Where, Oh Where, is Pottermore?

by critipop on April 13, 2012

Harry Potter and Friends

Harry Potter and Friends

Like Harry Potter? Wish you weren’t a muggle? Chances are you’ve heard of Pottermore, the online web site that’s part-game, part “reading experience” that all takes place in the world of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. The online site gives fans a chance to enter the world of Potter and experience much of the books played out in many ways as a game, and has been open to a select few during its beta test phase. There are even Pottermore cheats sites that have sprung up to help beta testers play the game Fans have been salivating at the prospect of playing Potter since last Spring when the web site was announced. It went into beta towards the end of the Summer, where it has remained, tantalizingly out of reach for Potter fans everywhere.

The web site itself is beautiful in detail and follows the plot of the first book very closely. Players will go through all the steps of the novel, including living at the Dursleys, buying their first wand, attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and even becoming a part of one of the four houses at the school. There’s some player to player interaction in the game as different players compete for house points and trade items. You can even engage other players in a wizard’s duel.

The latest word was that the game would become available for play to the public in “early April” but now that has come and gone like a Defense for the Dark Arts teacher. There’s no word on when Pottermore will actually go live, but it’s sure to be a hit once it does.

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Madonna Rocks the Superbowl

by critipop on February 6, 2012

The original queen of pop and 80′s material girl, Madonna, has been quiet as of late. She’s not as young as she once was, but during last night’s Superbowl halftime performance, you wouldn’t have known it. To put it simply, she rocked.

Madonna Superbowl Halftime Show

Madonna at the Superbowl Halftime Show

The halftime show featured incredible visuals and some very impressive performances from Madonna and guests. She mixed up a few songs, including Like a Prayer and a new single called Give Me All Your Luvin. Fans may have been disappointed that she didn’t include some of her earliest hits, such as Like a Virgin, but you have to remember it’s a halftime show and not a full concert.

But oh what a halftime show it was! Here’s what some of her fellow celebrities thought as they tweeted their approval.

Paul Abdul: “O. M. G. #Madonna #killedit BRILLIANT #HalfTime show!!!!!!!!!!!! SUPERB choreography & Madonna was FLAWLESS!”

Sherri Shepherd: “I actually thought Madnna did a great job on the Half Time show. It looked pretty cool here on the field”

Bethenny Frankel: “Holy madonna balls. That was epic.”

Minka Kelly: “So fun!! She’s still got it baby!”

Kris Jenner: “Madonna was amazing!!!!!!! Perfection!!””

Goldie Hawn: “Watching the super bowl! Half time dancing with Madonna and company in my living room! World peace! Yes! Go Blue!!”

Eliza Dushku: “#Madonna is the #Queen of EVERY ball, game & sound right now. #WELL #DONE #Madge!! #SB46″

Adam Levine: “my dude @CeeLoGreen KILLING up there at halftime! What a trip!”

Nicky Hilton: “Let’s be honest- Madonna killed it!”

Heidi Montag: “Wow Madonna is still the Queen of pop! Great show!”

Dane Cook: “Weirdst halftime show. Madonna had blond chest hair and CeeLo was wearing the entire night sky.”

Denise Richards: “Madonna looks amazing!! Great #halftime show!!!”

Drew Carey: “Best half-time show ever! Wow. #Madonna #SuperBowl”

Serena Williams: “I’m in love with Madonna!”

Rosie O’Donnell: “Madonna = perfection”

Brooklyn Decker: “I think this is really cool! Sounds great! Love the choir!”

Kirstie Alley: “Could Madonna look any more gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!?????? Jeez!!!!!!! This is AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!! Genius!!!”


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F-Bomb on Modern Family

by critipop on January 20, 2012

The TV world is all in a frenzy after an episode of Modern Family aired showing Lily, a two-year old, uttering the f-bomb. According to cast members, she actually said, “fudge” but the producers bleeped out the word and had the characters react as though she actually swore. It was all a key part of the show. Profanity has certainly invaded pop culture and especially TV over the years. We’re a long ways away from the quaint 50′s and 60′s when there were clear rules about certain words that could never be uttered in television. But is prime-time broadcast ready for major curse words or is that best left to the backwaters of cable TV?

