This week on the internet: 071009

Compiled by Ryan

The links:

-It’s RAAAAAAAANDY! Check out the fake site for Aziz Ansari’s character in the upcoming Funny People.

-This makes me a bit disappointed: Jane Lynch is leaving Party Down for Glee.

-Do you think you’d like to see 100 episodes of a Will-Ferrell-Adam McKay joint starring Jon Heder?  Comedy Central is betting that you would.

-It’s official: there will be a MacGruber movie.

-Jack White’s record label, Third Man Records, unveiled a new subscription service that sounds potentially great for Jack White fans.

-NPR’s All Things Considered celebrated Merge’s 20^th anniversary with a feature this week.

The YouTube highlights:

The trailer for the much-hyped Big Fan starring Patton Oswalt:

This is called “The best marriage proposal in the world.”  It is mistitled.

New music spotlight:

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns

Most folks have a pretty solid idea of what to expect from indie bands from Canada.  The Rural Alberta Advantage are a Canadian indie band, but they’re not that kind of Canadian indie band.  They sing nostalgic songs, but they’re not dark; they have a unique vocalist, but he’s not weird, he’s just nasaly (think Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman).  Still, though, the band is getting a lot of coverage online, so you owe it to yourself to check out the lead single from their debut album:

The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Don’t Haunt This Place” from Hometowns, out now on Saddle Creek

An Altruistic Angle: From the Pearl of the Danube Part IV: A city in relative affluence

By Anna

he Buda Reformed Church looking pretty affluent in Budapest, Hungary

As a cross-cultural missions minor at Bethel University, I have yet to read one book or one essay about ministering to the affluent society. When it comes to missions in Budapest, one has to recognize that this city loved God for hundreds of years, but has recently rejected any idea of God because it felt like he rejected them (WWII and Soviet occupation).

The most I’ve ever learned about living among an affluent people has been from Solomon’s Porch. If I had to guess as to why I can’t find any books about this or know many missionaries in affluent countries it would be because 1. Money = greed 2. Ministry to the poor is tangible and easier—short-term mission teams can come in, help and leave with no extended commitment 3. It takes more thought, intellect and longer commitment than most people are willing (How do we reach the deepest needs of a person’s heart when the person feel no real needs?)

My parents always taught me that no matter where you were in the world you were on a “mission field” to borrow the Evangelistic Christian term, and to this day I believe it. But I was confused by what I had been learning in my minor. Shouldn’t I dedicate my life to the poor? My interpretation of “The Rich Young Ruler” in Matthew 19 was always literal. Sell everything you have and give it to those in need. Last year I heard an interpretation that makes just as much if not more sense: the story is not about money, but about what keeps us from God. How is an affluent society going to listen to one who judges and points the finger at their affluence?

No matter how little or how much we have, material distracts. I have a lot no matter how little I have.

An Altruistic Angle: From the Pearl of the Danube Part III: Looking into the eyes of abuse

By Anna

On Tuesday and Thursday I take the metro from Votosmarty U. to Battyany ter. No one makes extended eye contact with me, a quick glance and then look away. Barely an acknowledgement of your existence, just a concentration on going from A to B. I think my mom and sister would fit in here, I however, am extrinsic and feed off of smiles and friendly nods of hello.

The parliament building from castle hill

As the escalator surfaces at Battyany ter. a church with green copper steeples emerges into view. You can turn around after stepping off of the escalator and see the magnificently gothic parliament building. I walk one block down, ring number 51 and say hello to Ilona, my language teacher. She let’s me in and I take the elevator to the fifth floor (though sixth for us in the United States because the first floor here is the ground level). The elevator doors are manual and this I forget everytime.

During my lesson we sit in chairs facing the parliament building. I ask Ilona why Hungarians do not make eye contact or say hello. She does not understand me initially. I explain further, that in the United States people may nod or say hello in passing. She nods and says it is a cultural difference and that it is only a surface thing and that young people are not like this. She tells me to go to Godot ter. where the young people are.

Though I understand the cultural difference, I still do not know why. That afternoon I learn about Hungary’s last 50 years while at The Terror Museum. The Nazis invaded, the Soviets invaded and they clashed in the middle of Hungary, who only wanted to remain neutral. But Hungary doesn’t joke about knowing how to bury their dead without reason—hundreds of thousands were killed and deported during WWII and for years after. 200,000 Jews left, 11,000 have returned since.

Faces of those who died from 1944-1967 from The Terror Museum

The Soviets won and during their occupation (1944-1991) if anyone made eye contact with a Soviet guard they could be under suspicion and would be taken away to the cellar prison of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Government (Communist) on Andrassy U.

Hungarians were trained to avoid eye contact for decades. I had guessed that the reason for avoiding eye contact was the fear of intimacy, but it was actually a cultured fear of abuse or death from a culture (the U.S.S.R.) that has had centuries of abuse itself.

Fear and internalization continues in Eastern Europe, but today, Hungarians celebrate 20 years of freedom from the Iron Curtain (1989) with passivity and pride.

Reactionary Century Podcast 02 – 062909

"Hey Billy, we love the thumbs up, but could we double it?"

Today I talk with Erin about the recent wave of celebrity deaths, which celebrites we hope don’t die, and why celebrity death affects us at all.

You can now get the podcast in iTunes so, you know, do that.

Download Reactionary Century Podcast 02 – 062909

This week on the internet: 062609

Compiled by Ryan

The links:

-The upcoming Flaming Lips record will be called Embryonic, and this might be the album art.

-Win Butler spoke to NME about a new Arcade Fire record.

-Transformers 2 somehow took in $60.6 million on its opening day, a new record for mid-week openings.

-Speaking of that movie, check out this quick exchange about it between Aziz Ansari and his cousin Darwish.

-The Academy Awards have decided to go to ten (up from five) nominees in the Best Picture category.  Speculation is rampant that the goal here is to include some blockbusters in the running and, thus, improve television ratings for the award show.  Here’s Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers’ reaction.

-Finally, at the end of an almost-surreal week, hit up Videogum for the top five Peanuts dance party mashups.