When the imitation is better

There are lots of cheesy or unusual cover songs out there, but have you ever heard the cover version of a song before you heard the original, and then thought the original was just cheesy? Here are some examples that I've noticed:

The Renegades of Funk
Cover: Rage Against The Machine
Cheesy Original: Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force

Mad World
Cover: Michael Andrews and Gary Jules
Cheesy Original: Tears for Fears

These original versions may have sounded pretty good when they came out, but when creative people decided to make music in the 1980s, they doomed themselves to be made fun of by the future.

I mentioned this idea for a blog post a while back to a friend, and she borrowed the idea on her blog. Can you think of any other examples of this phenomenon?

Fun with expired coupons

Peter Griffin isn't the only one with a good story about an expired coupon. Yesterday I was at my weekly Ultimate game (the last one of the year), and afterward we decided to go to Dairy Queen. We usually go out for some food after the game, but it's been a while since we went to Dairy Queen. I found some DQ coupons in my house a while back (probably at least a month ago) and I've been bringing them every week, but this was my first chance to use them.

We got to DQ and I started reading off the coupons to see if any of my friends wanted to use one or split a 2-for-1 coupon. One coupon was for $3 off a cake, so someone suggested we get an ice cream cake. After being indecisive for a few minutes, we became decisive. We got a Reese cake. But someone looked at the expiry date on the coupon. November 4. We didn't have much time left to use the coupon. Then I noticed the expiry date was November 4, 2007. D'oh!

We got the cake anyway, and we asked for plates or bowls to eat it from. They had small plastic bowls for us, and they handed us some plastic forks and knives too. Someone asked if they had a metal knife for cutting the cake, and they did. They even let us use it!

And it's a good thing they had the metal knife. Apparently you're supposed to let the cake sit outside of the freezer for a while before eating it. They aren't really meant for eating in the restaurant. It was tough to cut that cake! Three of us took turns and after several minutes of hard work, we cut the cake into five pieces. (There were only five of us at DQ this time.) They were big pieces, and of course quite tough to eat with a plastic fork. But we persevered! That cake didn't know what hit it. By the time we left, there was just one piece left (because the two girls shared one piece).

I guess that's not as exciting as a fight almost-to-the-death with a giant chicken, but it wouldn't have happened without that coupon. But maybe you had to be there.

He's smarter than you

Thanks to the magic of Photoshop and video editing, we can now watch Richard Dawkins rapping about atheism:

The envelope gets pushed

Last week, I promised I'd push the envelope this week. So this week, for the first time in the history of this blog, I am posting a video that I made:

Judgment

Have you ever heard someone say it's worth being a Christian simply because there's a remote chance that hell exists? I've heard that a number of times, and the last time was about a week ago. While I have a lot of respect for the person who I heard say this a week ago, it doesn't sit right with me.

The problem: this plays into the hands of fearmongers. We end up following whichever religion claims the worst punishment for its non-followers (as long as the religion seems somewhat plausible). Then religion becomes a tool for controlling people, rather than something that tries to make the world a better place and connect people with God. Would you be willing to make the world a worse place if there's a slight chance it would help you avoid hell?

I'm not denying that there is judgment after death (whether or not it fits the traditional definition of hell) or that there's one right religion. Actually, in a way I think it's good that Christianity is split into so many denominations that--for the most part--respect the fact that other denominations are legitimate Christian churches. This makes it harder for Christian leaders to control people.

Besides, judgment has its good side. Jack White shows that he realizes this in the song "You Don't Know What Love Is". He criticizes someone who refuses to judge, saying, "but in his mind there can be no sin if you never criticize." The Bible shows one reason that judgment can be good in Psalm 76:9 (NLT), which says, "You stand up to judge those who do evil, O God, and to rescue the oppressed of the earth."

(I just found out the music video for "You Don't Know What Love Is" was filmed in Iqaluit, Nunavut. It looks warmer than Edmonton was a week or three ago.)

Something for my readers with high blood pressure

I saw the World's Greatest Commercials at a movie theatre with Kate last weekend. This one here is probably my favourite of the bunch.

Better than Hasselhoff?

(By the way, I put a couple of links to David Hasselhoff videos in this previous post.)

Update (May 16, 2012): It appears that this copy of The Urkel Dance has been removed from YouTube. You'll have to find a different copy yourself.