The Pop Culture Addict’s Blog

I know I avoid the real world on this site, but I just can’t stop thinking about that tsunami. I keep remembering another friend who’s visiting that region this month – right now I’m thinking of my friends in India and Thailand and am waiting to hear back from them. My brother was very close to going to India for winter break. He was in HK at the time of impact and was oblivious he said – it didn’t reach that side. Another friend and her family were due out to India this weekend. I’m not sure if they left or not. It seems we all know people in that area of the world. It shows how small the global community has gotten – keep in mind I’m writing stateside so Southeast Asia seems far away. Also, I just have to comment that technology has been twofold here. 1) What was the deal with not being about to predict and warn people soon enough? And 2) thank goodness for satellite & fiber optic modes of communications, i.e., mobile phones, email, instant-messaging and text-messaging. I’m sure we all saw similar things on the news. For example, I saw that a man living in the US received a text message from his brother in Indonesia saying he was okay. And also, a couple of people were on the news via mobile phones describing their situations in Sri Lanka and Thailand. I expect more people will be blogging about it. I guess I already am.

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I recently discovered the Ovation channel. I was flipping through the on-screen cable guide when a show entitled The Freddie Mercury Story caught my eye. I watched that (did you know he was Indian?) and immediately following it was a documentary about a Freddie Mercury tribute/AIDS awareness concert which was fun. I liked how the guys from Extreme seemed to know all the words, guitar licks and drumming as they watched others performing on stage. Then a few days later I noticed they were showing an old concert by Jobim. Not paying mind to these obvious clues, I couldn’t figure out what the purpose of the channel was until there was an ad that said “watch Ovation, the arts network” and I thought, oh, that makes sense.

So, don’t ask me why, but despite the fact that I tend to find Andrew Lloyd Webber cheesy (although I must admit to liking some of his songs), I still ended up seeing the movie of Phantom of the Opera. It was way too long. There were some ok elements but it was certainly no Moulin Rouge or even Chicago. I wonder how Hairspray, the movie based on the musical based on the movie, will be.

I’ve been listening to The Brian Setzer Orchestra’s Boogie Woogie Xmas and Christmas with The Rat Pack. I love that Dean Martin. I was arguing with someone about whether Dean Martin was an alcoholic. He wasn’t! It was just an act. He was so good in Rio Bravo too. He plays an alcoholic. It’s called acting.

But my favorite album today is Leon Fleisher’s Two Hands. What a fantastic title. Let me refer you to Pop Music: Leon Fleisher for the amazing story behind this recording.

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That’s what I used to call my mellow mixtapes…mishmash I, II, III, etc. Get it? So clever. Anyway, where to start?

First off, I saw Bad Santa and liked it a lot. The relationship between Billy Bob Thornton’s character and the kid reminded me a lot of the relationship in You Can Count On Me between Mark Ruffalo’s character and Rory Culkin’s. The adults are immature too but at the same time they treat the kids with respect and try to be straight about things perhaps to a fault.

What else? I was reading last week’s Onion, such a funny publication. Every story is funny. Anyway, they put out their best of 2004 music lists and I was pleased to see “Stupid Memory” by Sondre Lerche on someone’s list of best songs of the year…who was that…Stephen Thompson wrote that. And someone else mentioned that Streets album I was talking about earlier this year as worth listening to. Who was that? Keith Phipps. I have 7 out of the 10 albums he listed. It’s too much for me to rank them. But I’ll say that the single “Van Lear Rose” by Loretta Lynn and Jack White is really awesome. And Brian Wilson’s Smile is cool too. He is such a good producer among other things. I was wondering if he has any interest in hip hop. I mean, move over Rover, let Brian take over. He could take you places.

