Given the choice of one person – living or dead – who would you choose to ‘hang’ with for 24 hours?

Einstein? Julius Cesear? Shakespeare? Al Gore

Perplexing?

I won’t taint your thinking with my answer – but given how today has started in the Pop Doc’s surgery – I could probably do with 24 hours of ‘hang time’ with my chosen buddy.

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Can you believe it – go home the other night to find the Pop Doctor  clan transfixed by of all things – Felix The Cat – which somehow managed to find its way onto the tube.

Without thinking – Felix’s hypnotic presence was enough to plant me in my seat for the next 10 mins – as I regailed in the classic slapstick comedy which made this cat so originally cool.

It got me to pondering about all those subsequent pretenders to the title of TV’s coolest cat.

From (more. . .)

With the proliferation of music video clips – my mind can’t help but hark back to the very first screening of MTV when I was a teen and of course the now iconic “Video Killed The Radio Star” soundtrack by the Buggles.

Since then of course – up and coming performers have come and gone – but their music clips live on.

From Robert Palmer and his “Simply Irresistable” clip in the early 80’s through to Jamiroquai’s, “Virtual Insanity”, Radio Head’s “Just” and my personal favourite , (more. . .)

When conversation turns to music – there’s no holding back – we all have our favourites.

But given the chance – who would you include in your ultimate rock band?

 I’m not talking a cast akin to the Mormon Tabernacle or Earth, Wind and Fire for that matter – but a five-piece gods of rock ensemble.

Notwithstanding all you fans of country and western, gospel, jazz, hip hop or techno – I’m looking for (more. . .)

What was it about the sitcom – Happy Days – that made it sooooo ‘cool’.

Let’s face it – when you look at the sum of its parts, the show had little going for it.

Imagine going to television executives (in an era when Mannix, The Streets of San Francisco, Kojak and Kung Fu were rating their collective scripts off) – with a handful of hotch potch ideas, a single pilot episode (featuring a middle class American family set in the 50’s, a dysfunctional local thug and (more. . .)

There’s so many things the Japanese have brought to the world’s cultural table.

Origami, bonsai and duster slippers for cats.

But has there been any more significant gift to the western world than 60’s television animination?

Sure – we had our Charlie Brown’s, our Yogi Bear’s and our Bugs Bunny’s – but could anything really stack up against Gigantor or Astro Boy?

Perhaps the wide-eyed Marine Boy, who (along with his pals in the P1 – Bolton, Piper and father Dr Mariner) was plied with the responsibility of  making (more. . .)

Nerds!

As much as we probably all admit to being way too cool to ever be considered one – we all have a soft side for them.

But who are your favourite nerds?

While in real life – Bill Gates would probably rank right up there – on the small screen at least I’ve compiled my own list of personal favourites. . . . so without fanfare (and in no particular order) my Top 10 nerds from TV are:

Gilligan (from Gillgans Island)

Milhouse (from The Simpsons)

Fez (from The 70’s (more. . .)

60’s and 70’s television culture – does it get any better?

Let’s face it – cheese sells. How else do you account for season after season of The Munsters – or Lost in Space.

How in today’s currency could you even contemplate running series after series of The Brady Bunch or put up with the escapades of McHales Navy or Hogan’s Heroes?

No – we’re talking classic television with a capital C. From The Addams Family to the Partridge Family – there’s little doubt that we’re smitten with a (more. . .)

‘The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling

Way down in the valley tonight . . . ‘

Could it be that the unmistakable melodic prose of Jim Steinman mixed with the bombastic style of one Marvin Lee Aday – better known to us all as ‘Meatloaf’ – afforded the world one of the greatest rock albums (commercially at least) that we’re ever likely to see?

Bat Out Of Hell (released in 1977) surely resides in either the mind or collection of every music lover – regardless (more. . .)

You know how it is!

In an effort to unfurl life’s oyster, you happen to chance on the two-year-old whose only purpose in life is to annoy you by repeating the word ‘Why”.

“It’s time for bed”

“why”

“Because otherwise you’ll be tired”

“why”

“Becuase your body needs rest”

“why”.

