Archive for the ‘Pop Culture’ Category

In Every Generation, There Is A Show

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
[From Marc Bernaden's EW Review for the DVD collection]: “There are some things you can’t state often enough. The Aston Martin DB5 was the greatest Bond car ever. The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie. And Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the seminal TV shows of the last 50 years. [...]

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Thoughts On The Week

If giving Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is to help him accomplish something worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, would giving him a Heisman make him a better football player?
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Though Death Cab for Cutie has shattered my confidence in – well, humanity in general – by creating a song exclusively for Twilight, this here video did make [...]

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Markers of Society’s Evolution. Frankly, I’m Encouraged for My Generation

Allow me to take a break from our regularly scheduled programing about programming to note some contrasts in various poetic works
By Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Full text of The Scornful Lady here)
“He was a man
I knew but in his evening; ten suns after
Forc’d by a tyrant storm, our beaten bark
Bulg’d under us: in which [...]

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Family Matters

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The longest-running ‘live action’ sitcom in television history, this show starred a real family as themselves (similar to I Love Lucy – though here the couples actually *gasp* share a bed!). I’m all the more fascinated in the idealic production because of the dysfunction, drug use, business and music deals going on [...]

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High Class?

Through various and sundry means, I get three or four or five or . . . a lot of free magazine subscriptions per yer. My mailperson probably thinks I have no life.
So though I have a handy dandy little Guide on my TV, and can always look up listings online, I get the paper version [...]

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Follow That Person! (So as not to be sexist)

I’ve covered classics, and Hitchcock, and comedy, and drama . . . but looking back I feel I have barely scratched the surface. Therefore, here’s a list of stars. Read up on them. Watch their movies. You can’t go wrong. Ok, maybe a misstep or two here or there. But even those are experiences worth [...]

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Film Noir

The actual definition of what makes noir noir is a bit undetermined. But you’ll know it when you feel it. It involves an undercurrent of sensuality and sexuality (not the same thing), moral ambiguity (a heroic character does not necessarily have good values or make the societally correct choices), and a dark visual style (not necessarily [...]

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So Many Movies . . .

When I made my manifesto that I would be covering culture for a month, I knew it was a big undertaking, but it has grown like The Blob. Picking just a few classic movies is impossible, so I find myself breaking everything down into smaller and smaller categories. I was going to do drama, romance/romantic comedy, suspense, [...]

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Fantastical

This is going to have to be a lot more comprehensive than the TV posts. So many movies, so little space.
Which is where we begin. Science fiction/fantasy. (Not including any comic books or superhero – we’ll have another post for that.)
Alice in Wonderland. I personally cannot stand this movie (or Lewis Carroll at all, for [...]

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Bring In The Noise Bring Down The House

To continue our month-ish of introduction to culture, it seemed only logical to go from TV comedy to TV drama or movies or books (many books inspire shows). So of course we move on to music. For this first post we’re going to ignore classical and current and hard rock, and just go for the [...]

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