Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Pop culture and sleepless nights

Since I last wrote, I have been back to Mommy's, home again, and now back again. This time, I'm here bunny-sitting while she and some friends take coastal New England by storm (look out, Maine, you're next). While Mommy's out blazing a new trail, my life's path seems to have gotten stuck in a rut between Dracut and Worcester.

Last night I lay awake in my mom's bed until probably 3 a.m. after watching two hours of I Love the New Millennium on VH1. Thank goodness we have VH1 to tell us what was important in the past eight years! Sarcasm aside, I love these shows because they are so sarcastic, and so telling about the state of inanity that pervades our culture these days--the lines between culture and pop culture are increasingly blurred. Arguably, a Broadway show is culture--or is it? RENT (culture) is about a group of friends living, loving, and dying in New York City. The TV show Friends (pop culture) was about a group of friends living, loving, and (not) dying in New York City. Same general idea, different income levels and health problems. What makes one culture and the other pop culture? How do we tell? Is "The Thong Song" pop culture, or is it social commentary on young female millennials' inability to keep their underwear in their pants? Not that I'm not guilty of that crime against fashion. I am also very guilty of loving to watch people fall over, evidenced by my background noise of choice right now: Wipeout! Decidedly pop culture.

These are the things that keep me up at night. I don't know why I couldn't sleep--I was exhausted. It was the same old, same old: no husband, strange bed, weird lights shining in, scary shadows, the works. Happily, Jason is coming to stay here tonight to get a head start on yet another business trip to New York in the morning.

Our weeks aren't very exciting, but we try to make up for it on the weekends. Two weeks ago we got season passes to Six Flags New England! It's a good thing, too--the Saturday we went turned out to be rainy, and we only managed to make it on three rides between the inclement weather shutdowns. Maybe we'll try to go again this weekend. Last weekend we had dinner out Friday (at our favorite Indian restaurant, Mehmaan), Saturday (at a hibachi grill/sushi restaurant we'd never tried before, Takumi, where we had piles of delicious sushi--we can't wait to go back so Jason can experience a hibachi meal for the first time), and Sunday (at Uno Chicago Grill, an old favorite). We saw two movies, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (at the theatre on Friday) and National Treasure 2 (rented on the Xbox 360 on Sunday), both good old action/adventure flicks with a dash of history thrown in--a wonderful genre of films.

Now that Jason has arrived, I'm going to cut this off and enjoy my time with him... and make my case for getting tickets to see New Kids on the Block in Boston in September! Yeah, I'm a sucker for pop culture.

6 comments:

Bayjb said...

I love the VH1 series of "I love..." THe one on the 80s freaked me out and had me glued to the TV for about ohhhh 8 hours. Love it.

Angela said...

THERE IS AN I LOVE THE NEW MILLENNIUM???

(I miss everything by not having a television.)

Okay, it's WAY too soon for that.

Heidi Renée said...

I love them too!

I think you can see clips on the page I linked, if you are so inclined. And yes, way too soon. They should have at least waited until the end of 2009 to start showing the episodes, because what happens when they get through 2007 and can't do another one because they've run out of years? Surely that makes sense to, well, nearly everyone.

Jes said...

My roommate David is doing a magazine as part of his thesis for school, and asked me to write an article about pop culture and why it's awesome (because I love it). That is almost exACTly what I wrote about: the importance of pop culture. BTW "The Thong Song" could actually be commentary on the way in which our culture has been pornified and the new gender roles of teen girls.

I. love. pop. culture.

Cary McNeal said...

I love those, too. A friend of a friend wrote for some of them, and I tried desperately to get her to hire me, but no luck. They are so beautifully snarky and hilarious.

Anonymous said...

New Kids on the Block are so awesome, I want to go really badly myself but the tickets are steep. I see you're a writer, way to go thats my idea profession. Now for my blog plug: http://busfolk.wordpress.com

Have a good one!
Sandra