Pop Culture Blog: Music, Movie and Humor

Leveraging low-hanging synergies outside the vertical fruit box since 1999.

Thirty Two Problems And A Bitch Ain’t One.


in Reminiscent

Last year on my birthday I made many hilarious references to Pearl Harbor. This year I’ll simply reflect on birthdays past, and there’s been a lot of them. Last year we all had dinner in the South End. The year before that was the big 3-0, and I organized a huge party for myself (as you do) at Tiernans which was thwarted by the largest snow storm Boston had seen in years. The year before that, Janet organized a party at Harvard Gardens which was a lot of fun – I sang all the way home in the cab, and then made everyone wait until the song was over until we got out.

Prior to that it starts to get fuzzy. I think 28 might have been at Silvertone. 26 or 27 was a surprise party at Janet’s old place in Inman square. Before that I was in England, and that year they midread the birthdate on my work papers at the pub (they reverse the month and date when reading it metrically) and shocked me with a cake on the 12th of July. Yesterday, my workmates took me out for lunch, also mistaking the numeral 7 for the square root of “DERRR”.

But it’s the thought that counts, and I always have fun with good friends around. This year it’s subdued – some Greek food in Watertown and then early to bed before an important meeting tomorrow. Thank you all for putting up with me for so long, and here’s to another longevitus 32 for all of us.

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Wednesday Wadio: Belle And Sebastian’s ‘Funny Little Frog’.


in Wednesday Wadio

“The frisky bassline and chunky horn blasts are rewarding enough, but it all sounds too easy, too patronizing for a band in the adulthood of their career.” – Pitchfork

Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Belle and Sebastian’s new album, The Life Pursuit, isn’t released for over 2 months yet, but I accidentally found it online. Funny Little Frog has been available from their Peel session for almost a year now, but this is the full studio version and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I’ll surely enjoy being buggered in the shower at MCI Concord during my 18 months for piracy.

This is your archetypical ‘new’ B&S song – piano, horns and mindless optimism. I especially love the sound of the snare drum, and the way Stuart Murdoch pronnounces thro-at so that it rhymes with poet. Cute, Stu. I think Pitchfork was a little hard on this single, and the album in general. I don’t honestly think the new album is on par with their best work, but I can’t fault them for evolving and changing – “…at least they aren’t pulling a Robert Smith and staying “miserable” ad infinitum“. I’m always glad to see them, and we’ll always have If You’re Feeling Sinister.

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Ring A Dong Kong.


in

I haven’t been excited about a movie in a long time. As I wrote to a friend yesterday, who asked me to comment on the movies of 2005 for an article he is writing: “There are so many CGI-powered films these days that special effects hardly seem challenging any more. The real magic of Star Wars back in the 70s was the innovation behind the visuals. No one had ever seen anything like it before. Now, it seems like Sith was sandwiched in somewhere between Chronicles of Riddick and Serenity, and the magic has become mundane.” I just quoted myself. About Star Wars. If there’s still any uncertainty about whether or not I will die alone, this should put that right to bed.

A King Kong remake seemed like a decent idea to me. Mighty Joe Young didn’t quite cut it, and the 1976 version is a snoozer, in spite of Charles Grodin. Add Peter Jackon to the mix, and I might actually go see it in the theatre instead of downloading it whilst counting booty, sharpening a cutlass and feeding a parrott. Walking around on a peg leg whilst making a Frenchman walk the plank and leering at the computer screen with my one good eye. Dammit I’m a pirate!

The preliminary reviews have started to come in, and they are beyond good. I haven’t seen the movie, so I can only share some of the snippets I have heard thus far:

– “Grown men around me were crying,” says one Hollywood insider.
– “…a wonderful blend – probably the most perfect blend – of escapism and adventure, mystery and romance”.
– “could legitimately be described as the most thrilling B-grade movie of all time”.
– “Jackson evokes such a sense of empathy for his beast that Kleenex should be sold along with the popcorn.”

So we have the action of Jurassic Park (the flick is apparently chock full o dinos once they get to Skull Island,) and the weepiness of Titanic. Something for everyone. A bit chicky, and a lot dudey. An enormously diverse target audience. Time will tell, but I can say that I’d love to see Jack Black, and not Leonardo DiCaprio, as the star of the highest grossing movie of all time. I mean I’d just sleep better.

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Friday’s Quizzlet: Seascapes Of Violence.


in Monday's Quotelet

Appetizer: When was the last time you did something courteous?
I’ve been giving my seat up on the train a lot more frequently. It hurts at first, and it’s hard to sit down for a few days afterwards, but it’s a good way to make some extra pocket money and there are always generous elderly gentleman cruising public transportation.

Salad: If you were to have a painting done of you, what would background be?
The background would be that I’m enough of a narcissistic twat to comission a painting of himself. So, in other words, a seascape.

Soup: Describe your voice.
It’s smooth and deep. I can do a great Dean Martin impersonation. But if we’re talking inner-voice, it’s a selection of three murderous circus clown brothers bent on violent necrophelia.

Main Course: What is something you would like to do, but are afraid of the risks?
I’d like to move fairly soon. I don’t see myself living in Boston forever. But dropping everything is a very scary prospect. Like when you’re babysitting an infant. I’m thinking Toronto or Vancouver, but I’d likely have to change my profession a little due to the marketplace. I recently got a book on juggling.

Dessert: What was the last television show you watched?
Last night I watched an old episode of Family Guy – the one where Meg skips Stewie’s birthday party to unsuspectingly attend a cult meeting. I was a late adopter of this show, but it’s absolutely hilarious and I am so glad I eventually got around to wasting copious amounts of my time with it. Homer who?

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