Five Apps That Will Take Over 2013

If you own a smartphone, the first thing you probably noticed when you made the switch all those years ago is that you’d taken your first steps into a larger world. They are, after all, the pinnacle of communicative advancement and our gateway into a grander, interconnected world.

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Pop Culture Week in Review 4/5-4/12

What I’m enjoying now: AV Club’s fourth series of “AV Undercover” is now underway.

So far, we’ve had ZZ Ward cover Frank Ocean, Yo La Tengo cover the Supremes and Night Beds cover Robyn.  BTW, call your girl friend. It’s probably time you had the talk.  But by far, my favorite was Frontier Ruckus, whom I have never heard of, cover “Semi-Charmed Life” by a little up-and-coming band called Third Eye Blind.  And that’s just a sample of what to come.  They invite bands to play a song on their list of 25.  As the season goes, the list grows smaller, forcing the bands into fun little creative corners.  On this years list?  Billy Ocean.  Backstreet Boys.  New Radicals.  It is enjoyable.  You should partake.
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Awesomesauce- Letters of Note

My brother and I were lamenting the other day that people just don’t write like they used to.  Specifically, we were comparing letters from the battlefield or from across an ocean to the tweets and text messages of today. When the two are juxtaposed, the everyday ramblings of an 18^th century average Joe or Jane seem almost poetic in comparison to 140 characters on a screen.
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Can Amazon Actually Get Any Bigger?

Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, just acquired Goodreads, the social networking site devoted to…wait for it…good reads.   No really, Goodreads is a forum for book lovers (we’re still around, you know.)  The site allows users to read and post book reviews, keep a digital bookshelf of what they’ve read or intend to read, find book clubs around town, etc.

But, what does this acquisition mean for the average book lover?  Read More

Pop Culture Week In Review 3/29 – 4/5

I was going to open this article as I normally do, rife with raucous wordplay, comedic puns and a thematic undertone that riddles its way throughout the article. “Outrageous!” you declare. “I now, as a dedicated reader who exists, feel cheated! Why?!” Well, frankly, because Roger Ebert died. That’s why. Happy? Of course you’re not.

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Walking Dead Game of Thrones and My Television Bloodlust

The season finale of Walking Dead and the season premiere of Game of Thrones made me realize some very disturbing things about myself. [MAJOR SPOILERS ON WALKING DEAD, GAME OF THRONES AND SONS OF ANARCHY]

A Lament for the Living

After watching the season finale of Walking Dead and the premiere of Game of Thrones, I said aloud after both episodes of television, “Well that was disappointing. Hardly anyone died.”

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Awesomsauce- AIM

Ever wished you could just chat with someone via Skype, instead of feeling obligated to video chat?  Sick of FaceTime? Tired of texting your friends?  We’ve got the answer for you!

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Pop Culture Week In Review – April 1, 2013

Time again to review the pop culture news and info that we at PorchDrinking.com love and care most about.

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Awesomesauce- TeeFury

While t-shirt websites like Threadless or Society6  are awesome for their incredible designs, fantastic selection, and amazing tees (seriously, they’re really soft) I find them lacking in a few key areas.

1. Their tee selections just aren’t nerdy enough.
2. I have to wait for a good sale to buy a tee- I can’t bring myself to spend almost 50 bucks on a hoodie or twenty bucks for a tee (OK, unless it’s an Homage tee…Homage tees are my Kryptonite.)

Enter TeeFury, stage right. Read More

Pop Culture Week in Review 3/15-3/22 Jimmy Fallon to Tonight Show?

Enlightened, we hardly knew ye…

…and I’m pretty ok with that.  HBO has declined to renew the Laura Dern series for a third season.  I haven’t watched the second season yet but I really found the first season (which I watched in full) completely insufferable.  I really wanted to like it- Mike White! Luke Wilson! The occasional Jason Mantzoukas! But her stupid hippy dippy voice overs drove me up the wall, across the ceiling and down the other wall to crash land on the floor in a fit of rage.  But anyway its cancelled so it doesn’t matter.

