The PopCulteer
March 7, 2025

It’s been a while since I’ve cranked out a column of randomosity for you folks, so with your humble blogger being a little scatterbrained this week, how about we just wander all over the map?

OSCAR Apathy

Once again the OSCARs, Hollywood’s annual circle-jerk, has come and gone, and once again, I didn’t see any of the nominated films. To be honest, last year I did go see one Hollywood movie in the theater, for the first time since well before the pandemic.

It was Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, I really enjoyed the movie (I have no idea why the reviewer for the local paper seems to have a hard-on for bashing Tim Burton, but since I almost always disagree with him anyway, at least his reviews are useful).

However, Mel and I only went so we could take our buddy, Lee Harrah, out to the movies. I would have probably enjoyed the film even more if I’d watched it at home and didn’t have to listen to oafish twits run their stupid mouths for the entire film.

Having said that, I think I had other things to do Sunday, so I didn’t see a second of the awards show.

I figure that, by this time next year, people will be straining to remember the name of the Best Picture winner…which has pretty much been the case almost every year for the past thirty or so.

Holes In My Pop Culture Coverage

That brings me to something I’ve addressed periodically here in PopCult, and that is how this blog, which is supposed to cover all things pop culture, has several blind spots.

My mission is to cover as many aspects of pop culture as is humanly possible, but since it’s such a vast topic, and I do this for free, and most of what passes for pop culture bores the crap out of me, the question of exactly what is “humanly possible” is quite subjective.

For instance, video games dominate pop culture. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry, and some of the most creative minds in the world are busy crafting new and exciting games.

And I haven’t been able to muster any real enthusiasm for a video game since Dig Dug came out for the ColecoVision. I’m old, have hands that don’t cooperate with game controllers and I would rather stream old episodes of Captain Scarlet than take on the learning curve required to play a first-person shooter.

I also don’t drink. Never have. Beer culture, which seems to dominate every aspect of Charleston’s entertainment community these days, is a huge turn-off for me. The older I’ve gotten, the less I enjoy having to be around drunk people. Straining to hear (or video tape) a band over the din of blathering alcoholics is just something for which I have lost my tolerance. I’m hoping to make it out to Pumzi’s soon to actually hear some live music again. I miss live music, but I don’t miss having it drowned out by drunk people.

While I am an enthusiastic toy collector, and support everybody enjoying their hobbies the way that makes them the happiest, I’m never going to be able to say nice things about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I thought the entire concept was one of the stupidest things ever created, the cartoons were dumb as hell and very poorly animated, and the toys are ugly. Don’t get me wrong, I like plenty of stupid crap, but I draw the line at Eternia. If you love He-Man…fine, you can have my share.

Another massive pop culture phenomenon that I just wasn’t born at the right time to appreciate is Harry Potter. Never read the books. Never saw the movies. I have no opinion about the quality of the work or any controversies about the author. It just never seemed like anything I’d spend time reading or watching.

Those are just a few of my pop cultural blind spots. Just in case anybody was wondering why I don’t write too much about those things. You could probably toss pro basketball, college football, role-playing games, sneaker culture and line-dancing in there, too. I try to write about what I know, and there are limits to what I can feign interest in.

Toy Fair

The International Toy Fair in New York City wrapped up earlier this week, and we didn’t go. In fact, we haven’t gone since 2016. Because of that, I’m relying on the reporting of other people to form my opinions about the big news stories and new toys, and I’ll probably spread out my reactions and coverage of that over the next couple of months because there’s a lot of it, and we don’t know all the details about it yet.

So, stay tuned.

A Pet Peeve

Oftentimes, when Mel and I want to go out to eat at a new restaurant (or one in a distant town during a trip), I’ll go to the website to see if they have anything on the menu that I can actually eat because of my long list of food issues. Increasingly, the restaurants demand to know your location and make you pretend to place an order, just so you can see the menu.

This is a huge turn-off, and acts as a deterrent for me when it comes to choosing a place to eat. I need to know if if I can find anything that’s actually compatible with my food allergies and any medicinal conflicts. I also like to see how accomodating they are about making substitutions.

I don’t understand why a restaurant would want to keep their menu secret from potential customers.

Another Pet Peeve

Sometimes when I do manage to get through to a menu for a new place, if all of their salads include bacon and eggs, I’m less likely to go there. They have mistaken my salad for someone else’s breakfast.

I feel the same way when I discover that every vegetable offered as a side, is cooked with meat in it. Folks…not everybody eats pork. Would it kill you to offer ONE salad that just has veggies in it, or one side (that isn’t potatoes) that isn’t cooked in meat?

About “Fresh Content Every Day”

While I do strive to have at least one new post every day here in PopCult, sometime in the next week or two, I may miss a day due to migrating everything to a new computer. Sadly, my stubbornness about updating my my operating system is colliding with the computer world’s intent to drag me kicking and screaming away from Windows 7.

If all goes well, I may keep the streak going, but if I do go a day without posting, that’s why.

And with that, this week’s PopCulteer is done. Check back for fresh content every day (fingers crossed) and all of our regular features.