College pop culture retrospective

In honor of my college graduation, I give a list of my favorite pop cultural finds of my college years. It's pretty random list, some of which is completely cliche, but here you go:

1. Bollywood. My freshman roommate started me on Bollywood films with Dil Chahta Hai. While in recent years my consumption has slowed down, they're usually good for a laugh or cry or just fun if you've got a spare 3 hours.

Om Shanti Om is fantastic. I never wrote a review on it, but if you love super-meta, making a movie within a movie, genre mixing movies, than this one is for you. It's funny, a little tragic, and randomly spooky. Plus, Hamlet and Singin' in the Rain references.

2. The Beatles. Like anyone who likes music, I've always loved the Beatles, but I owe a guy I will always remember as Hot Hot Brian in my psych class for pointing me toward Rubber Soul during a class presentation. After that, I was hooked to the Beatles' later (and more awesome) albums.

Seriously. Buy it. Love it.

3. Led Zeppelin. *cough*

Jimmy Page is inviting you into the dangerous world of Led Zeppelin fandom. Warning: it can be obsessive.

4. K-dramas. Next time in search for a corny series I might branch out from Korean dramas, but My Lovely Sam Soon was a good place to start.

I know right? From this picture alone My Lovely Sam Soon is already too adorable to resist. FYI, it's like a Korean Bridget Jones except way more adorable...adorable.
Shockingly, it's probably just as cheesy.

5. House. I have found that a good way to tell if you're going to like a roommate is if they'll sit down and watch an episode of House with you.

The original team smilier than they are ever on the show; I just love this picture.

6. Online television. I'm counting both legal and more sketchy means. It's so much more convenient to find catch up on tv shows since I got to college, and I love the internet for that.

It's like magic.

7. pandora.com. Check out this station that was developed from artists I discoverd on pandora. I now can enjoy bluegrass and other musical genres new to me.

8. Emo. Sometimes, it doesn't suck. But as a friend said, everyone has a quota of how much emo they can take. Personally, emo better come with some pop hooks or I'm out. Less offensive emos: Panic at the Disco (since they're either electronica or Beatles in their approach), Cartel (pop-y!), about 4 of My Chemical Romance's songs, about 5 of Fall Out Boy's songs, a smattering of others. But for the most part, still kind of a whiny/mediocre genre.

Do yourself a favor and never image search 'emo.'

9. The rock musical/opera. Possibly the best film genre possible in that the musical is usually good and the plot is usually preposterous. This magical blend makes sure that you feel both pleasure and guilt if you like it. Great examples: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Across the Universe, Tommy.

I was going to subject you to Mean Mr. Mustard's robots in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but thought better of it and instead I give you the Barry Gibb and his fabulous locks, the rest of the Bee Gees, and Peter Frampton in the film.

And in case you're concerned about what happens to Mr. Frampton...


Billy Preston magically appears from a weather vane to save the day! yay!

House--Still Awesome

So I really like House. This is a picture with the old core cast, and it looks like at least two of them are staying besides Hugh Laurie, although probably in a limited role. Each season they come up with more ridiculous ways House can be jerkier and more of a Vicodin addict. This season's big thing is House picking a new team of doctors. The last episode House narrowed down 40 potential team members to 5. The best part? There's a Mormon.

Some things that make me actually excited about it: 1. He's black, so therefore not what most people think of when they think "Mormon." That could be good for the Church; 2. He was willing to get wasted on hard liquor to diagnose a patient. Context makes it make slightly more sense, but the Mormon guy did state that the LDS Church doesn't govern every detail of the members' lives. He's got spunk and I like that; 3. Dr. House will have more of his questioning-the-existence-of-God episodes, which are always interesting and pretty intelligent. Shows that actually explore issues give me hope for the world.

So, thanks House, for being awesome and having the balls to explore issues and create intriguing characters.