POPS on Pop

Three things shook my foundation a bit. I was reading an article in the October 14, 2013, issue of The New Yorker entitled, "The Doctor Is In" by John Seabrook.

Normally you would assume that a 60s-something guy being shaken a bit by an article about the doctor being in, it must have something to do with prostate cancer or the like. Not so.

If you don't know who these people are this post is probably going to be off-putting to you. 

Foundation shaker #1: The New Yorker has been one of my main reads for years. Recently they rolled out a design tweak. Normally I'm all for an aesthetic reinvention, but this is The New Yorker! WTH? (what the heck). But here's what really worries me: this article seems to suggest the magazine has decided they need to attract a younger, hipper audience. Don't they know that young hipsters don't read anything longer than 140 characters, including hashtags and take pictures of themselves.

Pops Picks

[Oh BTW (by the way), if you'll follow About POPS on Twitter, Pops will send you a very cool, white pearl guitar pick with the About POPS brand on it. www.twitter.com/AboutPOPS.] How's that for shameless, hypocritical self-promotion? 

Here's the opening paragraph of The New Yorker story:

Unlike Dr. Dre, that other faux-medical badass beatmaker, Dr. Luke is a white guy. He lives in Los Angeles now, but he talks like the New York City hustler he once was. He “vibes” well, an invaluable skill in the song-making trade, where the writer needs to connect with the artist as soon as she walks in the room. Dr. Luke is slight of build and dresses in T-shirts and beltless jeans that hang low on his backside, exposing colorful briefs. His blue-green eyes droop at the outer corners, giving his face at rest a melancholy cast.

Is this really The New Yorker? Word for word.

Foundation shaker #2: Remember when "jeans that hang low on the backside" were so cartoonish that it made for a hilarious Saturday Night Live skit that still stands today as a classic. I did a little research to get the facts straight. It starred Gilda Radner as Lisa Loopner, Bill Murray as her boyfriend Todd DiLaMuca and Dan Aykroyd as the refrigerator repairman. The skit was called "Nerds & The Norge" and aired October 7, 1978.

The jist of the skit was Todd and Lisa having great laughs at the expense of the repairman kneeling into the old refrigerator exposing his crack. Back then it was funny, today it apparently "vibes well."

Yes I realize I'm sounding like an old geezer. But hang in there.

Oh, by the way, the musical guests on SNL on the night of this great skit: The Rolling Stones.

Here's the bridge:

"Dr. Luke" began his pro career as the lead guitarist in the SNL house band. Since then he has gone on to produce and co-write songs for Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, Pink, Britney Spears. Notice a theme?

Foundation Shaker #3: Again from The New Yorker article:

Lukasz Gottwald—his given name—has co-written or co-produced more than thirty Top Ten singles since 2004, a run to rank with the greatest hitmakers in pop-music history: Phil Spector, the Beatles, Michael Jackson. At forty, he’s still going strong: last week’s No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball,” and the previous No. 1, Katy Perry’s “Roar,” are both Dr. Luke songs.

I'm sure Dr. Luke is creative and intensely talented. Not questioning that. But I wonder if even the good Dr. himself is comfortable with his tunes, sung by airy, auto-tuned, diva-ettes really ranks with the "greatest hitmakers in pop-music? After all it was the author of the piece that made that distinction and not the Dr. himself. And maybe all the author is saying is that simply by the numbers of Top Ten singles he compares.

Surely he is not comparing this discography to the final musical contribution of The Beatles and Michael Jackson!?

Yes, again I'm aware all of this makes me sound like an old geezer. Sometimes the truth hurts. Oh, and by the way, because I do so want to "vibe well", today's choice of drawers are not briefs, they're boxers; but they are very colorful, and the only way you're likely to see them is if you invite me over to work on your fridge.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Although my favorite place to see a major league baseball game live is a Cub's game at Wrigley, my favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals--been that way for many years.

This is one team loyalty I share with my Dad. When it comes to the NFL we can't agree, my Dad's favorite team is the Dallas Cowboys; my favorite NFL team is whichever team is playing the Dallas Cowboys. It has nothing to do with disrespect for my Dad. It just that I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like the idea of any team assuming I'm a fan because they refer to themselves as "America's Team" and I happen to be an American.

But back to the Cardinals. Once again they are making their way to yet another World Series. My loyalty to the Cards is stitched into the fabric of who I am, sort of like Weber's Root Beer and hot dogs at Coney Islander (both long-time Tulsa icons).

Some of my favorite childhood memories are going to Tulsa Oilers baseball games with my Dad. Tulsa was a farm team for the Cardinals, so it was natural for any kid who loved the Oilers to also love the Cards. Oilers and Cardinals games were always carried on the radio in Tulsa and I spent hours listening to games.

Al McNeilance, aka: Mr. Peepers

As a huge bonus for a baseball loving kid, my Dad was close friends with one of the Oilers pitchers, a guy named Al McNeilance, nicknamed "Mr. Peepers" for the little glasses he wore. Al was from Buffalo, New York. He was drafted by the Detroit Tigers and somehow ended up in the Cardinals system and pitching for the Oilers in Tulsa. He was a great guy with a huge smile and personality. He was the leader of a boys club at the church we attended. When his baseball career ended, Al and his family stayed in Tulsa.

