Pop of Culture

Welcome back to another week of my collection of news from the popular culture realm. Most of this week's info covers tv and movie news.

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Wreck It Ralph- news broke when a composer announced that a sequel to the awesome Wreck-It Ralph was in the works. Personally I loved this movie and thought that it should have won the Animated Feature over Brave in the Oscars because I felt it was a more enjoyable overall movie. It is strange that something like this can be considered because they ended the film pretty well and I don't see what other conflicts can emerge. I will feel more comfortable of this possibility if the writers go the Toy Story route, where they can make a really fresh movie that elevates the series.
 It would be interesting to see Ralph and the gang explore other 80s/90s retro games, since nostalgia is in right now, but it has to be well done.

The Goonies- the creator of the classic Goonies movies announced that there is a possibility of another movie with the hopes of getting the whole cast back together. This is one of my favorite rainy day movies and I'm not sure if this returning to this story is a good idea. I guess if those neighbothood kids all grew up in the area and had their kids grow up together, the new generation could have another set of adventures. For now, I'm gonna remain skeptical and see what happens in the next few months.

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Game of Thrones- the show premiered on Sunday to epic ratings of 6.6 million. This makes the GOT season 4 premiere the most watched show behind the Sopranos series finale, which means great things for the show. For show-watchers, all I will say is that next episode is gonna be epic, so make sure you watch it live.

Star Wars- the highly anticipated addition to the Star Wars Universe has started filming. None of the principal cast has been announced other than the returning characters (Han Solo, Leia, Luke, Chewie). I'm assuming Disney is waiting to announce the cast at a secret panel at San Diego Comic-Con to really build the hype. Right now theres just a lot of conjecture but hopefully we'll get concrete information in the next few months.

Pop of Culture

Welcome back and Happy April Fool's Day! Pop of Culture is a collection of interesting/popular news from the past week and my brief thoughts on them.

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Frozen Box Office- In more amazing news for this movie, it was announced that Frozen became the highest grossing animated film of all time and holds the title for the first to reach the billion dollar mark for Disney Animation Studios (which is separate from Pixar). It also broke into the top ten of highest grossing films in history, falling between The Dark Knight Rises and the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie (Dead Mans Chest). If you haven't seen it, check it out! It has something for everyone and doesn't have the typical Disney love tropes that make some think its just for women or kids.

HIMYM Series Finale- After 9 seasons, we finally saw the reveals of the time Ted met the Mother for the first time coupled with many scenes from the future depicting what happened to the characters leading up to 2030 (where the Bob Saget narrator Ted is). I won't spoil it since it still hasn't been 24 hours since the end, but I feel a little perturbed by the resolution but I have heard mixed things (people who loved it, accepted it or hated it). I personally felt that it was one of the weaker series finales.



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Taco Bell Breakfast- In the fast food world of news, Taco Bell released their breakfast menu which includes the signature waffle taco (with bacon or sausage), the A.M. Crunchwrap and Taco, the breakfast burrito and the Cinnabon Delights. I've heard positive things about the food although I can't try it myself due to my diet, but I may try it on one of my cheat days just to see what it's like.  I will say, the Cinnabon Delights sound delicious. It's too early to see numbers on the potential success but it is nice to see another company throwing their hat in the ring to give us some more breakfast options.

Wil Wheaton- Finally, in heartwarming news, a video went viral from Denver Comic-Con about a statement from Wil Wheaton when asked about bullying from a young girl. You can see the video and read his reaction here. It is a very powerful speech and its something that I wish someone had told me when I was younger and felt alienated from being bullied. As an identified geek (or nerd), I agree with his statements since I've embraced my love of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones and learned not to care what anyone else thinks (hence the purpose for this blog).

News Round-up/Speculation (Game of Thrones)

In my final week of my Month of Thrones series, I'm going to use talk about some news and speculation that have emerged in the coming weeks in preparation for Season Four starting this Sunday.


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Many websites have reported episode titles up to episode seven, which you can check out here unless you don't want to be spoiled for anything. They really don't say much except possibly to book readers like me, but even I can't really tell exactly what is going to happen in every episode. There have also been 4 trailers released which you can check out here, here, here and here.

Based on all of the features in magazines and sneaks that have been released, here are my spoiler-free speculation for some of the core characters on Game of Thrones.

Tyrion: Obviously he's in some kind of trouble since all of the trailers show in either shackles or in a jail. We don't get any context for the situation but with what Tyrion is alluding to, it probably has something to do with Cersei since they've always had problems/hatred.

Cersei: She seems like she's up to her old tricks. In one of the trailers she is heard repeating Tyrion's words that he said to her in Season 2, so the context for that situation should be interesting. Also at the very end of the trailer we see a sliver of her interaction with Jaime, so we will possibly see how their relationship has changed since Season One (or not).

Arya: Seems like she is still on her adventure with the Hound. We will see her true reactions to the Red Wedding so I expect serious bloodshed from her this season.

Ramsay/Roose: They seem seriously concerned with the threat of the Stark children still being alive, since the "North Remembers". It can then be assumed that Theon will be used as a tool of some sort once he reveals information via torture. They also have to deal with being in control of the North and all those associated problems.

