It has to be asked whether 2000 years of religious photoshopping have remodelled Jesus almost out of recognition. We've added some tints (sure, he didn't speak about homosexuality, but if he had, we know what he would have said), a blurred edge (he didn't really mean we have to sell all we have for the poor), and made him as transparent as possible (put him there in the background, but not so obvious that we actually have to look at him). The trouble is, someone forgot to hit "save" right at the beginning, and we've got little hope of undoing the layers to get back to the original.

Cheryl Lawrie in the Austrailian newspaper The Age.

I just discovered Hold::This Space, a blog of an alternative worship project; via jonny baker.

Linkage,,,

These no-effort-at-all-on-my-part links posts would be a waste
EXCEPT THIS ONE which is freakin' hilarious. (Bad language alert, in case that bugs you.)

The linked post makes fun of Peyton Manning, kind of incidentally, which works for me as I am still mad at the Colts.

I believe I am the last holdout, the very REMNANT of Mad At The Colts. Even Gary thinks I should let it go. Even Phil.

Traitors.

THIS is funny.

Like, I'm afraid to take a sip of tea if I'm even sitting near the computer, just in case my eye happens to fall on the screen and I accidentally read something that makes me snarf hot Ginger Peach out my nose.

Again.

Happy Easter, everybody!



from the Daily Bunny. (Whatever will they think of next?)

Wednesday at 9:27pm

American Idol can bite me.

Again.

Great moment in old-school comics from YesButNoButYes

Yeah, I'm sure it's ripped off from Superdickery.com, as many people point out in the comments.
Yes, I disapprove of plagerism.
But if you go to this Superdickery site, you will INSTANTLY GO BLIND from the bad design and the hundreds of vile pop-ups. Which takes forever to load, which is annoying but also kind of a favor. Believe me, it is a far, far better place I'm sending you.

to add to my geekitude, i will mention that the cgi on Dresden tonight is way lame. It's usually good.

it's the most completely revolting time of the year

If you’re a snake looking for someplace with sheltered stony crevices, a ready supply of insects and occasional running water, our cellar comes up as the first result on Snoogle.

Someone else's snake story.

My snake story from last spring.

There's not enough free iced coffee or wild black cherry italian ice in the world to make me feel okay about this aspect of the season.

Last week, in yet another show about dieting, I heard Oprah say that she had wasted a large part of her 30’s worrying about food and weight. I’m thirty-seven. Only three years to go before I am undoubtedly, irrevocably ‘grown up.’ Will I still be carrying the neuroses of a thirteen year old? Will I still automatically convert calories into sit ups? Will I still waste precious minutes feeling guilty? Will my body remain my enemy?

I am so tired of being stuck in Jr. High.

Read the rest. at Rachelle's Magpie Girl.

from nothing to everything in no time at all

“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring.
Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”
- Simone Weil

from here
via here.

post title from thisshockingly terrible film, which we're watching right now - and really, how bad does a James Bond film have to be to shock me?

dogs in elk.

been on this train too long

I'm watching the rock and roll hall of fame inductions on VH1, and I am ashamed to admit this - I was the world's most fervent REM fan for about 20 years, since Rob Davenport made me that mix tape back when we both worked at the girl's camp in 1984.

I'm not ashamed to admit THAT.

I am a little ashamed to admit that I kind of forgot.

I'm sitting here watching the mini-retrospective that played as Eddie Vedder was talking, and I'm thinking "God! I love that album! ...God!! That song's great! Jeez! I haven't listened to that in...years!"

How could I go more than two years without listening to 'World Leader Pretend'? or 'The Wrong Child'? How is that possible?


by the way - wanna see some really great pictures? These are some fucking great pictures.

This is great -

Interview with Moby at Sojourners. I'm listening to this right now, and I'm really enjoying it.

Something pretty

http://www.jenstark.com/work.html

via moleskinerie

# That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college

50 great Homer quotes:

http://www.2spare.com/item_61333.aspx

via Bob.

(Though they did miss one of my favorites:
While listening to Prairie Home Companion:
"Stupid radio! Be more funny!"

We are feeling somewhat better today, thank God.

breifly - a couple, maybe 3 weeks ago, we had the Week of Vomit.

Ian started Saturday night. (Babies, it seems, are weirdly non-plussed by throwing up, though it freaks their poor mothers the F out. He had never thrown up before! I was busily paging through The 3am Book, a resource that tells you, in effect, when to take your kid to the emergency room. 3am, I'm sitting in bed, hyperventilating, trying to read this book. Ian, having surrendered his stomach contents and now feeling utterly fabulous, is standing beside me, naked, trying to wrestle the book out of my hands because it has a picture of a dog - a boy hugging a dog - on the cover."DAAAAH!!! he yells, and slaps the book.)

