Results tagged “popculture”

Phillyist alumni Jim took his brain where few brains had gone before, guiding his gray matter through a tour of the vicious William Shatners in Shatnerquake. Now you too can fend off evil Kirk, because author Jeff Burk is making the entire novel freely available today on his website (http://www.jeffburk.wordpress.com/) as a download. Why should you download this novel, you ask? Because it is awesome. Bizarre art made freely available is worth it, books about William F'ing Shatner are of course worth supporting, and obviously books featuring societies of Bruce Campbells are everything you need to make your day better. And it's free!

First Farrah and then Michael. No, these videos don't have anything to do with Philadelphia, but we thought it would be fair to pay tribute to two cultural icons.

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you.

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.

The best of the internet, squirted out in flavorful neon globules, just for you.

We haven't gotten around to telling you about the Philadelphia New Play Festival yet (that post is forthcoming), but on Friday, I had the opportunity to see one of the featured plays (most of them open before the festival officially begins), The Arden's .

Usually, Phillyist doesn't go in for cutsey Japanese pop culture, but this song came on one of our Pandora stations while we were at the office yesterday, and we were instantly obsessed. Even though this isn't the band's actual music video, but rather a fan vid, Editor Jim tells us that the band Puffy Amiyumi appears in animated form on the cartoon , and that there's usually a short live-action section with them too at the end of the show, but swears that he doesn't watch the show. Yeah right, editor Jim. Yeah right.

The shapeless dough of the internet, formed into tasty pellets and baked to perfection, just for you.

What's interesting on TV this week.

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets.

Over the Hedge is a computer-animated family film from a large Hollywood studio (in this case, DreamWorks), so you know pretty much what to expect: a bunch of anthropomorphized animals voiced by a bevy of celebrities, spouting amusing jokes laced with pop culture references, who go through a series of wacky adventures that splits them apart, but then ultimately brings them back together again, closer friends than ever, and everybody learns a valuable lesson about love and togetherness or something. And indeed OtH does not disappoint in this regard - it fits the formula exactly. And yet somehow it takes all the painfully familiar elements and manipulates them so expertly that you'll hardly notice you've seen it all before. It's a highly entertaining film, and even manages - in the spirit of the comic strip upon which it's based - to include some clever satire on America's food-centric suburban culture, as well as some moving lessons about family. Ben Folds helps in both of these aspects, contributing to the soundtrack a new version of his song "Rockin' the Suburbs" with re-worked lyrics skewering the suburban lifestyle, as well as a number of Randy Newman-style ballads about friendship and so forth.

Philly Roller Girls

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment.

What's new and interesting at Philly theaters this weekend:

Monkeys make everything better. The average person already knows this, and it has only been confirmed by recent findings of the American Monkeyological Congress (AMC) and the National Association for the Study of Awesome Things (NASAT). But if you want to see the evidence for yourself, join the folks down at Art Star this Saturday at the opening reception for their new exhibit: Matthew Porter's Monkey World. The boutique, now in its second year, is hosting a "Punch and Pie party" this Saturday to celebrate this new primate portfolio.

Editor's note: It's rare that we step out of our collective voice/pants to let someone steal the spotlight. In our history, we've only done it when (a) the Pope did a guest spot in our 30 Days of Easter series, (b) we put up a "Day as Phillyist Editor" for bid and Singularist won, (c) we just felt like wingin' it. Today, we let Tom Durso, the newest member of our team, don the slim-fit pants before diving into the big waistline that is Phillyist.

Last night's show at the TLA was a sojurn through our personal musical history. Opening act People in Planes, a rock band from Wales, put Phillyist in mind of the grunge bands we never warmed to in the 90s (see: Pearl Jam, Nirvana) and how they might have sounded had then been influenced by the pseudo-metal bands of the 80s we were far too fond of. They were harder rocking than hair bands (see: Poison) but not quite heavy metal (see: Motorhead) A wailing vocal here, a power chord there, and the occasional interesting drum riff...but all-in-all uninspired.