Jon: He has some serious issues to content with in the North, since he betrayed the Wildings/Ygritte, who will surely be looking for revenge. We last left him injured and delirious, so we will have to see a quick turn-around, as he becomes a de-facto leader of the Night's Watch.

Bran- It seems like he's in some kind of trouble by himself and with the Reeds so perhaps they are being chased/attacked by Others beyond the Wall, but I'm not sure.

Joffrey- He's still his arrogant self but it seems he's concerned about the Stannis situation. His wedding is coming up so it will be interesting to see how he will be as a husband

Dany: She is still continuing her anti-slavery crusade and is seen engaged in a battle with another slave-city. She is very nononsense and confident, which probably can be due to her unstoppable army that she has at her command

Overall, this season has a really ominous feel to it that you can't really put your finger on.  Honestly just enjoy the crazy ride this season will for sure take us on and always remember "Winter is Coming".

Video Game Madness

Welcom back to another week of Video Game Madness, where I discuss breaking/interesting news from the industry and also discuss my personal experiences with video games.

Oculus Rift- Huge news dropped a few days ago when it was announced that Facebook would be buying the Oculus Rift technology for 2 billion dollars. This is great news for the creators, but I;m not sure its as great of news for those who have used it as Facebook doesn't seem like the right company for it. The fallout has been pretty bad against Oculus and it was even announced that the Minecraft creator, Markus Persson, was pulling making Minecraft for the system, due to not liking the Facebook deal. Time will tell if more developers/creators will also pull out of potential business deals to avoid becoming apart of or associating with Facebook. I honestly don't see why Facebook feels like they have to buy a video game company since they are social media. I understand they want to change the way communication is done, but it still doesn't make me comfortable with the deal. I fully believe that Oculus/Facebooks loss would be Project Morpheus' gain, since Playstation is starting to break into the virtual reality world.

The Last of Us/Sony- According to Sercan Sulun, the Playstation Eurasian Software Market Manger, the 2013 Game of the Year, will be released on PS4 with added graphics a la Tomb Raider: Definitive edition. IGN.com translated the speech, but Sony still hasn't confirmed or denied the highly plausible rumor but if it is true, it will be another huge seller for Sony. I'm also hearing reports that sales of the PS4 have gone up tremendously in the UK since the release of the PS4 exclusive and highly anticpated sequel, Infamous: Second Son. This is good news for the system as we are still in the first few months of the release of the PS4 and hopefully the sales will be enough to keep things afloat as we are soon going into a lull of no new releases for either system (XBoxOne). I would assume that with E3 (gaming conference) coming this early summer, we should be hearing more concrete release dates for games.



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Candy Crush-  Despite having an IPO worth over $7 Billion dollars, Candy Crush shares dropped over 15% in the first day alone, which doesn't bode well for the company. It seems like investors are worried that King Digital is a one-trick pony with the crazy success of the game as it is being compared to Zynga (creator of Farmville), which suffered a 5% drop and was considered to to be a semi-failure as the company has trouble coming up with the next popular game so their stock hasn't been doing great. Personally I'm still obsessed with Candy Crush and probably won't stop until I've beaten most of the levels, which is probably crazy, but I can't stop.

Since Sony has been in the news lately, I've been thinking back on my childhood where I spent most of my days either playing or watching my sister play our original Playstation/Playstation 2 that we had. My favorites were Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. I played hours of both games and would get into the game to the point where i would have to stop if I died too much in a level (which I did a ton with Crash. The most fun I remember having is with Crash Team Racing on the Playstation 2., which was basically Mario Cart with Dr. Cortex so I was hooked. I played hours of the game and mastered the driving skills with my sister to the point that we were always 1, 2 in the rounds. Pretty much I love everything that Naughty Dog puts out except I haven't played (yet) the Uncharted Series or The Last of Us (which I hope to rectify soon) but I would still consider them my favorite studio (the second being Square Enix). I also loved Spyro because the graphics in the second game were more advanced (at the time) and I would just spend most of my time in the autumn level in the second game because it was perfect graphically (to me in my younger age). Despite my love of Nintendo, I feel like I will always have a soft spot for Playstation because of all of the incredible games like Jak and Daxter and Kingdom Hearts.

Pop of Culture

Welcome back! Every Tuesday I pick a few viral/interesting pop culture  news stories to cover each week for my feature. This week I have stories covering sports, more Game of Thrones hype, animal stories and exciting concert news so there is something for everyone

First up, the Billion Dollar Bracket challenge ended on Friday with the loses of Duke and Ohio (who were heavily favorited to move a bit further) since no other perfect bracket remained. I guess they call it March Madness for that reason, since a no-name or less-known school can become popular in a span of minutes, just by beating a more popular team.I'm not doing to horribly as my best bracket is 36/48 and my worst is 32/48 so I'd say I'm fairly average. Anyway the Women's game started up, so of course I will rooting for my Lady Terps in the tournament, but I am concerned about Louisville and Connecticut since they are fairly dominant, but who knows, it's the Madness after all.


