Things I Am Thinking About: Jesus in Hollywood, Fall Out Boy, John McCain Getting Booed, Court Cases Involving Rap Lyrics

Three things of note, one thing of footnote, bits of sarcasm, poorly suppressed elitist baggage.

Fellow former communication majors take note: Two weeks ago Religion & Ethics Newsweekly ran a panel discussion on Christians and Hollywood from the Tribeca Film Festival. Everyone's favorite famous Hollywood Christian Ralph Winter was there. Also, Cuba Gooding, Jr. It's an interesting and rather frank talk about this new rush to produce films that cater to people of faith. They have the transcript online, but you should watch the entire clip just to get the full effect; especially to experience how lame Cuba's jokes are. Sorry Cuba.

Speaking of jokes, this one is not. (A joke, that is.) It seems there's a mom out there who really hates the crap-band Fall Out Boy. Not because they're crap though, but because the show she took her daughters to was like "some liberal homosexual rally." Pete Wentz, one of the crap-band members, retorted that the his show "is not a liberal homosexual rally, but at the same time, it will never be a Ku Klux Klan rally." Score one for the war of words! Or war of birds. Or, come to think of it, war of things I don't really care about.

If that weren't enough to make me hate both liberals and conservatives, John McCain went and got himself booed during his commencement address at the New School in New York City whilst trying to defend his country's presence in Iraq. During the speech, some of the students and faculty stood up and turned their backs on the man, lofting signs that read, "Our commencement is not your platform."

Apparently it was their platform, goddammit.

Upon further review, I have decided that all platforms should be destroyed as soon as possible. That way, neither Cuba Gooding, Jr., nor rude New Schoolers, nor silly misinformed mothers who fail to do a little research before they take their kids to a rock show can ever embarrass themselves or my fellow human beings ever again.

In other news, Ludacris and Kanye are being sued by this one rap group for using a hip-hop rhythm, a call-and-response chorus, and the lyrics "like that" in their song "Stand Up." This one rap group claims that they recorded a song with all three of those things a couple of years ago, and they want some just compensation.

Apparently this one rap group has never listened to the radio, watched MTV or lived outside of Connecticut. Apparently they invented the hip-hop single and everyone else has been reaping the benefits. Apparently they've never heard rap music in general.

But seriously, watch Cuba's video.

(EDIT: If you care to care, the Cuba video, while down for a time, is back up on the PBS website.)