New Wave Maniacs: Haysi Fantayzee
by Haysi Fantayzee equals Milli Vanilli plus Boy George with a dash of Thompson Twins.
Category: Culture
Gimlet Media
I’ve been listening to Start Up a podcast about Alex Blumberg’s efforts to start-up a business to make podcasts (a business he names Gimlet Media for reason revealed in one of the episodes). Blumberg comes with a great NPR pedigree having worked for both This American Life and Planet Money. Start Up is very revealing, particularly because Blumberg knows so little about what he’s doing that he asks the questions others might skip right on by. I can’t recommend this enough — it’s great story. It is also reminding me of issues comics and the web went through, are still …
David Rees New TeeVee Show: Going Deep
David Rees of GYWO and MNFTIU and legendary guru of sharpening pencils — now on the teevee with a new show called Going Deep with David Rees. Check a bunch of them out on Hulu.
A Few Thoughts on World Cup 2014
So last year I wrote a thought piece on the current Confederations and their qualification systems for the World Cup. About a month removed from this year’s World Cup in Brazil I am emerging from acute soccer withdrawal and wanted to note some thoughts about Brazil. First off, this was an exciting edition of the World Cup. Great games, lots of goals and drama galore. The German shellacking of Brasil will go down in history as one of the greatest shock defeats in the history of the game. The advance of Costa Rica deep into the tournament was as great …
Weird Al Has a Number One Album
I leave the country for a couple of weeks and… Weird Al has a number one album?! What is the world coming to? Well genius marketing by Weird Al with his eight videos in eight days push to release it sure has a lot to do with it. I crack up at Word Crimes and may someday like Tacky (right now my brain has overheard that Happy song to the point where it’s just too much too soon). [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc?rel=0]
Interview with the Young Beastie Boys
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4mx2P3kLv4?rel=0] Interesting — this is from 1985; Licensed to Ill came out in 1986.
2013: Pop Culture in Review
Year in Movies [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DiMjOWlbmM] [vimeo 80862133 w=640 h=360] Year In Music
Enjoy the last day of 2013 and best wishes for the New Year
Scholastic is kind enough to include me on its mailing list — given the dearth of reviewed books this year I’m not sure how long that will last. Their holiday card features a beautiful Kazu Kibuishi drawing of Christmas with Harry Potter. Best wishes to everyone for the new year — I find it hard to believe we’re moving from 2013 to 2014 (these still sound like science fiction years to my 20th century born ears) but there it is.