White Rabbits Say Hey Records

Straight outta Missouri (doesn’t have the same awesomeness as Compton) this six-piece ensemble met in college and then shipped out to NYC to gain musical stardom. Worked out pretty well. They were heralded after their stirring SXSW performance and have toured with Spoon and The Kaiser Chiefs. Apparently, they like to switch instruments mid-show and have a knack for personalizing cover tunes. They also do pretty well with their own songs - which is important, because you usually run into copyright infringement suits when releasing albums of other people’s songs. At least that what the lawyer’s said. I guess thier fancy law schools didn’t teach them about paying tribute to other bands by selling albums of their songs. It was a tribute. A tribute…

Let’s see here, Mr. Short and I will not be doing a podcast this week due to my hectic schedule, but, we will be doing TWO shows on Monday, so that’ll be pretty cool. I didn’t catch any movies this past weekend but, I did catch the latest episode of True Blood and I can honestly say I think it was the best episode of the year from them.

On to the Musings…

-“The Riches” starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver will not be picked up for a third season. I caught the first two episodes of the first season and the accents of both Eddie and Minnie were so unbearable that I stopped watching the show. And I’m a big fan of Eddie, but I just couldn’t do it. Hopefully, he’ll find a new project worthy of his talents.

-I know you’ve been waiting patiently for some time now, your patience has finally paid off…Showtime will be making a series based on The Booth boys! That’s right, our old pal, John Wilkes Booth who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, will finally have his story told…and get this, he’ll be played by none other than Kevin Bacon. Honestly, I’m kind of intrigued by this, I like Bacon and the series will center around him and his brothers who were all working actors during that era. I think this could be a good one so let’s cross our fingers.

-Finally caught “The Assassination of Jesse James” the other night. As you know, I like the Westerns so I was excited to see it and I will say this, if you like a lot of action in your Western, this movie is not for you. It’s a bit slow but it’s beautifully shot and the relationship b/t Casey Affleck’s character and Brad Pitt’s character is fantastic. All in all, I liked it, but it is a long movie so it’s a bit of a commitment. (Side note, my lady decided to “read” while I watched this movie which in theory was a good thing. However, she did that move where she would look up occasionally and then ask me a million questions about what was going on and then I would pause it and explain and then she would ask follow up questions from my explanation because she didn’t quite understand everything because she was too busy reading her book and not watching the movie. I thought about being an ass and asking her questions about what was happening in her book that she was reading but I think she would have enjoyed talking about it and then my plan would have completely backfired).

-I’ve made a point to record “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” this season. I saw parts of the first season when it came out but I couldn’t ever remember when it was on so I missed most of the episodes. But I made a promise to myself that I would start to record it this season and I must say, I’ve been very happy with that decision. I’m not going to get into details but I think it’s like “Seinfeld”, only with poorer and more socially depraved characters, which of course, equals big time laughs.

RN

Wale Allido Records/Interscope

To show that I am impartial when it comes to spotlighting music of all kinds (I’ve tried to span genres, time periods and genders), I offer you the first rap spotlight for Pop Culture Coast-to-Coast. It’s kind of a big deal. I mean, current rap music is pretty much worthless - so to hear someone refreshing and original does makes me happy. Wale (pronounced waa-lay or wah-lay) is a DC rapper who is making quite a name for himself with his innovative freestyling and studio tracks laced with 80s flare. Plus, he has a thing for rapping about Seinfeld episodes. Don’t believe me? His May mix-tape release was called The Mixtape About Nothing and mirrored the cover art from the Seinfeld DVD collection. Wale gained notoriety in 2006 with local radio station play in the DC-Maryland area, but went on to release his third mix tape (Mixtape About Nothing was his fourth) as a free download and had contributions from Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Mark Ronson. He is certainly poised to continue that success and become the newest emerging rap star, as his newest mixtape (read: album) is rumored to feature Kanye West, Just Blaze and French electronica act Justice. Maybe we can finally get back to the days of one-twos and “you don’t stops”…

As a continuation of last weeks “links” posting, I thought I would throw out some more e-fun for you guys. I support having distractions at work as much as anyone, so it would be unjust of me to not supply such distractions here on Pop Culture Coast-to-Coast. So, without further ado, let the slacking commence:

Classic SNL skits in chronological order:

Hilarity from this past weekend
Hilarity from not that long ago
Hilarity from a little further back
Hilarity from my high school days
Hilarity from my elemenatry school days

Seriously, this site is too funny. It kills me every time. I could spend all day sifting through the joke archives.

Pop Culture Coast-to-Coast’s own Eric Kirkham hosts a great site of his own.

Kill time by reading the secrets of strangers. Kind of disturbing sometimes, but highly addictive. Like heroin.

And finally, just a bunch of games to help chip away at the workday clock.

-John

On the newest edition of the Pop Culture Coast-to-Coast podcast John and Rhett talk about a variety of topics including some of the new fall shows they’ve been watching, why Rhett has been avoiding Tropic Thunder in the theaters and of course a little GTM. They also unveil a brand new segment they feel will be a permanent staple of all future podcasts - so make sure to check it out. It may be the greatest thing you hear all day. In fact, it definitely will be. So, sit back and relax while your pop culture hosts cool out and…talk about some things. They’re just keeping it real…

Download: Talking About Things

I’m gonna try to do this (the musings) a few days a week, but my company sometimes frowns upon me working on the website while I’m here, so I’ll do what I can. Anyway, on to the musings …

-Norman Lear, the famed TV producer who created “All in the Family” has teamed up with HBO for a drama series set in the world of 1970s pro wrestling. The tentative title is “Everybody Hurts” and it revolves around a family running a pro wrestling business in New York…I think this sounds really interesting and with the much buzzed about movie, “The Wrestler” coming out in December with Mickey Rourke, this could get picked up and be a big success.

-“How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” has, for the most part, received poor reviews. The trailers do look bad but I like to root for Simon Pegg, his Shaun of the Dead movie was hysterical and he’s a pretty funny guy. Hopefully, he can rebound with his next project.

-The CW is coming out with a series based on Robin’s (Batman’s sidekick) life before he became Robin. The show will be set in modern times and it will follow Dick Grayson or “DJ” as he navigates his way thru his adolescent years. Sounds like it’s exactly like Supernatural but instead of Superman, it’s Robin. It looks like this will be another show that I will be skipping.

RN