Saving Christmas from the $hopocalypse

Thursday, December 10, 7 p.m. at The Armory Center for the Arts

Attention holiday shoppers! Conscientious Projector invites you to join Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a barnstorming bus tour of the U.S.A. to free humankind from consumerism and break the bonds of eternal debt. What Would Jesus Buy?– an outrageous but serious-minded docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas–will be shown on Thursday, December 10, 7 p.m. at The Armory Center for the Arts.

Producer Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME) teams with performance artist/activist Bill Talen (Reverend Billy) and director Rob VanAlkemade to chronicle the satirical protest troupe’s cross-country mission to raise awareness of the impact of over-consumption on our lives, our world and our experience of gift-giving at what is supposed to be the most sacred time of the year. Bill McKibben, Rev. Jim Wallis and many other social critics serve as a Greek chorus as Reverend Billy and his cohorts take us through a journey of revival-style meetings, guerilla theater retail store interventions, corporate exorcisms and the most spontaneous Main Street Parade Disneyland has ever seen. Changeluia!

Tom Coston is going to serve as our facilitator for “What Would Jesus Buy?” Tom brought Reverend Billy, of “What Would Jesus Buy?” here a couple years ago as the Grand Marshal of the Doo Dah Parade.

Thanks to Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Theaters program for their support of this event. The Armory is located at 145 N. Raymond in Old Pasadena. Admission is free and the facility is accessible to disabled persons. For more information, contact Marty Coleman at 626.792.4941 or visit www.wwjbmovie.com.

Until fairly recently,  “Black Friday” was associated with crisis and scandal. In 1869,  stocks plunged when a group of speculators, headed by James Fisk and Jay Gould, cornered the gold market and inflated prices by nearly 30 percent. When the government put it’s own gold on the market, the premium plummeted within minutes. Investors scrambled to sell their holdings. Many were ruined in a matter of minutes.

In 1965, “Black Friday” took on new meaning when the Philadelphia Police Department used the phrase to describe the year’s busiest shopping day, the Friday after Thanksgiving Day.  It is not a term of endearment for them. “Black Friday” officially opens the Christmas shopping season, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as stores are mobbed from opening to closing.

Last year alone, Americans spent $41 billion — $372.57 per shopper — on this one frenzied day. Good news for the economy, but bad news for citizens. We’re all familiar with the images of people waiting in line for hours in the cold and trampling each other, sometimes fatally, to be the first ones inside. At a Long Island Wal-Mart last year, employee Jdimytai Damour was stomped to death as the throng of product-hungry shoppers stormed the store.

Buy Nothing Day, an international day of protest, was created  to counter this mad dash for the shelves. Founded in 1992 by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by Adbusters magazine, Buy Nothing Day urges participants to “lock up your debit card, your credit cards, your money clip and see what it feels like to opt out of consumer culture completely, even if only for 24 hours.” The event has become a yearly rallying cry for hundreds of thousands of activists around world who still believe that Black Friday is marred in crisis.

On this week’s show, I’ll be speaking with Rev. Billy, an outspoken performance-activist who resists consumerism with the Church of Life After Shopping. The Morgan Spurlock produced film What Would Jesus Buy? documents the Church’s cross-country tour denouncing the commercialization of Christmas, materialism, and over-consumption in American culture. We”ll talk about consumerism, how it rules our lives and economy, and it’s consequences for ourselves and our Planet.

Tune in Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 8pm for an hour of funk, jazz-fusion & their more experimental offshoots, then at 9pm for the show.

Music on the show (in order played)

“Cut That City” by The Mars Volta

“The Extinction Agenda” by Organized Konfusion

“Beatitudes of Buylessness” by Rev. Billy & The Church of Life After Shopping

“Remove Starbucks & Disney” by Rev. Billy & The Church of Life After Shopping

“Behind The Wall of Sleep” by Black Sabbath

————-

Music Hour: Jazz-fusion, funk, and their more experimental offshoots (in order played):

“Spanish Key” by Miles Davis

“Snoopy’s Search/Red Baron” by Billy Cobham

“Peel This Strip and Fold Here” by Candiria

“Faction” by Candiria

“Sanctuary” by The Mahavishu Orchestra

“That Which Survives” by Ghosts of the Canal

“Oh Yeah” by Can

“Resolution” by The Mahavishnu Orchestra

Goddamn.

When the Chop started up earlier this week, we wanted to make a blog to tell you what we’re actually doing. We really are running wild in the streets now, and life moves faster than the speed of blog.

You won’t read any posts here about how the Chop sat on the couch all day and watched football and played with his cat and did the dishes. That’s not how we roll.

We’ve got the opposite problem, at least this week. We’re having a hard time picking events, and don’t know whether to drop them all on you in one post, or separate posts.

First things first though. And by first, we mean tonight.

What would Jesus buy? Sandals. Or a PS3.

Tonight the Chop will be showing up early to catch happy hour and secure a good seat at the Windup Space for a free screening of What Would Jesus Buy? , presented by the Action! Film Series.
The screening comes just in time for the kickoff of Christmas Shopping season too. With each passing year though, the Chop favors Christmas shopping less and less. The truth is that the Chop’s family members are all quite content, and at this point in life anything we could give or receive from close friends and family is little more than a token.

There’s also the fact that last year we celebrated Christmas in Freetown, Sierra Leone, drinking fifty cent beers, listening to steel drums at a street festival on a balmy night. Nothing like an African Xmas for a little perspective.

There’s also some business about a discussion afterward with representatives from local businesses, but we’re thinking we might just slide out early on that. After all, we’re taking the Part Time Professor as our date, and she’ll likely be impressed by the new furniture at the house, since she did sit on lawn chairs in the living room last time she was here.

I’m impressed by that furniture too. Its a wonder I even go out at all anymore… especially since I could stay at home and watch the whole movie for free online
at snagfilms.com.

