Entries from September 2003:

Well, I may not vote for him, but I just made another contribution to Howard Dean. If you’ve been thinking about contributing, the deadline for the quarter is in three and a half hours, so you should do so now. But even if you read this after the deadline is up, feel free to contribute later!

Weird. I actually said “peace out”.

We’ve been brainstorming music for Erik’s wedding. Here’s what we came up with:

1. The Thong Song
2. Eleanor Rigby (“Eleanor Rigby, Picks up the rice in a church where the wedding has been, Lives in a dream … All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?”)
3. A song by the artist Eleanor Rigby. “Eleanor’s career was short yet controversial and mysterious. Her legendary debut single “I Want To Sleep With You” was released in 1985 and came complete with free condom.“
4. Hit Me Baby One More Time, as a tribute to domestic violence.
5. Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), as a tribute to stuttering.
6. a song by Styx as a tribute to people with imaginary skin disorders that prevent them from going out in sunlight (think Jenny Bailey)
7. Mack the Knife.
8. “Sailing” by Christopher Cross
9. “Jump” by Kris Kross
10. something by Christopher Walken? Did he ever sing? (like Shatner)
11. anything by Sinatra. It’s classy.
12. Norah Jones
13. In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel? that one’s sorta iffy, unlike “Sledgehammer” which is a clear no.
14. Built-In Bastard Radar by Marillion. (As in, “every girl round here got built-in bastard radar.”)

If it was a lesbian wedding, do you think songs like “You Oughta Know” and “You’re So Vain” would be appropriate? Those are really about men though… so maybe something more like “The Lumberjack Song”? Because, I mean, there are only so many times you can listen to that song “I Kissed A Girl” that was briefly popular when we were in high school…

That’s all my humor for now. Peace out.

On the subject of religion, I present to you The Mormon Name Generator.

On Saturday I received the new album Testimony by Neal Morse. Neal was the brainchild behind the band Spock’s Beard, but left last year to pursue a Christian music career. Testimony is his first religiously-oriented album. I’m Jewish, but I’m a huge fan of Morse’s work, so I ordered a copy as soon as it was available.

As I expected, the album is incredible. The lyrics are religious, but they’re more about Morse’s personal transformation. They’re not intending to proselytize or demean people who aren’t Christian. With that in mind, there’s some really amazing music on here! There are great ballads that are emotional without being boring, and rocking instrumental passages that sound nothing like any prior Christian album, ever. The music is very progressive, identical to the type of music Neal used to compose with Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic. So now I’m going around with “I can feel Him, I can feel Jesus” stuck in my head. Hope my Rabbi doesn’t find out…

Anyway, Testimony‘s a great album. If you were on the fence about whether to purchase it, you definitely should pick up a copy and give it a try. If you’ve liked Morse’s older work, you’ll love this as well.

There were a couple of really great passages today in Gene Weingarten’s online chat on the Washington Post site. Here’s a tidbit:

We are coming up on the 16th anniversary of the greatest correction ever to run in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. It sprang from a story that ran in the old North Fulton Extra on Sept. 17, 1987 about a Girl Scout program aimed at teaching girls about careers, drug awareness and prevention of pregnancy and it contained this passage:

“Mrs. Hamby, who is entering her first year as a Cadette leader, but her fifth year as a troop leader, said troop leaders are not experts on the new interests of Girl Scouts. So they take the girls on field trips where experts can present the information. “It’s not really a point where you sit down and talk to them about sensitive subjects,” she said. Instead, troop leaders take girls to places like a sperm bank where programs are designed to inform girls of sexual education in terms they can understand.”

A few days later the following correction was published:

“A paragraph in a story about Girl Scouts in the Thursday edition of the North Fulton Extra should have stated that troop leaders take girls to places such as Fernbank Science Center, where programs are designed to inform girls of sexual education in terms they can understand.”

The rest of the chat is great too, check it out!

One day last week I was out to lunch during work. I got back to my desk and there was a package on my desk from some random dot-com I had never heard of. I opened it and inside, there was the first piece of ryanpark.org promotional fashion! My friend Jeremy always joked about wanting a t-shirt that said “ryanpark.org” on it… well, it turns out he had gotten one printed up and mailed it to me!!

I hadn’t had a chance to wear it until this weekend, but I did finally wear it while I was in North Carolina. So, here’s a photo of the ryanpark.org t-shirt in action!

I went to North Carolina this weekend and hung out with two friends from college, Paul and Howard. A couple photos are available here.

UPDATE: The “albino frog” statement actually has some context! There is a unique pond in Mr. Delgaudio’s county, which provides a perfect habitat for a rare species of albino frogs. For three days I thought Eugene Delgaudio was nuts. But with this new article, now I can understand just how concerned he is for Loudon County’s welfare.

Friday night, my friends Josh and Jeff organized a fundraiser for Doug Reimel, a candidate running for a local Virginia county board race against the extreme right-wing Eugene Delgaudio. I went to the event; I’d say there were about 30 people there or so. My friends did a great job organizing the event and it turned out very well.

Apparently Mr. Delgaudio heard about the fundraiser, and felt the need to comment. Here’s what Mr. Delgaudio had to say:

My opponent held a GIANT fund raiser Friday night, after the deadline, in Dupont Circle to get Washington Money from liberal Pacs and radical leftist treasuries. I will not underestimate the amount of money liberals will donate to spread lies and disinformation to Sterling residents. These weird wonks, and my strange opponent, want tax rates of 60 per cent, like France, in order to fund all their “needed” projects (albino frogs, dark skys, foot free open space, car-less roads, gardens atop roof-tops, mandatory mass transit, density packing of high rises in Eastern Loudoun,etc.) .

You can tell why they want him out of office so badly. What a nut!