Oh Academia...

I loved this excerpt from a Washington Post book review by Michael Dirda on The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies (as in "The Big Lebowski"):

In fact, many of these pages require real familiarity with the work of Fredric Jameson (on post-modernism) or of Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francoise Lyotard, Luce Irgaray and other French cultural theorists. Be prepared, in other words, for sentences such as this one: "Just as the film undermines the preoccupation with the phallus and with castration, so it undermines the link between normative heterosexuality and reproduction on which patriarchal hegemony normally sustains itself." One also finds undefined terms like the Hegelian "Aufhebung" -- which means to both cancel and preserve -- and in-crowd nods such as "The Lebowski family tree...is decidedly not arborescent in the sense Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari criticize in A Thousand Plateaus." Still, could at least some of this volume's apparent excesses actually be intended as humor? Is the irony so finely cut that those in the know are rolling in the aisles? Quite possibly. [Though not likely. These people usually take themselves far too seriously]. But the ordinary reader sure isn't laughing. As the late and much missed critic Marvin Mudrick once said about deconstruction, "When the French get heavy, they make the Germans look like ballerinas...In sum, "The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies" floats somewhere between the earnest and the ironic, its contributors making serious points about the film but also overplaying, whether deliberately or not, the critical mumbo jumbo.

Also hilarious -- on the publisher's website they have excerpts from reviews on the book, and, naturally, they only have positive reviews. What was hilarious is that I noticed they had a quote from the Washington Post review; but I remembered that, overall, the WP review wasn't too positive of the book.

Here's what the publisher website had: "If you're a 'Big Lebowski' collector...you may want to acquire this...illuminating book." That's quite a bit of ellipses...

Here's what the actual review said: "If you're a 'Big Lebowski' collector -- and there is, by the way, an essay here on the very notion of collecting -- you may want to acquire this generally frustrating, if intermittently illuminating book." Haha!

It Just Keeps Getting Crazier

From this BBC article I learned that Sylvester Stallone broke his neck while shooting fight scenes for his upcoming movie. Come to find out that he was injured during a fight scene with the wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin! Then I come to find out that movie also stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, and Mickey Rourke (and also Jason Statham, though that's less exciting)!! As in, all of them together! It's a dream come true! The movie is about a team of mercenaries who embark on a mission to overthrow a dictator (genius storyline!). The scent of their aging, action movie has-been flesh must be overwhelming during filming! Then I come to find out that the film also features the now-deceased Brittany Murphy. This movie is insane! It's almost too good to be true.

BFFs!

Back to Stallone's injury...he had to get surgery and have a metal plate inserted into his neck. He's 63 years old and still making these kind of movies. Ironically, the movie (which is also written and directed by Stallone) is called The Expendables. Take a hint, Stallone. And it sounds like he tries to pass off his injury like it's not that he's old, it's just he's so hardcore. He explained, "Man, it was seven guys, kicking each other's ass; one guy tougher than the next. No joke, our stunt guys were begging for mercy." Nice try, Stallone. You got injured because you're 63. If you keep that up, you're going to have to have a Medicare representative on the set at all times.

He's so old, he's older than my parents! Oh snap!

The Decade in Review

I remember when 2010 seemed so far into the future. It seemed like when TV shows or movies would have a flash-forward scene into the future it was often "the year 2010". And it was all very futuristic-looking with floating cars and teleportation. It all looked very Star Trek: The Next Generation. And now, alas, 2010 is here... and my best friends, unfortunately, are not cyborgs.

I was thinking about all the news stories and events that have happened in the 2000s. It seemed like a whole lot of meaningful events happened -- like more than usual. But, really, if you think about it, a whole lot has happened other decades as well. I guess this was the first decade that I really began paying attention to all of it. I started this decade as a sophomore in high school. I was 15 year olds, and was turning 16 that upcoming July. I started really paying attention to the news and current events in about 1996 or 1997. So this was the first decade that I came in informed and stayed pretty informed. So I think that's why it feels like so much has happened. With that said, there were certain events that made this decade especially unique -- particularly 9/11 and the subsequent "War on Terror", the number and scope of natural disasters, and the global financial crisis. With that, here is a list of some of the big events of the decade (not necessarily in any order. And I'm sure I've accidentally left things out):

