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Pop Culture

Staff Picks: Flavorwire’s Favorite Cultural Things This Week

By Chloe Pantazi on

Need a great book to read, album to listen to, or TV show to get hooked on? The Flavorwire team is here to help: in this weekly feature, our editorial staffers each recommend the cultural object or experience they’ve enjoyed the most in the past seven days. Click through for our picks, and tell us what you’ve been loving in the comments. … Read More

Pop Culture

7 Bitter Fandom Rivalries From Across Pop Culture

By Alison Herman on

It’s no secret that science fiction fans can get a little overexcited about their franchise of choice, but things got heated last Thursday when the local Star Wars club of Norwich, England and a delegation from the Norwich Sci Fi Club, a group of Doctor Who devotees, got into a physical altercation at the Norwich Sci-Fi and Film Convention, hosted by the Star Wars club at the University of East Anglia. Apparently, the two groups had a longstanding feud that came to blows when the Sci Fi Club decided to show up on the Star Wars group’s turf to get a signature from Gram Cole, an actor from the time-travel series that currently stars Matt Smith. Though fandom disputes don’t usually escalate to blows, this is hardly the first time otherwise peacefully geeky communities have run afoul of each other. Here are some of the most prominent fandom rivalries throughout history, from superheroes to science fiction. … Read More

Pop Culture

Joy Division-Inspired Street Art Around the World

By Alison Nastasi on

Thirty-three years ago today we lost one of England’s finest, Ian Curtis. Despite Joy Division’s short career and the singer’s tragically fleeting life, the influence of the post-punk pioneers is unmistakable. Curtis may have immortalized himself in the most devastating way possible, but fans across the world have done so through various tributes — like the street art we’ve gathered for your perusal. Fragments of the band’s album art and Curtis’ own somber image add a ghostly, poetic resonance to the urban milieux — and while we’re rather exhausted with the bazillion Unknown Pleasures copycats, we’ll gladly make an exception for these black-and-white sound waves on this day. … Read More

Photography

Fascinating Early-20th-Century Color Photos of Famous People

By Emily Temple on

There are some historical figures who we always think of in black and white. After all, the world trucked on in monochrome, Pleasantville-style, until the middle of the 20th century, right? Well, not exactly. In fact, color photography dates back to the mid-1800s — the first three-color process photo was taken in 1855, but it wasn’t until 1907 that the first commercially viable method of color photography, Lumière Autochrome, was invented — and perhaps unsurprisingly, photographers jumped to take snapshots of their famous friends. Below, some notable characters, from Mark Twain to Auguste Rodin, whom we usually see in black and white, showing their true colors. … Read More

Pop Culture

What’s On At Flavorwire: Links You Need to See

By Lillian Ruiz on

With The Office finishing its run tonight, Vulture has prepared the show a Six Feet Under style send-off. Speaking of killing your idols (sorta), check out this piece on why you sometimes have to end a series to save it. Shaun of the Dead turns ten today (what?!) and A.V. Club is celebrating… Read More

Pop Culture

Awesome Illustrations of Pop Culture’s Best Female Characters as Saints

By Jason Bailey on

As we’ve discussed recently, the dearth of strong female characters in mass entertainment continues to be a source of depression, but here’s a little cheer-up: artist Spencer Salberg, who posts his work on his heymonster Tumblr, has created a series of Strong Female Character portraits, which cast the likes of Buffy Summers, Liz Lemon, Leslie Knope, and Zoe Washburn as saints. Check them out after the jump, and buy (very reasonably priced!) prints of each here.  … Read More

Pop Culture

Staff Picks: Flavorwire’s Favorite Cultural Things This Week

By Chloe Pantazi on

Need a great book to read, album to listen to, or TV show to get hooked on? The Flavorwire team is here to help: in this weekly feature, our editorial staffers each recommend the cultural object or experience they’ve enjoyed the most in the past seven days. Click through for our picks, and tell us what you’ve been loving in the comments. … Read More

Pop Culture

The Revealing Childhood and Teenage Letters of Pop Culture Figures

By Alison Nastasi on

There’s something incredibly intimate about letter writing: the indelible mark on a page, the permanence of ink, and the process of consideration before putting pen to paper. Even a typewritten page feels vastly more personal than one created with a computer. While you’re scrawling a Mother’s Day card to mum or your other significant parental person this weekend, the act may take you back to simpler times during your childhood when you shared your thoughts with a pen and not an iPhone. We’re sure it’s no different for the writers, musicians, and actors we revere. Before they were the names on everyone’s lips, they were sharing their hopes, dreams, and wondering about the world through their childhood and teenage letters. See what insightful missives we uncovered, below. … Read More

Web

7 Totally Easy Steps to a Spoiler-Free Life

By Jason Bailey on

Jennie Lamere is a 17-year-old computer coder from Nashua, New Hampshire, and the focus of a fascinating article over at Mother Jones. It seems that late last month, Ms. Lamere was the only woman among the 80 competitors at TVnext Hack 2013 in Boston, where programmers and coders were charged with creating apps and programs to enrich the viewing experience. But Lamere won the whole shebang with her Twivo software, which allows users to block mentions of selected TV shows and their characters until they’ve had a chance to watch that DVR-ed episode of Game of Thrones. The whole thing is sort of awesome, a big thumbs-up for developers of both Lamere’s age and sex. And, of course, it is a decisive victory for the Spoiler-Free Rights movement. But does her app go far enough? … Read More

Pop Culture

What’s On at Flavorwire: The Day’s Best Links

By Lillian Ruiz on

Everything Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto do together is adorable, as thiscar commercial confirms — Old Spock and New Spock in the same room will never get old. Speaking of cars, you can buy the Batman “Tumbler” for a cool $1.6 million. But perhaps you prefer more literary movies? If so,… Read More