Preaching To The Choir

A little self promotion, if you don't mind. You're reading this you've clearly found your way here, but there are other options:

• Tumblr — Just like looking at the photos without my increasingly smaller amounts of text? The Tumblr version of my feed is the place for you.

• Facebook — Do you like to Like things? Join the Popped Culture page and I'll be the friend with all the stupid links. I won't even ask you to help me move.

• Twitter — My Twitter feed is actually different than my RSS, often a collection of all the other odd things I find during the day but that don't make the page. Consider it an addendum. Follow and find out.

You can also find me over at YouTube, Flickr, Digg, friendfeed, soup and ever StumbleUpon occasionally.

Umm, I don't have a MySpace page — this video will explain why: (via The Nerdist)


Ok, that's it for the naval gazing. Thanks.

Previously on Popped Culture...
I'm On Twitter! I'm On Facebook! La-La La La La La
Twitter: Yelling At Anyone Who Will Listen
Here Be Anthropomorphic Dragons

Reinventing The Wheel

After much procrastination on my part, the redesign is complete! This is the first major re-do since moving from AOL (of which the first 14 months of posts have been lost to the slow demise of that once mighty company), so it's kind of a big deal for me.

But now I'm all hooked up with big, shiny pics and videos, links to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr and other such social media.

Many, many thanks to my friend Karen Geier over at Sharp Pants. Anything you like is her doing. Anything you don't is most likely mine.

Anyway, share and enjoy.

Previously on Popped Culture...
Word Up!
Stay Out Of Riverdale!
All Popped, No Culture

Your "Mother" Doesn't Work Here

An overflowing RSS reader and an overstuffed blogroll makes it near impossible to read all the sites I'd like to. But here are two I need to get to more often, and you should too:

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks
Bethany Keeley finds it entertaining to pretend that quotation marks that are used for emphasis instead indicate insincerity, sarcasm or euphemism.


Passive Aggressive Notes: Painfully polite and hilariously hostile writings from shared spaces the world over

Seriously... Sugar Ray?

Panties

Spoons

Fourth Is The New First

The results are in for the Best Cultural/Entertainment Blog at the Canadian Blog Awards and I can't deny the fact that you kinda like me, right now, you kinda like me! The votes have been tallied and Popped Culture came in... fourth. Hmmm. It's like high school all over again.

What the hell, I'll take it! Thanks to those of you who voted and even those of you who meant to, but didn't. I'd say this was a ranking drop after 2006's third place finish, but I wasn't even in the race last year, so this is a vast improvement. I will leave the heavy burden of pop culture leadership on the shoulders of two-time winner Mike's Bloggity Blog.

I'd also like to thank/ask you to visit the other members of the illustrious Top Five: Department of Culture, The Nag on the Lake and The Delete Bin, which are all new blogs to me, and is kind of the point of all this anywho.

And while fourth doesn't come with a snazzy badge like the others get, I just went ahead and made my own. Thanks CBAs, see you next year!

For Your Consideration

Popped Culture has been out there delving into entertainment for years, bringing the inside story of a pop culture geek to you. In my ongoing efforts I have flown an X-Wing Fighter as a Lego Miniman:



I then traveled space and time to land in the near past to appear as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever:

It's the sort of thing I'm willing to do and all I ask is for you to vote for me as Best Cultural/Entertainment Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards, where I am one of five finalists.

Is it a popularity contest? Of course it is, but as a wise man once said, what's wrong with that?

Homer Simpson: JUST a popularity contest? Excuse me. What's more important than popularity?

So that's my pitch. Vote for me and I'll vote for whatever crazy thing you ask me to and should I win I will spread the vast wealth that I can only assume comes with an online, Canadian, award.

Oh yes, and go and view my full Lego Miniman history video and make your own. It's amusingly creepy.

Somebody Out There Likes Me

Much to my surprise I have landed on the Best Cultural/Entertainment Blog list at the 2008 Canadian Blog Awards. I'm one of 25 nominees, so that's pretty gratifying.

