Santa Claus: The Evolution of a Childhood Legend

St Nicholas of Myra

Ah, it’s that time of year again; the time to take the kids to the overly crowded, local shopping mall to sit them on the lap of a certain jolly, red-suited, old man. Upon doing so, they’ll either burst into terrified screams or happily confess their heart’s desire in hopes of finding it under the Christmas tree on the morning of December 25th. Despite this being a long time tradition worldwide, the question remains for many: who is this mysterious man, and how did he come to be the magical childhood legend he is today?

Judgement Day (Special Edition): Atlantic Film Festival 2012 pt. 1

While I have yet to post much about my love of film on the blog since starting it last November, I have always wanted PopMessiah.com to be about popular culture at large and not just popular music. In realizing a goal I have had over the last few years (but have yet to actually achieve), I present the first of many posts to come this week reviewing the films I’ll be catching at the 32nd annual Atlantic Film Festival here in Halifax, Nova Scotia (running September 13th to 20th)!

In my first night at the festival, I set out to take in three screenings, but since I’m an old man now it seems I’m not cut out for the late nights like I used to be, so I ended up skipping the midnight screening of Jennifer Lynch’s “Chained.” Along with a written review of each screening I did take in, the Pop Gods will also decide if each film should be allowed passage into Pop Heaven, banished to Pop Hell or forgotten about in the uncertainty of Pop Limbo (arguably the worst fate of all…)

Judgement Day: Pop Heaven or Hell? Victoria Duffield – Shut Up and Dance

After releasing three very solid singles and making Canadian pop music lovers wait for what seems like an eternity, British Columbia’s own Victoria Duffield released her new album/EP: “Shut Up and Dance” with Warner Music Canada on August 21st, 2012!

While I would honestly hesitate to call any release that boasts only 8 tracks an “album,” as an EP, “Shut Up and Dance” displays a lot of potential from the 17 year old pop starlet and Duffield displays the dancing prowess and delightfully listenable vocals of Britney Spears circa 1999 (as in “Baby One More Time.“) Much like Spears’ debut, “Shut Up…” has hits and misses, but one can’t reasonably expect someone to have their sound perfected at the tender age of 17, even if presently her sound can be defined as distinctly POP – as in bubblegum. Before you make a flash judgement about my intentions in using this description, I would like to add that as far as the Pop Gods are concerned, there is absolutely nothing wrong with bubblegum!

Pop Messiah’s Summer Hymns (2012 Edition)

A few weeks back I started making a playlist of all of my favorite tracks this summer. Most of them are recent releases, but a few are older tracks that never got the opportunity to truly be summer smash hits. I thought it would be fun to share them all with you. In the spirit of keeping things legal, I found a cool site called 8Track, which reports all plays to the RIAA to ensure that artists are collecting royalties, and though it’s not downloadable – you will be able to listen to the tracks whenever you like and there are purchase links embedded in case you decide you love any of our picks so much you just HAVE to have it for yourself!!

Judgement Day: Pop Heaven or Hell? – Jennifer Hudson, Ne-Yo & Rick Ross – Think Like A Man

Jennifer Hudson’s vocal prowess has never been a point of contention; I’d say none of us would disagree about that.

What I think has prevented Jennifer’s musical career from skyrocketing the way her academy award winning role on “Dreamgirls” did, is that none of her solo music or videos has ever consistently lived up to her iconic performance in that film and in it’s pop-broadway soundtrack.