Culturally Significant! Christmas Special

So, it's Christmas. The truth of the matter is that while other blogs have crafted huge tributes to the holiday we here at CultSig! have chosen to take the holidays to relax while we craft our end of the year reviews.

That being said I couldn't let Christmas go by without producing something special so I ecided to share one of my seasonal traditions: watching Mystery Science Theater.

Saturday morning memories

Friday the 13th: 8-Bit Jason Figure Review

I understand that it's been awhile since I wrote anything concerning the holidays. Yeah, lots going on....it's the holidays. Work, end-of-year finalizing, family togetherness, and TV specials have kept me plenty occupied. But I shouldn't let Friday the 13th go by without doing something special. Friday the 13th was when we first went live with the blog and it means a lot. So what more appropriate then combining two great taste that taste great together: 'Friday the 13th' and Christmas presents?

Photo by FearNet. Design by Fright Rags.

Well no, this is not what I came to talk about today. Still pretty awesome though (available from Fright-Rags.com, sweatshirts currently sold out). What I'm here to talk about are action figures (or collectables, whatever floats your boat). Nothing truly symbolises the greatness of Christmas like a prized action figure (unless it's Castle Grayskull or, I don't know, a pony?). Add in an undead serial teenager murderer and you can smell the chestnuts roasting over an open fire. So I present to you, the long time promised,...

Comic Book Icons

If you read this blog, there's a great chance that you know someone who loves comic books, or maybe you love them yourself. With holiday season upon us, now it's a great time to check out the book Comic Book Icons and maybe secure a copy for yourself or a loved one.

The slipcase and the book.

Happy Thanksgiving from Culturally Significant!

Well, it's Thanksgiving and that means Octovember is over.

Introducing Significant Culture

Just wanted to stop in and say the we are now the proud owners of a top-level domain. Our official new url will be "www.culturallysignificant.com".

Wait, no one had ever used 

"culturally significant" 

as a DNS till now?

It's a common phrase used 

to describe pop culture deemed-

Damn it, Jerry!

As I was saying, we are very excited with this recent development and hope that not only does it allow new readers able to find us easier but also lets fans able to share our goofy dedication to pop culture with everyone. In that regard we fashioned a photo that he hope you could share with the online world to make to speed the process along.

Castello Cavalcanti

As it was mentioned before, Wes Anderson is a house favorite here at Culturally Significant. While we all wait for his next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which comes out next year, here's an appetizer for us Anderson admirers.

A trip to a psychedelic world of fluorescence

So I've been away from this blog (and most other things) for the past month, though I had good reason for that. Unfortunately that means that I missed most of October, but thankfully now we have Octovember!

And few things could be more appropriate for Octovember than a story about my trip to Electric Ladyland, the very first fluorescent art museum in the world. I think it's impossible to be at a certain age today without having grown up being fascinated by glow-in-the-dark things. I know my friend M.E. Strange is a big fan to this day, for one. And so is Nick Palladino.

Nick is an artist from New York City who's been living in Amsterdam for a long time. Here, he and his partner Michelle Delage opened a studio and gallery dedicated exclusively to fluorescent art, which later led to the creation of a museum. Now, it's true that most of the things to be found there are not the glow-in-the-dark toys you or I may have had as we were growing up, but they are nonetheless very impressive.

Let me take you down...

Prepare, Fall has...been extended

Well, Halloween is over.

Terror and Horror: Brothers in Arms

Greetings, ladies and gents.

This is my first post with the Cult Significant, and to make up for totally missing Halloween due to teaching, grad school work, and a splitting headache, I've got something a little two-sided to bring to our table. Today,  in honor of yesterday's Halloween and in preparation of next year's Halloween, I present to you terror and horror.

These are Want and Ignorance, but, you get the picture.

Culturally Significant! Halloween: Part 1

I've got a lot of things to do today, why this will be in two parts, but before I head out I wanted to take a moment and discuss Halloween decorating.

The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders

Saturday Night Live has become hit or miss for me in the last couple years. Now, with the departure of the Lonely Island guys and the dwindling regularity of memorable digital shorts, I only look forward to one recurring sketch at this point:

 

Then last Saturday SNL produced what I feel is the most orginal and sharp digital short they have made in years. I presented here now, in tribute to our own Marc. C's birthday, the newest name in horror (watch and then I'll meet up with you below):

"This is the Crypt Jam..."

Oh Mondo. I've never been in an tumultuous relationship but I'd imagine it is similar to the relationship I have with the uber-popular print maker. It continues to infuriate me, making me rant and rave to no end, yet I keep on coming back.

I guess I just can't quit you Mondo.

I of course do not mean to belittle anyone 

who has been in an abusive relationship 

and in no way say they are parallel.

Stay safe out there.

Why I bring this up is because  of the limited edition vinyl Mondo will be releasing soon in accordance to thier upcoming gallery show "It Didn't Rot Our Brains".

Wait, who was claiming it did? Was it your mother? Tell her to go straight to hell!

