-- REM

But the thing is, I don’t really feel fine. I love pop culture. The term “pop culture” encompasses a variety of things to me – television, music, movies, books, magazines, trivia, gossip, etc. I read Pink is the New Blog and laugh out loud, I’ll read the cover of US Weekly in line at the grocery store, I’ll watch E! on a lazy Sunday afternoon and I’ll read every page of my Entertainment Weekly. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

All of the sudden while pausing on E! recently I just felt nauseous. I had an overall feeling of doom and dread and hopelessness as I saw yet another Paris Hilton interview. Who IS this girl? An insanely rich heiress that is famous for just being an insanely rich heiress. This is a girl that regularly grabs headlines on CNN.com, y’all. And why? CNN recently ran a bit on their home page about a Britney Spears video that is online where she belches “like a man.” When did this become news? It’s one thing to seek out that kind of information on Eonline.com, but on CNN??

I guess we’ve always been fascinated with celebrities. We’ve created some and torn some down. That will never change. What is concerning to me is the mixing of entertainment and news. There are plenty of stations that proudly call themselves infotainment and that is fine. But seriously, Britney belching like a man on CNN? COME ON.

I went to the Vulcan recently. As we weaved through the exhibit we discussed the video clips of a young Birmingham: images of factory workers, politicians, church leaders, buildings going up, buildings being razed, etc. And my question is, what will the 90’s and 00’s look like to a generation 50 years from now? What will the history reel look like? Would we be proud of ourselves or would we cringe? Are they going to focus on what wars the world was involved in or will they focus on advances in medicine, etc. Will they make us look bad by saying how we all edified the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. 50 years from now will some kid researching the past for a term paper think that our news was soft? Stupid? Entertaining? Will he be able to tell what was news from what was opinion and fluff? Will he know that there was a world before blogs? I wonder about these things.

And in case you’re wondering – yes, I did totally freak out at the top of the Vulcan and refused to walk around. Instead I kept my back pressed up against the side of the elevator both hands gripping the rail and elevator. Sad you say? Sure, but I wasn’t the only one. Sorry Miles. =)

And I’ve been doing just fine
Gotta gotta be down because I want it all
-- The Killers

Hi. I’ve been catching hella heat for not updating this blog. I know. I ran into a huge bout of writer’s block recently. Or better yet, maybe it was a bout of extreme boredom, as my life is the fodder for this site. Anyway, I also started to think about what I was going to say and who all was reading it and I just froze. I have literally laid awake trying to think of a good topic to rant on and nothing. But all that is (hopefully) over. I’m just going to say whatever on here and much like throwing a fistful of cooked spaghetti up against the wall to test for doneness, something is bound to stick.

So SNL – I never really watch it anymore because it’s spectacularly uneven and not that funny anymore. I give it a shot every now and then for the season opener, a guest host that I love or a band I have to see. I tivoed it last night and again, it was uneven, but there were a few golden moments – like the sorely underused Maya Rudolph as Whitney Houston with Andy in the Geico commercial. Seriously – the Gieco agency folks are awesome. I love their new spots and really wish I had of wrote them. The Little Richard one is FABULOUS. And it’s huge to be parodied so quickly on SNL. Other fave moment was Darrell as Bill Clinton and Maya as Condi – classic. With Studio 60 and 30 Rock, SNL is under more pressure than ever – hope they make it.

According to Jason Mraz, "pink is the color for fall" and I obliged by breaking down a mere 2 weeks after Apple announced their second generation nanos and bought a pretty pink one. I love it. I am so a gadget freak. Oh well. I am who I am.

Speaking of fall – on with it already. Enough with this teasing of one night of 50 degrees and the next I’m sweating like a frat boy in hell week. One more lyric to close, "Time for a cool change."