My new week’s resolution was to post less YouTube.
This video killed that almost straight away.
Bonus. This Wolverine v Hand graphic novel/video thing is cool.
Wolverine Vs The Hand from Gary Shore on Vimeo.
Both are from one cool thing a day.
Category: Culture
Liveblog: The King of Limbs: My first listen
Sometimes all-caps are ok. King of Limbs is out early. Get it. Got it. Good. Lets talk (in the comments).
Slight language warning on this one… sadly it’s the line that made me choose this song to accompany this post.
“You want me, well come on and break the door down.”
Here’s my liveblog of the first listen to King Of Limbs (a title that sounds a little bit like a Stephen King novel):
Track 1: Bloom
Opens with weird rhythm. By the middle of the track the beat is starting to sound a little like raindrops on a tin roof or something. Not as listenable as early Radiohead, but typical of anything post Hail to the Thief (and by that I mean In Rainbows and Thom Yorke’s The Eraser. The raindrop effect is a little emphasised towards the end where the sound is dramatically similar to actual rain. Albeit electronic rain.
Track 2: Morning Mr Magpie
Guitars. Actual guitars. Possibly looped on something computeresque. It sounds like a proper song. Robyn says it sounds like they put an ADHD kid on the drums. Better than Bloom. I reckon. Sounds like a bit of theremin in the background. Guitar riff at one point reminds me of one of my favourite Radiohead songs. I Might Be Wrong. Though, I might be wrong.
So far it sounds like the album is set in a creepy garden.
Track 3: Little by Little
More guitars, slightly Beck-like drums. A little bit acoustic. Moving closer towards “radio single” territory. But still not quite there. Still a bit of weirdness. Sounds like some of the instruments are kitchen implements.
“Little by little, by hook or by crook… I’m such a tease and you’re such a flirt”
Very layered. I like this one best of the three. So far. I think. So does Robyn.
Track 4: Feral
Almost immediately reminds me of Like Spinning Plates. But, Like Spinning Plates performed by a DJ having some sort of fit.
This album, so far, is probably the love child of Amnesiac and In Rainbows. Neither of which are my favourite Radiohead albums – but both of which have their place. I liked it better when Radiohead were angsty loners desperate to be loved. Not self-assured loners determined to be weird.
Track 5: Lotus Flower
Robyn asks “have you played much Radiohead to me” – I have to confess “not much, but I’ve played a lot more of their old stuff than their new stuff” – because it’s true. I’d much rather play the stuff that I don’t have to explain liking than the stuff I do. We sing their old stuff on SingStar. That’s not going to happen with this album yet. But this song is nicer. Possibly single material. It’s not going to get the Sports Tonight airplay that Muse does – I think suggestions that Muse are a wannabe Radiohead are long since dead.
This song is much, much, nicer. Almost pleasant. Robyn says “they all sound the same”… this one is Bjork meets Sigur Ros.
You can watch the official clip for Lotus Flower on YouTube (which to me suggests this is the single). Thom Yorke dances like a crazy man.
When you click through to watch that on YouTube it only has 310 views. So you feel like one of the early, special, few. But it has more than 5,000 likes. Methinks something is amiss.
Track 6: Codex
Some keys. Nice. And wind chime sounds. More keys. Space age keys. A little haunting. And then an Oasisesque lyrical opening. Yorke’s voice almost sounds like Liam Gallagher in that song he did with Death In Vegas (Scorpio Rising) {youtube link}… for about a second. Robyn says “this one belongs closer to the realm of music. I really like it. Best track so far.
Track 7: Give Up The Ghost
We’re back in the garden. Birdsongs. Acoustic guitar. With rhythmic slaps. Closer to the category of “easy listening” than anything else so far. Lilting and haunting. Ghosty. Which I guess fits with the title.
Track 8: Separator
Hard to define. Much less sonically busy than the other tracks. Perhaps more optimistic.
“If you think this is over then you’re wrong”
One can only hope that they are talking about their career.
Summing up: This could well be a horror album (like a horror movie) – not a horrible album (though there are people who think that horror movies are by nature horrible). The title, and the tone of the first few tracks, is, as I mentioned, a little Stephen King. As is the graphic on the album website.