The 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore (popular vote, Florida, recounts, hanging chads, butterfly ballots, Katherine Harris, Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, the beginning of the end...). The dot-come bubble collapses. Elian Gonzalez and his return to Cuba. Stem cell research. The 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. The USS Cole bombing in Yemen. 9/11. Color-coded terror alerts. The Patriot Act. The war on terrorism. The war in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Saddam Hussein captured and killed. Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Interrogation methods and torture. Anthrax scare. The Bali bombings in 2002. Madrid train bombings on 3/11 in 2004. The 7/7 London bombings in 2005. The Mumbai attacks in 2008. Liquids banned from airplanes. The conflict in Darfur. Enron. Worldcom. Martha Stewart goes to prison for insider trading. Arnold Schwarzenegger elected governor of Cali-for-nia. Terry Schiavo and the surrounding debate on life/death. Space shuttle Columbia explosion. Ronald Reagan died. Gerald Ford died. Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage. 2004 presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry (windsurfing, Swift Boat, flip flop), and gay marriage on the ballot. William Rehnquist died; John Roberts confirmed and appointed Chief Justice. Pope John Paul II died; Joseph Ratzinger elected and becomes Pope Benedict XVI. The Ukrainian elections of 2004 (election fraud, Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned, the Orange Revolution, re-vote). Climate change and global warming. The 2004 Southeast Asia/Indian Ocean tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake (hitting Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India the hardest); caused nearly a quarter-million deaths. Hurricane Katrina and its most severe devastation in New Orleans (the levees broke); almost 2,000 casualties. The 2008 earthquake in China that killed more than 68,000 people (the deadliest earthquake in China since 1976). Pluto loses its planet status. SARS, Avian Flu, Swine Flu. North Korea and Iran as growing nuclear threats. The 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah. The Gaza War between Israel and Hamas. The EU expanded and adds more countries, the Euro expanded, and the Lisbon Treaty passed (which created a long-term president of the EU). Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House. Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany. The Virginia Tech shootings. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan. Fidel Castro resigned as the leader of Cuba for health reasons. During the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, Michael Phelps set a record for the most Olympic gold medals by any Olympian. The global financial crisis of the late 2000s, especially hitting hard in 2008 (deregulation, housing bubble, sub-prime lending, predatory lending, Bear Stearns, Countrywide Financial, Indymac, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, auto industry, stock market downturns, unemployment, Troubled Assets Relief Program, toxic assets, bailouts). 2008 South Ossetia War between Georgia and Russia. Somalian pirate attacks. 2008 presidential election between Barack Obama and John McCain (Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Hockey Mom, Real America, Joe the Plumber, Yes We Can, Hope). Barack Obama becomes the first African-American president of the US and has a record-breaking attendance at his inauguration. Economic stimulus package of 2009. The 2009 presidential election in Iran (Ahmadinejad, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, protests, the Green movement). Ted Kennedy passes away from cancer. Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Health care reform debate.

Popular Culture

There are many, many things to list in terms of pop culture from this past decade. The problem is that there is almost too much. That's the nature of pop culture. It can often be quite fleeting -- a trend, a fad, a short-term buzz. For example, in 2009 there was a lot of focus on Octomom, Jon & Kate Plus their Sad 8, Balloon Boy, and so on...but will we really remember those stories five years from now? Or feel they're important enough to put on a list? With this list, I didn't want to include every pop culture event of the decade. Instead, I compiled a list of things that have had more of an effect on our culture, and things that were pretty big (i.e., things that seem to have more staying power):

