The 12 Gifts of Pop Culture Santa

No secret, faithful blog readers: I am a bit of a pop culture junky (a word which spell check does not acknowledge, oddly enough). And Pop Culture Santa has been good to me this year. So, to spread some Christmas cheer, I present the 12 gifts of Pop Culture Santa (I was going to dole one out each day for 12 days...but that seemed like a lot of work).

1. Caroline Forbes, aka Vampire Barbie, The Vampire Diaries. How did a super annoying, super needy, kinda bratty cheerleader become the absolute most awesome thing on an already addictively awesome show? By becoming a vampire. Normally the kiss of death (ha!) on this show, Caroline has become an undead sensation! Seriously, I'm considering naming some kids after her.


2. We Are in a Book by Mo Willems. Gerald and Piggie are back, and this time, things are getting weird. The two friends realize that they're actually part of a book! That someone is reading! Right now! The inevitable stages (fear, panic, messing with the reader) occur, and they're sublime.


3. Zachary Levi's new haircut, Chuck. I approve!

Sure, he's kind of a hairy beast in this picture, but focus on his hair! High five, Chuck's new hair!

4. Cake Wrecks Guaranteed to cause inappropriate amounts of giggling at work!

5. Avatar: The Last Airbender, not to be confused with Avatar or The Last Airbender. I'm talking about the cartoon that lasted 3 awesome seasons and inspired the not so awesome movie, The Last Airbender (what does Avatar have to do with this? Nothing). Funny, exciting, touching, with some excellent voice work and plobnrg art. Watch it, folks. It's the quenchiest thing I've seen in a long time.


6. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I loved every sentence of the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. Plus, now I don't have to keep wondering what's going to happen!


7. Troy and Abed in the Morning. If this fake morning show from Community was actually shown on TV every morning, I'd get up and watch it. That's how serious I am. And how awesome it is.


8. Bollywood. Not a genre that I had previously watched, but it's pretty fantastic. The colors, the clothes, the music, the dancing. The guys who look like this, singing and dancing. What's not to love?

This is Shahrukh Khan, super prolific (and dreamy) Bollywood actor.

9. Forever Young Adult Another guaranteed to make you laugh at work. But this time I can justify it as professional development! You probably can't, but hey, I don't know your life. Warning: some of the writer for FYA are...swear-heads. Be vigilant!

10. Zachary Levi's singing voice (as heard in Tangled and that song he sings with Katharine McPhee). Seriously, could I love him any more? He's tall, charming, funny, has that great new haircut (see #3), is cuter than a basket full of puppies, and he sings!

11. Frankenstein by Rick Walton with pictures by the illustrious (ha!) Nathan Hale. Good news/bad news: The bad is that this most excellent parody of Madeline is no longer available online. The good news: that probably means someone wants to publish it! Huzzah!


12. Jane Austen Fight Club. If only this were a real thing. But perhaps it's more magical in snippet form.



13. Robert Roldan, So You Think You Can Dance. Haters be gone! Robert is the business! He kept me running home two nights a week all summer long. He's adorable, he loves his mom, he dances like a fiend (in a good way), and he has that hair. Ack! That hair! Plus, this pictures cracks me up.

Well, there you have it! I know what you're thinking: "Wait, that's 13 things!" I never claimed to be an expert at maths. But I can alphabetize with the best of them. Plus, I couldn't bear to cut any of these little gems out.

Merry Christmas!!! Love,
Your own Pop Culture Santa

Sing it, Bing!

In honor of one of my favorite holidays, a few things I'm thankful for this year.

1. A job! Aren't we all, right? But this year, I'm especially grateful for a job that I (usually) like with people who are fun and nice.

2. Having my car registered in MD!!! Getting it done was annoying, painful, and time-consuming, and it made me question the sanity of the people running our fair state. So mostly, I'm thankful that it's done.

3. Pie. This is self-explanatory.

4. Friends. Also pretty self-explanatory, but still true. I'm always amazed that I have friends all over the country! Not that I'm so popular, just that people are cool!

5. Family. So far this year, I've gotten to see almost everyone, whether they've come here or I've gone there. And in another month, I'll get to see a whole bunch of the family for Christmas! Yay! I'm also grateful that Maren, David, and Grace live so close by!

