Monday, November 1, 2010

Best Week Ever

Best Week Ever

NYTimes Laments Reality TV Isn’t As Socially Redeemable As Tristes Tropiques

Posted: 01 Nov 2010 08:55 AM PDT

Here’s the opening sentence of an article in today’s New York Times:

It has been suggested that the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss could not have spent more than a few weeks each with the different native peoples observed in his 1955 book, Tristes Tropiques.

Can you guess what this article is about? No, not anthropology or 20th century masterpieces. It’s about VH1′s new reality show called “My Big Friggin’ Wedding,” featuring Johnny Meatballs (pictured above). Here’s sentence two:

If true, this would mean that cable television has already devoted more time documenting meathead Italian-Americans of the New York metropolitan area than a celebrated researcher spent studying tribes of Brazil and beyond for one of the classic texts of 20th-century social science.

The writer’s point (but of course!) is that “Reality TV now does what ethnography used to, bringing the folkways of foreign subcultures to a broad, popular audience.”

First, how did this TV critic marry “classic texts of the 20th century” to “My Big Friggin’ Wedding”? Maybe she was sitting at an outdoor table at a cafe in the West Village, armed with a laptop and a beret, possibly smoking a cigarette, and thinking about how bohemians once sat in this very spot arguing about philosophy, when her overly pragmatic editor called and demanded she cover VH1′s newest reality TV show, insulting her intellect and prompting her to rage against popular culture’s vapidness?

I have nothing against this critic at all. She’s clearly smart. She’s clearly a great writer. But someone should tell her that she’s covering reality TV, that comparing it Tristes Tropiques is apples to oranges, that people still study anthropology and social science so all is not lost, that Claude Levi-Strauss probably wasn’t consumed by the average 1950s Joe Blow, and that the 1950s also had silly entertainment that was mass consumed (John Wayne, anyone?).

“My Big Friggin’ Wedding,” which this article deems as “a spiritual sequel” to “Jersey Shore” (i.e., same producers), premieres tonight at 9EST. You can also watch it below. Buy your copy of “Tristes Tropiques” at Amazon.

Heidi Klum And Seal Show Off Annual Elaborate Costumes, Have Sex

Posted: 01 Nov 2010 08:27 AM PDT

Heidi Klum and Seal basically serve three purposes: They host Project Runway (half of them does), they appear in magazine interviews talking about how much sex they have, and they come up with super-elaborate annual Halloween costumes:

There’s Heidi as a Rihanna / Marvin the Martian / Starlight Express superhero combo, and Seal as some sort of hunchbacked Silver Surfer or possibly the between-forms T-1000 from Terminator 2. They’re the celebrity equivalent of that one house that took Halloween way too seriously, and you’d be really impressed with their decorations and the costumes of the hosts and the really elaborate obstacles you’d have to tolerate before they finally gave you candy, but in the grand scheme of things, the 10 minutes you blew for one fun size Kit-Kat wasn’t worth it. Thanks for being those people, Heidi and Seal.

Zach Galifianakis Smoked Drugs On TV

Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:56 AM PDT

This past week on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, a discussion began about the legalization of marijuana. During this discussion, Zach Galifianakis took a drug joint made of real live marijuana and began smoking it. So, here’s that happening.

Now, obviously there’s a lot to debate here. Should pot be legal? Should it not be? Is it reasonable to legalize something on a state level that is still illegal on a federal level? Was this an appropriate way to protest? We could argue about all of these questions. But, come on. It’s morning time. No one wants to get into it right now. So, instead, let’s just decide who is right between these two YouTube commenters. One commenter brings up the very interesting point:

So obviously, everyone has a Colombia and then an alternate backup vice Colombia. Freddygaviria thinks Zach Galifianakis’s backup Colombia became the hell. And also either you or Zach Galifianakis is a bastard. There is this view. This view exists. But then, there is also the opposing argument put forth by Bjorshol.

There might be 81 Justin Bieber *^%%*&s in here. So who’s right? Freddygaviria or Bjorshol. If you live in California, make sure you really think about this because there is a related proposition on the ballot tomorrow.
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