At least one of my competitors appears to be an American author (Robin Slick, not that there's anything wrong with that), some have media profiles (Dead Things on Sticks), others Facebook support groups (Mikes Bloggity Blog). Some are new to the scene (Department of Culture) while others have been hanging about for years (Townie Bastard), and some are kinda odd (I Rate Science Fiction Doctors) at least one is boycotting the awards (Sheena).

It's an interesting collection, worth checking out, if only to expose your self to some different thinking. Am I the best of the lot? Uh... sure. Actually, that's for you to decide — and you don't even have to be Canadian to vote! Yes you can.

One vote per person (or at least IP address) and I won't ask again. Unless I get to the next round.

...And You Act Like One Too

Four years can be a lifetime in pop culture, more so for a blog. So Happy Birthday Popped Culture, which turned four today.

When I started this small corner of the digital world, Tom Cruise had yet to jump the couch, Britney Spears had only been married once, Pierce Brosnan was still James Bond, George Lucas had yet to unleash his final mangling of Star Wars and Lost had yet to redefine TV dramas.

I hadn't really even heard of blogs when my friend Ryan Trotman said I should start a blog, ending up in Popped Culture's first incarnation as an AOL Journal. I've since moved on to Blogger and how it looks now. I'm pleased, but I won't say it isn't work some evenings. But I figure a fourth year deserves a fifth and perhaps a redesign. We'll see about that.

If anyone wants to get me a gift, I'll take a link from boing boing, Digg, Neatorma or Slashdot would be cool. But comments are nice too.

See you out there...

Gossip 'R' Us

"These are the people who saw an overcrowded marketplace and said, 'Me too!'"

Super blogger Tina Mockmore, formerly of Glitterati Gossip, now of Hollywood Offender has started up Gossip Blog Girl to help anyone who wants to join the cutthroat world of celebrity blogging.

Or, as she more eloquently puts it, "helping others avoid the pitfalls of gossip blogging, to aid in sifting through the sludge, to answer questions, spark ideas and have a place to recharge their batteries." I know I could have used that when I fell off the web this summer.

Tina asked me to answer a few questions about choosing a name for a blog and I was honoured to participate, especially as asked the creators of Pretty on the Outside, Cele|bitchty and Holy Candy. Heady company for such a slack updater as myself. Thanks Tina, I hope I was of some help.

The Clown Show is on Hiatus for Re-Tooling.

Popped Culture is taking a short hiatus to recharge and catch up with some pop culture instead of just writing about it. But not to worry (if that's the sort of thing you're prone to doing), I'm not packing it in, just a vacation of sorts. See ya soon.

Deep Thought

Pop culture, thinking and blogging, are they mutually exclusive? Well I don’t purport to be doing Mensa work here I do hope I’ve added a little to the conversation. So I was pleased to be recognized by a fellow pop culture aficionado, Matt over at Culture Kills, for a Thinking Blogger Award. It’s mostly a meme where you say nice things about other people, but that doesn’t mean I won’t put it on my resume along with my Time Person of the Year cover.

So now it’s my turn to share the love and I figured I would highlight five bloggers who think a little bit more about pop culture than your average episode of Entertainment Tonight.


Nik at Nite
Nik is the only one of my nominees that I know and I’ve always respected her opinions on movies and TV and even though I may resist at first she’s usually right. Except about The Office being funny, of course. Turn to her for great recaps of Lost, Heroes and what ever else she is watching between writing books about them.

Dead Things ON Sticks
Denis also writes about TV, but from an insider perspective. I read him when I want to find out what really happened anytime I see TV stories in traditional media, especially in Canada.

The Gilded Moose
The Moose takes the inanity of celebrity obsessions and taunts it into submission. Makes the whole thing bearable, really. I especially love the breathless coverage of Jake Gyllenhaal.

What Would Tyler Durden Do
For those that believe that the Moose if too kind to celebs, there is Tyler Durden. Harsh, caustic and often laugh out loud funny, Durden is as mean as I want to be but don’t have the heart to be.

