Ask Me About My WEINER!!!!!

This would win my vote for the FUNNIEST trailer bit of the year....I went and saw this movie tonight, and it was actually funnier than I expected. HOWEVER, this bit with the guy in the hotdog suit was definately the BEST part. Kudos to the actor for pulling this off so well!

John Stewart for President!!!!

As I'm sure it's inspired many people, that new movie with Robin Williams as the comedian who runs for president got me to thinking: John Stewart needs to run for president...I'd vote for him in a second...He should ride the publicity of the upcoming movie and run...could happen. A website where you can sign the petition is at http://www.petitiononline.com/Daily17/petition.html

Sign it...let's see what happens....

Taking Jesus Back

After Bush won the last election, and many of the people I know and associate with were stunned (to put it mildly) that the people actually DID that, a friend of mind made a quote I've never forgotten.

"They won the election by hijacking Jesus!"

As we all know now, that is EXACTLY what they did. The Republicans successfully outcampaigned the Democrats by portraying themselves as "God's people", and the other side was a bunch of liberal gay loving, science creating pagans who were going to all be reponsible for bringing on the next Armageddon. And Bush won.

I was as despondent as anybody....HOWEVER, two years ago on the Grammies I noticed a change: There was some form of "power to the people" or spiritual sense to almost every performance. The highlights were Green Day's performance of Amercian Idiot, which doesn't even beat around the bush on what it has to say, Kanye West's performance which was combined with the Staple Singers and a gospel choir and was intense, to say the least....Most of the performances had something to do with spirituality, hope or in some form Jesus...And I'm of the opinion that the Grammys are not really a "red state" crowd....That's when I noticed a change.

In my little 2 cent opinion, I think that the Religious Right zealots made it so "uncool" to be associated with Faith of any sort that the liberal people have all been "in the closet" from a Faith standpoint for several years. Everybody needs something to believe in, especially these days, but what are you going to do when the number one religion in the United States has somehow become associated with a war most people don't want, and a cabinet most Americans are ashamed of? Thus, the sudden popularity of New Age thinking and more importantly, people ADMITTING they believe that way. Virtually EVERYBODY believes in a higher power of some sort; even a friend of mine who proclaimed herself an Athiest feared "bad karma". I don't want to break it to her, but Karma is a result of a Higher Power making judgement calls....she's not an athiest, but shhhhhh....:-)

My last post was about the series Lost...there are a lot of spiritual messages in there, and a blaring message I'm getting is "instinct over education" works best..."Instinct" in my opinion, is another word for Faith. The show has a huge message, actually MANY of them, and it's wildly popular...I just finished slogging thru the Season 1 DVD set of Battlestar Gallactica. Boy, is that different from the old version I must say...Right away I pegged that the Cylons had obviously been programmed by the Bush cabinet to believe what they were doing is right, the rest of the world are sinners, and there is only one way things are and that is the Cylon way. They had even successfully programmed themselves so that if the body vessel they were in died, the programming would radio wave itself to another recepticle. They'd created "Eternal Life". Initially, the Battlestar Gallactica human survivors were scoffing at the whole angle of higher power and faith...BUT, as the series progressed, a belief set amongst the humans began to surface as well. Towards the end of the season an entire "Biblical story" had been created that was loosely based on the Old Testament, and the crew of Gallactica are following their quest to fulfill an ancient prophecy and find the planet known as Earth. The Gallactica folks are going to survive with "help from God". And the show is wildly popular...

I LOVE that!!! Maybe a lot of it is subconciously, but the new thinkers vs. the old thinkers is becoming a more even battle. It's not that we don't believe in God, it's that we are disgusted with how God's word has been contorted and twisted to serve other's financial and political gains. Most of the decent people I know want nothing to do with that....however, those same people have also realized they are unwilling to give up their belief set in the name of disassociation and are fighting back via the best media: Art. Jesus was hi-jacked, but we've put on the black leotards and the face paint and we've sneaked in and hustled him out of jail in the middle of the night! That's the most hopeful thing EVER!

U2 has been doing this for YEARS...open spirituality despite whether it was cool to express it or not is something they've been masters of. On the Vertigo Tour they sold out EVERY arena they played in minutes...not days, minutes. EVERYWHERE. Name another band in the world that can do that? There isn't one. When The Stones come to PDX, tickets are available for several weeks; when McCartney came, tickets were available for several days...U2 sold out in 10 minutes or less. Why can they do that? The feeling. The U2 fans who have gone to dozens of shows and will go to several performances every tour know exactly what I'm talking about: The feeling. At a U2 show there is a spirituality and a commeraderie amongst the fans that is unlike anything else I've ever felt. Despite what is going on in the world at the time, at a U2 concert you are allowed to feel whatever you'd like without feeling guilty for the pleasure for a couple of hours. THAT is their draw; all the fans out there know exactly what I'm talking about, the folks who have yet to go think I'm dilluded. That's okay. As I mentioned above, there are now a LOT of ways to exercise your belief set through the Arts these days...And that speaks a much brighter picture for the outlook of the world if you ask me.

