I think I’m pretty well known as the resident vampire nerd, even writing my university dissertation on vampires, way back in 2005 (before anyone accuses me of simply being a Twihard!)… so I thought it was high time I contributed a post dedicated to all the sexy vamps out there in the world of pop culture.
Known for their powerful alluring qualities and seduction of innocent virgins, vampires are the subject of many a human’s sexual fantasy. Whether you’re a fully fledged fang-banger or just v-curious, one of these delicious immortals is sure to tempt you.
Vampires are well known for their fluid sense of sexuality, so that’s why I’m kicking the list off with Lily Munster. A sexy homemaker with all the right gothic connections, daughter of Count Dracula himself and quite possibly a close relation of the Bride of Frankenstein, Lily’s beautiful and devoted to those she loves.
No, I’m not in a particularly heretic mood. But it is a Sunday and I’m on fire. At least, my back was, and now it resembles a lacy red lizard, a lasting souvenir of my recent trip to Spain. (Part of the reason PCP was taken over by Emmas last weekend.)
You’re all on fire too – but in the good, non-peeling way. I’m liking you weirdo Googlers this week, because you have given me the chance to think about all kinds of pop cultural goodies and stare slack-jawed at sexy scantily-clad men and women, in the name of “blogging”. Keep it coming!
I’m finding it hard to accept it is over, but the calendar and slyly shortening days say otherwise. Not to mention that today is one of the rainiest days I have ever seen in the UK! Guess the gods are also mourning the death of a season.
Never mind, autumn is awesome. You get to layer up in cardis, coats, scarves, hats and boots, without the cold completing biting your nose off. And no matter what the weather and season, there will always be Search Term Sunday, that time of the week where we mull over the latest freaky search terms to grace our stats…
misty asshole
Asshole’s a bit strong. Annoying maybe, but come on, the girl was trying her best to repress her epic love for Ash!
♪ if you live with me, I’ll die for you, and that’s a compromise ♪
Eh, I’ve just about had enough of serious questions, and the resultant discussions, this week. So let’s bring on the levity instead!
Round here that means that it’s time for another Search Term Sunday- looking at, and mocking, the things people have googled that brought them here this week.
After my recent hunt for the Seven Noses of Soho (and eternal wealth, natch) I’ve become completely obsessed with the things. While wandering around London trying to sniff out snouts everything (rivets, drainpipes, shadows, graffiti, small children) started to look like another one of these noses.
So since I’ve got olfactory organs on the brain, I thought I’d take a look at the significant smellers of pop culture.
Well, let’s have no more of that! I say let’s shun the smut-less, and instead fully embrace the strangeness (and often inappropriate sexual nature) of the search terms that led people here this week.
I probably shouldn’t have begun my acquaintance with Rachel Caine’s Morganville Vampires via the tenth book in the series, but Bite Club came into my life by way of Miss Penn and as a fan of paranormal romance I gladly accepted it. While I definitely would have preferred to start at the beginning, I found Bite Club seductive, fast-paced and a page turner.
The series centres around Claire, a Texas Prairie University student in the vampire-controlled city of Morganville, and her human/vampire mix of housemates. Bite Club sees Claire’s troubled human boyfriend Shane caught up in the anarchic plans of a group of vampires intent on bringing well-ordered Morganville down. It’s up to Claire, her housemates and her eccentric vampire boss to try and save Shane and the town, before it’s too late.
The pace of Bite Club was good and the character’s emotions gritty, raw and believable. The book was packed with very visual action sequences, which for me played out comfortingly like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The writing was subtly descriptive and I found I could easily picture the characters and the town of Morganville within moments of picking the book up. The dialogue was made for TV, with the gang’s chemistry again very reminiscent of Buffy, or The Vampire Diaries.
The height of summer-which we’re technically in, even if the weather might make you think otherwise of late- is supposed to be a lazy, hazy time of year. Ideally it would be full of siestas and naps in the sun. And possibly crazy adventures in the forest involving fairies and an ass.
Sadly I’m unlikely to get the chance to sleep away my summer, but at least I’ve got my favourite dream sequences from TV shows to sustain me.
‘Restless’, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
After battling a demonic cyborg named Adam, by combining their essences, the core members of the Scooby gang (Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles) decided to have a movie night. They crashed out early, and ‘Restless’ gave the audience a chance to investigate each subconscious in turn. The characters’ fears and weaknesses were examined in a way ripe for interpretation, while the surreal nature of dreams was maintained with devices such as confusing French, a musical number and the cheese guy. Read the rest of this entry »
World’s Greatest Dad is the best film Robin Williams has made this millennium.
It looked really cheesy, in the vein of RV, Old Dogs and all those other “family” films he’s been making to fatten up his kids’ trusts funds/pay for rehab. In fact, it was at once highly tragic AND comic. To explain it would ruin its surprises but I’ve stolen its title because it’s either spot on or completely ironic in describing Williams’ character, which suits the perverse nature of this feature. Basically, I’m showing my love and appreciation for the World’s Greatest Dad the same way I did my mum back in March, by highlighting 10 bad dads on TV that make me treasure him even more.
