Entries Tagged 'Pop Culture' ↓

You’ve gotta wade past 1:50 of what looks like late ’60s, public access-level Dutch TV sitcomedy. But if you live through that, in sight is a glorious YouTube of Carl Douglas lip-syncing his signature 1974 track, “Kung-Fu Fighting.” [Insert Bruce Lee wild cat sound here.]

Devil in the details: Chef Gordon Ramsay emerges from the flames

Hell’s Kitchen, whose 4th season begins tonight on FOX at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT, didn’t get even a nod from me during its first two seasons, but after a chance viewing last year, I’ve become perversely hooked. Set in the titular TV restaurant/studio of Scottish chef Gordon James Ramsay, the contest pits two ambitious teams of would-be head cooks against each other, as they struggle to win top dog status in their own “million-dollar restaurant” (although, when you think of it, a million-dollar restaurant could be, like, a little corner eatery).

So what? This is the essential topology of every r-show since the May 2000 U.S. debut of Survivor. I think what roped me in, however, is:

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Everything but the helmet: LeBron James meets his doppelganger

“Vogue spokesman Patrick O’Connell said the magazine ‘sought to celebrate two superstars at the top of their game’ for the magazine’s annual issue devoted to size and shape.

“‘We think Lebron James and Gisele Bundchen look beautiful together and we are honoured to have them on the cover,’ he said.”

“But magazine analyst Samir Husni believes the photo was deliberately provocative, adding that it ‘screams King Kong.” Considering Vogue’s influential history, he said, covers are not something that the magazine does in a rush.

“‘So when you have a cover that reminds people of King Kong and brings those stereotypes to the front, Black man wanting white woman, it’s not innocent,’ he said.”

—“Vogue cover starring LeBron James is called racially insensitive by some,” Megan Scott, The Associated Press

“Lying,” photographer Annie Leibovitz’s late lover, Susan Sontag, famously said in an essay, “is an elementary means of self-defense.”

Perhaps knowing this is why both Leibovitz, right, creator of VOGUE’s controversial April 2008 cover photo, above right, and Anna Wintour, VOGUE editor-in-chief, below, both 58, have remained absolutely mute since accusations began to fly, over a week ago, that their coy image—featuring Cleveland Cavaliers point forward LeBron James, 23, and supermodel Gisele Bündchen, 27—was a less-than-subtle piece of racist indoctrination.

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Forgive me: I don’t mean to put a sister’s business out in the street, but I have never been as shocked to find out a person’s age as I was during a recent chance lookup of actor Rachel True (Half & Half), right, on Wikipedia.

According to Wiki, True was born on November 15, 1966. This makes her 41 years old.

I’m sorry, but I find this absolutely mind-boggling. My wife and I became real fans of True’s gentle little farce, which ran from September 2002 to May 2006 on the now defunct UPN network. True, with Essence Atkins, played one of two San Francisco-based stepsisters, navigating missteps in careers, relationships, with their mothers, and each other. True, who I’d argue looked no older than 25 in the role—if that—played her character, Mona, with genuine pluck; the one relatively normal human being in a cast of kooks.

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The news this week that Barack Obama is distantly related to, among others, Brad Pitt, and that Hillary Clinton is, albeit at a distance, connected by family to Angelina Jolie, led to Pretty On the Outside blog fashioning these grotesque morphs of the Democratic candidates with their respective kinfolk.

I met Wilford Brimley once, on the set of Hard Target, John Woo’s first U.S. production. I had no idea he was a master of club music remixes, as these YouTubes, here, here, here, and especially here, of his Liberty Medical commercials clearly demonstrate.

If you thought Angelina Jolie should’ve gotten an Oscar for the face she made, above, in the first trailer for Wanted—her June 27 super assassin, super-actioner with Morgan Freeman, James McAvoy, and Common, directed by Timur Bekmambetov—you’ll be thrilled that the hot, new trailer is out.

Though almost nothing is cooler than the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video that Samuel Bayer directed for Nirvana, if you can believe it, nearly two decades ago, in 1991—not Weird Al” Yankovic’s parody or Paul Anka’s big band-styled tribute—this $44.99, 18-inch figure of Kurt Cobain from the classic vid comes close. (Thanks to super-blogger and fellow New Zealand-phile Hanan Levin at Grow-A-Brain for the tip.)

It not only talks, nor solely comes in a 7-inch, $16.99 version but, revelation!, also makes obvious that Cobain’s competition model 1969 Fender Mustang was finished in “Lake Placid Blue.” Somehow, I’d never noticed this. Perhaps I was distracted by all the marbles in his mouth.

Totally wicked video for “DVNO” by the French dance duo, Justice, from their 2007 album †, usually referred to as Cross. (Plus, to accompany your inevitable sense of deja vu, an attempt to identify the logotypes.) Thanks to Bobby Sattler’s wonderful Whole Lot of BS blog for hipping me to this.

Overdue congratulations to The Queen, Angela Bassett, for receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this past Thursday.