Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

17. Mur Murs -- Agnes Varda's documentary concerning the mural painters in Los Angeles in the 1970s is a visual joy to behold. She takes an esoteric subject and instills it with beauty and color that many might miss by not just exploring the murals but their creators. 16. Stalker -- Andrei Tarkovsky's film is a very different matter. It portrays the drab palette of a soviet landscape, mixing it with science fiction, and telling the story of a "stalker" who guides people to a forbidden zone in search of room filled with anything they might desire. On its surface, the film could seem dull and long to those only familiar with Hollywood blockbusters and short attention span theater, yet the characterization and performances make this film as great as critics rate it. 15. Limelight -- In one of his last films, Charlie Chaplin portrays a famous stage clown past his prime who has become a hopeless drunk. The film tracks his redemption as he puts on one of the last ...

22. Three Colours: Blue -- It was hard to choose a favorite from the Three Colours Trilogy because each of these films was masterfully shot, the writing and acting was phenomenal, and Krystof  Kieślowski's directing was breath taking. The first entry in the trilogy, Blue is also the saddest, depicting a young woman's struggle to live in isolation after the death of her husband and child. Juliette Binoche brings Julie to life and adeptly depicts her struggles. The trilogy's themes are those of the French Revolutionary Ideals.  The film's subject is liberty, and it shows the difficulty of achieving freedom and autonomy, yet it also shows how connections  with others can be freeing.  21. On the Bowery -- One of the more thematically interesting films that I watched last year. On the Bowery is a biopic of the early days of New York City's Bowery. The director, Lionel Rogosin, hired actual Bowery inhabitants and shot it in that section of the city. It tells a st...

 Since I watched 365 films, I decided to delve into the best films I watched in 2017. 25. Rollerball Norman Jewison's Rollerball is fun to watch, and its portrayal of a man expressing his individuality in a society that threatens to completely control him is apt even in today's world. The sport of Murderball is brutal and when the executives continually change the rules, he struggles to maintain. Yet he manages to succeed, despite the fact that he will possibly ultimately fail. The sport is interesting, if a bit unrealistic, and the performances, especially that of James Caan, take the story beyond its generic science fiction trappings. 24. Jules and Jim Truffaut was one of my favorite directors this year, so it was hard to narrow down which films I wanted to put on this list. I picked Jules and Jim because I felt adversarial about it and had to think about the story and cinematography to really understand its value. The film's romantic love triangle is hard to w...

I recently finished watching the last season of Longmire , a show that I believe only got better when it moved to Netflix. A & E cancelled it, despite good ratings, because it did not directly appeal to the 18-35 age demographic. The writing and plot development improved as the show started focusing more on major themes and story lines and not story-of-the-week subplots. While the show's general premise is typical cop show fare, the strong characterization and settings give the show a primacy over similar procedurals. While I enjoyed the show, I never got around to reading the books even though I watched dutifully for six seasons. Once I started reading The Cold Dish , I realized how hard it will be not to binge the book series. The books are a treat. Craig Johnson's prose is punchy, and the characters are even better realized. Walt Longmire's love for Rainier beer and obscure literary metaphors, as well as other character's predilections and habits, become crys...

1. Jessica Lea Mayfield- Sorry is Gone (ATO) A stellar collection of personal explorations based on Mayfield's experiences as a domestic abuse survivor. A haunting release which juxtaposes the ethereal quality of her voice with heavy, confessional lyrics. The music is not the singer-songwriter folk of her earlier records but more of a melodic pop. 2. Propagandhi-Victory Lap (Epitaph)  I never  thought I would rate a Propaghandi album so highly, but this is a definite stomper of a record. Propaghandi has been putting out metal-tinged records with singalong lyrics and tough melodies for awhile, but on their seventh album, they found the sweet spot, melding their astute political lyrics, which have only gotten more specific over the years, and damn catchy tunes. 3.  War on Drugs-A Deeper Understanding (Atlantic) Adam Granduciel delivers a perfected version of his Americana-tinged singer/songwriter journeys. Greater production and instrumentation that leads many...

Swimming through a sea of dross Conflicted by the tide of the autotuned Shattered and destroyed like Milo Wishing the sound would stop Because I would like to relax Give me a break, will ya, please The valley of the underwhelming Is slapped up against the sea of the banal I can only find surfeit in the cold comfort The embrace of the different, The difficult, the wordy,  the obtuse The uncommercial, the unredemptive The challenging, the posed What gets in? Top 40 pap? Billious rot? The challenge is to shut it out. Gimme a hand, will ya? Please.

Over the past few years, I feel like I have begun to slowly unravel. I feel like I lost part of myself that I might not be able to reclaim. I am far more tired than I feel I have the right to be. But I also have never learned how not to be hard on myself. A colleague told me recently that "you are always so hard on yourself. You have to learn your self worth." Nothing could be truer, but it is hard to rediscover my value because of my own negative thoughts and self-deprecation. All the stress from my PhD studies is finally catching up with me. When I was working on my dissertation, I never had that much time to worry because I was so busy trying to get it done. Now I feel even busier. I teach five classes and have five tutoring sessions on top of it. I am working on an article that does not seem to be gelling quite like I want it to, and I hope that I can eventually catch up on sleep. My stress management seems to be failing me. I get home after a busy day at work and pre...