Bush's War

I was excited tonight to watch part 1 of the PBS Frontline special entitled Bush's War at 8 o'clock. Instead, there was some show on about alligators or something. Fortunately, I discovered you can watch the whole thing online here. I just finished part 1 - it's very good so far.

70's Cereal and Stuff Like That

This guy has a site with some pretty good stuff from back in the day..I love things like this.

Happy Easter

Hello - we had a great Easter weekend. My mother and my sister Cindy came down to visit. We had an Easter egg hunt after church, and then Jen's parents came over and joined us for brunch. I made most of the stuff from a recent brunch menu in Gourmet magazine. Check this spread - we had a small honey-glazed baked ham, low country breakfast shrimp with creamy stone-ground grits, slow-roasted tomatoes, ambrosia, baked pimento-cheese toasts, a salad of winter lettuce with warm sweet and sharp dressing, eggs with cream and spinach, buttermilk biscuits and sugared blackberries. For desert there was bourbon pecan tart with homemade whipped cream. Cindy brought a Rodney Strong chardonnay, that was also good.

With respect to last week's political events..I, like most Americans, was disturbed to hear the paranoid ravings of Obama's lunatic former pastor. As far as I'm concerned, that dude might as well be wearing a Klan outfit. I realize that those words didn't come from Obama's mouth, and nothing in his personality indicates that he holds those same hateful views - but it does speak to the man's judgment. Good God, I wouldn't let my daughters sit through that kind of garbage every Sunday.

Like I said earlier, I had already sort of switched back to Hillary's side before this pastor stuff came out. It looking more and more likely, however, that the die has already been cast in favor of Obama. Talk about a worst case scenario - he may well enter the convention on a downward trajectory, while Hillary is on the way up, but can't secure the nomination. So he enters the general election broken and bloody. All the while, McCain is out there looking presidential. If the Democrats manage to screw this one up, they might as well dissolve the party - it's over.

Circle of Eight Spring Show

Creepy Gnome

I have become fascinated with the story of this creepy gnome that is terrorizing this town. You can go here and read the story and watch the video. Most of it sucks but the end is kind of creepy. I would like to meet a creepy gnome.

Religiosity

I started reading Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower last week. It's really good so far. I had forgotten how puritanical that group was. Then the religious theme continued over the weekend with two disturbing documentaries I watched. The first was Jesus Camp - "a feverish spectacle of a summer camp for evangelical Christian kids is the focus...a fascinating if sometimes alarming documentary." As harsh and wrong-headed as the ramblings of the camp's pastor (Becky Fisher) are - including a disturbing rant about the evils of Harry Potter (a warlock!) - they pale in comparison to the subjects of the movie I watched the next day - Fall From Grace. This movie was about the Westboro Baptist Church (the God Hates Fags people) and followed them around from protest to protest. It's basically one really large family that functions as a cult more or less. The weird thing is, most of the members seem bright and intelligent. And then to hear this garbage coming from their mouths is almost surreal. The over-riding theme in both of these groups (although to a much greater degree with the Westboro people) are notions of hell, and pain and the devil. There's hardly a mention of loving each other.

Religion can really inspire, but it's also no wonder that it's been used as a mechanism of control throughout the ages - playing on people's worst fears.

When Candidates Attack

I just got through watching an interview with John McCain on 60 Minutes. I guess he's the lesser of all evils on the REpublican side - but I don't plan on switching my vote for whoever wins on the Democratic side. And I am still really enjoying the Hillary-Obama slugfest. I think most people are lying when they say the want a clean campaign. I just want entertainment - and the more they fight, the more I'm entertained.

Frozen Time Square

This was so cool and the kids loved it so much I had to post it.

Bob Mould

Glad Matt turned me on to the Bob Mould show March 17 in Charlotte - why does everything I ever want to see around here always have to be on a Monday or something?? Anyway, I'm hoping to hear something from my one of my all-time favorite albums. I'll probably be flying solo for this one beacuse I know I'm not dragging Jen out on a Monday night and she could care a less about the guy anyway.

The Anderson Council

I heard this band on the Sirius Underground Garage channel the other day (specifically, the song Never Stop Being '67) and thought it was pretty cool. The inlfunence is obvious, but they're still pretty good, I thought. You can go to their site and listen.