Pop Culture Blog: Music, Movie and Humor

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The Foggy Odyssey.


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PITF is back on the air after the regular Christmas foray to the Great White North. My mother, sister and I made it to the Toronto area in record time Friday – about 8 hours. I slept the entire time due to heavy imbibing the night before at the Bruins game. Needless to say I was not popular in that little Outback, but the only person I really hurt was myself. Trust me.

That disgrace of an evening was followed quickly by Friday spent at the Rude Native with Puppa, Billy, Janet, JJV, and Mark. Pictures and more details will follow when Janet dumps her camera – but to be perfectly honest, I may keep it pretty vague. Between trying to encourage a snowball induced donnybrook with kids young enough to be my offspring after the bars closed, and then conking out on Gary’s couch while a party carried on around me, I’m not too proud of that whole pm. But you guys made my trip coming out to Burlington last minute like that, and Gaz was a great host. Seriously, thank you all and you’re still my boys.

Saturday and Sunday were spent with various groups of family and my always adorable little cousins. Seth schooled me at Monopoly and Thomas massacred me at Madden 2006. I showed up at the Yankee Swap with a Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD box set, and left with some small skinny candles. And what makes all of this even more embarassing is that I can’t continue to blame alcohol – as my crippled self happily accepted to be the driver that night.

Today was a nightmare, but it was far worse for a few others. Probably the worst Toronto to Boston drive in memory. And there has been probably 50 of them over the course of my lifetime so far. A late start. 2 hour wait at the border. Stopped at the border and questioned due to Janet’s recent greencard replacement. Snowstorm. Really crowded highways full of Steve McQueen clones, appartently. One more load of wash and I can finally sleep. Happy belated holidays to us, everyone. And by happy holidays, I mean someone please come over to the North End immediately and euthanize me.

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Christmas Comes Early For David.


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Q: What’s the status of the Pixies? Still enjoying the reunion?
A: We just got back from Japan. That was the last gig on the books. At one point during the last show, I was teasing Kim [Deal] about something, and she flipped me off. She was just fooling around, but I thought she was serious. It was the first time that’d happened the whole time, and I thought, ”Oh, man, she’s mad at me. It’s over.”

Q: You recording a new album?
A: Yeah, but I need to write some good songs. These Pixies have gotten a little uppity. They’re like, ”What if it’s not as good as the old records?”

Very happy to read this Globe interview with Frank Black today. But I’ll believe it when I see it, as will we all. And then, of course, some of you have lives.

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Wednesday Wadio: The Pogues "Fairytale Of New York".


in Wednesday Wadio

“…it’s a gorgeous song no matter why you observe Christmas or even if you celebrate something else… is not only the most beautiful, but the best Christmas song humanity has ever made. May it endure.” – Stylus

I am really slammed today but wanted to get this out there. This entire Wadio entry will be comprised completely of quotes and links, and you can enjoy my snide remarks again tomorrow.

“The Pogues re-released their classic Christmas hit ‘Fairytale of New York’ on Warners on 19th December 2005. The song, featuring the late Kirsty McColl was voted the best Christmas song ever in a poll by TV station VH1 last year, beating Band Aid, Wham and Slade to the top spot.”

“The band will be donating proceeds from the record to the homeless charity Crisis At Christmas and the Justice For Kirsty Campaign. Set up by the late singer’s mother Jean, the fund has enabled the family to fight the long legal battle for justice following the tragic death of their daughter, killed by a powerboat whilst on holiday with her children. Almost five years on from her untimely death on 18th December 2000, no person has been made accountable to the satisfaction of her family and friends.”

“MacGowan and the sadly departed MacColl sing all over each other, slurring words and tossing insults (she’s an “old slut on junk”, he’s a “cheap lousy faggot”). You could easily dismiss it as merely dysfunctional and assume I’m saying it is the greatest Christmas song of all time because I am a cynical bastard and I think Christmas sucks and is all about squabbling with the family and getting loaded. But you’d be wrong.”

“This is a couple clearly more comfortable slinging profanity than admitting sentiment. And then they sing “The boys of the NYPD Choir are singing ‘Galway Bay’ / And the bells are ringing out on Christmas Day” again, and it’s still oddly uplifting when you consider how little those two things mean to most of us (but not to them, of course), and then the song goes off into the air.”

And I got tickets to the Boston show, bitches.

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Painful, Painful Nerdery.


in Movies

When people want to know about certain things, they talk to me. As if I were Mad Max and they were a desperate villager who needed to find a truck to haul gasoline. But it’s not quite as cool as post-apocolyptic gang warfare-related advice – when all they’re asking you is to tell them what movies you recently went to by yourself before masturbating yourself to sleep whilst crying.

“I’m greatly looking forward to King Kong and A Scanner Darkly, which is an animated version of a Philip K. Dick book,” said Dave Pye, senior account manager with a Boston-based search engine marketing firm. “Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report are all great geek movies based on Dick’s work, and I hope the trend continues.”

Still, it’s very nice to be an authority on something. Maybe I can work my way up to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

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