MamaPop™

Mamapop Recommends: Lena's Picks for June

Recommended Book:

 I just finished "If I Am Missing or Dead" by Janine Latus. Written by the victim's older sister, this non-fiction memoir tells the story of a desperate naive young woman who falls in love with a man she met on the internet and then chooses to stay in the abusive relationship rather than be alone.

The title refers to what was written on the front of an envelope found in the younger sister's desk days after she was murdered by her new boyfriend. (CHILLS)

While explicitly about a family's love being unable to stop an abusive relationship that ultimately ends in the young woman's death, the story contains an implicit love letter to women everywhere. I give it two thumbs up and a tissue.

Caturday: I has memez

OH YES, IT R MEMES TIMEZ NOW!

Enjoy, and happy Caturday mah peoples!

Coming Soon: Oprah Lunchboxes and Oprah Beach Towels

From the OMG, What Next? files comes news that Oprah Winfrey is opening a store in Chicago.  The most interesting part of this announcement is that it includes absolutely no information -- none! -- about what exactly the store will be selling.

Books from Oprah's book club?  Doubtful.  Plus size clothing?  Hmmmm....that might be cool.

My best guess is that the store will carry licensed Oprah merchandise -- coffee mugs, coasters, t-shirts, baseball caps, Christmas tree ornaments -- all with Oprah's image on them.  After all, O Magazine has a picture of Oprah on the cover every damn month.  So why not put her face on other things, too?

Seriously, I think people would line up around the block to buy the stuff.

MamaPop Recommends: Izzy's Picks for June

Hey you! Be sure to submit your own recommendations over at MamaPopTalk!

Recommended Book:
Dedication by Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus. This book was written by the same team that wrote The Nanny Diaries, but I actually think Dedication is much better. Before I tell you anymore about it, just in case you love OR hate the genre, let me just clarify that it is pretty much "chick lit" .

Before I had kids, I read heavier, headier stuff but these days, I'm partial to what you might call a "beach book." I read during nap times and in the tub and my downtime is so limited that I don't want to think — I want to be transported and/or entertained and Dedication fills the bill.

In short, it's about a woman whose first love from high school grows up to be a rock star. The clincher is that when she was 17, he left without saying goodbye and found fame by writing songs about her and their relationship. Furious and haunted by the mystery of his leaving for 13 years, she finds out he's come to her old hometown and she flies there to confront him about his leaving and using their relationship for hit song fodder.

I won't tell you anymore but the device the authors use of going back and forth from the protagonist's junior high and high school years to present day is awesome. It satisfies my bizarre fixation with teen angst and also allows me to relate to the character as an adult. I read this book every spare moment that I had and when it was over, I was kind of bummed. I get attached to characters in books. I'm nerdy like that.

TV Guide's Top Cult TV Shows

TV Guide has updated their list of the Top Cult TV Shows, originally published three years ago.  The list has grown from 25 to 30, and in the process of updating the list, a few shows were dropped.  I seriously question the inclusion of Lost, since it is a) still on the air and b) a huge mainstream hit.  I also wonder how Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1975-1978)  made the list -- is anyone really still talking about that show?

I was pleasantly surprised to see Freaks and Geeks had been added to the list.  I was not surprised at all to see The X Files, Star Trek, Twin Peaks, H.R. Pufnstuf, and Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

Baby From Nirvana's Nevermind Album Cover All Grown Up

Now.

And then.

He's 17 years old now. SEVEN.TEEN. And yes, this does in fact mean you're old. I'm sorry.

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Hot Topics For Hot Mamas!

Come on over and see what we are discussing on MamaPopTalk today!

• Are there UFO's?  Look at the pictures and decide for yourself.  And then tell us... because we're nosy like that.


• What music shaped your adolescence?  Don't be embarrassed to admit it.  We won't laugh... much.


• Is Lindsay pregnant?  Say it ain't so!! NO, SERIOUSLY. PLEASE.


• Get your own "MamaPop Recommends" recommendations in!  Let us know what you are into right now!

