priests & paramedics

“Ivan Illich was once asked what is the most revolutionary way to change society. Is it violent revolution or is it gradual reform? He gave a careful answer. ‘Neither. If you want to change society, then you must tell an alternative story.” • Tim Costello

27 July 2006

Top Head-Butts Of All Time

On the heels of my last post, I've put together my personal list of the top head-butts of all time. Here they are (please know that they were deliberated over, and much thought was put into their selection):

5. Dennis Rodman head-butts the ref - The Worm head-butts referee Ted Bernhardt during a game against the Nets in 1997, and is subsequently ejected. Rodman rips off his Bulls jersey, knocks over a cooler and trots to the locker room.

4. Jockey Paul O'Neill head-butts his own horse - see previous post.

3. Evander Holyfield head-butts Mike Tyson - though referee (and future wannabe Wapner) Mills Lane says the butt was accidental, Tyson reacts to it by biting a chunk out of Holyfield's ear.

2. Zinedine Zidane of France head-butts Italy's Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final - possibly the coolest, most gutturally experiential head-butt of all time (you either loved it, or were apalled by it)

1. Gus Frerotte head-butts a concrete wall - After tossing a touchdown pass in a home game against the New York Giants, Frerotte (then of the Washington Redskins) got so excited that after congratulating his teammates, he proceeded to head butt the stadium wall. Frerotte had gotten caught up in the excitement of the moment and also thought that it would be safe, since the wall appeared to be padded. Unfortantely, the wall consisted of reinforced concrete backed up by only a half inch of foam. He ended up in the hospital after suffering spasms at halftime (he was eventually diagnosed with a concussion).

24 July 2006

Jockey Head-Butts Horse

The headline says it all, really.

ESPN is reporting that jockey Paul O'Neill will be investigated by the sport's governing body after television replays showed him head-butting his horse, City Affair.

Ironically, O'Neill claimed that he only resorted to the head-butt after City Affair made several racial slurs about his Irish ancestry – he claims that, among other things, the horse called him a terrorist, said his father was a drunk with a fiery temper, that his mother moonlighted as a car-bomb assembler for the IRA, and suggested that the leprechaun that his sister is dating "make her an honest woman" and marry her already.

Horse lip-reading specialists have been called in to determine whether there is any merit to O'Neill's claims. Until then, both jockey and horse have have filed seperate restraining orders, requiring them to remain at least 100 feet away from each other at any given time.

11 July 2006

Sigur Rós - Glósóli

Good design sucks me in every time.

For example, several months ago, as I perused the aisle of the record store, I came across what looked like a strangely illustrated children's book. When I looked at this supposed "book," I found it to be a CD by an Icelandic band with a name I wasn't sure how to pronounce (incidentally, it sounds a little like "see-or rose").

I had no idea what I was getting into at the time - I imagined them sounding like Teitur or Damien Rice. As any fan (or detractor) of Sigur Rós can attest, they sound nothing like either one of those artists. Their sound is beautiful, ethereal, majestic, and downright wierd - kind of like Radiohead without the chaos or hopeless nihilism... all sung in unintelligible Icelandic. But somehow it works.

What you see posted is their video for Glósóli, from their album "Takk..." It won “Best Rock Video” at the Creative & Design Awards back in June, and is the most watched video in EMI history.

Enjoy.

06 July 2006

The Man In Black

I’ve always associated Johnny Cash with my father.

Maybe it was the deep baritone voice. Maybe it was the imposing, larger-than-life persona. Whatever the case, I cried the day Johnny Cash died. And while those tears and that grief may have been in anticipation of my father’s impending death (he died a little more than 2 months later), they were real nonetheless.

Everyone knew it was a matter of time – the Johnny Cash in the “Hurt” video was a far cry from the Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison.

Or the original recording sessions at Sun Studios with Sam Phillips.

Or that hokey guest appearance as a charlatan preacher on “Little House on the Prairie.”

But although his death was immanent, it doesn’t mean that the news didn’t come as a shock. After hearing of his death, I listened to "American IV: The Man Comes Around" and heard anew the words of a man who knew he was about to die. "American IV" is full of songs about regret, despair, pain, sorrow… and faith. Faith of a man cheating death.

I heard this Johnny Cash once again a couple of days ago – the Johnny Cash who knew he was about to die. I picked up his latest [posthumously released] album "American V: A Hundred Highways" on Tuesday, the day it came out. Like he did on his last record, Cash sings of death. But whereas on “American IV,” he saw death as an executioner (like a condemned man awaiting the inevitable on death row), on "American V" he sees death as a gardener… one who tills the soil until the hope of the resurrection. The new album is filled with songs that are clearly hopeful of a better life beyond this one.

Much will be said of the propriety of "American V" – while the vocals were recorded in the months before Cash’s death, the backing tracks were laid in the two years since.

Save the controversy.

This record was released with the full support of the Cash family (John Carter, Rosanne, et al), and there are few collaborative partnerships like the one Johnny shared with Rick Rubin – Bernie Taupin/Elton John and Lennon/McCartney come to mind. One could argue that Rubin brought out the last creative breaths of a living legend like Johnny Cash in a way that no one else could have. Only Rubin could convince Cash to sing a Nine Inch Nails song, for crying out loud!

But back to death.

Death was something that Johnny Cash was known for. He was the Man in Black. The man who gave a voice to the common person. The man who sang for the oppressed. The man who spoke as the criminal. The man who knew his time on earth would soon come to an end. On "American V's" self-penned “Like the 309” he sings (in an appropriate semi-asthmatic, near-death guttural scrowl), “It should be a while before I see Dr. Death, so it would sure be nice if I could get my breath. Well I'm not the crying nor the whining kind, 'til I hear the whistle of the 309.”

And in “God's Gonna Cut You Down,” a confession only Johnny Cash could sing and not sound like a hell-fire and brimstone fundamentalist Bible-thumper (or like an ironic hipster as did Moby on “Run On” – yeah, that’s where you heard those lyrics before), he drones to a perfectly laid 2/4 stomp/clap backtrack, “Go tell that long-tongue liar; go and tell that midnight rider; tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter: tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down.”

The reason is simple: he’s speaking about himself. About the man who God cut down… the man who God caused to stumble, but who wasn’t ashamed to tell that story, because it was the story of a gracious God who did just that… cut a man down and in the process show him his mercy.

I miss you Johnny Cash.

I miss you Dad.