Andrew Paul's work is recently featured by Rolling Stone, GQ, The Forward, and The Believer, as well as McSweeney's Internet Tendency and TNY's Daily Shouts.
What is it about serial killers that inspires such fascination within the American psyche? Perhaps it’s the feelings of voyeurism inspired by learning their crimes’ lurid details, the case file mysteries that never fully close and questions that never get answered, or even our country’s obsession with violence and the…
Look, we know as well as anyone that there’s no accounting for taste. While we at The A.V. Club report and examine pop culture in all its complexities, at the end of the day there remains the fundamental fact that art is almost always a subjective experience. That said, it’s inarguably goddamn weird how much Donald…
Last year, a Kansas state grand jury issued a 20-count indictment against the management of Schlitterbahn water park for the horrific death of a child while riding Verrückt, a much-hyped, Guinness World Record-breaking water slide in 2016. Caleb Schwab, the ten-year-old son of Kansas state representative, Scott…
Technology moves at a blinding pace, so it’s somewhat comforting to know there are at least a few iconic inventions that remain universally recognized amidst the rapid change and almost inevitable obsolescence around us. Take, for example, Microsoft’s “Save” icon, eternally represented by a small, simple, pleasantly…
It’s been almost 30 years since Rage Against the Machine released their self-titled debut album, a genre-melding insta-classic of political rock that inspired a generation of Gen X kids to stick it to their parents by flipping the American flag hanging in their bedrooms upside down, man. While the seminal rap-metal…
Twenty years ago today, The Blair Witch Project hit theaters after an unprecedented, months’ long marketing campaign capitalizing on America’s increasingly accessible internet connections and penchant to be, uh, a bunch of gullible, distraction-craving dumbasses. Yep, before that one friend of yours swore Slenderman…
Schlock-doc cable television reached its highest (or maybe lowest) point in the late ’90s. During that era, random channel-surfing could almost always turn up a grimy true-crime exposé, history of American UFO sightings, or countdown of the most haunted hotels in America thanks to shows like Ripley’s Believe It Or Not…
Ian Noe and I are hunched over bowls of chili at Honky Tonk BBQ next door to Chicago’s Thalia Hall, where he’ll open for Son Volt in a couple hours’ time. Yesterday was beautiful outside, but last night brought a sudden, last-gasp winter storm, and now snow is speeding past the restaurant’s windows while frost creeps…
In 1976, filmmaker Barbara Kopple released Harlan County U.S.A., a documentary delving into Kentucky coal miners’ 1973 Brookside Strike against the Eastover Coal Company and its larger corporate owners. Critics largely regarded the film as an instant classic, with Kopple receiving an Oscar for Best Documentary…
For most Americans, kosher wines are the sickly sweet, syrupy beverages that taste like they contain more high-fructose corn syrup than actual grapes. It’s a strange association, as wine—like in many religions—has provided the backbone for Judaic rituals since biblical times. The fact that you don’t see many kosher…
It’s no coincidence that the two most popular non-water drinks in the world, tea and coffee, contain robust amounts of society’s most-consumed drug: caffeine. In America, consumers overwhelmingly prefer the morning joe; a recent Pew study showed that over three-quarters of those surveyed opted for coffee over tea. Of…
If you’ve ever eaten pork skin at a pig roast, you’ll notice it’s chewy and gummy—sort of the textural opposite of pork rinds you find in convenience stores. So how does one transform pork skin to those crackly, puffy, aerated snacks?
With Reading List, The A.V. Club asks one of our favorite pop-culture creators to describe a list of reading materials that are tied together by a singular theme.
Permanent Records is an ongoing closer look at the records that matter most.
Permanent Records is an ongoing closer look at the records that matter most.
