Pop Culture
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Pop Culture Countdown to the Derby: Horse Riding at Little Creek Farm Conservancy
Posted by Laura Straub and Amy McDaniel on Wed, May 1, 2013 at 12:00 PM
- photo compliments of author
Naturally the two of us saddled up at the Little Creek Farm and Conservancy off of Lawrenceville Highway to take a gander at their grounds and consult with Dana McDaniel one of the three resident instructors. Founded in 2004, the conservancy is a 40-acre farm home to over 40 privately owned horses. Steeped in Southern history, the land has played host to less welcome horsemen, as well - General Stoneman's Union Calvary once recouped there before marching toward the Battle of Atlanta. After a brief stint as a dairy farm in the 1920's, the land returned to the horses in 1958 and has remained faithful to them ever since.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Pop Culture Countdown to Derby Day: The Mint Julep
Posted by Laura Straub and Amy McDaniel on Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 1:42 PM
We learned the cocktail-shaker trick from Miles MacQuarrie, the phenom behind the bar at Leon's in Decatur. If you want to get all fancy about it, the traditional julep cup can be silver etched with some evocative pattern, but you can use an old-fashioned glass in a pinch. Beyond that, try not to take too many liberties - remember, this is the South, where appearances matter as much as what's on the inside.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Pop Culture Countdown to Derby Day: A proper introduction
Posted by Laura Straub and Amy McDaniel on Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 4:52 PM
- Steve Ryan / Wikimedia Commons
Between the two of us, we've lived in Indiana, New York, Boston, Paris, California, Seattle, Chicago, and Bangladesh, but we claim the South, and we'd like to think the South claims us. Our accents might slip occasionally (blame the original "90210" and "Gossip Girl") and we're hardly Junior League material, but we would've voted for Carter if we were alive then, and we never run out of lemonade or sweet tea (that's a lie, but we sure wish it weren't). But damn if we weren't bred for the ultimate Kentucky cotillion, no less than Secretariat. That's what we tell ourselves, anyway.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Pop Culture Writer commits career suicide, demands credit for Tyler Perry's worst film ever
Posted by Rodney Carmichael on Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 1:57 PM
- TYLER PERRY FILMS/LIONS GATE
- THE MORAL OF THE STORY: Tyler Perry pays the cost to the boss.
What writer in his right mind would publicly demand credit for Tyler Perry's critically panned Temptation? That's exactly what William James did by alleging in a lawsuit filed this week in Indiana U.S. District Court that Perry stole the premise for Temptation from a novel by James titled Lovers Kill.
He claims in the lawsuit that he passed a copy of Lovers Kill to "an associate" of Perry's BFF Oprah Winfrey in the hopes that it might find its way to the film mogul's reading room. Satisfied that it did, now that Temptation has reaped a cool $49 million, James is asking for monetary damages and a change to the beginning and ending credits to read: "Based on the novel 'Lovers Kill' by William James."
I hope for his sake that a financial come-up is worth the risk of ruining his name by association. Apparently, he and Perry have something else in common because James obviously has not been reading the critical backlash sparked by Temptation, much of which has blamed Perry for perpetuating rape culture with his latest morality tale. The story revolves around a young unhappily married woman (Judith) who falls in lust with a horny Internet mogul (Harley) after he seduces-slash-rapes her on his private plane. If you need a plot breakdown, they're all over the Internet - as are the take-downs, this one courtesy Jezebel's Lindy West, which picks up after the rape scene:
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Pop Culture / Poetry Corny Asian stereotypes get the Antony Bui smack down
Posted by Rodney Carmichael on Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 4:15 PM
On the same day that Korean pop phenom Psy was on his way to breaking another YouTube record with the release of his follow-up video to "Gangnam Style," Atlanta-based spoken word artist Antony Bui was busy garnering his own hype with a verbal smack down of pop culture's decades-long perpetuation of corny Asian stereotypes. In his poem "Bruce Is Back" (above), Bui humorously theorizes about Hollywood's insidious plot to desecrate the Asian American image ever since the 1973 death of "strong," "sexy," "ass-kicking" film and martial arts star Bruce Lee.
"Bruce was just too good of an Asian man prototype," he muses out loud. "Somebody had him killed, and I bet you it was the same douchebag who came up with that small penis stereotype."
Besides serving as a sharp, comical critique on the one-dimensional geekification and desexualization of Asian males by mainstream media, it offers an alternate take on the widespread view that Asians are the most culturally assimilated among non-white ethnic groups in America. Bui won first place with "Bruce Is Back" at the sixth annual Kollaboration Atlanta talent showcase, an Asian American performance artists platform for which I served this year as one of seven judges. After hearing his poem, I talked to the 22-year-old about his thoughts on K-pop, Asian assimilation, and how he (among others) is using YouTube as a burgeoning filmmaker and first-generation Vietnamese American to counter the BS.
Your poem "Bruce is Back" reminded me of the kind of politically charged, conscious spoken word that came out of the African American community in the late '90s. It was refreshing to hear that Asians are pissed too.
Yeah, that's a great way to put it.
Are those the themes you usually tackle?
Typically, no. I usually write just kind of about how I'm feeling. But this was something that I felt like writing after my friend Kavi Vu won Kollaboration last year. She and I kind of have this friendly rivalry and I really wanted to beat her. So I was trying to think of a topic that would really excite the crowd and get a strong reaction.
This is one of the biggest issues for Asian Americans; specifically, I wanted to write something that I could relate to personally so the way Asian American men are portrayed in the media was a great topic.
When you mentioned Psy in the poem, it made me think about how much K-pop regurgitates western culture, even though western culture revels in all the Asian stereotypes you denounce in your poem. What do you think about the K-pop phenomenon and Psy's crossover success?
