Saturday, July 30, 2005
Did anybody else see This Week in God on the Daily Show last week? There was a part where Stephen Colbert was making fun of Scientologists. He proceeded to name off a list of famous people who where Scientologists. There were tons of people I was surprised to hear, but the most bizarre was Beck. I did a search on Google, and it appears that he is a born-and-raised Scientologist. He has recently made this public by defending Scientology in interviews.
As a side note, I was interested in seeing exactly what the beliefs of Scientologists were concerning aliens, so I did a search on Wikipedia. If you want to get a good laugh, look at the following entry in Wikipedia on Xenu, "a galactic ruler who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes, and blew them up with hydrogen bombs." Hilarious. One of my favorite things about the entry is the artist's impression of Xenu's space plane. It's really surprising how little aviation has changed in 75 million years.
As a side note, I was interested in seeing exactly what the beliefs of Scientologists were concerning aliens, so I did a search on Wikipedia. If you want to get a good laugh, look at the following entry in Wikipedia on Xenu, "a galactic ruler who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes, and blew them up with hydrogen bombs." Hilarious. One of my favorite things about the entry is the artist's impression of Xenu's space plane. It's really surprising how little aviation has changed in 75 million years.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
At first I wasn't crazy about the new Spoon album, but now I think it's excellent. I saw Spoon two or three weeks ago when they were in Portland, and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen. The place was packed, and it was a pretty good size place (probably a little bigger than First Ave), and the crowd was going nuts. I was really surprised -- after every song there was more than the usual applause, there was this simultaneous, in unison cheer ... like "YEAH!" It was really weird. They did two encores, and before the last one Britt Daniel said "This is the kind of crowd that makes us believe!" Whatever that means.
Anyhow, the atmosphere was great; and it was the kind of show where you hear songs that you're not crazy about on the recordings, but when you hear them live you love 'em (e.g., "Jonathan Fisk").
(Disclaimer: Much of the text from this post is from a previous email of mine to Nolan.)
Finally, check out this guy's artwork. Click on the "Editorial Pictures" link. While you're at it, check out this guy's site, too.
Anyhow, the atmosphere was great; and it was the kind of show where you hear songs that you're not crazy about on the recordings, but when you hear them live you love 'em (e.g., "Jonathan Fisk").
(Disclaimer: Much of the text from this post is from a previous email of mine to Nolan.)
Finally, check out this guy's artwork. Click on the "Editorial Pictures" link. While you're at it, check out this guy's site, too.
