Category: Pop culture

2011 Year in Review: Up in The Air

Posted on by Elise
In transit at the Warsaw Airport. (October 2011)

 

My friend Patrick Terpstra wrote this of his year: “‎2011 was like riding a tilt-a-hurl after eating seven corn dogs. But it sure beats watching from the ground.”

I can’t disagree. I did plenty of plane riding, which is the most consistent memory of this year, besides saying goodbye and hello to a lot of people I really love. To rewind:

The Year I Flew Around the World, Twice: After saying goodbye to Texas and The Texas Tribune, I spent 99 days this year away from home, logging 78,931 miles in the air to 29 locations including places like Warsaw, Poland (for fun) and Boise, Idaho (for work). Not proud of the carbon footprint but I can now glide through security like Ryan Bingham.

Don’t Look Back in Anger (I Heard You Say): It felt like a pretty angry and destructive year, didn’t it? My second favorite emotion*, outrage, seemed to abound. I write this as tens of thousands of Russians protest in the streets, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya take their shaky steps toward self-rule, and socioeconomic dissatisfaction continues at home. We said goodbye to Osama bin Laden, Amy Winehouse and Steve Jobs (none of whom were picks in my clearly talentless celebrity death pool), an earthquake-tsunami combo led to radiation disaster in Japan, and we experienced a rare earthquake in my new hometown of Washington, D.C.

Favorite Video of The Year Is Also My Favorite Song: “Ching Chong (It Means I Love You)”
After a UCLA student went on a crazy rant about Asian people in the library, she faced a backlash so large she had to quit college. But Jimmy Wong turned his rant response into art — one of the catchiest songs of the year, and an instant viral video. It will get stuck in your head, so if you haven’t seen this, you’ve been warned.

Speaking of Asians, My Most Memorable Welcome to Washington: The Crazy Guy in Starbucks
There was one morning after the devastating Japanese earthquake when I went into Starbucks in Chinatown, natch, when a random guy off the street wandered in, started yelling at people in line, stopped at me, and said this, to me: “Fuck you, go home. You deserved the earthquake.” Then he told the rest of the line we were all going to die. Yep.

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Inventions of Sean Blumberg, Revisited

Posted on by Elise

My recent tumble into a marathon 84-episode viewing of Felicity, the series, just ended. (Thank God, because I really need my life back.) Clearly I have a few sistas out there who have slipped into the same situation and felt compelled to blog about seeing a decade-old coming-of-age TV series all over again, so I’ll contribute just one post to the revived pantheon to Felicity.

"What if this pen cap was a treat?" Sean Blumberg, as played by Greg Grunberg on WB's Felicity.

Among my favorite running gags on the show are the nonsense ideas cooked up by Sean Blumberg, the random guy who was 27 years old but hanging out with college kids. So this time around, I actually paused to write down his ideas and inventions as they were introduced on the show. To wit:

Lact-Oh’s
Milkless cereal. There’s milk baked into every O. So you just add water, and the water hydrates the evaporated milk.

Bagel Knobs
Like doughnut holes, but bagel holes. And you can inject fillings into them like cream cheese, butter, lox spread. “It’s gonna be a big, huge item,” said Sean.

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Movies About Newspapers: The Pub Quiz Questions

Posted on by Elise
A scene from The Paper, one of my fave newspaper movies.

A few weeks ago I rounded up some friends — at the last minute — to take part in the pub quiz at The Argonaut, an H Street bar that’s annoying to get to and yet always packed. My sorry teammates will probably never forgive me for sharing this, but of the 12 teams that took part in a seven-round pub quiz, our team — Quantitative Pleasing — placed last. We blame the small size of our team (four players compared to the 10 plus that other teams boasted), and two ridiculous categories: “Name that Cat Breed” and “Comic Books.”

The ignominious “prize” for coming in last place is the losers get to choose a category for the next week’s contest. We chose “Movies About Newspapers” and quizmaster Michael was nice enough to send me the questions, even though our team was unable to make it to see these questions presented live. See if you can answer them. In true pub trivia fashion, no cheating with your mobile devices!

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Deadline? Some Reading to Help You Procrastinate

Posted on by Elise

Like any self-respecting journalist, I spend 90% of the run-up to a deadline either procrastinating or scouring the internet for ways to procrastinate. These are the aids in my deadline avoidance this weekend:

Esquire’s Guide to Marriage (complete with a quiz!)
Writers take on the beginning, middle and end stages of marriage with short essays. I love the “middle” essay, about fighting. As for the quiz, my husband-of-nearly-one-year Matty scored in the “she’s probably not going to leave you anytime soon” range, which is respectable. He did lose 100 points somewhere in the middle for saying “guy time” within the last six months.

