Dean's Thoughts on Entertainment

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Corrupt Christian Music

I have been Soapboxing on Christians a lot lately and I was planning on taking a break, but George (Check his site for more bashing) showed me a site that was so poor that it was almost funny. The existence of Christians like this make me ashamed to advertise my faith, and their mindless blabbing insults the entire community of Christians. The site is www.corruptchristianmusic.com which is dedicated to debunking the spiritual value of every Christian artist in existence. Here are some quotes about Christian artist Toby Mac

"Sometimes it is said McKeehan didn't grow up in a Christian home, but instead spent his younger days as a DJ for parties - so whenever and if he was ever saved, it is obvious that he didn't completely turn from his past, "denying self" as Jesus requires." Typos Corrected by me

So the site calls into question his very salvation, which is an extremely poor judgment call.

"The country of Jamaica is said to be the birthplace of the cult, Rastafarianism and Reggae music. Jamaica is loved by Toby and is what he calls his second home. Here we are going to show some unmistakable connections with Reggae music, a genre which is completely founded in the cult, Rastafarianism." - Typos corrected by Me

Jamaica as a whole is corrupt, and all Reggae is evil because of its possible origins.

They have a section dedicated to showing the evil in the bands that Christian artists mention as musical influences, which in part makes them evil.

"R.E.M - Lead singer Michael Stipe is an admitted bisexual, and it is rumored that he is infected with AIDS. Their music is vain, and has no purpose. They even have song titles like 'Loosing My Religion'" - Typos Left in by Me

Michael Stipe has admitted to being Bi-Sexual however the AIDS rumor is not only like 10 years old, but entirely untrue. As for "Losing My Religion" it is a well-published fact that the song has nothing to do with Religion.

The site is chock full of these typoed, poorly thought out, and unresearched thoughts, that only serve to damage the reputations of the Christian artists that they find. Check this Typo "Lynard Synard's". Lynyrd Skynyrd's picture was right next to the paragraph yet he continues to misspell is multiple times in various ways. The site is so bad, that I thought is was satire, and when I realized that it wasn't I was shocked. The #1 condemnation is that the artists are offering a watered down gospel, yet nowhere is there an indication of what would be an unwatered down gospel. I assume that anything less than singing the actual text of the Bible would be watered down, and for the artist to be in any way interested in the musical performance of style of the band would be entirely ungodly. This site is so repellent that it is an interesting read, I find it sad that these people exist, and their ignorance is almost comical. Like when he bashed Michael W. Smith because girls yelled for him at one of his shows. As if he controlled that, and as if it was meant as an act of Idol worship or something.

"His concerts draw hundreds of thousands of fans each year, mostly teenage girls who SCREAM out their AFFECTION FOR HIM non-stop throughout " - Bold His

Or how about this one.

"From the facts we'll present, P.O.D. proves to be pagan, occultic and part of every evil, satanic thing."

So we can tell without doubt that P.O.D are not only Christian but are in fact Satanic...Wow.

Oh but there is more.

"The "Amplitude" web site is full of trance music and advertises the game with the following statements, notice words like "addictive", "senses", "beat", "release yourself" and the worldly, ungodly artists this game is featuring"

"this very demonic game "

Amplitude is a music mixing game. P.O.D. contributed music to the game. This makes them Demonic. Its a rhythm game, there is nothing tamer than that. I don't know what else to say. And since when are the words "Beat" and "Senses" demonic. Oh wait they explain that too.

"We're going to take some time here to concentrate on the subject of rhythm and beat as it relates to new age, which includes an ancient occultic practice called shamanism, a form of witchcraft. We'll show who currently uses rhythm
and beat and for what purposes."

So any use of "Rhythm" would then be evil, because cults use "Rhythms". Man I hope those cults don't get their hands on some water. What would we do then?

Read the site for some more, every page I looked at was worth blasting. I could do this all day.

Oh and just in case this guy above reads my blog, I wanted to give him reasons to dismiss my salvation. Read On.

