Beatles Song of The Moment

When I first started this Beatles thing I was planning on doing it weekly. Well my regular readers, both of them, know that I have failed in that endeavor which has left me wondering what to name these Beatles posts now, because they are not weekly. Beatles Song of the Moment was the best I could come up with.

Anyway the Beatles song for this moment is I Feel Fine.

Sing it if you know it...

Baby's good to me, you know,
She's happy as can be, you know,
She said so.
I'm in love with her and i feel fine.
Baby says she's mine, you know,
She tells me all the time, you know,
She said so.
I'm in love with her and i feel fine.
I'm so glad that she's my little girl.
She's so glad, she's telling all the world
That her baby buys her things, you know.
He buys her diamond rings, you know,
She said so.
She's in love with me and i feel fine, mmm.
Baby says she's mine, you know,
She tells me all the time, you know,
She said so.
I'm in love with her and i feel fine.
I'm so glad that she's my little girl.
She's so glad, she's telling all the world
That her baby buys her things, you know.
He buys her diamond rings, you know,
She said so.
She's in love with me and i feel fine, mmm, mmm.

Such a great rock n roll song with a driving drum beat that doesn't stop for anything but a quick memorable guitar lick.

LFL in Norway?

As far as I can tell, this blog post is about leaving church and it links to Letters From Leavers. Is it Norwegian? Can someone translate for me?

World Water Day

Today (and every March 22nd) is World Water Day. Four of every ten people in the world do not have access to even a simple pit latrine and nearly two in ten have no source of safe drinking-water. So far today I have already drank one bottle of water, used a toilet with running water a few times (I know...too much information), washed my hands, taken a shower, and gone to a fast food place for lunch that has 2 soda machines with water piped into them. This is a privilege that we can't take for granted.

To learn more or to help out go to water.org or water.cc.

10 reasons I won't watch 24 season 2

So I bought 24 season 1 at Target about a week ago because they had it on sale for 17.99. Not bad! This show came on the air during a time in which I wasn't watching much TV at all so I had only seen 2 or 3 episodes but I had heard a lot of great things about it, and Mariah and I have been watching some more TV as of late so I figured, why not give it a whirl? I bought LOST season 1 for Mariah for Valentine's Day last year without ever having seen one episode, completely on a whim, and it has been the best 40 something bucks I have ever spent, and I mean that in all seriousness. We devoured the entire season in a weekend and then proceeded to buy the 14 episodes that had already aired in season 2 from iTunes and watched them in another 48 hours so we could catch up with the show.

In those few frantic days of watching LOST my hope for TV was restored.

I figured it was worth it to take another shot with 24.

I want my 18 bucks back.

It was good, really good for the first 12 or so episodes but things started to go south really fast. We have been watching it over the last few days and my frustrations are still swimming around in my head so I thought it might be helpful to make a list of the top 10 reasons why I won't be watching season 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6) of 24, starting with 10 and working our way up. Yes, it probably would be more clever to do 24 reasons why I won't be watching season 2 of 24, and God knows I wouldn't have any trouble filling out the list, but I have already wasted enough time with this show. Ten is enough.

10. The whole "events in real time" thing is cool but make sure that you factor in the time you are gone for commercials. If you are doing an activity that takes 45 seconds, you shouldn't still be doing that activity when the show comes back from a commercial 3 1/2 minutes later. One example comes to mind...Ricky is in the water tower, after having been shot in the arm, Jack asks him if he has any loose clothing so he can tie up Ricky's arm to stop the bleeding, Jacks starts to tie up the arm...tick tock tick tock...commercial...return from commercial....tick tock tick tock...Jack still tying up the arm. Jack doesn't seem to be the type with that generous a bedside manner.

9. Speaking of time...time of day seems to be an issue that needs some work. 6 am to 7 am episode, filmed in broad, middle of the day, high noon daylight, with some fuzzy crappy light filter on it to make it look like it was dawn...end of 6 pm to 7pm episode finishes in broad, middle of the day, high noon daylight, 7 pm to 8 pm starts off black as midnight. The sun went down in an instant? Wow!

8. The show is set in LA and I have yet to see anyone caught in traffic. I have lived here my whole life. You may be able to pull this kind of crap with your viewers in the midwest, but I demand accuracy. (On a side note related to accuracy, even though this one probably deserves it's own spot in the countdown...I am a cell phone owner and I know that if you use it that much the battery will run out and there will be several spots in which you don't get service and underground in a top-secret prison is one of them.)

7. The whole "kill Sen. Palmer and Jack Bauer and his family" plot is so freaking complicated and intricate, no wonder "the Drazens" can't pull it off. I have no training whatsoever in being a bad guy but I am sure I could come up with a simpler way of killing someone than a plot that involves recruiting two teen age boys to kidnap two girls, having someone pretend to be the father of one of those girls, doing plastic surgery on another guy to make him look like a photographer, breaking some other dude (more on him later) out of a non-existent prison in Saugus of all places, seducing a staffer for the senator, bribing someone who works for the electric company, paying off turncoat employees at CTU, setting up surveillance cameras to watch Jack Bauer's every move, and countless other things that I can't remember because I just don't care to. The board game Mouse Trap thinks this is too complicated.

6. The Sen. Palmer storyline got old after about 5 episodes and yet it just wouldn't go away. The writers just forced things into that storyline to keep it going ("accidental fires" that kill the sons Psychologist). This family is a train wreck and yet I am suppossed to accept that America is dumb enough to vote for him for Presid...wait a minute. Moving on.

