Playing Catch Up
A pop culture February Break, two podcast releases, a special live exhibit and a conversation with a photography great
My Pop Culture Winter Break
Two trivia nights, three visits between two Goodwill Buy the Pound stores, a pair of Laser Tag (and companion arcade) outings, eating chicken tenders at their birthplace and Wahlburgers at theirs, and a special tour by a pop culture keeper and guru made for a pretty remarkable last week in February.
Please enjoy the video summary which features shots from my shopping adventures as well as my family’s private tour of the David Bieber Archives. You’ll also see some images from our second-ever visit to Manchester, NH’s Puritan Backroom, birthplace of the Chicken Tender!
But you don’t need to make such overt visits to places to call a vacation "Pop Culture,” after all, everything we do every single day is informed in some way by shared culture.
S3E23 “These go to 11”
Deremy Dove, with whom I have worked on both his show and mine, actually has two podcasts. Bigger Than the Game is his program about sports history, but the latest is Pop Culture Fives, which is cohosted with Thomas Sena, and covers a revolving assortment of popular culture topics, with the hosts deciding their top five of whatever is on the table.
I was glad to be joined by both of them to break down 1984’s This is Spinal Tap, which just turned 40, and likely could not or would not have been made when it was had it not been for other media from the preceding decade. Take a listen below!
S3E24: “It Stinks?”
There’s a lot of overlap between This is Spinal Tap and The Simpsons, but nothing compared to the connection between Homer and his family and The Critic. The short-lived animated sitcom about New York film critic and lovable-loser Jay Sherman was the brainchild of Simpsons writers Al Jean and Mike Reiss. Jay even showed up in Springfield to judge a film festival as a way to introduce his show when it left ABC for Fox in 1995.
My guest to talk The Critic was my friend and fellow NH social studies teacher Jeff Bourque, but we recorded the conversation at the NCSS conference in Nashville in the Fall. We talk about the relationship between the shows but also the way Jay relates to the intended audience, despite his ultra-specific job.
Long Story Short
I began trying to coordinate some kind of collaboration between my podcast and that of Beth LaMontagne Hall who hosts Long Story Short at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth. Her live podcast recording session takes place quarterly and guest story tellers tell their tales as they connect to a chosen theme. Given the nature of “podcast karaoke” I knew our shows would pair well together. Beth agreed with this comparison and last week I was glad to join her show, recording drop-in guests speaking to the collection of pop culture items I had brought along.
This night had a slightly different mission than usual, however. Everything is a Primary Source is undergoing some changes so that it can act as a collaborative, open-source digital educational resource, and the most recent set of guests were informed that their discussions would lay the groundwork for this new direction.
Stay tuned for more on the Everything is a Primary Source Project!
The Man Behind the Lens
It never ceases to amaze me how I can get in touch with people through the strangest channels. That sounds conceited. Sorry! What I’m getting at is that since starting the podcast I’ve taken to cultivating guests and topics from a wide range of places. Take my most recent interview as an example: I came across this book at Goodwill Buy the Pound one day a month ago:
I love photography books, especially when the subject is the 1960s, so I snatched it up. When I got home I flipped through it and saw that it had been signed by the editors, Michael E. and Christine Jones. After a little while of tracking down Michael (it’s a common name, unfortunately) I sent an email to his UMASS Lowell address. A few days later I received a reply and learned that not only was he interested in talking to me for a podcast, but Rowland Scherman was too. Wow!
You might not know Rowland Scherman by name, but you know his work:
Well, yesterday was the day and for an hour I had the honor to talk not only with someone who made something out of primary sources, but the person who made them himself, at the same time! It was an incredible cap to a really amazing month.
I think we’re all caught up now.