Gallery of the Absurd
14 takes all of the above obsessions and turns them into illustrations that cut to the heart of the celebrity condition. Her pictures are worth a thousand gossip posts.

The rules of the award:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

I Wish Life Were More Like a Video Game

Hey there Popped Culture fans. If you've landed here you clearly aren't averse to taking a little time out to indulge yourself in some rejuvenating nostalgia. Some would call it time wasting — those people are philistines.

Anyway... I was reading Layercake (as you should too) and came across a fabulous collection of game widgets from LabPixies. Space Invaders, memory games, crosswords, music stuff and all sorts of whatnot that you can play on the page and add to you own blog. I could resist, I mean come on, Space Invaders on my own site with no need for quarters? It's all so Futurama:

ND-ND: We're losing ships sir. What are your orders?
LRRR: Increase speed, drop down and reverse direction!

In other news, I wrote my first post for the Torontoist. Fun! Thanks to David Topping for the invite to join his merry crew. Cool city, cool blog, cool beans.

Call Me Call Me Any Anytime

Eat your heart out, Captain Kirk. Watching an episode of Star Trek the other day I realized that my cell phone far surpasses the communicators the original Enterprise crew used. While I may not be able to contact ships in orbit yet, I assume that is more a factor of there not being enough of them to make it a worthwhile feature. Rest assured that once Richard Branson has a fleet of interstellar rockets zipping about subspace your cell will be able to place that call.

We often take the pace of technological improvements for granted but every once and awhile I look back and am amazed. The first cell I used had the weight and aesthetic design of a large brick. I used to carry a camera bag, video cameras were best lugged on you shoulder and my Walkman hung from my side like a gunslinger. I now carry all three in my pocket – and it makes calls too.

The shiny toy I speak of is the Motorola KRZR, the latest version of the must-have gadget. Full disclosure, I received the phone as part of a Motorola and Hill & Knowlton promotional campaign. A group of Canadian bloggers were offered the phone with the only obligation being that you offer feedback on it. There was no requirement to post about it, but if you did they asked that reveal your participation in the program. Blogs are now being regularly tapped for their capacity to increase brand awareness and drive product word of mouth. Does it work? Not my concern. Am I now a shill? Perhaps. I’ve rarely had a job that hasn’t been supported by advertising, so why should my blog be any different?

I’ve tried out most of the functions and while I’ve been pleased I’m also aware that the only device it’s going to replace is my previous phone. Being able to snap pics on the fly is great, but it’s not going to beat out my digital camera. (See the original graffiti pic here) With no flash interior pics are a little dark and grainy, though some of the outside snaps have been great. I’m sure I could improve my technique, but how much time am I going to take perfecting the look of a quickie camera phone photo? It’s for spur-of-the-moment pictures and for that it works just fine.

Same goes for video – the shots are grainy and blurry, especially when blown up to YouTube – but I’m sure I could do better if I tried. I tested the camera the way I figured I’d use it – quickly and without much concern for quality and for that it worked just fine. I was able to download both pictures and video to my computer using the wireless Bluetooth connection, which was a bonus. Plus it makes calls and looks snazzy. Works for me.

For Auld Lang Syne

It's the start of another new year, better call the newspaper up. I'm not usually one for self-indulgent posts (cough, cough) and I have studiously avoided blogging memes, but I couldn't resist end of year wrap-up, even if there are still a few days left in 2006. For those interested, just snag the first sentence of the first post of each month and let 'er rip.

January: There are no 20-something acting superstars these days, and The New York Times blames it on the actors.
Almost a year later and it's still true. Come on 20-somethings, step it up. Is Lindsay Lohan the best you have to offer?

February: Lots of interesting tidbits about the new James Bond film, Casino Royale, today.
Yeah, I was going on about the new Bond back them and months later it was totally worth it. Best Bond in years.

March: Forget the Seinfeld curse, that’s so early 2000s. The question now, is there a Friends curse?
Seems like Matthew Perry has put an end to that speculation with the full-year pick-up of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Not that any of the rest of them have anything to brag about.