Though City Councilman Tony Avella and “Reverend” Billy Talen have an uphill battle to beat Goliath this fall, they’re banking on grassroots dissent against Bloomberg to propel their bids for office. > By Jarrett Murphy

Full Story

You can come out tomorrow night (Wednesday July, 1st)  at 7pm and train for a half an hour at Reverend Billy Headquarters to gather petitions to get him on the Ballot! VoteRevBilly.Org

Reverend Billy Talen – A Voice For Every New Yorker!

A Voice for the Neighborhoods! A Voice for Coney Island! A Voice for Union Square! A Voice for you 1st Amendment Rights! A Voice for an uncommercialized New York City with an emphasis on environmental responsibility!

Local SoHo neighborhood businessmen and supporters of the Vote Rev Billy campaign for New York City Mayor on the Green Party ticket.

As Mayor of New York City, Rev Billy Talen wants to represent Richard St. Arromand.

As Mayor of New York City, Rev Billy Talen wants to represent Lamont Hutchinson.

All photographs are copyright of the Reverend Billy For Mayor Campaign and are used in good faith without permission. Please Contact the Blog owner if there is any infringement.

I’m not sure how I’m feeling about the new United Methodist advertising campaign.

Fellow blogger  and UMC deepthinker Dan Dick calls it revisionist.  A Vandy student wasn’t as polite about it and told him that the ads lack credibility and  ”there’s not one authentic thing in anything we watched.  It seems fake…”

To be fair, I have been around United Methodists that are truly rethinking church  Just not enough.   Walk into a UMC on any given day and and chances are that there isn’t much rethinking going on.    

Anyways, I saw the above press release on Twitter.  It looks like a handful of UMCers tommorow are going to take the RETHINK CHURCH movement to the mean streets of New York City and do things like “opening car doors, hailing cabs, passing out dog treats…”

Instead of merely focusing on random acts of kindness, I would suggest the practicing of some good old Testament prophetic acts of justice.  Here are three ideas to get them  started:

1.  Do an Abbey Hoffman style raid on Wall Street; not too different from turning the tables over…

I never performed for the media. I tried to reach people. It was not acting. It was not some media muppet show. That is a cynical interpretation of history. […] Guerrilla theater is probably the oldest form of political commentary. The ideas just keep getting recycled. Showering money on Wall Street brokers was the TV-age version of driving the money changers from the temple.

2.   Go hang out with Rev. Billy. Or Jay Bakker.

Rev. Billy is a performance artist and star of What would Jesus Buy?.  Rev. Billy  and the Church of Stop Shopping choir has taken their message to the streets of New York for years now, always offering humorous confrontation with both our  consumeristic culture  and corporate greed.

Jay Bakker is the son of Jim and Tammy Faye of 80’s televangelism scandal fame.  After battling through drug issues, Jay has gone on  to found an inclusive and loving church. His journey can be seen on the TV show One Punk Under God.

If United Methodists are interesting in actually rethinking their churches–they would both be good folks to talk with.

3.  Host a worship service in the middle of Central Park and apologize for the theological failures of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

These two men are United Methodists. We owe New York and the entire world an apology. We United Methodists have simply failed the world in spiritual formation. The worst President and Vice President in aleast a generation and they  are (nominal) United Methodists.

BlogCritics.org

REVIEW
Movie Review: What Would Jesus Buy?
Written by Jordan Richardson
Published July 05, 2008

The dizzying throng bursts into Wal-Mart, tramping one another like a stampede of desperate, hungry animals. Their ire is raised at each aisle as the throng bursts forth, pouring through the rows and lanes of the box store with desperation and glazed-over pupils. Focused entirely on Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii, the throng reaches the apex of their journey and collides in a violent heap, pulling and pushing one another and forcing elderly women to the ground for a better vantage point. The fray reaches its climax when one of the blue-vested villains shouts, “We’re all out.” And that’s when all hell breaks loose…

It’s just another Christmas. The obsession over getting the perfect gift has reached a fever pitch and people are willing to do just about anything to be the Holiday Hero, even if it means acting like a complete fool.

Enter Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping. This crew of exuberant performance artists and activists has formed around the enigmatic figure of Reverend Billy (Bill Talen) and is practicing their brand of fighting the commercialism of the holidays. Using the form of revival meeting and exuberant preaching, Billy and his supporters congregate in box stores, chain stores, and on sidewalks to preach the message of “Stop shopping!”

What Would Jesus Buy? is a 2007 documentary that follows the exploits of Reverend Billy and his church as they journey to the “Promised Land” on Christmas Day. The Promised Land in this case is, of course, Disneyland. Directed by Rob VanAlkemade and produced by Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), this film is wildly funny and thought-provoking, shedding light on the enigmatic character of Reverend Billy and showing the real face of Bill Talen at the same time.

The format is that of a basic documentary, as small sound-byte organized interview segments fill the gaps between the footage of Reverend Billy and his church on their journey to Disneyland. Along the way, there is a bus accident and a few incidents that bring Billy close to being arrested. He preaches outside of a Target, for instance, and “baptizes” a baby in the spirit of anti-consumerism. Billy’s church actually has nothing to do with religion, though, and his followers simply congregate to fight the “evils” of commercialism and corporate greed using the lexicon of religious language and dogma.

The use of this religious context leads to some hilarious moments, such as when Billy “exorcises” the demons in credit cards or when he tries to pull the evil forces out of a Wal-Mart sign. His theatrics are pulled right from the sensationalized preachers of old-time evangelism and he plays the role perfectly. The church behind him is generally comprised of ordinary folk dressed in choir uniforms, all of them fully behind The Good Reverend in his quest to stop the “Shopocalypse.”

