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7.22.05
Culturally Speaking #71: These Days It's All About the Brits
By Sarah Stodola
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Extra Laughs: Last night over here in London saw the premier of Ricky Gervais' and Steve Merchant's (the guys who wrote, directed and starred in The Office, the original British one) new comedy, Extras. You can see the trailer here.
The first episode was the kind of the thing that wasn't all that great, but had enough potential to bring this viewer back next week. But The Office was so brilliant partially because so many people can relate to it. While most everyone has worked in an office environment at some point in their lives, not so many people have "worked" as an aspiring actor. So some of the jokes in Extras may be insider things that are hilarious to people in that particular line of business, but are lost on the rest of us.
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My Old Hip Home?: This NY Times article sure does make my hometown and its surroundings seem hip...Well, okay, Kentucky is pretty, and touring places where liquor is made is fun. But I think that calling Lexington "hip" (even just the restaurants) might be going a bit too far. (Sorry, family -- I am prepared for your wrath.)
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The Way of WSJ.com: This articale in Wired predicts that before long, we will be paying for out Internet content. The author cites such facts as that we now pay for television because cable is so much better than network, and we "have gotten used to" paying $1.50 to access our own money through the ATM, so surely we will "get used to" paying for Internet content. As a person who does not have cable and who will treck up to a mile out of my way to use my own bank's ATM, I disagree.
First of all, there already are sites that charge for content: Salon and The Wall Street Journal come immediately to mind. I could be wrong, but I don't think that either of these site is terribly successful financially. Also, the Internet is different from any other medium, ever, because it is so easy to join the fray. If, say, Slate started charging for content, then some person somewhere would think to themself, Hey, there's now an opening for me to fill in for Slate in the free content arena. Sites might be able to charge for their content, but they can't keep the next guy from spending $100 to get his own website set up and offer content for free. And as a result, it will never cost anything to surf the net.
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She's Not That Rich: I was told that JK Rowling was making a million dollars per minute the day the latest Harry Potter was released...Is that possible? Probably not, I suppose...but it does show that the whole thing has gotten big enough to inspire such rumours, which is somthing.
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Culture by the Scots: The lineup for this year's Edinburgh Festival look amazing. I don't think the States has an equivalent to this...
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Me Three News: We are currently doing preliminary work on placning Me Three #2 in as many bookstores as possible. If you live somewhere in the US, Canada, or England and want to help us get the journal in your local bookstore, please email me at sstodola @ methree dot net, with the subject line "Me Three bookstores." Any help would be so greatly appreciated!
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Meta Reading: I am currently reading Martin Amis' London Fields, which is a load of fun because it takes place in the London neighborhood that I currently call home. But more importantly, I have to revise statements I've made in the past about Amis, because this time around, I think he's absolutely brilliant.
Click here for the last Culturally Speaking.
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Sarah Stodola is the Executive Editor of Me Three. She can be contacted here.© 2005 Me Three