Last year I talked about an exhibit I saw called Bodyworlds 2. (Note: the item at that link includes an audio clip of the late Paul Sullivan on his Boston radio show. Sullivan was much more sanguine than I about Bodyworlds 2.)
I had ambivalent feelings about it, and after reading this article in The New York Times, I stopped being ambivalent. I think it’s an old-fashioned freak show.
Even if Bodyworlds, as Gunther von Hagens claims, presents only the bodies of people who gave their consent, the ‘Bodies’ show that Stephen Colbert highlighted uses unclaimed Chinese corpses; presumably including prisoners, political or otherwise.
The ‘Bodies’ show is about to open literally around the corner from where I work in Framingham, Massachusetts, but not without protest. There’s one lone voice speaking out against Bodies. The Metrowest Daily News has the story at this link. If the link is dead, click here. In keeping with the latest trend in journalism, the reporter posted a video on YouTube. Sort of blurs the line between print and TV media, doesn’t it?
The second thing I noticed about this commercial is that it’s a full minute long, which is relatively rare these days. The reason it deserves to be a 60-second spot is the first thing I noticed — the music, which I recognized immediately. It’s by Danny Elfman, from this…
If you have all the time in the world, you can now browse through countless hours of video on the new Web site for Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. But not having all the time in the world, here is my favorite Even Stevphen installment. I featured it last Christmas, but it’s about Halloween, so it’s time for an encore.
