Have you seen this guy? If not, sign off my blog right now and go to YouTube and watch any of twenty or thirty clips of Reverend Billy. He has an ice cream suit laquered, blond hair and a Jimmy Swaggart persona. Watch him lead a charge on Walmart! See him speak in tongues in Victoria's Secret, Hear him and the Choir of Stop Shopping in Targets and Starbucks as they boogie down the aisles and lead exorcisms of credit cards. Is he funny? Yes, and he is wonderful, and if you listen to what he says between his comic skits, you will hear something else: about the death of small town America, about slave wages in China and Indonesia.He also has much to say about commercialism and the American belief that love is a commodity that can be bought. When the police haul him away, listen to him shout SHOP LESS, GIVE MORE! I am obviously a fan. Hell, if he would have me, I'll join the choir provided he can teach me to boogie. So far, I've seen him on Glenn Beck, Atlanta's WGN,CNN and CBS. He is even in Europe and he has a movie, too: "What Would Jesus Buy?" He has a tour and he is coming to a mall near you.
Sounds great -- I'll look for him on YouTube. I haven't shopped at a mall in fifteen or twenty years -- we make most of our presents or buy them locally.
ReplyDeleteWell, Reverend Billy isn't talking to you, but he would probably like to have you in his choir. I found a wonderful interview with him in which he went home with some of the children at the mall and they showed him their toys ... bushels of them stored under beds and in closets.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, just in time for the season of loot. I've heard the good Rev preach and he sure does have a message for our times. That choir can SING, too. AYYY-MENNN, Reverend Billy. In a somewhat related matter, based on what's happening (or more accurately, NOT happening) in Copenhagen, the Pacific Islanders had better start building boats. We won't let nothin' stop us from burnin' them fossil fuels like there's no tomorrow, even if does melt the ice caps. It occurs to me that if we're willing to flood out our "brethren" for Fontana and Jocassee, we won't lose too much sleep over a few chumps in the Maldives. Ho-ho-ho!
ReplyDeleteIt's Christmas. I need a laugh. I will hunt this guy down on You Tube or wherever he may be
ReplyDeletefound. Meanwhile, here's a piece I wrote that
speaks to the reverand's concerns.
Christmas shopping
at Walmart... the elves
must be Chinese
jq
I saw the crisis in the Maldives on TV last night. I believe they said that all of those islands were not high enough above sea level to survive and at the current rate that the ice caps are melting, they will all be underwater before long. Somewhere in there, I saw something about the plight of a species of small penguins, too. Due to the loss of habitat,their number has already been reduced by 90%.
ReplyDeleteI discovered the Rev a couple years ago and posted one of those youtubes on Wintersong. Then those guys in Washington tell us we need to get out there and spend money to save the economy and get us out of this depression. Stop the world; I want to get off!
ReplyDeleteGreat Stuff that Reverend Billy. Watched many of the YouTube stuff. Saw his film as upcoming on HBO this week. I am waiting for the one man play. Talk is Hal Holbrook is being considered. Go Figure!
ReplyDeleteMercy! Are you serious? Hal Holbrook??? Well, I am looking forward to Hal Holbrook's performance in William Gay's "I Hate to See that Evening Sun Go Down."
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this Gary. It was great driving through Sylva on Sunday afternoon and seeing so many stores open. Wife and I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" the other night and were struck with how appropriate the message is.
ReplyDeleteYou are right! The right reverend mister Billy is a hoot! Caught a bit of his film on cable the other night. He was leading his choir up a street in an upscale neighborhood, knocking on upscale fancy double-doors and carolling his re-writteb Xmas carols all the while lamenting the extinction of sidewalks in new neighborhoods. Great stuff.
ReplyDelete