POP LIFE IS OVER - MAKE WAY FOR POPLICKS

(by Oliver)

it's what's next
So here's the big change I've been teasing folks about...

I'm closing down Pop Life and joining forces with Junichi to start up a new blog - Poplicks.com.

Same combination of pop and politics discussions.
Same minds who made both Pop Life and The Pnuthouse the internet's top-rated blogs*
Same bull@(#! spouted daily (more or less).

For those wondering "why?"...for me, it made sense for Junichi and I to join forces. We have similar interests but different styles that I think complement each other fairly well. And since we both had our own blogs going in, it also made more sense to create a new one rather than have one or the other of us close our own to join the other.

Plus, just to be real about this - I got my hands crazy full as a new stay at-home dad (SAHD indeed) and much as I like blogging on Pop Life (in lieu of, you know, something actually productive), I just can't sustain the same output that I used to before certain things popped up. Or out if you really want to get technical about it. Group blogging might just be the wave of the future (or so I've heard it's been predicted). Either way, it gives me a space to keep on musing but without the pressures of churning out content on a manic schedule.

Pop Life will still stay up as an archive but this will be the last post to grace these pages. Thanks to everyone out there who's supported over the last two years. Please update your bookmarks and blog rolls to Poplicks.

My very best,

O.W.





*"Top rated" = among a poll of our significant others...though even between them, our sites still ranked behind Wonkette.com. Go figure.

AIN'T NO LOVE IN AN ELEVATOR

(by Junichi)

Stuck in an Elevator for 3 Days

Here's a great metaphor for our country's current climate.

Last Friday, Ming Kuang Chen, an employee of the Happy Dragon restaurant, delivered Chinese food to a Bronx apartment building.

When he didn't return with $200 in receipts, NYPD's finest spent the weekend in the high-rise, arresting, harassing, and beating people left and right, as is their daily tradition, looking for "the Chinese man." In their zealous trampling of constitutional rights to find him, the cops locked up three innocent people over a barbecue stain on one of their shirts (because it looked like blood).

During this intense manhunt, nobody apparently thought to check out the building elevator, where Chen was trapped for the entire 80-hour ordeal. This is especially crazy since there were apparently security monitors with views of the interior of the elevator in question.

Most bewildering of all, Chen spoke to security personnel using the emergency intercom, on at least five occasions. But his English wasn't great, which leads one to wonder whether security ignored him because they couldn't understand him.

Worst of all, after being trapped and ignored in an elevator for over three days, Mr. Chen, recently treated and released from the hospital, won't return to his job delivering Chinese food for "six days a week, 12 hours a day, for what was at most $300 a week," to send money back to his family in China.

Why? Because Mr. Chen is an "illegal immigrant" and, caught by the authorities, will likely be deported.

America. The only country in which you can be stuck in an elevator for four days only to have building security ignore you, city security harass others in your name, and eventually have Homeland Security deport you.

THE BATTLE BETWEEN PRIVACY AND CREEPINESS

(by Junichi)

Google Satellites: In The Air Tonight

Question: How many seconds does it take to determine whether Phil Collins has a bunch of trees in front of his house?

Answer: About 12 seconds. Here's how:

First, you use Google to find his address at websites like this.

Second, you plug in his address to Google maps and zoom in on aerial photos of his neighborhood.

In the old days, I'd have to slip Philip Bailey a few Benjamins to get his new address, rent a plane, and then use a high-powered telephoto lens to capture pictures of Phil Collins' roof.

It's amazing how technology makes all of our lives so much easier.

MOMMY, WHAT ARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?

(by Junichi)

David Smith accepts the Congressional Medal of Honor on behalf of his father, who was killed in Iraq.

All I know is that if I were an eleven-year-old boy and the President - who sent my Dad to die in a senseless war - started getting fresh with my mom, I would punch him in the nuts.

I also appreciate the above photo because of the daughter's body language: "Mom, stop kissing that creep."

At least Sgt. Smith's poshtumous award is understandable.

I still can't comprehend how El Presidente awarded the three amigos responsible for this mess -- General Tommy Franks (who oversaw the initial invasion of Iraq), former CIA Director George Tenet (who seemingly invented the lies about WMDs), and Administrator Paul Bremer (the primary architect of the current chaos) -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as opposed to the Presidential Medal of Unconscionable Stupitude.

IT'S COMING

(by Oliver)

Pop Life and the Pnuthouse are about to get licked.


get ready for the news

LIVE IN THE MIX

(by Oliver)

you're telling me
So...I'm spinning at the Handsome Boy Modeling School show @ the Fillmore tonight. I'm posted up in the upstairs lounge and as one might expect from a show feat. Handsome Boy plus Buck 65 on the bill - white people are out in full force (the title of the last HBMS album becomes more ironic every moment).

Anyways, one white dood comes up to me, during my set:
"Hey man - you're Kid Koala, right?"
*Momentary blank stare* "Uh, no. He's actually shorter and doesn't wear glasses."
*Not missing a beat* "Oh, ok. You're spinning some good tunes. Keep it up bro." Extends his knuckles so I can tap fists.

True.

---

By the way - as much as I enjoyed the last Handsome Boy album and as much as I respect Prince Paul and Dan...their act just doesn't translate that well to the stage. Most of the "performers" were cartoon representations (such as the Rza, De La Soul - even Del, even though he's local!). Casual came out to perform but frankly, I was tired/bored enough that I headed home after about 40 minutes into their set, hopefully sparing myself of other yahoos who might have confused me with Kid Koala/Q-Bert/Chad Hugo/etc.

WE VEGAN TOO

(by Oliver)

So...I wake up this morning and find this thread posted to Soul Strut, which includes the following memo posted at Gossiping Bitches:


This is obviously some kind of strange April's Fools Joke, since clearly, they forged this letter and pretended it was from me.

In actual fact, this was the letter I had my legal counsel send to them: