Open Letter to Jeff Lynne

Dear Mr. Lynne,

Is it okay if I call you Jeff? I’ve derided Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) since my late teens. I always felt vaguely pissed off that ELO had a box set and Rush didn’t. Although, most of my derision was aimed purely at ELO’s music. I only heard the two songs that were (over)played on classic rock stations. Perhaps it’s wrong to condemn an artist’s complete oeuvre for just two songs, but I did it.

A people that wants to

A people that wants to be free must arm itself with a free press

"[Terrorist] conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

The FBI issued a detailed bulletin on May 22, which was delivered to state and local police agencies via the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System. In it, the FBI warned that al-Qaida might be planning to use shoulder-fired missiles – formally called MANPADS, for man-portable air defense systems – against commercial aircraft within the United States.

MANPADS? Bwaahaaha. That sounds like a defense against male incontinence. What self-respecting terrorist would use MANPADS?

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Compare and contrast

January 10th, 2001 Lunar eclipse triggers Nigerian Muslims to riot attacking mainly Christian targets. They blame the eclipse on the preponderance of sinful activities in the city. BBC article

November 22, 2002 50 killed, 200 wounded, 4 churches burned by Nigerian Muslims who claim Miss World pageant promotes sexual promiscuity and indecency. They were baited by a local newspaper editorial. Yahoo AP article

Where are the moderate Muslims? Why don’t they get any press? I’m so incredibly thankful that “What Would Jesus Drive?” is a burning question among moderate Christians in this day and age.

A life found

I went to a FOUND magazine event tonight. Davy, the force behind FOUND magazine is making his way to the west coast so go see him when he’s there. You will not be disappointed. He collects found notes, journals, letters, tapes, art work, business cards or whatever and publishes his favorites in a magazine. I bought a couple issues to send out west to hopefully motivate people to see him.

I picked a letter from one of the issues I have. I should have scanned it but I decided to just reproduce it as best I could in HTML. Here’s an example of the stuff you find in FOUND.

the simple pleasures

When I get home after a workout at the YMCA I really like pushing on my belly. It doesn’t jiggle like it used to. It softens up if I miss a day though.

It’s those little pleasures that keep me going after things like spinning class kicked my ass and left me sitting on the floor light-headed and wanting to throw up. Listening: Bum Leg - Joe Pernice

(Singing) Don't ring my beeee-llllll, don't ring my bell

This is the second night in a row someone has shown up at the front door of the house around midnight asking for help. Last night it was some guy looking for money to buy gas to pick up his girlfriend in Denton. Tonight it was someone new, who spoke only Mexican. He wanted my help to get food.

I see this getting old real fast if it keeps up.

Captain Chaos makes a movie

I just saw Lost in La Mancha which showed during Deep Ellum Film Festival. It’s a documentary about Terry Gilliam’s attempts over the last decade to make a movie about Don Quixote. The documentary starts off with Gilliam and others gushing about how perfect Don Quixote is for a Gilliam film. His movies all contain some kind of dreamer who lives in a fantasy world, and doom awaits them as they gain their sanity and settle into reality. The movie seems cursed near the beginning of pre-production and “force majeur” settles in during shooting in the form of illness and floods to make things really hard.

Strange Memorial

A few years ago I setup an email address for Kathy, [email protected]. She never really used it and eventually I forgot it existed. Recently I changed csbgroup.org so all email went to me.

Now I get emails from Amazon, Namaste.com, Doctors Without Borders and a couple other online retailers for Kathy. It’s weird. I’ve learned a few things that she liked that I didn’t know. I haven’t setup a filter to kill the emails yet because…well, I don’t know why. I like getting them, especially the Amazon ones that say what she bought. With the ones from Doctors Without Borders it’s almost like she’s forwarding the email to me about issues that are important to her.

hooping it up with single serving friends

I sat one row back from the throw-in line at American Airlines center and watched the Mavericks school the Trailblazers. Josh, who scored the $1000 worth of tickets, took the front row. Sadly no basketball players fell on him.

Surprising observation: They looked really, really big that close. The basketball looked so tiny in their hands.

Sat next to a woman who had lived in Alabama and graduated from Emory. Went to school for engineering but Cal 3 made her decide to switch to accounting. Cute, and close to my age even. Her first Mavs game too. She had the same kind of tickets Josh had from Big Brothers, Big Sisters. I seem to find these sixty second love affairs more regularly than ever before. It’s fun appreciating them for what they are.