Awesome Test Post

Trying out a You Tube video here. I'm concerned it may not fit inside of the border, which could be a problem. It's an obvious size.



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Otherwise most of the pictures on the PCB look to be this size (this is with no formatting, 'small' size in blogger's upload tool):

Here is a Post About TV - The Thing You Watch

Television is an important thing in our culture. But what's just as important, accompanying TV as a fine wine paired with the proper dish? Food! TV+food=a real pop culture experience that sticks with you for a lifetime, sure to conjure up memories and emotions whenever you see that one actor, hear that one theme song, or bite into a tombstone sausage and pepperoni pizza.

Appetizer: America's Next Top Model

This week on America's Next Top Model, the ladies posed dressed in meat. That's right--meat. Raw meat. They went to New York's meat packing district to pose as and amongst literal pieces of meat, and surprisingly, most of the models in training seemed pretty OK with it. In fact, the photo shoot provided such little drama that I decided I'd clean up the kitchen while it was on. It isn't really a commitment show, doesn't take a lot of concentration or effort, and so is much like a quick snack to tide you over before the main course. You don't particularly enjoy stuffed olives, but hey, you're hungry, they're there, and they do have an interesting aftertaste...

I have to say, so far this season is a weak one. There are a couple girls who stand out, but the drama and that certain je ne sais quoi seems to be missing from this cycle of the series. Similarly, my bread and cheese (left over from last night) wasn't quite as yummy as I'd hoped it would be, nor as yummy as it had been in the past. After the appetizers, you're still hungry for dinner...unless you fill up on them, and then you just feel bad because you really wanted to save room for that main course.

Main Course (and dessert): In Treatment

In Treatment continues to surprise and please, however, I won't divulge any specifics so as to avoid spoilers. I will say that I love it. Almost as much as I love this chocolate covered pretzel ice cream I'm eating. Yowza! Salty and sweet in perfect balance, much like the series. Delicious. Entertaining, yet serious and unexpected. However, this show is much more than a dessert. It really nourishes and fills you up. Rosemary and lemon baked salmon, sauteed garlic asparagus, and mashed potatoes went well with back to back episodes of In Treatment, and just as I finished up my ice cream dessert I caught up to tonight's episode. It takes a lot of commitment to watch a show that features new episodes every weeknight, just as it takes commitment to eat your veggies and protein before you enjoy a salty/ sweet treat, but in the end it's worth it, the healthy food was well prepared and tasted amazing, and your body thanks you.

Dessert/Junk food: Stephen King's It

I recently watched this miniseries on dvd, and to accompany it only Tombstone pizza, Kool-Aid, and brownies would do. I know...pizza isn't really dessert, though it certainly isn't an appropriate dinner. But it sure tastes good, and it's always great to regress to 1990 both in media and in sustenance. And hey, no parents! I can eat all the frozen pizza and drink all the sugary drinks I want, and who's going to stop me from staying up late to watch this 3-hour horror fest on a school night?? The Kool-Aid and brownies are also great, and even though your night ends with a terrible sense of regret and a stomach ache, and you're sure to have both nightmares and flashes of plot holes well into the night, you'd do it again in a heartbeat (but maybe you'd have to wait for a week or so first).

Here is a Post About Music - The Thing You Listen To

This month I am continuing in what is starting to be a natural tradition for me - identifying and dissecting patterns in the world of Top 40 radio. And this time, I swear I will not mention the V-word (it rhymes with "snowcoder"). This means I will have to forgo any discussion about the Britney song that is plaguing Minnesota's home of the hits - KDWB. "Piece of Me" was fun in a "I feel sad inside" kind of way the first four or so times I heard it as I heard on my ride home from work while switching CDs, but each time after that it continued to burst through the stereo, I ended up practicing how fast I could get the next CD from my visor into the slot. Apart from this factoid, any other mention of the song just gives me the been-there-done-that willies. Of the four songs listed below, at least three of them have been easily digestible enough over the past month that I feel they merit some analysis. And conveniently enough, they help to posit a question of potential female domination on the pop charts as of late. Can the guys make a case against this new wave of XX bangers?

