Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
...and get off of my lawn!
So, I'm seeing the above commercial for, like, the third or fourth time when it occurs to me that the chick who looks kinda like Nicki Minaj actually is Nicki Minaj, and that would mean that the other people in the commercial are not some random collection of young hipster punks that need to get off of my lawn, but in fact are some sort of young musical celebrity hipster punks that need to get off of my lawn, however I could not put a name to any of them.
My first Official Old Fogey Moment. I'm so proud of myself; it's a big day in a young girl's life.
Sorry, but the fact you correctly identified Nicky Whatever negates your argument.
ReplyDeleteStacy,
ReplyDeleteDumb luck.
Nicki combines enough ubiquity that you can hardly avoid seeing pictures of her even on mainstream news websites and a distinctive enough style that even my defective facial recognition software (watching war movies is a nightmare for me: a bunch of young guys all dressed alike and wearing hats) can generally spot her.
I... I... I don't know who any of these people are!
ReplyDeleteThere will be more such moments.
ReplyDeleteMike
Tentative identification of the chick with the bottle-black hair as one "Katy Perry". The kids running around and yelling like they're off their Ritalin would appear to be "One Direction", which is like "New Kids On The Block" but with British accents and 50% less felons.
ReplyDeleteGrey t-shirt with full arm tats is Adam Levine (front man for Maroon5). Black dude is tentatively Usher. White blonde chick is Christina Aguilera (sp?).
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me that I know this.
Yes, the one with the purple/black hair is Katy Perry, and I only know who she is because she just 'does' something for me. Since the men don't 'do' anything for me, I am not as sure as who they are, although from watching The Voice, I think one of the men old enough to grow facial hair could be the lead singer of Maroon 5.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea who Nicki Minaj is. I HAVE heard of Katy Perry though.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, I have the dual disadvantage of being an "old fogey" AND a completely un-hip nerd.
s
Behold!
ReplyDeleteThe Miracles of AutoTune!
Can I get a Hallelujah, brothers and sisters!
Xman
Setting: self and friend are watching broadcast music awards thingie.
ReplyDeleteFriend to self:"Do you know who any of these people are?"
Self to friend: "No."
Friend to self: "Me neither."
I make the kids listen to classic rock during dinner. It hasn't stuck. Although my son shocked my brother when we were visiting by correctly identifying a song on the radio as Bob Seger.
ReplyDeleteTotal blank on ALL of them... And I don't care :-)
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I recognize Katy's Perries now.
ReplyDeleteBut what is iHeart?
ReplyDeleteThe existence of "old fogeys" is a myth, probably concocted by Hallmark to sell cards commemorating entry into nursing homes.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who are chronologically experienced prefer to be referred to as "Oulde Phartes".
Curmudgeons do not have to wait for induction into the Oulde Phart marching and chowder society to tell people to get off their lawn.
The marching and chowder society is meeting next week - hope to see you there.
stay safe.
Nicki who? Seeing the part of the face that's not covered by the big "click to play" button, I thought it was Katy Perry. And, no, I wouldn't recognize her music if I heard it on an elevator. (Minaj OR Perry, either one.)
ReplyDeleteM
I recognized Katy Perry, mostly do to have recently been subjected to trailers for her concert/movie at the theatre. (Attached to an art house foreign film. Target demographic failure is fun!)
ReplyDeleteI have no idea who anyone else is. Does the blonde black woman have on a Dolly Parton wig for a reason?
Your facial recognition bug really makes me wanna wear the same hat as someone at a blogmeet and do the bit from Sixteen Candles.
ReplyDeleteWho are you?
I'm him.
Who's he?
He's me.
OK!
ISH,
ReplyDelete" Does the blonde black woman have on a Dolly Parton wig for a reason?"
That would be Ms. Minaj; if it helps, think of her as today's Cyndi Lauper to Lady Gaga's Madonna.
I have listened to Nikki, and Katy.
ReplyDeleteI have teenaged daughters, and I have 80's and Dubstep on my Pandora which get almost equal airplay. For my money, bad rap is easier to tune out than bad country.
Oh come ON. I'm sure you have fogey-ed before!
ReplyDeleteI can't catch up with People magazine anymore because I don't know any of the people they write about anymore. Pretty much anybody in star world that I care about is dead.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure but I think Nicki Minaj is an amtronic model, not realy human. At least that's what my niece tells me.