6. Church. I've just started a stressful calling, but it's actually kind of awesome. Plus, without church, I'd have far fewer of # 4.

7. Harry Potter! I know I've talked about it before, but seriously, y'all HP is back and better than ever! Except for the books, of course. The books are still better than the movies could ever hope to be, but I enjoyed The Deathly Hallows-Part 1 immensely.

Take it away, Bing Crosby!

Revisiting the hallowed halls and sacred tv shows of my childhood

Earlier this year, my friend Kelly and I were talking about our awesome childhood's in the 90s. So of course, we ended up talking about Ghostwriter. For those of you not in the know, Ghostwriter was a mystery show for kids that was on PBS from 1992-1995. It's about 5 (or 6) kids and their "friend" who we would now totally not trust because of excellent advice that we learned from Mr. Weasley-never trust something that thinks for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain! Luckily, we were then ignorant of this important magical rule. Also luckily, Ghostwriter really is a friend and not an evil product of dark magic.

After our talk, I found out something marvelous: Ghostwriter season 1 is out on DVD! Bazinga! So I took it upon myself to rewatch that season, to once again see if my childhood innocence could stand up to evil, nostalgia defeating reality. The results? See for yourself.

Let's talk characters. We'll start with Jamal. Oh, Sheldon Turnipseed. You have the most awesome last name ever! And your dad was played by Samuel L. Jackson in a couple of episodes. Street cred! Anywhoodle, Jamal is the first person to see Ghostwriter and also the one to utter the immortal line, "He's a ghost, and he writes to us! Ghostwriter!" In retrospect, Jamal tries waaaaay too hard sometimes to be cool, and it really seems like he might be overcompensating for something. What? I guess we'll never know, because the show has been off the air for 15 (!) years.

Next up, Lenni. I feel bad about this now, but before Kelly and I had our conversation, I didn't remember Lenni at all. She did not really leave much of an impression on me. But I have no idea why! Of the girls on the show, Lenni is by far the doofiest dresser. The sartorial horrors perpetrated by Lenni are now so firmly burned into my mind that I couldn't forget them if I wanted to (but I don't. It's much too funny to forget). Plus, Lenni is a rapper! Way hardcore.

Then we have Alex. Oh, Alex. So cute, and for a junior high student, quite the womanizer. All those penpals and all of them girls! And yet he's totally creeping on a 5th grader! Sure, Tina's smart, but she's still in elementary school! I think the warddrobe department must feel the same, because there's no other explanation for the fact that Alex finishes neck and neck with Lenni in the doofy outfits competetion. His aren't necessarily as fundamentally hideous as hers, but they look more like the warddrobe of a middle aged cat lady than a cool, confident ladies' man (boy).

Keeping it all in the family, let's visit Gaby! My favorite character for most of the series, in large part because she's pretty much the best actress. She's able to pull off dorky (witness her desperation to star in Tina's videos) and cool (then see her totally dominate when she and Tina do their anti-violence dance), as well as the fine balancing act of bratty but ultimately caring sister to Alex. In all honesty, even though the untimely cancellation of Ghostwriter was a tragedy, in a way it was also a blessing, because it meant we only had to live through two mysteries worth of new Gaby, who was a poor substitution. I don't know why OG left, but I felt the sting of it even in elementary school.

On to Tina. In direct contrast to Lenni and Alex, Tina is by far the best dressed of the characters. Kids today might not be embarassed to be seen in some of Tina's outfits. Unfortunately, she's a terrible actress. Could not act her way out a paper box. Yikes. Still, she really is too cute, and I always admired her for getting an older boy to like her (one as cute as Alex, even!), so it evens out in the end.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Rob. Rob wasn't an original member of the Ghostwriter Team, nor did he make it all the way to the end of the series (his family moved to Australia in season 2-sad face), but I still thought he was dreamy. Next to Tina, Rob would definitely be least embarassed to be seen in today's society wearing his Ghostwriter outfits. Plus, he was a writer! And he was friends with homeless people! And could skateboard! And although he was a little bit sexist in that one episode, he totally changed his mind after being knocked out and tied up by a female stunt double. Seriously, such the crush on Rob.

