Dear Dexter

Welcome to My Universe

For my inaugural blog post, I’ve decided to refer you, my almost certainly nonexistent readers, to my latest column, "Pomegra-Nation," in which I explain how it is that the pomegranate, very recently a fruit celebrated almost exclusively by swarthy...

I'm a bad feminist, I think

I happened by alternet.org yesterday and was forced to confront, once again, what I like to call the Amy Goodman Conundrum — named after the intrepid but unfortunately dowdy host of Democracy Now!. In truth, it’s only a conundrum for the small class of...

The Beta Test Post

Welcome beta-testers, You are the proud, the few, the exclusive coterie of friends and associates of The Dexter (as I’ll henceforth be known) who’ve been given the rare opportunity to beta-test my new blog (pardon me, "The Dexter’s new...

I'm a bad white man, I think

Take a tour with me of Salon.com?s four-part viral video festival of the ridiculosity of Cynthia McKinney, the soon to be ex-congresswoman from Georgia?s fourth congressional district (the fightin? fourth, as my good friend Steve Colbert would say)....

I'm not entirely clear on why the caged bird sings

Following up on yesterday’s post, in which I mused on the moral-political implications of making fun of Cynthia McKinney, the black-female-congresswoman-who-shall-not-be-asked-for-identification, I offer this passage from ?Saint Maya,? John McWhorter?s review of...

Re-Publishing Myself, To Great Acclaim

In case you missed the print edition, here’s my most recent column. It’s pretty brilliant, though not quite as brilliant as the time I was doing Jager shots with Elton John and he improv-ed a version of Candle in the Wind that was all about me. It...

Gay Porn in Israel, Or, Suck On This, Hezbollah

A fan of the show forwarded me this note in response to my aside about the handsomeness of Israeli soldiers:A star of gay pornographic films is traveling to Israel to entertain the troops and shoot two films, RAW STORY has learned.Michael Lucas, head of Lucas...

I'm Feeling Blue

The Dexter’s feelin’ blue today. Too much to do, and too little energy to do it. It’s sort of a Catch 22, or a self-fulfilling prophecy, or a vicious shame cycle, or some combination of all of those things– 22 vicious self-fullfilling...

Project Runway: The Blog Post

I’ve been ruminating over whether or not to say anything further than what little I’ve already said about Project Runway, which was offered only by way of comparison to The Devil Wears Prada. I wrote:On a separate note, The Devil Wears Prada is also a...

Little Miss Sunshine Was a Solid B+

A few points about Little Miss Sunshine, which I saw, and very much enjoyed, last night:1. I’m a sucker for any movie that builds to a climactic scene in which people dance to show their commitment to life and to eccentricity. Thus Little Miss Sunshine. Thus...

About Last Night

In my last post, I lambasted the Village Voice for its review of Little Miss Sunshine and contrasted it to the excellent review written by Nathan Rabin and published in The Onion. After finishing the post, I was feelin’ good about my bad self, and I decided...

one more time, now with gusto

There’s been one more response, from the esteemed Mr. Noel Murray –friend and ally of the not-so-esteemed Jim Ridley — to my argument in defense of generalization and in opposition to the film criticism of the Village Voice. Sort of. Murray responds...

Croc Hunter Killed by Non-Crocodilian Animal

Wow, Steve Irwin the croc-hunter’s dead. I’m sad, in a way, because he was an appealing character, and here at DexterNation we’d rather not see anyone, especially the appealing, made dead by stringray attack. That said, I’m also amused, as I...

Pornography Sucks

Dear Dexter,I came across a story about a British “guerilla artist” who,tampered with 500 copies of Paris Hilton’s debut album across 48 record shops in the UK by replacing the CD with his own remixes featuring such titles as Why am I Famous?, What...

Redundantly Redundant

I’d like to note that my newest column, "Dressing Dexter," is now available on the newstands and on-line. Astute readers of the blog will notice that said column is actually a re-packaging of two separate blog posts from the past week or two. I would...

Nancy Grace is the Devil, but still…

Dear Dexter,Do you think Nancy Grace should be held responsible for the suicide of that woman who killed herself after getting grilled on her show? And if so, how responsible? I don’t think you can get sent to jail for being so mean to someone that they kill...

Hello My New Friends

I feel like a blushing bride, what with the new website and all, and that come-hither banner ad featuring my soulful eyes inviting you to step into my room. Wait, am I the blushing bride, or the come-hitherite, or what? Oh, I’m so confused. I feel virginal and...

