Category Archives: POP CULTURE

POP CULTURE

Amy Winehouse: 1983-2011

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Earlier today Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London Camden home. For so many reasons I am deeply saddened by this information. I have been a fan of her music for years now, I have read her biographies, and had much respect for her as a person and as a musician. I will miss her talent dearly, as I am sure many fans will.

Amy Winehouse was born September 14, 1983. This puts her into a very famous group of people… the ‘Forever 27 Club‘. This club includes artists who all passed away at the age of 27. The group’s first member was the Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, who passed away in 1969 after drowning in a pool. Then followed Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morison, and Janis Joplin. Years later, on April 8 1994, it was discovered that Kurt Cobain had died in his Seattle home days earlier – at the age of 27. His death was pronounced a suicide upon arrival, which I whole-heartedly do not believe, but that is another story entirely. Kurt Cobain’s mother Wendy O’Connor said this after her son’s death: “Now he’s gone and joined that stupid club, I told him not to join that stupid club.” Amy is now a part of that club. A group of extremely talented musicians, hopefully all making beautiful music together in Heaven. (Fact: Amy had been released from a London rehabilitation facility less than two months before her death. Kurt Cobain fled a California rehab facility days before his death.)

Amy Winehouse began singing at a very young age, mostly because of her father Mitchell Winehouse. Mitchell was a taxi cab driver who Amy described as having a great singing voice. He used to sing Frank Sinatra and other older acts to her, which is where her love of older jazzy music blossomed from. Her early years were littered with little bad-girl attempts at trouble-making. She joined a rap group and was constantly berated by teachers for singing, or being loud in class. She was only 10 when she joined the rap group, of which I could not find video evidence, but wish I could. When Amy was 14 years old, she was expelled from school. Apparently piercing her nose and “not applying herself” were enough to get kicked out of theater school. She continued singing and was signed in 2002 by Simon Fuller’s 19 Management.

With much help form producer Salaam Remi, Amy released “Frank” when she was only 20 years old. Then, in 2006 Amy released “Back to Black”, her exciting and soulful follow-up to “Frank”. This gained her world-wide respect and attention. “Rehab” was a huge hit, and made everyone look at her with that paparazzi eye. Even though she had a restraining order against a major tabloid paparazzi crew, her drug/alcohol/mental health issues were no secret to the public. Amy was seen as a hollywood bad girl. Not in the Lindsay Lohan “I am a rich brat with a short attention span” sense, but in the 1960s woeful real-life hardship “I sing the blues for a reason” sense. Her music changed my life. With songs like “You know I’m no good”, “I Heard Love is Blind”, “Tears Dry On Their Own” and “Back to Black”, listening made me feel like I was not alone. Like someone else in the world understood my hardships and had felt what I felt. It helped me through a lot over the years.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the cause of Amy Winehouse’s death is still unknown.

London Police Superintendent Raj Kohli said at this “early stage” of the investigation the death remained “unexplained.”

“I am aware of reports suggesting this death is the result of a suspected drugs overdose, but I would like to re-emphasise that no post-mortem examination has yet taken place and it would be inappropriate to speculate on the cause of death,” Kohli said.

Amy Winehouse was many things. Yes, she was an addict, a boozer, and proclaimed she was “no good”… but I listened to every song she has ever created. I have heard the heartache and the issues she has had to deal with. She died much too early. I know that she had a lot more to give this world. It is a tragedy that she will never be able to get over her hurdles and bare her soul for one more record.

Rest in Peace Amy Winehouse: 1983-2011

Here are a few of my favorites…

POP CULTURE

Comic-Con International ’11 – It Begins!

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At no other time or place can you see thousands of geeky nerdy nerds gathered in a place tailored for them. Comic-Con started out as a place for the assembled fans of to gather, discuss, sell, buy, promote and live all things comic-related, and has grown exponentially. This is the Con that makes all other cons it’s bitch. The next big thing from comics, movies, video games, toys, cosplay etc. is usually first brought to us at this yearly event.

