Pop Culture Cuisinart

Come get some boy!

My all time favorite baseball image, a then 45 year old Nolan Ryan giving a knuckle shampoo to a then 20 something Robin Ventura, after Ventura unwisely decided to charge the mound. Classic!

Then there's my all time favorite football moment...
A few inches higher, AU balls for lunch.

UgaV expressing his displeasure at Robert Baker's TD celebration. Damn Good Dawg! This later proved to be a good idea as Baker was subsequently arrested on drug charges.

Check out this picture of Eddie Van Halen.
A good reason to lay off the drugs

What the hell happened to him? He looks suprisingly like the chick from Darkness Falls.

on as background noise and I keep hearing Sean McDonough say Muhammed. So I turn and look at the screen long enough to see that Cincy has a player named(no I'm not making this up) Jihad Muhammed. As someone who loved the movie Team America, I can't help but wonder if his middle name is Dirka, Dirka. Seriously though, could this guy ever get through an airport without a "random" bag search. Why do Muslims do this to their kids? You don't see Christians naming their kids Crusade Jesus.

The New British TV live action reenactment of the Simpsons intro is a must see for fans of the show.
Video here.
Also SNL interactive strikes again with Parnell and Samberg, in a new video featuring Natalie Portman sampling the joy of gangsta rap. It's always nice to see a Harvard grad getting in touch with their inner Snoop.
White Rage!
Fo shizzle!
Meanwhile it appears that the digital shorts by Parnell and Samberg are the only things about SNL that are even remotely funny anymore.

The Kinks best known for such hits as "You really got me" and "Lola" are now showing up in alot of corporate advertising.
Buy some Tide!
Now I've never been a huge Kinks fan, but they were the inspiration for perhaps the greatest Weird Al parody ever, Yoda(nee Lola). So cheers fellas enjoy your selling out.

The Iranian leadership has threatened the U.S. with "harm and pain" for bringing them before the UN on the nuclear weapons issue. Harm and Pain? Do the mullahs have a desire to join the WWE? How do you say, do you smell what Ahmadinejad is cooking in Persian?

Yanni arrested for domestic violence in Florida. The smoking gun has the police report/mug shot. I guess years of violence committed to the ears of the general public has manifested itself for Yanni. Friends don't let friends listen to New Age music. What's next an Enya catfight?

"As for music and my place in it, maybe things are changing a little bit. I know this: a good song is deeper than a tattoo. It'll remind you of the car you're driving and the girl you're going around with and the streets you're cruising. It's better than a photo album. A song is a tattoo that you never lose. 'Ice, Ice Baby,' man, you'll remember that when you're 90."
-- Vanilla Ice on his place in history
I think that Rob Van Winkle, while he does make a good point about the memory triggering properties of retro music, is perhaps overstating his place in music history. Personally I'd rank him somewhere between Skid Row and Rico Suave.

The 4th Harry Potter movie comes out on DVD today, just in time for Emma Watson to go on a bender.

The U.S. team gets their portion of the World Baseball classic underway today at 1p with a game against Mexico. Tomorrow they play Canada and Friday South Africa. South Africa? I haven't seen as big a mismatch on paper since Charles Barkley elbowed that Angolan during the '92 Olympics.

Google is creating the first web based hard drive. CEO Eric Schmidt said that a goal of Google's is to store "100 percent of consumer information." Gee, then the Justice department would really have something to subpeona!

Consumer Reports Top 10 Cars list this year is made up entirely of Japanese cars. Um, back to the drawing board Detroit.

And finally did you see the Southern Illinois cheerleader who was dropped on her head after falling off the pyramid and proceeded to keep doing her routine from a stretcher? READY, TRAC-TION! She does win the spirit stick though!

South Dakota is being used as the bait.

Mama's don't let your babies grow up to be Republicans.

