Category Archive: Popular culture

Fast Times with Valley Girls: 30 Years Later, What Do Two SoCal Classics Tell Us About America?

[Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on the KCET Departures website under its Intersections column on February 15, […]

Retail California: Ralphs, the Big Lebowski, and Shaping the American Shopping Experience

[Editor’s note: This article originally ran on March 21, 2013 under the Intersections column for KCET Departures. It […]

Los Angeles F.C.: Soccer, Globalization, and Ethnicity

One year ago this month, Major League Soccer (MLS) opened its 18th season with a cacophonous and exciting […]

The Lego Movie and the Gospel of the Creative Class

Any parent who has ever stepped on one of the wonderful Danish bricks known as Legos might find […]

Building Nostalgia: Disney, Legoland, and Southern California

[Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the Intersections column for the KCET Departures website on Nov. 29, […]

The Pirates of Los Angeles: Music, Technology, and Counterculture in Southern California

[Editor’s note: this article originally appeared in the Intersections column on the KCET Departures website, June 27, 2013.] […]

Living on Noir Borders: Race, Sexuality, and Law Enforcement in Touch of Evil and Crimson Kimono

“It has been argued that Touch of Evil is not so much the end of film noir as […]

Filtering Music through a ToM Lens

“Starting with the affirmation of man/ I work myself backwards using cynicism,” Mike Watt sings on the Minutemen’s […]