Habits of Waste seeks to review pop culture, which we understand in its broadest possible sense. One might ask, "does a popular culture even exist anymore in this fragmented media-world?" It seems there are as many sub-genres of dance music as there are cable channels. We can no longer know what is meant by a #1 Hit Single, since you have to specify first whether that's in Adult Contemporary, Alternative, Rap, R & B, or whatever. Who would be foolish enough to try and encompass all of this? Here at HoW, you'll find just such fools. We're willing to dive in, even though we're not quite foolish enough to attempt any encyclopedic coverage. The vast array of popular culture(s) instead seems to us to open up an infinite number of possible connections and new lines of inquiry. Like Voudun altars, we aim to be syncretic and to choose whatever pleases (or annoys) us.
Perhaps some examples of pop culture can help. On the one hand, it is whatever enters into popular consciousness. This can include aspects of a "high" cultural figure like Beethoven, e.g., his deafness, the 5th Symphony, etc., but not, say, the Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II (nice though it is). On the other hand, it can involve works that are clearly not popular, but which make use of popular media or forms, or which refer in some way to pop culture. An example might be the film Strain Andromeda The (an experimental reworking of the 1971 science-fiction film that takes the shots from the original but re-edits them in reverse order). This is a film which could never be popular, but which also could not exist without the popular film that it uses as its basis. If the above examples represent two opposite poles, then we seek to consider the poles and everything in between. Unlike most review journals, we do not restrict ourselves to new releases; rather, we take advantage of the "eternal present" made available to us by back catalogs of books, films, music, and the never-ending reruns on Nick at Night.
Habits of Waste is published at The Libraries at Western Washington University four times a year. Letters may be sent to us via this link. We welcome submissions; please see our guidelines for further information. The opinions expressed in Habits of Waste are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors, the Western Libraries, or Western Washington University.
