This past week I put the finishing touches on another song. Well, as finished as I get, which ain't that finished by contemporary professional standards. That brings my count for 2007 to 6 that are good enough to work with. Not bad for someone who hasn't spent their whole life doing it. Out of the 6, I'm becoming more convinced that "Superman" is a gem of a song. I get requests for it whenever I play, and I have had several people tell me I need to sell it. And that's what I'm working on...
Another song from the GidMac songbook: The Ballad of a Dime The Beggar he sat on the streetcorner Where they were sellin' apples for a dime He reached inside of his empty pockets But he didn't have a thin little dime He walked up to a businessman Dressed in a suit so fine He asked if he could spare some money But he wouldn't spare a thin little dime He walked inside the churchhouse door Where the preacher was sayin' his lines When they passed the plate, he feared he wouldn't ...
On another thread, I was accused of holding Christians to a higher standard. And, in fact, I do. I think "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" is a cop out. I think that Christians who "settle" for being nasty, spiteful, vindictive individuals on the hope that a prayer they said at 12 at a church camp will save them are in for a HUGE disappointment. See, the Christian life isn't about going to church on Sunday. It's not about dropping money in the collection plate, spouting Bible v...
I have to admit, I've truly, genuinely, not been doing well. I'm at the end of my rope, and everytime I think I'm done with this nasty little town, they throw something else at me. I look forward to the day I see this burg in my rear view mirror. And I've never ever felt this way about a city. Even Pahrump was one we left with some degree of sadness. As I stated earlier, my faith is still strong, but my dogma's gone. I don't want to play Christian Crips n' Bloods anymore, the whole denomin...
On another thread, I was accused of being "anti-church". And while I am a devout Christian, I can't say I'm wholly opposed to the label. The legacy of all too many churches is one of hurt, pain and destruction, not of hope and happiness. As I've taken a look at what has me so disappointed, I am finding it is not my faith that is lacking, but my dogma. See, I no longer care about "majoring in the minors" on faith. I no longer care about this group and that group and whether they have all the j...
As a second year IT student at a two year college, I get a lot of questions thrown at me. And since I'm actually GRADUATING at a school where graduation is, sadly, the exception rather than the rule (there are students who've been here over 5 years...as FULL TIME students...who still have not gotten a degree), my opinion among the IT students is given more weight than it should. The most frequent question I am asked is about my opinion on Windows Vista. One of the students asked me what opera...
A few years ago, we had an apartment across from a public housing project. Our downstairs neighbors were a mixed race couple, prone to heavy drug use and partying. When they would throw a party, they would invite all of their friends from Milwaukee up. We were privvy to one such soiree. The friends arrived in beaten up vans, packed 15 to 20 to a van, and proceeded to dive into the fixings. While we hadn't invited them, we HAD prepared for them, and offered cold brews and a few choice meats fo...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070909/ap_on_fe_st/odd_salty_burger In Union City, Georgia, a McDonald's employee was arrested because meat that she had oversalted was served to a police officer. The officer claimed it made him sick, and samples of the burger were sent to a state crime lab. Kendra Bull is free on $1000 bail. She is charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct. The rest of the news you can get there. What follows is my opinion. This story is an example of absolute insanit...
The latest "flap" in baseball is the trashing of one of baseball's heroes. And it does much to underscore the prevailing hypocrisy of the sport. Rick Ankiel was a successful pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals. Injuries and an inexplicable loss of control put him out of the game quickly, and he reinvented himself as an outfielder. Now come the revelations that in his rehab, he used HGH, a substance that was, in fact, LEGAL at the time he used it (in 2004; the substance was not banned unti...
In a soldiers stance, I aimed my hand At the mongrel dogs who teach Fearing not that Id become my enemy In the instant that I preach My existence led by confusion boats Mutiny from stern to bow. Ah, but I was so much older then, Im younger than that now. (My Back Pages, Bob Dylan ) A couple of recent projects have really made me think about the person I once was vs. the person I am now. Over the years I've travelled a path I could not have even remotely imagined at 18, nor at 2...
Note: Christians will understand this. NonChristians may not. The last three years in the TX Panhandle have been tough. Not because of work. Oh, no, we've been doing fairly well. And I've been involved in a lot of side projects. I've taken on tasks here I might not have had the boldness to take on somewhere else. What's been tough has been the lack of fellowship. I guess for my first 15 years as a Christian, I was blessed. No matter where I went, I always found great churches, great Chr...
We don't need another hero We don't need to know the way home All we want is life beyond the thunderdome (Tina Turner, "We Don't Need Another Hero") As a folklorist and a folk historian, I've found myself often in the role of folk anthropologist. While I definitely have a "niche" of people who respect what folk music is as an art form, the general responses I get when I tell people of my avocation are an assortment of screwed up faces and a comment or two analogizing the music to some bac...
I am currently watching "V for Vendetta", a movie that I must admit I've pretty much loved since I first watched it, entirely in spite of its politics, not because of it. While we could get into the discussion of the politics of the movie, that's irrelevant to the subject I have chosen. I merely made mention of it to paint the backdrop for the discussion and to introduce you to the thought processes that inspired it. I am a fairly rational mind and not prone to conspiracy theories. But...
I've had a running thought for awhile, and I thought it might be a good idea to put it out there. Most bloggers have at least some desire for online social networking. To meet people and establish relationships. Over the past ten years, I personally have been a part of numerous online communities, and I am betting that experience is not unique to me. I would like to start a message board at some point where people who have lost touch with various online personas can reconnect with their ol...
OK, I need to ask a few questions. In a couple of weeks, I will be buying a new laptop. I need some thoughts and suggestions, with the following in mind: 1) I'm not a Mac fanboi. If you are, hey, no prob, but I assure you, Mac is not even where I am going with this. 2) It needs to be brand new. Warranty, warranty, warranty. 3) OS: Windows Vista. I have my reasons (I will be running VMWare on the machine, but I need a Vista platform to start with). 4) Memory: 2GB bare minimum (Vista a...