hopelessly devoted to deconstructing popular culture and conventional wisdom, one blog at a time

The night Charo gave me the Cuchi-Cuchi

Published Saturday, May 19, 2007 by seanlmccarthy.

Charo certainly got the attention of the media when she came to Boston this weekend to perform at Scullers Jazz Club (see coverage in the Herald, BostonNOW). She already had my attention 19 years ago. Spring break, 1988. My parents broke free from timeshare purgatory and traded up for a vacation to Kauai, Hawaii. A week in Princeville on the rainy north shore of the island, but still plenty of warm sunshine and time for golf, snorkeling, helicopter tours, and a cute girl from Oregon whose family seemed to be following our itinerary. Good times. Love, exciting and new. No wonder Puff the Magic Dragon lived in Hanalei. Toward the end, we trekked over to Charo's restaurant for dinner, and wouldn't you know it, Charo herself worked the room. When she got over to our table, she, yes indeedy, greeted me with her signature "cuchi-cuchi" as she grabbed my cheeks, and then posed for a picture. See how she draped her arm on my shoulder? My parents must have been so proud.

Labels: music, pop culture

Take the Spider-Man 3 quiz!

Published Friday, May 04, 2007 by seanlmccarthy.

After you've watched Spider-Man 3, come back and take a look at my special movie quiz in today's New York Daily News. What's that? You didn't know there'd be a quiz? OK. Think of it as a talking-points memo. A conversation starter. And if you haven't seen the movie yet, that's OK, too. Use my Daily News story as a superviewer's guide.

EXTRA! EXTRA! CREDIT: One other question I didn't include because it's a bit too inside-the-media (although if you've been on the subway recently, you've seen newspaper ads that might have some relevance here)...At one point in the film, newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson sits through a marketing pitch for a new Daily Bugle motto, and really, would any newspaper ever want to sell itself with: “It’s Hip. It’s Now. It’s Wow. And How!” And would you ever buy such a paper?

Labels: movies, newspapers, pop culture

Mailbag: VH1 admits error, provides solution

Published Friday, February 16, 2007 by seanlmccarthy.

In this installment, read how VH1 plans on addressing Wednesday night's server issues with the "Pop Culture I.Q. Test" to qualify for the World Series of Pop Culture.

Dear Sean,
Thank you for your interest in “The World Series of Pop Culture 2007” PCIQ Test. Due to a server problem, the 7pm test was unable to be administered.
We have decided to reschedule the 7:00 pm session on TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20th at 7pm EST (6:00 pm Central).
Again, please accept our apologies for the technical difficulties.

Thank you again for your interest in participating.
Toni Herron VH1/Director of Communications

So all of you pretenders who want to take me on, please make a note of this. See you Tuesday night!

Labels: pop culture, TV

PCIQ Test Broken!?

Published Wednesday, February 14, 2007 by seanlmccarthy.

Attempted to take the 2007 World Series of Pop Culture "Pop Culture IQ Test" tonight, to no avail. The computer servers kept responding with error messages, asking to reload every time I got done filling out all of the contact information and agreeing to the show's terms and conditions. Since the test only gave you between 7:00 and 7:10 p.m. to begin the test, I got in about five attempts to take the test, all to no avail. Something about that isn't right. I don't know what will happen during the 10 p.m. window, nor do I know if I'll even be available to take the test then. Something about that isn't right.

VH1 and EW should fix this, make it better!

Labels: pop culture, TV