Searching for Intelligent Signs of Life...

Today Pop Musicology reflects on the role of rock and roll in '50's society, which of course sent me into a reverie on the fabric of '50's culture, the rise of youth culture during that era, the historical forces that allowed '50's pop culture to be what is was, and so on. But that reminded me that I've almost forgotten about my first true intellectual love: critical theory and cultural studies. To be fair, it's sort of difficult to maintain an interest in the subject after college when your life comes to include more than reading books, pontificating on them, smoking pot, and pontificating on them some more. In the real world, it's pretty hard to find somebody to pay you to ponder the Marxist implications of urban topographies or the feminist implications of cereal box copy. Those of us who studied this subject in college are lucky enough to secure jobs that involve wordsmithing at all. In a way I suppose that's a good thing, as I am probably doing more for society in my job than I would be spinning obscure intellectual theories about MTV.

However, this doesn't mean I can't dabble, does it? Of course not. Therefore...

I'm on a search today and maybe you can help me, dear reader. Are you up for the challenge? Very well then. I am looking for a magazine or journal that I can subscribe to that dedicates itself to the deconstruction of popular culture (of today and yesterday) through a rigorous analytical lens. No, not a music magazine, thanks. Yes, I am familiar with Viceland, Index, Paper and Interview. No, not Artforum. Yes, it's trickier than you think, isn't it? I want a publication that applies the practice of critical theory to the minutiae of our every day lives. I don't particularly want to dwell over the post-colonial implications suggested by obscure literature. I want a publication that takes an intellectual approach to aspects of our world that make up our shared, every day experience. Can you think of such a publication? I certainly can not.