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Early screenings of the first episode have started all over the country and HBO has been releasing a ton of featurettes and trailers to hype up the show. I hope they don't give too much away since I look forward to Unsullied reactions. Less than 2 weeks so I'm sure the show will have even more viewers than last time, since the Walking Dead is ending next week and they share similar audiences. What are you most excited about for the new season?

In possibly the best news ever, it's being reported that the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls (minus Posh, because reasons) may be going on tour!!! I loved listening to the Spice Girls when I was younger (and watching Spice World endlessly) and BSB are one of the best boy bands. All I really want is an N*SYNC reunion but this is equally exciting and I really hope it comes to fruition

In sweet, but sad news, a dying man in the Netherlands had his dying wish fulfilled to say goodbye to the animals he loved working with one last time. He spent 25 years working at the zoo cleaning enclosures and a foundation transported him to the zoo to interact with everyone one last time. It was really bittersweet to hear about because the animals clearly recognized him and comforted him as they could tell it was his time to go. A very heartwarming  story.

Pop of Culture

Welcome to another week of Pop of Culture, were I go through breaking/popular news of the week.



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Incredibles 2- It was just announced that Incredibles 2 is finally going to get made! What dampened my excitement was the fact that they also said they are going to make a Cars 3. I really hope that after these movies (and Finding Dory), they can start making original stories again. I loved this movie and hope that Frozone will have a bigger part because his bits were hilarious! Also it would be cool if the kids manifested even more abilities than the ones from the end of the movie. I'm guessing these movies will come out in 2017 and 2018.  I, for one, am waiting for Pixar to win me back with quality content like Up and Wall-E, because for the last while, I have been leaning towards preferring Disney Animation.

Star Wars Ep VII- StarWars.com posted that the new movie series will be set 30 years from Return of the Jedi (VI) which I was fully expecting since they were going to use many of the original characters in some capacity. I am curious to see if they will use things from the already established Expanded Universe canon because otherwise, it would be very confusing. They still haven't announced any actors so hopefully we can get a better picture.

Mean Girls "Reunion"-Tina Fey said that she was interested in doing some kind of panel to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the movie coming out. Mean Girls is another favorite movie of mine, mainly because of the many quotes that I still use to this day ("You go, Glen Coco!") so I would love to see the cast come back and reflect on the pop culture impact of the movie, how they moved on, and where they would think their characters are. I would assume that they would pop up at Comic-Con or some other similar convention. Coincidentally, it has been 10 years since Lost, so it's weird to think that those things came out the same year and that it has been so long.

March Madness-One of the things starting up later this week is March Madness. For those who don't follow (American) College Basketball, it is where 64 teams picked from around the country, participate in a tournament (if you lose, you're out) where they determine who is the best that year. What makes it exciting is that any team basically has a chance, which is how you may hear of "Cinderella stories" from time to time. I have always been obsessed with Madness and always make (and normally fail at) a bracket. It should be an interesting tournament, but I wish my Terps (University of Maryland Terrapins) could have pulled their season together.

Game of Thrones red carpet premiere tonight- Facebook is hosting the live stream of the red carpet tonight which should be exciting. HBO is also having early screening all over the US, so if you can go to one that's awesome (the nearest to me is Brooklyn and that sold out in minutes). I would watch out for any spoilers since the screening start this week and next week. From what I've read, it's going to be a great season and I can't wait to talk about it with you all.

Pop of Culture

This will be a new weekly segment that I'll be adding here to my blog. I'll be discussing some things in the news that interest me or have gone viral(though i prefer saying "wildly popular") that week. Most of it will cover popular culture and fandoms, but I may branch out and discuss other events if they go "viral" in the sense that it is a really popular point of discussion.

First up, HBO released the third trailer for the upcoming season of Game of Thrones during the finale for True Detective. If you haven't seen it yet go here. I am super excited and can't wait to experience the world of Westeros. This season is gonna be fantastic and I can't wait for the Unsullied to experience the twists and turns of the story.

In the related realm of Game of Thrones news, actor Kristian Nairn who plays fan-favorite Hodor, came out publicly as gay . Personally I've been a fan of his since he did an interview with Game of Owns (a podcast on the show). He even has his own advice podcast Two is Company that's great. He's a really funny guy (who's also a DJ) with a great Irish accent. I like how diverse the cast of GOT is and how they use their stories and knowledge to create great performances. An example would be the actress who plays Shae (who formally worked in the adult industry).

Another HBO related thing in the news was the True Detective finale. Most specifically, it caused HBO Go to shut down for awhile as everyone with password access was trying to get to see the show Sunday night after the East Coast showing. It brought up some arguments against password sharing as too many people (on one account) can clog up the servers and make it difficult for everyone else to watch.

Finally, one of the most concerning things of this past week was the Malaysian plane that went missing. For such a huge thing to vanish without a trace. I already have a fear of flying (more like going down in planes), so stuff like this puts me on edge even though I know I'm more likely to die in a car crash. I hope that the officials can at least find the black box and some debris so they can figure out what happened and hopefully give the families some closure.