Jimmy Lai Animates the News
My first exposure to Taiwan’s NextGen Animation was after the Tiger Woods scandal, when an avatar for Elin Nordegren chased the cartoon Woods with a golf club and bashed in the front window of his Suburban. By 2010, I was fully obsessed and went to NextGen’s YouTube page after any major news event, to see how the animators imagined things going down. The man behind the cross-cultural meme tells the NYT, “I could make a big business out of recreating the amazing images of the news, because what we get on TV is always the last bit of image. What happened before that image is always missing.” The interview gets really funny when he starts talking about the inspiration for his Asian clothing line, Giordano.

The Queen Pop Needs Her to Be
The Times runs a piece similar to a NY Mag cover feature of a year ago, about the workaholism and artistry and post-modern brilliance of Lady Gaga. Fun fact: Even with all the costuming and elaborate stagecraft and dancing, Gaga never lip syncs at her shows. I really gotta go see her live sometime.

What the Frack is Going On?
If you haven’t seen it yet, you gotta check out The Fracking Song, which is both an educational and entertaining explainer of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. No, really.

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned from Ace of Base

Posted on by Elise

“I don’t think I bought their CD.” -Matty, on Ace of Base

The other night, at the Hu-Stiles housewarming weenie roast of 2011, I took a lot of grief for the Ace of Base music on my iTunes. But if you pay closer attention, the music and lyrics performed by those clever Swedes offered all kinds of lessons for life. I picked out some of the most important takeaways from my favorite Ace of Base selections — “Don’t Turn Around,” “The Sign” and “Beautiful Life.” While I really enjoyed “All That She Wants” when I was in sixth grade, I found the message of the song to be a little too slutty.

Life is demanding without understanding
This seems like a simple lyric, but really, it’s a succinct expression of the human condition. The work of great artists, philosophers and theologians can justifiably trace back to this premise.

You can do what you want just seize the day
Perhaps Mark Twain said this better, but it’s riffing on the same principle: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the things you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” (For me this means eating a lot of food and traveling a lot of places. But apply it however you’d like.)

Take a walk in the park when you feel down
I modify this to include any hike and bike trails, namely the one on Town Lady Bird Lake in Austin. But this is some solid, practical advice from my favorite early nineties Swedish pop band.

If you wanna leave, I won’t beg you to stay
Ladies, this is an important one. As Chuck Klosterman says, “Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less.” Look out for number one. Value yourself over a man who doesn’t care about you enough to stick around.

No one’s gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong…(Where do you belong?)
This is my daily inspiration. Doesn’t need much explanation.

Internet Distractions Discovered by Reeve: The Inception Edition

Posted on by Elise

Let’s start with the distraction that’s also an effective meeting starter: The Inception Button. As Reeve says, you can “add a little drama to any mundane situation” by calling this up and pushing the button. You remember how intense that soundtrack was. Now you can use it to, say, announce you’re going to the loo. Or that you’re going to be late. Or that it’s time for lunch.

For our next selection, some Passover fun:

Reeve also recommends the distraction below because “the concept is great,” even though the execution is only okay. Check it out, especially those of you who are fans of the Academy Award-dominating film, The King’s Speech:

Introducing Crazy Distractions on the Internet Discovered by Reeve

Posted on by Elise

Back in my halcyon days of youth, I enjoyed starting a random blog series every now and again. Like “Snippet from Stiles,” in which I’d quote my then-boyfriend Matty out of context. Or “Impact Players,” a Q & A with a behind-the-scenes person in Texas politics who actually did a lot of heavy lifting. Since I haven’t really grown up, it’s time to start another random series. We’ll call it, “Crazy Distractions on the Internet Discovered by Reeve.”

He's keeping an eye on the internets for you, the people.

Reeve is my pal from Austin. Our connection dates to 2009, when I issued a call across the Texas Senate press table for someone to go eat with me at two in the afternoon. Reeve immediately said yes, and our friendship was born over bad tacos at an El Chilito that closed down and reopened briefly, only to close down again. I later discovered that Reeve enjoys a free meal even more than I do, which is pretty impressive.

Reeve is also about five years younger than me and therefore hip. So I count on Reeve to use his slacking off time at work to discover viral videos, music or any other assorted nonsense that he will then share with me. This has gone on for awhile now. I would not know about the three-year-old who wants to be governor of New Jersey without him. More importantly, I wouldn’t know about the internet sensation that is Rebecca Black’s “Friday” without Reeve, so our connection is both a blessing and a curse.

Since Reeve is pretty consistent in sharing his internet distractions with me, I will start sharing them with you, in the form of our new series. Says Reeve of this idea, “”I cannot fathom why Elise thinks this is worthwhile.”

This week’s distractions:

Stephen Colbert sings Rebecca Black’s Friday for charity, which Reeve calls “epic.”

An oldie but a goodie, featuring a wide array of artists singing “Perfect Day”

And since this is the inaugural post in our series, Reeve suggests you watch what he calls “the greatest YouTube video of all time,” in which this guy, Guy, is there for a job interview and they accidentally bring him on as an expert after some Apple lawsuit so he has no idea what’s going on but he soldiers through.

