So what have I been up to? Big stuff. BIG.

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At the moment I am sitting in the living room watching Charlie Wilson's War. It's a pretty good movie. Philip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant, as usual.

Earlier tonight I taught the "young adult" (odd because most of us are at least approaching 30, if not past it) class at church. We were discussing Pontius Pilate. I thought the lesson in the book was both a little short and self-explanatory so I decided to spend the majority of class giving a secular history lesson on Pilate instead utilizing Josephus, Philo and Tacitus. Having a degree in classical history, that stuff is obviously interesting to me. Hopefully it was to the class. If nothing else, it's nice to know the actual reasons why Pilate got hosed by the Sanhedrin, right?

After services I came home and tried to make dinner. I cooked a pizza in the oven. I then got a phone call from Shane to tell me that he was engaged. Since I was having a hard time holding the phone between my ear and shoulder while trying to cut the pizza I ended up pulling the pizza onto the floor. So that was no good. I made waffles instead.

Let's see... what else is going on?

Today I had a discussion with someone on the "merits" of Michael Bublé. I'm not a fan, and here's why:

Bublé is what we could call a standards singer. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is that there's nothing unique about him. He's too perfect in his phraseology and timing. He's like listening to a robot with no soul. Why anyone would choose a Bublé over a Sinatra, Martin, Davis, Cole, or Bennett is beyond me. At best, Bublé is a poor man's Harry Connick, Jr.

The problem with Bublé is that he is music made for the lowest common denominator. He's a Justin Timberlake for adults.

One of the best lines about Sinatra was, "His voice is as tight as a fist opening at the end of a bar. Not on the beat, over it, playing with it, splitting it like a jazz man, like Miles Davis. Turning on the right phrase and the right song. Which is where he lives, where he lets go, where he reveals himself. His songs are his home and he lets you in. But you know that to sing like that you've gotta have lost a couple of fights. To know tenderness and romance you've gotta have had your heart broken."

And that's precisely what you don't get with Bublé. Just a three and a half minute, glossed over, 25 take montage spliced together in a Disney studio. And people like this???

Anyway, if I'm talking to you let me know. I'll put together a compilation of real standards for you. Music that's lasted 70 years for a reason.
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Oh. And my book came in.
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Click play.

I've been looking for a good book on the history of Israel for a while and I don't want anything that even remotely deals with modern Israel. I pretty much want a book that stops at 70 A.D. Basically I want something that will take the Biblical history of Israel and flesh that out with extra-Biblical sources from secular history and archaeology. I think I've found two decent books to do that: "A Biblical History of Israel" by Iain Provan, et al and "Kingdom of Priests" by Eugene Merrill.

Anyway, that's not really why I'm writing this post. I'm writing this post because I decided that I didn't want to buy the books from a chain retailer. So I got online and looked for independent book sellers in Arlington. Didn't find one, nor did I talk to anyone who knew of one. So then I tried Fort Worth and I found Connections Book Store, near the zoo. I called them up and asked if they were part of a chain. "NO!" screamed the woman who answered the phone. "We're an independent neighborhood book store." "That's just what I'm looking for," I said.

And that's where I will be on Saturday. I obviously don't expect them to have the books I want but the owner said they would order anything for me. So I feel good. I may not get to save 35% like I would have with my Barnes & Noble membership, but at least I'll be helping to delay the inevitable onslaught of commercialism that is destroying our neighborhoods.

And speaking of our neighborhoods...

Did any of my fellow Arlington residents notice that the city council recently rejected a heavily supported proposal to install street sign toppers (read: change the name of the street) in honor of Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Saigon, and Al-Salam?

I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous. I mean, I guess I can maybe see a street effectively renamed for MLK (though the street in question is in too nice a part of town to be named for MLK) or Cesar Chavez since they are at least American citizens, but renaming our streets after a Vietnamese city and a Muslim greeting? You've got to be kidding me. I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but how far are we gonna go in our attempts to turn our country into another? Somehow I get the feeling that if I moved to a predominantly Muslim country and petitioned the local officials to change a major road to "Ronald Reagan Way" it wouldn't go over too well.