Reality TV (American Idol. Survivor. On and on). Ipods. Cell phones. Digital cameras. DVDs. Blu-ray Disc. Google. Ebay. Amazon. Wikipedia. YouTube. Facebook. Twitter. Myspace. Netflix. DVRs and downloading TV shows (pretty much watching a TV show at the set time that it's on, with commercials, is less common). High Definition (HD) TV. Flat screen TVs. Ken Jennings wins a lot on Jeopardy. Bob Barker retires from Price is Right. The Simpsons become the longest running TV program in America. The growth of premium cable TV programs (HBO especially -- Sex and the City and The Sopranos were big this decade; Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, The Wire. Showtime has Weeds and Dexter), as well as basic cable programs (Mad Men, The Shield, Monk, The Closer, Breaking Bad, Damages). The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Colbert Report. The 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Halle Berry becomes first African-American woman to win the Best Actress Oscar. This decade saw a rise in the popularity of foreign language films (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Letters from Iwo Jima; Passion of the Christ) and documentary films (An Inconvenient Truth, March of the Penguins, Michael Moore films). Comic book films. Lord of the Rings trilogy. Computer-generated imagery became more widespread in movies. XBox. Nintendo Wii. Pokemon. Anime. Manga. World of Warcraft. The Da Vinci Code (which resulted in a bunch of spin-off books, tours, discussions, and documentaries). Harry Potter series. Twilight series. E-Books and E-Readers.

Some big deaths of the decade: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Patrick Swayze, John Hughes, Heath Ledger, Paul Newman, Aaron Spelling, Ray Charles, Christopher Reeve, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, John Ritter, George Harrison, Charles Shultz, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Carroll O'Connor, Ted Williams, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Aaliyah, Fred Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Barry White, Bob Hope, Marlon Brando, Julia Child, Janet Leigh, Rodney Dangerfield, Jerry Orbach, Johnny Carson, Arthur Miller, Anne Bancroft, Peter Jennings, Pat Morita, Richard Pryor, Betty Friedan, Don Knotts, Dave Thomas, Steve Irwin ("The Crocodile Hunter"), Robert Altman, James Brown, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Jerry Falwell, Rosa Parks, Merv Griffin, Evel Knievel, Charlton Heston, Sydney Pollack, Tim Russert, Robert McNamarra, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, George Carlin, Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes, Michael Crichton, Bettie Page, John Updike, Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, David Carradine, Walter Cronkite, Frank McCourt, Les Paul.

In Memoriam

I was looking at the BBC's most-read stories of 2009, and I especially loved the caption written for Natasha Richardson's photo. "Vanessa Redgrave's daughter was married to actor Liam Neeson." They didn't even mention her name! Wow, even in death she lives in her family members' shadows. That caption probably represented 20 years of therapy in Natasha's life.

[And I know they mentioned her name to the left in the body of the text, but usually people label photos with people's names. Hell, someone could think she was Ashley Cole (who is actually a male), a member of that cricket team, one of the teachers, etc. You think most people actually know what Natasha Richardson looks like?!]

MARCH

March offered little in light relief, until the end of the month at least. First, gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team near the Pakistani city of Lahore, killing six police escorts and a driver.

Chelsea and England footballer Ashley Cole was arrested for being drunk and disorderly after swearing at police officers.

Vanessa Redgrave's daughter was married to actor Liam Neeson

A teenage gunman killed 15 people on a rampage at a school in south-west Germany, including nine pupils and three teachers.

Then, actress Natasha Richardson died from head injuries sustained in a skiing accident in Canada.

But the mood was lifted by the most clicked on story of the month, which raised smiles and possibly a few pilots' eyebrows.

An 18-year-old secretly painted a 60ft penis on the roof of his parents' £1m Berkshire mansion. It was there for a year before they found out.

I've Had Enough of You Getting 'Real'

Tonight is the premiere of MTV's The Real World: DC. I only know this because I live in DC and there has been a lot of mention of it on local blogs and in the Style section of the Washington Post. For example, the news that DC was finally picked as a Real World city. The news of where the Real World house was going to be. The news of all the places the cast went (reported sightings at 'this' club, restaurant, gym, pool party, DC United game, and so on). The news that the cast got to meet Obama (kidding! obviously. If Obama takes time out of his schedule to meet these shiftless layabouts, we're in some serious trouble...).

Tonight's premiere got me thinking of the last Real World season I watched. I think it was Las Vegas in 2002. Though it was already in decline, it seems like Las Vegas really did it in for me. That's when it became less about interesting twenty-somethings and more about hot, drunk, sex-crazed, irresponsible people (previous seasons had hot, drunk, sex-crazed and/or irresponsible people...but not everyone fit that mold and that wasn't the whole focus of the show). It became more about the sex appeal and the drama. I don't even think they had to get jobs anymore. Previous seasons had a project or job they had to do, but I don't even remember the Las Vegas cast having any responsibility. Their job was just to get drunk, get in fights, have pregnancy scares, and get involved in as many love-triangles as possible.