Of course as a kid growing up in the 50s and 60s, I was a huge Mickey Mantle fan. How can you not idolize one of the all-time greats, particularly when he's from Oklahoma like you are. Add in Roger Maris (who also played in Tulsa) and Yogi Berra, and the Yankees earned my respect and attention. But it was then and still is to this day the St. Louis Cardinals that I want to see hoist the big trophy, which they have done eleven times, more than any other National League team. The American League Yankees of course have won the most pennants: twenty-seven.

Oh, FYI, the Cardinals and the Yankees have met in the World Series five times. The Cards have won three of the five.

How about you? Click the comment box and drop a name, tell about your brush with greatness or vote for your favorite team.

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks... 

Pops Goes To Washington

I know, I know, I promised that on this blog I would steer clear of politics, religion, and NCAA Football Conference alignment. So, let's be clear, although I am mentioning Washington and politicians, this is not meant to be a taking of sides or partisan commentary.

Could it be that I have some superpower for negotiation, something Washington could use right now?

This story may make it sound like I'm comparing our elected "leaders" to a two-year-old in the toy department at Cracker Barrel, well...

Understand this: I want the love and unwavering devotion of my grand-girls more than anything, and I'm not above buying it with cheap junk and trinkets. Heck, we (the human collective) have used those tactics forever. But occasionally a line must be drawn (oooo, so tough!)

This is Harper animatedly making her argument for five new purses. At least I think that's what she was telling me. Most of it was in an unknown tongue.

Recently I had to call on my negotiation gifts and some half-truths to get out of Cracker Barrel without solely funding their fourth quarter profits. YES, you read that correctly I went toe to toe with a two-year-old at Cracker Barrel, left the building with nothing but the pancakes and apple juice in our bellies AND she still loves me.

Maybe I'll write a book. 

My only hesitation in posting this is I don't want to give anyone the impression that my youngest grand-girl is in any way as stubborn, unreasonable, selfish, arrogant, delusional, and pouty as the politicians I am suggesting need professional help.

In the event I may be slipping into political commentary. I'll stop, now. 

Pop's Flicks Picks #1

I'm not trying to come up with yet another definitive list of must-see movies--at least not one I'm trying to push on others. This is my list though, or at least the first of my list. I would love to hear your picks. That's what the comment box at the bottom of this post is for--that, and a place to add your opinions on the matter.

One word: plastics.

That is one of the great lines from my first movie pick: The Graduate. The line comes in the form of tons of advice people are giving Benjamin Bratton (Dustin Hoffman) upon his college graduation. Ben is stuck in that post-graduate malaise, waiting for what's next.

The exploration of one of life's passages in The Graduate is one of the reasons I think it's an important movie. It is known as one of the defining "coming of age" stories.

If you have read the "About" stuff here at AboutPOPS.com, you know I'm taking a look at aging as sort of a second-coming of age. It's marked by the same eminent life transitions as any coming of age, and is, at least for me, accompanied with an unsettling ennui.

For example, check out this conversation between Ben and his dad. Ben is home from college and floating on an air mattress in the family pool:

Mr. Braddock: Ben, what are you doing?

Benjamin: Well, I would say that I'm just drifting.

Here in the pool.

Mr. Braddock: Why?

Benjamin: Well, it's very comfortable just to drift here.

Mr. Braddock: Have you thought about graduate school?

Benjamin: No.

Mr. Braddock: Would you mind telling me then what those four years of college were for? What was the point of all that hard work?

Benjamin: You got me.

Please don't start worrying about me being in some kind of confused identity funk. I probably am, but it's nothing to worry about.

Other reasons this is my number one pick are some of the same reasons why the film was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor, and Actress, with Nichols winning Best Director. It became the top-grossing film of 1968. The stuff of this film resonated hard with me in 1968. Also this was, in my opinion, one of the first, best uses of pop music as a soundtrack score, written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon & Garfunkel.

The good news is, as we learn from the movie, life goes on--sometimes we get it all together.

For Ben, he falls in love with the daughter of Mrs. Robinson, the older woman with whom he's having an affair. He makes the decision to marry Elaine quickly and pursues that goal with all he's got, although some, including his parents and Elaine herself wonder about his sanity. I love the talk between he and his parents:

Dad: Wait a minute, you talked to Elaine this morning? (about getting married)

Ben: No, she doesn't know about it.

Dad: Uh, you mean she doesn't know you are coming up to Berkeley?

Ben: No, actually she doesn't know about us getting married yet.

Mom: Well when did you two talk this over?

Ben: We haven't.

Mom: You haven't?

Dad: Ben, this whole idea sounds pretty half baked.

Ben: No, it's not. It's completely baked.

To those who may see my dream of selling everything and moving in to an Airstream travel trailer as being half-baked, let me say, it is but it is still in the oven.

One review of The Graduate said: "Together with Bonnie and Clyde, it stands as one of the most influential films of the late '60s, as its mordant dissection of the generation gap helped lead the way to the youth-oriented Hollywood artistic "renaissance" of the early '70s. ~ Lucia Bozzola

So, Pops's Flicks Picks #1 is The Graduate. Why? Because it's important to me.

How about you?

Katherine Ross as Elaine Robinson & Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Bratton