Arlington was founded in 1876 and with General Motors opening for business in 1954 it became a "boomberg". Arlington had many of the characteristics of a classic small town for decades. And then the Parks Mall showed up. And it's all been downhill ever since. East Arlington moves farther west every year and crime is growing at an alarming rate (even if the local powers are doing everything they can to suppress that fact).

It's sad, for the longest time I always thought that Arlington was a perfect place to live and raise a family. You were less than 20 minutes away from two major downtowns, you had major museums, galleries, universities, airports, parks, commerce, sports teams, entertainment facilities, etc all within just a few miles, and you got to live in a nice suburb inundated with trees. But then they started chopping those trees down to make room for apartments. And you can never have a community when half the residents live in an apartment. And I guess that's why this Saturday I will be buying a book at a local store for twice as much as I can find it for online. Because I want to live somewhere that isn't dead. Which, I guess, means that I'm just going to have to move.

Today is for my ramblings.

I don't understand people who, when at a fast food restaurant, go up to the self-serve drink fountain and "top off" their drink until it's filled to the brim. It's a self-serve drink fountain. You can go back more than once for your free refills. It's like these people think they're not getting their money's worth unless there's a meniscus formed.
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On Sunday night I went through a drive-thru with a friend and we made two separate orders since neither of us wanted to pay for the other. We each ordered the exact same thing. The total for each was five dollars and sixty-one cents. When we got to the window I handed the employee two debit cards. He immediately asked me which order went on which card. I just stared at him for a moment and then irritatingly asked, "Really?"
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If you will recall, I attended a Ducks Unlimited event a couple of months ago which was basically a big gun auction. It was awkward. Well yesterday my annual membership card came in the mail. So for the next 12 months I am a card-carrying member of DU. The initiation letter states, "For more than 70 years DU has conserved and protected North American wetlands and associated habitats for the good of waterfowl." What they forgot to add after that last part was, "so that we can kill those waterfowl." I don't get the whole contrast of "conservation" with "hunting". Could just be me.
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I got sucked into a CSI marathon on TV last Friday morning. I had never watched that show before. I had no idea that science had come so far in the last four years. Actually, my dad hates those shows. He says that moron jurors walk into courtrooms these days expecting the CSI techniques to be applied in real life.
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My roommate brought home a dog he found on the side of the road last night. He didn't want it to freeze. Unfortunately the dog kept both of us up all night with constant barking and it peed (is that how you spell the past tense of "pee"? It doesn't look right) all over his comforter. I think he's taking it to the pound this afternoon. I think it must have recently had a litter of puppies because its "milking entities" were quite swollen. I thought about trying to help it out but I wasn't sure if you could milk a dog.

greg: you can milk just about anything with nipples.
jack: i have nipples, greg. could you milk me?

(^We were all thinking it.)
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I broke out my first sweater of the winter season on Sunday morning. I like the oxford spread/tie/v-neck sweater look. I intentionally try to look like an old man when I wear those. You know, both a patterned shirt AND a patterned tie. Sometimes the confusion is overwhelming.
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When I listen to Frank Sinatra (as I'm doing right now) I find myself getting annoyed that I never got to see him perform live.
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I need to take a trip soon. Up until about a year ago I used to travel all the time. Well, at that point I was still traveling, it was just to the same place every time. Anyway. I just missed out on a trip to Egypt that is in a couple of months. My dad and I have been talking about going to Rome for a while and that came up this weekend. But I don't think that he would stay in a hostel. I also really want to go to Portugal and Spain. While there I would like to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar. Or at least take a boat through it. Whichever is more time efficient.
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Bored with this post yet? I am.

My birthday was last Friday. I don't usually make too big a deal out of them, and I guess this year was no different. I generally just go out to dinner with a small group of people and that's precisely what happened. But I had a good time, so thank you to E, J, S, L, T and of course E. If you were there, you know which letter is you.