So obviously we are going to try to cover all the big news, but I’ll warn you ahead of time –  These little updates will be anything but little. Since most of us are unable to be a part of the GREATEST THING EVER, then we have to get by reading about it. So I’m just trying to make it easy for everybody by bringing the news from the Con to those of us who unfortunately cannot partake in the awesomeness. That being said…

Continue reading Comic-Con International ’11 – It Begins! →

POP CULTURE

Scum of the Week – Maniac Honda Driver of Harlem

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Okay, if you’re driving a “tricked out” Honda Pilot, then you’re already certified scum. Seriously just those words all put together are terrible. Tricked. Out. Honda. Pilot. Disgusting should be added onto that. So it’s bad enough if you’re the proud owner of a tricked out Honda Pilot, but it’s a hundred times worse if hit your wife with it and then kept going and proceeded to flip before getting on the highway. That’s just what some foolish Harlem resident did on Saturday. Talk about instant karma, this ass-faced moron was taking double doses after his craziness. Here’s an excerpt from the New York Daily News:

A maniac driver mowed down his wife in Midtown and then sped off, leaving her half-naked body in the street – and then later flipped his car on the Harlem River Drive, police said.

The 28-year-old driver was in serious condition at Harlem Hospital after he wrecked his tricked-out Honda Pilot near the on-ramp to the George Washington Bridge.

The 23-year-old victim, meanwhile, was in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital Saturday, hours after the wild 3 a.m. accident on W. 46th St.

Investigators are still piecing together what led to the chaotic scene, but witnesses said the victim was working at the El Tequilazo bar in the moments before she was injured.

She was sent flying after she was struck by the Honda –  which had a customized Superman theme on its front bumper and her husband behind the wheel, witnesses and police sources said.

Investigators could not say if the man deliberately ran over his wife, or if she fell after trying to hold onto the car.

Hopefully this idiot’s wife recovers from this and proceeds to divorce his prison-bound ass. And hopefully Mr. Honda will never be able to drive again once he recovers in the hospital.

POP CULTURE

105.7 The Point – Woody and Rizzuto: Finally Something Worth Listening to…

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So I don’t know about your local radio market, but here in the bay area there is absolutely nothing worth listening too.  The sport shows are down right embarrassing despite the fact of having the most professional teams and relevant college teams in the area to talk about, and all the other morning shows are just annoying. You have two gay guys screaming how everything is FABULOUS, Sarah and Vinnie who manage to screw up every news topic they discuss when they take a break from talking about shit nobody cares about (can someone please explain to me how the hell Sarah has been able to stay on the radio for so long??), and then you have a syndicated show from LA which is stale and LOVES the whacky, zany fake phone call bits. So rather than switch to iPod  and Pandora for my commutes to work, I was able to find something worth listening to via podcast.

The show is called “The Woody and Rizzuto Show” and it is based out of St. Louis, Missouri. The show is on the local FM dial on 105.7, and runs from 6am till 10am Central Time. The show consists of 3 guys, the hosts Woody and Scott Rizzuto, and their producer Tony Patrico (aka Fatty). The show, in short, is basically about breaking balls and having fun (mostly at the expense of their producer). The target audience for the show is the 18-35 year old males, but is shockingly picking up a strong following of female and 35+ listeners as well.

In addition to daily news, sports, and celebrity news, the show also has standard weekly segments that consists of the following:

Tuesdays: Freak of the Week and Got Game with Steve “Manballs” Masters. Freak of the Week, is a segment where they bring in a local St. Louis celebrity, Fred from the ‘Cheapo Depot’, to read local Craigslist ads that they found, and have the listeners vote on which one is the freaky-est. While this segment is certainly one of their best, it pretty much makes any desire to visit the city nonexistent. While the ads themselves could carry this segment, listening to the old man reading them makes it priceless. The Got Game segment is all about what’s new with video games, and allows for callers to ask questions of Manballs Masters about upcoming releases or their systems.

Wednesdays: Bitch be Trippin. This segment is where they not only read stories of women doing crazy, stupid stuff, but they also open the phone lines up to allow listeners to call out the women in their lives who do and say stupid stuff.

Thursdays: Sexy Time Fun Facts. This is where they bring up a different sex topic, usually based on a recent survey (i.e. what age did you lose your virginity) and discuss the findings and get input/stories concerning the topic from listeners.

