Category Archives: PopCulture

Friday Fun Link – 11 Sounds Your Kids Have Probably Never Heard

Luckily, through the magic of YouTube, now they can!

The Rise & Fall of the Columbia House Record Club — and How We Learned to Steal Music

An article about the decline of mail-order record clubs claims that it was the “12 for a $0.01” record clubs that conditioned consumers to pay little to nothing for music (and though they don’t phrase it this way, the related joy of having a large “download” of music provide (relatively) instant gratification too.) There’s probably […]

Name A Book That Was So Captivating That You Read It In One Sitting

Yet another patented Reddit book recommendation thread.

Friday Fun Link – BookLamp

There are a lot of recommendation engines out there – Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing, Novelist, etc. etc. etc. – but BookLamp is one of the most unique I’ve found in that it tries to use pure mathematical algorithms to choose the books it recommends for users, similar to what Pandora does for music. Their biggest fault […]

Wisdom Wednesday – Is YouTube Killing Television?

And the answer (at least according to this infographic) is yes. Bonus: here’s a wise prognosticator on the same subject back in 2006… (Okay, it’s me but I’m pretty proud of this one – not just that it was my highest mark of library school but also because I really kicked ass on my presentation […]

Saturday Snap – Michael Jackson – The Immortal World Tour

[Edit: this post got linked to by a MJ Fan Community.  Visit that page for more news & reviews of the Saskatoon and other shows.] I’m sitting in a hotel room in Saskatoon having just watched “Cirque Du Soleil Presents: Michael Jackson – THE IMMORTAL World Tour” show. This is my third Cirque show (I […]

Music Monday – “And all I can do/Is read a book to stay awake/And it rips my life away/But it’s a great escape…escape…escape.”

I’ve been on a bit of a 90’s kick lately. This is a classic of that era…

The Best Non-Fiction Book I Read This Year…

…was quite possibly a fiction book! I think I’ve mentioned before that I read mostly non-fiction – probably 80-90% NF to 10-20% Fiction.  But a recent Reddit thread on “eye-opening books that have improved the quality of your life” led me to a great fiction find. In the thread, somebody recommended Bill Bryson’s “A Short […]

Music Monday – “I’m putting all my fears down/I can hear the cheers now/See peace signs when I look around”

X-Factor is the new Simon Cowell owned-show he’s imported from the UK to compete with American Idol, the top-rated franchise he left last year.  Although both shows have similar formats, X-Factor allows groups, a wider age range for contestants and holds auditions in front of an audience instead of just the judges’ panel among other […]

Friday Fun Link – “Dad Dancing”

Evolution even has an explanation for why your old man dances the way he does! (h/t to SM on Twitter)