Random Cultural Thoughts: April 28, 2008

• American Idol is tomorrow night!  Who’s going home this week?  Gotta be Brooke or Syesha; okay, or maybe Jason (not sure why he’s still in the running anyway).  I think David and David will go to the end… and probably David Cook will take all.  Though you never know… there’s a lot of tweens with cell phones texting away that love little David.
• Grand Theft Auto IV hits the shelves tomorrow as well.  (How unfortunate.)  I love culture.  I like video games and think they should be played.  But– I can find nothing redeeming about this game, not for adults, and certainly not for kids.  The bad news is that GTA is a mega-hit.  Hmmm… beware the darkside….
• Will The Beatles ever be allowed on iTunes?
• I hope we don’t lose Miley Cyrus to the path of Brittney Spears and Lindsay Lohan (click here).  Miley doing controversial photos for Vanity Fair (about which she is now “embarrased”) can probably be chalked up to youth and inexperience.  But the reality is that superstardom has been known to ruin the lives of way too many people: youth, children, and adults alike.  Let’s pray for Miley and the Jonas Brothers and all the rest that they stay pure, and grounded, and that they follow God!

• May is a big movie month, so save your coinage!  IRON MAN (May 2nd), SPEEDRACER (May 9th), PRINCE CASPIAN (May 16), and the new INDIANA JONES (May 23rd) are all coming to a theater near you!  I’m pretty jazzed, especially about the first two!!  Hopefully I will get to see at least one of them in the theater…..
• Live the gospel… in the culture… see what the Father is doing… and do it!!

Barack-a-bye-Baby?

Yep, you heard it here first.  You too can go to http://www.barackawear.com/ for the latest in political revelry.

 

Seriously??

Random Cultural Thoughts 6

• President Bush gave his final State of the Union address last night. He hit a lot of stuff about the economy, really wants Congress to pass his big stimulus package, and is continuing the war in Iraq. (Nothing surprising.) I like George Bush, but I confess, I didn’t even bother watching.
• Mitt Romney and John McCain are duking it out in Florida today; next Tuesday is “Super-Duper” Tuesday. The proverbial chips are falling, wherever they may. Chuck Norris is backing Huckabee, in case you care.
• Coming soon: Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones to go with your Lego Star Wars games! My son has been asking for lego Batman for a long time! Oh, to be a kid again…. The other one to watch for, you game geeks out there, is the Force Unleashed. If you haven’t seen the trailers, check it out, ’cause it’s awesome!!
• Rhapsody is sooooo not very user freindly compared to iTunes. Tracy and I keep trying to use these codes off of Wendy’s cups for free downloads for our son, and it has been such a pain! I can see it now on YouTube: “Hi, I’m a Rhapsody, and I’m an iTunes…”

• My final random thought for the day: the Super Bowl is Sunday, and I’m rooting for the Giants. If we can’t have Peyton, we may as well go with Eli! Rumor has it that Tom Brady is limping, but we’ll see what Sunday brings.

Random Cultural Thoughts 4: Jaded for President

Jaded [jey-did]–adjective; dulled or satiated by overindulgence; worn out or wearied; exhausted.

• Mitt Romney won the Michigan primary. Who is the Republican front-runner? Does anyone want any of these guys? Hillary may still be at the front of the Democrat pack… at least today….
• I find myself (not that this is a new thing; I just get really reminded every four years, and it feels stronger this year) feeling rather jaded with the whole political process. I kept thinking as I watched the last republican debate (when the guys were all arguing like boys) that it was like a bunch of used car salesmen arguing over who sold the cheapest car last week or something. And all their speeches (Elephants and Donkeys) sound like used-car-salesman-speak; you always get the feeling that they’re all leaving something out of their details, and putting that “spin” on things so that they come out shining and the other guy (or girl, as the case may be) looks like a moron. All the rhetoric is the same as every other election (“you raise taxes, I lower taxes,” or big vs. small government, etc. etc.) with some Iraq stuff this time thrown in for good measure.
• Oh, and all that talk about “hope” and “change.” Same song, different tune. I’m tired of the hype. All the rhetoric flying to and fro. And four years from now we will be “hoping” for someone else to come in and bring “change” using 90% of the same discourse we heard this time around.
• Don’t get me wrong– all this is still better than dictatorship or monarchy. I’m just longing for (along with a whole lot of other people, I think) a new mindset for the whole process, i.e. can we cut the BS and be REAL and work for real justice and hope and change? Ahh, but the whole system is bogged down with personal ambitions and $$$ and parties and lobbies, etc. Hence, the J-word.
• Should disciples of Jesus be involved in politics, and voting, and social action? YES. Should we pray even harder than we politic? YES. Should we get all bunged up about Republicanism and Democratism? NO. Is God Almighty an Elephant or a Donkey? NO. Is He a “centrist,” some of the best of both? NO. He is God, and He could ultimately give a rip about our politics, or earning anyone’s vote or approval rating. He is concerned about HIS KINGDOM coming. And when that happens, there really IS hope, and everything really WILL change.
• Guess I’m falling into that “post-conservative” category, whatever exactly that means….
• A final thought: righteousness AND justice are the foundations of God’s throne (Psalm 89:14). I want to see, work for, and vote for, BOTH.
• Good night, and God bless America!

Random Cultural Thoughts 3: Pornogravity (and Going to Pot)

So I’ve noticed that something is very different here (in North Carolina) than in Indiana. About every gas station/convenience store you go to around here has a section of porn mags right behind the counter… covered up, of course, but quite visible, lest you not be tempted to consider buying some. At first I thought it was just one particular place, but then I noticed it at another, and another… I guess the standards or the laws or something are more relaxed here, or maybe I just never noticed such things so much in Indiana (probably not). In Indiana (and I remember in Ohio too when I lived there), somewhere along the way all that stuff got removed form gas stations and hidden higher on the shelves at Walden Books and Barnes and Noble.

Well I was at a gas station/store today, one I often go to because of location (and I like their cups for soda; they don’t get all sweaty and your diet Coke stays colder), and looked closer at the magazine rack that is NOT behind the counter, the one that you can’t help but look at as you walk in the door… and it dawned on me that most of what’s on that rack is darn near close to porn. I think someone sat down and figured out all the mags that have scantily clad humans on the front and ordered them all: Cosmo, car mags, fitness mags, something called “Shaved” (which I intentionally did not look closely at), and several I’d never heard of.

But then I noticed something else… down on the far right… Cannabis Culture? Seriously? Shouldn’t that be illegal or something? But there it was, a blatently pro-pot magazine ready for your purchase with your Coke Zero and your PayDay bar. Hmmm….

So, welcome to the world. And welcome to a new insight into the local culture of Raleigh, NC. Not only is this an issue for those not of our faith but a constant challenge for believers.

I think Jesus would want to hang out there, so I think I’ll keep going back, and keep my eyes peeled to see if I can see what the Father may be doing there….