All these decades later, The Beatles are still the measuring stick. When you want to say some new musician is a big deal, do you say, “They’re bigger than the Rolling Stones?” Or, “They’re bigger than the Beach Boys.” No. You say, “They’re bigger than The Beatles!” And when we talk about longstanding music sales […]
Hollywood measures success in two ways: One, the amount of money it rakes in; and two, the number of Oscars its movies take home. And while 2018’s biggest financial winners have long been in the books (hint: pretty much everything that has a Stan Lee cameo in it would qualify), we’re a step closer to […]
Move over Kylie Jenner. You’ve been egged. On Instagram. No, the social media star isn’t wearing slimy yellow protein on her face. Instead, an image of a lovely brown egg has become Instagram’s most-liked image ever. As of this writing, it has secured a whopping 46,113,472 likes (and counting) since being posted on January 4. […]
It’s that time of year. The time when some of us build our weekend schedules around football games, both college and pro. Bowl games. Championships. Wild Card showdowns and Divisional Rounds. And soon … the Super Bowl. For some of us, we can’t remember a time when we didn’t know what a fist down was, […]
Happy New Year? Let’s be honest: Some people may be walking into 2019 with a sense of fear and trepidation. Some say that the greatest trigger for fear is uncertainty, and we’ve got 360-some days of uncertainty ahead of us. Why, when some people turn over the calendar year, they may have to stifle the […]
The new year is nearly upon us. Forget running from it, forget hiding. Like a tiger, it’ll soon bound from the weeds and pounce on us all. Yes, the new year is a time for change. Take, for instance, Macaulay Culkin, who didn’t even wait for the Times Square ball to drop to announce a […]
‘Tis the season to hand out gifts. But in our harried culture, not everyone has time to write letters to Santa Claus these days. And since Kris Kringle doesn’t have a Twitter account (or does he?), we at Plugged In thought we’d ask for a few presents for some culture’s movers and shakers. So Santa—can […]
Hardly a week goes by these days without something somewhere in popular culture offending someone, it seems. Several more such stories made the rounds on the internet the last few days. And this week’s list includes a couple of surprising new “offenders.” Starting with VeggieTales. Yeah, that’s right, Bob, Larry and the gang have apparently […]
If you’ve ever wondered exactly what teens tend to post on social media, well, wonder no more! Pew Research just published an in-depth look at “Teens’ Social Media Habits and Experiences.” And the data mavens at statista.com have broken down those results into this infographic: You will find more infographics at Statista. In addition to […]
Nostalgia is big business. If it’s been a hit in the last century, whether on the big screen or small, someone in Hollywood is figuring out a way to reboot, repackage or relaunch it. That’s because familiar entertainment properties from the past pack built-in marketing muscle, full of yesteryear’s fond memories. Disney, of course, has […]
The world will have a few more trees in the future … but fewer magazines. Back in the most ancient of days, when the internet still had its new-tech smell, many predicted that print was on its way out. And while that hasn’t been true across the board (books are doing just fine, thanks much), […]
Many celebrities these days adopt political views that tend to align with liberal positions and politicians. But what about those who don’t? What price might a conservative actor, actress or entertainer pay for voicing a right-leaning opinion? The Hollywood Reporter notes that conservative celebrities are “skittish” about being politically vocal in our “toxic” times. “There […]
Halloween is a big deal in the United States. The average American will spend $185.50 for the hallo-day, including $76 on candy. But we’ve got another major day to commemorate this week as well (without so many bite-size candy bars, presumably): On Nov. 1, the MPAA ratings system will turn 50. And to mark the […]
As we fill big bowls with candy in preparation for next week’s onslaught of little ghosts and goblins, then eat all the candy and fill the bowls again, we know that we live in a time of fearsome frights. And I’m not just talking about Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, which is apparently keeping […]
For most of us, being genuinely frightened is probably something we try to avoid in the real world. But when it comes to entertainment, the opposite is often true. Many people love being scared. Especially this time of year, the time when horror movies rule the multiplexes and haunted houses pop up in seemingly every […]
Good media discernment is about guarding our eyes and hearts before we watch or listen. And it's also about grappling with the entertainment we do see or hear. That's why the Plugged In Blog is devoted to guarding, discussing and grappling.