What Would Jesus Buy? centers around the idea of returning meaning to Christmas, adding quickly that any “meaning” from the holiday does not need to be centered around a religious belief but rather around a belief in the possibility of peace. After featuring footage of the dizzying spectacle of holiday shopping and highlighting stories of individuals obsessed with it (like the disturbing display of a young woman with an entire closet filled with clothing and accessories for her dog or the story of a store employee spit on and cursed out by an elderly woman for not having the right game system in stock), the documentary attempts to show that there is another way to celebrate the holidays.

“You don’t have to buy a gift to give a gift,” Reverend Billy opines outside of a shopping mall.

In this day and age of obsession over consumption and of Christmas spending reaching thousands of dollars a person, Reverend Billy’s simple message is needed more than ever.

North America is spiralling into debt, with literally trillions of credit card debt hovering over us like a dark cloud. Perhaps the only thing that can save us from the Shopocalypse is a credit card exorcism and a little simplicity. In that regard, What Would Jesus Buy? gets things just about right. Besides, who can argue with the ridiculously funny visual of Mickey Mouse on a cross?

http://www.popsyndicate.com/site/story/what_would_jesus_buy

Thought-provoking questions about the commercialization of Christmas are drowned out by some silly antics and a lack of emotional appeal in this much-too-long documentary.

What Would Jesus Buy

I hate Christmas. No, I’m not the Grinch. The holiday itself is a beautiful thing. I like to spend it with people I care about – not necessarily family – and have a quiet day at home, unplugged, eating all that wonderful winter cuisine while enjoying a good Missouri snowfall that can handle a sled or tube.

What I hate is the end-of-the-year shopping madness that infects billions of Americans each year. I can’t stand to walk in a store in August and already see Santa waving at me from the front door. (What happened to All Hallow’s Eve?) And the commercials and mailed flyers and “super deals” that are actually 30 percent above the regular price drive me INSANE. I can’t believe people fall for that pricing crap and don’t finally get enough of the six-month Christmas push to boycott stores until Dec. 1, or better yet, Dec. 24, when stores are so desperate to clear out stock, they offer mega deals you won’t find even after the wrapping paper is balled in the trash can.

The commercial push to pay out for Chinese-made goods in order to be a true Christmas patron is the focus of the 2007 documentary What Would Jesus Buy? The Rev. Billy and his Stop Shopping Choir decide to take a cross-country trip from the east coast to the Promised Land – Disneyland, with an American Main Street made in China. They protest the holiday with quippy songs that use the music of traditional ones, and the reverend’s sometimes overzealous sermons that are too reminiscent of televangelists ready to suck your cash from your wallet to theirs.

Their message is clear: Save yourself from eternal debt by using cash, not credit. Don’t fall into the Shopocolypse – shopping madness. Remember the holiday for its about: Jesus. Support local businesses that provide Made in America products, not mega China-packed retailers like Wal-Mart (The evil Big Box trendsetter I refuse to shop at.), Toys R Us, and Staples. They take their message to city streets and parking lots, where security is quick to send them away, despite many people clapping and nodding their heads in support. (There are several people you can see laughing at them, too.)

When I first started watching the film, I thought it was a docucomedy – sort of the funny side of docudrama. But when the choir’s bus gets rear-ended and several people are injured, the film takes on a more serious note that made me finally realize this was real. (I also confirmed on IMDB, just in case.)

There are some funny aspects to What Would Jesus Buy? They use the Disney font for the title and subtitles, which include “Baby Bling” and “Santa 4 Sale.” The subtitles use funny, tricked out paintings to illustrate the point, like one segment with the three Magi presenting the baby Jesus with credit cards, rather than Mir, Frankincense and gold. They do on-the-street interviews with people falling rapidly into debt because of the pressure to provide the newest, hottest, best and latest gadgets for a holiday that is nothing but a consumer shopping nightmare and a store’s annual revenues salvation. I also liked the shopping confessional they set up on a street corner, where people could share their shopping sins. That was funny.

But the reverend and his posse fall into a little religious fanaticism when they call Mickey Mouse the anti-Christ and crucify him and Minnie on crosses they carry throughout city streets. Some in the choir CRY as the Rev. Billy preaches to the crowds (which made me think this was a Mad TV spoof at first.) During one segment, the reverend tells people to give him their credit cards, and he acts like he gets filled with the Holy Spirit as he is casting out the debt demons. He falls to the ground, prone from the exertion.

While there were parts that were funny, the film just didn’t offer an emotional staying power to keep me interested for more than an hour and a half. It was also too repetitive. I mean, seriously, how many malls do we have to see them get kicked out of to get it? The film could have been done in 45 minutes, max. The DVD did not offer extras, and if they really wanted to make a difference, it should have included some study guide extras for Sunday school or small group classes, discussing the pros and cons of the holiday, budgeting and supporting American businesses.

What Would Jesus Do? has a good message that just gets lost.

Film & Video > Couch Trip

Couch Trip
A man-eating vagina, a life-hating noir, badass babes on murderous missions and another Renny Harlin yawner

DVD box cover art

What Would Jesus Buy?
Arts Alliance America

It’s always been something of an irony that the pushy religious folks who crow about “the war on Christmas” aim their venom at municipalities that won’t pay for nativity scenes when, in fact, the single biggest threat to Jesus’ birthday is the mania that sets in on Black Friday and doesn’t relent until midnight on Christmas Eve. New York “preacher” Rev. Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping seems to have figured this out. This Morgan Spurlock-produced doc (directed by Rob VanAlkemade) follows the reverend around on his Christmas crusade to discourage people from losing their minds (and their souls) in pursuit of holiday overconsumption. Billy and his church are clearly more driven by the performance art and nonviolent resistance part of their proselytizing than they are by any religious imperative, but that makes it far more interesting. This is the freak that’s gotta remind people about “the reason for the season” in a way that’ll grab viewers.

