How to be a Player God's Way

God works in mysterious ways. Or so it would seem. The latest mystery? The How To Be A Player God's Way viral video. Recently found via blog-favorite Billy's Antics, is this curious cat: a promo video for a Christian Women's retreat. Which, in-of-itself, not too strange, right?

Well, this particular women's retreat is for faith-flirters. That is women looking to seduce men (via good looks and charm) to Jesus. You know, the whole flirt-to-convert idea. Which, sure I've heard of before, but I always had assumed it was either a.) in jest or b.) the position of some Christian guy or girl looking to justify their secular boyfriends & girlfriends. But an actual camp? Geared toward this idea?

In one way it makes sense. As today's Christians work harder to become more and more relevant to culture as a whole, you're bound to get out of hand from time to time. But this video doesn't even look like it's new: it looks like it's from 1998.

Or maybe it's a joke? Certainly possible, then again, I wouldn't be too surprised. Either way, funny stuff. Check it out:

How to be a Player God's Way

How to be a Player God's Way - watch more funny videos

On Repeat: "The Coldest Story Ever Told"

Having been unemployed for a few weeks now, I have had more than a little extra time on my hands. And with that extra time I've done my best to stay busy with a number of different tasks and activities. The most prominent of these being: sending out resumes & cover letters, experimenting with cooking, learning how to drum (aka, Rock Band), working on my writing, and, of course, the long held and endlessly enjoyable time waste of watching popular music videos on repeat. As in, over and over and over again.

Most recently this has happened with Beyonce's mesmerizing how-do-her-hips-move-quite-like-that smash "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" and Animal Collective's infinitely trippy & primordial "My Girls". Both excellent videos and both videos that have squandered -- albeit happily -- hour upon hour of my life and of my time. Yet neither of those two examples compare to my current video obsession: the Kanye West rotoscoped romp of heartbreak that is, "Heartless"

Set up with music video director phenomena Hype Williams, Ralph Bakshi inspired cinematography, and a crack-team of 65 animators from Hong Kong, Kanye West has created a stimulating concoction of sound & vision worthy of his mantel as the only true Pop Star currently making music. In it a smart-looking West mopes his way through a splashy kaleidoscope of space and spotlights, bright neon cityscapes, and chic Warhol & Jetsons' adorned living quarters, all while stylish & well-dressed women play for his attention. It's over the top, sure, and overly self important, as usual, but for all the faults Mr. West has -- and there are a few -- his eye for style & ear for hooks has never been better.

This, of course, isn't a new development for the "Louis Vuitton Don." After all, he has been inserting style & design into his music for quite some time now, whether it be his Murakami designed Graduation album cover or his recent Patrick Bateman put-on video "Love Lockdown" or even his instantly iconic shudder shades. But, until now, it has never worked quite so well or looked quite so good.

So sit back, relax, and welcome in the parade of color & style that is Kanye West's "Heartless"

Message Received Loud & Clear

Some encouraging news from the Obama team:

White House aides say they have concluded that Obama too frequently lost control of the debate and his own image during the stimulus battle. By this reckoning, the story became too much about failed efforts at bipartisanship and Washington deal-making, and not enough about the president’s public salesmanship.

For Obama’s next act, the program is the same as he has been planning for months: New Deal-style plans to rescue struggling homeowners and rewrite regulations on the financial markets, plus a budget proposal that lays the groundwork for sweeping health care reform.

But the strategy to promote these items is getting an emergency overhaul. Obama plans to travel more and campaign more in an effort to pressure lawmakers with public support, rather than worrying about whether he can win over Republican votes in Congress. Officials suggested that the new, more partisan tone Obama embraced last week in his speech before House Democrats at their retreat and continued at his news conference Monday was what he should have been doing all along...Emanuel said that they recognized they had overdone their initial outreach to Republicans and had offered "a sharp message for the last week."

Now obviously I won't be taking the credit for this change in policy, but hey, not bad for a startup blogger.

H/T (Ezra Klein)

Is Bipartisianship What We Currently Need?

Obama made bipartisanship a central issue during his 2008 Presidential Campaign and succeeded in a lot of ink being spilled on his "post-partisan" nature throughout the campaign. And I, among others, applauded his effort. But looking forward, is bipartisanship really the answer to our country's current problems? While Obama has had a career of impressing the opposition party, be it as the President of the Harvard Law Review, a law professor, a state senator, a US senator, or as a Presidential candidate, it would seem he has now hit a brick wall. There is no longer common ground for the President to find with the opposition party. Or at least very little of it.

This became strikingly clear with the Stimulus Package in which, despite a few direct concessions, it still received zero Republican votes last week in the House. And then only three moderate votes in the Senate which were bought with even more concessions.

Now he has a weakened stimulus package that is still likely to be without GOP support. The Republicans have lost some popularity with the public from this (not that they had a lot to begin with), but as many have noted, it doesn't matter if the public disagrees with the GOP right now. It matters in two years and in four years, that is to say election years. If the stimulus proves a failure, Republicans can rally around a "I Told You So" call to arms and sweep back into power. Never mind the destruction its failure does to the economy in the mean time.

With that said, I still believe bipartisanship has its place in politics, just not when the gap between the two sides are so great. So come Obama's next big initiative, be it Health Care or Energy, he should learn the lesson and reach to the Left because the Right won't be compromising. Unless it's the effectiveness of the legislation.

Last point: Bipartisanship may work well for approval ratings, but not so well for electoral success.

Amateur Blogging in the LBC

And here we have it. My first blog & my first post. I've been putting this off for awhile now. The whole blogging thing that is. Mostly because I didn't have the time, but also because I didn't quite have the vision. As in, I didn't really know what kind of a blogger I wanted to be. Eventually a political blogger, or better yet some sort of policy wonk, but in the mean time I wasn't sure where to put my focus. I am very much an amateur at this, after all. But since I currently have a lot of extra time, it's 2009 & I just read Farhad Manjoo's informative How To Blog guide over at Slate, I figured now was as good as time as any to start.

So for the time being, this will be a very general & very broad blog. I imagine there will be posts on politics (local & international), public policy, music, my attempts at cooking, design, books, maybe my current job hunt & who knows what else. For now I'm hoping to post 3-5 posts a week (gotta start somewhere!) and hopefully move on from there.

Oh, and I am now officially a blogger. Exciting times.