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R.I.P

Remembering Judy Tenuta

Remembering Judy Tenuta

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Over the course of my time writing for Pop Geeks, I’ve interviewed many talents who have ended up becoming friends of mine. I’ve saved their numbers to my contacts, and I always reach out a few times a year to say hello to them. It always hurts to lose one of them and, sadly, I now bid farewell to one of those friends, the Love Goddess, better known to all of us pigs as Judy Tenuta. It’s difficult to recount how I first heard of Ms. Tenuta, but if I had to hazard a guess, it would probably be through “Weird” Al Yankovic’s work as the two of them were regular collaborators. Before I even knew Judy’s name, I could recall seeing her playing Lorena Bobbitt in the video for Yankovic’s song Headline News. Al had some funny lines about that story, and Judy, though her appearance was brief, embodied the comedy perfectly. Many years later, I would see Judy Tenuta’s performance on the 1987 HBO comedy special Women Of

Remembering Eddie Van Halen

Remembering Eddie Van Halen

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I was saddened to hear of the death of Eddie Van Halen on October 6th, 2020. Van Halen’s passing shook me because his work was a big influence on what my pop-cultural tastes would become. To honor Eddie’s memory, I would now like to talk about some of my favorite pieces of music involving his talents. Whether as a songwriter or a musician, Eddie Van Halen’s work will live on. My first exposure to Eddie Van Halen’s work came when I saw the movie Spaceballs. The song “Good Enough”, which opened the first Sammy Hagar-era album, 5150, was heard in the diner scene near the end of the movie. I think the song captured the mood of what many diners are like. Whether it’s the food or the atmosphere, it may not necessarily be the best, but it is “good enough”. The next time I heard Van Halen’s work came when I saw the video for “Right Now” on VH1 in the mid-90s. Coming from the album For Unlawful Carnal

Remembering James Ingram

Remembering James Ingram

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On January 29th, 2019, James Ingram, one of my favorite singers, passed away from brain cancer. I’m a little late in paying tribute to him, but I wanted to do so because his work, as with so many musicians who were active in the 1980s, helped get me through some of the darkest times of my life. I’ve decided to choose five songs that James Ingram performed. Some of them were solos and others were duets or collaborations, but all in all, these songs inspired me and my writing. The first song I would like to mention is “Just Once”, one of his collaborations with Quincy Jones on Jones’ album The Dude. Famous for its’ usage in The Last American Virgin, the song is one of the most emotionally charged ballads of the 80s. We’ve all had relationships, whether romantic or platonic, that have gone off the rails and ended badly, and we’ve hoped against hope that we could redeem ourselves and make peace. Those are the emotions I get

10 Talents I Never Got The Chance To Interview

10 Talents I Never Got The Chance To Interview

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As we enter the final weeks of 2018, I find myself reflecting on the milestones I hit in 2018 with Pop Geeks. I reached my 100th article for the site with my Pleasant Gehman interview, which was also the 100th unique interview I’ve done. I also made a dream come true this year by interviewing Sherri Stoner, my biggest influence as a writer. Coming up soon will be interviews with Loretta Swit and Aki Aleong. As I hit these milestones, though, I thought of the talents I never had the chance to interview. There’s so many, but these 10 Talents I Never Got The Chance To Interview really stood out for me. Why did I never have the chance to interview these 10 talents? There’s a variety of reasons. In at least three cases, it’s because they died years before I started doing interviews. In another case, I had their contact info, but had a lot on my plate and couldn’t reach out until it was too late. In still

Remembering Dorothy Malone (Since The Oscars Didn’t)

Remembering Dorothy Malone (Since The Oscars Didn’t)

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Every year, I take a day off from my paying job to watch the Academy Awards. As an inveterate film buff, I love watching the show every year, even if I haven’t seen most of the nominees. It’s always entertaining to see stars of the past and present unite to celebrate film, a medium we all love. There are always some disappointments every year, though. For some, it’s over who won and lost. For me, it comes with the In Memoriam, and this year saw a surprise omission that literally made me drop my jaw. That omission from the In Memoriam was Dorothy Malone, who actually won Best Supporting Actress for the 1956 Douglas Sirk drama Written On The Wind. Dorothy Malone won her Oscar for playing Marylee Hadley, the partying-crazed daughter of a wealthy Texas oil family who ends up running the family company after tragic family events befall her sibling and their respective love interests. The scenes where Marylee does the mambo stand out as representing how carefree,

Remembering Tom Petty, A Great Singer

Remembering Tom Petty, A Great Singer

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On Monday, October 2nd, 2017, it was officially announced that singer Tom Petty has passed away. When his passing was officially announced, I felt the same way I did about Prince’s passing. Tom Petty was another artist that got me through some of the roughest times of my life. There was something fascinating about his music that inspired my 80s fandom ever higher. I would like to recall several of his songs, and their impact on my life and writing. My first introduction to Petty’s music actually came through “Weird” Al Yankovic. I heard his song “Stop Draggin’ My Car Around” in the early 90s, and I laughed, but I didn’t know that the song was a spoof. My mom was reluctant to let me watch MTV, but she didn’t have any problems with VH1. Because of that, on one of their 80s music programs, I saw the music video for “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” by Stevie Nicks, who dueted on the song with Petty. The song had a

