Keeping Up: Connecting to Pop Culture Locally and on the Web

Trying to keep up with the latest trends in anything can be exhausting. I'm not sure how fashionistas do it, but for me there are a few staples of popular culture that I turn to when I feel like I'm slipping out of the loop. You can find opportunities to interact one on one with pop culture in towns big and small if you just know where to look, and certainly when all else fails hit the web. Below are three of my favorite places and people to connect with when I need to know more about a popular culture phenomenon.

1. Check the library -- I realize that perhaps wandering in to the library doesn't seem like the most natural thing for a pop culture seeker to do, especially if what that person is interested in is TV and film; however, local libraries across the country are constantly expanding their offerings to appeal to readers of all kinds of text. Yes, you can check out DVDs and CDs in most libraries now, and e-books and digital audiobooks are available too, but libraries also offer wonderful opportunities to interact with other pop culture folks. Two examples of libraries connecting with the pop culture zeitgeist are the Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library and the Huntsville-Madison County Library. Both libraries offer book talks with local authors which let you discover up and coming and sometimes established authors. They also hosts panel talks where local and regional experts come in to discuss the next big thing in film, television, or publishing. For instance, on August 11th, the Florence library will host a discussion of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and in October, the Huntsville Library will hold what they hope will be the first annual Rocket City NerdCon, a regional convention featuring fandom experts of all kinds. These sorts of events let fans interact with each other in real time and real space.

2. Check the local theater -- It isn't just your local cineplex with its IMAX and 3-D that can help you get your fix on all things cool. Many communities have a theater league or local theater troupe who bring or perform shows year-round. Single performance tickets can run from $40 to $70 depending on the venue and how close to the stage you want to be, and while you might not get a big name star performing in a lead role in a touring production, you are likely to see a strong performance by dedicated performers. The list of Broadway shows playing in your area is worth a gander especially considering the recent crossover between the silver screen and the footlights. There's nothing like a good debate about which was better -- the original Broadway production or the film adaptation or increasingly the original film/TV series and the Broadway adaptation. This year my local theater league is featuring performances of Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy and I Love Lucy: Live on Stage.

3. Tune in to National Public Radio (or download a podcast) -- Several NPR programs, both on the radio and as podcasts, offer the budding pop culture scholar opportunities to hear new perspectives on some old favorites and also to find out about new shows, films, comics, books: the list goes on. If you're interested in a wide range of pop culture, check out Pop Culture Happy Hour, a weekly one-hour (roughly) podcast that features a panel of commentators from around and outside of NPR with expertise in music, film, television, books, and comic books. You can find the podcast on their page at NPR or on iTunes. Another show worth checking out is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me billed as the NPR news quiz with Peter Sagal. The show features news-related items, but the tone is anything but reverent. Frequent guests include Roy Blount, Jr.,  Alonzo Bodden, Paula Poundstone, Tom Boddett, and Amy Dickinson. While all of Wait, Wait is worth listening to, the "Not My Job" segment is often the pop culture highlight. Guests for this segment are asked a series of questions about professions that they may know nothing about but are often connected to puns usually tied to the guests' names or professions. For instance, recent guest, author Amy Tan, was asked a series of questions about tanning. For shorter segments, sports fans might want to check out Frank Deford's weekly commentary; he examines sports culture of all kinds from all angles.

I'm constantly looking for other sources of pop culture knowledge, so this list is bound to expand. I'll post a follow-up in six months and let you know what new things I've discovered. In the meantime, if you check out the "What I'm Reading" section of the blog, you'll see a list of other pop culture commentators I'm following. Their work is interesting and insightful and very often just fun. I recommend you check them out too.

Muppet Moment of the Blog -- The Swedish Chef makes popcorn.

Sampling the Pop: Barnes and Noble's Get Pop Cultured Freebies

On July 18 Barnes and Noble kicked off a three-week event celebrating popular culture. The event, Get Pop-Cultured, promises to provide book nerds with opportunities galore to celebrate their fandoms. For instance, if you're in to manga, Viz Media titles are buy two get the third free. Select stores will be having costume contests, kids' activities, games, author signings and giveaways until the end of the event on August 10th.

Four titles I'm looking forward to
 seeing more of (B&N Samples)

Preview weekend was July 18-20 and featured a plethora of sample chapters from upcoming titles in various genres although there seemed to be an awful lot of YA offerings on the table. I picked up several titles that seemed promising. Out of the eight samples I've looked at so far, five really caught my eye. I've reviewed all of them below; keep in mind that these impressions are based on very short samples.

