Category - Entertainment

I do hope that this movie comes to Australia.

What Would Jesus Buy? has been doing the rounds of film festivals in the U.S. since March but it’s about to get wider release.

It follows the story of self styled anti-consumerism preacher Reverend Billy. Along with his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir he goes on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse.

From producer Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME) and director Rob VanAlkemade comes a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas. Bill Talen (aka Reverend Billy) was a lost idealist who hitchhiked to New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall. Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer’s jacket, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. Since 1999, Reverend Billy has gone from being a lone preacher with a portable pulpit preaching on subways, to the leader of a congregation and a movement whose numbers are well into the thousands.

Through retail interventions, corporate exorcisms, and some good old-fashioned preaching, Reverend Billy reminds us that we have lost the true meaning of Christmas. What Would Jesus Buy? is a journey into the heart of America – from exorcising the demons at the Wal-Mart headquarters to taking over the center stage at the Mall of America and then ultimately heading to the Promised Land … Disneyland.

Of course Billy’s not really a reverend and he says that he’s not a Christian but his message against consumerism as a way of life is a call to us all. In a day when even the church tries to sell us more and more stuff that we don’t need, Rev. Billy brings a welcome change.

Christian magazine, Sojourners, has taken a look at the movie and at Billy and has welcomed his voice of reason amongst the vast crowd calling for our dollars.

The divine judgment Rev. Billy pronounces concerns a condemnation of religion that has been “hijacked” by the right wing, the resignation that we have “nothing to love but fear itself,” and the self-deceptive illusion that commodities can make us safe and happy. The shopping he assaults is seen to be an ideological practice whereby we keep “the demons in the zoo.” All of that will come to a sorry end for which he uses the term “shopocalypse,” a play on “apocalypse,” that imagined end of the world in a divine judgment as a great conflagration. Like every good poet, Billy has no interest in when or how that may happen, but only a conviction that this ideology that drives our society can only end in failure and raw disappointment.

There may well be parts of this movie that make me feel uncomfortable, especially as it parodies the Christian church, but from what I’ve seen so far, it is more about holding a mirror up to the excesses of the church than ridiculing Jesus Christ.

With Christmas so rapidly approaching I wonder whether you’ll be taking steps to get off the spending merry-go-round. Will you be spending the first half of 2008 paying off the last month of 2007? What are some of the strategies you use to put a bit of sense back into the Christmas season?

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: What Would Jesus Buy – Reverend Billy – Consumerism

… this is privately owned.

I first watched True Stories back in the mid eighties when it was released. Hard to believe that it’s over twenty years old.

It’s a very odd movie.

David Byrne of the band Talking Heads put it together and described it as a multi-purpose movie. I suppose that’s one way to say that it’s impossible to describe.

Pauline bought me the DVD of True Stories for my birthday back in July and we finally got around to sitting down to watch it together last night.

I think I appreciated it a lot more this time around and can’t wait to watch it again. I’m looking forward to watching the performance of the Talking Heads song Wild Wild Life again with the stereo turned up to eleven. The kids were in bed when we were watching last night so I couldn’t crank it up as loud as I would have liked.

It’s so random.

The following description from Wikipedia explains the movie reasonably well but I think only those who have seen it will ever truly understand.

The film features Byrne as an unnamed, cowboy-hat-wearing stranger who visits the fictional Texas town of Virgil, where he observes the citizens as they prepare for the Celebration of Special-ness, sponsored by the Varicorp Corporation.

Among the unique individuals the stranger meets is Louis Fyne, played by John Goodman – a Country-Western-singing clean room technician at a local computer manufacturing plant who is unlucky in love. He also encounters: town leader Earl Culver (played by performance artist Spalding Gray), who never speaks directly to his wife; Miss Rollings (Swoosie Kurtz), who never leaves her bed; Mr. Tucker (Pops Staples of The Staple Singers), a voodoo practitioner who Louis hires to
help him find love; a conspiracy theorist preacher (John Ingle); Ramon (played
by musician Tito Larriva), who claims telepathic powers; and a character billed
only as “The Lying Woman” (Jo Harvey Allen), who recounts fantastic episodes
from her history to anyone present. Renowned Latin music legend Esteban “Steve”
Jordan and his conjunto perform a song in the film as well.

If you’re looking for a slightly strange evening, grab yourself a copy of True Stories …. and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Talking Heads – David Byrne – True Stories

Sorry for posting something that’s only of interest to readers in Perth but I’m trying to reach as many people as I can.

You may be unaware that for some time now I have been involved with Citizen Advocacy Eastern Suburbs (CAES). I am currently serving as a member of the management committee.

Citizen Advocacy has been promoting and protecting the welfare and interests of people with disabilities in Perth since 1980.

CAES has undertaken to sell the 2007/2008 Entertainment Book as a fundraising exercise and orders are now being taken. This is a great way to raise funds and at the same time reward you with some outstanding savings. If you took advantage of every voucher in the book you would receive over $10 000 in valuable offers. Even using just a handful of the vouchers will more than make up for the cost of the book.

The books are $60.00 each and if you’re interested you can email me and I’ll forward you an order form. (Click my Gmail address button in the left hand sidebar.)

Supporting this effort would be most helpful for CAES, and I’d be extremely grateful for your help. Please feel free to forward details to friends and family who may be interested.

I do hope you can help.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Technorati Tags: Citizen Advocacy – Fund Raising – Entertainment Book