and books they will likely never reread? Junk details Stewart's three-year investigation into America's stuff. Stewart rides along with junk removal teams like Trash Daddy, Annie...

"Why have both pop and politics in Britain become the preserve of an unrepresentative elite? From chav-pop pantomimes to retro-chauvinist 'landfill indie', the bland, homogenous and compromised nature of the current 'alternative' sector reflects the interests of a similarly complacent and privileged political establishment. In particular, political and media policing of female social and sexual autonomy, through the neglected but significant gendered...

"Pantomime is a theatrical form that has come to rule our everyday lives as terror. In the early years of the 21st century, a dissembling political demonology has sometimes placed otherwise merely lyrical musicians in a volatile predicament. The discussion here is of Fun-da-Mental's Aki Nawaz portrayed as a 'suicide rapper', Asian Dub Foundation striking poses from the street in support of youth in Paris and Algiers, and M.I.A., born free fighting...

The crazy world of Jon and Kate Gosselin like you've never seen it before! Veteran journalist Al Walentis reported on the story for Us Weekly during the summer of 2009 and he delivers a pull-no-punches account of the madness of tabloid journalism, taking you behind the scenes to show what it was really like at ground zero when international paparazzi swarmed into the peaceful Pennsylvania community of Wernersville to cover the unlikeliest celebrity...