Music critic, gadfly, political pundit — all this and more! Everything you always wanted to know about Al (but were afraid to ask).
The purpose of this monthly series is to highlight an outstanding contributor to the site as chosen by the editorial staff. This designation is meant to recognize and celebrate the best of the best, those writers who not only shine by virtue of their talent, but whose ongoing participation gives all of us a reason to tune in each and every day. As new readers are continually discovering Blogcritics, we also hope to introduce these fine writers to a new audience.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - Walter J Weatherman
Al Barger is a bleeping idiot. It just highlights how bad a site this is.
27 - gonzo marx
well Walter, thanks for sharing... i guess
could you elucidate the reasoning behidn your statement?
cuz he may indeed be a *bleeping idiot*
but he is OUR bleeping idiot... and some of us might get a bit defensive...
i'm just sayin'
Excelsior?
28 - Prez16
Thanks to the previous commenter, but Dylan was right when he said "you don't need a weatherman to know which the way the wind blows" because Al and Navin don't seem that far apart.
His responses are full of a "cheesy type of egoism, and petty narcissm[sp]" so it's no wonder he can spot it.
So you pulled in more page views than BC for a few days, eh? Considering that you have your home page set to your own site, one has to ask if you block your own IP?
From reading your "reviews" of rock music, it appears you already do without a sense of taste. Pick another one.
The fact that you don't understand Thompson says more about you then it does him. He was actually working as a novelist who got jobs as a journalist. Hence, the creation of the genre name "gonzo journalism" to identify what he did because he was doing something different. No one except teenage idiots, and apparently adult idiots, ever thought his stories were 100% factual.
You are not a better writer than him (narcissism alert). Have you got yourself a paying gig with a professional magazine, newspaper or website? Anyone turning your writings into a feature film? Please cite.
But don't take my opinion; we'll let history be the judge and see if any esteemed writers and colleagues take note of your eventual passing. Funny that you would reference Hitchens as he wrote a nice obit about Thompson at Slate.
29 - Mary Reborn
No Al Barger has not gone toe to toe with me but then again, I really don't like seeing people any longer. I have scars all over my body from such nasty and hateful birds and a generation of vipers as was quoted in the Bible. So when I ask for signs so the world can work with that instead of taking it out on me, excuse me for living.
30 - Mary Reborn
The faithful do not know what will be. Lots of people pray for me and I, likewise; but do not ridicule me because this is not funny. Try putting yourselves in my shoes. What IF you were me? But you are not, you are you and I am me.
31 - Mary Reborn
I tango and if you step on my feet, you will be sorry and the dance is over. How in the world can a baby be born like I was? Why don't you just let me worry about that. Will ya?
32 - Mary Reborn
I read that Madonna is getting divorced. Pity, or is it? Can you make him love you Madonna and make me be quiet too about stealing my songs as your own? I think not. So God may be my only witness but hey, God is my lawyer, my savior, my counselor, my sweet prince too.
33 - Mary Reborn
Anyone that is anyone, read my poems and find the ones for Madonna, the song stealer. Hey you know what she called me? The B word, and she said I am taking them and there is nothing you can do about it. Hey Madonna, God can.
34 - Mary Reborn
Controversial Al Barger confronts the eighth wonder of the world is more like it. I feel like John the Baptist only more concrete. So what? I prove to you that the realm exists. I watch as bafoons who sold their souls to Satan try to act out the part. Man, this world is full of coniving bastards.I think John Lennon sang a song about this world that is fitting.My Momma told me there'd be days like these...strange days indeed.
35 - Mary Reborn
My Momma actually did tell me in her own way and her own time. Glen Boyd, reviewer, I see. Welcome to my world. The world that has gone push button and be back in a hour. The world that has time of the essence. Welcome to Mary Reborn's world. Where Al Gore comes to my home in Dunedin, Florida saying Hi, Cathie, (my new name) and he comes to snoop on an invention I got science honors for but he took the credit for. Al Gore, the vice president. Steals from a teenage girl. OH pity and let us all be humble before men with guns. AHHHHHH CARUMBA~
36 - Mary Reborn
Good for Charles Kennedy huh/ has he got the blue lady covered and is he building bridges for me?
Will they spend the money I made but did not get paid for wisely? Only one can tell. One like me, her shadow and only the shadow knows. Where automatic timing comes with her birth to just know things. Like a prayer, it will take me there. Like a statue of liberty but crying like a statue of Mary. Confined to the stereotypical egotistcal maniacs.
37 - Mary Reborn
Plachen hombre....or iron man.
IN the garden davita honey...
don't you know I want to be true.
Iron maiden my uncle called me.
