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I’ve been writing about pop culture for almost 20 years and I can’t imagine stopping any time soon. Here you’ll find all of my current articles and an archive of the stuff I wrote for my defunct site, Branded in the 80s.
Reverse Engineering Wax Packs
My bud Scott Serkland, who runs Serkworks Art Labs, has been doing some wicked creative...
I need to do better
Fucking Ed Piskor. The whole thing surrounding Piskor and the women he had gross interactions...
Monster Squad Homage to Universal’s Creature Finally Revealed!
The thing about being an obsessive fan of a very specific thing is that your enthusiasm for the...
Post Reverberation
I love Robocop. I have since 1987 when I saw it, unedited and in its full gory glory at the...
Excerpts of a Memoir: The Fool’s Mate
I could smell the ammonia leaking from a box on the wobbly pallet from two aisles away, and I...
The Cinematic 180° Kickflip: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Edition
Have you ever watched a movie, had a very visceral reaction (be it love or hate), and then...
Ode to VHS and my favorite tape of all time…
The other day I got to thinking about the small collection of VHS tapes that I have sitting on...
Excerpts of a Memoir: The Comfort of Harmonization
In Hua Hsu’s poignant memoir Stay True, he brings up this idea of the harmony of experience as...
Excerpts of a Memoir: I Can’t Breathe
“So basically, we’re at the part of the tour where we’re going to weed out the men from the...
Excerpts of a Memoir: Santa in the Trunk
Even though being inside our garage was at least 10 degrees cooler than the blazing Florida...
Saying Goodbye to Jason Gross
I have this morning ritual that plays out like finest of Swiss clockwork. Each night I set two...
Remembering an Autumn Harvest
On a rare date day, playing hooky from work with the wife, I found myself in a trendy, upscale...
Monsters Attack Mountain Dew
A few years ago the Mountain Dew brand went through a fairly massive overhaul of the visual...
The Mystery of the Lizard Man with the Ghoulie Hands
About a year ago I stumbled onto something pretty amazing while searching vintage lunchboxes on...
Resurrecting Mr. Bones
Over the past few decades, I’ve been blessed to have rubbed elbows and met some extremely...
Cult Film Club Celebrates 10 Years with Kismet!
A little over 10 years ago, back in the Fall of 2012 my best friend Paxton and I began...
Mead’s Rad Dog: Secretly the Best Trapper Keepers?
I'm always on the lookout for a few 80s era collectibles that I deem as essential pick-ups if I...
Escaping the Allure of A.I.
It seems like there are a million and one computer-driven visual art fads that have popped up...
Picking Through the Death Star Trash Compactor for Treasure
I've talked about this before, but as I get older it's kind of weird and interesting to step...
Before & After Ecto Cooler there was…Ecto Cooler?
Of all the expired and long gone junk food products over the past 30-40 years there is one...
Peel Here #138: Reconstructing my Childhood Sticker Collection
Pretty sure I've addressed this a million times on this site, but one of the aspects that makes...
Dumpster Diving for Nostalgia, Part 3
So, these Dumpster Diving pieces were not essays I had planned to write, and they're more or...
Dumpster Diving for Nostalgia, Part 2
In the last part I talked a bit about how I came to a point where I started trying to pick up...
Dumpster Diving for Nostalgia, Part 1
When it comes to collecting and nostalgia, there is almost nothing that's off the table. We all...
Is Frankenstein the Monster or the Man Who Made Him?
I love The Monster Squad. It's no secret, and if you've at all familiar with this site than...
Saying Goodbye to Warduke
About five years ago I stumbled upon an item in an antique shop that took my breath away. It's...
Micro, But Many!
The late 80s was a weird time for me, toy and collecting-wise, because I was racing into my...
Peel Here #137: Transformers Lenticular Bliss
About a million year ago, when I first started writing about stickers here at Branded, there...
Muppet Magazine, Perfect Kid Reading in the 80s
Of all the publications available to kids in the 80s I'm not sure I can find one that is so...
Peel Here #136: 80s Era Wacky Packages!
As a collector of 80s era stickers, one of my absolute favorite sticker producers has to be the...