ReplyDeleteWe won't even mention Taylor (Nails on the blackboard) Swit.
Gerry
The only ones I couldn't recognize are Nicki M. and the Boy Band.
ReplyDeleteAdam ??? is only known by me because he is on that show with Blake Shelton.
Christina is from back when I cared about music (as was Usher).
Katy Perry is hot
And Pit Bull is all over one of the early morning shows my wife watches.
I..I..I don't know who(what) Nicki Minaj is. And why should I care? I get more value for my time outta Roseholme Cottage than Hollywierd, anyway. (So I'm terminaly un-hip, sue me.)
ReplyDeleteI have little idea about her music, but Taylor Swift is at least cute to look at. The rest of that advert looks like a line up of candidates for the local gaol's "drunk, stupid or high" tank on a Saturday night.
ReplyDeleteYoung enough to be my daughter though, I just checked, how scary is that?
I recognized Katy Perry because they had pics of her in the local fishwrap at times and I went, "hey, who's the hawt chick?" while perusing to see if I recognized any of the bold-faced names in the police incidents articles (my local paper is nice enough to bold-face names in those articles as a public service.)
ReplyDeleteI recognize the band "One Direction" from a TV commercial pimping them alongside Drew Brees that has been shown a billion times during football games. Too bad for the advertiser I vaguely remember the lame interaction betwixt the two but can't for the life of me remember what the product was!
The rest of them were enigmas...
Only reason I could identify a few of them is because I have kids. I quit worrying about popular music in about 1992 or 1994 or so.
ReplyDeleteMy proudest moment came a few days ago when my 14 year old girl told me that no-one makes music like Jimmi Hendrix anymore, and that's sad. I've never been so verklempt. I'm making a curmudgeon for the next generation!
if it helps, think of her as today's Cyndi Lauper to Lady Gaga's Madonna.
ReplyDeleteI beg to differ; Lady Gaga, with her mulitude of ridiculous costumes, is clearly today's Cher.
I would further postulate that today's Madonna is actually Ke$ha.
OH GOD WHY DO I KNOW THIS
THIS IS MERICAN KULTUR ???!!!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the club Tam. You are not a C&R yet, but it will happen. Jimi Hendrix would have been 70 last Tuesday, the 27th of Nov., if he had a little more self control.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is that I knew more of the people dancing with Rita Hayworth in "Curmudgeonly and Skeptical's" "Rita Hayworth is Stayin' Alive" last week, than the people in the I Heart Radio ad.
Could be people around here recognize Katy Perry because of the video she did with the US Marines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuwfgXD8qV8
ReplyDeleteMinajerie?
ReplyDeleteI'm ashamed to admit that I kind recognized Katy Perry. Though, the combination of your post and the thumbnail for the video had me thinking that she was Nicki Minaj, whose name I've heard but am otherwise completely unfamiliar with.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm totally with you on the warm movie thing. The first time or two through "Black Hawk Down" and "Saving Private Ryan" had me confused in a few scenes.
A quick look at Wikipedia turned up the following: Eddie Vedder is 47, Kurt Cobain would have been 46 in February had he not suck-started a shotgun, Perry Farrel is 53, Waxl is 50, Gwen Stefani is 43, Billy Corgan is 45, and Björk is 47.
ReplyDeleteDamn.
The best part is there's more to come!!
ReplyDeleteI can't keep up with all the new faces on "People" magazine either, and I only find out who the voices on the radio are after they've played the songs into the ground for six months. I hear plenty of ads for iHeartRadio, since their network runs one of the stations that has my fav talk shows on it, but haven't seen any ads on TV. The ad I have seen on TV for the "Call of Duty-Black Ops 2", finally caught my attention after about the fifth time , when I realized the guy operating the 4-rotor heli-drone is FPS Russia from YouTube. It made me wonder who the other folks are, besides Robert Downey Jr in the jet and the guy who reminds me of Jon Lovitz in a 'fro and porn 'stache at the beginning and end of the clip.
ReplyDeleteMine came from the last Wierd Al album when I realized that I wasn't getting the humor of most of the songs because I had never heard the original that the song was parodying.