Stuff I Love: Creative News Interactives

Posted on by Elise

On Saturday after I spoke on a panel called “News as Infotainment,” two lovely ladies from Frontline (FRONTLINE!) came up and asked me for examples of interactive and “infotainmenty” news presentations I really loved. I didn’t have time to go over them in person, so here you go, ladies:

New York Magazine: It’s Time to Play ‘Sheen, Beck, or Qaddafi?’


The ramblings and rantings of the actor, the pundit and the dictator have collectively compelled us as a nation, and while the three men are from vastly different backgrounds, the words that come out of their mouths are strangely similar. As the magazine wrote, “To demonstrate just what a struggle it is to distinguish between the mad ramblings of an entertainer, a despot, and a newsman another entertainer, we’ve put together this quiz. If you get them all right, you are some kind of savant.”

 

Vanity Fair: Qad Libs

Qaddafi is leading to all sorts of creative inspiration. Vanity Fair’s “Qad Libs,” based on the childhood word game “Mad Libs”, allowed readers to “create a realistic hard-line speech by inserting your own bizarre words into the colonel’s actual defiant address.” The magazine allowed readers to fill in a string of nouns, adverbs and adjectives in their interactive form to create their own Qaddafi rants. Amazingly, every customizable rant seemed right on.

 

Budget Puzzles, by The New York Times, Sacramento Bee, American Public Media, and more


In response to the nations gazillion trillion dollar deficit, and the frightening shortfalls of state governments around the country, media companies have followed in The Times’ footsteps with interactive budget puzzles that allow the user to find ways to balance the budget. Poynter’s recent piece discusses the limitations of these puzzles (the game writers get to set the parameters of what to cut or revenue to increase) but this is a great way to make real the budget troubles of governments, teach readers about the decisions that have to be made and allow for audiences to prioritize what they think is important.

 

The Chillout Song, by Ze Frank (my hero)

Frank’s project teaches us a beautiful lesson about how technology and social sharing can enable human connection. As you’ll read in the story he lays out, he received an email from a girl named Laura who was stressed out and felt hopeless; she asked for a song to help calm her nerves. Frank asked her to describe her feelings, which then led to a sketch of a song that he then asked his audience to record themselves singing. It led to a gorgeous result, no pitch correction required, that you can now purchase online.

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/track=397380065/size=grande/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB//

2010 in Review: Turn Around, Bright Eyes

Posted on by Elise
At our Amsterdam wedding after party, in Texas.

To continue with an annual tradition started at least half a decade ago, it’s time to look back at the year that was. I’ve already been quoted calling it “the longest year ever,” but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Let’s see. We said goodbye to John Wooden, Leslie Neilsen and George Steinbrenner, the whole country learned what a blowout preventer was and somehow I made it through all of 2010 without seeing a single episode of ‘Glee’.

Noteworthy Taiwanese Imports: NextMedia Animation, the company that makes shameless animated versions of the news, and that chubby cherubic looking kid Lin Yu Chun, who totally KILLED IT with William Shatner on a rendition of karaoke fave, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”:

Noteworthy Low Moment: When the Tribune’s Niran Babalola and I tried to karaoke to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in front of 500 strangers packed into an Austin bar during SXSW in March. We were bad, and I’m not just saying that. Behind us was an oversized projection of the instant Twitter comments as we were singing. “This is OUT OF MY RANGE!” Niran kept reminding me.

Personal Buzzword: “Werd.” I realized it’s spelled “word,” but my partner-in-crime Justin and I feel we pronounce it slightly differently, and that the difference is in the vowel.

Blissful Discoveries: Breaking Bad (OMG!), Austin’s Rainey Street district, and how I can hold down Apple+H keys to hide all of my windows MUCH FASTER now. How did I go so long without these luxuries?

The Rest of the List:

-Became a godmother

-Became a wife

-Became a contributor to The New York Times

-Got eyesight (due to the advances in laser vision correction)

-Attended six weddings (including my own)

-Rode a donkey up a mountain to a cave where they say Zeus was born

-Took a trip to LA to receive a journalism award

-Took a trip to New York to pick up a different journalism award

-Spent two delightful weekends in D.C.

-Ran into Danger Mouse at a bar

-Reluctantly endured the cycle of losing my cat and finding him at least three times

–Visited Greece and Spain, allowing me to mark Thanksgiving by gorging on seafood in Barcelona (Thankful, natch)

Chuck Todd > Chuck Norris

-Got a too-excited photo with Chuck Todd at the White House Christmas party for the network television folks, which my White House staffer friend kindly let me formally crash (not wearing a sari, natch)

-Formalized our Celebrity Death Pool, in which our competitiveness led us to strangely dark proclamations

-Threw one epic, four-day party in Amsterdam, preceded by a swank engagement party hosted by a dozen of my besties, a pair of bachelorette nights (one on each side of the Atlantic), a shower at (where else?) a hot dog place, followed by a raging after party held by a pair of distinctly Austin hippies, also featuring hot dogs.

Thanks for another wild one, 2010.

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2009 Year in Review | 2008 Year in Review