I think it's great that Psy's broken so many records. I never thought I would turn on [Atlanta's No. 1 urban station] V-103 and hear Korean pop music playing. It's like the craziest thing. My only thing with Psy is I really have to wonder why he got so popular in America. Because I'm not sure if people are laughing with him or at him. He's kind of like a fat guy, he prances around and he's kind of perverted. He's kind of a goofy looking guy. I don't think you would call him sexy. And in that way he kind of fits into the Asian American stereotype of a desexualized person.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Pop Culture The undisputed reinvention of Mike Tyson hits Atlanta
Posted by Rodney Carmichael on Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 2:18 PM
"Everything you say is interesting. I don't know what it is but every experience you've had is interesting to me." - Jimmy Kimmel, to Mike Tyson
There's something about Mike Tyson. Especially when he sits down on a couch and the cameras start rolling. Whether he's groveling on Oprah in front of his former ear-bite victim Evander Holyfield or telling Conan about the time he got Las Vegas police to escort him to the dope house while high, he's such an unlikely but highly likable communicator. Sure, his diction is fucked and sometimes he tongue-twists his syllables and says something like "West Vile Nirus" on Jimmy Fallon instead of "West Nile Virus," or lets out a random Neanderthal growl (3:50 mark above) when at a loss for words. Yet somehow he's emerged as an eloquent storyteller, if only because the story of his life is so fascinating.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Pop Culture / Events The Aliens have landed at Emory
Posted by Rodney Carmichael on Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 3:00 PM
- Alien Bodies conference logo by Corinne Stevie
Emory University might seem like an odd place for the Mothership to land, but in this case, George Clinton would likely approve.
It certainly seems appropriate that an AfroFuturist conference titled "Alien Bodies: Race, Space and Sex in the African Diaspora" would take place this weekend on the home turf of resident ATLiens OutKast and their musical ilk. Even the conference logo is designed by Atlanta-based artist/musician Corrine Stevie, who describes herself as an "oddity."
In the last decade, AfroFuturism has increasingly grown as a field of study among academics attempting to encompass a wide breadth of what Dr. Alondra Nelson of Columbia University calls "black artistic diasporic production."
From the spaced-out free jazz of Sun Ra to Octavia Butler's speculative science fiction, there's a rich lineage of black artists and writers who bridge the historical worldview of African-American alienation and otherness with an undying sense of hope for the future.
In the video below, keynote speaker Dr. Nelson places another resident ATLien, Janelle Monáe, in the context of AfroFuturism. She speaks Friday at 4:15 p.m.
The conference, which continues Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8-9, includes a mishmash of topics related to the state of black identity, especially as performed within pop culture. Just check out some of the provocative titles of papers being presented:
>> "Listening to The Love Below: Outkast's Afrofuturistic Eroticism" (James Ford, Occidental College)
>> "Auto-Tune's pitch syncopation and the alien temporality of blackness" (Matthew Won, Independent Scholar)
>> "Fear Into Fire: Reclaiming Black Male Identity Through the Art of Tattooing" (Nicole Harrison, New York University)
>> "Becoming Wifey: The (Re)construction of Gendered Bodies through Basketball Wives" (Stephanie Jones, University of Georgia)
>> "We have very little in common with the vampires Bram Stoker described in Dracula: Afrofuturist Feminism in Black Women's Vampire Literature" (Susana Morris, Auburn University)
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
movies & tv / Pop Culture Meet Georgia's 'real life' zombie defenders
Posted by Clay Duda on Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 2:21 PM
Walking Dead ain't got nothing on Georgia's 'real' zombie fighters:
When the Zombies Come, a nearly 10-minute mockumentary set to air at this week's Sundance Film Festival has already racked up more than 55,000 views since debuting on YouTube less than 24 hours ago. But the setting for the "hardware store in the middle of nowhere" isn't quite as remote as we're led to believe. In fact, it's shot right here in metro Atlanta at an Ace Hardware on Dogwood Road in Lawrenceville.
A store associate named "Joey," who declined to give his last name, said he couldn't comment on the video and referred us to Ace's corporate press office. (We've called, and will update when we hear back).
At least one of the employees is currently on vacation, attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Apparently, Ace Hardware didn't find the video as amusing as the thousands of other folks who stumbled across it online. Shortly after the video was posted to YouTube yesterday, Ace left this response:
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Pop Culture TBS boards crazy train to Cougar Town and Ving Rhames drops a bomb on Tyler Perry
Posted by Gabe Wardell on Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 10:14 AM
It's not the first time one of the Turner networks rescued a network series from the scrap heap - TNT picked up "Southland" when NBC dumped it.
It's not even the first time a Bill Lawrence created series jumped networks - "Scrubs" leapt from NBC to ABC for its eighth and ninth seasons.
But this is the first time one of the Turner networks rescued a Bill Lawrence-created network series from certain doom.
The program, which series creator Bill Lawrence admits is woefully mistitled, faces a few serious challenges on very funny TBS, which must:
1) ...let series fans know the show has crossed over to basic cable.
2) ...educate viewers about the show's premise - group of wine-swilling, penny-can playing, middle-aged, chatty-Cathy (ahem) friends hang out and say clever things.
3) ...make sure everyone knows that the show has nothing to do with cougars.
To that end, TBS has been applying the full court press with a series of television spots, magazine ads, articles, and viral videos:
Here is a spot that looks like it was crafted by the "Conan" folks:
Monday, December 31, 2012
Pop Culture Dropping fruit (other than peaches)
Posted by Gabe Wardell on Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 2:13 PM
In honor of Atlanta's Annual New Year's Eve Peach Drop, let's take a look at some other dropping fruits:
Honeydew Drop, and more as David Letterman drops some science:
Apple Drop:
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