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Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living In

You are here: Home / Archives for Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In

Medium Cool – Fictional Dads Fictional Characters

by WaterGirl|  June 15, 20257:00 pm| 73 Comments

This post is in: Books, Medium Cool, Music, Open Threads, Popular Culture, TV & Movies, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Auto Draft 21
To Kill A Mockingbird

If you could have a fictional character as your dad, or be a dad like a fictional character, who would you choose?

You know what, let’s not leave that gender specific – let’s go with parent so everyone can play.  And let’s widen it a bit.  Okay, a lot.  Spouse, friend, sister, brother, boss, employee.  What characters are the aspirational you or others in your life?

Books, TV, movies, opera, music – anything related to culture is fair game.

Medium Cool – <s>Fictional Dads</s> Fictional CharactersPost + Comments (73)

Medium Cool – Poetry That Strikes a Chord!

by WaterGirl|  June 8, 20257:00 pm| 111 Comments

This post is in: Medium Cool, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

I wouldn’t call myself a poetry person, but occasionally I come across a poem that really strikes a chord with me.

Another Scott posted this excerpt from Robert Frost recently, and I appreciated knowing the context for “the only way out is through”.

[…]

But I don’t count on it as much as Len.
He looks on the bright side of everything,
Including me. He thinks I’ll be all right
With doctoring. But it’s not medicine –
Lowe is the only doctor’s dared to say so –
It’s rest I want – there, I have said it out –
From cooking meals for hungry hired men
And washing dishes after them – from doing
Things over and over that just won’t stay done.
By good rights I ought not to have so much
Put on me, but there seems no other way.
Len says one steady pull more ought to do it.
He says the best way out is always through.
And I agree to that, or in so far
As that I can see no way out but through –
Leastways for me – and then they’ll be convinced.
It’s not that Len don’t want the best for me.

Amanda Gorman blew me away with her inaugural speech for Biden.  What I didn’t know until I searched for an image of her for this post is that she was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder in kindergarten and has has speech articulation issues that make it difficult for her to pronounce certain words and sounds.  I think she’s amazing.

For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.

Whether you’re like me and find the occasional poem that strikes a chord, or whether you are a poetry fiend, or you are a poet yourself, I’m thinking that maybe in tonight’s Medium Cool we can share some of our favorite poems.

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

Medium Cool – Poetry That Strikes a Chord!Post + Comments (111)

Medium Cool – Let’s Talk About Culture

by WaterGirl|  May 25, 20257:00 pm| 132 Comments

This post is in: Medium Cool, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

So I’ve been working all day and just noticed the time – less than 20 minutes to Medium Cool.

With no topic in mind, I googled “culture” hoping that it would spark something.  The first thing I have to say is that AI has totally fucked up Google and the ability to find good information from an internet search.  The second thing I’ll say is that AI is doesn’t even get grammar or sentence structure and clearly doesn’t understand the concept of counting, so I think we are doomed.

Here’s a smattering of what came up:

  • What are the 7 popular culture?
  • What are the big five culture?
  • What is culture 3 examples?  (they listed 4 things)
  • What are 3 American cultures?  (they listed 4)
  • What is a non example of culture?  (WTF?)

Anyway, the “3 American cultures” answer – Indigenous Americans, Latin Americans, Africans, and Asians  (yes that’s 4!) – sparked a thought and left me wondering whether a discussion of how various cultures have influenced us might be interesting. I guess we’ll find out!  The list above is not intended to limit the discussion to those listed.

Music is one place where other cultures have had a huge influence, but there are a million more.  Beauty is another.  Family.  Language.  Art.  Food.  Values.  Traditions.  I could go on, but I won’t because it’s 6:55. :-)

and oh my gosh, could someone somewhere please come up with a good image for culture.  because these are not that.

Medium Cool – Let's Talk About Culture

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

 

Medium Cool – Let’s Talk About CulturePost + Comments (132)

Medium Cool – Best Album Covers!

by WaterGirl|  May 18, 20257:00 pm| 199 Comments

This post is in: Medium Cool, Music, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Tonight let’s talk about album covers!

(What do they call those now that most music isn’t sold as a physical object with a picture on the front?)

Best ones, worst ones?

Album covers and albums that remind you of college or high school or that old girlfriend?  That job you loved?  That job you hated?

