Culture Pop Trivia

We've been getting tons of e-mails from our readers talking about listings they've seen at Amazon and other online retailers for various TV-on-DVD titles from Image Entertainment, for the mid-2007 period. We appreciate all the notes, but the fact is that we've known about these, but the shows involved aren't exactly among the most popular among the majority of our readers here. Because of that, we've taken more of our time talking about the TV-DVD sets that more of our users want to hear about. But we agree, though, that all of these deserve some attention. So I've taken up a chunk of my time this Sunday afternoon putting together one report for you listing the biggest among the various TV-related titles Image plans to release from May through September of this year...plus I'm even tossing in a bonus title from November that continues a DVD collection started around three years ago! We've got the cover art at the bottom for those titles that have it available already, so be sure to scroll on down and take a look.

Popular culture conference

Dr. Marty Knepper, professor and chair of English at Morningside College; Stacy Baldus, a senior from Grand Meadow, Minn.; and Rachel N. Castillo, a senior from Sioux City, all presented papers at the national conference of the Popular Culture Association (PCA)/American Culture Association, April 4-7, in Boston." target="_blank"> | Small | Large

Dr. Marty Knepper, professor and chair of English at Morningside College; Stacy Baldus, a senior from Grand Meadow, Minn.; and Rachel N. Castillo, a senior from Sioux City, all presented papers at the national conference of the Popular Culture Association (PCA)/American Culture Association, April 4-7, in Boston.Knepper was chair of the session ''Mystery/Detective Fiction III: Debating the Ending of the Harry Potter Series.'' During the session, Knepper presented ''Reading Harry Potter: Making Predictions for Book 7,'' which included results of surveys conducted with readers, monitored internet chat rooms, and fan fiction as a means to discover predictions for the final book of J.

Captive on the carousel of time

I'M AN UPPITY female," Joni Mitchell says while sitting in the kitchen of her house in an upmarket neighbourhood of Los Angeles. "In the media, there's no one like me. I'm as good as - and better than - most. But I'm not given my fair shake."

Mitchell's house is big, warm and rustic, very much the abode of a working artist. A large pot of brushes sits out; a giant painting is propped against a wall. She looks healthy and serene, younger than her years, dressed in a casual smock and no-nonsense boots, and laughs readily and infectiously.
When Mitchell announced her retirement as a recording artist in 2002, she did so spitting bile at what the music business had become. She bowed out with Travelogue, an orchestral revisiting of her earlier work, and quietly set about directing her creativity at her surviving passion: visual art.

'Grindhouse' Reviewed by Nick Schager

In a pop culture landscape as hungrily cannibalistic as today's, cinematic nostalgia and homage has lost much of its once enticing luster. The indulgent fun of referencing and rehashing the past has worn so thin that even VH1's gaggle of third-rate Best Week Ever and I Love the [Insert Decade] talking heads seem barely capable of mustering enthusiasm for the latest derogatory smack-down on their own industry brethren. The cultural infatuation with retro navel-gazing is now pronounced to the point that it brings into question whether the practice hasn't seriously debilitated our collective imaginations, which have become so narrowly focused that it sometimes feels as if half of our mainstream entertainment takes as its primary influence mainstream entertainment. It's an inward circle that -- at least in the cinematic arena -- proceeds with no clear direction and even less of a meaningful destination, with deconstruction often taking a back seat to regurgitation as countless filmmakers prove themselves stunted adolescents whose worldview is primarily confined to the movies and TV shows of their youths.

Microsoft and NAMCO BANDAI create video game history

18 Apr 2007 : Microsoft Corp. and NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. today made video game history by announcing the first-ever Xbox 360™ “Pac-Man" World Championship, presented by Quiznos. From April 25 to May 9, fans of one of the world's most beloved video games of all time will compete on the classic arcade game via Xbox LIVE® Arcade on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, evolving “Pac-Man" gameplay from the local pizza parlors and arcades of the '80s to the Xbox 360 and its online gaming community with more than 6 million members. The top finalists from participating countries around the world will be flown to New York City for the finals on June 5, with the winner being crowned the Xbox 360 “Pac-Man" World Champion by Toru Iwatani, the creator of “Pac-Man."

Since launching in 1980 in Japan and in 1981 around the world, “Pac-Man," its host of ghosts and the famous “wakka wakka wakka" sound have become global pop culture icons.