It’s a challenging album – full of the stuff that makes people not like Radiohead, but also showcasing why it is that they’re a polarising force and the verdict isn’t unanimous. Yorke’s voice is enthralling. They have the ability to create a mood and a reaction like no other band I’ve ever heard. Unless “fairy floss pink” is a mood – in which case U2 is blessed with similar abilities.
When the final track clicked over in iTunes and “My Iron Lung” started playing – I’ve got to admit – I miss the old Radiohead. But the new Radiohead is still better than 90% of the music being produced these days anyway. So I’ll stick with what they’re giving rather than sticking with nothing at all.
The King of Limbs reminded me of the only Stephen King book I’ve actually read.
Censoring John 3:16
The Superbowl. Watched by millions. For the ads. American Football is a commercial juggernaut. They pause play for ads (they do this in Aussie Rules too). The Superbowl regularly features big budget advertising blockbusters. They don’t necessarily steal the show. But they go close.
This year a group of Christians decided they wanted a slice of the Superbowl action. So they produced an ad, and booked a slot, and the broadcaster decided to turn the ad down. They didn’t want anybody being offended by a religious ad. And this is in a nation that prides itself on its Christian heritage.
Here’s the ad.
There’s not a lot in there that’s offensive. It’s pretty clever. The website is nice. The ad, at the time of writing, has been viewed by 300,000 people (approximately) on YouTube – a far cry from the millions who would have tuned in on the day, but at least the producers are getting some benefit for their efforts.
This, friends, is why we shouldn’t be kicking up a stink and trying to get atheist bus ads pulled. What goes around comes around. If we’ve got truth on our side – what have we to fear from other voices being heard in the marketplace of ideas so long as we can put our side of the story out as well. Now we may not be able to do either – because if they can’t show an ad like that in America, what are the chances of similar decisions being made by TV networks in the rest of the world?
Here’s a New York Times article on the fiasco which again goes to show that the ad wasn’t wasted – when was the last time a major newspaper ran a verse from the Bible as the second par of a news story?
The ad’s producer Larry Taunton had this to say about his motives:
“Corporate America uses its creativity and millions of dollars to come up with 30-second blasts to get you to buy a beer or Coke or tennis balls… Last year, as I began to reflect on this, I thought, ‘If I had 30 seconds to speak to a billion people, what would I say?’”
What would you say?
I ought to have known about “What you ought to know”
I don’t have to worry about the is-ought fallacy anymore when it comes to “What You Ought To Know” because I now know “What I Ought To Know” so things is as they is, and they is as they ought to be.
Remi v Ronaldo
Ronaldo retired this week. The real Ronaldo. Not the Portugese imitation. Check out this video of football tricks featuring Remi Gaillard and Ronaldo.
Real Life Mario Kart
This is one of the better Mario Kart in real life videos I’ve seen.
But, perhaps, not as good as Remi Gaillard’s version.
And look, there’s a sequel…
Hat tip to Scott who posted the top video on Facebook.
Tumblrweed: Who is Arcade Fire (also, some good music)
This performance apparently redeemed the Grammy Awards in many people’s eyes.
Though, many people were disappointed that Justin Bieber lost out to Arcade Fire. Many people. Not including me. So many people had not heard of Arcade Fire that this tumblr posting responses to their win was spawned (strong language warning over there).
There was a bit of confusion about the name of the band v the name of the album.
Ice Scream
I like this.
I have an inflatable scream doll somewhere. I’m thinking I might take him on the road and recreate the painting wherever I go.
From Tastefully Offensive.
Explaining online relationships
Here’s a handy guide to the people you meet on the Internet.
I think I’d like most of my online relationships to fall somewhere between columns 2 and 4. Column 7 is just scary.
From Pamorama. I think Steve from Communicate Jesus may have tweeted this, so I tip my hat to him. And urge you to follow his blog (and his tweets)
Dr Who: By infographic
Do you like Dr Who? I don’t really. I have some bizarre childhood memories of how scary daleks were – but haven’t really gotten into the modern resurrections of the time lord. Sacrilege, I know. So here’s a handy cheat sheet via the Internet…
From ForeverGeek – though I think I saw it at DavidOuld.net.
Building Utopia: An artistic exercise in inappropriate literalism
Rory Macbeth, an artist, thought building Thomas More’s Utopia was such a brilliant concept he decided to take it somewhat literally. He spray painted every single word of the hundred page novel on this condemned building.
