Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

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Things To Do In Philly, 8/17 Edition

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Philly features a number of interesting things to do over the next week, and none of them are seeing my band, so let’s jump right in, shall we?

Thursday, August 18
What: Philly Ad Club Summer Social: Karaoke Cooldown
Details: 6-9p, $30 non-members for 2 drinks & snacks, Field House 1150 Filbert Street
Why? Philly Ad Club is a cool collection of local advertisers and marketers, and despite the high price tag this is a fun way to network with them. I hear there will be a cutthroat karaoke contest.

Friday, August 19
What: Philly Geek Awards, presented by Geekadelphia
Details:  SOLD OUT!, 6:30p doors, 8-9:30p show, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philly, 19103
Why? Do I seriously have to explain? Witness every blogger, twitterer, podcaster, and all-around geek that matters in the Philly online scene converse to celebrate some of the most awesome projects released in the past year. Many friends & crushes of CK will be attending, presenting, or vying for awards, including Eric Smith, Britt Miller, Annie Heckenberger, Message with a Bottle, Social Interruption, and the folks from KeyPulp.
[Read more…] about Things To Do In Philly, 8/17 Edition

Gina’s Bachelorette Adventure, Pt. 3

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When I left off last week we had a video game theme, an instruction booklet introduction, and a visual concept of 8-bit goodness – all for my best friend and bandmate Gina’s highly unusual bachelorette party.

Here I am shown negotiating something – possibly our surrender – with two park rangers while our live action video game was in progress. No, I am not threatening them with a baton, that’s just a trick of perspective. Still, they seemed to find me rather intimidating. Notice how the one on the left has his hand near his utility belt, while the one on the right is making an exceedingly obvious attempt to reach for his radio receiver.

As for what we’d be actually be doing during our human video game, that was another story entirely. A story with no plot or structure. Or mini-bosses.

We had to start somewhere. Since Gina is a chemist by day, we decided she should be challenged to put her chemistry knowledge to the test. I originally wanted to her to conduct a chemistry demonstration in the middle of the street with everyday groceries, but we eventually decided that might look a bit too much like an act of terrorism during 4th of July weekend within a few blocks of The Liberty Bell.

(At the time there were legitimate questions being asked, like “Do we need a permit to do that?” and “Can you even legally buy that in Pennsylvania?” We fully anticipated losing one or more attendees to some mix of boredom, drunkenness, heatstroke, or tasing by park rangers.)

With a mind to not being detained under the Patriot Act, Kelly devised an insane chemistry challenge to fulfill our needs that we could all understand as laypeople… and, possibly as drunks, depending on how the day was going at that point. [Read more…] about Gina’s Bachelorette Adventure, Pt. 3

drive into infinity

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I feel like I spent more time in the car this weekend than being a person.

That was always part of my resistance against having a car, and then against driving one. I remember as a kid all the interminable trips to places not even worth going to spend money we might not have had, and then the constant orbiting the block for a parking spot when we returned.

I remember thinking, valuable years of my life are being spent, and swearing inwardly I wouldn’t be the same way as an adult.

Yet there I was, driving to a barbecue in NJ, driving blinding around NJ trying to find our show, driving back from our show, driving through blinding rain with the idiot light on to see bro’s show in NJ, driving through subsequent flooding to get back home.

My reasoning to myself earlier this year was, you’re tithing your time in exchange for being interesting. No hunting for parking spots, anyhow, since we have our teeny garage. Plus, more seeing friends, playing shows, and getting to bro faster. All the things I claimed I wanted and valued.

This weekend wasn’t a chore – it was a proof of concept. It was good. But I don’t want to spend a tenth of my life riding around in a car.

Or, at least, I really need to get that iPod dock installed.

Crushing On: Popdust

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I’ll admit it – I like my pop news. I want my Gaga fix, I love Kelly Clarkson, I snark on American Idol, and I should probably be able to mumble something about Beyoncé to our interns to prove I am not a total oldster.

Yet, the arena of pop news is a bleak place filled with fawning and no-calorie celebrity stories about every popstar’s walk down the street or who they were rubbing elbows with out at a club.

Enter Popdust, launched earlier this year. I first caught wind of it from Twitter album reviewer @1000TimesYes, who is one of my fav Twitter users and one of Popdust’s snarkiest writers.

Popdust obsesses over Gaga, Beyoncé, Glee, Bieber, American Idol, and all other things Top 40 – but it keeps them at arm’s length, remembering that beneath the popularity there is actual artistry to be discussed and dissected. You can almost feel the eyerolls in some of their coverage (especially re: Glee), and they often go meta, talking about why they’re even bothering to talk about the things they’re talking about.

Case and point: their Gaga coverage. When Born This Way dropped Popdust covered it wall-to-wall for a week, running substantive track-by-track reviews, that took Gaga to task for her clunkers. They also landed an exclusive phoner with Mother Monster herself last week – not something most pop blog outlets could say (even if they’re attached to a major media network or print magazine). In the interview they called “Edge of Glory,” her “third best single,” and actually got Gaga herself to comment on what her best songs have been. Amazing!

After the big get I read up on Popdust’s backstory. It’s not as if it was launched by 1000x out of his parent’s garage. It has a major media pedigree, with founders who were EIC’s at Billboard and CEO’s of their own startups that sold for north of $300 million. They completed a $1mill A-Round of financing – one million, for a pop blog! Even if we include all the crazy music and comic books I buy every year as part of CK’s operating budget it is significantly less than 1% of that.

You know what? I don’t care if it takes a million dollars and rich dudes with business savvy to put together a website that takes pop seriously while keeping a tongue firmly planted in cheek. Popdust is my favorite pop news outlet of 2011.