“Because” by The Beatles is one of the most gorgeous songs ever recorded — and somehow it doesn’t come up enough. A walk with the dog under Seattle skies changed that.
Your pop culture afterburner – fueling obsessive pop culture projects and deeply opinionated coverage of TV, movies, and music.
Category: Best Pop Culture Things Ever
Binghamton, New York pop culture hall of fame
Binghamton, New York’s pop culture hall of fame — TV shows, movies, music, and notable alumni worth celebrating.
Pop Thruster Afterburner: Guided By Voices, Descendents, Parquet Courts
How Guided By Voices, Milo Goes to College, and Human Performance became my latest album obsessions after completing the best 1,000 albums ever.
Waiting for The Dark Tower
From childhood obsession to audiobook return, I’ve been waiting more than half my life for a Dark Tower adaptation worthy of Stephen King’s epic.
Thank you for not selling out: a rabbit hole investigative report
Why are there so few great songs about not selling out? A Gen X rabbit hole through punk, ska, Devo, and suburban conformity.
Pop Thruster Afterburner: Sunday night is Sunday night again
Sunday night TV is back, with thoughts on Industry, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Tubi deep dives, Black Mirror, and recent music obsessions.
“That’s one shot, kid”: the fantasy of righteous violence on Jersey Shore (and Long Island)
Jersey Shore, Long Island bullies, and Ronnie’s infamous “one shot” — a pop culture memoir about vengeance and fantasy.
A car door closing opens the world of The Sopranos
The Sopranos, early Netflix DVDs, and how a single car door opens up memory, pop culture, and time.
Top 50 Stephen King books ranked (by how much they’ve meant to my life)
The 50 Stephen King books that have meant the most to my life, ranked from The Dark Tower to 11/22/63 and beyond.
Queen serves up fried chicken (and all was well)
Iron Eagle, Queen’s “One Vision,” and a fried chicken lyric collide in a nostalgic dive into ’80s movies, music, and formative pop culture.
Pop Thruster Scene Busters: Colin Hanks, the Earnest Everyman
A Scene Busters look at Colin Hanks’ TV career — from Band of Brothers to Fargo — and why his earnest everyman presence keeps showing up in great shows.
Pop Thruster Scene Busters: True Romance’s obscenely great cameos
Pop Thruster Scene Busters spotlights the iconic cameos that hijack True Romance — from Gandolfini and Oldman to Walken, Pitt, and Hopper.
Pop Thruster Afterburner: Pluribus, ‘90s indie film fest, and the cool of The Uncool
A holiday Afterburner from Pop Thruster: Pluribus, ’90s indie movies, comfort TV, books, headphones, and a game worth your time.
“Like to Get to Know You Well” is the most 1980s song ever
Better Off Dead + synth pop + Howard Jones equals the most 1980s song ever.