Iron Maiden won't suck!

In today's update at Melodic Rock Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden has eloquently distilled a true musician's take on the file sharing debate.

Stryper on tour in October 2003!

MelodicRock.com -STRYPER is Back! Yes, the fathers of Christian metal are officially reuniting to tour. Talk of this has been buzzing around since Cornerstone 2001; the spirit and enthusiasm shown by fans and insiders over that reunion set was a testament to God's use of their ministry. What is especially exciting to me is remembering the cautious optimism I heard from Tim standing next to the stage that blistering July day as he told me about it. I will never again see STRYPER simply as God's gift to me and their other fans-- STRYPER is God's ministry through Robert, Tim, Oz, and Michael, their crew, their families. When the band is successful, the people in and around the band prosper and are blessed. I'll be thrilled to see STRYPER live again-- but I'm also thrilled to see the opportunity arise for the ministry and its people to be blessed.

Wheelz Life Notes Is Grey today!!!

1greeneye
doesn't seem to be healthy today-- that's my template etc. If it doesn't heal up by tomorrow, I will have to dig into this and colorize things. Meantime.... sorry for the mess!

Char's in her room alone, listening to Michael Sweet's eponymous solo album-- a Cd I introduced her to, an artist she associates with me and my life. I won't deny it-- I feel like the music is a hug from her to me. It's surprizing how much that reflection of my own influence means-- I feel like a baloon floating on it.

New Cool.

I've been analyzing cool lately. Regardless of what the TV-Land types think, it's always been a relative concept to me. I never wanted to be popular; I like nerds and geeks best. But I have my own definition of cool, and can decide whether you've got it in seconds. Lately, though, I find myself getting caught between my cool and my brain sometimes.
For example, I'm starting to like uncool music. eminem rates uncool for violence and profanity, but he tagged me with "Lose Yourself." And Given the number of verbal bile-rockets I've launched at Britney for being more product than prodigy, Avril Lavigne should rate uncool for glibly professing to know nothing much about music; but 'Complicated' and 'Losing Grip' stopped me.
By itself, this isn't too disturbing-- I didn't get into Motley Crue and Ozzy until after the rest of the world forgot them. (Pre-reality TV.) It does bother me when I find myself deciding whether to admit that I like these new songs. I've been saying since junior high that I like being different from the crowd-- but it's hard to be comfortable being different from myself.

Playing with pictures today... The one here is a 4-generation picture taken on Christmas eve 1988, right after my daughter was born. My wondrous Gram passed away this year, and this picture was her idea. If you know what's good for you, get with your Gram and Pap for some pics. They are precious!

OK so I've been a pathetically unreliable blogger. Ah!! Now that that's been said, i think I'll just jump right back in and pretend nothing ever happened. (Rather like the whole intelligence/WMD/president debacle, I'm afraid. I do love and appreciate Pres. Bush, but, erm... well-- its embarrassing!)

If there were "backmasked" messages on albums, they would say "Buy more records...Buy more T-Shirts...Buy more concert tickets."

I never expected "Uncle Ted" Nugent to make me feel guilty-- but he's managed it. In an interview at Salon.com, he made some very convincing points about The Osbournes and how uncouth it is to find their fumbling self-destruction so funny. In these frightening days, I find myself admiring/agreeing with Ted a lot more often than I ever thought I would.

If you've ever wondered how to butcher a hog, can vegetables, or survive without running water (even if you haven't) you owe it to yourself to check out The Foxfire Book series. The book is a compilation of interviews, photos, and how-to articles collected from elderly residents of Appalachian mountain communities. My 73 Y/O Appalachian grandma is on my mind today, and I was looking for my copy. When I first read it, it generated such a neat conversation between us, as I asked Gram about what I read and she told me her own stories. The knowledge of life and living held in her generation is a treasure being lost to us by the day-- Call your grandparents!

The Top 5 Reasons the band Rush never makes top 5 lists


5. Around the time music "Artists" stopped playing instruments, music critics stopped using the dictionary to look up big words.


4. There aren't any hot girls in Rush videos.


3. No Rush song has ever been used to sell beer, cars, or computers.


2. No member of Rush has posed for Playgirl, starred in a movie, or been People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.


And the number one reason Rush never makes top 5 lists:


1. When "industry polls" are collected for various awards, the only people who fill them out are either in rehab or shopping their demo to get a deal after being dropped. All the working musicians are too busy, well, working, to vote for Rush.

There's School shopping to do. I have something to show you later, but it will have to wait... Char's head is going to explode if we don't leave for the mall in 10 minutes.

Back to school week is seriously cramping our social life. Usually, by Wednesday, at least two dinner-and-a-movie nights are done. Between orientations, councellor meetings, and grumpy end-of-vacation attitudes, I haven't talked to anybody all week. I did see Char for about three minutes, only when she was running back and forth between here and my mom's. (She's trying to squeeze in a lot of time with her little disciple, Brendan, my three-year-old nephew.) So, I'm starting this blog for company between job hunting and knitting.
I've been teaching myself to knit, and haunting knitting blogs when I get frustrated. I did finish a petal dishcloth, my first knitted FO. Since I finished it, I've been working a scarf for Char-- it's four inch wide moss stitch,with six inch stripes in khaki, blue, and charcoal. The design came from a tip on one of the knitting pages about making narrow, looooong scarves for teens. the colors were inspired by a toe-socks + gloves ensemble she already has. I'm letting her think it's for me until its a couple of feet long; if she expresses approval, I'll keep going. after this, I hope to use up some baby yarn from my stash to make her a little sleeveless top.

Damon at Sunset new copy