The object of a super star's affection.
M 13 not to be confused with MS 13.
Not to be dust to dust, ashes to ashes
like a Pheonix.
I will show this world what I am made of
besides flesh and bone.
38 - Mary Reborn
Excuse me, planchen hombre. Add an n to that word.
Smile as you kill. They are smiling at you and planning to take everything you got away from you. Like a song, Michael and the mechanics...hide out in your cellars...can you hear me? Power, corrupted and no man is an island gimmick. I tell you, the evil ones might find out about total isolation, the crazy bastards. Where there was male dominence is dominent domain. I am not an Amazon woman but powers beyond your beliefs. Why don't you just watch the skies and see what the UFOS do next?
39 - Mary Reborn
Smoke screen, screen guild writers and readers who now scan my emails, bug me continually, have me followed by secret service, continually try to thwart my stupdenous endeavors into their own hands. I am a hard act to follow some times. You never know...where the long and winding road might end. Of course unless you lay a trap there.
What's next for the ambitious cusses who steal from me? Let us pray, or prey upon her? I know too much. A babe in the woods now, all alone.
Her parents are dead. They see me, know me, put me in file 13.
40 - Mary Reborn
John Lennon sang," As soon as you're born, they make you feel small in the song Working Class Hero. How true. But how small is a baby born like me answering Mary to her name and fulfilling a prophecy of God? How small? Ask Leanne Womack who stole my song, I Hope You Dance. I can still feel small standing on the shore of Dunedin Causeway and singing while her cousins Mitzi and Vicky on a beach blanket hear me sing and steal it. OH, fuck off your infidels. You are infidels and you don't believe in God anymore.
41 - Mary Reborn
Oh I will write free of charge all right. A penny for my thoughts is not enough though. Belief in God when I get through with all of you is what I want. I am not doped on religion. I am in the book. I am not just a messenger, I am far more than a messenger. I am not some twit who can't get out of a snare. I am clever, classless, and free.
42 - Jet
What ever happened to Blogcritic of the month?
43 - Mary Reborn
So cheers, I want to go where everybody knows my name and some know it as Catherine and others know me as Mary and some just knew me and did not know my name. I am Mary reborn. I will become legend and I will make this world follow suit. You will walk upright like upstanding men when I finish grilling your asses like my face in a cheese sandwich. If Ave Maria speaks in Spanish, that would be a gueso derretida bocadillo is it?
I am the Mary who made a cheese sandwich and was praying to God while making it and I have been praying, never will stop, and I am the 8th wonder of the modern world.
44 - Mary Reborn
Some calll me Lady of the snows. Some think I am a blob or a thing or a freak of nature. I guess in the land of wonderous colors that GOD himself can make even on Drew St. on a building explain me. Writer, songstress, poet, and what's more?
More things.com as my finale? They've already mixed church and state by meeting me. They've already had to see with their own eyes that I am no accident, my birth is not a mental disease, and I need no cure. All my predictions have come true. My answered prayer is all from God. I am from God. Being torn by church and state is not my idea of the way to go. Sorry, no compromise anymore. I am not going to speculate on what you will do with my postings. I would not mess with this woman if I were you. People have seen me call firebolts down from Heaven. People have seen me do things you cannot do. REVELATIONS...and they try to destroy those of God but what happens? In the end, God protects Mary, that is what happens! The earth will split into three major earthquakes, storms of class five will hit those who cannot fight them, your Mother Mary is back and if you don't like it, tough shit.
45 - Mary Reborn
Yeah, I know how some of you think...you got a 307 shotgun loaded? Me, I come with miracles under my belt. I come with my wits in tact.
I come and go as I damn well please and you know what? There are legends and then there are legends that are not fabled. When you meet those who saw the miracles I prayed for, you will wish it could have happened to you. I am not in the business of miracles. I live my life and I did not exactly think of keeping a journal when I am fighting for my life over half the time.
46 - Mary Reborn
P.S. How can Al Barger write about an article without me coming on? He can't. So I went on and now you know, that the songs, the books, the movies, and the blogs are about a baby born saying her name is Mary.
47 - Mary Reborn
Al Barger-no, you cannot come and meet me.
Dr. Phil-I am not your_____patient.
Oprah Winfrey- I prefer to keep the color purple patent.
World-it has not been nice to know you.
Priests-are you keeping track of all the miracles plus the stigmata one?
Blog-get a life and realize I have one.
48 - Mary Reborn
You can believe, just put away your fears.
There is a song, Change? That's just some people talking.
I bet that song enters a few of your minds about now.
Do I have a plan?
First you get people to respect God.
Secondly, you get them to respect each other.
Thirdly, you don't bite the hand that feeds you?
