Click here for info on the Print Journal (and to purchase your copy)!

Culturally Speaking #7

By Sarah Stodola

---------------------------------------

I have been to too sick and too busy with the end of my semester this week to be able to concern myself too much with culture. But anyway, here goes...

One thing I have been thinking continually is thank goodness they discovered (or invented? I have no idea which, sadly but truly) antibiotics. Just six decades or so ago, if I'd come down with the sickness that I did this week, I'd be bedridden for weeks, and this semester of grad school would become a complete wash. As it is now, I'm just barely well enough to drag myself into work and class.

* * *

Just look at the prices these things fetch.  Too bad all these artists are dead.

* * *

I am beginning to sincerely believe that the elite intellectuals of the world have always moaned about the decline of culture, and that they actually enjoy doing so.  What the highbrows seemingly fail to realize is that low culture always has been and always will be there, just as high culture has and will be. It is also true that more people will always be attracted to the passive, easy nature of lowbrow culture than those who will take the time to decipher high culture. So it makes perfect sense to leave the masses to their low culture, and they will likely do the same for you.

* * *

So far I have only great things to say about this site Snapfish - a site that let's you store pictures, order prints, share with friends, etc. It allows you unlimited storage space for no cost at all. It's a godsend.

* * *

This new book pits two grand ancient cultures against one another. I of course have not gotten hold the book yet, but the reviews make it look like a spectacular read.

* * *

The removal of this Alabama judge is a good step for the separation of church and state. Although the ruling was probably based more on a legal technicality than on any ideological shift, let nothing be taken away from the power of perception.

* * *

A couple of things about Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine:  It was a very effective documentary.  However, I think it is apparent that Moore was pretty loose with his facts.  And Also, he totally stole that clips-of-war montage set against Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World it Is" from Good Morning Vietnam.

Click here for last week's Culturally Speaking.

---------------------------------------

Sarah Stodola is the Managing Editor of Me Three.  She can be contacted at [email protected].

© 2003 Me Three