And could it be a coincidence that Las Vegas was the first season that I was in college? I was no longer a middle-schooler or high-schooler watching Real World. Could it be that I just simply outgrew the show? While that definitely could be the case, I think it's fair to say there was a genuine shift in the show during the Las Vegas season (hell, they were living in a casino, not a house). And I think other people would probably agree. Or is it just other people my age...which feeds back into maybe we just out-grew the show at the same time.

Regardless, it's crazy to think this upcoming DC season will be the 23rd season. That just seems insane. It's hard to keep track of all the cities and all the cast members (and that's just for the seasons I've watched). I can't believe it's still on. It's so different now. But I guess as one age group outgrows the show, there's a younger age group that is embracing it. And these younguns have no memories of the earlier seasons to say "oh my god, what happened to this show?"

In the Style section of the Washington Post today there was an article written by a Gen-Xer on tonight's Real World premiere and The Real World in general. It was wonderfully snarky:

"But there was always one nagging question left unanswered as the show repeated its formula into oblivion: Why not Washington, D.C.? The moaning about this deliberate oversight went on for years. What was so uncool about Washington for MTV to have ignored us all this while... Washington is not too boring for The Real World, but times have changed. Now it turns out to be the other way around: The Real World is too boring for Washington. Or anyplace else. The show is moribund, calcified, and predictably dull -- so much so that it's hard to believe there are still young people who will volunteer for this duty."

"And, perhaps, inspired by a sense of Obamaesque optimism, The Real World's producers seem to have chosen kids with at least some remaining brain cells, some sense of ambition and plans. It barely recalls the series's earlier days -- when the San Francisco cast featured a doctor during her residency, a cartoonist getting editorial work, and a patron saint of HIV activism."

The Peculiarities of Local Speech

Growing up in Utah, I used the phrase "fresh-water lake". For those that have grown up in other places, there is no need for that qualifier. Fresh-water lake is redundant. Only for Utahns do you make the distinction, because there is in fact a difference. There are fresh-water lakes and a giant salt lake.

Now I live in a place that when someone says to me, "I'll meet you at the mall", I have to clarify if they mean the shopping mall or the National Mall.

The Unlikely Tale of a Mormon Writing a Hanukkah Song

I just came across an article that made me do a double-take. From the article:

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, a solemn-faced Republican with a soft spot for Jews and a love of Barbra Streisand, has penned a catchy holiday tune, "Eight Days of Hanukkah."

This is his first Jewish song, and he says it will not be his last. Apparently he was asked to write a Hanukkah song by a Jewish writer named Jeffrey Goldberg. They were talking about Hatch's love for songwriting and Goldberg said he has a problem with "the general lameness of Hanukkah music." So he asked Hatch to write a song (he enlisted a Mormon to write a non-lame religious song? Not possible). And finally Hatch wrote a song. And thus a miracle was born! A cheesy, synthesized miracle (that includes a very festive "HEY!" in the song).

There was a whole lot of head-scratching going on throughout the article:

"Anything I can do for the Jewish people, I will do," Mr. Hatch said

At one point, Mr. Hatch unbuttons his white dress shirt to expose a golden mezuzah necklace he wears every day. Mezuzahs also adorn the doorways of his homes in Washington and Utah. Mr. Hatch keeps a Torah in his Senate office. "Not a real Torah, but sort of a mock Torah," he said. "I feel sorry I'm not Jewish sometimes."

Mr. Hatch enlisted his collaborator, Madeline Stone, a Jewish songwriter from the Upper West Side of Manhattan who specializes in Christian music...

[Hatch] said his ultimate goal would be for his idol, Ms. Streisand, to perform one of his songs. "It would be good for her and good for me," Mr Hatch said.

I don't know if I'd go that far...let's just say it would be good for you, Orrin.

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

I love how at the end of the video, one of the guys in the studio calls it a "A hip-hop Hanukkah song". It definitely doesn't get more hip-hop than that.