This was the video that got Steve and Kathy banned from GodTube. The senior pastors of World Revival Church of Kansas City (formerly The Smithton Outpouring) have cut out a niche in spoofing the excesses or potential hypocrisies of the Christian churches in the United States. Of course, now that their work is booming on YouTube, the couple themselves are vulnerable to the same ego-related excesses faced by any high profile speakers and writers.
Rob Bell is author of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality And Spirituality. He’s known for his tours of the United States: Everything is Spiritual, and The God’s Aren’t Angry.
I spent yesterday wandering through the Supanova pop culture expo in Brisbane, my third year there. It was an interesting exercise in anthropology.
First thing I noticed was the groups of people heading towards the venue, many of whom were dressed as characters from comics, movies, games and television series. Jack Sparrow, Batman, Ty3 the Tasmanian Tiger, and Star Wars storm troopers and rebels.
Major shopping chains EB Games and JB Hi Fi were there in force, supplemented by a range of comic shops and gaming studios. There’s a thriving gaming industry in Brisbane, fueled by the local QUT and Griffith courses on animation, computing, sound and music.
For the dull moments we had entertainment laid on by the Australian Wrestling Federation Pro Wrestling, the vocal skills of Michael Winslow of Police Academy, and of course table games for the dedicated.
The Supanova crowd came in all shapes and sizes - with more variety than you’ll ever see in the beautiful people collections found on the ski fields and beaches. Symmetrical faces with tanned and toned bodies count for nothing in a culture that revels in the fantastic.
Brian McLaren’s new book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Change and Revolution of Hope, is coming out in October. He’s provided a few samples from the book on YouTube.
The first video comes from the introduction. Be aware that the last 50 seconds of the video allow you time to reflect on what you’ve just heard…
A reading from chapter 24, reflecting on materialistic culture and the pressure to keep up with the latest.
An explanation of the title of the new book…
Brian talks about some of the examples of deep shift he’s been looking for…
From Brian McLaren’s Deep Shift site, he explains the background to the book and the speaking tour he’s doing around its publication…
We Are In Deep Shift.
A time of transition, rethinking, re-imagining, and re-envisioning. A time for asking new questions
and seeking answers that are both new and old, fresh and seasoned, surprising and familiar.
What does it mean, in today’s world, to be a follower of God in the way of Jesus?
What does it mean to be a faith community engaged in the holistic, integral mission of God in our world today?
How do we, as individuals and faith communities, respond faithfully to the crises facing our world?
What is our duty to God, ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our enemies, and our planet in light of Jesus’ radical message of the kingdom of God?
How can we engage in personal formation and theological reformulation for global transformation?
Today is Star Wars Day, on which people greet each other saying, “May the 4th Be With You!” I know, it’s a bad joke. But life is so dreary without such frivolity. I sent out 20 SMS with the message this morning and received back the following responses:
And altho with you!
Cheers! But unlike Moses who God sent forth, I came fifth and got a teapot.
Thank you O Jedi companion! Looking forward to joining you in the battle for good once more!
What would you write as a response?
The day would have been much more interesting if we’d all joined in No Pants Day, a festival held at the University of Austin by people with nothing better to wear. It’s a day for wearing no trousers. Recommended clothing includes thick, appropriately modest boxer shorts, though bloomers, slips, briefs, and boxer briefs all work as well.
I found Ha! Magazine in the local newsagent today, the launch issue of a rag dedicated to serious Australian humour. Paul Dovas, editor, aims to acknowledge humour and comedy from an distinctly Australian perspective and put it ‘out there for the rest of the world to enjoy’.
The lead article is an essay by Allison Leo on “taking the piss”, an Australian cultural tradition. She says that piss-taking is about making a joke that demonstrates lateral thought, yet does it in a way that makes the target feel better about themselves. She traces this disrespectful and irreverent practice back to Australia’s early days in which convicts turned settlers failed often and splendidly in their enterprising schemes. ‘Taking the piss’ was refined as an art during the two world wars. For a contemporary example she points to the humorous capacity of the two surviving miners in the Beaconsfield mining disaster.
There’s some excellent reviews of Aunty Jack Season 2, Graham Kennedy, RV, and Click. Elena Lonergan reviews her own comedy web site, www.talking-fish.com.
It should be interesting to see if Ha! survives. I suspect that it is a little too intellectual at this point. The common reader is not so much interested in reading about humour, as in engaging in humour itself.
The next issue, due out any time now, is to focus on families and relationships.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is calling for volunteers to live in a house somewhat different to Channel Ten’s Big Brother House. ABC Television’s answer to Big Brother is The Abbey, 33 days and nights for five women, produced as a three part series. Applications close on Friday July 7.
This is no invitation to live in a glasshouse. Residents will be invited to explore spirituality, search for truth, and put into practice disciplines of life with the support of personal ’sister’, rather than under the oversight of an unseen ‘big brother’.
Imagine a world offering peace and tranquillity, and you’re there to contemplate the deeper side of life….no blaring phones, no family dramas, no frustrating work… just you and your desire to discover life’s meaning.
Sounds too good to be true? Welcome to The Abbey.
ABC TV is looking for five women for a new 3 part series. Take up the challenge to live the life of a contemplative nun for 33 days and nights - one day for every year of Christ’s life.
You will leave behind the hurly-burly of modern life to embark upon a search for meaning, spirituality and self behind the walls of an enclosed order.
