Culture Archives - Page 10 of 30 - Postcards from The Pug Bus

Postcards from The Pug Bus

Lifting a satirical leg on popular culture

Persons in the Ether

Question of the Week

Passion or stability?

Mavis Drouk, emotional escrow officer

Believed to be near Harrisburg, PA

Stability. Passion is what people choose when they still believe a staircase can be made entirely of sparks. Stability may not sing outside your window, but it does remember where the insurance cards are.

Rufus Clenn, freelance thunder consultant

Last reported west of Tulsa, OK

Passion, obviously. Stability is just boredom wearing shoes with arch support. I want life to arrive late, smell faintly of lightning, and explain nothing until several lamps have been broken.

Nora Vell, deputy curator of small regrets

Possibly sheltering in Eugene, OR

Passion is useful for beginnings, stability for the paperwork afterward. I prefer both in moderation, which is another way of saying I would like to be ruined briefly and then driven home safely.

Roger Daltrey of The Who in performance, hitting himself in the head with a swinging microphone, his pot belly visible beneath a tight navy t-shirt—capturing the tragic comedy of aging rock stardom.

"Ouch! Mother-fucker.

Culture

The Who Threatened with Deportation by President Trump

As told to The Pug Bus cultural commentary, trump 8 months

Look, I’ve always been a huuuuuge fan of rock and roll. Big fan of The Who. Tremendous music. But what’s happening with them–The Two, really–is… Read More

Morgan Wallen performing live on stage in a trucker hat, stadium crowd cheering, symbolizing his post-scandal comeback.

Morgan Wallen went from “canceled” to packing stadiums faster than you can say “hold my beer.”

Culture

Morgan Wallen vs. Cancel Culture: Who Really Got Canceled?

philmaggitti cultural commentary, Morgan Wallen 8 months

One blurry TMZ video, one slurred word, one cancel culture tantrum–and Morgan Wallen became the biggest name in country music–if not all music. Before that,… Read More

A transgender woman with a thought balloon that reads "Born that way."

"My name used to be Robert."

Culture

How Newsrooms Preach the Transgender Gospel

philmaggitti cultural commentary 8 months

(The tail is wagging the transgender dog, much to no one’s surprise.) The Numbers Behind the Transgender Noise According to the Williams Institute at UCLA,… Read More

Solitaire card, the ace of spades, standing atop a globe.

"You talkin' to me?"

Culture

Solitaire: America’s Most Trusted Therapist

philmaggitti cultural commentary 8 months

In the age of algorithmic surveillance and artisanal loneliness, one game has emerged as the silent savior of the modern psyche: Solitaire. Not the metaphorical… Read More

Snoop Dogg and his grandson sitting in a movie theater watching Lightyear, a movie with an LGBTQ undertone.

"I didn't come here to see this merde."

Culture

Snoop Dogg’s Crusade to Clean Up Confusing Movie Moments

philmaggitti cultural commentary 8 months

Snoop Dogg and his grandson hit the movies expecting a mellow afternoon – just popcorn, Pixar, and intergalactic adventure courtesy of Lightyear. Instead, somewhere between… Read More

Joe Biden, Mick Jagger, and James Carville singing in a karoake bar.

"I can't get no satisfaction."

Culture

Outliving Aging Public Figures Like Biden, Jagger, and Carville

philmaggitti cultural commentary 8 months

At 82.5 years of age, I realize that one fine day the road will rise up to meet me only because I have face planted… Read More

Cartoon of Mike Love's latest album--Unleash the Love

"All you need isn't Love."

Culture

Mike Love: The Man, The Myth, The Me-Me-Me

philmaggitti cultural commentary, trump 8 months

Welcome to the latest Mike Love advertisements for himself, where the Beach Boys’ front man continues his tireless mission to transform narcissism into a religion.… Read More

Influencer: The New Deadliest Profession visual depicts an influencer lying on the ground with a knife in her back

"Maybe I should have gone to college."

Culture

Influencer: The New Deadliest Profession

philmaggitti cultural commentary 8 months

Once upon a much simpler time, the Deadliest Profession in America was something like crab fisherman, logger, junior-high school teacher, or Alaskan ice-road trucker–menacing gigs… Read More

The Pug Bus Breaking News

The Pug Bus Breaking News requires no email address, no mother's maiden name, no first pet's nickname, and no DNA sample. You simply mash the link below and read.

Deliver It

⚡ Scholars at the Royal Institute for the Advancement of Obvious Things have concluded, after eleven years of exhaustive inquiry, that people who speak at great length in meetings do not thereby become more correct. The findings have been submitted to a committee for review.

⚡ It has been determined by authorities in several jurisdictions that the phrase "I just want to be honest with you" reliably precedes the portion of the conversation one would most prefer not to have. Legislation is pending.

⚡ The Bureau of Perpetual Reassessment has announced that this is not, in fact, the most divided the nation has ever been, a distinction that continues to belong to a prior era when the disagreements concerned rather more consequential matters and people occasionally died over them.

Adverse Effects

The following lines of prose cleverly arranged as poetry may induce brief clarity, misplaced certainty, and the sense that something has already been decided without your approval ...

By seventy you know which doors you walked past without opening,
can name the rooms you never entered,
hear the echoes anyway.

Read It All

By seventy you know which doors you walked past without opening,
can name the rooms you never entered,
hear the echoes anyway.

The years do not accuse.
They simply pile up like newspapers you meant to read,
each one carrying news that is no longer news.

You think: I should have said that differently.
I should have stayed. I should have gone.
The mind is efficient this way,
filing the same cases under the same wrong headings,
finding them again at 3 a.m. in perfect order.

What surprises is not the weight of it
but the patience —
how regret waits,
how it has nowhere else to be,
how it sits across from you at breakfast
and asks for nothing,
knowing you will offer it everything
on your own.

The body slows.
The catalog does not.
You carry the unlived lives
the way old houses carry
the smell of people who are gone —
not haunting exactly,
just present,
just there,
just refusing
the simple courtesy
of leaving.