ACLU Video Supercut: Pop Culture's Journey Toward's Marriage Equality

Clip recap: "In 1970, the ACLU filed the first freedom-to-marry lawsuit in the United States. We are now at the Supreme Court to fight to win the freedom to marry for couples in all 50 states. As we get closer than ever before to the freedom to marry for all, let’s take a walk down memory lane. Thank you to Tegan & Sara for the use of the song Closer."

Paging One Million Moms...

One Million Moms is likely to blow a fuse over a new hip-hop heavy Toyota commercial that features a young girl who begins her rap, "Listen up, motherfathers." But OMM will have lots of company as the ad is getting blasted from all sides. According to the car blog Jalopnik, the ad for the Sienna is "proof that the ad industry has run out of ideas."

I saw the video Friday night after a few car blogs posted it. Everyone generally agreed it was ridiculous. But then Twitter caught a hold of it and all the accusations of cultural appropriation started flying. Here's my beef: I couldn't give a shit about cultural appropriation. I'm not here to talk about how pissed I am that Macklemore won a Grammy over Kendrick Lamar or why Iggy Azalea has the most popular rap song right now. White people doing rap is a debate that should have fizzled out a decade ago and really, I don't care either way. What I don't get is why Toyota and other companies keep doing this, this whole "let's put a bunch of clearly awkward white people in a hip-hop setting and laugh at them because it's a whole inside joke we shouldn't be taking seriously"-type advertising. Isn't the inside joke played out? Like using blue liquid in tampon ads? There's no other way to get the point across?

Stereogum has posted a recap of music, car, and pop culture sites that are denouncing the clip.

When Will The Bass Drop?

This weekend Saturday Night Live mocked EDM's superstar culture in DJ Davvincii, a character meant to be a mash-up of David Guetta and Aviici, both of whom earned tens of millions last year according to Forbes.

Jayden, Aiden, Braden

Details.

2013 In One Cartoon

How many 2013 pop culture moments can you see in this one panel? Embiggens nicely. (Via JMG reader Ray.)

New Board Game: That's So Gay

Via press release:

That's So Gay! A Game of LGBTQ Discovery, a new trivia game, is available in time for the holidays. Featuring more than 2,400 questions of LGBTQ history and current events, the game can be played by two or more people and is ideal for parties and social events. The phrase "That's so gay!" has been used mostly in a negative context for decades. Some people use it as a way to attack or vilify the community, and others use it in fun, not realizing the damage it can do. As with the reclaiming of negative words and phrases such as "queer," this game seeks to turn "That's so gay!" into a positive opportunity to educate LGBTQs and allies, and even those people who use the phrase as an attack.

The game is on sale here.

Sarah Palin: The Tea Party Must Take Over Hollywood And The Popular Culture

"Conservatives aren’t infiltrating and influencing pop culture enough, and we’re missing the boat. That’s why I’m fine with, for instance, Bristol being on the shows she’s been on and why I preach against preaching to the choir. For years, conservatives have glumly waved the white flag when it comes to influencing popular culture. Defeat has been declared many times. But the civic values that conservatism cherishes—like courage, honesty, integrity, hard work, patriotism, faith, fortitude, individual liberty—are values that civilization depends upon. So, if conservatives lose the culture, the culture will collapse and take civilization with it.

"For years we have been focused on November election nights, and perhaps not focused enough on Oscar night, or Emmy night, or script buys, or production deals. We have been focused on sending our brightest and best to Washington. But we also need to send them to Hollywood or to the Columbia School of Journalism. We need to take back Hollywood and the mainstream news media. We need to step out of our comfort zones. We can’t allow ourselves to be pushed to the margins. We can’t allow the principles upon which this nation is founded to be ignored or undermined." - Sarah Palin, speaking to Acculturated.

RELATED: In the above-linked post, Palin also lists her favorite musical artists. On the list are staunch LGBT allies Lady Gaga, Pink, Kid Rock, and Kelly Clarkson.

Dr. Joyce Brothers Dies At Age 85

Television psychologist and frequent chat show guest Dr. Joyce Brothers died at her New Jersey home yesterday at the age of 85.

Throughout the 1960s, and long beyond, one could scarcely turn on the television or open a newspaper without encountering her. She was the host of her own nationally syndicated TV shows, starting in the late 1950s with “The Dr. Joyce Brothers Show” and over the years including “Ask Dr. Brothers,” “Consult Dr. Brothers” and “Living Easy With Dr. Joyce Brothers.” She was also a ubiquitous guest on talk shows like “The Tonight Show” and on variety shows like “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”

Click over to Boy Culture for some examples of Brothers' commentaries on gay issues. Most are pretty good. But not all.

New To The Oxford Online Dictionary

1. Inbox
2. Photobomb
3. Lolz
4. Tweeps
5. Vajazzle
6. Hat tip
7. Video chat
8. Ridic
9. Lifecasting
10. Hackathon

Seems to be a trend here. Other new entries.

