Browsing Category: "SMASH Pop Culture"
Times of Yore
How well do you remember the pop songs when you were younger?
I remember being 8 years old one Christmas morning when the best gift I got was a small Panasonic transistor AM/FM radio. That silver radio, about the size of my palm, was with me all the time, including the endless Sunday mornings from 9 until noon, when I faithfully listened to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40, and all those mawkish “long distance dedications”.
Obsessive pop music fan and data collector that I am, I used to write down every #1 song and kept track of this for years. It’s a shame, now, that as of last week, Kasem, at the ripe age of 79, has finally (finally!) decided to retire. It’s the end of an era indeed. Read the rest of this entry »
Bringing you the latest news in the wall-to-wall coverage of the death of the King of Pop, we’d like to let you know what stories are obsessing not just the celebu-tainment fluff programs like “Extra” and “The Insider” (damn you, Lara Spencer!), but also the legit news organizations like CNN and MSNBC that have worked themselves into a frenzied lather with the incessant “Breaking News” news crawls or bloated panels of experts. Read the rest of this entry »
[Video: Why Doesn't Nokia Name Its Phones]
What’s in a Name?
Not too terribly much according to the folks in Nokia’s R & D Department.
Or, perhaps the technological mavens at our favorite Finnish phone manufacturer feel that their handsets transcend the pedestrian markings of a common name, and prefer instead to assign a string of ones and zeros to their beloved mobile multimedia devices.
*Update 7-13-09* Nokia is launching the “Surge” Smartphone!!
But for many, a high-end cell or smart phone is an object of desire. It would be virtually impossible to deny that on the whole, we see devices like these as extensions of ourselves — we customize our ring tones with our favorite songs, substitute our original face plates with ones that offer a bit more pizazz, and install applications that reflect our contrasting lifestyles and personalities, and to top it off, we buy lavish accessories that further increase the appeal and functionality of our devices.
Yes, the stuff of dreams. But who dreams of numbers? Read the rest of this entry »
One of the pleasures of reading David Lebovitz’s new book, “The Sweet Life of Paris”, besides the scrumptious recipes (absinthe cake, fromage blanc soufflé, dulce de leche brownies), are the spot-on observations he makes about what it’s like to live as an ex-pat food writer and Chez-Panisse-trained chef in the City of Lights. Lebovitz writes an entertaining blog that, like his book, does not merely concentrate on food topics, but he is of the belief that to know the culture of a place, you really have to know its people.
Having spent a couple of years living in the French capital myself, I found myself nodding my head as Lebovitz attempted to answer the question: what is a Parisian like? We all know the expected answer –that they’re arrogant and rude, and almost a year ago, we wrote about how the French were the world’s rudest people. We also have heard that the French think of themselves as truly special and unique, with a rich culture of literature, art, music, fashion, food, theatre etc., that is the envy of the world.
Uber-Twit Ashton Kutcher, occasionally outraged global citizen, took to sending a Tweet yesterday to all 2 million-plus other Twits that follow his every move and utterance. He is apparently livid at the brutal prison sentence handed down on Sunday to American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee by the North Korean government. Ling and Lee, who both work for Current TV, based in San Francisco, were captured and arrested on March 17 for, in North Korea’s view, crossing illegally into its territory. Read the rest of this entry »
Unmasking the Truth
The New York Times is reporting today that AT&T, one of the principal corporate sponsors of “American Idol”, may have unfairly swayed some votes in the final vote between Adam Lambert and eventual winner Kris Allen. Apparently, AT&T is admitting that it was asked to provide free cellphones at two local parties in Arkansas, and it went so far as to instruct the home state residents of Allen on how to send text messages for free. Read the rest of this entry »
This Friday (May 29), ABC will air a special called “Un-broke: What You Need to Know About Money”, which will attempt to explain this current recession to a distinct audience that pretty much needs it –the same young people who get roped into credit card debt, live well beyond their means because they have to have the 22” rims, and who may well find themselves, like so many people across America, broke. Knowing that our attention-addled youth won’t listen to some hand-wringing let’s-get-in-a-circle like Linda Ellerbee used to do on Nickelodeon, or a Nightline-type discussion by Robert Krulwich, ABC decided to bring out some big guns. Enter Will Smith, the Jonas Brothers, Samuel L. Jackson, Cedric the Entertainer and others, along with “Good Morning America” contributor Mellody Hobson, who try to talk to young people without talking down to young people. Read the rest of this entry »
The Obama Poster Copycats:
Shepard Fairey created something truly inspiring in his original and stirring renditions of HOPE, OBEY and ultimately OBAMA. Since then, hoards of copycat wannabes have been flooding the intranets with their own Photoshopped, inferior versions.
