New Yorker cartoons

In the main, I don’t get those ostensibly famous and clever cartoons from the New Yorker. I’m probably not sophisticated enough.

But, that said, I treasure the magazine. I believe editor David Remnick walks on journalistic water. 

But when it comes to the cartoons, I suppose I’m in the minority with Elaine Benes, who didn’t get them either. 

Case in point:

   

Okay, I “get” most of them.

They’re just rarely that funny.

I guess it’s one of those culturally divisive markers:

Beatles v Stones

Saving Private Ryan v Thin Red Line

New Yorker cartoons v Wondermark or Ted Rall.

I suppose humour is culpably subjective, and rather particular.  

Case in point: 

When Christopher Hitchens — who’s no slouch in the wit department himself (except when he’s on Islamic themes) — calls Sarah Silverman “a culpably unfunny person.”

I do find Sarah Silverman funny… most of the time. Perhaps she tries too hard at times, working the gross-out factor too hard… but she is funny.  (Then again, my wife Lori doesn’t think Silverman’s funny either. Maybe she’s plotting with Hitchens? In that case, the battle lines are drawn…) 

Okay, so, Hitchens might have been right about Sarah Silverman’s MTV crack about Paris Hilton/special treatment in jail/penis-shaped bars/chipping teeth. It was too easy — like kicking cripples. Gratuitous — and therefore less funny.

But she is good on other counts:

But, I digress… 

About New Yorker cartoons… 

And here’s a tie-in to Hitchens… 

This one is somewhat amusing:

But, for those in the Elaine Benes minority, I can only commend you to the long-forgotten Neue Yolker cartoons, which also have a long — if neglected — tradition.

Search around or keep your eyes peeled. Neue Yolker cartoons were like New Yorker cartoons, only that the former had soul:

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Vlad Putin: ‘Weasel while you work’

I take my steaming blogs in Toronto, not too far from the beach and Lake Ontario (which is dirty already). 

In the spirit of politics/life being local, I probably ought to leave postings about Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Near East to those in-the-know, and those actually on-the-spot. 

Politics and life do indeed happen here, and I fully intend to take blogs on local subjects.  

But, somehow, I can’t resist: I’ve got Vlad on the mind. Let’s chalk it down to a mix of geopolitical unease and fascination. 

So, there’s this piece (below) from AP writer Douglas Birch about Pootie-Poot’s design for retaining power even after he leaves presidential office, as is constitutionally required (whatever constitutional requirements mean in Vlad’s ‘family’ circle). 

To spectators of Russian politics/history, Vlad’s probable plan to keep his claws on the wheel would come as no surprise. ‘Iron law of oligarchy,’ and all that… 

But what is astonishing is the following news service photo (below) of Vlad Putin at a recent meeting with aides, during which he allegedly discussed plans for a puppet successor, through whom he could wield power.

Putin, usually a master of the poker face, let his enthusiasm dribble all over the goddam place:

                                   

For more on this story, follow the Guardian link that tails the ‘nut graf’: 

Putin May Run Russia From the Sidelines  

Friday June 15, 2007 7:16 PM

By DOUGLAS BIRCH

Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) – President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to give up office next year as dictated by the constitution. But will he give up power?

Many Russians expect Putin to run the country from the sidelines once he steps down after his second consecutive term – and there is a growing view that he’ll return to the presidency following a period of rule by a hand-picked loyalist.

READ ON… 

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Estonia, Russia, hooligans: links

For anyone who’s glanced at my blog, you’ve probably noticed the *ESTONIA* page. 

At the bottom of that infopartisan.com page is a notice to buy Estonian products. 

Now, I’m taking my blogs in Toronto. And, except for Estonian CDs, books and knick-knacks to be found at Estonian House, the only Estonian product I’ve heard to be available in these parts is Saku beer (which, arguably, isn’t all-Esto, since, as far as I know, it’s a product of Pripps Ringnes, a Nordic beverage company… but what’s in a name, right?). 

Now, I’m definitely not one to advocate activism-by-commercialism ― seems anathema to my politics. 

But the rest of that notice applies. 

For a bit more background on the goings-on between Estonia and Russia this spring, I’ll leave you these links. 

Kristopher Rikken’s blog posting on the subject, just after the Tallinn rioting:

Then, there’s Ott Lumi’s op-ed in New Europe:

 

Also, there’s Anatol Lieven’s read on the geopolitics of it all:

 

And, finally, there’s the video that speaks a few words: 

 

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Vladimir Putin and Paris Hilton

“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

Yup, attribute that quotation to none other than Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Some time ago. In the bad old days.

And, now, a few years later…

Lenin’s spiritual grandson — Russian President Vladimir Putin — has taken the words as counsel, not caution.

This is the pull-quote and headline from the English-language version of this week’s interview with Putin in Der Spiegel:

 

G-8 INTERVIEW WITH VLADIMIR PUTIN

‘I am a True Democrat’ 

So, Putin says:  “I am a true democrat.”

Hmm.  

Well, I was elected president of Uzbekistan. I’m the star of Ocean’s 13. And I had sex with Paris Hilton the night before she went to jail (the second time).

 I can say it — but that doesn’t make it true.  

For more on Paris Hilton — er, um — Russia, read Eric Margolis.

I recall, some years ago, Margolis warning (at a TV roundtable) that the Russian bear would return. I also vaguely recall him being giggled at like some kind of fearmongering Cold Warrior.

Who’s giggling now? 

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Got a Woody

The other night, I watched Jean-Luc Godard’s 1986 documentary Meetin’ WA. 

As the title vaguely implies (if in faux-native idiom), it’s a half-hour sit-down with Woody Allen. French film director Godard muses about the art of film, and the creative process in general, with New York’s great cinematic auteur, Woody. 

It would have been shot around the time Hannah and Her Sisters was released — some years before the Woody/Mia Farrow/Soon-Yi scandal of the early 1990s. 

You might recall how the press really pounded Woody for his heart wanting what it wanted (his adopted daughter). 

Anyhow, the sit-down with Godard promises more than it delivers. 

But, okay, Woody has some interesting things to say about the creative process, and about how he views film, as well as his own work. 

But the doco itself has a hastily-put-together feel. The film’s somewhat impressionistic style doesn’t quite work: bursts of loud jazz to weirdly-chosen montage images (Fred Asatire, Elizabeth Taylor, Orson Welles… and an ostensible Woody look-alike, going through a box of video tapes in an editing room.) 

Still, worth the watch. Especially for fellow Woody Allen fans. 

Early in the doco, however, I had a creepy sense of dramatic irony. 

Godard asks: 

“Are you afraid of the press […]?” 

Woody answers: 

“No, the press has always been good to me. More good to me than I have deserved. So, I never feel, um, frightened from the press. The press has always been very protective of me and supportive of me over the years. Even many times when I didn’t deserve it. They were very nice. So, I have, for the most part, very good feelings about the press.” 

Two decades later, I wonder how Woody would answer that same question.

  

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