Does Pope Francis Like "The Blues Brothers"?

With Pope Francis hospitalized in critical condition, I've found myself thinking back to something of a strange moment in the modern history of the Catholic Church: when the official newspaper of the Vatican declared The Blues Brothers, an R-rated John Landis comedy from the 1980s, a "Catholic classic" alongside more traditional faith-based fare such as The Ten Commandments.

One wonders: was this designation approved by the Pope? Did the Pope watch The Blues Brothers? I'm just having fun imagining him tapping his toe at the James Brown number or cackling as the Nazis' car falls from the sky. Do you think he ever tells his advisors, "They won't catch us, we're on a mission from God"? These are questions I would really like answers to. As weird as these ideas are, however, they're probably less weird than the image of Pope Francis trying to set up a Steam account so he can play Undertale.

Side note: I really hope Pope Francis is doing alright. I'm not a member of his faith, but he seems like a pretty cool guy. I wish him only the best.

Now I Am an Arsonist

Jonathan Coulton is, as I've said before, one of the most important artists in my life. His work clicked with me so immediately and profoundly that I genuinely have trouble picturing the person I would be now without it. I think he is a genius, an unlikely poet, and one of the most criminally slept-on lyricists of the century. And yet, as close as his discography is to me, I'm still finding songs that somehow missed me before. One of these is "Now I Am an Arsonist," a duet with Suzanne Vega from Coulton's 2011 album Artificial Heart. I've listened to this album many times, and yet this particular track, remarkably, has never stood out to me until now.

Why? Your guess is as good as mine. "Now I Am an Arsonist" is a beauty of a song, melancholy and abstract. Coulton has stated that its meaning is intentionally difficult to discern (I personally favor the interpretation that it is about a meteor falling from the sky), though its lyricism nonetheless is immediately evocative and conjures some powerful images. When combined with the raw yet ethereal feel of the acoustic guitar, the song feels almost dreamlike, such was Coulton's intention.

I also find a degree of fascination in Coulton working with Suzanne Vega. Those up-to-date in their digital media history reading will know that Vega is considered "the mother of the MP3" due to her song "Tom's Diner" being an early test of the format's compression. Coulton, being one of the first artists to build his career entirely through the Internet, in part owes his success to the MP3, and by extension Vega. Food for thought.

"You were just an astronaut, floating on a spark
Tearing up the atmosphere, burning down the dark
As you fell in, the heat against your skin
Till it got too bright to se"

Alex Before Jones

(The face of evil. Via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)

In the past I've made no bones about my utter, unrestrained loathing of right-wing crackpot radio "personality" Alex Jones, a man who I would have no moral qualms about physically harming if I met him on the street. I think he is a sick, twisted, pathetic excuse for a human being, and his crocodile tears and lip-service apologies do nothing to even begin to address the harm he's caused. A little smile graces my face every time he loses a court case and sinks even deeper into bankruptcy. This is not, you should note, how I normally talk about people. For me to speak of another human being in this way, they have to be a special kind of repugnant. Alex Jones is a special kind of repugnant.

But what has fascinated me lately is the fact that he wasn't always this way. In fact, before his legendary dive off the deep end, he was just a kooky, "fun-crazy," mostly harmless call-in DJ in Austin, who had deep connections with the various independent art movements taking shape around that time. Austin, then, was a breeding ground for a new type of outside-the-box weirdo, and Jones was just one of them. He appeared in two Richard Linklater films and King of the Hill co-creator Mike Judge used Jones as fodder for the show's hilarious conspiracy-addled nutjob Dale Gribble. Judge also made the disappointing decision to associate with him as recently as 2013, though I can find multiple later statements from him (as well as Linklater) condemning and disavowing Jones.

It's very odd to think of one of the most dangerous people in modern American media as an old-school "keep Austin weird" personality. That's the sort of vibe you generally don't associate with someone who terrorized the families of school shooting victims and made money off of it. Goes to show, the kinda sucking to totally sucking pipeline is very real. Stay safe out there, folks.

Unrelated thought: how much money do you think Alex Jones would take to appear on a podcast with me? Clearly the man is flat broke and I'd love to be able to verbally abuse him on the Internet. You'd think in this position he'd take what he can get. If you're reading this, hit me up, man. I wanna make you cry.

Arab Americans for Peace

Something something leopards something something face.

Mama (Still) Never Went Electric

A while back (almost a year now, holy crap), I posted about the demo for the song "Mama Never Went Electric", by acclaimed sci-fi novelist and Half-Life writer turned indie musician Marc Laidlaw. Well, that demo has since been taken down, but its place has been taken by the version from Laidlaw's newly-released album After the Pulse, and it is equally delightful. Swapping out the "sparse bass-and-drums beat" for crunchy synths and percussion with just the right hint of guitar, it's well worth a listen. The lyrics remain the highlight for me, and their new musical backing has only improved them.