VanAlekemade is smitten with the reverend, and essentially lets this film act as a video extension of the Stop Shopping Manifesto, but he also manages to draw a clear, bright line between the consumption at Christmas, the consumerism impulse that’s embedded in children by carton advertising and the debt-heavy attitude that’s screwed up the American economy. It’s a heavy message wrapped in an eye-catching package, and by the end, there’s a good chance you’ll be a new convert. —Jason Ferguson

By Sara Stewart, May 25, 2008

Last Christmas, the anti-shopping indie “What Would Jesus Buy?” made this reporter’s day. Entire season, really. So a DVD packed with more manic “Shopocalypse” goodness is a welcome release.

Reverend Billy

The documentary follows local performer Reverend Billy (Bill Talen) and his Church of Stop Shopping gospel choir as they travel around the country in the weeks before Christmas, putting on faux-evangelical shows to – as Rev. Billy puts it – “cast out the demons” at the cash register.

Big-box stores, malls and even Disneyland are fair game for the blond-coiffed Rev, who rails against the idea that December 25 has to equal massive credit-card debt or else, as one newscaster says in a clip, “it just wouldn’t be Christmas.”

“There were several hundred hours of stuff we felt was essential viewing,” says “WWJB?” director Rob VanAlkemade, who says one of his favorite deleted scenes was too heavy to make the final cut.

“We talked to a former prisoner in a Chinese labor camp who had made Christmas lights in prison,” he says. “She was also tortured, interrogated and she lost at least a couple of her friends. We couldn’t find a way to include something that dire. So we’re very glad to get that in [on the DVD].”

VanAlkemade also included footage from a public-access show in Southern California that (perhaps unintentionally?) featured a sponta-neous performance: “It was the countdown to Christmas, and we found this public-access channel [filming] just outside of LA. Billy prepared for just a few minutes, and the choir was completely exhausted at that point.

“But,” he adds, “many spiritual experiences will happen under acute exhaustion. It was a resurrection and a celebration, and definitely a casting out of the devil.”

What Would Jesus Buy, the anti-consumerism tale and documentary of the activists Reverend Billy, Savitri D.,  and the Church of Stop Shopping will be screened:

Sunday February 1, 2009  1:15pm 

Community Church of NYC, Gallery Room, 28 East 35th st. @ Park ave. 

Free, donations appreciated

Warto obserwować, jakie dokumenty TVP Info gra późnym wieczorem. W drugi dzień świąt leciał dokument Co kupiłby Jezus? Rzecz jest o amerykańskim przedświątecznym szale zakupów i akcji karykaturalnego ewangelisty i jego kościoła przeciwko bezmyślnej i uzależniającej konsumpcji. Wielebny Billy i jego chór odważnie głoszą shopocalypse, wypędzają demony z siedziby WallMarta etc. Środki wyrazu zaiste zaskakujące, ale zapewne adekwatne. W końcu trudno tak normalnie powiedziać ludziom, żeby może przemyśleli swoje zakupy… Tak przed świętami?

Podziękowania dla Beci za znalezienie filmu na google video, zachęcam do obejrzenia:

January.  Post-Christmas sales.  Post-Christmas waistlines.  Post-Christmas credit card bills.  Never is our own overindulgence more in evidence than when that first Visa bill after the big December blowout, arrives in the mail.  If you’re feeling like you might need to do a little consumer penance then What would Jesus buy? might be just the book for you.

Several years ago Bill Talen (or Reverend Billy) set up the Church of Stop Shopping.  Their mission is to fight globalisation, to highlight the sometimes dodgy practises of big-chain stores like Walmart and Starbucks, and to just encourage people to stop buying so much…stuff.  Their goal is to stop the ”shopocalypse”.

sho-po-ca-lypse [shah PAW kuh lips] n.
The end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption
and the fires of eternal debt!

Anti-globalisation protesters aren’t anything new but what makes this group stand out is the “performance art” quality of their demonstrations.  They sing specially written hymns.  They crowd into a Starbucks for an impromptu belly-dancing performance.  They get their message across by being disruptive but with wit and humour.

Reverend Billy and the church have been the subject of a documentary produced by Morgan Super-size me Spurlock and this book is, I think, an offshoot of the sudden fame that resulted from that media exposure.  As a book it’s not the easiest read.  It changes from one thing to another.  Sometimes it’s a sermon, sometimes it’s a “how-to” on protesting/performance art, sometimes it’s memoir.   But it does ask some fairly interesting questions about why we feel compelled to shop so much (it’s all about Love apparently), what ideas like ”brand loyalty” really entail, and whether you can truly share a sense of community with someone just because they shop at The Gap too (in short – no). 

But you have to admire the chutzpah of an activist taking that oh-so-American idiom of evangelical preaching and turning it on its head.  Plus, if you’re going to read a “don’t buy so much rubbish/stop killing the rainforests/all your clothes came from a sweatshop” book with a social conscience isn’t it a bit refreshing if the sermonising is in the form of an actual sermon?  Well, I thought so.

Reverend Billy probably wouldn’t approve of you buying this book but surely borrowing it from the library would be okay?  For related info check out -

• The What would Jesus buy? website
• The What would Jesus buy? documentary trailer.
• The song The beautiful things by The Front Lawn - nothing actually to do with this book but the spirit of the song is very in keeping and I kept hearing it in my head as I read.