There are so many movies out. Let me talk about Million Dollar Baby. I think Clint Eastwood is an excellent director. I had heard it was good but sad. I’m telling you this because my friend was saying how she would’ve never known how sad it was based on the trailer and she likes to know what to expect. You know, is it a light comedy, tale of triumph, etc. So, Hilary Swank looked amazing. She did a great job in general. Clint was cool. It was nice to see Jay Baruchel from Almost Famous (the Led Zeppelin fan) and star of Undeclared again. The only thing that irked me the tiniest bit, and really, it was only a tiny bit but enough for me to mention it here was Morgan Freeman’s character being omniscent and wise. Coincidentally, I was just reading in EW or somewhere cliches they’d like to see gone and one of them was, “Please stop having Morgan Freeman playing the moral center of the movie.” I loved Electric Company. That’s how I became literate or so my dad tells me. And Morgan is a good actor. But it’s a thing that rubs me the wrong way. Still, the direction was good. I recommend the movie overall. However, you should keep in mind, it is sad.

My brother predicts after seeing everything that’s out, we’re going to still think that The Incredibles is the best movie of 2004. I agree.

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Here’s a cool story that’s going to be in the public domain on Wednesday, but I really want to tell it now.

One of my pop culture colleagues is Miss Info. And this is her story: I was saying how I’ve been listening a lot to Nas’ Illmatic lately. I didn’t have the album before. I knew the singles but I only got the album when it was reissued for its 10 year anniversary. I said based on my feelings about Illmatic, I was inspired to get his new album… um, I have to look it up…Street’s Disciple which is pretty good but nothing like Illmatic which is song after song of wow, this kid is good!

Miss Info then reminded me that 10 years ago, she was reviewing albums for The Source and she gave Illmatic an unheard of 5 mics (mikes) – the highest rating. Her editors asked her, are you sure? He’s a new artist, we never give 5 mics to new artists, etc., etc. And she stuck to her guns and look at what happened. She was 100% right. 10 years later, critics and fans alike rate Illmatic as a classic album through and through. So I said, look what that says about your ability to recognize talent. And she said one of her biggest regrets is when she reviewed Biggie’s Ready to Die, another classic album, and waivered between 4.5 and 5 mics. She ended up going with 4.5 mics and it haunts her to this day that she didn’t press for the 5 mics because it is a more accurate rating.

Anyway, cool story, right? She is forward-thinking in everything, but it’s cool that she made this mark in pop culture. People always talk about how Illmatic received an unprecedented 5 mics in The Source. And we can trace that history back to her.

So, you can see and hear her interview on BET this Wednesday, 12/15/04. I think the show is “Testimony” and it’s airing at 7:30pm in NYC.

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So many movies but I always find the time. I finally saw The Incredibles and loved it even tho’ I punked out and didn’t see it in digital after all my talk. Loved it. Of course Edna was the bomb and Jack-Jack was funny. I also saw Finding Neverland and found the kids, especially the kid who played Peter, to be very good. Johnny Depp rocked. He’s so versatile and consistently interesting. Like Kate Winslet too.

I forgot that The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou opened this weekend. Love Bill Murray. Rushmore was remarkable. My brother and I always talk about how we saw Bottle Rocket in the theater with a smattering of other indie geeks and thought it was cool enough but never would’ve predicted Owen Wilson’s subsequent action star status. I think it was in the same theater where we saw El Mariachi. I felt so cool seeing that one. I thought I was beyond cool after I saw This Is Spinal Tap in the theater. We had to go downtown to the Fine Arts Theater. Isn’t that funny? It was considered an art film. I remember going home and repeating lines to my brother and trying to make him laugh. But I think my delivery wasn’t quite up to that of Christopher Guest and Co. That’s also the place I saw Stop Making Sense and was hypnotized by it. I haven’t watched that movie in eons. I wonder if I would still feel the same way. Probably not. A seminal film nonetheless. Okay, enough traipsing down movie memory lane here.

I hope Ocean’s 12 is good. I haven’t heard any first-hand reviews yet. I’ll know more soon. My brother said The Very Long Engagement is a good WWI movie with 21st century effects. But first, I must do what many of us must and get obligatory shopping done. I’ve been putting it off. But what must be must be. I must sublimate my inner Grinch and just TCB.

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