"Coldplay rips off Joe Satriani?" The fur is gonna fly....

The kids over at ChordStrike have been on a roll lately and you should check them out for their ideas and recommendations for music that is often off the beaten path.

Here, though, is their take on the recent lawsuit brought by guitar-samurai Joe Satriani against the pop superstars Coldplay in which it seems their huge hit, Viva La Vida may have borrowed too generously from one of Joe's instrumental tunes off of a 2004 album.

You definitely want to check out the YouTube video that they have showing the two songs overlaid. It's pretty incredible. I am usually pretty skeptical about these kinds of claims, because pop/rock music is so pervasively inbred anyway these days. But this time...this time it really sounds eerily close and I'm thinking ol' Satch may have an axe to grind with the youngsters.


One thing I know for sure, and this video proves...Coldplay really could be the best band in the world if they got Joe Satriani to play guitar.


Followup: Coldplay says, "Oh, no we din't!"

What's So Great About Christianity?

Maybe I should start a category called "Books I Haven't Read Yet."

From the recently resurrected Anti-Itch Meditation, there is a pointer to this interview in Salvo Magazine with author Dinesh D'Souza. If, like me, you've heard that name on the TV news, but couldn't quite place him, it turns out he is a card-carrying renaissance man with multiple areas of high expertise. He has written a new book of Christian apologetics called "What's So Great About Christianity?," and has been spending the last year or so publicly debating noted atheists Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. I have not yet read the book, but if this interview is any indication, it would seem he is likely handing them their secular humanist heads on a platter.

Here's one of the best, most surprising bits from the interview, in response to the widely held and oft reported assertion that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world:

"That's actually not true. Islam is indeed growing, but primarily through reproduction. Muslims have big families, which translates into an increase in their numbers. But Christianity is growing both by reproduction and by conversions. The rate of Christian conversions in places such as Africa and Asia is really startling. Even the U.S., which is in some respects more modern, affluent, and technological than any other nation in the world, has also remained perhaps the most religious country in the West."

and

"The truth is, however, that if you go to South America, you will find a huge number of conversions to Protestant Christianity. If you go to Korea, you will find Christian churches with 100,000 members. If you go to China, you will find 100 million Christians. And if you go to Africa, you'll find that countries whose populations were only five percent Christian 100 years ago are now 50 percent Christian. These trends have not gone unnoticed by historians, who are startled by them and have attempted to explain them away, and they are the empirical basis for my claim that God is doing very well in this world."

Interesting.

Presents

For my birthday, I received the most wonderful toys:

A Radial Engineering Trimode Distortion Pedal

A Yodeling Pickle

Motorola Z6TV Cellphone

Juggling balls

Albums by:

Buddy Miller

David Bowie

David Byrne & Brian Eno

Carlos Santana

A new crockpot!

Not to mention an excellent black hoodie, a sweatshirt, and some generous monetary gifts.


Plus, I was treated to a meal at the best restaurant in Richmond, Ghyslain, with my wife, mom, and Grandma. Chef Ghyslain is an international award-winning chocolatier and restauranteur from Canada. Outstanding!

I missed my son not being there, but he'll be home from IU/Bloomington soon.

Kiwi Bacon

This is funny.







h/t Bacon Unwrapped