Pop Culture Petri Dish

Work's been clubbing me upside the head so thoroughly that I haven't been imbibing in much pop culture anything lately. Put bluntly, I ain't had the time...With one exception. Unlike most sane working stiffs who actually use their lunch breaks to, you know, relax and eat lunch, I hit the pavement and walk my metaphoric arse off during that precious half-hour. Headphones rest on my noggin, connected to an ancient Discman as I get a lungful of fresh air and an earful of music, old and new. Here's what's been getting the blood pumping (and the feet moving) of late--old stuff division. The Easybeats' biggest claim to fame may have been their international hit, 'Friday on My Mind' (covered by David Bowie on his covers LP, Pin Ups ), but Varese Sarabande's compilation CD The Very Best of the Easybeats proves that classic tune was no fluke. With all due respect to the Bee Gees , the Easys really were Australia's closest equivalent to the Beatles, a Br...

My mom is the greatest. Just saying. Of course, everyone in their right mind should say such things about their mom. But all partisan bias aside, my mom really is the greatest. Anna Prizina grew up in a modest working-class home in Arkansas in the 1940s and '50s. She essentially raised her three siblings on her own in the wake of her father's untimely passing and her mother's mental illness, and was out working assembly-line jobs while still in her teens. She met a blustery-but-loveable serviceman named Gerald Kay, fell in love, and together they built a stable family despite the tumult of military life. She's a sensitive and very soulful woman with kind eyes that instantly make you feel comfortable and safe: That great warmth is probably her paramount gift as a parent and a human being. She taught me a lot about consideration, kindness, humility, and working hard for your place in the world. A devout Catholic, she's one of the few genuinely religious people I know...