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:

Of Trolling Christians, wherein I suggest a method to discomfit people who try to save your soul.

I know, its basically shooting fish in a barrel in this country, we're damned lucky. But I came across the full text of Luke 6:27-30 in a blog I was reading (Alethian Worldview) and it made me think. So I checked to see that it was indeed the whole section, and found a link to it as well so you can see for yourself. It reads:

  ²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.


I draw your attention specifically to section 30. 

Some Links for your amusement.

One for the brain: We Are SkeptiXX, a newly started sceptical blog, inspired by the great tradition of proving that scepticals and rationalists aren't only bearded middle-aged men. Considering the peers of this valuable addition to the Blogoblogz, I personally am expecting great things.


One for the eyes: An artist in mechanical items and found objects makes things that are...so very fascination.