• .a pause trophy.apostrophe.a pause trophy.apostrophe.a pause trophy.apostrophe.a pause trophy.apostrophe.a pause trophy.apostrophe.11:21 PM Jan 3rd from mobile web

• .i have the nite to remain silent.11:17 PM Jan 3rd from Ping.fm

• “The diaphanous satins of a January window White as babies’ bedding and glittering with dead breath. O ivory!”11:08 PM Jan 3rd from mobile web
• @abu718 .hogglewash.if you were having any more fun you would be funny.crooklyn is cute as a cookie this time of year and you know it.7:58 PM Jan 3rd from mobile web in reply to abu718

• @JhonenV .the news of the world ran this on the front page…in permanent ink even: .irken sawed to the tunes of arcane ska in arkansas.5:30 AM Jan 3rd from mobile web in reply to JhonenV

• .people of the parking lot hear my voyce! .i still have december questions! .what would jesus buy? .who is mary christmas?5:13 AM Jan 3rd from Ping.fm

• @asmadasbirds .captain kirk should have written “how to convert a theist” .ah but then there is that preaching to the choir.bit of a no-no.5:11 AM Jan 3rd from mobile web in reply to asmadasbirds

• .MMIX is most defiantly not a new year.they spit-shined it only so well.we are a living thrift shoppe tag sale on a hand-me-down planet.4:31 AM Jan 3rd from Ping.fm

• @TranquilMammoth “The Thirty-Nine Steps is an organisation of spies, collecting information on behalf of the foreign office of…”3:47 AM Jan 3rd from mobile web in reply to TranquilMammoth

• @asmadasbirds .all that time you thought you were building an impenetrable membrane…only to watch g-d swan dive thru your meme brain.3:43 AM Jan 3rd from mobile web in reply to asmadasbirds

• “framed by god again”3:36 AM Jan 3rd from mobile web

• .as i was reading http://abortmag.com/?p=2636 this song came on: http://www.songmeanings.net… .coincidence?2:57 AM Jan 3rd from Ping.fm

• .perhaps if mister lonely had more friends… www.myspace.com/misterlonelyuk12:27 AM Jan 3rd from mobile web

• .why so serious moonlight?12:16 AM Jan 3rd from Ping.fm

• .no galen.waving your middle finger in that mitten is like waving no middle finger at all.12:00 AM Jan 3rd from mobile web

• .this emergency is in reverse.11:07 PM Jan 1st from Ping.fm

• “Every New Year’s Day I still want to write to my mother, but I dare not, and then—bah!—it’s all stupid sentimentality!”10:24 PM Jan 1st from Ping.fm

• .though both sexes would agree i am a ten i never was the top-ten type.but i did make a list of the bests i found this year: www.vjesci.net2:53 PM Jan 1st from web

• “Tonight’s December thirty-first, Something is about to burst. The clock is crouching, dark and small, Like a time bomb in the hall.”4:10 AM Jan 1st from Ping.fm

• “I told him I was going to a New Year’s Eve party. I told him in October.”5:46 PM Dec 31st, 2008 from Ping.fm

• @HayleyLovesYou .girth brooks once went thru a garth brooks phase.2:34 PM Dec 31st, 2008 from mobile web in reply to HayleyLovesYou

• “Sisters! Niggers ! Whities! Jews! Crackers ! Don’t worry, If there’s a Hell below, we’re all gonna go!”7:39 AM Dec 31st, 2008 from Ping.fm

• @TheOnion “300 Naked Women Feared Lost In Computer Crash” is perhaps your finest title.genius even.i wish V had written it…i would.4:48 AM Dec 31st, 2008 from mobile web in reply to TheOnion
• .J U S † I C E.4:05 AM Dec 31st, 2008 from Ping.fm

• @peprally .carl barks? .what if the dog is mute? …would you whisper? http://is.gd/edzk8:40 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from mobile web in reply to peprally

• .i bought a candied book by voltaire.savory.8:27 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from Ping.fm

• .say hello to my little friend! www.myspace.com/edwardgorey…7:03 PM Dec 30th, 2008 from Ping.fm

• .there be terriers in my derriere.5:18 AM Dec 30th, 2008 from Ping.fm

• @hkarthik .what kind of war movie marathon includes rambo while leaving out idi i smotri: http://tinyurl.com/5e24no ?4:24 AM Dec 30th, 2008 from mobile web in reply to hkarthik

• @Jooji “But you know I’ll return For Atlanta I burn Atlanta you’re my home All my life, all my days”4:06 AM Dec 30th, 2008 from mobile web in reply to Jooji

• .i love me as much as i hate u.s.3:26 AM Dec 30th, 2008 from Ping.fm

• “This V here. It’s what’s called a frog. Sort of shock-absorber. Once you pierce that, it takes ages to heal—so you want to watch for it.”3:05 AM Dec 30th, 2008 from Ping.fm

• www.intwinpeaks.com4:48 PM Dec 29th, 2008 from Ping.fm

• •9• http://tinyurl.com/97dj2e •9•9•9•8:11 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from Ping.fm

• @MissTori .this is a warning.with all these average posts you are dangerously close to boring me.as you were. .xoVox.7:22 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from mobile web in reply to MissTori

• .chose the second coming setting on my computer.if i am away for more than two hundred & seventy-seven seconds a screen saviour will appear.5:18 PM Dec 28th, 2008 from mobile web

• .i admit that it may seem.as if i am bound to be.crashing fast asleep.but mistake me not.the dreme is still here.in the pillory of my hart.6:24 AM Dec 28th, 2008 from Ping.fm

• .i like my lewis black just like my metal. http://tinyurl.com/672tla4:30 AM Dec 28th, 2008 from Ping.fm

Wat zou Jezus kopen voor Kerst?
Ideaal moment voor deze post. Nu met de kerstperiode laten we ons met z’n allen weer gewillig naar de winkels leiden om er onze kerstinkopen te doen met geplunderde bankrekeningen tot gevolg.
Staan we er soms nog bij stil waarover dit feest met de bolronde en rood aangeklede ‘hohoho’-roeper als mascotte eigenlijk gaat? Het laatste wat ik wil is de moraalridder uithangen, dit is tenslotte geen religieuze blog, maar denken we wel genoeg na bij ons koopgedrag? En in welke mate zijn de marketeers hier eigenlijk verantwoordelijk voor onze koopwoede?