The Piano Song: Until recently, the Top 40 piano song has been relegated to the likes of Vanessa Carlton or The Fray. I can't tell if it's ironic or fitting that the most classically taught instrument has been abused throughout the years to create the most achingly dull and syrupy sweet pop songs of recent years. But then when I hear the #1 song on KDWB, "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles (luckily completely unrelated to The Cure song that was subsequently covered by 311), I am suddenly reminded of how much I'd rather hear either Carlton or The Fray's lovingly constructed bittersweet melodies of yore. You might recall her ditty, which is way louder than any boring piano-led song has the right to be, from the Rhapsody commercials, in which a scrappy young fellow enters his living room smiling and ready to face the day while this song is playing. Luckily, even the dude in the commercial is smart enough to switch this song off and turn on some Cool Kids. Probably the oddest (read: most annoying) thing about this song - you can't get it out of your head, and yet, it's not catchy at all. I have no idea how this is possible, but it is.


So as you may have been able to figure out, the girls lose out on this bomb. But not entirely. You see, OneRepublic are a bunch of androgynous-sounding fellows that just may be mistaken for women by any given listener of their breakout hit "Apologize," so this only gives the guys a slight lead. Not only did I question the masculinity of the singer when I first heard it in the background of numerous ads for Atonement, I also questioned exactly what genre the song would fall under. Upon first listen, I thought for sure I was listening to some kind of gentrified R&B song, which caught me off-guard, because hello, this is a commercial for an epic romance/war movie starring pale British people. And yet on went the pulsating rhythms and soothing vocals with searing and longing chorus repetitions. Oh but the piano - this is where the song excels most (in all its sick and bloating glory) and breathes new life in the piano pop song. Twinkling, totally prissy, and emotive as eff. Winners of the round? Dudes, kinda.

The Pre-Party Song: You know, this is the song that gets you in the mood for a night of boozing debauchery and/or popcorn-making in your pajamas. Let's begin with the more interesting of the two: "Love in the Club" by Usher featuring Young Jeezy marks the only return that I can recall since the baseball park-sized smash "Yeah" from my college years. It's at least the only other catchy song the (former?) sex symbol has put out since then. And you can actually groove to it pretty easily, even when the abrasive Jeezy steals the mic, regardless of its stark contrast to both Usher's seductive croon and the subtly hypnotic sequencer bed that underlies the entire song. However, if you listen to the lyrics, you will be invariably creeped out for the rest of the summer as the song just inevitably grows in popularity (hopefully its steam will run out by then!). I actually didn't notice he was literally suggesting that sweet sweet conjugations be made in an actual club, where other people are already inappropriately undressing people with their imaginations. Apparently we've also gotten to the point where you don't need to be in Studio 54 and high out of your mind to express your desire to publicly display your ability to tap it - all you need is a recording contract and a label exec with no idea what age demographic listens to Top 40 (or one with no shame whatsoever). I may sound like a old codger ("This music you kids listen to is degrading and disgusting! [swings cane manicly]), but I don't care. This just makes me...unsettled.

Luckily, the most controversial thing Hannah Montana does is not
fasten her seat belt, so all you white kids preparing for a rambunctious sleepover featuring a JTT-marathon (girls still like JTT, right?) have my full permission to rock out to the new Miley Cyrus song, "See You Again." I may be spoiling things a little too early, but this song has all the fun factor of the Usher track without ever giving me the willies. Sure it's like a C-list version of a Hilary Duff song (which is saying something, seeing as how Duff songs are just B-list versions of Avril songs, and I haven't even mentioned an artist who I actually respect yet), but I can let that go. It's spunky without being exasperating, innocuous without putting me to sleep, and memorable without clawing at my brain with a rusty, sugary spatula. Plus when listened to after over-analyzing a series of pop songs, you could make the argument that she (Miley) is slyly saying goodbye to her persona of Hannah Montana - as if she's sick of the game her dad has put her in, which is meta-cute, in a passing fancy kind of way. So the girls win out this time, but only marginally. We will be sure to check in as the weeks go by and at a sloth-like rate, newer songs by a more varied array of artists hit the airwaves of our local MN Top 40 station.

I'm a Dumb Pop Culture Post

Love me, world!