Category Archives: Pop Culture

Fantasy Football, Community and Chaos Theory

Posted by under Pop Culture, Sports

Over the last few weeks I’ve finally been catching up with the tv show Community. Originally this blog post was going to be a really profound statement on a particular episode (Remedial Chaos Theory – Season 3, Episode 3), which shows six different timelines that occur as a result of the characters making different decisions. I was going to then tie that in to my Fantasy Football league and use the episode to illustrate how maybe, the choices you make in Fantasy Football don’t actually have an effect on winning or losing (for the most part). People obsess over picking someone up a player on the waiver wire first, or having a good draft pick, but in the end those things might not matter much.

Instead I’ll just post two screenshots. First, the league standings after two weeks:

Next, the standings after four weeks:

My team, the East Village Idiots is number one, but only because I’ve lucked out and played teams when they have had bad weeks. Check out the disparity between Points For and Points Against. I’d like to see a dataset with a sample size larger than one, but instead I’ll just say what I already knew. Fantasy Football “experts” are full of it and no one really needs to know what they are doing to win. It all comes down to chance.

Why I Am Leaving Company X

Posted by under Business, Culture, Internet, Journalism, Media, Pop Culture

In the last 24 hours there has been a firestorm created around a NY Times Op-Ed titled “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs.”

The article itself is a great read, but so are all the other reactions.

There are two reasons this is really interesting. The first is that the original article spawned a series of parody articles. In the past 24 hours this has hit full on meme status. But I can’t help but wonder if this is seriously taking away from the original article. It’s almost trivializing the original article’s substance, but at the same time it is getting people talking about it more.

The other interesting aspect is the article itself. It’s not a good sign when any former employee publicly rips on every aspect of a company’s culture and business. It’s even worse when that person is a really high level employee. I was surprised that Goldman Sach’s response was so soft. I was also surprised it didn’t attempt to resort to ad hominem attacks. They basically just reassert how great they are and how much money they pay their employees.

Interesting stuff to think about and worth reading more into as this continues to unfold.

How long of a digital trail are we leaving?

Posted by under Facebook, Pop Culture, Technology

I recently reached out to a fraternity brother on Facebook because I no longer had his cell phone number. Facebook pulled up our last correspondence – from 2007 – a message sent by me as Chapter President to him while he was pledging the chapter asking him to make sure and get an extra t-shirt made for a person we added late to the pledge class. Strange to see that almost four and a half years later.

It makes me think, how long of a digital trail are we unwittingly leaving? In some cases we are leaving one that will apparently last forever. Good to know, scary to think of the implications.

When did Angry Birds become a part of pop culture?

Posted by under Pop Culture

Angry Birds was, until today, the highest grossing app of all time for the iPhone. It has since been surpassed by something called Smurf Village. Apparently its reign at the top of the app store charts was enough to warrant an Israeli comedy show to do the following segment. I really have a hard time believing the average tv viewer had any idea what this is about. My only guess is that this is some how bringing up humor from on going Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’m not sure why you would make a joke about that if your own country was going through it, but apparently they did.

If you have played the game you’ll find this funny, otherwise I’m not sure you’ll understand.

Best Simpsons Couch Gag Ever

Posted by under Pop Culture

I absolutely love the artist Banksy. I’m not sure what his involvement with this is, or if he was involved at all, but this is great. Best Simpsons couch gag I’ve ever seen. Either way, he is aware of it, because this clip is posted on Banksy’s official YouTube account.

If you don’t know who Banksy is, check out his wikipedia page.

Update: Apparently Banksy did the storyboards for the intro. Very vague details here.

The Oregon Trail Movie

Posted by under Pop Culture

If you ever played the classic educational game Oregon Trail, then you’ll find this really funny. From the official description:

In 1864, a family embarks on an impossible journey into the untamed American West. Based on the classic educational computer game, The Oregon Trail by MECC.

Understanding the Meaning Behind Inception

Posted by under Film, Pop Culture

The following contains heavy spoilers for Inception. If you haven’t seen it yet, you definitely need to see it at least once before reading this. Inception is one of the best films of 2010 and an incredibly original piece of work. Do not read any further unless you’ve seen the film.

Huge Spoilers beyond this point, you’ve been warned

For the past two weeks after several showings, a ton of reading and even more discussion, I’ve reached some conclusions about Inception. The purpose of this blog post is two fold. First, I want to explain Christopher Nolan’s intent behind the film. Second, I want to discuss the seemingly ambiguous ending of the film and explain how it isn’t actually open for interpretation as some people believe.

Continue reading →

Prince Claims Internet is Dead

Posted by under Music, Pop Culture

Prince recently claimed the Internet is dead. As the joke goes, the Internet responded by saying, “who?”

While reading about the details of that bizarre comment I came across some clips from Kevin Smith’s college tour. A student asks about Smith’s time with Prince. Smith responds for about thirty minutes with a story about how Prince is more than a little bit nuts. Enjoy.

Kevin Smith Talks about Prince – part 1/4
Kevin Smith Talks about Prince – part 2/4
Kevin Smith Talks about Prince – part 3/4
Kevin Smith Talks about Prince – part 4/4

If you see one movie this summer, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” should be it!

Posted by under Film, Pop Culture

This will probably be the last non-Japan related post for a while.

About a week ago I got to see a sneak peek of “Exit Through The Gift Shop.” It’s a documentary about the elusive street artist Banksy. To explain what the movie is about, or to even show the trailer would run the risk of ruining this incredible film. This is a movie I would recommend to anyone and everyone. I enjoyed it more than Kick-Ass, Iron Man 2, or anything else I’ve seen in 2010. Do yourself a favor and go check this one out. Here is a list of cities where it is currently playing.

I guarantee this will become a cult film, it made big waves and Sundance and will probably at least be in the conversation come awards season. The moment I get back from Japan I’ll be headed to a theater to see it again. It’s so great and so profound, definitely check it out.