Q Magazine



I asked to be subscribed to Q magazine this year for Christmas and my mother signed me up although she regretted it after she realized the cost once transferred from Euros to U.S. Dollars. So I am trying to appreciate this year that I will be receiving the best Rock & Roll magazine available. If you haven’t checked one out head to your closest Borders or Barnes and Nobles and pick one up. The magazine is packed with features and articles much more than my Rolling Stone which is full of ads (although Rolling Stone is like a quarter an issue so I am not complaining) I have been very happy with it, although I have some bug complaints about two bands that they included in the Top 50 bands that changed the world. One is that they put the Strokes in the list at #29. The Strokes haven’t affected a thing yet, and I don’t think we will be looking back and 10 years and thinking about where we would be without them. They are a disposable rock group, and shouldn’t have been placed above anyone on the list but especially the likes of Pink Floyd, Parliament Funkadelic, Beastie Boys, Metallica, and Blondie. I was dumbfounded when I read that. And almost worse, although that probably isn’t possible is that they selected The Sex Pistols as the #1 band that changed the world. All of you sit back and try to think of a Sex Pistols song. Now that Dave has one in his mind and no when else I think we have debunked that one. To think they impacted the world more than any other band is mind-boggling, and that a Punk band would top the list is just as poor. Who cares about Punk, Punk is as dead as a musical genre can be. And if you are going to put Punk as the most influential musical genre in existence at least give the headlining honor to the number #17 band The Ramones. Although credit should be given to Q for including R.E.M in the top #20, it has been somewhat popular lately to forget to honor R.E.M in the rock lists of my many Magazines.

Suspiria



I picked this DVD up because it was a numbered limited edition 3-dvd set that looked very promising that would either be good or profitable to sell. I was wrong on both counts. It was an awful movie and I will probably only make 2-3 bucks selling it. The movie was one of those “Banned in the US” movies that came out while the Film industry was trying to figure out its stance on blood in movies, which then made it a cult classic. But it doesn’t deserve it. The horror theory of the movie was that the movie would open with a freakish and sudden bloody scene and then would keep the audience on edge as to when the next grisly murder would occur. While the theory is sound you have to have more than 4 horror sequences in your movie to make it work. The gaps between scary scenes were about 30 minutes long and were populated with one of the worst horror movie stories ever thought up, and the only thing that was done to keep you freaked out was a spooky soundtrack. The soundtrack is definitely the highlight of the film, but when it is playing during mundane events like swimming in the pool and walking around in the daylight the intensity of the music is greatly diminished. As for the horror sequences themselves the first one was great and set the bar high for the rest which weren’t even half as scary as the first, and the ending climax was so rushed you could tell that the budget must have run out, or the writers quit before the movie was finished. I have almost nothing good to say about this movie, the soundtrack was good but was abused, that’s about it. Don’t watch this unless you have to, which CJ tells me he does. Maybe his film background will see something I didn’t but most likely he will be equally disappointed or maybe even more so since he isn’t as big a horror fan as I am. Anyway he’ll probably have a review up in a week or so.

Two Classics

I scored these both cheap in pawn shops and was extremely happy, especially because I was interested in the features included on the two-disc sets. Both of them are excellent demonstrations of powerful dramatic acting with solid performances by everyone in the cast. Both of these should be seen, and although Glengary Glen Ross won’t excite everyone Unforgiven is the greatest Western ever made and Clint Eastwood’s finest work.

Glengary Glen Ross



A drama about a Real-Estate sales office that begins to unravel when the office begins to hold onto the hot leads until some of the veteran salesmen start pulling their weight. The tensions run high, and the performances were unlike any I have seen in a drama. Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, and Ed Harris all light up the screen and changed the way I view them as actors. Highly recommended, although probably better for film people who can stomach Drama without as much of the fluff.

Unforgiven



The definitive western that pretty much closed the book on Westerns forever. Clint Eastwood is an aging gunslinger who hasn’t touched a gun in years and has since lived a peaceful farm life with his family. When his wife dies and the animals start to get sick he takes up an offer for a bounty job and brings along his old cowboy friend, the also aging Morgan Freeman. Gene Hackman is the chilling sheriff who is protecting the mark of Eastwood’s bounty. The writing and directing is flawless, and the ending is extremely memorable. I would insist that everyone watch and then buy this one.

Personal Note

I have been invited to be a critic for an upcoming TV show; I don’t know what show or even what kind although since it is a 30 minute show I am guessing a Sitcom. If I am allowed to print my opinions for you I will write up a review this weekend. I am excited about the opportunity although I don’t know how I was selected for the event. It might have been this Blog, or for the Movie Preview Reviews I do, or maybe my name was selected from a hat and I am making a big deal out of it. Either way I get to go out for free, and that’s good enough.