What I especially like about “Fringe,” beyond its general brilliance, is that the female characters have agency — their own strength and intelligence.

If suburbia is so horrible, why do most people now live there? The Arcade Fire doesn’t answer the question, so I’ll give it a shot.

I resisted Tumblr for a long time because I saw it as little more than a coffee-table blogging service — all style, with no context or substance. I didn’t realize that were its strengths.

I join social networks willy-nilly and put little or no thought into them, but it isn’t what I put on them that matters. It’s what I leave off.

My restaurant would serve one thing, and serve it well: tater tots. I would rock tater tots so hard that even the slouchy, diffident hipsters would gobble up them by the boatload.

That star that has risen in the West signifies the birth of a new cult film. “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is just 10 years away from being everyone’s favorite movie.

Mainstream science fiction movies duel for supremacy! Matte paintings will be shattered! Previously distinguished acting careers will be lightly besmirched!

Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” is wanting. A movie about entering other people’s dreams, and the best Nolan can come up with is shoot-‘em-ups inside the local Hyatt?

Want your garden to defeat prowlers, obnoxious kids, chumps selling magazines and maybe even Godzilla? There are several pretty but cruel options available.

My smartphone use is through the roof. It isn’t rude or unsafe, but I’ve come to depend on that handheld interface in ways that almost shame me when I say them out loud.