HAPPY NEW YEAR!

....ten days late.

See, here's what happened. I lost last week trying to sort out my mother's new Medicare drug plan. There has not been a government program initiated with this level of preparedness and expertise since the Bay of Pigs invasion. Lucky for you, Rant Week is over. Now to catch up with the Culture Populaire:

The latest on DEVO

DEVO has devolved into DEVO 2.0, a group of kids performing vocals for DEVO classics, produced by Mark Mothersbaugh, with videos by Jerry Casale. DEVO themselves play all the instruments. The album and an accompanying DVD, including two brand new DEVO songs, will be released by Walt Disney Records on March 17. Yes, DEVO and Disney--together at last.

In other DEVO trivia, Jerry Casale directed many of those creepy commercials for Burger King. You know, the ones with the Burger King mascot showing up and just staring at people while holding one of those artery-clogging monstrosities that they sell. You can check out Casale's latest side project here.

Lastly in DEVO news, you can read my review of the DEVO action figures over at Mastercollector.com.

Miyazaki Reminder

Way back in November, I told you about Turner Classic Movies running a festival of films by acclaimed Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki. That festival started last week, with Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. It continues Thursday with Naussicca Of The Valley Of The Wind, and Castle In The Sky. You can catch classics by Miyazaki every Thursday night in January. They're showing the English dubbed versions at 8 p.m., followed by the subtitled versions later that evening.

Speaking of Animation

Animated Discussions will return next week. In the meantime, be sure to catch Melanie's and my review of Hoodwinked in the Gazz this Thursday.

And for a brief animated tidbit, there's going to be a new Tom and Jerry short, The KarateGuard directed by the cat and mouse team's legendary co-creator Joe Barbera, debuting on Cartoon Network January 27. At 94 years old, Barbera may not have too many cartoons left in him. This will be a rare chance to witness a new work by one of the last living animators from Hollywood's golden age.

Comic Book Guys...and Girls

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the land of comic books.

Richard Branson is leaping into the four-color fray, starting up Virgin Comics with some help from Deepak Chopra's kid and director John Woo.

Rosario Dawson is stretching her creative abilities by creating and co-writing a new comic book.

Peter Bagge, the cartoonist behind HATE, has given up his gig chronicling the adventures of Bat Boy for the Weekly World News. Newsarama has an interview with his replacement.

Bonzo Reunion!

The surviving members of the legendary Bonzo Dog Band will reunite on January 28 at the Astoria in London. This performance will be recorded for a future DVD release. The show is being billed as a tribute to the late Viv Stanshall, a co-founder of the band who died in 1995 in a house fire (another senseless cigarette-related death). Opening for the Bonzos will be The Rutles, the band that former Bonzo Neil Innes created with Eric Idle to parody a certain group of Liverpudlian mop-tops. This will be their first live performance in decades.

That's enough for today. PopCult plays catch up this week with upcoming posts on Howard Stern and Pirates.