Music

So came across Cesare Bonizzi on BBC's website. Fra Bonizzi is a monk of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, an offshoot of the Franciscan order dating back to the 16th century. Fra Bonizzi is also lead singer of a Heavy Metal band that regularly shows up at the Gods of Metal festival in Italy:

UPDATE: Found a better video (still in Italian, though) to add in:

Of course it's not only Catholics who can be hip to the latest scene. Matisyahu is a Hasidic (specifically Chabad-Lubavitch branch of the Hasids) that I came across on Current TV some time back:

I blogged about Matt first at The Awearness Blog after I first saw the video via Metafilter. Metafilter is a snarkful community of wen connoisseurs who have a witty remark or twenty at the ready. So it was with shock that I saw comment after comment of Mefites saying that this video brough a tear to their eye.

I've watched this video at least 50 times --my kids have been playing it all day today. It's not the music or the somg that brings a tear to my eye. I can be in a different room, like I am right now, and listen to the music and have no reaction.

No.

It's watching the pure joy, the pure radiance, the pure light beaming from all those dancing, happy faces that makes me cry.

I cry because it is so uncommon to see such selfless joy these days. Matt has a quality not of "whatever" but of real in the moment joy.

One of the illest songs to come out of this campaign.

Not only is NAS remixing Barack Obama's victory speech, he's thrown the immortal Tupac.
Download it here.

By the by, what do you think about the cover of NAS' album?

H/T To dnA over at Too Sense and XXL.

I want to thank your momma,
for making you a cutie
and giving you that bootie.

LOL!

White boy lust. I love it!

In the immortal words of Team America, Fuck yeah!

Andrew Rice is running for Oklahoma Senate. And you can help him while having fun at his fundraiser/birthday bash. He has led an amazing life and brings a great dedication to everything he does. He also has been working hard to end hunger in Oklahoma, so this big fundraising concert is also a food drive.

"Rock, Roll and Rice" for Andrew's Birthday
Date 4/24/2008
Time 5:30-7:30

Location: 3214 N. Classen (formerly the Back Door Coffeehouse), Oklahoma City

Music by Matt Stansberry Band
Free food and family fun!

Join us to celebrate Andrew's 35th birthday, and come rock & roll with your next U.S. Senator from Oklahoma!

Suggested donation: $10 (and bring a can of food for the Regional Food Bank)

Scott Kleeb is running for Senate in Nebraska...and he is the Democrat who just might win. As well as being a macho, hard working hunk, Scott has a Ph.D. in PhD in history, with a special focus on agricultural economics. Scott currently teaches American history at Hastings College in Nebraska, less than two hours from Broken Bow, where the Kleeb family homesteaded in the 1880s.

Come join in a great concert fundraiser for Scott Kleeb for Senate:

Listen up! A Concert for Kleeb
Thursday, April 24, 2008 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM
The Slow Down
729 N 14th St
Omaha, NE 68102

RSVP HERE

Oh yes bitches, I am Pwning my own blog --it's the only thing to do after two weeks of flu hell and another week of battling the writing pixies.

So here you have yourselves the meme of the day, courtesy of the Muppets.

Oh hell yeah baby, oh hellz yeahs.

The FUN SONG, but of course!

Best part ever? The Spartans jumping in the background. It's a great little shout out to "This Spartan Life".

We need something nice and smooth here. It's been kind of a drag of a week, and it's just Wednesday! Who better to groove to than Marvin Gaye.

"What's Going" is one of the most perfect "artivist" protest songs ever created. And it is a work of art, so much so, that the Gaye's record label rejected it as being uncommercial.

I love the song because the lyrics and music are almost trance like, turning subverting the radical antiwar message of the song. It's almost subliminal the way the grooves hook you while the words slip into the unconscious.

It's as if Gaye becomes with this song an R&B shaman.