Friday: Fail Stories and Donnie’s Week in Rage. The fail stories segment consists of reading stories where people came up with the perfect plan, the best idea, but when it came time to perform…..FAIL. The best is listening to the listener fail stories when they do call in with them. And finally there is the Week in Rage. This segment is where the guys give the mid-morning host, Donnie Fandango, his own segment to let loose on rant about all the things bugging him from the week. It’s a lot like the old Lewis Black ‘Back in Black’ segment, that used to air on the Daily Show. Definitely one of the bests segments on the show.

POP CULTURE

NIN: Year Zero Mini-Series Showing Signs of Life

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NINE months ago we got word from Trent Reznor that his plans for a two-year HBO and BBC Worldwide mini-series based on his Year Zero album released in 2007 was moving forward in the pre-production.

For those of you who are not cultured (or depressed) enough to be familiar with that album, it was Trent Reznor’s response to the George W Bush government policies. It served as warning if those policies continued, by portraying what the world would be like 15 years down the road – after a nuclear war between the United States and Iran, and the rise of the Bureau of Morality who take away American’s civil liberties. (Quick side note as a NIN fan: decent album, not the best. Favorite songs on the album include Survivalism, The Good Soldier, Capital G, God Given, and In This Twilight.)

At that time we heard that the team working on this project consists of Daniel Knauf (creator of Carnival), Lawerence Bender (producer of Pulp Fiction), and Kevin Kelly Brown (producer of Roswell). Since then, the development of this sci-fi mini-series has INCHed along, until recently when they announced that HBO and BBC have NAILed down a writer for the entire series, Jim Uhls. Uhls is most famous for adapting the screen play for Fight Club, and most forgotten about for writing the screen play for that piece of crap Jumper. Or maybe that was all Hayden Christensen’s fault… Thanks for ruining Darth Vadar asshole.

“Give me back my conditioner.”

Anyways, its good to finally here some news and confirmation that this mini-series moving forward and becoming closer to reality since the premise of the show sounds like it could be successful if done well. HBO does have a pretty solid track record when it comes to their own shows, but lets just hope tapping in to his inner ‘Tyler Durdon’ was apart of Uhls contract when coming aboard.

POP CULTURE, THE INTERWEBS

The Owls Have Gathered! An Exciting First Look at J. K. Rowling’s newest project and the futures of the Harry Potter Franchise – ‘Pottermore!’

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It was announced early this morning that J. K. Rowling’s new pet project, ‘Pottermore,’ will be an online experience for Harry Potter fans.  Not only will it help fans gain a better understanding of the world that she created, but it will also be a place for new readers, who didn’t experience Potter-Mania in its prime, to experience the world of Harry Potter first-hand.

According to the official press release:

In the new website, the storyline will be brought to life with sumptuous newly-commissioned illustrations and interactive ‘Moments’ through which you can navigate, starting with the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone. On entering, you choose a magic username and begin your experience. As you move through the chapters, you can read and share exclusive writing from J.K. Rowling, and, just as Harry joins Hogwarts, so can you. You visit Diagon Alley, get sorted into a house, cast spells and mix potions to help your house compete for the House Cup.

In addition, she will be providing new information on characters, places, and objects in the Potter universe.  ‘Pottermore‘ will also have an online store, where fans can purchase Harry Potter merchandise; and for the first time will be the exclusive place to purchase all seven installments in eBook form. For some screen shots of what to expect from the website – Click Here.

Only a select few will get the chance to view the site before its wide release in October.  Starting July 31, fans can enter their email address at the official website to earn the chance for an early entry.  The rest of us will have to wait!

I must say, as a huge fan of the series, I am THRILLED.  It’s hard to say whether or not this will replace her promised encyclopedia to the series, but this is better.  It gives all of the eager fans a chance to learn more about the world they love, while adding the interactive aspect and experiencing the wizarding world first-hand.  If done right, the website can give us Potter nerds a chance to continue our love of the series after the books have been written and the films have been released.  I couldn’t be happier!

I’d be curious to know what you all think, fans of the books or not.  Let us know in the comments!