Kelli’s latest blog posts, photos, publications, interviews, and conference presentations. Also, for students: class assignments, syllabus changes, and general reminders.
American Idol: What Kind of Competition Is This?
This entry is part 6 of 22 in the series Reviews.I should begin by saying that I rarely take issue with Entertainment Weekly, a well-respected popular culture magazine, which unlike celebrity-obsessed rags People and US Weekly covers the ins and outs of entertainment media through thoughtful and analytical stories/reviews. However, this week’s cover story, featuring American Idol contestant Adam Lambert, seemed strangely incompatible with EW‘s usual fare. The thesis of Mark Harris’s cover story is that 27-year-old San Diego...
read moreThe Museum of Sex
This entry is part 5 of 22 in the series Reviews.Dedicated to the exploration of the history, evolution and cultural significance of human sexuality, advocating open discourse and striving to present to the public the best in current scholarship unhindered by self-censorship. — The Museum of Sex This is how the Museum of Sex, located in a relatively small building on a street corner in Manhattan, categorizes itself. Yeah, that’s right; it’s an entire museum devoted to the exploration of sex and sexuality. Since the husband...
read moreMamma Mia: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Good Beautiful scenery. Some nicely shot scenes (e.g., “The Winner Takes It All”). A wet, bare-chested Colin Firth (OMG!). And at least two numbers that did precisely what they were supposed to–inspire in the spectator a feeling of utopia (“Dancing Queen, “The Winner Takes It All”). NOTE: I claim this not only because I felt it, but also because the audience with whom I watched the movie actually clapped after one of these numbers. The bad Way too much scenery-chewing (such exaggerated facial...
read moreBeating Up Brosnan
This entry is part 4 of 22 in the series Reviews. I just found myself laughing aloud as I read some of the reviews of this weekend’s second biggest opener, Mamma Mia! Here’s one on Streep: “I don’t normally think of Meryl Streep as the dominatrix type, but watching her I felt I was being thoroughly, and unenjoyably, punished.” (Salon.com) Yikes! Wheel in the whips and chains! Another remark is from Entertainment Weekly and concerns the film’s choreography (or lack thereof): “It’s tempting to say...
read moreThe Old Age of Youth and The Youth of Old Age
Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age. Victor Hugo This morning, when I watched Kristen Chenowith and Neil Patrick Harris announce this year’s Emmy nominations, I was surprised on two levels. First, I was taken aback because I know virtually nothing about the show MAD MEN, which garnered a whopping 16 nominations. Nope, don’t know who’s in it, on what channel I might find it, or what it’s about. Second and more significant, I was surprised by the number of women over forty that secured Emmy...
read moreFire in the Hole!
Yesterday, June 29, 2008, marks the date that The Globe Theatre–which belonged to Shakespeare and his company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men–burned to a crisp. During a performance of Henry VIII, a cannon misfired and ignited the theatre’s wooden beams and thatched roof. Though small with only a couple of exits, the theatre could hold up to 3,000 spectators, scholars say. Therefore, it’s quite remarkable that no one was injured during this blazing ordeal. In any case, for a relatively young theatre, The Globe has an...
read moreSex & The City: Reasons That I’m For It
This entry is part 3 of 22 in the series Reviews.I’ve never subscribed to HBO, so I wasn’t able to watch SEX AND THE CITY when it originally aired. As a result, I’m a latecomer to the program, just now catching the reruns on TBS.I had about fifteen SEX AND THE CITYs under my belt before I saw the movie version last month. Since then, I’ve probably watched about 30 more episodes, so I now have a pretty good feel for the characters and their issues as well as the show’s themes and motifs (e.g., fashion, the joys and...
read moreEarning Respect: Tim Russert
“The journalistic profession sometimes makes itself look slightly absurd when one of its ‘stars’ dies, printing and screening slightly too many tributes and making it seem as if an irreparable gap has been left. But in more than a quarter-century in Washington I haven’t seen or felt anything to equal the shocked sense of loss that’s been inflicted by the death of Timothy John Russert Jr. Professional respect of this kind has to be earned, and earn it he did.” (Christopher Hitchens) From author and Vanity Fair...
read moreWorkin’ It Like Clinton
This entry is part 2 of 22 in the series Reviews.The documentary Wordplay (2006) taught me several things: 1.) If I turn a crossword puzzle upside down it will look the same. In other words the boxes, both black and white, will appear in the same places in either direction. 2.) An annual crossword puzzle conference is held every year at a Marriott in New York. It is called the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and roughly 500 players show up. Yes, many of them look like (what society considers) nerds. 3.) Will Shortz, the editor of the...
read moreLosing LOST
Last night’s season finale of Lost signaled that yet another TV season is gone. Now, all we have to look forward to–or to suffer through — is reality-show spinoffs of American Idol such as America’s Got Talent, Nashville Star, So You Think You Can Dance, and Celebrity Circus. Seriously, does EVERY show need three judges, and does at least one of them have to be a crotchety Brit? (Incidentally, like Celebrity Circus, does anyone recall the show Circus of the Stars from the 1980s? Mario Lopez swinging on a trapeze? Dana Plato...
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Professor of film and Shakespeare. Advocate of social media. Lover of popular culture,