This Month in Pop

Is it just me or is 2011 flying by? As April comes to an end I figured it was only fitting to recap the best of pop culture (that I consumed) from the month. In reality I totally ripped the idea from one of the pop culture blogs I read (they do it every Friday). Either way, this may or may not become a new staple to The Shampoo Effect.

Best TV Show I watched- Parks and Recreation on April 21st. My new favorite television character (and new Twitter avatar) Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman) fights to keep hamburgers on the lunch menu. He goes toe to toe with health and fitness freak boss Chris (played by Rob Lowe) in a cook off. Chris buys all sorts of earthy ingredients and makes an exquisite turkey burger. The judges (co-workers of the Parks and Rec staff) love it. Ron buys ground beef and hamburger buns. That’s it. The judges, and Chris like his burger more and hamburgers get to stay on the lunch menu.

You can watch the whole episode right here and I strongly recommend that you do.


I also enjoyed- The Office (I always love the Dundies and while I didn't love the Michael Scott farewell the goodbye with Pam was well done.), Big Love (a great comedy on CBS on Mondays at 8:30pm ET that stars Jason Biggs (American Pie) and Sarah Chalke (Scrubs)), The O’Reilly Factor, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Friday Night Lights.

I didn’t go for- 30 Rock (It’s normally the funniest show on TV, but I didn’t care for 2 of the 3 episodes that aired this month (the gas leak and plan B), The Real World: Las Vegas

Best movie I saw- Love and Other Drugs- Back in the Fall when it was in theaters one of my friends called it “the best chick flick of all time.” Now I don’t know if I’d go that far, but it's definitely up there. I think the key to getting guys to liking a so-called chick flick is to have a male protagonist (i.e. (500) Days of Summer). That said, Anne Hathaway is half-naked for about half of the movie and her body is a lot nicer than I ever thought it was.

I want to see- Nothing that’s currently in theaters, but I’m sure I’ll see The Hangover Part II shortly after it comes out in late May. It should be noted that I’m already bracing myself for disappointment.

Best thing I heard- I’m currently mildly-obsessed with the Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More (2009). Everyone knows (or should know) about “Little Lion Man” and “The Cave”, but the entire CD is fantastic. Also, if I didn’t look it up a while back I would have thought that this English band was from somewhere in the South (Tennessee, Mississippi, etc.)

Best thing I read- "Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas". It’s the only book I read in its entirety in April and I devoted an entire blog post to it, so obviously I liked it.

I also enjoyed- The article on my new #1 celebrity crush Brittany Snow (she supplanted Zooey Deschanel, who held the title for a longgg time) from the April edition of Maxim, The Rolling Stone articles on Howard Stern (March 31st issue), Rihanna (April 14th issue), Ricky Gervais (April 14th issue), and Bill Maher (April 28th issue).