With over 20 million accounts, Second Life has become a pop culture phenomenon. An Internet-based virtual world, the metaverse in which we can be the person we've always wanted to be (without putting in the hard-work of exercise or educational training) have very few competitors. Currently, there is an exhibition going on in Boston called Mixed Realities - an exploration of real and synthetic places made possible by computers and networks. There's an exhibition......

Punketta Doilie Presents: SHELTER Saturday, February 2nd Machine Nightclub 1254 Boylston St. Boston, MA 02215 $7 before 10:30 / $10 after 21+ / 10p - 2a MySpace: Punketta Doilie Perceptions of the industrial scene in Boston from those who've never attended the nights nor have become acquainted with some of the individuals that frequent them can really miss the mark. While outsiders may view it as an isolated crowd ridden with a lot of......

Super Bowl Media Day is the professional football equivalent of the annual family reunion. A bunch of people get together, often traveling long distances, for the purpose of catching up. There's little that they have in common, but since they sort of fall under the same name, everyone has to make nice. The hijinks on display makes for a hilarious time for those not directly involved. People make nice and dumb down the stories of......

Riding high from his Michigan victory and the continued defeats of rival Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney is on a tear through Florida, and he's trying to connect with the young people. Unfortunately, Romney's pop culture references are stuck as far back in time as his well-preserved face. He buddied up with African-American teens and tried to sling lingo that he thought they would like. In fact, he uttered the immortal line, "Who Let the Dogs......

Thespians stopped by Boston this week to read for the miniseries that will be based on BU professor and left-wing darling Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. And here's what happens when an intellectual heavyweight's work gets mixed up with this thing we call pop culture: --Somehow, it just doesn't seem right to call noted author Howard Zinn the "Zinn-Meister." It makes us think of the SNL skit with Rob Schneider at......

This past September something innovative happened in Boston. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum launched a webcast. It wasn't just any webcast, it was a creative commons licensed release of concerts performed as part of the long standing museum concert series. It's allowed users world wide to take in a little classical music culture by downloading the file and playing it on their iPod, in the windows media center or whatever MP3 compatible device they choose.......

Breaking into December and we've finally seen snow. It was brief. If you slept in this morning you likely missed it. Since the cold weather seems like it might finally be upon us we're looking for a way to stay warm. A sure fire way to keep the blood running warm through your veins is to check out a packed rock show with a couple hundred of your closest friends. The local show pick......

Boston joins in the celebration of late Warhol muse and Pop Art Poster Girl Edie Sedgwick. Tonight, the MFA will screen Sedgwick's final movie, Ciao! Manhattan, which was released shortly after her death in 1971. The Sedgwick tribute is timed to complement the release of Edie: Girl on Fire by David Weisman, who also directed Ciao! Manhattan, and Melissa Painter. It's probably a good idea to see Sedgwick on screen and read about her......

Chuck Klosterman is currently considered a voice of a generation. The age range is about 19-25, and it was with his second book, "Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto," that he solidified himself as a name worth knowing. Starting as a news and sports writer, he moved over to rock criticism, but he's now writing a column for Esquire, and freelancing just about everywhere else. "Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade Of Curious......

New Edition and New Kids on the Block arrived on the scene about the same time as MTV, or after the music video station had already become engrained in pop culture. Other Boston bands had been around a lot longer than the music television station. Aerosmith found new success in a younger market when they released Get A Grip. It surged in radio play and with the wild popularity of the music videos. Crazy, Amazing,......

Every now and again an internet video catches the eye as being tangentially relevant to current events. In these instances there's a unique opportunity for us to make an irrelevant point about pop culture and the news while showcasing a couple of minutes of multimedia. Today we take the opportunity to highlight the fact that the 39th murder this year in the city of Boston took place yesterday. The recent upswing in violent crime has......

A little bit of comedy, mixed with political commentary, some pop culture, and interesting interviews. This is exactly what Baratunde delivers on his podcast, the Front Porch Podcast. When Baratunde Thurston isn't appearing in local comedy clubs or writing down his thoughts and opinions, he is creating some pretty darn good podcasts. At press time, there are only 15 episodes out for consumption, thus the show is in its infancy. Despite the show being young,......

Bostonist is not going to "live blog" the Academy Awards like some of our counterparts. They may sit down to lunch everyday next to movie stars and other pop culture icons that roam their streets. We've got Danny Aiello in the North End filming his next movie, Ben Affleck every now and again back here in the Hub (visiting his Mom is what we've been told-he secretly keeps a pad in southie too) and a......

With the release of their independent hit, “Swingers,” in late 1996, Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn introduced into our pop culture a new vernacular based on Sinatra’s Rat Pack. “You’re so money” became 1997’s biggest catch phrase, and swing dance lessons suddenly became a lucrative business. All of this boded well for the opening of The Good Life, a bar and restaurant seemingly ripped straight from Favreau’s screenplay and placed across the street from a......

Everyone in Boston has seemingly fallen in love with the tabloid. The Herald—classic tabloid, The (Weekly) Dig—stapled, redesigned tabloid, The Metro—free tabloid, The Phoenix—booted the fold tabloid. The Boston Globe goes tabloid today with the launch of their new six times weekly (Mon-Sat) feature "Sidekick." Unlike the recent redesign over at the Phoenix, the Boston Globe will still fold twice, horizontal and vertical rise will be creased. James Reed will be editing Sidekick, which......

Yeah, Sublimidible. Bostonist has heard Dubya utter that word a thousand times in rerun clips in the past four years, in fact we're pretty sure it came up as a hip hop mix during the last election cycle. According to a Boston Globe report last week the election debacle of 2000 is what got DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid kicked into gear speaking out about politics and history. Paul Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky, remixed a......