The message Jesus gave was great, "Do unto others, love each other, turn the other cheek". He was the original hippy, without the tie dye and the joint...And what he had to say WAS good. To quote The Edge, "I'm cool with Jesus Christ....it's a lot of Christians I have a problem with". Amen brother, Amen....

Lost...Possibly the Best Television Show EVER!

Okay, I am an admitted fighter of fads; I was the last one to listen to Alanis Morrissette- Jagged Little Pill and Hootie and the Blowfish-Cracked Rearview, but yes, when I did listen to them I had to say, "Wow! Those are really great albums...where have I been?" I don't get sucked into a lot of the television shows...I'm virtually finished with reality TV; I will still watch the occassional American Idol episode or Rockstar Supernova, but for the most part I've nixed all that as well. I like to watch a couple of the CSIs (Grissom is a god among men so far as I'm concerned...he's that legend we single women are always seeking: the intelligent male. Most of us see that as the Unicorn, the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot: they may exist, but we've never seen them first hand yet...Haven't given up hope though!!!!!), Criminal Minds and Medium...other than that, not much regular TV for me.

So, being a Netflix subscriber I got the season 1 Lost dvd's awhile back...I sat there in my living room for virtually 12 hours straight watching that...Picture me, glassy eyes, slack jawed with a little drool trail running down the side of my mouth; looked like a mental patient on Thorazine...couldn't get enough!!!! Finally Season 2 came out and I just finished watching the last of that last night. What an AMAZING show this is!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is the most hopeful thing I think I've ever seen in my life. I know everybody's take and interpretation on it is different, but what I got from Season 1 is that the show is very much about teaching that we all need to learn to forgive ourselves for our past sins and shortcomings. Also, that we all need to allow ourselves to think outside the box and trust what we feel over what we've been taught. Locke and Jack represent opposites sides of the spectrum on that; Locke has been screwed time and time again for believing in the greater good, yet he is STILL attempting to continue to believe in just that. Jack has a hard time believing in anything that can't be explained by science, yet things keep happening on the island that even he can't completely deny.

Season 2 took us deeper into the charactors: Is Sawyer really a bad guy? No...Sawyer has yet to forgive himself, so he acts as he does to punish himself by being hated by his peers. When Anna Lucia was shot Sawyer showed his true heart: he's a good person. Locke's faith was tested and he called it out: turns out that what Locke believed in all along was NOT a lie and the work he was doing was NOT for naught...Rose could feel that her husband wasn't dead...turned out a season later that Rose was right...Even though everybody thought she was disraught from the crash, seems what Rose's heart told her was true. Mr. Eco is an incredibly interesting charactor as well...I look forward to more of him in season 3.

This show is impossible to describe in a blog post, but I did feel it at least merited an effort. If you haven't seen it before, then you should go rent the DVD's and check it out. I think it's a Love/hate sort of thing...if you don't get hooked on the pilot, the show isn't going to be for you...I don't think you have to let it grow on you, I think it gets you or it doesn't. Well, I'm not easy to get to, but this got me...I recommend it to anybody who questions their own heart or belief set or direction....Maybe anybody who just can't figure out "what next" or "what do I deserve"....I think there's a little bit for everybody in here if you need some personal affirmation. It worked for me.

Farewell Crocodile Hunter...You Will Be Missed...

Along with the rest of the world, I was stunned to read that Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter had been killed by a Stingray. Who hasn't immitated Steve on his show picking up some horrible venemous snake and yelling in that thick Aussie accent, "It's the most dangerous snake in the WORLD!!!!! Isn't he a BEAUTE???????!!!" We've all done that.

My first thought when I heard how he'd died? I'll bet if Steve could comment on it, he would say, "Can't ask for a better exit than THAT mate!" He allegedly died peacefully, doing exactly what he loved to do...Although his death is extremely premature and tragic, at the least we can say that he did die on his own terms, doing what he loved to do.

The best of human nature seems to surface in the face of a tragedy; hopefully in this case that will ring true as usual. With Irwin gone, a strong voice of advocacy for the animal kingdom has now been silenced. Hopefully Steve's legacy will be 1,000's of new voices piping up to carry on where he was forced to leave off.

On behalf of the animal kingdom as a whole, I would like to say, "Thanks Steve! You made a difference, and you will be missed."