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Tag: pop culture

Pop Culture Corner: Golden Globes 2016

This year’s Golden Globes were the perfect combination of glamorous Hollywood moments and career-making surprises. Before going into my personal favorite highlights and awards, I wanted to explain the difference between the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards (the Oscars) because it can definitely be confusing with so many award shows with what seems like very similar nominees. The Golden Globes are voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which is an esteemed group of top print and television journalists from around the world. The Oscars, on the other hand, are voted on by the Academy, which consists of fellow actors, directors, editors and other filmmakers – so it’s more of a peer vote. Additionally, the Golden Globes are the only award show that include both film & television.

I thought Ricky Gervais did a great job and unlike most award shows, I was happy whenever he re-appeared on stage and I really do appreciate his sense of Hollywood-deprecating humor, and the fact that he says what everyone is thinking in a totally unapologetic way. Although I did feel like his bit about the award show being long and boring was a bit overdone after the second time. Another early highlight was Jonah Hill dressed as the bear from The Revenant, but at the same time it also felt like a lame attempt to re-remind everyone that he’s friends with Leonardo Dicaprio so, it’s cool guys, he can joke about the alleged bear rape scene.

I was thrilled that Kate Winslet won for Jobs, she was great in that role and she’s just an overall gem in my heart. Her winning the same year as Leo was the cherry on top. So was this moment caught by the cameras during commercial break:

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Pop Culture Corner: The Emmys 2015

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THE HOST

I thought that Andy Samberg was an overall good host for the Emmys. He’s definitely a safe choice, about one step above Seth Meyers. I thought he was funny but his hosting also seemed like an obvious effort to pull in a younger audience. My vote for next year is John Oliver or Kate McKinnon.

I did appreciate the lack of cheesy song and dance skit. The opening video set the tone of his opening monologue, which was playful, but honest. As was portrayed in the opening – it is a little ridiculous to expect anyone to keep up with the amount of good television that’s available today. Living in LA, the billboards and constantly changing posters along the sidewalks make it difficult to ignore the shear quantity of pop culture to keep up with. Since the summer is such a down time for “good” television, the recent visual promotions and repetition of the titles of upcoming shows, makes me excited for fall television, but also wondering what I’ll have to miss out on since I also care about sleeping, socializing and having a full time job.

If Hollywood wants to pull in a younger audience for award shows, a more obvious, and possibly effective route would be to make the show available via live stream. It’s still frustrating that award shows are not able to be live streamed. If you can watch any sporting event on the ESPN app, on any device, why can’t you get on a FOX app and pay a certain amount of money to just stream the award show? It seems mutually beneficial and is mostly frustrating because I know we have the technological capability to make it a reality.

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VMAs 2015: Kanye, Miley and important topics the internet failed to mention

So the VMAs happened on Sunday night and subsequently dominated the internet this week. While watching the show, it seemed obvious that certain things would grab everyone’s attention (Yeezus2020 & Taylor Swift domination), but there were also some aspects of the show that deserved more attention (Twenty One Pilots and A$AP Rocky’s performance), and others that over saturated my news feed in the worst way (it doesn’t matter that Nicki Minaj called Miley Cyrus out. It really doesn’t). Here are my thoughts.

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Pop Culture Corner: “Dear Show”

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Craig Clayton is the writer and producer of several award-winning short films including, Karkass Karts, A Mail Tale: The Untrolled Story, and Mastodon. When not writing for film he Co-edits and contributes to ‘Dear Show,’ a blog dedicated to television criticism.

 
 

Dear “Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp,”

It’s been a long time. I won’t lie, I’ve missed you, and when I learned that I would be seeing you again, I was excited, I was expectant, I was nervous. When I last saw you, you were a shoe-string budget indie flick, made with the reckless abandon of youngsters trying to prove something to themselves and the world. Now you would be returning as a highly anticipated television show with Netflix money on your side. If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t sure the spark would still be there.

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Pop Culture Corner: Emmy Nominations

After writing the last Coast-to-Coast post about my remaining summer bucket list, I was eagerly awaiting the weekend to try out my ideas – but the weekend-long (much-needed) rain in Los Angeles put a damper on this plan. While I did manage to make it to see my college friend, Veronique’s, band Leggy perform, I spent the rest of the weekend with Netflix and a blanket (which I quickly realized I didn’t need because apparently it doesn’t get cold here when it rains). I watched re-runs of all my favorite shows from this past season, and couldn’t help but to judge the shows differently, now that I know the results of this year’s Emmy nominations.

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