This is hilarious. Meet the folks responsible for putting Satan into rock music (without which it can be quite boring.)
The short was written and directed by Johnathan Brooks. Via Dangerous Minds
And All Religion’s False
January 5, 2012 By 39 Comments
Can I just get something off my chest?
I really don’t like Lennon’s Imagine. I know that everybody is reacting to the way that Ce Lo Green changed one of the lyrics from “And no religion too” to “And all religion’s true.” Stephen Prothero tells us that “Atheists are outraged that Green is messing with what they see as an anthem for their cause …”
Well, some of us, maybe. Honestly, I’d be more upset if Green altered one of Lennon’s good songs. Albert Goldman, one of Lennon’s biographers, commented: “Imagine suffers from a piano accompaniment as monotonous as a student in a practice room and a vocal delivery with a hook – shoulder turn as feeble as a hymn sung in a Quaker Parlor.” Not much to add.
Hemant quips that Green is, ” … the same guy who sang “Imagine no possessions” while wearing a fur coat and sporting gaudy gold jewelry…”
According to legend, Yoko had a separate room to house all her mink coats, so Green isn’t straying too far from his source material there.
And I can’t get too upset about the phrase “and all religion’s true.” I know that Green was just trying to dodge a bullet there – and he ended up dodging into a different bullet – but it suits a kind of attitude that is common in America. There is the idea that all religions have at their core the same essential truth.
Actually, this is an old, old idea. In the west it dates back at least as far as 3rd century Rome and the philosopher Plotinus. It shows up in India as well, but I’m not sure of the dating. The idea was that all of the incredibly varied Gods and rituals of India and the Mediterranean would – when properly understood – lead one to experience the one godhead. I guess that one natural response to extreme religious diversity is to assume that most of the varied religion are really just different trappings for the same thing.
Of course, this doesn’t sit well with the people who think those trappings are important. The early Christians did not much care for Plotinus, and modern conservative Christians don’t like hearing that “all religion’s true.” If you think about it, if you say that all religion is true on some basic level, then you’re also saying that all religion is false on every other level. And that’s a message I can get behind.
Banned in Britain
December 25, 2011 By 28 Comments
Tim Minchin, the pianist, skeptic and comedian whom we are all familiar with here, recently had a brush with a Christmas censor. Minchin had been asked to preform a Christmas song for The Jonathan Ross Show. Minchin came up with a tune he called “Woody Allen Jesus.” Here’s his side of the story:
Being Christmas, I thought it would be fun to do a song about Jesus, but being TV, I knew it would have to be gentle. The idea was to compare him to Woody Allen (short, Jewish, philosophical, a bit hesitant), and expand into redefining his other alleged attributes using modern, popular-culture terminology.
It’s not a particularly original idea, I admit, but it’s quite cute. It’s certainly not very contentious, but even so, compliance people and producers and lawyers all checked my lyrics long before the cameras rolled. As always with these bespoke writing jobs, I was really stressed for about 3 days, and almost chucked it in the bin 5 times, and freaked out that it wasn’t funny and all that boring shit that people like me go through when we’re lucky enough to have with a big audience with high expectations. And if I’m honest, it ain’t a world-changing bit of comedy. Regardless…
And then someone got nervous and sent the tape to ITV’s director of television, Peter Fincham.
And Peter Fincham demanded that I be cut from the show.
He did this because he’s scared of the ranty, shit-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way.
Yesterday I wrote a big rant about comedy and risk and conservatism; about the fact that my joke has no victim; about sacredness (oh God, not again!) and about the importance of laughing at dumb but pervasive ideas. But I trashed it because it’s boring and takes it all too seriously. It’s hardly the end of the world.
But I have to admit I’m really fucking disappointed.
It’s 2011. The appropriate reaction to people who think Jesus is a supernatural being is mild embarrassment, sighing tolerance and patient education.
And anger when they’re being bigots.
Oh, and satire. There’s always satire.
So here’s the clip of “Woody Allen Jesus” that was not aired on The Jonatan Ross Show. Enjoy, and have a happy solstice-time holiday celebration.
Back to Lovecraft
November 8, 2011 By 5 Comments
This is apparently a real thing in the world: four performers from Corsica who have set the poetry of H.P. Lovecraft to bluegrass music.
….
Let me reread that statement … nope, still sounds completely bonkers.
Anyway, they’re called Back to Lovecraft. Via SF Signal, here’s an interview:
I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade, but even Lovecraft didn’t like Lovecraft’s poetry. Later in life he admitted that it was all pretty bad.
Are You Ready to Rapture?
October 26, 2011 By 4 Comments
Andy Shernoff, along with animator Brian Musikoff, have produced a youtube video about the Christian revenge fantasy know as the Rapture.
The animation in this is NSFW.
Via Dangerous Minds, where Shernoff comments:
I find it terrifying that every Republican candidate for President not only believes that Jesus will return to earth in their lifetime, but that the ensuing destruction will be a good thing. They’re just so confident that they will be raptured while every person who has not let Jesus into their life will burn in the eternal flames of hell….. We have to mock these cretins until they are embarrassed to leave their houses. It is our patriotic duty as Americans.
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