Let me introduce to you Allison Lea LaRocca. She works with me and I’ve invited her to be a guest-poster on this here shindig I call mah blog. Yeah, I’m not sure why I slipped into a hick accent either. Awesome. She likes long walks on the beach, making fun of sorority girls, and being snarky. Watch out, she bites. Okay, I have no idea if she bites. But whatever. I accidently slapped her once and she doesn’t hate me, so she’s A-Okay in my book.

So without further ado, take it away Allison:

This is my Plog (pop culture blog).

I love pop culture. It’s one of my favorite things to talk about because everyone is exposed to it. Well, not everyone. When I first met Heather, I was astonished at the utter lack of pop culture knowledge of this woman. So, I took it as my duty to enlighten her to all things pop.

Pop culture has been around for a while, so I had to find a manageable amount of culture to work with. I decided to start with the 1930s and make my way incrementally by decade to the modern era. I chose the 30s as a start because it was when we were exposed to Hollywood and mass media for the first time on a global scale.

The 30s were playful: they gave us Betty Boop, Popeye, Walt Disney, Superman, the Phantom, Looney Tunes, and The Wizard of Oz. The 30s were glamorous: they gave us Bette Davis, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Fred Astaire, Jack Benny, Jean Harlow, Judy Garland….and the list goes on and on and on.

Thankfully, Miss Heather knew about Popeye and Mickey - I probably would have died if she hadn’t - but she was seriously lacking in the other areas. And actually is still lacking in the film realm (remind me to make you watch Bringing Up Baby and It Happened One Night). So I made her listen to Jazz. Specifically Billie Holiday. I also gave her Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. There were others, but these are the most important.

These guys were amazing artists. They helped shaped American music by testing the boundaries of tone, rhythm, and harmony. Their stuff is constantly inspiring the music around us today and hopefully everyone out there has at least heard of these guys. If you haven’t, Go. Now. Listen. You will not be disappointed.

Songs to look out for: “Willow Weep for Me,” “All of Me,” “You Go To My Head,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Take the A Train,” “West End Blues,” “Ain’t Misbehhavin’”

You don’t have to love it, or even like it. You just can’t not know about it.

(…Consider your mind blown.)