The last couple of weeks have seen the emergence of a couple of endearingly strange pop culture-based video games — there’s been news of a futuristic RPG involving Kanye West and a strangely depressing game based on Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” of all things. But they’re just the latest in a long line of weird and wonderful games based on pop culture. Ever since the 1980s, game developers have been making deals to cash in on the popularity of celebrities by featuring them in games, some successfully, some less so. We’ve scoured the web for the best (or at least the strangest) of these games, so click through to check them out — most are available to play online, and if not, you can download them for free. … Read More
Michael Jackson
The 50 Albums Everyone Needs to Own, 1963-2013
No one buys albums anymore, goes the music industry truism. And yet, for all that the format’s commercial viability may or may not be on the wane, sitting and listening to a great album from start to finish is one of the greatest pleasures that music can bring. Flavorwire recently got to thinking about how one might build a record collection if you really only did buy one record a year. So here’s the result of our thought exercise: 50 albums you really should own, one a year from 1963 until the present… Read More
The Most Bizarre Tie-In Merchandise from ’80s Movie Classics
Your Flavorwire resisted the temptation to wade into the recent controversy over those collectible figures from Quentin Tarantino’s Djanjo Unchained, but we’ll say this much: it’s important to remember that those toys were aimed at adult collectors, while we can recall (or have managed to suppress our memories) of some thoroughly strange movie tie-ins from our youth that were aimed directly at kids. After the jump, stroll back to the ‘80s with us, when any movie was marketable to anyone, no matter how bizarre or inappropriate. … Read More
The Most Beautiful Song Lyric Tattoos We’ve Ever Seen
Song lyrics are clearly a popular choice for tattoos, but the vast majority of lyrical quotes are pretty much plain old script tattoos. We have nothing against this, but it’s interesting to see tattoos where lyrics are combined with an artistic flourish, so we’ve gathered some examples of truly beautiful work that we thought we’d share with… Read More
Idiosyncratic Illustrations of Memorable Musical Collaborations
We’ve written a bit about unexpectedly awesome musical collaborations here on Flavorwire over the years, and as such, we were rather taken by these illustrations of some such collaborations. They’re by artistic duo Pol and Sakiroo Choi, and we spotted them via Thaeger, whose write-up of the pieces may or may not be interesting reading, depending on how good your German is. Anyway, click through and check out some of our favorites — there’s Run-DMC and Aerosmith, Kanye West and Daft Punk, and various others (but not, sadly, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, although maybe some things are better left un-illustrated. … Read More
12 Notable Music Videos Directed by Famous Filmmakers
As we reported last week, Gaspar Noé — the man responsible for the French films Enter the Void and, shudder, Irreversible — has directed the video for the rather excellent new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds single “We No Who U R.” The video is rather restrained by Noé’s standards, but it fits the song beautifully, and it got us thinking about other well-known directors who’ve moonlighted in making music videos. There have been plenty over the years, some triumphant, some rather less so — so here’s a selection for your viewing delectation! Marvel, giggle, shake your head in despair, and then let us know if we missed any. … Read More
The All-Time Weirdest Guest Appearances on ‘The Simpsons’
So if you haven’t heard, Tom Waits was on The Simpsons last night, voicing “a gravelly voiced paranoiac” prepper and joining the long list of illustrious and not-so-illustrious guest stars who’ve graced the show since it started screening way back in 1989. His appearance got us thinking about some of the more unlikely guest stars and/or performances the show has seen over the years — and so we’ve amused ourselves after the jump selecting some of our favorites, from Johnny Cash playing a psychedelic coyote to Thomas Pynchon breaking a 40-year TV silence. Did we miss any of your favorites? Go ahead and let us know. (And advance apologies for the quality of a couple of the clips — Simpsons videos are like hen’s teeth on YouTube.) … Read More
Merry Photos of Pop Culture Icons and Their Christmas Trees
If you need a little inspiration for your holiday conifer, or just like peeking into the homes of the rich and famous (we know we do), we’ve put together a little peek at the Christmas trees of a few of our favorite pop culture icons, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Snooki. Yes, we are equally interested in both of them. Check them out after the jump, and have a bright and shiny… Read More
10 Gloriously Anarchic Music Moments from Live TV
We’re not generally given to bouts of nostalgia here, but when Dangerous Minds unearthed a video yesterday of Philly punk icons The Dead Milkmen making an unlikely appearance on Club MTV, it got us thinking about the days when music TV used to be live and thus all sorts of whacked-out things could happen. Those days are largely gone, sadly, outside of various late-night shows — the general decline of live TV, along with a series of high-profile controversies, means that networks like to have a whole lot more control over what goes to air today. Still, we’ll always have the memories, and in celebration of the ongoing experiment in riding by the seat of one’s pants that music TV used to be, here are ten of our favorite moments in gloriously shambolic televisual anarchy. As ever, let us know if you have any to add. … Read More
Cultural Icons Dressed Up as Other Cultural Icons
Everybody loves to play dress up. Well, at least once in a while. But you know what sets our heads a-whirling? When pop culture icons dress up as other pop culture icons, whether it’s in professional photo shoots, at costume parties or just while hanging out in their own bedrooms. After all, there’s nothing more satisfying than a top-notch mashup. After the jump, we’ve collected twelve of our favorite cultural figures masquerading as twelve of what we can only assume are their favorite cultural figures, so click through to join the fun, and be sure to link us to any we’ve missed in the comment. … Read More
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