“MICHAEL Lang and Joel Rosenman were two of the producers of the original Woodstock festival 40 summers ago. Lately, they have been trying to pull together an anniversary concert this year, they really have, but you have to understand, man, it’s complex. . . . “While the partners’ most promising idea — a one-day mini-Woodstock in [...]
Archive for the ‘Popular Culture’ Category
“By the Time We Got to Woodstock”: Commemorating Woodstock’s 40th Anniversary
Posted in Counter Culture, Popular Culture, Popular Music, Rock 'n' Roll on May 12, 2009 | 5 Comments »
In Mustard They Trust: Obama, Texans, Republican Lawmakers Prefer Mustard to Ketchup
Posted in American West, Congress, Food & Wine, Obama, Politics, Popular Culture on May 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“What kind of a man eats his hamburger without ketchup? That was the big question yesterday on talk radio, after President Obama visited an Arlington, Virginia, hamburger place on Tuesday and ordered his burger with spicy mustard.” Apparently Texans and Republicans also prefer mustard to ketchup as their condiment of choice: In Texas: “Texans traditionally eat hamburgers [...]
R.I.P. – Ernie Barnes (1938-2009)
Posted in Art & Artists, Obituaries, Popular Culture, Race, Sports on April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Ernie Barnes, whose drawings and paintings of athletes, dancers and other figures in motion reflected his first career as a professional football player, died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 70. . . . “Mr. Barnes was an offensive lineman in the old American Football League, playing four seasons in the 1960s for the [...]
The Real Things: Major League Baseball’s All-Star Authenticators
Posted in Baseball, Collectors & Collecting, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Popular Culture, Sports, Sports Memorabilia on April 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Nearly a decade ago, embarrassed about reports of widespread fraud in the $1-billion-per-year sports memorabilia industry — dominated by baseball and filled mostly with fakes and forgeries, according to an F.B.I. investigation — Major League Baseball did something about it. “Now every game has at least one authenticator, watching from a dugout or near one. The authenticators [...]
The Creativity Stimulus: Prospects for a “New Deal” for American Culture
Posted in Art & Artists, Obama, Plays & Playwrights, Poets & Poetry, Politics, Popular Culture, Writers & Writing on April 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“On inauguration day, Tom Brokaw was moved to compare Barack Obama’s election to Czechoslovakia’s 1989 Velvet Revolution. At the eye of each storm, of course, was an icon who merged the political and the aesthetic–Václav Havel, the rock-star poet and prophet, and Barack Obama, the post-soul master of his own story. Both struck down eras [...]
Touching All the Bases: William Safire on Baseball Lingo
Posted in Baseball, Language, Popular Culture, Writers & Writing on April 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Where would pols, pundits and morose mucky-mucks be without the language of baseball? “Here’s the pitch: Despite distractions, you have to keep your eye on the ball. You have to be aware of something unexpected coming out of left field, and only if your ad-libbed response is not off base will your home team go to bat for you. You can’t be born [...]
Obscene: Maverick Publisher Barney Rosset Completes Autobiography
Posted in Books, Business, Counter Culture, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Literature, Magazines & Newspapers, Plays & Playwrights, Popular Culture, Writers & Writing on April 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
From NPR, a profile of publisher Barney Rosset, former owner of Grove Press and The Evergreen Review, in advance of the publication of his autobiography, The Subject Is Left Handed, which takes its name from his FBI file. The article includes a clip from “Obscene,” a film biography (2007) of Rosset, in which Rosset discusses acquiring Samuel [...]
Burger King & Mexico Em-Broiled in “Texican Whopper” Advertising Dispute
Posted in American West, Business, Food & Wine, Media & Advertising, Popular Culture, The Americas on April 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Mexico is protesting what it says is a whopper of an insult. “An advertisement for Burger King‘s Texican Whopper burger that has run in Europe shows a small wrestler dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag. The wrestler teams up with a lanky American cowboy almost twice his height to illustrate the cross-border blend of flavors. “‘The taste [...]
R.I.P. – Mark “The Bird” Fidrych (1954-2009)
Posted in Baseball, Obituaries, Popular Culture, Sports on April 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Mark Fidrych, an eccentric All-Star pitcher nicknamed ‘The Bird’ whose career was shortened by injuries, was found dead Monday in an apparent accident at his farm. He was 54. . . . “The curly-haired right-hander was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1976 when he went 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA and 24 complete [...]
Senseless Censors: Amazon.com De-Ranks “Adult” Books (Including National Book Award Winners)
Posted in Books, Business, Literature, Popular Culture, Sex & Gender, World Wide Web, Writers & Writing on April 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“‘American Psycho’ is Bret Easton Ellis’ story of a sadistic murderer. ‘Unfriendly Fire’ is a well-reviewed empirical analysis of military policy. But it’s ‘Unfriendly Fire’ that does not have a sales rank — which means it would not show up in Amazon’s bestseller lists, even if it sold more copies than the ‘Twilight’ series. In [...]
