Backstage Pass

The Smoking Gun has a site feature which highlights the best (aka the worst) of riders from famous music acts and celebrites called Backstage Pass The list is fairly comprehensive and you can see what your favorite artist DEMANDS be waiting for them backstage. Some of my favs include Clay Aiken (must be allergic to nuts), Creed, Amy Grant (no alcohol but a corkscrew? hmm) and Bjork.

Take a LOOK and come back and tell me which ones jump out at you.

A New Day

Will.i.am’s new video:

I have to say, I find the renewed patriotism and celebration of Obama’s election win to be fascinating. If you just landed in the U.S. from an alien planet, you would probably assume that We the People were previously captive under some totalitarian regime and were freed by this Obama character. It is obviously just another shift of executive power but the hype surrounding it proves that this election meant an awful lot to black Americans and blacks everywhere.

It is also worth noting how art and creativity as well as alternative forms of communicating (web 2.0) were energized over the course of this election cycle. I think history will remember it as a miniature renaissance for both indie art and grassroots movements.

In case you missed it

The daily show was pretty funny last night…

Post election rehab

Its over. What will I do with my time now?

In the next few weeks to come, we will see the close states be called electorally, the closer senate seats resolved, the newness of this present milestone wear off, and the shock of horror on the faces of the right to succumb to reason and a logical sense of peace.

I hope.

Here are my reactions to the whole thing:

1. Just 40 years ago, in my parents lifetime, systematic racism was acceptable in most of America. Blacks using separate restrooms, schools, and public places… today, we have elected a black president whose roots can be traced to a small, rural, poor village in Kenya. Wow.
2. The McCain I voted for in my life disappeared this campaign and was replaced with a grumpy, crusty, attacking old man.. he returned last night. The John McCain I know and respect sprinted to the stage faster than I have ever seen a presidential candidate about to concede defeat. His speech was gracious, classy, and full of the same American unity that Barack’s was. Unfortunately, the crowd within earshot of him was as nasty as he was classy. I hope that is not the future of Republicanism.
3. NBC had the best coverage and the easiest graphics to understand.
4. This was the year of the uneducated voter and the over-use of election night 3D graphics and technology.
5. I can not believe that a woman just ran for VP of the USA with out EVER releasing her medical record and never giving a press conference… why is NOBODY talking about this?
6. I couldn’t figure out the Palin pick until last night during McCain’s concession. The Reps knew in September that they couldn’t win this election. So they looked at who the future of the party might be a decided to begin grooming one of them for 2012… hence, Sarah Palin. The bad part about this is that the future of the Republican party is a woman who is governor of state who just elected a convicted felon to the U.S. Senate.
7. I can not wait until 4 years from now to rub in the faces of right wing radio and emailers that all the doom and gloom scenarios and fear campaigns did not materialize. I had a longer post about this, but my better senses kept me from publishing it.
8. Say what you want, but I actually do believe this election, by itself, did accomplish something already. I can not empathize, but judging by the tears and emotion last night, it seems the result was in many ways closure for black Americans.
9. Turnout was at an all-time high and the youth vote showed up. For those of you who mocked me for saying this, I say “See I told you so!”
10. I am disappointed in Arizona. We passed some dumb legislation, re-elected some major jerks, and continued to allow a fascoracist enforce the laws of the third largest county in America.

I wish I had more to say in a more poetic way other than bullets, but I don’t. My hope is in Christ to do his redeeming work in men, not in men to do a redeeming work through government. But I will pray the latter happens.

To trick or treat or not?

Today is Halloween, the day of “trick or treating”, neighbors actually TALKING to eachother, families enjoying eachother’s company, and Christmas for dentists.

But if you are a member of American Christendom, than you are aware that the holiday also brings some controversy with it. Some more conservative churches use this time of year to speak out against what they consider a neive way of inviting satan into their parishoners home. They say that the vague similarities between the ancient, pagan celebration of Samhain (harvest feast) and todays commercial practice of Halloween are almost equivalent to worshipping the devil. I understand this argument, but after some parental research and common sense thought, I disagree with it.

Mainly, it is an ENTIRELY inconsistent position for Christians. Read more

Presidential Campaigns and art

I am so excited for this election cycle to go to sleep next week, but the one thing I will miss are the videos.

It seem that this election has brought out the best in indie art video and laying ALL POLITICAL CONTENT ASIDE, this emerging artform can be appreciated.

For exampe, I love the satirical writing and use of paper vectors in the first video and was very much impressed by the clean animated layers in the MC Yogi video. Perhaps one of my favorites that was made entirely in Adobe After Effects was the “Obama Messiah” video… if you have time check them all out.

Which ones are your favorites? You may post your favs without preconditions…

Terrorists using Twitter

Not me, I swear!

Read the article HERE.

Wasssaaaauuuup!

I really detest it when I hear politicians and voters decry “what WILL happen” if the OTHER candidate is elected. Lately, is been, “if Obama wins, the USA will become socialist and sold to China before the beast with 10 heads eats us whole.” I just don’t like fear-mongering in general.

That being said, this was funny:

How low can you go?

Desperate times call for despereate measures…

Just an observation on the state of the McCain-Palin bid for the presidency; first it was the supposedly “undecided” Joe the plummer from Ohio (didn’t stick); then the apparent “tall, black” mugger who supposedly carved a “B” for Barack into a McCain volunteers cheek during a mugging (a hoax) and now the hysterical emails I am getting are claiming that Barack is unfit to be president because he was born in Kenya, Africa not the USA and he has REFUSED to produce a birth certificate to prove this because he doesn’t have one.

Well, I did some digging and I am proud to bring you a Rethynk exclusive… Barack’s real, birth certificate! (click image)

Now, if only discrediting the absurdity that he is the anti-Christ were that easy!

From Russia, with love

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