The Rock Rocks

Here’s a question I’ll try to get around to answering if I can make it to the movie.Dear Dexter, I just saw the Gridiron Gang last night, and I have a question. Am I being disloyal to the white race because I really enjoyed it when the black kids kicked...

Kinky Starting to Look Hinky

Let it be said, in my defense, that when asked whether or not I’d be voting for Kinky Friedman for governor of Texas, I said no. I can’t access the Valley Advocate online archives at the moment, but I was, I assure you, asked such a question, and I did say...

Not your space, MySpace

For those of you who want a different kind of access to me, feel free to visit my MySpace page at myspace.com/deardexter. Alternatively, I’m accessible by email at DearDexter@gmail.com or TheWeasel@gmail.com.

Nathan Rabin, Critic to Watch

Nathan Rabin, who I commended a week or two ago for his review of Little Miss Sunshine, has a glorious post over at The Onion’s A/V Club blog alleging that Tupac Shakur is either the most over-rated rapper ever, or the second most over-rated. He writes:2Pac...

Tricks of the Pop Culturist Trade

In my continuing efforts to better serve my readers, I’m inaugurating a "Tricks of the Pop Culturist Trade" series, in which I endeavor to demystify the art of pop cultural criticism by revealing one or another of my writing tricks. Today’s...

I, Woodward

I’d like to direct you, my dear, dyspeptic readers, to the video of Mike Wallace’s interview with Bob Woodward, author of State of Denial, on last week’s 60 Minutes. In it you’ll find confirmation of everything you already knew about the Bush...

Fugging the Fug

I’m pretty sure that I’ve addressed GoFugYourself.com, and the myriad issues surrounding it, at this blog and/or column before, but I found myself, today, wanting to say something further about the site, which "fugs"–i.e. rags...

House of Carters brings the pain

I just sent in a short Q&A on the House of Carters, the new reality show from E! that reality-fies the lives of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and his four siblings as they live together in one house for the first time in a long time. You’ll get my brief take...

The Queen (you know, the English one)

There’s a popular critique — which is to say I read this once and it stuck in my mind; can’t remember where it was, though — of New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane that says that, although he’s a wonderful writer, there’s something...

Powers on Lane

John Powers, one of the best cultural critics working, has a nice passage on Anthony Lane that captures the essence of the "popular critique" of Lane that I described in my last post. I wrote, "although he’s a wonderful writer, there’s...

Wolcott goes Medieval

Vanity Fair critic James Wolcott looks more than a bit like Droopy Dog, the jowly, slow-moving dog who was quietly capable of great feats of strength and cunning, who Wikipedia describes like so:What made the character even more hilarious is his incredible strength,...

Me Smart, You Stupid

According to this article, which cites a very important study, “The Daily Show is much funnier than traditional newscasts, but a new study from Indiana University says it has the same amount of meat on its bones when it comes to coverage of the news.” I...

Oh Rushie

I see that Rush Limbaugh is “in hot water” (as the kids say) because he accused Michael J. Fox of overdoing the Parkinson’s bob and weave in an advertisement Fox cut for the Democrat running for senate in Missouri (or Missour-ah, as Fox, a...

Gone But Not Forever

Some of you may have noticed my recent absence from these virtual pages. I apologize for that. My spiritual advisor has suggested that I abstain from virtual interaction for a period of no less than 60 days, and perhaps, if my evoluton doesn’t progress as...

He Returns

[This is an advance copy of the note that will appear in this week’s paper in lieu of my column]Dear Readers,As of this week, I’m dissolving my corporeal body and uploading my consciousness to a system—comprised of linked together...

The Ouch Note and Stranger Than Fiction

I saw Stranger Than Fiction last week. It was a low-key movie, but really nice. It reminded me of the films by the Kasdans that I’ve liked – Zero Effect and Orange County by the son, Jake, and Mumford by the dad Lawrence. There’s a certain shared...

The N-word: A Novel Interpretation

Consider this open letter by Steven Boone, a New York-based critic type, about the use of the word "nigga." He wrote it after CNN did a report on the "Abolish the N-Word Movement," which, as you’ve probably guessed, is less a movement than a...

Noah Emmerich, Inaugural Movie Mook

One of my favorite moments in The Truman Show, which is one of my fav-o-rit-est movies of all the time, is toward the end, after Ed Harris’s megalomaniacal producer-father-God character realizes that his creation, Truman, can’t be found. Marlon, the best...

Great Movie Assholes

I thought I’d follow up on yesterday’s post, on the movie mook, with a bit of work on the movie asshole (yesterday I called him a "movie dick," but I’ve been persuaded that "movie asshole" has the greater claim to legitimacy). The...

it's okay to look

I just added this dude to my MySpace friend list (hey dude), went to his page to see what his dealie yo was, and was mesmerized by the little slide-show hooskerdew he created for the page. I realize that it’s just a slide show, plus captions, and that there are...

