11.49pm on Friday, 29th April 2011 - Dogs in Traffic

they should be wrapping up about now...??

photo from FLICKR; djvenus

Dogs in Traffic was the best band you missed out on, that you never had a chance to hear.

here's the web listing for the Dogs in Traffic "reunion" (read: their first gig in longer than the band was actually playing music together the first time), sans lead singer Ringo, at Fitzgerald's Pub in Huntington Beach, CA.

i do stuff like this...

...refer to events in my life as before or after "x", i mean...

via the Laughing Squid via XKCD.

obviously, Rob Bell has never heard of Bishop Carlton Pearson...

i was annoyed to see that a Time Magazine story 'Is Hell Dead?' by John Meacham got so much attention this week.

it focused on Rob Bell, a pastor in Michigan. he is hardly the first person to come to the conclusion that mainstream Xtian practice is both hypocritical and hurtful. further, hell may have been mistranslated to mean a literal, separate place where evil exists...underground, even. for this unoriginal, 'controversial' viewpoint, he received a full write-up upon the release of his new book, in a national magazine.
take the Bishop Carlton Pearson, leader of the New Beginnings church (above, with his wife), who was prominently featured in the brilliant HERETICS episode of This American Life from Chicago Public Media. Bishop Pearson believes the Church's exclusivism is inconsistent with the nature and intent of the teachings of Jesus. he was thinking about this back in 2006. he began to think so much about this contradiction and its inherent problem that he later formed what he called the gospel of inclusion.

if you know me, you know i really don't care for religion, and i really have a problem with most practicioners of it...and this is why Bishop Pearson's message struck me so deeply.

one of the most astounding things about the Time article is how it states Bell's philosophy is to emphasize "discussion rather than dogmatic teaching." freaking imagine that. it's something my friends and i have been doing since, i don't know, the tenth grade. Bell did not nearly lose his entire congregation and support system for expressing his beliefs. he was just fortunate to have a stylist, a bigtime publisher and a publicist...and perhaps a not-so-subconscious desire to be Rick Warren.

the 'friendliest...and most radically inclusive' church and god is what i, and everyone, should want.

why you SHOULD sign that license agreement with us...

...or maybe not.

many thanks to WaDi for this! here's the grid of Musician Digital Royalties upon which the above visualisation (by the awesome INFORMATION IS BEAUTIFUL) is based. the idea came from an article at THE CYNICAL MUSICIAN (btw, a favourite blog!) who is the rarest of musicians...that is to say, he apparently has a graduate degree in business.

and, if you know me, you may know i used to always say, "All a band needs is a manager and a lawyer." i stand corrected.

who did it? politicians' speeches and Rick Astley song

you've seen the awesome display of cooperation in Oregon's state legislature. i'm talking about the video in which a number of Oregon lawmakers agreed to insert pieces of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" lyrics into their actual speeches, as they spoke in front of their colleagues during actual legislative sessions.

oftentimes, people forget how the process is more rewarding than a result or outcome. rarely do we see politicians who have a sense of humour, let alone any who would agree to attempt something like this. what a way to show bipartisan cooperation! only music, even bad music, reaches across the aisle...or at least most of them.

i imagine most 'serious lawmakers' would simply dismiss a similar project as a frivolous waste of time...or maybe i'm too quick to assume that congresspeople are all business and no human. then again, how come the guy responsible for coming up with this idea only has 516 'Likes' on Facebook as of midnight on April 16th 2011?


according to NPR, state representative Jefferson Smith (OR-D) was behind this true act of congress. Smith represents Oregon's 47th District. a LegislativeStudyGrp account is credited for uploading the rickroll to YouTube. [vks opinion - however, isn't a legislative study group really just any number of legislators who (ideally) gather, present and consider facts or statistics with the goal of providing accurate information to its members?] the only official 'Legislative Study Group' online seems to be a state caucus out of Texas.

Oregon's House of Representatives has 30 Democrats and 30 Republicans. this carefully planned and crafted video took not only Smith's creativity, but also the concerted effort of many congressional aides, in addition to the state representatives who agreed to participate. filming took place over days, but no public money was used in the effort. it took the work of volunteers to produce the final edit in time for release on April Fool's Day. listen to the story behind how it all came together.

i don't know if it's a good or bad thing, but apparently all the bills presented on the legislative floor which contained the song lyrics passed. unfortunately, i didn't have the time to compare the congressmen/congresswomen in the video with their photos, but i'd love to give props to the men and women who took part. if you know the names of any of the participants, please email or leave a comment. thanks!

the little prince is being (re)made into a movie!

(other than Maurice Sendak and Dr. Seuss' work, possibly) Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's THE LITTLE PRINCE is a book which resonates beyond one's (my) childhood. a movie of the book was made in 1974 and it was claymated it in 1979.

now, it's being remade, at least according to a blog entry by artist THUROP VAN ORMAN, creator of the brilliant and amazing animated nickelodeon series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. he says he's started to do concept art for the movie (and also has an entry by the same title, with a release date in 2014).