Uncaged by John Sandford and Michele Cook -- Released earlier this month, Uncaged is the first in a new series by Sandford and Cook. In this series two teens take on the Singular corporation, a corporation with decidedly dark secrets including questionable animal testing. Like a lot of YA fiction of late, Uncaged takes place in a world that's definitely out to get its teen protagonists. Ordinarily I wouldn't be all that in to conspiracy and dark plots, but the opening chapters provided in the sample were enough to pique my interest. The characters are still pretty flat in these early chapters, but they show some promise as each gets to have either a snarky moment or touching scene.

Atlantia by Ally Condie -- Set to be released on November 4th, Atlantia is an intriguing post-apocalyptic story. The story's center is Rio, a young woman who just might be a siren. She lives in the underwater city of Atlantia, a  not-quite Utopia, but Atlantia is still better than the Above. Rio longs to see land and has decided that she will choose life Above when the time comes. But before she can do so, her twin, Bay, declares that she will go Above. Confused and hurt, Rio tries to solve the mystery of why her sister chose a life she claimed to have never wanted. The preview is only two chapters long, so I have no idea why the Above is so dangerous or why Atlantia's coming of age ceremony features young people who choose a life of hardship Above, but based on the two chapters I have read, I'm curious to see what happens next.

Nightmares by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller -- Due out September 9th, Nightmares is likely to appeal to a younger audience than Uncaged or Atlantia.  Those who enjoyed Lemony Snicket or The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place or even The Gashlycrumb Tinies should find something to enjoy in this book. Charlie Laird, the twelve-year-old protagonist, is not having a good time as the book opens. The three chapter sample reveals that his mother has died and his father has remarried. His stepmother claims to have been a childhood friend of his mother, but Charlie doesn't believe it for an instant, mostly because she lives in a creepy purple mansion and runs a decidedly odd herb shop in town. Oh, and something in the house is out to get him! All the classic fairy tale elements are here presented with a wink and a nudge by the authors and delightfully illustrated by Karl Kwasny.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu -- According to Lu's Tumblr for this first book in the series, The Young Elites is a bildungsroman for a villain. Again, I don't generally get into the complicated back stories of bad guys, but Lu's Adelina Amouteru is sympathetic, a girl cut off from others thanks to a virus that she shouldn't have survived. Fans of the X-Men will recognize some of the elements in this book -- a teenager who develops powers she can barely control, the parent who tries to deny those powers, and an outside world who wants to destroy those with powers. While all of that is neat, what I found compelling in this sneak peek was the atmosphere Lu has created. Set in a world reminiscent of Renaissance Florence, The Young Elites is filled with dark shadows and foreboding. Think of Edgar A. Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" or "The Cask of Amontillado" and you'll get a sense of the place Lu's created. The book is set to be released in early October.

Peanuts collections by Charles M. Schulz -- Andrew McMeel Publishing through its amp!Comics for kids arm has published several collections of Peanuts strips. The sampler given out during Preview Weekend featured three collections -- Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Friends, and POW!. This sampler is among my favorites largely for nostalgia; however, the collections are worth a look as they reprint full -color strips and feature some of the best-loved gags from the long running newspaper strip. Included are strips with Lucy the psychiatrist, Snoopy the Beagle Scout, and Charlie Brown as the long suffering baseball manager.

Two titles I was less impressed by (B&N Samples)

Of the other samples I chose, three didn't quite appeal to me, but they might be to the liking of other pop culture readers. First off is The Young World by Chris Weitz. Weitz will be a familiar name to fans of the Twilight series as he directed Twilight: The New Moon. The Young World is his first novel and features a world in which all of the adults have been killed by a virus. The children left behind must make do with a world that's been reduced to rather primitive conditions and hope that when they turn 18 they won't die. Told from through the eyes of several teens who are working to survive in what remains of New York, the book feels an awful lot like someone mixed Lord of the Flies in with the classic Star Trek episode, "Miri."

Danielle Paige's debut novel, Dorothy Must Die, revisits the world of the L. Frank Baum's classic, and like those other revisitations by Gregory Maguire, Dorothy Must Die begins with a what if?. In this case, what if Dorothy returns to Oz not as a hero but as a conqueror? Taking Oz and giving it a Gotham makeover didn't do much for me, but the book has been praised for its girl power potential. Released in April, the book is rumored to be the basis for a new CW series. The prequel text, No Place Like Oz, is available as a $1.99 e-book; it explains how Oz became so un-Oz like.