Immerse yourself in the world of The Abbey and live by The Rule of Silence and Obedience. Take a leap of faith and discover things about yourself and life that you never knew. Learn what the spirit of community living is all about as you share the nuns daily routine of prayer, farm work, craft and domestic tasks. Throughout the challenge of living in this other world, you will have a Sister-mentor to listen, support and guide you.
Will this life hold any relevance to you as a contemporary Australian woman? Will spiritual contemplation and prayer have the power to transform your life or will you find it too hard a cross to bear?
Microsoft Australia is nominating typical Aussie words to be included in Office 2007. They’ve chosen 20 words and phrases to be voted on in an online poll. We get the chance to have our say, along with Adam Spencer (Radio Host), Peter FitzSimons (Sports Writer) Dr Ruth Wajnryb (Linguist, Researcher and Writer), David Blair (a founding member of the Editorial Committee of the Macquarie Dictionary) and Microsoft Australia’s Director for Information Worker - Tony Wilkinson.
We’ve been given the chance to choose five of the phrases, selecting from the following:
I’ve had my vote. But something doesn’t seem right here. Five choices? And what about other words that should be on the list, that haven’t been conisdered by Microsoft Australia? What would you like to see added to the list?
Jordan Running posted his Top 10 Web Moments of 2005 over at Downloadsquad on December 31. I found the link when I noticed hits on Duncan’s TV Adland doubling. See below for the notes on Wizards in Winter synchronized Christmas Lights - there’s a link to my post on the Miller Lite Christmas Lights TV ad.
The Top Ten Web Moments were:
10. Numa Numa Dance - webcam performance
9. Samy is my hero - the MySpace glitch
8. Wizards in Winter
7. Michael Barnett’s Hurricane Katrina blog
6. Flying Spaghetti Monster
5. Live 8
4. Google buys 5 % stake in AOL
3. Lazy Sunday - Narnia Rap
2. Sony BMG’s XCP rootkit fiasco
1. Kanye West “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”
Jordan’s still taking comments on other people’s top web moments for 2005.
When Mason, Ohio’s Carson Williams set up a video camera to record his music-synchronized Christmas light display, I’m sure he knew it was cool, but did he realize it would enthrall web video junkies like it did? The video, which shows Williams’ 25,000-light display dancing in perfect sync with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s bombastic “Wizards in Winter,” seems so perfect that some people believed it was a series of stop-motion capture rather than real-time. In fact, the setup took the electrical engineer nearly two months and $10,000 to accomplish.
The Internet wasn’t the only place Williams’ work was noticed: Miller Brewing filmed his spectacle for a Miller Lite commercial (”Enjoy the Lites“), and the police eventually asked him to shut it down after local traffic escalated and at least one accident was caused.
Thinking about recent TV ads for the newly released XBox 360, I’ve come up with an idea for the next in the series. So far we’ve had Jump Rope in NY City, Water Balloon riots in Buenos Aires, and ‘Joy‘ - an encounter with a Japanese-style horror monster in Lond perhaps. Each with the super, “Jump In”. Now it’s time for a real jumping experience.
The way I’d have it is:
Soundtrack: Enigma, “The Gate”, 1st track from Screen Behind the Mirror - incorporating samples of Carl Orff.
We’re free falling - getting our 360 degree views as we swirl around.
We see another jumper not too far away - the camera zooms in to show us a Halo-style Spartan super soldier taking aim with his battle rifle. There’ a flash, and the words, “XBox 360. Jump In” as we rapidly descend into the battlefield.
Rob Hanks at Pumphouse, has given us the low down on the up and coming U2 Australian Vertigo tour .
“Eight years after they last played Australia, U2 are taking the Vertigo Tour to Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney in March. The shows are the first to be announced for ‘Vertigo ‘06′ which will kick off in February and also stop in Mexico, South America, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
U2.Com can exclusively confirm the Australian dates - tickets will go on general sale on Monday December 5th.
Friday March 17 Auckland Ericsson Stadium
Tuesday March 21 Brisbane Queensland Sports & Athletics Centre
Friday March 24 Melbourne Telstra Dome
Tuesday March 28 Adelaide AAMI Stadium
Friday March 31 Sydney Telstra Stadium
Tickets are priced at $99 for General Admission to the stadium field area, with Reserved Seat tickets to be priced between $99 and $199. Ticket sales outlet information will be released one week prior to the on-sale date of December 5.”
In honour of the impending news, I’ve put two posts on U2’s iPod videos at Duncan’s TV Adland.
The first video clip, Vertigo, was released as a 30 second ad on Apple’s site, promoting the U2 Special Edition iPod and the Photo iPod. The Vertigo ad is also available as a 2-minute clip.
It’s all written up on Sunday November 20.
The most recent video clip, “An Original of the Species”, was featured in the promotion of the Video iPod. I wrote up the promotion on Saturday October 15.
Hopefully I’ll get to see both songs live next year. In the meantime, I’ll have to make do with the DVD of U2 Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago.
Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
The lead article is an essay by Allison Leo on “taking the piss”, an Australian cultural tradition. She says that piss-taking is about making a joke that demonstrates lateral thought, yet does it in a way that makes the target feel better about themselves. She traces this disrespectful and irreverent practice back to Australia’s early days in which convicts turned settlers failed often and splendidly in their enterprising schemes. ‘Taking the piss’ was refined as an art during the two world wars. For a contemporary example she points to the humorous capacity of the two surviving miners in the Beaconsfield mining disaster.
- incorporating samples of Carl Orff.