Teach The Children About Hammertime

I actually do remember JFK's assassination rather vividly and I was only four years old. Source.

Santigold - The Keepers

Alyssa Rosenberg offers this critique:

It’s a house where impeccably coifed, white-blonde people eat food that glows with poison. When shooters in a car shred the walls, they momentarily startle, then check their hair and make sure their clothes are in place, and sit back down to dinner. And when their milkman’s caught in the crossfire, they make a spectacle of his death without considering the risk outside. The house build by racism is burning down around them and they don’t even notice. [snip] It seems it takes someone like Santigold to do the job properly, to reveal the obscenity of moving through your swish, stylish life ignorant of the fundamental inequalities you benefit from, and unprepared to adapt to a world without them.

Celebs Launch 2012 Rock The Vote

Clip description:

Through sharp and hard-hitting animation rooted in a youth pop cultural aesthetic, and by using celebrity narrators ­Grammy Award winning artist John Legend, Glee's Darren Criss, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton and R&B singer, Bridget Kelly - the video speaks directly to millennials' sense of what is exciting, important and cool.

The Return Of The Boy Bands

It was a nice break while it lasted...

SUBTITLE: "How To Use Popular Culture To Scam Even More Money"

These guys are pastors, unsurprisingly.

SUNDAY: The Simpsons 500th Episode

The television show that many (including myself*) consider to be the greatest in the history of the medium will air its 500th episode this Sunday. Special guest star: Julian Assange.

The man at the centre of the Wikileaks scandal will make a cameo appearance in the upcoming 500th episode of The Simpsons. According to a Reuters report, the episode, scheduled to be aired on Sunday (February 19, 2012), will feature the voice of Julian Assange, which was recorded down the phone after the show's producers' tracked him down in Britain. Assange is currently under house arrest in Britain, fighting extradition to Sweden where he would be questioned for allegations of sex crimes. The executive producer of The Simpsons, Al Jean said of their decision to include Assange "Obviously he's a controversial figure and that was discussed before we agreed to let him do it. But it's a funny cameo and it makes no judgments about the larger case about him."

*Second place: All In The Family.

Tribute To Don Cornelius

People's Sexiest Man Alive

I have a personal relationship with Bradley Cooper because I once saw him on the 6 train. So there.

Today Is Lucille Ball's 100th Birthday

And Google is paying tribute on their home page.

Regis Philbin Announces Retirement

Eternal television host Regis Philbin, 79, announced his retirement this morning after 28 years with The Morning Show.

"This will be my last year on this show ... but there is a time, there is a time that everything needs to come to an end for certain people on camera, especially certain old people," Philbin said. The show, now in its 22nd year in national syndication, began as a local morning show in New York in 1983. Kathie Lee Gifford joined Philbin in 1985 on the show and it debuted three years later nationally as "Live with Regis & Kathie Lee." Gifford left the show in 2000 and Philbin was joined by current co-host Kelly Ripa in 2001. A choked-up Ripa said Tuesday after Philbin's announcement, "I think I can only speak for America and all of us here when I say that it has been a pleasure and a privilege and a dream come true, and I wish I could do something to make you change your mind."

Philbin is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having spent more hours on television that any human in history. Morning television will never be the same.

HomoQuotable - Mark Simpson

"After a decade or so of metrosexuality a tipping point seems to have been reached. Men’s self-loving bi-sensuality and appreciation of male beauty, awakened and increasingly normalised by our mediated world, seems to be here to stay. Even in the God-fearing USA. And might now, if it’s in the mood and treated right, choose to be consummated rather than just deflected into consumerism again.

"When I first wrote about how the future of men was metrosexual, back in 1994, it was clear to me that metrosexuality was to some degree the flipside of the then emerging fashion for female bi-curiousness. I didn’t talk about this much at the time because I knew no one would listen if I did. (I needn’t have worried – they didn’t anyway.)

"In this regard, one of the academics in the NYT piece was (finally) quoted as saying something interesting, right at the end:

‘Professor Savin-Williams says that his current research reveals that the fastest-growing group along the sexuality continuum are men who self-identify as “mostly straight” as opposed to labels like “straight,” “gay” or “bisexual.” They acknowledge some level of attraction to other men even as they say that they probably wouldn’t act on it, but … the right guy, the right day, a few beers and who knows. As the professor points out, you would never have heard that in years past.’

"An A ++ to Dr Savin-Williams. Not so long ago, when Heterosexuality was a proper belief system that commanded round-the-clock obeisance, ‘mostly straight’ would have been a heretical contradiction in terms – like half pregnant. But in this Brave New World of male neediness it’s just a statement of where we’re at. For today’s young men the fear of faggotry is fast being replaced by the fear of missing out." - British journalist Mark Simpson, responding to a New York Times column about the increasing acceptance of homosexuality.