The sample for The Way of Shadows: The Graphic Novel by Brent Weeks features several black and white pages from the graphic novel to be released in October. This text  is an adaptation by Ivan Brendon of Weeks' first novel in his The Night Angel Trilogy; the art is by Andy McDonald. I liked McDonald's style but found the intense dark and gritty world a bit much for me. Perhaps I shouldn't have read this after reading the heavy The Young World and Dorothy Must Die. Fans of Dungeons and Dragons-style fantasy novel might find this book appealing though as it does take a hard look at one of the more popular dark characters, the assassin.

A promotional poster for a Stan Lee collaboration (B&N Samples)

I did pick up some promotional art for some other texts that look like fun, including a poster for the Zodiac series co-written by Stan Lee and promotional postcards for Lev Grossman's The Magician's Land, The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, Babymouse, and Comics Squad: Recess!.

All in all, Barnes and Noble's Get Pop-Cultured events are worth checking out. The remaining events feature specials for Frozen, Marvel Comics, James Patterson, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Muppet Moment of the Blog -- Habanera a la the Swedish Chef, Beaker, and Animal.

It's a Kind of Magic: The Return of Sailor Moon

Anime and manga are staples of Japanese popular culture, and over the last 20 years or so, they've become staples of American popular culture as well. Back in 1997, Cartoon Network began airing a block of anime shows during its action-adventure programming block, Toonami. Some of the more popular fare during that block included an English dubbed version of the 1992 Japanese hit, Sailor Moon. Based on the manga series written by Naoko Takeuchi, the anime series revolved around the adventures of five super-powered adolescent girls who routinely save the Earth and the universe from the forces of evil.  As Toonami aged and its programming block began to change, Sailor Moon was dropped from the line up in 2000. Recently, on July 5th, Viz Media and Hulu have begun streaming Sailor Moon Crystal, the anime reboot of Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon Crystal episodes will be released on the first and third Saturdays of the month.

For the uninitiated, Sailor Moon (the anime) tells the story of Usagi Tsukino, a thirteen year old girl who leads a relatively normal life. Usagi attends Juban Middle School in Tokyo. As she tells the viewer in the opening title sequence, she's a bit of a klutz and a crybaby. When she stumbles upon a black cat with a strange crescent moon shaped mark on her forehead, Usagi's life changes. The cat, Luna, is really a messenger from the moon kingdom and Usagi is secretly the guardian of the moon, Sailor Moon. Using her special moon brooch, she transforms into Sailor Moon to fight villains. As the series progresses, she is joined by other Scouts representing various planets within our solar system.

Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal are both examples of an offshoot of the magical girl genre: the Magical Girl Warrior. But just what is a magical girl anyway? The genre became popular in Japan in the 1960s. Television Tropes and Idioms and Mark C. MacKinnon's book, The Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game and Resource Book both provide interesting and helpful background for the magical girl genre. For instance, TV Tropes claims that the 1964 series Bewitched helped to inspire Mahotsukai Sari (1966) and Himitsu No Akko-chan (1969). These series establish certain elements of the genre that have remained more or less constant. Magic is both an aide and a hindrance in the life of the magical girl. Magical girls are often exceptionally feminine, and their stories focus on the creation and maintenance of personal relationships. As the genre evolves, the girls evolve too; now they are just as likely to be tomboys as girly girls, and the stories tend to feature conflicts with a dark antagonist (almost always female and sometimes older). Additionally, the stakes in battle are raised as characters, including those closest to the magical girl and the magical girl herself can die.

In the United States, an equivalent to the magical girl can be found in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; Archie Comics began publishing the adventures of Sabrina Spellman as early as 1962. Sabrina's adventures mirror those of her Japanese counterparts: she has special powers that her friends do not, and those powers allow her to help them but also complicate her life. Also, like the Japanese magical girls, Sabrina has appeared in comics, in a live-action television series, and in a series of animated shows. In 2004, Sabrina's comic got a manga-inspired makeover; this run lasted until 2009. A collection of the manga-inspired arc appeared as Sabrina -- The Magic Revisited. The animated series, Sabrina, Secrets of a Teenage Witch, just wrapped its first season at the beginning of June.

With Hulu streaming both the classic Sailor Moon episodes (two episodes drop every Monday) as well as Sailor Moon Crystal, fans of the Magical Girl Warrior have a unique opportunity to compare two approaches to a single source. Word has it that Sailor Moon Crystal intends to be a more faithful adaptation of Takeuchi's manga, and based on the first episode, that seems to be true. The characters look a lot more her drawings. Of particular note is the change in the body style of the characters who now have improbably long limbs and, in protagonist Usagi/Sailor Moon's case, wonderfully flowing hair. There's a depth to the animation in Sailor Moon Crystal that the earlier series didn't have, and the colors are certainly richer. This video comparing the two transformation sequences highlights the difference nearly 20 years can make. (There's no sound for these clips as YouTube removed them for copyright reasons.)