5. The only reason Jack Bauer seems so great is because everyone, and I mean EVERYONE else on the show is a complete moron. He is surrounded by jerks, buffoons, and all around unlikeable characters. Seriously, name another character besides Jack that is likeable. After 17 episodes I want them all to die, every single one of them. And there is no way I can accept a hero who has frosted tips. Nobody in CTU gives him crap about that?

4. The two worst characters? The awful wives, Sherry Palmer and Terry Bauer. Every second that they are on the screen I want to claw my eyes out.

3. The worst plot device? Terry Bauer's amnesia. I was literally yelling at the TV I was so mad. TV audiences deserve better than this.

2. Dennis Hopper? Nice Accent. I have heard better Eastern European accents on Rocky and Bullwinkle. How do you produce a TV show in which this awful performance gets through to the air? Did you at least have him audition and do a reading or did you hire him on the spot based on his resume? "Wow! You played King Koopa in Super Mario Bros. the movie! You're hired!" Now I know why this guy can't get any work outside of Ameriprise Commercials. I have 3 episodes to watch in season one and I don't want to go on because his accent makes me sick to my stomach...physically ill.

And the number one reason I won't watch anymore 24 is...drumroll...tick tock tick tock....

1. Jack Bauer spells his last name wrong. It's B-O-W-E-R dummy.

Stavesacre- A Tribute

Do I see God in all of this? maybe all along
It's just that we're so small, and simply not as strong
Strong like wings of silver, and feathers made of gold
To carry heavy hearts, to cover all our helpless souls

To cover all of us

Under wings of Gold and Silver sometimes we have to hide
For shelter from this bitter winter at least tonight

These are part of the lyrics to a song called Gold and Silver which is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, Stavesacre.

Stavesacre just recently announced that after eleven years they are calling it quits. I am glad to say that I have been a fan of Stavesacre for about 7 or 8 of those years, having heard of them shortly after the release of their third album Speakeasy which was their final album with Tooth and Nail Records (if you don't count the pseudo greatest hits album Collective which was released to fulfill their contractual agreement with Tooth and Nail but featured very little newly recorded material).

Since leaving Tooth and Nail they have had a somewhat rocky road, releasing what I consider to be their worst record, the self-titled Stavesacre on Nitro Records. They left Nitro and after awhile eventually landed with Abacus Recordings. During their post-Tooth and Nail days I often wondered how long the band would continue on but shortly before they signed with Abacus they released the Bull Takes Fighter EP which essentially was a musical way to say "Don't count us out yet." After they signed with Abacus news of a new album called How To Live With a Curse got out. I remember going to see them live somewhere in LA during this time and thinking to myself "Stavesacre is back!"

After much hype in the days leading up to the release of the new album, it finally came out last April and it was absolutely amazing. It rivals Speakeasy as their best album and a year later continues to amaze me. I went to the album release party for How To Live With a Curse and even talked with Mark Salomon, the band's lead singer and author of Simplicity, for a bit after the show. However excited I was about the release of the new album, I got the sense that night that something was just off. Mark and the rest of the band kind of seemed like a new mother after she had just given birth; excited about what had just come from them but to exhausted and overwhelmed to enjoy it.

Now I may be way off because I don't know the band personally so this is just my hunch but it seemed that night that it was just a matter of time before Stavsacre called it quits. My hunches were confirmed shortly after as the band only played one more show that I know of after that, which is odd behavior for a band trying to promote and sell a new album. Stavesacre just went underground and weren't heard from at all until these past few weeks when the news I had been expecting to hear finally came out...They were wrapping it up.

Now the good news...They are still going to be playing a few more shows with their first guitar player back in the fold! You can bet I will be at as many of those shows as I can. They are also going to be releasing a career spanning DVD which I will buy in an instant. Hopefully they will also release one final record for their fans to remember them by.

Finally I thought it would be fun to try and make my own Best of Stavesacre tracklist as my way to share my favorite songs of theirs.

Below are the tracks with the album they can be found on in parenthesis.

1. Minuteman (Speakeasy)
2. Shiv (Absolutes)
3. Threshold (Friction)
4. Zzyzx Scarecrow (Absolutes)
5. Reason to Believe (How to Live With a Curse)
6. Sad Parade (Collective)
7. Bull Takes Fighter (Bull Takes Fighter EP)
8. Future History of the Broken Hearted (How to Live With a Curse)
9. You Know How It Is (Speakeasy)
10. Witch Trial (Stavesacre)
11. The Trouble With Being Born (How to Live With a Curse)
12. Keep Waiting (Speakeasy)
13. Gold and Silver (Speakeasy)
14. Sean (How to Live With a Curse)
15. At the Moment (Friction)
16. Kill My Darlings (How To Live With a Curse)
17. Freefall (From Hand to Hand) (Speakeasy)

Now that's good music.

Someone get Maury Povich on the phone

Is it just me or is the Anna Nicole Smith paternity situation just begging to be an episode of Maury Povich? No high priced lawyers or overhyped media coverage needed, just bring the circus on the set of Maury and he will straighten the whole thing out.

"You ARE the father!"

We have a prophet among us

A voice of one calling

RIP Stavesacre

One of my favorite bands of all time is about to be buried .

As silly as this may sound, I am very very saddened by this news, even though I saw it coming.

I think I will do a tribute post to one of the greatest bands you never heard of after the gloomy cloud lifts as a way to send Stavesacre off.

More to come...

Hey Kobe. Didn't your mom ever tell you...

that it's not ok to hit people?

This is twice this season that Kobe has been suspended for doing the same thing.

No, you are not bigger than the rules of the game Kobe. No, you can't get away with smacking people in the face to try and draw a foul just because your shot isn't going to go in. Just stop.