HA, I just threw that one in.
49 - Mary Reborn
Watch Blue Planet and view the underwater scenes and think to yourself, could the seas boil? Give up a lot of dead? Could the polar ice caps melt? Will we be looking at eventual moving to another planet? Will God's people be given the credit they deserve? Yeah, we can move mountains but first we have to design a method to do so. Yeah, miracles do happen. It is a miracle people have not destroyed each other completely with such bad behavior. Why is there a sign on Mercy Hospital? I wrote to Richard Roberts about finding an honest doctor. I know, don't laugh.
50 - Mary Reborn
OKAY, I read the pages Al places before us mentioning Mary Reborn Literally. You know what I think? It's about energy we put out. It's about a have at it. It's about toot toot and get to the root. Cathie-isms, that is my nickname. Funny how you say nickname...Nicolas Crowder being the false prophet and a frog needs to come from his mouth. Why can't you see why I pray for miracles after being subjected to a damned satanist like him? He said to me, "Get that Christian out of this house. I will kill every Christian that comes in this house." I tried to leave, he would not let me. Instead the evil bastard ruined my life. Kidnapping, corruption of a minor, and ever lasting scars he put upon my heart. Do you think that I am a worthless liar? I am not. I suffered people at the hands of this ruthless derranged man who killed his own sister and chopped her into peices for me to see to stay in subjection.
The guy is some where but where? Don't you think I deserve to know where he is? This is the true story of Mary Reborn. Told by a preacher that the devil comes after those closest to God. I ask you why are there people who cannot resist evil?
51 - Mary Reborn
So on one fateful day, a guy so like the devil himself kidnaps me and wants the goody goody Christian dead. One fateful day, he chases me with a butcher knife into the bathroom where I lock myself in and he tries to open the door with something. What if this was your daughter being subjected to this unspeakable bastard? What if you were not looking for trouble but found it? What if you were being played with for some meal ticket and poor damsel cannot defend herself kind of wicked mentality? No, you don't know what it was like and I would not wish it on my worst enemy but that man is sick, some say the devil incarnate.
52 - Mary Reborn
I have more than a shred of dignity left. I will not let bastards like him get me down again. I love God and while some of you call yourselves good Christians, let me tell you like God would tell you, your good works are as filthy rags if you do not believe in Jesus. Jesus, the one I pray to still. The one and only one who was there in spirit and saw what they did to me. I am not a witch and I am not evil. Some say I am too good for my own good. I was a victim of some brazen mobster type asshole. A tiny teenaged girl with arms pulled out of their sockets, a broken pelvis, a bashed in head, and various other ailments like being ill from a mother who tried to food poison me. You have no reason to cut me down or label me or for any other masked reason exploit that time. What you remember is a baby being born answering the name Mary, a toddler knocking on doors preaching about Jesus, a woman capable of amazing abilities of prayer. The only power she respects.
53 - Mary Reborn
You challenge me and I will not back down. I love a good debate. If I was a crazed woman who made no sense at all, statues would not be crying. If I was a pest and a nuisance and a misfit of society, it was because I was NOT like the rest of you. Applying for patents and being first and most successful and the me, me, me world you live in. I was selfless. I helped people to get back on their feet. I sang outloud and music filled the air. I became their beacon in the dark world. You challenge me and I assure you that I will remain as sure as the day I was born.
54 - Mary Reborn
I came across criminally insane people committing crimes against me to get locked up for three meals a day. You know what? I purposefully will not report you to police and I hope you starve to death before you commit another crime. The system is crazy and rewards evil. What the hell is going on down here? More compassion people! More soup kichens, more hands helped up! That's an order.
I want order.
55 - Mary Reborn
lady luck, lady liberty, lady of the snows, lady of the woods...I am still a lady and if I do use the f word, it spells trouble in paradise. I am not happy with the situation and I have coped with it as best as I could up until now that is and I am going to make myself perfectly understood. This world needs to change! NOW!
56 - Mary Reborn
The miracle in Katrina's aftermath. Now people, I told you that I can pray for proof. How many times do you ignore me? The picture of Christ like image in the cloud that is on the internet is my prayer. You want to be bad children of God? You will get punished.
57 - Mary Reborn
If you don't believe in Jesus, you just can't for the life of you understand it, I pity you. Jesus is love. To mock me and call me Queen of Heaven is an insult. Do not call me that. I am alive and back on earth. God sent me to America in a family that no longer believed in God. People that no longer believe in God. They go through motions, they give lip service, but they appear faithful. I know they are not. I know they are lukewarm. I know they are hypocrits. I know they are lacking depth to their souls. I know!