While there's been some discussion about which version is "better," what really seems important to note here is that in Sailor Moon viewers/readers have a heroine who is working to define herself both as a person and as a hero. Sailor Moon Crystal, like Sailor Moon (anime) and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (manga) before it), is a bildungsroman, a coming of age story. Learning to use her powers as Sailor Moon is important for Usagi, but learning to be more responsible and caring is equally important. In the midst of conversations about the lack of super-powered women in popular culture, Sailor Moon Crystal provides a lovely counterpoint. In Usagi and the other Sailor Scouts, audiences get an opportunity to watch a superhero who fights for "love and justice."


Muppet Moment of the Blog: The Muppets perform "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Pop Goes the Independence

So it’s the 4^th of July, and like many Americans both stateside and around the world, I’m all set to celebrate Independence Day with good food, family, friends, and fireworks. Of the many holidays Americans embrace, the 4^th of July is probably the most frenetic and has left an interesting mark on the popular culture landscape.

First off, it’s worth thinking about why we use July 4 as the day to celebrate the original thirteen American colonies and their break from English rule. For a quick review, head over to the National Archive for a look at the Declaration of Independence and its origins. The movement towards this landmark document began in June of 1776; John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and, of course, Thomas Jefferson collaborated on the creation of the draft with Franklin and Adams providing lead writer Jefferson with editorial guidance, according to Jefferson’s own account.  The National Archives’ article on the history of the Declaration outlines the process by which the Declaration was put into place. On July 2^nd the Continental Congress agreed to “the Lee Resolution for independence" which "was adopted by 12 of the 13 colonies, New York not voting”. The formal version of the Declaration was not approved by all the colonies until the 4^th. The Declaration was designed to make clear to England why the colonies wanted independence but also to tell the world (i.e. France) in hopes that the break would at best receive some financial and military support and at worst non-interference.

Popular culture loves the notion of the drafting of the Declaration. From 1973 until 1985, ABC taught kids the basics or perhaps the commonly held beliefs about American history through a series of interstitials during Saturday morning cartoons. I learned the Preamble to the Constitution thanks to Schoolhouse Rock!, and "Fireworks," "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," and “No More Kings” showcase the origins of the American Revolution. Thanks to “Fireworks,” which aired during the bicentennial celebration, every kid knows that the American War for Independence was about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In 1993 the animated series, Animaniacs, had an episode segment titled “The Flame.” In it a candle flame watches over Thomas Jefferson and provides encouragement as he works through the night to create the Declaration.

The connotations of the phrases, 4^th of July and Independence Day, are largely positive, but popular culture has explored the nuances of these phrases and the ideas they allude to in a number of ways. Here are just four of the many examples of the very positive and the very problematic ways we see our national celebration.

Yankee Doodle Dandy – This 1942 biopic starring James Cagney about the life of George M. Cohan is told in flashback as Cohan receives the Congressional Gold Medal from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The film features many patriotic songs penned by the prolific entertainer: “The Yankee Doodle Boy” certainly stands out on the 4th. The song was a part of Cohan’s musical Little Johnny Jones. a chronicle of the life of jockey, Little Johnny Jones, who rode a horse called Yankee Doodle. The film features a shortened version of the song, but even in the brief scene in which it appears, the song exemplifies an American spirit of bravado and perseverance. Other patriotic numbers to look for are “Over There” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” For a critical look at the film, check Jennifer Garlen’s review at Examiner.com.

Born on the Fourth of July – The biography (1976) and the film (1989) look at the cost of war on a person's body and soul. Ron Kovic’s story, the story of a wounded, paralyzed Marine veteran and his evolution into a peace activist, shows the flip side of the war experience. Tom Cruise’s portrayal of Kovic in the 1989 film, co-written by Kovic and director Oliver Stone, was hailed as authentic and searing. For a thoughtful of review of the film and its potential impact, see Roger Ebert’s review from December 1989.

Independence Day – Released in 1996, this Will Smith film launched a thousand blockbusters. It established Smith as an action hero moving him further away from his persona as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Here Independence Day is all about freedom from domination, this time from alien invaders. Like their predecessors in films from the 1950s and 1960s, these alien invaders are stand-ins for the threatening issues of the day; in this case the issue may be the growing divisions within America itself. The invasion provides a way for the disparate elements of the American community to come together to fight for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Many of the contemporary reviews of the film found the plot, characterization, and effects laughable, and yet a check of the TV listings for today reveals that Encore will be showing the film all day long.

