Popular Culture

October 2002


The Rise of Vin Diesel
"The name is Diesel, Vin Diesel." That was the only James Bond ploy that the new Action Hero, Vin Diesel, did not pull in his latest film. Triple X, or "XXX" to be thoroughly misleading as to content, was the box office winner my son dragged me to recently. And while the film was a 007 flick for the tractor-pull set, its style and reverence for the original kept it from being a rip-off, and Mr. Diesel was just engaging enough not to be the next Stallone -- Mr. Diesel can enunciate. For more, click here.

Punk Rock Commercials
The hippies always claimed that when a musician started writing jingles or letting his music flog a product, he was a sell-out. The punk of the 1970s was so much more honest and refreshing because the bands agreed that the idea was to take as much money off the dinosaur record companies as possible in a hurry. Cash from Chaos was the way the Sex Pistols put it -- and they took thousands of pounds for NOT playing or recording. But the nihilism of the movement prevented the boys and girls from really cashing in, until recently. Click here to read on.

The Return of Tony Soprano
After 16 long and eventful months, America's favorite soap opera returned to the air on September 15 as Tony Soprano and his family, and his other family, started a fourth season on HBO. To call The Sopranos a soap opera is not to insult it, but rather to compliment the normally slow-paced, dim-witted TV drama, to point out that the form can be better than it usually is. Click here to read why.