Well, now that King George II has gotten his Supreme Court choices, the religious right is determined to go for the quick kill of a woman's right to choose. The good right wing ideologues of South Dakota were more than happy to chip in with a law that would force the necessary legal showdown. This should give Scalia, Alito, Roberts, Kennedy and that famous defender of womens' rights Thomas(right Anita?) a chance to do away with Roe. Of course, overturning Roe v. Wade doesn't make abortion illegal. It just returns the question of legality back to the states individually, which is why I expect all of Red America to soon be passing similar laws in anticipation. Safe, legal, and rare will soon be reality only north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Huzzah, to the Academy for getting it right for once. I really thought they were going to give it to Brokeback. This almost makes up for Titanic over L.A. Confidential. I thought Stewart did a nice job, though once again the show runs long due to an excessive use of film montages that have nothing to do with the show itself. Word of advice, cut the montages, and you might be able to let everyone finish their acceptance speeches.

And here is a phrase I never thought would be added to the Pop culture lexicon- Academy Award winners: Three 6 Mafia.
Pimpin' is easy, when you know how.

Since I have screwed around all weekend and not given you the rest of my Oscar picks in longform, I'll have to do it in brief right now.

First prediction Jon Stewart will rock. He's smart, he's funny, he's irreverrant, and he's had the Daily Show writing team helping him prepare, what could possibly go wrong?

Give us funny.

Now for the picks...

Best Picture- Brokeback Mountain, personally I think Crash should win, but the guess here is that Brokeback will end up taking the statue for tackling the concept of homosexuality in the Red States so to speak. Honorable mention:Good Night and Good Luck, Tremendous film even if not enough people saw it.

Best Director- Ang Lee, if Brokeback is to win best picture it's hard not to envision Lee winning as well. Again I think Haggis' work on Crash deserves recognition(particularly since it's his first film). But a Brokeback groundswell is likely to be felt here. Honorable mention: Woody Allen, the New York mensch essentially directs a British Fatal Attraction and he doesn't get nominated. I haven't seen someone go against type that well since Terrence Stamp went transsexual in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Best Supporting Actor-George Clooney, Syriana. I'm not entirely certain Clooney deserves this, but I am fairly certain he is going to win. It will functionally be an award for both of his big movies wrapped in one here, as GNGL is likely to strike out. Honorable mention: Mickey Rourke , Sin City. I'm serious, he was terrific in that movie. His previous career high was working with Don Johnson, throw him a bone.
I'll take my sympathy vote in gold, thank you.

Best Supporting Actress- Rachel Weisz,The Constant Gardener. Her bold turn as a crusading aid worker was the best work of this fivesome. Besides this film deserves some recognition. Honorable mention: Amy Adams, Junebug. She exploded onto the screen in this film. After serving as a pleasant looking accessory in Catch me if you Can, she seized her first major film role and tore it up. Excellent.

Best Documentory- March of the Penguins. The principals already look good in black and white so they should be ready on Oscar night. Honorable mention: Murderball. Don't mess with those guys, under any circumstances.
All dressed up for the big night

Art Direction- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The quidditch World Cup sequence clinched it for me. Honorable mention: Sin City, this was the most visually arresting film of the year and not a single nod, for shame.

Best Adapted Screenplay- Brokeback Mountain, they took a 12 page magazine story and fleshed it out into a feature and a very good one at that. Now that's adapting. Honorable mention: A History of Violence, the most interesting character study of any film I saw last year.

Best Original Screenplay- Crash, phenomenal study on race relations through the prism of auto incidents. Besides this film should win something. Honorable mention: Syriana, some found this film inaccesible, but I thought it offered interesting insight into the way our government really runs the oil business.(A must see for anyone who wonders why gas prices seem so esoteric). We should get Best Picture!


Cinematography- The New World, the film itself was poor, but like all of Malick's work the magnificent visuals make up for any lacking in other areas, this man truly paints with the camera. Honorable mention: Batman Begins, the arresting camera work gives me hope for the future of this franchise.

That's all folks, enjoy the show!