April: Why do TV shows have such inferiority complexes?
I still don't really want to see The Simpsons movie.

May: It’s funny how pop culture moments happen.
It sure is. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

June: File these under Ways In Which My Life is Unlike a Celebrity.
I could pretty much begin all posts this way.

July: Canadian musicians haven’t recorded anything worth commemorating since 1970.
I don't actually believe that to be true - just being overly dramatic for effect.

August: Jer is back at his cottage - lucky bastard - and tagged me to step in for a post.
Yeah, I'm a real slacker. I wish it was summer already.

September: I wonder who looked at the short and stubby Hobbits and thought, “what it would be like if they could sing Broadway tunes?”
September was a truly geeky month for me.

October: Will Lost sink or swim this year?
Still waiting to see. The second-half of the season better rock. And enough with the Others.

November: It’s odd, I know this song, but I can’t say I’ve ever listened to it.
Pop culture, you don't always need to participate in it to be part of it.

December: It's down to the final day of voting for the Canadian Blog Awards and Popped Culture is in a tight, three-way battle for the title of Best Entertainment Blog, thanks to your votes and proselytizing on my behalf.
Second! It's the new first!

Damn Popularity Contests!

Just days after I was soundly trounced for the Best Entertainment Blog at the Canadian Blog Awards (ok, I came in second by 16 votes, but that doesn’t sound as dramatic), I have discovered I am a finalist in the 2006 Weblog Awards. It seems somebody really does like me.

The category isn’t quite as prestigious: Best of the Rest of the Blogs (8751+). The number is based on The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem blog ranking system, so that blogs of similar size can compete on a level playing field. There were over 80 nominations narrowed down to 10 finalists, so I’m happy for the recognition and any new visitors who come by because of it.

If you feel so compelled, please do vote for me – voting begins sometime Thursday and you can vote daily for the following 10 days. But I won’t be harassing everyone to do so this time around. I’m just not up for a second intensive campaign and I think people may start blocking my emails. Anyway, my friend and fellow blogger Amber Mac is up for Best Canadian Blog, so make sure to check off her name as well.

Best of luck to all.

Born to Runner-up

The votes have been tallied and the results are in and Popped Culture has come in second in the Best Entertainment Blog category of the Canadian Blog Awards.

I would like to thank my many, many friends who annoyed their friends, coworkers and complete strangers to cast a vote for me. It was a valiant effort, but the winner – Bookninja – crushed me by 16 votes and so my congratulations goes out to them for their victory and their stealthy ability to kill people with literature. A tip of the hat as well to my worthy competitors: oRadio, Bow. James Bow and SHZine.

I take solace in the fact that even the mighty Lisa Simpson discovered she can’t be first all the time. (You can always find an appropriate Simpsons reference.)

Lisa: Hey, I am above average! So what if Alison's ahead of me? There's no shame in being second.

Announcer: And now, Avis Rent-A-Car is proud to present the second best band in America. Will you welcome Garfunkel, Messina, Oates, and Lisa singing their number two hit, "Born to Runner-up". [Audience boos]

Lisa: Why would they come to our concert just to boo us?

I’d also like to congratulate Amber Mac for the second place finish in the Best Best Sci/Tech Blog category, My Dinner Table for placing third in Best Activities and CBC Radio 3 and Inside the CBC for the two/three finish in the Media category. Lastly, I’d like to thank Robert McClelland for putting together the awards and introducing me to so many new and interesting blogs.

Thanks everyone, we’ll try again next year. (Yeesh, acceptance speeches are tedious, aren’t they?)

It's the Final Countdown

It's down to the final day of voting for the Canadian Blog Awards and Popped Culture is in a tight, three-way battle for the title of Best Entertainment Blog, thanks to your votes and proselytizing on my behalf. The award comes with 10,000 acres of beachfront on a remote Pacific Island with a mansion so covered in gold leaf, Donald Trump would be speechless with envy. When I win this coveted award, you will all be given two exclusive weeks to relax there.*

All you need to do is cast your vote today and I will stop writing these increasingly annoying posts. Doesn't he have a newborn, you many ask? A job? A life? All perfectly valid questions, but entirely beside the point. So help me help me.