58 - Mary Reborn
Moses prayed to be freed from slavery.
Noah to be spared from the flood.
I prayed to get off this wretched planet
and five UFOS come for me.
You want to be arrogant cusses, slander, gossip,
play indifferent to signs and wonders?
SHAME ON THE WHOLE WORLD>
59 - Mary Reborn
Abundant life...who gets it?
The wages of sin is death...who gets it?
The impact of signs and wonders...who gets it?
Tell me, do you get it now?
60 - Mary Reborn
Al Barger, dark angels...just what would you call dark angels? In reference to?
I know that our world is not operating on all ten commandments.
Values of church and state are not following closey to key words...love, harmony, peace, tranquility.
Courts, lawsuits, derailment, chaos.
I mean do you want me to deny my maker? I won't.
Do I see his prophecy come true? I do.
Did I find the answer in prayer? I did.
61 - Mary Reborn
I cannot speak from a perfect pulpit Al, true but I can speak from experience.
62 - Mary Reborn
Mark David Chapman killed John Lennon. I saw the movie about it and I googled Attica Correctional Facility and I sent miraculous photos and a Christmas card and some footnotes about what he did. Not yelling at him, not telling him off, but in direct manner and trying to redirect negative perspective. If in fact he heard a voice, can he get a EVP recording done in his jail cell? What does this mean? Holy war comes and that means killing too. I think we're all bananas.
63 - Mary Reborn
Leon Russell's CD Retrospective has a song on it that I sung and was taken from me. I love you in a place where there's no space or time...I love you for my life, you are a friend of mine. Oh yes, I sang hundreds of popular tunes that got stolen from me. So much for honest people, we do have infidels in this country.
64 - Mary Reborn
Al and I have been online and I shared some of my private collection of miraculous photographs with him. I have witnesses all throughout my life that can attest that I have always been like this folks. It's not a condition otherwise that needs a cure. The only thing that needs help is this sad and pathetic world. The reason for the miraculous photos. God speaks to people and if you are calling all of us crazy, you have a war on your hands.
65 - Mary Reborn
You call miracles faked?
You call God incapable?
You call upon who to help you now?
I am here. I am the one who asked God to send me back.
Miracles galore I have handed out. What do they mean? Exactly what I say they mean. Now, you either get it, or you don't. There is a lovely narrow path but the road to hell is wide. Why?
Can you tell me why? I know why.
If you go around hurting people like me, you are shameful.
66 - Mary Reborn
future dominos about to fall
R E S P E C T find out what it means to me.
Find my poems fitting of one who claims to be born speaking and sent back by God because I am sent back by God.
First off assholes who try to label me are paranoid jerkoffs.
Their perspectives are unfounded, biased, and out of control.
Assholes.
67 - Mary Reborn
You should not hold a public office [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor].
You don't know what you are saying or doing.
I will keep praying dead or alive.
The miracles will not stop.
I was severely abused and not physically damaged for the rest of my natural life.
Yet I prayed.
The photos Al Barger was shown last night are amazing and positive proof.
I am not an idiot.
68 - Mary Reborn
Where in scripture does it tell you not to take care of the lame? Does it tell you to finish us off? Almost kill us who love God? Where does it tell you that no milestone will be hung around your necks for confusing the children of God?
I grew up in a town that now sees the Drew Street miracle I predicted at four years old. If you can find Deanne Shere who heard me say signs and wonders will come to show who I talk to and who I am, then so be it. You are online with Mary Reborn.
69 - Mary Reborn
I am looking for a roll of film that has two pictures of me that are miraculous stolen by some one in Burbank, California when I was angry about the Fatima movie and told them off and told them I am this woman and here is the proof. Two pictures you can see right through me and parts of me and Warren Furman took the roll of film and heard me say exactly on those particular ones that these will not come out normal. World, watch out, cause I am who I say I am.
70 - Mary Reborn
Saints have throughout time always been able to communicate to God.
71 - Mary Reborn
That was a typo, the word NOT was to be NOW I am damaged the rest of my natural life. I have xrays to prove that much.
I must go on after being physically abused the best way I can.
72 - Mary Reborn
The big sell out...Catholic Church does NOT have rights to my story and neither did anyone else like Ray Stanford and the story behind the miracles either writers. I gave NO ONE permission to write a book Christian Signs and Symbols either that was written behind my back. Stop exploiting me. I am tired of it.
73 - Mary Reborn
You don't have movie rights either and The Fatima Movie is hurtful to me.
74 - Mary Reborn
The world is awful and it is the awful truth of what I have been through being back in it.
Statues cry... for damned good reasons.
75 - Jet
Strange I didn't know JOM had a sister?