Adventures in pop culutre.

Polaroids from the pop culture that filled my weekend:

• Like everyone else, I am of the camp that says: "Constantine-- muddled, dumb, why? Tilda Swinton and Peter Stormare in Constantine-- effortless, hilarious, thank you."
  
  
• 
  Eva Marie Saint in Northy by Northwest: how badly do you want to engage in double entendres with her while she uses one of those can openers to open a couchette?
  
  
• I kind of doubted Pitchfork, I don't anymore. Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" is bananas. Ba-nan-naz. The 0:43 mark, where the Clarkson (double-tracked) spits the first "But since (yo)u('ve) been gone" and a wave of mall-punk guitars are unleashed... it's delirious pop at its best. (Oh, and as noted by Pitchfork, the lifting of the YYY's "Maps" guitar riff in the bridge is a neat trick.)
  
  
• Hey, remember when Tobey Maguire is hung-over/baked in Wonder Boys? And his remedy is OJ and lots of powdered doughnuts? I can't think of an image from that film that made me happier all weekend.
  
  
• Oh wait, yes I can: Katie Holmes in red cowboy boots.
  
  
• Mark Kozelek singing "Love at First Feel" (as originally recorded by AC/DC) on the What's Next to the Moon ep. Who knew that Bon Scott was such a shoe-gazing indie boy?
  
  
• I saw Diner for the first time over the weekend. Really liked it. How is it that even in 1982, Paul Reiser was an annoying middle-aged nebbish?
  
  
• Have you noticed that when The Insider ends, and the Perfecto Remix of Massive Attack's "Safe From Harm" starts blaring, and the "what-ended-up-happening-to-so-and-so" text begins to appears on the screen, it feels like the most important information you are ever going to receive?
  
  
• 
  I regret ignoring Basement Jaxx's Kish Kash for over a year. That was a really dumb move. Not as dumb as Astralwerks dumbing them, leaving them without a North American label. Weak, A'werks, weak.
  
  
• I think Busby Berkeley was tripping balls when he choreographed his dances. That's a good thing.