Monthly Archive for November, 2009

Soothing the Tensions of Being Male

The cultural “plight” of the contemporary male in an age of contradicting male roles is one of the most powerful cultural tensions around today, and it has been written about extensively (even I am guilty). It’s a powerful source for brands and other cultural texts to play with cultural fantasies and offer temporary soothing to men. But book called “The Perfect Gift for a Man” is aiming to more than that. It aims to actually give men an outlet to talk about these problems and act as a cultural agent of sorts.

man

Here’s the description:

Putting our heads together, we hit upon the idea of a self-published book. Blurb.com came to the rescue, providing an easy way for us to design, publish and distribute the book. But then – it was a matter of stories.

Putting the call out, we asked for other men to join us – sharing your thoughts on a blog is one thing – but committing them to print is quite another (plus we needed various disclaimers and so on) – so we didn’t know who would respond.

In the end, 30 writers heeded the call. The resulting book is a compilation of stories about reinventing manhood. It follows the life-arc of a man, from its beginnings through the trials and tribulations, challenges and jubilations that we all face.

I’ll definitely order a copy. 30 different writers writing about their own perceptions of being “male” sounds like a gold mine for different meanings and ideas. If you want to just download the free e-book, just click here.

Pushing the Boundaries of Cultural Obscurity

This made me laugh and think:

It’s a mashup between Star Wars and a news clip that made the rounds a few years ago. It wasn’t the most popular of YouTube clips, but apparently popular enough that it inspired some people to mash it up with something more familiar. I’d like to think that this is sort of a new baseline for how obscure your references and mashups with popular culture can become while still remaining somewhat relevant. No reason to think that mashups like these will become increasingly obscure and weird, pushing our limits of both media and pop culture literacy.

Here’s the original newsclip:

Thanks for the clip, sir