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5.13.05

Culturally Speaking 64.5

By Mark Grueter

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Author's Note: I didn’t think Sarah Stodola would be able to produce a column this week, so I wrote one up for her…

The Huffington Post, the aspiring uber-blog edited by Arianna Huffington and featuring many celebrity and other big name bloggers, made its debut on Monday. It’s not bad, I have to say (the simple fact that both Larry David and Bill Maher write for it is alone enough of a reason to bookmark the site), but I think there are way too many people writing for it, especially since some of those people aren’t well-known, at least to me. I like the diversity of both left and right writers, but who is Sherry Lansing and why should I pay attention to her flippant musings?

More importantly, I think there needs to be a ‘comments’ option that allows readers to respond to this parade of pontificating poo bahs. I have a few choice words for some prick called Dennis Prager, for instance, who wrote a hysterical and idiotic screed comparing left-wing students to “Hitler Youth.” The relevant question posed to Ann Coulter (regarding heterosexual married couples who like to butt-fuck - is she pro or anti?), though obviously crude and calculated to shock, is a legitimate one, and I wish the trash-talking contorversialist would’ve answered it.

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80 years ago, H.L. Mencken traveled to Kansas to report on precisely how William Jennings Bryan was making an ass of himself (“I set out laughing and returned shivering”) prosecuting science teacher John Scopes for daring to teach evolutionary theory in his SCIENCE class. Today, the Jesus Christers of Kansas are back, insisting that “Intelligent Design theory” be included in the science curriculum alongside the teaching of evolution. Now, anyone who doesn’t recognize this ridiculous and evil movement as a repackaged version of creationism - including poor William Saletan of Slate - is deceiving themselves, at best. Where’s the Mencken of today to go down there and expose the frauds? I thought at least Matt Taibbi (who honorably shares my utter contempt for all religions) of the New York Press would go…

In an interview with Salon, Taibbi, who lived in Russia for 10 years, makes comparisons between America and Russia, one relating the homogenization of cities across both countries. Here, we have Wal-Mart and shopping malls, there they have the same kiosks selling the same exact products from Moscow all the way over to Vladivostok. The same street names, the same schools (all schools and many stores in Russia are numbered rather than named; having lived in Russia for two years myself, I remember getting a good laugh out of this. So, someone might say, “I teach at school #3, which is across the street from shop #15.”).

Also, Taibbi writes, “[Soviet leaders] counted on the fact that Russians would rather wallow in their own shit than organize and protest anything that's actually happening in their country. It is really kind of similar to what's going on here. People bitch and moan, but basically all they really want to do is sit in front of their televisions and watch the football game. Even people on the left who complain about Bush, when it comes right down to it, they don't really want to do anything.”

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The film adaptation of "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" does not deliver in it’s attempt to capture the humor of the famed book. However, the movie is not entirely unfunny and it did make me want to go back and read Douglas Adams’ cult classic, particularly because Adams was heavily influenced by the peerless P.G. Wodehouse (the best comic writer of all-time, and one of the twentieth-century’s best writers of English, period).

The most amusing character in the flick is the depressed robot named Marvin, played by the star of the post-consumerist Leprechaun series, my main little man Warwick Davis. However, it is actor Alan Rickman who actually provides us with Marvin’s voice. I happened upon Warwick Davis’s website on which he thanks the director of the film for allowing him to “ad-lib dialogue” while shooting. Ad-lib dialogue? But he didn’t get to say anything? Confused, I wrote to Mr. Davis with inquiries and a spokesperson wrote me back. Here is the relevant part of the exchange:

Dear Warwick Davis,

…On your website you mention that the director allowed you to "ad-lib" as the film was being shot. But I notice that Alan Rickman actually provides the voice for your character. So I was wondering, was that a last second change? Did they cut out your lines and replace them with Rickman's, or what did you mean by "ad-lib"? Thank, just curious,

Mark Grueter

Hi Mark,

…As for the 'ad-lib' Warwick says that he means that the director let him 'ad-lib' the movements made by Marvin. Alan Rickman was always going to be the voice. Warwick hopes that this has sorted any confusion and sends you his best wishes.

Regards
Caz
pp Warwick

Your wife makes a fine pot of tea, Danny me-boy.

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My friends Nick Allanach and Chris Sullivan have just released the Spring issue of Canon Magazine, the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science’s (where Sarah and I went) student magazine. The theme is “Sex and Violence” and features an excellent cover photo of a finely-shaped girl clothed only in a dark blue hood (a play on those horrific Abu Ghraib photos). The issue looks great, guys - love the pic of you humping a whale with a copy of Daedalus - congrats. You can pick up a free copy at the GF, on Fifth Avenue, between 13th and 14th.

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Lastly, Joshua Foer (Jon's bro?), writing in Slate, more or less instructs us writers not to take amphetamines. Pussy. I prefer Chris Fara1's take on the same subject.

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Mark Grueter is the Managing Editor of Me Three. He's writing book reviews for Stop Smiling and blogging for Snarksmith. Write to him at [email protected]

© 2005 Me Three