the popGeezer Mission Statement
Born in 1960, I was raised to have a core belief in the Holy Trinity – TV, The Beatles, and “Peanuts”. My mother alleges that I taught myself to read by age four so that I could take in the daily paper’s comic strips and TV listings at my leisure. By the age of six, I had added two other figures into my growing pantheon atop Olympus – Johnny Carson and Andy Williams. I also decided that I would replace Johnny as the host of the “Tonight Show” when I grew up.
From these humble beginnings, with an elective course in the “West Side Story” motion picture soundtrack album, I began to develop the tools, the skills, and the sheer raw power that would make me – arguably – the greatest consumer of popular media in the post-war history of the United States of America.
Now being a “consumer” does not necessarily bestow upon one any overall, or even specific, expertise. I don’t win trivia contests anymore, my knowledge of mass-appeal sitcoms of the 1980’s is pretty awful, and my musical taste is shamefully mainstream. I mean, I didn’t buy a Velvet Underground “album” until mid-2008. But add it all up, and I know what I’m talking about. I can carry on an acceptable conversation about the technology behind Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone, why “Superman: The Movie” is awesome but unfortunately flawed, support a thesis for why The Sunday’s “Here’s Where The Story Ends” is easily in the top 10 greatest pop singles of all-time, admit my preference for the perfect-bound version of “Playboy” over the old stapled editions, prove that Duran Duran’s a better band now than they were 20 years ago, and still complain about any episode of “The X-Files” produced after “Two Fathers, One Son”, all while whistling Earl Hagen’s theme for “Gomer Pyle: USMC”.
Go, ahead. Try me.
What’s the bottom line? What’s the actual mission statement?
PopGeezer.Com is all-pop, all the time, however I see it.
If it lies on the time line that starts with John Kennedy’s inaugural and stretches some 20 minute into our future, then it is Fair Game. Music, movies, the stage, books, magazines, radio, video, and, above all, comics and television will be served up here chock-full of attitude and opinion. I will welcome discussion and even contradiction. I do not guarantee pleasant acceptance of any correction or rational response to constructive criticism. But this is still a free country, and the First Amendment is still technically in effect. So the phone lines are open, and we’ll be taking calls all through the show.
I am a popGeezer, and I am the best at what I do. Snikt.