Author: matt

Lock up your hermaphroditic daughters: The Chapman Brothers are back! Like a nasty case of herpes that pops up every few years to make the skin of the body politic crawl, Jake and Dinos Chapman have returned with their unique take on shock art, just in time for awards season.
Who can forget their adorable take on smushed-together pre-adolescent girls with penis noses? Or their enlightening take on the Holocaust involving miniature concentration camps. (The figurines would be right at home in a Bürger Führer Unhappy Meal™.)
Here’s part of their latest bid for a little attention—and a lot of scratch—in the 20th annual Turner Prize in December. On the left, we see Death, (note the oblique, deep title) “a life-size bronze cast of two inflatable sex dolls engaged in fellatio.” Oh, so that’s what those two dolls were doing!
The weird thing about Jake and Dinos’ shocking, shocking art is that it’s really, really boring. I mean, what angry 10 year-old boys hasn’t doodled the same things in his notebook during a boring math class? It reminds me of the name (and the cover art) of an old album. And I didn’t have to go to a museum to see it.

Simon Reynolds goes prog crazy on his blissblog. Sort of reminds me of how the Smurfs talked only, um, more prog.

I saw this headline on The New Republic Web site and assumed it would be yet another piece on Gregg Easterbrook: When it comes to anti-Semitism, old habits die hard.
Instead, I found an essay on the Middle East by TNR‘s Cambridge Diarist and editor-in-chief Martin Peretz.

Let’s see if the Teflon Hip-Hop Don can outrun this latest controversy:
A Hip-Hop Star’s Fashion Line Is Tagged With a Sweatshop by Angel Franco.
I’m betting he’ll flip this in his favor just like everything else in his charmed life.

I love Elvis Mitchell so much that if he were to review the phonebook, I’d read it just to admire his turns-of-phrase and character sketches of Aaron A. Aaronson and Aaron A Adams. Somehow Mitchell manages to be both cool and a major geek at the same time. Case in point, Mitchell’s piece in this week’s Times Arts & Leisure section, The ‘Kill Bill’ Soundtrack: D.J. Quentin’s Recycled Mix in which Elvis waxes geekier than Harry Knowles, “Moriarty”, and Quentin Tarantino in a three-way AOL chat.
Mitchell references movies and TV shows no one (not even the stars and creators) remembers like They Call Her One Eye and Codename: Foxfire.
It’s a good article, but man, if no one outside of the smallest of Internet chatrooms will find it interesting. My hat’s off to you, Elvis Mitchell, King of Geeks.

No excuses. Saturday Night Live presents The Best of Tracy Morgan Saturday October 25, 2003; 11:30PM EST on NBC.
Earlier thoughts on Tracy Morgan from low culture

Speaking of six months ago, Dateline has an interview with Elizabeth Smart tonight at 10PM EST on NBC.
Man, is she ever purdy or what? I mean, this kid’s been through hell and come face-to-face (and worse!) with the devil himself and yet she still radiates that wholesome all-American, girl next door glow. Attention editors of Cosmo Girl!, Seventeen and Teen Vogue (or at least the editor of the next Revolve): Put down your chai skim lattes, pick up the phone and get this girl on the cover of your magazine post haste. (Katie Couric, optional.)

New Spy Gear Aims to Thwart Attacks in Iraq by Eric Schmitt… “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles
UPDATE: Talk about topicality! Yellow Submarine for the super-rich. (Sorry merely rich and filthy rich: this one’s for the super-rich.)

Today’s journalism lesson from The New York Post: How to write an obituary entirely from the Internet Movie Database.
From ’70s TV star ‘Rerun’ dies by Michael Starr
Berry, known for wearing colorful red suspenders and a jaunty red cap, was also known for his TV catchphrase “Hey, hey, hey!” which he shouted whenever he encountered his buddies on “What’s Happening!!” which ran on ABC from 1976-79.
From Biography for Fred Berry from IMDb
Continually wears a red beret as his character did in “Whats Happening”
Post:
Berry, who recently had a cameo in David Spade’s big-screen comedy “Dickie Roberts”
imdb:
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star(2003) …. Himself
… aka Dickie Roberts: (Former) Child Star (2003)
Post:
After being canceled, the show returned six years later as “What’s Happening Now!!” for a short-lived run with most of the original cast, including Berry.
imdb:
“What’s Happening Now!” (1985) TV Series …. Freddie Stubbs (segment “Rerun”) (1985-1986)
“What’s Happening!!” (1976) TV Series …. Fred ‘Rerun’ Stubbs
Post:
Berry, who was married six times to four different women (he married two women twice), battled a severe drug problem in the 1980s and, in 1990, was diagnosed with diabetes.
imdb:
In 1990, when diagnosed by doctors with diabetes, he was told he had to lose weight or his life would be shortened. After placing himself on a strict regiment, he lost 108 pounds and 18 inches off his waist.
Has been married 6 times to four women. He married two women twice.
Post:
Berry later became a Baptist minister.
imdb:
A Baptist minister.
Earlier journalism lessons from low culture.