Debbie’s Totally Random and Completely Insignificant Pop Culture Awards of 2019

Awards time! WHOO-HOO! As always, these are about my personal preferences and just for fun. The Television Episode That Kicked the Ass of Anything in Movies Award: “This Extraordinary Being” – Watchmen When this year began I was POSITIVE that Game of Thrones would easily walk off with this category. As we all know, the …

Debbie’s Totally Random and Completely Insignificant Pop Culture Awards of 2016

Yay, awards time! As always, these are about my personal preferences and just for fun. The Television Episode that Kicked the Ass of Anything in Movies Award: The Battle of the Bastards, Game of Thrones Yeah, I know I already covered the awesomeness of this episode in a previous post. And, yeah, Game of Thrones …

Debbie’s Totally Random and Completely Insignificant Pop Culture Awards of 2015

I’m a little late with my pop culture awards—computer problems over Christmas. But at last, at last, (I know you’ve all been anxiously waiting!) here they are! As always, these are about my personal preferences and just for fun. 1. The Television Episode that Kicked the Ass of Anything in Movies Award: Hardhome - Game …

Telenovelas and their Influence on American TV

This post is part of The Hispanic Heritage Blogathon 2015, hosted by Aurora at Once Upon a Screen. Read the rest of the posts in this event HERE! When my family lived in Spain, I frequently heard radionovelas (the Spanish equivalent of radio soap operas here in America) playing in the background. My mother and …

Lauren Bacall’s Bold Venture with Bogart on the Radio

This post is part of The Lauren Bacall Blogathon, hosted by Crystal at In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood. Read the rest of the posts HERE! Many years ago, when I first started getting serious about writing, I took Robert McKee's very popular story structure seminar. It was particularly famous for McKee's scene …

The Beatles Film Blogathon: Yellow Submarine (1968)

This post is part of The Beatles Film Blogathon, hosted by Steve at Movie Movie Blog Blog. Steve is holding this blogathon in honor of Ringo Starr's 75th birthday (July 7) and his recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Read the other posts in this blogathon HERE! Happy Birthday, Ringo, even …

Fury Road and the Optimism of Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian Stories

Brad Bird, director of the film Tomorrowland (as well as The Incredibles and Ratatouille) did some complaining in interviews recently about the popularity of post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories. Here is part of what he said in an interview with Wired Magazine: "At one time the future was consistently presented as this bright thing where all …

Thoughts on Star Wars Episode VII Casting

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th Be With You! I thought today would be the day that Disney would finally announce the new Star Wars cast, but they beat me by almost a week. They announced it April 29. (Which, by the way, happens to be my birthday!) I'm going to start with the …

Pop Culture Roundup April 2014

1. Stephen Colbert will replace Dave Letterman as host of the Late Show. Dave Letterman announced he would retire in 2015 and people barely got time to speculate about who would replace him. It was quickly announced that comedian Stephen Colbert, host of The Comedy Channel's Colbert Report, would be the new host. It was …

Great Villain Blogathon Reminder!

I will be participating in The Great Villain Blogathon next week! My subject is Waldo Lydecker from the classic film noir Laura. Please take a moment to check out this AMAZING line-up of bad guys and gals!

Pop Culture Roundup March 2014

1. The Oscar telecast didn't totally suck! I was not crazy about host Ellen DeGeneres' opening monologue (look, Liza Minnelli is fair game, but don't insult her to her face on live TV where close to 1 billion people can see her reaction) but otherwise she did a good job. I thought the "selfie" segment …

My Review of the Movie Divergent, Where I Don’t Compare it to That OTHER Franchise

MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR THE MOVIE DIVERGENT: There was once an episode of All in the Family where Edith was recounting the story of how she hit a car with a can of cling peaches (in heavy syrup). Archie got so sick of hearing her say cling peaches, Edith began replacing the words with "Mmm-Mmm." …

Zimbio Quizzes Are Ruining My Life

You must have taken a Zimbio quiz or two, right? They're fun, aren't they? At least, they started out being fun for me. One of my Facebook friends posted the Which Game of Thrones Character Are You quiz. I thought, what the heck, I'll take it, too. I was absolutely thrilled to find out I …

Black Sails: Starz’s New Pirate Show Really Floats My Boat

MINOR SPOILERS FOR FIRST EPISODE OF BLACK SAILS: (He-he, sorry, couldn't resist that title.) I did not subscribe to Starz a few weeks ago. Then I stumbled on a preview episode of their new pirate series Black Sails on the Audience Channel. I thought, "What the heck, I'll watch for a few minutes. Michael Bay …

Pop Culture Roundup January 2014

1. The Star Wars screenplay is finished! The Star Wars screenplay is finished! Commence hysteria about casting and other production issues! Director JJ Abrams announced that he and Lawrence Kasdan have finished the Star Wars Episode VII screenplay. Carrie Fisher confirmed that she will be in the movie and that shooting is supposed to start …