New Radiohead: The King of Limbs
Radiohead’s new album The King of Limbs is available for preorder online. I’ll get a piece of that. You?
Tumblrweed: On restaurant websites
Hot on the heals of this comic from The Oatmeal…
Comes this Tumblr “Never said about restaurant websites”
Featuring examples like this:
“Good to know that your site is still under construction. I’m also glad you didn’t strain anything trying to publish your phone number along with that critical status update. Baby steps!”
“I think it shows how unique and progressive your restaurant is when you use 90% of the screen area for your theme and ambiance, and 10% for the information I actually came to your site for.”
“Thank you for the looped audio music on your website. It made the time I spent trying to find your phone number and address more bearable and eased my pain when the link to your menu was broken.”
You know what “industry” has worse websites than restaurants? Churches. That’s who. Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.
See also: this XKCD comic…
Steve “the Mad Drummer” Moore
Aaran sent me this video.
So I watched a few more. This guy should get together with the Mystery Guitar Man.
This one has over eight million views.
It seems he’s a viral sensation – there’s even a Star Wars edit…
And a metal version…
In which the author considers the types of videos he shares from YouTube
For a moment, just a fleeting second, on Tuesday, I had a pang of conscience. I post a lot of videos here that I loosely categorise as “Christians doing stupid stuff and posting it on the Internet”… I was wondering why it is I post such videos. The other sites that do it seem to do it because they don’t like Christianity very much. But that’s not me. I love Christianity. I love the church. I love broken and stupid people trying to serve God with their gifts. And yet. I watch a video like this:
And I think “I just need to post that” – I didn’t post that video on Tuesday, and I only post it now, because it illustrates a point. Stripped of context that video is really dumb. In context, it’s an instructional video for a holiday kids club (judging by the title) that I assume has been uploaded to YouTube to cut down on pointless time in leaders meetings. A nobel aim. One that should be applauded (there are “private video” settings on YouTube though – which are probably more suitable for this sort of thing).
There are Christian videos online, and there are videos from “Christian Culture”… and there are those that just brilliantly highlight what is wrong with some of the parasites that have attached themselves to Christian culture…
Others just contain laughably bad theology.
So, I felt a little guilty about laughing at brothers and sisters in Christ. I thought “people laughed at Noah when he was building an ark, just because something looks stupid doesn’t mean it is.”
Then. I read this post on the Dilbert Blog by Scott Adams called the mockability test. And it kind of summed up why I think we need to call out Christians when they do ridiculous stuff. And lets face it. If God hadn’t directly said to Noah “build an ark I’m going to flood this place” – it would have been pretty ridiculous to build a massive ark and start collecting pairs of animals (I might be looking at you, creation museum builders).
Here’s a snapshot from the Dilbert article:
“I have a theory that some sort of mockability test would work like a lie detector in situations where confirmation bias is obscuring an underlying truth. In other words, if you believed that hard work often leads to success, and yet I could easily make jokes about it, that would be a contradiction, or a failure of the mockability test. And it would tell you that confirmation bias was clouding your perceptions. To put it in simpler terms, if a humorist can easily mock a given proposition, then the proposition is probably false, even if your own confirmation bias tells you otherwise.”
What I really want, when I post these videos, is for any of my readers who are interested in seeing the gospel being spread to their neighbours to take stock – and make sure that everybody in any of their flocks, spheres of influence, or family, avoids doing stuff that makes Christians a laughing stock.
The cards are stacked against us as it is with our counter-cultural gospel without us building extra obstacles onto our culture. You know the type of obstacle I’m talking about. The type that makes it look like being a Christian requires twirling flags around and speaking in tongues, or being completely off your face (though I’d put those people in the “calling out heretics” category not in the “hey this is slightly wacky” category), or just looking like an idiot. And I want non-Christian readers to go “yeah, those people are on the fringe of Christianity and converting doesn’t mean I have to have a lobotomy”…
So that’s why I’m going to keep posting videos of Christians doing dumb stuff on the internet. Because family members do dumb stuff all the time – and it’s loving to call them out on it in the hope that they’ll stop. It’s tough love.
What do you think? Should we be mocking videos of Christians, or people calling themselves Christians, doing stupid stuff? Are there reasons I haven’t considered for, or against, my argument?