All Hopped Up

Best Scroll Ever. . .

I'll admit to being a scroll watcher. Those quick bursts of news are often more satisfying than the non-news prattling of the talking heads above the moving graphics. At their best, the condensed blurbs can even be tantalizing and mysterious. None more than the one I saw last Monday during the morning news. It began mundanely enough. . . "Hezbollah launches. . ", What? A missile? A food drive? A peace overture? Nope: "Hezbollah launches boy band to stardom." Sure my eyes were still sleep-filled and brain groggy, I dallied around the TV until the scroll came back again, and yep, I was right the first time.

Witness all the meteoric rise of Northern Band. Described as a struggling West Bank wedding band, they wrote new lyrics to an old classic tune singing the praises of Hassan Nasrallah. Its all over the place. Email downloads, CDs, tapes, and even ringtones. And here it is, the lyrics that launched their careers: "Hey, you, hawk of Lebanon. Hey, you, Nasrallah. Your men are from Hezbollah and victory is yours with God's help."

Catchy, huh?