Modern Family Little Bo Peep

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Goodbye R.E.M.

by critipop on September 21, 2011

R.E.M. walking

R.E.M., one of the most successful and innovative bands from the 80′s and 90′s, decided to call it quits and announced their breakup on their own web site. Here’s what they had to say:

“To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.” R.E.M.

This was a great band and even though they hadn’t released much of note lately (duh…that’s probably why they’re calling it a day), they had some amazing songs and lasted a very long time as a band. They’re not often mentioned in the same sentence as say the Beatles or the Rolling Stones (except maybe in this sentence). But they truly were an amazing band. I remember first listening to them in my dingy apartment in Boston while lying on my post-college futon with a cheap mattress and thinking, man these guys can rock. We’ll all miss you, R.E.M.

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Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

by critipop on October 21, 2010

Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

So young actress Rooney Mara will be taking on the role of Lisbeth Salander in the Hollywood remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. For those of you who missed out on the Stieg Larsson book trilogy, Lisbeth is a goth chick from Sweden who’s all attitude with some hacker skills and an awful lot of body piercings. It’s a big stretch for Rooney, who recently made a splash playing Mark Zuckerberg’s irate ex-girlfriend in The Social Network. Daniel “007″ Craig will star opposite her in the David Fincher directed film. This is the second time the story will hit the big screen. The Swedish version, starring Noomi Repace as Lisbeth, has already been in theatres and on Blu-Ray/DVD. It didn’t get quite the screen time here in the US that the Hollywood version is bound to receive when it comes out in 2011. I’m interested in seeing this one, since I’m a fan of mysteries and thrillers–everything from classic authors like Edgar Allen Poe to contemporaries like Tony Hillerman and Elaine Flinn. Stieg Larsson’s so-called Millenium Trilogy was a page-turner across all three books. The original Swedish movies adapted well, but it remains to see whether Hollywood remains true to the story or gets lost in romance and special effects.

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Glee Doing Rocky Horror Picture Show

by critipop on October 20, 2010

OK, so pretty much everyone who follows the ups and downs of pop culture knows that the extremely popular TV show Glee is putting on a special tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show for this Halloween. The tribute will air on October 26 at 8pm on Fox and it will be pop culture from 2010 meeting pop culture from 1975. For anyone who’s been living in a time warp for the past few decades, Rocky Horror is a kitch cult classic that inspired a wave of midnight performances in the 70s and 80s where audience participation was the norm.

Here’s  a video of the full performance of the classic song, Time Warp. Meh, I kind of think the original was a lot better but it’s still fun to see this revived for another generation.

So kick back on your favorite chair or cheap mattress with a tub of ice cream and get ready for some campy fun on Glee!

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Pop Culture Defined

by critipop on October 13, 2010

What is pop culture? It means a lot of different things to different people. If you’re a lazy slug and rely on Wikipedia for all of your answers in life, then popular culture is defined as:

the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century.

In fact it’s not a bad definition but it only scratches at the surface. For me, pop culture is an ever-changing landscape of what’s appealing to the masses at any given point in time. Part of the mystery of pop culture is that society’s needs and wants change and are in a constant state of flux. A phenomenon that is called a part of pop culture today might not have even entered the greater public consciousness if it had taken place a month earlier or later.

You can find pop culture everywhere, in TV, film, books, and even in games. It can be found in nearly all media.

Pop Culture is increasingly found in video games. Of course, you’ll find references to current events in all sorts of games, including console games, but it’s more and more prevalent in games for kids, such as Poptropica, Poptropica Vampire’s Curse Island, and Club Penguin or littered throughout game aggregation sites like MiniClip, where mini-games can be created and published on a variety of topics. Sometimes it’s only a day or two (or less!) between the time something hits the popular culture radar before it appears somewhere online as a game.

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