The Funniest Blonde Joke

Okay, so blonde jokes aren't really that funny, but this one is hilarious.

MamaPop Recommends: Mrs. Davis' Picks for June

Hey you! Be sure to submit your own recommendations over at MamaPopTalk!

Recommended Reading:
I've been reading Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons. I expected to love this novel (because I loved his last one so, so much), and I do, but it's so different from what I expected.  And it's just a teensy bit difficult to read a novel about current college students written by a man in his 60's.

Recommended Song or Album:
Anything by The Hold Steady. Once again, I have my husband to thank for introducing me to good music.  Two of their albums -- Almost Killed Me and Boys and Girls in America have been getting lots of play around here. 

Madonna Continues To Defy Age

Madonna left a NY restaurant after dining with friends and looked like she could have walked all the way home ...on her hands. Seriously, how much more ripped can this woman get?

The Hey Paula! Premiere

The utterly inexplicable trainwreck that was, as seen through the lens of select comments from MamaPopTalk's open thread last night (reproduced with spelling/ punctuation/capitalization/grammar intact. Don't have a cow, man):

did she just call herself "a warrior"? NO.

[Referencing Paula's housekeeper:] "Marina!!! Tell me I'm teh prettah! TELL ME OR IT'S BACK TO ECUADOR WITH YOU, DAMMIT!!!!"

Oh My God. She almost fell. That was awful.

HOW DRUNK IS SHE?? I don't think I have ever been that drunk

she's umm going to cry. over pants.

Oh my god, is this woman EVER sober? This might be the best show ever produced, evah.

She makes me want to cry and I am not even there.  She is a hard-ass

For someone that wasted, she has a mind like a steel trap

Are you laughing yet? But wait! THERE'S MOAR!

Friday Eye Candy: Good Man Edition

These adorably devoted guys leave no doubt that their ladies are loved ...couch jumping optional.

MamaPopTalk: Hey Paula Premiere Open Thread Tonight at 10pm!

Come join us over at MamaPopTalk for the absolute trainwreck that the premiere of Hey Paula is certain to be!  If she is even HALF as wasted as on American Idol, this is going to be hilarious! 10 EST on Bravo! BE THERE, MAH BETCHES!

How the Mainstream Media is Blowing the Benoit Story

The mainstream media and professional wrestling have had a difficult relationship for many years.  Sometimes I wonder if this is because they are alike in so many ways.  Professional wrestling presents itself truthfully as pure entertainment, not sport.  Yet the media will not admit that it is also primarily entertainment, and not real news.  At least much of the time.

So I shouldn't have been surprised or disappointed with the media's mis-handling of the recent Chris Benoit tragedy -- immediately jumping to conclusions about steroid use and "roid rage", mis-representing the facts of his son's health condition (Fragile X), and treating the story with an awkward cross between news-mongering and head-scratching.

MamaPop Recommends: Amalah's Picks For June

Hey you! Be sure to submit your own recommendations over at MamaPopTalk!

Recommended Song or Album:
Has Been by William Shatner. It's always a struggle to find music to play during the day that Noah likes and I like and that is not Raffi. But the minute William Shatner came up in the iPod shuffle I knew we'd found a winner. Noah loves his voice and the talky-speak he does, and I just plain friggin' love this album. This is not your mother's weird William Shatner album. This one was produced by Ben Folds and features duets with Aimee Mann, Lemon Jelly, Henry Rollins and an absolutely awesome cover of "Common People" with Joe Jackson. The results are lovely, touching, hilarious and downright fun.

Photo Fun Thursday: Moobs A-Plenty

You know, in Hollywood no female celeb would EVER get away with looking THIS bad!

More man-booby scariness after the jump

Blade Runner Is 25!

Hey nerds! Can you believe it?  Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's dazzling adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was released on June 25, 1982 and quickly took its place among the best sci-fi films ever made. Scott and Dick's dystopian vision of Los Angeles in 2019, in which replicants are basically manufactured slaves, added to the age-old question, "What makes one human?" The breathtaking score by Vangelis and the amazing performances by Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young all help to make this flick one of my all-time favorites.