Kris Rasmussen: April 2009 Archives

The other day I discovered the best pick-me-up-to-beat-the-work-week-blues ever. The news that put a smile on my face was that Christian rocker Ashley Cleveland has finally announced the official release date of her new album "God Don't Never Change." While the release date is actually May 24, like all marketing-savvy artists, Cleveland has downloads of her new songs already available online for those of us who can't wait a second longer to hear her latest effort. And while it is true that I am unabashedly a devotee of her long and underappreciated--by the Christian industry, anyway--recording career, somehow I was still unprepared for how knocked out I was by some of her new songs.

Cleveland has always been able to deftly mix gospel, blues, and rock in the ways that great artists like Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley did, but "God Don't Never Change" puts its focus distinctly on the great heritage and wealth of music found in African-American gospel. She infuses spirituals that have been preciously covered by blues greats like Blind Willie Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis ("Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning," "God Don't Never Change") with her own passion and longings. But the highlight of this recording has to be when Cleveland tears it up musically and vocally on the hymns "God Called Me This Morning" and "Going to Meet the King" in a way that is simply incomparable to any other contemporary music artist, Christian or otherwise.

With "Britain's Got Talent" turning Susan Boyle into an international household name overnight, I have been thinking a lot about other great underdogs, real and fictional, that have captured my heart and mind over the years.

As a society we do love a good underdog story and there have been many great ones captured on film. So as a way of meditation on the possibility of second chances, I have compiled a list of my favorite movie underdogs. I decided to stay away from groups of underdogs ("Remember the Titans," "Hoosiers," etc.) and decided to focus more on individual characters who no one believed in, but were given a second chance to go on to accomplish something inspirational.
Even then, I had a lot of great movies to choose from, so feel free to add to my list in the comments box below.

Homer Hickam in 'October Sky': I just caught this movie on cable over the weekend, and I was reminded how this is one of the better movies featuring an underdog that is not sports related. Homer Hickam's desire to get out of the coal mines and win a science fair and obtain a college scholarship represents the true possibilities of the human mind to overcome one's environment.

Forrest Gump in 'Forrest Gump': As famous for its catch phrases as it is for its leading man, Tom Hanks, this movie is one of the quintessential looks at an unlikely American hero living out the American dream.

For quite some time now I have periodically posted DVD picks about little heard of films that are then released on DVD , but now with the burgeoning world of online access to movies, I may have start posting an online movie pick now and then. To prove my point, there is a great website, Snag Films, that has numerous excellent documentaries you can watch for free. These are documentaries that have not necessarily made it on to DVD or have played in the occasional film festival. Each month two documentaries are featured and this month it is the documentary "Father Roy: Inside of the School of Assassins."

Father Roy Bourgeoisis a former naval officer who became a priest and eventually became a missionary on a crusade against a training camp on U.S. soil nicknamed the School of Assassins. The School of the Americas is the official title of a camp in Fort Benning, Georgia that gives combat and counter insurgency training to members of many militia groups from Latin American countries.

Along with the rest of America, I was immediately captivated by Susan Boyle's inspiring performance on "Britain's Got Talent." Yet I am equally as dismayed at how quickly the discussion of Ms. Boyle's extreme makeover has taken off.

What made the moment so special was not her singing as much as it was a worldwide audience's reaction to it. We were able to drop our cynicism and delight in someone else's dream being realized. The power of the moment is that we were transformed by her performance. Not that she, with her God-given talent, needs to be transformed. As one of the judges, Amanda, eloquently put it, "it was the biggest wake-up call." I couldn't agree more.

I both accept and ignore the insatiable need of some media to scrutinize and criticize celebs like Miley in hopes that they will fall, but I really don't understand when one celebrity trashes another. No I am not talking about Paris and former BFF Nicole Ritchie or even Lindsay Lohan and her ex, Sam Ronson. I am referring to Oscar winner, musician and comedian Jamie Foxx who bashed Miley Cyrus on his radio show last weekend, calling her the "b" word and suggesting she should "do some heroin." He also suggested she make a sex tape and consider becoming a lesbian like Lohan.

Foxx has since backtracked on those comments by apologizing to Cyrus on "The Tonight Show" Tuesday and saying he didn't really mean "any of it" but was just doing his job as a "black Howard Stern." Foxx even shamelessly brought his own family into his apology pointing out that he has a teenage daughter so he "understands."

I returned to folk artist Bruce Cockburn's music a couple of years ago when he released"Life Short Call Now," one of the best recordings I listened to that year. Now Cockburn has a new two CD live set called "Slice...

Beliefnet has begun its celebration of National Poetry Month and while I love poetry, in trying to think of a poet to write about for Idol Chatter, I came upon a favorite of Crunchy Cons, the egrarian philosopher/minister Wendell Berry....

I recently posted a list of songs to celebrate the coming of spring, but I am already going to alter that list and add one more song. One of my favorite artisits, Sam Phillips, is offfering a free download...

In the final days leading up to Easter, it is, of course, common to bring out the biblical epics on film such as "The Ten Commandments" or dramas like "Ben-Hur." You may even have the stomach to watch "The Passion...

The announcement yesterday that CBS cancelled the soap opera after airing over seventy years of shows wasn't a surprise but it certainly is a watershed moment in pop culture. Gone are the days of marketing drama in the afternoon to...

To say I have spring fever right now is an understatement. I still have snow outside my window but no, I cannot see Russia from my house. Spring still seems a long way away to me even though it may...