Mourning Star: The Impact Of Celebrity Deaths

Mourning Star: The Impact Of Celebrity Deaths

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It was announced on December 27th, 2016 that Carrie Fisher had passed away. Whether they loved her work in the Star Wars movies or her talents as a writer, many have mourned and will continue to mourn her passing. Many have celebrated her memory, including our very own Peter Paltridge, who penned a lovely tribute. Although Carrie and so many other talents have passed away, there are many who hold the opinion that since we’ve never met these celebrities, and were not related to them or friends with them, that’s it’s foolish to mourn their passing. The general idea that these people hold is that we should only mourn the people we know in person. I don’t know if that’s always something that it would be preferable to do. If you had an abusive home life, trouble at school or pain at work, and you turned to pop culture as a form of escape, you would probably be mourning the passing of the talents who helped you escape your problems

Remembering Rod Temperton: A Great Songwriter

Remembering Rod Temperton: A Great Songwriter

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I woke up this morning to some rather disheartening news. It was announced that Rod Temperton, a British songwriter, had passed away after a short battle with cancer. Who was Rod Temperton, I can hear some of you asking? To simply dub him a songwriter isn’t enough. He’s a man who made you dance ecstatically, even if you didn’t know his name. He’s a man who wrote music you might’ve been conceived to in the 1970s, even if others did the vocals. He’s one of the best examples of blue-eyed soul, and this is my tribute to this legendary talent. I first heard Rod Temperton’s music when I was a young child. I was a fan of Michael Jackson’s music as a kid, but I didn’t know until years later that he didn’t write a lot of his biggest hits. There was one song of Jackson’s that I absolutely loved. You all know it as well. It’s “Thriller”. When I was a child on vacation in Upstate New York, that

Long Live Prince: Remembering A Musical Icon

Long Live Prince: Remembering A Musical Icon

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Thursday, April 21st, was a day that shocked music lovers around the world. On that day, Prince, the Grammy-and-Oscar-winning singer and composer, was found dead at his Paisley Park estate. Tributes immediately started pouring in from all over the globe, and Facebook became loaded with memories of his music, his concerts and interactions with him. I worked this past weekend at my retail job, but all throughout the weekend, I thought about Prince’s passing. I was humming his songs while ringing up customers and cleaning around the register, and I remarked on his passing to several of the customers, all of whom had memories of his music as well. My own history with Prince’s music goes all the way back to the 1980s, as it did for many other people. When I was a small child, I loved watching the 80s version of Alvin And The Chipmunks, a show that introduced me to a lot of great 80s music before I even knew who the artists were. In one episode,

Out Of The In Memoriam: Oscars 2016 Edition

Out Of The In Memoriam: Oscars 2016 Edition

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It’s been a little over two weeks since the 88th Academy Awards bought the film season of 2015 to a close. Although we’re now well into the 2016 film season, I didn’t want to move past the most recent Oscars without mention of a disturbing thing I noticed on the show this year. Long time readers of mine will recall that, about a year or two ago, I did an article called “Out Of The In Memoriam”, where I mentioned 10 former Oscar winners who were not included in the Oscars’ In Memoriam segment when they passed. Their passings were spread throughout multiple ceremonies, but this year, there were a whopping seven Oscar winners who died within the year, and who were excluded from the ceremony despite winning Oscars. I would like to give them a final salute before I think ahead to the 2017 Oscars. In order of their passing, we begin with cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, who won the Best Cinematography Oscar in 2002 for The Lord Of The

Remembering Joe Alaskey

Remembering Joe Alaskey

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On February 4th, 2016, I saw the news posted on Tom Ruegger’s Facebook page. The news was that Joe Alaskey, who worked so memorably with Mr. Ruegger and crew on Tiny Toon Adventures, had died at the age of 63. I told my brother, who also liked Tiny Toon Adventures, about his passing, and my brother wondered if it was cancer that claimed him. I said I hope not, but I was to be distressed when I read that, indeed, it was cancer that claimed Alaskey’s life. I was angered, and I was saddened, and I’ll explain why in this memorial piece. I first came to know of Mr. Alaskey’s voice-work in 1988 when I saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Classic voice-over talents like Mel Blanc and Mae Questel were involved in the movie, but in the case of Mr. Blanc, he was growing older and dealing with health issues, and it was difficult for him to voice some of his characters. In the case of Yosemite Sam, Mr. Alaskey

Remembering Composer James Horner

Remembering Composer James Horner

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On Monday, June 22nd, the world of film music suffered a devastating loss when James Horner, winner of two Oscars for his musical contributions to Titanic, died in a plane crash. Mr. Horner’s death sent shockwaves through the film community. He scored three movies awaiting release and was on-board to do the scores for the Avatar sequels. I’ve been a fan of Mr. Horner’s work for years now, and so I would like to take a look back at some of the scores he wrote that either had an impact on me or I just enjoyed for what they were…Wonderful music. I first heard Mr. Horner’s music in the 1995 movie Casper. About a month-and-a-half before the movie’s release, I lost my father to a heart attack. I was only 12 years old. Just a few days before he died, we had returned from a trip to Florida, and it seemed like things were going to continue getting better. Losing my father at such a young age devastated me. When a

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