Share your favorites, and even your stories of what they remind you of.

Update:  Link to your favorite album covers if you can!

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

Medium Cool – Best Album Covers!Post + Comments (199)

Medium Cool – Mother’s Day Edition

by WaterGirl|  May 11, 20257:00 pm| 55 Comments

This post is in: Medium Cool, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Tonight let’s talk about Moms and all the mom-adjacent people in our lives and the impact they had on you related to all things culture.

My mom took us to plays, took us to the Art Institute and all the other museums in Chicago, took us to the ballet, played music of all sorts all the time.  She took us to nice restaurants in downtown Chicago after going to a museum or when we downtown to see the Christmas decorations in all the stores, and going out to dinner at a nice neighborhood restaurant was a frequent Sunday afternoon treat.

We had a back-to-school ritual of going to Oak Park to shop for school clothes; those memories are quite vivid.  And Easter!  We got special Easter dresses and spring coats and hats and anklet socks and patent leather shoes and my Dad always bought his 3 girls corsages for Easter Sunday.

My mom took us to musicals, and we had soundtracks to all the Disney movies.  We lived right across the street from the movie theater, so we got to see loads of matinees.  In those days, we could pay to get into the theater and then you could spend all day.  We would walk across the street on Saturday afternoons and didn’t even worry about what time the movies started.  We would watch from whatever point the movie was at when we arrived, watch til the end, and the rewatch the whole thing.  Sometimes there was even a double feature.

The library was just around the corner, and oh how we loved to read.  That surely did not happen by accident.  We had the whole collection of Nancy Drew mysteries, and I was so mad at my mom when she donated the whole set to the library as we got older!

How about your Mom?  Maybe you even had more than one Mom!   Don’t forget grandmothers, and all the mom-adjacent women in your life.  A friend of mine basically had 3 moms – her mom and her two aunts, who all raised her.

Oh, and the influence doesn’t have to be positive!  Maybe they made you sit through an opera when you were 7 years old, and you have hated opera ever since!

Mom-related memories, let’s go!

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

Medium Cool – Mother’s Day EditionPost + Comments (55)

Medium Cool – Bad Lodging! aka Dives Where You Felt Lucky To Get Out of There Unscathed

by WaterGirl|  May 4, 20257:00 pm| 98 Comments

This post is in: Medium Cool, Popular Culture, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

So I got the idea for this Medium Cool from Cole’s description of the place where he spent the night on Friday.

I am not saying Joelle put me in a dive hotel to kill me and get my inheritance, but I will say that there is a 4 foot sinkhole in my room and a Waffle House next door, so if this is the last you hear from me, it’s been real.

Pretty sure we all have stories from when we stayed at that place – or somewhere similar.

For me, it was the place with the broken lights, the sink where it was clearly better to not wash your hands at all than to wash them in there, where we each slept on top of the bedspreads on top of our coats, and the pool like this one, except that it was rectangular.

As bad as the accommodations are, we console ourselves with the thought that it will make a great story at some point.

Share your stories!

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

Medium Cool – Bad Lodging! aka Dives Where You Felt Lucky To Get Out of There UnscathedPost + Comments (98)

Medium Cool – Holidays, Songs and Movies Story-Telling Free-for-All

by WaterGirl|  April 20, 20257:00 pm| 109 Comments

This post is in: Medium Cool, Music, Popular Culture, TV & Movies, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Tonight can we talk about songs and movies that are holiday-related?

When I say holiday-related, I mean that in the loosest possible way.  I mean, even 6-degrees of separation from holidays works.  Heard this song or saw this movie on your birthday one year?  This movie you saw on an airplane 5 years ago had a scene that reminded you of a Christmas party you went to 10 years ago?  That counts, too.

The holidays don’t even have to be anything anyone else celebrates.  If your grandparents were from Germany and their family tradition was to have a picnic on the 3rd Sunday in June every year, that counts.  That kid you gave a paper valentine to in 2nd grade turned out to be a roadie for some band we’ve never heard of?  That works.

You watched the movie Harvey with your dad one year, Harvey is a bunny, and bunnies make you think of Easter, close enough for me!

Just tell us your stories!  Bonus point if you share how you are connecting that thing with a holiday.

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

 

Medium Cool – Holidays, Songs and Movies Story-Telling Free-for-AllPost + Comments (109)

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