Pop Culture Confessions

[AuntShecky]

I don't know about you, but as yours fooly gets, as they say, "on in years" it's difficult keeping up with the trends of pop culture. More often than not, yer ol' auntie feels like she is clueless, or what used to be called "square" or "out of it." By the bye, do they still use the term "hip"? Here are three recent pop culture gaffes that characterize me as terminally "unhip."

1. As much as I admire Kim Novak, one of my favorite actresses of her era, I just can't stand the movie Vertigo. That this Hitchcock movie often tops the list of the Best Films of All Time simply baffles me. I don't share the enthusiasm. In fact, my dislike of that film has made me a pariah in my own family, not unlike the situation of "Elaine" on Seinfeld when she thumbed her nose at The English Patient.

2. When I look at the sports page, I'll have to force myself to read about other athletic events besides Major League Baseball and horse racing. As a matter of fact, I hadn't the foggiest idea of who the hell "Johnny Football" is until I plugged the term into the Google machine.

3. And finally, my most embarrassing confession. Up until recently, I thought the term "twerking" meant "tweeting" or visiting the Twitter site during working hours!

Have you ever beeen mistaken about certain bits or "memes" of pop culture? Don't be shy, LitNutters--share them on this thread. Your secret is safe with us!

[Emil Miller]

I understand what you mean, but the words 'pop' and culture are mutually exclusive, they have been conjoined by media moguls to give the word 'pop' a cachet it does not deserve in order to make the masses compliant in parting with their money.
It's all part of capitalism's grand design, so we shouldn't make too much of it, but as the wisdom of the ancients teaches us: 'A fool and his money are soon parted.'

[Helga]

2. When I look at the sports page, I'll have to force myself to read about other athletic events besides Major League Baseball and horse racing. As a matter of fact, I hadn't the foggiest idea of who the hell "Johnny Football" is until I plugged the term into the Google machine.

3. And finally, my most embarrassing confession. Up until recently, I thought the term "twerking" meant "tweeting" or visiting the Twitter site during working hours!

I don't know what either of those two mean.... and why force yourself to read the sports pages? I run through them without a second glance.

I am 27 and most of my friends are my age or a bit younger, they sometimes talk to me like I'm 100 years old when I don't understand some phrase or lingo. I don't have Facebook so I guess I could learn a lot about these things there, but that is just one more reason not to join.

Also it annoys me incredibly when people feel the need to high five! what is that? it's something kids do, I don't want to sit in class and high five my friend just because we are in the same work group!

[AuntShecky]

The high five gesture is merely imitating athletes, one of the many self-congratulatory features of a culture which highly values self-esteem.

[Ecurb]

Oh, come on! High fives are SELF congratulatroy? On the contrary, they seem to me to be a social, team oriented gesture. The teammates congratulate the goal scorer for helping the team's cause. Of course in Europe, the goal scorer is more likely to be kissed, but most American athletes avoid kissing each other. You high five your work group cohorts to say, "I'm sure glad I'm in the group with awesome YOU!" OK, the gesture is a bit trite and over used, but its heart is in the right place.

[stlukesguild]

I teach art to students from pre-school through Middle-School. This demographic includes the most voracious devourers of pop culture, and as a result I am forced to keep fairly up-to-date with the latest cartoons, films, TV shows, video games, and musical acts. As a teacher I can employ these as a hook to grab student's attention and engage them in the project. I don't delve deeply into popular culture... outside those areas that interest me as a means of establishing something of a common shared narrative within my own art work (but that's another issue altogether). I just browse the net for terms, characters, names etc... that pop up with my students... just enough so that I have a degree of familiarity.

As for Vertigo... I wouldn't exactly think of a film of that age as being part of popular culture. Actually I see the greatest films as being just as much a part of "high culture" as literature or painting and I'm afraid that I am yet another who finds Vertigo to more than qualify as a "great" or "classic film".

[Delta40]

I still think Harold and Maude is a cool film so I'm as behind the times as you are auntie. Is this where I say booyah?

[Paulclem]

When I was very little, I asked my mum why the man was singing about babies.

Since then I've been a paragon of cool.

[Helga]

My 7 year old is like a cross between two worlds, he sees and hears way to much at school from other kids (and from his dad and step-mom, who apparently listens to britney spears and pop like that), but he knows all the pop songs and stuff like that, I don't know half of it. On the other hand he is being raised by me, the other day he held a balloon in his hand and said, in English: To be or not to be, that is the question. I just stared at him and didn't know what to say.

