Just a thought from the headline. You know how some people can get together and recite all the lines from say "Let's Make a Dope Deal" or sing Black Lassie complete with the lead in of "thish is Horrendo Revolver doing an esposhe of the mushic indushtry'... word for word even though it never got on the radio here in the states (I was lucky, I lived in El Paso, which was right across a nasty little creek from Downtown Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico and their most excellent rock station XROK 80, and Mexico didn't have the same censorship rules the yanquis do). And even though their dad had smashed their Big Bambu and The Wedding Album records after about the third time in less than an hour of hearing "Acting like a queeeeeeeerrrr!" (Actually "Earache, my eye")(I think). So much for the legendary effect of Da Wicked Weed that you have short term loss of long term memory or is it long term loss of short term memory? I forget... anyway, that doesn't matter. 18255
Tag: Popular Culture
We live among gods and demigods
I know a someone who's studying Greek mythology. He isn't very impressed and told me so, probably baiting me. He fixed me in the eye and said "Put it this way, I'm not going to care about it in college." It was all I could muster to reply "Maybe." I feigned not being sure myself, which was puzzling, telling him that he would find that Greek Gods had an odd habit of popping up in almost every academic discipline, especially Western literature, as if that would have mattered to him. Then I made a bet that the names of gods had come up in his favorite reads, Calvin and Hobbes and the Far Side. Nope he said. He wouldn't have noticed, his mother chimed in, if he didn't know them. 17272
Case of curious cellphone, bandana and Greyson Chance’s perfect microphone
PT Barnum would have been a terror on Youtube --I'm certainly sobered to see what fools America every time. Is sudden-tween-throb Greyson Chance's talent for real? Too soon to say. But the 6th grade sound man at Cheyenne School of Edmond, Oklahoma has unlikely genius. * What's hard to believe about doctors bandaging Bret Michaels' massive brain hemorrhage with his signature headband? * And my favorite, Oprah Winfrey recording a show performance with her cellphone to attest to her surprise at "the coolest thing ever!" 17099
Speaking of books… Tim LaHaye.
Tim LaHaye. OK, so that says a LOT in just two words. I know what the Non-Christian opinion is, now for a Christian voice. The dude is selling a Study Bible with a fold out graphical timetable from the start of the tribulation to the Rapture to Armageddon, $49.99 on your credit card. The credit cards that many believe to be a form of The Mark of The Beast. Now, I've heard from somebody, oh, who was it, oh yeah, Solomon, hmmm... "Naked came I into this world, and naked shall I depart, I brought nothing in my hand, and shall take nothing away". "you can't take it with you" So, how does Mr LaHaye plan to transfer those funds to the Bank of Heaven? I'm pretty certain that his Visa is going to be rejected for insufficient funds. That and Visa will probably deny it anyway because they have a clause in the contract that you're not allowed to use your card once you're dead. And there's a list of allowed countries where they'll transfer funds, and I'm certain that Heaven isn't on the list. 16115
Three meals away from revolution
The phrase is oft quoted, but no one knows who originated it --or, even if it's true. It could just be an old pharah's wives tale. But Obama buys it: from the people who brought you hope.gov we've now come to ready.gov. Where the White House assures you there is no need to fear coming plagues and pestilence so long as you "Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed." and be sure to have food for three days. 10622
Addict, pederast dies, much fanfare
But let's look past the innuendo and unproven transgressions, to celebrate the man's contribution to the cannon of Western popular music product. Please! 8144
TWILIGHT vampires resemble predators of the less mystical sexual variety
TWILIGHT- For those parents who have unwittingly encouraged their daughters to delve into Twilight, where our episodic fascination with Dracula lore is adapted for the young adult romance genre, be forewarned that author Stephenie Meyer may have fogged her rose-colored glasses with romantic nostalgia from her Mormon upbringing: old older men, arranged marriages, and, if you'll pardon the dropped pretense, date rape. DESPOILER ALERT. Better you than your child? 5671
Obama Madonna Sanjaya Brangelina
John McCain might be confusing his rival Barack Obama for a Britney- type celebrity for an obvious reason, his solo moniker. Obama's name recognition is not just a sound-byte, it's a single bite. Electoral product Obama makes a spiffy commercial trademark like many star brands before him: Elvis, OJ, Pele, Maradona, Oprah, (Evita, Imelda, Diana...) 3938
Product Obama
"At the time when the American military industrial complex is despised around the world, [Barack Obama] is a front man out of central casting which will buy it more goodwill and new room to maneuver in the first 15 minutes after being sworn in that John McCain could in the next 100 years." Counterpoint columnist Joe Bageant was given the following essay by an unnamed political consultant: Life in the Post-political Age. 3842
The Beatles were counter-revolutionary
Much as the world adores The Beatles, would it not be instructive to note that they led the forces of passivism, and lost, thankfully, to the urgent demands of passionate youth ignited by the imperative to upturn the old world order.
