If you could run this music in the background that would be appropriate.

Hello there. We are Neil and Chris, though we are not the Pet Shop Boys, they are just our pseudonyms. Nor are we in any way affiliated to the great men, though we both agree that “West End Girls” is the quintessential English number one.

We are Pop Lifers. That’s a reference to a Prince song (if you don’t know it then do yourself a favour and click here), with a little hint of prison thrown in. One of us has seen imported DVDs showing young men in prison and it looks like fun!

This blog is an anonymous blog, so if you know us (and if you don’t we can’t think of any reason why you would be here) try not to use our names. This is not to create a JD Salinger or Altern-8 type mystique, but we both have jobs which prevent us being publicly political or partisan – and we might want to be both here from time to time.

But politics isn’t the main point of this blog, pop culture is. WordPress’ “tips for bloggers” says that you should choose a specialist subject and not try to be too general. They also say not to blog if you haven’t got anything to say. So, we may be fucked before we even start.

This blog is about pop culture in all its glory and oddity, and the impact it has on our lives, whether as a way of understanding our weird world, keeping us entertained while we wait for the apocalypse or actually changing things for the better. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld (Pop Lifer Official Heroes, both) had two rules for their show: “no hugging, no learning.” Ours are “no sneering, no cheap cynicism.” We’ll try to keep them to a minimum, anyway.

Pop culture covers everything from Kubrick to Cantona, Goldfrapp to the Goonies, Warhol to The Wire and all between. There’ll be regular features, some bad jokes, a few longer pieces and pop pictures we loved or loathed and decided to share. Given who we are, politics and social issues are likely to crop up from time to time, but we’ll try not to bore you. Though if we do – well, it’s our blog. If you don’t like it, go get your own – they’re free, you know.

This was written on 18 July, following a flurry of texts, emails and late night calls between Neil and Chris. We don’t really know what we’re doing yet. We’ll let you know if we ever do.

Right now, Neil’s favourite pop acts are The Auteurs, Depeche Mode and Frank Ocean, his favourite colour is brown, favourite animal is the manta ray, favourite country is Sweden, favourite film is Mulholland Drive and favourite thing in the world is swimming in the sea. The place he least wants to go on holiday is Uzbekistan.

Chris’ favourite pop acts are Plan B, PJ Harvey and Blur, his favourite colour is blue, favourite animal is the fox, favourite country is France, favourite film is a Hard Day’s Night and favourite thing in the world is playing football with his kids. The place he least wants to go on holiday is Dubai.

Comments and interaction are not just welcome, not just encouraged but practically begged for. Abuse only welcome if funny or true.

By Neil and Chris