All posts tagged with "pop-culture"

One night this week, I started watching Who is Erin Carter on Netflix, and I've got to tell you, I have never seen a more sloppily-written piece of television. I got 35 minutes into episode one. Good thing I'm here to tell you what's wrong.

Back before the days of blogs and digital images, Mrs theskinnyonbenny and I got married and took a follow-up trip to Ireland. We toured around for a bit and happened to end up in Dublin at the same time that then-president Clinton was in town. You young uns won't remember, but back in the day, terrorists would occasionally blow up buildings in Ireland...

I have some great ideas for TV shows that they should make.

The dentist chair is a good place for the mind to wander. This week, I took those mind-wanderings and started typing them out as a post. Whose music is dentist-office appropriate, but still good? Let the debate begin.

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You would think that the people in Hong Kong Phuey's city would figure out his true identity.

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There's an announcement today that the final eight episodes of The Sopranos on HBO are postponed until March. We Sopranos fans are a patient group. With the end of that series, Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm become the only two series for which I would be willing to subscribe. (I like Big Love too, but wouldn't pay extra just to see it.) But it would be difficult to justify the monthly charge just on the strength of a couple of half-hour comedies.

Twice on the Fourth of July, I got called a big fatty. The first time, I was handling my gut -- grabbing handfuls and jiggling it up and down while seated. Putting this in writing makes me realize that it's odd behavior, but I'm sure it was to make some point or other. Amanda asked, "Goodness, you aren't riding your bike any more?"

I got to thinking about Three's Company today. And I've decided that a big part of why it's no big deal for people of my generation to have opposite-sex roommates is that our parents spent so much time in 1979 defending Jack's right to cohabitate with Janet and Chrissy. I know this sounds ludicrous, but I remember that it really was a controversy when that show was a prime-time series.

I really wish someone would run a weekend marathon of old That's Incredible episodes from the 1970s. I bet that show is so over-the-top bad, that the producers are embarrassed to have been associated with it. But when I was in elementary school, everyone watched it every single week. (I wonder what it's competition was. Sure, there were just three channels, but still....)

I noticed a trend in television this week that I doubt any others will point out. In the course of one week, I have witnessed no less than three realistic-looking vomitings on scripted television shows. I can't remember which show started the trend (Lost maybe?), but it was followed by last week's episode of Huff, and then capped by a multiple Tony Soprano puking last night.

The biggest question that I always have while watching the Oscar broadcast is, how do they phase out celebrities that no longer make the A-list? On Sunday, for example, there was old Jack Nicholson, sitting front and center for the whole broadcast, and then being the presenter for the Best Picture award. Has he been an A-lister so long that he has tenure?

There's an oft emailed url to a web page for the worst album covers of all time. Even if you've seen it before, it deserves an occasional re-read. I think there's a new one to add to the worst cover of all time. Except now, it's called "cover art" instead of an "album cover," since it actually just comes with the downloaded music files from whichever service you get them these days.

When MTV2 first hit the air, they showed nothing but videos. You know, just like the original MTV, but almost 20 years later. For one of their early years, they started playing all of the videos in the MTV library in alphabetical order by song. They started at the turn of the new year, and the drill lasted all the way into May.

The new season of Six Feet Under has started. I can't help but reflect that there is no other show in television history that has so many crazy people that you actually pull for. In fact, just about everyone has at least the occasional conversation with dead people. On top of that, they all have their own insanities and hang-ups. There is rarely a scene without at least a hint of someone about to go over the edge.

I've decided that I might drop in an occasional movie review. But I won't be writing about movies that everyone reviews and that you've already decided to see or to not see anyway. So don't come back looking for my thoughts on Hitch or Revenge of the Sith. By the time I finally see those, you will have long since formed an opinion for yourself.

I was just reflecting on a couple of the missed opportunities that I let get by recently. Sometimes, you get a perfectly good -- maybe even great -- web log entry staring you in the face, and you get busy doing other things and never get it posted.