And yes, you can even OBAMA YOURSELF should you be so inclined.
So let’s get them all up and and over with, shall we?
The new Seth Rogen film “Observe and Report” is certainly one of the most repulsive and morally reprehensible films out there right now. And it’s also one of the most creative –due, in large part to its main star. The film, by director Jody Hill, opened last weekend to better-than-expected box office numbers (just over $11 mil.), but it also unleashed a slight controversy about a purported date rape scene. More about that later. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s face it: the economy is in the toilet, we’re one paycheck away from living in the streets, and we’ve been shocked into suddenly having very little —losing a job, a house, a car, a livelihood, a thinner 401K and portfolio. What portfolio, you say? You don’t invest in stocks? What 401K? You don’t have enough to invest either, huh? You’re just struggling, like many millions of families around the country, to just keep your head above water.
We’ve rapidly had to become a country that is taking a shockingly cold look at itself –a nation of people living beyond their means, a nation of debtors who have lived off plastic and put off responsibility until later, and now dealing not just with the devastating dislocations like, you know, not having a home all of a sudden. Read the rest of this entry »
I, Larry Thomas, Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi will personally autograph photos of my alter-ego. You choose which photo and you choose what you want written on the photo and I will sign it just that way, but you must tell me or I can’t send it until you do, please, this is important as I don’t know if you forgot or if you are assuming I’ll sign it generically, please don’t leave that blank.
Without a doubt, Seinfeld spawned some of the most memorable and recognizable catchphrases in the history of American pop culture. Among the most notable: “Yada Yada Yada”, “shrinkage”, “master of your domain”, “No soup for you“, and “Not that there’s anything wrong with that”.
The dilemma, however, is that such fame and whirlwind nostalgia can actually work against you (in the world of acting), especially if you’re Larry Thomas, who played the infamous Soup Nazi. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently a buddy of mine gave me the idea of placing a hold on my Netflix account. He and I agreed that we were paying too much for, well, so little.
The promise of having “two movies” at a time and keeping them as long as we wanted sounded good, and for the last couple of years, it seemed like a decent and convenient thing to do. $18 or so bucks, you get the two movies, and somehow I never really sat down and did the math needed to answer this question: was I really getting my money’s worth.
I had long given up on the rotten task of walking into a neighborhood video (oops, sorry, DVD) shop and seeing rows and rows of movies that really no one wanted to see. Missed “House Bunny” or “Charlie’s Angels 3” in the theatres the first time? Why plunk down $5 to see it at Blockbuster when you are going to get gouged in late fees when you just can’t get yourself to see the movie in time, or dammit, you forgot to drive back to the store. I would actually get stomach aches seeing all the movies at my cavernous dvd shop I used to frequent. Then I got turned on to Netflix. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s that time of year when Hollywood gets to pat itself on the back, honor the (allegedly) best that filmdom has to offer, give tributed to those dearly departed (Paul Newman), and hand out the entertainment industry’s most prestigious honor, the Oscars. It’s the 81st annual affair, this time hosted by movie and stage star Hugh Jackman.
Before the glamour and glitz, and the endless coverage, we will have to get through all the red carpet arrivals that the entertainment channels have been hyping for weeks now. We’re referring to the moronic interviews foisted on us by the execrable duo of Joey Fatone and Lisa Rinna on the TV Guide Channel, and the vapidity of Giuliana Rancic over at E! and her erstwhile partner, Ryan Seacrest, who has seemingly made a yearly go at having celebrities either intentionally avoid him (Angelina Jolie) or publicly mock him (Jeremy Piven.) Read the rest of this entry »
This historic day has come and we have live coverage on NBC, courtesy of talking heads Brian Williams, Lester Holt and the avuncular Tom Brokaw, and some pretty impressive camera work as the Very Important People come from the White House, both the outgoing and incoming Presidents and Vice-Presidents, in new, snazzy, thick-doored Cadillac limousines. We see them wheeling down Pennsylvania Avenue, lights flashing, on their 1.5 mile drive to the Capitol. It’s a clear, very crisp day in the nation’s capital, with temperatures in the teens. Read the rest of this entry »
Our friends at Krispy Kreme are at it again. To commemorate the historic day that will be next Tuesday, when President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath office in the nation’s capital, all Krispy Kremes are giving away a free donut to all of its customers. That’s right. No purchase necessary. You go in, say, “I want my free donut!”, or perhaps even, “Hey, this is an awesome day. We have a new President. Give me my donut!”, or better yet, “Hey, we now have a President who speaks in complete sentences and who has lived in other countries. Would you please give me a free donut to celebrate?!” Read the rest of this entry »
