Sharing a video.

I know, I'm bad for not having proper original content. But the truth is I love to watch videos like this, and I want to share it as widely as possible. The original animation that was used for this video is a short animated film, about 9 minutes or so, linked in the description of this one on YouTube. I happened to prefer the musical oneI've posted here, but the original is very well worth a look. 

 Lyrics as follows:

(Verse One)I know of sin by the things momma prayedI know of heaven by the line at its gateI know of truth and America's wayCome drink the water if you want to be saved
(Verse Two)Don't drink the water if it's not from my streamIt's all still water if it's not flowing freeDon't drink the water at the watering holeIf you ain't got money, it can't save your soul
(Chorus)All God's people said amen
(Verse Three) It's not a sin if it can't make me cryHe's not the devil unless there's fire in his eyes It ain't the ghost if it don't speak in tongueIt's not a victory 'till the battles been won
(Chorus)
(Verse Four)Nobody prays unless they lose a sonDon't believe in God till a war's to be wonI know of truth by the lies I've been toldThe biggest one is that we're not getting old
(Verse Five)I know of sin by the things momma prayedI know of heaven by the line at it's gateHeard of a kingdom that's not far awayCome drink the water if you want to be saved
(Chorus) 

I see it as a pretty frank allegory of the use of religion as an excuse for violence and the dominance of force.

What about you?

Amanda Palmer plays the Ukelele without Pretention

You guys, you should know that I've become totally distracted from doing the big-ass post about Rubens. 

Basically it was going to be all about the violence inherent in his paintings, how that ties in to his overtly religious themes (because religions are typically violent dichotomies of reality vs non-reality that do not live side by side), I set it aside after typing for, like, hours, meaning to come back to it, but lost the thread of what I was going for. And realised it was pretentious-sounding gobshite anyway. Since I love Rubens' work, I'll probably come back to it another day, but I don't want to intentionally put out something that even I know is pretentious-sounding.

And as you may have guessed, this post is vaguely related to that theme

Amanda Palmer, a nice young lady who co-founded the well-liked Brechtian Punk Cabaret (That's what they call the genre;I had to look up the meanings of those words seperately to see how they fit together) duo The Dresden Dolls, also does stuff on her own. One of those things is play the Ukelele and muck about singing songs that only-sorta rhyme. I like that 

This was my favourite: Ukelele Anthem. You may like it too. As for me, I think I need to buy a ukelele and sing about things that piss me off in a happy way. 

On Whininess (Whiny-ness?)

This is not the giant post that's coming, it's just a stray thought that I thought would be worth publishing.

I was reading a little earlier the blog of a Nice Young Lady Natalie Reed, and specifically her post ''Shut Up, That's Why'' - A Follow Up. Most of it's not relevant to the bit I was going to talk about so copied and pasted below are the relevant portions:

Not gone quiet

Well, not permenantly. I'm just working on some research for a big two-part post. Seriously, it's going to happen.