Het Canvas programma ‘Virus’ wijdde onlangs een gehele uitzending aan volgend fenomeen.
De Amerikaanse dominee Billy (een personage gespeeld door Bill Talen, geïnspireerd op straatpredikanten en de typische Amerikaans televisie-evangelisten) heeft er zijn persoonlijke kruistocht van gemaakt om de mensen met hun neus op de feiten te drukken door in de winkels zelf te gaan preken en hen te waarschuwen voor de naderende Shopocalyps. Zijn trouwe volgelingen, verenigd onder de noemer van de ‘Church Of Stop Shopping’, helpen hem hierbij. De man en zijn gevolg zijn ondertussen verbannen uit bepaalde Starbucksfilialen en riskeert opgepakt te worden als hij nog maar in de buurt gesignaleerd wordt van bepaalde grote Amerikaanse warenhuisketens.

‘What Would Jesus Buy?’ is de naam van de film/documentaire over dominee Billy’s queeste met Bill Talen zelf  in de hoofdrol en ik kan je verzekeren: hij is meer dan de moeite waard! De hoofdpersonages in de film zijn dan misschien wel acteurs maar de (soms schokkende) getuigenissen en het gebruikte beeldmateriaal zijn levensecht! Je kan je er zowel ziek om lachen als doodserieus van worden maar het stemt je zeker tot nadenken. Een MUST-SEE!

Dit is de trailer van de film.

What Would Jesus Buy Now on Demand on Time Warner Cable

One of the more interesting documentaries I saw in 2008 is now on demand on Time Warner Cable.  What Would Jesus Buy, the 2nd film that chronicles the work of performance artist-turned-anti-consumerism-evangelist Reverend Billy Talen is highly entertaining and thought-provoking.  I remember when we watched the first film about Reverend Billy.  It was called Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir.  I remember ordering it from Netflix thinking it would be a film about a nutjob.  I was wrong.  Bill Talen is not only extremely talented, he is also living his truth, walking his talk, and encouraging people to do the right thing and stop buying needless stuff from big box stores.  I like that.  I’m all for that.  If I didn’t think I would jeopardize my family and my health, I’d go follow him around the country and help him preach his message.  If you get a chance to catch this film on demand, it’s well worth it.  And, my notice about it was tucked in between about 200 emails from large chain stores offering me discounts of all kinds.  Is it truly the most wonderful time of the year?  Seeing people like the Rev. Billy makes me feel a little better about being part of the human race.  I admire him a great deal.   Some day, maybe I’ll have the intestinal fortitude to walk my talk like he does.

My friend C. recently lent me a DVD titled ‘What Would Jesus Buy?’

It’s a neat documentary on consumerism during the Christmas Season. A preacher named Rev. Billy travels with a congregation to spread the word about the evils and pitfalls of buying/spending during a time when the message should be more about love and good-will. He travels to other churches/public places and, as an evangelical (and at times comically over the top), sermons on why it is that we do what we do as consumers ….and more importantly, what it is that we can do to change. Essentially, the message is to ‘Stop Shopping’.

The movie gets into topics of urbanization, the creation of the dreaded mall, large-store corporations such as Wal-Mart, discussions on sweatshops, buying locally, the targeting of toys to kids and of course the allure of the shopping and consumerism mecca that is Disneyland. The Disneyland wrap-up was quite suiting. It featured a march/stroll down main street Disneyland. Main-street Disneyland, in case you’re unaware, looks a lot like any main-street in small town USA (and Canada of course) …a friendly, close-knit collection of shops and stores that serve as the backbone of community growth, and of which you’ll still find on occasion across the countryside. The irony however, is that it has more frequently become a relic of the past …this icon that Disney presents in its theme park is the same icon it has helped to destroy throughout America. Main-street’s local shops and parlors have all given way to self-contained malls or sprawling outlet stores spurred by corporations such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Staples etc.

The documentary has a wonderful and fitting message, and without really preaching, asks you to make intelligent decisions when it comes to buying and shopping ….and not just at Christmas time, but throughout the entire year. Although Rev. Billy proselytizes throughout the show, he avoids making an inclusive connection to Jesus Christ. Sure, the traditional purpose of the Season is about Jesus, but what I feel keeps this documentary open to many viewers is that it doesn’t make this too obvious. The message is about consumerism …whether or not you choose to bring religion into the picture is left up to you.

The idea is great. The way he goes about achieving his goals is more or less effective. The entire premise of America (and most ‘Westernized’ countries) as mindlessly contributing to a self-defeating cycle of prosperity and fulfillment is striking and at times embarrassing. It’s a strong message …and it honestly gets you to think about things in a different light. My beef though, and I hope to discuss this more in a latter post, is that it presumes that corporations are evil.

I have a problem with evil …that is, I don’t really know what it is. People categorize many things as evil, but they often generalize its influence and fail to appreciate its opposing point of view. In the case of Disneyland, I wonder what exactly it is that makes them evil? Is it not possible that Walt Disney’s intensions were good? Is it not possible that this ‘harm to others’ is both inadvertent and unforeseen? Would you think that the CEO of Disney (or any large company for that matter) would want to purposely harm people to make a profit? Perhaps you think that Disney would like to take over the world? Maybe you think that Disney wants to employ children to make its toys and trinkets for abysmal wages and in horrendous working conditions?

I’d suggest that making someone or something evil is an imposed casual reflection on that which is in our way. That evil is easier to see when we consider ourselves righteous exclusively. That evil is only evil when it stands in the road and interferes with our own needs, wants, values and ideals. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending the fact that a company like the Gap might employ children in developing countries, what I’m suggesting is that the idea of evil is perspective based, and the defense for the accused involves many different opinions and decisions …and that the occasional result is at times far removed from the original intention of that person or company. After time we lose sight of that first goal …and we fall victim to a comfortable cycle that lulls us into complacency and assurance.