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Pop Culture Week in Review

I’ll be honest with you, this wasn’t the most eventful seven days in cultural history. It started as if it took a spring break vacation with the rest of the college folk, taking with it everything fun and entertaining. Meanwhile, we were left up North, clinging to our blankets and a totally normal, healthy level of rampant jealousy for anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line. Luckily, it didn’t stay that way for long.

Pop Culture Week In Review, brought to you by a jaded, icicle of a man.

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Pope, or Nope?

In an increasingly connected and digitally literate world, some things remain old-school.  Which is part of the reason that ABC, NBC, CNN, the BBC, and seemingly EVERY news outlet ever was obsessed by conclave this week.  Read More

Awesomsauce- BrainPickings.org

Classified as “a human –powered discovery engine for interestingness” BrainPickings.org brings you “the things you didn’t know you were interested in- until you are.”   Maria Popova, a self-titled “interestingness hunter-gather and curious mind-at-large” curates the site full of intelligent and insightful articles.  While the content can be a bit highbrow at times (she is an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow, after all,) the site provides a welcome change to the usual “10 people on Facebook you should Defriend” articles and pictures of cats that you usually find Stumbling around the internet.
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Bad Luck Brian: Over Night Internet Celebrity

The world that we live in today is often referred to as “The Information Era.”  Just 50 years ago the first computers were the size of a house, phones were attached by cords, and mail was written by hand. With technology advancing so rapidly, it’s crazy to think about all the technological breakthroughs I have experienced. I remember being introduced to dial-up internet, to my dad’s sweet car phone that was the size of a brick, and to Gameboy’s that allowed me to take my video games everywhere. Now we have laptops, iPads, iPods, smart phones, and thank god, the internet.  It’s amazing how far technology has come. According to inventor and author, Ray Kurzweil, “A kid in Africa with a smart phone has more access to information than the U.S. president had 15 years ago.” To save you a Google search, that president was Bill Clinton. And if smart phones were around back then, we probably would of found out about Monica Lewinsky a lot sooner.  Read More

Pop Culture Week in Review 3/2-3/8

Hi. I think we all know there’s really only one thing I want to talk about, but for the sake of trying to pretend to care about other people’s interests, let’s get some other things first. Read More

Mayer’s Sheen Wears Off

When she was first hired as Yahoo’s CEO in July of 2012, Marissa Mayer was seen as a role model for modern working women.  She was the first female engineer at Google.  While pregnant, she was hired as CEO at Yahoo and took on the huge task of overhauling and revitalizing the dying tech giant. She reportedly only took a few weeks of maternity leave, and worked through most of it.  She also had more money than most of us would know what to do with, and a pretty darn good looking spouse to boot.  Many women viewed her as the anti-Anne-Marie Slaughter; the rare woman who was able to manage a new baby, a home life, and an amazingly demanding and rewarding  job.  Read More

Pop Culture Week In Review: February 23-March 1

A bunch of stars won Oscars, we lost a Pope, and Justin Bieber is 100% officially a douche. All of that and more happened in the last week of February. Let’s recap!

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Awesomesauce- Flipboard

If you’re like me, you have a bit of social media overload.  Between checking my Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds, AND making sure I’m caught up on my Google Reader, I can’t keep up with everything that’s going on.  That all changed when I discovered Flipboard.  Read More

Oscars Live Blog 2013

We may have broken the internet the last time we tried to live blog an awards show, but this Sunday we’re going to win the internet with our Oscars Live Blog. Join us Sunday at 7pm eastern, 5pm mountain (which is now less than an hour away) for a live blog to end all live blogs.  We’ll bring the snark, we’ll bring the wit, and we’ll have complete coverage of this year’s Academy Awards!  With our new format you’ll be able interact with us in real time.  See you Sunday!

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Oscars Bingo Cards

Scott cornered all the Academy Award classic moments for this set of Oscars Bingo cards. Everything from the weeping, barely discernible “I’d like the thank the Academy…” to Morgan Freeman’s booming voice makes an appearance. Read More