Borat, Fake Stuff, and Real Kazakhs!

Sorry to go off the reservation and leave all three of you dedicated readers hanging here. The hipster broke out on a little spirit quest, and all it cost him was a month's time, a girlfriend, bail money, and his sanity.

 

Just kidding, folks! About the last two, anyway.

 

So what's new in Pop Wonderland? Honestly, I couldn't tell you, because I've just been too darned busy basking in the splendor that is Borat, my Kazakh friend. I just had to explain this hilarious racist misogynist to a friend who wasn't in on the joke, and our discussion also touched on the Borat creator's first alter ego, the cockney street punk Ali G (whose notoriety, praise heaven, has yielded this online street translator for the unhip).

 

Who doesn't remember with fondness the first time they saw Ali G discuss international security with former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Boutros Boutros (how many Boutroses or Boutrosi or Boutra IS that?) Ghali!

 

But all this documentary-news spoofing has some folks huffy. Like the two well-pickled fraternity pledges from a certain SEC school who insist they were utterly hoodwinked into signing releases and acting like racist knuckledraggers in Borat's film.

 

Which proves a couple of things:

 

First, that Ghali, an old Egyptian politician, is more hip than a couple of soused Steve Spurrier fans; and second, that there ain't no distinction between news and drama no more... for that, you can blame the Internet, or digital video. Borat, the lightning-rod character, would probably blame us Jews, but I swear to you that it really isn't my fault!

 

Anyway, for those of you who want a real taste of Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, and all the other former Soviet republics, a group of students from the region will be guests at a lunchtime lecture at FSU on Friday. Swing by the Devoe Moore Center, in Bellamy Hall, between 12:30 and 1:30 for Q&A and to learn what's hip behind the ex-Iron Curtain.

 

Oh yeah, and check out milady Whitney Matheson's Pop Candy Blog at USA Today for Borat blather and more.

 

It's good to be back, hipstaz!

 

 

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