Much like us as we’ve become the super-shoppers that we are!?

Can that be true? Can the statement ‘rampant consumerism is evil’ be applicable to us? How does that make you feel, knowing that you’re the problem …that you’re evil? Certainly you’ll argue the point that you’re not – that you’re only doing what you need to survive, only doing what others are doing and don’t really mean or intend to cause harm. But then isn’t that the crux of it …our intentions are sincere, but we’ve ever-so-slightly moved them to the back-burner, or maybe we’ve obscured them from our current views? We don’t mean to contribute to the suffering of people or the environment when we buy inexpensive plastic toys that are made in overseas factories, transported in tankers and shipped to our malls for the holiday season ….but we do.

There was an interesting statement made by an elderly lady who was interviewed in the show. She made the comment- “We didn’t know we were poor cause we were all in the same boat.” I think that’s somewhat fitting to our impression of what is ‘bad’. Our perspective is naturally biased. When we sit in that ‘boat’ with others we tend to lose sight of life outside this boat …we miss the fact that what we do may have ramifications outside of our own communities. Perhaps we’re the ones being corrupt without really knowing it …we’ve unwittingly became that monster that we seek to condemn. Perhaps we are the evil?

For another post though …so I’ll finish off by saying I liked Rev. Billy’s message. I enjoyed his attempt to get us, as over-consumers, to understand the situation we’ve allowed ourselves to fall into. He’s not over-bearing and he’s not abrasive or in-your-face. Instead, he tries to remind us that Christmas is about something other that what it has seemed to become. He allows us to ever so slightly peer out from our boat, and to see that there is so much more to living than what we, in our fast-paced and hectic world, fail to realize and often take for granted.

Image from the DVD 'What Would Jesus Buy?'

]]> http://likepepinsaid.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/what-would-jesus-buy/ Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:32:53 +0000 Fabien http://likepepinsaid.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/what-would-jesus-buy/

J’ai ce documentaire en stock, mais je n’ai pas été motivé plus que cela pour le regarder, jusqu’à maintenant. Il faut dire que c’est la période. On y suit le révérend Billy de l’église du Stop Shopping qui fait une tournée des États-Unis avec ses fidèles pour prêcher le non-consumérisme de Noël. Oui, ça ne s’invente pas.

Bref, c’est un doc de l’année dernière, je n’ai donc qu’un an de retard. Il s’agit d’une production Morgan Spurlock, mais on ne va pas trop y retrouver sa touche. Le problème majeur du film, c’est qu’il n’y a finalement pas grand-chose à dire. Enfin, il faut croire, car je me suis rapidement ennuyé. Au début on a pas mal d’info sur les habitudes de consommation des Américains pour Noël, mais après on suit principalement le brave Billy dans sa tournée. C’est répétitif et vain. J’ai du complètement décroché à la moitié, pour allez sur internet, lire mes mails et charger mon agrégateur de flux RSS. Passionnant donc.

Je pense qu’en se focalisant moins sur les actions du révérend et plus sur les excès des Américains dans le domaine, ça aurait eu de l’intérêt. Genre, suivre une famille moyenne, parler plus de toutes les dépenses. Il est abordé le sujet des endettements et de l’abus de crédits, mais comme le reste, ce n’est pas véritablement approfondi.

C’est fortement dispensable, dommage, car il y avait un bon sujet à la base. Le pire de tout étant que le révérend Billy ne donne aucune crédibilité à son message et semble presque en avoir conscience, bien qu’il se batte pour le faire passer. Il brasse de l’air sans se rendre compte que sa mise en scène n’aide pas du tout son mouvement.

Bref, je m’arrête là, moi, pour Noël, j’ai fait ce qu’il a dit, mais je n’ai pas eu besoin qu’on me chante des chansons là-dessus, j’ai réduit les dépenses tout seul, comme un grand.

D

(To read part 1 of this post, go here.)

A couple weeks back, I finally got around to watching What Would Jesus Buy, an anti-consumerist documentary that follows Reverend Billy Miller and his “Church of Stop Shopping” choir as they tour the U.S. in the consumer-frenzied run up to Christmas. The film begins with images of crazed, stampeding shoppers and various news channels reporting on “Black Friday,” as well as other Christmas-induced shopping mania.

It is the perfect film to watch at this time of year as we enter the manic descent into the mindless consumerism of the holiday shopping season and the directive to buy, buy, buy is everywhere. This directive comes through the mailbox via catalogues, through the television via ads, even via one’s email inbox via messages about “lowest prices of the season.” In general conversation, people pepper their speech with Christmas shopping “must-do’s” or share news of recent “bargains.”

As a professor quoted in What Would Jesus Buy clarifies, Christmas successfully convinces us to buy because it “combines commercialism with this true feeling of love and affection.” Or, in other words, we have come to associate the giving and receiving of gifts with love – the better the gift, the more gifts, the more we are loved – or so goes the loving-through-buying narrative, a narrative that translates into 5 million tons of extra waste generated from the holiday season via all the wrapping paper, packaging, etc (and this is in the US alone).
Yet, where all the stuff we buy during the holiday season will go is not a question we as consumers are encouraged to ask. This point is made clear by the “stop shopping counselor” featured in What Would Jesus Buy. Noting that many people are quite literally addicted to shopping, she encourages breaking the cycle via asking questions such as: “Do I really need this?” “Where will I put it?” While we don’t tend to consider where purchased items will go in the short term, neither do we think about where they will go long term.

