by Jac Kern
04.03.2013
49 days ago
Jac's roundup of pop culture news and Internet findings
As the weather
gets warmer, music lovers tend to get antsy looking forward to summer concerts
and music festivals. There’s Bonnaroo, Forecastle, Bunbury all within a
reasonable drive from Cincinnati, plus tons of touring concerts like The Shins, The Lumineers, country acts galore and the most anticipated tour of them all: The Package. Boy band lovers of the ‘80s and ‘90s will unite for this music spectacular from New
Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men and Cincy’s own 98 Degrees. The tour kicks off next
month and Nick Lachey & Co. may not officially come home until the sold-out
concert June 25, but Buzzfeed is already getting in the spirit with this
collection of photos that reminds us about how Justin Jeffre was essentially
the Michelle Williams of 98 Degrees.
Upon looking up some 98 deets on Wikipedia, I realized dude is the only bandmate
who doesn’t have his own page. And he ran for mayor in 2005! Poor Justin. At
least he took a break from rehearsing to stop by our Best of Cincinnati party
last week (and if you obnoxiously asked him for a photo or just squealed and pointed at his
presence…Shame on you), which was just one
day before the release of the reunited band’s newest single. “Microphone”
(which, according to The Daily Beast’s painstaking analysis, could have also been entitled “Penis”) has all the ingredients for a killer
boy band tune: a danceable beat, barely-subtle phallic references that preteens
could unknowingly sing on the back of the school bus, and lyrics that pay
tribute to the group’s barber shop quartet past (“Say, ‘do-re-mi-fa-sooooo’ ”).
Remember Ryan
Cabrera? He was an early-2000s Pop singer who dated pre-Pete Wentz Ashlee
Simpson and was later resurrected on that post-Lauren Conrad final season of
The Hills that probably only I watched. Well, in a move I can only wish I was bold enough to pull first, he got Ryan Gosling’s face tatted
on his calf. One glance at the InAPPropriate
Comedy trailer and it was obvious — that shit was going to be bad. But as
this Huffington Post live-blog of the — ahem — “film” describes, it was baaad. Like being-inside-Lindsay-Lohan’s-vagina
bad (Spoiler Alert).
The Walking Dead’s
third season finale was Sunday night and, though the season closer was full of ample zombie/Governor scariness, the most terrifying part of the night came
during the live after-show, Talking Dead.
Somehow, this dude managed to make it on the air:
Hey, if you want a
captive, conspiracy-loving audience to stir up, TWD fans are it.
OK, time to get
serious for a minute. I don’t usually like to discuss serious matters like
death or illness on this silly pop culture blog, but this latest news from MTV
is just too crazy to ignore. A cast member from Buckwild, MTV’s take on
the rednecksploitation trend that replaced Jersey
Shore, was found dead in his car after having gone missing over the
weekend. While full details have not officially been released, it’s looking like the
accident is a result of off-roading after a stint at a local watering hole.
Shain Gandee, 21, was found dead with his uncle and a friend in Gandee’s truck,
which was partially submerged in mud. Their deaths have been ruled accidents, caused by carbon monoxide poisoning (with the car's exhaust stuck under mud, fumes filled the car).Obviously, this is tragic and not
something to make light of. What’s really disturbing is that, had this not
taken a terrible turn, the whole drinking-and-mudding scenario is something
that easily would have been included in an episode of the series. Not that MTV
needs to be a beacon for safety (see: Jackass,
Ridiculousness, the Jersey Shore's “smoosh room,” etc.)
But maybe it’s time to seriously re-think what we promote via reality TV
bullshit. Production on the show's second season has since been halted and it has been reported that Gandee's funeral expenses will be covered by Buckwild producers.
And here’s a cute video
of baby Gorilla Gladys at the Cincinnati Zoo to help you recover from that
story.
0 Comments · Wednesday, January 2, 2013
As holiday hiatuses come to an end and new seasons/series are picked up, here are a few picks on what to watch in early 2013.
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Television gets a bad rap for being the
poor man’s medium. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of weak and
culturally regressive programming out there, from The Bachelor to Huckabee.
But because of its accessibility and popularity, fads on television
often represent greater cultural trends.