“So it can grow up strong and healthy”

“why”

You get the picture.

Anyway it occurred to me that adults can be just as annoying – so I started to heat seek as many ways to annoy people as possible.

If you have any more feel free (more. . .)

“Rock ‘n roll’s been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died.”

Hardly the definitive piece of historic movie dialogue but  . . .  salient in it’s context none-the-less.

. . . Happy Days, Grease, Sha-na-na, Laverne and Shirley, Back to The Future Part 1 . . .  there’s little doubt that for the latter part of the 70’s, we were collectively captivated with the romance of the 1950’s.

Strangely enough though – it was a movie set in the 60’s which is uniformly acknowledged as the catalyst for (more. . .)

There’s nothing that really needs saying other than check this out – it’s a little freaky!

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Ya know – there are annoying songs, truly awful songs and then there are just plain – ‘you’re messin’ with my mind’ songs – that we just can’t stomach.

Trouble is of course – that collectively we would never hear these through mainstream sources such as radio – if they didn’t at least have a modicum of support.

For example – if I never heard – “My Heart Will Go On” from Celine Dion, “Shiny Happy People” from REM or “Tainted Love” from Soft Cell – it (more. . .)

Am I the only one out there who has to remind themselves that they are actually (insert here age) – or is this a common trait among us all?

Not a day goes by – when at some time during the day I feel like a 16yo trapped in the body of a much more ‘mature’ person.

Peter Pan complex – perhaps, denial – perhaps or simply the conscious lobes refusing to conform – whatever it is – am I the only one out there?

Does this perception (more. . .)

They say that music matters most when you’re a teenager.

Apparently (as reported in an article appearing the in the SMH back in 2004) it is a ’social lubricant and signifier in your 20s and represents the person you remember you were (and wish you were still) when you’re in your 30s and 40s’.

“Along the way you go from searching out the thrill of the new to pondering the strangeness of the new to dismissing the inadequacies of the new.

“If you believe there hasn’t been a (more. . .)

Remember the Huxtables  from The Cosby show – and how cool they were?

Or how about the Brady’s?

Perhaps The Taylors from Home Improvement or better still maybe The Cunningham’s from Happy Days.

Just about all of us had a favourite TV Family – that we longed to be a part of – for whatever reason.

Ok, so may some weren’t quite up the scatch but even the weirder one scuh as The Beverly Hillbillies, The Munsters or The Addams Family had some redeeming qualities.

Maybe Al and Peg Bundy cracked your top five (more. . .)

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Would is be one of the pretty boys like Pitt or a glamour like Lauren Bacall?

Would Humphrey Bogart get your nod of approval or would Drew Barrymore be your first choice?

Perhaps you’re more the Charles Bronson type – or maybe Ingrid Bergman?

From where I sit – the jury is still out – though Harrison Ford does have a huge amount of appeal.

Would love to hear who (more. . .)

Vanity and pride aside – I’d have to honestly say no!

Sure I’d get on with me – but I also probably start up an argument with myself which of course I would win.

Mind you – I’d probably end up house bound – given neither me or I would be able to decide where the we would go – then probably mull around because we weren’t doing anything.

A cocoon of thought would no doubt inhibit my adventurous side – but my advice – while sometimes staid (more. . .)

While thumbing through glossy newstand trash – I stumbled on an article about former 90210 star Jennie Garth – mmmmmm as Homer would say – Jennie Garth!

Even in the cold light of day – she still had those innocent doe eyes – enough to make a young man melt – which got me to thinking about people’s lifetime ‘love affairs’ with different TV characters.

At some time, we all find some TV actors/actresses attractive – be it a TV boyfriend like Angel from Buffy, or the (more. . .)

Damn – that’s a tough one!

Conversation turned to this at a party held in the confines of the Doctor’s palatial residence recently – and the jury was still out 2 hours after the topic was raised.

Jimmy Hendrix vs Elton John, The Beatles v the Bee Gees, the Moon Landing vs Star Wars – the lists were endless – or seemingly at least.

The 70’s was afterall a time when Grease was the Word that We Heard, and The Jackson 5 taught us that learning the ABC was as easy (more. . .)