Pop Culture
stcynic | December 6, 2005Turns out I'm not the only blogger to get cool gifts from readers. Radley Balko (who works at the Cato Institute, coincidentally in line with the last post) is thanking some of his readers for sending him a couple of cool CDs and it includes one of my favorite groups, the Freddy Jones Band. They're not terribly well known, but they should be. He writes:
I've owned the Freddy Jones Band CD a couple of times, and continually seem to displace it. It's good stuff. Chill, 90's rock. Little bit jam band, little bit Americana.
Pretty good description. I first saw them, if memory serves me well, on…
stcynic | November 27, 2005Last night they showed the induction ceremony for the UK Music Hall of Fame on VH1. I didn't see the first part of the show, only the last part where they inducted Pink Floyd, but that was well worth it. Pete Townsend did the induction, which is appropriate given his friendship with the band and his past collaborations with them (if you've never heard it, go find Townsend's 1985 album White City. Gilmour lends his unmistakeable sound to Give Blood, the best song on the album). Roger Waters wasn't there, but was connected by video, and Gilmour and Nick Mason were there in person to accept the…
stcynic | November 25, 2005Joe Carter has a post where he lists the 100 most overrated and underrated movies of all time, by arbitrary category. They're listed by category, with the most overrated movie listed first, then the most underrated movie listed next. As would be expected, I agree with some of them and not with others. For instance:
Movie about fraternities: Animal House | PCU (I hesitate to include these two together simply because the criminally overhyped John Belushi shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as comic genius Jeremy Piven.)
I haven't seen PCU, so I can't comment on that one, but I do…
stcynic | November 4, 2005So I'm watching TV last night and they show a clip from an interview that Barbara Streisand did a couple weeks ago with Ellen Degeneres. And in the interview Streisand suddenly announced that four was her favorite number because, "it's the most creative number in the universe. If you have four, then you can make five." I'll just file this one in the "shut the hell up" category next to Shirley MacLaine's chakra nonsense and Madonna's pseudo-kabbalah fad. I really should start a weekly feature on stupid things celebrities say. I remember many years ago seeing Patrick Swayze on the Tonight Show…
stcynic | October 23, 2005Last night I saw a show that presented the top 100 movie quotes of all time, as voted on by members of the American Film Institute. Some of them were quite memorable, of course, but I thought it was a bit too skewed toward older films. In some cases, that's deserved of course. The fact that 6 of the top 100 were from Casablanca can hardly be argued with, as there were so many memorable lines in them. But I thought it would be fun to think of some of the most memorable from my lifetime that weren't on the list. So here are the ones that come to mind.
They didn't have any quotes from a few…
stcynic | October 18, 2005Sylvester Stallone, after years of negotiations, is finally set to film Rocky 6. In this film he'll be defending the AARP heavyweight belt, which is actually a combination kidney belt/adult diaper. And naturally, Stallone has a cliche-ridden rationalization for it all:
" 'Rocky Balboa' is about everybody who feels they want to participate in the race of life, rather than be a bystander," Stallone said in a statement. "You're never too old to climb a mountain, if that's your desire."
This is bound to be the worst comeback since the Eagles launched their "Our Investments Aren't Doing As Well As…
stcynic | October 2, 2005Okay, a break from all the serious stuff for a little pop culture. While doing a search for information on a restaurant, I came across this post on a blog I've never seen blasting the Food Network for many things. Now, the Food Network is quite possibly my favorite channel. I'm a serious food lover, particularly BBQ, as everyone probably knows by now, and yes I actually watch cooking shows. But the Food Network is definitely hit or miss. Some of it I like, some of it is awful. So herewith, the good, the bad and the ugly of the Food Network.
Let's start with the bad. Yesterday they showed…
stcynic | September 7, 2005I rarely do these blog memes, but I saw this one at Noonan's place and thought it would be amusing. You take the top 100 songs from the year you graduated high school (1985 for me) and pick out the ones that wouldn't make you instantly change the radio station if they came on. Here's the list:
1. Careless Whisper, Wham! -- uh, no.
2. Like A Virgin, Madonna -- okay, this isn't starting well.
3. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Wham! -- Wham had two of the top three songs that year? Is my age group that lame?
4. I Want To Know What Love Is, Foreigner -- wait, don't answer that. We obviously were.
5…
stcynic | August 26, 2005I have a confession to make: I enjoy watching washed up celebrities - especially ones that never exhibited much talent to justify their celebrity - fall on their faces and humiliate themselves. In the vast, insufferable universe that is reality TV, the only show I watch is the Surreal Life, which puts various desperate has beens into a house to watch them make fools of themselves and attempt to get a 16th or 17th minute of fame. It's a perfect example of schadenfreude - taking pleasure from another's suffering. I think it's funny watching MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice clinging to their last bit…
stcynic | July 9, 2005Okay, I finally got to see the Pink Floyd reunion from the Live8 show. That was just great to see those guys together again. Floyd is the only band I would pay to see in a big stadium show, if they're all together again. I hope they put out something new and tour with this lineup again. Dave Gilmour is the most underrated guitarist in rock history. He is that rare guitarist who actually knows how to make a solo that makes sense within the structure of the song. Unfortunately, that was followed up with....Paul McCartney.
Paul....please....for the love of all things decent in this world....just…
stcynic | July 9, 2005Ouch. I've been watching the Live8 concert on MTV (yeah, I think the event is mostly puff, but there are some great bands performing). And I'm right now listening to Audioslave with Chris Cornell ruining Killing In the Name Of completely. I loved Rage Against the Machine, I liked Soundgarden and I've liked Audioslave's original stuff (for those who don't know, Audioslave is the band from Rage Against the Machine with Soundgarden's lead singer). But Chris Cornell is not Zach de la Rocha and he never will be, guys. Do not try and do old Rage material without Zach, it's gonna sound as bad as you…
stcynic | April 22, 2005"You're born absolutely free except laws of nature. If you drink too much you'll get drunk, that's a law. If you get old you die, that's a law...these are the only laws you're born with and any government just fucks you out of that type of freedom...You're not free. You need a diploma in this country to cut hair. They say if you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish...then he has to get a fishing license. But he doesn't have any money, so he has to get a job and enter the social security system. And he has to file taxes, and you're gonna audit the poor son of…
stcynic | March 20, 2005Last night was the airing of the 2005 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I gave my thoughts on last year's ceremony and here are my thoughts on this year's festivities. Last night's show was interesting in that, for the first time since perhaps Aerosmith in 2001, the hall inducted a band that was still on the top of the music world. U2 is still a trendsetter, still putting out #1 albums, and still one of the two or three biggest concert draws all over the world. In a business full of one hit or one album wonders, it's even rarer today than in years past to see a band keep being…
stcynic | June 17, 2004Madonna has decided that she now wants to be known as Esther. And her reason:I was named after my mother. My mother died when she was very young, of cancer, and I wanted to attach myself to another name, she said.
This is in no way a negation of who my mother is. I wanted to attach myself to the energy of a different name.
Perhaps you should attach yourself to the "energy" of not being so full of shit. I love this little gem from the interview too:She said Kabbalah is incredibly punk rock and anti-establishment.
Kabbalists believe in immortality. They believe that you can overcome death,…