I did get a couple of gifts from my parents. I finally joined the digital camera experiment as my mom got me a black Nikon s52. I had resisted getting a digital camera for a long time because I'm, well, a purist. I prefer film. You just can't beat a 35mm SLR. And I'll continue to use film for pictures that matter. But it will be nice to have something other than my phone to take random pictures of things that make me laugh. And I guess the obligatory friend pictures where we're all at a 45 degree angle and 24 inches from the camera.

My dad got me two recent U2 re-releases. U2 are in the process of remastering their early records and I hadn't gotten around to picking up a couple of them. One thing I gotta say about U2 is that, like them or not, when it comes to packaging they can't be beat. Each set comes with two discs, the first the remastered album and the second b-sides, outtakes and other previously unreleased material. Not to mention that the aesthetic presentation is stunning.
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First thing I did this morning when I woke up was pull up iTunes and download the new releases from The Killers (Day & Age) and Coldplay (Prospekt's March). This is the one thing that I hate about iTunes - you end up buying albums you really want twice; once in a record store and once on iTunes just so that you can get the stupid "album only" bonus track(s). "Then why bother buying the hard copy from the record store?" you might ask. Because. As was mentioned two paragraphs up, I'm a purist. Not to mention that the sound quality is better on the actual CD. But there's something about having the disc (or vinyl, depending on the situation) in my hands. I like being able to look through the insert sleeve. I like being able to slide the case onto a shelf in between other albums. I like knowing that if my computer or iPod dies that I still have all of my music.

As far as those two albums go...

Day & Age is pretty good so far. I'm listening to it as I type this. It's going to be pretty tough to top their last album (Sam's Town) but it's got potential. The opener, 'Losing Touch', is great. It has a pretty slick bassline with soft, lulling vocals. 'I Can't Stay' is probably their first proper acoustic track, which stands out nicely for them. It also provides one of the best melodies their catalogue has to offer. The (so far) singles - 'Human' and 'Spaceman' - are good. 'Human' took me two dozen listens to get into, but once I did it had me hooked. But that's really the mark of great music, isn't it? When it evolves with you and seeps into your veins and works its way someplace deep. There's a reason what we hear on the radio is usually forgotten 12 months later. In art, immediacy tends to associate itself with mediocrity. I want the music that works me over; makes me think; makes me feel.

Prospekt's March is looking like it's going to be a throwaway. There's a reason the songs were left off of Viva La Vida, Martin and Co! The one highlight is that the EP includes 'Life In Technicolor II', which is Viva La Vida's opening track with complete vocals. Not that said vocals are very good, but at least they're there. The song is too good musically to just let it sit quietly in the corner, falling by the wayside.

Oh, and just for a good laugh I listened to the "much anticipated" new Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, on their MySpace page the other day. Oh, Axl... I guess I have to disclose that I don't like Guns N' Roses at all, but this album is embarrasingly bad. Of course, when you employ a guitarist by the name of Buckethead that's bound to be the case.
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I guess that's all I have to say at the moment. Have a nice Monday...

karen: "I just need to invent something and get rich."
kristyn: "My friend Tonya claims she invented a doorbell that, instead of a chime, plays a song of your choice."
me: "So it's a ringtone for your home."
kristyn: "Exactly!"
clint: "I still say my peanut butter idea is pure gold."
karen: "What peanut butter idea?"
kristyn: "Oh, here we go with this one again."
clint: "Just like you have deodorant that you twist the bottom of the tube and up comes the deodorant, it would be the same thing, only with peanut butter, and then you would just spread it on the bread. Think about it. Never again would you have to stick your hand halfway down the bottle and get peanut butter all over the back of your hand."
karen: "That's ridiculous."
kristyn: "Thank you, Karen! Tonya's doorbell idea is so much better. Don't you agree, James?"
me: "I don't know. I'd buy both."