Taking Inventory of Pop Culture

Everyone has their all-time top-1o desert island discs. There is no quicker way to start and angry argument with a STAR WARS fan than to dispute their ranking of the quality of the six Star Wars movies.

List making seems naturally linked to pop culture in a way that it is not with higher culture. Does anyone have an all-time top-10 Renaissance frescoes? The populism of listing, and ranking, comes from the chance for everyone to be an expert.

The Onion AV Club has created INVENTORY, a book of lists ranging from "10 Songs Nearly Ruined By Saxophone" to "6 Keanu Reeves Movies Somehow Not Ruined By Keanu Reeves." Entertainment Editor from The AV Club Tasha Robinson talks about the process of list-making and sifting through pop culture.

LISTEN: TASHA ROBINSON - THE ONION AV CLUB

Woodstock Three Ways

The Woodstock music festival defines a generation for some. But as the cultural touchstone is marked by a 40-year anniversary, participants, next-generation observers and historians can come up with various different views about the "three days of peace, love and music." Upon reflection, many cite the highly influential movie (partially filmed by a then-unknown Martin Scorsese) as making the true lasting impact on the culture. Others see Woodstock as the capping event on the transition from good times to bad.

Here are three different views of Woodstock from men who have strong ties to the sixties.

Woodstock literally did change Elliot Tiber's life. His memoir TAKING WOODSTOCK, which recounts his role in helping get the festival off the ground, is the basis for the film of the same name directed by Ang Lee. Tiber serves as the main character in the film (and, naturally, in his own memoir), which stars Demetri Martin.

LISTEN: ELLIOT TIBER, TAKING WOODSTOCK


Rolling Stone magazine writer Mikal Gilmore takes a cultural and sociological view of the festival. Gilmore has written extensively about the sixties and where politics and music meet.

LISTEN: MIKAL GILMORE, REFLECTIONS OF WOODSTOCK


Author of THE ROCK AND ROLL BOOK OF THE DEAD, David Comfort, notes that bad trips were also a part of the festival. Comfort cites an ungrounded stage, weather and traffic problems and stars on the edge of total implosion as reflections of some of the darker side of Woodstock. Notably, Comfort notes that Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix would each live only about a year past the festival.

LISTEN: DAVID COMFORT, ON THE DARK SIDE OF WOODSTOCK

Photographer Autumn DeWilde on Elliot Smith

Photographer Autumn DeWilde is the photographer behind many album covers, liner notes and other pictures of musicians such as The White Stripes and Jenny Lewis. She worked prominently with singer Elliot Smith and has published a book collecting photographs and memories of her late friend. Smith, who had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. His 2003 death was ruled a suicide.


LISTEN: AUTUMN DeWILDE