Tristan is voting for me, won't you?

(* Pledges will not be honoured)

Best in Show

The results are in and Popped Culture is moving on to Round Two of the Canadian Blog Awards! Many thanks to my tens of fans, random strangers and friends whose arms I twisted to vote. Your dedication has me listed in third for the Best Entertainment Blog with the second round of voting beginning on Saturday. Come on, you’ve gotta vote if you want a piece of the huge endorsement deals that I’m sure will follow my win.

Well democracy in action took out my good friends at Nik at Night, Scandal Sheet and Menard Communications, a couple of others are joining me in Round Two, namely:

Best Activities Blog: My Dinner Table
Best Sci/Tech Blog: Amber Mac

Share the love, people.

You Like Me, You Really Like Me!

I’d like to thank my agent, my lawyers, God (in that order), and all the little people who helped me get where I am today. Oh, I told myself I wouldn’t cry. Hey, don’t play me off!

Ok, that may be a touch premature, but I have been nominated for Best Entertainment Blog over at the Canadian Blog Awards. What fun! I of course only got into this blogging thing to feed my raging ego and to accumulate wealth, fame and everything else that comes with getting millions of hits a day. Ask me how that’s working out…

Nonetheless, I do appreciate the nod and glad that someone out there likes what I do. If anything it means I will be exposed to a few new good blogs that I’ve never seen before. If you feel like voting for me (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that part) I won’t say no, but don’t feel obligated or anything. Ok, I'm begging.

There are also a few of my friends nominated, so check them out as they are all worth reading (and voting for):

• Scandal Sheet – The nastiest celeb gossip wrap-up around. Wonderfully catty.
• Nik at Nite – Pop culture insight, bar none. Better than Lost itself.
• My Dinner Table – The mouthwatering site of a dedicated foodie, from gourmet to street meat.
• Menard Communications – Opinionated, mouthy, sarcastic and idealistic all at the same time.
• Amber Mac – The Geek Goddess, the Queen of Web 2.0.

Blogger Killed My Dog

Ok, maybe not my dog, but they have done in my comments. I switched over to Blogger Beta the other night and, in the tradition of beta products, it is buggy. Once I moved over the comments went down and I haven't been able to figure out how to repair them as of yet. Any suggestions on template tweaks or how to get Blogger customer service to respond will be much appreaciated.

Update: Commenting has returned, no thanks to Blogger but to the wonderful help of MC of Culture kills... He is not only a clever writer but a wonderful person whom I have never met who took the time to help me figure out how to modify my template to get it working again after the beta "improvements." Please help me thank him by clicking madly on his site. I will attempt to add the previous comments that were mailed to me before the system gave up completely.

If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Blogged a Cake

Happy Birthday Popped Culture! My blog turned two yesterday and it has turned into such a precocious little tyke.

As of yet I’ve have no book deals, I've made no TV appearances and I’m not topping any Technorati lists but I’m having fun picking apart the pop culture that surrounds me. My goal is to amuse myself and I’ve done that, so mission accomplished.

I’ve also come across some great blog (see the blogroll on the right) and have some great regular readers, some who blog and some who don’t, and even done some guest blogging work. There really is a community out there and I thank them all from dropping by.

The best advice I ever read about blogging is don’t apologize for not writing or posting, just get on with it… so enough with my self-indulgence. The best present I received are this weekend's box office results for Snakes on a Plane. It slithered to the top, but with results as low as a, um, snake’s belly. Despite being the most-hyped (at least on the web) movie of the year, the fanatics were only able to scare up $15.2 million.

Could it be that it was all just a hoax and my wish actually came true? “My hope is that this is all just a colossal joke on the movie studio – a huge prank to see what hoops web geeks can get focus group obsessed filmmakers and youth targeting marketing departments to jump through. With any luck, the theatres will all be empty on the opening weekend and all the “fans” will be at home laughing. Now that would be cool” Happy birthday indeed.