Michael Eric Ross
Bio
Michael Eric Ross writes from Los Angeles on politics, race, pop culture, and other subjects. His writing has also appeared in TheWrap, Medium, PopMatters, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, msnbc.com, Salon, and other publications.
Stories (47/0)
More Time with the Family
A new year, like a new broom, sweeps clean, at least for a while. Before and after the start of this still minty-fresh jaunt around the sun called 2018, several Republican lawmakers have decided not to seek re-election. The rush for the out doors will include the retirements of relative newcomers to Congress and an institutional lion of the Senate.
By Michael Eric Ross6 years ago in The Swamp
The Wild West Revisited
“PROHIBITION ENDS AT LAST!” screams the cover of the latest LA Weekly, the one dated Jan. 1, 2018 — 84 years after the end of the genuine article, in December 1933. The cover of the popular alt-weekly was a bit over the top; Californians have been finding ways around restrictive marijuana laws for years — even as the country incrementally evolved its own position on recreational use. Like the original from the 1930s, the pot prohibition that ended with the year 2017 was, practically speaking, never much of a “prohibition” in the first place.
By Michael Eric Ross6 years ago in Potent
Here’s Looking at Us, Kids
Refugees in frantic, desperate motion. Bellicose leaders bristling with weapons and eager for confrontation. A world driven by conflicts and war. The emerging spectre of Nazis and extremism. We’re talking about the world of 2017, of course. Or are we? The chaos of the world of three generations ago — 1942, to be precise — tragically and capably stands in for our own.
By Michael Eric Ross6 years ago in The Swamp
Anatomy of a Tragedy
“It’s never been so personal,” says Hana Barkowitz, an infectiously upbeat member of the Kent State College Democrats, in a frank assessment of the waging of the war of the 2016 presidential campaign, and what the outcome would mean to her on that night, one year ago today.
By Michael Eric Ross7 years ago in The Swamp
American Carnage, Trump Edition
What happened Sunday night on the Las Vegas strip was perversely, singularly American. The nation’s sense of its size, its culture, its broad existential vistas, its romance with armada, its literal and spiritual wide-open spaces — all collided with its tragic irony as a nation whose pugnacious, futurist identity derives from the ballistics of 250 years ago. Sunday’s events were a malign form of so-called American exceptionalism: What took place outside the Mandalay Bay Hotel probably couldn’t have occurred in any other country in the world.
By Michael Eric Ross7 years ago in The Swamp
- Top Story - September 2017
A Real Joint VentureTop Story - September 2017
Few things say “normal” like television, our public square, our soapbox in Hyde Park, our platform for the popular and unpopular alike. For friends of herb who watch TV, BurnTV, a new West Coast-based entertainment channel, hopes to fill a niche with programming that both informs and enlivens — presented through the lens of the marijuana experience more than 40 million Americans enjoy on a regular basis. Americans for whom pot is utterly, totally normal.
By Michael Eric Ross7 years ago in Potent
TV Throws Down the Gauntlet, Again
The night of September 17 was a cracked bellwether in the world of entertainment. The Emmy Awards, the television industry’s homage to its movers and shakers (and by extension itself) stepped off at the Microsoft Theater in Hollywood, and marked what would become a night of historic firsts, firing broadsides on the complacency of the Emmys' own past:
By Michael Eric Ross7 years ago in Geeks
Pot Advertising Hasn’t Gained Altitude with In-Flight Pubs
As the United States adjusts to sweeping changes in marijuana laws — 26 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized or outright legalized the herb for personal recreational use — a new green industry has emerged. Marijuana dispensaries and cultivators are actively soliciting new business in the states where it’s legal, and makers of other cannabis-related products are likewise selling their wares in a wide range of earthbound publications.
By Michael Eric Ross7 years ago in Potent
High Stream Flavors
Entities of commerce often make strange bedfellows. A great example of how marijuana’s intersection with the wider culture yields surprising synergies between products happened in Los Angeles over the weekend when Netflix, the streaming-TV media giant, opened a pop-up store at a local medical-marijuana dispensary to sell various strains of marijuana as a promotion specifically for one of its newest shows and for other Netflix shows. “Netflix and chill,” indeed.
By Michael Eric Ross7 years ago in Potent
Svengali Has Left the Building. Watch Out.
It was January 2017, just days after Donald Trump was inaugurated in the White House, and newly-minted White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon was talking to The Hollywood Reporter, plotting the national future, and feeling his oats.
By Michael Eric Ross7 years ago in The Swamp
Disney Gets Ready to Stream the Magic Kingdom
Technology has blown a hole in the traditional entertainment business model. That’s been true for some time — at least since 2007 when Netflix vastly reduced its position in the DVD rental business and committed to streaming content directly to consumers. Now, Disney, the whale in the waters of entertainment content, has announced plans to get into the streaming game.
By Michael Eric Ross7 years ago in Geeks