Eggs

At my local grocery store, eggs currently cost around $10. I'm not kidding. A carton of 12 eggs costs more than an 8-pack of frozen burritos from the same store. I don't think that I need to say it, but this was not the cost of eggs before Mr. "Lower Grocery Prices on Day One" got into office. Oh, but it's okay in the eyes of the woefully out-of-touch Trump cultists because he finally addressed an issue that affects all of us: something around 10 specific people can no longer compete in college sports. A true president of the working class.

It boggles my mind how people can continue to vote for him for any reason, economy included. He plainly has no idea how tariffs work and assumes they won't affect the average American because he hasn't had to buy anything from a grocery store in decades. Let me repeat: Donald Trump does not know your struggles, and he does not know how to help them. If your egg prices are rising, it doesn't affect him and he doesn't care. What does affect him is his own personal disgust with seeing LGBTQ+ people existing, and turning Gaza into a high-price golf resort.

You are not his priority. You never were and you never will be. I can only hope enough people see that in the next four years to get him the hell out of the White House before it's too late.

And if you voted for him? These are the egg prices you voted for, and I hope you enjoy them. That had better be the best damn omelette you've ever tasted.

The More You Know

I always thought that the song "Unchained Melody" was called that because many recordings start out more calm and then ascend to the point of soaring, meaning the melody is "unchained" by the end. But nope, turns out it's just called that because it's a melody from the 1955 film Unchained. Another day, another lifelong illusion shattered.

Trump and Gaza

I would absolutely love to hear thoughts on this from someone who refused to vote for Harris because of Palestine. I would be delighted to hear them defend their choice that helped usher this guy into office. Seriously, I want all of them in my comment section right now telling me how in the hell they can sleep at night knowing what they've wrought.

You can say what you will about the Biden/Harris record with Palestine, and much of that criticism would be warranted, but Harris would not have even considered something as despicable as this.

And, once again, to all the "uncommitted" protest voters on the left, go to hell. Thank you.

(I know this is heavy stuff, but I promise if you scroll a little bit more there's a really good clip from Futurama below this.)

"When Push Comes to Shove, You Gotta Do What You Love!"

I'm not really posting this for any particular reason beyond the fact that I love Futurama and this song has been stuck in my head. It's one of the series' best moments, in my opinion. Hermes' "Bereaucrat Song" is everything I love about the show: it's fast, wickedly smart, and always pays attention to its craftsmanship. This sequence is exceptionally well-boarded and the song itself is composed brilliantly, and the voice actors prove themselves to be talented singers as well.

The perfect pick-me-up song for those "it's only Tuesday?" feels.

One Year

(I'm so glad I chose the perfect blogging platform for compressing my images to hell and back <3)

One year ago today, briglarson.com was officially launched and the first post was made. Since then, the world has owed a great debt to my random musings manifested through the most outdated blogging platform in the business. Truly, I have broken new ground in political and social commentary, and vastly influenced modern society to an extent unforeseen and unprecedented. All it took was a little bit of Bush-era web design. How inspiring.

Seriously though, it's nice to know that this project has made it a whole year and is still receiving consistent updates. Not many of my other projects can boast that. Take my long-dormant, pretty darn terrible webcomic I keep meaning to bring back in some capacity but haven't. The fact that I can barely read the existing strips without cringing is probably a pretty large contributor to that (it also says a lot that this is the first time I've taken credit for The Bench under my own name online).

This blog started as simple passion project to provide an alternative to the growing, all-encompassing horror of social media, from the endless dopamine hits of Instagram to the growing Nazi sympathizing of President Swasticar and his rule over Twitter (you will pry that name out of my cold, dead hands). I remain entirely committed to this blog remaining just that. I don't make a cent off of briglarson.com and I don't intend to. I have disabled all ads, and if I could disable trackers I would do that too (though you have the option to do that yourself, cough cough).

My readership has grown somewhat as well, though I still can't be sure if half of those views are just me or not. But I've had a couple of minor breakout posts. While most of my posts usually max out at two to three views, my 2024 Election Night coverage consistently pulled in upwards of 11 views. By the average blogger's standard those are post-human extinction numbers, but as someone who's content to exist in the ever-shrinking niche of personal blogging, that's the kind of reach I could only dream of.

(A "doing numbers" meme? In this economy?)

Later this year, I'm gonna have to duck out for a couple of years for personal reasons (religious mission for those wondering, you get one guess which religion it is), but I'll probably pre-write a couple posts and schedule them to drop over the course of my mission. I want this to keep going and not grow entirely dormant. Gotta put the domain name to good use. I assure you that briglarson.com will not die until the last Google server goes down.

Thanks to all my reader(s) for coming along on this magical blogging journey. I hope you've enjoyed it, I hope you continue to enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy it well into the future!

Be kind, stay hydrated, and have a fantastic day.

:)

Insta Reels

For an algorithm specifically designed to give me a constant stream of what I desire in order to get me addicted to their products, Instagram Reels sure is serving me content that gets me to close the app.