Raise awareness to the CAUSE of cancer
Look at all that pink respect for breast cancer! Breast cancer awareness, I mean to say. As Marie has pointed out, women's basketball over the weekend was draped in custom pink uniforms for the cause of cancer. "Cause" is an unfortunate pun, actually. No one's interested in raising awareness of the cause of cancer. 2633
For dummies, morons or complete idiots
A friend of mine says the best guide to constitutional law among titles he's surveyed is The Complete Idiot's Guide to the U.S. Constitution. I'd prefer the 70's era light-hearted For Beginners incarnation as a recommendation. Not just because that series has the co-op recycled paper look compared to the cautionary yellow & black, distinctly generic (re. anti- aesthetic) packaging of the current self-hating imprimatur. 2632
Britney -just what big pharma ordered
No need to address alcohol or drug abuse, there’s a quick fix with psycho meds. Britney Spears could serve as an example for reform and rehabilitation or she can be a poster child for blaming our actions on ambiguous mental frailty.
Shtrength, Shtrong, Shtreuth!
Streuth! Where did an "sh" sound introduce itself into pronunciations of "str?" Is it Cracker Ebonics like "libary" or "aks" expecially? Who says "SHtrong" beside southern idiots like the current president? I now hear the god-awful mispronunciation on the lips of sub urban TV people, news reporters on location, even from the sports sidelines. Proper English is determined by usage, so nuclear will become nucular if enough yahoos say it's so. 2462
Build it [in SL] and they will come
There's an interesting trait of human nature I see playing out on the ever opening expanses of the Internet. It's evident in dramatic relief too in Second Life. I suppose it's the combination of man's entrepreneurial spirit and the Protestant industrial ethic that promotes work as fun. 2375
Young people don’t bother going through the motions
The Gazette Christmas edition had a breakdown chart of El Paso County voting last election. It showed that more people vote from the morgue in this county than vote if they are aged 40 and under. Well almost! 2331
Ugly Dolls more than skin deep
Do you remember several years ago, when Ugly Dolls crawled out of the Cabbage Patch like that season's Troll Doll? We have an obsession with fugly. Except they were trendy, hand sewn in someone's attic and sold at exclusive boutiques, but had the aesthetic sophistication of sock monkeys, sharing 98% of their DNA. 2316
Who doesn’t support the troops?
May I ask -who do you know doesn't support the troops? Is there someone you need to encourage to show more support for the troops? No one? Then why the sticker? 2322
Evolve in comfort of your own home
My friend Richard sent this Christmas gift tip for Heartland State families: EVOLUTION BOARD GAME "Race around the board and up the evolutionary ladder as you draw, decode, decipher, act, mime and even read minds."
Let’s not save those ‘damsels in distress’ in Muslim countries…OK?
One of the great US excuses for occupying Afghanistan with troops intermittently flowing forth from the neocon-controlled corporate press, was that American civilization was liberating Afghan women from their cruel men of the Taliban. It was a propaganda crumb thrown to church going liberals to try to appeal to their humanitarian interventionist tendencies. Save the Damsels in Distress... Holy Moly! 2292
Jesus vs. Santa rivalry is nothing new
A holiday detente: As Easter sprung from fertility celebrations befitting the rebirth of spring, so Christmas originated from offerings of the season's greetings to the winter solstice. And while Christians might have taken over the party, they've had to retain the yule tree and other pagan party favors to ensure converts would still RSVP to the festivities. The struggle between Jesus and Santa is nothing new. 2282
Iraqi Oil for Beginners
Iraqi Oil for Beginners is artist-in-exile Jon Sack's account of a century of Iraq history dominated by the fight over its oil. The 31-page comic can be ordered through the publisher Voices in the Wilderness UK or from Housmans. Sack means his graphic novel to enlighten western readers about the real US and UK motives behind the occupation of Iraq, hopefully before Iraqi legislators are finally coerced into privatizing the oil industry and putting it all in US hands.
Support ‘Our’ Troops?
Let's say it up front and bluntly. The often heard litany that we must support the troops is really Code for those who say we must continue to support the entire Pentagon-founded corporate welfare system that the rich use to appropriate all for themselves from the wealth of our national society. 2249
We have met the neighbor and he is us
I love Spongebob Squarepants. The show and the person. I revere his inimitable optimism. Patrick I find likewise adorable for his straightforward ineptitude. Squidward would be the foil obviously, a sort of puritan Malevolio ill-joy, a neighbor like Mr. Wilson to Dennis the Menace, but I am determined that Squidward No-pants is something more. Probably we're talking the usual protagonist, deuteragonist and tritagonist, as comedic trios go. But I chiefly mean to assert that as foil Squidward is no antagonist. Our main character may learn valuable lessons through his misadventures, we may see Squidward suffer over the course of his, but in the end it's the butt of the joke who sees the light. 2239
Synergy to the Nth, where N is negative
A miracle of corporate cross pollination. What have we here? Lego Group cum Lucas Arts cum Nintendo? We might have celebrated this as synergy if the product didn't look like hillbilly inbreeding. Computer animation can do no better than smiley faces? If there will be a look that defines this decade, it will be featureless Playmobil and thumb people. The data processing adage says: garbage in, garbage out. Multiplicative "synergy" has been the sales pitch for corporate mergers and collusions, but the less heralded consequence of sum greater than its parts still holds: crap times crap equals big crap.