Of course, we also have Grandma Jenkins, who is the lone grown-up in the cast. Now that I think about it, I think she and Alex might have been sharing a warddrobe (zing!!). Not really sure why she's a main character, since she doesn't appear to be in the show any more frequently than any of the other adults, but there you go.

And let's not forget Ghostwriter himself. He can't talk. He's not an alien. We think he might be a ghost! I always thought he looked like a snowball wearing a winter hat. I don't know who designed him, but that's awesome. Nonsensical, but awesome.

As for the rest of the show, the mysteries were reasonably clever, but easy enough that kids who paid attention had a chance of solving them along with the kids. The diversity of the cast is impressive, even if the acting isn't, and the very special episodes actually do address important topics that kids should be aware of. All in all, I know why I loved this show so much as a kid, and even though I mock now, I totally do it out of love. Thanks for the memories, Ghostwriter! And thanks for being still awesome enough to enjoy but also dorky enough to make fun of!

Pictured, from left: Alex, Tina, Jamal, Lenni, Gaby, and Rob. Ghostwriter's in the "O." See what I mean about the snowball and the hat?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Love, Harry "Zefron" Potter, Mad-Eye "Pumpkin" Moody, and Meredith

Yeah, that's right: Skinny Jeans can kiss my foot!

I think the cast of So Random with an assist from Chad Dylan Cooper said it best.




You can't deny it--they look pretty comfortable. And jaunty!

My Mouth Hurts

So, yeah, I went to the dentist yesterday. I needed to get a crown replaced, which to my way of thinking is one of the worst things to have a dentist do. Here's why:

1. It's not my fault. If I had a cavity, it would probably be because I hadn't flossed enough or brushed enough. But I didn't put in my first crown, so the fact that it's faulty definitely lies with some sort of dental professional.

2. I have already paid for this crown! Twice. The first time, I had to get a root canal, and the second time, I had to get it glued back in because it fell out while I was eating fruit snacks (apparently, not good for crowns). The second time was relatively cheap, the first time was quite expensive, but either way, significant amounts of money have been shelled out on this tooth, and I am sick of it.

3. It still really hurts. No cavity or root canal, but I still had to get numbed up and drilled a bit. I tell you what, my mouth hurts a lot more today than it did yesterday before I went to the dentist.

4. Speaking of getting numbed up, I had stroke face for like 6 hours after I left the dentist yesterday. It was very undignified. And I could hardly eat. I had mashed potatoes and a milkshake for dinner! While I very much love both of those things, a dinner they are not.

So basically, I just spent a lot of money to have people do very unpleasant things to my mouth. Not cool, dentist. Not cool.

Speaking up

I don't normally do this kind of post, because I'm not this kind of blogger. But I'm sad and mad, so I thought I'd share.

Last Christmas, I read the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's not the type of book I normally read (realistic fiction), and it's certainly not the type of book I normally read when I'm on vacation (depressing). But I had heard wonderful things and I wanted to try something new, so I picked it up. I wasn't sorry.

For those who haven't read it, spoilers: the main character in this book gets raped at a party right before she starts high school. What follows is heartbreaking, hilarious, frustrating, empowering, and hopeful by turns. It's the type of book you wish no one ever had to read (or write) because surely, nothing that terrible ever happens in the world. But let's be honest. The world is full of terrible things and terrible people. Luckily, the world is also full of wonderful things and wonderful people, including Laurie Halse Anderson, who wrote such a powerful book on such a tragic but important topic.

So why do I bring this up now? Because Wesley Scroggins (who?), an associate professor of management (what?) at Missouri State University, recently wrote an opinion piece in his local paper that refers to Speak as soft porn. Because of rape scenes. It's honestly hard for me to wrap my mind around this. Has he read the book? Does he know what rape is? Or porn? If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then my only conclusion is that he must be seriously disturbed. The original article is here, but be warned: don't read it if you don't want to be filled with righteous indignation.

Censorship is ugly, and it's happening right here in the USA. I firmly support people's right to read what they want. Or not read what they don't want. Have there been books that I've set down because the content bothered me? Of course! Lots! But I would never presume to say that a book that bothers me wouldn't be your new favorite or vice versa. So I'm speaking up (and planning a totally rockin' Banned Books Week display).