Garbage Flesh Eaters

With Halloween fast approaching I thought I'd take a moment and think fondly back to a time when everything gross, slimy, and disgusting was up for grabs.

I'm of course talking about the 80s and the 90s.

Yes, that simpler time when every toy company and television station knew what the children of the world wanted and what they wanted was filth. I of course mean filth in the finest way possible. Sick was in and we ate it up. We had Gak, Slime, Madballs, Boglins, My Pet Monster, Supernaturals, Dr. Dreadful, MAD Scientist Playsets, and the Inhumanoids. The list could go on for another ten pages but let's skip to what were here to discuss, the king of the creepy crop: Garbage Pail Kids.

Hidden like illegal substances and traded like...well...illegal substances, this was our dark secret from our parents. To go into a review of what these cards represented is pointless as so many, including Branded in the 80s, have done so already.Instead I want to talk about a perfect marragie between childhood memories and adulthood horrors. Introducing...

Lost. One Ripped Trading Card. If Found Call Department of Army (Do Not Remove Sticker, May Contain 80s).

Well, there is something on its way here to the secret volcano fort here at Culturally Significant! Hopefully this parcel will bring some much needed Halloween spirit to these hallowed halls.

I don't want to ruin the surprise, I'll be doing a review of the item when it gets here, but I will leave this here until I RETURN.

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! Aack!

When asked recently on the Month of Macabre Photo Challenge what my favorite zombie film was I had a moment of panic.

What was my favorite zombie film?

That could go so many ways. I mean, this wasn't favorite vampire movie or favorite werewolf picture, this was zombies. A genre so beloved, so important, that paring it own became a harsh Hunger Games style death match.

Inner Thought: Did I really just name drop The Hunger Games? 

Why couldn't I say Battle Royale? Or The Running Man?! 

What the hell is wrong with me?

It's also a genre that is in danger of becoming bloated, tired, and slowly shambling towards the most gruesome of living deaths: mediocrity.

But I'm come here not to bury Bud, but to praise him. Let us remember the best undead that have been on the silver screen. So in that idea I present: CULTURALLY ZOMBIE! (or Zombie Significant!).

 

Joanna Gruesome

For many years now we have been listening to a torrent of 80’s-inspired bands, heavy on the synth sounds. There have been good and bad bands who fit this description, but they just keep coming. And that’s fine, I enjoy a number of these bands, but since my nostalgic loyalties lie more with the early 90’s than the 80’s, I have been waiting and wondering where the 90’s-inspired bands are. Sure, there have been a few here and there, but so far there’s not been a true new alt-indiepop wave.

Great Nintendo Horror Games: The Monster Squad

OK, so I've gotten a little behind in my planning for the Culturally Significant! Countdown to Halloween. You can't blame me, with a tight work schedule and all that comes with October I've been behind on everything. Combine that with the fact that I'm also working on a feature length film I'm surprised I'm not dead yet.

That being said, I'm disappointed with my lack of updates...but that is going to change (hopefully). I thought I would make it up to by starting a regular series during the month of October called-

Here's the idea: remember all those "great" horror games we got for the Nintendo? Stuff like Castlevania, Monster Party, Zombie Ate My Neighbors, and Splatterhouse brought the red groovy into the safety of our homes and let us bash our ways through all manner of zombies or monster. It was a grand time to be young and unsupervised.

As time went on they began to extended the scope from original creations to games based off film franchises. Some were successful (Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th) while others were...well...(Jaws, Ghostbusters) less well received. The thing is, there were not as many as you would think for the period of time that saw the release of some of the greatest horror films made. 

So we have mocked up versions of games we would of liked to have seen made for the Nintendo Entertainment System based off beloved  horror films or just had a general creepiness to them. Some would be good, some would be bad, but all would be ;culturally significant.

Let's get started with what I feel was the biggest miss for the game market.

Prepare, Fall has come...

Greeting boils and ghouls,

For the lucky ones of you a chill is starting to hang in the air, leaves are beginning to turn, and Pumpkin Spice Latte cups are overflowing trendy neighborhood trash cans.

This could mean only one thing...

Bring on the human spice lattes!

Pinkerton (the book)

“Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable, or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”, Rob Fleming famously asks in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. The characters in François Samson Dunlop and Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau’s Pinkerton are certain that it’s the latter.

You and Your Friends are Dead...

Still working a big review. Just thought I'd leave this here to tease.

Feel free to share with friends and help us get CS! around.

Jason Lives!

I know what your saying.

Isn't Friday the 13th over?

BACK OFF!...oh...sorry. 

There was a full on love fest yesterday regarding the film franchise  marked by the ominous date with people posting various clips and images regarding their undying love for the world's most well known goalie who's never actually stopped a puck.

I tire of these KEEP CALM parodies...but this one I'll allow.

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH...WE'RE ALIVE!

I'm M.E. Strange.

 

This is Culturally Significant!

 

Welcome. 

We're still working on some details and will hopefully have our first full fleshed out article up by tomorrow. I just wanted the blog launched on Friday the 13th. 

For now, enjoy this little preview of things to come. 

Evil Dead / Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn on the Nintendo Entrainment System.