May 17 was IDAHO, the International Day Against Homophobia, which commemorates the World Health Organisation’s 1990 decision to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. Millions marched around the world in protest and celebration. In London, Lady Gaga served as guest editor for Metro. And anthropologists uncovered a gay caveman, although probably not deliberately for IDAHO.
While The Flintstones may have been having a gay old time in the vintage sense of the word, pop culture can be a powerful tool in opening minds en masse. It’s a positive sign of the times that there are an ever-increasing number of LGBT characters that transcend stereotypes and, for the most part, avoid cheap laughs. In celebration of the WHO’s 21-year-old decision – an event worth marking everyday – here are my 10 favourite transgendered performances on film and television. If you haven’t caught these yet, I strongly recommend that you do!
A lot of people’s first response to Azerbaijan winning the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest was along the lines of “where’s that?” or, possibly, “that’s not a real place!”, and then- upon googling- it was more of a, “well that’s not in Europe” kind of feel.
But win they did, nonetheless:
This general geographical confusion has created an urge in me to set y’all some homework: I suggest you try to complete the sporcle challenge to name all the countries of the world (in fifteen minutes).
It also got me thinking about some legitimately made up locations too.
I feel that a sense of place can add a lot to a story, especially an ongoing one- as in a television or book series. When a story’s set in a nebulous, loosely defined location it often seems to lack something. But a good location doesn’t necessarily need to be real. Read the rest of this entry »
The search terms that lead people to PCP typically make me snigger or roll my eyes, because they’re so bizarre. Sometimes they make me smile, because they remind me of something pleasant, like a classic episode of a favourite TV show. But lately, I’ve noticed they’ve also been serving as little lessons, opening my eyes and mind to things I’d never have imagined otherwise and teaching me obscure phrases in foreign languages.
So this Sunday, here’s a chance to get schooled, along with the usual dirty laughs.
Happy Mothering Sunday! I hope y’all got up nice and early to steal flowers, scribble in cards and cobble together breakfast for the one that made you. Sadly, my Mummy Dearest is thousands of miles away, across oceans and mountains, so I’ve had to try and think of another way to show my love.
As any regular reader will have realised, TV is never far from my thoughts. TV is PCP’s religion, after all. So, as I thought about all the things I loved about my mother, all the things that made her so fab, I began to think about the multitude of small screen mums that weren’t so lovely and fab. For every apple-pie-making Marion Cunningham, there’s at least 10 mothers who would make out with your boyfriend/best friend or serve you arsenic pancakes. Not that I’m complaining – bad mothers make for goood tv.
So, Mum, here are 10 TV mothers that make me love you more than ever! (I certainly wouldn’t trade you for another – not even for Mrs. Cunningham.)
A little while ago I wrote about platonic friendships between straight men and women on TV, and how few and far between they are.
There is of course space for a different exploration of cross-sex friendship when the possibility of sexual tension is removed (at least mostly) because at least one of the characters is gay.
Friendships between women and gay men abound on TV shows these days, although those between lesbians and men seem less common.
Sometimes these can be pretty stereotypical, where the gay guy is simply one of the girls (and loves shopping and shoes and shaking their booty), but I think there is a variety of representations to be found.
So eight of my favourite small screen portrayals of friendship between women and gay men, followed by eight TV lesbians with their attendant lesbros:
There can be some very questionable casting in TV shows and films, so I thought I’d focus instead on the gleefully fabulous examples of family members, young versions and so on which work well.
Sometimes it’s possible to work out exactly what makes the casting so perfect- the colouring, the jaw line, the body type- and sometimes it seems impossible to properly pinpoint.
And sometimes they just actually seem to have the same face.
Chuck’s mother (Gossip Girl)
Laura Harring (Mulholland Drive) was picture perfect casting for the birth mother of Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick). It’s perhaps the slightly feline eyes that makes them look so similar. Read the rest of this entry »
Yea, it’s that time of year again. Of course, not everyone’s going to be playing the game of love this Valentines’ Day.
Even some of TV’s finest and prettiest are facing a tub of Ben and Jerrys and microwave meal for one tonight. So we’ve decided to give them a helping hand and increase their chances of being struck by Cupid’s arrow in the near future… Any takers?
Santana Lopez – Glee
Fiery Latina cheerleader seeks the Clyde to her Bonnie. Must love Breadstix, dastardly schemes, duets and the occasional menage-a-trois. The faint of heart need not apply. Read the rest of this entry »
TV is our religion. A good book on a rainy day is our idea of heaven. And Pop Culture Playpen is our little corner of the interweb to share our various obsessions and rants about the wide world of popular culture, from wailing over Joss Whedon’s latest prematurely cancelled series to ... Continue reading »
