Culture Magick Pop

There are many in this country who love the idea of government providing us with certain services that are now provided by the private sector. Health care is a big one, and lately free wi-fi internet access has become another one. Some cities have spent citizens' tax dollars to erect wi-fi systems which blankets the municipality in question with "free" internet.

The point here is that the politicians in Boston have created a public internet system, and now are starting to decide what sort of content the public can access on it. Which might not sound like that big of a deal given that not everybody uses the public system, but when combined with the impact a tax-funded internet system has on the marketplace of internet service providers in general it becomes a huge deal.

What's Current for week of April 23

Campus Recreation's wallyball tournament will begin at 6:45 p.m. at the Mark Twain/Athletics & Fitness Center. A and B divisions will be offered for coed and men's teams. Wallyball is a fast, off-the-wall volleyball game played on a racquetball court with three players per side. Call 5326 or go to http://www.umsl.edu/services/recsport/ for more information.



UMSL to Hold 'Semi-Annual Wax & Wayne Day'

UMSL will hold the inaugural "Semi-Annual Wax & Wayne Day" at 9:30 a.m. at the statue near the Millennium Student Center. The hour-long event will feature the sculpture's first waxing by creator and renowned sculptor Jay Hall Carpenter. Carptenter will give a tutorial on the official way in which a bronze sculpture should be waxed. UMSL faculty and students will assist in the waxing.

It's the women, not the bachelor, that keeps show going

NEW YORK - "The Bachelor" reality franchise hit the jackpot this season with Andy Baldwin, a real-life Dr. McDreamy.

Baldwin - a 30-year-old doctor, Navy lieutenant, humanitarian and triathlete - is the perfect guy with perfect teeth, and a houseful of wide-eyed, marriage-minded women competing to be his one and only.

But it's not Baldwin or his predecessors who capture the show's overwhelmingly female audience. Rather, it's the catfights, blatant scheming, tears and rejection. Those irresistible dramatic elements have managed to keep the series afloat, observers say, despite declining ratings, an embarrassing track record of failed romances and the indisputably sexist premise.

"This is voyeuristic viewing," said TV historian Tim Brooks. "You can just sort of sit and watch, "Oh, I don't like her' and "Boy, I hope she gets hers' and that kind of thing.

Most of the jokes in "The Real Wedding Crashers" are far from ...

NBC's latest experiment in desperation air fare, "The Real Wedding Crashers," is an HD broadcast: Hugely Dumb. The network, which recently celebrated its worst week of prime-time ratings ever, isn't going to climb out of any sewers with this slimy little gutter-dweller.

Forget all that, because the NBC show bears no resemblance and contains, at the most, three laughs within its one-hour running time — not that it ever revs itself up to so much as a lope, much less a run. It's sometimes been the case in movies and television that tastelessness has its own inherent crude energy, but not "Wedding Crashers." It manages to be that rare bird (but maybe not rare enough), a boring horror.

NBC to Air Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation on ...

Continuing to tell the story of Saturday Night Live, NBC presents a new installment of the compelling behind-the-scenes documentary series chronicling the highs and lows of the iconic comedy show -- Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation - on Sunday, May 6, 9:00 - 11:00 p.m. ET. Following up on his Emmy-nominated and critically acclaimed documentaries Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live, and Saturday Night Live in the '80s: Lost and Found, writer-director-producer Kenneth Bowser (Emmy nominee for "John Ford/John Wayne; The Filmmaker & The Legend," "Easy Riders & Raging Bulls") has created a look at the stratospheric reach of the show in the 90s. The decade saw "SNL" going from being named "a national institution" by the prestigious Peabody Awards to being deemed "Saturday Night Dead" by the press a mere two years later...only to return stronger than ever.

New Spielberg interview in Rolling Stone

Steven Spielberg is featured in a new interview with Rolling Stone on the event of the magazine's 40th anniversary. Founded in 1967, the periodical is celebrating its four decades in rock and pop culture journalism through chats with baby boomer luminaries and notables including Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, and many more musicians, writers, and artists.The Spielberg interview is a terrific read, as he touches on his life in the late 1960s (making films, avoiding the Vietnam draft), the influence of music and Rolling Stone in his life and work, his generation's influence on cinema (in which Spielberg respectfully puts the late Pauline Kael in her place for accusing Spielberg and George Lucas for infantilizing American film), politics in the 1960s and today, and the future of film production and presentation.The 40th anniversary issue of Rolling Stone is now available at local booksellers everywhere.

The Stupidity of American Celebrities, How Low Can You Go?

There was a day in the United States when the citizens of this great nation celebrated intelligence in those whom they raised to the level of "celebrity". It was a day when cogent thoughts were related in high style, where literacy and learning were prized, a day when to be "smart" meant to actually have some sort of culture and ability to write. To achieve fame one had to exhibit some level of education even if it was one realized by one's own efforts alone, an amalgamation of knowledge not the result of a program from an institute of higher learning. The general public in America once looked up to people who embodied the highest education, even that had from the veritable slate in a log cabin.

Lincoln, for instance, was celebrated for being a self-taught man. He read classics such as Plato, Aristotle, Hume and Locke.

King celebrates his 50-year reign on top of TV talk

When CNN Presents: Larry King -- 50 Years of Pop Culture airs, Anderson Cooper says a joke about his CNN colleague Larry King is that King likes to ask questions. His favourite question: Will you marry me? Yes, King has had many queens -- he's been married seven times to six different women. But while his matrimonial record is curious, it's just part of the legend of Larry King the broadcaster.