Month: May 2003

A short but interesting article from this Sunday’s New York Times (registration required) about the depiction of God in both American and British cinema:

But that was 1965. By 1972, Peter O’Toole was portraying the Absolute Unknowable Righteous Eternal Lord of Hosts, King of Kings and 14th Earl of Gurney in “The Ruling Class.” The Monty Python crew — Michael Palin, John Cleese and the others — inserted God into all their films. At first, Terry Gilliam, who did the animations, sketched Him as a hipster, wearing dark glasses. But then he settled on the more resonant image of Dr. William Gilbert (Leviathan) Grace, the obese turn-of-the-century Gloucestershire cricketer, whose photograph is dominated by a beard you could lose wickets in. The Pythons’ cartoon God, Mr. Palin said, “saved us a little money. Very expensive, real God.”

Frankly, however, I’m much less concerned with the upcoming Bruce Almighty‘s depiction of the almighty than with whether or not it’s funny. The fact that Steve Oedekerk is one of the credited screenwriters fills me with no small amount of dread. As Keith Phipps says in his review of Oedekerk’s desperately awful Kung Pow!: Enter The Fist, “…remember that name, and remember to avoid it.”

It’s also interesting (well, to me anyway) to note that the other Terry Gilliam God mentioned in the article, Time Bandits‘ Ralph Richardson, was also from Gloucestershire. You’d think they’d have seen a sharp rise in spiritual pilgrimages over there because of it, but you would of course be wrong.

In the past four days, I have received nearly two hundred search referrals for “bill o’reilly hubcap” or some variation of the same. Which is a little unnerving — there’s usually only one or two searches per item, and very few of them repeat — and it’s more than a little surprising, since I don’t think I’ve ever actually discussed Bill O’Reilly’s comment here or anywhere else. So, if that’s why you’re here, I apologize; this is probably the only time I will ever directly comment on this, and all I’m going to say is this:

I don’t know if what Bill O’Reilly said that night — suggesting that young black men were out in the parking lot stealing hubcaps — was intended to be racist. He has since claimed that his joke was meant in the spirit of that evening’s 1950s-themed dinner. That’s altogether possible, and I won’t debate the point. There are other recent comments (like Rick Santorum’s and Barbara Cubin’s) that are probably worthy of closer scrutiny and more widespread derision. These, after all, come from elected officials, not just some pompous windbag who, in the great Orwellian tradition that’s currently sweeping America, calls his dog-and-pony show of shouting down guests and unsubstantiated lies a “no-spin zone”. There are plenty of other reasons to dislike Bill O’Reilly, believe me.

And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

“Now the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do’s and dont’s. First of all, you are using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.” — High Fidelity

So anyway. Jeremy is currently offering a mix CD exchange with his readers. Even though I suspect he and I have vastly different musical taste (and his scares me just a little), I’m planning on taking part. Furthermore, it’s an idea I’m interested in replicating (i.e. stealing) here with my — what? three, maybe four readers? So, if anyone is interested in receiving a mix CD (with the understanding, of course, that you’ll send one in return), send me an e-mail with your address (or leave a note here if I already have it) and I’ll send you a copy. I make no guarantees that you’ll like the music I send you, but…well, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

People haven’t exactly been beating down my door on my other projects lately, so let me ask: is anyone interested?