Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Geppi's: a Glorious Endeavor


On Sunday afternoon Justine and I went to Geppi’s Entertainment Museum in Baltimore next to Camden Yards. I walked into the museum and was immediately amazed by what I was seeing. I was surrounded by the images of my youth, objects of my envy. I immediately knew that this would be a great museum for me to enjoy, and I found myself to be right about that. I thought that the museum was a fantastic place. They had all of this memorabilia, all which looked quite rare and worth quite a bit, all on display for my viewing pleasure. I loved it. Seeing all of these collector’s items was a real treat for me. I really liked everything in the museum. I especially enjoyed seeing the comic book room, filled with an incredible amount of old comics of varying types. I could swear that I was wide-eyed the whole time I was in the room admiring the great collection before me. I do not remember a single thing I did dislike about the museum except for me not being able to go upstairs to see more awesome images. Within the museum, I did encounter an object which had great meaning to me, and that was the atari system enshrined within one of the displays. They had some of the worst and best games for the system right around it, but that is besides the point. I have spent many hours playing different games on just such a system, which I still have somewhere around my house(in a box in my closet). The atari represented one of the great starts to my culture, the culture of gaming.

At some points in the museum, I encountered some things that I do actually have or had at some point. One of those examples is the atari obviously. I am sure there were more, but I cannot remember what they were anymore. I also happened to encounter some items which seemed quite risqué. I believe just about all of the images which I saw of near half naked women, of which I remember quite a few but cannot remember exactly what they were, were controversial when they came out. However, within the museum, they definitely stood out as objects of interest that I will investigate more closely on my next visit. Sadly, both Justine and I had papers to write on the Sunday we went, so we could not get an in-depth look at the whole museum. We spent a scant two hours or so in the museum, and we could have really spent the whole day in there and gotten so much more out of it. We left, but I know that I will definitely go back on a day that is better for me. It was a fantastic tomb of popular culture over the 20th century that I simply must take a closer look at.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008


Ok, so I have a topic which I must deliberate on this semester. This topic is the Japanese animation show Naruto(that rhymed). It is a very popular series which of course originated in Japan, derived from the manga series of the same name. It has become one of the most popular anime series to date and has brought around great enthusiasm for ninjas in people.

In the series, the titular character Naruto is a trickster who wants to become a powerful full-fledged ninja, but no one quite believes in his abilities. He then discovers that he has the powerful nine tailed demon fox sealed inside of him, who brings great strength to Naruto. After getting his ninja headband, Naruto sets off to try and become the greatest ninja around.

That, in a small nutshell, is the premise for Naruto.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The First Post. Dramatic!



So hey, I'm Chris. I know that I am absolutely surrounded by culture. I know I have my laptop with the Heroes graphic novel open, I am watching the Simpsons, and am about to play a video game. All parts of culture. I am interested in pop culture because I, as most people do, participate in popular culture. I mostly play video games and follow the culture surrounding that. I anticipate enjoying expanding my knowledge of the culture and what goes into it.