A Time To Give

The people of the Gulf coast states need it. Go to the Red Cross, open your wallets, and give whatever you can. If you complain that it'll take away from your gas money, ask yourself why you drive such a fuel-inefficient, environmentally-destructive automobile and maybe consider getting a bike. Yep, I'm pretentious, my heart bleeds and I'm a liberal, and maybe, just maybe the God you worship would want you to do just this.

My son is approaching his first birthday and I'm very reflective. I won't bore anyone with details, but he's now up and walking around, playing ball with Daddy and yesterday morning he held my hand and walked across the room. It's hard getting to work. Seeing him grow and develop is the greatest joy of my life. The more I interact with my son, the more I believe in God.

Which reminds me, that researchers have unravelled the chimpanzee's DNA structure and verified what most geneticists thought all along; we're almost 99% the same as our little furry buddies. I find wonder and awe in that, but then again, I do vote Left.

Chris Brown is right. Read his 'blog. That new Dylan cd from 1962 is just fantastic. Looking forward to the Martin Scorcese documentary. It'll be a great birthday present to watch that.

Review of the Petty/Crowes show from Saturday: The boys from Augusta, Georgia ripped the Greek to pieces, plaing a blistering hour-long set of ten songs. Kate looked dazzling as usual, but the coolest was Marc Ford looking uncannily like Russell Hammond. Fitting to see Penny Lane dancing on the side of the stage. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers put on the most underwhelming performance I've seen in the last several years. The setlist was standard Petty; you'd hear it within four hours of turning on the nearest conglomerate-owned radio station. Stripped and sparse, the songs missed what made them great on the albums; little backing vocals or intricate rhythm guitars, the new-wave aspects all missing and instead replaced with minutes of waving at the crowd, showing heartfelt thanks and proof that yes, Virginia, too much THC on the brain can make for a pretty lackluster show. I told Chris that I could have left after the Crowes and felt like I got my money's worth; good thing I liked them so much.