The most unintentionally funny person on television is CNN Headline News's Nancy Grace. If you aren't familiar with Nancy, she has been a regular guest on the mother network's Larry King Live for a couple of years.

How do you like that? It's been more than two weeks since I posted anything here. I've gotten a couple of irate emails, and I'm sure lost a few of my 10 or so regular readers. I just wasn't feeling like spending my free time at the computer lately. I do spend my entire workday staring into the retina-melting screens you know.

I am currently reading Phil Jackson's book, <i>The Last Season</i>. It has a subtile which I can't remember. From reading the text, I'm pretty sure that Phil intended the subtitle to be, <i>...and Kobe Bryant is a no good whining bastard</i>, but the editors probably shot that down. (Actually -- to be honest -- I downloaded an mp3 copy of Phil Jackson's book, and I've been listening to it while I walk the dog in the evening. It's not the same as reading the book, but I don't really have the right verb. "I'm currently listening to the book," doesn't work, because I'm not currently listening to it. I'm currently typing on a laptop. You see the problem.)

Does anyone besides me like that song, The Day Ted Nugent Killed All the Animals? The IPOD picked that song for me while I walked the dog last night. It got me thinking that someone could go out and put out a whole page explaining the cultural references in that tune. I'll go ahead and do it myself.

It might be coincidence, but it seems like this week has brought us more than the usual amount of incompetence in broadcasting. My standards really aren't high. I just don't think these broadcasters are trying to entertain me as hard they used to.

I went to Voodoo Fest this past Saturday. There was beautiful weather, and it was good to be outside hearing live music. Let's jump right in with a review of the headliners' performance:

I have no interest in letting this become the site for celebrity obituaries. However, the passing of Christopher Reeve moved a reader enough to request that I comment, so I'll share a quick Superman story, and then move on.

I was a little saddened to hear that Rodney Dangerfield died this week. I remember watching Rodney doing stand up on HBO and being or delivering the punch line in the Lite Beer From Miller Gang commercials back when I was a kid. I've decided to memorialize Rodney with a brief review of all of his movies. Okay, not all of them, but all of them that I could come up with off the top of my head.

To a sophisticated kid of the 1980's, it turns out to be majorly disappointing when you finally see the move. It's really not all that gruesome or scary by today's standards, or even not by the standards of movies 20 years ago.

Let's start with the good: the Madonna concert started with Vogue, and the concert could have ended at the end of that number. We would have said something like, "she could have sung a few more songs, but man, it was really good."

On Sunday night, I will be at the Madonna concert in Atlanta. I fully expect the most awe-inducing show that I've ever seen. I'm also pretty excited just to have a couple of days off work, and a weekend away from yard-slave laboring, even if it is just for a road trip to Atlanta.

I'm still not real impressed with the summer movies that I've seen previewed so far. We went last night, and I had a flash of excitement seeing the submariners from Hunt for Red October on the screen. Wouldn't it be exciting to take those guys and make a new movie, without being constrained by a Tom Clancy plotline? But no, it turns out that is was just Sponge Bob Square Pants, playing with a toy submarine that was causing the crew so much havoc.

Work conversation this morning included an allusion to Long Duck Dong before 9:00 am. That's bodes well for your day. I'm inspired to share some pop culture observations. I suppose I should start with American Idol.

I don't seem to find myself as excited about what's on TV lately. And since I have nothing else to tell you all about, allow me share some complaints.

I saw a commercial for the local Lincoln/Mercury car dealership. This particular commercial has the dealership full of young families: 30-somthing parents, with cute active kids. The problem with this whole thing is that there's no way in hell that any of these people are going to buy a Lincoln or a Mercury. I really thought that you had to be collecting social security before they would even let you into the dealership. At the very least, they must have an AARP discount.

It seems like most people are either raving fans or harsh critics of reality TV. Actually, the ratings show that there are more fans, but at least some of us reality fans aren't willing to admit it.

Today, I wipe the sweat off my brow, having avoided the Oscar season's obligatory geezer movie. We generally spend January in a frenzy of movie-going. The weather is crappy anyway, so we try to catch as many of the Oscar contenders as possible.