Morning Hymn

Don't mean to step on Deacon Ian's toes, but I found this and couldn't resist.



How timely...
TFD

Evening Hymn

Tonight's hymn, brought to you by Beirut.

This song, along with the video, has dancing, mustaches, wine-n-whimsy, and a certain Gypsy-ness that is not entirely trustworthy. Hence, I love it.
Zach Condon is the real McCoy. Whatever Old-Worldness that he may affect, it seems genuine. From the various write ups, he sounds like a real-life globe traipsing tramp.

Enjoy. Lets bang the shit out of metal garbage cans. Raise some racket, hell and Cain.

NERRRRRDS!!!!

John Hodgman warms the cockles of my heart. I will freely admit I have a giant nerd-crush on the intrepid PC; whenever I see those "Get a Mac" commercials, it makes me want to rush right out to get my own walking, talking, lovably geeky PC. (Or purchase a cupcake).

And now I find that "The Areas of my Expertise" is merely the first portion of a planned trilogy of fake history/trivia. How delightful!

Equally delightful is this interview John Hodgman gave to the AV Club. I'm pleased to learn that he will (eventually) be returning as a semi-regular contributor to "The Daily Show."

Add to all this that he will also be appearing in the final season of "Battlestar Galactica." Well, as he says, "Only the nerds will save the earth" (Hodgman, 2008).

Let's hear it for the nerds!!!

So would that be *unt with a Big 'C' or a little 'c'?

So I was dining with my beautiful daughters tonight at some west-side chain restaurant. The place was virtually deserted, but the host inexplicably sat us next to a family of five (Mom, Dad, three tots) eating with an elderly gentleman (probably about as old as the Dad's dad, still able to get around, not decrepit, but retired). All is well and good, until eventually they started talking about someone working at Edgewood College. "It's a very liberal college, it may be a Christian school, but we're talking about a very small 'c.'"

I know this is nothing new, but this is one of those communication practices that gets me all pissy (as you may recall). So what my dear elderly friend was saying was that a good christian (notice the type case) couldn't possibly be a liberal, and a liberal has no place within Christianity (again, type case). This is no doubt the kind of guy that is going to go out and vote for McPalin (certainly his right, but I would guess he probably had his doubts before Palin was brought on board), because of his incompatible world-view. But what about his world-view? Does his narrow scope extend beyond Christianity? For instance, what about Hindus? Are the only good Hindus conservative? What about fundamentalist Muslims (using one definition from a conservative source yields us a person that adheres to strict cultural traditions with very limited Government oversight. Sounds a lot like the the theocracies of the Middle East to me), are they God's favored children because of their Conservative world view?

I know this sounds bitter, and I understand that this does nothing for discourse. But I just can't understand how these exclusionary principles help anybody. I know how it is when we get in our groups of friends, sometimes there's talk about the archetypal religious redneck that will refuse to vote for Barack Obama, but we understand that's not the majority of the people voting for McCain. Just as I hope this gentleman understands that not everyone that is voting for Barack is a gay atheist (or gaytheist).

Just a thought.

The Deacon

I'm so confused....

How can someone possibly believe in God and the theory of evolution? Wouldn't his head explode???

At any rate, this is a very interesting article about one man's quest to unify faith and science, and make it clear that the two are not mutually exclusive.

Today's Hymn

First, a definition:

Hymn

Hymn\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hymned; p. pr. & vb. n. Hymning.] [Cf. L. hymnire, Gr. ?.] To praise in song; to worship or extol by singing hymns; to sing.

I shared the blog with a co-worker who is quite religious. The term "hymn" offered some confusion, as did the whole concept of a church that is not Christ (or other deity) centered. My statement at the time was that "today's hymn" = "song of the day," not "song praising God."

Anyway - for today's hymn, I have chosen a song that expresses my joy at not living in Manitowoc any longer. Enjoy.

Poem of the ... Blog, so far.

Truth

by Leonard Nathan

As children in the schoolroom game
whisper from one end of the class to the other
and garble the message they pass on or change it
beyond recognition, so we
pass on the truth of our kind.

My father heard it from his, something
vaguely involving God, and his father
heard it from his, and so on back
to Abraham, and so father
passed it on to me, but God had dropped out.

And so my son heard it, a wisdom
found inside a Chinese fortune cookie:
"Be good and hope," which he will pass on
to his son, but maybe with good
missing or hope, maybe with love added.

Though love was never meant to mean so much.

"Truth" by Leonard Nathan from The Potato Eaters. © Orchises Press, 1999.

This arrived in my email today, courtesy of Garrison Keillor & The Writer's Almanac.

I love the way it feels like my life - passing a story on with different elements from the story my parents told me. I wonder what tale my children will tell their children, how they will explain life, the universe, and everything...

Youd have me down down down down on my knees Now wouldnt you, barracuda?

larger version here



this made me shake with laughter. also, i'm now a little afraid of ann & nancy wilson. they are not to be trifled with.

i hope they'll never find out how i've used "crazy on you."

O.M.G.

I cannot even begin to describe the level of excitement this video inspires in me.

If there were any way for the Phish organization to understand how badly I want tickets to the shows (one, all, I don't care), I would be holding those tickets in my grubby little wanna-be-a-dirty-hippy-again hands right now.