Monthly Archives: December 2017

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Pop Culture Odds and Ends – Ho Ho Ho Edition

One of the luxuries of having a small family is that I don’t have that many people to shop for, so I’ve basically been done with my Christmas shopping since the end of November. But now we enter the phase that I hate – the wrapping of the presents. Everything that I have purchased is sitting in my living room, quietly taunting me and begging to be prettied up with festive paper.  I blame the cat for putting off wrapping – and admittedly he does get in the way – but it really is my least favorite part of gift giving.  Everything is relatively boxy this year, so it isn’t even much of a challenge, and yet I’ve been kicking this particular task down the road for weeks. If it wasn’t for the fact that my nephew seems to enjoy unwrapping gifts everyone might have been receiving their present in gift bags (best case scenario) or plastic bags from the store (which I am pretty sure I have done in the past). I need an elf.

So while I try to see if I even have tape, get yourself caught up on the pop culture that you might have missed with this week’s roundup.

Television

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Movies

Trailers

  • Ocean’s 8:

 

  • The Commuter:

 

  • The Polka King:

 

  • Early Man:

 

  • Sicario 2: Soldado:

 

  • The Nutcracker and the Four Realms:

 

  • Mortal Engines:

 

  • Our Cartoon President:

 

  • Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies:

 

  • Gringo:

 

Music

 

Books

Stand-Up

Theater

Awards Season

Best of 2017

Odds and Ends

Mashups and Supercuts

  • Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Stephen Colbert sang a Christmas carol:

 

  • Ed Sheeran and Anne-Marie cover “Fairytale of New York”:

 

  • This guy reads The Night Before Christmas as different celebrities:

 

  • Run the Jewels apparently syncs up well with Diner, Drive-Ins, and Dives:

  • Darlene Love, Anna Kendrick, Jimmy Fallon, and The Roots cover “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on kid instruments:

 

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Pop Culture Odds and Ends – Headed Back to the Classroom Edition

Because I don’t already have enough on my plate, I’ve decided to teach a course next semester at a local college. This used to be not only my bread and butter but my chosen career until I burned myself out, dropped out of grad school, and started working a regular 9-5 gig. It was the right choice and while I have no desire to finish up my PhD, the lure of teaching introduction to American government at this time was too interesting an opportunity to turn down. And, of course, the extra stew will come in handy now that I have car payments to make.  Thankfully I’ve taught this class over 20 times so while I haven’t had a class since 2007, the prep work should be fairly minimal as I just have to update my lecture notes.  At least that is what I keep telling myself.

So while I get caught up on all that has changed in American politics in the last decade (it’s been quiet, right?), get yourself caught up on all the pop culture that you may have missed with this week’s roundup.

Television

Movies

Trailers

  • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom:

 

  • The international trailer for Black Panther:

 

  • Ready Player One:

 

  • Annihilation:

 

  • 15:17 to Paris:

 

  • The second season of Jessica Jones:

 

  • Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time:

 

  • The Last Five Years:

 

  • Corporate:

 

  • The Terror:

 

  • The Clapper:

 

  • Maze Runner: The Death Cure:

 

  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:

 

  • Insidious: The Last Key:

 

  • Bright:

 

  • A teaser for the WarGames reboot:

 

  • Death Standing:

 

  • Homeland, season 7:

 

  • The Detour, season 3:

 

Music

Theater

Books

Stand-Up

Award Season

Odds and Ends

Mashups and Supercuts

  • Lin-Manuel Miranda performs Hamilton in three minutes:

 

  • A bad lip reading of Stranger Things:

 

  • Christmas Carpool Karaoke:

 

  • The cast of Netflx’s One Day at a Time reboot recreate the opening credits of the original show:

 

  • Call Me By Your Name meets Monsters University:

 

  • Star Wars characters sing “MMMBop”:

 

Chance the Rapper does the weather for WGN:

 

  • Jimmy Kimmel Live! presents “Lannister on the Bannister”:

 

  • Peanuts meets Riverdale on The Tonight Show:

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Pop Culture Odds and Ends – Sick and Tired Edition

Somehow I am sick again – or sick still. I can’t really tell anymore. I feel like I have been coughing and sneezing non-stop for weeks now. I’m healthy enough to be functional and go about my daily life, but sick enough that I generally feel “meh” about doing much of anything. I was looking forward to spending last weekend hitting up the cinema and catching up on some of the movies that I’ve missed, but instead I spent almost the entire weekend sleeping or trying to will myself to get out of bed or off the couch. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. The day that I’m not sniffling or downing cough drops like candy will be a happy day indeed.

So while I look into getting an IV drip of vitamin C, catch yourself up on all the pop culture that you might have missed with this week’s roundup.

Television

Movies

Trailers

  • Teaser for Jurassic Word: Fallen Kingdom:

 

  • New trailer for season 4 of Black Mirror:

 

  • HBO/The Ringer’s Andre the Giant Documentary:

 

  • You Were Never Really Here:

 

  • Good Girls:

 

  • Here and Now:

 

  • A teaser trailer for HBO’s Barry:

 

  • Amazon’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan:

 

  • Wormwood:

 

  • Black Lightning:

 

  • Altered Carbon:

 

  • Midnight Sun:

 

Music

Theater

Books

Podcasts

Odds and Ends

Mashups and Supercuts

  • Cookie Monster channels his inner Busta Rhymes:

 

  • Chris Pratt and Chris Stapleton sing “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”:

 

  • The Tonight Show brings you “Robert Mueller’s Comin’ to Town”:

 

  • A mashup of 2017 movie trailers (I have missed A LOT):