by Justin Stewart

It’s no secret that I love the pop-punk band Fall Out Boy. They’ve been my favorite band ever since I picked up the limited “Black Clouds and Underdogs” edition of From Under the Cork Tree back in 2005 or so. I own every album they’ve made, plus a bunch of their obscure work. I’ve seen them in concert twice, along with many other amazing bands associated with Fall Out Boy in one way or another. My girlfriend of almost seven year and I picked “I’m Like a Lawyer With the Way I’m Always Trying to Get You Off” as “our song” (make of that what you will). In short, Fall Out Boy’s discography serves as the collective anthem of my emergence into young adulthood.

by Justin Stewart

Ladies and gentlemen of the internet, I come before you today bearing news of a grave threat. I know some of you are going to accuse me of fear mongering, but just hear me out. There is a musical artist, a “pop star” if you will, who has perfected the art of hiding her confessions of terrible crimes in plain sight…or rather, plain hearing. She openly flaunts her deadly criminal activities over the radio, countless iPods, and audio devices of all sorts, yet no one takes her seriously enough to stop her mad ambitions. She knows this. She is taunting us, solidifying our helplessness in song form.

Dear Mother Monster,

Let me begin by saying that I am an avid fan of you, your music, and your art. I’m sure you must get that a lot, but for me, it really is true. I know all of the lyrics to almost all of your songs from The Fame and The Fame Monster. I have danced to your songs, I have cried to your songs, and I even wrote an academic paper relating your music videos to Donna Haraway’s feminist Cyborg theory that got me accepted into graduate school.

by Merrill Miller

Aliens. Strange planets. Bizarre technology. New species. Government Owned Alien Territories. All of these things seem to point to some far-off time in the distant future. But what if these depictions refer to a science fiction future that really is already here?