Spring Break
How quickly innocence fades
Nadine Anheier
Issue date: 2/19/07 Section: Forum
- Page 1 of 1
The Internet is quickly becoming the like the wild west: won.
One of the latest video blog controversies surrounds Donnie Davies, "a self-professed Anabaptist youth pastor, reformed homosexual, and lead singer for the band Evening Service," according to wikipedia.org.
Davies has appeared on radio stations spouting the message he touts on lovegodsway.org. Basically, the site is meant to "reform" homosexuals and bring them God's message about their lifestyle. Davies claims his experience as a way for him to reach out to others. He posts video blog messages talking about his ministry. The most amusing part of lovegodsway.org is undeniably the lists of "Gay Bands" - Bjork, The String Cheese Incident, and Phish, to name a few - and "Safe Bands" - Evanescence, Cyndi Lauper?
Even more ridiculous is Davies' band Evening Service's video, "The Bible Says," which discusses, oddly, what the Bible says about homosexuality.
Davies is obviously off his rocker.
But it doesn't matter, because I, and most of the rest of Davies' viewers, think he's a fake. In fact, we know it.
He's far too ridiculous to be real. And we're far too jaded now to believe anything that seems too outlandish to be true.
We've learned our lesson. At first the Internet seemed a place where people were honest. It was your typical friendly neighborhood, where people would wave and say hi, sometimes tell you a story, and then retreat to people they actually knew.
Then we realized there were bad people online. Scary people. So we adapted to be more careful online.
YouTube popularized vlogs for us. At first they consisted of fuzzy webcam videos of actual people. Pretty standard, boring videos.
Then a 16-year-old home schooled girl started vlogging. There were arguments about her validity, and eventually the creators of lonelygirl15 admitted they were working on a revolutionary new form of entertainment. Their blog was interactive - plot twists were developed based on fan reaction. Some fans were genuinely upset by what they felt was a deception. Others, like me, were delighted by the very idea of an interactive "show."
So when Donnie Davies hit the scene, it took about two seconds for people to start raising questions about his validity. He was far too out there. The Westboro Baptist Church we believed, but they were around before the Internet.
Davies' message was way too in-your-face, and his pseudo-Southern accent not convincing enough.
The truth is, no one has technically proven Davies is a fake. There are a few ideas about his true identity: Colby Starck of the band Glass Gypsies, California comedian Todd Quillen. But none have been verified by Davies or anyone else.
It seems he's hanging on to the veil as long as possible, even when he may be the only one believing in it anymore.
For the rest of the jaded information superhighway travelers, he's a spoof. For me, the most pressing question is not who he actually is, but if he might actually be real.
Now that's a scary thought.
nanheier@unews.com
One of the latest video blog controversies surrounds Donnie Davies, "a self-professed Anabaptist youth pastor, reformed homosexual, and lead singer for the band Evening Service," according to wikipedia.org.
Davies has appeared on radio stations spouting the message he touts on lovegodsway.org. Basically, the site is meant to "reform" homosexuals and bring them God's message about their lifestyle. Davies claims his experience as a way for him to reach out to others. He posts video blog messages talking about his ministry. The most amusing part of lovegodsway.org is undeniably the lists of "Gay Bands" - Bjork, The String Cheese Incident, and Phish, to name a few - and "Safe Bands" - Evanescence, Cyndi Lauper?
Even more ridiculous is Davies' band Evening Service's video, "The Bible Says," which discusses, oddly, what the Bible says about homosexuality.
Davies is obviously off his rocker.
But it doesn't matter, because I, and most of the rest of Davies' viewers, think he's a fake. In fact, we know it.
He's far too ridiculous to be real. And we're far too jaded now to believe anything that seems too outlandish to be true.
We've learned our lesson. At first the Internet seemed a place where people were honest. It was your typical friendly neighborhood, where people would wave and say hi, sometimes tell you a story, and then retreat to people they actually knew.
Then we realized there were bad people online. Scary people. So we adapted to be more careful online.
YouTube popularized vlogs for us. At first they consisted of fuzzy webcam videos of actual people. Pretty standard, boring videos.
Then a 16-year-old home schooled girl started vlogging. There were arguments about her validity, and eventually the creators of lonelygirl15 admitted they were working on a revolutionary new form of entertainment. Their blog was interactive - plot twists were developed based on fan reaction. Some fans were genuinely upset by what they felt was a deception. Others, like me, were delighted by the very idea of an interactive "show."
So when Donnie Davies hit the scene, it took about two seconds for people to start raising questions about his validity. He was far too out there. The Westboro Baptist Church we believed, but they were around before the Internet.
Davies' message was way too in-your-face, and his pseudo-Southern accent not convincing enough.
The truth is, no one has technically proven Davies is a fake. There are a few ideas about his true identity: Colby Starck of the band Glass Gypsies, California comedian Todd Quillen. But none have been verified by Davies or anyone else.
It seems he's hanging on to the veil as long as possible, even when he may be the only one believing in it anymore.
For the rest of the jaded information superhighway travelers, he's a spoof. For me, the most pressing question is not who he actually is, but if he might actually be real.
Now that's a scary thought.
nanheier@unews.com
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