(So, while I may remember the night as the start of the Week of Vomit, Ian will recall it as the night that Mama wouldn't let him read the Dog Book. She's so mean.)

Anyway, he felt better immediately. I took the Tues-Wed-Thurs shift, and then Eric came in to finish the week strong, narrrowly missing a trip to the ER for intravenous fluids.

That was also the week that Betsy Misplaced the $600 Drugs. (I found them eventually.) They're actually very effective - it's a special anti-nausea drug that dissolves in your mouth, so you don't have to be able to keep water down in order to take them. They're rather miraculous. Chemo patients take them. Chemo patients, and my husband.

It's a good thing we have some left over.

It's back.

Grammy update III

The Chili Peppers are incredibly boring. There's really no excuse - I don't think that 'low energy' is their normal setting.


So here's a picture of someone interesting. Though he's not on the Grammys this year, he's been on in the past, since every one of his albums has been nominated, plus he was the RIA Vice Chair for several years:

Kurt rules. This is Kurt Elling, composer, poet, music historian, great great great jazz vocal talent. Charming fellow. Just lovely.
his website.

Grammy Update II

One day, the people who love James Blunt will shrug with embarrassment, unable to imagine what they could possibly have been thinking of.

Like people my age think of Leo Sayer, or Tommy Two-Tone.

Grammy Update.

I do believe that Ornette Coleman is going to die of a stroke from having to give Carrie Underwood an award.

Also, didn't Andy look pissed?

Worst dress: Natalie Mains' performance costume.
Best jacket: Common's grey leather Nehru.

OH WAIT! We have a new contender for worst dress: Smoky Robinson's outfit.
New Rule: If you are a man, and you are planning to wear a beaded lace blouse and satin leggings to perform, do not accessorize with two diamond hoop earrings.

Um, unless you're David Johannsen.

In 1974.

dance like a monkey

Video lights are not a friend to David Johannsen.

Caught a little bit of the reconsitiuted New York Dolls on Soundstage this afternoon.

I was kind a Dolls fan in theory. Which is to say, they broke up in like 1977, so I sort of missed them. Plus they only made 2 albums, and they weren't exactly the sort of thing that you'd find in the Sam Goody's in Selinsgrove. So I had read about them, gasped in nervous delight over their scandalous press photos in the Village Voice... but I hadn't really heard them.

Of course I like them. Their songs are kind of like Ramones discards - rejected for lacking subtlety - but for my money, thats's still pretty good. Only two of the original members (David Johannsen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain) are still alive, but the replacement guys played great.

Johannsen not so much. His voice wasn't great in the 70s; on Soundstage, he was visibly winded a bunch of times. Also - seriously, dude, sleeveless was a bad idea. He's thin enough, but his 'Hi Helen' action could certainly have been managed better.

But hey look!


Check out the newsboy cap with the blue jean stitching. With the little pocket.

The first boy who I french-kissed was wearing that hat. At the time.

via Bob Carlton.

Had a lovely meandering phone conversation with a friend today - one who lives in upstate NY. I thought I would check on her, thinking that she was in the path of the snow. No snow to speak of, although it has been about -500 degrees there, so thst'a rather inconvenient. It's in the single digits here, which I thought was awful until talking to N.; I didn't even leave the house today. I of course am fearless in the face of icy blasts, being as I am from UP NORTH.

Confession: Of course, that's utterly bogus. In the first place, it's only central Pennsylvania that I'm from, not the Yukon; and, in truth, the weather where I grew up is milder on both sides, both warmer in winter and cooler in summer, than it is here.

Anyway, though I am fearless, I couldn't possibly expose my innocent baby to the skin-chapping, weenie-shrinking cold, even in his practically uncountable layers of adorable baby clothes.

Have you noticed my sarcastic new tags? It's my protest against the New and Allegedly Improved Blogger. You HAVE TO upgrade, and when you do, you HAVE TO get yourself Yahoo! account. THIS is why we will one day run out of bandwidth, people. Because I am REQUIRED to have 40 different identities in cyberspace.

Soon I will have another, since I will also be forced to upgrade my Flickr account, which will require me to add on a Google i.d.

Did you know my husband has 14 email addresses? I just chided him for not having a GMail address, and he hopped online, and now he has another.

The tags are also an homage toLaid-Off Dad.