The “disposing” side of consumption, so well captured in the film The Story of Stuff as well as in the garbage filled earth featured in Wall-e, is not a side we are prompted to think about. In fact, even given the popularity of the “go green” and “save the planet” paradigm we are now in, we are encouraged to SHOP to save the earth – BUY more green products, PURCHASE a hybrid car, GET re-usable shopping bags! This is not to say that these directives do not have their merit on some level, but that we are rarely given directives to NOT BUY, to STOP CONSUMING, let alone to consume less.

Driven by what the film refers to as the familiar god of “buy now pay later,” we are very reluctant to give up our consuming habits and instead create more palatable alternatives, ways to keep shopping that make us feel better about doing so while simultaneously doing nothing to stop our consumerist mindset. This is hardly surprising given the deification of consumer capitalism in the United States. It is, I would argue, the one true religion – the one that speaks to (nearly) all US citizens, that transcends race, class, gender, sexuality, and belief- the worship of the dollar and the joy in spending that dollar is the foundation of the “American Dream.” We are, as the story goes, a country where the streets our paved in gold, where anyone can make it, where Joe Six-Pack can become a millionaire!

Even in times of national crisis we are encouraged to identify as consumers, rather than as citizens. And, just as GW directed Americans to go out and shop post-9/11, so to are we being encouraged to buy our way out of the current economic crisis. As Anthony B. Robinson writes in “Articles of Faith: Consumerism is a greedy society’s religion”:

“House Minority Leader Boehner, a Republican congressman from Ohio, celebrated the recent passage of the economic stimulus package by saying, ‘The sooner we get this relief in the hands of the American people, the sooner they can begin to do their job of being good consumers.’ Your title: ‘consumer;’ your mission: ‘buy stuff.’ Echoes of the president’s call, amid the crisis of 9/11, to get out and ’shop.’

We learn this lesson of ‘good consumerism’ our entire life span in the US. As children, Disney hawks its wares to us, promising hours of endless fun and adventure. As tweens, we have entire genres of film, television, and music marketed to us – not to mention a whole slew of fashion and techno gadgetry. With college and the era of one’s first credit cart, we are tantalized with cars, stereos, and endless dorm/apartment ‘needs.’ As we enter the ‘real’ world, we are prompted to buy houses bigger than we can afford, cars bigger than we need, vacations we cannot pay for, and enough clothes and accessories to outfit a small country. As we age, we are incited to think about devices that can supplement our slowing bodies (purse finders and lights that turn and off with a clap!), as we near death’s doorstep, we are not allowed to go gently into that good night, but are tantalized with designer coffins, special headstones, and snazzy urns. Not consuming is, in US parlance, tantamount to being dead.
This is why, to Robinson’s question “Is it too much to suggest that consumerism has become a kind of alternative faith, a religion of sorts?” I would answer “Heck, NO!” Consumerism is the most popular, and most impervious to critique, of all US faiths! As What Would Jesus Buy makes clear through its witty conflation of faith and shopping, Wal-Mart has become our Temple, Disney our Church, the mall our place of worship.

Stay tuned for the next installment of What if you could buy social justice, “The Temple of Wal-Mart.”

This is a neat interview with “Reverend Billy” who created a film, “What Would Jesus Buy.”  Rev. Billy is actually a character created to do what amounts to “theological street theatre.”  So, if you go to the site remember – he’s not a Televangelist, he just plays one on TV.

How do I feel about doing exorcisms as street theatre?  Well, it’s not something that I would do, but Bill Talen (the actor who created and plays “Rev. Billy”) has done some serious reflection on doing what he’s doing and why, so he’s worth listening do.  I won’t be doing any exorcisms at local Wal Marts, but I also wonder if perhaps Bill would be disappointed if his viewers started doing Wall Mart exorcisms because they would have missed the point.

Pack the Malls with folks with money
Fa la la la la la la la la
Tis the season to be dummies
Fa la la la la la la la la
Squeeze our fat in Gap apparel
Fa la la la la la la la la
Buy some junk for cousin Carol
Fa la la la la la la la la

Joy to the world! In the form of goods!
CONSUME! CONSUME! CONSUME!
Bright plastic this and thats!
For screaming little brats!
Take the SUV to the mall!
Take the SUV to the mall!
And buy, buy, buy, buy, buy it all.

ALL boys and girls! The time has come!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!
Possessions equal happiness!
Something, anything to distract us!
We can never have ENOUGH!
We can never have ENOUGH!
We can never ever have too much stuff!

JOY to the world! Debt has come!
Approved! Approved! Approved!!
Credit cards are “free”!
Don’t worry ’bout those fees!
Then pay it off later on!
Then pay it off later on!
And spend and spend til credit’s gone!

(from “What would Jesus Buy?”)

I’ve been quite remiss in posting lately- grad school has gotten the best of me. I am keeping a running list of topics though for when I have the time. However, being that consumerism is one of my favorite topics, I couldn’t help but take a few minutes to comment on the Walmart tragedy today. A 34 year old part-time worker was trampled to death by a mob at a Long Island Walmart as shoppers rushed the doors early this morning. The store was temporarily closed, but apparently reopened at 1pm and was again filled with Black Friday shoppers. Several others were reportedly injured, including a 28 year old pregnant woman. 

Mob psychology aside, this appalling event is indicative of a much larger problem in this country. Thousands of people lined up all over the nation this morning to buy things they don’t need during a time of economic crisis. The corporate consumerist ethos has trickled down and made us sick with greed. A man is dead because people wanted $50 off a tv! And stores set up this mayhem by advertising “extremely limited quantities” and “special prices from 5-8am”.

People need to get it through their heads that no amount of “stuff” will lead to fulfillment. If anything good can come out of this economic downturn, I would hope that it would be people realizing that they can make due with less. If anything good can come of this man’s death, I hope it will be a wake-up call to some and a call for compassion and caring. That’s what holidays should be about.

Performance artist/activist Reverend Billy is doing some excellent work in this area. I urge folks to check out his documentary What Would Jesus Buy?. It seems especially timely today.