Perez Hilton is a moron

Consider this excerpt from an article about Mario Lavandeira, the man behind celebrity gossip mega-site PerezHilton.com:"Even though what I’m doing can be harsh at times or biting or cynical … in my own subservient way I am trying to make the world a...

I feel sorry for Paris Hilton

No, really, I do. And not in that insincere way that people say it when what they’re really trying to say that is that they dislike the person intensely and think that they can hurt them by suggesting that they’re an object of pity. I was reading this...

All Apologies

I apologize for the interregnum of the past week or so. I’m suffering from a horrible case of writer’s block, perhaps the first case that I’ve been able to identify as such while actually in the midst of being blocked. It’s horrible. Not...

Naked State of the Union

The Naked State of the Union, in case you haven’t seen it yet, is the latest nudity-dependent stunt from the good people at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). It’s kind of brilliant. You go to the website, and you see a very attractive...

Now that's film criticism

I’m not sure that I’m actually all that interested in what ‘s being said in this dialogue between film critics Matt Zoller Seitz and Keith Uhlich. They care much more than I do, for instance, about whether directors are using film or video to shoot...

Anna Nicole Smith has died

As you may know already, Anna Nicole Smith died today. Let’s just assume, for the sake of argument, that she died of an overdose. Anyway, I was just watching a little “YouTube Retrospective” that AOL put together for its story on her death, and it...

Newsflash! Rudy Giuliani is not to be trusted

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I moonlight as a self-employed, self-publishing political pundit (i.e. I write a lot of letters to people who don’t respond to me). I wrote, for instance, what I’m pretty sure is the only letter...

A is for Alba

We’re going to try something new this week here at the Dear Dexter Theme Time Hour, and we’re calling it the Encyclopedia of American Celebrity Project (EACP for short, though I’m not sure it’s actually that much easier to say "the...

Unchained melody

Just to throw some more fuel on the Christina Ricci fire, enjoy both this picture of her looking quite stunning, and quite unchained, next to her former fictional captor, Sir Samuel L. Jackson (somebody’s knighted him already, right?), as well as this fictional...

B is for Beck

In yesterday’s inaugural entry into the Encyclopedia of American Celebrity Project (or EnAmCel, as we like to say as of yesterday), I mused on the physical luminescence of Jessica "A is for" Alba. Today we deal with "B is for" Beck (Hansen),...

C is for Cameron

Another day, another entry in EnAmCel.C is for Cameron (Diaz, that is, not Cam’ron, who, though he’s done some important work on behalf of the apostrophe, isn’t quite EnAmCel-worthy yet) The seminal image in Cameron Diaz’s ouevre is of her...

Contemplating Alicia

Let us consider the curious case of Alicia Silverstone, an under-theorized figure on the celebrity landscape. Silverstone’s first movie break was 1993’s The Crush, in which she played a sexually and intellectually precocious teenager who almost but not...

E is for Earvin

So this is the question I find myself asking myself on this balmy March afternoon: What is the cultural significance of Earvin "Magic" Johnson? (If it surprises you that I entertain myself, on balmy March afternoons, asking myself questions about the...

F is for Fire, the

As I’ve been saying for some time now, the Time of the Troubles is coming, and the anxiety’s starting to percolate down even to the circuits of the machine of mass culture whose mission is to keep us placid and stupid so that when the Gilead attempts its...

G is for Gigli

We take up the peculiar tale of Ben Affleck after Gigli, his ill-fated but curiously alluring 2003 lesbian hitman romantic comedy buddy comedy epic with the diva god-dess Jennifer Lopez. His next movie, Paycheck, was surprisingly good. Not Good Will Hunting-good or...

A is for American Music Awards

I’m breaking my alphabetical inclination today because I’m really happy with this entry, which is distilled from an old column. It has something wonderfully efficient about it (if I do so say myself, which I do).A is for American Music AwardsCreated in...

H is for Halle Berry

It says something about me, I suppose, that the image that almost always pops into my head whenever someone says the magic words “Halle Berry” is the one from the classic 2001 cyber/anti-terrorist/kidnapping/deadbeat dad redemption thriller Swordfish. You...

I is for Ice Cube

Some note of grace went out of the world when O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson traded in his thug bandana and AK-47 for some clippers and a barber shop shirt with the name “Calvin” stitched in its breast pocket. Calvin can cut a mean fade, and...