For me, pop culture is an obsession. I remember reading a bio of Alyssa Milano when I was 9 and building a photo collage of the Beverly Hills, 90210 stars on my bedroom wall when I was 12. By the time I was in high school, I was renting movies that never quite made it into theaters in my city and could tell you which movies were most likely to win an Oscar that year.
My love of movies and fascination with celebrities is arguably worse now that I live in L.A., so I’ve created a separate blog all about pop culture. It’s called As Seen From a Red Ikea Couch, named for the place I’m usually sitting when watching a show, finding times for movies, or reading the latest gossip. I’ll post excerpts of some of the best posts from the pop culture blog here, along with the latest about projects I’m working on and thinking about.
The new blog is the place to find my musings on movies, TV, books, celebrities and all things pop culture — you know, the important stuff. See you at the Red Couch!
My assignment was to create a narrative incorporating text, photos and video for a package marking the first anniversary of the election of President Obama. I’ve used timelines to do this in the past, but they don’t work so well when you’re talking about a lot of events that happened on a single day and don’t have precise times.
So, Google Maps it was. I decided to create my first interactive map telling the story of how Americans spent Nov. 4, 2008. Flickr’s Creative Commons provided the photos, while I collected the videos on YouTube.
Check out the map at TheLoop21.com. If you have suggestions for other tools to use, please pass them on.
For me, parody music videos are the very best thing about television shows finally paying attention to the online audience. Sure, it’s nice NBC and other networks let us watch episodes whenever we want, but we could do that with a DVR. What we couldn’t do, until the shows began to offer online-only content, is watch Kelly Kapoor dancing through The Office’s Scranton branch, wearing an eye patch and singing about how Ryan’s her Male Prima Donna. How very Lady Gaga of her.
Read the full post at my pop culture blog, As Seen From a Red Ikea Couch.
Who’s healthier: women who stay thin at all costs, even if it means crash dieting or working out obsessively, or women who eat a balanced diet and work out but still have a belly? You know, women like the ones pictured above, who were featured in this month’s Glamour magazine.
I’m gonna go with the second group of women, but apparently some people disagree.
Let me explain. In its September issue, Glamour grabbed a lot of attention for publishing a photo of plus-size model Lizzie Miller practically naked in a story about body confidence. I loved it, and so did a lot of other women.
But there were also critics, who said the magazine was adding to the country’s problem with obesity. In a follow up story in Glamour’s November issue, Genevieve Field quoted a reader named Angie as an example: “Putting a young model who is obviously overweight and living an unhealthy lifestyle in your magazine to make some people feel better only serves to propagate that unhealthy lifestyle. Shame on Glamour for thinking this was sexy!” Read the rest of this entry »
Living in L.A., it’s entirely too easy to get used to sunny skies, mild temperatures and no rain. All the time. But this week we’ve had some rain and (gasp) sweater weather. It sent me into one of those somber, introspective moods that goes so well with overcast days, and it prompted me to update my iPod from all the fun, cheerful songs I listened to on the beach this summer to these more, uh, serious songs. Some of them are just a little depressing. Listen to all of them at once with caution.
This Woman’s Work, Kate Bush
No need to comment.
Do You Feel Me?, Anthony Hamilton
My husband introduced me to this song. I love that it sounds so old and classic. Is it a remake?
Puddle of Grace, Amy Jo Johnson
This song perfectly captures what I really like (and some people find annoying) about my favorite show of all time, Felicity.
Sideways, Citizen Cope
A new obsession, after seeing it in the movie Ghost Town.
I have a serious problem with reading, which is that it’s impossible for me to read just one book at a time. Often, I’ll read one fiction book and one non-fiction, or, like I’m doing now, one serious and one not so serious.
Different, sure. But they’re both non-fiction takes on what was happening during the late 1960s (when many of the events Didion recounts happened and The Brady Bunch came together and first aired) and what resulted in the 1970s.
Didion’s book (so far) reads like your friend who knows all the cool kids telling you what California, especially Hollywood, was like in the ’60s. What makes it even more interesting is she sometimes tells it from the perspective of the next decade. She writes about hanging out at home with Janis Joplin, watching The Doors record and finding out about Sharon Tate’s murder, which was particularly haunting since she and Tate’s husband at the time, Roman Polanski, are godparents to the same child.
