I watched a documentary last night about the 'End Timers' in America. It reminds me so much of my southern Baptist upbringing. It made me a bit worried last night. Obviously the UK documentary was on a subtly anti-evangelical Christian bias, but it seemed like the facts were well supported. The one thing which has frightened me for a while now is that in places like Dallas which is one of the biggest cities on the holy bible belt thousands of people sit in one big room every Sunday listening to ONE MAN slapping his bible and preaching about this so-called end of days we are entering into. The documentary goes so far as to show that in every segment of the last century, these like-minded millions have focused on what they hate, so the evil forces connected to the apocalypse have changed from Hitler, to the Russians, and now, of course, to the middle east. It’s outrageous! On an environmental level, according to the End Timers' take on revelation, global warning is a part of the progression to the end so instead of taking the responsibility for the damage we have done to the ozone, these people are deep in a belief that the worse global warming gets, the closer they will be to a magical ascension into heaven. Tens of millions of Americans support this belief. Many of the End Timers support another belief: that the UN is the platform from which the Antichrist will rise. Is that not dangerous thinking? The UN, a body that has been sending forces into areas of Africa to try and sort out conflict, areas that most Americans don’t even know exist; a body that when it offers its support, it does so based on the belief in common decency and international human rights for all without thrusting some unwanted, negative, apocalyptic, extremist sect of one specific religion in their faces. The Rapture, The Tribulation, The Apocalypse, the Antichrist: these are all issues talked about in the ‘Left Behind’ series, the number one best-selling series in America of all time. And that scares me. The ‘Left Behind’ series is simply creative fiction based on a very exclusive translation of a very confusing book of the Bible. End Timers have bought these books and read them alongside their Bibles. There is much debate on whether or not John the Apostle, the supposed author of Revelation, actually wrote it at all. The writing style of revelation is so drastically different than that of the Gospel of John, that many cannot believe it is the same man. Modern thinking gives the possibility that John the Apostle, John the Evangelist, and John of Patmos are three different individuals. In the Channel 4 Documentary I watched, the Narrator, Tony Robinson went to the island of Patmos and found that very near to the cave in which the book was written grows a little fungus we lovingly refer to as “Magic Mushrooms”. I need not remind anyone of the strong visions one might have whilst on a mushroom trip. And is it absurd to think that the writer was on them? No. There is documentation that at the end of the Roman Empire, when Revelation was written, people of Patmos would fast and pray for days before drinking the mushroom brew, a perfect recipe for one hell of a trip. Maybe the book of Revelation was a vision connected to the fall of Rome, and empire that ruled 25% of the world’s population at the time.

Here is the address of a page about the documentary. HERE


It is truly scary the influence End Timers have on American politics and the strong connections they have with the White House. Would we have gone into Iraq if they had no oil? No. Would we have gone into Iraq if these extremist Christians did not influence the Bushes’ decisions?

2,500 young singers auditioned hoping to get one step closer to their big break into musical theatre. I am one of 15 that did. Annually, the BBC holds an international professional competition that is attended by all of London's big names in producing big West End shows and also huge films. The winner gets £5000, a huge recording contract, plus everyone will want them to be in their next show. This year, for the first time BBC New Talent has held an amateur leg of the competition. They went to every major city in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland auditioning pretty much anyone that wanted to give it a try. So the auditionees ranged from young drama students to accountants andpharmacistss. I attended the Cardiff audition at the end of July and then spent the next month and a half waiting for a reply. And the reply came. I was working behind the bar at the Funky Buddha Lounge when the woman running the competition came in with her co-worker (a friend of my boss). They have often been in the bar for a drink in the past and I know them both fairly well. I knew something might be up, but as I greeted them they said that the results were not quite confirmed and that they would let me know next week. So I went about my business as usual trying not to get my hopes up, when a few minutes later a camera came in through the front door and I was hearing the words, "you are going to boot camp"! So, with hands shaking, I took down the dates for the 'boot camp' as it is so lovingly named, where fromTuesday to Friday, every day from 9am - 7pm we will be diving into every conceivable facet of musical theatre and workshopping our audition songs. We are staying in a hotel in Cardiff with everything paid for, and then thatFridayy night we all audition again. Of the 15, 5 are then chosen to proceed on the following day to the professional preliminary round with 30 singers who are already through to that round. The judges will not be told who is professional and who is amateur. If I continue to be successful after the preliminary round, I will then proceed to the proper BBC Radio 2 Voice of Musical Theatre Competition at the New Theatre in Cardiff. The audience will then be filled with casting directors, agents,producers, and all the other big wigs of the musical theatre industry. This is incredibly exciting and I need all the positive energy everyone can muster, because this could be my big break!
In the meantime, the woman who heads thecompetitionn also heads the BBC Music Projects department, and she told me in the next four weeks before the competition continues, I am welcome to go to the BBC and meet the casting director and other directors around just to begin sponging as much advice I can as well as learning some new names to be able to begin to network myself all over the place! She is very helpful and shows lots of signs of having a great deal of faith in me. I'm the only one who they chose to bombard with a camera up my nose to film my reaction to this very exciting news.
Another little piece off news came through my mobile phone yesterday morning. The Welsh National Opera phoned me up saying that a film company is looking for young voices from their youth opera. This film company is taking on Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd' (the demon barber of Fleet Street). Tim Burton's directing it and I hear Johnny Depp is meant to be in it. I haven't heard anything yet, so I may not even have an audition, but one can always hope...