clusterflock » pop culture

13 Years After The Phantom Menace

Josh Weichhand — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:11:05 +0000

To mark its re-release in 3D, Moviefone asked 13 writers, reporters and critics to reflect back on their experience watching The Phantom Menace for the first time:

We drove home in silence. The first thing I can remember saying was “Well … it looked cool.” The droid army was absolutely intimidating. Yoda didn’t look like a pile of spoiled lunchmeat. And it certainly wasn’t weird that Samuel L. Jackson was on the Jedi council … at all. I had developed Stockholm Syndrome — I’d become a full-fledged Lucas apologist. “No, that was just bad. Really bad.” Kate paused, “And you’re not allowed to pick out any movies anymore.”

Some wounds take longer to heal.

“a gigolo is a professional dancer”

Andrew Simone — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:07:13 +0000

via Gunslinger

R.I.P. Don Cornelius (1936-2012)

Sheila Ryan — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:25:45 +0000

Don Cornelius checked himself out, it would appear.

See him here — doin’ it to death — with Mary Wilson in the Soul Train line dance.

headline of the day, II

Deron Bauman — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:25:44 +0000

OMG WHY: Sexy Vampire Reusable Menstrual Goddess Cloth Pad

Offer: Elmo toy

Sheila Ryan — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:55:07 +0000

Posted to the Dubuque Freecycle list:

Chicken Dance Elmo. A little dirty, but works.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless smartphone

The Mother Courage of Rock

Sheila Ryan — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:36:57 +0000

She was skinny, quick-witted, disarmingly unprofessional, alternating between stand-up patter, bardic intonations, and the hypnotic emotional sway of a chanteuse, and she was sexy in an androgynous way I hadn’t encountered before. The elements cohered convincingly; she seemed both entirely new and somehow long-anticipated. For me at nineteen, the show was an epiphany.

Luc Sante on Patti Smith.

Springtime 1976, I was living in the cinderblock building on the glorified median strip there where they split Highway 13, and one day I went over to this one girl’s apartment, she lived right by the guy who dealt me speed, and she said, “Hey, you know who you remind me of? You remind me of Patti Smith!”

Gave her a possum grin I’m still grinning.

Not my super-heroine persona,

Sheila Ryan — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:34:35 +0000

but I am thinking that somebody should assume the mantle of The Sanitizer.

“Hit me!”

Sheila Ryan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:06:26 +0000

Sesame Street: Maurice Sendak “Bumble-Ardy” Animation

Sheila Ryan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:29:51 +0000

Inspired by Josh’s Maurice Sendak post (and by Casey’s link to the “Fresh Air” interview with Sendak).

Blues in the Night

Sheila Ryan — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:49:28 +0000

There’s a twisted thread that leads to my recalling this song, but I will not even try to unravel it, merely to recollect a boy named Danny Stevens, whom I knew when we were age seven or so, who used to sing this song as he loped down the halls of our school.

Except he only kept repeating the one line:

Muh mama done tol’ me
Muh mama done tol’ me
Muh mama done tol’ me
Muh mama done tol’ me

Danny also used to say to his classmates, “Shu-u-t up. Beat-cha brains out.”

At the end of second grade, Danny and his family moved to a state he called Organ.