Easter Bunnies: “Girls Gone Wild” Ad Interrupts Good Friday Service Broadcast
Posted in Media & Advertising, Popular Culture, Religion, Sex & Gender, Television on April 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“A Philadelphia cable network’s early morning broadcast of a Good Friday service at the Vatican abruptly changed to something wildly different – a 30-second ‘Girls Gone Wild‘ ad. “Comcast spokesman Jeff Alexander says the 2 a.m. Friday programming glitch was due to a required test of the Emergency Alert System. He says such tests are usually done [...]
101 Last Suppers: Pop Culture Adaptations of da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”
Posted in Art & Artists, Popular Culture, Religion on April 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Robert Crumb‘s cover for “The Last Supplement to the Whole Earth Catalog,” from Jeremy Barker’s collection of 100+ pop culture adaptations of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. (more @ “Popped Culture,”; via Wired) [Click image for a larger version of the R. Crumb cover.]
Guitar Money: Roy Rogers’ Guitar Sells for $554,500
Posted in American West, Antiques & Folk Art, Collectors & Collecting, Popular Culture, Popular Music on April 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“An anonymous bidder acquired the ‘King of Cowboys’ Roy Rogers‘ OM-45 Deluxe Martin guitar at Christie’s on April 3. One of the rarest and considered among many collectors the most coveted Martin guitar, the 1930 instrument was put up for auction by the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Mo., and attracted a winning bid [...]
“Defiance”: Seeking A Balanced Legacy for Poland During the Holocaust
Posted in Books, Cinema, Europe, Foreign Travel, International Affairs, Jewish Life, Movie Reviews, Museums & Exhibitions, Politics, Popular Culture, Religion on April 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“In “Defiance,” a clunky but well-meaning action film set during World War II and starring Daniel Craig, the Bielski brothers save hundreds of fellow Polish Jews by battling Nazis in the Belarussian forest. Directed by Edward Zwick and based on a true story, the movie, released around New Year’s, tried among other things to counter Hollywood’s usual tales of [...]
Not for Prophet Sale: Controversial Mohammed Cartoon For Sale in Limited Edition
Posted in Collectors & Collecting, Europe, Humor, International Affairs, Magazines & Newspapers, Media & Advertising, Middle East, Politics, Popular Culture, Religion on April 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Prints of the Danish cartoon depicting Islam‘s Prophet Mohammed as a suicide bomber in 2005 — much to the chagrin of the international Muslim community — will now be sold by the Denmark Free Press Society for $250 each. One thousand copies are to be printed and sold, with each having a designated number and signature by [...]
Today’s Sign of the Apocalypse: Chia Obama
Posted in Business, Collectors & Collecting, Obama, Popular Culture, Race, Sign of the Apocalypse on April 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Walgreens has announced that the commander in chief will not sprout a Chia Afro on its shelves. . . . “We decided to pull the product because it didn’t fit with our corporate image,” [Robert Elfinger, a spokesman for Walgreens] said in a company statement. “We also didn’t want to be subject to any misinterpretation over [...]
Happy Endings: Recession Boosting Sales of Harlequin Romance Novels
Posted in Books, Business, Economy, Popular Culture on April 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“In a recession, what people want is a happy ending. “At a time when booksellers are struggling to lure readers, sales of romance novels are outstripping most other categories of books and giving some buoyancy to an otherwise sluggish market. “Harlequin Enterprises, the queen of the romance world, reported that fourth-quarter earnings were up 32 [...]
Newly Found “Schindler’s List” Copy on Display in Australia
Posted in Books, Cinema, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Europe, International Affairs, Jewish Life, Museums & Exhibitions, Popular Culture, Religion, Writers & Writing on April 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“A list of Jews saved from the Nazi death camps during World War II by the German industrialist Oskar Schindler has been found in research notes at an Australian library and will go on public display on Tuesday. “The list of 801 Jewish men was found among six boxes of papers that belonged to the [...]
“Hope I Die Before I Get Old”: 20 Musicians Who Died at 27 (Hendrix, Joplin, Cobain, Morrison, et al)
Posted in Blues & Jazz, Counter Culture, Popular Culture, Popular Music, Rock 'n' Roll on April 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Eric Segalstad has spent the past few years researching a group of musicians who have been dubbed ‘The 27s’ — rockers who died at that age, either through tragedy, misadventure or excess. The club includes Kurt Cobain, who took his own life 15 years ago Sunday. “The king of grunge is just one of the [...]
Great Black Hope: Pardon Sought for Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Johnson
Posted in Congress, Obama, Politics, Popular Culture, Race, Sports on April 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he’s sure that President Barack Obama ‘will be more than eager’ to pardon the late black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, who was sent to prison nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman. “Appearing with three of Johnson’s family members and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., [...]