As usual, she’s saying a lot more than it looks like she is at first glance. The White Album has been on my reading list for at least a year or two now, and I’m very glad I finally picked it up. (You can read Joan Didion’s bio and see photos of her at the American Academy of Achievement Web site.) Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve sensed this was coming for a while, and with the premiere of new episodes this week, I realized the time for this conversation has arrived. The truth is, I am completely and utterly done with you.
Don’t get me wrong, you’ve been fairly good to me. I really appreciate that you’ve always been up front about who you are; I’d seen Laguna Beach, and I knew what I was getting into from the very first episode. More importantly, when I moved to L.A., you introduced me to one hipster hangout after another. I may never have eaten Caffe Primo’s delicious fig and goat cheese panini if it weren’t for you.
The problem is — well, there are many. I thought a list might be helpful.
Like Vogue, the magazine it follows, the documentary The September Issue draws you in and dazzles. No matter how much you know or care about fashion, you’re obsessed with what’s in front of you, wishing somehow you were part of what’s happening (or being worn).
I wanted to see the movie for two reasons: I’ve always been curious about the making of fashion magazines, and R.J. Cutler, a producer for the documentary The War Room, directed it. (I highly recommend The War Room, by the way, if you’re at all a fan of political movies or James Carville and George Stephanopoulos like me.)
The September Issue immediately pulls us behind the scenes of photo shoots that result in gorgeous, lush images. We see Vogue’s infamous editor, Anna Wintour, offering advice to designers whose names we know, even if their expensive creations don’t hang in our closets. Staffers bicker about the clothes models will wear and, once the photos are shot, which will grace the pages of the magazine.
Along the way, we meet Wintour and a few other people who make it all happen. She was a lot sweeter and less Miranda Priestley than I expected, but thankfully, the movie doesn’t hinge on Wintour being the boss from hell in The Devil Wears Prada. We also have the drama of whether Sienna Miller will cut her “lackluster” hair (she won’t) and whether photographer Mario Testino shot a photo suitable for the cover (he will). Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been far too long since I’ve thought about Sweet Valley High, one of many book series I devoured around the time I wore side ponytails. A lot. The Baby-sitters Club and The Fabulous Five were the other two I remember best.
With the writer behind Juno involved, the adventures of Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield could be even more fun than in the books. I would expect Cody to insist on finding actual teens to play the twins and their friends, including snobby rich girl Lila Fowler and her male equivalent, Bruce Patman. Note to movie studios: It’s weird when you try to make us believe people a decade out of college are in high school, a la most of the cast of Beverly Hills, 90210. I mean, that show was lucky Luke Perry was so hot.
Diablo Cody’s version of Sweet Valley High also should have an awesome soundtrack — mostly pop mixed with just the right amount of hard rock, for when bad things happen, like Todd Wilkins’ motorcycle crash or Regina Morrow’s death after she gives in to peer pressure and tries drugs.
I’m not sure how much Cody will be able to cram into one script. Or how much she’ll want to, but I think she’ll try to keep some serious moments and handle them in a way that keeps them from being too campy.
Unless, they go in a better direction and embrace the campiness by setting the movie in the ’80s. That way, Liz and Jess can keep their Fiat.
Dirty Dancing is without a doubt one of the two or three movies I’ve seen the most in my life. It was my mom’s favorite, and I, in a display of good taste at a young age, quickly adopted it as one of my own. Honestly, I can’t remember exactly what I liked about it the first few dozen times, before every line was etched into my memory, but I’m confident it had something to do with a certain Mr. Patrick Swayze.
In case you’ve forgotten just what made Swayze great, I’ve come up with a list of his best moments in song. Read the full post at my pop culture blog, As Seen From a Red Ikea Couch.
Posted by raechal 
It’s been far too long since I’ve thought about Sweet Valley High, one of many book series I devoured around the time I wore side ponytails. A lot. The Baby-sitters Club and The Fabulous Five were the other two I remember best.