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1.6.06

Culturally Speaking #74: New Things in a New Year

By Sarah Stodola

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Props: I'd like to give some very special love to some very special people I know who are doing some very special things with their lives right now:

Lionel Beehner went to the Ukraine to check up on things a year after the Orange Revolution, and his thoughts on the whole were published in the Baltimore Sun.

Josh Abraham has co-written and is directing his very first feature film. From what I've seen, it's going to be huge.

Me Three editor Mark Grueter has launched a brand new magazine in Russia.

Stephen Ruddy's improv show, Gravid Water, has been running at the Upright Citizen's Brigade, but it's gotten so big that he's taking it on tour. Next stop: Chicago. Stephen inexplicably doesn't have a website for his baby, so if you'd like more info, email me and I'll do whatever I can!

The play that Me Three Contributing Editor Steve Finbow worked as a writer on was voted the best play put on in Manchester in 2005.

All of these people are seriously talented and we here at Me Three are lucky to know them (or in Grueter's and Finbow's case, to be one of them). Here's to hoping that the success rubs off on us in 2006!

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Celebs Are So Boring: Speaking of 2006, my New Year's Resolution this time around is to stop looking at/reading/watching/listening to celebrity gossip. So far I haven't wavered, and I feel like a new person! So back off, Us Weekly and Gawker and Pink is the New Blog, cause I'm no longer interested.

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Don't Worry, They Rejected Naipaul, Too: Comfort for all of us novelists who have yet to receive anything but a rejection slip...

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Event: This coming Tuesday, Lindsay Robertson's Ritalin Readings returns, in a brand new venue and with a brand new website!

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China is Big: Did you know that China has 171 cities with over a million people? And that the United States only has nine? These kinds of numbers baffle...

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Love Your Multi-National: Yale Global has published a two-part series arguing that multi-national corporations have actually helped reduce global poverty. I'm not saying I agree with it, but it probably is useful to look at the other side of the argument for once. That said, it's important to note that you can reduce poverty and still maintain shitty conditions for your workers, and fail to get rid of poverty altogether.

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New York Novels? We are compiling a list of quintessential New York novels for a project: please email me if you'd like to suggest one!

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Oh, So That's Why I'm White: In my last Culturally Speaking, I wondered why Guns, Germs, and Steel didn't do much to explain how different races evolved, and specifically, to explain to me why I am white. Well, turns out that the reason is that they only just now figured it out. (Thanks, Darren)

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