And so it goes.

New semester, new blog!  If you are interested in keeping up with conversations about all things pop culture (and I hope you are), the new blog address for spring semester, 2009 is here:

WRRH:  Writer’s Seminar, spring 2009

Do join us.  Our writing can only thrive due to the community involved.  Thanks so much for your fantabulous support!

Oh no they din’t!

It seems only fitting that we should close out this semester with this post. You all know how obsessed I am with that damn Burger King guy.

seems like Burger King has done it again: Burger King’s scent of love now flame broiled. yes. Really. “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.” Check it out. It’s for real:

Burger King Flame

omg. If they make a Cheesy Tots scented perfume, I am so there.

Bertha don’t you come around here anymore.

Here I am, Finals Week, grading your blog projects. It seemed like such a great idea to have you all work this project into pieces parts, four parts of ideas that created a whole. It didn’t occur to me when I put all the parts together that there would be a pretty large amount of reading on my end. Do you realize that not one of you has written less than 7 pages for this project?

The average document is 12 pages, with several at 20 pages in length.

That is a lot of writing for one project. My hats off to all of you for putting so much effort into your writing! Between all the peer drafts and Instructor’s drafts this semester and all the informal writing you have done here in your blogs, I am curious to know how much writing was actually done in WRRH100, fall semester 2008. I’ll have to sit down and figure this out. It’s a pretty impressive effort.

I’ll close this post with a snap of what is getting me through these final days of grading. Despite my eclectic taste in music, I am a Deadhead at heart. Something about Jerry and The Boys plucking on the gee-tar that puts a smile on my face.

Because despite my many requests for a good Lil’ Wayne mix, you dropped the ball. My mailbox is in Smith Hall, btw, should you care to grace me with a mix. Though I challenge you to produce anything better than the Grateful Dead at their prime.

Tis’ the season!

I don’t know about any of you but I have been dragged to many a production of The Nutcracker this time of year.  Everyone seems to think that it is a great idea to bring little kids to this ballet—especially little girls—but I have yet to attend a production in which the kids in attendance actually stayed awake through the whole thing.

Don’t get me wrong; I support the arts and do think ballet is one of the most beautiful of art forms.  But The Nutcracker has just been so overblown for public consumption that it has now become a satire of itself.  (I think the production jumped the shark when Macaulay Culkin starred in the 1993 film.  But that’s another post.)

I don’t know that I could ever sit through another production.  But then a friend of mine posted this link and I became mesmerized.  This is a production by the Great Chinese State Circus.  While I can’t embed the video, do hit up the link.  You will actually see the prima ballerina do a pirouette ON TOE of the BICEP of the Prince.  It is simply amazing.

The Great Chinese State Circus does The Nutcracker

The real surprise is my own realization that my life *isn’t* a reality show.

Experts: ‘Truman Syndrome’ Delusion Growing

More People Report Imaginary ‘Real’ Celebrity

NEW YORK — Maybe it’s fallout from all those reality shows, or a new kind of video-age paranoia. Either way, researchers are reporting what they call the “Truman syndrome” — a delusion among some people that their lives are secretly playing out on a reality TV show.

The name comes from the 1998 movie The Truman Show, in which a man discovers his world is actually a stage set, with him the involuntary star.  The syndrome first surfaced in psychiatric circles in 2006. Scientists said it underscores the influence pop culture can have on mental conditions.  Researchers said a few patients take pride in their imagined celebrity, but many are deeply upset at what feels like an Orwellian invasion of privacy. One psychiatrist says reality television may help such patients convince themselves their experiences are plausible.

link here

Can anyone explain why this is so funny?

Seriously.  Because every time I watch this Stanley Steemer commercial, I bust out laughing until I start coughing.  It just cracks me up!

Gus, 1999-2008

If you have been following this blog from the beginning, you might recall my nod to Gus, The World’s Ugliest Dog.  Gus became a pictorial representation of my bad haircut the first week of class, proudly exhibiting all his cuteness on the very first entry into this blog.

Alas, Gus has died this week after a long battle with cancer.  He was nine.

RIP, Gus.

FW10: Dinner Party

given the theme I have had about fast food (and that we have already been talking about cheesy tots this morning), I would probably invite Colonel Sander’s, the original Kentucky Fried Chicken guy. I would invite him so that he can, well, cook. Cuz I am alwasy up for some KFC and Lord knows I haven’t the sligthest idea how to make fried chicken

For my second guest, I suppose another major member of pop culture….in keeping with the food theme, I suppose I would invite the the owner of the famous Brown Derby Restaurant in los Angeles. Urban myth has it that he invented the Cobb salad for one of his paying customers who wanted a big-ass salad covered with all the fixingx you usually put into a deli sandwhich: meats and eggs, cheese, tomatos. I am all about the Cobb Salad. I could use one right now.

For my final dinner party guest, I would invite someone that would really appreciate all this crap food I am eating. Who is that guy that made it famous on his diet program but then died at like, 40 yrs? Was it Atkins? I think there would be great irony in sitting at the dinner teable eating such decadent food with someone who knows better.

I, on the other hand, know better but would eat it all anyway. This is a rough day. I am here until 2p and my stomach is already growling.

Have It Your Way

As some of you know, I have a slight obsession with Burger King.  Not only am I especially fond of their Cheesy Tots,

(and have a freewrite dedicated to them on this very blog) but also, I am pretty much terrified of their advertising mascot, that of The Burger King Guy. Seriously, he scares the crap out of me.

So imagine my shock when I read this tonight:

Burger King To Launch Branded Clothing

Not only is the BK Corporation going to begin marketing T-shirts but also,

“an exclusive collection of men’s sleepwear and loungewear”

What does this mean?  As The Burger King Guy already awakens me from lovely slumbers of greesy cheesy goodness dipped in ranch dressing—kudos to my niece who suggested that Cheesy Tots could actually be made better by dipping them in ranch dressing—could wearing the Burger King logo (or the face) on my bottom cause my bolt out of slumber to be fraught with yet even more terror?

The reality of this is that a corporation that already averaged $50 million in its fiscal first quarter this year will indeed be bringing in yet more cash by tapping into the industry of fashion.  How long before they make the leap from adult sleepwear to children’s footed jammies?

Many of you have looked at the issues of childhood obesity, candy-filled vending machines and poor cafeteria food options in middle schools for your argument papers.  How much of an effect do you expect this new move of Burger King will have on the diet of children?  The Burger King Guy is certainly marketed to an adult audience; they present him as a player:

Which means that adults should remain his target audience, right?  He is, after all, just a playful company mascot.  Remind you of anyone?

“Running has a very hot friend.” WTF???!!

Wow.  I had to pause in the middle of reading your Rhetorical Analysis papers to post this video.  Mark, from the 11:55 class, has chosen these New Balance ads for his text up for analysis.  I was so shocked at this commercial…it is soooooo sexual.  To sell sneakers!  I don’t know why I am shocked anymore as we all know that sex sells and it sells hard.  But listen to the narration…just wow.  I had this same feeling when I viewed the Axe Chocolate Man commercial I posted below.  Just kind of…ewww.  There is just so much to say here, I have no idea where to begin.