ReplyDeleteOh yeh, who is Nicki Minaj anyhow, and why should I know? We don't get I-Heart-Radio here in Broadcast (waste)land.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I am even more blissfully ignorant of popular culture since I got my TIVO up and running, between NEVER watching live TV, and skipping the ads with sadistic glee (you wasted your MONEY, your wasted your money AGAIN, repeat), and generally watching movies made before I was born...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I will emerge from my self-made media bubble and be shocked at what I see, any decade now.
NotClausewitz,
ReplyDeleteWhile I have no idea what iHeartRadio actually is (until I go GoogleWiki it after typing this), Ms. Minaj is an entertainer whose career arc is sufficiently high enough above the ground clutter to turn up on my radar, and I neither really watch TV (other than the local early AM news) nor listen to radio.
NotClauswitz,
ReplyDeleteApparently you do get iHeartRadio. It is ClearChannel's internet "radio" service.
Tam 12:40pm Don't feel bad. I only recognized about half of those names you mentioned. But I haven't bought new music since the '80s. 'Scuse me, I think I hear some kids hanging around my yard....
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe funny truth is, I know about Katy Perry because a group called the Cleverlys (http://thecleverlys.com) did a cover of one of her songs (I kissed a girl) and I had to look it up and hear the original.
Truth be told, I liked the Cleverly's version better. But then I was always partial to Bluegrass.
s
That Katy Perry chick was the only one that I thought that I recognized, and I've got a teen daughter and a tween daughter.
ReplyDeleteThat Nicki Minaj certainly is Nicki Minaj all right. Wouldn't have known that if you hadn't told me. About a decade and a half ago, I used to work in an office building where I regularly came in contact with a lovely lady from Trinidad and Tobago, and while she was a joy to see, my favorite was to have her call my office. Her voice was as honey on vanilla bean sticks, with a soft Carribean purr. I would have paid to hear that lady read the phone book.
So I'll admit-- I was hoping for more when I went to see her on video. Her voice has an edge to it that is more gravel than honey. Pity.
Man, I feel really young and hip compared to all of you.
ReplyDeleteI could identify;
Adam Levine
Nicki Minaj
Usher
Katy Perry
One Direction (if you watched the Summer Olympics opening ceremonies you probably saw them perform)
and Christina Aguilera
I have no idea who the guy who looks like a Hispanic Putin is.
I am a 20 year old college student and I recognized precisely none of those people. I'm not sure whether this is a point of pride or not.
ReplyDeleteThe way the music industry has evolved makes it possible to live in your own self-created island that contains solely stuff you like, and never see the shores of pop culture again.
ReplyDeleteWhile I have heard all of those names because I read the headlines of magazines in line at the grocery store, I have no idea what most of them (Aguilera started when I was young enough to read teen magazines) look like, and couldn't identify their songs on a bet.
I'm not so much out of touch as extremely selectively in touch; I can do metal, and a little electronica (Stingray's genre of choice), and that's about it.
What Greg said, except throw out everything after Katy Perry.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/uuwfgXD8qV8
Fast forweard through the Justin Bieber ad, and enjoy.
Chicks with guns. Hot chicks with guns, and Amtracs, and CH-53's.
ReplyDeleteClearChannel Internet "radio"? I have AT&T U-verse but without the "verse" or any TV service - just DSL, but I don't subscribe to anything they offer. I tried Pandora for half a day and hated it.
ReplyDeleteO.K., the link doesn't work. So YouTube up Katy Perry-Part Of Me, and click on the one with the camo facepaint.
ReplyDeleteThanks to these comments, I now have some idea who a few current musicians are. Unfortunately, by the next time I have a use for such information the names and faces will have changed and I will still not recognize any current celebrities.
ReplyDeleteTam, it's not a sign of aging if you don't know who the hot celebrity signers are.
ReplyDeleteIt is a sign of aging, however, when the people of an age to know who the hot celebrity singers are, have no clue who the hot celebrity signers were when you were of an age to know them.
I know Katy Perry because for about a fortnight a few months back, she was on every single magazine cover in the newsstands. Now I gather she's replace by Taylor Swift. I can pick out one of Perry's songs when I hear it at the gym, and the only reason I can is because the television was playing the video which accompanies the song and her picture was on it.
Wouldn't know a Taylor Swift song if it came up and asked me for spare change and directions to the bus station. Same goes for the rest of the crowd on the vidjo.
gvi
@ Stuart The Viking: That's how I knew Katy Perry, too!
ReplyDeleteI love the Cleverly's version.