POP-A-LOOZA: Cereal Infidelity

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives.The latest shared post is my love letter to cold cereal, "Cereal Infidelity."

I do love cereal. I don't have anything cereal-related to add to what I already wrote, so this seems like a good time to publicly express my appreciation to Dan Pavelich for inviting me to participate in Pop-A-Looza. I've been corresponding with Dan for years, initially in connection with playing his band The Bradburys on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. We've been virtual pals ever since. Dan's various-artists holiday compilations (the Hi-Fi Christmas Party series and Christmas Without Cancer) remain reliable resources for the annual TIRnRR Christmas shows. His most recent work with The Click Beetles is likewise a fave rave, and we heartily recommend The Click Beetles' 2020 release Pop Fossil.  I also follow Dan's comic strip Just Say Uncle, and I invite you to join me in supporting Dan's efforts on Patreon. And stay tuned to Pop-A-Looza; I am but one of several contributors to the site, and I betcha you'll find something else there that you will dig the utmost. I'm proud to be a part of it. Thanks for havin' me there, Dan!

Hey, all this gratitude has made me hungry. Time for cereal! And time for "Cereal Infidelity," the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.



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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download

Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

POP-A-LOOZA: Brand Name Me

Each week the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a Red-Eyed And Ravenous piece about my favorite brands of foods and other marketed products: Brand Name Me.

The title "Red-Eyed And Ravenous" dates back to the '80s (and maybe even earlier), a whim of an idea to write a recurring column about junk food and late-night munchies. Each installment would have included the essential disclaimer "Red-Eyed And Ravenous does not endorse or condone the use of alcohol or other mood-altering substances; we just suggest what to serve with them." 

Yeah. Other than the "Brand Name Me" piece in 2019, I never got around to writing a single one of them. But the idea, man! The idea!

The idea's not done yet, either. With a daily blog to fill, I would not be surprised if Red-Eyed And Ravenous were to eventually return to Boppin'. I could write about Mighty Taco, McDonald's, pizza, Asian buffets, Italian, pastrami sandwiches, chicken wings, White Castle, Krispy Kreme, Cel-Ray, Coffee Crisp, fried chicken, and, I dunno, Buffalo or something. I like food. I like writing. Maybe I oughtta combine those interests every once in a while.

But for today, we revisit the only Red-Eyed And Ravenous completed to date. "Brand Name Me" is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.


TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download

Volume 4: CD or download

Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

RED-EYED & RAVENOUS: Brand Name Me

I have developed a few specific brand-name loyalties over the years. To the diminished extent that I still drink soda, I drink Coca-Cola, not Pepsi. I buy Ford cars; I haven't owned any other type of car since 2006. I wear Wrangler jeans. I can be promiscuous in my at-large consumption of potato chips, but when I'm getting a bag of chips to eat at home, it's gonna be a bag of Lays Potato Chips. No one can eat just one, and I don't consider purchasing any other brand.




My most steadfast daily exercise in brand loyalty is my coffee: Chock Full O' Nuts. That Heavenly coffee. Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy. This was just the result of a choice I made many years back to pick a brand of coffee and stick with it. Decades ago, Billy Miller and Miriam Linna wrote in Kicks magazine of their affection for (or addiction to) Chock Full O' Nuts, and I figured that was as good a recommendation as any. Great choice. I favor the dark, bold taste of its New York Roast, and I enjoy a 20-ounce mug of it each and every morning. I'm not kidding when I say there are some nights when I go to bed looking forward to my cup of Chock Full O' Nuts as a reward for getting up to face the day. I'm not a coffee snob at all. When I'm out 'n' about and in the mood for a cup, I readily go to war with the coffee a diner has, not the coffee I wish it had. I'm also quite fond of Paul DeLima coffee. I think the coffee at Starbucks tastes like it was made with hair. 




Most mornings, especially work mornings, I have a bagel for breakfast. The fact that I'm fine with store-bought, pre-packaged bagels from Thomas' or Wegmans destroys any hope I could ever have of achieving bagel hipster status. I slather the bagel with peanut butter, and in that regard, I'm a choosy mutha: I choose Jif. I never buy any other kind. 

(My favorite bagel overall would, of course, be a real bagel, preferably an everything bagel. I want it with lox, cream cheese, and capers. But there is no element of brand loyalty in play here.)

As a proud Central New Yorker, my chosen brand of hot dog is Hofmann, period. Hofmann is the brand served at the locally-iconic Liverpool, NY hot dog stand Heids, and there just ain't no substitute for Hoffmann. I recall a period years back when Heids stopped using Hofmann hot dogs, and I saw a customer buy a birch beer from a Heid's stand at Great Northern Mall, then move over to a competing stand to buy a Hofmann hot dog. Ouch! Heids and Hofmann have since reunited, and it feels so good. Taste tells.



Those are my primary examples of brand loyalty. I think Kasteel Winter Ale is the best beer I've ever had, but it's not to be had, so I settle for others (usually Blue Moon) while occasionally experimenting with random choices, preferably of Belgian derivation. I tend to buy Progresso soups, but I'm not opposed to Campbell's. When treating myself to a chocolate milk--a smile in a glass!--I use either Bosco or the more readily-available Nesquik rather than Hershey's syrup. And, as noted in our opening paragraph above, if I'm buying cola, it's Coca-Cola, ideally the Mexican variety made with real sugar. It's the real thing!



Although I have my loyalties and preferences, I'm really not all that picky, honest. We all have our likes and dislikes, but I try not to be militant about mine. Hell, sometimes when I'm at a restaurant and in the mood for a cola, I'll even order a Pepsi if the joint doesn't have the good sense to offer Coca-Cola.

I'll drink it under protest, mind you, but I'll drink it. Cheers, then.

But given a choice? No Pepsi. Coke. And a cheeseburger while we're at it.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

(And you can still get our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, on CD from Kool Kat Musik and as a download from Futureman Records.)

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).