Brother Skip Heller brings us the good news

[ritaxis]

skipheller says that if Christianity was all like this, he'd be a believer.

Hell, I'm a believer -- not in Christianity, but I believe in Sister Rosetta Tharpe and I believe in laying down the sword and shield and I believe in rocking out for the love of man and the universe and also, now, I believe in Skip Heller.

In related news, I have been having the world's best radio luck. All week I keep running into Gillian Welch's "Elvis Blues" which is the best piece of expository anything I've run into for a long time -- as good an explanation of American culture in its three minutes as "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is in its what, 90 minutes or whatever. And hauntingly beautiful. I have nearly learned the song. I can't stop thinking about it or singing it. Friday morning, on KPIG, I heard not one but two shit-kicking songs about Impressionist painters. Friday night, on the Robert Louis Stephenson School's student radio program, I heard this wonderful song about a crazy guy who thinks the woman on the billboard is his girlfriend and I don't mean the one about the woman on the billboard wearing nothing but a beach towel and a smile -- this was about real, dangerous, sad insanity blowing up in a person's face with cops and reporters and broken bottles. Googling fails me -- either the band or the song is called "Pablo Picasso" or "Citizen Coke" -- or something that sounds like that -- maybe it was a local kids' band. And today I caught the tail end of a Fresh Air interview with an author, and I thought "That sounds like Stephen McCauley," and so when I parked I just waited to hear more and it was, and the reason Terry Gross was interviewing him is that he has a new book out. Yay Steven McCauley! I think it's called Alternatives to Sex.

He said he feels guilty because every time Jennifer Aniston gets in the news for her unhappy personal life, the film of "The Object of My Affections" is shown on tv, and he the book sells a few more copies.

Comments

Christianity

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

True Christians know you are supposed to be humble and happy at the promise of salvation, not vicious, in your face, wrathful, and self-righteous. They know that Jesus commanded if someone wouldn't accept you or Christ, you were to shake the dust from your feet and move along, not hit them over the head with a sledgehammer. Unfortunately this means the demagogues, the self-aggrandizers, the bombasts, and the wicked at heart posing as Christians are the ones who are loudest and get the most attention.

[ckd]

Citizen Cope, perhaps?

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Yes! (http://www.citizencope.com/home.cfm#) Yes, that's it . . . I'm listening to "Bellet and a Target" now. It turns out to be a person, not a band.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. I'm listening to one of his tracks now.

Once I get my new computer, I'll be able to do more downloading of music, especially now I've got my iPod working with the car stereo.