AUTHOR: Robin Dugall
DATE: 7:26:00 AM
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BODY:
For those of you in the cultural "know", you have knowledge of last night's Oscar winner for the best original song..."It's hard out here for a pimp". This ditty joins the ranks of those musical classics that have gone down in history as the "Best Original Song". Here's a short list of songs that have previously won the coveted movie award:
Days of Wine and Roses
Raindrops keep falling on my head
The Way we Were
You light up my life
Under the Sea
Beauty and the Beast
Can you feel the Love tonight?
Somewhere over the rainbow
Born Free
Fame
A whole new world
My heart will go on
Zip-a-dee-do-dah
Mona Lisa
Now, I admit...many of you may not know some of these songs. But trust me, these are musical classics that will be recorded time and again as the decades come and go. When I heard the three songs up for the award, I wasn't caught up in any of them. I thought that the song from "Crash" would probably come closest to capturing the award just because it was "deep" lyrically. Even Dolly Parton's song was worth a run just because Dolly wrote it (she might be a caricature of herself in some way but NO ONE would deny her incredible talent especially in the bluegrass genre). But "It's hard out here for a pimp"? Come on! Hip Hop culture IS NOW mainstream. Kids wanna be gangsters...everybody wants the bling...and urban culture rules the day. Even Jon Stewart was laughing on that one...for those of us who find ourselves living in and for the Kingdom, this continues to be a wake up call. The phone's ringing off the hook...are we listening? If you can't be anything but Politically Correct on your views regarding any subculture or perceived ethnic group, could it be that now we have to be sensitive NOT to offend pimps? I mean, it is hard to be a pimp these days. I don't know. YOU THINK ABOUT IT. A new friend of mine wrote these words,
"This decline in civilization must make older Americans simply scratch their heads in wonder and dismay. I still can't figure out where the idea came from to not wear a belt and walk around so that your sponge bob's can wave to strangers at the mall. Puzzled by stupidity. At least hippies have someone to laugh at for a change. Besides Baptists. Real life just gets weirder and weirder. The older I get the more concerned i find that I become. I joke but I'm also as serious about it all as a heart attack".
By the way, for those of you who want some good cultural analysis, check out Walt Mueller's website, www.cpyu.org.
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COMMENT-AUTHOR:
COMMENT-DATE:12:16 PM
COMMENT-BODY:Always feel free to quote me by name (and correct my spelling errors). It is continually amazing to me how cheap the value(s) of life have become. I'm not just talking about the way we value someone else's life but rather the way that we view our own. I'm not talking about being sacrificial with our lives (which are a priceless gift from God that will lead us to spiritual adoption if we seek for His real creative purpose in this moment that we call life) - I'm talking about being of the mindset that allows us to see and treat our own lives as cheap and disposable. The only non-Christian opposite to this is the attitude of delusional greatness and importance without the actual creds that so many exhibit. Now here's the craziest thing: Both trains are usually found heading right for each other on the same internal track of the same person. Only destruction of the self can follow. It seems that people will kill for creature comforts and literally go out of their way to kill themselves in the process. The desire for a healthy self-love is drowned in an ocean of self-hatred and futility. Why pull oneself up? Why push to go beyond our present state? Why pay any real price for personal progress? Why not just blame someone else and take the easy way out: Let's just all become pimps and sell the bodies of defeated souls to the highest bidder and profit for the moment? It doesn't cost US anything. Just everything that matters... as if it did. Sorry, Oscar but I'm a content man. Yeah, I'm puzzled as to why we've allowed our society to come to this base-pimp mentality. I'm puzzled but sadly not shocked. ....Still, it's nice to see lime green suits and bootsy goggles back in the fly mode. Let us pray and continue to live a life that goes beyond fashion. It matters.
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COMMENT-AUTHOR:
COMMENT-DATE:2:09 PM
COMMENT-BODY:I couldn't believe it sitting there with the Beckster and Jazzy watching the acedemy awards. I came in late from upstairs hearing this rap song and I said, this is the acedemy awards? What happened? Are we back to the stone age? I thought I was behind the times. Duuh. Pimps? How could the academy allow a song about a pimp in that gig? I have zero desire to go to any movie if any pimp stuff is gonna be in it. They don't even have pimps in Sweden...believe I have experience from Sweden...nada pimps there. Maybe just maybe they will change their mind next year and pick a classy song like Days of Wine and Roses...not Days of Pimps and ......??
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COMMENT-DATE:12:16 PM
COMMENT-BODY:Always feel free to quote me by name (and correct my spelling errors). It is continually amazing to me how cheap the value(s) of life have become. I'm not just talking about the way we value someone else's life but rather the way that we view our own. I'm not talking about being sacrificial with our lives (which are a priceless gift from God that will lead us to spiritual adoption if we seek for His real creative purpose in this moment that we call life) - I'm talking about being of the mindset that allows us to see and treat our own lives as cheap and disposable. The only non-Christian opposite to this is the attitude of delusional greatness and importance without the actual creds that so many exhibit. Now here's the craziest thing: Both trains are usually found heading right for each other on the same internal track of the same person. Only destruction of the self can follow. It seems that people will kill for creature comforts and literally go out of their way to kill themselves in the process. The desire for a healthy self-love is drowned in an ocean of self-hatred and futility. Why pull oneself up? Why push to go beyond our present state? Why pay any real price for personal progress? Why not just blame someone else and take the easy way out: Let's just all become pimps and sell the bodies of defeated souls to the highest bidder and profit for the moment? It doesn't cost US anything. Just everything that matters... as if it did. Sorry, Oscar but I'm a content man. Yeah, I'm puzzled as to why we've allowed our society to come to this base-pimp mentality. I'm puzzled but sadly not shocked. ....Still, it's nice to see lime green suits and bootsy goggles back in the fly mode. Let us pray and continue to live a life that goes beyond fashion. It matters.
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COMMENT-AUTHOR: