Living out the last days of analog television like the good cultural consumer that I am, I managed to catch the last half of an episode of the new 90210 program the kids are talking about these days. (spoiler: she DID get the text message, OMG!). The show, naturally, sucks, but if you like clichéd stories of midwest corn-fed family being so overwhelmed by Beverly Hills culture, then sure, stick with it. I never even really liked the old show, but I digress…
So I’m watching and I guess they are going to all go to the rich girl’s bday party which is at some fancy club and some “it” band of the moment all my SF friends already no doubt have tickets for (Somebody and the Sombody’s? The Whale? yeah something with a whale), and one of the characters mentions that Cory Kennedy is going to be there.
Hah!
Sure enough, there’s a super quick pan of the party where we see Cory in all her awkwardness being overfly flashed by I assume The Cobrasnake himself’s camera. WOW, it’s JUST LIKE THE WEBSITE! Anyway, I thought that was highly amusing.
Then last night because I know how to rock Friday nights, I rented the first season of Showtime’s Californication starring David Ducoveny reprising his role as the pervy dude from Red Shoe Diaries (kidding, but not really). The show is actually pretty good and I found myself laughing out loud and really and frighteningly relating to the main character, who, aside from having women thrown at him every episode, pretty much is exactly how my life will be when I’m say 40ish. Good times!
Your pop-culture moment came when he was talking with his 12-year-old daughter about her Cradle of Filth T-shirt. I’m pretty sure I was one of maybe ten people in this show’s target audience who got the reference to proggy black metal band from the 90s (I think they put out something new since then? Not sure). But of course, being the natural cultural compass that I am, the writers of the show are probably scanning Vice magazine or maybe even the The Believer for articles on black metal’s “resurgence.”
Yes, kids, the day has finally come. The outcast music scene I was into in the early 90s has finally come full circle and is considered ironically cool again. And that is death/black metal. I’m seriously still in fucking shock that this is happening. Yet, sure enough, there’s been some new tours by the dinosaurs of metal (and I’ll gladly take them!), and a couple of poorly named new metal bands trying to break in on the scene.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you’re band’s name is a phrase, your music probably sucks.
That said, I think I’ll bask a bit in the glow of having known about metal (neé, “I was THERE, man!”) way before you saw it on Californication or read about it in Vice.
Care to comment?