Tag: Pop culture

What combines kazoos, scatting, muppet voices, a Billboard 100 appearance, and played on Captain Kangaroo? Answer: this song!

I might have gone too far. I have come up with three different Transformer names for this 19th century armchair in the Art Institute’s collection.

Jawas on Mars?

Today I discovered Spongebob Squarepants' great-great grandfather—in an art museum.

For a brief moment when I saw this image of the International Space Station, it reminded me of my Millennium Falcon photos.

When searching for Mah Na Mah Na on Spotify, the results include Daft Punk's TRON soundtrack.

Let's make this 1993 song into a meme: "Question [insert some sort of situation] Man, funk dat!"

If I had a Peeps costume for my one-year-old toddler, I'd be walking her around the block all day long, sipping on the sweet sweet nectar of Pepsi Peeps soda.

Would you like to own the same vest that Matthew Broderick wore in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off?" Many online sellers offer imitation vests that come pretty close. Others, not so close.

So bizarre when my “Discover Weekly” playlist from Spotify has the song from the end of the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. “March of the Swivel Heads” by The English Beat is the song that plays when Bueller is racing…

Little People has sets for The Office, Masters of the Universe, and WWE! The princess castle will never be the same again.

Are you a Star Wars fan, but find the traditional soundtracks overplayed? You might find some tunes you like in Disney’s new monster list of 361 Star Wars tracks. Called “Star Wars Complete“, this playlist lasts for 22 hours and…

The Jawa Sandcrawler kinda looks a bit like ancient pan pipes from Peru. The angled shape. The worn surface. The rusty color. These two objects from completely different worlds have an odd affinity for each other. Did the this Peruvian…

When you hear the phrase, “Mah Nà Mah Nà”, do you think about the Muppets? That’s what I thought when this song by Piero Umiliani came up on my Spotify Discover Weekly. I thought this was another cover of the…

Every year for my niece’s and nephew’s birthday, I make custom wrapping paper. This year I did a Star Wars theme and a Minecraft theme. When making custom wrapping paper, it’s often nice to work in the recipient’s name to…

Dr. Lightning Chrome Gremlin Fireball Hero Those are some of the auto-generated usernames when you sign up for an account at play.hotwheels.com. You can’t type in your own username. Instead, click the “Surprise Me” button. Hot Wheels will show a…

I love the tagline on @readTedium’s Twitter profile, “Hunting for the end of the long tail”. Oh, the long tail. It’s all the things that aren’t super-popular. The head is all the hits. The long tail is the rest—the obscure…

The arch-enemy of G.I.Joe, Cobra Commander, is bent on world domination. And now there is a pencil sharpener in the shape of his helmet. X-ACTO, the manufacturer of sharp blades, produces a pencil sharpener that looks JUST like Cobra Commander.…

Every week Spotify makes a custom playlist of 30 songs just for you—based on what you listen to. It’s sort of like a close friend making a very personal playlist for you. In fact, it’s even more personal in a…

It’s pretty funny that for a long time, my website was one of the references for the 2 Legit 2 Quit Wikipedia page. Oh snap. It still is a reference! THAT’S…TOO LEGIT Interesting. The reference has only been since 2015.…

Hot Wheels has produced some crazy crossovers. Toaster trucks, GoPro cars, and Hot Dog racers may be totally cool; but the coolest car ever has got to be the Bubble Matic™. Bubble Matic™ Today while shopping at Target, I could…

Ever want to have the unrelentless energy of a hyper Ewok? Those little creatures on the Moon of Endor constantly hop around chitter-chattering a million words per minute. Now you can wield the power of the Ewok! Drink the rare…

How to fit 100 columnists, 15 comic strips, and 50 employees into one holiday invite. This year I was asked to design the invite to our company holiday party this year. Normally, this would be finding some nice holiday stock…

Yesterday for work, I made a fun ping pong bracket with Dick Tracy holding a ping pong paddle. One of my friends suggested that all the participants sign up as Dick Tracy rogues. What a great idea! To determine our…

When your company syndicates Dick Tracy, you often get to have some fun at work. Four months ago we moved out of the Tribune Tower, and into our new office space in One Prudential Plaza. In the recreational part of…

The roundness of this Gamorrean Guard illustration reminds me of the Chicago Bean. EVERYTHING reminds me of the Chicago Bean these days. Glenn Savage has done other sketch cards for Star Wars. The Gamorrean Guard is my favorite. This is…

Google Trends ranks the cities that search the most for Star Wars. Budapest (100) Melbourne (99) Sydney (95) Los Angeles (89) Dallas (77) San Francisco (76) Berlin (76) Houston (73) Chicago (73) London (69) Toronto (67) Paris (62) New York…

25 Ewoks roam the forests of Twitter. They range from the cute and adorable to the heavily ironic and twisted. Which Ewoks should you be following on Twitter? Let’s go through the Ewok village to uncover the best Ewoks on…

John Kerry recently tweeted a pic from negotiations about Yemen. Doesn’t it look like a room in the Star Wars prequels? Dramatic ceiling. Very odd centerpiece table. Range of cultures. Funky patterned walls. I expect to see Senator Jar Jar…

Crystal Pepsi is back! To celebrate the popular 90s drink, Pepsi made a retake on the classic DOS game Oregon Trail. You can play “The Crystal Pepsi Trail” online. Ride along in your wood-panel station wagon collecting fifteen different 90s…

An annual tradition my wife and I partake every year since we first started dating is to watch the Oscar nominees for “Best Animated Short Film” at the Century Theatre in Chicago. Each film usually ranges from five minutes to…