Pop Culture: More Than Just Paris to Me

When it comes to pop culture, my attention's more on the array of entertainment outlets and less on the lives of the people involved. I grew up in a home where The Star and National Enquirer were more likely to be found in the grocery bag than something I could feasibly have for dinner. Despite this early exposure to the seedy underbelly of the entertainment world, it never interested me too much.

I'd by lying if I said TV hasn't been a big part of my life. I grew up watching the shows most people my age watched, but was also exposed to classic TV, mostly through Nick-at-Nite. Because of this, I was as likely at age five to be found watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as I was Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Most of the time, I didn't even fully grasp the bulk of the shows I was watching hadn't been in production for decades.

So you could say TV was the first facet of pop culture I really found an interest in. This early exposure to a variety of TV shows helped me develop a pallet for shows that weren't just confined to the latest craze.

I grew up more a TV fan than a movie fan, but over the last several years, my interest in film has swelled. Thanks to DVD, I've been able to do a fair job of catching up and keeping pace. This has been both rewarding and frustrating. At the risk of sounding dated or not my age, I don't regulate what I watch exclusively to what's out in theaters or has recently been. There's over 100 years of film out there and while there's certainly a lot of material that hasn't aged well with the passing times, there's a wealth of great film out there that a lot miss out on.

This is usually because of the refusal to watch something in black and white, which is absurd, but something I won't delve into. To each their own, right? I just like to taste a little bit of everything that's out there for me. I love Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn as much as the next guy my age, but my tastes are more eclectic than just what's recently been in theaters.

I've got a pretty large DVD collection and one run through of it shows this. Yeah, there's Ferrell, American Pie, Anchorman, Fight Club, and Wedding Crashers, among others. But there's also Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Citizen Kane, Chaplin and a lot more. Sure, it's not for everyone and I don't try and pass these tastes on to anyone else. But I feel my appreciation for film has been enriched not just by taking in the new stuff, but enjoying the classics and off-beat contemporary stuff, too.

And with that said, I'm finished alienating myself from my peers.