[YesNo]

Most of what I know about modern culture comes from reading Lit Net. I don't watch TV. I don't go to sports events. I don't listen to the radio. I do walk to the library daily, but that is more for exercise.

I guess I should get a life.

[AuntShecky]

I still think Harold and Maude is a cool film so I'm as behind the times as you are auntie. Is this where I say booyah?

Are you kidding me? At the top of my list is Preston Sturges, who stopped making movies in the late forties. But what do I know, everybody loves Vertigo except your auntie. See below.

As for Vertigo... I wouldn't exactly think of a film of that age as being part of popular culture. Actually I see the greatest films as being just as much a part of "high culture" as literature or painting and I'm afraid that I am yet another who finds Vertigo to more than qualify as a "great" or "classic film".

I do not dislike Hitchcock and I do admire some of his earlier works. The only thing I do like about Vertigo is the SF scenery.
Couple of points: plotholes as deep as my empty pockets that seriously undermine my willful suspension of disbelief, such as the barely-nodding acquaintance showing up out of nowhere to ask Stewart's character to tail his wife. When Stewart asks him why he hadn't taken the wife to a doctor, the husband says he wanted "to be sure" first--same excuse used later in the courtroom scene with Henry Jones presiding. Lame, and flimsy both times. Stewart's vertigo is inconsistent-- he gets it standing on a step stool, but not looking out of the third or fourth floor window of the hotel run by Ellen Corby. Also doesn't seem to keep him from jumping off a ledge above the shoreline on the SF bay. Barbara bel Geddes's character is so strait-laced and sensible, why would she paint such a bizarre portrait? Out of character for her, and the significance of that scene is never satisfactorily explained. It's just there to shock. Stewart's character is way, way too old to be a romantic partner for Kim Novak's character. At the end of the movie, running into her on the street so unexpectedly and randomly is too far-fetched a possibility, too much of a coincidence to occur in real life. And when Stewart takes Novak around to all the dress shops and hairdressers, etc. how come none of them make any snide remarks over what the situation looks like--not even a knowing wink? I hated the ending as well -- probably meant to shock, but it's schlock.

[Hawkman]

Interesting. Can Vertigo be considered in terms of "pop Culture"? probably not in terms of being of interest to the young in the same way as pop music etc. but certainly to movie buffs it has an enduring presence, and is frequently referred to for many of its compositional elements. Everything from Bernard Herman's score to the innovation of the Dolly in - Zoom out camera technique invented by Hitchcock. I confess, I've always been deeply suspicious of the Hitchcokian 'take' on psychology, which was kind of clunky, and as for his own power relationships with young blond women - they probably went a long way towards informing Stewart's character. As for specific plot holes, I can't really comment because its a while since I last saw the film and I simply don't remember the sequence of events well enough.

Hitchock's films were heavily influenced by 1920s German expressionism as he spent some time working in Berlin (UFA, I think) in the inter-war years before establishing himself first in British cinema and subsequently in Hollywood. I don't think he ever quite cut the chord to that psychology of presentation.

[Emil Miller]

Vertigo has been discussed elsewhere on LitNet in relation to it being voted by the British Film Institute as the best film ever made which, while it is an entertaining film, is simply ridiculous. I too was disappointed by its unbelievable plot but it's well made in cinematic terms and James Stewart was good in his part; even in the occasional bad film in which he appeared, he seldom failed to give a good performance. Kim Novak didn't have much to do except look suitably enigmatic and gave, to my mind, a languid presentation of the female lead role.
I wouldn't class it as 'pop culture' exactly; neither would I give it classic status but, whatever its faults, it's far more interesting than much of the junk being churned out today.

And Auntie, James Stewart might have appeared too old for Kim Novak but there are more than a few young women who prefer older men .....trust me.

[AuntShecky]

We're told the economy is improving, but I'm not sure the good news has trickled down to the lower tiers of Show Biz. The other day I passed a club where I saw an unemployed stripper dressed as Miley Cyrus holding a sign saying "Will twerk for food."

[Emil Miller]

We're told the economy is improving, but I'm not sure the good news has trickled down to the lower tiers of Show Biz. The other day I passed a club where I saw an unemployed stripper dressed as Miley Cyrus holding a sign saying "Will twerk for food."

Yes it's the same in the UK, but the economic 'improvement' is due to what the Bank of England calls 'Quantative Easing', which sounds so much nicer than 'Printing Money'. However, although I don't know who Miley Cyrus is, my guess is a pop singer, media 'personality', film star or possibly a combination of all three, the stripper might do better to change the sign to "Will work for food."