“Independence Day” – Martina McBride’s 1993 hit takes the notion of the fight for independence into the realm of the domestic. Written by Gretchen Peters the song tells the story of a woman’s struggle to get out of an abusive relationship. The video for the song is set during a small town 4^th of July parade and contrasts the celebration of one kind of independence with the destructive nature of gaining another. Again “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are at the core of this fight for independence, but the struggle is personal and costly.

These complicated and varied visions of the ideas and ideals of the American Revolution and the 4^th of July are just reminders and extensions of another great pop culture idea – the Great American Melting Pot. 

***Your Muppet Moment of the Blog -- Sam the Eagle's tribute to America, "Stars and Stripes Forever"

For What It's Worth: Buffalo Springfield, The Muppets and the PopCulture Journey

It seems fitting that the first post to this blog is inspired by an episode of The Muppet Show. A good deal of the work I've done as a popular culture scholar has involved creations of felt and fur. The Muppets have always been great creators of and respondents to cultural phenomena. They are a part of a long string of influences that have poked and prodded my lifelong learning journey. A marvelous example of that sort of poking is my interaction with the Muppet's cover of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth."

Covering popular tunes has been and continues to be a feature of Muppet performances. Kermit the Frog was a lip syncher long before launching into his own singing career with "Bein' Green." Muppet covers were often simply wacky as having pig Eskimos, walruses, and penguins sing "Lullaby of Broadway" in Episode 4 of Season Three to an all pig motorcycle gang singing the Beach Boys' hit "I Get Around" in Episode 15 of Season Four. Other musical numbers were more message driven like "I'm a Woman," a duet featuring Raquel Welch and Miss Piggy from Episode 11 of Season Three, and "For What It's Worth" in Episode 21 of Season Two. While the Welch/Piggy duet follows the tone of the original release fairly closely (Piggy is all about female empowerment, after all), the Buffalo Springfield cover takes a Vietnam War era protest song and uses it to comment on American gun culture and hunting.

The Muppet cover alters the original in some interesting ways. First off, there are no live actors in the sketch at all; all the actors from the human hunters to the forest animals they attempt to stalk are Muppets. The setting differs from the original as well -- moved out of the 1967 protest movement and into an idyllic sylvan setting. The vocals are not by a human singer but instead by a chorus of forest creatures lead by a opossum. Finally, two verses were altered to fit the new message about hunting. With each alteration, the Muppets widen the focus on the then 10-year-old protest song, taking it from war protest to cultural critique.

Lest you think I'm reading too much into a three minute sketch, MuppetWiki, a site written by and for fans of the Muppets, reports in its entry for "For What It's Worth" that in 1978 an article appeared in Field and Stream calling for a letter writing campaign to protest the sketch's depiction of hunters.

But back to those changes and how they might affect a child viewer. When I first saw the sketch on The Muppet Show, I had no idea that "For What It's Worth" was anything more than a song that came on oldies radio. The Muppets gave me a way to interact with the song, and the context they created for it was one most children would have been familiar with thanks to years of fairy tales and Disney films. Disney films in particular made me comfortable with the notion of singing animals who were very often brighter and certainly more compassionate than people. After all, I'd seen Bambi and Dumbo, and those films make very clear the consequences of human/animal interaction.

And so for years, the song was for me about environmental stewardship. Then as I was putting together a unit for my composition students on protest songs, I stumbled upon "For What It's Worth." I did a little digging and learned of its past -- that the song had been written in part as a response to clashes between student protesters and police in Los Angeles.

The song suddenly grew and changed for me: it became something more than a protest against police brutality or a satirical look at hunting culture. It became emblematic of the power of popular culture to evolve and through its evolution change us. I'm grateful to the Muppets for planting a powerful audio-visual moment in my head that eventually grew into a pop culture learning moment.

For what it's worth, I think there are lots of such moments out there, and I hope to share some of them with you on this blog.

For more Muppet goodness, check out these sites:

• Muppet Wiki
• Tough Pigs
• Disney's home for the Muppets on the web 
• And this irreverent take on "Why Can't We Be Friends" 

For more about protest songs, check out these artists and songs:

• Simon and Garfunkel "Scarborough Fair"
• The Byrds "Turn, Turn, Turn"
• Woody Guthrie
• Pete Seeger