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Amused Muse

Inspiring dissent and debate and the love of dissonance

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Location: Surreality, Have Fun Will Travel, Past Midnight before a Workday

Master's Degree holder, telecommuting from the hot tub, proud Darwinian Dawkobot, and pirate librarian belly-dancer bohemian secret agent scribe on a mission to rescue bloggers from the wholesome clutches of the pious backstabbing girl fridays of the world.



Thursday, March 20, 2008

EXPELLED from "Expelled"!

UPDATED: It would appear that Expelled's producer Mark Mathis was not being truthful when he told me tonight that "Crossroads" was a "working title" for the film Expelled. As Wesley Elsberry points out, the domain for Expelled was purchased before most, if not all, of the interviews were conducted - and yet Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott, PZ Myers, and others were told they were being interviewed for a film called "Crossroads."

Mr. Mark Mathis, do you want to come here and explain yourself?

SECOND UPDATE: Well, now you can read the story at the Pioneer Press.
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The beefy cop patroling the audience at the screening of Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed threw PZ Myers out of the theatre right in front of me!

For a second, Rev. Barky and I thought we'd be thrown out too just because we were talking to him. PZ Myers is interviewed in the film, but in order to see it, according to producer Mark Mathis, he'll have to fork over $10 on April 18. God, you can get a blowjob for less than that. (Not that I would know anything about that.)

"Jared," an employee at the theatre, said that it was because "The producer said that he doesn't want you here. You don't have a ticket, and this is a private screening." Excuse me, this was a private screening that threw itself at you via a link from a website begging "please come and support this film, fill the theatres, wah, wah, we're victims, please come to our party, you'll love it, we're rebels, we're going to be very naughty!" This was a private screening that was asking for it! Having a showing during an atheist convention? Hello, producer Mark Mathis? Any intelligence allowed?

I wasn't invited! I didn't have to have a ticket! I received an e-mail that stated, "No ticket required." They were glad to have me, because I'm going to a Catholic grad school, and I have a little Catholic grad school pink notebook in which I took copious notes. Glad to have me, that is, until I started asking about a little film named "Crossroads" (the original title of "Expelled). (Actually, I am willing to accept that Crossroads was a working title. Yes, I do know something about how films are made, Mr. Mathis. I also know something about how they are marketed. CLASSIC FAIL tonight.)

Of course, this mini-police state, like most police states, couldn't sweep its trash into a coherent pile and thus didn't recognize the other guest, also an interviewee in this "film" - Richard Dawkins.

Mark Mathis, the producer, didn't recognize Richard until Richard stood up after being called on in the Q&A (I think that's what they called it) after the (so-called) film.

More on the so-called film later. An account of the so-called Q&A, and being ogled during the film by that beefy cop (after everyone was exhorted to spy on his or her neighbors - completely unlike the Nazis, of course) here. (AtBC, of course, where I go to unwind.)





Here we are afterward - Richard, Josh Timonen, Josh's friend, and Rev. Barky. (No, I didn't record the film, Mark, if you're reading this, you paranoid piece of work.) At this point, I must say that I'm really confused. Are we Nazis, or Communists? The film kind of ran the two together - along with a shot of Stalin while John Lennon's "Imagine" played. Did Josef Stalin write "Imagine"?

(Rev. Barky's comment: "Ben Stein is one ugly motherfucker, that's for sure." I'm, of course, hip to that.)

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